Hola! not much happened this week because I was all diseased for most of the week. My throat stopped hurting so much after a couple days, but I had a really bad headache and was really dizzy and thought I was going to faint whenever I stood up. But I've been doing better the last couple days. Apparently a lot of stuff like that has been going around lately. 

Ummm....I am not sure what to say. I think you should all watch some Bible Videos when you get a chance. They are really good. I was watching some of them this morning. They gave us a DVD with like 10 random ones on it. I wish I had more time to watch the church videos. I hardly ever get to. But I always love them and they are so inspiring!

This week on Saturday we had a Stake Primary Pioneer activity. It was SO fun! Most of the missionaries were in charge of a station, but we went around with the CTR 4 group to all the stations. They are SO cute! We did a bunch of "Pioneer activities" (washing clothes by hand, stick pull, sack races, making homemade ice cream, line dancing, etc.) and helped out where they needed us. The kids are all so adorable! I am really excited for when I can actually play with kids again and hold them and stuff. There was this funny little girl that was so crazy but hilarious! She had so much personality and attitude but she loved helping people and doing everything, even though she was the youngest in the group. All the boys had cowboy hats and all the girls got bonnets. They even gave us bonnets! Mine clashed horribly with my dress (I was wearing my red dress and they gave me a purple bonnet) but it was still cute! 

Then, later that day we went to a birthday party for one of our less-active's kids because most of the family is less-active and we knew they would all be there. We ended up staying way longer than we wanted to because everyone was talking to us and the party just kept going on and on and on and it was just crazy. But at least we got some good contact in with a lot of our less-actives and some non-members as well. But yeah. That is pretty much how my week has been going. Lots of sleeping because I was dying. But not of strep, luckily. So yeah, at least now I am feeling better. 

Transfers are this week. I am staying here and Hermana Hiebert will be leaving and training a new missionary, as well. So she will probably be opening a new area, because we are getting a lot of new Hermanas this transfer (like 6 or 7) and same with the next two or three transfers. So there will be lots of new areas in the mission. I will be getting a new companion, but I'm not training, so who knows who I'll get. We'll see. Pray for me! ;) No, I think it will be fine. I'm sure it will be a good transfer. Yesterday we went around to say goodbye and saw a ton of people, which was good, and Hermana Hiebert was happy.

Sorry about the shortness of the letter (again). I did write a lot of letters to people, though, so that's my lame excuse. Hopefully someone will write me back. Most everyone has forgotten about me... Just kidding that is a lie. At least Grandma loves me. :) Actually, it is probably my fault. I have been really bad at writing people back. But I'm over it now! I like writing letters because now I have cute stationary!

Well, I love you all! Have a wonderful week! Don't let the mosquitos bite!

Love, Hermana Pratt

Ps oh wait the mosquitos already did bite. A ridiculous amount. Just be glad you're there and not here. The bugs are NOT ok. Billions of mosquitos and tons of gigantic spiders. Ugh. Oh well. It's always exciting.

Picture posted on Facebook Tuesday of Emily & her new companion

Howdy howdy! 

This week has been a lot better. I've been out working a lot more and a lot of good stuff has been happening. We had 6 member present lessons last week, and I am really happy with the way the ward has been helping us out. It helps a lot to have a Ward Mission Leader that knows what he is doing and he does a lot for us. He is perfect for this calling. And since we have so many people that are getting close to baptism (we have 3 people set for August 30th) a lot of them need a lot of help, especially since Satan is a bum and tries to cause problems. But it is really cool to see how people progress and are blessed when they keep the commandments as well. For example, E has been investigating for like a year and she has wanted to get baptized so bad but since she was living with someone, she couldn't. And she didn't want to marry him, but she needed his support financially and didn't know what to do. Then, last month, when I was still in Mechanicsville, the Hermanas called me and told me they were doing a fast for E that the guy she was living with's heart would be softened so she could get baptized. So we had like everyone that had ever taught her fasting for her that she would be able to be baptized. I actually forgot to do it on the day they said, but I did it the Sunday after. Whoops. But then, I got transferred to this area again. And what happens like two weeks in? He gets put in jail for drunk driving. And they are going to deport him because he doesn't have papers. Also it's not his first time in jail. But, it may not be exactly an orthodox method, but now she can live the law of chastity and doesn't have to worry about it anymore. And she says that even if he didn't get deported, she would leave him. She just needed a little help making a decision, I guess. But now she is very sure and she is excited for her baptismal date on August 30th! And I am so excited for her too! She is like my Hispanic mother. She is so cute. 

