SO SARAH!

June 2010 Zone Conference

7 June: "Mr. Collins"

This week has been a long one. Everything exciting always seems to happen on Tuesdays. I always want to tell y'all right away but then the week goes by and the excitment or whatever it is dies away. I have been determined to remember this experience though.

So, there is a youngish man (like 29?) who was baptized in early February. He will be named Marcus for the purpose of the story. (Now you know its going to be good because I chose to use a fake name!). Anyway, he is a bit funny. He is very preoccupied with the idea of marriage and then he just is not very tactful in most of the social situations that I have seen him in. He kind of says funny stuff sometimes but he is a good person and the members are really really patient with his never-ending questions and concerns. So, he has been in the country staying with his adopted parents. We usually teach Marcus a new-member lesson every week. This time we were going to go teach him and his parents (not members)! We knew it could potentially be an uncomfortable experience for us but we were excited about teaching them. We tried with all our might to make it clear to him that this would not be turning into a meet-the-parents thing (he had said some things that made us wonder). We have told him many times that sisters do not talk about dating, think about that stuff, or anything of the sort. The lesson went well. I ate sill (I think it is herring? in a can... I am not sure. raw fish anyway. It was pretty okay.) We were on our way out but Marcus wanted to show us around so we went with the mom and Marcus to see some animals and whatever. Unfortunately at one point-- I have no idea how this happened-- Marcus made some comment about how he would look better if he shaved and then said the Swedish equivalent of "isn't that right, Syster Page?" I acknowledged that he said something with a laugh I think but that was just one of those uncomfortable things he says and I was hoping that the moment would pass. It didn't. I think it must have been that the mom was talking to Syster Robinson for like 3 seconds and that was enough time for this to happen: "I have been thinking, Syster Page, I would like to marry you." Oh snap. I did a lot of looking around at a lot of things that were not in the direction of him and just kept shaking my head and said "Nej. Det går inte (That doesn't go (work)). Nej." Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear. and after that it just came out. I said "inte just nu (not right now)" and I was meaning that missionaries do not talk about that or think about anything like that and convey to him that what he had said was highly inappropriate but he repeated that (inte just nu) too but in a way that makes me think he interpreted it to mean something entirely different. I write this so small to hide my shame. That whole thing wooshed by in about 3 seconds and then his mom and Syster Robinson were back into the conversation like nothing happened! That was the experience. I was very very happy to go. The lesson was good. I couldn't tell Syster Robinson until that night. Oh my goodness. ANYWAY that was what I thought might be interesting for y'all.

Prisla came to church yesterday! All the way from a town that is an hour away! She is 13 and her mom let her take the bus by herself if we would pick her up at the station and take good care of her. We did! We made her breakfast and lunch! (she only ate the apple... ha). It was really fun to be in Young Women's with her. Once those girls started talkign about Zac Efron and Twilight and such, she was totally comfortable. Her parents and her moved from Pakistan to Sweden about 10 years ago. They love Jesus Christ. Prisla accepted the Book of Mormon to be the word of God the first lesson and loves to read in it ("I already do feel like its true actually!") She is a miracle. Her mom loves that she is excited about the church. She thinks we are good examples for her daughter. She reads and learns right along with her, although she has never been to church yet. She reads in Urdu and she really likes what she reads.

I love The Book of Mormon. I really do! It feels so good to read it. It feels really good to trust something so much. It is pure truth and knowledge. I feel the same thing when I read or listen to General Conference talks. I feel like I soak everything in and it feels good. It is so good to me. I know that The Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. I know that this is Jesus Christ's Church. He leads it and the words that we hear from our leaders are even His words and therefore the words of our Father in Heaven and of the Holy Ghost because They are one. Wow. I can't express my gratitude or what I feel when I contemplate these things. I only hope I am doing enough. I definitley need help. That's what the Lord has promised me.

Thank you for your prayers and thoughts. I love you. I am so grateful to know that I have such a supportive, strong family. Until next week! We are working on getting Sumith baptized this week. He doesn't know it yet (unless the Holy Ghost has told him). He is really humble. We are talkign to him tonight! Just thought I'd let y'all know. Kind of big.

