Light in the Darkness

Hey Family!!

How are you doing? How is everything going for you?!? I hope everything is going really well.

These past feel weeks have absolutely stunk. They have stunk hard-core. I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to get through these next few weeks if they are anything like the last few, but hopefully the good old day by day will keep working out for me.

I did have two bright spots in my week. 

First, we had a really neat lesson with an investigator who is dating an Less-Active. We had it at the church building where we did a room to room type plan of salvation lesson. It was really quite cool. At the end we came into the chapel (which was the celestial kingdom) and just invited them to sit. They sat in the choir seats and I played the piano. As I was playing "Teach Me to Walk in the Light," the Spirit was so incredibly strong. I could just feel it- It was there and it was so real. Beautiful. Very much an Emmaus experience watching this little group of God's children sitting in our make-shift celestial kingdom.

Secondly, we were able to contact someone who let us come back and teach him. He was a single male, so we brought the Elders to hand him off, but we had a really awesome lesson. He was just so humble and so full of faith. It was truly a neat experience. He came to church, and that was great. Hopefully the Elders will help him become the next baptism candidate. He has some great potential, and it will bless his life in so many ways. 

Sorry for the short letter... I've been spending so much time on other stuff I don't really have time for much more. Sorry about that! I hope you have a great week, and know I love you bunches!!

Love always,

Sister Pratt

Women's Conference

Hey!!

How is life?!?! How is everything going?

This past week has been kinda crazy. Its been rather rough, but we keep trudging through it.Three good things that happened this week-

#1- Women's Conference- We had an absolutely incredible women's conference. It was amazing. Wendy Ulritch was the guest speaker- she's an LDS psychologist who apparently is also part of the group that wrote the "Adjusting to Missionary Life" handbook. (WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!!!) The conference was about how to be happy, and it was the most refreshing thing ever. Emotionally, spiritually, socially, it was fantastic. Best of all was a lunch we were able to have with her where we talked about some of the emotional difficulties of a mission. Absolutely loved it. Took great notes, so hopefully I'll be able to review them often.

#2- Sister Todd- We had a really neat moment on Friday when we went to go visit a less-active woman. She's more of the type that doesn't come to church because her health is so poor than one who decides not to come to church, but the ward asked us to continue checking up on her. Apparently her daughter recently passed away, and she was having a rather difficult time with it. Almost as soon as we walked in there, I felt impressed to share 3 Nephi 9. It was really neat because I could feel the Spirit so strongly testifying of Jesus Christs' love for her, and how much he cared about her. Afterwards, the Spirit was still really strong, and she offered us dinner we had already had dinner so we declined. Slight mistake, I could see her get really sad. So then I told her how much her testimony had meant to me that evening, and how neat it was to feel her spirit and I just thanked her for everything she had done for me that evening. It was really neat because I was able to see a huge light go on in her eyes, she felt so good after that. Sometimes serving other people really is as simple as allowing them to serve us.

#3- Exchanges- I was able to go on exchanges with Sister Schwendiman, one of my favorite sisters ever. She's the person I might room with next semester. We had a great time talking and preaching the gospel together. I absolutely love talking to her. It just makes the world feel awesome. Seriously, good friendships. Nothing can replace them. 

I'm trying so hard to keep pushing valiantly to the end. Weeks like this week and the past week make it SUPER hard to keep pushing. When we're at Wal-mart at 8:00 for the 5th day in a row trying to find someone to teach, I can't even begin to explain how difficult it is not to think, "Just 4 more weeks of this and I'll be done." Hopefully things will begin to pick up soon. I don't know what exactly the Lord has planned for this next little bit, but I certainly hope it will be good.

I love you all!! Hope you have a great week!

Love always,

Sister Pratt

Leaving Cullman

How is it going? How is life? I hope your life is going well. I think of all of you often, and I love you bunches.

Well, here I am at the start of my last transfer and I hardly know what to feel. Or think. I know what to do- I've spent my entire mission learning what to do, so I keep doing that . Fortunately I still don't feel like I'm on the downhill slope, so I have the energy to keep going. 

This past week has been rather interesting. In some ways it would rank among the  hardest weeks I've had on my mission, but we've also had a lot of really neat experiences. Please just put the Emmaus Experiences (in italics) on the blog. 

Leaving Cullman was very difficult. I have come to love the people in that area so much, and I absolutely adored Sister Harris. I knew it was coming, the Spirit warned me about a week beforehand, but it was still very difficult.

Transfer meeting was a roller coaster. Right when we pulled up I saw Rick and Jody- a couple from Monte Sano. It was so absolutely incredible. Jody still has light shooting out of her eyes. She looks very good. She still looks just as clean and pure and light as when she was baptized. It was one of those neat moments when I really connected with Ammon. I wasn't quite to the fainting point, but I was pretty close. It just made me so happy.

Coming into Weatherly has been really difficult. There are so many parallels to Monte Sano, and Monte Sano was not really my favorite area. Fortunately I really like my companion, we connect really well and have a pretty good time. So that is one major difference that I'm very grateful for. Unfortunately the weather, lack of investigators and general feeling of the missionaries is exactly the same. And we bike everywhere.

But, as I said, the Lord has really been helping us out. We've been fasting and praying a lot to increase our teaching pool. On Sunday the Elders handed a new investigator off to us. She came to church- she hadn't had a single lesson, just received a pamphlet on the Plan of Salvation, I couldn't introduce her to anyone since I didn't know anyone and it was fast and testimony meeting. TOTAL recipe for disaster!!! Miraculously nearly everyone that shared their testimony focused it on the Savior. Very few people mentioned Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon (both of which we had not taught her). Then in Relief Society, after we were able to briefly explain the Book of Mormon, the ENTIRE lesson was on the Book of Mormon from Preach My Gospel!!! It was absolutely amazing. Pure miracle. Afterwards she asked if she could come to a relief society activity, set up a return appointment and she had a whole bunch of ward members exchange phone numbers with her. It was absolutely fantastic. She is super sweet. We have high hopes, please pray for her!

