Special Experiences: June 8th

Family!

Oh, how are all of you doing!! Thanks for your emails this past week, I really appreciated them. Sorry I didn't email you yesterday (Monday). Today, Tuesday, our Mission had Mission Conference, which means everyone in our mission (only about 45 of us) was together for the first and only time on my mission. It was AMAZING! I'll tell you all about that in a second. Becasue of the Conference today, it meant we wouldn't have time to work in our area, so we decided to work ysterday on Pday, and just do internet today (Tuesday) becasue it is in the same part of the city.

Yesterday, we had an amazing time wih our most progressing Investigator named Lena. She is an investigator of a couple months now, she is 22, a very good girl, and we inhereted her from the Elders. We tried to get a Baptizmal Date out of her last week, and while she was practically crying from the Spirit, she turned us down saying she isn't ready. My companion and I both felt like she just needed friends in the Ward so she wouldn't feel like we were so weird our different. So, we decided on Monday (yesterday, our Pday) to go meet with her in her area and do some service with her for some members that live nearby. We didn't tell her this though, because we thought she might turn us down. So, we just showed up for our usual appointment with her, and we told her we needed her to come with us and help these members that live nearby. She said yes, and it was so great! The members are named Masha and Ludmilla. Masha is one of the strongest members in our Branch. She is pregnant and living here without her husband becasue of Visa problems (her husband lives in Estonia). She is here in Yekat taking care of her Mom that has Multiple-Sclorosis. Masha's baby is due in two weeks, and she doesn't have much help around the house, she's all alone holding down the fort. Such a Saint, really. Anyways, we bring Lena over to their house and she and Masha had such a great time talking together. When the members are helpful here, they are just golden because they are all pretty much converts themselves, and so they can really help our investigators. Masha also served a Mission, so that helps too. Anywyas, Sister Hanks and I had planned to rub oil on their feet (Masha and Ludmilla) and read them the story when Christ washes his Apostles feet. So, we do that, and Lena helps us, and the Spirit was so strong becasue these two faithful Saints were just so appreciative of the service. It made me want to cry. They are such amazing women, and their lives here are kind of difficult, and they couldn't believe someone would want to massage their feet. Lena came away feeling the Spirit, I know she did. She is planning on coming tonight to the big Member Meeting with president Rasband. So, if you read this letter before 6:30 PM tonight (my time), please pray for Lena to feel the Spirit and to have a desire to be baptized!

So, Mission Conference. It was today and it was amazing! Elder Rasband and his wife were here, as so were Elder and Sister Mandros (from Ukraine) of the Seventy. Elder and Sister Mandros were the third people to be baptized when the USSR dissolved, and four years after he joined the Church , he was called to be a MIssion President-- four years! He and his wife have served in the Seventy for 10 years and now are in our Area Presidency. Great people! They are the elect. Anyways, they spoke to us in Russian, and to be honest, it was kind of strange. It suddenly hit me that I speak Russian! Haha. Except, it doesn't seem like Russian, it just seems like English, only knew English words I'd never used before, if that makes any sense? Anyways, I was sitting next to Sister Valgardson, my comp from the MTC, and we were both looking at eachother as we were taking notes of his talk, and we were both just so surprised that we were able to listen and take notes of a Russian speaker like it was no big deal! Haha, just a side note for you. I'm so happy for her becasue she struggled with the language so much in the MTC. Church is true! Anyways, then Sister Allcott and President Allcott spoke, and they were so good as usual. Sister Allcott was commenting on how this is theire halfway mark on their Mission (it's mine too), and how when you play sports, you get a Half-time. A time to reflect and ponder over what you've done, and a time to re-motivate and reenergize. She said that is what this Mission Conference is for. She talked about how everyone in our Mission feels like something big is about to happen here in Russia. But, since we've started to feel that way, and to feel like we're on the right track, she said the opposition started to get really strong here in our Mission, which means we're doing something right. We had 12 companionships in one week that called in with serious illness and couldn't work. Twelve, in one week! So, that week our President had us Fast for more faith and health (this was about 2 wks ago), and since then, all companionships are fully functioning and only 1 or 2 calls of illness have ahppened within the last 2 weeks. Anyways, the point of her talking about this was that she knows that we have all seen and faced serious rejection here in Russia. But, she also knows that we are doing something right, becasue when the adversary starts to work extra hard on you, it means you are on the right track. I wasn't sick or anything, but I too felt like there was extra resistance. Probably about the time I called you on mother's day. For some reason, I felt like I was doing doing doing, but nothing ever worked out, and I felt distant from the love of my Savior. I know now, that the motivation for anything I do should be out of love for the people, which comes from a love of my Savior. The more I learn of my Savior, the more I love Him, the more I love him, the more I want to serve Him.

