So This Is Christmas.

12/23/13

What the wild what? I cannot believe it's almost Christmas. Where is time going? We are so excited for Christmas here. We are having district meeting on Christmas and on Christmas eve we're going to go Christmas caroling and take treats to all the branch members. It's going to be a party. This last week was really good. I had my first visa trip (our visas here only last 6 months so every 6 months we have to leave the country. We got to Latvia for two hours and then come back to Russia.)  which was so fun to see all of my MTC district. It's crazy we've already been in Russia for six months. It was so fun to hear about everyone's adventures and all they were doing in Russia. When we were going through security when we got to Latvia they had to search my bag because I had scissors in there that I had forgotten about. Awkward. Causing scandals all around the world. Holler. We had a really good day at church. We were asked to teach Relief Society which was nuts because that's like a 45 minute lesson. But we did it. And it was actually a good lesson. In Russian. What the what? Life is so crazy. Anyways, we're happy and healthy and loving life. I hope you all have the best of Christmases! I love you! Love, Cectpa Harris

BAPTISMAL SERVICE.

12/15/13

Oh my lands. Our investigator got baptized on Saturday!!!!! It was so great. I'm still freaking out. So many miracles led to her getting baptized but the service itself was so beautiful and so perfect. We got our picture with her dressed in white standing by the font. I'm getting chills just thinking about it. Another man from our area was also baptized and it was so great. They both bore their testimonies after and said how happy they were and how much joy they felt. Ah. It was so good. Our investigator is so cool because we legitimately met her a month ago and within that month she was taught all the lessons, gained a testimony, and was baptized. That is one crazy, great month. I also have my new greenie straight from the MTC. She's so great. I like her so much. She's from Idaho and we get along really well. I haven't killed her yet so things are going well. I also have my first visa trip this week! That means I've been in Russia for six months. I'm way excited because I'll get to see everyone from my MTC district. Life is so good right now. I love you all! I hope you have the best of weeks. Love, Cectpa Harris

The Craziest Week Of Our LIves.

12/08/13

Oh my goodness. This week couldn't have been more crazy or filled with more news. I don't even know where to begin. Okay, I'll start with Friday. So Friday we had a meeting with this girl that we've been trying to meet with for the last six months. At one point in time she was super interested in the gospel and progressing really well. Then she just dropped off the face of the planet. So we were out of our minds excited when she agreed to meet with us. We chatted with her for about an hour but we were thinking she was not interested in the Gospel too much so we would just do a short spiritual thought and call it good. So we transition and do our short spiritual thought but were blown away when she pretty much pours out her soul and tells us she's been severely depressed. She said she didn't believe that anything good would come from her life and that there was no God because she had no hope. So we decided to call the Elders and see if they could come and give her a blessing. Miraculously, they were super close and got there within three minutes. This girl is an interpreter so she was given a blessing in English. I wrote it down while the Elders were giving it. (Some background information before I tell you how unreal beautiful this blessing was: Her dad died about a year and a half ago and she has really been struggling since then. The last two weeks my companion and I have been praying everyday for angels to guide and protect our investigators.) So in the blessing she was promised a knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. A knowledge that she is a Daughter of God and that there is a purpose for her on this earth. She was told she will live in the Celestial Kingdom with her family. HOW CRAZY IS THAT. Seriously. Mind blown. So cool. And one of my favorite parts was this: "You have come to this earth to meet THESE sister missionaries who are your angels. You have been sent angels on your left and on your right to bear you up." Blown away. Blown away. I have never felt God's love so strongly for someone else before. It was the most spiritual lesson I have ever had. Blown away. Then that night we got transfers calls.... I'm training!!! Crazy, huh? I will be training a sister straight from the MTC. I will also be staying in this area which means by the time I finish training I will have been here for 9 months. Crazy Town, USA. I'm so excited. I love this area and this branch so much. Okay, next item of news.... WE HAVE A BAPTISMAL DATE. Huge miracle. The last month or so we've had a goal to have a group baptismal service  where five people get baptized. Last week we were feeling kind of sad because we didn't think we would be able to contribute to the goal. But yesterday, one of our investigators agreed to be baptized on this Saturday. She's someone who I contacted on the street about a month ago. I remember talking to her and hoping she would come to English Group so we could talk more. And now she's getting baptized. What the crazy what. I'm so excited. Missionary work is the coolest. I'm legitimately blown away by all that is happening right now. Yesterday, I was kind of panicking about training because I don't really know the Russian all that well. One of our branch members came up to me and said that I would be a good trainer and that I didn't have to worry because they would be there to help me. Gah. So good. I've worked so hard to earn the love and trust of these people and I'm just so happy to be here, even if it's snowy and cold. I also fell on the ice this week. Awkward. Very awkward. Anyways, life is pretty great here. I hope you all had a good week! I love you all. Love, Cectpa Harris 

Hey There, Hello

12/01/13

So, Thanksgiving in Russia is probably the coolest thing ever. I loved it. We had a big dinner with all the missionaries in our area at the senior couples' house and we all went around and said what we are grateful for. I love being a missionary. There's no bigger blessing in the world than being able to share this gospel at this time. I'm blown away by how many miracles we are seeing. Our investigators are all progressing and getting testimonies of the book of mormon. They all read everyday. I love it. Anyways, I'm doing so well! I cannot believe it's already December. A year ago I opened my mission call. What the crazy town? Insane. Anyways, I love you all. Have the best of weeks! Love, Cectpa harris 

Only The Coolest Week Ever.

11/24/13

Well, hey there. So this week was so cool. We had a member bring someone to church last week and she is so golden. We've had three lessons with her in the last week. Our second lesson I got to commit her to baptism. We did a soft baptismal commitment and she agreed to be baptized when she knew it was true! Way the coolest. Our other investigator is progressing way good too. She reads the Book of Mormon for 15 minutes everyday. And she comes to Institute and stays for all three hours of church. Holy cow. She's just the goldenest of the goldenest. I'm definitely freaking out. Besides teaching the coolest people in the world, my week was good. We got to do service and I wallpapered for the first time in my life. Russians love wallpaper on an almost unhealthy level. But it was fun to do. Also, we got to wear normal clothes for part of the day so that was the buns. That's about all I have for you! I hope everyone is loving life and things are going way well. I love you all! Love, Cectpa Harris 

Good things.

