Week #41

October 29, 2012

Hey Family!! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love love love, 

Sister Savage 

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

Week #40

October 22, 2012

Hi family!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sister Savage

Week #39

October 15, 2012

Hi fam!! 

Oh my goodness... I haven't had a p-day in 12 days! Ha! I was just about going crazy!! I had SO much to tell you too, but now I don't have enough time to do it! :( 

Conference was AMAZING!!!!!!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE THE CHANGE IN AGE FOR MISSIONARIES??!!!! Oh my goodness!  ALL of us Sisters were literally going around the square crying to each other about how AMAZING that was!!! I still get emotional thinking about it!! It is THE best thing EVER. And Stephen can go on his mission in LESS than 2 years!!!  SOOO, so awesome. Gotta love modern-day Revelation!! The church is incredibly true. Wow. Ha ha! We were all SO excited about it. Chandler told me that Carli's pretty sure she's going to put in her papers soon!!! SO CRAZY!!! She stills seems so little ha ha!!! But I think it is soooo amazing that girls can go out sooner. It will literally change EVERYTHING with missionary work! We contacted a LOT of young adult girls on the square before that had the question in their mind if they should go on a mission. Ummmmm. . .  pretty sure ALL of them had those questions answered right there and then!!! So amazing!! And Kelly Smith said she's definitely thinking about it now and she can go way sooner than she even planned!!! So fun! :) 

That was the best part of conference for me. I just can't believe the explosion of missionaries that is going to happen when all of those girls put in their papers!! I'm sure the number of young men will increase a lot too!! They won't go to college for a year and get caught up in the world and decide not to go. They will literally be able to graduate HIGH SCHOOL and leave on their mission. How perfect is that?! Sorry, I'm getting carried away. I honestly KNOW that China will open up much quicker now because of the age drop! It's going to be really cool to see what other areas and missions they'll be able to open up too! 

So, back to transfers. They were very exciting!! We had transfers literally right after conference ended, which was very fun. They sent 17 sisters outbound, and now our mission is INCREDIBLY young! Wow. All of the District Leaders are in their 4th transfer, and some of the trainers are too! Sister Brickley and Sister Dieujuste became ZONE LEADERS!!! The two goofiest, funniest sisters on Temple Square. Ha ha! I think they'll be amazing. Sister Nakaima and I are still together, which is really nice, and we're out of the Beehive House! :) The Beehive House was definitely difficult during conference, but it was good too. We saw a lot of miracles for sure that weekend! We didn't get nearly as many referrals as we did last conference which was hard on me at first, but then I looked through the referrals we received and we have some QUALITY people to contact.  We're really excited to see what happens with these people! 

I was made the Sacrament Meeting Coordinator for our "Temple Square" ward. :) ha ha. I’m able to play the organ every week, and Sister Nakaima is able to lead the music. Kinda fun! I think it is really good for me to practice doing this before I come home too. :) Can you believe I'm already in my 7th transfer??!! Ahhh!!! After this I only have 5 more to go. So crazy how time on the mission just flies by!! 

Well sister Nakaima and I have been working hard. We finally have our own room again, which is really nice.  Temple Square is MUCH quieter now, which requires more effort on our part as missionaries. Please pray for us specifically to work hard and become "consecrated missionaries!" We met this amazing less active, named Lauralee the other day. Wow. She definitely needs the gospel in her life again! I got her number and we're going to call her sometime this week to teach her and try to bring her back in the gospel. She's had an absolutely horrible life (I think filled with a lot of abuse), and she definitely needs to feel the Spirit's direction again in her life. She said she could not leave Temple Square. She loved the feeling that was here. So cool to see how strong the Spirit really is here!! She can feel a difference from here and her lifestyle. I'm sure she'll turn around and come back again to the church. 

