Week #49

January 2, 2013

Hey fam-bam!!! 

Guess what??!! in 2 days is my year mark of being on my mission... AHH!! Soooo crazy! I can't even believe it. It seriously feels like I've been out a few weeks. I have absolutely LOVED my time here on my mission and can't wait to finish out strong!! :) We were at a members house last night for New Years Day and went around the table telling each other what my New Year's resolution was... mine is to work my tail off serving the Lord, to completely forget about myself and get to work!! I am no longer holding ANYTHING back from doing the work of God!! :) 

Sister Brinkerhoff and I have been super pumped lately to get work done and we're finally doing it. She's a sweetheart, but she's required patience for me. She just moves a little bit slower than I would like. I've learned a lot from her being my companion, though. She really has some great strengths and has the best smile that everyone falls in love with! 

I'm really praying hard for a baptism while I'm out here. The work has been slow over the holidays which has been difficult, but I know that as long as I do my VERY best out here, Heavenly Father will have to bless us with a baptism! :) I just laugh when I read Jacob's emails about how many people he's already baptized. I would give ANYTHING to baptize that many people on my mission!! I'm so proud of him and the work he's accomplishing. I hope he realizes how lucky he is. 

I figured out something super cool on Sunday! There's a sister here in my ward named Sister Pomar who was actually companions with Janessa Evans from Granite Bay!! :) Ha ha! Isn't that crazy??!! They served together in Italy for a transfer. Sister Pomar is actually married to a non-member though which is kind of sad though. I talked with her about it on Sunday and she opened up to me a lot. I think it's hard for her not to have the priesthood in her home... but as she said, "I knew what I was getting into when I married him!" I promised myself at that moment that I would NEVER marry someone that wasn't a worthy priesthood holder like my Patriarchal blessing says!! That is an absolute MUST! :) 

Frank is doing well. We were going to meet with him tonight but I honestly didn't feel good about it, so we called him and rescheduled him to tomorrow. Our last meeting with him was good, but wasn't as good as I had hoped. We were able to clear up things though, especially about the Restoration, and he realizes now why he needs to pray to know if Joseph Smith really was a prophet or not and if the BOM is true. He's already been getting his answer... now he knows WHY! :) We challenged him to pray about the 12th and the 19th. We're getting a new ward mission leader soon here which is a really good thing.. Bishop's way too busy to be doing double-duty. We're praying that whoever he's chosen is going to be inspired by the Lord, because this ward still needs a lot of help when it comes to missionary work. I hope I've been able to help them and Sister Brinkerhoff somehow!! 

Oh, I should probably explain to you why I didn't email on Monday ha ha. We had a Sister's Activity for the mission today and got to go to the Temple!! :) So we went to the Redlands temple. Such a beautiful temple!!! It's super tiny-- I think it's even smaller than Sacramento! (only by a little bit, but still!) It's absolutely gorgeous though. I LOVE the temple so very much! The spirit there was incredibly strong, and I think because I had just talked with you all last week on Skype I was thinking about you a lot in there. In the Celestial room I thought, "This is exactly what heaven is going to be like, except I need my family here..." I missed you all there!! :) But I definitely felt Heavenly Father's love and comfort. What a wonderful, wonderful Father in Heaven to give us such a sacred and special place completely separated from the world, where we can feel a taste of heaven. In Preach My Gospel it talks about the Spirit and explains it as being a foretaste of eternal life. What a beautiful description!! Ah, I love it so much. I love even MORE knowing that my whole family will be there with me :) I love you all SOOO much!! I have been so grateful for you and to you for the support you have rendered. You are all so amazing. I brag about you all the time to the members and my companions. :) 

I wanted to share a couple scriptures with you all that I'm not sure I have shared yet. In 1 Nephi chapter 3, the famous chapter that talks about Nephi, Laman, Lemuel and Sam's trek back to Jerusalem to get the plates, we can actually see a super interesting thing on pride. In verse 7, it says, "I ^awill go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no ^bcommandments unto the children of men, save he shall ^cprepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." Nephi knew so strongly that the Lord would prepare a way for them to accomplish His commandments. Why? Because he had ALWAYS relied on the Lord completely rather than himself and his own strength. Nephi literally knew what it meant to have complete confidence in the Lord, and to rely on His strength only. This cause Nephi to actually be completely and perfectly humble!! I'm sure Nephi had moments where he only relied on himself, where he assumed he didn't need to Lord's help and couple handle it, but at least at this moment he understood that he needed God and His strength to cause this thing to happen. Notice the last verse after the angel appeared and chastised Laman and Lemuel for beating up Nephi and Sam: "And after the angel had departed, Laman and Lemuel again began to ^amurmur, saying: How is it possible that the Lord will deliver Laban into our hands? Behold, he is a mighty man, and he can command fifty, yea, even he can slay fifty; then why not us?" 

Notice the difference? Because Laman and Lemuel had ALWAYS relied on their own strength to save them, giving themselves credit for anything they did right along the way (I'm assuming this, at least :)), they were literally unable to comprehend the Lord's power in helping them and giving them aid. Holy smokes!!! I need to repent a LOT, ha ha!! But seriously, how often do we do that ourselves? How often do we actually become PRIDEFUL in the fact that we (think) can handle things on our own without the Lord's help? That's why I loved mom's comment about putting her life in the Lord's hands right now and for this next year with all the uncertainty that is there with it...  because Laman & Lemuel were too prideful to think that God truly was all powerful, they were unable to realize that he actually was more powerful than a little old man who could only command fifty men. I'm sure the Lord could command um... an infinite number of people. Just saying. Anyways, just something to think about this week. 

Well fam, I love you all. This week was a very fun week and slow too, and I'm ready to kick into action for the new year!! :) Please pray for me to have patience for my companion. I put all your names on the prayer role in the temple. :) LOVE YOU ALL SOOO MUCH and I especially LOVED your smiling faces!!! :) 

Sister Natalie Savage