Down to a District of FOUR! MISSIONARY SHORTAGE!- May 19, 2014

                                                                                    May 19, 2014

 

Hey Everyone!

 Oh boy where to start. A lot has happened this week. First off we spent most of Tuesday figuring things out with our smashed rental car. It took forever to figure out things with the insurance and to get a new car. Then we ended up with ANOTHER giant suburban. It is a ¾ ton and this one is black and its huge and it has SO MUCH POWER!! So now we get stared at even more than we did before when we go through the ghetto! Also on Tuesday we found out that they are not replacing the Elders who were over the South area of our ward! They transferred them both out and they didn't transfer anyone in to replace them. I understand that quite a few missionaries were done and went home and the VISA waiters got to go to their Countries.  Apparently our mission is having a shortage of Elders. Go figure. That means we are now the only missionaries in our ward! We have the spanish elders in this ward but they don't really do normal english missionary things but they don't want sisters down in the south area because most of it is super ghetto but we are going to talk with the elders and decide the places we can go that aren't super ghetto, just deceptively ghetto. It should be fun! A lot more work for us! Don’t worry whenever we go into sketchy areas we pray and I quietly listen to my promptings and if I even feel a little bit “Weird” we don’t go there at that time.  Oh and they made us Sister Training Leaders this transfer so we get to go on exchanges with the other sisters which will be fun!  So now there are only four in our district, us Sisters and the Spanish Elders, I guess at District Meeting we will learn Spanish maybe!! We got one of the Elders investigators that they have been working with. She is nine and her mom wants her to be baptized but her mom is mostly inactive so we have to activate her and then baptize the daughter, but only if we feel like the daughter is ready and doing it for the right reasons. Her name is "Shamiracle" because when she was born her mom said "she's a miracle" and so they decided to name her shamiracle. She is cute, very hyper and very nine. She doesn't sit still for very long but I think she is understanding what we teach her. Church yesterday was really good. We didn't have any investigators there which was sad but we are going to work on them a lot this week. We have a few really promising people I think! One thing that is frustrating is how people don't recognize answers to prayers! We hear all the time when we are teaching first lessons or knocking people say show" Oh I have just been praying and praying lately that God would give me some direction and show me what he wants me to do and then you showed up!" Then we go back and teach or call them and they say " Well I have started going to my Moms church" or something like that. It is just kind of frustrating sometimes how Satan works and how people just either don't recognize or don't want to recognize the answer to their prayers and they don't really want to make the change. We just have to try our best and the rest will work out! I have been reading Jesus the Christ again and it has been talking about how Jesus even got a little discouraged after all of the miracles and "mighty works" he had been doing in the cities he was going to. How those same cities weren't repenting and weren't believing. He even compared Capernaum to Sodom and said that if He had done all of the mighty works He did in Capernaum in Sodom they would have repented and changed and not been destroyed. It is just interesting to see and study the scriptures with the view from missionary work because it really changes your perspective! Then after Jesus stated that he then prayed to Heavenly Father for strength and right after that is when he said the scripture everyone loves Matt. 11:28 "come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give ye rest" because Jesus knew it was only the humble and simple who would believe his message  and so he was calling all of those people to him! It just gives me strength to know that missionaries and those who are trying to share the gospel have always struggled but there are those "humble and simple" who are ready and our job is to find them! I do love being a missionary and I love sharing the gospel even if it is scary sometimes and it forces me way out of my comfort zone! I have learned and grown so much and met so many people, things I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise! I know that every little thing helps, whether it’s converting our family through living the gospel or just being an example to others. Every little thing counts! I love all of you and am grateful for your support and hope you have a great week!  I’m glad for Caleb’s choice on turning in his papers, it’s scary,  let me know where he is called to! Just know the Lord knows exactly where he needs to go!  My love and prayers go to Dr. Bitner and his family on the passing of his Dad.

 

Love,

Sister Price

 

Mothers Day Skype- talking with her beloved horse! May 11, 2014

MOTHERS DAY SKYPE WITH SISTER KAITLYN PRICE!  SHE IS SHARING A SERIOUS CONVERSATION AND "GARY" IS PAYING RAPT ATTENTION!   SO GOOD TO SEE AND TALK WITH HER!  SHE IS DOING WELL AND ENJOYING HER NEW AREA OF COLUMBUS, GEORGIA!!

