The Power of One Smile

Zdravim Friends and Family!!

SHOUTOUTS:

V Š E C H N O  N E J L E P Š Í to....

Julie Ruby Marchbanks

Elder Little John Graves

Sebastian Skinner!

I wish you all the best and hope that you had a perfect birthday. :)

PRAGUE PŘEKVAPÁNÍ--MLADÁ MYSTERIES:

---> They have been doing door and window work in the Prague chapel.

---> We live on Pod Karlovem in Prauge.

---> We live on Vaclamenta in Mlada Boleslav.

---> Sestra Cade and I had some epic falls this week.

---> There are 2 new baby boys in the Jicin Branch!

B.O.M. INSIGHT:

1 Nefi 17:8-11

 8 And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me, saying: Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show thee, that I may carry thy people across these waters.

 9 And I said: Lord, whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten, that I may make tools to construct the ship after the manner which thou hast shown unto me?

 10 And it came to pass that the Lord told me whither I should go to find ore, that I might make tools.

 11 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did make a bellows wherewith to blow the fire, of the skins of beasts; and after I had made a bellows, that I might have wherewith to blow the fire, I did smite two stones together that I might make fire.

We shared these as part of our training for Zone Conference. Notice what Nephi does. 1. He is commanded. 2. Asks for direction. 3. Receives answer. 4. Acts.

STAKE FOLLOW UP:

Alright, forgive me for all of my scattered thoughts about the stake! It has been a couple of crazy weeks since it occurred. Here are some of the more statistics and feelings that I had while there. There were 6 wards created. Praha, Brno, Plzen, Ostrava, Hradec Kralove, and Jicin. Last weekend they called the first Bishop of the Czech Republic in the Ostrava ward. SO COOL.

In the upcoming weeks the Stake Presidency will be very busy visiting these new wards and getting the Bishoprics set up and functioning. I am not sure when it will be happening in Prague, but I believe that President Pilka will be in Jicin on the 12th of June in Jicin to call the Bishopric. So exciting! 

As President McConkie conducted all the business at the conference he asked all of the members from each of the areas to stand and raise their hand to sustain the creation of their own wards. To see the members from Jicin, Mlada and Prague to stand and be the ones to really "create"their own ward was a very precious sight. 

I felt very fortunate that day to be among so many good, faithful saints. I also got to catch up with members from C-Bud and Uherske Hradiste, which was such a gift for me. The Kamradovi from Uherske Hradiste strongly encouraged that I come back with my future husband one day and stay with them, ha ha they are so great. I also got to see Pavel Jelenek! Sister Smith and I taught and baptized him. Ha ha he is still a nut, just with longer hair. He has got the surfer look going on. 

All in all, it was an amazing day. Mom and Dad I will tell you more when I come home. ;)

HENRY+ SMILES:

We have been SO extremely blessed in our missionary work this past week. 

We have been working so hard and we are starting to see our hard work pay off.

On the way home from church last Sunday in Prague we were contacting on Tram 18. 

Sestra Cade was with me as we made our way from person to person contacting on the Sabbath day. We approached this man and asked him how he keeps the Sabbath Day Holy. He responded by saying that he wasn't much of a believer, but thinks that there could be something greater up there. Conversation lead to who God is as our loving Heavenly Father and how we can communicate with Him through prayer. We asked Henry if he had any experience with prayer and this is what he said, "Well, sometimes if I have a hurt in my stomach I will pray to, well whoever is up there, and ask that the pain will go away." Ha ha it was the most tender answer. I LOVED it! We were nearing our stop so we asked if we could meet on Monday evening and he said yes. We quickly exchanged numbers and wished him a good day. Later that evening he texted us and told us that we was looking forward to our meeting the next day and that he was so glad that he met us. THAT WAS A MIRACLE. Usually people NEVER text US "nice to meet you" texts. soooo that was pretty awesome. :)

Fast forward to Monday evening:

We had him come to FHE and then we had a lesson with him afterwards with Ondrej (RC). He came, DESPITE the pouring down rain and loved it! At the dinner table he brought up BAPTISM on his own. When it came to the lesson, we did HTBT and taught prayer. We also gave him a baptismal date for the 25th of June and he accepted. Simply amazing. After the lesson we were walking with him to the tram stop and we asked him why he chose to come and meet with us. He said to us, "I came because when I met you on the tram I was impressed by the way young girls would do what we do, we had an interesting message and most importantly, he was drawn to the fact that Sestra Cade was smiling the whole contact even though she didn't know what was going on most of the time. I LOVED that. It was a reminder to me that we must always LOOK the message as well

as preach the message. Henry is doing great and is progressing so well! We are so excited for him! 

