I'm TRAINING!!

So this week I got my daughter. Her name is Hermana Mendoza, she´s from Texas and her parents are from Mexico, her first language is Spanish and her second is English so she´s going to be helping me a lot on my Spanish. She´s got such a big testimony and can't wait to share the gospel with others!

So this past week was awesome! We were able to bring 4 people to church! A family and an old lady and a man. The crazy thing is that the old lady after sacrament didn't want to leave. She said, "I´m going to stay here a little bit longer" and then after church the little girl that she brought had drawn a picture of someone praying and the old lady was so happy! She told us "I felt so much peace in there. I felt something in my chest and I cant explain it! I felt so happy and tranquilo! The little girl liked it so we´ll come back next week" Ha ha, She totally loved it! Please pray for this old lady, she can hardly see and is so sweet! 

Then the family that we brought is awesome! We haven't taught them that much but I feel like they want to be closer as a family. We´re also teaching this other family and we taught them lesson 1 and gave them a pamphlet. When we passed by the second time we taught them about the Book of Mormon and gave it to them. We usually visit them at night and they asked us if we could pass by earlier so that the kids could listen! I love it!!! This week we´ve seen so many miracles! I love the Lord so much! I seriously am so happy that he is guiding this work because if I was I would ruin all of it! 

On Thursday we helped some sisters with a wedding and a baptism and then on Friday we helped them with another baptism. It was so stressful but it was awesome! We got to eat cake! which is not the same as cake in the United states. Cake in the US is better but it was still good! Hermana Peterson and Hermana Fraire are companions now. Both of them are so awesome! I love all the missionaries that are in Rivas right now! 

This week try and listen to the song "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" by David Archuleta. It´s really good!

Love you all! 

Hermana Partridge

VOLCANOES!! I`m training!!

This week was a week of ups and downs. The ups were that we found a whole bunch of positive people to teach. The down, everyone who said that they would come to church....didn't come. We passed by for everyone and they told us an excuse, wouldn't open the door, or lied to us and told us that they would go by themselves which you should never trust and we passed by again and they had locked the door. My companion cried and one of our baptisms fell through.....BUT despite all the trials and tribulation Mario was baptized and confirmed!! I was so happy because I can see a difference in this man from the first time we met him to now! I am so happy when this happens and I can see the gospel change someone's life!

So today we got the call of who is going to have changes...and Hermana Gilbert is leaving and I'm staying in Rivas and I`m training!!!! Oh my goodness I am so scared and excited so please pray for me because this is going to be hard and crazy and wonderful all at the same time! 

This past week my companion and I got contacted by a old white man and he started to sing to us and his name is Bill. He told us he`s from Florida but he didn't learn anything in the United states so he came here as a tourist and has lived here since. He was crazy! He kept trying to sing to us and then he said, "Your religion is awesome! It allows me to have two of you!" Then he started to sing to us some more and then the Lords prayer.

Okay I just need to ask because our neighbor and everyone else has played this song for the past 2 months and it`s so annoying! The song by Justin Bieber "Sorry" or something like that. Is everyone else tired of this song as much as I am? BUT I love the Adele song "Hello" that came out because we`ll be walking in the street and hear it and it is awesome!! I love it! 

I do however have something to say about Music and the world. I have learned that the spirit works through a still small voice and I`ve noticed a considerable difference from when I`m listening to loud music from the world and then the soft music from the hymns. I just want to ask everyone to take an hour out of their day and listen to some nice church music and I promise you, you`ll feel more peace during your day. You`ll notice a considerable difference. We need to use more scriptures and family time and less computer and friends time. The world is against the family and that`s really the only important thing that matters. The music of the world has messages that slowly degrade someone. Now I`m not saying that all the music of the world is bad. I was singing the other day "ooohhh child, things are gonna get easier...oooh child things will get brighter" from Guardians of the Galaxy. But I do want to caution because really Justin Bieber "Is it too late now to say sorry, cause I`m missin more than just your body" REALLY!?? 

Also I live by 3 or 4 volcanoes and they are literally the coolest things ever! Even though they`re literally the hottest! Turns out there are more than 30 volcanoes in Nicaragua! If the world were to end it would be by volcanoes here!

I love you all! Have a good week!

Hermana Partridge

Fish

Not sure if something happened to Sister Partridge's message or if she didn't send one?  This is all she sent. INTERESTING!

Scorpion, General Conference, Miracles!

So this week was a week of miracles and crazy stuff!! So first of all on Wednesday we went to visit a less active member named Karina. So we go over to her house and her and her two friends are playing hopscotch. So we taught them a lesson and we were about to leave when they invited us to play and my companion was like "Yeah, let´s play for 5 min." So we played for 15 min! It was seriously the funnest thing I´ve ever done on the mission! I felt so much stress leave after and we were so happy! We weren't worrying about numbers or anything! 

