Mission Newsletter #19

We moved this week! Our New Address:

Sis. Heather Salmond

569 Flint Hill Trace #61

Bessemer, AL 35022

Or you can always reach me by writing to the Mission Home:

Sis. Heather Salmond

3100 Lorna Rd Ste 102,

Birmingham, AL 35216

Here's some photos of the move!

Old apartment emptied out!

Where's Waldo?

Dinner is served...couldn't get to anything, so cereal on the floor it is!

Working hard to clean things up!

So relieved we are all done!

Sister Senior is for sure being transferred this coming Wednesday. It'll be sad to see her go & weird at the same time! Besides the MTC, she has been my only companion. Bessemer won't be the same without her.

Valentine's Day! The Day of Love. Well, not for me, but I hope you all had a fabulous Valentine's Day. That'll maybe be something I can enjoy once again in a few years... So, Sister Senior and I took the liberty to celebrate it with each other by giving each other baskets! We bought them from a less active member in our ward who makes them. (They were sweet to give us a missionary discount.)

Valentine's Baskets

Elder Osiemo got me a Valentine! Well, really he just saw 1D stickers and thought of me. :) haha. He's like one of my favorite missionaries! Buds.

We also went out with an elderly lady in our ward, Sister Humphries. :) She is seriously the sweetest, cutest lady ever!  She was our Valentine and we spent that lunch with her at a Chinese Buffet. We love Sister Humphries. 

Our valentine, Sister Humphries :)

When we got out of our lunch with Sister Humphries, we had a missed call and message from one of the Senior couples in the mission office. We listened to the message and found out they were going to be at our apt in a half an hour cuz we'll be moving! We needed to move to a 2-bedroom apartment because we'll be sharing an apartment with the spanish-speaking sisters in our area. We raced to our next appt to inform them of the situation and then raced home to pack. We were throwing our clothes into our suitcases as the elders started removing our furniture and beds! It was utter chaos! Within an our we were cleared out and everything was left piled all over in our new apartment. What a disaster?! In my pictures, you will be able to see what I'm talking about. (Also, look carefully because I played a little bit of "Where's Waldo?" for ya! hehe.)

Gourmet lunch at the Kilgores - My massive hogi sandwich on my gluten free, egg free, dairy free bread! hehe!

The next day, we were informed by Bishop to come and pick up bikes from Alisa's 3 boys. They were donated by an anonymous individual. We then dropped off the bikes! They loved them! At first, they were confused. Not understanding that the bikes were for them, but then they hopped on and went crazy. I love that family! 

To conclude, I want to share Ether 3:4-6. Some people can have hearts of stone and cut us off or the message we share. As we pray and fast for those we care about, whose hearts may be hardened, can be touched by the Lord and be filled with light. I testify this is true. I love you all and sorry for the shorter email. There's just a lot going on right now. I love you and have a great week!

Love, 

Sister Salmond 

Mission Newsletter #18

Bucking up to go trekking in the snow!

This week was full of miracles! Last week, being sick, Sis. Senior and I felt so cooped up, so this week we worked extra hard to be good missionaries! I promised that we would become the best missionaries last week and we did our best to do that! Here was the result:

Well, first, we have been teaching Katelyn, which I think I have mentioned her before. She's 16 and a sweetie. This last week, we read Alma 32 with her and talked on faith. She said she feels her seed growing, she just doesn't feel that strong desire to feel baptized yet. That is our biggest focus with her, is helping her recognize her answer and feel the Holy Ghost. We have high hopes for her and knows that the Young Women's program has been a great thing for her.

            This week we had Zone Conference! It was a great Zone Conference for sure! I left feeling so pumped and ready to do missionary work! The Conference focused on two things: Planning and Finding. What stood out to me was the Finding. I have been really focusing on trying to speak to people more and reach outside of my comfort zone, along with planning more tracting. This is what I have felt we have been needing to do better as a companionship, so this definitely gave us both the enthusiasm to get the ball rolling!

