Privet!!!

Hey Guys!

 

its pday again! i know! its weird! crazy how fast pdays come, i don't even know what to do with myself.  There is lots to tell you today.  Last week was FREEZING!!! seriously!  Sister Sanford and i wore like all the clothes we own and held on to each other and RAN home! oh man it was crazy!  One of the elders said "In america Jack Frost nips at your nose in Siberia he rips your face off!!!"  haha oh man it was so funny and so true. YOu cant move your face just after a few minutes. I think the coldest we felt was negative 35 celsius ( i really need to learn how to spell that) But that is pretty cold. what was really fortunate for us is that we went to Finland when it was the coldest!  haha lucky lucky us huh? and they said that it supposedly will just get warmer from here on out.  the "MOROZ" aka "FROST" as they call it or "FREEZE"  only stays for about a week. and then it goes back to a balmy negative 20 with wind. which sometimes is worse. and did you know they ahve like 100% humidity here or something like that?  so the cold like sticks to you. haha oh goodness. a winter to remember.   hey mom, elder topham said that you and his mom are friends on this missionary mom page on face book. she was excited. she told her topham haha!  that is so great!

 

so on tuesday we had a great day. One of the inactive ladies is really great. Her name is Raiesa.....can't spell it in english. She is an artist. she invited us to go to her gallery opening which was way fun.  and really cool.  she paints.  and the people there were so great and open. she gave me a painting!! don't know how i will get it home but...its cool.  and anyways one of the old guys there LOVES our church and loves the missionaries and so he asked us if we would speak...i of course said yes.  but then i was nervous because i din't know how much i could technically say. so i gave a little spiritual thought about using the talents that God gives us and coming closer to him. it was great. and then he got up and introduced our church more and where we meet and was a missionary for us! haha he invited everyone to come talk to us to learn more about what we believe. we talked to a few people and it was a great opportunity.  that night we had our music night and actually quite a few people showed up!  it was a great program. we have a concert saxaphone player, violinist, guitarist, pianist and all sorts of singers so it went great! we had one of our favorte contacts come with a promise to meet us again!  SWEET!

 

We had the russian sisters stay over with us one night and we met the new sister, I would tell you her name but i don't remember, Russians cant even say it... abiduliziva or something like that.  she was trying to speak to us in spanish and stuff cause she stayed at the spain mtc. i forgot all the spanish that i didn't evern know!haha i couldn't even as waht time it was. i can only think in russiabn and english. :)

 

wednesday was the FREEZING day.  and i wanted to tell you about the buses. you get on the bus and it is so cold that the bus has turned into this ice box. you cant see out or in and you have to scrape of the ice in order to see outside so you can tell where you are.  and it is so cold its like a freezer. its crazy.  and every day sister sanford says "its the coldest day of my life" haha she is from vegas.

 

thurs.- so we woke up and went to the palace aka the office elders house and met the 19 elders that were going to finland with me and sister sanford and margolies.  we took the two mission cars and a taxi to get us all there! it was craziness!  holy cow.  22 missionaries all together haha we were the talk of all the airplanes we were on of course and got alot alot of attention which was actually good. after all the elders past this one ladies stand that she was selling at she asked us about our church and we had a great conversation with her. she just felt that there was a good spirit about all of us. she wants to meet this week!  sweet!!!  it was alot of fun getting to knwo all the elders that i didn't know. there are alot of new ones and all of them are awesome. everytime a new group comes in they are better than the last. our airplane from moscow to finland got canceled from a snow storm and we were stuck in the airport forever. but no worries we just played games and entertained ourselves.   we got to finland late and just had time to buy food and go to bed. the next morning we had 19 elders at differnt times ask us how long it took girls to get ready in the morning and all had to tell the same joke about eating all the food :) haha they are so great. but then we go down and they had made us pancakes and eggs and bacon and saved it on 3 plates for us. they are so awesome.   we have the best elders, i am positive of it.

 

in the temple i recieved revelation about 3 things that i would like to work on and focus on in order to get me to where the Lord wants me to be by the end of my mission.  1. Keep and apply the temple covenants i have made to my missionary work.  3. Work on INVITING people to do things. to change, to come closer to christ and also on HOW to invite them. and 3.  treat everyone as my brothers and sisters and children of God. I have thought alot about the third one. Just one day i was sitting on the metro and watching people and i realized that there were so many people just sitting in there trying to pretend that they were the only ones there. its like we walk past peopl in the street and buy things from cashiers etc etc and pretend that they aren't human.....make sense?  maybe im not explaining myself well.   But you know its like we are sitting on the metro facing a whole row of people and either people look everywhere but at you or they look straight at you with out seeing you.  its like we forget that everyone else is SOMEONE  and has feelings and hopes and dreams etc etc. Our whole lives we have been taught that we are Children of God and so is everyone else, but i think that we, even as church members who know this realy KNEW it we would act alot different. I have been trying to act this way and to apply it to my missionary work. Just talking to people as if they are important. But its harder than it sounds.   Its even hard to do with people you know and are close to such as other missionaries etc. we take advantage of the relationships that we have and then we ignore the people we don't know...weird....i don't know if any of that makes sense...but it has been in my thoughts.  

 

the funnest thing about finland was that i kept trying to speak to everyone in russian! haha funniest thing.  they don't know russian. but its like in my brain, if they don't know english then they know russian right? haha no. it doesn't work that way....unfortunately. 

 

So we got home and it was like 5:40 in the morning on saturday and president was at the airport and he told us our transfers!! WAY too much information after 48 hours of almost no sleep!  But i am leaving Novosibirsk and goint o TOMSK!  not Omsk, but Tomsk.  with a T.   and i am going to be with Sister Margolies again for her last transfer.  I am sad to be leaving Novo and that me and sister sanford had only one transfer together. but i feel like it is right and where i am supposed to be and who i am with so i am excited! but i don't leave for two weeks until after the sisters conference. 

 

Sunday-  Anya and her family came to church again! it was so great. I love her so much. she sat next to me the whole time and i put my arm over her chair and she just held my hand the whole time.  She is the best. all through sacrament we read the verses people quoted together and after she wanted to talk about what a few of them meant.  She is so incredible. we had dinner with them and the webbs that night and it was great to get to knwo them more in a relaxed setting.  i sent some picturs.   I want to be here for her baptism but we are afraid of freaking her mom out and asking if she can be baptized in less than two weeks. but i might call and talk to the mom about it tonight. pray for me. 

 

i had a great opportunity to serve my companion yesterday haha it was so great. we were at a babyshkas house and she saw that sis sanford had a hole in her sock and she gave me a needle and thread and told me to sew it up haha. I love the people here. they take such good care of us.  its great.

 

So i got two packages again! haha everyone thinks i am spoiled! one from you and one from the georges! i was so so happy! thanks so much! and i am so happy when you send me junk food from america but i have to tell you to stop! haha i can resist the temptation of russian stuff here but not all the stuff you send and i would like to be a reasonable size when i get home.  so no more ok! :) but i love you! and thank you cause its really good :) 

 

Well anyways.  The church is true, I love the gospel, I love my mission, I love my Savior and I love my Heavenly Father. His plan is perfect. His gospel is perfect.  Its all we need. Now we just have to apply it to ourselves and our lives and we can become perfect too.  :) i hope you have a great week!

 

Love Sister Trottier