Actually, the past few days have been miserable despite the sunshine. I came down with a powerful head cold, and despite our best efforts to work, we figured people wouldn't want missionaries in their home who looked like death and couldn't form coherent sentences. The outcome: I've been unconscious for the better part of the past 48 hours. Woo!
Another thing fun that happened, was Sister H's Bday!! She turned 20, and it was super fun! Although we had to cancel one of the celebration appointments (my fault), we still got to celebrate with the Mirandas! It was so fun. We ate Little Ceaser's pizza and Costco cheesecake. AKA: The best party ever. We also played a grueling game of Phase 10, which we didn't actually finish. Sister Hatch won by Birthday default.
Something unexpected: A lot of people serve missions in cultures that (for lack of a better term) force-feed you. Not only that, but they force-feed you gross food. This was something that I totally thought I would be safe from. #1 American's are pretty polite about you not eating a whole lot. #2 I thought I would have experienced most of the food they would be serving. What I didn't factor in, was that the Boise area is a huge melting pot of many different cultures and has a pretty big refuge base. I had 2 experiences this week that totally shattered my security in this regard.
The first one was with this investigator named Janet, who doesn't speak any English. We went to meet her, but we brought a translator with us, someone who majored in Arabic and had spent a lot of time oversees. We went into the lesson, and immediately, Janet made us some juice that was so good and set a platter of biscuit things before us.... not as good. We couldn't tell what the pastry, crumbly things were, so we asked the interpreter. She said,"You just need to eat them. She'll be super offended if you don't... unless you're allergic, we need to finish like this whole thing." I was surprised at first, but totally game for it--until I took a bite. Ok. So they weren't THAT bad, but it was a chore to muscle down 2 of those... whatever you call them. It was a good experience overall, and the lesson went very well. I think the main thing was that it just took me by surprise. I had never been in a situation where it was offensive to turn down food. Welcome to the rest of the world, Sister Pratt!
The other experience was with a member in one of our wards. She was born in Iran, and she is just the sweetest thing ever. She wanted to take us out to lunch, which, of course, we couldn't refuse. She took us to a really nice cafe, and we ate until we were STUFFED. She just kept telling us to order more food. Then, when we were in a food-coma, we went back to her place to share a message. This is when she proceeded to spread out 2 huge trays full of goodies--chocolate, nuts, goldfish, more chocolate--it seemed like she put everything she could find on these trays. Then she came and sat down and just watched us. There was a little bit of an awkward pause, and then Sister Hatch and I just started to eat. She seriously just watched us eat. It was so weird because I had heard of this happening to so many of my friends and siblings that served in foreign countries, but I never really thought it would happen to me. Needless to say, we left that house barely walking!
Something else crazy, is I keep finding weird and crazy connections with people all over my area. The weird one this week was a family in our ward is my 2nd cousin! Her grandpa is Percy Pratt! It was weird to find that connection, but they are a super cool family.
Anyway that's all I have for this week!
Love you!
Sister Pratt
We dressed Jackson in a Santa Suit. He's so cute and patient!
This is crazy, I don't even know how I found this, but somehow, here I am, reading your blog. That's so awesome that you're on a mission! Hope you stay warm!
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