Week #57

February 25, 2013

Hey familia!! 

So good to hear from you all. :) I love hearing from my family... it’s the best thing ever!! Can I get a pedigree chart emailed to me of 3 generations? I need it for our little one hour of service here on T2. We're starting to be able to do our family history which is really cool!! I'm way excited for it.

We had a really good week this week. It's been crazy, but good. We definitely don't have as much time to do missionary work as Zone Leaders, but it has been a really good learning experience for me and has helped me really concentrate and focus when I DO have time to do missionary work. It has also helped me become a better teacher. I still really lack on that part, but what is interesting is that when we got the numbers for our zone for this past week (We get our weekly total numbers to see what our zone needs to work on, where our strengths and weaknesses are, etc.), and we realized that our little zone struggles with teaching. We've decided to focus our zone meetings on teaching the sisters how to teach others. We had a really good zone meeting last week that Sister Marand and I were SOO nervous about (it was our first time being zone leaders so we had no idea what we were doing ha ha). It is hard to do something that you've NEVER done before, but it has also been incredible to see how much the Lord is directing us. We've been able to receive revelation for our zone. It's such a cool experience to have that!!! I'm sure it is the same experience both mom and dad have had when they've had callings in the church, and especially with raising us children. I feel like I've been able to get a glimpse of what it will be like to have children and how to receive revelation for them. Hope that makes sense... ha ha! I'm a little tired today. Pretty cool stuff though! 

I realize more than ever that this truly is just another assignment I've been given, and it doesn't make me any better than anyone else. We had to teach at the Leadership Training this week and I was SO nervous. It was hard to speak at it. We had an emergency transfer in our zone (yes, within the first week 2 sisters hated each other and refused to work with each other... so sad.) So, we have been dealing with WAY too much drama recently. I was already done with being a ZL ha ha! Some of the other ZL's in the mission judged a bit (I thought that was pretty fitting that dad and mom had talked about judging in their email this week ha!), but I remember doing the exact same thing when I saw other emergency transfers going on in the mission. I had to just swallow my pride and be okay with the fact that Sister Marand and I did all we could do to help those sisters out (exchanges, meetings with them, etc). I guess we all have our agency. I'm just glad our zone is back to normal for now! :)

But on a happier note...One cool thing we get to do is take VIP tours of Temple Square... can you say SCARY??!! Ha ha! Sis Marand has taken VIP tours before (in French) but this was my first time.  We took Dr. Frank Mora. He's from Washington DC and is a guest speaker at a college in Provo. The church actually has a calling for people to take these VIP guests around T2 with us so it is not just us sisters doing it, so guess who came with us??! Elder Richard Hinckley, son of Gordon B. Hinckley!! :) Ha ha! (his calling is Church Tour historian or something like that). It was so awesome! He is the nicest man you'll ever meet. It was so funny too...we took Dr. Mora to the Conference Center and Elder Hinckley showed him the picture of President Hinckley and says, "This is the man who actually thought of the design for this place. Very brilliant man, and I'm not just saying that because he's my father!" :) It was so funny. Anyway, I'm having quite the amazing experiences here on T2! 

I think I mentioned last week that we now have Relief Society on Thursday mornings for us sisters, and guess who spoke to us??!! Sister Carol Stevens, the 1st counselor in the Relief Society!! :) It was incredible! Her talk was amazing. She talked about the relief society, how it got started, but also about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the importance of missionary work. She told us her stories of how she got a phone call from Elder Nelson's secretary first to be in the Young Women General Presidency (I think? Can't remember..), and then how she years later got a call from President Eyring's secretary. She said both times she lied in bed the whole night praying and repenting of her sins, ha ha. It always feels good to know that even incredible ladies like her have to repent. :) We're getting excited for this week’s Relief Society meeting... we've all been given the talk "Beware of Pride" to study beforehand to prepare for the meeting. I LOVE that talk! It'll be so good for me to read it again. 

If any of the men in our family that have served missions have advice for me... I would seriously appreciate it, ha ha! I've never even been a DL before and have no idea how to do this. Anything you noticed that helped you on your missions would be great. We've done a Standard of Excellence for our little zone and are planning on going on exchanges soon, as well as doing zone meetings with a lot of roleplaying and them teaching each other, etc. 

