We have had a very full and fun week. We have just spent the last 9 days traveling and wearing both of our missionary hats. The first half of the week was spent in Kiev training for the Employment program that we are going to start in Russia. We are very excited to get this program going here, it will make a big difference in helping our members find jobs. While we were in Kiev we were able to attend the new Temple there and meet the Temple President and his wife. I know I already told you about that in my last letter. We also met the Kiev Mission President, President Steinagel from Provo. He is a very dynamic man and everyone here just loves him. They finish their mission this June. We also got to tour the dorms at the Temple grounds where members who travel to the temple get to stay. It's a wonderful arrangement for the people here. We flew out of Kiev on Tuesday, went back to Moscow, and stayed with the Hatch's for the next four days. The first day we walked into their apartment we met the missionaries who were there using their computers. It just happened to be Elder Trotter and his companion. For those of you who don't know him, he is my cousins son who is serving in the Moscow Mission. It's always so fun to meet family in a foreign country. We were able to visit for a while before he had to leave. We spent the next two days meeting the new Welfare Specialists (the Pattersons), having meetings with them and the Welfare Manager (Dima), and then visiting two wheelchair manufacturers trying to find someone who can supply us with enough wheelchairs that we can have our wheelchair projects running here in Russia. Both companies looked promising so when Dima goes back to Salt Lake next week for Conference he can give the information to them for a final decision. It will be wonderful to get that project going here. We already have people waiting for wheelchairs. The other day we spent in Moscow was our Zone Conference with President and Sister Woolley and our missionaries who we missed and hadn't seen for over a week. It's amazing how fast we get attached to these missionaries and miss being with them every day. It was wonderful to see them again. That night we were invited to a meeting with the Moscow senior couples which was a real treat. We finally got to meet the Packard's, who are from Plano Texas, and got to know them a little better. Nine days of all-day meetings and traveling back and forth between the two countries was exhausting but we learned so much. Our jobs are huge, but we are very excited to get started and get things going in Russia. Of course it will take a long time and we may not see the results while were are here serving, but it would be wonderful if we could get the ball rolling.
When we finally got home, late Friday night, we had no internet service. After a few phone calls, we found out that there was no service in our entire building and it wouldn't be restored until sometime today (Monday). So just a few hours ago, it came back. It's like being handicapped to not have internet service. We couldn't communicate with anyone - even our Vonage phone didn't work. It was very quiet and boring over the weekend. We're still fighting over who gets to use the ipad. It's our only source of entertainment. I can't imagine losing internet service for an extended period of time (like in Japan) and not being able to communicate with anyone. I'm hoping that it won't happen in my time here on earth. It's a horrible, lonely feeling. That sounded kind of dreadful - I guess it's not that bad, but it's not fun.
Saturday our Sister missionaries had their first baptism. Our Elders were all gone somewhere else (long story) so our Branch missionary, Giorgi, baptised Olga. She's a single woman in her 30's with two small sons. She has been working with the Sister's for about 2 months, stopped for a little while, and then came back and asked to be baptized. It's always so good to see the support from the Branch members when the new converts get baptized. Without them, I don't think most of the new people would stay. It's a very long way to travel to just get to church, and their testimonies are so new that some of them can't keep up with their commitment. But we have great members who do their best to keep them coming.
Today was our last Monday P-day. President Woolley changed our P-days to Thursdays from now on. That's actually better for us because the outdoor markets and the museums are closed on Mondays, so now we can shop and go to museums or plays on Thursdays. That will be wonderful. We are looking forward to getting out more as the weather gets better and seeing more places here.
I hope everyone enjoys Conference this weekend. Because we are so far ahead of you in time, we have Conference with the Branches the following week. We can watch conference on our computers anytime after Monday, but we will probably wait and watch it with the Branch the next week. They have a Russian and an English broadcast. I'll tell you all about it after we have it.
