fought a good fight

This week has been so awesome!

So on Monday night we had our "Homecourt" (lesson with an investigator in a members home) with the Fournier's at the Nelson's house and the Vanderholms. The idea was that the adults were going to talk and share stories with Sis. Fournier to help her overcome her doubts and we were going to get Joanne ready for her baptism, all after a lovely dinner. Well when we got there, Sterling, there older son who hadn't been real interested in the past, announced he wanted to get baptized. So we took them in the other room and taught him the 1st lesson and asked him what date he would like to be baptized. He said as soon as possible, he didn't want to wait. So we said "well how about Sunday with your sister?" and he said yes. So we taught him everything this week and got him all ready to go, and yesterday Sterling and Joanne Fournier were baptized by their father. It was AWESOME!!!

Well just wanted to tell you the news. I can say I really sprinted the past week. These past 2 years have been filled with Incomprehensible joy and fulfillment. I'm going to miss Washington so much.

2 Timothy 4:7

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

See y'all soon!

Stirring Training

It has been yet another great week. On Tuesday we had a zone meeting with a stirring training from our Stake President, Hunsaker, on getting the members involved. He's pretty legit. He is a young guy, served a mission in Japan. He was called as bishop when he was 27 and is now a Stake President and he is in his late 30's to early 40's.He said whenever he goes to a regional meeting the questions asked are always. What stake are you from, how many grand kids do you have and what is your stake baptismal goal? He says it’s kind of intimidating because he doesn't have any grand-kids his wife is pregnant though. He was a really funny and exciting guy.

After Lunch at Cafe Rio we exchanged with the Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Davis in Wenatchee. We had a good day and were able to go teach a lot of people.

 
Things are going smooth with the Fournier's. They're 9 year old daughter Joann is going to be baptized this Sunday after church. She is a smart little girl and teaching her has been fun. She is adopted. I think she's Japanese but I'm not sure. Everything is going smooth there. They came out to church and our Ward Barbecue this weekend.

The Barbecue had a good turnout. We had a lot of members come we had a couple investigator and less active families come and we also had a lot of non members who were brought by friends from the young men. The youth have done a lot of missionary work here in the past. That is the best kind of mission prep. There is a young man named Kelly who is going to serve his mission in South Africa starting in November. He was invited to mutual by the Bishop’s son, and took the missionary lessons, started coming to church, and got baptized about a year ago. He is inviting friends to activities now.

I've been inspired lately by several accounts and stories involving desire, effort, diligence, and Priorities. One of those being from Elder Dallin H. Oaks' talk entitled desire. He tells the story of Aaron Ralston, a man who was hiking alone in Utah and whose arm became trapped under an 800 pound boulder. After 5 days of struggling to free himself from it, he was about ready to just give up. Then he saw a vision of a 3-year old boy running towards him and he scooped the boy up with his left arm. With this newly kindled flame of a vision, and a desire in him he decided living, and raising a family was more important than keeping his right arm and dying. And so he broke the bone, and cut off his arm with his pocket knife, and hiked the 5 miles back to his car and survived.

 I want to maintain righteous desires, a heightened vision, and willingness to put forth effort, diligence, and sacrifice in order to reach my goals, for the rest of my mission and my future.

Have a great week everyone I'll see you soon!

-Elder Partridge

 

 

 

Are you allowed to drink?

Hey Family! It’s been a great week. We had our District Meeting on Brewster on Tuesday. We were talking about the importance of preparing our investigators to keep commitments in helping them prepare to make and keep the baptismal covenant. Afterwards we ate at La Milpa. It was quite tasty I got a Torta and a large horchata for only 4.75. What a deal!

 On Wednesday Elder Berg went to Spokane for a doctor appointment and I got to go out with the High priest group leader, Bro. Nelson, during the afternoon and with a priest named Aaron during the evening. It was a great day. We got to see several inactive members and teach several investigators and find some service opportunities to open people’s hearts. I was reminded of the value of working with members because I felt like it opened doors to have a member with me. Figuratively and literally. People know them from the community or from church service and so are more willing to let us in. 

We got a similar message from our Bishop yesterday in a meeting with us and our WML Jeffrey England. He told us when we don't have anything to do, get in the members’ homes, befriend them, inspire them, challenge them. His family had been strengthened much in the past by interactions with missionaries and so that's what he wanted us to do. So on Sunday afternoon we got two of our priests, Manny and Joe, and we did a split. We were out covering more ground, teaching investigators and visiting and challenging members. It was a very beneficial thing and we decided we will try to do this every Sunday afternoon.

This morning I read 3 conference talks Catch the Wave By Elder Russell M. Nelson, We Are One By President Henry B. Eyring, and Come, All Ye Sons of God By President Thomas S. Monson to refresh my member missionary knowledge.

On Thursday we moved in with the Riggins. They are an older couple that live on the south shore, so it’s a new environment. We have a great view out our window of the lake. I'll send you a picture of that.

We were finally able to meeet with the Fournier’s again. Their daughter Joann will be baptized on the 22nd but Sis. Fournier isn't quite ready. We hope we can get them all squared away soon! Also it rained a lot on Thursday night.

