Being Perfected in Christ

Hey!

How have you been doing? How has life been in the Pratt household? Its fun to hear the comings and goings of the Pratt household; more the goings than the comings, but its fun to hear about it all. Sounds like everyone has been doing well, and I really hope that is the case. How has everyone been doing spiritually? How has scripture reading, prayer and church been? Had any cool insights lately? Had any uplifting thoughts?

I've been doing a lot of reading lately- and a lot of it has been about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Did you know he healed the lepers in ancient Jerusalem? I knew that, but I don't really think it meant a whole lot to me until I saw him heal me. I knew about the lepers and the blind men and the woman with the issue of blood, but I didn't really understand Him and his power until I had to go in front of him with the rotting mess inside of me, the pain cause because of blindness, and issues that I could not seem to control. It wasn't until I was willing to surrender those things to Christ that I was able to be made whole- to be healed. The scripture I have chosen for this next transfer is Moroni 10:32, "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God." Be perfected in him. That's really what I want. I want to be the perfect missionary, I want to be the perfect sister, the perfect companion, I want to be perfect. But notice that it doesn't say "Be perfected in Sister Pratt, and by her grace shall ye recieve eternal life." It says to be perfected in Christ. I can't do it alone. I can't heal myself, fix my problems or bury my hurt. I am not the one who has the power to make myself perfect, put myself into the Celestial kingdom or push others in. I don't have that strength, I don't have that power. He is the one that heals the leper, the one who heals the blind men, and the one who heals me. It is Him- by his grace; his power, that I can be healed. No other source. 

In the mormonchannel video, Come Unto Christ (http://www.mormonchannel.org/youth-theme-2013?v=3358025312001), these doctrinal truths are perfectly illustrated. Once we let go of the idea that we are the ones in control of our growth and our perfection, we allow Christ to change our hearts. Once we let go of our pain, our sorrow, our stress and our hurts, we allow Christ to heal us. Come unto Christ, turn to him. Will you watch this video, and think about how you can let go so Christ can change you?

I hope you'll think about the things I've said. When I send spiritual thoughts home, I'm never really sure if you read them, or just glance over it. I'll be honest, I would probably just glance over most of them, but this one is different. I hope you'll read it and think about it. It is one of the great pearls from my mission; a great piece of my heart. We are a family, and each one of us has aches and pains. Some of them cause by me, some of them caused by other people, and some of them caused by ourselves. It really doesn't matter what causes those aches and pains. What really matters is what we do with them. I pray you'll take them to Christ. Take them to Christ and allow him to take the burden of perfecting you. Please do it. Search the scriptures, learn of the Atonement and how it applies in your life. I promise you will find the healing and peace that you seek. You will find Christ. I testify it is true because I have done it, and I Know he is there to be found. 

I love you. I hope everything goes well this week. And I hope you are able to find the peace you seek.

Love you all very much.

Love always,

Sister Pratt

STEADFAST IN CHRIST

Letter #2 This week

Hi-

So, this email and my previous one did not really seem to go together... I wrote this one, and then I started praying about what I could share to help our family out, and that next one just flowed out. I know that is what God wanted me to tell you about. I've been learning so much about the Atonement recently, and I want everyone in our family to feel the way I have been feeling. I would also love to hear your in depth thoughts on the Atonement. What have you been learning? How has the Atonement become more real to you over this past little bit? I think that is honestly what I want for my birthday. I want a letter from everyone talking about what they have learned about the Atonement, and how they have learned it. Would that be okay? I hope it would be just as sacred for everyone as it has been for me as I've been learning more.

I am so grateful for the family we have. It is an incredible one. :) We love each other, we lift each other, we are amazing. I am so grateful. Thank you for all you do. I really love you and hope you have an incredible week.

This week has been hot, Hot, HOt, HOT and HOTTER. It has been absolutely crazy. We've also been biking most of this week because we are short on miles, so it has been a rather sweaty week. Heat is certainly NOT my forte (remember my desire to move to England? Yep. Still there). More than once this week I have simply not had the energy to keep going because it is so hot, but somehow the Lord has given us both the strength to keep going. Everyone suggests that we stay inside during this hot weather... I can't wait till I'm actually able to follow that advice. We had a rather funny experience when one of our dear sisters prayed for us. She said, "Lord, please turn down the sun for these girls...that was a joke Lord." Haha it was one of the moments on my mission when I just HAD to laugh, :) Although I certainly wasn't joking about turning down the heat. I'm sure the Lord knew exactly what my intent was because he turned it down just a few degrees on the bike ride home. 

The evening of transfer calls, Sister Stahle and I decided to go store contacting. I walked up to a lady and started talking to her. After a bit, the conversation turned awkward, so I turned to go, but the Spirit said, "Wait! You haven't invited her!" of course the Devil said, "Oh well, just keep going." and the Spirit said, "Just try it." Wonder if this is how investigators feel... Fortunately, I followed through on my commitment, turned around and asked her if we could visit her. She said, "Yeah! Actually, my family is Mormon. We go to the church in Talladega." I said, "Sweet! When can we come see you... WAIT!! What?!?!?!" She smiled, repeated herself and I said, "Wait... Who are you?!" She laughed, and then repeated herself. We have been looking for the phone number and address of a Less-Active for quite some time; the records the clerk has are incorrect. Turns out that was her- walking around the store an hour from her home. It was amazing. As I walked away, I had the distinct impression that I was walking back with one of the lost sheep. She was the Lord's sheep, and I had found her. It was an incredible feeling. I also had the distinct feeling that I had just finished my work in Talladega/ Oxford/ Lincoln. The other sisters will continue to work with and teach the incredible people here, but I had just finished my part. That is also kind of a neat feeling. Brings a lot of satisfaction.

Yes, I am getting transferred. I'll email you my address as soon as possible... probably Wednesday or Thursday. 

Today I am doing a LOT of moving! We have two families moving into the branch- one we helped move in this morning, this afternoon I will be packing to go to my new area and tonight we are going to move another one in. We almost managed to spend our whole day in jeans!!!! Unfortunately, we had to come to the library, so we changed. Once we get home I will continue packing and writing letters to everyone. By the time I get home, I will be a professional mover!! No wonder the Elders Quorum and High Priests always offer to move people. 

Well, I still love you! (Two letters later, and I still do! ;) 

Steadfast in Christ,

Sister Pratt

~Steadfast in Christ