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...