Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Monday September 24th, 2012
Dear Family,
So i guess to start off this week was transfers, we kept ourselves busy working. We made sure to set up appointments with families we are working with at the beginning of the week so that sister Grover and Sister Pedersen could have one last time teaching them...and to say goodbye. Tuesday we received a call from sister Clark, our mission presidents' wife asking if one of us wouldn't mind coming over to the mission home and spending the day with the new sister that was coming in. Sister Pedersen readily agreed which was fine with both sister Grover and I.
Sister Luker is my new companion. We arrived home Wednesday spent a few short hours unpacking and getting situated before going out and working. Sister Luker has such a wonderful outlook when we go out to work that is highly contagious. We spend a lot of time out sowering... or "planting seeds" is what we call it. Its kind of difficult finding people at home, and those we do find are usually too busy. When we hear this excuse i just want to tell them "you're too busy for Jesus?" I don't think that would go over well.
We had an awesome experience teaching Saturday morning. Lauren Milburn is a young single adult who loves the Mormons. BACKGROUND: She grew up coming to Mormon activities and is really good friends with a prominent LDS family in our ward. She has her own quad and loves reading the conference talks. The one problem is she is Catholic. And she feels like she needs to be Catholic at this time. We've asked if she would like to be taught the lessons, she wasn't too interested in that but would like to come out with us to tract and watch us teach..... She called us Saturday because she is working as an aid for a LDS Mormon in another ward who suffers from epilepsy and seizes and wants to know more about what we as members believe so she can help build up the faith of her friend. She asked us to teach her the Plan of Salvation which went very well. The Spirit was there and sister Luker and i were blessed with being able to teach in unity. We are praying that this might be the way to help Lauren gain her own testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel.
Later this weak sister Luker and I were blest in being able to find a new investigator. Her name is Sarah, she lives in our same apartment complex and already believes the Book or Mormon....She belongs to a branch off the the original church. They call themselves restorationalists? Yesterday we spent some time comparing scripture, specifically the doctrine and covenants. They have a lot of new doctrine, and doctrine that has been changed. It make same sad and angry when man takes it upon themselves to interpret the will of God.
I'm currently reading in Helaman 6 and 7, this is the transitional period when the Lamanites are become more righteous than the Nephites. As i was reading is was ponder upon what causes people to turn from the Lord and to fall away from the church. In chapter 6 of Helaman the Gadianton robbers are on the rise and the Lamanites knowing how destructive this group of people are ran then out. In 6:20, "and they did use every means on their power to destroy them off the face of the earth." But what did the Nephites do? They accepted them. They gave into pride and forgot God. And this happens in such a short space of time. When they stopped remembering, when they stopped feasting upon the scriptures they became weak and susceptible to Satan's power.
I want to share was a miracle that happened yesterday after church. I was in the library making copies when i saw two individuals who looked a little out of place. Come to find out they are members of a local Scientology church, but had heard something about a "latter day library" and had come looking. We introduced ourselves as missionaries and invited them to meet with us. We gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon and a restoration pamphlet. Peter, the young, man seemed really interested in meeting with us at first.. Towards the end of our visit you could see his countenance change. It was almost like you could see the adversary working upon him. He kept the book of Mormon but said he wanted sometime to think about meeting with us. We have his number and address and if we don't hear from him by the end of this week are planning on calling on him. So although this story doesn't have the greatest ending, a seed was planted.
Please, NEVER push a missionary to eat more food. Always offer, but don't slop it on their plate. Yesterday we had dinner with an awesome family, the food was delicious but she wouldn't take no for answer and kept piling it on. And then when we thought we couldn't eat anymore they pulled out dessert. Sister luker, sister burton, sister cox and i were all good sports and just and just laughed about the entire experience. But oh my goodness it was rough. :)
To end the night we went over to Brother Menlo Smith's home to watch a fireside being given by a member in our ward. (Bro. Smith invented the willie wonca pixie stick FYI) Brother Thomas gave the presentation. He spent the last two weeks over in Rwanda on a humanitarian service mission. He shared slides about his time over there and the Church's influence in that country. It hasn't been until the the last 6 months that the church has been able to send missionaries into its borders. What a blessing it is to live in a land where we have the right to worship when and what we please.
