Week #16

April 23, 2012

Hi Family!! 

Well, I'm no longer training!! Kind of exciting. We had a transfer conference this morning, bright and early, and Sister Crookston will be my new companion! She is a super cute, nice girl from Idaho! Still no foreign companion. :) But I'm okay with that for now. Getting used to a new culture and helping another companion with English would be a struggle... ha! 

Sis Crookston seems really nice.  She is completely different from my other companions. . . funny how the Lord works! :) ALSO, I'm now in Extended Zone!!! I'm SO excited to be in Extended!  Extended Zone is the zone that covers some of the Beehive House, Humanitarian Center and the Welfare Square. :) I'm very excited to have some change in my schedule!! Sister Crookston said that we will most likely be working the Humanitarian Center and Welfare Square because I drive.  Ha ha. Our new P-day will be on SATURDAYS. :) Should be a good transfer. I feel really good about it! I will be able to stay in the same apartment. My old Zone Leader, Sister Astorga (the one I went on that amazing Elder's tour with) is of course the new Assistant to the President! So awesome. The old Assistant is going outbound to Baton Rouge, LA. Transfer conference is seriously exciting here! 

Some other exciting news . . .  Melinda is getting baptized on May 14th!!! The day after Mother's Day.  I'm so stoked about it! 

Today is my 111th day on my mission (not like I'm counting :)). Cool, right?! Christie, congratulations on the new puppy!! Sister Mauga, my Zone Leader wants it... ha ha. She saw the picture behind me. :) 

Investigators: I'm sure I haven't told you about Ruby, so get ready for this . . . 

I had a man call in from mormon.org named Freddy who lives in AZ. His family is getting baptized in a few short weeks, and they have been telling his mother-in-law about the gospel, sending her the pamphlets, the Book Of Mormon, etc. Freddy told me that he didn't know how to get missionaries over to her house, so I was able to get her phone number from him and told him I would teach her until the missionaries got there. I called Ruby last Monday, and she called me back when I was gone on P-day.  She said that she wanted to meet with missionaries! So I called her back on Tuesday and talked to her for 45 minutes. 

Let me tell you a little bit about dear Ruby. . . Ruby is 82 years old. She was married to a Pentecostal pastor for years, but never fully believed in it.  They divorced a while ago.  She has 8 children that live all over the country, and her daughter Susan (who's married to Freddy) is the one who has been telling her about the church. This woman has been waiting for the gospel for 82 years!!! She has done so much for her children.  She is getting old, but she is a very sharp woman. I love her SOOO much!! She is seriously the cutest elderly lady you have ever spoken with. I will not be surprised at all if she gets baptized within the month!

Another cool story about Ruby. . . I sent her referral in to the missionaries (she's in Indiana).  It had literally been only ONE DAY since I sent the referral in when the missionaries just happened to be tracting the street dear Ruby lives on. . . She saw them from across the street knocking other doors and got scared. She thought they were missionaries for Jehovah's Witnesses and was scared. But, when the missionaries came and knocked on her door, (I nearly cried when she told me this) and she peeked through the window and saw their name tags with Jesus Christ on it, she knew it was our missionaries. 

There are no coincidences with the Lord. There is a reason why the missionaries were knocking doors on her street that day. I am SO thankful that those 2 elders listened to the Spirit and knocked on those doors that day. I am so thankful for this gospel, and, just like the parable of the laborers in the field, it DOES NOT MATTER what age you receive the gospel.  He will give us each the same reward. My heart goes out to poor Ruby, and others like her, who "are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it." (D&C 123:12) That is why I am here. That is my calling, to help those who have been wandering in darkness like the people in Lehi's dream. They have no light to guide them! After 82 years Ruby will finally be able to receive a "flashlight" from me and those elders in Indiana to help her discover for herself the ultimate light-- the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

We had another miracle this week. Gary has accepted the baptismal commitment for May 12th! :) Two baptisms in 2 days!! How awesome, right? My first two baptisms on my mission! :) 

We had Zone Conference on Wednesday, which was awesome. Then Thursday was Sister Wilson's birthday!! :) We went to the Cheesecake Factory for her birthday and I bought her a slice of cheesecake. :) It was so fun. I think she had a wonderful birthday. On Sunday we were able to get a hold of Mark again! He had been out of town . . . what an awesome guy. We talked about the Priesthood and how he will have the opportunity to hold it some day when the church comes back to Rwanda. I think he really loved that idea. Please continue to pray for Rwanda!! Sister Wilson was so cute. . . she cried as she said goodbye to Mark. :(  He has been an investigator of hers for almost her whole mission!! I think this is only mission in the world where you can have the same investigator for a little more than a year!! Please, please pray for Rwanda. I think the church is close to getting re-established there, but it still has a way to go... we need Mark to be able to be baptized!! 

