August 12, 2013 letter - last letter from the field!! Sad day.

What a wonderful day it is to be here in the service of God. Thing are
going really well here in Aldergrove. A lot of our appointments fell
through this week. We were able to see a few people, but not many. The
work is moving along though, and despite our results, we have been
blessed with many miracles from the Lord.

We were blessed to find a new investigator this week. She is so sweet.
We tracted into her on Wednesday, taught a principle on her doorstep,
said a prayer, and set a return appointment with her. We went back on
Friday with a member and taught her about the Restoration. She has
been studying with the Jehovah's Witnesses for the past 5 years. It is
interesting because she hasn't been baptized yet. She says she still
wants to learn. I personally feel like there are some things that she
doesn't agree with. She was telling us one thing in particular that we
testified of. She said that her "teacher", or whoever it was, said
that God didn't have a physical body. She said that it didn't make
sense. We testified that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus
Christ. We also used scriptures from the Bible. It was a wonderful
topic and she loved the answer we had for her. We set up another
appointment with her and we are going to try and set a baptismal date
with her. She is so open to learning and she said she was excited to
read from the Book of Mormon. That is really good. I am excited to
help her continue to grow closer to God. She needs this message so
much. She has so much faith, but I can't imagine her not knowing the
truth. I can't imagine anyone not knowing the truth.

I want to share a cool experience I had. The past few days I have been
feeling so sick. I honestly think most of it was stress from the idea
of going home. It was really bad. I was getting even more frustrated
that I was getting so sick right before going home. I just want to
finish my mission strong and have no regrets. The sister that lives
upstairs suggested I get a blessing. Yesterday at church I received a
blessing from two of the brethren in our ward. It was such a powerful
blessing. The Spirit was there and testified to me so strongly. It was
something I couldn't deny. Heavenly Father told me how proud He was of
me. It is something that I have tried to accept, but there were always
doubts in the back of my mind. One doubt that I have been having a lot
lately comes from a scripture in Jacob 5:49 "What could I have done
more for my vineyard?" I have been thinking a lot about all of the
things I should have accomplished, instead of all the things I have
accomplished. During the blessing yesterday the Lord told me how much
He loves me and how thankful He is all for all I have accomplished. It
brought tears to my eyes to think over the past 18 months of my life.
I have this thing where I just want to be perfect now. I know however,
that is not how it works. After the blessing I felt so much relief and
so much comfort in my time of need. It was amazing to know that the
Lord cares about me so much. I am thankful for that knowledge.

I am so very grateful for this chance that I have to be a missionary.
I know that we are involved in a wonderful work. I am so thankful that
I have had this past 18 months to learn and grow.

I love this work. I love the Savior!

Love, Sister Saal
P.s. See you in just over a week.

August 5, 2013 letter

Didn't get an official letter from Sister Saal this week, but she is doing GREAT!!

July 29, 2013 letter

Okay, so life is really going by TOO fast. Does anyone have a freeze
ray so I can just freeze time? Maybe even a time machine? Anyone want
to help a Sister out?

Now that I go that out. :) Life is so good family! I love being a
missionary and I love serving the Lord. I never want it to end.

This week has been a really good week. A few really good highlights I
will point out.

We had a Zone Conference with President and Sister Tilleman on
Tuesday. I loved it so much! It was my last one, which was sad, but I
loved every minute of it. My companion and I sat with a senior couple
at lunch and I found out they are from Fruit Heights. Small world hey?
They told me that Utah was still there, something I was worried about
since I seem to have no idea what is going on in the world. It was
really fun to get to know them. Sister Tilleman sat with us and told
us that her daughter, who was my companion for a night when I first
arrived in the mission field, was about due. Found out today that she
had a beautiful baby girl on Thursday. Tall baby. Another basketball
player in the family. :)

I had the opportunity to go to Maple Ridge on an exchange. The Sisters
there are doing so well. I am so very thankful for their dedicated
service to the Lord. I was able to see a few wonderful people that I
have had the joy of working with. There are many wonderful people that
Sister MacMillan and I are working with. Sadly, our baptismal date
will need to be pushed back. She wants to be baptized, but she hasn't
been able to attend church yet.

That is about it. Sorry I am getting so boring.

Sister Saal