Interesting Experiment

So this is an experiment that a member told me about and I decided I wanted to try it.

So apparently someone did an experiment with like water crystals where they had people say words to some water. Like to one, they would say, "Love," or "Beautiful," or nice things like that. Then to other ones, they would say stuff like, "Hate," or "Ugly," and that sort of thing. Then they froze them and the ones they said nice things to had beautiful and different and distinct ice crystals. The ones they said mean things to didn't really even make crystals, and they just didn't work very well.
Then someone tried just taping the word on the jar or whatever it was in, and it had the same result.

Then someone tried it with rice. They said nice things to one thing of rice, mean things to the other one, and ignored a different one. And so I wanted to try it too. So I did. I cooked some rice (for the first time ever) and measured one cup of rice into 3 similar sized/shaped containers and put them in the same place. Then I wrote on one, "give it some love," and on the next one, "ignore," and on the third one, "Filth."

Then, every day we would say stuff to it. We named the first one Chunkers and we said nice things to it and loved it. The middle one we completely ignored, and the last one we said mean things to and hated it.

After a few weeks, mold started to grow on the second and third one, but the first one had no mold. And about four months later, it is still the same! It is amazing.  Something that I think is interesting is that the one we ignored has the most nastiness on it.

It just really proved to me more than anything else that the things that we say and do have a real effect on people. If rice, which isn't even alive, had this reaction, just think of how much of a difference it makes on human beings, our fellow children of God, the things that we say and the way that we act around them. We may not be able to see it as clearly, but it is real.

Rice - "give it some love" - named and said nice things to it

Rice - "ignore" - completely ignored 

Rice - "filth" - said mean things to and hated

So yeah, enjoy it. That is one thing I've been doing for the last four months. Talking to rice. You should all try it. It is really interesting.

Emily & Sister McGhee (member who gave them a ride to a lesson in Tappahanock) next to the 

Potomac River - the edge of the mission boundaries

One of many abandoned homes, farmhouses, barns etc. in Tappahanock, Virginia

Emily & "Guztav" - her new pet

So I sent a lot of pictures today and my rice experiment, so this won't be too long.
This week we taught like 10 lessons, which is great! And six of them were member presents, which is even better! We finally got back in contact with a few people we'd lost track of this week, too.
I don't know, not a lot has been overly exciting that you might want to know about.

But I did think the rice thing was super interesting and it has changed the way I want to talk about people. And also I've been trying to ignore people less. Sometimes I just ignore people when I don't want to talk to them, but I've been trying to at least like smile and say hi or wave or something, even when I don't want to, and it has made a difference. Some people just look back at me like I'm an idiot, but most people wave back, give a smile, or even talk to us for a minute. It is really cool. People (well, not always. But it is a lot more likely) give back to us what we give them. If we are super awkward and uncomfortable and would rather be somewhere else talking to some other person, they will probably feel awkward and uncomfortable too. And they probably won't want to talk to you very long. But if you just reach out in love and give them a warm welcome, they will instantly just feel a little better, even if they choose not to act on it or do exactly what you wanted/expected. You never know what is happening inside of them.

But anyways, this week is my birthday!  I have a member dinner with the Nelsons (they are hilarious, I'm excited) and the Murrells are giving us dessert afterwards on my actual birthday.  This is an excellent ward!

Well, anyways. I love you all and I hope you have a great week! Thanks for the birthday wishes and stuff :)

Love,
Hermana Emily Pratt

I met John Wayne

The cat's name is John Wayne. It has a crooked neck so his head is always tilted sideways.

So I've decided I need a hedgehog. 

Also, this dog's name is Buddy and he is like my BFF. The dog & hedgehog belong to a great family.  Buddy will ALWAYS play with me and is super smart and well-trained. We were out doing yard work for service

So guess what? We had a mid-transfer transfer after all. I have a new companion now, named Hermana McRae. She just got here about an hour ago.

So, on Saturday night President Wilson called us and told us that Hermana Depablos would be going to Charlottesville to be with Hermana Wilkins and I would be getting a new companion, Hermana McRae.   I was sick from like Wednesday to Friday, and then my companion got sick with something else on Friday and so we only ended up teaching 4 lessons this week. Plus like everything we had set up that we didn't have to cancel ended up cancelling on us.

So yeah, this has been a really interesting week. Not a lot has happened besides those things.

