Letter From Mission President

President and Sister Russell with Hermana Partridge

Hermana Partridge's first companion in Mission: Hermana Gomez

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Safe Arrival

Hermana Partridge arrives safely to Nicaragua!

SLC Airport

Hermana Partridge with other missionaries leaving for Atlanta, Georgia on their way to Nicaragua.

Please write me in the mission field

Sister Carmen Raye Partridge
Nicaragua Managua South Mission
De la Retonda del Periodista
150 vrs. al Sur Ofiplaza Suite 725
Managua, Managua
NICARAGUA

or

Sister Carmen Raye Partridge
AP 3527
Managua, Nicaragua

POUCH MAIL INSTRUCTIONS
Items not complying with the following instructions will be returned to the sender, or discarded if the complete return address is not included.

Lay the letter blank side down.  Fold the bottom of the letter about one-third of the way up the page and crease.  Fold the top of the letter to the bottom of the first fold and crease. Secure the long side with two pieces of tape about one inch (2.5 centimeters) in from each end, but do not seal the ends.  Write your name and complete return address in the top left corner.  Affix first class postage in the top right corner.  In the middle, write the missionary address:

Sister Carmen Raye Partridge
Nicaragua Managua South Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT  84130-0150

For packages:

Sister Carmen Raye Partridge
Nicaragua Managua South Mission
De la Retonda del Periodist
150 vrs. al Sur Ofiplaza Suite 725
Managua, Managua
Nicaragua
Phone: 505 2254-7553

If you ship a package via a private courier, they will need the  telephone number listed above.
 

Chad Lewis, Language barrier, and more!

On Sunday we had Chad Lewis come and speak to us! For those of you who don't know who Chad Lewis is he played football for BYU and then played in the NFL for the Philadelphia Eagles. He also served a mission in Taiwan. Also sitting on the front row in the MTC was Tayson Hill who is the quarter back for BYU and is out for the season for breaking his foot. Well he actually tore his lisfranc ligament and as it turns out so did Chad Lewis.So we got to hear from both of them. Chad lewis talked to us about a little about his mission but the funniest thing was he had Elder Oaks come speak to them in their mission and he said, "I know the Lord loves the Chinese because he made a lot of them". He also said that when he had torn his lisfrac ligament he couldn't play in the Superbowl but he said that his family was his Superbowl! Then Tayson Hill bore his testimony and said, "Not one experience playing on the field in front of thousands compares to serving a mission" This huge football player was in tears saying this and it was probably one of the most heart felt thing I have heard come from that pulpit!

Ugh...we were teaching our teacher and he was complaining how he's trying to find a girl to take out on a date that wants to talk about the gospel(because apparently there are no girls like that here at BYU) weird) anyway I was going to ask him, "Have you taken any girls out on dates?" Instead I used Tocar instead of Tomar and said, "Have you touched any girls on dates?".....the elders erupted into laughter and I felt so bad and my teacher just laughed it off but..it...was...horrible....ugh LANGUAGE BARRIER!!! Well at least it wasn't as bad as the Elders in the other district that told their investigator to read 3 Nephi3:7 but they meant 1 Nephi 3:7, so their investigator read , "Or in other words, yield yourselves up unto us, and unite with us and become acquainted with out secret works, and become out brethren that ye may be like unto us-not out slaves, but our brethren and partners of all our substance" I'm just glad they didn't read verse 8 as well.

Nothing really happened that was out of the ordinary this week. I leave for Nicaragua Monday morning at 3:35 a.m. I'm so pumped! I'm going to miss playing sand volleyball everyday though. Try not to do anything crazy while I'm gone people! I love you all!

Hermana Partridge

Words of Wisdom for the day

"A few months after moving to a small town, a woman complained to a neighbor about the poor service at the local drug store. She hoped the neighbor would repeat her complaint to the store's owner. The next time she went to the drugstore the druggist greeted her with a big smile and told her how happy he was to see her again. He said he hoped she liked their town and to please let him know if there was anything he could do to help her get settled. He then filled her order promptly and courteously. Later the woman reported the miraculous change to her friend. "I suppose you told the druggist how poor I thought the service was?" she asked. "Actually", the woman said. "I told him you were amazed at the way he had built up his drugstore and you thought it was one of the best you'd ever seen."

