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Monday, November 25, 2013
Baptism Pictures for Sister Kayla - November 23, 2013
November 25, 2013 "SURPRISE A BAPTISM"
Hey Everyone!
I’m
staying in my area for awhile longer! This is great I was starting to dread the
possibility of leaving because I have really gotten close to some of the people
here investigators and ward members and the thought of leaving would have been
almost as bad as when I left you and Dad and went to the MTC. I feel there is just something more I need to
be doing in this area. I got your email
Mom from the Bishop on his remembrance of the Missionary fireside, it has
actually gotten a lot of good feedback from the Couple missionaries and they
have even added their thoughts as to how to make that a success. Elder Gowan is going to present the idea to
the Ward Council on Sunday, we will see what happens.
This has been a pretty good week! I will start
off by explaining what happened with Kayla this week. Last I let everyone know
her baptism was scheduled for Dec. 7. We went over there on Monday because we
really just wanted to talk about things and we decided to show her the Faith in
Christ DVD and we really just felt we should talk about faith. So we watched
the video and talked a lot about faith and there were some long pauses but it
was ok. We weren't feeling like we needed to fill the pauses because the spirit
was there. Then towards the end of the lesson her mom said ok so what is
the difference between getting baptized this Saturday and getting baptized Dec.
7? She couldn't come up with a good answer so her mom was like ok you're
getting baptized on Saturday. So we had a baptism on Saturday! It was
crazy! I still can't believe it happened! We had been praying for
miracles and I guess they really do happen in the most unexpected
ways! It was really good. Elder Meacham, one of the senior missionaries,
baptized her and then Brother Johnson, he's in the bishopric, confirmed her. I
did not know that when you and Dad went to the Temple two weeks ago that you
put Kayla’s name on the prayer roll along with her Mom and my District area, myself
and my companion! I sure appreciate you doing that. I am gaining a more firm testimony that
prayer is the best communicator to our Father in Heaven and when it is his will
amazing things happen. Kayla had a good
day last Saturday and even though it was super quick the Baptism went well. We
went and filled up the font because the Elders don't take enough time to fill
it up so when they fill it up it's either freezing cold or not full enough! I
didn't fall and hit my face though. Our font filling went without incident. It
was the perfect temperature! I will send some pictures of the baptism day.
Kayla seems to continue to be happy and now it’s
just a matter of getting her feeling a little less shy to attend Young Womens. The ward is planning on doing Baptisms for
the dead on Dec. 21. Kayla and her Mom
would really like to go and participate.
Although like I said she is pretty shy at this point to extend herself ,
I know exactly how she feels. She does
have a good relationship with one of the Beehive girls and I am trying to get
that family and Kayla and her Mom to get together and have a FHE, nothing
better than a song, short lesson riotous game and refreshments! Kayla also seems to be getting to know her
Beehive leader and the Young Women President, she just feels a little more comfortable
with having us missionaries still close around her. We are going to ask permission to maybe
attend the Baptism for the dead activity from our Mission President, I don’t
know if he will allow us to go but with prayer and if it is what is to happen
we may get permission. I know we need to
now get her on her own and we are working hard to get her integrated and
comfortable and less dependent on us but it will take a little more time. I am concerned about retention and gaining a
firm testimony than I am about Baptism numbers so remember us back home in your
prayers for this newly Baptized Mother and Daughter! Also Sunday Shae was asked to substitute in
primary as some of the teachers did not show up. She was more than willing and it was pretty
last minute, but she did awesome in doing the primary lesson and she was just
glowing with pride that she was able to help and she enjoyed sharing time and
being with the children. She does not
have a calling yet and she has been a member since last summer. Another testament that people need Callings
and a Friend! Shae jokes that sometime
in the future she wants us all to go to Africa and go to a temple there! She wants to go to a “Unique” Temple. She has never been to Africa or she says
Jamaica but I think that is the party girl in her talking. I said my neighbor back in Utah designs
temples and so I will have my Mom ask him which temple he thinks is the most “Unique”. This lady is doing great, like I have said
before she has had a rough life she was a mom at 14, has not only used drugs
but sold drugs she has really turned her life around and she will be a good
influence on her daughter and she has a great sense of humor!!