We had kind of a surprise when we went to visit Juan Valdovinos the other day. He is someone that we just started teaching. His roommate was already an investigator. He showed mild interest over the past 2 weeks. Then when we were going to teach him that night he asked us, "are you allowed to Drink in your church?" we told him we don't drink beer. He asked if we could do a couple of other things, the answer was the same, "We don’t do that" and then an explanation of why a loving heavenly father gives commandments. The next question surprised us, "What does one need to do to join your church?" He accepted the invitation to be baptized, and we will continue teaching and preparing him in the coming weeks.

 We've been seeing many miracles and how the lord prepares people to hear his message!

Have a great week everybody!

-Elder Partridge

Super duper week

This week has been super duper! 

We have been teaching an autistic 10 year old named Jesus. His parents are less active. His sister, who suggested we teach him and his mom also would like him to get baptized. So we taught him the 3rd lesson. It has been interesting, because he isn't always very engaged or interested in what we are teaching. One of his favorite things to do is to go to Walmart so they can buy DVD's. He gets pretty anxious about this and if he doesn't get his way he gets pretty upset. One day he said "No More Church!" and so his mom replied "No more Walmart" He was devastated to say the least. We were able to get him a baptismal date this week though!

 

With the septic stuff all figured out we were able to start helping rich with his sheet rock. We got the hard part basically done, the ceiling so we'll go back another day to help with the rest. He came to church yesterday so that was good.

 

We got too much Ice cream this week. it seemed like every dinner they said, "I hope you have room for dessert, we have Ice cream!" the Tillamook Udderly chocolate flavor is to die for though.

We got to have interviews on Friday! It was exciting. President basically just told me to Keep working hard. I guess when you're at my point that's about all there is to say. It was a good experience. I gave a training on why we shouldn't be pushy or manipulative, nor vague or apologetic when inviting people to repent. I got a lot of laughs so I guess that is good.

 

On Saturday we went to help clean up after the library book sell. It was another good service opportunity. They had us boxing up books and carrying them outside. 

 

We had a cool day yesterday, we got squared away with our Ward Missionary A-team and who was coming out with us when. We got to go with Manny, a recent convert to go visit some people in the afternoon. It was awesome, he had a good time and it helped to rekindle the flame of the gospel in his life.

 

There is a lady named Yadira that we have been trying to teach but have never found her husband home. We found out she had taken English classes from the church and really liked the teachers, Bro. and Sis. Hanks. So we invited the Hanks to go with us last night and had a lesson with her. While in the end she told us she was catholic and didn't want to pursue it more she did say she would read the Book of Mormon. Dropping someone doesn't seem so bad when you know they have friendship with members already.

 

It was a super duper week!
-Elder Partridge

Human Back Hoe

Well this weeks sheetrocking project turned into a septic project. We were digging big ditches in Rich's yard to solve a plugged up problem. We left the cleaning out of the pipes to him though. It was pretty fun, I got to show Elder Berg and Bro. Richard why they call me the Human Back Hoe. We got a lot done for him so It was good!

We met a guy named Eliseo a week or 2 ago and he's a pretty nice firm Devout C+E Catholic. He's got a nice family of 12 kids. He's lived in the area for 20 or 30 years and I like the guy so we've been trying to get him out to a church tour or an activity so He can feel the spirit and his awesome family can come be that strength we need in the Spanish Branch. He agreed to come on a church tour Tuesday afternoon if we'd come to the Catholic social dinner that Saturday. We said "why not" and it was a deal. Tuesday rolled around, we had a member who he was acquainted with ready to come with us, and he didn't show. He got out of work late, so we decided we'd show him and not got to the dinner at the catholic church. We finally got the chance to go catch up with him on Sunday night when he was drinking modelo and watching novellas and it turned out he didn't go to the Catholic dinner either. So we're going to try to reschedule for this week.

On Tuesday I got to go on exchange with my Nieto, Elder Sanchez! I brought him here to Chelan and we set out to find people to teach. After a nice lesson with a Lady named Fausta who wasn't interested, a headache of confusion trying to find someone who could help a guy with his car which had broken down almost in the middle of nowhere and a cancelled church tour we went to dinner with Bro. Riggin at La Brisa, a local mexican restaurant, and than frozen yogurt after. I had a bit of a hard time trying to explain what froyo was to Elder Sanchez who had never heard of it or eaten it before, but he Enjoyed it, so it was good. Still no comparison to Frozen Custard.

We had a sweet lesson with Fernando. Jeff England's family had him in their home to be taught. He brought his kids, who were friends with Jeffrey's kids. It was interesting because before they arrived Jeff's son was saying how he didn't want to sit in for the lesson and neither would his friend because it would be boring. It turned out that his friend, between running around and playing outside did come and sit with us several times to participate and was interested in what was taught.

I don't think badly of or hold it against Jeff's son knowing it was quite natural and I would have felt the same at his age. But I thought what a valuable lesson it was, for LDS children at a tender age to see that the Gospel is interesting and important.

Bishop unveiled more of his Ward Missionary game plan yesterday at church. The Priest Ward Missionaries are going to receive an assignment of a person to visit every week, and They'll go with us to complete that assignment.

Bishop's got a great vision and he's been showing videos from the Hastening website in ward council every week. Its awesome to see how things are moving.

