Interviews, Exchanges and Church

Hey!

How is everybody? I love hearing from you. :) It does my soul SO much good to hear about everything you are up to. I just love hearing about it, and imagining you doing the things that you are doing. Thank you also for the pictures. They made me laugh REALLY hard. Augh! It makes me miss all of you- but in a good, sweet sort of way. (Not the distracting-I- miss- my- family- so- much- it- hurts- and- I'm- completely- useless- as- a- missionary sort of way.)

Anyways, great job! Way to keep doing great things. I love you all tons. I can't wait until I see you again, but I am grateful that you have supported me so much and allowed me to have this great opportunity to serve those who need the gospel so much in their lives. And they really do.

If there is one thing I have learned thus far, it is the importance of a good job and a good education. A lot of the people I run into down here struggle because they are not able to provide for themselves for one reason or another. I was joking with my companion saying that the Gospel could solve world hunger, but honestly, it can. Through the gospel we are able to learn important attributes, such as hard work, the importance of gaining a good education, self-reliance, saving, truly helping those less fortunate than ourselves, planning for the future, ect. :) The list could go ON. Sorry, slight rant. 

This week I had Four great experiences.

One- we each had an interview with President. So, President is pretty much incredibly awesome and completely fantastic. This is going to be a great 18 months, and Alabama is going to be incredibly blessed for the next 3 years.

Two- I went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. It was amazing. I really appreciated the opportunity to learn from someone who had been out in the field for a while. She gave me a TON of tips, and ironically enough, gave me some of the same advice President Hanks gave me during my interview. I think I needed that advice. It was a great experience.

Three- WOW... wow... As I wrote to President, "This week has been an absolutely incredible experience. We have simply had a whirlwind of blessings from the Lord. Our goals were set rather high, but to our surprise, we were blessed to keep nearly all of them. Just a few weeks ago Sister Jackson and I were pleading with the Lord that he would send us people to talk to, people to teach, and a full schedule. The past couple of weeks the Lord has nearly thrown people into our path, and we continue to run into or tract into interested people nearly every day. This week we were so busy we didn't even have time to think, and next week looks like it is going to get even busier." Basically, the Lord has heard our cry for rain, and now the flood warnings are going up. :D :D :D :D :D It is a great time to be in the field. 

Four- We had two investigators at church, and they seemed to really enjoy the services. Robin's exact words were "It is different, but I like it."  We talked about nearly everything- from baptism to the temple to Authority to the Holy Ghost to tithing. I certainly realized one reason why we take them to church- the lessons either give us the opportunity or give us a perfect lead in for just about everything that we haven't covered yet.

Once again, thank you. I love you all tons. You are incredible, and I hope you have an incredible day.

~Sister Erica Pratt