Family,
Hey, so first off, I am staying in Lugansk this transfer. That means that I will have stayed here for at least 6 months when I leave. It's a bit weird, but I like it here and it is apparently where the Lord will have me, so I'll keep on doing as usual.
We have two actual progressing investigators, G and A (I think I told you a bit about them already). We're hoping to get G to commit to a baptismal date this coming week! And A may take more time, but I think that her heart is in the right place, so I'm not worried about her. Our area here is strange in that we have at least three investigators that have heard everything and know that it's true, but won't get baptized for one reason or another. We recently fasted with one, N, that her parents will be less obstinate and that she can have their approval to be baptized. Immediately after that they completely exploded at her over the whole church thing. We're still hoping that her problem there can be solved soon. Things are always hardest just before you're about to do something really good, like get baptized. I've seen that a lot already here, and I know that's a fact.
Not a whole lot has happened this week. We celebrated my district leader's birthday, Elder Nielson, which was pretty cool. I love doing things for other people to make their day a little brighter. It was a fun time. But he's leaving this transfer, which is a little sad. He has become a good friend to me here (this will probably be a running theme about every time transfers come around, so watch out!). But it's nice to have people that you can relate to out here in the field. Especially someone American. Sometimes it's needed.
Sorry that this letter is pretty short, but I don't have a whole lot of time. We're a little overscheduled today. Remember that I love you all and, um... read your scriptures! I have to fit in something spiritual and missionary-like, right? Right.
Love you and talk to you soon!
Elder Brandon Porter
Monday, December 12, 2011
Saturday, December 10, 2011
"The Gospel is just true."
Alright. It has been a week. Awesome. What new profound missionary insights do I have for you this week... Ah, I don't know. The Gospel is just true.
So, this week I learned something significant in the Russian language. There are two words, ясно (yah-snah) and я знаю (ya znay-yoo). They mean "clear/understandable" and "I know", respectively. But when spoken by a Russian, they sound almost exactly the same. So, when I talk, a lot of times Russians (including my current and previous companion) would repeat "ясно" the whole time I was speaking. I always thought that was really rude to be saying "I know! I know! I know!" when I'm explaining something. But Russians aren't that rude, thankfully.
A lot of Russian just naturally sounds really rude to Americans. Like, instead of saying to your bus driver "Here, sir, here's the money for my fare" they say "MAN! Take the money!!" That's an exaggeration, but still, they use the command form a lot. Took some getting used to. Like when you're knocking on doors, they don't say something like "Of course I'd be interested in your lessons! Baptize me!" More often the response is "Stupid Jehovah's Witnesses, I'm calling the police!" I don't really like Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) very much, by the way. They make my life just that much harder. Ah well.
In recent news, we have two new investigators, a mother and daughter named G and A. They are great. G has been visiting the JWs for two years, but has refused to get baptized there. She says that lots of them are good people, but their teachings are generally kind of stupid. Yes! Score for the Gospel! They are very appreciative of the message, and they actively participate in discussion over the gospel principles. We've only had two lessons with them, but I think that they will come a long ways. Plus they fed us! They are awesome.
Oh, and I met my first legitimately crazy guy here. This guy named S who lives about 2 hours away has been calling us a billion times, wanting to meet with us, so we finally did this week. I wasn't quite sure what to think of it. He had a definite appreciation for the scriptures, and had an impressive library of Church literature. But he would argue with himself over random points of the discussion, and he just very plainly wasn't all there. Good for him focusing on the gospel, though! We left him with some words of encouragement, took pictures with him and left. It's hard to know what to do with people like that. Especially since he lives way away from us. Oh, and on the way there some old babushka tried to pawn off her granddaughter to Elder Solin. She got particularly interested when she realized that this Russian young man was hanging around an American (that's me, btw). We almost had a blind date set up for Solin. Maybe next time.
