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