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

17 MONTHS!!-STUCK IN THE MUD AGAIN!! MARCH 2, 2015

Hey Everyone!

     Well can you believe I have been gone for 17 months today? I can't. It seems like it has been forever, but it also seems really fast. It is weird. Well this has been an interesting week. It has rained  A LOT!  Also, almost all of our appointments canceled this week. Tuesday we had a really good lesson with this guy named Lamont! He was someone who the Elders had been teaching but then they just stopped and there wasn't a reason so we decided to go visit him. It took us a while because the apartments they had him listed as living in didn't come up in the GPS so we had to wait until we drove past them and eventually found them. He has been taught a lot, he just works a lot so it is a struggle to get him to church! He thinks his wife will also be interested so if we can teach her too that will be great! We had district meeting on Wednesday this week and it was really good. I just love our district! President and sister Fordham drove us and even got us lunch after! After the meeting Sister Baker wanted a blessing and I decided I would also get one, I have felt stress about grandma and some mission decisions that I need some extra guidance on. . It was so cool because the Elders were goofing around being 18-20 year old guys and then we said we wanted blessings and they got all serious and there was a big change in their demeanor and it was just so cute to watch the change when they were called upon to exercise their priesthood! Then we were driving around after and promptly got stuck in the mud! It wasn't even a dirt road, we were in the middle of town and pulled off to park and just hit a mud hole that we got stuck in. Ford Fusions are not my favorite you can't see out of them and they are not my truck!!  President Fordham called someone to pull us out so that was really nice of him. Thursday we had a lesson with Bobby and Denise. They are friends of our ward mission leader who we have been teaching. They are very interesting! I like them though. Bobby is very talkative and definitely has opinions on things! We just need to help them understand that this is Christ's church and get that confirmation from the spirit. They like what we teach them but they need to act on it! Friday we had MLC. It was really good! President talked all about goals and how we need to be better at reaching our goals and how he feels like he hasn't taught us that well enough. He had some really good ideas to start, mostly just re-teaching things from Preach My Gospel. I think it is really going to help the mission! Saturday we had an awesome lesson in the morning with a lady named Chastity. She is really cool and we are excited to teach her! We also went to a get together with the ladies in the branch of scrapbooking. It was lots of fun! Sister Ference got this really cool machine that can make almost anything into a sticker! We took the time to decorate our planners. Then we had transfer calls at 5 and we are both staying! My last transfer, it's so weird! We called to tell President Fordham and he was really happy and Sister Fordham was cheering in the background. It was really funny. Then yesterday we went to Bobby and Denise's house and got a little tour because they have lots of animals like horses and chickens and pigs and he found out I have a horse so he wanted to show me around! They have some very muddy horses whose feet really need trimmed but they are very nice and I got to love them. They also have donkeys and pigs and a pig that just had babies! He also gave us 2 dozen eggs so that was great! Now we don't have to buy eggs. It was a pretty good week! I hope ya'll have a good week too! Love you!

Love,

Sister Price 

 

GAGE IS COMING HOME!!! OH MY GOODNESS, WOW, IS EVERYONE BURSTING ABOUT JUST EVERYTHING?? He has been an awesome Missionary!!  Give him a handshake for me!!  I'm next!!!!  I can stay focused though there is a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in!!  Love ya'll again!!

MY DISTRICT IN WAYNESBORO, WE ARE THE ONLY SISTERS IN THE DISTRICT-STUCK CAR!! MARCH 2, 2015

FORD FUSION STUCK IN A DUMB HOLE!! I MISS MY TRUCK!!

L-R-ELDER HERZOG, ELDER PULU, ELDER SUTTON'S EYEBALL. ELDER BODILY-SQUATTING,ELDER MULLINAX, ELDER BINGHAM, SISTER PRICE, SISTER BAKER, ELDER HAINES BEHIND SISTER PRICE, ELDER HOLT IN VERY BACK HAS RED HAIR.

MORE OF ELDER SUTTONS BODY AND FACE, AND NOW ELDER BODILY HAS GONE TO THE BACK AND SISTER BAKER HAS HER EYES CLOSED!  MY DISTRICT!!

LISTENING TO THE HOLY GHOST IS GOOD! FEBRUARY 25, 2015

Hey Everyone!

