New Companion!

Hermana Pratt and Moreno

11/27/2006

Well I don’t have a whole lot to report this week. We have had a few days with my new companion is all. I don’t have a whole lot of pictures. Seems like thanksgiving and the moving went great. The house looks awesome and I knew it would. House like that here are one in a million, they just aren’t here. They don’t have the money to do it. It looks awesome though. we are so very very very blessed in the states.

So I have had a very very interesting last couple of days. My companion is hna Moreno she is from an area close to viña del mar, where it is hot and with all of the tourists. It has been the longest few days of my mission. It has gone by so slow. She is the senor comp and should do everything but she is very quite. So I have started all the lessons, had all the conversations with the people, set up appointments with the members, and done everything. I am exhausted. It is hard for me to because I don’t always understand but enough to get things done. It is good for me on the flip side too because then I have to learn to speak. I have to learn to be independent with my Spanish.

I am a little lazy to send more pictures your way, sorry. My comp right now is a little crooked too. She isn’t exactly into following the rules. I knew that before and so I have to have the strength to stick to the rules. Because it is so easy to be lazy and not motivated but we have a lot of work to do the ward. The ward needs sooooooooooooo much help and our bishop left for Antarctica and isn’t coming back because they are moving close to concepcion. So things are a little bit tougher here this cambio. I have fasted though and the lord always answers your prayers. He has helped me a lot already. I just need strength and confidence and faith in him. I am practically teaching all of the lessons now. She is a lot different than hna agurto.

Hn agurto could read my mind and I could read hers, we never had to finish our sentences because the other one would do it first, so when I didn’t have a word, she had it for me, and funny enough I would find words for her at times too and it isn’t even my language. It was funny. It was really really hard to say goodbye and I didn’t anticipate it. I was shocked after she left. I felt sick, she has been my mom for the past three months, my mamita. Seriously. She did sooooooooo much for me and helped me with so much and had so much patience for me. There is so much I don’t know about being a missionary and she just taught me piece by piece and supported me the whole way. I miss her a lot. We had sooooooo much fun together. We laughed all the time and made fun of each other. We will see each other at the end of my mission and the life here afterJ.

So our first lesson together, me and hna Moreno, she didn’t help me much and I fell on my face. A humbling experience to say the least. I need so much help from the lord right now, I really need to focus on having the spirit. I can have so many problems but yet the only one who can help me and comfort me is the lord. I know that and that is what we always teach. I just have to get used to not having hna agurto because I won’t ever have her again. Who would have thought we would have become such good friends. She wrote me and said she had cried the first couple of days with her new companion. Breaks my heart, she is with another gringa.

Erica thanks for alli´s and ethan´s letters, they were way too cute and made me think that their English is like my Spanish. We are on the same learning level. Everybody comments to me that I talk wayyyyyyyyyy more than before and they can tell, yeah before because I didn’t understand a thing.

Yeah for cambios, they tell you like 24 hours before you have to leave, well for this cambio, like at noon and then hna had to leaven at 6am the next morning, not much heads up, just go.

Yes, it is still cold here, don’t you worry. So, yeah I am doing great, just have to have my own self will and motivation to do what we are supposed to do, to follow the rules and be righteous. It is going to be a good learning experience.

Staying in Punta Areans

11/22/2006

Well big news. I am still here in punta arenas for another cambio. I am going to celebrate Christmas and thanksgiving here, well they don’t have thanksgiving and so I am not going to celebrate anything really. But that is okay. Hna agurto left this morning for Osorno, she is going to be in the sector of the pres and hna Faulkner. She needed to leave, six months in one sector is a lot. She was excited and nervous. It was actually really sad. We had become really good friends and really close. Obviously since we have spent every minute of every day together for three months now. It is really weird that she is not here. It was hard to say goodbye and to know that we aren’t going to see each other again until I finish my mission and even at that it will only be at the temple in Santiago when I pass through on my way home. Such is the life of the mission. People come and people go. I learned a lot from her though, a lot. She has helped me so much. I feel a little empty today though a little sad. But I will get over it. My new companion is hna Moreno, she was hna morphis´s comp at the beginning who has been here in punta arenas for one cambio but in the other sector of hnas. It is going to be interesting. I am a little nervous and don’t have much confidence with it but I know that is really bad of me. I know I can’t be that way. I know I am not trusting in the lord. I am going to learn a lot of Spanish in this cambio because she doesn’t talk very much with the people. It is going to be the exact opposite of what hna agurto is. Hna Moreno is Chilean also. So I just need to pray hard and have faith in her and the lord and that he has put us together for a reason. It will be great. It is really weird not to have hna agurto. Mom if you are feeling really nice and want to send hna agurto a Christmas present she lovessssssssssssssss corn nuts. Just send it to the mission to Carolina agurto. It would be awesome if she got that from you. She loved them. So that is me. I am with my new comp already because she only had to move across town. That is me.

