October 29, 2012

familia! i love you guys. this week has been quick but long! i went on divisions with the ZLs last week and that was a good opportunity. i learned to enjoy doing the things that other people dont like doing. the work in puerto is coming along and our hard work is starting to bring forth a few miracles. as of right now we have 6 baptismal dates here in our area. 3 for nov 11 and 3 for nov 18. xayrielis and jayniss lopez are sisters and they are 8 and 15. we found them through their grandma who they live with. their grandma is the hermana who first started calling me james bond and one day when she was feeding us we found out that the 2 girls who always come to church with her and live with her, arent members. we asked if we could start teaching them and they wanted to. xay is 8 but her testimony is crazy strong! yesterday was the branch primary program and she bore her testimony in it about how we need to follow jesus and be baptized and how the elders have been coming over to teach her and she is loving learning about the lessons and also said how grateful she was for the elders and it was cool to me and felt good that an 8 year old girl could have such a strong testimony. she also calls me elder bond or elder cero cero siete and its pretty funny. our other person with a date for the 11th is felix. we have been meeting with him and this last week we had a feeling to go see him and we did and he said he knows the book of mormon is true and that its so much easier than the bible because el ldm es paso a paso and so easy a kid could understand it. he actually asked us what he needed to do to be baptized! so awesome. and the others are the 3 ninos i talked about last week i think. their moms are really feeling the spirit and knowing that they need to come back to church. and they have a commitment to come next sunday because they have had commitments on sundays that are now over as of yesterday. the problem we have had with paola, one of the moms who IS baptized, is that a pastor from another church saw us go over and saw that we have been talking to them and the pastor came and told the ladies that jose smith and el ldm and everything are false and that they need to not let us come back and all this stuff. and so she asked us without all the kids around and everything and we were just able to tell her that all she can do is pray. and she is just confused. they havent been to church in almost 10 years and they have forgotten almost everything but they did tell us that they know its true because they were baptized in our church. we are going over tonight for andrin´s birthday. he is turning 12 today and the other kids names are zuany and johandrey who are cousins and both 8. we are finally starting to see some miracles here in puerto and i know the lord has definitely tried our faith at times and its hard but its awesome to have people who are progresing and coming closer unto the lord! spanish is still hard and people from the city talk so differently that its hard to understand people who are older and grew up in the city, but if they are from here in chiriqui they are usually more educated and speak more clearly. im working on the spanish everyday and trying to remain positive for that. in other news, the mision here in panama is getting 60 new missionaries in the next 3 changes and 40 of those are sister missionaries! so crazy. the office her says that the number of applications sent into headquarters used to be about 700 per week but since the change its been about 7000 a week. they are expecting to open up 25 new missions by 2014. the work is moving forward and nothing can stop it! les amo muchisimo elder adam price wow! una sobrina! thats awesome and felicidades! you guys are going to be good parents. well, maybe! ;) sometimes i feel like i am in this area to get my companion remotivated because he is kind of dead at times! he likes to complain and make excuses for himself other times but thats alright because i dont let little things or little injuries get me down. sports taught me a lot and one thing is that you never stop playing. you never give up and just let the other team have the ball. im not one for losing and so i try to relate that to missionary work. my sports experience does help i think because it taught me to work for things and it doesn't always come easy. also it taught me a little bit of mental toughness that i think is hard to learn and from what ive noticed, missionaries that have more mental toughness usually were big into sports and things! i try to always look at the bright side of things and always see how much potential someone has. i want others to achieve the best for themselves and i think i am supposed to do that with my companion. its hard to believe its November and only 2 more weeks left in this change! hope all is well and goes well for you guys with the baby and with school and work too. tell jenna hi and i love you guys. elder price

