A new week

April 18, 2012

No "snail mail" letter from Sister Saal this week, but here's a recap of her email:

All is well in Victoria.  One of her companions, Sister Post, was transferred to White Rock, British Columbia.  That leaves Sister Saal and Sister Doria to carry on the work in Victoria.  She enjoyed the Easter Program in their ward, which, according to Sister Saal, is the best ward on the island.

She sent a few pictures:

Sisters Post, Doria, and Saal.  All three attended Utah State. Go Aggies!!

Sister Saal's first district

 

Sister Saal and Elder Scott on the plane to Vancouver



Pointing to Washington state from Mount Doug



Sisters Post, Doria and Saal.  Saying goodbye to Sister Post

Sisters Saal, Post and Doria hiking on Mount Doug



Sister Saal!!!!

 Please take a minute to write to her.  She would love to hear from you.

March 26, 2012

Here's the latest from our favorite missionary.


March 26, 2012

Dear friends and family –

I don’t have all that much to say this week.  Forgive the poor handwriting.  Me and my companions are feeling much better.  Thank you for any prayers offered in my behalf.  The CVM (Canada Vancouver Mission) is the best mission out there.  Obviously we are all on the same team, but BC is wonderful.  If not for the weird health care system, I would totally move here.  Since the mail takes forever, ok, like one week, I am going to put dates up as well – only on the important things.  This week we have been visiting a lot of less active members in the ward.  A few people have shut the door in our face.  We have been yelled at, cursed at, and kicked out.  With all that going on, I still love it!  We had a chance to offer them the greatest gift ever and they chose not to accept it.  I did all I could do.  We have to make sure to get the name of the church in.  We have a lot of JW’s up here (Jehovah’s Witnesses).  We have tracted into a few but they were semi-nice.  We had a nice conversation.

Other than that, we haven’t had anything huge happen.  Oh wait, two new investigators.  They are both 9 and so cute.  One is the daughter of our family from Sudan.  They have 3 other kids and all love learning about the gospel.  We have high hopes for them.  The other is the grandson of a LA (less active) and we are hoping it will help get both of them to church.  His parents aren’t ready yet, but hopefully soon.

Nothing more to report on.  Life is really good.  I am learning so much about myself.  My strengths, my weaknesses, my fears, my joys.  It is amazing what happens when you stop to listen to what the Lord has to say.  You learn so much. 

Sorry this one is short.  However, I ran out of time. 

In conclusion:

1.       Pray, Pray, Pray!!  He wants to hear from you!

2.       Read your Book of Mormon!  So much light & truth is found in there!  Don’t let it gather dust.

3.       Reach out to ward members!  You never know who needs a helping hand.

4.       Build your foundation.  Don’t be like the foolish man when the rain comes down.

5.       Feed the missionaries!!

I love you all and would love to hear from you.  I get my letters 1 or 2 times every 6 weeks.  Slow process, but it makes me smile.

Love you all – Sister Saal

March 19, 2012

Newest letter from Sister Saal:

March 19, 2012
Hello once again from Victoria! Seriously, I want to move here! You would love it up here. Plenty of outdoor adventure mixed with a “big city”! It is great. The people here are wonderful as well. Gotta love them.
Some of our recent converts are doing amazing! Others, not so much.
We are teaching an 84 year old woman who was baptized in Feb. She is so sweet and so loving. When the missionaries met with her, she wasn’t interested. They went back a few months later and at the first visit, she wanted to be baptized. Seems to work that way. We drop an investigator for a while and they miss the spirit we bring. Woot!! Works for us. We read the Book of Mormon with her every week. Her daughter is great.
We have been teaching another recent convert. He has had, and still has, trial after trial and is still strong. He went to do baptisms at the temple two weeks ago and loved it so much. He is working on family history now. That is good for him.
We have a contact who is such a good guy. He has a habit he just can’t kick. Every time we meet with him, we ask him about it. Still can’t kick it. Super sad, but we still are working with him. One day!
We have been teaching another RC (recent convert, I think). He is a super solid 29 year old Chinese man. He doesn’t speak much English, but he has been so good with all the commandments. He is going back to China soon. Very sad.
We have some great investigators as well. One is a lady from India. Basically she is a member. She is waiting for her husband to come from India to be baptized.
We have a favorite family we are teaching - they are from Sudan and are so warm and loving. They have 4 little cute children - ages 2, 6, 8, and 10.  They are so cute. Tonight we really connected with their kids. They like to color with us during the lessons.  One is super funny. I was teaching him to pray tonight. He said I talk too much (he says that about everyone) but I am very pretty. The eight-year-old is a handful. He soaks everything in! You think he isn’t paying attention, but BAM!! He throws out all this knowledge. The oldest is just like her mom – a little sassy, but so very sweet. The dad is taking crazy classes and we are really trying to focus on his example for his kids. If they see dad do something, they will follow. The mom is a sweet woman. She thinks her English isn’t that great, but she is wonderful.
The three guys from Taiwan and Japan went to the YSA ward on Sunday and loved it! How wonderful they are. We have high hopes!
Another investigator is frustrating . She is super good, but she loves to bail on us! No Bueno! We are trying to get her some friends in the ward. I am sure that will help.
We are also teaching a YSA Chinese girl. She also feels the spirit, but doesn’t yet recognize it. I love Chinese people. They are so sensitive, now they just need a greater understanding.
We have another family we are teaching. We love them, but it is hard to love them sometimes. They had a baptismal date set, but it fell through. The grandma went back to Columbia for 2 months. Now the parents, want to wait. Their 8 year old daughter wants to be baptized so badly. They won’t get baptized til the grandma gets back. That’s cool, except they won’t come to church either. President Tilleman has been wonderful in working with them.
That is about it at the moment. We are meeting with a few people but not so sure how well it will keep going.
Victoria is so pretty. The weather is pretty crazy. As someone here said, “If you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes.” It is so true. When we went tracting the other day, it was sunny. All of a sudden, it was snowing. 10 minutes later it was sunny but the wind was blowing. Wow! It gave me a headache, and a cold.
Which brings me to my next point. I was sick this past week! Worst cold ever! I honestly thought my head was going to explode. We didn’t do much finding because Sister Post and I were sick. We did as much as our bodies would allow. However, we are both feeling much better and are ready to get out there once more. We have seen miracles happen and we know it is by the Lord.
We love making Jacob Black and Twilight jokes. Twilight was filmed near here, you know! We always drive down a certain road and every time we keep our eyes out for Jacob. Hey, we could teach him. We were joking that vampires love our church because they already believe in eternal families. Ha Ha!! It is great fun. We love it so much.
I am super excited for General Conference. Watch it. Love it.
Write me!! Love you.
Sister Caitlin Saal

Greetings from Victoria

Here is the latest letter from Sister Saal. She is doing great and loves it in Victoria.

So, Victoria is great. So beautiful! There are a lot of people who have immigrated from other countries. A lot of Chinese and Taiwanese people. So a little about some of our investigators: We have a white board split up into 6 sections.
Section 1 is our potential investigators. People we meet on the street or when tracting and they said they were interested in more. Sometimes we receive fake addresses or numbers. Clearly they aren’t ready for this.
Section 2 is our new/other investigators. It is a good list, no white people though.
3rd Section is the drop list. We are giving them a break. Hopefully it will make them miss the feeling of the Spirit. We saw a couple from that list the other day (it had been a month or so) and they were excited for the lesson.
Forth list is progressing. We like this list. There are 11 or so people on there. Hopefully all will be baptized soon.
Then the baptismal date section. This is for investigators with a baptismal date. Sadly this list is blank.
The last list is the prayer list.
We have some wonderful investigators. Sister Post has been sick so we haven’t had a lot of time to go out. We have been teaching two men from Taiwan and they were so excited when we talked about the Plan of Salvation. Well, Friday we met with them again and they brought a friend from Japan who is so wonderful. We were asking him about Jesus Christ and what he knew about Christ. He handed the picture of Christ back and said so sincerely, “Oh, I have never met Him before.” We tried so hard not to laugh. The way he said it was so innocent. We were reading a section and it mentioned Satan. He said “Santa” so I corrected him (lovingly) “Satan”. He looked back at the work, “Ok, Santa”. That was another thing we tried not to laugh at.
All of our other investigators are doing well. It would take forever to write about them, but it is a wonderful work that I am glad to be a part of.
There is nothing all that exciting going on here. We are just waiting to see what happens to Sister Post. Next letter I will include pictures. Love you all lots!
Read, Read, Read!
With Love, Sister Caitlin A. Saal
March 12, 2012

