85 people in our Branch Building!!!

Hey Everyone!!

First off, Happy Birthday to Jenessa and Wesley!!!!!!! Congrats! Another year older, and hopefully another year wiser. ;) I hope you have a great birthday. It sounds like Jenessa will certainly have a great birthday with Prom just around the corner. Wow. I honestly can't believe how old you two are getting. I'm sad to have missed it, but I hope you feel my love. Enjoy your special day.

Second off, I have the best family in the world. Particularly the best mother, but the best family too. :) Thank you SO much for the Easter basket. It was absolutely perfect. I loved it so much. Mom, you are the only missionary mom that I know of that sends things for her missionary, and her companion. (and my companion says, "Thanks! Your mom seems So adorable!") You are so incredibly sweet and thoughtful. Thank you so much. I am so grateful to have such an incredible mom. (Because she really is something special.)

I hope you all had an incredible Easter. Here in Alabama it was a beautiful, balmy day. We spent the day with our branch mission leader and his family, and it was a CRAZY experience. :) They have 5 or 6 grandkids under 12, so there were a lot of little kids running around with baskets, Easter eggs and chocolate. The two Whoopie cushions were popped within the first hour, and the boys were having a heyday with the squirt guns. It was nice to be in a fully home filled with little kids again. After the Easter Egg hunt, Sister Stahle sat them all down and put on Finding Faith in Christ. That was probably the best part of the afternoon. It was so neat to see all of those kids huddled around the TV learning about our Savior. If you haven't had the opportunity to go onto mormonchannel.org and check out some of the Bible videos centered around Easter, I would highly recommend them. They are incredible. 

Also this week, we had 85 people in Sacrament meeting this Sunday. It was the most people we've ever fit into our branch building, and we were feeling the squeeze. It was nice to see everyone come to church for Easter, and honor the Savior. Although, it also made me very grateful that my parents were so good about teaching me how to be reverent. The Sacrament is such a sacred time, and such an incredible opportunity. I am grateful that I was always taught to reverence that time and sit (somewhat) quietly during the talks. I really really hope I'm able to do the same with my kids... at least to the extent that kids will allow. But, other than that, it was so nice to see everyone there. We had quite a few Less-Actives come to church, and I am so grateful they were there (ironically, they were not the talkers...). I hope we are able to keep them coming just a few more times until they are hooked on the Spirit and can't get by without coming!!! Yes, that is my devious plan.

One of the great things about serving a mission is realizing just how much my family means to me. I love you- each and every one of you. And I think of you often. I hope you are having a wonderful time. I hope all of your activities are going well. I really hope you are growing in the gospel. I miss you so much, but I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity I have to see you again soon. Your letters mean the world to me. Thank you so much for taking the time to write them. I love you all. I can't wait to see you on Mother's Day.

Love Always,

~Sister Pratt

Talladega!!!

Hey! 

How is everything going?!?! It sounds like everyone is alive, so I'll put that on my list of things to be grateful for.

This week has been the most incredible week I have had thus far on my mission. The Lord has poured forth his blessings, revelation has been frequent and powerful, and miracles have happened all over the place. It was truly an amazing week. 

Tuesday: We biked 28 miles (yes, we are slightly proud of ourselves). In short story form, the Lord sent angels to keep the dogs away, stayed the forecasted rain, sent prepared people all over our path, protected us in the dark and gave us strength to continue biking. As we were biking home, I literally felt as if I were riding with the Lord. It was an incredible, and very sacred experience.

Wednesday: We saw a less-active couple. They are sweet and really like the missionaries, but if they weren't members they would be eternigators. 

We were also supposed to help a member family move, but they don't have to move. Yay!! :) I really, really enjoy them, so I was pretty put out when I heard they had to move. I'm grateful they'll still be with us.

Thursday: We had an incredibly booked schedule, but it almost all fell through. As we biked, the Lord very clearly lead us to the places we needed to be. I saw a trailer and felt we should talk to the people in there, but there wasn't anyone outside, so instead I talked to a guy walking up the street. He lives in the trailer. We had a very nice conversation with him- he seems to very sincerely desire to draw closer to Jesus Christ. It was neat.