PRICELESS MOMENTS:

We got to witness 2 children of God pray for the first time ever in their lives, kneel down in prayer and pray to being that they are even sure is there or not. We had these experiences with Henry and our other investigator Isaac. I think my absolute favorite part of missionary work is witnessing someone kneel day and pray to Heavenly Father for the first time. Their struggle for words, the pauses of unsurety, yet pauses where the Spirit is teaching this Child of God how prayer works and brings them closer to God. I am not able to express my thoughts or feelings clearly about it, but I am so grateful that I get to witness people go from not knowing God at all to being able to find him through prayer. It is a miracle in and of itself. 

EXCHANGE MIRACLES:

We had a challenge from the Praha Zone leaders to extend a baptismal date to someone you meet and teach on the street. Sestra Cade, Heap and I were able to do that on exchanges in Boleslav this week! Zdenek is his name and he is awesome!

Meanwhile Sestra Hale and Andersen went to visit a LA family in Boleslav that I felt strongly prompted they should go see and they got invited in for dinner and were able to figure our their concern. Therefore we know how we can better help them.

MIRACLES AND PROGRESS is happening! God is so good.

That is is for this week! I love you all. 

H a p p y M e m o r i a l day. :)

Srdečně,

Sestra Fred 🌻

While on exchanges we surprised Tomas and showed up as 5. Ha ha he pointed me out as the culprit of such surprise. Guilty as charged.

First Stake Created

Hiiiiiii!!

Alright, don't hate me, but I only have 12 minutes to get this email written.. so I won't be able to format it the way I usually do so I am going to simply bear my testimony of the experience that we had here in the Czech Republic last weekend and share one cool missionary experience that Sisters Cade, Hale and myself has last week.

To be here for the creation of the first Stake in the Czech Republic was a gift from God to me.

I can't even begin to describe to you the spirit that was felt there as ALL of the Czech saints, missionaries, and even returned missionaries gathered together to watch one of the Lord's apostles preside as Prezident McConkie conducted the actual business. There wasn't a dry eye in the palace. To be in the presence of Dieter F. Uchtdorf nad his sweet wife was such a treat. He is hilarious and LOVES his wife. I know with all my heart that he is a chosen servant of God and that Tomas S. Monson is the Lord's prophet on Earth. The spirit hit me strongest when they announced the Patriarch, Bratr Canek. We had had lunch with him and his sweet wife just 3 days earlier. My patriarchal blessings is such a key source of strength and guidance for me and for the Czechs to have their own patriarch is such a huge blessing! They created 6 wards. Prague and Jicin being two of them! 

Czech out LDS.org and you will get more of a glimpse of what it was like that day!

We had one of the neatest experiences this past week in Mlada Boleslav. We had a couple of lessons set up 
Thursday at the office. We went to wait on them and had studies on our backup plan. Unfortunately, both lessons 
fell through. We finished our studies and had 30 minutes to contact before we needed to be somewhere else. Just before leaving we prayed in faith asking that Heavenly Father would bless us with an opportunity to share what we had learned
in studies with someone we would meet during our 30 minute contacting block. We stepped out into the real world of Boleslav
and talked to the first person we saw. He politely declined and we went on to the next man we saw dropping books in the book return for the library. We contacted him about Jesus Christ being the light of the world and our lives. As we began to
talk with this man we went on to express his opinion about how you can not know that God and Jesus Christ exist without hard evidence. We told him that we do have evidence. It is the Book of Mormon. Do you have five minutes so that we can tell you more about how you can know for yourself that it is evidence that you are looking for. Typically when we ask people this, they say no, no I am busy. But this man paused and looked at all three of us and finally said, Okay. Five minutes. That's it. I was STOKED. We walked with him back to our office and taught him simply by using short powerful statements and testimony of the Restoration and Book of Mormon along with a few verses. Just what we had studied and practiced in Comp Study. The spirit was so strong and I know that that man felt the Holy Ghost. Watching the spirit bear truth to people like this man in just 5 minutes and seeing the change in the persons countenance is something that will never get old. Sadly, the man lives 30 minutes outside of Mlada and only comes here once a year. We told him we could come to him but he wouldn't accept our offer. But, I do know that those 5 minutes that we had with him were important for him to learn about the restored gospel and come a litter closer to knowing the one real God and Savior. I also know that he was an answer to 3 missionaries prayer.
It's moments like these that I know there is a God who exists. I am so grateful for the power of prayer and the power of the Holy Ghost. 

