Family -
I have Pete's compuer in Arizona with us and it's old school so I can't post the pictures Mom put in her letter until I get home to "real technology". If you didn't get the email from mom, text me and I'll forward it on to you so you can see the pictures, but here's the body of the email.
Love you all,
Merry Christmas,
Lanae
Dec. 25, 2010
Dear Family and Friends;
Merry Christmas to everyone! This is a very different Christmas for us. No tree, no lights, no decorations, no presents, no family. But I’m looking straight ahead and on the wall is a beautiful picture of Christ next to a picture of the Salt Lake Temple. That’s the true meaning of Christmas – the atonement of Christ which made it possible for us to have eternal families. I am so grateful for my testimony of Our Savior, the restoration of the Gospel to the earth by Joseph Smith, and that we have a living prophet on the earth today, Thomas S. Monson, who continues to receive revelation from the Lord to help us return to live with Him again. I’m thankful to be a missionary in Russia. We are quickly learning to love these people. It’s exciting to be able to share our testimonies, our knowledge, our culture, and our experiences with them. It’s also fascinating to learn about their culture. We have a long way to go in our learning, but we are enjoying the journey.
This is a picture of our Chapel in Voronezh. It is a beautiful old theatre that was restored by the church and is the only “real” chapel in Russia. Norm took this picture one night as we were walking into the Branch Christmas party.
The Relief Society sisters cooked the dinner in the kitchen (above left), the branch members decorated thetree, the sign above the three women on the couch says “Merry Christmas”, and a little over 30 people came for the party. It’s not quite like the parties we’re used to, but the food and the company were excellent.
For a little Christmas missionary activity, we went downtown and did some Christmas Caroling in the underground shopping area. Norm and I stood there and either hummed or sang the words in English. The other missionaries sang out with gusto while they took turns handing out pass-along cards. A few people looked our way, most kept their heads down and kept walking, and a couple guys yelled at us and told us to go away. It was quite the experience.
These pictures show the front of our apartment building and the three doors we have to go through to get in. First the top door gets us into the building. We walk up two flights of stairs and get to the outside door (bottom left). We open that door which takes us to our apartment door (bottom right). The apartment door has three deadbolt locks on it, so needless to say, we feel very safe here. Notice the pink bag in my hand. We have to walk and ride the bus where ever we go and carry our groceries. We learned real quick to shop lightly.
Last night was our first experience with “English Club”. People come from all over the city who want to practice speaking English for free. There are three groups – the beginners (who know almost no English) with one set of Elders, the intermediate (who speak a little English) with another set of Elders, and the advanced group (who speak English very well) with the Senior Couple – that’s us! We spent our first night introducing ourselves and getting to know the people there. Right after English club is another hour where the men go play volleyball and the women have a Gospel discussion in English. I thought I wanted to play volleyball with the men, but nope – the women wanted me in there helping then read English. They are working harder at learning English than I am at learning Russian. They are an inspiration to me to get busy.
Our Christmas present today was the baptism of Olya (on the left) and Anatolli (on the right). These are the four Elders that are living here. The Sister Missionary came back just for the baptism. Starting on the left the missionaries are: Elder Tanner (from Carlsbad), Sister Gorkavenko (from Russia), Elder Erickson (from Las Vegas), Elder Mellor (from San Diego) and Elder Borodine (from Russia). The Russian missionaries speak pretty good English and the English missionaries speak excellent Russian. They are all darling, with so much excitement and enthusiasm. They came over this morning singing Christmas Carols as loud as they could.
O
On our way home the apartment complex was having a little Christmas party at the playground. I love seeing the little kids all bundled up in their snow suits playing outside. It’s freezing, but they are out every day. Their moms pull them around on little sleighs instead of strollers.
We had Christmas dinner here at our apartment for all the missionaries and the new baptized members. It’s pretty tiny in here, but they said they’ve had lots more than this in here at the same time. We had a Christmas toast, and Elder Tanner and Erickson made dessert – a chocolate chip pie. It was delicious.
Well, that’s our week. It’s been fun, tiring, and very eventful with lots to learn. It was hard to be away from family, but our new family of missionaries is filling in quite nicely. We still get to have our phone call with Eddie – a conference call with the whole family. That will help to make our day complete. We love you all and we miss you, but we’re praying that this will be a very special Christmas for all of you with a New Year filled with love and peace.
With love,
Elder and Sister Frost
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Dear Family and Friends,
Is it OK to say "I want to go home?" Oh my gosh... we have had so much information thrown at us in the last two days that our heads are spinning. The Lowry's spent all day Sunday and Monday morning telling us everything they could think of to tell us, and we were so tired from the trip that nothing sank in. After we said our goodbyes and closed the doors we both just looked at eachother and said "what were we thinking?" Last night we were so tired that I cried myself to sleep at 7:30 and slept most of the night. This morning I felt much better but a little sick to my stomach about all we need to know and don't. We tried not to panick, but it's all very scary.