We had another miracle at church yesterday, chances seemed poor for a spanish sacrament meeting, seeing as the 2 weeks before nobody had come. As we were discussing this in Ward Council a sister came and asked for someone who speaks spanish. Elder Berg and I went out and there was a Hispanic man in his 40's and his 14 year old son. They were from Sonora Mexico, members of the church. The Boy came up by suggestion of his Grandma to attend school and learn English. The father would be staying for 2 months, and than going to mexico for 2 months alternating throughout the year. They had gotten in contact with the bishopric to find out if there was a church here and they were here to attend. So we had our spanish sacrament meeting with them and a few other white members who had come out to support. I got to give my talk which I had been sitting on for 2 weeks and it was good! Jeffrey, our Ward Mission Leader and kind of the Spanish Group Leader enlisted him immediately to go visit inactive members this week and invite them to church. It was awesome! I'm excited to see what this brings!

This was a more newsy lengthy letter so I hope you enjoyed it!

Love Elder Partridge

Priests

We're going to go help a man named Rich put in sheetrock this week.  He's a former investigator our bishop asked us to go see. He is a really nice guy, he's in his 50's and has long hair but I can see him being a High Priest Group leader. 

 
We got to change out our car this week with transfers. They sent our '09 Malibu down to Richland and we got a '13 Cruze. So that makes me happy. It's so much smoother to drive. It's like trading in your aircraft carrier for a fighter jet. 

Our guy Fernando got back from Mexico this week. He was visiting his mother who had fallen ill. He's a really solid guy; he has a wife and 3 kids. We were comforting him and shared a bit about how God loves us and blesses our families. 

 We were able to meet with Faustino again, he lives with some rowdy guys in a picker cabin in the orchards. He is kind of surrounded by a bad influence but he likes what we teach him and you can tell he has good desires. We were asking him what he wanted from life and what were his goals, he said his main thing was to get married and have a happy family. We told him that was a good goal, and that we had something that could help him have a happy family, and shared some of the plan of Salvation with him. He was intrigued, we'll be back to talk more with him soon.

Our bishop called all the Priests as Ward Missionaries this week. So it’s time to get them working! There's a good group of 5 or 6 here, and it will be fun working with them. We can get them broken in for their missions.

But that’s about it for this week, Take care everyone!

-Elder Derek Partridge

 

Food Bank

It’s been a sweet week. We volunteer at the local food bank every Tuesday, so we did that this week. It’s been pretty fun. We basically just help people take the food to their cars. I got to talking to the Catholic Priest that was also volunteering. He gives the Spanish sermons too, so we basically talked about learning Spanish. It’s a fun deal.

This week we've been continuing our efforts to pump up the Spanish group. Unfortunately we didn't get a turn out to our volley ball activity, or sacrament meeting. We will keep trying.

We had an exchange this Thursday, after a zone meeting. I went with one of our ZL's Elder Decker and we stayed in Chelan. We got a lot of work done it was awesome. We had just had training on talking to everyone, and so that's what we did. We were able to see a lot of good potentials and a new investigator come from it. One guy we talked to gave us some peaches from his tree and we ate them while we talked to him. The peaches are SOOO good. It’s awesome to be able to get them from anyone's tree.

The Fournier's are doing well, just keep praying for them. We got to go by and teach them this week. We're hoping all will continue to go well. 

Yesterday we went to talk to Martin, we were sitting with him out on a bench in the middle of some apple orchards. We were teaching him the first lesson and he brought up some concerns about apostles and stuff, and also about the gift of tongues. His friend Eleazar came out and sat by us. We talked through the gift of tongues thing with him. Right there in Acts 2 it says everyone understood the apostles in their native language. They weren't babbling. They accepted it and then we had to get going so we said a prayer with them. His friend Eleazar said he really liked our discussion and he was going to ponder about it. So hopefully we'll see some more good stuff from them.

We got transfer calls! Good news I am staying and so is Elder Berg, so I'll be here til the end! Elder Judd got called as a ZL. My boy's doing good! And his trainee, my grandson Elder Sanchez is getting transferred into my district. So it’s going to be a fun last transfer. Still haven't heard what’s happening with Elder Dowuona Hammond, I hear he's doing really good though!

Have a great week!

-Elder Partridge

New Beginnings

Hey Family!

How is it going?

It’s been a great week her in Chelan. Yesterday we started having a separate Sacrament Meeting for the Spanish Group, so we were preparing for that this week. We got a list and went around inviting people, members, part member families, investigators and less active members. We got some families and members from the ward to come support. The result: 1 Spanish family came. But they had been less active for a long time! The meeting was awesome. I played the piano, we had a brother from the Ward and Elder Berg administer and pass the sacrament, and most of the adults there got up and bore there testimonies in Spanish, even 1 sister, our WML's wife who hadn't served a Spanish speaking mission bore it in Spanish with the help of her husband. She did really good! 

I bore mine and compared that day to the day of Pentecost. The new beginnings of our Spanish group in Chelan had similar spiritual outpourings with Sister England being able to bear her testimony in Spanish, undoubtedly with help of the gift of tongues.

We had a cool week. we had district meeting with the Brewster elders on Wednesday. We decided to go out to eat at the famous Blueberry Hills restaurant. It was good, famous for their blueberries. I just got waffles and had their blueberry syrup on top. It was delicious. We got to eat with and teach the Fournier Family on Tuesday. Sister Fournier is going to get baptized in the lake this month, so we're excited for that. They are primarily vegetarian so we had some yummy veggie burgers and salad from there garden. It might sound crazy but the stuff is pretty good. Bro. Fournier made some killer vegan asparagus enchiladas the other day, and they were awesome.

