Temple Worship

"The Punta Arenas Chile Stake is the Church's southernmost stake anywhere on this planet, its outermost borders stretching toward Antarctica. Any stake farther south would have to be staffed by penguins.

For the Punta Arenas Saints it is a 4,200-mile round-trip bus ride to the Santiago temple. For a husband and wife it can take up to 20 percent of an annual local income just for the transportation alone. Only 50 people can be accommodated on the bus, but for every excursion 250 others come out to hold a brief service with them the morning of their departure.

"Pause for a minute and ask yourself when was the last time you stood on a cold, windswept parking lot adjacent to the Strait of Magellan just to sing with, pray for, and cheer on their way those who were going to the temple, hoping your savings would allow you to go next time? One hundred ten hours, 70 of those on dusty, bumpy, unfinished roads looping out through Argentina's wild Patagonia. What does 110 hours on a bus feel like? I honestly don't know, but I do know that some of us get nervous if we live more than 110 miles from a temple or if the services there take more than 110 minutes. While we are teaching the principle of tithing to, praying with, and building ever more temples for just such distant Latter-day Saints, perhaps the rest of us can do more to enjoy the blessings and wonder of the temple regularly when so many temples are increasingly within our reach."

Jeffrey R. Holland, "Abide in Me," Ensign, May 2004, 31

Adventure's in Chile

10/23/2006

We went a really long ways a way from our normal area this week, we were desperate for people to find to teach. It was probably a mile or two walking from where we normally go, rio de los ciervos. It was a lot of fun; it was like we packed up and headed out for our adventure. It was hot that day too which was nice. But the bad thing is that here there is a hole in the ozone layer and the sun is way intense. Today we are going to buy sun screen because I can feel a huge difference in the sun here. It pounds your face. Luckily it is cold enough here that it is only my face and I will have blonder hair too. That is always good. We found an old lady out there and we are going to visit her tomorrow. It was a lot of fun. That is when we walked by the beach too. I wanted to touch the water just so I could say that I did at the most southern point of the world. Ya know. This day was so awesome though.

We hadn’t had pretty much anyone to teach for two weeks, no new people. In this day we had five!! A family too, an awesome family we are visiting tonight. It was so awesome. After our famine and draught of having no one to teach, the lord blessed us with a ton all in one day. We were working on having trust in the lord and courage in talking to people. It is hard at times for me to have the courage to talk to people because of my weaknesses with the language. I learned and realized that when I have fear, I am not trusting the lord, I am not having faith in Him. Entonces, I have been working on that and having more faith and that if I open my mouth he will provide me the things I should say, unfortunately it is easier said then done. What do I have to lose, only everything to gain, right.

So something super funny happened. The doors here to the houses don’t have a door knob outside, the only way you can get in is with a key, no matter what. Well, I am not exactly used to that still. So I went in the house first and was being funny and shut the door on hna before she could come in. so I went about doing my thing in the house and was thinking, why is she still outside, I opened the door said something to her and then shut it and did that like twice. The last time I did it, I closed it and she gave me a look and it hit me!! There is no door knob and there is no way she can get in, she wasn’t even trying to get it. We laughed sooooooooooo hard. I was crying. it was hysterical. I locked her out and had no idea of what I had done. So funny. So funny.

So we had a surprise this week. We had our zone conference with the president and hna Faulkner. It was like, they called us that morning and we had interviews. We also had stake conference this weekend and the area authority was there. Lots of conferences this week. We had to sing in our ward choir and it was terrible, they don’t know how to sing, I don’t know how to sing, bad. Oh well, what can you do. The conferences were really good though. Our mission conference was more of a okay you need to work harder, be better type of thing. It is exhausting to have so many conferences. it was so funny my interview with the pres. I am so used to speaking Spanish, not that I am good at it I just have to do it. so I was talking to him and said a word in English that sounds the same in Spanish but doesn’t have the same meaning ,direction in Spanish is address, it didn’t make sense, it was really funny but a bit embarrassing. He understood. He is great though he always reminds you that the lord loves you and this is where he wants you and that he loves me too. He is great.

