C H A N G E

Cau Cau!


It has been one, hectic, crazy, so many things happened kind of week. I hope that I can cover everything that I would like to!

SHOUTOUTS:
H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y Clarkie Boy! I hope you have one of the best days! I love you!
High five for making it through the month of love! ha.

Mary Grace! Congrats on taking 2nd in state! I am so proud of you and the team!!!


MLADA MYSTERIES:

---> Weather has turned cold. It has been pretty overcast and rainy lately.

---> We put 2 people on date this past week!

---> We have become the best of friends with the people who own the Kebab shop. ha!

      Their names are Erkan and Melek. They are from Hungary! I think.

---> I am staying in Mlada this transfer and... I will be training. :) Sestra Boza headed to Paradubice!

B.O.M. INSIGHT:

Alma 60:36 reads,
"Behold, I am Moroni, your chief captain. I seek not for power, but to pull it down. I seek not for honor of the world, but for the glory of my God,

and the freedom and welfare of my country. And thus I close mine epistle."

I find Jesus in this scripture in the sense that He is not one to seek power or honor of the world, rather he in is ever self-lessness

was and is constantly seeking the glory of God and the freedom and welfare of our souls.

TRAINING:

We had training in Prague last Wednesday. President focused on Joseph Smith. I want to share with you a few quotes he shared with us.

Two great truths must be accepted by mankind if they shall save themselves: first, that Jesus is the Christ, the

Messiah, the Only Begotten, the very Son of God, whose atoning blood and resurrection save us from the physical

and spiritual death brought to us by the fall; and next, that God has restored to the earth, in these last days,

through the Prophet Joseph Smith, His holy Priesthood with the fullness of the everlasting Gospel, for the

salvation of all men on the earth. Without these truths man may not hope for the riches of the life hereafter.


The second is from Thomas Carlyle in 1840 and is one of my favorites. The "Great Man" referred to in the quote is

the prophet Joseph.

The Great Man was always as lightning out of Heaven; the rest of men waited for him like fuel, and then they too

would flame.

I wish you all could have been there and felt the spirit in that room as President testified of "The Great Man"Joseph. 

I love Joseph Smith. I love learning about him and they spiritual journey he himself had to take to find God and Jesus Christ.

I know with all my heart that Joseph Smith was a good man and a prophet of God. I know he wasn't perfect, but I do know that 

he was called of God and was qualified to do what he did in restoring Christ's church to the Earth.

We were also trained on how to use baptismal calendars with our investigators! Along with the teaching record and our planners that have some key points on what needs to be covered

and introcuded to the investigator before baptism. We studied and reviewed chapter 12 in Preach My Gospel together
as a Zone and recieved a lot of good insight on how to use it better.

WORK:

So, like I just mentioned we were trained on how to use and implement the baptismal calendar, our teaching record and our planners better when working

with investigators to prepare them for baptism. We have been working with 3 investigators and the day after training we used the baptismal calendar Sestra Boza

and I implemented what we learned at training and put 2 of them on date! Jiri and Tomas! They are both on date fore the 23rd of April (Angie's Bday) and they are both

so excited. Jiri is our english student, and Tomas was a former who we found in the area book. Tomas is amazing and is soooo smart! He remembers EVERYTHING from

what he was taught a couple years ago. He was actually found by the one and only Sister Smith! :) He loves loves lovesss Joseph Smith and his first vision too.

Jiri is this gentle spiritual giant. We taught him the Restoration and then put him on date. He also loved the story of Joseph and really believes that the experience that Joseph

had is possible. He told us at the end of our lesson that he is so grateful for what we do as missionaries and that our message is one of hope that this world really needs right now.

Wow. He is a good one. Good things are going to be happening in Mlada this next transfer!

TRANSFERS:

Sestra Boza and I were really sad to see the transfer end. She is one of my best friends and I am really going to miss her, but am so excited for her to go to Paradubice!

She will be follow-up training Sister Anderson there. :) That leaves me staying in Mlada Boleslav and I will be training!

Only thing is, my sweet greenie's visa didn't come through. So she is visa waiting in the states somewhere. ( I can relate to that. ha)

Sooooooo!

I will be serving with the Prague Sisters!!! Sister Andreason and Sister Humphries.

