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 :)