Tender Mercies

Hey!

How are you!??! I can't wait to hear all about Nauvoo. It sounds like Dad's worked hard to make a great vacation. Haha- just don't come back needing more rest than when you went out. ;)

I can't WAIT to see what Sabrina's done to the house. :) She's got a great eye for painting, and I love grey walls. I'm pretty sure I won't even recognize the house when I get home. :) Just promise me you won't move out of Woodland Hills. I miss that place so much. I love it to pieces.

Also, younger kids- Listen to Mom!! Seriously, she knows what she is talking about. The older I get, the more I appreciate people that know how to work hard. Those that have something to do every day and work hard at doing it have a million blessings that the lazy will never know. Working hard is one of the greatest blessings Mom or Dad could give you. :) And you have great parents.

So, this week's letter is going to be rather long. Sorry. :) This week has been a remarkable week in some rather unexpected ways.

In Elder Bednar's talk "The Tender Mercies of the Lord," he bears witness of a time when the Lord sent him a tender mercy. He said of this experience, "A loving Savior was sending me a most personal and timely message of comfort and reassurance through a hymn selected weeks previously. Some may count this experience as simply a nice coincidence, but I testify that the tender mercies of the Lord are real and that they do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence."

This past week has been a remarkable example of the Lord’s tender mercies. It hasn’t been the easiest week of my mission- far from it, but the Lord has certainly been evident throughout this week. I can testify with Elder Bednar that, “the Lord’s tender mercies do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Faithfulness, obedience, and humility invite tender mercies into our lives, and it is often the Lord’s timing that enables us to recognize and treasure these important blessings.”  This week there have been several tender mercies from the Lord that have become evident at the exact point in my life when I needed them. Below I recorded the sacred tender mercies of this past week.  

1.       He filled me with peace- I don’t know why, but I have had a rather difficult time adjusting to Cullman. I miss Talladega so much, and Cullman has been downright awful to me. The people are hard, we don’t have any good investigators, I haven’t really made friends with any of the ward members, it is a ward- so I don’t really know very many of the ward members, we keep finding Spanish investigators, we’ve been doing nothing but biking, I hate contacting people, but that’s all we do, the heat is intense, and my legs are now a mix of red, yellow and blue from the mosquito bites (THEY KILL). It’s hard not to be at least a little bit miserable. And my companion doesn’t quite understand why I’m having a hard time.

Well, as I was praying, I started pouring out my heart, and I was filled with an incredible feeling of peace. It wasn’t that everything was fixed, or that everything was going to be alright. I just had peace and confidence. And that’s all I needed was the peace.

2.       He sent an Apostle- Okay, not really, but kinda. I do have to say, the Apostles have a knack for turning up randomly in the midst of some of my most difficult battles. I guess that is why they are apostles. Two of the hardest things on my mission have been feeling like I am completely alone, and feeling like no one understands or connects with me. It’s a pretty unsurprising feeling- every 6 weeks we go live with another stranger who is suddenly supposed to become your best friend, you don’t know a single person in the area, and you only get to talk to people you DO know by email once a week. And even then you’ve changed so much and are experiencing so much, it doesn’t feel quite like anyone knows you anymore. Its kinda a lonely job we have here.

Well, this week as I was feeling kinda lonely, and feeling like no one understood me. Its particularly difficult when you have these great studies and you can’t talk to ANYONE about them. Well, we were doing Mormon.org time, and I noticed a short snippet by Elder Christofferson about faith. I watched it, and then I watched the longer interview that it came from. As I watched, I felt an incredible connection with him- like someone understood the things I had been studying!! I mean, of course he understood it- He’s an Apostle, he probably understood it at 3 years old. But it was neat to have a confirmation about what I’d been studying and feel like someone understood it too.

3.       He gave me more knowledge-

Seriously- Studies exploded this week. I was on cloud nine for like a week. It was incredible!!