11/17/13

This week was just as good as last week, if not better! We seriously had such a golden week. Huge things are happening here. And honestly, it's not us at all. Members are starting to get involved in the missionary work here and it's making all the difference. We had another finding activity this week, movie night. Movie night is something I love because when I first got here I prayed so hard to know what to do to find people and strengthen the area. Movie night is what we came up with. So we had movie night this week. 18 investigators came. 6 members. I don't know if that seems big but for here it's huge. And so many miracles came from it. A man I contacted my second week in Russia came and watched the movie with us. I love him so much, he's like my Russian grandpa. He's now going to start taking the lessons with the Elders. A random lady that had received a flyer about our movie night came and brought her daughter. She wants to know more about the church and we'll be meeting with her this week. So many inactive people that we haven't been able to get a hold of came. Three new investigators came to Church the next day because of it. It was so successful. Another one of my favorite things that happened this week is one of our new investigators. She's probably one of the coolest ladies ever. I had really wanted to teach someone that I had contacted on the street. And then this lady came to English Group. Then we had a lesson with her a couple of days later. Then she came to the Movie Night. Then she came to Church. And stayed all three hours. And we had another lesson with her. She's so perfect. And I remember our first conversation on the street, it all started with an invitation to come to English and I think we will be inviting her to be baptized this week. Cool, huh? I'm way excited to be here and to have the opportunity to love these people. I love you all and hope you had the most fantastic week! Love, Cectpa Harris

Chudas.

11/10/13

In Russian the word for miracle is, "chuda." Which basically perfectly describes this week. So at the beginning of this week we were feeling a tad upset because we've been contacting like crazy mad fools, getting so many numbers but not actually meeting with anyone. Our teaching pool had pretty much been drained so we didn't have anything to do but contact. So we hit the streets and contacted and contacted and then contacted some more. We were handing out so many invitations and talking to so many people but then when we would try to call them, nothing would work out. So frustrating. We've set a baptismal goal for this transfer of two people for each companionship in our district. It was actually the coolest thing. Our district leader asked us all to think and pray about how many people we thought could get baptized this transfer. Then at District Meeting we all reported and we had each decided two people. Then we got down on our knees and prayed about our goal and decided for sure that we would each try to bring two people into the branch. So, the fact that we couldn't meet with anyone was making us crazy. Then. Saturday. Saturday was bound to be a crazy day because our zone leaders had a baptism and baptisms are always the craziest and coolest. The person getting baptized was a guy from China so the service was in English. We had some of our Chinese investigators come too and we were able to do a lesson with them right after. Then we met with someone we had contacted earlier in the week. Holy cow. I love her so much. She's the happiest Russian I have ever met. And she has a darling baby and the lesson was so good. Then we had a lesson with one of our members from Africa. She's the coolest and agreed to give out two Book of Mormons at her youth hostile. Then we had a dinner appointment with these people we had met on the street. They're all from Malaysia and probably some of the coolest people you will ever meet. One of them has been looking for a church because his mom was Buddhist and his dad was Christian so he's just been way confused his whole life. And we're like, "We got your back. Everything's about to get real clear." Then, we got a call from an unknown number from someone who had received one of our invitations on the street. And she wanted to meet. That day. And talk about the Church. That never happens. Mind blown. So right after our dinner appointment we had to sprint to meet her. Our lesson with her was so good and she asked all the right questions. And after that our intense International day was over. I've never been so exhausted in my life. Just kidding. That's a lie because my first week in Russia made me want to die from exhaustion but this was a different type of tired. It felt good to be that tired because I knew I had nothing left to give, that I had done my best that day and that we had seen miracles. Seriously, so cool. Our whole district is on fire right now and I know that so many miracles are coming our way. I'm happy and healthy and loving my life. I know this Church is true and I wouldn't trade this experience for the world. I love you all and hope you have the best of weeks! Love, Cectpa Harris 

Solid Week. And lots of layers.

11/3/13

This week has been way good! I got a new companion, I can't tell you her name or any details but this is her last transfer before she goes back to the USA. I think she thinks I'm a little bit crazy which isn't totally inaccurate but we get along. She actually has served in this area before and spent the majority of her mission here. I felt kind of dumb at first because everyone calls her the Queen of this area. But it's actually been way good. I feel like my ability to speak Russian has really increased and I've been trying to talk to everyone. This week was so cold. It was the first week that I wore thermals under my tights. So cold. I do not want the cold weather but I hear the snow is way pretty so I am excited for that. I'm blown away that it is already November. What the heck. Seriously, that's crazy. Anyways, everything is good here in Russia. Just a little bit frozen. We actually went to a funeral this week. It was crazy. Russian funerals are off the heezy. They just have the dead person in their house. There weren't any seats left except ones that were super close to the dead person's face. So we sat there next to the way dead person. Then they asked us to sing so we got to move. Praises be. Haha. It was also a babushka's birthday in our ward. She's 93. That's so old for a Russian. Half of our branch went over to see her and sing to her. It was seriously the coolest thing. The Spirit was so strong because it was really this lady who had brought all of these people together. That's all I have! I love you all. Have the best of weeks! Love, Cectpa Harris 

Halloween and other things

10/28/13

This week our branch had it's annual Halloween Party. It was so fun. I wish I could send you pictures because we had such a good time. There was games and music and food and dancing. My companion and I dressed up as a cat and a mouse, mostly because it was all we could find. Russia doesn't actually celebrate Halloween so this is just something the Missionaries have brought here. Everyone loved it though and it was so fun to see everyone partying it up. We also got a transfers call this week. I'm getting a new companion but staying in the same area. I love my area so I'm stoked about that. I will miss my companion a lot but I've been way lucky to have her for this long! We actually had a way cool miracle this week. We got our first referral from a member! It was a way solid lesson and the member came with us and the lady had so many questions. She's totes getting baptized. Well, I hope so. I think she will. We have so many prospects for baptisms this transfer and I'm excited to see where it all goes. I'm happy and healthy and loving life. Russia is the best. Seriously. I love it so much. I love you all and hope you have the best of weeks! Love, Cectpa Harris

Golden week.

10/21/13

This week was way good! I'm so happy about it. We have four new investigators! Guess what? Three of them are Chinese students studying Russian here. Haha. The irony. They're probably the cutest human beings on the planet. I love them so much. They aren't fluent in Russian or English so we basically do these modge-podge lessons of English and Russian and then have Chinese teaching materials so they can read what we are talking about. But seriously, they're so great. They're so ready for the Gospel. I cannot imagine how it will be when China finally opens for missionary work because these girls are so ready. We also had a way good lesson with someone who got one of our English flyers. She's way receptive and wants to bring her sister to our next meeting. I also got to get visit some of our African inactives. Holy cow. I love the Africans. There are a lot of people from Africa here because it's way cheap to go to school here. It was kind of an International week I guess. So good. It blows my mind how widespread the Gospel really is and how it is legit sweeping the earth. I'm way happy to be a missionary at this time and especially in Russia. I was sitting in church yesterday and was just kind of struck by how cool it was that I am in Russia and how much I really do love these people. It's definitely been a process and there are still ups and downs; but I have really come to love these people. I'm excited to see all these people progress! Hard to believe that this week marks my six month mark on a mission. Only two-thirds left. Crazy town! I love you all and home you have the best of weeks. Love, Cectpa Harris.

