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