Hey, have I told you about our English Scripture Study group? We aren't currently allowed to have English Class in our mission, but we worked out a deal with President Campero to start this group where we study the scriptures in English with people. It has raised a lot of interest, and I think that it will be successful as a finding tool. An awesome couple comes every week, primarily for the English practice, but they always leave with some kind of church literature because they get interested in the topics we discuss. Success! It's kind of funny, doing this English thing with a bunch of people, yet only me and Elder Nielson are native speakers, but it works out well enough. Our Russian companions speak English well enough.
Well, what else can I tell you? Ukraine is still here. Still half a world away from Washington. Whenever Solin references my home, he points directly down to the ground. I obviously assume he's referencing somewhere else a lot of the time, which is pretty cool, I guess. Warmer weather would be nice. Here it's been pretty warm recently, just about at freezing or just above! Good stuff.
Well, I love you! Enjoy your holiday season, and don't let that elf see you doing anything bad. Give each other a hug for me, and bye til next week!
Love,
Elder Brandon Porter
Monday, November 28, 2011
"I'm just hoping that I can do some lasting good in this area before I leave it"
Family!
Hey, so it's the week after Thanksgiving. Yup.
I spent Thanksgiving with one other American, and a bunch of Russians/Ukrainians. Actually it was kind of surreal. They didn't even really know the story of why we even have Thanksgiving. Elder Solin and Efoshkin (also Russian) both were just happy for a chance to have a ton of food.
We made our own Thanksgiving out here in Lugansk! Nielson and I split up the essentials and created a Thanksgiving feast, complete with mashed potatoes, gravy (thanks to those gravy packets!), corn, turkey, pie, stuffing.. the works! It was very filling. And awesome. It was most definitely awesome. Oh, and I wanted to let Mom know that I only cut my hand three times when making the food. I'm not quite as talented as her, but I'm on my way. I hope they scar- so I can have the most random story for a scar ever! I was slicing potatoes... in Post Communist territory... for Thanksgiving... Yup, it was a good time. A member donated a turkey to our cause, which was fantastic!
In other news, I had my first real, spur of the moment discussion with a little Russian kid this week! After a lesson with a family in the branch, we were all sitting around looking at pictures and stuff. A little girl, Lera, came up to me and started pulling me around, showing me all of her favorite toys and things. Her birthday was the following day, and she was just bouncing off the walls with excitement. By the way, she was turning six. She reminded me a lot of Joseph. Especially since the whole time she was dressed in a makeshift superhero costume with a cape and all. So, yeah, that probably doesn't sound nearly as exciting as it does in my head. But it was a huge landmark for me.
Oh, and we got a piano this week for our apartment! Long story short, there has been this piano outside our neighbor's door for about a year now. We asked them this week if we could use it, and they said we could have it! Our apartment is now complete. Besides the fact that we don't have an oven. Or a guitar. No home is complete without a guitar. But, besides that, you know.
Roman has been doing awesome. We've had two lessons with him this week, and he's brought a friend to one of them and his five year old son was there both times! It's so nice to see his life coming together with the Gospel. And he was absolutely beaming every time we discussed gospel principles. It's lessons like those that make all the other random little lessons that nothing comes out of worth it.
Russian is definitely messing with my English. I can feel it seeping in and corrupting everything. It's not helping my cause that I have had only Russian companions. Don't get me wrong, that's not a terrible thing- What is terrible is trying to say something in your native language and not finding the words you need. So, I've been studying English grammar along with my companion. I'm really surprised at all the things we have in English, like the billions of little nuances that make up verb tenses. We are so blessed to be native speakers of English, I can't even begin to describe it. That's not a blessing that I ever thought I would admit to having, but there you go.
Over all, things are doing good here. We're halfway through this transfer, and we're in the swing of things. I'm just hoping that I can do some lasting good in this area before I leave it (since I'm most likely getting transferred in two weeks).
I love the Ukrainian people I'm serving. And I love you all as well. I'm very grateful to have a great support back home, you don't even know. Lots of elders don't even have that. So thank you.
