2012 January 30

This week Sis Fitzsimmons and I have been trying to get oriented. She was serving with Sis Whiting in Ufa and they both came in to Ekat on Wednesday. Sis Whiting hung out with us until Thursday because she is training again. It was fun to be with both of them. Sis Whiting speaks Russian so well now! She did a phone lesson with our new member N. N was baptized when Sis Whiting was serving in this area. I just love all the Sisters in our mission! Sis Fitzsimmons is really great at everything and I really admire her courage. She speaks Russian very well already. It is a blessing to have the opportunity to serve with her. Her father is American and her Mother is Finnish. She speaks English very well because she has always spoken English to her dad. She has a cute Finnish accent though. It has been a little weird with the change in companions. We now have 4 Sisters in our appartment. We don't have anywhere to put all our clothing. We have been trying to get to bed on time. The other night Sis F and Sis Denning's companion decided to practice contacting together in our appartment. They did their hair up all weird and tried to get Sis D and I to take a BOM. Silly girls. We did some new things this week that I have never done before in all my time in Ekat. It is always fun to do new things. We helped the Relief Society President for our branch by going visiting teaching with her. It was a really good experience to see a branch member support another branch member. I think as missionaries sometimes we think that we need to do everything or nothing will get done (or it won't get done fast enough). In this area I have learned if you have a bit of patience and you really support the members in their efforts to do good then you see changes. And of course you need faith. Lots of faith. We visited a inactive member, Maria, in the hospital with the RS Pres. Maria was very happy to have us come visit. It made me feel sad for all the people who don't get a visit. Sis F and I are in the finding stage of missionary work right now. We gave A and V to Sis Denning and her companion Sis Batalova, and we gave S to the Elders. I think Sis Fitzsimmons is a really good companion for me with this because she is willing to do all the hard things and is always so happy about it. Tanya wasn't able to meet with us this week. A is still set up to get baptized on the 4th. She even had her interview on Sunday (and passed of course) and they anounced it in church. It is so fun that I get to go to her baptism! Sis Zaharova also wants to come from Chelyabinsk. Hopefully it will work out so she can. Love you all!!!!!!

Sis Harrison