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!)

So this computer has a keyboard with a super annoying space bar that doesn't work half the time, so this will be a shorter email. It's not because I don't love you, it is just out of annoyance with this keyboard. 

This week, on Friday, we had a meeting with Elder Anderson, of the Second Quorum of the Seventy (not the 12 apostles Elder Anderson. Even though that would be cool, too). We did a tri-zone conference with him and he taught us a lot, as did his wife. And of course, President and Sister Wilson!

Sister Wilson taught us about patience. We read in Preach My Gospel about patience, under Christlike attributes on page 120. You should all read it. It has a bunch of scriptures about patience and about how patience is related to faith. And what I learned from that is basically that we can't have faith without patience. Patience is allowing the Lord to perform His will on His time. If we are not doing that, we cannot have faith.

Something interesting that President Wilson did was this Book of Mormon quiz:

          Who am I?

-The son of a great prophet

-Left his home and traveled for many years in a strange land

-Went back to get the brass plates and the daughters of Ishmael

-Saw many amazing miracles

-Built a ship

-Was protected by God to arrive in the Americas

-The head of a great nation

Think about it.... The answer is.................................................................................................................... Laman, of course! He and Nephi experienced the same things and both were incredibly blessed. The difference is that Laman's attitude was terrible the whole time. Everything he did, he did it grudgingly. He did not accept the amazing blessings that the Lord offered to him. He did not have patience or faith, so in the end, he didn't have all the blessings, either. 

Also we read the story in 2 Kings 5:1-14 about the man who went to Elisha to be healed of his leprosy and Elisha told him to go wash 7 times in the river Jordan, but he gets mad and almost doesn't do it because he doesn't understand it and it seems dumb to him. He basically says, "There are a bunch of other, cleaner rivers a lot closer to here. I came all this way and he wouldn't even come out to see me?" and so on. But then some wise servant of his says something like, "Hey man, that's a prophet, right? Shouldn't you do what he says?" and the guy is like, "Oh yeah." Then he does what Elisha said and had new, baby smooth skin. Something interesting that President Wilson said is that if we need to understand every single rule/commandment, we are limiting God to who we are. I liked that. 

Then with Sister Anderson we played a Book of Mormon game and it was fun. Then she talked about how in Preach My Gospel it tells us to teach using the words and phrases of Book of Mormon Prophets. A lot of times I think that if I do that, the people won't understand and it will just confuse them. But I just have to remember, I guess, that those men are prophets. Even if they did talk differently back then, their words are the words of God. Plus, it will help my investigators to grow to love the Book of Mormon and to be able to read it better. 

She also challenged us to choose a scriptural word/phrase and think about it, ponder it, and dwell on it, every week. For instance, Elder Bednar made a whole talk about of just two words: "Tender mercies." Mine for the week is "stirred up to remembrance." I would like to extend the same challenge to all of you. It will help us come to love the Book of Mormon even more. And it doesn't have to be from the Book of Mormon, it can be from the Bible or any scripture. Just take some time to think about and ponder about a short phrase from an ancient prophet of God. 

Speaking of prophets, just about 5 weeks til General Conference! Woot woot! Get ready, everyone!

Elder Anderson talked a lot about reverence. And how we should make a habit of reverence and nurture it. If we are reverent, worthy, pure, obedient, we will be made into a conduit for the the Spirit. Especially for our callings. When we are set apart to do something, there is SO much power in that. He talked a lot about that. But the power in our setting apart does not come from us. It comes from God.  We also read in 1 Corinthians 11:27-30 about being worthy to partake of the Sacrament. But being worthy to take it does not just mean keeping the commandments and coming every week to take the sacrament. Elder Anderson talked about how if we are just taking the Sacrament robotically, without thought or feeling, that is not worthy of the sacrifice of the Son of God. The scripture says if we take it unworthily, we are guilty of the blood of Christ. That is pretty intense, right? We need to take the Sacrament to be spiritually "awake," as well. "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." When we take the Sacrament and take it without reverencing it, we are weaker.

He also talked about the key to avoiding pride. The key to avoiding pride is gratitude. I thought that was super interesting and so true. If we are grateful, we will know where our blessings come from and we will always remember Heavenly Father. It was good.

Well, in case you want a good study, there's my meeting. Not a lot else happened this week. Hermana Kingsley has been sick for the last couple days. 

We also had Spanish meeting on tuesday. That was great, too. 

Oh and we helped J move this week, which was fun. We also got a lot of good support from the ward, which was SO good. We appreciated it a lot, and she did too, which is the most important thing. We also went to her husband's birthday party on Thursday and met her family and helped break down some prejudices there. She is really excited about us. But we think that she thinks were more her friends than anything else. Which is great, but not what we're here for So we are going to go over tonight and explain our purpose and what we do as missionaries. We have this member that we want to bring, and she can be her friend. But we are here to bring her closer to Christ. 