Teeter Totter Week

Well, it is another week, unfortunately I don’t have a whole lot to write about this week, I am boring. First things first. Thanks LeAnne for the letter last week, I enjoyed it. Erica I will read yours after I print it out. It was fun to hear about all that is going on. And good for Justin, sounds like he is doing awesome. That is great. It is crazy you are having the baby blessing soon. It is still somewhat unreal that there is another baby in the family.

Mom just send my stuff. I just want my scriptures, you can say a bunch of prayers that it makes it. The nylons thing is going to have to be a continual thing, just send them every month or I don’t know how often but often, warm ones. Long johns the Works. The summer here is like winter in Oroville. You always have to wear long sleeves. It is a little nicer here though, what is the temp there? I don’t know. Yeah, nana and papa, thanks for the letters too. You guys always have interesting things to say. But it is fun to hear from you too, you always keep me updated with the fam. Hope the Mitzel’s are doing great. Oh and the picture of me kissing the foot is a huge statue in the middle of town, everyone, tourists come into town and rub the foot and kiss it. It is a tradition, so I had to. That is all, everyone does it.

Hope Alli is having fun playing soccer. It would be super cute to watch her play and the boys play football. How fun!

Dad you would be in heaven here. They have what they call completos. They are a hot dog with avocado, tomatoes, mayo, mustard, the Works. We went somewhere last week where they had hugeeeeeeeeee ones. You would love them. The food here is up your alley, meat and potatoes. I have never eaten so much. Oh, the lord is blessing me with being able to eat things I hate. I have never eaten so many mushrooms in my lifeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and we had fish yesterday, my favorite. It wasn’t too bad though, I didn’t know it was fish though until I was finished because I didn’t understand what they were saying.

Mom I have another question. Hna´s family are converts and they have lost contact with the missionary that baptized them. They have the address of the dad of him but not of him. Could you contact him for them and try to get the address of the son so they can get back in contact with him.
The dad, ron keith 520 anderson st, dhather, Arizona 85552, and the missionaries name is Jim, he is like in his late 30s now I think. Thanks mom. If you could get that. I know I ask a lot

Okay, so this week was probable the hardest week yet. Everything that we have had as far as investigadores has gone, fell through. We have dropped all of our investigators but one.

We have spent an entire week trying to find new people to teach. We have walked about 20 thousands steps everyday this week, like eight to nine miles a day. My body has never been so exhausted. Every part of my body aches. I am starting to get used to it. We walk from 3 in the afternoon until we go home at 930. Nobody will let us come in, nobody wants us. It is a trial of our faith to say the least. We are doing our best. We haven’t worked so hard. Holy cow, we have done everything we possibly can do to find new people, with members, with people in the streets, knocking on doors. Everything. We are working on faith, courage, and hope. Those are our goals with finding people. We have hope for this week because we have worked our butts off and eventually when the lord sees fit he will bless us. We are just waiting for those blessings to come our way. In time. We walked to places I hadn’t been because our sector is huge. We went everywhere. Oh with the transferres, hna morphis´s comp CAME down here and hna morphis got transferred to a different sector in Osorno. She is with a gringa now. There are only three gringos here in punta arenas now, lucky me.

Oh can you send me those wixmax socks too, they are super warm and really good.

Yeah so we have found a new meaning to obedient, not that we are bad but we are trying to do everything perfectly so we can have inestigatores. Obedience here on the mission has a whole different meaning than before in normal life. Things are so simple, just follow the commandments and the rules. Things like keeping the Sabbath day holy or whatever are so simple for us. This week though we were teaching a menos activo and we realized that the lesson was for us. Teaching about faith and how we need to act in our faith and then we can receive blessing from the lord. That is us right now since we don’t have anything or anyone to teach. It was really funny, we totally started laughing.

Oh one of the photos is a teeter totter we found in a park while we were searching for people and needed a bit of a lift in our day. We contacted a guy and went back to his house and he is young and he was having a hugeeeee party with only guys. They all invited us in and were drinking smoking, it was really funny because they were young and only guys and wanted us to party with them, super funny.

Oh yeah, the time changed I think we are now five hours ahead instead of three. Like it is 1130 here right now instead of 1030.

