"we made tye dye shirts to build unity"

So we had 3 lessons. 2 of them fell through which i kinda thought it would. but we did pick up a new investigator and accepted a baptismal date of august 4th! which is awesome. we have a second lesson with them today. dang im kinda jealous of you dad. i want to climb mount olympus. tell me if you see zeus up there. i doubt it because hes supposed to be in greece but still. 

So we had a fireside yesterday! and elder lila and i were the main speakers. it was actually really good. i liked it and the spirit was pretty strong. president tate (stake president) said we will probably give more firesides to come. There was only a few hundred people there unfortunately from the whole stake. and i knew most of them there. Also in a ward the bishop asked us to speak when he was at the pulpit. that was my first time and it went well. i feel bad for elder lila though because he doesnt exactly have the language down yet. hes very good but i have to help him a little.

so we made tye dye shirts to build unity in the zone. and it is coming mom. we just need to do things together and then we will enjoy being together a lot more and be able to work more effectively because we will all be happy. But my shirt turned out very pink... and it was a high v-neck so it looks a litttle gay... but what ever.

We have an investigator that's what matters! and life's going great. i read PMG pg 150 accountability. that has a lot of great life lessons in it. 

Well take take everyone.

love Elder Salmon

"The Lord promised it if we work hard"

Dear family and friends,

Well it is great to hear from some of you on a regular basis. The dry and hot spell you had in Washington also hit us here in utah and we had over 100 degrees for a long time. But lately it has been kinda cloudy and humid. rain will sweep in and drench everything and lighting will be dancing everywhere, all in a matter of seconds then leave 5 minutes later. glad i was in a car. felt really bad for those missionaries walking or biking.

Well i think the lord is seeing our work here in south Jordan. He has also sees our sacrifices. we dont have an investigator yet but we set up 3 lessons with potential for this week. i was soo happy. normally all 3 would probably fall through but i dont even care. we made progress. before we didnt have any lessons scheduled. now atleast we have some. you have to start somewhere. We also had a meeting with the stake president and he is soo good. he and one of his councilors is very very supportive of us. i went seeking council how he wanted us to continue to work with the ward councils and for finding because we are not having very much success. he told us to keep being ubiquitous. I really think when the members trust us they will help us. our pictures are everywhere in the buildings with our numbers. we hit 6 wards last sunday and 6 ward councils. And this sunday we are having a fireside! luckily i didnt have to plan everything but my companion and i are the speakers. We got videos and microphones and the works going. this could be really really cool. WE are teaching doctrine straight out of the scriptures. 2 nephi 31 and focusing on the importance of the strait and narrow path. there is only one way and it has to be through baptism.  So kinda stressed but also very excited. Got to work with the stake councilor to put it together.

I thought it was pretty cool that i saw the chandlers. They also gave me a referral and we set up a lesson with them. kinda. They weren;t really interested but they have a daughter getting baptized and want to know what she is learning. They were drinking when we showed up so i hope they remember. haha. One of the coolest moments on my mission by far happened this week. we stopped by two different individuals who had both lost a spouse and were themselves very old. we like to talk for 5 minutes to get to know the members and then share a spiritual thought and ask for referrals. I could tell both of these individuals were learning lessons in life i wasn't even prepared to learn. bro spencer (no relation to the brother spencer i home taught) was very respectful of his wife. always calling her queen Ruth. he had cared for her for 15 years while she was in a wheel chair. I could really tell he loved her very much but he wasn't sad he was just waiting patiently for his work to be done. And Sister hatton shared her experience of taking care of her husband. She talked of the great experience of being able to take care of her husband while he was dying. she said they would read and discuss the scriptures for hours. as time went on he eventually lost the ability to move and even see so she would read to him. What love she had to have to be able to nurture, then see him die and also let him go and be at peace. i talked about that with her for a while. She seemed very healthy and she will probably be working in the temple for a long time as she has been already for 20 years. There is a lot of advice and learning i could have gotten from them. i wish i had more time with them.

But like i said the work here is slow. But i have full confidence that it will pick up. it has too. the Lord promised it if we work hard. and i know we are working hard. The good thing about this is it lets me focus on my districts needs and their investigators. They made a change in the districts. i now have sister higham, revolorio and verkist in my district. They are all very young but very good sisters but they will need teaching and practice to become more effective. i am kinda enjoying being district leader now. We are trying to build unity and i think enthusiasm is the answer. so im always trying to be upbeat. its a lot of fun because i feel happier more often.

Well this is long enough i think. Life is good here in south jordan. we are going to tie dye shirts today as a zone. so life's good. Oh the south jordan temple is now in my boundaries for my district! i think thats pretty cool. i can go there anytime i want. just wish i could go in anytime.

Love Elder Salmon

"Abound in good works"

Dear Family and friends,

Man it has been a interesting week. I'm glad you all had fun in waterton. it has been a long time since I've been to that place. i wouldnt mind going back. although my last trek to canada got me very sick.