Also, yesterday we went to church (obviously) and a former investigator showed up that used to come all the time! I was sitting by him and they announced the stake temple trip and the times, etc, and this investigator says he wants to go! Obviously he couldn't go inside, but he has always been super interested in the temple. He knows he needs to be baptized to be able to go inside, but I explained about the visitor's center and he was way interested. So yeah, we'll see if he'll go (he'd have to be there for the whole like ten hour trip and stuff) but we think it would be great! No complaints here. 

And also I was sick AGAIN yesterday. I am so sick of getting sick. I think I might be getting strep. Again. Ugh. But yeah, it is not fun. Especially since there is nothing to do at the apartment. I wrote some cards to some various other missionaries and a letter to Shawn. But yeah. And I barely slept at all last night because my head was hurting and I had already slept a bunch that day. But it was just boring, mostly. There is nothing to do when you are just laying in bed in a pitch black room and someone else is asleep also. But oh well. Eventually I got to sleep some and had some funny dreams. I have been remembering so many of my dreams lately! They have been interesting. 

We talked to a Buddhist this week outside a store. It was interesting. He gave us some little booklets about Buddhism so we gave him a plan of salvation pamphlet. He actually already knew quite a bit about the church. He said he'd read the Book of Mormon (before we'd even mentioned it) and knew Utah was church headquarters and such. It was an interesting encounter. But he was nice. 

We also knocked into a random Hispanic member that no one knew about. We only had like 5 seconds to talk to him because he was leaving, but he said his Dad is a patriarch, which was a big surprise. It must be wherever he is from though, because there aren't many Hispanic patriarchs around here. I think there is one in the Chesapeake mission. But it was just disconcerting because he was wearing this honking big cross on his chest with an awkwardly mostly unbuttoned shirt. It was a strange moment. We're going to go back this week and talk to him again and find out more. So yeah. 

Today is the "sister's p-day," which is basically zone p-day but without the Elders. Which means we can actually do something besides just play sports. I think for Elder P-day they are playing sports. But we are going to the zoo with all the Sisters in the zone!  So that will be a party. I hope I don't give anyone strep. Animals can't get strep, can they? And I'll just try not to give any hugs or besitos to anyone. Hopefully I won't take down all the missionaries. That would be unfortunate. But anyways.

Ummm... Yeah. I can't think of anything else to say. 

Well, have a wonderful week! I love you lots! Don't get any diseases or anything!

Love,

Hermana Emily Pratt

I'm a missionary! For those who might not have known....

Hola!

This week has been challenging.  I feel like being here and having these trials has brought me closer to Christ than I ever have been before. He is my best friend and the only one I can trust completely.  Hermana Chambers suggested I get a blessing. I was going to ask President Wilson, but he was up north, which is way far away. So we called the Zone Leaders and at first they didn't answer and stuff so we talked for a while longer and eventually they called us back and we met them at the church and they gave me a blessing. It was so cool. It was like they had heard every word of our conversation, as well as the things I didn't say. They told me that Heavenly Father is proud of the work I am doing and is so happy that I am serving here in Richmond, Virginia. He said a lot of other things that no 21 year old basketball player could ever have said. I have such a strong testimony of the Priesthood! It really is the power to act in God's name and I know that Elder Murdock was not the one telling me those things, Heavenly Father was. It gave me a lot of comfort and I am so grateful for the time I have to be a missionary.  It is such a once in a lifetime thing and I don't have that much time left. I can never believe it when I tell people I've been out for 13 months. It is crazy how fast time goes, but so slowly at the same time. This week has gone by SO fast, though.

