Week #59

March 11, 2013

Hey family! 

Can you believe it??!! I have transfers again next WEEK! I can't believe how quickly this transfer is going by. The 5 week transfer has been incredibly speedy... It makes me nervous to think that next transfer I'll only have 2 left!! AH! But guess what? The missionary department sent us a letter telling us that we now can email any friends, priesthood leaders, and even recent converts and we'll now have 2 hours to email people!! :)  Super exciting, right?! It will make letter writing much easier, that's for sure... ha ha! 

So I'm super scatter-brained today from losing that one hour of sleep... Holy cow, ha ha! It seriously did some crazy things to me. This won't be my best letter... just fyi. 

Have I told you about the regular that comes to Temple Square, Bob? He's super hilarious and handicapped. He's had one of the hardest lives I've ever heard of, seriously. He's been hit by a car, he fell off a bridge, and he had to re-learn to talk.  His throat is actually partially paralyzed so listening to him speak is really hard to do. But he's the sweetest man ever and I just love him a lot!  One day we were talking and some sister brought up being on a diet. (Bob's very overweight from being handicapped). He turns to me and says, "Sister, I'm on the seafood diet. I see food and then I eat it!!" HA HA HA HA-- I absolutely died of laughter.  I thought dad would get a kick out of this since this is his humor. :) 

We had some miracles this week and some disappointments. We met a man on Temple Square named Richard.  He was so depressed, poor man. He really has no idea what his purpose is in this life and needs to know why he's here. We taught him the plan of Salvation and took him through God's plan (he has a wife and 3 kids), but he has a hard time believing that he and his family can truly be that happy. (I think he and his wife have some marital problems.) We set up another time to meet with him on Temple Square because he's only in town for a few days, but he didn't show up. :(  We gave him our number so hopefully he'll call us sometime soon. When we asked for his number, he said, "I don't think that would be a good idea.. I don't want to have to explain that one."  Super sad. I'm so grateful for the gospel in my life, especially what it has done for my family and the love and peace it brings to us. Hopefully he will accept the gospel some day. I know he definitely felt the spirit through our lesson. 

We also had another new investigator named Craig who is a very interesting man... He has some problems, but the Atonement is real and it can definitely change him. We also called the people from France today who referred and they are SUPER excited to meet with the missionaries!! Hopefully they'll call them sometime soon. We're going to call them on Wednesday and teach them. Woot! 

Altogether, it's been good and a difficult week as well. We've made it a goal to expect miracles this week as a companionship :) We've been so good about being obedient, trying to better ourselves as missionaries, but we've been giving a lot of service to our dear sisters which lessens the time we have for our own missionary work. But I know that the Lord has blessings awaiting us. We just have to keep trying, right? 

I loved your story about the Ludwig family.  That is seriously incredible!! What a huge miracle. The Lord truly loves his children, doesn't he? I think it is so incredible to think that through all of the difficulties our family has had to deal with, sometimes the difficulties have been the means of bringing other souls to Christ (or back to Him :)). I can't wait to be a member missionary when I get home!! I hope I'll be able to help my fellow brothers and sisters come unto Christ, now that I know how to be a member missionary! :) 

I have something for Brad to look up... in the Bible Dictionary.  It has a definition for UNICORN!!! HA HA HA HA! Did any of you know that Unicorn is in the Bible Dictionary??!! I about died of laughter. Personal study is so great sometimes. :) JK. . . some Sisters showed that to me. But speaking of Personal study, we had ours in front of the Christus this morning. :) It was so amazing! I loved it. I haven't had that good of a personal study in a long time. 

Well family, I love you all so much. Please pray for Sister Marand and I to find more people to teach... for some reason it has been difficult for us to do that lately. 

LOVES! 

Sister Nat 

Week #58

March 4, 2013

Hey fam!! 

Thanks for all of your wonderful emails. :) I always love hearing from you guys and how you're all doing. 

Yes, it was SO much fun to see Emily Anderson the other day!!! She looks so good. And it was her birthday, too!! I felt bad because we had an investigator lesson right then or else I would have loved to talk with them forever, ha ha! We were on exchanges as well, so she met Sister Labbe in our zone. 

Well, this was definitely a week of miracles followed by hardships. Always how it works, right? We took a French tour the other day that was so amazing. The two frenchies were with a member from Utah that was bringing them to Temple square so they could learn more about the church and feel the spirit. (I love that so much!!) It was a couple who have two kids, but their kids weren't with us. We first took them downstairs in the North Visitor Center to show them the display of all the prophets and the Book Of Mormons and teach them the Restoration. The lady, Sandra, was actually the sister-in-law of the member and had had questions about our church ever since her sister joined... which was 20 years ago!! So she's been asking them questions for years about it and when she came here to Temple Square, she totally felt the spirit and had even MORE questions. It reminded me a lot of Frank in that way! He had questions every time we would visit with him. I think that is a definite sign of the Spirit working with someone. Anyways, we then took them through God's Plan and at the end they agreed to meet with local missionaries!! So awesome!! People from France NEVER refer btw.... ever, just like Germans. And I've had both since I've been out ha ha! which is funny considering I've never had a German companion! :) The Lord has definitely blessed me a lot on my mission. It's amazing how prepared some of these people are that come on the square! 