     Well this has been a really good week! I have to remember that I emailed Tuesday so you heard about one day of my week already! Tuesday was a really good day! District meeting went really well and after we went to this little southern place the Elders found and it was really good. I had chicken and dumplings and they were yummy! Then while we were on our way home we got a text from Dana that said Dustin isn't comfortable with us coming over anymore so we aren't sure what happened with that. Hopefully something will happen with them in the future! We have found lots of new people this week so that is good! Wednesday we did exchanges with the Harlem sisters. They are Sister Roden and Sister Campelo and individually they are both awesome but they are having a hard time combining their awesomeness! I went to Harlem with Sister Roden and Sister Campelo came here with Sister Baker. I do feel bad for them because their apartment is awful. It made me very thankful for my apartment even though there are weird stains from the Elders. I did however almost get all of the hard water stains off my shower today! I have been working on that for a while. I had a really good time with Sister Roden though! I always feel like I learn so much more on exchanges than the other person can possibly learn from me. Sister Roden is so good at talking to people! She seriously talked to EVERYONE! It was so good for me because it helped me see that talking to people isn't really that hard even though I make it super difficult in my mind. I have been much more motivated to talk to people since then. Thursday and Friday were really good days. Friday we had some really good lessons! There is a couple named Bobby and Denise who we started teaching with Bro Currie (our branch mission leader) and we had a really good lesson with them! Now we just need to get them to come to church and him to stop chewing tobacco! Saturday we met some awesome people and had a some really good lessons. We also had a lot of people cancel but we are getting better at making the time effective when people cancel. The Cruz family is doing awesome! Almost all of them were at church on Sunday so that was really great. The Ference's are also dong great. Bro Ference is trying to get the Melchizidek priesthood before their granddaughter is baptized so he can confirm her too! I think he will do it. Anyway, they are doing awesome! I read in the Ensign today about how consistent, diligent scripture study is what will change people and raise statistics. I believe it! Once the Ference's started reading every day is when I saw a huge change in them. Church was really good yesterday. The high council guy who is over missionary work came and talked to us and Bro Currie. That was good! Brother Currie is so cute, he gets so excited about missionary work! Even if he mostly can't hear us he is a great branch mission leader! I counted yesterday and there were 34 people at church! That is a lot for our branch so it was really exciting. Not as many investigators but lots of less actives were there! I forgot to tell you that Sister Baker walks and talks in her sleep too!! We have noticed that some mornings we have vague memories of conversations but we can't really remember them!  Yes, I do make sure that I lock all the doors at night, so that we don't randomly wander off!!  Things are going great here! Hopefully I don't get washed away in the rain this week! I love you all, you are pretty great! Have a good week everyone! 

Love,

Sister Price

"SISTER MINION MISSIONARIES" ! February 25, 2015

MATCHING "SISTER MINION MISSIONARIES" MADE BY SIS. PRICES COUSIN LINDSAY CLARK

"JUST BE WEIRD" February 17, 2015

Hey Everyone!

     Well this week had been a good week but also a little bit of a struggle. We have had some really good lessons this week. We had exchanges with the Grovetown sister on Wednesday to Thursday. Sister Robinette came to swainsboro with me and Sister Baker went to Grovetown with Sister Owusu. Sister Robinette is a visa waiter and is waiting for her visa to go to Italy. She is from West Point. That went well, since Sister Baker was gone Sister Ference asked what I wanted for dinner so I chose chicken alfredo because it has everything my companions haven't been able to have for the last two transfers! It was delicious. Then Thursday we had ZTM in Augusta. It takes us 1 1/2 hours to get there so it's quite the drive. It was a good meeting though. It's nice to see other missionaries since most of the time it feels like we are in exile kind of! The weekend was awesome though! It was stake conference this weekend so on Saturday night we drove to Augusta for the adult session and then Sunday they had it broadcast to our branch building. Our plan was to get the Bro and Sister Cruz to take us because then they had an obligation to go. It worked perfectly! It also worked our really well because Sister Cruz had chosen Saturday as her day to quit smoking so we went over and helped her make cookies because they were having a potluck dinner before the session and she had never made homemade cookies before! Imagine that. I can't. Then they drove us and it was awesome! It was funny to watch the newly coming back members at stake conference because there was so many people. The Ference's had gone up to Augusta earlier in the day to spend time there. They just kept commenting that there were so many people! It was also really fun because I got to see a bunch of people from Augusta! I loved that. The session was awesome! This year's theme for the adult sessions is how families and wards can be blessed by effective ward councils. I thought it was great. I never really understood ward councils/their purpose before my mission but now I definitely have a better grasp of them! I have seen really good ward councils and not so great ward councils and I have learned a lot. I was a little nervous but the Cruz's loved it too and on the drive home we talked about how we could apply it to their family and having family councils and stuff like that. Elder Kopischke was awesome as usual! He really got the congregation involved and helped them see how it applies to them and how they can use it. The Sunday session was also really good. He talked about how people are afraid to share the gospel because they don't want people to think we are weird. He says we are weird, that is what makes us different and interests other people so I liked that. He said to just be weird! Sister Baker and I have been having some communication problems so we had a really long comp inventory to figure that out. Comp inventory is when you talk about your relationship and problems and how to fix things at the end of the week after you finish weekly planning. I have decided that it's something I'm going to do when I get married because it's a good way to work things out without getting angry. We mostly solved it and we are working much better together but we still have some work to do! It's good that we both want to work it out though because that makes it a lot easier. We have also really been trying to follow the spirit more and so far it's working out awesomely this week! It's only Tuesday but our week has been going really well. We tried to get the Cruz's daughter to take us to district meeting today but she said she couldn't wake up that early. I felt no sympathy for her because she didn't have to wake up until 9 but oh well. Not everyone is a morning person! We had a really good district meeting today, I really like our district it's pretty awesome! I was also really glad we had a meeting on Saturday because tracting on Valentine's day is the worst! Well I hope everything is going well! I got a package from Catherine and I loved it! It was just what I needed. I'm glad grandma is doing better! She is definitely in my prayers. I love you all!

