December 28th Email

Hey Everyone,

Christmas time was a blast down here in southwest Florida. Most of the week we spent in the apartment because of illnesses. Luckily I was able to dodge it until today. Sorry to say that this email will be short but I don't feel well. With all the sickness and celebration the Lord blessed us with an extraordinary teaching experience Christmas evening. We were in Naples and Elder Alber wanted to visit one of his recent converts so we called him up and went over to visit. Elder Firth and Alber went in while I talked with Tj on the phone. After a little while I had the feeling that I needed to go inside. When I got inside I just happened to come in at the right time because they were talking about his struggles to stay worthy and feel like he deserved to come to church and then Elder Alber turned to me and told his recent convert that he should ask me about the things that I have gone through recently because everyone isn't perfect. I was excited to share my experiences with him and try to comfort him and let him know that it's not always easy but it's worth it. His nephew was in the room but for the whole conversation was leaned back and not paying any attention until I started sharing my story and then he put his drink down leaned forward and sat on the end of his seat and started asking me questions. He had left the church when he was a teenager because he was scared about whether he was going in the right direction or not in his life so he left the church and started moving his life elsewhere. He didn't quite understand the Atonement because he asked how it is I was able to do what I did and still go on a mission. In his life right now he lost his job and is seperated from his wife until they can do the paperwork for a divorce. He didn't realize that all his answers that he was looking for at that time was in the Book of Mormon. He told us afterwards if he would have known then he would have read it and taken it more seriously. How great is it to know the simplicity of this gospel? That if we do the small things like reading our scriptures and saying our prayers everyday that the Lord will bless us? Alma promises in the 37th chapter verse 6 "By small and simple things great things shall come to pass." Do we take it too lightly sometimes? Do we not have time or are we too tired? It's not an excuse. I promise that if you look back on your day yesterday I bet you could find enough time to read at least one verse out of the Book of Mormon and say a prayer. And I promise as you do so that your days will be brighter, that light will guide you day to day and the Lord promises that He will poor out His blessings upon you. The nephew is having the missionaries come over this week and will be attending church because he knows now what's been missing in his life. As we were leaving they told us that there phone had been disconnected for the past week and that they had no idea how our call came through their line, but it did. Talk about the work of the Lord. The Church is true!

I Love You All!

Elder Salmon

December 21st Email ! MERRY CHRISTMAS !!

Hey Everyone

I'm sorry this email may be a little short because of all the trainings and travelling (driving) we have been doing this past week this email won't be very long. This past week we had to emergency transfer some missionaries in our zone because we caught them with the church's projector watching movies not only not approved in the mission but also movies not approved period. It was sad because they we good missionaries and I hate to turn missionaries in because that has never been my nature but our hands were tied. One of the missionaries was really repentant but the other took it as making his name famous in the mission which for something like that I wouldn't exactly be proud of. We worked with other missionaries in our zone and I was able to go with one to a less active's home and had a great experience. He was 87 and had been extremely depressed for some time. What he was most depressed and I guess more scared than anything was passing on. Immediately we went into the Plan of Salvation. I've had my experiences of losing loved ones and it was hard for me to try and make it sound like a good thing but the whole time I was praying to my Heavenly Father to help me say what was needed to help my brother out. I was blown away by how strong the spirit was and it made me realize how blessed we are to know the truth. To know that there are great things to come in the life after. That we can be together as families for all eternity! Our memories and joy we have with one another will not end here they will continue on forever! How great is that blessing?! How great is it to have the opportunity to share this blessing with people I've never met! I love this gospel and know without a doubt it is true! I love the Christmas season! I have been doing some serious thinking about my last Christmas in the mission field. What can I give Him? What can I do for Christmas that will help me be happy and successful? Elder D.Todd Christofferson suggests that we live a consecrated life. In his October 2010 Conference address he quotes Richard L. Evans:

Life offers you two precious gifts---one is time, the other freedom of choice, the freedom to buy with your time what you will.

I have made a choice and I have been called by a prophet of God and set apart to represent the Lord Jesus Christ and His church. I have been called to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the Restored Gospel, through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. How great is the calling! I have been recommended as ‘one worthy to represent the Lord’, and I have promised to devote all of my time and my attention to serving Him, leaving behind all other personal affairs. As I obey with a willing heart, I will show the Lord my love for Him-what a perfect gift for Him!

These statements express the reality that our life on earth is a stewardship of time. There is no better time than now, this very Christmas season, for all of us to rededicate ourselves to the principles taught by Jesus the Christ. When we accepted our baptismal covenants, we promised to live by His standards. And you and I will be held accountable for how well we honor our promises. We need to always keep in mind the importance of our time on Earth and strive constantly to keep those covenants. This is the perfect gift to Him for Christmas We can rededicate and reconsecrate our lives to His honor.

Merry Christmas!!

