November 24, 2010 Email

Hello Everyone,
We totally got a blizzard last night. (Insert little snowman figure.) We were in an area where we got less than anticipated, but of course that didn't stop me from slipping and falling; pretty much like if you picture someone sliding into home base, that's what it was like. But thank goodness it wasn't more than that because we're on 24 hr. exchanges and I was in the DL's area (Elder Chavez) with another missionary in a mini van most of the night. Well I guess we were in lessons pretty much all night, but you know what I mean. And my son (greenie) had some sweet experiences. While I was off in the other area trying to teach people in Spanish, Elder Wilkinson took the reigns and totally hard committed Sarah like we planned on and she accepted! So she's getting baptized on Dec. 18! WAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And from what I hear he was perfect at teaching to her concerns! I'm so proud! Definitely not in myself though! Nothing happens because of what I do. But ya, snow definitely won't stop the work of the Lord! Boom!
The Carlisle's are great and I'm pretty excited to eat with them, and 2 other people, for Thanksgiving tomorrow. No new shoes yet, but hopefully tomorrow. We'll have to see because they haven't called us and told us that E. Wilkinson's suit is done yet. But after last night, not even walking in the snow except for going in and out of the van, I've decided I definitely need new shoes.
I got the package yesterday with the scarves etc. and the notes, only I didn't see the note on the Christmas present so I opened that one right away. Then I found it and read it so I was like "oh I'm glad it was ok to open, because I just did. Phew." Thanks a ton!
I'm sure I'll think of you guys some time tomorrow at Taylor's eating and talking and Uncle Allen cutting the meat and the football game on and all the women in the kitchen and ya.
I'm doing some of the AM exercises. The week went good. We were in most of the time the beginning of this last week because Elder Wilkinson was deathly ill. Not really too bad, but he had to go to the bathroom every 5-10 min. So I was very bored, excited to study A LOT, and anxious to go back out and work!
So Sister Wet wants to wait 3 yrs. for Chaney to get baptized when he knows more because it's their culture. But I like what Pres. Ruesch (Stake Pres.) said about it, "Well they should learn the Lord's culture." So we'll see how it goes. We're teaching them tonight, so ya.
With Romero-Investigator and Salina-Less Active (the couple the Sisters gave us to teach) we haven't been able to teach them since that first time a week ago because Salina had surgery and is on drugs and way out of commission from the surgery, and Romero is tired from work and taking care of Salina and the baby, so he just sleeps all the time. But hopefully things will get rolling with that!
I love Kendall! Tell him hi for me please; along with everyone else! Good to hear he is doing so well! What a swell guy to have as a cousin!
Haha, ya we have been extremely careful with the bike and of course haven't used it the past few days in the snow! But ya, no idea who donated it. Maybe the mission, but IDK.
We have 3 dinners now as of last night. One with a Ward Mission Leader, Bro. Bradshaw and his family. He's a hilarious guy and an amazing WML! He fulfills his calling like a champ! He comes with us to all of Sarah's lessons! He also manages a Michael's Craft Store up here. Thought you'd like that mom. The 2nd is with Tavia who got baptized Sept.5 and her fellow shipper, who she's living with, Sky. Sky is making a sweet meal apparently so we're jumping by there for a plate of food cuz it's gonna be amazing! Then we're spending dinner with the Carlisle's! of course that will be great because they are just an amazing family! We get a Turkey Bowl in the morning, too! That will be fun!
Oh how thankful I am for wonderful family and friends who love me so much! I want you to know that I love you too and am so thankful for you from the bottom to the top of my heart!
Love,
Elder Partridge

