Hello Family!

its time to write again! i can't believe it!  it has been ten hundred days and one!  haha and i have alot of things to say again, but this time i sorta made an outline so hopefully that helps:)  it feels  like i don't have just one emotional roller coaster ride a day but about 14 of them! but i think that is a good and bad thing i guess.   How is everyone?  moms calling going ok? how was your first funeral?  Sami's surgery?  audrey said she loves her job! (thought she had died by the way) and jake?  padre?  Whit said that you all went dress shopping...that was kinda a punch in the gut but so exciting! you better have taken pictures! and also send a picture of her hand too da?  You asked who was going to novosibirsk and that is me, sister west, holmes, clark and an elder that im not sure about his name...i will find out! and everyone i have talked about is learning russian. There are two whole zones learning Russian so that is cool!

random facts of the day: I found out yesterday that you know the book war and peace?  it was supposed to be called War and the world but was translated incorrectly.  It is supposed to be record breaking cold in Russia this year and i get there in the coldest time! haha YAY!  (said like Jessa)   BTW how is kate? haven't heard from her

 

everyday i wrote down something i wanted to tell you...here it goes

 

Wed- Personal study is my favorite part of the MTC, when i get stressed or overwhelmed i just pull out whatever i am working on and it makes me happy :) so that is positive.  We had our first TRC appointment that night, we had to meet someone, testify of christ and set up and set up and appointment with three people all in RUSSIAN. and then teach a lesson in english.  This wed.  we are doing it again and have to talk to them about their families and ours and pray with them and do all of the other stuff like last time in russian.  can i do it? haha not very well but it is coming.  I think the hardest part about everything is that i know what i k now is true and i know that i want to be able to share it with people but i do not know how to convery it very well....make sense?

today 9 native russians came to the MTC. it is alot of fun having them here. we always corner them and blurt out every bit of Russian we know, ask them all sorts of questions and aske them how to say things.  They are very patient and nice and always laugh at us.  They know lady gagas songs way more than i do haha.

 

thursday- we started out with service in the morning and they assign you to a building to clean.  oddly enough it is the best part of the day! that day was the shortest ever it felt like and it was so awesome to be able to do mindless work that helped people out.  that day we played basketball with the natives and it was so funny! they are good sports. Sister West and i at about seven at night every day we get alittle slap happy haha! we are so tired, overwhelmed and sick of being in the same room that all we can do is laugh and joke haha it depends on the day whether the elders like us or not....

 

I thought i would tell you about the cafeteria.  OUr first day we got bombarded by russian missionaries and told where to sit. I guess we are stuck up or something cause we all sit in this one corner off to the left by the pillars.  They call it the IRON CURTAIN. haha very clever.  we only eat salad, wraps, soup, fries, and all the bad stuff.  like cookies and icecream etc....opps.  

friday-  we have alot of teaching experiences in class, our teachers go into character and we have progressive investigators throught them. its pretty hard to tell you the truth, i guess you never realized how hard it is to relate to people what we believe with out going into too much detail but also helping them to understand.  The thing that i have heard THE MOST since coming here is TEACH TO THE INVESTIGATORS NEEDS. thats what it is all about. don't just teach lessons and check it off.  It hink that is an incredible way to teach and way more effective. we show the Saviors love for them through us by listening and helping them see how we can help them with the gospel of christ.its  harder because you must always go by the spirit but also incredible when you achieve it ( so i have heard)

 

We go every morning (besides tues and sun) and work out early.  we do the aerobic classes, or run and evern run stairs sometimes. Yesterday sister West and i ran outside around the campus and it was so incredibly beautiful to be outside! i loved it!  i think we are going to continue to do that.  