I love reading my Book of Mormon. It is true! Every time I read I am blessed with some new insight. God really new what he was doing when he asked his holy prophets to write the record of their people. The gospel is true. There is no room for doubt!
love sister salmon
So i guess to start off this week was transfers, we kept ourselves busy working. We made sure to set up appointments with families we are working with at the beginning of the week so that sister Grover and Sister Pedersen could have one last time teaching them...and to say goodbye. Tuesday we received a call from sister Clark, our mission presidents' wife asking if one of us wouldn't mind coming over to the mission home and spending the day with the new sister that was coming in. Sister Pedersen readily agreed which was fine with both sister Grover and I.
Sister Luker is my new companion. We arrived home Wednesday spent a few short hours unpacking and getting situated before going out and working. Sister Luker has such a wonderful outlook when we go out to work that is highly contagious. We spend a lot of time out sowering... or "planting seeds" is what we call it. Its kind of difficult finding people at home, and those we do find are usually too busy. When we hear this excuse i just want to tell them "you're too busy for Jesus?" I don't think that would go over well.
We had an awesome experience teaching Saturday morning. Lauren Milburn is a young single adult who loves the Mormons. BACKGROUND: She grew up coming to Mormon activities and is really good friends with a prominent LDS family in our ward. She has her own quad and loves reading the conference talks. The one problem is she is Catholic. And she feels like she needs to be Catholic at this time. We've asked if she would like to be taught the lessons, she wasn't too interested in that but would like to come out with us to tract and watch us teach..... She called us Saturday because she is working as an aid for a LDS Mormon in another ward who suffers from epilepsy and seizes and wants to know more about what we as members believe so she can help build up the faith of her friend. She asked us to teach her the Plan of Salvation which went very well. The Spirit was there and sister Luker and i were blessed with being able to teach in unity. We are praying that this might be the way to help Lauren gain her own testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel.
Later this weak sister Luker and I were blest in being able to find a new investigator. Her name is Sarah, she lives in our same apartment complex and already believes the Book or Mormon....She belongs to a branch off the the original church. They call themselves restorationalists? Yesterday we spent some time comparing scripture, specifically the doctrine and covenants. They have a lot of new doctrine, and doctrine that has been changed. It make same sad and angry when man takes it upon themselves to interpret the will of God.
I'm currently reading in Helaman 6 and 7, this is the transitional period when the Lamanites are become more righteous than the Nephites. As i was reading is was ponder upon what causes people to turn from the Lord and to fall away from the church. In chapter 6 of Helaman the Gadianton robbers are on the rise and the Lamanites knowing how destructive this group of people are ran then out. In 6:20, "and they did use every means on their power to destroy them off the face of the earth." But what did the Nephites do? They accepted them. They gave into pride and forgot God. And this happens in such a short space of time. When they stopped remembering, when they stopped feasting upon the scriptures they became weak and susceptible to Satan's power.
I want to share was a miracle that happened yesterday after church. I was in the library making copies when i saw two individuals who looked a little out of place. Come to find out they are members of a local Scientology church, but had heard something about a "latter day library" and had come looking. We introduced ourselves as missionaries and invited them to meet with us. We gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon and a restoration pamphlet. Peter, the young, man seemed really interested in meeting with us at first.. Towards the end of our visit you could see his countenance change. It was almost like you could see the adversary working upon him. He kept the book of Mormon but said he wanted sometime to think about meeting with us. We have his number and address and if we don't hear from him by the end of this week are planning on calling on him. So although this story doesn't have the greatest ending, a seed was planted.
