Week of December 20, 2010

One of the recent baptisms--Hope is her name

Another picture from the baptism--I told him his hair was a
little long.  He said he got a haircut right after this.  Guess
That shows he is working hard!

He was showing us he was a "good boy" and had not opened
his Christmas box!  No, he is not testing the strength of the box-
he has his shoes sitting on top!

Update--December 23, 2010

It has been a long time since I updated Elder Rice's blog.  He is an area where he can't email his recorded journals home, and I keep forgetting to update the blog with what he says in his emails and letters.  I do have a few voice recordings to put on here from before he was transferred from his last area--hopefully I can do that sometime coming up! 
Anyway, he was transferred out to the middle of nowhere--in the desert.  It is a place called Twentynine Palms, Ca--I think it was in October.  There is a marine military base there, and that is most of the population.  He was in Church one Sunday, and in came a guy that was from here.  I forget his name, but he graduated with Elder Rice and was a friend of his.  It was a big surprise, and he really enjoyed seeing someone from home.  I guess the guy was a Marine stationed there. 
Elder Rice is in a home share (where you live with members) in a double wide mobile home!!!  He wrote home that it got up to 115 and above, but now he is saying it is long sleeve shirt weather in the 60's!  His blood has definitely thinned.  He had 3 baptisms last weekend and one on Tuesday of this week and a couple more to go around the first of the year.  The Spirit has been working over time since he has been there!  They didn't really have too much going when he got there, so he is excited to see the work progress.  He has been made a district leader, which he described as pretty much like being a captain on the football team.  You have to get your guys fired up and give pep talks.  So, he is really enjoying that.  He says he loves his mission and is having a great time, even in the middle of nowhere.  He was able to go visit some relatives of mine that he had never met, so that was fun.  He was on exchanges in Yucca Valley, which is where they live.  He has gotten to go to Palm Springs on his P day and for a doctor's appointment--he liked it because they have a big airplane museum there. 
He has a new companion as of Tuesday, as his old one was due to go home.  He was in a threesome for a few days because he got his new companion just before the old one went home.  Anyway, he is doing well, loves doing the work, and his health is doing good last time we talked about it.  I try not to be the nagging mother, so I try not to ask him every week.  He tells me if there is something he needs me to ask his doctor here, so I try not to nag him about it.
That is about all, except that he calls home day after tomorrow, which, of course, is Christmas!!!!!!!  We can't wait!!!!!  This is his last Thanksgiving and Christmas on his mission--next year he will be home, freezing to death, but he will be home.  His mission really has gone by way fast.  So, if any other missionary moms are reading this--take heart, it does go by faster than you think!  I thought other moms were just trying to make me feel better when they said that, because how could it go by fast??  At first, it really was torture and seemed to drag, but now the weeks are flying by!  The trick is not to look too far into the future.  Just look forward to the next letter/email and then it is not as hard.  Still...I can't wait for November 2011!

You tube video of Elder Rice

The Palmers are a family in the ward that Elder Rice is serving in, and they came for a visit a couple of weeks ago.  Needless to say, they took some pictures while they were here--and then they put together a slideshow and put it on YouTube.  If you want to take a look, here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVxn0OOunwA

Or you can go on YouTube and do a search under Elder Rice to find it.  You will laugh because it is pretty cute.  Most of the pictures are of the Palmer family.

Misc. Pictures

Back in his comfort zone--driving a 4 X 4 truck!

How many Elders does it take to drive a truck???

Having too much fun it looks like!

They found a free BBQ along side a road! 

Can you smell the steaks grillin' now?

They took it back to their homeshare.

Nice Elder cookies!

Homeshare pictures

Elder Rice's home share--no stove or sink, just a microwave and small refrigerator!  He says it stays really hot at night up there.

Week of July 19-25, 2010

Monday, July 19, 2010 (11)
Had a really good day. It was P-day and just had a lot of fun. Started out the day by cleaning our home share because we need to do that every P-day, and we hadn’t done that for awhile, so we decided to start out by cleaning the home share because we are supposed to. Then we wrote some letters real quick back for home and some other stuff—wrote my mom and dad. It’s always fun to write them and tell them how the week went and stuff, a little deeper even though they pretty much know everything already. Today went really well, we went and played basketball after we wrote some letters at 9:00. Just had a really fun time at that and played some volleyball too—half court basketball and volleyball. I played a little of both, just switched back and forth and I’m not real good at either. Then we came home and I was about ready to jump in the shower and Brother Jenson, a member of our ward, called us and asked if we would go give his daughter-in-law a blessing that is just about to have a baby. She was like in labor and that was my first time to go in the labor section of the hospital. Kind of weird—wouldn’t think it would be on my mission or anything, but that’s OK. It went really well. It always seems like prayers come in like three for me—like blessings—people asking us to give blessings. Saturday it was Dave Fisher, Sunday it was Mario Jr., and Monday it was the Jensons. It’s just really crazy how it comes in threes, but it’s really great—I enjoy it. It’s great to see the faith people have in blessings—you’ve got to have faith, ya know! It was really good. Other than that, after the blessing, we went shopping real quick because we were already in our Pros (prosthelyting) clothes, and so we just went shopping really quick. Then we went back and rested up a little bit, I was really tired and so we had a good time. Then we went emailing, emailing was really good. Nothing really good, just talked to my parents. Did find out that one of my best friends from Oregon is coming to my mission—it’s pretty cool to serve here. That will be awesome! Then we went and had dinner with the Palmers. They’re always fun and is always an enjoyable time. Then we went and had a lesson with Vivian Lee—she’s a less active person. She’s just awesome; I wish she would come back. She knows the Church is true and stuff, but she just has some hardships with the Church, but she lets us in every Monday to come talk to her. So that’s always good. And then we went back to the Arnold’s to clean out our car and just clean it out. Then we went over to the Malones, which they are a family in the ward that are way sweet. They just got back from a boating trip at Lake Mead in Nevada. They are so sweet, hung out there for a few minutes to see how the trip went and stuff. Then we came home and planned, and tomorrow they have a 4 day training conference because they are switching to the new Preach My Gospel. We have to host 2 Elders for the next 4 days, so we will see how that goes. It should be good. And that’s pretty much my day.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010 (12)
We had district meeting in the morning, but they have a big 4 day conference for all of the leadership in the mission, and so we didn’t have it. We ended up going out tracting in the morning, and ended up tracting this street that was really close. We haven’t tracted it ever, I haven’t even been over there. It was such a long street; it was like a 5 minute walk in between each house. It was tough and took a lot of time, but the very last house that we knocked on, this guy answered and all happy and stuff. This guy’s like so red-neck, you can tell! He’s got wranglers on with no shirt and a tattoo on his chest, and the hairiest chest I have ever seen in my life—like even twice as hairy as my dad’s chest! It was so weird. So he invited us in and we sat down and we talked. We found out that he used to be a member of the Church way back in the day. It was pretty amazing. Then we had lunch and me and my companion took a nap because it was so hot, and then for 2 or 2 ½ hours we went and contacted some less actives. We actually had some pretty good success with that and had a lot of visits and talked to a lot of people. We found out a lot of people moved—that’s one problem in our ward. There are a whole bunch of people that we know aren’t here, but we don’t know who they are because their records are still here. So, we are trying to find out and we had like 30 names of people that need to be taken off the ward list. After that, we headed to the big, mission wide meeting that they are doing for the next 4 days for the District leaders, Zone leaders, and trainers for the new curriculum. It’s like way sweet. Basically, now we start out with God’s a loving Heavenly Father, God loves his family, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ or the teaching of Jesus Christ. After that are the principles of Faith, Repentance, Baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end, and then after that is when we extend the baptismal commitment so they know right off the bat that we are serious and we want them to come unto Christ. It’s really good and we’ve had a lot of successes when we started. Then we had dinner with the Arnolds, which is always fun. They took us out to this place called Coco’s, and it’s actually way good. I had this hamburger, which was bomb, and then they had the pie but I didn’t have mine until later because Sister Arnold doesn’t like me having sugar, so I don’t. I didn’t have it in front of her. So that was good, and then went and saw the Alvarez’s (couldn’t quite make out the name, but I think that is what he said—Mario Jr.’s family). They are the ones that we gave a blessing to on Sunday. Their son is in the hospital and I guess he’s made a lot of improvement since our blessing that we gave him. We talked about him and what he’s up to. They said that once Mario Jr. gets better, they are going to start going back to Church and they want him to get baptized, and so hopefully that comes true. He has said that before, but I am really hoping this time he seems sincere and stuff, so I’m hoping. Then we went to the Palmers and I dropped off my GPS so that they can give it to my mom and dad when they go visit them. They are just a SWEEET family! I love them and they actually called my mom because they are going to go see them on the 31st of this month, and so that will be way sweet! So, we had to pick up those missionaries at 5:00 and they are actually staying with us. They are from Yucaipa, which is about 30 minutes from Riverside. It was way sweet and they are way fun missionaries, and what we did is we split up. One went with me and the other with Elder Shallenberger, and so we came back here and planned for our day and it was such a sweet time. We talked about stuff and it was just an all around fun day. Just had a really fun day and really enjoyed it, but that’s my day.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 (13)
Today was a really good day actually. Started out by doing our personal study time. Had a really good study about that you have to work to have faith in Jesus Christ, you just can’t have it. Here they have this Church, The Grove, and they have the “Harvest”, which is where they go to Angel Stadium every year and run across Angel Stadium and they are saved for a year. Then they come back next year and do it again and it’s just ridiculous. I studied about that and how it is not true, and that you actually do have to have the faith. There are a couple of scriptures that are clear that you have to have the faith so that the Lord will provide a way, and he won’t provide a way unless you work for it if you have that faith. And then we performed some service. It was fun—I took out a palm tree that was tall and about 100 pounds. It was sweet. We were trying to get it out and couldn’t, so we went and borrowed a rope from the Arnolds. I tied a knot around it and then walked to this tree and then I started pulling it out and Elder Shallenberger was cutting it out. It was pretty funny actually. And the person we did it for is a lady that we are trying to get as an investigator but she’s not really open right now, so we just keep doing service for her because she will come around. Then we went tracting, and actually had a pretty good tracting session. We talked to a lot of people, not very many doors opened, but there were a lot of people out that we talked to. It was just way good actually. After that, we had a list of names that we had that we wanted to go and see. It wasn’t very successful, but it is always good to get names down and try to meet the members of the ward and the less actives. So, we did that for awhile and then we met up with the other elders because, remember, we have the meeting for the Zone leaders, District leaders, and trainers that are going on this week until Friday. We walked around for a little bit to try to talk to people before we went to dinner. We talked to a Viet Nemese guy that I could not understand, but that’s OK. I handed him a Book of Mormon, so it’s all good. Then we went to dinner until like 8’ish, and we try to get out of there by 7:30 or so. We are supposed to leave a spiritual thought, but we didn’t leave one because we were running late. We were there forever. After that, I went to get my GPS because I forgot something for my GPS. I had given that to the Palmers because they are going out of town tomorrow to see Idaho and all of that and they are going to stop by to see my parents , and they are going to drop off my GPS to my parents. Then we came back and did our planning, and tomorrow is our weekly planning. It is always more fun to do our weekly planning. That’s about it—that was our day.

