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
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