TODAY I`M 21!!!!!

Carmen Raye Partridge was born 21 years ago today.  Happy Birthday Sweet Missionary! (OK, I'm her mother and have to say something here to celebrate this wonderful woman!) : )

So there is something wrong with my memory in my camera so no photos for a while. 

Anyway this past week we had changes on Wednesday and I got a new companion. Her name is Hermana Perez and she`s about 4`10 and she`s from Guatemala! She`s seriously the sweetest thing in the world but is so persistent with people. She has 3 more months in the mission.

This week was weird and I say that because on Thursday we were talking with a convert and a friend and this truck pulls up and out steps a women about 45 years old and she looks like a Gringa. She started to talk to our convert in English because our convert can speak English but her accent was super different. When I asked her where she was from she said she was from Switzerland and that she had married a Nicaraguenza. Our convert then asked her if she had heard of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and her whole demeanor changed. She then started to yell at me in English how Joseph Smith stole horses and how she`s been in our temple in Oregon and has seen that we marry more than one person and how people have done research and she went on and on and on for about a good 15 minutes of me just sitting their while this lady from Switzerland yelled at me in English in the country Nicaragua. Go figure.  She didn't stop for a breath until someone interrupted her and we were able to sneak away before she could say anything else. 

Friday, I tested to see if I had any parasites and thank heavens the results came back negative! Yesterday, however we witnessed a crash. A taxi hit a motocyclist and the man broke his leg and the bone was sticking out. The sad thing is as missionaries we can't go help him or get involved since there were so many people around. But the man seemed OK thank goodness.

So this week was pretty eventful.  A phrase that has been so profound for me is what President Hinckley's dad said to him. "Forget yourself and go to work!" I think that we can all apply this to every phase in our life. We need to forget ourselves and go to work helping others.

Again, my companion from the MTC has another profound message that I would like to share with you.

(I'm reminded of the words of a young boy, shouting up into the sky towards something much larger than himself, "You are who you choose to be!"  Who do you choose to be? Do you choose to be someone who never quite decides anything for yourself? Do you choose to be someone who chooses not to follow what is right in order to satisfy what is easier or fun?

Or do you choose to be someone who takes your fate in your own hands and does something with it? Someone who actively does what you know to be right because you know it, you have worked for that knowledge and you cannot deny it?

"Shake thyself from the dust..." (3 Nephi 20:37)

I think even people of faith so often deny what is true because it is so easy to do so. It is so easy to ignore the promptings of the spirit. It is so easy to convince yourself that it isn't a big deal. It is so easy to say that it doesn't matter that much. It is so easy to say it isn't true.

For "it is by grace that we are saved," We hear that a lot. So maybe it is okay. Whatever you're waiting on, whatever you're denying. Except there's a second part to the verse, because "it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do" (2 Nephi 25:23)

"After all we can do." What have I done?

Christ as saved us. But if we are standing in a hole, trapped because of our condition, a condition of sin of imperfection of humanity, then Christ is the person standing at the top, having lowered down a ladder. Hallelujah there's a ladder! We are saved! Except what are you going to do now?

Believe it or not many of us just stand there, starring at the ladder, thinking, "oh how wonderful it is that my Savior has sent me a ladder!" But what are ladders even for? Climbing. You have to climb the ladder! Crazy thought itsn't it? Because the ladder itself cannot suffice. If you don't use it it's just a few slabs of wood glued together. But if you climb it, it is salvation! You can leave the darkness and enter into the light of the noonday sun, who is Christ.

But you have to choose. Choose who you're going to be. Are you someone who climbs the ladder? Or simply someone who stares at the ladder doing nothing with it? And perhaps even worse someone who cries out, who curses God, or who refuses to believe because you have not done your part to figure out what the ladder is for?

In reality this analogy doesn't really work. Because lowering a ladder down a dark whole to save someone is way to easy. What Christ did was literally impossible for anyone except Him. And even for Him it was much to bare. But for the sake of the ability of human comprehension I'm going to say a ladder will do for now. (Though a rope that Christ must hold from the top may even be better.)

"For behold, he surely must die that salvation may come..." (Helaman 14:15)

I promise you the ladder is there. And I can promise you if you climb it Christ will be there at the top. I'm not saying it'll be easy. And I'm not even saying your life will get any easier when you feel like you've climbed it. Because there are many battles to overcome, life is still life. But it will be worth it. You will find joy and you can have peace knowing that in the final days you will find rest with God.

