Sympathizing with Van Gogh

So I don't know how much sense this will make today, because I am SUPER duper tired and in pain. I have an ear infection. It started just in my right ear on Friday night, but now it is in my left ear too. So I am pretty much deaf and going crazy. I went to the doctor yesterday and she gave me some antibiotics, but they haven't kicked in yet. In fact, it got worse from yesterday to today. So, pray for me that my drugs will work quickly. 

But, here is one awkward moment for the week: I had a man nurse. 

Jk that isn't the end. But it was kind of awkward. I don't talk to men anymore unless they are Hispanic and interested in the Gospel, and even then I wish it was a woman. Just to dilute the awkwardness. Ps nothing against men nurses... It is just that I am a missionary. 

But anyways. So he asked me the normal questions and did the normal tests (Blood pressure, temperature, etc.) then he took me back into the other room to wait for the doctor. Then after a second he came back in and got a stick out of a drawer and was like, "Ok, we are just going to do a strep test." (Irony: Me and Hermana Gonzalez were just talking the day before about how much I hate strep tests and how bad I am at doing them. I am like a child that can't sit still and just let them do it). So that was unexpected and I was like, "I don't think I have strep," and he was like, "We just do it to all the patients that come in with sore throats.Open up!" I was like, "But my throat isn't even sore. My ear is," But I opened my mouth anyways, trying not to be such a nina. He pulled back and was like, "Wait. You don't have a sore throat?" and I was like, "Nope." Then he felt awkward and was embarrassed because apparently "sore throat" and "sore ear" were right next to each other on the computer screen and he'd checked the wrong one. So luckily I avoided the strep test, but it was kind of funny. And I was all alone, so I just giggled to myself about it. 

Then the doctor came in (I had a guy nurse and a girl doctor) and put a thing in my ear and told me that it was infected and gave me a prescription and such. Hopefully that works soon.

Yesterday we had Spanish Sacrament Meeting, which was interesting. There were only four Hispanics in there, but then 4 more (a family) came later. Mostly it was white members that served missions. But it was really good! I played the piano (horribly, but in my defense, it was an awful little electric keyboard that I was trying to play on, not a real piano.) V came, as usual. He is doing so good!

This week as a mission we are reading the Book of Mormon in one week to strengthen our testimonies. We will go to our set appointments, but all the rest of our time will be spent reading. So on Friday night we challenged V to do it with us. We knew he could do it because he read the whole thing in a month, so why not in a week? Well, when he came to church on Sunday, which was the day we started, he showed me where he was. Guess where? Mosiah 12! He is already like 1/3 of the way through! It is SO crazy! He is an amazing person. I am on like page 7 because I forgot to bring it to the doctors office and we didn't have a lot of time yesterday. 

This area is so good! I really love it here. A few of the leaves are just starting to change, so in like a week it will probably be the most gorgeous place of all time. And all the people here are really nice. All our investigators are great.

On Friday we had a really good lesson with A. He has been discouraged and has been tempted to stop meeting with us and go back to the person he was (drinking, bad temper, etc.) But he said that something inside always tells him to keep going, and he will be happy. We talked to him about opposition, and how it always precedes/surrounds miracles. I shared the example of how usually for me in missionary work, I go until I feel like if I have to do one more thing I am going to die, but I do 2 more things, and then the 3rd thing is the miracle. I feel like he is kind of coming to a climax. He is realizing that he needs to make a decision and the stakes are just getting higher and higher either way. I know that it is just Satan being a bum and trying to distract him and stuff. So we told him to beat Satan down when he comes and says you aren't good enough, or whatever he tries to say. It was good. We came at the perfect time for him. God really knows us. 

So a funny moment this week was that the Elders asked us to invite their investigator to go to the Women's broadcast with us, so we did and she said she would go. We called her right before and she had just gotten home from work but she said she should be there by 8 (when the actual broadcast started; there was a social with brownies and ice cream before) so we were like, sweet! but then at like 8:30 she texted and was like, "Oh sorry I couldn't make it, the Elders just came by." *forehead slap*

But the meeting was SO good! I got so many good notes. You should all go watch it, it doesn't matter if you are a woman or not, go watch/read/listen to it. It is amazing. I feel like the focus lately has definitely been temples and covenant-keeping. It is so important. I am SO excited to go to the temple! I get to go in less than one month! 

Have a wonderful week and don't forget to continue to share awkward moments!

Love, 

Hermana Emily Pratt

Ps Mom have you been praying for us to have food? If so it has been working. We have been getting fed way more than this area usually ever gets and it has been really nice. Thanks! That is the only reason we can think of, is our Moms praying for food.

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

Charlottesville!

I always knew I would go to Charlottesville, from the very first transfer of my mission. It seems like it has just been a reoccurring theme. Charlottesville, Charlottesville, Charlottesville. On of the most obvious signs happened right from the beginning, though.

