Week #48

December 17, 2012

Hi Familia!! :) 

Well I have some bad news and some good news... Bad news is that I won't be able to email you next week because the library will be closed... but the GOOD news is that I will be able to SKYPE with all of you!!! :) I will be on Skype next Tuesday at 2pm. No time difference!! :) Yay!! It might be a few minutes late because Sis Brinks tends to be late to things ha ha, but it should work out okay. I might be giving you a call beforehand to let you know how it will all work out. Some members in our ward are being super nice and letting us use their computer on Christmas. :) So great! I love how kind the members are here. I'm hoping I'll be able to use Christie's account, but if not I'll probably use this email to set up a new one. It won't be until that day though. I'm sure everything will work out fine ha ha! :) I'll try to use mom and dad's email accounts to connect with. We'll just pray everything works out okay!! I'm SOOO so excited though!!! I seriously was dying of happiness when I found out. :) It will be soooo so great! 

This week was much better than last week. We got 2 new investigators last week which was exciting. Philip and Edna (the ones that just showed up to church) met with us on Wednesday. Well, we were on splits, so Sister Brinks met with them. She said it went really well. She had lots of questions about tithing and baptism and random stuff like that which was awesome. Philip is TOTALLY on board for all of this!! He's super excited to come back to church and is really feeling the Spirit working through him. Edna is definitely warming up to us. She really enjoyed church a lot! We had dinner with them right after that with the Mangold's in the ward who are AWESOME couple. All of their kids are grown up similar to Phil and Edna, so it was a lot of fun. 

I'm so impressed with your missionary work family!!! Seriously, everyone is doing SO amazing!! :) Especially momma who never was a missionary ha ha! Just preparing for your full-time mission in a couple of years! :) I wish you could serve on Temple Square. You and dad would be a PERFECT "Senior couple" there!! :) Then we can all visit you all the time, ha ha! 

Frank and Ana came to church yesterday!! It was SO fun to have them there. I know they felt the spirit really strong and enjoyed most of their experience. I'll explain what "most" means later. Sister Brinks and I decided to play "match-maker" with the ward members by calling select members of the ward and having them go up to Frank and Ana and meet them. We literally told them what to say with Frank and Ana, ha ha ha. It was so funny. It was like feeding people lines for a play or something. :) It worked out PERFECT though!! They did AWESOME!!! Sister Brinks and I talked afterward and it was pretty obvious that we need to keep helping the ward out this way. We need to train them on how to do missionary work!! They haven't done it in SO long that they're simply out of practice. :)  We had a REALLY long weekly planning session on Saturday/Friday (4 hours), most of it involving the members and how to help them. We literally saw people come together yesterday in the ward from Frank and Ana being there!! It was a very sweet experience that I get a little bit emotional about. Honestly, I feel very strongly that I was sent out here to help the members. Yes, Frank and Ana need us too, but the members REALLY need the missionaries.... a LOT!  Being here has been a great experience that I will treasure forever. 

So, about Frank and Ana coming to church and enjoying "most" of their experience... One little older lady in the ward gave a talk on Sunday and read from a Children's book rather than the scriptures, and just started telling stories of her life.... and then made the HUGE mistake of making a negative reference to Catholics.  Frank is Catholic.  No, he's not strong at ALL (didn't even realize his church baptized to cleanse babies of the "original sin"); however, there is NEVER, EVER an excuse or reason to talk negatively about another church or religion... ESPECIALLY over the pulpit!! You have NO idea who is sitting in the audience!! Of course Frank and Ana had to come for that and it was one of the worst feelings I've ever had in my life. So many prayers, dedication, studies have gone toward Frank... I honestly wondered if it was all over. Well, fortunately for us, Frank and Ana decided to stay for the second hour (we taught Gospel Principles again) and Ana loved it so much that she took notes. Ha ha!! It was awesome. I think Frank really enjoyed it too, we're just SUPER nervous about our meeting on Tuesday because they didn't bring up the comment right then... knowing Frank though, he will. We have planned to simply apologize and read from Moroni 6, explain to him what Sacrament really should be like, and ask for his forgiveness from this silly old woman. PLEASE pray for Frank family. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!! 

Another positive note too, Ana agreed to meet with us on Wednesday night and we're really looking forward to that!! Hopefully we can make up for our losses by being humble and listening to what they have to say. Again, please keep them and us in your prayers!! Thank you! 

Frank and Ana met the Stake President at our ward!! (Frank also came to the baptism on Saturday. It was an awesome baptism!!!!) 

Brandon is another one of our new investigators. He's awesome!! (at least I think so. :)) He grew up in a super rough family situation and background. His mom has been married and divorced several times, and his parents are deaf!!! I can talk to them a little because I sign! :) ha ha. I'm so amazed with God's plan for us!! Anyways, Brandon was in Juvey (sp?) in high school and had some problems with drugs for a while. His parents weren't religious at all and didn't even teach him about God, but he told us (and said he never tells ANYONE this) that he's always known God existed. Even though no one told him about God, he still believed. How sweet, huh?! He really is a sweet guy. He's pretty rough looking with his lip ring, ha! but he's awesome. We taught him the Restoration and have a return appt for Friday. We'll also teach Edna the Restoration this week too! 

