Dear Family and Friends,

It’s taken me a whole week to get this letter written. I’m not sure what my problem is, but I didn’t want to start on a new one so I’ve finished this one and I’m sending it on. (we’re busy, that’s my problem). Hope you all are doing well and are getting ready for the upcoming holidays. It’s always a little different here, but this year we’re going to celebrate a little differently than we did last year. I’ll keep you informed as each event comes. In the mean time I just want to say how thankful I am for all of you. I feel your love and prayers each day that we are here. Thank you! I love you!

OK, here’s the letter:

November 1, 2011. AMAZING! Time is going by so fast!

We got to skype with a lot of the grandkids this morning (Halloween night for you), and see all the fun costumes. Everyone is growing up so fast and Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. It made me a little homesick but it sure was great to see so many of you. Happy Halloween to all my little goblins! I Love you!

We spent last week in two different cities doing Neonatal Resuscitation Training (NRT). What a great experience that was and an amazing humanitarian project that the Church does all over the world. The training is to teach doctors and nurses how to resuscitate new born babies who don’t breathe right away. It’s a very simple procedure and has saved the lives of millions of babies all over the world but it’s something that is completely foreign in a lot of countries. The Church has a doctor assigned to different Area Missions throughout the world who takes a team with him and teaches a two day seminar to local medical people. So last week we took our translator, Irina, with us and went to Volgograd with Dr. George Bennett and his wife Marcia from Farmington who brought two other Drs. with them to teach the course. We don’t do any teaching, but as the Country Directors we are responsible for all the legal paperwork that is required before the course can be taught. Then after the project is over we have to enter all that paperwork into the computer. Nothing hard to do, just time consuming. This was our first experience with NRT and it was really great to be a part of it. Dr. Erick Gerday, a neonatologist from Provo, and Dr. Gordon Glade, a pediatrician from American Fork, came to help teach and we spent a very fun three days getting to know them. We also did a little (very little) sightseeing while we were there. Volgograd is where the worst battle of the war in Russia was fought during WWII. After 200 days of continual fighting with the Germans, over 2 million people were killed. We went to see a monument that was built on the hill where the battle took place. It is one of the largest statues in the world depicting the Russia Motherland. It was so big we could hardly get a good picture of it, but it was amazing to see.
For the Europe East Area.

There is a Neuro Surgeon here in Russia and he makes about $300.00 a month. He translated for Dr. Gerday during the seminar and he made more money those two days than he does the whole month as a doctor. So sad!

After Volgograd we flew to Ekateringburg, which is east and north of Moscow. We met with some doctors at a beautiful brand new neonatal hospital where we planned with them to do an NRT project next May. They are so much more advanced in their practice and facilities than so many of the other hospitals we have seen and we were really impressed. Two of their doctors had been to Provo training with some of our doctors there. Dr. Prutkin, Mark, even showed up to meet us wearing a BYU sweatshirt that he was given during his visit to Utah. He said he wanted to be sure that we recognized him when we saw him. After our meeting we went on a tour of their hospital and he showed us where they take care of their very sick babies. Very state of the art, advanced technology – even for the U.S. We were extremely impressed.

After a week of being gone, it’s always good to be back in Voronezh. We walk into our little apartment and with a sigh we always say, “it’s good to be home”. One day I’m going to go back and read my first few letters home to compare the difference in my feelings. That will be interesting. I’ve had quite a change in the last year. It truly does feel like home to us
here and we love it. Not that we’re not looking forward to going back to our “real” home in Kaysville (because we are) but we really are very happy here.

We love you guys! To our children – keep your heads up, say your prayers, live righteous lives and your trials will be much easier to deal with. We love you all and are so proud of all the great things that you do. To our friends – the same! You’re all the best! We wouldn’t be so happy here if we didn’t know that our Heavenly Father is blessing all our lives while we are in His service. Thank you for writing to us, and supporting us, and loving us. We love you all!

The Frosts

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

Hello to all our favorite people;

I have a LOT of catching up to do! We have had quite the month and I have been very lax in getting my letters written, so I’m going to start from the first of September and quickly (haha) tell you about all we have done.

September 1st started off the month being our daughter Mandee’s birthday. The next day was Kims and the month continued on with a family birthday or two every week. So, happy birthday to everyone one of you (even beyond our own immediate family) who celebrated your birthdays in September - Mandee, Kim, Jen, Cayden, Me, Cruz, Kory, Braxton, and especially to our newest grandbaby, Roan (along with his cousin Tovah). We love you all so very much. It’s always so hard to be away at these special times, especially births, but our hearts are always with you!!!

The first week of September we had our Humanitarian Couples Conference in Istanbul, Turkey. I’ve already told you all about that wonderful experience so I won’t repeat that. You can go back to my Sept. 12th letter to read about it. A definite highlight of our mission.

The second week was the only week this month that we were actually home. We had meetings, dinners, and FHE with the missionaries, members and investigators and celebrated “Voronezh Day” at an airshow and then fireworks. The highlight of the week was the birth of two very special little babies in our family. First, on Sept. 13, my sister Pam had her first grandchild. Little Tova Teuila Auva’a was born to Teresa and Tui Auva’a. She’s beautiful and we love her already. The labor and delivery were a little long but I’m sure it was because she was having a hard time saying goodbye to her best friend and new little cousin Roan Bennett McHenry who was born the very next day. Roan is the fourth child of our daughter Shanda and Kory and he is our 28th grandchild. It’s torture to be so far away for a birth, but we are thrilled to have him here and can’t wait to meet them both. (I haven’t yet figured out how to transfer pictures from fb to Picasa so when I learn that I’ll be able to put pictures that I haven’t taken myself onto this letter). Just believe me that our two new babies are beautiful!

The next week we went to the closing for one of our Humanitarian Projects. We supplied a dental room for a clinic out in a village just outside of Voronezh. It’s a very poor clinic with extremely outdated equipment, most of which doesn’t even work, and they were so, so happy to get this new dental equipment. They treated us like we were royalty with praise and appreciation and a lunch. It’s such a gratifying feeling to know we can help in such a small way but it makes a world of difference to them. We LOVE this part of the work!