4.       He sent me another area-

Whoo... Cullman has been worked and worked and over worked. Its just a fact of life. Sometimes missionaries work areas to the ground. Well, twice this week we had the opportunity to get out of Cullman and into small towns. It was an absolute breath of relief. At one city, we talked to a woman who loved pigs for an hour. :) She was so sweet! Couldn't get a word in edgewise, but honestly really sweet. The next city, EVERYONE we talked to was so sweet. They invited us to sit down on their porch, talk a while, have a drink of water and they asked about what we were doing. It was AMAZING!!! Seriously!!! I haven't been treated even sort of kindly since I got to Cullman, and these people were SO sweet. Kindness truly is sweet balm to the soul. It was amazing 

5.       He filled me with peace, even when I didn’t really deserve it- Long story short, I had a rather difficult day. It was just one of those days that was just plain hard. When it came time to say my prayers, I didn’t really feel like praying. I was frustrated, and I just didn’t want to pray. Well, I prayed nonetheless, and as I opened my mouth, I was filled with the most beautiful feeling of peace. I knew that the Lord was with me- even though it was tough, and even though I wasn’t as deserving as I should have been, the Lord was with me, and He still cared about me. It was a touching reminder.

6.       He provided a way for me to increase in understanding- During Gospel Principles on Sunday we were talking about the Priesthood, and I started thinking about prophets. I started thinking about characteristics that identify a prophet. As I left class, a member of our ward came to me and said, "Hey! Here are the things I promised you last week." He handed me a talk by Hugh B. Brown called, "Profiles of a Prophet" both on CD and a paper copy. The talk itself was absolutely incredible, the fact that this member had remembered was amazing, and I got a new talk. J Only those who know me REALLY well would understand just how much of a tender mercy that was- and God knows me pretty well.

7.       He answered my prayers-Last night I said my prayers (shocker… ;) ), and I prayed to gain a further testimony that the Lord truly wants us to succeed. Not that I wanted a bunch of blessings or anything, I just wanted to increase my trust in the Lord. This morning when I went to do my scripture study, I got so excited about continuing my study about the Atonement (something I’ve been studying for the last 2 months) that I completely forgot about last night’s prayer. I went to read in the Book of Mormon, and I just kept getting frustrated, so I switched to the Atonement, and I was still getting frustrated, so I started just reading the Ensign. I was rather put out at this point- my beautiful morning had been ruined by scripture study- how ironic is that?!?!?! But as I started reading the Ensign, thought started coming to my mind. I was directed to a bit in the Doctrine and Covenants as I read the Ensign articles, and I suddenly remembered my prayer from the night before. The Lord answered my prayer. I had to go through some frustrations that didn’t make sense, but eventually, the Lord answered my prayer and helped me understand his love for us just a little bit better.

8.       I didn’t have to give a talk- Enough said. Bishop asked me to fill in incase a youth speaker didn’t show up. During the week I worked on it, but I honestly wasn’t getting any revelation and as I was walking up to the chapel I found myself praying that I wouldn’t have to give it. I didn’t. Whoot! Relief!

9.       He reminded me not to stuff a turkey through its beak- I was praying, and I started talking about an area where my faith was struggling, then the line from Elder Holland’s talk, “Lord I Believe,”  popped into my head about how starting with our doubts is like stuffing a turkey through the beak. So, I rewound my prayer, and started talking about the things that I did know. As I did that, I felt tremendous power surround me. My question wasn’t answered right then, but my faith was strengthened so it supported me through my questions. God not only wants us to have faith, but he also shows us how to get the faith we need. Don’t stuff a turkey through the beak!

10. He gave us progressing investigators- On Sunday we had two people that didn't seem to have much potential actually so quite a bit of interest. It was amazing. I was so grateful for it. I'll have to tell you more about it next week because time is running short on me. But t his week has been very full with the small reminders that God knows and cares about me. As much as we strive to be steadfast in Christ, He is always steadfast in us.

May you all have a blessed week!

I love you tons!

Love always,

Sister Pratt

~Steadfast in Christ