MY FINAL P-DAY OF MY MISSION! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! EASTER AND GENERAL CONFERENCE! April 6, 2015

April 6, 2015

 Hey Everyone!

  Who loved general conference? I did! It was just fantastic! What a marvelous almost end to my mission of Easter and General Conference!! We had a pretty good week! Monday started out with us seeing Afton. That was really good, we read and talked about the story of Nephi breaking his bow. He is a good kid! Hopefully his grandma can start coming more consistently because the gospel would be really good for him! Tuesday we had district meeting. Other than our district having a hard time focusing it was good. Two of the Elders did a scripture scavenger hunt that was fun. They sneakily figured out our favorite candy and had that waiting at the end! That evening we had a really good lesson with Lamont! It finally clicked to him to pray about being baptized. We have committed him to do that every time we see him and then this last time we were talking about it and he said "I never thought about asking in my prayers if baptism is right for me. I'm going to do that!" It's all about the timing though right? Wednesday was kind of a struggle, but then turned out good. We had lunch with a less active that went really well, we had this really yummy salad from Zaxby's! Thursday was really awesome! We had the Cruz's teach us the Gospel of Jesus Christ! They each had a topic and they couldn't use the pamphlet this time! It went really well. Then at the end we committed them to read the scriptures every day as a family and to all come to church! Then we had a good talk with Bobby. He is so close! He calls himself a member, he just won't come to church and he won't quit chewing tobacco! He will come around though! Oh and Thursday morning we went and helped this lady we are kind of teaching clean her apartment.  I say kind of teaching because she talks so much that we aren't able to get a whole lot of teaching done when we see her. She lives in the projects but she has a super clean house! Probably the cleanest place I have been in that is in the projects. Friday we had MLC. That was fun! It was fun to see all of the missionaries one last time and see how everyone is doing. Then that evening after we got back we had a lesson with the Cruz's oldest daughter's boyfriend. He is so cool! When we were asking him what he wanted in life and out of religion he just kept talking about how he wanted something he could raise a family in and be happy. He is totally going to get baptized! He is seriously just so cool. Saturday and Sunday were general conference!! Yay!! All of the messages were so good! I can't even pick a favorite. I think they were all my favorites. I really loved Elder Bednar's talk about fear and Godly fear. There were lots of talks about love and family and marriage! I also really liked Elder Ringwood who talked about Shiblon! I really like Shiblon, he is a cool guy. Elder Holland's talk rocked! It was so good I didn't even take notes because I didn't want to miss anything while I was writing! Then Pres Uchtdorf's talk about grace. It was all just really great!

 Well this is my last email to everyone! I have been thinking about what I will miss about the South just a few things will be how all the business’s put spiritual message on their signs. I will miss the black people, they are so awesome!  I will miss the accents, I will miss the ugly pine needles that people put as mulch in their flower beds.  I will miss the awful grass, I will miss talking to random people about Jesus, even though this is what scared me the most at the first of my mission! I will miss being “blessed” for the day and in the projects when we knock I will miss the hollering from inside “Who dat is”? I will miss the azaleas and their prolific pink flowers! I can’t say that I will miss the bugs though! I will maybe miss the torrential rain and the deep red mud! (not)!  I will miss how in the South they continue to have prayer in schools, no one fusses about the Pledge of allegiance, and the deep love that the people of Georgia no matter what religion have of Jesus Christ!!  I keep thinking about what I am going to say to people when they ask me what I have learned from my mission and it is just so hard to put into words! I have learned so much and it means so much to me that I feel like the words I know just don't do it justice. I have loved being a missionary and I will really miss it! I will miss calling people to repentance! It is the most amazing experience when you are able to be a worthy vessel for the spirit and you know the words you are saying aren't your words at all, it's what Heavenly Father wants the people you are teaching to know. I now have just a small knowledge of when Jesus after his resurrection in John 21 15-17 “Lovest thou me, feed my lambs”, and again Jesus asked “Lovest thou me, Feed my Sheep”, and again a third time “Lovest thou me, Feed My Sheep”! As I leave those that I am teaching into the hands of other missionaries, I feel such a love for them, they are so close to having the blessings of the gospel!  My heart is full and tender and I just have to trust that truly our Father in Heaven knows and loves us all and he will take care of these precious investigators and in his own time and with their agency hopefully will accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I love my Savior Jesus Christ, missionary work is just about the hardest but best thing that one can do!  I am excited to come home and apply all of the things I have learned.  I love you all so much! I know the gospel is true and it really is a marvelous work and a wonder! I will see you all next week! I will be anxious to hug “ya’ll”!!

