Spiders & Visions

So remember our pet spider Frederick? Well, he disappeared. Let me tell you the story.

So I was eating my lunch of tomato soup (go figure) and Hermana Williams was downstairs for some reason and she makes a weird noise so I was like, "What's wrong?" and she's like, "There is something really big down here and I think it is a spider." I don't know if I told you guys, but this house used to be infested with really freakishly large spiders because the house was uninhabited for like 3 years.

So I ran downstairs and sure enough, curled up on the floor on its back looking dead was this MASSIVE brown spider. I took a picture, but I forgot my camera today so I'll show you next week. Curled up it was as big as a quarter. We went back upstairs and then I was driven by some morbid curiosity to go look at it again. So I went to look at it and I blew on it and it's legs moved a little. Now, I didn't want to smash it because:

1. I didn't have shoes on and 

2. We wanted Hermana Brown to come identify it to see if it was the same type of spider.

And anyways, I just figured it was like a death spasm. but just in case, Hermana Williams suggested that we put a container over it, so we did.

Well, Hermana Brown identified it and then left it there and later I went down there to look at it again (I find spiders interesting) and it was back on its stomach. I moved the container and touched the spider with it and it didn't really move, so I put it back and grabbed the lid and then very hurriedly scooped it up and put the lid on. It was mostly dead and indeed died like two hours later, but I was just looking at it and playing with it and it was SO LARGE. 

Then it was suggested to feed it to Frederick, so we opened the window from the top and Frederick didn't move in his web. I looked away for a second and grabbed the container and dumped the big spider in and shut the window and Frederick was gone! It only took about three seconds, I don't know where he would have gone. Sad day. But not that sad because it is just a spider.

Anyways. 

Yeah, we had another lesson by Sister .. yesterday. But luckily there was minimal false doctrine preached today. She did make one of our recent converts cry though because she is a single mom and basically said you have to be married to get anywhere near the celestial kingdom. And then at the end she started telling us about a vision she had about Judgement and how Satan is going to be there telling people that the Plan of Salvation didn't work, but I believe that was the only false doctrine preached. 

It is amazing how many people in this ward say they've had visions. Like everyone in every lesson we teach or they are teaching is like, "I had a vision!" and they say it super dramatically and then usually go into this weird thing that they supposedly saw. It is strange. But you know what, if the vision tells them that the church is true, it works right? 

One kind of cool experience though. There is a woman named Maria Ramos that is an investigator of ours, she told us about this dream she had that was basically Lehi's dream about the tree of life. We read it to her out of the Book of Mormon and showed her a picture and she's like, "Yes! That was my dream!"

And then she started telling us about how she sees things sometimes before they happen. Like she was in her kitchen the other day, and she saw a bowl of rice that was on the counter, and she had a thought that it was going to fall. And then it fell. And we're just like, "...Ooookay. Well that dream about the tree, that's cool, huh?" And she sort of thinks she's a prophetess. But we're working on it.

So Enrique, our guy who was going to be baptized on the 31st, was in New York for 2 weeks and then yesterday he texted us and told us sorry, but he is moving there. But he's going to give us his address so we can send him missionaries there. But too bad I don't get to finish teaching him. He is golden, too. Oh well. 

Oh also transfers are this week. We hear whether we are staying here or moving tomorrow. Who knows. But I've almost survived a whole transfer! That's exciting.

I have been enjoying the mission more and more every day! Thank you so much for your support and love! I hear about so many missionaries home stories, being companions with the sister training leaders,and I have it awesome.  Have a great day!

Ward differences....

We got fed three times this week, which is way more than normal. It is all thanks to the Elders in my district. They took the food calendar around and acted super pathetic like they were starving and everyone was like, "Aww, pobrecitos!" (Poor things!) and now like a bunch of people signed up. But still it isn't as much as a lot of places. A lot of areas get fed at least once a day. Which I actually don't think I would want. But still.

Prayers really do work Dad! That is a great testimony builder. I have a similar experience here. I hate it when it is just so hot and stuff, so I've been praying for it to cool down and to rain lots and stuff and it has been probably only like 70 degrees for the most part and raining a little every day for the past week - ever since I started praying for it! Sweet, huh?

Want to hear a story? I thought so. 

So our ward is crazy. And it like runs on missionaries. For some reason, the bishop only trusts like a few families. There are like ten people that have like 5 callings and give all the talks and prayers (Also missionaries do every week) and then like thirty or so active, great people that really need a calling or something to do and have nothing. It is weird. Oh and the Bishop barely speaks Spanish, he is American.