October 15, 2012

hello family! another week in panama! its been crazy and way hot and humid and frustrating at times! but theres nothing like sitting down in a lesson and feeling the spirit with someone! so my upcoming challenge besides spanish and adjusting to panama is......... we have no water in puerto armuelles for the next 15 days! they decided they are going to fix some pipes and stuff but here isnt like the states so it means no running water for the whole town! so i took a shower last night and dont exactly know when my next will be and we colleted as much water as we could and were hoping for the best!its going to be crazy! i have to admit its probably going to suck! as for people we found this week! we found this way cool guy named felix and we went and taught him and taught about jose smith cuz he wanted to know about him and asked questions and we gave him a book of mormon and hes started reading and has a standing appt with us for every tuesday at 5 so we will see how that goes, he didnt show up to church when he was dead set and told us he was going so that was frustrating. then we have henri a 22 year old who wants to change his life and is looking really positive he just lives with his novia and her familia. and then there is luis who live in the nicest house ive seen in panama so far. it was even decorated on the inside like an average american house. he is 20 years old and really likes what we have taught. he is studying to be a veterenarian. its tough because none of them showed up to church and they all said they would so thats hard. also the church is far for all of them. like they all live probably a 40 minute walk from the chapel if not more so they would have to take taxis. anyway, spanish is crazy. i bore my testimony in sacrament meeting yesterday cuz we had it. understanding everything is hard cuz everyone talks so fast but its almost harder trying to say everything i want. i understand more than i can talk! but its alright. ive been here 2 weeks. i get frustrated that i cant just communicate and the i remember that. and our cocinera hermana irma says i talk more than other new guys who have been here and it seems like i understand better than them too so that is encouraging but its still hard. im hard on myself and want to learn it now!! oh and no she only cooks dinners for us most every night. nothing else! i think thats it. sounds like everyone is doing pretty good! i love you guys! elder price

October 8, 2012

well im in panama! we arrived tuesday night and met president and sister ward at the airport. they were awesome. the assistants piled us into the back of their truck and thats probably the picture you saw. we slept that night at the assistants house. i was sleeping on the ground with about 20 other missionaries. so ya i didnt get much sleep. next day we woke up and went to the church building where changes are and president kind of introduced the mission more and stuff and interviewed us and then we went into the changes meeting. before when he was talking to us he told us that some were going far and some were going to be staying close in the city. immeadiately i began feeling like i was going to be going far. well...im about a 10-11 hour bus ride from the city. im in the province of chitiqui and my area is called puerto armuelles. we have the beach in our area and its way crazy. panama really is the jungle! im like the farthest part of the mission that you can even get. im right on the border of panama and costa rica and we actually crossed the costa rica border for a second on the ride into our area. the church here is really weak. at conference saturday there was 4 other people besides the 4 missionaries here in puerto. so ya my trainer says this is a tough area to be in at first and maybe one of the toughest in the mission, but im excited about it and just hope my companion will work hard. like weve been in at like 830 or earlier everynight so far pretty much. we do have a cocinera here and she cooks pretty good. its kind of weird at first getting use to the food but its alright. all the hermanas in the ward call me james bond. the cocinera is convinced that i am an actor and i came staight from the movies and she told all the other hermanas at church yesterday that i look like james bond and so thats my nickname right now. its pretty hard to understand people and sometimes i dont understand one thing they said. we visited one less active family the other day and they were pretty mean. after, my comp told me they were talking bad about me and thought it was funny cuz i cant understand. but its alright. we had a nice experience last night. we visited a recent baptism and shes 15 and we found out she hasnt been reading the book of mormon like she needs to and so my comp let me take it over and it came to my mind to read part of the intro. the part where it says we can draw nearer to god through the bom than any other way. even with my limited spanish abilities you could tell she felt the spirit and she even almost cried. it was pretty cool because i know i was guided. i had no idea what to teach her and it just kind of popped in my head. its good here in panama though. i sweat like crazy because it is soo humid. natives laugh at me cuz im dripping and theyre just use to it so they hardly even sweat. oh yeah, my house i live with my comp elder small from colorado who has 14 months. elder haynes from canada who has 8 or 9 months and elder ortiz who doesnt hardly speak english and is from nicaragua and has like 13 months. i like living with him because the only way to communicate with him is spanish. no hot water here so all cold showers and im also in the only area of panama where you arent supposed to drink the water! but im fine and its pretty safe here i think! conference was awesome. i actually got to listen in english which i was really glad about and there were awesome talks. i cant believe the missionary thing! there was lots of talks on conversion faith testimony and families. i loved it more than any before!anyways, hopefully thats enough info for now but i love you guys and have a great week!

