May 23, 2011 Email

Wassup?!

We had a couple of baptisms this past weekend, but one less than we planned. Jonathon and Destiny Bingham. Paradise decided to wait till after they move to a Mexico/AZ border town in a couple of weeks. Jonathon said he looked like a white ninja so we started ninja fighting. He's a fun kid. And Destiny was laughing the whole time. She started laughing at us and we said, "What Destiny do we look funny or something?" and she just kept chuckling. She was even laughing as she walked into the font.

So ya, we get about 10 investigators to church per week in the whole STAKE. So there are probably less coming to just our ward. And ya, Debbie was solid, then she got evicted the next day and moved up to Bountiful. Dang it!

A reminder about Abel, he was baptized May 14 and yesterday he passed the sacrament. That's so cool to see more steps like that after baptism so they stay strong and continue to progress. And Elder Ostrom and I blessed the sacrament yesterday in one of the wards. It's the first time in the field that I've blessed. I passed a bunch in Rose Park Stake.

That's sweet you are able to be a part of teaching Dawn. Definitely do the tea bag lesson with her. Get the Bigalow brand; it doesn't burn people. haha

Sweet that Gary Shaker's mom was baptized, too. I bet the missionaries in Arkansas were excited. I know I would be.

I want to go to Taylor's cabin!

We are at the Redwood Rec Center doing email, and every week there is a seminar going on while we email, so we get to learn how to do different basic things on the computer. So today it's all about people who hack into your e-mail or scam you in other various ways so they can get some moola from you. So are you really my mother typing me every week, or some person in Africa trying to smooth talk me so you can swindle me out of the big money I get every month as a missionary through fairshare? ha

We've got a baptism coming up this weekend for Sara Allen. She has been ready to get baptized for months now and we were just helping her husband get ready to be able to be the one who baptizes her. So we read "The Miracle of Forgiveness" with him and the bishop has given him the ok to be able to baptize her. So things are set for this next weekend.

I love ya'll and will be praying for you all the time.

Holla back.

Love,
Elder Partridge

May 16, 2011 Email

Malo e lelei,

Mom, I never got the lds.org video of Kayla and Lauren, can you send them to me again? Thanks. And ya it's funny cuz I feel the same way; this week has gone by way fast and it still feels like it's been forever since I talked with you guys. Only this time you won't have till December to talk to me again. haha Crazy.

Welcome to missionary work, mom. Lots of rescheduling.

Speaking of missionary work, we had some awesome miracles. Yesterday was crunch time-make or break for the week and pretty much make or break for May. This happened zone wide and everyone in the zone stepped up to the plate. There were exponential improvements from last week and tons of miracles. Us for example: to get the standard of excellence we needed to put some one on date for baptism and that was pretty much it. So we planned for everyone we could go by and put on date and that was our focus. Then the trial hit. Normally we have about 10 investigators who come to church on a regular weekly basis. But for whatever reason, everyone decided that they couldn't come b/c of a lot of sickness and some surgery and getting back home from various places in the middle of the morning, like Mexico or work. So long story short (too late) we only had 2 of those regulars come. So we were frantically rushing around rounding people into church. We had a Ward Mission Leader walk with a potential investigator named John to church and we added him. We added a potential investigator named Lisa at church before sacrament meeting, but she left before sacrament meeting, but came back to a later wards sacrament meeting which was a huge miracle, and to top it all off, a woman showed up at church named Debbie. Now Debbie's mother just passed away and she showed up to church and met with bishop and she talked to us and wants to be baptized. I'm so excited for the change that the gospel is going to make in the perspective she has on her mother's death. Anyway, for whatever dumb reason, we didn't add her as an investigator right there. Instead we set up a time to come by that night. Then she called and cancelled for any time today even with my companion practically pleading for any time to come by. But she had no time. So when all was said and done, when all the wards had met and we only had 4 investigators to sacrament meeting we were provided with another miracle. We were inspired to call Debbie and teach her over the phone. So we gave her a call and talked with her about prayer and how it will provide her with comfort until we meet on Tuesday. Then we had a prayer with her over the phone, and Debbie was so grateful. She's solid.