Joy is doing AMAZINGLY well! She's meeting with the missionaries every 2 days or so and talked with them about her baptism date. They said they needed to talk to their President about it? I’m not sure why, but we know that she will be baptized this transfer. She knows everything is true! She truly believes that she has been able to find exactly what she has been looking for in her life. She even said that she felt bad how ignorant she was of the true gospel of Jesus Christ! The Elders taught her the Plan of Salvation and she was amazed at how little she actually understood about God's plan for her. WOW! Talk about feeling the spirit!! She is incredible. She truly has been SUCH a blessing to me. I feel like I've been working so hard on changing myself to be a better missionary for such a long time, but I haven't been able to see the fruits of it. She is definitely a fruit of our labors!!! I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father for being so gracious and kind. I shouldn't be so faithless that I need to see the fruits of my labors to keep going, but Heavenly father has been very loving and kind to me. I truly feel sooo blessed to be here. 

We met a man on Temple Square who is 20 years old named Christian. Talk about an amazing boy!! He's actually from Auckland New Zealand, and he is absolutely incredible. He literally didn't know why he came to Temple Square, only that he felt drawn towards it and had to come in. Um, prepared?! Absolutely. We taught him the whole Restoration lesson right there and then. He brought up something interesting in the beginning of the tour when I asked him if he has read the Bible, and he said that he feels like there's more out there (more information from God.)  :) Book of Mormon? Absolutely. We gave him a Book of Mormon right there and then and he is already in 2nd Nephi. (we met him on Wednesday). Absolutely amazing. He is definitely a special spirit! We showed him this video http://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/unto-all-the-world/heavenly-father-and-jesus-christ-appeared-to-joseph-smith?lang=eng which you should watch because it is AMAZING. He just loved it and felt the Spirit REALLY strong. It was so fun to see him really feel the spirit and accept it. We taught him how to pray over the phone once, and taught him a little bit more about God's love for us, and our relationship with God. He really liked that idea and had never really heard it before. He is meeting with missionaries this Wednesday. :) 

Well family, I love you all SO much. Keep praying for Nick, Joy and Christian specifically. We really love them and are working extra hard with them right now! I'm studying a lot lately on love and charity, and what they really mean. I'm trying to change so that when I see people, I immediately love them enough to desire their salvation. I know it will help me in my missionary efforts a lot. 

I love you all SO much! You all are amazing. Thank you for all of the wonderful letters this week, too! 

It was so fun to see Kristin Montgomery as well this weekend!! Tell her I love her and thank her for sending you the picture. :) 

Love always and FOREVER, 

Sister Savage 

PS. Dad and mom, do you have Bishop Cooley's address? Sister Repotente would like to write him. :) I think I mentioned before that she is serving here with me... she's the cutest little thing ever and training a sister from Sis Nakaima's class too, and she really wants to write him and his wife. :) Thanks so much! 

Also, Sis Nakaima and Sis Yoon were pointing to Brad in my picture.... ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Everyone here is obsessed with him!! :)  Its absolutely hysterical! 

I have attached pictures of my roommates my last transfer. SOOO sad that we were separated!! :( And Sis Mata'utia is home now. Saddest thing ever. She seriously was the best missionary on Temple Square. 

I have also attached pictures of us "stalking" in the Beehive house. :) Haha, so funny! Whenever us sisters have a tour thats just men, another set of sisters has to follow them around in case anything bad happens to be safe. :) 

And, here are pictures from Conference-- they asked me to announce. So scary!! Ha! I was super intimidated, but it was really fun too. I saw a few people I knew, including my ex-boyfriend Andrew :) Ha ha. I didn't say hi to him though because Sister Nakaima and I hadn't eaten lunch so we were literally running there afterward. I wanted to show you Sister Robayo, the one that spoke Swedish announcing. She saw Brad's pictures and fell in LOVE with him, ha ha! So funny. She's an absolutely beautiful girl. She would definitely be a keeper! She's coming over to BYU next year I think (she went home on Wednesday). 

Week #38

October 3, 2012

Hey guys!

So good to hear from all of you!! Thanks for all of the wonderful emails. I love you all SO much and always look forward to hearing from you every week!

We had such a great week. It was a hard week, but a good one! We had some crazy events happen this week which I won't get into all of them... but it was a week full of a lot of learning, which is always needed!  :)

The Beehive house is getting better and better. It is SO hard sometimes to invite them to come closer to Christ, but the more positive experiences we get out of it the better for sure. We've been trying to focus more on teaching the Restoration this week, because (of course) it is our unique message to the world that we need everyone to hear! So that's been going a lot better. I was thinking that it would be really fun for you all to come up before I leave my mission and I can take you on tours to a few of these different venues! :) I don't really know how that would work, but it would be SO fun! I loved taking grandma and grandpa around so much.  It would be so great to do the same for all of you! We'll figure that out later though.

