Mission Newsletter #23

Happy St. Patrick's Day! All wearing green for the festive day!

Here are some of big things that happened this week:

1. We had a huge training on a new way of teaching. Funny enough, I received this training about 7-8 months ago back at home in a small ward fhe. We were taught to teach through the pictures in the pamphlets. Simplicity. Through this method of teaching, we can help the spirit guide, rather than the lesson plans. Although I have been taught it before, I never really got to use what I had been taught because I was trained differently and it was different than the mission culture. It was neat to see it come in to play and to use the lessons I had seen many moons ago.

Redid the weekly planning board - it's colofrul, now!

2. There is a woman in our ward, Arcola, who had her 70th Birthday/Retirement Party! It was huge! There were about 200 people there and we were able to help. We helped serve the meal, but not only that, she had Book of Mormons as her party favor with a book mark. We had the opportunity to stand at the doors and pass them out. That's like every missionary's dream! But seriously, what a neat idea? She inspired me. I don't nearly have as many non-LDS friends because I live in Utah, but it makes me want to pass out Book of Mormons as a party favor at my wedding or something like that too. I don't know if I'll get to use the idea, but WOW! Inspiring! This lady never ceases to amaze me!

A bird pooped right onto my door! We were heading back to the car after tracting and I saw him AIM and all!!! Rude. Don't worry, I shot him with my imaginary bow and arrow.

3. Last night, we were welcomed into Katlyn's house by her preacher's wife. There, we were told to take our materials (Book of Mormon, pamphlets, and her seminary stuff) and to leave. She tried to tell us that Joseph Smith is our Jesus Christ. Although this is in no way true, we were not given the chance to speak. There was no expression on Katlyn's face. It was like she no longer cared or loved us as we had loved her. That is what I think was the hardest part. We left that home with heavy hearts, never again able to return.

        It seems as though this has been the pattern of the week for me. It is as though those I love and care for are being ripped away from me, but I know that is because I have a lot to give. I know Satan is afraid of all that Sister Conant & I can do. The second we bring in the spirit strong into someone's life or do something great, he does everything in his power to undo it. He is scared of us and the power & impact we can make in our lives and in the lives of others. However, he will not win this battle with me. No sir. These experiences have only humbled me more and turned me to my Savior. I know he loves me and is there to lighten my burdens when I need it. In Mosiah 24:13-14, the Lord told His people, "Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage. And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions."
        I am here on a mission to stand as God's witness. And although God doesn't promise to take away my

afflictions or trials, through Him, they can be lightened, as though I "cannot feel them." Deliverance will come. When? I don't know, but I know that the Lord is my Shepherd and I can lean on Him. When you too start to have these moments of hurt or bondage, lean on Him and I promise, He will visit you in your afflictions too.
Well, as a female, I don't only turn to prayer on the hard days. So last Monday, I made Apple Cobbler! I know they advise to not emotional eat... but WHATEVER! I am so going to emotional eat! haha. What can I say? I know what I want. ;)

Well, I love you all! Have a great week! God be with you!
Love,
Sister Salmond

Hangin' eating cobbler monday night with roomies and comp!

Mission Newsletter #22

There's just a few things y'all ain't never gonna hear in the West. I'd reckin' I'd give y'all a snick pick inta the South.

In Bama, we have wangs to eat, as we stays down the skreet. You ax where? Farcy! (as far as the eye can see) When not studdin' for skue, the boys are changin' the ole, waterin' da flars with the hose pipe, fetchin' watta from the whale & shootin' erra's. You says Appalashin, we says Appilach-in. Oh! And don't forget to grab a buggy (cart) when y'all go to da store! And we guarantold ya, we umble. Love, Bamians :)

This week Sister Conant and I created a new key indicator (or for those of you who don't know what that is, it's numbers we count up each week to see where we are at in comparison to our goals). This new key indicator boosted our self esteem and surpassed all our expectations! We got a whopping 31!!... failed attempts. haha. I think our failed attempts should count for something. Don't you? ;)

Also this week we got to eat at the Kilgores again, but just with Sister Kilgore. :) It was a fun girls night with all Spanish Sisters (Hermana Smith & Leahman) and her. Once again, Sister Kilgore knocked it out of the park with poached pears in ganache with ice cream for dessert. (Although, of course I couldn't do all of that with my allergies, but still way good.) Also, we had a day of exchanges! There was a big meeting where two people from each district was randomly selected to go, so therefore, we had a lot of different pair ups! It was way fun to get to know these other sisters!

