Happy Reunion!!!

An amazing member in Basingstoke sent me this picture of Matthew and Elder Cullimore!  They were visiting family in Worthing and were so happy to see each other again!!!  So grateful for amazing members in England who love and care for my missionary!!!!

Good morning everybody!

It has been another roller-coaster week in Worthing! Lot's ups and downs! But a lot more ups, I think! :) The work is most definitely moving forward, though. The ward is  beginning to trust us and put their shoulder to the wheel. I'm confident that if we just keep doing what we are doing, then the Lord will provide the rest.

We are seeing tons of miracles in our finding efforts! We have made it a big focus to rely on the Lord when planning our finding activities (both through the members and through our own efforts.) Somehow, we've been able to be at the right place at the right time all week. The Lord guided us to the right formers, right members, right streets, and placed prepared people in our path along the way.

Our Ward Mission Leader provided us an incredible referral this week. She was at church yesterday, we taught her, and will teach her again tomorrow. She loved church and no concerns are apparent at the moment.

This week I gained a renewed testimony of knocking. We put our faith into it and "played smart" by trying to knock as much as possible between 5 and 8 PM (disregarding the fact that people are "having their tea.") We also worked on being less robotic- just being ourselves at the door. I've said it before but I'll say it again- training brings you back to basics and I could NOT be more grateful for that.

Our goal this week is to improve our relationship with the ward and ward mission leader by defining our respective roles in pushing this work forward. We want our study and planning to revolve more around the people and the doctrines they need (because that's where the answers always are!) as opposed to our planning revolving on how we can get the members involved. During companion study today, we decided that we want to shift that to the Ward Mission Leader via daily contact and the Ward via more effective use of the Progress Record. Our plan is to inform our WML of all return appointments when we get them, tell him about the investigator, and invite him to prayerfully consider who could do a good job fellowshipping... and then find a member for us to come on that appointment. Obviously, that's a big load to bear- but I think it'll enhance our ability to build the testimony of our friends ten-fold. We'll see how it all turns out :) we're going to present it all to him tomorrow in correlation.

I love you all! Feel free to send packages, letters, or anything really! :) You guys are simply the best. I know this church is true, I could never deny it.

With love,

Elder Frederickson

Wonderful Worthing

Dear everyone!

It's been a great week in Worthing. It's certainly had it's challenges but that is how we grow, isn't it?

Great things have small beginnings. I had an excellent exchange with Elder Ormsby this week. I think the biggest thing that I have learnt this week... well, the two biggest things I've learnt this week... are these-

1. Numbers are only meaningful if the numbers are representing the progress of people. In a properly running area, a mission leader should be able to see the numbers from week to week, see progression, and know who those numbers represent. I took a look back at some of the numbers from when I was in Basingstoke and compared them to when I was in Chichester. The numbers in both were high, but the ones and Basingstoke were most defintely "better" because I could remember who the majority of those number represented. They were more meaningful. These are just scrambled thoughts, but I think they are important. It has made me change my train of thought about how the work should move forward in Worthing.

2. We need to strip ourselves of pride when working with the members. I remember one day last week, Elder Cullimore and I were talking about working with members and visiting them daily. He said that he remembered the missionaries stopping by his house and just chilling, really. He said that we didn't want to leave that impression on the members here. I agreed. As a result, I wasn't too keen on stopping by members. Then, however, something came to me. Why didn't I want to stop by members and train them to be better missionaries? It was simply because I didn't want them to think I didn't work hard! In other words, for a few moments I had been willing to sacrifice my commitment to the District and Zone vision because I wanted to make sure I looked good! We then quickly agreed that we'd do all we could to visit members eight times each week.

The fruits of visiting members were delicious. We were efficient with our time, had fun, were ourselves, and helped train the members to be better missionaries. We were bold in stressing that if we do this work without them, we will fail. We might baptize people, but there is a very high chance they'd fall away. Building the kingdom would require a joint effort. The Spirit was invited and acted upon. Somehow, we received ten referrals from various members. It was amazing. Furthermore, although we were spending a lot less time contacting, our contacting yielded far better results! 

The missionary life is amazing and so rewarding. I can feel myself growing each day. Next week I hit 14 months... it's ridiculous. I know the work to which I've been called is very real. As with all of my previous areas, I need to be in Worthing at this exact time for specific reasons. The Book of Mormon is true, read it.

Love you all so much!

Elder Frederickson

Week 2 in Worthing

Good morning everybody!

This week has been great. White-wash training is NOT easy hahaha but it is so much fun and you really learn a lot from it.

Today will probably consist of letter writing. There's nothing too crazy about Worthing hahaha but I love it. Tomorrow there is a Zone Conference in Crawley, it'll be my first Zone Conference on the east side of the mission. It'll be fun to see some people I haven't seen much. 

It's definitely a different experience serving with one of your friends. It's extra challenging but the results are extra worth it. We had quite a hard time with finding efforts this week and we couldn't understand why. We were sick on Thursday and Friday and just wondering what was going on! But then I realized- we weren't relying on the Lord enough, we weren't relying on the members enough. We have repented and redoubled our efforts to remember that this is NOT our work, we can do nothing of or for ourselves. We need to let the members know that without equal effort from us and them, then the work cannot, will not, and (quite frankly) should not- for we reap what we sow. If we are the only ones reaping, then why would the kingdom grow?

The Zone has set a lofty goal of teaching 8 "member lessons" each week per companionship. We (finally) had our first member lesson after a Dinner Appointment yesterday. Elder Ormsby made an exceptional DVD for the District to use in our Member Lessons with all of the Work of Salvation clips. We showed this family the one where the YM program grows from 1 to 26 members. It was intensely spiritual. At the end of the video, their 14 year old son blurted out that he had a friend that he was going to invite to mutual! He felt the spirit, he caught the wave. If the hearts of the rest of the ward are softened in a similar manner, then I can't even fathom what is going to happen here. True, the start of things has been slow... but I think the Lord will bless Worthing with an abundance of souls- so long as they do THERE part! :) We will do our part, the Spirit will most DEFINITELY do His. It's all on the members now. I know they can do it.

An epiphany I had this week- the main difference between us and the members (purely in regards to the missionary work we are BOTH called to do) is that members have the opportunity to invite people they have pre-established relationships with whereas we (without their help) approach people we've never met and invite them. Which will work better? The former, obviously. That's just a thought that's been running through my head the last week. I can't wait to apply it in our member lessons.

I love the priveledge I have of taking part in the Latter-day work. It's definitely moving forward. If you can't see it, open your eyes! Catch the wave, ask the missionaries, and know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ changes us forever. I know all of this is true. Apply the doctrines of salvation and you'll notice immediate and sweeping improvements in your lives.

Have an incredible week, everybody! Know that I love you and pray for you daily.

Love,

 Elder Frederickson