I gotta run!

Sorry this email was all over the place. 

I will send more info about the stake and such next week!

Love you!

S laskou,

Sestra Fred🌻

The Conference was held in the Zofin Palace

Spiritual Buzz in the Air

My Dear Family and Friends,

The Czech air is THICK with spiritual and buzz and excitement.

I wish that you could all be here to experience the history that is about

to be made within the next 48 hours! 

SHOUTOUTS:

Mommy I hope that you had the best mothers day. It was so good to 

see YOU! And of course the rest of the Grizzwalds. :) 

I also hope that all the other moms out there had a great day. I have

been so blessed with so many influential mothers in my life. I look up

to and admire each and every one of you. Moms are the best!

PRAGUE PŘEKVAPÁNÍ--MLADÁ MYTERIES

---> We saw 11 dogs on our morning run through the park in near our Prague

      apartment yesterday morning. 

---> The cloth upholstery on the metro has castles on it and it's purple! 

---> I got separted from Sestry Hale and Cade on the tram last night and 

      they ran after me and were right there to greet me with open arms at

      the next tram stops. ha ha I have the best comps.

MORE GOOD FOUNDATION:

We had an amazing and unique opportunity to be trained by Johnathan Johnson from the 

More Good Foundation and 2 representatives from Church Website/online department in 

Germany. We learned how we can strengthen our gathering using our internet resources.

We helped create more content on the Czech LDS website so when people go to look up what

a Prophet is there will be information there for them to read instead of nothing. Sisters Cade, Hale 

and I along with Elders Smith and Brockbank from our Boleslav district were trained by Brother Johnson on how to make MEMES. We straight up made a meme together! It was legit and so fun and easy! I will attach it to this email. :) 

We missionaries that were trained on it will be responsible to train the other missionaries along 

with the members and YSA on how to use the sites effectively to build our Czech gospel content on the Internet. We are so excited for this new push of using the Inter-NET to gather the elect. It's going to be awesome! After it was all said and done I gained a greater testimony of how the internet

can be such an amazing resource to help hasten the Lord's work.

GATORS:

We are got past our fear of man and extended baptismal dates to two of our gators in Prague yesterday. We will be fasting with Vince started today at 12 and will end at 12 tomorrow just after

the FIRST STAKE will have been created. We are certain that this time around he will get his answer that he is ready to take is next step in following Christ and be baptized. Keep him in your

prayers! We also invited our 11 year old Daniel Broz to be baptized yesterday. The spirit was so 

strong as we did so and I felt so much love for this little boy. Over the past two months we have been having English lessons and ending with spiritual thoughts and mini lessons about the Restored Gospel. He came to General Conference, Kody's baptismal service and will be coming this weekend to the historic conference. He said that it is something that he will need to think about but that he would like to follow Jesus and be baptized. We all had teary eyes at the end of the lesson. I love this little boy! When I see him I see my nephews. 

STAKE:

Next week I will give a whole email dedicated to this event. Hold tight until then. :)

I am so grateful to be here. I AM SO BLESSED. I know that God is in this work. I know that

He is a God of order and like it says in Mosiah 4:27 we can not run faster then we are able. Time and patience is required for us to allow God to work His marvelous work among us. 

I would like to invite all of you to take some time to see how God is working a marvelous work and a wonder in each of your individual lives. 

God is in the Heavens. Jesus is the Christ. This is their church and their Gospel!

I love you all! 

S laskou,

Sestra Fred 🌻

​This is the meme we came up with. Sick huh?!

MY TŘI!

Nazdar, Cau, Ahoj!

It is a beautiful day in the neighborhood! So much spiritual buzz is in the air here in the CZ!

SHOUT--OUTS:

We all successfully lived another week. High Five. 

Happiest Birthday to Aunt Jooooiiilllleeee and Sister Paula Walker!

THE CZECH REPUBLIC IS GETTING A STAKE!!!!

PRAGUE PŘEKVAPÁNÍ--MLADÁ MYSTERIES

---> Our Prague toilet is currently out of order. 

---> Our apartment number in Prague is 5. Good number. :)

---> The Kebab man's name in Boleslav is Erkan! 