We will work between the two areas until my greenie comes. It is going to be crazy, but so much fun!

I will also be Sister Training Leader with Sister Andreason, who started her mission in Mlada! It will be

good to have her back in the area to help ignite some testimonies again.

Mission life is crazy and things are never what you expect them to be!

President McConkie often says that Change is the only constant thing in missionary life. ha

I am grateful for change! I know that where there is change, there is conversion. And thát's something

we all need in this life.

I love you all so much!

Have an amazing week!!!

S laskou,

Sestra Fred

The Miracle of SNIH (snow)

Dobré Odpoledné!

I am happy to report that I am writing to you all from the beautiful city of Prague today!

Sister Boza and the Gunnels had visa work this morning, so we rode in with the Gunnels and 

got here around 9:30. While they went off to do Visa work I got to take part in the Office meeting

that they have every Monday morning with the office couples, office elders, and assistants. Ha it was

fun to sit in on that and an eye opener for me to see all the planning and work that goes on behind 

the scenes. Every person plays a part!

SHOUTOUTS:

Mom: Sister McConkie told me specifically to tell you THANK YOU for the cute card that you sent their family for Christmas? 

She wants you to know how much she loves you and adores you. And that you are the cutest! :)

Hope the birthday kids (Ron D, Uncle John, Bre Bater, and Aliza) had a fun-filled, festive week!

Last week of the transfer! Woot woot.

MLADA MYSTERIES

---> It has been raining quite a bit here! 

---> We had a branch activity on Saturday in Jicin. We played Kužlezky (I think) ha it was a lot of fun! It's similar to bowling. See Google. 

---> Sister Boza and I ate our first Kebab of the transfer this past week. It was divine!

B.O.M. INSIGHT:

Alma 44:4

Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, 

and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith.

I think that it is important for us to constantly ask ourselves, "In whom am I putting my faith in?" I have a strong testimony that if we strive to put

our faith in God and the Lord, Jesus Christ we will always have the promised blessing of being supported and preserved. I have seen that first hand

in my life this past year. 

SNOW MIRACLES:

Just when we thought spring was right around the corner we get a snow day!

It snowed allllll day on Wednesday. hahah it was crazy. We were worried to because we had a 

lesson set up with Pavlina and she has only liked to go on walks when we meet. So we texted her to see if 

we were still on for our meeting and she said yes, but it is snowing a lot so I don't know if I really want to take the kids 

out. Long story short, we told her that we reallllyyyy realllllyyy reallllyyy wanted to see her because it had been over a week

and that we would make it a quick visit! She caved, and said alright come over! This means that we would be teaching

her IN HER HOME!!!!!

We got to teach her in her home and meet her little boy who we hadn't had the chance to meet already. 

We have been focusing on making daily contact with her by sending her scriptures to read and when we met

with her we saw that she had been highlighting in her Kniha Mormonova! Ahhh so sweet. She has a lotttt of questions

which is super awesome, but makes it hard to focus on one particular lesson plan. But we had a really good conversation

about faith and seeking evidence from God. I had another "Heaven Sent/Inspired Question" moment. She was going on about 

how she needs evidence before she chooses to believe in what we are teaching her. The question then came to me, "Well, what

kind of evidence are you looking for or wanting Pavlina?" It stopped her dead in her tracks like a deer in headlights. ha ha I have come 

to the conclusion that when the person we are teaching all the sudden can't answer and stumbles over their words or thoughts it is

a question coming from the spirit and not me. ha

Super cool moment for me and her! We commited her to ponder about the type of evidence she is looking for and we are planning to follow up 

with her next lesson..... Which we will have the Branch President's wife with us for that lesson! Sister Zbranka said she could join us on Thursday

for our lesson with her. We are pretty pumped about that. It is going to be great!

Our other investigators are doing well! We have been doing more tracting lately and have seen success from 

that. Ha I have a story about a dad with a stroller for next week because I need to get going!

Sorry this letter is so short!

Thank you for all of your love and support! Sending it right back to you from Czech!

S laskou,

Sestra Fred

The Gang

​

How bout those tennis shoes though with my dress? ha! 

Kebabs :) 

Plan Spasení

Ahoky!

How are all of my favorite people doing today?? 

