Tuesday, June 30, 2015
HOLA FAM! MORE PICTURES
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
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
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
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
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