Week #52

January 21, 2013

Hi family!! 

Well this is going to be another shorter email because I am typing it on an iPad... long story :-). This week was incredible!!! My new comps are Sister Heward from Idaho and Sister Miles from Sandy, Utah! :-)  They are amazing!!! I feel like we are long lost best friends. :-)  We are having a lot of fun together and we are getting along amazingly well! It is going to be an amazing last 3 weeks here in Ontario! The Lord has blessed me much more than I deserve. 

One great thing that happened this week... WE COMMITTED FRANK TO BAPTISM FOR JAN 26th!!!! :-)   So so so exciting right?? He's so ready-- its ridiculous. We taught him about tithing yesterday after church, which I honestly was a bit worried about, but he absolutely loved it and I think it strengthened his testimony that much more in the Gospel! We also went over the baptismal questions and he answered every single one beautifully. He is completely and totally ready!! :-). Ana's being supportive which is really good, but we are still not sure if she will join anytime soon... I personally think she will, as long as the sisters and I help her understand the priesthood and that there's actually a true church set up by Christ.  I know she will accept it. She wants to follow him and do as he asks, but she has a military mind that really makes it hard for her to accept 

men holding the priesthood, and not women. So hard. I guess i just don’t really understand. Oh well. It will come! 

One other cool story. We were driving around our area and we saw that a "do not contact" was around there, so Sister Heward, being the awesome sister she is, decided to just visit them anyway, and oddly enough, I wasn't nervous about it at all, ha ha! So we knocked on the door and low and behold, a different lady answered the door. We asked for Sister Thompson, but she said, "sorry, I'm brenda. I just moved in." Well.... we just contacted her right then and talked about how our church goes around and visits our members to make sure they are doing okay, etc. She definitely liked that :-)  She hadn't been going to a church or anything, ha! ... 3 adorable little children and wanted to come to church! She unfortunately didn't show up, but we are teaching her on Wednesday :-). Goodness, I love the miracles that happen here!!! 

Also, did I tell you that Birko ( the one from Germany) got baptized on Saturday???? Sister Nakaima couldn't wait to tell me. ha ha. I miss her so much and am so proud of her taking such good care of Birko while I've been gone! :-). 

Rachel's doing good, but she's still planning on moving in with her boyfriend. That definitely makes things difficult. We were pretty upfront with her at our last lesson, but we have a more upfront lesson planned for this week... she just needs to realize that we can't teach her if she is not living the commandments, especially one so important as the law of chastity. Kind of a bummer, but please pray that she will only think of her other possibilities this week ( finding her own job, moving out alone with her daughter, etc) and that she can realize the importance of this gospel. I know that she'll do it... she just needs that motivation! 

I love you all more than I can say. The gospel is true. Jesus truly is the Christ, and God really is our loving Heavenly Father! He answers prayers. That's obvious from my prayers that he's answered of having a baptism out here, and the prayers he's answered for all of you with the move! :-). What an amazing Father we have. Sometimes I get sad about so many people rejecting the gospel... but I know that I at least am doing my best in helping them have the opportunity to accept it or not, then everything else will work out. :-). Have am amazing week family!!! 

 Love, 

Sister Nat 

PS. Do you know an elder Heward? My companion's brother is serving in the Roseville mission! ! Such a small world! Yes, she also knows the elder you're talking about, elder Olson. :-).  Can't wait to tell you about the baptism next week!!! 

Week #51

January 14, 2013

Hola familia y amigos! :) 

You all sound like your doing great!! Seriously, I have the best family in the world. :) This week was so good!! Thank you all SO much for your prayers. I felt them so strongly this week!! My comp and I had a great week together, and I literally felt an added measure of love and humility and patience for her. :) It was awesome. Thanks so much for that fam, seriously!!! I wish I could repay you somehow!! 

This week was awesome. We got 2 new investigators, tons of contacts and potential investigators, and we're starting to work with some members in the ward to share the gospel with their neighbors!! :) Such sweet music fills the air! ha. Anyways, this emails going to be short today because I can't really remember anything that happened this week lol... 