On Wednesday, we had District Meeting in the morning.  Then the rest of this week has been great! We had a lot of miracle lessons with less actives and recent converts and stuff. We didn't teach a lot of our investigators this week, but we saw a lot of members and helped out some people with family history. And we have an appointment to do an FHE with a member about family history. Hermana Hiebert is really good at it! Apparently she did a service mission about it or something. So we didn't see a lot of living investigators this week, but we got a lot of new dead ones! We're going to help them prepare the names for the temple. I would like to learn how to do family history, and Hermana Hiebert has promised to teach me sometime when we get to take our hour of mormon.org time. I want to take some family names through the temple, if I can ever find any!

This morning we went to the zoo, which was fun, as always. We watched the penguins get fed and the lions were roaring and stuff. We watched some turtles. Fun fun. 

We were back in our house ever since Monday. The air conditioning works again. Which has been nice. 

Well, anyways, I love you a lot! Have a great week and watch out for dandy lions! (I love puns.)

Love,

Hermana Emily Pratt

Roasted like peanuts....

This is a real moth that was on the door - if you can zoom in it is really cool!

Beautiful Virginia Tree

So once again, this will be a short letter. I've been doing some other stuff on the computer today. But It was a pretty good week! In some ways. We started off the week pretty well, then on Wednesday Hermana Heibert got really sick and it has been lasting all the rest of the week, and a lot of people cancelled and we had to cancel some people. But I got a lot of other stuff done and I bought some fun stuff last pday! I got a pack of four super cool disney puzzles to do and I love those. So I did those while she was sleeping and me and her had a puzzle race when she felt well enough to be vertical. She beat me. But to be fair she was well rested and I was super tired and my contacts were all dried out. Also she is just better at puzzles than me. But oh well.

On Tuesday we celebrated Canada Day with Hermana Hiebert. We went and got frozen yogurt at Sweet Frog. Delish!

On Wednesday our air conditioning broke. Which, in Virginia, is unacceptable. It broke on Wednesday, which was the day we were at home almost all day. It was like 70 at like noon and by about 8:00 it was 91. Downstairs. Upstairs, I'm pretty sure it was over 100. Plus humidity. We slept there that night (that was unfortunate) but then we went over and have been sleeping/mostly living at the mission home with President and Sister Wilson since Thursday. It has been pretty fun! But hopefully today they'll fix our air conditioning. The guy that normally does it has been out of town, so that's why they haven't done it yet. But it is a lot of fun hanging out with the Wilsons! For exercise Friday morning we played basketball with President, and we had dinner with them on Saturday and they invited us on Sunday as well but we already had a member dinner (which was also fun) so we didn't get to go to that one, but the Sisters went. Last night we had fresh baked brownies (still warm) with Blue Bell ice cream, which is like the most delicious brand ever. So that's been exciting. We've been sleeping in the Celestial kingdom (AKA all the way upstairs in a loft-type place). The beds are SUPER comfy. 

For the 4th of July Hermana Hiebert was super excited because it was only her 2nd time being here for it. She got some patriotic sugar cookies.

Well, I'm about to get kicked off. Sorry, I had a lot more I wanted to say! Hopefully I'll get back on in a bit, love you!

Hermana Pratt

Ok I got another computer, but I only have 15 minutes, so It'll have to be a shorty.

But I've had such good studies the past few days! I've been studying the temple in the scriptures and the covenants we make, especially the endowment. I looked it up in the topical guide and it just promises us so many blessings when we are faithful and receive the ordinances and keep our promises. It is so cool. I studied every scripture and for every one I wrote down my thoughts about it and rewrote it to relate it to me. It was a cool way to do it. This one was a cool one to relate to that:

 1 Verily thus saith the Lord unto you, my servant Lyman: Your sins are forgiven you, because you have obeyed my voice in coming up hither this morning to receive counsel of him whom I have appointed.

