I'm itching for spring!!!!

So the sun came out but it's still sooo cold! It's like spring is tricking us. It will come though. That's comforting. So moving area's has been pretty... hmmm.. I'm not even sure how to describe it. I've felt quite numb.. I think that's a blessing. It was hard to leave downtown and all the people because they were all so aware even if I had never said anything and now I'm with a whole new lot of people and I just dread questions or having to tell people... I usually handle it quite well but there have been a few time where I just crumble inside when I talk about it. This ward seems really awesome though. Lots of fun people and I'm glad to have a new start. My companion is great she was born in England and then has lived in Australia for a long time so her accent is a mix.. it's fun. My last companion and I got into the habit of talking in accents just for fun and now i keep doing it because sister Arnold is always talking in an accent. She says I have a very proper English accent. Our apartment is a basement apartment and is very quite and dark at night.. so I've been sleeping better... running into more stuff though when I do get up. There are a lot more kids in this ward and it is so hard cause I just want to hold them! Sister Arnold says I'm clucky... I like the words she uses. This random little boy came up and gave me a big hug and a long one yesterday and it was so sweet. random crazy stuff happens here too. We were tracting and down the hall we heard this door open and then saw someones very serious looking face peek out and just kept staring at us and going in and out and so then I started to walk towards them and said hello and they slowly pulled there face in and shut the door.. didn't say anything. It was kinda creepy. We have had some really great surprise lessons and investigators which is great. We see lots of tender mercies. I heard a quote I like.. " I attribute my success in life to this: I never gave or took an excuse." Florence Nightingale. I am trying to adopt this in my life. I don't like excuses and I've seen how just accepting facts and moving forward is best. I kinda wondered though cause some things aren't excuses they are reality and then it's hard to tell whether I'm making an excuse or just having to deal with what I'm experiencing. I am not sure if what I am saying makes any sense. Anyway all is well. I'm thankful for you all! I love you! Don't let anything hold you back from growing and loving and forgiving and being more like our Savior. It's all about love. I've decided that as things get worse in the world we have to love more and more so that we can handle it! Have a great week. I can't wait for conference!


Love Sister Savage

3/21/2011 Changes

Life is always changing. I am leaving downtown and going to Scarborough... it's a mix between my first area and here I think. I will be with Sister Arnold who has been out two transfers. She is from Australia so that will be fun. I will have a car which actually is a lot of responsibility and I think we'll still walk a lot cause I like walking. This week was a good one. We had a pasta overload which left us rather sick but we're doing better. We had Filipino spaghetti fri night which is spaghetti with hot dogs in it and then sat lunch Elder and Sister Lindsey made spaghetti for all the missionaries and then we went to the relief society dinner where they had lots of lasagna. Then we had an appointment with a guy we met on the subway from Germany and his wife unexpectedly made us dinner which was pasta and cheese. SO much pasta! I sure love downtown. I love all the people and how there is never a dull moment! Elder Kearon spoke at our Zone Conference this week, I was happy to hear him speak 3 times while he was here. I am a fan. He and his wife just radiate love and it's wonderful. I am so thankful for the scriptures and for all the wonderful words of our Church leaders. they make me so happy.I hope all is well with you. All the horrible stuff going on around the world reminds me of something mom taught me that has helped me understand physical disasters and strife more. She explained to me after the tsunami in (was it Thailand or Sri Lanka I can't remember) that Physical death isn't the worse thing... that has been overcome for everyone but when God's children spiritually die then that is what is really sad. that's when they choose to be separate from him. That doesn't lessen the pain or suffering we experience but it helps us turn tragedy into triumph. Some man just walked up to me and asked if I was Mormon and how do men support all of their wives. I love being a missionary and sharing the truth of the restored gospel. Thanks for all your love and support.. I can feel it!


