August 8, 2011 Email

Hola Mihijos!

Mom, I am very impressed you have done so well at not stalking me on my mission! You still have 2 months of no stalking, don't ruin your streak!

Here in Wyoming we have our own apartment and it's pretty nice. No dryer, but that's the only downfall I think. It's 2 stories tall, full kitchen, it's good!

We did exchanges with the Elders in Kemmerer this last Tuesday and we left on Monday night at 9:00 pm to go there. So Elder Hancock and I are driving and this car comes over the ridge, turns it's brights on and as it gets closer starts flashing it's lights at us. It was annoying since we didn't have our brights on, so when they got really close we flashed them on so they could clearly see that we didn't have our brights on. As we came up over the hill I told Elder Hancock to turn the brights on so we could spot antelope, because there are tons of antelope on the way to Kemmerer. As soon as he flipped the brights on we saw a dead antelope in the middle of the road and we both screamed. I guess you just had to be there. We took pictures!

The other night we were planning and it was getting towards being bed time and I was tired and there was a stupid horse fly buzzing around in our room. So I finally snapped and got a towel to kill it. It flew up in the light and I figured it was pretty trapped so I got a lint roller and put it up inside the light fixture and pinned it to the light, and than the screw broke and the light fell and shattered all over the desks and flew across the room. What a great day!

The best was on Wednesday though. We were way over on miles compared to where we should be because of the drive to Kemmerer and back twice, so we decided to walk. We clearly underestimated walking time. We planned it great so we would walk the shortest route and we'd stop by people we needed to on the way. But because it took so long to walk around we didn't even get the chance to visit anyone. I wish I could draw you a map, but if you could imagine a big circle about 6 miles in diameter, we walked around that whole thing! Live and learn! The funnest part was as soon as we got into the town of Lyman, it started raining on us. And as we kept going through town, it rained harder. Pretty soon it was like back home and Elder Hancock and I were loving it. It was the second time on my mission where it was so bad that it would have been the same effect if we'd jumped in the lake and got out soaked. Then the rain moved on and it was really cold. We didn't say much to each other after that, just a lot of Ahhhhhhhhh it's cold!!! That's another fun thing, we could yell like that because there was nothing around us but hay fields. But the crowning events came when dinner called us and cancelled as we got to the edge of their house, and then as we walked back there was a slight wind change and the big fat storm that hit us horseshoed around and hit us a second time! haha

We have done some great service this week, too. Some good manual labor and a lot of service by bringing people some comfort when they were struggling. We also helped a lady move this morning.

It was hard for us because everyone was in Evanston for stupid fair! But there was an amazing testimony builder for me that happened one night when we added a guy named Monny. He's a rancher over in Robertson and as we got to know him a bit and share our conversion stories with him he had similar experiences with both of us. Of course with Elder Hancock being a rancher, but he also had some problems with paralysis since he was young and he's doing great now and knows a little of what I went through with brain surgery. So that was the beginning realization for me that Our Heavenly Father has us in certain places for specific reasons at times. And then it got more specific. As we were talking, Elder Hancock shared an experience he had. When he was out here in the mission field for about 3 weeks last transfer, he got the feeling that they should go to Robertson. His last comp thought it was a stupid idea, that there's nothing in Robertson, it's been tracted out a bazillion times, and told him they weren't going. But Elder Hancock was driving, so they went. They walked around and only talked to one cowboy while they were there. They talked to him briefly and bore their testimonies and went along their way. The other Elder told him that was a bad decision and that he should think things through better next time. We just found out through talking to Monny that the cowboy they talked to was his dad, and that extended family had been trying to bring them the gospel for forever, and that Monny's dad was really pleased with how strong *they were in the gospel. *I assume the 2 Elders.

The Lord can use us to be an instrument in His hands even though we make so many mistakes. We just need to trust Him and look past our mistakes, because He does.

Love y'all!
Stay Classy

Elder Partridge