So remember that one time when I told you we'd be getting a temple square sister in a couple weeks? Well she's here! We were at sister's meeting on Wednesday (super good) and we were talking to Sister Haines, one of the office sisters, and she was telling us how she has to drop off the old temple square sisters and pick up the new ones. And we were like, "Oh, one of those is for us...." and wondering when they were planning on telling us that... Awkward. But her name is Hermana Depablos and she is from Venezuela! She had only been learning English on her mission (she's been out like 9 months) and so she speaks it really well! And she is helping us lots with our Spanish, which is wonderful. She is super great.

We've been finding a lot of new investigators this week, which is wonderful. And also we've gotten 9 referrals, which is SUPER unusual, so that is also great. We are really excited to be able to contact and teach them.

How have your lives been? My life has been pretty good. My camera broke, though, so I'm super worried about that. It's really unfortunate.

 So, something cool that happened was on like Monday or Tuesday, I was just having a really bad day and just felt full of doubts and had no motivation. I was downstairs and Hermana Crandall was upstairs, and I saw my scriptures out on the table and I just thought maybe I should open them up and read them, because I've heard of people doing that before and having cool experiences. So I opened them up, expecting a rebuke or something basically just telling me to get over it and I have no good excuse to be feeling this way, because that is what I felt I deserved. But then I opened up to Matthew 28, and I looked down and saw that it is the chapter when Christ is resurrected and I just felt this immediate peace come into my heart and I just instantly felt God's love. So I read the chapter and I was so good. But what really stuck out to me is verses 17-20. It says:

17 And when they saw him, they worshiped him: but some doubted.
 18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
That really hit me super hard. Because I have just been feeling full of doubts that I can't seem to shake off. I am here on a mission, serving and worshiping him, but still doubting. So vs 17 is how I feel. Then I love how it says Jesus came and spoke to "them", meaning them which doubted, specifically. He then testifies, straight to them, that He has all power, so we don't need to doubt. And while I've always known He has all power, I just kind of assume sometimes that whenever He answers prayers it will only be in the way that is the hardest, and basically that He will just leave me alone to solve it, with little or no help from Him. But when I opened my scriptures expecting a rebuke or basically one of those scriptures that talks about abominations or something, I received love and comfort, which is exactly what I needed.
Then, in 19 and 20 He says:
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
So there He tells me exactly what I need to do, which addressed my sense of feeling lost and without direction. And He even promises me that He is with me forever and will never leave me alone, even if the end of the world comes, which basically took care of my sense of feeling alone.
So there you have it. Prayers are real. I love the scriptures and I love my Savior. He is my best friend. He loves me personally as his daughter, not just as one of his many creations or whatever, like a tree or a rock or something. He told me exactly what I needed. 

Well, bye, love you!

Hermana Emily Pratt

New "adopted" companion!

So.... Yup. I lost my train of thought. Already. Actually I'm not sure I ever even had one.

But I have a new companion! Her name is Hermana Crandall (even though she doesn't have her Spanish tags yet so she is still Sister Crandall). She was an English missionary but she just got "translated" (President Wilson's favorite joke) into the Spanish speaking program, AKA Zion, AKA Sion! She's been out not quite five months. She took 3 semesters of Spanish at BYU and she is super smart so I barely even have to teach her anything. She understands most everything and can say a lot. So yeah, she is my adopted child because she was already trained by someone. We're just always searching for more people to teach!

Oh, and in two weeks, we're getting a sister from Temple Square, a native Spanish speaker! Or so I heard. I don't remember the name, but I do remember it sounding Hispanic. And it was President Wilson that told me they were coming (we're getting two for the mission) and he told me they are both native speakers. So yeah, that will help out the good old Espanol a lot, hopefully.

So I doubt you know about the Temple Square thing. Allow me to explain.

In the Temple Square mission, apparently all the sisters (there are only sisters) go to a random state-side mission for 3 months (2 transfers) of their mission.

Yup. That's what I understand about it. It is a bit confusing. But yeah. Weird.

I did get the package, Mother. It was lovely! Thanks! And the GPS arrived just in time. It was Saturday after transfer meeting and I had just gotten back home with my new companion and the whole time I was so worried that I didn't know where anything was or how to get there and I would just get us SO lost and waste all the miles for the month, and then there is a package sitting on the front steps. I almost didn't open it til the night time, because I didn't think about there being a GPS in there, but luckily I did, and found a beautiful GPS waiting for me! It was the best. 

