Puenta Arenas
Jamie Kissing Toes
She found a Pratt Street! She looks Cold!
Hola 9-11-06
I hope you guys had a great week even though I haven’t heard from this week. I can print out your letters so I can read them later and write as much as I can in my little time we have hear. We have had an interesting week to say the least. Don’t worry I am infamous, I lost my cable for my camera to download photos, but don’t you worry, we went to un franco, a mall and bought another one, they even have my mismo camera, the same one. So, I am downloading pictures to send right now. Oh yes, don’t you worry it snowed this morning, quite a lot really. Apparently it is really unusual for her to snow in septiembre, don’t worry not too cold. However we walked outside of the store and holy crap, it blew us across the side walk!! It was so strong, we had to hold on to each other as we walked, it was like walking tilted over, crazy! Que chistoso, funny.
Oh so I was going to tell you, they have this mix called ecco here, it is like coffee but without all the bad stuff. It is disgusting but I imagine tastes just like coffee. Everybody drinks it and loves it, yuck, I don’t but oh well. You should look I it up on the internet and buy it for granny!
So last week we went to lider, It Is a store like wal mart. They have everything. We ate at the furthest south McDonalds in the world. They have everything here that we can get at home, same brands even and mostly in English tambien. Es bueno, it is good. Oh they have this dulce de leche spread called manjar, super bueno. They have it in ice cream too, mmm, rico! Yummy. We met up with the other sisters in the zone, there are four of us and we did our shopping with them and hugn out. One of them is Chilean and the other is a gringa. So I could talk engilsh, which is good and bad because then I feel bad no one else can understand but then I can understand. They are super fun though, I really like them. We have like 25 sum odd missionaries here in Punta Arenas.
So, this is our schedule, at six thirty we get up and exercise for a half our, get ready, eat and by 8 we do personal study for an hour, then companion study for like half hour or so, plan the day, read the book of Mormon out loud in Spanish for me, some days service in the morning or district meetings, blah blah. 12:30 is lunch with members then back to the house for practice time of the lessons and study the language until 3. From 3 to 930 we are out teaching and visiting people. Keeps us busy that is for darn sure. I am so tired by the time night comes, holy cow, I have no problems falling asleep at night. It is good though, means I am working hard, right.
This week was the first time I had the opportunity to knock doors, nobody was home, nobody on the streets and so we knocked doors. Nobody wanted us but nobody was home either. I wore my pedometer the last couple of days we walked between 6 and 8 miles each day. I haven’t worn it too much but I am going to for awhile just out of curiosity. It is fun. My comp likes it too. Those 6 and 8 miles are dang hilly miles too. We have a very very very hilly sector. I like it though. With how much they feed me here, I need it. Man they feed me so much, I have learned the phrase, can I have less please. Holy cow, one day I wanted to vomit because they fed me so much.
So I am understanding more and more each day, little by little. When the spirit is there I can understand so much. When it isn’t I am lost. I am teaching a little more in the lessons. I can teach the lessons, I just can’t follow a conversations so if someone says something then I am lost and can’t do anything else. My comp has to have patience, she is really good with it. She is really good at listening, responding to their doubts and questions, knowing the scriptures and teaching with the spirit. We have an investigator named Africa. She has dreams, really amazing ones. Like she dreamed about things in the doctrine and covenants that no one had ever told her before. She is having a hard time believing or admitting that she knows the truth about the church. We are fasting with her and her family today. I really like their house because when we teach her the spirit is there. One day I followed the entire lesson, it was amazing. I was able too even answer questions. It was so cool. She is really patient with me as well and tries to help me and encourages me, it is awesome. Her five year old daughter loves me, as well with all the kids because of the color of my hair, she always wants to play with my hair while hna agurto teaches. Anyway, I didn’t totally know what was going on but the spirit prompted me to tell her that I know she knows the truth, it is simply recognizing it, we had a really good lesson with her last night too. I know the spirit is there because I can talk and understand. Her family is fasting with us and hopefully they will finally admit and recognize what they already know. It is awesome
We have a family with baptism date the 22. They just moved next door to us. Our house is like a granny unit behind a real house and then theirs is the other granny unit next to us. It is so funny that our investigators are right next door to us. They are so awesome. Hna says they have changed too much, he was a stripper and had cheated on his wife, and they have two kids. Now you can tell he truly cares about his family and he came to church yesterday with his kids alone. He really is a great guy, he invited us over for breakfast yesterday when they don’t really have anything. He is Sergio and she is Paula. Paula is so excited to learn; we are having them teach us a lesson on Wednesday and showed them the index in the back of the Book of Mormon to search topics. She is so excited, it is awesome. I just wish I could talk more and share my excitement. Most the time I don’t know what happened and then we leave and hna explains it to me.
It is so funny because I am one of the tallest people here, everybody is so chicatito, so tinny. The people are so humble here, they only have what they need and no more. Like Sergio and Paula have a family of four and one bedroom, kitchen and bathroom nothing else, their living room is their bedroom too. We have so much in the states, everyone. It is amazing how little they have but they don’t need anything more. Nobody has dryers, I’ve seen one and few have washers. Apparently we are the only ones in the entire mission that have a washing machine in our house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Entire mission!!! The church didn’t buy one, simply was a gift from someone moving. Way lucky!