So, its been up and down. I am SO grateful that today is P-Day. I needed that rest.

Thanks for all you do! I hope you have a great day. 

Love always,

Sister Pratt

Sister Stafford

Dear Family,

I cannot even Begin to tell you how crazy this week has been. It has been absolutely insane.

Monday- We had a Zone activity and then went contacting at Walmart. Met a crazy Church of Christ lady and a preacher's wife. Oddly enough those two took the steam out of our sails... :P Is it bad that I have a definite hierarchy for which denominations I would rather not run into? 

Tuesday- As a mission we set a goal for 500 baptisms by the end of the year. :) That means that we will have to have 2 baptisms per companionship. Sunday they had a conference call that talked about how we needed to sacrifice in order to make this goal. We decided that on Tuesday we would fast and then we would make the sacrifice of keeping our apartment clean. And WOW. Let me tell you. It has been absolutely incredible. Keeping the apartment clean has been really neat. I can't even begin to tell you how much stronger the Spirit is in the apartment as we've been keeping it clean. It just feels so much better. Fasting was also neat. Typically when I fast I feel rather grouchy, drained of energy and can't wait for it to end. On Tuesday the Lord truly enabled us. We were biking all day long, and I didn't ever feel hungry or weak. Rather, I felt as if I was truly going around crying repentance. Nothing incredible happened, but I was super bold and I felt a connection with Alma and Amulek. We were crying repentance and it felt good. 

Wednesday- We had our last district meeting. It was crazy. But I've enjoyed this district. We also had exchanges. I had my last opportunity to be with Sister McDougal in this life. I hope she enjoyed every moment of it. I certainly did. She's such an incredible missionary, and she's helped me out so much. I also received a blessing, which was neat. It mostly encouraged me to keep going strong, confirmed the impression that I was going to be transferred and blessed me to see challenges as opportunities. We also took Brother Flemming (our Ward Mission Leader) to give Megan a blessing. She's been coughing up blood... which isn't really good. She said it was strange but she felt peaceful. I hope she's able to get feeling better. We haven't been able to see her since because she went to the hospital, but I hope she's able to feel the power of that blessing protecting her as she goes through this experience. She really needs to get baptized. Really badly.

Thursday- We ended our exchanges and got to work. We honestly just had an incredible day. I still have no idea how it happened, but somehow we ended up with 6 new investigators at the end of the day!! Normally we are lucky to get that many in a WEEK! It was crazy!!! :) But we were grateful. 

Also, had a neat experience with Sister Stafford. Missionaries in Alabama have the tendency to smell awful- we really smell bad. Everyone around here smokes, and YES, everyone smokes around us, and even blows the smoke in our faces as we are trying to teach the gospel. Even our prime investigators smoke as we talk to them!! It is SUPER obnoxious!!! Well, the zone leaders and Elder Riding came down to the baptism for Sister Stafford. As we were talking I kept smelling super strong cigarette smoke, and it was gross. It was awful. I was super confused because everyone there was a member, and I was pretty sure that no one there even lived with someone that smoked, so I was super confused as to why I kept smelling smoke. After the baptism the elders mentioned that right before they had come to the baptism they had dropped by someone's house and it was filled with smoke. Made sense. They felt horribly uncomfortable, but it was fun to laugh at the missionaries being the cause of the smoke smell!

Well on Thursday we went down to Sister Stafford's and she said, "girls, you are not going to believe this, but after my baptism I smelled cigarette smoke." Turns out her grandfather, who practically raised her, was a big smoker and he smoked a particular brand of cigarettes. As she walked into the room after her baptism she smelled that exact smell and knew that her grandfather was there at the baptism. At first I just didn't have the heart to tell her it was just the missionaries, but then as I started thinking about it, I realized that of course it would be the missionaries!! If the Lord wanted to send her a message that this baptism was not only important to her, but that it would also affect many many generations and that those generations were proud of her, particularly that her grandfather was there and was proud of her, he would use his authorized messengers. In this case the missionaries. Usually it happens with words, this time the Lord knew a smell would be much more poignant. So He used the missionaries. It just gave me a whole new appreciation for the little ways the Lord uses us as his tools. Even by their smell! (and even by something that we often hate about missionary work.) It brought a whole wave of gratitude for the Lord and that He chooses to use us. Us!! And He works through everything. It is so incredible. After we left that appointment we called the Elders and shared that experience. As I shared it was neat to just sit in the Spirit as it testified of the reality of that experience. It was a neat Emmaus experience.

Friday- We went with Lauren (a 19 year old ward member) down to Hanceville and had a crazy time. But because everything fell through we went tracting. Well, I'm grateful we did! We knocked on this one door and asked if we could share a message about Jesus Christ. The lady said, "yes, my kids need it." Wow- we NEVER get that while tracting. Actually, I'm pretty sure we both thought she was kidding for a min. After we walked in and started talking, we realized she was serious. Sister Harris and I started out by sharing very personal stories about when we came to know Christ- the Spirit in the room was SO strong it was palpable. We then moved into talking about her experiences with the Bible, and she basically described when she felt the Spirit as she was reading the Bible. Next we talked about the Book of Mormon and how she can feel the Spirit through it. We watched the Mormon Message, "Hope of God's Light" (REALLY good one, I would HIGHLY reccommend it- brings the Spirit like crazy!!!) and finally we ended by inviting them to be baptized. It was Stunning!! We were TOTALLY NOT expecting that!! But it happened!! It actually happened!! I was dumbfounded. The Lord is amazing. 

