Through the Wrong End of the Telescope
"Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope." -Dr. Seuss
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
...that He Lives.
Pues, I know you all were expecting an email yesterday, but I didn´t have a P-day yesterday. It was a day to travel around to visit converts. And since I only have been in one other area other than the one that I´m in right now in "the south", I had the oportunidad de ir solamente a mi querido Limache. It was wonderful to see my converts and friends, but I´ll tell you all more about that when I´m home.
But today they droped us off in Santiago and since the templo is closed they just told us "have fun" and left us here haha. We're wandered around for a while to kill time till we leave for the airport. Then I got to thinkin that I would write you guys "the email to end them all", so we found the nearest cyber and POOF, aquí estamos!
The last entrevista con Presidente was super buena!! And the last supper and testimony meeting was wonderful too. We ate sushi..and I thought of Zachary.
Also, el Sabado, I had the wonderfully wonder experience de ir a the selling of July and Jesus and Isidora (my familia chilena). But is a lead-up to the story.... I don´t know why but the last week I had been feeling weird..it could be because I´m leaving or maybe I had some internal conflicts...that I´m not sure. But as we were going to the selling, I had a prayer in my heart that when I was in the temple with them I could know that what I´ve done and what I have been sharing for the past year and a half is algo bueno and something true. Not that I was doubting or anything, but I needed that spiritual confirmation, ya know? Cause our work as missionaries is to get everybody to the templo! So I needed to know that what we do there is true and everlasting. And when July and Jesus and Isidora were kneeling there together as a family, the spirit was so increíble and I can´t put words to describe it. All I know is that I recieved the answer that I needed. That this is the truth and this truly has been the best year and a half of my life teaching and sharing the truth in su fulness with every chileno I possibly can.
All I can say is that the spirit is true, that His work is true, and that He lives. Oh, how He lives and loves us! His hand is evident and lovingly there in every one of our days. To trust in Him is what I´ve learned time and time again.
He lives. Que más hay que decir?
I love you all more than it´s humanly possible to describir.
Confíen y sigan, and todo será bien :) De eso estoy segura.
See y´all in 18 hours.
For the last time, love always and always,
Hermana Abigail Page
Monday, February 2, 2015
One more week :/...
It has obviously been a pretty crazy time for Hermana Page. With only one week left she has a lot to do to tie up ends for and get things together for Hermana Watts new companion. So this is all she had time for today...Only 1 more week, and one last email.
Organizing all the details of everything and I had to email people about last minute details with leaving and all and now I have to leave..there isn´t more time to write you guys.
I´m so sorry :( I´ll try and write you guys next week a little somethin if they give me time)
Love you all so much!
Hermana Page
Organizing all the details of everything and I had to email people about last minute details with leaving and all and now I have to leave..there isn´t more time to write you guys.
I´m so sorry :( I´ll try and write you guys next week a little somethin if they give me time)
Love you all so much!
Hermana Page
Monday, January 26, 2015
2 turtle doves...
I´m gonna be getting home on el 11 de Febrero at 8:43 AM in the Charlotte Douglas airport. And I need to be released by President Baker as soon a possible that same day. Please plan accorddingly.
**Cough cough** Now that all that stinky business stuff is out the way! How are y´all? I´m doing swell. I feel a little weird when people tell me that I´ll be home in 2 weeks cause I just look at them and think...noooo, not yet. I guess I´m in a weird denial/limbo stage. So we will see how that goes!
Let´s just say that the Lord is putting me through some last minute refining in the fire of la misión. It´s been a tiring and trying week. But the interestingly great part is that I feel calm. I feel happy. We have had pretty much a full week where the ward doesn´t help and they just murmur out the wazoo, where every cita has fallen, where people haven´t passed bastismal interviews, where investigadores find the world more interesting than heavenly blessings, when there´s no one in the street, and where we have walked from literally sun up to sun down. And you wanna now something? I can´t explain it, but I feel happy. Yes, my mind and my body end every day literally crawling in the door, but my spirit smiles constantly. I just can´t seem to be mad or sad or frustrated. It almost makes me laugh cause it´s so strange.
