Thanksgiving week

Hola!

This week was pretty great, just like all the other weeks here in phoenix. I love it so much! We didn’t have any crazy tree climbing adventures this week, but we were able to go to the Temple and it was Awesome! I love the temple soooo much. I feel suuuuper lucky that we get to go each transfer. and there are going to be two temples opening up here in the next couple months so there is going to be a lot of missionary excitement and interest about the church here in the valley. We are super excited! They don’t want us to be seen at the Gilbert Temple open house though. Because they don’t want people, who go to feel like it was a missionary trap, but they still want to let us missionaries be a part of it so instead the sisters get to be there and help answer questions and things after the tours, but we are not to do any proselyting, just be hostesses. And the elders are going to be in charge of moving all the furniture in the temple and setting up chairs and things. And then before they open the temple to the public, they are going to let all the missionaries from the Tempe, Phoenix, and Mesa mission go through! It’s going to be so cool!!! :)

So we found out something really cool with one of our investigators this week. We were having a lesson with him and we were talking about the things we need to do to prepare ourselves to meet god. He told us that he hasn’t been drinking for 2 weeks because he felt that it wasn’t good and he needed to stop. He asked if that would be something to prepare to meet god, we told him of course! We haven’t even talked about the word of wisdom with him yet! Its sooo awesome to see that when people start to hear about Jesus Christ they start to make changes in their lives to be better. They don’t even know why sometimes but they just want to be better! Isn’t that just the best that when they hear about Jesus Christ they have the desire to become better? That’s probably because it’s through Christ that they can become better :) this gospel is amazing!

Also we had exchanges this week and I was able to be companions with the one and only sister Maier! I love her so much! We both served in Rio Salado in Tempe together she’s my role model. It was fun to go to south phoenix for the day and meet the wonderful people there, we had some of the coolest lessons and the spirit was so strong! we also had a funny encounter as we were in our car praying and all of a sudden in the middle of our prayer we hear "do you have Deedee?" we opened our eyes to see a little boy with his face pressed against our window it surprised us and we bust out laughing it was so random and sooooo funny. We told him that we didn’t have Deedee and he ran back inside his house, and then we finished our prayer. It was a great exchange and I learned a lot, I’m so grateful that I get to improve every day and that I get to learn more and more and share it with everyone! I’m so thankful for this gospel and for my savior Jesus Christ for everything that he did for us. I’m grateful that I know that I can live with my family forever and that I get to be a part of the best family ever! I love you guys sooooooooo much! Thanks for all you do and for you great examples to me. I am just surrounded by amazing family and friends. I’m so blessed! I hope you all have a great thanksgiving holiday! Love ya tons! Talk to ya soon :)

                  Love, 
                  Hermana Savage

Me in the Tree last week!

At the blood drive... I tried!

                  

The elders and their i pads... Diaz, Cassity, Maybe, Jacobsen, and Murphy

Some of the sisters at the Temple

November 18th letter

Hola!

   This week was the Best! Just super good all-around :) so on Tuesday we got a call from the English sisters and they called to tell us that Orlando and his whole family is on date to be baptized on the 14th of December!!!! We were super excited like I can’t even tell you! I love that kid so much! we also had a pretty fun adventure Wednesday night when we got out of dinner a little late, and had to hurry to get to our correlation meeting which started in 10 min. we hurried up to the gate to leave the apartment complex and we unexpectedly found it locked. From the inside. What?! We hurried over to the other, gate to find that it was locked too. We had no idea what we were going to do, so we decided we would just have to try and climb the wall to the apartment complex. We failed. It was too high for us to get up then at the mismo tiempo we both looked over to see this big tree. And together we exclaimed "the Tree!!" we ran over climbed up the tree, got on the wall and jumped, a little scary, but we survived. we ran to our car and arrived to our correlation meeting out of breath and 10 minutes late, but at least we got there ha-ha. That was an adventure. :)

We had interviews this week and they were awesome. I love president Toone so much! If you would ask any of the missionaries one word to describe him, I’m pretty sure the answer would be, love. He just loves! Sister Romano has the feeling that she is going to be leaving this transfer :( president Toone was pretty surprised to find out she’s been here for 8 months. But who knows! Maybe we will be able to stay companions!

We had some of the best lessons ever this week, and I just love seeing the progress in our investigators. The other night we were teaching and as I starting to teach about the restoration, it just all came out! I have never talked that long in Spanish before on my mission, it was totally the gift of tongues and it was sooooooo cool! I could just feel it flowing out and I didn’t even had to pause to think about what I was saying, it was just coming out like if I was speaking in English :) Miracles! Love it!

Our ward had a blood drive this week, and we all signed up because we asked the brother who had just come out with us to a lesson what we could help him with, and he pointed to the signup sheet. Needles are still my phobia.... but I signed up anyway, since that’s how he wanted us to help. I actually wasn’t able to donate though because my iron was too low, but I still tried! I felt pretty brave :) I have pictures, but they are on Hermana Romano’s camera and she forgot her cord so I will email them all next week.  We took one of investigators up to the mission president’s fireside last night and it was soooo good! The spirit and testimonies were so strong! I also saw sister Segura there which was super fun and I was able to say goodbye to elder Yarmak. He’s going home to the Ukraine this transfer and I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again :( but I’m super excited for him. His mom got baptized while he was on his mission, so he’s super excited to see her again. :) But yeah this week was super awesome and I can’t wait for this week, things just get better and better every week! I love it! And I love you all too! Talk to ya soon!

