In the summer time

Hey, all!

By the way, if anyone got the song reference in the subject line, kudos to you.  I heard it the other day in a taxi and it made me extra happy.

So, transfers happened this last week.  All the elders in my district left me alone in Petrovsky.  Luckily they were replaced!  My new companion is Elder Harvey.  I was really excited to find out I would be serving with him.  He's one of those likable guys that you like having around but you're pretty sure that you will never get the chance to serve with.  But I do!  We hit it off right away.  He's from Glendale, AZ and he's just a few months away from finishing his mission.  He's a great guy.  

The other elder's apartment is now filled with Elder Russo who is training Elder Samuelson.  It's weird to think that both Russo and Samuelson have been out for almost a year less than me.  Oh, by the way, I am District Leader again.  It'll be good, we've got a good district.  For some reason, though, a lot of members and people all thought that I was supposed to have left already, so all of yesterday I got people coming up to me saying "Elder Porter?!  You're already so old here, why aren't you gone too?"  Or something of the sort. Whatever, I love Petrovsky.

Harvey and I decided to do a lot of calls yesterday, with some interesting results.  Most people just told us that they're at the sea for the summer and to stop calling them.  One called me by name and said she wants me to come help her son.  But she was so vague and so old that for the life of me I couldn't figure out what she was talking about.  You know that point where you understand each word that a person says, but you still have no idea where they're coming from?  Welcome to talking to babushki.  Oh, and one lady tried really hard to flirt with Elder Harvey -it was hilarious.

Overall it's been a pretty quiet week.  We did have one funny meeting with a member this week.  The story of why Mama C- now probably hates me.  She invited us over for a lesson and fed us a full course meal that we weren't expecting.  We had just eaten, so we were cramming more than we could actually fit.  Then she says, "I've got a special recipe here- chicken in oatmeal!"  Now, any of you that know my eating preferences, specifically with breakfast, will know what is inevitably coming.  I decided to be a good little missionary and eat up the oatmeal.  But I was straining on every bite, as it voluntarily wanted to spew back out of my mouth.  I tried hiding my strain, but Mama C saw it and told me I didn't have to eat if I don't like it.  I told her I'm fine and kept eating.  Further grimacing and we had the same exchange a few more times.  No, I'll finish it, I'll finish it..  Finally she snatches up my plate and throws its contents into the trash can, and stomps out of the room.  Now every time she sees me she just shakes her head in slight disappointment.  Lady, I wasn't hungry!  Oh well.  The only man who never disappointed anyone was never born, right?  Live and learn.

Well, until next week!

With love,

Elder Brandon Porter

Walking around the hot, green landscape . . .

From 7/9/12:

Family,

Well, it's mid-summer!  That's pretty cool.  I've been thinking the last week, walking around the hot, green landscape, about how bitter cold and grey it was here just a few short months ago.  Ukrainians definitely live it up while they can in these hot months.  Going to cooler vacation spots and dressing according to the weather is what they're all about.  Thankfully, though, it has been so much better thus far this summer heat-wise than last summer (which I was here for... weird).

This week has been pretty good.  I had one.. interesting lesson with a man named R.  We have tried setting up with this man who was a former investigator and he finally shows up on Wednesday.  He's an older man with a Beethoven-style grey fro going.  And he told us that he doesn't speak Russian very well, even though he has lived in Donetsk his whole life.  So this led to one of the strangest lessons I've ever been in, just in that he spoke Ukrainian the entire time as we spoke Russian.  At first it was a cool challenge, realizing that I could understand him just fine even though I don't speak Ukrainian.  But it grew annoying, since we really just wanted to share the gospel message with him, but we had an awkward language barrier that he was putting up.  By the way, it's totally ridiculous that anyone could live in Donetsk and not speak Russian.  No one speaks Ukrainian unless they want to be extra official.  Whatever, I just hope that he got something out of the meeting.

Saturday was an interesting day too.  This week we were somehow roped into doing the rest of the yard work for the church grounds all by ourselves again.  It just got kind of pawned off on us.  Oh well, weed whacking is fun I guess.  That afternoon there was a baptism for a twelve year old girl who's been meeting with the sisters. That was cool to see that finally happen.  I spent most of that time talking with an old man named P who was content sitting back and complaining about how the church hymns just sound like a bunch of noise to him.

In light of more personal achievements, we had a District Meeting with our Zone Leaders and some prospective missionaries, and our District Leader Elder Coakwell asked me to perform a musical number.  So I prepared my own rendition of "If You Could Hie To Kolob" on the guitar.  It always feels so good to share music with others.  That was kind of my "me" moment of the week.

Transfer calls went out this week.  I'm the only elder staying in the Petrovsky district.  Rooney, Coakwell and Hardy are all heading out.  It's too bad- I've enjoyed our time together a lot.  But all good things must give way to something else, right?  And I'm sure the next group will be a good one too.

Anyways, I love you all.  Continue having a fantastic summer!  Girls, enjoy Girls Camp.  Dad and Joseph, whatever you do, do it freely and manly.  

Love,

Elder Brandon Porter

The Gospel is straight from God. Everything else is subject to fallibility

From 7/2/12:

Dear Family,

While you are all in Arizona I am here in Ukraine.  Let's just pause and ponder that for a moment...  Alright, pondering done!

Well, it's been a pretty quiet week.  Not a whole lot I can say about it.  It was a four day weekend here for some random Ukrainian reason, so missionary work has been slow.  Pretty much everyone and their dog was out on the sea vacationing.  We spend a lot of time walking around trying to find people.  

One thing that did happen this week was that we missionaries cleaned up the entire grounds of the church.  If you look at the previous paragraph, you will know why no one else nor their dogs would volunteer to help us.  That's okay, though.  I got plenty of self ponder time.  My main job was pulling weeds.  After about the 200th weed, I had developed a list of ways that weeds relate to the Atonement and overcoming sin.  Did you know that the root of practically every weed is exactly the same purple, ugly stick that just roots straight into the ground and just sucks the nutrients out of the soil?  You can well imagine the conversations I had going down in my head.  Yes, conversations.  We were doing service for a long time.

On Saturday we had to do a mini split to make sure that our lessons and the other missionaries' lessons were all covered.  When I got back to the church from a lesson with an awesome man named B, I found my companion and his split-comp talking with a less active woman named T.  I waited as they finished and later asked why it looked so intense when I walked up.  She had unloaded all of her issues she had against the church.  Her main thing was that the people in the branch are not nearly as fun as the ones in the church she goes to now.  And the people are more judgmental, she said.  There were other things, but that's what it came down to.  I was actually kind of sad that I wasn't on that lesson.  The whole reliance on the social side of the church is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. I hear all the time that someone is a member just because the people are so kind to them, or on the other hand that they no longer come because people were mean.  They're all just missing the point- if this is God's true Church on the Earth, does it matter what people do around you?  Truth is truth.  If I was the only person on the Earth that knew about the fulness of the Gospel and had the Book of Mormon, I would die with a firm knowledge that it is true even though no one else knows.  There are countless examples of people that do just that in the scriptures.  Abish.  Abinadi.  Even Elijah (I just read about him this morning) when he was up against 450 priests of Baal, and he was LITERALLY the last man in the House of Israel that continued to follow the true and living God.  1 Kings 18.  It's a good chapter.  I just really want to get everyone to understand that one thing- the Gospel is straight from God.  Everything else is subject to fallibility.  

Anyways, that's my thoughts in a nutshell on this week.  Me and my companion are having a great time here in Petrovsky.  Kicking butt and taking names.  Well, at least taking names.  Enjoy your Summer!

Love,

Elder Brandon Porter