June 28th

семья мая!

(My Family!)

как дела севодня? знаешь я вас очен люблю!

(How are you today? I love you!)

Hope you all had a great week! Sounds nice and hot back home! It's pretty hot here too. Has it been pretty rainy there? I hope so! I love the summer monsoons in Cruces. I'm glad you got the picture from Mission Conference. Yes, there are a LOT of Sisters here in our Mission, and yes my comp is the little one next to me in white. You think that they would sent the really bright, intellectual kind of person to Russia to learn such a hard language, but to be honest, the only similar personality trait I have noticed amongst the Sisters, is that they all seem to have that yellow personality. Really smily, fun, out-going, happy people. Maybe the Lord is trying to brighten-up Russia? Ha I don't know! They are all great sisters.

Happy Birthday Troy! I can't believe he has been around for a year already. Wow, I have been gone a while... Congrats Josh and Melissa! And Happy Bday to Mom, again! Hope you enjoy your big day. I'm wanting to send a package home for the summer bdays... I'll try. I can't believe the Bluth's house was struck by lightning, how random is that? And Carries's in Hawaii! Ahh, give congrats to Whit for me! Meesa, glad you found a job, and I love hearing about how well Colin is doing. Keep it up Colin! Hope the dinner with the two fams goes well. Joe, thanks so much for the letter this past week. Yes, it sounds like a lot of the things you felt on your mission are what I'm feeling. It's weird to think that there is life after the mission haha. It just seems so encompassing, and it's hard to believe that so many members of the Church have done this for so many years! Very cool. And, mybe this sounds really weird, but I swear I thought about Luis Cruz two or three times in the past week or two. I can't remember exactly why, but that is definitely strange that he even came into my thoughts... so sad. That is hard to hear.

Life in Botanika is good as usual. Last week we had a little more of a struggle than usual trying to find meetings, but the week ended on a really high note with Saturday and Sunday feeling very rewarding. We had three less-actives show-up to Church that haven't come to Church in a long time! Two of them came two weeks ago, and then the other member showed-up after not having been to Church in about 5 years. She has Parkinson's disease, and when we visited her, she made it sound like she was incapable of coming to Church on her own. But, she came! And, she did it all on her own. It was quite the little miracle. I love how the members always seem to welcome people who haven't come to Church in a while. It's like a little reunion for them. We've been able to see some good success with re-activating our less-active members, and we have gotten into a lot of homes that haven't had contact with the missionaries in a while. I feel like every week there is a new less-active family or two that we are able to meet with.

In terms of investigators, we have Lena that is progressing. She is doing well, and we were able to have a very honest conversation with her last week. We had planned to teach her about having a change of heart and we used the talk "A Mighty Change of Heart" from two General Conferences ago for a lot of our conversation. The talk talks about how some heart-transplant patients get casual about caring for their newly transplanted heart, and how no matter how good things seem to be going, the patients need to be diligent in caring for the health of their heart. We likened that to her because she admitted after talking with President Rasband that she felt a change in her, but since then, we have already seen a little digression, or a lack of caring for her "spritual heart." She admitted that she hasn't been reading her scriptures as faithfully as she should, and that among other things, she acknowledged her digression. It was really nice to teach someone that was so honest, and was willing to recognize the need to be better. So, we told her to get back in shape! She agreed, and we've been trying to contact her daily to keep the Lord in her remembrance. We also brought up baptizm, and why she is constantly shunning that conversation, and she admitted that she knows the Church is true! But, she is also afraid to commit to the Church, becasue she knows it is a big committment. For example, she has a lot of friends that drink, and if she were to change that part of her lifestyle, than she would feel ostracized from the group. She has one sober friend. I tried to relate as best I could to my experience growing-up in an area with very little members of the Church, and that seemed to help. We're wanting her to get to the point of King Lamoni or King Lamoni's father, and be willing to give-up all her sins to know Christ. Of course that takes some solid work and time, it doesn't always happen overnight. We're meeting with her tomorrow night at our Branch President's house, President Solomen, and we think that he and his family will really help her out. He is such a great Branch President and his family has the Spirit with them so strongly. He is a former Mission President-- can you believe that! Our little Branch President is a 12 year convert of the Church, and after only 5 years of being in the Church, he was called to be the Mission President in the new Moscow South Mission. His Mission opened-up Kazakhstan. All of their kids are active and they have one 10 year still living with them at home. They are a good example becasue they just like to have fun together. They laugh and tell all sorts of jokes, and are just happy. So refreshing! We feel like they will be able to relate to Lena, and to help her see that the blessings/fruit of the Gospel are much sweeter than the anything the world can offer. We're trying to get her to understand that keeping the commandments isn't really a sacrifice at all.