Tuesday we had district meeting and
Elder Hatch gave a training on how to reach your goals and he did a really
good job. At this District meeting at the beginning we get up and tell
the district about our investigators and how they are doing or how they might
need help and get ideas from how to help them from the district. The Spanish
elders were up there talking and they were talking about how one of their
really promising couples were just having really bad things happen to them ever
since they decided to get baptized but they were still going strong so Sister
Tevi suggested we could pick a day and do like a district fast for them and I
thought that was great idea but Elder Phillips (our district leader) just kind
of dismissed it and didn't even give it much thought. That kind of made me a
little ticked off because I thought it was a really good idea. Anyway at the
end he was talking about how we need to work harder to reach our goals and how
we just aren't reaching our goals as a district so I said well maybe we should
have a district fast to help us reach our goals. Probably a little uncalled for
but still a good idea. He just brushed it off again and then I said “No but
really because in Preach my Gospel and the Book of Mormon it talks so much
about fasting and praying to meet goals and how Ammon and Alma fasted and
prayed so much to help the people they were being missionaries to and the whole
time I was saying this in my head I was thinking "am I really saying all
of these things because this is really unlike me" because usually I would
just let it go but it all just sort of spurted out of me. He was NOT happy with
me at all but the rest of the district agreed with me and he just sort of said
something about it but the fast still didn't happen. However I did stand up for
myself! He is getting transferred and we have to check in on Sunday nights so
last night he told me to "keep being persistent" and I'm still not
sure if that is a compliment or not. Ha ha so I guess you could say for some
reason being a missionary is getting my "dander up"! In answer to your question Mom if my
companion has had any missionaries go out before her my companion said that her older brother served a
mission but he is inactive now. She really wants her brother who plays for the
U to serve but she isn't sure if he will, she was inactive all growing up and even up until just like a
year and a half ago, I think she is great and we really get along. Wednesday
was a fairly uneventful day. Thursday the Sister training leaders came down and
went out with us to appointments and knocking and stuff. It was really
good! I went with Sister Sevy and we knocked a lot of doors, I really learned a lot and I feel like my door
approaches are much better now. They are also really great teachers. I
want to get better at teaching by the spirit, I think I try to hard and I
just need to let it flow. That was a really good day though. Friday we had one
appointment but mostly we just knocked and tried to contact people. Sunday
all of the investigators we had who were supposed to come to church fell
through even though we had even gotten them all rides! Oh well. The most
exciting thing about our week was the baptism! We did have a transfer call
Saturday night but the only person going from our district is Elder Phillips.
Elder Hatch will get a new companion and we will get new zone leaders! I'm
excited to find out who all of the new people are, hopefully they are good! Oh
and I was also wanting to make some caramel popcorn to give to people so will
you send me that recipe? And the Stephanie’s brownie recipe and the Texas sheet
cake? Elder Webb is astounded how #1 I have enough time to bake things and #2
how I can afford stuff to bake with. It's all about budgeting! Thank you Tammy
and Karen for the coat, it is just starting to get a bit chilly in the evening
here so I am using it right off. We are still just trying to find
people in this area. It isn't always easy but that's ok! One month from today
is Christmas!!! That means I get to Skype with the fam! So super excited for
that. I love all of you and your prayers
and support!
Love,
Sister Price
Monday, November 18, 2013
November 18, 2013 - a pretty good week
Hey Everyone!
Well this
week hasn't been super eventful. To start with yes Mom I love the GPS it is
awesome, it gets us everywhere we need to go.
We have named it “Brenda”. There
is a great couple missionary from Bountiful they are the Meachams and they let
us use their washer and dryer since we don’t have one. Today they took us to lunch at a place called
“Cheddars” it was really good I think Utah needs a “Cheddars” ! I would send
more pictures but there really isn’t anything super interesting to take
pictures of, there are lots of trees!! I
will try and do better. Dad that is cool
that Jimmy Johnson won his 6th NASCAR title! College football is the big thing here and
Tonks sounds Crazy, I need a picture so I can see how big she is getting. I am totally saving those dates in my
Calendar when I get home to go hunting!