Love,

Syster Sarah Page

Pictures!

"it POURED last week on our way home from our last teach of the day with awesome Sumith. It was like heaven (AKA Houston). It was even warm."

"we made like a hundred cookies and then the thing we were going to take them to got canceled so we didn't know what to do with them all. Luckily, there was a baptism that weekend in our District so we took them there. It was actually really cool. They loved them."

These are "the first day with my companion at the church in Stockholm before we left for Örebro."

26 May 2010

Dear Family,

I thank you all for your letters! Well done! Courtney thank you for your letter and especially the picture. I almost fell out of my chair. I recognize you, Jeff, Hinckley and Leah, but then there was another child... who is that!? I just cannot recognize him at all! I don't know why that was so crazy. When was the last time I saw Ben? Okay, I guess like a year. That blew my mind. How exciting! I'm only four months on the mission and I already don't recognize my family!

The reason my letter this week is late is because it is transfer week (our P-days are on Wednesdays on transfer week). We have transfers every 9 weeks where the President calls and tells you where you will be for the next transfer. So this was my very first real transfer call day on Tuesday. President called and told Syster Robinson and I... that we are staying in Örebro! We are jätte (literally: giant) excited for that! We get to see Eddie's baptism on Saturday and continue to work with our steadily progressing investigators! Eddie had his baptismal intervju yesterday and he is worthy and ready! He is so awesome. That reminds me of a miracle that happened Monday night...

So, Monday night there is Hemafton for the young adults. This week we invited our investigator Sumith (we are not certain if he is a young adult, but we thought it would be good either way) and he actually wanted to come! We also invited Eddie about it but he had said that it might not work this week because he works nights and he would have had his daughter all weekend and his sleep schedule was all off so it would have been like 2 days without sleep if he came. We invited him anyway (of course) and hoped he would come. It's really cool because Sumith works at the gym that Eddie goes to! Who knew!? We found out the first time Sumith came to church and Eddie hälsad him all friendly. It was a MIRACLE: we rode up on our bikes to see Eddie standing there outside the bishops house at 6 o'clock, ready for hemafton! Then Sumith came. Honestly, for me, those yound adult things are kind of hard and weird and just weird but this one was... even worse. The topis was dating so... And the bishop kept looking to me (I was closest to him) and then sometimes Syster Robinson for input! Uncomfortable. All these young adults. It was because we had lived in America so we understood the talk a little better (Elder Oaks to BYU I think about not hanging out) The bishop asked me to define hanging out. In Swedish of course. Just an uncomfortable situation for me. Really funny though. We left early. Our investigators had a good time though! Eddie and Sumith gave input. Nice. All those people are so awesome. If you didn't get it, the miracle was that Eddie could come and that Sumith came and they could help each other and it was awesome.

We had a very sad teach last Tuesday. Oh dear. We went to teach a man named Aziz. He had said that he wanted to know and that it wasn't wrong to know and to learn. We had taught him about 3 times before. We taught this time on the Plan of Salvation. I had read in Preach My Gospel (Recognizing the Spirit chapter) about my job in the conversion process of others. I need to create a climate where the Spirit can teach. I do that by teaching and testifying of the Restoration. That is what I did during that lesson. Yes I did. We would teach about pre-earth life and our purpose and every time I would testify and teach that we know these simple truths because of the Restoration. We have the Book of Mormon and more revelation that has been revealed to prophets in our day. At one point in the lesson, that hit him I think. It was kind of scary and just disturbing to me. I think I feel things really deeply. He laughed and tried to catch us saying something wrong or something and he finally said, "Are y'all saying that the Bible isn't enough??" Yeah that is exactly what we are saying! We answered honestly, "Yes." He asked again to make sure he understood. I think he tried to show us how horrible and evil we were by giving us back his Book of Mormon and then condemning to in the closing prayer. Wow. BUT the Lord really was watching out for us. It was like I felt bad, but at the bottom, I was grounded on a stable sense of peace. That is the peace that knowing the truth brings. I know that I know the truth so my sorrow can only go so far. I had read that very morning about the Restoration in 1 and 2 Nephi. Ireally love reading that now. Love. 2 Ne 28:28 gave me a lot of comfort. Some will not accept the message. It has been prophesied. But some will. I am glad that he understood what we were saying and then rejected it because if he had not understood, then we (missionaries) would be in trouble. It is still of course not good for him, but maybe one day he will change. There is another verse (1 Ne 14:7) in those prophesies that says that the marvelous work will reveal how wonderful people are or it will reveal how not. That may seem weird, but that realyl gave me comfort. It has been prophesied. I am just doing the work. 1 Ne 13:37 says that those who will try to do the Lord's work in these days will be blessed with the Holy Ghost and everything else wonderful (even good looks. read it). I love the scriptures. The Bible is not enough. The Lord is still talking to us. When we pray He answers us. He talks to prohets and apostles and other leaders. He talks through the Book of Mormon. I have a testimony of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What a marvelous message to share.

