Lipestk and all could be the Kardashians.

3/09/14

Hi there! For the first time in my mission I am not writing home from the senior couple's house in Nizhny. Crazy town up in here. Lipetsk is a good place though and I'm sure I will love it a lot. The branch is great and there are so many Armenians. So many. My last days in Nizhny were perfect. I got to visit with members and see so many huge miracles. One of them being that we ran into the girl that got the blessing that said we were her angels! Do you remember me talking about her? Well, we've been trying to meet with her for the last three months and she hasn't answered her phone. Punk. But we ran into her! One and a half million people in Nizhny Novgorod and we ran into her. Huge miracle. She said she still reads her blessing. And that it does help her but she had felt like she was slipping back into the same depression. And then she ran into us. I promised her that if she would meet with the missionaries there that she would find happiness and she said she was willing to try it. And then we met with her again before I left. SO GOOD.  Lipetsk is fine. I do like it here. It's definitely not Nizhny and that's rocking my world a little bit. But the branch is way cool and I like Sister Hardcastle a lot. She likes you a lot because you rocked her like a baby and gave her chocolate. Your legend lives on! My last days in Nizhny were perfect. So much fun and so many happy things. I had the greatest district there. Such good elders. I am their number one fan because they handle all my crazy so well. I got a blessing before leaving from one of the elders. It helped me so much. I was blessed to know why I was being sent to Lipetsk and that Heavenly Father was proud of the work I had done in Nizhn.  One of the best parts of the last days in Nizhny was buying a night gown that matches my favorite babuska. Did it. Sending a picture. I love that lady a whole lot. Also, my last night in Nizhny was so perfect. We climbed on top of the roof of the building by the branch and set off a lantern with our district. REAL LOVE I LOVE MY DISTRICT SO MUCH.  Also, I got way bad blisters this week. And embarrased my whole district by hobbling around like a cerebral palsy friend. Keepin' it real in Russia Town. Holler. I'm doing great and I got the greatest news from Nizhny yesterday. The family we've been teaching, remember them? The dad is getting baptized at the end of this month. He legit said, "I've found my religion." SO COOL. I talked to him on the phone yesterday and he said that he was so excited and that this was the most important thing to him. I'm just the happiest girl in the whole world. I love being a missionary. I have never loved anything more. I was reading a talk yesterday about James E. Faust. He once gave a seven-minue sermon that I really like, " Remember who you are and act accordingly." Doesn't get much better than that. And I'm grateful for reminders like that. We are all children of God. We are members of the true church. I am a missionary, a representative of Jesus Christ. If we all remember those things and then act accordingly, think of the impact we could have. Way cool. I love you all! Have the greatest of weeks. Love, Sister Harris

The week the world got rocked.

3/02/14

News. I have news. This week we got transfers calls. And for the first time in my whole mission I will be getting transferred. Crazy, huh? We all pretty much saw it coming because I've been in the same city for 9 months. I will be going to Lipetsk! It's exciting and sad all at the same time. I've never known anywhere except for Nizhny and I know this city like the back of my hand. I had to speak in Church and give a going away testimony. It was pretty much like another farewell. I cried the whole time. But it was kind of cool because a lot of people in the ward did too. It's nice to know that you're loved back. And it was cool to see how far my language has come. I couldn't speak a word of Russian when I got here and now I'm by no means perfect but I can communicate with people and have real conversations. Gift from God without a doubt. We had another miracle meeting with our family last night. They're so cool. The dad legit asked, "What does a person have to do to join your church?" He's definitely going to get baptized. He wants to read the Book of Mormon all the way through first. He's such a good guy. I love you all and hope you have the best of weeks! Love, Sister Harris

Stars in a dark sky.