Hna agurto and I finished reading the book of Mormon out loud in Spanish. First time I have read a book I didn’t understand. J Well I can understand it a little bit better now but not too much. It was fun.

The pumpkin patch sounds awesome LeAnne, I bet it was so much fun. So awesome. Mom, the pictures of the house look great. I hope you had fun moving over the weekend. It is coming along it seems. You guys are probably pumped.

So I am getting better at Spanish. I had to give another talk in church on Sunday. It went well I think. I had two people later quote my talk or tell me it was good. I understand so much better. I have really improved in the last two weeks. I just have to keep practicing. It is funny I have translated a few things for people and people will stop me in the street to have me translate something for them, I had one guy track me down, running to have me translate something for him. It is funny.

If anyone feels nice they can send me their weekly forecast from here so I know what the temperature is, I know it is cold and that is about it. It always rains without clouds here, it is really weird. In the harbor now that it is summer, well kind of, there are always cruise ships there. Yesterday there is a hugeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee one from the USA, so today there are tons of gringos in the streets, it is funny.

What else can I tell you guys. Oh yeah hna was sick last week so we didn’t work to much. It sucked, I hadn’t realized how much I like to work. It was super fome to be in the house with nothing to do. I wanted to go out and do something. I realized I really like to teach the gospel, I really like to talk to the people, practice my Spanish and try to express my feelings about Jesus Christ and how he has made it possible to return to our heavenly father. I like the days we just walk and walk and walk because we are doing our best to find people, we are dedicating all of our time to the lords´ work. I love it. Being in the house made me a little homesick and bored really. But she needed her rest and to get better. Such is life I suppose. It was a good realization though.

We had an English class on Saturday, I prayed in English and it was the worst thing in the world. I am not going to speak very good English at Christmas time, heads up, it is going down hill. Oh, a gringa is arriving in punta areans, an ex comp of hna agurto. It will be way fun with her on pdays. We can talk trash about hna.

So we found an awesome menos activo family, they are in the pictures, with four kids. The mom was smoking, drinking tea and coffee, she gave it alllllllll up, cold turkey because she wants to get back into the church and give it her all and be an example to her kids. She is so awesome. She had the best conversion experience last week. She prayed the entireeeeeeeeeeee night and pleaded with the lord and talked with him. She has dedicated herself to do all that is possible to live the gospel now. We are teaching her daughter now so she can be baptized. She is so awesome, eva is the mom. Like eve, adam and eve but is Spanish eva. She is awesome. We were really pumped with her. They are so awesome, the little boy reminds me of Nate.

Happyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy birthday pageeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I can’t believe that she is so old already, it is crazy how fast time goes. Super fast.

So, yeah I am a little worried about this cambio. I have butterflies in my stomach. I know my weakness with the language and I don’t understand a lot, there are a lot of dichos, in English, slang, there is a lot of slang that I don’t understand and slowly learning. I need a lot of help still with the language. I just need more faith. It is going to be a trail of my faith. The people here really loved han agurto, I just hope that we will be able to fill her shoes, hard to do because she is awesome but still. When she left she even told me she loved me, it was huge for her. Well in Spanish there are two ways to say that you love someone le amo and le quiero and amar is stronger and querer is a little softer, I don’t know how to explain it. She said querer but still it pretty much means the same.

I am really going to miss her but I will get used to it in a week or so, I need lots of prayers right now. I am feeling a little week and I don’t like it. I couldn’t sleep last night. It was hard to say goodbye and I didn’t want to. The downfall of Latina comps is that I will probably never see them again. There is always the next life though. But pray for me and hna Moreno. We need a lot of the lord’s help and I know my attitude is not fair to her. Not at all . I need to change and I know it. We have a lot of work to do in this sector. A lot. Life will be great. The lord has a reason for why we are together right now in this sector and I have faith we can make a great companionship. Just a little sad and mixed feelings. Have a great thanksgiving. Enjoy it, eat some pie for me, some cream cheese pie with cherries and broccoli casserole, mmmmmmmmmm. Peace out. Love ya all, tell everyone hi and happy thanksgiving for me! We have pday on Monday again of next week.

that is me. i am great really so don’t worry about me, prayers no más. we will be in touch next week.

