First off I just want to wish my best friend a very happy birthday! I love you Toria!

Well you all know how much I love Christmas, but this year meant so much more because I really am beginning to understand. I have always believed in my Savior but I am starting to know him now.

You all heard about my adventure Christmas eve... hahaha it was the weirdest Christmas eve I will ever have I am sure. I was so scared haha Anyway it was so good to Skype with my family! I love you all so much. After we ended I felt so bad because I didn't share my testimony with my family. So, I am sorry...it was wonderful to see you all though :)

This week was great we caroled a lot. It was fun to make Christmas about serving others. It meant a lot more to me that way. Alex’s mom the one who won’t stop smoking was put in the hospital because her lung collapsed. I feel kind of bad because I have been praying that she will have a humbling experience. She knows the church is true she just won’t give up to cigars. We went and visited with her a lot in the hospital. She is doing better. We have a lesson with her tonight... I am very excited. Kirsten is also doing very well. We had a lesson with her last night. We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is my favorite lesson to teach. The spirit was so strong. It went well and she should be getting baptized next week :)

We are also working with the part member family that we talked about over Skype. They are doing well and hopefully they will come to church next week.

I spoke in both sacrament meetings yesterday it went well. I talked about how Gods way is the best way. I talked about in Mosiah 27:31 it talks about how one day "every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that he is God." There is quote by elder Maxwell that talks about how if we are going to someday why not do so now. I know this is true. It will mean a lot more if we bow down to him now when we don't have to :) I hope that made sense. I love you all sorry I don't have any time. I had to write a really long email to president because of like Tyler said "sister drama" hahaha

I love you all! Thanks for your letters, packages, prayers and presents! You are the best.

Hurrah for Israel

Love, Sister Page

Dear Family,

I hope you all are enjoying this Christmas season :) I know it's not the same without me... sorry. You all probably have zero fun without me hahaha

Anyway, I am sort of sad because a lot of out progressing investigators stopped progressing. There is a lot of anti-material here in Nebraska. It is really sad. Talk about the great and abominable church like on every corner. hahaha it’s really not funny though... anyway this is why we have to work with members a lot because they need to learn how to bring their firends into the gospel so that the investigators have friends to lean on. Plus if you give a man a fish he eats for a day but if you teach a man to fish he eats for a life time. We are trying to teach the members to do missionary work because there is just too much to do here in Kearney! We saw a miracle this week from our work with the members. The family we live with introduced us to their daughter’s friend. Her name is Kirsten. We have taught her like every day this week and she is getting baptized January 11! :) I am so excited. She is so prepared it is not even funny. She is already in the middle of 2nd Nephi and she totally went to early morning seminary on her own. Sister Call and I are so excited. We have been praying for her so much. One of her grandmas is supportive the other one isn’t. It is really sad. We met the one that is supportive said "well if this helps you be happy and makes you a better person then I support you." I just thought to myself... you have no idea haha this is the one thing that can bring you true happiness and help you progress and Kirsten found it. I just wish people could see it better. But still so exciting.

This week Sister Call and I gave a training in zone conference. We decided to make things exciting and we acted as the devils advocates. We talked about how agency and the Atonement are complimentary doctrines. It was fun. Then we went to York to do exchanges. It was such a good exchange. These sisters really were struggling a couple months ago but are doing a lot better. We definitely saw miracles there!

Tonight we are all driving to Lincoln for Christmas Zone Conference. It will be fun and good to spend some time with all the sisters!

My emails are so lame I am sorry. haha I just write random stuff.

My spiritual thought for this week is for mom but you all should look it up... this December ensign on page 45... It totally reminded me of you mom. I love you. Don’t cry haha

