13 PaGeS LoNg

WhErE tHe PaGeS oF tHiS bOoK nEvEr EnD



Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Elder Page sweating it out in Tucson



Elder Page says "it is getting so hot in Tucson, and there is no where to escape the heat. We had our last Zone Conference with President and Sister Walker this past week. It was a powerful meeting and I gave them BOTH hugs @ the end. I really am going to miss them, but hope to keep in touch.:) I'll let you know how the new President will be. I'm sure he'll be great!" The rest of his letter was full of questions for us. He sends his love to all and says thank you for everyones love and letters. We are so excited that Matthew has less than 4 months left! I can not wait to give that boy a huge long hug and kiss, and to just see his sweet smile!

Elder Page in Sendai

Service in Sendai, check out the hat Marissa :)

Hello Everybody!!

It has been a crazy 4 days since I transfered here to Kamisugi! The past few days have consisted of a CRAZY busy schedule!

We have been in a lot of meetings with people in the ward here trying to make sure our missionary efforts are well coordinated because there are 3 sister missionaries too. The ward here is really big for Japan, it is well over 100 people! This past sunday was Stake Conference and so members from Tohoku came to Kamisugi. President Tateoka leaves on Wednesday and so he spoke at the Conference. It is pretty crazy that President Rassmensun is coming tomorrow night! It is going to be a crazy week or so with us working on the transition and stuff. The missionary work is way different here and everything just feels way more busy! I don't really have a whole lot of things to tell this week other than a pretty funny story that I will tell quickly. We met a black guy in Japan! He was from New York City and his name was "King." He was a little off his rocker to say the least but his little bike and he stopped to talk to us. He started telling us that he tried to get the police in New York to kill him by breaking into someones apartment naked. Apparently when the police came in, he yelled at them to shoot him,but they just tackled him instead. He said that when they tackled him he felt Gods love and as soon as he was released from prison he came to Japan because God called him here. To make the rest of this long story short, he told us that he has learned that God is in the palm of our hands and we just need to have One Love!!! He chose Ellis Choro as his son, gave him his email, and told Ellis choro to email him 10 years to the day from then. It was pretty crazy. Needless to say we went to a park after that and prayed together so that we could stop laughing and regain the spirit. :) I felt my first earthquake this week! It wasn't big but it was pretty cool because the house was rocking! We have a couple of investigators from China that we are teaching in English so that feels pretty nice! Other than that, it has just been a very fast and very short 4 days! Just a couple of things, Hailey Shubert has written me a couple times and I want to write her back but I am not sure how to get a letter to her or what the address is, so if you could do that for me that would be great! Also, we want to try and and implement Family Missionary Plans for the members here and I remember we had a sheet for that back home, if you could send one to me that would be great! Also, one more quick thing Mamma,and you can consult Papa about this, there is this really sweet place here in Kamisugi called "The Super Suit." You get a totally personally designed, taylored, name embroydered suit for 100 bucks. It is a pretty sweet deal. It really isn't a huge huge deal, but if that is in the budget, it would be pretty sweet! ;oD
Alright, from that I don't have too much else, just to end with my testimony. This church is God's true, restored church on earth. I know that Jesus Christ leads this church today. He is my Savior and Redeemer. Through his redeeming power,we can be together forever with those we love. Mom, I love you so much. I miss you and your hugs so much, you have no idea! Yesterday I hit 5 months and I can hardly believe it! It feels so fast. Tell everyone in the family that I love them. Give Marissa my love as usual. Have a wonderful week Momma! And dont feel bad about not emailing me this week, I know you will feel a little bad, but don't worry, P-Days come and go so fast and next week will be here in 2 seconds. I love you all!!!
Love Always,
Elder Zachary Taylor Page

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Elder Page getting ready for a move.


Hey Everybody!!!
Sorry Mom that I didnt email on time this week, it has been a crazy day and my P-Day got switched from Monday to Wednesday this week! I will tell you all about why after I reply to all the great news I gotin the email! First of all, tell Tyler I said CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! Who knows how many weddings I will miss while I am gone but I am super happy for him, that is so awesome!!! Secondly, Michael and Ben got their calls!!! Portland and Vegas, something about that is so fitting for them! Wish them luck from me and I will try to get a letter out to them pretty soon here. It is way way hard to find time to do anything on P-Day mom!!! I have to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to even get letters out to Marissa ever couple of weeks!! Speaking of letters, you need to figure out what the deal is with Kirby! I havent heard from her since the MTC and I don't have an address for her, I want to hear from her! So great to hear about the Baptism you had back home, she sounds like a wonderful girl! It is wonderful to see the work move forward there! The news about Elder Smethurst is pretty sad, but there is ZERO doubt in my mind that he will see us many many times again! The news about Papa Curry is pretty sad, it is hard because I can't be there for the funeral and everything, we all had some way wonderful memories with that Old Guy!! Mom, you better keep Smores truckin for the next year and a half!! I got to see that old cat again!!! :) I got my package last week and it was so great!!! We have pretty much eaten up all the food now and we greatly enjoyed it, especially the beef jerkey! Sounds like everything is just going great with you guys and that is wonderful to hear!!