November 17, 2010 Email

Hello all my favorite people,
That's cool about the new guide the church put out! Oh and there's a special stake meeting coming up this Sunday and Elder Hales is going to be there!
Ya I know what it's like having to make stuff up at school! Sorry Lauren! I hope you feel better soon! Have a great time at the dance too! Good luck in the interview Kayla! unless you already had it! then I'm sure you did great. (Elder Wilkinson says hi to everyone.)
That is so cool about Rene' and his mom! I am excited for them to be baptized. That will be such a great blessing for them!
Congrats to Will Shupe! Cool beans! :)
Real quick about the week; since we've been talking with EVERYONE and getting referrals and doing everything and still not seeing success we were in the middle of proselyting and I stopped and said ok we need to figure out some thing we're doing wrong or some thing we're not doing right now and change it because there's something we need to do to see success. So we came to the consensus that we need to do better at exercising in the mornings like we are supposed to. So the next day we started doing better at that and later in the day we started tracting- the dreaded activity-and the first door we knocked on was a part-member family named the Wet's. So we talked with Sister Wet and she wants to get back to church and she has two sons. I have no idea how to spell her six-year-olds name, but she has a ten-year-old named Chaney that wants to get baptized and meet with us! So pretty sure that's a direct correlation of sacrifice, obedience, and blessing. We're gonna put him on date for baptism when we teach him tomorrow. Then just yesterday the sisters handed an investigator over to us because he is going to get his baby blessed in the English Ward and his wife doesn't understand Spanish. It's really cool because when they very first started teaching him (Romero) I went over and gave his wife a blessing before she got induced. So we already know them. He is on date for baptism for Dec. 4! The Lord is pouring out blessings upon us already. I was bummed though because right when we were seeing the apex of blessings, Elder Wilkinson got way sick. He has the "double dragon!" Anywho, we feel also that Sarah is really close to baptism, but we are silly and haven't invited her to be baptized since like 3-4 weeks ago and a ton has changed since then. Have an amazing time living life and look for the blessings the Lord gives. And if you can't see them, align your will with His and He will pour out blessings upon you! I love being a missionary in the Lord's vineyard! It's never really easy, but it's the most rewarding when the Lord gives us the opportunity to teach someone who is prepared for baptism! I love you all so much, especially the fam! Thanks for your shining examples, love and prayers!
Love,
Elder Partridge.

PICTURES!!!

These are some pictures that I got from Pres. and Sis. Winn's blog. LOVE that blog!!!

November 10, 2010 Email

Hey hey hey!
This week's been good! We've found a couple of new investigators and are planning to put a lot of the investigators we have on date for baptism.
So ya, everyone keeps telling Elder Wilkinson that he has a great trainer, but ya. He laughed when he saw the pic you sent from his facebook. haha He is into band. Trombone to be presice.It's pretty good training. It's like a normal transfer only not. Elder Wilkinson makes it easy, and he reminds me a lot of myself when I came out. He is a bit timid to speak with people but is a great teacher and he has a great attitude and desire for the work. He's even caught me on stuff at times. It is great to be able to help him learn the things to be successful and help him learn the principles we teach. We get along really well. We don't have exactly the same interests and what not, but we get along amazing! It's great to be able to trust each other and do the work with the same amount of intent!
We turned Ramon over to the sisters and we have a lesson with Sarah tonight. We just added a guy named Paul who came to church last week randomly and we put him on date for baptism for Nov. 27.
So the bike crash was not a big deal. We almost got hit by a car and we swerved and hit the curb at 15-20 mph and I flew over Elder Wilkinson. It could have been bad, but it's good.
Sounds like a fun reunion for Kendall! I love him! Tell him hi! That'll be fun when I get home, but that's still a long way off.
So about that secret story; wow! I give you props!
No plans for Thanksgiving or funny stories about daylight savings time this year. haha
Love you tons! Thanks!
Love,
Elder Partridge!

Oh, and we got texting available now on our phones! Pretty cool!

November 4, 2010 Email

Hello my beloved friends and family,
So this week there have been crazy changes since we talked last. P-day is no longer on Thursday when transfers happen, but it's on Wed. like normal. So we just have transfers on P-day. So some of you may be wondering why I'm e-mailing on Thursday instead of Wed? Well, Elder Casey did leave as expected and I did stay. On Sunday in the midst of planning for the next days activities, President Winn gave me a call and told me I was pregnant aka I am going to train a new missionary. So yesterday was spent all day with that. We met our greenies and had lunch with them followed by X-treme street contacting downtown. As you may remember, when I was a greenie and did this it was in the middle of a blizzard. I must say that the weather conditions were much finer yesterday, but the people we talked to up and down West Temple sure didn't want to listen to what we had to say. We got quite the rejections. But ya, since we didn't get p-day yesterday, we get a little time to e-mail and shop today.
I'm glad you got my suit and pants okay. The reason the jacket and 2 pairs of pants fit so good in that little box is because Sis. Carlisle packed them and taped it for me!
I bet the singing went great mom! I compliment you on a job well done.
I got the package and it was amazing! I love it all! I'm especially excited for the Swiss Miss. I'm glad the next set of e-mails will just be one weeks worth! haha thanks so much for sending those.
Ya the apartment flooded because we live right next to the laundry room and a pipe busted so we just got to experience all that water in our apartment too.
It's good to know that you enjoy getting real mail every once in a while. I'll do that more!
David is in his 40's. Sarah is very sincere and interested. In the last lesson we had with her we had her kneel and pray with us to ask if the Book of Mormon is true. So she did and she said she felt comfort and wants to keep reading and praying for a week to confirm her answer! It's pretty cool, and I know that each time she prays the Lord will confirm that answer!
That's sweet that Levatau's are coming to the ward! I'll keep tabs on things I need or anything I want and be sure to let you know! btw there's a Target in the mission now right by Wal Mart!
The trial we were having is pretty much just a lot of rejection from people and some people getting so close and then falling away.
Oh, yes, the time change is on Sunday. yay.
I can't believe that Kendall's already coming home! That's crazy! I bet they're excited!
Not really any new health advancements for me, but it's still good! No car still, so that means we'll be walking in the snow! If you could send me the scarves that would be super! I still have everything else from last winter. I didn't get boots because I didn't go to Wyoming and it looks like I won't have to either because I think I'm in the clear as far as going out there. My waterproof shoes were all for the snow last year. The galoshes might work though instead of a whole new pair of shoes if you end up having to pay for them. There are some dress shoe galoshes that I've seen other missionaries wear, and I'm still good for my stationary.
Thanks for all you do for me mom and family and everyone else.
Love
Elder Partridge.

