"Im startin´ with the man in the mirror (OH YAY)"

I can not believe that my little stud of a brother is going to be a missionary in the blink of an eye. It´s so crazy and I keep thinking "he´s not old enough!"...but then again, neither am I! I still feel like the missionaries are all holy and older and wiser too. But then I think..pucha, now I´m one of the missionaries that are "old" and all that jazz. Que loco. But I can also totally picture Tory with a placa! He is gonna be a great missionary, changin lives and what-not :)


This week, I have felt a change in me that I can´t really explain. No sé.. It´s like, por fin, I´m converted to the work I guess I could say. It hit me, Hey..I really love being a missionary. I love the work; I love inviting people to make changes in their lives; I love mi placa; I love being here; I love the Lord. No sé. I can´t explain it really well, but my mindset and my heart finally feel truly converted to the mission...without doubts or "I could be doing this" or "I don´t feel like it today". It only took me about 6 months pero por fin he llegado (but finally, I´ve arrived)! I feel happier without doubts and what-if´s. The only thing I need to do right now is serve the Lord with all my heart and might. Punto fin. Y me encanta!


On Wednesday is cambios..no sé que va a pasar. Maybe I´ll go, maybe I´m here another cambio. I guess we´ll see, now won´t we!
I´ve really enjoyed the opportunity to train Hermana Perez. I know I lack a lot of knowledge and I need to be a better example for her in a lot of things, but I feel like I´ve been retrained in some ways during this past cambio con ella. I´ve become a real missionary, not just a companion of a missionary. I´ve become so close with my Savior, and I have been strengthened by His grace and love time and time again. I have learned to teach the gospel and really invite people to change...long story short. I´ve changed. For the better....Oh great, now the song from Wicked is stuck in my head.

GREAT SONG! WORTH LISTENING TOO! ONE THAT ABIGAIL LOVES


One more thing rapidito. The gospel is simple. And perfect. It blows my mind! Other gospels or doctrine are great and have truths, but the truth is that there are holes. In the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, there aren´t holes. There aren´t doubts. But if there are, the answer isn´t "ooh, here´s the answer right here and you need to believe because I told you"...nope nope nope. The answer that we receive for the gospel for when we have doubts is simply, "ask God". Because He´s gonna tell ya the truth. He is gonna lead you to where you need to go. He is gonna cast out your doubts. Our whole church is based off of the doctrine of action, of asking God. We have the gospel because a boy had doubts and asked God. I´m here in my mission now, asking people to do the same. Simplemente, ask God. How awesome and simple is that? Que perfecto.
So I guess this is my invitacion for you guys this week. Ask God. Ask Him cualquier cosa, and I promise you He´ll answer. Por que no?


I gots to go now though, but know I love y´all con todo todo todo de mi corazón! Choose the right this week, stand strong in the face in trials, and don´t eat yellow snow.
Love you all, and see you when I see you, and gracias por TODO siempre.
Love always and always,
Hermana Abigail Page

A weekend with Steve...

This has been a long awaited time with Steve, we did not go off to some exotic, expensive get away. We don't need to do that to appreciate being together. We had Tory go and visit with his brother Dallin for a few days...a time that he would enjoy also, and we just spent some time doing fun things together close to home, (key word, TOGETHER) Sorry I took a lot of pictures of our day in Old Salem, it is just such a beautiful step back in time. We stayed at an Inn there, and spent the most beautiful day in weeks walking around and chatting. One night we went to a Charlotte Checkers Hockey Game, one night we cuddled up on the couch and watch Sherlock Holmes (we have not done that in a very long time)so to many I am sure this does not seem very excited or very romantic, oh, on the contrary, it was both and much more. Time with Steve, real time, away from all of the responsibilities of life and no phones, so if you called sorry we ignored you, it was wonderful and filled my bucket, at least with a little more than was there. Thank you Steve, I love you!

"The book is on the table.....Da boke iz own da tab-lay."

Sometimes it´s super funny helping latinos learn english. And I don´t know why but they think that our mouths are weird when we talk...maybe they are. No sé. I was thinking about it the other day, and ya know what? More or less, I know spanish. WHAAAAAATTT?? What in the world? That, for me, is testament enough that this is the work of the Lord, cause there is no way in the cow pasture that I could speak/understand spanish without the help of the Lord! And I don´t know if I already ranted out this with you guys, but this week, it hit me again. Really, every conversation that I have is a little miracle! I´m a livin´ miracle haha.


This week, we were visiting less activo members, and we passed by a family that´s less active. When you enter the house, the grandpa was sitting at the table.....shellin beans! I about jumped out of my pants I was so excited. One of the memories I have of Grandma Myra´s house is one time, I was there just with Grandma and we were sitting under the carport, and we shelled a bucket of beans! I don´t know why this memory is so cool in my head, but really it´s one of my favorite memories. So this day, when we visited this family we shared a message and shelled beans at the same time. It was like I´d died and gone to Caswell ;)


Today, we had a district activity, and it was really great! We played lots of games and we played soccer and it was soooo hot and we were all gross and sweaty, but it was really fun!! That was the first time that I had played soccer since I don´t know when! Cause normally with the boys at home, I always just watched. But now when I´m home again, I wanna play tooooo!
Another part of the activity was that we watched the church movie about the law of consecration about John Turner. (If you´ve never seen it, watch it!) And I´ve decided that this year (2014) is my year to consecrate ALL my efforts and time to the Lord. Cause this time next year, I´m about home again. So I´m really gonna do it. I´m going to try my very hardest the consecrate every moment and effort to help the Lord, cause I´m not gonna have this time ever again....only missionaries, the 12, and the prophet have this opportunity in reality. So I´m gonna lose myself and get to work this year!