Please, NEVER push a missionary to eat more food. Always offer, but don't slop it on their plate. Yesterday we had dinner with an awesome family, the food was delicious but she wouldn't take no for answer and kept piling it on. And then when we thought we couldn't eat anymore they pulled out dessert. Sister luker, sister burton, sister cox and i were all good sports and just and just laughed about the entire experience. But oh my goodness it was rough. :)
To end the night we went over to Brother Menlo Smith's home to watch a fireside being given by a member in our ward. (Bro. Smith invented the willie wonca pixie stick FYI) Brother Thomas gave the presentation. He spent the last two weeks over in Rwanda on a humanitarian service mission. He shared slides about his time over there and the Church's influence in that country. It hasn't been until the the last 6 months that the church has been able to send missionaries into its borders. What a blessing it is to live in a land where we have the right to worship when and what we please.
I love reading my Book of Mormon. It is true! Every time I read I am blessed with some new insight. God really new what he was doing when he asked his holy prophets to write the record of their people. The gospel is true. There is no room for doubt!
love sister salmon
Monday, September 17, 2012
September 17th, 2012
HeY FAmilia
This week was pretty crazy for me. It was the first time I'd been in my area the entire week. The last three weeks we were on exchanges so my days have been off all week.
We did a lot of finding this week, which i was really happy about. Because we haven't been in our area a lot, i feel like we've abused the people in Frontenac. The weather has been perfect for finding as well so that's been a blessing. I wish i could report that we found some people to teach, but we didn't. We had some really good conversations, but once we would start bringing up 'new teachings' like additional scriptures, or that we existed as spirits before we lived they'd close up. We started talking to this one man, and was very hopeful. But then once we brought up that he lived as a spirit he got really angry and no longer wanted to talk about religion. One of my companions took this very hard. We ended up going to Oberwiess to cheer her up. Oberwiess is this really nice dairy story. They have really good ice cream, milks, etc. That seemed to brighten her mood. As missionaries we can't offered to take those things personally. It breaks my heart when i meet people who reject this message. I don't think they understand that its Christ they are rejecting. We are here to help them strengthen their faith in Christ. We only want them to be happy.
We were able to get a hold of Eugene this week and talk about baptism and the coventants we make at baptism. I think that really helped him understand why we need to be baptized. We again invited him to be baptized and to pray about a date. He seemed more sincere this time about it.
Saturday night was transfer calls. I will be staying in the area and my new companion will be sister Luker. We've served together before, and I'm really excited to serve with her again. She is an awesome missionary. I've had an opportunity to serve with her a couple of times on exchanges. She has grown so much as a missionary. Frontenac has so much potential as an area and I'm excited to really dig in. Sister Pedersen is going to Mexico Ill? and sister Grover is going to Glen carbon. They are both pretty excited.
Yesterday sister Pedersen put sister Grover and i on house arrest. We've been feeling under the weather.(i didn't know what to do with myself. So i finally went to sleep. I slept for 4 hours, waking up at 8:30pm...don't worry mom I'm feeling much better :) ) While we were at home resting sister pedersen went out with sister Burton, an elderly sister missionary who works in the office. They were able to go and meet with a family in the ward that has been battling a lot of physical trials. And then they had an opportunity to stop by rob's home and visit with him. They shared a message about finding peace from reading the scriptures and from the words of the prophets. They invited him to read 2Nephi 31 and sister Luker and I will be following up with him later this week.
Love Sister Salmon
This week was pretty crazy for me. It was the first time I'd been in my area the entire week. The last three weeks we were on exchanges so my days have been off all week.
We did a lot of finding this week, which i was really happy about. Because we haven't been in our area a lot, i feel like we've abused the people in Frontenac. The weather has been perfect for finding as well so that's been a blessing. I wish i could report that we found some people to teach, but we didn't. We had some really good conversations, but once we would start bringing up 'new teachings' like additional scriptures, or that we existed as spirits before we lived they'd close up. We started talking to this one man, and was very hopeful. But then once we brought up that he lived as a spirit he got really angry and no longer wanted to talk about religion. One of my companions took this very hard. We ended up going to Oberwiess to cheer her up. Oberwiess is this really nice dairy story. They have really good ice cream, milks, etc. That seemed to brighten her mood. As missionaries we can't offered to take those things personally. It breaks my heart when i meet people who reject this message. I don't think they understand that its Christ they are rejecting. We are here to help them strengthen their faith in Christ. We only want them to be happy.
