(no subject)

THIS WEEK WAS SUPER COOL. Why you ask???

1- WE FOUND SOME SUPER CRAZY COOL INVESTIGATORS IN WEIRD WAYS.

2- I ATE TURTLE SPINE.

3- WE HAD A KILLER BAPTISM.

4- OUR APARTMENT GOT BROKEN INTO BUT NOTHING GOT ROBBED.

5- MY APARTMENT DOES NOT CURRENTLY HAVE A FRONT DOOR.

More details you ask??? (aaand if you didn´t want more details, just like skip to the bottom I guess)

1- This week we were walking to an appointment and we ran into a guy who stopped us and started to talk to us, saying his brother is a member in another country and he wants to know more and maybe join the church. AWESOME. (We´ll just ignore the part where he was a bit tipsy when he said that) We kept talking, made an appointment for later, he showed up, it was awesome, he is actually a genious who is just a bit offtrack right now but wants to change his life and get baptized. We met another guy too in a similar case. Pretty awesome stuff, I love the mission.

2- I´M PRETTY SURE THE TURTLE SPINE ONE DOESN´T NEED ANYMORE EXPLANATION.

3- WILSON is the coolest. He is probably the most humble man I have ever met and he was just waiting to hear the restored Gospel. A friend of his brought him to church, we met him, started teaching him, and a month and a half later he was baptized. He is the best!

4- We got home from church yesterday after lunch to drop off our coats adn go out to work and BOOM we found our doorknob DESTROYED and on the floor in pieces. The door was shut, but luckily I had my pocketknife (BOYSCOUTSRULE) and we jimmied the lock to get in (don´t worry, we took pics of EVERYTHING before touching, yeah i´m seen wayyy too many episodes of CSI). Inside the door (in plain vision as we had left it the morning before) were iPods, MP3 players, etc (and potable water, which is actually a treasure in this city) THEY DIDN´T EVEN TOUCH THEM. We thought maybe they didn´t get in or something so we started looking around and found that the drawers were all opened and the clothes thrown around a bit and stuff but they DIDN¨T STEAL ANYTHING. The door and house of our neighbors was the same. WHAT A BLESSING! My comp and I just fell on our knees and gave thanks to God (then we made some phone calls- police, owners, etc ahah) God is wayyy to good to us.

5- as a result of the previous point, they took our door this morning and are fixing it and we have to have or 2 or 4 missionaries in the house at all times until they bring our door back nice and fixed later this afternoon. good times.

So yeah, basically this week was killer. I love the mission so much, my life is the best. I have been here in Yopal for almost 7 months now and I just love this city. We are soo blessed to have some amazing leaders an some great members in this branch and it has been great bein here. Most likely I´ll be getting transfered next week to another city to finish my mission in another place, but if I stay here, I´m gonna be stoked!

Until next week, Love you all!

Elder Pratt

PS 6

I AM IRON MAN

(The title has nothing to do with me being an iron man, I am the same little kid I´ve always been, its just a cool line. I someday hope to get to be at least copperish)

 

I LOVE LIFE

 

This letter will be a bit longer as a form of restitution so I can make my repentance complete. PLEASE FORGIVE MY WEAKNESS IN WRITING

 

This week we had a cool experience with a great family. They are a yound family who had been a little disanimated and weren´t attending every sunday for their jobs. They don´t have the best jobs and especially during december they had to work a LOT and it has kinda been hard on them down a bit spiritually. This past week they invited us to lunch got to eat with them, and they told us that they had been passing through a lot of trials and it was a miracle that they there was food on the table that day and a miracle that there had been enough for everyone. talking to them and listening to their faith and their trials, it just miraculous. It sounds so lik cheesy but I was just super humbled to see everything they do. They have been through so much and their only goal in life right now is to get to go to the temple and get sealed as a family. It was just a super special experience and as cheesy and cliché it sounds, it was powerful, yo.