 2 Therefore, let your soul be at rest concerning your spiritual standing, and resist no more my voice.

 3 And arise up and be more careful henceforth in observing yourvows, which you have made and do make, and you shall be blessed with exceeding great blessings.

 4 Wait patiently until the solemn assembly shall be called of my servants, then you shall be remembered with the first of mine elders, and receive right by ordination with the rest of mine elders whom I have chosen.

 5 Behold, this is the promise of the Father unto you if you continue faithful.

 6 And it shall be fulfilled upon you in that day that you shall have right to preach my gospel wheresoever I shall send you, from henceforth from that time.

 7 Therefore, strengthen your brethren in all your conversation, in all your prayers, in all your exhortations, and in all your doings.

 8 And behold, and lo, I am with you to bless you and deliver you forever. Amen.

That scripture is D&C 108. I put my name and stuff in there, and changed elders to saints and it was sweet. Also I read my patriarchal blessing today, really slowly and thinking of myself as the person it describes in this section, someone worthy to stand before God in that day right up there with the chosen ones, and it made a lot more sense and a lot more promises stuck out to me that I haven't noticed before. Usually I think of myself as a fairly ordinary person, not as good as most other people, but not too bad, either. But trying to think of myself the way Heavenly Father sees me, with so much potential and so much worth, really changed my perspective and I encourage you all to do the same and also to share the Gospel with everyone so they can know their worth as well!  

Ps I really want to go to the temple.... Oh well. Someday. Also President has a book about all the temples built 2009 and earlier and it is amazing! I've been reading about each temple and it is so cool and I've learned lots. 

Have a great week!

Love, 

Hermana Emily Pratt

Mechanicsville Zone (just before transfers) June 2014

Hola! So this week has been good. We went to the zoo last Monday for P-day! This won't be a very long email. I sent lots of pictures and had some other people to respond to. 

We've been teaching some good lessons this week. We got S to participate in acting out the story of Ammon cutting off people's arms (of course) for an FHE with their family. That was a fun one. And K went to girl's camp this week!! Can you believe that?!And their mom is preparing for a baptismal date on August 30th. She needs to get married first (still) and she doesn't want to marry that guy, but she needs his support financially. So it's a tough situation. But she is praying about it and trying to find a new job where she can get Sundays off. It is sad because when I first came to Midlothian, she had just quit a different job so that she could get Sundays off and found this job, and they promised her Sundays off, but ever since like a month after she got the job, she has had to work almost every Sunday. But she is an incredible woman with so much faith, and she is one of the sweetest people I've ever met in my life and she just ADORES the missionaries. She was SO happy when I came back! I was worried she would have forgotten me, or if not forgotten, then she wouldn't be happy to see me or something, but she had the biggest grin on her face and gave me a huge hug and gave us food and juice and stuff. And K and S were way excited to see me too. They both gave me big hugs too. Even her 5 and 3 year old kids remember and love me still. It was like one of the coolest experiences of my mission. I just love that family so much and I imagine that reunion to be pretty much exactly like the Celestial Kingdom will be. Except hopefully not so hot. But yeah. I don't know if I told you that last week, but enjoy it. 

I am jealous of the vacation to Strawberry! And especially fishing! There are actually a couple of fishing poles in our house. If we find a spot to go fishing, I would love to! I just need to convince my companion. She's not really a fisherman type. Did anyone catch any crawdads for me? Mail me one.

Also we taught M again. O who is a really great member, came with us and they got along really well! M has 4 sons, and O has 4 daughters, so that was fun for them. O gave like the best testimony. I think it was exactly what M needed. She is a really sweet lady. 

