December 6, 2011

Hey mom

I haven't heard much from Claire since before Thanksgiving so I don't really know what's going on. I'm excited for her. That's so great that she has found someone who will love and appreciate her. I only wish I could be there for everything. :( Kjarsta's really the only other one who keeps me informed on what's going on. I heard about Kristian, that really sucks that his face is all swollen. Other than that it’s always good to hear about the family.

As far as Christmas goes, you can tell family that money is always greatly appreciated. :) Or some long stretchy running pants that I can wear under my sweats. I can't think of anything until I go out shopping.

This weekend was probably the craziest weekend I've ever experienced. Friday morning was a really hard morning. Sister Shutt and I knocked on a lot of doors with no leads. We finally tried contacting people via phone, but after calling everyone we possibly knew with no results we were kind of getting a little discouraged. After double checking that we had tried contacting everyone we knew we found a few names of people that we didn't have phone numbers for. The first house we knocked at was Miss Saddie Reed. She was a potential that we hadn't been able to contact, but this time she was home. She was super nice and after a few minutes of talking to her on her porch she invited us in. We had a good discussion about Christ. She's really funny, and invited us back again. She said as long as we're talking about the same God then we're welcome to come back any time. Miracle! It just comes to show that after you think you've given your all, sometimes you need to push a little bit more.

So that was Friday, Saturday we woke up to a little surprise. We had just come outside to go for our morning run when we noticed that someone had spray painted our drivers side passenger door. Ya not the greatest way to start the morning. But what can you do, I just laughed it off and tried not to let it bother me. I went for my run and while running saw that other cars had been targeted. That was a bit of a relief to know that someone wasn't targeting missionaries. And compared to their car, we lucked out. The police were really punctual and arrived not shortly after our phone call. They wrote up they're report and moved on to the next homes. So that was in the morning, that afternoon we received a phone call from one of our less actives asking if we wanted to go on a walk with her. We had a great walk, discussing Christ love and the atonement. I think things are starting to piece together in her brain. On our way back from our walk we saw this lady walking out to her car and under closer examination we noticed that she was crying. And I'm talking shaking from head to foot gushing tears crying. We walked up to her to see if she was all right and found out that her daughter in law had committed suicide the previous night. Both my comp and I looked at each other, a little flustered at first and not knowing what to say. We tried to console her, gave her a plan of salvation pamphlet and briefly explained it to her. We would have taken more time but she was on her way out to Texas to console her son. I offered the prayer, not knowing at what to say. Good thing God knows each of us and what we need. We exchanged numbers and hope that when she returns we can start teaching her.

Okay you're probably wondering why I'm writing today instead of yesterday? Yesterday we had a Mission conference over in Springfield Illinois. Half of the mission got together for training with Elder Malm and his wife. Before the conference we were told to prepare a five minute talk on becoming a disciple of Christ and a four minute success story. They would then choose people to speak from the congregation to speak. My comp was called, thank goodness it wasn't me. But one of the cool things was prior to the start of the conference president clark asked three missionaries if they'd like to be interviewed by Elder Malm and I WAS ONE OF THEM! I was interviewed by a general authority. CRAZY! It was so cool. Elder Malm is so funny. When I introduced myself I said sister salmon like the fish. He chuckled that and said that his first name is spelled P-E-R. And when you pronounce it to think of the fruit. So said he, when you think of your name you think if the fish, and when you think of my name you think of the fruit. Training went really well. I think because I had the one on one time he remembered my name and had no problem calling on me during the discussion. I could have stayed in that chapel forever. It is so great to be taught by a servant of the Lord. It reaffirmed that God does call worthy priesthood holders to lead and guide his church today.