Also, Rachel (excommunicated member) came to church on Sunday!!! Her mom was the one that spoke... ha ha. Yes, it opened my eyes a lot about her situation. :) She did awesome and looked SO cute. When you look at Rachel you can definitely tell she's not a member by the way she dresses (36 but dresses like an 18 year old), but Sunday she looked so clean cut and beautiful. I'm SO proud of her. :) She stayed all 3 hours too!!! I know it was SUPER hard for her to come to church on Sunday, but we KNOW she felt the spirit while she was there!! She came to our class too. It was pretty fun having 3 investigators at church on Sunday! :) Miracles are definitely happening in Ontario!! 

Well family, I love you all SO much. Thanks for all your prayers and support!! You're the BEST!! I'll most likely Skype around 2-2:30 on Christmas Day. YAY!! :D 

Love always, 

Sister Nat Savage 

Week #46

December 3, 2012

Hey fam!! 

Well wow! Sounds like some major changes are going on at home, ha ha!! That's super exciting Dad! Utah!!!  I feel peaceful about the whole thing, and I think that the Lord is putting us there for a reason. For some reason I can feel that pretty strongly right now! And then we can visit my mission all the time!! :) ha ha. Dad, you will DEFINITELY need to visit the next time you fly into Utah when I'm out there again!  :) Thanks for keeping me updated!! Keep it coming, okay? I like to know when my family is doing well and is safe. :) 

Mom, I'm so sorry I didn't respond about the Christmas things.  Ha ha!! Totally spaced, honestly. I really can't think of anything I need right now. The address I gave you is the mission address. Send it there because then my Zone Leaders will just forward it to our apartment. Snail mail is that way too. :) Actually, the only thing I can think of is another journal? 

Have any of you seen the Liken movies? They are musicals of different stories in the Bible and Book of Mormon. They are SOOO funny and fun!!! I am in LOVE with them!! The sisters and I have been watching them during lunch breaks, getting ready for bed, etc and they are super entertaining. :) You should look into them!! You can get them at Deseret Book. I think they're kind of expensive but they're really fun. :) 

Well this week was good, but we did a LOT of service. It honestly felt like we did service this whole week and that was it, ha ha!! But it was really good though. We taught our investigator Frank (who's showing a lot more interest than his wife, Ana) and he's doing incredibly well. He LOVES meeting with us because of the way he feels afterward. My companions were really sweet, and they said that it was one of the best lessons they've ever had with him because of me!! It definitely wasn't all me... not even close! But I did figure out why I was able to help out so much in the lesson (even though this is only the 2nd time I've taught him, and they've been teaching him for about a month). On Temple Square, we teach people on the phone all the time and really have to try hard to figure out their needs and how they're feeling with only the sound of their voice as our guide... pretty difficult stuff!! Because of that, the Spirit has really helped me to be able to recognize those super subtle hints that our investigators would give over the phone. Teaching people in person is SOOO much easier to recognize what they need to hear, what questions to ask, but most especially, how to listen to them!! No more interruptions happen because there is no slight delay of the phone call, ha ha!!! Sooo, so great. It has been so fun to teach Frank and others here!! 

We had a huge miracle happen yesterday. Apparently, the sisters found a "lost member" in the ward tracting a few days before I got here, and his non-member wife. Phil and Edna are their names. :) (Edna. Mode.) Phil said he was interested in coming back to church because he and his wife were trying to find a church to go to. They invited him to church, of course, but his wife didn’t seem interested. Well, guess who showed up to church yesterday on their own??!! Yep!! They even stayed all 3 hours!! We sisters teach the Gospel Essentials class each week (really good experience for me to teach less actives and non-members!) and they came to our class and then went with members, Sister and Bro Mangold, to Relief Society and Priesthood. Phil LOVED coming back. You could just see the light in his eyes! And Edna was nodding her head in agreement during each meeting!! :) Ha! It was such a miracle. We're going to teach them on Wednesday again. 

We also had another miracle this week! Sister and Brother Knox (the ones that fed us on Thanksgiving day) have a daughter that was excommunicated a couple years ago that wants to take the lessons. I was sooo humbled though, because apparently when I came, Sister Knox said Rachel (her daughter) could really relate to me. She felt like I was the typical "so-cal girl" with my long blonde hair, ha ha, and she was impressed that I was on a mission and really wants ME to teach her. So sweet, huh?! I can already see why the Lord has sent me here to Southern California! 

Literally EVERYONE is shocked that I'm from Sacramento serving in my home state, but I honestly love it more than I can express now!!! I fasted yesterday because I was having a hard time really loving the members and investigators and really feeling like they were MY investigators... I don't know if that makes sense. I guess I was just really missing my old investigators and felt like I should not have left them. But fasting yesterday completely changed me. I looked at the members of the ward as I bore my testimony to them and felt an overwhelming sense of LOVE for them. I want to help them SO badly!!! 

I don't know if I told you much about the ward, but more than HALF the ward is less active. I think only 35% actually go to church every Sunday, something crazy like that. Its SOOO sad!! But I know why. The members don't know what it means to serve each other. In all of the meetings, almost NO one sits by each other.  There are "cliques" in the ward that don't talk to anyone else in the ward. Sooo sad. I honestly was a bit overwhelmed with the responsibility that I now have in this ward. They need a LOT of help! I told the sisters my concern and they finally told me the truth and said that the ward has a serious struggle with the work. Some members are totally willing to come to our missionary lessons, but there are a lot of them that aren't even active enough that we would ask them to come!! So that's going to be my big challenge while I'm here. . . getting the ward to finally unite and be an actual WARD. A ward is supposed to be a family, and these people really aren't family... I don't know if I told you this, but I had a total of 2 people in the ward actually come up to me and meet me on my first Sunday... and I'm a missionary!! All they have to do is say, "Hi, I'm so-and-so. Where are you from? How long have you been out? Thanks for talking!" It was sooo sad. I had to literally go around to everyone in the ward and shake their hand and introduce myself to all of them. Usually it is the other way around, especially for missionaries, ha ha! I have a lot of responsibility on my shoulders right now, and Sister Callister (Sister Brinkerhoff's trainer btw) is leaving so it will just be me and Sister Brinks. Deep breath. :) Pray for me!! It will be awesome I know it!! 