Elder Heiner who was one of our Zone Leaders was into hunting but he
would not believe me at all when I said I hunted to. ( I know I just don’t have that Killer Look).
We have gotten a few new investigators this last week however none of them are
actually in our area! We are going to visit elevated Kidney level lady tonight
and I will be sure and remind her of the hydration thing and the DASH diet. I am trying to help her with her nutrition
because they want her to lose weight for her hypertension. It’s hard with these super southern people
though and the “Fried Everything diet”. Another investigator is a girl the elders gave
us because we needed someone to teach and they didn't have anyone to go visit
her with them and they can't meet just the three of them. She turned out to be
pretty solid and she came to church this last week she really enjoyed it and
loved the Lorenzo Snow lesson on Helping others, she really liked the Gospel
principles class and she fell in love with the Manual and so we gave it to her,
she was so Happy! We have taught her three times and she accepted to be baptized
so she is pretty awesome. Then we got this referral from a guy in Aiken and he
wanted us to go visit his sister. She basically just wants to be baptized
because I guess she saw how big of a change her brother made in his life when
he joined the church and she wants to make that kind of change in her life. She
is pretty awesome. She also has two kids, a girl who is ten and a boy who is
almost thirteen. We are going to meet with the whole family tonight so
hopefully it goes well and we can commit them all to baptism! She seemed really
excited when we talked about the priesthood and how after her son is baptized
he can get the priesthood. The girl who we have been having trouble with, K, we
recommitted her to be baptized Dec. 7 so hopefully everything goes well. We are
going over there tonight and I think we really need to focus on what baptism
really means and on having her find her own faith because that is something she
has been a little bit reluctant to do. She really needs to pray and she won’t. The Youth in this ward are super awesome and
they have continually tried to fellowship her and have her to activities but
she keeps pushing them away. Her mom is being supportive of her but she doesn't
think she is really going to go through with the baptism so it's still kind of
a difficult situation so everyone just keep her in your prayers! Oh and next
week is transfers and I'm pretty sure I'm not going anywhere but just don't
send me anything this week like after Thursday because if I do get transferred
I won't get it. I will know by next Monday if I am leaving or not though. I
can't believe I have been here for almost one whole transfer! Crazy! I’m pretty
sure I won’t be transferred though and neither should my companion Sis. Tevi as
she is my trainer and I have to be trained for 12 weeks. We get along good and keep the bad days
bearable by joking that even though no one wants to hear what we have to say
now we will get to teach them again in the Spirit World! My companion didn't feel good on Saturday and
she looked terrible so I wouldn't let her go out because if she knocked on my
door and wanted to teach me something, with the way she was looking I would
have sent her away. She has a Dr.’s appt on Wed. with the recommended Dr. of
our area but if she still continues to not feel well we sure appreciate the
information on that clinic from Meredith and will seek a second opinion. It is pretty great to know someone from
around here who is in Utah that can give good information on important things
like Doctors. We had some really good
days this week though. We spent a lot of time with one of the members, Sis. Lee
and she is super awesome! She is in the relief society presidency and she is
just a goer and she will drive us around when we are low on miles and she goes
to lessons with us and she is a convert so she always gives really great
insights to our lessons. She is about 56 and grew up in the Chicago area but
spend a lot of time living in Las Vegas, she has grown children from a first marriage
some of them are active some are not.
Her husband is really great also.
Sad thing though she has MS but she is like a second Mom and I think you
two would really hit it off! I just love her! We are still just trying to find people to
teach who are in our area! Last week we met this really awesome older couple
who had just been to SLC and done the tour of temple square with the
missionaries and they loved the tour and loved everything about the temple and
they thought it was so cool that we knocked into them right after that happened
so hopefully things go well with them! They were going out of town so we
haven't been able to teach them but we are going to call today and hopefully
set up a time. They are about the most promising sounding people we have
contacted. One of our investigators said
she wants to be baptized but won’t until her Dad dies, not sure when that is
going to be. I do feel strongly and so does my companion that we need to have a
missionary fireside to help jump start missionary work here because people just
need a reminder of why we are all here and that we are all Heavenly Father’s
children. We were blessed to have the gospel in our lives and it’s our
responsibility to share it with others, not necessarily that we are going to
convert people right away but we are just planting the seeds. We wanted to challenge
members of the ward to fast and pray for
missionary work and missionary opportunities.
