Plan Spasení

Ahoky!

How are all of my favorite people doing today?? 

Things are going here in Mladá  The weather WAS warming up and then it got realllll cold again this past week. 

Hoping we will be seeing more sunny skies here soon! 

Sister Boza and I are still kickin' here in Mlada Boleslav. She was sick this past week, but that didn't keep her from working. I finally told her Saturday during weekly planning that as her companion it is my responsibility and duty to look out for her spiritual AND physical well-being. She hearkened unto my loving counsel and laid down for the rest of the evening. It helped her a ton! She is feeling a lot better and we are hoping that she is on the down-hill of her nasty cold she has had.

SHOUTOUTS:

H a p p y V a l e n t i n e s D a y 😘 

Brother Gillies! You are awesome. You commented on my shoutouts so here's one for you. :) Thanks for your email and testimony of temples!

HAPPIEST B I R T H D A Y to Ron D and Uncle John this coming saturday! 

as well as....

BREEEE BABY BATER and ALIZA ANN ALLRED! Bre... I think you are on the 18th.. and Aliza you are on the 16th. Forgive me if I am incorrect!

Just know that I am thinking about you both as you ALSO celebrate the best 22nd birthday!! :) 

MLADÁ MYSTERIES:

---> It really should be called the city of Škoda not the city of Mlada Boleslav. 

---> Mlada means small and Boleslav is a name. So it is the city of small boleslav. ha.

---> Dogs love their Czechs. Czechs love their dogs.

---> We don't have a dryer, so we hang dry everything.

B.O.M INSIGHT:

So I realized that I wrote the heading for the thought last week and then totally spaced putting the actual insight. ha! My bad. Here is this week's.

Alma 36: 17-21. In this chapter, Alma the younger is sharing his conversion story with his son Helaman. Every time I read this my heart is touched by the 

true repentance that Alma went through to recognize his Savior once again in his life. It reads,

 "17 And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.

18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and amen circled about by the everlasting chains of death.

19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.

 20 And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!

 21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea,and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.

I LOVE this. I love it. I love it. I love it.

As Alma remembered and caught hold of that memory of his father prophesying of the coming of Jesus Christ, the spirit was able to work on him and cause him to cry sincerely

to his Savior for forgiveness of his sins. As he did so he discovered the marvelous light of the Atonement. Verse 21 is my favorite. There are going to experiences we have in life that

seem almost unbearable, but like Alma said, "that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy." I know and testify that where there is deep sin and sorrow

there is also the marvelous light and joy of Christ and His Atonement there to lift us out.  

PLAN of SALVATION:

This past week Sister Boza and I decided to focus all of our contacting efforts on one subject, that subject being Plan of Salvation. In addition to focusing our contacting on one subject I did the same in my personal studies. I loved it! I learned a lot about our Heavenly Fathers merciful plan for us. There were some things that stood out to me that hadn't before. One thing I found interesting was that while in the Pre-Mortal life we LEARNED to love truth. That was so fascinating to me. As we focused our finding efforts on Plan of Salvation we met a lot of people who had spiritual concerns and questions that could be answered by the Plan. We went tracting Saturday morning and met this sweet old Czech Grammy. She came out and seemed a little bothered at first that we interrupted her Saturday morning rituals. ha BUT! As we introduced ourselves and shared our message about the Plan of Salvation it was so neat to see how the spirit started to work on her. We talked to her for a good 30 minutes or so and as the conversation evolved her body language completely changed and she started to really listen, ponder and even ask questions like, "well, the real question is WHY ARE WE HERE?" 

Our response to that... "Good question Pani. Let us tell you all about it."haha!

Although she didn't want to meet with us again, she did accept a Book of Mormon from his and said that she would read it. 

One of her reasons for not wanting to meet is that she is too old. I hate when we hear that. Whenever I hear that rejection/excuse I think of Albertina Dillenbeck. The sweet 

recent convert in Saratoga Springs, NY. Sister Seader informed me a couple of weeks ago that she passed away. She was a grammy, but because she accepted the restored Gospel of

Jesus Christ and was baptized she got to leave this Earth prepared to go Preach the Gospel to all of her family and Friends in the spirit world. She is such an incredible example to me of 

a woman of true faith. It is NEVER too late! No matter who we are, members or non-members, Christ is always waiting for us to "come unto him and be perfected." 

I would like to challenge all of you to find Christ in your life this week. Turn unto him and allow Him to change you. 

I am so grateful for the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. To know where I came from, why I am here and where I am going is such a gift!