Oh we have a new elder in our ward, he is super nice, a new change in our ward. Which is good. Good for changes.

Oh some of these pictures are of Puerto Mont and the volcano in Osorno, I don’t know if I ever sent them.

We did have a miracle this week, we had one investigador and her family come to church. It was great. We didn’t really think they would come. She is crazy, she talks and talks and talks about things that I have no clue. Crazy and they aren’t married and she only wants to be with him for Money because her daughter is sick a lot. But they all CAME and they liked it and it was great it was awesome. We were super pumped, so that was our miracle for the week. Yeah so that is awesome, solamente walky all week long. We are working as hard as we can. We are having fun though, well most the time. It is hard to keep good spirits, she breaks down more than I do, so I try to stay happy and be positive with it all. It is hard but we will be rejuvenated after today. My Spanish is coming along slowly, better every day. That is always good.

But really, I am learning a lot about everything. It is amazing how our lives are so dedicated for other people and it just happens. I am finally having more of a relationship with the people because I can talk more. We go to members houses to do service and I can talk and make more jokes because I have more Words. Usually I just make fun of myself that I don’t know the language and am always lost in the conversation. That is me. Super boring, sorry. Hope all is well. Thanks for the Picture of my pay poo.

Until next week, peace out.
Love, hna Jamie Pratt

New Address!

Sister Jamie Pratt
Casilla 7-0
Osorno, Chile

This address works for packages and letters or you can just use the pouch addres for letters only at:

Sister Jamie Michelle Pratt
Chile Osorno Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150USA

First Baptism!

More Pictures with No Lables Attached!

She says labels are coming!

We can enjoy and make our story until then!

I am a little late posting this. We received a hand written letter from her this week also dated 9/25. I will post it when I get a chance to transcribe it. Her handwritting is hard to read and very very small!

10/11/2006

Well hello there, it is another week. It has been a long week without a pday but now Wednesday and we are a threesome waiting for another Hermana to fly into town. Today is days of cambios, transfers. My first real transfer in the mission. Hermana Agurto and I are staying here. We are not going anyway. We are safe here in Punta Arenas in sector fitz roy for 6 more weeks. This will mean at the end of this transfer she has been here in the same place for six months. I am excited that we are staying though. The gringa of the four Hermana’s left for up north this morning. They had to stay the night at our house and we are exhausted. Hermana Morphis´s companion is coming to be comps with the other sister aros that came with me new when we first got here. She is a Chilean. I will be the only gringa Hermana here in the south. I won’t have my walking dictionary. Now many grigons left down here right now. It is weird that hna morphis isn’t staying with her comp for one more transfer, we will find out what happens with the other hna arrives.

Last week on pday I died hna´s hair, well I was safe because her hair is so dark the is no way I could really mess it up, we just lightened it with brown and you can barely tell. My first time dying someone’s hair so it was fun.

Oh and Erich, no the people here don’t really have yards, everything is really close together, all of the houses. They have big parks though, not like what we have, they are a lot more poor and aren’t the same. They have skate parks though, not super goods ones but not bad either. They play at the parks or in their houses.

We walked so much yesterday, I swear it was over 12 miles. We were in every part of our sector, it is huge and we walked almost every corner of it. It was nice yesterday, well for here. We have heard all year round here you have to wear long sleeves. That is fine as long as the wind doesn’t chill your bones.

So we get 130 dollars and 60 cents every month to live off of. It is way plenty, for food, supplies, total. Things are a lot cheaper here but at the same time things like candy or photos are super expensive.

