Week #27

July 21, 2012

Hello family!! 

Sounds like you're all doing great this week! Mom got a new puppy (which is literally THE cutest dog I have ever seen!!) I can't believe you finally gave in, mom ...ha ha!, Stephen with EFY (didn't tell me about it though... I wanna hear all about it!), Brad with the hot date (woot woot!! :)), and Jeff with that awesome talk! I loved every bit of it! Thanks so much for all the wonderful emails, family. You are so wonderful! 

So, I'm in the same assignment (of course) as the Office Assistant, and my new companion is named Sister Albanes. She is seriously Awesome!!! She's only in her 3rd transfer, but she's an amazing girl with a bright spirit and such a strong desire to be here. It's been really fun having her in the office with me this week! I think she's really enjoying it so far. :) She's absolutely beautiful too! Originally from El Salvador, but moved to Australia when she was young, and then moved to Atlanta, Georgia when she was 15. She's almost 25, but she literally looks like she's 19, ha! Lucky! :) She's been super helpful in the office, willing to do whatever I ask her and catching up on things quickly! She's definitely more soft-spoken than Sister Richardson... and when I say definitely, I mean completely. :) She has a quiet confidence and spirit about her that is awesome. She's very willing to work hard and always wants to do better each day!

I'm really hoping I'll be able to be in the office for the next transfer too... I LOVE working here!! It's amazing to be able to help out so much.  I hope I can stay in the office longer.  Whatever the Lord wants will be best I guess! :) Sister Richardson's new companion is coming straight from the MTC! I will miss Sister Richardson’s funny humor. I can't wait to go visit her in Scotland someday!! :) ha ha... just sayin!

So one really fun thing about Sister Albanes is that she's almost fluent in Spanish because of her parents being from El Salvador, so we get to take Spanish tours! Yay! We have only had time to take one so far because of how busy the office is this week, but we're definitely going to get a lot this summer!! I'm really excited about it! It's fun to be able to feel the spirit even when another language is being spoken that I hardly understand. The gospel of Jesus Christ truly is a world-wide message. :) 

This week, I've really tried harder to rely on the Lord, and have prayers that are more of a conversation than a one-way conversation to Heavenly Father. I was talking with the AP's the other day (they are in the office almost all day long, or doing some other form of service for us Sisters) and they said that they have completely changed this office around so that they can get at least a couple hours a day of being on the square and calling potentials. Sister Astorga said, "It's all a choice! You just have to choose to make time and focus on missionary work!" They talked about how when they pray, they tell Heavenly Father that they only have a certain amount of time each day to do pure missionary work, because of the assignment that they have been given as Assistants to the President. But because of that desire to do missionary work and to be the best they can despite everything they have to get done for the mission, they are able to see MANY miracles a day. The assistants alone had 6 baptisms last transfer... That's almost more than I've had my whole mission, ha ha!! But how cool to see that when they have that hour or two to completely focus on mission work, they do! And Heavenly Father pours out blessings upon them for that. The AP's have really been a great example to me of this, and I've been trying to do the same thing. I definitely get a LOT more time to do missionary work each day than they do, but I really want to gain that faith and trust in Heavenly Father that, as I do my assignment that I've been asked to do and then completely draw all my attention to mission work, He will bless me because of my efforts. As long as I try to gain a greater relationship with my Savior every day, He WILL help me out! I've even noticed tiny miracles that happen throughout the day that really tell me that He's there, and that He cares. The Lord truly pours out His tender mercies on those that strive to do their best!! 

So, here are some of the miracles for the week! 

Sister Albanes and I called Terry and Brian yesterday afternoon but they didn't answer... I was pretty sad about this, but tried not to let it get me too down. It was the first time we called so they might not have answered because they didn't recognize the number.  We had an hour of TC this morning, and guess who I had a message from??!! TERRY! I was SO excited about it... She said thanks for the call, she thought it was really sweet that I had thought of them, and then she proceeded to tell me some of the single greatest things I've heard on my mission. 

1. She decided to go to OUR church last Sunday, the day she came home from her trip! She found out where it was, what time it started, everything! Amazing, huh?! 

2. She met the "head honcho" of the local church there (AKA the Bishop... I just thought that was hilarious! Head honcho, ha!) 

