TEMPLE TRIP!!!! :)

Hola,

     So this week was like the best week of my mission. I got to go to temple this week with some members of my branch. The best part is is that we have an investigator that we have been working with for a long time now and he never comes to church. But he got up at 1 in the morning to get on the bus and go to the temple with us. He had such a great experience. Although he couldnt go inside we gave him a tour around the temple grounds. We talked a little about what goes on in the temple and shared our testimony with him. He went to the book store and got a Book of Mormon and some other things. I was super happy!! Also I love the temple and I had a really cool experience while there.

So this week I had my first experience with the Holy Ghost...Well I have them all the time but this one was awesome. So my companion and I were walking down the street and we were about to go to a less actives house when all of a sudden I had this really strong feeling that we should go to this ladys house. She was sitting on the pourch talking with, what we found out was a friend. I kind of just ignored it at first and kept walking down the street but I just keep having a strong feeling. I stoped in the middle of the street and told my companion "okay we need to go back and talk to this lady, Im not sure why but we need to". My companion smiled and we started to walk back. We got to the front of her house and asked her how she was doing. She told us to come on up. We walked up to her pourch and she went in her house and got two chairs. She was just so willing to listen to our message. Her friend left...I dont think she really liked us but thats okay. Anyways we talked about the Atonment and what Christ has done for us and at the end of the lesson we invited her to be baptized. She said that she would think about it but the awesome part is is that she has already read the Book of Mormon. You wanna know why?? Well Ill tell you... because her daughter is a member of the church. Small world. Her daughter is less active but thats where we come in. We are going to try and find her daughter and get her active again and maybe get the mom to join as well. I really think she could be awesome! We also invited her to conference this week.

Well this week we did some service for a really old lady in the branch. Shes like 85, but anyways her husband and her are to old to clean there house she we did it for them. I have never seen so many spiders in my life. They were everywhere. But dont worry mom I got that house into good shape. Its nice and clean now. She was so greatful.

As for food...well its the same all the time. Rice, beans, chicken. Every once in a while we will eat something crazy but nothing to crazy.

Well thats all for this week! Love you all and miss you like crazy!

-Hermana Patrick

                                                    This is my companion and I at the temple

                         This is the investigator that went with us to the temple. His name is John Carlos

                                                                Side of the temple

                       So for P-day last week we went to the lake. This i my companion and I doing the duck face for gwen! lol

                                                         Cool picture from the lake lol

Temple picture

                                                         Mountains in the back

  P-day last week. This is my whole district. In the back round there are some mountains if you can see

We climbed this big rock. In the back round there we tons of mountains

                                                                  lake

                                                   Cool picture from the lake lol

                                           Frozen haha for gwen and gregory

                                                   P-day yesterday Nerf Gun war

Pictures

                                            Also I found a chubby at the store lol

                                        The first picture is of the mountains when we were driving.

                                      This is one of the guys that got baptized on Sunday. This is him with his                                                                     grandma and sister.

                                           The next is me and some of the kids in my branch. They all love me                                                            because my name is Patrick lol.. idk.

                                                    The second is when we all tried on hats and took pictures lol.

                              This is me and my district leader. his name is elder quijada. he is from el  salvador.

                                    in this picture its Elders quijada and Hoeft. they are in my district

More dogs!!

Hola everyone,

     So remember when I told yall about the crazy dog that tried to kill me and my companion. Well this week that happened again. Except this time the dog was a lot bigger. We walked by the house and all of a sudden this crazy dof jumped out and ran towards us. If we ran it would attack us and if we didnt we were gonna get bit. But my companion and I just stood there and tried really hard not to move. After a good 7 or so mins. the dog let us go. We didnt get bit or anything but it was really scary. Dios really loves us because so far we would have been attacked by dogs twice.

Anyways, So this week we hardly had any members at church, but on the bright side we had lots of less actives show up and lots of investigators. We also had two baptisms this week both of Saturday. It was soo special. Afterwards I talked to the two guys that got baptized and asked them how they feel. They both said they feel like new people. They said they have never been so happy and clean before. Thats exactly what we try and teach these people. That the gospel will bring them that peace and joy in their lives. Most of the time the people understand but they dont want to come to church. Ive been praying for them and we do fast for them so lets hope we can have more church attendence next week.