All I can say is that the easiest as well as the hardest and most trying times in life can be blessings if we walk with the Lord. I know I walk with Him. I can feel Him there, encouraging me and giving me the strength. I know I am far from perfect, but somehow Christ finds me important and worthy enough to walk beside me. I love that He is there. That He lives. That he hears my pleas and that He strengthens my feet. I know He exsists. I can´t deny the miracles or the spirit or the changes that I´ve seen and experienced. I know He lives. He loves you and He loves me. What a blessing, de verdad.
See y´all soon...woah, que loco.
Love always and always,
Hermana Abigail Page
Whistle while you work...
Aquí estoy! Working and loving it. This week was a normal week. My companion and I have made goals to be even more diligent....más diligencia que nunca! Cause we wanna have a nice big swimmin´ pool of investigadores and looots of miracles. And literally I can testify that honest diligence (even when there aren´t immediate results) leads to miracles and happiness.
I am completely happy. Full of joy in the Lord´s service, and I love it.
When I give him my all, He blesses me with His all.
I´m gonna send lots of pictures, so this´ll do for mi mensajito.
Les amo.
Love always and always,
Hermana Abigail Page
Monday, January 12, 2015
In our humble way...
Today I would like to tell you guys a couple thingys that I have been learning this week.
Number 1: I have been learning a lot about the spirits of different people...like their almas...who they really are. And something that I have realized is that the eyes truly are the windows to the soul. For example, we have a few investigadores that are older and a few that are younger so it´s harder for them to communicate themselves, but when I look into their eyes...like really look into their eyes, I see their worth. I see the soul that God loves. I see their need to know of their Savior´s atonement. I see that they are trying to understand and apply what we teach them. Honestly, a sort of feeling fills my soul as I look into their eyes into the soul of them and I see them as God sees them. I love them as God loves them. I literally get filled with the desire to do whatever it takes so that they understand and accept the gift that Christ has given them. And I don´t know if that´s a missionary thing that happens to everyone or if it´s an Hermana Page thing no más...but I love it.
But it goes the same way with the hardening of a heart. As a heart hardens, I can see that the alma (in their eyes) gets more and more confused and lost and sad and frustrated. I can see their soul say "help me" but their hardened heart rejects that spirit of change.
Basically I have learned that the eyes are powerful teaching tools and understanding tools. They speak more than words and they tell the truth of the spirit of God that is inside.
When you look into someone´s soul and think, "why does God love this person", I promise you that you will be filled with a pure love of Christ, a charity towards that person that will fill ya right on up. (so proceed with caution cause it´s a tear-jerking experience!)
I have grown to love making eye contact with people and just telling them to their soul that God has provided a more excellent way...a way of hope and love and repentance. It´s the best. I love being the Lord´s representative and messenger of such hope to the searching souls here in Chile. It´s an experience that has changed me for the eternities. And I will be eternally grateful.
And Number 2: Don´t murmur. Murmuring in any form...against a comment a leader says, against a rule that someone has made, against the decision of a close person, against a cloudy day....(in any way!) is the slippery slope that Satan has put so slyly in front of our feet. Anda con cuidado, de verdad!
My goal now is to never be a murmurer...I wanna be a Nefi. "Y el Señor te favorecerá porque no has murmurado" (1 Nefi 3:6).
Always be humble and let the good times role!
Love always and always,
Hermana Abigail Page
Leaders in the mission/ at Leadership training with her new companion!
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Since you came along...
I seriously believe en miracles.
This week (for basically the first time in all the time I have in Placilla) investigadores went to church on Sunday! Two of them! In the same week!
One is named Vaitea, and she is from the Easter Island..and the Island of Robinson Crusoe...ya, she´s pretty cool and islandy. We are teaching her and her grandparents. So we´ll see how she keeps progressing towards a baptism!
