Un misionero con un halcón

Day: the first rainy (ish) day in a long long time 

Pushup Count: 265

Buenos días a todos! This was a crazy week. I thought I drove a lot last week but turns out that was nothing. We went on 3 exchanges this week and spent a lot of time in the car. I have a feeling this is just how my life is now. But anyways, here's what happened this week:

- We played werewolf on pday and didn't guess either of them so we all got eaten :(

- We made oragami dragons at FHE. Ten year old me was cookin

- I went on exchanges with Elder Randall. He's super cool 

- I ate street tacos while driving. Not advised but we were in a hurry 

- We saw a red tail hawk carry a dead squirrel through campus (don't open that picture if you're squeamish... It's not too bad tho)

- Our ward mission leader Tone came with us almost all day and even joined us for comp study. He's a legend

- Elder Randall bought me chickfila 

- Then we drove all the way down to Palmdale and I joined Elder Peterson and Elder Guajardo in Agua Dulce. It was actually pretty there 

- We met a member who's husband is an art director for huge Hollywood movies. Also cool 

- We ate a member meal in her hair salon. I sat in one of those blow dryer chair things while I ate tika masal for the first time. Fue bien 

- Elder Kemp was also on exchanges in Palmdale so we got to hang out at the end of the night 

- We had a lesson with Andrea, who's mom is from the Buena Vista ward where I served a long time ago. Her mom said I looked skinny and I'm still convinced that she doesn't think I can speak Spanish. But they gave us guatamalan pizza stuff with hot sauce and Starbucks and it was pretty good

- We watched a broadcast from Elders Bragg and McKay of the seventy and it was super good. Elder McKay talked more about Joseph Smith just like he did in conference and gave us some great ideas for missionary work and personal conversion

- I ate some amazing tacos dorados and got to order them in Spanish  I'll take any chance I get to practice at this point 

- I went on exchanges with Elder Springer in Valencia. Definitely a different crowd down there, a lot less open to hearing us. But we taught a cool returning member named Dillon and I got to see my trainer Elder Vasquez the next morning :)

- Long story short, we drove to Palmdale the next day to drop off a car that needed to be repaired but the shop was closed. So we dropped it off with my last companion Elder Archibald. At that point elder Purcell realized that he had left all his stuff in Santa Clarita so we drove all the way back there before heading up to Bakersfield. That was a long day

- We had a great lesson with our recent convert Dillon about repentance

- We sang Christmas songs in ward choir 

- We saw a super cool sunset at our member meal last night (picture below)

- I finished Doctrine and Covenants for the first time. Now onto the Pearl of Great Price 

- Someone made us hot chocolate and it was awesome

So yeah, super busy but a good week. Today is cold and cloudy which is a nice change, hopefully it stays that way. Espero que tengan una linda semana y que todo les vaya bien! 

Spiritual Thought

I don't have a whole ton of time today so I'll just invite y'all to go read Helaman 10:4-5 and look at the blessings that God promises to Nephi. I read them this week and they're super awesome :)

Fotos

The hawk

The squirrel (dinner)

Elder Guajardo and I in the hair salon

Elder Randall and I with Tone

The sunset at Kayla's

Walmart watches you

Un misionero en el carro

Day: 4

Pushup Count: 271

Buenos días a todos! It was a good week here in Bakes but yes, you already know I forgot to write about any of it  Please forgive me and wish me luck. I'll try to remember the highlights:

- We played volleyball last week and I spent the whole time trash talking with Elder Mitchell in Spanish cause it's the only practice I get these days 

- I went to the dentist! Not something you get to do much as a missionary, but one of my companions needed something fixed so we got to hang out there for a sec

- We had an awesome lesson with our friend Ryan. He's been studying general conference by himself and getting super close to baptism :)

- Tuesday night we rushed to finish the presentation we were supposed to give in zone conference the next day and then woke up early that morning to go down to Palmdale 

- We had an awesome zone conference x3  I was absolutely exhausted by the end but it was fun to see all of my favorite people across the mission 

- I went on exchanges with Elder Sjoblom in Lancaster and we had a great time. He did cross country in high school too so we ran in the morning and it was a blast 

- This week's institute was about marriage and family again (with a little video about Yom Kippur mixed in there for some reason ) so that was fun

- We went to the giant park a couple times to talk to people. We started talking to this one lady and then her dogs almost ate a little girl so that was awkward 

- We went to the ward halloween party and had chili dogs and some of the best mac and cheese of my life (maybe just cause I was starving, but it was really good) 

- We had a cool moment where all three of were teaching someone in Spanish over Facebook at the same time 

- We had dinner with the Allreds and they also had bread... For some reason it's been so tempting lately. But anyways I did eat like 8 pieces 

- We stumbled upon a chalk art exhibit near our house last night so we walked through it on our way home and pretended that we knew what good art is supposed to look like 

- I have a 9 day duolingo streak learning French in Spanish and I still don't know how to say hello, goodbye, please, or thank you... I think the course might be a little off  But on the bright side, I can talk about apples (les pommes) and books (les livres) all day long. 

With all those zone conferences we did a lot of driving and it was pretty exhausting. But we got a lot of work done and slept great  Next week starts our series of exchanges so we'll see how that goes. Let me know how your week was, especially if you think you drove more that me. 

