"Life is Good Here"

Well I’m glad to hear from everyone! It’s really nice to get emails. But I will write all of you here. It is much easier. First off, congrats Talmage! Didn’t see that coming! haha it’s about time! And Manti isn’t too far away soo maybe I’ll just take a trip for a day! No big deal. haha just kidding Dad. Happy birthday to Robert and Nelson! haha 28 is a fun age I guess.

Spencer I haven't heard anything about a storm. We don’t hear anything. But that sounds scary but also really fun. I mean who doesn’t enjoy a good storm!? A couple days of no power and just hunkering down and having fun, I would really enjoy it.

Kjarsta life sounds fun and unpredictable. But hey what’s life without a little excitement! It’s like your own hurricane sandy. Just move everywhere! haha your kids will be really confused on where they tell people they are from. "Well I’m from Idaho, Washington and Utah; I never really lived in one spot to really say I’m just from that spot." Well sounds great to me. Sounds like the kids are doing really good.

Okay soo mom I bought a bike because they want all of us to have one regardless. And actually no I didn’t buy a helmet. We had three in my room. I’ll just steal one of those. So I was filling up the font the other day and I was just playing the piano and I realized that I could have done this. I can play some songs with both hands; Just really slowly. haha I just had to figure out where to put my hands. But I wish I had time to play piano because I probably would. 

This week was really frustrating. I have really been seeing the adversary working against my investigators. James we haven't seen in a few days. He didn’t come to church and we are really struggling to try to teach him all the commandments. We had to push his baptism date back. Victor said he doesn’t want to be baptized but Vincent does. And Vincent is the one that smokes. So I dunno. They haven’t been going to church either. There mom had a party and we showed up at their house Sunday morning to get Victor and Vincent and there were beer cans all over the place. Her boys weren’t home because she had a party. It was frustrating.  Floyd came but he doesn’t want to quit smoking because he doesn’t think it’s wrong. And he says it helps him cope with his problems. We picked up a new investigator but he had a problem with drugs. He and his family come to church usually but his mom had a birthday so they didn’t. I’m seeing a pattern. The people here have a big problem with the word of wisdom and they don’t come to church. 

I bought a 28 pound pumpkin last week and I will hopefully carve it today! haha rugby was really fun last week. I really like it. And no one got decked or hurt. But I am way out of shape. Other than my investigators the week was good. We had two less actives come to church and they both enjoyed it. And we set up two more appointments with two more families who are less active. It’s really sad we have 50% inactivity here in our stake. That’s soooo much!!!! And they don’t have the man power to home teach or visit teach all of them. And I know a lot would come back if they were visited. Life is good here. hmm I don’t know what else to tell ya... 

Oh it was the last day of the transfer yesterday. But we don’t know if we actually get transferred till Tuesday. But I had my interview with the pres and he already told me. I’ll stay with Kulu, and Kulu might be district leader. haha president congratulated me on changing him. I didn’t do anything. He was a good missionary when I came in. I think he just likes me. And he didn’t really like his other companions. 

Well if you want to know more, questions help give my emails some structure. 

Love you all take care. Elder Salmon

"no wishy washy stuff"

So, first ill answer all your questions. What i usually do is i have cereal for breakfast, and then something with my tortillas for lunch. with any left overs that people give us. I have never made dinner because they provide us with on each night. so that's really good. And its awesome because i am getting so many authentic Polynesian food and Mexican food. like really good stuff. And i dunno the people here are always trying to feed us. the Poly's like to give us food and rides. it feels like im in another country because there are a lot of times when I'm in a home and they dont speak english. I hear lots of Tongan, Spanish, Swahili, and Arabic and random African dialects. Only because we are teaching two different families from Sudan. ones a member and one is James Deng. But the food is also damaging to my weight. we dont get to work out as much. and im doing my best to stay fit. haha kulu walks fast so thats good. I am aroung 195 right now. which is not bad. I haven't gained in the field. but I gained a little in the MTC.

 

And for right now mom i can't think of anything i need. i just bought a nice new bike. i got a discount and it super nice. i bought it for $300 so that will take a hit to my bank account. but i don't think ill need to buy anything else really. We are still walking however because Kulu doesn't have a bike. Some other Elder took it in the other mission. Did you know? our mission was split right before i got to the field. so its even smaller now. That's why they had me wait till the end of august to report.

