BOM dia!

Ola familia! So this week was pretty awesome, we had 2 baptisms! Yay! One was a wife of a inactive member, Celiana. He decided to come back to church, and we baptized his wife. They are a way awesome family. The second I met him, i just felt his strong spirit, and power. Ive been able to picture them in the temple being sealed together forever, and then she was baptized and it was the best day ever! It was a little crazy though, because they live really far away, you have to take a bus to get there, and its pretty expensive for us. Then on Thrusday we had all this stuff happen with having to pick up our new american companion. We couldnt get a hold of celiana for a few days! We FINALLY got a hold of her to have her come to the church for her interview. She asked when her baptism was, we said later that evening, and she was like, can we do it after lunch instead? Okay! So we ran to our lunch, and then we ran back, and gathered as many people as we could. Luckily we had enough priesthood holders there. And it was awesome,. Her husand, Antonio, cried, I almost cried, it was way sweet. We also baptized a man, Marcos. His mom is a member, he was supposed to get baptized a while ago, but he smoked 3 days before his batism. So he tried again, and he hasnt been smoking or anything! It was a miracle! And he was baptized! Yay!
So we have a new comp, Sister Taylor. She is from Utah. She is also African American, so she fits right in here and doesnt stick out like a sore thumb like some people...namely...me. However its this totally fascinating concept to Brazilians that not ALL Americans are 6 feet tall and white with light hair. If I had 1 real (the money here) for everytime someone made a comment about my American-ness, namely, I~m white, tall, eyes, hair, ask if I know obama or Justin Beiber...I would be able to buy Brazil by the end of my mission. No joke. Haha, but its all good. Some people wont talk to me because of it, but others will, either way the church is still true :) One thing that made me so ridiculously happy was seeing Guto, the boy we batized last week, come to church in a white shirt and tie and pass the sacrament. And his less active parents have come 3 weeks in a row now! Its the best thing ever! This ward is cool, we have 2 amazing RMs, power houses, that help us with everything. Patricia she is awesome. We went on splits on Sunday, I went with her, it was terryfying. I had no idea what was going on at all, but I learned a lot. I sort of felt like a little bird being pushed out of a tree before its wings were fully developed, and I smacked the ground a few times. But by the end, I was roughly flying a little better. Also we have Rene, he is our ward mission leader. But he wants to be more like our Zone Leader. We call him Elder Rene, he always asks how our numbers are, and helps us with EVERYTHING. Its pretty awesome. The both of them also teach seminary, and they work with the Youth a lot. They are the blood line, the core life of this ward. Its awesome to have such power helping us out.
My language is coming along a lot better. Everyday is a little better. Ive discovered i do well with everything, except when people tell a story, like from the past or something, or about other people. I think this is probably because i dont know verb tenses yet. Something i definitely will work on this week. Well, Im running out of time, but I love you all lots and lots! Thanks for all your support! Brazil is awesome! Its got its ups and downs, but overall, its pretty sweet to be preaching the gospel, because I know this church is true and Im so grateful for that knowlege in my life. Do me a huge favor, and go invite a friend to church!]Love you all!!!!
Sister Pratt

Oiy!

oiy familia! I just got to talk to some of youon sunday, but ill send an update for everyone else. Well, im still in brazil. Haha! No, I really love it here. All the hard things I didnt want to face arent as bad doing them as they are thinking about doing them. for example, i think ive finally learned how to breathe in the cold shower. also, ive got a system down of putting on sun screen, then bugspray, then baby powder, and we are ready to leave the apartment. I dont have elephant legs anymore, but i think blisters may be starting to form. thats okay though, we take problems one step at a time :) my stomach adjusts a little better everday to the food, although its still a little queasy from time to time, ive figured out how to manage. and the language, which is the hardest part, is coming along. i understand what is going on most of the time, its really hard when people look and me to talk, because i cant speak back very well yet, but im getting there. the hardest part for me is i want to be able to teach and talk and get to know people, but the language barrier is a huge proeblem. especially since Bahians LOVE to talk. and talk. and talk. Maybe its a brazilian thing, im not sure, but in any case they talk a lot. Also, I wrote a bunch of letters last week, but i didnt get to send them out, but they are on their way. Heres a little shout out to Cailey Loren Marcom Morgan who I havent heard from in a while. Please, just like a quick email telling me everything is going good. E-mail really is the best way, because i don~t know when i recieve letters, so email me, and ill try to write you back, via snail mail.
sorry this is really short, but this computer is slow, and i~m running out time. I love you all lots! Brazil is really sweet! We~ve got some amazing familias we are teaching and we have a baptism this saturday, which will be super awesome. Love you lots!
Sister Pratt

First letter from Brazil!