            With this new vigor, one day at the library, we were doing our mormonchannel/Mormon.org time that we do each week. It was time for the library to close, so all the computers closed off. I started talking to the lady next to me. She asked, "Are you two sisters?" (We get that A LOT!) I responded, "No, but we're sister missionaries!" as I grabbed my nametag, showing her. As she leaned forward to read it, I asked, "Have you heard of our church before?"  She quickly looked down, mumbled "yes," as she began to grab her things. I could tell I was receiving every negative vibe from her, so of course, in my very Heather way, I hollered as she ran away, "Hopefully all good things!" Sis. Senior was laughing so hard. But once again, I did a beautiful job of making a fool of myself. haha. This will be a pattern I think will continue throughout my whole life. It's just another "Funny Heather Moment."

Boiled peanuts at the grocery store. I am SO in the south!

            IT SNOWED AGAIN! That means, no driving! So, we walked to WalMart to do some contacting. However, as we walked, we got picked up by a nice lady, Andraea. We secretly hope to start her. (Snicker, snicker.) As we arrived to WalMart, HOLY COW! It was like Black Friday! Everyone was in a panic getting food because of the snow! Thank goodness the church encourages food storage! This is a testimony why! (The funny thing is that it was such a light snow. It didn't even stick and people were panicking over that. :])

Snow!

       While we were there, we ended up talking to a man, Corey. He has surprisingly enough been taught a couple lessons once before from some elders about a year ago. After that, he never saw them again. Weird! Regardless, he would like us to start coming and teaching him. He may not have been ready for the message then, but it seems as though the Lord prepared him to receive it now.

Also, this week, we got a Mormon.org referral. Many missionaries see these referrals as pointless, since most of the time they just want a free bible, but Sis. Senior and I try to take them seriously, especially with things being slower recently. We try to see it as we were given these names for a reason. With that attitude, our most recent referral, LaVonda, we went to go see. We had been informed that she wanted the free bible, so we weren't sure if it was going to go anywhere, but we went prepared to teach anyways.

        We came in and gave her the bible. Instantly, she asked, "So what makes your church different from other churches? What is it you believe that isn't the same as everyone else?" It was the perfect question and we found out that she explores many religions and is curious about ours. (She has yet to find one that she wants to stick with. She feels like there are a lot of the churches that are led by "false prophets.") So, we began to teach her about the Restoration of our church. When we taught her about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, they weren't strange concepts to her, but made perfect sense. She was so open and prepared to receive this message. Her family is truly amazing and her 14 year old daughter has wanted to serve a mission since she was little. We really look forward to teaching them and know that they will find great joy in this gospel as they continue to learn and grow in it!

            Lastly, I wanted to share something I learned this week in Zone Conference. If we read Abraham 4 chapter heading, it states, "The Gods plan the creation of the earth and all life thereon-- Their plans for the six days of creation are set forth." And then if we read Abraham 5 chapter heading, it then states, "The Gods finish Their planning of the creation of all things-- They bring to pass the Creation according to Their plans..." Here we see that the Gods make plans too! This isn't something we only do here on earth, but something we must learn here as a skill to become more like our Heavenly Father. Planning is essential and we all must plan in our lives. I would like to encourage all of you, no matter what stage you are in in your life, to make plans for the future: who you want to be, what you want to accomplish this year, what career or college path you want to take, what you want to do as a couple in your marriage, etc. The list goes on and on. But make these plans, and when you do, plan on how you will go about accomplishing them. I promise that as you do this, you will find you will accomplish more by making these plans, and by doing so, you will become more like our Father in Heaven.

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!

Sincerely,

Sister Heather Salmond

Sis. Hanks teaching us to set the table. She is the spoon, President Hanks is the knife, and so on. haha, pretty funny! Love Sis. Hanks!

Mission Newsletter #17

This week on Tuesday, there was snow in Alabama! We were grounded to our apartments with the snow falling down. Snow is common in Utah, so this little snow seemed ridiculous at first to stay indoors for. Sister Senior and I were surprised, but we decided to embrace it! We had the BEST SNOW DAY EVER!

Sister Senior and I made up a game as our first activity after our extensive study session. In this game, we came up with goofy questions and things we didn't know about the other and then drew the questions out of a bowl. Sis. Senior's question that I drew said, "What is your craziest dance move? Demonstrate it." She told me I couldn't do my signature Indian dance move, since she's already seen that. All I could then think of was Shem and his dance moves at Zoe's Bachelorette Party. For all of you who were there and can picture this dance move, I laid on my back and kicked my legs up in the air. :) We had a party answering all the different, random questions in the bowl.