The next day we left for St. Petersburg to meet with the Humanitarian Couple there to begin the Employment Program in that mission. We met with the new mission president, President N. Warren Clark and his wife, who are wonderful and will be a great asset to that mission. President Clark is extremely excited about how the philosophy of the employment program can help not only the members but his missionaries as well. The last two days we spent laughing, eating and sightseeing with the Hazlewoods and had a wonderful time.

Saint Petersburg is so full of history and beautiful buildings and churches. We could only see a few places in two days, but what we saw was stunning. I would love to go back to see more and I love reading about the history of that place. St. Petersburg is where the very first member of the Church in Russia lived and in 1903 the Apostle Frances M. Lyman gave a dedicatory prayer in the Summer Gardens and petitioned the Lord to soften the hearts of the people and allow the Gospel to be taught in that land. The book “The Silence of God” is the story of that first LDS family and the struggles they had being the only members in a communist country. Great book!

I just can’t think of a better place to serve a mission where there is so much history, beauty and wonder. We have heard that only 17% of the senior couples who are called to Russia accept, the rest are too afraid to come here. I don’t know if that figure is right, but that makes me sad. It’s only our ignorance that makes us afraid because this is an amazing place. I’m grateful that my initial fear didn’t keep us away because we will never be able to duplicate this experience again. Yes it’s hard, and cold, and tough to do missionary work, and people don’t always smile, and walking everywhere and carrying groceries is a pain, but the people we serve and those who accept the Gospel into their lives have a light in them that makes it all worth it. We love all that we are doing here.

The last week we spent back in Moscow meeting two new couples who have come to join our ranks. Elder and Sister South have come to be our immediate “bosses” and will be the new Area Welfare Specialists. The Pattersons will be going home in a few weeks and we will miss them. Elder and Sister Bice will be the first missionary couple to serve as Family Services Specialists outside of North America. They are coming here to “blaze a trail” for drug and alcohol addiction and strengthening marriage and family services for members of the Church in the Europe East Area. We are so excited to be working with both of them.

In a few months the last two Humanitarian couples serving here in Russia will be going home and that will leave us as the ONLY Humanitarian Couple in Russia. There will be no more humanitarian couple missionaries assigned here, only the one couple as Country Director in each country. That means that our responsibilities will multiply greatly when they leave. The Area Presidency is making many changes to the way the Welfare Program will work here and we are continually learning to do things in new ways. It’s always an adventure.

Along with our small area projects, wheelchairs, employment and Country Directorness, we have now been asked to be in charge of the NRT (Neonatal Resuscitation Training) program in Russia. There is a doctor and his wife from Utah who come to Russia several times a year to teach doctors and nurses here how to resuscitate new-born babies. We have three of those trainings scheduled that we are in charge of coordinating and organizing. One in Vyborg (St. Petersburg), one in Volgograd, and the third in Yekateringburg. A lot of traveling but I’m super excited to be involved with this. I have never resuscitated a baby, not even a manikin, so I’m looking forward to the training as well.

We got home Friday night from Moscow and I had our taxi driver drop me off at the theatre so I could attend a ballet with the Sister Missionaries. It wasn’t quite as spectacular as Swan Lake at the Balshoi Theatre in Moscow, but it was beautiful and we had a great time. It was about the Arabian Nights (I think).

This was quite a lengthy letter and covered most of the month, but I didn’t tell you about my fun birthday with the missionaries or our District (Stake) Conference with the Woolleys and the Area Seventy. I’ll do that another time. I’m telling you, you just can’t beat this missionary experience. We sleep in a different bed every week and have a crazy eating schedule, but we are loving life! It looks like we might be home for a few weeks, but then the BIG traveling begins with NRT. I’ll keep you informed.

As always, we love all of you so very much and miss you! Thank you for keeping us in your prayers and thoughts, we do the same for you. These are the last days and missionary work is so vital. Keep that in mind as you live each day and be an example for those around you. We love you!

The Frosts

Dear family and friends,

What a great week we had in Turkey. One of the major perks of our mission is being able to travel and see some wonderful places, and meet some amazing people. That’s just another plug to encourage everyone to serve a couples mission. It’s so great!

Just a quick story about the beginning of our trip. We had an early flight to Moscow at 6:50 and our taxi driver had to pick us up at 5:45 in the morning. It takes about 25-30 minutes to drive to the airport, depending on traffic, and when we were almost there Norm asked me if I had his passport. I took stuff out and looked through my whole purse and found mine but not his, so we stopped the car and he looked through his brief case and suitcase but couldn’t find it. Our flight was leaving in 30 minutes and we knew we would never make it if we turned around and went back home, but we had no choice. You can’t go anywhere in Russia without your passport. So we got back home and we both ran in the apartment to look for the passport but couldn’t find it anywhere. We started wondering if maybe he had left it at the post office the day before when he went to pick up a package, but it was still very early in the morning and the post office wouldn’t be open for a few more hours. I went back out to the taxi to wait while Norm kept looking in the house. While I was sitting in the car I emptied my purse out on the seat and out came Norm’s passport. I ran back in to tell him I had it and he was just getting up off his knees from praying that we would find the passport and that our trip would not be ruined. We SPED back to the airport hoping to catch the next flight only to find that because of weather delays our flight was still there. So we checked in an hour late and took off two hours late but we still made our connecting flight in Moscow and arrived in Istanbul on time. Two little miracles that day – finding the passport and a delayed flight. My question is: Why do these things happen? What’s the lesson to be learned? Without either of us saying anything to each other, we were both mad because I thought Norm should be responsible for his own dang passport and he thought how could I be so blind and not see it the first time. All I can say is it’s a good thing we’re on a mission and being guided by the spirit or we would have probably killed each other that morning. OK. End of story. Ps – another good reason to go on a couples mission!

Istanbul was amazing! I think we have been in Russia so long that we are just used to the “unfriendly” people here because Istanbul was the happiest place we have ever been. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was happy. The taxi drivers, the bus drivers, the vendors on the streets, the waiters in the hotel, the people in the shops, the waiters in the restaurants , the people walking on the streets. Everywhere we went people would smile, say hi (in English) and ask how they could help us. It was such a shock to us we couldn’t get enough. We loved it and had so much fun talking and interacting with people that we didn’t want to leave. The minute we stood in line to get the flight back home to Moscow, we knew we were back in Russia. No smiles and LOTS of pushing. Oh well, what a nice retreat.

