Week #26

July 14, 2012

Hola, familia!

Thanks so much for all the WONDERFUL emails!! :) So many people in our family wrote me this week ...I truly am so blessed! Dad, honestly, your prayers are incredible!! My feet since we've been running have been so great! The first week I was actually starting to get blisters on them... but slowly they just started going away, and we've run almost everyday since then!! My knees are still adjusting I think, but once I buy a knee brace it'll help me out a lot. The other day we decided to do the canyon run and then do an "ab workout." It was really good, but holy cow!! Since I've just been focusing on running, I've lost strength in my abs and arms... I'll need to get those back more when the canyon closes for the winter. ha!

This week was really good. Sister Richardson and I have been super busy in the office this week getting ready for Transfer Conference on Monday.. (Holy cow, can you believe its already here??!! Again?!) We've had a loooot of stuff to do. Because we have different key indicators, we have to print off different stickers as well. So we had to do that this week, calculate how many stickers each companionship needs, update the blog (which you should look at!! I put up some fun pics from 4th of July), schedule interviews for the departing sisters, figure out who's coming back from outbound and the new sisters, plus the sisters that are going outbound this transfer (they only have 6 going), and then change ALL of the lists for the mission... Meaning the phone lists, language lists, pyramid and apartment lists. WHEW! We've also had to do our normal things like doing daily and weekly numbers, sending the Chinese referrals to the Area Authority in China, etc. It's seriously been crazy!! Monday and Tuesday are going to be even crazier though. Hopefully we can be out on the square at least for a few hours!!

One of the funniest things of my mission happened to me this week. Sister Richardson and I were walking on the square just about to finish for the day when this old Mexican man comes up to us and SINGS, "Can I ask you a quesssstiooooon? Oh, you're beautiful!" HA HA HA! It was honestly the funniest thing that's ever happened to me. He literally sang that to us totally randomly. Gotta love the weirdos on Temple Square! :)

Sister Richardson and I had our last weekly planning session a couple days ago, which was kind of sad... :( I've LOVED being her companion!! She is a wonderful, spunky, but great missionary. :) Kind of reminds me of Christie sometimes, which I love. :) We talked about some things that we're learned this transfer. One for me was to be better at contacting, how to push myself harder and sacrifice more (we've had multiple days this month of skipping meals to do mission work), and having fun!! I've never had so much fun with a companion, but Sister Richardson has really been amazing. One thing that has been hard is not having any real progressing investigators... we're been working as hard as we can, but the numbers haven't been showing our work this transfer... that can always be kind of discouraging. But as Preach my Gospel says, "Avoid comparing yourself to other missionaries and measuring the outward results of your efforts against theirs. Remember that people have agency to choose whether to accept your message. Your responsibility is to teach clearly and powerfully so they can make a correct choice. Some may not accept your message even when they have received a spiritual witness that it is true. (happened to several of my investigators.) You will be saddened because you love them and desire their salvation. You should not, however, become discouraged; discouragement will weaken your faith."

So, even though I'm trying my best to teach powerfully and clearly, these people do have their agency and will choose to either accept or reject the message we present to them... just have to keep working harder so I can see those miracles!!

Speaking of miracles, we had one this week that was honestly amazing! The best contact I've EVER had on my mission happened. We started talking to this couple from Newport Beach, CA, and they honestly couldn't even get over how amazing everything was on Temple square. They especially LOVED the Temple! They read everything in the South Visitors Center about the building of the temple, how much sacrifice and effort those pioneers made in building the house of the Lord. It was so cool to see them being so obviously touched by the spirit! We literally taught them the Restoration lesson right there and then, and for one of the first times on my mission I KNEW that I was a missionary for the Lord Jesus Christ, and that I had been called to Temple Square for a reason, even if that reason was to find Terri and Brian... two of the millions of people that come to Temple Square. It was so cool!! They agreed to let us teach them more (we literally talked to them only for like 15 min because it was 8:45, ha!) and Terri right away pulled out her card and gave it to us. Soo great!! Sister Richardson and I decided to fast for them yesterday, to ensure Heaven's protection for them against Satan.

I also had an inbound call from another lady named Teri (weird huh?) that was absolutely INCREDIBLE. This lady has literally had headaches for 5 years. Poor thing. She actually is going to get it checked out this week... but we started talking about the church (her son is dating a member) and I basically taught her the Restoration after she straight up asked me, "Why are there so many churches out there?? Wouldn't God just have one church?" It was so incredible. She literally was just waiting for this gospel! She agreed to let me keep in touch with her and call her on the phone to teach her more. So me (and whoever my new companion will be next transfer!) will be teaching her next week! She even texted us after I hung up the phone and said how she was so thankful for me talking to her and looked forward to talking to me again. :) So fun! Just praying that these people keep answering the phone... We are really good at finding people here on Temple Square, but it seems nearly impossible sometimes to keep in touch with them.

Well family, I love you all SO much. Seriously, I am so incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful family like you all!! I love that I get to be on the grounds of a temple every single day for 18 months and think of my own eternal family. :) Love you all so much!!

Sister Savage

PS. They just changed the rules about setting up family tours here... they decided they won't be doing that anymore because too many sisters are doing it too much. :( Sad day. But you can still come find me on the square! I'm on a mission anyways, so I shouldn’t see you at all, technically... :)