 Love,

Sister Price 

My love to Tammy and Mike, Gage, Taryn, Joelie and Bruce!  So sad for you, Jeannette was awesome, she always took care of me when I would go down for the races, and she had loads of hair products and appliances for the time I forgot mine!!  The food, she always made sure that there was food supplied!  So gracious and lovely.  I can’t wait to hug you all next week and cry with you probably again!!  My thoughts and prayers are with you this week.    Love Sister Kaitlyn

Pictures of what Missionaries do WALK!! Scary Georgia storm clouds! My awesome final District in Swainsboro, GA April 6, 2015

JUST A COUPLE OF MISSIONARIES WALKING ALONG A SWAINSBORO ROAD! SIS. PRICE AND SIS. BAKER

KNOCKING ON DOORS! ITS WHAT MISSIONARIES DO!

SCARY CLOUDS, WIND AND RAIN IN SWAINSBORO GEORGIA!

MY FINAL DISTRICT IN SWAINSBORO! THEY ARE A GOOD GROUP OF ELDERS! OF COURSE THE SISTERS ARE NATURALLY AWESOME!!

ONE P-DAY LEFT!! UNBELIEVABLE!! March 30, 2015

Hey Everyone!

     Well it has been a good week! It started out with a really good Monday. We had a lesson with a less active lady we have been working with and her great-grandson who she is raising and that went really well. It was the most he has participated in any of our lessons! We read the story about Nephi building a boat and his brothers being really mean. It was so cute because we were talking before about the story and what it was about and I was asking him what he would do if God asked him to build a boat and he said "well I would build it because God would tell me how" it was so great! They live in a little community about 8 miles away called Dellwood which consists of about four streets so we went and tried some people in the area that missionaries had talked to before and found this really awesome lady! She said a few days before she had just been thinking that she wanted to make some changes in her life and then we showed up! Then Tuesday we had district meeting. The Elders came down to Swainsboro and had it here so that was nice. Then after our branch president brought lunch for us. He made chili and had some other snacks. It was so nice of him! Then we went and visited some people in the afternoon. Then that evening we saw Lamont. We talked about the Word of Wisdom. He, like everyone else we find/teach smokes so we have to work on that! Being on a mission and especially here in Swainsboro has really strengthened my testimony of and helped me really appreciate the Word of Wisdom! It is such a blessing to not have the burden of addiction because it really does control your life and take away your agency. Wednesday we had a really good day. We finally were able to see Sister Martinez! She is hard to catch but we had a good talk with her. Her son had some really great questions so we were able to have a really good discussion! We also had a really good lesson with Alianna. We did the story of Esther with her dolls and she loved it. I think it is probably one of the first time I have played with Barbie's in my life. She loved it though and that is what matters! Thursday was a really good day! It was a nice day so we decided to park our car at the church and spend the morning walking. It went really well! On our way back we took a different street and as we were walking down we saw this lady outside playing with her kids. I had the feeling we needed to talk to her and I was having this inner battle because she was a middle aged white person and middle aged white people are scary! Then I said to Sister Baker that we should probably talk to her but I was feeling really chicken but then Sister Baker said she was having the feeling too that we need to talk to her also so we just gritted our teeth and started walking up the driveway. She saw us and we said hi and she actually looked happy to see us which is very rare! We introduced ourselves and she was like ya I am a member! After we got her name we realized that we remembered her name from the roster but on the roster it was marked that she lived with her parents who were very against the church and we weren't supposed to visit her. She was really excited to see us though and we are going to have lunch with her on Wednesday. She is really cool! It was definitely part of Heavenly Father's plan that we saw her though because we just happened to be walking down that street instead of the street we came on. Thursday night the Cruz family taught us lesson 2 the plan of salvation. Holy cow it was like the most awkward lesson! They were kind of having some sort of family strife because there was just this weird tension but we persevered! Their daughters boyfriend was there again and he was really interested and awesome and answering all of the questions! It's funny because Brother Cruz and their youngest son and the boyfriend were all doing really well and answering questions and the girls were just kind of all over the place. Friday wasn't very exciting but Saturday was great because it was the women's broadcast! The broadcast was awesome, I loved all of it! I loved all of the messages and how it was all centered on family and the Savior. It made me so excited for general conference!! Yesterday was good, we tracted quite a bit and met some really cool people! I am so much better at talking to people than I was at the beginning of my mission. It ended up being a really good day! My last normal, full Sunday. Next week isn't normal because it's general conference and then the Sunday after that I go to the mission home! Crazy! If you haven't watched Because He Lives yet you should! It is really good. It would be a really good proselyting tool if anyone had internet! That is the hard part about Swainsboro. We talked to a bunch of people yesterday and probably two of them had internet to actually be able to watch the video. This is when Ipads would come in handy. I have a super busy next few weeks! I hope ya'll have a good week! Love you lots!!