Our humanitarian conference was also wonderful. It’s so nice to be with other senior missionaries to compare stories, commiserate, encourage, and just laugh with each other. We were taught by both President Lawerence, who is the first counselor in the East Europe Area Presidency, and his wife. They were fun to be with and are both very knowlegable, spiritual, and motivating people. We also had two days of training and learning about humanitarian work that is being done in Ismir, Istanbul, and Ankara - Turkey, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia,
Georgia, Vladivostok, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Voronezh, and other small cities in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. There is so much variety in all of these places and things that can and can’t be done are so different. The Church is still not recognized in Turkey, Armenia or Georgia so the missionaries are tagless and work on their own without any young missionaries. They have very small branches, anywhere from 3 to 20 members, the senior missionaries hold sacrament meetings in their homes and no proselyting can be done. It’s all so different and fascinating and everyone loves their missions the best. Isn’t it interesting that the Lord knows exactly where we will be the most effective and be the happiest? Yet another reason to serve a couples mission.

This week is transfer week again. It seems to come up so fast and I’m never prepared to lose any of our wonderful missionaries. We get so close to them, have so much fun joking and laughing, depend on them to be here the minute either of us has a problem on the computer and Love, Love, Love teaching investigators with them. They are a joy and an inspiration to be around. We love them, we’re proud of them, and are constantly amazed at their resilience to rejection. Luckily, only one of them is leaving this time and we get another greenie straight from the MTC. Like I’ve said before, it only takes a few minutes and I love the new ones too so, it’s all good! They are the very BEST reason to serve a couples mission.

I always post our pictures on facebook, but I know that some of you aren’t on facebook, so I’m going to add a few pictures to this letter. Remember, we love you all so much and miss you even more. You are always in our prayers and we love hearing about all that you are doing. Remember that we are ALL missionaries by the examples that we set for those around us of loving and giving. “Have I Done Any Good In The World Today?” That’s our motto!
Love,
Mom, Dad, Michele, Norm or whoever we are to you!

Hi all,

I'm getting courageous and changing my blog all by myself. We'll see if it works.

We've had another great week, but we didn't end up going to Saint Petersburg. We'll get that trip in sometime, but it just didn't work out for this week.

Our weather has been incredibly beautiful, it feels like the beginning of fall. It's been sunny, a little on the cooler side, breezy and wonderful. We've had great long walks everyday enjoying all the beauty around us. It won't be long before the winter hits so we're taking advantage as much as we can.

Other than doing lots of humanitarian work on the computer and phone, we haven't done anything very exciting this week. Everything seems so routine that I think I just keep repeating myself week after week. The one exciting thing we did do was hook up to Milo's (our son-in-law) sling box so we can watch the BYU football games when they start. Of course we'll be watching in the middle of the night, but that's OK - it will be worth it. The first game on September 3rd is right during our trip to Turkey but we've learned that we won't be the only ones watching the game that day. Many of the senior couples are BYU fans and have planned a midnight party during the game. Should be fun - especially if we win!

I'm going to experiment with putting pictures on with descriptions so watch for those. If other people can do it, so can I. Wish me luck that I can figure it all out.

We hope you all are doing well. We know that school started this week so that should make a lot of moms very happy and a little more relaxed - hopefully! We hear from lots of you often, so we don't always feel like we're a million miles away. We love hearing from you and we can't say enough about what a great experience this mission is for us. We will continue to encourage ANYONE who is even thinking about serving a mission to DO IT! It will change your life for the better. We love seeing how the Gospel changes people's lives and brings a joy and peace like nothing else can. We love you all, have a wonderful week.

Love,
The Frosts

Happy 4th of July

Dear Family and Friends,

THe weeks and months are passing so quickly, I feel like I can hardly keep up. I keep missing writing my weekly lettes because the day is gone before I get to the compupter and then I'm so tired I just go to bed (poor excuse - sorry). I can't believe it's already July. That means that we have been here for 7 months already and we only have 11 more to go. Amazing! And...it's the 4th of July at that!!!!! Happy 4th of July everyone! WE miss you! We miss the swimming, BBQ, family, fireworks, Utah and the USA!!!!! But we're happy here, it's just not the same as being there with all of you.

June was another great month, we had something going on every week. I have to send in a monthly report to Moscow which then gets sent on to Salt Lake to keep in the history files (Can you imagine what that must be like?) so I thought I would just forward it on to you. It explains a lot of the tings that we did that I didn't tell you about in my "no letter writing" weeks. We also had our second visa trip to Kiev during the month and it went just fine with no problems so I didn't mention it in my letter. One thing though, while we are the Temple in Kiev, we ran into our Branch President and his wife, and Dima, who is our "boss" with or Humanitarian work. That was pure coincidence but it was great to meet them there.

It seems like our group of missionaries changes just about every few weeks. We're constantly saying goodbye and hello to them. We're adjusting better to the continual change but we sure get attached quickly and love working with them all.

We love you all so much too. We think about you and pray for you every day. Life continues to put challenges in our way, every one of us, but I agree with President Hickley when he said that this is a wonderful time to live on the Earth. So many miracles continue to happen every day that helps to offset some of the sorrow and destruction we see every day. We try to look at the glass half full side of things and we are so grateful for the blessings that we have in our lives. These are definitely hard times but they are wonderful times too. So much of our happiness comes from you - our family and friends. We love you and miss you and hope that you make the most of the joy and happiness that surrounds you every day.