Saturday- Due to some crazy random circumstances, Sister Stafford was confirmed today. We did learn that Satan is a pain and it is not a good idea to wait a week for confirmation. (I never thought that was a good idea, but everyone said it would be fine, and I've heard of it being done before... but Satan makes life a pain, therefore it is a bad idea to wait. They need the armor right away!!) It was a beautiful confirmation. Once again I was reminded just how much the Savior loves her. He is so loving and SO patient and so caring with her. Every time I visit her I am reminded of that fact. The Lord has also enabled me to be more loving and caring than I thought possible as I've been working with her. There have been times when I walk in and the Lord completely changes my entire demeanor from a frustrated human to a very loving, firm and patient representative of Christ. During those times I KNOW it is not me working. And I am grateful He is so patient with me as I strive to be the missionary I ought to be.   

Received transfer calls. The Spirit told me about a week ago, but, yes, I am being transferred. Instantly turned the front room into a mess. (so much for the great Spirit we felt while it was clean...) But its been good to be here. I love it a ton, I'll miss it a ton, but I knew it was time. Please pray for Sister Harris. I mean, she's had me for a trainer- She could use all the help she can get on the follow up training!!! ;) And just because I want her to have an incredible transfer here in Cullman.

Sunday- I'm pretty sure after the crazy emotions of the past week I am pretty sure I had absolutely no emotions left. I went through church in a daze trying to say goodbye to the people that have meant so much to me, but not really feeling much of it. :) Oddly enough the talks were all on facing the future with faith, being grateful even when things come to an end and we face adversity, and noting that by small things the Lord brings about the salvation of many souls. Perfect topics for the start of a new transfer.

Monday- Today we went hiking. :) It was quite a bit of fun. It was really a little more like a leaf encrusted walking trail, but most of Alabama hiking is like that. :) It was neat because there was fog this morning, the leaves were turning, and it was just beautiful. I love Alabama in the fall.

Also... Katie is engaged now. :) I'm super happy for her. :) She is marrying an incredible young man and they are going to be the perfect couple. But it is still super weird that she's engaged already. Fortunately she's getting married on the 20th of December. Before she left I tried to make her promise she would wait until I got home before she got married... she wouldn't ever promise, but I'm glad she's decided to have it 10 days after I go home. :) She'll be such a perfect wife.

And I think that's it for my crazy week. It has been insane. Probably the craziest week of my mission. But its been a good one! Steadfast all the way!

Love always,

Sister Pratt

Our Tornado... sorta... :)

Whew!!! What a week! On the one hand we've had a very rough week, appointments canceled, people running away every time we try to contact them, driving a bunch of miles, feeling like heaven was super far away, the whole nine yards. On the other hand, we had a baptism, it actually went through and it was one of the most spiritual baptisms I've been at. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that we had so much opposition. Nonetheless, I am grateful to have this week over with, and hopefully this next week we'll be able to have her husband's baptism without so much opposition.

The baptism was a rather incredible experience. Its amazing how quickly conversion can happen. Last week on Friday we went to visit her, and the lesson was a complete disaster. She wasn't interested in anything we had to say, she wasn't repentant at all-  wanted to be baptized, but it seemed to be for all the wrong reasons. To top it off she didn't come to church that week and we couldn't get a hold of her until Thursday. I was not confident that she was actually going to be ready for  her baptism.

On Thursday we finally were able to set up an appointment with her, and I prayed desperately for wisdom beyond my capacity to know if she would be ready or not. When we got there, the Spirit was so incredibly strong. As we talked, it was very apparent that something had changed. She told us about some talks she had with her daughter (who is an active member) and son in law, where they talked about how she didn't actually have the Spirit with her. At that point I think she realized that something was actually missing. Once she was able to admit to herself that she didn't have something, then she opened herself up to Christ and He was able to fill that gap. She was able to be converted. It was a neat process to watch.

We had her baptism on Sunday, and it was a great experience. Her confirmation will take place next Sunday because of Stake Conference. Hopefully it will be just as neat.

We also had a CRAZY bit of wind on Monday. It was absolutely COMPLETELY CRAZY!! Wind speeds were 60-70 mph, and they blew over quite a few trees. I woke up that morning at 5:42 thinking there was a tornado, turns out it was just a train. :) But it gave Sister Harris and I a good bit to laugh about.

Well, we've got a crazy p-day planned and I have yet to send my email to President. We might come back, in which case I might add onto my letter, but for now, I bid the aideu!!

Love always,

Sister Pratt

Exchanges and Oktoberfest

Hey!

How are you all doing? How is life? I'm glad Sabrina survived homecoming. :) I'm also glad Jenessa survived it as well. I can't tell you both how happy I am that I'll be there for Prom. Then I'll actually be able to see you. Sabrina's pictures were absolutely adorable. I loved them.

This has been a kinda crazy week. Okay, its been a super crazy week. On Thursday we had interviews and we watched Meet the Mormons. I enjoyed Meet the Mormons. To anyone that hasn't seen it, I would highly recommend it. The beginning is very funny. :) I think my favorite part is when they are talking about drinking. The part with the Candy bomber made me cry. The guy from Nepal made me want to quit my day job and go to Nepal. Unfortunately I don't really have a day job at the moment, so I haven't been able to figure out how to quit it. The part about the missionary mom was FANTASTIC. It was absolutely fantastic. Validated just about everything we do as missionaries. I also liked the bishop one because he goes to Alabama. Take a good look at his sister's house. Totally looks like the ones in Birmingham. :) Good movie. Highly recommend it to anyone that wants to learn more about our faith. Not really a tool to bring people closer to Christ per se, but certainly a great introduction to the whole "mormons are normal people" idea.

That evening we went on exchanges in Madison. It was an absolutely incredible exchange. We worked hard all day and went to a Relief Society activity during the evening. Sister Brunner and I got into a water fight at the end of the evening. It was great until we noticed the other sisters sitting on the porch watching us. :) That was a bit awkward. Then we went inside, and the lights wouldn't turn on and we suddenly heard this wild growl. We screamed and bolted out the door. Just as I flew out I registered the faces of our zone leaders! :P In our bolting, we also bolted over to the car to get water bottles. We made sure they were plenty soaked by the time they left. 