Our questionaire game

        After we finished with that game, we decided to bake! With making all my allergy substitutions, we

were pretty sure we could make Fudgy No Bake Cookies! So let the cooking begin! Cocoa Powder was the first ingredient! Uh oh. After Sister Senior searching for her cocoa powder, we discovered that the previous sister had taken with her when she left the apartment. That's ok! We'll make it work. 2 tablespoons of my Gluten Free Brownie Mix and 1 tablespoon of Chocolate Chips to replace the 3 tablespoons of Cocoa Powder missing. Genius! Next, we added the coconut oil, almond milk, sugar, and peanut butter.  The Peanut Butter was a little shy and honey flavored, so that would be a little milder than usual, but not bad. We stirred it all together and it looked perfect! Time to add the oats. Sister Senior grabbed the big container of oats. Oh No! We had half the amount we needed! It seemed like everything that could go wrong did go wrong as we tried to bake these cookies. But no way! I wasn't going to let this stop us! So, since we needed more oats to thicken it, we used my apple cinnamon oatmeal packets to top it off! They didn't look bad! However, I wish

I could say the same about the taste. They were far too sweet! With the honey in the peanut butter, 2 cups of sugar, AND the extra sugar in the oatmeal packets, it was just too much! It was one big carmelly apple slop. It looked chocolaty, but it was deceiving. Needless to say, after eating one each, they ended up in the trash.

         Overall, the small (or so it seemed) snow day, led to a day of companionship bonding and studies! But this wasn't the case for all Alabamians. It created quite a disaster for many others. Alabama is not equipped for this type of weather. No plows, no chains, no salt, etc. Therefore, this small layer of snow became a packed, thick layer of ice. It was very dangerous conditions on the roads. Many people had to abandon their cars or stay the night at work or school. There were many humanitarian and miracle stories that came from this day of horrendous weather. It truly was the worst winter in 30 years! Sister Senior and I were so blessed that the snow began before our studies were through. That way we didn't get stuck out there and instead lived in oblivious bliss. :)

As for the rest of our week, not much happened.... besides CABIN FEVER! After this fabulous snow day, followed another, and then, my cold came full on. It was a Double Whammy! I had a nasty cold/cough that turned into Pink Eye! It's apparently a virus that is going around. Yuck! I became literally, a walking germ! Washing, sanitizing, and studying became our life the rest of the week. We were only able to go out here and there for lessons because of my sickness, and Sister Senior had to do the talking or I would die with coughing fits. This week has made us SO anxious to get back to missionary work! You don't know what you got till it's gone! But I swear to you, with us being so excited to be back in the real world (today is our first day fully out) we are going to be the best missionaries you have ever seen this coming week!

Sick as a dog!

Eewy gooey eye

Yesterday, we did get out long enough to go to church and there, the teacher in Sunday school shared an analogy I never thought of before. It is with the story of the Wizard of Oz. In this story, Dorothy is on a journey with three friends: The Tin Man, The Scarecrow, and The Cowardly Lion. Each of them have a very identifiable weakness. The Tin Man needs a heart, The Scarecrow needs a brain, and The Cowardly Lion needs courage. Because they knew their weaknesses and focused on them, they were able to attain these things and they became their strengths. In Ether 12:27 it states that through God, our weakness can be made strong, like we see in these three famous characters. In Alma 48, we see Moroni apply this same principle. The Lamanites wanted to attack the Nephites. They tried to come into their city through their previous weak points, but because Moroni was a wise and righteous man, he had these areas of weakness built up and the Lamanites could not overthrow them. I know that as we identify our weakness and bring it to the Lord, through His help, it too can become our strength.

