Letter #12

March 26, 2012

Hi Family!!

Well, you are basically the greatest family EVER!! Thank you SO much for your package! It made me so happy. . . Wednesday was honestly one of the best birthdays I've ever had! We went to breakfast at the Lion House -- it is 50% off for missionaries and hosts. :) It was really good. And the sisters surprised me and all pitched in and bought me a new pair of earrings and a necklace!! It was seriously the nicest thing ever! I tried to ask them who all pitched in for it, but Sister Andrade told me that a lot of sisters pitched in... how sweet, huh?!  I felt so loved! :) We also went to Blue Lemon for lunch which was SO amazingly good and fun! And sadly enough, I forgot to get a picture of lunch. I did get pictures at breakfast though, so I'll email those next week.  :)

Also, our sweet aunt Peggy sent me a package for my birthday with a new journal that says, "Not ashamed of the gospel of Christ" (Romans 1:16), candy, tic tacs, and a letter with her conversion story!! It was SO much fun to read that. I can't even believe how sweet she is. Thank you SO much Aunt Peggy! I love you! You made my birthday that much better! I also got a package from Jordan complete with my very own pedicure set, nail polish, and the ugliest "moo-moo" you've ever seen. :) Ha ha. I laughed so hard when I opened it. Thank you SOOO much Jord!! You're amazing! I feel so lucky to have so much support from all of my friends and family. Oh, and thank you Mekenzi Cornwell for the sweet birthday letter!! I almost cried reading it! It made me so happy. :) And my dearest Becka Cox wrote me for my birthday too!! (She was one of my EFY girls the first week I worked at EFY during my first summer.) Can you now see how amazing my birthday was???  So, so great. I still can't get over how much support and love I have here. Thank you everyone that made my birthday special! :)

I definitely see people I know weekly or people that are looking for me. I received a note from Marene Ebert, mom's aunt! I guess she was on Temple Square.  I’m so sorry I missed her.  And another sister told me that Heidi Astle was looking for me. :) I wish I could've seen them both!  But I did see my dearest McCall!! (she was an EFY counselor with me this past summer.) LOVE her, and she just got her mission call to Tulsa, OKlahoma! So fun to have so many of my friends out serving with me!  We really are all in this together! (High School Musical song starts...) :)  I also saw Jordan's aunt, Kathryn Bishop! It was so fun to see her and her cute girls! They came for Young Women's conference this weekend. It was like a mini practice for General Conference, ha ha! It was a super fun weekend. But it made me miss my momma... I remember going to the Young Women's conferences with her at our stake building. It was always so much fun. I love you mom!

Thank you so much for all your wonderful emails! They lift my spirits up so high. :) I love reading them. They make me so happy. I honestly don't feel like I'm away from you when I read the emails. So much fun!

So the new mall, City Creek opened up this week. It's literally the Great and Spacious building across the street from Temple Square, lol! So funny. We love it though because all the people come walking through Temple Square after shopping there. :) Hooray for potentials! We had literally twice as many people come to Temple Square this weekend!  We're getting WAY excited for Conference too! We've been having meetings this whole week training us on how to uplift the members and have short contacts. The mission's goal is to get genuine referrals, and not treat the members like referral machines. :)  It's been really good and we've had some great practices so far. I love that the mission is more focused on helping the members spiritually than just getting referrals. I used to think that that is all they did was ask for people's names. Our Mission President is such a great guy! He really knows what he's doing on this mission.

I had some really cool spiritual learning this week. Today I was studying Mosiah 5, which is the chapter right after King Benjamin talks to the people. There are some incredibly beautiful verses in there! I went through the whole chapter just by itself, and suddenly realized what a HUGE comparison the chapter is to my purpose as a missionary, and what happens to our investigators when they get baptized. The second verse reads: "And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually." I LOVE this verse! These children of God literally have a MIGHTY change of heart when they accept the gospel to be true. They start to realize how much giving into temptation and evil bring them down, and they desire to do good continually. Some of the best members of the church are converts-- they have such a strong desire to spread the word of the gospel to other people so that they can enjoy the blessings they've received in their life, and the change that goes on in their hearts. Verse 4 goes on to say, "And it is the faith which we have had on the things which our king has spoken unto us that has brought us to this great knowledge, whereby we do rejoice with such exceedingly great joy." Our investigators have to have faith in what us missionaries are saying. If they don't, they won't act upon it, which is what faith is! It's an action word. The people in Mosiah then make a covenant with God that they will "be obedient to his commandments in all things". Sound familiar? Its the covenant that we make at baptism-- to keep his commandments which he has given us, that we will always remember him. We say it in the Sacrament prayer every week. So cool, right? This church is so true.

And then I love what King Benjamin says afterward; "And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters." (Mosiah 5:7)

WOW. So incredibly cool!  Brad sent me an email a couple of weeks ago that was talking about this, how we take upon ourselves his name when we make that covenant with him at baptism. We literally become his children, and are spiritually begotten of him. I looked up the word begotten, and in the scripture guide on lds.org it says it means "To be born. To beget is to give birth, to procreate, or to call into being. In the scriptures, these words are often used to mean being born of God. Although Jesus Christ is the only child begotten of the Father in mortality, all people may be spiritually begotten of Christ by accepting him, obeying his commandments, and becoming new persons through the power of the Holy Ghost."

That is the key right there. . . We have to 1. Accept him as our Savior, 2. Obey his commandments and then we become new person through the power of the Holy Ghost, or the baptism by fire.

In verse 12 King Benjamin says this: "I say unto you, I would that ye should remember to retain the name written always in your hearts, that ye are not found on the left hand of God, but that ye hear and know the voice by which ye shall be called, and also, the name by which he shall call you." Brad also said this in his email that we have to know the name by which he will call us! I love love love this verse! Remember to retain the name written ALWAYS in your hearts.