Love,
The Frosts - mom, dad, Michele and Nor

Michele Frost
Kaysville, Utah
Russia Moscow West Mission
frostmission.blogspot.com

mm to Elder Freeman
Ghana, Accra Mission 5/10 - 5/12
http://elderfreeman.blogspot.com

Long Days

Hello everyone, I know you haven't heard from me for a while. It's been two weeks since my last letter and so much has happened. I don't even know were to start. It seems like we have been on the road for the last month and to tell you the truth - I'm so tired! But, it's time to write and let you know that we are still here and are doing great. Last time I wrote, Norm was just coming back from Moscow, and we were still living with no hot water. Since then, we have been back to Moscow twice, and back to Kiev for our second Visa trip, still with no hot water. I know I shouldn't complain about it, but it's just such a pain. So, our first trip back to Moscow was for the organization of the first Stake in Moscow. Finally, there are enough members, especially worthy Priesthood holders, to form a Stake. This has been a long time in the works and it was so exciting to be there and to be a part of it. Elder Nelson and his wife were there, along with Elder Nelson's youngest son who was one of the first missionaries sent to proselyte in Russia. He actually served here in Voronezh and attended Church at the building that we are in now, so it made sense that Elder Nelson came here to dedicate this Chapel in 2009. Elder Nelson talked for two days about his experiences here in Russia that started back in the 1970's. He's been working with Russian officials for many many years trying to get them to allow the Church to be recognized here as a legal entity. He had some very frustrating and some very funny stories to tell about his years of visits here. It's been a long, hard fought battle, but it's done and the Church is slowly growing bigger and bigger here. Aside from the Branches, and now Wards in Moscow, our Branch here in Voronezh is one of the largest. We are so lucky to be living and serving here. Some of our missionaries are serving in Branches with only 5 or 10 or maybe 20 members. I think that would be much harder for me and we are spoiled here because we have a full functioning Branch so our missionaries don't have to run the Branch. We have great Priesthood leadership and wonderful members who actually do their callings. One of the areas of our mission has a missionary as the Branch President and 5 teenage girls are the only members. Isn't that interesting? I'm not really sure how that all works but I'm sure "it's all good". Four of the missionaries in our mission serve as Branch Presidents where there are few members and little to no Priesthood holders. We're working hard to keep these Branches growing, especially with men, so our missionaries can do more missionary work and less Branch work. Keep praying for us, one day we'll get there. Anyway, the meetings with Elder Nelson were wonderful and over 1000 people were in attendance in a rented hall in Moscow. It was a great blessing for us to be there. There is one side note to all this. Now that there is a Stake formed they are blessed to have their own patriarch in Moscow. That means that people can get their patriarchal blessings quickly instead of having to wait for years for a floating patriarch to come to town. That is a huge blessing. Four days later (still no hot water) we went back to Kiev for our second Visa trip. We were only gone for two days and most of that time was spent sitting in airports waiting for connecting flights, but we were able to attend a session at the Kiev Temple. It was fun because we ran into our Branch President and his wife there, and Dima who is our boss over our humanitarian work. We had no idea any of them would be there so that was a nice surprise. The next morning as we were leaving our hotel we ran into Elder Dennis Neuenschwander (recently called patriarch in our mission) who was there for some family history meetings with other missionaries. We didn't get to visit long but it was nice to see him again. When we got back home - we had HOT water!!!!!!!! Yeah!!!!!!!! I'm not looking forward to that experience again any too soon. Two days after we got back we went on a long road trip. It was a 12 hour day of riding in a small car with five people, visiting 5 different organizations for humanitarian projects, eating at each stop, having one last big meal at a restuarant and then heading back for another 2 1/2 hour drive home. Ohhhh, long day. BUT - it was fun and very productive. We found five very worthy projects and met some wonderful people. It really is the fun part of the job. The paperwork afterward is not so fun but Norm does all that so I don't have much to complain about. We have transfers this next week which is always traumatic for me. I hate saying goodbye to our missionaries. Our zone leader, Elder Harrison, is going home (back to Oklahoma)and we will really miss him. We don't know yet what other changes there will be but, "we shall prevail"! I think one reason I'm so tired is because we have the longest days ever here right now. It gets dark at about 11:30 at night and then the sun is up with bright daylight at 4:00 in the morning. Long days, short nights. But the weather is beautiful, getting warmer but not too hot yet. Love it! The flowers are growing, no one waters the grass so it is dying everywhere, but I still love it. It's absolutely beautiful country. Well, that's my report. All is well in Russia. The Church is true! The saints are strong! Missionary work is awesome! And we are happy little campers. Hope you are all doing well. We love you, we think about you often and pray for you daily. Keep the prayers coming our way. We love you! Mom, Michele or Elder and Sister Frost (whatever works!)

Cold Showers

Hi everyone, It seems like it was a short week and there's not too much to tell. Norm was gone for three days and I got to stay home alone. (It was nice) Sometimes 24/7 gets a little hard, even though we love each other and being here and doing what we're doing, it's still nice to be by myself once in a while. Norm went with our Branch Presidency and a few other men to Moscow for a Priesthood Leadership training. He said it was very good even though it was all in Russian and he didn't always get things translated to him. He went a day early and did some training with the Pattersons in Moscow and went over plans for the wheelchair project. He enjoyed a night out to dinner with them and then crashed on their couch. The next day, after his meetings, he rode the night train home with the rest of the men from our branch. They got home Sunday morning just in time to take a COLD shower and get right to early morning Church meetings. Long weekend for him. Now about the COLD shower thing. We are starting our second week of no hot water here. Every year they turn off the hot water for 2 - 4 weeks supposedly to clean the water pipes (or some weird reason). So everyday it takes me about 45 minutes to boil enough water to get about 3 inches in the tub. Then I take an extra bucket of hot water to pour over me when I'm through. It takes forever! Norm just showers in the freezing cold water and it takes him about 30 seconds. The water comes out of the tap like cold, melted snow temperature, water. It's great for drinking but a bit chilly for showering. What a lovely experience it is. Then they tell us that sometime this summer they will shut off ALL the water for about 3 days so we will need to use bottled water during that time. Can't wait! We might have to skip the bathing all together that week. Hum . . . sounds great! While Norm was gone I caught up on some reading, cleaning, and spent one whole day working on the grounds at the Church. You know me - I was in heaven. We have started the 40-day fast program in our Branch here. Already in the last week we have seen several miracles. All of a sudden we have three baptism dates scheduled for this month, we haven't had three baptisms in the last three months, so naturally we are all very excited. There's no question in my mind that when the Branch as a whole is united in prayer and fasting that many great miracles can and will take place. It's very exciting to see our missionaries respond to it and to see the snowball affect of their enthusiasm spread throughout the Branch. Our old Branch president is the new mission leader, and our new Branch president is wonderful so we are a happy little group. With as much rejection as our missionaries get each day, this is a real boost to their moral. It's very exciting. Keep us in your prayers. This next weekend, Saturday and Sunday, Elder Nelson will be here to organize the first Stake in Russia. It will be in Moscow, they finally have enough members there to make a stake, so our missionaries don't get to attend the meetings. But still, it is a very historical and exciting event for Russia. It will be the beginning of many great things to happen here and it's exciting to see the Church growing here. Everywhere we go we hear the words "missionary" and "Mormons" in Russian as we walk past them. People at least know who the missionaries are. That's good news. Don't forget that good missionaries teach the gospel everyday and sometimes they even use words. (That was one of my favorite quotes from this last General Conference). Have a great week everyone. We love you all so much. Love, Mom, Michele or Sister Frost

Moscow

Dear Family and Friends,

The biggest part of our week was a three day trip to Moscow and back. We took the over-night train with our missionaries for a Mission Conference and then took an extra day and did some site-seeing around the city. I love Moscow! There is so much history and so many incredible things to see. We had all of our missionaries with us, so the ones who had been places before took us around and we had our own personal tour guides.

