We Reap What We Sow

Hey!

How are you doing? How is life going for all y'all??!?! (Yes... I did just use that phrase. While I'm at it, I'm a 'fix'n to fix all y'all's wagons so 'dat you done did never done gu'ess wha' done did fix. ;) 

Oh! Gotta love Southernisms. Well! I'm glad Mom and Dad enjoyed St. George. Did everyone survive back at home? Its weird that everyone is pretty much old enough that you don't have to worry about getting Grandma and Grandpa. I hope everyone had an absolutely incredible week.

This week was amazing in nearly every sense of the word. We had Zone Conference, which was great. I received a ton of revelation, and learned a whole bunch of stuff. Sister Stahle and I have spent SO much time talking about and learning more from all of the things we learned about in Zone Conference. I love having a companion that I can learn from. I also love having a companion that I can discuss deep doctrine with. :) We've gotten into quite a few really really good conversations.

This week has also been a particularly poignant demonstration that we reap what we sow, but exactly what we reap may be completely different than what we expect, and the Lord will bless us according to his desires. He has promised us that he will bless us for our work, but which blessings he chooses are completely up to him.After Zone Conference, Sister Stahle and I decided to dramatically increase our contacts (the number of people we talk to as we go about our buisness) by talking to EVERYONE- no matter how awkward or weird the situation might be. LoL- some of the things we did to contact people made it a truly awkward day. We worked super hard, we contacted EVERYONE and NO ONE wanted to learn more. We got a lot of practice being silent while people yell at us, we got to see how quickly southern baptists can run from the Mormons, and we had the incredible opportunity of watching people leap over shelves to get away from us. Talk about an education! I didn't know people could move so quickly!! :) Despite our fun experiences, and the fact that we only got ONE investigator out of about 70 contacts, we kept our heads up and kept moving forward. It was awkward, and very difficult, but on Sunday, we had the opportunity to watch the Lord bless us in completely different ways than what we expected. We had Branch Conference, and our branch hit the all-time record of 89 people in attendance. :) What made it even better was that 6 of those people were Less-Actives that we had been working with, and 3 of those people were investigators. The Lord just took the reigns and got everybody to church. The miracles were amazing- some of them were small, but some of them were huge, and they just kept flying at us. Everyone got there, everyone seemed to have a good time, and our youth group went from 2 young women to 6 and 1 young men. One of the investigators was there despite having been woken up at 3:00am with a migraine, which is more dedication than I see in most fully active members! (Including myself!) Another Less-Active picked up our 14 year old Recent Convert, and she clicked PERFECTLY with this woman's daughter, who we've been worried about because our YW group is so small. It was absolutely incredible. I love it when the Lord works like that. I'm grateful he rewarded us like that, because I care about and love the people that came to church SO much more than the people that tried to tell me I haven't read my Bible, or who have the audacity to truly believe that they have the right to reform God's church (Seriously!!! Think about it!!! You Truly, TRULY believe that the Catholic church at one point was Christ's church on the Earth?!!?!? It is anything But! And then you truly believe that you have the right, and the authority to decide what God should say, how his church should be run, and if you don't like it, you can change it!??!?! Seriously... just doesn't quite ring true to me...). 

Talladega is growing so much. It is beautiful to see. There are so many Less-Actives that are truly changing their lives and coming back to church. We've dropped a lot of the people that missionaries have traditionally worked with because they just weren't progressing, and the Lord has blessed us SO richly to find those who ARE ready to come back. The change in boundaries has produced absolute miracles. It is so great to be here.

By the way, I finally finished my letters/ birthday presents for Jenessa, Sabrina and Wesley. They should be on their way soon. 

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

~Steadfast in Christ

Pictures

Hey!

Yeah, since I got to talk to y'all on Sunday, this one is probably just going to be a super short one. But! I have pictures for you. I hope you enjoy them. 

Tornados, TALLADEGA, Baptism and Moving to Oxford

Hey!!

I feel like I say this every week, but honestly- Whew!! This week was CRAZY!!! Absolutely crazy. 