The Penguins!!!!

Hey, friend in a tux! Let me tell you about the Book of Mormon!

Jamie at her best!

See, we can teach any one or anything!

11/13/2006

Well, we finally went to the penguins. We went this morning. We just got back and now we have all of our time to do all of our stuff. I will try to send as many pictures as I can but the computers being stupid and I might not be able to. It is not letting us sign in. it is stupid. The penguins were awesome, it was cold and windy. There were quite a few, they were really close too. It was cool. We were so pumped, plus something different for us. It was like an hour out of town out in the boonies were there is nothing. It was dirt road for like 45 min. It was a lot of fun but I am exhausted!!! Such is life.

I finally got a letter from Chan, thanks Chan!! Short and sweet. Yeah mom, my comp and I get along well. It was awkward maybe twice in our three months. And not really even. We are pretty good. I am ready for a change though. Ya know how you get comfortable in a situation and assume your role. Well that is what I have done and I feel like to grow and learn more it is time for a change to make me grow and learn more because that is always what I have to do, learn things the hard way. Yeah dad thanks for your Maori, you are funny.

So cambios are next week, the 22nd. That means I won’t be writing next Monday, you will have to wait to hear from me Wednesday. I have no idea if I will be leaving Punta Arenas or not. The only way you will have an idea is if I write in the morning no and if you don’t hear from me the normal time, it is more than likely that I hopped on the plane and on my way somewhere else. So you will hear form me on Paige’s birthday. More than likely hna will be leaving because she has been here six months, but anything is possible, anything.

Oh yeah, I have been meaning to tell you that it rains here with out clouds, always. Because the wind is so strong and frequent. Also, I have seen more rainbows here than I have ever really. So, I had one of the most interesting experiences of my life. It was one of the biggest miracles in my life really. I had my first inter cambio. Hna went to the other sector with the hna there and the other hna came to my sector with me. So I had a different companion for a day. I was so nervous because I had to carry the sector and do everything. I had to take the initiative, start all the lessons, talk with the people, understand them, the works because she doesn’t know anyone in our sector. So, first of all there were more people in the streets to contact. We talked to so many people. I contacted more people in that day than ever and got lots of address. The real miracle for me was how much I understand and talk. I started all the lessons. I talked to them about what was going on, how they are, if they’d read, blah blah blah. I understood sooooooooooo much. I still can’t believe the difference it was. I taught the lessons and the other hna supported me. Usually what I do is support and don’t say much. It was so awesome. I can’t tell you seriously the difference it was. I was so nervous before, I didn’t have much confidence in my abilities or faith. I did it, I mean the hna had to help me a lot still, she is Chilean. It was so awesome. I was so pumped, it was really weird not being with hna agurto because after three months of being together and never being apart, it is odd. I was so incredibly pumped, I can’t even tell you how awesome it was. Just this week alone my Spanish has sky rocketed. I understand so much more. I really feel like I can learn so much right now because I can understand so muchhhhhh more, it is such an awesome feeling. It was really good for me to say the least. It was funny the other day too because I understand more and we were at the house of the family that is menos activo and they are in terrible shape. They were talking and I understood and said something slightly funny and they all laughed hugeeeeeeeeeeee because they are so used to me not saying anything and then I pretty much made fun of them. Well, ya know, my specialty. It was really funny.

Yeah, so too much information I know but I don’t really care. So the water here is terrible. I am assuming it is the water. I have drinken it since I have been here but something happened. I think I drank too much or something. I have had been sick for like four or five days now. I don’t know what happened. Seriously, it is the worst thing ever. I have started boiling the water for me now or I am going to buy bottled. I assume it was too much of their water. It has been terrible, I think it is finally going away now but I don’t know.

So that has pretty much been my week. We are just winding down yet another cambio. Not too many days left. It is still pretty cold here. As usual. Seriously I have seen so many miracles here, just with myself. It is awesome. The lord has helped me so much with the language. I still have tonssssssss of room for improvement but I am so much more comfortable. My stories are still slow because I can’t always think of the words or how to say things but for the most part. Like I am more comfortable to just jump into a conversation. Still not great but practice is what it takes and for me I always have to learn things the hard way.