Love,

Sister Price

INTERESTING WEEK BUT IT ALL TURNED OUT GOOD! FEBRUARY 9, 2015

Hey Everyone!

     Well this has been a very interesting week. It seems like almost everyone we were teaching disappeared this week! Those weeks are the worst. Tuesday we had district meeting and it was really good! They decided to come over here to Swainsboro so we didn't have to drive all the way to Waynesboro. It was very nice of them! We have really good Elders in our district right now. I really like all of them. Brother Currie (our branch mission leader) was really sweet and made chili for everyone for lunch so that was really fun! That day we were super pumped up from district meeting so we had a really good day. We went and saw a person named Kimberly and had a great discussion with her. She is super cool, the only problem is every other time we have tried to see her she has been sick! Honestly sick, not just "sick" because she doesn't want to talk to us. Then we went and tried another person and she was home and let us right in! Her mom was kind of contentious and wanted to argue with us about the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues but the other lady was really nice! The mom left and we got to talk with the lady, her name is Nedra. The lesson was awesome and she agreed with everything we said! The only problem is she thinks her pastor is an apostle and that he has the authority....we just somehow need to help her see he doesn't. She is really awesome though! Then we went and tried to see a less active, Sis Martinez but she wasn't home. We were going to leave but then her husband came around from the back of the house and started talking to us! It was really awesome because in the past he mostly hasn't acknowledged our presence and we have kind of had the feeling that he is what is holding her back from coming to church because she doesn't want to cause tension. We had a really great talk with him though! He says he is really glad they put sister missionaries in because he didn't like the Elders. He says they weren't very smart....not sure what that means. He was trying a little bit to be contentious but at one point I shared a scripture and bore my testimony and you could totally tell he felt the spirit really strong but he didn't know what to do so he stood there for a second and then he changed the subject. It was really funny, but he totally felt something so hopefully that will stew in his brain for a while and he will get more curious and his heart will be softened. Then we had a really great lesson with the Cruz family! They are super awesome. Four of them came to church this week and Sis Cruz has set this Saturday as her day to quit smoking! Tuesday was a great day! Wednesday was kind of a bust because no one wanted to talk to us. Then there was Thursday. Ok so we are STL's right? That means we go to MLC. MLC is always on the first Thursday of every month. Always! Except apparently for this month....I guess at the last MLC they told everyone that this month they were changing MLC to Friday....well guess who wasn't at the last MLC! Neither of us were. So guess who drove two hours to Macon for MLC on Thursday? We did! We got concerned when we saw no cars at the church so we called Sister Cottle and found out they were in Columbus for interviews and that MLC was on Friday! Well we felt exceptionally smart then and turned around and drove back to Swainsboro, then drove back to Macon on Friday. Sister Baker had the impression that we needed to call the ZL's and talk to them but we brushed it off so it was partly our fault too! Once MLC finally happened though it was awesome! We talked about a lot of things and had some really fun trainings! Then Friday night was super great! We had another lesson with that family I talked about a long time ago, where the wife is white and the husband is hispanic. The spanish speaking missionaries couldn't come down so we had the Cruz's come with us! It's awesome because the Cruz's are already friends with the family we are teaching! The lesson went really well, but both Brother Cruz and the lady's husband are kind of shy so they didn't say like anything the whole lesson so we were really nervous that the husband didn't get anything out of it. Then at the end of the lesson all of this chaos started happening and it got kind of loud and a bunch of different conversations were going on at once but then we noticed that amidst the chaos, Brother Cruz and they guy were having this really intense conversation in Spanish! It was perfect because it took the attention off of them and they were able to just talk about the whole lesson and we found out that the husband really liked it! At least we think that is what Brother Cruz told us after, he talks really quiet and has an accent so we didn't get all of what he was saying. It went really well though and we are going to go teach them again this week! I have developed a huge testimony of taking less actives we are working with teaching with us because it is awesome and helps them feel the spirit and remember their testimonies! Church yesterday was really good and we went to the park in the afternoon and talked to people because it was really warm! It is so much warmer now than it was last winter. It's weird. I hope grandma gets feeling better! I will definitely pray for her. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Price

16 MONTHS TODAY EXACTLY!! HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY! FEBRUARY 2, 2015

Hey Everyone!

