Elder Price and companion doing street contacts

Elder Price and his companion in the MTC

Week 5

Hello Everybody!

This past week has been interesting.  Elder Farnsworth and I are starting to figure out the area of High Wycombe finally.  A bunch of people have asked me how to pronounce the name, say Wycombe like Homer Hickham.  They say things a lot different over here in England.  We are fairly close to London, so there were threats of rioting, but none of them materialized.  When we asked the locals about it, they laughed and said that something like that would never happen in Wyecomb.  So we are safe.

The first day I met my mission president, he said that miracles are normal in this mission.  We have already experienced many miracles that God has given us to help us with the effort here in Wyecomb.  We are teaching a Zimbabwean, two Hungarians, a guy from Trinidad, two Englishmen, and hopefully two kids of a part member family that want to get baptized.  The members here are awesome and we run into them around town all of the time.  We met our ward mission leader yesterday, and he is an American.  His family lived in Lehi for 6 years before they moved over here for work.  They live in a posh (British for rich) village called Beaconsfield, where some other American members live and apparently Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have a home there as well.  President Shamo has commissioned us to Baptizing the entire family, but they have to get married first! haha.  

Anyways, things are going well and my testimony of Jesus Christ is growing every day.  The Gospel is very simple, but it is also very powerful.  I am gaining a stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon as I read it everyday.  Anyone who reads it and prays about it with real intent WILL receive an answer of its truthfulness.  It is the most powerful testament of Christ on earth.  I hope everything is well with all of you, I look forward to your mail and e-mails.  

Love,

Elder Price

Im Safe!

Hello Everybody,

 

President Shamo is giving me five minutes just to let you know that all of the missionaries in our mission and especially in the London area are safe.  He has made preparations if any of us are affected by the riots and we are only about an hour away from the temple if we are required to leave High Wycombe.  The riots are focused mainly in the city, so we are not affected at all and we are safe.  I know that some of you are probably worried, haha, but I have a good Mission President.  Nothing to worry about whatsoever,  I saw that some of you wrote me e-mails.  I am not allow to reply until Monday, so I will talk to you then!

 

Love,

Elder Price

Week 4

Dear Family and Friends,

 

I am officially a proselyting missionary.  I have been out in the field for four days and it has been awesome so far.  I was assigned to work in an area called High Wyecomb.  It is east of London, but I have not seen London yet (sorry Olivia I couldn't get a picture of Big Ben).  I'll be honest High Wyecomb is kind of a sketchy area.  But is a good area for Missionary work.  There are a lot of Muslims, Africans and Eastern Europeans here as well.  So it is very diverse.  My companion knows greetings for probably 20 different languages, so the people love that.  I am excited to get to know the area better and to progress the work here.  My companion (Elder Farnsworth from Chandler, Arizona) and I are whitewashing the area from some Sisters.  So that means that neither of us have been here before.  This is kind of hard to deal with, but we are working hard to figure the area out. 

 

I have not been here for very long, but we have had some cool experiences so far.  We have been praying for new investigators and on Sunday a man by the name of Edmund called the church and asked if he could come.  We met him and set up a return appointment for Wednesday night.  We met our ward and they are awesome.  The bishopric is great and really funny.  They are all pretty young.  Something that makes this ward unique in comparison to the rest of England, is that a large percentage of the ward are Americans.  There are two celebrities that are going to this ward right now, because a movie is being filmed near High Wyecomb.  Jared Hess (director of such movies as Nacho Libre and Napoleon Dynamite) and his wife Jerusha are here because Jerusha is directing the movie.  Stephanie Meyer (author of Twilight) is also in our ward, but she wasn't there on Sunday.  She is the producer of the movie.  I was pretty awestruck when Brother Hess came up and introduced himself.  Haha it was pretty cool.

 

Things are going great so far and I am loving the work.  A lot of people are willing to talk to us and I am able to bear my testimony regualarly.  I am gaining faith, and I am loving the process.  I hope that all is well back in the States.  If any of you would like to send me letters my address is:

 

Elder Price

17 Temple Gate,

Temple End,

High Wycombe,

Bucks,

HP13 SDY,

England.

 

If you want to send packages the address for my whole mission is:

 

Elder Price

England London South Mission,

The London Temple, West Park Road,

Newchapel,

Surrey,

RH7 6NB

England

 

I miss you all and hope all is well.

 

Love,

Elder Price

Week 3

Hello Everybody,

 

This is my last day in the MTC.  It has been a wonderful experience, and I am almost sad to leave all of the Elders and the instructors that I have met here.  But I am super excited to take the bus tomorrow down to the London Temple where the England London South Mission Office is.  I am excited to meet the mission president, President Shamo.  I have heard rumors that he used to be a film director for such movies as, The Testaments and Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration.  That is just from other elders who are going to London South, so I don't know how reliable that information is.  But we'll see, the MTC President told me that President Shamo is a "delightful man", so I am excited to see.  Also I will have a new companion and a new area to work in, so I'll let you know where I am going in my next e-mail.