Hello from Brasil! I´m doing great as soon as I figure out how to type on this keyboard...sorry if there are mistakes. Its different. Just like everything else in this place, different, but its good! I got here and was super overwhelmed, but mostly because I was ridiculously tired. Luckily my companheira is amazing and she let me got to bed at like 8 o´clock and I slept a lot better than I thought I would. Things are really good actually! I think as soon as I am able to understand people, I~ll never want to leave this place! Brasil is SWEET! My companion is awesome, she is from Sao Paulo. President told me all the sisters love her, and I´ll love her too. My district leader and zone leader are \american, so they talk to me in English to help me out. They both said my trainor is the best sister in the entire mission. She really is amazing. And she is! She is funny and kind and loves everyone, and is very patient with me. I~m able to understand her pretty well, I have my dictionary, we call, meu amigo, and its all good. However when the people start talking to me, especially Bahians, I~m pretty sure its not Portuguese. Salvador is comparable to Los Angeles, I guess, and Bahia is very different from the rest of Brazil. Although we still eat beans and rice every day. People here are so surprised to hear that we don~t eat it everyday in the states. they just put everything on beans and rice. Most of the time I don~t know what Im eating, but its REALLY good, so I eat it anyways. People ask what my favorite food is, but I dont know...People also ask where I live in the US. These moments I wish I was from cailfornia or new york because no one recognizes anywhere else. i also wish i~ve met obama, justin beiber or seen the white house because the fact that i havent makes me a pretty un-interesting america. i do however have a picture of a snow man, which is pretty good. and the mambers are very impressed with the fact that im related to parley p pratt. Oh, and they can~t pronounce pratt, so my name is now sister Pratch. My feet are ridiculously swollen. I can never remember the word for swollen in portuguese, so i call them meu pes elefante. my elephant feet. haha, and my legs are covered in mosquito bits. But none of that really seems to matter because Brazilian people are SO amazing. They are kind and loving, and patient with me as i learn and they hug us and let us into their homes and feed us and its pretty awesome. We have a few people that we are baptizing this Sunday. Its pretty different from Colorado, how things work here, but Its good.

Amo Voces!! Um abraço!
Sister Pratt


This is the adress you should use to write me:

Av: Antonio C. Mogalhoes
Sala 402
Ed- Delta
Cidade - Pituba - Salvador - BA
Cep: 40275-000
Brazil

4/25/11

Hey family! Thanks to Sister Bowman, you all heard the news, I GOT MY VISA!!! I'm excited/nervous/scared/excited/every single emotion in the book. I feel ready...I think. I know that its the right time, for sure. I've known the whole week that it was my last week in Colorado. Then the President called on Saturday morning, and I'm leaving on Wednesday! My flight leaves at 10 and I think I'm going to Dallas first, then somewhere, they didn't tell me what was going on. All I know is that I report to the mission office on Wed morning. Sister Bowman sat by me in Relief Society and just cried the whole time. She gets really atttatched to the missionaries. I managed to make it through all of church without tears. But we visited my Recent Convert, Frank, who is doing so incredibly great! He is getting his priesthood on Sunday and he is going to the temple for baptisms next month! And I told him I was leaving, and he got all teary. He said a prayer with us before we left, and cried. Oh man, it was hard. Then he gave me a hug before I left...I just couldn't resist, hes the cutest little mexican man and I'm so sad to leave him. My one baptism :) I'm also sad to leave Phenia, TWO DAYS before she gets baptized! Ugh! She was sad when I told her too, she was like, First Sister HIlbert, now you? I know right! I miss Sister HIlbert too :) Its been a crazy week and I have so much to do before I leave. I love Pueblo Colorado, its like home! Okay Miracle Story:
Another miracle was when we visited a referral from the Pueblo Elders. They ran into a woman who had visited with missionaries before, and wanted them to come over for dinner. She ended up cancelling, but we decided to stop by and she let us in. Turned out she was ready for her baptism, but was living with her boyfriend and was on probation and there were just a lot of road blocks that stopped it from happening. And she lost contact with the missionaries. She recently broke up with that boyfriend, and is off probation and has been wanting to get back in contact with the missionaries, but didn't know how. She wants to be baptized! There are a few complications because she has a high-risk pregnancy and is on bed-rest. But we are super excited to work with her, she has a testimony of the gospel.
Well, I LOVE YOU ALL! SO MUCH! I've got lots to do today in preparation, and I'm pretty excited. Nervous, but excited. I Miss you lots and lots! Keep the letters coming, especially now that I'm in a foreign country. LOVE YOU! TE AMO
Sister Pratt

4/18/11

Hey everybody! I think that Brazil maybe forgot about me, but I'm totally okay with that because I love Pueblo! I could just serve here for the next year, and it'd be fine with me! Although, thats probably not the case, its okay. I'm enjoying the time I have here. SO at the beginning of this transfer, the Zone Leaders said that Pueblo Zone was going to baptized 45 people this month. And our district would have 16 of those. Thats a pretty big goal, considering last month our zone had 13 total. I hadn't quite found the faith in this number, and I really needed to. We had an amazing district meeting on Friday, and I finally "caught the vision" as my zone leader would say. So friday night we felt good about going to visit this former investigator. Then in the morning we felt really strongly about going to her house. None of us had met her, but just saw she was a former who had been to church a few times. We visited her and she told us how weird it was that we showed up because she was just thinking about us and how she wanted to go to church this Sunday and how she really wants to dedicate her life to God. She came to church yesterday! She is totally prepared and ready to commit and we are really excited for her Baptism on April 29th! So there you go, the miracle ALWAYS comes after the trial of faith. And that faith doesn't come until you are obedient. I'm a little frustrated with myself for not truly figuring all of this out until my 3rd transfer, but better late than never!

