Hello to all our family and friends! We hope you all had a wonderful Easter and have taken just a moment to recognize our Savior, His life, and His Atonement. Because of His great sacrifice, we all have a chance to live our imperfect lives with the hope that we can one day return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for that knowledge and for this opportunity to share it with our friends here in Russia. I have attached a letter with pictures telling about our Easter experiences here and wanted to share it with all of you. We love you and miss you and are so thankful for this world off technology that allows us to have instant contact with each of you. Enjoy! Love, Sister Frost April 25, 2011 Dear friends and family, HAPPY EASTER! It’s always hard to be away from home at holiday time, but we had a wonderful week experiencing the holiday with our “missionary” family and learning about some of the culture here in Russia. Easter is such a beautiful time both physically and spiritually. The weather has been absolutely beautiful the last few days hovering around the 60’s. Flowers are starting to pop up, grass is growing, the streets are getting cleaned, the sun is shining, the kids are all out playing, people are happy and life is good. Is it any wonder that we celebrate Christ’s Atonement at such a beautiful time of year? It is a constant reminder that no matter what we do wrong there is always a way for a new beginning. After the long, dark, cold, dreary winter months, everything changes to beautiful, sunny and bright, and new life begins. That’s what the Gospel does for us. It gives us hope for a brighter life filled with forgiveness and love. We had our annual Family Easter Party with our missionary family. We decorated cookies, colored eggs, played games and had a great time. We do work hard at our play! To all our kids, don’t worry, they will never replace you. But luckily they have let us adopt them and have agreed to play our little games while we’re here so we don’t have to sit at home and do nothing. We really do have a great time together and they tell me they love my experimental cooking for them. I’ve made things I never knew I could make, some good, some not so good, but they graciously eat everything I put in front of them. It’s a win, win situation for all of us. Our Mission President suggested that all of the missionaries experience a Midnight Mass at one of our local Cathedrals while we are here in Russia, so we gathered up all our missionaries and at 11:00 at night we headed to this beautiful Orthodox Church. It was very dark, with no lights on, when we got there, so the pictures were hard to see. When it was over all the lights had been turned on, representing Christ’s Resurrection, and the building is beautiful. We went inside and stood in a crowd of thousands of people. I wasn’t tall enough to see over them so I missed all of the ceremonial things that the priests were doing, and of course everything was done in “old Russian” so I didn’t understand anything that was being said, but it was very interesting to be in the midst of it all. A beautiful choir was singing up in the balcony, candles were lit everywhere, the paintings on the walls are beautiful, the architecture is beautiful, and I did a lot of “people watching” while we were there. As each new priest began his chant the people would cross themselves and then bow. I don’t think most people could understand the chants but they all crossed and bowed at the same time. I almost felt a little uncomfortable not doing it too, but it was interesting to watch. Priests and alter boys would walk up and down the stairs and in and out of doors. At one point all the Priests went outside and did a traditional walk around the church with as many people as could following behind. I don’t really understand it all, but it all represents Christ’s death and resurrection. The best part for me was knowing that at least there are this many people here in Voronezh who believe in Jesus Christ. Whatever their knowledge and understanding is, they believe in and love our Savior. That was a nice feeling. After standing in that huge crowd for an hour and a half we caught a taxi and went home. We got in bed about 2:00, which is a very late night for missionaries – especially the old ones. The next day at Church we had our Easter Program. The choir sang three numbers and even if they can’t compete with our home Ward Choirs, they did a great job. Our Branch has the largest choir of all the Branches in our mission and they are quite proud of that. We had an extended Sacrament Meeting and program and then all met together in the foyer for a lunch after. That was a big surprise to me and Norm. We had no idea that was going to happen, but our Elders told us they knew because it was announced in Sacrament Meeting the week before. So much for our “translators” telling us what’s going on. We usually sit through three hours of meetings without understanding any of the words, but the spirit is so strong that we don’t mind doing it. I listen as hard as I can and can usually pick out a few familiar words, but not enough to follow. We love the members of our Branch so much that it’s all worth it. As hard as it is to be away from home, we have found our place here and love so much being a part of this great work and representing our Savior, Jesus Christ. We love you, we pray for you, and we wish you all the best. Have a wonderful week. Love, The Frosts