 

Things are sweet here in Chelandy land. Take care folks!

-Elder Partridge

 

Fournier's

Hey family, where did July go?

Week 2 in Chelan has been splendid! I got lucky with the shuffle, and scored a second zone temple trip, so we went there on Tuesday o' course. Things are going good here, Bishop unveiled a plan to revamp the spanish membership. The goal is to make it a branch, we're going to start doing activities every week for los hispanos and giving them there own sacrament meeting in the relief society room again. So we're excited to see that happen. It's that kind of concerted effort that makes things happen.

We had the pleasure of meeting the Fournier's. Anyone meet any fournier's down in AZ? They moved from Mesa a while back. Bro. Fournier got baptized here a couple of months ago, and his wife and kids are joining him soon. They are a wonderful family. Their son is a prodigy pianist, actor and baseball player. One of those people that make you want to develop your talents more.

They're awesome though, Bro. Fournier works as a school teacher during the year, but during the summer, he's been working at blueberry hills, apparently a blue berry farm with a restaurant. Sounds like they have some good food. They gave us a tub of blueberries, some of them the size of grapes. They were delicious, and "full of anti-oxidants" :)

 

We also had a zone conference, in which they had me bare my final testimony, I shared a realization I had, the lord needs his missionaries a ton, but he needs his Returned missionaries just as much. I look at the great work Brian and Jordan have and are doing in there callings and see that.

 

We had our Pioneer breakfast at the church on saturday morning and had a good turnout.

All is well, all is well

Have a great week everyone

Elder Partridge

Augustine/ April Blog

Dear Family,
Glad to hear Ma and Pa are back in the coop. Sounds like a good scoop. We've had a good week here. I think the coolest thing that happened, was that my trainer, Elder Bao, or I should say Christian Bao, came back to visit the mission. He came to the baptism on Saturday. That was cool, he is doing well at BYU. He finished his first semester and is starting his second. I can tell his accent is fading. He hasn't been speaking Spanish very much, I imagine. He is doing good though. The other elders had a baptism, for a guy named Santos. His cousin, Leonardo was baptized a couple of years ago in Pasco. He moved to Utah and spent some time volunteering at the MTC. He recently moved back and brought Santos to church. They had been teaching him for a while and now he was ready so it was a cool experience. This week, we have been working really hard. We ended up tracting a ton. We saw fruit Sunday afternoon when Augustine, a 16 year old, we had been teaching, decided to be baptized. We're going to work with him to get him ready for may 18th, and hopefully get his grandmother more involved too. His father died several years ago and so he has been raised by his grandma. Its been really good!

A lot of our other friends are doing well too.

I've loved listening to conference again through the week. I see some common themes with maintaining the home as a refuge from the world, and member missionary work, ministering, and rescuing. It was truly a good conference.

Well I hope all have a great week!

-Elder Partridge

mission transition

So here's what’s up on the Chelan Front, Its way beautiful out here. Just picture a Blue lake in a valley with beautiful homes, and green orchards up the hills on either side. It’s ridiculous how scenic this place is. We cover a ward with a little Spanish group. It’s a nice area. I'm with Elder Berg; he is from Ogden, UT. He's a cool guy!

So we've been working with a Spanish family, they're son,Manny got baptized a couple weeks ago. He is 16 years old, so now we're working on getting the rest, his mother is pretty receptive. It should be good. He is reading the Book of Mormon a lot and getting in to it.

Our ward is very missionary minded. The main topic of ward council, Sacrament meeting, Gospel Doctrine, and Priesthood was Member Missionary work. I thought it was interesting how that worked out. I hope everyone is getting the message! 

The Spokane mission to Kennewick mission transition has been kind of bumpy, that’s why they sent us up here to see if we could smooth things out. At first among the elders in my district I felt like I was in enemy territory but things have gotten a lot better. It’s been hard to politely say, yes I know that’s how your old Mission President, AP, Zone Leader, District leader, did things, but we do things differently in this mission. It’s going take patience.

It’s a beautiful area though, one I didn't ever imagine going too, but I'm glad to be here, and glad to get some good work done here.

Apparently this is a hot spot for summer homes. So far I've heard that someone from the band stone temple pilots, and guns n roses have one up here. Apparently the stone temple pilots one drives a hummer around. I've seen a black hummer twice. I wonder if it was him...

We went to have dinner with and teach the future son in law of a family that is staying in a summer cabin up in the mountains to the east, they said the guy from stone temple pilots lives in their "neighborhood" Driving up there was like driving up the trail at camp Geronimo, it was just dirt with pine trees on either side.

It’s a very fun, interesting area. And I'm excited to see more of what it has in store.

Have a good week everyone,

Elder Partridge

Chelan

Things are going great in Connell. One thing we decided to try out is doing companionship study with the priests. We tried it out with Brent Rowley from Basin City on Wednesday night. It was awesome; we studied from Preach my Gospel, and practiced some teaching. It turned out well.

There is a girl named Dyoni that has been coming to church since November, we were able to go teach her and her cousin with Sister Hadley. It went really well and it was a very spiritual lesson.

