big changes! Letter20

Well this past week has been full of change which is uncomfortable but good! The book of mormon say's that men are that they might have joy but it never say's men are that they might be comfortable. That's what i'd like to bear witness of today.. that dispite the discomfort of talking to complete strangers, or waking up at six and working all day, or singing at a baptism :/(that was bad), or having people you're teaching struggle, or being transferred I still feel peace and joy! Do you know what that means?! The gospel is true! The work that is being done is going forth because through Jesus Christ we really can find joy in our strugglings and discomfort... it's what builds us as individuals and as a church. So my challenge is to do things that aren't comfortable... but that are sooo important. Someone said the realm of possibilities is right outside your comfort zone. Logically thinking about what i'm faced with here in the missionary field and knowing myself i should be a complete mess... but i'm at peace. I'm being transferred to the country! Cataraqui which is pronounced cata-rock-way. This means no more of the city bussel I love.. the languages from all over the world and the food. i'll come back though and I know I'll love it there.. I think it is an area Jana actually served in. maybe. I hear it's beautiful and i'm excited. I know that wonderful things await me! I'm going to be companions with Sister Stebar who was in the MTC with me! Wahoo! It's hard to say goodbye to this Zone and area and my companion but I just am ok. Amazing. Elder Sybrowsky of the quorom of the seventy came to our zone conference and it was awesome. It was so inspiring and i'm so grateful! I love you all so much! I'm going to only get mail that is sent to the mission office twice a transfer now so that'll be a change! It'll just be like christmas twice a transfer! I miss you and pray for you and am soooooooooo grateful! Be happy and share the gospel so other people can be too!
Sister Savage

Picture Post

One of these is a picture of me and Eli. She is the first persian sister I met and she's the sweetest thing EVER! Her husband was sent back to Iran awhile ago and now she is going back to try and see if she can get him back here. This was us saying goodbye. The next is of a fruit boquet the relief society did and sisters this should go on the list of the many sisterly activities we will do together when I get back. It was fun and we dipped it in chocolate after..yum. The next is milk in a bag... that's how it comes here in canada..weird. It's just a little bit harder to control the milk.

From Life As We See It

From Life As We See It

From Life As We See It

May 25th Letter 19

Hello! Wow we've been meeting a lot of interesting people lately. It's been a great opportunity to really focus on what I believe and testify and feel the peace. That's how I know the gospel is true because peace is hard to come by and the peace it brings is such a wonderful witness of it. I've been thinking a lot about how we progress. The answer is prayer and work. Lots of effort. Elder Bednar said, "AS disciples of the Savior, we are not merely striving to know more, rather, we need to CONSITENTLY DO MORE of what we know is right and become better." I love that. Another quote I love says, "if we don't try we don't do, if we don't do then why are we here?" That applies so much to missionary work and so much to life. If we aren't accomplishing things that bring us closer to God then why are we here? We don't have to everything we just have to always be doing something to be a little better. I'm so grateful to know what I know and I just hope and pray that if there are things you don't know for sure you put forth the effort to know.. "And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32 There is nothing more liberating than a personal testimony. It's sometimes easy to rely on others but real freedom comes from knowing for yourself. It is such my desire to help people to feel the freedom the gospel brings. I love you all. I am thankful for your prayers I feel them and I need them. I feel like thins is kinda a heavy email. I'm trying to think of something funny that happened this week.... Well we were all playing frisbee the other morning and there was about four of us going for it and all of us fell... i caught it and ended up sitting on top of the other elders that had fallen.. whoops! I sure stood up quick and I was as red as a beet. Dad it reminded me of my first soccer game when I fell and sat right on the ball and there was like seven little girls surrounding me and kicking at the ball and I could hear you yelling "that's right just take a rest monica!" haha. I've also tried getting into the wrong car a few times.. my companion never tries to stop me because she thinks it's funny. We have a great time together. She goes home next transfer. Weird! Transfers are this sunday so i'm anxious to see what's going to happen! Take care and be happy!
Sister Savage

physically and spiritually stuffed! Letter 18

This past week i've eaten more food than I have my whole life I think. Last monday we had a farewell party for Eli who is a persian sister who has to go back to Iran for five months and a birthday party for Elder Neff... Sister SHah made sooo much food. It was really fun though. Then we went to sister Rajasooriars and she made chicken ala kin and I'm pretty sure that is mentioned in Alladin.. it was really good. She gave us some Sri lanka treats that were interesting :) Sister Rider took us out for Greek food which was really yummy and she bought three desserts for us to try. I had baklava which I believe is also mentioned in alladin. It was yummy. Sister Simeon had us over that night and gave us phillipino food.. she made some yummy spring rolls. We had a rice cake thing for dessert that was interesting but tasty. Then yesterday Darlington our ward mission leader had a farewell lunch for Elder Neff because he is leaving and he is from africa and his wife is from the phillipines and they made soooo much food! There was foo foo, and some noodley meat thing, and fish, and oxtail and she made these little shrimp balls and they had tiny shrimp eggs.. blessedly they were way smaller the the fish eggs i tried in Russia so I was able to manage swallowing them. Then we went and saw Srini and they gave us a traditional Indian breakfast food called idli and it is like little rice pancakes saucer things. and you dip them in this spicy sauce.. who would of thought spicy in the morning. I just wrote so much about food but it has been a big part of my week! There was a pretty cool thing that happened. the sister in the office who is over referals just found this envelope with some old forms in it on her desk and she didn't know where it came from. Turns out it was a family that was taught about two years ago that made it to the day they were going to be baptized but then backed out. We went and found them and they are awesome. THey are from Romania and almost fed us cabbage but it wasn't done yet. They reminded me a lot of Russian people. They were very willing to let us in and said that they had just been talking about how great it was when they were involved in the church. We said a prayer with them and after he said it's been a long time since we've had a prayer.. it's good! They are going to start coming to church again. Srini and his family are great but still so worried about their family.. they know they will be happy here but they are afraid of how the community will treat their families in india. Srini told us I know there is only one God, I believe what you have taught us, I believe in Christ... It's amazing to hear them bear testimony! I love this work. I love the people we meet. I love all of you! I'm so grateful to be here. I'm way behind on responding to letters but thank you so much to those who write i love it and i'm trying to catch up! Sorry! Keep on keeping on and be happy! I love you!
Love Sister Savage