3. She talked with him, asked him some questions about our church, and then agreed to meet with missionaries to get more information about our church!!! I nearly collapsed and cried all at the same time, ha ha!! Terry actually did this ALL on her own, and she said it was because, "I was so impressed with your church in Salt Lake City... the temple, you as missionaries how much you gave up, the early members of your church... everything is just incredible! You really impressed us a lot and we just had to learn more." 

Can you say, MIRACLE?! I definitely can! I LOVE this work. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love my Savior!! And, I love that I have the opportunity to be out here and share this with my fellow brothers and sisters. I can't even tell you how amazing this place is. I never, ever want to leave. I honestly thought near the beginning of my mission that I wouldn't be one of those people that missed my mission. I thought I would be someone that would be very happy to go home and just "relax." :) But now my whole perspective has changed. Being here is the greatest thing I have ever done, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. Thank you for supporting me, for loving and encouraging me as I go through this journey. I honestly couldn't do it without you all! 

Please seek to help those around you. Seek to find those people that are prepared for the gospel! Now more than ever I have realized how LAME I was as a member missionary!! It is our obligation to share this blessing with others. And who knows? Those people that we share this gospel with could have been our friends that we hung out with in the Spirit World that didn't get the privilege of being born into a family with the Gospel, but asked us to PROMISE them that we would find them, and bring them back to the truth. One of my favorite quotes is from Nelson Mandela that I'll share with you :) 

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."- Nelson Mandela Inaugural speech 1994. 

I know that this is true, family! We can't fear-- what we are fearing is our POWER. What a perfect tactic Satan uses to take us down! To keep this gospel to ourselves. And he uses it all the time. He turns good into bad, and bad into good. Don't listen to him!! (It's like when we sisters get disconnected from our phone call to Africa or somewhere, "Get off the line, Satan!" :) 

So a few other short miracles before I go, and then my emailing time is over. :) 

1. We saw Elder Oaks on the square yesterday!!! He was with his cute wife and his grandkids. Ha! So fun to see an apostle 5 feet away from me! 

1. Sister Albanes' investigator answered the phone yesterday! She's meeting with missionaries tomorrow, and we taught her a wonderful lesson on the phone that really was spirit led. We shared with her Alma 32, and she thought it disagreed with the Bible in saying that we can't only have a desire to believe in order to have our faith begin to grow (Alma 32:27). The spirit reminded me of the story in Mark 9 about the man who brought his son to Jesus that had a devil in him... He said at first that he believed when Jesus asked him, but then quickly said, "Help thou mine unbelief." Would you agree that this man had a desire to believe, but couldn't quite develop that faith yet because of doubt? I would say so. When I shared that with her, the phone got quiet for a second and she tried to disagree again... but the spirit was too strong for her. :) so fun. 

3. We took an amazing investigator lesson that maybe I'll tell you about next week. It really was incredible! 

I love you all more than you know!! Thank you for all you do, and for all your support. 

Love, 

Sister Savage :) 

Week #26

July 14, 2012

Hola, familia!

Thanks so much for all the WONDERFUL emails!! :) So many people in our family wrote me this week ...I truly am so blessed! Dad, honestly, your prayers are incredible!! My feet since we've been running have been so great! The first week I was actually starting to get blisters on them... but slowly they just started going away, and we've run almost everyday since then!! My knees are still adjusting I think, but once I buy a knee brace it'll help me out a lot. The other day we decided to do the canyon run and then do an "ab workout." It was really good, but holy cow!! Since I've just been focusing on running, I've lost strength in my abs and arms... I'll need to get those back more when the canyon closes for the winter. ha!

This week was really good. Sister Richardson and I have been super busy in the office this week getting ready for Transfer Conference on Monday.. (Holy cow, can you believe its already here??!! Again?!) We've had a loooot of stuff to do. Because we have different key indicators, we have to print off different stickers as well. So we had to do that this week, calculate how many stickers each companionship needs, update the blog (which you should look at!! I put up some fun pics from 4th of July), schedule interviews for the departing sisters, figure out who's coming back from outbound and the new sisters, plus the sisters that are going outbound this transfer (they only have 6 going), and then change ALL of the lists for the mission... Meaning the phone lists, language lists, pyramid and apartment lists. WHEW! We've also had to do our normal things like doing daily and weekly numbers, sending the Chinese referrals to the Area Authority in China, etc. It's seriously been crazy!! Monday and Tuesday are going to be even crazier though. Hopefully we can be out on the square at least for a few hours!!