Sister Salmon

November 28, 2011

Rosalie's such a character. Which bathroom did she lock herself in? Yes I received your package. I got it the previous week but forgot to mention it. It was a miracle that I got it. You sent it in a box that I made in 6th or 7th grade. That was funny. Okay the miracle of my package. Brother conger dropped it off at the mission office on Monday but the people working there had no clue how to get it to me because it really can't be sent through the mail. So I would've had to wait until this week when we have transfers. But the exchange sisters from pittsflied which is 2hours away had to stop in St. Louis from some business and stopped by the office. They somehow found out about the package and offered to bring it to me because they were coming up for exchanges on Wednesday. So I only waited two days to get my package. And thank you for everything in there. It is all so yummy and very much appreciated. I laughed when I saw what all was in there, granola, protein and granola bars and trail mix. I'm such a granola, but you know me all too well. And the hand warmers were great. I've already used them both. Actually I had a sty starting to form on my left upper eye lid this last week and used them on my eye. The swelling has been going down and I think things are on the mend. That's so exciting about Kath and little Joseph. You'll have to attach some pictures next time so I can see the new addition to our family. I received a letter from grandma and grandpa Salmon on Saturday. They informed me that I'm the only missionary out in the family. That's so weird, but I know that it won’t be for long. James and Lincoln will be out here soon.

Thanksgiving was a blast. We were invited over to Sister Dunns house for a Thanksgiving lunch. Which was smaller than what I'm normally used to but with all the fixings. She's a really good cook. I wanted to have seconds because it all tasted so good, but resisted. Then we had had plans to go out to rantoul and play football with some of the Elders and a couple families out there but decided against it. Things would've been too rushed. Then for dinner we were invited over to bishop johnsons home. He's the Bishop in the urbana ward. So they had two sets of missionaries over for dinner. And honestly, I don't know how I or any of the other missionaries ate. We were getting ready to sit down and I turned to my companion and asked if she was hungry, 'no', well are you full 'no'. I was still full from dinner. I can now sympathize with those who have more than one turkey dinner in a day. Its hard work. After dinner we played some games, apples to apples and I introduced that quarter game to them. They had a younger family and so the younger kids really enjoyed that. We then ended up downstairs. Elder Merkely again challenged me to a ping pong game. He's getting really good, I don't know how I beat him again. We played three games, and he lost all three. He's a great sport and we always laugh about it.

We had a bit of a slow week this week, both tracting and teaching. Many people were out of town for the holidays so we're hoping this week will pick up, especially with it being so close to Christmas. We did have a good lesson with one of investigators earlier in the week. He was a former investigator but we almost feel that he was told the gospel and not taught the gospel. We've started back at the beginning, going over the restoration and the authority from god. We invited him to attend a baptismal service on the 10th of December so we hope that goes through.

Saturday we were able to drive down to the St. Louis temple. It’s a three hour dive so it turned into an all day event. It was so great though. I have found that as I have spent more time reading and really pondering the scriptures I have come to appreciate temples so much more. I can't comprehend the meaning of eternity but have a greater appreciation for the promises that we can receive there. There's just a special spirit that can be felt when you're in the house of the lord. I am grateful that the lord deems me worthy to enter His house.

On the way home from the church both sister shutt and I were kind of antsy. Transfer calls were that night and we were worried what would happen. Amazingly enough, we are both staying in champaign for at least another 6 weeks which is super exciting. We have an amazing friend who's a recent convert. She was baptized in Wyoming and moved here for work. She is planning on going through the temple in a couple of weeks to receive her endowment and now because both of us will be here in champaign we can attend the session.

Love you all Sister Salmon

p.s I'm going to start adding scriptures to the end of my letters, usually ones that I've either read that morning or one's that I've been studying throughout the week. Feel free to read along.

1 Peter 4

November 21, 2011

Hey mom, you're probably helping out with the new baby which I don't even know his name yet. ....Did everything go well? How is Kath?

The mission is going great. On Saturday sister shutt and I had an amazing tracting day. The Lord is really helping me at my door approaches. I really enjoy tracting now; it forces you to think really fast on your feet. We've had some really cool experiences and have met some really cool people. Not to mention am learning a lot about other religions. We've tracted Muslims, Hindus, Jews, lots of Christians and atheists. It’s always fun to learn about what other people believe. I had to laugh on Saturday night when we were tracting. It was getting dark, and every person we talked to told us to be careful. I felt like I was stuck in a time warp hearing the same think over and over again. I finally turned to sister shutt jokingly and said after one of the doors had shut that we were probably safer than they were. I know that the Lord protects his missionaries.

