October 11

Happy Monday!

Dad, I love that the Subject of your email was 10-10-10, and it makes me happy to know that that is now the third time you have written about the same date. I love your quirks and I miss them too. I appreciated the heads-up on the date, and told my companion, so we both remembered to write in our Journal that day and have an entry on that day.

Mom, I got your package! The one with the headbands in it! It was so nice and so unexpectedly nice I didn't know what to do with it! I wore one of the headbands yesterday already haha. Thanks a billion from you and all of the girls who helped put it together. I don't know how to thank you back enough. I love you so much!

Mom and Dad, I think I told you that I asked my Mission President about you wanting to pick me up, and he sent me an email with an excerpt from his handbook, which discouraged family members from picking-up their missionaries. Which, coming from my Mission President, pretty much means that he wouldn't prefer it. So, with that, and the fact that we want to save some money, I think it is best that you don't worry about coming out here : ) Of course, I'd love to have you out here, but it isn't necessary. It is enough to know that the two of you are willing to trek out here in the middle of winter just to see where I've been. You are the best parents. I love you both so much. Well, it seems that my come home date is February 3rd. I didn't want to say anything, because it could potenitally change, but I think you could plan on that date for now. I thought I might have to pick between February and March, but now it seems like I won't have to. The Visa stuff is so fun to plan around! ; ) Sorry to confuse you, but plan on February.

Speaking of Visa stuff, I am due for another Visa Trip. I'll leave to Finland Sunday, and instead of making the 24 hour trip, I am going to be stranded in Finland until the following Thursday. Maybe at the beginning of my mission I would have been more excited about that, but now I just feel kind of stressed. It's like leaving the Office for a week and coming back and putting-out all of the fires, especially because this past week we had Conference, Leadership Training again, and some other cleaning, end of Transfer things. But, I'm not gonna lie, the prospect of going to the Temple, a nap, and maybe even getting to go for a run is really exciting! It'll be just Sister Schill and I, and we're calling it our "Spiritual Spa" because we're not allowed to leave the Hostel. We'll see... but I'll write you next week from there : )

Colin, that is so exciting that you get to go through the Temple! Wow, are you going to go through in Albuquerque? I'm sure that would be such a treat for Elder Bear to go through with him. One word of advice, don't fast the day of, but maybe the day before or something. Remember Mom, Dad, Josh, and Kimball? I thought I was going to pass out haha. That was such a special day for me. One of the highlights of my entire life I think.

Ok, yes we did get a little tranfer again, but......................

I'm staying in Botanika! Yay!! I think I'll even get to see Lena get baptised!!!! I was so happy when I found out. When I got here to Botanika, it just immediately felt right, and I had a feeling it would be the heart of my mission. It has. So, I get to be here another six weeks and then we'll see. I've only been two areas my whole mission, that is kind of rare here, so I feel lucky. Sister Schill will be leaving me though which is sad. She's going to a different area of Ekat though, so I will still see her around. My new companion is going to be........................

Sister Muhlestein! She is another greenie! Haha, yes, I am training again. She is actually the girl that Andrea knows from Harvard. She'll probably already know more Russian than me : ) I am super excited though. Botanika is such a cool first area for these greenies, mine wasn't as interesting to be honest, but I grew to love it just as much : )

Ok, now to the real stuff. Lena is doing well! She got a blessing from Elder Glagolev, and it was amazing. Elder Glagolev is a real hoot, funny guy. And he can kind of say some off-the-wall kind of things. He has a crazy past before he found the Church in Russia, and he likes to talk about his past a lot on meetings haha, so it can sometimes be an uncomfortable situation, but all the Russian people love him because he is just... lovable. Before the blessing, he was being his normal self, and my companion and I were kind of squirming, but the minute he started the blessing, and laid his hands on Lena's head, he changed. It was seriously a different Elder Glagolev. He seemed to know exactly what her needs were. He told her to not fear, but to move forward, to act out of faith and just believe, to have a solid testimony of the Book of Mormon, and to get baptised. The Spirit was so strong, and Lena, after the blessing just seemed so shocked. She didn't anticipate that kind of power. Elder Glagolev went back to being his usual self, and it was a huge testimony to me of the power of the Priesthood. It really was the Lord talking, and not Elder Glagolev. By the way, you would all love him. He is such a hoot, he reminds a little of Grandpa McCuistion, only a little more crazy. Haha he's so fun. We asked Lena if she wanted to move-up her baptismal date, and she still declined. Man, I've been shut-down by her so many times haha! But, she always progresses in her own time. It's our joke now that someday I'll just kick her into the water when she's not looking. We have a really good relationship, and I think I'd consider coming back here to see her Temple marriage, which, I keep reminding her, will be in the Temple : )