First of all, our Mission Conference was really great. President and Sister Woolley both spoke to us which is always a wonderful treat. They are both wonderful speakers and fill everyone up with a renewed energy to work harder. We love the Woolleys! Then President and Sister Switzer, the Area President of the Europe East Area, spoke to us. They were also wonderful and so warm and friendly. Sometimes you think of the "President" as this untouchable person who you can't relate to very well, but they are both just normal (extremely knowledgeable and spiritual) people. They each took time to talk to EVERYONE there, listened as we talked about ourselves, and quickly became good friends with each one of us. He is from Ogden, so he and Norm had lots of stories to share of people they both know. Then when it came time for President Switzer to "teach" us, we were excited to listen. It was a wonderful day.

We ended our Conference about 4:00 and quickly went over to Red Square to get into as many places as we could before they closed at 6:00. We went through St. Basil's Cathedral which is amazingly beautiful. According to legend, Ivan the Terrible had the cathedral's architect blinded to ensure that he would never again create anything to rival it's beauty. We watched the Changing of the Guards at the "Eternal Flame" and then ran to go through the Kremlin and got there just as they were closing the gates. Too bad! We'll have to see that next time. We walked around Red Square for about another hour, shopped in the little outdoor shops and then went to the famous "Arbatskaya" street and had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. By the time we got to the street it had started to rain and we got drenched in a downpour, but we still had a great time. The street is for pedestrians only and is full of shops selling souvenirs of the Soviet era. The buildings and the shops were beautiful and fascinating. The street reminded me a little of walking the streets in Park City. Very much an artist community. We stayed overnight and spent the whole next day touring more of the city.

We started back at Red Square and waited in line to walk through and see Lenin's body. Creepy! He died a little over 60 years ago and they have preserved his body in a glass case for people to see him and pay their respects. The rest of the Russian Leaders are buried at the foot of the Kremlin Wall, including the famous Russian Astronaut (the first man in space) Yuriy Gagarin, and an American named John Reed who wrote "Ten Days that Shook the World" a story of the October Revolution. Very interesting!

We spent a few hours in one of the biggest Renuks (outdoor markets) in Moscow where the missionaries bought many $3.00 ties. They had a hey day. I even bought a few to send to Eddie, along with a few Russian t-shirts, and a Matroiska (stacking) Doll and a few other souviners. After lunch we spent the rest of the afternoon going through "Victory Park", an amazing museum of dioramas, models, maps and weapons from World War II. It was the most beautifully done war museum that we have been through so far. One of our missionaries, Elder Lenkersdorfer, is a history expert and he gave us information and answered every question we could think of about the war. So nice to have our own personal tour guide. We finished our day with another over-night train ride and got home on Saturday morning. It's so fun to spend time with our missionaries and be able to see the sites of this beautiful country we are in. It also helps us to understand more about the people and appreciate the hardships that they have had to endure. I can't believe how much suffering and loss of life there was during that time of war. Going through that museum really opened up my eyes.

Norm, being the good Humanitarian Missionary that he is, spent one morning going to the wheelchair factory to begin the process of having them make wheelchairs for us to distribute. Dima and the Pattersons were with him and I stayed with our missionaries seeing the sights. I felt a little bad about not going with him, but someone had to stay with the missionaries and since I like shopping more than he does, I got to do it! He joined us for the War Museum and was happy to see that. We are excited about the wheelchair project getting started here. That's a big important accomplishment for this area. Another major milestone for Russia is the formation of the First Stake in Russia. Elder Nelson will be here on June 4th and we get to go to Moscow and witness a very exciting moment in history. I'll tell you all about it in a few weeks.

Before I end, I just wanted to congratulate Eddie on his 1 year anniversary of serving in Ghana. The time is going by so fast. I love hearing about all that he is doing and seeing his growth and love for the Gospel and the people in Ghana. What an incredible blessing for him and our family. We love you Ed!

I hope you all have a wonderful week. I am posting pictures of our trip to Moscow on facebook, so you can look that up if you want. I love you all!