 I know that this gospel is true. I want so badly to express the feelings I have here on my mission, the joy that I have felt from these souls coming unto Christ. It is literally the greatest thing ever! I have never been so happy in all my life. I had a few hard things happen this week, but looking at the good just isn't hard to do here on the mission. I feel very, very blessed to be here. Temple Square is a very special place. There is a spirit here unlike any other! 

I love you all. Thank you so much for your prayers and support. I LOVE it here. I'm so glad I made the choice to come here!! :) 

Love always, 

Sister Savage 

Week #15

Hi family!

Wow, can you believe I only have one more week in my second transfer?!! This transfer has literally flown by!!! Thank you SO much for those numbers, family! 

First, I wanted to let you know, mom and dad, how thankful I am for you two. Sis Wilson and I have talked abotu this a few times, but she never once had family scripture study and prayer growing up. she always did it on her own. She didn't even know it was a commandment! Thank you, THANK YOU for everything you have done for me Mom and Dad! You will never be able to fully understand how much that changed my life, reading and praying together as a family. I love you SO much. I owe my life to you both. I wish I could express to you how grateful I am for you two! I was on my knees for a long time the other night thanking our Heavenly Father that I was "born of goodly parents." I am very, very lucky to have you both as my earthly parents. Thank you so much.

Thank you for all the comments on my emails!  I feel very blessed to have so many great family and friends reading these emails. It means a lot to me!

This week was a good week. It really flew by! This was by far the fastest week on my mission! (I have a feeling the rest of my mission will be this way too... ha!) We had a little quote we followed this week after weekly planning. It was this: "Say no to Satan!!!" HAHA! Love it. It worked too! ;) I'm trying to do better at not letting Satan get me down. He really works hard on us sisters. He knowws he can discourage us pretty easily and make us feel inadequate... but we are not!!! Never I say! I thought of D&C 84:88:  And whoso ^areceiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go ^bbefore your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my ^cSpirit shall be in your hearts, and mine ^dangels round about you, to bear you up.

Love that scripture. We talked to Papricia again on Wednesday, and she is SO awesome! She's originally from the Congo (do you say THE Congo, or just Congo? anyways...) She spoke French growing up but now lives in Colorado with her husband and can speak fluent English. Her husband is from Mongolia...! Crazy right? He speaks fluent Russian and French, and no English. Ha! She didn't ever say he spoke Mongolian which is what I assumed he would speak... crazy. Anyways, she has a very strong faith in Christ. She's Catholic, and she has actually taken the discussions before. I get the feeling that she's not too strong in her faith though. And, she actually lived in Salt Lake City for a while!!! Random, right? She lived with her cousin here, and I think her sister and brother-in-law lived here too. Her sister and brother-in-law both joined the church a few years ago and told her to meet with missionaries, so she did. Still not sure why she stopped... she hasn't answered the phone since. :( Stupid Satan. Ha, jk. But seriously. Whenever a phone disconnects or someone doesn't answer, we (all the sisters in this mission) say either "Satan's on the line!" or we just blame it on Satan. Ha! Missionaries are so great. Anyways, Papricia seems to be more interested in meeting with missionaries now. It sounded like she was just kind of forced into it before... but she called in this time. So I don't know, we'll see what happens with her. 