Sorry its short this week, love you mom.

Hans

November 14, 2011

This week has gone by super fast. We're trying to build our teaching pool so we're outside a lot knocking doors. It’s hard because you never know who or what is behind the door, but every door is a learning experience. And the thankfully the weather has turned too cold thank goodness. There was one day last week when we were outside all most all day and I had to rotate my hand warmer from one mitten to the next. However we met some really great people that day and two people actually invited us in. I think it was mostly because they took pity on us and wanted us to warm up a bit, but we had good gospel discussions at both places. The one is actually good friends with the bishop in the other ward so he had some knowledge about what we believe in. He actually had a copy of the book of Mormon and said that he has read from its pages. We talked more about the book of Mormon and then he brought up that the main thing he loves about our church is eternal families. We left him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and have plans to follow up some time this next week. Hopefully it goes well.

Thursday we had our President interviews so after our district meeting our district made lunch together. We have an elder from El Salvador so he made us legit tacos. They were so good! Anyway, President was a little behind on the interviews so we ended up staying there all day. While President was interviewing each of us, first as a companionship then as individuals, sister clark and the assistants to the president were teaching us about dignity, accountability, and correction.

It’s so sad when you see someone trying so hard to do what’s right and then something horrible happens to them. Ed has a lot of things that he's trying to figure out and work out, but it seems that Satan is trying so hard to prevent him from cleaning up his life. We got a call from Ed Tuesday telling us he'd been hit by a truck on the way to an AA meeting on his bike. He's ok but when that really shook him up and prevented us from seeing him until Saturday. We taught him about faith, repentance and started talking to him about baptism and invited to be baptized but decided to hold back before extending a date. There are still some things that he's having a hard time grasping. But he's making good progress. And exciting news, he came to church again this Sunday! So that was awesome. Probably wasn't the best Sunday to have an investigator there because we were talking about temples. Half way through the first talk he leans over and asks me what the endowment room was… But he seemed to enjoy it.

For Thanksgiving we're eating at a member’s home. Sister Dunn is a widower and I'm not sure how much of her family is coming to visit. But she such a sweet lady and makes the best food. I offered to help and hopefully she lets us come over and cook. Then for Christmas we haven't thought that far ahead. Transfers are on Dec 1st so we don't know where we'll be. I know that the mission is planning on doing a mission Christmas party so that will be awesome, really excited about that. Oh and Sister shutt and I have decided that we want to have bikes. We know its bad timing but we feel that there's no time like present. We had a friend look on craig's list and found two bikes. We went and saw one the other day and will go and see the other one later this afternoon. We're really excited.

Funny things that happened this last week:
K well this happened last week but I thought it was too funny I had to put this in too. I talk in my sleep, and I guess one night sister shutt my companion woke up to me praying in my sleep. Which according to her really confused her because she thought that she'd fallen asleep during morning comp. prayer. But it was like 4am in the morning.

I think it was Wednesday morning we received a phone call at 12:00am from a private caller and (I'm alseep for all this and have no recollection. This is according to my companion) sister shutt say's something to me about it. I mumbled something back that she can't remember and then proceeded to teach her a lesson in my sleep. I was the missionary and was talking to her like she was the investigator. I was saying things like we are your investigators. We want to know how to best help you....something like that. I guess I went on for a while and then ended with a commitment. I'm even a missionary in my sleep. Then this morning I was having a dream that I was taking a sit-ups test and I think mom was there to because I needed someone there to count for me. Anyway I woke myself up doing sit-ups. Man I'm teaching and working out in my sleep, that's pretty cool!

love you all
Sister Salmon

November 7, 2011

Grandpa mentioned the guy in testimony meeting and about his touching testimony. He also mentioned that he bore his testimony and that it was his usual unorthodox testimony. He also said that i should ask you about it. So what did he end up saying?

