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 !!!

Riding a bike... lady-like

Riding one of the sister's bikes at interviews

heat pack on my head

July 4th Email

hey everyone

so this week has been a hard one. a lot of the storm from hurricane alex is hitting us and its been raining for 4 days straight and us being on bike this past week has made it hard to do a lot of work. we have had to bike through it twice and it was so much fun. we got so drenched! haha there wasn't a dry spot on me within the first 5 min of biking. so we had short interviews with president and sister summerhays and they are awesome! he is very laid back and loves all the missionaries on a personal level which is a little different from president colton. they and i both get along really well and interviews were so great i really got to let down my walls and open up to president. by the end of the interview i made a deal with him that if i get a golfing investigator he is gonna take us out for nine holes haha so i'm pushing for it. we met a man named scott this past week and talk about golden! he was talking about the atonement to us instead of us teaching him then he invited us in and said that he believes that christ visited the native americans and people all over the world after he was resurrected! how crazy! he's out of town till the 13th so we'll be there the 14th. this is a little off subject but we were playing ball last monday and all this biking is really paying off. i dunked it! haha i didn't like throw it down but as i layed it in i grabbed the rim! it was awesome!! but gail who we have been teaching is meeting with us this thursday to set a baptism date for the month of july! finally! after the ten years of her investigating the church we finally got her to want to be baptized! elder cheever called me the other day to let me know that tracy from zephyrhills is getting baptized this sunday so i'm gonna be heading up there this weekend to see him enter that waters of baptism!! it is so great! thats all i have for this week.

i love you all!

elder salmon