Letter 17

What a blessed week. I was so giddy yesterday after I got to talk to you all... except don't worry paul I know that you somehow slipped through the cracks :) HI! My gratitude for you all is at a peak in my life. Being away makes me realize just how blessed I am. Wow. Thanks for all you do! This past week I had the opportunity to go on an exchange to Weston. It's more downtown and it's a bus area. It was such an adventure and I loved it. I'm hoping I get sent to a bus area next because I felt much more like a missionary because there are constantly people to talk with and you walk a lot more which is nice. The car always makes me sleepy and we drive past a lot of people and I think i wish I was talking to them! It was an even greater adventure because it was downpouring almost the whole time I was there. I love walking in the rain and the sound it makes on the umbrella and the lightening and thunder! It was effective in contacting people too because I was standing waiting to cross the street and I looked over and there was a man standing under my umbrella with me.. he smiled and we got to talking. It was raining really hard. we got on the bus and he was very receptive it was funny he said "thank goodness it was raining or I wouldn't have met you" He was very nice. I was thinking about how the gospel is like an umbrella in the storm of life... people who don't have it are looking for it and if you let them under the umbrella you can bless them so much. People see a difference in those who live what they believe.. they are wondering if you would mind helping them to find that difference. Most won't just hop under with you without asking so we need to invite others to enjoy the protection and blessing of coming unto Christ. We still get wet but an umbrella makes a substantial difference. I stepped in a mammoth puddle running after the bus and my shoe was soaked. just like we still face trial as members of the church but we know that if we keep walking and enduring the sun will come out and our shoes won't be wet forever. Compared to the buses in Russia these ones were really nice. They actually stop for more than one second :) I love being a missionary. I have so much to improve upon but right now i'm so excited to move forward! I love you all and I hope you all are searching and finding and sharing your testimony.
Love Sister Savage

Picture Post

Here is a picture of Ruth Jarvis and I and one of the mammoth amount of food i ate at Pavani's birthday party and then a picture of me and the whole Kuntumalla family at the party

From Sister Savage

From Sister Savage

From Sister Savage

May 3rd already! Letter16

Happy birthday yesterday my sweet Barbara sister! Spring in Canada is very nice and unpredictable. Someday's it's sunny and humid and really warm other days it's chilly and rainy and WinDy!! Sister Simons was having the hardest time keeping her skirt down the other day.. it was pretty funny. The blossoms and leaves are awesome though... everything is so green! I'm really excited this is such a beautiful place when it's all alive. We played ultimate frisbee outside the other morning and it was soo nice. I love being outside. This past week was really good. I found another accent that i just can't understand and that is people from Nigeria.. good thing my companion has figured out how to tell what people are saying. Eli gave me a persian candy at church yesterday and it was yucky.. The persian people have amazing food but when it comes to cookies and candies I don't know what happened. Their cookies are like sand and whatever I ate yesterday tasted like soap. She is so sweet though she has to go back to Iran next week and I'm sad about that. She has been such a fun person to get to know and she's so faithful.
We had our Zone Conference which was exactly what I needed. It was all about not being afraid to jump in and just do the work and also about waiting patiently. Every month we pick a Christlike attribute to work on and last month was patience and I sure got what i was praying for. The best way to learn patience is to have a lot of things try your patience. I know that God's hand is in all things. His timing is the best it's just not the easiest. Pavani gave a talk in primary yesterday and it was amazing! She has almost finished the childrens Book of Mormon. I love the people we are teaching so much. Srini and Sara fasted for the first time yesterday and Srini came up to me at church all shocked and said " I don't even feel like fasting!" meaning he wasn't even hungry and he was pretty amazed. We watched the Prophet of the Restoration movie with them and talked about how we have to sacrifice sometimes for what is right and I think they are coming to understand that being baptized isn't going to be easy but it's what they should do. The scriptures are amazing. We are blessed everyday to have the opportunity and freedom to learn from them and it makes me think how easy it is to not take advantage of that. We truly come to know God and Jesus Christ when we study the scriptures and live what they teach. I love you all so much. I am so excited to talk to you soon. Keep doing the small stuff that will make an eternal difference. Love me :)
Dear Mom I haven't sent you a letter yet so it'll probably come after mothers day but I can't wait to talk to you I love you so much and i'm so grateful you are my mother. You've taught me so much about being compassionate and it has blest me so much as a missionary.

From Sister Savage