That's funny about James. Ya it gets cold up there and the fact that there is already snow in the ground probably isn't a good sign. We thankfully have had a really good fall season. It hasn't been too cold lately, no snow yet; Although it’s overcast today and has been sprinkling off and on.

We had a real cool week, starting off with preparation day. We did our shopping early and fast so that we could get to the church building. We played soccer and volleyball for a good three or four hours. Elder Nelson (really good) taught me the fundamentals on how to jump serve so that was pretty sweet. Then that night because our president didn't want us out and about we and two other companionship's (elders) went to the institute building. We origanlly planned to watch the Joseph Smith movie, but ended up playing ping pong, writing letters and talking. It was a really fun night. The elders are so funny as well as great examples. I was over at the piano playing Christmas songs, and elder merkley came over and he ended up giving me a piano lesson. It’s funny, he's not the greatest at reading, we're both at the same level as far as reading notes but he's kind of a composer. So if he hears something he can usually figure it out. And then he'll also goof around on the piano playing and it always sounds amazing. Anyways, he tried to teach me how to count notes. Kind of helped. But I still need practice at it. Then later that night we were talking about dreams that we had and Elder Merkley told us a dream he had the other night. There were three elders and then I was there. We were doing exchanges in a hotel. (Ya that could never happen) We were practicing our door approaches and it was my turn to go. I knock and this big black lady answers the door. And I say "Hi, we locked our keys in the car, our piano is still inside, would you be interested in learning more about our church?" Supposedly I thought this was a great door approach. Haven't tried it yet. Don't know if it would go over too well.

Wednesday sister shutt and I attended a Pentecostal church bible study. Way cool! We have a former investigator who attends and he invited us. Very very different from anything I have ever experienced. Everyone had a title that they went by, evangelist so and so, deacon, elder... We started off with a prayer/sermon from the youth pastor. I lost count of how many times he used amen in a sentence. It was a filler word. And then his son who is 5 started rocking out on the drums. Ya I think we'll go back. They were all very friendly and it was a great discussion. They talked about modesty. I know all about that. We had lessons on modesty all the time in YW.

Thursday we blitzed our area. So the Elders in our zone came and helped us tracked our area. It was an awesome day, minus the weather. I think that Satan was trying to deter us because it rained most of the time. I don't even remember when I lost feeling in my toes. But the work but most go on. Sister Shutt and I are doing much better on our door approaches. In fact maybe a little too good. Saturday night after dinner we went out tracting because we hadn't reached our goal for street lessons. The first door we knocked on we feel easily into a conversation and then sister shutt asked the man if he believed in God. He kind of looked at us and asked us why we were interrogating him? Took us a both a second to respond to that, but then we explained that we didn't mean to offend him, but that we are both so passionate about the gospel and want everyone to feel the happiness and joy that comes when they follow god.

Sunday we finally had one of our investigators come to church. Ed our homeless guy, who we found out isn't really homeless. He has a family out in North Carolina but can't leave champaign until he cleans up a few things here. He actually called Sunday morning trying to cancel, but I was able to call him back and reassure him that coming to church would be the best thing he could do for himself. He has a lot of baggage that he is carrying around on his shoulders and I know that it’s only through our Savior Jesus Christ that he can relieve that weight. After the block I talked with Bro. Lee our fellowshipper about how Ed enjoyed Priesthood, he seemed to enjoy it and actually participated. Which is awesome. The only incident we had with Ed was that we lost him after Sacrament. We couldn't find him for five minutes, turned out he was outside having a smoke. Haven't talked to him about the word of wisdom yet. That's this weeks lesson. And also on Sunday sister Shutt and I had the privilege to attend High Priest meeting. They invited us and our ward mission leader to come and speak, our bishop is hoping that that would help get the members in the ward more excited about missionary work.

Send me pictures of baby boy Burton and family.

Hans

November 7, 2011

Dear Family,
Grandpa mentioned the guy in testimony meeting and about his touching testimony. He also mentioned that he bore his testimony and that it was his usual unorthodox testimony. He also said that I should ask you about it. So what did he end up saying?

