December 3 Email!

So we had Thanksgiving this week! Yay! I love eating tons of food; twice, b/c we had 2 dinners! instead of having a normal day of work, we deep cleaned our apartment! it was so fun! NOT! but we had to do it some time anyway, so it was ok!

We also had transfers just yesterday! Elder Dyson and I are staying together until he goes home, so I get to kill him! (that's mission lingo for being his last comp). We went to the transfers though b/c we had to get a new gas card since we have a car and all! yesssss!!!! I'm soooo lucky!

So just to boast in the power of the Lord to fulfill his promises to his children: Our mission baptized 79 people this weekend and 246 in the month of November! That's 246 people who have accepted the gospel and entered into a covenant with our Heavenly Father and can now return to live with Him again! It's truely incredible!

We also went to the Samoan Ward Relief Society closing social! There were 7 of those buffet tables full of food; just one pan after the other! After we piled a mountain of food on our plates and sat down they said "Good, leave this here and get another one." so we piled another mountain of food on a plate and sat down and started eating. And for the next 30 min, one person after another just kept bringing plates and plates of food to our table! we have to be in by 9:00 pm so we told them we had to go, so they piled all the food onto 7 plates and sent them home with us! They're so funny too; one of the brothers in the ward is on the high council and we went in line with him and he kept telling us what everything was! haha he's like "Elders, we don't eat horse: This is pork cooked in the samoan style, so it's good! This is sausage, but it's cooked in the Samoan style so it's better! Oh and elders, this is shrimp!" hahahaha that was the best one b/c It's shrimp, it looks the same every way it's cooked! hahaha Oh and the bishop assured us we could eat as much as we can and we won't get sick b/c the food's already been blessed! hahaha

Another cool thing that happened this week was...BYU WON!!!!!! Yes! Congratulations!

The spiritual story from the Elders in Rose Park North area this week is about someone we met 2 days ago! His name is David Solomon! He's 15 years old and lives with his mom, dad, sister and cousin/brother. His mom and cousin are the only members of the church in the family and we had been trying to contact David for 5 weeks! We were about to stop trying b/c they never answered the door once in the whole time we were trying, no matter what time of day it was! So this last time we were trying, they were home! the dad answered the door and we sat down and talked with him and David (the son) about meeting with us and working towards baptism! They were both excited and told us to come back tommorrow. So we showed up to the lesson, and one of the rules we have as missionaries is we need 3 men over 18 in the house to be able to teach, and there wasn't a third male. So we asked if we could get someone and come back in an hour to teach them. So for the next half hour we stood outside in the 16 degree weather and called over 12 people and noone could help us! We were trying everything to get someone and noone could so we were starting to get worried. So we both said a prayer in our hearts that someone would be able to go with us! Finally the WML talked to someone and convinced them to help us out! Then when we got there to teach, about 5 min later, the father walked in so we didn't even end up needing the member to be there! But I know that Heavenly Father hears our prayers, and we can always have prayer in our heart! So last night we met with David, and his mom and cousin sat in on the lessons, and we taught him about the restoration of the gospel! We also committed him to be baptized on Dec 19 and he accepted! So that's another prayer the Lord answered for us last night! I know that The Lord has everything happen for a reason and that nothing just happens by coincidence! I know that the message I am sharing to everyone is true and that this is what I need to be doing in my life! I also know that we will be blessed for trying our best to keep all of God's commandments! I love you all and appreciate the influence each of you have had in my life to strengthen me!

Love,
Elder Partridge!