Love,

Elder Salmon

December 13th Email

Hey Everyone

It's getting so close to Christmas and I love it! We had Christmas Conference this past week and it was a blast! It was so great to see missionaries that I haven't seen for a while. Elder Alber and I had to leave early to take Elder Firth to the doctor for a post surgical checkup. Poor guy he goes home on the 28th and last week he got his appendix taken out and in the middle of the surgery the doctor noticed he had a hernia that he didn't want anyone to find out about and so he fixed that too so he is just hating life recovering right now. At the checkup the doctor said he should be fully recovered in 6 weeks and he goes home in 2... So the decision is final Elder Alber and I are going traveling with Elder Firth. It is going to be so much fun! He gets here tonight but we don't leave until Wednesday because we have to give a training to our zone Wednesday morning. President really likes and trusts Elder Alber and I. He told us we are free to go where we choose whenever and we don't need to constantly check in to him because he said he trusts us and knows that we will work hard. It's amazing, it's people like that I'm going to work the hardest for because they trust and respect me and I would never want to do anything to break that. We got to attend two different stake nativity activities this past weekend and do some missionary work at both. They go all out down here. One of them had a live nativity with animals as well as a "city of bethlehem" set up and you can go to different shops and do different activities it was crazy. We were able to do it all with non members that showed up and it was one of the easiest times to teach because they knew ahead of time that they were going to learn about our Savior's birth. We worked with a couple companionships in our zone this past week and I just love going into an area having nothing to worry about but to teach what they have scheduled and help find people they can work with. It's a great spiritual experience.

I Love You All,

Elder Salmon

Todd's Tampa Zone

December 6th Email

Hey Everyone,

Tis the season!! I love Christmas time in Florida because the weather is perfect haha other than that I wish I was home. This past week Elder Alber and I made a new set of goals. We called it "Project Purification" after a lot of prayer we decided that in order for our zone to step it up we needed to go above and beyond and challenge them to keep up. So far it has worked! And we are exhausted. We have been struggling to have perfect mornings but not this week. We set high goals at the beginning of the week and everyday we don't come home until our goals have been reached. Our mission doesn't have us keep track of numbers of the copies of The Book of Mormon handed out but we decided we wanted to keep track and have the one of our focuses, planting seeds. So this week we taught 40 total lessons and handed out about 30 copies of The Book of Mormon. A guy named Kenny who we worked with a little while ago told us he was going to attend the family ward with his mom until he decided he was ready to be baptized. So he came up to us in the hall yesterday and told us he stood up in testimony meeting and told the ward he wanted to be baptized! How cool is that?! So we are going to meet with him Tuesday to see if he wants to be baptized in the singles ward or his family ward. We are hoping we get to have him in the singles! We have a couple potentials but they don't want to really take anything seriously until after the christmas break which school will start January 10 and that will be next transfer....But in setting that example to the zone we decided to pair everyone up with another companionship to call each other every night and hold them accountable for that day and see what goals they have set for the upcoming day as well as what they are going to do to reach that goal. Sacrifice will give us results, and we are seeing results we started the week with 3 baptismal dates set for the zone and as of last night we have 6! That's right they doubled! Elder Alber and I joked around about it last night saying that we work hard and our zone reaps the benefits which is fine by us because to us it is the same work! I'm having no baptisms for this month if the zone gets a bunch! So with school being out we talked to President about what we should do and this is what sounds like is going to happen. There is a set of traveling assistants right now going around training missionaries in the mission about the new curriculum in the MTC and one of them is going home on 14th and the other on the 28th both will be going home before the end of the transfer. So when the first one goes home Elder Alber and I will be going in a threesome to travel and train and once the other one goes home we will continue to work around the mission until the end of the transfer. I'm so excited!! I love working with missionaries and its gonna be a blast to have nothing to worry about except the missionaries in each area! It's not set in stone but its about a 90% chance and I'm stoked!

I Love you all so much!!

Elder Salmon

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day

November 29th Email

Hey Everyone,

This week has been a rough one but has had its good times. On Tuesday the Institute held their monthly bbq and it was a great success. Elder Alber and I gave 7 church tours! It was so much fun to take people through the church and let them feel of that great spirit there. There was this young family that came in with their 4 and 1 year old daughters and as we were walking through and talking about the church they asked how they could become members! That only happens in the church movies haha. So they will be attending one of the family wards here but it was so exciting to be apart of that. I also gave one to this guy named Keith. The guy was hillarious and was very into everything we had to say. He asked for a Book of Mormon before we had the chance to offer. He was in Sarasota this past weekend but we should be meeting with him again this week. We haven't taught Tim for a while and figured he wasn't very interested anymore and then we get a text from him wishing us a "Happy Thanksgiving" and then right after "I'm defending the church right now." He then called us and we answered a lot of the questions and arguments his family had while they were having their Thanksgiving dinner. It was a blast, not only was I fed very well but I was spiritually fed on Thanksgiving. We had Thanksgiving at a members house, Marc, his mom isn't a member and he recently returned from the Denver Colorado North Mission about 2 months ago now. A couple weeks before when we first went over she wasn't too happy for us to be over but after dinner we felt that she didn't have that wall up anymore and she really likes us now. We also played in the Tampa Stake Turkey Bowl and it was a blast and I am still sore. We tore it up! Elder Alber and I alone had a combined at least 15 TD's both on offense and defense we were able to score. I dove for an interception and whiplashed my head pretty bad but luckily it didn't start hurting until after we were done playing haha. I've been thinking a lot about what Elder Richard G. Scott said in his conference talk, “We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day. “ I am really trying to change a lot of my old habits and ways so I can be closer to my Heavenly Father. It's been a struggle this week our zone just didn't get much done and it's frustrating but I'm trying to turn that frustration into "what can I do for them to turn around and work hard." It's a lot harder than it sounds and is gonna take some time but I know if I go forward with a sincere heart the Lord will provide a way for Elder Alber and I to help our zone. I love you all and hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Love,

Elder Salmon

November 22nd Email

Hey Everyone!