 

Remember when you were in High School and their was drama? Remember how lame that was? Yeah well sometimes people forget that it was lame and then we have drama. NEWS FLASH ITS LAME jk i just have gotten to the point where i just like dont care about any of that stuff. Man I´m so mature that it hurts

 

I AM A PRO ROOF BUILDER. If I had talking hammers and stuff as well, I would put old Bob the builder to shame

 

I love when people ask questions. There are very few things as a missionary that make me happier than a sincere question. This week we had a bunch of appointments with people who had super cool questions that are like super deep and it was just like the best. I just love that. I guess they saw that talk from our buddy Elder Russell from a few years ago, "Ask the missionaries, they can help you!" (When he gave that talk I had my all in my hand and was waiting to go out and I yelling at the TV, "Stop telling them that, I am going to have to answer so many hard questions when I get out!" MY HOW THE TABLES HAVE TURNED)

 

Que pena I gotta go, the owner of the internet place is asking a bunch of questions about us and the church (speaking of the devil, am i right??) and I gotta go baptize him. TTYL

 

I love you all!

 

Elder Pratt

 

PS 7

This year is the crazy future year from Back to the Future

HAPPY 2015!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week was a lot like round 2 of Christmas for me, when you are in Colombia and a misionary, the two dates just seem like repeats hahha. Food, parties you can´t go to, parties you wouldn´t want to go to, and food. I feel like just about every day this past week I have eaten sancocho (its like a soup with chicken and stuff that everyone makes on special occasions) and it is DELISH. 

These pst few weeks, my comp and I have been tryiong to worka  lot more with the members here in the city, especially with less active members and we have seen a lot of results and also had some really funny experiences. About a month ago, we met a family where the dad is a member adn turns out that now he is like basically the new pastor of a big church but he still really likes us and wants us to visit him! Hopefully we can make his congregations studyt he Book of Mormon too!

I am terrible about writing letters but I love you all!

Elder Prack

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

MY LIFE ROCKS

Christmas in Yopal was super cool, but also super weird. This city basically gets really empty whenever there is a holiday, and Christmas was EMPTY. The only peopl who were here on Christmas day in the city went down to the river to make food and hang out in the water so Christmas day was pretty slow at some points haha. But it was great, I love this city! 

MEDIUM GRAPHIC DETAILS (not really at all but just in case you hahah) Earlier this week we had a sick experience with another missionary here in our house. Here in the mission I have learned to really trust in priesthood blessings a LOT and one of the missionaries was sick and he asked for a blessing. He had been really sick to his stomach for like 2 days hadn´t been able to sleep and had wanted to but hadn´t been able to throw up either to feel relief. So we go to give him the blessing I he asked me to do it. I just was like trying to say what I felt I needed to say and among everything that we blessed him to be able to rest and sleep finally and I had like one moment where I like almost saw him throwing up in my head and I said that the sickness would leave his body and all would happen according to his faith blah blah blah and amen done. before the others in the circle could even say amen, he got up and BOLTED to the bathroom and threw up like everything and like 15 minutes later felt great and was walking around like a champ and since then he has been doing great. That was SO COOL to see how fast God answered his prayers. Instantly his prayer was answered and he felt great after. It was cool to be a part of that and feel the guidance of the spirit to say what needed to be said. I LOVE THE GOSPEL

QUOTE OF THE DAY:  DORMIR NO ES VIVIR BABY

OTHER QUOTE OF THE DAY: Hug it out, don´t get up in church and make a big scene and start getting realyl angry and yelling at everyone and think that you´re better thanm everyone else. (that one didn´t rhyme but it´s okay, you´ll forgive me)

I´M OUT OF QUOTES OF THE DAY.

JK I HAVE ONE MORE: "

(did you get the joke? its a quotation mark!)

I think the first quote of the day is making me tired and laugh at dumb jokes... who knows

Pray for Yopal!

I love you all!

Elder Pratt

PS listen to cello music and LIVE

I AM NOW A REAL LLANERO

I AM AGAIN ON THE TERRIBLE KEYBOARD

BUT I will let you all know that we had transfers today and I AM STAYING IN YOPAL!!! This is my 5th transfer here. I think I can apply for citizenship here in the city now. I love it here, I hope to be here much longer! I was talking to a few of the members yesterday and they were laughing because I have so many like things and habits of the people here, its a blast!!!

