She finally writes

Dear Fam,

Sorry to be so lax in writing, but I got to 3,200,000 in Bookworm on my I-Phone so really, what’s more important!

All here is snowy and fine.   The snows are absolutely gorgeous as there are lots of pine trees and it looks like paintings.   The little towns, hamlets, villages etc are so picturesque that sometimes we feel like we are in a movie about little towns, hamlets and villages.

I am finally getting the hang of the office and love answering the phone and acting grown up.   Call sometime.   Chances are really good that I will answer.   I’ll include the phone number when I get around to it.   I am sitting in my comfy chair in my room with my Ohio State snuggly on so I am not about to go hunt for the office phone number.

I am pretty well up to date on the comings and goings and transfers.   However I did get one note from a mother asking if I would please put Clayton on her son’s certificate instead of Brandon as I had referred to him in an earlier letter.   That’s when I began my breakdown about being incompetent, but the Lord has helped me a whole lot and I think I am   fine.—but then again I don’t know I’m not fine until something is noticed like that.

A Bishop’s home burned to the ground last week and they are scrambling for things to furnish his unfurnished rental until they can get back on their feet so I offered our new beds that we got from the sister’s apartment who left.   It was hard on me because I had bought a great twin set of bedding and the bed was soooo comfortable.   Jamey can attest to that.   Anyhow they took them away yesterday and I immediately got online and went to the Rochester Craigslist and the second bed down was a full bed which is exactly what I am looking for because a queen won’t fit up the stairs and I want something that will sleep two…so I called and met this fun lady who auctions things and has this house full of stuff that she is trying to sell and get rid of.   Oh what a treasure trove!!!   It belonged to a movie critic and is simply full of pictures of stars on walls (the pictures, not the stars) and he had over 3500 dvds.   The bed was fine but she was the find.   Her husband died 6 years ago and she is still struggling.   She is in her fifties and is a golden contact.   We told her that we would like to meet her for lunch and she was thrilled.   We had to get to two meetings so had to go, but I bought the bed (oh and there was a gorgeous handmade quilt that I hope isn’t too much that I want).   Anyhow, needless to say, I will become her best friend in hoping to help her get rid of her stuff.   She is having a huge sale with everything in the house but asked if we have a place where she can donate the rest as she says things don’t sell that well this time of year and with the economy being so slow.

Oh for a DI.   We can have her donate it to the Goodwill but she wanted to do something noble with it.   Anyhow, any movies you would like?   He has them all alphabetized but are in 4 rooms.   I can’t wait to get back there in the daylight.

I bought a great Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD for Gail our other lady with the mother whom we go sing to and she wants us back the 27 to sing for her mother again and her and her sister.   She is a class act and seems a little distant, but that’s fine.
These are mission stories if you are wondering….just my kind of mission stories.

Oh we had this picture on the wall that was about 3’ x 4’ (probably smaller). It was an oil painting of four elders walking in the grove.   It had worn out its welcome and wasn’t a great piece of art so we took it to the “shed” another trove, but I won’t go into that.   Anyhow in thinking about it I have decided to go get it and blow up pictures of our favorite elders and put them on the bodies of the elders in the picture and just change them around when we feel like it.   It will teach me how to blow up pictures or take them to Walgreens and have them done.   So excited.

The elders and the sisters are absolutely amazing.   They trudge around in 3 feet of snow in less than 20 degree weather and are always smiling—maybe the smiles are just frozen on their faces come to think of it.   They are fun and full of the spirit.   I can see why leaving the mission field is hard.

Last Friday we cooked for about 60 at a zone council meeting.   Tina decided to make Café Rio burritos and oh my gosh they were absolutely the best.   We cooked up so much meat that I was sure we would have a ton left over but not one scrap.   It’s always like that.   She cooks up lots of soups and I have never been a soup fan, but am becoming one.

Well, this took up your day.   I will close and get to work.   Our dear friends and neighbors the McVeas have gone to Orem for their daughter’s wedding.   Should be fun in the office as we are totally in control.   Ha ha ha ha ha.   I’ll go get that office number.   585 223 3440.   Ha ha ha, I gave you Camille’s number by mistake to begin with as I had written it on my card to call them to have their extra beds picked up too.   I see her a lot; she is in my district and only about ¼ mile away.   She is where she is supposed to be…on a mission.

