Week 3 - June 1, 2015

Hey Everyone! 

I am totally sad that no one emails or writes me :( Thank you Grandma Baggett for being the only one. Your letters definitely cheer me up! 

This week has been good but crazy as always. Our goal this week from President Shumway was to have 100% Member present lessons. 78% which I am super happy about. I think the mission overall got 93% which is a new record. Our goal for this week is to OTM five people everyday. OTM means Open Thy Mouth so we have to talk to at least 5 random people everyday about the gospel. It is going to be hard but I am sure we will meet some cool people. 

Tuesday we had Train the Trainer in springfield. I was so happy I got to see Sister Gerard and Sister Parcels. It was pretty fun. :) We had to go to springfield again on Wednesday for District Meeting. Lots of miles! We are always in need of more. We finally called and asked for more miles since we cover 2 areas now. We got 250 more which is going to help a lot. We'll have to have some walking days if it stops raining long enough. 

We went and saw the Butler Family again on Wednesday. We had a super great lesson planned for them with Mosiah 3 and tying it into the plan of salvation. It would have gone super well if their friend Brother B wasn't there. We were reading from the chapter and would stop on every single part that didn't matter. He spent 5 whole minutes explaining what stiff-necked meant. He totally drove away the spirit. He talked the whole time so sister Booms and I could say one word. AND he started teaching false doctrine, then wouldn't let us correct him. We barely got an invitation out at the end. He also cut off Sister Butler from bearing her testimony about the Book of Mormon. It is just a terrible situation. Other things happened too and President Shumway is super mad about it. From now on we have to take the Bishop with us or our Ward Mission Leader. It makes me so sad because I personally felt the spirit so strong and I knew Sister Booms did too. We felt so inspired to say something and we physically couldn't. I felt good in the lesson. I felt like I actually knew what I was doing. The worst part is the kids were asking awesome inspired questions and we couldn't answer because of Brother B. We are hoping things go better. I know lots of people in authority have talked to him, so I hope something changes soon. Pray for us! 

Thursday was pretty awesome. We had 4 lessons clear out in Buffalo. People in Buffalo are crazy though. Thursday night we had exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders in Ozark. Sister Ma'alona came to bolivar and spent Friday with sister Booms then I went with Sister Oliva down to Ozark. We met this crazy baptist lady on Friday. She didn't believe that people were in different places around the world in the time of the Book of Mormon. She thinks everyone in that time period was all in one small place. It was a struggle to explain it to her. The member that came with us actually majored in History so she was able to explain it a little bit. We also did service for her by hanging up picture frames. Lets just say that will never be my career! We switched back friday. The Bishop and his wife came down to Ozark to switch back. It was like 10 when we finally got back to Bolivar. Longest day of my life! 

Saturday we spent all day inside weekly planning. It is the longest process ever. We did go out and have a Less Active lesson and we fixed a hole in our tire. Pretty boring day. 

We got a referral for a guy who has a son that lives in Idaho. The son wants to get baptized in Idaho soon so the dad wants to read the Book of Mormon to know what his son is getting into. He is super nice and sounds like he is going to read it with a desire to learn which is great. We are going to try and teach him and his wife when they get back from Idaho in a couple weeks.

I finally had real biscuits and gravy. It is delicious. Why has nobody made it for me before? I also ate deer which is surprisingly good. Maybe because it was fried and covered in gravy. Works for me though. This Friday we are going to a members house for dinner and she is known for serving crazy food like turtle and squirrel. I am terrified. We are definitely blessing that food! 

I love you all! I hope you have an amazing week. Can someone please write me and tell me how the chapters from Isaiah in the Book of Mormon is supposed to bring me happiness. Read 2 Nephi 11:8, 2 Nephi 12-24. All it brings me is frustration because I don't even know what it says. The church is still true! Keep reading and praying. 

Love, 

Sister Frederickson

May 25, 2015

Hey Everyone!

We had a baptism on Saturday for our Investigator Mailey! It was amazing. I am so proud of her decision to be baptized. She is just a wonderful girl, I am glad she has some good friends in the ward. We have a great group of young women. It was kind of chaotic with the scheduling because  half the people thought it started at 10 and the other half at 1. We got so many calls Friday night asking. haha! 