I feel so humbled to have the opportunity to share that with these Czech people of whom some have been searching for the answers to those questions. Although we didn't 

find anyone new to teach this week, I feel so much love from my Savior in knowing that by small and simple conversations that we are having with people on the streets and inviting them

to learn more we are laying the foundation of a great work.

GATORS:

Pavlina has been out of town, so we didn't see her last week! We are set up to see her on Wednesday though. :)

Charles and Jozef are doing well. The daily contact is helping! One night last week Jozef texted and said, "Good evening my dear sisters! I hope you haven't forgotten about me! I am reading the scriptures you are sending me!"

hahahah it made our day. We are only able to see each of them once a week, which make it really difficult for them to progress more consistently. But! We are hoping this week we start meeting with them more regularly. 

CHURCH:

We had an awesome day at church! Sister Hedrlinova came with her daughter again! And you will never guess who rode with them, Sister Bursova! Yay!

Sister Boza and I have really focused on the Less-Active work this transfer and we are seeing miracles from it. :)

Welp, that's all folks!

Have a happy week! Toodle-loo!

S laskou,

Sestra Fred

​Every Sunday evening we have dinner with the Ratajovi. 

Libuse is a recent convert. 

She is one of the most loving and thoughtful humans I have ever met. 

She gave me a rose for my birthday. ha 

There's never a dull moment Sunday nights at the Ratajovi.

Lentils and Sausages

hahah I didn't even know WHAT I was eating. 

Surprisingly enough, I really like lentils!!! ha!

This is Kristof Lendel. He drew me a picture of the Frier Berg Temple!

Ha,ha, I also claimed him as my valentine. ;)

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 :)

 

I don't know about you... BUT I'm feeling 22

Čauky!

Well, this week was awesome up until 2 hours ago! ha! Stay tuned.

The weather has been all over the place this past week. Lots of rain and winds storms!

Mom, you would hate it. ha.

Shoutouts:

⏺Mason Michael!!!! I can't believe you lost your first tooth! I hope that tooth fairy found your pillow. :)

⏺T-fred and C-fred. I want you to take me to the slopes next winter and teach me how to shred ice.

⏺Angela Marie. You are soooo sooo close!!! Eeek. I can not WAIT to find out what you are having. I pray

every night that it will be a girl. Sestra Boza does too. ha!

⏺It's my Birthday on Wednesday! I have never been this excited for a birthday. ha

Mlada Mysteries:

---> DM and Rossman are the Rite-Aid and Walgreen's of Czech

--->We received a referral from HQ a couple weeks ago. The young man heard about us by watching South Park. HA.

---> Our branch is full of translators for the church!

---> We have two prego Sisters in the branch. I see them and I picture Angie. :)

Book of Mormon Insight:

I was reading in Alma 9 this morning about when Alma the Younger and Amulek go into the land of Ammonihah to preach the word of God.

In verse 23 it reads,

"And now behold I say unto you, that if this people, who have received so many blessings from the hand of the Lord, shouldtransgress contrary‍ to the light and knowledge which they do have, I say unto you that if this be the case, that if they should fallinto transgression, it would be far more tolerable‍ for the Lamanites than for them."

There are a couple of things I love about this verse.

1. I really like they way Alma and Amulek are bold.

2. I love how they point out how they have already seen the blessings come and that they have received that light and knowledge from God.

3. I think that my favorite title of Chirst is The Light and the Life. This life is all about preparing to meet God and Jesus Christ and one thing we need

to do to prepare for that great even is to gain knowledge. And when we gain knowledge we are gaining light. I know that Christ is the source of ALL light and

knowledge. It is simply up to us to seek and obtain.

Alright, I've got some sad news.

NELLI:

She was progressing soooo sooo well last week. She was experiencing beautiful conversion and was even having moments of receiving her own personal revelation as she read the Book of Mormon.

When we met with her last Tuesday she says to us, "Sisters! I have a verse I want to share with you! She shared 2 Ne 2:8 with us, which reads, "Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save‍ it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth‍ down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection‍ of the dead, being the first that should rise." She then went on to bear her testimony that it is only through Christ that we can be saved.

2nd spiritual experience. We re-taught her the Restoration last Monday and invited her to pray about Joseph Smith and a modern day prophet. We followed up for the next couple of days and I believe that it was on Thursday she told us that she got her answer. She had knelt down to pray about Joseph Smith and ask Heavenly Father, again, for a confirmation of the truth of his life and ministry. As she finished her prayer and opened her eyes, a stream of sunlight came through her window, and she compared it to Joseph's experience when he saw God and Jesus Christ in the Sacred Grove. She said that at that point she knew that the experience that Joseph had was true. That he really did see God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

On Saturday we taught Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. We used the object lesson ice cream "sundaes" She LOVED it. She understood the importance of needing to be there each week to renew her covenants with God by partaking the Sacrament. Her only concern was that she doesn't have her Driver's License and she really doesn't like riding the bus with the kids, which is understandable. We discussed coordinating a ride with one of the members and she felt a little more comfortable with that. We weren't able to get her to church yesterday, but she said she would be able to come the next week.

