Heathers Latest E-mail

Hello family and friends!

 

anyways this week was a good week!  usually i prepare what i am going to write but unfortunately this week i did not.....so it will be even more crazy than usual.  but i will tell you about today.  Today it is raining, in honor of chelseas love of the rain and we ran in it in honor of sami, it did my hair in a side pony tail in honor of chels and it is ratted in honor of whit. i am wearing a t-shirt in honor of mckell and it is nates t-shirt so it is in honor of him too and i am wearing the jeans that everyone owns in america so that is in honor of america, i am wearing unmatching socks in honor of me, we are going skating in honor of brad, aaron and andrew, i have audreys turtle with me in honor of audrey and we talked about biggest loser in honor of kate and in honor of jake...i don't know, i guess i will go do something dorky or somethin ;)  love you!

 

we have been working on contacting this week because we have a goal to have every companionship "talk to ten" every day.  we have done all sorts of role plays and have all sorts of stuff to hand out...its pretty crazy, but we were all pumped about it!  but lets be honest, its still really hard! i feel like all the stuff we have practicied is a waste sometimes because i don't even get anything out until they tell me to go away....the elders keep having the same experience this week and one said, "they don't even know what i want to say!  what if i wanted to give him a million dolloars and he wouldn't even listen!" but then of course since we are missionaries that turned into a spiritual discussion about how what we have is worth way more than that. And yes it sounds cheesy, but it is so true.  I have come to realize here how much the gospel means to me. How the gospel can enrich every part of our lives. before it was like oh ya, gotta read my scriptures real quick and then go do what i really have to do, or on sunday, well gotta go to church and then i can do this and this and this with my friends.  but i have realized that it is everything. that doesn't mean that we have to give up all of the other stuff that we love, it means that all of the other stuff that we love gets better, has more meaning and importance behind it. I just don't go to work and school because thats what you do, i go to school to learn, to recieve knowledge, and to find out more about our earth and the people on it, how it all works.  every aspect of our lives is enriched by the gospel of christ. with it we have meaning and a purpose of being here. and we can have help with the hard stuff that is obviously going to come.

 

anyways...that was a tangent....

 

back to contacting.... it has been hard, but it gets easier as we continue to work hard and be obedient and we have found that at the end of our day the last person we talk to always stops to talk! what a blessing right? i think that is Heavenly Father telling us, way to go girls! keep at it!  we met this one lady and she spoke perfect english and she said " i think you will be surprised to know my son graduated from BYU"....yes we were suprised...but that was it, she says sher knows alot about our church and she is flying out of the country the next day, but we gave her a pamphlet and bore our testimonies

 

So our investigator galina who was supposed to be baptized a couple of weeks ago has been avoiding us....so we decided to "surprise" her at work :)  she was fine seeing us but she was kinda sarcastic (which is strange amoung russians but funny)  and she went off about how there are crazy people at the branch...which she might be right...but everyone is alittle crazy in their own way right?  well we just bore our testimonies, gave her a picture of christ and encouraged her to keep praying and reading. She then went off about how much she loves the Book of Mormon, how she will come back to church after the summer is over and thanking us for how we have changed her life and that we brought meaning to her life and God into her life.   Which is awesome, i am so happy that i could help someone and bring them closer to Heavenly Father but what i really want for her family is to be an eternal family.  But we will keep praying for her.

 

Our inactive family that we have been working with came to church on Sunday!  It was so great!  I love them so much! it is a mom named irina and a son named ilia who is about 6 or 7 i think. They are such an awesome family and they want to work on being able to go to the temple

 

now i wrote down a bunch of stuff to tell you this week...but now i don't remember.....i will try my best. 