If you have a moment, please write to her at the mission home address listed on the upper right. She would love to hear from you.

Sister Saal's first area - Victoria!!

Sister Saal arrived in Vancouver last week and spent her first night in the mission home. After completing paperwork and some training, Sister Saal received her assignment - the island of Victoria!! She is serving with two other sisters, Sister Doria (from Centerville, UT) and Sister Post (from Bear Lake, UT). During her first week in Victoria, she has already challenged an investigator to be baptized, had investigators cancel appointments, and did some street contacting - all typical "missionary" experiences. The sisters went to church early on Sunday so that they could meet all the members. They were given a dinner calendar for the month of March – all but two days were filled!!

Sister Saal would love to hear from you. Please write her at the Mission Home:

Sister Caitlin Saal
Canada Vancouver Mission
8440 Williams Road
Richmond, BC V7A 1G6
Canada

Please continue to pray for her and all the missionaries around the world.

Sister Saal arrives at the mission home in Canada

Sister Saal and President and Sister Tilleman

Sister Saal and her traveling companions at the mission home in Canada.

Sister Saal and 7 elders flew to Vancouver, Canada on Wednesday, February 29, 2012. We received an email the next day from the mission office with these two pictures attached. The email from the office said that all the missionaries had been assigned. We should hear from Sister Saal on Monday to find out where she will be for her first area in the mission field.

For now, please write to her at the mission office:

Sister Caitlin Saal

Canada Vancouver Mission

8440 Williams Rd

Richmond, BC V7A 1G6

Canada


Letter from Sister Saal - Feb 27, 2012

Hello everyone!
I feel so blessed by the Lord. My district is epic, my companions are amazing, they have cereal here with any meal. What more do you need? We have been blessed to hear from wonderful church members at our Sunday night devotional and our Tuesday night devotional. This week it is rumored to be President Monson J. That is the rumor every week. (The speaker on Tuesday was Jeffrey Holland!)
I have learned so much in a short amount of time. Today is Monday, February 27, 2012. In less than 48 hours I will be on my way to Vancouver Canada! This morning we said good-bye to Sister Jackson and 5 elders! It was so sad and class today was crazy small. Sister Christiansen is off to Hawaii a week from tomorrow. I am lucky enough to have the 3 final elders come to Vancouver! I am so thankful for the teachers I was blessed with, and my branch presidency. If this is how the field is, I am so ready.
So, this past week. Tuesday, we had a devotional from Larry Y. Wilson. He talked about reading the BOM with converts or investigators. If you can, you should help missionaries out in any way possible. This work will not progress without the help of members. I hope you will all take the chance to help out the missionaries in whatever way possible.
Wednesday we welcomed in all the newbs. We received 8 new elders in our zone. They weren’t blessed enough to receive sister missionaries. They are super cool. Thursday, Friday & Saturday are the long days! If you can make it to Sunday you will be golden. That is not just for the newbs coming in. However, Friday we had in –field orientation. We met a few famous people. Some of the missionaries from the District helped us out. It was really good. Not only did it get us out of the classroom. We learned a lot about working with the ward. It was super great. I loved it.
Sundays are always great. I had to give a talk in Sacrament in front of my zone. It was on obedience. I think President Gulber was trying to say something. This morning we went to the temple to do sealings. It just strengthened my testimony on the family so much.
I am so happy to be here! I am so excited to leave! I will get you my address ASAP.
Love, Sister Saal