Thanksgiving Week

This week flew by fast! Our investigator Manuel who had a drinking problem has finally gotten baptized! He hasn't drank in 3 weeks! He received a blessing of strength from the Elders and hasn't drank since. 

This is Manuel who got baptized! He's super tuanies!

I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY need your prayers for a little old lady named Dorothy. She lives with her daughter who is awful and I mean awful. Dorothy had a stroke about a year ago that left the left side of her body without any movement so she's in a wheelchair and can only move her right arm and right leg. She wears a diaper and always smells like urine and her room is so bad. Her daughter won't help her at all. The day of her baptism Sister Greenhalgh had to bathe her and help her with everything. Turns out her diaper was soaked through because it hadn't been changed in 5 days. She's skinny, REALLY skinny, it feels like I'm hugging a skeleton. The other day was so sad. We can't take her to church because her daughter won't get her ready and we don't have time to bathe her and get her ready; but, yesterday we saw her and we went to talk to her outside of her house and she saw us and broke down crying. She asked us why we didn't take her to church and how awful her daughter is and how hungry she was. Hermana Greenhalgh and DeLeon went to make her some food while we found out that she hasn't eaten in 2 days. I think it might have been more but she's also diabetic and her blood sugar was low. She told me how her daughter calls her a pig and other names. She said she has no one but God. We got the phone number of her other daughter who lives in the States and we talked to the bishop and we're trying to find a way to help her. It seriously broke my heart the other day. 

I'm now 6 weeks into the mission and I'm teaching lessons by myself now. If I'm teaching a lesson and don't know what to say next, I usually look at my companion; but, now she just stares at me and so I continue to talk and struggle through it, which is good because how are we going to get anywhere if we don't struggle. 

When I was told before the mission that it would be rice and beans.......they weren't joking. I eat rice and beans for days! WAHOO!! Thanksgiving we did go out as a zone and ate fries, chicken, and finally vegetables! All the while I thought about pumpkin pie. YUM! I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

I love you all and hope you're doing well! 

 Thanksgiving Dinner: Chicken, french fries and veggies.  Yum!!!

Winter in Nicaragua

WAHOO!!! Another week come and gone! So last Saturday I had my first baptism! We went to the church and everything was going great the faunt was full, people were there and Melissa (our investigator who is 15 years old) was excited. She got baptized and after we had cake and orange soda and while we were eating cake and orange soda i was trying to talk to a member and work on my Spanish when I wasn't watching where I was going and tripped and spilled my cup of orange soda all over the floor!!!! I was so embarrassed so we had to go get a mop and mop it up. First baptism was a go! 

It rained so much this week! I was soaked and there was seriously a river in the street! Apparently it´s not even rainy season here yet. Right now it´s winter here and everyone is like its chilly and I´m like it´s hot! It´s cooled down a lot since I´ve got here but it´s still hot enough that I´m dripping sweat.

So here in Nicaragua they have something called Chikungunya which is like a fever you get with joint pain and is horrible and it lasts for a couple months! You get it from mosquito bites and a lot of missionaries have it right now, if you could pray for them that would be great!

If you guys could pray for my investigators that would be awesome! Our first investigator is Manuel who is 67 years old and drinks a ton of alcohol but for 2 weeks he´s been clean and he´s come to church and he cleaned up and shaved! He´s getting baptized this Saturday and we are so excited! 

Then there´s Julian who is 78 years old who loves the church, reads The Book of Mormon and the book he received of principals of the gospel but his problem is he doesn't feel ready to get baptized. We brought the Zone leader over to talk to him and apparently he didn't like that and didn't come to church this Sunday. He loves our lessons though. 

Then there´s Lester and Rosa. This family really needs your prayers. Lester hasn't drank any coffee or smoked for over 2 weeks but last Saturday went out drinking with his friends and felt so bad! But he came to church this Sunday, sadly Rosa couldn't because she´s pregnant and was having really bad contractions. She´s due next month. 

Marta who is the Sister of a great convert Santiago. Santiago smoked marijuana every day of his life before he met the missionaries and we have a picture of the first day we met him and he looks angry even though he does have a smile. He stopped smoking and got baptized and is a completely different person. He also needs your prayers because he needs work. But anyway, Marta, is super hard because the missionaries before really pressured her into being baptized. Her daughter though is super interested in the church.