 

1st i love the New testament! isn't that great news! I am in corinthians and i feel like Paul is speaking right to me.  i don't remember exactly what i wanted to talk to you about....but i remember loving one chapter and now i forget.....but today i read (some chapter)  about spiritual gifts and working together in the church as one body. I loved that.  We all have our own talents, our own gifts and strengths and we all need to work together in order to bring happiness into our families and bring about the work of God on the earth. Every person is essential and no one is more important than another. In the chapter it talks about how in a body we need feet and hands and a nose and ears and eyes and everything else in order to work correctly and you cant just decide that you don't want a foot or something like that, we all contribute and are all important! but then at the end of the chapter it encourages us to continue to seek NEW gifts and talents, not to just sit back on the one you have, but to gain more!

 

today in the book of mormon i read about how moroni fortified all of the cities against the lamanites ....alma.....49?......and i loved it!  we need to fortify our homes like this. i am thinking about making a diagram of it around our homes and families, like one fortification wall with be love one scripture study, one prayer and FHE and then the ditch around it will represent something too and then after that all the nephites and swords and armour like the armour of God symbolism stuff ya know?  and if you are all fortified and ready and prepared noe one will be lost!  just like the nephites! more than 1,000 lamanites died and NOT ONE nephite died! how incredible is that?! because they were prepared by the hand of the LOrd, in one verse it says the lamanites were astonished becauce they had prepared like no one ever  had before! that is because they were prepared in the LOrds way, not in mans way.  Thats always the best way.

 

anyways i don't have time to respond (or read everyones emails but i will next time ok?!)  I love you all!

 

Love

 

Sister Trottier

 

BUt PS- Tammy Bailie - you can definately attach pictures! i would love that! I love you!

 Heather and her Trainer Sister Sologub

 Heathers Apartment

 Bathroom and Laundry Room?

 A member had to keep the goats inside so they wouldn't freeze

Side note about Finland

In case you aren't aware Heather has to go to Finland every 3 months or so to get a new Visa so she goes with the people that got their visa at the same time which means she gets to see her MTC companion and go to the temple!

May 18th

And now FINLAND! It is practically like Disneyland! It was incredible! All of
the missionaries say that is a magical place but I just didn't understand until
I went there! It’s like...well Europe! The streets are clean, the air is clean,
it’s quiet, but not and people are nice and speak English and smile and have
somewhere to go!  we just walked aimlessly around Helsinki taking pictures etc
and then we took a ferry which was great in and of itself to an island which was
so cute and had fortresses and cannons that we took pictures with (and in) :) 
Finland has the best yogurt ever.  And really good chocolate!  It was me sister
margolies and west and 5 elders who were cool and fun to be with.  We stayed in
the temple housing which was nice and we had a big kitchen to cook and stuff and
we of course went to the temple.  The temple is incredible. I am so grateful
that I get to go every three months on my mission. and yes as you mentioned I
saw Ken Frei's grandparents there :) he had told me that they were going to be
there so I looked for them...wasn't hard to find them seeing as though there are
like 8 temple workers total haha but it was nice to see them they are both very
sweet.  Anyways it was short and quick and most of our time was spent in
airports and on airplanes but it was fun!  We got home and slept the whole day
because we were so dead tired!


So I want to tell you a story about two babushka (grandmas)  we got to church
early to help set up chairs, about 40 minutes early and we saw two of our
faithful women in the branch, they are really really old and walk really really
slow. They were standing at the bottom of the stairs just looking up.  To get to
our chapel you have to climb two sets of stairs to get inside and then climb 3
floors of stairs.  And they were gearing themselves up for it.  One took the
others hand and said "alright, let’s go" and they started their long trek. And
it hadn't started there. They woke up early in the morning, got ready, climbed
down all the stairs from their apartment, walked to the bus stop and then from
the next bus stop to our building.  They came in just minutes before church
started. My heart just ached and rejoiced at the same time for these two women.
All of our trials are different, but this is a hard one! They sacrifice so much
all because they love the lord.   It was a great example tome.

On Tuesday we had a meeting with an inactive family that we are making progress
with and we watched the movie Spiritual Crocodiles! You should watch it! It’s
legit! And anyways the kid is like 7 and he thought it was so COOL!  He didn't
really get the point but the mom did.  He likes to play games and so we played
"down by the banks" they thought it was so funny! And they want me to translate
it for them! I guess that counts as good language study right?