President and Sister Rasband pretty much left all of us in tears. President Rasband talked about how he was personally involved in the organization of the Church here in Russia. No idea he had such personal involvement with the Church here in Russia. Cool history. When he was erving as a Bishop in Utah, His Stake President was Bill Marriott and the nearby Stake President was the Huntsman guy. They were business partners (CEOs) and he worked as President of the company. Anywyas, the two stake presidents heard about a sales-pitch in Russia. Russia wanted to find a food/plastic distributer to make the food on their national airline, Aeroflot, better. At the time you could only have vodka and boiled potatoes when you flew into Russia. So, along with some major companies from Belgium, Sweden, and all over the world, the Huntsman/Marriot crew decided to go to Russia and discuss the deal with them. President Rasband went with them to the Conference, and among all the deals presented to the government, they were chosen! This was way back before the Berlin Wall fell, and their deal with Russia was the first time an American company was able to partner up with a Russian, with the American have 51% of the deal, and the Russian only 49%. So, Huntsmand and Marriott built a big plant there in moscow, and they sent all Mormon people to work in it. Elder Rasband would travel here frequently and he said, when he first came to Russia, it was so so so dark. He was here before the wall fell, and he said he had KGB men following him around and translating everything for them. He said it was a very dark place and he never like coming here for work. Anywyas, throuhg time, the wall eventually fell, and when it did, within three days, the firs Russian member was baptized by the workers of their plant in Moscow. 5 days later, the workers baptized five more Russians. President Rasband was even at the meeting in St. Petersburg, when the Vice President of Russia to the then President Yeltsin formally recognized the presence of the LDS Church here in Russia. Elder Rasband said that none of that history will be in our textbooks, but that he knows that the Church is what made the wall fall here in Russia among other things. He said that when President Kimball told the members to fast and pray so that the Church could be arried into all countries of the world, he personally saw that prophecy come true here in Russia. I probably butchered a lot of that history, there were a lot of other cool factors involved, but all I can say is that so much happens that we don't even recognize. The Lord's hand is in our lives so much, and it can be seen throughout the course of history.

President Rasband also did a Q and A with us. So cool! I have always wanted to do a Q and A with someone like that. He said that when we all introduced oursleves to him at the begginning, he said he was scanning and interviewing each of us, and that as we introduced oursleves, the Spirit whispered to him insights about us. He said he noticed that a lot of us our down, emothionally, spirituall, physically. As he told us this, he started to cry. He said he was sorry we were down, and that he knows it's the hardest of hard out here, but he also repeated over and over, never give up. He was a Mission President, and he said he knows how tough it can be at times, but to never give up and take each day and do your best with it. It was so great to get sympathy from him! He read how we need to waste and wear out our lives though, so when we get home from our Mission, we'll just want to sleep for 3 months. He also told us that we need to know our Savior personally. When we know Him, we will be willing to do anything for Him. We then had some really good questions asked, like how to better understand our purpose, how to love the people more, how to learn the balance between burning yourself out and working effectively, and how to help our investigators have the Mormoni 10 experience.

Conference was amazing. I feel rejuvinated. I recognize how much more I need to love the people, and how much more I need to work willingly, and to not get tired. I never stop working, but sometimes I murmur in my heart. I want to really go home and feel like I did all I could. I already feel that way up unitl this point, so I don't really need to do anything different, but to start let myself feel the joy more.Love more and worry less. We're out here slugging it out day to day, and I'm not gonna lie, the constant rejection is very hard to keep pushing against. My feet hurt a lot lately, and I am starting to feel more like a veteran out here than a greenie. I know that through the strength of the Lord we can do all things, and that we can feel joy in the process. I love you all a lot and I know, I really do know that the Church is true. The Lord is our Savior and he knows each of us personally.

Love you all,

Sister Hakes