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! :)