 

sat-  all the russian speakers have a tradition that we sing a hymn in russian before we go to bed out side. it is beautiful and echoes through out the whole mtc campus. right now we are singing christmas hymns which makes it even better.   and i can almost sing the songs with out mistakes...almost :)  

 

sun- we went to music and the spoken word which was awesome and for relief society we meet with all of the sisters in the MTC.  Elder Christofferesens wife came and talked to us about Mary and Jesus.   That night the Mens Chorus from BYU came for the devotional.  it was beautiful and i got all excited cause i thought isaac would be there and then i remembered that is the wrong choir...oh well.

last week sacrament meeting was very overwhelming beecause they do everything in Russian. it wasn't as bad this time because we could sing the songs and pick out a few things that they were saying.  what is nerve racking is that we all have to prepare 4 min talks and they randomly choose who has to give them right on the spot. our first four are in english but then we have to do it in russian!

 

mon.-  Bro Mccleary (teacher) always has lots of fun games for us to play in class that get us exctied and moving. we played the name game with Russian phrases and trashketball and baseball etc.

 

tues-  we went to the temple again this morning, one of the native elders went through for the first time and it was amazing being able to be there.  All the natives get to go to SLC on friday and see the lights and go to a session. THey are all very excited.  what a wonderful experience for them!.

 

PHEW!  that was alot of typing! hope you got all that and it was ok :)  I forgot to tell you, sister west is from mesa arizona I think you asked :)  

 

I am so happy to be here although it is hard everyday i am working on being the best missionary i can be, or there would be no reason for me to be here.  I am so thankful for this gospel.  I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and it has become even more apparent as i have NEEDED His help every moment of ever day.  I have met so many great people here and i hope to be able to learn from all of them.  My new scripture theme is Alma 26:12. i have been trying to learn it in russian haha we shall see how that works out.  Thank you for all the letters! they make me happy and i love to hear about what you all are doing at home!  I know i am doing what i am supposed to be and i am so happy to be doing it! 

 

Love Sister Trottier

 

sorry its all jumbled and crazy!

Pictures Pictures Pictures!!!

Us doing English contacting (Sami side note....I like the "us"....I don't remember the names sorry)

A church in Finland. Sister Margolies, Sister Trottier, Sister Sanford

In Finland

This sign says "Chocolate Square" We found a factory while contacting...we could smell it hahaha, we followed the smell

A cute very active American Family with an American Apartment! Crazy.

More Pictures!

Me with my favorite food! A roll with stew in it kinda....ish...haha

.....Heather left out this caption so I don't know who they are but it is pretty funny

Pumpkins!!!

In Finland

Me and our grumpy great babushka Ellya

Pictures!

Marina and I

Eating Icecream with reeses

Me and Dima, he is funny, he tried on my coat so I tried on his

Making Thanksgiving

Elder and Sister Webb, New Favorite People

Thanksgiving Dinner

Nov 28th

Hey, so I sent a bunch of pictures that I liked.  haha hope you like them.  they are funny.    For information, the coldest it got this week was -17 degrees Celsius.  There is this huge board with numbers on it on one of the buildings and it is super funny because it has the date, the time and humidity and wind thing and one more number and we couldn't figure out what it was for so we asked someone and they said it was to judge radiation!  haha how quickly we are dying I guess! haha only in Russia right?  well maybe it’s in America too and I just didn't know about it, but I thought it was funny! 

Thanksgiving was great great great!  ate a lot a lot of food and just had a grand old time at the presidents!  all the sisters and the senior couples were running around like crazy trying to get the dinner ready as the elders played games and chilled haha. I made grandmas appetizer and everyone loved it!  but we had to use fresh grape fruit which was good actually. and sprite not ginger ale.   we did a puzzle and talked and ate pie and watch Tangled haha yes again haha think it is a favorite here in our mission and also we watched holiday inn!

so I’m a bit distracted so the letter stinks this week. . .But we had a miracle Sunday with two people from English who just showed up!  they loved it! named Marina and Tim. She just kept nodding her head and making comments all of relief society which was about "it's better to look up" conference talk.

it’s all about the little miracles I have decided!  the little things build up to make huge miracles!  That’s how Heavenly Father works, line upon line until we are changed 100%.   

