November 4th Update

Dear Family,

I'm so glad to hear about Rikki's surgery going okay. I got a phone call from Sister Berrett the morning she got the email from you, and she told me that everything went alright. I'm so glad! I wrote Rikki a physical letter last night :) Five hours is really really long [she had surgery]... Rikki's gonna be a cancer survivor! She'll be okay... It's weird being out here for such a big thing in her life, as well as her wedding.

Those costumes look so great! Good job! [we sent him a few photos from Halloween] I know Dad's been wanting to be the Three Amigos for forever. ;) It sounds like Halloween was successful this year! That's a lot of family [celebrating at our house]. And Emma and Dean being there is great! hehe.

That's a really cool thing with Leif! I'd like to hear snippets of how he's doing, too, if possible. [Rain's cousin, Leif, has arrived in Portugal for his mission and his first assignment, Barriero, is an area where Dale served.]

[I asked about his photo from Oct 21st]  The African skirt... Is actually women's clothing. It's a lappa!
or a wrappa. However you want to call it. We call it a lappa. It's basically just a piece of fabric wrapped around you. It's really comfy... All of us guys in the apartment have one. The one you saw is one of my two!

Current events:
We watched conference in church yesterday! Only the Sunday afternoon session, but still, it was great. Oh, and a bit of a Saturday session. Some of the talks were very powerful. The Africans in the branch couldn't really understand most of the speakers since they were speaking "ceres" (Okay, it sounds like serious, except it's siris. No drop from the "ou"), which is what I speak! So I enjoyed it.

At church yesterday, one of our investigators who came for the first time noticed someone else in the congregation. Who? His mom. It was so great! I think she might be an investigator as well, but in the Sisters' area, or she's a member. It was such a great coincidence!

What I'm eating daily is two eggs in the morning with a piece of bread, starving (or getting an FM {free meal/family meal}), then three eggs at night! I can fluff up the eggs really big now, so it can look like a lot more. Mmmm eggs... You raised me well. I think I'm losing a bit of weight! I like it.

We have nearly 30 investigators right now, but a real challenge here is knowing whether or not they're serious. Sometimes they just want to be taught, and they'll never make a commitment. Appointments are almost nonexistent. It's mostly a "walk up to investigators place, 'hey, is sister/brother [toby] here?" and that's how it works! But more in their accent. I'm working on the accent! I'm trying really hard to get it down, but it is SO thick. Maybe if I had tried to copy Hawaiian pidgin for a couple weeks before coming it could've helped. I'm getting it, "small small."

Here's a list of music that I would really like on that microSD card, but I'm still brainstorming more music, so don't send the card yet [he doesn't know it yet, but I already sent him a microSD card full of Christmas music, including the new Piano Guys Christmas album. He took with him a Sansa mp3 player that has a slot for microSD cards so we can send him music]:
Piano Guys.
Michele Mclaughlin - Celtic Dream album
Cristifori's Dream
...
That's it for music for now! ;) I still love music. I sing for fun sometimes. Thanks for the suggestion, Dad, of singing to make it easier!

Ties: I don't really know if they need to be handwashable... It seems like the ones I brought are fraying a lot faster than the other materials I've used. I'm gonna get a couple Jatala ties (african silk, crazy expensive, I can get them for US$4).

This week has been really stressful, because I started planning some of the days. I'm getting better, and I am trying hard. Mission is going, and I'm going to be a transfer old the next time I email. It's crazy.

I love you all.
Love,
Elder Makani Rain Price

[His weekly update to his mission president]:

Dear President,
This week went well, and, being in week five of training, I was able to start planning. It was pretty stressful, but I'm learning as much as I can and trying my best to improve, and I can already see improvements. Thank you for your comments about my companionship, and it's true, we come from very different backgrounds. It's so interesting to learn about his life before his mission. My companion and I have been able to learn more about each other this past week, and we've made it a goal to have a feeling of love between us. There is already improvement, and I can feel the Spirit helping us.

The branch is doing well, and we're seeing improvements in activities like seminary and institute. We're receiving many new investigators, and we're doing our best to have them all progressing. The work is moving forward! I really enjoy looking for miracles in each day and being able to see the way the Lord blesses us. We will make sure to report on the participation with the branch in the coming weeks.

Sincerely,
Elder Price