June 27th Email !!

Hey Everyone,

I have enjoyed my first week down here in Naples. Work has been a little slow this past week because my companion has messed up his knee and can' t do much because this past week was our bike week ha. He has an appointment to see the doctor this Thursday and hopefully we can get things figured out. We our working with a woman name Rosa, she has a date for this coming weekend but might have to be pushed back a week because she didn't show up to church yesterday. We also have Lauren and Maddy who are amazing! Lauren is Maddy's mother and Maddy is 13 and they are strong Christian people and have a great knowledge of the Bible and have an open mind to other things that could strenghthen their testimony in the Savior. Yesterday in PEC before church I was called on by one of the members of the Bishopric to give a talk. Luckily it only had to be a 5-10 min talk. He told me after it was going to be either yesterday or a 15-20 min talk in 2 weeks and I was glad to get this one. We have 2 brand new greenies in our district and they are a lot of fun to mess with. Don't worry we aren't going overboard but still having a lot of fun with them. Sorry this is so short. But we are running up to Fort Myers to play basketball. I'll see you all soon!!!

I Love You All,

Elder Salmon

June 20th Email !!! LAST TRANSFER !!!

Hey Everyone,

This is my last transfer on the mission!!!! Time has flown!!! Transfer calls were Saturday and I am being transfered to Naples with Elder Nielson for my last hoorah haha. I'm really excited because I've always wanted to serve with Elder Nielson and didn't think it was going to be able to happen before I left. I tried to get him up here to Port Charlotte because I really do love it here. I've really grown close to the people here and I know that I'll be in touch with a lot of them for life. It was really hard saying some goodbyes to some families yesterday and it'll be hard again today. Bill is still struggling. He had been keeping us in the dark about him smoking and his daughter who is a less active but is really supportive of him joining him outted him to us this past week so hopefully soon he'll enter into the waters of baptism. Sarah is amazing! We had some great lessons with her this week. She is going to be one strong member! She is joining for the right reasons and is really taking faith and repentance to heart and is doing it the way we all should. I'm excited for her, she'll be baptized in no time. Yesterday at church I wanted to test where she was at so I told her she better invite me back for her baptism and without a beat she replied of course! She is so ready. Well we had an interesting Saturday outside of transfer calls. One of my companions caught an alligator by the foot on his fishing pole and reeled it in. It was pretty big a good 4 feet long and heavy. Well a neighbor called it. We released it not knowing someone called the police and went inside cleaned off and headed to the car to go out and work for the day and 5 sheriff's and 2 fish and game officer's showed up and I guess catching a gator and all that is a felony in Florida.....one of my companion's has a court date this next month and it'll be for a misdemeanor for "possession of a reptile" haha. We've talked to members and they said they usually just give you a fine and nothing will go on your record. I'm not being charged so I'm clean and good to go thankfully. When all that was said and done looking back it was pretty funny haha we are in the newspaper and as I am emailing you now no joke people are out in the library not knowing we are in the lab talking about the Mormon Missionaries that caught and alligator haha.

I Love You All,

Elder Salmon

Another Gator !!

June 13 th Email !

Hey Everyone,

This past week has been yet another great week. Blessings all over the place! Literally, we have been giving blessings like crazy! Larry was confirmed yesterday and received the Aaronic Priesthood. The Ward is really taking care of him and helping him progress, it's really great to see. Bill has a date to be baptized this Sunday! He's been clean for over a week now and is really wanting to be a member of this church. While we were over at his rehab center for his hip we were given permission to give him the Sacrament and we asked the male nurse for some bread and he brought it in and asked if we could pray with him and his wife. His wife was just diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in her kidney and bladder. They joined us for Sacrament and afterwards we taught them about the Priesthood and the Restored Gospel then proceeded to give her a blessing. Afterwards they were both in tears and knew that they had felt the Spirit of the Lord and we will continue to talk with them as we visit Bill each day. Sarah is doing great! She knows it's true but she just hasn't felt ready to take the plunge yet and that's totally cool with us, so we are going to continue to be there and help her along until she is ready. We had another amazing spiritual experience this past week. A young family in our ward called us over because the wife was 7 months pregnant and she had gone to the doctor and her baby had an irregular heartbeat and her and her husband were both worried and wanted a blessing. I was blessed to be given the opportunity to be the instrument in the Lord's hands for the blessing. I don't remember what was said but I do remember the power of the Spirit I felt. A few days later she went in for another appointment and the baby is totally healthy. The Church is true, our Savior lives, and the Priesthood, the power and authority to act in God's name has been restored on this Earth in this Church at this time.

I Love You All,

Elder Salmon

June 6th Email

Hey Everyone,

This past week I was only able to be in my area Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday evening. Before I left on exchanges we had another lesson with Sarah. It was such a spiritual lesson. I got off on a tangent and it was an experience that I had never had before on my mission. As I was teaching her my mind turned off but my mouth continued to teach. I have no idea what I said but I know that at that point I was truly an instrument in the Lord's hands. Since then I have felt that my teaching has grown tremendously, actually I can't really say MY teaching but I have become that instrument that the Lord wants me to be. Bill fell this past week and broke his hip. He had the ball at the top of his hip replaced and has been in a lot of pain. On the humorous side on Monday we were talking to him and he joked about how the only time he has quit smoking for a period of time is when he was in the hospital a fews years back and jokingly said that if he were to go back in it would help him overcome the addiction. So when we got to the hospital we joked about it and reminded him of the story, he laughed, and we said well Bill looks like the Lord gave you what you wanted :). Larry was baptized by our Bishop yesterday!! The ward is so excited and they are just craving for more! It was a great experience because before church our Ward Mission Leader came up to me because I was supposed to give the talk on Baptism and he asked that I got to the Lord and change the topic to something more personal to Larry. I did so and in Sacrament meeting I felt the need to open up the Ensign and I opened up to the talk given by Elder Maynes about Establishing a Christ-Centered Home. It was definately something that helped him realize his duties as he will in the future be the Priesthood holder in the family. Elder Allen who was recently called to the Quorum of the Seventy and was the head guy with the making of Preach My Gospel came to our leadership meeting and we got chastened quite a bit but it was to help us improve. I got a little aggrivated so the next morning I ended up reading Elder Christofferson's talk As Many as I Love, I Rebuke and Chasten. Talk about a humbling experience haha. In his talk he says "Divine chastening has at least three purposes: (1) to persuade us to repent, (2) to refine and sanctify us, and (3) at times to redirect our course in life to what God knows is a better path." Elder Allen did all three and I am truly grateful for the love and caring that he had for us to put us on the right path and I truly feel that the mission will take off as we do as we were directed.

I Love You All,

Elder Salmon