Monday, April 23, 2012

Monday April 23 2012

Hey mom It was a pretty emotional week for me as well. Monday/Tuesday was sister’s conference and we had an opportunity to attend a session in the St. Louis Temple Tuesday morning. It was so beautiful. It was a great time to reflect on my life and the many blessings my Heavenly Father has given me and my family. It was also great to be in the temple the same day James and Claire received their endowments. It was such a special time for me and although I wasn't their physically, the Lord blessed me to feel close to my family throughout this week. I look forward to the pictures of this week! That's exciting about Emily. I hope her and baby Easton are doing well. I'm looking forward to pictures from them as well. This week has been one of the busiest on my mission. But it has also been filled with many miracles and blessings. I had exchanges right after sister’s conference. We spent the rest of Tuesday and Wednesday in Dardenne creek helping out the sisters there. And then Wednesday night we drove down to Crystal city and spent Wednesday night, Thursday day and Friday day in their area. We made it back to our area Friday night and tried to get caught. I was so happy to be back home. This has been a real blessing for me and my companion to travel around and learn from the other sisters. It has really deepened my desire to find and to teach. Something that I have recently become more aware of is how much I love testifying. I love declaring what I know to be true. And whether or not the person accepts what is being taught, I feel like I have done my best to represent my Savior. This morning I had a unique opportunity to share my testimony of modern day revelation and of the prophet Joseph Smith with our land lord Edie. She had just come back from exercising and I was just finishing up. She's not a member but they have housed Mormon missionaries for many years. She's not interested so she say's, but one day she will be. You can't befriend members of the church before sooner or later joining them. On Saturday we had a really great lesson with Christina about the blessings that come through obedience. The spirit was so strong and towards the end of the lesson we invited her to fast with us on Sunday. We had talked about fasting the previous week and re -explained why we fast. She did! After church we were talking about her experience with fasting. She mentioned that Sunday had been one of her best days at church. Little Joe, her son behaved better during sacrament meeting and then he stayed the entire time in nursery. It was amazing! Love sister salmon

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

April 16th, 2012

Mom hasn't written me yet, and you were the first email i read this morning from any family. That's so exciting for James. I can't believe it, after tomorrow all of us will be endowed. What a blessing that is. All nine of us have made it to the temple. What an amazing blessing this is for our family.
Actually the weather has been kind of crummy these last couple of days. Well I've been enjoying it but other people just don't appreciate the rain like i do. Last night sister northcutt and i came in a little early. We were out doing stop bys when the weather started getting really fierce. I guess there were some tornado warnings. I was a little worried we might not make it home. I was driving and there were times where i really could only see maybe 20ft in front of me. I finally told my companion to just look for a member close by so we could wait it out. But she took forever just getting the ward list out of the binder that by that point i had made it to the free way and felt more confident about getting home and told her top forget it. I only hydroplaned once. :) We got home safely, which was great because it gave me some time to get caught up in my scripture reading. I made a goal to finish the book of Mormon by today, I'm in Moroni 7. I wanted to read the book of Mormon like a book, cover to cover. I haven’t really done that in a while. This will be my second time finishing it, and the quickest I've ever finished it. I think it’s a little under a month. I figured out that i had to read about 25 pages a day. Every free moment i had i was reading my book of Mormon. And i have found such joy in reading from it, and learning from the lives that have been recorded.