Monday we had the crazy tornado stuff. It was really weird sitting on the couch, watching the storm move across the state. We didn't have a weather radio, so we watched it on the TV, and they had it down to the hour when the storm would strike. We didn't get anything more than a bit of wind and a few bucket loads of rain, so it was great. Not everyone was so fortunate, so on Tuesday President Hanks asked us to stay inside. Let me tell you- THAT was one of the greatest tests of obedience that I have ever done. In Lincoln it was beautiful, it was calm, not a storm in the sky, and we were stuck inside. I've biked in near flood weather many a time, and this didn't even have a drop. But, we were obedient, and we stayed inside. During that time we had a great time making President Hank's birthday present. It was an ABC book of everything he teaches us, with cute drawings done by me. :) Loved making it! We even laminated it. He texted us, wrote an email AND called to tell us how wonderful the book was. I was glad he liked it so much.

Wednesday we had interviews with President. Nothing really fantastic happened- mostly everything is great and everything is awesome, but President, Sister Hanks and my district leader all found time to tell me that it isn't going to stay that way. So that was a bit of a downer. But hey! I'm enjoying this transfer quite a bit.

Thursday we planned outside on the Parker's porch. It was great to enjoy the beauty of our area. The sun felt SO good! We also biked to have dinner... Arrived very sweaty and out of breath... :P Not exactly my favorite way to appear at dinner. But other than that, I had a great time. These people are readers and it has been SO LONG since I've gotten to have a good conversation about books. Oh! I miss it so much. I honestly can't wait to go back to BYU and have some great intellectual conversations about books. She gave me a great series to look up when I get home.

Friday we got a call from President Hanks telling us that we were going to be moved to Oxford. :D :D :D :D :D Lincoln is amazing, but it is SUPER country, and EVERYTHING is super spread out. Missionary work is very difficult here. Now we'll be moving to a town/city, so there will actually be people to contact, and we'll be close to the people we are working with. We drove up to the apartment we'll be living in, and it is pretty close to several stores, a mall, and all sorts of wonderful things. Its like I'm getting transferred without having to say goodbye! Oh! I love it. I'll send you my new address as soon as I know it.

Saturday was incredible; I thought of Steven almost the entire time.. This week was race weekend... The great and terrible Race Weekend.  Everyone kept telling us to move as far away from it as possible, telling us everyone was drunk, traffic was crazy, there would be tons of partying, and it would be awful. Well, we decided instead to join in the fun. :) We went down and held up signs that said, "Lets Talk About Jesus!" and "Peace, Joy and a Relationship with God Mormon.org." It was great! We got quite a few honks, no one actually stopped by, but hey! We got a lot of people to actually think about Jesus. After that, we went down to where they had a bunch of vendors. It was really kind of interesting to watch what happened. There were a few people... that were very much in the world... It was really sad to see. There were also some nice vendors and nice people that we talked to. It was interesting to see the respect we received from the vendors. As they showed us their stuff, they would steer us away, apologizing for the dirty stuff they were selling, and then show us the clean stuff. It was really interesting to see how, almost embarrassed they were. We stuck out like a sore thumb- we were clean, we were pure and we didn't have anything to do with the dirty stuff. The people could see it, and they reacted accordingly. It was interesting. There were also some not so great looking women that walked into the tents right after we left them, and instantly I knew they would not receive the same amount of respect. In fact, they've probably spent their entire lives wishing they could receive that level of respect, but because they've sold themselves for things of naught, they did not receive it, and until they clean up, they will never receive it. Being clean pays itself in so many ways. I am so grateful for the Gospel, and how it teaches us to live such clean lives. 

Anyway- at the fair we handed out a copy of the Book of Mormon, gave a couple of lessons, and gave a bunch of people the opportunity to draw closer to Christ. Sister Stahle also got a ring carved that said "Steadfast in Christ ABM" It was super cool, and I almost got one, but I don't really like how rings look on my fingers, so I guess I'll just have to find something else that I can get carved. Maybe a necklace or a bracelet. It was beautiful.

Also Saturday- <<Nameless Investigator>> GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoot!!!! It was absolutely incredible! She was beaming the entire time. She looked so beautiful.The Spirit was so strong, and when she bore her testimony, I just about exploded. She is such a choice daughter of God. I love it. Oh! I honestly wish I could explain how wonderful and incredible it was- maybe spend as much time as I did talking about the race, but it was really one of those experiences where words just fail me. It was great. During the half time, we taught the Restoration, which was a fabulous idea. None of the people there were non-members, but it was a great interactive way to keep the kids quiet and the Spirit there. Loved it so much.

So, that was my week in a nutshell! It was crazy. I hope y'all had a slightly less crazy week. I love you so much, and think of you often!

Love always,

Sister Pratt

~Steadfast in Christ