"Well our week was ok"

Dear family and friends,

Well our week was okay. We had an interesting experience with a young lady. Our neighbor the meldrums have a daughter who is 15 and she has a friend she has always been asking us to teach. So we went over and talked to her and her parents and asked her to call her friend right there and set up an appointment for last Saturday. we were very excited and the lesson went text book well. she had lots of questions, the spirit was there she accepted a date and was going to go to church the enxt day, she cried during the lesson and everything. the spirit was very strong. The investigator is named alyssa. Anyways about 4 in the morning on sunday she called her mom and left and went home and we havent heard anything since. We talked to the fellow shipper and she told us that she overheard alyssa was meeting with us to try and "stump us." little did she know we answered all her questions and the spirit was there. i think she was genuine when she accepted the date but im almost positive it scared her when the spirit was that strong. she panicked. She has not lived in a great living accommodations and her mom is not setting a great example. I will be interested to see if she comes back and wants to learn more. Regardless she felt the spirit and we did our job.

We are supposed to pick up a new inv. on Wednesday but he had to move last minute to west jordan. we have just had that kind of luck this transfer. But hey what can you do but keep chugging along. At least we didn't have to heal a finger this week. We are teaching quite a few Less actives and they are both going very well. They are coming back to church and keeping there commitments. i should get content with that because im called to baptize people but it does give me joy.

Danny pham who elder heath and i taught and baptized in december is already teaching every other week in gospel principles class. he is doing very well. He is getting the gospel and soaking everything in. We probably wont need to do all the new member lessons. He is progressing and getting the priesthood soon and i love seeing people like him progress in the gospel. and its nothing anything that ive done its just ive helped him and it makes my efforts worth it.

Love Elder Salmon

P.S. this past week we have been showing up to places right on time to help. One of our other neighbors the Clowards are really struggling. they are Less active but we showed up one day because i felt like we should see how they are doing and it was morning time and bro. cloward (who has severe dementia) was on the ground basically naked... We had to pick him up and help get him dress and into a wheel chair. apparently some days he cant walk and his brain is fried. he doesnt make sense when he talks and doesn't remember anyone. Im glad we were there to help. She will call us now when she needs us! she hasn't called yet since Thursday but i know the wards a lot more involved now.

"I Love Missionary Work"

Dear Family and Friends,

Well Elder heath and i had a few ups and downs this week. the beginnig of the week was very slow and it felt like no one was home. Also knowing where to go was difficult as we didn't have any potentials nor investigators. we had a training by our ZLs and they challenged us to talk to everyone we see. Now that is a challenge seeing how i've been in this area for over 7 months. I have talked to a lot of people here. It is also hard to talk to everyone when in a car. Haha so we just decided to do it. some people where really weirded out that we would stop them and talk to them from a car. we tried parking and getting out but so many people got away we just started driving up to them. WE haven't even found a lead from talking to everyone but that's not really the point. we are being obedient and the lord blesses us with our obedience.

Also earlier this week one of our bishops gave our number to a member who i think is a little crazy... He was asking the bishop to restore his finger and make it whole. he had lost it in an accident at a pasta factory. He wanted it back because he needed to switch jobs and he didnt believe he could get it without his finger. Anyways so he calls us up. and we go to his house completely blissful as to why we are there. the bishop didnt tell us. then he goes off on this prepared speech, along with scriptures and personal stories, to try to convince us that it was gods will to heal his finger. i am very uncomfortable during this whole time and my companion was lightly freaking out. this is an active member remind you. so he finally lets us speak and i explain how a blessing is supposed to work (ie. it comes from the lord and i have no power if hes not going to grant it) and i proceed to be voice. Right from the beginning i knew he was not getting his finger back! haha. and he didnt. but an hour later the job he wanted called, they knew about his finger from his last employer and he still got the job! haha the lord provides for us! but it is definitely his will how it happens.

The work is slow however. we picked up 1 new inv and she is getting baptized on the 1st and the bishop in one of our wards invited a nonmember to take the lessons and he said yes! i love missionary work and when the members help us out! Thats because of Elder heath and i talking to everyone! haha we got blessed. Well gotta go. temple session is about to start. I love you all.

Elder Salmon

It Only Takes a Small Miracle to Brighten the Day

Dear Family and Friends,

It has been so great to hear from so many of you through the many different means of communication. This is a very happy period of time where we focus on the savior, his ministry and especially his birth. We focus on the example the savior gave us and then we can look at our lives evaluate our effort and make plans to become better. I love this time (despite that cold). i am grateful for the pagans for making the mistake to put Jesus' birthday right before the new year so that we have the most perfect example before us before we make our goals to become better so that the goals we make are pointing us and are center on becoming more Christ-like.

Well the Past few weeks have been very unproductive. Getting into peoples house are hard and finding people home even harder. But despite the lack of work and teaching we ahve used the time to teacha  lot of active members in the stake and we have had a lot of spiritual lessons with them. In fact i think that did a lot of good for this stake. we got into a lot of homes and reminded them of the message of the restoration and the spirit was present. In the last week we have had 5 or 6 people call us and give us referrals or tell us they are going to invite someone to meet with us, or even call us to come over and teach there family. First time since i have been here that the members are really calling us and using our names and asking us to do things! i see a change for this next year for the stake as far as missionary work.

Not this alst sunday but the sunday before that i was privileged to give 2 talks and teach a lesson to the combined Sunday school. It was a lot of fun to be able to talk and teach even the older generation. But getting Participation is like pulling teeth! So i just call on people and i am very blunt about participation. The spirit will touch each of us and if we don't speak up we hinder the work of the spirit. it works the same way with a companionship. we must switch off, everyone i the class must participate. So we are not doing too much to teach non members but we are teaching. We are sharing our testimonies and we are encouraging others to do missionary work and i think we are still fulfilling our purpose even though i probably wont see any fruit at all from this. I love this stake and i love that people are trying to be soo helpful. people all the time are telling us that they are praying to have missionary experiences instead of praying just for us to have them. Life is great here. Some days are terrible but many more are pretty good. it only takes a small miracle to brighten the day and to let us know the lord is watching out for us.