Honestly, tis kyboard is strssing m out so I´m not going to writ a good lttr, just know tat I HIT THE 22 MONTH MARK LAST WEEK and that is WEIRD. th good ting is tat I am extnding a bit so I will b r until lik 25 monts, so tim wont b too sort haa. opfully I can stay r in Yopal and finis my mission hr! This city is te best!

I lov verything in th world! Even tis littl kyboard jsut maks m almost appy aa. My lif is a jok!

ldr Pratt

(sin asunto)

soooooooooooo my life is basically the same-ish as it has been. for the past... um while.... BUT IT IS STILL THE BEST EVER.

Have you all seen the new video, "He is the Gift"? If not, stop reading my letter, watch the video, then you can keep reading. Okay???

Hardest thing ever (besides trying to ) is asking for forgiveness when you don´t feel like you´ve done anything wrong. FOR SURE. BUT it also makes you just feel super good and relaxed and makes everything work out so much better. TRY IT OUT

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DAD AND SHAWNA AND MARGARET I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!

I like teaching people the gospel. It is very gratifying. like really really gratifying. It makes me feel happy.

This has been the worst letter ever, but I for reals have ZERO TIME and I am a failure as a letter writer. QUE PENA CON SUMERCED

Elder Pratt loves you

HE IS THE GIFT

THIS WEEK IN A BOX

- I GOT PACKAGES! HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ME!!! Thank you Parents and Kyle and Sara. Even though it is a thousand degrees here, NOW it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

- LOOK UP THE CHURCH´S NEW VIDEO, "HE IS THE GIFT" christmas.mormon.org it is super cool. The Church is going HAM right now with this new initiative and it is awesome to be a missionary in theis time, I love it! We spend all day every day tell people about the Gift! You can do it too! Share it on the internet, show it to your friends, do everything you can!

- Yesterday was the Primary Presentation here in Yopal and it was so cool! I just love seething those little kids reciting scriptures and going crazy. It is the best!

- Look up this talk: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/of-regrets-and-resolutions?lang=eng and then read Mormon 9:14 and BE POSITIVE AND GRATEFUL AND HAPPY!!!!

- HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PARKER ANDERSON!!!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Elder Pratt

BUMMER

This was the email that I typed last week but my computer died when I was finishing. I´ll jsut leave it like this I guess hahah. Sorry!

So I could send home more than a paragraph and a half with lame jokes and half explained experiences, I voice-recorded a nice long and detailed message in my house witha  digital voice recorder and brought the file here and was all ready and good to go and I got here right now to try to send it and the file is too big and now I just wanna DIE haha. I bet I could compressw the file but number 1 I don´t remember how to do it quickly number 2 this computer is so slow that I think I might get epilepsy if I try to do it so sorry fo rthe short lame letter again but we´re all jsut gonna have to DEAL WITH IT hahah. My life is a such joke sometimes hahah

 

WELL.

 

This past thursday, I hit my 21 month anniversary. IT WAS WEIRD. It was probably one of the weirdest days I haev had inj a long time. Every appointment fell, all of the members who were going to go with us didn´t show up, A lady taught us about the really weird ideas about the law of chastity that they have in her church, we got a shank (a toothbrush with a piece of jagged metal shoved in the back) pulled on us in a dark cornered alley, and many more great and important things pertaining to the kingdom. Speaking of which, I officially have memorized all of the articles of faith in spanish. Took me long enough, but I did it! Yopal is the coolest, I love it here so much.

i at my lif

my computer has the e and h key busted and it like destroys all of everything. Cut and paste only works so well. I will type a few things without trying to worry about it and my regular grammar errors and it will just be a fun game for you all :)

So today my comp finally finisd is scond mont r in t mission. It is supr cool, but also maks m fel wird to know tat in 3 days, I will b finising my 21st mont. Kinda strang. I fl old. I fl lik nowadays I just lik don´t gt mad aboput anyting. Lik I don´t know if it is just I am so usd to t mission problms tat appn or wit popl or companions or watevr but I am just lik supr cill wit vryting. I jsut fl lik happy all t tim and it is supr cool. Lf is t gratst. I´m so appy to b r in Colombia. 