General Conference

10/14/13

I got to watch General Conference this week! It was seriously so good. I can't remember a better General Conference. It was exactly what I needed to hear and wanted to hear. The leaders of the Church are unreal. I really loved Elder Dube's talk. And Elder Uchtdorf's and Elder Christofferson and Elder Holland's. They were all so good and I needed to hear all the things that were said. That was definitely the highlight of my week. Besides that I don't really know what else to say! We have had a lot of sunshine this week which has been the best thing ever. We are going to start working more with inactives because that's where our Mission President would like us to focus. I think it will be way good and I'm excited about it. We had a few good meetings this week and life is just marching on. I'm happy and healthy and doing well. I hope you all are too! Love you all so much! Love, Cectpa Harris

Snyeg

9/30/13

Guess what? This morning I woke up to snow! Crazy town. What the heck? Snow. I'm blown away. It's September and it's snowing. So, so crazy. But it's actually a lot warmer than the rain so I'm okay with it. The Russian word for snow is snyeg. I think it's way funny. Anyways, this week was good! We had a lot of meetings with innactives, mostly babushkas. They're so funny. I like them all so much. None of them can see so they have these huge magnifying glasses that make their eyes so big. It cracks me up. We're getting ready for another finding activity and I'm excited! This week will be the last English Group we have for a month and then another one will start. That's pretty much it for me! I'm happy, healthy, and trying to do good. A little frozen too, but this is Russia afterall. I love you all! Have the best of weeks. Love, Cectpa Harris

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Cold cold cold.

9/22/13

This week marks the first week that it has been legitimately cold. Oh my lands. St. George sun definitely didn't prepare me for this. I'm definitely learning how to stay warm: wear a ton of layers and walk really fast. You might say that I'm a little scared for winter considering it's only September and I'm already shivering. Good one, Mother Russia. Anyways, this week was good! We were in a threesome for part of the week and it was actually way fun. It was such a party all the time and we loved it. We had some really good meetings this week and I'm hoping more come of them this week too. What was way cool about this week was how much I felt my language skills get better. Usually someone talks at me and I'm like, ".... oh no. I have no idea what they just said. I hope it wasn't a question. I'll just nod my head and say yes." But this week I felt like I understood so much more and was able to make a coherent reply. Ooh! We also got to see Swan Lake this week. Holy cow. It was so good. I love the ballet. It was so cool to see a Russian ballet in Russia. Anyways, I hope you are all doing so well. I love you and miss you! Love, Cectpa Harris 

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Oh yeah.

9/8/13

Oh, yeah. As part of the new rules of Russia about emailing we are no longer allowed to send any pictures home. So I will have to show you all them when I get home! It'll be such a fun surprise. Haha. I feel like an undercover agent. Have a good week! Love you!

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Miracle time.

9/8/13

I'm way excited to get to tell you about my miracle last week. It's actually kind of bittersweet now but it was still a miracle and the fact that it is bittersweet makes it even more of a learning experience now. So here it goes:

Last week we went on Splits with the Sister Training Leaders-- they're like the zone leaders but in Sister form. The last time we had to go on Splits I hated my life because it was my third day here and I was so tired I thought I was going to throw up. But this time around it was way better. So we spent the whole day visiting some babushkas and then we decided to contact. Now, the thing about the Sister Training Leaders is that they are super intense, way good missionaries. They love Gospel contacting and they do think it's super effective. I'm different. I don't think it's super effective to walk up to someone on the street and be like, "Hey, have you heard about this special book? It's real good." I just don't work that way because I know I wouldn't feel comfortable if someone did that to me. So I like to make friends first, invite them to an activity we are having and then involve the lessons and the Book of Mormon. So, we talked about that all day long because the sister I was with loves contacting with the Book of Mormon. I told her I wanted to find something I was that passionate about and be able to use it on the street. She asked me what I loved most about the Gospel and to use that. I thought about it and the thing I love most about the Gospel is how happy it makes me. Through the Gospel we can be so happy, so full of light even if we just want to punch walls. So I told her that. I told her I loved the Gospel because it was the good news, because it was what made life okay even when the world is against you. So we kept on contacting but it was getting to the end of the day so we started on our way home. We got stopped by some kids our age who spoke English and knew the Elders so we chatted with them for a while. While we were chatting this lady came up to us and was like, "Oh are you speaking English?" I kind of turned so I was just talking to her. I asked if she'd ever seen our tags before and she said, "Yes, I have. And I've always wanted to stop but they were always men and I was too shy. I can't actually believe that I stopped this time." So we just kept chatting about her life, just being friends. Then she said, "You are so full of light. It just shines from your face. You are so cheerful." And then I had the opportunity to talk about the Gospel with her. I told her that it was my church that helped me to be that way. I asked her if she was searching for a church. She said she was and that for the last few years she had felt a lot of darkness and that something was missing from her life. I told her that I had felt those same feelings before, feeling lost and sad, but that's when I decided to turn to Heavenly Father. And that's where I found happiness. She said, "Now it is like you are telling me my thoughts. God wanted us to meet." AHHHH. It was crazy. So good. I felt the Spirit so strongly. I got her name and number and then we went home. It was the craziest experience and it reminded me that every missionary is here for a unique reason. I'm learning so much on my mission and about my purpose here. Yes, I am here to invite others to come to Christ like every other missionary but the how is unique to every missionary. The bittersweet part is that even after that way cool experience we haven't got to meet with her yet. I still have hope that we will but so far nothing else has happened. Anyways, that was my miracle. This week has been good too! Pretty routine, we still have English. We have two new investigators that have come from English. Way cool, huh? We're excited about it. Also, there are some new rules concerning emailing and I'm not positive what they are yet. They're having some issues with the Russian government and they think we are invading Russia's privacy by emailing. So basically my emails in the future will probably be very vague because we're not allowed to really tell anything about Russia. I'll keep you updated! I love you all so much. Have the best of weeks! Love, Cectpa Harris

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Four months.