That night there was a fireside with the Temple President from Kiev.  SO MANY
people came included our investigator!  And it was so great! They are Canadian
and he was a Russian professor at BYU-I so he speaks Russian! Oddly enough his
Russian accent sounds Jamaican.....but it was so good and the spirit was so
strong. He used to be the mission president here and a lot of inactives came to
see him. He is so inspired and reminded them of how it felt to feel the spirit,
how it was when they received the gospel and how their ancestors want them to do
their work. I felt like his whole talk was in English!  So if you were wondering
I can completely understand Americans when they speak Russian! That’s a start
right?    He came and talked to all of us as Missionaries after and he said he
felt inspired to tell us that great things will happen in Omsk but that it all
depends on the faith of the missionaries.  He also compared having a good
attitude to having faith and said it was not the same thing. I think that I need
to work on that.  He said that in one mission he was over they went from 150
baptisms a year to 1000 just because of the faith of the missionaries!! Wow!


Today for pday we rented bikes and rode them around park! I forgot how much I
like to ride bikes! And they had sweet track with hills and jumps and stuff! I
went on it...just saying....it was super fun!

I have been reading in Romans and have come to love it. So far Romans 8 is my
favorite. It is all about living by the spirit, praying by the spirit and just
basically being by the spirit and not of the world.  It’s an incredible
chapter!  Today I read a verse I really liked and stood out to me it was Romans
14:12.   "everyone of us shall give account of himself before God".  I don’t
know why but that just really hit me. It didn't say that God is going to tell us
all that we did wrong, but rather we are going to remember all that we did and
didn't do and we are going to have to tell Him what that is.  That to me feels
like he is putting the responsibility more on our shoulders, that what we do and
what we don't do we have to tell Him.  That would be hard to say that you hadn't
given your all, don't you think?


I have been thinking, as I teach people about prayer, faith and hope and
diligence and applying the atonement, sometimes as I am having a hard time as I
feel like I can't do any more or its too hard or I don't know what to do I have
to step back from myself and say, "sister Trottier, what did you teach Sister
Nina today?, or Rosalia?  Or Larissa" and so forth.  It’s funny and sounds dumb
kind of but I realized that I just have to give myself the lessons in my head
that I just taught other people and apply them to me!  Brilliant thought eh?

I’m not gonna lie, the investigator status of all of our investigators is
plummeting. Kinda feel like we are not doing much right now.....Galina won’t
talk to us so that baptism is not going to happen.  I guess now we just have to
hit the streets and find new investigators...which is harder than it sounds
but....we will go and do of course!  I just need to work on the whole following
the spirit about where to be, who to talk to and what inspired questions to
ask.  I have found that as I don't listen to the spirit and don't talk to people
I feel that I should their faces haunt me and I feel guilt! Even this one man
from my first week. it has taught me to never disregard the spirit, even though
it still happens, I saw this family today even....and I should have talked to
them and I didn't, I justified cause we were dirty and sweaty from bike
riding...but that doesn't matter! . I read this section in book my Harold B lee
I think and it says, something to the effect of, if you ask for guidance and
don't follow when the spirit directs you better not ask again.....whoa! I guess
that means repent and gain back his trust eh? President Trejo wrote me and said
"make 6:30-10:30 the Lords time and be on His errand" I am His hands right now. 
What an incredible privilege!  I will try to be better and to live up to my
status and the Lords Missionary.


I love you!

Sister Trottier
P.S. I forgot to tell you about my dream!  I got home and all of our friends
were having a friend high school party reunion and I asked what we were doing
and everyone got kind of quiet and told me that it was only for those that were
married!  And they said I couldn't come. So I was like...uh ok so I was sad and
decided to go to a movie by myself and got there and all of them were there!!
And they looked at me and said uhh...I thought we told you that you had to be
married to come?!!!! haha! It was so funny! Except not! It was sad! So I guess
subconsciously I am worried about not being married and everyone else being
married!  Oh dear! Well all I am saying is that all you getting married still
have to be my friend when I get home! haha!  Thought that I would share that
dream with you...I thought it was funny...

