Light in the Darkness

Hey Family!!

How are you doing? How is everything going for you?!? I hope everything is going really well.

These past feel weeks have absolutely stunk. They have stunk hard-core. I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to get through these next few weeks if they are anything like the last few, but hopefully the good old day by day will keep working out for me.

I did have two bright spots in my week. 

First, we had a really neat lesson with an investigator who is dating an Less-Active. We had it at the church building where we did a room to room type plan of salvation lesson. It was really quite cool. At the end we came into the chapel (which was the celestial kingdom) and just invited them to sit. They sat in the choir seats and I played the piano. As I was playing "Teach Me to Walk in the Light," the Spirit was so incredibly strong. I could just feel it- It was there and it was so real. Beautiful. Very much an Emmaus experience watching this little group of God's children sitting in our make-shift celestial kingdom.

Secondly, we were able to contact someone who let us come back and teach him. He was a single male, so we brought the Elders to hand him off, but we had a really awesome lesson. He was just so humble and so full of faith. It was truly a neat experience. He came to church, and that was great. Hopefully the Elders will help him become the next baptism candidate. He has some great potential, and it will bless his life in so many ways. 

Sorry for the short letter... I've been spending so much time on other stuff I don't really have time for much more. Sorry about that! I hope you have a great week, and know I love you bunches!!

Love always,

Sister Pratt

Women's Conference

Hey!!

How is life?!?! How is everything going?

This past week has been kinda crazy. Its been rather rough, but we keep trudging through it.Three good things that happened this week-

#1- Women's Conference- We had an absolutely incredible women's conference. It was amazing. Wendy Ulritch was the guest speaker- she's an LDS psychologist who apparently is also part of the group that wrote the "Adjusting to Missionary Life" handbook. (WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!!!) The conference was about how to be happy, and it was the most refreshing thing ever. Emotionally, spiritually, socially, it was fantastic. Best of all was a lunch we were able to have with her where we talked about some of the emotional difficulties of a mission. Absolutely loved it. Took great notes, so hopefully I'll be able to review them often.

#2- Sister Todd- We had a really neat moment on Friday when we went to go visit a less-active woman. She's more of the type that doesn't come to church because her health is so poor than one who decides not to come to church, but the ward asked us to continue checking up on her. Apparently her daughter recently passed away, and she was having a rather difficult time with it. Almost as soon as we walked in there, I felt impressed to share 3 Nephi 9. It was really neat because I could feel the Spirit so strongly testifying of Jesus Christs' love for her, and how much he cared about her. Afterwards, the Spirit was still really strong, and she offered us dinner we had already had dinner so we declined. Slight mistake, I could see her get really sad. So then I told her how much her testimony had meant to me that evening, and how neat it was to feel her spirit and I just thanked her for everything she had done for me that evening. It was really neat because I was able to see a huge light go on in her eyes, she felt so good after that. Sometimes serving other people really is as simple as allowing them to serve us.

#3- Exchanges- I was able to go on exchanges with Sister Schwendiman, one of my favorite sisters ever. She's the person I might room with next semester. We had a great time talking and preaching the gospel together. I absolutely love talking to her. It just makes the world feel awesome. Seriously, good friendships. Nothing can replace them. 

I'm trying so hard to keep pushing valiantly to the end. Weeks like this week and the past week make it SUPER hard to keep pushing. When we're at Wal-mart at 8:00 for the 5th day in a row trying to find someone to teach, I can't even begin to explain how difficult it is not to think, "Just 4 more weeks of this and I'll be done." Hopefully things will begin to pick up soon. I don't know what exactly the Lord has planned for this next little bit, but I certainly hope it will be good.

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

Love always,

Sister Pratt

Leaving Cullman

How is it going? How is life? I hope your life is going well. I think of all of you often, and I love you bunches.

Well, here I am at the start of my last transfer and I hardly know what to feel. Or think. I know what to do- I've spent my entire mission learning what to do, so I keep doing that . Fortunately I still don't feel like I'm on the downhill slope, so I have the energy to keep going. 

This past week has been rather interesting. In some ways it would rank among the  hardest weeks I've had on my mission, but we've also had a lot of really neat experiences. Please just put the Emmaus Experiences (in italics) on the blog. 

Leaving Cullman was very difficult. I have come to love the people in that area so much, and I absolutely adored Sister Harris. I knew it was coming, the Spirit warned me about a week beforehand, but it was still very difficult.

Transfer meeting was a roller coaster. Right when we pulled up I saw Rick and Jody- a couple from Monte Sano. It was so absolutely incredible. Jody still has light shooting out of her eyes. She looks very good. She still looks just as clean and pure and light as when she was baptized. It was one of those neat moments when I really connected with Ammon. I wasn't quite to the fainting point, but I was pretty close. It just made me so happy.

Coming into Weatherly has been really difficult. There are so many parallels to Monte Sano, and Monte Sano was not really my favorite area. Fortunately I really like my companion, we connect really well and have a pretty good time. So that is one major difference that I'm very grateful for. Unfortunately the weather, lack of investigators and general feeling of the missionaries is exactly the same. And we bike everywhere.

But, as I said, the Lord has really been helping us out. We've been fasting and praying a lot to increase our teaching pool. On Sunday the Elders handed a new investigator off to us. She came to church- she hadn't had a single lesson, just received a pamphlet on the Plan of Salvation, I couldn't introduce her to anyone since I didn't know anyone and it was fast and testimony meeting. TOTAL recipe for disaster!!! Miraculously nearly everyone that shared their testimony focused it on the Savior. Very few people mentioned Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon (both of which we had not taught her). Then in Relief Society, after we were able to briefly explain the Book of Mormon, the ENTIRE lesson was on the Book of Mormon from Preach My Gospel!!! It was absolutely amazing. Pure miracle. Afterwards she asked if she could come to a relief society activity, set up a return appointment and she had a whole bunch of ward members exchange phone numbers with her. It was absolutely fantastic. She is super sweet. We have high hopes, please pray for her!

So, its been up and down. I am SO grateful that today is P-Day. I needed that rest.

Thanks for all you do! I hope you have a great day. 

Love always,

Sister Pratt