Random Ramblings in Russia (Oct 10)

Hello hello!  another week gone by...ya strange but true!.  its been a crazy good week of contacting and lessons and meetings and conference!  yes we got to watch conference and it was all so great!  i loved the forget me nots one, i loved the teaching by the spirit one, and the book of mormon ones will be super super helpful for us!  its goin g to be so great!  and i love the prophet and all His messages. I love that he teaches us through his stories and experiences. i wrote myself a list of "General Conference Commandments" i got 30!!! haha but its a good thing.   its fun to watch conference here, all the members go into one room and we go into another for english. we all bring food and its just a big huge party! 

we were calling a lady who we wanted to visit an inactive lady and this is how the converstaion went.

Me:well we were just wonderi ng if we could come by and meet you and get to know you.

Babooshka: there are alot of dogs here

Me:  what?

B: there are a lot of dogs that live here

M: well thats not a problem, we wold like to come anyways

B:  (pause)  the little ones bite

M (chuckle) does it hurt?

B: of course it hurts!  

M:  well we aren't scared, im sure its fine

B: (sigh) call back tomorrow!  (hung up!)

:) haha it was so so funny!

saddest but most interesting response i have gotten so far. I went up to a couple and here its normal to ask "are you a believing person"  so i asked them and they looked at me, laughed and said "No, we are alcoholics"  and walked away.  I was shocked into silence!  didn't even know what to say!

Friday was the most interesting miraculous day i have ever had!  seriously!  first we had district meeting which is always awesome, and we had a few meetings that were set up but every single one fell through!  so.....we decided to go CONTACT! haha there were alot of great miracle stories but basically everyone wanted to talk to us!  everyone was interested in listening, they asked questions and they offered to give us their numbers etc etc. it was crazy.

i will tel you a few of them

1. we saw a lady playing with her little girl on the playground who was just so so cute, so i decided to go talk to her.  we talked about families being together, about christ, about Gods plan for us and about prophets. and we just chatted about life and how God can help in the small places and small things. we talked for about 15 minutes and were quite good friends after!  she thanked us for lifting her spirits and her faith and hope.  maybe she won't accept our message or come ever but at least we helped her feel Gods love. 

2. these two men had been walking behind us and watching us contact people. one came up to us and asked us if we were believing. we said yes and started talking with him. his friend was rude kinda but he was nice. we started talking about prophets and the friend (rude one)  asked what his name was i said Thoms Monson and he said "your not mormons are you!?!"  we explained who we were and he said "oh you are mormons!" grabbed his friends and walked away. We continued going on, they stopped at a store and when they came out they saw us again talking to a women.  The nice one came up to us and asked what we had told her, so we started talking to him about the restoration etc and the friend actually knew quite alot about us and was helping us out by telling about "new scripture"  and prophets leading us and stuff. He was being not too nice about it but it got his friend all excited! haha we showed him the book of mormon and he said "i want to read that book!"  and we said he could! his friend got mad and left but he stayed and we read the Book of Mormon promise in moroni and gave it to him.  He gave us his number and put his hand to his heart and thanked us.  

3. we were grin ning from ear to ear when we met a girl and started talking to her about english, she immediately asked if we were believing people and was our best friend right off the baT!  she said she wants to learn english but was also so happy to meet religious girls her age. she says that she believe God led us to meet each other!!  haha we think so too!  she was so great and gave me a great big huge hug before we left!  haha so great!  

4. usually when we stop families with strollers and little kids the moms wave their hands at us and say they dont' have time, or they hide their kids behind them like they are scared we will eat them!  but we stopped two families and they stopped and talked to us!!! we got the kids talking and they all had a great love for God and knew that He loved them.  We talked to them a bunch about how families are imporatnt to God.  it was great

5. to add to all of that we stopped a bunch of people who were excited to come to english and hang out with us there!  it was crazy

all in all it was a great day! which is crazy cause it was all contacting!  but it was awesome!  

we had a great FHE last week with the new senior couple and a mom and her son who is 17. it was incredible!  The senior couples help us out so so much! They can get to the hearts of the people in a way that we can't and they seem to be able to read them and get them to open up!  it was incredible! this kids name is Deema and he wants to learn english, we were surprised to find out that he know alot of english! he translated for his mom the whole night! haha after we asked why he didn't tell us he knew english.  he shrugged and said if we knew we wouldn't work on our russian...haha and we need the practice he said! haha very true very true!

we did service at a ladies house and cleaned windows which is always a treat!  they have the strangest windows and they are so so dirty and they have to be cleaned a certain way! haha but it was fun to get to know her.  She says my name is too hard.  She calls me Lucy.  

we have a young investigator named Nastia who needs some extra prayers. we don't know what is keeping her from coming to chruch. she loves the gospel and she loves all we teach her but there are underlying concerns we can't figure out.