Things are going here in Mladá  The weather WAS warming up and then it got realllll cold again this past week. 

Hoping we will be seeing more sunny skies here soon! 

Sister Boza and I are still kickin' here in Mlada Boleslav. She was sick this past week, but that didn't keep her from working. I finally told her Saturday during weekly planning that as her companion it is my responsibility and duty to look out for her spiritual AND physical well-being. She hearkened unto my loving counsel and laid down for the rest of the evening. It helped her a ton! She is feeling a lot better and we are hoping that she is on the down-hill of her nasty cold she has had.

SHOUTOUTS:

H a p p y V a l e n t i n e s D a y 😘 

Brother Gillies! You are awesome. You commented on my shoutouts so here's one for you. :) Thanks for your email and testimony of temples!

HAPPIEST B I R T H D A Y to Ron D and Uncle John this coming saturday! 

as well as....

BREEEE BABY BATER and ALIZA ANN ALLRED! Bre... I think you are on the 18th.. and Aliza you are on the 16th. Forgive me if I am incorrect!

Just know that I am thinking about you both as you ALSO celebrate the best 22nd birthday!! :) 

MLADÁ MYSTERIES:

---> It really should be called the city of Škoda not the city of Mlada Boleslav. 

---> Mlada means small and Boleslav is a name. So it is the city of small boleslav. ha.

---> Dogs love their Czechs. Czechs love their dogs.

---> We don't have a dryer, so we hang dry everything.

B.O.M INSIGHT:

So I realized that I wrote the heading for the thought last week and then totally spaced putting the actual insight. ha! My bad. Here is this week's.

Alma 36: 17-21. In this chapter, Alma the younger is sharing his conversion story with his son Helaman. Every time I read this my heart is touched by the 

true repentance that Alma went through to recognize his Savior once again in his life. It reads,

 "17 And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.

18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and amen circled about by the everlasting chains of death.

19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.

 20 And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!

 21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea,and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.

I LOVE this. I love it. I love it. I love it.

As Alma remembered and caught hold of that memory of his father prophesying of the coming of Jesus Christ, the spirit was able to work on him and cause him to cry sincerely

to his Savior for forgiveness of his sins. As he did so he discovered the marvelous light of the Atonement. Verse 21 is my favorite. There are going to experiences we have in life that

seem almost unbearable, but like Alma said, "that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy." I know and testify that where there is deep sin and sorrow

there is also the marvelous light and joy of Christ and His Atonement there to lift us out.  

PLAN of SALVATION:

This past week Sister Boza and I decided to focus all of our contacting efforts on one subject, that subject being Plan of Salvation. In addition to focusing our contacting on one subject I did the same in my personal studies. I loved it! I learned a lot about our Heavenly Fathers merciful plan for us. There were some things that stood out to me that hadn't before. One thing I found interesting was that while in the Pre-Mortal life we LEARNED to love truth. That was so fascinating to me. As we focused our finding efforts on Plan of Salvation we met a lot of people who had spiritual concerns and questions that could be answered by the Plan. We went tracting Saturday morning and met this sweet old Czech Grammy. She came out and seemed a little bothered at first that we interrupted her Saturday morning rituals. ha BUT! As we introduced ourselves and shared our message about the Plan of Salvation it was so neat to see how the spirit started to work on her. We talked to her for a good 30 minutes or so and as the conversation evolved her body language completely changed and she started to really listen, ponder and even ask questions like, "well, the real question is WHY ARE WE HERE?" 

Our response to that... "Good question Pani. Let us tell you all about it."haha!

Although she didn't want to meet with us again, she did accept a Book of Mormon from his and said that she would read it. 

One of her reasons for not wanting to meet is that she is too old. I hate when we hear that. Whenever I hear that rejection/excuse I think of Albertina Dillenbeck. The sweet 

recent convert in Saratoga Springs, NY. Sister Seader informed me a couple of weeks ago that she passed away. She was a grammy, but because she accepted the restored Gospel of

Jesus Christ and was baptized she got to leave this Earth prepared to go Preach the Gospel to all of her family and Friends in the spirit world. She is such an incredible example to me of 

a woman of true faith. It is NEVER too late! No matter who we are, members or non-members, Christ is always waiting for us to "come unto him and be perfected." 