Friday: Friday... where do I even begin?!?!?! One of our particularly poignant miracles happened on Friday. We received a media referral from a girl a while ago. When we called, another girl said that she had signed her friend up to meet the missionaries, but now they had a group of friends that wanted to meet with us. They go to school an hour away from us, but they sounded very promising, and we weren't able to get a ride, so we drove the hour to get down there. Somehow we both knew it would be worth the miles, and it was. There were four high school students, they each went to a different church, but they were very interested in keeping a good world view, and wanted to learn about our religion. 

One young man started off by asking, "Which denomination of Christianity would you say you are the closest to?" 

Sister Stahle answered, "Well, we are closest to the church of Jesus Christ. Like, the original one." From that moment on, we had an incredible lesson. It was beautiful, it was powerful, and they all left with a copy of a Book of Mormon. They asked incredible questions, they thought deeply about the things we were teaching them, they loved how we used the pamphlets, and the Spirit was super strong the entire time. It was a miracle. 

Afterwards we went out to eat around the town, and we once again saw some great stuff. Because the town is an hour from anywhere where the missionaries have been, none of these people really know who Mormons are. They were super welcoming and didn't have the hard hearts that I've seen in a lot of area where missionaries have worked. It was amazing.

Before going down to Ashland, we also had a great lesson with an inactive member family. It was neat to hear them testify to each other and teach each other the doctrine. It was also very powerful, and the sister received a nice bit of revelation. I LOVE lessons like that!!!

Saturday: One of our members, decided to get us a ticket for Talladega in April-basically she took us around to see a bunch of old homes. At first Sister Stahle and I were thinking, "This isn't missionary work... we just go see a bunch of homes..." However, it turned out to be rather different. Yes, we saw a BUNCH of incredible homes, but mostly we talked to a bunch of incredible people. Everyone was dressed super nicely, there were refreshments at most of the houses, and I felt like a southerner. It was almost as if we were being introduced us to the upper social class of Talladega. Sister Stahle is so incredible at making everyone feel like $100, she instantly became best friends with half of Talladega. Later that evening we went down to the square, where they were having a party, and almost everyone we had met flagged us down and started talking to us. It was a great experience, and now we have a great in with the people that would probably typically not think twice about us. It was amazing. 

We also got to go into the local masonic lodge, so that was kind of cool.

Sunday: We were able to visit another sister, one of my favorite widows. She is absolutely amazing, and I love her spirit. It was hot, and we spent a lot of time walking to her house, but it was worth it. Afterwards our Branch Mission Leader took us on a drive through Lincoln, showing us all of the places we could contact people and then we had dinner with them. It was great and we had a lot of fun. 

Thanks, I love you all so much!! Hope you have a great week!

~Sister Pratt

Moving to the Parkers

Hey!

How are you doing?!?! Hope you enjoyed General Conference this year. It was absolutely incredible. Much less on missionary work, but much more about standing fast and holding our ground. I particularly loved Saturday Morning, and almost all of the 70's talks. They were just amazing. It was a great conference.

I'm super glad that Tad R. Callister will still be with us- I was about ready to cry when they released him. I'm sorry they didn't announce any more temples, but I know they already have more than enough on their hands , and I can't wait for the Payson temple to actually be finished. Do you think they might be able to postpone its dedication long enough that I'll be back from my mission? 

Life in the mission field is going quite well. Sister Stahle is an absolutely incredible companion. :) She has been in the city her entire mission (15 months), so this is quite a shock for her. She wants to be a physical therapist, so I FINALLY have a companion that will go running with me in the mornings.

My week in a nutshell:

Wednesday- Transfers!!! Sister Williams disappeared about as quickly as possible... so I assume she's pretty happy. We also got Elders in Talladega. I went up to ask President Hanks for a quote (its at the end in a picture), and Elder Munns (Assistant to the President) said that they did not have housing accommodations for the Elders, so I got to talk to Elder Jones (our brand new housing coordinator) and help him get everything so he could talk to the Parkers about having us move in with them on a permanent basis. Surprise! 

I also got to move all of my stuff in about 2 hours. Slight difference from the 2 days they usually give us. I also forgot all of my food... which was slightly disappointing given the fully packed fridge that I had. I miss my mangoes.