We have alot of sick investigators!  all of them are in the hosipitial! which isn't as scary as it sounds. russians go to the hospitial all the time. its like hobbie. but still.  not so great for learning and progressing.  

the elders found  a girl right outside of the building who we are teaching (haha we stole her)  she is great and already believes in God. she just wants to know if what we have is true. her name is Katia.  

my time is over. I tried to write more stories. hope it was enjoyable. it has been stormy all week except today! but it is getting colder. crazy that it snowed in utah first! funny funny!  

well i love you! thanks for all you do and for the emails and the love and the prayers. hope all is well.. The church is true.  God answers our prayers through thoughts, feelings, scriptures, prophets, and other people.  He knows and loves us.

I love you!

Sister Trottier

Oct 3rd

Hello! this was a really really great week!  first of all our president, pres gibbons and his wife are incredible!  i love them so much! and he is so strong and meant to be here.   he has a new plan for the mission that will change it forever and will get a stake here with in 2 years! no one except missionaries and the general authorities know right now so i can't tell details but i will later! its so awesome!

 

So you know how last week i was telling you how Heavenly Father was able to speak to me through the scriptures? well i think He is trying to show me all the different ways he can talk to me! its incredible!  We have had some awesome miracle contacts on the street that have all come from just listening to the spirit.  sometimes i look back and i realize that it was the spirit and i hadn't realized it at the time but it was! and just thinking about others and wanting to do not what i want to do but what God wants, the spirit comes and i know what to do!  its so great. so i will tell you my best story of the week!  So we were sitting in the metro on the platform waitng for a new investigator to meet us there and there was a cute red head girl in a green coat who reminded me of whitney.  so of course i had to talk to her.  so i did, just asked her about english but then we started talking about why i was here and everything. she is religious and thought it was great that there were other religious young people too. but then her boyfriend came and she left before i could really give her anything or do anything great!  and then our investigator didn't show up so we went to the branch to seeif  she had gone straight there and she didn't so we went to the office to copy some stuff for our english group that night and then we went back on the metro down 4 metro stops and went out to catch a bus to sniggery (its a different city ish..or area i guess)  and our bus pulled up and it was REALLY FULL!!! and we almost got on it and then we saw another bus that would go our way and sis djurich had almost gotten in and i said "wait lets go on that one" and she looked at me strange and i just shrugged and she said ok. and we got to that bus and it was even more full and ithought! great! that was a wrong feeling. and we were being squished for like 10 minutes and i felt this tug on my sleeve and i looked over and it was the girl that i had met!  she pulled me through the crowd- which seriously is like trying to squeeze through a human wall and she  just started talking to me.  we talked about everything! about what she believed about what i belive. her family. my family. her fiancee her dreams waht she liked to do etc etc.  seriously it was way long because we were in traffic and i felt like we were friends after! we exchanged numbers and she said she would like to come do something with us some time. it was crazy because i already felt like we were best friends and i already love her. we hugged when i left even! haha it was crazy!  but ya thats my story!   we are going to invite her to something this week. not sure what yet.  

 

 I forgot to tell you!  the cheese grater is an example of how to find simple pleasure and happiness in every day life!  we were SEARCHING for one and couldn't find it!  it was crazy!  wanted one sooo sooo soo bad! and we just could find it!  and then we saw a random store and walaaaa!! (magical sound) it was there! and it made both of us so so happy!  and then we made zucchini bread! it was good but just not as good as  audrey's....unfortunately.

and our district is focusing on LOVE this week!  and trying to apply it in all aspects of the work and just life in general! its pretty incredible the power that love has and the affect that it has when we use it and apply it. I have been reading up on it and essentially i think (WARNING: doctrine of sister trottier coming up!! don't quote me infront of apostles)  so God is love- we read that in 1 john 4  and He sent His son to earth to save us because he loves us  (john 3: 16) and christ suffered for us because he loves us (ether 12:33- 34) right?  so its all about love.  that love is the same power that made the atonement possible and the possibilty of the salvation of souls. its the same power that brings us back to our heavenly father and allows us to be perfect.  That is an incredible power! if we all had love think of all that we could do and affect. So remember to love people!  love everyone on the street and i the store and especially those close to you.  Feel it in your heart. Tell them you love them. and then show them that you love them!  and then the world with be a better place. if the power of love can bring about the salvation and eternal life of man, what other miracles can it help bring about?  so just remember "all you need is love...da da da da da...all you need is love, love.....love is all you need"!!! :) 

So there is this family that are members. we were talking with the mom and she was talking about their family scripture study.  her kids are not inactive ans she was talking about how she missed their study tother. she said that with all of them together with their brains, experiences thoughts and feelings they were able to dig deep into the scriptures and learn soooo so much!  and now she feels as though she doesnt have that any more. i thought that was interesting and so true.  i think that i failed at that before...but think of all that we can learn and do if we work together!

