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