And then my very favorite part, verse 15:

 "Therefore, I would that ye should be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent, may seal you his, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may have everlasting salvation and eternal life, through the wisdom, and power, and justice, and mercy of him who created all things, in heaven and in earth, who is God above all.  Amen."

What a beautiful phrase. When we do what he has asked of us, when we pray, study our scriptures, attend church weekly and partake of the sacrament, when we are kind to our neighbors and strive to have his image in our countenance, (Alma 5:14), he seals us to Him. He seals YOU to Him. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I love how much I feel his love for me, and for these investigators. It is such an amazing opportunity to be here on Temple Square. I literally can't think of anywhere else I would rather be! 

We took a few people to the Christus yesterday on a tour and I asked them what they thought about when they looked at this depiction of our Savior, and the (Catholic) lady said, "I feel a warm blanket of peace--it feels like its draped over me." The other man said, "He's very welcoming. It looks like He's actually looking down on all of us." I was able to share my testimony of the Savior, of his love and peace, and that he truly does live. I feel so lucky and blessed to have the knowledge I do of him and his life.

So, last but not least... I have a very big surprise for you, my dearest family. I emailed my Mission President (like I do every week), and asked him if there was any possible way that my companion and I could go to dinner with all of you on Friday night when you are here.

Guess what?

He said YES! :)

He's giving us one hour to go to dinner with all of you. HA HA!! Can you even believe this??! I almost cried. (Don't worry, I didn't) I'll probably just cry when I see you lol.  I still can't believe that I am actually going to dinner with you guys, ha ha ha. I promise I asked my Mission President and he was fine with it! We just have one hour because Sister Wilson and I have to be back on the square. :) I can't stop laughing about this. This is just too crazy. You all get to meet my companion too!!  She's way excited. ha ha.

Well, I love you all SO much. See you Friday night!! HA! :)

Love love love,

Sister Savage

Week #11

March 19, 2012

Hi family and friends! 

So good to hear from you all! Unfortunately, I don't have much time to write you today... BUT, I have pictures!! :) We hardly ever take pictures in this mission because we can't on the square (to avoid looking like tourists/ unprofessional). I knew mom would be happy with some pictures. :) 

Lisa Pack (used to be Pack, I can't remember what her new last name is) came to Temple Square on Saturday. I just happened to be covering another sister at the desk when I met her, ha ha! How crazy, huh? She told me she was from Elk Grove and I asked her if she knew the Pack family, and she said, "Um, I used to be a Pack!" Ha ha. It was so cool! She was so sweet. She said she would call Susan Pack and tell her about it. :) The world keeps getting smaller here. 

Well, as it goes with everything, there must be "opposition in all things." (2 Nep 2:11). This week was kind of rough. We had almost no success since last Monday. Mat, Logan, Claudia and Sabrina didn't answer our phone calls. It's SO hard when they don't answer!! We only have so much time during the day to talk to them, so sometimes we can't even call them again for a couple of days... However, despite the hard week, yesterday was SO good. I called Mat again and left him a message, and he immediately called back, letting me know he was at work when I had called. Then I called him back probably 10 minutes after that and he didn't answer again, so I left another message letting him know that he can just call when he has time. Then he left me a message and this is what it said: "Hey, it's Bixler. We're playing phone-tag. Tag, you're it." HA HA! So funny. I love my investigators. I was so happy to hear him say that. I still worry that these people will get super annoyed with me calling them, so it's comforting to know that they still like us and want us to call them. :) 

We committed Duane to baptism!!! It was so, so awesome. This guy seriously is the best. He basically has the Bible memorized, but he interprets the bible EXACTLY how we do in the church. It does not surprise him at ALL that God would send us modern-day prophets and more scripture. It makes sense to him. Talk about a golden investigator!! We literally don't have to explain everything to him. We teach him a principle, and he literally explains it to US. Ha. The church is true! 

I called Sister Brickley's friend that she decided to refer from Indiana. She said she prayed about who she should give her to, and she felt like it should be me. I felt so honored that she would give her name to me, it really meant a lot. Calling people's friends can be super nerve wracking, especially when you know the friend super well... ha. But it went SO well! And she referred to meet with missionaries. :) I'm so excited about it! We're going to teach her again next Sunday. She's always super busy which will be hard, but hopefully once we start teaching her she will realize how much she needs this in her life. She's open to learning more about the gospel. I'm so excited for her. 

Now I'll tell you the exciting story that happened today, ha. We were in the motors (call center) for about 30 min when all the sudden a new sister stood up, and literally fainted right behind me. It was the loudest thud I've ever heard, lol! I was kind of scared for my life. Anyway, we called security (we call them for literally everything) and they came running in, then about 10 minutes later an ambulance came with a stretcher and everything!! It was seriously straight out of a movie. The reason why they came was because the Sister wouldn't wake up, which isn't a good sign after someone has fainted... they usually come-to after a few minutes. Long story short, I ended up driving Sister Gierske (from Germany) to the hospital. She's her district leader and apparently has to go with her during these situations... ha. So I volunteered to drive thinking I would come back in half and hour. Not. 4 hours later I was back at the apartment. Ha ha. I literally have done nothing today!! I barely made it in time for my hair appointment (Yes, I got my hair done and she only charged me $10 for the haircut. It was so nice!!) and now am finally emailing at 6pm. Usually we are done e-mailing by 2!  We had a pretty exciting day. :)

"No one can know spiritual truths without prayer." How true that is. I learned this this week. I was reading in Preach my Gospel the section on prayer, looking up scriptures relating to it, etc, and this really stuck out to me. I thought of the story of Joseph Smith when Oliver Cowdery asked him, "Joseph, how are we to be baptized?" and Joseph didn't know. They then went and prayed to know how to be baptized, and THEN the heavenly messengers came. I always kind of wondered, "Why didn't they come before and just tell him so we wouldn't have to ask?" Interesting that the Lord sent them after Joseph prayed to know. But it taught me an important lesson that applies to spiritual truths. We can't just expect the Lord to teach us these things without asking him about it. We need to seek it out first, study it out in our minds. My investigators are the same way! There's a reason why we always commit them to pray about what we have taught them and what they are learning. They cannot know these truths without praying to the Father and asking him, in the name of Jesus Christ, if it is true or not. This church gets truer every day.I LOVE it! 