 

I love you!  i love the savior and i love this work and i love life and russia!  

 

Love Sister Trottier

Sept 26

"its another day in the neighborhood"......for some reason the song from ....Mr Rogers popped into my head as i was trying to decide how to begin this letter because i feel like it has just been one day since i wrote to you and its just like turning the tv on everyday and he sings it every day! haha well life is good here.  stressful and great and hard and miraculous as always!  im telling you its like the ups and downs of the century!   some random experiences first:

~ stayed with the other sisters while my companion was in finland and they have really great bowls and i thought of sami UNTIL!!!!! wait for it, yes the bottoms of the bowls were FLAT!  sami would have died beecause it was a great shape and almost a perfect half sphere until you looked inside and it was FLAT! haha funny.

~i was sittingin my apartment writing audrey and a bird flew into my apartment!   and it was freaking out and flying into the window and i was freaking out and my companion helped rescue it! thankfully it was a cute normal bird not a gross pigeon.

~ will Sami and chelsea send their wedding video links to me by email if you have them? that would be sweet. we are planning a young women temple thing!

i think we experienced the last bit of warmth here. it was really warm this week and now it is really cold! but we took advantage of the warmth and we had a few of our meetings in the park! it was pretty sweet! all of the beautiful changing leaves and the nature just added to the spirit and the greatness of it all!  

i have had a million experiences this week of receiving revelation from the scriptures.  I think that all i am doing is just having experiences over and over that strenghtne every small principle and doctrine that i learn so that when i go home i will be super strong! ....hopefully....  I don't have a whole lot of time, but i will share a few

~I was praying and wondering about who i am what. and what to do etc etc and who i need to help and how and i just sat at my desk and started reading where my scriptures had laid open all night. it was in 1 john 2 and it was so awesome! it felt like He was just speaking to me. it was incredible.  it is a good chapter.  

~Yesterday was a hard day and we were wondering what in the world we were doing! well when i say we i mean I and i was just trying to figure it out all in my head  and thinking of all the baptisms i haven't had haha.....and i prayed and prayed hard and long and then just decided to open my scriptures, which is always a good idea and i read Mosiah 5:15-  all we have to do is be steadfast and immovable and do good works and "He will seal you His".  wouldn't that be great to be sealed as His?  We don't know and we have the help of the almighty all wise powerful God. that is pretty good help. and if we do that.  it will be ok.  So i was trying to thik how i could be all of that in our lesson that night and the revelation just kept coming and it was like it was pouring down on my head!  our metting was going to be with our little anya girl who is ten and not baptized and her family is inactive. we have wanted to give h er a baptisimal date for awhile and we think that she would have siad yes but her mom freaks out everytime we bring it up. but she is the most spiritual girl i ahve ever met. she takes the doctrine of christ and applies it to herself and holds it deep in her heart and contemplates it more than most adults that i know.  and verses and words and phrases and analogies kept coming to my head that i needed to say to her and once during all this i thought i was crazy and another verse came to my head D&C 68:2-6-  don't be afraid do what i tell you. i am putting these words in your head.....haha ok so i kept going and then at the end i was still a little scared. didn't want to freak them out so i prayed againa dn opened D&C 100:4.  haha so i am running out of time now but if you were wondering i did go through with it and the spirit was so so strong and she is so happy andyou should have seen her determination and desire to follow the savior and to tak e the responsibilty and the blessing of taking his name! it was so great! and i am so happy! all the lows are so worth the downs!  so pray for her! and her family!  her name is Anya\

God really does speak to us through the scritpures! He can  and He does!  

well thats all my time! i love you so much!  I hope all is well!

Love sister Trottier

"My little Toyota life is about to become a Lamborghini (Sept 19)

Hello! haha the quote above from the subject line is what my comp said while we were talking about how we can become new through Christ and be reborn :) haha so great!