 

It is getting cold mom, i have an umbrella and hats. ill be fine for right now. i just need to buy boots and maybe a scarf. i have gloves. found some in the room I'm in from the last missionary. Today we are carving pumpkins and maybe playing rugby. kinda excited. i hope I'm on Elder Kulu's team.

 

So this week was okay. Talked to a lot of people who are just not interested. Our tracting/talking to people kinda goes like this. We greet them and force them to introduce themselves and shake there hands, then we don't give them a chance to speak and we just ask straight up if they have had the opportunity to be baptised. if they say no we tell them about the book of Mormon and restoration and ask if we can set up a time to meet with them. forward and direct. make them make a decision. no wishy washy stuff. if they say yes then we ask what faith and then we talk about the book of Mormon and the restoration and ask if we can set up a time to tell them more. hahaha basically the exact same thing. we are right too the point here. We are trained to not waste time on people that done want to hear what we have to say and to only talk to people who are prepared to hear the word. the work is increasing!!! This week we ran into an anti inactive member. Ya its so hard talking with people like her because she has absolutely no light left. none. she said she believes the stuff online. And we all know how truthful things are online. and she interprets all the scriptures wrong and when we false her she gets angry. so we dont talk to her anymore. there is no use. we also ran into some J.W.s haha. any advice Dad? we dont want to bash but that doesn't mean i cant be prepared with what they are going to throw at me. they didn't want to talk. they just walked away from us.

 

So my big miracle, are teaching a man named James Deng. he has a family with 6 kids and a wife. we are just teaching him because its hard enough just to get him to understand us. English is his 3rd or 4th language. So we try to teach him in Arabic. We give him a pamphlet and have him read it. then we try to explain it in english to him. Its good cause he is catholic and knows the bible really well. so he understand a lot. We got him an english Book of Mormon as well as an Arabic one. and he reads from them everyday. he wants to be baptized because he sees that we do it the same way as Jesus and he understand that we are the only church that has the authority. he knows Joseph Smith is a prophet and also Thomas S Monson is a prophet. i think we will have a translator with us next lesson with him. we took him to temple square. They didn't have an Arabic speaking sister... :( so we did our best i english. the funny part was the sister didn't speak english too well themselves so it was broken English talking to broken English and i was translating for both of them! hahahaha. but it was a good lesson and he said he had a really good feeling. he is really humble and so kind. the family is sooo good too. they are always cleaning the house. the oldest daughter who is only 6 or 7 leads the cleaning of the kitchen. she is awesome.  and there family is soo good. i really really want this for them. he is big on family and i want him to be sealed in the temple!!!!!!!

 

ya mom so keep me posted on the fam because only you, dad and Hannah write me! and Dan and Ben i have there stickers on my name tag. and Spencer wrote me once and claire wrote me once.. but its okay family i know your busy. and actually i would have time to read all of them and answer all of you. soo its all good. that goes for letters too. short and sweet are the best. I'm doing really great. I love you all. Keep up the good work and ALWAYS stand as a witness. that's the best missionary work that we can do.

 

Love Elder Salmon

"If you want a letter you will have to send me a letter"

Well it’s already Monday Again. Time is funny. Well dad to answer your question, I don’t know why they let me go. Usually it goes to the senior elders and then down the line. I’m glad I went but not sure why. Probably so I could watch Elder Kulu haha. Yes mom my trainer is doing a good job. He always tells me when I mess up. He is really good about doing that. We also role play a lot and that really helps. It’s just nice to get some practice in teaching before I go do it. Definitely recommend perspective missionaries to role play. Meaning practice teaching certain lessons or just paragraph in preach my gospel. That’s basically all you teach anyways. Kearns is Kearns. They call it dirty Kearns for a reason. Small homes, small lots, haha they call it the ghetto part of Utah and ya there are a few gangs here that fight every once in a while I’m told. Mostly Mexican gangs. The sudanios and I can’t remember the other name. There symbols are all over. 4x and 3X. They mark their territory and their houses which I thought would be stupid.