Lord of the Rings, disease, and toilets!

This is a little long so if you cant read all of it right now just read the Word of Wisdom of the Day at the bottom.

First of all, I have learned a wonderful lesson that I will probably continue to learn the rest of my life. So there's this Elder in my District that from the beginning bugged me to much! He just always had to voice his opinion and be right. I have had many choice words with him several times. Well, the other day I was rather rude to him because of something he was doing....no I was rude, I had a spirit of contention in me and I didn't like it. After what I had said to him I looked at my companion and said, "I need to apologize don't I". She had enough courage and love for me to say, "Yeah you do". She later told me that I wasn't myself when I said that. She said she had never seen me like that before. In that moment I didn't want to be that person, I wanted to change. I had also realized that my Spanish was not good at all, especially on the days where I had hard feelings toward this Elder. After dinner I told him how sorry I was for being rude and asked for his forgiveness. He said, "Of course I'll forgive you....I've been a little rude too as well, will you forgive me"? and my response was yes I would. That night while we were teaching an investigator my Spanish was amazing!! AND!! There was peace in my heart. The peace that I had been praying for but was too proud to do anything about it finally filled my heart!

On Tuesdays is our service day where we clean a part of our building and 2 out of the 3 weeks we've cleaned toilets because I've said, "YEAH! we can do toilets!" So a few minutes before service we're in our room getting ready and Hermana Bushman says,"I love you Hermana Partridge but if I hear you say the word toilet...I will cut you"  It was one of the funnest things I had ever heard BUT! My companion and I were 30 seconds behind Hermana Bushman and Hermana Browning in getting to the service station and I walk around the corner and I hear Hermana Bushman say, "We can do toilets" I seriously lost it and I think broke a rib because of how hard I was laughing! 

So the back of my head has been itching like crazy and my companion could hear my itching from the other side of the room so we finally went to the doctor and I tell him what's wrong and he takes a look at the back of my head, then at my elbows, then of my knees. He then looks at me very seriously and says, "I'm afraid you don't have a fungus like you think you do, you actually have an auto immune disease.....................called psoriasis" I said, "oh okay that's not that bad, it's just really bad dry skin". He then went onto to tell me that there is no cure for it and the doctor was freaking out more than I was at this point. I just shrugged my shoulder said ok and he prescribed ointment to help. So now I guess I have an auto immune disease, go figure!

Last night we taught our last lesson with Marco, he cried, I cried, my companion balled her eye's out. He is seriously one of the sweetest souls I have ever met!

Our first devotional here we had Lloyd Newell from Music and The Spoken Word come talk to us and he even said the phrases that he says for general conference! There's also this video they have here called, "Characters of Christ" by Elder Bednar and in it he says that people (missionaries) say stuff like, "I'm not having success and I'm not having baptism and....." He then asked How many I's are in that? A lot!  And he then continues to say, GET OVER YOURSELF! I loved that part! Seriously it's not about us it's about our investigators. 

One of the best Devotionals that I loved here was by Stephen B Allen the Managing Director of the MTC. He showed all the Homefront commercials from the old days and talked about each one. For family home evening or just for fun look these up on Youtube. 

-The Practice

-Braces and Glasses

-The Wall

-Kidnapped

-Playball

-Cupcake girls

-Kids

-Isn't it about time

-Portraits 

-Aly Shnider

and listen to the tag lines!

Words of Wisdom for the day:

Frodo: I cant do this, Sam.

Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr.Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And somethings you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. those were the stories that stayed with you. that meant something, even if you were too small to know why. but I think, Mr.Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going, because they were holding onto something.

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?

Sam: That there's good in this world, Mr.Frodo, and it's worth fighting for.

I love this quote from Lord of the Rings because that's what we're doing here. We're fighting for the good that's in the world, we're fighting for the gospel, we're fighting for what we believe in, we're fighting for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who fought for us all and now we can all fight for him and what he did for us! 