Thanksgiving is here!!! I love Thanksgiving it is my favorite holiday!! This past week has been hard but has not set back our spirit here. Transfers came this past week and Elder Alber and I are staying another 6 weeks together and we are pumped! The month of December the students are out of school and go home for the holidays so things in our area are going to be really slow so we talked with President Summerhays and we came up with the idea that we will travel around our zone this upcoming month and help the missionaries in each of there areas to jumpstart the work. I love working with other missionaries and am going to have a blast this December. I have gratitude for the opportunity to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. I have gratitude to serve with my companion, Elder Alber. I have gratitude to serve with the missionaries of the Florida Tampa Mission. I have gratitude for my family and friends who are serving valiantly and being extremely supportive at home. I have gratitude that I made promises to live by in the Florida Tampa Mission. I have gratitude that I will be accountable to the Lord and to the leaders of the church for how well I honor those promises. I have gratitude and I would rather be here serving our Savior than anywhere else on earth. These are just a few of the blessings that I am grateful for this time of year. And I pray that I will follow the Prophet Thomas S. Monson when he told us in conference, “A grateful heart…comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives.” The Savior is the way. “Let us follow Him. Let us emulate His example. Let us obey His words. By so doing, we give to Him the divine gift of gratitude.”

I Love You All So Much!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Elder Salmon

November 15th Email

Hey Everyone

Just another one of those weeks in the mission where you just keep marching forward. Transfers are this coming weekend!! It seems like yesterday Elder Alber and I started the transfer! As far as that goes we are pretty sure that we will stay together at least one more transfer (through the holidays.) This week was Zone Conference and it was a blast. President and Sister Summerhays really make the trainings fun and spiritually uplifting. We have been studying the Fourth watch. The Savior, in Galilee, fed five thousand from five loaves and 2 fishes. He then sent his disciples ahead of Him to cross the Sea of Galilee in a ship which is soon tossed with the waves in a contrary wind. He did not come to them in the first, second, or third watch of the night. They are left to struggle. I am sure, with all their might, against the storm tossed sea -strengthening their muscles, hearts and wills until they have done all they can do. Then in the early morning, during the fourth and last watch He comes walking across the turbulent waters; first to build and strengthen their faith and then to calm the wind and sea. The end result of this experience is a group of disciples who are tired but strong in body and spirit. They also know that He will come to strengthen them in difficult circumstances after they do all in their own power. They are becoming disciples of courage who, in the not too distant future, will stand strong and faithful in the face of difficult circumstances to build up the early Church of Jesus Christ. They will exhibit great power and perform many mighty miracles in their future ministry. They will be men of courage and strength. In Mathew’s Gospel this is the first time that they expressed their belief that Jesus was the Son of God! “of a truth thou art the Son of God.” Tim is still progressing at his own pace but needs to really take the time and come to church. We have appointments with Nathaniel and Jennifer this week. We meet both of them seperately while tracting and we had talked with them a little bit before on campus! Maybe they'll realize that its not just coinsidence that we have run into them twice now. Crystal is still doing well but is afraid to talk to her dad about baptism so we are going to continue to meet and pray for her to have the courage over one of the breaks to ask her father to let her be baptized.

I Love You All

Elder Salmon

In Florida??

Food !!!

LOVED being at the temple !!!

Elder Salmon at the Orlando Temple

November 8th Email --- 9 MONTHS TO GO !!!!

