Un misionero aquí

Day: sometime in June

Pushup Count: 358

Buenos días a todos! ¿Comoanestao? This was another pretty long week, and I'm not sure if much really happened, but we'll find out together... 

- We went and played pickleball in this super nice neighborhood on the North side of Bakersfield... It was pretty cool that day and I felt like I was in Utah with all the new houses 

- I went on an exchange with Elder Wilson, the legend himself. He's super funny and an amazing teacher. I had a blast and learned a lot

- We got home to make dinner one day and our stove wouldn't light because of a breaker issue... We ended up having to reset a bunch of random breakers until it turned on again

- I found out what the attic of our house looks like... 

- We had a cool experience with helping an elderly woman stand up and get inside her house

- One of our members requested pass along cards, so we brought them over, and she told us she wanted to sneak them into a gift for her catholic friends  then they gave us super soft ice cream 

- We ate tostadas for dinner all weekend  (there's no tostada emoji) 

- We helped move a bunk bed right after eating cake and ice cream... Not a good combo  

- We're currently about halfway through our current little heat wave... The end of this week will cool down to a brisk 99  

Yep, so not anything super crazy. I'll keep y'all updated on the heat... It's supposed to just keep getting better . Hope everyone's doing well, let me know how your week went! 

Spiritual Thought:

Cool scripture I read this morning, Moroni 7:15:

"For behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night."

We all have the light of Christ, and we can tell really easily if something is good or bad. Trust in the lord, and he'll direct you to live the best life you can! 

Los amo muchísimo! 

Élder Page

I officially took 0 pictures this week I apologize... I'll be better...

Un misionero con una rana viva

Day: a cooler one 

Pushup Count: 352

Buenos días mi gente! Como están? Another long week here in Shafter and I kinda loved it  We did a lot of door knocking and had a lot of lessons fall through (stay tuned for the final total), but we got to speak a lot of Spanish and have a lot of fun. Here's the highlights:

- President Burton joined us for a game of speed 

- We listened to old man Carlos tell stories for an hour before he let us share anything...

- We had an awesome lesson with Bishop and his wife about the restoration and their conversion story

- We had zone conference in Bakersfield and yours truly played the piano

- We visited an inactive member who gave my companion an outdated psychology textbook... Never seen him so hyped haha

- A bird flew into our windshield (I didn't hit it, it hit me ok?)

- We saw a living frog!  It was just chillin on our porch one night when we got home

- A member gave us cold hostess cupcakes... They're way better asi

- I ate a LOT of taco bell hot sauce (even after nearly a year of real Mexican food it's the best)

- We finally got to meet with Hermana Madrigal again after months and it was so much fun

- I played piano in primary for the third week in a row... They told me they're about to give me an official calling 

- We had 16 lessons fall through 

We saw a ton of opposition this week, record low numbers, and lots of rejection. It's kinda weird though, because I feel like it's been a super happy week. I've been trying to change my mindset and be more Christ focused and I think it's working... But yeah, let me know how your week was, love y'all!

Spiritual Thought

I've been studying the talk "Humble to Accept and Follow" by Joni L. Koch lately and there's a cool quote from it that I wanted to share with y'all. He says, "when we choose not to be humble, we end up being humiliated." It sounds kinda harsh, but it's true. God's going to humble you no matter what, so you might as well not fight him on it :) Humility is super important, and something I've been working on super hard for the last while. It's a tough Christlike attribute to develop, but I invite you all to think about ways you can be more humble, cause no one likes being humiliated right?

¡Nos vemos!

Élder Page

Fotos!

Un misionero con dulces

Day: Monday

Pushup Count: 346

Muy buenos días a todos! Como andan? This week was super long and kinda hot. We keep getting extreme heat alerts even though this is just average weather haha. Pray for me in August . Anyways, aquí es lo que pasó:

- We played mini golf for pday activity last week and took it way too seriously. I won by 10 strokes and we all had a blast 

- Then we got ramen... Basically just like the packaged stuff but less salty 

- We went to Circle K and bought slurpees for bonka 

- We had a wonderful ward FHE where only one active member showed up  

- We found out the other two missionaries in our ward were leaving, very sad, so we went and visited our favorite member family together. They bought us pizza and let us take pictures on their "couch"

- The legendary Miguel from Delano came and visited us and gave us ice cream

- Bishop gave us lots of chocolate 

- I found out that front porches on certain houses can be 20° hotter than the street

- We decided to do some door knocking in the morning... Still kinda hot but a nice change for sure

- Transfer news came out and I'm still here in Shafter with Elder Winkler  he goes home this transfer though, so there's a chance of me being here for a very long time

- We rescheduled Paul's baptism so that more of the ward could attend, and he's still super excited 

- We finally got to try Zeb's legendary cookies and he taught us how to work out our mitochondria (which is now just a huge joke ) 

- I learned some cool new Mexican slang 

- Of course, we saw more dead frogs

Like I said, it was a really long week, but it was good. I'm excited, this is going to be a great transfer! Let me know how y'all are doing, love you tons! 

Spiritual Thought:

Matthew 11:28-30:

"(28) Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 

(29) Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 

(30) For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" 

I've felt Christ taking up my burdens so much this week. I'll be honest, we did a lot of walking around in the heat this week, and it wasn't exactly the easiest thing I've ever done. But all I had to do was say and little prayer and have some faith, and Christ got me through it and helped me be excited to do it the next day. I hope y'all can apply this scripture to whatever you're going through. Don't forget that Christ is there! 

Muchísimo amor, 

Élder Page

Fotos!

Un misionero con fuego

Day: the beginning of a cool Bakersfield summer 

Pushup Count: 340

¡Hola a todos! ¿Como les va? This was an exhausting week for sure. The closer we get to summer the harder it gets to have the willpower to be outside all day haha. I'm counting myself lucky though because it's been a relatively cool spring. Anyways, here's what happened this week:

- We kicked things off with an exchange to oildale where I didn't get robbed... Success 

- We set up a ton of lessons that didn't got through

- So we knocked a ton of doors 

- We had some lessons that did go through 

- We went to a pickup lesson with two guys that ended up not being home, but their dad let us in anyway and we taught him and gave him a Book of Mormon

- We showed up an hour late to a graduation party and it still hadn't started... But they gave us food to go 

- An inactive member gave us perros calientes that were super good

- We were at the park and the chamacos lit off another firework in the bathroom... And then they started a gas fire another night so we got to watch the fire department come and put it out  

- I drank the best horchata I've had so far

- I played the piano for choir, sacrament meeting, and primary... Fun day 

- A member of the seventy came to our ward and gave a fire testimony. He also speaks Spanish like a native Mexican even though he's just not at all... Goals 

- We went to a coffee shop for companion study and a random member from Bakersfield bought us breakfast  being a missionary has it's perks

Okay so turns out nothing really interesting happened this week, but that's okay. We really just did a lot of tracting, which I enjoy so it was fun. Wish me luck this week. I have transfers and 105° heat in my forecast :)

Spiritual Thought:

I'm reading through the New Testament all the way for the first time and I'm nearing the end  but here's some verses that I loved from 1 Peter 2:

"(21) For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: (22) Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: (23) Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: (24) Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (25) For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."

Christ was perfect, and because of His perfect sacrifice, we can be too someday. Even when we go astray, we can come back to him and find peace 

Muchísimo amor, 

Élder Page

Fotos!

- more dead frogs and an abandoned building