I was thinking a good idea to motivate people to come would be to have
each group of missionaries do a short visit to the members in their area and
tell them about the activity and ask their family to come. This encouragement and reminding could be
once a week about three weeks before the fireside. The Bishop of our ward (who is a convert)
thinks this is a great idea, so that is a good start. At one time I think our Zone Leaders Elder
Huntsman and Elder Heiner would have been supportive but they were both
transferred last week. At this time we
just have our District Leader who is quite reluctant as he feels that so many
things could go wrong and that it is to big of an undertaking for just our
little district of 6. We are respectful of his worries and will
continue to pray (possibly a gift of some vegemite might help him). He is a convert at the age of 14 and he may
have had some past experience that has caused him to be wary of this kind of
Fireside not sure. If this Fireside takes place you can bet there will be
refreshments, Food is a must at these things!
I made the “Super Chocolate Chip cookie Recipe” for our District meeting
and I think the poor Elders were going to propose on the spot! (good grief).
Thanksgiving will be good, the
Galans are a great family their kids are 9,7 and 2 and are very
entertaining. I got Lynnettes Letter she
had quite an adventure and I am glad how well she did, so sorry Lynnette but
now you are going riding with me! How is
Melissa doing I miss our lunch chats at the hospital cafeteria. Oh we did have one lady tell us it wasn't safe
to be knocking on peoples doors as we were knocking at 3:30 in the afternoon so
that was kind of funny. I looked at my car and it does not have a tape deck or
a small jack in the dash, just a CD player so hopefully that helps with the
decision on what kind of adaptor I need.
Mom how did you know that I finished Jesus the Christ? You know me to
well that I can read an 800 page book as well as do my daily missionary work
and scripture study and other responsibilities, but I loved that book it gives
great insight to the gospel. I don’t
know if I am allowed to have other books, so I am going to read it again
slowly. Between that book and reading
and studying the Book of Mormon it has really helped me in every aspect of missionary
work and how missionary work and being the instrument of god and teaching with
the spirit! As I have had the opportunity to teach some special investigators
this week it is so great when you start
teaching our simple gospel principles and then you see a spark come into the
eyes and it is like we are not even really teaching them its more of just
reminding them of something they forgot.
It’s really awesome! Makes all the hard times worth it.(Uncle Dan you are so right, I was getting super discouraged at being rejected and hollered at repeatedly) It is to bad
that when the light of the gospel comes into their lives Satan works twice as
hard to tear down their faith and in the beginning it is so Fragile.
I love you all and I am working on
writing Grandma and Grandpa a letter, there are some very spunky old people in
this area and I enjoy getting to know them.
How is Gary? Have you met the
girl who is doing his stall? Give him
hugs for me! I hope you all have a great
week! I love you all and thanks for everyone's support!