We were able to get a hold of Eugene this week and talk about baptism and the coventants we make at baptism. I think that really helped him understand why we need to be baptized. We again invited him to be baptized and to pray about a date. He seemed more sincere this time about it.
Saturday night was transfer calls. I will be staying in the area and my new companion will be sister Luker. We've served together before, and I'm really excited to serve with her again. She is an awesome missionary. I've had an opportunity to serve with her a couple of times on exchanges. She has grown so much as a missionary. Frontenac has so much potential as an area and I'm excited to really dig in. Sister Pedersen is going to Mexico Ill? and sister Grover is going to Glen carbon. They are both pretty excited.
Yesterday sister Pedersen put sister Grover and i on house arrest. We've been feeling under the weather.(i didn't know what to do with myself. So i finally went to sleep. I slept for 4 hours, waking up at 8:30pm...don't worry mom I'm feeling much better :) ) While we were at home resting sister pedersen went out with sister Burton, an elderly sister missionary who works in the office. They were able to go and meet with a family in the ward that has been battling a lot of physical trials. And then they had an opportunity to stop by rob's home and visit with him. They shared a message about finding peace from reading the scriptures and from the words of the prophets. They invited him to read 2Nephi 31 and sister Luker and I will be following up with him later this week.
Love Sister Salmon
September 10th, 2012
I had a blast at the city museum. We met up as a district and spent a couple
hours climbing through tunnels, sliding down slides etc. It was loads of fun.
And then for the next couple days we were reminded of the fun we had by the
appearance of bruises that appeared on our elbows, knees and other random
places. There weren't any rides there. It was like an adult play toy, and had to
try everything because i didn't want to get left out. Its kind of like
missionary work. When you are fully committed to something the fear of things
have a hard time surfacing and you have a blast.
I wrote James last week and heard back from him. He sounds like he's having so much fun and has learned so much from the short period of time.
We haven't been able to meet with Eugene this week because we were out of town for exchanges again. And then he had his son in town over the weekend and was unable to come to church because he wanted to spent time with his son.
For exchanges we went to Glen Carbon Illinois. Sister Shutt, Luker and Brinck are all serving there. The first day i served with sister shutt. We were blessed with being the ones on bikes that day. And that tuned into such a blessing. Everywhere we went we biked into someone who was willing/wanting to learn about the gospel. We didn't have any specific roads. We had only talked about a general area. One particular time, sister shutt suggested we bike further down the street. We came to a park, chained up our bikes and while crossing the street we see this young man coming closer, walking almost adjacent to us. We started to talking to him. Found out his name is Marquies. He's had a really ruff life. His little brother died when he was younger, resulting in a lot of confusion and anger. His parents seem to still mourning over his death, which as a result have caused them to shun Marquies. We were able to sit down with him in the park and testify to him that he is a son of God. That he can see his brother again and that his father in heaven is very much aware of him. The Spirit was so strong during that lesson it was awesome. We were able to set up an appointment the following day which i wasn't present for but heard it went well. That was how our day went all day. One of us would suggest a direction and we were led to someone to talk to. When we were finally able to come back to our own area we were able to contact some potential investigators. One being Rob. He was a media referral we received last week. He was very open to taken the discussions. Apparently he has a lady friend in Utah, they've been talking about the church. We are going to see him tomorrow.
I'm glad that everything is going so well at home.
love you all sister salmon
I wrote James last week and heard back from him. He sounds like he's having so much fun and has learned so much from the short period of time.
We haven't been able to meet with Eugene this week because we were out of town for exchanges again. And then he had his son in town over the weekend and was unable to come to church because he wanted to spent time with his son.
