Tuesday, June 30, 2015

HOLA FAM! MORE PICTURES

                                          My fav. kids on Blas haha... there cute
                                         The water the we shower with... fresh from the river haha
                                            yumm!
                                      Our FHE

Muffins and coke on Blas!

Hola everyone,

      So this week has been full of adventures like always...

1. This week we asked a member to go on visits with us to teach a recent convert that didnt speak very much spanish. So the member went with us to help translate. During the lesson we would speak in Spanish and when we looked at the member to translate she would, but while she was translating she had her nail clippers and was clipping her nails.
It was very distracting. She even put her toe in her mouth to get a part of her nail off. She was very flexable. Super weird lesson!!!
haha.

2. So for the past who knows how long we havent had water on the island. So people have been going to the river to get water which is a very long process. No one loves the missionaries enough to get us water from the river so we use what very little a member has. So for the past while my companion and I have been showering with 2 gallons of water. Its become a very good skill. I have really learned to be conservative with the water that I use. So yeah, as we walked down the street to go to out next appointment we saw that everyone had water buckets and were taking them near the church. We had no clue what was going on so we decided to go check it out. We walk up to find pretty much the whole island sitting next to wear they keep the tanks of water for the island. They figured out why we havent been having water for the past 3 months. The tubes that give eveyone water were broken so they had to fix them. So they cut open one of the pipes and water come rushing out. So they called everyone on the island. Everyone got
10 buckets of water for there family. We asked if we could get water as well and they looked at one another for a min and said yes. But then they said after the whole island has water we can get ours.
Really sad.... They thought that we could just go and pay $2.50 for a gallon of water to shower because we are from the states and have money. Which is not true haha... So we just waited for about 2 hours and helped out as much as we could until we got our water. That was fun!!! We were the ULTIMOS!!!! haha.

3. So we also had a WONDERFUL! FHE with all the youth and our branch president. Our branch president gave the lesson in which he shared something very powerful! He talked about the trip that he made to the island of Ticantiki last week. He said that he had run out of gas and had to stop at one of the islands along to way to fill up. He also said that the waves were really bad so it was making it hard to go on with the trip. Then he related it to our lives. He said that we need to be reading and praying everyday or we, like the boat will run out of gas. Sometimes the waves in life get really big but we need to always remember that we have a great captin. Jesus Christ!! He will lead us along the path but we need to do our part. So read your scriptures everyone!!!! :)

4. This week at church was amazing!!! We had a record of 70 people. We even had 2 investigators come and stay all three hours. Then I saw a
17 year old youth pay his tithing. He came to me and told me that all he had was .70 cents to pay and was disappointed. I told him that he was giving all that he had so thats all that matters. He is an amazing youth!!!

5. We found chocolate muffins and coke on our island this week so that was great!!! :)

6. Last thing... So this week my comp had a feeling that we should go back and talk to this kid that was sitting on this wall. We just kept walking and when she could no longer take it she told me that we needed to go back and talk to him. So we did. We had no clue why but we did. We just asked him what his name was and how old he was. Small talk! But then on Sunday he came to church! What a blessing... The spirit will always lead us along!

So yeah we had a ton this week. Even a blessing to a little baby boy.
The spirit here in San Blas is amazing! Heavenly Father truely loves the people here. So do I. Well I love you all and hope your week is great!!! Miss you all tons!!

Love,

Hermana Patrick xoxo

                                         lady clipping her toes in the lesson
                                          us helping fill up the water

Monday, June 22, 2015

Searching for a house!

Hola,

     So this week has been a really hard week. The week just went by super slow. I feel like I haven't written in like 5 weeks. This week has been super hard for many of reasons but I have learned a lot this week as well. I will be trying really hard this change to make and keep goals. One of my goals this week is to run every morning. I have been doing it for the past two weeks so I plan on doing it until I go home. Speaking of going home.. I got my release date from my mission president and it will be December 14, 2015. When I talked to the Elders about it my heart sank. I realized that I only have about 5 and a half months left of my mission. I have sooo many things that I want to do here in Panama before I go and I realized the time was really short. It really motivates me to try my best everyday and to not waste one min. of my mission. 

