"Bathe Daily, If Possible"

Dear Family!

Wow. Great email from you guys today. That movie sounds interesting! Did you ever see the "testimonies" video of Liberia? I forgot the official name. It mentions that story quite a bit. I know Prince Nyanforh and all of those things. I'll be interested to see it! I'm glad to hear that Dad liked it. :) Also, that gopro-like video camera sounds like it will be AWESOME. [We saw the movie premiere for "Freetown" this week and really enjoyed it. It was a story about missionaries in Liberia. We sent him our personal movie reviews. And Dale went to a paintball tournament last week and had a chance to use his new video camera.]

RIKKI'S HAVING A GIRL!!!!! I'M SO EXCITED!!! Yep. :D  

The stuff with the homecoming sounds sweet! You met a lot of people that I know! And I had heard about that Elder Smith before; I believe he was in the Logantown zone when he finished his mission and I arrived. And it's good to hear about what the realistic things are about the reopening of Liberia. I'll keep praying. :)  [I went to Elder Guymon's homecoming yesterday.]

Uh, wow, those are some crazy responses about [last week's] pesticide story! These ones were just a different brand, y'know, there's different manufacturers and stuff. Yeah, it's no big deal now, don't worry. :) This is one of those exciting differences between my mission experience and.. let's say, those in Europe's missions experience!

"Porridge and pincaso. Yummy breakfast for today. :) 'You're gonna miss this...' "

[Googling it, we learned that pincasos are a Ghanaian doughnut sold on the street. I'm pretty sure Dale would be eating these daily if he were there. Probably not the porridge, though.]

Okay, now, I'll get to the real reason for why I actually write this email. Update! :)

This week's kinda.. Well, I didn't keep track of anything. So we'll see how this goes. I'll probably just share a few experiences from this week.. But first, Tuesday was pretty normal, though no district meeting. Wednesday was strange, they put in new nets over our windows! The old ones were gross, so they changed them. After letting Elder Halterman sleep for awhile, I woke him up and coerced him into helping me clean the windows, which involves taking the windows out of the lever things, putting them in buckets and washing them, then wiping them off and re-installing them. We did that to the entirety of the main room. If I had more time to clean, this apartment would be much cleaner. :) Thursday didn't have too much of interest.. The same guys came back and scrubbed our floors! That was interesting... "You mean, they're.. mopping for us?" "basically. with some chemicals." "So mopping. with scrub brushes." "Yep." Hahahahaha, well, we enjoyed that.

Friday was a zone meeting; it was good. I got a couple letters! No package yet, I'm expecting that to be this week now. They reminded us to dress well and not be dirty. The handbook says, "bathe daily, if possible." Pres. Stevenson has changed that. It's now, "Bathe daily." No exceptions. Even if it's with sachets. XD Haha, well, other stuff was instructed too... For example, I am now buttoning up the top button on my shirts! Not like you could tell. But we were asked to do so. "Elder Halterman, do you see a difference?" "Yes." "liar." "No, really, the spirit is so much more with you!" Hahahahhahahaha :D We saw a member on Friday, Abigail, and guess what: she made us a cake! Like.. a really good one. Coconut shavings on the outside. It was incredible. We brought it back to the apartment and shared it with the other elders. It was SO good. :) That's what my picture is of! She's the same woman who made me Palm Butter. :)

"Our wonderful return missionary friend made us cake."

Saturday was normal, we went out to our far stuff. Not too much goin' on out there, just meeting some people. Our Ward Mission Leader's mother, Sister Aidoo, is awesome. We went and visited her somehow-family member, Atoo, who is a recent convert, and they gave us a really good fufu. Her and her family go WAY back with the church, and have been crazy active members for a really long time. She told us that child of record lessons are the best, and that you have to treat them nicely, but that they'll always answer the questions correctly. Child of record lessons, we learned, equal meals. :) We were laughing so hard.

Sunday was good! We had a rocking FIVE people at church!!! :D :D   B. and A., E., and a couple other people that surprised us! It was a good service. The elders quorum president came up to me at the beginning of sacrament meeting and asked me to teach elders quorum. So.. I did! Hahaha, barely any preparation. I don't think it was too bad. :)

Other updates.. So, I sent you a picture of me writing on the chalkboard during S's lesson. She's awesome. She's been less-active for a while, but we've been working with her for the past few weeks. We taught her last week, and then her ENTIRE family came to church. Then we taught her more this week, and we prepared her with her testimony and understanding and had her proselyte with us! We thought to have her go with us because she's the same age as some investigators that have been referred to us, so we started preparing her. We realized that we actually needed to sit with her and help her first... She's now able to be working with us and praying and doing all these good things! A funny experience about this was when we had her to come proselyte with us. We were waiting at the chapel for her to come when she called us saying, "Elders, my mother doesn't believe that I'm telling the truth when I told her I'm going with the missionaries, and she won't let me go. Can you tell her for me?" *phone switches to her mother* "Maame (mamie-liberia/mommy-america) etisen? Yes, she is telling the truth." "Oh, okay, she can go." Hahahaha, can one repent too fast? Well, too fast for others to catch on, maybe! :D

Crappy fans: So, lately I've been having the one horrible fan in the apartment. It barely blows any air, and most of the time you have to spin the metal axle to get the thing to even start. It's not good. They gave me a new one yesterday!!! I assembled it last night; it felt like Christmas. I love putting things together. :)

Old fans

New fan! "It felt like Christmas. I love putting things together. :)"

And about B and A. They're still amazing. :) No question. He surprised the heck out of us when he walked into sacrament meeting in a SUIT! Woot woot! Fresh guy. We had a meal and a lesson at their house yesterday, and we're preparing them for their baptismal interview. We asked about repentance and they started talking with EACH OTHER for 10 minutes about what repentance is. It was wonderful to witness, and those two are so strong. And they're a great couple that I love. A. has started reading the book of Mormon, and earlier in the week we read a chapter with her, and we're having a great time with them. Their baptism seems so close, especially 'cause they're so prepared, but we still have to be patient.

Things are going up. It wasn't the best week, number wise, but the area is definitely progressing, and I'm feeling good. I'm doing my best out here! I love you all so much, and I'm trying to get past the part of me that is still resisting becoming more spiritual and more righteous. The natural man is strong, and I gotta fight! I love you, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Price

We call this his "Hot Wheels" tie.