But that´s all for this week folks; tune in next time for my latest rants and adventures.
I love you all more than a fat kid love twinkies.
Do the work, get glory.
Love always and always,
Hermana Abigail Page

Guess who is going to be a grandma....

SO thrilled for Dallin & Jaclyn becoming parents and Steve & I Grandparents!!!
He or she will be arriving in August!

Playing catchup with Christmas...

I can not believe that Christmas has come and gone and so have my children. This will go down as one of the most memorable Christmas'. We did a lot of fun things, made some funny memories, and grew closer together, and strengthened our testimonies of our Savior Jesus Christ, what could be more important or more wonderful than that. I now count the days till we get to gather again and strengthen, lift and love one another. It will be a few more years till we will ALL be here together, but I can wait for that. Love you all, and thanks for making this so wonderful!

To have the boys home again and playing soccer in the backyard was...well it almost made me cry. I truly miss that!

A trip to Greensboro was on our agenda as well. We made a visit to see Dad. Matt, Zach and Marissa had not seen him since last Christmas. He was soooo happy to see everyone, it made him cry. He loves having visits, so anyone who would like to do a kind gesture, go visit my dad, he would love it. He kept making comments about all the pretty girls, some things never change :) Always so good to see Dad and put a smile on his face, just so happy I could do it with more of my family.

We can't go to Greensboro and not go to YUM YUM Better Ice cream! So good! It was the first time for Marissa, Aubrey & Kimber, and I think they enjoyed it.

The Science Center was a big hit. Marissa wanted to go to see animals or an aquarium, so we chose the Science Center. I use to take the kids here all the time when they were small and we lived in Greensboro, so it was a treat for them to go back and think on their childhood memories.

Some of the most wonderful moments of Christmas break were when we gathered every night as a family and had Devotionals...so great!!! The kids were each assigned a night to do dinner and to give the family devotional, and they did not disappoint! The spirit was so strong and they taught such wonderful gospel principles, those were moments and feelings that I will not soon forget. Game nights are always fun, and sometimes intense, maybe too intense, but we were all still friends and loved each other in the end :) The night I brought out the cookie skillet...out of the way, they were ready to dig in and they were done in no time!

This year we put off doing gingerbread houses until Dallin & Jaclyn joined us after Christmas...its never too late to be creative, and wow are they creative! We paired everyone up! They all worked really well together and were supper creative, they turned out so good this year. Kimber & Matthew were good sports when their little house fell, but they had fun either way! Dallin & Jaclyn were so meticulous with theirs, Aubrey & Caleb was covered with colorful candy, Tory & Katie did a great job too, but no one was more proud of themselves than Marissa & Zachary. It was so fun watching them work together to a create something beautiful.

We all went out to dinner to celebrate Dallins graduating from UNC.

Aunt Bean along with Amber & Claire and Ashley & Violet all came down for a visit. Dallin could not get enough of these sweet girls.


The girls got a crochet lesson from Aunt Bean. I have already made 2 scarfs since that day :)


Dallin & Jaclyn finally made it back from AZ yeah!!!! Also Matthew had a friend come and spend some time with us over the break, Kimber Clayton. We all quickly got to know her and she fit right in. We tried to show her a great time while she was here. We hope you will come back to visit with us again Kimber. We also had another family gathering at Anne & Barry's house, celebrating those who had graduated, Tyler, Dallin, Jaclyn & Marissa and a friend of Christopher's. I loved the fact that we just got together again, you can never have too much family time, can you :/?


Ice skating was on the agenda this time over break. It was a lot of fun, for some it was the first time and for others the first time in a long time. Downtown Charlotte had a rink set up outside the Nascar Museum. I think it will be something we put down to do every year from now on.




The day after Christmas was family Christmas with the Pages. Its a crazy bunch when we are all together. We were missing 3 missionaries, and Dallin & Jaclyn. Its a rare occasion that we are all able to be together at one time.

We sure did miss having the rest of our Pages with us...oh and I also have some handsome boys, just saying!



Marissa's sisters also came to NC. We got to enjoy Aubrey as well as Marissa over the break. The kids enjoyed riding around in Caswell, something they have not done in a long time!





Christmas Morning we got to sleep in, not up as early as we use to when the kids were younger, but it was still about 8:00 am. We all got what we wanted for Christmas. Gift opening went faster than it ever has because so many got money...which is fine, I am good with that. After opening we headed out to deliver our Secret Santa, we had tried the night before but they were not home, so we had to make our attempt again Christmas morning. That is always one of the best parts of Christmas.




Christmas Eve was just like it usually is with just fewer Pages than normal. Dallin & Jaclyn were in Arizona over the holidays, we missed them so much, and of coarse Abigail was in Chile. That morning we had a Christmas Brunch, which the kids always love, I do to since breakfast foods are my favorite. We invited a few people, some were not able to join us so it was a smaller group than usual. I did not even take any pictures of the yummy food or our guest...oops! We exchanged our family gifts in the evening, opened our PJ's and had hot chocolate and watched a movie, this year we watched Prince Caspian.



Matthew, Zachary & Marissa arrived home for the holidays on the 20th, early morning, but they were good sports and hung in there with a short nap, while Matthew and I got caught up on a few things that are going on in his life. Grandma Myra and Will drove down for a few hours for a visit. That was pretty great, it was nice having visitors.