Thursday, July 22, 2010 (14)
Today was, once again, weekly planning and we somehow got done really early. So we did our comp goals where we go over our goals and what we want to get done for the upcoming week and a whole bunch of other stuff. We just got done way early and we were talking. We said that we should call everyone on the ward list and set up some appointments, so we did and we only got, like, 3 or 4 that said we could come back. It was ridiculous. Most of the less actives don’t want us to come over. Then we had lunch and took a quick nap for the rest of our lunch time because it has been so hot here and it is really hard to sleep at night. (They live in an attic above a member’s house and he says it stays over 95 to 100 inside their home share—no A/C and no windows except a sliding glass door—just a fan!) After lunch we went tracting and talked to quite a few people, considering. I think our OM’s are really improving and we got a lot more return appointments where people said that we could come back and share a message. So that’s good. I think we talked to 18 people and then we had a lesson with Sister Decker, who is a less active and her husband is not a member. It went really well actually. After our lesson with Sister Decker, at 5:30 we had a lesson with Brother Savage who is a less active too. That is one of the people that said that we could come back and share a message. He wanted us to come meet him and so we did and then we extended the opportunity that we can go and do the ward mission class (could not understand what he said there—oops), which is basically practice for us to teach less actives and members, and all that. We had dinner with the Rikelands (spelling???)--they are so nice and they are cool. They have a daughter with Down ’s syndrome and she is sweet. She loves Michael Jackson, so we were talking about Michael Jackson and stuff. It was pretty hilarious. I didn’t know it, but her Aunt is Sister Alvarez, which she is the grandma of Mario. He is the one whose son was in the hospital—Mario Jr. So, we were talking about them and then Sister Alvarez calls us and asked us to go give her grandson a blessing who just got back from the hospital. So, we wrapped up dinner pretty fast and got over there as soon as we could because we wanted to teach them a lesson. We had a whole lesson planned to extend the baptismal commitment and stuff, but that ended up changing because Mario was talking about how he was smoking a lot, and he says that he is going to quit smoking and that he is going to come back to church. He knows that he needs to do this, and so that’s really awesome! I never thought that would happen, but it did so I am way excited about it. So, we gave Mario Jr. a blessing because he had some kind of a kidney blockage or something like that and they had to take out some of his intestines. It was pretty nasty. He looks a ton better though. Then we started talking to Mario and he told us that he needed a blessing for strength and so we gave him a blessing too. It was such a good blessing. I gave the blessings and it was just so awesome because he has the true desire to change his ways now and stop smoking and come back to church. I’m hoping that we can get him going and that we can get him ready to enter the Temple with his family, and actually be able to go to the Temple with his family and be sealed. That would be so cool because that is what they want, I know it. We were there until 9:00 or 9:30, and so we left and came back here. Low and behold, Elder Shallenberger and Elder Matty (they were on exchanges because of the meetings) got lost somewhere—they were over by K-Mart and I was trying to think of where the nearest K-Mart was. It was just so funny, but that was it.

Friday, July 23, 2010 (16)
Today was a really awesome day—had some solid lessons that happened. First, we started out by tracting and did this on a street right next to our house. It was a really good street and we talked to a lot of people. Then we had lunch; I went to Del Taco for lunch which was way sweet. So, we had lunch and rested for a little bit because we had those other elders for the other meetings and we were really tired. Then we went and saw some less actives and they invited us back. We made a big call list and we just called all of the less actives on the list. 3 of the 100 that we called asked us to come back, not the greatest outcome, but it was good. So, we had 3 lessons and they were awesome. It was a great day. Then we went to dinner and we actually had dinner at Chili’s, but we got it to go because the Whiteheads had given us a gift card because they were out of town. So we did that, and went over to the Arnold’s and had dinner and left about 7:10 and went over to the Alvarez’s. The Alvarez’s are the ones that wanted us to come over and give their son a blessing in the hospital in Redlands. He is out of the hospital now and yesterday we just had an awesome lesson with them. He kind of said that he wants to come back to church and start doing all the right steps. It’s awesome and really great, so we had a lot of fun with him. We talked about Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ , and the Holy Ghost and we gave him some really good scriptures that actually applied to his life. That was kind of cool! He has just completely changed and has a complete desire. Before, when his brother died, he was like, “Well, I’m going to come back to church sometime”, but I think with this it really opened up his eyes that he almost lost his son. So that was way cool to see that blessing happen. We just had a really good lesson with him—it was only supposed to be 20 minutes long, but it ended up being about 40 minutes long. We were able to talk with him quite awhile and then we went and saw Mario Jr., the little one that’s been in the hospital, and he looks awesome, and even the mom sat down with us and we had a awesome lesson. We just talked with them for awhile and just had a straight up legit conversation with them. It’s such a blessing to see the hard work that I’ve put in, and Elder Shallenberger and I have put in these last 5 weeks, is really starting to pay off. People are starting to be prepared; Mario Jr. is going to get baptized and Star (not sure what name he said there) is going to get baptized, and Mario Sr. is going to come back to Church. They are coming to Church on Sunday with his Grandma and he sees the blessing that Church brings. So, that’s really cool. Today, we got done early with them, so we went over to the Arnold’s again to pick up our leftover food to take home. Then we tried to go see the Garcias—they are a less active family that were just recent converts and got moved into ???crest Ward, which is the ward right next to us. They don’t even go to our ward that they were baptized into. The Bishop hasn’t even talked to them or sent over anyone to talk to them, so it’s not that great of a situation. So, we went over there and tried to talk to them, but they weren’t home. We will try to go back tomorrow again. Then we came home and looked at our miles and found out that we were 150 miles over, which isn’t really that bad. We are just really trying to stay in the limit, and so we found out that we are going to be on bike the rest of the week, actually like the rest of the month so that is about a week and a half. That’s about it—I’m just really excited for the Alvarez’s and Mario to come back to Church and feel the love of the Savior and that it is true. He’s felt it, but there is a greater love when you are following the commandments and understanding what you should be doing. He is a smoker, but he wants to stop now—he doesn’t want to do it anymore. So, he is trying to stop and it is just a great blessing. Talked to 19 people on the street, taught 3 other lessons and had 3 awesome sit down lessons from the ward, so it has just been great. Just an all around awesome day!