I love you all and hope you are all healthy and stay away from the cold weather. haha.
Love,
Sister Heather Salmond

Mission Newsletter #16

So last night was one of the scariest moments of my life! We were visiting a member family. The family is really awesome and all the kids are college-aged or a little older. We were all sitting down in the family room about to share a message, when we heard yelling and screaming coming from the mom and daughter in the backyard. Loud barking and dog fighting roared! The father and two sons jumped up and ran outside, knocking down everything in their path, as the women all looked at each other in shock. Their pit-bull, who was a newer addition to the family, was attacking their dog who was healing from surgery. They had let the sick one outside, not seeing the pit-bull. This was their first time encountering one another. The men couldn't get the pit-bull to stop attacking! Finally, they ran and grabbed their guns and shoot to scare him. The gun shots didn't work at first, but finally they got the dogs apart. The whole family was upset. There was a lot of blood lost and they weren't sure if the injured dog was going to live. The pit-bull was the daughter's dog and the men want the dog to go. (I have to say, I totally understand their point of view and feel the same.) She was so upset. She loves her dog. I really don't know what the final verdict will be: put the dog down, get rid of him, or keep him. Sister Senior and I left a little shaken up, but we prayed for the family. I can't imagine how hard this has had to be for them. Strangely enough, this situation strengthened my testimony of men. They truly are the protectors. When they heard danger, they ran to the rescue and put their own lives at stake for those that they love. As I described before, all of us women were in shock. We were not so quick to react and protect. This is why God has created men and women to have these separate roles. We are nurtures. We were there to comfort the toddler, who was upset by the ruckus, and to hug the mother and grandmother when they needed the comfort and support. I am grateful for men and their ability to act quickly and drop everything to protect their family. That is a gift God truly gave men.

On a completely different note, Sister Kilgore made me Cinnamon Raisin Bread! Sweet! I used to eat that for breakfast like everyday at the Charleston and once I got allergilicious, I haven't been able to enjoy that sweet goodness! Oh man. I love tender mercies. :)

For the last few weeks, we have been teaching a 16 year old, Katelyn. She is such a sweetie! We met her because her grandma is a less active member we come and visit. One day her grandma wasn't there and we started teaching her. She has been taking discussions from us and went to mutual and church this week! We hope to set a baptismal date with her tomorrow. I have high hopes for this girl. :) (Katelyn is the farthest one on the right.)

We are also teaching Erica. She is the daughter of a woman we've been teaching, but we were going to drop because she has been taught for a year and wasn't progressing. Needless to say, Erica took a history of religion class and loved it and wanted to know more about our church, so we have taught her the restoration. We are not sure if she's interested beyond that because church here is more of a social event, but she said she'd read the Book of Mormon. So we'll see!

A couple funny moments: At correlation meeting, Bro. Burdick took us out to Mexican restaurant. For 5 lunch specials, it ended up being a whopping $100! I don't think they did the math right....) Also, Camron drew Sister Senior and I a picture because he missed us. Too cute! I love that family!

This week has been full of good times. I have really come to love my companion this week. We had an exchange and I realized how much I love Sister Senior and missed her so much! I am so grateful to have such a good friend I can spend everyday with. :)

Lastly, yesterday was our ward conference. We spent the day going to the youth classes with Katelyn and there the Stake President spoke to them. He said some things that really stood out to me and I loved. He said there is two things we must do to have Eternal Life:

1. A Testimony

2. Conversion. A Testimony is something we know and declare, but conversion is becoming. There are 4 things we need to do to be converted:

3. Keep the Commandments

4. As Questions & Be Willing to Act

5. Give Service

6. Worthily Partake of the Sacrament Each Week to renew all of our covenants (not just

7. our baptismal.)

We can know when we are truly converted when we have a "mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually." (Mosiah 5:2) I know this is so true. We must all gain our own testimony of this Gospel and of our Savior, but not just that, we much then become converted in order to live with our Father in Heaven and inherit Eternal Life.

I love the gospel and I love you all so much! Thank you for all your prayers! I hope you are all doing fabulous and have a great week ahead!  Oh! And Shout Out to Merrie and Michael Hess who were married this last week! I love you two! I wish you both the best!

Love,

Sister Heather Salmond

Mission Newsletter #15

Eating Sukiyaki for the first time at Sister Gunter's! Yum!

This week has been full of tracting! We are trying to find more people to teach. We are teaching a few (Katelyn: age 16 and Logan: age 8), but overall, we need a bigger teaching pool. Our days are becoming harder and harder to fill as we run out of people to see. But it's been good! We have found a really nice lady, Linda, who seems promising and a college-aged boy, Mike, who we will be passing on to the elders. We can tell he is also really interested; we just can't tell if he's interest in us or the gospel... Werr, weerrr, wweeeerrrrr.

