Letter #8

February 27, 2012

Hi Family!

Well this week was great! I have so much to tell! I literally have to take notes each day to remember what I want to say to you in my emails. And thank you for all the wonderful emails! Especially Jake's email and the pioneer stories. Sis Wilson is excited about those! I am too! :) It'll be cool to share stories with people that actually are from my family!

First, one of my favorite girls that I've met here in Temple Square, Sister Skalla, is leaving us and going to Thailand. :( Her original call was to there, but she got kidney stones, so they temporarily sent her to T-square. She LOVED it here too. I think this is really hard for her. She bore her testimony on Sunday and I seriously started balling! I can't believe how close I get to the sisters here, they really are like family.

On a happier note, I got to go on exchanges with Sister Barraza, my Zone Leader this week. It was SO amazing! I learned so much. We talked to a Catholic lady from New York with a Boston accent who was super interested in learning more about the church. She asked question after question... those are the best to teach because they're obviously willing to learn! :) It was really cool. And I did pretty good! She asked us why we don't have nuns in our church, and I was able to explain to her that our role as women is to have a family and to be mothers, so giving up all of that to become a nun is an honorable thing to do, but not quite what the Lord has asked of us. She totally accepted that, and actually opened up to us and told us that she had been trying to have a baby for about a year but hasn't been able to get pregnant... she's almost 40 years old. She said she wished she hadn't waited so long now, because she realizes the importance of family and (finally) wants to have one of her own. We then talked about the temple (we were right by the temple model) and explained how we can be united eternally with our families, how important they are to us, etc. Unfortunately, Sis Barraza and I both got the prompting to invite her (to learn more by having the missionaries come over, teach her over the phone, etc) but neither of us did. We kept talking for a bit, and she didn't refer.  Sis Barraza after that was SO upset at herself that she didn't invite!  She said "The Lord is trying to teach us something! We need to listen to the spirit and invite when it's the strongest!!"  She was so right! It was a really good learning experience for me, and for her!  It also helped me realize that all of us sisters are human. Even the Zone Leaders make mistakes! :)

At the end of our exchange, we had a chat about things I am doing well at and things I need to work on.  One thing she said is that I need to be more bold when I invite.... so true! I struggle a lot with that. I don't like being pushy. Ha. And then she read me our little ministerial certificate, which says that Natalie Nicole Savage has the authority and right to preach the gospel, and that everyone is invited to hear the message I have to share. It was so powerful. I hadn't read that since I had been in the MTC. I was able to go up to people SO much easier this week after reading that.

So I'm not sure if I mentioned this last week or not, but our mission got bigger!! HOORAY!  We can now take people on tours to the JSMB, the Church History Museum, the Relief Society building and the 26th floor of the Church Building, which has a really cool deck outside. We'll be doing that this summer! :) We've been able to explore these places and try to think of ways to use them on our tours. Pretty cool!

And you all already know I guess, ha ha! I saw the Haynes!! That was so fun!!! I love seeing people I know. :) Tell him thanks for taking a picture! I never have my camera on me because we can't look like tourists on the square... ha. Understandable. :)

We gave 3 different tours on Saturday! One right after the other! Needless to say I was exhausted on Sunday, lol! Usually we only get one a day, if that! It was so neat. The first guy we gave a tour to was from New York, he was actually a professor there and was invited by his friend that teaches at BYU to come to BYU and give a talk... something about computers. I don't know what he was really talking about, ha. Anyway, his friend told him to come to Temple Square to learn more about the church, which he had been wanting to do, because some of his students are members of the church and he wants to know what exactly to believe.... Seriously family, this guy is GOLDEN!! Everything we taught him in our tour made sense to him. We taught him about Joseph Smith and the importance of prophets and apostles, and how it follows the exact order that Christ established when he was on the earth. He seriously is going to get baptized, ha ha. Everything completely made sense to him. We also, of course, talked about the Book of Mormon, and I had a really cool experience with that. I don't know why I started off this way, but I said something about how the Joseph Smith story would seem really bizarre to some people, and almost just ridiculous. But I know it's true. And the only way I know it's true is because I've read the Book of Mormon, and nothing in it is a lie. Nothing in it is contrary to the Lord's teachings. The spirit was seriously so strong, and the man was really into it. It was way cool! He also referred, so the missionaries will definitely be visiting him soon. I'm so excited for him!! 

