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