Sister  Wilson and I fasted for our investigators on Thursday. We've been really worried about them. Satan keeps getting in our way. ;) But seriously, they're either not answering the phone or they're not answering their phone!! K, they're just not answering their phones. Ha. I start to get kind of anxious though when they don't answer for a period of time. You just wonder what happened. I always worry that they aren't interested anymore.... But wow, Heavenly Father seriously answers prayers!! Sometimes in a different way than we expect, sometimes quickly, and sometimes a lot longer than we expect... but he ALWAYS answers. This same day while we were fasting, we called Melinda back. She was an inbound call, calling for a Bible. She agreed to have missionaries bring it over to her and teach her more about it, and also agreed to have us teach her over the phone. Well, Melinda answered!!! Also, she left me a voicemail last Monday but I obviously wasn't there because I was here in the JSMB emailing all of you. :) But all her voicemail said was to call her back, so we did! We taught her the Plan of Salvation. When we told her that she lived with God before this life, she said, "Wow, I've never thought of that before." I asked her what that meant to her, and she simply said "A Lot." SO great. The spirit was so strong, I could literally feel it testifying to her. We also told her about the Book of Mormon, and how it helps us know about the Plan of Salvation. She asked us how she could get one (meaning a Book of Mormon.) :) Sis Wilson and I just smiled at each other, ha. It was so awesome. We could literally feel her just eating all this up. It was so awesome!! She totally opened up to us about her life, too. She used to be a drug addict, in prison for stealing, wandering on the streets homeless... She had 2 children out of wedlock that she gave up for adoption when she was very young. I think maybe in highschool... but she now has 5 kids and has totally cleaned up her life, but just 2 years ago she was in prison again for robbing a store. She told us she wants to change-- for good! And we testified to her that the missionaries (and us) can help her do that. Fasting works people, ha! It was so amazing.

But wait, it gets better.

She said the missionaries set up an appointment to meet with her for the next day (Friday), so we told her we would call her on Monday and that we wanted to hear all about it!! So that's what we did today! She LOVED it, she said they helped her understand really well the Book of Mormon and the Bible, and how the BOM is very similar to the Bible, but also what it helps us understand. It was way cool! She said the missionaries were over there for over an hour too. She's already read the 2nd chapter of 1 Nephi. :) I love missionary work so much, its soooo amazing!

Also, Long Su is meeting with missionaries!!!! Long Su's wife Mai answered the phone and said the sister missionaries were coming over that day!! So awesome!! And Gary also met with missionaries over the weekend!!!! Yes. 3 of our dear, dear souls are meeting with missionaries!!! the Lord has blessed us so, so much! Mark is also still doing good. He unfortunately didn't answer today, but we got to talk to him for a long time last week and he sounds as awesome as ever! I love that the Wilkes are over there helping out with missionary work. So cool!

Well, I should probably get going. I studied a really cool chapter in Acts 8 about the priesthood that you should look up. Verses 9-20. The church is so true it's ridiculous!! I LOVE the priesthood! I feel so blessed and privileged to have grown up in a house with 3 different priesthood holders at one time. Thank you Dad, Jeff, Brad and now Stephen for being worthy priesthood holders. You have no idea how much it means to us girls!! Everytime we give an Elders tour, I realize how true the priesthood really is. The elders always have a difference between them and us sisters. I wish I had that power sometimes! ;) Seriously though, all you men out there-- Be worthy of your priesthood! You have such a sacred calling as priesthood holders. Please cherish that. Please be worthy of it. You have no idea how much us girls need it!

Also, Christie and Brooks, you two should go to the Provo City Center Temple Groundbreaking!!! It's May 12 at 9am. That would seriously be the coolest thing ever!! I want to go so bad! :(

One more thing... Find London on my Facebook and just email me her number. I don't think I have her number on my phone, but I might so you can check that too. Thank you again!

I love you all. Thank you for your prayers! I feel them all the time.

Love,

Sister Savage

Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Week #14

(Picture taken with Rachael Judd from Granite Bay)

April 9, 2012

Hi family! 

Thank you so much for the updates on everything! I love hearing about your lives and what you are all up to. And holy cow!! Is little Genevieve really due in a few weeks??!! I can't believe that... crazy! Cute little Eva will be a big sister like me! :) 

Wow, this week was absolutely incredible. I have been so blessed in SO many ways!! This week was one of the most incredible weeks of my mission. Sister Wilson and I truly saw the fruit of our labors, and my goodness... How sweet is that fruit!! I have literally been able to feel my faith and strength increase in this work. It has been incredible. I have a testimony of General Conference and missionary work that comes out of it-- HOLY COW!! The spirit is SO strong on Temple Square during Conference weekend. These members truly were inspired to refer the friends that they did. What a blessing to be a missionary here. I literally wouldn't change this experience for the world! Heavenly Father truly loves me and is taking care of me. I'm so incredibly lucky that the Lord trusts me enough to preach His gospel. 