I can also promise that if you do nothing you are giving Satan all the ammunition he needs to get at you. He'll use it. I know it. I've seen it. I have seen and heard of people's lives being racked with inexpressible horror because they didn't move forward. If you have to view it as running from Satan, do that. Give it all you've got.

Preferably, you can see it as walking towards God. It's not easy. It's probably a very long ladder and you get tired and feel like you can't go on, but you can it's possible, there will be help and love along the way. Your eternity starts now, it'll be worth it.)

Love you all,

Hermana Partridge

A Day at the Beach

HA! This week was full of lessons that I needed to learn that I can't describe!

First, let me start out by saying that this past week we didn´t have P-day because on Wednesday we went to San Juan del Sur!!! Well what we thought would be San Juan del Sur turned out to be Playa Gigante which is a small little beach but it was still freaking awesome to see the beach and sea! We woke up at 4:30 Wednesday morning and took a taxi to the church where we met up with other missionaries and then we had a 4 hour bus ride to Playa Gigante and arrived around 11:30. After we got there we ate Hamburgers and got to socialize with the other Hermanas. Then we changed our clothes and went onto the beach and played soccer, broom hockey, and ultimate frisbee. Broom hockey was us just brushing a bunch of sand all over the place which was funny and Soccer was us kicking sand at each other. It was a good day! The only thing I was super sad about was that we couldn´t put our feet in the water. Every time a ball went into the water the elders would just stand at the edge of the water and finally a man got the balls for us and I´m sure he was like "why can't they touch the water?" They must be weird. It was a good day! 

Playa Gigante with my companions!

This past week we had a baptism! His name is Alcide and he is so sweet!! He is hilarious, he´s always like " Hermana Party, you are my friend?" and he always has a smile! 

This picture is of me at Playa Gigante!

  

Another beautiful picture of the  beach.

This is a statue in the middle of a park of the Mother Mary. It´s Catholic town here! This is a city by the beach where we stopped at super quick.

Rice and beans for days!

2,158 baptisms this year!! Highest baptizing mission in the world right now and president told us that our goal for this year is 2,600! Freak!

My first companion sent me this email and I loved it so much I want you all to read it. Please take the time because it changes everything about your week!

This morning I listened to President Uchtdorf's talk, "A Summer with Great-Aunt Rose." It's about a young girl named Eva who has to spend a summer living with her Great-Aunt Rose while her mother recovers from a surgery. At first she doesn't like it at all. She didn't want to go, she wanted to stay with her parents and her friends for the summer, not go far off into the country to live with Rose. However she goes, but pays little attention to her aunt and spends much of her time as far away from her as possible.

Eventually however she noticed something. President Uchtdorf says:
"Over time, Eva made a surprising discovery: Great-Aunt Rose was quite possibly the happiest person she had ever known!
But how could that be?
What did she have to be happy about?
She had never married, she had no children, she had no one to keep her company except that creepy cat, and she had a hard time doing simple things like tying her shoes and walking up stairs."

The answer, as Great-Aunt Rose put it, “There is enough that doesn’t go right in life, so anyone can work themselves into a puddle of pessimism and a mess of melancholy. But I know people who, even when things don’t work out, focus on the wonders and miracles of life. These folks are the happiest people I know.”

She continues saying, "God didn’t design us to be sad. He created us to have joy! So if we trust Him, He will help us to notice the good, bright, hopeful things of life. And sure enough, the world will become brighter. No, it doesn’t happen instantly, but honestly, how many good things do? Seems to me that the best things, like homemade bread or orange marmalade, take patience and work.”

Our lives are far from perfect. You can look at your life and look at all the things that have gone wrong and pity yourself or call out for attention, but none of that will ever make you happy.

So what is supposed to make you happy? Well as Great-Aunt Rose says:
“Faith,” Aunt Rose smiled. “I discovered faith. And faith led to hope. And faith and hope gave me confidence that one day everything would make sense, that because of the Savior, all the wrongs would be made right. After that, I saw that the path before me wasn’t as dreary and dusty as I had thought. I began to notice the bright blues, the verdant greens, and the fiery reds, and I decided I had a choice—I could hang my head and drag my feet on the dusty road of self-pity, or I could have a little faith, put on a bright dress, slip on my dancing shoes, and skip down the path of life, singing as I went.”