May 11th

Hey!  So i just talked to you.....so i don't have much to say!  haha but i am sure i will be able to fill up all of my time rambling and still say nothing at all and a whole lot all at the same time! it was so great talking to you all. I love you so much!  It probably would have been easier after if we just went to go work, but it was lock down day for the Russian Victory Day so we went to the Senior Couples and watched movies and ate a lot of really good food! they made mexican food and strawberry shortcake and chocolate cake for someones birthday!  whew! it was a lot of really good food. and we watch Invictus and Tangled and How to train your dragon! :) it was fun but a really trunky day...and i felt like we just wasted ALOT of time....but it was fun. Today for pday we went to TGI Fridays and at a big cheeseburger and an oreo shake!!!! it was delicious!

 

I am happy that you got my package!  i was worried that it would never get here! people were telling me horror stories that their packages never got there! and keep eating the peanut butter stuff...it grows on you! or give it to my friends to try....hehe

 

i love you!  the church is true! sorry that my time is up! but.....tomorrow i will go to finland! so i will have cool stories to tell!  I started reading "Our Search for Happiness"  before i go to bed and when i eat breakfast.  its really good!  I will have to tell youa bout it later.  :)  ps. i have been typing so fast today that ihave a blister on my thumb from pushing the space bar...weird.....

 

I love you!

 

Sister Trottier

 

Mothers Day Talked

We got to talk to Heather on mothers day!

I was so great to hear her voice and she sounded so happy and wonderful it was great.

We talked for about an hour and updated her on our lives and asked her a billion questions.

Her Russion sounded great and to our professional ears she was pretty much perfect! She even told us a very excited story about one of her investigators in Russion without alot of pauses or hesitations. (then she translated it into english so we knew what she was so excited about)

At the end she bore her testimony in Russion and made everyone cry and then we had issues hanging up but we did it eventually.

May 4th

Dad asked about what I do day to day.....um.....well we study and since I am
still a greenie we study until from 8 to 12 and then we grab something quick to
eat and head out!  We try to plan our meetings close together because have a
huge area but the perfect goal is to have 5 lessons a day!  But I don't think
anyone does that....we end up having 1-3 a day and maybe four if we are really,
really lucky. It takes at least 20 minutes to get to our appointments but
usually longer, 20 minutes is our absolute closest!  we do a lot of walking but
not a ton we are mostly on buses, or trolley busses or the tramvai....I don't
know how to spell that in English.... so we spend a lot of time on transport. 
We split our time up by strengthening the members, visiting inactives, and
teaching new members and investigators.  We don't set up eating appointments but
we are usually fed 3ish times a week by members or inactives and they like to
give you tea...everyone loves tea.  What else?  It’s getting pretty hot here my
thin white jacket is too warm in the day time.

Random-I was showing pictures to a babushka and she pointed to matt and said
that he looked like the guy on Titanic! haha so congrats matt! You are the new
Leo!!!!! :) hahah! I laughed...

This weekend there were 3 baptisms, a cute little kid named Daniel whose sister
is a member and a members wife and my favorite investigator Dennis!!!  Since I
have gotten here everyone has been talking about how to get Daniel baptized, I
think every set of missionaries has tried to teach him, but his sister was weird
about it and his mom was a litte against it but he just went up to one of the
elders and said "I want you to baptize me" and he is so cute! He is like 10 I
think and I just love him. He always comes up to talk to me. He is just shy and
quiet and after he was baptized he was just grinning from ear to ear!  After he
changed I came up to me and grabbed both my hands between his little ones and I
asked him how he felt and he just put his little hands over his heart and said
very very good. peace. happy.  Well it sound better in Russian but it was
incredible!  Dennis was baptized on Sunday and I guess the water was really
really COLD and as he came out of the water he gasped!  But then he laughed! 
and Nastia had to be baptized like 6 times because they couldn't get her under
all of the way! But we joked that she was cleaner than everyone.