I read a talk by President Monson which was really good called "Treasures of Eternity" it was in the April 2008 ensign.  he says to know how to get right treasures we 

     1. learn from the past

     2 prepare for the future

     3 and live in the present.

it was a great talk!

that’s all my time! I love you!

Love sister Trottier

Hey family!  Thanks for the emails and everything! You guys are awesome!  And HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!  We are going to be going to the Presidents like I said and having a big feast. I am making grandmas appetizer.  I found canned cherries and pineapple but no grape fruit so I am going to have to just cut up some fresh kinds I think haha I hope that will work.  I don't think they have ginger ale either so I will just have to use sprite or something I think. This has been a great crazy week with a lot of things going on! 

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!

Nov 14

hey fam family!  

 

How ya all doing?  hope your doing good!  It’s started to get cold here! haha the coldest this week was -13 Celsius (how in the world do you spell that?)  haha oh well!  Not important, but the other days have been like -3 or -5 or -8. But seriously the coldest is when it is windy!  wooooeeeee that wind bites!  We have wiped out our long very unattractive coats that make you look about 30 pounds heavier! :) But keep you a lot warmer and also its like sitting on a pillow!  It’s funny.  Some people wear the coats that are that long, but not most. But seriously walking outside and in the metro it’s like a wave of fur when people walk by!  its sad kinda.....but interesting.   

 

You all asked what I did for my birthday....haha I did missionary work! haha surprise surprise!  haha but we made sure to do something special everyday! just something small!   

Mon- hung out with the elders at the branch and ate cake stuff

Tues- bought pink nail polish and painted my nails pink. and opened my bday package from you all!! Thanks so much!

Wed- one of the members took us to a small cafe for a quite lunch. The Webbs gave us chocolate and a member gave me a Russian fairy tale book

Thurs. we ate snickers ice-cream

Fri- district meeting with yummy cake. Had a new investigator meeting.

Sat- one of our almost investigators taught us how to make earrings! I made candy cane ones :)

 

So that was my week- well only the non missionary stuff.   Now on Wednesday it was super duper cold! But since it was a special day we knew something special would happen.  we stopped by the office to talk to the webbs and Elder and sister Webb are my new favorite people and elder Webb said to us that he felt that he should tell us that we would find someone to teach today.  He said if we talked to EVERYONE a lot of people would say no but someone would say yes.  We were very very very very obedient in the talking ten people. It was incredible! What a little motivation can do, when someone believes in you?  Interestingly enough we found 2 people that wanted to meet!!! and set up two new investigator meetings!  One with a lady named Angelina who works in the metro and one with a babushka whom we happened to talk to. and plus that day we found 2 inactive members that no one had seen or heard form in a long time who were so happy to see us! It’s nice when people are happy to see you, you know!?  We were so excited and we called elder Webb that night! haha he was so happy and crying haha. I guess he got really nervous for promising us that so he had been praying really really hard all day long that he had followed the spirit in telling us that. 

 

It was interesting, that next morning as I was thinking about this experience we had I had a very interesting thought.  Heavenly Father gives us experiences in live I think so that we can better understand Him, how He feels and our relationship with Him. I have come to love Sister and Elder Webb so so much and elder Webb has become like father figure for me and sister djurich in Russia. I think that Heavenly Father was trying to show me how our relationship needs to be.  He promises me that if I do His work, if I open my mouth and do all He says, I will have success.  He loves us even more than any father figure we have ever had on earth. and we can go to him and "call" Him and tell Him how it went and all that happened and He will be so happy!  anyways. That kinda sounds lame as I am writing it, but it was a very profound thought and realization in my mind for me. 

