May 31st Email.... Travel Papers Arrived !!!!!

Hey Everyone,

This past week has been an exhausting one. We had to move 3 different times as well as bust out 28 lessons for the week. Sunday came and the 3 of us were just spent. Both physically and spiritually. We all struggled keeping our eyes open teaching and visiting people on Sunday. Our investigators are great. Larry's baptism was moved to this Sunday because between the Bishop moving, also he is the one baptizing Larry, and Larry working on Saturday the Bishop wanted to wait one more week. Bill is still good ol' Bill. He's still struggling with the tobacco but we are going to try having some members that have had that problem in the past keep daily contact with him as well as help him overcome it. This past week was the first time I've seen Bill get really frustrated. He's so frustrated with himself and the tobacco because he wants to be a member and have the Holy Ghost so bad and understands he needs to get over it but hasn't quite made it yet. Sarah is progressing quickly. She came to church as well as more activities in the ward and I've been extremely impressed with how well the young adults have been fellowshipping and taking her under their wing. I hope y'all had a great Memorial Day. We went frisbee golfing yesterday and it was pretty entertaining. Studies - A modern prophet once said that the most important word in the dictionary is, “remember”. As a mission we have committed to show Him that we remember by being “Remember This” missionaries. That which we remember, we don’t take for granted. As we pause this Memorial Day and remember the lives of our loved ones who have gone before, and our freedoms that are provided for us at so costly a sacrifice, and our God, whose hands purposely retain the marks to remind us that he always remembers us, let us remember “how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah…..he shall make intercession for all the children of men; and they that believe in Him shall be saved”

I Love You All,

Elder Salmon

Todd And His Bat Ray

May 23 rd Email

Hey Everyone!

The Lord's hand has really been in our work! Bill had to push back his date because he still struggles with smoking. He tried stopping but due to the 50+ years of smoking his body didn't handle it well. He has a doctor's appointment this Thursday and he is going to get something to help him with the cravings. He is still attending addiction recovery class every week and we see him every day and he says that it helps him stay motivated. He says "I just want to be in the darn church!" He is a great guy! Our Ward Mission Leader and his daughter who just recently returned home from the Oklahoma City Mission taught Larry because we had to be in Bradenton for Stake Correlation set a date for this Saturday! He has a little trouble with coffee but he said yesterday he was going to stop. This will be the first baptism in this area in 2011! The ward is excited and really wants to help us bring people to the fold. Sarah is doing great! She came to church yesterday and liked it then came to a Ward Fireside that night! She'll be joining the church soon. So I talked to Elder Cook last night on the phone last night and I'm not sure if y'all remember but we taught these hardcore Catholics after church back in Tampa and it was a 3 hour discussion about some deep doctrine. Well Anthony, one of the ones we taught, was confirmed a member of the Church yesterday up in Tennessee!! He gets the Priesthood next week!! I love this work! Well we went fishing this morning at our Bishop's house and I threw out a casting net and pulled up at Bat Ray!! (I've attached the pics to the email). We caught a lot of Catfish as well. I have learned a lot about setting a pattern here that will bring me peace, happiness and productivity in my education, in my family, in my future career and in my service to my fellow man. I have been taught many times that, “A young man or young woman will seldom, if ever, rise in their lives above the PATTERN they establish for themselves in the mission field.” It reminds me of a quote from Elder Bednar, who reminds us of our capacity as ordinary people. “We should find great comfort in the fact that ordinary people who faithfully, diligently and consistently do simple things that are right before God will bring forth extraordinary results.”

I Love You All So Much,

Elder Salmon

Meet "Oliver"

May 16th Email...Gators and Crocodiles!! All While Baptizing !

Hey Everyone,

This has been a crazy busy week but in a great way! Bill is doing great! We set a baptismal date with him for the 28th of May! He has been slowly winging himself off all week and today is the first day he'll go all day without smoking! He is nervous but is excited to be a member of the church. Sarah is progressing amazingly! We taught her 3 times this week and she brought her mom in for the second lesson (Plan of Salvation) and she agreed with everything, is in full support of her joining the Church, and really wants her to be baptized because she hasn't been baptized yet. Her mom works a lot but said that whenever we have a lesson with Sarah and she isn't working she wants to be there and to listen in on it. The Ward loves us and is excited for the work that is about to take off. This week we are going to a members home who breeds crocodile's and the 7 ft-er laid some eggs so he needs help holding off the mom while he grabs the eggs so we are really excited and don't worry mom he's done it a million times and he's just gonna give us big pieces of ply wood to put up a wall between her and her eggs and we just have to hold the wall up. My Studies - As we read about the Lord’s promises in the Book of Mormon, we must internalize the lessons we are teaching. We must also invite and make commitments ourselves that will bring about our repentance and strengthen our faith in the Savior. We must learn to always recognize the blessings. We do this by pondering and reflecting on our many blessings. Each night we should consider those things that we have been able to accomplish with the Lord’s help. Next we must work at recognizing the manifestations of His hand throughout each day. As we learn to recognize the Lord’s hand in our lives each day, we will recognize the blessings we have received. As we recognize our blessings, we express gratitude to our Father in Heaven. “Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things." This will always invite the spirit to be our constant companion. Sorry this is so short but Elder Reist caught a baby gator (3 1/2 ft) on his fishing pole this morning and he is at our apartment chilling in our tub. There is a picture of her (Oliver) attached.

I Love You All,

Elder Salmon

May 9th Email !!!!!

