General Authority visit, birthdays, and end of the transfer!‏

Hello again! :) 

I hope this week has been great for each of you lovely people. This week has flown by even faster than the last, and I'm not too sure what to do with that. Haha. 

This week has been full of things, as usual! I hope you guys aren't sick of me or my updates and that you still read them...That would be ideal. Especially when I send absolutely massive emails like this one is going to be...I am so sorry, in advance. 

Random things of the week: Sister C and I found a fire truck for sale in a parking lot in Phoenix...We didn't happen to have $4900 laying around, and President probably wouldn't have approved that purchase, so we decided to just take pictures by it instead. It was a fun time, and we are working on making it into a Facebook post, so stay tuned :) 

We also went on exchanges and I just really love Sister Cr. She is a bundle of fun and happiness and I love that I can be a little crazy with her, but also trust her with serious things. This mission just has the greatest missionaries in the world. As much as I exaggerate, I'm thoroughly convinced that that statement is true :) 

So, updates on my peeps: S received a calling, before she is even baptized! So that will be great for her. I love her and her kids, they are really just excellent all the way around :) And J came to church this week! Only for sacrament meeting, but we were so excited to see him there. J is on date for October 31 so we can have time to work on divorce papers and a marriage! And G's baptism is going to be next Saturday, August 30, because he accidentally drank coffee last Sunday, and we don't want to make him wait a week to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, so it's going to be a week later. But this guy is a champ, because who else can quit cigarettes and coffee at the same time, a month after quitting alcohol? He's excellent. That whole family is, really. I love to see how the ward embraces them and takes an interest in their progression. We've got a good ward :) 

And a good ward mission leader! They had us, J, G, and A, and the elders over for dinner last night. And they have seven kids. So it's a good thing there was a lot of food! The best part was definitely their birthday present to Sister C, though...They all dressed in their matching "Rise as One" BYU shirts and did a choreographed dance to "I'm Gonna Go on a Mission" by Nashville Tribute Band. Complete with heartfelt solos and everything. It was the best thing I have ever seen, I think. It will take a while for me to ever get over that. It was perfection. ***Mom, can I get one of those shirts? A medium? They are super awesome. I will even pay you the $10 if you wish. Thank you!!!

So yes, Sunday was Sister C's birthday!! She's 20 now...So old. Haha. We got two cakes, a gallon of ice cream, a pie, treats from the elders, a brownie tort, treats from Sister T...all the sugary food. We are so blessed! And it's so good for her to see how loved she truly is. We are surrounded by such thoughtful people :) 

AND it was my dad's birthday yesterday!! He is one of the best people that has ever been on this planet and I hope every one of you has gotten to meet him. Because he is stellar and is an incredible example to me of humility, selflessness, knowledge, and a good work ethic. I love that man :) A man gave a talk in our ward on Sunday about his dad and how he always knew he could trust him and turn to him, and I thought of my own dad and how grateful I am that I, too, been able to trust him and turn to him...and I cried. A lot. He is just so great, and also so old ;) 

And church was even more eventful, because I had a surprise visitor!!! My mom's cousin, Joel, whom I love so dearly was here in Medford picking up pears from the church orchard. So somehow, he found out where and when our church was and stopped in to find me! He found me pretty quickly, because I said the opening prayer, but I almost didn't find him. His friend had to grab my attention and, after I just kind of stared, Joel said "What's the matter, don't you recognize your relative without a hat on?" And then I started crying. It was so good to see him and hug him and I was just so overcome with gratitude and love and appreciation for the thoughtfulness of those I love so much. It was a great un-birthday present for me on Sister C's birthday :) 

And a great present to both of us was totaling up our weekly numbers! For those who don't know, we make goals and then keep track of certain things to measure and record how well things are progressing in certain areas and to keep everything all organized. Our focus is certainly not on attaining high numbers, but rather on individual people and their specific needs. But this week it was especially cool to see (in number form) the success we had! We taught almost twice as many lessons as normally expected, had many of our friends come to church with us, and have about a dozen people steadily progressing toward baptism! No wonder we have been so busy! I love to see how the work of The Lord is truly being hastened by His hand. It is such a miracle and a blessing to be such an integral part of this vitally important work. He truly needs each of us, with our different strengths, weaknesses, and abilities, to help Him do His work and bring His children closer to Him. How great is that :) 

