June 18, 2012 email

Dear Family (and friends),

Have I mentioned lately how much I love you all? Have I also mentioned lately how much I love being out here on a mission?! Because I do! (most of the time)

Things are going so well here!  I hope you know how much I appreciate your love and your prayers! It is helping me through the work.

I am so thankful to be here. I am humbled to be a part of bring people closer to our Savior. Times can be hard, but I know that the Lord is always in it. He is leading me. He is guiding me. He is making sure that I don't give up. The Father of Lies however is working super hard on me and my companion. We have been meeting a LOT of contentious people lately. A lot of people have been sharing their strong dislike for Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. It takes all my energy not to throw a fist. That is not very Christ-like, I know, I am working on it.

The other night we went to a lesson.... Ended up being a party to bash on Mormons. It was about 5 Chinese ladies. They were trying to get us to watch clips on Youtube entitled "What is wrong with Mormonism" Funny right?!! Not. We testified and tried to leave. They told us we were too young to be stuck in one religion. We needed to explore more... Blah... blah... blah.... We testified more and got out of there. It was so strange. They had made food for us too. It looked gross. I thought they were going to try and drug us with the food, so I refused to eat it.

We have met some great people as well. Yesterday I met a guy who was pretty interested. I gave him a Restoration pamphlet and he gave us his phone number. We are going to call him today to set up a time.

We are seeing miracles!

Sorry, I am almost out of time. I will send a snail mail letter if I can.

 I know this church is true. I know that Heavenly Father loves each one of us. He has a plan for each one of us. He really does listen to prayers, but only if we ask.

I would like each one of you to pray tonight. Ask God if He loves you. I promise that if you have a desire to know, he will answer you.

I love you all so much. You are my favorite family (and friends) in the whole wide world!

Scripture: 3 Nephi 18: 21

Love you.
Sister Saal

Latest letter

Sister Saal has been very lax on writing home.  I guess that's good that she is busy with the work, but we sure missing hearing from her.  Her birthday is June 12^th, so please send her a birthday greeting.  Here are excerpts from recent emails.  At the end is her latest letter.

Transfers were the end of May and she will be staying in Victoria for another 6 weeks!!  She is very excited about that and wants to move there when her mission is completed.  Both she and her companion, Sister Doria - from Centerville, have been sick with a nasty sinus infection.  They were kind of out of commission for about two weeks and lost some of the momentum they had going for them.  Their mission president has been helping them with some of the families they are teaching.  Another investigator is a single mom with twin boys.  The boys LOVE Sister Saal – are you surprised?  They are also working with the ward to help reactivate the less actives.  Sister Saal loves her ward in Canada and an older couple has become her second mom and dad.  (I am so grateful for the support they are receiving.)  Sister Saal has had lots of opportunities to provide service to the church members and the investigators.  She loves her mission.

Her latest letter: 

May 28, 2012  (it takes about 7-10 days for letters to get here)

Hello family (and friends):

How wonderful it is to finally write you a letter.  Sorry it has taken me way too long.  Sorry it will be a short one as well.  P. Days seem to fly by super fast. 

Seems to have a few miracles:

1.       Our special family is not being dropped into the reflecting pool  They were kind of avoiding us for a while but we were able to see them last night.  The mom and her mom (we call her grandma) are doing so well.  They love learning and they are happier now.  I don’t know what was going on with them. We took pictures with them.  I tried sending them, but it wasn’t working.  They are wonderful.  (I will post those pictures as soon as I get them.)

2.       Our single mom with twin boys came to church yesterday.  It was stake conference and it was a broadcast.  They talked about how much they love Canada!  Ugh! Just kidding.  I love Canada, just not the doctors. (She’s not been too impressed with the Canadian doctors as she’s been working through this illness.)  It was really good because she and her boys are meeting a lot of members.  We invited her to be baptized and she will pray about it.

3.       I have been on a Joseph Smith/Emma Smith high lately!  I can’t seem to get enough of the Smith family.  Oh, and did you know Joseph had more than 1 wife?  I sure didn’t, at least until an investigator brought it up.

We have been trying to work hard despite our lil’ illness.  I hope things work out and I get better soon!  Stinks being sick.

Sorry I don’t have much this week.  However, this is going to be the transfer of miracles.  I will keep you posted!

Love you all.  Keep reading.  Keep praying.  Keep going.

Sister Saal