Throughout my mission, I have had many experiences where I will have had a dream, just a random dream, and think it is nothing and forget about it and move on. Then, I will see the people in the dream and/or the place where the dream happened in real life. One of the most distinct of these experiences was a very vivid dream I had before my mission, about a zombie apocalypse and we took shelter in this huge white farmhouse sort of thing in the middle of a big open field surrounded by thick trees and stuff. There was a river between the house and the road that curved around to the right and surrounded the house on one side. In the dream it started around sunset but continued on through the night on til dawn, us just protecting ourselves from the zombies and making plans and stuff and occasionally leaving to make different excursions.
Then, in my first area, when I was with Hermana Brown and Hermana Williams, who were the Sister Training Leaders, we took Hermana Brown up to Charlottesville and picked up Hermana Hiebert. It was about an hour and a half drive, or maybe a bit more on the way back because we went the less miles way on the way back rather than on the highway, so we went through some neighborhoods and such. Well, on the way back, around sunset, we drove past the exact house I had seen in my dream, framed against the sunset just as I'd seen it in my dream. The field was there, every detail was exactly the same except I couldn't see the river. Right after that thought crossed my mind, the road went up a little bit so we were on higher ground, and I saw the river, in a little bit of a depression in the ground, so it hadn't been visible before! It was EXACTLY like my dream, minus the zombies and stuff. But the place, which I had never seen before, was the same!

It is so crazy how revelation works. And that is not the only time, at all. Just yesterday as we were going to contact a referral up in the hills (they call them mountains) and it was getting dark and the trees were WAY thick, and the branches covered the sky, but light still filtered through, so it looked kind of mystical. Well, I'd had a dream a few months ago (a pretty vague one, but a picture-memory of the place was the main focus of the dream) where there was this little pasture just off a road with a white-painted wooden fence around it that looked a bit broken down, but it was all still standing, and I wondered why there wasn't a pony inside. In my dream, there may have been unicorns in it, or I may have been thinking there should be unicorns. I walked a bit further down the road and there were a bunch of exotic animals! I saw an elephant, a lion, and some others that weren't as distinct.

Then in real life, as we went to go contact a referral yesterday, we drove past that place! With the same mystical looking lighting and everything. Except there were no unicorns, and the exotic animals were just statues. But they were there, in the same places I remember!

And so on and so forth. This has happened to me in every single area I have been in. It is, to me, a confirmation from Heavenly Father that I am where I am supposed to be. It is really crazy though.

Anyways. Yup, I'm in Charlottesville.

My companion is Hermana Gonzalez-Herrera (Or just Hermana Gonzalez). Yesterday we went to church and it was way good. It is a group, so there are only a couple Hispanic members that are active and the rest are American. Everyone is way nice though, super welcoming and sweet, which I appreciate, because I've been missing my peeps. We've had a lot of dinners with people, and everyone is very nice. I already love it here.

Oh, we sang in Sacrament Meeting yesterday, also. We sang "Senor, Te Necesito," or "I Need Thee Every Hour," for those that don't have the Spanish Hymns memorized. It was us, the Spanish Elders, and Hermana Malchor. Hermano Malchor played the piano for us. It turned out pretty nice. I might want to have us sing in Sacrament Meeting for my homecoming talk, like we did for my farewell talk. That would be good, I think. Who's in?

So, in this ward there is one set of English Elders, one set of Hermanas, one set of Spanish Elders, and one set of Mandarin/English Elders. So, quite the mix. I guess the M/E elders teach in Mandarin when they can and English whenever else. So yep.

Ummmm..... Transfer meeting was good. I was really sad to say goodbye to Hermana Kingsley, but it happens. While she was in trainer's meeting for like 6 hours I just sat around with some other Hermanas/Sisters and chatted. One of the Hermanas had come from way up North with a member ride. The member took us all out to lunch at the mall food court, which was way nice. Guess what I had? Panda Express!! :) Whilst there, decided what to get, me and Hermana De Leon (the member, the other missionaries went somewhere else), the waitress heard us talking in Spanish and told us (in Spanish) she was from Columbia and we talked to her for a while because there was no one behind us and we were waiting for Chow mein. We talked to her about how when people don't have religion and especially Jesus Christ in there lives, they are lost and the world as a whole is a lot worse. And how a lot of the problems in the world originally are coming from that. We got her number and gave her a pass along card, and she is way sweet! We gave her number to the missionaries in that area, hopefully good things come of it!

Well, enjoy it! Have a wonderful week! Love you!

Love,
Hermana Emily Pratt

Ps my new address is:

736 Squire Hill Ct
Charlottesville, VA 22901

Anyone that wants to send me letters/food/money/gift cards is welcome! ;)

OH I almost forgot!! Hermana Kingsley emailed me and told me that E is finally getting baptized this Sunday! She came to church and everything! I am SO excited! I am just praying that I can find a ride down there!