Hey there! Guess what? I've officially been on a mission for four months. Crazy, huh? I don't even know where the time has gone, it's going by so quick. Anyways, this week was good! We started off the week with Family Home Evening which is held at the Senior Couple's house. I cannot even begin to explain to you how important senior couples are to a mission. They are complete life savers and I am so grateful for them. They make the biggest difference to the young missionaries. Anyways, we had two people from English Group who came to Family Night! It was so great. What wasn't as great is that we played Bingo but it was like Church Bingo so it had like, "Word of Wisdom" and "Resurrection" on it. The girls from English club were like, "....the what? What is this place?" Hahah. It was the awkwardest. But luckily, a girl from the ward, Nastia was here and she is preparing to go on a mission herself so she was able to kind of take over and really explain what we believed. Ward members are so crucial to missionary work. Here, we are really pushing for more member involvement because we just cannot do it alone. So I encourage all of you at home to get as involved with the missionaries as possible. Find people for them to teach, feed them dinner, offer them rides. Being a missionary is such a blessing but it is a challenge too and the ward members can make all the difference. Anyways, we are getting more and more support from the ward which is so great. We even had a ward council meeting which hasn't happened for so long, definitely a step in the right direction. Speaking of church, guess who had to speak in Sacrament meeting yesterday? Yup, this girl. I spoke about friendship, it was actually perfect because I got to talk about all my friends on missions and at home. And how I miss them but I'm excited to make friends with the ward too. I was way nervous because we have a new zone leader and he's actually Russian but speaks fluent English too. I'm always afraid to speak Russian in front of him, but before I spoke he went over my talk with me and helped me fix a few grammatical errors, so it was actually nice to have him there. Now, to my favorite part of the week... English! Haha. We've been working on making a more effective program this week. The one we have is based off of the Novosibirsk mission's program but the thing is they are out in the middle of Siberia where no one speaks English, here so many do. So we've been adapting it to make it more applicable here. That's really what a mission is all about I think, adaptation. Anyways, this week we had the word, "admiration" and so I had everyone go around and say someone or something they admired. One of my favorite people in my class is named Sergei. He's this huge, muscley guy but he's so kind and sweet. When we got to him he said, "I admire, uh, small kittens." Hahahaha. I died. I laughed so hard even though I tried to keep it in. He was completely serious. It was so funny. They also got the words, "incest" and "ancestors" confused. Haha. In other news, we went to the city Bor this week. And guess how we got there? By a chairlift. Cool, huh? It's just across the river from us and there's this way cool chairlift that's faster than a bus so we took it. We love adventure. Anyways, that's pretty much been my week! I'm grateful to be here. I love my mission more everyday. It's definitely different than I thought but it's exactly what I need. Heavenly Father always knows much better than we do. That's a big lesson I'm learning on my mission. I love you all! Have the best of weeks! Love, Cectpa Harris 

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Hi, there.

Hi, everyone! I miss you all dearly. This week went by so fast and a lot of things happened. It's kind of easier to put it into list form so that's what I'm going to do:

 

1. Our hot water turned off. Every summer in Russia they turn off the hot water so they can clean out the pipes because the pipes are 3847 years old and filled with who knows what. Sometimes it's only for a few days, sometimes it's for a week, sometimes it for the whole summer. We have been so lucky because it hasn't been off while we are here. But, alas, we have now experienced the joys of taking freezing showers. Adventure. Luckily, it was just off for four days and we now have hot water again.

 

2. English Group. I cannot sing English Group's praises enough. I love it so much. I love teaching. In my class I like to run it a little bit different because I think learning should be fun. So we play a lot of games. I also like making Russians say semi-ridiculous things because it's so funny. So before class starts I make everyone go around the room and introduce themselves. And then after I make the class pretend we are at an AA meeting and say, "Hi, Sasha." or whatever the name is. Except every time I change it so sometimes it's ,"hi" and sometimes it's "holler" and sometimes it's "howdy." Hahaha. It's so funny. There's also this guy in my class that's a total punk. So I taught them all the word punk and we all call him that. I love it. Oh, also we do a story every week and we say it in English and then a Russian translates that way they're getting more understanding. So I decided to tell my most embarrassing story. Hahah. I don't know why, but I did and told 50 Russians about the time in 6th grade when I had underwear in the hood of my coat. They loved it.

 

3. We had Zone Conference this week so we got to go to Moscow. It was way cool because we got to take a night train. Night trains are legit. It's like the Hogwart's Express. So we left Nizhny at like 10:30 on the train and then got into Moscow at 6:30 in the morning. You could sleep during that time, which we did a little but it's way more fun to stay up and talk to all the missionaries because we're all on the same train. And then we had Zone Conference and were back on another train the next day. It was exhausting but so fun.

 

4. Good news!! We now have the first mission ward leader the branch has ever had. It's way cool because hopefully the ward will start to make more of an effort in helping the missionaries now. Currently, it's way difficult because they rely so much on the missionaries for everything and we just can't be super effective without their support and their own missionary work.

 

5. So I watched a video on LDS.org about what it's like to be a sister missionary. Hahaha. You can watch it. But that's not what it's like being a sister missionary. At least not in a foreign country and especially in Eastern Europe. I was reading Sister Mecham's email from last week and at the end she talks about how her mission president sent them a letter that talks about how their missions are hard and how they might not be their favorite things but that they will become their favorite things when they look back on them. That's way more accurate. I will make no bones about it, this is the hardest thing I have ever done. Without a doubt. People are not always nice. We don't have a lot of people to teach. We are a finding mission. Does that mean I don't want to be here? Not at all. I want to be here. I'm grateful for the opportunity to do something hard, to become better than I am, to grow closer to my Heavenly Father. I am honored to serve these people even though I don't understand them sometimes, in language and in culture. I'm grateful to be a missionary at this time and I know I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be, even when I'm missing all of you so much. I'm learning so much and hopefully becoming so much. The biggest thing I have learned so far on my mission is that Heavenly Father loves us and He wants us to be happy. Men are that they might have joy. And part of that joy comes from knowing we have a Father in Heaven who listens and answers our prayers.

 

I love you! I hope you are having wonderful weeks and that everything is going so good. You're always in my prayers!

 

Love, Cectpa Harris 

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More pictures! There's one with my favorite baby in the branch, Vika, one with the Ecuadorians (they make us feel like we are serving in South America. They're so nice. We love them so much.) The creepy bunker I was talking about, Elder Weinheimer who I went to high school with, my companion, and our branch building.

Sorry, I haven't sent pictures in forever. Here they are! There are some of my apartment, P-Day at the zoo, Nizhniy, and the view from my apartment

This crazy week.