Love,
Sister Price
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
11/12/13 - SO COOL! Happy Veterans Day to All
Dear Mom and Dad,
I got the package with the baby things! It is very cute, there are several pregnant ladies in the Ward who will want this! Well Baptism girl is not doing so well. We really need to have a talk with her but we haven't been able to. I think she has been hearing about all of the things we can't do which are things that sound fun to her. She has crazy older sisters who do drugs and have children with no Dads. We just aren't sure what to do, I can't super relate to her because she isn't a very mature 12 year old and I never went through that rebellious stage. We are trying to figure something out though and we will! Her mom drove big Semi trucks cross country but is out of a job right now, that might be good as she is at home with the 12 year old. The mom like I said before has had a hard life of drugs and other things so with prayer things will work out! We have a lot of meetings with the Ward Mission Leader but he is an ER doctor and he isn't really interested in taking advice from us Sister missionaries but we are trying to work on the Ward Mission Statement out here! Many of our appointments have been falling through lately. We aren't getting discouraged but it is a little bit frustrating because we have only actually had one of our four appointments in the last two days go through. It's just kind of frustrating because the elders keep having success and their numbers are going up and we are just kind of at a stalemate. All of our appointments fell through today but we had 30 CONTACTS! We knocked a lot of doors!! It will get better though!! Tonight we talked to this guy who had read the Book of Mormon (he is not a member) He teaches a class on Mormonism! (I knew there was someone teaching false doctrine class about us) He thinks Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon because it is so similar to the Bible and he says there is no scientific evidence to back up his translation!(OK Jim Berlin I need your help on this one!) I try not to argue but it is so hard! I get to go on exchanges tomorrow with the Sister training leaders so hopefully that goes well, I will let you know. (excerpt from letter written on 11/6/13)
(Email received on 11/12/13 due to library being closed on Monday for Veterans day)
Hey Everyone!
So last Wednesday we had exchanges so I went to Aiken, So. Carolina with Sister Mafiti and Sister Sevy. I went on exchanges with Sister Mafiti and my companion Sister Tevi went with Sister Sevy. They were MTC companions so they were excited to have exchanges together. Sister Mafiti is from Samoa and she is really nice. They have a HUGE area though!! There is a lot of rural and small towns in their area. There was so much horse stuff there though! There were horse trailers everywhere and fields and shops for horse stuff just everywhere!! There were even people who were just riding down the street on their horses! IT WAS AWESOME!! She said that one of the members in their ward trains horses so maybe someday I will serve in that area and I can go check out her horses on P days or something. It was a good experience!! (insert from Kaitlyns Mom - This email is much more upbeat due to the fact that Kaitlyn has been away from her horse for 6 weeks and seeing and smelling horses is just what she needed!!) As Wednesday wore on I must have picked up a Flu bug because I started feeling just awful and I was trying to pretend that I felt fine and I was dragging myself up but by the end of the day I was just dragging! Sister Mafiti probably thinks I have issues or something. However by Thursday I was feeling much better! I am kind of glad I'm not serving with her though because they have so much CANDY in their apartment! I would gain so much weight if I served there and every Thursday they have lunch at this diner that is owned by a member and everything is FRIED and I didn't seen one vegetable on the menu. Between their candy and that place I would not be in a good way!! Everyone thinks it is freezing now so they don't ever go outside and exercise because it's to cold. If it gets below 60 everyone is freaking out , I guess this week the lows are supposed to be like around 32. I have had so many people tell me to make sure I stay warm!! I just smile and laugh to me so far its not very cold. On Thursday we found out that Elder Heiner and Elder Huntsman who are our zone leaders were getting emergency transferred. I guess they had to go help another area that was having problems with their missionaries so we are currently without zone leaders. We have a temporary zone leader for now but we are getting new ones in the next transfer which is in two weeks! CRAZY, I can't believe I have been out almost one whole transfer. We have had lots of invitations for Thanksgiving! We decided to go with the Galans who are a family that lives on Fort Gordon. They are really cool and they have fun kids. There was another family the Smiths who are super awesome and the Mom was really sad when she saw we had a family down on our calendar for Thanksgiving.
