Mason's Mission: November 2024

Un misionero diciendo adios

Day: a wet one

Pushup Count: 241

Que tal mi gente, como estamos? This was a crazy week. It feels like an eternity since last Monday because of all the things we did. We'll see, maybe some of it will be interesting to y'all. Highlights:

- Last week we played volleyball and you already know I had way too much fun

- I cut Elder Purcell's hair a few days before he went home... No pressure

- We went to Cafe Rio and some dude wouldn't let us go inside cause he had to tell us that we were leading people astray with false doctrine

- We packed up a few hundred book of mormons and bibles

- Danny gave us free mexican food and we got to speak spanish with his mom

- We picked up the greenies Elder Eagar and I took three of them out for their first night of missionary work and we had a blast

- The next day we had transfers! It went way smoother than last time and I gave everyone the right car keys

- We picked up the departing missionaries and they spent the night with us. Everyone was going crazy over my hotspot so they could reset their phones

- We had breakfast at President's house and this time I liked the grits then we sang hyms and hung out for a bit

- We took the departing missionaries to the airport, including my current companion, Elder Purcell, and my past companion Elder Ireland. Elder Reynolds went home too... Basically I was just a mess hugging them all goodbye

- We planned out all our exchanges for the transfer... Its gonna be a doozy

- We met this super cool inactive member named Austin who prays for a really long time

- I finished the Book of Mormon again!

- Our recent convert Mauricio came back to town and I finally met him. He's super cool, just got to get him coming to church again

- We had dinner with a member who's mom is half Hawaiian and she made us super good Hawaiian pork, rice and salad (I'm actually eating the leftovers as I write this)

Looking back there's not much to talk about, but I promise we were super busy We're doing super good now though, everything is slowing down for a second. Happy Thanksgiving everyone, let me know if you do anything fun!

Spiritual Thought

In the spirit of finishing the Book of Mormon, go read Moroni's promise in Moroni 10:4. No matter how much of the book you've read, I invite you to pray about it. I can promise you that you will recieve an answer in the Lord's time. I can promise that because he's answered me and tons of people that I've met out here, and he will answer you too.

Mucho amor,

Élder Page

Elder Archibald and I at transfers

I spiced up the egg tacos

A funny sign I saw at the mall

Elder Paxman staring down a cat

Elders Ireland, Reynolds, and I

Cool car

District council

Un misionero con mermelada rara

Day: algo de frio

Pushup Count: 247

Buenos dias a todos, como les va? It's been a good week here in Bakersfield, hopefully I'll look back and find something interesting to talk about. Highlights:

- Last Monday we made mini pies at FHE and I did the lattice top so I'm basically a professional baker at this point

- We had lessons with a couple new friends on campus that were super cool. We're excited to talk to them this week

- We went to golden corral... It was pretty bad

- We had interviews with el Presidente. It was a pretty good, lots of good advice and ayuda.

- Our ward mission leader Tone ran into a tree

- We had language study on the silent floor of the library... Muy tranquilo

- We got Panda express again... It's starting to turn into a problem

- President Burton made us burgers and hot dogs and then made us try this weird jalapeño bacon jam... (it was not that good )

- We had an awesome lesson with our recent convert Dillon and got to testify super powerfully of the restoration of Christ's church

- We were parking lot contacting and I had this crazy prompting to let this lady choose a random scripture to read from the Book of Mormon. Huge risk, but who am I to say no to the Spirit? So we did it and she ended up reading 1 Nephi 3:1-2 which led to an awesome discussion about verse 7 as well. El espíritu sabe mejor que nosotros

- It snowed on us in Tehachapi just barely though

- We ate dinner with the Jeppsons, a senior couple in the office, and they made us pork and potatoes that were super good

- We found this awesome guy named Roman and it's a bummer cause we'll have to pass him off to the family ward but he was super hyped to read the Bible