Summer is coming! And we will be able to spend "mid-summer" here! (I don't know what that means, but everyone seems exciting about it..). I think I will put some pictures on here now. I love you all very much!

Love,

Syster Sarah

Letter: 16 May 2010

I love my family so much. Y'all are just so incredibly...incredible! I am so happy to know that you are happy and well and that-- even when things aren't so good-- you know where to turn. I am totally at peace about y'all and that is a big blessing.

It seems like a lot of things are changing "on the home front." I am more than excited to hear anything and everything about the house.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO WILL!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TRUMAN!

You two are getting old! Seriously. Those pictures of them in my calendar are so super cute: Will bashfully smiling over the kitchen table and then Truman playing baseball I think.

Life is really good here. Some days have been really sunny and warm and then other days have been rainy. But you know what? The rainy days are okej too because I discovered a most wonderful little trench coaty sort of thing in the apartment. It is a little big, but it has a waist tie and then I just rolled up the sleeves a little above the wrists and it is just perfect! I have everything I need! The Lord has provided a back and a light, water-resistent jacket for me! I don't think life could get better. Tulips are popping up like daisies around here! haha No but there are a lot of tulips in little garden bunches and then daffodils and such. Very lovely. And sometimes the air is so full of the smell of flowers that it is overwhelming! I start coughing and such. That has only happened a few times. Its pretty wonderful though. And it is sunny as long as we are up and out (and probably more than that too) 6 30 AM-9 PM. It is kind of like a fairytale land.

Our investigators are doing well. Eddie is just really amazing. We stopped by to see him with the bishops wife on Saturday afternoon. We had been talking about trying to have his daughter be able to come to the baptism too, but that could mean switching to the day. We really felt like it would be very bad to move it back, even one week so we told him that. This just made it hard with his daughter because he doesn't have her the weekend he had picked to get baptised (before he had thought it would be better if she didn't come because he was sure she would try to jump in the font after him). We were afraid when we told him that he would be a little upset or something or maybe offended like we didn't trust his resolve enough to move the date back one weekend. But he just listened. And after we said that we had prayed and thought a lot about it he just totally understood. We said that it would be really awesome for Leona (daughter) to be there though and asked him if he would think about some options like switching weekends with the mom or asking the mom and Leona to come on her weekend. He just really does not like to be around the mom so it had been tough, but now he is considering options. He got really sick on the way to church yesterday so he went back home. We called to see what was up and then we asked him if he would like to get a priesthood blessing and kind of explained what that would be. He said sure. So, the ward mission leader and we went to his apartment that night. I think he was kind of nervous about it (of course). He was way willing though and it was really great. I was just praying the whole time that the Spirit would touch his heart so that he would feel it was right and good and real. I think that this will be a great blessing for him in building his testimony.

