Beautiful Day in Basingstoke!

Morning, mates!

 

It is P-Day once again! Not only that, but spring time has FINALLY arrived in Basingstoke! Temperatures hit double digits (celcius) for the first time in... well, a long time! The sun is shining, and things are most definitely looking up in this beautiful part of the Lord's vineyard which I am priveledged to labour (thought I'd throw in the "proper" British spelling) in. :)

 

What a superb week it has been! We have seen miracle after miracle, it is incredible.

I mentioned last week that we are putting a lot of faith into the nine Address Unknown Files we received a few weeks ago. The first three AUFs (and the 20 doors on either side) yielded no results. The fourth one, however, resulted in three new investigators and two additional potentials- a proper miracle! The family we met is a Nigerian family with four kids! They are so cool- the 9 year old son, Emmanuel, said that he did not just want the Restoration Pamphlet- he wanted all three lesson pamphlets and a Book of Mormon to "read before bed." If only I had been that dedicated at the age of 9! :)

 

We now have a baptismal date with  for the 25th of May. I don't think teaching someone has ever been so FUN! We taught her the first two lessons literally by asking her questions the entire time. She answered them wonderfully. It goes to show thta if we teach with enough simplicity, a nine year old CAN understand the doctrine put forward in Preach My Gospel. Frankly, I think it makes our job a little bit easier! I was reading the Preach My Gospel Missionary talk by Elder Bednar and it said something of a similar nature. I really want to focus my study on the small and simple truths of the gospel, for by doing that, great things will surely come to pass.

 

Everything is just amazing. I love serving the Lord with all of my heart, might, mind, and strength. I LOVED conference this weekend. As they announced the program at the Sunday morning session, both Elder Aichele and I were DEVESTATED that we wouldn't be able to hear Elder Holland speak :( although by all accounts, it appears to have been an amazing talk. My favorites were President Eyrings and Uchtdorfs (in Priesthood), President Monsons (Sunday morning), L. Tom Perry, and Elder Ballards (Saturday morning.) What a wonderful opportunity it is to hear from these chosen disciples twice a year!

 

I also found a talk in our flat entitled "Remember Lot's Wife" by Jefferey R. Holland. He gave it in January 2009 at a BYU devotional. It is exceptional. I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone, especially BYU students and those who love awesomeness.

 

Anyways, I love all of you so much! Both the Book of Mormon and, by implication, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are TRUE! Have a brilliant week! :)

 

With love,

Elder Frederickson

Some pics from across the pond!

A bit from Matthew's latest letter!

Good morning mates!

I love being a misisonary. This week has been filled with tender mercy after tender mercy. From everything about my brithday to running into my good friend Sydney at the Temple on Saturday (she is a friend from BYU and is in London doing a semester abroad), the Lord has His eye on me... I am so grateful for that! :) 

 It's a bank holiday, so P-Day won't exactly be exciting. We'll just do our shopping and such. We have a zone-training in Reading on Thursday, so that should be fun. I went on exchange with Elder Stewert to Farnborough last week and it was way good.

Another excellent week has come and gone here in beautiful Basingstoke!

Truthfully, there isn't a ton to report. We're semi-whitewashing.   So - for the most part we are focusing our efforts on finding. We are putting a lot of faith into these nine "address unknown files." We know that by visiting them and knocking ten per side, we will find prepared people. The first two that we visited yielded no results, but that is just fine! We will keep doing our part.

 We went to the temple with an investigator on Saturday and it was a wonderful experience for him. The visitors center sisters were EXCELLENT, as expected. It really strengthened his testimony. It was more of a chat then a lesson, but it was exactly what he needed. The spirit was SO strong. It strengthened everyone in the room's faith- I suppose that is what missionary work does! :)

Everything is wonderful here. I can feel myself changing. I can feel the Lord molding me. It's amazing. Does this kind of thing continue after your mission? I hope so. Some song lyrics that particularly touched me this week were from the song "Savior, Redeemer of my Soul" (the version in 17 Miracles I think) and they read as follows...

"Chasten my soul til it shall be
in perfect harmony with thee
Make me more worthy of thy love
and fit me for the life above"

How wonderful is that? Yes, I have weaknesses. I think everyone knows that :) but those weaknesses can become strengths. My mistakes can and have become learning experiences. The White Handbook has taught me tons and I don't think I fully realize that until now. Thus far, everything about my mission has been tailored to me. It has been an experience that Heavenly Father created specifically for me, to help me learn and grow, to help me address issues that I specifically have. I know that He knows me perfectly. He cares about me, and protects me. I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for the incredible things he's done for me thus far.