Well family, I love you all SO much and am really loving this work a lot. I will be imagining EVERYONE that opens their door in baptism clothes!! :) Right Brad? :) Love love love!! 

Sister Nat 

PS. I forgot my cord again... sorry!! Pictures will come next week! The weather here btw has been great with a little bit of rain. SO nice to be out of the snow!! :) 

Week #45

November 26, 2012

Hey my dearest darlingest family!!! 

Thanks for all of the wonderful emails this week!!! It was so fun to hear from everyone. Sounds like you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. :) I had a pretty good one too! We went over to a member's house for dinner (the Knox family). They're an elderly couple that actually served their mission on Temple Square in the church History Library, so it was fun to talk about Temple Square. :) 

We have eaten at a member's house almost every night this week. So fun!!! I love getting to know the people in the ward. (the average weight gain in this mission is 30 lbs.... HAHAHA!! So funny!! I've already noticed that my companions eat more dessert and food than I do. I think I'll do just fine preventing weight gain. :)) President Godwin is my mission president down here. He's such a nice man!! Much more stern than President Gillette, but you can tell that he loves missionary work. I really like him and his wife a lot. And guess what? I'm the first ever Temple Square missionary to serve my outbound in this mission. Do you know what that means???! I need to be a good example of Temple Square and our work ethic.... Kind of intimidating!! But I'm excited to show them my love for the Lord and His work, and to show them how REAL missionary work is done. :) Ha-ha just kidding. But one thing I have noticed here is that I don't work as hard as I did on Temple Square. I'm really not trying to be boastful at all... but Temple Square missionaries know what it means to work! We've been trained so well how to sacrifice everything for the Lord, no matter the price. I think this mission is pretty good, but wow... my mission is definitely a slight step above the rest. It's really helped me appreciate and Love my mission in SLC! Heavenly Father has blessed me sooo, so much. 

We have a car down here which is really nice! My area is Ontario, CA. It is a little bit ghetto, not gonna lie... ha-ha, but our apartments are really nice. They've spoiled us!! And holy cow... The members DEFINITELY spoil us sisters, ha-ha!! I didn't realize how easy sister missionaries get it outside of T2! Usually members try to run away from us, ha ha ha, but here they just LOVE you so much and will seriously do anything for us Sisters. I feel pampered!! The mission bought me a brand new bed and all of the dishes, hand towels, table and bookshelf, etc., for our new apartment. I'm in a trio and the other sisters had to move to accommodate for me by moving to a new apartment, so they literally gave us EVERYTHING new in the apartment. WAY nicer than T2 apartments, ha! It has been pretty fun. My companions are Sister Callister and Sister Brinkerhoff. They are really, really nice sweet sisters. I like them a lot!! I'll have to include a pic next week because I forgot my camera cord today.  

The ward we are working in is SO small. SO many inactive members!! It is so sad to see how many people lose their testimonies of this wonderful church and simply stop coming. A lot of the missionary work down here has been to reactivate those that have stopped coming. We're working with a few different families to try to get them coming more. I don't want to sound boastful at all.... but Temple Square has seriously trained me so well how to talk to members!! These sisters are good but not nearly in the same caliber as Temple Square sisters in that way. Outbound has already seriously opened my eyes on how blessed I truly am. 

My first few days here were kind of tough. I had a hard time adjusting for a bit there... but I feel much better about being here and have been able to consider the many blessings the Lord has given to me! We have some really good investigators that we'll be working with right now. Frank and Ana, a couple from the Navy that are really wonderful, but definitely have some concerns and questions. Xochitl (so-she), originally from Mexico. The sweetest lady you'll ever meet, but very Catholic... she has received an answer about Joseph Smith but hasn't accepted the answer yet, so we're trying to help her see that the BOM really is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. We also have a few other investigators that we're working with that I haven't been able to teach quite yet that seem really great. One guy Cory who has a bad stutter but is seriously the sweetest black boy you'll ever meet is really interested in learning more about the Church. His brother that we're working with is a less-active member who's been coming back to church, so hopefully Cory will just hop in the car one of these days... :) We'll teach Cory this Thursday. 

One thing that has been sooo fun is teaching people in person rather than the phone!! What a concept, eh??!! Ha. Its been really great, I've enjoyed it a lot. I think it'll help me get a lot better at reading people's body language, since the only thing I have (half the time) is their voices over the phone. Tracting (sp?) is fun, ha-ha!! I feel like a salesman sometimes though... we had one nasty anti that we talked with for a second who thought we believed that Joseph Smith was "God on earth". It was funny. WE all laughed about it afterwards. :) But the door before that we met Carlos who seems interested and really kind. We'll go back and teach him tomorrow I think. 