Hey Everyone,

Its been a rough week this past week. Daishia who was supposed to be baptized yesterday wasn't and we aren't teaching her anymore. Here is the story, so on Tuesday we scheduled a time to meet with her to go over the baptismal interview questions and make sure everything was still on schedule. She text us and told us she isn't going to be baptized anymore and she won't be meeting with us but appreciated everything that we have done for her. What had happened is she told her parents about what she was going to do and they drove up from Miami (which is about a 4 hour drive) to pick her up and take her home so she wouldn't be baptized in our church. Her parents almost withdrew her from school. They anti-ed her and told her that they are gonna pray over her and find her a new church to attend while she is at school. The weird thing is everything that her parents told her that wasn't true about the church was the same stuff she argued against in her other church. But she is very respectful of her parents and there is nothing we can do about that. The seed is planted and when the time come she will be able to make those steps and join the church. She has a strong testimony and its in the Lord's hands now. Finding this week hasn't been the best. We are still trying to find people to teach and bring unto Christ. We will be diligent in our finding and know that the Lord will guide us where to go and what to say. We were able to visit with Tim again this past week and the Lord was able to give me a tender mercy. After reading more chapters out of the Book of Mormon Tim began to ask us deep doctrine questions. In my heart I prayed for the guidance of the Spirit to be able to answer his questions as well as my companion to have that knowledge. The Lord blessed us not only with the understanding and answers to these questions but He also blessed us with the ability to answer them in simplicity. It was a great testimony builder to me of not only how great this gospel is but also how simple the Lord makes it when it really comes down to it. Speaking of testimonies this past week in fast and testimony meeting I had the opportunity to get up and bear my testimony. It has been many many years since I have gotten up in fast and testimony meeting. I loved it! I don't know why it has been so long but I'm happy that I have overcome that tiny obsticle in my life. For those of you at home don't hesitate to get up. The Spirit isn't going to slap you in the face and tell you to get up, it's going to be a small and gentle feeling. By bearing your testimony in front of others not only is your testimony going to grow but also those who hear it. In D&C 62:3 it says "ye are blessed, for the testimony which ye have borne is recorded in heaven for the angels to look upon; and they rejoice over you" so when you bear your testimony it will be recorded and the angels will rejoice over you!! So bear your testimony whenever possible it doesn't have to be in a meeting and it doesn't need to be "I bear my testimony..." its just telling others of the truthfulness that you have of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! This past Saturday Elder Alber and I had the opportunity to go with the assistants to the mission home to stretch, have breakfast, and studies in the morning with them as well as President and Sister Summerhays. That man is flexible!! haha. He put me to shame! But as a group we studied Alma 7 and what a great and spiritual experience that was!! I have been so blessed to have the opportunity to serve President and Sister Summerhays. What great people!! They really and sincerely care about each and every missionary out here and want the very best for us. They really have taken the role of "parents" to the missionaries. I could go on and on about them they are just so amazing!!

I Love You All!!

Elder Salmon

November 1st Email

Hey Everyone!

Another great week in the Florida Tampa Mission! We met with Daishia this week and she is doing great! We read 1 Nephi 8 with her and talked about baptism and tried to set a date with her for Nov 14 and she said she was thinking more about next week so this Sunday Daishia is getting baptized!! I'm so excited for her she is so ready! Her testimony has really grown and the adversary has worked on her big time but she has not given up at all, if anything it has made her stronger! We got a call from this girl who had met the missionaries at the mall about a year ago and she wanted a Finding Faith in Christ DVD because she is starting to look for another church. So hopefully we will be able to meet with her this week and show her around the church. Tim is doing great! We went over a couple days ago and read another 4 chapters out of The Book of Mormon with him and he loved Lehi's Vision and the symbolism in that chapter (1 Nephi 8). Things in his life are starting to work out for the better and so hopefully that will open up some more time for him both for school work and to meet with us. Saturday morning my companion Elder Alber woke up to a big zit on his cheek and wanted to go to Target to get some medicine for it and 2 min after we walked in the door this lady approached us and had been trying to get a hold of missionaries. She was from Washington state and was a member and was down here because her daughter was getting treated in the hospital and the mom wanted a blessing. Her daughter is less active and doesn't have much faith in blessings but the mom wanted help from the Lord. It was a great spiritual experience to be apart of that. Interviews with President Summerhays were this week and it went fantastic. I was the last one he interviewed and i have never had a better interview and according to what he said neither had he. He is a great man and i know i was meant to serve for him. He really cares about the missionaries and knows that through that caring that they will work hard and that everyone will benefit from the results.

I Love You All

Elder Salmon

Elder Salmon, Elder Alber, & 2 other Elders

My Posterity Elder Sharp from Calif and Elder Taylor from India

With Elders at our apartment

Brittney's Baptism and my first Confirmation

October 18th Email

hey everyone

its week 1 already gone by again. it feels like i was here just yesterday telling y'all about transfers. things here are still going great. elder alber and i are loving working together and trying or best to stay at the level we have been all transfer. president called us and told us that we are doing the best and the most consistent in the mission! we are trying to keep humility and keep working. it usually happens that once someone says something like that that it starts to go down but we will continue to strive to keep the work progressing. the highlight was brittney was baptized yesterday! and i was able to do my first confirmation! she is such an amazing girl! she has such an tremendous testimony about the church! it was great to see the change the gospel made in her life. i have never seen the gospel make such an affect on someone's life as it did her's. she is so happy and its really rewarding to see the difference now from when we first met her. she came up to us last night after a fireside and told us that we were the coolest haha it seems so simple but it was something that just made my mission! i was so happy! i love this church and it has made such an impact on me being out here. my testimony grows so much everyday.

i love you all

elder salmon

October 11th Email

hey everyone

this week has flown by so fast that i don't even remember what all happened! we had another leadership meeting this past tuesday to be taught about the new things to preach my gospel. it went great we talked about and practiced ways to committ people to the book of mormon and keep that committment. we had exchanges this week and elder rhodes went to new tampa and elder nielson came to tampa 3 with elder alber and i. elder nielson is a stud. he has been wanting to go tracting on campus with us this whole transfer and finally got the opportunity this week. so at the beginning he saw how we did it and then for a little bit elder alber and i sat down on one of the benches and told him go get us some investigators and he was on fire. he got us 3 numbers and 2 appointments. oh and this is only his second transfer. elder alber and i have really hit our stride together this past week. we gave 5 church tours and set 2 more dates for the 24th of october. we taught these haitian sisters tatiana and lovely and before we started the lesson we asked them if they had been looking for a church and there reply was yea and we will be here every sunday! man all the hardship and trials are worth it when you get to see so many accept and want to learn more about the gospel. brittney is going to be getting baptized this sunday. she is doing great!! she is awesome and i am so excited for her to receive all the blessings for making this change in her life. i love this church and i love my mission!

i love you all too!

elder salmon

Elder Salmon and his Zone in Tampa

Oct 3rd after the afternoon session. Pierre's baptism...

