Pictures

Colon!!!

Hola buenas tardes,

   

    Pues this week has been sooo great! I had changes and I am no longer a San Blas sister. They actually took out all the sisters on Blas and now there are all Elders. We are really running low on sister missionaries here on Panama so we have had to close a lot of sister areas. So my comp,Hermana Anderson and I were the last sister missionaries on Blas. Kinda cool. 5 months on an island was the best but I was glad for changes. 

Now I have a new companion Hermana Garcia and also a new area. I am now in the area of Colon which by the way is the best ever. We live in the ghetto haha.. Here in colon is where we take the diablo rojos which in English would be red devil. They are buses that play really loud music and they have lights and crazy people. Its a school bus on steroids to say the least. Its so AMAZING! The people here are great. There are a ton of black people and they all speak spanish, which I thought was very weird but cool at the same time. My companion is Hermana Garcia and she is from Cali. Although her name sounds latin she is not. Her Grandmother was from cuba so thats where she gets her last name from. Hermana Garcia is awesome!! We get along great, she is pretty much me but different haha. So yeah shes great. 

So we have already had soooo many experiences this week...

1.  So here we are walking down the street contacting some houses when all of a sudden this guy from across the street starts to yell out... "Aye Barbie" and we are just really what?? So he just kept yelling it tell we looked at him. We walked across the street and he said that he wants to learn more about our church and wants us to come to his house right at that second. We could tell that he had been drinking so we told him that we would come back another day and he refused to tell us where he lived. Which I thought was strange being as he contacted us haha. So he walks us to the end of the street to where we meet his friend by the name of verde. Which if you know Spanish that means green. So his friends name is green (yes like the color) and he tells him that we are gonna come to his house. Then he asked my comp if she could come alone. My comp looked at me... now lets take a step back for a second. My comp only has 2 changes in the mission. This is her third and she is still learning spanish.... So back to the story. My comp looks at me as if she couldnt believe what she heard. She thought it was the Spanish but when she looked at me and saw my face she knew that thats what he had asked. So we explained that we have rules as missionaries and that we have to stay together all the time and he was like "its cool my grandma will be home". My comp and I looked at each other and started to laugh so hard. The guy then kept trying to flirt with my comp so me... being Hermana Patrick and all, asked him if he had a wife and kids. He said yes. Then I asked him why he was trying to flirt with my comp if he had a wife and kids. 9 kids by the way... He then said "look at my hand, do you see a ring? NO, So its okay". Then he said, "my wife doesnt have to know what I do". We were so sad but laughed because he was really drunk and couldnt even stand up. We then talk to him about eternal families and he didnt really want to listen. He just flirting with my comp. Then in the middle of me talk he puts his finger up to my face and tells me to hush. He then asked my comp if she was married. My comp looked at me and I shouted YES! haha. Then he walked away. So that was really fun! Actually really funny!! 

2. We had the BEST lesson ever!! So we have an investigator named Jose. He is this really tall black guy and his mom reminds me of my grandma Carol. She is soo soo sweet. She is a member but Jose is not. Jose is about 25 years old. His picture will be in the email. But we thought him about the restoration of the Gospel and he loved it. He will be baptized in the coming week but we have to finish teaching him the lessons. The problem with that is is that he lives in the ghetto ghetto so the Elders have to come with us to the lessons because we cant go by ourselves. But he is the best. Speaking of him, his mom just called and she wanted me to say hi to everyone so Hi haha. 

3. We had another great lesson with Michell. She is 21 and amazing. We were teaching her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and at the end of the lesson we asked if she wanted to be baptized by someone who hold the preisthood and she said "clearly I want to!!!!!" It was amazing. So she will actually be baptized this Sunday. She great!

So yeah that was all. I am also starting the Book of Mormon again but this time I am studying it so much better. I have tons of things marked and have learned many new things. It is really such a great book. My testimony is growing so much and I feel like such a different person. I know that Heavenly Father really does love each and everyone of us. The more I teach that to people the more I understand. I really love being a missionary. The work is great and so is Panama. (they beat USA in soccer the other day, that was sad but cool haha). I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!! Oh and make sure to take advantage of priesthood blessings. That was one thing I wish I would have done before the mission. They are amazing!! 

With love,

Hna. Patrick 

The pictures are of a diablo rojo and Jose and his family. As there is a picture with my new comp and I. She is the one on the left. The white one haha

American Food

Hola everyone,

    So this week has just gone by soo fast. I feel like when your in the city the mission just flies but when your on the islands its sooo slow haha. 

Well this week was fun... We are still in the city with the sisters here and there area is amazing. I got to go to church in almost ALL english. It was like a ward from the states. In this area there are tons of Americans because they all work in the embassy and things like that. So not everyone but a lot of people speak English here. It has been great to be here for the past week.

So church was amazing and not only that but the members here are from the states or are married to someone from the states so they all cook American food. IT IS AMAZING!! I have had sooo much food this week that I think I gained like 20 pounds haha. Which is good because everyone says I lost wait on San Blas. 

