Missionaries changing up their look!

Like I have always said, we love our missionaries. Elder Slauson and Elder Dees came over last night for dinner. We had a great time with them. They always bring a wonderful spirit into our home. I always take pictures of them so that I can send them to their families. Elder Dees said his pictures always looked the same, so we changed things up a bit. I'm kinda liking the hair :)

Elder Page is doing well and continues to work hard. Not much news this week other than he is feeling better. He was being very sarcastic when he said, "sorry I don't have any funny stories this week. I'll try my best to get hurt or eat something terrible this week so you'll have something to laugh about next Monday over the dinner table". Glad he has not lost his sense of humor!

A Visit from Jelana and a soccer game!

This weekend we got a visit from Jelana and her mom Sue. Hope they had a good time. It was nice to get to know them better. We spent the weekend watching zach's soccer game that ended in a tie 2-2. It was a beautiful, but very cold day to watch a game. We also got things done for the Prom, coming up on the 7th, like getting the tie to match her dress, flowers, the shirt. Zach really enjoys shopping :) It was also a youth stake activity. It was a lot of fun they did info-mercials on the different topics form the "For strenght of Youth" pamphlet. Some of them were sooo funny. It was a quick weekend, but full of some great family time.

Elder Page is feeling much better.

Dallin is feeling much better this week, but says that the weather has still been rainy and cooler. They have been doing more walking than bike riding since his bike is a little unreliable. I guess the work is progressing. His email was rather short this week with very little news. We are just glad that he is doing better.

Elder Zack Buehner is working hard in India

Elder Zack Buehner is serving his mission in India. It must be a fasinating place! There is a lot of work to be done and only 14 elders to do it, looks like they will be needing some more Elders in India (Watch out Matt)

Dinner with the missionaries...

I haven't put up pictures of our missionaries in a while, Elder Dees from Arizonia and Elder Slauson from Utah are now serving in our ward. We had them over for dinner last night. It is always a fun uplifting visit. We feel like they are our other boys! I love taking pictures of them and sending them to their families to enjoy. Matt is their 3rd companion.

He goes out with them alot. Great preparation for when he leaves this fall.

Elder Dees is so tall. It seems that they have all been a good bit taller than our family :)

Abby thinks the missionaries are great...more big brothers who tease her!

Tory being silly with the Elders.

Their tummies are full after a great dinner!

Elder Dees and Elder Slauson

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I love Valentine's Day!...although it is a day that really should be celebrated everyday. Be sweet to your sweethearts and let those that you love know that you love them! Here are a few pictures of people I love with their Valentines. NOTE: the picture of Dallin and Jaclyn is not recent :)

Elder Page has been Sick, yuck!

I got a nice surprise today...an email from Elder Page. YEAH!!!! The libraries were closed so they went by today to email home. Poor guy has been sick all week. He is on a bike now and they have been getting so much rain and it has been cold, this week that he has gotten sick. Here is a small portion of his letter from this week.

I do have another kind of funny story of something that happened on Sunday. So I figured that this was going to happen one of these days and it finally did after one year and 2 days out. We went over to Hermana Garcia's house for lunch/dinner after church at 3:00. Now Hermana Garcia is a really nice lady, she is a single older lady and the ward librarian. Unfortunately, being the nicest old lady in the Spanish ward doesn't make her a good cook. As we were sitting on the couch waiting for the food to be ready, we smelt a really funky smell coming from the kitchen. Then she held up this HUGE piece of something and asked, "Les gusta flounder?" Now I think I could eat flounder and end up alright but that definitely wasn't "flounder". When she served it up it wasn't even in one piece. It looked like she had put it in a blender and the best way I can think to describe it is that it was the texture of baby food. Well, I'll skip the actual consumption of the food and cut to 15 minutes later...we walked home in pain and then...it all came out! Now you know that I have one of the strongest stomachs in the world and it takes a lot for me to throw-up, so I was feeling pretty sick, on top of the sickness I already had. I lay ed on the couch for maybe 10 minutes and then it was off to an appointment that was a 30-minute bike ride away. Kind of funny now but not really at the time, oh well. :) As for my birthday, we didn't really do anything to celebrate besides going to Baskin Robbins and getting a scoop of ice cream. We just kind of did it in passing in the middle of the day when we were open. But other than that, it was pretty much just like any other day.
Talk to you next week. I love you all! :)
Elder Page

One year and 3 days out!