 

I was informed that the pictures I attached on my last e-mail didn't go through, so I will try again next week.  I don't have enough time today to do it, so maybe some pictures of London will be included.  Anyways, this was a fantastic week of learning and teaching.  The highlight of the week was an actual real life street contacting experience.  All of the Elders and Sisters were shipped from the MTC to Manchester and we had the opportunity to preach to people in Piccadilly Square (a busy section of Manchester's downtown).  Me and Elder Murri were extremely timid at first, but after a few rejections we figured out that people in England don't appreciate being stopped if they are walking.  So we decided to target people who were stationary, our favorite varieties included old ladies and Africans on benches, teenage boys sitting on obelisks or leaning on trees, and professionals sitting on the grass in the gardens.  We actually had some success and dispelled some myths about Mormons being a racist cult, and having human sacrifices.  Me and Elder Murri, placed two Book of Mormons and gave out numerous pass along cards.  It was awesome!

 

One thing I really began to internalize this week was how important this work is.  When Jesus Christ asked the apostle Peter three times "Do you love me" and when Peter responded affirmatively, Christ said,"Feed my Sheep".  As missionaries we are feeding Christs sheep.  He loves all of God's children and knows each of us personally.  He wants everybody to come back and live with him, and this is why missionary work is so important. 

 

Well I love you all and I miss everybody, but I am having a great time.  I will include my new mail address in my next e-mail so when I do that send me letters!

 

Elder Price

Week 2

Hey Everybody!

 

I had a great week this week in the MTC.  Part of the reason, is that since Friday the Sun has been out for most of the day.  Apparantly it doesn't only rain in England.  But yeah, it has been nice weather and good times in the MTC.  Mostly we have just been in class the whole time, but I have a few experiences that stand out.

 

Me and my companion Elder Murri, have a really good companionship and we are learning well together.  The first week, we were pretty unconfident in our teaching ability, but now we have full confidence.  We know the lessons pretty well and we have a good style of teaching.  We have already committed one of our "Investigators" to baptism.  It is cool having a companion that is willing to work and knowledgeable in the gospel. 

 

On Sunday all the missionaries in the MTC had the opportunity to go on an LDS history tour around Lancashire.  We learned about Heber C. Kimball's mission to England, and we got to see the first baptism site in Europe (The River Ribble).  President Tree told me about the River Ribble and how one of his ancestors was the second person baptised that day.  It was pretty awesome to be there.  President Hinckley also served in Preston and we stood outside one of his flats (apartments), and Sister Walker (his daughter) told us the story of when Gordon B. wrote to his Dad about his struggles, and his Dad replied, "Forget yourself and go to work".  President Hinckley called the moment when he read that letter the turning point of his life, when he committed himself to the service of God.  I attached a picture of me standing outside the flat it was pretty amazing to hear Sister Walker's testimony of this sacred place in her family's history. 

 

One thing I learned this week for myself, is that I am called of God, and that I have to dedicate my life the next two years to serving Him.  I am on the Lord's time, and I am here to help his children. The first week was a hard transition for me, but now I am doing great.  I have hope for a lot of good things in the future.  Thank you for your prayers and for your example.

 

Sincerely,

Elder Price

First Week

Hey Everybody,

 

Well I only have like ten minutes to write this e-mail, so I'll just give the highlights.  While en route to England, I was sitting in the SLC airport waiting for my flight to Atlanta, and Chad Lewis (NFL football player) walked off a plane, came up to me and asked me where I was going on my mission.  I replied, 'London' and told me to 'tear it up', it was pretty cool.  The rest of the journey wasn't very exciting, except for the fact that there were 20 missionaries that traveled from the U.S. to England with me.  When I got to the Preston, England MTC, the first day was spent doing interviews and other logistical things.  The MTC presidency is pretty awesome, they are super nice and very welcoming.  I had an interview with the President's wife Sister Walker and as I  was  sitting there, I was thinking that her smile seemed really familiar.  Two days later, we all found out that she is President Hinckley's oldest daughter and she had some funny stories to tell us about growing up in the home of the prophet.

 

The next day we got working and we haven't quit since then.  It doesn't really seem like we are in England yet, because we've hardly left the building the whole time I've been here.  The only thing that helps me realize that I am in England is the fact that it has rained for the better part of every day that I've been here, and that I haven't seen the Sun since I left the U.S.  The food is pretty good (yes I have had fish and chips already) they have had a pretty wide variety so far, including Turkish, Mexican and Italian food.  I am pretty satisfied so far with the MTC as a whole, although I am excited to get to the field.

 

Me and my companion (Elder Murri from Idaho Falls) are working hard trying to learn to teach, we have already taught two fake investigators and the lessons went alright.  I have been feeling the spirit so strong the  whole time I've been here.  And we all got to go to the Preston Temple today, it was pretty awesome.  I am loving the work and I have gained a stronger testimony of Jesus Christ.  This is the true gospel! No doubt in my mind.  Well I gotta go I'm getting kicked off.

 

Love all of you,

Elder Price

Hey everybody,

This my missionary blog and my sister is going to be updating my e-mails weekly, hopefully you like it!
If you want to e-mail me, my missionary email is taylorp@myldsmail.net.  If you want to write me a letter, my MTC address is:

Elder Taylor Christopher Price
England London South Mission
England Missionary Training Center
Temple Way
Chorley
Lancashire
England PR6 7EQ

This mail address will change everytime I am transfered, so Anne will put my new addresses on the blog and on facebook.