Alright, now to update you on me for the past few weeks! Buckle yourseatbelt, a lot has happend. :) You wanted to know about the day ofservice we had in Sendai, well, we had another one last week, but thistime, KSL, the Utah news channel, they came and did a story about us missionaries. They did a whole story while we did service and everything so tell MJ and everybody out there in Utah to be watching for it pretty soon, i was definitely in it! But, for the service we helped clean out and fix up a couple of peoples houses. We had to rip up all of the floors and scoop out a bunch of mud and sludge from under the houses and bag it all up and then we had to help put some peoples houses back together!! This one ladys porch lifted up and moved out of place during the tsunami and we carried the whole huge porch for her and got it back into place!! Doing that service was away wonderful experience both times. Mom, they took us out to the coastline where things were absolutely destroyed. It was probably the saddest thing I have ever seen. It really was totally wiped out. I took a bunch of pictures and stuff so I will try to email some this week or next.

I crashed on my bike again, but this time I didn't get hurt at all. We were running really late to an appointment so we were going way way fast to try and get there and this high school kid came out from around the corner like 2 feet in front of me. I slammed on the brakes but I was too close and totally hit the kid and his bike.I had a couple of bumps and scratches but i was totally ok! :)

The work here has been pretty slow like usual, but that hasn't really slowed us down and we have been going and going. Because the work has been slow and we have three people, in order to talk to as many people as possible, we have been splitting up. The other two will walk on one side of the street and I will walk on the other by myself so we can talk to everybody! It has been pretty crazy but it helped out our numbers a ton and my Japanese has improved a ton this transfer! Elder Ellis and Elder Lay as companions really has been so good for me. They push me and it has really helped me grow a lot. Like usual, in a couple weeks you run into and talk to some crazy people out here. One guy I was talking to went off about how he wanted to USA to go back to the 13 colonies!! Dont even think about asking me why...I have no stinking idea. haha :)

I had to practice teaching this past weekone on one with the Mission President...I was way nervous Mom!! I know, its me and I dont get nervous (except when it comes to Marissa) ever!! But I was a wreck! I taught lesson one though and he said I did well.Ok, now for all the crazy news. So to start off, I will go to lastweek. President Rasmessun is coming in at the end of next week, so we heard(bc of the ZLs) that this week they were going to do some ET(emergency transfers) to way shift things up before the new pres.Up till now, all of the areas in Sendai have been closed because of damage and stuff, but the news was that they were going to move the ZLs into Sendai so that the new mission president could work moreclosely with them. So for several days, we have unofficially knownthat Elder Lay and Elder Ellis were transfering away into Sendai this week while I would stay in Tsuruoka and be ther Area Senior(which justmeans that I have been in the area longer). It was kind of sad because I really love Elder Lay and Elder Ellis and they were leaving. That was the reason that P-Day got switched to today so that they could pack. So this morning we go the Official phone call from President Tateoka about them transfering into Sendai. We have it on speaker phone and he says, "Is everybody there? Ok, so the three of you will be tranfering into Kamisugi(Sendai)." We were just dead shocked, it was quiet and I said, "did you say three?" He said,"Yeah, we are going to whitewash Tsuruoka. I want you to keep working with the Zone Leaders. So get your bags packed you leave tomorrowmorning." It was way crazy! We spent all morning packing everything up to go. I have only been here for four weeks and now I am moving into Kamisugi with the Zone Leaders. So just so you know how crazy this is, Kamisugi is the most populated area in the whole mission.The whole area is the heart of Sendai. Literally, the crowded streets and tall buildings is the whole area. It is a huge shock to all of us, but I am way excited I get to keep working with them and in the most populated area of the mission! So, from that, a couple things will happen. I will be way closer to the new mission president because we will be right there in Sendai with him. The type of missionary work will go from having to knock on doors everyday to just talking to people on the street all day every day. It is going to be way different then little ol Tsuruoka, but it is going to help me grow so much.

