25 Cervna 2016

Ahoj Ahoj Ahoj. :)

It is officially summer here! I experienced my first REAL day of summer here in the CZ

yesterday. We had a packed day and were runnin' all over Mlada Boleslav. It was AWESOME.

SHOUTOUTS:

H A P P Y BIRTHDAY TO.....

C. Dizzle today! Alexis Holley tomorrow! Love you both. :)

Happy 11th Wedding Anniversary on 21 June 2016 to Angela Marie and Ronald!

Also, late 1 year anniversary to Ashley and Kurt Christensen!

PRAGUE PREKVAPANI -- MLADA MYSTERIES:

---> We visit the OMV gas station to fill up and wash the auto.

---> Got my first sunburn yesterday.

B.O.M. INSIGHT:

2 Nefi 2:13-14; 16

Sestry Cade, Hale and I read these in comp study yesterday and really liked them. 

 13 And if ye shall say there is ^ano law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not ^bthere is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away.

14.And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and ^alearning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon.

 16 Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should ^aact for himself. Wherefore, man could not ^bact for himself save it should be that he was ^centiced by the one or the other.

Sestra Cade made the comment about how in life we either choose to let hard/bad things act upon us causing us to turn away from Christ or WE choose to ACT upon the hard thing and make something good out of it. I have a strong testimony that out of EVERY situation there is an opportunity for us to ACT allowing us to make and become something great.

ZDENEK:

Z is doing soooooooo goooooooddddd! He came to church last week and stayed ALL three hours! We had a lesson with the 2nd counseler in the Bishopric afterwards to recap church and how it went. It was perfect. In Preach My Gospel it teaches us that it is best to conact Auxillary leaders beforehand to let them

know that you will have an investigator coming. We took the time to do that Sunday morning and we had great success because of it. The members did a fantastic job at welcoming him in and Zdenek fit right in. We finished teaching him the commandments this week. He will be coming to church again this Sunday. He is on date for the 2 of July to be baptized and get this!

That Saturday a member family holds an annual BBQ at their home near Jicin... and they have a POOL! A young boy in the ward will be getting baptized that day and we asked if it would be alright if Zdenek joined. They said ABSOLUTELY. :):):):):):)

We are SO excited we can hardly stand it. 

We had dinner with Sestra Crookston last night. She asked about the work and about Zdenek. She said that He along with Kody were sent straight from Heaven. Some of the most prepared people she has ever met. ha God is blessing us so much right now in Boleslav. I feel so fortunate to be serving there.

WORK IN GENERAL:

The last week or so the work in Mlada has been blowing up.

yesterday we had about 6-7 solid lessons and found 1 new investigator naked Nikki. She is expecting her first child and is SO excited about it. We contacted her on baptism and she excitedly asked well where do I go to get my baby girl baptized the right way. Ha, we are meeting her on Monday and are excited to see where things go with her.

We are still working in Prague and getting ready to hand off all the people we have been working with to the Elders. It should be a good transition. Henry has been MIA lately. But we have found some new people that we have high hopes for!

PAPA MCCONKIES:

We had our last zone meeting with the McConkie family this past week. 

As they gave their departing testimonies all you could hear was sniffles.

Bittersweet moment. They have been such a great source of strength, hope, 

and light to this mission. They will be sorely missed!! I had a chance to have one last interview with Prezident McConkie. One thing that I admire most about Prezident is that he always takes us to the scriptures to answer our questions and concerns. I am so grateful for his love and knowledge for the scriptures and how he has instilled that into his family and his missionaries.

Sestra Hale also gave her departing testimony. It was wonderful. 

I love that Sestra and will miss her so!

That's all for today!

Lots of love from the Czech side of things!

S laskou,

Sestra Fred 🌻

Love and going to miss this family.

​We had this sweet view our last night in Prague together last Saturday. We sat together as a companionship and shared a sweet moment together talking about mission life and our transfer. I am grateful for small moments like this where I can relish in the beauty of God's creations and 

reflect on all that I have to be grateful for in my life. 

