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