email received January 27, 2013

1st Zone conference ever! And it was awesome! 6 elders flew in from Salkhalin island and the Assistants to the President and President and Sister Brinton from Vladivostok. The day before I had my first ever borsche with Sister Brinton since Sis Huber helped her translate to get her hair done:) It was delicious! And I tried pizza with cow tongue on it. Also delicious! In my interview with President my fears were confirmed. He basically told me I would serve with a mini missionary after Sister Huber left...Which is awesome and my Russian will improve a lot obviously. Besides that, I seriously need to learn street names and bus routes. I'm usually like the puppy following. After Sister Huber the next sister has only been out since May or June so he told me that I really need to use this opportunity to progress as much as I can in the language. It was definitely a wake up call to compare my situation to other sisters in the mission. So I'm excited about the next month and a half with her and have rededicated myself to speaking more Russian. 

During Zone Conference President really stressed teaching a lot of lessons each week, which is now a key indicator. So for study, I've done a lot of work going back through the 1st and 2nd lesson and the pamphlets we have and the language material we have, finding what they put in each, etc and figuring out different ways to put the info together. It's been fun. After zone conference we are spending a lot of time with less actives now. President really wants us to get sacrament meeting attendance up and then start working with their families. So we're going to hit it hard this week and see what happens! I'll keep you posted!!

Love you all! Sorry this was kinda random but here's an excerpt from letter to President. Love you!

From letter to Pres: it was Sister Irina's -the lady we came with- first time to church in 5 years! Throughout the day, I had to keep reminding myself of that. It may seem like not that big of a deal to get an inactive to church but 5 years! Sister Huber and I are talking about how we can do this every Sunday, maybe even going on splits with members to hit up more people. Also, the inactive we stopped by yesterday for the first time let us in and then unloaded about how she just quit her job on Friday and she was in a bad mood from it but talking to us helped. And that she would have more time for Book of Mormon and church now! Im so excited to see the branch grow as we get more and more members coming, and their families too! I've rededicated myself to speaking more Russian and using this last bit of time with Sister Huber as effectively as possible. We are excited about the Branch Retention Plan and I know this will make a difference here in Khabarovsk.