Hi. This week has been crazy! I can't believe I'm already writing home again. It went by so fast. Mainly what I want to talk about is English Group. You will not believe it. So, we have English Group as one of our tools for missionary work. And I'm a huge believer in it because it helps us to get to know people and become friends with them first before we jump into the Gospel. It's missionary work without the words because they see our example and get to have fun with us and then want to know why we are the way we are. It's just the greatest. So it's an 8 week program with a 4 week break so we can advertise and get ready for it. And this week was the first week it started back up again. We have spent so much time contacting and handing out flyers and this week we got to see it all pay off. We had 50 people there. That's huge. I wish I could better explain how huge that is, but that's huge. Moscow usually gets less than that and we are in a city 1/16 of it's size. It's such a big deal. I taught the Intermediate class. It was so fun. I love the classroom setting. I made the Russians play all sorts of crazy games and anytime someone would speak in Russian I would yell, "ENGLISH ONLY ZONE. YOU'LL ONLY GET BETTER IF YOU PRACTICE." Hahaha. They think I'm crazy. But they love it. I get to boss them and I get to speak English. It's a party. And out of the 50 people that were there, there are 19 who said they would like to know more about the Church. AH. It's seriously the coolest. We were so happy. In other news, we had a Book of Mormon Fireside on Saturday. We've been preparing for it for about 6 weeks and it happened on Saturday. It was pretty cool because our Mission President and his wife plus a Russian area 70 came. We had youth speakers and members and video clips all about the Book of Mormon. It was way cool. We also got to take the Mission President's wife around earlier that day and she contacted with us. It was a really cool opportunity because she got to see how ineffective contacting is. That sounds weird but really, gospel contacting isn't effective. And my companion and I have been looking for ways to change missionary work here because whatever we're doing really isn't working. So we've been thinking of all sorts of new ideas and we got to talk the President's wife's ear off all about our new ideas for the mission. It was so good. Hopefully we'll get to talk with them more about it. I've been praying so hard to know why I'm here and how I can help the Mission. And I feel like this is an answer to my prayers. I feel like we have a lot of good ideas that could really be effective and I'm way excited about their potential. That's about it for me this week! We have Zone Conference this week so we'll be going into Moscow. I'm way excited because I'll get to see some of my MTC district! I love you all. I hope you have the best of weeks! Love, Cectpa Harris

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Transfers Week.

This week is transfers week. WHAT THE HECK. I'm done with my first transfer! I will be staying with my same companion in my same area because I'm still in training. I'm stoked about that because I love my area and my companion so much. It's been so rainy this week which is hard because Russians are scared of the rain and then they fig us. But we still met with Tanya and were able to give her a Book of Mormon! We're so excited about it. She's leaving for a trip to Germany for two weeks on Tuesday though so we're just praying way hard that she'll read it while she's gone. On Friday it was Paratroopers day. I looked around all day for people dressed in Star Wars costumes but that's Storm Troopers not Paratroopers. I hope someone laughs at that joke. Anyways, we had to go in early for safety reasons because Russians love to be drunk on holidays. But we're fine and got to work in the area book which was kind of nice. Okay. Miracle time. So I met this man contacting on the street. His name is Victor and he's so nice. Anyways, he said he would come to church and then he didn't. Which is typical. So I just kind of forgot about him. Then we were walking to church yesterday and got a call from a random number. We answered and it was Victor asking where the church building was! VICTOR CAME TO CHURCH. GAHHHHH. We were so excited. Still are. I love it so much. I'm so happy. He came and he sat by me and I was able to give him Book of Mormon and tell him why I was here. It was honestly the biggest miracle and tender mercy. It reminded me that I am so excited to share the gospel and that the work is moving forward here even when it seems kind of slow. The blessing comes after the trial of your faith. That's real. Anyways. All is well in Russia.  I love you all so much. I hope you have the best of weeks. Love, Cectpa Harris

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We're the pioneers.

Hi. I want to clear up some confusion slash tell you more about where I am. I'm in Nizhny Novgorad. There's an upper and lower Nizhny. We're in upper. We call it classy Nizhny because it is super classy and lower Nizhny is super ghetto. We have six missionaries in Upper: us, the district leader, and the zone leaders. I love our district. There's also six missionaries in lower. Also, as far as mail goes: I do get mail and DearElders. I love them with my whole heart. They take at least two weeks to get to me. Most likely longer because I'm in an outer city and we only get mail when people have to go to Moscow and can pick it up for some reason. Anyways. Today I want to tell you about our new investigator! We met her in our pioneer city Dzersheenks. I told you about her last week, Tanya. But we had another lesson with her this week and it was the coolest thing. Seriously. She's so prepared for the gospel. We got together with her and just talked and chatted over a milkshake. She's so cute. She loves life and studying and just being herself. I want her to love the gospel. It's insane because she doesn't drink coffee or black tea. I wish I could adequately describe to you how big of deal this is. Everyone drinks black tea here. Everyone. And it's hard for them to accept that we don't drink it. But she already doesn't drink it! It's a miracle. That's real. Anyways, life is good. I'm loving it here more and more. When I get frustrated I have to remind myself that this is Russia. And that the church here is still a baby. And that someday it will be like South America and be exploding. But right now it's just a baby. These people are the pioneers and we're the pioneers too. And that helps me. I know we are laying the groundwork for something really amazing. Anyways, I love you all! Sorry this isn't the best email. I hope you have the best of weeks. Love, Cectpa Harris

What the heck? How'd the Lamanites get here?

Hi. Guess what? I've been in Russia for a whole month! What the wild nut? Crazy talk. This month has flown by. There's only two weeks left of my first transfer. This week we started English contacting for our English club. I love English contacting. I love it so much because people are so much nicer. They smile and say thank you. It's such a nice break from so many no's. We didn't teach our investigator Olga Red Coat because she figged us. In Russia, people fig all the time. They have a hand sign for figging because people don't show up to things all the time. So we didn't get to have a lesson with her but we hope to this week. We just had lessons with all of the babushkas this week. I love them all so much. They're so sweet and I love talking to them even if they make us do strange things like trim their mustaches and clip their fingernails. This week we got to go be pioneers in this city called Dzerjinx. There's only one set of Elders there and Sisters have never contacted there before. We were the first ones ever! Cool, huh? We were expecting it to be this land of milk and honey and that everyone would just be like, "Yes, of course I want to learn more about your church you darling girls you." Hahahah. Nope. We got off the bus and we tried to talk to someone and they did an x with their fingers. Hahaha. So we were kind of discouraged but we kept on talking to people and trying to share a message about the Book of Mormon. And you know, Heavenly Father is just the coolest. We had been trying to talk to people for like two hours and no one would stop. Then the next person we tried to talk to stopped. Her name is Tanya and she's darling. She's probably 17 or 18. But here's the miracle: She comes to Nizhniy everyday for school. Like what the heck? How cool is that? Dzerjinx is about an hour and a half away from us and we found someone who comes to Nizhniy every single day. Seriously, the biggest miracle. She seems a little skeptical about the Church but she's way interested in English club so that's a good starter. We hope to meet with her this week sometime. So in Nizhniy we have the walking street that I have mentioned before. There are all sorts of street performers and for the last few weeks there have been these Native Americans in full feather costume playing flutes and singing. We were like, "What the heck? How'd the lamanites get here?" But we were walking by them and they came up to us and flashed us their garments and said, "We members!" And they came to Church on Sunday. Apparently they are from Ecuador and they're doing a tour of Russia with their Native Music band. It's the coolest. And we had some other people from Africa at church too. Russia loves to throw everyone together. Anyways, that's my week! I love Russia more and more everyday. I love you all and hope you are doing so well. Have the greatest of weeks!