Saturday, July 24, 2010 (17)
Today was a really good day. Just had a lot of good success with stuff. We found out that we are over on miles, so we will have to bike the rest of the week. So, Brother Merrill came and picked us up in the morning to take us to our bikes at the Arnolds and we got out bikes and we are riding all day long to just tell you. We ended up going garage saleing and I almost bought some things—some cool pants that were pretty sweet for like tracting, but I decided not to. That took quite awhile and we ended up stopping and talking to someone for quite awhile about the Church and everything—it went really well. Then we went and took lunch, but we didn’t go all the way home because we were on bikes and the hill is a killer. So we went to Subway for lunch and we ended up not getting done with lunch until like 3:00, and so we had dinner in two hours. So, then we went tracting for a little bit and that took an hour or so. After that we went over to the Arnolds to see if he could take us to a baptism tomorrow (Sunday), and it ended up that he could so we were there for about an hour talking about some ward mission process stuff. It seems to be going really well actually; really starting to get some good progress going with everything again. Then we had dinner with the Malones, and they are a really sweet family and I really like them, and we were there for like 2 hours just talking. Their parents are non members, so they were just having questions and asking us about stuff. It went really well and I was really happy with what was going on. Yesterday we got a referral from the deaf elders that were out tracting in our area, so we went over there but she wasn’t home. Her dad told us that she was reading “the book” last night. I wasn’t sure if he meant for college or something like that, but I didn’t know it was from the missionaries, and he said that we could come back any time. I thought that that was so sweet! After that we went and saw one of our investigators. He was the one that stopped us on our bikes last week and wanted to come to Church. He called us again and said he wanted to meet with us and I want to come to Church tomorrow, so we went and met with him and had a great lesson about the Gospel of Christ and everything and how important it is. Then we asked him to come to a baptism because they say that 90% of the people who come to baptisms get baptized. That would be sweet. We asked him to pray and he said the sweetest prayer! He opened up just like normal, like “Heavenly Father please bless” and then he said, “please bless the guys at Del Taco, and my boys up in Hollywood, and the homeless people that they may stay out of the sun they don’t get heat stroke” and all this other stuff. It was the funniest thing in the world—like anybody that was ever nice to him he thanked Heavenly Father for them. It was so nice—the best prayer ever since I have been on my mission. That pretty much took up the rest of the day and then we rode home—it took us 45 minutes to get home, it was CRAZY! It was such a long bike ride home, we were on one side of our area and we had to go clear to the other side of our area. It took forever, I couldn’t believe it. When we got home, I was just SO tired and wanted to die, so we planned real quick and we ended up going to bed early. It was a really good day though. We talked to 8 people and got in an hour of tracting and was a great day!

Sunday, July 25, 2010 (18)
We started out by going to Church and going to meetings. We got some really good information about some families that we got to see and some other things. Then we went to all of our meetings and had a good Sunday. We had 2 investigators in Sacrament meeting and both of them stayed for all of Church. One of them was Chet Trupp, which he has been investigating the Church for quite awhile (they are the ones that called my mom and dad when they were driving through Idaho) and then Keith came to and he stayed for all of Church too. Then after that, we went home and took lunch and I was so tired from our bike ride yesterday I took a nap. Then we went and did some work around here because we had dinner around here at the McKells, which is right down the street from us. So we went and did a street and tracted for about 45 minutes to an hour, and then went to dinner. We had a really good dinner. They are a really sweet family and their oldest son is getting ready to go to school in Utah at the University of Utah, so UVU. That’s the one right by BYU and Provo, so that’s pretty sweet. Then we got a ride from there to the Arnolds because we went to a baptism with Keith. He really liked it, he thought it was really sweet. So, that’s a good sign. Then we got done with the baptism and we talked with some of our buddies at the baptism. Some of the missionaries were some of our good friends, one was Elder Yarn’s baptism (my old companion), so that was cool. Then we went to see the Arnolds and started talking about the ward mission process and stuff. We are starting up a class for members on how to break the ice for missionary work and it seems like it be great. The missionaries and Brother Arnold are going to be teaching it, so it should go really good. It should be a great class for members to take. Then Sister Arnold made us a sandwich and we just talked. We talk a lot with them and they enjoy having us there. Then we came home to get ready for P day, which P day is tomorrow. The time is flying by, I can’t believe it. It’s kind of good, but also a bad thing at the same time, so I hope it doesn’t go by too fast. I hope it goes by fast too, cuz you know… I’m really excited to be out here—it’s been a fun week and a good week.

Monday, July 19, 2010

***Disclaimer***  Elder Rice is now recording his journal entries and then sending them home to me so that I can type them up and put them on his blog, so names, places, etc. might be mispelled.  Also, I have not reread entries, as he is now putting more in his journal since he can record things that happen.  So...you are warned!  Longer entries!

