Week 2!

Dobry Den muy rodina!

What a beautiful day it is! When we go to the temple on Thursday mornings the sun is just at the right spot shining down on good old Moroni. It is my favorite moment of the day for sure. We did initatory's today and guess who was one of the temple workers in my little booth.... Coleen Hatfield! Hah it was so fun seeing her. She said she couldn't believe that I was old enough to be on a mission. I had to agree with her on that one. ;) I've actually ran into a lot of people from home this past week! I saw Chelsey Burns today at the temple and then Kevin Critchfield on the way back to campus. He works here as a driver. Yesterday I saw Taylor Sutterfield at the stoplight coming back from gym time. Funny story about that encounter.... I was so excited to see him and I wanted to give him something to give to mommy. I just so happened to have some pencils and notepad with me so I wrote a little note and gave it to him and while I was doing this someone a couple cars behind was leaning out the window saying "DON'T DO ITTTT!" I think he thought I was giving my number to him or something. HAHAHAH how funny is that? Anyway, I hope the little note got delivered! :)

Oh! and I also have been seeing a lot of Shelby Millerberg's little brother. I am not sure what his name is... but he is going to Tahiti and has been here for 10 weeks so he is almost on his way out. Woo-hoo! 

Alright here are some random things I wanted to share with you this week!

Our favorite gym time activity this past week has been "scoops" haha it's super fun. I also got to PLAY CATCH. Ahhhhhh it never felt so good to throw a softball. Sister Birkeland is a trooper. She has been my workout partner in crime and angel here at the MTC. Also, during gym time I try to sneak in 20 minutes of sunshine.... Gotta get that Vitamin D seeing as i'm stuck in a classroom all day. ;)

I forgot to mention last week that we live on the top floor of our building, love that. andddd I sleep on the TOP BUNK. haha! I love it. Reminds me of my childhood days. I also am really loving my short hair.... It was prolly the wisest decision I ever made. It makes getting ready in the morning A LOT quicker. I've almost mastered being on time! ;)

Our zone and district are growing a lot closer. It's awesome to see the relationships that have been made in just 2 weeks. You would think that we have all been best friends since birth. The one thing I love most about my district is we LAUGH. There is not a day that goes by that we aren't laughing at something silly in class. Without laughter I think I would prolly go crazy in here! Oh! and GREAT news. We have THREE teachers now! HALLELUJAH! We seriously have THE best teachers in this place and I am not just saying that. 

We spend a lot of time in the crapeteria and while we are there we have some time to think about something else besides Czech. Lately I've been thinking about when Dad, Ron, T. Fred, Clarkie and Mike were here and what they were like during their stays at the MTC. hahah I can only imagine. It's fun to think that I am walking the same hallways that they once did.

Temple Walks on Sunday are the best. and They also have theee yummiest Chocolate covered cinnamon bears at the bookstore.... :)

Sunday was hands down the most spiritual Sunday and day of my entire life. I have never felt the spirit so strongly. In Relief society the speaker spoke on Faith and having faith in His work and our efforts. For times sake, I am just going to bear my testimony that I know without a shadow of a doubt that Christ lives. He suffered on the cross for me and all of you so that we can return back home to our Heavenly Father. I know that Heavenly Father loves us and is aware of every single concern, doubt, and joy we have. TALK to him, don't let a day go by without kneeling down to pray to your Father in Heaven. This gospel means more than anything to me. I couldn't imagine my life without it. Everyday I pray that I will have the strength to work a little bit harder to be better than I was the day before. 

I love this quote from Joseph Smith, "The best way to climb a ladder is to start at the bottom, and take one step at a time until you reach the top."

It is as simple as that. Heavenly Father isn't asking us to climb Mount Everest, or run a million marathons. He wants us to make goals, and stretch ourselves to reach them. I have learned how important goals and planning is in missionary work and just in life. Without goals or ambitions there isn't much drive to achieve anything. When I have set goals in the past, I haven't always been the best at following through with them. At the Tuesday devotional, Brother Martino of the Seventy spoke to us about the importance of goal setting. He said, "Sometimes goals are made and not meant to be reached. They are just meant to push us." I love that. You might not reach your goal in the end, but you progressed and are better then when you started. Heavenly Father isn't going to judge us by what we are. He is going to judge us by what we become.

I love you my family!!! Thanks for the package mom and dad!!! But remember what I said about no treats. ;)

Until next week! 

Naslednou!!! :)

Sestra Fred

 Tuesday service day. Ha! 

 Our boyfriends on bikes.

I found Elder Jensen! 

AHOY RODINA!