Oh, Mom I have seen the "Hidden Forrest Equestrian Center" I drive past a lot, it looks BEAUTIFUL, there are huge beautiful pastures and the barn is beautiful and there is tons of land, it is just a gorgeous place!! Sounds like Sherma had an interesting time with taking Grandpa and Grandma and David and cart pushing to get glasses for Grandpa! I love them though and will write them a letter. Dad how is work and stuff with me gone? Tell Karen that the blouse she got me is really nice but it was quite big but it fits my companion so it is all GREAT love how everyone back home thinks of me I sure do appreciate it. Gages emails still sound just like Gage, glad things are going well for him. Cool that Caleb is attending Mission Prep! So weird though he was only 2 when I first knew him!! I have a letter for Grandpa Harv when you see him give it to him please. I am enjoying my mission more and more even though IT IS HARD!! I gave the lesson in District meeting Training on "Teach people with the spirit not just lessons". Which is really just focusing on teaching with the spirit and to the needs of the investigators. I used the story of Ammon as an example and the Book of Mormon is such a different read when you are focusing on Missionary Work! The whole book is basically about being a Missionary! I really love Alma Chapter 18, after Ammon has cut off the arms and is now teaching King Lamoni in verse 34 and 35 it says "Ammon said unto him: I am a man; and man in the beginning was created after the image of God and I am called by his Holy spirit to teach these things unto this people that they may be brought to a knowledge and also power according to my faith and desires which are in God" I love those verses! I feel like it just encompasses everything that a missionary is. We are called by the Holy Spirit to teach people. I love the part that says "A portion of the spirit dwelleth in me and that is power according to his faith and desires"! SO TRUE! According to the strength of our faith and desire is how strongly the spirit will be with us and will testify to what we are teaching and saying. I just love the whole story of Ammon. I want to be a missionary like he was. We still have not had a lot of success but we knock on doors and we have found a few people who seem like promising potential investigators! I am getting better at talking to people, I feel like I have grown so much even in just the four week I have been out! There have been things I need to work on as a person that I just never really had a good chance to improve on until I got out here and my mission has forced me to make these changes. I am over halfway done with Jesus the Christ and I just love it!! I am learning so much and realizing so many things I didn't know before. Sister Tevi and I would really like to have a Area Fireside like what our Stake did before I left about involving everyone in missionary work and involving ward members and the missionaries. Probably in January or February so its after the holidays! I love you all and I am doing just fine with finances we get plenty of food and dinner invitations, I love getting emails and letters and pictures!
Love
Sister Price
I got the package with the baby things! It is very cute, there are several pregnant ladies in the Ward who will want this! Well Baptism girl is not doing so well. We really need to have a talk with her but we haven't been able to. I think she has been hearing about all of the things we can't do which are things that sound fun to her. She has crazy older sisters who do drugs and have children with no Dads. We just aren't sure what to do, I can't super relate to her because she isn't a very mature 12 year old and I never went through that rebellious stage. We are trying to figure something out though and we will! Her mom drove big Semi trucks cross country but is out of a job right now, that might be good as she is at home with the 12 year old. The mom like I said before has had a hard life of drugs and other things so with prayer things will work out! We have a lot of meetings with the Ward Mission Leader but he is an ER doctor and he isn't really interested in taking advice from us Sister missionaries but we are trying to work on the Ward Mission Statement out here! Many of our appointments have been falling through lately. We aren't getting discouraged but it is a little bit frustrating because we have only actually had one of our four appointments in the last two days go through. It's just kind of frustrating because the elders keep having success and their numbers are going up and we are just kind of at a stalemate. All of our appointments fell through today but we had 30 CONTACTS! We knocked a lot of doors!! It will get better though!! Tonight we talked to this guy who had read the Book of Mormon (he is not a member) He teaches a class on Mormonism! (I knew there was someone teaching false doctrine class about us) He thinks Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon because it is so similar to the Bible and he says there is no scientific evidence to back up his translation!(OK Jim Berlin I need your help on this one!) I try not to argue but it is so hard! I get to go on exchanges tomorrow with the Sister training leaders so hopefully that goes well, I will let you know. (excerpt from letter written on 11/6/13)
(Email received on 11/12/13 due to library being closed on Monday for Veterans day)
Hey Everyone!
