January 9, 2012

Hey Mother, Family and Friends!

This week we had an amazing miracle. Cleo, our most progressing investigator has been smoke free for the last Five days. We taught the smoke free program the church has and she's been doing amazing. It is a very powerful testimony of our Savior’s atonement and how He can help us change. And then she told us this last week when we were visiting that after this next Friday (daughter's birthday party) she is going to stop drinking too! We had talked about the word of wisdom a little bit when we did the stop smoking program but she pretty much made this decision by her self. It’s so amazing to see people come unto Christ. It’s almost like she's a different person now. We will be seeing her hopefully tomorrow, and we're hoping to set a baptismal date with her. We've talked about it before; we asked her to pray to know if this is Christ’s Church and if she should be baptized. Tomorrow will be a big day for us.

We also had a really good lesson with Roland on Saturday. We taught the Plan of Salvation with Brother Knowlton our WML and it went really well. I'd almost say our best lesson with Roland. I use to be so hesitant to invite members to come to our lessons, just because then I felt they were watching how I taught. Now I know that was just selfish. Having member at lessons makes the spirit so much stronger. Plus, Roland was able to relate easier to what Bro. Knowlton was saying (Must be a guy thing). So on Sunday, when we had a ward missionary correlation meeting we brought up the importance of having members at lessons. Preferable all! I think we're going to start assigning couples or individuals a day and a block of time. Asking for volunteers just isn't working. We'll start with just one day, but we might, depending on how successful it is branch out.

We also have a new family that we hope to pick up this week. David is from Mexico and was raised in the Catholic Church and his wife is Navajo and doesn't have much of a religious background. Apparently her father (who we think is a member or at least is a less active) referred them to the missionaries. We had an okay lesson with them last week. I'm having a hard time getting my companion to talk; which is a little frustrating but we're working through this. So I was doing a lot of the talking in our companionship.

Transfer calls were Saturday night and our district is staying the same again. We've been together for three transfers now, going on four. There are a few changes in leader positions but other than that we're all here. I was given a new responsibility. I have been called to be the exchange sister in Illinois. It is comparable to what the dl's do when they travel around and go on splits with the elders in the district. This means that Sister Luker and I will now get an opportunity to travel to the other two sister companionship's and go on splits. I’m actually really excited about this, and this also means that I'll be able to attend the leadership training next week in St, Louis. I was a little shocked at this calling, but I am really excited. It gives me an opportunity to learn from the other sisters.

Love you all! Thank you for your prayers and support. It makes a world of difference.

Sister Salmon