Christmas in Tempe

Hey y'all!

  So this week was pretty great. Let me just say I LOOOOVE Christmas. Like soooo much! It is the best! On Tuesday we got to go caroling with our districts for a couple hours and it was so much fun! We made some sugar cookies and we didn’t have any cookie cutters so we had to cut them all out by hand, but that made for a very fun assortment of Christmas shapes that our investigators loved ha-ha. We went around and sang to each of our investigators and it was fun to meet some of the Elder’s investigators. On one of the songs we starting singing and two lines in realized we were singing the melody to a different song and it just wasn’t working, it was super funny /awkward we quickly switched to cantos santos angeles since we knew that one pretty good ha-ha. Then Christmas day we were able to talk to our families!!! That was the best thing ever and I have been showing everyone a picture of you guys anytime anyone asks about it :) they love it. I can’t wait to talk to you again on mother’s day! :) Then we got together as a zone and played some games Christmas charades and I introduced a new game were one person stands in the middle of the circle and closes their eyes then everyone moves around. Then the person points to someone and says an animal like goat and that person they pointed to has to do that sound and the person in the middle has to try and guess who it was. If they guess right that person has to go in to the middle. It was hilarious! sooo much fun, we played for like an hour ha-ha. Then we played some basketball, had a gift exchange and made some gingerbread houses. Phoenix zone is the BEST! They are so fun it wasn’t Christmas with my family, but it was as close as it could get. It was the best. Then we went home to sleep in our totally awesome fort that we built. We read our bed time story Luke 2 and slept really well. Hermana Acosta got sick the next day though so we stayed in all day, but now she is better and we have gotten back to work! We had some really good progress with some of our investigators this week. One family we went over and we showed them a short Mormon message about the true meaning of Christmas. They had a little two year old who was giggling and making noise the whole time, but as soon as the little baby Jesus appeared on the screen he stopped and did a like a big gasp I can’t type the sound effect but it was sooooo cute! And then he started to clap his hands. It was super cute to see that even a little two year old can feel the spirit of Christ and recognize the importance of his birth. What a great week! What a great year! What a great life! I love being a missionary, I love being a member of this church, and I love being a daughter of god! I just can’t even express it! Gosh I just love it all! Ha-ha. Well love you all toooons! Thanks so much for all the cards and Christmas packages, you are the best! Keep writing, and I’ll talk to ya soon! :)

                con amor,

                  Hermana Savage 

Here is our Zone Christmas Eve making some Gingerbread houses :)

Best Christmas fort EVER!

Christmas Face time with the best family in the world!!!!! :)

We had dinner at our bishops house last night and they made us all stockings! so cute :)

Feliz Navidad!!

Hola hola hola!!

     Well not much to tell you since it’s only been a couple days since my last letter, but Me and Hermana Acosta have had a pretty awesome couple of days! We had a really amazing lesson with one of our investigators and he is going to be baptized in a couple of weeks! The lesson we had was so strong and when invited him to be baptized it was the coolest thing ever because you could feel that that was exactly what he was waiting for and he said yes before I was even done inviting him :) He is soooo prepared! He loves his family so much and all he wants is the best for them. We had our ward party on Saturday and it was super fun! Fiesta! It was "noche en Belen" so everyone dressed up and we had dinner and watched the primary kids act out the nativity scene. And so many of our investigators came it was Awesome!  We had 5 families show up. Which is a lot! Christmas miracles! Training is going pretty good, it helps that Hermana Acosta is pretty much pre trained. Pretty sure I’m learning more for her than she is from me. She likes America a lot and had a lot of fun being in Walmart for the first time ha-ha. There are a lot of perks of having an international companion. My favorite is that she hasn’t heard very many Christmas songs, so the zone leaders Elder Murphy and Jacobson call us every night and sing us a new Christmas song, it’s the best! Plus I’m learning all kinds of fun Australian words! Well not much else to tell you but I hope everyone has a very very Merry Christmas!!!! It’s going to be a lot different this year without family or snow, but it’s still going to be an amazing Christmas and I am suuuuuuper excited :) I love the Christmas season and the time we get to just remember our savior and the gift of his birth. The Christmas spirit is the spirit! And I love being able to see how it can soften hearts, and bring smiles to worn down faces. Christ really is the light and life of the world and he just brings so much peace, joy and happiness into our lives. I love my savior and I wish I could express everything that I feel about him but that would take a pretty long time. But I know he lives, I know he loves us, and I know that it is through him that we can be truly happy! Love you ALL and have a FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!! :)