Love Sister Savage

03/14/11-The Sun Is Out

I feel like I have so much to say. We have had a lot of great meeting and speakers. President Eyre's brother came and he and his wife are motivational speakers in a way. Richard and Linda Eyre. Anyway they did a debate. He said that missions are easy and she said they are hard. My neck kinda started burning when he talked about how easy it is.... I just kept thinking... parts are easy but parts are HARD. I don't think it would be as profitable if it were easy. Sure the Lord said that his yoke was easy and his burden was light but there is no escaping the fact that was He did for us was hard and painful. The end conclusion was good though. It is that the goal is easy but the plan is hard. If you have perfect faith things are easy but until then it is hard to develop perfect faith. She said something I really like. God is more concerned with our character than our comfort. Some times good things hurt. Like we saw this man really struggling to walk the other day so we offered to help.. before I knew it he was getting heavier and heavier we were both kinda hunched as we walked. we made it but boy my arms and back hurt. Then we were walking down the street and a car drove by and sprayed us top to bottom with slush... we had a good laugh. Jaurex is doing good we were running late to see him the other night and all the sudden he jumped out from behind a building.. I screamed so loud. Have you been writing him justin?


Elder Kearon from the seventy was here yesterday for stake conference and he talked about really letting go and how we can't be satisfied but we can be happy. We always have to be trying to be better but we can't get down on ourselves. He says the strength we have today isn't enough for the tests of tomorrow. We have to be constantly struggling for it! I miss my mom so much. It hurts. I love Romans 8... I don't have time to type it out but I would like to challenge all of you to read it! Will you? I promise that if you do you will feel of God's love and awareness of us all. Have a wonderful day!

Where did spring go?

Well it warmed up quite a bit and then all the sudden there was snow on the ground again. It was a great week thought. Juarex (sounds like Wuarex though) was baptized yesterday.... on Thursday he said i don't want to wait till April anymore, I'll be at the church on Saturday cleaning (he loves to come help clean the church) then I could have my interview and get baptized on Sunday! We were putting together his program and we said afterward we can have some snacks and he was like no we can't we'll be fasting. we thought it was great that he remembered and funny that we forgot. After church though we couldn't find him anywhere and I got a little nervous but then I saw him in the bishops office giving his tithing. It made me so happy. The only thing that went wrong was that at the last baptism we went to the water was really cold. Juarez doesn't like the cold so we turned it on pretty warm and it was way too hot! whoops.. we were bringing pitchers of cold water from the kitchen trying to cool it down... then we he was going into the font he was like Ohlala this is hot, which made me think of how mom would always say ohlala.... it was a sweet feeling though thinking of her then..not sad. They made it through.. he said it was better to have it too hot than too cold. We had an awesome sports night on Wednesday and 4 investigators came and we had a lot of fun. I laughed a lot. It was so funny to see people from all over playing sports together... like India, st. Vincent, Grenada, Cuba, Korea, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, England, Russia,Philippines and so on. I am so grateful for the gospel. I'm grateful for the priesthood blessings and fasting... both of which have really helped me out a lot this week. I know the gospel is what keeps us strong. Sister Eyre shared a poem with us the other day that i really liked.


The OAK TREE by Johnny Ray Ryder Jr.



A mighty wind blew night and day

it stole the oak trees leaves away

then snapped his boughs and pulled his bark

until the oak was tired and stark



But still the oak tree held it's ground

while all the other trees fell around

The weary wind gave up and spoke,

"How can you still be standing oak?"



The oak tree said " I know that you

can break each branch of mine in two

carry every leaf away

shake my limbs and make me sway.



But I have roots, stretched in the earth

growing stronger since my birth.

You'll never touch them , for you see

they are the deepest part of me.



Until today I wasn't sure

of just how much I could endure

but now I've found, with thanks to you

I'm stronger than I ever knew.



Those roots and that strength comes for the gospel of Jesus Christ and his Atonement and as we come to understand and apply it more in our lives. Thinking of trees always reminds me of when I was in Russia and I loved to look at the really tall skinny trees cause I always thought they would blow over but they wouldn't... they'd move a lot but they stayed standing. I'm grateful for all of you and I love you and miss you and love the gospel! Have a great day!