Tomorrow is transfer day and Sister Brinkerhoff is being transferred. Don't know where yet, I'm kind of nervous to get a new compy again... ha, I don't really know the sisters out here. BUT, it'll be awesome! I'll only have 4 weeks with her anyways haha so no stress! :) We're going to start planning on having that member missionary fireside for the ward sometime soon so we'll be working on that the next couple weeks. Frank's doing great still, we weren't able to have another lesson this week cuz our member bailed on us at the last minute and we couldn't find anyone to come with us.. sad day! But we're meeting with him tomorrow and he's getting a blessing from the Stake PResident who's a spiritual BOSS and we're committing Frank to baptism on the 26th. :) He better accept... ;) 

I'm going to be sending pics pretty soon here. ya,. I've been thinking about where I want to live and stuff, and I've actually been thinking about sharing a room again... I've handled it for the last 12 months, I think I can keep doing it for the rest of my life now. ;) ha! I honestly have NO idea where I want to live though, so I'll look at some places and let you guys know. The Village sounds great, but I really want to go cheaper now. Really don't need an expensive place, just one on the south-side of campus that's somewhat close and stuff!! and only 3 roommates... I still can't do 5. ;) ha anyways, I need to start praying about where I want to live (and possibly WHO I want to live with) but keep looking for me!! Just make it cheaper than Granary because it was super expensive there. 

 I love you all SOO much!! Promise I'll send more next week. Keep being awesome, spiritual giants!! :) Loves!! 

Sister Nat 

Week #50

January 9, 2013

Hey family! 

Sounds like you all had an awesome week!! I can't believe it's already the 9th of January... seems like every month goes by faster than the one before it!!! Kind of scares me sometimes... but I have loved my time out here and have learned a whole lot! 

I have been incredibly blessed by Heavenly Father this week. I was able to go to the Temple again today and it was just as good (if not BETTER) than the week before. I am SO in love with the Temple!! There is a feeling there that is like no others. What a special privilege we have of attending such a sacred, beautiful place. Heavenly Father definitely, obviously loves His children. 

I want you to know how much I love you all!!! You all are so special to me. I can't even believe how blessed I've been to have such an amazing family and incredible examples to me of how I should live. I just wanted to thank you all for the amazing support you've given me while I've been out on my mission. I can't imagine some of these missionaries leaving their homes and having absolutely NO support whatsoever from their family and friends. I am very, very lucky. 

This week was good! Frank is doing very well. He is getting very close to baptism. We did learn on Monday in the lesson that he hasn't been specifically praying to know if the Book of Mormon was true, and if Joseph Smith truly is a prophet of God. He's been praying to know if what we are teaching him is true--- not quite specific enough! :) He strongly believes that what we're teaching him is the truth, but he really needs to know those 2 things in particular so he can have a strong foundation as a member of the Church. I'm so excited for him to get baptized!!! I'm really hoping and praying that he gets baptized before I leave... that would be AMAZING. 

We finally met with Philip and Edna yesterday. He's the lost member that Sister Callister & Brinks found, and Edna is a Catholic. They're wonderful people! Philip is SO ready to come back to the church, but Edna has definitely been fighting him on this.  What is so interesting though (and kind of funny) is that Sister Brinks and I both know the Bible better than she does... she's never even opened it up before!! So we've been teaching her about the Restoration and the Plan of salvation yesterday, and she told us yesterday that she believes that everything we have been teaching her is true. :) So awesome!! Satan, however, is working SUPER hard on her... holy cow. I actually offended her the other day which I, of course, felt HORRIBLE about, and apologized over and over again ha ha,  but everything's good now and I think she's still ready to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. She needs to have a spiritual experience with the BOM and prayer, and I know she'll receive her answer. We promised her (using Moroni 10:3-5) that she will be able to know that this is the right way, if she prays about it, and puts it into ACTION. I feel really good about her and know she will progress. 