My personal study this morning was kind of cool. I was reading Alma 8-10 and wondering why it is that when you have more light, you have more condemnation if you break the commandments. And I just kind of related it to like if a complete stranger were to walk up to me and say, "I bet you got terrible grades in school and you are really stupid," I would just be like, "Ok, whatever. You don't even know me." But if someone that knew me really well came up to me and started doing things totally against what I had asked them to do or started just like saying terrible things about me, whether they were or were not true, I would be really angry and I would not want to be that person's friend anymore. And I think it is probably the same with God. He knows and loves each of us, but, for example, the Lamanites didn't know God. And they were always breaking the commandments and persecuting the church and such, but it was only because they didn't know any better and they legitimately thought they were doing right. The Nephites, on the other hand, knew exactly what they were supposed to be doing, but they chose not to. Which is basically like just spitting on God. They knew the commandments, they knew the church and the prophets, but they killed and persecuted the church and a lot of other stuff regardless of their knowledge, and it makes sense that God wouldn't be ok with that. Not that He is just fine with the Lamanites doing all that stuff, but it is like a little child that knows they shouldn't hit but they do it anyways. Of course they are going to get a worse punishment than they child that hasn't been taught those things. That child will just be corrected and taught, rather than punished (if that makes sense.) It would not so much be chastisement, and more of just trying to teach the child not to hit. I don't know. It made sense in my head. I hope it makes sense to you guys. But I'd never really understood that very well before. Of course I knew that it was true, because there are countless examples of it, even today, but I just didn't understand why. This is why we study!

Well, I love you all lots! Have a wonderful week and I hope you had a great Easter!

Love,

Hermana Emily Pratt

PS - Random church board sign we drove past: "You can't keep a good man down. He is risen!"

Another Yard Statue

Beautiful Bush

It's Spring!

So guess what. Last night, we were planning and adding up our numbers for the week and while we were trying to figure out how many progressing investigators we have, suddenly Hermana Depablos points to a spot about 3 or 4 feet away from me and made a disgusted/horrifed face. I looked over, expecting to see a tiny little bug or maybe a little spider or something, because that is what usually happens, but guess what I saw?

THIS:

In case you are wondering, that is a REALLY BIG spider. INSIDE our house. Needless to say, I immediately began some evasive maneuvers and pranced gracefully away, whilst making some beautiful noises to lull it into a false sense of security. It worked, of course, and the spider didn't move.

We were about to go get the Elders to kill it for us, but then we remembered they can't come into our apartment. We thought of a member couple that live two houses away in the other direction, and immediately ran to their house. Bro M answered and we explained that their was a HUGE spider in our house and he sighed and was like, "And you want me to come kill it?" And we were like, "Please....." So he went and got some shoes and a book and his wife and then they came over and he threw the book on the spider and we thought he got it, but that thing is fast! He finally got it and killed it and took it with him as they went back to their house. We're going to take them some cupcakes today.

Normally I don't mind spiders, or killing spiders, but that thing was just not ok. Notice the glowing eyes in the picture and the horribleness of it all. I have no idea what would have happened if the members weren't home. We would have tried our neighbor who was outside smoking at the time, probably. And next, probably just evacuated and moved in with the other sisters for a while.

But anyways. So, some excitement.

Another funny story. So, every Friday, "F" takes us out to dinner. This Friday we went to Chili's. I love Chili's. But I answered a few of his questions about English, which he usually has prepared for me, and then we moved on to his other questions, usually about the Gospel. But this time he was asking us if the church celebrates Halloween. Or, as he spells it (He always writes everything down), Halowin. He is still learning. Then he started explaining why they have Halloween. First, he was telling us some of the day of the dead stuff they do in his country (Mexico), which is on Nov 1 and 2. Then he told us that Halloween is (and now I will use his own words, which he was also writing down for us): "El cumpleanos - el Happy Birthday - de Satanas." Which, being translated, is Satan's birthday. Or, according to "F", the happy birthday of Satan. Hermana Depablos didn't notice because she is still learning English too, but it took everything I had not to die of laughter in that moment. He was SO serious, too. He legitimately thought Halloween was Satan's happy birthday. We explained to him that Satan doesn't have a birthday because he was never born. And he was just like, "Oh, of course, Hermanas, claro!" and started laughing. But then he just kept going into all this other superstitious stuff. But it was just really funny.

I am really excited for my birthday! I am reaching a landmark.... 20 years old.... Man, I'm getting ancient. I'm going to die an old maid, I know it.

This morning in my studies I was reading from the Doctrine and Covenants. First, I read the Introduction to the D&C, which is really interesting. I had no idea that even existed til like 4 or 5 months ago, but it is WAY cool. Then I was reading in sections 27-29. I think about 96% of D&C is just the Lord chastising people and being like, "No, Joseph/Oliver, that's not right. If you keep doing that, you'll get eternal condemnation. You should probably fix that and do this instead. Then you'll get Eternal Life." But in Section 29, it talks about the Millennium and it is super cool. It talks about how the Millennium will be, what will happen before (signs) and what will happen after. You should all go read it.

And also, on May 3rd, there will be a mission conference (+the Chesapeake mission) and guess who is coming? ELDER BEDNAR!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOoooo! I am way excited.

Well, anyways. Enjoy the loveliness of this week! Love you lots!