So the big news for this week is I'm getting transferred. It’s more of a shuffle of the mission, not a full on transfer, since we're not getting new missionaries and none are going home. The purpose is to mix the missionaries in our new boundaries, and get ready for the 38 new missionaries we'll be receiving in August. It caught me by surprise. I'm getting transferred up to Chelan, WA tomorrow. I'll send pictures next week. I'll be sad to go, the members and people here are awesome. I think I'm going to see if I can come back to work in Bishop Hawkins Cherry orchards next summer, to make some money. That would be a fun excuse to come visit, and make money.

 Well not much to report because I just emailed you last Wednesday, but I’m doing good and am excited to see what Chelan has in store.

 

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Partridge

Member Missionary Work

Dear Family, sorry I'm getting to you late. We have temple P-day today so we had an extended week. We've had a lot of good happen. We've been going around to our bishops and members sharing our message about the member missionary work. We continue to see a good response. We bore our testimonies in both of the wards on Sunday. We're basically just rallying support. It’s working though. Sister Hadley, whose husband is in the stake presidency got up and bore her testimony also, and then after the meeting asked us how she could help, so we set up a dinner appointment for the next day, where we extended our member missionary challenge. I think the members as a whole are impressed by the service and proselyting work we've done, and so they want to help. It continues to go well. We have another Idea; we decided to start doing companionship studies with Priests in the wards to teach them from preach my gospel. This is also going to be a very good thing. We're trying to do all we can to build the trust of the members. It’s going quite awesomely.

As far as service goes, we've done remodeling, weed spraying, and wood chopping in the past week. Which I imagine has also contributed to the success. We've got some appointments set up with new people to teach them so hopefully we'll be able to see more and more results!

We got to meet the Ware's on the 4th! They are awesome. I just think they're so wonderful; it takes away the pain of seeing the Greer's leave. They're from Draper Utah, and they have lived there awhile. President Ware is a very cheerful man; it’s going to be fun serving with him.

We talked to a really interesting guy while tracting out in the middle of nowhere. His name was Chris, and he has 6000 acres of farm. He let us right in and we had a talk with him. He's a widower in his 50's. He had a Smithsonian model of the Star ship Enterprise on his bookshelf. He was really nice, but not too interested. It’s a cool, interesting area here. Most people farm a couple hundred to a couple thousand acres; those guys that have any less are "hobby farmers." I think it'd be kind of nice to be a farmer.

Well I hope y'all have a good week! Thanks for the letters and love.

Elder Partridge

 

Cherry Harvest

It has been A good week! I've got some good pictures loaded up here for you to see! We had transfers 2 weeks back as you know. I got to see Elder Dowuona - Hammond there! He got transferred down to Umatilla. That is by Hermiston and Boardman, down  in Oregon. It was good to see him. I got a picture with him. There is also a picture of our District now, consisting of (Left to Right) Hermana Holladay, Hermana Robison, Elder Larsen and Me. 

Okay this week has been sweet!  Our efforts to work with the members continue to be fruitful. In the Connell branch council, they revised our mission plan. Its pretty good when the Spanish branch that has sacrament meeting in the relief society room gets on top of things. It is a great little branch, so we're excited to see growth. The Broadcast has got people talking. We're going to see good stuff happen.

We had a good fhe with the Brook family at the Davidson home, Brandon accepted the challenge to read the book of mormon. We'll continue to work with him.

The work was a bit slower because of the great cherry harvest, so we decided to take the opportunity to get a lot of service done. We helped a brother from Basin City 1st ward who gives us rides to pasco, get an old dresser out of his storage unit, we went with Sis. Rodriguez to help paint the house of one of her friends who is not a member of our church, we felled several small trees that were blocking the sun to a sisters garden, and we sync'd the same sisters wii controllers so her 2 year old grand daughter could play just dance.

It was a good week! We continue to see hearts change and miracles happen!

Well we've got good stuff coming up this week. President and sister Ware have officially stepped in, we're going to meet them as a zone on the 4th. We have some other good stuff happening too!

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Partridge

Worldwide Training

It has been a great week! That picture is from our Zone breakfast last week. They have one at the beginning and end of each transfer. It’s a  nice deal. So now I'm with Elder Taylor Larsen, He is from Sandy, UT. He Graduated in 2012, and was an 18 year old missionary. He came out in January and turned 19 in May. He is a Fun guy, not to be confused with fungi. He's actually rather hygienic. 

Wow the broadcast we had yesterday hit the nail on the head, as usually happens when the prophet and apostles are involved. I'm interested to see how this whole internet proselyting is done. I've heard of them testing it ever since I came out on my mission so it will be interesting to see when it comes into effect here in the WKM. But I loved President Monson's story of the Branch President in Canada. Its faith like that, which make miracles happen. 

Exciting stuff, it looks like. Well things have been going good in the area, I've had to learn my way around the boonies a little better, but now I have the hang of it. I have several good pictures to send, but I forgot my cord, so next week you'll get to see those.

 We had a good family home evening with the Brooks and Davidson's family yesterday. It'll be good to see the dad continue to progress. He has a good heart. 

That is nuts that Clint is already home. Tell him I say, "Hey"

Ask Megan what color of tie I should wear to her wedding?

Things are going real sweet over here. The mission is going to split in 1 week and I'm getting a new President, but it is all good. Its all good in the Basin City/Connell hood.

Have a fantastic week everybody!

Elder Derek Partridge

Elder Larsen

Hey family! Its been a good week. We're all a little sad because in 2 weeks the Greer's are going home. We had a specialized training so they could say goodbye on Thursday.

