Just a few :) pictures of Elder Smethurst...

I was looking thru the blog and realized I had not been putting pictures up of the missionaries. I was putting the on FB but not on here. After 8 1/2 months with us we had to say goodbye to Elder Smethurst, who had become family to us. It was hard to just put up a few pictures. Good luck in your new area, the people will love you! Probably not as much as we do ;) Can't wait to see you again! Love you to the moon and back :) Saying goodbye was hard, we sure will miss him.

He became one of my boys

Visiting some of our members with us

On exchanges with Elder Howell

His new companion Elder Wells

These 2 grew to love each other

End of P-day & dinner with us

One of the many devotionals

The Concord Elders joined in on P-days :)

His new companion Elder Petersen

Happy Birthday!!!

Celebrating his 20th birthday!

Christmas Elder Smethurst Skyping his family....It was so fun meeting them.

Some of my favorite people all atogether

Already feeling like family :)

Elder Smethurst & Elder Fuller

Christmas with the Pages, decorating the tree.

His first haircut with me...seems so long ago.

Time is flying by in Sendai

Hey Everybody!!
Sorry about the fake out in Emailing again, this week was the normal transfer week so we had p-day on Wednesday, but next week it will be on Monday so be expecting it then! :) Speaking of transfers, there is a transfer from within the threesome this week...I am now companions with Elder Lay. Elder Ellis will still be in Kamisugi with us, but another Elder from another area is coming in to make it 4 elders here. He is a japanese Elder named Mizoguchi. So, we will still be with Elder Ellis, but we aren't companions, just me and Elder Lay now. I am pretty happy because I like them both a ton and I was worried that we would get separated. There is another change though, President Rasmussen changed the organization of the mission a little bit and now every area only has 1 zone leader. That zone leader is Elder Lay so now I am still with the Zone leader.
Anyways, past all of that news, no Mom, i haven't gotten your letter yet but I am sure it will come soon. We did celebrate the Fourth of July though...kind of. We ate steak for dinner and I wore my American Hater Blockers during dinner. :) Also, this super nice member of the ward made us a cake and brought it to us and said in English, Happy Fourth!!! It was super nice and was nice of her to do for us. That is so exciting about Jordan going to the Temple this week!! I am super excited for him! And you are right, he will be gone before he knows it, that last month is just a blurr to me now it was so fast. I have been thinking about him a lot lately with him leaving and stuff. He is going to do so well and see so many baptisms it is going to be great. There is a guy from Peru here for business that is coming to the ward here till he goes home. He comes to church every single week and he doesnt understand anything, it is amazing to see somebody keep there covenants like that. I was talking to him a little bit and he just said that the church is Peru is amazing right now. Growing so fast and the people are becoming 2nd and third generation and the strength of the members is increasing. Jordan will see so many miracles there.
Speaking of Matthew, I talked to Sister Rasmussen about Matt when I met her. She said that he was one of the most kind, humble, soft loving people she has ever seen and an absolutely amazing missionary. I told her that she was definitely talking about my brother. It is crazy how fast it goes. In a couple weeks I hit 6 months and then in a couple months Matt is home! Crazy!!
I have learned so much and grown more than I have grown in the entire mission in this last transfer alone. I have had some important lessons to learn and I had to fall down and get a little scrapped up to learn a couple of them. I am so grateful to Elder Lay and Elder Ellis because they have been great. My Japanese have at least tripled in this transfer too in no small part because of them. Everything in this language is really starting to click and sometimes it drives me crazy because I can't think in English sometimes!! :o) We had a very very blessed week this week. We had three days in a row where we set a baptismal date each day and we found a lot of people. I hope you all truly understand that miracles happen every single day. We have been praying so much and working so hard to find people who will receive this message and we are finding them. Also, we found out yesterday that we will have the opportunity to do Service in earthquake&tsunami affected areas every other week now which is a great blessing and opportunity.
This is the Lord's church. Through a prophet, Jesus Christ restored his 100% truth to the earth, and he is leading that church through a prophet today. Something that I have been seeing in missionary work and that I have been able to apply to myself is that Heavenly Father is so willing to give us answers to anything. The trick that I have really learned is that we have to sincerely want them, sincerely seek them, and then have a sincere desire to act on that answer, no matter what it is. It is Moroni's promise in the Book of Mormon. We are totally capable to receive all things, but we must yield our wills and give up our pride in order to fully unlock the windows of Heaven. I testify that the windows of Heaven are open. God speaks to us all individually and through his prophet. We can all know perfectly what we should do, but first we must act. Jesus stands at the door ready to enter, but he can't come into our hearts and into our lives unless we open the door. I love this gospel, it has allowed me to have the faith to overcome all and to have a sure knowledge of my plan. I know where we are from, why we are here, and where we are going perfectly because of this truth we have been given.
I Love you all so much. Everybody have a wonderful week and remember everyday that this is a happy gospel. Show that happiness every day, live this gospel (Mosiah 2:41).
Love always,
Elder Zachary Taylor Page