This last Monday, we had family home evening with not just Alisa and her family, but Katlyn came as well. :) The kids were all so sweet to her. We did the family home evening and an activity, with a little bit of Father Abraham (for those who know what that is.) After we finished up, the kids ran off to get ready for bed. The rest of us stayed in the family room and Katlyn had to opportunity to ask Alisa about her conversion. It was so wonderful hearing Alisa bear her testimony to Katlyn. It was so genuine, pure and strong. She spoke of how our church isn’t a shouting, praising church, but a loving church. We could all feel her testimony beaming as she spoke about our church and the ability we have to continually learn in the gospel. It was an amazing night for all of us as we all learned from Alisa and her great faith.

Saturday, the Elders had a baptism of Shun. We were so lucky to have Katlyn and Diamond join us. They are both progressing so much in the gospel! It was wonderful to be able to have both of them there and be able to experience the baptism. It gave them the ability to see what it would be like if they too were to be baptized. They both also want to attend Girls Camp, which would be such a wonderful and fun experience for them. This will be such a big blessing for them. Man, I love these two girls so much and pray for them every day.

Yesterday, we had the privilege to have President and Sister Hanks speak during our Sacrament Meeting. I'd like to share a small part of what he shared with us.
       Which of all the commandments are the most important for us to keep? "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God...And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Matthew 22:36-40 Ok. Now that I got that down, what's next? "If ye love me, keep my commandments." John 14:15 Do we have to follow ALL of the commandments? Yes. We can't be "cafeteria mormons." We can't have our tray and choose the commandments we like and decide to just keep those. Wilford Woodruff said, "You can't let strawberries choose. They'll choose weeds every time." This is also true with the Gospel. We must fully dedicate ourselves to the Lord and allow ourselves to be submerged. If you aren't, then find a way to improve to be more closely knit to Christ. "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Matthew 6:24 So, I ask you now to "Choose this day whom ye will serve...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

I love y'all and have a fabulous week!
-Sister Heather Salmond

p.s. Ordered at McDonalds for the first time with my funky diet. Look what I got?! I don't even know if I call that food. haha. I love how funny and interesting my life can be sometimes. :)

Mission Newsletter #21

Five months out and I'm lovin' it with my new companion! So, this week I discovered that I'm not the only crazy blonde person in this world! My companion, Sister Conant, is too!! Why the Lord put us together? Only Heaven knows, but regardless, this is going to be a fun transfer! As you can see from the picture, Sister Conant totally put the stamp on the letter on the wrong side! haha. Instead putting it in the top right-hand corner, it found its way to the bottom left-hand side! So funny! I love this girl!
Overall this week has been filled with several sweet miracles. Here are just a few:

        1. We went tracting last Saturday and left a blessing in a woman's home. She told us we could come back to share a message of Jesus Christ with her. We made that appointment, however on Tuesday when we arrived, her daughter, Alecia answered the door instead. Alecia told us her mother wasn't home, so we asked her if we could share the message with her. She agreed. We found out that Alecia is 20 and has a one year old son. This year she had made a New Year's resolution to become more religious, but hasn't been doing well on her goal so far. She has a desire to be baptized, but hasn't found a church she would like to join yet. It seemed like God had perfectly prepared her to meet and help her receive the gospel. We were able to teach her the Restoration of the Church and hope to be able to continually see her and help her grow and we work on her New Year's goals. :)

Chocolate Easter Mazes! How cool is that?!

        2. This week we have also received 2 new very promising referrals! It is evident that the Lord is blessing us for our hard work and efforts to make our goals and speak to everyone we meet. Even though it was an indirect blessing, it is evident the Lord is still rewarding us for our hard efforts.

        3. We went to go teach a lesson to Katlyn. Turns out she forgot we were supposed to be coming that day, but it ended up being a miracle in disguise because Katlyn had a friend of hers over, Diamond. Diamond is 16 and hasn't had much religion in her life growing up, but desires to feel closer to God. We taught the lesson to Katlyn on obedience and explained simple concepts to Diamond along the way. By the end, Diamond accepted baptism and to begin reading the Book of Mormon. Since then, we have been able to go to her house and teach her the Restoration. She is very interested and genuine in her search and is eager to keep commitments. This is such a miracle because Katlyn and Diamond can be a great support for each other as they make this new journey of religion together. The Lord truly supports and loves each of us and gives us the tools we each individually need to succeed.

Having fun trying on Sunglasses!

The winner twinner pair! Both got them for $5 each! Steal!

Lastly, this week, we were also able to teach with Katlyn. At mutual the day before, they talked about family history work and doing baptisms for the dead in the temple. Katlyn desires to be able to do that, but she asked if she would be able to still attend her family's church and do that. We were sad to inform her that if she wanted to receive a Temple recommend to be able to enter the Temple, she would not be able to attend her other church anymore, only occasional visits. This has been a hard thing for her. That church is where she's grown up. She is now feeling the inner pressure that she must choose between the two churches: family or us. We told her to pray on it. Can you all remember to include her in your prayers this week to help her be able to receive an answer and comfort and strength in making that decision? Also, I want to promise all of you, if you pray with any big or small decisions in your life, God will answer. In 1 Nephi 15:11 it says, "If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you." This is a promise the Lord makes. If we but humbly ask, believing we'll receive and do our part in righteousness, we will receive an answer. I know this is true.

