Recognize the bigger picture...

Hello Everybody!! It is so awesome to hear about Elder Ward's call! Elder Ward, that sounds way cool. :o) Congratulations Zach!! Sounds like typical Garrison taking down that guy in 44 seconds at the state tournament. So much for being able to fend off guys from your little sister right? ;o) That is exciting that you guys had stake conference. I dont know if I mentioned it to you guys before, but last week we had a conference as well, but I will tell you about that in just a minute. I got my valentines package mom, thanks very much. The little Nerf guns have been a hit and made us laugh more than once. Thank you so much. So crazy to hear all about people every week becoming Elders and going on missions and things! Life is just a going along huh?!?! You mentioned Elder Newton, I actually know Elder Newton very well. He was in the group right before me in the MTC and is a missionary in Sapporo. I got to see him all the time when I was up there. Pretty small world huh? Thanks always for the emails Mom, they are always a good smile at the end of a week. I had a pretty busy week. I went up to Sendai for the first time in about 4 1/2 months. We had a mission conference this past week because Elder Dallin H Oaks, and Elder Hollstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy came to the mission. That is what all the pictures are, they were pictures from the conference. I was chatting with Elder Oaks for about 4 minutes. :o) Pretty cool huh? :oD While we were up there, I was in my old area, Kamisugi and so a couple of the members heard I was going to be coming and surprised me at the church right after the conference was over. Sister Sato, she made me homemade bread and she was so happy to see me she started crying. It was a happy experience that just made my desire to come back to Japan after the mission even stronger. It was really weird to be back in my old area because it just made the mission feel like it is going even faster. I am now quite significantly over a year and I can feel it go faster and faster every day. I wish things would happen with nicer pace, but things just dont slow down for me at all!! It is a long story but something else that is cool that happened this week was that I got to go and meet with some Japanese Government representatives and discuss the religious freedom of a member that isnt able to come to church because of his work. That was pretty cool. Elder Sanders just said that I looked way cool because I was so authoritative but still polite to the people. hahaha The mission for sure brings you some crazy experiences! I am going to get to go back to the island, Sado, again in a couple weeks to keep helping that Less Active so that is exciting. There is just a little longer left in this transfer and then it is probably time for me and Elder Sanders to be separated, so it will be interesting to see what will happen to us. Something else that happened recently is an Elder that I am really close to that was writing a girl got dear johned. The girl he was writing was super diligent at writing him and he only has 3 months left on his mission and she just dropped him. Pretty rough huh? That is a pretty interesting thing to see up close. Kind of humbling and just makes me want to strengthen my foundation on the mission and the work so that no matter what happens as far as anything is concerned, when there are hard times, I will work hard and give me all. I learned so much from the conference with Elder Oaks. I want to just share a little with you to wrap up this email. He spoke without any paper or notes and so it was super interesting. He spoke a lot about how it is one year after the earthquake. There was a lot spoken about how we should look back with respect, but to look forward with faith. Our purpose is to show people the road, and it isn't just a road to cheer people up, it is a road to lead people back to God. It is a road of Everlasting and certain security in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Lord has a certain pattern that he provides for us that turns disaster and terrible things into something that will bring about his sacred purposes. I know that to be the case. I have seen that principle demonstrated on a huge scale, like the earthquake that shook this country, and I have seen it on the smallest individual scale inside my own heart. We will all go through times in our lives, whether it is united with the pain of millions of others like a natural disaster, or whether it is the pain within the individual heart that is so personal and private that other people couldn't even tell. Death, loss, loneliness, lack of growth or success, feeling of no worth, or failure, we all experience these things in our life. The miracle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that these things will make the difference in the bigger picture of life. Keep going. Recognize the bigger picture. Remember who we are and our utmost significance. Just smile. If we do so, we will see the miracles and the works of God come into our lives in big and small ways. I know this gospel is true. When we understand what it is all about, it will change everything about everyday of our lives. I love you all so much. I miss you Mom. Time is going so fast and I will be with you before you know it! Thanks for all your support and love.

Page Choro attended a conference with Elder Oaks,

Keep being the greatest family and friends ever!!! Love Elder Page