Hey family,

I saw my travel plans this week......weird. I think they sent them to you too right?  Well i will be home on the evening of May 30th.  Its a Wednesday. I freaked out when i saw it!  And we were at a members house and she was on the computer and asked to add me on facebook.  and its so different from when i was home!  and my picture with my companion was on it! haha that was funny! after that i had a dream that i came one and it was like that RM movie and you weren't there at the airport! i had to call the bishop (who in my dream was still Bishop Heaps) and he came and picked me up!  haha! you forgot about me!  

Alot happened this week, but i don't have anything to say haha. I have been studying the Plan of Salvation the past couple of weeks and we just teach it to everyone!  seriously everyone!  BUT the cool thing about it is that EVERYONE needs it! and that everyone finds a small part in it for them.  and we can apply it to everyones needs.  The main foundational doctrines that we teach people at the beginning are the most important i have found. and in all reality everything else in the gospel relates back to them. They answer all questions and solve all problems. I have been studying it this week by using Jesus the Christ. oh man i love that book! I have to force myself to put it down so that i can work on something else that i need to do :) also on the same topic i have started a list of clear pure doctrine about the plan of salvation both in the Bible and the Book of Mormon.  In all reality, its all there.  You just have to draw it out and fit together the puzzle pieces. 

We had culture night this Saturday. we went to a puppet show type thing! haha it was so funny. Elder vargin and sister karacheva said that it was exactly like what they used to go to see when they were kids, so it was legit Russian. it was the type of puppet show that the people put their hands in the sleeves of the puppets and another person moves the head. they are really really good at it and it looks like they are moving for real like real people.  All of us Americans had no idea what was going on! haha Sister Karacheva said it was because it was a mix of Old Russian and Old Russian slang, little kid Russian and modern Russian slang and alot of Russian humor and Russian phrases. But they told us the story and we were able to follow.  In front of us was sitting a guy and his date and heard our weird accents and started talking to me and my companion.  He was really interested and we talked to him a bunch about the gospel and why we are here.  I don't think his date was so excited that he was talking to us so we hit the elders and got them to ask him for his number instead of us.  you just never know when or where you will be able to share the gospel. 

We had a guy contact us this week! that was weird. we were walking close to the university and a guy ran after us to invite us to an Easter concert. we got talking to him and he was a really religious young man with a wife and a baby just three days old.  it was great to have a conversation with him about the gospel.  Today we are dying Easter eggs with the elders!  yes i know that it is after Easter, but Russia celebrates Easter next Sunday so its all good.  Grandma asked out they celebrate it, and they also dye eggs and make lots and lots of traditional Russian food and especially bake some sort of special bread that rises miraculously in the oven or something like that. and they have a greeting thing. Someone comes up to you and they say "Jesus Christ was Resurrected!" and you say "It's true, He is Resurrected!" yep.  and they have some sort of plant that everyone has and carries around. its like a twig with white furry things on it....why? i don't know. whats it called? don't know haha. 

well what else can i say?  i don't know.  had some great meetings this week and some great contacting experiences. I love it here. I love the people, I love the gospel, i love the Savior, and I love my Heavenly Father.  Mom said something this week about daily remembering where our strength comes from. Actually just every moment remembering where our everything came from is so important. i think i already talked about this but we had a lesson/chat in church about just having the gospel be who you are and what you talk about. Most times we just chat about the weather or politics or what ever else we can think of. but if we let the gospel be a part of our every moment we not only can share the gospel, but we can help everyone remember where our strength comes from and we ourselves will remember also. The world would be a much better place if we were always remember the gospel, and our Savior, what he has done for us and our purpose in life of becoming like Him. 

We get to watch conference next week.  I'm excited! i love conference! can't wait! I will try to find my "golden nuggets" of truth as grandma said.  This conference i have decided to search for 3 different things. inspired by a quote i read from Thomas Monson.  He said, "The past is behind, we must learn from it. The future is ahead, we must prepare for it. The present is now, we must live in it."  I want to think about how i can learn from the past (before the mission and on the mission), how i can prepare for the future and how i can live in the present and do the most that i can now.  Is it just me or has one of President Monson's themes been to act today!  live now!  don't wait until "next time"  or tomorrow.   I have been sharing that with alot of people. I am thinking about printing off a bunch on pretty paper with a good quote about that and giving it to everyone haha and making an EXTRA LARGE one for me!  it should be a goal of the world probably. 

My new favorite quote i found is from Emma Smith from "Daughters in my Kingdom"  Great book.  

Emma Smith
First Relief Society General President

“I desire the Spirit of God to know and understand myself, that I might be able to overcome whatever of tradition or nature that would not tend to my exaltation in the eternal worlds. I desire a fruitful, active mind, that I may be able to comprehend the designs of God, when revealed through His servants without doubting.”

great isn't it?  That is the purpose of life.  To get rid of any part of ourselves that would keep us from living in the Celestial kingdom with our families and our Heavenly Father and to be able to understand the gospel and the works of God from His servants, that is what i call sustaining your leaders! 

well what else? haha i said i didn't have much to say but i didn't have a whole ton of emails to write and i think i still have a bit more time :) so now i am rambling and just writing and writing......  we are going to Novosibirsk again this week on Wednesday.  I'm heading off to Finland for my last and final Visa trip!  maybe i will buy some more candy for you all! but i can't promise that it will all be there in a few months haha. but i will be going to the Temple which is the best thing ever! my companion is really jealous AND  i think that we get to go to Red Square!  I told the office elders that i really really really wanted to go and to ask what they could do for me! and one of them is in my group so he wanted to go to so it was all good!  I think...so that will be sweet if yes.  

Remember.  Repentance is just a changing of lifestyle a little bit at a time in order to align our lives with the Savior's life and the Will of our Heavenly Father.  You can do it a little at a time everyday.  Just remember the Savior and make Him apart of everything you do.  

i love you all!!

Sister Trottier