Friday we had district meeting and then we continued the exchange, but went to Cullman. I got to be with Sister McDougal this time, and it was absolutely incredible. She is such an amazing person. I can't believe how lucky I am to know her. I love her so much. It was nice because I think we both realized we are going to be friends for a lot longer than just the duration of our mission. 

Saturday Sister Harris and I were finally together again, and we went contacting in the Oktober fest festivities. Had a great time looking at quilts and goats in strollers and gourds and all sorts of random stuff. Sunday it absolutely POURED- complete, total dumping all over Cullman. I swear I've never seen so much rain in my life. Or Thunder or lightening. It was absolutely crazy. The lightening nearly blinded me several times, and the thunder shook me several times. It was SO close and SO powerful. Tonight we are supposed to have the same storms... so we're going to try to get some proselyting done during the day so we can be inside when it gets to be a little on the dangerous side.

But if you could pray for us, that would be great!! I love you bunches. :) You are amazing. I am so grateful for everything you do to support me. Honestly, at the end of the day, no matter what happens on my mission I always know that my family loves me. And that is a great comfort. Especially when not everybody does. Thank you so much.

I love you bunches.

Love always,

Sister Pratt

General Conference

Hey Everyone!!

What a week! What a week! Its been up, and its been down. The investigators have been down. None of them have been progressing despite some rather bold lessons. The ups have been the Lord. Fortunately He doesn't judge me on other people's agency, and despite my imperfections He has been very loving and very generous. The tender mercies of the Lord are real, and they often come to me in the form of personal revelation. General Conference was one of those moments. It was absolutely incredible.

This week we worked ourselves to pieces trying to get our investigators to come to General Conference. I was practically on my knees pleading with a few of them to come. But none of them would commit. None of them!! It was rather frustrating, but we continued pleading with the Lord. (He's MUCH more reliable than many of our investigators...) Well, in answer to our prayers one of the ward members who was planning on hosting an investigator called and mentioned a young woman we'd done service with. We hadn't even taught her the first lesson or talked much about religion, mostly just served with her, but we asked and Viola! she accepted. It was absolutely incredible. She came for Sunday morning and it was great! I am so grateful for ward members that are in tune with the Spirit to direct us in places we weren't even looking. It was total inspiration. 

Conference was absolutely incredible. Absolutely incredible. With the exception of the session when we had Caitlyn, every single talk answered a question or concern that I had written down. Recently I have felt the Lord working with me so closely and so powerfully. It has been an absolutely incredible experience. During conference I received a lot of direct revelation and my prayers have been the same way. I just feel so much power suddenly- not my power, but the power of the Lord. Its amazing.

Highlight of my week- I received a letter from Andy telling my his 1 year mark was coming up and he was preparing to receive the Priesthood and go through the temple. I'm pretty sure that one moment made my entire mission worth it.

In General Conference Elder Scott said that family home evening is a time to share our testimonies in a safe environment. Since I can't be near you, but I know you read these in family home evening, I wanted to share my testimony. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. He is our friend and He is our King. His invitation to follow him is an invitation to become the best we can become. Because of him we can live together. Because of him we can change, we can leave the "same old, same old" ruts of life. He has made the way possible. The Book of Mormon testifies of Jesus Christ and His role in our salvation. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. With it comes great power and happiness. Read it, read it on your own and pray about it. I know that the Lord will bless you and help you in ever aspect of your life as you read and pray about the Book of Mormon. I know that God is an active part of our lives. He watches over us and he cares for us. He is with us, and if we will let him, He will be a part of us. Read the Book of Mormon, come to unto Christ and get to know your Father in Heaven. These things are the most important. They bring peace, they bring power and they bring salvation. I know them to be true.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I love you all bunches.

Love always,

Sister Pratt

Right on the Edge!!!

Hey Family!

How is life going? How are you all doing?

Life in Cullman is pretty fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. Training has been absolutely incredible. I seriously love training so much- I know I'm probably the first missionary in the history of the world to say this, but it is SO much less stressful than being a regular missionary. Sister Harris is amazing. She is the youngest of 7, most of them being girls, so I kinda feel like I'm training Steven. Haha- offers a really new perspective on things. 

This week has been pretty fantastic. We have SO many investigators that are RIGHT on the edge of progressing. SO many of them!!! Unfortunately, for various reasons they are just not quite progressing. Is there any chance you could pray that they would start progressing and allow themselves to dive into a font? They really need to start doing that. 

This week we did have an investigator nearly dive into the font. It was really cool actually. One night we had everything fall through, so we decided to go see one of our potential investigators where she works. We've seen her off and on a few times. We gave her a Family Proclamation and talked about families (mostly husband advice because she just got married...), but nothing too in-depth. Well, on Thursday when we had everything fall through, we decided to go see her. She was working with another coworker, and she started talking about the Proclamation, and Boom! Suddenly we found ourselves in the middle of a really intense, really good restoration lesson. It was amazing. Absolutely amazing. :) We even got her to pray out loud at the end of the lesson (It was really kind of funny because she was super scared and super embarrassed, so she sent my companion away and whispered her prayer. But it was a really good, really sweet prayer. The Spirit was so strong). 

Well, the next day we received a text from her saying that we should come in again. At first I was kind of leery because I was worried that she might have said that because she was bored, not because she really wanted the spiritual nourishment. Fortunately the Lord knew her heart, and canceled all of our plans again. (I'm starting to think that is His favorite way of getting a hold of me...) Turns out that that night she went home and told her husband all about everything she learned. And she was super excited to hear more. As we were talking, a woman came up to check out. As usual I asked if she knew anyone that would be interested in our message or would like some service. She basically said, "Sorry, I don't know anyone. You're going to have a really tough time converting anyone in Cullman county because the people are really close minded and you are a Mormon. I'm a Catholic and people misjudge me all the time."  Not really helpful... but we rolled with it. Long story short, the topic of baptism came up and our sweet investigator, who had never been baptized, asked if she was going to Hell. (Seriously, this poor girl has been told by SO many people that she is going to Hell. Personally I don't find that as the most effective method to win friends and influence people, but apparently I'm one of the few.) Well... this lady didn't really say she was going to Hell... but didn't make her feel stellar about not being baptized and having a church to go to. Kinda felt nasty. Afterwards, though another series of miracles (including making a lesson with our mexican go short- which is a near impossibility) we were able to call her and explain that God loves her, No, she was not going to Hell, but that baptism is really important, and although she doesn't have a church, we would love to help her through the baptismal process and that she would become a member of not just any church but the church of Jesus Christ. It was an absolutely incredible experience. The Spirit was SO strong. So strong. It was an incredible experience.

