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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