Greetings family and friends,

This was conference weekend for us and what a great conference it was. Every talk was wonderful and so many applied to us directly with our missionary work. I am so grateful to know that we have a living prophet on the earth today who loves us and directs us in the Lord’s work. I am also so grateful to be a missionary at this time and to be a small part in spreading the Gospel throughout the world. President Schwitzer, who gave the closing prayer on Sunday afternoon, is our Europe East Area President and President Bennett, who spoke in the afternoon session on Sunday, is his 2nd counselor. It was fun to see them both at the same session and know that we have met them and are working with them here in Russia. I also particularly loved Elder Holland’s talk from the Priesthood session on couples serving missions. I just wish it had been heard by everyone instead of just the men. Be sure to read it if you didn’t hear it already. EVERY mission president is begging for senior couples and there just aren’t enough people who understand the urgency and importance for couples to volunteer their service. Just like we encourage our young men from a very early age to plan to serve a mission, we need to plan as couples to also serve a mission. I don’t really think the desire to serve is the problem with couples as much as the logistics of it all. It’s a great blessing that the Church is now able to help support the senior couples with part of the living expenses. That will help to ease one of the major concerns for many people. I know I mentioned in my last letter that there are a large number of people who are afraid to serve in Russia and have turned down the calling, but there are many, many other places to serve. Besides that, Russia is NOT that scary. The Church has also varied the length of time of service to 6 months, 1 year, 18 months or 2 years and couples can request the length of time that works best for them. The rules for the senior couples are different than those of the young missionaries and we have a much less structured life. In fact we were counseled at the MTC to make a point to have a nap each day and get as much rest as we can. Whenever possible, we heed that counsel. (tee hee) I am absolutely convinced that the obstacles that concern us about serving a mission will all be overcome with a little more faith and trust in the Lord. I got a chuckle out of President Holland’s comment that if the men can leave their remote control and recliners behind, than the women should be able to leave their grandchildren. He said that instead of “hovering” over our grandchildren that we should set an example for them of the things that are really important in our lives by following Christ’s example. It’s pretty hard to say no to that. Anyway, our mission is one of the greatest experiences we have had in our marriage and we can’t say enough about how wonderful and important it is to serve. Don’t wait for the “right time”, plan for the Lord’s time, which I’m pretty sure is “the sooner the better”. I also suggest not waiting until you’re too old. The younger you are the easier it will be. Physically it’s a lot of work. OK, enough of that lecture. I just know that when you do it, you will love it!

We started out our weekend with a little service project cleaning out the baptismal font and dressing room in our Branch building. The font doesn’t get used as much as we would like,
so it gets ignored being all the way down in the basement of our building. It was a little dirty and full of spiders so we gave it a much needed cleaning. Then the girls sorted and organized all the baptismal clothing, we washed windows, mopped the floors and stairs and now are ready for FOUR, yes I said FOUR, baptisms this Saturday. We couldn’t be more excited. One of the guards at the church, whose wife is a member, is finally getting baptized and another family of three from Uzbekastan just walked in off the street one day and asked to learn about our Church and they are also being baptized.

After our cleaning project, we all cleaned ourselves up, watched both sessions of Conference and the Priesthood session together. We had lunch in between and then decided we had sat long enough so they went out contacting and we went to bed early.

Sunday we watched both sessions of conference with our ILP kids. They really are a lot of fun to be with and so appreciative of everything we do. We love having them in our home.

We had a great weekend surrounded by people we love, listening to our Prophet and Apostles teach, uplift and encourage us to be the best we can be, and feeling happy and content.

We love you all! We miss you, think about you every day, thank our Heavenly Father that you are a part of our lives, and count our blessings continually! Have a great week!

Love,

The Frosts