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love, Sister Page

So this was probably the craziest week of my mission so far. It was really hard but super awesome. So Monday night we had a lesson with Betty. She was supposed to be getting baptized this week. She was so ready and excited. She lives with her son and up until this point he has always been supportive of whatever she wanted to do. He didn't want to take the lessons with her but he always said she should do whatever she had felt was right. So the past couple of weeks I have been getting this really weird feeling about everything with her and I thought it was just a lack of faith on my part. The spirit was telling me something was wrong though. So the lesson we had with her Monday night I could tell something was up she said she talked to her son and she decided to not be baptized yet. So when he came in the room we just asked him what was going on. He was super rude and just said girls "Betty has been lying to you... she doesn't want to be baptized. Do you betty?" long story short he basically just made her tell us she doesn’t want to anymore and she was like almost crying. I was so sad. I starting crying (pathetic I know) I just bore my testimony to the both of them. Then I asked if he would stay for the prayer and he said no and left the room. It was so hard. As we were leaving we got a call from one of the sisters who is opening the area in Kansas. She totally broke down and said she wanted to go home. So then president called us and told us to go to Kansas and see how they are doing and make sure she was okay. So right after we got out of Bettys house we packed up and left town. Now that I look back I realize how Heavenly Father blessed me to focus on other sisters concerns so that I wasn't so heartbroken about Betty. So we spent two days in Kansas this week ha-ha it was really hard because the sister were struggling so bad but we definitely saw some miracles. President called us after and we reported to him how things were going. We decided to have an emergency transfer so we switched the sister in Kansas that was struggling with another sister in the mission. It was a long couple of days with a lot of driving.  President then promised Sister Call and me many blessings for our area because of our service. It was pretty cool. We have definitely seen some of those miracles too. This week we also went to Omaha for leadership council and then exchanges in Grand Island. It was cool to see the miracles that happened because of those sisters faith compared to the lack of miracles we saw when sisters had no faith in other areas. It really taught me a lot. This week we also had our Ward Christmas party. There were many less actives and nonmembers there. It was so awesome. The teenage girl we live with brought her friend we taught her the restoration last night and she committed to be baptized. The Colombia family we are teaching was also at the ward party. Being a missionary is so great. I am so excited for Christmas! Goodness so much stuff happened this week I honestly can't even remember anymore hahaha whatever.

"Its Christmas time at our house and we are putting up the tree. I wish I could find one simple was to remember Christ's gift to me. Some little sign or symbol to show friends stopping by, the little babe was born one day but He really came to die. Some symbol of HIs nail pierced hands, the blood He shed for you and me... What if I hung a simple nail on the shining Christmas tree! A crimson bow tied around the nail as HIs blood flowed down so free, to save each person from their sin and redeem us for all eternity. I know it was His love for us that held Him to that tree but when I see this simple nail I know he died for me!" We made these little papers with a nail and stuff I was going to send one to you but I gave it away ha-ha but the poem is still good.

I love you family. Keep being amazing. Always remember why we celebrate Christmas!

Love, Sister Page

So I am still in Kearney! Wahoo! I have a new companion. Her name is Sister Call. She is one of the best Sisters in the entire mission. So I either did something right or something wrong to deserve her! She is from Washington State and apparently we are related. We are the Sister Training leaders over eight sets of sisters. Holy molly I know you don't know this but that is a lot of sisters to be over! We are going to be out of our area a lot BUT President promised some great blessings because of our service to them. I love working with these sisters so much. I am so blessed to have this opportunity.

This was a great week. We Had Thanksgiving out in the country on a ranch. The turkey we ate was killed on their ranch. We went over early to help Sister Robinson make it. I made the stuffing and she had me put the turkey heart in the stuffing hahah it was awesome. We had two less actives come and an investigator. It was the most random group of people I have ever had thanksgiving with and I will never forget it. It was so fun. Those two less actives came to Church yesterday! That night Sister Youngberg got all packed up to leave the next day. Fun fact... Sister Youngberg and sister call just switched places. I am sad to see her leave but it is for the best!

Right when sister Call got here on Friday we went and had a lesson with this less active. The spirit was very strong and she said she was going to come to church yesterday. Unfortunately she didn't but we have a return appointment and I know miracles are going to happen. Saturday we had a great lesson with Stella. WE helped her kids with homework. I was help Stefan with his math ha-ha but it was all in Spanish so that made it sort of hard but we figured it out. It was a lot of fun. We committed them to read the Book of Mormon every day and they are coming to the ward party and church next week. Wahoo! After our lesson with Stella President called and said we had to go see the sisters in Grand Island they were really struggling and so we had to cancel all our appointments for the rest of the day and go see them. I went on a long walk with one of the sisters. She is doing better but it is just really hard to watch her struggle. It does make me realize all the blessing I have though!

 As for Betty She is not getting baptized this week because Sister Call and I have to go to Omaha for a leadership meeting BUT Betty should be getting baptized on Friday the 13 haha I would be worried about it being an unlucky day but 13 is my lucky number :)

Yesterday I bore my testimony is sacrament meeting about our gifts to the savior and I would really encourage you all the really think about what gifts we will be giving him this season and year. We celebrate his birth because of his Atonement. We need to use his Atonement to the best of our abilities.

I love you all so much. Have a wonderful week. Hurrah for Israel!

Love, Sista Page

Ps... You better all have Book of Mormons to give out!

Well first off thank you so much for the package! I loved it so much!