For exchanges we went to Glen Carbon Illinois. Sister Shutt, Luker and Brinck are all serving there. The first day i served with sister shutt. We were blessed with being the ones on bikes that day. And that tuned into such a blessing. Everywhere we went we biked into someone who was willing/wanting to learn about the gospel. We didn't have any specific roads. We had only talked about a general area. One particular time, sister shutt suggested we bike further down the street. We came to a park, chained up our bikes and while crossing the street we see this young man coming closer, walking almost adjacent to us. We started to talking to him. Found out his name is Marquies. He's had a really ruff life. His little brother died when he was younger, resulting in a lot of confusion and anger. His parents seem to still mourning over his death, which as a result have caused them to shun Marquies. We were able to sit down with him in the park and testify to him that he is a son of God. That he can see his brother again and that his father in heaven is very much aware of him. The Spirit was so strong during that lesson it was awesome. We were able to set up an appointment the following day which i wasn't present for but heard it went well. That was how our day went all day. One of us would suggest a direction and we were led to someone to talk to. When we were finally able to come back to our own area we were able to contact some potential investigators. One being Rob. He was a media referral we received last week. He was very open to taken the discussions. Apparently he has a lady friend in Utah, they've been talking about the church. We are going to see him tomorrow.
I'm glad that everything is going so well at home.
love you all sister salmon
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Tuesday September 4, 2012
Well this last week my companions and i were on exchanges, this time we went to st. charles. It was so great to go and teach in a previous area. I already new most of the people the sisters had been working with and it was good to see their progression. I was able to see Angel one of our recent converts and was so happy to see that she was doing amazing. Her testimony is growing so much. With it being Labor day the library was closed and we we weren't able to write home yesterday so I'm haviong a hard time remembering all that we did. We had a really good lesson with Eugene, we reveiwed the plan of salvation with him. It had been a while. When it came time to talk about the Celestial kingdom we shared with him that those who want to enter this kingdom must be baptized by someone holding the authority of God. He shared that he had already been baptized (something we heart alot). We then reviewed how the authority was lost and then restored on the earth. We each took turns then sharing our testimonies of how we knew that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was true and that it contains the fullness of the Gospel. He accepted our invitation to be baptized but wasn't ready to set a date. Said he wanted to pray about it first. We also stopped by Dorthy Callaways' home Saturday night? She had mentioned that she wants to go to the temple so we brougt by the temple ensign and talked to her about the joy of temple attendance.We scheduled a lunch date for this thursday on the temple grounds. There is such a spirit about the temple, that we want her to feel. And then, we were all so excited when we saw her the next day anter the chapel, she also had her Daughter and her grand children there as well. Her daughter is a member but is also slowly coming back to church. And only one of Dorthy's grandchildren is baptized, we're hoping to be able to start teaching her soon.
Sunday night the office elders and us were invited to dinner at Mission home. It was like a family dinner, in fact our mission president and his wife joked around that we were all his kids, three daughters and two sons. After dinner we gathered in the living room where we had a mini family home evening, and then read the scriptires together. It was so great!
Yesterday for pday we went to the city museum with our district. Pretty much its this huge play toy for kids. You crawl through caves and metal bridges that are suspended 50+ feet in the air. So fun. I'll have to send pictures. They even had this slide that is 10 stories. You climb up these stairs that look like an image our of Harry Potter.
we're currently on exchanges with the Glen Carbon sisters in Illinois. We got here last night and will be here until tomorrow night.
Well the church is true. The gospel does change people, and its for everyone. Jesus Christ lives, he is our savior. The atonment is real and it works. We just need to let it work our our lives.
Love sister Salmon
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Aug 27, 2012
Mom I can't believe its here for James.That so exciting.
"James, you are going to love your mission. My advice to you would be to never compare your best to anyone else' best. Do your part to be obedient. Love your companion, and if you struggle with that, prayer to love them. The best way to have love for someone is to serve them...There heart may never be softened but you will have done your best and the lord will bless you for that. Always have a prayer in your Heart and a cheerful song (hymn, Disney movie) in your head. This truly is a great work and a wonder that we both have an opportunity to take part in. Every day i am reminded how the lord doesn't need our help in sharing the gospel. But he loves us and wants to let us help him. I am so proud of you little brother. Make sure to email me."
