Wednesday, December 21, 2011

December 20, 2011

Sounds like a happening place. We had a really crazy week last week. April our recent convert was scheduled to go through the temple and receive her endowment on Saturday but Monday night she went MIA and didn't come home. (She lives with us in the basement). We were really worried because we couldn't find her and the McConkies were down in St. Louis working in the temple so they couldn't do anything to help either. We sent out an SOS call to all our missionaries and later in the day (Tuesday) she contacted us. At first she was ready to cancel her endowment session. Her family and friends are very much anti so she has no support from them. She used to be a Protestant minister so all her friends are all ministers too. But after much prayer and fasting she finally came around. She knew that she was suppose to go to the temple but was running from it. We drove down to St. Louis Friday night and Sister Shutt and I spent the night in the Mission home. April had to be at the temple by 9:15am for the 10:30 session. During that time we waited in the chapel and I read Alma 40-42 about the plan of Salvation. So so good. I feel like every time I open my scriptures I'm always learning new things....The session went great, the spirit was strong. The day was going great until we received a call from our Zone Leaders who notified us that sister Shutt was being emergency transferred to Missouri River and that I was going to finish training sister Luker from St. Charles.

The emergency transfer was because a new sister was entering the mission so we had to do some quick rearranging. So Sunday night we ran around saying goodbye and also packed up all of sister shutts stuff. But we had a cool miracle happen that night. Around 7:30 we received a phone call from a potential investigator. We hadn't been able to visit with her because things kept coming up so we had to keep rescheduling with her. But she gave us a call and we decided to go visit her. She was so sweet and what we thought would be a 10-15min actually turned into 45 min. We taught her part of the first vision and gave her a book of Mormon and asked her to read it. She was very receptive and was excited to learn more. We have an appointment for tonight so pray that goes through. Monday we drove down to St. Louis and participated in the mini transfer meeting. They had asked me to play the piano and I told them I'd play if they couldn't find anyone else. I haven't played in a very long time. Thankfully Elder Simms was there so he played instead. But I think I might practice a few hymns so that next time I will feel confident to play.

So now I'm the senior companion finishing training Sister luker who's been out for just over 2 months. So we're both babies. So who knows when I'll be transferred next? I could be here for a while. I'm really kind of nervous about this. And I feel weird to be driving again. I didn't pay too much attention when I was copilot so I still get really turned around when I drive. Although today we took our car into the shop finally to get the spray paint taken off. So we're going to be walking and finding rides for the next couple days.

I've ran into two people the last couple days who have some sort of connection with our family. Sunday night at our dinner appointment I found out that our host Dan Simons is from Cardston and knows Jeff and uncle David. And then we had dinner at the McNabbs last night and found out that they know the Reynolds family. Small world.

Love you all. I'll see you Sunday.

Sister salmon

December 12, 2011

Hey Family and friends

Hope this Holiday season everyone is doing well. This last week has gone by in a blur. Actually most weeks go by in a blur. When I first entered the mission field I was so excited to find people and share the gospel, and although that is our major focus it seems to be the members that need our greatest attention at this time. We have a lot of less active/part member families that we work with each week, and this last week we were able to see almost everyone that we had planned on visiting. We had a really good visit with Kathy and Kamen (LA) and Kamen’s friends Teagan and Gracie. We haven't been able to teach them for the last month because they each took turns getting sick. So we were pretty excited to teach them. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and Gracie and Teagan loved it. We had brought cardboard cut outs to help us and after wards they each took turns teaching us. Gracie and Teagan are so close to being ready for baptism. The only thing is their mom doesn't care to be taught (but has no problem with her kids being taught) and Gracie and Teagan are 9 and 12. So they need a good support system, and someone to bring them to church each week. So that's one mountain that we still need to climb.

We've started attending YW's activities periodically. We're trying to strengthen our relationship with the youth and support the leaders in their callings. We only have I think four YW and we're lucky if we have one show up for activities.

Friday night at dinner sister shutt started feeling sick at dinner so we went home early and spent the morning at home. But we had an appointment with Roland later that day that we both wanted to keep. Our zone leaders at Thursdays DM had talked about the need to strengthen our faith and ways that we might go about doing that. And then from there they kind of challenged us, if we hadn't already, to invite our investigators to be baptized. And so at our lesson with Roland we did just that. We invited him to be baptized on December 31st and he accepted. We're both really excited about this. He still has some things that he needs to be taught but I know that if he remembers the answer he received after praying to know if the book of Mormon is true and the feelings he gets when he prays that he will be baptized. Last night we had our stake Christmas concert. We invited Roland to come to the concert and at first he was kind of hesitant. But then his niece piped in and said that she's be interested in coming. They both came and really enjoyed it. And the members were great. Many of them came and introduced themselves and welcomed them in. That's so important. Investigators need to feel included and loved right off the bat.