On Monday we had fhe with some members and our investigators Dasha and Baleri
(couple-want to get married) and for the game we played Uno! It was so funny! 
And I was thinking...here we are stressing family night so so much!  We try to
meet with as many families as possible and all the branch presidents are
stressing family home evening and I was thinking that if it is so important here
than it must be important for everyone and for all of you! So my challenge is
for you to do family home evening every week.  We do FHE with just couples and
they encourage families to invite young people or single people to their family
home evening so everyone has a place to go. It is so important. Families are the
most important part of this gospel, and spending time together and talking and
playing and sharing our thoughts about the gospel will strengthen yours. :)

From the mutual theme "we believe" they have three things for you to do every
day that will change you and make you happy.

1. Pray morning and night-
2 read the book of Mormon 5 minutes a day (at least) and
3 smile!  You should all try it!  Works miracles!

Right now I am reading in Acts and Paul is just the greatest isn't he?!  He has
been traveling in Rome and Athens and Corinth and the whole time I am reading I
think "I was there!"  "I saw that!"  It is so legit! The scriptures just come to
life!  He is so incredible! I love how Paul says that he is willing to not only
be taken in bonds but to give up his life for Jesus Christ. He is willing to
give up everything.  He is an awesome missionary and disciple.

Today I also read 4th Nephi. That is a sweet chapter, it starts out that
EVERYONE is righteous!  How great is that? And it outlines all of the blessings
they get because of that- those are the blessings we can receive.  And it ends
with EVERYONE being wicked and how did they fall? And why? It was PRIDE!! 
wheeew! pride is bad....I also read Pres. Bensons talk "Beware of Pride" this
week...maybe I need to work on that.....

Anyways...I love you!  I’m so happy to be here and I Love serving my Heavenly
Father.  And I love helping others some unto Him and to feel of His love. I hope
all is well!  Talk to you soon!  Don't forget to call!!!

Sister Trottier

April 27th Happy Easter!

It was a good Easter week!  The Russians LOVE holidays!   I felt like I had to
keep up our Easter traditions so last P-day we went to the Senior Couples
apartment to dye Easter eggs and I made everyone egg salad sandwiches! It was
really good! :)  It felt just like home...except not... On sunday everyone was
so happy, all of the members and people were happy to talk to us!  They all say
"Jesus Christ was resurrected" to you and then you have to respond "yes its
true, he was resurrected"  but it sounds better in Russian...just sayin.  It was
so happy and great!  All week our spiritual thoughts have been on Easter, and my
new favorite church picture is in the back of the Ensign. It’s of the Tomb, but
it is not like other pictures of the tomb.  Normally they are looking into the
tomb, but this one is looking out!  I LOVE it! It’s incredible, it is our hope
to live again, it is our hope to have new life through Christ.  Just look at the
picture and you will know what I am talking about...I think.


So the remodeling of our bathroom has been a pain this week. Instead of having a
bunch of meetings we have to stay home while the workers destroy our bathroom.
But I took this opportunity to talk to them about their beliefs and families and
about ours :)  They think we are just a little crazy, but i think they like us.
We have also gotten to know our landlady pretty well- she speaks english kinda
and It’s fun to talk to her in runglish. She loves us and is interested in a not
investigator type way of what we believe...but maybe later :)

Yesterday was pretty crazy because our investigator freaked us out when she
started talking about reincarnation!  This is Galina who is getting baptized
next week. But once we explained what we believe, she was a little disappointed
but very very humble and said she would believe this too. She is so amazing and
so excited and ready to be baptized! she said, "can i invite my friends and
family when i get baptized? "  um....YES!  haha  whenever we go to her house she
makes us really good food which is good but they always make us eat EVERYTHING!
if i come home really big, you will know why.....its all the women and
grandmas.... 


Yesterday we were contacted by the Jehovah witnesses :)  it was pretty funny,
actually they were really nice and just said they wanted to say hello and talk
to people who were also teaching of Christ.  They were really nice and wished us
luck with our work. 

