General Conference Weekend = AMAZING!

Introduction from Mom:

For those of you who don't know. . . Natalie was born with a serious foot problem and had to wear orthotic shoes as a newborn.  Unfortunately, I was very naive and didn't quite "fix" her feet and have tons of "mother guilt" now.  She has had pain every day of her life and never mentioned it to me because she assumed everyone had foot pain every day.  She finally mentioned it to me about a year ago.  A local Podiatrist told us Natalie needs surgery, but there was never a time to have the surgery.  Natalie really wanted to go on her mission and saw another Podiatrist in Provo who made some orthotics for her and let her go on her mission.  :)  (Hopefully, you will now understand that Natalie's foot pain in her e-mail below is not the normal sore feet from being on your feet all day.)

Our family had an incredible conference weekend and would love to go to the Conference Center to watch conference every year!  It was such a good experience for our family (we've never been).  :)  Seeing Natalie was quite the highlight too!  Natalie's Mission President gave her and her companion permission to have dinner with us for an hour on Friday night.  But, we ran into Natalie twice that afternoon before our dinner.  :)  We wanted to show our kids Temple Square, where Natalie was serving.  While we were in the South Visitor's Center, Brad started talking to a sister missionary from Africa (who spoke Portuguese as her native language).  Because Brad and the African sister spoke Portuguese for so long, we were in the right place at the right time and Natalie and her companion walked through the door and we surprised each other!   Then, when our family was in the North Visitor's Center looking at the Christus, Natalie and her companion walked in while she was giving a tour to a couple from Sweden.  It was wonderful seeing Natalie "in action" doing her missionary work.  Very fun!  A memory we will never forget.

I've attached some pics.  I never cried in front of Natalie, but as soon as I stepped foot on Temple Square, I started crying and had a hard time stopping.  The Spirit was so strong there.  (I'm sure it didn't help that I knew my daughter was on those grounds somewhere. )   :)  The last picture attached is of Natalie & her companion going back to Temple Square after eating with us. . . I just had to sneak one last memory.  :)  

Thank you for all of your support.  It warms my heart to see Natalie accomplishing this great thing, especially with all of her constant challenges in life with learning.  I feel like the Lord has blessed her with miracle after miracle because of her hard work and righteous desires.

General Conference Weekend = AMAZING!

Hi Everyone!!

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRAD!!!! Wow, you're a quarter of a century old. :)  I love you so much Brad! You're emails always inspire me to be better. Thank you for always uplifting me! :)

Family, it was SO good to see all of you at Temple Square on Friday! ha ha. It was kind of a shock when I first saw you, but it instantly felt completely normal. I LOVED seeing you!! I think it gave me a boost for Conference weekend, honestly! Thank you for letting us give you a spiritual thought too... I would have loved to just chat with you, but it was fun to share something with you too. Thanks for letting us do that. :)  Sister Wilson is fun.  And yes, in a strange way she does remind me of Emily... wish they could've come too :)

Well family, I don't know if I told you... but we had a goal as a mission for the number of referrals we were going to receive this weekend at General Conference!

Are you ready for this?!

Our mission goal was ... 7,162 referrals!!!

Can you believe that?! Ha ha. NUTS. But guess what?!

We BEAT our goal!! In total we got 7,541 referrals in just 2 days. Incredible!!!

Our goal as a companionship was to get 100 referrals. We got 86!!! Pretty good, huh?! We actually only got 35 on Saturday which we were sad about. At first I thought there was no way we were going to be able to reach our goal. But the next day we got 51 referrals! No we didn't reach our goal, but we had faith enough to at least get 16 more than we did the day before. It was pretty good for my first General Conference. :) There are not very many people that can say they received 86 member referrals in 2 days!

WOW, Conference was incredible. We were able to attend the Sunday afternoon session at the conference center, and I know now more than EVER that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. As soon as he walked in, everyone stood up and it went silent.  The Spirit was SO incredibly strong! What an honor to be able to hear a prophet of God speak. We sat right in the front, on the very far left side. I've never seen the prophet and apostles so close before! It was an incredible experience. I have to say my favorite talk (that I heard) was Elder M. Russell Ballard's.  What a great man. His talk was so powerful! It made me think of my major and all the things that I study about (divorce, early pregnancy, etc.) I love that he focused so much on the family, and how the gospel of Jesus Christ improves the family so much. I also thought it was interesting to hear him say that people with less education tend to have less success economically, less likely to marry, go to church, and have a higher rate of crime. But, when people make the gospel the center focus of their lives, they do better spiritually AND temporally!! We'll literally have more success in our jobs when we live the gospel. It makes perfect sense too-- when we live the gospel, we develop Christ-like attributes. We become better people. We develop skills like charity, empathy, kindness, hard work, dedication, obedience, faith-- the list goes on. When we have these attributes, they help us become better in every single aspect of our lives. It literally improves EVERY other aspect of life. I also loved that he mentioned Christ-like service. I definitely believe there is such a thing as unChrist-like service. The kind of "service" that people do for recognition and personal gain. I think our world has definitely fallen into that trap of doing service just for themselves more than for others . . . so sad!!  I'm so glad to know that the prophet and his apostles are called of God, that they are inspired to help us become better. Just look at the world around us that doesn't have that-- they are definitely missing TRUE happiness in their lives!!

