Hola

Querida Familia y amigos,

       This week was great, just like every other week... you should get use to me saying that. haha. But some pretty exciting things happened. The mission was split on Wednesday and it was crazy! All the missionaries in the mission were at the transfer meeting and there was a lot of excitement. I will be staying in the Tempe Arizona Mission! woohoo! President Howes will be leaving this week which is kind of sad. I've only been here for a little while but I was already starting to get attached to him and Sister Howes. But we are all super excited to have a new mission president come in and can’t wait to meet him.

      So this week I have been using my Spanish a lot more and I can really see a difference. I mess up a lot but it’s OK and everyone gets a good laugh. A prime example of that would be Tuesday night at dinner. So we were eating at a member’s house and we were just sitting at the table eating some grapes. It was quiet and it was starting to get awkward, so I thought I would try to say something. So enthusiastically I said “Me Gusta obejas!" sister Segura gave me the weirdest look and then everyone bust out laughing. I had no idea what I had said but I laughed as well, hoping I didn’t say something too stupid. She then asked me “You like sheep?" Opps! I meant to say "uvas" so instead of saying that I like grapes, I randomly proclaimed my love of sheep in the middle of dinner... it was great ha ha.

   We had another baptism this Saturday and it was amazing. Seeing Leopoldo dressed in white was amazing and the light in his eyes and smile made me want to cry. I can’t wait till he can baptize his own son Antonio. Oh I also had to play a "special" musical number because the sister who was going to couldn’t. So I had an hour to pretty much make up something to play. I wish I could read notes soooo bad. Oh well. I blended together I am a child of god and the primary Baptism song together. It turned out OK I guess. ha ha.

    So last night the coolest thing ever happened. We went to go OYM (open your mouth) in PHX and we came across these two guys sitting on the back of their truck talking. We started to talk to them and found out one of them had actually been baptized about a year ago. We started talking to his friend about the gospel and we got him to share his testimony with his friend. Then we started into the plan of salvation and I actually taught some of it! In Spanish! (Fist pump to the air) then sister Segura nudged me and said to invite him to be baptized. So that is exactly what I did. And he said yes, he wants to learn more, but yes! The lord truly does have people who are prepared to hear the gospel! Never would I ever have thought I would meet a random stranger on the street and 45 min later have him accept an invitation to be baptized. The people are out there, the work is hasting on. The broadcast last night was all about how members are a key component in missionary work. So go out and find someone! There is someone out there. One of your heavenly brothers or sisters who are ready to receive this gospel, but how will you know unless you ask them?! So I invite you all if you haven’t to watch the "work of Salvation broadcast" from last night and then make a goal for July to invite someone to church, or invite them to dinner at you house, invite them to talk with the missionaries, or simply just simply invite them to hear your testimony. An invitation born with love can never be taken offensive. Don’t be afraid! There could not be a more exciting time to be a part of the Lord’s work. And we are ALL a part of the Lord’s work! Make goals to share the gospel and tell me about your experiences! I would looooove to hear about them! I love you all so much and hope everything is going well! Until next week!

               Love,

                  Hermana Savage 

This and me and sister Segura with our awesome mustaches for fathers day

Leopoldo ready to take the first step to return to his Father in heaven!!!! :)

Best Week Ever

Hola!

   So this week was soooooo amazing! It was really crazy being the last week of the transfer, but we received so many blessings!

One thing that was really fun is we had a ton of service opportunities this week. One lady we met while we were walking around and we went to her house and helped her clean and organize for 2 hours. She was sooo cool her name is Dafine and serving her was so much fun! Then we had the opportunity to go help paint a house, like the entire house inside. It was way fun we teamed up with our zone leaders and get it done in two days. The only hard thing was there wasn’t any AC so we were basically inside an oven, but that’s ok because the lady was soooo grateful and she is interested in learning about the Gospel now!

   We were able to go to the Temple Visitor center this week with Mari and her family she also brought her brother with her and they looooved it! We talked about eternal families and the joy on their faces was so cool. As we stood out in back of the temple Mari leaned over to us and asked how long she had to wait before she could go in. ahhhh! We were so happy and the spirit was so strong.

  So Friday night we got a very unexpected call. We found out that Mari and Cruz are actually not married. Are hearts were broken, and so was hers, but her son Edwine still wanted to be baptized and they are going to get married so that Mari can be soon. And Cruz is going to be too he just doesn't know it yet! The baptism went really good. It was super stressful at first and we were kind of freaking out at first because it was both of our first baptism but it was amazing. Sister Segura talked on the Holy Ghost and I had to sing because I couldn't really give a talk in Spanish to well. I sang "yo se que vive mi senor" (I know that my redeemer lives) it was kind of scary, but I think it went ok. The bishop was crying so either the spirit was strong or my Espanol singing voice was really bad haha. We were so happy to see Edwine and his family all dressed up in there new church clothes. They were so cute! And I can’t even express the feeling i had when I watched him enter the waters of baptism and see his cute little smiling face. Best feeling EVER!!! Is so amazing to think that he is a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints now! ahhh! It just makes me so excited! Being a missionary is definitely some of the hardest work I have ever done, but it is also some of the most rewarding :)

  So this morning we went on a hike with our district and with sister Funke and Westfall. It was funny because we were hiking "a" mountain and when we got there I was like " that the mountain?" the mountain and hikes here are a little different from Utah haha. It was way fun though. Then we rushed home to wait for our transfer calls and guess what?!?! ME AND SISTER SEGURA ARE STAYING TOGETHER IN OUR AREA!!!!! We pretty much exploded and jumped up and down then ran all over the apartment screaming "The church is true! The church it true!" at the top of our lungs. I couldn’t be happier. We are so excited! Oh and by the way I’m not coming home in September I am actually coming home November 4th. Guess they are keeping me an extra transfer, but I’m not complaining :) I love every second of it! This transfer has been amazing and I can’t wait for this next one! Love you all so much and I would love to hear from you! Talk to you soon!