I didn't hear from Eddie today, but when I do I will forward his letter on to you. Until then, know how much we love you all and we pray for you all every day. Have a wonderful week.
Love,
The Frosts
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
We have had a very full and fun week. We have just spent the last 9 days traveling and wearing both of our missionary hats. The first half of the week was spent in Kiev training for the Employment program that we are going to start in Russia. We are very excited to get this program going here, it will make a big difference in helping our members find jobs. While we were in Kiev we were able to attend the new Temple there and meet the Temple President and his wife. I know I already told you about that in my last letter. We also met the Kiev Mission President, President Steinagel from Provo. He is a very dynamic man and everyone here just loves him. They finish their mission this June. We also got to tour the dorms at the Temple grounds where members who travel to the temple get to stay. It's a wonderful arrangement for the people here. We flew out of Kiev on Tuesday, went back to Moscow, and stayed with the Hatch's for the next four days. The first day we walked into their apartment we met the missionaries who were there using their computers. It just happened to be Elder Trotter and his companion. For those of you who don't know him, he is my cousins son who is serving in the Moscow Mission. It's always so fun to meet family in a foreign country. We were able to visit for a while before he had to leave. We spent the next two days meeting the new Welfare Specialists (the Pattersons), having meetings with them and the Welfare Manager (Dima), and then visiting two wheelchair manufacturers trying to find someone who can supply us with enough wheelchairs that we can have our wheelchair projects running here in Russia. Both companies looked promising so when Dima goes back to Salt Lake next week for Conference he can give the information to them for a final decision. It will be wonderful to get that project going here. We already have people waiting for wheelchairs. The other day we spent in Moscow was our Zone Conference with President and Sister Woolley and our missionaries who we missed and hadn't seen for over a week. It's amazing how fast we get attached to these missionaries and miss being with them every day. It was wonderful to see them again. That night we were invited to a meeting with the Moscow senior couples which was a real treat. We finally got to meet the Packard's, who are from Plano Texas, and got to know them a little better. Nine days of all-day meetings and traveling back and forth between the two countries was exhausting but we learned so much. Our jobs are huge, but we are very excited to get started and get things going in Russia. Of course it will take a long time and we may not see the results while were are here serving, but it would be wonderful if we could get the ball rolling.
When we finally got home, late Friday night, we had no internet service. After a few phone calls, we found out that there was no service in our entire building and it wouldn't be restored until sometime today (Monday). So just a few hours ago, it came back. It's like being handicapped to not have internet service. We couldn't communicate with anyone - even our Vonage phone didn't work. It was very quiet and boring over the weekend. We're still fighting over who gets to use the ipad. It's our only source of entertainment. I can't imagine losing internet service for an extended period of time (like in Japan) and not being able to communicate with anyone. I'm hoping that it won't happen in my time here on earth. It's a horrible, lonely feeling. That sounded kind of dreadful - I guess it's not that bad, but it's not fun.
Saturday our Sister missionaries had their first baptism. Our Elders were all gone somewhere else (long story) so our Branch missionary, Giorgi, baptised Olga. She's a single woman in her 30's with two small sons. She has been working with the Sister's for about 2 months, stopped for a little while, and then came back and asked to be baptized. It's always so good to see the support from the Branch members when the new converts get baptized. Without them, I don't think most of the new people would stay. It's a very long way to travel to just get to church, and their testimonies are so new that some of them can't keep up with their commitment. But we have great members who do their best to keep them coming.
Today was our last Monday P-day. President Woolley changed our P-days to Thursdays from now on. That's actually better for us because the outdoor markets and the museums are closed on Mondays, so now we can shop and go to museums or plays on Thursdays. That will be wonderful. We are looking forward to getting out more as the weather gets better and seeing more places here.
I hope everyone enjoys Conference this weekend. Because we are so far ahead of you in time, we have Conference with the Branches the following week. We can watch conference on our computers anytime after Monday, but we will probably wait and watch it with the Branch the next week. They have a Russian and an English broadcast. I'll tell you all about it after we have it.