So- challenge for the day. Don't tell anyone they are going to Hell- you make them feel nasty. Do explain true, pure doctrine in a loving uplifting manner. Works better every time.

That's about all I have time for! But I hope you all have a great week! I love you all so much!!

Love always,

Sister Pratt

~Steadfast in Christ

Pictures:

1 & 4-5: The Fair came to town!! Super exciting (apparently... the kids actually have today off of school so they can go to the fair.) Picture #1 was the biggest pumpkin, and it was 1,096 lbs I believe. You can check the picture to make sure I'm right, but it was HUGE!!! I also took a picture of the watermelons and the pumpkins and the cotton. I thought they were pretty cool and pretty descriptive of Cullman.

2- Oktober fest is coming up!! Haha- should be rather interesting. This town is very German, so oktober fest is a really big deal. These are giant hay bales in the park near our home dressed up in German attire. Today they have spray painted faces, but we took our pictures a little too early.

The funniest part of this whole celebration is going to be a huge clash of cultures- the HUGE church culture that kept this county dry until just a few years ago, and the culture that says that beer is a huge part of the Oktober fest celebrations. So... we'll see how it goes. :) I'm kinda hoping the church culture wins out a bit more.

3- I made my first ever Danish Dessert. It was quite the occasion. I sincerely hope I did not disappoint my ancestors too terribly in the creation of this dish, but since we didn't have wax paper, a 9x13 pan, adequate strawberries or a mixer, I am grateful none of y'all were there. Fortunately since nothing with that much sugar, cream cheese and cool whip can taste too bad, everyone seemed to appreciate it.

Training :) And the Park in the Dark

Hey!!

This week has been an absolutely InSaNe week! Probably one of the craziest weeks of my mission, seriously!

Training is kinda crazy, not in the way I expected exactly (doing it all yourself, or having her say awkward things, or weird moments), but more that Sister Harris and I keep having really weird moments. Like the moment that we were supposed to be doing twelve week (the program they have new missionaries and their trainers do every morning for the first twelve weeks), and a member calls and begs us to go to a relief society activity because no one showed up. I really wasn't too pleased about missing the VERY FIRST DAY of Twelve week (President REALLY focused on that in the trainers meeting), but we're now certified in CPR. And so are the Elders. :)

So, another crazy experience of this week. Dad, do you remember how you always told us about that crazy moment right before you and mom were going to get married and one of our great-aunts grabbed both of your hands and started praying for you and it was super awkward? Yeah... that totally happened to us this week. Actually last night. Oh boy! It was crazy.

We were walking in the park, trying to find people to talk to, and a small group of people shouted out, "Hey! Do you know Jesus?" That really wasn't  terribly difficult question for us to answer, but the weird part was the weird spirit that came with it... It was really not the spirit I am used to. They started testifying to us, and we started testifying to them, and before I knew it they were praying over us, and doing some of the weirdest chanting. It was weird!!! Like Mega weird. In my mind I was like "Shoot. Heavenly Father, I don't know what's going on here. This is weird. Please protect us from anything bad. I don't know how to get out of here. Shoot! How do we get out of here? Please protect my poor greenie! Oh this is not what I expected." Then, suddenly the guy started "prophesying" about "daddy issues" and talking about how one of us has a dad that abandoned us, and my companion started crying, and I was freaking out going "No! This is not real! Its not true, Its not real. I don't know how they know about anything from your past, but it isn't the Spirit!! PLEASE don't believe anything they said. Augh! Please end this quickly! Please help us get out of here!!!" I'm pretty sure everyone that was "praying" over us could see my stone face because they then asked if I had anything that needed praying over, and I said I was good. They then told us that Jesus loves us and is proud of what we were doing, and then we separated.

Ohh!! I was SO terrified of what my companion was thinking!! In my mind I was still freaking out, thinking of things to say, and suddenly she burst out laughing. She just laughed and laughed and laughed for a good 5 min. Oh, that was the best laugh I've ever heard! Turns out she hadn't been crying, she had just been trying really hard not to laugh. And oh! It actually was quite hilarious. They were just sitting there chanting "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus" over and over again, prophesying over things that couldn't be further from the truth, and calling it spiritual. Yeah... :) Other religions. SO grateful to be a Mormon! Honestly.

When you try to think over things intellectually, they often get kinda confusing, and it is hard to see why our church has anything over any other good Christian church. But Paul really knew what he was talking about when he said, "Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

 14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corintians 2:13-14). With our own logic, we cannot explain nor understand our church. It is by the fruits of the Spirit

that we know the church is true. There really is a specific spirit that comes with our church, just as with any thing else. Its hard to appreciate that feeling when you've grown up with it, but it really is there, and it really is true. We can say what we say and do what we do because of the feeling we have. It isn't through any way that is appreciated by man, but it is because we have felt the Spirit speak to us, Spirit to Spirit. And coming to discern and trust that Spirit is SO important. 