The second guy that went is named Mesach. On Saturday, we were knocking doors in the ghetto and Mesach (a little old guy with a cane) yelled from the other end of the street "NO HAY NADIE". But everyone always tells us that so that we will stop knocking their neighbor´s houses so I didn´t really listen to him and I told him thank you no más. But then I thought "why not talk to him?". so we went and talked to him, and we walked him to his house (cause he walks slow and with a limp), we gave him a LdM and invited him to church. And then, in the morning when we went to look for him, he was already waiting outside in a suit with his little cane and his Libro de Mormon. He is so awesome! He doesn´t have teeth so understanding him when he talks is puro don de lenguas! Haha but I already love him so much.
And also the last Sunday miracle...Yesterday when we got to church, I was sitting talking to Mesach when suddenly a women came up to me and asked me "Do you remember me?!" and I was like "....uhhhh no". And she said "I´m Jennifer, from Limache!" and right then, I suddenly remembered who she was. She was an investigador that I found in Limache when I was new that was super awesome, but suddenly, she had moved or something cause we nevre found her again. And then yesterday she told me that about 6 months ago, in a different stake and ward, she had gotten baptized!!! And that she had been asked the all the missionaries if they knew who I was and where I was cause she remembered me and wanted to thank me for finding her and for planting the seed that changed her life. She just so happened to by in Placilla yesterday and she wanted to go to church (cause she´s never missed a Sunday!) and she recognized my voice whenI was talking to Mesach and she came to talk to me. She is crying as she thanked me and said that she will never forget me and will eternally be grateful! I´ve always heard stories of "planting seeds and someone else will harvest", but yesterday was a true miracle cause I was able to see the fruit of my seed :) Ya never know what´ll happen, huh?
Honestly, all I have to say is that the church is true and miracles existen.
By the way, my new companion´s name is Hermana Watt. She´s from St. George, Utah. She´s really nice and a lot of fun, so we are gonna have a great cambio together!
Love always and always,
Hermana Abigail Page
Savenger hunting in Vina...
Welp, talking to you guys was pretty fantastic. It´s weird cause when I´m not talking to you guys, it feels like it´s been forever since we´ve talked. But then when we are talking, it seems like it has been a week no más! It´s crazy. But it´s was so great to see everyone together..cause I won´t even see that we I get home! ....6 weeks. Wow.....okay, enough of that.
On Saturday we went to help out a ward member with her dog for service. And he is huge. And crazy. And a baby. And we were trying to hold him down to get his leash on him to take him for a walk, and all of a sudden he had a full on crazy kid panic attack and I fell over and he jumped all over me and was licking and slobbing all over me... Needless to say I smelt like wet dog..aaand I was completely covered in dirt and slobber. And then we had to go make another visit with me like that before the day was up. Haha it was great.
In our area, we have been trying to help a few families of menos activos and conversos recientes to progress towards the temple. But lately they hadn´t been going to church and they hadn´t been fulfilling their cumpromisos and they had been making a lot of excuses. And with (especially with one of them) temple goals at stake, there is no time for flojera in my book. So yesterday, we went to their homes and we had "charlas francas" with them. We we told them how it is and we told them the truth that if they didn´t change they weren´t going to make it to the temple. And when I say charla franca, I really mean that we had some intense talks. But the spirit was so strong the whole time and we told them with so much love that we were all crying. And Hermana Hansen and I literally felt like instruments in God´s hands yesterday. we ended the day with this weird feeling that all the things that have happened in Placilla between us and in the work has been preparing us and leading us the the conversations that we had yesterday with those families. It was honestly a very cool experience. And it made me realize that sometimes God is really direct and clear with us so that we can understand bien what he has in mind for us, so that we can fix our feet and get to steppin in the good ole path that he has already prepared.
I love God. He´s pretty cool like that.
But anywho, have a wonderful week together!! Take lots of pictures and do fun stuff. And get a Cookout milkshake...they´re so good.
Love always and always,
Hermana Abigail Page
*PS. I am trying to decide what I should do for the whole "if I should start byu in Spring or Summer" delima. I´ve been praying and thinking about it, but I feel like I need to hear some pros and cons of the both of them from y´all...so if you guys could tell me what you think and send it to me, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you!
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