It was SO nice to have this happen when it did. The night before (Friday night) we gave a tour to a couple from New Jersey who are both Roman Catholics.... I don't always like them very much. Haha. They were really nice and kind most of the tour, and then at the end the questions on polygamy and prophets and things like that came out. This man was EXTREMELY proud to be a Catholic... you could just feel it from him. He thought that "logically" it didn't make sense that God would take his gospel off the earth for so long, especially when Peter's direct descendant started Catholicism in 600 AD.... Well, where was the gospel during those 600 years? Who gave whoever the first Pope was the authority to begin the church again? And where in the Bible does it talk about Popes??! Just sayin. :) Anyway, this little old man made me upset. Ha ha. He was extremely stubborn and relied on the "history" of his church to prove that ours was wrong.... except our church has history from back in Adam's time!!! So there! :) He also had met a man that was a member of the church that had some strong opinions on poor people and how it's their own fault they're poor or something like that, so we took them to the Humanitarian section of the North VC. :) Ha, it was awesome. We also said how we don't have paid clergy.... Well, I said that. Ha ha. Evidence right there that we don't pay the Bishops! It all goes to humanitarian work around the whole world. Awww. This church is true.

Also, we finally got a hold of Faustina again!! (we hadn't been able to talk to her for a long time.) We taught her about the importance of the Book of Mormon in our conversion, and how you need to read it in order to get a testimony of this church. We also told her that when she finds out it's true (WHEN, not IF. :)) that she WILL want to act upon her answer by being baptized into the church, we then committed her to reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it to find out if it's true or not. :) Pray hard for cute little Faustina in Ghana!! We love her so much!  Also, we have a new investigator in Nigeria!! His name is Sowla (Show-la). He's super cool! He's trying to find a church that will work for him. This one will definitely work!! :) It was such a miracle how we got him. I got an inbound call from a lady in Texas named Mary who wanted to know how she could get Sowla to have the missionaries over. I was like, "Um... let me help you with that." :) ha ha. Got his address and number, called him up, sent the missionaries over. Bam. Conversion in motion.

Another cool miracle, Sis Barraza gave me a referral that she didn't want to call... ha. (she's from Spain and pretty much only calls spanish people in Mexico because they're WAY easier to teach than stubborn Americans, lol!) So I called her up, her name is Sabrina. It was so cool. We instantly became friends, ha! She has a learning problem where she can't remember things very well, so she had the missionaries teaching her in the past that she LOVED because they were very patient with her and took their time to teach her, etc. I was able to share with her my learning problems when I was younger and she instantly trusts me to teach/ call her!! It was so amazing. That trial that I went through for So long (and still sometimes struggle with) is helping me now on my mission. Seriously the coolest thing ever! The Lord gives us trials for a reason. Sometimes it takes 21 years to figure out why! :)

The last and most amazing miracle of all was this lady named Noelle. GOLDEN investigator, holy cow! We actually met her on chat. She asked us if she could go to our church on Sunday without being a member or knowing anything about it and we of course said YES!!  And then we talked to her a little bit about what happens in church, what to expect; we gave her the address for it too. And then she asked us if there was any way someone could teach her more about it.... ha! Sis Wilson and I looked at each other and were like.... "Um, would you like to have the missionaries over?" Ha ha! It was so amazing. We also got her phone number and she agreed to let us call her and teach her more over the phone. What an amazing woman. I'm so excited to be able to see all of these people progress. Hopefully they will!!

Well fam, I gotta email my Mission President now. I always forget. Ha. I love you all SOOO much!! Thanks Chan for the letter :) and Jord too, even though it was an email... which is cheating.. ;) ha, jk! I love you all and miss you lots. The mission is seriously the best thing ever. It's so hard, but so good for me. It's pushed me a lot! This church is so true!! The more I testify about it to people and read the Book of Mormon, the more I realize it really is so true. We have been so incredibly blessed to know this truth. :) I called another referral the other day who was someone who left the church a while back, and it made me so so sad. I honestly don't understand how it can happen to people, how they can know of the truth and then just... forget. It can happen to anyone though. Please PLEASE keep strong family!! I love you!!

~Sister Savage

Ps. I still don't respond to Sister Savage, because half of the time we are on the phones and I go by Natalie... ha ha. Funny huh? Guess I won't have that problem coming home. :)