 

Yesterday we were in the Metro and my heart started pounding really hard. That usually means that the spirit it trying to tell me something really really important so I was looking around trying to determine what that was and I saw a family that I had noticed earlier. It was a big family for Russia- a mom, dad 2 teenagers and a toddler.  They looked so happy and I thought, alright I will go talk to them (even though they were awkwardly all the way across the metro) and I just opened my mouth and out came "You have such a beautiful big happy family!" haha that’s not the normal thing that would come out haha but they responded well to it. I told them we were missionaries etc and the dad told us they were Muslim.  The son I think was about to start an argument, but the dad did something so great!  It was the greatest example to me.  He looked at me and said how wonderful that it was that we both strongly believed in one loving God.  It was incredible.  We are here to help people of course to add to the truths that they already know. But this man was a huge example to me.  We were able to just talk about their family, our families, (America of course) and just what is important to us.  We got in the metro and our conversation kind of stopped, but I think that the spirit was pricking the dads’ heart because he turned to me and asked for our number so we could come visit them.  How great would it be if we could all in the whole world be this way.  Share the truths that we know and help each other grow through loving conversations. It was great. 

 

Met a new babushka like I said, her name is Lucy (kinda) we met her and set a meeting up with her for the next day. It was a great great lesson! Loved it so much!  We were just able to discuss the gospel.  How she views certain principles and how we can add to that and make it more clear for example, how we become clean and worthy through atonement so we can be worthy to live with God. What her daughter (who died) is doing and how she can return to see her again someday.  It was incredible.  Although she thought it very strange we wouldn't drink her black tea "it’s only mildly black!"  She says haha funny funny.  

 

It is beautiful and frozen here! And it has just begun so I have heard! haha the ground sparkles and the air sparkles with all the beautiful white snow!  I like to find all of the ice patches and slide on them! It’s so much fun!  And gets us laughing!  And ps I have only fallen once, for those of you who are counting :)  

 

I love you all so much. I learn every day, not a new principle or doctrine, but a new way to apply it to me, to my life and who I am.  I think that is why the gospel is so great and incredible. We can and should learn every day. The gospel is so simple. We can learn all we need to from primary songs but it is so simple and so deep and so personal that we can be uplifted by it daily.  We just have to apply it to ourselves. It’s incredible. Found a new song I love, it’s called, My Soul Hungered. And it’s about this. It’s about finding out in your heart for yourself what you already knew in your mind. I would suggest you find it and listen to it!

 

I love you!

 

Sister Trottier

 ps. thanks for the great cookie mix! But one problem...there are no instructions! haha what do I have to add?  

Hey from Heather (Nov 7)

Hello all! Thanks for all the birthday wishes! You guys are the best! I really had no time to read all the emails so I will print them out! But thanks! I love you all! 

 

This week began (starting on last Tues) cold!!!  It snowed for 4 days straight and began to be the Siberia that everyone thinks of. and then we woke up two days ago and there was no snow.  It was weird. It was even warm yesterday (6 degrees Celsius) but today it’s cold again!  Supposedly really cold but I haven't seen a sign today.    Today I bought myself some 400 den nylons and am planning on buying myself some kind of present. haha maybe a really sister missionary sweater or something :)  haha so original right?

 

AUDREY AND SAMI!!!!!    den rash den ya teb ya den rash den ya teb ya!  den rash den ya den rash den ya.....den rash den ya tebya!!!! haha well that is kinda how it goes!  Make sure to say the "sh"'s  as the s in vision  ok?  And sing it to the birthday song!  See if you can figure it out!  Then look it up on YouTube or something :)  I hope you do something way super fun and blow out candles and make good wishes!

 

Me and sister djurich had a dance party during planning to take out our stress. It was very very funny.  :) It was to really old efy music that sounded like the back street boys. It was really sweet.

 

We decorated our Christmas tree this week. Ya we have a mini one! It’s pretty sweet. and we put lights on it and put little tinsel stuff all over. We are planning on making snowflakes as well :)

If you didn't get the other email, I need to know how to make Grandma Kendall’s appetizer if there is no like fruit salad cans.  Will you let me know what I need to do?  President invited us over to their house for thanksgiving and we all get to bring a traditional dish from our families.

