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