I love you all and have a fabulous week!
Love,
Sister Heather Salmond

p.s. Went to Alisa's house to give a gift to Camron for his birthday. He opened his gift of blue silly string. As

After Alisa's. Haha.

he looked at it, I pulled out from behind my back PINK SILLY STRING! ATTACK! It got messy, but way fun! Left the house with a duck sticker and silly string reminisce all over my sweater. (Can't see it well in the pic, but it's there.) I just can't wait to have my only family and have these little silly moments every day!

Mission Newsletter #20

The foursome one last time! Welcome home Elder Leali'ie'e! And Elder Osiemo will be following next week, heading back home to Kenya! Miss you guys!

Saying goodbye to Elder Wright. Leaving the District :( He's my pal.

We had transfers last week! The Senior and Salmond duo is no more! Senior got shipped out to West Point, Mississippi. However, now, there is a new duo and a new start with Sister Conant! She and I both grew up in Northern California and then moved during high school. Kind of crazy!  A few facts about Sister Conant: she is a mixture between Tori Jensen and Alexa Wiley (sorry forgot your new last name...) She loves rabbits and "delicious" food and her favorite Disney movie is the Lion King.

New Companion, Sister Conant

Funny Story I forgot to share last week! It was Valentine's Day and Sister Senior and I were entering Walmart. A car drove up and a guy yelled to us, "Do you guys have a Valentine?" We looked at each other and then replied, "No..." "Do you want one?" he asked. We were quick to reply, "No." He tried to convince us otherwise, but when we denied him he yelled as he drove away. "This Valentine's Day sucks! I even made an effort!" hahaha! So funny! Definitely was way too funny and totally made our evening!

Working on Pinewood Derby!

This week was the Pinewood Derby! Personally, I have always never liked the Pinewood Derby. It is seriously so intense and so much work! This time, Sister Senior and I helped Alisa and her kids with their cars. It was actually kind of us cuz all of us had no clue what to do! haha. This is why we don't have a pinewood derby in Activity Days or Young Womens! Alisa strapped up and got out her electric saw. We did one simple angle on each car and then sanded it and painted it. Wahoo! All done! Sister Senior wasn't able to be there for the derby, but needless to say, they didn't come out as first... But with each run, Alisa had a big smile and gave them a big high five! Even though they didn't do well, their attitudes were great! She said she'll know better for next year! I love that family!

Derby Badge and Certificate!

Guess what?! I got new boots from Sister Humphries!! She use to wear them dancing, but they don't fit her anymore. She's too old to wear them. All I can say is, hot. ;)

As for teaching, Katlyn is still doing great and we are aiming for her to be baptized March 8th, although the date may be moved. We just started teaching her friend, Diamond and she too has a baptismal date set for March 15th. We hope that they can build each other up and be a great support for each other as they start this new journey. :) We also are teaching Meka and Michael, who are engaged and have a family of three kids. Crazy enough, Meka is Alisa's distant cousin!! Right now their baptismal date is for March 22nd and I feel that Alisa's family and Meka's family could really help and lift each other up. There is so much good in having a strong support system. I hope to be able to help our investigators with this as we progress in teaching them. But there is a lot of high hopes for them all and I know that they are loved by our Heavenly Father. He has been watching over them and is ready to receive them back into his fold.          

This week we had our big finding event. The Movie Night of 17 Miracles! Katlyn came and there were about 15-20 nonmembers there with a total attendance of about 80! Big success. I told our mission president I wanted this "TO BE BIG!" I felt like we needed to set up more chairs. He didn't think we did. Let's just say, I won that battle. haha. Only a few minutes into the movie, more chairs had to be set up because there wasn't enough. Whoot! Whoot! Success! Loved the movie, and I know that there will be more than just those 17 miracles resulting from those we met that night!
     
Also, from that night, many lessons were taught in the movie. There is one in particular I want to share with you. In Alma 36:3 it states, "And now, O my son (or daughter) [your name], behold, thou art in thy youth, and therefore, I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my words and learn of me; for I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day." It was evident that the saints received this support from God in their trials as they crossed the plains. There were so many miracles that came about because of their faith and because they turned to God. We each have miracles in our own lives. I challenge all of you to continue to learn of God and have faith in him and he will support you in your trials and provide many miracles in your life in the upcoming future. I love you all and wish you a happy future week!

Love,
Sister Salmond

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