I would like to challenge all of you to find Christ in your life this week. Turn unto him and allow Him to change you. 

I am so grateful for the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. To know where I came from, why I am here and where I am going is such a gift!

I feel so humbled to have the opportunity to share that with these Czech people of whom some have been searching for the answers to those questions. Although we didn't 

find anyone new to teach this week, I feel so much love from my Savior in knowing that by small and simple conversations that we are having with people on the streets and inviting them

to learn more we are laying the foundation of a great work.

GATORS:

Pavlina has been out of town, so we didn't see her last week! We are set up to see her on Wednesday though. :)

Charles and Jozef are doing well. The daily contact is helping! One night last week Jozef texted and said, "Good evening my dear sisters! I hope you haven't forgotten about me! I am reading the scriptures you are sending me!"

hahahah it made our day. We are only able to see each of them once a week, which make it really difficult for them to progress more consistently. But! We are hoping this week we start meeting with them more regularly. 

CHURCH:

We had an awesome day at church! Sister Hedrlinova came with her daughter again! And you will never guess who rode with them, Sister Bursova! Yay!

Sister Boza and I have really focused on the Less-Active work this transfer and we are seeing miracles from it. :)

Welp, that's all folks!

Have a happy week! Toodle-loo!

S laskou,

Sestra Fred

​Every Sunday evening we have dinner with the Ratajovi. 

Libuse is a recent convert. 

She is one of the most loving and thoughtful humans I have ever met. 

She gave me a rose for my birthday. ha 

There's never a dull moment Sunday nights at the Ratajovi.

Lentils and Sausages

hahah I didn't even know WHAT I was eating. 

Surprisingly enough, I really like lentils!!! ha!

This is Kristof Lendel. He drew me a picture of the Frier Berg Temple!

Ha,ha, I also claimed him as my valentine. ;)

One Spoiled Missionarka

Drahy Rodiny a Kamarady,

I had the BEST birthday week any missionary could ever ask for.

Every day I was so spoiled by those around me. I feel so blessed to have spent my 22nd birthday

here in the Czech Republic and especially in Mladá Boleslav and Česke Budejovice. :) 

SHOUTOUTS:

Happiest Birthday to Jentry Marie Howell and Kessa Egbert!!! Sorry I didn't give you the shout out last week. I hope you listened to T-swift's song, ate cate and danced the night away:)

Angela, have you started counting down the days yet?! Which day in March are you due to have that BABY GIRL? ;)

Baby Nate way to go upgrading to a big boy bed! ha! 

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR ALL THE BIRTHDAY WISHES!!!!!

Mlada Mysteries:

---> Czech's FLOCK to McDonald's. It is THE place to go for date night.

---> Our branch president and his wife were sealed in the Switzerland temple this past week!

---> Speaking of McDonald's.. I ate my first Big Mac. Ever. It was so. so. good. haha 

---> We have English ever Wednesday night. 

BofM INSIGHT:

THE WORK:

We have a couple of investigators we are working with. Sabrina and Paul.

We found Pavlina while tracting. She is a younger mom with two small children prolly around the ages of 6 and 3. We have gone on two prochazky with her now ha ha Czechs and their walks. She always has a lot of good questions and is good about expressing her concerns and what not. We met with her on Thursday morning before we headed out of town. We had on plan to teach the Restoration, but the spirit directed otherwise. She had some concerns about how she would need to change her lifestyle if she were to join our church. She thought that she would have to live her life like we do as missionaries and she told us I just don't have time to live like that. haha! It was so funny. We explained to her that the way we live as missionaries will in no way be expected of her. We told her we have a couple of Moms that are members of our church who are in the same boat as her -- busy mom with two kids and a hungry husband when he comes home from a long day at work. When we posed the idea of bringing one of them along to the next lesson to help explain what it is like to be a LDS mother of 2 she really liked it! 
She is out of town this week, which is a bummer because we have only been able to meet with her twice in the last two weeks. It is hard to see her more then that. But! We are planning on taking either Sister Vitova or Crookston with us to the next lesson. We have really good feelings about Pavlina and hope to see good things come to pass as we continue to work with her and get the branch involed.