Alright, from that, that is pretty much all the big news I have for everybody now. I am sorry I havent been in good touch with email and stuff, it is just way busy and I dont have a lot of time to write anybody. It will be different in Kamisugi, I will have easy access to email so I should be able to email every week at least alittle.

To end this email I want to leave everybody with something I have been pondering a lot about. This past week, I finished the Book of Mormon after studying it for about 4 months. I sat pondering a lot about the pages that I had soaked up and let sink into my heart and mind. We share with a lot of people on the street here theIntroduction to the Book of Mormon. We read with them the last twoparagraphs. It reads..."We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and thenask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book istrue...Those who gain a divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus is the Christ the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is his revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lords Kingdom once again on the earth..." I have pondered those words deeply in my heart. They have brought me an everlasting assurance, and at the same time, a great desire for those I know and love to follow this divine path the knowledge found in these shortlines of the Introduction. I dont know who all reads these emails when my Mom post them up or sends them out, but I have challenged everyone over and over again to try the experiement. Find out for yourself. If you have gained a knowledge, gain it again, rekindle the fire in your heart. I testify at the end of this email that if youwill read the Book of Mormon with a full willingness of heart, and ask God if it is true, no matter who, no matter what, no matter the situation, God will tell you in great power that these words are his words. The book is true. I know it, and people reject me about it every day, but it is Gods word revealed through his prophet, JosephSmith. Christ taught, "Ask, and it shall be given you;seek, and yeshall find;knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh recieveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." I promise that that is true. No one will open a door that we don't knock on, but if we do knock, the doors of knowledge will be opened unto us.

I love you all so so much. Sorry about falling so behind with emails and stuff, I will try to do better! :)

I love you Mom, I miss you so much and I cant wait to just get a wonderful big, mom hug from you again!

Have a great week! Tell Marissa I love her as usual!

Till next week,

Love,

Elder Zachary Taylor Page

Monday, June 20, 2011

We love you Grandpa Curry!

We are sad to say good bye to Grandpa Curry, he passed away today just a few weeks short of 102. We were so good to have had a sweet visit with him last week. We spent time doing just what he loved doing and that was talking and quoting his funny famous sayings. I love him just like my own grandpa, he was my grandpa! My grandparents passed away while I was young, so I got to love Steve's. We will so miss him when we visit at Grandma's house, but we were all so blessed to have had him in our lives for so long. We love you Grandpa, hope you are enjoying being with your sweet heart Daisy, We will see you again!





A very sad goodbye to Elder Smethurst!

We had to finally say goodbye to one of our missionaries. Elder Smethurst has been with us for over 8 mths, and we have all grown very attached to him. There are that handfull of missionaries that come and you grow to love and they just still your heart, he is definately one of them, he is added to a list of others, they all know who they are :) I truly hope that we get to see him again and I get to give him that big hug FINALLY!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Happy Father's Day

To the greatest Dad's in my life...Happy Father's Day to all of you! We love you and are so happy that you are such a huge part of us!





Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Elder Page experienced another Baptism


P-day playing golf

Elder Bellows and Elder Page



Hey Everyone,
First of all the baptism was so great! Ainslee is an awesome girl and will do great. Her family came who are not members and I felt they had a good experience.
Other than that the week has been pretty uneventful. Campus is just tough right now with not as many people around. We are trying to find others ways to find.
We have one investigator right now Gregario. He's a good guy He is really quiet. He came to church the other day. It was a lot to take in, but I felt like he enjoyed it. He's looking fro the good & truth and we are just helping him recognize it in the church :) We'll be updating you on him in the coming weeks.
Transfers are Sunday night. WE'll see if I stay another or if Elder Bellos stays. I think one of us will leave. It's about a 50/50 shot. I don't mind either way. It is getting hot here. It got over 100 this week, so if I moved it would be nice to possibly get out of Tucson :) We'll wee I do love the singles wards.
I've been working on trying to watch what I eat & running everyday :) It's an uphill battle, but It's been alright.
It sounds like everything at home is good. I'm glad school is almost done. This summer will be a fun one for you guys. I'm glad that Zach is finally settled in his mission. He sounds like he is doing so good. He's going to be a powerful missionary.
I love and miss you all. Have a great week. I'll let you know about transfers, until then.
I love you guys!
Love.
Matt

Finally from Sendai...