It is so awesome when we teach someone new for the first time and they pray. Most people are catholic so they don’t really pray other then set prayers. It is so powerful and so awesome to hear them do it and how sincere they are. It is awesome, it is one of my favorite parts. It is so cool to see the little I have seen of how Christ can change people’s lives and how it can bring so much more peace and happiness into their lives. It is awesome. Most of the members in the ward are members for less than a year and to be able to see how strong they are in the church is so cool. I love it. It is really hard to learn people’s names in Spanish though.
We have members come with us to teach and it is so much fun. We have had some girls who are going on missions soon come with us. It is amazing how much better it is to have investigators know the members. Dad you should go with the elders sometimes. It is so much better to have someone other than a missionary bare testimony and share more experiences.
It is funny to because they listen to music in English, they are all old songs but it is funny because they don’t understand and sing anyway. I hear English a lot with music, they blast it. It is interesting too that it is too expensive to have real phones and so everyone has cell phones. The people here loveeeeeeeee to talk, they will tell you their entire life story on the street, I’m sure it is good I don’t´ understand. They spill their hearts out and can talk forever. Oh
Oh so with the whole kissing thing, I had my first on the lips the other day by a ten year old. It was hilarious!!!1 so funny, I think I need to be sent home. It was hilarious, he went for it and I went for his cheek. So funny. It is funny to the people are so lazy when they point to something, instead of using their hand or fingers, they use their lips, it is so funny, I make fun of hna agurto for doing it.
Oh yeah, we only have church for 2hours and 15 minutes. In all of Chile they have it shorter, it is crazy, no complaints, I don’t ,mind because I don’t understand anyway.
I am loving it. I don’t understand too much but I love it still the same. Some times are harder then others. Some people I can understand almost everything, others nothing. Depends on the person and how much slang they use. It is amazing though that I can talk all day in Spanish and for the most part get my point across. Poor hna, she has to listen to terrible Spanish all the time. I know the lord is blessing me with the language, it is getting easier to speak Spanish, like easier to form my words in Spanish, I truly know what it is like to have your tongue loosened, literally, like to be able to roll r´s. I am working at it, hna thinks I am obsessive with the language and need to rely more on the spirit, which is true when I teach. She is awesome, very frank and blunt but says what I need to hear so it is good.
So sept 18th is their liberty day, independence day I mean. We get like three days off because it is such a party, there is an all day party at the church with their dances and food and all. It will be awesome. But is dangerous for us to be out at night because there are a lot of drunks in our area and nobody is home because they are partying. We will have some fun, I bought a Chile shirt.
What else can I tell you. I really like it here in Punta Arenas, I wear six or seven layers of clothing. Oh they eat cereal with yogurt. They don’t really have milk, powdered milk and some in a cardboard carton that doesn’t need refrigerated. Weird, things are simple here, the people don’t have much. Our bishop and his family is awesome but the ward is small and really struggling with things like tithing and just having faith to go to church. A very small ward. I just keep praying to understand the language. It is amazing how far I have come though. I can hear words now, more then just noise, which is a huge step in the right direction. I may not know the words but I can hear them, apparently I said a really ugly one yesterday though and had no idea until everyday was laughing. Oh well, what can you do. I am teaching everyone peace out. Oh the son of Africa, mattias came to church with us alone yesterday, he loved it and loved primary made friends. It was great, he was so excited and can’t wait to come back. Hopefully that will be encouragement to get his parents there. It was awesome, he remembered my first name and called me it and it was soooooooooo weird. They say Jamie really funny. It is so weird they say Pratt differently and now so do it. It is so weird. I say it with a Spanish accent. It is weird to change my name and realize I do it too. Funny though. Such is life.
Will you email lyndi and give her the blog address, lyndi¬vee@hotmail.com. Thanks you are a gem Tell everyone hello and to email me I want to hear all about everyone. How all is going and what is new. I don’t have much else to say. I am doing awesome and learning soooooooooo much, about the gospel and Spanish. The investigators are teaching me things through their faith and thoughts. It is so powerful to teach a family and see it change their lives and I have seen nothing because I have been here so short. I just wish that everyone would see the importance and really understand what Christ can do in their lives and how the gospel brings you to Christ and he has a plan and through his plan we can have so much more happiness. I wouldn’t be in a country where I don’t understand anything and won’t for a few more months and put myself through humility and embarrassment because I don’t understand and can’t talk if I didn’t think it was that important. I tried to say the first vision for the first time and got to embarrassed and nervous and forgot it, what a shame, the second time I did it though. It is so hard, so nerve racking.
Oh mom, send me some of those hot chilly long johns, style hc 9400, cut 5414, womens small bottoms, they are the best and tight. Whenever you get a chance and come into season there. Enjoy the pictures, I hope they went through. Life is great, I pray for you all the time, I know the lord is watching over you and taking care of you as well as he is taking care of me!! Oh dad, we had the best nuts covered in honey, hot too, from a vender, you would have loveddddddd them, I thought of you the whole time I ate em. I am going to get fat, don’t be surprised!
Love you all, hope all is well. I’ll write next week!! Peace out, chao!!
Love, hna Jamie m Pratt
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