Rays game with Tim and my comps

Dunking it !

October 4th Email

hey everyone

i wanna start off by saying i love conference weekend!!! its such a great experience and a "spiritual refuel" for the next 6 months. my favorite talk this weekend and what spoke to me most was president uchtdorf's talk on the saturday morning session. it was one of those times where it felt like he was talking directly to me. too many times in my life when hardships have come do i want to "speed through the turbulance" and out here at times i crowd my days to make them go faster. that isn't the case at all. i need to slow down and ask myself what is the Lord trying to teach me here. i know that my mom can attest to me not letting the good things go by so i can have the great things. i am going to look at things in life in the big picture. at least try anyway :) no one is perfect. i tend to sometimes complicate things in my life that shouldn't be complicated at all. "simplicity is the ultimate satisfaction!" another one of my favorites was elder scott when he talked about character and faith. such a powerful talk! through my faith i want to excel my "righteous character" cuz it truly is your character that you use in time of hardship and temptation. how right was he when he said " only you can undermind your character." friends and family i am coming home absolutely different! i'm doing a spiritual overhaul! i'm going to build my righteous character because righteous character is what will carry us through eternity!! i really could talk about conference all day! it seemed to go by too fast this past weekend. i just wanted more and more! me and my companions have been hitting the weights really hard in the morning and drinking protein and i'm currently at an all time high of 190 lbs! i'm loving being back in shape :) we had 7 investigators attended some of conference and they all loved it! pierre was baptized after the afternoon session on sunday and he is glowing more than ever! the ysa had a bbq this past tuesday and we were running around like crazy! within and hour and a half between the three of us we gave 7 church tours! i love this work and love you all and will continue to strive to return with honor!

elder salmon

Sister Petit from Todd's mission came for a visit... so much fun !!!

She and TJ doing the "dance" -- imitating Todd :) :)

September 27th Email

hey everyone

another week has gone by and i'm just living it up here in florida! we had another successful week here in tampa 3! we had two church tours this week. first was to a guy named jefson who when we knocked on his door told us to come in and teach him so we did and invited him to the church building. the lesson went great and he was out of town yesterday but is coming to play ball with us today. we also taught a girl named rochelle. she is wanting religion in her life and needs that guidance through this big part of her life. tim is progressing great. he has given up the worldly things we just got to keep him off. he is taking us to a rays game on wednesday and i'm pumped! the kid is a stud! he's way smart and picks up on what we are teaching, after our lesson we went outside and threw the ball around a little bit. gotta love the mish. pierre is getting baptized next sunday! he is excited as are we. we had a talk with him last week telling him he needed to be more committed if he wanted to be baptized and he has. britney is on fire. we taught her the second lesson and she came to church yesterday and loved it. she said the plan of salvation just makes sense and again said to us why haven't i heard of this church before? the gospel is great and is for everyone. my companions and i have started lifting and working out hard again to get back into shape. we wanna look good when we get back :) don't worry we aren't taking away from the work! why would we?! but time is flying and i had to hit the weights sooner or later!

love you all

elder salmon

September 20th Email !!!!!

hey everyone

this week is just another great week in the life of a missionary! i love this area and my companions! the work is going great and just continues to do so as well as having joy in the work. we had to move some baptisms back a little bit but it is all good. we currently have 3 set for the 10th of october! pierre had to move his back cuz he didn't come to church yesterday but he is determined to get baptized and i'm ok with that! tim is a stud! he is looking for the standards to live by in the church and i feel like he and i will get along really well. he is someone i am definitely coming back and chillin with and we will be friends for life he is awesome. we had a talk yesterday and he said if he is gonna be baptized he wants to be 100% active in the church. which i wouldn't want him to unless otherwise. he's awesome. he is also taking us to the rays last season game on the 29th! man life is great! the third person is britney. we talked to britney on campus and she has had a hard couple of weeks here at school and really wants the comfort and guidance of religion in her life. this past monday we had a family home evening with the branch at the institute building. president summerhays came and spoke about member missionary work. he then had elder alber and i come up to the front then called up two of the members from the branch and had us teach about the joseph smith story and the first vision as if they were investigators. i know it was a role play but wow i have never felt the spirit so strong. tears were going all over the room and it was just a testimony builder to everyone in that room that joseph smith was a true prophet and that through him the true church was restored on the earth. i have no adequate words to describe the feeling there. i love you all and i love this work!

love

elder salmon

September 13th Email 11 Months to go !!!