That's funny about James. Yes it gets cold up there and the fact that there is already snow in the ground probably isn't a good sign. We thankfully have had a really good fall season. It hasn't been too cold lately, no snow yet, although it’s overcast today and has been sprinkling off and on.

The mission home is three stories, so the elders stayed in basement and I slept on the ground level. As for the panic attack, I was really confused why she was stressed out and was a little amazed that she wouldn't try. But then again maybe we weren't supposed to knock on that door- I don't know, I didn't feel anything. I tried to understand her feelings. We decided to drive back and contact people in an area she was more familiar with and she was fine the rest of the day.

We had a real cool week, starting off with preparation day. We did our shopping early and fast so that we could get to the church building. We played soccer and volleyball for a good three or four hour. Elder Nelson (really good) taught me the fundamentals on how to jump serve so that was pretty sweet. Then that night because our president didn't want us out and about we and two other companionship's (elders) went to the institute building. We originally had planned to watch the Joseph Smith movie, but ended up playing ping pong, writing letters and talking. It was a really fun night. The elders are funny as well as great examples. I was over at the piano playing Christmas songs and Elder Merkley came over and gave me a piano lesson. It’s funny, he's not the greatest at reading notes, we're both at the same level as far as reading notes but he's kind of a composer. So if he hears something he can usually figure it out. And then he'll also goof around on the piano playing and it always sounds amazing. Anyways, he tried to teach me how to count notes. Kind of helped. But I still need practice at it. Then later that night we were talking about dreams that we had and Elder Merkley told us a dream he had the other night. There were three elders and then I was there. We were doing exchanges in a hotel. (Ya that could never happen) We were practicing our door approaches and it was my turn to go. I knock and this big black lady answers the door. And I say "Hi, we locked our keys in the car, our piano is still inside, would you be interested in learning more about our church?" Supposedly I thought this was a great door approach. (Haven't tried it yet). Don't know if it would go over too well.

Wednesday Sister Shutt and I attended a Pentecostal church bible study. Way cool! We have a former investigator who attends and he invited us. Very very different from anything I have ever experienced. Everyone had a title that they went by, evangelist so and so, deacon, elder... We started off with a prayer/sermon from the youth pastor. I lost count of how many times he used amen in a sentence. It was a filler word. And then his son who is 5 started rocking out on the drums. Ya I think we'll go back. They were all very friendly and it was a great discussion. They talked about modesty. I know all about that. We had lessons on modesty all the time in YW.

Thursday we blitzed our area. So the Elders in our zone came and helped us tract our area. It was an awesome day, minus the weather. I think that Satan was trying to deter us because it rained most of the time. I don't even remember when I lost feeling in my toes. But the work but most go on. Sister Shutt and I are doing much better on our door approaches, in fact maybe a little too good. Saturday night after dinner we went out tracting because we hadn't reached our goal for street lessons. The first door we knocked on we feel easily into a conversation and then Sister Shutt asked the man if he believed in God. He kind of looked at us and asked us why we were interrogating him? Took us a both a second to respond to that, but then we explained that we didn't mean to offend him, but that we are both so passionate about the gospel and want everyone to feel the happiness and joy that comes when they follow God.

Sunday we finally had one of our investigators come to church. Ed our homeless guy, who we found out isn't really homeless. He has a family out in North Carolina but can't leave Champaign until he cleans up a few things here. He actually called Sunday morning trying to cancel, but I was able to call him back and reassure him that coming to church would be the best thing he could do for himself. He has a lot of baggage that he is carrying around on his shoulders and I know that it’s only through our Savior Jesus Christ that he can relieve that weight. After the block I talked with Bro. Lee our fellowshiper about how Ed enjoyed Priesthood, he seemed to enjoy it and actually participated. Which is awesome. The only incident we had with Ed was that we lost him after Sacrament. We couldn't find him for five minutes, turned out he was outside having a smoke. We haven't talked to him about the word of wisdom yet. That's this week’s lesson. And also on Sunday Sister Shutt and I had the privilege to attend High Priest group meeting. They invited us and our WML to come and speak, our bishop is hoping that that would help get the members in the ward more excited about missionary work.
Love Hans