Hello hello my sweet family!! Jak se mate???? Translation: HOW ARE YOU?!? Can you believe a week has already gone by?! Time is moving too quickly here in the MTC. I need it to slow down so I can have a chance to learn the language. Haha. I have been looking forward to writing you all week! :) I have so much I want to say, so hopefully I can get it all down in the short amount of time I have on the keyboard. So here it goes!

As I mentioned last week, my companion is Sestra Holland. She is from Los Gatos, California which is like 20 minutes away from Santa Cruz. I told her that's where we vacationed as a family a lot growing up. We are convinced that we prolly saw each other there on the boardwalk at some point. ha! Her temple is the Oakland, California temple (Mom and Dad's temple)! She received her endownment there. So cool. She has an older sister who just got married, a brother on a mission in Russia, and a little brother at home around MG's age. Sestra Holland has ridden across the Golden Gate bridge on a bike 7 times, can ride a unicycle, describes herself as spontaneous and she is funny without even trying to be funny and I love it.We both love peanut butter and running so basically we were meant for each other. I love her!

Okay now for my daily routine.

5:40 Wake up

6-6:30 Special Sisters only work out. Definitely my favorite time of the day. Each day is different, like yoga, pilates, cardio kickboxing, etc. It's awesome.

7:15 Breakfast 

7:40-11:30 Class

11:35-12:20 Lunch

12:30-4:50 Class/Lesson with Investigator 

5-5:30 Dinner

5:40-9:30 Class

9:30-10:30 Plan for the next day (which isn't too difficult at this point) and a little bit of ME time which = journal time!

So yeah, pretty self-explanatory. We just hang out in the classroom all day and it's great. My district is so fun! there are 4 of us sisters and 3 elders. Elder Needham, Elder Cook and Elder Keller. E. Needham loves to sing and dance. His signature move is the Jesus Jig. HAHAHAHAHAH. Oh how I wish you could see it. E. Cook is our District leader which is fitting because is the most serious of the three but has his one or two punchlines that are pretty hilarious.E. Keller is our sarcastic and dry sense of humor elder. Hah they make quite the trio. We have had some good talks about whether college or NFL football is better and which university's are the best etc. hah We love them. They are like my little Brothers.

Our teachers are Bratr Thompson and Bratr Napp. They are awesome! We didn't have a teacher for the first few days here so we are just SO thankful to have them!!! They make learning the language fun. :)

Sestra Holland and I taught a Sestra by the name of Andrea for the past week. We taught her five lessons all in Czech. Prolly one of the hardest things I've done, but the easiest at the same time. At first it was really frustrating because we didn't know how to say anything, but by the time we got to our fifth lesson we got better at improvising and not relying quite as much on our script like we did in the beginning. We taught her about family, prayer, the Holy Ghost, and asked her to be baptized yesterday. She responded well to all of our lessons and she did the things we asked her to do like pray, and read the BOM, but her family is catholic and she's afraid they will be really upset with her if she joins our church. We bore testimony to her that we know Heavenly Father loves her and her family and whatever fears she has with them disowning her He will take care of if she just has faith. The spirit was so strong and she even began to cry! It was truly amazing. Although she didn't commit to baptism, I believe that we planted a seed in her heart. The gift of tongues is a real thing. I would have never dreamed I could teach a lesson in Czech just two days after being here. It is amazing!

Sestra Holland and I are starting to find our groove and figuring out ways we best study and teach together. We make a rock solid companionship! I will be sad to say goodbye to her when our time comes to leave this MTC and head out to Czech. Good thing that isn't for awhile:)

The food isn't so bad here after all! haha I have probably eaten the healthiest I ever have in the past week then I have in my entire life! Hard to believe I know, but it is possible to do here. Hah I just stay away from the sweets! 

I have been LOVING THE DEAR ELDERS! Shout out to Carkie boy! He has been my number one DearElder :) Keep sending them!! It is so fun to come into class after lunch and have a dear elder or two sitting on my desk. :):) I always freak out a little and get prolly a little too excited to see them. The elders say I have the best reactions. ha!

The Tuft family sent me Banana bread! THANK YOU TO THE TUFTS!!!! Our district and zone enjoyed those last night during our night classroom session. We usually get a little hungry around 8 or so since we have dinner so early so it was perfect. MOM don't worry, I have been eating my spoonful of peanut butter a day. :) Clark mentioned that Mike was on TV for some ice bucket thing??? I don't know what that is, but that is so sweet he hit the big screen! Go MIkey! When you see him, give him a big hug for me! Crazy to think they will all be starting school soon.... suckers. Haha just kidding.

