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