              Love,

                 Hermana Savage

Craziest week ever

Dear Family and friends,

        

     First of all, sorry none of you got my letter last week. I guess it didn’t send, but I sent it this week again so hopefully you got it. Second I would like to say that this has been the cRazieSt week of my mission so far!

So once upon a time, me and my companion Hermana Romano were in south phoenix enjoying the Augila wards Christmas devotional with our investigator. What a spiritually uplifting night. it was nice to have an all-Spanish Christmas devotional, president Toone even came and shared his testimony in Spanish, it made me feel a little better about mine ha-ha :) he did super good though! He and sister Toone have a goal to learn Spanish by the end of their mission. After the devotional our zone leaders Elder Murphy and Jacobsen came up to us, and told us they had some bad news. We weren’t too worried because they always joke around about everything, so we knew it wouldn’t be too serious. Then they said 'Hermana Romano you are being "E.T"ed (emergency transferred) on Tuesday." We totally thought they were joking. They said they weren’t. We didn’t believe them. but then they said "and Hermana Savage you are going to be getting a new missionary from the MTC, and you are going to be a trainer." we still thought they were joking but then realized they were serious and I have never been so close to passing out in my life! I was SOOOOOO scared! I still don’t know Spanish, I still feel like I have no idea what I’m doing, I don’t know how to take over everything and be a trainer! AHHHHH!!!

So I couldn’t sleep Saturday or Sunday night, I was super worried. We went up to Tempe Sunday night and had the mission president’s fireside and it was amazing! We drove up with the zone leaders and listened to Christmas music the whole way. It was a very fun road trip. Then we got up Monday morning and went back down to Tempe for the Mission Christmas party/mission conference. It was amazing! We had some amazing speakers and a lot of fun activities to get to know everyone. The whole time I was wondering if my little trainee was there. I told sister Segura that she was going to be a grandma and she freaked out, it was super funny I love her. She was like "what!? Why didn’t you tell me to sit down or something!?! Then she did a funny little dance and I wish I had it on camera but sadly I don’t ha-ha. I love all the missionaries in this mission they are AMAZING! We had a testimony meeting and I have never been in a testimony meeting that strong before. Gosh I love Christmas! I can’t remember if I mentioned anything before about the "phoenix zone surprise” but elder murphy had this great idea of making a 7 foot tall piñata of president Toone for the Christmas party. And so we did. And surprisingly it worked. it was super funny because they put it on top of their car, then they rolled down all the windows and held on to the rope they made out of their ties. They said they got a lot of funny looks driving around at 5:30 in the morning with a 7 foot person on top of their car. They put it in the back of a member’s truck and they were able to bring it up. We revealed the piñata during lunch and I wish I could send you the video because it is hilarious! Sister Toone took the first swing and she broke the stick. Then president Toone couldn’t do too much damage so he just stabbed it and ripped it open funniest thing I have EVER seen.

Tuesday morning we went up to mesa and everyone in the mission was able to go through and do a session together. It was fun to be there with everyone. Then we went back for the moment of truth to find out who my daughter is going to be! Hermana Romano is opening up a new area in the middle of nowhere, and its English speaking so she is really nervous but I know she will so great! And then they announced who I will be training.... Hermana Acosta!!!