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

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

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!

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!

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

The Lord's tender mercies...

Dear Family,

Well this past week went by pretty uneventfully. We have been working on finding. We with the help of U-3 are going thru the ward directory, and cleaning out old names and finding out who is staying for the summer. The University 3rd ward is pretty slim but the 5th ward stayed intact for the most part.
On monday we went golfing with our WML from the 5th ward. Elder Bellows loves golf and so does our WML so I decided to be a good sport and play. As you all know the extent of my golf experience is an intense round of Putt-Putt. We played 18 holes on a real course & needles to say I was pretty bad. I only lost like 10 balls :) I did make a few good hits, but overall it was really bad. Elder Bellows loved it alot so I'm glad we went.
On Wednesday we had a big missionary meeting with all the missionaries in Tucson. It was a good meeting. President is making a big push for this month. By the end of the month we will be hearing from President Kilpack (our new mission pres.) He sounds like a great guy.
Afterwards we all went to CiCi's & it made me sick. Buffets are just bad news & missionaries always seem to find their way to them. We got Golden Corral on thursday and now Elder Bellows is sick from it. He lied in bed on sat. & was just feeling awful.
We are getting the last few things squared away fro Ainslee's baptism on the 28th. She is doing great. I'll be sure to send pictures...I'm over due!
Zach's email was pretty funn. Im' not going to lie that there is more where that came from. I can't count how many times I've come home at night just stuffed.
We've been fasting this week to find people. On sunday we found two peopl. One was a referal that ended up coming to church and the other was a guy who just randomly walked into the institute building. Both seem great and want to learn more. That definately was a tender mercy from the Lord :)
I love you all & I'll update you next week.
Love,
Matt

A message from President & Sister Daniels

I received another email from President and Sister Daniels today, they sent a short message and a few pictures. I truly appreciate all they did for Elder Page while he was there. I am sure that we will meet them someday in the future.

Dear Page Family,

We wanted to thank you for sharing your son with us in the Japan Sapporo Mission. He is an amazing missionary and you can justifiably be proud of him. Although our time together was short, he and the other Sendai missionaries left an imprint on our mission and our mission is better as a result of their contribution. Thank you for raising such a wonderful son and helping him prepare to serve this mission. We appreciate your love and sacrifice and pray for you and your son as he continues to labor in Sendai. Our mission comes to a close at the end of this month and we will be moving back to Mapleton, Utah. We hope we will have the chance to meet you someday.

Love,

President and Sister Daniels @ the Airport leaving for Sendai
Elder Page with Sister Daniels, the cutting of the tie.

Another picture from morning sports with Sister Daniels.

Tie cutting ceremony & Golfing in Japan

Sister Daniels collects a tie from every missionary in the mission. Since Elder Page and many others were heading back to Sendai she had a tie cutting ceremony for them....Sayonaro Sapporo!

Elder Page & Elder Clinton had a morning with Pres. & Sis. Daniels and the sisters. They have morning sports. On this morning it was golf. He looks great!

Elder Matthew Page with Pres. & Sis. Rasmussen

Matthew sent us this picture with Pres. & Sis. Rasmussen the incoming president of the Sendai Japan mission. Matthew see Sister Rasmussen everyday on campus. She works in the institute building at the U of A. Can't help but smile, what a very small world!