One of the funniest things of my mission happened to me this week. Sister Richardson and I were walking on the square just about to finish for the day when this old Mexican man comes up to us and SINGS, "Can I ask you a quesssstiooooon? Oh, you're beautiful!" HA HA HA! It was honestly the funniest thing that's ever happened to me. He literally sang that to us totally randomly. Gotta love the weirdos on Temple Square! :)

Sister Richardson and I had our last weekly planning session a couple days ago, which was kind of sad... :( I've LOVED being her companion!! She is a wonderful, spunky, but great missionary. :) Kind of reminds me of Christie sometimes, which I love. :) We talked about some things that we're learned this transfer. One for me was to be better at contacting, how to push myself harder and sacrifice more (we've had multiple days this month of skipping meals to do mission work), and having fun!! I've never had so much fun with a companion, but Sister Richardson has really been amazing. One thing that has been hard is not having any real progressing investigators... we're been working as hard as we can, but the numbers haven't been showing our work this transfer... that can always be kind of discouraging. But as Preach my Gospel says, "Avoid comparing yourself to other missionaries and measuring the outward results of your efforts against theirs. Remember that people have agency to choose whether to accept your message. Your responsibility is to teach clearly and powerfully so they can make a correct choice. Some may not accept your message even when they have received a spiritual witness that it is true. (happened to several of my investigators.) You will be saddened because you love them and desire their salvation. You should not, however, become discouraged; discouragement will weaken your faith."

So, even though I'm trying my best to teach powerfully and clearly, these people do have their agency and will choose to either accept or reject the message we present to them... just have to keep working harder so I can see those miracles!!

Speaking of miracles, we had one this week that was honestly amazing! The best contact I've EVER had on my mission happened. We started talking to this couple from Newport Beach, CA, and they honestly couldn't even get over how amazing everything was on Temple square. They especially LOVED the Temple! They read everything in the South Visitors Center about the building of the temple, how much sacrifice and effort those pioneers made in building the house of the Lord. It was so cool to see them being so obviously touched by the spirit! We literally taught them the Restoration lesson right there and then, and for one of the first times on my mission I KNEW that I was a missionary for the Lord Jesus Christ, and that I had been called to Temple Square for a reason, even if that reason was to find Terri and Brian... two of the millions of people that come to Temple Square. It was so cool!! They agreed to let us teach them more (we literally talked to them only for like 15 min because it was 8:45, ha!) and Terri right away pulled out her card and gave it to us. Soo great!! Sister Richardson and I decided to fast for them yesterday, to ensure Heaven's protection for them against Satan.

I also had an inbound call from another lady named Teri (weird huh?) that was absolutely INCREDIBLE. This lady has literally had headaches for 5 years. Poor thing. She actually is going to get it checked out this week... but we started talking about the church (her son is dating a member) and I basically taught her the Restoration after she straight up asked me, "Why are there so many churches out there?? Wouldn't God just have one church?" It was so incredible. She literally was just waiting for this gospel! She agreed to let me keep in touch with her and call her on the phone to teach her more. So me (and whoever my new companion will be next transfer!) will be teaching her next week! She even texted us after I hung up the phone and said how she was so thankful for me talking to her and looked forward to talking to me again. :) So fun! Just praying that these people keep answering the phone... We are really good at finding people here on Temple Square, but it seems nearly impossible sometimes to keep in touch with them.

Well family, I love you all SO much. Seriously, I am so incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful family like you all!! I love that I get to be on the grounds of a temple every single day for 18 months and think of my own eternal family. :) Love you all so much!!

Sister Savage

PS. They just changed the rules about setting up family tours here... they decided they won't be doing that anymore because too many sisters are doing it too much. :( Sad day. But you can still come find me on the square! I'm on a mission anyways, so I shouldn’t see you at all, technically... :)

Week #25

July 7, 2012

Wow, this has by FAR been the fastest transfer of my mission!!! Each week FLIES by now... I never thought it would go by so fast, especially in the beginning of my mission!! I thought I would never come back home! ;) Ha ha. I'll answer mom's questions first so I don't forget! 