 

We had a conference from president Uchtdorf, and elder oaks and Clayton and Sister Thompson just for this side of the world. And added a district conference the day before. It was a great weekend!  It’s so incredible and great for the members for the apostles to be speaking just to them.  

 

We have been meeting with a lot of inactive members this week.  Our goal is just to love them and to help them to feel the love of the Savior. As we have focused just on that they feel that love. Our goal isn't to guilt them into coming back or doing the things that they know is right. They already know that. We just want them to feel loved and we have had a lot of great great meetings with the spirit and a lot of great responses.   We met with an artist yesterday whose house is probably the coolest in Novosibirsk!  She has paintings all over hung up and everything its pretty cool. It’s so funny when people think that we can’t take care of ourselves and get ourselves around. She insisted on walking us to the bus stop and practically lifting us onto the bus and waving until we were gone haha!   We were wondering how she thought we got there without her :) she is very sweet! And she gave us about half of her kitchen. They think we starve I think.

 

Well that’s about the time I have.  I love you so much!  I love the savior and my chance to serve Him.  I have recently read  D & C 109. I wrote down a bunch of verses that I wanted to share with you but I forgot the paper. But it’s all about the blessings and promises that we may receive if we go to the temple worthily and continue faithfully.  You should read it :) they are great promises.  

 

I have also been studying a lot about courage.  Very interesting what we need courage in.  

 

I love you!

Sister Trottier 

Chocolate is an intense experience (Oct 31)

just so you know, its cold now!  ok its not that cold, but the cold has begun!!! and the snow has begun! and it will continue! haha and im already cold! but i should probably get over it. i should probably tell you all that i have been doing but i just am not really feeling like rushing and stressing out about it :)   so i am going to print all of your emails like last time.... hope thats ok! but thank you all for writing me! i am looking forward to reading them in a very slow enjoyable manner later on today.  :)  hope thats ok! 

 

went to Finland! it was fun! and cool and clean. The Temple was incredible and amazing. I love it so much. it helps me remember everything that i am here for.   we also went to the island and just had a whole bunch of fun but came back even more tired that we went of course! its bad  

 

there were three baptisms this week! it was incredible! and each brought a friend or family member to come and watch! such good missionaries. all of which had good conversations. a mom and  son got baptized and the elders are now teaching the dad!  how great is that right!?!

 

president has still continued to make small but good changes to our mission to make sure we are the most obedient to all the prophet has said! sometimes the rules are annoying but we have all seen the blessings that come from it as we try to do all the nit picky things .

 

the quote from today the chocolate one was said as my companion began to explain how good the finnish chocolate was that i brought home. i told her that that was intense, and that was the response ;) haha

 

i didn't get a transfer, me and sister djurich will be here again together. we are gong to try to pretend to start all over .....kinda because we have to haha but we are pretending that it was our choice 

 

i studied knowledge this week. i liked it a lot.    i went through and asked why we need it, how we get it, and made sections for how its an attribute of God  and how when we recieve knowledge we need to still be wise in the Lord. and then i went and found scriptures for all of those and studied it in all my books. i learned a lot while studying knowledge haha funny..... pretty much the gist is that you can't be saved with out it! and you learn ALL knowledge by the spirit and by faith and when we get it we are becoming more like God. But the more we recieve the more we need to realize we know nothing and rely on God to learn more.  its a big circle.  my favore scripture i found was Doctrine and Covenants 76:5-10.  very cool. READ IT! 

 

i also read today in Helaman 4 and 5 about relying on God.  not on our own strength. I think this is what Heavenly Father is trying to teach me right now.  The nephites thought that they coud do it all on their own so the Lord decided to let them try. and they failed miserably! its the same with us.  or i guess with me. i think i do it all on my own or something and i can't.  for real. its impossible. but as we turn to Him we will no longer just be fighting as man to man, we will have HIS power. my time is running out. sorry! lame email!

 

I love you!

Sister Trottier

Oct 24

Hey family!  Its me, Sister Trottier, all the way over here in Russian....weird i know....but its true.  Im on a mission, and im in russia, bein a missionary.  who woulda thunk?  not me, but its already been true for like 10 months now so.....