Love,

Hermana Emily Pratt

(Just for clarification - Bees seem to love Emily.  She has been stung several times, seemingly for no reason!)  OH ps. There are about 55,889,237 bees/wasps around. And of course, the moment I step outside, they begin to swarm. The other day, I was walking into the church, with Hermana Depablos about 15 feet behind me, and suddenly as I was about to get to the door to unlock it, a GIGANTIC wasp flies out of the bushes, and hits me in the face. I began some evasive maneuvers that involved a lot of ducking, noises, and flailing. I ran about 20 yards away, back into the parking lot, and stopped and looked around to see if it had followed me. It was just chilling on my shoulder the whole time! I threw the keys at Hermana Depablos and yelled to go open the door as I once again began to demonstrate my beautiful bee avoiding skills. She finally got the door open and by this point the wasp was off my shoulder and flying angrily around me. I booked it inside, my bag falling off and my skirt doing who knows what (it was a windy day) and my hair in my mouth. It was the most graceful of all the moments.

Pps other awkward story. This morning during companionship study the Elders called us and were like, "Hey we have 4 referrals for you!" and we were like, "Sweet, who are they?" and they said, "I don't know, but they are right outside our house doing some construction! They are all Hispanic! Go talk to them! Adios!" And I wasn't all the way dressed up for the day and neither was my companion, so we hurried and put ourselves together, preparing for some major awkwardness, and went outside and struck up an extremely awkward conversation. The Elders were in their house watching us the whole time, we found out. But we got their number and they live out of our area, so we'll pass them on. Man. They just like totally threw us under the bus. But it is fine, I think probably a miracle will happen and they will get baptized. Just loving the awkwardness!

Ppps Congrats to Dad for sharing the Gospel! Even though it wasn't with a Hispanic, he still gets a full point! Yay for Dad!  :D

Sisters in Emily's current Zone

"Popcorn popping"

Tappahanock - furthest part of her area

Mouse captured in the apartment

This week we finally went to Tappahanock, AKA Narnia. It is the furthest part of our area. It takes about an hour each way to drive, and everything there is super spaced out (Adios, monthly miles... we already have about 400 miles this month, and we only get 1200 for the whole month. Looks like we'll be doing lots of walking/begging members for rides.), so we were there for about 6 or 7 hours. First we were in the Elder's area, and we took some beautiful pictures of some blossoms and went to a Mexican restaurant, because that is always a good place to look for Hispanics. Plus, wonderful food. Bonus!

Then we went to the English Sister's area, and they came with us to an area where some Hispanics live, and we split up, my companion with Sister Page, and me with Sister Robinson. Me and her are now best friends, we have a lot in common! The whole time we were tracting (Not a single door opened on the whole street until the very last house, where we found them a new investigator. Yay for tracting!). It was so exciting. When we met up again with the other companionship again, they had found us a new investigator! Yay! I have never met him yet, but apparently he is pretty cool. So yeah, it worked pretty well, we each got a new investigator out of it. We'll probably do that again. But first we need to get about 500 extra miles. Or get a member to come with us and basically just spend the whole day with us. Hopefully.

Today we are going to have a zone pday and play oompa loompa. I think I've explained that game before. But I am excited. This morning for our exercise, we went to the church and met the other Sisters in our ward there and practiced with the football I got especially for this game. Who even knew I would ever have the desire to buy a football, but I have loved it and it has helped me exercise! I also got a volleyball for $5 and that has been a lot of fun. I love volleyball. Fun, fun! Hopefully I will rock it when we play today! Haha just kidding there is no way. Mostly I just walk back and forth and no one passes it to me. But occasionally I have had some really good moments. But that is a story for another time.

Well, I love you all lots! I hope you have a lovely week! Remember to share the Gospel with all the Hispanics you see!

Love,

Hermana Emily Pratt

Thoughts about Prayer

Something that I have really learned lately is about prayer. Not just like pray always, because my whole mission and my whole life I have been praying. But more that just praying often; praying fervently. And like how to do that. Rather that just like leaving Heavenly Father with a thank you note and a grocery list of things to do, really talking to Him like a person in front of you. And I know people say that all the time, but it really is ok to say more in your prayers than just "thanks for..." and "Please bless..." I learned that I can tell him how I'm feeling, and it helps me focus if I say the words out loud, or whisper them, or even just mouthing them if I can't do it out loud. We can tell him things we hope for, things that were funny, things we want; anything. And lately I've been trying to have a lot more gratitude in my prayers and it has made a difference. I've been trying to do prayers that are all gratitude, but I'm still working on that. The thing that inspired me to do it was an article in an Ensign called, "My Prayers of Gratitude." You should all look it up, because it was good. But it has made a big difference. Also in the last few weeks I have been working on praying for my companion, not just in my personal prayers, which I have always done, but when we pray together. And I've felt a lot closer to my Heavenly Father when I talk to him that way. There are some good quotes about prayer in Preach my Gospel, but I don't have mine with me. But if you find them, they are good.

I love you!

Hermana Emily Pratt