The highlight of this week was definitely with Alisa and her family at fhe! We taught the family on missionary work! We made all the kids future missionary tags and we taught how they could start being a missionary now. I asked Alisa to share with her family why she has been feeling the need to share the gospel with her sisters and friends (since that is what she's been telling us she's been doing.) She then went off a completely different direction than I expected! She started telling us how amazing WE are for teaching her family and she wants to make sure we know that and that she loves us. So, I then tried to tie it back in, so we could make it work with the lesson, but instead, I ended up sounding completely conceded! I began, "Like you said Alisa, we're amazing... Wait! I didn't mean that!" Too late. The damage was done. The spirit was gone and roaring laughter filled the room. Oh well. What can you do?

Sister Kilgore's Birthday! (although you can tell
she isn't too pleased about the Sundae. hehe. So cute.)

Also, this week we were able to go out with Sister Kilgore to teach. It was her birthday! And she took US out to lunch! Shouldn't it be the other way around?! She is just so sweet! But, don't worry, we had them sing to her and she got a free Chocolate Sundae, which broke her diet. Because of this, we had to get a dessert too, so she wouldn't be eating it alone. Sister Senior got a Sundae as well and I got... fruit. Yep. Story of my life. haha. Also, this Sunday at church, she informed me that she bought a cook book for me that has recipes for people with allergies! She made a packet for the ward members of all the recipes I could eat so I don't get sick anymore. It was like 15 pages! How sweet! And she also are making egg replacer packets and carrying them around on Sundays for whenever people want it from her. She is such a sweetheart! It is incredible everything she has done for me. She has just taken such good care of me! I love her so much! And so, we heart attacked her and the Bishop as a big thank you!

The Kilgore's heart attack!

Fun Moment! Sister White always tells us that if they're not home, don't be afraid to come in and use theb athroom or whatever. We've never done it yet, but this week, we needed to and thought we'd do some service and clean her kitchen while we were at it! The funny thing is that later, we discovered she was home... Just in her room and couldn't hear us. Good thing we didn't scare her and she didn't mind! haha. I love Sister White!

Surprising Sister White with kitchen cleaning!

Also, this week we were able to sit down and talk to Tywanna. Can I say I just love her SOOOOO much! I have really missed visiting with her! She is been so amazing though. She hasn't stopped reading her scriptures and praying daily. You can tell the Holy Ghost really plays a major role in her life now. Good news! She is here to stay and will no longer be living in Birmingham! We are back to visiting with her at our regular times and she'll be back at church starting this next week! I know the Lord protects his children, even when they are far away and we don't know how they are doing, He does. He does. :)

Lastly, I just want to share a story Sister Senior shared with me of her friend's experience. His family owns a barn and there was a big fire! They tried to save all the animals they could, but most perished in the flames. Once the fire was put out, they had to go and collect the dead animals. With a wheelbarrow, his dad took care of the barn as he headed out to the chicken coop. He placed one dead chicken after another into the wheelbarrow. As he picked up one hen, with her wing extended, little baby chicks came running from out of her wing. They had survived the flames of the fire because they were protected by their mother. Like in 3 Nephi 10:4-6, the Savior is the hen and his wings are extended out to gather us as his chicks. If we turn to him and his sacrifice of His life he gave for us, we too will be protected from the fiery darts of the adversary. And He, like the hen, stands there calling us and we are the ones that must run to Him. We cannot hope that we can be saved from the flames if we do not run under His wings of the Atonement. I urge you all to turn to Jesus Christ, our Savior. He will be our protector and through him we can be saved and forgiven from all our sins and imperfections.

I love this gospel and I love serving a mission. It has been a huge blessing. I pray for you all everyday and I love you with all my heart! Keep writing (and if I haven't written you back from Christmas, I am sorry! You'll be getting one soon! I am still trying to play catch up!) I love you!

Love,
Sister Salmond

P.S. As missionaries, we always have to back each other out as we drive in reverse. I was outside at night,

Demon dog!

after we heart attacked the Kilgores. I had my camera conveniently in my pocket from taking pictures of our heart attacking job.  As I got out to back Sister Senior out of the drive way, I suddenly noticed a vicious Pomeranian charging right at me! He was barking and ready to kill! I screamed to Sister Senior as I quickly took pictures of the attack! Thank goodness this last one was taken inside the safe vehicle! The Lord loves me! I am not meant to die yet! Hallelujah!

