Well I will be honest this week was pretty hard... but I learned a lot! Kirsten’s baptism was all set and I was pretty excited. She then got news that she was accepted into the College in North Platte. She started school today so she had to move this last weekend. She was still planning on being baptized in Kearney and then moving Saturday evening. Sister Call and I did not feel good about it. We met with her and our ward mission leader. We all discussed what would be best and prayed about it. We felt she needed to wait and get baptized in North Platte. Sister Call and I were blessed to have one more lesson with her. We decided to share with her about how important it is to live the gospel. We shared with her Mosiah 5:12. We talked about how living the gospel is the best way to know her savior. We basically just bore our guts out to her in desperation haha the spirit was super strong though. We also showed her the Mormon message mountains to climb. It was probably the most powerful lesson I have been blessed to be a part of. The only thing we can do now is just pray that she will remember the spirit testifying to her and desire to have the spirit with her always. She is most likely getting baptized this weekend and we are trying to get permission to attend. One thing that was really cool about it though is the sisters who will now be teaching her in North Platte are under our stewardship and they have been struggling a lot. Sister Call and I have been praying to know how we can help them. I think that teaching Kirsten will really inspire them to work harder and desire that for more people. It is crazy how God totally knows what He is doing. haha :)

It is pretty crazy to think that I only have one year left on the mission... President asked us to make goals for 2014... I have really been praying to find out what God's vision is for me by the end of my mission. It is hard to know what smaller, specific goals to set to reach His vision.

After the whole experience with Kirsten Sister Call and I worked really hard trying to find and teach. We had great lessons with less actives and investigators and sadly no one came to church. I was sitting there feeling sorry for myself (haha totally pathetic) and I just kept thinking that it is never enough. I then realized that it was never enough for Christ until he died for us. People rejected Him and in the Garden He knew He needed to do God's will but even Christ asked if there was another way. I know that even though sometimes I wish there was another way... that God's way is the only way we can become like Him. I honestly don't know why I am sharing that with you but I just felt the need to. I am grateful God let me see miracles this week for instance, members willing to come out with us and we found a part member family who no one has met. Life is good. :) I love being a missionary.

I love you family. Be good and remember what is most important in life.

Love, Sister Page

My Dearest Family,

I hope you all had a wonderful week! I can't believe it is 2014. Weird.

So this week was pretty much crazy. For the past couple of months we have been teaching this family from Columbia. They are so stinking cute, BUT they had some stupid people tell them all this anti stuff. I seriously am so sick of that but anyway... they stopped listening to us. Last Monday their daughter went into the hospital because of her appendix was going to rupture. By a miracle we found her in the hospital and were able to get her a priesthood blessing. I know that helped soften their hearts. It was so amazing. Tuesday I went and saw Betty and gave her Christmas present to her. She really loved it. She said she is not giving up on being baptized. It was really good to hear that. Wednesday I gave training in District meeting and I was so blessed. Heavenly Father helped me out a lot. We ended up going on two exchanges this last week. They both were so amazing. We went with the Spanish sisters and I was a little worried because I brought one of them into my area. She has been out a lot longer than me and I was supposed to help her and be an example to her. I said a lot of prayers that day. I just expressed to her my love for her and helped her set some goals. Heavenly Father helped me out a lot to know what she needed to hear. Every day this week we taught Kirsten because she is getting baptized this week. I hope so bad that I don't get transferred on Friday. She is doing so amazing. The ward is so against missionary work right now because of some bad experiences. Kirsten went up and bore her testimony all on her own. It was so powerful because she was found through a member and she is getting baptized. It was probably the best moment on my entire mission. She did so well. The spirit was incredible. I know her testimony touched many hearts. She is trying so hard to be the person Heavenly Father wants her to be. I love her so much. She even asked me to give a talk at her baptism. I hope I am there. It was such a miracle. I know Heavenly Father answers prayers. We are so blessed when we are obedient. I know that Heavenly Father's way is always the best way. Even though we are doing His work, we won't be successful unless we do it His way. No matter how much we tract and try to find people, our success is going to be from the members because that is how Heavenly Father wants it. So family you all better be doing missionary work.   Jacob 1:19. I love you all.

Love, Sister Page

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