I Like Goats

Hey, Family!!!
Things are going good! I'll start with my "answers" to the mundane stuff of the week. ;) ...
I'm going to be writing another handwritten letter this week or so.. I printed off a couple pictures to join it, so that'll be good!

Awesome! Thanks for getting those books! [Fante language books] I'm excited to really start learning. I can get a street understanding of it eventually, but to really know how to speak it I need to know more.. So thanks!

My shoes are just fine. :) My missionshoe brand shoes seem to be a bit bigger than we should've gotten, but I'm handling it. My eccos are just fine, but they are heavy... I use my sandals a good amount. It looks more unusual here, but it's allowed for regular proselyting.

[Essential oils:] I'm using them! I use the lavender one or the pasttense every night before I go to sleep. The peppermint, lemon, and malelueca are getting used, too. Sometimes I use the peppermint, but I mostly use all three when I mop... hehe... It makes the floors smell better. I don't use too much when I do that, though. I don't think I need any more, though I'm not quite sure how much of the lavender is left.

[News about Robin Williams death:] That's terrible. Jumanji..

Amazing pictures. Thanks. :) Speaking of weather, Ghana isn't actually hot compared to Liberia. It's actually quite cold.. Brrrrr.. (that's how I am at night and in the mornings) Maybe it's just for this time, but it's different! Also, it was raining almost every day in Liberia, but it's only done the weird misty rain thing once since I've been here. It didn't even pour!

That's so sweet! He looks good in that uniform. Good number, too. :) It really is an awesome thing. I'm proud of my brother. [he dropped ten pounds this summer]

No mission pics this week, so we'll include a photo of "little brother" wearing his "big brother's" number

[I taught a lesson at church yesterday and shared many stories from Liberia] Liberia stories in RS..  I'm sure I'll use those for the rest of my life. :) That's sweet that you went to [Elder Widdison's] homecoming! I like that guy. We'll see if my accent wears off or not... I definitely talk faster than Elder Widdison, but I talk the same way as him. Interesting stuff!

Elder Cottrell and I got along great! We made a lot of adjustments to everything in the area (and apartment) while he was there, and it was sweet to be able to make some adjustments that I simply needed a companion who also had the same vision to make. We worked well!  [We really enjoyed meeting Elder Cottrell's parents Monday evening]

Elder Hinckley is great. :) We're still companions as of this weird not-transfer transfer (caused by missionaries going home) that takes place on Wednesday (announced on Saturday before). There's two more weeks until the real transfer day. We get along great, and for some odd reason I'm able to talk a lot around him. It's funny. I've been telling so many stories--I didn't even know I had that many! We're working hard, and we don't have a hard time communicating things at all.

Food: Fufu and Banku. The same "___ and soup" mixture (Like, rice and soup) style. Fufu is like bread dough, while banku is a little bit more.. firm? You eat it with your fingers. :)

My week was good! I'm doing my best out here, y'know? Oh, random note before I forget: I met Elder Larsen today! We were in Cape Coast ... and I met him! We introduced each other, and he asked me where I'm from. I told him that I was from American Fork, and he immediately asked if I knew the Petersons and such. Very cool. He even called Dean "Dean", which made me laugh.

So, this week:
Tuesday was a "combined district meeting" which I'm used to calling a "zone meeting". SO many terminology differences here. That meeting was good, though, like everything, it was different from what I'm used to! Same general principles, but different. We went up to Agona afterwards and had a pretty regular day; we're mainly trying to find solid people to teach and help the progressing people to baptism. On the ride home in the taxi (which is surprisingly hard to get at night... Blah.) I was sitting next to a Ghanaian woman named Gloria. She was really nice, 22 years old. We began to talk, and she asked me where I was from. I told her "Liberia" ('cause that's my thing), and she paused and thought for a moment. She then said, "I don't believe you." So I asked her, "if I speak in Liberian English will you believe me?" And she said, "yeah!" So I continued to talk in thick Liberian English. She then replied to my first statement, and I understood her perfectly and replied in something more. After her second reply I realized that she was talking in Liberian English with me! It was so great! :D Made my day. I got her number so the missionaries can visit her over where she lives, too. She spent 4 years in Liberia, Congo Town, so we had some good conversation during the cab ride (while my companion was sitting in front of me talking to some crazy guys).