Tis wk a supr awsom invstigator of ours wo was prgrssing rally wll and ad bn going to curc a fw wks totally frakd on us tat dcidd to tll us tat sinc  ad gon to a tstimony mting and vryon just talkd about Josp Smit and t Book of Mormon tat w arn´t Cristians. W trid so ard to xplain to im but  ad jsut alrady mad is mind and dcidd tat it was lik tat and didn´t want to listn. tat was a bummr. I advis vryon to plas rmmbr tat w blong to t Curc of JESUS CHRIST, not t curc of Josp Smit and if w ar so sur tat w bliv tat, lts mak sur tat is clar wn w sar wit popl and spcially in cruc. Tanks!

Wit t transfrs tat w ad last wk, my comp and I ar now covring t ara tat otr missionaris wr in, and our ara as just about quadrupld in siz and it is insan. W ar basically opning up t ara. Wic is crazy bcaus wn I got r to Yopal 4 monts ago, I opnd up y ara from scratc. So now I av opnd up two aras in tis city in 4 monts. MY LIF IS A NUTCAS!!!

As I look back at wat I av writtn, I probably sound lik a crazy prson. But I don´t rally car tat muc. Bcaus I migt just b a crazy prson. Wic is okay. But ya. If you can undrstand tis mail, snd m a mssag and wn I gt om I will unt you dopwn to prsonally giv you a gold star. Ya, you bttr bliv it. I totally would do somting ridiculous lik tat.

I LOV YOU ALL!!!!

ldr Pratt

um.

well.

This past week was a pretty stellar Yopal week. We caught iguanas, we fought mixes of sun and rain, we hit a RECORD BREAKING NUMBER OF INVESTIGATORS IN CHURCH, HAD A SICK BAPTISMAL SERVICE, had a swwet halloween activity at the church, taught some sweet lessons and helped some awesome people accept baptismal dates, and we had transfers but I am staying in Yopal with Elder Angulo! We are gonna go CRAZY.

I have learned something about Colombia. Literally every single party that they have, EVERY SINGLE ONE there is a huge sound system and people dancing salsa. I love it so much. Huge sound systems are like a big deal here. Like I have seen so many people that can have like a really humble house, eat simple food, and live complicated lives of hard hard work where they don´t earn much money but they ahve teh coolest sound system you have ever seen and it is sooo cool. I just love people here. They just love to have fun and live it up and just be happy (just sometimes I wish they did it a bit more cleanly...hahaha but little by little). I officially challenge everyone who reads this letter to listen to some good salsa music and see a big group dancing and not just want to get up and go crazy. I am determined to start a US salsa revolution. Catch on now or get LEFT BEHIND

I remember that before I came out, someone told me, "You will see how much your focus changes. Your whole life is focused on other people. Everything you do, say, or think is based on others. You will just see how much it means just to take a moment and like make yourself a glass of Kool-Aid and feel like the most lucky person in the world." I thought I understood what he meant when he told me that ahha but I was suuuuuuuuuuuuper wrong. the other day I splurged and made a few pancakes in the morning for my comp and I and I just felt like just soo treated and pampered. I think of how boring my life was back in the day and how it was so focused on me and that makes me feel weird. The mission kinda makes you think things differently I guess. That´s pretty cool, helping other people is like the bomb, 4SURE

