September 9, 2009

Dear family,
Sorry about not writing on Monday. For Labor Day we had a big zone P-day where 3 different zones met together at the John Johnson Farm and we had some activities and we spent all day there! It was pretty fun. I've been working on my backflip. I can land it now! Our zone leader, Elder Postak, who is way cool and can do one, he spots me and by the time I'm done on my mission I'll be able to do a standing backflip! Well hopefully it will be a lot sooner than that. So funny story...on our way to Bowling Green on Saturday to help out with a half marathon (we did the water station) and while we were driving up, Elder Lambson says to me, "Elder Price, is your mom on missionary moms? (email group) Everything clicked and I was like, "hey ya, my mom talks to your mom!" It was pretty funny! I never put two and two together! The thing about Elder Packer, it was his son. Sorry, I think I wasn't clear. The one playing the piano and going on splits with me was Elder Lambson who is our district leader. Elder Packer just talked to us and he is pretty old. Sorry for the confusion. Elder Lambson is pretty cool we get along good and have good times together. He is a good missionary. I'm glad you liked my pictures! Yes, our apartment is pretty cool. I love it and I don't really want to leave it and go to a different one. They say coming to Fremont for my first area is going to spoil me! We eat at a members house every Monday and it's my companion's goal to help me gain weight. So after every meal I weigh myself and it's funny because my weight is the exact same every week! I feel like I am wearing the same ties over and over so you could always send me some anytime, I wouldn't mind! We have lots of work to do here in Fremont but we are working strong at it! Ya, Alexa is pretty funny. Last Sunday she came in and was like, "hey its my moms birthday today!" really loud so everyone could hear her. It was funny. We had Zack come to church on Sunday for the first time and he loved it and said he was bringing his son next time. He loved church so much and he had a huge big smile on his face the whole time! It was way sweet! So a few stories... I was planning out what to do for my scripture study class and I couldn't think of anything so I started planning it out and it wouldn't work but I opened up my book True to the Faith and I saw "prayer" and I was like hey that's what I'll do it on. Then after I gave the lesson that night everyone was saying thanks so much I really needed that really bad! It was cool to see the Lord working through me to help out other people and be able help them with things in their life they need help with! For a few weeks we have been trying to get Shelly to let us help her scrub and paint her porch and she never would let us so on our appt. that night we said, "hey Shelly we are coming over tomorrow morning and we are going to scrub your porch!" After a while, she finally let us and then the next day we came over and got some paint and painted it for her! It was really sweet to give her service and do that for her. After we had finished it all up she couldn't stop telling us how thankful she was that we helped her with that and did that for her! It was especially important because she is having a wedding at her house this weekend and didn't have the time or money to do it, so missionaires to the rescue! :) My all time favorite story that happened this week...it was fast Sunday and we came home around 4 for a little lunch break before we went out to dinner at 5. As we walked in to our apartment, the Ridoutts, who live below us, rang our doorbell and said they had a bunch of hot dogs, brauts, hamburgers, and stuff from our family reunion yesterday and to come and have some. Well it was fast Sunday so we were starving and went down and ate with them. Then after a bunch of food we had dessert! Then it was 4:40 and Sister Ridoutt said she was surprised because we usually have dinner with the Sheres on Sunday night. Me and my companion looked at each other and we were like "well, um we do!" and she says "What? Oh you do? Why are you eating here? No wonder Elders always gain so much weight. They double up on meals!" Then she says its a good thing that its not for a few hours and you can go work it off and we laughed looked at our watches and were like ya well we need to be over there in about 20 mins! You should have seen her face, it was so funny! Brother Ridoutt was just laughing going "yup, that's the missionaries!" We had 2 dinners that night! They were so close and good. We don't know how we ate so much because we stuffed ourselves over there at the Sheres too! And to make it funnier, we went to go visit someone else and they had just pulled dinner out of the oven and wanted to feed us too! We didn't, but we could have had 3 dinners that night! Then at 9 when we came back in we went to the Ridoutts and had more brownies and ice cream! We eat so much here, holy smokes! On Tuesday after our big zone meeting we went to a pizza buffet and stuffed ourselves then went home and had a dinner appointment with someone an hour later! But its ok because we don't have any food in our apartment because on P-day we went to that big activity and didn't get a chance to do any of our shopping! Well we will be ok. We have left over meatloaf from another member. Dang, they just feed us a lot! It's a good thing we go biking every morning! Last week my companion got a big packet of letters from the young women in his ward because they had a lesson on the importance on missionary work and so they all wrote letters to him. It was funny to read them some of them! One of them said thanks so much for adding to the pool of rm's that I can marry! Girls are funny. Stay good in school because education is important! The more we learn and the more we study the more knowledge the Lord blesses us with! That's especially true with the scriptures! I hope everyone is reading them everyday!! When we were walking into the library, we held the door open for this lady and she says, "What? There are gentlemen out in the world still? Wow, you guys are a dying breed. Your mommas taught you right. Give her a hug when you get home!" It was pretty neat! Missions are so great and fun to be on. The spirit is always here all the time. It's great to be teaching a lesson to someone and see them change. And as you keep going back you see the light begin to come into their eyes! Missonary work is a great experience for everyone. You don't have to be a missionary to find people who are ready for the gospel! Member referrals are the best way for missionaries to teach people and they usually are stronger members! Well I better be going but take care be good. Remember who you are. Oh, and memorizing scriptures is something that is really helpful! Love you lots and miss you guys!
Love, Elder Price

P.S. I'm starting to pick up on the missionary and Ohio lingo. uh oh.
P.P.S. Reading scriptures every day as a family will help everyone grow together in love and unity and helps with a happy home and everyone will get along better. I promise!
P.P.P.S. My companion, Elder Strong, and I already can almost read each other's thoughts and we know what the other one is thinking! That's what happens when you are with someone 24/7.