I miss my investigators from T2 a lot... it was SO hard for me to let them go. I have grown to love them so much. But I know that Heavenly Father has placed me in this area at this time for a reason!! The sisters have taught me a lot already, and they said that they've learned a lot from me too. I think this will be a really good experience for me to be here. Please pray for me to have a genuine love for the members down here.

I love you all SOOO much. I wish so bad that you could come visit me down here, but I don't think that would be such a good idea. I really want to work hard down here and concentrate well! :) You know I love you but I think that it would be best!! I'm gonna see if I can get permission from my mission Pres to go to Melissa's house on a monday during p-day to get my hair done sometime. :) ha-ha! We'll see. 

Love you all!!! Until next week!! 

Sister Nat 

PS. Elders are little children. Seriously, ha-ha!! So funny to be around them all. I met our zone on Friday (they had a zone fast for baptisms) and I explained to them that I was a T2 missionary. Their reactions about me being from SAcramento were hilarious, ha-ha. Everyone says, "Well you're not far from home!" I just smile and laugh. We're playing volleyball with them today. Should be fun! 

Week #44 - Going Outbound to Southern California! :)

November 19, 2012

Hi everyone!!!! :) 

Oh my goodness!! Can you believe my call is already here??!!! I'M GOING OUTBOUND!!

Sooo so so exciting!! :) I'm seriously SO stoked to go to the SAN BERNARDINO, CA MISSION!!!  My boundaries go from Rancho Cucamonga, to the borders of Nevada!! :) I'm going to be warm for the winter!!! YAY!!! And I will be in members’ homes for Thanksgiving AND Christmas!!! I seriously am so excited. The more I think about it, the more excited I get!! 

Here's the mission address: 
 Sister Natalie Savage

6541 Woodruff Place 

Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91701 

Mission phone number (in case you need it): 909-466-1129

My mission president will be President Craig E. Godwin, and my flight leaves on Wednesday at 8:45am!! :) Sooooo so crazy!!! Ha ha!! I honestly thought I would go to the South (Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, etc), but I'm actually really excited to serve in my home state! I never, EVER thought that would happen.... but it will be great, ha ha! I'll just help save corrupt California! ;) Heaven knows we need it!! Ha! I looked up the weather after I called you this morning and it will be 74 degrees in San Bernardino for Thanksgiving. :) Woot!! Give me my warm weather!! 

I still can't even believe it. Honestly, going back to California was the LAST place I thought I would go, ha ha!! But again, it doesn't matter where you serve, but HOW you serve. :) I will come back to Temple Square on February 13th, 2013!!  Next year!! AH!! So crazy! I'm sooo so so excited though!! 

I don't know if I told you this, but President has been hinting pretty heavily that I would be going outbound... ha ha. Yesterday after I had finished playing for Sacrament Meeting he shook my hand and thanked me for playing, etc, and then we started talking about all of the talented sisters here on Temple Square.  (By the way mom, I have the most AMAZING song I will send you!! It is incredibly beautiful. I accompanied a sister here who sang it for Sacrament meeting.). Anyway, the President stopped suddenly and said, "Well you know, some sisters will be outbound so they won't be able to hear all of the great musical numbers that will be happening during Christmas time!" It was pretty obvious he was talking to me, ha ha. He's s0  funny.  I'm very grateful for his hinting now because I have half of my packing over with. :) Ha! It's great!! Except now I'll kind of have to reverse the packing, because I thought I would be going somewhere cold ha ha. Ah, I'm SO excited for warm weather again!!! It will be soooo so nice! There's a sister serving here from Rancho Cucamonga who is outbound right now, but it would be so fun to be able to meet her family while I'm there. :) 

Okay, back to normal emailing. :) 

I thought because it is Thanksgiving week that it would be appropriate for me to just give an email of the blessings that I am grateful for. :) 

1.   I'm grateful for food! :) 

2.   I'm grateful for holidays to give us a break. Sooo nice! 

3.   I'm grateful for my family. :) 

4.   I'm grateful to be able to serve as a missionary for the Lord. 

5.   I'm grateful to be a representative for Jesus Christ and for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day   Saints here on Temple Square!! 

6.  I'm grateful to be able to represent the church in San Bernardino, CA!! :) 

7.  I'm grateful for the Gospel in my life, the many, many blessings I've received from it. 

8.  I'm grateful for my companion, Sister Nakaima. :) I can't even express in words how much I will miss her when I leave!! 

9.  I'm grateful for all of my former companions and everything they've taught me! 

10. I'm grateful for my investigators: Frank, Birko, Mark, Katherine, Alex Oliver, Alexander (he's SO amazing!!), Gardenia (who is trying to set up a time to take a tour of T2 with us. :D Yay!!!), Nick, Kelli-anne, Margeret, Chase, Manu, Satomi, Kumi, and Megan. They come from Costa Rica to Germany to Nigeria to California. :) What an incredible mission I'm a part of!! 

11.  I'm grateful for feeling tired ALL the time on the mission... Ha! 

12.  I'm grateful to stop focusing on myself during these 18 months and completely focus on the Lord.

13.  I'm grateful for golden investigators!! :) ha! 

14.  I'm grateful for investigators that struggle immensely. They have taught me more than anyone else on my mission. 

15.  I'm grateful for modern-day technology to be able to teach my investigators online and over the phone! 

16.  I'm grateful to be part of such a great cause. D&C 128:22

17.  I'm grateful for my daily challenges, and for Elder Holland's words, "Some blessings come soon, some come late, but some don't come til heaven." 