Monday, July 12, 2010
Had a good day, but of course a P day. Started off the day by going to the Carrs. She gives us our hair cuts for free. It was a really nice job. So I finally got a haircut after being back for 3 months. And then kind of a funny story happened. One of the members in the ward asked us to come and give her a jump and we did because her battery was dead and 5 minutes later we get a call from her again saying that her car died on the side of the road. So we ended up having to go push it out of the way and she ended up having to wait there for a few minutes to go for help, but we were there. Then we went and played basketball and no one was there again so we didn’t end up really playing basket ball, we ended up playing volleyball. It was still fun though. We went and did some shopping and to a couple different places, and then went out to eat with some of the other missionaries from Riverside. Just a lot of fun and a good day. Then we had dinner with the Markewurst (spelling??). She is a single lady but her parents are in the deaf branch here in Riverside. They are a way sweet family. Then after dinner we had a dinner with Vivian Lee, she is a less active person. Her son just got back from a mission from Congo or something like that. It was a good lesson and we talked about Temples. Then I came home, folded some laundry, and finished up our P day stuff. It was an all around good day. Had a good email session with my mom and I guess Grandma Rice came and she wrote me too. I got to write her. That’s always fun to talk to her and see what she has been up to. So that was Monday.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Another really good day, had a good study in the morning. Studied on some stories in the Bible about Jesus Christ and the way he taught about the parables. They actually changed Preach My Gospel a little bit, it is 8 lessons instead of 5. They actually don’t even start with the Restorations, they start with God is our Heavenly Father, the Gospel Blesses Families, and then goes right into Jesus Christ’s Ministry, like Repentance, Baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. And it’s really good, there have been a lot of people that have been baptized because of it. Just been an all around good time, but Tuesday, of course, is DDM or district meeting. I get there and I have the phone and Sister Alvarez calls me and her grandson is in the hospital up in Redlands and she wanted us to get someone up there to give him a blessing, and so I was trying to figure it out. She kept calling me like every 5 minutes asking me if I was doing it, and I was like, yes I just need to get it done. It was funny. And then afterwards we went and had lunch—just our normal routine. I took a nap because it has been so hot here—105 and 109. And so it just so bleeding hot so I took a nap. Then we had to go to the Toyota dealership in Riverside here because they had another recall on the faulty accelerator. It was so funny because the guy was like it will be 2 hours before we are through, OK we will just go out and just tract in one of the other missionaries’ area. We were supposed to go on splits that night, which is one of us goes with our district leader and the other goes with the district leader’s companion. I was in my area and with my district leader’s companion, which me and him are really good friends. He was birthed in Movall, and so we always have fun together. We ended up getting together at like 12:30, 1:00, or like 2:00 or something like that. We went out tracting in his area. It so reminded me of Movall because it was so ghetto but it was so much fun and I enjoyed it. It was way cool. And then we ended up having to wait until like 4:45 and dinner was like at 5:00 and it was all the way across town and so I was just hauling because I can’t be late, and I was like Oh my gosh--so we were just hauling. And then we had dinner with the Scovilles, which he is a returned missionary from Jamaica and was the AP there. He is way sweet and he comes out with us every once in awhile. Then we went out on splits with Brother Peterson. Brother Peterson does concrete work and we go and see these 2 families with him every Tuesday, the Dunsmores and Sebolds. The Sebolds are less active, we went and saw this week, and I had a good lesson on Jesus Christ and finding faith in him. They keep making a little bit of progress, not too much in there, but they do good. All around good day, and then me and Elder Ellis came back and had to go and drop off Elder Schallenberger’s stuff off and then we came home. And yeah, that was the day.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Once again, just a fun, fun day on the mission. Enjoying it, being back out here is a lot of fun. This morning we started off with service, we have been doing a lot of service lately just trying to offer help to anybody that we possibly can. Actually, people are taking it well and they are letting us come. We helped this lady today that we set up an appointment with and she has been wanting us to come back for quite awhile, but none of the other missionaries ever stopped by. So me and Elder Ellis, since we were on exchanges, we stopped by. We helped her out with some service, picking up these like clover things all over her yard that took like 2 hours, until lunch, and we got there at 10:00. It was just a long morning, but then we came in for lunch and got showered up. Then me and Elder Ellis had had lunch and went back out and went tracting over by school house. We talked to this one lady and talked to another, but they weren’t interested. Then we talked to this kid that was at this other door and he was awesome. I mean answering the questions right, everything. I just got this overwhelming feeling, “Don’t leave without giving him a Book of Mormon”, so we started talking about the Book of Mormon and how it came about and stuff. I said, “We would love to give you a copy of this and have you read it for yourself and pray about it to know if it is true, because you don’t need to believe us, it will manifest the truthfulness to you by Heavenly Father.” So we gave him a Book of Mormon, and he was like, I definitely want to read this. He wants us to come back, but not until April 30th, so it is kind of a little ways away. Hopefully, he reads it, but I think he will because he was really good. Then we had to go to the office because yesterday we went to the Toyota dealership to get the accelerator fixed. It was just a long wait, then we finally got the paperwork we needed and then we went to the office to drop that off. When we got to the office, we got to talking to President and Sister Reeves and some other people and then there was some mail. My companion gets like 6 letters a day, I swear. It’s actually pretty funny to hear all of the letters he gets because they are kind of weird. We got done with that, then we had to change back and we had dinner yesterday with the Hansens. The Hansens are a senior couple in the ward that are really great, just awesome. So we got done with them, and Brother Hansen used to live in Idaho Falls. He went to Bonneville High School when it was at the Rocky Mountain Middle School, right by Bonneville now. It was way awesome, everything has changed since 1968 (maybe he said 1958??), and so it was just so funny. Then we were going to go get the bikes out for a little bit before we had an appointment with a less active, so we went and tried to get the bikes out but then the sister missionaries called us because we called them. We had some people that we needed to look up that were in their area and we couldn’t go into there because it was just way too far away. They were over there, so they came down and they were going to go and look it up for us. Just an awesome, awesome day. Then we went and saw the Garcias. They were baptized in November and they have kind of fallen away from the Church a little bit because their parents are members but then the mom and dad are just like “whatever”, so they don’t have a way to get to Church. We’ve been trying to get them rides every week and Sister Arnold has been doing a really good job with that. Sometimes they’re just not there, so they can’t come. We had a good lesson with them, and asked them just to come to Church on Sunday. It was an awesome lesson. We just talked about the Church and what they thought about it, and they had a friend there that had some questions and stuff, so it was good. Everything is good, we haven’t actually tracted that much. We OYM’d 5 people, and 4 out of the 5 we taught other lessons too and offered them a card or a pamphlet to, so that’s good. The work is progressing really well here. We just got to find people right now, that’s the big thing that we have to do. The members are actually helping us out really well, we have a couple of new investigators that we are going to try and get a hold of from the ward. So hopefully that works out, because, you know those always work out the best. That was my Wednesday.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Today is Thursday, so you know what that means—weekly planning. If you look in Section, I think 10, or no Section 8, it talks about using your time wisely and then if you go to page 147 to 149, that’s our weekly planning schedule. That’s what we go through to plan for every single one of our investigators. The big one that we are really trying to focus on is Dave Fisher because he has actually been getting really close to being baptized. We feel that he’s going to get baptized, hopefully, this Sunday. That would be so sweet if he did! But who knows. We had lunch after weekly planning, but then we actually had to go back to the dealership because the key quit working. So they had to get a new key and program it for the car, so we had to all of that. We get there and they say that it will take about an hour at the most, and so we are sitting in the dealership. They have these really comfortable seats, so I kind of fall asleep on accident—I acted like Dad there for a second, that was kind of weird. 2 hours later the car was finally ready, and like holy moly-car dealerships take like forever. It was fun, we talked to some people. We didn’t end up going tracting, but we did go and see some less actives. We ended up going and seeing the Alvarez family—the one that on Tuesday called us and their son was in the hospital sick. It was a good meeting, just trying to ask them what was going on with the son, how he was doing, and how the surgery went. Hopefully, they start coming back out to church because they know they need to but they’re just not kind of thing. So, hopefully that works out. We had dinner with the Carrs, and the Carrs are a younger family in the ward. They have 4 kids and are a way awesome family. They kind of remind me of our family when Elder Robertson was serving. They are just a way cool family and fun to be around. She is the one that gave us our haircuts on Monday. We love going there. Then we ended up getting out of there late, so we didn’t get to see anybody. We didn’t get out of there until like 8:00 or 8:30, so we just headed on home and planned—had a good planning session for an hour. We just made sure that we planned well for Friday. I ended up reading my scriptures and doing some other things. After that, Then I went to bed early, I was wasted. It’s been smokin’ hot here, it’s not even funny—yesterday it got up to 112. It’s way fun though, yeah it’s hot, but you got to get through it, so that was Thursday.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Well, today had a good study time, I read about Jesus Christ ordaining his Apostles. It has been really hot here and I haven’t been able to sleep very well, so kind of tired in the morning during study time. We went and did service with the Cortez’s, which they are investigators. He’s way sweet--he wants to join, but his wife has kind of backed off and she doesn’t really want to join. He just wants us to take our time and stuff. He’s not a member yet, but he will be soon so we helped them with some service. The cool part was that he was taking out a water pump, so I was able to get my hands all greasy again and was able to help him do that. That was way fun, I miss working on cars and stuff. That was really good and I enjoyed it. Then we had lunch and it has been so hot here. Today it hit 112, and I am just dying. It is so hot, it’s still good. We went tracting, went tracting up Muffler Street—I didn’t know there was a Muffler St. in my area, but its sweet. Had a good day just tracting. Everyone we talked to gave us a bottle of water. It was the funniest thing in the world. They were just like, “you want a bottle of water?” and we said yes. So we ended up having like 12 bottles of water, it was so funny. When we were done tracting, we went and tried to go and see less actives. We were actually pretty successful today. Picked up some good names and we were able to go and talk to people. We had dinner with the Jobs. They are an older couple in the ward and still have a 13 -14 year old son and 2 other sons. One is on a mission and one is just getting ready to go on a mission. They have like 12 or 13 kids, something like that. Then we went and saw the Arnolds, which the Arnolds are the Ward mission leaders. Just tried to talk about what happened with one of our lessons that they wanted to know about, so that was really good. Then we did some work for Sunday because we have meetings every Sunday, and just had a really good time with it. Then we went and tried to go see some more people. Then we ended up stopping by and seeing the Palmers at night because they were there then and we wanted to go and see how they were doing and stuff. We go see them a lot, they are a way sweet family. We enjoy hanging out with them. They have us over like once a week for dinner, I swear. They are like a family that I would love to come back and see. Jacob, the oldest son, is getting ready to get his pilot’s license. He was showing us this flight simulator thing—it was way so sweet. That was pretty much our day. We talked to 18 people, taught 3 other lessons. It was pretty much an all around good day. I really enjoyed it and I love being out here and it’s a great thing. Tomorrow is Saturday. The weeks just fly by now. Tomorrow should be fun. We have a lesson with Dave. Hopefully, we can put him on date for Sunday. Tomorrow is Saturday, so the next day we will baptize him, that’s what we are hoping. We just really hope that he commits this time. And that was our day.
Friday, July 16, 2010 (continued)
A funny story happened today. Me and Elder Schallenberger were starting to listen to music and we got into a little bit of a tussle on what was apostate and what was not. It’s not like we actually meant it, it was just that the sun has been kind of bugging us. We just wanted to have a laugh or two, and so just a lot of fun stuff. I love my companion, we have some great times. We have some really fun times. Everything seems to be going really good, we just always have fun. It’s a great thing.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Well, it was a really good day. Had a really solid lesson with Dave. He has been having some problems, but I will get to that later in my journal. First, we started out by going and tracting. We tracted Roberts Road and this road is so long. It’s like, it kind of reminds me of Idaho where it is far between every house and a long driveway. It’s kind of fun tracting, a good time to talk and see how things are going. We ended up talking to these 2 people that were born again Christians that actually were really nice. They were working on a truck that they got for free. I was kind of helping them out a little bit, they didn’t really know what they were doing. We started talking about what they believed in and what we believed in. We were there for like an hour or hour and a half. It was a really good lesson, just talked to them. Had just a really successful day and it was just fun. Then we came back for lunch, and since we had dinner with the Fishers and she always goes over and beyond what normally we get. She like cooks all day long, so I don’t normally eat when we have her and we have dinner at 7:00. I’m normally just good without eating lunch, so after lunch that we went and contacted some people. Elder Schallenberger kind of struck out on all of his people, but it was OK. We went and started seeing some of my list, and the first people we saw were the Limmeaus (spelling??) and they live on Stoneybrook. They are less actives and he is a returned missionary and does not go to church at all. The kid came in and asked, “What church are you guys from again?” and he didn’t know. Most less active kids know who we are, but he doesn’t even know, but that’s OK. That’s not that bad. We were there for about an hour and a half just talking to them and seeing what was up. Then we went to see some other people, but nothing really as good as that one. We just talked to them about things—he went on his mission to the Dominican Republic in the 90’, like 94 to 96. He loves the Church he just doesn’t like the people in there, I guess. We’re not really sure. We ended up just spending time going and seeing people up until 7:00. We were there for quite some time. We ended up having dinner with the Fishers, and Dave’s got to give a whole bunch of information, I don’t know what it is called, to the cops because he is a truck driver and he’s got to show them that they are charging the right amount for each person, that their being honest with everybody and honest with the county and the state when they give them the money. We had dinner while we talked with them and we decided to give him a lesson on Priesthood blessings and stuff. We decided not to give him the baptismal commitment today because he has been really stressed and stuff. We talked to Indiana before, which is his wife, and she just said don’t do it. She is already a member and she is way strong in the Gospel and loves the Gospel to death. She’s great—she is so grateful that she found it and so we started talking about Priesthood blessings, what they are, and what goes on in one. He’s had one before, but it’s been awhile and no one explained what they were doing. It was kind of weird and he thought people should have at least explained what they were doing, but I guess people do it differently; and different missionaries so we decided to tell him what was going on and what happens in a Priesthood blessing. It ended up that he wanted one, so we gave him one and it was really powerful. Elder Schallenberger gave it and you could just totally feel the spirit there. Then we ended up going home and planning for tomorrow. Tomorrow is Sunday. Man, weeks just fly by, I can’t believe it. It’s already Sunday, so that is just like yesterday that it was Sunday. That was our day to day—all around good day. Talked to a ton of people.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Today was a really good day. Started out with Church and Church went really well, actually. Kind of a cool story that happened. We got stopped on our bikes 4 or 5 days ago, on Tuesday or something, and this guy pulled us over and wanted to know where our church was and wanted to know some information. So, we gave him our phone number and how to get a hold of us, and I didn’t really think that much about it because people do it all of the time but never really follow through with it. So, we are at dinner on Saturday with the Fishers, and it was this guy wanting to come to Church. It was way sweet because he was like way excited to come to church. So, we got him a ride and he showed up on Sunday and I was just shocked! I was, like, “Oh my gosh!” It’s never happened before on my mission. It was way sweet and we taught him a little bit about Church and what was going on. Then we came home and had lunch for about a half hour and then we found out that one of our less actives son was in the hospital. We got permission to go over to Redlands to give him a blessing. Before that, kind of a funny story. We’ve had an odd number of missionaries since I have been back out because a lot of people have gone home for health reasons or something they have done and are not worth anymore. We have this one Elder, he’s not an Elder yet, but he’s a member of the Church and he is actually in our ward and a recent convert. He’s been on a couple of missions (recording skipped, not sure what he said) for almost 6 months. Then, we tried to (he came home for a family event because he wanted to come home for that so he came home) then we talked to President, and President said try to take him back (to his mission I guess). We tried taking him back, and he basically came out and said No, I’m not going and go away—that kind of thing. We told President, and President said don’t worry about it. Anyway, we went to Redlands and gave a blessing. His name is Mario Jr. and he was bad. He looked way sick and we gave him a blessing and I guess he is doing a lot better than he was and that is really good because he looked way bad, like on his deathbed before we got there I guess. Two Elders gave him 2 more blessings before us and then we came today gave him another one. Supposedly he looks a lot better than what the other elders said, and that’s good. We ended up going to see Chet Truppa. If you remember he was the one that called my home because he was driving through Idaho and wanted to just talk to my parents a little bit, and so he called them. We were there until dinner, and then we had dinner with the Rathalls. They are a way cool family. Then we went and saw the Reeds and Coonharts because we had some information on Brother Coonhart’s stepson. We ended up staying there a little longer than what we wanted to, we were there for like an hour and a half. We were just kind of playing around, just talking to them, and seeing how they’ve been and stuff. They had problems with their phone, and it was really lagging and my parents have the same phone as them, so I was showing them like all of these cool things that made the phones not so slow. Then we went over to the Palmers and talked to them and set up dinner. They played their guitars and stuff. It was just real fun. I always love the Palmers, the Palmers are cool. They are going to go see my family when they go to Idaho. It was just way fun and that was pretty much our day. Tomorrow is P day and that’s it.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Dear Mom & Dad,