2/23/14

Hi there hello. I'm running short on time this week but I wanted to tell a story of something that happened to us this week. We were at a lady's house yesterday and we did a spiritual thought on love. She replied by saying there was no love in the world. That people were fake and that she didn't believe in love. That was so sad to hear. So sad. Because it was so far from the truth. It was way cool that we were there because we hadn't planned on going there, we just dropped by last minute. And Sister Southworth and I were able to testify that we knew that wasn't the case. That Heavenly Father loved her. That we loved her. And that even if she didn't believe that, it was true. And that we prayed for her every week. The Spirit was there. We talked about our lives and it was cool to see how experiences in our lives could relate to this woman. At the end she said, "You are stars in dark sky." I think that's so cool. Because Heavenly Father sends us stars in our dark skies. Because we are not alone. Because there is love on this earth. In John 4:7 it says, "God is love." I know that's true. .I love you all! Have the best of weeks. Love, Sister Harris 

Puddles everywhere.

2/16/14

Spring has sprung and it's the greatest! It's also very wet and dangerous because snow is falling from all the buildings. Sister Southworth and I have developed a paranoia about it. This week was great. Valentines Day was such a fun day and we had zone conference this week too in Moscow. To celebrate Valentines we had lessons and ate way too much candy. Perfect day. Yesterday, we taught Primary. It was so fun. I love the Russian babies so much. And for some reason they all know every word to High on the Mountaintop. Hahah. Strange land. We are still working with our family which is so cool. The dad has already started the Book of Mormon and called us to tell us how much he likes it. Miracles up in here. Life is so good. I'm excited for this week because we just get to stay in our area and be normal and meet with all of our people. We're hearing a lot about the Olympics but haven't actually seen any of them. Everyone's impressed by America though so keep it up! Love you all. Love, Cectpa Harris

Yes. I look this good. On a daily basis.

Also, this happened while we were in Moscow. Who knew Stallin and Lenin were so photogenic? 

This is the hat the branch president and his wife gave me. Yes. I look like a bear. Rocking it. Holler at the Motherland.

Off the heezy.

2/09/14

Where to even begin. This week has legitimately been the longest week of my entire life. We started the week off strong by having to go to Moscow for some surprise interviews. So, our train left at 7:10 and the station is about 25-30 minutes away. We decided to take a taxi because we thought that would be fastest. BAD IDEA. Traffic. Forgot about the traffic. So, we leave at 6 and then before we know it, it's already 6:40 and we're still a good 30 minutes away. I lost it. Our taxi driver was so nice and he just kept saying that we didn't need to go to Moscow and that we could just stay here. He kept telling us to tell him a story. Then I suffered a mental break and started panic yelling about how we have to make this train and that we have to go to the metro because that will be fastest. He just laughed the whole time but finally took us to the metro. We walked into the metro doors and by walked I mean ran at 6:45. Then waited 8 minutes for the metro. And made our train. OH MY LANDS. I am still blown away. Serious miracle. So our district was in Moscow the next day and then we were all on a train heading back when we got a text that said, "Hello, English Group and the Police arrived. Checked everybody. :(" Yes. That happened. It was a crazy stressful beginning to the week. But everything is okay now. We were talking to President on the phone and he said that when good things start to happen that Satan gets all riled up, so the opposition our area is seeing is just a sign that good things are happening. Which was true. We had the most miraculous weekend ever. We had so many wonderful meetings and it all culminated yesterday when we had THE COOLEST LESSON EVER. We taught whole family yesterday. A whole family. We met the dad because he was one of our taxi drives. God uses your talents. I love taxis and am scared of the winter, therefore we meet with a lot of taxi drivers. But we taught him and his whole family yesterday. Our branch president and his wife were on the lesson with us. We found answers to their questions in the Book of Mormon. The dad legitimately said, "I found answers here tonight and we will meet again and I will find more answers." The feeling of meeting with a whole family is the coolest in the whole world. So much happiness and so much light. We met at the senior couple's house and they said that it was the first time a family had been taught there in the whole mission. The dad just called us actually and said he's started reading the Book of Mormon already and he loves it. MIRACLES UP IN HERE. Off the heezy. It's all off the heezy.  I love you all. Have the best of weeks! Love, Cectpa Harris

Sister Missionaries, we got this.

