Hey Mom and Dad and Everyone!!!
Sounds like you had a pretty fantastic week. I'm so glad that you were able to spend so much time with Uncle Shane's family, and I'm even happier that they are doing so well.
Happy Birthday to Dad!!! You are a great Dad, and I am so grateful for everything you do for us and for me. Thank you for your strong example and your wisdom. Being your daughter has been a great experience. Thank you. I hope you have a fantastic day!
This week's email will be pretty short because I am having a shortened Preperation day. :) President gave Sister McDougal and I permission to go to the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum on Tuesday (it is closed on Monday). I'll have to tell you how that one goes, I am super excited.
This past week we actually spent a lot of time in Birmigham. (Similar to SLC, there are a bunch of "bubble" cities around Birmingham. We cover part of the city and a bunch of bubble cities to the south of Birmingham.) We had an investigator who wanted to meet us in the park across from 16th Street Baptist Church. We nodded, said okay, and then plugged it into our GPS, assuming that it was just a Baptist church on 16th Street. Yeah, no. Apparently it was the 16th Street Baptist Church, the Civil Rights museum was right in front of the church, and the park across the street was a memorial park for the girls who were killed in the church. The history nerd in me went CrAzY. It was fantastic!! I also loved reading Martin Luther King Jr.'s stuff on plaques. The English side of me really appreciated his words, and gave me such a deeper understanding of the importance of words and learning to master the English language. Some of the stuff that other people wrote on the plaques were just full of raw emotion, and really turned me away, but his stuff was very meaningful and included me in the conversation rather than excluded me. It really made me grateful for his incredible contribution and for his mastery of the English language.
We have a few investigators, but very few of them are really progressing. Most of the ones that actually seem to have potential are the ones we've only met with once and haven't been able to get in contact with them since. We've been doing a lot of finding... a lot of finding... but no. I'm not in Mexico. Or Brazil... Or anywhere Spanish speaking, so we don't have as many investigators as I would like. And people just aren't progressing very well, even if they do let us visit them. So it is slow going on that front. But hopefully it will pick up soon, we've been fasting and praying for some great progressing investigators, and until then, we'll just work on making them.
As far as transfers go, Sister McDougal and I are both staying. That will make 4 transfers for me. It was a weird moment on Sunday when I realized that all of the people that had been here ForEver had actually been here for a shorter amount of time that I was going to be here. Fortunately, unlike most of those people, I'm still not burned out with the area. I love Vestavia Hills- it is incredible, the people are amazing, the ward is fantastic, it is like a missionary's dreamland. Although :) I guess I'd better figure out what the Lord wants me to do in this area, otherwise I might just spend my whole mission here!
Also, quick shout out to Mom- You are awesome!! Just so you know. The other day I was trying to memorize Matthew 25:31-46. It is the scripture where Christ talks about seperating the Sheep from the goats at the second coming/ judgement, and some will go on his left and some will go on his right. The reason why the sheep are so special is because they fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, visited the sick and visited the imprisoned. Now, I've always taken that scripture with a grain of salt. Lets be honest, how many times do I see people walking around naked, so I have to give them clothing, or how often do people tell me they are thirsty so I give them water. Typically I try to be nice to everyone, pay my fast offerings, donate to some good causes but I don't really feed the hungry, and I certainly DON'T let strangers come and stay in my house. Well, while I was reading the part about, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." I thought of little kids. Seriously, who else is more least than a new born baby- they can't do Anything for themselves, except cry. I thought of Miranda, when she tried to go to church without a whole lot of clothing on, and Wesley who always hated wearing clothes. Next I thought of all of those incredible meals on fast Sunday or how every time we were hungy we would go to Mom (I always hated how I would be babysitting and no one would tell me they were hungry until the moment Mom got home...). Anyways, Thank you Mom for feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked (even when, and perhaps especially when they didn't want to be clothed), allowing all of these random kids into your house before you even knew what type of person they were going to be, and I hope none of us go to prison, but thank you for always being there when we feel trapped. Thank you. :) And apparently all of the good Moms are going to be on the right hand.
Well, I hope everyone has a fantastic week! Enjoy school, work and all of the other awesome activities you are doing.
Love you all!
~Sister Pratt
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