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