Happy? 6th Month Mark.

So this week Sister Harwood and I were able to celebrate our 6th month mark together. We had everything planned...honestly it was the perfect day.

• Get up/pray/exercise 
• Get ready Personal Study Companion Study 
• SERVICE (we finally got someone to agree to letting us help them...yay) 
• Lunch with our favorite person...her name is Sister Bishop (I know) and she's 21 and been married for a year. She likes to come out with us once a week and make us lunch...it's sweet and she's awesome. So we planned lunch like usual with a mini 6th month celebration mixed in. 

Then Lessons: Karim from Peru...super awesome lady.

• Scott our recent convert. 
• Madalynn another recent convert who is a super amazing 9 year old. 
• Sierra an investigator planning on getting baptized. 
• Dinner which is always enjoyable. 
• Micheal Welch a super excited 9 year old who is also on the way to getting baptized. 
• Slater a cute girl who wants to know more. 
• Then correlation with our ward mission leaders. 
• Back to the apartment and planning...then BED! :) 

This is what our day looked like. FULL...FULLLLLLL!

It was the perfect way to celebrate our 6months....and guess what....it didn't happen. Why? Why??
2am-Sister Page is having a dream...a dream about people with their stomachs aching...and then she wakes up and VOMITS!
3am- AGAIN
4am-Sister Harwood get's nausea!
5am-Sister Page vomits again.... and then I knew...I knew it wasn't just going to stop once 6:30 came around.
We were sick all day. ALL DAY! It was horrible. I'll spare you the details. We were basically taking turns in the bathroom. I hadn't been sick on my mission before and I didn't like it. You feel guilty because all you want to do is go out and work like you're supposed to. Dude...It was bad. At 9pm I was over the worst (so I thought) and I went and asked the people we live with Brother Maloy if he could give me a blessing. He went to go find another priesthood holder and I went back into the bathroom and vomited again. (It had been a couple hours so I thought that I was done..) He came back and I went to get the blessing. I didn't throw up since then...and I was able to eat. The priesthood never ceases to amaze me! I'm so thankful for it. We really do have God's power restored on the earth again. We worked the next day but Sis. Harwood had a fever for the next 2 days and her stomach was still cramping. So I went on splits the next day...which I haven't done since I left St.Geezy. It was good to know that I could find my way around...helped me build confidence that I knew the area. But this week was slow going because of that. Tuesday feels kind of like a dream...yet very real. Ugh. Well we are hoping for miracles this week to be able to make up for lost time. Karen and Carlos are getting married and baptized on Thursday...this is a miracle already. SOOO EXCITED! They got the marriage license and now everything is falling into place. The Lord hears prayers. I love Him for it.

Love, Sister Page

Goin' Fishin' in the Utah Provo Mission

This week was kind of slow. We have run out of referrals and are looking for people to teach. (We've just contacted all of the referrals we've gotten...so yeah we're working it's just keeping a balance of referrals and contacts) We have plenty in our teaching pool but not enough to keep us busy all day...and we even see our investigators multiple times a week! We are planning on just knocking out subdivisions...like most missionaries do...it's just weird because we don't do it that often in the UPM.

In spite of the no referrals...we did have two baptisms. They were both 9 year olds...one was a boy named Bracken who has such great faith that he's even an example to me, and a girl named Chloe who came to understand the power of prayer and followed the promptings to get baptized. They both went well and the Spirit was very present. Chloe came up after she recieved the Holy Ghost and said, "I felt a tingle go through my whole body!" Hmmmm...makes me happy.

We have a couple of people getting ready for baptism too. I'm super stoked for them. I love teaching the gospel and helping them come unto Christ and make those covenants with Him by entering the waters of baptism.

I got a couple of really awesome letters/parcels. One was from Staci Place (one of my awesome roommates)..yes Aci if you will. She wrote me and told me that....she's going on a mission!! So maybe you know that already but it was awesome to hear! She's working on her papers right now! Sooo cool. (Staci I hope you don't mind me telling people haha) Anyways so I'm super stoked about that. AND she sent me a cd...which had some great songs that I didn't have before. Thanks.