Hey what's up?  This week I wrote in my one journal because I trained 8 months yesterday.  This week was so good, but nothing really that funny happened.  I have found out that you have more funny stories when you are in the ghetto, which I'm surly not in the ghetto.  I was talking wiht the Palmers Saturday, and they said that they are going to stop by when they come up there, and they are so happy to meet you guys.  They are one of my most favorite families in the ward and I just love them.  Sister Palmer is so cool.  The family reminds me or our family, but they can't wait to meet you guys.  The work is going so good, just a lot of tracting and contacting.  It is going so good and it is a lot of fun tracting.  Me and Elder Schallenberger get along so well.  He trained Elder Browning that was in my incoming and Elder Browning and me will fly home together.  Elder Schallenberger is going to come see us get off the plane, so that is way cool.  How are things going for you?  Well, everything is really good out here, but I have to go.  I love you and have a good week.

Love,
Elder Rice

Pictures from exchanges July 19, 2010

The temerature guage--he said it was the lowest

temp that week!

July 6, 2010

Dear Mom and Dad,
Well, another week down.  It is going by so fast, but I'm having a really good time and I'm loving it.  I love my new comp, we get along really well.  He is way cool and he is from Montana and is just like me and wants to do the work, but wants to have a lot of fun.  We got a lot of return appointments and we went to one on Friday and the lady was home.  That was the first time that it worked out for tracting.  This week has been really good and a lot of fun since it was the 4th.  We went to the Palmers for a party and they want to come see you guys.  They are going to drop their son up there for EFY, so I gave them your number to meet up with you guys.  so that is cool.  They are one of the families that I want to come back and see after.  How was Oregon?  Anything really that new going on.  I hope things are good.  I got the letter from Brooke.  So, I did get it.  Still nothing from Moe Moe, but it should be here.  Write me and tell me how Oregon was.  Love you guys, miss you too.
Love Elder Rice

Monday, June 28, 2010

Well, today was a lot of fun. We got up and went to Presidents house and washed all the cars for the upcoming transfer, but then Sister Reeves made us breakfast for the AP’s and OA’s, the me. After that I went with Jorgenson and helped him get ready to go home. I can’t believe he is going home, it is just way hard for me to believe. We went and hung out at the office for a little bit and that is always fun, then after that we got ready to go out and we came back to my home share and waited for my new comp. He got here and his name is Elder Shalinburger. He is a way cool guy and loves doing the work. We should have a lot of fun together, but that is my day.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010
It was a lot of fun and I liked it a lot. I had a really good study, I can’t believe how good it was. I learned so much, which is really good. Then we went out and tried to email but the library didn’t open until 11, so we went out and started to tract and did so for about 30 minutes and had a lot of fun tracting. I never thought I would ever say that, but I did. Then we went and emailed, which is always fun to talk to my parents. Then we went home for lunch and just talked to my comp. We went and tracted and talked to a lot of people, but then we went to dinner and then had a lesson with a less active family. It was a good lesson. They really like us now and it is not like talking to a brick wall. That’s it, that was my day.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Well, today was a way awesome day. Sad, but I will get into that. I had such a good study time about Noah in the ark. It was way cool, but then we went out and tracted and tried to see some less actives. We got a tone of return appointments, but then it was lunch so we went back to our home share and it was a lot of fun. I took a nap because it was so hot today and when I get cooled off, I fall right asleep. Then we went back out and went and tried to get my meds, but they were not covered and I was so mad about it. Then we went to the Arnolds to pick up the bikes, but they were not home, so we went out tracting and then we came back to the Arnolds to get out bikes. We went to dinner at the Kennedy’s and then went and saw less actives.