hey everybody

this week has been a good one but humbling at the same time. the Lord thought we were getting a little cocky and i'll admit i was getting a little on the big headed side and so this week we had 4 church tours and 3 lessons fall through. but we are staying positive and working hard. we have a lot of potentials its just getting them to progress is the hard part. elder kikuchi came and did a mission tour and it was amazing! he is such an energetic speaker! the meeting was from 9-4 and i was tuned in the whole time. he talked a lot about our morning habits and how that has not just a huge influence on your missionary work but also your habits for the rest of your life. we also went over how to simplify our teaching and having our lessons more interactive instead of preachy and it has worked. we are teaching a guy named tim and he came to church yesterday and we committed him to be baptized on the 26th and he is absolutely golden. he is looking for a potential wife with high standards and something that will help him be guided through school and raising a family. what better way than through the true church!! i feel so blessed to be in this gospel and i see that it has benefited more and more each day. i love being a missionary!!!

love you all so much!

elder salmon

September 7th Email

hey everyone

this past week has been a blast! i love this area! i feel like i'm at home ha. what we do for finding out here is walk around campus and talk to people and in the evening we go and knock on apartment complexes. it has definately been an adjustment period for me and i feel like i will grow a lot in this new atmosphere. before i felt content and felt that i was doing really good as a missionary knocking on doors and talking with people about the gospel. then the Lord put me in an area were i need to walk up to people as they are walking to class and while they are chilling on campus and studying and teach them about the gospel. man was that so awkward haha. but elder alber, rhodes and i are tearing it up. oh before i go into more i need to introduce my greenie. his name is elder rhodes from lehi utah and he is picking things up quickly. elder alber and i are holding nothing back. we are just treating him like he has been out here for a few months and letting him just figure his ways and teaching styles out and it is working great with him. but back to the area. in our potentials sheet in the back of our planner in the first week we have more than missionaries get in a whole transfer! this past sunday we had 10 investigators to church! and one of the assistants elder shannon served here and called me and told me that when he was here in one transfer he gave 28 church tours so he challenged me to beat that. last week we gave 7 church tours and yesterday gave 2 more. its amazing how many young men and women my age are looking for a church. they really are concerned for themselves as to what kind of direction they want to go as well as for their future families. what also helps here in this ward is that there are so many activities we have been to family home evenings on sunday and monday nights also on mondays is basketball. tuesday nights is institute and dinner after and wednesday night is bible study with game night after. its a party missionary style baby! this ward hasn't been huge on giving referals but the leaders want to start getting some so at family home evening we committed a bunch of them to bring people to family home evening next week and they were all happy and willing and most already were working on friends so its going to be great! we have a baptism this sunday, this guy is michael and is golden and loves the church. he works on campus over the meals so we get hooked up from time to time. also the following sunday we have another scheduled baptism for a guy named pierre. he is from haiti and loves the gospel. his father is an inactive member. our zone is like the smallest in the mission but this past week we have been number one and two in all catagories! great missionaries in the zone and some not so much but we're working with them and it'll all be good in the end. the church is so true!

i love you all

elder salmon

August 30th Email - ZL now and transfer to Tampa

hey everyone

sorry this week's email is going to be a little short cuz i'm doing email at a library and i'm timed. we got transfer calls this past saturday and i have been called to serve in the tampa 3 ward on USF campus young single adults as a zone leader in the brandon north zone with elder alber. also elder alber and i will be training a brand new missionary that we will pick up tomorrow morning. i'm so nervous about this load of responsibilty that has been given to me. but i know that with the Lord's help i can do all things. this past week has had its many ups and downs.

at the beginning of the week it rained all day everyday from monday - wednesday. normally its not too bad but it was bike week and they were some pretty heavy storms. thursday we finally could leave and we were on a role. we went out and taught 17 lessons at doors. and got 3 new investigators. we were determined not to come home till we had 10 lessons and we were able to pass that easily. i had a special opportunity to teach with someone very close and the experience is one i will have for the rest of my life. i won't be able to go into details now but i was really nervous going into the lesson but afterwards i felt a lot of gratitude for the experience that not many missionaries get. we met with bro hoard from our ward and he wanted us to go on the ward temple trip with them so he called president and president gave the ok as long as i gave a 15 min presentation on the elder perry program to the ward and helped with the temple tours. wow! the orlando temple is amazing! such a great spirit on those grounds. bro salyer from our ward is a member and his wife isn't. she loves feeding the missionaries and when bro salyer told her we were going to the temple trip she said she'd go. ( she had said no the first time he asked) and she loved it! she felt the spirit! bro salyer came to church the next day in tears because when he had woken up that morning she was already awake crying. she was so full with the spirit and amazed at the example of the church that we as missionaries were that she was just so happy all she could do was cry. bro salyer has been trying so long to get her in the church. he wants to be sealed to his wife and its just so great to see the spirit work in their lives. i have a testimony of temples and the spirit that is there. no words can ever describe it but i know it is familiar to us all.