So E won't be getting baptized this weekend. We didn't get to see her at all this last week, and only once the week before. But she still hasn't gotten work off to be able to come to church, and obviously, that's not going to work out until she can. So we're going to postpone it. 

But, K spoke in church this Sunday and it was SO GOOD! She is such a champion! She used the scriptures like a pro, bore her testimony so strong, and it was just SO AMAZING. I love that girl. 

Well, I don't have any more time, but I love you! I hope you have SUCH a wonderful week. Write me letters and tell me awkward moments and cool experiences and favorite scriptural phrases! Also just everything about your lives. 

Love,

Hermana Emily Pratt

Ps Has anyone else shared the Gospel recently with a Hispanic? Or anyone? 

This week has been a pretty good one. We did exchanges this week after district meeting, so I got to try working out in a new area. It was really good. I was with Hermana Horton again, in my first area, so that was fun. 

I've been working on improving a little every day, rather than trying to do everything at once. I was reading in Jacob 5 and it talks about taking out the bad stuff (like bad habits/choices) but only as much as the roots have strength. It talks about how you have to replace the bad with good. And I was thinking about why you can't just take out all the bad at once and just do a huge 180 change, or you'll just end up worse than you started out, and you will fall back into old habits. It was kind of cool. I know that it was just for me, because I've been trying so many different ways to change and be better, but it hasn't been working, and I think it was Heavenly Father telling me that I'm trying to do too much at once. And since I read that, I've been going slower and I have been improving steadily. I am able to work harder now and I'm not so discouraged. 

I think I've also been worried because, since I only have just over 3 months left, that there isn't time to change. But it also said in the chapter that the "season" was coming soon, so Heavenly Father hired servants to help him to hurry the process along. I think Hermana Kingsley was definitely sent to me for a reason, because she has been helping me so much. She is super patient with me when I need it, but we talked about it this week during weekly planning and how we could be better and I told her that I could really use a push, so she agreed to help me. It feels like the season is definitely coming soon, but Hermana Kingsley is helping me be able to be a good missionary again. And of course, I have the Savior, and I have been able to feel the Spirit with me, guiding me again more and more strong. I feel like for I while I kind of stopped trying so hard. But now that I am really trying again, even though I am far from perfect, Heavenly Father knows that I am trying and I can feel His hand supporting me when I feel like I can't keep going. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father and I know He loves me and it does matter to Him what I am going through. Even though I feel alone sometimes, it is when I leave His side that I am vulnerable. When I do my best and really try to stay close to Him, He stays close to me, too.  I love the story in the Pearl of Great Price about when Moses sees God and then Satan comes to him and tempts him, telling him to worship him. I LOVE Moses' response:

 13 And it came to pass that Moses looked upon Satan and said: Who art thou? For behold, I am a son of God, in the similitude of his Only Begotten; and where is thy glory, that I should worship thee?

 14 For behold, I could not look upon God, except his glory should come upon me, and I were transfigured before him. But I can look upon thee in the natural man. Is it not so, surely?

 15 Blessed be the name of my God, for his Spirit hath not altogether withdrawn from me, or else where is thy glory, for it is darkness unto me? And I can judge between thee and God; for God said unto me: Worship God, for him only shalt thou serve.

 16 Get thee hence, Satan; deceive me not; for God said unto me: Thou art after the similitude of mine Only Begotten.

I know that I am a daughter of God, and that I am more powerful than Satan. He tries to get me to forget who I am, because when I forget who I am and what I'm worth, that's when I am weak and when I struggle, but I know that Heavenly Father is more powerful than Satan, and I am His daughter, in His likeness, and Satan gave up all his glory when he rebelled against God. Pride is a dangerous thing. It makes us fall more than anything else. When we are prideful, we break our ties with God, thinking that we know better; that one small thing doesn't really matter in the long run; saying that we can do it alone. Well, I can tell you, we don't know better. Every decision we make can be the one that turns our life around. Most importantly, we can't do it alone. We need Heavenly Father's love. We need Christ's Atonement. We need the Spirit's guiding influence. I am grateful for the scriptures and for all the help that our Heavenly Father has given to me. If we try to do it alone, because of pride or whatever, we will not succeed. Maybe it will seem like it for a little while, but it won't get us far.

And I already know all that, but I guess Heavenly Father is trying to tell me something, because that message has just been coming up over and over again. But yeah. There is my rant of the week. Enjoy it. I thought it was cool. You should all read the Pearl of Great Price if you haven't recently. Or even if you have. It's not that long. It is a great book of scripture. 

Well, this week was a good one. We've had some good lessons. 