In mom and dad's email, it helped me think about how much the Lord has blessed me intellectually. It's a miracle that I'm able to talk to people, and it is not a problem! I really can't remember saying those things that Grandma Orchard sent me -- but I can feel it. I know that I did have that experience, not because I still remember it, but because the Spirit testified to me that the Lord did help me out during those hard times. 

We had the opportunity to go to the temple this morning! (Since we went as a zone last week before Conference, we were able to go again today. Hooray!) We did initiatories which was absolutely incredible. I had forgotten so much. It was the perfect reminder to me of the blessings the Lord has promised to us that keep his commandments. I LOVE the temple so much!! We also got to do sealings!!! Sister Wilson and I were the children for the sealing ordinance. :) It was SO cool. Sister Wilson and I talked about it a little bit afterward and realized how much the gospel really works line upon line, precept upon precept. 

2 Nephi 28:30 explains this so perfectly: "For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more..." 

D&C 50:24 talks about this too: "That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day." 

Isn't it cool that the Lord uses the word light to describe this? It makes absolute sense-- the more light you have, the more knowledge you have. I have really come to see this on Temple Square from people that aren't members of the church. Half the time they ask questions about things that they don't understand-- that they CANT understand-- because they do not have the basic light and knowledge the Gospel brings. I'm so thankful to my Heavenly Father that I know these things to be true. I'm so thankful to have the opportunity now to help others come to know the same! 

We had a fun mission meeting last Monday. We watched Kung Fu Panda 2 and had mexican catering. YUM. So, so good! And we also got gelato Sunday night from President for reaching our conference mission goal. :) I seriously have the best mission ever! (We're actually watching Megamind today, totally reminding me of Brad! "Olo! I mean, Hello?" :) ha ha!) 

I had a super funny experience on the phone on Wednesday. At Conference, I started talking to a member who wanted me to call her inactive sister from California. (Whoo whoo! Saving my people, one Californian at a time!) So I called this girl (I always call twice in a row because people answer the 2nd time) and this is what her voicemail said: "You've reached Summer from Social Night Club. Leave a message!" HA HA!!! I literally laughed SO hard, probably the hardest I've laughed my whole mission. It was the funniest thing ever. Don't you worry family and friends-- I will convert this apostate child of God! :) 

Despite this phone call, Wednesday was seriously a MIRACLE day. We had 4 people refer in the same day. 4 PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't even know this was possible, HA HA! We took a woman on a tour who referred from West Virginia (Sister Wilson is super excited about that--she's saving her people now too! :) Then my friend Kat who referred 5 of her friends--one of them referred to meet with missionaries! Awesome! And then we had a girl named Megan and a guy named Chris from Hawaii refer as well. Megan is an AWESOME girl-- she's so solid. There is no doubt in my mind that she will join this church! Three of these referrals were from General Conference. Do you see now how POWERFUL General Conference is?!! It uplifts the members of the church. But it's not just for us-- it's for these children of God who have not yet received the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They feel this power. They feel the Spirit. I know they feel it! I don't know of any other circumstance where 4 non members would agree to meet with missionaries in one day. Absolutely amazing! General Conference is TRUE! :) I really do have a completely different outlook on General Conference now that I have been a missionary during it. I love being tired in the Lord. It is literally the greatest feeling ever!! We all are still talking about our miracles from Conference-- we wish it were every weekend! My District Leader reminded us that we would all die of exhaustion though... ha ha. :)

Christie, do you remember a boy named Cooper Leavens? He said he knows you. He gave me 3 referrals. :) He's the cutest boy ever! I'm sure you people from Rocklin know him too. He's getting ready to go on a mission. So awesome! His really good friend Nolan who has actually taken the discussions referred to meet with missionaries again! Not sure why he stopped, so Sis Wilson and I will have to figure that out. He seems like a great kid that just wants to do what's right. I'm really, really excited for him. He referred on Thursday. Literally a week of miracles!! So blessed! 

I also went on exchanges with my ZL on Saturday. WOW. That was absolutely incredible! We gave a Spanish tour (she's from Guatemala) so I didn't understand hardly a word anybody said... like literally 5 words, haha, but it was the best tour I've ever been on. The spirit was so thick, you could feel it so strong!! This man is named Sergio, he is from the area and has a little boy who's the cutest thing you've ever seen. He's going through a divorce right now, but all he wants is to have a good strong family. Did I mention his wife is a member? Not a great example of one though. I got to testify to him a few times and then Sis Astorga (my ZL) would translate for me. She loved when I helped out because I would talk slowly and very simply. She said he actually understood most of what I said to him when I did say something (he only knew a little English), I thought that was cool. At the end of the tour the Elders committed him to baptism, and he said yes! But guess what the date was for? Sunday, the 8TH OF APRIL. They literally committed him for baptism the next day. HAHA!! So, so crazy! What a miracle!! 