  Now, lest you think I spent my entire week hanging around crazies, Sister Harris and I had two absolutely fantastic lessons this week. Her first day here was kinda crazy. We spent pretty much all day trying to take a member to appointments that kept falling through. But for our last appointment, we were finally alone (which was good because its kinda hard to train when you have members there... mostly because members also have to be trained, but trained in a different way...). There was this lady we had tracted into, prayed with and she accepted a return appointment. This was the return appointment. It was an absolutely incredible lesson, absolutely incredible!!  It was one of those lessons where EVERYTHING went right; Sister Harris contributed a fair amount, the lady asked a bunch of good questions, and we even left a pretty clear baptismal invite. The coolest moment of the lesson came when she was praying. We were using a praying tool from zone conference, and suddenly she went off of the things she had written and started thanking the Lord for us being there, asking to know if she should stay with the Baptist church or go to the Mormon church, and asking for help as she read the Book of Mormon. It was the coolest prayer ever!! Afterwards we were walking away (about 20ft off the ground), and Sister Harris turned to me and said, "Is this what it always feels like?" It was one of the sweetest moments of my life. So sweet. 

Its been a good week. :) We've had a lot of great moments. A lot of great spiritual moments. I hope it continues.

Thanks so much for all you do! Hope you all have a great week! I miss you all bunches and think of you often!

Elder Zwick

Dear Family!

Hey! How are you all doing!?!?!?!

This week has been really quite amazing. Really amazing. We had Elder Zwick come to our mission on Tuesday. The conference was absolutely incredible. Elder Zwick talked about the new technology, faith, and Preach My Gospel. President Hanks talked about progression, which was an incredibly interesting topic, I absolutely loved it. Sister Hanks talked about Faith and Sister Zwick talked about where our hearts were. Many good spirit filled messages.

In our investigator news there is one lady that we have been teaching for a while now. She is absolutely incredible. On Thursday we were finally able to do a church tour with us. It was so incredibly powerful. She asked a lot of good questions, and seemed very satisfied by our answers. She even pointed out the Spirit that she felt in the church several times. At the end we prayed (in the pouring rain), and she asked us to pray for her that she would be at church on Sunday. We didn't mention that we usually pray for her, but we took that as a huge sign that her faith and desire is growing. She did not actually end up coming to church. :P And neither did three of our other investigators. Which was super disappointing. Fortunately, they have next week. But hopefully they won't put off feeling the Spirit and receiving those blessings again. They really are just too incredible.

Finally, we received transfer information. Sister Williams is leaving me- off to new adventures. I will be staying in Cullman and training a new sister. I am SUPER excited about that. Should be a great transfer. But I could certainly use a LOT of prayers.

Thanks so much for everything you do! I love you all so much!!!

Love always,

Sister Pratt

~Steadfast in Christ

Addendum - Sept 17, 2014

Hey!!

My new companion is Sister Harris. She is from Yuma Arizona. She seems super awesome and I'm pretty excited to be with her!!

Prayers would be awesome.

Love always,

Sister Pratt

~Steadfast in Christ

Mini MTC and Powerful Lessons

Hey!

How have y'all been?  Mom- THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGE!!! Seriously, that made my day. :) I walked around all day saying, "Guess what?!?!" "What?" "I have new cami's!" They are the best cami's ever. I absolutely love them. And my laundry no longer smells like mildew. It is a complete miracle. And has made my day smell MUCH better. :) Thank you mom. I absolutely love you.

Glad to hear that the festival went well. :) Glad to hear that soccer season is going well. Good luck with homecoming Jenessa!! What is the theme this year? I would absolutely LOVE pictures. :) I always do. I hope everything at home continues to go well.

This week has been pretty fantastic. We didn't have a whole lot of lessons, but every single one of our lessons seemed to be incredibly powerful. One lesson in particular was very powerful to me. One of our fairly recent investigators, started talking to us about how she felt guilty for some of her past, and how she also felt very held back because of some things that had happened to her. We said a prayer, started in on "How To Begin Teaching" and the Spirit rushed in. We spent the rest of the lesson talking about the Atonement and how to access it. It was absolutely amazing. I loved seeing how true that scripture in Doctrine and Covenants is, "Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men." It was totally true! I have done a lot of studying about the Atonement, really hoping that someone could benefit from it, and a lot of people have, but not really directly. They've benefited because I can teach that section in Plan of Salvation better, or I understand why other aspects of the gospel are important, but this was by far the most powerful moment I've had teaching about the Atonement- and that's the center of all we do!! Because of the things I've been blessed to study, although my understanding of everything is still very elementary and incomplete, the Spirit was able to arrange my words and Sister Williams' words in such a way that they made sense and touched her. It was just a really neat lesson. I loved teaching someone who was really looking for that light.

It was also a good week because our investigators all suddenly decided to start keeping their commitments and we were able to get three people to accept baptismal dates (including Brenda). Miracles happen.

Oh! And the Preach My Gospel/ Mini MTC was absolutely INCREDIBLE!!! It was amazing. It was really neat because the Spirit has been super strong throughout the entire process. The morning of the class, I was studying about Christ in the Americas. As I studied, I realized that most of the barriers that stop us from effective member missionary work come because we are not teaching quite the way the Savior taught. Christ was very prayerful, he talked to everyone (from the woman at the well to the man at the pool of Bethesda), everyone could feel his love, he answered questions clearly, he wasn't forceful but he was honest, ect. I wish I had the rest of the notes from my studies, but they were absolutely incredible. Most of my studies this week have actually been pretty amazing. But! Back on point. It was neat- for the first time on my mission, I learned SO much studying for that class. Because of time, I was only able to share a small portion of what I learned, but I felt the part I did share was inspired.

We had quite a few ward members show up, and some of them were people that aren't typically involved in missionary work. Sister Williams talked about having a desire to do missionary work, and the Spirit was SO strong during her lesson. Her lesson was the most spiritually powerful segment. Elder Arrington talked about the importance of member missionary work, and his was certainly the most intellectual. Mine was about teaching like the Savior would. I also included the following video: https://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening/members-and-missionaries?lang=eng. Mine was probably the most technically correct presentation. And we ended with Elder Riding who shared his testimony and issued a challenge for each member to bear their testimony with a non-member or less-active. His was certainly the wisest. It was absolutely fantastic. I was in awe of the incredible missionaries I get to serve with and the incredible ward I get to serve in. Seriously, the Cullman ward is AMAZING. On Wednesday we find out if they kept the commitments they made. Afterwards we ended up staying after talking with a member of the bishopric on how it went, and we left with a pretty sturdy analysis of the evening. My analytical side was having a blast. Seriously!! All of my companions think I'm crazy because I analyze every lesson we do, but apparently that is a very real thing that they do in the business world.