Hello everybody!!
I am sorry about all of the suspense the past couple weeks!! I wanted to email really bad, but we have just been super busy! Plus the only place we have to email is way far away from anywhere so it is a treck on our bikes to get out here! Wow, there is a lot that has happened in a couple weeks! Where to start, I guess I will reply to stuff first. It was wonderful to see that picture of Matt and President Rassmensuen, you can definitely get the feel of change in the air here as we get ready to switch mission presidents. It could be way different, I have seen that already as I have switched from Sapporo to Sendai, different presidents will recieve their own specific revelation on where to take the work in their missions. I am excited to meet him!
It is great to hear how wonderful all of the missionary work is going in Kannapolis and with Matt! It is the most joyful work in the world and I am so grateful you guys at home do so much for us missionaries!!
Dallin and Jacs got a cat!! That is super awesome!!! There are a lot of cats around here and I see them all the time and miss Daisy and Smores!
By this point everybodys summer has probably started, that should be way fun! Keep me updated on all the fun things you do!!
You are totally right Mom, Marissa keeps herself so busy! She told me she just took on another job! Do me a favor and you make sure that girl is having fun!! :) I think a great way for her to do that would be to go to the beach with you all!! If she puts up a fight about it, just tell her that she didnt regret it the first time, how could she possibly go wrong going again! :)
Derek came to town, all the Caswell crew came! You guys are just having so much fun!! I miss all those guys a lot. Especially Jordan, that boy is my brotha!! I am getting super excited for him to get out there and to start feeling this amazing joy of missionary work! Make him send me a letter Mom. ;)
I loved hearing about your wonderful Sacrament Meeting with all of your testimonies. I miss hearing my family bear their testimonies, that is something I cant wait to experience again. Tell Tory to give Austin a big ole` hug for me and then tell him I said to do all he has to do to make sure he gets on a mission! I can`t wait to hear about Michael!! That is super exciting!
I haven't gotten my package but I cant wait!! I hope it wasnt too expensive! I saw a picture of Mitt Romney in someones newspaper and I figured that was what it was. Lets hope this round goes better! Without Mike Huckleberry Fin he might have a better chance! ;) I hope I get to hear this $teve rap! That would crack me up! How is Mrs Benaduce, did she read that book, I havent had any time to write her! Tell her Hello! I havent had time to write anybody!
Most days we just work through P-Day because here people are off a lot on Monday! You have to do what you have to do to get the work done, especially here in Tsuruoka! And on that note, I guess I will just move on to me!
Things are going well. We came here to Sendai two weeks ago on an 8 hour train ride from Sapporo! We took the train under the ocean, it was pretty cool! Week had a mission conference and then did service in Sendai. It was a great experience, some of the devastation was pretty bad but we helped out a couple of familys with their homes, or with what was left with them. Since then we have just worked out hearts out. Here in Tsuruoka the work has been pretty slow, we worked super hard last week but put up really low numbers which was tough. We have a lot of faith and confidence that the work will pick up though if we just keep going hard everyday. The branch has about 40 people in it and to be honest, they just seem like a tired branch; not much fire in their testimonies or zeal for missionary work! But we are trying to get them going! In Testimony meeting it was super dead and nobody was getting up, so I got up and starred down the branch and challenged them all to get up and "bear witness of what you know to be true." I sat down and waiting and was looking people right in the eyes until they finally got up and did so. It was pretty funny, but all three of us are doing all we can.
My companions are great! I love them so much and we get along really well. One funny story and then I have to go, dont have a lot of time! The other day we were walking past a park and there were a bunch of 9 10 and 15 year olds playing soccer in the park. I hopped the fense and starting playing with them and they freaked out and started calling me pro! When we left 5 minutes later, they followed us all the way to the church!! We showed them the church and told them all a little bit about who Jesus Christ was and gave them pamphlets! It was kind of weird, but a miracle to help lift our spirits none the less.
There are a TON of teenage girls in Tsuruoka and they freaking love us! All the missionaries tease me that I can contact any teenage girl because of the "Page Choro Smile Power." hahaha It is pretty funny! Tell Marissa not to worry, nobody here is even close to as amazing as her...or it might just have to do with the fact that I cant understand what they are saying! ;) Mom, let her know I sent her a letter this week and that I love her to death!
I wish I had more time but I will let you know more next week! I have to go now, hopefully we will get to email next week! I love you all so so much! This gospel is true! Jesus Christ is our Redeemer! It is my privilidge to share that truth with the Japanese people and I love it! Remember every single day how blessed we are to have this amazing knowlege of Gods Plan of True Happiness for us! Our families truly can be eternal! There is no doubt in my mind of this sure knowledge! If you dont know it, try the experiement. Test it. I promise you from the bottom of my heart that God will show you with Power and Great Glory that this is his church and that he speaks through a prophet today!
I love you all and I cant wait to hear from you again!!
Till next week or whenever!
With all of my Love,
Elder Zachary Taylor Page

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