I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by. Dallin has been out on his mission for 1 year and 3 days, and everyone says that the first year goes by so slow and the second year flies by. I hope that it does not mean that since the first year flew by that the second will go by slowly :) What a year of growth it has been, not just for Elder Page but for all of us in the Page household! It is really a time for change in our lives, kids growing up so quickly and leaving home. I love my kids, not just because they are my kids..I love them for the people they are. They really are great individuals. They make us laugh and cry (tears of joy). I am so proud of all of them. Any way it has been a great year full of fun memories. I know that this year will bring many, many more!

Elon Basketball 100th season celebration

This past weekend was the "100th season of Basketball" celebration @ Elon. Many basketball alumni came to participate in the celebration. Steve had so much fun catching up on old friendships. It was a wonderful way to spend Steve's birthday, and a nice little getaway for us. Just me and my Baby!

Steve & I at the Elon Banquet

Teammates Mike Day, Brian Branson, Steve & Tony Chavis

Coach Morningstar with Steve. He was his first coach @ Elon, before the mission.

Mike Day, Steve & Tony Chavis, teammates his junior & senior year @ Elon

Happy Birthday to "My Birthday Boy!"

SOOOOOOO Cute....................................

The birthday boy has still got it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Steve turns 45 today, wow he is finally caught up with me...atleast for a few weeks. Happy Birthday to the most wonderful friend, most loving husband, and the best dad in the world. We love you Steve and hope that this day is one of the happiest for you because you deserve it!

Happy Birthday Dallin! #20

Today is Dallin's birthday...20 years ago. Where does the time go! He was such a good baby and has grown into such a great man. He is a wonderful big brother, any one of his brothers or his sister would testify to that. He has always been an example that they could follow. Thank you Dallin for being the joy that you are and we love you...HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDER!!!!!!!!!

Daisy goes first class to California!

I think Daisy misses Dallin too. I was putting a package together for Dallin and Daisy jumps in the box and would not come out. It was so cute! That would have been a great birthday present huh Elder Page!

Elder Nacho

Elder Page is loving his new area!! I am so happy to hear that he is teaching and having some new experiences. I am going to just paste in parts of his email to the blog. Enjoy!

Hey,

Well, week one in a Spanish area has been pretty fun. I got to meet some of the people we
are teaching and we got to check 9 referrals this week. One of them turned into a new
investigator, his name is Raudel. Nice guy with a some good potential. Also, we are
teaching a 21 year old guy by the name of Carlos.  Also we are teaching
his aunt named Inelda Vega. As for tracting, it has
been pretty interesting. Luckily, Elder Allred's Spanish is pretty good and so if i don't
know what to say he can help me out. The hardest part for me though has been just
understanding what people are saying to me. I can pick out words here and there but
understanding the overall idea has been tough. I'm sure it will just come with time. :)
So there are tons of different venders that walk around the streets all day in the Spanish areas, some that
sell ice cream, some sell fruits, and some that sell HELOTES!!! Now I'm pretty sure
you don't know what a Helote is or at least not by name b/c I didn't before I saw it.
Remember on Nacho Libre? That nasty looking corn-on-the-cob thing that Nacho's friend
threw in the mob-man's eye? That's a helote. It is a corn-on-the-cob, smothered in
mayonaise, butter, and chili powder. Elder Allred told me about it and said that I had
to try it so I did.  And I have to say...once I got past the fact that it looks terrible,
and the fact that he had been wheeling around the mayonaise and butter all day in the
hot sun (sketchy), and the fact that he pulled the corn out of a trash bag...it wasn't
half bad. :)  I couldn't eat one every day but every once in a while it's not bad. It's
pretty funny how popular it is. A grown man came outside in his pajamas at 8:30 pm when
he heard the little horn and bought two.  Anyways, that's my story. It's amazing how
different it is here from Irvine. :)

It's also really interesting how different our meals with members are here too. Usually
we eat here around 2 or 3 in the afternoon so it's more like a lunch than a dinner and
when we eat, 9 times out of 10, the member will serve us the food and then just walk away
and do whatever around the house. Sometimes they will sit down and visit with us but even
then they hardly ever eat with us. And the meals are very similar every time...rice,
beans, some kind of meat and tortillas. It's like clockwork. :) I'm sure dad can relate
to the rice and beans from back when he was in Brazil. By the way, I don't want it to
sound like I'm complaining at all b/c I really am enjoying it here. It is a really neat
opportunity that we have here in this mission to be able to serve in so many different
cultures and to appreciate the all of them for different reasons. :)


Well, I think that that's it for this week. Thanks for you prayers. I can feel them and I
appreciate them a lot.  Remember that I'm praying for each of you too every night. :) Have a
great week. I love you all! :)

Elder Page