Letters from Sister 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 :)