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