Anyway, today isn't a very long email because i had to figure out mothers day
stuff and my brain isn't working today very well :) 

Love you!

Sister Trottier

April 20th

Hello family!  Email is working now!  HOOORA!!


 So now I have to write for two weeks worth of stuff! First of all thank you to
Michelle and Tyler(Aunt and Uncle)!  You are great writers! You both write me more than two of
my siblings (Ahem...)  speaking of - Jake and Audrey it’s about time you write
to me this week ok?  At least 4 sentences each!  Anyways, Michele and Tyler i
love receiving your letters and hearing about what you are doing. I am flattered
that you share my crazy scatter brained letters with your priests i don't know
how much they help but i will do my best to make them worthwhile :) as for
advice?! haha i don't know! study on your own! know the gospel first! love the
gospel and apply it so that you can share with them how much you love it.  
Tyler asked a few questions and it will probably be interesting to everyone
so.... He asked if a lot of the men have drinking problems and that is a YES!
not just men, it is everyone.  They love Vodka.  I now know what it smells
like-it’s like this sweet moldy strange smell but yes it is a HUGE PROBLEM!  At
the stores they have rows and rows of alcohol!  The food is pretty good- i have
tasted a few things that i don't like, for example fat and liver and beet salad
but other than that it is pretty normal. They like mayo.   At every party we
have bread with an inch of mayo and sausage and cucumbers on top. It’s like the
party/fireside/ everything food for Russia!  There is a whole section in grocery
stores for sausage - like ten million different kinds!  I haven't eaten any
cabbage but my comp says that they use it for soup in the winter but it’s warm
now so no soup.  I loved Tyler’s letter! I would like to share with everyone
something that he said,


"May you always remember that you have the privilege, honor and power associated
with representing Christ. He will be with you in all things. Despite the fact
that you have a missionary companion, it is Christ that should be your constant
companion. With Him all things are possible. Draw inseparably close to Him
during this amazing time of life."


I LOVED this and it has given me hope and made me happy these past two weeks!
thanks Ty!

It is now warm! we don't wear coats any more and people get mad at us but it’s
warm!  We don't even wear jackets and the buses are soooo HOT!  They have this
fear of drafts so they won't let us keep the windows open if it’s even a little
windy or cold so it’s like a green house in the buses-----gross. 

Words of Melanie (she said in p.s. that all their snow is gone now)

One day last week we met this man on the street and he just started talking to
us about the church! It was sweet!  He knew all sorts of things and I pretty
much taught him the first lesson on the street and then he asked about hymns and
asked if we would sing one with him.....right on the street-so we did and he
loved it! We have had really good contacts this week and one even turned into
our new investigator. Her name is Dasha and she brought along her boyfriend who
has been searching for religion!  pretty sweet! When you work-Heavenly Father
puts people in your path, it’s amazing.


On Sunday last week this man stopped me- he thought I was Russian)- and gave me
his sons number and told me to call him and he wanted our numbers so his sons
could call us (he has two) and he told us that they would be good husbands and
then he tried to hug me and I was pulling away and he kissed the back of my
head! haha and my companion said i squealed! (how do you spell that?)  so I have
been kissed my Russian grandpa :)  oops!

I seem to pick themes for my work and right now it is from EFY 2007 the song
called "as I am".  It reminds me that Christ accepts us for who we are- we have
a place with Him and he loves us no matter what,  BUT his plan for us is to
continue to get better every day!  If you have the time and means listen to this
song, it is incredible!

Our baptism for Masha was on Saturday!  Yay! Of course I was stressing out but
it ended up going beautifully!  PS no one told me that Maria was getting
baptized! that is something that i should be informed of! I could have written
her or something! But anyways mom- on the same Saturday we both gave talks on
Baptisim!  sweet huh?  and my talk talked about her being a princess of God and
I made her a tiara and everything and we gave her flowers and talked  about how
she is promising to be a princess of God and act like one :)  the adults thought
it was silly but she loved it!