i love you all

elder salmon

Stanky Leg Dance Elder Johnson

Great Bumper Sticker

St Petersburg Zone

Sunset

Big Ears = Tie Rack

Celestial Sky

Tampa Zone

My Street

Tracting For Alligators

Clearwater Bay

Terry's Baptism

Making Cookies From Scratch For My District

My first district

August 16th Email

hey everyone

this week has been so good and has had it downs but that's just how life goes. i was able to give a baptism interview to a woman named cheryl coming up in the palm harbor ward. i was able to meet her before and even visit when i was up on exchanges with elder johnson and she is awesome. we got through the interview and then i asked her to bear her testimony and she did and gave her conversion story. her husband is a member and she has been hunted down by missionaries for the past few years but she started coming to church with her kids and they both wanted to raise their kids in the church but couldn't figure it out. one day the kids in primary got a sign they made of Christ they would hold up when they made a right choice. her kids used it all week. every time they would make a good choice they would hold it up and scream good choice! and then she knew this was for real. she cried and she told me their haven't been any missionaries that made her cry ha. my eyes were all watered up but i used all my might to not shed a tear and i told her that and i also told her that it wasn't me, it was the spirit and it was so strong right now. ann who we set a date with for this upcoming sunday didn't come to church so we are gonna visit her today and see whats goin on. and we will have to push back her date to the 28th. a member took us out to eat at skyline chili. if you haven't had it you need to asap! he ordered for us and we had about 3 pounds of food per plate and i ate it all! thats right folks i pounded it like it was nothin and paid for it later! haha. we were able to teach 32 lessons at doors this past week. and it was all because we tracted off of martin luther king blvd. i felt like a minister haha black people in groups sitting out in the yard or the porch were letting us teach and i was very enthusiastic and preached with the power of the holy ghost baby!! it was just a spiritual high i loved it!! so now comes the rays game. i freaking love baseball!! our investigator scott took us to the game and paid for everything! it was unreal! there really is no words to explain it. me and scott are hitting it off cuz he was that jock type too and he wanted to know how the mormons raised such great youth and how they have their standards and morals in check and it was just a great enviroment to teach. thursday was my year mark!! and i burned and shirt and a tie and we had a whole big ceremony in the church parking lot in the evening and elder johnson drew on the shirt before it was burned it was awesome. i'll be sending the pics and video home shortly. i wanna share a story that bro tippett who is our 2nd counselor in the bishopric. we were talking about humility and in his last ward they were handing out the new home teaching assignments and a less active had shown up for the first time in a long time and the elder's quorum president pulled this less active aside after and felt impressed to commit him to do some home teaching. this brother refused and was very strongly against it. he began to chew out the elder's quorum president for even thinking of asking him to do such a thing. the elder's quorum president begged him over and over again to just take one family. this brother stormed out and refused this opportunity. before the next sunday this brother had lost his job and was diagnosed with cancer. i'm not telling you this to scare you into doing your home teaching or calling. i'm telling you this because the Lord has asked us to be humble. just like in Alma 32. blessed are ye that humble yourselves and he also says blessed are ye that are compelled to be humble. brothers and sisters please don't be those that need to be compelled to be humble. if i have learned anything on my mission it is this. recognize the everyday small blessings in your life. don't forget where those things come from. our Heavenly Father loves us but he wants to be humble and remember him in all that we do. so what my challenge is to you is just to stand back, look around, i promise that you all are tremendously blessed. if nothing else you have the true gospel in your life. don't let the worldly things cloud your head and make it big. the Lord will humble you. learn and humble yourselves. i testify things to you and want you to know that i know they are true in the name of Jesus Christ Amen

elder salmon

August 9th Email

hey everyone

this week has been a stressful one but in a good way. we have started teaching this lady named ann. she is an older black lady with 9 children and 36 grandchildren! haha and she has the most energy i have ever seen in a woman at that age. she is always cheering and dancing around it has been a blast teaching her. she was goin to come to church on sunday but our ward being the saints that they are didn't pick her up so today we will be doing some damage control....i talked with the zone leaders last night and they said if it comes down to it to go and pick them up and then after church call president tell him what happened and why it happened and he'll take care of it. so that's what i plan on doing this upcoming sunday if she still wants to come. so i forgot to add in my email last week a funny experience. we were at a recent convert's home and i was heavily on medication and fevering and afterwards when we were walking home i apologized to elder sharp for falling asleep and he told me i didn't haha he said i started teaching about Christ and what he did while he was on the earth just out of the blue and i thought he was joking but he was dead serious i told him i was out like a light so i guess what had happened was when i fell asleep in my sleep i started teaching about Christ's earthly ministry! how funny was that!? joel (the recent convert) loved it and was so entertained i guess from what elder sharp had told me. so i did exchanges this week and had elder gordon come to my area and spend a couple days. we found this young black guy in the ghetto named lee. he is so awesome! the only problem is he just got out of jail this past monday so we are gonna have to have him be interviewed by president to see what exactly happened. i have made it a year (this thursday) of my mission without having to give a talk on my mission. and then we got a call from the president of the young single adult branch and me and elder sharp had to give a 20 min talk yesterday on our testimony and how we got it, how we are strengthing it now, and how we will continue to strenghthen it after the mission. it was such a great experience cuz i've had some problems about being really nervous about giving talks or talking in front of people and as i began to speak i felt this weight or this sudden relaxation come over me and i went on for the full 20 min no sweat. i was loving it! then afterwards we go into our meetings for clearwater ward give our reports and 10 min before sacrament bishop comes up to me and says that they don't have a youth speaker and asked if i could speak so of course i had to say yes and it was so easy and i just love giving talks now. by all means i'm not goin to go and look and ask for opportunites to speak in sacrament but i feel confident that if i am asked to do so i will be able to step up and it won't be a problem. so i saved the best part for second to last haha rose was baptized yesterday!!! she is so happy and so excited for the journey that she has started. i had the blessing to baptize her and elder sharp confirmed her and gave her the gift of the holy ghost. so the very best part is today i won't have a p day and that is because we have been teaching scott and he is taking me and my companion and the palm harbor elders to the tampa bay rays game on saturday!!! so we have to switch our pdays. but i am so excited its gonna be so much fun!!!! i called up president and he thought it was a great idea and asked me to do some proselyting at the game and tell him how it went!! yea!!!!