I didn't hear from Eddie today, but when I do I will forward his letter on to you. Until then, know how much we love you all and we pray for you all every day. Have a wonderful week.
Love,
The Frosts
When we finally got home, late Friday night, we had no internet service. After a few phone calls, we found out that there was no service in our entire building and it wouldn't be restored until sometime today (Monday). So just a few hours ago, it came back. It's like being handicapped to not have internet service. We couldn't communicate with anyone - even our Vonage phone didn't work. It was very quiet and boring over the weekend. We're still fighting over who gets to use the ipad. It's our only source of entertainment. I can't imagine losing internet service for an extended period of time (like in Japan) and not being able to communicate with anyone. I'm hoping that it won't happen in my time here on earth. It's a horrible, lonely feeling. That sounded kind of dreadful - I guess it's not that bad, but it's not fun.
Saturday our Sister missionaries had their first baptism. Our Elders were all gone somewhere else (long story) so our Branch missionary, Giorgi, baptised Olga. She's a single woman in her 30's with two small sons. She has been working with the Sister's for about 2 months, stopped for a little while, and then came back and asked to be baptized. It's always so good to see the support from the Branch members when the new converts get baptized. Without them, I don't think most of the new people would stay. It's a very long way to travel to just get to church, and their testimonies are so new that some of them can't keep up with their commitment. But we have great members who do their best to keep them coming.
Today was our last Monday P-day. President Woolley changed our P-days to Thursdays from now on. That's actually better for us because the outdoor markets and the museums are closed on Mondays, so now we can shop and go to museums or plays on Thursdays. That will be wonderful. We are looking forward to getting out more as the weather gets better and seeing more places here.
I hope everyone enjoys Conference this weekend. Because we are so far ahead of you in time, we have Conference with the Branches the following week. We can watch conference on our computers anytime after Monday, but we will probably wait and watch it with the Branch the next week. They have a Russian and an English broadcast. I'll tell you all about it after we have it.
I didn't hear from Eddie today, but when I do I will forward his letter on to you. Until then, know how much we love you all and we pray for you all every day. Have a wonderful week.
Love,
The Frosts
Monday, March 21, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
We are having our first Visa trip (every three months we have to leave Russia, go into another country and renew our visa). This time we combined our visa renewal with some humanitarian training, so we have met with two other couples to be trained on the Church's Employment Program. We will be responsible for implementing the Employment program into all of Russia. The other two couples, one in Kharkov, Ukraine the other in Armenia have great faith in us that we can get this program started in Russia. Even though Russia is 500 times bigger than either of their two areas, they are sure we can do it. Our heads are swimming with all the information and the enormity of the job, but we're excited to get back there and at least try. The more people we can get excited about the program, the better and easier our job will be, so we'll start with one place at a time and go from their.
Unfortunately, the weather has been very cold, snowy and rainy and we didn't bring our warmest clothes, so we have been cold and tired with all the miles we have walked the last few days, BUT this place is amazingly beautiful. It's nothing like Voronezh. It's cleaner, more modern, a very large number of people here speak English, it has a subway system and their undergrounds are beautiful. Ours in Voronezh kinda reminds me of the dirty subways in New York. A little grungy and a little creepy. But here, they are beautiful. The have big beautiful stores that you would see walking down the street, only they are under the streets. It's quite amazing. The old Churches are so fun and beautiful to look at. There is so much art work and architecture put into the buildings, but of course there's not the same spirit when you walk inside as we have when we walk into our Temples. Our cute returned missionary from Ukraine tour guide yesterday kept telling us it was the "great and abominable" Church. Still, it's wonderful history to learn about. We went through a very sad and depressing museum of when the Communists under Stalins rule starved over 2 million Ukranian people by taking all their grain and crops away from them. The museum was filled with pictures, video clips of actual footage from 1932-33 and a lot of memorabilia from that time. I didn't know anything about it before now, and it's heartbreaking to see the pictures and know how much they suffered during that time.
