hey dad,

last week was good. we havent found anyone for a long time. it feels weird but you win some you lose some. all you can do is keep moving forward. every day is great. i am speaking alot of japanese now. my comp said he heardme sleep talk injapanese! i hope thats a good sign.gid sent me a wedding invitation. i heard he was getting married when i was in the mtc from a elder from sweaden who new gid. i cant beleive the little gidder is all grown up now. good forhim. the baptism for the 21 is almost a definate. it would be earlier but the week of the 14 is supposed to be the coldest week and she is worried she might get a cold and not beable to come to church. other than that she is what we call a 'kinjin' which litteraly means gold person. she is awesome. i cant wait till the 21. this week was kindof a boring usual week. i will try to and do some crazy stuff so i can have some cool stories to tell. right now i have no cool stories. sorry. i have only been to 1 soba shop. an eternal investigator owns it. it was way good. normaly we cook our own food.

thats about it for this week. thanks you for all that you have done for me.

love

elder christian price

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

hey mom,

thanks for the news. my new companion is awesome! we have great time together. i know you will do great during the fireside. the spirit is the real teacher. we just get the awesome opportunity, as teachers, to invite it. i love the spirit!

the asian party sounded fun. i cant wait to have an asian party when i get back. parties are awesome. good to hear that erica is getting her life back and that youa re getting part of yours back. i think i bought my suits at 'eastvalley sports'. its on southern if i remembe right and between higley and riggs? i am not 100% sure but i amalmost certian it is call east valley sprots. i hope erica has practice her swimming.

i have been healthy so far. suprising sense it is really cold and i didnt really wear a good jacket all winter. good blessing. i love writing letters to all of the gneiting's. it was fun and it made me feel like i was talking in person to each of them. it was no problem.

the main bulk of this week is in dads letter so please read his sorry. it is kind of long. the main message is that japan has is struggles but it is still great. i am still loving the people and my ward. i love seeing the lords hand in my life. i never really took the time to realize it before my mission. man this gospel is great!!! i love sharing the gospel.

thank you for your love and support. love has such a great power. thankyou


love


elder christian price

hey mom,

the the news is that i staid in yamatokoriyama but i got a new companion. his name is elder kurose.(ku-ro-sei). yess he is a native. i dont know how i got another one. i thought it was not supposed to be common. it isprobably way good for me. we speak mostly japanese. it is way tuff but it will make me alot better. he is awesome. he is friends with my trainer elder imai.he is a good missionary and i am looking forward to woking with him.

yes i got the package. thank you so much. everything was amazing.

it sounds like chloe had a fun birth day. i can already tell you are going to have your hands full when she is older. good luck!

i would expect nothing less form the 2 redheads than for them to have a competition. the only bad part is if marshal loses he will cry about it because abby is younger than him. maybe he will learn to pick his battles wisely. i am glad to hear everyone had fun. but dont have to much fun because i want to ride the quad when i get back.

this week has been the usual;alot of missionary work. the main news is about the tranfters. me and my new comp havent had alot of time to wrk together so hopefully next week we will ahve some cool stuff to share.

thanks for hte package and for your support. i love you

love

elder christian price

hey dad

so today was supposed to be transfers but they move them back to tomorrow so i wont beable to tell you till next week sorry.

soudns like the snow activity was a success.

the asian party sounds fun. i wish i could be there but on the other hand i eat japanses food every day. i almost always like what i am given at peopple homes. i have goten used to putting on a smile eating the food and saying it was delicious. for the most part it is good. some food has an aquired taste but i eat it all. thats what i am good at.

i am sad to hear that they are starting to restrict atv usage. i hope it isnt to bad when i get home.

i dont have to many crazy stories this week but i did get a BAPTISM! i wrote about it in moms letter and i dont want to write it aigan so please look at hers. thanks.

thanks for the emials and support. it is amazing how far love travels. hopefully next week i will have transfer news for you. i love you

love

elder christian price

hey mom
yes today was the big transfer day. it was so big that they moved it to tomorrow. fun right? no not fun. now i wont be able to tell you until next monday. sorry. it sounds like valintines day was full of sweets. we got some valitines for the members and a huge basket full of misc. items. it was awesome. i am glad you sent the package to the mission home too. it is probably best if you always send it to the missoin home. i could get emergency transfered for no reason at any time. thanks for the spiritual thought. i read it and i dont know if i am emotionally ready or not. i guess that is something i need to find out. but for the time being i think i am ready. it sounds like your week was kind of like mine. the best part of my week was that i had a BAPTISM on sunday. 14 of feb. we baptized miura satoru. he is 52 and crazy! i told dad the story about him 2 weeks ago when we brought him to sacrament meeting. it was awesome. i will send pictures. i was lucky enough to preform the baptism. i only had to say the pray in japanese once and baptize him once. it was awesome. its is my first baptism while on my mission. after the baptism service i pondered on what i had felt during the baptism and during the preperations for it. yes i felt the spirit but i didnt feel any different. i didnt feel like my mission was any more of a success because i had a baptism. it made me realize that baptism is important but so is everything else. my happinese doesnt just revovle around just baptisms, it revolves around all aspects of the work. after that day i could honestly say that i could be happy with no baptisms while on my mission and i would still feel like i had a successfull mission. to me baptisms are gifts from god. people can choose to be baptized or not but as missionaries we always need to be working hard.that is my thought of the week. i love japan. its the best place on earth. there are baptisms all the time. here. japan missions are no harder than anyother mission. i love you and thank you for your support. i cant wait to have more experiences to share.
love
elder christian price

hey mom,
yes tranfers are comming up soon. when they transfer both missionaries it is called a 'white wash' and it is rare. there is not set standard. sometimes the greenie will leave and sometimes the senior wil leave. i kind of feel like i will leave but it is really hard to tell. i find out next monday 15. it is kind of warming up. the sun may be out but it will blow like crazy and\or it will be cloudy. its better than a month ago but still not great.i have heard of people being worried about their children driving but when i drove i never noticed that. i guess i am just blessed with a good common sense. that is all driving really is. i guess now you will reallly feel like allof the other parents when erica starts to drive. she gets to drive the truck. we will see if that is a good thing or a bad thing in 3 months. i think reading the book of mormon will be her achilles heal. it is tuff getting though alma. after alma is goes way fast.i look forward to the package. i dont care when packages come i just love receiving them. i dont mind if it is late. yes there is aholiday called 'white day'. in japan girls give chocolates on valintines day and on white day the boys give chocolates to all the girls that gave them chocolates. to me this sounds like a great idea that america should adopt. it make the boys life easier. that probably wont happen so i better take advantage of it now while i am in japan.yep life in japan is till great. we have a baptism scheduled for this week. it may or may not happen. the investigator really wants to be baptized but i dont feel like he really understands baptism. we have a week to figure it out. i hope it happens butif not there is always next week. my japanese is starting to feel alittle better. i still feel like i am the worst but only itme will tell.thanks for the love and support. i am glad to hear everything is doing ok and erica found out some answers.
love
elder christian price