September 26, 2012

Hey family! sorry we didnt write our normal time today! we had to get haircuts this morning and be accompany our solo sister in our district so we didnt gt to go to the lab and we had to do other things in getting ready to leave tuesday. we just got back from the temple and it was good. we also got our travel plans this last week! we leave tuesday morning. we have to be at the travel office at 6am and our flight from slc leaves at 940am. we fly to georgia and get into atlanta at 320pm utah time im pretty sure that is and then we leave atl at 550 utah time and get to panama at 908pm utah time. im way excited to go and its crazy how soon its coming! this past week has been good. both of our "investigators" are now preparing to be baptized and one is this coming saturday haha. umm i got to give a talk on sunday in sacrament meeting! in spanish. every week everyone is supposed to prepare a talk and then they say right after sacrament who is giving the talks. hermana judy from my district was first and then me. i knew it was going to be me. it was good though because i prepared and had one ready. i gave my talk and i sat down after behind hermana nelson(the branch presidents wife) who is a native and she told me my spanish was excellent and that i have great pronunciation so that was good to hear! not sure if she was just trying to make me feel good or what but it was nice. and then last night in district meeting after devotional i got to give the closing prayer and i finished and she said the same thing. she is funny but really nice. my companion is kind of freaking out about going to panama but he is doing alright. sometimes i talk to much in lessons and he just sits there so ive been trying better to just stare at him sometimes until he says something. he does alot better than he gives himself credit for but he is always telling people that he is bad and that im fluent which isnt true at all! the mtc has been tough at times but definitely well needed and a good place to learn and grow. while sitting in the temple today i thought alot about family and how greatful i am for you guys and how families really can be together forever through our heavenly fathers plan! ill probably call you guys from slc tuesday morning if that is alright? let me know whose phone i should call! Im excited to call home it should be good! sorry again this is later than usual...i got your package today too. thanks for the stuff in there too and the pictures are great! love elder price

September 19, 2012

hola familia. como estan? the things i need that i can think of. i want a new copy of my patriarchal blessing. on the back page of the copy i have now the first line or 2 got cut off. next, i kind of want you to send me my backpack. that would be so nice and helpful for traveling because i have at least 10 pounds of books to take with me to panama that i didnt have when flying here so if i could throw those in my backpack and take a carry on too that would be great. also, maybe and ipod with lots of church music and some small speakers. i really enjoy church music now. we arent allowed to listen to music at all in the mtc cuz every mission is different but having that would be nice so i dont have to hear myself sing anymore. thats awesome to hear about grandma, i actually put her name in at the temple i think 2 weeks ago. id never done that before so i did. hopefully thats alright. this week... what did i even do? i can hardly remember. all the days blur together and while in it it seems long but looking back on the week it goes by so fast. hows my spanish? its ok! im not too frustrated with it. i know im not that good at it but it will only come with practice. we are actually completely done with all the language lessons and principles, we finished that up monday. so now its review and the opportunity to go over what ever we want. i love my teachers here at the mtc. hermano warburton is awesome and loves being with us and helping us out. and hermano roberts looks like hes 16 and is probably the goofiest person ever. he told us the other day how sometimes he will be sitting in sacrament meeting daydreaming about jedi battles(we were talking about importance of sacrament and recieving revelation through church attendance). my best teaching experience this week, was last saturday with Edgar(hermano warburton) and we went in and decided to sing an opening song and so we sang Señor, Te Necesito. me and my companion are not that good at singing and i kind of have to take the lead if we sing which is scary because im bad. anyway, we sand and had him follow along and we got to like the 2nd line of the 2nd verse and i sang the first verse again on accident and my companion just stopped and started laughing so i didnt even know what was going and then i realized and held it under composure and switched back to the right verse and we went on singing and finished and the spirit was definitely brought through the song. it was perfect for edgar and after we taught him, at the end of the lesson he said "wow during that song you guys sang at the beginning i felt something that i really liked." it was awesome and a good testimony of how the spirit can be brought through hymns as well. its my new personal goal to sing an opening song at all appointments. we had a charla fogonera sunday night with w. tracy watson who is the proselyting director of all missionaries and was the mission pres in mesa a couple of years ago. his topic was the BoM and it was really interesting. he showed us a clip from that play, The Book of Mormon on broadway. it was interesting. it started off really catchy with a missionary knocking on someones door. the missionaries name, Elder Price. so i obviously laughed and so did my whole district and we were sitting about 4 rows back of the speaker and he was not laughing at all. the song then kept going and it was poking fun of mormon missionaries and it was just pretty disrespectful. many people were offended but i was more kind of just glad for the opportunity i have to show people we arent like that. anyway, this play swept the tony awards and is huge. what i got from the speaker was that in a way its almost been a blessing because when the play hit broadway the church paid for that huge jumbo tron in times square and put the Im a mormon things everywhere. in taxis, on sides of taxis, lining the whole insides of taxis. basically all over new york. he told us that the missionaries became overnight celebrities and everyone wanted this book of mormon. all stores in new york city were back ordered on book of mormons an they just couldnt have enough for how many people wanted them. and now the play is about to go to LA too because it was so big and in the playbill(he showed us) the makers of the play called the church and asked them if they wanted pages in the playbill for this play making fun of the missionaries. the church obviously accepted and put in 3 full page Im a Mormon ads. the best one they put was Alex Boye the singer with a huge smile on his face and at the bottom it says "The book is always better!" the speaker went on to say that this isnt "the time of the mormons" as some refer to it because of the elections and the play, but it is the fulfilling of prophecy. thats so true and im blessed to be a part of it. we can become closer to Jesus and our Heavenly father by reading the bom then we can by doing anything else and i know this because i have seen it in my life even just here in the mtc. this morning i finished the BoM again here in the mtc and i love it. im really gaining a love for it. in english and spanish. its awesome and i challenge each of you to read 5 pages a day from it. if you read 5 pages everyday for 2 years you can finish it around 7 times in 2 years. do it. I love the gospel and it is so awesome. i dont know where i would be without it. it answers all my doubts and concerns in life and gives me peace in my life. im so lucky to be a missionary even though at times it is hard and i dont think i can go on. a scripture i came across in my reading this last week was mormon 6;17. go read it its awesome. it hit me because it says "how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to recieve you" that one fires me up. How can we possibly reject Jesus who is perfect and is just waiting for us with his arms open waiting for us to come and give him a hug or hang onto him. he will guide our steps in all that we do and we need to take that step into the dark and trust that he is standing just beyond the darkness waiting for us. so, i am expecting my travel plans anyday now. my expected departure date is october 2. thats crazy. less than 2 weeks! ill let you guys know for sure by next wednesday when i leave! im excited and nervous! yesterday like my best friends from the mtc left. elder clark and elder medeiros. theyre serving in slc-s spanish speaking so they had about a 30 minute ride to their mission home. they were awesome and helped me alot in the MTC! i love you guys and pray for you guys. thanks for the prayers and everything, i feel them. elder adam price