Love,

Sister Price

20 DAYS!!! March 23, 2015

Hey Everyone!

     Well this week has been kind of a struggle but that is ok. Monday we  had an awesome night all lined up with tons of appointments and then everyone canceled! It was so frustrating. We even had members lined up to go with us to all of our appointments and it all fell through. Sister Baker also got a really terrible headache so we had to go get her a Mountain Dew because that helps her headaches and none of the fast food places here had Mountain Dew! It was ridiculous.  Tuesday was good though. The beginning of the day was kind of a bust but the evening was awesome! We had a lesson with Lamont that went really well! He is way cool, he just needs to come to church! Then we went to the Cruz's and we decided to start having them teach us the lessons because we needed something to get their whole family involved. It went so good! They all participated, even the youngest daughter who has kind of just hid in her room before. She was like the first one out there ready with her pamphlet to teach! Brother Cruz did so awesome! He totally rocked it which was surprising to us because in the past he has been really shy and he doesn't say a whole lot. When it was his turn to teach he didn't even use the pamphlet and he was quoting scriptures and asking all these awesome questions. It was so great. Another great part was the oldest sisters "friend" who is mostly her boyfriend was there so they were teaching "us" but mostly they were teaching him and he was totally interested the whole time! It was so great. They have come such a long way! Plus their whole family was at church on Sunday! It was awesome! Then later Tuesday night we had a lesson with Bobby and Denise. We tried to talk about keeping the sabbath day holy but it got off topic a lot. Bobby likes to ask really random questions so that throws things off sometimes. Mostly he just had excuses why he couldn't keep the sabbath day holy and come to church! We are hoping he will figure it out. Then Wednesday we had exchanges! I stayed here and Sister Brizee came. She is really cool. She is from California. We had a great time. Again, most of our appointments fell through so we did a lot of walking around and talking to people/tracting. We met some really cool people though! She is really awesome at talking to people. Then Thursday we had zone conference. It was fun minus the fact that it took us 2 hours to drive there and we had to be there by 8:30 for car inspections so we had to leave at 6:30 so we had to get up at like 5:30. It was exhausting. Then we had to do car inspections in the pouring rain so we got soaked and my cute curly hair got wet and became not cute and curly! Other than that it was good. The assistants gave a training on planning that was fun. Then Pres McCoy gave a training on the priesthood and the power we have as missionaries. Then they introduced the Easter initiative they are doing called Because He Lives! That should be really fun. We got special pass along cards for it. They are really cool. Then President gave a training on being highly favored of the of the Lord. Then the missionaries who were having zone conference for the last time had to bear their testimony so that included me!!. Weird to think that it's my last zone conference! It's always been other people turn, and so it took a bit for me to remember "Duh, you are bearing your Testimony"!  It was very nice though to share my testimony of my mission with the Zone!