Mothers Day Skype-Car crashes and sickness! May 12, 2014

May 12, 2014

 Hey Everyone!

     Ok first of all, it was so awesome to Skype! I think Mothers day is my new favorite holiday. I can't believe I only have one more Skype and then I will be home! We didn't get much done this week because my companion has been sick pretty much all week. It started out Monday when she kept getting these recurring bloody noses and I mean what good is tracting and visiting people when you're companion's nose is bleeding all over the place? So we stayed in Monday and then Tuesday we had exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders and that was really fun! For me at least, Sister McNeely (my companion) was miserable most of the time. Sister Frandsen came here to Columbus with me and we tracted a lot and also visited some part member families and less actives. We met some really cool people tracting and almost all of the less actives answered the door which never happens! Awesome things always happen on exchanges though. Then after we found one of the less actives we were getting in the car and there were some people looking at the house for sale next door and they started waving us over, which never happens. Then they asked what ward this was in and it turns out they are members in one of the neighboring wards and they were looking to move and so we chatted with them for a bit. It was fun! Well while I was having a good time with Sister Frandsen, Sister McNeely was miserable with Sister Maifiti up in a different area. I guess in both of their teaching appointments her nose started bleeding and then the last time it bled for like two hours so by the time I got her back on Wednesday (24 hrs later) she just looked awful. We made it back to our area and I told her to lay down so she slept for like four hours and then she just still looked terrible so we decided she needed a blessing. We went to the church because our ward mission leader was there for activity night with the youth. The Ward Mission Leader asked  the Elders quorum president to assist with the blessing, it was good but then the Ward Mission Leader who is a Physical Therapist in the Military gave a big lecture to Sis. McNeely on how she needs to take care of herself. He is like Mr.Drill sergeant for the army but I think he is pretty funny. He also told her how she needs to eat properly and kind of like have a mind over matter type thing when she is having her nausea she sometimes gets when she eats. Anyway then I took her home and I started like forcing fluids down her to try and rehydrate her. It was a fun night! (not)  It took her a while to recover and I decided we should take it easy because she was still super tired and I didn't want her to  relapse or something. She is finally I think almost all back to normal so we should be able to have a normal work week this week. Then yesterday morning (Sunday) we got a text from one of our part member families! Her husband is a member but she isn't and she said that her husband wasn't going to make it to church but she still wanted to come so she wanted directions to the church! It was awesome! She came to church and I think she will come around, we just need to find her more friends in the ward,  anyway  that was super cool she wanted to come. She has a cute little girl about one years old that has RED HAIR!  However as we were on our way to church we were approaching the gate to get out of our apartment complex and the person in front of us decided to back up and just backed up right into the side of our car! We still have the rental Malibu as our Cruze is getting the recall part still put in!  That took a while to deal with so we were late to church. I feel like Satan is just really working against us the past two weeks so there must be some awesome things that are about to happen here in Columbus! I just had to deal with the mom of the girl who backed into us who was an angry white woman and "wasn't responsible for anything she said or did because she hadn't had her coffee yet!" Later though on Sunday we got to Skype and that was awesome! It was so good but also really weird to see all of  you!  It almost now seems like it was just a dream and it didn't really happen. I did get to read a lot while Sister McNeely has been sick! We have a bunch of Ensigns in the apartment so I have read all of them for about the last two years again. I have been reading conference ensigns again and this morning I read President Monsons talk about”The Race of Life” and I remembered how much I like that talk! President Monson is just awesome and every time I read or hear him speak I am reminded that he really is a prophet of God! Well I hope everyone had a great Mothers day and I hope everyone has a great week! I love you all!

 Love,

Sister Price 

"WHEN NEEDED TAKE 2 TABLETS - THE 10 COMMANDMENTS" May 5, 2014

May 5, 2014

 Hey Everyone!

