“I still have hope, and I’m still myself” – Savannah Guthrie’s choked yet courageous words at Studio 1A brought the entire NBC crew to tears

Savannah Guthrie will soon return to work on ‘Today,’ NBC has confirmed
Credit: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty

Savannah Guthrie reunited with her second family, her Today colleagues, on March 5 and thanked them for “caring about my mom as much as I do.”

It was the first time she had returned to NBC’s Studio 1A in New York since her mother, Nancy, went missing in Tucson, Ariz., on Feb. 1, and understandably, it was an emotional moment.

“I wanted you to know that I’m still standing, and I still have hope, and I’m still me,” Guthrie told the staff, according to PEOPLE. “And I don’t know what version of me that will be, but it will be. I’m holding onto my faith. I still believe. And as my mom would say, ‘where else would I go?’”

“I have every intention of coming back,” she continued. “I don’t know how to come back, but I don’t know how not to. You’re my family. And, I would like to try.”

Dylan Dreyer, Today’s weather correspondent and Guthrie’s friend, then led the group in a “beautiful” prayer, an insider told PEOPLE. “We’re here holding hands as a family, in a place where we don’t understand why this is happening,” said Dreyer. “It is not too bold to ask God for the biggest miracles every day.”

As Entertainment Weekly previously reported, a spokesperson for the NBC morning show confirmed Guthrie “plans to return to the show on air,” although a date has yet to be announced.

Jenna Bush Hager, who hosts Today’s fourth hour with Sheinelle Jones, gave viewers some insight into the staff’s reunion with Guthrie. “

Savannah has come back to her home here at 30 Rock in Studio 1A. We got to see her this morning,” an emotional Hager said at the top of the March 5 show, as Jones reached out to comfort her co-host.

“And in her perfect way, she talked to all of us, hugged every single person in this room, the crew,” she continued. “She said that she has the intention to return to the show, even though it feels like the hardest thing to do. It’s also her home and where she feels so loved. And she is beyond loved here. And so, we’re happy that she is home. I don’t know when she is actually returning to the show, but she was here and that felt so good to get to hug her.”

Savannah Guthrie and her mother, Nancy Guthrie, on the ‘Today’ set in 2023
Credit: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty

Guthrie’s return to work comes as Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos announced on Today that “investigators are definitely closer” to finding 84-year-old Nancy, who was abducted from her home. “We’ve got a lot of intel, a lot of leads, but now it’s time to just go to work,” Nanos said on March 3.

The previous day, Guthrie visited a memorial dedicated to Nancy outside the matriarch’s home, supported by her sister Annie and brother-in-law Tommaso Cioni.

She later posted a photo on Instagram of the abundance of flowers left by well-wishers. “We feel the love and prayers from our neighbors, from the Tucson community and from around the country,” Guthrie captioned the image. “Please don’t stop praying and hoping with us. Bring her home.”