One of the people we are teaching moved to Douglas and so we texted to see how she was doing and she said on the way there the trailer caught on fire and they lost everything! That was crazy! That is about most of the exciting things that happened this week. The Ference family is struggling a bit as 8 year old Alianna is sort of struggling on attending Primary. It is hard when there are only 5 kids in the whole Primary and you are the only 8 year old.  We are trying to work with her and let her know of our testimony on being obedient and that there are blessings that she does not know about as she attends her meetings and is obedient.  The Cruz Family is doing well though.  There was a cute thing that happened yesterday,  We went to try an old referral and this kid came out and said she was sick, he was wearing a class of 2015 hoodie so he is probably around 18. When he came out to tell us you could tell he just felt really bad telling us to go away. Then with this really devastated look on his face he said "it's raining" and I was thinking well ya its Georgia it rains all the time and then he went on to say "and you walked all they way here and got your shoes dirty." He just looked so sad for us! It was really cute. We decided that next time we go back if his sister isn't there we are going to try and teach him. That was our week! Hope ya'll have a good week! I am super excited for the womens broadcast!

Love,

Sister Price

"AU-GOOS-TA ZONE! Happy St. Patricks Day! March 16, 2015

Hey Everyone!

     Well it has been a pretty good week! Monday was pretty slow, one of those days where no one is home. Tuesday was good though! Even though we had to email we taught a lot of lessons and met lots of people! We had a lesson with Daisy and talked about the word of wisdom. It went really well because she was already wanting to quit smoking. Yes, another one who needs to quit smoking! Wednesday was a little bit of a slower day but it was still good. It is nice now that its warm because we can walk around more! Thursday was ZTM and that was really good! We did end up having to drive but that is ok. We will just walk a lot this transfer! At ZTM they talked a lot about goals and stuff. Also, during the week the zone leaders had sent out a text and asked if anyone could draw and if they could draw a buff goose in missionary clothes. Sister Baker and I were thinking about why they were wanting this so Sister Baker was like, "is it going to be the new "Augoosta" zone mascot?" So we texted that to the zone leaders and they loved it so now we are the Augoosta zone! Sister Roden drew an awesome goose so we are going to get t-shirts at the next ZTM. I am excited! Sister Baker and I also thought up an awesome idea for a skit our district can do at the next ZTM.  It is about being trunky since there are two from our district who go home at the end of this transfer. Look at us having Zone Unity!!  Then Thursday night we had an awesome lesson with Lamont! The member we brought with us to teach him was so great and she asked these awesome questions and bore her testimony and the spirit was really there! We are really close to putting him on date for baptism. Friday wasn't very eventful, mostly it just rained all day and that was our day to plan for the week. We were very grateful it chose that day to rain so we didn't have to be out in it! Saturday was pretty good! We saw a lot of less actives this week which was good. Hopefully we can start working with them more! The Cruz's are doing awesome. We gave them an assignment to teach us the lessons as a family! They are going to use one of our teaching pamphlets and each family member gets to teach a page. We are trying to get their whole family involved! Their youngest daughter finally started talking to us! She is really shy so it has taken her a while to be comfortable with us. Then we have kind of been teaching this guy named Brian who got out of prison not too long ago....we will see how that goes! Sunday was fun! Church was really good even though no one we are teaching came. That is our struggle lately, it seemed like everyone we were teaching was doing great coming to church and then they just stopped! We had dinner with the youngest couple in the branch yesterday! It was fun. They are about 30. It was really nice to talk with people who are about our age! Don't get me wrong, I love old people but sometimes it is nice to talk to people who hear you correctly the first time and you don't have to repeat yourself and yell! We have a busy week this week because we have exchanges and zone conference so we will be busy! It should be fun though. I have pictures to send this week! Sister Baker decided we needed to rearrange all of our furniture so we did that on Friday. It is a lot better. Our apartment has a giant living room and then two smaller rooms and before our beds were in one of the small rooms and our study desks were in the other small room and then there was nothing in the giant living room so we moved our beds and study desks into the living room (because living rooms make the best bedrooms!) and now we each have a room with our own closet and a place to get dressed!  It does feel so much better. I will send pictures. I didn't take any before pictures though of the nothingness of the living room, but as you can see it is clean!!  I also am sending you pictures of a herd of wild turtles, and a Hawk.  A pic of our zone sisters and now you can really tell that Sis. Baker really does have Merrida hair!!  Well I hope ya'll have a good week! General conference is coming up soon! Yay! 