     That was on one of the church signs and I thought it was really funny. It has been quite the week! There have been a lot of things going on but I feel like we haven't gotten any missionary work accomplished and it has been very frustrating! First off, all Monday night there was this really bad storm going on and then around 4:30 Tuesday morning the tornado sirens start going off. I was really tired and I just wanted to go back to sleep but Sis. McNeely made me get up and put shoes on and go into the bathroom. She was freaking out a bit but for some reason I knew we would be fine and I was just feeling really chill about it. It was crazy though! The tornado hit just on the other side of Alabama. We could hear it and it was just this huge roaring sound, it was crazy!  A trailer park was hit on the Alabama side, but I have not heard of injuries. Then we had zone conference that day and that was fun, except the whole zone was like dead because we had all woke up at 4:30 in the morning. It was good though, we talked about tornado safety, other things and then President Cottle ended with talking about Easter and showed some of the Bible videos and the Easter video the church put out. It was really good. Then they gave everyone who has a Cruze a letter because I guess there was a factory recall because some of the front axels have been cracking. We made an appointment and went in to have them look at it and they told us that most of the cars had been passing. Well two hours later the mechanic came out and said that our car had the crack so they needed to replace it and we needed to get a rental car. Waiting was awful though! The only thing on the TV  was CNN and they just kept repeating themselves and it's not like we could stop watching, there was nowhere to go! If I hear about the murderer who didn't die fast enough, the racist remarks from the man who owns the Clippers or the flooding in Florida anymore I could pop. I don't know anything else going on in the world right now but I have sure heard a lot about those three things!  Thank heavens I am old because in order to get a rental car you have to be over 21! It took forever to get the rental car and the only thing they had left was a giant 2014 Suburban. That thing was enormous! I'm glad I have driven our Suburban around so I knew how to drive the thing. Seriously we were as big or bigger than most of the trucks on the road. They have really made this model of Suburban bigger than some of their previous models. It was really fun to drive though because I was so huge and it actually had a lot of power! I think it could tow a pretty good size load. Then the Sister Missionaries in the Flatrock ward also had a problem with their car but neither of them were over 21 so they couldn't get a rental car so we have been driving them around randomly for the past few days. It has just been a lot of busy work and I feel like I haven't gotten any missionary work done at all and it's kind of frustrating! The church did somehow rig it though, they sent a letter on Saturday that said they had made arrangements with Enterprise Rentals, so that those in the Macon Mission  who were ages 18-21 could get rental cars! I'm not sure how they did that but it was great I did not have to be a chauffeur  anymore!  I did get to trade the Suburban back in for a Malibu at the end of last week.  Then Saturday Sister McNeely got sick with a really bad head cold. I made her go get drugs and kept her drugged up and functioning most of Saturday but then Sunday morning she decided she was feeling ok and didn't need any drugs. Ya, she regretted that decision. About halfway through sacrament meeting she turns to me and says "I feel like death, I should have taken some medicine" she learned to listen to me. She is doing better today (Monday)  but still feeling crappy. Hopefully my immune system can fend it off ! Yep so basically our whole week consisted of tornadoes, car issues and sickness. Satan is working really hard to keep us from working and right now he is kind of succeeding! We will get better though. I don't foresee any issues this week and it's going to stay that way! There must be some awesome people in this area he is trying to keep us from finding! We are going to find them though. We are going on exchanges tomorrow with the Sister Training Leaders so that should be fun! I am going staying here with Sister Frandsen. She came out with me from the MTC and she is way awesome. I am excited! We also have another zone training meeting this week so that should be fun too. We are going to work really hard this week in Columbus as soon as I get Sister McNeely healthy! She told me after she got sick that one of her goals for this upcoming week was to "stay healthy." Ha. So much for that goal.

I have been reading the Book of Job in the Bible, poor Job, He really does go through so many trials. One scripture I just really randomly liked, it just kind of hit me was Job 5:17 "Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth; despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty." I don't know maybe it's because I have had a hard week but I just liked this scripture! Sometimes God is going to give us trials that might chasten us a little bit but that's not bad, he just wants us to grow stronger. It reminds me of President Uchtdorf's talk about staying happy and having gratitude through our trials. It also reminds me of what our ward mission leader always says, "Celestial trials create Celestial people." Life is hard but Heavenly Father knows the trials and experiences we need to grow to our full capabilities! I especially need this message today because I am feeling kind of "meh" and I need to snap out of my funk. Have a good week everyone and approach your trials with gratitude and as a learning experience and I will try my best to do the same! I love you all and have a Happy Mothers Day!!

 Love, Sister Price

 P.S. I am excited to talk with you Mom!  Oh and I got Grandpa Clarks Letter, I sure appreciate that, it was taped together not sure what was up with that.  I also got your box, it actually came on Friday!  Thanks for the kit to make popsicles that will sure come in handy now that it is getting so hot and humid!  I of course have only one sheet on at night but my companion still burrows under 3 blankets!