Letter #4

Hiya fam!!

Well guess what? Because it's visitor center training this week, we got 2 p-days!! Two!! So great! Ha! I've been looking forward to emailing you for a long time! This week has seriously been AWESOME!

Okay, so Wednesday we started our training. We drove up to Salt Lake at around 8:00. The sisters there gave us a tour, and showed us how it's done! :) It was one of the sweetest experiences of my life. The moment I walked onto the temple grounds (the square) I felt this overwhelming feeling of being home. Just like I did my first time in the temple (and every time, really). It was SO cool! One of the sisters shortly after said, "You guys have been trained to always invite the spirit here, but you don't need to. It's always here." How cool huh??!! Being at the square this time around was completely different than any other time... and I realized for the first time that I'm actually a missionary!! Ha! It took me this long! I know now more than ever though that I am supposed to be here, and that Temple Square truly is where I have been called to serve. One thing that I learned that really changed my view on this mission is that I am NOT a tour guide... I am a missionary. All the sisters did the entire time we were on the tour was testify of truths and Christ. It really strengthened my testimony of my mission and helped me realize that it really is a mission. Everything about this mission is PERFECT for me!

So Wednesday night we were trained on online chat!!! It was so cool!! We'll literally have investigators online that are only our investigators!! Its seriously the coolest thing ever. Someone chats you from mormon.org or a site like it and us sisters on Temple Square (and other visitor's centers) get to teach them about the gospel. It's so awesome!! We also can send them something right from the chat site, like a Book of mormon, and we can actually send the missionaries to their homes! (with their permission, of course. ;)) but it is SO much fun to chat with people! Last night my comp and I chatted with a deaf girl, she said the missionaries came over and taught her and she loved it! She said "Everything happens for a reason" but she doesn't have text so she couldn't contact her missionaries... hopefully it'll all work out! we're sending her a Book of mormon to read and she's super interested :) How cool huh??!! I'm already doing the work and I haven't even left the MTC! And even when we give them to the missionaries in their area, we still get to chat with them and help them through the process of conversion. I LOVE this!!

Also, we have a new district, 23 of us are going to Temple Square, and 3 are going to either D.C. vc or Winter Quarter's in Nebraska. We have girls from Canada, Mexico, Fiji, Brazil, Japan, China, France and Spain!! It's THE coolest thing ever!! The sisters are incredible. I LOVE the foreign sisters!! I got to know most of them pretty well in the last couple of days and I can't even tell you how much I love them!! The foreign sisters have something special about them. I think it's because they sacrifice so much to be here that they truly know why they're here. I already have friends from all over the world and I haven't even gotten to temp square yet! ;)

Sister Maxfield and Andelin are our new teachers. Sis Andelin is fine, but Sis. Maxfield is incredible. and SO funny! She makes class so enjoyable. I'm so happy to have a good teacher again before I leave! We had the coolest day yesterday. She had us each teach each other a one minute lesson (which was SUPER stressful), and then stopped us half way through and said, "Isn't it hard to explain to investigators without bearing your testimony?" Everyone was silent... ha. She had us do it again, and WOW was it powerful. The spirit of the whole room changed. (Throughout this activity sis Maxfield would ask us questions like, "Does God hate gays?" or "Why do people get cancer?" super hard questions) i talkdd to Sis. Gros from France, I got the first questions and she got the next one, and we both just cried. It was SO powerful. It helped me realize that testifying + the spirit= POWER. It was incredible. What a great lesson to learn! It doesn't have to be testimony meeting for me to bear my testimony!!

Family, I love this gospel. It's SO true. It makes more sense to me now than it has ever before. This message applies to EVERYONE, and I hope I can be like Alma when he says, "Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." (Alma 36:24)

I have a new favorite quote I wanted to share real quick. "You are called upon to declare the words of eternal life with vigor, humility and faith-- bringing out of darkness those that sit in darkness." Joseph Fielding Smith

I love you all!! I know why I'm here. The Lord has humbled me so much, but I know it's so I can be teachable. Even though having a companion can be a struggle sometimes, its SO worth it. :) Love you!!!!

Sister Savage

P.s. This Saturday I go to temp square and actually give a tour to people with a sister that's been on the square for a while... AH!