Love,
Sister Frost, Michele, and MOM

Off to Moscow

Dear family and friends, Another great week but not much to tell. We did have transfers last week so after losing two very special missionaries, we gained to new ones who will also be great missionaries. One is Sister Kusseling who is from Paris, France. She speaks French, English, and has a great french accent with her new language of Russian. 'Course I wouldn't know because I don't speak either, but that's what the other missionaries say. She's been in Russia for three months and Voronezh is her third city. She is a very cute girl with a great attitude and fits in perfect with our group of missionaries here. The other new one is Elder Eliason who just arrived from the MTC in Provo. He is from Laramie, Wyoming and comes from a family of nine children. When we get new ones who come from Provo it reminds us of how difficult our first few weeks here were. Exhaustion and culture shock take a few days for some and a few months for others. He was so tired when he got here that he kept falling asleep on our couch during dinner and feels a little lost with not understanding the language. But after almost a week, he is hard at it with his companion and has a big smile on his face every day. I'm constantly amazed at how quickly they adjust compared to the length of time it took me to adjust. Oh, to be young again! But we are all doing great and having a great time now. Tonight we are all headed to Moscow on the night train for a Mission Conference. Night trains aren't so bad, especially with a bunch of rowdy kids playing cards and eating junk food. The time goes by quickly. We got permission to stay an extra day and use our p-day for sight-seeing around Moscow the day after our conference so we're all excited for some fun. I love visiting all of the historical sites here. The more we learn about the culture of Russia, the more we love and understand these Russian people. The hardships and difficulties they have endured are not so different from the struggles our Pioneers suffered. Trials come in many different forms but the outcomes are much the same. Strength comes from the hardships we endure and we see that strength here. They may not embrace the Gospel yet, but they are fiercely loyal to their families, their country and their God. I love to see that. Now all we have to do is find those who are ready to receive the Gospel and keep the momentum going. Pray for the missionaries here that are working so hard and I know that the Lord will put us all in the same path. I heard from Eddie this week, as most of you did, and my heart goes out to him with his struggles of this new transfer. I've never been in a "white-wash" situation, but I can't imagine that it would be easy. Usually when a mission president replaces all of the old missionaries with a whole group of new ones it's because there is very little growth in the area and there needs to be a shake-up. I don't know if that's the case there, but having none of the missionaries know each other or any of the people in the area could be quite challenging. Even still, Ed's tough! He is the baby of the family and still needs to vent his frustrations to get a little sympathy, but he has the greatest attitude and he'll be just fine. I told him that this would probably end up to be his favorite area. We all know that the harder we work for something the more we appreciate it. This will be a great challenge for him but I'm sure will bring the most growth. He's grown up a lot in the past year (the 22nd is his hump day) and this will just keep pushing him. It makes me quite proud of him, as a Senior Missionary and as a mother. I have a much better understanding of what he's going through because of what we are experiencing. I'm living his pain and his joy, his successes and his failures, and our testimonies are growing together. I couldn't ask for anything better. Now, lest you think otherwise, I love ALL my kids! We feel all the joys and the sorrows of your every day lives, like any parent does, and we know that our Father in Heaven is mindful of all of us as we do our best to be keep His commandments and be the kind of people that He can be proud of. He has truly blessed our family since we have been gone, which is one of the greatest blessings of being a missionary. This experience has helped me realize how blessed I am to have the husband and children that I have. I am one very lucky lady. I hope you all have a wonderful week. Happy Hump Day to Eddie! Love, Mom/Michele

Missionaries and Mothers

Dear family and friends, We have just spent two of our best weeks here on our mission. I haven't written for two weeks because I haven't yet figured out a way to describe my feelings. We have hit the point in our mission where we have stopped wondering what we were thinking by coming here, to loving every minute of being here. Yesterday was "Victory Day" here, which is like our 4th of July, where the Russians celebrate their win over Germany in World War II. We spent the day with our missionaries watching parades of soldiers dressed in their old uniforms covered in medals, new soldiers just learning how to march, and a ton of very proud people who obviously love their country. The streets were full of people who were having fun buying food, candy, and souvenirs from street vendors, watching people perform on the streets, and enjoying a very beautiful day with their families. After several hours of walking the streets and buying a few souvenirs ourselves, we came back to our house for lunch and our District Meeting. Then at 10:00 we all went to watch a great fireworks display out over the river. Now here comes the part that I'm struggling with. I don't know how to explain how touched I was by the spirit of patriotism and pride that I felt during the whole day, but especially during the fireworks. With every burst of beautiful color there were shouts of joy and chants of "Russia, Russia, Russia". Without losing any of my loyalties or patriotism for my own country, I was overcome with a feeling of love for these people and their pride for their home land. In spite of the hardships and pain these people have had, and still do have, they Love their country. We couldn't help but get caught up in the joy of the celebration with our own clapping and cheering, and seeing our missionaries happier than I've ever seen them. It was a wonderful day! It reminded me that we are ALL our Heavenly Father's children with no one being better than another. Now having said that, I know the real happiness for our missionaries was the lingering effect of being able to talk with their families the day before. Sunday was Mother's Day, which typically isn't a mother's favorite day of the year, but this one was one of my best. It started out with my bouncing into Church wishing everyone here a Happy Mother's Day to quickly learn that it's NOT mother's day here in Russia. "Women's Day" was celebrated here a month ago. I don't know why that never registered in my brain, but I'm learning all kinds of things being here. Fortunately, they love me enough that they wished ME a happy mother's day without making me feel like too big of an idiot. As the day progressed, each or our missionaries came over to use our computer to skype home and talk to their mothers and families. We had the chance to meet their families and say hello and then listen to some of their conversations. And then we listened as our missionaries bore their testimonies to their families, some with tears streaming down their faces, of how much they love this Gospel and the opportunity of sharing it with these people here in Russia who they have come to love so much. We all shared those tears as our own feelings of love and gratitude came to the surface. Then I got to talk with Eddie and some of our other kids on a conference call. Unfortunately, Ed doesn't have access to skype so we couldn't see him while we were talking, but it was so fun to listen to his voice. He has a great big African accent that kept us all laughing for an hour. The greatest joy for me as the mom was listening to all the kids talk and interact with each other. We all miss each other and the feelings of love were very strong over the phone lines. Norm and I get to talk to our kids fairly often but the kids don't talk with each other as much now that we're gone, so those are very precious phone calls for us. And of course hearing Eddie's voice and his love and enthusiasm for his missionary work was the perfect ending to one of my favorite mother's day. Let there be no doubt that a mission COMPLETELY changes a person's life and in the case with us and with Eddie it is 100% for the better. We have seen incredible growth in maturity, knowledge, and testimony from Eddie and have experienced life-changing feelings and love for missionary work in our own lives. Everyone one of us are missionaries and it has very little to do with how knowledgeable we are about the Gospel and the scriptures and everything to do with how we love our neighbors. Get to know your neighbors, help your neighbors, love your neighbors - not just the ones who live next door, but wherever you are. Love the people who are around you. That is what being a missionary is. We represent Jesus Christ by loving and serving the people we come in contact with in our lives and then the Gospel speaks for itself. We can teach about Gospel principles but they fall on deaf ears until a loving and trusting relationship has been formed. And then we continue to love those people even when they don't want to hear about this amazing message we have to share with them. Our missionaries here get rejected time after time in their contacting but instead of getting discouraged they put more effort into loving and serving whoever will let them. We have encouraged them to keep calling those who have gone inactive or investigators who have changed their minds to just ask how they are and see if there is anything they need without any talk about the Gospel or commitments. It is amazing what a difference it has made in the reception they get from these people. Just showing love and concern is the biggest part of being a successful missionary. Numbers are not what's important, people are. We are losing two of our missionaries today. After the pain of the last transfer I thought I would get tougher and learn to love these kids a little less so it wouldn't hurt so much when they leave, but - not to be! I love them like they are my own children and I'm so proud of how hard they work. We watched them contact people on the bus one day and couldn't believe the rejections they got time after time. I couldn't do it! I was feeling sick for them and when we got off the bus I mentioned how awful I thought that was. They looked at me like I was crazy and said it didn't bother them at all. They love it! They love to watch people stare at their name tags trying to read them and then telling them that they are missionaries and asking if they want to hear about it? They say they don't get discouraged with the constant "No's" because the one "Yes" that they get makes it all worth it. They have amazing resiliency and spirits and I love being with them. I have lots more to say, but I think I'll wait for another letter. Just remember that we love you all so much. Our lives are so blessed by the wonderful people all around us. Thank you for you love, letters and prayers. Have a wonderful week! Love, The Frosts