Well I should be going. I love you all SO much!! Keep praying for me! I always pray for mi familia. You're all the best. I'm SO lucky to have you in my life 

Love, 

Sister Savage

Letter #10

Well hello all,

It feels like it was yesterday when I wrote you... and yet so much has happened! Today we had transfer conference. It was so much fun! But we had to be on the square at 6:30am. My body is dying. Yesterday we lost an hour of sleep, of course, due to daylight savings time, and then Saturday we had to wash the car in the morning (5:45am). We're all struggling in my zone, Ha! Yesterday was hysterical. It was the most beautiful day of the year, and tons of people were at Temple Square, but every sister you walked by had glazed eyes... ha ha. . . so funny. Sadly enough, there's no time to make up for sleep here. :)  I'm sure my family is shocked that I'm even awake at these early hours. :)

And yes!!! Did you all see my picture?! How cool, right?! What  are the odds that I would speak in a Sacrament Meeting with someone Brother Gallacher works closely with? The church is so small. Even with 14 million of us! Yesterday was SO fun! The ward we spoke at (me and Sis Wilson, Sisters Chernyshova from Russia and Dorff from Tokyo) went to a ward in Cottonwood Heights, and I got to drive AND play the piano, as well as speak. :) It was fun. The sisters said I'll most likely be able to go again because I can drive and play the piano. I love it! I've also been asked to be a driver for transfers on Wednesday, but I'm only the backup driver. I love driving. :)

Grandma Orchard sent me an AMAZING pioneer story!! Thank you so much grandma!! These pioneer stories are seriously the best. I'll definitely be using it!

Oh family, this week was so great. So, so great. We had a District meeting about extending the baptismal commitment to our investigators... which is the scariest thing ever, because we've NEVER been taught to do that before over the phones!! But it looks like we are now! And we asked our investigator, Franklin from England, if he were to find out if this church is true, if he would be baptized or not... and he said YES!!!! It was seriously one of the most amazing moments of my mission thus far. The spirit was so strong!! We're so excited about it. We're trying to figure out the missionary situation because the missionaries haven't been able to go to his house yet, and it's been over 3 weeks.  That is the only problem with this work. . . it takes a long time for our referrals to meet with missionaries in other countries! It can sometimes even take months, but it's okay! We've contacted the Bishop and he's going to try to work something out. Hopefully it will!! Franklin is "officially" a new investigator. :)

We have another former investigator of Sis Wilson's who answered his phone again. He hadn't answered for a few weeks. His name is Long Su, and he's originally from Taiwan but is actually in the LA area. Brad, look for Long Su!  :) Ha!  jk. He has been having a hard time with his teenagers recently (he has 2 of them) and we were able to explain to him how the Book of Mormon can help him with his kids in knowing how to raise them, etc, and how it can give him peace. He works a lot and says he is missing peace from his life. We told him that the Book of Mormon can do that for him too!! He just needs to read it! So we committed him to reading it, and he said yes. We're calling him again tomorrow... so hopefully he read! We also gave him a scripture to read over text. And let me just tell you, this work would not go nearly as well without texting. Texting is an INCREDIBLE blessing we have on this mission! We're able to set up appointments so much easier because of it.

PS. The above all happened on Tuesday. It was SO great!

Thursday we got not just one, but TWO new investigators!! The Hallelujah Chorus was definitely playing! ElDuane (he goes by Duane) is seriously SO golden. This man has been waiting for the gospel for a long time. He's incredible. Everything we teach him makes sense to him--prophets, apostles, modern-day revelation, even the idea of more scripture (Book of Mormon) he LOVES. It's absolutely amazing! The only problem is that he lives with his parents currently, who are BOTH anti's. Ha Ha! Of course the golden investigator would have parents that hate the church!  How could it be any other way? (hint of sarcasm). Anyway, Duane is super great and funny. We're excited to teach him again in a few days. 

Myrple is officially a new investigator as well!!  We taught her just a little... mostly did the introduction of teaching, telling her how the gospel will bless her life, etc. We mainly focused on Jesus Christ, and the story the Book of Mormon gives us of him after he was resurrected. I think she really liked that. She already has her own religion, which is so false. It's called Maravian?  She referred to meet with missionaries right off the bat so we're hoping for good things from her! 

Sister Harris from my district gave me a referral, her friend from Michigan. He's 22, went to Arizona for school, etc. I called him a while back and he actually called me back and left me a message! (extremely rare with potentials.) He is SO awesome! He's absolutely hysterical. He and I clicked right away and he reminds me a lot of Brad. :) It was SO much fun to talk to him! I feel like I'm just talking to Brad when I'm talking to him. It makes me happy. :) He didn't refer to meet with missionaries, but he is going to let us call him and teach him. So exciting. He doesn't have much purpose to life; kind of thinks religion is for other people and not him, but it was interesting because Sister Harris gave me his name and she's in her 11th transfer... she's been waiting this whole time to give him to someone because she's never felt like it's right. Now he is having a hard time and is receptive. So cool how things like that happen! It just shows me that the Lord really does have his own timing, and that it WORKS. 