 

this week has been a slow week. probably, my worst statistically in my whole mission! and thats pretty bad because our mission has pretty low stats anyways so when we have really bad weeks we look REALLY bad haha....but i read in PMG that stats is not what deteremines the success of a missionary....haha so i am holding on to that for my sanity.  its not about the postion you old, the number of things you do, but the people you love, the good that you do, the lives that you change, the diligence you put into the work and the service you give the Lord and the change of your heart.  :)  at least that is what i am telling myself haha and i am beginning to believe it.

 

well it got cold this week!  not super duper cold but cold. its about 3-4 degrees celsius which means it will get about 40 degrees colder this winter haha but its still pretty cold i think.  IT HAS BEGUN! :)  but it will be good......

 

so we have a big english club in the center and a little english club in another city about an hour away and we take turns going there. there is a cute little girl who is about 6 or 7 who started coming with her dad and brother. Her name is maria and she is the cutest little hting and i love her so so much! i taught her the alphabet and then we learned head shoulders knees and toes.  its so cute.

 

this wednessday we are having a girls night for the young girls 12 and up. we are making jewelry and talkinga bout the temple. I hope it goes well. 

 

today we are carving pumpkins for halloween. Tues day is our english halloween party thing. and on thursday i go to finland! woot woot. and soon we find out transfers....i don't know what i want to happen. we will see what happens.

 

we have had some good contacts, some great miracles of people just asking us about the church and some little miracles everyday!  i hope that soon those miracles start turning into people coming closer to christ by keeping commitments and making covenants.

 

at the moment i am feeling that missionary work is very hard.  not that its too hard that i can't do it, or thati i don't want to do it. I can go and contact people, i can teach (to my best ability) i can set up meetings i can call people andi can study and pray hard har hard, but i just feel like i cant bring people to come closer to Christ.  I know people are ready and iknow the Lords work will go forward...but it feels like its not.  I am pushing and pushingon this huge boulder and it feels like its just not moving, maybe i need to get a big stick and make a lever.

 

i found a mom here in Novosibrisk. Her name is Vera  shaxhava.  she takes care of me and scolds me when i dont wear warm enough clothes.  her daughter just went on a mission so i think she feels like she needed to choose a misionary to take care of! :)

 

i hope i am dong some good here, but if not i know that i have done some good work inside of me. so i think that that is good.  :) the russians have a hard life.  they really do.  one lady said, something to the effect of.  "you know the americans always talk about the great depression and make a big deal about it, ya well, we are still in it.  we are always in it" and for some of them it really is true. not all of them but some of them. so be grateful for what you have! its alot! 

 

sorry , that was really a lame email of nothingness, but i love you!  so so much! and i love this work, i love my mission, i love the people, i love the book of mormon, and i love my Savior and Heavenly Father and i love the Holy Ghost. and i love you!

 

Love Sister Trottier

 

Oct 17

Hey family!  and friends!  i started reading all the emails and decided to just print them off, i hope thats ok! i will try to respond to questions next week if it is needed :) thanks for all that you do.  this week as i was reading in the book of mormon i read in alma 44:3-5  when the nephites are talking about the reasons for their success and what they owe it to. They owe it to God and to their faith in christ, their diligence in obeying the commandments and, "the sacred support of their wives and children". isn't that cool?  the sacred support of their family. I owe all of my success and everything to all of that too and i want to say thank you for the support that you give me. It truly is a sacred support.  The family is ordained of God and is sacred. Make sure to remember that when you are talking to and with your family.  its sacred. I think everybody to remember that a little bit better.\ i mean you are giong to be tog ether forever so you might as well like each other right?