    This week was pretty good! Satan has been working pretty hard so a lot of appointments fell through and only one person made it to church. Monday everything fell through and so we just kind of had to make things up as we went. That is the worst. It makes one feel extremely unproductive. We had some good things happen though! Tuesday we had district meeting. It was pretty good. Elder Holt is our new district leader, he has only been out for 7 months. Our district is super young! Five of them have been out 7 months or less. They are really good though! I like our district. There have been a lot of sick people this week. Dana and Dustin have kind of stalled this week. We will get them progressing again, they just had an off week. The branch is so funny! Everyone has been really concerned about Sister Baker and bringing her all sorts of food. Who knew that the branch needed a missionary with allergies to get them more united! I guess Heavenly Father knew. It just makes me laugh. They are really cute though. The Ference's are AWESOME! We took Sister Ference to visit Sister Cruz, another less active we are working with and it was great! They totally hit it off and could relate about so many things. I think it was really good for both of them. We set a date for Sister Cruz to stop smoking and talked about all sorts of things that can help her. Mostly it's helping her stay busy so she is distracted. She is really great though. She just needs an extra little push and she will be active and then her family will follow along! Nothing really exciting happened this week. Yesterday was kind of rough because no one wanted to talk to us because of the super bowl. It worked out though! We had a great lesson with Sister Cruz. We have a really busy few weeks ahead so that will really fly by. We have MLC this week (we are sister training leaders) and then ZTM, exhcanges and stake conference the next week and then more exchanges the next week! It will be crazy. We only have two other sets of sisters in the zone though so that is way less exhausting than the five we had in Columbus! We met some really cool people tracting. We are also focusing a lot on asking for referrals. It is hard because we forget all the time! This is a short email because I don't have a lot of time and I don't know if I will get more. Things are going good in Swainsboro though! Have a good week everyone! 

Love,

Sister Price

"FIRE, FIRE, FIRE"! January 26, 2015

Hey Everyone!

 

