Week #29

August 5, 2012 

Hi Family!

This week was SO great!!! Very busy (again) in the office, but wow... Sister Albanes and I had some incredible miracles this week!! I hardly even know where to begin. I guess I'll go through day-to-day. :) 

First off, another Sister in this mission named Sister Narduzzi spoke on Sunday (all sisters speak before they leave the mission) about other people's potential as sons and daughters of God. She said this statement which I thought was incredibly profound that I want to share with you!! "No one can achieve their full potential without this gospel." WOW! How true that is. Love love love it!! 

So my companion and I decided this week that we were going to make hourly goals and daily goals, along with our weekly goals, in how many people we were going to contact on the square. We figured that if we taught at least 3-5 people each hour on the square in a single day, (depending on the day) we could talk to about 15-25 people in total that day. Well, we began doing this on Tuesday. We planned to contact 15 souls (we only had 3 hours on the square) and then to teach 7 guests that day (teaching a lesson to them, which includes a principle of the gospel and a commitment/invitation). Well, we ended up being in the office until almost 4pm that day, when we had planned to be on the square at 1:30. It didn't look too promising at that point. We were so busy in the office we couldn't get out. Kind of discouraging!! BUT, we had to remember that in PMG it tells us "Discouragement will weaken your faith." So we kept positive. Well, guess what happened? We taught 8 guests about the gospel of Jesus Christ on the square in a matter of 1 1/2 hours of square time. HA!! Take that, Satan!! We were SO excited about that. And then throughout the week it got even BETTER.

On Wednesday, we took a motor coach of about 15 people that we of course taught, and then talked to 7 more guests and 8 members, received a referral on chat, and taught someone on the phone who became a new investigator, all in a matter of about 3 hours, which all took place in the Beehive house. Miracles everywhere!! 

Thursday was an incredible night. We FINALLY got a hold of Kelli-anne. She hadn't met with missionaries for about 3 weeks, which was super discouraging for us because we thought she would for sure have a baptism date by now... but obviously, she doesn't. The beginning of our conversation she was super distracted with packing up for school in North Carolina, and was hardly even listening to what we were saying... but as Sis Albanes and I both prayed silently, we started asking her questions. We asked why it was that she wasn't meeting with missionaries anymore, and basically said she wasn't sure about all of this. We asked her why, and she couldn't give us a straight answer, which of course was odd. And then, as we slowly began to dig deeper, she finally came out with her concern. (I LOVE the spirit!!) She told us that she doesn't have trust in God (not that straight forward, but that's just about what she was saying).  She told us that she has had things happen to her in her life that have caused her to lose that faith and trust in God and that she's not sure if she can believe OR rely on the answer that He gives her about the LDS church.  

Whoa ... wasn't expecting that! I was almost shocked by her answer, but it became so clear to me why she was taking so long to commit to baptism when she knew this was true.  She was lacking that fundamental part of this gospel; a solid, faithful, TRUSTING relationship with Heavenly Father. She has no idea that she is a child of God. She has no idea that God is her loving, Heavenly Father. She has no idea of her potential. Because of all these things, she can't find out if this church is true, because she doesn't have a testimony of the very first thing that we taught her; that God is her loving Heavenly Father. 

Sister Albanes and I were able to share personal experiences of not always feeling God's trust, and she seemed very different at the end of the lesson. She really, really needed this lesson. It was such a strong reminder to me that everyone needs to learn this gospel and accept it at their OWN pace. If we have to teach just ONE bullet point, then that is what we have to teach. We have to look at these people as children of God, or we can make the mistake of teaching someone for 3 months and never realizing that they don't even have a strong testimony of a loving God and receiving answers through prayer!! It was a huge humbling experience as a missionary, which I will never forget. 

That was SO fun to see Christie and Brooks yesterday (and Sonic!)ll!! What a fun surprise!  They look like they're doing so well, and they're both happy.

Thanks for the recipes mom.  I Love you SOOOO much!! You really are the BEST mom anyone could ever ask for. Thank you for teaching me the gospel, for always trying to help me understand how important it is to love and serve others, and to be healthy physically. :) You are an incredibly choice spirit daughter of our Heavenly Father. 

I love you all SO much, family!! You truly are the best. I couldn't have asked for better people in my life. I am lucky to be tied to you forever. :) 

Love always, 

Sister Savage 

PS. I got a letter from Sister Bre Roper!! It was SO much fun to hear from her all the way from Thailand!!