Oh, and this week J called us. Did you hear? SHE called US. She asked us to come help her move. I was in Chesterfield, but Hermanas Kingsley and Dangerfield helped her out and she is still awesome. So that is cool! She is really excited to learn. She told me when she called she talked to her pastor (I was like, "Ohhh... Dang it...") and that he agreed with her that God sent us!! ("...Wait. What? Are you sure?") It was so cool! Usually when people talk to their pastors, especially when they are really good friends with their pastor like she is, that's the end. She even told him we were Mormons. It was so cool! Heavenly Father really wants her to have this Gospel right now. It's exciting. 

My awkward/embarrassing moment for the week is.... Probably when the buttons of the dress I was wearing (like three of them, right in the front) were open during our member dinner yesterday. Awkward. And I wasn't even wearing an undershirt, so that was unfortunate. 

Well, I love you all! Have a wonderful week and remember to send me some awkward moments!

Love, Hermana Pratt

Two for One Post!!

August 11, 2014

Hermana Kingsley did my makeup!

New Haircut - shorter on the sides

This week has been interesting! The first part of the week was really rough, but about mid-week it picked up and has been a lot better. We've been teaching more and found a lot of new people to teach. 

The coolest experience ever happened this week! We had an appointment with one of our new investigators in the trailer park, but he wasn't at his house, so we went to go see if he was playing soccer with everyone. He wasn't, so we started back to our car. Well, as we were walking, a white lady (one of two white families in that whole trailer park) was just getting out of her car with some Cookout (a wonderful/cheap fast food place) and her Hispanic husband was getting out as well. We said hi to her and she was just like, "Hey!" So we told her we were jealous of her cookout but we were just going to walk past because we had some other people to go see but she was like, "So where are you from? My name's J." and so we told her and it started on this conversation and of course we told her about who we are and what we do and that we teach in Spanish, normally. She got really excited and said, "No way! My daughter who is five doesn't speak Spanish, but I really want her to learn since she is half Hispanic. She won't listen to her dad. We also really want her to learn about God so she can grow up with good traditions and stay away from drugs and all that bad stuff. But of course we would want to sit in on the lessons and know what you teach and stuff." And the conversation went on and it turns out she thought we were Jehovah's Witness (despite us having said the name of our church twice and such, but oh well) but we explained we were Mormon and she perked up and was like, "Oh I used to live out in Amelia and I knew a bunch of Mormons and they were really good people, and hardworking, too." We talked about that for a minute, then she said, "You know, I love my church (then she went on about the pastor for a while) but I really don't like the way it is set up, and none of the people are very friendly. I feel like I don't really do much, you know. I want one that is more like a family and stuff." And so on and so forth. Basically, the most golden conversation you've ever heard of. So we got her number and they are moving in the next couple weeks (closer to us, even) and their new address, and it was so exciting! They were pretty much begging us to teach them and their whole family. She was like, "I just know God sent you here. He sent you from Utah and Alaska, all the way to Virginia, speaking Spanish, just for me." And it was cool that, even though our appointment cancelled, we had such an amazing experience! It is really amazing how much Heavenly Father's hand is in this work. And they had just been getting home and walking the six feet from their car to the door right as we were walking right in front of their trailer. And something definitely prompted her to talk to us, because there are VERY few people that would normally voluntarily approach missionaries of a different church if not to bash. Like, ever. We mentioned to her how prepared they were and she was like, "I know we are. He's been preparing us for a long time for this, and now I can feel that it is my time." Then she showed us the goosebumps she got right after she said that and was like, "I got a confirmation, right there. That's a confirmation from the Holy Spirit! I know this is right." She is SO ready! I am so excited to teach her and see her progress and in the Celestial kingdom! She's got a long way to go, but I know she can do it through Christ. 

Also, it was kind of cool how we found another new investigator (the one that cancelled on us before we found J and her husband). We went to go to our appointment with our recent convert, R, and he was kind of avoiding us because he was with his friends and embarrassed, so we were walking around waiting for us (he said five minutes, but never came. Psh.) And we were playing with some dogs at a member's house right next door and the member's 13 year old grandson, C, who is a former investigator who was going to get baptized but didn't want to because he felt too pressured came outside. I had never taught him before, but we are over there a lot so he knows us and we were talking to him and eventually started teaching him! How cool is that?! Then he came with us to go find R (40 minutes later) and we talked to them and then their friends were all around and being super crazy ninos and so we invited them all to pray with us. So we were all standing in a circle in the middle of a trailer park at like 8:45 at night with a bunch of loud teenage boys, saying a prayer. It was hard to get them to settle down, but eventually they did (mostly) and we prayed. Afterwards (they were joking, but kind of not) some of them were like, "Oh, I felt something! I felt something!" and unfortunately they dispersed pretty quickly, but Hermana Kingsley was talking to one of them (named R) who was a lot quieter and asked him what he likes to do, and he said draw, so she said, "Hey! You should draw me a picture of me!" And he was kind of shy and awkward so we didn't think we'd ever see him again but we went back the next day for R (who wasn't there) and he'd actually drawn a picture!! It was really good, too. Then he showed us his other drawings (which were also WAY good. This kid has talent.) and we talked to him about them for like 20 minutes until he felt a little more comfortable and was starting to come out of his shell. Then we started turning it to the Gospel, because some of the pictures were about Jesus Christ and stuff. He is really interested in learning more and I think he is really really ready. He is very humble and nice. He really wants to learn more, he just doesn't know where to go to learn more and is just confused. Kept from the truth only because he knows not where to find it? You decide. But it was cool! And we might even be able to teach his parents, too.