We also taught Prisla (13) and her mom who live an hour away. The Young Women leader gave us a ride in her car and helped us teach! She is really awesome. It was perfect because she was baptized after her teenage daughter had been baptized. She had all sorts of experience with things like they are facing. The Spirit was there when we taught and it helped us teach really simply. Our entire lesson last week had been on authority and they didn't really understand, but this week it was different. We were teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we talked about authority again just briefly and simply. After we were done, Prisla said, "Yeah, I really want to be baptized by someone who has Christ's authority and power, not someone else." Prisla said that she wants to get baptized in October when she turns 14 and her Mom was okay with that. We think that as she continues to come to church, she will feel like she wants to get baptized sooner and if he mom comes, her mom will feel that it is good too. It is just so tough! It CAN happen. I am excited. The Lord has really blessed them and us. I am grateful I get to witness conversion. It is really amazing. The Spirit does it! It doesn't matter what we say. Well, it does because that can influence whether or not the Spirit can be there, but the Spirit does the changing in them. It is really amazing. What a dream I am living here!

I wish I had some funny stories. Oh! Last week haha we went to Family Home Evening (Hemafton) for the Young Adults (Unga Vuxna) and they were playing sports at the park... We weren't sure if we would play or what. We decided to and it was funny. So, we played "brenboll" (burn ball). It is baseball but you toss the ball (tennis ball) to yourself. Like baseball for Sewdish people haha just kidding. They are athletic too. Just not. at baseball... ha Anyway. There was just 6 of us for most of the time and we stayed because one of the new converts was there. That is pretty much the story... ha It is hard to play sports in Swedish. I kept saying things like "Oh man" or "snap" or "nice" ha. And then sports phrases just don't translate I am sure. Like "you can do it" "you got this." It is funny. It was funny that way though so that was good. It was extra funny because we were sore/stiff the next day. Sore from weak-mans baseball...

That is it family! I love you all. I hope you have wonderful weeks, and Maegan that you just love Houston and then Russia! And Baldwins that you just love Louiser and Maegan! I love you all.

Love,

Syster Sarah

10 May- Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all! and to all a good night!

Just kidding. But actually, I should be wishing most of you a good night at this point, as the sun is going down on your corner of the planet.

Life is good here in Örebro. I told Mom and Dad how to say that, so now they can teach everyone else. I remember that "Osorno" was a task for about 18 months until Libbi came home. That is funny. "Stockholm" is easy enough to say, right? "Örebro" means "Penny Bridge" (well, their equivalent of a penny). Kind of a nice little name.

It sure is nice to be home. We have had some crazy traveling this last week. We went to Stockholm (2 hour train) on Wednesday night for a Mission Tour with Europe Area President President Teixeira and then we came back that evening. And then we had Stake Conference in Stockhom again and we went up Saturday night and left Sunday evening. Tedious travel. And especially because yesterday we didn't have a lunch, so we had a bowl of cereal at 6 45 and then had conference and then got on a train and then got home at about 5 15 and were starving and worn out and irritable. But, I got to call my Mom and Dad and Rachel! I was really grateful that the phone and the card worked well. The Lord blessed me a lot. At one point, the phone cut off so I had to try to call again. When I was waiting for like probably 30 seconds for it to connect and ring, I was praying. I was just telling my Heavenly Father thank you that I was able to talk to them for the 20 minutes before. Even if the connection didn't make it again, I would still love Him just the same and obey Him, but if He was willing that would be very very very wonderful to me if I could talk to them more. And then the phone started ringing. It probably sounds more dramatic written out than it really was. I have a testimony though that the Lord hears the prayers of our hearts. I also know that He blesses us when we exercise faith in Him and express faith in Him. Even if He hadn't let me continue to talk to them, it was comforting for me to know and to think through the fact that I had faith enough to get a "no" answer. I hope that makes sense. Pray and have faith and you can be confident in the fact that whatever happens is what is best and that He is with you. He can't be with us if we do not pray. Anyway, I am SO grateful that I got to talk to my family. I love you all so much.

