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Good Tiding of Great Joy

Good morning, everybody! I cannot believe it's been a week since I last emailed... this week flew by. Exchanges on Wednesday, Temple on Thursday (INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!), and interviews on Friday hastened the time. It was a spiritually rewarding week.

Our investigators could be doing better... we spent an hour coordinating members for teaches, lifts to and from church, and lifts to the Christmas party. They then proceeded to fall off the face of the Earth. Not sure what happened, but we know we did all we could. We're going to keep trying. I have no doubts that this was just a little slip up and that the Lord will provide a way for them to receive the saving ordinance of baptism.

On a brighter note, we committed our new investigator, E., to be baptised on January 10th! She is AMAZING! She asks the most incredible questions and is so sincere! She is also extremely sensitive to the Spirit. She gets emotional regularly during lessons. It's so fun to see her grow in testimony, even though we've only taught her for a week.  We're taking her to the Temple Visitors Center on Christmas Eve. The Visitors Center Sisters will do their thing, which is always incredible. They have a track record of 100% in sealing the testimonies of those I've brought to them. It should seal her testimony and solidify the date. We are so excited.

The next few days will be amazing. We're being taken care of very well this week and I get to see the many  of my favorite families in the ward - so yes it'll be incredible. I hope all of you have a great week- enjoy the spirit of the season, but make sure the focus is on Jesus Christ! :) For He truly is what matters most.

With love,

Elder Frederickson

You Nearly Knocked Him Off His Bike

Good morning, beautiful people all over the world!

I might sound even happier than usual- this is because I just found out that one of my favorite investigators (not that I have favorites... awkward...) Megan got BAPTISED last week! How exciting! :) It absolutely made my morning. I still remember the first time we met her, one of my first weeks back in beautiful Basingstoke. Good times.

We also received an incredible referral this week for someone who sounds prepared for baptism. We'll be teaching her on Saturday. We could not be more excited.Funny story for this week: So we regularly contact along the seafront. Whenever a jogger or a cyclist speeds by, I always hold out a card because, well, you never know haha. Anyways, there's this lady who walks her dog and she flipped out when she saw me try to give a card to a cyclist- "YOU STOP IT, YOU NEARLY KNOCKED HIM OFF HIS BIKE!" Every single time contacting on the seafront since, we have seen her there. It would appear that her new purpose is to do everything in her power to ensure that we don't get through to anyone. This is only funny because the people could not care less about what she has to say and talk to us anyways. Nothing can stop the Lord's work from moving forward.

Our current investigators are progressing well. We have 3 investigators who are still set for January 4th. We finished teaching them the Restoration and resolved several concerns regarding authority and the validity of a previous baptism. We were able to move past these issues with delicacy. We were teaching Dispensations when Mary asked this question almost emotional... she said "do you mean to say there are still prophets today?" Of course, we enthusiastically said yes- what a great question!  Brother Fahey (our amazing Ward Mission Leader) addressed this incredibly. He was delicate, but made it VERY clear that this man did NOT have the priesthood. Something we've been trying to focus on is teaching in unity. We've been applying the "question, teach, testify, switch" formula and it's worked really well. Our goal for this week is to find a solid fellowshipper for each of them. Luckily, we've got a ward Christmas party this week to help with that! :)I continue to learn a lot about leadership. I am starting to feel that's what I have been sent here to learn- the do's and do not's of Christ-like leadership. My companion and I have been discussing at length the "what", "why", and "how" of missionary work. The focus needs to be on the why! So often we tend to focus on the what. If we do that, we lose the why. For example, one "what" is key indicators. If we focus just on having high numbers, letting the "why" associated with it slip away, then are numbers will be meaningless and we won't fulfill our purpose. If we focus on the "why" behind the "what" then we will achieve the "what" in a far more meaningful way. I've seen examples of this in the wards throughout my mission. I've seen "what" centered wards and "why" centered wards- the latter see FAR more success in missionary work. Furthermore, when we focus on the "why" then the way we approach the "how" changes completely. I don't know how much sense this makes, but I've tried to apply it in all training opportunities.

This week is going to be beyond hectic. This Thursday we are going to the temple, Friday we are going to Brighton for interviews with President, we have appointments all week. The life of a missionary is truly the good life! :)

Happy Christmas everybody! I hope you all have an incredible week! I love hearing from all of you so much! :)

With love,

Elder Frederickson

Worthing Thunder

Dearly beloved family, friends, and associates,

My apologies- this email will probably be shorter than usual. We (us and Littlehampton Elders) went out for breakfast this morning so that's cut a chunk out of P-Day. The breakfast was so worth it though... oh my goodness. That being said, I passed on the baked beans and tomatoes. Whilst the variety of foods that I eat has expanded A LOT, I still cannot bring myself to eat plain tomatoes... unless we're being fed them by a member (which has only happened once.) Judge me. I just don't like them. As for baked beans...not breakfast food. But the rest of it was all incredible.

