Alexis is coming HOME

If you would like to welcome Alexis "Hermana Patrick" home you are more than welcome to come to the airport on Saturday, December 19, 2015 at 5:31pm Houston George Bush Airport

Lexi welcome back talk is on December 27, 2015 at 9am at the Klien stake center

Take Gods Hand!!!

Hola everyone!!!

   So sorry for not writing yesterday... The internet place was closed. That seems to be happening a lot more nowadays. But today it was also closed so we are using a laptop. Its mothers day here in Panamá!

 So this week has been full of wonderful things. I met a new sister missionary and the first thing she told me was that she read my blog and she knew who I was.... So thats cool!! Im like Panamá mission famous over here. Thanks mom!! :)

So this week we had our Christmas Conference with our mission President and his wife. It was amazing.. Afterwards we got to watch a movie... Im not really sure what the name of it was but all I know is that it was really good and everyone was crying the whole movie.

My new companion is awesome... Shes soo funny and we just have a little to much fun together. People look at us like we are crazy in the street but then we talk to them and they are like "ohhh thats why they are sooo happy." So share the gospel with all folks!! They need to know why you are happy!!

This week I learned this "God will take you as you are at this very moment and begin to work with you. All you need is a willing heart, a desire to believe, and trust in the Lord." -Dieter F. Uchtdorf

This is sooo true.. A lot of the time we think we need to be perfect but we dont. Heavenly Father is just waiting for us to take his hand that has been there the whole time!

This week we walked and walked and walked and walked.... Then we thought about some missionaries in the world that have bikes and cars and wished we were them. Then we talked about that for about an hour... My companion goes home in March so she just keeps asking me what Im going to do when I get home and Im just like dejame en paz woman!! haha.. Translation... leave me alone woman! Then I have an Elder here in my area that keeps counting the days down for me. He send a text everyday and says "hey Hermana Patrick solo falta 11 dias" and Im just like "si yo se." To be quite honest I am very excited to come home but at the same time very nervous. Hopefully everyone still likes me haha. I cant even speak my English good anymore. The Americans are always like dude what are you saying, that has no meaning. So I just say everything in Spanish. Just typing this email to you guys I have to think very hard haha. SAD!!

Well guys next week is my last pday in the mission. We are going to enjoy it with my Zone here in Colon and eat some last min. rice and chicken before I go home.

I love you guys and hope that you have a wonderful week. See you guys in like 11 days!! :)

Oh happy mothers day... I know its not mothers day in the states but it is here in Panamá so HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM haha

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Patrick

                                                     mission shoes!! woohoo!!

  Some kids that we taught on the side of the street that wanted to learn about the gospel! Good kids!

                                                   Me and my comps name tags!

                                                                     my area

                                                      me and Elder Meren!!

                                                        cool girls

Tupacs back Tupacs back!!!! :D jaja

Hola everyone!!! 

     Well I hope everything is going great in the wonderful place we call Texas!!!! :) Well guys this week has been super crazy and filled with some more tears!! This last week was changes week and guess who had changes??? Thats right ME!! Me and Hermana Garcia cried for a while before packing her things and sending her to another part of the city. Its really sad because I only have less then three weeks left in the mission and we were really thinking that we werent going to have changes. But I guess you guys are probably wondering why the subjuct of this email is "Tupacs back." If you werent wondering that..... still going to tell you! 

So my new comps name is Hermana Tubac... haha... So when she called me to tell me that she was my new comp. I asked what her name was and she told me but I thought she said Tupac... So yeah thats what happened there. She is super cool. She is from Guatemala and has 14 months in the mission!! We get along great! Shes helping me brush up my Spanish skills as well before I go home so thats helpful. But yesterday she told me that I talked like a Latina so thats always great to hear!! 

The hard part is is that I have to teach her the area in less then 2 weeks before I go home. She is a little nervous and so am I but I think we can pull it off. She remembers things really fast so that helps. We have been doing a lot of walking to try and get her to remember everything and my body is just shuting down! Everything hurts haha... Everyone keeps asking me what the first thing Im going to do when I get home is... Sleep is what I say haha. But yeah these next couple of days are going to be nice and walkie!!! But a wise Elder once told me... "sometimes we have ketchup and sometimes we dont." I dont know about you guys but thats super funny!! Well I guess you think anything is funny when you hear it in English nowadays!! haha. 

