Un misionero agotado

Day: a couple days before transfers...

Pushup Count: 232

Buenos días mis amigos! Not gonna lie, this week hasn't been the best. It was super long, but we did have some success teaching so that makes up for it! I also remembered to journal a little bit more this week (including one really long entry ). Hightlights:

- Tuesday we had our weekly meeting with President, and he gave us some insane news for the next transfer. I can't really say much about the details, but I found out I will be getting a new companion this week

- We filmed the music video that we recorded last week

- One night we got back to the apartment and the door was locked.... We never lock the door cause we don't have a key, so after the other Elders didn't answer the phone, we went and got taco bell before realizing we could just get in through the back door 

- We went to MLC, which in the past was like walking into the lions den for SAs, but we just presented a new resource we made and it all went well. I also got to see my amazing trainer Elder Vasquez 

- A Peruvian girl tried to get me to say a Spanish tongue twister and I was so scared that she was trying to get me to say something bad

- We visited a member without realizing that she had signed up to feed us the next night, so we got two meals with them in two days

- I learned how to make a Siri voice on the computer and how to play golden hour on the piano

- We got dominoes for the third Saturday in a row

- We taught a lesson in a shed and one outside in a welding yard

- We went to go contact a referral and as we walked up to the house, the neighbor told us "that's a really bad house, don't go in there". So naturally, we continued forward  we ended up talking to a very drunk man who gave us super weird vibes so we dipped pretty quick

- I had a weird interaction on Facebook where he seemed interested, then bashed the prophet, then asked for a book of Mormon. I could tell he was messing with me, but I wasn't gonna deny anyone a BoM so I was very clear that I needed specific information from him. He couldn't give it to me, and then he used some choice words so I got to block him 

- The other Elders went on exchanges so we got to hang out with their dl again

- We played a game where the members guessed our first names, and they were able to guess everyone else's names (even Dawson and Jamon) but not mine 

- The morning smog was so thick today that we could stare directly at the sun with no problems  For those of you who don't know, the morning smog here is basically just like a southern California coastal fog, except super polluted, smells bad, and feels like you're breathing in the smoke of a dumpster fire 

Anyways, just kinda tired over here. It might be the 7 week transfer or the fact that I know I'm getting a new companion. Either way, we keep grinding and trying to bring people to Christ  Love you all, let me know how you're doing!

Spiritual Thought

My Spanish has been struggling a lot lately, but yesterday we had a lesson where the spirit was extra strong and I was able to communicate super clearly what I wanted to say. It just showed me that the Holy Ghost really will bring all things to our remembrance, but not only that, he knows our needs and our fears and he'll help us out when we need him to.

Mucho amor, 

Élder Page

Fotos!

Literally all I took this week was Elder Reynolds on a piano bench again 

Un misionero lleno

Day: the coldest one of the week... with a high of 59

Pushup Count: 226 

Buenos días! Well here's the deal... I only remembered to journal twice this week, so we'll see how this email turns out. But things have been good, super busy as always, but good. Highlights:

- Going to guitar center for pday activity was super lit. I got to play a bass again and it was awesome

- Someone on Facebook sent me their number, but when we called it was someone completely different. He was really confused about how we got his number, but he let us share a scripture with him and he kept saying that God must have sent us to him. Super cool  

- We recorded the audio for another music video.... yay  It actually went super smooth cause we prepped like crazy. We ended up building a vocal booth out of chalkboards and blankets and other stuff around the church, and it just looked like a bunch of missionaries building a fort, but it worked pretty well 

- Our mission president decided he wanted to do the baptismal interview for our friend Rosa, so we sat in on that and it was so nerve wracking 

- I went on my fourth bike exchange and all four of our lessons fell through... But a really nice inactive member gave us beans 

- Rosa got baptized on Saturday! 

- We watched some primary kids act out little red riding hood in Spanish at a member meal, it was hilarious and super hard to understand

- Yesterday I was able to confirm Rosa and it was so cool! I was kinda nervous about saying the right words, but everything went super bien and the spirit was strong

- We had a member meal in one of the nicest parts of Bakersfield (the Hermanas area) and it was crazy how big the house was... It's also insane that you can drive 20 minutes and be in the Elders' areas that are super poor

- We taught a lesson with the Zone leaders to their friend who barely speaks English but refuses to take the lessons in Spanish 

- Yesterday it was 70 degrees 

So yeah, pretty good week. Had my first Spanish baptism and it was awesome to help her get there. We've been finding a lot of people lately so hopefully we can help some new people get there too. Love you all, let me know how things are going! 

Spiritual Thought

You are a child of God and He loves you!