                                     Love,

                                       Hermana Savage 

Us at the Temple with Mari and her family

At Edwines baptism :)

Us on our jog in the morning... we found a cool bridge

Here is us on our hike with our district

On top of "A" mountain with the sisters!

News from AZ :)

Hola!

This week I don’t have much time to write but it has been an awesome week! We are having a baptism next Friday and we are soooooooo excited! Her name is Mari and she is sooo cute! She is 24 and has 4 adorable kids. She just had a baby and he is in the hospital right now because he is 3 months early. He’s starting to get better now. Her oldest Edwin is 8 and he is going to be baptized too. We can’t wait. And the blessings are coming too! We went to church yesterday and an old investigator showed up to church. His name is Leopoldo a little over a month ago he was going to be baptized. He was so excited and ready. But out of the blue one day he dropped sister Segura and her first companion. I guess he works for his brother and his brother told him if he got baptized he would take away his job. It was really sad and sister Segura was pretty down about that the first week I was here. But anyway he walked into church yesterday and said he wanted to be baptized!! ahhhhh! It is so amazing how much the lord is blessing us. We have worked hard all transfer and have strived to be obedient and we are starting to see the results. We have 3 investigators that are going to be baptized now! It’s going to be a great end to an amazing transfer. I can’t believe it’s already almost over. We are crossing our fingers that we can stay together.

We moved this morning to our new 2 room apartment and it was pretty fun. We are living with sister Westfall and sister Funke. Things are going good and the weather is getting really hot! But I love it :) we broke 110 this week. My Spanish is still coming slowly but it’s coming! I taught some of the restoration and shared how tithing has blessed me and some other little things. I love how everyone is so encouraging and loving and understanding. I love them!

Well hope all is going well! Don’t forget to write me! I can’t wait to tell you about the baptism next week and let you know if I’m going to be transferred or not. Love ya all! Have a good week :)

                          Love,

                            Hermana Savage 

This is a cool sombrero we found in Guadalupe

Last night we discovered that we have matching PJ's!!! we are awesome :)

Its June already!!! what?!

Hey everyone!

   Some great things happened this week. To start off my mission president made a goal for our whole mission. It is to read The Book of Mormon by July. We are all pretty excited. For district meetings this month we just read, read, read, it’s awesome! I have never been so excited to read a book. I love that we have a couple hours a week to just focus on reading the Book of Mormon. President Howes also challenged us to use a brand new Book of Mormon so we could mark it up. It’s amazing and I challenge anyone who hasn't done that in a while to do it. You will be greatly blessed! :)

    We are able to go to the Mesa Tempe once every transfer, so once every six weeks. Our zones temple day was on Wednesday and it was amazing! It was so pretty and such a great experience. I just kept thinking about Grandma Loni doing Dana’s work there and it made me so excited to meet her and see Grandma Loni again. We are so blessed to have the knowledge that we can be together forever as families. I love that we always have fun trips and family reunions together. Those are some of my best memories. I can’t wait till we have that big family Reunion in heaven. It is going to be a blast! Temples are such blessing :)

   I can’t believe that is June already! WHAT?! Ahhh! Time needs to slow down. I’m already in the last two weeks of my first transfer. Sister Segura and I are really hoping that we get to stay together for another transfer. We make such a good team and the work is really starting to take off. There has not been a baptism in our ward for about a year. The Spanish work is hard, but we have some really solid investigators and we have seen many miracles. We know that the lord has put us here for a reason and we are trying our best every day to make sure that we fulfill that. We also found out that we are moving next week on Saturday to a two bedroom apartment. They said when the new Spanish sisters come in they are going to live with us. FUN! I’m so excited and we are crossing our fingers we can stay together. So if you are going to write me send it to the mission home because I don’t know what my address is going to be.

             Hermana Jessica Savage

             1871 E. Del. Rio Dr.

             Tempe, AZ 85282-2822

   Funny story for this week: My companion is so funny I love her so much. The other day we were in the kitchen and sister Segura was like "you know how it’s weird that you eat frozen corn like candy? ...I eat baby Milk" I was like "what?" then she pulled out her can of dried baby formula and started eating it with a spoon. I was on the floor for a good 2 minutes laughing. I didn't think she was serious but she was. She said "it makes me grow taller!" and I sarcastically questioned "oh really?!"  She then joined me on the floor laughing. She is like 5 foot nothing. It was so funny. We spend a lot of time on the floor laughing.... but that’s ok! We are best friends and it’s nice to have fun when you work so hard.

Grandma Savage sent me a letter this week with a saying that I LOVE! Instead of the common phrase "oh the devil made me do it" change it too “The Spirit helped me do it!" and that is so true with everything that we do. The spirit helps us out with every single thing. We can’t do anything without it, so it is sooooo important that we live worthy of always having it. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to serve a mission. I have only been out for about a month and I and I already don’t see how I would be able to live life without the things that I have learned. Going on a mission has been the best decision of my life and if you have the chance to go take it! You truly develop the skills and knowledge you need to help you enjoy life to the end. Love you all! And I love to hear from you! Hope summer is going great!

                    Love,

                        Hermana Savage