AZ Campus is quiet

It has been a pretty slow week with Finals and graduation here. Everyone is heading back home and its just hard trying to transition. We have been trying to stay busy.

We did have Dominic's baptism on Saturday. It went great. He is such a good guy. Elder Bellows baptized him. It was his first one.:) It is such a great feeling when you see someone you have taught choose to be baptized. He is going home for the summer up in Gilbert, we'll hopefully be able to keep in touch.

It is getting hotter down here. I will definately be using the sunscreen more this summer!!!

On saturday we went to a service project at the post office and helped with a food drive so that was great to be able to do.

Hopefully things will pick up and we will be able to stay busy this week. Thanks for all you do, the letters, the prayers and all the support.

I love you all

Elder Matt Page

Elder Page Leaves Wednesday for Sendai, sad goodbye!

Hello Everybody!!!
Thanks so much for your email mom! I am super excited to get your letter and Marissa's once I get to Sendai on Wednesday! It has most definitely been a crazy week to say the least! You are right on Mom, the news that Marissa may be coming to the beach with you guys is AMAZING news!!! :oD That smile is a little too small compared to the one on my face right now! My week has been very good but so very fast. I guess I will just start from Thursday, our zone had a specialized Training meeting at the Mission Home with President Daniels, there were two zones there and about 50 missionaries. I kind of knew it was coming because of last weeks email, but he Talked to us all and announced that all of the Sendai missionaries would be heading back on Wednesday. It was quite the shock to all of us, including President Daniels. To be totally honest, It is extremely bittersweet. I am super excited to go to Sendai because it was where I was called and everything, but this is my first mission and President Daniels has done so much for me and Elder Clinton is awesome! I know that it is the Lord's will, but I will tell you, when you work so hard in an area and you come to love a ward and your invesigators, its super hard to just...you know...leave. We are leaving on Wednesday though and it should be a crazy couple of days. I got a call from President Tateoka today and he told us our areas and companions. I am going to be serving in an area called Tsuruoka, it is on the far side of Honshu from Sendai but in the south of the mission. One interesting twist is that I am going to be in a threesome again! I will be paired with the Zone Leaders and their names are Elder Lay and Elder Ellis. I don't know Elder Ellis, but I know Elder Lay pretty well and he is awesome so I am really excited! On Friday we all get to go to Sendai and spend the day doing cleanup and stuff from the tsunami! I am pretty excited about that. My last week in Sapporo though has been full of ups and downs as far as the work is concerned. For whatever reason, our investigators that were super solid got flaky this week and their baptisimal dates fell through. It is tough because we worked so hard and prayed so much for them, but ultimately, everyone has their own agency and they must choose on their own. However, we had two miracles yesterday that I would like to share, the first is with a guy named Okada-san. Elder Clinton and I were standing outside the church building waiting for people to come in to church. This tiny little man in his 40's comes up behind us and asked us, "Is this Matsujitsu Seito Iesu Kirisuto Kyokai (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints)?" We just a little confused said yeah it is. He asked if he could come to church and we said of course. We asked him if he had met the missionaries before and this is what happend. He pulled a Morumon Ke (The super old translation of the Book of Mormon in Japanese, now we have the Morumon Sho) out of his bag and says roughly, "I met the missionaries 21 years ago and they gave me this book. I have read this book and prayed for the past 21 years and I want to join this church." We probably looked like we had jus been slapped. We didn't really know what to say. We went on to ask him why he didn't join the church all these years, he said that he had some little concerns back then, but that through the Holy Ghost, the Lord had told him that he needed to join his church. We asked him why he thought our church was the true church and he responded that It is the only church that is lead by God through his Holy Spirit. We were so dumbfounded. We gave him a Morumon Sho, sat down with him, set a baptisimal date and that was it. He is getting baptised in two weeks from yesterday. Crazy huh!!! I will miss it, but It is none the less a miracle that one of Gods children is returning to his fold!!
The other miracle was very close to my heart. This transfer we have been meeting with this inactive family called the Henmi's. It is a mom and her two young sons. Her husband beat her and they have been hiding from him for years. They won't go to church because she has Post Tramatic Stress Disorder and is constantly paranoid that if they go to church her husband will find her. We have been doing these little FHE with them every single week doing little activities like puting on the Armor of God (you will get pictures of that eventually) and just stuff like that. This week, my last Sunday, the family came to Church!!!! We were so so shocked we had to double take when we saw them!! Seeing them back to church was the most amazing feeling!! There was so much joy in my heart to see them there! They gave me this Lavendar Doll with a little message on it. She said that the doll was given to her by her father before he died and now she was giving it to me because of all I had done for her family. I came so close to breaking down in tears I was so happy. Marissa will smile at this, but she wrote to me on the message, "Elder Page, your smile with mend the broken hearts of the people of Sendai..." There is a very special feeling to being a missionary. You truly can change peoples lives forever and that is an amazing thing. I know that this is The true gospel of Jesus Christ and that this gospel, when we choose to live it every day, will transform us into someone we could not be on our own. Leaving is hard, but I know that no matter where I go, if I am obedient and work my hardest, I will be blessed with Miracles every day. Never forget that you all are an everyday miracle to me. As long as you are in my life, I will see miracles every single moment. Mom, I love you and miss you so much, more than anything in the whole wide world I wish that every day I could have you there to make me give you a goodnight huge and kiss again! I love you all so much! I can't wait to let you know next week about all that happens when I get to Sendai! Until then, everybody have a wonderful week!! I love you all an I keep you in my prayers always!