Until next week,
Elder Brandon Porter
I thought this was interesting. In my letter I asked him about his observations about why the Eastern Europeans generally have a hard time making the decision to embrace the gospel. This is what Brandon replied to me in a letter:
Our investigators are doing fine. It's really hard for a lot of them to see why there had to be a restoration of the truth. Most people that we talk to say something along the lines of, "God should have just one big church that has all of His authority on the earth". We get really excited and tell them that that church DOES exist, and that's our message. But they have a really hard time accepting the fact that it's not the ONLY church out there, saying that God should combine all churches into one. I feel like that attitude is a bit of a left over from the Communist Era, where anything "good" was standardized. People tell us occasionally about how that was pretty awesome for them, not having to make little decisions. But for the most part, everyone is generally very thoughtful and careful about what they associate themselves with, which is a very good trait for someone who is a potential new convert.
Hey, so it's the week after Thanksgiving. Yup.
I spent Thanksgiving with one other American, and a bunch of Russians/Ukrainians. Actually it was kind of surreal. They didn't even really know the story of why we even have Thanksgiving. Elder Solin and Efoshkin (also Russian) both were just happy for a chance to have a ton of food.
We made our own Thanksgiving out here in Lugansk! Nielson and I split up the essentials and created a Thanksgiving feast, complete with mashed potatoes, gravy (thanks to those gravy packets!), corn, turkey, pie, stuffing.. the works! It was very filling. And awesome. It was most definitely awesome. Oh, and I wanted to let Mom know that I only cut my hand three times when making the food. I'm not quite as talented as her, but I'm on my way. I hope they scar- so I can have the most random story for a scar ever! I was slicing potatoes... in Post Communist territory... for Thanksgiving... Yup, it was a good time. A member donated a turkey to our cause, which was fantastic!
In other news, I had my first real, spur of the moment discussion with a little Russian kid this week! After a lesson with a family in the branch, we were all sitting around looking at pictures and stuff. A little girl, Lera, came up to me and started pulling me around, showing me all of her favorite toys and things. Her birthday was the following day, and she was just bouncing off the walls with excitement. By the way, she was turning six. She reminded me a lot of Joseph. Especially since the whole time she was dressed in a makeshift superhero costume with a cape and all. So, yeah, that probably doesn't sound nearly as exciting as it does in my head. But it was a huge landmark for me.
Oh, and we got a piano this week for our apartment! Long story short, there has been this piano outside our neighbor's door for about a year now. We asked them this week if we could use it, and they said we could have it! Our apartment is now complete. Besides the fact that we don't have an oven. Or a guitar. No home is complete without a guitar. But, besides that, you know.
Roman has been doing awesome. We've had two lessons with him this week, and he's brought a friend to one of them and his five year old son was there both times! It's so nice to see his life coming together with the Gospel. And he was absolutely beaming every time we discussed gospel principles. It's lessons like those that make all the other random little lessons that nothing comes out of worth it.
Russian is definitely messing with my English. I can feel it seeping in and corrupting everything. It's not helping my cause that I have had only Russian companions. Don't get me wrong, that's not a terrible thing- What is terrible is trying to say something in your native language and not finding the words you need. So, I've been studying English grammar along with my companion. I'm really surprised at all the things we have in English, like the billions of little nuances that make up verb tenses. We are so blessed to be native speakers of English, I can't even begin to describe it. That's not a blessing that I ever thought I would admit to having, but there you go.
Over all, things are doing good here. We're halfway through this transfer, and we're in the swing of things. I'm just hoping that I can do some lasting good in this area before I leave it (since I'm most likely getting transferred in two weeks).
I love the Ukrainian people I'm serving. And I love you all as well. I'm very grateful to have a great support back home, you don't even know. Lots of elders don't even have that. So thank you.