Love, Cectpa Harris

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Oh boy.

Sometimes it's a really good thing it's P-day. P-days are good for the soul. This week has been crazy. I don't really know where to begin. We started off the week teaching another lady named Olga. Everyone here has the same name. It's either Tatiana or Olga. That's real. Anyways, I'll call this Olga, Olga Red Coat because she always wears the same red coat. So we taught Olga Red Coat. I didn't really know what was going on because she probably spoke in the fastest Russian I've ever heard without breathing for a good 20 minutes. My brain turned to mush. I like her though. She refuses to take a Book of Mormon though because she wants to know it's true before she reads it. That's frustrating because to know it's true you kinda have to read it. But we're going to keep trying and working with her. So that'll be good. She's really sweet. She smiles a lot which is abnormal for a Russian. Besides that and visiting the babushkas we didn't really teach very much this week. We've been working on making new pass along cards for the mission. The ones here are so creepy. They have the weirdest picture of Jesus on them I have ever seen and they look like Icons for the Russian Orthodox Church. Sometimes when babushka's get them they start kissing them and doing the cross thing. Hahahah. We're always like, "No! No! That's not what that is." It's really funny. The new ones my companion made are so much better. They promote Mormon.org a lot which is so good because that's the way that missionary work is headed so we hope to see more success from them. OH. I just remembered. Okay, this is the main story for the week. Hahaha. It's so awkward. Okay, here it goes. So we were talking to a babushka. Her name is Tatiana and she's the branch president's mom. So in Russian when you're saying you want something you have to put the word shtobwe which means, "so that" in the sentence. So in Englsih you're literally saying, "I want so that you love me." Or something to that effect. When you leave out the "so that" it means the sexual kind of wanting. So, I was bearing my testimony about missionary work. And I was saying how sometimes it was really hard because everyone tells us no but that it was okay because I knew God wanted me here. Hahaha. Yeah, you guessed it. I left out the "so that." So I said that God sexually wanted me. Perfect. Oh my gosh. I didn't realize until after we left the lesson but I was mortified. hahaha. Oh my gosh. It was unreal. So there's your awkward story for the week. Anyways, things are going good here. I learn a lot everyday. I'm excited to keep learning. Right now it feels like I will never know Russian and I'll always be an infant dependent on my trainer but I know eventually it will get better. Heavenly Father is always mindful of me and that continues to blow my mind on a daily basis. I love you all so much and hope you have a really good week. Love, Cectpa Harris

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Um. Is that a coffin?

Hey, everyone! This week has been nuts. So much happened because every day here feels like a year and a half. Kinda. Because at the same time it goes by really fast. Like I said, time is so weird. It's still really hot here. I've actually got a really good tan going. I definitely wouldn't have guessed that would happen in the Motherland.  his week was busy. We contacted a lot. We don't go tracting because it's relatively ineffective and it's illegal in Moscow so nobody does it in the outer cities either. I got my first contact this week! It was so cool. We had been trying to talk to people for about an hour. We go on the big walking street I told you about and try to share a message with people. I usually say, "May I ask you a question?" But in Russian obviously. They usually say no. We kind of make it a game to see how many different types of no's we get. Like there's just the normal no, there's the no with a hand wave, there's the we don't need it, there's the you're not allowed to talk to me, and my personal favorite: of course not. I went up to this family and asked them if I could ask them a question and they said of course not. Hahaha. It was great. So that happened and then right after I went up to this girl and she said I could ask her a question! So I asked her if she had heard of the Book of Mormon before. She said she hadn't so I went through the pictures in the front with her and had her read the first paragraph of the introduction. I bore testimony of the truthfulness of the book and that through it she would receive much happiness. Her name is Victoria, she's blonde, and probably around 25. I got her phone number and we'll be calling her this week. Cool, huh? I was so stoked. It was the best. We got a mojito from KFC to celebrate. We're living at the senior couples house right now because our landlord is staying in ours for 10 days. So we spent most of Friday cleaning and packing. On our way out of our apartment building I noticed something out of the corner of my eye because the entrance to the building is super dark. I turned and there was just a coffin sitting in the dank little entrance to our building. A pink, velvet coffin. Hahahaha. What the heck? We had noticed people were acting kind of strange that day and there was a lot more activity than normal. Apparently someone had died and it's customary to leave the body in the coffin and put it by the entrance of where they used to live so people could come by and pay their respects before the burial. Crazy, huh? Cultures can be so different. Like one time we were walking down the street and there was this super cute baby. His mom was like helping him walk and he was toddling down the street. But when he lifted up his arm he had this jungle of armpit hair. Like what the heck? He's like this little man baby. They make them differently here. Haha. Just kidding. But really. Also, the new mission president and his wife came to our area and we had a big meeting. It was cool to hear their vision for the mission and all they want to accomplish. We also had interviews, we each got 15 minutes. During my interview, President said, "I'm not saying this is going to happen but you need to be ready to train by the end of the next two transfers." So basically when I'm done being trained in 10 weeks I need to be able to train someone else. I'm totally down for it besides the fact that I really don't speak Russian. So that could be an adventure. Hahah. I know that if it does happen I will be perfectly fine because Heavenly Father won't leave me hanging. But the task is daunting right now when I can't even understand what ward members are saying to me. However, I know the gift of tongues is real and I know that I am learning the language even I feel super lost sometimes. It's all part of the experience I suppose. We also got to teach this family, the Tomononovs. They're my favorite people in Russia. It's just the mom, Olga (everyone here is named Olga. Or Tatiana. That's real.) and she has three foster kids: Lera (she's 14), Sergei (he's 9), and Maxim (he's four.) I love them so much. Being in their house was so cool because you don't see a lot of families here, or at least a lot that are willing to talk to you so it was so good to see the love in their family and that just like in America they tease each other and have fun and are a family. It was also good to feel that even though a lot of people tell me no, all the day long, that everyone can and will benefit from the gospel. While I was sitting in their apartment all I could think about was how much I wanted all the blessings of the Gospel for this little family. I wanted them to always know how much Heavenly Father loves them and that they can be together forever. I never want them to feel alone because they never are. Now I just need to take those feelings and bottle them up so whenever someone tells me no I can remember what it feels like to teach someone and have them listen.  Anyways. I love you all so much and hope you are doing so well. Have the best week ever! 

Love, Cectpa Harris

P.S I will try to get some pictures to you when I have more time. We're kinda short on time this week. Love you!

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RUSSIA!