An Evie Exchange

Howdy!

After a week of rain we are finally enjoying some sunshine here in the Prague estates. 

SHOUTOUTS:

Sooo happy to see that you, my family, received the treasure boxes from Prague. 

I was so excited for you to have them.. :)

Jadey Bug... Pink Voodoo doll coming right up for you my sweet niece!

PRAGUE PŘEKVAPÁNÍ--MLADÁ BOLESLAV:

---> Our panalok (apartment) in MB is pink.

---> Sestra Hale and I gave each other hair cuts a couple weeks back.

---> The average highway speed limit here is 130 km.

---> They call the graveyard shift MOON WORK. ha I loved that.

B.O.M. INSIGHT:

After hearing the news about our e-transfer out of Prague I went straight to these scriptures:

3 Nefi 13:32-34. 

 

32 For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof.

I am grateful for the scriptures and the source of strength they have become to me on my mission. I love them more than anything and I know that in whatever circumstances I find myself in I can turn to the word of God and find the peace and assurance that I need to help me know that everything is going to be alright in the end.

THE E.E. EXHANGE:

I had a very special opportunity to go on an exchange with the one and only Evie McConkie this week. We started Friday morning and ending this morning in Boleslav while Sestry Hale and Cade stayed in Prauge. It was an absolute BLAST. We had a lessons set up the entire night! 2 cancelled but we were able to meet with our Tomasz and his darling daughter Ester, Zdenek and a English potential gator James. Evie is a stallion and did SO good! Even though she wasn't able to communicate in Czech, she bore pure testimony in English and then I would translate for her. 

I was kind of worried about how that would go because I have felt a little inadequate in the language recently, but she asked what she could do to help in the lessons and I told her to pray for me to have the gift of tongues.... It worked. I felt like I was able to understand everything so clearly yesterday. It was such a blessing and miracle. 

All I wanted was for Evie to experience all the different aspects of missionary work/life. She got the quick grocery shopping trip, contacting on the streets, visiting members in their homes, teaching gators, potentials and she even got to experience a stand up/no show. ha ha for our language we went to the 11th floor of our apartment building to learn nature words and such. Then we got kicked out by these 2 grannies who were going to take their smoke break. ha ha ha so we headed down to the 9th floor to finish. 

It was awesome. I love that Evie so much. She taught me how important the details of life are, learning to swing at the curve balls even if you aren't sure how to hit them and how to to value the knowledge of the Gospel. 

A successful exchange it was! Evie is ready for the big leagues now. ;)

ZDENEK:

Our lesson with Zdenek was sooo good! Last time we taught him he had some concerns about the prophet. When we asked him if he believed that Thomas S. Monson was the true living prophet he said that he couldn't say because he didn't know anything about who he is as a person, his opinions, etc. So! We introduced him to the Gospel Library app on his phone and we had him follow along while we watched the talk by President Monson from last conference from last conference. 

After we finished he said, well that wasn't that bad. ha ha

He them immediately started looking for other talks and he came across "I am a Child of God " by Donald L. Hallstrom I think? He got really excited when he saw it, because Thursday night he had texted us and told us that he was praying to know that he is a Child of God and that he is pursuing the right spiritual path. It was awesome. We read and dissected that talk with him. It was a good spiritual experience for everyone involved. He will be coming to church on Sunday along with Tomasz and Ester. We are SO excited! If he will be committed to coming the next two weeks and feels good about his conversion, he will be baptized on the 2nd of July. 

Keep him in your prayers!

EXCERPT FROM NOVY HLAS:

Prezident McConkie writes us missionaries a letter each week titled the Novy Hlas.

Here is something from Prezident Uchtdorf and his visit to Europe with the Stake that he shared in last weeks letter:

"During my recent trip to Europe, I was struck by the magnificent and strong oak trees

that surrounded us as we visited the Karlštejn castle—a 14th century fortress that once housed the crown jewels in the Czech Republic. As I looked at these trees, I thought to myself, “This is what the Church is all The Church in Europe is growing strong—like an oak. You may know that an oak tree takes many years to grow to its full size, but when it does, it is strong and sturdy. When we consider the gospel and how it is changing lives in Europe, we don’t look at things a quarter at a time. Instead, we look at a lifespan. As I think about my own life, it is impressive to see the growth that has occurred since my parents joined the Church when I was 6 years old.