This week we have been doing alot of contacting for english! we are going to have a big party soon so we all get dressed up in "FREE ENGLISH" shirts and go out and contact all together! its so great, missionary work in jeans!  life couldn't get any better! 

so you remember our young girl who wants to be baptized right? well her mom isn't as all excited about it as her daughter is and has been avoiding meeting with us.....sooooo haha we decided to just grab the senior couple last night and bring our big poster calender that we made for her and just show up! hahaha yes that was very forward and when she opened the door it wasn't all that welcoming UNTIL she saw the senior couple and we were just like "well we were in the area and we thought we would drop by...." but she just looked at us like "riiiiigggghhhhttttt.....you were just in the area....with a big poster....and the senior couple.....at 8:00 at night?" :) haha she didn't say that but her face said it all! but she loves senior couples and it went great and we even gave a short lesson!  yay for miracles!  yay for senior couples! haha 

There was a baptism this week! which was awesome as always! his name is pavel and he is just so great! he already started his family history work and as he gave his testimony he told of his plan to go to the temple in novemeber to do baptisms!  he is legit and very cool.  

we had a choir practice yesterday :) haha that was funny!  only a few people showed up and well russians for the most part are not the best singers....haha but it was entertaining! haha and fun! they are so funny and so great! such happy people once  you get past the rock on the outside!  loving down to the bone to be honest! 

we had a great lesson with a new convert kristina, and her grandma. she is so great! she is ten. and just loves everything about the gospel!  

remember my favorite babooshka here? i don't know if i told you about her, but her name is elya.  she is so funny and acts like she is the grumpiest lady in the world!  but really she is just a softy but she can't ruin her grumpy old lady image i think!  she is just so amazing!

i have been studying humility this week....its a read eye opener.  haha im just going through the PMG christ like attributes every week so its good. my favorite scripture i found this week is in the doctrine and covenants. D&C 67:10   IF we get rid of all jealousies and fears and humble ourselves we will KNOW He lives.  its interesting because when i usually think of humility and being humble you think of someone quiet and maybe weak but in all reality it isn't. if you are humble you will be stronger, more powerful and more courageous than ever before because you will have the help of God with you, who is all powerful and all knowing!  when we are humble we are prepared to learn and gain more knowledge. we can become better and smarter when we are humble because God can teach us. when we are humble God can lead us and our path with be clear with him. our weaknesses can be strong and all our question may be answered.   Just need to counsel with God.  Remember you can't do anything by yourself BUT with Him you can do everything. being willing to repent, be grateful and to do His will.  and there ya go :) 

had a meeting with our new investigator Katya.  she likes to bible bash! and i get all caught up in it and its bad, so this time i decided to be calm, speak slowly and think before i speak.  haha i think it kinda freaked her out cause she is loud and speaks quickly and just chucks all thoughts she has at us. so when i responded it was such a huge contrast it was hysterical!  i think she didn't know what to do. but i hope that she felt the spirit.  

well....what else can i share...i have extra time....thats weird...probably because i didn't read all the emails first eh?  hmmm.....i wonder if that is better....haha well it could be unless i just ramble and ramble for a long time right now haha 

well. right now i am sitting in an internet club writing you. there are about 20 computers in this room with computers. it costs 100 rubles for one hour for both me and my companion. it smells like smoke and cologne.  some young kids are playing video games and yellings. a lady is talking to her friend on skype next to me and her friend is doing her makeup while she talks.  i am only hearing one side of the convo.  another man is watching something online with headphones and is laughing hysterically periodically and across from me some one is having an interview for a job. haha its all very interesting. today we made a cake for one of the elders birthdays and at the store we saw party hats that were absolutely awful so i had to buy them! haha i will take pictures!   me andmy companion like to sing random songs together while we are on the street and at home and it makes us happy.  we probably eat too much ice cream but it tastes g ood. and chocolate.  right now i am addiction to pistatio icecream.\

i thinki figured out my stress problem.  when i stress it is because i am ignoring a prompting. and when i change and follow it, the ulcers go away!  i hope that is the problem forever! that would be cool!

I love you so much! the church is true! you are amazing!  Trust the Savior. He is your best friend. 

Love sister Trottier

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