From: Leslie Ann Freitag

Here is our Missionary, ready to teach!

Sent: Mon 7/12/10 3:27 PM

Thank you for those scriptures I loved both of those they were great! Ones definitely to remember! I will write those down and hopefully commit them to memory this week! I'm glad you got my package alright. I don't think any of the people in the pictures were new investigators. Chareese is the only person I can remember being in the pictures and she is a recent convert and also less active that we are working with. Although....We DO have a new investigator!!!!!!!!!! His name is Bob and he is perfect. It is amazing to see first hand that there really are people who are so prepared and so ready to hear the gospel. We taught him a first on Saturday and he was just so there. He got all of it. At the beginning when we first started getting in to the lesson he mentioned the more I learn about this church the more I like it. I was able to do the part about the apostasy and the first vision. I was shaking, not because I was nervous, but because the Spirit was so strong in the room. He said he got chills as we were talking about it. It just made sense with him (as it should) and he is so excited and happy. He is going to be coming to church with us this next Sunday as long as things stay going right and he accepted an invitation to be baptized. It was exactly what we both needed and was so perfect. The end to the corner has come, it is amazing that just when we think that the Lord has given up or is stretching us far beyond our capability is when He shows us that He is in control and knows what He is doing. And surprises us with more than we could have asked for. I will keep you updated on him, his name is Bob. We also had Zone conference this past week and it was amazing. Our new mission President and his wife, President and Sister Jergensen are amazing. You can just feel their love and the Saviors love radiating through them. I am so excited to be able to work under them and under their counsel. They are from San Diego and are so excited to be out here. We are going to have interviews with them this week so it will be great to get to have one on one time with them. They are both so knowledgeable, spiritual and genuine. I am excited. I hope I am able to stay here in Peoria for another transfer, I'm scared to see what the next couple of weeks will bring. Next week is our last full week of this transfer so we'll find out. It will be hard leaving here, but whatever happens the Lord is in charge. But that is exciting that you are now in charge of the new hires and get to go to Utah every month. That will be fun to get to spend time with Melissa and Kelly and the kids that often. I'm sure mom is sad though to have you gone so often. Is it a week each time? Do you get a raise with that? That is a great honor to be able to be doing that. Did Melissa come down for the baby shower? I hoped you would enjoy the Times and Seasons, I thought it was really cool! I bought one for me too! =) Very interesting. I can't wait for you and mom and Justin to be able to come out here with me and go to Carthage and Nauvoo. We are hopefully going to be able to go to the Pageant this Friday! I can't wait! I hope it works out! But anyway this is getting lengthy! I love you! I hope you have a great week! Thank you for the scriptures and the email! Love, Leslie

Leslie

Re: Happy 4th‏


From: Leslie Ann Freitag
Sent: Tue 7/06/10 3:34 PM
To: nancy freitag (fridaynv@hotmail.com)


We didn't get to come on Monday your right but we were able to come today! YAY! So it was great that you did write and to be able to hear from you. I can't believe you got another calling!! My goodness! Is the ward shrinking? I think those 10-11 yr old girls are so lucky and I hope they realize that. You and Tracy will do such a great job with them! And make it fun. Are you excited? The ice cream get to know you sounds like fun. You'll have to let me know how it goes. That's nice that you were able to do the dinner with the Grondels. How are they doing? And fun that Lauren and Garn were able to come over for Breakfast the next morning! Thank you for that scripture it was perfect. I really apprecate that. There is a cd we have out here and it quotes that scripture so it really was so perfect that that's the one you gave to me. You are definitely in tune. It has been another rough week, but I have definitely felt the Lord helping me to stay uplifted and stay happy and find positive. Hopefully this week will be better. I know that the Lord is just preparing us for someone or something great. When we are ready and when they are ready then the blessings will come. "You receive no witness until after the trial of your faith" so I just have to stick this out and it will come! Sister Miller is going through some similar experiences and she emailed this morning and said, blessings are always waiting just around the corner, sometimes the corners are just really big! =) I thought that was perfect. Just have to keep treking along and staying faithful to the Lord. But I hope you have been able to get things caught up at home and hope taht you are doing well! I am sending a letter and some pictures and notes today! I love you! Love, Leslie

Grandkids

Melissa and the kids were here for the Memorial Day Weekend. We took the kids to get there pictures taken on one of the days. Here are just a few of the great pictures they got of the kids.

