SHE MADE IT TO CHICAGO!!!!!!!!!

Hey everyone!! This is Ashley again. Just wanted to let you all know that Brooke has made it to Chicago safe and sound! She left the MTC Monday morning at 2:45am!!!! Her flight left at 6:02am. She was able to call us from the airport. She sounds just like her amazing, bubbly self. We could tell that she was nervous but who wouldn't be!? It was so great to actually hear her voice. She was so cute. She kept responding to us with si! (meaning yes in Spanish). It was so funny.  Her mind is transitioning to Spanish! Her email from TODAY is below with the newest details about her area, her new companion and her last few days in the MTC. Her P-day will now be on Monday's so that's when you can plan to get the email updates. I will put her new address and mailing/emailing info in the tab above that says "mission info". Let me know if you have questions!!! Write her!!!!!!!!! It really makes her whole day feel like Christmas!! You can email her but she can only reply by letter to people outside her immediate family, so if you do email her, make sure to include your physical address so she can write you back. Or, just write an actual letter :)

hola familia!

holy cow i don't even know where to begin or how to even explain how i am feeling.  First i can't even tell you how wonderful it was to talk to you early monday morning! i wish we could have talked a lot longer but it was still so great! everyone sounds like they are doing amazing and i miss you all so much.

let me back track on what has happened this past week. for the last couple days at the MTC it was very interesting and very good.  on friday we had infield orientation all day which is like a 12 hour workshop with everyone who was leaving the next week.  it was just ok, i felt like they just went over everything they had been drilling into our brains for the past 9 weeks so i felt like it was sort of redundant.  and it was the first time we hadn't been with our elders for an entire day and i didn't realize how much i would miss them which made going to chicago that much more real.  although we still did eat lunch and dinner with them.  and it was funny because for both lunch and dinner you could tell how excited they were to see us as well and that they had all this stuff to tell us that had happened in class that day which we missed.  we thought it was funny because they act like they don't care that we werent there but then at the same time they were excited to see us at lunch and dinner hahaha.  anyways then on saturday we did the regular class and what not and then we packed our lives away.  it is definitely a skill i am going to have by the time i am home from my mission! after much readjusting i got my suitcases down to the perfect weights.  sunday was one of the best days in the MTC for me, but it was also one of the hardest and saddest.  Since it was fast sunday we had a mission conference instead of relief society or priesthood.  It is a 2 hour long thing with all the missionaries.  it was really good! after we went straight to sacrament meeting.  like i told you on the phone i bore my testimony, prayed, and sang with my district.  i have no idea what they are going to do now that i am gone :) just kidding! it was awesome. our song was so wonderful.  after we went back to our rooms and had a lesson on the holy ghost that us hermanas gave, we found out like 10 min before that we were going to be the ones doing it so it ended up being more of a discussion between our district.  it was awesome! Brother Doman asked the elders if there was anything that they wanted to say to us since it was our last week.  boom every elders hand shot into the air, it was funny because we didn't think they cared that much!  they told us how much they loved us in their district, and how with our example they feel like we have helped them turn from 19 year old boys to 19 year old men of God.  also elder hill said "i didn't want to tell you this because i didn't want to be sappy but on friday when you were in infield orientation and not here with us i didn't realize how much i would miss you hermanas and how much it felt like there was a hole in our district." all of the other elders agreed.  we truly are all best friends.  after they all said their nice things Brother Doman had the hermanas bear our testimonies for the last time.  it was a major crying fest for us hermanas and surprisingly it was for our elders as well! we then went on our last temple walk as a district and then to dinner together.  after we had a goodbye meeting that we had to go to where i had to pray in english, it was very strange and surprisingly confusing for me. haha i haven't said a prayer outloud for a group of people in english in 2 months! and all my personal prayers are in spanglish.  but it went good.  after that we went to our devotional for the night which was the video of president monsons 85th birthday. it was really good and it would have been amazing to go to!  after instead of going to a movie (each sunday they show movies of past general authority talks that were given to the MTC that are only accessable to the MTC.) we went back to our classroom and spent our last night all together hanging out and being friends.  the elders gave us all blessings which were amazing and much needed, it was such a neat experience for our district.  after since earlier the elders had all complimented us we went around and told each elder our favorite thing about them.  it was hilarious.  then after that and after the movie was over our zone came in to say goodbye to us.  it is a tradition to sing God be with you til we meet again. obviously in spanish.  and then everyone went down and we had a "handshake" goodbye line.  after everyone left our district did one more "group hug" (each night the hermanas stand in the middle and the elders make a circle around us, since we can't hug each other.) and a district cheer.  we slowly made our way out the door and down to where we go one way and they go the other.  we were all walking so slow and just talking because we knew once we were split, then that was it.  we all promised we would be friends after.  they gave us all one last hand shake and some encourgaging words and then we left.  we cried alot walking back to our room but once we got back we flew into motion and finished packing and got to bed much too late. 