Oh we had to make invitations and programs for our baptism. I looked at the blog super quick just to show my comp. it was weird to look at it, I just glanced at it because I don’t know if I am supposed to be on it or not but it looked great. I probably won’t look at it again but send me the address to it in case I want to give it to other people. Thanks

We were super pumped for our baptism. It was one of the best experiences ever. It is sad though because it is the family of the hna that was here before me. Anyway. It is the family that he was a stripper and had an affair a year ago. They are so awesome. They were so nervous but so happy. We had it all planned out perfectly for them. We had the speakers and all. They were so cute. The best is I got to see their 8 year old son change. He was so stubborn and didn’t want to have anything to do with anything. He just needed attention and love. He never wanted to pray he was too embarrassed. Now he always wants to pray, answers every question we ask even if it isn’t directed towards him. He is whole different person. It is awesome. He is happy doing great in school, and has a ton more personality. They were shining at the baptism and the sprit was so strong. Sergio, the dad, bore his testimony afterwards and it was one of the best things ever. He asked for forgiveness of all of his sins and he has repented and this has changed his life. Everyone was totally crying, it was so sweet. The best was all of Paula’s family was there and could see the change in their daughter and their family. Jean, gave his testimony too and it was so cute because it was like a prayer. They thanked us and the other hna for helping their family and making them stronger. One of the elders translated a song to sing and it was super pretty. There were tons of people there, the ward really supported them a lot. It was so awesome. Paula said her goal now is to go to the temple and baptize her brother that died a year ago. It was so awesome. It was one of the most spiritual experiences because they have changed so much. They bore their testimonies after their confirmations, jean bore his testimony again in primary, the boy that wouldn’t even talk to you and now is getting in front of everyone and telling them what he feels and how grateful he is to our heavenly father. It is so awesome. They are so happy now, they are glowing. They have so much excitement to press forward in the church. Their family is more united, you can see there is more love their, they are praying together everyday we are going to have a family home evening with them. Total. they learn slowly but they took one big step and now the lord is really going to bless them. The yare seriously glowing, sticking up for the church and proud to be able to say that they are Mormons now. Paula has tried a lot of different churches and she said that she knows this is the right one, this is the one with the correct baptism and with the correct way to return back to our heavenly father. It is awesome, I can’t describe it. I wish the other hna could be here to see the effect she had in their lives. It is awesome. I wish I could have seen w hat they were like to begin with. I can only imagine the changes they have made.

We have also seen a huge change in a recent convert gone inactive, Monica. She is coming to church now with her family, they are having family home evening every week, and she is so much happier. She admitted their was something wrong and she has learned from her mistake. It is so awesome, she is so happy, their family is so happy. The gospel of Jesus Christ is amazing and if people will just let it and him into their lives, the differences it can make. Just to be faithful and keep the commandments, it is amazing.

Man, here on the mission, I have never participated in so many ward activities before. We have to sing in the choir because their aren’t enough members. Yeah for me. All is well, that is what we are here for, support the ward and the members.

Oh we had a great lesson with a family, the ones who got married at the catholic church. It was super spiritual. Everybody was so relaxed and warm inside. I got speak with ease and speak from my heart and I know they understood because if I have the spirit then the spirit with speak to their hearts. It was so awesome. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough and this family still isn’t´ praying or going to church or anything. They know and feel the difference when we are there, they tell us there is something special about us but don’t do anything about it. It is said. The whole world has the excuse of time, they don’t have time for god. Time is a tool of Satan. When is time, nothing, solely an excuse. Everyone has time, do you have more time for worldly things, money, work, what, but not for god. I know I did the same before the mission. But really, do we have time for the person who has blessed us with absolutely everything or distractions of Satan. It really hit me hard this week with this. Bur really, It is everyone’s excuse. Sad but true. That or they are catholic, which means nothing, only they were baptized as a baby and never done anything else.

The family of the bishop is moving close to concepccion in about a month. Our ward will be so sad when they leave. They are the root and keeping everything good. They are so much fun too. They thought I always understood what was going on and I told them no I am just a good actress at faking that I understand. There are still a lot of things I don’t understand. I hear the words though, not just noise, so I am working on vocab and learning. I can follow a conversation for the most part and have more of a conversation. It is coming along, better and better day by day, it is hard to do things in English at times, my mind is more geared toward Spanish. The lord is blessing me with it. Slowly and surely. I have a long long long way to go still. I am not totally comfortable with everyone in a conversation because I am still not always sure what exactly they are saying but my comp is great at talking with people and caring about them so it is great.