I was happy to hear about the house. more than happy-- more like ecstatic. I love that stuff. I love new beginnings. There is just so much potential! It will be awesome. And I can't wait for my loafers. I also was very glad to hear a hello from Abby and then a hello for Emily too. The rest of you... just kidding. ha I know you care too. There are a few Swedish phrases that can't be translated in my head. Well, that is because I don't like looking things up in the dictionary-- I like to learn things from context. It's way cooler. Am I right? Of course. haha I listen to a talk and learn like 20 new words without a dictionary or anything and then know how to use them! I think that is a huge blessing from the Lord. Anyway, so then I can't really translate directly to English because I just use the word. One of them is "att hälsa." I don't even know how to spell it. It is like to greet someone. If someone says "Oh and tell them hi for me" they just say to hälsa them for them. It is cool. You say it like "hellsa". And when you walk into someone, you don't really start talking to people until you have "hälsa"d them. That means saying "hej" and shaking their hand. Everyone shakes hands here. It is kind of crazy. Even like these gangster-looking kids once. I saw there was like these 6 kids on bikes and they have all these peircings and tatoos and just thinking they are really cool and then another kid that they knew came up to them and they just shook his had to hälsa him. I was like woah. It looked so civilized. It was a real hand shake. That makes it nice at church for investigators. LDS people shake hands, and they already know how.

I taught my companion how to "stand up" on her bike. It was so funny. Not actually standing up, but you know like you stand on the pedals up off the seat with your legs straight? Yeah, she was just like, "how do you do that?" Cause I had been doing that and I was really confused about how she could be confused. She was like, "when you do it, you look so tall. But look at me." She did it and her rumpa (like "roompa" (bottom/behind/bahonkatail in Swedish)) was still practically on the seat and she just looked ridiculous haha. Her head was all high trying to be tall. And then I looked and saw that the pedals were not level and told her to stand on them at the same level and then it worked. It was so funny. She kept being like, "wow you will teach me all the bike tricks!" and I was just like "tricks?" haha so funny. She also thinks it is really cool when I throw my leg over the bike to get off before the bike actually stops moving and then get off when it does. So funny.

The people here are doing good. Tonight we have a teach with Aziz from Egypt. We met him because we gave this other guy a pass-along card and then he must have taken it and then followed after it and asked who we were. He had apparently met with some missionaries before. So, we taught him Friday at the library. He keeps saying how he feels like it is important to search and find the truth and be willing to search because you can't know until you've really searched everything. That is good but that is bad. I hope that he is willing to make a decision to do something about what he learns. But, this could be it! I think it was definitley the Lord who helped him find us again.

I see miracles everyday. Undeniable ones too. It is really amazing. I love my Heavenly Father. Remeber the day I fasted for my contract to sell, Emily and then I magically saw you after your final and you came with me home to get the thing that I had magically forgotten at my apartment that and then you had e-mailed everyone and people were responding and things that hadn't happened before magically started happening with the contract even on like the last day of the semester? That was amazing. And I never would have seen you, Emily, if I hadn't grabbed the wrong binder-- which I never do. So cool. I jsut read about that in my jourmal.

I love you all. I am so grateful for you all, for all you mothers who have taught me so much by just who you are and who you try to be. I love you.

Love,

Syster Sarah Bear Page

4 May- Hi On You!

Hej på er, familjen! That literally translates to "Hi on you (y'all), family!" I guess it is kind of like saying "Hey there" in English. I think mostly middle-aged or older people say it.

It has been a fun week! Spring has finally sprung here in Örebro and I haven't heard any complaints on the subject. The grass is amazingly, brilliantly green. Oh, that reminds me of something kind of funny. We were cleaning the church building with the ward on Saturnday morning and when we were done with the inside, we moved on to the grounds. Swedish people love to work in the dirt I think. So this is the work we did: Vedel, our really funny (he talks really deliberately and says "Hej" and nods again and again until he is satisfied with the greeting) and AMAZING ward Mission Leader would wheelburrow us over some dark, rich dirt. Then, he would dump it out into little piles. Our job was to redistribute this onto parts of the grass around the church that was not growing so well. It felt very funny. So, we'd take some up with our shovel and then place it in random spots...and hope we were doing it well... ha. We kind of would look around awkwardly to see how they were all doing it. Delicate work. So, now there are patches of dirt on the lawn. We must have done okay because Vedel kept saying, "Duktig, Syster Page! Very good! Ni är dukitga, systrar!" (duktig= clever/smart/good at something).

