Elder Rice Mail Sunday, August 26, 2012

Hey family,

So the package was super awesome, the peanut butter was awesome… well
is awesome. I assumed since you gave me everything in multiples of two
I was supposed to give half to Elder Lee Dong Hui , so I did. Thank you
for the cake and brownie and cookie mix. We have an activity coming up
that we need them for. It’s called a dessert party !!!  

So, school starts soon and we get our young single adults back yay. 
So we will invite them to the church along with our investigators, and 
play games and share a message and the investigators can make friends 
with members, and the members can get excited about missionary work. 
I’m so excited for it! 

I love the pics of Adam, Grace and Josh too, they are on my desk 
and I have to second one of my “best buddy”, on my calendar. (MOM NOTE: 
Adam, Grace and Josh are Elder Rice’s nephews and niece in Las Vegas. His
Best Buddy is Grace... now, back to Elder Rice) (By the way… 
on the pic of Adam, the birthday card he is holding… from a girl named 
Ashley?... He should know our family doesn’t do well with Ashleys, haha)
(MOM NOTE: his brothers will understand that joke!)

Im so happy Mrs. Feddick added you (FB FRIEND) and is getting this letter! 
She was such an awesome teacher! I want to thank her for all the help she
gave me. She taught math better than any teacher I ever had, and she
was so nice, and she helped me stop sleeping in class (every time I did
she made me stand in the back of the classroom). She was the best!
Thank her for me please.

So my email is late today because we were with an investigator all
day, super fun. We helped him help his sister move, then we went hiking
and we hiked to a Buddhist temple and that was cool. Then we ate and
we walked around this traditional city Jeonju. It’s like built to look
like ancient Korea. It was awesome. I have pics I’ll send.(attached)

This week was really good. I learned the effect of a smile yesterday.
The more I smiled, the more others smiled, and street contacting went so
well. Yesterday we talked to 96 people on the street.  haha.
So much! I was so tired. 

I’m sorry this letter seems boring hmm. So Brother Perkins emailed me. 
That was cool! He got drawn for elk and deer. I guess if you’re a 
Plumber, Game and Fish takes pity on you, and draws you over
Supplier Recovery people…Sorry Dad.

So we were teaching an investigator last week, and we were teaching
commandments, and I was teaching about scripture study, and I said
how when I was younger, I never read, but I started for 5 min. a day,
and how much better my life got and how many answers I found, and as I
said it, he said, “Ok I will read for 5 minutes every night.” I was
surprised and so happy. We followed up and one day he  had read 20
minutes. So awesome what the Spirit can do. 

Our bishop is so awesome! So before I got here, there wasn’t a baptism
in our ward for over a year. We talked to him about our zone’s goal
for 30 baptisms this year, and he said he wanted us to get two before
I transfer out of here. He is awesome. He keeps thinking about the work
here and tells us his ideas. An awesome bishop.

So if dad is keeping a fish count this year, he needs to put 3000 for
me. Our bishop is a fish farmer and we helped him harvest this week. I
hauled 16 2-3 ish gallon buckets of fish from a pond. He has two tanks.
Like they have in fish hatcheries. So ya I think I won this year!
(MOM NOTE: We have a chalkboard wall and each year, all the fish caught by 
all of the Rice men are kept tally of. I don’t know if Dad will make
ALL of the 3000 hashmarks on that wall!)

So I have been reading the Doctrine and Covenants, (a book of LDS Scripture)
and it’s so cool. I’m highlighting and marking so much stuff, and when I 
read it, I feel the Spirit so strong. Everyone should read it. I love it. 
Especially because it talks a lot about missionary work.

But my spiritual thought is something I read this week.
I read how we all receive wages from who we follow. Meaning, the Lord
or the adversary. And I thought about it, and we get "paid by both but
its different pay". My companion talked how before his mission,  he
played some computer game, and on it, he sold things for real money and
made 3000 dollars and he spent it. I said what did you spend it on? 
But he didn’t remember. Then he said, “Money that you get easily, you 
spend easily,” And that’s true. When we sin,  we get paid right away, 
but we get paid right away and its gone… just like that. And after,
we can’t remember what we spent it on. Then, we are miserable and sad. 
On the other hand, obeying commandments and doing what’s right… you 
may not get paid right away, but you will always get paid. You may be
 "laying for yourself treasures in heaven" (Matthew 6: 19-20) 
or you just have to wait for the Lord’s time, not ours. But we
will get paid. And think whose is a better hand for our money
(blessings)to be in than the Lord's. And when you work hard for your money, 
it’s harder to spend it on dumb things and you always remember what you
bought with it. When we obey the Lord’s commandments, we will receive
joy and its not short term. It’s eternal joy, and I know that’s right. When we
aren’t doing right, it’s fun for a little while, but after, the pain and
sadness are way worse than that little bit of fun is. On the other
hand, when we are doing what is right, we’re happy and nothing takes
that happiness away but sin, and that’s the best happiness! It’s joy,
and I love it.Well, I hope that made sense. I’m a little scattered today sorry. 

Well ill add pics and close this I love all of you family. Be safe,
Send letters, or email...or cookies!

Love Elder Rice

Explanation of the pictures:
We bought peaches. koruna peaches are huge and so good, but expensive!
Like we bought 4 for 8 dollars, but later we bought a big box of 12
for 12 dollars. Ha ha so cool. 

The really huge tree is 400 years old, and
the other one im standing by is 500 years old.  ya love you bye


Note: Elder Rice can receive email but can only email reply to family
personally, though, as you can see, he includes you in his emails to 
all. If you would like to snail mail Elder Rice, his address is:

Elder Nathan Rice
Korea Daejeon Mission
Daejeon P.O. Box 38
Daejeon, Korea  300-600

For a typical letter, it is $1.05 postage. It takes about 10 days for
a letter to get there.