Well we had something really cool happen this week. My comp and I were walking down the street when these 2 little girls stopped us. They were 10 and 12 years old. They told us that they wanted to listen to what we had to say about Christ. We talked to them for about 10 mins what all of a sudden they wanted us to sing to them. So we sang a hymn with them and afterwards they took us to there families house to meet everyone. No one was home except for the 14 year old sister so we sang another hymn and invited them to church on Sunday. Afterwards the little girls were trying to take us to everyones house to sing and share a message. It was wonderful to see such young children have the desires to share and listen to the gospel! Such sweet little girls!!

Well guys pictures to come.. its been a while!! I love you all and thanks so much for all the emails!! See yall in like 19 days haha!!

Con mucho amor

Hermana Patrick

                                                                     temple trip
 

                                                       Elder Roney climbing a tree haha

                                                        my new comp and I

Santiago!! :) Bitter sweet!!

Hola everyone

    So sorry for not writing very much the last couple of weeks. It has been crazy around here in Panamá! Its actually been really sad around here these last couple of weeks. Changes are this week and there are a lot of missionaries that are going home. A ton of my friends have left and are leaving this Thursday! It makes me really sad to see everyone go home but they have served a good 2 years and 18 months and its time for them to be with there familes. Speaking of going home..... I come home in just a few short 3 weeks! Its crazy how fast time is going by. I have been being a baby and crying a lot these last couple of weeks because of very mixed emotions. I am ready to go home to be with my family but at the same time I love the people that I have served with and that I am serving here in Panamá. Its been a bit hard these past couple of weeks but I know it will all work out fine. 

So I got to go to Santiago last week to say by to all the people in that area. It was a day full of tears! I even got a hug from Jean Carols and Raul haha... It was a been strange but at the same time normal. They were both crying and telling me that I helped there family a lot and then they said they were going to miss me. It was a very spiritual and sad moment. And at the end when I went for the hand shake they gave me a hug haha... So that happened. 

Well we have been doing a ton of work this week and I feel that my testimony is growing even more now then ever!! Well guys all I can say is these next 3 weeks are going to go by sooo soo fast and Im going to make the best of them. I love you all and miss you tons!!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Patrick

Party in Panama

Hey everyone,

   So just to start off Im sorry that I didnt write this last week. EVERYTHING was closed including the internet place where we write. So yeah.. It Panamas patriotic month so they have been partying it up like crazy here. The even blocked down the street by out house to have a huge party. Well we do live in the ghetto next to 3 bars so what do you expect. 

So to be quite honest I have no clue what to write in my email this week. My mind is doing a blank. But Ill try and give you guys something. 

So Halloween...... Yeah that doesnt happen here in Panama. I couldnt reamember that from last year but now I remember. Everyone just drinks and parties. They dont really even know what Halloween is they just know how to drink haha. 

So we are teaching the Elders how to speak English and they a really coming along. Its funny to hear them speak because of there accents but they are getting really good.We have some crazy people hear that try and speak English to us all the time so we walk up to them and speak English and they are just like ummmm... ya no.. We dont speak English. So thats always fun. 

Well sorry guys Im not sure what else to give you and im running short on time. Just know that I love you all and I will send pictures. Picture paints 1000 words right??

Con Amor,

Hermana Patrick

                                                     our group from the mtc

                                                                         temple trip

                                                  she looks like Gwen!! She makes me happy! :)

Portobelo and apostasy!

Hola everyone,

   I have A LOT of stuff to tell you guys and soo little time... so lets get started!

1. Can you say APOSTASY!!! Okay now that we got that out of the way.. So this week we experienced so good ol apostasy! So here in our area we have this church that have a Cristo Negro AKA Black Christ. But let me tell you guys a little about what goes on the 21st of October here in our area every year. So this has been going on all week leading up to the 21st. So they have this huge event that takes place at the church and some people walk the 53 milies from the city of Panama all the way here to our area in Portobelo.. Others walk 22 miles from a part in our area called Sabanitas, and many crawl the last mile on there hands and knees to worship this black Christ. WHY??? You ask... Well.... So they do this to atone from all the crimes that these people have commited in there lives. Most of these people that are making this walk are criminal from various parts of the world. There are many stories related to the criminals participating in this festival day which has resulted in designating the Black Christ as the "patron saint of criminals."`So they make this walk to recieve forgivness from their sins. They believe that if they make the walk they will have this forgivness but not only that.. they also believe that they can ask for things like drugs and this Black Christ will give it to them. I really dont understand it but hey thats apostasy for you, its never easy to understand. 