Well I haven't told you guys any stories in a while so here you go.... once upon a time there were two hermans in the island of Carti. They were well dressed and spoke very little kuna. One day they didn't have a house to live in so they searched and searched until they found a place to live. At the end of four days... NOTHING! Not one little house on the whole island. 

So this was actually my life for the past week and a half. We have no place to live for the moment because the house that we were living in kinda just kicked us out because they are having tourist come and stay in there house. So this week we searched for a house and came up with nothing. Finally after a long hard day on Friday this guy that was doing some work on our chapel said that he could build us a part in the church that was safe to live. So that's what they will be doing this week. I HOPE!! But for the moment we are living with a member in there stick house so that's fun.

This week we also went to the island of Ticantiki, my old island. We had a district conference there with our mission president and 2 other islands. It was great. Everyone still remembered me and gave me hugs haha. It was really cool. I sent some pictures to my mom so look at the blog haha.

Well I love you guys and hope your week is amazing!!! This gospel is TRUE!!!!!

Hermana Patrick
                                             This is what the houses look like before they are done.




                                           Some pictures from the island of ticantiki this week



                                           Some pictures from the island of ticantiki this week

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

CHANGES!!!

Hola everyone,

     So this week we had changes!!!! Guess who my comp. is??? HERMANA ANDERSON!!!!! Yeah thats right, from the MTC! How cool is that! I got to be comps again with both of my MTC comps. This change is going to great. Im super excited!

So the changes were a bit crazy and a bit shocking for everyone. There are only 71 hermanas in the Panama mission right now. Its sad to see all of them leave but its cool because we are the oldest Hermanas in the mission now. So out here on San Blas we have 7 sets of missionaries 14 in total. When I first started out here there were 3 sets of Hermanas. This past change there were only 2 of us and now this change 1. So Hermana Anderson and I are the only Hermanas out on Blas right now. We are in a zone full of Elders haha. I like to think of it as a blessing! Of all the missionaries in Panama only 14 get the chance to come to San Blas and right now only 2 Hermanas!

So this week I have been only the Island of Ustupu with Hermana Anderson teaching the new Elders the area. It had been a bit hard because .... well Elders are Elders haha. If you served a mission and were a Sister you know what Im talking about!!! :) Anyways, here on there island they have this wonderful thing called rootbeer!!! Its amazing!! I have drunk like 5 already because it will be a while before I get anymore. So sorry mom for drinking to much soda haha.

I will have to say that this week has been the most stressful of my mission by far. I can also say that I have learned the most in these four days then I have in a while. I have really learned how to be christlike and am really looking back on how I treat people. I want to go home a new person and having learned a lot and will be striving these last couple months to do that. I want to say sorry to anyone that I was ever mean to! I love you!!! :) I am soooooooo greatful for my mission and for all the things that I am learning. I wouldnt have learned these things anywhere else.

In other news.... My comp fell out of her hammock!!! It was sad at first but super funny haha. Some how the rope broke and down she went.

Well I love you all and hope that your week is filled with great joys!!!! :)

Love Always

Hermana Patrick

Monday, June 8, 2015

Prayers are answered!!! :)

Hola everyone,

       So let me just start out by saying tomorrow I will have 11 months in the mission. Time is just going and going!

Well this week has had its ups and downs. Let me just start off by saying that I have never been afraid of a rain storm in my life until I came to Blas. It rained so hard one day this week that we had no cell service the whole day. The rain came down and the floods came up!!! It was about 2 in the morning when my companion and I woke up to thunder. The houses were shaking and the wind was nuts. We thought that this was the end of our lives. My companion was crying and I was in shock. I told my companion that we should say a prayer but she was to scared to get up out of her hammock. So I told her to say a personal prayer, I did the same. I dont think I have ever asked Heavenly Father for something as much as I did this time. I just prayed that me and my companion could be safe and that we could get some sleep. I remembered the story of how Jesu Cristo calmed the seas.
I prayed so hard, harder then ever before. I dont remember saying amen.... I went right to sleep and the storm didnt bother me anymore.
We woke up at 6:30 the next morning and everything was a mess. I asked my comp. how long the storm went for after we woke up. She told me about 3 hours. It was amazing!! I slept like a baby!!!! I didnt even notice or hear anything. Heavenly Father does answer prayers just in case any of you were wondering! :)

So other news this week... We had a wonderful activity at the church with the whole branch. They havent had an activity in a really long time so it was great to see everyone there. They wanted to learn how we danced in the United States so I thought them the only thing I new.
Some few line dances to some country songs and the cupid shuffle haha.
They loved it. We had some food and sang hymns, it was a great night!

