sister price

this was the day sister price, elder burton and elder dinsmore were leaving the field, so happy for them and so hard to see them leave.


we were companions over christmas, so we built a fireplace out of a cardboard box to make it a little more homey at our apartment.


us at the morristown chapel


at a baptism of one of the little girls we were able to teach

about 12 years ago i was in jefferson city, tennessee with a gal named sister price. she was my second companion on my 18 month mission. she was so nice, such a hard worker and was so kind and soft spoken. she was a really good missionary. we were a really good team. the day she was leaving the mission field, i was a travelling sister, so i was at the mission home and got to see her leave along with cj and another good elder. it was hard to see them all leave 6 months ahead of me. when i got home, i went and stayed with her while i was arranging schooling in utah, and since then we have loosely kept in contact through brief letters, baby announcements and the odd phone call. i haven't heard from her for about a year until today when we got our mail and there was a christmas card.

the first thing i did was pull out the photo card, wow, 3 kids, she looks great, good for her, the last i heard she had had her second little guy, wow, #3 a little girl.

then i began her letter and was so shocked to hear what had been going on this last year. in november 2004 she had had her little girl and 6 days later became very ill. thinking it was the flu, they went to the hospital where she was then airlifted to the LDS hospital. she was in a coma for just over 2 weeks. she had an emergency hysterectomy because her uterus was infected and was diagnosed with toxic shock from the strep B virus. on december 31, 2004, they blessed their little girl and then she was wheeled down to surgery where both legs where amputated below the knee along with 6 of her fingers. she was in the hospital for 12 weeks and finally came home valentines day. the doctors had given her a 5% chance of survival and she made it.

at the end of her christmas letter was a hand written note saying she had gotten my christmas card from last year while she was in the hospital. 2005 had been filled with several other surgeries and doctors visits, but she was just grateful to be able to celebrate life and happy to be alive.

i was just amazed at her letter, and even though it has been a dozen years since i have seen her, it brought tears to my eyes thinking of the incredible trial she has gone through. it taught me that if you don't actively keep in touch, you never know what someone is going through and what kind of help you can offer. even if i could have been praying for her, i wish i had of known.

after her mission she used to work at her dads business selling doors. i used to call her and pretend i was looking for some wacky door until she would catch on and figure out it was me. i need to call her tomorrow and catch up.