Sunday was such a BEAUTIFUL day here on Temple Square. I'm literally taken away by the beauty of it! Sister Wilson was able to announce, so we had a good busy day full of tours. It was really fun. The people that we took around had amazing questions too! It was interesting... there was one couple in our tour (a group of 3 couples) that were silent the whole time. I watched them for a few minutes, and I felt like I needed to go up to the guy myself and start talking to him just one-on-one.  Sure enough, he totally opened up to me, asked me tons of questions about the priesthood, the temple, etc. He had amazing questions! And he agreed with everything I said, too! I learned a great lesson from this. I need to be 1. OBSERVANT when approaching people and 2. sensitive to the SPIRIT'S promptings. It was a really good reminder for me. 

We also had kind of a sad experience on Sunday. We gave a tour to a couple who was from Dubai. They were the nicest people you've ever met in your life! Cute little newly-wed couple too. We were talking about where they were traveling to. (They were on a month-long vacation. Sounds nice huh?) Omar said, "Out of all the cities I have been in the world, which I've been to a lot, Salt Lake City has SOUL. I feel it's soul!"  That was the only way this man knew how to explain the Spirit that he was feeling on Temple Square. Incredible, huh?! It was so sad though.  They wanted to meet with missionaries, but we don't have any in Dubai.  They were non-practicing Muslims, but their families are very strong Muslims. There was literally nothing we could do for them. I wanted to cry!! After he said this, we went to the temple model, and I explained the temple and the importance of it to us.. they LOVED it. We went to the Assembly Hall and told them about how much the pioneers sacrificed for what they knew to be true. They wanted to have that same conviction for their beliefs. The entire tour they couldn't stop talking about the "soul" of SLC and the beauty of Temple Square, the temple, etc. They can't meet with missionaries. We can't give them a Book of Mormon. We can't call and teach them more. We had to let them walk away, knowing that they might not ever come back; knowing that they might forget what they felt here. It was heart-wrenching. I'm so thankful for the circumstances I live in! 

However, I had yet another miracle today. I called a man named Gary back today. He had asked to have missionaries over and teach him more about the Book of Mormon a month ago but no one came. I sent missionaries over again, and asked him why he wanted to meet with missionaries so bad. He has read some of the Book of Mormon. He's prayed about it, and he literally explained to me that the Spirit of God told him it was true. He wasn't even sure what to call it at first, but he "felt different." I committed him to be baptized, and he said yes! :) 

Family and friends, I know that this church is true with all of my heart. There is no other church that has the fullness of the gospel as we do. I am so thankful to God for providing me with this gospel in my life and the opportunity and privilege to share it with others. "Hooray for Israel!" I am so thankful for the Easter season-- that I can remember my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as a resurrected being. "Oh sweet the joy this sentence gives, I know that my Redeemer Lives." 

Love always, 

Sister Savage 

General Conference Weekend = AMAZING!

Introduction from Mom:

For those of you who don't know. . . Natalie was born with a serious foot problem and had to wear orthotic shoes as a newborn.  Unfortunately, I was very naive and didn't quite "fix" her feet and have tons of "mother guilt" now.  She has had pain every day of her life and never mentioned it to me because she assumed everyone had foot pain every day.  She finally mentioned it to me about a year ago.  A local Podiatrist told us Natalie needs surgery, but there was never a time to have the surgery.  Natalie really wanted to go on her mission and saw another Podiatrist in Provo who made some orthotics for her and let her go on her mission.  :)  (Hopefully, you will now understand that Natalie's foot pain in her e-mail below is not the normal sore feet from being on your feet all day.)