I have to tell you all my feelings about my mission at the moment- I am so
thankful that I am here. I cannot believe that my whole life I did not want to
come. I can’t imagine how my life would have been had I not come.  I have
changed so much and I have only been here for like 5 months. What I thought was
important before is still important- but I now realize what is the most
important! I don't even know how to describe to you what I am feeling but I feel
as though I will be able to say like Elder Holland " my mission meant everything
to me".  I feel like I need to send out a mass apology letter to all those that
I knew in the past! But also in the future because I know I won't be perfect!
haha! But I know because of my mission I will be better!

I have come to have a LOVE for the scriptures. I sit down at my desk- I turn on
my lamp and get my black pen and pink colored pencil out and open my scriptures
- the whole time I feel this....warmth..this hunger..and...this something from
way deep down inside of my soul (it sounds better in Russian) and I just know
that I will learn more today and realize more and come closer to my Savior
today!  I just love it! Ii think "yes it’s time! It’s my time to read!"  and I
feel this power surge into me, it starts way, way deep down inside of me and
fills my whole self!  - now that sounds really silly I know-but I want you know
how I feel :)

As I have read the New Testament,  I have found a great love for Peter!  I love
him! He is so incredible!  His nature is to immediately do whatever he can to
help the Savior, to love Him and to serve him.  A lot of times the Savior had to
say, no Peter, not like that - but Peter was only doing what we thought was
right and immediately when Christ says to change, he does!  He immediately goes
to the Savior.  Right when he knew it was the Savior walking on water he asked
to come to Him.  When he knew it was the Savior on the shore at the end of John
he JUMPED out of the boat and swam to Him!  When Christ was washing their feet
he said he would not let him, but when Christ explained, Peter said "not just my
feet..", Peter cut off that mans ear but Christ healed it. I think you know what
I am talking about! Peter is incredible! I think we can all learn a lot from
him!

I am also reading in Ether and love it!  Today I read about their journey in the
boats! What faith they had!  They got into boats, they couldn't see anything and
just said, alright we trust you. They gave themselves fully to the Lord!  wow!


This week we have an interesting situation, we are getting our bathroom
remodeled or something- not really sure I could understand it all, but there are
Russians running in and out of our house and yelling at each other in Russian
and taking a hammer to our bathroom...and there is a toilet in our living
room..it is all very interesting. We don't have water for who knows how long! 
not sure!  no toilet, no showers, no water to drink-nothing----so  ya.......it
will be an adventure! haha!


Random thought- they have clothes for their dogs-at the store they have a
section for it! There are shoes and raincoats and running outfits and sweaters
and stuff! It’s pretty funny!


Pretty sure this was the most rambly of all my letters and they are all pretty
random...so good luck with that :) and I love you all!  Audrey and Jake -write
me this week ok?  I love you and read the scriptures especially the BOM.  They
are here to bless our lives and to help us. Use them to their full potential! 


I’m out of time of course :)

Love Sister Trottier

April 13th

Hey Mom,

We only have a few minutes to write today. It has been a good hard week of missionary work which is
always great of course! We have a baptism that we are preparing for on Saturday!
woo hoo!!  i can't even believe it! a baptism! who woulda thunk!?  right?  well
anyways i love you and i hope you will hear from me again later this week but
maybe not....but we will try.  I gave a talk in church this week and it is alot
easier here because there are like 40 people and they all know and love me and
say how great i speak russian, but its not really true! haha but they were
listening to the spirit and everyone speaks that language!  I would send you a
copy but its in Russian :)  isn't that so cool?! i think it is.  anywho i love
you! and tell Tyler thanks for the letter and i will respond next time!  Tyler
and michelle are great writers! better than even some of my siblings....ahem
:)  I found out the key to contacting is smiling and bearing testimony- the
smile intrigues them and they wonder why you are so happy and even here everyone
wants to be happy and to smile and then BAM you throw your testimony out there
and they don't know what hit them! its great! 
The church is true. 

Love Sister Trottier