December 24, 2012 letter

Merry Christmas!

The reason we aren't Skyping is the First Presidency has asked us not to. We are just following the prophet! :)

I know we get to talk tomorrow so I won't send a long letter, but there are a few things I wanted to share.

I am so excited to be a representative of the Lord at this very special time. Thankfully, I am feeling so much better about things than I have in the past. I feel like I have received the boost that I needed to continue on in this service. I know that Heavenly Father is patient with me as well. I am so thankful for the love that I feel from those around me.

I wanted to share with you neat experiences I have had the past couple of days. Saturday night as I was praying I decided to start a fast. I prayed for forgiveness for not talking to everyone that has come into our path. I prayed that we would be able to talk to those that we had missed. I felt really good about it. Then Sunday at church, a family brought their friend to church since most of the family was singing in the program. Well, I recognized her as someone that had been at the ward Christmas party a couple of weeks ago that we were unable to talk to. It was an amazing answer to my prayers. We were unable to talk to her at sacrament meeting, but we are having dinner with that family tonight (tacos! I am so excited. His parents are the Gauthier's down in Victoria so it is nice to have a familiar family to spend the holiday with.) so I am hopeful she will be there.

This morning I had another cool experience. As I was saying my morning prayer this morning I felt impressed to say a prayer of gratitude. That is all I expressed, my thanks for everything the Lord has blessed me with. You, my family, was the majority of that prayer. Expressing my gratitude for you all was amazing. After I was done praying I felt better than I have in a long time! It was amazing the feeling of being lifted! I am so very grateful for this opportunity I have to be a missionary in the Canada Vancouver Mission and I am so VERY grateful for all that President and Sister Tilleman do for me.

I am so very thankful for Sister Nuttall. She is an amazing companion and I am learning so much from her. She is a great teacher and so patient with me. I know that she is guided by the spirit in basically all she does. I am grateful for her friendship and for her kindness and guidance.

Mostly, I am grateful for my Savior. I am thankful for all that He has done for me, now does for me, and will continue to do for me. I feel of His love for me all the time. Everywhere I look I can see proof of the existence of God. I know that He is there for me. I know that He loves each of His children. I am grateful for the birth of Christ, for His life, and for His atoning sacrifice. I know that He died for me, a sinner. I know that He was resurrected after 3 days so we can all be resurrected. I am thankful he broke the bands of death that we may live again with our families.

Best News EVER!: "And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
The church is true!
Love you all and I will talk to you tomorrow.

love,
Sister Saal

December 17, 2012 letter

Hello family (and friends)!

I am so excited to inform you, we have snow outside! Sure it is gross, wet, heavy snow. But, it is snow none the less. I LOVE IT! We walked in it this morning to go and get our car. Our little Chevy Cruise couldn't make it up the hill to our apartment. We walked down at about 6:30 and enjoyed the snow that was covering everything!

So, Sister Tilleman may call, but.... I was in the ER twice this week. Just my luck hey? We thought it was appendicitis, which would have been funny since Megan just got hers out, but thankfully it was not. We went on Wednesday night and they did some blood work. Basically they said that if it got worse to come back. The meds they put me on got me pretty loopy. Sister Nuttall was good to put up with me. Then it got worse and in less than 24 hours, we were back. It was funny because it was the same doctor that welcomed me back. Basically, I have been sick this whole week. Friday and Saturday I slept for 40 out of the 48 hour period. Ha ha.

I am looking forward to talking to you all next week. Things may be a little crazy with transfers, but it will all work out.

Love you all.
Sorry this week is boring!

Sister Saal

December 10, 2012 letter

Hello family (and friends)!

Thanks for keeping me up to date on life back home. I love hearing about all that is happening to you. Sounds like you are getting ready for a week full of chaos with the grand babies coming up. Give them a hug and a kiss for me. Tell them I love them. They better be there when I call home. I want to hear their little voices. :)

Things here in Courtenay are well. I made another trip to the doctor. I think I will have to get things checked out when I get home. My inner ear is full of liquid and I have "floaters" in my eyes. Sweet hey? Anyway, now that the dizziness is gone, things are going well.

Our investigators are progressing well. I am thankful and blessed to be a part of their lives. I know that things will work out how they should. :)

One cool experience I would like to share. You all get to see my inner most thoughts at the moment. :) There is one thing I have really been working on the past few weeks. One thing I have been praying a lot about, is to see myself the way others, especially our Father in Heaven, sees me. I know that too often we are way to hard on ourselves, and I know I am not the only one. A lot of people tell me I am a great missionary, not to boast or anything :), but sometimes I don't see myself as a great missionary. I pick out the things I did wrong instead of rejoicing on the things that went well. Life is a test and we are here to learn and to grow. I know that as I change this thinking now, it will be easier when I have a future family.