I just really loved that talk. It's one that has stuck in my mind since I first heard it, and I thought I'd share the highlights with you.

My favorite part is that "God didn't design us to be sad." Your life isn't meant to be a series of sad events and unhappy feelings strung together. It's meant to be filled with happiness. Turn a crying moment into a laughing moment. Find a positive spin, even if it seems ridiculous, when everything has gone wrong.

And have a little faith. “Now is part of eternity. It doesn’t only begin after we die! Faith and hope will open your eyes to the happiness that is placed before you."

A Life of Change

This past week was crazy!!! So we had emergency changes last week because I live with the Sister leaders and my companion is one of them and one sister had to come live with us due to her companion being disobedient and so now it´s just Hermana Gomez my companion and trainer, Hermana Morales the other Sister leader and now trainer because the sister that came to live with us is still in trainer, her name is Hermana Sapon. She´s lived with us for 2 weeks now but this past week Hna. Gomez and Hna. Morales had to go to Masaya on Wensday to check up on some sisters and so it was kind of an unusual situation because both Hna. Sapon and I are still in training and this never happens but we taught together and worked together all Wednsday and then all of Thursday due to the Sister leaders having Consejos with President. We completed in both areas and people I couldnt understand before, I can now understand!! The gift of tongues is so real it´s not even funny. 

So the Hna´s came back Thursday night and we had a Wedding of a women that wants to be baptized but one hour before the wedding we called the abogada(lawyer or judge) and asked if he was ready and he said yes but then half an hour before the wedding he called and said he couldnt come. So we were calling and 5 min. before the wedding was supposed to happen we were able to find one that didnt cost so much! So that was a miracle! I was seriously praying the whole time. 

So next week we have transfers and Hna. Gomez is going to die which means she´s going home after serving for 18 months!! I´ll be getting a new companion!! Also a member told us that the names of the new mission presidents came out and he said that Mark S. Brown is going to be the new president of Nicaragua Manauga Sur mission!

It´s funny because people here call me Hermana Party, Hermana Patricia, or Hermana Partige. 

Carlos is doing so good! He reads The Book of Mormon everyday! I love him so much! 

Rice and beans for days!! 

Love you all so much!! I wont be able to send pictures today but I love you all!

Hermana Partridge

THE AMAZING POWER OF FASTING!

Carlos's Baptism

A pulperia is where you can buy drinks and junk food and other stuff but I saw this and had to take a picture!

This is Santiago who is a convert. Before, he smoked Marajuana everyday and now he´s clean and hasn´t smoked since. It´s been about 4 months now, he´s really awesome!

To start the new year off I didn't sleep because people outside were setting off so many fireworks at 12:00 at night, and when I say fireworks I mean bombs. They don't have the same kind of fireworks, its like someones being shot bombs and it makes you deaf for about 30 sec. There was so many! That was January 1 here. Then on the second of January we had a baptism! This man was a miracle and is the kind of investigator everyone looks for. His name is Carlos. He´s about 78 years old and accepted everything we taught him. The day before his baptism he said, "I´ve been thinking a lot about you ladies and what your doing....it's all service right.........I want to serve a mission, I´ll go to Salvador, Costa Rica anywhere the Lord sends me!" This man is seriously the most awesome investigator! It was a good way to start off the year. 

So I just want to testify of the power of fasting. It wasn't even fast Sunday but I needed Heavenly fathers help and so I fasted last Tuesday and I just want to say that I´ve never studied fast and prayer so much in my life. I read every scripture about fasting and prayer and seriously every hour I was praying to Heavenly Father. If you're fasting and you really want it, you´ll be praying all the day long for it. I just want to testify that the Lord answered my prayers and fast; and, I know that when we have faith he does make miracles happen! 

I love you all and hope to hear from all of you! 

Hermana Partridge

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! FELIZ ANO NUEVO!!

Christmas HO HO HO!

So this week was pretty different. First of all I realized that Christmas here is SO DIFFERENT than in the United States. Fireworks galore! And the ward Christmas party started out with the missionaries singing two hymns and then the rest of it was the young men dancing to rap and then the young women´s dancing to a rap song also. There was no baby Jesus manger nativity but I guess that´s how they do it here. On Thursday we went to a multi- zone Christmas Conference where we played games and ate REALLY good food. I cant remember when I last ate good chicken with rice and mashed potatoes with rolls and cheesecake! Then we exchanged white elephant gifts and I got a relic of Nicaragua which was a piece of tree cut at an angle and painted on it was a cool picture! WAHOO!! Then President gave us Peanut butter and Jelly, which was everyone! And then he gave each apartment a microwave! 