Our garden

This is our first picks from our garden. It has been so fun to watch them grow. We also have bell peppers, jalapenos, strawberries. Can't wait for more.

New furniture

After 28 years of our garage sale find of a dresser, we finally bought one! It all happened because Mike's night stand (that we got at the same time as the old dresser) fell apart. The handy man that he is, he thought he could put it back together. The more he tried the more it disintegrated into little pieces!

So Memorial weekend I headed to the RC Willey Outlet to look for a night stand to replace Mike's. I found one and as I turned the corner it just so happened that the matching dresser was right there! It was so meant to be, both on sale and so I bought them. The new dresser is bigger and much more roomy, I love them!

Leslie has been asked to be a trainer for her new companion! This is her first transfer with out her trainer! She is doing so well, we are very happy to see the growth she is making. It does worry a mother a little with all the tornado warnings!

Re: missed your letter‏

From: Leslie Ann Freitag
Sent: Mon 6/07/10 4:39 PM
To: nancy freitag (fridaynv@hotmail.com)

Hey! I am so sorry I didn't get a chance to write this week. Our Pday got changed from Monday to Tuesday since most families should have been home on Monday and libraries were closed. But we had a ton of appts on Tuesday and no one could reschedule. So we didn't get much of a pday at all! So I apologize, but thanks for being understanding. I appreciate your prays for me and for teaching appts they are GREATLY appreciated! My new companion is great. Her name is Sister Hansen and is from Mesa AZ. She is super cute and doing so well already. I am excited for the chance to serve with her, she is very excited about being out here which helps a ton. I remember Elder Davis now, he is a great missionary! I can't believe he's going home already. I really enjoyed having him in our ward, I'm sure you do as well. That is really exciting that Brother Brown is a Sunday school teacher in your ward. He does a great job, he was my sunday school teacher when I first went to the single's ward and I really enjoyed him. I can't believe they opened a Rod Works! That is so exciting! Did they have a lot of fun stuff. That will be fun to go to I might actually be able to go there now! That does sound like a fun day of the Temple, lunch and shopping!

The weather here has been pretty nice for the most part. A few days of unbearable humidity, but for the most part not too bad, but it is only the beginning of summer. =( We did have a pretty big storm Saturday night while we were at President Erickson's house and had to go take cover in the basement during the Tornado warning. It touched down but didn't get to close to us which was good. That was my second one! There was I think three that touched down that day! Scary! I don't understand how people live here, and it doesn't even bother them. Odd to me! I agree time goes fast, I can't believe it's June either! We have a couple of new investigators we are working with which is exciting. One is this lady Lynn who is in her 60's and so funny! I love her. She is reading from the Book of Mormon and loving it. We watched the Testaments with her this week and she loved that too. She talked about how it made the Book of Mormon come to life a little bit more and neat to see how the effects of Christ's birth and death did reach all around the world. She is amazing and hopefully we can get her to come to church this next week. She doesn't like dressing up for church however. We talked with her about why we do and the importance of it and she said that made more sense. Another girl we are working with is Kristina. I think I've told you a little bit about her. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation a few weeks ago and she was so excited. She loved that there was a plan so organized and how it shows how merciful and loving our Heavenly Father is. She loved how there are three Kingdoms of Glory in Heaven so that there is a place for everyone. She said she always wondered what if your not good enough to go to Heaven, but not bad enough to go to Hell. She said "now it makes sense!!" So that was exciting. This week we taught her about the Restoration and she was so excited we have a prophet on the earth today. We are going to go over there this week and watch part of General Conference with her when President Monson speaks. She's only 18 so she was asking, "what's his name? What does he look like? How old is he? Does he wear robes like Moses and Jesus?" It was so funny. It was really powerful though. So hopefully that goes well this week! I got a new companion this week too. She is brand new straight from the MTC so I'm training. I kind of feel like the blind leading the blind, but it has been a good experience. A lot of growing already so I can only imagine how much I will learn and grow by the end of this transfer. I'm really sad this week is our last Zone conference with President Erickson. I am really sad to see him leave. I have really grown to love and appreciate him. I hope I can with my new Mission President as well. I'm sure I will. It will be sad not to be so close to him however. President's house now is just a few blocks away as our new President from here will be about 9 hours! But time will tell. I love you and hope you have a great week! Thanks for your email, always appreciated! Love, Leslie