President Solomen also gave us two referrals last week. Cool! The example of his family is so amazing. I can't believe they were Mission Presidents after only being members for five years! I can't imagine. Great people and we really feel like we have his support in the Ward.

We were able to get into the home of our neighbors yesterday, Sunday evening, and teach them the first lesson. Also pretty cool. They are a newlywed couple expecting a baby! They have been really nice to us since we have moved in, and every time we see them they offer to help us in some way, like teach us how to buy groceries here in Russia, and what busses to take, etc. Anyways, we kept trying to have a Gospel dicussion with them, but they somehow always changed the subject. So, we just came out an said, we want to share a message with you and your family Sunday night, is that ok? They agreed, and we had a very good lesson with them. The Mom is very philosophical, and the husband is more traditional Orthodox Russian. They did listen though. We simply bore strong testimony and the Spirit came. They have some homework out of the Book of Mormon to read, and we plan to teach them again this week. They would be great members here and we're very excited to teach them! To be honest, I am not really sure how sincere their desire is to hear the Gospel, maybe just curiousity at the moment, but we're excited regardless to get to teach a soon-to-be family : )

Some of you have asked what a typical day is like for me, so, I thought I'd finally answer that question. I get up at 6:25 to get my excercise clothes on by 6:30, and we usually run until 6:55. Then we get home and say comp and personal prayer until about 7:10. My comp showers while I stretch and try and work out a little more. We eat breakfast 7:30 and I try and get all ready for study and for the day by 8. we do three hours of study (personal, comp, language) and then get out the door by 11. On a good day, we have appointment after appointment. If an appintment falls through, we try and drop-by a less-actives house. We marked on a map where all the less-actives live, so when we're in the area we can check to see who lives nearby. We have been bad about planning time to eat lunch and dinner. I haven't really sat down to eat my whole mission, but my Mission President told me I need to start doing that so I don't burn out. Then we get home at about 9 or 9:30. plan, get ready for bed, sleep at 10:30. You all know the drill! Pretty standard missionary schedule.

Sister Hanks and I are doing great! The work keeps going and going, which is a good sign! I feel like the people in Botanika are starting to feel an enthusiasm in the missionary work. I feel like we have their support, and at Church on Sunday, I felt really at home in the Ward.

Mom, I got your package with the make-up in it! AHHHH!!!!! You are so good to me! How did you know? I think my comp thinks I'm so girly, but it really meant a lot to me I almost cried. I know, so pathetic. Yes, please keep sending the meds if that's ok. I'm still using them.

Cassi, I finally got your Easter package! What a surprise! I wasn't expecting anything so thanks. I'll have to be creative and think of another way to dye some eggs haha... Reese's Puffs!! You're an angel. I think I have aquired more self-control, becasue I am eating them rather slowly. Trying to savor them. Thanks Sha sha and Mama!

Love you all!

Sister Hakes

P.S. I found out that the girl Goolia I taught in Chili got baptized this past week! A week after I left she accepted a baptizmal date and it really happened! She is the Armenian one that was forced into an arranged marriage that went really bad. Maybe you remember her? I was so happy to hear the news about her baptizm, I thought I'd pass it on.