Until next week,
Elder Brandon Porter
I thought this was interesting. In my letter I asked him about his observations about why the Eastern Europeans generally have a hard time making the decision to embrace the gospel. This is what Brandon replied to me in a letter:
Our investigators are doing fine. It's really hard for a lot of them to see why there had to be a restoration of the truth. Most people that we talk to say something along the lines of, "God should have just one big church that has all of His authority on the earth". We get really excited and tell them that that church DOES exist, and that's our message. But they have a really hard time accepting the fact that it's not the ONLY church out there, saying that God should combine all churches into one. I feel like that attitude is a bit of a left over from the Communist Era, where anything "good" was standardized. People tell us occasionally about how that was pretty awesome for them, not having to make little decisions. But for the most part, everyone is generally very thoughtful and careful about what they associate themselves with, which is a very good trait for someone who is a potential new convert.
Monday, November 21, 2011
"Free agency has been repealed in the mission. Well, it hasn't . . . but sometimes that's what you want as a missionary."
Family!
Like always, I can't believe another week has gone by! Weird. If this keeps up, then I won't have any mission left before I know it! I'd better get out there right now and baptize a bunch of Ukrainians right now. They don't have any choice in the matter. Free agency has been repealed in the mission. Well, it hasn't.. but sometimes that's what you want as a missionary. Just give people a little bit of a shove in the right direction. Ah well, that's not God's plan. Good to learn that sooner rather than later.
We've had a really hard time meeting with anyone this week. All the members seem to have decided that we missionaries are a huge burden to them, and don't want to meet with us. And most of our investigators have been getting really busy, or just not wanting to meet. Or, recently there was an incident where an Arabian man killed a Ukrainian, so there have been angry gangs going around Lugansk looking for foreigners and beating them up. Mostly just people that are obviously a different race or Middle Eastern, but the black population has been very worried as well. That's blown over now, but there's still an aire of uneasiness sometimes with people. So, yeah, sometimes it's hard to get to meet with people.
Oh, and I discovered recently that there is a problem with my visa. Well, I knew about it already, but I just found out what the implications could be. The Ukranian Visa is supposed to be good for a year. Everyone else's in my group says "3/8/2011 - 3/8/2012", meaning August 3rd. Mine says "3/8/2011 - 8/3/2012". This means that my Visa expires in March. That could mean that they'll have issues when it comes time for me to finish the last few months of the mission in 2013. But at the same time, they changed the requirements in Ukraine for foreigners staying within the country, so it may not be a problem at all. Either way, it probably means that I have to leave the country in March so they can renew my Visa. I don't know why it works like that, but it does apparently. I'll keep you posted when I find out more about what's going on with all that.
Not a whole lot has happened this week. We're making a special effort to get R to stay excited and keep growing spiritually. He has been telling his parents that he doesn't need to meet with us since he's already baptized now, and he has apparently been pretty apathetic about everything Gospel related. Our goal is to rekindle that fire. I will not let that man go inactive. He's destined to be a great member, I can see it in him.
Speaking of potential great members, G. G is such an awesome guy. When my companion, Solin, met him for the first time, he thought that he was mistaken and that we were actually meeting with a member, not an investigator. G is just that awesome. But yesterday he called me and said "Something has come up... I hope that time will provide that we can keep meeting" He needs to get baptized! It makes me want to scream sometimes, seeing him with the progress that he has already made, and not being able to show him that he really needs to get baptized immediately. He is going to haunt me for the rest of the mission if he doesn't get baptized.
I really love these people. They are great. Although, recently I've gotten a little fed up with the Russian language. I miss being able to do simple things, like buy groceries or get a haircut speaking my native language. I love Russian. But I really miss communicating fluently. It is what it is.
That's all I can think to include here at the moment. So, I guess that's it til next week! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Brandon Porter
Like always, I can't believe another week has gone by! Weird. If this keeps up, then I won't have any mission left before I know it! I'd better get out there right now and baptize a bunch of Ukrainians right now. They don't have any choice in the matter. Free agency has been repealed in the mission. Well, it hasn't.. but sometimes that's what you want as a missionary. Just give people a little bit of a shove in the right direction. Ah well, that's not God's plan. Good to learn that sooner rather than later.