Love Always, Elder Zachary Taylor Page

yippee!, a semester is over and summer terms begin!

Dallin's school year is up @ UNC, now summer term begins...GO DALLIN YOU CAN DO IT!!!!

Elders sent lots of love and smiles through the phone!

It was so fun talking to Matthew last night! You could just feel his smile warming you through the phone. (How does he do that) He is enjoying where he is. President is going to try to get him back in a spanish area before he comes home. He'll probably only have one more area before he comes home. 5 months is so crazy. He says he is in that stage where it is hard to remember life before the mission. Steve always says you begin measuring life before and after the mission. It was so nice to hear his cheerful voice and sweet laugh. He sends his love to everyone and says he will see everyone soon.

Zachary was doing great as well. He is going through alot of adjustments right now, and it is very hard not knowing the language very well yet, but one day I know he will just suddenly understand, be brave and have heart, we love you and the Lord is aware of you and He is always there with you. He had some pretty funny stories to tell us. I will let him share them to everyone some day. I know I loved it when Dallin came home and he would share all of his funny experiences with us. He would have us all in stitches laughing so hard. He is a great story teller, his kids are in for a treat :) It was one of the best mothers days I can remember! Loved having all of my family on skype or the phone all at once atleast for a couple of minutes as Zach and Matt's calls over lapped just a little. So Matthew got to say Hello to Zach. It brought tears to my eyes feeling them all so close even though we were all miles apart! I guess I just need to be patient, we will all be together again some day, and I know the time will pass quickly. I love my children, all the ones I gave birth to and all the many others I did not. Being a mom to so many wonderful people is such a blessing. I love you all thank you so much for your love as well. Till we all meet again together....

Still got an email after talking to him the same day....:)

Hello Everybody!
So I don't have a ton of time to email this week because we have a lesson to go and do, but I guess that is ok because I talked to you all today! It was pretty awesome to be able to talk to you all and here how things are going for you. It is such a blessing to see how abunduntly those love are being blessed for me being here. This week was an amazing week full of miracles. We have a total of three people who are preparing to be baptized which brings so much joy. We met that man named Ikeda, he is 27 years old and just totally prepared to hear the gospel. People here in Japan are, for the most part, very set in their ways with Buddhism and they just dont care to even hear us out. To those people I want to use the words of Alma in Alma 32, "try the experiment!!!" Ikeda has opened his heart and done jus that and he already has a testimony that this message can change the lives of those who open their hearts to it.

