Thanksgiving, Service and becoming a better missionary.

November 27, 2023

Hola, Como Esta? Todo Tranquillo? My last p-day was Wednesday so it's only been 4 days since then, so I don't have a ton of funny stories, but I have some important things to say.

P-day- It was transfers this week, so we had a sleepover with some of the other elders and there where 6 of us. We only had 4 twin sized mattresses soooo let's just say I didn't get very much sleep. But like I said in my last email I didn't get transferred and I'm staying here till at least until January!!!

For Thanksgiving I didn't get a big feast I got 2 rabies shots. HAHA. We woke up at 5am to go to take a two-and-a-half-hour bus ride to Tegucigalpa for rabies shots. No, I didn't get bit by a dog. The whole mission had to get them. Then my comp needed shoes, so we traveled to city mall to buy some and headed home. When we got home, we taught only 2 lessons because it was getting late and for "Thanksgiving" we went to our second counselor's house Roberto to have HOT CHOCOLATE AND LISTEN TO CHRISTMAS MUSIC. I was super grateful they invited us over, but I was a little sad cause all my gringo friends were having a thanksgiving dinner.

We had a service project for Roberto too. We cleaned up his patio that was full of chunks of concrete and other junk. He told us to bring as many missionaries as we wanted to get it done faster. We brought 8 missionaries. We really should have only brought 4 because there was a lot of standing around and goofing off by the other 4. It ended up taking 5 hours.

Now I know my emails seem like all I do is mess around and have fun but it's because I love to tell stories and make things seem exciting but I'm going to be 100% honest right now. The mission is fun, but when it comes to the work part, I haven't been loving it and it been really tough for me to find motivation to study and to want to go out and teach. Don't get me wrong, we still go out and teach and we get some of the best numbers in our zone, but it's been hard.

Friday, I woke up and just felt really disappointed and sad about my Spanish because I tend to get compared to my Greengo friends. They make fun of me because their Spanish is a lot better than mine and just as a missionary in general, I felt down. That morning I decided to listen to a ton of talks about missionaries and missionary work and I wrote a letter to myself and anyone who is going to be a future missionary and prayed really hard to have the motivation to be a better missionary. I wrote in my journal that I "hope at the end of my mission that people say Elder Price was a great missionary." Now I figured out what is the problem. My old comp Elder Wixom told me my first 3 weeks here. he asked me one day " Elder Price why are you out here serving a mission?" I said "because I know I need to and to be an example to my brothers and that you need to serve a mission." He continued to tell me I'm out here for the wrong reason. I just brushed it off because I was like pfff what does he know, how can you be out here for the wrong reason. Well, when I prayed on Friday the conversation came back to my mind and I remembered one more thing he said to me. He said " Elder Price ask me why I'm out here." So, I asked him and he said "I'm out here not for myself but because I love God and to bring others unto him!" I finally understood after 2 months what he meant. For the past 3 days I've changed my attitude and the reason I'm out here and the work has been way better. I'm more excited to do service and more excited to go out and teach and bring others unto Christ.

Don't just go on a mission because your parents or bishop told you too or because of other not good reasons because you won't truly enjoy the mission. But you need to go because you have a strong testimony, love for God and want to bring others unto Jesus Christ!

Love you all, Elder Price