We've had a really hard time meeting with anyone this week. All the members seem to have decided that we missionaries are a huge burden to them, and don't want to meet with us. And most of our investigators have been getting really busy, or just not wanting to meet. Or, recently there was an incident where an Arabian man killed a Ukrainian, so there have been angry gangs going around Lugansk looking for foreigners and beating them up. Mostly just people that are obviously a different race or Middle Eastern, but the black population has been very worried as well. That's blown over now, but there's still an aire of uneasiness sometimes with people. So, yeah, sometimes it's hard to get to meet with people.
Oh, and I discovered recently that there is a problem with my visa. Well, I knew about it already, but I just found out what the implications could be. The Ukranian Visa is supposed to be good for a year. Everyone else's in my group says "3/8/2011 - 3/8/2012", meaning August 3rd. Mine says "3/8/2011 - 8/3/2012". This means that my Visa expires in March. That could mean that they'll have issues when it comes time for me to finish the last few months of the mission in 2013. But at the same time, they changed the requirements in Ukraine for foreigners staying within the country, so it may not be a problem at all. Either way, it probably means that I have to leave the country in March so they can renew my Visa. I don't know why it works like that, but it does apparently. I'll keep you posted when I find out more about what's going on with all that.
Not a whole lot has happened this week. We're making a special effort to get R to stay excited and keep growing spiritually. He has been telling his parents that he doesn't need to meet with us since he's already baptized now, and he has apparently been pretty apathetic about everything Gospel related. Our goal is to rekindle that fire. I will not let that man go inactive. He's destined to be a great member, I can see it in him.
Speaking of potential great members, G. G is such an awesome guy. When my companion, Solin, met him for the first time, he thought that he was mistaken and that we were actually meeting with a member, not an investigator. G is just that awesome. But yesterday he called me and said "Something has come up... I hope that time will provide that we can keep meeting" He needs to get baptized! It makes me want to scream sometimes, seeing him with the progress that he has already made, and not being able to show him that he really needs to get baptized immediately. He is going to haunt me for the rest of the mission if he doesn't get baptized.
I really love these people. They are great. Although, recently I've gotten a little fed up with the Russian language. I miss being able to do simple things, like buy groceries or get a haircut speaking my native language. I love Russian. But I really miss communicating fluently. It is what it is.
That's all I can think to include here at the moment. So, I guess that's it til next week! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Brandon Porter
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
First Baptism! "I'm learning tons, and I'm not just talking about Russian."
Hey!
So, yeah, nothing big happened this week. Just a BAPTISM is all. Y'know. The usual.
But really, it's so awesome! You were talking about your 11/11/11 party? Well I had a BAPTISM on that day. How's that for special? And guess what time the baptism started? That's right, 11 AM. So there you go.
Yeah, my first baptism here in Ukraine! It went well. We missionaries were pretty much in charge of every aspect of it, including renting a pool and spa place to do the ordinance. I included pictures of how it all looked. The baptism was done in that little pool thing. I could talk about this baptism from a lot of different angles and I could go on for a long time about it, but the long and the short of it was that it was awesome. R, the one being baptized, was absolutely beaming throughout the whole time. There were lots of little issues with the program, like the fact that the font wasn't full enough when we needed it to be, or that a certain member kept trying to steal the floor and talk about random stuff as if she was the branch president, or even that one of the people that we asked to speak went off on a tangent about how the Nephites were so violent and doing horrible things at the end of the Book of Mormon (and there were non-members there, too. . . Oh well). But absolutely nothing could dampen R's smile. He genuinely felt the Spirit of the occasion, and I could see it in his eyes.