So, blonde moment time. It was pretty dumb... I was laying on my stomach during nightly planning last night and Hermana Kingsley was on one side of me and dropped her pen or  something on the other side of me, so I reached around to get it and handed it to her, then I am not sure what I was thinking, but I guess I thought the carpet would be soft or something, because I just let myself fall back down flat on my face and like SMACKED my face on the floor, right on the cheekbone. It hurt! Hermana Kingsley just DIED laughing. For like 15 minutes. She was crying, she laughed so hard. I was laughing too, though, so it's fine. And now I have a bruise on my face. Luckily you can't really see it, but it hurts. I guess I can just tell people I got punched in the face. Oh, the struggles. 

Oh and C, Hermana M's grandson, came to church yesterday! It was so cool because he was really reluctant because he feels awkward in the classes, especially young men's, but he still came! And we didn't get to talk to him afterwards, but the Elders took him to young men's and said he was fine. So we are excited! 

Oh and a member that is transferring from the English ward to our ward cuts missionaries hair for free, so she cut ours this morning! Finally! It was getting really long. So that was exciting too. 

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you! Careful not to bang your faces on the floor! The floor is probably not as soft as you think it is. 

Love,

Hermana Emily Pratt

Ps Dad remember when you got hit in the face with the frisbee? And squirted your water bottle all over the floor when it was falling? And Ryan when you were just making weird noises all alone in the kitchen making up a weird song? And everyone with their awkward moments. I challenge all of you to tell me/remind me about an awkward story by next Monday. Or whenever. But I could use a good laugh, so let me know! :) I'll share more too, but I'm out of time for now. 

Pps Love you!

August 4, 2014

Birthday Party Photos

So we had kind of a cool experience this week. Hermana Hiebert was getting transferred so on Monday night we visited E and her family and the guy they got to rent a room to help them have enough money while A is in jail whose name is T  sat in on the lesson. He is SUPER shy but pretty nice and he seemed to enjoy the lesson. It was kind of an awkward first lesson to join, since it was the farewell lesson for Hermana Hiebert so everyone was all emotional and we had planned to teach the Priesthood but we thought that would be a really weird first lesson so we switched it up and just read a scripture with them. I had a feeling that great things would come of it, which was weird, because he wasn't like overly interested and Hermana Hiebert didn't feel anything, but I just felt like it was important. And then, yesterday, T took K and T (the 4-year-old who is CRAZZZZZY to church on Sunday and went to all the classes and stuff! It was exciting! And he is still just SO shy so we couldn't get him to talk about it much, but he said he liked it and learned some interesting new things.  So that was cool.

So my new companion is named Hermana Kingsley and she is so great! She is hilarious and super nice and I think it will be a really good transfer. She has been out about 4 months (she just finished training) and she had been at the Mexico MTC to learn Spanish. She is 20, she went to BYU-Idaho, she has lived pretty much everywhere on the planet (not really but her dad is in the airport so she's lived a lot of places but claims Alaska because it's her favorite and a lot of her siblings live there still and stuff. She is the 9th of 10 siblings. But yeah. She is great. She also has a great voice so sometimes she sings songs to me. Which is exciting. And we quote Disney movies and such together. And she is determined to make our district more exciting, which is good because right now it is pretty boring. Yesterday she had the Elders assign everyone in our district a character from Toy Story. They put me as the green aliens.  Haha ok, whatever, Elders.... In Mechanicsville the Sisters assigned everyone a Disney character and I was Jesse. I like that one better. Oh well. Sisters are just way better, I guess... But we all knew that. 

Not a lot of other excitement has gone on this week. I can't really think of anything that happened. Just teaching people. Our investigators are doing well, our Recent Converts and Less Actives are doing well, things are just overall going pretty well. So that's good, I suppose. 

Oh darn it! I am out of time all the sudden and it's not letting me extend! I'll try to get back on in a minute, but if not, bye, love you!

Love,

Hermana Pratt

Ps tell Miss J thanks so much! I love her!