Pretty much this is one of the most amazing people I have ever met. She is from Australia and I looooove her accent. She is 31, and she is one of the funniest people I know. Her parents are from El Salvador so she does know some Spanish which is suuuuper relieving to me. Her story is amazing!  Was baptized when she was 16, and her family wasn’t very supportive of her so she would get up every morning at 4am so that she could walk to early morning seminary. Likewise she would walk an hour to get to church every Sunday. She wanted to go on a mission when she was 21 but then she found out that she had ovarian cancer. After defeating cancer she still had the desire to go on a mission, so she put in her papers and got a call to the Arizona Tempe mission. She is AMAZING! Another really cool story she told me was when she got her call she tried to look of the mission’s webpage but it wasn’t working, the only thing that she could find was my mission blog. She said after reading she really hoped that she would be able to be companions with me sometime in the mission. CRAZY right! I guess that means we were destined to be together! Ha-ha oh wow I didn’t realize how long this email is. Anyways love you all thanks for all you do! Talk to ya real soon!

            Love,

              Hermana Savage

Ps. everyone in phoenix zone was super excited when we got to the mission home and saw that we had a lot of mail, then they were disappointed when pretty much all 30 letters were for me :) you guys are awesome, I feel super loved :) 

 

An elder made a balloon President Toone. It was awesome :)

Our Zone with the pinata!!

Sister Toone taking a wack

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Presidnet Toone stabbing it. haha

Best family and friends en el mundo,

Dear best family and friends en el mundo,

    This week was pretty fun, we were in a trio for three days with Hermana Taylor since her companion Hermana Thompson ended her mission and went home on Monday. Crazy! I’m really going to miss her. She was one of my role models. It’s crazy to think that next transfer I’m going to be in the group of the oldest hermanas out in the field. I still feel like I just got here! Crazy! We went up to the transfer meeting on Wednesday so Hermana Taylor could get her new companion. It was fun to be there and just enjoy not have to be so worried and anxious about who your next companion is going to be or were you are going to go. Me and Sister Romano are happy we get to stay together. After transfer meeting we were talking to some English sisters and one of the asked my name. Immediately after I told her she was like "YOUR SISTER SAVAGE?!" she almost screamed and then ran up and gave me a hug. It really surprised me, and I was a little confused. Then she was like "You’re sister Seguras daughter! I have heard so much about you, I feel as if I know you!" It was super funny to see how excited she was to meet me. ha-ha. Man I sure do miss sister Segura. But something crazy happened in transfer meeting there were like 4 sets of missionaries that are now companions again with their trainer! They were all suuuuuper excited, and it got me really excited because maybe there is a possibility that me and sister Segura can serve together again!!!! :) That would be super cool. Love her so much.

We had a lesson with one of my favorite investigators Cele this week and it ended up being one of the hardest things I’ve had to go through. I have just come to love this guy so much and its super hard to see when he’s not making the steps to true happiness, and just can’t seem to see what it is that we see. I know that must be exactly how God feels. He gets devastated when we don’t make the choices in our lives that can bring us joy. And that is because he cares sooooooo much about us, and all he wants is the best for us. Sometimes it makes Him sad because we can’t see what He sees we can’t see the whole picture, but He can. Sometimes we go through the hard times and we see others going through those hard times and we have done everything that we can think of but sometimes it just doesn’t work. It’s sad, but I guess it’s just not his time, and now we can just let the Lord take control of things, and start to soften his heart. 

We had a really awesome zone meeting on Tuesday and Elder Murphy said something that I really liked. He said "Missionary work is over. It is now the work of salvation" and it is soooo true. Missionary work is over; the responsibility to share the gospel is not just for the missionaries. "Now is the time for members and missionaries to work together."  What an amazing time to be a part of the gospel, at a time where everyone is a part of the work of salvation! It doesn’t matter what you do or how small it may seem everything counts! Just being a good example lets people wonder what it is that you have, just being kind allows them to feel of the love that God has for them. Just being around them and giving them the opportunity to be in the presence of someone who has the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost makes all the difference! Any service you give is missionary work, because it is the Lord’s work. I love you all Mucho! And I hope you are all praying for missionary opportunities each and every day, and if not, I challenge you too! And you will begin to come to love to be a part of the work of salvation just as much as I do! Love ya all! Talk to ya soon! 

               Love, 

                 Hermana Savage 

Ps. next week we don’t get a p-day because we are having the mission Christmas party. So I’m not sure if I will be able to write or not, so if not, have a great week!

We found another super cool wall this week. They are everywhere in Phoenix ha-ha :)