As I visited with members in Belgium, France, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, England, and Northern Ireland, I was impressed by their strength and by their commitment to the gospel. Europe has a great and historic past from which much can be learned, but it also has a bright and wonderful future thanks to the dedicated members of the Church and the great blessings of the gospel in their lives. I saw many examples of humility and goodness as I visited with Church members and others. As they continue to show the same love of God and man that is already a part of many of their lives, their ability to grow strong—like mighty oaks—will continue. This is true for all of us as we love God and keep His commandments."

I love the Oak analogy. It paints a good picture helps me to keep faith in the growing process in missionary work and all aspects of life.

EMERGENCY MOVE:

We got a call from President Thursday night letting us know that the sisters area in Prague will be closing starting Tuesday. There won't be enough sisters again next transfer and he needs the apartment for the new senior couple that is coming in to replace the Holt's in the office. 

I was wayyyy bummed. I felt like one of my "twins" was being taken away from me and I had no choice but to accept it. 

Although it wasn't the news I was wanting to hear it was a good wake up call for me to realize that my life as a missionary is going to eventually come to an end. It made me take a step back and think about how I want to finish my mission and really take advantage of the short time I have left. 

Life comes at you fast and you never know what kind of phone call you are going to get that might change your life and circumstances in an instant. My wish and hope is that we can ALL pray and strive to live in the MOMENT. Sister Hale has been such a great example to me of this. 

That's all for now folks!

Happy Chore day! 

S laskou,

Sestra Fred 🌻

​Evie and her Czech work. :)

 Tomasz, Ester, Evie, and Sestra Fred

Exchanges and Companion with Evie for a day in Prague

13. CERVNA 2016

Nazdar and Happy Monday!

I am emailing today due to a P-day switch.

Prezident McConkie allowed us to have 2 P-days with the Elders in Jicin, and one of them happens to be today. We will be here in Mlada Boleslav and will be visiting the Skoda Museum. We will go on a little prohildka (tour) there and enjoy the creation of the car. :)

SHOUTOUTS:

H A P P Y A N N I V E R S A Y Maminko and Tatinku!!!! I love you so much. Thank you for 

your example of love and marriage to us kids. 

Baby Savannah got a blessing. yessss. Ang you and "miss Bean" look great. :)

ŠtASTNY DEN OTCŮ (Happy Fathers Day!) Daddy--- You are simply the best. 

KYLEE SIMKINS AND FAM. Thank you thank you thank you for taking the time to come see me in Prague!

PP--MM:

---> We saw AT LEAST 15 old birds out using their single walkers in Boleslav last week.

---> The PRAHA SBOR (ward) had their first BBQ on Thursday!! 

---> We woke up one morning to a Pirates of the Carribean fog outside in Praha 

B.O.M. INSIGHT:

My insight comes today from Moroni 7. We had a lesson with a recent convert and we got talking about what truth actually is and how we know if something is true or not. During my personal study I took some time and looked up TRUTH in the guide to the scriptures  and I came upon these verses....

 15 For behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, thatye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night.

 16 For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.

 17 But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him.

I love love love these scriptures. I love that promise that we may know truth as we know the daylight from the dark night.

Trust in the Spirit of Christ that is given to each one of us to recognize and know truth. I know that these scriptures are true!

FATHERS:

Sestry Hale, Cade and I spent our dinner hour talking about our Dads last night. I loved hearing about their childhood memories of their Fathers. Papa Hale took Sister Hale on a Father and son's outing once. Ha! Sometimes he doesn't care about the rules, he just wants to have fun. 

Papa Cade does whatever he can to bring happiness to his children even if that means driving back and forth between Rexberg and St. Anthony

to get a little girls suitcase to where it needs to be for Girls Camp.