    Ok first of all....who can name the movie that this quote is taken from? Pretty much only you can Mom! Second I will tell you the story behind the quote. Ok so you know how being around me is just never really boring? Well Sister Baker found that out on Friday. So one of our fire alarms started chirping on Friday because of the low battery thing. So we were trying to figure out which one it was. Me, being me, decided to try and figure out how to get to the battery on one of the fire alarms. Well I wasn't exactly sure how so I ended up poking things and I happened to poke this one button that made it go off! So our alarm starts going crazy, well next thing I know, the outside alarm for our whole complex is going off!! This is at like 9:45 pm at night. So I finally figure out how to turn our alarm off but then the outside one is still blaring! So Sister Baker goes outside and our downstairs neighbor Sally is outside and all of the boys and finally someone figures out how to turn the alarm off. It was really exciting and I was cracking up the whole time.  So as far as the rest of last week went, well not really anything exciting has happened since I emailed on Wednesday. We have just been working! On Saturday we went to the open house and dedication of the Waynesboro building. They just went from a branch to a ward like a year ago! It is a really pretty building and we helped give tours during the open house. It was really fun. Sister Baker tells me all of the southern things I have picked up and am saying. Like they "stay there" instead of they live there. Living in a small country town is getting me! I love it here though. I am going to die at my homecoming I am so used to the wards here on a good Sunday being pretty small,  there are usually only about 25 people at the branch. 30 if it's crowded! 38 if I am lucky and get all the investigators here! I am glad you got to go to Sister McNeely’s homecoming, I really loved her and being her companion. She did hug me just a week ago!  I’m glad she said you could hug her extra long, and I am sure you started crying at that point! I know exactly what you mean about “Excruciatingly/Happy tears”!!  Around here we are still trying to help everyone quit smoking it is so hard and they all want to quit!  That is the struggle here. Everyone smokes. I also constantly smell like smoke so I am constantly washing my clothes. Sister Baker and I are doing well! She is my height, but can’t eat Gluten or Dairy, oh well.  We talked a lot yesterday about how to communicate and some things she struggles with mentally. It kind of made me realize how far I have come because she struggles with a lot of the same things I do/did! Just with like self esteem and dwelling on things and kind of tearing herself down. I talked about things that have helped me and realized how far I have come! I hardly ever do that to myself anymore. It was just cool to think about! We only had two people at church on Sunday but that's ok. We can't have eight people there all the time! It has been a good week though. Everyone in the branch is very perplexed as to what Sister Baker can eat since she is allergic to gluten and dairy! It is funny to watch their reactions. I loved the quote on charity in your letter mom! That is one of my favorites, I wrote it down and hung it on my wall and I read it when I get frustrated. President Monson is truly a prophet!  I realized today that I only have 10 P-days left! It's really weird. Mostly I just don't think about it. Our less active family and their granddaughter we have been working with are doing super great!  They paid their tithing this week and were so excited.  I know that Satan really steps in full gear when things like this start to happen but so far so good.  Although the Sister F-did have to have a tooth removed and then it made a hole in her sinus cavity so she is in a bit of pain but doing better!  Mom can you send the Book of Mormon childrens book from the distribution center? They want to really have good scripture study and this would help out for the granddaughter.  They seem to have a really close relationship with her and are wanting her to have a good knowledge of right and wrong so that when she is faced with choices she won’t make the same mistakes that have plagued their family.  They are amazed at the great relationship that I have with my parents and that I tell you guys everything and we talk about things, especially when we did scripture reading growing up.  They want to have this relationship with her!  So thanks for being pretty awesome parents!  Dana and Dustin are coming along, Dustin has really softened up especially when I talk with him about hunting and fishing and the stories of going hunting with you Dad and I was 5 and we spent a week by Vernal and you forgot my underwear!  Dustin thought that was pretty great!  I think it would be great if you sometime maybe wrote him a letter telling him your testimony and how you can hunt and fish and do cool stuff but also keep the Sabbath day Holy, cause you went through a rough patch back in the day!  No pressure just think about it. I think you two would really hit it off.  Things with the Branch President are doing well, he seems to be less abrasive this last little while.  When I counseled with President Cottle two weeks ago because I was so discouraged and I was going to ask that maybe he should pull us missionaries out since he was being so non-responsive and so against fellow-shipping, Pres. Cottle wanted us to stay and I said “alright I am game”, I just needed reassurance that I was handling the situation in the right way.  So I am just treating him as I do my “ornery but loveable” Grandpa Price.  Tell him like it is but at the same time not be confrontational and let him know that I do have knowledge of what I am teaching and that I do have the best interest of the investigators at heart and mostly he does not scare me.  I have a feeling that because of this I am going to miss this fellow more than anyone when my mission is done!  He does have the best interest of his little branch in mind, but it also helps to bake cookies!! Well I hope everyone has a good week! I love you all! Happy Birthday Mom! Great Job Jims, being ordained a Deacon, you will do great in passing the Sacrament- remember though that it is a very sacred and special duty that you get to perform-don’t take it lightly.  Wow same for Jonathan next week!  I always think of “If the Savior Stood beside me” what would I do!

 

Love, Sister Price

Oh and Happy Birthday Taryn, I hear you are going to get Fabulous eyelashes!!  I knew I was a true missionary when my last beautiful eyelash plopped off my eyelid! Then I truly had put away “The apparels of the World”! 

 

FAREWELL SISTER WOODARD! "SOFT WORDS AND COOKIES, TURNETH AWAY WRATH"! JANUARY 19, 2015

Hey Everyone!                                   January 21, 2015

 