But anyways. So this crazy white lady that doesn't speak Spanish that is only in the ward because her husband is the ward clerk is a Relief Society teacher. Now, relief society has some very... Interesting teachers. One of the lessons, for instance went like this: She started out by saying she hadn't read the lesson. She started the lesson, then a little ways in she asked, "How many of you actually read the lesson?" And nobody raised their hand, and she started fake crying, and started like chastising everyone because she couldn't believe she had to teach such unrighteous people. She was like, "I have read this whole book and I am so close to the Lord because of it. I call you all to repentance!" 

And so on and so forth. That is a typical lesson for this teacher.

Now, back to (The white lady). 

So the lesson was on this great talk from last general conference by Elder Bednar, called "We Believe in being Chaste."

She started out the lesson by showing people the STD pamphlets she had brought because she used to teach teenagers about this and stuff and telling people to take them so they could give them to every youth they knew pretty much and "educate them."

Oh, PS, Hermana Brown was translating this into Spanish for her as she was talking, so be sure that I did not misunderstand. Unfortunately.

Then, she started talking about Adam and Eve. And she went into this hypothetical thing, saying, "If Adam and Eve and been able to have children in the Garden of Eden, they would have gotten back to Heavenly Father, right?" and everyone sort of just like mumbled and Sister Jones was like, "So whose plan was it that everyone get back to live with Heavenly Father? Whose plan?" And everyone was just like, "...God's plan?" And she's like, "No! That's Satan's plan! Satan wanted everyone to get back to live with God in the Celestial kingdom!"

So there was some nice false doctrine going on (poor Hermana Brown was doing her best to subtly signal that this was wrong) and then Sister Jones started like ranting about the youth, and how boys are scum ("Every boy with go as far as the girl lets him go!") and stuff, and how parents don't know what their children are doing, and how they are just always trying to get away from their parents so they can hang out with boys and horrible things always happen.

Then she like calls out this guy by name. This poor kid that just left on his mission to Brazil, and she was like, "You all know him, he spoke in Stake Conference last month.  He came up to my daughter at a school dance and asked her if she wanted to go make out." Now, I don't believe this at all because her daughter is extremely shy and not that type of person at all. I doubt she was even at a dance, that's not really the type of thing she likes to do. 

Then she starts going off about how girls need to go to college with a useful major and not go to college to get married and waste your money and get an "MRS degree" because if they do that, they are just going to end up pregnant and on welfare every time. 

So yeah, that is a typical lesson for her. 

...

Well, at least we know everyone that comes must be REALLY faithful. 

But anyways, I'm running out of time. We hope to have another person on date soon, we're just waiting for her to get married to her less active (He's coming back now though) husband. They were waiting on his mom to be able to get papers to come here, and they brought her to church yesterday!! So hopefully on tuesday she'll tell us their ready to get married and baptized. Her name is Paty, by the way. She wants to get baptized so bad. She has been waiting so long for it and just waiting on Rafael and his mom and hopefully she'll finally be able to set a date!

Well, the church is still true. Love you all! Have a great day!

Hermana Emily Ann Pratt

My Schedule and other little tidbits

I've heard Utah is having like the hottest summer ever. Is it true? It can't be as hot as here though. Actually on the days it rains it isn't super hot (except it is) but on the days it doesn't it just makes you want to melt. 

Yes, there are tons of Subways (the fast food place) here. They are usually smaller, not as many stand-alone buildings, but they are still everywhere you look. In any place you could ever possibly want a sandwich, they put a subway. Actually, that's a lie. But if you want to eat a sandwich every mile or so you drive, Subway's got it covered.

Hahaha that is so funny with the bees! Dad, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to side with Mom on her version of the story, despite your Knight and Day references. I can't remember half of the things you mention. My memories of everything like that are slipping. Including my memory of how to speak English (I just tried to spell that Inglish), which is bothering me. Things should just be spelled phonetically. I do agree that bees are filth though. They have ridiculously large and filthy colored ones here. Like black and red ones with their abdomens separated from their thoraxes with filthy strings of filth connecting them.

There is another spider that lives on our garage door that is also ridiculously large. It is kind of shaped like Frederick, but like three times bigger. We named it Kohor. And I imagine it speaking in the voice that Kohor has in the Testaments, trying to entice bugs into the house of Kohor. And then he eats them. It is such a large spider. But apparently not as large as the ones that infested the house before I got there. From what Hermana Brown describes, I think they were Brown Recluses. The house was uninhabited for 3 years before the missionaries started living in it. There was all sorts of terrors lurking there.