Rolled into the Parkers at about 9:00 exhausted, beaten and up to our ears with stuff we needed to unpack. It was not a terribly comfortable night.

Thursday- We spent most of the day trying to move ourselves into the Parkers. They are so sweet and so accommodating. We cleaned out a bit of their spare room and made ourselves a desk and a few shelves to put our stuff. It feels SO nice to have everything organized. We also met quite a few people at the store. Sister Stahle is SUPER good at talking to people. It is SO nice not to always be taking the lead in talking to people. 

I also lead her in a bit of culture shock. I was super excited to have her meet our prime investigator. He led us through a very nasty path with garbage strewn everywhere to meet his horse. The horse was fun, but by about that point we realized he was incredibly drunk. We moved as quickly as we could through the cans of beer (literally, piles upon piles upon piles of cans) up to the car, threw an invite to conference in his direction, and then left. It was quite the experience.

Friday- We went to district meeting. It is an hour away, which really sucks our miles and proselyting time away, but at least we no longer have to pick up the Sylagauga Sisters. It was a pretty good meeting. Our district has been split, so we only have 4 companionships, and I love that so much better. The Talladega Elders seem pretty awesome. I've always worked with Elders in my area, but these two seem like some of the better ones.

We also went up to Oxford to do some teaching. At the end of the evening, we didn't have any more appointments, so we went in to Arby's to see if we could do some contacting. Sister Stahle talked to this one man, but didn't seem to get much into religion. As he left, he walked over to me and said, "please pray for my family." There was something in the way he said that, I just knew he needed the gospel. Sister Stahle was talking to someone else, so I tried to hurry after him, but couldn't quite catch him. The next few moments were agonizing as I tried to wait for her to finish, and when she finally finished, I burst out the door. I saw him across the parking lot (don't worry, it was well lit and very populated), and started running towards him, hollering "Sir! Wait!" He stopped turned around, and I continued running towards him. I gave him a mormon.org card, set up a time to meet him, and shared my brief testimony. By that time Sister Stahle caught up to me, and we left. As we left she turned to me and said, "You do realize that man was drunker than a skunk, don't you?" Oh! It was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life! Running after a guy, trying to save his soul, all the while my companion watches knowing he is so drunk nothing we would say could pass through that barrier. At the end of this week, I think I've had enough experiences with drunk guys to fill a life time. :P Don't drink!

Saturday- We had the opportunity to watch conference at our little branch building. The Teels were there with their 6 kids, and Sister Miller came with her 2 year old. It was really neat and really fun. The Teels brought lunch for everyone between the sessions, and after lunch I did races with the kids. It was a lot of fun. I can't tickle them or pick them up, but I had a fun time running. I only wish I didn't have to run in a skirt... LoL oh well! 

Afterwards we went biking around Talladega, trying to find our appointment.As we were biking, a young lady suddenly started hollering at us, telling us to stop.  She was a less- active, and something told her to come outside. Apparently the missionaries disappeared at some point, and she has been wanting to come back to church. She came to church on Sunday, and seemed to enjoy conference. It was great!

Sunday- We watched conference at our tiny branch building. Our less-active came for the first session, and I think she had a good time. The Copelands were also there, so we had 11 kids. Whew! Talk about a great form of birth control. 11 super active Kids + Conference= No fun. 

Afterwards, we biked around to our appointments. It was absolutely pouring, but we had a lot of fun. We had an appointment with a lady for the first time, and she was super shocked that we were biking in the rain. It was kind of funny that something we thought was no big deal meant that much to her. She really listened to us after she saw our soaking skirts. She seems pretty golden. And I loved biking in the rain.

Monday- Those pictures are actually from this morning, when we decided to go on a run. It was raining fairly hard yesterday and absolutely dumped all last night. It was wonderful to listen to the sound of the rain pouring itself onto the roof all night long. I love rain so much!

But we had an interesting morning of being chased by dogs, running from a very sick dog, and trying to avoid the puddle. In the end, our 6 mile run turned into a 2 min sprint from the dogs, and a party cleaning up the mud we tracked into the Parker's home.

Well. I hope you all have a great week!! I love you bunches!

~Sister Pratt