This week and last week I made the goal to be a christlike missionary for the rest of my time here. Im trying not to complain about things, which sad thing is seems to be really hard for me. I cant complain about how hot it is or about how people are rude to us. For example, a while back we had two instances where we had people just be really rude to us. One was when we went to a house and asked if we could come in and teach them a lesson becasue last time we came to their house they told us to come back. So we did... Anyways, after talking to them on their front pourch they finally yelled and told us to go away and that they were Catholic. They told us not to come back and laughed at us. As we walked down the street I said ''Well they dont need the gospel''... The other time was when we were teaching a lesson to a less active. She went off on us and told us that God hates her and that he hates everyone. I tried to share my testimony with her and she just cut me off and started yelling. After leaving her house I said again, "well she doesnt need the gospel". I realized what I said the other day. Everyone NEEDS the gospel. We are all Gods children and he wants to same for us as he does for anyone else. Im trying my best to be like Christ and love everyone no matter what. Im doing really good. I havent complained about anything or anyone for three whole days lol. Im on a roll. I read a quote in PMG that says, "You need to be a christlike missionary, not just do missionary things", this is soo true. So Im applying in my life the doctrines of Chrsit. I already feel like a changed person.

Okay guys, sorry but no crazy food stories this week. We havent really had anything to crazy yet.. Just tons of beans, rice and chicken. Which isnt to bad.

As for my Spanish... Well its great. Im starting to help teach lessons now and I came understand more and more everyday. Its still hard but I know it will come. When I get down about it I just read my patriarchal blessing. Its super powerful and makes me feel so much better. Oh and Im almost done reading the Book of Mormon again. Im a little behind but Ill catch up.

Well tomorrow I am going to the lake with my district so that should be really fun! I love you all and miss you tons. I just wanna bring everyone to Panama so we can live here. I hope all is well in Texas! After all everythings better in Texas. Love you lots!!

-Love Always Hermana Patrick

        xoxo

pictures

                                     Me and Elder Hoefit. He taught me how to make that.

                                         Idk lol

                                         This is kind of where we got attacked by the dog

Tomorrow is my mission birthday!!

So guess what guys????? Tomorrow is my mission birthday (hints from the title). I will have been out for two months already! Wow!! Time is going fast. So thats means 16 more months in the mission.. bitter sweet.

Anyways enough about that, so this week has been... well I live in Panama. So that means that everyday is interesting. Lets start off with some random things. So yesterday was fast sunday and a little kid got up and shared his testimony. He was about the same age as Gregory and he was really cute, just like Gregory. Come to think of it he sounded like Gregory. It was awesome!!

So food stories of the week....... Drum rollllllllllll............ OMG I ate a whole plate of prunes. I thought I was going to die! So we get to this lady´s house and she gives us this huge plate of rice. Then she comes back out of the kitchen and gives us this huge plate of prunes. If thats not enough she goes back to the kitchen and gets some weird veggie stuff. Then she goes back and gets icecream, which I wasnt complaning about. My companion and I look at each other and when she walks back in the kitchen we put our bags right next to us on the floor. We are getting ready to dump our bags full of prunes. She comes back to us with a plate of green olives. I was thinking oh my!! So we pray and begin to eat. I swear I was having the hardest time. I gave my plate of green olives to my companion and she ate most of them and then we made our way to the prunes. We ate about 15 chucks of them then dumped the rest in out bag when she walked off. Everything else we had to eat. I walked out of the house and had to go to the bathroom so bad. Just a heads up to everyone.... never eat that much stuff. You will feel sick for days after. Anyways, she comes and tries to give us more food and we just tell her NO! So she sends us with to go plates. Lets just say the dogs in the street were very happy.

Next stroy.. this ones good so sit up and pay attention. So my companion and I are walking down the street thinking about what house we should contact. All of a sudden we get the filling to go down a street that we have never been down before. So we start walking and get to this little house at the end. we walk up to the door and yell "Buenas" which is how you "knock" on peoples doors here. A lady comes out and starts to talk to us. She invited us in to share a message. After the message she excepted the invitation to be baptized! It was soooo great. So we leave her house and walk back down the street when all of a sudden this huge dog jumps out. Its barking at us and it bite my companions bag. We thought we were done for. Finally after a good 5 mins the dog let us walk off and we walked but up the street. God was really with us on that because I thought for sure that we were done.

