Week #19

May 19, 2012

Hi everyone!

Thanks for all the especially wonderful emails this week!! 

I LOVED talking to you on Sunday!!! That was the highlight of my mission. :) I really, really enjoyed it. Thank you for being so supportive and loving! I feel so lucky to have such a great support system. There are some sisters here that are afraid to go home after their missions because there families completely exiled them when they left. One sister, a couple transfers ago, told us that she literally didn't know what was going to happen to her when she got back, but she knew the Lord would take care of her. It's amazing how much strength and courage these sisters have!! So again, thank you for always being there for me, for writing me each week, and for sharing your testimonies with me. It strengthens mine SO much. I need all the strength I can get! :) I love you all so much!

Mom, thank you for being the best mom in the WORLD!! :) No one measures up to you. You truly are a virtuous woman. I love you so much and hope that I can someday be half the woman you are! :) I love you!!

Also, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY CHRISTIE & BROOKS!!! (or should I say, Crooks! ;)) Sounds like you had a great day. :) Every year after this will just get better and better! :)

I had a great week. It was busy, but good. We had a motor coach come yesterday with almost 50 people in it-- it was kind of nerve-racking, but it was super fun. Sister Crookston had never taken a motor coach on tour before, so this was her first time! We ended up only having about 20 minutes, which is not very long... and it is very difficult to get 45 people moving around the square!! 

I saw TIM WRIGHT on Tuesday!!! It was SO much fun to see him!! It was my first time seeing him on the square, too! The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is recording in the Tabernacle right now, so they have been there every night this week, and I decided to get my companion to walk about the Tabernacle during their break, and sure enough we ran right into Tim! :) It was so much fun to see him! He is such a great man. I'm always reminded of what a good person he is when I see him, and how much he did for our family. So glad I finally got to run into him! :)

Wednesday was a crazy day!! We started off the morning going to the Temple, which was, of course, wonderful. I love how peaceful it is in the temple. It is such a wonderful place to think and ponder. I love the temple!! Sister Crookston and I decided to go to the Lion House for her birthday, because her family sent her a gift card to there. :) It was so good! But after about 10 minutes of eating we got a call telling us we were needed at Welfare Square RIGHT then to take youth around for their Mutual activity. Can you say crazy?!!! We literally stuffed our food into a to-go box and left, ha! "Sacrifice brings forth blessings!" :) (That's our motto everyday here. We left our meals on the table several times this week to take a tour, ha. It's crazy, but we see so many blessings from it!) It was so much fun! Those kids were so wonderful. I love the youth so much! We were able to give a tour for a youth conference tour again this morning, with the theme "Called to Serve." It went so well!! We had a whole stake here though, so it was super crazy! 

We talked to one of Sister Crookston's investigators, Wanda. She is from the South, and she is SO awesome!! We taught her yesterday just about the Pre-earth life and the Book of Mormon, and she literally told us, "Oh yeah! I know about the Pre-earth life, we call it the Pre-existence!" ... !!! We were almost speechless, ha ha!! This woman is so prepared, its amazing! We read her 2 Nephi 25:26, explaining the Book of Mormon’s purpose, and she said, "Wow . . . That is so beautiful!" We are hoping and praying that the missionaries get back there soon! They came once but her husband (who is not interested) answered the door and scared them off... but we committed her to come to our church tomorrow, so hopefully she comes!

We have a few baptism dates!!! Kelli-anne from New Jersey is June 2nd, but she just moved back there from North Carolina, so I think it will now be a few weeks after. Gary came back as well and has a date for June 9th! I didn't tell you this, but Gary ran away... literally, he ran away 6 days before he was supposed to get baptized, lol! But he is back now and meeting with the missionaries in his new area, so now worries! :) Mariah is still set for May 26th but we're worried about her smoking problems... We put all of our investigators’ names in the temple. I know those prayers can work!

I've been studying Faith recently due to Brad's encouragement to be more faithful (thanks Brad!). Faith is not just accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior. Faith is a principle of POWER. In Preach my Gospel, it says, "God works by power, but His power is usually exercised in response to faith (see Moroni 10:7). He works according to the faith of His children. Doubt and fear are opposed to faith."

He works according to the faith of His children! That's been a great lesson to me on my mission. We actually become better acquainted with Jesus Christ and His teachings through diligent (steady, consistent, earnest, and energetic effort) study, prayer, dedicated service (in my case, my missionary work), and obedience to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and His commandments. Obedience to the promptings of the Holy Ghost is still coming... I still struggle to recognize the promptings at times. Sister Crookston and I will have the same thought come to our heads, and neither of us react on it, and we realize it was the Spirit. It's a good thing to learn, even though we've been learning it the hard way. :)

I need to get going now. You are all so wonderful! Thank you for your love and support. Jeff, thank you for both of those emails!! I haven't read them yet, but I know how busy you are... Please don't feel like you have to write me long emails if you don't have time!! Really! I'll keep praying for you and for your big test!

I love you all soooo, so much! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Nat Savage