Fotos:

Dog tied to a rock in that inactive member's house

El bautismo

Un misionero con peruanos y menudo

Day: the day where I buy food 

Pushup Count: 220

Buenos días a todos! How are y'all doing? I'm doing good, thanks for asking . This week flew by and lots of crazy stuff happened:

- We went on another road trip! Just to Tehachapi so much shorter this time, but we got two full hours of footage from a recent convert couple about their conversion story and I got to see snow again

- On our way to Tehachapi I worked like crazy on a theme song for our Facebook page videos so I'm excited about that 

- I cleaned a ton this week, and I'm still not even close to done... I went over our carpet six times with the carpet cleaner and the water is just barely not black when I finish 

- We got a call out of nowhere from our friend Rosa telling us that she had chosen a day to be baptized after over 2 months of us inviting her pretty much weekly  

- We accidentally left a camera charger in Tehachapi, so we got to go back up there a couple days later

- I spent four hours one day figuring out how to get our theme song louder — after a ton of frustration, about fifty different YouTube videos, a pizza break, and probably some tears, I was able to get it to a standard volume 

- Yesterday we were able to get 2 member meals and it was awesome

- We went to go do service for a member and we couldn't find their house... We wandered through the neighborhood for almost half an hour before we finally found it 

- One of our members taught us some Spanish pick up lines and then gave us the most insane hot dogs ever 

- I finally tried menudo! It was super mid and a little hard to eat — not sure why latinos rave about it but it whatever 

- A random Peruvian girl took a selfie with my companion

- We found 4 people this week! That might not be much for some of y'all, but for someone who found 3 people during his first 3 transfers it's insane. The Lord is blessing us in His work 

- For pday activity today we're planning on going to a skate shop and guitar center so I'm gonna be in heaven haha 

Anyways, it been good out here in Bakes — lots happening and lots to do still. I'm trying to keep my Spanish improving while balancing all the SA work, which has been tough, but President has been hinting at a big change next transfer so we'll see what happens. Let me know how things are going for y'all, cause I'm sure it probably more interesting than me eating cow stomach haha. 

Spiritual Thought:

I've been listening to a talk by President Nelson every day as I eat breakfast, and wow, he really is a prophet. He speaks so powerfully and knows exactly what we need to hear. I challenge you to choose a random talk by him this week and give it a listen — and then go do what he says cause he likes to give invitations 

Love you all, have a good week! 

Élder Page

Fotos!

The Bakersfield sign

The carpet cleaner water on like pass 4

The insane hot dog

Some pictures I took in Tehachapi

Un misionero con elote y música

Day: second pday of the year

Pushup Count: 214

Hola y'all! Nothing really crazy happened this week. It's been weirdly wet and cold here, even to this Utah boy. I definitely don't envy missionaries serving in cold climates cause it's bad enough tracting in 40 degrees and rainy . Highlights from this week:

- We had some crazy fog roll in that made it feel like we were driving though endless nothingness 

- THE FRUIT FLIES ARE BACK — different apartment, different city, different season, but they want revenge

- We had interviews with president, and he hinted that I may be leading Buena Vista next transfer... 

- I went on intercambios on bikes again — I was very greatful for my new gloves (thanks mom )

- Elder Purcell bought me my first elote, and the cart owner insisted that I have hot sauce on it... It threw off the flavor a bit, but it was still super good

- I got mad distracted by the interactive table at McDonald's when we were comp studying

- We did service on exchanges and they let me take home a bag of food 

- We've been finding more in the last couple weeks that I have in my entire mission so far and it's sooo cool — God is blessing us for our grind last transfer

- We had the baptism of a ward member named Maher. He's this little kid from southern Mexico that we've been teaching a little bit because his parents wanted him to really understand baptism. It was super fun, and guess what, I played the piano for it 

- We had a strange door contact where this guy and his daughter seemed interested and then he said that his daughter needed a boyfriend... Dude was literally just trying to get her married to a rich white boy. Buuuut, we still gave them our number so we'll see if they actually cared about the church

- I got emergency called on to play piano in sacrament meeting, but the pianist showed up at the last second so I didn't have to 

- Okay I lied. One actually crazy thing did happen this week. We were contacting grey dots (people who were interested at one point but got dropped) and we stopped by this guy Alex, who we've been building a relationship with for months. We've always known that he was a musician and that he worked in a recording studio, as well as the fact that he had a little home studio. We knocked and he opened the door and agreed to show us his home studio. We walked in I kinda lost my mind. He had a $2,000-3,000 microphone in the corner with a super nice compressor and huge stereo monitors. So I already geeking out, but then I look on the wall and he's got a silver YouTube play button as well as two framed CDs congratulating him for 100k record sales on both  He starts playing us some of his music (which was super good), and Elder Ireland started googling stuff. Turns out our grey dot Alex was actually a successful latino rapper named Dyablo, and he not only worked in a recording studio, he literally owned it! He was super nice and humble about it all and said that he was super down to help us record our Easter music videos  alright, thanks for listening to my story, go listen to Dyablo 

Anyways, pretty average week here besides the weather and Dyablo. But we're going to film a new video this week about a cool conversion story, so things are gonna start to get busy again. Let me know how your holidays went and what you're looking forward to this new year! 

Spiritual Thought:

I've been doing a lot of study on covenants this week and the power we gain by being connected with God. For anyone who doesn't know, a covenant is basically just a promise we make with God to strengthen our relationship with Him (ex. baptism). Anyways, it's pretty interesting, and I'd love to invite y'all to read the talk "Sir, We Would Like to See Jesus" from this last general conference (if you don't know how to find that, lemme know). It makes you think! And of course it focuses a lot on the fact that God loves you, so of course I love it 

Mucho amor, 

Élder Page

Fotos!

Breakfast still going silly

Elder Purcell with his Mc******* on the cool table

Pictures with Maher and the Esquer family

Us

the fog

Here's a quick video of Dyablo