Another miracle was we felt really good about going to see this Recent Convert. So we called him up and went over there, turns out his daughter was there who is taking the lessons in Missouri. She told us how the Elders that she loved just got washed out, and now they're putting sisters in and is really upset about it. But after we talked to her and taught her a little, she said she'd call the sisters as soon as she got home for them to keep teaching her. It was amazing! She realized that she needed to be converted to the church, not to the missionaries, and understood the reason for everything and we were able to help her be more comfortable with sister missionaries.

The other miracle was teaching David, who wants to get baptized, but is on parole until next February. He wants to learn morea bout Joseph Smith, so we watched the Restoration DVD with him. It was so amazing, and afterwards he bore his testimony on the Prophet, and how he knew it was true. He is so amazing and his baptism is going to mean so much, since he is changing his life so much! I can't believe how my testimony grows even more deeper every time I share, or watch, or read the account of Joseph Smith. Its ridiculous.

So things are pretty much going great! Not easy, but really great. Hard work always pays off. I love you all! Hope your week has been going great! Remember to keep the faith, and miracles will happen! :)
Love always,
Sister Pratt

Hi family! Hey, remember when April 2011 arrived, and I'm still not in Brazil? Haha! Its all good though, because of course I love Pueblo Colorado and all the challenges that come with it! So Sister Hilbert left this week, which was really hard, and I learned a ridiculous amount being senior in my 2nd transfer with a Tongan who speaks little English and neither of us have any idea what we're doing. We're working with David who is getting baptized on April 10th. We've hit a few bumps in the road involving jail time, and other issues from question 4 of the baptismal interview questions. Its a tricky one. But we keep praying and I know God is in control, and so whatever happens, happens. Let me tell you how ridiculously awesome it is to watch General Conference as a missionary! We joke about how its like the missionary's version of the Superbowl, all our major stars and big players all at one place. And all the missionaries get together and watch it, passing around m&ms and eating all our meals together. It was so awesome though! And of course my favorite was Elder Bednar, but there were some really awesome talks this year. In other news, unfortunatley Miguel did not get baptized, he wants to work at his own pace, which is sad, but we hope he'll come to make the decision soon in the future. Oh! And transfers are tomorrow, I'm staying here with Sister Tu'alau and another sister is coming down with us, Sister Ulu'ave. No, not Tonga, but Samoan. Actually, she is from New Zealand, but english is her second language too. I figured once I went to Brazil, I would never have an American companion, but I didn't think it'd be like that here in Colorado. It'll be good though. I feel bad that my e-mails are so short, but I don't know what else to report on. I love being a missionary, some days are harder than others, but its pretty awesome. Having to say goodbye to Sister Hilbert was one of the hardest things I've ever done, especially since she was going back home, so far away. Also the challenges I'm facing going into this next transfer are a little daunting, and often I feel I'm treading water. I'm learning how to really rely on the enabling power of the Atonement by yoking up with Christ. I'm also learning that when you aren't happy, you are doing something wrong, so you need to repent and keep going. Stressing out is bad and certainly not helpful. Something I've been trying to overcome my entire life. Can you believe I've already been out for 5 months? Its crazy! Well I love you tons and tons! I miss you lots! Thanks for all the letters and things!
Te AMO!
Sister Pratt

3/28

Hey Family!
So this week has been pretty crazy, but also pretty awesome. First of all, best news ever! Miguel is getting baptized!! Unfortunately I wasn't there, and I won't be able to make it to the baptism because I'm not actually going up to Springs this week. Its me and Sister Tu'alau in Pueblo without Sister Hilbert and I'm not sure how I feel about that, but good thing the Lord is in charge, so its all good! But I can't tell you how extremely excited I was to find out Miguel is getting baptized!! Also we have an investigator here that we're working with, his name is David and he is so awesome! He was supposed to get baptized this coming Sunday, but he didn't make it to church yesterday, so we have to push it back. But I'm still super excited about it! So this has been a super crazy P-day because its Sister Hilbert's last, so this letter may be shorter and more scatter-brained. But basically I learned this week: 1. When you have something kind, nice or important to say to someone, say it right away, because you may lose out on that opportunity. I've learned things happen fast here, people are transferred, or leave, or whatever, so never waste a moment. Also this next transfer pretty sure the Lord will be teaching me some important lessons including but not limited to having more confidence, and patience, and teaching skills and not stress out. Its going to be filled with trials, but thats where we grow the best.
I'm really sorry this is short! Thanks for being awesome and supportive, I love all the letters! And love you! Miss you lots!

Sister Pratt