Hey Everyone,

So it was transfer calls this past Saturday and I am staying here in Port Charlotte. Elder Olsen is leaving and I am getting 2 new companions. Elder Reist who is from California and is a giant! (6'9'') He's been out a little over a year now and Elder Packer who is from St. George and he goes home at the end of this transfer. I'm really excited it's going to be a really fun and busy transfer. Things in Port Charlotte are really starting to pick up. We have Bill who is really trying to overcome smoking and is slowly progressing to do so but at least it's progression. Then the sister's called and said that a family from their ward is moving into ours and their non member son who is 12 is going to be living with them and they want him to get baptized! Thursday night on our way home it was about 8:40 and we were stopped at a light and there is a K-mart right by our place and I look over and there is only about 10 cars in that huge empty parking lot and I got the feeling we needed to go over there. I shook it off once and then the feeling got more intense so I looked at Elder Olsen and said "Let's go to K-mart." So we were just aimlessly walking around K-mart and it was getting ready to close in less than an hour and a girl about my age that works there came up and asked how we were doing and then kept walking. About 2 minutes later she comes back and asks if we are missionaries and wanted to know where our church building was. Come to find out she is dating a missionary and she isn't a member and she wanted to know more about the church and what her boyfriend believed. Talk about golden!! We are teaching her tonight at 7 and she is just as excited as we are. Last P-day we went to a minor league baseball game and were asked to do one of the inbetween innings activities. So the 4 of us (Elder's Olsen, Alber, Marshall, and myself) went out on the field and had to have our head down on a standing bat, spin around ten times and then race to the foul line. We all at one time ate it haha I got across the finish line first but at a price. As soon as I hit the dirt of the warning track of the fence my feet went out from under me and I fell and slid right up into to fence haha I wish I would have been able to watch myself it must have been hillarious!! I have been doing a lot of pondering and self reflection on the story of when Christ fed the 5,000 during the Sermon on the Mount. Christ had his disciples bring him all that he had, in turn he made it enough to feed the 5,000. I have thought a lot "Am I giving all to Christ, putting it all in His hands and letting Him do the rest?" I have a lot of work I need to do because sometimes without realizing it I try and do things myself without asking the Lord for help. I've spent a lot of time on my knees this past week asking for His help. I am trying to develop the attitude of, Heavenly Father I have done everything I can and I need help. Through the humility we show to our Heavenly Father we are submitting to His will and not ours.

I Love You All,

Elder Salmon

May 2nd Email !!!

Hey Everyone,

I can't believe that is already week 6 of the transfers and transfer calls are this Saturday!! This transfer has flown by. This past week was a great one and we were blessed because of our diligence in the work. We went on splits this week with some members and our Ward Mission Leader Bro. Lamb told me that I should go and visit a family that has been on his mind lately. We get there and find out that the whole family was really sick. As we were talking the father asked if we could give blessings to non-members. I told him that we did and he told me that his sister had just been diagnosed with cancer and had heard about when he had MS and lost feeling in his legs from the knee down. He received a Priesthood blessing and in days all feeling was restored and he was out walking and working again. So we set up a time to meet with him and his sister 2 days later. I was given the opportunity to give her a blessing and it was such a great spiritual experience!! After we said Amen she didn't say anything. She had a very focused look on her face and when she looked up at us you could tell she was saying thank you. What a great blessing it is to us worthy Priesthood holders in the church to be able to go out and administer to those in need and have the faith that through that Priesthood Authority miracles can happen! So it was the end of the month this week and we had ran out of the alotted miles we were given and so I got to break out the bike that hasn't really been touched in 9 months haha man I haven't sweat like that in a really long time haha. We have an elderly couple serving with us here in the Port Charlotte Ward and after Book of Mormon class Bill, our investigator, was talking with Elder White. Elder White told him how much he wants to see him get baptized because you can tell in the class and in church that he has a strong testimony and that's what he told Elder White, he also said he needs to overcome his addiction to cigarettes. Elder White told him that he and his wife will be praying for him and that hit Bill like a ton of bricks. He was so blown back by how much the people in the church really do care about him. We met with him the next day and he told us of this experience and said that as he had lit up that morning and took a puff he said it was the nastiest taste he had ever tasted and started hacking and coughing. And he himself connected that it was because of the prayers of the members that this happened and is making a great progress. This week in church a man by the name of Eric just walked into sacrament and sat down behind our Elder's Quorum Pres. and we talked with him afterwards and he said as he was making breakfast that morning that the people he was staying with said that he should go to church today. He just shrugged it off and started biking to the grocery store and as he biked past our church he had the feeling to go in. Bro. Lamb our Ward Mission Leader was teaching the Restoration in Sunday School that day and Eric kept saying how interesting it all was and that it all made sense. Afterwards we exchanged information and he committed himself to coming to church the next week and coming to Book of Mormon class this week and we will be meeting with him as much as possible this week because he said he is really open because he was just let go at his job. In Elder David A. Bednar’s first testimony as a member of the Twelve, given in October of 2004, he shared the powerful principle of grace through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Quoting Elder Bednar, “In the Bible Dictionary, we learn that the word grace frequently is used in the scriptures to connote a strengthening or enabling power….thus, the enabling and strengthening aspect of the Atonement helps us to see and to do and become good in ways that we could never recognize or accomplish with our limited mortal capacity.” Peter said, “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our…Saviour, Jesus Christ.” And the Lord added in this dispensation, “Ye must grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.” This grace is spiritual knowledge and power that changes how we as members see ourselves, increases our capacities, and magnifies our ability to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord.

I Love You All,

Elder Salmon