Then today happened.

We usually go see her Monday mornings around 10:30. We called to confirm this morning. She told us it would be fine for us to come and that she actually had something to tell us.. the tone of her voice was not super vibrant. Sestra Boza and I knew that it wasn't going to be news we wanted to hear. Upon arriving we asked her how her weekend was, if she was able to read in 3 Ne 18 like we had invited her to do, atd. Then she dropped the bomb. She told us that she does not want to become a member of our church because she can go to any other church whenever she wants. She has already been baptized, and that's enough. She really doesn't understand why she needs to be baptized again. She told us that when she accepted the baptismal date a couple weeks ago she only said yes FOR US.

This is my response to that.

NO WAY. NO HOW.

Ahhgg she came up with all these LAME excuses. It was so frustrating and so sad to hear her go on and on about how she just doesn't feel like this is right for her and that she needs to get back on the right path and this and that. We tried to help her reflect back upon that absolutely incredible spiritual experiences she has had in the last month. I was bold with her and said there is no way that you can deny those feelings that you felt when having those experiences. 
We tried so hard to reset a date with her, but we could see that she wasn't willing to change. She even told us herself that it is a huge life commitment, which it is, that she just isn't willing to make right now. We told her how much we love her, and bore testimony of Christ and Heavenly Father. Then we had to tell her that we couldn't keep meeting anymore if she isn't willing to make the changes necessary to progress towards baptism.

That was hands down one of the most difficult conversations I have ever had to have on my mission. It isn't easy having to let someone go like that after seeing them make SO MUCH progress and have them almost disregard all that they have truly learned for themselves through the spirit.

Anyway, so we lost our only Baptismal Date. It wasn't the best of mornings, but! I called Elder Holt this morning shortly after all of that happened to ask him a question about my money situation and this is what he said to us. He said, "Man, that happens sometimes, but you know what, don't get discouraged because that is what Satan would want you to do. It's when hard times like this happen, that something EVEN greater is about to happen." Elder Holt is my angel today! I loved his words and I believe them with all my heart.

ON A MORE POSITIVE NOTE:

It's my NAROZENINY on Wednesday!! :) It's been almost a year since I made the decision to go home. Can you believe that? It was on my birthday last year that I made the choice to go home. That was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make in my life, but you know what? I really believe that it was one of the best I could have made for myself at that point. I often catch myself pondering the last year of my life, and as I am studying or out contacting I stop and I think to myself, wow. I did it. I'm here again. I am sharing the good news of this amazing Gospel in another language. Some days it feels like I never even left to begin with. ha!

I want to bear my testimony to you of trials. I am so grateful for them. I am grateful for MY trails. I truly believe that along with everything else in our lives, trials are perfectly designed for us and perfectly timed as well. I love my Savior. I have come closer to Him and my Heavenly Father then I ever have before in my life because I choose to follow a prompting to serve a mission. How blessed I am! I love this gospel more than anything and I love being able to share it with these Czech people.

We had training this last week in Prague. We participated in a world wide broadcast with missionaries throughout the world and church leaders. It was awesome.

The theme was "Teach Repentance. Baptize Converts." I learned A LOT and realized some things that needed to change in my work as a missionary and in myself in general.

Training is always a good time. I love being in Prague with other missionaries!

We have exchanges this week and guess where we get to go... CESKE BUDEJOVICE!!! My birth placce!!!! Ahhhh I am SO excited.

We will be with Sister Birkeland and her trainee, Sister DeMann. This is going to be the BEST BIRTHDAY WEEK EVER. I can hardly stand the excitement.

We have on plan to surprise the Meanstanovi with my presence. That will be a priceless moment. :)

Thank you SO much for all the birthday wishes!!! Family, I promise I will respond to them next week!

I got mom and dad's package and carly's. I can't wait to open them! :)

Mom thank you for giving birth to me. I am eternally grateful for you and that sacrifice you made to bring me into the world!

Here's to a good 22 years of life!

S pozdravim,

Sestra Fred

 

Lesson by the River-This is Jozef. He is a former whom we recently picked back up. We had a restoration lesson with him by the river on Saturday, ha! I ate the nastiest thing yet on my mission. It's called Lacenka. Oh man, never again, ha!