Earrings in the Mud

Hey, Family!

Basically, I wrote my letter before I came to the cafe... So, here goes it!:

This week has been interesting! First thing to announce: transfer news! Surprisingly, most everything stayed the same. We are receiving another companionship of sisters, and Sister Iwenofu was transferred. So three new sisters in the zone! Next, wait, I haven't mentioned what's happening to me yet: I'm staying, and Elder Kamara is too! Six more weeks (at least) of zone leader and Doe Community ahead of me. Oh, and now I'm "apartment leader," meaning I handle the funds for apartment supplies for our Doe Community apartment! Which, I should mention, is getting two new missionaries. They will be in Doe Community 2 (we split our area), taking over a portion that has... Well, nearly nobody. two? Yeah. Well, the Elders called to be in my apartment and branch: Elder Gharbin and Elder Osatohangbon (Sp?). You've heard of Elder Gharbin before, and Elder Osatohangbon is from Nigeria, about Elder Widdison's MTC [talking about how long he's been serving]. For the rest of the zone only Elder Smith and Elder Widdison changed. Literally, they swapped places. Hah!

So this week:

Tuesday: We had district meeting! I gave instruction for this one (Elder Burr can ask others to give it). I gave it on.. This: Our purpose as missionaries -- power & authority -- having the spirit -- faith -- diligence -- obedience. I hit pretty strong on that last point at the end, and I felt good about how it turned out!

Wednesday was mission council, so we went in town to the mission office with all the other zone leaders! I really enjoyed it; President talked a lot about teaching the doctrines contained in Preach My Gospel, not expounding other doctrines. As we went through that, I felt like a light bulb turned on in my head about how I can improve more! I've been reading PMG more than ever lately, and I see exactly what I can do better in my teaching. That's mostly it for Wednesday; we taught Chr., our security guard who is being baptized this coming Saturday.

June Mission Council - photo from Liberia Mission blog

Thursday: We taught mostly a full day! Saw a couple people that are near their baptismal dates. Ja. and Ev. are being baptized this Saturday - we taught them. In general, we taught people. Hotel California was playing nearby, however, during the lesson with Brother Botoe. That was funny! His wife fed us Palm Butter, too. Doe Community feed a TON!

Friday: Another day of teaching! We are trying to see all our progressing people... Nothing big of note. Esther fed us after we taught her daughters and son. Oh yeah, a cool experience! We were teaching Su. the law of Chastity, and everything was going smooth. We were continuing with modesty, and I started talking about earrings. Su. has a stud that's a mid-ear cartilage piercing as well as the one standard lobe piercing. Right as we taught it she began to take her extra earrings off, and she threw them into the mud nearby. It was a cool experience to watch her change that fast. Unfortunately, we're postponing her baptism for another week or two to make sure she understands everything very well. [I asked more about this, and he added:] The interview is to see if they've repented, are converted, and such. We want to make sure she understands the commitment she's making. She understands the obedience, but we are just trying to help her to learn the things. Not accept or believe, but learn. 

Friday night I had my hair cut by Elder Widdison with clippers! A slightly more conservative form of the .."Youth" haircut. I like it!

Saturday started with a baptism (in Logantown branch) and went on to lessons. We taught all the people we're going to be baptizing plus another guy. So we started with Ja. and Ev. The reason I always put those names together is because Ja. was a referral from Gardnersville (because her boyfriend is a member) and Ev. lives right next to her, and they always come to everything together. Ev. passed her interview yesterday, and Ja.'s is later this week. Then we saw Su.! That was when we decided to postpone the day for her baptism. Hopefully it's soon! We also taught Bl., Fa.'s sister. She passed her interview yesterday too! Then we taught a man named A. He's married, ring and all, and he's been coming to church for the past month. We taught him for the first time, and he wants to be baptized so much. He recognizes his baptism wasn't done by the proper authority (or procedure, he just tagged along with his wife to her baptism and was baptized too). So, I'm excited to be teaching him. Our last lesson was with Chr., just making sure everything was good for her interview, which she passed yesterday. Transfer news came that night!

Sunday was good! 24 [investigators] at church - Doe Community is always great. Right as church finished Elder Burr and Elder Smith came for the interviews, and then we all crammed (like sardines) into a bus full of other Doe Community members and went to a meeting at the Sinkor chapel in town. The meeting was because they officially created the Paynesville District, which means Doe Community and Logantown branches were moved to the Monrovia District! So now our zone is split in districts. It's interesting! Zone leaders meet with the district presidencies on the first Saturday of each month for the district their zone is serving in, but now I don't know what's supposed to happen now that we're split! We may be going to both Monrovia's and Bushrod Island's!

An Historic Event - Creation of Paynesville District in Liberia

Yesterday I started what I thought was having really bad allergies. All the same symptoms, BAD. And no temperature. This morning I measured my temperature, it's gone up a bit, and I've been getting more of a headache. I'm gonna call Sister Kirkham about that (again, I called her yesterday, and we were just gonna see what allergy pills did) later today. :) Don't worry about me, though. :)

I love you all so much! Things are going well over here. I love hearing about what's going on over there. Thank you for the [Elder Holland] talk, by the way, Mom, that you included in a dearelder. I got that this morning, and it's really good. So, yeah! Until next week! I love you!

Love,

Elder Price