Love Sister Savage

In Motion :)

Well I just read emails and my heart is so full of gratitude for all of you. I have a new favorite song that came on the other morning and it reminded me a lot of my prayers these past few months and how grateful I am the I have been able to Keep in Motion even though at times it has seemed far beyond possible. It goes like this.

Stop the world from turning long enough for me to catch my breath,
I'm caught up in a whirlwind wondering if the storms will ever rest.
The road is rough but IT'S WORTH TO MUCH to let it slip away,
give me strength to make it one more day!
Keep me in Motion when I'm frozen by the fear
of these emotions and I can't see my way clear
when I'm up against a wall
when I stumble and I fall down on my knees,
Oh please, keep me in motion
like the river to the sea
give me devotion to live more faithfully
till I find myself again like the rhythm of the wind on the ocean
Keep me in motion
This path that I have chosen is harder than I thought that it would be,
But all along the journey I FEEL THE HAND OF HEAVEN GUIDING ME,
And when the light I'm living by leads me to the edge
Give me faith to take another step
KEEP ME IN MOTION!

I know that I have been able to keep going not because of me or my strength but because the Lord knows my desires and He has helped me have the strength to keep going. We had a meeting this week and one of my zone leaders shared the bible dictionary's definition of conversion and I love it. IT says's "Conversion denotes changing one's view, in a conscious acceptance of the will of God..... Conversion will change a natural man into a sanctified, born again, purified person- an new creature in Christ Jesus. Complete conversion comes after many trials and much testing. To labor for the conversion of one's self and other is a noble task." I have thought a lot about conversion. I came on a mission wanting so much to make a difference in helping others to become converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ... sometimes it is hard to see if you're making a difference. I know Satan wants us to believe that maybe we just aren't meant to make a difference as much as we had hoped. I have been fighting against this thought I know that any effort we make in strengthening our own or others conversion is of worth. I was thinking of how all of you are in this same process to. Barbara wrote me and said she felt like me when we had a lot of investigators at church with her kids and making sure they are having a good experience. That is so awesome to have that view.. I have learned that our greatest investigators we will teach will be our children. I am excited for the things I'm learning here and I hope to have missionary work be a part of my life and home forever.

Sometimes I wish I could record my mission and send you clips because there just aren't words to describe. We had some great experiences and some strange ones this week. We went to another baptism in Spanish and they sang I know that my redeemer lives and God be with you till we meet again and the spirit was really strong and I cried and laughed through them both because there is this guy who got baptized in another ward but he is just super friendly and funny and he kept looking back and waving to me.. I think he was worried cause I was crying... so then I would just laugh cause everyone would look at him funny and then look at me and smile. Then we went and taught Juarex and he is doing so great, he is really feeling the spirit which is awesome. He was describing how his heart felt and how he knew that what we were saying was true. Then he told us his heart is on the right side of his body but I think I've been teased to much in my life so I didn't believe him cause he likes joking around.. turns out he was serious. I've never met anyone with their heart on the right side. So now for some strange moments. We were waiting for the subway and there was a pretty rough looking crowd next to us and all the sudden this man who looked like a pirate from the Caribbean jumped over and he continued to jump around us for about two minutes, telling us his version of some religious stories. We stepped closer to the wall so he didn't accidental knock us onto the track and then afterwards we just laughed and we're really grateful is wasn't at all scary or threatening.. just really weird. Then this morning there was a guy dancing/walking down the street. Heather he looked like that guy in that clip we would watch of the guy going step bomp step bomp bomp.... i hope you know what i'm talking about.. it was funny. So all is well. We were able to teach the Komasa family and they are wonderful.. just really busy. There too year old atia kept saying uh huh.. ya... and repeating what we were saying. It was darling. She gave me about five hugs that night and it was an answer to my prayers cause I miss hugging all my nieces and nephews so much. And she really knows how to squeeze. I hope you all know how much I love you and pray for you. Everyone of you are an answer to my prayers in so many ways! I'm so thankful. Have a great day!
Love Sister Ferocious... that's what this older man from the Philippines calls me :) I don't know if that's how you spell it though.