Updated address

Apparently, we didn't have the correct address for Emma.

Here is the correct one:
Sister Emma Pratt
Av: Antonio C. Mogalhoes
N 3247 Sala 402
Ed- Delta
Cidade - Pituba - Salvador - BA
Cep: 40275-000
Brazil

6/14

Oiy Familia! So I tried to get pictures e-mailed today and it really did not work. Sorry! Ill figure it out sometime. And we´re having serious troubles with the internet here today. But that’s okay that’s what you get when you go to a cheap internet house. So this week was awesome, we had another baptism. And I really wish I get you pictures of all these people! But that’s okay. His name is Jefferson, he is 12 years old. You’ve probably noticed we have had a lot of young men getting baptized. That’s because weve got this awesome little group of missionaries here, these young men who bring all their friends to seminary and church and other activities. Jefferson is one of these. He is little and the cutest kid in the world! One day, we were at an activity, and we were standing around talking to people, and the young men were all goofing around (half of them people We´ve baptized these past few weeks) When Jefferson ran up, faster than I knew what was happening, put his arms around me and kissed me on the cheek. Everyone started laughing and freaking out, `You can´t do that! Shes a missionary!´ Haha! It was hilarious! But the best part was when I was on splits with a member, we went to pick him up and bring him to the church, when we were walking, the member asked him what one thing the sisters taught him that he didn’t know before, he responded ´That I can´t kiss Sister Pratt.´Haha! Then I had to explain what happened in my broken Portuguese. Oh man…Just to clarify, everyone here greets you with a hug and kiss. He just didn’t realize we weren’t allowed to with him. But we all got a good laugh out of it anyways. In other news, this week actually isn’t transfers, its next week, there was a bit of a mix-up. Im not sure what will happen, but I know I wont be staying in a trio. (Thank goodness, I LOVE my companions, but a trio is really hard, regardless of the people in it). My Portuguese is coming along, really it isn’t the speaking that is difficult, it’s the understanding. I still don’t really understand what it going on, but Im told it gets better, so we just keep going. Good news is next week, with transfers, hopefully I´ll receive some of those letters that have been sent. To those of you who have sent, thank you so much! Sorry I haven’t gotten them yet. Other good news! This area, Simoes Filho is growing! We have 2 wards here, and our area is really huge. But they are starting a study group in one area. It only took me 2 weeks to understand what this meant, a study group is the beginning of a new branch. Once the study group gets one sealed family and 9 priesthood holders, it’s a branch! Then it´ll grow into a ward, and the ultimate goal is to have an entire stake here in Simoes Filho. 7 more stakes in Bahia, and we get a Temple! And when that day comes, I will cry with joy and hopefully be able to come back for the open house or dedication. Some days it feels like our tiny daily efforts are doing nothing, but then we look at the big picture, and see how all the little pieces fit together to create a big miracle.
I´m sorry this is really short, but with all the computer troubles today, I don’t have much time. Plus nothing really crazy eventful happened, except our awesome baptism which included chocolate cake. Other than that, Im just in a foreign country, learning another language teaching people about Jesus. Ya know…everyday stuff J I love you all a lot! And thank you for everything! Have an amazing week!
Sister Pratt

6/7

Hey everyone! Well the good news is, we had another baptism. She is an elderly lady, who is sick and cant walk. It was interesting getting her there, and it took 2 people to baptize her. The spirit was really strong there, and we had a ton of member support, it was really awesome! We are teaching a 12 year-old boy right now, he has been coming to church, and going to all the activities. He really wants to get baptize but he needs support from his family. His parents are married, which is a miracle in itself, so we are really praying hard to be able to teach and baptize the entire family. They have taken the lessons once before, and been to church once, maybe they are prepared this time around, but were really excited about them. We also need to find new investigators this week. Lucky for me, the members are absolutely amazing here, and we recieve a million refference/ everyone brings their friends to church. Although it is a lot of work sorting out which people are interested and ready for the gospel, which people just want to hear about Jesus, and which people just think its cool to have an American in their house and they can learn random english words like ^trash' and 'lollipop'.
A new goal of mine is to learn to cook just about everything here. Today Im learning how to make Brazilian brownies, (they juast call them brownies, but they are not american brownies.) And I was supposed to learn how to make cus cus, but itdidnt work out. Its hard because my comp does know how/hates cooking, so I keep asking the members to help me, and we have a serious communication barrier. So they cant give me a recipe or explain, they have to show me. Well...Ill get it down eventually. In other news we have hot water. Did I tell you that already? Sorry, its just really exciting. Next week is transfers, and I dont even want to think about whats going to happen. Im afraid im going senior, but I pray everyday that I dont. Not yet at elast, maybe next transfer. Ideally, Ill just stay junioe my whole mission :) Haha, no, its all good, the Lord knows what He is doing.
I love Brazil, the people are amazing, the food is delicious, and Im halfway to being fluent in a foreign language, which is totally blogin my mind. Im sorry to anyone who has written, and not recieved a return letter, I havent recieved any mail in a long time, and we all need to be very patient with the mail system here. But Thank you for all your support! Keep writing, I love to hear from everyone! I love you tons and tons and miss you more!
Um abraço
Sister Pratt

5/31

Hello! This week was pretty awesome, we had another baptism. Thats right, weve had a baptism every weekend since I got here. Even though its Brazil, thats still not normal, its been a miracle. The Lord has blessed us with great success! Sister Tiburcio was telling me and my other american comp that we have great power, and strong testimonies. We dont believe her, because we are both frustrated with the langauge. When we did stats, and saw weve had 4 baptisms this month, Sister Tiburcio yelled, if you dont believe me, at least believe in the numbers! I didnt completely understand what she was talking about, we have a lot of those communication barriers, and I yelled back at her, I believe in Jesus Christ and nothing else!! Haha, we laughed. Oh man, its been really awesome though. However, I was sick this week. Just a cold, but still no fun. It was really bad on Sunday, and we had incestigators to find and bring to church. We wlked up and down some ridiculously steep hills, like...ridiculous. I thought I was going to die. And it turns out non of the investigators were there/ wanted to come. It was a little devastating, and we showed up to church empty handed. Here is where the miracle comes in: we had 8 investigators at church. EIGHT! OITO! Why? because our members are amazing and bring their friends/family. Its crazy how the Lord works sometimes, we climbed mountains thinking we had no success that day, but we were blessed! (Holy cow...I sound like a missionary. Thats...really weird.)
In other great news, we got our shower fixed and have hot water. Well...we had hot water. Because a week later it broke. and then the shower knob broke, when the shower was on. So everytime we want any water, we have to turn on this big knob, and the shower runs, and then we tuen all the water off. its kind of annoying, but hopefully well find someone to fix it this week. And then well try to get the hot water back again.
Its been really sunny this week, and hot, but I havent burned yet. Its back to rain today, which I love, but the people here complain its too cold. Its like 85 and breezy, I love it. But when the sun comes out...not so much. And its only winter! I dont even want to know what it will be like in November here. But thats okay, thats not for a while. Im at 7 months on my mission! Isnt that crazy? Its crazy to me.
Everything is going great here. I love you all a lot! Thank you for all you do!
Love
Sister Pratt

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