July 12

Hi Family!

Happy Bday Meesa and Kimball!! Sounds like you both had good bdays with your traditional lemon cake and apple pie. Hope you had a good time and enjoyed your special day. How is the lake this year? Have you had good weather and enough time to enjoy?

Mom, I got my bday package and thanks for everything! So nice of you. I was going to wait until my bday, but then I saw on the outside that there was clothes inside, so I figures I should open it. Summer here isn't that long ya know? So, might as well start wearing them now. They are all so cute. You're so thoughtful. Oh, Jenni New is getting married?? How exciting! Who is it? I can't believe Whitney Robb is coming home already? Is her family so excited? I only have five transfers left after this one which ends this week. Crazy! I'm trying to enjoy every minute.

Cassi, thanks for your letter with all of the details of your Daphne's arrival. I can't believe you were in labor and didn't know it! You poor thing! You're reaction to having them put the baby in your arms was so classic. I could see myself feeling the same way, like, it's really mine? I can't imagine being surprised so soon as you were with your little girl. You're ready for it! Don't doubt yourself! I am glad you and Kelly got to go through the whole birth process together. Your account sounded so sweet. Good Mom and Good Dad. No worries! : )

This week was great! We got 29 meetings and it felt so great. The best part about it though, was that we didn't even count how many meetings we were getting until the end of the week. The more I have forgetten about the numbers and just tried to serve the people, the more meetings we end-up getting. Duh! Doing the work this way is so much more rewarding too. I wish I had thought to do this in Chelyabinsk when I tried so hard to find 20 mtgs, but almost always came just short. We got some really promising street contacts too, so we'll see how those pan out.

Let's see, Lena that we've been working hard with, was unable to meet with us last week : ( We sent her texts with scriptures and tried to keep in touch with her daily so she doesn't regress. I am wanting her to be more self-reliant with her testimony. It seems like she relies on us to come and bring her the Spirit. I wonder if we are all a little like that with relying on the words of prophets and apostles at Conference, or even Church on Sunday to uplift, instead of trying to uplift ourselves up through diligent study and prayer. Anyways, I'm starting to recognize the more that I teach that I am a lot like our investigators. I have problems keeping commitments I make with the Lord too, and I don't always accomplish my goals. Recognizing this has really made me understand how hard it is for all of us to make and keep the commitments. Change is hard. I sometimes think I resist change within myself, and I know that that's not good. I think successful people don't resist change, but they recognize the need for constant improvement.

We had an interesting experience this past week I was wanting to tell you all. We ran into a lady two days in a row on the street, and she herself said that that was a big sign. We thought so too and urged her to contact us (she wouldn't give us her number) and gave her a pass-a-long card. The next day we get a phone call from a guy named Aleksei who had been given our information by a freind. Turns out the lady we had ran into on the street had passed along our pass-a-long card. I taught him over the phone for maybe 10 minutes, had a good conversation, and then asked when we could set-up a meeting with him. He said he couldn't meet with us in person, but only by mail and phone. I asked why and he said it's becasue he is in prison. I don't know what he is in prison for, but he said that he recognizes he is needing to receive forgiveness and wants to learn about Jesus Christ. Cool, huh? We scheduled a phone meeting wih him for the next night or so, and we planned on having a member with us so we could find out why he is in prison and if we have reason to be concerned. The meeting didn't work out though, Aleksei didn't answer. So, we talked to him a little since then, but we are wondering if it is allowed to teach someone in prison? I need to find out, but I thought that that was pretty cool that our card ended-up in the hands of someone who is wanting to know their Savior, regardless of whether or not he happens to be in prison.

Also, that old man that kissed me a while back is no longer our investigator. We were teching him the Plan of Salvation with the Russian Senior couple, when his son showed-up. His son works for the police and asked to see our documents. The Russian couple offered to show theirs first to kind of protect us Americans from any problems. However, they aren't registered in Ekat, which is totally legal and not really a problem, but I guess on some techinicality you can be forced to leave a city if not registered. Anyways, the guys said he was leaving to the store, but would be back in ten minutes. If we weren't gone, then he would call the police. So, we left in hurry obviously. Poor old Sasha (the old man). He seemed to have no idea what was going on. We just suddenly up and left. Not good on our part, but the Russian couple seemed pretty worried. I didn't seem to think it was a big deal, but it's a good thing we had them with us, becasue we saw a cop car and two cops on foot drop by his house a couple minutes later. Whew! Crazty huh? Nothing would have happened I'm sure, but the Lord sure protects us. I am glad we had the Senior couple with us that knew the Russian police better than I did.

Along with that and having the cops show-up in Himash, this week was pretty eventful. The less-actives we are working with seem to be progressing. I just wish our investigators would progress as quickly. We've gone through a lot of people that just don't seem too interested in our message after teaching the first lesson. It has really made me questin if I am teaching it well enough or not. I remember learnng in the MTC that missionary work is clumpy. Sometimes you'll get clumps of people who are super interested, and sometimes, you'll get a big clump of people who aren't interested. I just need to keep doing what I am doing, of course progress and improve, and recognize that times of rejection are a trial of my faith.

Well, that'll be it from me this week. Botanika is doing just great! Lots of work to do. Love you all,

Sister Hakes