Jozef is a former who we called up last week and have met with a couple of times since. He is progressing rather well! We had a powerful Restoration lesson with him. The next time we saw him we had on plan to read with him and again the spirit directed otherwise and we ended up answering a lot of his questions about how prophets are called, what exactly is an apostle, etc. It was awesome! There is nothing better then showing up to a lesson with an investigator who has a list of questions to ask. The previous lesson we had invited him to pray about Joseph Smith right then and there and he didn't. We did it again this last time and he didn't again! But he did pray that God would help him have the opportunity to attend church so that was good. We are slightly concerned that if he isn't praying about something that we ask him to right then and there he won't when he is on his own. Other then that he's a good guy and we feel that he has good intentions when it comes to learning the gospel.

It has been so neat to see how what we were taught during the World Wide training with the Apostles and church leaders has really been prevelant in our work. I have learned that it isn't about what I, Sister Fredrickson want to teach or say, it is what the spirit needs and wants me to teach and say. It is a difficult thing and requires a lot of humility and patience, but something that is so necessary in helping people to really experience conversion for themselves.

We picked up one of our English students, Charles, as an investigator! At the end of each lesson I invite someone to pray and he did two weeks in a row! The first week he prayed following the pattern we teach people and it was one of the most beautiful prayers I have ever heard.

Sister Boza and I looked at each other and we knew instantly that we would be speaking with Charles about it. ha We are excited to see what comes of it!

THE SABBATH:

We had a really good sabbath day! So many Less-Actives were there! It was amazing! Sister Hedrlinova and her daugher Jana and Jana's kids were there, Sister Gynova, Marksova, Gabrielova and the Elders had an investigator there! It was simply sweet. I sit on the front row so I can get to the piano easier and to be able to look back and see a nearly full congregation was a precious sight. 

I got a HUGE shoutout from one of the member's of the branch presidency. His wife is the one who played the piano before I got here. Over the pulpit he thanked me for playing each week so that his family can sit together. It was really really tender and something I needed to hear. This branch is truly amazing. I am so grateful that I am serving here in Mlada!

C-BUD EXCHANGE:

Our exchange in C-Bud was so good. It was really weird being back there... I was REALLY excited to go back! Mostly because I wanted to go to my favorite Indian restaurant, which we did twice ha! and so that I could work alongside Sister Birkeland. I had the goal of focusing on discerning the spiritual need of whomever we were teaching and we had a lot of teaching moments where I was able to practice and try going by the spirit while trying to figure out what the person really needed in the moment. It's not always easy and requires a lot of focus, but when you are really there and praying for that gift of discernment the spirit does his part to help us as missionaries teach more powerfully.

I was able to see the Meastanovi. They had no clue I was coming so it was a complete surprise! The look on Romana's face when she saw me was priceless. They are doing great! They moved apartments and have some more family living with them! 
They came to game night and we enjoyed some time together catching up on life. It was so good seeing them and feeling of their love for me. 

We didn't have on plan to see Vasyl, Sister Scerra and I's Ukrainian convery, but on our way to game night we just happened to run into him. That was a tender mercy from the Lord. He was secretly really 

happy to see me. I got a cute pic with him that I will attach. He is doing so well. I am so proud of him!

The exchange was crazy and we were busy going all over the place but all in all it was a really good experience and I learned a lot from both Sister Birkeland and Sister DeMann.

One of my favorite parts of the exchange was exercising in the morning. We went out Friday morning and did little mini re-lay races. ha! Saturday morning Sister DeMann and I went out running. It was refreshing to get out and run around. 

Welp, That's all I can think of right now... We have 3 weeks left in the transfer. Time is going way too fast. Sestra Boza and I are going to take advantage of the time we have left together and go find some more of the elect!

THANK YOU again for all the birthday wishes. I truly believe that I am the luckiest human on this planet with the best support system back home.

I love you all to pieces!! 

Have a great week!

S laksou,

Sestra Fred

22 Years Young

 

Meastonovi :) 

Beautiful C-Bud

 

Indian Food. YUM!!!

 

Johi Chrdlova - This girl is the sweetest. She reads my emails and knew that I was going to C-Bud so she made me a cute Birthday card and joined us for lunch on Friday. Love you Johi!

 

Sestrickyyyyy

 

The best district out there in Czech

 

Went to a Zamek today!

 

Vasyl and I :)