A Bigger Plan

Things are going alright here, sadly things don't always work out as we hope they will, but the Lord always has a bigger plan than we can see or comprehend. I know he will provide a way for us to be successful in this work as we are diligent and obedient in all that we do. I'm still working on that part, but it is coming along. Our investigator didn't come to church again this week, so he can't be baptized on November 8, but if his desire is still there, he will still be baptized just at a later date. It will all work out.

Don't worry, you aren't the only one who is excited. I'm not counting the days, but the elders are doing that for me, haha! They like to try to make people trunky when they are going home. Though I'm excited, I'm also doing all that I can to make the most of my last few weeks. I want to leave the area in a good place.

I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Bratt

Last Transfer - Staying in Arima :)

This week was good, busy as usual on a mission. We had some great success this week taking members out teaching with us. We try to involve them as much as possible to fellowship our investigators, but it can be a struggle. On Wednesday we were blessed to have a brother from the ward (his sister is the one on a mission in Ogden) walk around his area with us to some appointments and he helped us tract to meet new investigators as well. He is a great missionary! To answer you question about teaching males, we try to get members with us, but most often it isn't a problem to teach them if we can't get anyone with us. In order to teach them inside we have to have a third female with us, but in this mission we most often just teach people outside on the side of the road or on their front porch. As long as we are out in plain view of others we are fine to teach them alone. 

This Saturday we were at the baptism of two of the Elder's investigators and our whole zone was present. It was in the evening of the day we were all waiting for transfer calls, and none of us had heard anything yet. Of course, right as the baptism started our phones started ringing one by one. Haha! Luckily the second one who's phone rang answered it and took the call outside to let them know that we were all there and would call back after the baptism. Them baptism was very nice, as all baptisms are, and afterward we called back the APs (assistants to the president). We all just passed the one phone around to hear what our assignments were. Almost everyone in our zone is staying next transfer, all except one elder who was in our branch in a trio. He will be going to St. Lucia. As for Sister Feltis and I, we will be staying in Arima so here is where I will spend the rest of my mission, which is nice. I was hoping not to have to go to a new area my last transfer. 

I love you all! 

Sister Bratt

Placed in our Path

This week we saw much success. We had the wonderful blessing of having 3 investigators at church, though one of them came partway through sacrament meeting (But at least he came!). Either way, it was a great Sunday. There was also a lot of excitement caused by our friendly branch vagrant man this Sunday. He is in his 60s and is often high on drugs, but he loves church. He is usually fairly quiet, sometimes needing one or two friendly reminders to be reverent, but this Sunday he wasn't very with it. He started singing along with the hymns in a very loud, nasally falsetto voice that made it hard for the congregation not to laugh. He definitely keeps things interesting! Haha. He has been jumping over the church fence lately to sleep on the grounds, so the Branch President had to tell him to stop. His brain is just not what it used to be, he used to be a really great, maybe even well known singer here, but the drugs have taken over. It's pretty sad. 

One of the investigators that came to church is J. We met him just last week or so as we taught another couple people by the road side in a neighborhood. He walked by on his way to the shop and made some comment to the people we were teaching like, "oh, your having a bible study, huh?" They invited him to join, and he said he would on his way back. We didn't think much of it, thinking he was just giving an excuse, but sure enough, he came back and sat in. At the end of the lesson, he agreed to meet with us again a few days later. We left him a Book of Mormon committing him to read the introduction and to pray about it. The day of our return appointment came and we had a great lesson with him, he committed to baptism for the 8th of November and informed us that he had read the first 3 chapters in the Book of Mormon. The following day we were in his area again and he stopped us to tell us he had actually been wrong about how much he had read, he had read 9 chapters and continued to chapter 14 since the previous day. Sunday he came to church and loved it. Within a week of meeting him he has read 19 chapters, come to church, and has a solid baptism date. He is one of the elect whom the Lord truly prepared! We are so grateful that the Lord placed us in his path that day so we could meet him. 

It is crazy to think that next week will be the start of my last transfer! Time flies. We went to the beach, one I haven't been to yet called Las Cuevas, with our zone and the Francoms today. The Francoms let us email at their house after, which was nice. (Elder Francom says to tell you "hi" haha) They're great. We had a good time playing Football (Soccer), laying in Sister Feltis' fancy camping hammock she bought when she worked at REI before her mission, wading in the water, and getting Bake and Shark at Richard's. It may be my last beach outing for my mission, who knows, but it was fun to go again. I haven't been to the beach since my first or second transfer in Trinidad. I sent pictures on Dropbox. 

I hope you have a great week, and remember your missionary daughter loves you!

Love,

Sister Bratt

General Conference

I'm glad you enjoyed General Conference! We enjoyed it here too, though we had a few technical difficulties. We watched part of the Saturday morning session with the branch at the church when all of a sudden, in the middle of Elder Christofferson's talk, the power went out! We waited for it to come back on, but when it never did, all the missionaries went over to the Francom's to watch the afternoon session. Luckily on Sunday the power was back on so everyone was able to enjoy conference. 

Thanks for sharing what you learned! I saw a lot of themes during conference. Many talks touched on the importance and role of prophets, more than once the scripture Helaman 5:12 was quoted, we were told a few times to change our priorities, and there was a focus also on the family/the home. Those are just to name a few that stood out to me. I learned a lot though, and can't wait to review over the talks again when the magazines come. 

Love you TONS!

Sister Bratt