September 5 and 12th

September 12, 2012 hola! como estan? i can never think of what i need when i come email but send some compression shorts or something for my gym time so i dont ruin all my garments. and im not sure what else. i kind of forget and i forget to write it down! this week has been fun/good i guess! how was colorado and seeing grandma and grandpa? i realize i probably wont get to see them in 2 years but they are awesome! this week in reading my scriptures something i came across again was in john 21 if i remember correctly when peter goes back to fishing and then they see jesus on the shore and he tells them to cast there nets on the other side of the boat. the part that i really love is the part when he says to leave your nets. basically leave you nets, we have another work to do. and then he asks peter lovest thou me? and he says yes and then he repeats the question 2 more times and the last peter says you know that i love thee and then jesus responds, then feed my sheep. and that is what this is all about, feeding the sheep. in the devotional last night Elder Bruce A Carlson of the seventy said that there is 3 people in this world. the sheep, the wolves, and the shepherds. and we as missionaries are now the shepherds. our work is to go out and find those sheep and to rescue them, to bring them back into the pack. but the wolves are always going to be attacking. ive really grown alot in just these 6 weeks since being in the mtc. the spiritual experiences are so awesome and i know that the gospel is true. i love my heavenly father with all the strength of my being because i can always turn to him and he will help me. sometimes before the mission i took things for granted, i took for granted the gospel and the blessings we recieve from being in it. one thing last night that was said at devotional was "being obedient doesnt prove anything to heavenly father, he already knows what we are going to do. obedience is what transforms us and lets heavenly father know how much he can bless us". prayers are answered, everytime i have even a simple prayer in my heart it is always answered whether it be something one of our teachers says or an experience they share from their mission or a scripture, a devotional. prayers are always answered if you are really trying to get an answer and pondering about it. last night we said bye to one of our hermanas. she got her visa and so is going to spain now for the next 3 weeks al ccm in espana antes del campo. that was kind of sad because my district realy kind of has become in a way like my family. they are all awesome and build me up when i am down and make me want to do good. but we are happy for her and it will go on. next wednesday my favorite district, like the ones ive become closest with besides my own district, are leaving for slc south. they have a nice 45 min bus ride to their mission home haha so we like to tease them about it. one of them(elder clark) wants me to transfer down to byu after the mission and live with him and some friends, hes funny. my friend parker robbins from byui got in here last wednesday and hes in my same building for class and so i see him quite a bit and the other day he came up and was like how am i ever supposed to be going about learning spanish. i could tell he waas a little overwhelmed but i mean thats normal it was like his 3rd day. and he asked me if i knew spanish before coming here at all. so that kind of made me feel good because he thought i spoke alot but sometimes its hard to see the progress in ourselves when we are in it. i have a long ways to go with spanish for sure and i cant express everything i could in english but it is getting better slowly but surely. only 3 more weeks til i find out i didnt harldy learn anything in the mtc! haha broma, yo estoy emocionado para panama pero no hablo espanol bueno. el espiritu habla toda idiomas! i love you guys and let me know if you got the pictures i sent. sorry theyre so big, i dont know how to change it here to make them smaller and its not worth the time to try to figure it out! les quiero! haz el bien elder adam pric after today i only have 2 more pdays here in the mtc which is crazy. days are so slow but weeks are so fast. we do service assignment every friday morning and its crazy cuz every time we are all like wow we were just here doing this like yesterday it seems like. so yep 6 weeks down 3 left in the mtc then i find out for real how much i dont know haha. one of our hermanas left this morning for spain! she is going to madrid and they were supposed to leave after week 3 to go to spain mtc but spain is being really tough with their visas lately so no one is getting them. then like last friday they callled her to the travel office and she got her visa so she is off to spain for the next 3 weeks antes de el campo! man, ive been lifted up so much here at the mtc. really, the only person i can constantly call on or turn to in any situation is my father in heaven and its been so awesome