Claudia, (originally from Mexico but living here in Utah) is doing well I think. Hopefully she'll respond to our teaching. She's interested in learning more about the church, but, of course, her whole family is Catholic and she's nervous that she'll be outcast if she joins another religion... she's REALLY close to her family too. 

We had a literal miracle on Saturday. We chatted online with this boy, Chris. He's only 13 years old and feels like the church is true. He's looked into it already himself. AMAZING!! We had to get his parents’ permission to teach him, and they won't let us teach him over the phone because they don't want us knowing their information (understandable.), but we are able to teach him online. SO great. He seems like the sweetest boy ever. We are having to clarify a lot because he doesn't really understand the difference between Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, but he seems to be getting it okay. 

Also, guess who I met on Temple Square on Saturday??!! Megan and Karl Taylor, Linda and Jeff Taylor's oldest son. Ha!! Crazy right?!  It was so funny because we went up to them and I kind of said to myself, "Wow, he looks kind of like Brother Taylor." Sure enough it was his son. So crazy! Megan, his wife, is giving us some referrals too which is exciting! (She's a convert.)  I just see people I know ALL the time here! Or people that know people I know... I love it.

I met a man named Shahed Latiff. BRAD- I think you might know him. He told me he works for KPMG and that he's a partner from IPBR which I have no idea what that means. Ha!  I told him you had only worked there since September, but he said that you should know him or that you will know him soon. Kind of crazy that I would meet someone that could know my brother, and he's a Muslim from England! Funny stuff. He was a nice guy though. We can't teach Muslims if they live in certain countries, but we were able to share some things with him about Temple Square, why it's so significant, etc. Very cool guy. And I met 2 men from Saudi Arabia yesterday! They were the nicest men--3 muslims and 2 hindus in one day. Score!  :)

Last but not least, I must tell you about this new guy we are going to teach. He was a referral from way back when--I think from last conference. I literally was calling him for the last time, and he answered! (we only call about 5 times, because we don't want the church to have a bad or annoying connotation.) His name is Mat Bixler. Literally the coolest guy ever!! He already has the Book of Mormon and LOVES the church. He loves our values, works with people from the church, had a tour of Temple Square 6 months ago and absolutely loved it. I could go on and on about Mat. He is so, so great!  He and I talked for half an hour (same with Logan), which never happens, but he was seriously so friendly! He has two kids, loves everything that involves outdoors, chastised me because I don't ski or snowboard, ha ha.  I think he's really interested in the church. He's seriously the best! He's in his 30's but he acts like a college-age student ha ha. He's actually living/ working in Utah right now.  He owns 4 different businesses. Crazy stuff! Even though he's very busy, we have been able to get a hold of him just fine! We were going to teach him today, but we called a little too late... he wants to learn more though. Hopefully we can get him to meet with missionaries.

One favor to ask, mom and dad, I need to get my friend Rachel's number. I really want to give her name to one of the sisters here. Rachel went to beauty school with me forever ago.  I haven't talked with her for a while, but her name keeps popping up in my head. I think I need to have the sisters call her. She's in my phone under Rachel Sroka. She's on my Facebook too.  Her name is Rachel Lillie I think on FB. Please let me know! I would love that.

The mission is so, so great! I seriously had an amazing week. The Lord really blessed Sister Wilson and I this week. We were able to see "the fruits of our labors." I LOVE Section 6 of the D&C. It's one of my favorites.

 29 Verily, verily, I say unto you, if they ^areject my words, and this part of my gospel and ministry, blessed are ye, for they can do no more unto you than unto me.

30 And even if they ^ado unto you even as they have done unto me, blessed are ye, for you shall ^bdwell with me in ^cglory.

31 But if they ^areject not my words, which shall be established by the ^btestimony which shall be given, blessed are they, and then shall ye have joy in the fruit of your labors.

 32 Verily, verily, I say unto you, as I said unto my disciples, where two or three are gathered together in my name, as ^atouching ^bone thing, behold, there will I be in the ^cmidst of them˜even so am I in the ^dmidst of you.

 33 ^aFear not to do ^bgood, my sons, for whatsoever ye ^csow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow ^dgood ye shall also reap good for your ^ereward.

I have truly been so blessed to be here on this mission. It has been the greatest experience. I still have a hard time "annoying" people on Temple Square, but I know that I will, over time, recognize that I have the right to preach the gospel to these people. It's my calling. I love you all SO much.  Your prayers make a huge difference. Thank you for always being so good to me, and loving me enough to give me this gospel. :) I am so incredibly blessed. My new favorite quote is this one:

"I believe in Christ like I believe in the sun, not just because I see it, but by it I can see everything else." -- C.S. Lewis.

He truly is the light that reflects upon ALL things. We can literally see it daily. Love you all. Until next week!

Sister Savage

Nat :)

Letter #9

March 5, 2012

Hey family!

Thank you SO much for all of the emails this week! All of my siblings wrote me this week. :) I feel so blessed to have you guys in my life. There are some sisters here who sometimes don't even get an email... it's so nice to feel so much support and love from you! I love you all so much.

Dad, thank you so much for sending me those pioneer stories! I was able to use them a few times this week.  Grandma and Grandpa Neibaur were seriously amazing people! How cool to know I have relatives like that.

Congrats to mom on getting called to be the Primary President!!  I loved your experience of feeling the "mantle" mom. I have definitely had moments here where I have felt the mantle of being a missionary fall on me. A few of those moments happened this week.