This week was such a rollarcoaster. So, Betty did not get baptized and I am so sad. She had some family who were trying to talk her out of it. She babysits her Jehovah Witness grandchildren every saturday. She told us she could find someone to watch them for her, but then her family just sorta blew up at her. I ended up getting really sick this week so i couldn't even go see her. I went to the doctor and he was disrespectful to me and wouldnt even give me a mono test. He did give me some medicine for my sinus infection though so that is good and I am feeling much better. I also reacived a blessing from brother cammack who i live with. They are awesome. I went and saw Betty the other night. She is so amazing. She still wants to get baptized and we got special permission to have it on a friday. This week is transfers, so she will be baptized the next week. I hope and pray everyday that i won't get transferred this week! I would be so sad!

One of the sisters we are over in the mission called me a couple days ago crying because she had no money in her account and her family wouldn't give her anymore. She got sick and spent the rest of her money on the medication. Anyway she was really struggling. I had no idea what to do. I offered to buy her some of her needs but i wasn't sure how that was going to work considering my card declined this week hahaha but anyway we have been praying a lot for her. The next day she got a letter from her stake president saying early merry Christmas and gave her a check. It is just so amazing how the Lord meets all of our needs and answers our prayers through his servants. I just hope that i can be close enough to the spirit to be an answer to someone elses prayer.

Last night we had a wonderful lesson with this member family. There mother was in town so we taught her the restoration. The spirit was so strong and she accepted to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. Unfortunately she is from South Carolina but still helping someone feel the spirit is one of my favorite things.

Saturday the Elders in Kearney had a baptism. It went really. Well this is the third baptism this ward has had in the last 6 months. that is more than they have had in the last like three years. We are really working hard to get the missionary work going.

I am not surprised that your stake conference was on missionary work. That is the emphasise on everything here. We have been going around teaching the families about Lehi's dream 1 Nehpi 8:12 talks about how as you partake of the gospel of Jesus Christ you will desire to share with others. So, my invitation to my family is... give out a book of Mormon before the end of the year. This time of year has such a wonderful spirit about it. What better time of year to share the most important thing we have with others. I now that the Lord will send the Holy Ghost to help you know what to say (D&C 84:85). It will be awesome!

Well pray i dont' get transferred. I love you all. This week is going to be a great week!

Love, Sister page

My dearest family,

How's it going?

So guess who is baptizing The Betty White this week....This girl. Well technically I am not actually baptizing her but y'all know what i mean :) she is 87 and we have been working with her since I got to Kearney BUT She is the coolest 87 year old ever. She tells us the same jokes every time we see her and it is always funny. She has such a strong desire to follow Christ and i am so happy for her. I know that the adversary is really going to hit her hard this week. I just hope and pray she will not drink coffee and that her Jehovah Witness relatives don't get to her haha anyway it should be a wonderful week!

This last week was a little stressful because many sisters are going through a hard time with health and anxiety but as long as we rely on the Lord he will bless us. (Proverbs 3:5-6) We have really been working with the members lately. Talking a lot about Lehi's dream. the more i learn about it the more i think people a CRAZY for ever thinking Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon but that is a little besides the point. We are really trying to get the members to be more missionary mindset because that is how the Lord wants to work to progress at this time. We have a wonderful ward mission leader. he is putting us to work with investigators and families. We have been presenting the families with family mission plans. Although it is putting the families in uncomfortable situations, i know they will be so blessed and find so much joy from it. We always need to be progressing. (2 Nephi 28:24) So my dear family i am committing all of you to go watch on lds.org under hastening the work of salvation the video is called "ill go where you want me to go" That is what every family should be doing to progress the work of the Lord. Okay i will stop preaching. :)

We had some wonderful lessons this week with our investigators. every lesson we taught this week in our area was with members which is so great. I also got to play soccer this week again with some non members and our investigators. My ward mission leader totally took me out and i have a big bruise hahah poor me. it was super funny though. Saturday night we had a lesson with this awesome family. they had Glenda come over who's son was baptized a while ago. he has really been struggling with anger problems and glenda is having a hard time. She is Methodist but she listened to our lesson and we watched the video "mountains to climb" on lds.org. That is also a wonderful video you should watch. the spirit was super strong and she received a priesthood blessing. I think often we take the power of the priesthood for granted. anyway it was a good night and although neither of them came to church, i think it was a huge step in the right direction. As long as we are on the Lords errand we cannot fail! :)

Sorry my emails are so lame. haha i love you all and miss you a lot. My thought for this week is 3 Nephi 19:25... I know that as we are doing what is right Christ countenance will smile upon us. I can't think of anything better than that. Always remember what is most important.

I LOVE YOU!

Love, Sister Page