     Well it has been quite the week! Ok I will go through day by day and tell what happened. Well, what I can remember of what happened.  Last Monday we went to bible study at another church with this lady who we met who loves us but isn't super interested in converting. It was fun! I have never really done anything with another church, even on my mission. They were studying Acts. I was really glad they weren't doing Revelations! The only thing that threw me off was everyone had the “New World” translation of the Bible which has a lot of changes to phrases and things, and some whole chapters are just left out!! It makes me really appreciate the King James Version Bible. They had some interesting theories but overall it was good! Tuesday was kind of slow, it was rainy and dreary and no one really wanted to talk to us and everyone canceled. We had a lesson with Dana and Dustin and that went really well. They are doing super awesome!  Dustin has gone from 4 packs of cigarettes a day to just one!!  So impressed, quitting smoking is so, so hard!! Wednesday was better but it was really cold! It was really humid so even though it was like 40 it just cut right through no matter how many layers you wore! My beautiful coat that Karen and Tammy sent me finally “died” it has served me well!!  Can you please hurry and send me my blue coat with the tie, it’s not super warm but I can last for two months with that. My valiant shoes are also getting holes in the bottoms, but my boots are doing fine!  So on Wednesday everyone canceled that day too so we ended up stopping at Dana's and reading the Book of Mormon with her. She is super awesome! Thursday we saw Dana and Dustin again and Dana surprised us and said she had made it to Jarom in the book of Mormon! When we read with her Wednesday she was on 1 Ne. 11 so she read a ton! We were really excited. I have never had someone read that much. She loves the Book of Mormon though! We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we were talking about baptism and Dustin says that when he gets baptized he wants to get baptized in a river! We tried to say we could put trees and some algae in the font and a blow up alligator but he wasn't having it. He wants to be baptized in a river! Not sure who will baptize him as most of the priesthood holders in our branch are over 70 and wading into a river in February just might be their “demise”! It was funny, but hey, he is talking about baptism!  Oh and he got  a bunch of his deer mounts back so now the living room as Dana says is the “room of death”. Friday was a busy day! We have a less active older lady named Sister Wommack who has had us teach her great grandson who she is raising. He is doing awesome and they came to church on Sunday! Then Saturday was really hard to focus because we had transfer calls. Sister Woodard got transferred! I wasn't expecting it. I am sad I only got to be her comp for one transfer! Then Sunday we had to say good-bye to lots of people. We had eight investigators at church though! That is a record for me! I have never had that many. It was really awesome. Pretty soon the chapel is going to be full! Then Monday was spent packing Sister Woodard up. We also had some time to kill because we didn't email so we went over to the Ference's and did our nails! Sister Ference has all the stuff to do gel nails so I did those on myself. I was pretty proud of myself because they look really good! As good as when I get them done in the salon. Then transfer meeting came! It was weird because three of my companions went home! Sister Tevi and Sister Sevy flew home Monday and Sister McNeely flies home tomorrow because she wanted to wait and fly home with her sister who is in the South Carolina mission so I got to see her yesterday! It was weird because I am like an “Old missionary” now! I only have one more transfer left after this one! My new comp is Sister Baker. I knew her when I served in Columbus because she was in Phenix City. She is really awesome! She is just what the branch needs. She has poofy, curly red hair and looks like Merida from “Brave”. She is from St. George. I love her already! She is going to be an awesome last companion. Things are a little better with the Branch President. We made him cookies and wrote a really nice thank you note, we used one of the cards Angela made and his wife loved it and said she makes cards too and this one was really well done! Shout out to Angela those cards have served me well throughout my mission, I only gave them out to special situations- you were inspired!!  He was actually a lot nicer after Sister Woodard left, I guess he could sense her “fear” of him.  Things will keep getting better! The branch is just going to experience some growing pains, there are so many that are interested and like it or not to the Old-Timers the Gospel will go forward it cannot be stopped!! I am excited to serve with Sister Baker though! It's going to be awesome! Oh and yesterday one of the new missionaries coming in used to ride at the barn! She is a few years younger than me but I vaguely remember her. Her name is Kimberly Wood and she went by Kimmy. She said she came back and rode over the summer and everyone told her I was in a mission in Georgia and then she got her call here! It was really cool to see her. It was fun! Don’t worry about me getting “anxious” here at the last, It has not sunk in and I still feel like I am in the middle of my mission still, so much to do, I have alot of work yet left to do and many people to teach and a Branch to pull along and a future Ward to create!! Oh, there has been a stray puppy that has taken up residence at our apartment. It is a boy and a mutt but he is cute and he may or may not have some “refuge” with the missionaries. He may or may not have received some “TLC” from these missionaries for his benefit. We do have to be careful as here in the South all animals have fleas, the fleas live in the grass and everywhere, but the missionaries may or may not have gotten him a flea collar. There is also a kitty that randomly finds refuge with the missionaries.  We must be kind to all God’s creatures, just sayin!  Well have a good week everyone! I love you all!

Thanks for the forwarding letters and pictures of Caleb. Oh, the flooding of apartments!  The Elders do it all the time here, maybe its just an “Elders thing”. The only problem is if Peru is as hot and humid as here that lovely “Black Mold” sure takes over, watch out!  He looks good, although until he mentioned in his letter he does look a bit “Less” on top, love genetics!  Your doing awesome though Caleb! 

Love,

Sister Price

 

FAREWELL SISTER WOODARD, JANUARY 19, 2015

FAREWELL SISTER WOODARD! JANUARY 19, 2015

ELDER NEAL L. ANDERSON! MISSION CONFERENCE! CONTINUED BRANCH OBSTACLES! JANUARY 12, 2015

Hey Everyone!                                   January 12, 2015

 