This week I learned a lot about Christlike attributes and what they really are. With some stuff that was going down, we had to sit down and talk about what was going on, what needed to happen, and what we needed to change. We made some realizations that often, our understanding of things is very basic and weak. When we think of patience, we think of not talking about. When we think of charity, we think of service. When we think of humility, we think of not acting out. while all of those things are great and true and help show and help develop those attributes, they are only a smaaaaalllll part. It is a really shallow understanding and application of those attributes. Patience isn´t just not talking back, but it is not even getting mad. Charity isn´t just serving, but it is the feeling behind all of the service that might be rendered. Humility isn´t and outside action, it is an inner understanding of our incompetence and need for our Heavenly Father´s help in all things. I think that deeper we understand things, the more God can help us to make them part of our lives. If I want to be truly patient, I need to understand what it REALLY is and then I can start trying to at least fake-it-til-you-make-it. I dunno. Sometimes I think about stuff. I feel like I am starting ot understand a bit of what God really wants from us and it is so much more than what I had thought of all these years. The good thing is that along with that undertstanding of His divine expectations, I have come to get a better understanding of the divine help that He offers us in Christ. I just feel hope and happiness. The plan is so perfect that we never have a good reason to be sad or hopeless. We should just feel grateful and ready to do our part, little by little. 

As I wrote that last line, I realized that all that probs sounds pretrty cheesy. Sorry if you´re lactose-intolerant

JOKE OF THE WEEK: (latin humor is not like gringo humor)

ONCE UPON A TIME there was a chicken who breathed out of his foot. One day he stepped in a puddle. He drowned.

my comp´almost fell on the floor laughing when that joke was told. I just used my profesional fake laugh. I think I wasn´t tired enough to appreciate it. OH well hahah.

EAT PANCAKES, THEY ARE DELICIOUS. I eat them with condensed milk, because syrup is expensive here.

Elder Prack (almost 21 months here and they still can´t say my name)

I CAN RIDE MY BIKE WITH NO HANDLEBARS

I don´t have a bike.

Anyway, my life is a craziness. Today, two really good buddies who have been here in Yopal with me for a while and in other areas with me and close by, are finishing the mission. Tonight, they are traveling to Bogotá and this weekend they go back. It is like suuuper weird, but you just kinda go with it. I have know them both since like I started and now they are going home. It makes me feel oldish sometimes.... BUT they are the losers because their time ran out and I still got time to cook, BOOM!

This week, in a lesson with a famliy, we asked the 13 year old son (who was NOT paying attention), "Why do we go to church?" He looked up fast and said, "Becauuuuuuuuuuuuuse JESUS!" SOLID ANSWER but I remembered that show Kids Say the Darndest Things like instantly. I LOVE YOU; BILL COSBY.

Yesterday, we had a bunch of people go to church for the first time which was SICK we were suuuuper pumped especially because their was a special satellite conference for Colombia and it was super cool BUT we live in Yopal where internet in general in just like a failure so this signal was like coming and going for like the whole thing and it makes it super hard to focus and stuff but that´s okay, the parts we did hear were super awesome. Elder Holland tore it up along with Elder Nash, Sister Wixom, and Elder Pino. 

(Random thought: sometimes amidst my grammar errors in English due to my Latin life, I remember things. Like right now I just remember oxford commas, such a dilemna that even Vampire Weekend wrote a song about it. I am a fan of Oxford commas and they aren´t a thing in Spanish and it makes me sad. But it´s okay. I guess.)

I swear my life isn´t as boring nowadays as I probably make it sund in my letters, telling really lame stories that make me laugh just because I´m tired, but I swear that my life is stilll crazy and cool and for real I can say that coming and staying on a mission is one of the best life-choices I´ve made to this point. I love it here so much and I just love my colombian life. So many weird things happen daily that are just so normal to me that are like crazy and/or illegal in the states and I just love it, like playing frogger on big streets, like buying bootleg "nike" jerseys, like playing micro football every monday, like sleeping on my chinchorro every night, etc. And that is without mentioning the just the gratifying feeling that I get serving the people. I just love ti when I can start to see the little changes they are making in their lives and it makes me just fel so happy. life is good, my friends. Life is good.

I hope this is the best week ever in your entire life, or at least you can see it that way!

(catchy tagline), 

Elder Pratt

PS CLOG UP MY SISTER´S FACEBOOK WITH CONGRATULATING MESSAGES FOR HER NEW BABY!!!!

