Un misionero pelón

Day: another cold one 

Pushup Count: 343

Buenos días a todos! Another good week in Shafter in the books. I can't think of anything crazy that happened this week, but maybe once I list it out we'll find something...

- We played the best game of spikeball I've ever played 

- I cut off all my hair... And I mean all of it... 

- Hno Pereza told us all about how he wants to be a fighter pilot

- We found out that our recent convert gave away his phone so now we have no way to contact him...

- We had to get an oil change in Bakersfield so we got 5 Guys shakes at 11 am 

- We had zone conference — no I didn't fall asleep, but it was pretty hard to stay focused on this one... And then the mlc afterwards didn't have air conditioning so we almost all died 

- On Friday we had the most interesting lesson with a couple who said they wanted to hear firsthand what we believe and then kinda bashed us for an hour 

- We went to a birthday party for a three year old  they gave us posole and cake and it was awesome

- We got to do a roleplay with my past companion Elder Westerby and my mission half brother Elder Kerner. It was super fun 

- I played piano in sacrament meeting and primary again — Unfortunately the primary lost the music for their favorite song so I had to try and play it from memory... It went okayish  luckily the kids know it so well that they didn't really need me

- We had an awesome member meal last night... I got to play their guitar and bass for a sec and then we ate lasagna made out of ravioli. It was so good I don't know how I've never thought of doing it 

- The high yesterday was only 93  we were in heaven

Yep, nothing wild this time around. Elder Hanson and I are doing great, teaching lots of lessons and talking to lots of people. He's picking up spanish again super fast and I'm convinced he actually understands better than me . The weather has also been gorgeous so that's been super nice. Hopefully we can keep it up :)

Spiritual Thought:

2 Nephi 26:24 —

"He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation." 

I want to focus a little bit on the last part of this scripture. Christ's atonement is available to EVERYONE. Period. He's not exclusive at all. No matter who you are or what you've done, you can partake of salvation. He won't tell you no. The only person who can keep you from Him is you, so don't let yourself do that! Turn to Him and feel His love, because it's there for you whether you like it or not :) 

Muchísimo amor de su misionero favorito, 

Élder Page

Fotos! 

5 guys

Elder Hanson stole a cat

Un misionero con otro misionero

Day: first pday back in Shafter 

Pushup Count: 349

Hola mi gente! This has been another wild one. Another transfer come and gone and some fun things going down:

- Last pday we went and got all you can eat pancakes at Dennys and then went and played mini golf in the heat... Not a good combo 

- Our favorite people in Shafter made us posole and and gave Elder Winkler candy cause he was leaving

- We had an all Elders district council...

- We had transfers! We sent Elder Winkler off and I picked up Elder Hanson. He used to be and English elder that I lived with a few months ago and we're super excited to be together 

- We asked this dude on the street if he wanted to hear a message, and he said yes, but that he had to grab his beer first... So he grabbed his beer and then we talked about the plan of salvation 

- We taught some awesome lessons to some super cool people

- The Orozco family showed us pictures of Colima that made me really want to go to Mexico

- Our stove shut off again thus morning so we'll see if we can get that fixed

- It was a really cool week! Highs under 105 

Okay so actually not a ton happened, but it was still good. It's been fun working with Elder Hanson on Spanish and getting to teach with him. It's gonna be a good transfer, as long as we don't melt. Let me know how you're doing!

Spiritual Thought:

2 Nephi 9:41 — 

"O then, my beloved brethren, come unto the Lord, the Holy One. Remember that his paths are righteous. Behold, the way for man is narrow, but it lieth in a straight course before him, and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there; and there is none other way save it be by the gate; for he cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is his name."

I spent a lot of time studying this chapter this week and it's turned into one of my favorites. Go check it out :)

Mucho amor,

Élder Page

Un misionero andando en la locura

Day: First and only pday in Wasco 

Pushup Count: 355

Buenos días! To say that this was a crazy week would be a huge understatement. One of our zone leaders got called to be a new assistant to the president, which means another emergency transfer and lots of locura. Here's what happened:

- On Monday Elder Paxman got a call from President telling him that he was going to be an AP, and that we would be combining areas with his companion 

- Tuesday we went on exchanges with the zone leaders. We had a blast as Elder Paxman packed up to go to Bakersfield

- The next day we took Elder Paxman to the mission office, dropped off our car, and combined areas with Wasco

- Then Elder Winkler and I had to pack up everything and move up to Wasco. We assumed that we would be getting whitewashed and never coming back...

- Since then we've been running around like crazy between the two cities trying to be on time to all the appointments in both areas

Other crazy stuff that happened:

- We went to mercado latino for pday and I bought a little noisemaker... We're still debating about whether it's Asian or Mexican but either way it's loud and fun 

- I got really lucky and beat Elder Winkler and Elder Taylor at Magic 

- Elder Winkler went on the departing temple trip and we got to babysit Elder Montes. Super fun

- We stumbled into a guy who immediately asked us to sit down with him. He told us he had talked a little bit with missionaries in the past, and when we asked what he remembered he told us everything from Joseph Smith to the word of wisdom and that he wanted to be baptized... milagros 

- We went to three separate 7-11s for free slurpees... two of them were out and the third was closed 

- It's been in the low 100s this week and we've even had a few clouds... Heavenly 

- Bishop bought us Carl's Jr... He's the cabra 

- With all the running around, all three of us were so exhausted that we were nodding off in lessons left and right... It was really funny, thank goodness that God can use imperfect instruments to do his work 