B.O.M. INSIGHT:

1 Nefi 14:1

And it shall come to pass, that if the Gentiles shall hearken unto the Lamb of God in that day that he shall manifest himself unto them in word, and also in power, in very deed, unto the taking away of their stumbling blocks.

Love love love loveeee this one. Everyday I see the Lord manifest Himself in word, in power and in deed in my life and I know that he takes away some of my stumbling blocks on a day to day basis. I know that He lives and that He is anxiously waiting for us to allow Him to manifest Himself in our lives! 

TRANSFERS:

We had transfers this past week! Sestra Andreason met up with her family Thursday morning to start their 2 week tour of the country with her Papa and Mama. Her dad served here with Prezident McConkie so he planned some firesides for Sestra Andreason and him to do in some

of the branches throughout the mission. So sweet. 

Get ready for a hoot of a transfer because we got Sestra Hale in the hiz house again. ha ha 

And we are going to be parentals to my baby that was supposed to come last transfer, Sestra Cade covering both Praha and Boleslav. 

Sestra Cade is a power house testifier. She hales from Sacramento, California. She falls in the middle of 12 siblings (including her). Her favorite colors are blue and purple. Kit Kat is her choice of candy. She enjoys swimming and hiking and being a bum. ha ha Shes says she enjoys "bummin around" ha! I love her. She is the chillest human you will ever meet and has the quietest sneezes. She is also a cat lover. 

Sestra Hale, hales from Phoenix, Arizona. Is the youngest of 4, LOVES her dog Lexie, just got accepted to UVU with reduced tuition. Holla! Favorite color is yellow and prefers a Reeses. She is seriously the funniest/weirdest person you will ever meet. She LOVES to dance and breaks out her dance moves around the apartment often. ha she also used to believe that she had kankles, but that concern has recently been resolved. 

KODY:

Kody's baptism was a huge success! There were a handful of families from the branch that came to support him last Saturday. We had the musical number. The Elders played on the Guitar and Sister Andreason and I sang Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. 

It was a great day. Kody is going to be an awesome member and addition to the branch. His example has helped get the members excited about missionary work. It's been awesome!

TEACHING PEOPLE NOT LESSONS:

We had a break through with Vince last night! Vince is an investigator in Prague that has been taught for about a year now. He is very smart and sometimes that keeps him from feeling and following what's in his heart. We had on plan to start a fast with him to help him determine a baptismal date so that he can actually act instead of remaining in limbo. The spirit directed otherwise and we ended up addressing some of his concerns about the Law of Chastity. He talked about how he feels that it is more important to be morally clean and honest, ect.  We had recently taught the Law of Chastity to David Pham, another investigator, and as we prepared for that something that finally clicked for me is that there is so much more to the Law of Chastity then we think. We tend to focus on the sexual part, but there are also the sub-parts to the Law of Chastity, which our minding our thoughts, words and actions. The spirit FILLED the room and we were ALL blessed to be taught by the Holy Ghost concerning how the Law of Chastity is something that we need to focus on living EVERYDAY of our lives. So cool. As he was being taught by the spirit he realized on his own that there are things in his life that are not in accordance to living the Law of Chastity. Napr: The music he listens to, movies he watches and especially South Park. We invited him to give up one of these things. He was having a hard time deciding and said at one point that he could for sure not give up South Park. We told him that if that is the one he loves the most, that is the one he should probably give up to see the biggest difference and receive the most blessings. He gave a chuckle and agreed. 

It was a lesson that testified to me of the truth and power of teaching people NOT lessons.

KŮL:

We got news this past week that there will be a stake created HERE in the CZECH REPUBLIC next weekend. Everyone, this is unreal. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf will be coming next weekend to organize the FIRST stake in the Czech Republic. This is monumental and completely historic. I feel SO extremely blessed to be here as a missionary to participate in this historical conference that will take place. The members are ESTATIC and there is such a special " spiritual buzz"in the air. I will you could all be here to feel it! This is something that the Czech saints have been praying and working towards for so long. I feel so fortunate to be here to see it happen. I know that God is in the Heavens looking after all us and he knows when the time is right for certain things like this to happen. A marvelous work and a wonder is truly rolling forth among the nations, especially here in the Czech/Slovak mission. 

Chybite mi a mám tě radá!

See you tomorrow family :)

S laskou, 

Sestra Fred 🌻

Sister Cade arrived!

Sister Cade and her first car ride in the Czech!

We were so tired last night that we ate  this cold cooked chicken.

The Scandinavian Sisters!

Kody"s baptism!

The Pankrac Elders, Ondrej, and us!