Group Email

Hello everyone. 

how is life in the DUB VEE CEE?

I hope all is well with you and you are doing great. just a few things for this email, becuase its my first week i am rather slow at typing the the keyboard is hard so i can't capitalize. 

anyway. 

First things first. 

I am a solo sister. there are two ways you can be a solo sister. the first being that there are sets of elders in my classroom and i am the only sister in the class room or in my case, I am the only one in the class room. Solo sisters teach their lessons alone and I have taught 5 lessons by my self in the 8 days i have been here! It is hard to understand what my investigator is saying, but i have learned so much in the past 8 days. I LOVE IT! Like I can have legit conversations, but if I don't prepare for a convo it goes somewhat like, "GOD GOOD. JESUS SAVIOR." not completely, but sometimes thats how i feel. My teacher and i read out of the kniha mormonova and i was like "WEH?" I can basically pick out love, and it came to pass, and good, and god. 

The MTC food is not bad. There is a really great scripture that describes it. i encourage you all to read it. 

Jeremiah 4:19-20 Its awesome!

So one perk of being a solo sister is that I can volunteer to be a host and pick up all the new missionaries whenever i want. Which is cool, but i should probably figure out where everything is first. 

So in my district there is nine of us. 5 elders and 3 sister. the 5 elders and 2 sisters are going to the czech republic so we kind of understand eachother. KIND OF. ha there is one kid in my district that reminds me of braden delamare and he acts like him too and it kinda freaks me out but its awesome!

hey mom, yeah would you mind sending me a coat? 

its really cold in the morning LOVE YOU!

Have you guys all heard of dear elder?

dearelder.com you can send same day letters before 12:00 pm. it's great. and we get mail everyday and it is the funnest thing. i love it! 

anyway. I guess thats all i have for the week. if you have any questions you can email my mom or i and I will try to get back to you. keep the faith brothers and sisters.

Sestra Madison Ratcliffe

Riding SOLO

Howdy folks. just a quick email letting you know that all is wonderful in the MTC! The first night was rough, but I'm doing well! I love the MTC! and have learned so much Slovak already! I SUCK, but I am loving everything about this. If you couldn't guess I am a solo sister. I will explain more next week. PS P day is on thursdays, but we didn't get one this week! ALL GOOD! I love you. remember that. feel free to send me popcorn and goldfish. I won't object! I love you long time! 

Got to go!

-sestra Ratcliffe

PS SORRY DAD I FORGOT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS SO I ONLY SENT IT TO MOM.

She has arrived at the MTC

We had a really nice walk around the Temple grounds.  Sister Ratcliffe was ready to get going so we had family prayer and had us drop her off.  She was really ready and excited to be there!  She is a strong girl and didn't shed a tear, we tried to do the same but I'm afraid we are not as prepared as she is.  We are blessed to have her serve!

From Maddy Ratty to Sestra Ratcliffe

The Real Maddy Ratty

 Before her farewell . . . .

Before we headed to the Stake Center . . .

 We are so proud of Madison and her desire to serve our Heavenly Father!  Unfortunately for us, she will miss her cat more than she will us :)

 We are truly blessed with a very supporting family.  Thanks to those who were able to come and be apart of Madison's setting apart! 

Just one of those tender moments . . .

Sestra Ratcliffe . . . Ready to Serve

This was 10 minutes before we headed out the door to take her to the MTC

THE C A L L

                 

Okay first things first. I cheated.
Before I opened my call, everyone told me that the first thing you see when you open it will be your mission. Knowing fully well that I am not the best reader, but wanting to know before everyone else I cheated, took two seconds, found it, (which it really is right in the middle of the page, It's like a big sign) and prepared to read it to everyone. I don't exactly know what my thoughts were when I first read it, all I knew was that it was foreign.

Dear Sister Ratcliffe,
You are hereby call to serve as a missionary of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints you are assigned to labor in the... CZECH/SLOVAK mission!!!
*SCREAMS*
(then I continued reading, basically it told me I would serve in Slovakia speaking Slovak)
WOOP WOOP!
I had 140 days until I left, and that felt like a life time, but now I am down to 6 days and cannot be more thrilled, nervous, excited, and all sorts of emotions as the days go by.

*Advice I would give to future sister missionaries*
DO NOT PROCRASTINATE!
especially when you have the time I had, you don't want to get down to a certain number of days and wish you had been better at preparing. Learned that the hard way.