2/02/14

Where to even begin. This week was off the heezy. Real life. It was crazy. I'll start with English Group. So we had this idea to do a situation for English Group, like a scenario. The theme was humanitarianism so we decided to reenact a plane crash. Best idea we've ever had. So fun. We had the room set up in rows and I was a stewardess and one of the Elders was the Pilot. Our flight was headed to Tahiti but we crashed on an island and had to all work together using our English skills to help the wounded and put the plane back together. We taught them phrases like, "Is that blood?" And "Help me!" It was great. We said they had been stranded for a few days on the island so they were hungry and needed to find a food source. One of the guys there offered to let us eat his leg that had been amputated. Generous, very generous. Also, President Borders was here this weekend for Branch Conference. Being the sisters we were put in charge of making food for them right after they got here. Basically, Sister Southworth and I made food for 12 people including the Mission President and his wife and our Branch President and all the missionaries. Sister Missionaries. We've got this in the bag. We made biscuits and gravy and banana bread and had stuff for yogurt parfaits too. Oh. Something way cool. So, I've been in Nizhny now for 7 months. It's been the coolest thing of my whole life because I've really grown to love these people and learn about their lives. It's also cool because they've seen how far I've come. On Sunday I translated for President and a member in an interview. It wasn't anything super deep or hard but I was able to translate from English to Russian and from Russian to English. Just little Sister Harris. WHAT THE HECK. So many levels of crazy. I love Russia. I'm just so happy to be here always and happy to be a missionary. The Sister Training Leaders were here this week and they did a spiritual thought about showing your faith. The first missionaries of the church would go into an area and build the creek outside the city to create a font before they would go into the city to teach people. They had the faith to know that they would need to use it. Then they would go into the city and find people to teach and then come back to the font and baptize them. The moral of the story is sometimes you need to get your feet wet, show some faith before the miracles will come. So, Sister Southworth and I have taken that as our motto. Dam the Creek. Fill the Font! Find the miracles. I'm loving life. I hope you're all doing so well! Love, Cectpa Harris

Frozen adventures.

1/27/14

I'm running short on time this week but I'm doing well! I'm happy and healthy and just a little bit frozen. I love you all! Have the best of weeks. Love, Cectpa Harris

-22

1/19/14

I spoke too soon. This week was cold. Legitimately so cold. I would tell all the Russians that it was cold and then they would say, "It's normal, it's not cold. What will you say when it's -30?" I always reply that I will cry when it's that cold. But with the super cold came the sun which we are always so happy to see. We also had a lot of lessons this week so we weren't outside too much which was a miracle. Also, this week I think I got us food poisoned. I'm not sure how it happened. It was touch and go there for a day for we're doing good now. Probably the greatest part of our week was our lessons with our new investigator! She's only the coolest human to walk the planet. She's a dress designer for models and she loves us. Seriously, we're such good friends and I'm not sure why. But it's great because we get to meet with her all the time and she came to church yesterday. Yesterday was probably one of my favoritest days. Transfers are happening but I'm still staying here. Phew. I asked President to change my mission call to the Nizhny Novgorod Mission. I don't think he was amused. But there are a couple of Elders leaving so they bore their testimonies and then there was also a missionary farewell for a girl in our branch that is going to St. Petersburg on her mission. And the entire babushka squad came to Church which just doesn't happen because they're so old. The elders had to carry one of them into the building. It was probably one of the cutest things of the whole world. I just stood at the back of the church building and looked at our branch. Looked at the members, the investigators, the recent converts, everyone that was there. And I was overwhelmed by how much I love these people. They are miracles. Every single one of them and I cannot accurately describe how much I love them. I think my favorite part of a mission is getting to feel how much Heavenly Father loves people and being able to help them feel His love. Miracles. I cannot think of a greater gift I have been given. I love you all. I hope you have the best of weeks. Love, Cectpa Harris