"Will Beee Bacon"

Truly, He is risen!

Dear Family and Friends

We had a good week. Full of people cancelling there appointments and people not being home. But really what made it a great week was the Moore's baptism! it was on Saturday. The Dad is active and baptized his two kids. Gave two of his sons the priesthood, confirmed two of his sons, and gave his daughter a blessing. it was very powerful and sweet. He knows what he wants for his kids. he often spoke of the temple and marrying in it to his kids in the blessings even though he is not married in the temple. The Mom is still not a member and wont get baptized but she loves church and everything. i think she will be baptized eventually. and they will be sealed for time and eternity. and oh what joy i will have being with them in the celestial kingdom.

We have a bunch of other investigators but they are slow progressing. most cannot meet with us more than once a week. so its a little frustrating but i do think most will be baptized. we have had a lot of blessings and i'm excited to keep serving. i'm coming up on 7 and a half months in the Kearns area. the last 3 missionaries in my area were all here for nine months. So maybe i'll get one more transfer here.

We did get some snow and i wasn't too happy about because it also made the weather very cold. i got my bike fixed and running. and i put some bike sealant in the tires so i shouldn't be getting anymore flats. but the cold prevents us from biking or we might get frozen hands and faces.

One hard thing we are teaching a mentally handicapped person who is very worried about everything. she will often call me and tell me all her worries. as a missionary i cant give people advice. So i just say that God loves her and she should pray haha. She is ready to be baptized but is scared. so i'm trying to get her over that.

i am very excited for these next couple of weeks. Easter and conference! this is going to be great. but people aren't really any more interested. i find a lot of people here in Kearns either care a lot or don't care. Those that do care already have a church and don't want tot listen. haha. From the grace of God that is the only way we receive investigators.

Last Monday we had a zone BBQ! it was a lot of fun. we played rugby, soccer, and frisbee and had carne asada! And on Tuesday i had cows Tongue! finally. it taste pretty good. much better than menudo. Also something funny we had dinner at a members house and the wife left for about 20 minutes and went and picked up a pig! for a pet! haha i was dying for the rest of dinner. they named it Will Beee Bacon. First middle and last name. i love it. but i think they are getting rid of it because the pig bit the wife. haha

Anyways take care everyone.
Love Elder Salmon

The Moores

"I have work to do"

Dear Family and Friends,

So this week went by quick. It was crunch time. We have all these investigators that were on date and now it looks like a bunch will fall off. But they will be baptised it just won’t all happen in one month. At one point we had 10 people on date for this month. And actually all 10 will be baptised just a matter of when.  I think one got stuck somewhere and couldn’t make it to church another was sick and just little things came up, but they still need to come to church to get baptised. So looks like April baptism- which is okay. We worked hard but we really were blessed. We had more projected than anyone in the zone. And it’s all because the Lord decided to bless us. We have found our weaknesses and we know what we need to work on.

Next week we have two baptisms! yes! The Moore kids are getting baptized; Ashton and Memphis, and better yet the dad is doing it. He is getting active and he now is doing awesome. He got over some sins repented and now wants to go to the temple. WE are working on his wife. She still doesn’t want to be baptised. But she will.  At the baptism there will be the confirmations, two kids will be getting the priesthood and the daughter will be getting a blessing. It will be a great baptism. The father also planned everything and we just need to show up and fill the font.

SOOO this week we had another miracle. This girl called us and said she wanted to take the discussion. We met with her and she said she wanted to get baptised as soon as possible. Sooo we are waiting for her to tell her family and I hope it will happen next weekend or the weekend after that. Her father might stop her. He’s a baptist minister and hates the church, but she is 29 so we will see.

Also I have had really bad luck with the dogs here and I do not trust dogs at all anymore. In fact I basically hate all dogs right now. I got bitten by a dog on Tuesday and I had to go to the instacare because it drew blood. It’s really not that bad but because there was blood I had to go there. I will be buying a squirt gun soon, and I really hate pit bulls.  But besides that i love it here.

