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