On a sadder note, N came to the baptism too. To recap, N was the one we met with along with R. She was supposed to get baptized on the same day as him. But we lost contact with her and couldn't get a hold of her for the last two weeks, so she wasn't able to be interviewed for the baptism. The interview is really all that she needs in order to be baptized, actually. It was really sad. She came in crying, and came to me, pleading my forgiveness for not being able to meet with us the last weeks. She had been in the hospital.. She was absolutely devastated. We need to get her baptized. But since I was the only one that knew her there, it was up to me to comfort her through the whole service. In Russian. I had a weird out of body kind of experience there where I realized that I am no longer a greenie here. I can actually communicate what I need when I need it. I was so grateful in that moment that I was able to speak Russian for N's sake. Good stuff.
The rest of the week has been fine. I've taken to reading everything that I can in Russian recently. My thought is that if I can read through the Book of Mormon and various other books and understand them well, then I'll be able to expand my vocabulary and understand people more fully here. I'm very excited with that progress. You have no idea how annoying it is to want to share something with someone, or desperately want to understand someone else, and just not have the words be there. It's especially sad when the topics are religious that you're trying to communicate. But, I've improved a whole lot, and I continue to improve!
So, that's most everything I wanted to share specifically this week. My companion, Elder Solin.. I can't remember, did I mention him last week? Well, in case I didn't, he is a Russian from St. Petersburg. He's learned all of his English while on the mission, and he's been out for a year and a half. He speaks very good English, but he doesn't believe it. We have many differing views on how things should be run, and he's slightly strogie (strict) with certain things that I feel no need to be strict about, but he's a cool guy. You can see him in the baptismal picture that I sent to you. Yeah, I can't think of much else to add to that at the moment. We're working well.
I guess that's all for this week. Tune in next week for more daring adventures in the wild Ukraine. It's a good mission. I like it. I'm learning tons- and I'm not just talking about Russian. About life skills, interpersonal relationships, personal development, religious knowledge, etc. It's crazy how much there is to learn in life. Wow. Taking it one day at a time is the only way to do it.
Love you! Talk to you next week,
Elder Brandon Porter
"Faith and fear can't co-exist."
Dear Family!
First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Grandma Porter! Be sure to tell her to have a slice of cake for me.
This is going to be a pretty fast email. My new companion is really antsy to be getting out of the internet club, I guess. That's the big new change in my life here- I got a new companion! It's really weird, because Antamanov came to represent everything I know and have experienced here in Ukraine. It was really sad to say good bye to him. But, guess what- my new comp is Russian also! It's so weird that I have another Russian companion. Lots of American missionaries don't even ever serve with a native, and I'm serving with my second one in a row. It's crazy. I guess God is telling me to learn this language faster!
So, I guess it's been a good week. We had a scare with R the other day. He is supposed to be baptized this Friday, but he started asking questions about why he needed to get baptized again at all. He was scaring his parents a lot. But we went over yesterday and had a great lesson about the priesthood authority, and he's back on track to be baptized this Saturday. I'm so excited- my first Ukrainian baptism!! We have been working out all the logistics, since we don't have a font for the church here. I'll tell you more about that next week!
I love you, family! I'm sorry this message is so much shorter than usual. My companion really wants to go. I'm not exactly sure why. His name is Sollin, btw. He's from St. Petersburg. And he plays the piano really well! It's pretty cool.
Anyways, I'll talk to you later! Love you all!
-Elder Brandon Porter
PS. Maybe you can send out parts of my other email to Mom to the rest of the family that reads these? I just feel kind of bad that this is so short...
Excerpts of the letter he sent to me:
Answers to your questions, Mom:
Yeah, I bought a good winter coat finally. Those ~$200 are equal to 1000 greevan each. I took those out for any personal expenses. I still have to buy a hat and stuff soon, but I have about 600 greevan left (give or take), so I will be good for a while!