So speaking of transfer meeting, they moved it to Saturday. OH MY GOSH VIRGINIA, IT IS TIME TO GET OVER YOUR RIDICULOUS FEAR OF SNOW!!! We got like 3 or 4 inches and school was cancelled for 3 days, they moved transfer meeting, and mission cars were grounded. And none of the members would give us a ride because they said it was too dangerous.  But luckily we finally made it to transfer meeting. I really miss Hermana Horton, she is the best, but I am excited to be companions with Hermana Crandall and the new Hermana when she comes!

Hmmm.... Not much else happened this week. Most of it was Hermana Horton saying tearful goodbyes to everyone (she had been in this area 6 months!!) and everyone cancelling on us because of the snow. But oh well. It was still a great week and the Lord had blessed us a lot!

I decided to start reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning again and as I was reading the very first verse, I noticed that he says, "and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in ALL my days..." I really liked that. He didn't say he was highly favored of the Lord in all the days except the hard ones, or all the ones where his bow broke, or all the ones where he was tied up to a ship mast in the middle of a gigantic storm, or all the ones where his brothers tried to kill him, or all the ones except the ones where all his appointments cancelled on him. He recognized that trials are a blessing from the Lord to help us grow stronger. I liked that lots.

Well, have a lovely week, keep looking for missionary opportunities, keep studying, praying and going to church, and enjoy life! Love you all!

Adios!

Hermana Emily Pratt

So I learned last night that Hermana Horton is leaving me here in Mechanicsville! The rest of our district got the call at like 8 and it was like 10:15 and we still hadn't gotten the call, so we thought we were staying together in Mechanicsville. But then President calls us and tells Hermana Horton that she is going to go finish someone's training somewhere and that I am staying here. And guess what? I'm adopting an English baby and teaching them Spanish! Apparently they've already been trained, but they've been in the English program and they are getting transferred into Spanish. I think I might have met her at the Spanish meeting. They didn't say the name, but I was working with this one English sister that was just randomly there. She spoke really good Spanish already, because she had taken a bunch of Spanish in school and stuff. I was impressed. And so I'm guessing it's her, but I could be wrong. I don't remember her name, but she was super nice.

But yeah. I can't remember anything that happened this week.

Oh wait. We had a sweet miracle this week. A while back we'd found this cute lady named M in a trailer park and we had one lesson with her and then she wasn't there for our next lesson so we went by a couple days later and this boy answered the door (we thought he was like 16 but he was really only 13) and told us she doesn't live there anymore. So we asked his name and asked if he and his parents would be interested in a message about Jesus Christ. He was super reluctant and was just the usual he-doesn't-want-to-tell-us-no answer, "Yeah, maybe... I'll have to ask my mom... But she's not home right now." So we asked if there was a time we could come back, so we set an appointment and figured his mom was just going to tell us no for him, or be super uninterested. But we went back and she let us in and we were like, "So have you heard of the church before?" And she was like, "Yeah, I used to have missionaries over all the time. I have two movies from you guys, the one about when Jesus come to the earth and the one about Joseph Smith. I've read a lot of the book they gave me, the blue one. I went to church a few times and I went to the big, beautiful church in Washington DC." We were like, "The temple?!" and she was like, "Yeah, that. I visited there." And by now our jaws are just like hanging on the ground. But she didn't remember a lot of what they taught because she hadn't talked to the missionaries in like 3 years, because she had started having to work on Sundays, so she couldn't come to church anymore, and she moved, so they lost contact.  So we taught her and her son the Restoration and when we asked them to pray to know it is true, she was like, "I already know it is true. I felt the spirit so strong when the other missionaries taught me and it was just a really amazing feeling. And I felt it again today, when you talked about Joseph Smith." And it was just amazing. We walked out of there like, "What just happened?!"

I just want to congratulate those other missionaries that originally taught her, because they taught her fantastically, and planted a big old seed in her heart and it wasn't her time then and I don't know if it is her time now (I hope so!!) but they did a great job and she loves us and is much more open to hearing the Gospel now. We really never know where people are going to go or what effect we can have on people, even if they don't seem to be ready to change now, we can pave the way for others to finish our work when they are ready.

We saw M and E yesterday. We hadn't seen them in a couple weeks, because they called and cancelled one Saturday, then the next they weren't home, and then yesterday we went by and we didn't think they'd be home but we didn't have much to do so we knocked on their door and we had knocked once with nothing, so we knocked again and still nothing. Then there was this like car that creepily drove by behind us and we were watching it and just as it drove around the corner and we were like, "That was creepy..." The door opens and it made like a loud sound and we both jumped so high and it scared E and he was apologizing a ton for scaring us. He felt so bad. he is so cute. I'm pretty sure I told you about them, right?