So fun things for this week...

1. We met a crazy black lady this week. She was AMAZING haha.. So we were contacting everyone and no one would let us in or take are cards. They all told us that they didnt want to listen and same old things that people tell you when they dont want to listen. So we knocked on this ladies door and she didnt want to listen so she told us to go talk to her neighbor. So we did. We knocked on the door and she swung it open and starts talking really ghetto spanish to us. She asked us where we were from and when she found out what church we went to she yelled "oh their Mormons" to the people inside the house. She asked is where we were from and then I told her the states. She asked where we lived at in the city and we told her. Then she said "so you walked all the way hear?" and we said yes, then she was like come in!! So we came in and she was like you have a few mins to tell me about what the Mormons are and thats it. She didnt want to read anything she just wanted to know why are church was sooo different then the others. So we explained the Restoration of the Gospel to her in 5 mins. We told her that we had apostles and prophets that still walk the earth today. She liked the message but then went to tell us about 20 other churchs and how they all believe in God so they are all good. We just explained that we are the only true church today and she understod that. So she gave us some juice which Im not really sure if it was tea or not. We asked and she just said juice but Im not to sure about that.. Anyways, we had a great lesson with her and right when we were about to leave she gave us $10. We told her that we couldnt take the money but she got really mad and yelled at us so we took the money and are going to put it in the fast offerings at church. Great time!!

2. We saw an alligator this week. Super cool.

3. My comp and I talk in Kuna to each other. Its great haha..

Well my faith has just been growing and growing so much here on the mission. Im sooo greatful for this 18 months that I have to learn and grow. I love you all and miss you sooo much. We are going to go each American food right now and speak in English with some members right now. Have a great week everyone. Oh and happy late Birthday to my mom!! Love you mom!!!

Love always,

Hna. Patrick

In the city!

Hola everyone,

     So this week has really been fillid with wonderful adventures!! So lets just start off with a few.

This week my comp was filling a little sick so we took it easy and let her rest. As the day went on she got sicker. She was having diarrea a lot and was not eating. She hadnt drunk anything that day and was filling really weak. She was looking really pale and was really  dehydrated from not eating or drinking all day with a mix of the diarrea. She was looking pretty bad so I gave the nurse a call.

The nurse said that I needed to get my comp to the hospital NOW! Well problema with that... we are on an island. I called our Zone Leaders and they talked to our misión president. He called me and told me to bring my comp to the city ASAP. So we tried everything to get her there but we couldnt. We ended up going to the Centro de Salud, a medical center on one of the islands. They gave her an IV as everyone sat and watched the soccer game. Very disfunctional doctor. My mom and dad would have been upset if they were there. So my comp didnt have her mom there with her so I played mom haha. I yelled at the doctors for not watching my comp and not being worried about her. So they got focused and helped her out.

She felt a little better the next day but was still really sick so we called our misión president and he told us to come into the city. We came in that next morning and went to the hospital. They took some samples of blood and other weird things and then gave her an IV as we waited for the results. They said it was a some type of infection but we knew that wasnt right. So today we went back to the doctor and got some more test. She ended up having a bacterial infection. She is doing much better today and has to drink LOTS of fluids. Just pray for her!

So now we are in the city and will be here for about 8 days or so until we know changes again.

I am also really happy that my little 8 year old brother got baptized this week. He is sooo big!! SO cute!! And So bad haha. I love him.

I miss you all and I know that this church is true!! This is the ONLY true church on the face of the earth!

with love,

Hna. Patrick

HOLA!!!

Hey everyone,

     So I realized that I start off all my email the same way haha...

Sorry I don't know how else to start.

The

So this week, as always has been filled with adventures. we had the chance to eat a hamburger and let me just say... it was AMAZING!

haha... I kept smelling this that smelled like chili dogs and pizza but I think something is just wrong with me haha.

So this week we ran out of water again so we missed a FHE that we had planned because the water came and we freaked out because we didn't have water to shower with or to wash clothes. So we kind of skipped the FHE to fill up this bucket that we have with water and to wash clothes. It was quite the adventure. The water came out looking pretty clean this time, not as brown as the other times. So all the people drunk the water. But I guess they are used to it so they wont get sick.Well actually almost everyone on the island is sick. They either have some type of infection or they have a cold or something. We are filling a little under the weather as well but nothing to bad.

This week was a very hard week for both my comp and I. We worked hard the whole week to only have 40 people show up to church. They all didn't even stay for all three hours. Just the first hour and they all left. By the end of church there were only 5 people. It was also a bit hard because it was the 4th of July and we had nothing to celebrate with because we are on an island. But we have been fasting and praying for help so we know that Heavenly Father hears us.

This week I have really submitted my will to the Lord. I have come to figure out may of things and I am so grateful for my savior Jesus Christ. My testimony is just growing and I don't want it to stop. I have learned a lot of Christ like things on my mission and hope to come home with these attributes.

You guys are great and I love and miss you all! Seen you soon!!

With love,

Hna. Patrick

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