ok so that was the MTC goodbye experience.  after i talked to you on monday i got on the plane and i was walking to my seat and i look up and BOOM chris, my next door neighbor from last year at college was sitting on the plane!! obviously we were both so confused! then i realized that the open seat next to him was my assigned seat!!! hahahaha it was the randomest most crazy thing ever.  we caught up some and then i crashed! i slept until we landed in chicago.  we got off the plane and walked to get our luggage where President and Sister Fenn were waiting for us.  when they greeted me they said "Sister Savage, we have been excited to meet you because this morning we got a phone call from your grandpa!" I was stoked!! it meant so much to me that Grandpa took time out of his crazy schedule to call my mission president and let him know i was going to be coming that day.  it was definitely comforting!  we then got our luggage and put it in a trailer to be taken to the mission home.  then it was time for our surprise.  we were going to ride the metro down to downtown chicago where we were suppose to contact people and give away a book of mormon, and then we were going to meet up with President and Sister Fenn for lunch.  the metro ride down was exciting.  i didn't place by book of mormon but hermana hansen placed hers which was awesome and she was so stoked about!  we then had lunch obviously being chicago style pizza.  it was divine... we then spent a couple of hours just walking the streets of chicago and sort of exploring.  we went to the "bean" which was so cool.  we then made our way back to the train to go to the mission home.  it was fun to be back in a train/metro station and reminded me of the wonderful times in europe!! i loved it! we trained back and we all crashed on the train.  we were so tired! when we got back to the home we went and had dinner and dessert and then we had interviews with President Fenn it was just a get to know you interview.  and then we slept.  and it was one of the best nights rests i have had in a LOOONNNNGGGG time!  this morning we woke up and had breakfast and then went on our way to go to our mission orientation meeting. they talked to us for about 2ish hours and then we got assigned new companions.  my companions name is Hermana Gonzalez.  she is a native hispanic but her english is perfect.  she is so cute and has a bubbly personality, she loves to run, and she is so full of energy! i think we will get along great :) it is so sad for me to say goodbye to my other companions. we have become best friends and seriously i don't know how well i am going to take not being with them 24/7. we all know each other so well and are just best friends, but this is part of the mission, changing areas and companions is a regular thing so i better get used to it now!  we then made our way to my new home for the next little bit.  my area is the Elgin area. but i live in Dundee which is right out of Elgin.  Hermana Gonzalez has been here for her entire 7 months of her mission.  she loves it here.  it is a very old town with really cute vintage houses, it definitely is not down town chicago by any means but it is very homey feeling.  I met the branch mission leaders wife who is super nice and loving.  she went on a mission to provo a long time ago.  she seems awesome! Hermana Gonzalez told me that the branch here is amazing and so loving.  she also said that we have a lesson tonight on the Plan of Salvation... yes i am freaking out. 

so that is what has happened.  i feel super overwhelmed and very nervous.  i miss my district and my companions like crazy but i am trying hard not to concentrate on it because it really isn't that big of deal.  this definitely is going to be the hardest thing i have ever done but i am really excited for my mission to be "real" 

so they said that if you send packages to the mission home address then i won't get it from anywhere from 1 week to 1 month, it just depends on when the DL goes and picks it up and then brings it to me.  also letters can be sent to the mission home and then they will forward them to me or here is my new address:

562 Lincoln Ave.

West Dundee, Illinois 60118

you can send packages here as well, our mission president said that sometimes packages get stolen that is why they wait for someone to pick them up but my companion just has her family and friends send things to our apartment, so it is up to you :) umm monday is my p-day except this week obviously.  and i think that is it!  i will try and send some pictures home this coming monday but we will see if i can figure out how to do it on the computer and if not then i will just send my SD card again.

please write me even though dear elders aren't quite as convient here, letters or email is fine, but i can only email immediate family so if can you tell everyone if they do email me to email me their address as well and so i can write them back?

I love and miss you all!!

love, hermana savage!!

Hopefully she will be sending pictures of her in Chicago soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WRITE HER!