18.  I'm grateful to have a wonderful, loving family that supports me! 

19.  I'm grateful for change. 

20.  I'm grateful to be alive. :) 

I love you all so much and can't WAIT to serve in San Bernardino!!! :) Look out Socal!! 

Sister Nat 

Week #43

November 12, 2012

Hello beautiful family!! 

Wow... Can you believe that my 7th transfer is almost over??!! I seriously can't even believe it. Every minute just seems to be literally flying by! I have loved my mission so much and have learned a TON from it. The Lord truly has blessed me so much, and all of you! :) I'm so glad you were able to visit Brad this weekend. . . how fun! It is good to hear Brad has multiple callings in his new ward too! Sounds like you had a really fun week! I had a great week too, despite the election... I honestly just can't believe our nation right now. It is DEFINITELY the last days!! 

Well, Sister Nakaima and I had a good, but hard week. My companion is honestly the sweetest thing ever!! She has really struggled with her confidence lately with mission work. She has a really hard time understanding what people say, especially when they are from other countries (even though they speak English). She and I talked for awhile on Saturday and the poor thing just cried to me. Thursday was a really hard day for her . . . she called 3 people in Japan and no one referred to meet with missionaries or even wanted to hear about the gospel, and she was really really discouraged. It was so sad. :( I told her about my first week with Sister Crookston in my 3rd transfer. I had 3 investigators drop US (suddenly decided they didn't want to learn more) the first week Sister Crookston and I were together. It was SO hard on me, and I, like Sister Nakaima, thought about going home. But I then told her about Gary and what a blessing he was to me! He got baptized the transfer afterward. I told her about how hard we worked and that we were super obedient, and the Lord blessed us because of it. I reminded her of what an incredible blessing Joy was to us and to not let Satan get her thinking she isn't a good missionary, because she is!!! She is an INCREDIBLE missionary. She has such an amazing testimony, especially about the Atonement. She is doing amazing things despite her difficulty with the language, and I honestly am SO proud of her!! I got emotional when we were talking because she reminds me of my trainer. They both had difficulty with being confident and sure of themselves and their power and authority as missionaries. It is SO real though!! Heavenly Father truly blesses us with a different mantle when we are set apart as missionaries. It is absolutely incredible. I've been trying to help Sister Nakaima have this same perspective as I did with Sister Wilson. I think having these two sisters as my companions has actually helped me realize how important this really is to have that confidence in our Father's promises!! That's really what it is. It's not having confidence in ourselves, or our own abilities, but having confidence in the Lord. He's the one that has provided a way for us to just do good, period! We wouldn't be able to do ANYTHING without our Savior Jesus Christ's help. It is about truly knowing that He is the one that has called us to these positions; therefore, He'll provide a way for us to accomplish them! It says so right in the scriptures. :) (1 Nephi 3:7) Anyways, Sister Nakaima is such a sweetheart and has changed since we talked. I think she just needed to get things off her chest!! I had a small prompting that her and I needed to talk as we got ready to call our potentials and I'm SO glad I listened. 

 I only have a few more minutes but I wanted to let you know that we went to Zone Conference in the Pioneer museum here in Salt Lake City and it was the coolest thing EVER!!! I sent you a few pictures of it. :) You should definitely go next time your here in Salt Lake! Also, I got to do service in the TEMPLE today!!! It was AMAZING!!! and SO fun. I LOVE the sisters in my class ha! We were able to put on old baptism jumpsuits and vacuumed and dusted and things like that... Even in the Garden room!! :) So next time you are in there, you can imagine me in a awkward white jumpsuit cleaning in there. :) It was so amazing. Absolutely loved it! :) 

So Kelli-anne has another baptism date, ha ha, for December 1st. We need to work harder with her to keep her commitments (especially reading the Book of Mormon), but we're praying she'll be able to just feel good about all of these things. I think she needs to feel Heavenly Father's love in her life. 

We have a new investigator Katherine from Vacaville, CA!! :) Kind of fun huh? We also had a man refer online on chat in Budapest... :) Gotta love my mission ha ha! If I go outbound I will be seriously so sad. 

K. Well I love you all SOOO much! Enjoy the pics :) 

Sister Savage 

Week #42

November 5, 2012

Hi family!! 

So glad to hear from most of you! :) Thanks for the emails. They are SO fun to read! I love hearing about your lives and getting updated on everything. 

This week was very very fun!! On Halloween I got a package from you (thank you SOO much! :)) and we got to watch the first Harry Potter movie!!!  We were loaded up with potatoes & veggies for dinner!! :) It was SO much fun. We all flipped out when we heard that we were watching Harry Potter!!! What a PERFECT Halloween movie to watch! So that was super fun. I got a note from the Ivancich's saying they had come but I didn't see them. Too bad.  I was glad for the note though for sure! :) 

I sent you a picture of our Zone's Halloween party that we had on Monday!! So fun huh?! Sister Nakaima was "Otaku." (Dad, do you remember Otaku from your mission??!! Please tell me you do, ha!) Otaku are people from Japan that are literally obsessed with Anime (Japanese Animation), so they dress up like those characters, part their hair in the middle, and run around doing random dances for people.... Very interesting, ha ha. She looked absolutely PERFECT! She seriously was the life of the party. It was so cute to see her being her crazy self in front of everyone. She's more of a shy person with other people... not with me though! She is the craziest Japanese person I've ever met, but she is awesome. I've SO enjoyed her as a companion!! We've had our struggles, but she and I have both improved so much and we really have grown to love each other a lot. She will forever be a great friend of mine. :) 

