June 14th Email

hey everyone

this past week has been a crazy one but in a good way. my new companion elder gordon is from logan utah and he is a stud. just loves the work and just wants to do everything he can for the lord. my first training actually went pretty well this past week. i took two of the mission cars and parked them side by side and had one elder push each in a race. but here is the difference. one got to have one constant push to the end while the other could push once and had to wait for it to stop before he could push again and i likened it unto missionary work and working smart. the one that was pushing constantly represented getting the work started and maintaining that work ethic and maintaining the work in the area. while the other was doing it in spirts and just worked every once in a while. we then went inside and came up with ideas to help maintain the work and stay working hard through each transfer and what we could do for each area to help the missionary work progress. later in the week we had a zone and district leader with the mission president and discussed things in the mission that needed to change and how we can better each other as leaders and be a great example and help to the other missionaries. i learned a lot and am trying my best to be the best example i can be for the other missionaries. we visited with a recent convert named joel this past week. we talked about looking at life through the eternal perspective and to see the greatness of his spirit and the sincerity that he had was amazing. he said he'd be happy to make it to the celestial kingdom as a fly on the wall, or even doin janitorial work haha its funny but it puts it into perspective how much he wants to be worthy to be in our heavenly fathers presence. last night was crazy! i'm supposed to call and get numbers from my district for the past week and i couldn't get a hold of a set of elders. i kept calling and calling. i talked to my zone leaders the tried a couple times and told me to keep trying and call them when i find out anything. one of these elders is brand new so they thought that he may have just lost their phone. 1145 rolls around and i can't sleep so i ask elder gordon what he would do if he was me and he said pray. hello something so simple and i couldn't figure that out haha. so we had a companionship prayer and we both stayed on our knees for a while after we sat up and looked at each other. i had a huge knot and a bad feeling in my stomach so i asked him how he felt before i said anything and he said i don't feel good and i said me neither. so i called the zone leaders an AP's and they said to drive up there so we did and when we got there we pounded on the door multiple times and no answer.....something told me to open the door so i reached for the door knob and it was unlocked? and it was pitch black. i reached just my arm in to find a light switch and the switch didn't work!! so by this time we are freakin out so i use my phone as light and walk in and finally found a light switch that worked and went back to the bedroom....they were in bed!! but boy did they freak out when i hit the wall to wake them up haha the phone had fell into a box and was on silent so they didn't know we were calling haha but we all had a feeling we were supposed to come up cuz there door was unlocked and they are located in a pretty rough neighborhood so we think we prevented a break in. i think i'm going to end on that note ;)

i love you all

elder salmon