  

Before I tell you about those, some pretty exciting stuff has been going on this week in the Temple Square mission! We not only had our boundaries "extended," but we also got new key indicators! They make SO much more sense, and are actually much more like a normal mission. Our key indicators now consist of Lessons taught to members and guests (in all venues), Referrals received, contacted, sent and transitioned (sent meaning we sent the missionaries over to them, and transitioned meaning the investigators are now in the missionaries' hands!), and new investigators from all venues. (Our venues are inbound and outbound calls when people call in, or when we call them, chat, and of course, contacts on the square. :) And a MIRACLE happened this week. Seriously, this is a big deal. I actually like calling people!!  Who would've ever thought Natalie Savage would like to talk on the phone??  Especially with people I've never met before! Crazy! :) I actually like it better than on the square... anyway, back to the key indicators. They truly are amazing! It's making the missionary work so much better here, already! The mission is much more like a normal mission now. We now try to "teach" everyone we come in contact with. Our mission is not just to get referrals-- its now to teach and uplift EVERYONE we talk to. So cool. And I've noticed that the members don't mind at all if we share a spiritual thought with them or get into things like that. 

I felt more of the Spirit this week than I think I have my whole life. I've been praying that I would be able to recognize the Spirit better, and I had some seriously cool experiences with that. We talked to this man on the square who was from Texas originally but then moved to the East coast and was in SLC for a convention ... which I've found that conventions bring TONS of people to Temple Square. Anyway, we got talking with him and found out he had read the whole BOM 15 years ago, had a best friend from the Marine's that was Mormon, and has met with missionaries before. We talked to him for almost 2 hours... he's part of the Church of Christ. His friend who was in the Marine's sounds like a great guy. His friend told Mark everything about the church--he seriously knows almost everything about the church. We started talking about how the church would be organized today, if Jesus Christ himself would organize it. He told us the way our church has organized ourselves makes sense to him. :) Yes it does!! And it was really cool, because he was telling us about how many denominations there are of the Christians, (Baptists, Southern Baptists, Protestants, etc) and how it didn't make sense to him that there would be so many different denominational churches. He basically asked "Why aren't there more denominations of Mormons?" The Spirit was so incredibly strong. It was seriously telling me, "Because we have a prophet who was chosen by God himself to teach the same exact principles and doctrines that Christ himself would teach. That was it. It really is that simple. Heavenly Father loves us too much to let us go through this life without having some sort of guide to get us there. That's why we have a prophet- because he cares about us; he wants us to have leadership to help us out.

It was so interesting because he told us that he read the BOM with the intent that he was going to find something wrong or false in it, but couldn't find anything at all. ha! The only thing he can't get past is why the gold plates were taken back up to heaven. He wants proof of it. So Sis Wilson asked him, "Well, do you know where the ten commandments are?" And he was like, "... That's a good point." Of course it is Mark. Just be baptized already! Just kidding... anyway, we got talking a lot more about that and how the BOM tells us that this church is true, and that we receive revelation today; the heavens are not closed. But he said, "Well, everything in the BOM I agree with. I can't find a single thing in there that isn't something that I personally believe. But I can also find all of that stuff in the Bible... So, why do I need the BOM?" UGH. I hate that question. So I asked him, "Why do you think God wouldn't give us more scripture? Why would he not keep speaking to us today, especially in a world that's steadily getting more and more wicked? Don't you think he would want us to have more?"

He couldn't think of an answer. It was awesome. :)

Unfortunately he didn't refer, because he is still hung up on the fact that he doesn't need the Book of Mormon... but it was such a great experience to be able to teach and testify. He seriously was SO close!!

We have a new investigator!! His name is Todd, a truck driver from Illinois ... he's great. His fiancee was baptized sometime last year and won't marry him until he joins the church... lol. We're focusing on him finding out for HIMSELF if it's true or not. Hopefully it goes well.

We also did a Youth Conference on Saturday!! It was sooo much fun!! I felt like I was an EFY counselor again. :) I miss those days! I miss my kids! I met Paul Cardall!  He's a piano player that is SUPER good... He's in the youth's ward and was going to be one of the speakers for it. He seriously was amazing!!

And now, I must go. We did baptisms for the dead in the Salt Lake City Temple today for our Zone activity!! So cool! and now we are going to Tucano's with half our zone. :) I have a pretty great mission!  Also, I passed off my driving. I can't remember if I already mentioned that, but it's so nice to be able to drive! I love it!

I love my mission family. I have truly felt the pain of someone rejecting the gospel, but I know that I was chosen for a reason to be out here. John 15:16 "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you..."

A new favorite quote of mine I heard this week from President Faust; "Hope is trust in God's promises, faith that if we act now, the desired blessings will be fulfilled in the future."

I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I love my Heavenly Father. I love this gospel. It truly brings us real and lasting happiness.

Have a great week! :) Love you all!

Sister Savage

Nat :)

P.S.  I forgot to tell you about the people I met that know Laura! The Busath's. I met them and they were the funniest couple ever!! Tell Laura about it-- they are in her ward. And congrats to Bryce (Kyle's best friend) on getting called to SLC!!! Tell him that I'll be able to see him all of the time, ha!And I might even be able to take his investigators on a tour!!! Cool huh?!

Letter #8

February 27, 2012

Hi Family!

Well this week was great! I have so much to tell! I literally have to take notes each day to remember what I want to say to you in my emails. And thank you for all the wonderful emails! Especially Jake's email and the pioneer stories. Sis Wilson is excited about those! I am too! :) It'll be cool to share stories with people that actually are from my family!

First, one of my favorite girls that I've met here in Temple Square, Sister Skalla, is leaving us and going to Thailand. :( Her original call was to there, but she got kidney stones, so they temporarily sent her to T-square. She LOVED it here too. I think this is really hard for her. She bore her testimony on Sunday and I seriously started balling! I can't believe how close I get to the sisters here, they really are like family.