I forgot to tell you but told Christie... ha ha! President Gillette basically told me that I will be going outbound this next transfer, the 21st of November. :( (which is so funny.. last transfer we had a mission meeting and President Gillette called everyone to repentance because they looked online and found out if and where they were going outbound. He just brought it up with me though and I didn't even ask about it ha ha!) I'll miss Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years on Temple Square. Definitely bittersweet. But I do feel good about it. I think it will be better for me to not see everyone I know on the square during that time ha ha. I'm not sure how long he will send me outbound for... I'm hoping and praying he doesn't send me out longer than 2 transfers. I think 3 transfers would be too long!! I love my Temple Square. :)  However, transfers are in just a couple of weeks, and I'll be able to call you for about 5 minutes and let you know where I'm going. :) You will know about it when I call I guess, ha ha! 

So despite the fact that I know I'm going outbound now, I'm really trying my hardest to stay focused. It's been difficult to do so but Sis Nakaima's helping me out. :) Joy was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!! :) So exciting. Only 4 weeks after we met her she was baptized. Pretty amazing stuff. She definitely was prepared by the Lord! She's also given us 3 of her family members/friends to call already... ha! She's an amazing missionary! Now that she's found the truth she literally wants to tell EVERYONE about it. Her mother is now interested a bit in the church. She was NEVER interested in religion before this! It was so interesting... we asked Joy why she thought she's suddenly looking into all of these things and she told us it is because of the change that has happened to her. She told us she used to have a huge temper. She would get so upset about little things that would happen in her family, with her friends, etc. But now that she's found the gospel of Jesus Christ, she doesn't have problems with those things anymore!! Pretty amazing that she has been able to change so much already. I love missionary work so much!! It truly is the most incredible thing in the world. The best part is seeing people change their lives to follow their Savior. "Leaving their nets", just like the 12 Disciples did. Such great stuff. If she's the last baptism I have on my mission, it will ALL be worth it!! :) 

We are still working with Nick, but I think we helped him realize how he is going to get his answer to all of these questions. He will move to Alabama next month, so crazy! How fun would that be if I went there on my Outbound??!! Ha! I could teach him in real life rather than on the phone!! :) We'll see what happens I guess. 

So we called one of Joy's friends, Margaret, the other day. She was a nice girl, but doesn't like churches... very similar to how Joy was actually. Except she's Joy's brother's girlfriend. They live together and have a child. (they're originally from Nigeria too but now live in Denmark). She really wants to get stability and coherence in her life. She REALLY wants to strengthen her faith in Jesus Christ. We told her about the Book of Mormon and how much it increases our faith in the Savior and His gospel. She was very interested in that. We taught her the rest of the Restoration too, and we'll call her again tomorrow and teach her more about the Book of Mormon and kind of break that down a little bit further. 

Birko seems to be doing great still. She hasn't responded lately but I'm sure we'll hear back from her soon. Alex, responded and told us he would read the Book of Mormon which is awesome!! We're just trying to get ahold of him again but I think it is hard when he travels around so much. 

Right now we have a lot of new investigators, but we are not having as many progressing. It is SO difficult to get progressing investigators here on Temple Square, because it depends on if they answer the phone or not. 

:( Sad day! I'm looking forward to outbound for that reason, to really be able to work with members in the ward and teach people face-to-face. PS. We'll be getting pictures of Joy's baptism and confirmation this week!! :) It will be the first time we will actually see what she looks like. ha ha! So fun! 

Well family, I love you all SO much. As of yesterday I have been out for 10 months. AH!!! So crazy. I honestly NEVER want to leave my mission. It is the single greatest experience of my life!! I miss you all but I'm so thankful to be here as a missionary, completely dedicated to serving the Lord. I'm going to send you pictures of my life so I will leave you now. :) 

Love you all soooo much! 

Sister Savage 

Week #41

October 29, 2012

Hey Family!! 

First off, Happy Halloween!!! :) Temple Square is closing down at 5pm (I guess there are some REAL crazies that come on the square on Halloween.... ha ha) and we're going to have a mission party. :) It will be fun.  They are feeding us too and I believe we're watching a movie. Woot! :)

Second, JOY GOT BAPTIZED YESTERDAY!! :) Sooo exciting! Sister Nakaima and I were ecstatic. She is such an incredible lady. She wants to go serve missions too, which is so awesome! :) She's 41 and single but we all know she can serve a mission whenever and however long she wants!! :) So great! 

Nick is doing well too. He is continuing to meet with missionaries and we can tell he is improving a lot. He still needs to be consistent on reading the Book of Mormon and praying everyday, but I think the local missionaries are really helping him out by meeting with him super often. Hopefully we'll keep seeing progress with him!! 

We had exciting news with Birko this week!! She met with the Sisters (yes, Sisters! Woot woot!) on Friday in Munich, Germany and LOVED it! She said they were super helpful and were totally willing to answer all of her questions. They gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and she already read the Introduction to it and began reading 1 Nephi!! She said in her email to us, "I feel like I've finally found the right thing for me in this religion!" SO AWESOME!! She's meeting with the sisters again today and she said she's SUPER excited about it. So fun to see how much she is embracing the gospel!! I love that she came all the way out to Salt Lake City, UT from Germany to find the truth. This work truly is God's work. 