I can't think of anything i need. I have clothes, blankets.. all the necessities. No sweets! But if you think of anything i am more then willing to accept. Pictures are always good. Updated ones. CAN YOU MAKE SURE TO SEND ME JAMES ADDRESS AT THE MTC. MAILING AND EMAIL. Just in case i want to send him anything. Its funny how this was pretty much a year ago that went through this same thing.
DAD- That's so cool that you have sisters now. I didn't even know our mission had sisters. We do have senior companions. I haven't really served around them,. Many of them serve in the office. But i think there are one or two sets that are proselyting missionaries.
On Monday we got together with the zone and had a Zone P-day. We Played Volleyball, soccer and then ended with a water fight. I can't jump anymore, its so sad. And then for the water fight, the elders filled up pitchers and water balloons and placed them in bowls all around the front of the church. I didn't feel like getting wet because we had an appointment right afterwards but elder Terrazes quickly changed that. He came out of no where and soaked me with a pitcher of water. LET THE GAMES BEGIN!. But miracle that night. We were headed home after an appointment and on the way home one of my companions wanted to stop by a gas station to pick up a Dr. Pepper. As we were pulling in, on of my companions and I saw a girl with no shoes on filling up her car; she was wearing mismatched socks. My companion said that i should go and talk to her. So i did, I made a remark about her socks and the conversation took off from there. It was awesome. I introduced myself and then we had a neat discussion about Jesus Christ and what we love about church. We were talking for a while when a voice came over the speaker and they told us to move our car because we weren't filling up our car with gas. We finished our discussion across the street and set up a time to meet up with her later this week. Sadly we haven't been able to meet up with her yet, she's pretty busy with school, work and other etxra-curricular activities. But we're hoping maybe later this week when we return from exchanges. Meeting Kelli was such an awesome experience. We would never have met if I hadn't gone over and said hi. Only the Lord know if she is ready, or even close to being ready to receive the gospel. Its so important to as missionaries and as members to open our mouths and speak to everyone around us. When we don't share with them the knowledge of the Gospel we aren't letting them exercise their agency to accept or reject the message. I think as members we go about looking for that golden investigator. That one person who is ready and will accept. Although there are those who are ready, there are so many others who are not. There is a section in D&C that talks about how we need to not rush through life searching for that one person while we are surrounded by people who are perishing in unbelief. We are all sons and daughters of God. We see them at the grocery store, at school, work...Everywhere we go. It is my testimony that if we simply put our trust in Heavenly Father and open our mouths we will know what to say and how to say it.
We had exchanges with sister Randall and sister Lowe on Thursday and Friday last week in Fredrick Town. It was soo small. Its only a little branch, and they meet in this tiny chapel right off the highway. I love exchanges, its such a refresher for me. Its gives me an opportunity to see new places, and new people.
I had a really neat experiences finding with sister Randall on Friday. Our first door we set out to knock was a potential investigator. The individual we were looking for wasn't currently home but his wife was there and gladly welcomed us in. As we were talking, she told us that she could feel herself getting closer to God. And that when she saw us she couldn't close the door on us. She knew God had sent us. That set the stage for an awesome lesson. We introduced the book of Mormon using the pictures in the front cover. We invited her to read and prayer about Alma 32. She accepted the book and said she'd read it while she was at work. We were able to set up a follow up appointment for this coming Thursday.
Heavenly Father is so amazing! He is so aware of all of us and our decisions. There have been so many instances on my mission when I have felt the Love my heavenly Father has for me. He is so loving, and so merciful. He wants more than anything so see us come safely home. That's why the plan was presented. Its the through the plan of Redemption that our souls can be redeemed. Its through that same plan that we can find eternal happiness. We were never promised that this life would be easy, or that we would be above trails. I know that it is through those trial we are given that we are able to more fully appreciate the blessings of our Heavenly Father has for us. We have to experience opposition in all things, if we don't, we wouldn't appreciate how good things really are. Jesus Christ is my savior, i love him so much. I know that this gospel is true.
Love
sister salmon
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)