What's the easiest way to set up a VPN server?

I have a friend in Russia who loves watching animal videos and those silly video essays on YouTube and now YouTube is blocked in Russia. I have a spare netbook with Linux Mint and I've been trying to set up an OpenVPN server for her using this guide and I've tried a cracked version of OpenVPN Access Server, but I guess this whole thing is above my pay grade – the client on my phone still won't connect.

What the easiest solution to this situation? Should pull the trigger and install Debian because all those easy setup guides are targeted to Debian? Is there is easier alternative to OpenVPN with an android client?