April 19, 2010

Dear Family,


My health is good now. I am doing a lot better.

Congratulations Anna on your OUTSTANDING ACCOMPANIST!!!! YOU ARE AMAZING!!! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW PROUD I AM OF YOU!!! Tell Mrs. Grubbs that I said hi. Tell her thank you for everything she taught me...especially considering my companion and I are teaching a young member piano lessons. We just started this week and we are doing 5 finger patterns. We have really begun to appreciate our musical knowledge.

Emily HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!! Thank you so much for your e-mail last week. I have read it several times over the week, along with the others. I really appreciated your works of support (especially about imagining that the glass is too big. Its true, it is easy to imagine that. Thank you). I hope you had a happy birthday.

And of course, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! I guess you are looking forward more to mothers day, but enjoy your birthday regardless. Speaking of, I don't need a birthday box. I know how tight the strings are. But if you insist on a birthday box, I don't want any food....I never eat it! It is so precious that I save it like Melisa's halloween candy, and it just doesn't get eaten. so send pictures of the family, of me growing up, etc. Send sheet music, send letters from the ward. I don't need treats...they just come and go. Anyway, truthfully, you don't need to send ANYTHING. I am fine. It is just another day.

Thank you for the recipes, I can't wait to make some reall potatoe salad. but could you send a recipe for soft pretzels. I think I mentioned that my companio is from new England. It would be good for him to have a taste of home.....pretzels and mustard!

Give my reagards to Sister Nevins. I hope she is feeling better. Also say hi to Sister and Brother Johnson for me, and Sister Jensen. Tell them I am thinking about them. Tell MAtt and Clarrissa that I love them and hope they have a safe journey.

As for me this week, it has been a good week. We had a really amazing lesson with a couple young ladies named Ana and Aida. It was a miraculous lesson, because you could see the effects of truth right in front of you. We started off teaching them some English, and it was the first time we had met with them. We teach half english and half religion. We met in the library, and some of the topic of conversation, especially from Ana, was basically why are we here. She said that normal people wouldn't give up two years to come to a place like Albania. I basically told her that I know what we have to share is true. We are here to serve in any way that we can. We can serve people by teaching them english, and that is good, but we know that the best way we can serve them is by teaching them the gospel of Jesus Christ so that God can help them more in their lives. We are here simply because we love you, and we love God. Simply, that is it. As we were teaching them religion, we decided to begin by teaching them about prayer. We explained how to pray, and I started telling them that the interesting thing about prayer that a lot of people don't realize is that it is 2 way communication. I told her that not only can we speak to God, he can speak to us as we pray as well. Ana immediately said, wait a minuite, explain that! we started translating it into Albanian (they speak really good English, so we expressed several things in english) She said, No, I didn't say translate, I said explain that last part. She wanted to know how to receive answers to prayers. I share a personall experience and we both testified, and Ana opened up like a book, and told us how she is bitter with God because she prayed that her Grandpa wouldn't die, and he died anyway. She just opened up and by the end she was nearly in tears. The Spirit was so strong and we just testified and taught. By the end, she committed herself to read the restoration pamphlet! It was an amazing experience.

Well, I'm out of time, but I love you all! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Fredrickson