They say Sundays and Tuesdays are for the Spirit and Thursdays are for the soul. And I can testify that that is true. HA the devotionals here are incredible. The spirit is so amazing. We sing in the choir too so that is fun! P-days are the greatest thing ever. The temple session with our zone was awesome this morning. I have missed going and it's only been a week. haha! OH! And I ran into Shauna Frampton in the dressing room. I gave her a big hug and told her to pass it on to you mommy! So go find her. :) We ate at the temple today and it was pretty yummy! 

Lessons learned this week:

1.Pride is going to get me nowhere. Earlier this week I was having a lot of pride in being frustrated with the language. I was feeling like I should just know it already and that if I can't speak the language then I can't get my investigator to feel the spirit. It only took me a day to figure out that I need to get over myself and the fact that this work isn't about me and becoming fluent in Czech. It is about inviting others to come unto Christ. It is HIS work, not mine. I am just an instrument in His hands and Czech is just a tool to help me with my purpose of being a missionary.

2. Relying on the Lord. I don't think I have prayed harder then I ever have in my entire life. There is no way I could do what I am doing without the help of my Heavenly Father and Savior. I have really had to learn how to put my whole trust in Him and rely on him to help me to do my best in becoming the missionary and daughter of God He wants me to be. 

Okay, I am running out of time, I can't think straight, and my fingers aren't moving fast enough so i'll have to end it here. But I want you to know that I know my Savior lives. He is with us every step of the way, and only wants to see us succeed in our righteous endeavors. Talk with Him and listen to His promptings through the Holy Ghost. I love this gospel with ALL of my heart. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! and I love representing Christ. What an honor it is. He LOVES us!!! 

Loved the pictures dad!!! The boys are already growing up and it's only been week. :( Jade is as cute as ever. I bet she loved getting to swim with Grandpa IN THE POOL. haha way to go flanders! Give them big hugs and kisses for me!

I love you my family!! Have a great week!!!! 

Laska pokazde,

  Sestra Fred 

Here are some pics. Enjoy :)

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

DAD!!!! + Mom + Family!

WOW. That is all I have to say about the last 36 hours. I don't think I could fully express the feelings I have felt, but what I can tell you that EVERYONE IS HAPPY HERE and it is awesome. The spirit is so so strong and it is wonderful. My companion's name is Sestra Holland. She has long blonde hair, blue eyes and is a spiritual giant in her own quiet way. We room with Sestra Clark and Sestra Birkeland, which is a pretty cool thing because ALL four of us knew each other prior to entering! I got to know Sestra Clark the most from communicating on social media, but I did know Sestra Holland and Sestra Birkeland before too. So that's pretty sweet! We all get along great. :)

Soooooo the language is tough. The first day you walk into class and Czech is all you hear and will hear for the rest of your stay. At times is can get frustrating but our teacher is good about using excellent body language and repeating. The food isn't too shabby! They had some edame stuff tonight for dinner that Sestra Holland and I tried. It was really good! I thought of you Mom. :) I've ran into Elder Nadauld, Elder Jensen, and Elder Whitlock and a Sister I had mission prep with down in Cedar. Lots of familiar faces! So fun!

Alright, well we only have 5 minutes so I'm sorry I can't go into detail on much! But I am here, I survived my first night, our district is AWESOME and so is our Branch presidency!!! Our p-day is on Thursday's so you won't hear from me for a little while. Just know that I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU!!!!!! 

Talk to you soon!

 always, 

Sestra Fred

The Drop Off

We said our last goodbyes as Sister Fredrickson entered the MTC on August 13th. We had a nice lunch at Zupas before we headed to the Provo Temple to take pictures, hug, cry, and say goodbye. Then we all piled into the minivan to see her off.  We had such a nice morning with her. Jenn was ready to get in there and get to work.  There is no doubt about it, that girl is going to be an exceptional missionary.  

Since then we have heard from her once (August 14th). She was doing wonderful and said everyone is so happy in the MTC and she loves it.  Her p-day is THURSDAY and we are all anxiously waiting to hear from her again!

Farewell

 Jenn gave her farewell talk on July 27th. She did a wonderful job and we enjoyed the most lovely musical numbers.  She shared a cool story about a dream she had about a year before she received her call.  In her dream she got her call and it said she was going to Prague, Czech. About a year later she received that call.  We had a lovely day celebrating Jenn and her desire to serve with delicious food and lots and lots of great family and friends.  

Called on a Mission: Czech/Slovak Mission

psalms 84: 10-12

10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. 

11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. 

12 O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.