 

All is great here!  I love you all so much! I’m really sorry because as you know I took too much time reading emails (which is NOT a hint to not write) but I love them so much! if I don’t write all of you back please don't be sad. I will try to write some real letters but I love you! and I love your letters! And yes it is the selfish side of me to ask you to keep writing :) forgive me k!?  THANKS! 

 

As for the branches I am in, there are two. One big one which is in the center of town and one about 45 minutes on bus out of the center. The small one is SUPER small! I walked into the building this week and was setting up chairs and I saw one small (smaller than normal sized) piece of bread on the sacrament table and I thought to myself, why would someone leave that there? strange....and then later in the meeting I realized it was for the sacrament!  DUH! haha but that is how small this branch is. There are 20-30 people there every week and they only need one piece of bread! and they don't use it all! haha ya crazy! 

 

We went real tracting at real houses this week! it was sweet!  I felt like a missionary on the movies! felt pretty cool and talked to quite a few people. they can’t run away that way! haha they do have houses in certain parts of the city. it is what you would imagine Russia as (well I did) with little houses and fences. this was a pretty nice area but normally they are pretty old and dirty.

 

We were just chillin on a bench one day calling some people and my comp said hello to a lady and she stopped and apologized for not remembering who we were, she was really quite flustered and we told her and we hadn't met her before.  she walked away quickly...haha it’s strange to say hello to people you don't now here......

 

We have been the contacting maniacs this week!  it’s been crazy! but I have also been trying to just chat with people. which is hard because Russians don’t just chat, but it has been working and I feel like I am doing more and touching more people’s hearts and spirits. 

 

I love this quote: "The ability to receive and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill we can acquire in this life" so true. It helps us do everything we could ever do and know everything we could ever need to know.

 

I asked a girl last night if she spoke English and she started talking to me excitedly. She was so surprised and asked why in the world I decided to ask her out of all the people in the whole

metro station! I told her it was just a feeling but I was think "IT WAS THE HOLY GHOST! HE TOLD ME TO!!!!" haha it was sweet!!!!!

the EFY song "I cannot be still" has been my inspiration this week! maybe go listen to it! it’s good! 

 

We have an awesome young girl we are working with named Nastia with a lot of dreams for the future! she is 15 and wants to be 30.   There is a babushka we are working with Irina who is practically a member but scared of something we need to discern somehow through the spirit.  we have a girl named Alona who is super cute and she and her boyfriend are the happiest people I have seen in Russia!  they want to know truth!  they want to find people who not only teach their religion but live it! I hope we can show that is what we try to do.  

 

I am really sorry that my emails have been going down in quality....but I love you! and maybe I should try just printing off the emails and writing the whole time....

 

church is true. 

 

Become someone worth being!

 

Love Me

"What is chocolate? it is eternal life"- should we get twickers or snix? (Sept 12)

haha the quote is from when we were planning our FHE lesson and we are having a play of lehis dream etc and the candy is the prize haha but we realized it was super funny....haha maybe you had to be there.

President is changing a bunch of our mission! He is calling our mission to repentance which was probably necessary. Crazy thtat you can call a whole mission to repentance. We are now a by the book Preach my Gospel mission  which is sweet. and we are no longer the Siberian Battallion, we are THE VINEYARD!  from jacob 5. pretty epic huh?  

some random news.  alot of girls when they see pictures of jake say that i have a very beautiful brother :) haha so you are famous here jake so if you cant find anyone at home to like you maybe move to russia!    Haha   we were walking down the street and an old lady called out us to to come over to talk to her, so we happily did of course!  and then she started going at us telling us to not talk to her because she wouldn't listen and she didn't want to talk to us!  she doesn't want to be saved by us germans or italians or americans or whoever we are! so she won't listen so don't even try to talk to her!!! haha we were shocked because she in fact called us over to talk.....haha whatever. 

my companion siad an interesting thing this week. She said that sometimes she feels that our job is to just come here and to spread happy juice all over. but she realized that that isn't our job. We have a sacred calling. Not just as missionaries but as members of the church to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The message that through our Savior and the mercy of our loving Heavenly Father we can live happily and successful on this life, becoming better everyday and we do that through holy scriptures and revelation and words frm prophets who talk to God!  and after this life we can become like them, live with God and our families! how great is our calling!  

well the computer is freaking out telling me i only have like 3 minutes left!  and i din't even tell you enough!  this week i have seen how the gospel changes lives ad how it answers questions of the soul and can change people to be completely different and give hope!  That is how i know this gospel is true!  that it takes people and shows them their potential and also shows us how to reach that potential!   I love this gospel and i love you all so much ! thanks for all you do! and thanks to those that write! and to my siblings- WRITE ME!!!!