Letter 11

Salam, Hoobie? That means Hello how are are you? I'm doing great it has been a good week. Always lots to do and even more that can be done. I love this experience so much. Darlene was baptized yesterday and she asked sis simons and I to help her and she kinda sucked up a lot of water but she recovered and when she came out of the dressing room she said "I feel like a million bucks" And then she kept saying how grateful she was to have made it here, she has been searching for the truth for 17 years and she recognized it right away. So amazing. Our investigators are doing better, Srini and his family were super stressed out last week but they came to church this week and were back to there smiling selfs which was such a relief. They are an amazing family. The Persian New year was this past week and so on sat the Persian members did a party and it was a lot of fun. The persians are so funny and the food is yummy. Well my time is short today because we are going to the science center... I hear it's pretty cool. I love you all and thank you for all you do for me. Khoda ha fez! bye bye!

Ok there is a pic of Sister Bradshaw and I.. its not the cutest though so maybe don't show the whole world. And there is one of Amir and Sis Simons and I at the persian party. And then one of darlene and me. and one of me holding the moldy cookies holly and rach sent me :) My face is supposed to look sickened. Oh ya my april fools joke is that she really didnt cut my hair that short.. it's shorter but not drastic! Thats all folks!

From Sister Savage

From Sister Savage

From Sister Savage

From Sister Savage

Letter 10

I always want to start by saying I can't believe how fast the week has gone but the truth is I do believe it because every week goes by quick... so I can believe another week has flown by! I hope all is well. This week I have heard more sad stories than I ever have. We talk about trials and difficulties being part of life and that they help us grow and then people say but sisters is there any happiness. Then we get to share how because of Jesus Christ we can find happiness. We may not be free from our trials but we can be free from despair. I'm grateful to my family and friends for the great examples in finding happiness in what will last forever instead of being sad about not having all the worldly stuff that won't last. Find reasons to be happy ever day and you will be. We have had a really great week! We had an experience the other day while tracting that was pretty intense.. We knocked on a door and the man opened it up and he was an extremely tall and built african american man and he stepped out let the door close behind him and folded his arms and said as he towered over us you picked the wrong guy. I felt like I did when I was a little girl and we went to Las Vegas and there was that huge man with a snake wrapped around his neck and I dropped my ice cream on dad's head. I was trying really hard not to look completely terrified. He told us he was a hebrew/ greek bible scholar. He asked to see my bible and he was surprised he said we have a good copy. He drilled us for probably half an hour and we were able to keep it pretty calm and in the end he was way more flustered than us and said well i wish i could show you all my hebrew and greek stuff, and he's right he definently would have confused us then! I was grateful to feel the spirit comfort me. So interesting things I've eaten today was something called a double which is like a scone thing stuffed with curry chickpeas or something like that.. it was super yummy! The other night I got up to have a snack (I definently blame you dad for my eating in the middle of the night :) and I had a slice of banana bread a member gave us and then the next morning I looked at it and the bottom had tons of mold on it.. so foul. hmm what else. Oh my favorite thing that happened this week was at zone conference. We were having lunch and these three ladies from the weston ward made it for us and then we sang called to serve to them after to say thanks and I noticed one sweet lady crying and I thought oh she is so tender. We went up to give them hugs and we I approached this lady she got WAY excited and was like it's you it's you and before i knew it she was giving me the best hug i've had since I left and we hugged tight for a long time. And guess who it was Jen :) Sister Bradshaw! I can't tell you how wonderful is was to hug someone who knows and loves someone I love so much. By the way Sister Bradshaw is a sister my sister Jen lived with while she was serving her mission. Such a tender mercy.. I loved it so much. This Recent convert came and shared his story with us and it was crazy. He was on the bus on his way to the subway station where he had decided to go and throw himself in front of a train because he was so miserable when he saw two missionaries get on the bus. One of them pushed through all the people and sat down by him. He didn't give up on talking to this man and finally he gave him his number cause he thought it doesn't really matter anyway because i'll be dead. As soon as he got off the bus the elders called him and set up a time to see him and he said that he can't remember the rest of that day at all and that he had forgotten his plan. He did meet with the missionaries and now does have happiness.. it gives me hope to tell people they can be happy because this guy was at the lowest of low and he did it. We were able to meet with a family on friday and the lesson went amazing. The husband is from St. Lucia and the wife from Nigeria and they have a two year old little girl and a five month old baby that i had a hard time not staring at the whole time. So cute. They were so receptive and eager to have us come again and we told them about general conference and he was like I definently feel like i have something to learn from these men. He always was like I know what your saying is true I have the goosebumps. SOOO cool. I love this work. I love my Savior. I love all of you! Thanks for all you do for me. Oh ya I had to rush last week cause I went to get my hair cut by a really sweet persian lady and her english is very limited and my farsi is VERY limited and somehow she ended up cutting off more than she kept. Oh well though.. my mission has been quite a big adventure for my hair! This is a long one! I love ya and hope to hear from you all soon!

