hey dad,

i am glad you think miura will be a blessing for the ward. i think he will be in a different way than you and the ward thinks. he has a mental illness. PTSD. it makes him act like a child and he doesnt know when to speak up and when to keep things to himself. he just likes to speak up all the time. this ward is an awesome ward and they are blessed to have no weird member. so when we gave them miura san they kindof freaked out. it has been a real test for the leaders. miura has progressed so much but he still has a longway to go. some of the leaders think we should have waited to baptism him. maybe they are right but whats done is done and i dont think waiting would have been any different. i dont know if i mentioned last week or 2 weeks ago but elder oaks came to our mission and we had the wonderfull oppurtunity to meet and listen to him. a story he told really made me change my thinking of chruch and its members. elder oaks tells a story about how one time he was giving a talk somewhere and he spoke about how the chruch is not a retirement home or the righteouss but it is a hospital for sinners. after his talk he meet the people in the congrigation and one of them was a recent convert. the convert says something along the lines of "thank you for your talk now i know why you call your congrigations 'wards'" yes, it is a very good joke and me writing it does not do it justice but it is the meaning behind it. it feels like some of the ward is pushing miura san out because he is not only spiritually sick but physically sick as well. after hearing elder oaks talk it drove in the principle that we need to help everyone not just the people that we like or that make life easy. i wish this ward could have hear him share that message. miura will be a great blessing to this ward if the ward can realize that there ward is not a 'retirement home for the righteouss' but a 'hospital for sinners'. i feel that miura san will humble the ward and that after they do that miura san will no longer be problem.

sorry i kindof went off on this subject but it is dear to my heart. everyone has problems but miura san shows his problems differently than others. i just hope and pray the ward sees him as some one that needs help and not as a problem.

enought of that. japan is great! i am glad to hear the party when well. the work is going great. we have another person lined up for baptism for teh 21 of march. i am way pumped. she is a very prepare lady. so far she has had no problems withthe lessons and no problme with the word of wisdoms. the sad thing is that we can only meet 1 time a week. i am so excited. other than that it is the usual. weare working hard to find people. we dont go to ward leadership council. the ward does not invite us which is kind of weird but it is theri ward not mine. i feel like my japanese has improved. with my new companion we speak alot of japanese so i am getting more comfortable with my speaking skills. speaking alittle better japanese takes of some of the stress when talking to people because now i can kindof understand what they are saying. me and my new comp. get along great and i am glad to be his companion.

thats about it for this week. i have a story but i will put it in next weeks letter. ilove you and miss you to.

love

elder christian price