Thursday, July 1, 2010
Well, today was a lot of fun. We worked really hard, but we started out by doing our weekly planning and being able to talk about the people we are teaching. I know that we will start getting more people to teach, which is cool. Then we got to the library and I had to email my mom because I had some problems with my meds, but we got all that done. Then we went out tracting and had a good time. We tried to get the bikes out, but Sister Arnold wasn’t home, so we went and saw some less actives. We did get the bikes out later and did for the rest of the night. We went to dinner at the Carrs house, which is always fun, then we went and talked to some less actives and got them to come to the car show. So, that was my day.

Friday, July 2, 2010
Today was a good day. I had a lot of fun. We started out by going to DDM and they are changing a lot of stuff around. They are coming out with a new preach my gospel and they want us to give it a try before they give it out Church wide. Then we had a tracting appointment that wanted to talk to us. It was so cool, then we went out tracting and it was not good. There is no one home. We had dinner and then we got on the bikes and went and saw less actives. After that, we went home for the night, but it was an all around good day.

Saturday, July 3, 2010
Today was a ton of fun. We started out the day by going to the ward party and it was a lot of fun. There were a lot of such cool cars there and I loved it so much. When it was all done and we went home and got some work done. Then we came in for lunch and I took a nap. That ward party took it all out of me, but then we went out tracting and it was not good at all, so we went out for the 2 hours and called it good. We had dinner with the Fishers and it went well, I hope she liked our talk about the temples, but that was our day.

Sunday, July 4, 2010
Well today was a fun day. We went to church and had a lot of fun. It was good—I really like Church and always love Church. Then we went home and took our Sunday afternoon nap and I always love those. We went to see the Arnolds and took down dinner appointments for the week, and then we went and saw some less actives. Then we had dinner with the Molones and they are way cool. We always have a lot of fun with dinner. Then we got out of there and went to the Palmers and I love that family. They are so nice. We stayed there and they are going up to Idaho and they want to stop by and see my family. That’s my day.

Elder Rice and his new companion from Montana

June 29, 2010

Dear Mom and Dad,
How are you guys doing?  What is new with you guys?  Everything is going good; I love being out here.  It is going really good.  I will answer your questions, mom, but I have one for you--Where are you getting all of these questions???
(He answered some question that I won't include in here because there were so many!)

About my birthday--I just want a couple of ties and some gift cards to places, but whatever you want to get me, I'm cool with.  I love youguys so much and miss you guys so much and can't wait to get another letter from you!  I love you guys a ton and miss you.
Love,
Elder Rice

Monday, June 21, 2010

Well, today was P-day. I can’t believe it, but today was a fun day. We went and played some ultimate and then played some ball, which was really fun. Then after all that was done, we went back home and had to do some work, like write letters home and some other things. Then I wrote home and got done with all of that and I went and lay down for a few moments and slept because I was tired from playing ball. Then we went and emailed home, which was a lot of fun. I always love talking to my mom and seeing what’s up with her and what’s going on. Then we had dinner and a lesson with a less active lady. That was our day, so it was an all around good day.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Today was a really good day. It was a lot of fun. We went down to San Bernardino to go pick up cars, which was a lot of fun. Me and Jorgenson raced back. We were going 85 and people were still passing us. It was a lot of fun, but then we went tracting the rest of the day. It is so long, I couldn’t believe how long it was, but we did find a new investigator from it, so that is really good. Then we had dinner and went and saw less actives.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Well, today was a really good day. We started out by doing some service that took all morning, and then we had lunch. Then we went tracting and a guy wanted us to come back and talk with him tomorrow, so that was good. Then we went and tried to read with Dave Hanna and that didn’t work out that well because he was not home, so then we had dinner with the Reed and Carharts. They are the coolest families! They were less actives, but now they are active and awesome. Then we went to the park and talked to people there and that was our day.

Thursday, June 24, 2010
Today was a good day, really long, but it was good. We started out by doing our weekly planning and we talked a lot about what we need to do about getting this work up. Then, after weekly planning, we had lunch with the other missionaries and that’s always fun stuff. We went tracting for an hour or so and then went and checked on some return appointments and they all fell through, but that’s OK. Then we went home for dinner because our dinner appointment got sick, so we went home for a little bit and then went out with Brother Arnold to set people to come to the car show and bring their cars to it. Then we went to the park and threw around the ball and talked to some people. That was our day.

Friday, June 25, 2010
Today was a good day; we had a lot of fun doing the work. We started out the day by going to the temple and it was so much fun. I love going to the temple—it is so much fun to go there and not have to worry about anything. Our ride took us to In and Out and it was so god. I loved it. Then we went and saw some less actives and then went out and tracted and saw Dave Hanna. He is going out of town. Then we had dinner with the Reads and they are way cool. After dinner, we went out and saw the zone and had some ice cream. After that, we went in and had our journals time and then went and had to go to bed.

Saturday, June 26, 2010
Today is the last Saturday of the transfer, so we were to get leadership calls and Elder Yarn is the new Office Assistant, so that is cool for him and he is way excited. As for me, I’m still just another missionary, which is so fine with me. I’m happy with that! Then we got out and went and said good bye to some of the members and they were all sad, and then we took lunch. After that we went and tracted and talked to this person that went to an anti-mormon class, and you could tell because it is the same thing I have heard before. Then we had dinner with the Fishers and it went really well and I always love going over there. I hope that we get to baptize them. After that I found out who my new comp is.

Sunday, June 27, 2010
Well, today was a good day—I really liked it. We went to Church and had a really good time, but then we came home and let Elder Yarn pack so he could be ready for tomorrow. Then he went to his meeting and I went to the Arnolds to hang out and chill for two hours, and then went to dinner. It was way not cool—I didn’t know what to talk to them about, but I sure tried hard to find something to talk about. Then Elder Yarn and me went and saw some way cool families that wanted to say good bye to him before he left, then we just went home and got all ready for P-day.

Elder Rice at the Temple with his "Dad", aka his trainer.

Elder Jorgenson left to go home on June 29, 2010, so it

was their last chance to go to the temple together.

June 21, 2010

Mom and Dad-
What's up players?  Well nothing really that new going on here, but just 20 hours of tracting.  We beat the mission in that we are working hard.  We are trying so hard to find people to teach so you could pray for that.  That would be way cool.  Nothing really new, but I did watch a softball tournament this weekend and talked to a lot of people.  We found out that it works a lot better than knocking doors.  At the park, we talked to 5 less actives and 160 people and we got more people than we did all week long.  How are things going back home and anything new going on that I should know about?  I hope that you had a good birthday and that you got what you wanted.  I have to go, so love you a lot and I miss you guys.  Have a good week.

Love,
Elder Rice

Monday, June 14, 2010
Well, today is P-day. I can’t believe it is already P-day. It is going so well; I love being out here. Today we went and played some basketball and my team won 9 straight games before losing. After basketball, we went home and did laundry and our letters home. Then we went out with Elder Jorgenson and went around town. That was a lot of fun, but we had to go email home and I always love talking to my parents about things that are going on. Then we had a dinner that was so good. I don’t know why, maybe because it was easy ant that’s the best kind of dinner. Dinner was with sister Lecy and she is less active. Her son just came back off his mission like 2 0r 3 weeks ago, I can’t remember. Then we just went home and planned for the next day and now that P-Day is over, time to go to WORK!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Well, today was a fun day. We started out the day by going to DDM and that was good. The training went really well. It was way good, but then after that we watched a movie for one of our lessons today. It was about the temple and important they are. I have never seen this movie. Then we went home for lunch and then went out tracting and then I had a return appointment with a lady that had questions, but she was not interested at all. Then we went over to Dave H.’s house to read with him and he has been way sick a lot of the times we try to come over. Then we went to the Sebolds and taught them which it is talking to a brick wall. Nothing really happens. They are less actives and don’t care about church. Then we took dinner and that was our day, nothing really happened, but it was a good day.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Well today was a good day. I really liked it. We started out going tracting and that was such a long street, but we talked to a lot of people. Then we went back home for lunch and ate really quick and then went and saw some less actives. Then we went to dinner and had a good dinner. After that, we went and read with Shawnie and that went really well. It was a lot of fun. Then we went home for the night and then went to bed.