I haven't been the one to play in Sacrament Meeting or anything, no. I usually defer that to one of the other elders. Most elders play piano. But I have taken to playing the prelude music. I've got a few songs that I can play with no problem, and I'm working on being able to play any hymn by sight. I definitely understand what you mean when you say that you can express emotions through the piano like a voice. I feel the same way about guitar. And I can get pretty close with the piano. Music is life.
I'm jealous of your temple going. The temple is an awesome place. But hey, in a year and a half I'll have the chance to go to the Kiev Temple on my way out of the country! I'm excited for that.
Yeah, dryers.. I miss those. Also, you know that we don't have an oven in this apartment, right? It's pretty much the only one in the mission without an oven. We get creative for meals. It's good practice for cooking! And when we want to bake something, we can just go over to the other elders' apartment for an evening. Good stuff.
I really like that thought about Paul and being contented. It's so true- we always have our agency for how we react to things around us. Even when you're in jail. Or in a cold church building (they turned on the heat today, btw!) I also love that thought that fear and faith can't coexist. Good motivation to build your faith, huh?
Thank you for your prayers and your rooting. The babushki may be looking out for me. I don't know. Most of them are pretty much insane. I'll talk to you later, then!
Love you too!
Brandon
First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Grandma Porter! Be sure to tell her to have a slice of cake for me.
This is going to be a pretty fast email. My new companion is really antsy to be getting out of the internet club, I guess. That's the big new change in my life here- I got a new companion! It's really weird, because Antamanov came to represent everything I know and have experienced here in Ukraine. It was really sad to say good bye to him. But, guess what- my new comp is Russian also! It's so weird that I have another Russian companion. Lots of American missionaries don't even ever serve with a native, and I'm serving with my second one in a row. It's crazy. I guess God is telling me to learn this language faster!
So, I guess it's been a good week. We had a scare with R the other day. He is supposed to be baptized this Friday, but he started asking questions about why he needed to get baptized again at all. He was scaring his parents a lot. But we went over yesterday and had a great lesson about the priesthood authority, and he's back on track to be baptized this Saturday. I'm so excited- my first Ukrainian baptism!! We have been working out all the logistics, since we don't have a font for the church here. I'll tell you more about that next week!
I love you, family! I'm sorry this message is so much shorter than usual. My companion really wants to go. I'm not exactly sure why. His name is Sollin, btw. He's from St. Petersburg. And he plays the piano really well! It's pretty cool.
Anyways, I'll talk to you later! Love you all!
-Elder Brandon Porter
PS. Maybe you can send out parts of my other email to Mom to the rest of the family that reads these? I just feel kind of bad that this is so short...
Excerpts of the letter he sent to me:
Answers to your questions, Mom:
Yeah, I bought a good winter coat finally. Those ~$200 are equal to 1000 greevan each. I took those out for any personal expenses. I still have to buy a hat and stuff soon, but I have about 600 greevan left (give or take), so I will be good for a while!
I haven't been the one to play in Sacrament Meeting or anything, no. I usually defer that to one of the other elders. Most elders play piano. But I have taken to playing the prelude music. I've got a few songs that I can play with no problem, and I'm working on being able to play any hymn by sight. I definitely understand what you mean when you say that you can express emotions through the piano like a voice. I feel the same way about guitar. And I can get pretty close with the piano. Music is life.
I'm jealous of your temple going. The temple is an awesome place. But hey, in a year and a half I'll have the chance to go to the Kiev Temple on my way out of the country! I'm excited for that.
Yeah, dryers.. I miss those. Also, you know that we don't have an oven in this apartment, right? It's pretty much the only one in the mission without an oven. We get creative for meals. It's good practice for cooking! And when we want to bake something, we can just go over to the other elders' apartment for an evening. Good stuff.
I really like that thought about Paul and being contented. It's so true- we always have our agency for how we react to things around us. Even when you're in jail. Or in a cold church building (they turned on the heat today, btw!) I also love that thought that fear and faith can't coexist. Good motivation to build your faith, huh?