One more thing... Birko was baptized yesterday!! (I thought she got baptized a month ago, but she changed the date... and now she's baptized!! :)) Really cool story about her that is almost EXACTLY like dad's story he told me a few weeks ago! Apparently, over there in bitter cold Germany, the water heater broke in the chapel she was getting baptized in, so the water in the font was FREEZING cold. The members tried to pour warmer water from elsewhere but it didn't work ha... She said the member that baptized her got in the water and was SOOO so cold, and apologized to her for how cold it was!! But then, she said she stepped into the water and felt nothing. She just felt a warm sensation all over her body. She didn't remember it being cold at all!! I shared with her Dad's experience on his mission and she just thought it was the COOLEST thing ever that my investigator had that same experience. Birko completely focused on the spirit and the Lord gave her that wonderful tender mercy. The gospel is DEFINITELY true!! 

I love you all so much. :) 

Love, 

Sister Natalie Savage 

Week #56

February 18, 2013

Hi family and friends! 

Can you believe it??!! I'm in the double-digits!!!! So crazy! I can't believe my mission has gone by this fast... It feels like I just began my mission yesterday!! 

It's been SO good to be back on Temple Square again... I feel like a normal missionary!! :) I have an AWESOME companion, Sister Marand from France (Soeur Marand... you pronounce it "Ma-hun." with kind of a guttural sound. Way too hard to explain, ha). We've never really been able to get to know each other here on T2, but she's awesome! I love her so much, and she has taught me a lot in these past few days. She's in her last transfer, and this transfer is only 5 weeks long because of the MTC needing to crank out new missionaries. So yes, it's official. I'm coming home on June 12th! At first I was upset about it and considered extending, but I know there's a reason. Even if that reason is that I'll be able to see Mom's last Upstage show! :) I can help you out a lot with that Mom. I'll need things to do when I get home, that's for sure!

Well, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I now only have 4 short months left on my mission. 4!!! When on earth did this happen??!! Including this transfer, I only have 3 left. Sooo, so scary!!  But anyway... I've been soooo insanely busy since I've been back here on Temple Square... I literally haven't stopped moving, ha!! But its awesome! I've absolutely love it. I missed T2 SOOO much in that way. I love having something to do all the time. I feel like in my outbound mission I had WAY too much time where we didn't have things to do. Needless to say, T2 is definitely my home and I'm SO glad to be back!! :) I'll miss my outbound zone a lot, but its nice to only have one companion who's very obedient and hard working. It definitely helps the work move forward. :) 

Well even though I haven't had time to do much missionary work, Sis Marand and I have been able to see SO many miracles. It's incredible how much the Lord blesses us when we do what's right and we're obedient.  I was given the assignment of Zone Leader (I have absolutely NO idea what I'm doing) which has proven to definitely be difficult... we don't have much time to teach or anything because we're constantly doing things for the zone, but we've seen incredible miracles this week already!! The Lord is being good to us. I love these sisters in my zone SO much already! We've had some difficulties with a companionship in our zone (and its only day 5...), but I know that Heavenly Father will give us the revelation that we need to have in order to get through it and to help the companionship out. Mom, you were definitely inspired with what you said about marrying someone that is hard working and self-motivated. It feels SO good to be with someone that wants to work hard!!! It gets me even more motivated just thinking about it. I think this will help me a lot!! And Dad, you were inspired about mentioning the "subtle hint" story... I'll try my best to avoid that, ha! :) 

Well fam, I know this letter is short, but I love you all SO very much. I love this Gospel more than anything in the world, and I feel SO privileged and honored to be serving the Lord and bringing our Heavenly Father's children back to Him. I know this Church is real, it's true, and it is completely and totally inspired of God. One of my investigators before I left outbound will be getting baptized this weekend. :) (one that Sis Nakaima and I took on a tour. Soo fun to see these blessings!!) I told her to send me pictures... so hopefully she does so soon! (Speaking of pictures, I forgot my cord... again... ha-ha! I don't know whats wrong with me lately!!) I sent you a couple though which should help. Please pray for me to have the strength and energy I need this transfer to help my zone and Sis Marand's and my investigators. I love you so much and miss you all!! Have a great week!! 

Love always, 

Sister Natalie Savage

Natalie with her Southern California Sister missionaries

Natalie returns to Temple Square and Christie "runs into her" on Valentine's night as she and Brooks pass out valentines to the Sister missionaries.

Week #54

February 4, 2013

Hey fam-bam!! 