Luis is 20 years old and hasn't smoked for 2 weeks now! 

I´m still alive and kickin! The church is so true, I´ve seen it change people in ways that I´ve never seen before! 

Hermana Partridge

Drenched Sisters

Two Month Mark

I don't have much time but this past week has been pretty good.My Spanish is getting better!  I'm alive and doing well! BOOYAH!! TWO MONTHS IN THE MISSION TODAY!

Word of Wisdom for the week:

Our business in life is not to get ahead of others but to get ahead of ourselves, to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterdays by out todays, to bear our trials more beautifully than we ever dreamed we could, to give as we never have given, to do our work with more force and a finer finish than ever. This is the true goal, To get ahead of ourselves.

The drinks here come in a bag and you tear the corner open with your teeth and DELISH!

 This is where I sleep, we dont sleep with any blankets because of how hot it gets and we always have a fan running.

This is a picture of my first baptism!

There are a ton of these here, its like a mini taxi with no doors and seat belts, they're a lot of fun!

 Another sort of taxi that they have here. I can't remember what they're called though, also super fun!




 




 




This is Hermana Greenhalgh after she ate the bowl of soup,she was so tired.

This is part of my area. To get to the other side we had to cross this sketchy plank made out of wood and something else but finally they put in a metal bridge! 






Everyone has pictures on their wall of pictures that they've taken and then changed the background.

 We have a ton of these lizards living in every house here and they bark!

 





On Wednesdays, I'm companions with Hermana Greenhalgh who is the mission nurse and she is always on the phone with sick people and appointments. She rocks! She's from Richfield, Utah! 





I love this picture of Christ!

Sister in Area Watches Over Missionaries

These are some sweet missionaries!  Sister Ivi Sobalvarro cooks and cares for these wonderful ladies.

Nice work!

 Carmen helps cook with Ivi. Yum!

The Bowl of Never Ending Soup

This past week Hermana Greenhalgh and I were together a lot because my companion and her companion are sister training leaders and had to go talk to the Mission President. Tuesday we had lunch at Ivi´s house, a very wonderful lady of the church who always makes us lunch but this time she had made us gillo pinto (beans and rice) which is what everyone here eats but in soup form. She served it to us in a huge bowl and bite after bite I tried to finish it but it would not end! But in the end I conquered the bowl of soup! 

THIS IS THE NEVER ENDING BOWL OF SOUP!! AAAWWW!! It was so much! But I conquered it!

Later on in the day we were walking down a dirt road and up ahead were two teenagers who had these weird tattoos that kinda looked the same and one guy had scars all over his shoulder and they were looking at us a lot and Hermana Greenhalgh said, "I don't like the way they´re looking at us.......let´s invite them to church!" So we walked right up to these sketchy looking guys and invited them to church! But alas they didn't come. 

So Hermana Greenhalgh and I are both from Utah and we were walking down the street and we saw 2 Greengos!! Both of us looked at each other in amazement and we´re like "There´s Americans! WOW!" I´ve only been here two weeks and seeing white people is exciting. 

This week I was day dreaming about Fall and leaves and sweaters and hot chocolate and pumpkins.....

The lightening storms here are amazingly gorgeous and the lightening is red!

So many new things and so little time.

Words of Wisdom for the day

There are two things I know. That I am a great sinner, and that Jesus is a great Savior.

Hermana Partridge


This is pretty special.  Hermana Partridge's companion, Hermana Wendy Gomez, who is from Guatemala, emailed her dad and this is what she said:

Hola, ¿cómo estan??? Bueno, mucho gusto. Soy Hermana Gómez, la entrenadora de Hermana Partridge. La verdad, estoy muy feliz por tener a su hija como compañera. Estoy ayudando a ella para que sea una excelente compañera y pueda trabajar fuertemente en la obra del Señor. Ella está muy feliz de ayudar a las personas aquí. Ustedes no se preocupen, yo cuidaré de ella y aquí todas las personas son buenas, no hay ningun peligro. Ella me comentó que usted servió su mision en mi pais, Guatemala, y eso me hizo muy feliz, cuidense mucho les enviamos saludos desde Nicaragua. Feliz semana, saludos a su familia.