Hermana Partridge

Epistle of a Missionary

I thought that this was hilarious!

The First Epistle of the Elders to the Dead Letter Writers

Chapter 1

In the beginning was the 

mailbox and the mailbox was 

void of letters.

2 And the missionaries said,

"Let the box be filled," and the

box was not filled.

3 And the missionaries beheld 

the continuing void and were 

not pleased.

4 And lo, it was the first day

of the week and there was no

mail delivered, but this was 

good.

5 But on the second day was

the mail delivered; yet the box

remained empty.

6 Yea, even from the second

day unto the seventh was the

mail delivered.

7 Even so, the box retained it's 

void.

8 And yea, great mists of dark-

ness spread forth from the void

and enshrouded the missionaries. 

Yea, and did bring much sadness

to their otherwise cheery days.

9 Even the long hours of fruitless 

tracting, being attacked by 

the fowls of the air, and being 

pursed by the beasts of the

field were not as disheartening

as the lack of blessed objects

known as letters.

10 Yet they persisted.

Chapter 2

And, Lo, on the second day of

the second week the mists still

encircled the mailbox.

2 And on the third day, from

within the depths of the void

was a single postcard. 

3 And this postcard put forth a 

ray of light that pierced the darkness

and overcame the mists.

4 And the missionaries were

well pleased, and there was 

much rejoicing.

5 But, alas, their exclamations 

of joy were in vain. For the

postcard was for someone else.

6 But if their joy was so 

exceedingly great over someone 

else's mail, how great would be

their joy at partaking of their

own mail?

Chapter 3

But some will say, A letter.

A Letter. We have already

written a letter. We have no 

need to write any more letters.

2 Know ye not that there are

more days than one, and more

events than one in a day? Why

think ye that these events need

not be reported?

3 Yea, and ye need not worry

that your letters will go unanswered.

4 But you should say, I will go

and write the letter that a 

missionary requests. For I know

that he giveth no requests

except he be prepared to 

speedily respond.

5 And we give unto you the 

parable of the self-addressed

envelopes.

6 When the missionary

departed into the far off land he

gave a certain number of self-

addressed stamped envelopes to

his friends.

7 Unto one he gave five, unto

another he gave two, and unto

the third he gave one.

8 And while he was gone, he

that was given the five envelopes

wrote five letters, then in his zeal

wrote five letters more.

9 The same with him that had

two envelopes; He wrote two

letters and then two letters

more.

10 But he that was given the

one self-addressed envelope

became slothful and careless.

And he lost the envelope, even

that which he was given.

11 And when the missionary

came home he went unto his

friends. And he that had written

ten letters was warmly greeted.

12 The same with him that 

had written four letters.

13 But he that had written

none at all was given nothing

more than a fishy, wimp-like

handshake.

Chapter 4

And the missionary said unto

his friend; lovest thou me?

2 And the friend said, of 

course I love thee. then the

missionary said, fill my

mailbox.

3 He saith a second time,

friend, lovest thou me? And the

friend said, thou knowest that I

love thee. He then said, fill my 

mailbox.

4 He then spake a third time

saying, lovest thou me? And the

friend said, thou knowest all 

things, thou knowest that I love

thee.

5 Then the missionary said,

stuff my mailbox.

6 And the vision is become 

unto all as the words of a letter

that is sealed in the envelope

that men deliver to one who is

not serving a mission saying,

Read this, I pray thee; and he

saith, I cannot, for it is not

mine.

7 And the letter is delivered to

him that is serving a mission

saying, read this I pray thee;

and he saith, why sure.

8 Therefore, you should

proceed to do a marvelous work

for a missionary, even a marvelous

work and a wonder by

writing a letter.