 One of our investigators, Danielle we taught twice this week. We found her when we went to visit her Less Active neighbor and asked for a referral. She sent us next door to the neighbor she hates and so we went over. We have had 3 lessons with Danielle and she is amazing. She definitely has some problems to work through but is really receptive and the spirit is always so strong when we teach her. 

The worst part of missionary work is you smell like people's dogs and sins. 

We had a crazy emotional Friday night. Brother B who referred us to the Butler family left us a horrible voicemail that was not christ-like. After the voicemail my companion was in tears and we called President Shumway to tell him what happened. Long story short we had some scheduling conflicts and we were trying our best to resolve them. Someone got angry because we weren't including them in every little detail. 2 days later we think we have it all worked out. The Butler family came to church on Sunday and it was amazing to see them there. The whole ward was really nice to them which was amazing. The ward needs to help out so much for investigators. I am glad we are still teaching them. They are the cutest family ever. 

We are still trying to meet everyone. It is hard when we don't have an address and people won't answer their phones or call us back. We just keep on trying.

Saturday at one of our dinner appointments we played baseball. It was really fun. It is just hard to run in rubber boots. My legs are so sore! I can't walk. After dinner we also played kick ball. The family is just the greatest. They live in the middle of no where and are basically modern day pioneers. I love them! 

It has been a pretty busy week trying to see everyone. I thought I was good at names until I came on a mission. It is hard to remember everyone in the ward especially when half of them are related. 

We have train the trainer tomorrow in Springfield. Best part about it is that I get to see sister Gerard. I miss that sister so much. The MTC was great with her. 

Thursday I am going on exchanges with the sister training leaders so I will be in Ozark for the night with Sister Oliva. She is super nice, I am excited about it. 

Me and Sister Booms are best friends with the ice cream truck guy. One day we will convert him. I finally got my batman ice cream with gum ball eyes. It is the greatest thing on the planet besides the Book of Mormon. 

The picture with the cows is someone's mile long drive way. It was an adventure to get through. Has anyone herded cows in a car before? 

When I get back I am making a flower potty. 

Love you lots! 

Sister Frederickson

Arkansas Bentonville Mission - May 18, 2015

Hey everyone! 

Surprise announcement- I'm switching missions! 

Well... the mission name is changing and the mission home and office are changing. But that is all. Everything else will stay the same. Bentonville is a lot more central so the Mission President can see the missionaries more and also be away from home more. They have been working on getting this passed for the last 3 years. I'm pretty excited about it. It will all change July 1st when President Loveland comes in. It won't be the ONLY TRUE MISSION anymore but we'll think of something. :) We are going out with a bang so we have crazy goals we are trying to meet every week but they are great. The members are really great at helping us accomplish them. 

This week has been pretty busy. We are still trying to meet everyone. It's hard because our area is so big and we only have a certain number of miles. We don't ever make it out to Buffalo because it is so far away. We are hoping that Tuesday will be our Buffalo Day where we can have lessons with that neck of the woods on one day. We are hoping we get more miles but I don't know if we will. 

Our baptism got moved to this upcoming Saturday because of Stake Conference plus all the other meetings throughout the day. Stake Conference was really good. Elder Frost from the Seventy spoke at the adult session Saturday and the normal session on Sunday. The other speakers were great too. I have been to springfield 3 times this week because of conference and zone training on Thursday. Lots of travel time. It takes about 40 minutes to get to the stake center from our apartment. Luckily we have had members drive us out there. 

Zone training was great. We all had to write 2 christ-like attributes we wanted to work on and share them with President Shumway during our interviews. It has been great to reflect on them and work on them more everyday. Interviews went really well. President Shumway is really great. 

Saturday Night/Sunday morning we woke up to tornado sirens at 2 am. It was really scary because we didn't know what to do. We looked outside and everyone is running to the building across from ours so we get dressed and go talk to people. They all just hide in the laundry room. But it was great because we got to find out where the laundry room actually was and we met people from our apartment. the warning was over in an hour so we just went back to bed after that. I couldn't sleep very well for the rest of the night so I kept falling asleep all day Sunday. 

The food is really good. Nothing foreign so far. We have had lots of Mexican, 3 times in 2 days. Lots of meat and potatoes as well. I enjoy it! Our meal calendar has been pretty full and this next week is full for dinners. That's great! 