     Well this has been a very busy week. Tuesday we had to teach President and Sister Cottle. He went around the whole mission and had every companionship teach him a principle they had prepared and then a principle he gave us on the spot. It was really nerve wracking but it went well! We had a good time. Then on Wednesday we had exchanges with the Grovetown sisters. I went to Grovetown with Sister Owusu and Sister Szilagyi came here with Sister Woodard. It was really fun! Interesting things always happen in your area while you are gone on exchanges and this time was no different! They went to see Dana and she told them she had been talking to her husband about when she wanted to get baptized and he surprised her by saying he wanted her to wait because he wants to get baptized with her! That was a shocker to us! He has a long way to go though so it is going to take him a little longer but that is OK!! We can work with that and it is always so great when we teach Families especially when Fathers are involved! It really brings home as to the potential of “Forever Families”! Fathers are so important and I know how much I love my Dad and what a great example he is to me!! It was odd to go to Grovetown because their area is full of really big, really nice houses! I have always served in the “less fortunate areas”, It is kind of intimidating but they are working with some really awesome people. Then Thursday we had ZTM. That was good. They talked about filling out forms and we had another training on "lock your heart" because apparently that is still a problem! (oh brother). Then we went out to lunch after and I spilled all of my food all over my skirt! It was a fun time. Then I got permission from one of the Zone Leaders to go say hi to Sister Lee!(from my Columbus area) That was really fun, we got to see her and chat for a minute. Then Friday we had a bunch of Sisters stay at our apartment because we had to be in Macon early and they didn't want people to have to drive a long way. We ended up having 8 sisters in our apartment! It was pretty crazy. It was like a combination of college and girls camp. Then we headed out Saturday morning at 6:30! We got there and they had us get all lined up so we could take a mission picture with Elder Andersen. Then we all shook his hand as we went into the chapel. He talked about having an eternal perspective during our missions and knowing that we probably won't see the long term affect we have! Then his wife spoke and she talked a lot about honesty and being honest in all that we do. It was a really good conference! Oh and Elder Andersen also mentioned that Elder Perry fell the other day and broke some ribs! It was fun to see all of my missionary friends and to catch up with them. Especially the ones who are going home next week! Sis. Tevi, Sis. Sevy, Sis. McNeeley to name a few. That is so weird to know that they will be departing next week! The less actives we are working with are doing awesome! They have been studying the scriptures and coming to church and having Family Home Evening. We are really excited for how well they are doing! They just all of a sudden started progressing! This area is just so ready for the Gospel with a little work there is enough potential that within six months this could become a Ward!! It has been a bit of a tough week with various situations that I won’t go into detail but enough that Sis. Woodard and I received blessings from the Waynesboro Elders. I have not had to do that much on my mission but it is great to have a Priesthood blessing, It was what was needed and I felt affirmation that our work here is needed and there will be a way to continue. Always trust in our Heavenly Father! Thank you all for your prayers in blessing missionaries it is always felt. Sorry this email is kind of short! This week involved a lot of driving. I hope everyone has a good week!

 

Love,

Sister Price

CAR PROBLEMS AND GETTING SICK AGAIN! JANUARY 5, 2015

Hey Everyone!

     This might be a shorter email because I'm not sure how much time I will be at the library and we have lots of stuff to do! Ok well this week we had a lot of obstacles in our way! A while ago I guess Sister Woodard and Sister Winward drove our car into a ditch because they aren't tall enough to see out of the car and a piece on the bottom came loose so we had to take it in to get fixed on Monday. Well it wasn't done until Friday! That means we had to walk everywhere and this is just not a walking area. Everything is really far apart and our closest person we can visit lives two miles away. It really limited our ability to do missionary work! Plus everyone was freaking out that we were walking. Dustin couldn't believe that we walked all the way to his house just to teach his family. I wasn't feeling too well on Tuesday and that day we walked 7 miles so Wednesday I was really sick so we stayed in most of that day. Then that night we had a coupon for pizza from Pizza Hut so we tried to order it but they were closed! What kind of pizza place is closed on New Years Eve?! We finally got our car back on Friday! We were so ecstatic! Dana is doing awesome. She isn't going to be baptized this week because she wants her husband to be there and I guess he just got a permit to hunt some fancy place that is like a once in a lifetime thing! Satan. Whatever. We pushed it back a week but that is fine, we will just make sure this week goes really well and nothing bad happens! We were really nervous yesterday because she said that some preacher guy called them and I guess Dustin's mom wanted the preacher to visit to see if he could get Dustin to go to church. Good luck. We were really nervous though because usually when preacher's find out they are studying with the Mormons they tell them a bunch of anti and tell them they are going to hell! They ended up going to their relatives for the afternoon though so we were really relieved. We had a lady named Charlotte come to church yesterday. She is funny. She had a stroke a few years ago that affected her left side so getting her to church was quite the process because she is in a wheelchair! We did it though. She said she really liked church and she even bore her testimony! We were really nervous but it turned out really well. Dana is funny she was telling everyone she is getting baptized and she is super excited! We think her husband will come around, he has just had a really rough life and needs a little extra work. The branch president freaked out because she only stopped smoking on Wednesday and he says he isn't comfortable with her being baptized after such a short time living the word of wisdom. She will be fine though! Sister Ference also bore her testimony so that was really cool! They had a really rough week with their daughter and other things so we have been really worried about them. I have been going through and reading all of the Ensigns that this apartment has! All apartments have different stacks of Ensigns that I like to go through and read. These are more recent so I have read them all before but I like reading them again. It's fun to see the change in the magazine over the years. Up until 2009 they were still doing the conference ensign pictures in black and white! I like to see the trend in all of the conference talks. It's interesting how a few people in a row will all talk about the same thing. There have been a lot lately about how important temples are and prophets! Everyone should go to the temple for me this week because I still can't go for three more months. Well I love you all! Thanks for all of your support! Have a good week!