We also found out that our zone has the most baptisms in the mission! We've had three in August. And all of them are from our district! And we will be having another one in August, so our district alone will meet our zone goal! Go team :) Have I said enough times what rock solid missionaries we have in this mission and how prepared the people here are? Best mission and best work :) 

It was also our final district meeting of the transfer, which was a sad time, because many members of our zone have been here for six months, which is typically the maximum time a missionary will be in an area, so they'll be leaving us. But our district all gathered around the piano to sing "Come Unto Christ" together, and bit by bit, our entire zone came in. So in the end, we had this video of our entire zone, about 25 missionaries, gathered around me at the piano, singing about the miracles our Savior has performed and continues to work in our lives as we come unto Him. It was a pretty neat experience :) 

And an even neater experience was our general authority visit yesterday!!! Elder Brent H. Nielsen of the Seventy and his wife (and President and Sister Russell) came to speak with us. This was Elder and Sister Nielsen's first mission tour back in the states in five years! They have previously been in the Philippines and New Zealand, and they have only been back for about a month. Wow! Through this visit and other instances the past few weeks, I have realized more and more how much I really just love to learn! You may not know that if you were one of my BYU professors or a teacher at Mountain View, especially since homework is my downfall, but it's a true story about me. And the gospel is the greatest thing to learn about! So this is an especially exciting time of my life and it was a marvelous visit. We talked a lot about the difference between the redeeming power of the Atonement and the enabling power of the Atonement and what each allows us to do and become. The redeeming power of the Atonement makes us saved by grace, while the enabling power of the Atonement makes us changed by grace. The Atonement of Jesus Christ, His sacrifice for each of us, gives us the capacity to serve beyond our own abilities and become greater than we can now imagine. How remarkable this is! We are so blessed! :)

Sister Nielsen also talked about our relationships with our companions and how they can be better! I so needed this, because I think I have just been a rotten companion to these wonderful sisters. She gave some great tips from her sons' mission experiences and marriage experiences that I am excited to implement! She said something that really stuck out to me.."When you love people for who they are, they flourish in your presence." She talked about "what it means to be a Nielsen" and how, when in-laws came into the picture, they kind of ruined it all! But then she talked about how that's really okay. How people come from different family cultures and as you open your heart to them and love them for who they are rather than trying to change them, both of you become better and you will find such treasures in them. 

And, talking about the increase in the amount of sister missionaries, she said "It looks so different for us to do zone conferences now...It's much prettier!" Haha. 

At this meeting, half of our mission was there--that's over 100 missionaries all in the same spot! And it was really fun, because my two previous zones were there, so I got to see some dear mission friends that I have been missing! I love meetings like that, where we are around a lot of missionaries, all gathered with the same purpose and spirit, being uplifted and edified as a team. It just makes me remember that there is nothing better than serving The Lord and it gets me so pumped about missionary work and reminds me that being a missionary is the best! :) 

An overall picture I got out of the 9 hour meeting was that we are doing so well! ...But we can be doing better. I think that is true of each of us in our individual situations as well. You are doing much better than you think you are. Honestly and truly. We are our own worst critics and we mustn't be so hard on ourselves! You are a good enough mother, a good enough friend, a good enough husband, a good enough disciple of Jesus Christ! But we can still do more. God has high expectations because He knows our true potential. We can always strive a little harder to be a little better. What a great challenge! :) 

Also, this is the last week of the transfer. WHAT. It totally flew by, and I have no idea where it went, but this time next week, I will probably have a new companion. Sister C is one of the missionaries that has been here six months, so I will probably stick around and she is probably going to head out, which is really hard for her and for those she has been working with for so long. I will definitely miss her. And all of a sudden this week, I got terrified about taking over such a great area. I just feel like I'm not worthy for all the good work going on and that I'm not good enough. But I know for a surety that The Lord qualifies those He calls. If I rely on Him and strive every day to do my part, I will be strengthened and enabled to keep up with this work and help it progress even further. I can be an instrument in His hands to become much more than I am on my own. Thank goodness for that! 

Thank you so much for writing me and loving me and being who you are! Sorry for the lengthy emails, but it has just been an eventful past couple of weeks. And sisters automatically have longer emails than elders, so it's not my fault entirely, right? Hah. I love you all so much! Have a super great week! :) 

Love,

Sister Partridge  

...yep, exchanges were fun. I love Sister S. And also Mountain Blackberry Revel Umpqua ice cream. YUM. :) (Sorry it's dark...that's as well-lit as our apartment gets!)