Monday, October 28, 2013

I always love to read the hymns during sacrament meeting. It works better if you try to take the tune out of it and read it like a sentence, because sometimes the pauses and stuff of the song take some of the meaning out of the words. But the hymns are beautiful.
Since I've been here on my mission the sacrament has had so much more meaning for me. Since we teach people about baptismal covenants and how the sacrament renews them, I've understood them so much more. We have to do three things (Keep the commandments, always remember him, and take his name upon us) all of which benefit us more than they benefit God. And in return, God promises that we can ALWAYS have His Spirit to be with us. Every moment we are worthy of it, the Spirit will be with us. It is a promise. Every time it uses the words "will" or "shall" it is a definite promise. It has been more interesting to read the scriptures every since I realized that. It changes things and makes them more powerful. I want to get a dictionary someday, because the wording of the scriptures is really so powerful, and I think sometimes we are just so accustomed to scriptural language that we don't always realize how strong the words actually are. For example, "A broken heart and a contrite spirit." Broken is a strong word. When you are broken, it means you are like not functioning. It doesn't just mean you feel a bit sad. It means you are like at the end of your rope and have realized that you cannot do more yourself. Contrite means we are sorry. Really, truly sorry and willing to change. When we come forth with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, it means we have done all that we can and have found out that our way doesn't work. And it we realize that God's way is the only way, and so we humble ourselves and basically admit that we are nothing and that God knows everything and we put ourselves into His hands so that he can change us and tell us what to do. But we need to do it with "real intent," which means that we are willing to act on whatever  answer we receive, not just go back as soon as things get good again. I've been reading the Book of Mormon lately and highlighting pride in one color, and the consequences in another and the same with humility (but different colors). It is extremely interesting. Also, I've noticed that so many times, the really bad pride that leads to destruction started with the wearing of costly apparel. I don't know what that means, but it is interesting.

We had a super cool miracle this week.  We were on exchanges and I was with Hermana Carn, one of the sister training leaders, and we went to go knock an apartment complex that we've been working but we found a bunch of mormon.org cards everywhere in English, so we figured they must have just been there.  So we decided to leave and come back in a few days.  But as we were driving away, I thought I wanted to go check up on a family that we found last time we were there that seemed interested.  They weren't home, but we decided to knock on a door that looked Hispanic that wasn't home last time.  So we knocked and this little boy who was probably 8 or 9 answered and said his parents weren't home, only his siblings and his grandma.  We asked to talk to her, so he went to get her.  Then he told us she only speaks Arabic, because they are from Egypt. We were about to leave after talking to them for a couple more minutes (I don't think she really knew what was going on) so we handed them a Jesus pass-along card and she immediately said, "Jesus!" and started to kiss the card and cry.  We were a bit confused, but she waved us inside and her grandson Joseph told us her son had died when they lived in Egypt 4 years ago.  She was still crying and telling us thank you for the card and she left to get a tissue and Joseph asked, "How can I get more of the Jesus in me?" And we asked if he wanted us to teach him how to be more like Jesus.  He got really excited and said yes, so we asked if we could send some missionaries back with stuff in Arabic for his grandma and stuff in English for him.  He told her and she was super excited too, when we said she could be with her son again someday, forever.  We couldn't talk to her very well because Joseph had to translate everything we said, but they are such a miracle.  We said a prayer with them and they were so excited and told us to come back soon.  Unfortunately we had to give them to the English missionaries, so I don't know what else will happen with them, but I hope they take good care of them.  But yeah, that was super cool.  And we were fasting that day too.  It really does bring miracles.  God really knows His children.  If there is one thing that I have learned on the mission, it is that God loves and knows each and every one of His children personally and by name and He only wants the best for them.



Monday, October 21, 2013


The leaves are just starting to change here; most of them haven't yet. I'll take some pictures and send them to you when they start to change more. There really are trees EVERYWHERE here. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a tree. Like almost literally you can't, unless you're standing in the middle of the road. Which would probably be a bad idea. Even though people here are WAY better drivers than in Utah. In some ways. Utah is just a place of terrible driving. The thing that people do here though is they won't let you change lanes. The instant you put your signal on, they speed up so you can't get in. You pretty much just have to start going over before they back off. It's super annoying. But aside from that they are usually better drivers than Utah. Unfortunately I won't be driving for a while. I miss driving. I'm not the designated driver in our companionship, because Hermana Chambers knows the area better because she's been here and extra transfer, and she's the senior companion. So unless I'm like training next transfer *knock on wood* then I won't be driving for a while. Oh well. Someday. At least Hermana Chambers isn't a crazy driver at all. If she was I may have had to ask President Wilson if I could drive.