I am so very grateful for this time that I have to be serving the Lord right now. I am thankful for the trials I am going through, though I don't always believe that it will end! I am thankful for this time of the year that I have to be sharing our Savior's love with those around us. We had dinner with a member last night and her non-member husband was there. We started into our message and said, "With Christmas coming, we wanted to talk about Jesus Christ," He piped in with a smile "When do you not talk about Christ?" TRUE! I love it!

I love you all.
Have an excellent time with the kids!

Love,
Sister Saal

December 3, 2012 letter

Hello my wonderful family (and friends)!

Happy December to you all. I hope that you are staying warm down there. I am trying to up here. It usually is about 3 degrees (Celsius) and rains basically every day. The humidity is bad so it feels like it is in the negatives. However, I am loving the island.

Did you get to see the Christmas Devotional last night? I loved it so much! It was really good. We had a friend come and she loved it. I will talk about her a little bit later. I am so excited for the Christmas season! He truly is the reason for the season!

I have a wonderful experience I want to share with you all. Yesterday when Sister Nuttall and I were doing our personal studies I was thinking about my life and how things are going for me. I know that things have been difficult and obviously a little down, missions can do that and I am not the only one :). I feel like I am on a super giant roller coaster. Things have been up and down and I don't feel like I am in control of my emotions. They seem to just be everywhere all the time. Well, in my studies yesterday I was thinking about one of my favorite hymns, I Believe in Christ, and one line just played over and over in my head. "And while I strive through grief and pain, His voice is heard: Ye shall obtain. I believe in Christ, so come what may" It hit me like a ton of bricks. So come what may! Who would have thought 4 words would have such power on me. I know that this is how my attitude should be. So come what may! I thought it was amazing. Then my thoughts went to who I want to be. I realized that I am a flawed mortal. I am imperfect. But, I know that "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" Philippians 4:13. I just loved the feeling I had yesterday. I know that things will turn out how they should. I know that Heavenly Father is in charge of everything.

We have had some pretty mighty miracles this week.

One in particular: She is super funny and really amazing. She is teaching us how to make candles and soap. She expects us to take this art down to Utah to share with everyone. Oh man, I love her so much. She is such a special woman to me. She is so dear to my heart. We had a lesson with her on Friday. We were able to teach her the Restoration and we had a member there, which is really good. We were only planning on doing the first half, but we decided to do the whole thing. I had the sacred opportunity to share with her the First Vision of Joseph Smith. It was amazing! We invited her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and she told us she already knew it was true! We asked her to pray about Joseph Smith, and she told us she knew he is a prophet of God, just from hearing the First Vision. The spirit was so strong there! I had the opportunity to invite her to follow Jesus Christ into the waters of baptism. With a smile on her face, she said yes! Since she just had surgery she wont be able to get into the water until after the new year. We set her date for January 15th and she is so excited! Truly, it is a miracle. I feel so humble to be in her life and help her receive this saving ordinance. She is worried that Sister Nuttall or I will be transferred in December. I am a little worried about that as well. I really want to be there for her baptism, but I told her I would come up when she goes through the temple. We will be friends for life.

We also had the chance to go Christmas caroling on Tuesday night with the Relief Society at an old folks home! it was so great. I loved it. I want to do it again next year. Who is with me?

Our bishop shared the words to the Christmas Shoes song in his talk last Sunday. It made me smile a little and think of you papa! (Mark really does not like that song at all!)

I love you all so much! Thank you for all your love and support and prayers! You are the best people in the world!

Love,
Sister Saal

November 26, 2012 letter

Hello family (and friends)!

Glad things are going well for all of you at home. I am excited to see the new home we have. Apparently it is good. (Mark and I are STILL working on our remodeling - it's getting close.)

We have had a pretty good week. We didn't have turkey and all on Thanksgiving, but that is okay. Saturday, Sister Nuttall and I cooked a turkey we had in our freezer. We made gravy and instant mashed potatoes. Besides the potatoes, it was all really good. We both had our hand at cooking a turkey for the first time. Turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. I had a turn at carving the turkey. I think I will let men keep that job. We are in turkey heaven though!

We have had a lot of cool experiences this week. Our friends are coming along very nicely. One of our friends committed to live the Word of Wisdom. She had major surgery 8 weeks ago and is still recovering. We have been helping her in her workshop. She makes soap and candles! She let us make a candle known as a funky. Basically what it is is a bunch of random things inside wax. I don't know how to explain it but I will send a picture as soon as I can.

Three of our other friends are also coming along great. One has been cutting down on coffee and cigarettes. It has been great to see the transformation take place. I have been meeting with them since I first got here. It is incredible to see the difference and the changes that are going on in their lives. I think it is amazing how well and how much the spirit works on people.