I don't know if I mentioned that Sister Shutt and both sang in the choir. It was so much fun to be up there singing. At the end all the performers gathered on the stage and we all congregation included sang Joy to the World. The spirit was so strong in the chapel. Someone in the congregation came and talked to me after the concert and asked if I had so much fun singing in the choir. They said that they'd watched me and during that last song I had the biggest smile on my face. Which was probably true. I was just so happy. I love singing about the birth of Christ.

Oh and then last night after our concert we were making some Christmas cards and we discovered a dead mouse in our basement. Bro. McConkie had set out some traps. I guess mice aren't all that uncommon in the fall and winter seasons. All the mice from the corn fields come in to find someplace warm. We caught three last night.

I love you all and wish you a very Merry Christmas!

December 6, 2011

Hey mom

I haven't heard much from Claire since before Thanksgiving so I don't really know what's going on. I'm excited for her. That's so great that she has found someone who will love and appreciate her. I only wish I could be there for everything. :( Kjarsta's really the only other one who keeps me informed on what's going on. I heard about Kristian, that really sucks that his face is all swollen. Other than that it’s always good to hear about the family.

As far as Christmas goes, you can tell family that money is always greatly appreciated. :) Or some long stretchy running pants that I can wear under my sweats. I can't think of anything until I go out shopping.

This weekend was probably the craziest weekend I've ever experienced. Friday morning was a really hard morning. Sister Shutt and I knocked on a lot of doors with no leads. We finally tried contacting people via phone, but after calling everyone we possibly knew with no results we were kind of getting a little discouraged. After double checking that we had tried contacting everyone we knew we found a few names of people that we didn't have phone numbers for. The first house we knocked at was Miss Saddie Reed. She was a potential that we hadn't been able to contact, but this time she was home. She was super nice and after a few minutes of talking to her on her porch she invited us in. We had a good discussion about Christ. She's really funny, and invited us back again. She said as long as we're talking about the same God then we're welcome to come back any time. Miracle! It just comes to show that after you think you've given your all, sometimes you need to push a little bit more.

So that was Friday, Saturday we woke up to a little surprise. We had just come outside to go for our morning run when we noticed that someone had spray painted our drivers side passenger door. Ya not the greatest way to start the morning. But what can you do, I just laughed it off and tried not to let it bother me. I went for my run and while running saw that other cars had been targeted. That was a bit of a relief to know that someone wasn't targeting missionaries. And compared to their car, we lucked out. The police were really punctual and arrived not shortly after our phone call. They wrote up they're report and moved on to the next homes. So that was in the morning, that afternoon we received a phone call from one of our less actives asking if we wanted to go on a walk with her. We had a great walk, discussing Christ love and the atonement. I think things are starting to piece together in her brain. On our way back from our walk we saw this lady walking out to her car and under closer examination we noticed that she was crying. And I'm talking shaking from head to foot gushing tears crying. We walked up to her to see if she was all right and found out that her daughter in law had committed suicide the previous night. Both my comp and I looked at each other, a little flustered at first and not knowing what to say. We tried to console her, gave her a plan of salvation pamphlet and briefly explained it to her. We would have taken more time but she was on her way out to Texas to console her son. I offered the prayer, not knowing at what to say. Good thing God knows each of us and what we need. We exchanged numbers and hope that when she returns we can start teaching her.

Okay you're probably wondering why I'm writing today instead of yesterday? Yesterday we had a Mission conference over in Springfield Illinois. Half of the mission got together for training with Elder Malm and his wife. Before the conference we were told to prepare a five minute talk on becoming a disciple of Christ and a four minute success story. They would then choose people to speak from the congregation to speak. My comp was called, thank goodness it wasn't me. But one of the cool things was prior to the start of the conference president clark asked three missionaries if they'd like to be interviewed by Elder Malm and I WAS ONE OF THEM! I was interviewed by a general authority. CRAZY! It was so cool. Elder Malm is so funny. When I introduced myself I said sister salmon like the fish. He chuckled that and said that his first name is spelled P-E-R. And when you pronounce it to think of the fruit. So said he, when you think of your name you think if the fish, and when you think of my name you think of the fruit. Training went really well. I think because I had the one on one time he remembered my name and had no problem calling on me during the discussion. I could have stayed in that chapel forever. It is so great to be taught by a servant of the Lord. It reaffirmed that God does call worthy priesthood holders to lead and guide his church today.