So my job as a district leader is basically to inspire everyone to have the mindset to baptize. i help with there investigators receive revelation how they can better help people make the commitment to follow Jesus Christ into the waters of baptism. The biggest thing is that i train the other elders and sisters to be better missionaries through companion studies and district meeting. i also recieve all the numbers from them and help them do better things to make there numbers(souls) better. And if needed i make sure that people are obedient and encourage them to follow Christ. i dont like having to take away things from the elders or sisters. they are pretty obedient anyways. its all good. there are 6 including me. normal size district.

SOO yesterday i ran into the chandlers. they are going to a mission in china or japan. anyways they told me they have a son living in sammamish. I made the connection and i figured it was brother chandler. soo i met his parents here. And apparently i only missed them by a day or two or i would have run into them at that ward. cool stuff.

We also had the 4th celebration on thursday. we all went in had a spiritual thought and then we had a great time in the sandy institute. i played basketball all night. Its the best. although it is very very rough. there are no fouls and you first to score stays. and you rotate in about 30 other elders. I had a great team and we won like 25 in a row. it was my old zone leader me and and two other elders he knew were pretty good. I really think ive gotten better at basketball. much better at shooting. and that opens up the driving game.

Wow sounds like there are so many changes going on at home! how am i going to keep up with it all???haha And for everyones information they changed a few rules to let the missionaries be a little more normal. the side bags is world wide, we can wear khaki pants now and we can wear sweaters and cardigans now. they want our personality to come out a little more but still look professional.

My spiritual thought mosiah 5:15 tells us that we need to always abound in good works in order to have eternal life. Alma 7:24 says that if we have faith hope and charity we will abound in good works.

Love you all take care

Elder Salmon

"We are trying to push unity"

Dear Family and friend,

Man i can't believe im in south jordan and ive been here a week. I love my apartment first off. it is very cool at night! and i have a black light that i can turn on at night! its pretty cool. and my landlord just became a bishop so it will be nice to coordinate with him. We have our own kitchen and bathroom with jets in the tub. the beds not bad. But i just like all the room i have. i dont feel squished at all.

Well we were definitely blessed by the Lord. We picked up two investigators through our own efforts. We went around and got referrals from everyone and i contacted more people this week than any other week on my mission. i have 18 contacted last week but it was a lot more because not all were referrals. And we finally got 2 investigators. We are doing all we can to show everyone that we want to work. we are getting our pictures out spreading word about the broadcast and getting all the ward councils numbers and texting them with our successes. we are really trying to push unity.

My companion is from albania and it very interesting being with him. we are very different but yet we still get along. i make fun of him all the time and act like i think america is the best and it kinda annoys him. but we laugh. haha on sunday we sang a ton of patriotic songs and he didnt sing any of them haha.

Not much happened this past week..

I have been studying the parable of the good samaritan and i was getting some great information. The plan of salvation makes sense through the fall of the man and the atonement for that man. The way the samaritan represented christ in deed and in action. he was prepared to heal us and he is the only one capable of healing us. I know that Christ will always be looking for us and wont happen upon us by chance as the others in the parable did. He love us all and wants us all to come back to him.

With love Elder Salmon

"He asked if we wanted to make pizzas"

Dear Family and Friends,

So we had transfers!!!! guess what i got transferred! :(  the day we had a baptism i got moved to South jordan. i was able to get permission to come back but still. i had just gotten that area going and they moved me. To a place where i have no investigators. im second transfer training and they made me district leader. SOO ive been a little stressed lately. The elder im with Elder Lila he is from albania, he speaks pretty good english. he can communicate but he is not fluent. He doesnt really know where he is going or who anyone is so im basically white washing again. and i have sisters in my area and they white washed and sister crandell is training. so they are freaking out and are calling me all the time for help and i can only do so much because they are sisters. So the first few days have been really interesting and i dont like it. hopefully ill be able to survive this 8 week transfer because i dont see anyway to get out of being district leader anytime soon.

Well i really enjoyed the world wide broadcast that we had yesterday. I had a lot of impressions come to my mind and a lot of things that i can do better to help out the ward councils. Especially here in south jordan where i am now we have 95% endowed members. So we need the help of the members. i do like starting fresh because i was able to set an expectation for what the bishops and the ward councils should help me with. so im excited for this area. My son Elder Dresen is Training in that area. so i hope he is prepared because i left some great potentials to be baptized.

Well last week on Tuesday we went to tenny's pizza and we ordered like 12 pizzas as a district. poor guy was the only one there. And he had a lot of other pizza orders he had to get out. so he asked if we wanted to make pizzas. and we said sure and made everyone pizza. i dont think it was legal but no one saw and no one complained and we got all the pizzas done in like 15 minutes. It was so much fun. i pulled the pizzas out of the oven and sliced them. handed them to Elder Kulu and he boxed them. other guys made the pizzas.

Well im surviving. i have district meeting planned for tomorrow. its a lot of pressure watching over other missionaries. But also it was cool to feel the instant love i had for my district before i even met them. i feel kinda like a father to them. And it was a very humbling experience to try and receive revelation for them. I truely believe that i did recieve revelation and i know what will help them. It was a cool lesson that i learned about priesthood keys and stewardship.

Well time to go.

With Love Elder Salmon