So far everyone we are teaching we have found through our own efforts. Everyone. It's been such a struggle to get the members to do missionary work on their own. But Heavenly father knows SO well, like Mom and dad testified of in their emails!! We had Stake Conference this weekend and it was absolutely incredible. I can't even begin to describe to you how perfect the meetings were!! (Frank and Ana came to the session on Saturday, and Frank came on Sunday). All the Member of the area Seventy (Elder Garnes) talked about was doing missionary work, as well as all of the other speakers. It was SOOO awesome!! Almost the entire county of San Bernardino has almost 50% inactivity in the church. Almost 50%!!!! How does that happen??!! But now that the missionaries are almost doubling in size, they'll probably have to have 2 sets of missionaries for each ward... crazy!!! The work HAS to move forward much quicker than it has been doing recently. Sister Brinks and I are going to go around and challenge all of the members in the ward to find someone to share the gospel with, and then we're going to follow up with all of them on it. :) Woot woot!! I'm so stoked!! 

I love my mission so much, but I've been having kind of a difficult time lately. I asked my District Leader for a blessing on Sunday and he gave me one of the most beautiful blessings I've ever received. What was interesting about it though (and not necessarily surprising) is that a lot of the blessing was counsel on what I need to change. One of the things Elder Crookston said in my blessing several times was the I needed to counsel with the Lord on my future plans.... I haven't even really thought about my future at all!! But I thought that was so interesting that Heavenly Father really needed me to know that I need to talk with Him about things more, especially before I make decisions. It was a really good reminder. He also told me to not be prideful; to be the companion Sister Brinks needs, (not what I need), and that I would have sheaves of success in the harvest from my mission. That was almost exactly the wording Elder Crookston used. It was a great blessing that I needed to have. What's interesting about this too is that my comp and I were reading out of the white handbook about priesthood blessings at the very end, and that's where I got the strong prompting to get a blessing here. Of course, in the Lord's plan, it would that detailed that I would just happen to be reading about blessings that day and would need one right then!! Very cool stuff. 

Well, one last thing about investigators. Rachel (excommunicated member) is doing amazing, but she's moving in with her boyfriend on Saturday. We're going to have a pretty intense lesson about the law of chastity and feeling the spirit in the home... she won't be able to do that unless her and her bf are married. Please pray for her, but especially for us to use the spirit nd know how and what tot teach her. 

I love you all SOO much!! :) I'll send some pics to you. 

Love always, 

Sister Savage 

Week #49

January 2, 2013

Hey fam-bam!!! 

Guess what??!! in 2 days is my year mark of being on my mission... AHH!! Soooo crazy! I can't even believe it. It seriously feels like I've been out a few weeks. I have absolutely LOVED my time here on my mission and can't wait to finish out strong!! :) We were at a members house last night for New Years Day and went around the table telling each other what my New Year's resolution was... mine is to work my tail off serving the Lord, to completely forget about myself and get to work!! I am no longer holding ANYTHING back from doing the work of God!! :) 

Sister Brinkerhoff and I have been super pumped lately to get work done and we're finally doing it. She's a sweetheart, but she's required patience for me. She just moves a little bit slower than I would like. I've learned a lot from her being my companion, though. She really has some great strengths and has the best smile that everyone falls in love with! 

I'm really praying hard for a baptism while I'm out here. The work has been slow over the holidays which has been difficult, but I know that as long as I do my VERY best out here, Heavenly Father will have to bless us with a baptism! :) I just laugh when I read Jacob's emails about how many people he's already baptized. I would give ANYTHING to baptize that many people on my mission!! I'm so proud of him and the work he's accomplishing. I hope he realizes how lucky he is. 

I figured out something super cool on Sunday! There's a sister here in my ward named Sister Pomar who was actually companions with Janessa Evans from Granite Bay!! :) Ha ha! Isn't that crazy??!! They served together in Italy for a transfer. Sister Pomar is actually married to a non-member though which is kind of sad though. I talked with her about it on Sunday and she opened up to me a lot. I think it's hard for her not to have the priesthood in her home... but as she said, "I knew what I was getting into when I married him!" I promised myself at that moment that I would NEVER marry someone that wasn't a worthy priesthood holder like my Patriarchal blessing says!! That is an absolute MUST! :) 