Next we went to the Kiev War Museum, which was incredible. The sidewalks were lined with giant oversized statues of soldiers fighting and women and children saying goodbye to their loved ones as they go off to war. The entire museum is "guarded over" by a giant statue of a woman who represents the "Mother Land". Inside the museum were three floors of pictures, and artifacts of things during the time of the war, 1941 -1943. There were so many people who died during that war that it's amazing that Russia was actually able to pull themselves out after losing 23 million during the war and then another 30 million civillians who were killed while Stalin was trying to keep control of the land. The US lost 416,000 and Germany lost about 10-12 million. What a horrible time for these people here and such a horrible waste of life. The war museums and other museums are filled with names of as many people they could identify for the people to search through to find their loved ones. It's a perfect place to go for genealogy records. Such a sad heritage, but the people are picking themselves up and are fighting their way back to a healthy lifestyle. It's slow, but it's coming.
Our trip to the Temple in Kiev was a highlight. We made it to the last session at 5:00 and the snow had just started to fall as we went in. We filled up the room with local members and the seven of us (Kostic, our tour guide went with us). We wore head sets so we could listen to the session in English, but I have to admit that for part of the time I turned my to the Russian version and listened to that for a while. I don't understand everything, but it was fun to listen to it in Russian for as much as I did understand. The other thing I noticed was that everyone was practically sitting on the edge of their seats listening and paying attention to what was being said. No one was sleeping. The Temple is so new here (just four months) and everyone is so excited to be able to be here. It's quite a refreshing feeling. The only ones making mistakes were the Americans who hadn't been to the temple for a while. We found a little humor in that. After our session we were able to visit with the Temple President and his wife. I can't remember their names right now, but they are from Rexburg Idaho, but have been on three missions in the last nine years. First they were a senior couple in Kharkov, Ukraine. Then they were called to be the Mission President in Siberia. After that they went to China to teach English at the University there and during that time were called back to be the Kiev Temple President. So, they have been gone for most of the last ten years serving missions. WOW! They have 10 children and 60 grandchildren. Maybe that's why they're gone so much. (just kidding). That is an enormous sacrifice, but they are the favorite people around here. Everyone here loves them and hopes they will stay forever.
When we walked out of the Temple is was lightly snowing so some of the pictures have beautiful snowflakes in them. It was too cold to stand around and take too many pictures, but I think we got some good ones that you will enjoy. Just look at my facebook, I posted them there. Some day I'll learn how to put them on the blog, but for now, Lanae will do that for me.
We have early morning meetings tomorrow, so we are headed to bed, but know that we think about you every day and love you all so much. It's so fun to hear from so many of you every week. Thanks for writing back. I love it. Enjoy your week, share the gospel with someone this week and we thank all of you who have made contributions to the welfare/humanitarian funds. You just can't imagine what kink of help that brings the people here. We love you, they love you, and the Lord loves you. Pray for the missionaries all over the world and be a missionary.
Love,
The Frosts
Copy and paste link in your browser to view Kiev trip pictures;
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=10150123409052856&id=783412855&aid=301869
We are having our first Visa trip (every three months we have to leave Russia, go into another country and renew our visa). This time we combined our visa renewal with some humanitarian training, so we have met with two other couples to be trained on the Church's Employment Program. We will be responsible for implementing the Employment program into all of Russia. The other two couples, one in Kharkov, Ukraine the other in Armenia have great faith in us that we can get this program started in Russia. Even though Russia is 500 times bigger than either of their two areas, they are sure we can do it. Our heads are swimming with all the information and the enormity of the job, but we're excited to get back there and at least try. The more people we can get excited about the program, the better and easier our job will be, so we'll start with one place at a time and go from their.
