April 8, 2013 letter

Good afternoon family (and friends)! It is a beautiful day. Story time.

Wednesday morning I got a phone call from President Tilleman. In a sense he said, "Good morning Sister Saal. Will you please take me off speaker and let me know when you have gone somewhere private." There was a pause and a moment of fear in my head "Okay," I said as I shut the washroom door behind me. "Sister Saal, how are you?" I told him how I was and how the work in Maple Ridge was going. I could hear the smile in his voice as the words came out. "Sister Saal, one of the sisters is going home and Sister Petersen (who came out with Sister Dean 4 weeks ago) needs a companion. So, how would you feel about taking on another training opportunity?" WHAT!?! At first I was a little freaked out, but then the Lord calmed my heart "Sure President." I said. He then told me how much he trusted me and what an honor this was. "So, the Sisters are here in Richmond and they will bring you Sister Petersen tonight." Wait, WHAT!? Tonight? Well, after a few more minutes of talking to him, I realized I was getting a new missionary. Plus, we are covering both areas, Maple Ridge and Brookswood. How crazy!

So, who has been out in the field for 14 months and is training two new missionaries instead of one?

It has been a wonderful and sacred opportunity. Of course there are ups and downs, but that is life. However, I feel the Lord blessing me so much during these times. I have forgot about myself and lost myself in the work. My only thoughts have been about my companions and about the people we are working with. What a blessing it is to be a servant of the Lord. I love it.

Wasn't Conference so amazing?! I loved it so much! I could go on and on for hours about it. Conference was so amazing! I loved every minute of it. I think the things that really stuck out to me were more of my feelings and thoughts than what the speakers actually said. Every time I heard the word "Peace", I felt the spirit testify to me that this is truly a message that brings peace to all those who partake of it. I didn't realize it until one of the speakers were talking, but I have had some uneasiness within my self. I didn't recognize it, but when they were talking about peace, it hit me that I need to apply that. When President Uchtdorf was talking about how light and darkness can't be in the same place at the same time, it brought tears to my eyes. The spirit testified strongly to me, that the Lord wants to forgive us!  He wants us to be happy and healthy. He wants us to turn to Him. I have taken on the motto "Help thou my unbelief" and am applying it to my life. There are some things that I don't know, but the Lord will help me. How truly inspired the General Authorities are. I am really excited for when it comes out in the Ensign for us to read and study more in depth. I love General Conference! 

We are seeing so many miracles here I don't feel worthy of them. I feel like I am being so disobedient, and yet... The Lord is blessing me. Sometimes I feel like I have a microscope on me and that everyone is just waiting to point things out. I don't understand it. I am so humbled to know that He cares about His children here. I care about them. I love them so much, and most of them I have never/will never meet.

We are working with so many amazing people. One sister I am so thankful. She is amazing and has great faith, we just don't know how to get her to church. I feel like we have tried everything to get her there, but she just hasn't come yet. She has an amazing true friend and she knows that President Monson is a prophet. It is a difficult situation with her husband. He is not all that supportive of her coming or learning more. We are all just praying that his heart softens. We have to postpone the baptism because she has yet to come to church. She has been doing really well at reading in the Book of Mormon, she said she reads every day, and also giving up coffee, she says it is hard but she has been doing it. We just have so many truth-seeking investigators that Satan is working really hard on them. However, the Lord is so amazing and He is blessing them abundantly.

 We are working with a family! I love them so much. I am going to go to the Phillipenes with the mom. The mom is a member but married a non-member and kind of fell away. She still has a super strong testimony. A couple months ago she came to church with her husband and 3 boys. She wants them baptized. We taught two of the boys again this week and invited them to be baptized. They said yes! How cool is that! They are basically my favorite people ever. I am so excited to be facebook friends with all these people. All of them are so accepting of the gospel. 

We are also working with another younger family. They are so cute and I love them so much. They are both so humble and so willing to learn. It is great to have the sacred opportunity to teach them. They have amazing true friends. It is a testimony builder to me that people progress better and faster when they have someone to lean on other than the missionaries.

We haven't been able to get in contact with one of our recent converts for a while. She has been working crazy hours. However, we talked to a ward member yesterday at conference and she said that the convert talked to her boss and now has Sunday mornings off work so she can come to church. She says she has also been too busy to smoke, so she has cut down a lot.

As for me, I am doing really well. I am so thankful for the Lord in my life. I am a completely different person, even from a few months ago. I am thankful for the tender mercies of the Lord and His blessings upon me. I feel like I want to join the people of King Benjamin "And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually." The church is true! The knowledge of my Savior is the best thing I have in my life, my family at a close second, with my friends at a close third. I am thankful for that knowledge that I will be able to take with me!

Family and friends, I just want to let you know how thankful I am for my Savior Jesus Christ. He is the light and the life of the world. He is the way to eternal happiness. He is the great physician. He is able to heal us emotionally, physically, and spiritually. He is our advocate with the Father. He is the way and there is no other way!

Thank you for everything each one of you do for me! Thank you for your prayers, your thoughts, your kind words. I love each one of you dearly. I will see you in like 4 months! BAH!!!!! So crazy!

Love,
Sister Saal