I am so grateful to be able to seve the Lord! I know that the work which I do is true! I love you all so much- you're in my prayers often and I know I am in yours because I can feel it!

Stay beautiful everyone! :)

Love,

Elder Frederickson

Happy Birthday in Basingstoke

Hello beloved friends and family of mine!

 

As Dwight Shrute might say... it is my birthday.

 

I was delighted when my Bishop and his wife showed up at our flat singing happy birthday with a birthday cake and other goodies. It really made my morning! :) Today we will go up to Reading, I will probably have an extremely unhealthy lunch, and we will play some sports. We have a teaching appointment tonight, followed by a YSA activity that we have planned for two of our investigators (since the normal YSA is in Oxford and we can't get two people all the way up there.) McDonalds is being purchased for the activity and all signs point to a success. My birthday coinciding with this is just chance... :)

 

Also, the library here is in a mall and they have Baskin Robins and Auntie Annes pretzels... didn't know they existed in England but they are a little ridiculously expensive so I don't buy anything from there. It does, however, remind me of that wonderful song from How I Met Your Mother- "Let's Go To The Mall." Also we visited a less-active member this week and when we walked in she was watching this strange film. We saw like two seconds of it before we asked if we could say a prayer, but those two seconds involved Neil Patrick Harris piloting a airplane that was about to crash. It was weird.

 

What a wonderful morning it is! Although the spring weather certainly doesn't seem to have arrived yet, things are definitely going well in this amazing area!

I really love Basingstoke. The members are quite wonderful at missionary work. We have received some excellent member referrals as of late and we are teaching them as much as we can. Finding through and working with members really is the "higher way" (not sure where I got that from... perhaps from a district meeting or something- but for some reason, I wrote it in my Preach My Gospel!) As the members see that we mean business about things, that we are there to get work done, they will trust us with those that are close to them. I think that my strategy for working with members can be best summarized as follows-

1. Prayerfully prepare what you will share with the members when you visit them
2. Gain their trust by not wasting any minutes and beign exactly obedient
3. Be yourself. Don't be a robot. Don't be mechanical. Be yourself in every way possible and let people know who you are.
4. (And, at least for me, this is key!) "Be anxiously engaged in a good cause"... we need to be persistent! We need to continuously ask for referrals and schedule appointments with the members ourselves! We need to be proactive in this, we can't just sit around and wait for members to provide referrals! We need to show how much we want them, how precious they are to us. As we are diligent in seeking out the elect, the Lord will provide. He always has and He always will.

Proper synthesis of those four things will always bring blessings. It is the higher way. As we do not waste any minutes of the day and throw ourselves head first into the Lord's work, He will provide the rest. Above all, this is what I've been studying and working on lately.

A lot of our investigators flogged this week. That's okay though, we will keep trying! Our dinner appointment and two other investigators cancelled on Saturday. It was FREEZING and we could have just given up... but we didn't. We quickly arranged to meet with a part-member family. Luckily, they were available on such short notice and we were able to schedule a time for the non-member wife to go on a chapel tour. Furthermore, after that, we were able to receive a referral and introduce a YSA to the church. The member who referred her to us was also there (we think they are dating but we are unsure) as well as two other YSA. The experience was wonderful. We had a great time together and we were able to introduce the Book of Mormon and our church. The members bore powerful testimony.
 

Our other invesitgator is progressing wonderfully. We taught her last night. We REALLY wanted to extend a specific baptismal date but we felt the spirit telling us that now was not the time. We soft-committed her and invited her and her boyfriend to pray about a baptismal date, and that we would do the same. The member told us that he was relieved, thinking we would force a date on her. He said that he felt that praying about it is the absolute right thing. I am so grateful that we have the Holy Ghost. We'd really be helpless without it. We have an appointment on Thursday, where we will set a baptismal date.

We walked to one invesitgators home to pick him up for church. He was asleep. We told him that was alright, we'd wait for him while he showered and got ready. While we waited, his mum made us some breakfast. It was all quite nice. Then he walked to church with us. He (along with our other three investigators there) had a wonderful experience and they were superbly fellowshipped.

One of our investigators attended a youth convention yesterday. He told us that he bore his testimony and that is just wonderful! We are going to fast with him on fast sunday for him to gain permission to get baptized from his father. Once that happens, he will be baptized pretty much immediately!