In other news transfers are this week, Elder Young is getting transferred down to Hermiston. I will be getting Elder Larsen here with me, so that will be fun, It is sad to see Elder Young go but I'm glad to stay in this area, I'm really liking what we have going on. The members have responded positively on all fronts to our increased emphasis on member missionary work. Everything is working out nicely.

We gave talks in sacrament meeting in our branch yesterday. The topic assigned was the Plan of Salvation. We had the advantage of being able to collaborate with your speaking partner, so Elder Young first outlined the plan in his talk, and then I focused on the atonement of Jesus Christ. It really went well! 

We're going around giving a challenge to the members of our wards, and so I'll pass it on to you too.

You're challenge, should you choose to accept it is to make a list of neighbors, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances, ANYONE; whom you could share the gospel with.

Can you guess the next step?? If you guessed, hand the list to the missionaries, Sorry, you are wrong.

From there prayerfully consider what you could do or say to them to move them towards taking the lessons and coming to church. I say move them towards that, because oftentimes people will reject a flat out invitation to come to your church, unless they are looking for a church to go to. But this step could include baking cookies, getting to know them, fellow-shipping them, inviting them to a church activity, inviting them to dinner or a family home evening etc.

Once you have that figured out with some of your names, get to work!

If you need help figuring out what you could do or say, "Ask the missionaries! They can help you!"

In closing, a spiritual thought.

Brothers and sisters, as surely as the Lord has inspired more missionaries to serve, He is also awakening the minds and opening the hearts of more good and honest people to receive His missionaries. You already know them or will know them. They are in your family and live in your neighborhood. They walk past you on the street, sit by you in school, and connect with you online. You too are an important part of this unfolding miracle.

If you’re not a full-time missionary with a missionary badge pinned on your coat, now is the time to paint one on your heart—painted, as Paul said, “not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.”¹³ And returned missionaries, find your old missionary tag. Don’t wear it, but put it where you can see it. The Lord needs you now more than ever to be an instrument in His hands. All of us have a contribution to make to this miracle. 

It's a Miracle

BY ELDER NEIL L. ANDERSEN

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Read the whole talk.

Its going to be a good week, take care, everyone!

-Elder Partridge

 

Good Week

This week has been good and beneficial. We've been doing a lot to build the faith of the Members. I think the members kind of lose faith in the work because they feel they've tried talking to all there neighbors who've lived in the area and rubbed shoulders with the church for years, and about how small the towns are, so they've talked to missionaries a million times. In these situations I try to emphasize the following, "Yes, the population  here is about the same as my high school, but How many of those does our heavenly father want to return to him? All of them. He hasn't given up on them, neither should we." It's humorous, but true. Its easy to be discouraged, but we need to remember that.

We've seen some success though, One of our wards is really firing up the ward missionary engines, so its been good to see.

The other ward has been a little neglected so we're trying to build the relationship with the bishop, first and work with it so we can get to that point. The branch is a different story, but we still are talking with our Branch President and brewing some ideas to work effectively together. With all 3 we are moving in the right direction though, so I am pleased.

On a different note, the lady that we are reactivating came to church again yesterday. She felt content or satisfied with her life before, but once she came to church she realized what she, and her kids had been lacking for the last couple years and says, "I hope I never stop going to church again, I feel so much better"

Its awesome.

We have another guy who we started meeting with last night. His wife and kids are good active members, his son came home from his mission a month ago, and that is when he started coming to church. He has come regularly since then, and is a really good guy, so this is an exciting time for that family. He's asking questions such as "how long does somebody have to wait after baptism to go to the temple and get sealed to his family" so its on his mind. We look forward to seeing that.

We also had a family from the branch go and get sealed on saturday after a period of inactivity and reactivation. Those ordinances are what everybody needs!

This week has just been GOOD!

And it will keep getting better! Take care everyone, have a good week!

Elder Derek Partridge

replanting season

We had a pretty good week. We have been going out to find a lot, it is a replanting season here. I was pleased to have two Hispanic dinners in a row, both of them with homemade tortillas so that was an added bonus. We've had a lot of good dinners with the English wards though, including a fantastic taco soup with really good corn bread. The first corn bread I'd had in a while, man do I love corn bread. Yesterday we had dinner with the Rowley's in Basin City; they are big farmers and have a lot of cherry trees. I guess they harvested 9 million pounds of cherries last season, in 5 weeks. They're a rather enterprising family and also make and sell jams, which we got to try with our dinner rolls. The Cherry Raspberry definitely passed the test. They also make ciders. It was a fun dinner.

We've been working with a single mother to come back to church so her 9 year old son can get baptized and her older sons can get the priesthood, finally this week she said she would for sure come. On Saturday we went to check up on her but she said she said her friend had some work for her on Sunday (she is currently unemployed) so she said she wouldn't be able to come. We talked with her a bit and told her that if she would come to church, God would give her a job. We left it at that. The next day she came with all 3 of her sons! Now we'll wait to see the latter end of that miracle. If she'll keep coming we'll be able to get her son Angel baptized though. That will be good.

Here is the picture for this week. They have a lot of these statues throughout Connell, it is kind of amusing.

Have a good week everyone!

Love, Elder Derek Partridge

 

 

transfer week

Hello from Connell!