Well, this week was suuuuper rough, ha ha! After having such a miracle week last week, we were bound to get a week of cancelled appointments and rejection... but that's okay!!! We just pushed through everything and it was great. :) We did, however, get 2 new investigators this week which was exciting!! And, we got a new Ward Mission Leader (FINALLY!!) and now we actually have one, ha ha! Bishop simply can't do both jobs... but anyway, his name is Brother Tyler Clark. He served his mission in Mexico and was known for getting into people's doors tracting... every house he knocked on!! :) So awesome!! He's super legit, for lack of a better term. :) He's amazingly awesome. The sisters are lucky they get to work with him!! He's already planning on visiting people for us, taking out the ward missionaries with him... this ward has changed SO much since I've been here!! Ward Council was amazing on Sunday. President Chase, the stake President, is incredible and is really getting these wards to focus on missionary work. It's SO awesome!! We're going to have a missionary fireside, potentially a 40 day Fast for missionary work, and an activity to learn about "Missionary Survival Kits" included with pamphlets, pass-along cards, mormon.org cards, copies of the Book of Mormon, etc. SOO awesome!! I love this work so much!! 

Well the closer I get to leaving here the sadder I get, but I'm also excited to get back to Temple Square and to use the things that I have learned here in Ontario. I'm so thankful for the experiences that I've had here, and the miracles that I've seen. The Lord has been way too good to me! I have loved my mission... more than anything else in my life. The longer I've been out here on my mission, the more I've learned how much I need to change about myself... but that's what its about, isn't it?! That's the purpose of life right there--- learning, growing, changing... becoming a new person in Christ. I love Him so much, my wonderful Savior and Redeemer. We had an awesome Zone Conference this week where Sister Godwin showed us a video that talked about the Savior's Atoning sacrifice, and in the video Elder Holland spoke. He said something along the lines of, "The reason why the Savior went what he went through is because Salvation is NOT a cheap thing!!!" SO powerful, right?!!! I love knowing that that is true... it's not a cheap thing, its not an EASY thing. It shouldn't be easy!! If it is ever easy for us, then something is wrong... ha ha. And I've realized that this week more than ever before. I can't even tell you the kind of rejection we had, but I KNOW for a fact that I am doing the right thing out here. I'm doing the Lord's work, His way. It's not supposed to be easy or simple. In fact, the more complicated and hard it is the BETTER!! :) Ha ha. 

I was thinking the other day though about the things that I've learned on my mission.. one of them being how to take on criticism. You all know how I've taken criticism in the past... ha ha. . . not well. :) I was always so "sensitive" (AKA prideful) that it was always so hard for me to hear people telling me that I needed to change and improve, because I already knew that I needed to... now I'm still definitely FAR from perfect at accepting this, but I've become SO much better at handling criticism and correction since I've been out here. It is really amazing. I don't get offended nearly as much... I'm actually able to like it and embrace it! If that's all I learn from my mission, its definitely worth it.  I just hope I never go back to the person I used to be and I continually and very slowly get better, especially after my mission... 

Anyway, I better go. I love you guys SOOO very much!! You are amazing. Thank you for the incredible amounts of love and support out here. I appreciate it more than you know!! :) Love you all!! 

Sister Savage 

Week #53

January 28, 2013

Hey fam-bam!!! 

Well, Frank actually did it!!! He was baptized and confirmed yesterday!! :) It was such an amazing couple of days. I will literally never forget them... but I do have to tell you how slightly disastrous the baptism was lol!!! Here it goes... 

The baptism was at 11am, and we started filling up the font around 9:45. Plenty of time, right? Well, we filled up the whole font, began having the service, but we made the mistake of having both the baptism & Holy Ghost talks AND my musical number before the actual baptism... ha ha. Frank began walking into the font after I had finished the song and the water was only up to the first STEP!!! Ha ha ha! I was completely freaking out inside, ha ha! So we started filling up the font again, (took about 15-20 min) and Bishop asked me if I could keep playing music during that time... Let me tell you, I've never been more grateful to have my piano skills!! (Thanks for pushing me, mom! :)) I played a good 3 or 4 hymns after that, all Marshall McDonald arrangements. I felt so good about being able to play those songs even though I hadn't practiced them for about 3 months or so, ha! The Lord definitely helped me out. Frank is obsessed with piano music as well and so he just absolutely LOVED it.  He said, "Good thing the water went down so you could play more for me!!"  He was SUCH a good sport. :) Then the member that baptized him got the words wrong the first time, so Frank got dunked twice, ha ha! So crazy. But now he's baptized and he was literally BEAMING when he came up out of the water!! It was so fun to see him SO happy. I just love that man so much. He's such an awesome guy!! Seriously, he was SO prepared and is now such a faithful, good member of the church. When he was confirmed he was smiling even bigger afterward, and was shaking people's hands as he was walking back to his seat. :) This ward has changed so much since I've been here, and I'm SO happy to see that they truly were prepared to receive a new member in their congregation. I know they will take good care of him!! :) 