So I know why Sims is a dentist. After his mission here in Chile he wanted to be a dentist because no one here has teeth and he wanted to help people because of all that he saw. Tons of people are lacking their teeth, it is really funny at times.

so, Sundays are either the best days or the worst days because either you are super super happy that your investigators came or super down because they didn’t. this week they all crashed on us and so we were sad about that. It was a super bummer. It is amazing how your emotions are so up and down. hna breaks down at times because she is so connected to the people and then they let us down, themselves, and the lord. Like we are not here for them to do it for us but we want them to have the same joys in their lives that we have. There was one lady who tried to give of the bom back, it was kind of funny but really sad at the same time, we wouldn’t take it. so yeah, with the best comes the worst. we have seen the best things and the worst things in this last 6 weeks together. we have six more to come. I am excited we are staying. it was scary though because the pres called hna and he neverrrrrrrrrrr calls missionaries, only the assistants. and we were thinking there was going to be three of us together, luckily now, she just has a calling like I had in the mtc, over the sisters here if anything bad happens.

I don’t have Erica’s new address

send me recipes of apple crisp, cinnamon rolls, and anything else super good.

we made empanadas de manzanas with luz the other day. Like apple turnovers, by far my favorite. we stop by the panederia a lot on the way home for them. mmmmmmmmmmm. anyway, I think that is all. keep the emails coming on this account. packages will be nice too, any sweets for my comp, she loves them from the states. hope all is well. we can email again on Monday like usual. this is the season of the penguins and so this cambio we think we will get to go!! yeah!

hi to all
love, hna jamie pratt

The Work is Good!

Pictures from Chile's Independace Day Celebration!

10-2-06

Hello family! How was your weekend with Erica and Jake moving. They are moving a ton. I hope that it went well and that you got tons of stuff done and they don’t have to move again. So on dear elder express. Sent 9-12 and 11 I received 9-25, dear elder 8-28, 9-4 received 9-30 and 9-5 I received 9-25. What happens is it gets sent to Osorno and then it gets sent to me. It takes a lot longer for everything here in Punta Arenas. Everything goes through Osorno and we are the last to get everything because we are the furthest away. Such is life for being at the end of the world. So just email me directly, I copy and paste and can print them. Well you can do both but every week I still want a email.

So, we had our conference this last week. There are 20 missionaries here in Punta Arenas and porvenir. There are 4 sisters and the rest elders and 12 Latinos and Latinas and the rest of us are gringos. There is one sister who is a gringa besides me. The pres and his wife came down and had a conference with us. It was great because I understood like everything. That is always great, they also just talked about missionary work and that is my vocab. Such is life. It was really weird because I could talk English with Hna Faulkner and the other gringos but for the life of me I couldn’t have a conversation with her. I could not think of words in English. I couldn’t think of anything, I could understand obvio and todo but I couldn’t not think of things to say. My life is sad, I don’t have a language ,only a few words in Spanish and a few in English. Que triste mi vida.

So I have discovered something else. They write letters differently here. Like their q´s are way funny. Who would have thought that we would write letters differently. way weird. We were laughing the other day too because 3 months with your companion is like 30 years with your spouse because we spend soooooooooooooooooo much time together. Like, it is so weird, when she is not right next to me it is really really weird. Like I am uncomfortable. Like I am missing something. Granted I am missing my person who can talk for me, no but it is really weird, especially since I have always been so independent too. Life is weird as a missionary, definitely different than anything I have experienced before. That was expected though. I didn’t think I would start losing English so quickly when I don’t even know Spanish yet.

We fasted to find a family this week and the next day we found a family. She said that when she saw us on the street there was like light above us and she knew that we were angels sent from the lord and that we had the truth .yeah, so that is great but there is always more to the story. We were pumped but she is crazyyyyy. I mean crazy but she is super eager to learn. She is very in tune to bad spirits and every time she gets close to the lord something bad happens so she doesn’t know what to do. Paciencia no mas. The gospel and Christ can change people and help them in their lives. That is what it is all about. So we are going to slowly teach them and nurse them along. It was weird though, she wanted me to speak English, she doesn’t understand it but just wanted to hear it. It was really really weird. I couldn’t speak. I had no words to say and thought of words in Spanish first and then said them in Spanish because I bore my testimony and I am used to doing that in Spanish. I didn’t like that but I didn’t know what else to do. Weird experiences to say the least.