We were not able to get ahold of Kelli-anne again this week. Sometimes it is frustrating, ha! Her phone wasn't working when we called her; it wouldn't even ring. We're going to still try though because she is SO close to finding out the truth for herself, and she just needs to commit to this. We spoke with the member that referred her, Julie, and she said that she feels like Kelli-anne, more than ever, is ready to accept the gospel. She said she has a SUPER strong desire to follow Jesus Christ and to take that step in showing her faith in him. Hopefully it will happen sometime soon. We really love her and are working hard for her!! Please pray for us and for her! And pray for Gardenia too. She hasn't got back to us all week. We think she might work a lot and doesn't have much time to talk on the phone... hopefully she does!! 

We have a new investigator this week named Alex. He's awesome!! We met him on Temple Square after the Joseph Smith movie (our assignment is to open and close it once a week.) It was so funny actually. My companion and I were standing outside the doors ready to answer any questions people might have, but no one wanted to talk to us... they all just hurried by. I looked at Sister Nakaima and said, "Hmm ... this seems super ineffective. Why do we have this assignment if no one will talk to us??" But right after I said that, the spirit reminded me that our roommate, Sister Bowden, had this assignment last transfer and actually met one of her investigators from this movie, and he ended up getting baptized a few weeks ago. So, I repented of my sinful thinking :) and got a better attitude about it. About 30 seconds later is when we saw Alex. There is a display outside of the movie that is a timeline of Joseph Smith's life and the Church's organization. He was standing there reading it, and Sister Nakaima and I both felt that we should go contact him. So we started talking with him and we had the greatest conversation. He seriously was the nicest man! He's originally from Costa Rica but he's in the states right now trying to find a job. Kind of sad actually.  He is basically living out of his car. He traveled to Washington state and came to Salt Lake City for some interviews too, but so far I don't think he's having as much luck as he would like.  He was super interested in getting the Book of Mormon and really wanted to learn more, and he basically gave us his email and phone number so we could teach him over the phone! We emailed him a few days ago so we'll see if he got it or not and if he responds. We're just trying to figure out right now how he can get the Book of Mormon and missionaries.... but it won't happen until he finds a job, unfortunately. :(   That's what we're here for. :) 

Sister Nakaima and I (for our companionship study today) watched Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk from General Conference today. WOW!! Dad was right!  That talk was absolutely incredible. Actually, it's almost exactly the same talk that I told you about a while ago that we watched as a mission. He tells that story with such passion, and it makes it literally come to life. I love how he speaks and how passionate he is about missionary work. This General Conference was completely focused on missionary work wasn't it?  So interesting... I honestly think the work is going to explode all over the world with all of these new missionaries coming into place! How fun to be a part of this work. It truly is a "marvelous work and a wonder" that the Lord has brought forth. 

I love you SO much my dearest family!! Thanks so much for the package, April!! (My old roommate April sent me a really sweet Halloween package the other day. Sooo nice of her!) I'll respond to you ASAP. :)

Love love love, 

Sister Savage 

PS. We went to a baptism on Saturday with Sister Crookston and her companion, and one of the little kids (when the dad got baptized) said, "Mommy, his shirt is see-through!" HA HA HA!! It was seriously the funniest thing I've ever heard. Oh, how I love the children! :) 

Week #40

October 22, 2012

Hi family!

Well, there has definitely been a slow down at Temple Square since conference ended. Luckily there was a huge convention going on for a company called Ziga, which is run in Lehi, UT. It has been fun being able to take around people on tours from there  They are all non-members, but the head of the company (can't remember his name right now) is a member of the church.  Sounds like he's made a GREAT impression on the people here though!! They all think super highly of this man AND LOVED Temple Square. (Sister Nakaima and I have been able to take a lot of Japanese tours this week... so fun!) It has been neat to see how many people are being exposed to the truth of the church! Hopefully with all the extra missionaries being sent out, there will just be even more! :)

The new missionary age is literally the talk of the church right now!!! SO many different people that we talk with on Temple Square talk with us about that! It is a pretty awesome thing. And like Dad said, you DEFINITELY wonder what's going to happen to the missionary work of the church... and where it will open up next! :)

This week was definitely a MIRACLE week. We started off the week not so good, because we found out that Christian was a member that was just pretending to be an investigator.... it made us SO angry!! But we prayed together and realized that he has some bigger challenges he's going to have to face in the future. So we're not worried about it. :) It was actually a cool experience, though, finding this out because both Sister Nakaima and I had impressions throughout the week (not even realizing they actually were impressions) that Christian was faking it.  During our weekly planning last week we both looked at each other when we got to his name and said..." Do you think Christian's real?" Almost at the same time, ha ha! We realized that was a huge blessing to both have those promptings from the Spirit. Thank goodness for the gift of the Holy Ghost!

After this kind of disappointing discovery, we had some incredible miracles happen to us this week! Nick is doing awesome right now. He's meeting with the missionaries almost every day, and they have been able to help him find his answer to his prayers about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and Thomas Monson. They set a baptismal date with him for November 17th. We're going to try everything we can to help him find his answer through the Spirit!! He actually went to a member's house the other day and the dad converted to the church when he was 40 years old from Atheism. That's definitely a turn around right there!! So Nick and him talked for a while about how this member was able to find out if this is true for himself. He told Nick that the answer doesn't come instantly... it is gradual, and as long as you do EVERYTHING God asks you to do, you WILL eventually receive that answer for yourself. It reminded me of the quote by Elder Tad R. Callister of the Seventy, who said when he was talking about missionary work, "Effort is required, but it is effort you will never, ever regret." I think it helped Nick out a lot. Keep praying for him!!