So last Wednesday we had exchanges so I went to Aiken, So. Carolina with Sister Mafiti and Sister Sevy. I went on exchanges with Sister Mafiti and my companion Sister Tevi went with Sister Sevy. They were MTC companions so they were excited to have exchanges together. Sister Mafiti is from Samoa and she is really nice. They have a HUGE area though!! There is a lot of rural and small towns in their area. There was so much horse stuff there though! There were horse trailers everywhere and fields and shops for horse stuff just everywhere!! There were even people who were just riding down the street on their horses! IT WAS AWESOME!! She said that one of the members in their ward trains horses so maybe someday I will serve in that area and I can go check out her horses on P days or something. It was a good experience!! (insert from Kaitlyns Mom - This email is much more upbeat due to the fact that Kaitlyn has been away from her horse for 6 weeks and seeing and smelling horses is just what she needed!!) As Wednesday wore on I must have picked up a Flu bug because I started feeling just awful and I was trying to pretend that I felt fine and I was dragging myself up but by the end of the day I was just dragging! Sister Mafiti probably thinks I have issues or something. However by Thursday I was feeling much better! I am kind of glad I'm not serving with her though because they have so much CANDY in their apartment! I would gain so much weight if I served there and every Thursday they have lunch at this diner that is owned by a member and everything is FRIED and I didn't seen one vegetable on the menu. Between their candy and that place I would not be in a good way!! Everyone thinks it is freezing now so they don't ever go outside and exercise because it's to cold. If it gets below 60 everyone is freaking out , I guess this week the lows are supposed to be like around 32. I have had so many people tell me to make sure I stay warm!! I just smile and laugh to me so far its not very cold. On Thursday we found out that Elder Heiner and Elder Huntsman who are our zone leaders were getting emergency transferred. I guess they had to go help another area that was having problems with their missionaries so we are currently without zone leaders. We have a temporary zone leader for now but we are getting new ones in the next transfer which is in two weeks! CRAZY, I can't believe I have been out almost one whole transfer. We have had lots of invitations for Thanksgiving! We decided to go with the Galans who are a family that lives on Fort Gordon. They are really cool and they have fun kids. There was another family the Smiths who are super awesome and the Mom was really sad when she saw we had a family down on our calendar for Thanksgiving.
Oh, Mom I have seen the "Hidden Forrest Equestrian Center" I drive past a lot, it looks BEAUTIFUL, there are huge beautiful pastures and the barn is beautiful and there is tons of land, it is just a gorgeous place!! Sounds like Sherma had an interesting time with taking Grandpa and Grandma and David and cart pushing to get glasses for Grandpa! I love them though and will write them a letter. Dad how is work and stuff with me gone? Tell Karen that the blouse she got me is really nice but it was quite big but it fits my companion so it is all GREAT love how everyone back home thinks of me I sure do appreciate it. Gages emails still sound just like Gage, glad things are going well for him. Cool that Caleb is attending Mission Prep! So weird though he was only 2 when I first knew him!! I have a letter for Grandpa Harv when you see him give it to him please. I am enjoying my mission more and more even though IT IS HARD!! I gave the lesson in District meeting Training on "Teach people with the spirit not just lessons". Which is really just focusing on teaching with the spirit and to the needs of the investigators. I used the story of Ammon as an example and the Book of Mormon is such a different read when you are focusing on Missionary Work! The whole book is basically about being a Missionary! I really love Alma Chapter 18, after Ammon has cut off the arms and is now teaching King Lamoni in verse 34 and 35 it says "Ammon said unto him: I am a man; and man in the beginning was created after the image of God and I am called by his Holy spirit to teach these things unto this people that they may be brought to a knowledge and also power according to my faith and desires which are in God" I love those verses! I feel like it just encompasses everything that a missionary is. We are called by the Holy Spirit to teach people. I love the part that says "A portion of the spirit dwelleth in me and that is power according to his faith and desires"! SO TRUE! According to the strength of our faith and desire is how strongly the spirit will be with us and will testify to what we are teaching and saying. I just love the whole story of Ammon. I want to be a missionary like he was. We still have not had a lot of success but we knock on doors and we have found a few people who seem like promising potential investigators! I am getting better at talking to people, I feel like I have grown so much even in just the four week I have been out! There have been things I need to work on as a person that I just never really had a good chance to improve on until I got out here and my mission has forced me to make these changes. I am over halfway done with Jesus the Christ and I just love it!! I am learning so much and realizing so many things I didn't know before. Sister Tevi and I would really like to have a Area Fireside like what our Stake did before I left about involving everyone in missionary work and involving ward members and the missionaries. Probably in January or February so its after the holidays! I love you all and I am doing just fine with finances we get plenty of food and dinner invitations, I love getting emails and letters and pictures!
