July 26

Hi Family!

Thanks a million for the pictures from the Family Reunion! It looked so fun. I have such a beautiful family. I think my favorite picture was of Dad laying on the bed taking a nap in his swim trunks. It reminded me of the time we went to Newport and Dad threw-out his back and had to lay inside the rest of the trip while we all played at the beach: ( Pretty sure he enjoyed the time to sit and read though, am I right? Glad to hear the family is still normal, meaning Kimball and Carrie forgot both a cell phone and a labtop. What a way to make the family headlines! : )

Yes, I am 22... and yes, I feel a little old saying that! But, you're right Dad, the Lord will bless me for my service. Sometimes I forget that. There are three companionships of sisters here in Ekat, and they are so sweet. After internet, we're going to go make lunch together for my bday. I told them they didn't need to worry about me, but the more I said that, the more determined they got. I think they're going to make me french toast, which will be interesting. I haven't had it in Russia yet : ) Thanks Mom and Meesa for the bday clothes. I love them! I'm wearing the white skirt today, and I wore both shirts just the other day. спасибо!

It was so great going to the Temple. We had just enough time to do a session while we were in Finland. I actually thought a lot about the first time I went through, which was almost exactly a year ago. I remember Mom sitting next to me, and her insights that she shared with me, and then looking over and seeing Dad and Kimball and Josh there too. What a neat experience. I prayed a lot before I went to the Temple this time, so that I would be able to receive the rejuvination I needed. It turns out that the whole session, all I could feel was the love of my family. Like, overwhelmingly. I thought, "oh no! maybe I'm just being trunky," but I really felt close to you all, and it was the best medicine for me. The Lord knew what I needed to feel. Thanks for remembering me in your prayers, writing me, and for putting my name in the Temple, etc. I really feel that love and support and it helps so so so much. Love you all!!

The last couple of weeks with Sister Hanks have just been amazing. I feel so grateful to have served with her, and I think we both feel like we helped each other in ways that were totally unexpected, but very needed at the same time. I genuinely feel sad to see her leaving because she has touched so many people here in Botanika, but I know she'll do the same wherever she goes.

Lena, our investigator, has been on our minds a lot. She lost her job a couple weeks ago, which was kind of a blessing in disguise, because she could never get work off to come to Church. She used to sell alcohol at her old job, and we thought for her new job she'd chose maybe something more conducive to the Word of Wisdom, which she is struggling to learn and follow. We found out just recently though, that she got another job serving alcohol, even though we advised her not to. She says it won't affect her, but I don't know about that, we'll see. She is free to come to Church now on Sunday's, which is really nice. She was out of town yesterday, but we hope to see her next week at Church. We pray for her a lot, and I really have a desire to see her baptized. I know it can happen, but we need the Lord's help.

We had one of our recent-converts, Zhenya, come to Church this Sunday. He is a 12 year old boy, who actually has the Priesthood, but he hasn't come and hasn't showed-up to any of our appointments with him since we have been in Botanika. We found out that he is living with his Grandma right now, who is a strong member in the ZhBE area, about 40 min away in Ekat. We've been able to meet with him twice there, because his Mom in our Area never makes him stay at home when we plan a lesson with him. We recognized that he doesn't really like the to be sat down and taught, and we don't want him to grow-up avoiding the missionaries the rest of his life, so we decided to do a lesson fit for a twelve year old. One of the other sisters, Sister Taylor, gave us the idea to use ice cream. We sat him down and put three bowels of ice cream in front of him. One was plain vanilla, one was vanilla with a little sprinkles, and one was a big sundae with whipped cream, M&Ms, spirnkles, etc. He loves ice cream apparantely! We told him how he has agency to choose, and that sometimes it is hard for us to recognize how much better life is with the Gospel (the sundae). All the sprinkles on top were the blessings that come from keeping the commandments. He seemed to get it, and he actually responded to our questions for once. The biggest miracle was that he showed-up to Church on Sunday, all on his own! He took the bus from ZhBE all by himself, and he seemed a bit warmer towards us. I don't want to feel obligated to give him ice cream every time we go over, but I think it definitely helped him have interest in what we had to say. I hope he'll start to take interest in the Gospel, and it seems he took a small step in the right direction this past week.

I am really excited for the opportunity to train again. A part of me felt like, "I'm never going to have a normal transfer," but the other part of me knows that if I were to get a "normal" transfer (is there such a thing?), that I would get a little ansy. I loved training Sister Hanks. I don't think I fully understood how big the responsibility was until a couple weeks into out first transfer together. I really had to be a good example to her at all times, so it made me question some of the things I had previously been doing as a missionary. In trying to be a goode example to her, I ended-up becoming better in the process, and I saw how the work in our area really progressed as a result. I really just want Sister Schill to enjoy her first couple weeks in the field. She comes in on Thursday, so she'll arrive the end of the second week of this transfer. The first couple weeks in the field are so special, tender, and a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. Of course it will a little hard, that's how it should be, but I don't want her to feel like her first transfer is some dark memory that she'd never want to relive. So, I'll try and do my best! I am really grateful for the opportunity to do it again, and I know she'll teach me a lot too.

Thanks for all you all do,

Sister Hakes

P.S. the picture is of me and a babyshka named Raisa. I have a really great story about her, but there's no time. Anyways, she is an angel to me. It's in sepia becasue an elder showed me that i can take pictures in black and white and sepia on my camera. Really cool! But, he didn't teach me how to take it off sepia... haha. So, it's stuck like this for now. This was just yesterday, Sunday.