Oh my heck. I don't even know where to start. Hi! I'm in Russia. It's probably the craziest thing of my whole life and I want to tell you all about it so I'm going to word vomit this whole thing. I have been in Russia for 7 days. Right now it is 11:06 on July 1. We got here on June 25th around 10:30 in the morning after what was the shortest and longest plane ride of my life. It's weird to think that I was in the MTC a week ago because I feel like I've been in Russia for eons. During the plane ride I had to come to terms with the fact that I will be in Russia, where I don't know anyone, or how to communicate with anyone for 16 months. Hahah. It was crazy. The plane was big but I sat next to two elders from my district in the MTC. We had so much fun talking the whole time and not sleeping at all. (Which we totally regretted later. Sleep is celestial.) So we landed in the Moscow airport, went through customs, and were greeted by the AP's and our Mission President, President Sorenson. We then were taken to the Mission Home for orientation and to get settled in. To be honest, I hardly even remember this day. We had been up for over 24 hours and I felt so tired I was nauseous. I don't even know how that is possible but it is and I thought I was going to throw up all over the table. Ladylike. Good. So we all tried our hardest to stay awake and listen to the President but it was a battle already won by sleep. We had this nice dinner that Sister Sorenson made: beef stroganoff. Hahahah. By this point I was ready to cry because I was so hungry and so tired and beef stroganoff is probably my least favorite food in the whole world. But I pulled it together and ate it anyways and it was actually good. Or maybe I was just starving. I don't know. But finally we got to go to sleep. We slept from 7 that night to 6:30 the next morning and it was the most beautiful sleep I've ever had. Oh my heck. I love sleep. The next day we went to the mission office and learned all about the rules and the logistics of the mission. Then we got to go back to the mission home and eat and sleep. Yay sleep. Okay. Onto the next day. This is the day we went contacting in Red Square! It was nuts. I actually didn't contact in Red Square but we did go and see it and take some pictures. But after that we met our trainers. My trainer is Sister Wright from Colorado. She is the greatest. We are currently serving in Nizhny Novogorad. It's not in Moscow, it's actually about five hours away from Moscow by train. This was probably the most stressful thing so far because we had to haul all my luggage through the Metro in Moscow during rush hour to get to the train station. I wish I could explain the Moscow Metro to you all. It's kind of something you just have to experience. It's super crowded, super busy, and in my tired state it was almost more than I could handle. So by the time we get to the train station I'm looking like a hot mess on the verge of a breakdown. It's super hot here right now. Around 100 degrees plus humidity. But once we got on the train it was better and I got to sleep until we got here. I cannot tell you how much I love Nizhny. It is beautiful here. I don't think Moscow is very pretty. Mostly it's just this big, crowded industrial city. But Nizhny is so beautiful. It's very green and people (people being missionaries) call it the Fairy City. Everyone wants to serve here. We live right near the walking street. The walking street is the best thing to have ever happened to me. It's a mixture of all things European and Main Street at Disneyland. There are stores up and down on each side of the cobblestone street. There are also always people with animals: horses, owls, snakes. And ice cream vendors. It's kind of like the city center so it's just super great. I love it. Nizhny is smaller than Moscow but there is a branch here. It's small, probably around 25 people who actually come. OH. Babushkas (that's not how it's spelled but I only know the Russian spelling.) are so real. Oh my gosh. Babushkas. I cannot explain them to you. They are hunched over, little old ladies, they are unreal. They're like their own species of human. We had our first lesson and it was with a babushka, babushka Inna. She's probably the cutest babushka there is. She looks like she belongs in the movie Up. We had a little spiritual thought with her and you'd be proud, Grandpa. I shared the quote, "The Future Is As Bright As Your Faith." In Russian! Crazy, huh? I even told her about how you would always tell me that and then when I got on my mission I really came to appreciate that quote and what it meant. You're influencing me even when I'm in Russia! On Saturday we got to go help at this Youth Conference in lower Nizhny. It was so fun. We helped cook for 30 Young Single Adults from Moscow and Nizhny. To get to Lower Nizhny we have to ride the Metro but the Metro in Nizhny is far better than in Moscow. Reason number 1: IT SMELLS LIKE PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN. Seriously. It's the greatest thing. I could contact all day in there. Yesterday, I gave my first talk in church. The branch president asked me to speak for 10 minutes. I was like, "Um. Okay. Yeah. Sure. I'll try." 10 minutes is a long time. A super long time. Remember, this is me talking in Russian in front of a Russian branch for 10 minutes. I got up and tried to make jokes but I don't think anyone liked them very much. So then I told about my family and why I decided to go on a mission. And at the end I bore my testimony. It definitely wasn't 10 minutes long. Probably a solid 3-4 though. The whole time before I got up I was praying like a mad man. Praying that Heavenly Father would help me know what to say and how to say it because, hello, this is Russian. And He did. I'm so amazed by the little miracles I see in my life everyday. Russia is good. I wasn't so sure the first few days but I'm really coming to love it. Every night we hear someone playing the saxophone from the walking street. He plays an assortment of jazzy mixes but he legit plays the sexy saxophone song. Look it up on Youtube right now. I fall asleep to that every night. It's basically the greatest thing of my life. I think Heavenly Father knew that I would need to fall in love with Russia fast so that's why he sent me to Nizhny. I love it here. Really and truly. I'm excited to get to know the branch. We have a big list of people we want to meet with this week and get to know. I'm excited to be here. Not all of Nizhny looks like the walking street. Everything else besides the walking street is very Russian. Very old and everything here kind of smells like sweat and cats. Well, that was mostly in Moscow. Here it smells better. The driving here is very... unique. There aren't really rules that anyone follows and I feel like the chance of getting hit by a car is just really likely. Hahah. But they have most everything we have in America here. There's even a McDonald's. We ate there a couple of days ago. Today we're going to go shopping on the walking street in search for genie pants. They're really big here and we want some so bad. Our mission is really cool because we've been the pilot mission for a few years where they've been testing out ipods. So every companionship has an iPod with scriptures, gps, dictionaries, and MUSIC. The music is the best part. I love it so much, we have over 1000 songs that are mission approved and it seriously makes my day. The iPods are great. Our first day one of the AP's said, "I don't know what missionary work would be like without iPods." And it's true. The face of missionary work is changing and I'm stoked I get to be a part of it. Our new mission president got here on Saturday and they are going to be coming around to each area in the next few weeks to meet us all. I'm lucky because I already got to meet them in the MTC. Everyone here is totes jealous so I flaunt it. Anyways, I love you all so much. I hope you are doing well! I've tried to learn more about the mail, so here's what I know: mail is safe to send. It will probably take around 2 weeks to get to me. As far as packages go, don't send anything super valuable unless it's sent discretely. Like some people send small things inside a jar of peanut butter or something like that. Packages take a long time to get here. The office missionaries told me to tell you that if you are going to send a Christmas package, send it by the first of October so it has time to get here by Christmas. Anyways, I'm almost out of time. I love you all to the moon and back and pray for you everyday. Godspeed!