´ello poppet

welllllll HI!!!

This week has been crazy. We were suuuuper busy all week, traveling to meetings, having killer appointments, getting some references of some power families, seeing miracles on Sunday, making tasty food, not having water in our house, sleeping in chinchorros (if hammacks had a cool older brother, it would be the chinchorro) and tearing this city up. 

I have learned sooooooo much this week about being a disciple of Christ. The more I study the more I realize that the all of the great things that we do and learn and hear are great, but they mean NOTHING unless we get to the real purpose of the gospel, which is our perfection. To really be disciples of the Savior, we need to follow Him and his example. I have learned a lot this week about how terrible I am at that and how much I need to change my heart and my actions. It takes a lot of work, but once the process starts it just feels great and super relaxing. I encourage all of you to take a minute to study chapter 6 of Preach my Gospel a bit. It is amazing.

BUT don´t think that I´ve gone all soft on you guys and aren´t myself anymore CAUSE THAT´S WRONG. I still have my lame story/comment from the week. This time, it´s a joke!:

-Cuál es el animal más perezoso?

-No, cuál es?

-No sabe? Es un pez. Sabe por qué?

-No, por qué?

-Qué hace un pez todo el día?

-NADA

(Please hold all applause ´til the end of the email)

I apologize for my love of cheesy jokes. Also puns. Nevermind I don´t apologize at all for my love of puns. Puns are punny and quack me up....

(As I wrote that I just remembered that part of Finding Nemo when the lobster guy says, "I am ashamed." who knows why that line came into my head...)

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll I gotta go. BYE!

Elder Pratt

PS While the powerful sun of Yopal has made my face and arms more tan, the sketchy house that we lived in has given my hand a weird thing that is giving my hand a weird like white splotch. (And don´t worry mom, I already have talked to doctors and everything and have a cream and stuff, chillax :) )

PPS that part of Napoleon Dynamite when Uncle Rico nails Napoleon in the face with a steak

MY LIFE

So. Today I have atrunky shout out. TODAY I hit 20 months of being here in Colombia. 20. I feel sooo old and it is weird cause it goes by sooo fast. BUT TIME TO FOCUS BACK IN CAUSE I STILL GOT 5 MORE TO GOOO!!!!

This week, I had probably one of the most funny (not funniest, but most funny. I am trying to practice my English) experiences/miracles of my recent life. SO we went to visit and old investigator who was in a nasty motocycle accident (popped her left shoulder out of its socket and they didn´t pop it back, scrapped up her arm like crazy, bad news bears) to give her a priesthood blessing. We were sitting outside on a bench and some chairs on their like front porch and talked and at the end, she asked that we give her the blessing and that I could do the first part. Perfect. So I go stand behind her to the left a bit to do the blessing and I take out my oil, I took the top off, and right before putting the drop on, I jsut like paused and I didn´t know why. I just like held up, not even like "I felt the prompting to wait" or anythign, I just like waited. Then, a few seconds later out of NOWHERE, something hits me SUUUPER hard on the back of my head, and heavy like it felt like bones or something. I was suuuper confused and was like looking around when I saw the dumb neighbors cat on the ground, running up the tree to get on the roof again. It turns out the little punk was sitting on the edge of the roof and for no good reason at all just decided to fall off and hit my head like soooo hard. All of us started laughing soo hard adnit was so weird and funny, but then we realized that if I hadn´t had waited, the cat would´ve interrupted the blessing, and, most important of all, if I hadn´t been standing there behind the sister in that exact place to the left of her at that time, and hadn´t been leaving over a bit, the cat would´ve fallen directly on her dislocated shoulder and destroyed arm and well you can just imagine the pain she wouold´ve felt (becuase I give testimony that it was a fat cat an my head hurt for real after). It was a Christmas miracle. I love everything in life :)

That is basically the only story I felt was worthy of telling this week in the short time I had. I hope you enjoyed it and can look always for th small miracles in your lives, just like fat cats that fall on your head. 

ELDER PRATT LOVES YOU