Adventures in Oregon: The sun is STILL shining...

Well hello hello!

I hope everyone is doing so well wherever you're at. I'm so blessed to know wonderful people like you and I am so grateful for each of you! (And really--EACH of you. Not even just the whole general group :))

This week has been just as great as ever. The biggest setback is that I'm crazy tired, so I'm trying not to act cranky or slack on anything, but sometimes I do better than others, for sure.

First thing's first, though: I owe you all a miracle story from last week. So we got this name from our bishop of a lady who's name is in our ward, but no one knows her. So we went to visit, and I totally read the map wrong and led us to the wrong street. But we decided to still check it out because maybe we would go tracting there sometime. So then we had to turn back around and go allll the way down this other street, where only half of the houses had numbers, and everyone had really long driveways, and it was just way out. So we stop by a few wrong houses before we decide to turn around and go talk to this man we had passed sitting on his porch. So we drive back, and as we are parking, the very moment we are about to walk up to this man's house, this taxi comes towards us, which I thought was random, since we were way out in the woods. So I'm like "Who takes a taxi out here??" and Sister W, totally joking around goes, "D C does!" So we walk up to the taxi, and we're like "Hey, do you know who D C is?" And she's like "Yes. I'm her." WHAT. So we go up her driveway after the taxi leaves, and she comes back out of her house and says "Actually, can you come back after 5? C told me to tell you to go away, but I told him to mind his own business. And he leaves for work at 5, so if you could come back then, that would be great." And, of course, we said yes! So we go back that night, and she is just the nicest lady and so loving and open and kind, and she tells us her amazing life story and the struggles she has overcome, and we are just in awe. And then, come to find out, she had actually been praying for friends and for someone to love and support her the day before we found her. WOW. If we hadn't taken the wrong street first, or wandered around trying to find her house, or driven any faster, or anything, we would have talked to C instead of D C, and he would have turned us away. Even the slightest difference would have made it so neither of our prayers were answered that day. Heavenly Father most certainly does perform miracles today, and He is so aware of each of us and our situations, and I can promise that He does answer our prayers. It was so incredible and I am just so glad we got to meet her! We are now visiting her once a week to teach her the missionary discussions so that she can know for herself if the gospel is something that she wants to pursue. SO cool.

We also had someone that we tracted into a couple of weeks ago actually call us back! Usually we give them a mormon.org card with our phone number on it, and they say they'll call, just to be nice, but they never really call. But J did! We haven't met with him yet, but I am excited for when we do.

One of our most solid investigators, J, will sometimes just feel like getting out and doing service! So she calls us every once in a while and asks if we can go do service together. So last week, we pulled weeds for a lady in our ward that is pregnant, and then a couple of days later, J just went and asked her neighbors if she could pull their weeds because she wanted to do service! The Lord is so working with her and helping her have these feelings so that she can stay busy with good things. And service is most definitely a good thing! I love how many service opportunities we have as missionaries, and I encourage each of you to find one way to serve someone today! Even if it's just tiny, it will be a blessing to both you and the person you served!

We also had exchanges this week, and I got to take over the area for a couple of days! Sister W finally got to leave and experience Coquille, and Sister B (who was in the MTC the same time as me) came here to our lovely town! All of our appointments got cancelled, so we didn't get to teach anyone while she was here, but we contacted some other people, and I got to drive the car and we had some real fun times!

And Zone Conference was on Friday, and every time President Young comes to a meeting, I am just amazed by everything he says. The Spirit is always so strong and I always get so motivated and I learn so much. Between all the people who spoke, I took three pages of notes...haha. We also did these fun skits about missionary work based on Primary songs! Man, I miss Primary. And I REALLY miss helping in the Enrose Ward Primary with that great presidency!

Today, we had the most fantastic P-day activity!!! We went with the J and the R families to Hobbit Beach. To get there, you have to hike down the Hobbit Trails, which is indescribably cool. It's just this little path in the middle of the forest and everything is green and covered with moss and there are all these cool trees and "troll houses" (which is basically just a little archway of branches). And the beach is soo gorgeous, I can't even describe. And there are hardly any people, and tons of sand dollars and sea anemones and starfish and it is just amazing. And it was so fun to play in the sand with the kids and explore some! So that's pretty much what all the pictures are from this week :)

I hope you all have a most amazing week and that it is full of good things! Everyone here is on Spring Break, so I'm not sure if it's Spring Break at home, too, but if it is, enjoy! I love you all SO MUCH!!!

Love, Sister Partridge