Our family had an incredible conference weekend and would love to go to the Conference Center to watch conference every year!  It was such a good experience for our family (we've never been).  :)  Seeing Natalie was quite the highlight too!  Natalie's Mission President gave her and her companion permission to have dinner with us for an hour on Friday night.  But, we ran into Natalie twice that afternoon before our dinner.  :)  We wanted to show our kids Temple Square, where Natalie was serving.  While we were in the South Visitor's Center, Brad started talking to a sister missionary from Africa (who spoke Portuguese as her native language).  Because Brad and the African sister spoke Portuguese for so long, we were in the right place at the right time and Natalie and her companion walked through the door and we surprised each other!   Then, when our family was in the North Visitor's Center looking at the Christus, Natalie and her companion walked in while she was giving a tour to a couple from Sweden.  It was wonderful seeing Natalie "in action" doing her missionary work.  Very fun!  A memory we will never forget.

I've attached some pics.  I never cried in front of Natalie, but as soon as I stepped foot on Temple Square, I started crying and had a hard time stopping.  The Spirit was so strong there.  (I'm sure it didn't help that I knew my daughter was on those grounds somewhere. )   :)  The last picture attached is of Natalie & her companion going back to Temple Square after eating with us. . . I just had to sneak one last memory.  :)  

Thank you for all of your support.  It warms my heart to see Natalie accomplishing this great thing, especially with all of her constant challenges in life with learning.  I feel like the Lord has blessed her with miracle after miracle because of her hard work and righteous desires.

General Conference Weekend = AMAZING!

Hi Everyone!!

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRAD!!!! Wow, you're a quarter of a century old. :)  I love you so much Brad! You're emails always inspire me to be better. Thank you for always uplifting me! :)

Family, it was SO good to see all of you at Temple Square on Friday! ha ha. It was kind of a shock when I first saw you, but it instantly felt completely normal. I LOVED seeing you!! I think it gave me a boost for Conference weekend, honestly! Thank you for letting us give you a spiritual thought too... I would have loved to just chat with you, but it was fun to share something with you too. Thanks for letting us do that. :)  Sister Wilson is fun.  And yes, in a strange way she does remind me of Emily... wish they could've come too :)

Well family, I don't know if I told you... but we had a goal as a mission for the number of referrals we were going to receive this weekend at General Conference!

Are you ready for this?!

Our mission goal was ... 7,162 referrals!!!

Can you believe that?! Ha ha. NUTS. But guess what?!

We BEAT our goal!! In total we got 7,541 referrals in just 2 days. Incredible!!!

Our goal as a companionship was to get 100 referrals. We got 86!!! Pretty good, huh?! We actually only got 35 on Saturday which we were sad about. At first I thought there was no way we were going to be able to reach our goal. But the next day we got 51 referrals! No we didn't reach our goal, but we had faith enough to at least get 16 more than we did the day before. It was pretty good for my first General Conference. :) There are not very many people that can say they received 86 member referrals in 2 days!

WOW, Conference was incredible. We were able to attend the Sunday afternoon session at the conference center, and I know now more than EVER that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. As soon as he walked in, everyone stood up and it went silent.  The Spirit was SO incredibly strong! What an honor to be able to hear a prophet of God speak. We sat right in the front, on the very far left side. I've never seen the prophet and apostles so close before! It was an incredible experience. I have to say my favorite talk (that I heard) was Elder M. Russell Ballard's.  What a great man. His talk was so powerful! It made me think of my major and all the things that I study about (divorce, early pregnancy, etc.) I love that he focused so much on the family, and how the gospel of Jesus Christ improves the family so much. I also thought it was interesting to hear him say that people with less education tend to have less success economically, less likely to marry, go to church, and have a higher rate of crime. But, when people make the gospel the center focus of their lives, they do better spiritually AND temporally!! We'll literally have more success in our jobs when we live the gospel. It makes perfect sense too-- when we live the gospel, we develop Christ-like attributes. We become better people. We develop skills like charity, empathy, kindness, hard work, dedication, obedience, faith-- the list goes on. When we have these attributes, they help us become better in every single aspect of our lives. It literally improves EVERY other aspect of life. I also loved that he mentioned Christ-like service. I definitely believe there is such a thing as unChrist-like service. The kind of "service" that people do for recognition and personal gain. I think our world has definitely fallen into that trap of doing service just for themselves more than for others . . . so sad!!  I'm so glad to know that the prophet and his apostles are called of God, that they are inspired to help us become better. Just look at the world around us that doesn't have that-- they are definitely missing TRUE happiness in their lives!!