I also LOVED Elder Neil L. Andersen's talk. It was SO so great. He talked a lot about discipleship, and what it means to be a disciple of Christ. I also LOVED the story he told of the 3 children that survived in the Haiti earthquake.  All of us sister missionaries were sitting together just crying our eyes out, lol. Pretty funny. But that was quite the amazing story.  Angels truly are upon the earth.

This weekend was literally jam-packed full of miracles!! It was so amazing. I was really worried about my feet on Friday, because we literally would be on our feet from 8am to 9:50pm on Saturday. (Yes, we didn't get home until 1000 pm on Saturday. . .  NUTS.) But it was amazing, I only felt my feet hurt inbetween contacts. Every time I was talking to someone, I was so focused on who I was talking to that the pain went away--or at least I didn't notice the pain. It was such a cool experience. I am so thankful for my Heavenly Father for giving me such a tender mercy. As insignificant as I am, he still helped me out by distracting me from the pains of my feet. Sunday was even better too! It helped being able to sit down for a couple of hours to watch conference.  My feet literally started hurting when we were walking to the square at 7:00 am in the morning. . . I was SO nervous.  I knew Heavenly Father would help me out. . . and he did. 

I am so lucky to be able to be a missionary here on Temple Square. It really is the best mission in the WORLD! I have been discouraged lately with people not answering their phones (Mat and Logan never answered, so I'll have to drop them soon.), but this truly is the Lord's work.  86 referrals later!, I KNOW this is the Lord's work. I am so inadequate, and I knew this would be a really hard weekend for me, because of my dislike for contacting on the square... ha ha, but every fear and doubt I had left me. Yes, I still did have moments throughout the day where I get nervous again, but I have been truly strengthened by it.

I got SUPER sunburned on Saturday. . . ha ha. It was so funny. Sister Wilson and I still kind of look like lobsters lol. :)  We only had 20 minutes to eat all of our meals all weekend because there was so much work to do. I was on my feet talking to people from 8:00 am- 9:50 pm, on Saturday and then 8:00 am- 8:30 pm on Sunday, and I can honestly say it felt AMAZING! I loved every last minute of it. I LOVE being Tired in the Lord!!! :)

To answer mom's questions...

1. I work at Temple Square, the Relief Society Building, the Church History Museum, the Conference Center, and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We can't proselyte/ contact at the last 4 places-- we only take visitors there on a tour.

2. It is usually between 2- 5 hours a day that we're on the phones.

3. We eat either at home or in the kitchen, which is on the second floor of the South Visitor’s Center.

4. Yes. :) Ha ha.

5. The tan skirt worked AMAZINGLY well. :) Thank you so much!!! Now I have everything I need. :)

I love you all so much. Thank you for the incredible amount of support you have given me!  I'm so lucky to have such an amazing family and group of friends.

Before I go, let me just list the people I saw that I knew this weekend. :) ha ha. . .

1. Bryan Sebesta-- he's such a great guy!! He let me get his number so I can call him and get referrals from him. :)

2. President Murphy!!! I literally saw him 3 different times! And, I was able to see his family too.

3. Taylor Judd! :)

4. Hailey Augustus, a friend from Women's Chorus. We went to several basketball games together :)

5. Kaylee, also a friend from Women's Chorus :)

6. Austin Garbrick!! And, I was able to meet his cute girlfriend too!

7. Lacy Schmoekel! I can't believe how grown up she is, SO crazy!!  

8. Kathryn Grebe, from my ward last semester!! She was in my dinner group too. She gave me 5 referrals, all of her good friends from back home!! I feel so privileged to call them for her!! :) THANKS KAT!

9. Emily Anderson!! I got to thank her for the cat cookies. :)

10. CHAN-MAN!!! :) It was SO much fun to see him!! and SO weird that I couldn't hug him... ha ha.

11. Tanner and Taylor Hughes!! I accidentally did hug Taylor... LOL. Don't really know what came over me!

Funny story-- I introduced myself as Natalie about 5 different times to random people-- LOL! It was pretty funny.  :)

Also, my picture is on the lds.org website!! Sister Wilson and I have an umbrella and are walking outside in the freezing cold. Oh, did I mention I forgot my coat and it was only 40 degrees outside on Sunday?!?!!  Sunburn + freezing cold +lack of sleep + sore feet =  AWESOME. :) Perfect combination as a missionary if you ask me!

I think that's it... sorry if I forgot anyone, ha! But it was so much fun to see so many different people that I knew!

Love you all heaps and bunches!!

Sister Savage