Love
Sister Price
Monday, November 4, 2013
November 4, 2013, ONE MONTH!
Hey Everyone!
So I have officially been gone for one month! Crazy! In some ways it
feels like I've been gone for years and sometimes it feels like I barely left.
This week has been a bit of a trial. Most of our appointments stood us up and
the girl we had set for baptism said she didn't want to be baptized anymore but
I think she's kind of just going through teenager stuff so we are going to keep
working with her. We also had this really great member referral we were really
excited about that we were going to teach yesterday and he has read the Book of
Mormon and said he wanted to be baptized and then he showed up at the members
house yesterday and said he had been praying about it and it just didn't feel
right. So that didn't work out either. I was having a kind of hard time Saturday
night and Sunday morning and I was feeling really discouraged and I just wanted
to go home but then we had a really great testimony meeting yesterday and the
lessons were really good so that was good because it helped me feel a lot
better. We also have a woman who has been coming to church with her boyfriend
the last two Sundays. Her boyfriend has been less active for ten years and she
is a non member but I guess he just decided that he wanted to come back to
church and so they have been coming. She seems really interested and we are
going to go teach her at a members house tonight. Our mission president also
sent out a challenge yesterday because Elder Aidukaitis challenged everyone to
have 10 contacts a day so our mission president decided that each missionary
needed to make 10 contacts a day so now our goal for contacts for the week is
140! That is a lot but we are going to do it! We have really been trying to find
people lately and I think we are finally starting to find people to listen. We
taught two people at their doors yesterday and we got return appointments with
both of them so that is exciting! Sundays are really difficult because I am
usually really tired and all I want to do after church is take a nap but we have
to go out and teach lessons and tract and keep working! We had some interesting
experiences this week with knocking doors. At the beginning of the week people
were just saying no don't come back which is fine because I would rather have
that than people who just stand us up. We were knocking this one street and we
had actually kind of had some progress and we were barely starting to walk up
this one driveway and they guy goes up to his screen door and starts waving he
arms and telling us to go away and so we just keep walking down the road and
then he opens the door and yells "I have a baby sleeping in here and I don't
have time for any of your crap!" so we just go whatever and keep heading down
the street and then he opens the door again and comes out and says "great you
guys woke up the baby now get the he** out of my neighborhood!" so we have
powers to wake up babies from the street without saying a word. Then we were
knocking a few houses down and we were talking to this cute baptist couple and
we asked them if they thought anyone else would be interested in our message and
they pointed to the angry guys house and were like "well he could use some
religion in his life" and we were like ya not so much. He is angry. So that was
funny. On Halloween we had to be in our apartment by six and I was kind of
having a rough night and I was feeling homesick and I was bored so I decided to
break out Jesus the Christ (I know I am weird). It is actually a really good
book and it is so intersting! I was reading the beginning when it talks about
premortal life and the war in heaven and how there were those who fought with
Lucifer and those who fought with the Savior and then those who just didn't
really choose a side and so I just hope I was one of those who fought with the
Savior and didn't just sit on the sidelines! It has so many interesting things
about the doctrine and the life of Jesus that I didn't know. I am loving it. We
had dinner on Tuesday with a less active family and they are pretty cool! They
don't really have an interst in coming back to church but we are just going to
be friends with them and keep going over there for dinner because they make
great food. This week is going to be better and we are going to have
investigators who keep their appointments. I just know it! Oh and the people
here in Georgia are such crazy drivers! They run red lights all the time and
they never use turn signals they just swerve about and they don't ever pull over
for fire trucks or ambulances! It's crazy. I am getting to know the members
better and they are pretty great! They are pretty good about going out to
appointments with us, I just feel bad because we keep getting stood up! Thanks
everyone for the emails and letters! I love them all! I think I get more
packages and letters than any of the other missionaries and I love them all!
Sorry if I don't write or email you all back! This week is going to go better I
can just feel it! I love all of you!
Love,
Sister Kaitlyn Price
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