Happy Easter everyone! 🌷🐇 I hope that you have been able to rejoice in Him this week preparing
for Easter Sunday and I hope that you all have a special spiritual experience tomorrow as you attend church
and worship Him who IS, our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ.
SHOUTOUTS:
Madeline! Man, I am so bummed I didn't get to see you. But, so glad that you got to experience
the beautiful city of Prague. I hope that your journey around Europe continues unfold as you had hoped. :)
Savannah has hair! Holla holla!
Nice work on the Eggs this year. #TeamCrowley
Mlada Mysteries/Praha Překvapání:
---> The Easter tradition here is this: Men make 3 foot long whips
out of willow tree branches and tie ribbons to the ends of them.
They then go around "whipping" or in other words tapping the back
of the woman's legs singing a song wishing them the woman good
health that year. Especially in the baby department. bahah!
---> Sestra Andreason and I each bought a whip and whipped each other.
---> We did a chalk display in Mlada!
---> We got locked out of our apartment again...
EXCHANGES:
We had exchanges this past week with Sestry Boza and Andersen who are stationed in Pardubice! Prezident has asked that this transfer we bring all the exchanges to us so that we can work both of our areas. Genius. Sestra Andersen went with me to Mlada Boleslav and Sestra Boza went to Prague with Sestra Andreason. They met us in Boleslav on Thursday morning around 9:30. As Sestra Andersen and I were walking back to the apartment I felt my coat pockets and realized that I had left the keys in the apartment. Again.
My stomach sank.
I didn't want to call President again, so I called Sister Holt instead in hopes that she could get me the number for
the locksmith without President finding out. ha ha ha ahhh she ended up having to ask him anyway. At this point I
had entered breakdown mode. It had been a long week. I was stressed about the work, sick, had a lot of things on
my mind and this just sent me over the edge. As I was sobbing I told Sister Andersen that I was not always
like that. ha ha ha. Talk about the perfect way to start out an exchange right?
By the key guy showed up, figured out out to unlock it, diagnosed our lock as ancient and that we'd need a new one,
put it all back together and give us the grand total of 1800 crown bill it was 2:00 p.m. We spent nearly half the day watching Key guy work away at our door. I felt so bad because the Jicin Elders had come into town to help us find
and build our little Mlada Boleslav and they showed up at 11 am to sit and watch with us. ha.
Even though this wasn't the ideal way of spending half of our exchange, there were a few lessons that I learned:
1. Letting others lift you.
I was feeling pretty down throughout the whole ordeal. I was supposed to be the one being a good example to
my younger college and here I was having a meltdown on the stairs. I am so grateful for Sister Andersen. She
sat down beside me, put her arm around me and told me over and over, "Sister Fredrickson, it's going to be okay.
I promise! .... It's going to turn into a really good day! It's actually kind of funny." It wasn't funny at the time, but looking back on it, I have a good chuckle.
I was so impressed with Sister Andersen and the way that she just remained calm and maintained a positive attitude.
I feel that she taught me more in the exchange then I taught her.
2. Trials bring miracles
By leaving the keys inside again we discovered that the lock was really really old and rusted and needed to be replaced and if not, we could get locked out even with our keys. Sweet! I really truly believe that there is always
something GOOD that comes from an unfortunate situation.
3. The sun will come out tomorrow
After we finally got everything settled, the four of us made our way over to have lunch with Sestra (GMA) Bursova. I have officially claimed her as my Czech Granny. :) We had a nice lesson about the resurrection of Jesus Christ
with her and then we were on our way to do a chalk display in front of Bondy. During the whole lockout episode, the
weather wasn't all that great and it even started to hail for a moment. As we got to Bondy and started to chalk out a
Book of Mormon display I felt the warmth of the sun on my face. In that moment, I took a second to just breathe
and feel the love of God that He had for me right then, right there. As I took a moment to feel that love in the
middle of a chalk display, I felt a little closer to God then I did earlier that day. I felt His grace warm my soul through those sun rays.
The sunshine remained and the chalk display was a success! We found a new investigator and a couple of potentials
out of it!
LATER THAT DAY...
Sister Andersen and I went to seed the tracting letter, had some pizza made by our friend Erkan, the one who owns
the kebab place. We still had some time during our dinner hour before we needed to be home, so we ran to Billa (the grocery store) in Bondy really quick to grab some ingredients to made some fruit cobbler. One of the goals Sister Andersen had for the exchange was to work on talking to people at random moments throughout the day, not just during a contacting block. I thought perfect! We are going to practice this at Billa. My challenge to her was just talk. There really is no secret you just have to be you.We went in there, grabbed the stuff we needed, got in line and she
NAILED it! And because of it we met Dennis! Dennis has always believed and felt that something is there, but just doesn't know if that something is God. Dennis is not a potential, all because of a simple, Hello, how are ya? and comment about the Lays Stix he was buying. ha ha
Oh and one more thing...
Our landlady came to pay for the lock replacement and she ended up paying the whole bill.
God is good everyone! He loves us so much. I have seen His hand in my life more in the last 4 weeks,
then I ever have before. I am so grateful for a living, all-knowing God. And I am especially grateful for His
grace and mercy that He continues to bestow upon me and my companions. I love Him! I love Jesus!
They exist. End of story.
I wish you all the best this Easter season! Take a moment to feel the reality of His life and ministry.
I love you all to pieces! H o p p y E a s t e r 🐣🐦
S Laskou,
Sestra Fred 🌻
Sestry Boza and Andersen joined us for lunch in Jicin on their way back
to Pardubice. :)
Elders Chadwick and Smith trying to work their magic. ha ha.
Kinda blurry, but there's our work of art!
Sister Andersen is a boss in the kitchen!
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