Another funny thing- Worthing has a professional basketball team- the Worthing Thunder. How original. They play their matches at the famous arena "Worthing Leisure Centre." At least I found it funny... :)

We found a family of three last week! They are from GHANA! Mary, who is 73, Effya (Yes, that's her name...) who is in her 30s, and Kelvin who is 8. Obviously, I bragged about Elder Riehle (Fellow laborers, if I meet anyone who is from another country and I have a friend on a mission there, I brag about them. Most prominent countries- Ghana, Turkey, and Portugal.) Needless to say, I am brushing up on my Twi and am gearing up for a Fufu feast this Saturday. We taught them last week and they attended church on Sunday. We trekked over to East Worthing and we were going to be at their house from 8:35 Sunday morning so we could catch the 8:45 bus... but they were outside chillin at the bus stop all with their Books of Mormon :) it was great. After we had showed them around, we encouraged them to seat themselves and prepare for the meeting. We told them we'd "be back." We then went and greeted members as usual, but everyone we greeted we told to go greet the African family in the chapel. It was a wonderful little strategy that made them feel right at home. They have accepted baptism for the 4th of January. They liked church... well, everything except the length of the meetings. But that's okay :) they are amazing.

The other big piece of news is that we are going to the temple on the 19th of December for a Christmas Dinner and Endowment Session. I am so pumped. I need to go to the temple, really. That's also when I'll get all the Christmas packages and stuff... but I am going to be good this year and not open any until Christmas! :)

Wait something else as well- Megan, one of the investigators that I taught in beautiful Basingstoke (Amazingstoke) is getting baptised this week! When her name pops up on President's letter next week under "baptisms" I'm going to freak out with excitement! :)

I love you all so so much! The Book of Mormon is the word of God- read it!

Hope each of you have an incredible week!

With love,

Teach When You Find, Find When You Teach!

Good morning, everybody! 

It has been a crazy week, that is for sure! We had a multizone conference at Crawley chapel. Crawley Zone was there as well as Maidstone and Wandsworth Zones. We were addressed by Elder Texeira of the 70, our Area President. He was incredible. My companion and I also sang "Dear To The Heart Of The Shepherd" which went A LOT better than I thought it would. It was my first time performing properly in... well, a long time haha. We also received word this morning that, before Christmas, we'll be able to go the temple and we'll have a Christmas Dinner there. Should be exciting. We also had Stake Conference this weekend... because of the way my transfers have worked, this was the first time I'd been to a Stake Conference since the Super Bowl Sunday before my mission. It was wonderful. The whole Saturday evening session was devoted to missionary work.

Funny story of the week: whilst contacting along the Seafront on Saturday, this man stopped us and in a VERY thick Scottish accent yelled at us.  He went on a ten minute tirade during which he said "You know what yous ought to do? Take the next train to Brighton. Go to the club. Find yourself a nice girl. Enjoy your life." At this point he was practically in tears. The only reason I didn't walk away was because his accent was so cool.  Life is always an adventure!

Anyways, as far as the work goes,this week was a week of progress, that's for sure.

The key difference? Two things, in my humble opinion- first, we set goals, made plans, and followed through. Second, as Elder Astorga puts it, we sought out teaching experiences instead of finding experiences (teach when you find.) We taught people the gospel. We didn't blast them with the gospel and then ask for an appointment, we got to know them a bit and then tailored our unique message to fit their needs. Hearing from Elder Texeira also definitely helped.

Speaking of Elder Texeira, these are the things that we gathered from his presentation as a companionship and as a district. First, we need to be organized- we should be planning our appointments in advance. People like patterns. If we establish a regular meeting pattern with shorter, more frequent teaching visits, they will feel the Spirit in short bursts at higher magnitudes. Furthermore, we can establish a pattern for the members who accompany us and allows us to invite them to teaches a week away. It makes it easier for us and MUCH easier for them. Second, we need to go about seeking referrals in a smarter way. Elder Texeira gave us a brilliant way to do this (fellow laborers in the vineyard, read this next part carefully!) He said that if a prospector finds a huge gold nugget, he's not gonna say "Oh sweet! Now I'll start from the beginning and travel six miles and find some gold there!" That would make him an idiot. A SMART prospector digs deeper, because there is going to be more gold around! He'll dig and dig and dig until he is certain he's found all the gold. It's the same for us. When we find an investigator, we should ask for referrals! He suggested that when we pray with an investigator we ask whom they know we could pray for by name. We ask them why. Then we pray. Afterwards, we ask if we can teach that person, as their problems will ALWAYS be best addressed by the Gospel. Brilliant. Preach My Gospel promises that if we do this, we will have many people to teach. We have access to these blessings, we just need to do our end of the deal! :)

I know this work is the work of Almighty God. I am so grateful to participate in it.

I love you all so much! Hope to hear from you soon! :)

With love,

Elder Frederickson

PS The picture is the beautiful Elder Hanks and I :)