On a happier note, I got to go on exchanges with Sister Barraza, my Zone Leader this week. It was SO amazing! I learned so much. We talked to a Catholic lady from New York with a Boston accent who was super interested in learning more about the church. She asked question after question... those are the best to teach because they're obviously willing to learn! :) It was really cool. And I did pretty good! She asked us why we don't have nuns in our church, and I was able to explain to her that our role as women is to have a family and to be mothers, so giving up all of that to become a nun is an honorable thing to do, but not quite what the Lord has asked of us. She totally accepted that, and actually opened up to us and told us that she had been trying to have a baby for about a year but hasn't been able to get pregnant... she's almost 40 years old. She said she wished she hadn't waited so long now, because she realizes the importance of family and (finally) wants to have one of her own. We then talked about the temple (we were right by the temple model) and explained how we can be united eternally with our families, how important they are to us, etc. Unfortunately, Sis Barraza and I both got the prompting to invite her (to learn more by having the missionaries come over, teach her over the phone, etc) but neither of us did. We kept talking for a bit, and she didn't refer.  Sis Barraza after that was SO upset at herself that she didn't invite!  She said "The Lord is trying to teach us something! We need to listen to the spirit and invite when it's the strongest!!"  She was so right! It was a really good learning experience for me, and for her!  It also helped me realize that all of us sisters are human. Even the Zone Leaders make mistakes! :)

At the end of our exchange, we had a chat about things I am doing well at and things I need to work on.  One thing she said is that I need to be more bold when I invite.... so true! I struggle a lot with that. I don't like being pushy. Ha. And then she read me our little ministerial certificate, which says that Natalie Nicole Savage has the authority and right to preach the gospel, and that everyone is invited to hear the message I have to share. It was so powerful. I hadn't read that since I had been in the MTC. I was able to go up to people SO much easier this week after reading that.

So I'm not sure if I mentioned this last week or not, but our mission got bigger!! HOORAY!  We can now take people on tours to the JSMB, the Church History Museum, the Relief Society building and the 26th floor of the Church Building, which has a really cool deck outside. We'll be doing that this summer! :) We've been able to explore these places and try to think of ways to use them on our tours. Pretty cool!

And you all already know I guess, ha ha! I saw the Haynes!! That was so fun!!! I love seeing people I know. :) Tell him thanks for taking a picture! I never have my camera on me because we can't look like tourists on the square... ha. Understandable. :)

We gave 3 different tours on Saturday! One right after the other! Needless to say I was exhausted on Sunday, lol! Usually we only get one a day, if that! It was so neat. The first guy we gave a tour to was from New York, he was actually a professor there and was invited by his friend that teaches at BYU to come to BYU and give a talk... something about computers. I don't know what he was really talking about, ha. Anyway, his friend told him to come to Temple Square to learn more about the church, which he had been wanting to do, because some of his students are members of the church and he wants to know what exactly to believe.... Seriously family, this guy is GOLDEN!! Everything we taught him in our tour made sense to him. We taught him about Joseph Smith and the importance of prophets and apostles, and how it follows the exact order that Christ established when he was on the earth. He seriously is going to get baptized, ha ha. Everything completely made sense to him. We also, of course, talked about the Book of Mormon, and I had a really cool experience with that. I don't know why I started off this way, but I said something about how the Joseph Smith story would seem really bizarre to some people, and almost just ridiculous. But I know it's true. And the only way I know it's true is because I've read the Book of Mormon, and nothing in it is a lie. Nothing in it is contrary to the Lord's teachings. The spirit was seriously so strong, and the man was really into it. It was way cool! He also referred, so the missionaries will definitely be visiting him soon. I'm so excited for him!! 

It was SO nice to have this happen when it did. The night before (Friday night) we gave a tour to a couple from New Jersey who are both Roman Catholics.... I don't always like them very much. Haha. They were really nice and kind most of the tour, and then at the end the questions on polygamy and prophets and things like that came out. This man was EXTREMELY proud to be a Catholic... you could just feel it from him. He thought that "logically" it didn't make sense that God would take his gospel off the earth for so long, especially when Peter's direct descendant started Catholicism in 600 AD.... Well, where was the gospel during those 600 years? Who gave whoever the first Pope was the authority to begin the church again? And where in the Bible does it talk about Popes??! Just sayin. :) Anyway, this little old man made me upset. Ha ha. He was extremely stubborn and relied on the "history" of his church to prove that ours was wrong.... except our church has history from back in Adam's time!!! So there! :) He also had met a man that was a member of the church that had some strong opinions on poor people and how it's their own fault they're poor or something like that, so we took them to the Humanitarian section of the North VC. :) Ha, it was awesome. We also said how we don't have paid clergy.... Well, I said that. Ha ha. Evidence right there that we don't pay the Bishops! It all goes to humanitarian work around the whole world. Awww. This church is true.

Also, we finally got a hold of Faustina again!! (we hadn't been able to talk to her for a long time.) We taught her about the importance of the Book of Mormon in our conversion, and how you need to read it in order to get a testimony of this church. We also told her that when she finds out it's true (WHEN, not IF. :)) that she WILL want to act upon her answer by being baptized into the church, we then committed her to reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it to find out if it's true or not. :) Pray hard for cute little Faustina in Ghana!! We love her so much!  Also, we have a new investigator in Nigeria!! His name is Sowla (Show-la). He's super cool! He's trying to find a church that will work for him. This one will definitely work!! :) It was such a miracle how we got him. I got an inbound call from a lady in Texas named Mary who wanted to know how she could get Sowla to have the missionaries over. I was like, "Um... let me help you with that." :) ha ha. Got his address and number, called him up, sent the missionaries over. Bam. Conversion in motion.

