Called to...

Nick had recieved his mission call and will be serving in the Fresno California Mission! So on Wednesday our Institute class said our goodbyes to Nick! We had a great time learning lots and eating brownies!

In my area, our YSA Branch is so blessed to have two sets of Sister Missionaries! So I've made it my goal to go out with  each set every month! And I'm happy to say that I've accomplished that!!! I love being with the sisters and to feel of their sweet spirit and hear their testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ! I hope when I serve my mission I can be as loving, inspirational, and serviceable as each of them!

Joy to the World

.MERRY CHRISTMAS.

On the day that is most thought of out of the year it would be the one were people get the most presents. But for me and my family we get the least, because we give our time, love and bright smiles to those that need it more than we do. We serve at the American Legion in town every Chrsitmas Day for as long as I can remember! It was wonderful having James and Diana home. It was their first Christmas together! But Joe and Carrie went to Idaho for the holiday with his famliy. It was different but the love of our family and Christ was felt all over our home!

 

Mission Prep.

I suppose the preparation has been on going but for me actually saying it has just begun. I have finally gotten the nerve up to say it to my extended family and friends!

I'm preparing to serve a mission!!!

Hello. Goodbey.

Missionaries come and go but there are some that we can never forget. These are some great ones! My dad loves playing the guiter and when he plays it my family and I always sing this great song call 'There Comes a Call'.

A hop, skip and a jump.

April

What a month this has been! The Lord is really getting to me, for the better! With lots of prayers I can say, I'm in good health! I was scheduled to work on April 2, yes, and General Conference weekend. I kept telling myself to find someone else who could work for me but I settled for the thought, I can watch it on a later day. I went to work Saturday morning expecting to arrive home around 8:30- 9pm that night. I now know why you don’t miss your church meetings, because bad things happen to you! I had slipped on some water that was on the floor in the kitchen of the restaurant. I was caring some bowls and when I slipped the bowls fell and I fell on the bowls which of course broke. I got a pretty big cut on my arm, and hit my knee so bad I had to go to the ER. Talk about totally embarrassment in front of all the people I wok with… But I have to be grateful for caring workers that helped me in saying, ‘Sarah it’s going to be okay’ and ‘Okay Sarah, you need to breath in through your nose and blow out of your moth.’ When the EMS came with great personnel they asked me who they could call, I knew my family would be returning home from the chapel and my dad and Andrew would not be home till later that night because they would be at the Priesthood session of General Conference, so I told the EMT’s that my dad would be in a church meeting and I don’t want to bother him and I didn’t know if my mom would be home yet. When I arrived to the hospital I then felt like no one would be with me… until I said a silent prayer and knew I would have the sharp pain in my knee for just a short time. In a short while my dad appeared before my eyes! I find it so odd, but the first words out of my mouth were, ‘Sorry you had to come and leave Priesthood meeting.’ My dad was so caring and shortly after two wonderful caring girls from work stopped in to make sure I was okay and not alone. They tried so hard to make me laugh but I hurt so bad… Haha. By 10:45 pm my mom had then come, I had finished signing my name on the paper work, the nurse had washed my cuts, the Doctor glued my arm. At 11 pm I was able to leave with a wrapped arm, an immobilizer brace on my leg and crutches. This was not what I planed on doing at the beginning of the day!

I was on crutches up until Wednesday the 20th. This all has been my first time and I hope it will be my last! What an ordeal it comes down to not working when you should be attending your church meetings. I’ve been humbled with all of this. Follow-up appointments with the Doc., going back to work not as a Runner, but as a worker who had to have a sit down job which only means eyeing/ pealing potatoes and pealing labels off of jars, and best of all, using the elevator to go to and from my classes which is not located in a convenient area on campus! Fun stuff! I may still not fully understand why this happened to me, but to know no matter what happens I’ll be a better person through all of this!

I heart 5K’s and Temples

I was so excited to watch and cheer on Carrie as she ran a 5K on The OSU campus. She put a lot of hard work and effort into doing this. I was so excited to see her every time she passed me!!! At the very end I got her time… I thought it was way super good, but what do I know. I really don’t do races. I just do little jaunts up and down our road. ;)

Carrie and I were fully loaded after the race and were both able to go to the Temple. Little did I know the youth that were going were in our stake!!! Oh how I love the Perrysburg Ward Youth! It was just the Priest and Laurels with a few others that joined along. As I was talking to a few of them, you can see their great determination and eagerness to succeed in life as one young man in particular told me about his plans after HS. He is so excited to attend BYU for a semester or so and then serve a two year mission for our church. I know he is prepared to ‘Preach My Gospel’.

Happy

Home Sweet Home

December

December First was week three until Andrew would come home!

The YSA Branch always has a Christmas dinner.

The Interfaith Nativity Festival was the first weekend of the month. Mom, Dad, Anna-Marie and I were able to sing in the Institute Choir. What an amazing spiritual moment to see so may nativity sets and hear the songs of Christ. When I looked out at the people it put a smile on my face to see Diana, Carrie and Joe, and his parents. Of course you can't forget FRIENDS! I love the Young Women in our Stake!!!

I was able to put some time aside to help Delores, a good friend of our family, put up her Christmas Tree! For me it was such a small service, but for her it was the world!

My family had fun attending the Wauseon Branch Christmas Party!

Finals were the week Andrew would be flying in and I was so excited because if they were after I would have not studed at all! Haha.

Five days, four days, three!!! TWO!!!

I had to work the night James, Diana's boyfriend, landed in Ohio. But when I came home it was like some big pow wow!!!

