Americans on Blas, SAY WHAT!!

Hola everyone,

     So last week we had a bit of problems with the computer, being as we are on an island is pretty normal, so we didnt get to write. But so many things have been happening here on the island of Carti Tupile.

So we had a baptism last week. He is 15 years old and his name is Jason. He is amazing and was sooo excited to be baptized. This coming week however we have 6 baptisms planned. I hope they all work out.

Each and every one of them is amazing.

This week we had divisions on our island with the other two sisters of San Blas. My old MTC comp Hermana Anderson and my Zone sister training leader Hermana Moss. So here on our island if you have to go to the bathroom we have to walk all the way to the church because we dont have a bathroom. So Hermana Anderson and I were walking to the bathroom when we saw white people. Yes real white people. I told Hermana Anderson that I wanted to talk to them to see where they were from.But we didnt have to. One of them just marched right up to us and said "hey how are you?" "My name is .... (I think Katy haha) and I served a misión here about 10 years ago". It was amazing to get to talk to her. 1. Her and her companion were the first sister missionaries to ever serve on the islands of San Blas. She told us amazing stories. She also said that her misión stories beat ALL of her friends misión stories, so yep looks like mine will as well.

At the time only 3 islands were open for missionary work and now there are 7. As you can see the Lords work is just moving along!!! They were the only sisters on Blas and the other islands were Elders. Pretty amazing. She was here on the island with her best friend who was not a member and the best friends husband, who was also not a member. She was hoping the trip would bring them closer to the Lord and closer to the waters of baptism haha. They were amazing. They had plenty of American food and made sure to give us some.

On another note we are doing some great work here in the Zone of San Blas. Of the whole mission our Zone is doing the best in the sence of missionary work. So President Carmack (our mission president) wanted to reward us on our hard work. So he came down to San Blas and brought with him Meet the Mormons. Which is you havent seen the movies I highly recommend it. It was amazing. We spent all day with him on the Elders Island of Nargana.

The work of the Lord is really moving foward and you can see it nice and clear.

Testifico de un Salvador amoroso que espera que vivamos los mandamientos. La decisión de cambiar es de ustedes y de nadie mas. La norma del salvador es clara y simple: "Si me amais, guardad mis mandamientos" (Juan 14:15). I love you all and hope that you have an amzing week.

Love always

Hermana Patrick

Just pictures this week

                                               me showering in the river

                                         This is Jason our convert. He just got baptized this week. He is amazing!!!!

River Shower!!!!!

Hola everyone,

      I hope everyone had a wonderful mothers day. I sure did, it was nice getting to skype home to my wonderful family. Hope all you other missionary moms enjoyed it as well.

Well Im not sure exactly what to say being as I talked a lot yesterday. I guess I will just let everyone else know what has been the latest news on the island. So we havent had water here in about a month and a few weeks so its really hard to do anything. We can cook, clean, bath, or anything. So this is gross but it is my mission for the momento. So we have no water and I went 2 days without a shower because of it. So finally we took a boat with some members to the river. When we got there all the Little kids and woman jumped in the water and started to bath. So we did the same. We just took our shampoo and did it. It was actually a pretty cool experience. We have to go again because we have a ton of dirty clothes so we need to wash them. But yeah thats my mission right now. Showering in the river. We also now have 7 dates for people to be baptized in the coming weeks.

We are looking forward to them and really hope that they follow through.

I also hit 10 months in the mission a couple of days ago so that is also super exciting. I will be seeing you all soon.

Well I love you guys and hope you have a wonderful day and week. Read your scriptures and have FHE!!! :)

Love

Hermana Patrick

Island of Carti Tupile

Nuegambi/hola/hello everyone,


    So as everyone knows I had changes thos last week. I was really not looking foward to moving islands or switching companions. But after fasting and praying things are better then ever. My new companion hna. Casco and I are working really hard. We just set three dates for people to be baptized in the coming weeks. At times it is a bit hard because if you know me you know that i lobe to talk. My new comp on the other hand does not. So its just really quite all the time haha.

So first week back on the island and guess what...... no computer.... again. So another phone. I hope all is well next week to skype. Oh yeah I get to skype next week. Happy early mothers day moms!

So things on the island are going good and so is the work. The only thing is my health. I finally talked with the nurses again and they told me that i have a infection in my chest. So now the trick is to get medication out here on the island. Ill be traveling to the other island tomorrow to get it so things should be better soon.

One thing that I love about being out here on the island is that I am learning so much. My testimony is stronger then ever and I am learning alot about the kuna culture. It really is amazing to see how other people live their lives. If i could tell you guys everything aboutthe island then id be here all day. Its really something you have to experience.

I love the savior and I love this gospel. If you dont have you own testimony then go out amd find it. The lord is waiting for you! Have a wonderful week everyone and a happy mothers day to the moms! :)

Hna. Patrick

Changes

Hola guys, 

      So sorry I didnt get to email yesterday. My companion and I were getting ready to go to the city and we had to go to the Elders island because we took a plane into the city and they have a small airport on there island. 

