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
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.
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