Unfortunately, the weather has been very cold, snowy and rainy and we didn't bring our warmest clothes, so we have been cold and tired with all the miles we have walked the last few days, BUT this place is amazingly beautiful. It's nothing like Voronezh. It's cleaner, more modern, a very large number of people here speak English, it has a subway system and their undergrounds are beautiful. Ours in Voronezh kinda reminds me of the dirty subways in New York. A little grungy and a little creepy. But here, they are beautiful. The have big beautiful stores that you would see walking down the street, only they are under the streets. It's quite amazing. The old Churches are so fun and beautiful to look at. There is so much art work and architecture put into the buildings, but of course there's not the same spirit when you walk inside as we have when we walk into our Temples. Our cute returned missionary from Ukraine tour guide yesterday kept telling us it was the "great and abominable" Church. Still, it's wonderful history to learn about. We went through a very sad and depressing museum of when the Communists under Stalins rule starved over 2 million Ukranian people by taking all their grain and crops away from them. The museum was filled with pictures, video clips of actual footage from 1932-33 and a lot of memorabilia from that time. I didn't know anything about it before now, and it's heartbreaking to see the pictures and know how much they suffered during that time.
Next we went to the Kiev War Museum, which was incredible. The sidewalks were lined with giant oversized statues of soldiers fighting and women and children saying goodbye to their loved ones as they go off to war. The entire museum is "guarded over" by a giant statue of a woman who represents the "Mother Land". Inside the museum were three floors of pictures, and artifacts of things during the time of the war, 1941 -1943. There were so many people who died during that war that it's amazing that Russia was actually able to pull themselves out after losing 23 million during the war and then another 30 million civillians who were killed while Stalin was trying to keep control of the land. The US lost 416,000 and Germany lost about 10-12 million. What a horrible time for these people here and such a horrible waste of life. The war museums and other museums are filled with names of as many people they could identify for the people to search through to find their loved ones. It's a perfect place to go for genealogy records. Such a sad heritage, but the people are picking themselves up and are fighting their way back to a healthy lifestyle. It's slow, but it's coming.
Our trip to the Temple in Kiev was a highlight. We made it to the last session at 5:00 and the snow had just started to fall as we went in. We filled up the room with local members and the seven of us (Kostic, our tour guide went with us). We wore head sets so we could listen to the session in English, but I have to admit that for part of the time I turned my to the Russian version and listened to that for a while. I don't understand everything, but it was fun to listen to it in Russian for as much as I did understand. The other thing I noticed was that everyone was practically sitting on the edge of their seats listening and paying attention to what was being said. No one was sleeping. The Temple is so new here (just four months) and everyone is so excited to be able to be here. It's quite a refreshing feeling. The only ones making mistakes were the Americans who hadn't been to the temple for a while. We found a little humor in that. After our session we were able to visit with the Temple President and his wife. I can't remember their names right now, but they are from Rexburg Idaho, but have been on three missions in the last nine years. First they were a senior couple in Kharkov, Ukraine. Then they were called to be the Mission President in Siberia. After that they went to China to teach English at the University there and during that time were called back to be the Kiev Temple President. So, they have been gone for most of the last ten years serving missions. WOW! They have 10 children and 60 grandchildren. Maybe that's why they're gone so much. (just kidding). That is an enormous sacrifice, but they are the favorite people around here. Everyone here loves them and hopes they will stay forever.
When we walked out of the Temple is was lightly snowing so some of the pictures have beautiful snowflakes in them. It was too cold to stand around and take too many pictures, but I think we got some good ones that you will enjoy. Just look at my facebook, I posted them there. Some day I'll learn how to put them on the blog, but for now, Lanae will do that for me.
We have early morning meetings tomorrow, so we are headed to bed, but know that we think about you every day and love you all so much. It's so fun to hear from so many of you every week. Thanks for writing back. I love it. Enjoy your week, share the gospel with someone this week and we thank all of you who have made contributions to the welfare/humanitarian funds. You just can't imagine what kink of help that brings the people here. We love you, they love you, and the Lord loves you. Pray for the missionaries all over the world and be a missionary.