My parents also sent me two packages...with a tape in it. YaY! It didn't matter that the tape was from April...or that I knew most of the stuff that went on...I loved it. (hopefully you're working on a new one for me...haha) It also included my RedSox hoodie which I can't believe I was living with out...that was a treasure to find. And many other things. Thanks fam!! It's awesome to get awesome mail.

All in all things are going great. We're keeping the faith and working hard. We have hope that we will find more people to teach this week and remain positive that Heavenly Father is preparing people to hear the Gospel. I love the good news we have. Jesus Christ loves us so much that He was willing to subject Himself to what we go through so that He could better understand us. I love Him for it. (Alma 7:11-16) What a merciful and gracious act! :)

Love, Sister Page

Zone Conference Highlights

ZONE CONFERENCE! YAAAAAAY! I love it. It was Pres. Pitts first Zone Conference and it was amazing. We had theme talks (this transfers theme scripture was Ether 12:27) and I was called on to speak. This was my second one in a row...lucky. It's like when I really have something to say I'm picked. haha (You never know who they're going to call) anyways that was fun. Every one elses talk was good too. Then Pres.Pitts talked to us about grace and how there are three different parts to the Atonement.
1. the resurrection
2. grace over the fall
3. grace we recieve in our day to day life

If you define grace as divine help or strength it just makes sense. The whole thing was awesome...and something I truly needed to understand. We had an investigator that didn't believe we believed in grace...when in fact that's the ONLY way we're saved. And so it goes to show Pres. Pitts is an inspired man.

Sis. Pitts told us their conversion story and how they're still in touch with their sister missionaries that came to their door. Well one of them was an older sister in her 70's so she's passed on now so they're in contact with the younger one. She was so surprised...she kept thinking WHO KNEW that these people who I helped could become a bishop, area 70 or a mission president! That will be so cool when I can look back to my investigators and see how far they've come. And not that they have to become someone high up in the church but to know they have that ability!!!!

Elder Richardson (one of the AP's) gave a great talk about how our purpose as a missionary is to change. Not only to change the lives of others but to change yourself. He said there came a time in the MTC where he noticed there were two people he was dealing with Drew (his first name) and Elder Richardson. He said, "One day I knew that Drew had to leave". I thought was profound...and kind of creepy how everyone knew what I was thinking. Anyways...when I was in the MTC I thought the same thing because I was afraid of coming back after my mission as Arica...and that is something I didn't want. I don't want to merely be Arica anymore...(if we're talking about the natural man...ofcourse I love my name and I want to be called that) but I wanted Sister Page to take over (or to become like a Saint through the Atonement of Christ) I wasn't a horrible person before but I know there are things I needed to work on and being Arica I couldn't progress any further. What an amazing talk. I know my mission will change me...and it already has...but I'm just now seeing the effects of that. When I focus on others more the change just becomes natural. People ask why I came on a mission and to sum things up I say "I wanted to learn more about Charity." The fact is no one can posses charity...it posesses us! The cool thing about the Christlike attributes is that they are things that we can become not just do. I can do more charitable things but I'd rather have people describe me as a charitable person. And it goes that way with all of them. There's so much more we can become instead of just do....I want to become Sister Page. :) I hope that made sense!

Well...time is running short but I wanted to say I went to the Mt. Timpanogas Temple and it was BEAUTIFUL. Totally gorgeous. My district and I went and then took pictures outside...though we had to dodge all of the brides...there were so many. haha But we got someone from a wedding party to take pictures of us. :)

Also, we are starting to teach Micheal (Scott's little brother) he finally admited to wanting to know more. teehee..I knew it. Love you all!