I also LOVED Elder Neil L. Andersen's talk. It was SO so great. He talked a lot about discipleship, and what it means to be a disciple of Christ. I also LOVED the story he told of the 3 children that survived in the Haiti earthquake.  All of us sister missionaries were sitting together just crying our eyes out, lol. Pretty funny. But that was quite the amazing story.  Angels truly are upon the earth.

This weekend was literally jam-packed full of miracles!! It was so amazing. I was really worried about my feet on Friday, because we literally would be on our feet from 8am to 9:50pm on Saturday. (Yes, we didn't get home until 1000 pm on Saturday. . .  NUTS.) But it was amazing, I only felt my feet hurt inbetween contacts. Every time I was talking to someone, I was so focused on who I was talking to that the pain went away--or at least I didn't notice the pain. It was such a cool experience. I am so thankful for my Heavenly Father for giving me such a tender mercy. As insignificant as I am, he still helped me out by distracting me from the pains of my feet. Sunday was even better too! It helped being able to sit down for a couple of hours to watch conference.  My feet literally started hurting when we were walking to the square at 7:00 am in the morning. . . I was SO nervous.  I knew Heavenly Father would help me out. . . and he did. 

I am so lucky to be able to be a missionary here on Temple Square. It really is the best mission in the WORLD! I have been discouraged lately with people not answering their phones (Mat and Logan never answered, so I'll have to drop them soon.), but this truly is the Lord's work.  86 referrals later!, I KNOW this is the Lord's work. I am so inadequate, and I knew this would be a really hard weekend for me, because of my dislike for contacting on the square... ha ha, but every fear and doubt I had left me. Yes, I still did have moments throughout the day where I get nervous again, but I have been truly strengthened by it.

I got SUPER sunburned on Saturday. . . ha ha. It was so funny. Sister Wilson and I still kind of look like lobsters lol. :)  We only had 20 minutes to eat all of our meals all weekend because there was so much work to do. I was on my feet talking to people from 8:00 am- 9:50 pm, on Saturday and then 8:00 am- 8:30 pm on Sunday, and I can honestly say it felt AMAZING! I loved every last minute of it. I LOVE being Tired in the Lord!!! :)

To answer mom's questions...

1. I work at Temple Square, the Relief Society Building, the Church History Museum, the Conference Center, and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We can't proselyte/ contact at the last 4 places-- we only take visitors there on a tour.

2. It is usually between 2- 5 hours a day that we're on the phones.

3. We eat either at home or in the kitchen, which is on the second floor of the South Visitor’s Center.

4. Yes. :) Ha ha.

5. The tan skirt worked AMAZINGLY well. :) Thank you so much!!! Now I have everything I need. :)

I love you all so much. Thank you for the incredible amount of support you have given me!  I'm so lucky to have such an amazing family and group of friends.

Before I go, let me just list the people I saw that I knew this weekend. :) ha ha. . .

1. Bryan Sebesta-- he's such a great guy!! He let me get his number so I can call him and get referrals from him. :)

2. President Murphy!!! I literally saw him 3 different times! And, I was able to see his family too.

3. Taylor Judd! :)

4. Hailey Augustus, a friend from Women's Chorus. We went to several basketball games together :)

5. Kaylee, also a friend from Women's Chorus :)

6. Austin Garbrick!! And, I was able to meet his cute girlfriend too!

7. Lacy Schmoekel! I can't believe how grown up she is, SO crazy!!  

8. Kathryn Grebe, from my ward last semester!! She was in my dinner group too. She gave me 5 referrals, all of her good friends from back home!! I feel so privileged to call them for her!! :) THANKS KAT!

9. Emily Anderson!! I got to thank her for the cat cookies. :)

10. CHAN-MAN!!! :) It was SO much fun to see him!! and SO weird that I couldn't hug him... ha ha.

11. Tanner and Taylor Hughes!! I accidentally did hug Taylor... LOL. Don't really know what came over me!

Funny story-- I introduced myself as Natalie about 5 different times to random people-- LOL! It was pretty funny.  :)

Also, my picture is on the lds.org website!! Sister Wilson and I have an umbrella and are walking outside in the freezing cold. Oh, did I mention I forgot my coat and it was only 40 degrees outside on Sunday?!?!!  Sunburn + freezing cold +lack of sleep + sore feet =  AWESOME. :) Perfect combination as a missionary if you ask me!

I think that's it... sorry if I forgot anyone, ha! But it was so much fun to see so many different people that I knew!

Love you all heaps and bunches!!

Sister Savage