It's also freezing here, snowing, we can't read the signs on the streets, we can't understand the language, our apartment is ugly, we're living out of our suitcases and can't find anything we need, and don't know how to do our job. Other than that we're doing GREAT!
Ok, enough of the whining. I know that the church is true, the gospel is wonderful and that we're going to be OK. Yesterday at church the people were wonderful. Our sacrament meeting was spent giving tribute to the Lowry's, who everyone loves, and then the Branch President asked us to introduce ourselves. We both sang in the Choir, I played the piano in Relief Society, Norm was asked to do a baptismal interview and the people welcomed us with open arms. We're going to love working in the Branch.
Today two of the young elders took us for a walk, a bus ride, and shopping at one of the "grocery" stores. What an experience that was. The bus was so crowded I couldn't see where we were going, so it's going to be pretty interesting when we have to do it ourselves. The store was pretty nice with groceries on the main floor and then shops all around on the upper level. We just had to look at the pictures on the packages to see what it was, and then the missionaries helped us, but everything is written in Russian so it's all a big guess. The meat looks very different, the milk choices are crazy, there's tons of choices, but no chocolate mint ice cream. J/K. We sort of overdid all shopping because we had to carry all of our bags back home. The buses were so full that we ended up walking halfway home in the freezing, carrying heavy bags, trying not to fall on the snowy sidewalks. Our cute missionaries never did complain about helping carry our heavy bags and then, an hour later, when we finally got home, they said they were going back to the store to get their own groceries. We did feed them lunch before we left so they said they were more than happy to help us. I promise to always feed the missionaries.
We're hoping to move into an apartment above the one that we're in now. The sister missionaries live there but right now there aren't any sister missionaries here so the apartment is empty. We want to trade places with them. We like that apartment better, so the lady who is in charge of taking care of the contract agreement is going to try to make the switch for us. We'll know tomorrow. Sunday we fly to Moscow for training for three days and then we're back here. I think somewhere in the middle of all that is Christmas, but I'm not even sure what day that is. They don't celebrate Christmas here, but we will have a mission Christmas party in January.
I'm so sad I lost my camera somewhere at the airport when we arrived. I had taken some fun pictures at the MTC, saying goodbye at the airport and then arriving here. I thought I put my camera back in my purse but I can't find it anywhere. If it doesn't turn up, we'll have to get another one and then I promise to send pictures.
We love you all, have a wonderful Christmas, we'll be thinking of you.
Love,
Elder and Sister Frost
Is it OK to say "I want to go home?" Oh my gosh... we have had so much information thrown at us in the last two days that our heads are spinning. The Lowry's spent all day Sunday and Monday morning telling us everything they could think of to tell us, and we were so tired from the trip that nothing sank in. After we said our goodbyes and closed the doors we both just looked at eachother and said "what were we thinking?" Last night we were so tired that I cried myself to sleep at 7:30 and slept most of the night. This morning I felt much better but a little sick to my stomach about all we need to know and don't. We tried not to panick, but it's all very scary.
It's also freezing here, snowing, we can't read the signs on the streets, we can't understand the language, our apartment is ugly, we're living out of our suitcases and can't find anything we need, and don't know how to do our job. Other than that we're doing GREAT!
Ok, enough of the whining. I know that the church is true, the gospel is wonderful and that we're going to be OK. Yesterday at church the people were wonderful. Our sacrament meeting was spent giving tribute to the Lowry's, who everyone loves, and then the Branch President asked us to introduce ourselves. We both sang in the Choir, I played the piano in Relief Society, Norm was asked to do a baptismal interview and the people welcomed us with open arms. We're going to love working in the Branch.
Today two of the young elders took us for a walk, a bus ride, and shopping at one of the "grocery" stores. What an experience that was. The bus was so crowded I couldn't see where we were going, so it's going to be pretty interesting when we have to do it ourselves. The store was pretty nice with groceries on the main floor and then shops all around on the upper level. We just had to look at the pictures on the packages to see what it was, and then the missionaries helped us, but everything is written in Russian so it's all a big guess. The meat looks very different, the milk choices are crazy, there's tons of choices, but no chocolate mint ice cream. J/K. We sort of overdid all shopping because we had to carry all of our bags back home. The buses were so full that we ended up walking halfway home in the freezing, carrying heavy bags, trying not to fall on the snowy sidewalks. Our cute missionaries never did complain about helping carry our heavy bags and then, an hour later, when we finally got home, they said they were going back to the store to get their own groceries. We did feed them lunch before we left so they said they were more than happy to help us. I promise to always feed the missionaries.
We're hoping to move into an apartment above the one that we're in now. The sister missionaries live there but right now there aren't any sister missionaries here so the apartment is empty. We want to trade places with them. We like that apartment better, so the lady who is in charge of taking care of the contract agreement is going to try to make the switch for us. We'll know tomorrow. Sunday we fly to Moscow for training for three days and then we're back here. I think somewhere in the middle of all that is Christmas, but I'm not even sure what day that is. They don't celebrate Christmas here, but we will have a mission Christmas party in January.