to see that influence in my life! i love you guys! im sending home some pictures to my parents today so hopefully my mom sends them out or does something. not sure what she is doing with what i send home! tenga un buen dia! le quiero elder price September 5, 2012 hola familia mom, i will keep you and grandma in my prayers. Heavenly Father is mindful of us all and has a plan for each one of us. prayer is so crazy. there will be times here where i am thinking of myself and just feeling down and have lots of doubts or questions and it seems like every time that happens and i get on my knees and pray, Heavenly Father gives me some sort of answer and just reminds me how ridiculous i am being. i have definitely better recognized the influence of Christ adn satan both in my life since being here at the MTC. the MTC can be such a spiritual place but it can also be a place where satan is constantly at. he is constanly trying to get me to give up or think of bad things or not have the spirit with me at all times. last night at devotional the speaker spoke on the gift of repentance. overlooking my notes i wrote down pretty much the same thing 4 times. the thing was along the lines of, "we all need to feel the bitterness of sin and not having the spirit with us in our lives so that we can more fully prize the good" and thats so true. if we never felt bitterness and sin we wouldnt know what we are doing. it reminded me for some reason of the parable in matthew 20 of labourers in the vineyard, my farewell talk. i have such a testimony of the atonement and the blessing it is in our lives. i have seen it in my life and one thing ive been doing every night in my personal prayers is just asking heavenly father to forgive me for all that ive done throughout the day that doesnt line up with his teachings or making little mistakes. i know i cant do this alone. theres times when im sitting in class where i honestly wonder how much longer i can do this and 2 years feels like itll be a lifetime. then other times the weeks fly and i cant even remember what we did in the last week. this experience is definitely humbling me and teaching me so many lessons. im truly starting to realize i am nothing without my brother Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father. when i put my faith in Christ and that there is a plan for me, all doubts and fears seem to fade away and not be a big deal. the problem is, always being able to do that. i have a tendency to get attached to people i have seen and sometimes its hard to give up everything in my life before and not think about things, but the more i do the more love i feel for missionary work and the importance. so there was an hermana in our zone who was here this past week for visitors center training and her companion was from panama. she was probably like 4 ft 9 and spoke spanish way fast. we talked to her at lunch one day and she told us we were going to love panama and it is the greatest country in the world. she said the people of panama like to have fiestas with all of their family. there is lots of good fruits. oh and the hotest months of the year are december january and february so around when we get there. also, i guess it rains pretty much every day. in the morning its very sunny and afternoons it rains is what she said haha so itll be an awesome experience. our new teacher. hermano warburton. he is a stud. so smart in the scriptures and awesome guy. been back like a year and 5 months and is married and going to byu. he served in long beach california and was only in 3 different areas his whole mission and was assistant for like 7 and a half months. you can tell he cares about us and he is funny. after every class he gives us all hugs(well except for the hermanas obviously) and sometimes in the mtc you just need a hug haha to hannah- one of the elders i met here is named elder jackson. he is from mesa and we were just talking about where we went to school. turns out he is judds cousin so he knows about pinnacle and they actually look very similar its funny. we exchanged addresses and he wants to get together after the mission. yes us missionaries have to exchange addresses and emails because we dont have cell phones or anything anymore. all i have is a camera! caleb- i didnt like high school either i was kind of there for the social aspect but its a big point in your life where you can start to mold your future so make good choices and study! josh- im sure youll enjoy this, but one of our teachers that always helps us out, his name is Hermano Heap. guess what? his older brother is todd heap the tight end from the cardinals and hermano heap looks just like him and is a way nice guy. ill have to get a picture with him and send it home so you know im not lying! ;) lydia- im so proud of you for being baptized! as a missionary thats what i am teaching people. why baptism is so important. its how we can begin our process of going back to live with heavenly father Les Quiero Elder Adam Price