And do we memorize stuff? Kinda. We have certain things that we need to say by memorization like some scriptures are powerful when memorized. The Joseph smith story should basically be memorized and the vision needs to be memorized. Our purpose is memorized and we are to think about it a lot during the day. But other than that we should just know the doctrine so we can say it in our own words to help their needs. The teaching is starting to pick up the first week we only had like 4 lessons. Now we are up to about 12. But compared to other places that’s low. Our goal is 20 a week. And we have been working hard to try and reach that.

We had one day when it was cold and rainy. I wore the trench coat and I was fine. I’m buying an umbrella today and a hat today that way I don’t really need the trench coat. I get too warm with my suit coat on and we have to wear those now. Mission rule. I bought sweats also for exercising and I think I’ll be fine. I will have enough layers. I might get under armor pants to keep my legs warm under my suit pants but I’m not too worried yet.

Well your trip sounds like fun. Wish I could go back to Canada. I found some relatives here. This lady is named Wilma Kraft and she had a family history book. I was looking for some names and I found that one of her relatives married a Salmon. (She’s from Cardston area) I don’t remember the names though. But I did find Barry Paxman and Darrel Paxman named in the book and it said they moved to Issaquah and stuff. So that was cool. 

So this past week was good. We are really starting to hit the ward members. The leaders need to be doing more. Its kinda weird but as a missionary at 19 I am giving advice to bishops, stake presidents, high priest group leaders ect. And kinda chastising them. I use the scriptures and do it in the most loving and kinda way possible. But some of the scriptures are very direct. We use Moroni 6:9, D&C 38:40-41, 1timothy 4:12, and I haven’t used it yet but if members really don’t want to do anything ill use 2 Nephi 28:24-25. We got a list of everyone in the stake and going to different leaders finding out which ones are active and less active and then asking them to start extending invitations and say that the stake president told us to do this so they understand that they NEED to. Then  we follow up and make sure they did. One family is doing it and we have FHE with them and another family next Monday. 

Floyd is still smoking. He says he know the church is true. He just needs to kick it. We don’t know how to get him to be motivated enough to do it. Vincent and victor are two brothers we picked up. They are on date for November 9th. And the teachings are good. They don’t know any religion so they are accepting everything. It’s great. Except Vincent stole money from his mom and bought weed and smoked it and got caught. And his mom turned him in. so he’s on probation and we don’t know if we can baptize him. haha I just thought it was funny his mom called police on him and is pressing charges. But his mom really loves him and just wants him to stop. she is less active herself and we are trying to get her active.

Oh jade got Baptized!!!! that was Sooooo good. loved it. we had a bunch of missionaries come because they all taught her. I’m just thankful I got to see her get baptized. it was a very sweet moment. Floyd was there to watch and he really liked  the whole experience. I want more of those so we got to work hard to do it. 

Oh one day Elder Kulu and I were having problems. We talked about it that night and kinda resolved it. we went to bed and I had a feeling I should thank him for not punching me. A weird thought but I couldn’t shake it. so I did and we talking for almost 2 hours. he basically gave me his whole life story and it was a tough one. He basically was starving his whole life. he would get 6 crackers for lunch and his brothers often stole his food. and beat him up for it. I can see the scars that it left on him. that’s why he’s angry and fights. cause his brothers were so mean to him growing up. and even now for lunch he only eats 6 crackers with butter on them. Fasting is also no problem for him. I just don’t want him to go back home and back into the same life he had before his mission.

So fast Sunday yesterday is really hard when it’s hot out and you walk everywhere and sweat all the time. we are constantly going back and forth to the two buildings that we cover and the 5 wards. we get about all the class in little segments. we will get the sacrament here and bare our testimony in another place, go to class with an investigator in this ward and Sundays are always busy. so by the end of the day we are so tired and beat. dinner was soooooooooo good that night! 

Well that’s life here in Kearns. I’ve finished my 4th week here in the field. transfers are on Halloween. but I doubt I’ll leave. Kulu will probably finish training me and then we will get maybe one more transfer together then I’ll take over this area as senior comp or trainer!!! kinda nervous. with the change in year for missionaries all of us who just came in will probably train super young. and I’m nervous for that. 

Well thanks for all your prayers, love, and support. Its great hearing from everyone who emails and writes me. If you want a letter you will have to send me a letter. Mondays are also pretty busy but I’ll make time to write some people each week. 