Yes, I will for Sure be coming home on June 19th. The Upstage tour next year sounds AMAZING by-the-way!! I can't even imagine how fun that would be. It would be even MORE fun if I got to serve my outbound mission in Nauvoo or Missouri or some other historical site!! :) But its not too likely... we'll see though. :)

I'm not positive when they will be sending the sisters in my class outbound. I'm thinking some of my class will be training because the class before us was. I'm thinking I'll go out in October or November. I don't really want to leave Temple Square during the holidays because the holidays are AMAZING here!... but that is what it is sounding like right now. 

Guess what... you can officially call in and request a tour with me on Temple Square!!! :)  So fun, right?! I think it is only family that can do that... but I have the number for Guest Services in case you decide to come in September/October and want me to take you on a personal tour. :) It is 801-240-1706 or 4872. You can talk to some of my fellow sisters and set up an appointment!! :) Cool huh?! I love our mission President. :)

Stephen you will LOVE EFY in Santa Barbara!!! I'm so jealous! I wanna come! Ha! :) My friend Mekenzi, who I did EFY with last summer, was here with her EFY kids for the special EFY SLC edition on Temple Square!!! It was SOOO fun to see her!! I'm sending pictures so you can see her. We're all dressed up for the 4th of July. :) 

Congrats Stevie on getting your LICENSE!!! Holy Cow!! I still can't believe you're old enough to get your license... ha! So proud of you bud! :) And, I'm so glad you all had such good experiences in New York. It really is such a special place, the Sacred Grove! Could you send me some pictures from your trip? I would love to see those cute Upstage kids! (mostly my family though! :) ha)

The 4th of July was so much fun! After we were done on the square, we had some treats and then headed over to the Church Office Building (COB) and went to the 26th floor to watch the fireworks!! It was SUCH a blast!! We also had a musical program that I played the piano for and Sister Richardson conducted. We sang hymns and learned stories about the hymns, and also some songs for the United States. Everyone had so much fun. I got some really cool pictures of the Temple with the fireworks going on in the background. :) 

I wanted to tell you a story about one of the hymns we learned about. This hymn is "High on a Mountain Top." It was written by a man named Joel H. Johnson (there's a sister here who is related to him! Cool!) He wrote nearly 1,000 spiritual hymns and sacred songs. His inspiration for High On a Mountain Top was from Isaiah 2:2. "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it." Guess what fam? I am literally at that very place that Isaiah was prophesying about!! The SLC Temple is that very place in the mountains that literally ALL nations flow to. We took a tour today with a man named Esau and Erickson. (Erickson is an RM who served in SLC.) They are both from the Ivory Coast. :) How cool is that?! Just yesterday we took a tour of people from Romania, Jackson, and I think Florida? So cool. People come here literally from all over the world to hear about the church and how it began! Many of them don't even know why they're coming here, and then they find out why when they receive their answers to prayers and questions of their souls. So cool. I love my mission so much. Just the other day it hit me (I think it was the Spirit) of how truly lucky I am to be here on a mission, serving the Lord for 18 months of my life. I will never get an opportunity to do this again for the rest of my life! I am trying to make the most of the short time I have here as a missionary. Please pray for me specifically to be able to make the most of the short time I have left!! I have less than a year left... Ew!! That's awful, ha! Why do girls only get to serve for 18 months??!! If I could I would serve for 2 years in a heartbeat. 

Yes mom, we have been running 3 miles everyday (besides Sunday, of course) for a few weeks now!! At first my knees hurt pretty bad, and I was really worried about it... but every day that I run it it gets easier and easier, on my knees and my heart! Ha! I only breathe hard up the hill that we run in the beginning! It has been so great!! I honestly think I am doing my missionary work better now because of it, even though I'm losing a half hour of sleep each night! Whenever I get tired and think we shouldn't do the canyon run, I think; "This is the only time in my life where I can do my mission. I can sacrifice a few hours of sleep each week for that!!" 