I had the opportunity to teach our investigator class at church yesterday. I taught about the sacrament and read in 3 Nephi 18. We ended on the subject of how Jesus Christ is our rock. We turned to the story in Matthew Chapter 14 about Peter walking on the water. It is one of my favorite stories. We talked about how Christ immediately reached out for Peter when he cried "Lord save me". He didn't make Peter struggle for a minute for looking at the waves instead of Him, nor did he make Peter swim to the boat by himself. When Peter called out, Jesus Christ was there with open arms. Peter still had to grab hold, but Christ was there. That is how He is with each of us. Sometimes we feel like we have sunk ourselves into something that no one can save us from, but we need to always remember that Jesus Christ is there with open arms. HE WILL NOT LET US SINK.

I love you family. Have a great week. Less than a month till Christmas. :)

Sister Saal   

November 19, 2012 letter

Happy Thanksgiving Turkeys!

We have already had our Thanksgiving up here. Members are feeding us, but I am not sure if they realize that Thursday is also Thanksgiving. I hope so. I am craving some mashed potatoes and gravy. Dad, you may have to eat some for me.

Things seem to be going good there in Utah. Oh how I miss the snow. It rains here. And rains. And rains. Oh, and did I mention it rains? The wind blows. Last night the members we had dinner with told us that the winds were up to 90km. Not as bad as last December, but still pretty legit.

The work is going well. We have some people that we have had to put in the reflecting pool. They just aren't keeping commitments. We have a lot of amazing people that we are teaching though. I am going to briefly talk about two.

One is an amazing woman with great faith. She loves us so much and she came to church twice and felt the spirit so strongly. Then she had major surgery and is still recovering. We went over there Saturday to help her in the workshop. She makes soaps and candles. She is going to teach us. Anyway, we talked while we worked and things were great.

Another family is so great. We are working on helping them get married. It is amazing to see that we have shared with them the Word of Wisdom. He is now trying to substitute hot chocolate for coffee.

It is amazing to see the Lord working with so many people. He is blessing peoples lives and I love seeing it.

Sorry it is short.
Love you family (and friends)!
Eat lots! and enjoy.

Sister Saal.

November 13, 2012 letter

Preface:  Mark emails Sister Saal every Sunday night so that she will have a letter from us on her Monday p-day.  Just as he sat down to write her, we received a phone call from Sister Tilleman, the wife of Caitlin's mission president.  We talked to her for about 15 minutes and she had nothing but good to say about our daughter.  We were so grateful to hear those words from Sister Tilleman and have a peak into Sister Saal's missionary life. 

Hello family (and friends),

I am staying in Courtenay.
Thank you for your letter. I am glad you were able to talk to Sister Tilleman. They are amazing people and I am thankful for all their love and support.

An interesting thing happened on Sunday. In Relief Society the teacher asked us to take a moment to think about something. She asked us to think about our Father in Heaven. She asked us to think about what He would say to us if we were with Him right now. She asked us to think about the things He would do. At first it made me a little nervous. What would He say to me? I thought about the mistakes that I have made. I thought about all of my sins. I thought about my faults and weaknesses. At first, I thought about all the things I would have pointed out. And then I remembered His character. I remembered His nature. I remember His love. He wouldn't point out the flaws I have. He wouldn't make me feel small. He would love me with a perfect love. He would love me with a love I can't even begin to comprehend. At that moment, I saw all my weaknesses. But even more than that, I saw how God really feels about me. It was an overwhelming feeling that passes through me.

I have such a short time left and it is just speeding up. I am over half way done. It feels like just yesterday I was eating at Cafe Rio right before heading into the MTC. This feeling is crazy. By the end of this transfer, I will have spent 6 months in Courtenay. Seems like yesterday I got here.

One really big highlight comes from an act of service. There is a less active brother here that we have been trying to work with. His wife is not a member and so amazing! I have really grown to love this family. Sister Nuttall asked her if we could come visit them and get to know them. She said she would feed us dinner! We set up a time and asked if there was anything we could do. They have a few giant maple trees in their backyard with HUGE maple leaves. She said she would call us to help her rake. The next day we decided just to do it. It took about an hour to rake all the leaves into a pile. I will have to send pictures, it was a huge pile. The next day we came back to start putting the leaves in bags. After an hour, and 26 giant black plastic bags later someone told us the city wouldn't take them. We were going to have to use giant paper bags. They are really ecologically friendly up here. Well, we had an appointment to get to and had to leave. The next morning during companionship study we received a phone call from the wife. She was amazed at what we had done. We told her about the bags and said we wanted to come finish. She invited us over for lunch and we were able to work with this family to rake leaves. It took a long time, but it was so fun to get to know them. I know that we were not just raking leaves and doing service, but we are building a relationship.

I am thankful for your prayers. Keep them coming. I love you all so much. Thank you!

Love, Sister Saal