With Love Elder Salmon

"Grandpa I need some of your boldness"

Dear Everyone,

 So for everyone that picture was taken last Saturday. It was at general conference. I got selected to go to the Saturday afternoon session and it was really great. I even got to meet and shake D. Todd Christofferson's hand and I was feet away from Sister Dalton. But I had to miss part of the morning session. We did hear the opening part about the missionaries! There were 6 of us in a sedan and we were all freaking out! They are raising the bar again. For those Young men who are 17 and 18 now the time is here. Be ready and repent also that you can have the spirit and you will do great. The spirit does all the teaching anyways.  And no mom its fine to say hi to people that you see that you know as long as you didn’t plan it. I was just waiting anyways. I actually saw a few people I know. A girl from college that I became friends with tried to give me a hug and I had to push her away. It was kind of funny actually. And I also saw a kid from my basketball team at BYUI.

So conference weekend is like Missionaries Super bowl. It was great. We get to relax and let the prophets and apostles do all the work for us. They do a much better job at explaining everything than we do. So we either got to go to conference or we went to a member’s house to watch it. I really enjoyed the talks. Holland always makes history with his talks. I did like president Monson's talk right after Holland’s. But just for everyone’s information Elder Eyring got an impression from the Lord and the Lord Said that BYUI and I quote "Is my School!" haha just for all you going to BYUI. Not saying Provo isn’t the lord school too. I’m sure it is in its own special way. haha

I definitely saw certain themes in this conference. A lot on Missionary work which we were really excited about. It is also for the benefit for those young men and young women who can now leave on a mission. And I had a few people in mind that might leave because of it. Kember Call I think you will leave soon! haha as was your plan anyways. So I think you will go on a mission instead of getting married. you will this round. Megan carpenter I think you will go, James Farnsworth go as soon as you can! it’s great out here. Anyways in the next year I think we will have an explosion of missionaries that will go out. especially among the sister and sister missionaries are really so much better than us elders. They only let us go out because we have the priesthood.

So this week we found two new investigators. I was really excited we were struggling to find new people. they are brothers, both 13 and there older brother was recently baptized. So I have high hopes for them. We are still trying to kick smoking for Floyd. and This week Jade gets baptized! yeah! so excited for her. Matt Hansen is progressing well. he didn’t read from the Book of Mormon between our visits so we told him boldly the importance so I think he will this time. also I gave him a blessing to help him with his schooling and I really felt the spirit talk through me. it was very humbling.

Sounds like everyone is having a lot of fun at home. I’m sad I missed the donuts and stuff. I was thinking about that when I was getting ready for bed. sounds like you and the ward are doing really well with missionary work. that is so important because people think the missionaries are to lead it. that’s not true; the bishop should be in charge of all missionary work in his area. he is bishop over the whole ward boundaries not just the members.

So happy thanksgiving! Canadian thanksgiving that is. And Happy birthday too Kathryn! I didn’t know you had surgery. thanks for telling me everyone!!! And Claire your birthday is coming up. thanks for doing all the work on my blog and facebook. I’ve been told your doing a good job. but I don’t know. I can’t look at it. What funny though is I can go on mormon.org and see people’s profiles! haha so I creeped on a few people that way.

Life’s good here in Kearns. Or dirty Kearns as some people call it. I finally figured out how to avoid the stupid thorns. I had so many thorns in my shoes and parts are still in it. so annoying. But I am doing well and I’m adjusting pretty quickly. still working on being bold. grandpa I need some of your boldness. Just send it in your next email! haha.

With all my Love Elder Salmon

"This area has sooooooo many dogs"

Okay I’m not sure if you got my email last week... I tried to send it a few times but it kept saying that it didn’t send. So I hope it did. What a week. Adversity really builds us up. This past week has been tough and I think that the coming weeks will be as well. Dad I are in Kearns. In the western hills Stake. It is actually very small. We can tract the whole area in 4 weeks. But that is not a good use of our time as most people are not home or they don’t answer the door.

This one area where Elder Kulu and I are serving is apparently one of the hardest stakes to serve in. The area book is rather small. Not many potential investigators. Also there are a lot of house here that people rent so the wards are constantly changing. It is hard to get members to help us if no one knows who their neighbors are.