Letter 9

Hello! Things are going really well here. It's been rainy but i think its fun. We had to help the elders move this morning and we had just put the last of the stuff in the car and then this car drove by and hit a puddle and it nailed me! a bunch of water went in my ear.. it was pretty funny though, we all had a good laugh! It has been a slower week which is hard be we still see miracles everyday! I'm so grateful to be here. I hope all is well. Sorry this is so short but there is never enough time on Pdays! Hopefully next week we won't be so busy. Did I ever tell you about how one of the elders in my mtc district was being filmed for a show that starts in october i think in KBYU.. look it up. I can't remember if i told you that before. Ok adios for now I love you all! Oh wait President Eyre said something cool yesterday. He said that thinking that everything was created by a giant explosion (big band theory) is like thinking it's possible for an explosion in a printing shop to result in a dictionary. I know God lives and is our creator and He amazes me everday!
Sister SAvage

Letter 8

So we had to switch our email addresses this morning.. what a joke.. after 30 minutes we finally got elder phillips to help us out. It has been a great week. my first transfer is over and I just can't believe it! I'm so glad to be staying here in Don Valley.. it's been wonderful here! I had a funny slash scary experience the other night cause we were walking up to an apartment building and my companion was having some anxiety because transfer time stresses her out and she was like i feel like something bad is going to happen and I was like... right now? And right when i said that this man ran up behind us.. you should have seen me scamper off.. he felt really bad and said i'm sorry i didn't mean to scare you.. it was pretty funny. I'm sure jumpy! The other day we were playing sports and one of the elders got nailed in the face with a soccer ball and then we accidently ran over his foot in our car... he's ok though. I've eaten some fun stuff this week. Sister Simpson from Scotland fed us meat pie and haggas.. which isn't as bad as i've heard. Sister Shah fed us rice, corned beef and cabbage, split pea sauce, hot sauce and yogurt all mixed together. I bet you feel bad for me but don't it was delicious! She is from Trinidad and is awesome.. we helped her clean and she kept on saying it was a miracle and she almost cried.. such a sweet lady. Srini and his family are praying about being baptized! They are such an amazing family. Yesterday Pavani the 10 year old girl said the prayer and it was the sweetest thing. She is usually so soft spoken but when she started praying she spoke right up and said how grateful she was for us coming over and teaching about the steps we need to take and for the Book of Mormon. They are an amazing family. Keep them in your prayers. We saw Marysusan and she was shaking really bad because she is trying to quit drinking. She said she didn't drink at all when she read the Book of Mormon and she didn't drink the whole hour we were there so that is awesome! I have to go but I love you all so much. Writing is hard to do but i'm doing my best! thanks for your love and support it means so much! The gospel is true. I believe in Christ! Love Sister Savage :)

Letter 7

What a week! i'll start with tracting news.. tracting is such an adventure. We tracted into a lady and she was the most animated person ever. People like telling there life stories but she acted hers out as well. She broke her leg really bad last year and she was telling us all about it and then before I knew it she had me turned around and was demonstrating how this lady picked her up and rubbed her down to keep her from going into shock.. my companion was trying really hard not to laugh and luckily I wasn't facing her cause i looked pretty confused/uncomfortable but that's what makes missionary work fun. A lot of people don't speak english and instead of saying "i'm not interested" they say "i'm not interesting." The other day someone said that and closed the door and my companion continued on to say to the closed door, well we think you're interesting you shouldn't be so hard on yourself.. we laughed pretty hard. We found a really cool carribean lady named Ingrid and we talked to her for awhile. She told us her heart was warmed.. ya for the spirit.. we're going back this wednesday. She told me there are sooo many Savages where she is from... maybe i'm meant to live in the Carribean! It snowed a ton this past week. My companion hates boots though so she refuses to wear them. The parking lot to the church was all snow and slush so I offered to give her a piggy back ride so she didn't get snow in her shoes.. it's a lot harder in dresses.. she jumped on and then just kinda slid of my back onto the ground.. good thing she has a good sense of humor.. we laughed for a long time. She's got a big bruise! Did you know that most of the squirrels here in canada are black.. and big.. and all over the place! They are like little ninja's running all over. They scare me sometimes.So Srini and his family are soo amazing! We decorated their apartment door because it was Pavan's (the sixteen year old boy) Birthday and they called us that night and you would have thought we gave them a million dollars. They are so grateful and humble. They came to church again and I'm so excited to keep teaching them. Do you remember me telling you about MArySusan? She is a lady i met my first week in Canada and we taught her twice and the spirit was really strong but then she called and told us she wasn't ready for anything new.. broke my heart. Well we haven't heard from her in three weeks and last night we had just turned off the lights to go to bed and she called us! Wow! We talked to her for an hour and she is so scared because she feels like she needs to turn to something and she thinks it's us but she is a devote Catholic and so it is very frightening for her. She has a lot of questions and we are going to start teaching her again. Super exciting. I thought she had written us off and here she has still been thinking about it these past three weeks. So many blessings. We had a meeting this week called skills and interviews and one of my Zone leaders shared a cool scripture. 1 Corinthians 9: 24 " Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receivieth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain." He had us change the word prize to gift. There are many gifts we want but there is no way we can get them unless we run! We each can obtain if we keep running. Run so that you find answers to your prayers. Run so that scripture study can bring you closer to Christ. Run so that you can be forgiven of your sins. SO RUN, THAT YE MAY OBTAIN! I know when we do our part the best we can we can obtain . Man all this running talk is making me tired. It's hard. I read a scripture in 2 Nephi 24: 3 that says. "And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall give thee rest, from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve." We are made to serve in hard bondage sometimes, financially, emotionally, physically, spiritually. The Lord will give us rest. He is the only one who can liberate us. I love and pray for you all. Thank you so much for your prayers. wow this is a long one.
Love Sister SAvage
PS if you have written and i've not written back yet be patient with me i'm trying :) And if you haven't written me.. i could point out a few of you but I won't single you out like that.. i want to know what's happening in your life!