Joy is an absolute miracle!!! We called her on Friday and she officially set her baptism date for October 28th!!! :)  And after that, she told us what had happened during the week (here's her story). . . 

Joy had met with missionaries after talking with us on the phone one day (I think it was Sunday?) and was really disheartened.  She told them once again that she wanted to be baptized on October 28th. The missionaries asked their Mission President, and he said he couldn't meet with her until November 14th for the baptismal interview!!!! Absolutely ridiculous, ha! This woman has seriously been waiting ALL her life to find the truth, and now that she has found it, the Mission President won’t even interview her? One of her friends came over to her house who is a member of the church and told her he would talk with the Mission President directly (I think he was pretty close to him). Sweet Joy told him that she would be willing to travel ANYWHERE to meet with the President, made me cry hearing this from her! So, her member friend called her early the next morning and said, "Joy, do you still want to be baptized on the 28th?" And, of course she said YES!  Her friend said, "Okay, I'm driving you to his office this morning so you can have your interview with him and be baptized next Sunday." And that's exactly what they did!!! Can you believe the kindness of the member??!! I'm pretty sure the drive was a good couple hours too! It was so amazing. I almost burst out into tears hearing this story ha!  Joy is one of the most incredible people I've ever met in my life, and heaven knows she deserves this gospel more than most!! So. . . Joy is getting baptized next Sunday!!! :) We couldn't be happier!!! We are going to text her everyday to keep encouraging her and help her stay strong until her baptism. We told her to send us pictures, so I'll send you those as soon as I get them. :) Yay! She's also inviting her whole family to come to the baptism!! Her family is literally the opposite of religious... ha. Her sister said she won't come, but we're praying that she changes her mind. I think her mom is coming too. Apparently her mom is showing some interest in the church too!! We're going to try to call her to share more with her about the gospel after Joy's baptism.  Hallelujah!!

Sister Nakaima is SO excited for this one. I'm SO glad Heavenly Father allowed us to be together, and for me to stay at Temple Square!!  Honestly, a big part of me doesn't even want to go outbound... but I have a high chance of going next transfer. We'll see what happens I guess.

Also, we got a hold of Kelli-anne again!! Yes, dear Kelli-anne that I've been teaching since my 2nd transfer, ha ha. She had actually decided to get baptized in a non-denominational church NEXT WEEK. Definitely a prompting from the Spirit to call her again!! (We dropped her for almost 2 months because she wasn't progressing at all). But I think we're going to really focus on the Priesthood power, how God truly is our loving Heavenly Father (that's why he's brought the priesthood back to the earth again!!), and how much her life can improve by living the gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh, she also believes the Book of Mormon is true... just hasn't connected the dots yet. So,we have a BIG project ahead of us, but I just can't let this girl go. She's too special! She has a testimony of the Book of Mormon for crying out loud! She just needs to realize that everything else, LITERALLY everything, connects with that! Hopefully she will.... Please pray for us!

One other miracle (seriously, AMAZING miracle week!), Birko, the lady we took around from Germany that referred (literally one of the only times I've heard of a German referring, ha ha!), is meeting with missionaries this Friday!  We gave her the intro to read in the Book of Mormon and Elder Christofferson's testimony of the restoration. She's doing great, and is seriously considering joining this church. So awesome. I wish I could tell you all how truly incredible the mission is. 

Sadly, Debbie has not been responding to us. I called her once and she hung up on me when I told her who I was... We're pretty sure she didn't get baptized and that something went wrong. :( Soooo sad. But look at ALL of the incredible blessings Heavenly Father IS giving us!! The harder we work, the more rewards we've been able to receive. I had a member referral agree to meet with missionaries and she actually lives in Taylorsville!! She met with missionaries before, but only met with them because she was dating a member... well that didn't work out, but she apparently had some amazing experiences with the Elders and reading the Book Of Mormon, but thought that she only had those experiences because of the member. I was able to help her realize that those experiences she had were real, directly from God. She agreed to meet with the missionaries again! We called her yesterday but she was sleeping, so we'll try to teach her again in a few days.

I've been studying this talk on consecrated missionaries that I think I told you about earlier this week. It truly is amazing. Elder Callister talked about how important it is to work hard, and to realize WHY we are working this hard. He simply said this of the Savior and our missionary service: "Our all is a small repayment for His all." How true that is! We can do this daily, family! We NEED to do this daily. We'll never be able to repay him for His Atonement for us, but what we can do is work our very hardest to bring our fellow brothers and sisters (in the church and outside it) closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ. That's all He asks of us! And once we promise Him to be completely devoted to Him and what He asks, "There is NO retreat to your former life!" We are to be dedicated servants to our Lord and Savior for the remainder of our lives. We are to receive His image in our countenances, like Alma taught in Alma 5:14; "And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye ^aspiritually been ^bborn of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty ^cchange in your hearts?" I hope and pray that each of us can experience this might change within us to the point where we are literally a "window" to His love.

I know that our Savior Jesus Christ lives. I know He loves us, and wants to help us. He is the one we can ALWAYS turn to, no matter what challenges we face in this life. How grateful I am for Him and for His atoning sacrifice. "Oh sweet the joy this sentence gives; I know that my Redeemer lives!"

I sure love all of you SO much!! You are all amazing, and I'm so proud to be a part of this incredible family. Love you tons!

Sister Savage