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

Busy Week

Hello everyone, We've had a busy week, and hope yours was also good and productive. Mondays are our District Meeting days which means cooking a big meal for all the missionaries. This last Monday we had the two Elders from Lipestk and the AP's visiting, so we had 12 of us total. It's a little squishy in the living room, but so much fun to have everyone here - we LOVE it! Then for FHE it was our turn for the lesson, so we talked about identifying and defining who we are. We gave everyone a blank copy of a family crest and had them fill in each square with pictures or words to describe different areas of their lives - education, hobbies, talents, jobs, family, values, life experiences, and positive qualities. It was very fun to watch them struggle to list positive things about themselves and then to finish standing up in front of the group and telling us out loud about their lives. So many people think they don't have any talents, or haven't done anything exciting in their lives, or have anything good to say about themselves. This was a great activity for recognizing that we are all children of our Heavenly Father and we are the same but different, and we all are blessed with talents. I posted some pictures of our Crests on facebook last week. Tuesday we went shopping to restock our cupboards with food for the next meal coming up. It was also the day of Shaleen's surgery and, after a little scare, we are so thankful that she is home and recovering. Wednesday we had a cute couple in our Branch and a single sister who is a new convert come over for dinner. Only one of them spoke a little English, so we had one set of missionaries here to translate for us. The couple are in their late 30's and met a few years ago at the Temple in Helsinki and got married. They told us their story and it was so fun to get to know them better. I've already mentioned before, but our goal is to have two "families" over for dinner each week so we can get to know the members of our Branch better. It's so fun. I love these members here. Thursday was P-day so again we have all the missionaries here for a meal - either lunch or dinner, depending on what our plans are. The weather hasn't been very good this past week, a lot of rain, so we stayed in and played games. That's my favorite anyway. I do wish we could get more board games here (in English) so we could have a little variety, but it's still fun. It can get kinda wild and crazy and the rule is, the more cheating the better. You probably have to be here to appreciate that. That night Norm went with a couple of Elders to give a blessing to one of the ILP teachers. She has been having terrible headaches and after having an MRI they discovered a cyst and spinal fluid in her brain, so she ended up going home early. It's a little scary to have serious medical problems here, I'm glad she was able to get home. After the blessing, the guys had a Priesthood Activity at the Branch and I went with the Sisters to a members home for FHE with her two children and her mother. The Sisters gave a short lesson, everyone colored pictures about the lesson, we sang songs, told stories about our lives and traditions, drank some lemon tea, had some kind of coffee cake and then came home. It was a very full and very wonderful day! Friday we had a Humanitarian visit with the Medical Director of a Hospital with several outlying clinics. We have been doing some projects for a few of the clinics and he wanted to meet us and find out about our Humanitarian program. We had our translator and Olga, who works for the Government and finds all our contacts, with us. In the past the Government workers have not been very willing to work with the missionaries, so this was a big milestone in creating a positive impression and getting the Medical Director to be excited about what we are doing. We had to provide some legal papers and "stamped" documents proving that we are legal here and explaining what we do, but it all turned out well and we had a great meeting. It was a success! That night we had English Club, Gospel English and volleyball. I am now the cheerleader for the volleyball games and quite happy with that responsibility. Gospel English is my favorite with a small group of people who read outloud in English and then we discuss the Gospel topic that we just read about. Most of them are not members, so it's our chance (me and Norm) to do a little teaching of our own. It is so very fun. We can get into some pretty interesting discussions on a very non-threatening basis and many of them don't even realize they just had a "discussion" with the missionaries. Saturday we had a city wide service project. Every spring the people all over Russia have a city clean-up day and volunteers go out and clean up the trash, rake the dead leaves and tree limbs, till up gardens, sweep the sidewalks and streets, and make the cities look beautiful. Our Branch members went to a part of town (where we were assigned) and picked up the trash along the sides of the streets. We filled up about 40 bags of garbage, in the cold and rain, and had a blast! We had a pretty good turnout, especially when 10 of us are missionaries, and made a difference in our little spot of the city. Great project! Sunday was Palm Sunday and we had a bunch of new people show up at Church. I guess people feel the need to go to Church that day and just stop in at the closest one they can find. Our missionaries had a hey day talking with everyone. We had a two-hour choir practice after church to get ready for Easter Sunday next week. Makes for a long day but a good Sunday activity. Our weeks are full and our lives are blessed. We love our missionary work and are thankful that we can share these blessings with you. We love each one of you and thank you for keeping in touch with us and letting us know about your lives. There is a time and a season for everyone and it's great to hear about it all. Have a wonderful week. Love, The Frosts

Dear family and friends,

I'm a little late in getting this letter out. I loved this last Conference weekend, but I was exhausted after two days of feeding people ALL day each day. I went to bed last night and crashed.