Abel was baptized, too. There was pretty much no one at his baptism besides the bishop, ward missionaries, us, his neighbor who played the piano, and his friend. But even though there weren't many people there, it was a glorious occasion for him. And yesterday he was confirmed and given the Aaronic Priesthood. It's sweet.

Next week, well I guess this week coming up, Paradise, Jonathon, and Destiny Bingham are being baptized. Please pray for them. Their life is very busy right now.

We also added a girl that's been coming to seminary for a month and loves it. She only took seminary b/c she didn't know what it was and was curious. And she's been telling her family all about it.

Heavenly Father is blessing us so much, but we are having to earn it all. There has been a long trial in the whole mission for the past 2 months and as we were talking about what we need to do or change to pass through the trial, yesterday happened and we saw the miracles flow. It's like Heavenly Father was answering our confusion and questioning by saying "Don't worry, Be happy." This is God's work and we are just the tools to make things happen, and whether we are in a trial or not, we can still make things happen.

Ofa Atu,
Elder Partridge

To see some cute pics of Elder Partridge, go here and here!
And to see the video of his sisters, go here and click on the small pics under Christ and the children!

May 9, 2011 Email

Hola,

No mom, don't fret, I'm not homesick from Skyping you. With as much as I miss you, I'm still focused on the work. Pretty trippy that it was my last call home though.

It's hard writing in my journal every day because of business and what not, so in order to remember for later on, days I don't have time to write, I jot down the main points of miracles etc. so when I write them down later it will spark my memory. So maybe you can do that to start off with too, mom.

Good to hear about Elder Stanton Shields. He's great. How's the work going for him in Espania?

Ya, we have interviews coming up on the 19th, so I'll talk to Pres. about it and see if we can't figure something out with Dayne. It'll be sweet.

So probably the coolest thing, miracle of the week, was when we taught and added Eric Phibbs. We talked to him to see where to begin teaching and he shared how he just wanted so much to have peace, joy, and guidance in his life like he sees in the lives of his coworkers. So we brought the Spirit in as much as we could and he felt it strong. He said the closing prayer and hasn't prayed in years before that, and he said it felt "magical." Then he wasn't going to be able to make it to church with it being Mothers Day and what a surprise, he was at church and he is way excited about talking with us on Tuesday.

Anyway, love you tons. We are seeing tons of miracles and are expecting even more in this great month of May. April showers bring May flowers.

Love you all,
Elder Partridge

May 2, 2011 Email

Hey guys,

So with the car break-in mom, IDK why they picked our car? Probably because it was unlocked but that's not my fault because the car lock on my side doesn't work. But it was pretty cool how they looked in the glove compartment and took our gas card, but skipped right over my camera. I was lucky. I will need a new backpack so I will just buy that with my debit card. It was also cool because for the 3 days that we didn't have a tiwi card to log in, it just stayed logged in. Pretty cool. After we discovered the incident we called Pres. Winn and he said to call the police, so we did. Then we waited 2 hours for the police not to show up. Great.

We had 2 baptisms this weekend. One of a 9-yr-old kid named Bridger and the other an 84 year-old named Jess. For Jess's baptism, he just got over double pneumonia and could not walk, so his son-in-law, Elder Ostrom, and I carried this man down into the font and pretty much got baptized with him. In the confirmation his grandson blessed him that he had now fulfilled what he had to in this life and was to prepare for the coming weeks to continue to serve. Cool. We also had 3 baptisms back in Tooele. I wasn't able to go back to Tooele, but they got baptized, which is all that matters. Plus we'll be able to see them when we go to visit them as a family after the mission.

We were out last night at 8:50 trying to add 2 new investigators before the end of the week and we didn't find anyone new, but we did hear about Osama being killed.

We ended up getting 4 inches of snow here in Granger and it was all gone by the afternoon. I despise Utah weather. That was pretty much the assurance that it will flood this year. That will be interesting. Cool.

I'll be skyping some time in the evening between 6-9 pm UT time. It's gonna be cool.

