June 1st

Hey family!  And friends of course! Thanks for all of the emails! You are all very awesome! 

 

I feel like it has been a couple of weeks since I have written because so much has happened! But at the same time I don't really know what to write. Every week someone mentions someone that my letters get sent to and it makes me a little nervous...I feel like I have to think more about my letters and try to make them sound good...but I don't have time for that so I guess you will all just have to deal with it :) 

 

We have found a few more investigators!!! Which is definitely positive!  As we work people just fall into our laps! It’s such a blessing from Heavenly Father.  It’s hard when our investigators seem to be progressing slowly because I just want them to know the truth as I do and to feel the Spirit as I do!  Yesterday we taught Andre about the temple and the spirit was so strong there. We had Elder and Sister Maughn there and it is good to have their perspective. They worked in the temple for 10 years before their mission and André speaks some English so he can connect with them.  And we talked about how his family that has died have had the opportunity to learn about the gospel also and he thought it was an incredible idea that we can learn and progress after this life as well.  He said "well that gives you a lot of peace and hope for this life doesn't it?" and we were just like "YES!  Exactly!!! Isn't it great!?!"  He is awesome!  

 

This weekend was Zone Conference, so President Trejo, His wife and the APs come and we spend two days in training and conferences but it is so incredible.  As they talk (especially President) it confirms again to me that we (everyone) is really called of God for their callings. He knows just what to say and he knows how to help us, strengthen us, inspire us and teach us.  It is incredible.   He said that the most important chapter in all of scripture is 2 Nephi 31. The whole chapter is about the doctrine of Christ. This is what we should be teaching EVERYONE!  member, inactives and investigators alike.  WE went through and read it together and talked about each verse.  If you read it pay attention to who is speaking. Here the Father and the Son both speak. That is so powerful!

It’s hard to put into a paragraph what we learned but....we learned a lot. And always we have an activity where they teach us something about contacting and they send us out to the streets to contact!  It’s good but always a little bit nerve racking.......but it is good.   Contacting is probably one of my biggest challenges, first of all it’s scary to just stop someone on the street to try to talk to them, and second, what do you say? What do you say after you say the first thing? What if you can't understand them?  haha anyways we have been trying to get better and we practice all of the time. I have been asking other missionaries what the key its, and all of them say, the key is FAITH!  It seems as though that is the key to everything doesn't it?   Also to have confidence.  And I say this to all of you too!  Have confidence that the knowledge you have of the gospel is what other people need to hear!  Because it is! It can change eternity for them.

President Trejo is going home soon and there is this tradition that you do when you leave the mission and that is that president cuts your tie (yes even the sisters) so we got ties and cut them and took pictures and you give them to him and write your name and the date that you will get sealed!  haha I thought that was a little presumptuous ( I can't spell....I would blame it on Russian but I couldn't spell before either....)  but it was funny anyways

 

There were a few things that I wanted to tell you last week that I forgot and a few more just interesting things about Russia and us here :) hope that ok...

 

Baboooshki (grandmas) here have this weird thing about dying their hair...they do it all of the time and they do it by their selves so a lot of them have BRIGHT red hair, or pink or purple or just bleached. I’m sure it’s bad for their hair but....none the less they do it.  And it’s pretty common haha

 

Some of you keep asking if it’s cold and no... It’s warm. I just wear short sleeves right now! super nice, except its hot on the buses and the sun is up until like 11 at night and up at like 3...it sounds like its colder there than it is here...that’s funny right?

 

So every summer they turn off the hot water for like 2 weeks at a time in different parts of the city to fix stuff so we only have FREEZING COLD WATER!!!  So we are not going to take ice showers so....we heat up water and fill up pots and pans and our sink with hot water :) haha its funny. And I was wondering, we have these things we call Chai-nicks and they are like electric tea pots and we heat up water in them and it takes like 2 minutes to boil! It’s brilliant! Do we have those in America?

 

Laundry- we have a washing machine but no dryer so we have this strange looking clothes dryer rack and dry our clothes on it. It’s not bad but our clothes are pretty crispy :) yum

 

I received a real life letter this week! It was from Ben Coles! I was very surprised! But it was a good surprise!  I will give this job to WHITNEY JENSEN! to pass this on to him ok?  Love you whit!  Ben-thanks for the letter! I am glad to hear about your mission and that it went well and you are home and happy.  Thank you so much for writing! I will try to write a real letter but I can't promise anything..... :) thank you for the stories of your conversion. They actually came at good times for me and have encouraged me to do what you have done, especially with the language. So thank you very much!  You are awesome!

 

....Well that’s all...I love you all so much!  And I love the gospel!  My verses of the week are in Alma...don't remember what verses or chapter now...well the verses are 36 to the end...but it is talking about the Liahona.  And how the word of God is our Liahona today. I love those verses. So go on a scripture chase and find them, read them and apply them! 

 

I love you!

 

Sister Trottier