On a MUCH different note, I am sooooo sorry for Louise and Spence.   I guess we will never know the pain she is suffering.   I just so hope that things start moving forward for real.   Oh my gosh what a hard thing.   I hope you have been keeping up with her blog.   I now know how to get in and out but only see hers as it comes up automatically.   I love you all with all my heart and hope we never have to go through something that extreme as far as a surgery goes.

Love you much, Mothra….Sister Mothra

Next letter

Hi my dear friends,   Since Leigh Ann emails me (bless her little heart), I figure she knows her way around and I hope she will forward this to all of you.   She has asked me for my address and no one seems to know it because we live in the boonies so if you want to sent me Christmas cards, packages (with candy and such...don't you dare) my address has to be the office: 100 Perinton Hills, Office Park Suite 120, Fairport, New York 14450.

All is great here.   My daughter has set up a blog but the pictures haven't shown up and I don't know the address so I hope you all rush to it.   The time in the MTC was great.   I added to my weight gain from the cruise and the two weeks before I left by another 5 so by the time I got here I was up about 15 pounds but have lost 2 since so I am sure I'll roll home just fine.

We have got an amazing house.   I'll bet it is at least 2000 square feet with four bedrooms, a dungeon and secret rooms above that we just found.   It is a perfect combination of the old and the new.   It is beautifully insulated and never cold (has radiators...I'm a fan).   All new appliances--even a washroom!   Yet it has door hinges that I am sure have been here since Brigham Young.   It has no garage by it though or carport so we have to park about 50 yards away, but it is in a garage with a garage door opener.   We just park on the lawn when we are emptying things out which is about daily.   The only bad thing that has happened at all is that yesterday we were talking about how friendly everyone is and that we haven't encountered any negativism and she drove to the store getting home about 9:45 alone and was standing by the street to wait for a car to drive by and the car drove by and slowed down and a man yelled really loud "Mormon Bitch."   That was a bit disconcerting.

Our office day consists of getting there about 8:30 and working til 5 but usually longer than that.   I love all I am learning, but I am so detail challenged that I am sure I am going to send a parent letter to their stake president or send off a letter from the previous mission president   or send a letter intended for one missionary to another or any of a number of things...I mention those things because I have caught myself in doing all of them, but caught them before they were sent out.   SHEILA I need your focus, and Cheryl how can you keep so many things going at the same time?

my companion is a marvelous cook and loves to so we are assigned to be at lots of places where food is served.   District meetings, zone meetings, confrences, training sessions, missionaries leaving and missionaries coming etc. so it keeps her very busy cooking and I stay busy eationg what she has cooked.

I do sew for the missionaries but it is easy jobs.   I take in shirts (one time 3 times for 6 shirts as they were never slim as he wanted) and making their pants "skinny lets", button, rips etc.   I enjoy it, but then again, I forget who needs what and until I had them put their names on papers and what they wanted done, in their pockets I don't know what I did.   Maybe that's why I don't hear from them as much as I did at the beginning come to think of it.

On our very first day here we went to the Sacred Grove, Joseph Smith's farm and the "frame" house built by his brother Allvin.   It was especially neat because our president knows everything.   That isn't said with sarcasm; he knows everything.   He has written 10 books and is so knowledgeable about all church related things.   He has worked in the CES for about 30 years and is just so interesting and fun.

Well, that's enough to swallow for the first letter so I will just stop.....Oh that's a lie..I went to the office Saturday to finish up some stuff and just as I was walking out, the phone rang and I answered it and the lady said she was looking for a certain song that her mother sang all the time.   She is in the final stages of cancer (the mother) but continues to sing the song.   This Gayle had gone to her pastor and music person in her church and they hadn't heard of it so she put the words in the internet and found it was a Mormon hymn.   She looked up the church in the phone book, called one building where no one answered and then called the mission office.   It was "There is Sunshine in the Soul".   I told her that we had just sung it the day before and she was so excited.   She was heading down to get her car emissions checked which was directly on my way home so I made her a couple of copies and we met her there.   She talked to us for quite a long time and we offered to send a couple of the sister missionaries over to the rest home where her mother is to sing the song for her and she was absolutely teary.   We will definitely follow through with that one. 