Thursday, June 17, 2010
Well today was not a good day at all. We did nothing good. No one was out, so in the morning we had weekly planning and that was way fin. It really worked out good. Today we worked really hard on it and got lessons for next week, so that is good. So, we are not tracting all that much, but then we went out to lunch with the other Elders, like we always do. This time we took a longer lunch than what we should have because no one was home or wanted to talk to us, which is never good. Then we went and saw less actives and got to hear about the finals. I guess the Lakers won again, but that was my day.

Friday, June 18, 2010
Today was a good day. We talked to a lot of people. We started out with our studies. I had such a good personal study. I read about David and Goliath. It was so good. I know that I love that story; it is always a good story. Then we went out and tracted for 4 hours and nothing really happened. That was not that fun, but then we went to go take lunch.  Then we went back out and saw less actives and we went and rode the bikes around. It was a lot of fun and then we went and took them back. Then we went and watched some softball games to talk to people. Then we stayed there and talked to 124 people, which is a lot. After that we went home and planned for tomorrow. Now it is bed time.

Saturday, June 19, 2010
Well, today was a fun day. I got a lot of work done today and I had a really good study. Today we went over to the Arnolds and did the paper for the meeting, but we didn’t need it anyways. Then we went to the park and talked to people. There is a softball tournament going on, so we talked to like a whole bunch of people. After that we went home for lunch. Then we went back to the Arnolds to get our bikes, but then we got to talking. When we got done, we had to go meet out team up and we went and saw some less-actives. That went really well and then we went and invited some of our investigators out to church. I hope they come, but then we went home. I was pooped. I went to bed right after planning, but tomorrow is the best day of the week—Sunday.

Sunday, June 20, 2010
Well, today is Sunday and Fathers Day. I totally forgot to say Happy Father’s Day, but I will in email tomorrow. Today we went to Church and it was good. We had a talk on Fathers. It was way good. Then we went to a park and talked to people that were watching softball. That was a lot of fun. Then we had dinner. It was a lot of fun and was a long dinner, but a good dinner. Then we went around to some less actives and gave them things for Father’s Day. That was our day and then we came home and go ready for P-Day.

Letter from one of his Ward members

I am not going to use the name of the people that sent this--I don't want to embarass them or offend them because I have not asked them if it would be all right.  I just wanted to put it up so that family and friends could read it--it was such a nice letter.

Dear Sister Rice,
I have worried your son about asking for your address.  I'm unsure why he would think negatively about my wanting to write you a short note.  But honestly I didn't answer when he asked WHY?  Anyway, I was thinking that I wanted to tell you what a glorious young man you have for a son and great missionary who has a strong testimony and is willing to be uncomfortable when trying to get people to listen about Christ and his plan for us.  I am a diabetic just like him and he has shared a lot of neat stuff with me & I have done things different because of his ideas.  It's his choice how he chooses to deal with this disease.  We are all learning every day to be better or not.  He wants to be here and tries hard not to make it difficult for others because of this illness.  We as a ward are blessed to be able to have him.  Thank you for all of your love and support you give all the time.  We feel ver blessed to have him.  We hope he stays as long as Elder Yarn.

Best wishes.

June 15, 2010

Dear Mom and Dad,
Hey, what's up?  Anything new going on?  Well today is P-day again and I played ball today.  Me an my team won 9 in a row before losing.  It was a lot of fun, but this week has gone by so fast.  I can't believe it! 

I wanted to tell mom happy birthday because I won't be able to send a letter before your birthday, mom.  Thanks for all that you do for me and the family.  I's so grateful to have a mom like you.  You are and always will be my mom and I am so very grateful for the things you do for me and you put up with me and dad's smack talk.  We just love you so much and I hope you have a good birthday and I will remember you.

Love you and have a good week.  Love you all,

Your Elder,
Elder Rice

Monday, June 6, 2010
Well, today was P-day. I had such a lot of fun. Since it was P-day, we started out by getting up and doing our wash and our letters home. Then we went to the Jackson building to play some B-ball, which no one came so we played 3 on 3 and I dropped like 4 threes in a row. It was so cool, but after all that we finally had people to play with. We played until noon and then we played ultimate, which was a lot of fun. After that we went home and showered up and got ready for the night and just chilled out and had a good time. Then we went and emailed. I’m really sad because my best friends don’t want to write me anymore, but I guess that’s up to them. My family is doing really well. They are having fun and working hard, which is good. Then we went to the McKell’s for dinner, which was really good. After that we went and washed our car because it is dirty. That was our day—got a lot done. P-days just seem to go by way too fast.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Well, today was a very good day. I really liked today and we did some really hard work, which was good. It was a long, really long, day. We started out the day by going to DDM and it was so good. The spirit was so strong in this meeting. We talked about the hard times and how to get through them. After that we went home and had lunch and it was really good to just go home and think about what’s going on. After that great DDM, but then lunch was over and it was time to get to work. We did 4 hours of tracting, which was not a lot of fun at all; because no one wanted to talk to us so there were a lot of slamming doors. It’s OK because we talked to 60 people so that was good, I guess. Then it was dinner time and I just needed to cool off, it was so hot. Then we had 2 lessons that went really well and I hope they felt the spirit, because I know I did. All around it was a really good day.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Well, today was a lot of fun. I really liked it. We started out by going and helping some people with service with some shower doors. After that we went out and went tracting for an hour. This one guy was so funny to talk to. He had like a Texas accent—it was so funny. We did that for about an hour, and then went to eat with the zone because one missionary is going home. So we went and said good bye to him, and then after that we went back out tracting. One of the last doors we knocked on someone had an Oregon license plate and I asked where they were from. They said Roseburg, and I said, “Do you know the Toveys?” The girl stood up and said that she had dated Andy and I was like, “Oh my goodness that is my cousin!” They took pictures of me and sent them to Andy and Jay. That was so fun, but after that we had dinner. Then we went and saw some less actives and then had a lesson with Shawnie. We asked her to be baptized and she said no, but that’s OK. It will happen, I know it will. Then we went home and had to clean our home share for President’s interviews tomorrow, but that was my day. It was a lot of fun times.

Thursday, June 10, 2010
Today was a really hard day. It was not easy to be able to work today, but today was President Interviews. It was nice to talk to President. We talked about my release date and I need to do some thinking on that. Then we had an appointment that dropped us, but that’s OK, I guess. Then we stayed out and went tracting and didn’t talk to many people. Then we went back to do personal studies and lunch, then weekly planning. It was one of those days that you don’t want to really go out all that much, but we did weekly planning and then went and saw some less actives. One really didn’t want to see us at all. Then we went to dinner with the Palmers and they are so nice to us. I love that family. Then we went and tried to see the Caliva family, and they don’t want us to come around. Then we went to the Arnolds and talked to them for a really long time about the ward mission plan and other things. Then we came home and found out that one of the missionaries had to go home for a little bit. I hope he comes back out. That was my day.

Friday, June 11, 2010
Well, today was such a good day. I loved it. We started out the day by going tracting, which was very long and tiring. We talked to a lot of people and it was a lot of fun because people were really nice to us. By the time we got done, it was like 2:30 and we started at 11:30, so it was long. Then we went home and I got a letter from Brooke. It’s about time. After that we went to the park and we just happened to have a glove and a baseball, so we threw the baseball around for a long time and talked to people that were at the games. We talked to about 85 people, so it has been a really good day. Then we took dinner, that was so good to just go home and take a nap. Then we had to go on exchanges again, so I had to go drop off Elder Yarn and go get Elder Bosteos. Then we came home and hung out a little bit and talked. That’s about it and tomorrow should be a lot of fun.

Saturday, June 12, 2010
Today was a good day. I really liked it. We had a lot of fun. I was on exchanges and we had a lot of fun. We started out by going to the Fishers home to see what time dinner will be. Then we went and filled out the paper for meetings tomorrow at the Arnolds home and we were there for a long time. Then they asked if we would like to go out to eat with them and that took like 2 hours. Then we went to the park and talked to people and I OYM a whole family reunion. There were 130 people there. It was so cool. I tracted only like 1 hour and 30 minutes and that was good, unlike our normal 3 to 4 hours. Then we went over to the Kennedys and we talked for awhile. Then we went to dinner and it was with the Fishers and they fed us so well. After dinner we watched the Mountain of the Lord. It is such a good movie. I love it. That was my day.