So this week I was reading a talk that my companion gave me. I really liked something that it said. "Every bad thing that happens, happens for one purpose only: to give you the opportunity to respond by applying in your life the teachings of Jesus. As you do so you are changed to become more like him". I really liked that because things happen in life that you cant control. No matter what happens you have the oppurtunity to be like Christ. I have been trying to apply that to my mission. When I have a bad day of feel home sick I just remember that quote and why Im here.

I´ve made a goal while Im here to read the Book of Mormon 13 times. I can do it if I read 20 pages a day. I have been and Im halfway done. Its amazing to see what you can do if you really work hard.

Well thats it for this week! I love you all and miss you tons. Ill be reporting back next week with some other great stories. Love you guys!!

xoxox -Hermana Patrick

-Hermana por vida!

P.S. Sorry for the spelling and grammer mistakes but Im typing fast lol

Pictures

                                  These are the elders in my district. 

WEEK TWO IN THE FIELD!!

Hola everyone,

       So this week has been great but always interesting. Lets start off with what I think is sooooooo awesome about Panama. So me and my companion walk down the street to contact people or visit members, like any other missionary. Everyday the guys that we walk by on the street wistle at us and try to speak English but they dont know how. Haha its so funny. One of the guys said that they were going to marry my companion.. He's like 50 so I'm not to sure how that will work out for him.

Anyways, Saturday we played basketball/football/vollyball with some less actives, members, and investigators. Its so funny because Im like a good foot taller then half of the guys so I can like dunk the ball lol. They thought I was the greatest player ever. Anyways, so after our games we were cleaning the church and 4 of the investigators are 16,17 year old boys. They told my copanion that I had something special about me and that I was awesome. hahaha... My companion told them, yeah its because she is a missionary. She does have something special about her. lol. They said they were going to come to church. They didnt but hopefully next week.

In other news my spanish is coming along. I can have a good 3 sentance conversation with someone so I guess thats good. Everyday it gets better. I just need to practice more and keep asking Dios for help.

Food.... The best thing to talk about... So we ate at a sisters house this week and she made rice, beans and some weird thing. Not sure what its called but its like this slimy chip thing. But anyways, we sat down to eat and there were flies all over the table and all over our food. We couldnt even close our eyes during the prayer because we had to hit the flies away. The best thing though was that a wasp was right on my plate and the lady took a pen and smashed the wasp dead all in my food. I wasnt really mad because I hate wasp. I ate the food to. It was gross. The whole time I was chewing I just kept thinking omg I just ate guts of a dead wasp lol. But the food was okay over all. Speaking of food today I got to make spaghetti and cake for my district. They loved it becasue they have never had it before. There cake here is really weird and there spaghetti is just noodles with some weird stuff on it. But they all ate like 3 or 4 plates. They all love me even though I dont speak Spanish lol.

This week I was really sick. I woke up 3 times in the middle of the night and threw-up. The again in the morning. At about 12pm my companion called the nurse because I couldn't move without my tummy hurting. The nurse told me to stay home until I felt better and that I was sick because of the food here. I ate some weird thing the night before that I never ate before and it was really nasty. On top of it being nasty I had to eat like 15 of them. So I was sick for about 2 days and stayed home for one day. Today I feel great. I got a blessing by 2 Elder's in my district and everyone in my district got me water and crakers and stuff. They were like my other moms lol.

The best thing this week. So we were contacting and we met two girls that wanted to learn more about the gospel. Some a couple days later we went to there house and shared a message with them and invited them to be baptized. They said yes!! So now we have 4 people with baptism dates. I'm so excited. Also, we have been working a lot with the less actives in our area and yesterday at church we had three less active families show up!! It was awesome. The work here is progressing and the people are great. I love it here and cant wait for the things which are to come.

I love you all and miss you tons.

-Hermana Patrick