As a whole, everything is just great. I am humbled daily, but such is the way that our Heavenly Father refines us. As we prayerfully consider the work that needs to be done in out areas, we can set goals that are both optimistic and realistic. We lay those goals before our Father in Heaven and humbly acknowledge that only through His power we can accomplish them. Then we put our trust in Him and GET TO WORK! :)

 

The work I do is the work of God. I can't do it (or anything, for that matter) without His help from on high. He loves me perfectly, but knows that without a great Mediator, there is not chance of returning to His presence. As such, He sacrificed His perfect son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ knows me perfectly. He has felt my joys, my pains, my temptations, everything. He's felt and experienced it all. Because of this, He can help me through anything. He is the means of attaining exaltation and I am eternally grateful for him. I invite everyone to take some time this Easter week and study the many scriptures pertaining to the Atonement in remembrance of that great sacrifice that was made for us a bit over 2000 years ago.

 

I love you all so much! I feel your prayers daily. You guys all take such good care of me :) I love reading the happy birthday wishes and getting these packages and letters. I really am the luckiest Elder in the field... no one can convince me otherwise!

 

With love,

Elder Frederickson

 Bishop and his wife surprised Matthew this morning with a cake and some goodies.  Such a happy missionary - such a happy mom!!!!

Beautiful Basingstoke

Good morning everybody! I have been moved to the beautiful city of Basingstoke! Yes dad, I am Basingstoked. Basingstoke ward is in the Reading Stake! Apparently it's an amazing place to serve. Oxford is in the stake as well, so I will probably go up there for my birthday which is a week from today! Exciting times. I think my favorite feature of the new flat is that there are two toilets. It is a huge blessing. Really.

 

With moves comes a new address! So here is my new address!

 

Elder Matthew Frederickson

10 Coppice Pale

Chineham

Basingstoke

RG24 8JU

 

Basingstoke is AMAZING! Seriously, I love this area so much. Church yesterday was wonderful. We were surprised to see an investigator, Barbara! She flogged our appointment and we hatily invited her to church over the phone. She came with her two children. One of them went to primary and loved it (according to the leaders, he was a little shy around us.) The other stayed with her. She LOVED church. She was singing the hymns and helping her son sing the hymns :) it was precious. The spirit in the sacrament meeting was incredibly strong. I felt an overwhelming sense of peace throughout the meeting, especially during the sacrament. I feel as if this is EXACTLY where I need to be right now. Barbara even took notes during the talks. She wrote down at least ten references. She is progressing so well.

I think my favorite thing about Basingstoke is that we are ALWAYS busy. I never get back to the flat feeling like we wasted time. Every minute is spent moving the Lord's work forward. It is a marvelous feeling. We are always teaching. I think one goal I have for myself this transfer is to be more diligent in regards to ALWAYS finding. Even if we have a five minute bus ride, or have somewhere to be. I want to take advantage of every single moment of the day.

I love serving with Elder Aichele. He is an amazing missionary. We are working so well together. I've learned tons from him already. There have been very few adjustments. We are going to get the flat all cleaned up. I now have it engraved in my head that things need to be clean for the spirit to dwell with us.

Basingstoke ward is amazing. The ward is pumped up about missionary work and are anxious to provide refferals! We have already taught one members girlfriend and she seems interested in baptism! If prompted by the spirit, we will extend a date this Wednesday. Another members friend will be coming to church next Sunday. She says that the friend has been taught before and is prepared for baptism. I stand in awe at how prepared the people of this city are.

 

I love you all and hope that this week brings miracles! Read the Book of Mormon. It contains the gospel of Jesus Christ in it's fulness. It brings a light into our lives that can and will shine eternally.

 

With love,

Elder Frederickson

BASINGSTOKE

So I am now emailing from my new area... Basingstoke! It isn't too far from where I was, so moves were REALLY simple. I got picked up at 9:30 and now I am here emailing in the library! I don't know the address yet but send everything to the mission home!

 

This is a five week transfer so moves are in just a month... crazy. 

 

I am serving with an Elder from Chile! He has been in the field six weeks longer than me!

 

I am really excited to be here. Apparently the work is going really well, so I'm pumped to be able to just dive in.

 

Love you guys!!!

 

 

Beautiful Day in Havant!

Good morning everyone!

 

It is a beautiful day in Havant, Hampshire! The sun is shining and P-Day should be very relaxing. It is the last P-Day of this transfer, which is incredibly hard to believe. The time has just FLOWN. It was so exciting to hear about a bunch of the mission calls this week! I might be biased, but I think I am the MOST excited for the people that got called to England London South :) so much fun.

 

In a way, the work slowed down here a bit last week. Not sure why, but it's fine! We are doing our best. The work will always rise and fall. I think it would be a tad dramatic to even say it "fell" this week. The work in this area is always on the rise! Mail seems to be coming a bit faster now BUT if you send something after today- send it to the Mission address! Just to be safe- since moves are next week :)

 

Sorry there is not much to report today. The last full week of the transfer always seems to be that way!

 

Love,

Elder Frederickson

 

Where is Havant???