PS. We got in a pretty gnarly bike crash last night and we were megga blessed. What a first day for Elder Wilkinson.

October 31, 2010 Letter

Hi everyone,
Sorry it's taken so long to get a letter to you, but you know how it is--busy! :)
So we're teaching a less active man named David and he had one of his legs amputated. So we went over yesterday and he was extra excited because he is getting his prosthetic leg in a week. I said the closing prayer and in the middle of the prayer, he very excitedly said, "Don't forget my prosthetic." So I finished praying for what I was praying for right then and the next thing I prayed for was his prosthetic. He then said in a very excited tone, "Yes!!!". It was pretty funny!
We're teaching a guy named Ramon that we just started teaching last week. He's on date for Nov. 13 to be baptized. We had some pretty great lessons with him. The first time we taught him, we put him on date, and the second lesson he said he didn't know if he could feel ready to be baptized by Nov. 13. His concern ended up being that he really wanted to understand the covenant of baptism before he did it, and he felt like he wouldn't know by Nov. 13. So we prayed with him right there and he got an answer that God wanted him to be baptized. But he hasn't been home the last two times we've gone by to teach him, so please keep him in your prayers.
We're also teaching a woman named Sarah who is very interested. We found her just by tracting. We've taught her three times and she is progressing pretty well. She has a bunch of questions which is awesome! Our last lesson was pretty cool because each time she brought up a question and we answered it, the Holy Ghost bore witness of what we said each time.
I love you guys so much!
Love,
Elder Partridge

October 28, 2010 Email

Dear amazing family and friends,
First of all I'd like to send my love. LOVE!!! There you go. So mom, don't worry about not sending those things. I know that you're really busy and I still love you just as much.
I'm excited for the present on Christmas. Sis Udall is pretty awesome. Please tell her thank you for me. Thanks.
This week was the mission tour where Elder Evans of the 70 came and spoke to us, so we have p day today. Next week is transfers and so p day will be Thursday again, and from what we saw on the white board today at the mission home, Elder Casey will probably be leaving and I have no idea still about myself.
We have a very limited amount of time today so I'll write you a letter about all the miracles, trials and people we're teaching some time today and mail it off. I'll mail my suit off today and probably mail the measurements later.
We've seen snow and had our first snow ball fight as a district when we were randomly at the same place at the same time. We don't ride the bike in the snow. We park it and walk, which takes us a lot longer to do things. But it all works out.
I hope you have a great Halloween celebration. We're going to be in the 6:00 session at the Temple this year as a zone.
That's pretty cool that Garret fed E. Rohbock last week.
We got flu shots like everyone else, but we were just later getting there than everyone because the ZLs didn't want to take us the same time as everyone else so we went to teach a lesson instead.
Good to hear the funeral went well. Thanks for letting me know how it went. It sounds like it was amazing.
We cover 4 wards in this area.
You can send Halloween candy if you want to. I'm not gonna lie, it would be appreciated! But whatever is easiest for you! Thanks a ton for everything. Oh, I will say real quick that we put some one on date for baptism last week and that our apartment flooded and smells like dead sea creatures. Mmm... look forward to more in a letter.
Love you bye!