Love, Sister Page

Mission Business

There are many matters of mission business that I have yet to discuss with you. I was in the process of figuring out my area and such that I forgot to inform you that we said goodbye to our mission president...offically and have offically met our new one. So President and Sister Brown went home and the following week we met President and Sister Pitts. Pretty fast transition...BUT it was a good one. I got a picture with Pres. and Sister Brown and will always remember them as amazing leaders and basically the people who helped me adjust to mission life. I don't know how people do it but they made me feel like the most important person every time they talked to me...which I imagine a quality our Savior has. Pres. and Sister Pitts are from NY...I'm not sure where in there but I'm not to good with NY geography! They are the first UPM Presidents from the East Coast. Pretty cool huh? They both joined the church after they were married and raised their family in the gospel. Something that I realized is that neither of them have served a mission before (their kids have) but this is pretty new to them. I think it's awesome that we have a convert for a mission president...it will help in ways I can only imagine being amazing. :) We all had individual meetings with each of them...they were only about 4 mins long but they were awesome. Sis. Pitts is an RN and will be a great help when missionaries are sick. Pres. Pitts when we walked into the room we were using asked to kneel down in prayer before we started. Super impressed. So we prayed and then he asked a little about me...and I could tell he really really wanted to know...not just the facts "where you're from" and so on...but he wanted to know Sister Page. Then he asked a question that I wasn't really expecting. "What do you like most about Sister Harwood?" I thought about it...I had to sift through all I liked and pick one. I said "she cares about every person she meets...her whole heart goes out to the people." As I have come to know her on a companion level I have come to love her even more. I have found that we have great respect for each other and are willing to change this or that to combine how we each do things. Plus we have so many same interests...it's nice. So back to Pres. Pitts: so then we talked about where I had just come from and how I'm adjusting to full proselyting. Even since that interview my views on full proselyting have changed. I looooove it. I love having time to visit everyone we need to, I love that we can take the time we need for studies, I love that we can go home for lunch every day and don't need to go to freebies that we have in the area (sure it's free but it comes with a price...gaining weight!). I just love it. I love that we have dinner appointments every night and get to know the wards we serve in better. SOOO to sum up...I'm ready to stay in Traverse Mountain as long as they need me.

Another fact of mission business...was the 4th of July parade held in Provo. Us and all of the zone leaders and a couple other zones were asked to march. It was cool to see some of my friends again...though I guess it hadn't been that long...BUT I got to see my first district leader (who I haven't seen since my first transfer) and we talked about Hurricane...it was weird because he couldn't remember a lot of the people...and honestly I'm scared that will happen to me. eek! But it was good to see Elder DizDIz again. So we finally started walking. And all of the little kids put their hands out and we'd go and high five them...and then we'd wave and the crowd would cheer. It was the weirdest thing I've ever felt. Let me tell you I don't think I would ever be cut out for celebrity status. haha People would scream "YEEEAH SISTER MISSIONARIES!" haha Every time I saw a boston hat or shirt I'd say "Nice Shirt..." haha it was really funny when a little kid wearing a RedSox tshirt came into the street and just hugged me. I don't even know who it was or anything...and I was like "oh...um...thanks." How did he know I loved the RedSox?? Also...Jeffrey R. Holland was in the crowd..of course in a roped off part of the crowd. One of the sisters got a picture of him. Coolness. I took a couple videos...so maybe I caught him in it. So that was about 45 mins long and it was hot...and I was sweaty and I I got...sunburned. But ofcourse the missionary sunburn...just the face, neck, and arms. haha It's not too bad.

Well last night we taught Jesse (the boy I was telling you about). We went to Scott's house and taught. Chris was there too. So we have the three boys about 16-18 and us sisters. We then taught the Plan of Salvation but then Scott's little brother (Micheal) who is not a member...yet..came in and kept asking random questions. He's interested but doesn't want to act like he is. We're praying he comes around. But the lesson went as well as you can imagine with four boys...there were a lot of distractions and we had to keep getting them focused again...though we couldn't help but laugh as we did it. I don't know if Jesse is that interested but I know he's looking for answers right now...but he's not willing to open up yet...not that he has to spill his life story but to understand where's he's coming from. I think he's keeping us at arms length...but he does still reschedule with us so that is a good sign. Sister Harwood and I have a good feeling about him...so we'll see. The area is progressing...we are recieving answers to our prayers like we couldn't expect. I know Heavenly Father hears me and knows what I need and when I need it. Sometimes it's hard for me to imagine He loves me and everyone else that has lived, lives, and has yet to live...but it doesn't matter because with the knowledge that He loves me...I can help others know of that same truth for themselves.

Love, Sister Page

Read Matthew 5...sermon on the mount....AMAZZAZING!