Tomorrow in the celestial room make sure to give an extra hug and kiss to James and Claire for me. And tell them how much i love them. These last couple of days have been pretty emotional ones, and i know that that will continue into this next week. But i also know that God has a purpose for all of us, that there is a time and a season for everyone. I know that I was called to serve a mission for a reason. And i knew that these things that are happening in our family were definite possibilities. And i accepted that when i accepted my call. I know with out a doubt that Jesus Christ is the son of God, that he loves me and is ever aware of me. I know this because of the blessings (and the trials that then turn into blessings) that he gives me. I love being a part of this work, and i know that I have an eternity to make plans and memories with my family. I have a family here on earth. They are so good to me. I want to share my life with them through all eternity. Families can be together forever. Through Heavenly father's plan. I know this to be true. I love you dad. Thank you for being my dad.

sister salmon

Monday, April 9, 2012

April 9, 2012

Hey mother dear
How was Utah and picking up Claire and James?
This week was so great. My birthday came and went, which was so weird. Celebrating a birthday on a mission is the oddest thing. Instead of thinking about yourself, you're more focused on those around you and their needs. I had a really neat experience on my birthday to help out the other sister companionship in our district. They've been struggling with unification and the senior companion has been struggling with health problems. It felt so great to be able to talk with each of them individually and give them the support and encouragement they needed. THANK YOU to everyone for your birthday cards packages etc. I loved them all!! They were what helped me remember that it was my birthday.
This last week we had transfers and Sister Northcutt and I get to learn and grow from each other for another six weeks. I was also called to be the exchange sister again, this time for the Missouri sisters-which I am so excited about. I have four other sister companionships that I am over and have the privilege to go on exchanges with. This next transfer is going to fly by so fast because for the next four weeks we are going to be in and out of our area.
We've started the stop smoking program with one of our investigators. I am worried about her. She's living in a home full of smokers and is having a hard time resisting the craving. She's been taught all the lessons, and her main fellowshipper has been out of town the last week and won't be back until May. We're in the process of helping her meet more members but I’m worried that she's losing momentum. We can't really set a baptismal date because... well it’s a huge mess. She's not living the law of chastity and doesn't want to marry him, but can't move out because she has nowhere to go. Super crazy!
Also this week, I guess also last Saturday. I got tired of running at the track by where we live so I suggested that she ride my bike and I’d run beside her. We'll run down town to the park that runs next to the Missouri river and then run back. I'm a little worried to go anywhere else with her just because she's not that confident on the bike. The first day she was so worried about crashing my bike that she kept psyching herself out and crashing. LOl. I had to muffle my laughs when this happened.
love you all.
sister salmon

April 2, 2012

That's so scary about Tabor. Is he doing better now? What ever happened? This last Thursday Sister Northcutt and I and the other sisters in our district went to temple. Actually it was a really crazy day. Sister Pederson who serves in Dardenne creek couldn't find her recommend so we had to go and meet with president prior to the session. I guess he had a meeting that day for the new trainers so when we arrived he told us to go have lunch and he'd be back. So we called up Sister Clark and had a great time with her. We have a sister’s conference coming up this month and I told Sister Clark if she needed help preparing meals that I'd be more than happy to volunteer. So we talked about that. We finally met up with President Clark and were able to be on our way. The session was a small one. I always feel bad because as missionaries we are told not to participate in the actual services. So they had to bring some more people in to help out.
General conference was amazing! I loved all the messages that were shared. I'm excited to receive next month’s issue so I can read and study them in greater depth. We watched both Saturday sessions at the church, there were other members from our district there so we all stayed around and had lunch together as we waited for the second session to start. Sunday Sister Northcutt and I watched both sessions at a members home. We had two of our investigators attend the morning session. Christina seemed to really enjoy it. I'm excited to talk to them more about it on Tuesday when we have our lesson with them.
Saturday night we had dinner at a PM/LA home. Sister Northcutt and I were waiting for them in the dining room as they were putting the last final touches on dinner, when Sister Northcutt let out a small cry. Under the lip of a nearby table was a hornet. It was just chilling there. We didn't want to disrupt dinner in any way so it wasn't until after dinner that we told them. John Silvies (nonmemer) quickly assessed the situation, killed the hornet and then came out with some herbal remedies. His remedy of choice was to get a piece of grass, wet it and place some tobacco in it. Then he had my companion place her finger into the tobacco and hold it there all during dessert. Poor Sister Northcutt. But it makes for a funny story.
Sister salmon