Mission Newsletter #14

This has been another slow week, although it's picking up a little bit; but don't worry the Lord is mindful of me! This was overwhelmingly evident on our slowest day on the mission thus far!

In our studies, we got a call that changed all our plans for the day. We suddenly went from a planned day to nothing. As we tried several finding techniques, the day kept creeping by slowly with boredom. But, the Lord provided a way of making my day a little more interesting. For this, I am oddly thankful that:

We walked into a jewelry parlor (thinking it was a knick knack store) to look so that we could run into someone to teach. We went in and it had like two people in it. We tried to talk to one lady working there, but no success. We could tell it wasn't going anywhere. With that, we left.

As we walked down the street and waited to cross, a lady who was in the store (a customer) raced over to us and to get our attention. She told us our skirt was tucked up in our underwear. Horror filled me at first as I quickly checked! I felt relief as I felt my skirt behind me.  Fewf! Sister Senior asked as she was checking if it was her. I was just grateful it wasn't me, but I guess I should've known since I have never done that before. Just then, I heard the lady reply to Sister Senior, "No, you!" as she pointed to me. What?! I never done this! I check and again, and sure enough, it was up there. How embarrassing?! I have been walking up and down the streets of downtown like that! "How much could you see?" I asked. Let me tell you, bad question, because she responded with chuckles, "Everything!" Oh wow! What a horrifying day! I just couldn't stop laughing with embarrassment.

I am grateful that the Lord cursed me with this tragedy because it definitely created a fun plot twist in our boring dead day. haha.

Later that day: After we made efforts to fill our day, with no where else to turn, we headed to Walmart and did service by pushing the shopping carts (or here known as "buggies") and putting them away. As ridiculous as it sounds, it is actually a great tool I learned because 1. you have fun 2. you're seen doing good as a representative of Jesus Christ 3. people approach you and thank you for doing it 4. it makes everyone happier! If you are ever looking for a good deed, check out Walmart! You'll see many people smile from it. :)

Random Note: Went out this week with a sister in our ward. She took us out to lunch at BBQ place. It was SO good! Some of the best bbq and quite inexpensive too. Family: that is definitely where I'll be taking you when you come out to visit. :) Everyone else, sorry, but you are missing out. Dun, dun, dun.

Good news! We got a hold of Tywanna once more! We called her and found out that she was back in the area due to a loss in the family and wanted us to come and comfort them and leave a prayer with the family. What a hard thing for them to be going through, but we were so happy to hear from her and get the opportunity to meet with her once more. She told us to come to her house an hour from then, which we did. No one seemed to be there. (That was soon verified by a man who told us that they had to leave about 5 minutes before to run more errands.) We were sad we missed them and got in the car and took off. As we got around the corner, there came Tywanna charging in her car going the opposite direction back to the house! She pointed at us as we saw her mouth to her friend, "There they are!" Wahoo! We did a big U-turn! With that, it seemed all too familiar to our last encounter with Tywanna, chasing her down her street (except this time, she wanted to see us!) Victory! We were enthused as we sang the classic song that is often used to portray horses racing (at least that's what I think of). We caught up to them at the house. It was so good to see her. It was evident she still had the Holy Ghost beaming from within her. The true testimony of this situation was to see her bear her testimony of the Plan of Salvation. She has truly found comfort amongst her trials. My testimony is strengthened through her.

Overall, my week has been incredible, but before I depart, I want to share a quick spiritual thought with you. In Alma 33, he has previously spoken of planting our faith like unto a seed and if we experiment on that faith, we will learn whether it is a good seed or a bad seed. He emphasizes prayer and then ends the chapter in verse 23 stating, "And now, my brethren, I desire that ye shall plant this word in your hearts, and as it beginneth to swell even so nourish it by your faith. And behold, it will become a tree, springing up in you unto everlasting life. And then may God grant unto you that your burdens may be light, through the joy of his Son. And even all this can ye do if ye will. Amen." Notice the "if"? Everything God has created is evolved around this choice, the "if". We must choose to find faith. We must choose to be happy. We must choose to be forgiven. We must choose to love others. We must choose to work hard and succeed. It's all a choice, just like it is to be sad or mad. So, I want to challenge you, if you are having a hard time in your life, or aren't sure what road to take, rely on God in prayer and CHOOSE your path. With God by our side, our burdens can be made light... if we choose.

