E GOT BAPTIZED THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!
We called around a lot and no one could give us a ride and
finally we called the senior missionaries in our area, Elder and Sister Ware,
and they gave us a ride down to Chesterfield. They are so sweet. And really
funny.
So we got to the baptism and took some photos (of course...
It wouldn't be a baptism without photos. Jk it would. But still.) and then we
went in for the service and T (E's 4-year-old crazy son) was like all
over the place yelling and talking and trying to play the piano and stuff, so
that was exciting. But finally she was baptized and it was so wonderful!
Afterwards, she bore her testimony and it was SO powerful. The Spirit emanating
from one of the newest members of the church just filled the whole room,
despite T going crazy. It was very simple, and straight from the heart.
And she was just crying, seeing almost all the missionaries that had ever
taught her there to support her and stuff. Seriously, like almost half the
Hermanas in the mission were there. And there were even one or two that
couldn't come. She has been getting taught for a long time. It's been over a
year. Probably about a year and a half, maybe. Since before I was put in
Midlothian for the first time. It is crazy. And K was SO excited, too. She
was crying a lot as well. She gave the talk on receiving the Holy Ghost and you
could just see how amazed she was and how excited. The Spirit was just so
strong at the baptismal service. E has been waiting so long, and finally she
has entered into the gate towards Eternal Life. I can't wait for her to go
through the temple. That is definitely something I'll have to come back for, if
possible.
Also, on Saturday we had a Ward Tailgate party for the BYU
vs UVA game. In case you were wondering or know what UVA is, it is here in
Charlottesville and our ward is pretty much made up of its students. It was
pretty funny because it is a Mormon ward, so of course half the people there
went to BYU, and also most of them were going/have gone to UVA, so there were a
lot of mixed feelings. It was fun though, and V came to the party and
brought his adorable little 5 year old son that he has with him every other
weekend. I was really happy with the way the ward welcomed him in. It was
really nice. And we found out later that night that someone there invited him
over for dinner! They didn't even tell us! Not that they have to, it just
usually only happens when we ask people to do it. He said it was really
good.
Then, after the ward party, (well, we found out about it at
the party) we followed V to "Una Fiesta de la Hispanidad,"
which is basically "A Party of the Hispanicness." It was like a cool
little festival thing filled with Hispanics. So we went and did some street
contacting and I got a bracelet made by a woman in Ecuador out of dried leaves
woven into thread stuff. It is pretty sweet. There was Hispanic music and
dancing and a couple taco trucks and booths selling things. It was awesome! And
just as we were about to leave and visit someone else, we felt like we should
go back and lo and behold there was one of our investigators that we hadn't
seen in a long time, just hanging out with a sombrero on! We went up and talked
to him and invited him to church and he said he wanted to go he just didn't
have a ride. So we called around for a ride and got him one, but the guy that
said he would give him a ride didn't show up and neither did J. So that's
unfortunate, not sure what happened there, but it was a cool little random
miracle! And we talked with him about his reading and stuff and gave him a new
chapter to read because he said he'd read the other one we gave him. So, yup,
that was fun.
At the festival
Ummm..... We also taught A on Saturday and had another
good lesson with him. He is really torn about what to do because he loves his
girlfriend who he is living with, but she hates the church and he wants to get
baptized so bad. And now she has work off on Sundays, so he can't go to church.
So we talked to him about some things he could do and he brought us some
pupusas (which are basically delicious fat tortillas with goodness inside and
you can put goodness on top, too). So that was also really good. So, Saturday
was an exciting day.
Hmmm.... What else might you want to know....
All the Hermanas in the mission
Oh yeah, we had Sister's Meeting this week. It was really
good! The theme was the Young Women's values. You got to choose four value
classes to attend. We went to Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, and Good
Works. They were all way good! I got some really good notes. In faith, we
learned about self-talk, which is basically like you make "I am"
statements (I am a hard worker, I am beautiful, I am faithful, etc) and then
you act on it, and there is some sort of science-y reason why that works. I
guess your left brain doesn't recognize truth, it just passes information to
the right brain through action and the right brain then recognizes that as
truth. Basically. Your brain thinks stuff on the left side, but it doesn't know
if that is truth until it is transferred to the right brain through acting on it.
For example, if you say, "I am a hard worker," and then you work
really hard that day, your brain will recognize that as correct. But if you
say, "I am a hard worker," and then do nothing that day, your brain
will think it isn't true. And so on and so forth. I think that was my favorite.
I learned a lot from all the classes, though.
In the Divine Nature class, the example (there were
scriptural examples of women to follow for every value) was Emma Smith. And I
thought that was interesting. And we talked about what we have inherited from
our earthly parents, then what we've inherited from our Heavenly parents. It
was really cool. For example, some things I wrote down were: Loyalty,
listening, laughing, charity, self-confidence, and pondering. They invited us
to read our patriarchal blessings and search for more of our divine nature that
we've inherited from Heavenly Father. We also wrote things we want to develop.
I wrote: patience, positivity, and smiling more.
But it was really good! I don't have time to write more, but
I loved that meeting. I love you all! Have
a wonderful week!
Love,
Hermana Emily Pratt