Mom, please already with the recipes, it is embarrassing to say that every week I say that I will bring them and for three months I have to say no I am still waiting. Please send them to me. And the address for the missionary. The house looks awesome, it is night and day. It is really coming along for you. How exciting you will be moving this week, good luck with that. That is me this week, I don’t really have anything else to say.

I will try to send more the next week, the penguins were awesome, great change but now we have to go.

love ya all, thanks for the package, I got it last week. I couldn’t look at the pictures today because of the internet, next week I will look at them all, thanks a bunch. aquí son los photos de los penguinos. fuímos hoy día. hna agurto quería que yo mande estas fotos a usted. disfrute. Chao

Ok I just have to say how funny she writes her letters in English and then goes to Spanish and signs off in Italian! I also think it is really cool when you think that we recieved this letter around noon and she had just taken these pictures in the morning and we get to see them same day! Thank goodness for email and digital camera's!

Short Note!

Well, I don’t have that much to write as usual.

Sounds like Tara’s wedding is coming along, that is so crazy. Tell her I was thinking of her and that is great, and not to forget to send me an invitation. Don’t forget, I want one.

And Erica to answer your letter. Yeah it is getting warmer here. You need to check the weather here, it snowed yesterday. We had rain, snow, hail, sun, wind all in ten minutes. It was terrible. The wind is so strong in blew my plaque off my jacket. It is so strong. And super super cold. Summer never comes here, always have to have your jacket on.

Mom, it was great that you said te ano. Hna really got a kick out of it because ano means anus. Just be careful when you write Spanish, it is te aMo! We thought it was pretty hilarious to say the least.
(Ok in my defense I was only copying her writing and telling her that I loved her. I looked at the letter and that is what it said. I can’t help it if her handwriting is really bad! At least she thought it was funny!)

Erich an dnate, thanks for your letters and pictures, they were great, loved them. Got a letter from gran too.

Something weird here, the people are too lazy to point to things with their hands, they point with their lips instead of their hands. It is funny.

Yeah, so since we have had anything for a really long time, I have never fasted so much in my life. We fast almost once every week, this week twice. We had some problems this week. We had a really great week though. We met almost all of our goals, which is a miracle in itself. We really never even come very close. It was an awesome week. We found a bunch of new families to teach, some more ready than others and a bit more promising, but it was awesome. A miracle as well, I finally understood a lesson from one of the sisters in the ward and I NEVERRRRRRRr understand her. So that was a miracle.

We had a ward activity with singing, dancing, and the words. That is the picture of me and the hna, the other is in the supermarket with halloween wigs.

Oh My! Scarry Girl!

Yeah so we contacted a lady and she seemed awesome, well not a lady only 24. But she gave us the wrong address, we were super bummed. Then she was at the house at a menos activo we were teaching. We had the kids take us to her house but we didn’t realize she was the one who gave us the wrong address. We got to her house and she told us and it was a shocker but hilarious. So funny. She came to church, to the ward activity, to everything. It was awesome. We also walked 56 miles this week, our max for sure. A lot.

It is so stinking strong, the sun that is. We had an awesome week this week. I don’t know what else to tell you.

Yeah mom, don’t worry, we are doing great. We had a fantastic week and got lots of blessings from the lord. We are really improving and working on being better people and better missionaries, small things at a time. Things are great though. This week really turned around for us, even though the wind is stronger than we want, really really strong. My Spanish is improving. I was able to talk with our investigator during relief society band answer her questions about it and then I got called on to answer a questions because I was talking....my point is mom, thinks haven’t changed, I am still the same old Jamie you have always known and loved. Always talking when I am not supposed to and never talk when I am supposed to. Funny how things are, I think of when Tara and I were in YW and always got in trouble for talking. Such is life. hope you have fun moving next week, have you gotten the cd that I sent yet_

We might go to the penguins next week. cambios are the 22 of November. More than likely hna will leave and I will stay but anything can happen. You never know.

Hope all is well with everyone.
Love, hna jamie pratt

Carry On, Carry On!

Hey, so I haven’t read any of your letters yet. But from last week I will answer things. I don’t really have that much to share this week. We have had a really slow and hard week. All of our new investigators have fallen through again and we are back at square one. One day we walked nine miles and that was us walking the whole time. We ended up with 47 miles all week. A munton de caminar. Papa’s trunk is awesome, good ole pops, he loves stuff like that. Erica if you sent me pictures last week I didn’t look at them and I think I deleted them, oops, because I didn’t notice. Sorry. Way to be Alli, student of the week. I am proud of you that is awesome.