 

Love, Cectpa Harris

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To our dear Sister Harris family,

I just wanted to let you know your daughter arrived safely today in Moscow and we love her already!  What a fine missionary she is.  Thank you for letting us have her for the next 15 months and we will watch over and care for her.  I have attached a picture of her that was taken this afternoon shortly after she arrived.  She will be here in the mission home with us tonight and tomorrow night and on Thursday she will meet her trainer.  My husband has given her one of our very best sisters as her trainer, Sister Wright from Fort Collins, Colorado, and they will serve in our Upper Nizhni Novgorod Branch.  Nizhni Novgorod is about a four hour express train ride northeast of Moscow with about a million people.  We have two branches in Nizhni and both are very strong.

Our P-Days are on Mondays and that is when they can email home, do their laundry, shopping, etc.  Our address for all letters, packages, etc.  is:

        Russia Moscow Mission

        Muravskaya St., Building 1, Floor 3

         Moscow  125310

         Russia

We are excited to have our Sister Harris here in our Russia Moscow Mission.  If you ever have any questions or concerns please feel free to email me.

Love,

Sister Sorenson

The companion! We've been together for over 1000 hours straight. Holy Hannah. You could say we know each other well. Anyways, I love you all! Have a great week.

The first one is of Sister Jennings and me. She's going to Vladivistok but she also has an Elder going to Hungary. So cool. She's probably one of the world's sweetest human beings. I love her. The second is of our district with our favorite teacher, Brother Hale and his girlfriend.

The first one is of Sister Ladd and Sister Nabatnikova. I went to high school and EFY with Sister Ladd and her companion, Sister Nabatinokova is from Moscow! Crazy, huh? She's the cutest. She gave us the name of her branch so that we could make sure to say hi to her family. The second is of me and and elder in my district. We matched so obviously we're going to Preference together. His name is Elder Hepworth and he's from Colorado. We are going to the same mission.

People from home!

Sister Cierra Lesuer   

Elder Mark

Pictures

These ones are from my birthday.

Last Email from the MTC!!!!

I had to use that subject line because about a month ago I walked by a Sister's computer and saw her type that. I remember wishing so badly it was my last week and now it finally is! Praises be. I'm so excited. I love the MTC. Really and truly, I do. It's a great place. But I've been here for 56 days. We're offically the oldest ones here. Oldest being longest ones here. And I'm out of my mind excited to be in the field. This week has flown by (as every week seems to) but a lot of big things have happened too. We got our travel plans!!!! We will be leaving Monday morning at 4:30 am. We go to the Salt Lake Airport and have a direct flight from there to Moscow. Yeah, it is insanity. Apparently there is no scheduled flight that does that so the church arranged it special for us. Which is cool. I do wish we had a layover though because it will be around a 16 hour flight. We leave the Salt Lake Airport at 8:30 am on the 24th and get to Moscow at 9:30 on the 25th. CRAZY TOWN. I'm going to Russia. Wow. Anyways, we also got our new nametags with the Russian spelling of our last names. It looks sweet. Oh, we also got moved to the new Russian Branch that was created. There are now three Russian Branches at the MTC. We have 110 new Russians coming in tomorrow, the majority of which will go to our branch. Included will be the first ever all sisters branch. Crazy, right? I would not want to deal with that much estrogen. Haha. Also, my companion and I are now the Sister Training Leaders. Which is kind of the female counterpart to the Zone Leaders. We will take the new sisters on a tour and conduct interviews with the senior sister companions in our branch. We're leaving in 6 days so it won't be for very long but we're excited to be able to help out.

 

In other news, I got to go on a field trip yesterday. It was so great. I had to go to the dentist and so we go to leave the MTC for the first time in 55 days. I had totally forgotten the outside world even existed. It was so good to see that life goes on outside the MTC and there's more to the world than skirts and nametags. It made me excited all over again to go to Russia and start talking to people even though I probably won't be able to understand them and they probably won't be able to understand me. It'll be a party. Things inside the MTC are alive and well. I feel like since the age change the normality of sister missionaries have leveled out but no worries, there are still some very... unique Sisters here. I don't know if this is an appropriate story but I'll tell it anyways. Cool. One night I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth and two Sisters come in. They go into stalls next to each other and start talking. Not that weird... yet. So I'm finishing washing my face and I hear one of the sisters start to coach the other sister on going to the bathroom. She's like, "You can do it!!! Keep trying! You've got this!" And then the other sister replies and she's like, "Oh my gosh, thank you. I don't know if I can. Nothing is happening. I just don't know." And I was honestly so confused. I was just like, who are these people? It continued for like the next 5 minutes. I couldn't even get a grip because it was unreal that had just happened. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for companionship unity but I legitmately treasure the time I have in the bathroom by myself. Is that weird? I hope so. Maybe it's just our hall. We have a room right next to the Hermanas (the sisters going to Spanish speaking countries) and for some reason they like to have a fiesta right before we go to sleep. I have no idea what they do in there or why but all I know is they have a good time doing it. It continues to be a Snow Canyon High School reunion in here which is super cool, I love seeing familiar faces.

 

We have so much to do before we leave! They want us all packed before Thursday. Thursday we have in-field training all day long and then Saturday we get to meet our mission presidents. And Sunday we get to sing for the Prophet! We are all so excited. It's going to be a really cool broadcast. The Choir alone will be 2200 people, 1300 missionaries and 900 members from throughout Utah Valley. We have another devotional tonight at the Marriot Center as well. Basically, I'm going to Russia so soon and it's the coolest thing of my life. A week from today I will be in Moscow. Probably asleep. So that will be nice. I plan to spend the majority of the flight sleeping because that's become a foreign concept to me these days. Everyday it becomes more and more clear to me that Heavenly Father is very mindful of every one of us. We got to go to the temple today for the last time for probably our whole missions. I love the Temple. And it hit me again why I'm going on mission today while we were there. The Gospel is all about families, all about love, all about the opportunity to be with the people we love forever. And that is possible through the Temple. I'm so grateful for the Temple and for the blessing it has been in my life and I know that I want other people to experience the joy the Temple brings. I want them to see their family in the Celestial Room and have that feeling of, "Yeah, this is what heaven will be like." And that's why I'm going on a mission. That's what keeps me going even when I'm so tired I don't know left from right, (who am I kidding, I don't know left from right on a good day), when I have no idea what English is being spoken to me, let alone Russian. That's what makes me excited to be a missionary and to spend this time serving my Heavenly Father and my Savior. I love you all so much it hurts. I hope you are doing so, so, so well. Have a wonderful week! The next time I talk to you I'll officially be in Russia!

 

Love, Cectpa Harris

 

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