It’s been a good transfer week. On Monday and Tuesday Elder Hammond got a lot done, and found some good new people, Wednesday we met at the Yakima Stake Center for transfers. I got to drive a car down that they were getting ready to retire. So that was cool. We got to Kennewick and got to see some familiar faces and meet my new companion Elder Derek Young! He is from Kansas, he just got trained and he is a great missionary. From there, Brother Anderson, a member from Basin City 1st ward took us in his truck to Pasco. He asked if I'd had a bite to eat, I told him no, so he took us to IHop. Man did I have a good omelet! Than after shopping at Wal-Mart we headed North to The Basin!

So we're covering Connell 1st ward and 2nd (Spanish) branch, and Basin city 2nd ward. That afternoon we went and met an investigator in Basin City and than went to dinner with our Bishop, Bishop Hawkins. It sounds like they've got some good plans brewing. They are planning on calling 20 new ward missionaries. They're going to be making a big missionary work push, so that will be good. The next couple of days we were able to work in Connell, and meet a lot of people there. I lied, its about 18 miles from basin city, not 30-40. Its a good little town though, kind of like Boardman.

On Sunday Morning we went to Connell branch sacrament meeting. They had it in the relief society room. I got to bless the sacrament for the first time in over a year. It was an awesome experience. After that we taught gospel principles to the ward because our wml was out of town, after that we went home and ate lunch and headed out to basin city for church. We found somebody named Chui on Saturday night. He seemed to be a really good kid. He wanted to come to church with us to see how it was but had to go to tri-cities with his brother to help sell stuff at the flea market.

I want to share a thought before I close, it is about the faith to find. The first thing that needs to happen before any missionary work can happen, is that someone, needs to have the faith to find. The knowledge that we're all god's children, that he wants as many as us as possible to return to him, that he'll pour out the spirit to prepare people and that he already is pouring out the spirit to prepare people in OUR area and people that WE know to receive the gospel. We don't make the excuse that, everybody has already heard it, that you've already tried everyone you know, or anything like that. You try again. You pray for guidance, and you find those who "will receive you" or I'd think of it more as those who "will receive [Him]" There’s some food for thought. I knew it applied to missionaries before but I didn't realize how it applied to members till this week.

Well Everybody have a great week!

Love Elder Partridge

 

Connell

Dear Family,

It has been a wonderful week here in Yakima.

And now for the big news, We got Transfer Calls! and my time in Yakima comes to an end. I'm being transferred to serve in the Connell 1st ward and the Basin City 2nd Ward and the Connell Spanish branch. Google it. Connell is a rural farming area 40 minutes north of Pasco. Basin City is a rural farming area 40 minutes west of Connell. Basin City is full of members from what I hear. I think Connell is too. They are all farmers so it will be kind of similar to my time in Boardman, but times 20. But yeah, I'll be serving in those 2 wards and a small branch in Connell. It will be tons of fun; I've had a lot of companions that have served there. My companion will be Elder Young. He just got trained by Elder Webb, so I'll be his second companion. But it will be exciting, I head out Wednesday morning!

This week has been amazing, topped off with the baptisms and confirmations of Elvia and 3 of her kids. It was probably one of the best baptisms I've ever attended. We had some cool stuff happen. Our Branch Mission Leader's wife's Niece moved up from California. We started teaching her this week. She's been acquainted with the church for a while and wants to get baptized, but her husband said he'd divorce her if she ever did. It’s never that easy. But she did come out to the baptism and loved it, and she also came to church on Sunday. She told us she wants to send missionaries to her daughter in California.

Our guy Jose is also doing great too. We taught him about the restoration yesterday. He was so excited to hear about the prophet. It helps a lot that he has already read up to 2 Nephi 9 in the Book of Mormon and has a solid testimony of it. He definitely wants to come to church now and check it out. It is going to be good! We scheduled a church tour for Thursday night, so Elder Hammond and Elder Bingham will be able to do that. It will be awesome.

It’s been a great week and the work will continue to progress. I am excited to hear how the seeds we've planted here do over the next couple months, but now it’s time to move to the next area!

Have a great week everyone!

 

It's all about Him

We had a good week. Probably won't be as newsy because we skyped yesterday.
We had our last Zone Conference with President Greer on Tuesday. It was awesome. The theme being, "Its all about Him" They had a Mission Presidents Seminar in Seattle, and that is what Elder Jeffrey R. Holland emphasized after all the training was over. Everything in the church, all the organizations and efforts, and meetings are because of the Savior, Jesus Christ. This is his church.
We've been trying to focus more on that the last couple of days. That our purpose is to help people to Follow Jesus Christ. It was good

We found some twins and started teaching them. Fernando, and Angel. They were really excited about it, and than it seemed like there mom told them we couldn't come over anymore. On our second visit this week they said, they didn't want to get confused so they'd think about it and than call us. I hope they do call us, but it seems they were influenced by their mother who didn't want us over.

The Zone Leaders have been teaching a lady named Elvia. She is a single mother with 7 kids. Her and 3 kids are getting baptized on saturday, I got to interview Elvia last weekend and I'm going to baptize one of her kids. It'll be fun. Its a good family.

Well we've got some good things going on this week. We'll be getting transfer calls on saturday so I'll let you know next monday, and than on wednesday will be the transfer. Hope everyone has a good week!

Love you all!

Elder Derek Partridge

Conference

What a week! I'm glad to hear everyone is doing well!