Yeah, our member dinners were pretty good this week. One of them they gave us soup. Hispanic soup is not like real soup. It is just like quartered vegetables and chicken legs/meatballs/mystery meat in broth. It is weird. You can't just eat it with a spoon. You like eat the stuff out of it and then drink the broth. But it tastes good, usually. If you don't get too many bones.  Also, I tried Columbian food for the first time this week. The Hincapie's, the parents of the two boys that just left on their missions last month are Columbian and they are like the sweetest people ever. The Columbian food was super good, except these like fried banana things. Those were nasty. But the rest was great! And they are like the nicest people and all they want to do now that they have missionaries out is spoil the missionaries here. It is funny. They just want us to come over and stay for the whole day. He was like, "Come over sometime when you don't have appointments afterward and we'll watch a movie and have popcorn and my love will cook delicious Columbian food." It is funny. They're adorable. 

We have one lady and she was dropped 3-4 years ago for a weird reason that isn't really a good reason to drop someone, and she was never picked back up. But, we went over there and she still lives there and we had a really good restoration lesson and her son, who is probably in his 20's was there.  At first he was playing with his phone and not really paying attention.  She seemed just a bit skeptical but when we started talking about Joseph Smith, her son started looking super interested and when we asked if they would read the introduction and gave her a Book of Mormon he asked if he could have one too, in English so he could understand it better.  We have high hopes for him, and for her too.  Unfortunately someone else got home right before we were about to challenge them to be baptized, and they all got super distracted and both of us felt it wouldn't be right to invite them after that, but we're going back next Saturday and we're super excited!

But yeah. Not too much else is happening. Things are good.
Love you all! You are the greatest! Thanks for your support and love and whatnot!
The church is true!
Hermana Emily Ann Pratt


Saturday, October 19, 2013

Cars, Sickness and Random Pictures



Most of the district before transfers

Penguin porch statue

Scary dog

Interesting bumper sticker

Emily & her first trainers



Sombrero!

Today we went at like 9:30 in the transfer van with Elder Burton (the senior missionary that is over cars) and got five brand new Chevy Cruzes. The one we picked up and drove back to the mission office only had two miles on it when we go it. Unfortunately, we have to keep our old (not really that old but old for a mission car) Chevy Malibu that has like 60,000 miles on it. It has been having some problems lately, so that is irritating. It keeps telling us "ESC off, tires low, traction low," etc. We were a bit jealous of the new cars. 
PS I really miss driving. I haven't driven in over 4 months. My companion doesn't even really like driving. Oh well. I'll get over it. 

Nothing really exciting has happened this week. Actually, like nothing has happened this week. Mostly Hermana Chambers was sick so we were just at home except for when we had appointments. And I wasn't feeling great either, but I wasn't as bad as she was. But yeah. This week was boring. Also, most of our appointments cancelled. And none of our investigators came to church, because of the rain. I don't know what it is with Hispanics and rain, but church attendance goes down by like half when it's raining. It's weird. 

Oh, and we have lots of member dinners this week. They replaced some of the Hermanas in our district with Elders, and one of them is brand new, so they sent him and his companion into relief society with the food calendar and made him ask them to sign up. And Elders are always acting super pitiful and starving to get member dinners, but all the women fall for it. This new Elder, goes in and was like, "Hola... Tenemos... Hombre...?" Because he didn't know Spanish. What he meant to say was hambre, but what he said means "Hey, we have men." So yeah. It was pretty funny. He is a bit of an awkward person. But oh well. Maybe he'll get over it a bit when it isn't his first Sunday in the ward. But anyways, all the relief society women thought it was adorable so there were at least two people signed up for like every day for the next week or two, and a lot of them are in our area, so we have like three or four dinners this week and next. We're a bit worried because the people here are fairly poor, so a lot of times we really don't know what we're eating. But they are trying. Sometimes I'm pretty sure they just put the whole chicken in the pot after plucking it, and smother it with hot sauce and then put a bunch of rice on the plate. And I'm kind of joking, but at the same time I legitimately think that may have happened a couple times out here. But of course, sometimes it is actually awesome food. You just never know. But luckily I won't need to buy as much food this week.  I can't even tell you how many times I have eaten at places where I don't trust the cleanliness of the plates/food. Sometimes it is really scary. I rarely know what I'm eating. It's just... Great. 

But anyways. Yeah, this week has been uneventful. This next week we already have lots of appointments set up, so it's going to be pretty busy. Hopefully we're up to it. We're still not quite back to normal yet. Working on it.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

First Baptism!!

Some excerpts from a letter Emily mailed home a few days ago: 
I like teaching, especially Hispanics. They love Jesus.  I went to a dinner at member's house the other day and taped to the door and also on a shelf next to the door were two of the Jesus pass along cards that had probably been there since the missionaries had taught them 10 years ago.  They never throw away or hide pictures of Jesus.  If you want to ensure that something stays in a Hispanic house put a picture of Jesus on it. We've done it a few times and it hasn't failed yet!

Our ward mission leader resigned (and decided to quit the church), so we don't have a ward mission leader right now which is bad timing since we have a baptism coming up between the Saturday afternoon session of conference and the Priesthood session.  

At the Zoo "Cute"

Feeding the parakeets at the zoo on P-day

"Slimy"


Giraffe's have really long tongues!