I got to go to the Leadership Training meeting again! It was all day Wednesday and Thursday. Yes, just me, my companion, and all the Elders. It was so fun though. I love the Elders, and it is so amazing to see their growth. I really feel like we have the best Elders here. We learned a lot about how to be better teachers, and it was always refreshing to hear advice from our Mission President. We listened to a talk by President Holland about listening to the Spirit. He talked about how the key to a good missionary, is a that he or she is a good companion. He talked about the "Divine Companionship," which is where the companionship ceases to be a duo and becomes a trio, with the Holy Ghost as the Senior companion. It made me think about how it's probably a lot the same in marriage, that you put your pride away, and try and follow what the Lord wants from you. He said that it is more important to make your companion successful than to make yourself shine. He also said that the Spirit will not testify of superficialtiy, and that if aren't sincere as a missionary, you won't be able to convert others. If we're just worried about statistics, etc, and not really the investigators as people, then you are not successful. Very true. I liked his comments a lot.

Friday, we had a great meeting with Vladislav. He is the eternal investigator that once quit smoking, has since started again, and His wife is against the Church. But, he has started progressing again. After listening to Elder Holland's talk, I decided to really focus on Vladislav and what he is needing. Our committment for the lessonw as to get him to come to Conference, which is a big deal for him. He hasn't come to Church yet, and keeps declining. During our lesson, I just realized how strong a testimony I had of Conference, and just realized that I wanted him to know how much it meant to me, and that if he were to go, he would have a Mosiah 5:2 experience, where the people's desire to do evil was rooted out of them. He came on Sunday and really enjoyed it! We hadn't planned on saying a lot of the things we said in our lesson, but it really felt like the Spirit was guiding us to say what he was needing to hear. The Spirit is so key, and I felt like it was tlaked a lot about at Conference. I want to become better at listening to the Spirit now and for the rest of my life. Sometimes I get frustrated becasue I can be so hard-headed and I don't yeild to his promptings.

Volodia and Olga. We met with them again on Saturday, and it was so amazing! Olga, I'm still not super certain she is interested int he Gospel (yet : ) ), but Volodia has read all of 1 Nephi and parts of Alma, and the last parts of the book. He seems kind of skeptical, no, really skeptical about Joseph Smith, especially because he looked us up online and read some anti-stuff, but he is not ruling it out yet. I think a part of him is somewhat wanting to mock us because we're a weird religion, the other part of him really likes what he hears. For example, Olga asked if the Bible said anything about the Book of Mormon, and, instead of us answering, Volodia explained to her about the "other sheep I have" verse, and how the Book of Mormon answered his long-time question about who those other sheep were. It was so cool that he had figured that out for himself without us telling him! Also, he then asked us, "why would the Lord only visit people in Jerusalem and in America though, it seems unfair and unlikely that he would be so exclusive." We were like, "Wow, did he really just ask that?" And, we showed the scripture about how he went to other places that we know not of. Anyways, we invited them to Conference, but they didn't come. I couldn't fall asleep that night after the lesson, because I kept thinking about how Golden he was, and how we need to find a way to soften his heart. He is a student studying to be a Doctor, very smart kid.

Ummm.... We had so many miracles! We ran into our Branch President on the street last week talking with a Muslim man. First of all, I've never ran into my Branch President on the street before. Secondly, the Muslim man he was talking to, Bahktyior, was a man our Branch President had met in Kazhakstan when he was serving as Mission President there. Bahktyior had showed-up at the Branch in Kazhakstan because he was curious about what the Church was, and then he ran into him on the street in Ekat some 8 years later. And then, we run into the two of them on the street too! Not a coincidence. Bahktyior came to Conference yesterday, and we have a meeting with him tomorrow.

Ok, well, I love you all sooo much! Your letters are amazing. Mom, you are the best Mom in the whole wide world and I appreciate all you do for me. I can feel your prayers and love all the way over here on the other side of the world. We are all in debt to your selfless service.

Thanks to Dad, Hakes Brothers, Grandma, and Grandpa, Cassi and Kelly, and you countless others who helped support me on my mission financially and in other ways. The story President Holland told about how his parents didn't use any of his mission fund made me cry. I feel like I was equally supported by my family back home. I thought to myself, wow, I have that kind of family too! I have so much to be thankful for : )

From Conference, I loved Elder Christofferson, Holland, Monson, Edgley, Jensen, Costa, Scott, Oaks, and others. So, I guess pretty much everyone : ) I need to have more faith, respond to the Spirit more, and have more gratitude. It was amazing! Dad, good luck on preparing your Stake Conference talks. You will do amazing, as usual. Has anyone every told you you look like Elder Oaks before? I don't think I'm alone in this.... : )

Love,

Sister Hakes

wow. this letter is a novel, sorry!