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
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