So it has been getting a lot warmer here. I like it, although I’m not too excited about getting burned because I’m almost sure that it will happen. Today we are BBQ with the zone and one of our zone leaders is going home soon and is paying for all of it. Legit I know. WE are playing rugby and ultimate Frisbee, it’s going to be great!

So I’m am super jealous of everyone at home. I wish I could have been there.  I wanted to hear all those homecomings and play volleyball and hang out with the cousins. BUT I understand.  I have work to do. And I am loving it here. I don’t really ever have to worry about myself, just other people.

So from my studies and understanding of the mission I’ve come to the conclusion that the purpose of missions isn’t to spread the gospel. That is a secondary reason. I believe that the reason the Lord sends us on missions is to build us up. We are to be the next leaders in the mission. As we overcome our own weakness we become better missionaries and better people. Baptisms are just blessings that the Lord gives us to keep us happy! haha

Hope everyone is doing well. Love everyone

Elder Salmon

"If they don't have time to write me they can email me now"

Dear Family and Friends

 

First off WELCOME TO MIRACLE MARCH! It’s way better than march madness in case you were wondering. Yeah we found 6 investigators this week! I was really happy. But the real work is helping them come unto Christ so Elder Bennett and i are doing our best to get to them each of them and let them know that we are there for them. However, just when we start doing the best work and being successful, Satan got in the way; Elder Bennet and I resolved all conflict so we are firing on all cylinders. Satan is attacking our BIKES now. Without bikes we cannot get around as fast. Mine was just flat but Elder Bennett stopped very fast in front of me and I crashed into him and ruined his disk brakes. I wasn’t hurt btw(by the way). But still Satan is trying to stop us but he can’t, he can only delay the inevitable.

 

So mom the Johnson didn’t come to church. But WE will get them next week. Her husband is going out of town for two weeks and when he comes back they agreed to let us teach them the lessons. So they will come to church because they will be hungering for the spirit. The Lord is all powerful and has all these people in mind and does want us to help them and he has been empowering us.

 

Now i have not heard a bunch of these things that you thought i did. When did LEXI decide to go on a mission? I’m so excited for her. That’s amazing! Best part about it we will be at school together longer! haha. And we will get back pretty close to the same time probably. Aunt Nancy my prayers are with you! Love you!

 

And dad I didn’t know that Caleb read my letter out loud. I hope it made sense. I wrote it really fast and kind of ran out of room. But those are the things that I kind of wish I had done before. I didn’t take it serious because i thought i knew the gospel. I was very very mistaken.

 

And since when was dad nominated for the SAmmi Award??? And he actually won? For what? haha i know you do a lot dad but aren't you just doing what any normal citizen should do? haha

 

I heard about Rachel. She actually emailed me to tell me the news. But it’s like old times I’m the last to hear about everything even though mom and dad you were the first two to hear about it. (So no big deal). I’m glad to hear grandma is doing better. I was a little worried about her.

 

Anyways I wish I could see Hannah, Andy, Christian and Tanner!! AHH it’s been a while but I guess I can wait seeing how I will. But new development:  we can now email basically anyone we want. So friends and leaders and everyone can email us now. So spread the word. If they don’t have time to write me they can email me now.

 

Well we had another baptism this week. RaeAn Butler.  She’s 17 and it was a lot of fun teaching her because it was like teaching a kid in the sense that she didn’t know anything. Her faith was strong because she just accepted it then prayed and got an answer first time she prayed. There have been a few really strong spirits that I have met lately. The spirit just radiates from them.

 

Also I try to fill my time with perspective missionaries and get them coming out with me as much as possible. I am hoping to make an impact and get them more ready for their missions than i was. Plus it helps me because I make sure the lessons they go to are really good. Oh and Mom you will like this but I try to sing before every lesson. It definitely brings the spirit. I recommend dad singing before priest quorum and kneeling at the end. (If you don’t already do it). The lessons that we sing before are soo much better. We always sing before our meetings in the field.

 

A transfer is 6 weeks. but all the missions will have one 5 week to make the change to the shorter time in the mtc. Ours was last transfer.

 

Love you all Take care

Elder Salmon