I'm so sad I lost my camera somewhere at the airport when we arrived. I had taken some fun pictures at the MTC, saying goodbye at the airport and then arriving here. I thought I put my camera back in my purse but I can't find it anywhere. If it doesn't turn up, we'll have to get another one and then I promise to send pictures.
We love you all, have a wonderful Christmas, we'll be thinking of you.
Love,
Elder and Sister Frost
Monday, December 13, 2010
Hello family and friends,
Wow! We just finished our first week and we are euphorically exhausted! We absolutely LOVE the expriences we are having here. I was expecting the MTC to be a fun place, but I never dreamed it would be this great. We love being around all these thousands of missionaries. They are so cute, happy, polite and fun to watch. They walk around singing, teasing each other, speaking different languages and always hold the doors for us "senior missionaries". No place in the world could you find a greater group of young people.
This first week has been learning Preach My Gospel and intense practicing of our Russian. I'm amazed at how much we learned about teaching and how exciting it is going to be. I never thought I would enjoy being a proselyting missionary, but after this week I can't wait to get out there and teach. We have learned more Russian in this last week than we did the last three months of working with our tutor. We have no distractions to keep us from learning and we are much more excited about the language now. Even Norm has learned a ton. We had to bear our testimonies in Russian a few days ago to all the foreign language senior couples, and Norm had his memorized and did a great job. You would all be very proud of him.
We had our first p-day on Saturday so we decided to go back home to do our laundry, run all our errands, have dinner with ALL our kids, go to church in our ward, attend the farewell of one of our missionary boys who we taught the Temple prep class to, have dinner with our wonderful neighbors and then made it back for the Devotional here at the MTC. Tonights devotional was a program by the BYU Mens Choir. What a treat! They are fantastic and their music was beautiful.
Tomorrow we start our second week of training at Welfare Square in Salt Lake. We're excited about this week and all we will be learning. They have a gift here at instilling confidence and excitement with our callings and we feel so blessed to be able to be serving. The stories of the many huge sacrifices some of these couples are making to go on these missions is very humbling and makes us so grateful that the Lord has provided so many miracles for us to be able to go. We have made so many good friends and feel so much love, encouragement, and support from everyone here. There are 25 couples and 1 single sister in our group, all going to various places in the world, and we feel like one big happy "old" family. I think we are the youngest couple here. But we're loving it!
Thank you to ALL of you! We have the best family and friends in the world. So many of you worked so hard to get us here and we love and appreciate all you have done for us. We will miss all of you, but thanks to this computer, that I have a love/hate relationship with, we will be in constant contact with you. We send our love and prayers to all of you and all our "missionaries" throughout the world. The Church is True!
We love you,
Elder and Sister Frost
Wow! We just finished our first week and we are euphorically exhausted! We absolutely LOVE the expriences we are having here. I was expecting the MTC to be a fun place, but I never dreamed it would be this great. We love being around all these thousands of missionaries. They are so cute, happy, polite and fun to watch. They walk around singing, teasing each other, speaking different languages and always hold the doors for us "senior missionaries". No place in the world could you find a greater group of young people.
This first week has been learning Preach My Gospel and intense practicing of our Russian. I'm amazed at how much we learned about teaching and how exciting it is going to be. I never thought I would enjoy being a proselyting missionary, but after this week I can't wait to get out there and teach. We have learned more Russian in this last week than we did the last three months of working with our tutor. We have no distractions to keep us from learning and we are much more excited about the language now. Even Norm has learned a ton. We had to bear our testimonies in Russian a few days ago to all the foreign language senior couples, and Norm had his memorized and did a great job. You would all be very proud of him.
We had our first p-day on Saturday so we decided to go back home to do our laundry, run all our errands, have dinner with ALL our kids, go to church in our ward, attend the farewell of one of our missionary boys who we taught the Temple prep class to, have dinner with our wonderful neighbors and then made it back for the Devotional here at the MTC. Tonights devotional was a program by the BYU Mens Choir. What a treat! They are fantastic and their music was beautiful.
Tomorrow we start our second week of training at Welfare Square in Salt Lake. We're excited about this week and all we will be learning. They have a gift here at instilling confidence and excitement with our callings and we feel so blessed to be able to be serving. The stories of the many huge sacrifices some of these couples are making to go on these missions is very humbling and makes us so grateful that the Lord has provided so many miracles for us to be able to go. We have made so many good friends and feel so much love, encouragement, and support from everyone here. There are 25 couples and 1 single sister in our group, all going to various places in the world, and we feel like one big happy "old" family. I think we are the youngest couple here. But we're loving it!
Thank you to ALL of you! We have the best family and friends in the world. So many of you worked so hard to get us here and we love and appreciate all you have done for us. We will miss all of you, but thanks to this computer, that I have a love/hate relationship with, we will be in constant contact with you. We send our love and prayers to all of you and all our "missionaries" throughout the world. The Church is True!
We love you,
Elder and Sister Frost
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