Frank is doing well. We were going to meet with him tonight but I honestly didn't feel good about it, so we called him and rescheduled him to tomorrow. Our last meeting with him was good, but wasn't as good as I had hoped. We were able to clear up things though, especially about the Restoration, and he realizes now why he needs to pray to know if Joseph Smith really was a prophet or not and if the BOM is true. He's already been getting his answer... now he knows WHY! :) We challenged him to pray about the 12th and the 19th. We're getting a new ward mission leader soon here which is a really good thing.. Bishop's way too busy to be doing double-duty. We're praying that whoever he's chosen is going to be inspired by the Lord, because this ward still needs a lot of help when it comes to missionary work. I hope I've been able to help them and Sister Brinkerhoff somehow!! 

Oh, I should probably explain to you why I didn't email on Monday ha ha. We had a Sister's Activity for the mission today and got to go to the Temple!! :) So we went to the Redlands temple. Such a beautiful temple!!! It's super tiny-- I think it's even smaller than Sacramento! (only by a little bit, but still!) It's absolutely gorgeous though. I LOVE the temple so very much! The spirit there was incredibly strong, and I think because I had just talked with you all last week on Skype I was thinking about you a lot in there. In the Celestial room I thought, "This is exactly what heaven is going to be like, except I need my family here..." I missed you all there!! :) But I definitely felt Heavenly Father's love and comfort. What a wonderful, wonderful Father in Heaven to give us such a sacred and special place completely separated from the world, where we can feel a taste of heaven. In Preach My Gospel it talks about the Spirit and explains it as being a foretaste of eternal life. What a beautiful description!! Ah, I love it so much. I love even MORE knowing that my whole family will be there with me :) I love you all SOOO much!! I have been so grateful for you and to you for the support you have rendered. You are all so amazing. I brag about you all the time to the members and my companions. :) 

I wanted to share a couple scriptures with you all that I'm not sure I have shared yet. In 1 Nephi chapter 3, the famous chapter that talks about Nephi, Laman, Lemuel and Sam's trek back to Jerusalem to get the plates, we can actually see a super interesting thing on pride. In verse 7, it says, "I ^awill go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no ^bcommandments unto the children of men, save he shall ^cprepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." Nephi knew so strongly that the Lord would prepare a way for them to accomplish His commandments. Why? Because he had ALWAYS relied on the Lord completely rather than himself and his own strength. Nephi literally knew what it meant to have complete confidence in the Lord, and to rely on His strength only. This cause Nephi to actually be completely and perfectly humble!! I'm sure Nephi had moments where he only relied on himself, where he assumed he didn't need to Lord's help and couple handle it, but at least at this moment he understood that he needed God and His strength to cause this thing to happen. Notice the last verse after the angel appeared and chastised Laman and Lemuel for beating up Nephi and Sam: "And after the angel had departed, Laman and Lemuel again began to ^amurmur, saying: How is it possible that the Lord will deliver Laban into our hands? Behold, he is a mighty man, and he can command fifty, yea, even he can slay fifty; then why not us?" 

Notice the difference? Because Laman and Lemuel had ALWAYS relied on their own strength to save them, giving themselves credit for anything they did right along the way (I'm assuming this, at least :)), they were literally unable to comprehend the Lord's power in helping them and giving them aid. Holy smokes!!! I need to repent a LOT, ha ha!! But seriously, how often do we do that ourselves? How often do we actually become PRIDEFUL in the fact that we (think) can handle things on our own without the Lord's help? That's why I loved mom's comment about putting her life in the Lord's hands right now and for this next year with all the uncertainty that is there with it...  because Laman & Lemuel were too prideful to think that God truly was all powerful, they were unable to realize that he actually was more powerful than a little old man who could only command fifty men. I'm sure the Lord could command um... an infinite number of people. Just saying. Anyways, just something to think about this week. 

Well fam, I love you all. This week was a very fun week and slow too, and I'm ready to kick into action for the new year!! :) Please pray for me to have patience for my companion. I put all your names on the prayer role in the temple. :) LOVE YOU ALL SOOO MUCH and I especially LOVED your smiling faces!!! :) 

Sister Natalie Savage