It was so interesting after his confirmation. I literally felt a feeling of satisfaction, like I've done what I needed to do while being here on my outbound. It has been such a great experience for me to be here!! I love my companions so much, even though they really struggle watching the clock... which is a pet peeve of mine, ha ha.  I have learned patience though, and I need to speak up more to help them be more obedient. 

This week was seriously INCREDIBLE!! Before Frank's baptism, we were out tracting on Thursday and found a 22 year old girl named Rita who let us right in, and we had a lesson with her on the Plan of Salvation right then and there. She's "Catholic," but doesn't even know why infants are baptized in her church. So funny how small people's understanding is of their own religion. Anyways, she is a super sweet girl, and we'll be teaching her again this week. 

On Thursday again (HUGE miracle day!!) we went over to Bruce Johnson's house, a less active in the ward that agreed to let us teach him. The man hasn't been to church in almost 50 years!! Anyway, we went over not really expecting much, and then his wife (a non-member) came in and said, "Do you mind if I join you?" Um, do you even have to ask?? So she joined us and started asking ALL sorts of questions. She wanted to know everything about our church, and even said halfway through the lesson, "Between you and me, I don't really want to be a Catholic anymore.." :)  The heavens opened and the angels were singing, ha ha!! So incredible!  I just can't believe the miracles that happen out here on the mission. It’s just unreal! I don't understand how I deserve all of these amazing blessings. Heavenly Father is simply too good to me. My comps and I literally started clapping, crying, freaking out like girls do in the car because we got 2 new investigators... in one day!! And, Cici (Bruce's wife) is so TOTALLY prepared, it's ridiculous. We taught her the Restoration and we'll teach her the Plan of Salvation this week and invite her to be baptized. :) I can't wait!! My only sadness is that I will be leaving here in a couple of weeks... I really REALLY want to be able to see Cici baptized but I don't think it's possible. Oh well. I told the sisters they better write me and update me on everyone we've been teaching or else!! :) 

We had a lesson with Rachel this week that was so incredibly powerful. Definitely one of the most powerful lessons I've ever been in in my life!! The spirit was insanely strong. We met up with her at the church building and felt so much peace from the Holy Ghost. Rachel has a looooong, hard road ahead of her... She is in a LOT of debt and has very little options of what she can do right now. She wants to raise Daisy right, but she's honestly stuck. She can't get a job and live on her own because no one will accept her horrible credit.  Joe is the only option she has living wise because he can work and she can stay home... unfortunately, Joe is NOT the kind of guy she should marry. He's a totally lame-o, and doesn't even want to marry her right now. She wants to be baptized again but obviously the Law of Chastity will be broken in their house together.. It's such a complex situation that we had to tell her that she needs to meet with the Bishop. We can't help her out much anymore. The poor thing totally broke down in tears and just has no respect or love for herself. She hates herself for all of the things she did and the people she hurt in the past. It's so sad to see someone that you love hurt so much! I honestly want to just take her in myself and take care of her, ha ha. I would in a heartbeat if I had the money and the situation. Anyway, we were finally able to get her to open up to us which was amazing. She's one that puts up a front to cover up how she really feels inside... 

Thanks so much for all the wonderful emails and love that you guys send me! It seriously helps me SO much. I love you all more than I can express! The work here is moving forward, and I think I'll be able to see a lot more miracles if I just work hard and hold out to the end. Hopefully I can do all that the Lord wants me to do out here. I love you all SO much and hope everything is going well with the move and things!! 

Love always, 

Sister Nat 

PS. I forgot to mention that the Stake President AND the mission President, President Godwin came to Frank's baptism. :) So sweet, right?!! and they got to see this somewhat disastrous baptism ha ha ha! :) Oh well though!