Me and my companion have been staying at the senior couple’s house for the last couple nights and will for 2 more because her husband had to go on an adventure so we were asked to be her companion! It is so so much fun! It’s like a sleep over at grandmas every night! It’s been great! I love them so so much!
Funny story of the week has to do with choir practice! Haha oh man the Russians cannot sing! (A few can of course but the most part...no) but they LOVE to sing! and the choir director, who isn't really the choir director but who just thought that sister Webb wasn't being hard enough on them and took over is so funny! This young guy who can sing actually but he wants our choir to be the Tabernacle Choir. We stayed for an hour and a half and then left to work some more but we heard that he kept them for 2 hours and 15 minutes!!! Longest practice ever and if he hears anyone off pitch he makes them sing by themselves! It’s bad and he turns to the first row of sopranos which is all babushka and asks them to sing there beginning note, he played a middle C and they just all belted out some random really super high squeaky note! haha all of them hitting different ones, so he tried to get them to get together for like 10 minutes and gave up! I think you had to be there but it is just a great culture experience!!
We had zone conference and President Laurence from the seventy came. It was an incredible meeting! He taught us all about being successful missionaries, how to exercise faith and how he believes the best way to do a first lesson. A lot of it, the teaching stuff, seriously went against all I had thought I learned in the MTC and we were super excited to try it out! He said that he thinks the first lesson should be more of a 15 minute presentation so we can get our first message out there and they can feel the spirit. And if you think about it that’s how it is in the BOM. Do you see all the missionaries having long discussions and bible bashing?....well sometimes...but not usually. and it was great! We had a first meeting on Sunday and it was a HUGE difference and the spirit was so strong! That actually was our miracle this week. Her name is Olga and she was nervous at first but her friend has been bringing her to activities and we just chatted each time with her to make sure she knew it was nothing scary. And as we gave our "presentation" she made helpful comments and asked clarification questions (which is great) but mostly listened and soaked it in, and she LOVED it!!! It was so great. And she was feeling the Spirit and asked what it was that she was feeling and she said that she felt that all we told her she felt that it was true! She is still a little nervous but she prayed and it was great! Along that line we had miracle Sunday where THREE members brought friends for us to teach to church! That NEVER happens! It was incredible!
Back to the conference....Pres. Lawrence gave us 6 principle of how to apply faith 1. Choose righteous goals and desires. 2 be believing 3. Plead your case to the Lord 4. Commit yourself fully to accomplishing your goal 5. Expect trials and obstacles 6. Expect the Lord to come through. Great principles huh? When he talked about the 4th one I thought about Audrey because he said that we could "negotiate with the lord” and I remembered how Audrey would make deals in her prayers haha remember that? I remember one time she told Him she would read her scriptures everyday if He took away her acne :) and you know it normally worked for her!! haha I thought it was funny! He thinks we can do that! Show Him what we are willing to do. Give Him something to show we are serious about it. Sacrifice something. His wife talked about The House of Israel. I wish that I could tell you all about it but I don’t' have time, but I wish I could because I t has changed the whole way that I read the scriptures! Seriously! It all makes more sense now! A little part of it you can find in the Bible dictionary under "election” go read it. Very interesting. From a story that President did I decided to make a list of "Dos" and "Don'ts” and requests and exercise my faith by following the principles he gave. Goals are great aren't they?
I had my English group tell me all about traditions for Christmas here, but I am guessing that you could probably find more information by looking it up on the internet. :) But here is the thing...Christmas isn't really the big holiday, New Years is the big Holiday! So New years of course is celebrated on Dec 31 through Jan 1st and it is a HUGE party! They have New Year trees, not Christmas trees! They have lights and ornaments and presents etc etc. They do have a Christmas but it is celebrated on January 7th. It’s a holiday but kind of just the after math of the New Year. And then on January 15th I think they have "New Old Year" where they say good bye to the old year. Santa is named Grandpa Frost ...in Russian дедушка мороз. dead-ooo-shh-ka more-rose. And he has a granddaughter named Little Snowflake, sneg-ooo-roach-ka. And she does all the work pretty much. I asked how he got to all the houses and stuff and they had no idea. They think our sleigh with reindeer and going down the chimney is weird. And He comes on the New Year!! Just to make that clear! Grandpa Frost comes on the New Year!!! And the night of New Year’s everyone goes out and celebrates on the street and your neighbors that you ignore all year round you hug and kiss and congratulate! Everyone is happy and smiling! (and drunk probably....don't put that on the video :)) they eat ALOT of mandarins! Which is huge and a salad that they call "Winter Salad" that includes: pea’s carrots boiled eggs sausage mayo and cucumbers. They make lots of jello and just eat a lot. Just like us. Everyone dresses up too! You wear costumes to all the parties! More like traditional Russian costumes and a lot of families do some sort of play with the Grandpa and granddaughter and it is done around the table somehow...kind of like how we act out the Nativity. There is a tradition to all hold hands around the Christmas tree and sing traditional songs. Oh and to get a present the kids have to sing a song or recite a memorized poem. I think that’s all I got... hope that all makes sense :)
Hey mom thanks for all the advice last time. I read it after email and I loved it. Interesting enough president gave me the same kind of advice which I thought was interesting. It’s great how people can help you and each tell you what you need to hear when they are a world away from each other.
I love you all. Thanks for all that you do and thanks for the emails. I love you! and I know this church is true. I love what I do here. It’s great. and I love the people I get to be with and get to know and love.
I love you!
Sister Trottier.
I promise to try to send pictures soon. It’s just kind of hard to know how and the best way! Sorry!
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