I go to the mall (huge mall 10 minutes away)---every store you could ever think of 10 minutes away...and I just start up conversations with people sitting on the benches.   It is great fun, but it costs me about $60 dollars a trip because I can't help going in to Christopher and Banks, Macy's   etc.   and their sales are so great..but I do digress.   Anyhow they ask me why I am here and I talk about it, but haven't thrust a Book of Mormon at them yet.   I   Chriswill though.

Cold here averaging 30 degrees high, but you have been blasted with winter a lot more than we have.

OK OK I'll quit.   Love you all much,

Finally a letter!

November 29, 2010

A mission is an amazing thing.  From the minute Tina and I decided to go, everything fell into place.    It is kind of scary too because it is hard to believe that we could have this incredible time doing what is right.  It seems that anything this fun would have to be a little naughty. 

Our experience in the MTC was perfect—except for the 10 pounds I gained there to be added on to the five I gained between the two weeks before going out to dinner and lunch constantly, added on to the 5 I gained on the fantastic cruise.  So, I waddled on to the plane and flew to New York.

Back to the MTC.  We met the most wonderful people from our group.  We had a huge group of over 80 people and learned amazing things.  Some were going to Hawaii, the Rumseys, some to Switzerland, the Cramers (our favorites), some to be CES administrators for the South Pacific, I think stationed in Tahiti, the rumen???.  Others were going to Alabama, South Carolina, Toronto Canada, Australia, Romania, the Ukraine, etc etc.  All of them seemed worthy to be Mission Presidents and yet were going as proselyting, office, CES, missionaries, all with the same goal to bring people unto

Christ.

We were in classes Monday November 02, 2010 until Friday November 12.  The first week we were given lessons from the new Missionary book, Preach My Gospel.  The lessons were direct, inspiring and ordered in such a way as to give the investigator an overview of what the church teaches and how it can change their lives for the better.  The first lesson was,          the second was, the Restoration, the third was the Plan of Salvation and the 4^th was           ,  We did teaching scenarios where we would go to an  investigator and teach him/her the lesson.  Even though the “investigator”  was a volunteer and probably a Stake President, we felt the spirit so strong and words would come out of our mouths that we had no idea where they came from.  It was a tremendous experience. 

The second week we learned office responsibilities.  We learned Microsoft Word, Excell, how to make newsletters, how to merge letters, how to finalize transfers, document baptisms and all sorts of worthy office things----most of which I will have forgotten before I use them.  I thoroughly enjoyed that week as I love learning things to use in the computer---the fact that I couldn’t find a “new” page to start this, is indicative of how well I remember stuff.

The food was horribly good.  I had at least three desserts and full course meals around the desserts.  Anyone who ever complained about the food at the MTC just didn’t get it.

Every minute with Tina was a delight.  We giggled ourselves silly on more than one occasion and have gotten along just famously. Very excited to move on to the real thing.

We were having my car shipped and I had stuffed it so full that it was just silly.  Golf clubs, a sewing machine, more clothes that I would wear in a year and about 15 pair of shoes.  Hangers for more clothes than I brought, my printer, a George Forman grill, etc etc.  We were told that the car would be picked on Tuesday about 1.  Well then it changed to about 5 and then he said he would call as he was about 30 minutes out.  We went to dinner and I got quite antsy around 20 minute into it and went for my phone to find it was DEAD.  Not just as in had little battery left, but dead dead dead.  And the joy of an I-phone is that when it is dead it is hard to get it back even when charging.  We ran to the car and plugged it in to the car charger only to have it not connect. 

We found a little man in the church parking lot and used his phone to call Steven our driver.  We realized that he probably couldn’t get the huge truck into the church parking lot so told him to just head towards us and we would head towards him.  On calling him when we figured we were close, his line was busy.  So then we just started looking for him along the University Parkway.  Tina spotted him just as he was turning the wrong way so we caught up with him in a large car sales lot and gave him my car.  Then called Carson to come get us and he was there in a flash and we tore back to the MTC for devotional and made it just in time to get the fifth row seats reserved for seniors and our speaker was Elder Bednar! 

