Monday, January 20, 2014

The Promised Land


Good morning, everybody!

London is truly the promised land. My favourite thing about serving in London is all the people. There are so many people all the time and they almost always want to talk to you! It is such a blessing to serve here.

With all of these new people to talk to and teach, we've had to, as President Uchtdorf puts it.... "slow down a little." As fun as it is to teach as many people as we can and have wonderful conversations, it's simply not the most effective way to do things. We overloaded ourselves with appointments, were late to most of them, and flogged by the ones we weren't late to. Perhaps a bit of repentance is in order, as we definitely could've seeked the Lord's will a bit more regarding our finding efforts.

This week, we're approaching things a bit differently. We are going to try and visit every member of the ward council and encourage them to be examples to their quorums and auxiliaries with the missionary work they do. These members have so much potential. I love them already and am so excited to work with them.

Last week I also had the opportunity to go on exchange with Elder Aragones in Peckham! It was so much fun. He's an amazing missionary and I learnt so much from him and the way he works his area. They live in the same flat that used to be used by the Kennington (spanish speaking) Elders, two of whom I've served with. I got to eat at the fabled Chicken and Chips establishment "KHF," where you can get two pieces of fried chicken, three hot wings, fries, and a drink for £3. It was good. It's good but I decided that I need to severely limit the amount of cheap fast food I have here because let's just say it's taking a toll. The same day I made this decision we found an investigator that worked at Chick Chicken which apparently was the only venue in which we could teach him. When we arrived he had prepared... you guessed it... chicken and chips. Oh well. I'll do much better this week! :)

We also had a wonderful zone training last week. The biggest things that I got out of it were that we need to teach for understanding. Teach at the investigators pace. "Investigators should be baptised when they are ready. Not a day before and not a day after." If that means it takes a bit longer than you wanted, so be it. It's not about us, it's about them and Heavenly Father. I also decided that I want to really focus on serving out of love. Making my obedience and my work motivated by my love for others, especially Jesus Christ.

Today we're going to Greenwich for a Zone P-Day. It'll be great. I'll send some pictures next week!

I love being here so much. I love these people. I love this city. I love my companion. I love life!

With love,
Elder Frederickson

Monday, January 6, 2014

First Week in London

So, transfers have come and gone, and I have moved to London! My new area is Catford, which covers Greenwich, Lewisham, Catford, and some other parts of London. We are in the London Wandsworth Stake. It's a completely different mission here. My new companion is Elder Bognar from Hungary. It's funny because he replaced me in Trowbridge. He is SO amazing, I love serving with him SO much. 

We have one baptismal date here. He will be baptised on the 18th of January, provided that he quits smoking. He has the desire, through the Atonement all things are possible. 

Church was a fascinating experience yesterday. I have never been to a ward like this one!

We worked really hard this week- we had only one investigator last Wednesday so we did tons of finding and the Lord has provided us with appointments throughout the week. Now the challenge is to find members to take with us! I am so excited to see what happens here.

Not much to report besides that, in all honesty! 

Some other things that are different about Catford.
  • For the first time since last March, I don't have my own toilet. I have moved from a two man flat that had two toilets to a four man flat that has one. 
  • We are one of the only companionships whose number isn't 07800615***. We have this weird number. I still don't know it hahaha
  • We can have Zone P-Days here! We also meet as a Zone each week for District Meeting.
  • For the first time in my mission, travel is EASY. We can get anywhere in our area in like 20 minutes. Gone are the days of waiting for buses and trains.
That's about it, for now. Sorry this is so short!

Love all of you! Have a great week! :)

With love,
Elder Frederickson