Sunday, June 13, 2010
Today is Sunday, which has to be the funnest time because I love this ward so much. It is so much fun, but so we had morning meeting that went really well. That was a lot of fun, I guess. Then I found out that I will be giving a talk on the 11th of July, so that should be a lot of fun. Then after church, we went home and took our Sunday afternoon naps that we love so much. Then we went out and talked to some people that we need to talk to and that was a lot of fun. Then we had dinner and that went really good. We had fish that was so good, I couldn’t believe it. Then we had Stake Priesthood meeting and that was way cool to go and see what they talk about, which the talks were way good. Then we went home and played church music and Disney music, like every Sunday. That was my Sunday.

Latest on Elder Rice's Football team and the movie!

(PRNewsChannel) / June 07, 2010 / IDAHO FALLS, Idaho / Here Coach Darin Owens of Hillcrest High School is already a miracle worker and a hero to so many students and their parents, but soon the world will know how Coach Owens turned a team on a 24-game losing streak into state champions. That extraordinary story caught the attention of Hollywood and it will be turned into a movie for the big screen.

“This is an incredible story that will resonate anywhere. Anyone who loves football and a beating-the-odds story will love this one,” says Glenn Selig, who represents Owens and is founder of The Publicity Agency.

The film from Lightwave Entertainment, which has just begun the script development phase, will chronicle Owens’ life, career and coaching philosophy and focus on how Owens’ dedication led the Hillcrest High varsity team to pull off its first state championship in such an uncanny fashion.

When Owens took over as coach in 2008, the Hillcrest Knights had lost two dozen consecutive games. The team managed to score only a total of three touchdowns the entire 2007 season.

Prior to arriving at Hillcrest, Owens coached at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, Calif. where he turned that team around. He then turned around Northgate High School’s football program in Walnut Creek in 2007. Owens’ coaching efforts reversed the team's 13-game losing streak.

"What Coach Owens accomplished here in Idaho he had done twice before in California," said Charles Shackett, Bonneville Joint School District No. 93 Superintendent, in a recent email to staff. "At the time of that success, there was speculation on a book or movie, so I suppose with what he has accomplished here, it sealed the deal."

Selig says the fact that this is the third time Owens has managed to take a team from last to first makes the coach’s incredible story stand out from Hollywood’s other football classics like Friday Night Lights, Remember the Titans and Varsity Blues.

Lightwave expects to begin production on the film later this year.

June 7, 2010

Dear Mom and Dad,
How are things going back home and anything really that new going on or what?  Well nothing really new here, just that it is getting so HOT here, it's not funny, but I'm in a car so that is nice.  After the sun goes down, it cools off.  If you really want to, you can just put these up on my blog.  Everything is going really well.  I hope Shawnie gets dipped soon, but we will see about that.  I know she knows it is true.

Mom, I will answer your questions to start out:
Who writes me??  Only you and grandma.  So, only you guys really.
Right now I am not in Babylon, I'm in the Mountains of Ephraim to dwell , so I don't know.  (I asked him how long he thinks he will be in Riverside)
I also asked if there were any other people we should pray for--he answered Shawnie. 
Yes, I have been taking a lot of pictures. 
They have been feeding me the same kind of food as before, but a lot more fruit and avocados--man are they good!
My Dad (that is what they call their trainer in Elder lingo) flies home on the 29th of June, so he is getting ready to go home and I got to meet my brother--that means that Jorgenson trained two boys (me and another one), so the first one he trained is my older brother.
I asked him when the other Elder that went to Hillcrest goes home and he said--January, not sure when, but some time in January.
But there you go.  I hope everything goes well for you guys and that you have another great week.  Write me please and you too Dad!

Love,
Elder Rice

Here are his journal pages for this week.  He is going to send them home each week so that I can put them on his blog and keep them for him:

5/31/10 Monday Memorial Day
Well, today was a good day. It was a lot of fun. I got to go on a hike with Jorgenson. That was a lot of fun for me. I always love that kid! He is the coolest. We also had lunch after that. It was so good, oh my goodness I couldn’t believe it. After that we went to the Jackson building and we played some B-Ball and it was so good to play B-Ball with all the other people and Elders. After B-Ball we went to the mall and it was so much fun. We just walked around and looked in stores, but there was nothing that cool there. It is a big mall. Then we went over to the Carr’s house for a party, and then we had dinner with the Kassy family and she is the Relief Society President. She is so nice. After that we went over to Dave Fisher’s house and just helped with some service and that is my day. It was a really good day.

6/1/10 Tuesday
Well, today was a lot of fun. Got a lot done, but we started out by going to DDM and that went really well. We talked about prayer and how important it is. We read Alma 34:17-28 and it is talking about prayer. Then after that, we went and had lunch and then emailed home. It was so cool because the football story of my high school is going to be made into a movie! That is so cool, I can’t believe that is going to really happen. I’m so happy about that. It will be so cool. After that we went out and went tracting and we talked to a whole lot of people that took like two hours out of the day. When we got done, we went and saw the Roches. They have two sons that are not active, so we are trying to get them back out and active. Then we went to dinner at the Jobs and then we went and taught two lessons that went really good. Shawnie is doing so good and she is coming to Church this week. That was our day.

6/2/20 Wednesday
Well, today was a really long day. It was a really sad day, but a lot of work got done and I was OK. We started out by going to a funeral for one of our investigators that just died all of a sudden. The family is all less-active, besides one, and the one that is active is such a good member. When we went over to the house to give blessings, she was so happy that they can do his work in the Temple and she knows where he is. But at the funeral I read a scripture in 1 Nephi 11:17 and it was a good scripture for this family. Then they had a lunch. That went really well, but there was still a lot of crying going on. We went around talking to people asking if they had questions about things and we talked to 121 people. It was such a big party. After the party we went over to Dave Hanna’s house and read with him and talked with him. Then we went to dinner and talked for a long time and just saw how they were doing. That is our day.

6/3/10 Thursday
Well today, was such a great day. We got a lot of work done, but we started out the day by doing our weekly planning and it went really well. We talked about what we do every week and then we go over our investigators and what we think they need or need help working on. Then we wrapped that up and went to lunch. That was really good—we went with some other Elders. We went to work and we tracted from 2:30 until 5:05. It was so long, but it was a lot of fun. We talked to 47 people. Then we had dinner with the Carr’s and they are always so funny. They are the coolest family in the world. Then we had to go and we went and saw Shawnie that is investigating the Church and she is so awesome. After that we went and Elder Yarns got some things because we are doing exchanges with our DL today until tomorrow, so that was my day. A lot happened I know.

6/4/10 Friday
Well today was a very fun day. I really liked today. I got a lot of work done, but we went tracting for the longest time. It was 4 hours of tracting and I was on exchanges with my DL and I did most of the talking because his English is not that good. That’s OK, we talked to 56 people, which is really good for here on a Friday. After that we went and had lunch and I took a little nap, but my DL did too. We were so tired. After that we had dinner and then we did another exchange that went really well. We were late to our appointments, but we did a building tower for one of our investigators that wants to come to church on Sunday, so let’s see how that goes. Then our other appointment was a daughter-in-law to one of our member families, so we taught her. The lesson was in Spanish, which was way cool. Then we changed back and then that was my night.

6/5/10 Saturday
Well today started off really well. We went to President Plokers home for breakfast and it was so good. I loved it, but then he gave a great training. He did such a great job! Then after that we went to the office to get some mail and my package, and then we went around and talked to people at garage sales again. That went so well—we got 47 people in about an hour or so. Then after that we went to lunch and hung out for an hour or so. Then we went around and set up some appointments with some less actives. We had dinner with the Dellahuntes and he is our Elder’s Quorum President and they are so nice. They love to have us over, but we talked about church stuff most of the time. It was like 8 when we got out of there, and then we went and saw the Alvarez family to set up a time to go and see them to talk to them. Our day was full of things to do and to get done.

6/6/10 Sunday
Well today was Sunday and it was so fun. We started out by going to church and that was a lot of fun because it was fast and testimony meeting and Shawnie was there and she stayed for all of church. The kids really had a lot of fun, so that was good. After Church we went home and had lunch. After lunch, we went out and worked and had a lot of people talk to us and were very nice to us. After that we had dinner with the Whitings and they are so cool—they are the nicest people in the world. Then we went over to the Arnolds and just wanted to stop in and copy the dinner calendar and we ended up staying until 8 at night. We talked about everything because she is diabetic too, so she is changing over to the pens like me and I showed her how to use them. That was our Sunday.