Family and friends, sacrifice truly brings forth blessings from heaven. Come, Come ye Saints  has become one of my new favorite hymns from my mission. They KNEW the meaning of Sacrifice, to a T! I'm sure they had SO many doubts and hardships along the way, but they always kept their eyes on the Temple so they could form those Eternal Families, and become "joint-heirs with Christ." 

I know this is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Nothing will ever shake my testimony of that. My companion (she's a pistol... ha) started talking to one of the anti's outside of Temple Square, asking him why he was outside the gate giving this anti-Mormon material out to innocent people that don't know any better. She found out he served an LDS mission a few years ago and completely (and I mean COMPLETELY), left the church. We both have the strong impression that he left the church because he sinned... Probably a pretty huge sin that you need to go to the Bishop for though... and Satan was able to deceive him SO well, he got him thinking that Jesus Christ died for our sins, but we don't HAVE to repent for them. We can be saved by just accepting Jesus in our lives and then do whatever the heck we want! What a filthy lie! Why is Satan so good at deceiving these people?!! It is so amazing to me, and so sad. Satan is so real, my friends! Please, please beware of him. Constantly avoid falling into his traps. He's really good at setting them. Pray for strength and guidance from Heavenly Father.  He will help you! 

I love you all SO much!! Have a wonderful week! 

Love, 

Sister Savage

Sister Gehrig, my old roommate  :)

My Zone Leaders:  Sister Bleyl & Brito (from Virginia and Honduras)

Sister Crookston and I  :)

Sister Barnett from North Carolina

My District Leader, Sister Dotterer  :)

Sister Davis  :)

Sister Dieujuste, Rodriguez and Larsen

Sister Nixon and Williams from my class too!

Our roommates, Sister Christensen and Sister Wong!

Sister Palmer from Utah!!!

President Seppi!!!  Sweetest, kindest man ever!

President Gillette taught all the sisters how to keep the "down beat" when leading music because most of them can't. :) Ha ha.

Week #24

June 30, 2012

Hi Family!! 

Wow, this past week of my mission went by SO fast!! I seriously can hardly believe it. Thanks so much for the wonderful letters last week! I'm sorry I didn't send you an email... our p-day was SO crazy. We had an Investigator lesson with the elders and a girl named Larisa last Saturday. They changed the time to 12:45, and instead of deciding to just give it to someone else, we decided to keep it. (Guest Services would have had to find other sisters, and we had already prepared for it). I think I was definitely blessed for it though! You'll see why in the letter. :) 

We had a miracle this week! We were on chat (which we hardly ever get to do anymore) and a man named Jack came on. He seemed really nice, and actually genuinely sincere! But because we get soooo many chats that are NOT sincere, we sometimes tend to doubt them... but the best way to check and see if these people are for real or not is to ask them if we can call them right then, after we give them our number. :) Many times we have called back and it has either been the wrong number or they never answered. But Jack answered!!! And he referred as well! He had really, really good unique questions for us. We started talking about families, the importance of them and why we are put in families on earth. He agreed with everything, but then brought up his concern that his wife was unable to get pregnant.. :( They can't have any children, even though they really want them. They can't really afford to adopt either. He asked us if the church "allows" that to happen.! So sad! We told him it is not a big deal at all, that his family is him and his wife for now, and as long as he makes that the best he possibly can, the Lord will bless him for it! Heavenly Father knows our situations and our hearts, and that is all he'll judge us for. :) 

One of my friends from BYU who was part of my dinner group, Kathryn Grebe, has come to the square multiple times... once during Conference. She was the one that was sweet enough to trust me with 5 of her friends to call and invite to have missionaries and everything else we do as missionaries! :) There was one name that she hadn't given me, named Nathaly actually! (obviously a different spelling. . . ha).  I called her and used the fact that we both have the same first name as a way to "break the ice" on the phone. :) It was quite nice to have that actually! Plus the fact that I know Kathryn so well and Nathaly was best friends with her in high school!  Nathaly and I talked some about what her and Kathryn would talk about concerning their religions.. they used to go to lunch and would talk about it sometimes. I talked with her quite a bit about the Book of Mormon and what it means to us, and how much it brings us closer to Christ. I guess she liked the idea and agreed to meet with missionaries which was fun! 