That is what my message to you all is this week, since I don't have a bunch of just events to tell you about, I want to issue a sort of challenge to you today. The Lord says that we should offer up unto him "a broken heart and a contrite spirit." I want you all to read that and think about what exactly that means. It is far from easy to offer up something that is in itself hard to describe! :) I promise that as we come to understand more what that offereing means and how we can do it, our joy in life will increase. We will ever more increasingly see our need for our Savior Jesus Christ. Our lives will become more joyful as we will begin to see what things are of the utmost priority, and we will do all that is necessary to obtain those things that will be of the most eternal significance to us. I want you all to know that those things to me are you. You all are of the most important things to me in my life. There aren't a lot of things from this world that we will take with us hearafter, however, one of those things is you all. If we all live according to the happy teachings of the gospel, we can and will be together forever. Doing those things isn't always easy, but as our relization of eternal principles and desires increases, we will do anything to reach the peak of that mountain. We will find that we are able, through the atonement of Jesus Christ, to face any trial, gladen any sorrow, lift every hanging head, repent of any sin, and change any heart. I testify again that this gospel is a gospel of tranformation, but we must bring ourselves to Christ with that broken heart and contrite spirit so that he can shape and mold us. Our Father will sometimes require us to do very difficult things, and we will have fear and uncertainty, but I testify to you all that if we have faith and trust in God, and we yield to his will, and forget ourselves, we will be delivered. That is what the atonement of Jesus Christ is, it is the Power of God unto Deliverance.

Thank you all for being such a strength and joy to me. Tory, the Celtics will beat your little pretty boy heat; Abby, you are a beautiful and amazing girl and an amazing missionary already; Mom and Dad, you are the greatest Parents ever to exists, no bias; Dallin, thanks for being such an amazing example of strength and endurance through hard things; Jaclyn, I enjoyed very much talking to Marissa, thank you, she is quite amazing :); and to Marissa, I love you, end of story.

Have a wonderful week everybody and please remember me in your prayers as I remember you in mine!

Till next week,
Love Always,
Elder Zachary Taylor Page

Happy Mother's Day to two great women

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom and Mother in Law. How blessed I am to have such great women who I call mothers in my life. Thanks mom for all you have done for so many, not just me, but to siblings, grandchildren, friends and many others. I love you and I am so blessed to call you Mom!. Myra thank you for all you have done to help me feel loved and appreciated. What a wonderful example you have been in raising such a wonderful son who I get to call my sweetheart. I love you.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Elder M. Page

Hey Everyone,

How was your week? Mine was alright. We got a lot of potential baptisms and 2 investigators with Baptismal dates :) We are making progress. We are working really hard. Things here with finals coming up everyone is really busy with school. I'm not sure what will happen in about a month from now when shcool is done, but there will still be Elders on campus. I hope I stay one more trasfer because we have two people so far getting baptised next month. (He did not get transfered!) I really like working the University.

How was Abby's dance thing? I am sure she did awesome! Did you get to speak with Zach the other day when he left for Japan? DId he get to speak any Japaneses to you all? I'm sure he's super excited to finally get out there and start working. He will be just like I was going out and just a few weeks later he gets to talk to everyone at home again.

For Mother's Day just let me know when you want me to call. I will give Zach first priority & dibbs because, well he is in an extremely different time zone.

Other than that I am just trucking along. We had intervies the other day with President. I enjoy interviews with President Walker. He is a great man and he loves us and loves the Lord. I will miss him when he is gone. I will miss Sister Walker too :) I'm sure the new Mission President will be good too!

Keep praying for me. Pray I won't get completely roasted this summer :) I'll try to use more sun screen. Last summer as you could see I was turned into a giant lobster.

I love and miss you all! We will talk soon!