So the type of people that we run into here are either Hispanic and catholic, white and members, or white and inactive, or Polynesians. The poly's are all over the board. But they are always very friendly. They are always trying to get us to eat dinner after we already had it. They pick us up and drive us places even though they may not be members. I think it has a little to do with kulu because he is Tongan. But they have always been nice.

The Hispanics are also very nice. They don’t always talk to us because they say they don’t speak English. But to the Spanish missionaries in the same stake they are always feeding and talking to and inviting them over for parties even if they are not members. The white people haha are not always as friendly. The members are nice and will say hi to us and people honk and wave at us all the time but the nonmembers are very unfriendly. They don’t answer the door, they tell us to go away and some even try to bible bash with us.

So a few stories about that, we tracked into this one home and this lady was telling us that we don’t believe in the scriptures that we read. She kept saying that we worship on the wrong day that it should be Saturday. My companion and I knew there was a scripture to answer that but neither of us could think of it. So I distracted her by just talking while my comp found it. haha she was trying to bash and say we are wrong but all I was doing was bearing testimony of truth; That we have a prophet who receives revelations from God and he directs our path. Then we shared Acts 20:7 haha and shut her down. She was speechless and didn’t know what to say. We didn’t fight but she asked for a scripture that said why we worship on Sunday. We gave it and all she said was, "well I’m blessed" and shut the door on us. haha

Also we were taking Jade and her family to temple square for the tour (its cool cause if they are getting baptized we can take them there) and these two guys on the street started talking to us. Obviously anti-Mormons and we really didn’t have time but they kept trying to tear down our faith with scriptures but they didn’t understand the meanings of the scriptures. That was different because they kept saying we believed in things and they obviously didn’t know what we believe. They told us the book of Mormon didn’t have the Melchezidek priesthood in it or that the bible talked about baptizing people for the dead. I knew both scriptures to show that they were liars but I chose to just leave. In case you’re wondering its Alma 13:14 and 1 Corinthians 15:29. There just wasn’t any spirit talking with them nor was I going to convince them. Only get angry.

Anyways so we definitely had a miracle this week. In the MTC they told us to ask for specific miracles. So this little girl Jade she is about 11, and the missionaries have been teaching her for a long time. Her whole family is members except her dad. But she lives with her mom and step dad. Anyways I came in and taught her once and she didn’t really know what to think about the church because she went to her father’s catholic church and they teach different stuff. The first lesson we taught her about her feeling the Holy Ghost how he won’t lie to her. I had an idea and started talking about fasting. Good thing my companion and I teach by the spirit because he was right there with me. We challenged the whole family to a fast to help Jade find the truth. The following Friday we were all going to fast for her. I didn’t know but they called cousins and grandmas and grandpas and everyone fasted. Then on Friday we taught Jade again at the close of our fast. It was a long lesson where we just talked and had her clear up her own doubts. It was amazing because she accepted to be baptized at the end and she was actually really excited and then we went with everyone to temple square the following Sunday. That all happened last Friday and yesterday. It was a great testimony builder.

So this area has soooooo many dogs. And they are not even nice dogs. They all have metal fences around the yards and the dogs are always barking at us. Almost every house we pass. It is a little annoying. At first it was a little startling and I would jump but know I expect it and sometimes tease the dogs. I know I shouldn’t but it’s kinda funny. It makes it hard to tract because some dogs will bite us if we go to the door. But if a dog bites me I’m not going to hold off. haha. So ya they better not bite me.

So if there weren’t so many dogs, and the members actually wanted to help us this area would be super cool. There is a great view from up here because we are just a little higher than the rest of the valley. Kulu and I are trying to get the wards to do the Ward mission process correctly because most don’t do it at all. But I think with some good teaching things can pick up. We have an African American from New Orleans that we are teaching. Today is supposed to be his quit day for smoking. So we teach him tonight and will try to help him. Also we are teaching a less active member who was baptized but that’s about it. He knew nothing but it’s great to see his desire. He really wants to change and he’s got great support. He has a girlfriend that comes to the lessons and she’s a member. They are both probably in their early 30s. I wish we had more investigators. I wish we had more people to teach. It gets discouraging and frustrating but I know with faith things will pick up.

Love you all until next time, Elder Salmon