The days have kind of blurred together but everyday has been a blessing! General conference was spectacular! I'm sure everyone was on the edge of their seats when our beloved Prophet Thomas S. Monson talked. I'm sure everyone in that building was praying for him and thousands around the world! A few days after General Conference we had Linda K. Burton come talk to us and she mentioned what happened at Conference and then asked the question, "Do we really appreciate our Prophet and what he does for us?" That was truly a wake up call for me! I always thought ,"If the prophet dies then another one will be called" but I have not been grateful enough to Thomas S Monson and how much he sacrifices for this church and I'm also grateful that the Lord would not keep us in the dark but allow us to have a prophet. Also right after Elder Hollands talk the entire MTC could be heard sniffling and coughing (trying to cover up crying) and I'm pretty sure everyone there had their eyes water.

Vocal point came and sang and talked to us which was pretty cool. Probably one of my favorite things here is volleyball. Everyday we go outside to play sand volleyball! We also had another wonderful lesson with Marco and it was just as heart felt as the other ones! I love teaching him! 

So I've had a goal to not eat sugar for 2 weeks and I made it a little over a week and then.....they had pumpkin pie for lunch and it's October and it's Fall and I'm not going to have thanksgiving for who knows how many years and I wont be able to eat pumpkin pie in Nicaragua! Those were almost all the excuses that I came up with to eat the pie...so I took a bite....and it tasted like leaves changing colors, like hot chocolate and sweaters, like cinnamon and pumpkins, like cool crisp air and IT WAS AMAZING!!!! I think it was the best piece of pumpkin pie I've ever had!

Words of Wisdom for the day:

It took Michelangelo twelve years - one brush stroke at a time - to paint his biblical scenes in the Sistine Chapel. It took Brahms twenty years - one note at a time - to compose his First Symphony. It took Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay eighty days - one step at a time - to climb the 29,000 feet of Mount Everest. 

                Word by word, brush-stroke by brush-stroke, note by note, step by step, problem by problem, prayer by prayer - this is the secret of Achievement.    -Author unknown

Hermana Partridge

Spiritual Experiences

This week I was reminded how blessed I am. My companion and I started to teach an investigator named Marco. He's an old man who has had polio since he was 1 year old and we sing to him every time we meet with him and he just closes his eyes and smiles. I really never thought that songs could do much but I have come to gain a testimony of them! Anyway, we were teaching Marco and explaining what happens after we die and he said that he hopes that its real because he wants to be able to run up in heaven and be with his wife forever and I seriously cried after this meeting because this man has never ran in his life and I LOVE running! I only then realized how blessed I am to have working legs. THEN we taught him again only this time we taught about the Restoration and Joseph Smith and then we shared the story of when Joseph Smith was a little boy and he had to have his leg operated on and how he walked with a limp the rest of his life. We told him that God doesn't care about your body and what it looks like, God cares about your faith and your actions and what's in your heart. We had started to tell him this and he started crying and again I came to realize just how blessed I am. We asked if he would pray and he offered one of the most beautiful prayers I have ever heard. THEN we had the opportunity to talk with a member and teach him but in the end he taught me more. It was an old man who had joined the church and I asked him if he would share his favorite scripture. He then shared scriptures in Enos and while reading he started to cry and then bore his testimony of how thankful he was to have found the gospel and how grateful he is for a loving savior. I was seriously so touched by this man because I realized in that moment that I had been born into the Gospel and that I had the opportunity to grow up with it when this man could have gone his whole life without it. Day by day I am starting to be thankful for things I never thought about. Like spoons! I am thankful for spoons so that I can eat cereal and so I don't have to use my hand!

Also I would like to share a story called

          TWO HANDS

While walking in the sand one day

I tripped and fell and while I lay

Two hands reached out to lift me high,

One hand moist, the other hand dry.

On hand was tattered, worn, and abused.

The other hand soft, smooth, and unused.

I knew not which hand to take in mine.

To lift me up and guide me through time.

For one hand would lead me back home to God,

The other away from the iron rod

Cautiously I picked the tattered, torn hand

It lifted me up and again I could stand.

I knew then I'd picked the Lord's helping hand,

For Satan would've left me there in the sand.

I wondered why his hand was so worn and abused

And then I remembered how much it was used.

Love you all!   

Hermana Partridge