Thursday was car-fast day for the mission. We got a member to drive us to one appointment, but then she had to go somewhere so she dropped us off to visit someone like three miles from our house. They weren't home. So we walked all the way home in the blistering heat on roads with no sidewalks. I thought for sure I was going to get run over. Then we walked to a family's house who are in El Salvador for a few weeks and we're taking care of their plants and back. That was another mile or two. Lovely. I had zero liquid in my bones. Oh well. Who needs it?

So you said you wanted to know my daily routine, right? Well, here it is. 

I get up at 6:30 (ugh), exercise (well actually I'm not usually awake enough to do anything so I just do like stretches and stuff and sometimes sit ups) and then shower and stuff. We do personal study for an hour, companionship study for two hours because I'm getting trained (normally it is one hour) and then language study, then lunch. Then we go to various appointments/stalk referrals we got because it is harder to just tract out hispanics in America. Luckily my area has lots. But still. 

Then if we have time we go home for dinner, if not we just usually skip it because we don't have that much food. Unless we have a member dinner, which is often extremely unpredictable if it isn't scheduled. We only get like four or five a month, which is pretty low for our mission. It seems like people usually only feed us on the days we already ate stuff at our house. Every time. 

That is another problem. Our budget they give us for food and stuff is with the expectation that we get fed a lot more than we actually do, so we never have enough money in this area.  I have enough for food, but nothing else. Like soap and those other luxuries. Oh well. 

Then we usually come back and plan for the next day and go to bed. Lovely, isn't it?

So turns out that baby was named after me.  They blessed her yesterday and when I heard the name I just got the biggest smirk mid-prayer, sitting all by myself. I was sitting by someone, but they had to leave for something. 

The church is true! It is the best to help other people see it too :) I've been reading Jesus the Christ and it is fantastic to learn more about Him and His life. I've also started reading the New Testament today.  It is great.

Oh ps I have like two minutes left but all of you go read/listen to "They Saw Our Day." It is soooo crazy and it gives me goosebumps! It is about Indian tribes and various other people who have predictions of our day and like the second coming and histories and stuff and it is crazy cool. It is from a Mormon but given to non Mormon audiences so he doesn't actually relate it to the Book of Mormon but it totally is.

Love you all! Buenos Dias!

Hermana Pratt

Emily and Osman, Sofia and their daughter Michelle.  They are recent converts/ward missionaries

 that they visit a lot.  They are Kenyn's parents (see previous post)

Hermana Stoddard and a lion statue

Another Lion statue!

This week we've taught some lessons. I'm feeling more confident about my Spanish so I try to talk a little more. It doesn't always go well, but I'm working on it. When people ask me things I always have to ask them to repeat it and I understand them about half the time. Which is pretty good, I think.

Not a ton has happened. We taught Enrique the word of wisdom and he loved it! He told us he doesn't drink much, and he doesn't smoke except when his friends offer him one, but he says he'll stop that. He also doesn't drink soda, which is really unusual for a Hispanic. They all come from countries where you can't drink the water so they think you shouldn't drink it here either so they mostly drink soda and juice. But still. It's good. He's going to be out of town for two weeks, so we moved his date to the 31st of August. 

I love studying the scriptures! The past few days I've read 3rd and 4th Nephi, Mormon, and most of Ether today. It is really sad but also really interesting to see how much the cycle accelerated all the sudden because the Nephites turned away from God. Don't do that. But I loved reading about Christ (always) and like the 3 Nephites and stuff. Crazy to think about.

This is right by Martin's house. He is super cool. He's a member that was less active for a little while but now he's back and he is hilarious. It is tradition for all the missionaries to take their picture next to it. I don't think the people in that house know about it...

Lovely seahorse statue - there are a million weird lawn statues here

 So we have a problem with our sink. And our dishwasher. Whenever we use one, the other one backs up. This time though, my companions were at a meeting because they are the sister training leaders and I was with the English sisters we live with and one of them put dish soap in the dishwasher instead of dishwasher soap. Fail.

The second one is the front of the thing on our key ring to the church. 

the other one is the back. In case you can't tell, someone is running over a baby with a lawnmower and its foot is being hacked off. Isn't that something you'd want to have on your key ring?

Who knew otters climbed? Not me. 

Feeding a giraffe at the zoo!

                                               I was talking to a parrot. It was talking back.

This is Kenyn. He is five and one of the most adorable little kids ever. We gave him our nametags and he put them all on and was so proud of himself and had the biggest grin on his face. He is very funny. He knows a bit of english but mostly Spanish so it is funny to hear him speak English because they are just random phrases he learned from his brother Daniel who we teach in English or from TV. His parents are awesome too.