Another cool miracle, Sis Barraza gave me a referral that she didn't want to call... ha. (she's from Spain and pretty much only calls spanish people in Mexico because they're WAY easier to teach than stubborn Americans, lol!) So I called her up, her name is Sabrina. It was so cool. We instantly became friends, ha! She has a learning problem where she can't remember things very well, so she had the missionaries teaching her in the past that she LOVED because they were very patient with her and took their time to teach her, etc. I was able to share with her my learning problems when I was younger and she instantly trusts me to teach/ call her!! It was so amazing. That trial that I went through for So long (and still sometimes struggle with) is helping me now on my mission. Seriously the coolest thing ever! The Lord gives us trials for a reason. Sometimes it takes 21 years to figure out why! :)

The last and most amazing miracle of all was this lady named Noelle. GOLDEN investigator, holy cow! We actually met her on chat. She asked us if she could go to our church on Sunday without being a member or knowing anything about it and we of course said YES!!  And then we talked to her a little bit about what happens in church, what to expect; we gave her the address for it too. And then she asked us if there was any way someone could teach her more about it.... ha! Sis Wilson and I looked at each other and were like.... "Um, would you like to have the missionaries over?" Ha ha! It was so amazing. We also got her phone number and she agreed to let us call her and teach her more over the phone. What an amazing woman. I'm so excited to be able to see all of these people progress. Hopefully they will!!

Well fam, I gotta email my Mission President now. I always forget. Ha. I love you all SOOO much!! Thanks Chan for the letter :) and Jord too, even though it was an email... which is cheating.. ;) ha, jk! I love you all and miss you lots. The mission is seriously the best thing ever. It's so hard, but so good for me. It's pushed me a lot! This church is so true!! The more I testify about it to people and read the Book of Mormon, the more I realize it really is so true. We have been so incredibly blessed to know this truth. :) I called another referral the other day who was someone who left the church a while back, and it made me so so sad. I honestly don't understand how it can happen to people, how they can know of the truth and then just... forget. It can happen to anyone though. Please PLEASE keep strong family!! I love you!!

~Sister Savage

Ps. I still don't respond to Sister Savage, because half of the time we are on the phones and I go by Natalie... ha ha. Funny huh? Guess I won't have that problem coming home. :)

Letter #7

February 20, 2012

Hi everyone!! 

Wow, I didn't realize how many people will be reading my emails, ha! I have so much to tell you guys this week!! So many things happened, it was a crazy week! But an awesome one too! 

First, I saw the guys from Kid History!! They walked right in front of me on the square! I was going to say hi but I thought it would be awkward, because I was behind them... ha. but it was cool! Also, I went to the temple for the first time this morning. :) WOW, that temple is insanely beautiful!! I couldn't even believe how pretty it was. I loved loved loved it! The old people are so adorable, haha! I liked the live session; its more entertaining than a regular session. ;) It made me appreciate what the pioneers truly did for us, mostly for the Lord. They knew with all of their hearts that this Church is true that they literally gave up all they had. I'm learning a lot about the pioneers here--Mom and Dad, if you could send me some pioneer stories with your emails I would love that! We have some in our script here too, but I would like to have a variety that I can share. 

THANK YOU to Emily and Jeff and Eva, mom, and April Griffiths for the packages!! I got 3 on Valentine's Day! :) Made me so happy! Ha! Everyone was jealous. Jeff and Em sent me a video of Eva and I just cried!! I love that beautiful girl!! Please pray that I get called to the Nauvoo Mission! ;) Really though, it was so much fun to get something in the mail. I didn't realize how great mail really is until I got out here, ha. Mom I actually did get your email this week, sometimes I don't have enough time to read and write though, so now I usually print off the emails and read them later. I did get it though. :) and wow, how cool that you had written me about Jan Risso and I didn't even read your email this week, ha! I kept thinking all last week how I needed to ask you about that though. Kinda cool! 

Also, could you get me Emily Anderson's address please? She sent me sugar cookies a while back (SO sweet of her) but I don't have her address to write and thank her. And call Sis Anderson and let her know I got them and thank you! :) so sweet of them! 

Well like I said, a lot happened this week! I got passed off on my tours, so now I can give the Elders (from the SLC mission) and their investigators a tour. :) Cool huh? They challenged us to pass-off after the second week and I did! Woot! Also, we had another baptism this week from two of my comps old investigators! Kenny and Barbara! Kenny's from Oregon, he's only 17 years old, coolest kid ever!! He and I clicked right away. He reminds me of one of my EFY boys (if you put this on the blog, Jordan he reminds me of one of our boys, I think his name's Tyler? The grey hat kid, ha! I can't remember anymore!) and Barbara is this sweet old lady from Florida. She is seriously the cutest! But the poor thing had another stroke a couple days before we called, and you can tell.  :( it made me so sad. But so happy that she has been baptized. We get to call these former investigators/converts every once-in-a-while and check up on them. 

So, highlight investigator of the week... definitely has to be Mark; he's from Uganda. He is seriously the coolest guy ever!! He's working in Rwanda right now, doing humanitarian work for the community, but he works with the Church all of the time. He was also a former investigator of Sis Wilson. He is seriously the man! He meets with missionaries once a week and they talk about what they can do to help keep Rwanda safe, service, and they give him kind of a brief discussion. Unfortunately, the Church is closed down right now. There aren't any Church meetings in Rwanda right now. So sad. This has been going on for about 3 months now. Mark is pretty upset by it!! He told us over the phone, "Pray for Rwanda! Pray for Rwanda! We need the Church again!" I think it's being closed down right now for safety reasons... not completely sure, he's hard to understand sometimes. Ha. So fam, keep Rwanda in your prayers so Mark and the missionaries can get Church going again!! We are so blessed to not have problems like that where we live, that we can have Church every week and not have it be closed down by the government. Crazy stuff!