Re: ‏


From: Leslie Ann Freitag
Sent: Mon 5/24/10 3:27 PM
To: mike freitag (fridaynv@hotmail.com)

Happy Monday! Yes this past week well past two weeks have been great! We are working with a lot of great people and actually teaching lessons! And teaching nonmembers. It's exciting! Click day is the day that you went in to the MTC they are big about it out here...I don't know it's interesting. So each month you have a "click" day, meaning your time is clicking away so you better be working harder and more diligently. So my click day is the 17th of every month. That is exciting to hear that the band did so well at the ward party. That stinks that there wasn't much of a turn out though! I'm sorry. How many people were there? Thank you for your compliments on my thoughts on the Atonement. I made a photocopy of all my writings that I sent him and I want to make one for you and mom as well. And have a copy for myself to read over while I'm out here and also just in case anything happens. The next topic I want to write on is the Plan of Salvation, we'll see how that goes. That's fun that you got to talk to Asher at the same time. I'm sure she was amazed and loved that. Did she tell you all about her dance performance? How did that go? That's sad and fun that she is growing up so fast and getting more and more of a personality. That is so crazy that Ben and Mason are both back already! It seems like Mason just left!! Is Lauren still planning on going down to Nauvoo while she's here? Thank you for your email this week, you have no idea how much I love your "rambling thoughts"! I love you daddy and hope you have a great week! Love, Leslie



From: Leslie Ann Freitag
Sent: Mon 5/24/10 3:38 PM
To: nancy freitag

Hi! How are you? I know what you mean about weeks going fast. I really can't decide about time out here, it is so fast yet so slow at the same time, it's the weirdest feeling! That's nice that things may be calming down. If you ever get to bored just know that you can always make fun things for your daughter! =) jk jk There is a skirt that I'd love for you to copy in my closet for my birthday. Just putting that out there. =) I'm glad to hear that Rachael's wedding went so well. I'm sure she looked beautiful, and that she is happy. I hope so. I can't wait to get a letter from her and hear all about it. I'm glad to hear people had fun at the ward party and that Dad did so well, no doubt there though. It is amazing the more you give your will and your life over to Heavenly Father how things seem to go more smoothly, how things that once were done by routine or dragging your feet seem easier and more enjoyable. I'm glad that your meetings are more enjoyable now, I know exactly what you mean. We had a great Sunday yesterday also. None of our investigators ended up coming to church, but it ended up being a blessing in desguise. Sacrament was all on the Temple and people seem to go a bit to deep on that topic and so we didn't have to worry about anything or explaining to much. It was very enjoyable for us however. Then Relief Society was all on the talks about parenting and ways you can talk to your kids about the Gospel. We have a lot of newer parents in our ward so they enjoyed that. I just sat back and thought about how lucky I am to have parents who did all the things they were talking about and truly what a differnence it makes. I am very grateful for all the efforts you both took to make sure that we had testimonies and we had a firm foundation in Christ. I love that thought about joy. That is perfect, it sounds like it is a really cute book. That will help a lot if we take that to heart, that is exactly how we should be living our lives. Well I will write a letter today talking more about my week, it has been a great one, working with a lot more people this week. It has been great! We'll see what happens we're praying a lot for them so we will see how it pans out and what the Lord's will is for them at this time. But I hope you have a great week! It was great to hear from you! Love you so much! Love, Leslie