On Wednesday it was a pretty uneventful day, really. We taught more lessons than ever before in this area! Nothing big. Thursday was weekly planning, which is now right after companionship study, and that messed with my head. I'm used to it on Thursday evenings! Ah! :) Friday was another pretty un-storyful day. Sorry, I should take more notes of the fun things that happen in each day... But Saturday was good! We had a service project! :) The whole ward (weird... ward...) and us missionaries went to a nearby hospital and cleaned, swept, and weeded/mowed with machetes the clinic's grounds. It was a fun service project! They use actual machete things here to brush [weed] instead of "whips" that Liberia uses. It was a great forearm workout! We wore the mormon helping hands pennies, and it was my first time actually working in one of those! That night was transfer news, and... Elder Otieno is going! He was one of my zone leaders. He's going to Kenya. Yep. He's finished his mission, so now a new guy is coming here. That'll be fun! Elder Judy or something. 3 americans and one awesome south african in the same apartment--I'm excited.

Sunday was super good, too. I mean, church was kinda.. We first thought that we would have 0 investigators at church, but miraculously we had one, Sister Agnes, come to church. She lives WAY far away, and we visited her once. She's come to church before a ton, but she's never made it to sacrament meeting, so it was a miracle; she made it that day. :) There was apparently a downpour in Agona that morning, and that may have been a reason why many of our investigators didn't come to church. There were other excuses given as we passed around that afternoon, but hopefully next week. We need our building in Agona.. Also, after church I plugged in the keyboard and began to play. The Young Women's president came up to me and asked if I could play the hymns for the primary program on the coming sunday (she's filling in for the primary president whom traveled). I explained that I can't practice at the apartment, and she said she was going to ask the bishop if I could take it. So.. I have it at the apartment! And I'm going to be playing a few songs next Sunday. Please pray for me? I'm kinda worried about it. It's amazing to be able to play at night, and I might get myself a keyboard out here, but learning the hymns is hard for me. Later that day while we were in Agona we were passing very close to the forest, wanting to go in, but we knew it was taboo for us to enter like that. So we didn't enter. Then an old woman yelled to a younger guy in Fantee, and the younger guy turned to us and offered to take us inside. It was so amazing. BEAUTIFUL place. Loved it. He said on a different day he could take us up to the top of the giant rock thing and go deeper. I got pictures, don't worry. :)

That seems to be about it for this week... :) Things are going good! I had an emotional bump (nothing bad, I was just down for a while) during the week about Liberia. It felt like it was finally hitting me.. No more numbness. But I'm doing okay. Things are different, and I'm in a good situation to be happy. This mission truly is a great one, and I'm happy to be here.

Love you guys so much. :) Have a funny week!

Love,
Elder Price

Q: I like goats?? Hahaha! So what’s the goat story? [He used that as the subject line of his email, but as you can see, never mentioned goats]

A: Haahaahahhahahahhaa I wasn't going to explain it. :) But there's a lot of goats around Ghana. And goats sound like human beings when they scream. :) They also prance all funny.

Q: What’s up with the forest? There are forests there??? And you can go in with a guide?

A: Yes, real forests. JUNGLES. But no monkeys, 'cause.. I don't know why. 'cause we're near the ocean, probably. And yes, I can. :)

Me: Today the news announce some crazy looting of the hospital “in West Point.” Like they were stealing soiled sheets and hospital supplies and 17 ebola patients have gone missing. Sad stuff.

E. Price: SERIOUSLY?? Whoah! West Point was actually a "no proselyting" place because of what it's like there, so I'm not too surprised that something like that would happen in that place. That's really sad though.. I told Elder Freeman (Elder Baldwin's companion, same district, previous companion of Elder Hinckley) and Elder Baldwin about it, and we all talked about that for a while. Craziness.