We were driving out to a dinner appointment in the middle of nowhere and we are on this dirt road, we found a fish! In the middle of the road missing its eyes! It was hilarious. We totally got out of the car to take pictures. How does a fish show up in the middle of the road?

I think that is all the funny stories for now! The people here are quite entertaining. There are also a lot of people here who have been offended so they won't come to church but they have strong testimonies of the gospel. The church is always true even if the people aren't. We all make mistakes in our life but we need to forgive others. Don't let someone else hold you back from being happy. 

I love you all so much! I miss everyone like crazy but it is great to stay busy! 

Love, 

Sister Frederickson

May 11, 2015

Hey everybody!!!

I can't tell if time has moved super fast or super slow. I can't keep track of the days anymore.

My MTC companion left may 4 so I was in a trio with my other roommates who also were coming to the OTM.

Monday and Tuesday were kind of slow because we didn't have our district leaders or anyone else to have class with. Our teacher came for class on Monday afternoon and the 4 of us started singing. After one line Sister Barton (our teacher) just started laughing at our lack of singing skills. It was hilarious. We didn't sing much after that. :)

We left the MTC at 4 am after waiting for some of the Elders in our mission to get on the bus. They never made the bus because they slept in. It was pretty funny even if the President didn't think so. We got to the mission home about 1 on Wednesday. President and Sister Shumway and the Assistants picked us up from the airport. It was such a long day. We hung out at the mission home, filled out papers, watched the video on safe driving. Nothing too exciting but it was good. They fed us amazing brisket and beans. Best meal of my life. We found out who our trainers were and what are we were going to. I am in Bolivar, MO. The ward boundaries are our boundaries so It is bigger than just Bolivar city. My trainer/companion is Sister Booms. She is pretty great! We are both new to the area. We left the mission home about  5:30 am Thursday and traveled to different transfer stops then waited for a ride from the members to our areas. We left the transfer point at 1 pm and got to our apartment. We live on the 3rd floor and the doors to the porch were wide open. We have found out that the wind blows them open, even when they are locked. We have had to shove our table in front of the doors so they stay closed. So far we have only had one tornado warning which is good.

After getting in the apartment, we go through the area book with everyones names and we find a post-it that says we have an appointment at 5. That's in like 3 hours. No bueno! We read through her sheet find out that she's been to church for a year, about 13/14 yrs old. and has had one previous lesson. We meet her at the church and start teaching her. She has also read the whole bible and is almost done with the Book of Mormon. She prayed about a baptism date and feels it should be this upcoming Saturday, so... we have a baptism on Saturday. It is great! She has such a strong testimony of the gospel and is just incredible.

We got a referral from a member in Stockton (not our area) and said his friend John wants to start taking the lessons with his family. His friend lives in Bolivar so we met with him on Saturday and he has like 6 grandkids (9-15yrs old probably) that he has adopted and they all want to be baptized. They start talking to us and tell us that their goal is to go to the temple so they can have an eternal family. They start talking about how long it's going to take to hear all the lessons and when they can be baptized. The dad is super great! He was just telling his kids that this is their decision and don't be afraid to ask questions on anything. The members who referred us to them were also there when we came over. They just kept bearing their testimony and are all so great. We meet with them on Wednesday for dinner and a lesson. They are an amazing family! I am excited to continue teaching them. It is going to be amazing.

We have just been focusing on meeting the members and the investigators. Our ward mission leader is absolutely amazing and keeps sending us names of people to visit. Everything is all new so I have definitely gotten homesick but through prayer and priesthood blessings it has been better. I am so thankful for Skype and the wonderful bishop for letting me use his computer and for feeding us dinner. We have an amazing ward. Always pray to know who to help and be supportive of the missionaries in your area. It makes everything so much better. Members are the key!

We went over to dinner at one of the members house's on Saturday and the Husband had bought us so many groceries. We have ramen, cup of noodles, and cookies for life. They are the sweetest couple. I love them.

Pray and read the book of Mormon every day. they are both miracles to have in your life. I couldn't be on mission without the love and guidance of my Heavenly Father. If you need help or guidance in you life, don't be afraid to ask. He will pour down the blessings! I am so thankful for all the love. I feel it every day. Being a missionary is so hard but it is possible through the help of our Savior. I love this gospel so much! It can bless us all.

Love you and miss you!

Sister Frederickson