We met a cute little Korean girl here on Saturday named Soi (So-ee). Such a cute little name, right?! She speaks English really well, and is actually going to school at the University of Utah right now. It was the first time she has been around a lot of Christian people she said, ha! She really likes school, (she's just a Freshman), but she said it is really hard to make friends here. :( We started talking about the YSA program in the church, how you can literally make friends with people instantly by just going to one activity, and she really liked that idea. We also talked about how this gospel brings us closer together as a people so that we have this big family-like atmosphere when we go, which I think she liked too. We got her number and hopefully will be able to teach her and give her the address to the local church building so she can make some friends in the gospel! :)

We were surprised on Saturday and were allowed to actually GO to the Relief Society Broadcast in the Conference Center!!! :) It was SOOOO amazing! WOW. I don't think I stopped crying the entire meeting, ha! Seriously. I thought of you all, of course, my investigators, even myself while that broadcast was going on. It was absolutely incredible. I honestly thought it was better than any Relief Society broadcast I've ever watched in my LIFE! This new presidency (like dad was saying) is definitely given that power and authority from God to lead the women in the church. What an amazing experience. I especially loved Sister Burton's talk on the "doctrine of the Atonement". WOW! What a powerful message!! It is so true what she said; ALL that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. So beautiful.

I also LOVED Sister Stephens statement on having a mighty change of heart. Do you remember the question she asked? "If we can't feel a mighty change in our hearts, then we must ask ourselves WHY NOT?" So powerful. Ah, I could go on and on about that meeting. What an incredible meeting that was!! The spirit was so thick in the Conference Center too. So amazing.

Sister Nakaima and I had a fast for Nick this week to help him be able to know what he needs to do, and for him to receive his answers. We finally got to call him last night and he said that he's going back to Anderson, but then in December he's going to fly back out to Alabama and stay there!!! He said it is a MUCH better situation for him out there. He has a room for himself with his aunt and uncle, he can get a job much easier, and he has basically no one to go back to Anderson for. We definitely agreed with him!! So we feel really good about his decision to go back to Alabama, so the only problem now is what's going to happen with him while he's in Anderson. But he's doing awesome. He's keeping all of his commitments, he's praying every night to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and if Thomas Monson is a prophet today (we asked him the baptism questions and those were the two that he couldn't give a straight answer for), and he really is just soaking up everything we are teaching him. We think he's really loving it all. We're going to keep teaching him on the phone until the missionaries get to his home (they'll probably meet with him at a different location). He's going to watch General Conference this weekend so that he can know for sure if President Monson is a prophet of God. We're going to teach him the plan of salvation (the rest of it) still and explain again the importance of the Book of Mormon. Please keep praying for him!!

Well, Joy is just amazing. WOW! She is quite the golden investigator. Her concern is that she has been baptized before, but we think she understands the priesthood authority pretty well too. She met with the missionaries yesterday for the first time and loved it!!! She felt very good about everything they taught her. She's meeting with them again tomorrow.

This week we literally have had a mission meeting every morning at 7:30 am. It has been absolutely CRAZY. We're getting super excited for General Conference to happen though!!! I seriously can't wait. Beehive house during conference is going to be a challenge, but I know the Lord will bless us with many many miracles!! :) 

PS. It's moms birthday this week, right? HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! I love you sooooo much and so appreciate your support. I will write you a personal letter though to try and express my love for you. :) You are the very BEST!!! All my siblings better treat you AMAZING this week because I can't!!! :)

Thanks Jeff and Emily for the emails!!! You are forgiven. :) ha! Just kidding. I really loved the pictures so much! Thank you thank you! And thanks Brad for your email too! :)

Oh, one last miracles-- we went to Tucano's today just for fun with the Zone Leaders, and someone anonymous paid for ALL of our lunches. All four of us!!! That is an incredibly expensive bill!!! It was SO sweet and thoughtful of whoever did it. We truly are so blessed as missionaries.

I love you all SO much. Always remember: "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God."

Love always,

Sister Savage