On another note during this branch activity my comp. was helping serve juice to the kids and a young adult had her camera. She told him to be careful with it and he said okay. We got back home that night and were resting while looking at pictures from the activity. My comp. turns on her camera and just starts to cry. The young adult erased ALL of her pictures. So story time... about 5 or 6 months ago my companion arrived here on San Blas with her last comp. She had a camera with all her pictures from her whole mission. Her first week her someone stole her camera with her memory card and she lost all her pictures from her mission. Now the young adult deleted all her pictures. Poor thing has no pictures of her whole mission. Worst thing is is that she goes home in 2 weeks. She just cried and cried. I didnt know what to do. I said a quick prayer and thought of my dad. He is great with these kinds of things so I thougt what would he do..... After a while I told my comp that we could go to the church and I could try and get some pictures back for her. I was only able to save about 30 or 40 pictures but I guess it was better then nothing. Now we are taking a million pictures!!!

So this email is really long haha so I will leave you guys with one more thing that happened this week. The Elders arrived on our island two days ago to check on the branch and to see how things were going.
During this time we were teaching a member about the priesthood and how he could recieve it to do many wonderful things. After the lesson he told us that he had a family member that was super sick and he wanted the Elders to go and give her a blessing. So we went to the house in which we found 3 sick people laying in there hammocks. The Elders told them the power that they had and what a blessing was and asked each of them if they wanted a blessing. They were not members but they said YES! So the Elders gave each of them a blessing. Two of which were in Kuna and 1 in Spanish. The spirit was super strong!!!!
AMAZING!!

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week. Sorry if im boring haha. I will actually send some pictures this week haha.

Love always,

Hermana Patrick

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Chicha fuerte!

Hey guys,

     So this week has been amazing. We had six of our investigators get baptized this week. It was a great pleasure to get to see the work of the Lord here on the island.

Along with that we also had some crazy things that have happened.

1. It rained ALL day long one day and no one would let us into there house because they were filled with water.

2. I had a guy tell me that all the people from the United States are going to be servents when we get to Heaven. He said that we are all rich and he hates it haha. Mostly because he asked us for money to buy a soda and we told him as missionaries we could give him money. Then he went on to say that we really arent Hermanas of God because God would give hime money. Rather strange guy haha. I hope that he will be willing to except the gospel one day.

3. Last night was chicha fuerte!!! Well last night and the night before. So for those of you that dont know what chicha fuerte is I will gladly explain it. So when a girl gets her period (sorry for saying it that way) they have this huge party which involves drinking and dancing. So the first night they painted the girl black (which means something but everytime I ask no one seems to know). They also go into the congress hut thing and drink. Everyone and there dogs were drinking, literally I saw someone giving beer to there dog. That same night they are suppose to have a dance but everyone was to drunk so they saved it for Sunday night. They wouldnt let us take pictures but we snuck some in haha. Ill have to show you guys when I get home.

4. I just realized in 8 days I will have 11 months in the mission. Im one of the old missionaries now haha.

5. Gregory (my little brother) is almost 8 years old!!!

Well guys... I really do love the work here on the island. At times it can be a bit hard but we know that the Lord is on our side. One day everyone will know the truth about the gospel until then we will keep trying are best to be the best missionaries that we can be. I was studying in the scriptures this week and one that hit me for some reason was John 14:15 in the bible. I have read this scripture some many times before and have even shared it in a email or two. But while I was teaching the primary yesterday at church I shared this scripture with them. I asked the children why it was important to keep the commandments. She replied, "because if not we will not return with God and his son Jesus Christ". I think this is something we all want in our life. To return back to him and his wonderful son. I challenge everyone that is reading this email to really try hard this week to pick something that you are struggling with and try to make it better.
I will be doing this as well. I promise that you will see a huge change in your life. This mission has really changed me and I am so greatful everyday to be serving the Lord. Have a great week everyone.

Love always,

Hermana Patrick