So like I said we arrived in the city at about 8:00am and we have been getting ready for the upcoming change. Changes are this week and my companion Hna. Hall (my MTC comp) has changes. She is going to be here in the city with another Hermana and I just recieved my new comp today. She is Hna. Casco from Ecuador. She goes home here pretty soon so we will only have 2 months together. This change is going to be pretty hard because she is a latina and she has been kind of hard these past couple of hours I have known her haha. But we will do great work and I am looking foward to working with her. I also am off of Ticantiki (my island) and now on Carti a different island with my new comp. This island will be quite an adventure because there is no light in the house and they use the bathroom outside. (Just like the Kunas). Im kind of sad to be off my island and with a new comp but I know that God has a plan and its what he wants, not me. 

When I found out that I had Hna Casco I was actually really sad because she hasnt been the nicest Hermana in the mission. She is just very foward and kinda makes fun of you for little things. I had so many negative thoughts of her but then I read the scriptures. I just opened it up to a chapter that talked about how Christ suffered everything for us and that all the problems that we have, he understands them. I also read about love and how I could love my new companion. This will be hard but I know that Heavenly Father knows that I can do it. 

So this last week in our island we did some good work. We had a date for someone to get baptized but backed out at the last min. It was really sad but I know one day he will be ready to hear the gospel. 

Well guys I have been pretty sick this week on the island. Im not actually sure what I have because there is no doctor haha. But I talked to the nurse and she gave me some medication so I should be feeling good here soon. Its really hard being on Blas because there is no fruits and veggies. Your body doesnt always get everything it needs so you start to feel a bit weak at times. I have been very tired latley but I know that if I work hard Heavenly Father will provide me with all the strength I need. We are truly blessed to know the gospel and to have it in our lives. I invite you all to really ponder on our savior Jesus Christ and his suffering for us. He is our savior and loves us all.

So do I... I love you all and miss you more then you know. I am super excited to get back home and see the changes that the ward is having. Good luck!! Have a great week

Hna. Patrick

San Blas!!

Hola everyone,

      How is everything going in the United States?? I hope all is well because we have plenty of people that want to come to the states haha. They always ask my companion and I to take them with us when we leave haha. So sorry mom, if I come back home with 5 new Kuna kids thats why.

So this week has been very very very interesting. So let me just start off by saying that my companion and I are going to be the best members of the church when we get home. We now see how important the members are to the missionaries. Here on the Island it is very hard to get things running. So let me just break everything down for you guys.....

(warning... you may be overwhelmed). So we have our branch. We have a branch president that doesnt have any counselors, so it is just him.

There is no young womans class or young mens. No teacher for primary.

Well there is but she doesnt come to church. Basically we have very few classes and very few people that come to church. So yesterday we had our branch president come and knock on our door a 6 in the morning to tell us that he couldnt direct sacrament meeting because he had to go to work. He also told us that the other guy that could take his place had to work as well. We ran around the whole island looking for someone to direct the meeting. We had no luck. Finally the branch president said we were just going to have church at 7pm. Who has church at 7pm??? We do haha... So thats what happend. So we had 1 hour of church yesterday. We also ran around the island looking for someone to give a talk as well but no one wanted to do it so my comp. and I had to give the talks.

Here on the island its A LOT different then anything I have ever seen before. They are soooooo into their culture that church comes 2nd or 3rd to them. The men have this thing called Congreso (congress) that they have to go to about 4 times a week. They meet in the huge stick house and they have these 3 guys called the silas. They sit in their hammocks and talk about the problems that they island is having. So basically these 3 guys are in charge of the whole island and all the people. So anyways, they sing and pray and talk about what everyone needs to do to make the island better. The woman dont go but if they would like they are allowed to sit it. The men here have FULL control.

So me and my companion went a couple days ago. It was all in Kuna so we didnt understand much but we had a guy translate it in Spanish for us so we could understand. They said that there are people on other islands drinking horse blood because there is no water on there island. Which we are also running low on water as well. So here we all get our water from the river and if it dosnt rain for a while then the water in the river starts to go down. So that is whats happening right now. Anyways, they talked about that and about how the men need to work harder and what not. It was really interesting. So the people here on the island think that that is there church. They put that before anything else. Its really hard to help them when they dont want help.

The kids here have babies really really young. Im talking 14 years old. If you are a girl and you have a baby they shave your head in congreso and the girl and boy have to get married. So we know this girl that is 14 and is having a baby and he husband is 21 years old.

So they shaved her head and now shes married. Sad but thats what they do hear.

We had an Hermano tell us that he doesnt care and that he believes in God so he will be saved...... I dont think thats how it works but we tried as best as we could to help him. One day he will know that truth.

I am just very great for the church this week. Here on the island is a lot different from how the church is in the states. I am sooooo greatful for EVERYTHING that we have in the states. I think sometimes we dont realize how good we have it. I know I didnt. But I am also great for all the experiences  that I am having here. I am learning and growing alot.

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

Sorry for all the grammer and spelling mistakes. No time to fix them haha.

Love

Hna. Patrick

Phone email... AGAIN

Hola everyone

so this week we dont have a computer again. Being out here on the island is a bit hard at times. We get up on pdays to email but no computer. So they use solar energy here. I guess there wasnt any sun today so it didnt work. Which I dont believe because it was REALLY hot today. So sorry in advance for the short email.


so this week we had a pretty good teaching week. We had a ton of lessons with members. We plan to have 2 people baptized this week so we are praying for that. The work is moving along.

So i realized that I told you guys that i was going to attach a picture in the last email and.... nothing haha. Sorry. I have just been really tired latley. Haha. So next week if we have a computer I will send it.


Love you guys... have a great week.

Hna. Patrick :)