Saturday, April 16, 2016

The Power of Unity

Cauky! 

Another week came and went. How oh how does this happen? Time is moving too quickly.

SHOUTOUTS:

Happy anniversary to T. Freezy and Momma Freckles tomorrow! I am so grateful for your marriage. Thank you for enduring love and producing the CUTEST kiddos. 
H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y Bubby! Just in case I forgot last week. :) Love you!

PRAGUE PŘEKVAPÁNÍ/MLADÁ MYSTERIES:

---> What we call a "spike" in volleyball they call a "smash" here. 
---> There are 3 lines on the Metro: Red, Green and Yellow.
---> We live off the Naměstí Míru stop which is on the Green line.
---> It is officially Ice Cream season here. People and ice cream cones everywhere! 

B.O.M. INSIGHT:

1 Nephi 9:5-6
"Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for wise purpose in him, which purpose know not.
But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning;wherefore, he prepareth way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold, 
he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words. And thus it is. Amen."
I love these scriptures because they remind me of the wisdom God has that I sometimes think I do, but in actuality, do not have.
I know that the Lord knows all of our beginnings, all of our endings and all the in-between. I know that He will always
prepare the way for us as long as we show humility and trust in Him and His plan. God is good!

EXCHANGES:

This week was a blur. I can't remember everything that happened, but our exchange with the Liberec Sestry was amazing. Sister Stokes came with me to Mlada Boleslav and we had sooo much good solid lessons! We had a return appointment with a referral that Sister Andreason and I had contacted the day before. His name is Ivan and he lives in Stare Boleslav, which is half-way between Prague and Mlada Boleslav. He has two children, 6 and 3 and has gone through a lot and is just searching for something positive that he can add to his life. We walked with him and his darling 3 year old daughter to the grocery store nearby and taught him while walking the isles. Ha it was the first Grocery shopping lesson for both Sister Stokes and I. It was epic and totally awesome. He is searching for answers and has the most willing heart. After we finished our shopping trip we sat down on a bench nearby and talked to him about the Book of Mormon and how it can answer all the questions that he has and that is can give him that positive influence that he is looking for along with everything else that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has to offer. After explaining the little things that he will need to do in order to find answers, i.e. read, pray, come to church and meet with us, we invited him to be baptized and he accepted a baptismal date for the 28th of May. The spirit was so strong as we testified of baptism being a new start for him and his family.  He will be considered a Prague investigator. There are some members out that way near him in neighboring towns so we are excited to get some member work going with him! 

We had a lesson with Tomas Prusa, who has a baptismal date for the 7th of May. We taught the Restoration and it went so well. We invited him to pray to Heavenly Father and ask if Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God and that through him Christ's church was restored. He IMMEDIATELY did it. No questions asked. ha ha it was so awesome!!! He came to our English class right after and said he will be coming to church on Sunday! I am excited for you to meet him. :) 

Filip is a potential that Sister Hale and I met on exchanges a couple weeks ago, also said he will be coming to church this Sunday. So many good things are happening already and I feel that we are seeing the Lords hand in our work even more. 

MISSION WIDE CHALLENGE:

At MLC (mission leadership council) a couple of weeks ago, we discussed how we can reshape the culture of our mission, specifically focusing the vision that our mission has concerning how we can better fulfill our true purpose as missionaries, which is bring others to Christ through baptism. As we sat and discussed as a council, we experienced the gift and process of revelation and felt that as a mission we needed to re-focus our thoughts and efforts in emphasizing that we do baptize in this mission and that the elect are out there and prepared. As a council we decided on a challenge: To bring one soul to or back to the covenant of baptism by June 30th. To kick-off the mission wide challenge we started with a fast last week. We fasted for the spiritual strength to carry out the Lords work in the way that He needs it to be done, for the faith and belief to find the elect in the Czech/Slovak mission and to be blessed with the courage and faith that we need to overcome our own personal challenges that come with missionary work. To accompany the fast, we received this challenge from Prezident and Sister McConkie:

"Sister McConkie and I invite all of you to pray more often AND to join us each week in a unified, mission wide

prayer. Each Thursday morning at 7:00 a.m., please kneel with your companion and pray for your fellow missionaries. Pray 

for the people they are teaching. Pray that they will have the Spirit guide their efforts to bring our friends to the covenant 

of baptism. Pray that they will bear with patience their personal challenges so that they qualify for the Lord's promise of 

success in the work. Pray for one another's investigators and friends and the members with whom we work and 

serve. Pray for the new mission president and his family and the missionaries preparing to join us in the mission field. Pray 

for the strength and the courage and the faith to do the Lord's work as it should be done."

I was with Sister Stokes Thursday evening to have the prayer at 7 am. It was one of the most spiritual moments just knowing that there were so many of us on our knees at the same time pleading to God for His help in this work. I felt His love and His power in that moment. What an amazing thing to be a part of at this time. I love being a part of the Lords army. There is seriously nothing like it. It is an indescribable opportunity! There is power in being unified. 

UKLÍZIME ČESKO:

There was a country wide clean up today in the Czech Republic that Prezident McConkie really wanted all of the missionaries to participate in. We put on our yellow Mormon hands vests and went to pick up trash along the road and sidewalks for about 5 miles. It was SO much fun and right up my alley. (Bre, Alexis, anyone that knows me really knows that picking up trash is one of my favorite past times. ;) ) haha It was a sweet opportunity to be involved in the community and get to know some new people. As we picked up trash I had the chance to get to know some of the others in our group. I got to know a couple, Mira and Katka really well and by the end we were laughing and having a good time along with some good heart to hearts about beliefs, Jesus and why we are here as missionaries. Unfortunately, we didn't get any numbers, but you better believe they all received an invite to church. :) 

BAPTISM:

Earlier this morning we attended a baptism here in Prague. His name is Olda. He was taught by the office Elders. It was the first baptism I'd been too since I have been back out. I always enjoy the special spirit that accompanies a baptismal service. It was also neat to see so many of our investigators there. We are tag team teaching a boy in Jicin/Mlada with the Jicin Elders. His name is Kody. And according to one of the members we teach with, he is the "second Joseph Smith." HA HA HA AH AHAHAHAHAH. No, but really though. He is so prepared. One day he was thinking about religions and how he felt like he hadn't found the right one yet. He found us online and showed up at church service near the beginning of the transfer. We teach him during the week when he is in Boleslav and the Elders teach him on the weekends. He basically teaches us though. ha It's been such a cool experience. But, anyway. he came today! and loved it. No surprise there. He's golden.

Welp, that's all I have for you this week!
Tune in for more miracles next Saturday.:)
Love you all! 


S laskou,
Sestra Fred 🌻

Me in the act. ha!

You just don't know what you might find during city wide clean up!

Halušky Fest after the Clean Up




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