Spiritual Thought

I was reading near the end of Alma this week, right in the middle of the Book of Mormon war chapters, and I ran into one of my favorite verses. Basically what's happening is that Moroni is out fighting the Lamanites and he's not doing so well. Even though they've won a bit, they're running out of food and soldiers. So he sends a letter to his leaders and is like, "Hey! We need help, why are you ignoring us? We're all dying and you're just sitting on your thrones eating grapes and watching Netflix or whatever". He's pretty stern with them, but in the middle of the letter in Alma 60:10 he says, "And now, my beloved brethren—for ye ought to be beloved; yea, and ye ought to have stirred yourselves more diligently for the welfare and the freedom of this people". I love so much how he expresses his love for these people even though they're neglecting him. It's one of the biggest examples of Christlike behavior that I've read. He truly loved those who had wronged him. And we should too :)

Mucho amor, 

Élder Page

Fotos

before the chalk

chalk

Un misionero mareado

Day: a cold one 

Pushup Count: 277

Que tal? Como estamos? This was a wild week in Bakersfield and I didn't journal once, so we'll see how it goes...  Highlights:

- Last pday we played card games and I ran routes with Elder Anderson

- We went to ward FHE for a sec

- Elder Purcell started feeling sick on Tuesday so he stayed at the office with the social media elders while Elder Paxman and I went out and baptized nations (aka taught like 2 lessons)

- We taught our friend Ricky and he said he wants to get baptized  He's a gym bro that we meet with at the park and it's a lot of fun 

- On Wednesday we went and picked up the greenies! It was super fun. We grabbed them from the airport and then ate some amazing enchiladas at President's house. After dinner I got to take two of them out for their first night of tracting. It was awesome, they were fearless. One of them even tried talking to an Indian guy in Spanish 

- Unfortunately Wednesday night I caught Elder Purcell's sickness and it all went downhill from there...

- I almost gave some hermanas the wrong car but my companion saved me 

- We "went" to lunch with all the missionaries going home... We sat on the other side of Cafe Rio but it was still good

- That night we picked all those Elders up and they stayed the night at our house. By that point I was feeling pretty bad so I had Elder Wilson and Elder Paxman give me a blessing, took a nyquill, and passed out 

- President made the departing missionaries grits. Super overhyped 

- We took a sick day the next day after running around enfermos for too long

- I started learning French in Spanish on Duolingo. It's super weird to have three languages running through my head when I do that 

- We taught another awesome lesson to Shie and she came to church! When someone asked her if she was visiting she said she was actually working on becoming a member 

- We had an amazing dinner with one of the senior couples assigned to the YSA. They're super cool and they made homemade bread that was soooo good I might have eaten 3 slices... 

- Guys. There was frost on the grass this morning. I haven't seen that it over 7 months... It feels good 

I'm finally feeling better, just a little cough now :) Being sick really makes me appreciate being healthy so there is a little bright side. Let me know how y'all's week was!

Spiritual Thought 

Go apply Elder Kearon's talk from this last weekend! I had a great time at sacrament meeting yesterday after listening to that. So umm do it :)

Mucho amor, 

Élder Page

Un misionero en Bakes... de nuevo

Day: day 5 in Bakes

Pushup Count: 283

Buenos días a todos  This was a crazy week and I'm definitely feeling it. Getting transfered just makes you feel like sleeping all day haha. Basically my time in Palmdale was very short and I'm back in Bakersfield  I'm now serving in a YSA ward with some office responsabilities, a very different experience from what I'm used to but I'm excited. Esto es lo que pasó:

- We played blitzball last pday and I got really good at throwing a nasty curveball (and I only hit Elder Kerner a couple of times...)

- I said goodbye to Alfredo, one of my favorite converts ever 

- Elder Archibald bought me a marzipan tres leches and we ate the entire thing in less than 24 hours 

- I went on a mini exchange with Elder Kerner and all of our lessons fell through, but we got wing stop and Hermana Montalban gave us some carne de res

- When we showed up at Hermana Montalban's house she offered to make us some food so we sat down and waited for a second. Then she said she'd bring us a little snack while we waited. The little snack turned out to be a full meal  we had to stop her before she started cooking more... I love her so much

- I moved into my new house with my new companions Elder Purcell and Elder Paxman. They're both great missionaries it's gonna be cool to be with them

- My first night we went to Institute and the topic was choosing an eternal partner... That was fun 

- We did a TON of work on the csub campus, including a lesson in the cafe with two freshmen girls... Super weird 

- Since the ysa covers all of Bakersfield we worked a lot in my old area, and we saw the Gonzalez family, the first people to feed me strawberry tamales

- Went to the office staff meeting and all the senior missionaries started roasting each other 

- We had another leadership meeting in Tehachapi and this time we were chosen to give a portion. We talked about King Benjamin and it went pretty well 

- General Conference of course. We set up chairs in front of the giant TV the church and I only fell asleep once 

- Luis bought us Salty's barbecue and it was super good. Apparently it was on Drive-Ins Diners and Dives at one point so verify that for me pls 

- Our friend Shie set a date to be baptized so please pray that everything goes well for her 

So yeah, good week but I am exhausted  Let me know how y'all are doing or if you have any questions!

Spiritual Thought

There were a million good talks last weekend but I liked the one about the salt collectors. Go check it out once it's are released. Until then, stay salty.

Mucho amor, 

Élder Page

Saying bye to Alfredo 

Hermana Montalban

General conference

Salty's

Salty's again

Elder Bachous

Adiós a los Linares