Papa Fred is a Dad's Dad. I could always count on Dad being home by 3-3:30 and be ready to play catch with me, kick a soccer ball around, take me to a playground or whatever. There wasn't a sporting, school, etc event that was missed by him. Papa Fred always always ALWAYS made sure to give us kiddos that best because his greatest desire is to see us happy. Dad I love you so much. I couldn't imagine anyone else playing the role that you do for me in my life here on Earth. I hope that you had a great day in Amarillo, Texas! Or on the open road.. :)

ZDENEK:

Our brother Zdenek is doing sooo good. We had a lesson with him last week and we had Kody. We taught The Gospel of Jesus Christ and happened to foucus more on Repentence. 

As we discussed the 6 steps of Pokani: 1. Realize/Recognize 2. Stop 3. Know that you did something wrong. Confess to God 4. Make restituion/Fix it 5. Keep the Commandments 6. Receive Christ.... Zdenek shared an experience that he had with his mom the other day. His mom is always asking for his help with using the computer and one day last week he had had enough and told his mom that he was leaving and that she needed to figure it out on her own. So he left her to figure it out. As he was out he felt bad about how he had handled the situation and realized that the way he acted and treated his mom wasn't very nice or Christ like. He called her immediately after feeling this "Godly Sorrow" and apologized. 

I love moments like these when we are teaching principles of the Gospel and our investigators start to connect the dots between what we are teaching them and how in some cases they are already living according to the teachings of Jesus Christ. It is such a blessing to be teaching Zdenek and to be learning from him. He shared with us that before he started meeting with us he didn't really enjoy being around people, but now he sees a difference in himself and his life. He feels like he has more love for those around him. 

WE LOVE OUR ZDENEK.

HENRY:

He had been MIA for about a week or so.

We were able to have a lesson with Henry on Thursday just before the Ward BBQ in Prague. 

A recent convert taught with us and it went great. At first he said he wouldn't be able to stay for the BBQ.... He ended up staying for TWO HOURS.

IT WAS SOOO PERFECT. We were able to introduce him to the Bishop and his wife and several other members. Henry asked each one about their conversion story and how they felt about their baptism. Soooooo gooodddd. Members are the greatest! Before my mission I didn't realized how IMPORTANT members are in missionary work. I would encourage all of you reading this to reach out to the missionaries this week and see if there is anyway that you could help them in. I know that if you do, not only will you be such a huge blessing to them, but you will be touched by the spirit of missionary work and see your own life be blessed.

ENGLISH VYLET:

We took our Mlada Boleslav English class on a field trip to the grocery story to learn words and practice speaking more.

hahahaha we had a blast! It's good to get out of the classroom sometimes. Especially now that the weather is nicer. :)

I love you all!

Have a spectacular week!

S laskou,

Sestra Fred 🌻

The Grilovani! Henry is there to the left with his back towards us. 

It's a little dark.. but we were on the run the other day and Sestra Hale so lovingly fed me Salad on our car ride to Prague. 

​Ha ha, Sestra Hale enjoying the Czech sunset.

The Prepared Elect

Ahojd'!

H a p p y Cerven (June) everyone. :)

I have a quote for ya'll.

"For at least one moment perhaps for the first moment I let go. I stopped trying to fix it.

I stopped trying to be perfect. And I started letting God work."

I really liked that. Hope you do too. 

SHOUTOUTS:

Baby Savannah, don't get anyyy bigger in the next 3 months so your 

Aunt Sestra Fred can hold you while you are still tiny. Angela--Your baby 

girl is DARLING. I can not wait to meet her!

PP--MM:

---> We have sports night in Prague every other Saturday. We played soccer tonight. 

      It felt good to get out and run around in that scene.

---> I ate Museli and Greek yogurt for breakfast this morning.

---> It rained A LOT this past week. The river next to our Prague apartment is quite full now

      compared to what it used to be. 

---> We live right next to an Indian Restaurant in Prague. We are now good friends with the owners.