So the key indicators of our mission are changing... they're FINALLY going to be exactly the same as a normal mission!! I'm excited for this. However, this will definitely bring the numbers down for the mission because we're not really counting any lessons that happen on the square, because you typically only count lessons with your investigators, not just guests on the square. We had to have a training for our zone yesterday to help them understand the new changes for the KI's which was good, but there's still a lot of questions about them. It's hard to get everyone (especially sisters from other countries) on the same page, ha ha! But it will be a really good change though. I think it will definitely help our sisters realize the importance of EVERY tour and EVERY contact we make. These are all potential investigators who need the gospel of Jesus Christ, so there's going to be a lot more focus on getting New Investigators on the square! :) woot! 

We have several different investigators that are progressing right now which is exciting, but we definitely need more new investigators. We're focusing a lot on asking everyone for referrals, whether they're a member or not, and trying our best to help people have that true conversion they need to have. 

So huge miracle of the week...  Elder Bretzke, my Zone Leader outbound, told me while I was out there that his sister was getting married March 2nd in the SLC temple, and that his ex-girlfriend/fiance was going to be a bridesmaid for the wedding. She is not a member of the church.  He really believed strongly that there was a reason why he and I met. She met with missionaries for a while and even read the Book Of Mormon. She has a lot of things that are holding her back from joining the church.  She believes that she got the answer that the church isn't for her. She's had lots of questions about polygamy, blacks not being able to hold the priesthood... she doesn't like things that are controversial, and doesn't really think that God is necessary for everyone. For her, He is, but it is almost like she believes that if people don't believe in God its okay. I'm not totally sure. Anyway, she's been reading the BOM since he's been out on his mission and hasn't really gotten a different answer about it, but she's planning on finishing it before he gets home. This was all stuff that Elder Bretzke told me before I left for SLC again. We both believed that there was a reason why he and I just happened to be in the same zone in Ontario, and definitely a possibility of me meeting her on Temple Square and helping her feel the spirit and understand the truth. Well... guess who I ran into on March 2nd!!! :) Actually, it was so cool because I got permission from the AP's to be out on the square for just a little bit longer that day so I could try to find her. Well I was super discouraged because we had a zone meeting at 12:00 and the wedding was at 12:20... and I thought for sure I might miss her. Well, there was a member after 1:00 pm that was walking around the temple trying to find the entrance to it, and Sister Marand and I decided to help her find the door. We walked her inside the waiting room and I suddenly hear, "Excuse me, are you Sister Savage?" I was so shocked, it took me a second to realize it was Carolyn that was asking me MY name, hah!! Apparently Elder Bretzke told his sister to tell Carolyn (and his younger sisters) to look for a blonde missionary named Sister Savage, but didn't explain why... ha ha! and then they found me! :) Super crazy. Carolyn and I talked for almost and hour about her experiences with the church, what she thinks of the Book Of Mormon, etc. It was such a good conversation. I know it definitely couldn't have been better, but I had been praying almost every day since I got back into SLC that I would know what to say to her. When we started talking about the BOM, I asked her why she was reading it. She told me that Elder Bretzke and her had talked about what religion they want to raise their kids in if they were to get married, which led to her meeting with the missionaries and stuff, and she then informed me about how she got her answer not to join the church. So I asked her what that answer was like, and she said, "Well, I just got the feeling that this church was really good, there was nothing necessarily wrong with it, but that I just needed to stick with the Bible for now." (I was thinking... wait a second, your first thought was that this church was really good. how is that a "no"?)  But she had only been reading the BOM a little bit, and I don't know if she was really sincerely seeking to find the answer or not. She was seeking for truth in her search to learn more about our church; she was looking more for education. So we started talking about the BOM and I told her pretty honestly that there are only 2 options with the BOM. It's either true, and it truly was translated by a prophet of God, or its completely false and all made up. I asked her, "Do you really believe that a man who was in his 20's made up a book like this?" She understood my point, but that wasn't really the missing piece... so I then opened up Moroni 10:4-5. "And when you shall receive these things, I would exhort you to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if these things are not true. And if you ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost." I then went into what the word "real intent" meant. Not just wanting to receive an answer about something, but completely and totally intending to ACT upon that answer you receive. Her face changed, and I think she realized that she hadn't had as much real intent as she should to receive her answer. I got her number shortly after that and invited her to keep reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. I also got her number, so hopefully I can keep in contact with her and help her find her answer from God that she needs to have. She would be an AWESOME member of the church. I just hope something in what I said helped a little bit. 

I love you all SO very much. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!! Please pray for me and my companion. :) 

Sister Nat Savage