So yeah, I had my interview with the pres. He really stressed to me that I am here to teach and teach through the spirit and not to worry so much with my Spanish. I am a perfectionist we all know and want my Spanish to be super good but when I try to talk well the spirit leaves. I just need to say what I feel and the spirit will teach them in their hearts, it is their feelings that are important anyway, not my words. You can’t have faith and believe without feelings, that are what converts and brings people to Christ. So, I am working on that. He is a good pres. We had practices of teaching in front of the pres. I was nervous but then I was like, okay, I just have to say what I felt. It went really well, there is a big difference. He even quoted me later in his talk about what I had taught about, heck if I know what I said. But it was good, apparently I am on the right track.

Yeah so we met with a Jehovah witness. Wowwwwwww that was an experience. They have some interesting beliefs. She really just wanted to ask questions and bible bash a little. It was not a good experience. My comp did really well with her though. They have interesting beliefs to say the least. It was a lot different than our other lessons. She just wants knowledge, she doesn’t want to feel anything in her heart. It is sad what they believe. Everyone here is either Jehovah witness, catholic is the big one, or evangelico.

So our mission has a goal to double baptisms by April, that means we have to work harder and have more faith. More faith that we can be lead to people who are ready to change their lives and accept Christ and his gospel. We are working hard for it. We have a bet about our contacts each day. We are supposed to have 20 each day. It is really hard in our sector to have that many but we are doing our best. There aren’t many people on the streets. But we are trying to do it. I even made my first contact alone the other day. I turned around and she was gone, I had to talk to them and do everything on my own. I even understood them it was great. Nerve wracking but great. But still, step by step. There was one contact who started talking to me in English and I didn’t even realize it, took me totally by surprise, good English too. Everyone here wants to talk in English. I was trying to tell him where I am from and north of Sacramento. I used the worsttttttttttttttttt English grammar of my lifeeeeeee. I kid you not, it was absolutely terrible!!!!!! I couldn’t believe it! I have no language. It was really funny though but sad because he started making fun of me big time.

The sun rises early now, in the summer sets at 11 and comes up around 3 or 4!! Lots of light.

We are visiting a menos activo, is 16 years old with a baby, their mom physically abuses them, anyway, a terrible terrible life. She came back to church last week and tried to come to conference but didn’t have a way to get there because there was only one building showing conference by the internet. She is really trying, I have seen such a big change with her since I have been here. She wants to have a good life but everything is against her .she is so cute but she needs love and something good in her life.

It is cool too, we have a baptism on Saturday, the stripper’s family. They have changed so much. The wife today said, I fell this is it, I have been baptized before but this is right. It is so cool. The son is stubborn but he is praying and wanting to learn and his prayers are the sweetest things I have ever heard. It is so awesome. The gospel is real and is here to change people and have them in their lives. It is awesome.

Conference was good, they showed the sac temple. It made me miss home. I hoe you enjoyed it, I watched it in Spanish and didn’t understand much. I hope you enjoyed it for me. It was good I think. I can’t wait for the ensign so I can actually read it and know what happened.

Next week is transfers. I don’t know what is going to happen ,I could go or stay. It is Wednesday the 11th. That means we will not have pday on Monday, it will be Wednesday the day of cambios.

Happy late bday to gran. Send me a list of bdays and recipes mom!!!!!!!!! Hope you sent me long johns, I don’t think it will ever be warm here.

Sorry to hear about Justin’s sun glasses, he is a weenie!

I am great. I have a cold and couldn’t sleep but such is life. No importa. My Spanish has it’s ups and downs. We are excited for our baptism this week and hope to have another family this month. I don’t have much more time. Thanks for the letters. Sorry I don’t have to time write everyone. Hope Chan and her fam is great. Hope they are enjoying life and her school is going great .pray for you all even if you are on the other side of the world. Until, Wednesday!!

Enjoy the pictures, next week I am putting them all on a cd and will email them home with what each one of them are. You will have to wait like a month but you can have patience. Hope the house cells. Congrats to Tara. Peace out