We had dinner with the Kodia's. They are from Congo and have lived here for about 15 years. They speak French and Swedish. They had a guest staying with them for like a school thing from France. He was funny and I was trying to imagine what it would be like to be around people like him for an entire mission. He was a bit cuckoo-- like the sounds he would make or something about his mouth and when he was playing with the little kids he'd just be goofy/weird. It was funnny. haha I was thinking that Swedes are probably weird too, but I don't know. Anyway, I could understand a lot of their French (well, when the African's were speaking) but then I could not respond. It comes out Swedish. That's okay. It was just blowing my mind a little bit.

We taught this young man yesterday, Norov. He is from Mongolia but grew up here and speaks perfect Swedish and English (and Mongolian. That goes without saying, Tracey). He met us at the Church for the first time. He had met with other sisters, but it had been almost two months since he was taught. He is really busy with school and work. So, we talked to him. He said he had always been atheist, but he just wants to learn about Christianity. We talked about some of the blessings we have in our lives because of our knowledge of God. Then he said something really cool. He said that he wasn't trying to see if there was a God so that he can get something in return, or that he can kind of grant his wishes or something. He said, "I just want to know the truth." I was impressed with him. He thinks about things, and he isn't quick to be disbelieving, even when it is hard to imagine or understand. We watched the Restoration video. We emphasized the Book of Mormon and how answers and knowledge of the truth will some by reading that book. He even prayed at the end of the lesson. It was awesome. He is really sincerely trying to figure it out. The truth is powerful. I am so glad that I can say with confidence and conviction that what I have to offer him is, in very fact, the truth-- pure and simple and from the Source of truth. Whenever I start thinking about, "How can I explain this so that they will understand?" Or I start thinking about trying to make something logical I just stop and smile and realize that I do not have to convince anyone or make anything appealing. What I am saying is the truth. The Spirit is there when I testify of truth. Oh I love that part of missionary work so much. I have always loved bearing my testimony.

Yesterday, our 13 year old investigator, Prisla, from the town far away (Degerfors) came to church with the wonderful member who lives out there too. He gives other people rides too. Anyway, she was nervous and excited and nervous. I tried to make it comfortable for her. Testimony meeting started and it was great. A few people bore wonderful testimonies. Leave it to Örebro församlingen. They are so incredible. But after about 3 people, there was a little break. I had already decided that if there was break that lasted longer than about 3 seconds before I heard someone else getting up, I would run up there. So, I did! I hadn't really wanted to when we walked in. I just didn't know what to say and the language is intimidating sometimes. So I got up there and started to just say truth. I said that I knew that Jesus Christ was my Savior and that this was Jesus Christ's Church and that I was so grateful to be a member of it. I said how grateful I was for the knowledge I have and then I just simply said, "The knowledge I have is: I have a loving Heavely Father, who is God, who loves me. I know that The Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that we have a prophet today and his name is Thomas S. Monson. I know that Jesus Christ leads this church through him. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." Something very close to that. Correct Swedish just came out of my mouth and I don't remember thinking about it. I remember looking out at the people in församlingen that I love and then just feeling the Spirit testify through me. It wasn't for me, it was for Prisla and for them. I find myself when I lose myself. Being a missionary helps me do that. I love it.

I think that I'll just be calling you. I think it will be at about 7 15 my time (we are teaching Norov that night from about 6-7). We also have Stake Conference next weekend! And we have a "mission tour" where a General Authority comes and a buch of missionaries go and listen to him. I get to see some of my district (MTC people)! I am excited. Eddie is doing great too. So great. He was in another city DJ-ing this weekend and he went to church in that city! On an hour of sleep! The sisters there helped him out with how to get there, but he went. He is so great. And a DJ. (ha just a little humor there)

Have a great week my little ninos. I wish you all a happy mother's day. All of you!! ha okay, just the Mothers. And the other women a half happy mothers day. I wish you an okay mothers day. ha Anyway! I love you all. No one guessed the song from the last e-mial. hm. ha Have a great week. Tell me about all your adventures (School over, Louiser, Maegan in Russia, the house, everything!). Thank you for your testimonies and for sharing them. I love love love you.

Love,

Syster Sarah