We also learned at the conference that the mission  this year had 2,113 baptism! The year before we had around 1,265. We are the highest baptizing mission in the world. Our goal was 2,035 and if we reached it we would all go to the beach in San Juan! So on January 13 the whole mission is going to San Juan! Anyway I got to Skype with the family which was awesome! The connection was so bad though (sorry mom). 

I just want to tell you people how much I love this scripture Doctrine and Covenants 121:7-8

 7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but asmall moment;

 8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumphover all thy foes.

One thing that we teach people is Enduring to the end and part of that is patience and long suffering. Patience isn´t a one time thing to learn, it´s an eternal thing that I think we´ll be learning forever!

Hermana Partridge

I Ate Ants!

This week has been crazy! Tuesday we got the call for changes and 2 elders next to us were pulled so our area is huge! Plus the two Hermanas here in the house! So now I am living with 3 Guatemaltecas! Also I got a call from the secretary to the President and he asked me to be in a choir for a huge event at the Presidents house. So on Friday I went to practice for an hour and it was me and 3 other sisters and 6 elders. Small choir. SATURDAY WAS CRAZY!! So after lunch we had to run and buy a cake for a wedding that we were having in the backyard of one of our investigators so he could get married and baptized. So the whole day we were running around and getting stuff ready and we had the wedding and then the baptism and then after all the crazy of everything we went to the church in Alta Gracia and practiced singing for like 20 min. and then we got on a bus and went to Presidents house where he was having this huge dinner with all the stake presidents of Nicaragua Managua south mission. So we sang in front of them and let me just say I was more nervous singing in front of President than any other performance or basketball game in my life! We were all so nervous because if we messed up we would all get macheted.

Sunday was a good day, we had 6 investigators come to church and then after when we were teaching a lesson in the house of an investigator they asked us if we wanted pinolillo (a type of drink here in Nicaragua) and I said, "Estoy bien" which is I'm good no thank you but he heard "Esta bien" which is OK I would love some! (They were an older couple) So we got these huge cups of pinolillo and I took a sip and looked down and there was an ant next to my mouth. No biggy I just flicked it off and took another sip and that's when I saw it! There were a few dead ants floating on top of the water. I don't think they had rinsed out the cup at all but I drank it anyway. Then I realized that they didn't give us Agua Puro and I was praying the whole time that I wouldn't get a parasite. My companion and I were laughing so hard when we left because of the irony of the situation! I think Im good because a lot of missionaries here drink the water without a filter and are fine. We´ll see! BOOYAH!!

Word of wisdom for the day!

Come what may, and love it!

I love this phrase because it gives a message of hope and faith that no matter what happens it´ll get better and that whatever does happen we need to have a good attitude about it. Come what may, and love it! If a challenge comes, love it because it´ll make you that much stronger!

Love you all!

Hermana Partridge

6 Weeks in Nicaragua

This week has been full of surprises. Today is a Holiday here in Nicaragua and as sisters we were given permission not to work today because it's not safe. It's some holiday that the Catholics celebrate about the Virgin Mary.  So many fireworks were going off last night it was a little hard to sleep. 

I have gained a testimony about the hymns of the church and also of Fasting and Prayer. So here in Nicaragua we're allowed to drink Coca Cola and one day I realized that I was relying on it too much. So I decided to fast from it for a week and only drink it when given to me by members. This last week I haven't drank any Coca Cola! Poor Hermana Greenhalgh, because when the members gave me coke she drank hers and mine to help me with my fast! Thank you Hermana Greenhalgh!! But because of this fast I saw so many miracles happen and finally I broke one of the walls of Spanish and I have been able to understand people twice as better and talk twice as good! I'm so happy!

The hymns have been a source of comfort and joy for me here in Nicaragua, even though I can't understand the words being said, it beings me joy and peace just to hear them. I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!

Some words of Wisdom for the Day:

"It always seems impossible until it's done." -Nelson Mandela

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. -Dr. Suess

"Don't compare your beginning to someone elses middle." -Jon Acuff

"Nothing carries more potential for change than individual acts of human kindness" -Jamie Winship

"Promise me you will always remember:

You´re braver than you believe

and stronger than you seem

and smarter than you think."

-Winnie the Pooh