Love,
The Frosts
Copy and paste link in your browser to view Kiev trip pictures;
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=10150123409052856&id=783412855&aid=301869
Monday, March 14, 2011
Week of March 6th...
Dear family and friends,
I'm going to repeat some of the things I wrote to Eddie this week. Hope you don't mind, Eddie.
With the horrible tsunami in Japan this week, our thoughts have been with the missionaries and members there who have been so tragically uprooted from their normal everyday lives. I've tried to put myself in their situation and can't (or don't want to) do it. I just can't imagine trying to pick up the pieces of that much damage and destruction and not be permanently affected with the enormous loss of life. Japan is such a tiny little country with so many people living there (127 million) and over 10,000 were killed in the tsunami. Russia is 100 times as big with 141 million people living here. We are all spread out over a huge amount of area, I just can't imagine all that destruction in such a small amount of space. Look on a map and compare the size of the two, it's amazing. I've heard that all the missionaries are accounted for and are safe. Is it any wonder how the Lord watches out for his servants. It's not that missionaries don't die, but I very seldom hear of them dying in natural disasters. I'm sure if we're listening to the promptings and guidance from the Holy Ghost that we as missionaries will continue to be protected from that kind of harm. I pray that will be the case - we have a very important work to do and we need lots of faith, prayers and protection to get it done. We talked in our district meeting this week about excuses people use for not attending Sacrament Meeting. We talked about the people here in Russia but I'm sure this can apply to people everywhere. Work, family who don't support them, don't want to lose their only free day, don't know anyone or feel comfortable among strangers, don't have a desire to learn more about the Gospel, and Church isn't fun. I think we all have experienced one or more of those feelings at one time or another, but we missed the very most important reason why people need to go to church. The Sacrament! That's really the only reason to go. We can have Gospel discussions, make friends and have fun any time, but Sacrament Meeting is the only place where we can partake of the Sacrament. When people don't understand their commitment to the Savior through baptismal covenants and then don't renew those covenants each week, they are basically saying, it's not important and I don't care about my sins or my promises to obey. I'm not really committed to the Savior and I'm just going to keep doing what I want and hope for the best. We have a struggle getting people to understand that principle at home in Utah, so you can imagine how hard it is here. BUT. . .we're not giving up! We have a mission goal of 31 baptisms by the 31st of March. We're only half way there and are feeling a little discouraged, but we're going to keep plugging away a little at a time. We have a mission zone conference next week in Moscow and we're hoping that will spark some more enthusiasm and energy into everyone. The weather is getting so nice now, it was 37 degrees today and it was beautiful! More people are out walking the streets when the weather gets nicer and there should be much more success with contacting.
Norm and I are going to Ukraine this week for our first Visa renewal trip. We will be gone for a week for training on the Church Employment Program. They have had tremendous success with the program in Ukraine so we are going to try and implement the program here and help so many people who are out of work. When we get back from Ukraine (we will get to take a quick trip to the Kiev Temple, which will be wonderful) we have our Zone Conference in Moscow and then we'll stay there for 2 more days for more training and work on the wheelchairs project. It will be a long time away from here, but there's so much to learn and to do. This is a big year for changes in the Welfare Program in Russia and we're the guinea pigs who get to experiment with it. Hopefully we can do a job well enough that we can leave something concrete for the next group of couples coming here to serve.
We love it here. We're making so many great friends. One cute girl from the Branch just left today for her mission on Temple Square. She has been waiting for 6 months for her visa to come through so she is so excited to finally be going. We'll miss her here, she does a lot of translating for us at church, but she will be a wonderful missionary on Temple Square. She's beautiful, smart, has a great testimony, and is so excited. They will be lucky to have her.
Well, one last happy birthday wish my cute Kaia who is turning 8 next week. I'm so sad that we will miss your baptism, but I hope you will learn as much as you can about baptism and understand how important the Sacrament is. It's just like getting baptized again every Sunday. If you try hard to be good, you can be forgiven of the little things each week. I love you Kaia!