So being a ZL..."we're definitely not in Kansas anymore." It's a lot more to do. Some of the things are very administrative and most people see it as boring. The paper work/behind the scenes work to make sure everything runs smooth and ya. So We are working just as hard, but the #'s are lower than in Tooele because we aren't working as much in our area. It's been frustrating this last week because we knew our weak area was going to be adding new investigators this week, so that was our focus all week, every free moment. But we only ended up adding one person. We tried every method possible. IDK what's going on.

I still think it's cool how you are a missionary the same time as me, mom. Cool.

Ya I know Elder Ahlstrom. He introduced himself to me at a mission lunch thing last transfer. He told me he was friends with all them and they said to look for me, so he looked for me and found me. He seems like a great Elder. It'll be fun to be around him for 5 more months.

I love Gary! I'll be praying for you daily. And yes I will definitely be hanging around and visiting when I get home.

I didn't know Ashlyn was already actually going to Jerusalem. That's sweet. Great for her.

I thought that there was no way L could have beat me after brain surgery, but looks like she's still proving me wrong. Isn't health insurance great?

Holy smokes!!! L is ridiculously intelligent. Let me just say...props from your big bro for juggling all that at once and doing so incredible on your ACT. "You da bomb."

By-the-way, I took an IQ test and I have an IQ of 132 which is in the top 2.2 of the entire world. I feel smart, too. And that's after 19 months not going to school. Heck ya.

Love you all,
Elder Partridge

A Subtle Message From Sister Winn

A few weeks ago I left a comment on Sister Winn's blog. After looking at hundreds of pictures to get a glimpse of Elder Partridge at a Zone Conference, there were none, so I simply asked if he was still serving in that mission. Not long after, this post appeared on her blog. I have to admit, I was a bit shocked and embarrassed, but looked forward to what future posts would appear. Well, she definitely did not disappoint! Go here to check it out. Thank you, Mama Winn!!! You really are the best!

April 25, 2011 Email

Hey,

I'm now a big dog zone leader! So I did get transferred out of Tooele just like I was NOT expecting. But I'm in the South Zone in West Valley City in the Granger East Stake, which is interesting because Dyson served here, too. Funny. I'm with another companion that was in the MTC the same time as me-Elder Ostrom from Florida.

We just went to the Temple this morning. The first time in almost 5 months now. It was pretty refreshing to go through a session, and especially to receive revelation about a Zone goal for May. April was pretty bad and embarrassing here in the South Zone, so we decided with the potential that we have, we are going to blow May out of the water! We have Zone Leader council coming up tomorrow (my first one) where we'll discuss our goal and actual for April and our goal and plans for May and whatever else they want to know.

This is totally different than Tooele! But there are a lot of changes and growth that I incorporated while in Tooele that we are going to apply here, too.

I'll have to check with Pres. Winn to see if I'll be able to go back to Tooele for any baptisms, but probably not. But we'll see.

Oh sweet! Vicki Snow back in Rose Park got baptized! That's awesome! I definitely worked with them. That was with Elder Jackson 10 months ago. Crazy how fast time flies by. Tell Sis Carlisle thanks a ton for letting you/me know.

More fun news for L. Not really, but the way she deals with everything it might as well be good news. That's a compliment btw.

So ya, Casa del Rey is pretty delicious. I will miss it. I only went to Grantsville 4-6 times in the whole 4 1/2 months there though. But you'll definitely go there when you all come to pick me up. I'm going to take you to the people I was able to help bring the gospel to for sure.

Wow. I was off on my guess for Dayne's mission call. I won't see him for a hecka long time! 47 months.

I can't believe you stay up so late. I go to bed at 10:30. Elder Ostrom and I both found it funny that for our last lesson we went to a guys house at 8:00-8:45 pm and as we were leaving to go home, everyone else was getting ready to go out. I don't know how I'll be able to re-adjust. It seems crazy to me.

Tell Nanci Wudel hi from me, and thanks for all the fun Easter Pageant memories.