B.O.M. INSIGHT:

1 Nefi 2:9-10 (Zdenek's faves)

 9 And when my father saw that the waters of the river emptied into the ^afountain of the Red Sea, he spake unto Laman, saying: O that thou mightest be like unto this river, continually running into the fountain of all righteousness!

 10 And he also spake unto Lemuel: O that thou mightest be like unto this valley, ^afirm and ^bsteadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lord!

May we all find ourselves running a little more into the fountain of all righteousness and firm in the commandments of the Lord. I know that the commandments are a gift from our Heavenly Father to keep us safe and happy here on Earth. Keeping the commandments is one of the simplest and easiest way for us to show our love for God and Jesus Christ.

GATOR UPDATE:

Henry has been a little M.I.A lately, but all is well. We got in contact with him today.

He has been super busy with work the past week. He will be coming to FHE on Monday and 

we will have a lesson with him afterwards.

Zdenek in Mlada is doing soooooo good!! He texted us his favorite verse from the Book of Mormon (the ones I shared in my insight today) and when we had our lesson with him the next day we were able to see how he is marking them up. He is so good. 

We taught him the plan of Salvation this week and he LOVED it. 

He had this question, "Why would God want us to leave his presence if all he wanted in the 

end was for us to return back to him?" (Good question.) We retouched on the pre-mortal life and how there we knew God and Jesus Christ, but we didn't have bodies like they did and the only way for us to become like them was for us to come to Earth gain a body, be tested and then return back to them. Once we explained it the second time it clicked in his mind and he said well of course. That makes sense. 

He has a working weekend on the 25th, so he has chosen a new date for the 9th of July. We are so excited for him. He will be such a great addition to the Ward!

M.L.C:

We had our last Mission Leadership Council with Prezident and Sestra McConkie yesterday.

I have loved being a part of the council and feel very fortunate to be serving as a Sister Training Leader. I am so blessed to go and learn from all of the amazing leaders in our mission and then go on exchanges and learn from the rest of our outstanding missionaries. I can honestly say that I am constantly learning from each and every one of them. 

I don't have enough  time to go into too much detail, but I wanted to share one thing about the Elect that Prezident shared with us. 

He gave us an example of a city of 100 people. Each day a missionary wakes up to 100 new people to talk to because every single day people's lives are changing and God is preparing the elect with certain experiences. i.e. A death in the family, a baby born, a lost job, etc. Someone who you might have talked to 100 times before could be prepared by God in just a moment. That was really powerful for me. I now try to wake up with that kind of mindsight. That I am waking up to 100's 1000's of new prepared and elect people everyday. 

Prezident also shared with us a tip about prayer. He invited us to change our wording from, "Please bless that we will find the elect today." or "Please bless that he will read his scriptures."

but rather, "Please bless so and so with a trial so that he can exercise his faith in thee and see that he does need thee in their life." or "Please give this person a reason to read in the scriptures." It caused me to take a look at my own prayers and I am trying to repent and be better.

Life is good here in the Prauge/Mlada Boleslav areas. 

Sestry Hale, Cade and I are constantly laughing and smiling. 

I am so blessed. I love my companions. I love my mission. 

Have a great start to your summer!

S laksou,

Sestra Fred 🌻

I saw Starsi Needhams name next to the Trout option for lunch at our Mission Leadership Council 

on Friday and thought that it would be a good bet thinking that it would be something similar to salmon.... I was NOT expecting to get the whole fish itself. ha ha 

We were recommend to eat here by Evie McConkie. 

They make a mean burger. We were satisfied!

We, Sestra Cade, Sestra Hale and I, spent part of the afternoon with Evie today in Prague. 

It was beautiful out. Tourists are starting to flood the streets.

Don't blame em.

​

We had a great visit with this pretty lady. I LOVED her shirt and as I went to put my hand on her shoulder as I gave the compliment I felt the shoulder pads. ha,ha,ha, we laughed and laughed and laughed over the shoulder pad style of the 80's or whatever. I love this woman.

Praha Castle