               Love,

                 Hermana Savage

Hola

So this week’s letter is going to be a little shorter because the library is closed so we are at a member’s house, and I’m using a tablet so it’s hard to type. But this week was awesome! Also I realized that a year from now I’m going to be home :( crazy. It’s going waaaaaay to fast I hope it slows down, I love it so much. So this week we confiscated some coffee! It was so awesome, we just had a Lesson with this sister and it was super great for her the spirit was sooo strong, she’s been feeling really bad because she has been drinking coffee we have gone over a couple times but this week she finally let us take the temptation out of her house she’s so strong! Also there is this bright pink house that we always drive by and we decided to knock on it the other day, turns out we found a member who hasn’t gone in years because he moved and didn’t know where the church was at. We happily gave him the time and address. We then walked next store and started talking to these ladies we didn’t realize that it was a woman’s Christian recovery home. That was a fun 20 minutes... we got a huge "praise the lord!!" After almost every word we said. It was pretty funny, and then the lady gave me a hug and that was honestly the longest hug I have ever gotten from a stranger, little awkward, but also super funny afterwards. Also me and Sister Romano met our goal of member present lessons this week! It was so cool! We hit the standard of Excellency which is 12. First time in my mission :) as a result we had so many people at church! Including one of our investigators that hasn’t been in over 8 months!!! The members really do make all the difference :) you guys are awesome! Make sure you help the missionaries out! Also the ipads are great we have been able to share little videos in lessons and they really bring the spirit. The elders also like to airdrop us photos of them selfing during Sunday school... funny elders, but I guess if that keeps them from falling asleep its ok ha-ha. Well I need to go sorry this was short scatter brained and half spelled wrong, but love you all have  great week! 

Love,

Hermana savage 

i-pads

So this week was pretty awesome! Orlando the kid that we talked o last week.... well we had a lesson with his family and they are amazing!! We were super sad that we had to hand them off to the English sisters because we really wanted to teach them, but oh well! No the sisters have a wonderful family to teach. We went over the other day just to see how they were doing and Orlando said that he was going to have surgery on his hand because he broke his pinkie. We asked if he wanted to say a prayer with us so that he wouldn't be as nervous and he said "I already did!" we asked if his family has been praying and he told us they have been praying every night just like we taught them! Ahhhh they are so awesome! :)

We also kind of decided to celebrate Christmas a little early this year so they gave all the missionaries ipads on Tuesday. WHAT?! Crazy right!? We had a super awesome training and elder Donaldson the mission president from the district 2 videos which none of you probably know who he is, but anyway he came and it was AMAZING! We are a pilot mission so we are one of the first in the world to start using ipads. The area book app is sooooo cool and is going to help out so much, what’s not cool though is that we have to transfer all of our area book onto the ipads now, so we have to spend an hour a day updating and transferring which takes FOREVER! But once it’s all done things are going to be so much easier! It’s amazing all the apps we have to help enhance the work! Elder Donaldson told us "it’s not a coincidence that you are here in this mission. God knew you could do this, you were supposed to be here at this time. He trusts you, we trust you, and we expect you to figure it out. And when you do, it will bless the church in incomprehensible ways for generations to come. You were chosen to be pioneers in the most remarkable era of the church" WOW! it’s a little weird being online missionaries and there is still so much I don’t know how to do and it’s a little intimidating sometimes, but I know that I’m not here by coincidence and I have something that will help define and discover the new era of online proselyting. What’s amazing about it is we reach out and expose the church to thousands, by simply sharing a post on Facebook, for each person who likes shares one of our posts of Facebook thousands of people will hear about the gospel. It would take a looooong time to knock a thousand doors! And I’ve already had some good experiences teaching and testifying though Facebook! And guess what you can all be online missionaries too! I challenge you all to post something this week, if it’s your favorite scripture, a link to a Mormon message, or a cool experience you have had this week it doesn’t matter. But by sharing something I know that you will see the blessing in your life and in others!

We also took investigator Cele to the temple visitor center last night. It was one of the most amazing experiences I have had so far. Right after we had seen the statue of Christ he thanked us with all sincerity of his heart for inviting him. He said that I felt something so strong such a peace and love, we all started getting a little teary. Then after we watched the testaments we bore our testimonies and he even stood up and shared his feelings about Christ and it was amazing! Ah I just love the temple! We have been teaching him for almost 2 months now and he has not wanted to get baptized because he feels that he was already baptized the right way but we invited him to be baptized yet again and this time he said he would start preparing. I really have never felt such a peace before than I felt there I can’t describe it so I’m not going to try, but it was wonderful! He’s such a good guy and has such a strong desire to follow Christ.

We also showed up to church and one of the less active members we have been working with showed up to church for the first time in probably a year. We were suuuuuper excited to see her. And seeing someone partake of the sacrament for the first time in months is just as satisfying as seeing someone walk down into the waters of baptism. Reach out to the less actives and help them find their way back. By doing so you just feel so much love for them. I just love being a missionary and I’m just love these people so much, I’m rambling on now but I just want you all to know how much I love my savior and I hope that I can give my all, in hopes that I can thank him for giving his all for me. Love you all tons! And I’ll talk to ya soon!

                         Love,

  Hermana Savage

ipads! :)

                         

Heres us with Cele at the Visitor center!

Me Javier and Cele :)

Phoenix!