Week #11

March 19, 2012

Hi family and friends! 

So good to hear from you all! Unfortunately, I don't have much time to write you today... BUT, I have pictures!! :) We hardly ever take pictures in this mission because we can't on the square (to avoid looking like tourists/ unprofessional). I knew mom would be happy with some pictures. :) 

Lisa Pack (used to be Pack, I can't remember what her new last name is) came to Temple Square on Saturday. I just happened to be covering another sister at the desk when I met her, ha ha! How crazy, huh? She told me she was from Elk Grove and I asked her if she knew the Pack family, and she said, "Um, I used to be a Pack!" Ha ha. It was so cool! She was so sweet. She said she would call Susan Pack and tell her about it. :) The world keeps getting smaller here. 

Well, as it goes with everything, there must be "opposition in all things." (2 Nep 2:11). This week was kind of rough. We had almost no success since last Monday. Mat, Logan, Claudia and Sabrina didn't answer our phone calls. It's SO hard when they don't answer!! We only have so much time during the day to talk to them, so sometimes we can't even call them again for a couple of days... However, despite the hard week, yesterday was SO good. I called Mat again and left him a message, and he immediately called back, letting me know he was at work when I had called. Then I called him back probably 10 minutes after that and he didn't answer again, so I left another message letting him know that he can just call when he has time. Then he left me a message and this is what it said: "Hey, it's Bixler. We're playing phone-tag. Tag, you're it." HA HA! So funny. I love my investigators. I was so happy to hear him say that. I still worry that these people will get super annoyed with me calling them, so it's comforting to know that they still like us and want us to call them. :) 

We committed Duane to baptism!!! It was so, so awesome. This guy seriously is the best. He basically has the Bible memorized, but he interprets the bible EXACTLY how we do in the church. It does not surprise him at ALL that God would send us modern-day prophets and more scripture. It makes sense to him. Talk about a golden investigator!! We literally don't have to explain everything to him. We teach him a principle, and he literally explains it to US. Ha. The church is true! 

I called Sister Brickley's friend that she decided to refer from Indiana. She said she prayed about who she should give her to, and she felt like it should be me. I felt so honored that she would give her name to me, it really meant a lot. Calling people's friends can be super nerve wracking, especially when you know the friend super well... ha. But it went SO well! And she referred to meet with missionaries. :) I'm so excited about it! We're going to teach her again next Sunday. She's always super busy which will be hard, but hopefully once we start teaching her she will realize how much she needs this in her life. She's open to learning more about the gospel. I'm so excited for her. 

Now I'll tell you the exciting story that happened today, ha. We were in the motors (call center) for about 30 min when all the sudden a new sister stood up, and literally fainted right behind me. It was the loudest thud I've ever heard, lol! I was kind of scared for my life. Anyway, we called security (we call them for literally everything) and they came running in, then about 10 minutes later an ambulance came with a stretcher and everything!! It was seriously straight out of a movie. The reason why they came was because the Sister wouldn't wake up, which isn't a good sign after someone has fainted... they usually come-to after a few minutes. Long story short, I ended up driving Sister Gierske (from Germany) to the hospital. She's her district leader and apparently has to go with her during these situations... ha. So I volunteered to drive thinking I would come back in half and hour. Not. 4 hours later I was back at the apartment. Ha ha. I literally have done nothing today!! I barely made it in time for my hair appointment (Yes, I got my hair done and she only charged me $10 for the haircut. It was so nice!!) and now am finally emailing at 6pm. Usually we are done e-mailing by 2!  We had a pretty exciting day. :)

"No one can know spiritual truths without prayer." How true that is. I learned this this week. I was reading in Preach my Gospel the section on prayer, looking up scriptures relating to it, etc, and this really stuck out to me. I thought of the story of Joseph Smith when Oliver Cowdery asked him, "Joseph, how are we to be baptized?" and Joseph didn't know. They then went and prayed to know how to be baptized, and THEN the heavenly messengers came. I always kind of wondered, "Why didn't they come before and just tell him so we wouldn't have to ask?" Interesting that the Lord sent them after Joseph prayed to know. But it taught me an important lesson that applies to spiritual truths. We can't just expect the Lord to teach us these things without asking him about it. We need to seek it out first, study it out in our minds. My investigators are the same way! There's a reason why we always commit them to pray about what we have taught them and what they are learning. They cannot know these truths without praying to the Father and asking him, in the name of Jesus Christ, if it is true or not. This church gets truer every day.I LOVE it! 

Well I should be going. I love you all SO much!! Keep praying for me! I always pray for mi familia. You're all the best. I'm SO lucky to have you in my life 

Love, 

Sister Savage