Now the greatest miracle of all--- the best for last of course! :) Tuesday GS asked us to take a motorcoach (we had only taken one or two before that this transfer.. hardly any!) We talked with a few other sisters before that do the hospitality Bus Tours. On those tours, the sisters literally have to be "tour guides" and share just the information and not really go into spiritual things, or share testimony. Those sisters said that they have actually seen the most miracles on those tours! They said that people ask THEM questions about the Gospel and the church. When they ask them questions, they can answer, even if they're doctrinal.  Sister Richardson and I talked about it for a while, and we decided just to try it out and see what happens. So we did. We shared more information, history, and shared several pioneer stories (thanks to my ancestors :)) because people really like hearing those stories. And it started happening-- not even halfway through the tour, we had people asking us a bunch of questions about our beliefs and the gospel! It was amazing! And then at the end, we decided to end in the Assembly Hall and talk a little bit about our church service and what it is like and invite them again to learn more by meeting with missionaries in their local areas. We did just that, and it was seriously like the people on the motorcoach just trusted us more... We had 4 souls fill out the card by the end and even "check the box" for representatives from the church to visit them and teach them more about our beliefs! One of them was a family of 3 from THAILAND!! How amazing is that?!! It was honestly one of the greatest miracles I have seen on my mission. We didn't shove the gospel down their throats; we shared the gospel with them by sharing about the early pioneers, the sacrifices they made when they came here, and WHY they sacrificed so much. 

One thing that I often forget here on Temple Square is the spirit that is here. It's so strong. One of the men that referred said on the card that there is such PEACE here. We are in the middle of busy Salt Lake City, and yet people feel peace and happiness when they come here! Sometimes as missionaries we forget to let the Spirit talk to these people. Let's face it, a couple 22 year olds cannot out-do the Spirit of God... and because of that, we need to let Him speak more. That's what His calling is as the Holy Ghost-- we need to let him fulfill his purpose, just like he needs to help us accomplish ours by speaking through us! 

Sometimes I can't even believe how much I feel the Spirit here on my mission. It really is so incredible. Even now as I look back on this week and the missionary work Sister Richardson and I have done together, I can feel the Spirit reaffirming to me that what I'm doing here is important, and worthwhile. Satan can be very good at weighing me down and making me feel less than I am, like I'm not a "good missionary." But really, being a "good missionary" is not the same for everyone. I'm not going to be the same kind of missionary as Sister Richardson, and she won't be like me! And that's the beauty of it! The Lord uses us in such different ways, because he needs all sorts of different tools helping him in His work. I love when Moroni talks about the spiritual gifts in the last chapter of the Book of Mormon. I often think of the sons of Mosiah too, being "an instrument in the hands of God to bring, if it were possible, their brethren, the Lamanites, to the knowledge of the truth..." (Alma 17:9) I'm sure all of them had different spiritual gifts from God so they could better serve Him. He seriously uses those gifts. I've seen them with each of my companions. It's SO cool to see how the Lord works! I just love it. 

One verse I LOVE that I've recently thought of on Temple Square is in Alma 13:24. This chapter is talking about how men are called as high priests because of what they DO. In verse 24 it talks about the angels that declare the words of the Lord: "For behold, angels are declaring it (meaning the gospel) unto many at this time in our land; and this is for the purpose of preparing the hearts of the children of men to receive his word at the time of his coming in his glory." 

I honestly can sometimes feel these angels declaring the word to these souls on Temple Square. When we meet those prepared people, you KNOW that those on the other side... probably their ancestors.. are helping them to prepare to receive the gospel. They are sent here to Temple Square, and find out why they came, without even realizing that they needed to come. It is SO amazing to me. Heavenly Father's plan truly is SO intricate and detailed. 

I love you all. Please take time to read Alma 13:28-29. Seek for that Love of God ALWAYS in your hearts. Pray to know what HIS will is, not yours. He knows better than you-- I testify of that. Until next week!! :) 

Love, 

Sister Savage

PS... Sis Richardson have been doing the canyon run (a total of 3 miles) every morning, cutting of a half-hour of sleep every morning too! Ha! Its been SO good. I feel like my mission work is different now because of it. I LOVE it! I'm going to continue it when I get home too! :)