Love ,

Matt

Elder Z PAGE

Well Mom, to start this email off I will just tell you that the address is just the mission home address. They Have every letter come through the mission home to make misdirected mail at tranfers easier. So it is just the mission home address:
Japan Sapporo Mission
24-1-25 Kita 2-jo Nishi
Chuo-ku, Sapporo-Shi
Hokkaido 064-0822

So there you go! :) Sorry about that! Yeah, I had a pretty interesting week, but first, I want to reply to your email. Actually, first of all....HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you so much and you are the most beautiful, wonderful sister ever!!! Really, I love you so much!!! I am glad you enjoyed the beach, and I thought that you would think the tape was funny. Sorry it wasn't a little better, I will try to do better next time. :)

I am excited about calling on Sunday as well! Apparently, President Daniels is one of the strictest mission presidents in the world when it comes to the time you are on the phone. We get one call of exactly one hour or less. You need to call us at OUR 9:15 in the morning on MONDAY, so it will be your guys sunday night. It is pretty weird how it works and we don't have a ton of time, Hope that all makes sense! Can't wait! :)

I do remember you all in every prayer I say so don't worry about that!!! This week was full of ups and downs. I did have to go to the hospital and everything, but everything was ok. I did have to stay in the apartment for two days with no going out, and that was extremely hard. I studied a lot of things, but it just allowed for too much down time and it was very tough. I met with President Daniels and spoke with him after those tough days and I felt much better. He really is an amazing man, and he cares about me so much and so specifically, even though I just met him. We finally moved into our own apartment this past week as well. We went from this super small apartment with 6 elders, to this really nice/big apartment with just Elder Clinton and I. It is pretty nice. :) I do miss having more Elders around though. That was tough too because we spent a lot of time moving in and moving furniture and stuff (Got a taste of how you felt during your mission Dallin :) ) When we did have time to do some Dendo (Proselyting) this week, it was hard. We had a couple investigators, who were working for baptism, drop us and say they weren't interesting anymore. It was pretty hard because we see them progress and we know they have felt the spirit, and then they still turn it down. However, we still did see miracles every single day. We contacted a couple guys that could grow into really good investigators. It has been pretty funny at times because the Japanese people are pretty funny. They are too nice to just tell you straight up that they aren't interested, so they will do anything possible to dodge you. On the streets, you have no idea how many times people's family call them on the phone right as we walk buy. :) Houses are even funnier, it is hard to get people to come to the door because EVERYONE has these little intercoms, but then, when we do get them to the door, they will lie and say they have guest over, meanwhile, the old man is standing there in his pajamas! It is hard to be denied when this message means so much to me, but if I had to get denied, the Japanese do it in funny ways to make a laugh out of it. This week I was listening to the song "Love is Spoken Here" and something hit me really hard. The most important thing about, not only our life on this earth, but for our eternal life, is eternal families. I am so grateful for my family and I would do absolutely anything to assure that I have that. It isn't easy by any means, and sometimes it may be very painful, but it is more than worth it to make sure we do everything we can to obtain that priceless gift. I ate some pretty weird stuff for the first time at a members house. Don't know what it was called, and I am not going to be too graphic, but lets just say it was some sort of fish, its eyes we firmly intact, it wasn't cooked, and it wasn't a good experience. :) This week had a lot of tears and a lot of growth and I have never come closer to my Savior, and my need for him, ever in my whole life. I love you all so much, Mom, Dad, Dallin, Jaclyn, Matt, Abby, Tory, Marissa, and all you others who you know who you are. You are the most important things in my life and I love you all through thick an thin. No matter what happens or how hard life gets for you, I will love and support you unconditionally in your trails and troubles. Remember me in your prayers this week and in the coming weeks so much, I need them! :)

Have a wonderful week everybody!!!!

Love Always,
Elder Zachary Taylor Page

Happy Birthday Jaclyn!

Jaclyn dear we need to take some recent pictures!!! But this one is still beautiful! Have a wonderful birthday sweet girl! We are so happy to have another daughter and that it is you! We hope that your day is full of wishes that come true! Happy Birthday Jaclyn, we love you!!!!

One wish that came true....;)

Happy 17th Birthday to Abigail!!!

Today is your 17th birthday! This was a very fast year! I hope they all don't go by this quickly! Abigail what a joy you are to so many. I hope all that joy is returned to you on your big day! Continue in your journey of becoming that young woman that your Heavenly Father desires you to be. We couldn't be more proud. Happy Birthday "cupcake" we all love you!

HaPpY 17tH BiRtHdAy!!!!