ONE more day and the house was up and moving around getting ready for Andrew to come home! Carrie, Joe, James, Diana, Anna-Marie and I had a sibs nigh at Toney Packos and visited the Toledo Art Museum! I'm positive every time I go, I get caught using flash on my camera!!! Haha. This is a clip form Andrew's last email he sent to my famliy. 'I can't wait to see more miricales the next few days, amidst our busy dinner and lucnh appointments with church members! I need to accept the fact that everybody's hosting a party specially for me and that my loving little zusters, ana-kun and sarah-kun, mama and Diana too are hleping to make the house tip-top shape for my arrival. It's a unique feeling, I hope that I can do more for each of you and help you feel happy, but this will be great!! I can't wait to meet br. James, yes? two J's: br. Joe and maybe soon to be br. James!! Quite funny I'd say!!... I can't wait to prepare for Defiance College and Wal-Mart deli??'

On Saturday, December 18th, Diana, James, Anna-Marie and I have decorated signs and were all ready for when Andrew arrived off the plane. We had to talk two vehicles to pick up Andrew! Carrie and Joe went up in their car, and Mom, Dad, Grandma, Diana, James, Anna-Marie, and I went in the van. It was so much fun going to the airport, and trying to figure out which terminal we had to go to. Carrie and Joe made it before we did but it was all one happy evening! We were able to find a wheelchair for our sweet Grandmother which I pushed her in. ;) When we saw Andrew, we were all scraming! I'm positive they called security to watch out for the massive group down in baggage clain! Haha. Here are some right before Andrew lfet to go to the MTC for a two year mission to the Belgium Brussels/ Netherlands Mission.

NOW when he returns!

So, have we changed?!!?!  

On the way home Anna-Marie and I called dibs on being with Andrew in the van!!! It was the sweetest feeling when Andrew sat in between Anna-Marie and I in the back seat! It was like old times taking road trips... Andrew had said to me right before we got home, 'Sarah, it doesn't seem like you have graduated and are in college now.' I said, 'It feels like we just picked up where we left off at... two years ago!'

That Sunday we filled two rows at church! ;) It was a tender moment having the whole family together. It was nice to have one of Anna-Marie and Is YSA friends come for work on that same weeked. She was a big help with taking pictures! We took family pictures during Sunday School but it was totally worth it!

It was kind of odd having James leave. He felt like a part of the family already. Little did we know!!! ;) He was such a trpuper with dealing with our crazy, happy, loving family that not onlly made sugar cookies, and then delivered them to neighbors and family during the Holiday, but sang at their door step! James was totally fine with that, because that is what his family does too! We had and early Christmas day for hime to open our presents for him! Diana gave hime a super cute one!

We had another visitor for the Holiday come and visit Anna-Marie and our family. Gail moved to Navada because of a job offer. She really likes it there even though we really miss her. She came to cook Indian food with us! It's the best and we were excited!

It had snowed so much during December. So Christmas Day was just a lovely day. We didn't have any expecting phone call to make since Andrew was with us now! As we woke up to sweet smells of pies and gathered downstairs to open wonderful heartfelt presents that we each gave each other. But Christmas won't be the smae if we didn't go to the American Legion to help prepare and serve meals for those that wouldn't have a meal of family to go to on Christmas Day. It has been our famliy tradition for as long as I can remember... about 15 years!

Diana and Anna-Marie were off to Utah with a car loaded of clothes, books, food, and so much more!

Stake Conference

Being able to attend Stake Conference (Adult, Youth and Regular Session) was just amazing!!! The spirit was so empowering. Elder Richard J. Maynes from the 70 spoke at each session. He is the type that likes to use the chalk board and the cool diagram! The Adult session was about the Celestial Kingdom, Earth, Church, and how we fit into each of them! We need to look at the good traditions that we are doing, continue them, and then the bad ones... work on them!

The Youth session (ages 14-25) He told us to imagine ourselves  when we are 80 years old and a news guy wanted to interview us. What would be the top 4 decisions we made that impacted our life? It was mostly geared toward the Young Men... missions!!! The experience is priceless! I thought of Elder Pratt! Elder Maynes said that all the preparation for a mission is tagged with you and when you come home you are basically a spiritual giant!!!

Then the Regular session was super amazing too!!! Ha. It was amazing to hear the Primary children sing! They are so cute! WOW, Sister Maynes, President Smith, Beck, Wilkin and Sister Eckel all talked about reading scriptures, prayer, the temple/ being worthy to attend, youth being able to step up to the plate, what is our role in life, going to higher ground. It was the best! They all gave great analogies too! Elder Maynes said that Joseph Smith was an investigator of the church; Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father were the missionaries. It is so true. We each have questions and they can be answered. We have to be humble and exercise our knees!   

Then to top all that off, an Elder came up to me and asked if I was a Pratt. It was odd, but then he told me he knew my brother!!!! It was Elder Wright! He told me that Elder Pratt was his Zone Leader in the Missionary Training Center! !!!! (MTC) Also with Elder Carter, they were in a room with Elder Strong!!! :) (He was transferred to Youngstown) So I had to talk a picture of them!!! (An Elder decided to get in the picture with them) They will be released January 5th! (I think that is the wrong word to use?!!?!) It would be the coolest thing for Elder Pratt to come home and see them before they return home!!!!  Talking to the missionaries brought back happy memories of Elder Pratt’s letters while at the MTC!!! ;)

When we finally started to walk out the door of the church, it was such a nice feeling to see the trunk door open and little sacks that had our lunch inside! (Mom, you’re awesome!) I’m still on a spiritual overload and trying to put into action what all was said. Good thing I took lots of notes so I won’t forget! ;)

Standing from left to right is Elder Lythgo, Elder Carter, and Elder Wright.