I love all of you. I feel like the luckiest person in the world to have such a wonderful family and friends. You mean so much to me and all your letters and words of love and encouragement have helped me so much. Take care everyone. Pray for the missionaries - especially the ones in Japan right now. And BE a missionary everyday by your words and your actions.
Love,
The Frosts
I'm going to repeat some of the things I wrote to Eddie this week. Hope you don't mind, Eddie.
With the horrible tsunami in Japan this week, our thoughts have been with the missionaries and members there who have been so tragically uprooted from their normal everyday lives. I've tried to put myself in their situation and can't (or don't want to) do it. I just can't imagine trying to pick up the pieces of that much damage and destruction and not be permanently affected with the enormous loss of life. Japan is such a tiny little country with so many people living there (127 million) and over 10,000 were killed in the tsunami. Russia is 100 times as big with 141 million people living here. We are all spread out over a huge amount of area, I just can't imagine all that destruction in such a small amount of space. Look on a map and compare the size of the two, it's amazing. I've heard that all the missionaries are accounted for and are safe. Is it any wonder how the Lord watches out for his servants. It's not that missionaries don't die, but I very seldom hear of them dying in natural disasters. I'm sure if we're listening to the promptings and guidance from the Holy Ghost that we as missionaries will continue to be protected from that kind of harm. I pray that will be the case - we have a very important work to do and we need lots of faith, prayers and protection to get it done. We talked in our district meeting this week about excuses people use for not attending Sacrament Meeting. We talked about the people here in Russia but I'm sure this can apply to people everywhere. Work, family who don't support them, don't want to lose their only free day, don't know anyone or feel comfortable among strangers, don't have a desire to learn more about the Gospel, and Church isn't fun. I think we all have experienced one or more of those feelings at one time or another, but we missed the very most important reason why people need to go to church. The Sacrament! That's really the only reason to go. We can have Gospel discussions, make friends and have fun any time, but Sacrament Meeting is the only place where we can partake of the Sacrament. When people don't understand their commitment to the Savior through baptismal covenants and then don't renew those covenants each week, they are basically saying, it's not important and I don't care about my sins or my promises to obey. I'm not really committed to the Savior and I'm just going to keep doing what I want and hope for the best. We have a struggle getting people to understand that principle at home in Utah, so you can imagine how hard it is here. BUT. . .we're not giving up! We have a mission goal of 31 baptisms by the 31st of March. We're only half way there and are feeling a little discouraged, but we're going to keep plugging away a little at a time. We have a mission zone conference next week in Moscow and we're hoping that will spark some more enthusiasm and energy into everyone. The weather is getting so nice now, it was 37 degrees today and it was beautiful! More people are out walking the streets when the weather gets nicer and there should be much more success with contacting.
Norm and I are going to Ukraine this week for our first Visa renewal trip. We will be gone for a week for training on the Church Employment Program. They have had tremendous success with the program in Ukraine so we are going to try and implement the program here and help so many people who are out of work. When we get back from Ukraine (we will get to take a quick trip to the Kiev Temple, which will be wonderful) we have our Zone Conference in Moscow and then we'll stay there for 2 more days for more training and work on the wheelchairs project. It will be a long time away from here, but there's so much to learn and to do. This is a big year for changes in the Welfare Program in Russia and we're the guinea pigs who get to experiment with it. Hopefully we can do a job well enough that we can leave something concrete for the next group of couples coming here to serve.
We love it here. We're making so many great friends. One cute girl from the Branch just left today for her mission on Temple Square. She has been waiting for 6 months for her visa to come through so she is so excited to finally be going. We'll miss her here, she does a lot of translating for us at church, but she will be a wonderful missionary on Temple Square. She's beautiful, smart, has a great testimony, and is so excited. They will be lucky to have her.