So my comp and I had a dinner the night that everyone and there dogs AND CHILDREN!! YES CHILDREN were making this walk to this Black Christ. The dinner was close to our house so we decided to walk home instead of paying for a bus with money we didnt have. So to let you guys know, people are selling hamburgers and soda and all kinds of stuff to this people that are walking because, well its 53 miles. As we are walking home people are trying to give us water and cheering us on and we are just like WHAT?? NO!! We teach the truth haha... It was pretty funny but we talked to a ton of people and invited them to church. Fun stuff...

2. So we were waiting for the bus to go to one of our investigators house when this really scary guy came up to us and started to talk to us... Now normaly my comp gets all the stares because well... shes white and looks different from anyone here haha... But not this time. This guy was staring me down and kept calling me pretty and all this stuff. It was like AWKWARD!! Haha... but we ended up teaching him a lesson with his brother and the Elders this week and they want to be baptized. Dont worry guys... we only teach them with other members or the Elders. Fun guy!

3. So we also had this really powerful lesson with one of out investigators named Xenia. She is about 80 years old and we have been teaching her for a long time but she has never accepted a baptism date UNTIL NOW!! She said yes to being baptized and we were sooo happy. We told her that we would pass by her house on Sunday in the morning so we can go to church with her and she said yes. So we went by on Sunday and what happened?? She said she didnt want to go to church.... like ever. It was really sad but when we went to church we have 5 other investigators at church so that helped our spirits a little bit. 

4. I have also had some very spiritual experiences this week that I cant really share with you guys but I just want you to know that this gospel is sooo true! I cant express to you guys how much joy I have in my life because of the gospel! We are all soo blessed and we need to always remember that! I have never been so happier in all my life! This gospel is true and I know that Christ lives!! 

I love you guys and hope that you all have a wonderful week!! 

Con amor

Hermana Patrick

SmashBurger!! :)

So this week was filled with fun adventures...

So my companion had to go to the hospital to give some samples of blood and stuff for the gastritis that she has to make sure that she doesnt have anything worse. The Elders also had to go to the doctor because one of the Elders hands got broken so they went with us... So at the end of this longggg day we are in the lab to give the blood and stuff and this white guy walks in. So Elder Roney the new Elder in our ward looks at me and says "do you think he speaks English or Spanish." After about 5 mins of talking about it we just decide that Elder Rodrigez the Elder from Guatemala that speak NO English to talk to the guy. He walks up to him and ask him if he spoke Spanish. The guys looks at Elder Rodrigez and is like "umm no." So he trys to talk to him in the VERY LITTLE ENGLISH that he knows and the guy is just looking at him like WHAT??? So them Elder Rodrigez looks at me and says "ayudame por favor," which means help me please... So we all laughed and I jumped in and found out that he was from France and said that he spoke English... which I think was a lie because he didnt really understand what we were saying. We asked him for his name and he was just like WHY?? Then we explained that we were missionaries and tried to give him a card and he was not having it. He was a little rude but hey... asi es la mision. It was very interesting.. After he left we just all laughed really hard. So yeah that happened..

Also this week was changes week... My comp and I stayed the same but Elders Roney from Utah, and Garcia from Honduras are new to the area. They are both really sweet and hard working Elders!! :) So Elders Garcia and Gonzalez had lunch with us the other day and when they came it was pouring outside. We only had two umbrellas so we all had to share. We got sooooo wet!! When we got to our lunch we were all super wet and then after lunch it was still raining. So we walked in the rain some more to go to the church for a Zone Meeting that we had. When we got to the church they had all the fans on and it was sooooo cold. YES COLD IN PANAMA!! WHO KNEW!! So yeah now im sick! But get this... it wasnt just one day in the rain it was 3. So yesterday at our dinner with the Elders at a members house I had a really high fever. The Sister that we were eating with gave me some meds to make the fever go down so that helped a lot. We went home and I got some sleep and now I feel a little better but still a little blah!! I think tomorrow should be fine though. 

Today we played soccer again today in the nice heat of Panama and then after that we beat the Elders in Basketball!! Thats always fun!! :) 

So yeah that was pretty much my week... Oh and did I mention that they have a SmashBurger here in Panama?? Well they do and me and my comp went last week. It was soooo good. We also got to go to Taco Bell!! It was the best thing ever!! :D 

Well I love you guys and miss you tons #seeyouin9 Wow only 9 weeks!! How fast the time has gone!! Well love you guys!! 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Patrick

                     Me and my comp were really excited to not have changes that we ate candy and took a no changes picture! :)

                                                             Us with Ilian

                             Us at the hospital... Elders Rodrigez and Roney and my comp and I

                                                    Smash Burger!!

                                                      Smash Burger selfi

                                                       Me and Elder Garcia