Oh man, I am so tired from this week. My comp broke down a couple times this week. It is hard when she breaks down because she cries and it is all lagite, I just don’t know what to do. I found out that in the past she has suffered from depression. I understand a lot more know why she complains a lot and whines, so now I have more patience with that because I know it is something that is hard for her. It isn’t super bad, just something that is hard at times. So we had a rocky week but good at the same time. Always good so don’t you worry. We just are getting lots of exercising. Are time together is almost up. Three more weeks in this cambio, it never happens that hermanas are together for three cambios. She will probably be leaving soon. So we have to make the best of our three weeks left together. We have been together for two months and we have a lot of fun together and have become friends. She wants me to write her despues we are together, I laughed and told her I don’t know Spanish so don’t count on it. I’m so nice. No but she is from Santiago so after the mission when I go to the temple in Santiago I can see her. That will be cool.

So I got a letter from pres Faulkner, not my pres here, in Oroville, the high council letter. It was really good, I enjoyed it. I get random letters from people in the stake, especially Gridley, people I don’t know.

This week we taught a girl who is 24. It was a lot of fun because she is just like us, well kind of. It was so much more comfortable for me to talk, the stress wasn’t on with the language. I was at ease and didn’t care if I messed up. Now I am to the point where for the most part I can understand the conversation and so I can talk. Life is so much more interesting being able to understand. So now I am talking a lot more because I know what is going on. So much more interesting and I don’t have to fight sleep so much because I can listen and understand! Obviously I don’t understand everything, the old people and people who talk fast. We visited an old folk’s home here and I had a hard time understanding some of them and this place was dirty and gross. It was like an orphanage in the movies. All the people in the same room and all they have are their beds. I felt so bad for them, and they’d been there for years.

My life is so sad. Sorry, I don’t have very many pictures this week. And motels here on not the same at our house, they are houses of love, to say the least. I said the pres and hna Faulkner could stay there on the water and it would be pretty, to say the least, no mission president should ever go to a motel in Chile. Oops.

Yeah so we taught one family and I was able to talk a lot. I recited the first vision and the spirit was so strong. It was awesome. So strong, I talked to much I was so proud of myself, well so grateful that I was able to. We taught our crazy investigator Maria and she told us how her boyfriend robs for food because they don’t have anything and blah blah blah. Hna was so frustrated with her she couldn’t say anything. I ended up teaching like the whole lesson. Hna said, is this my companion, who is she, what happened to my comp. it was so funny. And Maria would not say anything or interrupt me like she does hna, she just listened. I talked so much and understood so much. It was awesome. I was pumped. I have realized that I just need to have the courage and talk or I won’t learn. I need more practice. I need to have faith in the spirit, faith in the lord that he will provide for me when I need it and the people need it. It is my calling to talk to everyone here about the gospel of Jesus Christ and so I need to do it. I need to swallow my pride and just talk, open my mouth. I have more capabilities with the language now and am doing contacts alone, and having conversations solo, I can do it. I can understand enough and talk enough.

Oh so we were teaching Luz and I broke her pig on her shelf it fell and crashed in pieces. During the lessons we were talking about sacrifices and she said I sacrificed her pig. It was so darn funny. She cracks me up, she left me speechless, she is hilarious. She is the one who wants the recipes that mom has to hurry up and send. It was hilarious.

We also went to the bday part of the bishop, pretty much just him and his family. They are leaving soon it is so sad, the family in the picture is him and his family. They are awesome. We are going to miss them. They made clam chowder for us, the sister lived in utha for three years so she makes a lot of American food, but the clams were hugeeeeeee and you could see the black lines and pink and it was like stringy off your spoon. I love clam chowder but only when you can’t taste the clams!!! Then we had salmon yesterday, mom I am dying but just eat it and don’t say anything, pretend like it is the best thing ever.


We had a miracle this week. We found a single mom, member, with four super young kids. They came back to church this week after a year. They are so adorable, her kids are so loveable and so cute. We don’t have investigators but we were so pumped that they came back to church. It was so awesome. We also went to the elder’s baptism, Cecilia, she is in the photo. She came to our baptism and that is when she decided she wanted to be baptized and so she loves us. We see her around and loves to talk to us and invited us. She said she will never forget us but we didn’t really do anything, only be nice to her but it was great.

I got letters from nana and Lael from 17, 24, 25 of September this week. Thanks for the letters, loved them!!

I got a letter from Stacie Powell too!! I was pumped. That is pretty much me this week.