Back to Conference. I know we are a week behind you (we're actually ahead) but we didn't watch until this week. They set up a TV in the Branch for the members to come and watch both days. It was broadcast in Russian there, so we had people here in our home who wanted to watch it in English. There were so many talks that I loved that it's hard to choose a favorite. Elder Holland is ALWAYS one of my favorites. I love how he explained the way conference works, the process of choosing a subject that needs to apply to every different kind of person throughout the world. No pressure there! And always, there is something that is directed personally to each one of us. I loved Elder Bednar's explanation of the two different types of revelations. The light switch and the rising sun. What a perfect way to explain something that we sometimes don't recognize. I loved all the talks and emphasis on Welfare and Service. "Be kind to the poor". "Service to the poor exhalts the receiver and humbles the giver". My humanitarian trips and this mission have proved that to me over and over. How grateful I am for my life in Utah when I see so much suffering in the rest of the world. And how grateful I am that I am able to do a little something to help ease the burdens of someone else. I loved the reminder that, "Impressions and promptings are revelations from God. Act on them immediately." I'm so guilty of getting a prompting and then talking myself out of doing it before I even try. I very often regret not doing something that I was prompted to do, but my goal is to listen more closely and "do what I'm told". I loved Elder Christofferson's talk about being willing to accept and seek correction. Especially when he said, "Parents can and must correct their chidren's misdeeds". I just want my kids to know that every time I get on your case about something, I'm just following
the counsel of our leaders. Although half of the time I couldn't keep up with him, I loved the talk by Elder Robbins - "To do and to be." I loved when he said we can check off our "to do" lists but we are never done with our "to be" lists. And I just smiled all through President Monson's talk. What a cute, sweet man, and what a wonderful prophet he is. I loved reading his autobiography and getting to know about his life. Elder Holland was so great in his praise of President Monson, who deserved every word of it. He has dedicated and sacrificed so much of his life to this great church and the gospel and is a wonderful example for us all to look up to. There were so many more great talks, so many that were just for me. There are so many ways that I need to improve that I couldn't take it all in, so I'm looking forward to reading them in the Ensign when it comes out.

I feel so blessed to be here, serving a mission in Russia, and hope that my efforts here can earn me another rung on the ladder as I try to serve, and love, and teach people about life, the Gospel, and our Savior, Jesus Christ. What an honor and a privilege this is.

I love you! I miss you! I'm happy! I'm grateful to be here! And I thank you - my family, my friends, and especially my Heavenly Father. Have a great week.

Love,
Sister Frost

Dear family and friends, It's finally starting to feel like the time is going too fast. I can't believe we're finished with March and starting into April. That means it's been just about four months since we left home. March was a great month for us, very busy with lots of adventures. But that's just what we do here - have one adventure after another. We are adjusting to this life and we love what we are doing. Even through the tough times we feel so blessed to be working with the missionaries and serving in our humanitarian role. I'm attaching our monthly activity report with a few pictures so you can read and see some of the things we did during the month. We have been reading and learning more and more about the gathering of the lost ten tribes and continue to be amazed that it's happening right here, right now! Last month we had a Patriarch come from Salt Lake to give blessings and again he confirmed that the majority of the people he gave blessings to come from one of the lost ten tribes. For me it's always been something that was going to happen some day, but now that day is here. We're in the middle of it and it's really happening. These new converts are the pioneers who are establishing the Church here in this country and slowly, but surely, it continues to grow. These are very exciting times here. I hope you ALL are preparing your selves to serve a mission one day. It is the most amazing experience and worth all the effort of preparation and sacrifice. The blessings continue to pour in for us and our family and we are so thankful. We love you and pray for each of you every day. Have a wonderful week! Love, The Frosts MONTHLY ACTIVITY REPORT – MARCH 2011 Elder and Sister Frost – Voronezh HUMANITARIAN ACTIVITIES Our mission continues to be one big adventure after another, the best part of which is meeting so many wonderful new people. Our first big adventure was going to Kyiv for our first Visa trip. We combined that trip with Employment Training and were blessed to meet the Pincocks from Armenia and the Burrs from Kharkov, Ukraine. We spent five days in Kyiv learning all about the Employment Program and quickly caught on to the enthusiasm and excitement that they have for this program. We invited all of the Senior Couples from the Kyiv Mission, along with President Steinagel, and spent an entire day training with them. We served them lunch, they served us dinner, and we had a wonderful time. During our stay we were so fortunate to attend the Temple there and meet President and Sister Galbraith. What a thrill it was to be in that beautiful Temple and listen to a session in both Russian and English. That was a first for us. We enjoyed seeing some of the historical sites of the city and then flew back to Moscow. Because this was our first Visa trip we weren’t exactly sure of the procedure of switching passports, so we used the wrong one at the wrong time and had a little “hold-up” but we got through. We then stayed in Moscow for another four days and were finally able to meet the Pattersons. What a fun couple they are and doing a great job with this new “very big” job. We trained with them and Dima and spent a day visiting two wheelchair manufacturing companies hoping to find one that will be able to produce enough wheelchairs that we can get some Major Initiative Wheelchair Projects going in Russia. Lucky for us that Dima was there to translate and get first-hand information because he took that back to Salt Lake with him for approval. It was a long but extremely informative and exciting 10 days. Just as a little side note: We thought we did everything we needed to get registered in Moscow but after we returned home to Voronezh we were told that we weren’t registered and had to go back to Kyiv and then re-enter the country again. So we just got home from another two day trip where an ATM machine ate up our personal credit card and we had to have our taxi driver pay our bills for us. We gave him Rubles in exchange for Grivens (not sure about that spelling). Then on our flight home from Moscow, Elder Frost got bumped up to business class so while he sat in the front row and had dinner served to him, I sat in the back and had water. Oh, adventure, adventure! ECCLESIASTICAL This month was full of comings and goings with our missionaries. First we had a darling Sister from our Branch who, after waiting for over 6 months, was finally able to get her Visa and leave to serve her mission at Temple Square. It is so wonderful to see the strength and dedication of these members in our Branch. We love them! We lost one of our missionaries who needed to return home, so his companion – our favorite District Leader- was snatched up by President Woolley to be an office Elder. Then we had transfers and lost another of our Elders but we’re getting three new Elders to join our two Sisters and we will learn to love them quickly and just as much as the others. It’s pretty emotional getting attached to these missionaries and then having them leave every 6 weeks. We love them and we miss them, but if they can do it, so can we! During our training in Moscow we were able to attend a Zone Conference with many of our Districts and President and Sister Woolley. Those are so inspirational and rejuvenating and get us all excited and ready to come back and jump right back into the work. Our Sisters had their first baptism this month and what a thrill to see the smiles on their faces as their investigator was baptized and confirmed. We love this missionary work. We love our missionaries, we love our Branch members and we love working with our new investigators. We are so thankful to be a part of the literal gathering of these lost 10 tribes.

Wearing Two Hats

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

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

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