- We went out to this little desert town and I felt like I was in North Edwards again... crazy 

- An inactive member gave us pizza

- An active member gave us pizza

- We got our recent convert Paul started on Family History. He's doing so good, it's awesome 

I think that's everything, wow. It's been a wild one. I'm exhausted, but I'm having lots of fun being in a trio again. We'll see what happens this week with transfers. I'm gonna miss Elder Winkler, but it'll be fun to tear up Shafter with some new blood. I hope you all are doing well, stay safe and drink lots of water :)

Spiritual Thought

Most mornings I listen to a general conference talk as I'm getting ready for the day, and for some reason, I keep getting led to Elder Uchtdorf's talks from the women's sessions. I don't even notice, and then all the sudden he says something like "my dear sisters" and i find myself listening to another one . Anyways, they're all super good, and I just wanted to share this quick quote from one of them:

"There will always be things to complain about—things that don’t seem to go quite right. You can spend your days feeling sad, alone, misunderstood, or unwanted. But that isn’t the journey you had hoped for, and it’s not the journey Heavenly Father sent you to take. Remember, you are truly a daughter [or son] of God!"

He says it better than I ever could, so I'll leave it at that. But don't forget that God loves you!

Mucho amor, 

Élder Page

Fotos:

We could look at the sun through the pollution 

the sunset in lost hills

blurry picture of the trio

Un misionero sudando, pero libre

Day: first pday of the last half

Pushup Count: 361

Buenos días mi gente! I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, this was a tough week. We've had consistent highs over 110, which means we melt the moment we go outside, and that no one really wants to talk to us. Also for some reason the 4th of July made me more homesick than Christmas. But, that doesn't mean good things didn't happen:

- We babysat Elder Wilson while his companion went golfing

- We taught Paul about prophets and how we can listen to President Nelson through the gospel library app. He thought it was so cool. His desire to learn blows me away

- We had interviews with President Burton

- I hit one year as a missionary 

- We taught a lesson on the doorstep even though it was 110 

- We celebrated the 4th of July... On the 3rd  Shafter does a little firework show at the high school by our house, and tons of people come for it. Our friend invited us over to watch them, so we decided to walk, and on the way someone gave us free tacos 

- On the 4th we had to be inside by 6 pm, so we made dinner and a cookie and cleaned out one of those closets where you shove stuff you don't want to deal with... later that night our neighbors did fireworks in the street right in front of our window so we got to watch 

- I went on exchanges in Oildale with Elder Espadin and we got Chick-fil-A 

- Hermano Garcia made us tacos, and then I asked about his guitar... so he serenaded us 

- Fasting when it's 113 outside is a cool experience haha

And now after listing all the good things I feel a little bit better  Let me know how y'all are doing! Love you all!

Spiritual Thought:

I joked about fasting yesterday, but it was actually super cool. I really felt the spirit more strongly and the heat didn't get to me quite as much. I'll be honest, fasting isn't exactly a strong point in my testimony, but it is growing little by little. There is power in just doing things with faith. Maybe you don't have a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon, or the temple, or even God, but when you put in the work to read, pray, and do the things you've been asked to, the testimony will come over time. Even if it feels like an eternity, it will come.

Muchísimo amor, 

Élder Page

Fotos!

it was 111 when we took that

pile of stuff from the closet

our cookie (turned out like a cake)

our neighbors ended up starting a real fire

Un misionero con un bautizo

Day: Monday I think

Pushup Count: 364

Buenos días a todos! Hope y'all are doing well. We had another long week out here in Shafter, but we also saw a ton of miracles, including a baptism! Here's a bit of what went down:

- I played the most infuriating game of UNO ever... It took 45 minutes and we finally had to just all work together to end the game

- Someone gave me camarones y pulpo (shrimp and octopus) that I forgot about until this very moment so I probably shouldn't eat them... 

- I went on exchanges with Elder Taylor and we had a blast

- Our friend Paul aced his baptismal interview! He answered all the questions beautifully and even cracked a couple jokes 

- We taught an awesome lesson where the husband readily accepted a Book of Mormon and teared up after the prayer

- We contacted an old friend finally and set up a lesson, but it ended up falling through... Sadly they're just not ready yet 

- We took a picture with a new dead animal 

- We went to teach a lesson to a lady, but when we got there her son was visiting. That usually means that we're about to get cancelled on, but this time she let us share a message and her son ended up being more interested than her 

- All the iphones in the area had a bug that gave us a forecast of 121° — don't worry though, they got it fixed and it turned to the real forecast of 116 

- Paul got baptized! He gave us a little scare by accidentally going to the wrong church, but some terrible Spanish directions and a few prayers later, he showed up and everything went smoothly

- We had dinner with a member who served his mission in the second highest baptizing area in the WORLD at the time... He had some crazy stories 

Not gonna lie, I thought this week would never end. We saw a ton of super cool stuff, but it was long. Hopefully next week is a little better, but we're supposed to get over 110 for the first time, so we'll see. Please pray for me . Let me know how y'all are doing, I love hearing from you!

Spiritual Thought:

I started reading Doctrine and Covenants this week and I ran into one of my favorite scriptures that I haven't read it a while. D&C 6:36 says, "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not." It's super short and super simple, but super powerful. If we look unto the Lord as much as we can, he will take away our doubts and fears. I promise he will as long as we are trying our best.

Mucho amor, 

Élder Page 

Fotos!