Saturday was really fun! It's been pretty slow since I've been here, but a ton of people came this weekend. There were a couple of conferences and other things going on. We got 3 referrals on Saturday, which is a lot considering we only got like 8 the whole week, ha! Some of you are probably laughing at "only" 8 referrals. :) Yesterday, I got to give a tour to two people from Sao Paulo, Brazil. They were a really cool couple! They both asked us questions constantly about the church, which you don't always get, because a lot of people just want a tour; they don't want you "preach" to them. Angelo (the husband) is pretty much agnostic. He doesn't believe in organized religion, and he's completely into science. He thinks its silly, ha. His wife however, Rebecca, is Catholic and loves Jesus Christ. We took them up to the Christus and she LOVED it. She told us in very broken English that seeing Christ being depicted that way (instead of being on a cross) is much better. She said "I feel peace. Not sad." It was so cool! Unfortunately they didn't refer at the end, but I KNOW she felt the spirit when she saw the Christus. We explained to them how and why we have this statue of Christ, because the one with him on the cross is kind of gruesome. It's not happy. It doesn't translate into love, peace, hope... all of these things. Very cool. 

Right after this tour, we took a group of 3 around. I was on exchange with my District Leader Sis Carvana. She is so awesome!! She is an incredible missionary. She has a way of explaining things so simply and clearly, the people can really understand it and relate with her. Anyways, one of the ladies was from Austria which is where Sis. Carvana is from, so she pretty much gave the tour. But it was a really good learning experience for me. Her friends were both members of the Church (a married couple). You could tell they had so much love for her and wanted this for her SO bad, but I think they were kind of overwhelming her a bit... the man especially kind of took over the tour. The lady from Austria was Catholic, and it was pretty obvious that she wasn't interested in this right now. Sometimes all you can do is be a good example to others! Because shoving it down there throats doesn't always work so well. 

So Grandma and Grandpa asked me a few questions :) I'll try to answer them quickly. I don't have much time left. Teaching over the phone is still hard for me, ha! I have NEVER liked talking on the phone... everyone that knows me knows that, ha. But I'm getting better at it. It was really hard for me at first because I felt like a salesman. Anyways, to be honest it is exactly like teaching people in person, just a little different. We call them if they're a referral, get to know them a bit, explain how important this message is to their friend/ family that referred them, and then ask them if they would like to have the missionaries over. If they say yes, we then ask if we can teach them over the phone until the missionaries get there (sometimes it can take months, especially in other countries. All of our people from Africa take a long time) but ya! It's really cool. We teach them only for about 15 min though, so it's like half of the first lesson, sometimes less. But we always challenge them to read the BOM and pray and we actually pray with them over the phone. Pretty cool! 

A typical day is insane, to be honest. I never ever rest. Ha! We're always doing something. Here was my day yesterday: 

We have Church at 7:30am on Sunday; it's all of the sisters together, our mish president and Bishop and his counselors, and then the hosts that work in the JSMB pass the sacrament. Cute little old men. :) Then Zone meeting at 8:30 (right after Church), then its motors, which is texting investigators, calling them, or chatting online on mormon.org. Depends on what you are supposed to do on your schedule. Then we had lunch at 12, then square, (proselyting),then motors again at 3 (Sunday is a really good day to call people), then companion study ( we have 2 hours each day for the 12-week training), then dinner at 6, then square again at 7, then the Temple Construction desk in the South VC at 8, then home at 8:45, then daily planning at 9, then lights out at 10:30. And Usually we wake up and exercise at 6:30, then personal study at 7, then comp study at 9, and we have to be on the square at 10. \

I actually was in a session with Tad D. Callister this morning in the temple. :) Haha. Elder Perry walks the grounds every single morning before anyone is there. So cute! We're not allowed to talk to them though, only if they come up and talk to us first. My apartment is really nice! Just one bathroom, two bedrooms. It's really nice to only have 2 other roommates! 

Mom, could you maybe send me one of my other straighteners? They should be in the bottom drawer of my bathroom. Thanks! Also, I think I'm going to get my hair done next week... just fyi! 

Well family, I love you all. Thanks for all the love and support. I miss you and pray for you daily! :) Thanks for the prayers! I seriously feel them working! 

One more story I forgot to share...

I called this girl yesterday, she was a referral, and her name is Liz. Such a cute girl! I figured out that the less I sound like a professional, the more people will talk to me. Lol! I know that sounds so dumb but it seriously works!! Being on the phones can be so hard sometimes, especially because you have to build a relationship with these people and you can't see their faces, and they can't see yours! But anyways, I called her and I thought, "Heavenly Father, please just let me get one good phone call!" (I've been having some bad ones lately... people usually don't answer their phones too). Anyways, I called her, and it was like I was calling my best friend that I hadn't talked to in years. It was seriously amazing! She and I got along so great, I actually forgot the reason why I was calling her for a minute, ha! It was cool because I was able to share with her my testimony, and her friend’s testimony, and how this message I would share is so important to her friend Alyssa, and how she really wanted her to hear it. I think that really stuck with her. She didn't agree to meet with missionaries, but she agreed to have me send her a copy of the Book of Mormon, AND to teach her over the phone! :) I got my own investigator people! This is a big deal!! Haha! Calling people was seriously the scariest thing in the world, but it's getting so much easier! Especially when I have good experiences every once in a while... Hopefully Heavenly Father will help me out with that! ;) It's amazing how much I love these people. I've never even seen their faces before! But here on the mission it's crazy, because your love increases for people when you share your testimony with them... I had never thought of that before, until now. I'm learning so much, I just love it out here! 

Oh, and I forgot to mention that quote on the bottom... It's my new favorite quote, it was in the missionary quotes book Kate Stone gave to me. Tell her thank you again!! And tell Chandler to write me! ;) 

Love you all SO much! 

Sis Sav :)

PS. We can take people on tours pretty much anywhere now! Tell you more about it next week!   

"In this world, it is not what we take up, but what we give up that makes us rich." Henry Ward Beechler