Also I went on a ridiculously awesome exchange with Sister Millard. She is just so amazing, I love her. This transfer I have been so grateful for the incredible missionaries I've had the opportunity to get to know. Its been amazing. We have seriously had the best district EVER. EVER. EVER. It has been absolutely amazing, and when transfer calls come this Saturday I am going to be terribly sad.

Over all it has been a great transfer. This transfer has absolutely FLOWN by. I have no idea where it went. As I've been going through it, life has been rather difficult and I don't feel like I'm doing anything or making any progress, but then I sit down to do these emails and I realize just how greatly the Lord has blessed me. I really have learned so much!! And experienced SO much!!

It was amazing. Tomorrow we have Elder Zwick coming to the mission. I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully we'll be able to learn a bunch of really cool stuff and have a great experience. Then on Saturday we have transfer calls. Where that came from, I have NO idea!! But alas, I suppose they must come. I hope you have a great week. I really hope you have a great week.

I love y'all!!

Love always,

Sister Pratt

~Steadfast in Christ

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng

Just because its good. 

This morning we went to the Ave Maria Grotto. This monk for the Catholic church made a bunch of mini replicas out of stones and shells and stuff like that. It was REALLY cool, and REALLY huge!! More than 200 different figurines. The most impressive exhibits were of ancient Jerusalem and Rome.

Becoming MORE Righteous

Hey all y'all!! 

How are things going? :) I hope they're going pretty well. I hope the storytelling festival was absolutely incredible. Sounds like everyone had a pretty good time. And I'm glad everyone is still alive. And Mom- you always do a beautiful job of telling stories. :) I always love your stories. Although, I don't remember the one about the green chevy or the blue chevy... You'll have to fill me in on those. But I do love your Rapunzel story. Haha. You always add a good flavor to those.

Sorry about my lack of letter this past week, I sent you a longer one snail mail style, although it probably won't get to you for another few days. It was a pretty crazy Monday!! Oh the joys of missionary life!

This week was a pretty good week. 

We had an awesome experience. We were talking to a lady and her son pulled up. He started talking to us, and Oh boy! He is GOLDEN!!! He just started asking questions, and they were all amazing questions. It was absolutely incredible. I absolutely love it when I come across people with questions. Questions we can answer, or at the very least give you the tools to answer them. Stupidity we can't do anything about.

The Mini-MTC class starts on Wednesday, and I am SUPER excited about it. I'll let you know how it goes. Prayers would be VERY much appreciated!

So... Two spiritual thoughts for this week:

1) I've been reading in the Book of Mormon where Christ comes to the Americas, and I have been absolutely loving it. If you would really like a clear cut sermon on the Atonement of Christ, read the 1-2 chapters before Christ actually comes. I've been learning SO much, and loving SO much- most of it stuff that I didn't really notice before. 

It was interesting to me how Christ is calling those who are "more righteous" to repentance. I think that's something that the people in the South don't really understand. God doesn't call us to repentance because we are horrible wicked sinners. He calls us to repentance because he wants us to come closer to Him. No matter where you are in your spiritual journey, you can always progress. I also love how much Christ talks about healing. Healing comes through the Atonement of Christ. Healing also comes as we become converted and apply the Atonement. As we are converted, we are healed from the mistakes we've made, and also the mistakes that others make. So, no matter who you are, if you need healing (and I'd wager a guess we all need healing from some wound or another), you can come unto Christ to be converted and healed. Even if you are one of the "more righteous," coming unto Christ and being healed by him is a constant process, and so is conversion. It is incredible. Read 3 Nephi 10 and think about how you can better apply the Atonement to your life. It will change your life. It is amazing.

2) I absolutely love this new mormon message video. http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=3701964025001

I how you can see the small, incremental changes that happen over the course of this man's life. They were just small things, like hearing how to fast, talking to a friend, going to a picnic. God gives us so many little events in our life that lead us to him. Just like he said, it IS part of our human condition to feel like we are surrounded by darkness at times. Remember, the fog in Lehi's dream surrounded the rod- it didn't shy away from those who were diligently working towards the tree. Sometimes we will feel confused, or have a difficult time. The important thing is pushing forward with what light we DO have. You have been given the light of the restored gospel. That doesn't mean that you've been given the instant solutions to all of life's problems, but I do know that because of it, you will feel the light of God's love. He IS directing you. He IS guiding you. You just have to keep trusting in him and following the light you have been given. God will take care of you. (For additional study, read 3 Nephi 10- after three days of darkness, the people are prepared to receive "great favors shown unto them." Actually, I would just LOVE to do a Book of Mormon study on light and darkness. The symbolism is just so incredible.)

Anyway, that is my week. I hope you all have a great week!! You are amazing. I love you all so much. 

~Steadfast in Christ

p.s. A Southern Halloween. .. :) Nothing says Trick-or-Treat like a singing, banjo playing skeleton.

Pictures

Hey!!

Today we've had a CRAZY morning! It was absolutely crazy. I might have to send a super short email and then send a much longer letter because the library might close soon. Sorry about that. Haha- I'll explain why in a bit.

But for now I'm going to send pictures with a brief summary. I hope that'll suffice, and give you a taste for the letter that is coming. :)

*Sign we found in Hobby Lobby- President is always telling us to be one of the STP (same ten people)

*Chair at a Mexican restaurant. It was SO COOL!!! The art work was CRAZY.

*Pumpkin contest at Farm Y'all (one of the MANY community celebrations Cullman has had since I came). These pumpkins were HUGE!!! I also have to tell you about the Farmer's Market experience at Farm Y'all... There is also a picture of the pumpkin smashing. They took the largest pumpkin from the contest, hoisted it up by a crane, and let it drop. It was SO cool!!!