So a funny experience was that we made a cake on Saturday for J for A's birthday on Sunday (and we had asked her beforehand how many people were coming, and she said it wasn't even going to be a party, it was just going to be a dinner, but apparently that was a lie.) and so we brought over two cakes in little like 9" by 9" pans, and we walk in and she is cooking SO much chicken. Like it could feed a whole army. It was at least 50 lbs of chicken. And she looked at the cake and was just like, "Oh...." and it was really awkward. We were like, "Do you want us to make some more cake? We could get it ready before tomorrow." And she was just like, "It's kind of late now..." And we were just like, "Ok... Sorry." and we talked to them for a while longer then left. Then as we were driving home, at like 8:55 she calls us and she's like, "This cake is delicious!" Hermana Hiebert was like, "You're eating it?!" and she was like, "Yeah! It's great! Can you make another one please?" So we hurried and were like running around Food Lion like crazy chickens and Hermana Hiebert is like working so hard to get this cake done before 10:30 and she cooked another one in the morning (J said she only needed one more, but what she really wanted was a hispanic-size "one more" so we made two 9" by 13" cakes.) and we brought it over to the party and it was a good time. Oh, the awkwardness. 

Also, Hermana Brown (one of my trainers) came back for a visit! She brought her family and came to church and they also came to the party afterwards. It was fun to see her again! I should have taken a picture with her, but I forgot. Her Dad took one though. She is engaged! Remember how she is a widow? Well she met her fiancee at an LDS widow's convention! How cute is that! I am really happy for her. He lives in Arkansas, so she'll be moving there after they get married in the end of August. 

Well, anyways. Adios! Love you all! Have a wonderful week of goodness!

Love,

Hermana Emily Pratt

I'm Back.............

So I know you were all thinking I would go somewhere new (I was too... this was the last thing I expected) but I am back in Midlothian! It is really weird. I miss Mechanicsville a lot, but I already love the people here and stuff. It is really weird though because everything is a lot the same but a lot different, too. There are just like little changes. But I already know how to get everywhere, I already know everyone in the ward, I know a few of the investigators, I love the little blue house, I love that we live in the area with the zoo (we're going there today!) and it is just a great area.

But it is weird because most of the investigators I was teaching have been dropped, the M and H families have both moved (they are still in our area though... Luckily).  We went by and D came out and was SOOOOO surprised to see me. I thought she was going to faint or something. You'd have thought I was a ghost. But A still wouldn't come out and talk to us (We'll be working on that). And then it is weird because the ward is different (new bishop, new ward mission leader, etc) but everyone still acts the same. Certain people are now less active that were active before, and now some of the people that were inactive are active again. But pretty much everyone still remembers me, which is kind of cool. The short hair threw a lot of people though.

I had to say the opening prayer in sacrament meeting and a bunch of people ran up and hugged me afterwards and stuff. It is cool. And S and her family are SO excited that I am back! They are some of my favorite people in the world. I think I could hang out with them all the time. Except I can't as a missionary. But they are just a lot of fun.

In case you don't still have it, my address is 8742 Shadymist Dr, Richmond, VA 23235. Back in the blue house! And also, back to living 5 minutes from both the mission office AND President Wilson's house. Sometimes I am a bit suspicious that he just wanted to keep me close so I don't get into any trouble. I guess he knows how crazy I can be sometimes...

And my companion, Hermana Hiebert, came out one transfer ahead of me. Almost all my companions have come out that transfer. She is funny.  She is Canadian! She is from Northern Alberta, which is like WAY up there, if you didn't know. She doesn't have an accent, although she says "z" like "zed," which is kind of funny. She speaks English, Spanish, and Swedish! She has been to like 15 countries and she is basically just really cool. Next week I'll send pictures of us at the zoo and stuff, but we haven't taken any so far.

It was so cool reuniting with the H family! They were all SO excited to see me again! They all gave me the biggest hugs and we were just laughing and stuff and I imagine that is exactly what it will be like in the Celestial Kingdom! Except hopefully not as hot. It was like 80,000 degress. Even T and Y remember me, and they are so young! T unfortunately still thinks I'm his Amor, so that's awkward. He kept trying to kiss me and when I wouldn't let him he'd try to bite me. We read a scripture with S, who is also being a bum and won't go to church because he doesn't like primary (we're working on that, too) and then played hide and seek with them for like 45 minutes. It is really hard to play in a trailer, just so you know. But S is like a master. Since he's only 9, he can fit into places you just wouldn't expect a human being to be able to fit into, like under beds, behind cabinets, on shelves, etc. It was really fun.