Hello, how are you guys??? OK, pleased to know you. I am Hermana Gómez, Hermana Partridge's trainer. Honestly, I am very happy to have your daughter as a companion. I'm helping her so that she's an excellent companion and can work hard in the work of the Lord. She is very happy to help people here. Don't worry, I will take care of her and people here are good, there isn't any danger. She mentioned to me that you served your mission in my country, Guatemala, and that made me really happy, take good care of yourself, we send you greetings from Nicaragua. Have a good week, greetings to your family.

 

First Preparation Day (P-Day) in Mission

WOW! So I had to wake up at 2:00 in the morning to leave for the airport. We got there, got on our plane, flew to Atlanta Georgia and then waited 4 hours for another plane. When we were on the plane for Nicaragua I got my first taste of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. An hour from when we were supposed to land a man comes up to all of us missionaries and asks us, If this plane were going down and I was a drug addict what would your message be to me in 60 sec. One of the sisters we were traveling with answered it beautifully talking of Christ and then the man started to ask us other questions and then the sister referenced the Book of Mormon and the man said, that´s the problem with you guys, you don't use the Holy Bible. We then explained to him that we do and then all of a sudden he was ripping into us. He seemed so friendly at first and now he was telling us what´s what. I then understood what it was like for Christ when he was rejected....instead he wasn´t mad. When we landed in Nicaragua it was warm and the air was MOIST!! I have never experienced anything like that before! We got picked up by President and we slept at the mission home.

 I got assigned to my trainer Hermana Gomez from Guatemala. She´s from Alapa? in Guatemala. I can't understand about 80% of what she´s says to me because she speaks so fast. Plus here in Nicaragua everyone cuts their words short or doesn´t say the S at the end of the word. She´s probably one of the most patient people I have ever met. We got to the house and then went out to work right off the bat. So let me tell you a little about Nicaragua, there are bars on every door and window, there are tons of dogs in the streets but you don't want to touch them, people sweep dirt and trash in front of their house all the time, it´s hot and humid, there are these things called Pulparia´s on every corner where they sell snacks and drinks(like a gas station but way smaller). Everyone here drinks Coke, and it is amazing compared to the Coke that´s in the United States, and everyone has a TV. We´ll be teaching an investigator in a house that´s one room with a dirt floor and they are so poor but they have a tv, even though they're really old tvs. The food here is really basic, just rice and beans at every meal and plantains cooked different ways. They also have this cheese that everyone likes to eat at meals and it´s usually fried but it tastes weird and salty, I don't like it but oh well. In the streets for transportation people have dirt bikes with seats attached to the front to drive people around like taxi´s.  Oh yeah there are taxi´s everywhere! Also there are horses that pull wooden carts for transportation. In houses we´ll see pictures of people but they have cropped themselves out and changed the background. I want to tell you so much more but it is a totally different world! And they drink coke in BAGS! and chocolate milk and juice! They also have this stuff called Leche Agria which is milk that has been left out in the sun and is basically curdled and nasty and we´re told not to drink it, EVER! No diarrhea yet but the streets are filthy, dogs pooping everywhere, kids peeing on the side of the street, trash and poop is everywhere and it´s awesome!  We only take cold showers due to the fact that it´s a third world country. The driving here is ridiculous I forgot to mention, that there are no speed limits and everyone honks at everyone but no one gets offended! They drive so crazy! We also washed out cloths in a thing called a pila. Everyone has one and they use it for everything. Washing the dishes, washing cloths, washing kids.

The lessons are going well, my companion mostly teaches and then at the end looks at me and says, testifica, which tells me to bear my testimony on the subject. Our investigators are awesome! My zone is in Managua and my area Linda Vista.

Love you all!

Hermana Partridge

The house that we live in which is the nicest house out of all the missionaries that live in Nicaragua. I live with the Sister leaders and the sister nurse.

Me my companion who is next to me and then Hermana Greenhalg who is the nurse, and then Hermana De Leon. Love these Hermanas!

This is me with a glow in the dark lollipop in my mouth given to me by Cristofer who is next to me, he is hilarious. I also have a bag of Coke in my hand.

We found a lake! Which nobody knew was around in the area!

This is Jose who is one of the kids of the investigators.

 

This is the pila that I was talking about, we wash our clothes in it and then hang them up to dry.