Then on Thursday we were just sitting at our desks reading the scriptures when all of a sudden my companion stands up and starts to dance and shake her skirt and was yelling a little bit and I was thinking "Oh it´s probably just a bug or something" and asked her what it was because after she was standing on her chair she said "It´s a scorpion!" So we called our District Leader and we´re like "How do you kill a scorpion?" So he told us to step on it, kill it with a broom, or spray bug spray and light it on fire. So I took a broom and it was so quiet....and I stabbed it! AND I HEARD A CRUNCH!! We both shrieked and the DL was like "what!? what happened?!" and the scorpion died a death by a broom. It was really exciting! Then we had to go through all of our clothes and stuff to see if there were any more.

Then on Friday we had Zone meeting and we left at 7:30 a.m. and it´s an hour to Jinotepe and so we're crowded in this van for an hour and the ZL´s call us and say "You guys need to hurry up because President just called and he´ll be here in a half an hour." We couldn't believe it! So during the Zone meeting President was there. It went a lot smoother than I thought it would go. 

So before I tell you about General Conference there are a few things you need to know first. It´s a mission rule that we can't watch conference if we don't have 4 investigators with us at church to watch it. We have to bring 4 different investigators each session and can't bring the same. If you have 3 investigators you still can't watch it and have to bring one more. 

So on Saturday morning we left our house at 7:00 a.m. not having anyone to go to General Conference and not knowing what to do but contact people. So we contacted people and no luck, so we sat down and said a prayer at 8:30 a.m. and decided to contact every single house on this one street and work our way around. So we contacted and contacted and every house is like "Soy Catolica" which means "I´m Catholic and even if my church's doctrine isn't true I was born a Catholic and I´ll die a Catholic". Then we come to this one house and invite this one lady to church and she says "Sure I want to go to church let me ask my 3 kids if they want to go" So at 9:45 a.m. we began to walk to church with this little family from Costa Rica and we were able to watch Conference with them and the mom loved it so much she wants to go back next week! MIRACLE! Then the afternoon session after lunch we were contacting and we contacted 3 teenage boys and we convinced them to come to church with us! So they came! But we still needed one more investigator and we show up to the church and Mario, one of our investigators is there! We were so happy and we were able to watch Conference! MIRACLE! 

Sunday morning we watched General Conference but we weren't able to listen to the prophet because we were late with a few investigators. Then in the evening everyone that we had committed flaked out on us and we had 14 people committed which means only 4 or 5 people will actually go but nobody came! So we walked around for 2 hours trying to bring people and nobody wanted to come! So we missed that part of conference but we were able to hear a little bit of Elder Holland and the prayer. 

So all in all we brought 11 investigators to church! The most was 12 so we were echando fuego! Then last night the DL called us and said we broke a record in the history of Zone Jinotepe and that we brought 11 investigators the most ever! So for our P-day we didn't sleep but we had a 2 hour drive to Jinotepe and back and we played some sports with the other missionaries which was really fun and boy am I out of shape!

I hope everyone got to enjoy conference! I understood for the most part some of it but when Uchtdorf started to give his talk I was a little lost. It was good over all! I loved the choir and the songs were amazing! Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing! AMAZING! The man that was in the choir that was singing it with all his soul was heart touching!

I don't have my scriptures with me so I don't have anything to share but this.....that we need to look for the good in others. You can always find the bad but a happy home is built on looking for the good in others. Being a missionary your companion does stuff that bugs you and I´ve noticed that if I´m fuming over what she´s doing wrong and not looking at what and how she´s supporting me and serving the Lord, I just have a bad attitude in general. We need to look past the quarreling over little stupid things and focus more on serving and loving the people closest to us because time is short and you never know when you won't have time. I love the saying "The bitter tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone" We need to start today to look for the sunlight in ourselves and in others! Don't dwell on rainstorms and the bad things but look for the good!

Love you all!

Hermana Partridge

This is a picture of the scorpion that was on my companion while we were studying. She looked down and it was on her skirt and she started to do a dance while singing and shaking her skirt. I as like, what´s wrong? And she was on top of her chair saying A SCORPION!! Then we had to kill it.......Poor Scotty the scorpion.

My companion and I LOVE mangos! We throw rocks to get them and use sticks all the time! They´re so good!

 

My companion and I started to play hopscotch with some of these little kids, the little girl is a less active. Let´s just say, it was the most fun I´ve had in a long time!

My breakfast when we don't have food in the house and run to a pulperia! Oreo cereal and chiverias!

 

This is our bathroom where we take bucket showers!