Let me just say..."I've had better Easters." It started pretty fantastic. We opened our Easter packages and slapped each other for about 10-15 minutes with the huge sticky slap hands. It has been the most fun we've had. For lunch we got into another 20 min slap-fest. Finally we stopped because our arms were getting sore. But then it was off to church. Sacrament Meeting is the last of all the blocks here, like back in Rose Park North. So we parked in the parking lot of the Stake Center and went to all the classes first and then sat through Sacrament Meeting and went to go back home for a quick lunch before the next Sacrament Meeting. We got in the car and Elder Ostrom realized his tiwi card (which allows missionaries to log into the stupid monitor box) wasn't there. Then he asked, " wasn't your ipod cable plugged in." "ya it was." oh great. We popped the trunk and they'd stolen the rest of the Easter packages for the Elders and Sisters and our backpacks. Luckily, we both took our scriptures and journals into church with us. But still. It probably wasn't the best idea to steal from missionaries either. I don't think God looks too highly on that. Just sayin.

I feel blessed, even though being Zone Leader could end up being very stressful. I love you all a bunch. Happy Easter.

Love,
Elder Partridge

And Happy Anniversary to you! My 19 month anniversary is coming up on the 30th. Love you tons. gtg

April 18, 2011 Email

Hey, What's up?

So yes Mom, I did know that Mother's Day is coming up and I could tell you're a little excited, ya. Just a little though. I think it would be sweet if we did Skype. Just sayin.

haha "What's poppin' with me?" haha oh Mom...Well, quite a bit as a matter of fact. First of all, Jodi Lund was baptized and confirmed this weekend! Holla! They are such a funny family. Don't worry, I'll send pictures.

Also, we found a new person to teach named Joey, or rather he found us. We were up hiking to the T on the mountain for lunch (that's another story) when we got a phone call from a lady at the employment center telling us Joey's info and that he wanted missionaries to come by. He just recently got out of jail, but while in jail learned about and gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon from his roommate who is LDS. He wants to be baptized and totally change his life around. Very humble (aka teachable) and wants to follow Christ the best that he can.

So I'm sure you're wondering about the hike to the T on the mountain. Maybe you weren't, but you are now. So this last Wednesday we did service for the Wall's (Cameron was just baptized a couple weeks ago), and so we were already in the right clothes. (Btw it felt great to be out doing yard work. No more snow). So we ended right before lunch time and we thought, let's hike the T. Ok. I immediately regret my decision. Not because the hike was hard, because it was actually quite easy, at least for me. Elder Aguilar being from Florida, still hasn't acclimated to the elevation-apparently. But ya it turned out to be quite anti-climactic; at the very end (the last 20-30 yards) it gets pretty steep, treacherous if you will,and we got up to the T and it was lame. I was expecting it would be like the Y in Provo-made of cement and what not, but you know what it is: it's a darn chain link fence laying down in the shape of a T with a white tarp over it! LAME!!!

Oh, and it's Elder Morris (Zone Leader out here) birthday TODAY. So last week on Friday he had some Brisket, pork loin and BBQ sauce overnighted from Texas to here. It was some good stuff. It reminded me of Shiflet's brisket, only I think Shiflet's is better.

No transfer news till tomorrow. Sorrow.

When did L go out to Tooele? And why? There's not much out here. Don't get me wrong, I love Tooele-missionary work is the bomb.com out here. It's one of my favorite 4 areas of my mission. But ya.

So I'm not all that strong, but I surprised myself this morning. We were at the Zone Leaders and they have a weight bench, and I benched 135 lbs. That's a lot for me! I shocked myself. I'm so strong. JK that's not really that much, but I felt cool.

That was random.

It's raining again. In one way or another, the snow and rain have ruined every P-day activity this transfer. It gets fine for the rest of the week, but it's always been bad weather on Mondays. We were gonna go golfing, but not anymore. It's gonna be just like in Bonneville; we were gonna go golfing there, but never got to it and then the week after I get transferred they went. Lame, but it's ok. I think I'll live.

Love,
Elder Partridge

P.S. I guess Dayne is going to...Africa. maybe