It was so great to see and visit with Family on Christmas. It was super crazy trying to get everything working and even then it was crazy. I loved it all. Everyone looked so great!Prior to Christmas Eve, Sister Duncan and I had a fabulous time singing Christmas carols while tracting. It was fun to watch the expressions on people faces when they first opened the door. Expressions of irritation, and confusion melted away and were replaced with kindness and appreciation as we did our best to sing about the birth of our Savior. This really helped bring in the spirit of Christmas. On Christmas Eve and Day President told us to spend it with members in our ward. We were able to play games, eat, sleep and watch disney movies. It was an amazing Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with the McCay family. They took us to the Shrine. Its this Catholic ligts display. It was really cool how they set it all up. We went over to our WML house in the moring. That's where i phoned from. We arrived alittle before 9am and watched their family open their Christmas Gifts. They suprised us by having a few things for us as well. We then went to another members house and had a wonderful meal topped off with watching the movie Brave. Great movie by the way.The couple days after were slow for us, many people are still out of town and or were to busy to visit. Hopefully after the new year things will get better. We had a special experience with Violet on friday. She has had the atittude that she knows and believes the Book of mormon and all that it teaches, but doesn't care to read it. And that it teaches the same thing as the Bible. Sister Duncan and i soon found out that she doesn't understand authority and is a little confused about Joseph smith and the first vision. We went into this lesson with an idea of what we wanted to teach but still not knowing. I made up my mind that i was just going to listen. She's a big talker and went off in all directions, first about her Christmas, then her dogs followed by her love of Unicorns. From there somehow we got onto the topic of Adam and Eve and how they partook of the fruit. i could see she was a little confused with the story so i suggested we turn to 2 Nephi 2 and read the chapter together. We took turns reading and when we finished Violet jumped into the next chapter. As we read the tone in her voice started to change. She started to really read the scriptures. The spirit was able to enter the room and testify of the things she was reading. We read up to chapter 4 and probably would have kept reading if i didn't step in. She came to church on sunday and hopefully with the time change next week will be able to stay for all three hours. There is so much power in the scriptures. I love reading them in the morning.Its the best way to start the day. We also had a good lesson with Alexis this week. It was super noisy at first becuase there were a lot of people around, but after they left things quieted down and the spirit was able to be felt. At the end she asked how she could go about being baptized. We're praying to set a baptismal date with her this week when we see her. Also this year we had a goal of baptizing 365 people, the numbers just came in...372! How awesome is that. 372 people have been able to enter the waters of baptism and enjoy the blessings that come with it.Sister Duncan and i were privledged to speak in sacrament yesterday (and we also had five of our investigators attend church. It was so amazing to see them sitting amoung the congregation). Sister Duncan went first and shared her decision to serve a mission and what she believes her purpose is a missionary. I had had a hard time figuring out what i want to talk about and it wasn't until that morning that i had an idea of what i wanted to talk about, and it wasn't until i stood up to speak did it all come together. I shared my story about how i came to serving a mission. i have learned much about the importance of trust and sacrifing my will for the will of my Heavenly Father. That was the bases of my talk. I shared 2 nephi 22:2 which says "Behold, God is my Salavation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord my JEHOVAH is my strength an dmy song; he is also my salvation." I coupled that with Hymn 89 the lord is my light. I have learned for myself that when I put my trust in god and not in the flesh, that things work out better than could ever be expected. I have also seen our obedience and hardwork bring true happiness. Not only in my life but the lives of those i have been privledged to serve. I am so grateful for this christmas season that reminds us about the birth of the Son of God. I am grateful for the restoration of the Gospel which remonds me of the birth of Jesus Christ everyday. When i read my scriptures everyday i remember and have a greater appreciation for what was done for me so many years ago. May we each strive to remember Christ more in our lives this upcoming years and look for those sacred oppertunities to share the gospel with our friends.
For New Years Eve and Day we have again been told to enjoy the time with memebers. Our cars are grounded at 6pm but we can have members drive us. We're supposed to deep clean our apartments and cars tomorrow. We'll be at the Wall's again. They're an awesome family. President has approved bourd and card games so we'll most likely being doing lots of that. Its been snowing all morning and has accumulated quite a bit. It snowed a couple of days ago as well so sister duncan and i decided to make a little snow man. I don't have my camera so i'll send some picts next week.love,sister salmon
Christmas morning
27 Thank you Cards - WOW
Christmas Morning at the Walls