Hola! This week has been pretty good. For the most part. I am getting transferred, though! I thought I would stay here.... But Saturday night were transfer calls and we weren't expecting one since President had said we would probably stay together. But then he called me and told me I am leaving and told Hermana Kingsley she would be staying and training! I asked him where I'm going, but I won't be able to tell you until after tomorrow. So in case anyone was sending anything this week, send it to the mission office or just wait. 

But apart from that it was a pretty good week. We had a really cool experience where a potential that we had met called us and asked for me by name and I was just like what is happening. But we had left a card on his door with our names and we had almost forgotten about him but he called us and we set up an appointment with him. Yesterday we taught him and he is super open. He talked to us about all his beliefs and what we believe and he is way cool. He wasn't even creepy like most people that call us are. It was great. And he was talking about a bunch of experiences where it isn't good just to pray and wait for God to do everything, we have to pray and then go and do our best and then we know God will be with us. And also how much he loves helping people and just doing random acts of service. We read Matthew 25:34-40 (I don't remember exactly where it starts...) with him about how when we serve others (or don't serve others) it is as if we had done it (or not done it) to Christ. He liked it and they are going to go back and teach him next week. I think he will get baptized someday soon. 

I am so sad I am leaving right as everything is happening! I will have to get a ride back for E's baptism, and J's (if I'm still here for it... She's got a lot to overcome first) and I'll just miss people so much! I hate leaving areas! I am really excited for my new area, though.

Yesterday we had dinner with the C's again. It was good. It was a Mexican soup sort of thing, I can't remember what it is called. It starts with a p, but I don't remember exactly.

Ps I'm really sorry this is the shortest letter of all time. See excuses I made last week. 

I love you all so much! I'm going to try and write a real, handwritten letter instead. Maybe that will be easier. We'll see. 

Have a lovely week! Love you!

Love, 

Hermana Emily Pratt

Hermana Pratt & Hermana Kingsley

Hermana Pratt, Hermana Kingsley & President Wilson

Companions!

With pet bird

Looking good!

Notice the infected mosquito bite on her foot

Hermana Kingsley & Hermana Pratt

Heyyyy! 

This week has been pretty good. On Tuesday the new office sister got here. She is super sweet. Her name is Sister Riggs. We had lunch with her on Friday. She made us tostadas. It was fun.

Also, J and V and H came to church on Sunday! It was so cool! J LOVED it. She loved the classes. She couldn't stay the whole time, but she stayed the first two hours. She said that the class in Gospel Principles was so crazy because her and her husband had been having problems with that for a while and it was just what she needed. Then we went with her to go pick up H from primary and we got there right as they were singing the "hello" song to her. J saw her and instantly started crying and was like, "Yes. This is what I want for my family. This is just what she needs." And she just sat outside and watched them for like half an hour before finally going in to get her and when she left they were all sad and were like, "Bye, H!" and J was so happy that they knew her name and was like, "Don't worry, we'll be back next week!" And she had only been coming to try it out. But she LOVED it and I think V liked it okay too. He'll come around more, I'm sure. He is pretty involved in his church, but he did really like it. I think J will talk him into it. They are SO cool. Like some of the most prepared people I've ever taught on my mission. They have a LOT to overcome, but they can do it. They also got really excited when we told them our church does marriage counselling. 

Also, last Sunday, C, R (her husband) and their kids all came to church again. When we taught them for the first time in ages last week, we had planned to teach some Restoration or something, but we changed the plans and talked about not procrastinating because we never know how much time we have, and they loved it! They even set a (tentative) baptismal date for Sept 28th! This week we'll be doing a baptismal calendar with them to show them exactly what they need to do and a schedule for it, which they are excited about. Especially C. So now we have three new investigators on date! How cool is that?
Also this week Hermana Crisp gave us a cool idea that she heard of some missionaries doing -  an advent calendar; but missionary style. For the members. For example, on day could be like, study this chapter in Preach My Gospel, another, post an uplifting message on facebook, another, go out with the missionaries to teach, and study this topic in the scriptures, etc. So we'll be working on that this week because we thought it would be a great idea to give members ideas they can do and stuff like that. 

Sorry I don't have that much time today to write, my wrist is kind of sore so it is annoying to type, and I have some stuff to work out with President Wilson. (I'll have some exciting news for you - hopefully by next week.) And I was watching some Mormon Messages because I just love those. Enjoy it.

Well, anyways. This week will be a lovely one, I'm excited. Are you excited? I bet. 

I love you! Just the usual weekly reminder about awkward moments and scriptural phrases (see last emails). Eat lots and lots of fruits and veggies!

Love, 

Hermana Emily Pratt

"Men who knit and the Dogs who love them"

(Humor from Emily!)