So i heard that it is mothers day next week HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! haha we found out that we can use the computer at the church building to skype. sorry for the late notice and we can't plan for when i will talk with you but we decided that we would go there Monday morning and call. so i will have a turn at about 9 or 9:30 and if i am counting right that is Sunday night for you at like 8 or 8:30. i know that's kinda late for sami and matt, but it would be cool if they were there :) i don't know how the whole skype thing works but i am sure that i will figure it out.

dad- hey old man :) haha Just kidding.  its a small world huh? Addy french got married!?!  i had no idea!  to that same kid that came to lake powell with us or something like that?  what part of Russian is Alicia going to?

well- sorry i took a long time reading all of your emails :) we found a library to do Internet and it is so quiet and clean and great haha i am just enjoying it and relaxing. its been a good week. its all going by so so fast.

no i am going to paste whati wrote to president and also add some stuff to it.

Its a good week we did well at planning this week and we had all our meetings set up for the whole week almost!  its amazing what a good planning session does! no stress! and we were able to focus on the needs of the people, not just on who we were going to find to meet with.

Our goal as a companionship right now is learning how to better teach together with the Holy Ghost. We have been studying how the Holy Ghost works and trying to learn how to teach the same way, and get out of the way so He can do the actual teaching.

We had a meeting with one of the people that came to the church Open house. Her name is Olga. We met with her at a members house and it was an incredible meeting. The spirit was so strong and we were all just able to discuss how the blessings of the restored gospel are able to bless our individual lives. She described her feelings that the presence of God was so strong that it was tangible. We left that meeting just floating on air. She has a small problem with her mother who is very very against all other religion other than Russian Orthodox but i think that it will all turn out ok. we are praying and planning on going over to do service at her house to soften her heart.

my companion after the meeting asked me where all the perfect Russian came from during the lesson haha.  i have found when i step aside let the spirit speak my Russian is way better too, not only the quality of the lesson. The Spirit is so cool.

We also met with a woman whose husband is a counselor in the branch presidency. Her name is Larissa. She is an incredibly sweet woman. She has been coming to church for quite awhile and loves the Book of Mormon.  She is just a little nervous about the responsibility that being a member has.  But it also was a great meeting led by the spirit. We talked of prayer and i found myself spouting off answers and passages i didn't know. She is so great, you know she already shares the gospel. and at work she said that they used to buy alcohol for everyones birthdays and stuff to celebrate and she asked them why they were wasting their money and they now buy fruit to eat on holidays! haha she is trying to not drink coffee so she says that she just sometimes stands next the machine and smells it and that is enough haha. she was so cute she asked us kinda timidly if it was bad if she marked her scriptures and wrote in them!  of course not!  we were thrilled!

we went to a village this week to meet wtih our new young converts. holy cow- remember last time that i said they had a mean dog? well now they have 3 mean dogs!  and i am talking MEAN they were trying to eat us. seriously! have never been more scared in my whole entire life. the girls came out to hold the dogs back, but they dogs were doing all they could to get free and to attack. one even got my companions coat. oh goodness.

had some great meetings with active and inactive members. its great to visit them and to serve them. Emma is a cute babooshka who always feeds us and takes care of us. the members here are so great. they have become my family.

Saturday all our plans fell through!  but don't worry "the gospels still true" so we had a bunch of time to contact and i will tell you a story. So, i decided it was warm enough to not wear boots-wrong! so we took buses where we were planning instead of walking and you know what? it meant that we were in the right place at the exact right time. it was incredible. i just stopped this young guy (which normally isn't who we go looking to contact- usually turns out not great) and we ended up teaching a lesson right there on the street. it was so cool. He was a great guy  who just "found God" not long ago.  you never know who is ready to hear the gospel. and then we jumped of our bus and i saw a lady with a stroller who was not the way we were planning on going but i grabbed my comps coat and pulled her over.  This lady was so excited to talk to us and already knew who we were and where our church was. her and her husband had been planning to come for awhile now. seriously. i was blown away how happy she was to talk to us. it was like she was a member or something. i was blown away. They are going out of town until June, but hopefully my comp will baptize their whole family! :)

lately we have been meting all sorts of people who know who we are. who have been to our church before or have friends or relatives that are members. Craziest ever. its never been this often before but its like everyone knows who we are. its nice. they already know we are normal and not trying to eat them or something. which i really don't get when people are scared of us....we are pretty normal looking girls.

The book of mormon is the book of answers. we always ask ourselves questions and also try to find answers to the questions we have and as we are studying together we will be reading and one of us will say, "hey that's our answer"  its incredible.  Read it.

Anyways. I have found a new scripture. don't know if i told you about it last week, but it is Alma 7:23-24. its a great scripture with of the characteristics that i am working towards haha that i am far from reaching.  I am taking the verse apart word by word and trying to discern what each one really means. I studied the word "submissive" today.  I have come up with synonyms i think that match what it means- malleable, willing, adaptable, humble, obedient, responsive, ability to yield, ability to take correction and chastisement, go with the flow, easy to get along with...i didn't bring my notes but those were just a few. 

welp- my time is about out so i gotta go, but i love you all very much! and i will talk to you next week hopefully! 

The church is true. The Book of mormon answers all questions.

Sister Trottier

we are spending alot of time trying to get referrals from members and inactives and also through our own finding! we need new investigators!  but no worries