But anyways, I'd better go. Not a lot more happened this week. Love you all!

Have a lovely day/week!

Hermana Emily Pratt

P.S. So we have a mouse in our house. Actually, we're pretty sure more than one. It just runs back and forth between a crack under the dishwasher and the fridge and under the oven. And it is like fearless. We were like weekly planning five feet away (and not being very quiet, I might add) and it just kept sneaking back and forth, and Hermana Horton would see it an scream, which would scare me, so I would scream, so it's not like the mouse could possible be unaware of us. But yeah. So we're going to have to get some mouse traps. Ugh.

Bye, love you!

Hola!

This week has been good, not a lot has happened. We did have this cool lesson with one of our investigators named V where we were going to show her a conference talk about the Book of Mormon ("Safety for the Soul" by Jeffery R Holland - go watch it) because she doesn't really have a strong testimony of The BoM and we can't get her to pray about it, but we couldn't get either of her dvd players connected. We tried for like half an hour. But then after that we were both pushed by the Spirit to share something else about how to recognize answers to prayers and it was so great! The Spirit was super strong and she really responded to the lesson. It was cool to see how the Spirit was really just pushing us. Because we were really trying hard to hook up those dvd players and I was just thinking the whole time, "Man, I've really lost the little technological skill I used to have..." But it was just a testimony to me that the Spirit really does guide us. She still has a lot of walls to break down, and I think it will be a long process with her, but she really does have so much faith. She is great.

And also we had a plan of salvation lesson with her (the first half) and when we asked her what she thinks the purpose of life is. Essentially, she said, "When you first taught me this, I didn't know what my purpose in life was. But since then I believe I have realized what my purpose is. God put me here on this earth to serve and to bless others. I have been given so much and I need to share. I may not have a lot of money, but I can give other things, and I can be a friend to those who need it and make people happy."

She went on, but that was the essence of what she said. It just hit me so hard. This woman lives in a trailer park and has no computer, no cable, no tablet, none of the luxuries that everyone in this world thinks is essential, and she was still telling us how much she has been given, and how much she has to give to others. She really does know her purpose. It doesn't matter how much we have, or what we have, there is always something we can give, even if it is only a smile, or to be a friend. And I know pretty much everyone reading this has so much more than this wonderful woman materially, and we can all at least give of our time and talents.

Also, when she told us that she didn't used to know her purpose, but since we have been teaching her she had found it, it was such a cool feeling. Sometimes it is hard to see what good I am doing, when people don't progress, or when no one wants to listen, or when people drop us, but if all the good I were to do out here was just to help V find her purpose, I would be okay with it. It is an amazing feeling, to be able to help people become better, even if they don't join the church, or become reactivated, if I can just help people come closer to Christ, I have done my job.

But yeah, not a ton has happened this week. We've been visiting some members, and President Wilson has been asking us to do something different at member dinners. Rather than just sharing a scripture or a spiritual thought, he wants us to role play sharing the gospel with them. It's been really interesting and I think it has been going well. There is this 10-year-old girl that we role played with who gave away a Book of Mormon to her friend and said, "This book made me really happy! You should read it!" and her friend has been reading it! How cool is that? That whole family is great. The mom cut my hair for free for me! Just so it would me a more grow-outable haircut, you know? Because it can be awkward to grow out you hair from a short cut like I had.

So, if anyone wanted to write me a letter or send me pictures at any point in time, they could. If they wanted. 

Transfer calls are at the end of this week. This has been like the fastest transfer of all time. They are just getting faster and faster. I don't want anything to change though. I love Hermana Horton, and I love this area, too. And since I was so sick I haven't been able to work as hard as I would like. Especially since I work with Hispanics. It is worse if you get one of them sick, since most of them don't have papers and so they can't just like go to the doctor like most people would, and their jobs are a lot more tenuous and so I just hesitated a little more to go out when I was super contagious, especially with strep, since you need an antibiotic to cure that one. But oh well.

Anyways, I don't have much more to say except that I love you all tons! You are the greatest and I'm so grateful for your support and prayers! It is really cool to think about how many thousands of prayers go out for me every day when people pray for the missionaries, and how many people are praying for me specifically. It would be hard to believe if I couldn't feel the strength of them. It is really cool. Thanks!

I love you!

Hermana Emily Ann Pratt