Thank you for your prayers and your rooting. The babushki may be looking out for me. I don't know. Most of them are pretty much insane. I'll talk to you later, then!
Love you too!
Brandon
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
"I've learned so much, yet I still know nothing."
Dear Family
Well, we got our transfer calls on Friday morning. Antamanov is being transferred and I'm staying in Lugansk. That was way unexpected, especially considering all the work that he can do in the branch, being native and all. I feel slightly unqualified to continue the work of keeping this branch progressing without him. But I guess that's part of the process of growing, in the mission or otherwise- you do things that you aren't comfortable with. It'll be hard, but good.
Elder Nielson and I are both staying here (Arrington is leaving), and so we've been discussing a lot of statistics of who could end up coming out here to us. It's a bigger deal to me than I ever thought it would be. I already love my new companion, in a freaky weird missionary way. Man, being a missionary is weird sometimes.
In other news, I made sauce the other day! Not just any sauce- Russian sauce! Antamanov taught me how to make a sauce for chicken and noodles that is a family recipe or something, so I now officially can cook at least one Russian thing. Be excited for me to show you all the foods! I'm coming to love Ukrainian food. The branch president has been feeding us a lot recently, every Sunday night, so I get to try all the awesome local food. It's so awesome! Make sure that I show you homemade "Vereiniki" when I get back home. That's probably my all time favorite. We also had a really good kind of apple pie/bread thing. These people know their food pretty well.
I just realized that I've been in Ukraine for 3 full months this week. That's really strange. I feel like I just got here. I've learned so much, yet I still know nothing. I guess that's where God fills in the rest. I'll probably feel the same way when it comes time to actually go home.
This has been a very good beginning to my mission. Nearly 6 months since I entered the MTC.. Wow.. Time can't have gone that fast. I guess I should be all super mature or something by now.. Nah. I'm still me. Just in case y'all were wondering. I'm planning on still being me when I get home. Just.. more of me. If that makes any sense.
Well, time to get going with the rest of my day. I love you all back home! See you later! I'm still missionary-ing out here, don't worry. It's a good time.
Love,
Elder Brandon Porter
Well, we got our transfer calls on Friday morning. Antamanov is being transferred and I'm staying in Lugansk. That was way unexpected, especially considering all the work that he can do in the branch, being native and all. I feel slightly unqualified to continue the work of keeping this branch progressing without him. But I guess that's part of the process of growing, in the mission or otherwise- you do things that you aren't comfortable with. It'll be hard, but good.
Elder Nielson and I are both staying here (Arrington is leaving), and so we've been discussing a lot of statistics of who could end up coming out here to us. It's a bigger deal to me than I ever thought it would be. I already love my new companion, in a freaky weird missionary way. Man, being a missionary is weird sometimes.
In other news, I made sauce the other day! Not just any sauce- Russian sauce! Antamanov taught me how to make a sauce for chicken and noodles that is a family recipe or something, so I now officially can cook at least one Russian thing. Be excited for me to show you all the foods! I'm coming to love Ukrainian food. The branch president has been feeding us a lot recently, every Sunday night, so I get to try all the awesome local food. It's so awesome! Make sure that I show you homemade "Vereiniki" when I get back home. That's probably my all time favorite. We also had a really good kind of apple pie/bread thing. These people know their food pretty well.
I just realized that I've been in Ukraine for 3 full months this week. That's really strange. I feel like I just got here. I've learned so much, yet I still know nothing. I guess that's where God fills in the rest. I'll probably feel the same way when it comes time to actually go home.
This has been a very good beginning to my mission. Nearly 6 months since I entered the MTC.. Wow.. Time can't have gone that fast. I guess I should be all super mature or something by now.. Nah. I'm still me. Just in case y'all were wondering. I'm planning on still being me when I get home. Just.. more of me. If that makes any sense.
Well, time to get going with the rest of my day. I love you all back home! See you later! I'm still missionary-ing out here, don't worry. It's a good time.
Love,
Elder Brandon Porter
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