Love,

Sister Price

CHRISTMAS-LAST ONE IN THE MISSION FIELD! Some Branch woes! December 29, 2014

Hey Everyone!

     Well this has been quite the week! It has been a little slow because of Christmas and I don't think anyone stays in Swainsboro at Christmas time. Monday evening we went over to Dana's and her family and did the Nativity with them. It went really well and her husband also participated! He was really glad that we did the Christmas story and he opened up a lot which was really good! Dana is doing awesome. She started the stop smoking program on Saturday and so far is doing well! Although Satan is trying to get her by stressing her out and making all of her kids sick! She made it to church yesterday though. Her eight year old loves church! It's really good though because one of the semi-active families we have been working with want their 8 year old girl to be baptized but they haven't been staying past sacrament because she didn't have anyone her age to go to primary with. Now they are really good buddies and love staying the whole time! Christmas was good, we went over to a lady's house named Betty. I guess she picked up Sister Woodard and Sister Winward one time while they were walking and gave them a ride. She loves us but we have to kind of sneaky teach her because she also loves her church! We ate there and that was really good. I actually had good dressing! I ate way too much though. Then we went and visited less actives and gave them treats that the Ference's helped us make. Then that evening I got to skype! It was awesome! Now though it kind of feels like it didn't even happen. I was really worried it would make me really trunky and not be able to focus but I have been good! The only downside is that I got a cold so I have been really stuffy for the past few days and kind of feel like my head is in a cloud, it could also be some allergies because we are super in the woods and with the rain and warmth and humidity it really increases the mold count!!  Sunday was cool though because one of the guys who spoke got up and started talking about all of the things that kind of hindered him from becoming a member before he joined and it's all of the things Dana's husband is struggling with so we found an awesome fellowshipper for her husband! Other than that this week has been kind of slow with the holiday and everyone being out of town. The branch is very interesting, they are kind of really stuck in their ways and kind of 20 years behind the rest of the world. They aren't huge fans of the new turns missionary work is taking but we are working on it! I just have to pray a lot for charity and patience and to be able to say the right thing. The branch president is a little bit my way or the highway so it will be fun figuring out how to make our ideas "his ideas" as we work with him. I am getting aquainted with the branch more and more, it has its struggles, in the past 5 years converts have either had their names removed from the records or have been ex-communicated.  I know that it has to do with why this whole mission was closed about 6 or 7 years ago due to improper missionary work and members themselves.  We are working hard on rebuilding a good foundation for the gospel to flourish again and making sure those that we are teaching are understanding gospel principles.  It makes the work slow, but I am more concerned about them having knowledge and a sure foundation than "Numbers", Therefore my scripture that I love about "Build the foundation on a rock and it will not fall" That rock is our Saviour Jesus Christ and if we build upon him we cannot fall unless we choose to.  President Cottle shared a scripture with me that helps in our endeavor to work and strengthen this branch 1 Timothy 4:12 "Let no man despise thy YOUTH;but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity".  Sister Woodard says that this Branch President made her and Sister Winward cry a lot but I don't get intimidated, I have learned to follow promptings and there may come a moment, I hope not, but if the spirit prompts me that I have to be "Bold of Speech" I have learned to pray that when I speak the Lord will give my mouth words, when this has happened to me I usually have no memory of what I have said immediately afterwards, until my companions tell me. I may be quiet and unassuming most of the time but I can get a bit "Fiery" at times.  I just pray constantly that the Lord will bless this area and that I will be spared this type of conversation.  I really don't like to have confrontation and the last thing I want to be is contentious, I just want to be a good missionary and do the best that I know how!  I have felt an immediate love for this area of Swainsboro and the surrounding little towns, they are good people and very open and friendly.  I know you don't want to hear this Mom but I feel like the 3 months I have left is not enough time to do all that I would like to do, I feel so responsible to do all that is needed to build up this little branch and it will be hard to leave them, I hope and pray that future missionaries will take care of them!  I will just have to take the scripture from Timothy to heart as it has helped me have more confidence in the things I am doing! I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I love you all tons! Thanks for everyone who sent me a card/package! I loved all of it and hearing from all of you! I am glad that Caleb is doing so well and loving his mission- He is making good memories and it is through obedience that we as missionaries are blest!!  Love you all

Love,

Sister Price