Sister Salmon

November 28, 2011

Rosalie's such a character. Which bathroom did she lock herself in? Yes I received your package. I got it the previous week but forgot to mention it. It was a miracle that I got it. You sent it in a box that I made in 6th or 7th grade. That was funny. Okay the miracle of my package. Brother conger dropped it off at the mission office on Monday but the people working there had no clue how to get it to me because it really can't be sent through the mail. So I would've had to wait until this week when we have transfers. But the exchange sisters from pittsflied which is 2hours away had to stop in St. Louis from some business and stopped by the office. They somehow found out about the package and offered to bring it to me because they were coming up for exchanges on Wednesday. So I only waited two days to get my package. And thank you for everything in there. It is all so yummy and very much appreciated. I laughed when I saw what all was in there, granola, protein and granola bars and trail mix. I'm such a granola, but you know me all too well. And the hand warmers were great. I've already used them both. Actually I had a sty starting to form on my left upper eye lid this last week and used them on my eye. The swelling has been going down and I think things are on the mend. That's so exciting about Kath and little Joseph. You'll have to attach some pictures next time so I can see the new addition to our family. I received a letter from grandma and grandpa Salmon on Saturday. They informed me that I'm the only missionary out in the family. That's so weird, but I know that it won’t be for long. James and Lincoln will be out here soon.

Thanksgiving was a blast. We were invited over to Sister Dunns house for a Thanksgiving lunch. Which was smaller than what I'm normally used to but with all the fixings. She's a really good cook. I wanted to have seconds because it all tasted so good, but resisted. Then we had had plans to go out to rantoul and play football with some of the Elders and a couple families out there but decided against it. Things would've been too rushed. Then for dinner we were invited over to bishop johnsons home. He's the Bishop in the urbana ward. So they had two sets of missionaries over for dinner. And honestly, I don't know how I or any of the other missionaries ate. We were getting ready to sit down and I turned to my companion and asked if she was hungry, 'no', well are you full 'no'. I was still full from dinner. I can now sympathize with those who have more than one turkey dinner in a day. Its hard work. After dinner we played some games, apples to apples and I introduced that quarter game to them. They had a younger family and so the younger kids really enjoyed that. We then ended up downstairs. Elder Merkely again challenged me to a ping pong game. He's getting really good, I don't know how I beat him again. We played three games, and he lost all three. He's a great sport and we always laugh about it.

We had a bit of a slow week this week, both tracting and teaching. Many people were out of town for the holidays so we're hoping this week will pick up, especially with it being so close to Christmas. We did have a good lesson with one of investigators earlier in the week. He was a former investigator but we almost feel that he was told the gospel and not taught the gospel. We've started back at the beginning, going over the restoration and the authority from god. We invited him to attend a baptismal service on the 10th of December so we hope that goes through.

Saturday we were able to drive down to the St. Louis temple. It’s a three hour dive so it turned into an all day event. It was so great though. I have found that as I have spent more time reading and really pondering the scriptures I have come to appreciate temples so much more. I can't comprehend the meaning of eternity but have a greater appreciation for the promises that we can receive there. There's just a special spirit that can be felt when you're in the house of the lord. I am grateful that the lord deems me worthy to enter His house.

On the way home from the church both sister shutt and I were kind of antsy. Transfer calls were that night and we were worried what would happen. Amazingly enough, we are both staying in champaign for at least another 6 weeks which is super exciting. We have an amazing friend who's a recent convert. She was baptized in Wyoming and moved here for work. She is planning on going through the temple in a couple of weeks to receive her endowment and now because both of us will be here in champaign we can attend the session.

Love you all Sister Salmon

p.s I'm going to start adding scriptures to the end of my letters, usually ones that I've either read that morning or one's that I've been studying throughout the week. Feel free to read along.

1 Peter 4

November 21, 2011

Hey mom, you're probably helping out with the new baby which I don't even know his name yet. ....Did everything go well? How is Kath?

The mission is going great. On Saturday sister shutt and I had an amazing tracting day. The Lord is really helping me at my door approaches. I really enjoy tracting now; it forces you to think really fast on your feet. We've had some really cool experiences and have met some really cool people. Not to mention am learning a lot about other religions. We've tracted Muslims, Hindus, Jews, lots of Christians and atheists. It’s always fun to learn about what other people believe. I had to laugh on Saturday night when we were tracting. It was getting dark, and every person we talked to told us to be careful. I felt like I was stuck in a time warp hearing the same think over and over again. I finally turned to sister shutt jokingly and said after one of the doors had shut that we were probably safer than they were. I know that the Lord protects his missionaries.

Sorry its short this week, love you mom.

Hans