Well, one last happy birthday wish my cute Kaia who is turning 8 next week. I'm so sad that we will miss your baptism, but I hope you will learn as much as you can about baptism and understand how important the Sacrament is. It's just like getting baptized again every Sunday. If you try hard to be good, you can be forgiven of the little things each week. I love you Kaia!
I love all of you. I feel like the luckiest person in the world to have such a wonderful family and friends. You mean so much to me and all your letters and words of love and encouragement have helped me so much. Take care everyone. Pray for the missionaries - especially the ones in Japan right now. And BE a missionary everyday by your words and your actions.
Love,
The Frosts
Sunday, March 6, 2011
| Dear family and friends, I'm going to cheat a little this week. I've been so busy writing reports that I thought maybe I'd send it to you and you can see what we're doing with the humanitarian projects. It's very different work than missionary work, but very interesting and we meet wonderful people. All the situations tear at your heart because there are so many things that need to be done and we can only do a few. But every little bit helps and we can make life a little easier for some. As we were walking home from Church today we both said how beautiful it was outside. It felt like we were having a heat wave - it was in the high 20's, the sun was shining, the snow is melting and our faces weren't freezing off. Spring is on it's way. Well, check out the attachment to see about our projects. We love you all, have a great week. Love, The Frosts MONTHLY ACTIVITY REPORT – FEBRUARY 2011 ELDER AND SISTER FROST – VORONEZH HUMANITARIAN ACTIVITIES – This month we visited and started three new Area Initiative Projects. The first Project is a rural Health Clinic in the Lower Veduga area of Voronezh. This clinic is one of 10 outlying clinics from the Semiluky Central District Hospital. We are providing a new dental chair and equipment for them. We have worked with this Hospital in the past and provided the same equipment for one of their other clinics which proved to be very successful. The new equipment has improved the dental care of the patients, which created more confidence and trust in the patients, which increased the number of people going to the dentist, which ultimately required hiring another dentist and a few staff members. The results were very favorable so the main hospital asked if we would do the same for this clinic. The second project is at the Novaya Usman Boarding School for Disabled Children. This is a very old school with a new Director and Assistant Director and they have made remarkable improvements to the school in the last year. They have been very creative in finding people to donate materials and funds to upgrade and refurbish their school. We went on a tour and were very impressed with all the work that has been done recently. The kitchen had not had many improvements yet, so we are providing sinks, work tables with storage space underneath, a bread pantry, and various other kitchen supplies to replace the very old ones that they have now. The third project is at another boarding school for 62 disabled children. This school is in a very rural area and is in need of a lot of work. The children have developmental and behavioral problems and much of the school has been damaged by the children. We are working on finding the best way we can help them. They asked us to provide tile for their shower room and linoleum for their floors. Since we don’t do reconstruction work with our projects, we are still working out the details of providing the tiles for the shower room with the school doing their own labor of installing the tiles. We decided against providing the flooring at this time. The shower room is in desperate need of repair. These are our first three projects and we are certainly learning much about the “ how to’s” of doing projects but more about the great need there is for help here. The saddest thing this month was saying goodbye to the Holmes. I know we all felt it a privilege to have worked with them and wish them the best with their return home to their family and building their new home. We are excited to be working with the Pattersons and Dima and are working on finding a manufacturer for our wheelchair projects. ECCLESIASTICAL – This month was filled with comings and goings. We traveled with our missionaries on the overnight train to Moscow for a very enjoyable Zone Conference with President and Sister Woolley and our first experience on Red Square. What an incredible sight that was on a beautiful snowy night. We had transfers and three of our missionaries left, one for home the other two for different areas and then got three new missionaries ( all greenies) who we quickly grew to love. We have been on many teaching appointments with our missionaries and love being involved with helping to work with the investigators. We had two convert baptisms, Natalya and Dimitri, which is always a wonderful miracle. We love our Branch and our association with the members and continue to be amazed at the strength of leadership here in Voronezh. We feel so blessed to be here involved in this work. |
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