"Got to meet another apostle"

Dear family and friends,

We have finished two transfers here. of course this last one was two weeks short. It doesn't seem that long ago that i was in dirty Kearns walking the streets over and over. We had a pretty good week. We met some of our goals and are able to set higher ones for this coming week. we have a few potentials that look very promising.I'm excited to start teaching some fresh people. 

We have a baptism this Friday. which is going to be a relief. its been way too long since I've had one of those. Lilly is Samoan and I'm excited to expand the different cultures of people that i meet and teach. Hopefully we start teaching this couple from Nepal. that would be really cool. there aren't too many of them. 

This last week i was given a CTR ring from a couple that we are teaching. The watts are a really cool family. We are working on reactivating the parents and baptizing the kids so they can go through the temple. except the one of the kids doesn't really want to. I'm not sure why because he was all for it the last lesson. i think he is scared. 

We are still working on Phil and Wanda. both are old and set in there ways... but hey they will be real when they convert. Wanda just wants to be baptized in 8 weeks. haha i do not want to let her do that. if she can commit to then whats wrong with in a couple weeks. And Phil went into the mountains to go inquire of the lord. haha i thought that was funny of him. 

Kristian you might be interested in what Phil does. He basically stops foreclosures. And apparently he makes pretty good money. He Specializes in screwing the banks because he hates them. he says they are doing a bunch of illegal stuff. Which I'm sure they are. but its sounded kinda cool. 

man i dunno what you want to know. i got a hair cut the other day. There's a lady in one of the wards, she won competitions at a national level for hair styling and cutting. so she cut it. i think my cuts were as good as hers. haha

It is now always hot. however its really not that bad. Utah is dry. but the nights can be a  little rough. i do not sleep well in the warm.

Oh elder Quinton L Cook came and spoke to us. these are some of the notes that i got.

1.     “Lift up your heart and rejoice for the hour of your mission has come.”

2.      There are two things that most converts and less active remember about the lessons they received.

        A.     The First Vision

                (1). If set up and told correctly the Holy Ghost will bear witness

                (2)  It teaches a multitude of correct doctrines:

                (3)  God continues to reveal himself to man.

                (4)  The cannon of scriptures are not closed.

                (5)  God and Jesus Christ are separate individuals.

                (6)  God knows us by name.

                (7)  The gospel of Jesus Christ was to be restored by Joseph Smith.

        B.  The Plan of Salvation:

                (1)  It answers four great concerns of man:  Where he came from.  The purpose of life.  Where he is going and what man can become.

                (2)  It teaches us that God has a plan for us and we have a purpose.

3.  He spoke of agency and opposition.  Missionaries will face adversity and many individuals will not receive the gospel because they have their agency.   The elect will.  D&C 29:7.

4.  President Hinckley taught that if you have more faith you will have more success.  Later Elder Cook said that there was nothing more important than teaching faith in Jesus Christ.  If you want investigators to have more faith you must commit them to action.

5.  Elder Cook referred to President Tanner’s advice to live and teach by the spirit.  To do so missionaries must put away foolishness. 

6.  When investigators put up walls of resistance such as citing anti-Mormon ideas, we must first be sensitive to the spirit and discern what the real problem is.  There will be times when you would ask the investigator if they know what you have taught is true.  If so, do you really even need to deal with these negative things? 

7.  When investigators commit to invitations we must follow with promise blessings.

 

Elder Cook also gave us an apostolic blessing.  Among those things he blessed us with were:

1.  Blessing of unity in the mission.  Loving our companions tops the list of importance.

2.  Blessed us to  be able to feel how we can bless our companion.

3.  He blessed our home situations. That things at home would improve according to our service.

4.  Blessed us that our service would bring blessings to those near and dear to us.

5.  Blessed us not to be discouraged.

6.  Blessed us to realize how important it was for us to feed the Lord’s sheep.

7.  Blessed us to know that the atonement would balance all the unfairness of the world.

So life is good. got to meet another apostle!! hehe

Love elder Salmon

I do have great stories every week

Dear family and Friend,

So i guess this week was pretty exciting. I'm trying to do better about writing things down so i can tell everyone about them. Because i do have great stories every week and i don't always remember them. 

This week we found a new investigator. the niece of a Samoan family moved in and she wants to be baptized so elder dresen and i will of course assist her. she will be baptized on the 22nd. the first baptism of the year for the stake. and will be followed by many I'm sure. Wanda Brady finally prayed in front of us. it was very good she prayed to be with her husband forever. he passed away and you could tell she really wanted it. it was pretty amazing. took her only 8 weeks to get to that point. And she is picking a date with her son for baptism. which is also really amazing. And we are taking Phil to temple square this Tuesday to solidify his date. 

Add another cool thing to the list of foods I've eaten, i ate elk this week. which surprised me that i haven't had it before but i really liked it. More than beef. it was very sweet. he didn't tell us until after we ate it. i think he was worried we wouldn't if he told me... what ever.

And i got to tell you about this little girl. her name is presly and we stop by her house because her uncle is our investigator and its really hard to find him home so we stop by a lot. but she is always there. I introduced myself as elder fish and that's all she calls me now. she is 5. but last time we were there she chased elder dresen around the yard squirting him with water from her water gun. SOOOO funny.

We play a lot of sports in the morning from rugby to speed ball. my favorite is ultimate Frisbee. i think because i am the best at that sport. But also because we do a lot of running and i enjoy the physical exercise.

Well its time for me to get off. but i hope that everyone is doing well. Take care. the church is true.

Elder Salmon

Life is good around here

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Another Monday has come and will go. Time is going by very quickly its already June the beginning of summer. Seems like a life time ago when I was home painting the fire hydrants for the sewer and water district. I hope the fire hydrants are still yellow and looking good because I spent a lot of time on them. Anyways I remember the countless hours I spend weed whacking and cutting trees. Now I'm using my time way more effective and the time goes by way faster because I enjoy it a lot more.

 

So Elder Dresen and I are going to do some pruning of our vineyard. We have too many people that want to listen to us but aren't progressing so we are going to start dropping people and start somewhat fresh. At least we wont focus on them. We are teaching an alright amount of lessons but they aren't working towards baptism as fast as they should be.

 

A ray of hope Phil came to church and he is on date for the 22nd. He is doing really well progressing and loved church yesterday.He wants to know everything before baptism so we need to help him see that what we teach him is sufficient and he will learn most after he receives the Holy Ghost.

 

Wanda didn't come to church she didn't have another dress which is soo easily fixed. But she was also sick. We need to sit down with her and help her progress and I'm almost at a loss. She needs this but I'm not sure how to help her.

 

So in my scripture studies I was thinking about a question that a less active asked me. He asked how can I apply the atonement in my life. I didn't have the best answer for him. In my studies I came across Mosiah 4:6-7 and that is actually helping me apply the atonement in my life as well.

 

So I'm not sure what we are doing for pday today. I'm sure it will be fun whatever it is. Last week we went hiking and there were way too many people on the trail. But I'm getting acclamated to the altitude and it is a lot easier to breath. We play some sport every morning for workout so I really enjoy the competitiveness. This morning we played chair soccer. So life is good around here!

 

Love you all

Elder Salmon