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!!!!