I love you all. Have a fabulous week!
Love,
Sister Salmond

p.s. We ate at the Kilgores this week. So good! Every meal is gormet! Chilled Carrot Soup as the appetizer and Grilled Salmon on Rice with Ratatouille. Yum! I can't wait to own her recipe book one day (she said she would put it on a flash drive for us. So you'll get the recipes too mom!)

Mission Newsletter #13

It's a New Year! 2014 here we come! Oh how time flies! Also, Congrats to Alexa on her Wedding yesterday! Love ya Couz! 

Update: My letters from now on may not be as extravagant as they have been. We can no longer use the family history centers to email (allowing us to type as long as we want), but from now on must use our local library. We have been spoiled, but luckily it's been a slow week now that we baptized all our investigators last week and finding people have been difficult with the holidays. So there's not much to write anyways!

Good news! Sister Senior and I aren't being transferred!  We are both staying! This will be the longest Sister Senior has ever stayed in an area and I'm now her longest companion! Not trying to make her boyfriend jealous or anything, but me, right here, I am the LONGEST she has ever spend with someone outside her family. Boo ya Baby! We obviously have more people for us to find and teach together. There is so much more for me to learn from her. "She's got a life-time of knowledge." 

I relearned how to use an umbrella this week. Pathetic I know! It has been very rainy and last night it pouring! So, I pulled out the umbrella, but as I was getting soaked in the dark, I couldn't find the umbrella button to make it magically open!  Where was it!  I started trying to force it open, but that too didn't work! Finally, I found the easy button on the opposite side. It's about time I figured out how to use my umbrella. Maybe it would've been better to run for shelter than mess with my umbrella as I continued to become drenched. Whatever.

Miracles of the Week: 

1. Sister Senior's recent convert disappeared when I moved into the area about 3 months ago. She just picked up and moved without telling anyone where she went. We have searched for her with no success. About a month ago, we gave up. As we were driving, Sister Senior suggested that we try her one more time. It was so random I agreed. Don't mess with revelation! However, when we went to the house that we believed was her's, we were informed by a neighbor we were incorrect. We've tracted that whole street pretty much trying to find her. We decided to talk to her mother once more to get more direction of where she could be living. But low and behold, there she was outside! What a miracle?! She was their for her grandson's first birthday party! Sister Senior and her were reunited once again! The Lord wanted us to find us to find her. Talking to her went so well as we bore our testimony of prayer and the love of our Heavenly Father. We hope we can keep seeing her and bring her back unto Christ. There is no such thing as coincidences. 

2. We were leaving Meagan and Michael's house, when I felt that we should try to see Sherry. She is a neighbor of a less active that we met. We stopped by and the less went so smoothly. We left a Book of Mormon with her along with the new My Family packet. She has a large interest of family history work. I know that the Lord has prepared her for us to visit because as we briefly taught her of the Spirit World, she told us that that is what she has always believed. No church that she has attended has told her that, but she has always felt that. She has also stopped attending her church recently, so it's like the Lord planned the timing just right. We have such high hopes for her as it was so evident that the Spirit was present.

Lastly, before I go, I wanted to share something I learned this week. As you guys probably know, I love being people's favorite. I have worked so hard to be my mom's favorite. She doesn't like to admit it, but I know where I lie. ;) But this is something I have always wondered when it comes to God. How can I be highly favored like Nephi states? I want to be one of God's favorites and this week, I found out how! In Alma 27: 27, it spoke of the people that they were (a) perfectly honest (b) upright in all things (c) firm in their faith of Christ. The equation continues in verse 30: (d) zealous and then (e) become a highly favored and beloved people of the Lord. a+b+c+d=e. This is how we can all become a favored people of the Lord. I promise you that as you become this type of people, you too will be favored.

I love you all. Have a happy week!

Love,
Sister Salmond

p.s. Sorry, no exciting pictures this week. :(