~Steadfast in Christ

Mario's Party and Other Beautifulness

Hey!!

How is everyone doing!??!?! How are school preperations going? Hope everything is going well. :D Agh! I can't believe Jenessa is a Senior!!! Or that Julia is going into Jr. High. Sabrina looks So gorgeous in the picture, and I'm sure the boys are growing up just as quickly. I can't believe it. :) I love seeing you.

This week has been a pretty good week.

Monday- Monday was an absolutely incredible day. It was amazing. Haha- I still don't even know what happened. Usually on Monday nights we are lucky to get a few contacts, or on a good night, we'll get a lesson. Well... This Monday we had a few miracles. We went into the thrift store to do some contacting, and we started talking to a younger lady. We asked her if she knew anyone that would like to hear a message about Jesus Christ. She said her sister, who was shopping across the store might like to hear our message. We then went out into the parking lot, and had one of the most incredible lessons ever!!! They seriously asked all the right questions, and wanted to hear so much more. It was beautiful. We even talked about the three kingdoms of glory, and it made sense to them. Whoot!! Whoot!!! You really know someone is golden when they actually understand the three kingdoms of glory!!! Unfortunately, we haven't been able to see them since... but I hope they do really well!!

Tuesday- Tuesday was a bit of a mixed day. Haha. We had an incredible day planned out with a bunch of members to go with us to teaching appointments. Our first member, and awesome girl that just turned 18, was all ready to go, unfortunately, our appointment fell through. But she was a good sport, and we visited some other people. We had a freeze moment when one lady said that she disagreed with the idea that Christ visited the America's, but it was okay because she had bits and pieces that she disagreed with in every religion, and that is why she probably wouldn't ever join a church. Yeah- SCARY!!! Well, fortunately, the Spirit was there, and we asked her if she had been reading the Book of Mormon. She wasn't. We testified to her pretty strongly that reading the Book of Mormon was the only way to find out if what we were saying is true, and the only way she would ever know if she wanted to join our church or not. I love it when I can feel the Spirit testifying through me. It is a great experience.

We also had Sister Harrison who came with us. She offered a great testimony of the Book of Mormon. Our investigator even said that she would read it after we had left... :P Although she didn't, it was a step.

Wednesday- This was actually a really interesting day. Mostly because of the lesson I've learned. President has recently been having some problems with missionaries studying deep doctrine, so he's been telling us not to dabble in that stuff. Now, I've never had a problem with that stuff... but honestly, I've never really known what it was exactly, and because I love learning so much, I've always been worried that that might be one of my potential weaknesses. On Wednesday after correlation, we were talking to the Elders a bit about transfer meeting, and one of the zone leaders started talking about the problems the mission was having with the deep doctrine stuff. For the first time I've actually heard an example of the deep doctrine stuff, and Yeah. Let me tell you, between my practicality, and the way you and Mom have taught me to love truth and hate anything else... that stuff has absolutely NO attraction to me. WHY anyone would EVER spend any amount of time worrying about that junk is beyond me! I honestly have enough to worry about with the basic saving doctrine's of the gospel. And going deep with them is NOT deep doctrine, it is simply reaching a deeper level of understanding, which is perfectly fine. Let me tell you, the Spirit leaves REALLY quickly the second anything stupid pops up... So- that was good to know. I also have absolutely no taste for bible bashing. I just feel sick to my stomach. Two missionary traps I really don't have to worry about as long as I listen to the Spirit. They are pretty clear.

Thursday- we went out with Sister Flemming. She's the WML's wife, and a member of the Relief Society presidency. She is absolutely incredible. Absolutely incredible. I just love being with her. She is so caring, and so generous. I'm really grateful I get the opportunity on my mission to work with so many great ward members. They really are a great example for me of what I want to be like. I'm working really hard on taking advantage of this opportunity, and change myself to become more like that person. Can't conquer everything at once, but I'm grateful I have that example and I've been able to see myself change a bit.

Friday-We had a pretty good day. Throughout my mission I've REALLY wanted to get better at working with members and help regular, southern Baptist people to get to know the Mormons. The Southern people are very service oriented, very involved, and so we've been working on our community service hours. Saturday we had the opportunity to help out in the community and we also went to dinner with some absolutely awesome members. I was very satisfied.

Sunday- Mario's birthday was on Sunday!!! So we celebrated. Its kinda funny, all of these people that can't speak a lick of Spanish getting together to celebrate this little Mexican. He's a sweetheart. It was just going to be us and the Elders, and we were just going to have cake with milk at the church, but Mario surprised us all by bringing tamalies and pop, and then the bishopric surprised us by swinging by the church after visits. We managed to convince Brother Drake to stay for just a bit, and it was awesome. So grateful he did that. The best part of the celebration was trying to get the candles lit. Haha- we had about five people circled around this little tiny lighter, trying to block the wind and light more than one candle. We finally got three of the 12 candles lit, and as we were singing all but one was blown out. :) It was a mess, but a lot of fun. We ended the party by singing hymns as Sister Williams plunked them out with her right hand. It was quite the celebration. I absolutely loved it.

That evening, we had another special treat. Sister Ambrose, a member of our ward, agreed to teach us how to crochet. After living all those years with Mom and grandma, I still don't remember how to do it! But she taught us the basic stitch, and we've been working away at our little squares ever since. I was happy that holding the needle and yarn came back very quickly. I've never really realized just how addicting it is though. :) We said we were going to leave at the end of the row... 20 rows latter... haha. It was lots of fun. Certainly brought back good memories of Grandma Bradshaw. I'll have to show her what I've learned.

Overall, its been a really good week. :D I hope you all have a great week!! I love you all so much. I think about you all the time, and hope you are enjoying life and staying Steadfast in Christ.

You are amazing,

I love you.

Love always,

Sister Pratt

~Steadfast in Christ