He was just unbelievable.  His talk was about how the “answer” is the doctrine.  We act on the principles (we are baptized because…) and live the  applications like being baptized, going to church, etc.  But all too often, people live the applications only and don’t go to the doctrine.  They go to church, get baptized, etc, but don’t live charity, and don’t turn to the scriptures for answers etc etc.  Did that make any sense?  Anyhow it was great.

So we lived for two days without a car and then flew to New York on Friday, Nov 12.  President Christianson and his wife Melanie (Tina’s sister) met us at the airport and took us to dinner and then to their house.  Saturday we went to all of the church history sites.  President Christianson knows EVERYTHING about the Joseph Smith farm, the log house and the frame home built by Alvin for his parents.  We went to the Sacred Grove, the Hill Cumorah and the Temple.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day and a 100% perfect experience.  We got to see rooms that others don’t get to see on the general tours and a terrific fellow, Bob, told us about every tree used in the homes and how to cut wood and other things that were so interesting told by someone with such a passion for them.

These pictures are pictures of the “witness” trees, those trees that were there when the vision took place.  They were so neat and there is an amazing spirit there.  We went there again when Shelby and fam were here and it was soooooo cold.  Sorry it wasn’t like it was when we made our first visit there.

That first week was scary to realize all we have to do, but by the second week I knew my disc was full so I just stopped paying attention.  When my trainer goes home the 18 of December, I will probably fall flat on my face and mess up the mission royally but for now I’m covered.  Even in doing this page, I had forgotten how to find word wrap so I could be in for real trouble.

My job consists of writing lots of letters. I remember how to mail merge (at least I knew it last week), keeping up the board that shows were missionaries are located, getting them ready to go home and come in, making stuff for the conferences, and more stuff I can’t remember.

Heros

So this morning I was blog hopping to avoid housework and came upon this entry on my cousins blog.  Tyson's blog  What a sweet tribute.

PICTURES!

Loved that place!!! (MTC)

Everyone does this

One of the 7 witness trees that saw the vision in the Sacred Grove

Another tree that has been there more than 200 years

Our day in the Grove

Mom's first letter

Dear Family,

Ok, salmon, Marriott Hotel, M Russell Ballard, incredible teachers, terrific companion, being around totally awesome people, feeling the spirit constantly, best desserts…What more could a person want.

Being in the MTC is just wonderful in every way.  I think everyone needs to come here for a week a year.  AND the whole nation’s education system needs to take on these young teachers to find out how to really teach.

Ok that’s my world.  They really did put us up in the Marriott because the MTC is overloaded.  They put all the senior missionaries here so it’s not that we are that special.  These senior missionaries are just amazing:  fun smart, spiritual, the best and from all over.  It is just neat so see ordinary people going from St. George to Zimbabwe, to Switzerland, to Russia, Romania all with the same goals.  Some in CES, some office, some young adult supervisors. Etc etc.  We are the only senior sister pair and people think we are unique, brave and cool.  How validating is that!  We have already done missionary work because several sisters are planning on killing their husbands to come back with a friend and serve another mission or have called female relatives and friends to tell them about this great plan which they seem to have never heard of before.

I especially love the teaching, fake teaching, but full of eye openers.  Love the Preach My Gospel program.  OK just too positive?  I’ve been here a week and we leave a week from yesterday for the real world, but very very excited.

My kids are going to have to write about their worlds cuz I really am separated sort of.  I still have my cell phone use and laptop, but Tina and I are trying to leave the world at least a little.

I think I am kind of focused and probably really boring so I will quit for now.  So appreciated Nancy, Rosemary, Marti and fams coming up for my farewell.  That was a glorious day.  Melanie gave a terrific talk.  She used to live in my ward so still knows many of the people and they all loved seeing her again.  Then Tyson, my great nephew sang.  Oh my that was amazing.  I gave an ok talk, but it was really a neat time.  Everyone has been so kind and enough gush.

Love you all,

Sister Price

From Mom via myfamily.com

OK get this! I am THE HEAD secretrary of the Rochester, New York Mission. Some who don't know me would say, "cool!" Those who know me well would say, "Scary!" but those who know my computer talents would say, "So falls the Rochester New York mission."