Her E-mail from Monday October 7, 2013

Howdy! How are things? Things are great here. Man, Conference! I love it. It is pretty much the greatest thing ever. 
So first, the baptism. The M family are the greatest! Everything went off great. I said the opening prayer and Hermana Chambers sang a song with another missionary that was here teaching them last transfer. They sang "How Great Thou Art." It was really good! We managed (with lots of help) to get everything together; clothes, filling the font, the program, the speakers, people to baptize and confirm them, etc. Also, we got our recently resigned mission leader to speak.  Despite the fact that he quit the church. From what I understand, preparing the talk made him realize he needed to come back. He didn't look good though, and neither did his wife. The fire was gone. We're definitely going to be trying to help him out more. We were a bit worried he was going to go crazy and tell them not to get baptized or go off about the church or something. You just never know, even before they quit the church. But his talk was actually really excellent. No false doctrine was preached, the Spirit was there, and it really helped him feel it too. Which is good. And the M family really liked it too. Two birds with one stone. Also we had one of the young women speak. One of the M family brought a secretary from her High School that she is good friends with. She is going to be the greatest missionary someday. And she really wants to go, too. Almost every lesson she asks us a question like, "What made you decide to come on a mission?" and stuff like that. It is super cute. And their little niece/granddaughter, Yarid (to be pronounced like Jaddy, sort of) is five and she was CONSTANTLY telling us she was going to be baptized with them, and was super sad when we had to tell her every five seconds that she still had three years. But she really loved watching them get baptized. She is the cutest little girl. 
So yeah, they were baptized and then confirmed, and they all loved it lots and the girls were crying and the boys were both super excited. There was a visible difference in them. The Spirit works miracles.

The "M" family
The "M" family with the Bishop and one of the counselors

So, conference! Greatest thing ever, right? I just realized I should have brought my notes with me to the library. But unfortunately, I didn't so I'll just have to share what I remember and maybe next week I'll try to bring them.
I loved President Uchtdorf's talk! The quote that said, "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith" was super inspiring to me. I am definitely going to work on that more. Also, Elder Holland's talk was super interesting to me. I've never heard a General Authority speak on that before. It was much needed to many people, definitely.
I also really like Elder Bednar's talk. It was applicable not only to tithing, but pretty much every commandment. I loved his analogy about the windows of heaven, and how windows allow natural light to fall into the room, which is like subtle blessings that come into our lives that are easily overlooked. Also he talked about how rather than change our circumstances, God changes us to be able to deal with them. I never really noticed what he said about how the Stripling Warriors prayed for strength and were given faith, hope, and love and stuff like that. Not exactly what a warrior might think he needs, but God knows us well enough and will not leave us without the tools we need to handle any situation that is thrown at us.
I felt like there were some major themes to conference this year that like everyone mentioned. For instance, it was very geared towards how men and women (women especially) have their own roles to fulfill and both are needed to have the kind of home that God wants. I loved the quote by Elder Christofferson about how we have enough women that are tough, we need more that are tender, etc. I don't remember the whole thing, but I definitely want to get it. I REALLY want this conference on video. In English and Spanish. 
Also, another theme was like preparing more and more because hard times are coming. I got goosebumps when Elder Hales was talking about how the saints in the early days of the restored church were terribly persecuted, but we are not. Then he said, "It will not always be so." And almost everyone talked about some way to protect the home, and how important it is to have a Gospel-centered home, read the scriptures, build Spiritual stamina and strength, and stuff like that. Everyone talked lots about protecting the sanctity of the family, and it reminded me of the "They Saw Our Day" Cd and how almost every prediction talked about families falling apart right before the craziness. It is so important to build strong, Gospel centered families and testimonies that can last through hardship.
Elder Nelson's talk was wonderful too. I loved how he combined science and the Gospel in his talk. I feel like I can never get enough of that. The other day I was reading in Abraham about the creation and thinking about it scientifically, and it really brought a lot of light to my understanding of it. I found it interesting to hear an Apostle talk about our bodies and how amazing they really are. They truly are incredible. Like none other. There can be no other explanation but that they are from God. Would an explosion in an ink shop produce a dictionary? I think not. There had to be someone behind it who can see it all and who knows how to do everything.
So yeah, I just really loved Conference. It was fantastic. I'm dying for the Ensign to come out so I can read it again and highlight parts I like.
Also, listening to conference (especially the Australian guy and the thing afterwards about missionaries in London) I realized how long it has been since I have heard any sort of accent except Spanish accents. And I haven't even heard that many of those because usually I'm speaking Spanish to them, not them speaking English to me. But every once in a while there are people that will come up to me and speak their adorable little broken English to me and it just goes to show how great people are. Even though they know I speak Spanish (Ha... Ha... Funny) they will make themselves uncomfortable and try to help me out. I love those people. Also, invariably those are the ones who never make fun of my Spanish and are always telling us how great we are doing speaking Spanish. 

But yeah. Things are great here, I'm thinking this week is going to slow down lots. Last week was all scrambling to get ready for the baptism and visit them every day but still visit all our other investigators too. 

Love you all! Have a great week! Write me letters... They are the most exciting things ever on a mission. I never knew til I got here. But they really are. 
Adios!

Hermana Emily Pratt