i love you all so much!

elder salmon

July 26th email

hey everyone

this week has been a great one. monday we started off dressing up gangsta for basketball and then robbie and his family were able to come down and take us out to dinner. and did they ever haha they took us to this smokehouse called smokey bones. this place is amazing! and is talked about across the whole mission and i was able to go! we ran into a part member family 2 weeks ago and the husband who is not a member asked us to help him with some service so i was all over that haha. so we ended up digging out a fence and then putting up a new gate in his backyard. he rewarded us with some bbq brauts. man they were so good!! he loves the church just can't except joseph smith and the things he did. we're goin to keep in touch and keep showing and telling him the great benefits of the church and hopefully in time it will work. in one of the upcoming conferences they will announce that they are changing or i should say adding to the way we teach out of preach my gospel. so this next tues-thurs from 9-4 i will be up in tampa with the other district and zone leaders bein trained on this new stuff. we had a stake missionary and ward council meeting and now hopefully the missionary work in the ward will start picking up.

i love you all

elder salmon

Dinner with the Larsen's

Stanky leg dance

Lookin' tough

Missionary b ball dance

Gangsta b ball with Elder Johnson and other missionaries

Gangsta grills :) :)

A letter that made Mom smile :) :)

Todd in front of his apt. w/ Robbie & Elder Sharp

After Steak Dinner

Todd's Companion Elder Sharp

Reunion with Robbie!!!

First Saw Robbie!!!!

July 19th Email

hey everyone

transfer calls came in on saturday and i'm staying in clearwater and gonna finish training elder sharp. i'm excited we are slowly getting the area going as well as getting the members trust. we have been teaching a women named rose lately. and we set a baptismal date with her for the 7th of august! she is progressing really well she has some legal and word of wisdom issues she needs to overcome but its not like i haven't seen people overcome that before. i've been biking my greenie to death this past week. on friday we biked a total of 70 miles! it was killer! i've never fallen asleep as soon as i hit the pillow but that night i was out! saturday we tracted all day! it hit a record of 100 degrees here on saturday. it has never broken 99 degrees and it just happened to on the day we had no lessons planned and a full day of biking and tracting! but it was awesome we were able to talk to 75 people and teach 10 doorstep lessons! just to put that in perspective we are supposed to hit a minimum of 20 total lessons a week. so gail and barbara were able to come to church on sunday and our brilliant high councilmen decided to give there talks on temple work and baptisms for the dead....so we are goin to have some fun lessons this next week.

i love you all

elder salmon

hey everyone!

week six is already here! its crazy! this transfer has been hard but definately one to learn from. this past week while we were at institute we were learning out of the doctrine and covenants the lessons we are sent to learn. sis diar related it to us and his son that is on his mission. we are here not only to bring people the gospel but to be put through our tests to mold us to be great husbands and fathers and great priesthood holders in the church. i'm goin through everything i am on my mission not to punish me but to make me a fine tool in the lord's hands for the rest of my life and after. i got to do a study and a blitz with the palm harbor elders earlier this week and while elder bartschi and i were tracting martin luther king in palm harbor we were coming up to a group of guys at their cars and what looked to me like no good elder bartschi being a greenie from Idaho was like aren't we gonna stop and talk to them. so i was like alright I hope the Lord will help us haha. sure enough we got closer and it was a drug deal haha. we got about 20 feet away and a guy across the street yelled and said to come over and talk to him. we got over to him and he was all you don't wanna be over there right now. so we ended up teaching him a little bit and then we were on our way. later this week we tracted in to a woman named towanda. we went back to teach her on saturday and she was just leaving to go finish her laundry. but her sister yelled from inside and asked about us and what we were doin. so we told her and then i just asked what she was doin tomorrow afternoon and she said nothin so i said you should come to church with us tomorrow and she said sounds good and she brought her whole family! it was awesome and she is already making donations!! (tithing and clothes for families in the ward) so we are goin to teach them this evening and hope to set dates with them. our ward mission leader is a chiropractor and he brought his fellow doctor to church and we can get free adjustments all we want haha i need one so bad ha. but she loved the services so we will visit them this week and hopefully will start teaching her. her name is jenny. i love you all so much!!

elder salmon

haha! Mud and water...from bike ride during a storm.

Rain from Hurricane Alex...Soaking WET !!!