Our week was sweet. Augustine is doing good, we're pushing for the 25th of May now though. We've been seeing good stuff with lots of our investigators. Jose is almost done with the Book of Nephi. He is doing great. He knows it's good and true.

We had stake conference this weekend. It was awesome we had our mission president and temple president there. The temple president had an awesome talk. He told of a time he went to a department store to get his shoes shined in Salt Lake. He had them shined by a sharply dressed, Mexican man, with a rosary around his neck. They were talking a bit and the man said, "I know the President of your church! He would always come to me to get his shoes shined. He would bring 3 pair, I'd shine one, and then he'd take them off and put on the next for me to shine, while he'd talk to me. He doesn't come in now that he is president, but he still sends his driver in with the shoes and a personal message from President Monson." and than he said "do you know what your president said to me? He said 'Elvis'" because that was his name, "'Elvis, I'll never leave you. I'll never leave you.'"

President Johnson than talked about how we can have a good Christ-like influence on all those around us. President Monson has always set the example in caring for and ministering personally to a large amount of people. The way he does it is always one-on-one though. It was a great talk.

They also talked about missionary work, and family history and indexing. It sounds like a lot of the youth are catching the wave with both works. Its cool to see.

Well Mother's day is next Sunday, we still need to figure out a time to Skype. You might get a quick phone call on Sunday to set it up.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Derek Partridge

Witness

This weekend we saw some good stuff. We've been getting a lot of lukewarm investigators here, so that had been frustrating. We were trying our best to work with the ones we had and keep on finding new ones, and we've seen a lot of success. This weekend, we were able to drop several who weren't elect, and find and teach several others who are willing to progress. One in particular was a man named Jose. We went with, Alex, one of our priests to teach a new investigator we found. That investigator was not home, so after weighing our options, we decided to tract. After several unfavorable responses we met Jose. He invited us out to sit on his patio and brought out a big catholic bible that his recently passed brother had given him. His brother was a catholic priest. We shared a verse with him and than brought up the Book of Mormon. After teaching about it we had Alex bear his testimony about it. Jose agreed to read it and have us come back. On Sunday we went back to teach him, and he hadn't read the chapter we left with him, 2 Nephi 9. So, we decided to read part with him. After reading verses 1-13 and explaining the atonement, we asked how he felt about it. He said he felt good, and so we shared Moroni's promise with him, and he said he'd pray about it right there. After a little bit of coaching, he offered the prayer asking God if it were true. We all felt the spirit so strong. He received his witness of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon right there.

We went to visit the quarreling mother and daughter that I told you about last week. They didn't complete there reading assignment, neither of them were really willing to listen and accept that they needed to change, so we had to drop them for now.

We've seen some progress with the branch too. We're going to plan a branch family evening to be held every 3 months for any members, investigators, and friends. It seems like a good opportunity to get everyone united.

We also asked about the branch mission plan and what we needed to do to help. Which naturally helps them see, "oh if the missionaries are going to do there part, we better do our part too."

We're going to see some really good stuff with that, I can tell.

On Friday, we had interviews and specialized training. Specialized training was awesome, we've been doing great with new investigators as a mission, now they want to talk about getting those new investigators to church. One Idea we are focussing on is church tours. It seems good, we did some role plays, and it seems that if you can get anyone to the chapel to feel the spirit there, then they'd want to come back every week.

Interviews were awesome. I believe it was my last interview with President Greer, though, which isn't so awesome. Takeaway being, I'm doing good with my service responsibilities, and I just need to keep it up, so that is the plan for now.

To answer Brian's question, I seem to have lost my camera battery charger during a transfer, so it's been out of service for a couple of weeks.

Well everybody, I wish you all a good week, and Happy Birthday to Dad and Heather!!!!

-Elder Partridge

 

 

 

110 oyms

It has been a wonderful week. My thoughts have been on a couple of different things. First off Vuelvo a repetir, I loved Conference. We've done great on a lot of things as far as lessons and new investigators go. We got 119 oyms this week. We're really trying to find those who will receive us, and as it says in Mosiah 7:18 It is an "effectual struggle."

We've seen some good stuff and miracles and hope to see continual progression.

We got a new elder in our District as I said we would last week. His name is Elder Cuas Lara, he is from Dominican Republic. He's brought a good energy to the branch. It's always fun having a Native Speaker. He is a convert of 8 years. He lived in New York City 3 years working at McDonalds to raise money for his mission, after which he returned home to finish preparing. He is very funny and I'm excited to go on an exchange with him soon.

We were teaching a mother and her daughter who were at odds with each other. We busted out a part from the proclamation

"Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities."

We taught about how no one is perfect therefore we're all prone to make mistakes. In families there needs to be repentance of these mistakes and forgiveness of these mistakes in order to achieve family happiness. They seemed to consider it. We assigned them to read the gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet together. Hopefully they will, that will help things a lot.

We also taught another guy who seemed quite secular. He did say he had interest in the church because of what he saw youth doing as missionaries. Though he didn't profess to be remotely religious, he did say he was open to learn more and read the Book of Mormon. It was cute because he had a daughter that was 4. An only child and I could just see why it would be a bad idea to just have 1 child. She was adorable but at the same time a hand full.

Well I'm about out of Email time; hope you all have a wonderful week!

-Elder Derek Partridge