February 14, 2011 Email

Elder Partridge unto the most excellent family and friends sendeth greeting (see Acts 23:26),

We saw an absolute miracle and answer to prayers this last week. We of course went for the standard of excellence 1 3 5 8 3, especially since Christian got baptized. At a leadership meeting that happens quarterly with all the ZLs DLs and Trainers we received the assignment for our areas as the leaders of the mission to have 12 lessons with a member present instead of the standard of 8. So we had 1 3 5 12 3 as a goal now for this week on. So yesterday we were all there except we needed 2 more lessons and we needed to add someone for baptism. After our first sacrament meeting we got a call from a Ward Mission Leader that someone in their ward wants to be baptized. :) x10! We went to her ward and didn't know who she was. She got up to bear her testimony and after she was done Elder Aguilar and I looked at each other and said "That's gotta be her." It was. She's so solid. Her name is Tory Sweet. It's pretty SWEET!!! We went and added her as an investigator and put her on date to be baptized right after church. Her best friend lives next door and is a solid fellowshipper. Her mom is coming back to church and her dad is working every day. ie Yesterday was his first day off in 3 months. It's awesome though.

Christian totally got baptized on Saturday! It was crazy. We got there at 12:30 and to our utter horror no one was there. So we tried the door; it was locked. We called the bishop and told him and he just said, "Ohhhhhhh no. I'll be there in 5 min." So we waited outside for bishop to get there and Christian and his family got there; along with his extended family. So we all just stood outside and chatted till bishop got there. Then we darted to the font and lo and behold, it was empty. Luckily this font only takes an hour to fill to the brim. So we cranked it on and went to set things up. (FYI we called the baptismal coordinator twice and told him and the ward called once. He's just elderly and totally forgot.) So we changed (I got to baptize him because his cousin wasn't able to. Which is really cool that they decided to go forward with it anyway) and stalled a little bit. Took some pictures, a little of this a little of that, and finally the water was high enough. The thing is, at first the water was coming out nice and warm and after a while it got colder and colder, so it ended up being quite nippy. Poor Christian. But it was pretty amazing.

Then yesterday Christian got confirmed in sacrament meeting. But at least this time the chair didn't fall and slam on the ground after the confirmation like it did with Mason.

Anywho, stay classy and expect miracles to be wrought in your lives. Heavenly Father will answer your prayers. Pray as if everything depended upon Heavenly Father (because it ultimately does) and then do as if everything depended upon you.
Love you all!
Elder Partridge

P.S. Thanks for the update on L's mole situation, Mom. The pics made me laugh. Only you would take pics in the middle of a surgery. haha