- The Higgs fed us dinner! She's the mission nurse and he's the housing coordinator, and eating with them was probably the highlight of my week. They remind me so much of my own grandparents, super sweet and dedicated. Sister Higgs is really missing her family, so we ended up sharing D&C 31 with them. They've seen so many blessings in their family since serving (just like all of us missionaries) and it was awesome to hear some of them

- Okay we were at Walmart last night and Elder Purcell ran into some people who spoke french unfortunately I didn't get over there in time and they didn't hear me yelling "nous somme missionaires..." but next time I'll be ready

Not too crazy of a week, but we have transfers coming up so my next email will probably be a bit more interesting. Stay tuned, love y'all :)

Spiritual Thought:

This week I read Mormon 7:5, which says, "Know ye that ye must come to the knowledge of your fathers, and repent of all your sins and iniquities, and believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the Son of God, and that he was slain by the Jews, and by the power of the Father he hath risen again, whereby he hath gained the victory over the grave; and also in him is the sting of death swallowed up." If you haven't come to a knowledge of Jeus Christ for youself, do it! Just read and pray and it'll come. He overcame death, he has the power to tell you if it's true.

Mucho amor,

Élder Page

Fotos!

Los Jeppeson

We found a book with the same name as our comp

Us with Tone and Natalie

Walmart

Burgers

Golden corral

Vallarta

El mol

Un misionero en todo el mundo

Day: one of them not sure

Pushup Count: 253

Buenos dias mi gente! Good to see y'all. This was a pretty long week here in Bakersfield. Probably because I wasn't in Bakersfield for most of it haha. We had a lot of exchanges and I went four whole days without working my own area. But here's how it all happened:

- On Monday we went bowling and I did better than I ever have in my entire life

- On Tuesday we went down to Santa Clarita to start an exchange with my trainer Elder Vasquez :) Obviously we had a blast, and I got to teach four lessons in Spanish

- Elder Vasquez had a little scooter in his apartment so you already know I was messing around with that

- We had a lesson with Marcos, who's baptismal interview I did a few months back. He's doing awesome. We prepped him to bless the sacrament this week so I hope he got to

- I went straight from Santa Clarita to an exchange with the social media Elders. We recorded a couple of sisters playing violin and then made it sound all sparkly. Not sure when the video's gonna come out but keep an eye out for it

- Elder Eager came by and made us crepes. I know we're not supposed to have favorite service missionaries, but come on, he made me food

- From there I went to the promised land with Elder Byington. We came out together and we had a blast. Probably one of the best exchanges I've been on. (Arvin is called the promised land by Spanish missionaries here because it's almost 100% latino in population)

- We went on a little trail run next to their apartment and the air quality almost killed me. I'm so out of shape

- Elder Byington made me try grape nuts

- I got a couple of compliments on my Spanish which made me feel a lot better about not speaking it much anymore

- After East Bakes I went down to Lancaster with Elder Andersen. By that point I was absolutely exhausted but it was still a good time. We went on a good run together and got Winchell's after

- I played a cello! There was no bow but it was still super fun

- Saturday was my first day working in my own area all week We had a member take us to taco bell and then we went to the mall and talked to people

- Yesterday church was super good. 10/10 would recommend.

- Aldair made un enchiladas yesterday that were super good. He also told us what it's like to be a chemistry professor. I probably won't be taking that career path

- I said goodbye to Elder Anderson who finally got his visa to go to Mozambique after a year of waiting. He's such a trooper

- I hit 3,000 words learned on spanish dictionary. Theres still so many to learn

Basicamente I was super tired by the end of this week, but I'm doing good. It's a relief to finally be done with exchanges and have a little break until transfers. Talk to you all next week!

Spiritual Thought

Yesterday during sacrament meeting the speaker talked about how Satan speaks to us in the first person. "I'm so tired", "I can't do that", "I'm too busy". Keep that in mind

Mucho amor,

Élder Page

Fotos!