Pizza, Polish and Play

Hey!

Sorry today's email is rather late. We had a Pizza, Polish and Play activity with our Zone. We ate pizza, polished the cars and played a bunch of games. It was tons of fun. :) I really enjoyed running up and down the court, even if I still have NO idea what to do. I just liked getting competitive (esk... we were following the missionary handbook), and running. Its been too long since I've been able to run.

The colors haven't hit us quite yet, but thus far I have really enjoyed the beautiful weather. Cold and rainy- just the way I like it!

Sounds like everyone has been pretty busy! Steven- congrats on your Wolf! Great job to Julia! Sabrina- just so you know, I played soccer today and thought of you. You would have been beet red if you had seen how I played, but I did play it, and I thought of you. Way to go! ;) Somehow I have a hard time imagining Jenessa not flirting... LoL, but I'm glad she has a good head on her shoulders. I'm glad you've been able to help Allison go shopping. LoL- I love H&M, and you should tell her I shop every week at ALDI's (and it has authentic German chocolate...). :) It is amazing the European influence in the randomest places.

:) Congrats to the BYU football team. It always makes me happy when people tell me I have a good football team "out there." Oh! Side note, but I learned why Alabama is so huge into football. :) Apparently after the Civil War, the South was very much in the dumps, and they had lost just about every shred of dignity (You should study the Post-Civil war era... it is really fascinating, and not taught much. People tend to skip from the Civil war to the Great Depression during history classes.), and it was embarrassing to be in the south. Well, one of the first Rose bowls after the Civil War Alabama was scheduled to play I think it was UCLA, and they were supposed to be absolutely slaughtered. It wasn't even supposed to be a game, just an all-out slaughtering. To the surprise of everyone and to the pride of the South, Alabama was the one that did the slaughtering. It was the first real thing of note that they were able to hold onto, and it became a huge deal. So, that is why the South, and Alabama in particular, became so huge on football. :) Fun fact for the day.

This past week Sister McDougal and I did a Ton of finding. Most of our investigators have needed sifting, so we've had a lot of time to just find people. It has been rather interesting talking to so many different people and hearing about their relationship with God. At times it has gotten rather frustrating because it doesn't feel like we are doing anything, but when we went to report numbers we realized that we had 7 new investigators (up from about 3 per week). The Lord really has been good to us this week, and I am so grateful. Hopefully we'll be able to move on with those 7 new investigators and really, honestly bring them closer to Christ.

We also had a great experience the other day, when we went to visit one of our new investigators. The Elders keep telling us about people that just walk up to them and ask them to teach them. While I know there is no competition, it really stinks when you are working the same area and they have investigators literally walk up to them and ask about their religion while you have nothing... well, not quite nothing, but it feels like nothing. But, we were slightly depressed, and slightly jealous. But we kept working, and the other day someone drove up and said, "Hey Sisters! Are you coming to see me!?" We looked at each other, and then yelled, "Yep!" He said he was going to work, but told us to swing by any time. Sunday evening we swung by. His name is Greg, and he was taught a few years ago by Elders in Milwaukee, and he seems golden. 

One of the biggest struggles I've had teaching people is that they don't seem to think. Or else they think, but don't tell us what they think. And I have been struggling trying to figure out how to either ask questions that make them think, or ask questions that help me see what they are thinking. Thus far it is still a work in progress, but one of the first things I noticed about Greg was that he thinks! Oh! He thinks! And it is such an amazing thing!!! It was fantastic reasoning with him, and helping him understand why we believe the way we do, and why it would be reasonable to read the Book of Mormon, and how it could bless his life. It was amazing! The lesson flowed perfectly, he seemed to understand everything that we taught and by the end he even agreed to get baptized (once he knew for himself that the things we taught were true). It was amazing. I am super grateful for the Lord allowing us to have that experience. Times like that just make everything perfect.

Well, I hope you all have a fantastic week! I love you all tons! 

~Sister Pratt