Love,

Sister Price

 

Swainsboro Apt. Pics, turtles, hawks and the Zone Sisters! March 16, 2015

LOOKING TOWARDS THE KITCHEN AND SIS. BAKERS BED

LOOKING TOWARDS THE FRONT DOOR AND MY BED AND OUR STUDY AREA!

HERD OF SUNNING WILD TURTLES!

A HAWK CHECKING THINGS OUT

MY ZONE SISTERS, AND SIS. BAKER REALLY DOES HAVE MERRIDA HAIR!!

TRONCILLA! April 9, 2015

Hey Everyone!

      Well this week was pretty good. I kind of can't remember much of it. It has been a real trial trying to find somewhere to email because the computers at the library are down and all of the members are old so none of them have internet! We finally found somewhere though. Well it has been a strangely rainy week. It has rained so much lately! We have a park by our apartments with a gazebo and last week it had rained so much that the path out to the gazebo was completely underwater and it was just like an island out there! Plus the bugs are coming out which is really annoying! We sprayed our apartment with permatox yesterday so we had to leave for a while because that stuff is really strong smelling! It has been nice though to be bug free for a minute! It has also been pretty warm, which makes me SO GLAD I don't have another summer here. I would die! I barely survived last year! We kind of struggled at the beginning of the week because no one wanted to talk to us and it was pouring rain and when it's pouring rain people call and cancel because of the weather. They don't understand that them canceling just makes us have to be out in the weather! Oh well, the worth of souls is great, even in the torrential rain!! It was silly because we had a meeting on Wednesday and it was nice weather until we got out of the meeting and then it started pouring rain! We did meet some really awesome people on Saturday! It was really good. Oh and the other day we were trying a lady to see if she was home and she wasn't so we decided to talk to her neighbor who was outside. We are talking to this lady and she introduces herself as "TRON" (she is black) and we were like" oh that is an interesting name, how do you spell it?" She answered "T-R-O-N-C-I-L-L-A" and we didn't say anything but after we were like um so is the "cilla" silent because we are pretty sure that's not how you spell "tron!" We have been laughing and joking about that ever since. We have been trying to get a ride to Augusta for Thursday which has been ridiculously hard! Everyone who has the time to drive us is afraid of driving in Augusta. We might just have to drive ourselves and walk a lot this month!  This is not a super great thought to me as we are really rural and it is about 5 miles between appointments and then we have to walk back to our apartment. I so miss just being able to get in a vehicle and go where I need to go!  But it is about obedience on this whole miles thing!  I am excited to see other missionaries though because sometimes it really does feel like we are in exile! Plus there are so many more food options in Augusta! Holy cow it is great to just drive through and look at all of the civilization when we do go to Augusta!  We met a guy named Rufus on Saturday who is pretty cool. We are going to see him again tonight! He says he just feels like he needs strengthened spiritually because his dad just passed away. We were like well we can help you with that! We have been working with a less active family the Cruz's and they are doing great! We went and saw Sister Cruz this morning and she hadn't smoked at all today! Almost their whole family was at church on Sunday. Some of them came in really late but their oldest daughter brought her sort of boyfriend and he really liked it! Their other daughter is a little harder to connect with but we are making progress! She went from sleeping through church to this last Sunday she got all dressed and ready she just didn't quite make it to church! She has made a lot of progress though! Their family is doing great. I think that is about all that has happened this week. Oh we got stuck in the mud again! Thank goodness there was some guys doing work on the side of the road just around the corner with a backhoe and they were super nice and came and pulled us out. Darn mud! I'm keeping busy because as I said we have Training This Thursday, then next week we have a lot of teaching and some ward activities, then the week after it is General Women's conference, then General Conference and Easter together which will be awesome,  Then HOME!!!   It is so crazy Gage is home!  Caleb will be out 6 months in April and my time is about done.  The work just keeps going forward!!  Well that is about my week! Hope everyone is doing well! Love you all!  Love to Grandma-Keep up the good work, try not to fall asleep to much!!  Love to Grandpa Clark!!

Love,

Sister Price