October 18

Hi Family!

How is life in sunny Las Cruces! Sorry, I haven´t yet figured out how to do a question mark on the finnish keyboard, or an apostrophe.....

Yay to Emily Marie Hakes! What a beautiful name. I dont think I have seen her picture yet. If any one gets a chance, I would love to see what she looks like. I am glad all is well with Joe and Katie. Sounds like they have their hands full! They are amazing. Dad, thanks for the pictures you send me from your cell phone. Nathan and Hailey look all grown up! Hailey is Melissa´s twin, they look so similar! And Nathan still looks like Joe too. Both adorable. I am sorry to Dad and the boys that football is in the pits this year. That is pretty sad BYU only had 1 first down at the game. Sorry! But, sounds like it was a fun experience to be together as a family-.Jaxon is 50 pounds! That is insane! Wow.

Mom, I got the second package! It has another headband in it haha! You are so cute. It was all zebra stripped. I loved it. I haven´t received package number three yet, but I´ll keep an eye out for it. I have no idea what inspired so many packages all of a sudden. I won´t complain, but a BIG thank you! You´re too good to me.

Mom and Dad, you need to serve on a mission! We got up this morning at 6:30 like usual, but here at the Temple Hostel, nobody was up yet. It´s just Sister Schill and I at the hostel, along with the Temple President and the Senior Couples who are serving here. We came down stairs to study this morning, and at about 7 AM, and a group of the senior couples came down the stairs together. Monday the Temple is closed, and it is their P-Day tradition to go swimming/exercise together. Their is a pool 10 minutes from the hostel. They all seemed like such dear friends, even though one couple was Finnish, one Russian, and one from Idaho. They could barely communicate, but they all just had the best time together. It was so fun to see. I thought to myself, Mom and Dad would just love their mission. Haha, that´s my story : )

Well, this week we had Training for my new companion at the Mission Presidentäs home for two days, and then I left for Finland. Iäm stressing that Botanika is being left alone a whole week almost. Ahh! We tried to get as much done as we could, but travel in our mission just takes so much of our time.

We did meet with Lena, and she has agreed to be baptized November 20th, yay!! While she is still somewhat nervous, she knows that she is going to do it sooner or later, and finally agreed on setting a more official date. She is so ready. We had an FHE with her at a less actives home and some active members came too, and she told all of them about some persecution her friends have been giving her because she is meeting with us. She hadn´t mentioned persecution to us before, so it was news to us. She said that when she went home last weekend for her Grandmother´s 80th birthday party, that she met up with three of her closest friends from childhood and that they all started telling her that she was insane for listening to Mormons. She was super shocked she said by their reaction and hadn´t expected it, especially from them. After a good 20 minutes of their ranting, she said that she excused herself to go to the bathroom to try and clear her mind. There, she said she thought to herself, ´´maybe I am crazy?´´ and that I have just been persuaded by these people. She said that as she thought this, she remembered us, her missionaries, Zhenya, Uri Popov, the Kaigorodavi girls, the President Rasband Conference, the blessing Elder Glagolev gave her, the first time she went to Church, and all the other times she has felt the Spirit, and she said that she knew. She knew she wasn´t crazy. She knew that the feelings and experiences she has had were real, and that she couldn´t deny the Spirit she has felt with us. So, there in the bathroom, she said a little prayer and asked Heavenly Father for the strength she needed. She said she instantly felt peace, and that she went back out to her friends smiling. She felt calm the rest of the night, and that, even though they were still saying things to her, she didn´t care and didn´t have a desire to argue back. She is amazing. Even though we are here in Finland, she went to Church by herself yesterday, and said she really enjoyed it. We are going to have Sister Zaitseva and Sister Muhlestein meet with her while I am here in Finland. I feel like, among other things, she is the reason I came on my mission. She has made the biggest influence on my life, and the privelege of seeing her testimony grow, and her devotion to the Savior grow is so amazing. I love her.

Sister Muhlestein and I also ran after training to a meeting with Vladislav, the eternal investigator that has started progressing again. The lesson went pretty well and the Glagolevi´s helped. Sister Muhlestin and I both had the impression after the lesson that he is scared to recieve his answer that the Book of Mormon is true, because that would then require him to act. His wife is not really protive, but she doesn´t want her husband to get baptized until she has seen a convincing change in him, and that she really sees it is what he truly believes. As for right now, he believes in it, but he prefers to stay in this gray zone, where he can keep us happy somewhat happy by just reading the Book of Mormon, and he keeps her happy by not getting baptized or quitting smoking. He has a desire to come to Church every Sunday now, and before he didn´t. And, he has started quitting coffee on his own. He has some real intent, but he is scared to commit 100% percent. So, we´ll keep working with him, but the real changes he is needing to make he hasn´t quite committed to yet.

Sister Muhlestein is great. I don´t know too much about her, but I´ll tell you what I know (we´ve only been together two days). She is from Pasadena, CA and comes from a family of five... a set of twins and a set of triplets (she has a twin). Her parents are both lawyers, and she is a molecular and cellular biology major. She plays the violin like I do, which is really cool. We need to do a duet! She is like Sister Hanks in that she has no fear in talking with people on the street or in lessons. So, that is very ideal. We had that planning session together, and it seems she has all the right desires, and is really wanting to do her best for the Lord. She seems intent on making this experience the best experience it can possibly be. Me and her seem to have a lot in common, but I always feel like I have a lot in common with my companions, don´t know why that is. She will be a pleasure to work with I´m sure. She seemed a little sad to be in a different area this week and with a different companion, and I don´t blame her. It´s not very ideal for either of us. I also really enjoyed training this last time through. I always do, but we focused on companionships. It has kind of set the tone for Sister Muhlestein and I, and I can tell we are going to have a good experience working together.

Hello from Helsinki, and hope all is well with you!

Sister Hakes

P.S. Say hi to Andrea for me!

P.S.S. Mom, are you still forwarding my weekly emails to Sister Valgardson. I think she is wanting to get them every week if that´s not too much of a hassel for you. A Sister from our mission, Sister Tara Jenson, just got sent home from her mission last week. I gave her your phone number to call you so you can ask her any questions if you want. We got to know eachother pretty good, and she is so great. Here is her number too if you want to call her, I told her you might. It is- 801-943-5655. Give her a call and she can give you more details on what life is like here in Ekat if you´re interested. Love you!