It's Cold Here!

Hello everyone, We've had a crazy week and it ended with a bang. It's COLD here! The temperatures have been below 0 every day this week and we have a flu epidemic here in Voronezh. Schools have been closed for a few weeks, some businesses have closed and people are staying home trying to stay healthy. Well, it hit our little group of missionaries and we have had someone sick almost every day this week. When a missionary gets sick they spend the day here with us and their companion joins the others for the day. So we have had the sick bay and now we are sick. Some have had the vomiting and diarrhea thing others just very bad headaches and body aches. We have the bad headaches and I have slept for the last two days with no energy. BUT, we got better real fast tonight. At about 9:00 we got a call from the Sister missionaries who were outside our building being harassed by some drunk guys. I don't know what it is about our missionaries that attracts them on Sunday nights, but we might not let them out on Sunday nights anymore. No harm done, but very scary. We had transfers this week, said goodbye to our wonderful missionaries and got three new ones. We're excited to have them - one elder from Arizona, one from Nebraska and a sister missionary from St. Petersburg, Russia. After tonight I hope they are still excited to be here. Even with a few problems, we still have the best area in our mission. We love it here, love our Branch and love all the contacts and activities that we have going on. Our English club on Friday nights has become one of our favorite activities. Norm and I lead the advanced class (the people who speak the best English) and we have so much fun. The same people come each week and we have become good friends and laugh and joke. We're sort of getting a little reputation and our group is getting bigger and bigger each week. We try to come up with something fun and different each week and we are having a great time. After English club, we have a short class of Gospel English where we read out of the Gospel Essentials book so they can practice reading in English. That was hard for me at first because I was by myself trying to explain Gospel principles to Russians, in English. Our communication was very difficult. But now we have more people coming (like Norm) and more who can help interpret and it's so much fun. We get into some pretty good discussions which makes us realize how much these new converts still have to learn. We are loving it. Then, after those two classes we go play volleyball. I've turned into a real wimp because twice now I've sprained my wrist hitting the ball, so I guess that's out for me. It's still fun to watch and just be with everyone. We've been on several discussions this week with the missionaries. Some that are very successful with investigators who seem very interested and willing to learn. Others with people who are struggling with personal problems and just aren't ready to have a huge change in their lives right now. It's a hard thing for some people. If they accept the Gospel and agree to be baptized, many of them are shunned by their families and friends and are alone. The Branch members become their families, but that is a very big sacrifice for many people. So even though they agree with what they are learning, they're not quite ready for the hard stuff. At least we are planting the seeds and leaving them with lots to think about. Many stop seeing the missionaries for a while and then call and want to come back. Some don't, but that's part of the process. What an exciting and yet humbling experience to be involved in all off this. We play hard and have lots of fun, and then we work hard with great rewards. After that, we sleep hard because it's freezing and we're sick. But. . . it's all in a days work. We've been able to talk on the phone and skype with lots of family members this week, so that has improved the week immensely. Even with the sickness, we've had a great week and we love what we're doing. Keep the letters and posts coming. I'm getting better at posting pictures so look either on facebook or our blog for those. We love you! You're in our thoughts and prayers everyday. Take care of yourselves and your families and pray for the missionaries. Love, The Frosts