So yesterday we found this super cute new investigator named M. She is great and we had given her a restoration pamphlet when we set the appointment and she'd read it like 3 times! We talked about prayer with her because we didn't have a lot of time, but she agreed to be baptized! And not only did she just agree to be baptized, she agreed to prepare for August 30! In the very first lesson! She is really cool. She's a sweet lady. She has 4 kids, one of which is only 2 months old and has been in the NICU ever since then but came home last week.

I'm so excited to go to the zoo! I hope it won't be TOO hot today, because it rained yesterday, but we'll see. That will probably just make it more humid. And there is a panda express on the way! SO EXCITING!!!

I loved the homemade bread and stuff! It was a lifesaver. And the pictures are so cute, and the recordings are beautiful and basically it was just a great package.

I finally fulfilled one of my service dreams! I got to paint for someone! We painted the M's fence pink. It was so fun! And it looks super cute and springy. We were worried it was going to rain, but it held off for the perfect amount of time. And we have a prospect of helping Hermana G paint her house, too. She just has to decide for sure whether or not she is going to do it, or move somewhere else. I hope she does it! I want them to stay in our ward. She is way nice. And makes delicious food.

Luckily we have lots of member dinners this week, but I forgot how this area just doesn't really get a lot of member dinners. We only had one planned one this week, with S. But fortunately some other people fed us while we were over there. But it is the worst when it isn't planned because you just never know if people are going to feed you or not so you never know if you should eat dinner. And whenever you do eat dinner, they feed you. Whenever you don't, no one feeds you. It is unfortunate. But I'll have to buy more food when I get more money next month... We did get some REALLY good taquitos from PJ while we were there teaching her brother who is an investigator. And we have dinner with her again this Wednesday. She is one of the best cooks in the ward. I always love her food.

Well... I think that's it for now. But I love you! Have a great week! In the meantime I'll just be melting. I've got a pretty nice watch tanline though. Today I'll be going without a watch to try and fix that.

Anyways.

Bye!

Love,

Hermana Emily Pratt

Transfer time

A turtle Emily found just outside the back of her apartment

Pictures of some of the people Emily has worked with with in the ward in Mechanicsville

So I am getting transferred. :/ After 6 months here, I guess it was time, but I really love this area and the work was really picking up and people have been progressing. No one came to church this Sunday, but a lot of people started keeping other commitments. For instance, V finally told us she prays every day to find out which church is true and we helped her see that her prayers need to be more specific.  For instance, instead of asking, "Show me the way I should go,"  instead, ask something like, "Should I get baptized into the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints?" Yes or no questions are much more easy to recognize answers than broad questions. We always teach our investigators that specific questions bring specific answers. She really understood it and was glad to finally know how to ask because she was starting to get discouraged that everyone would always talk about these times when they'd gotten answers and she had never had one of those experiences like they were describing. So when we explained it she looked so relieved. Also, it was really cute; we saw her on Father's day and she prayed for our Dads. She is such a sweet person.

I'm sending lots of pictures this time, so who knows if I'll have time to write much. But yeah. Ummm.... I hate saying goodbye to people.  This is the main reason I don't want to get transferred. Also my hatred of packing is right up there, too. I despise packing. But luckily I have a lovely companion that is willing to help me out. 

And yes, I did get the package. The pictures were great. The voice recordings were great (Thanks, Ryan!) and it was just great overall. It made a difficult day (the day of transfer calls) a lot better, so I appreciate it a lot. And I love you Mom!

And also Dad. Happy Father's day yesterday! I miss you and I wish I could watch a movie with you and play some games and eat your steak. Next year ;)

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Hermana Pratt

Ps I cut my hair again. A bit different this time.