December 19, 2011: Feliz Navidad!

My dearest family,

   I was overwhelmed with emotion reading all of your letters and seeing all the pictures you sent. I was filled with gratitude as I read all your words of love and encouragement. I feel like I am the luckiest girl because I have the best family in the whole world. I honestly can`t even express how much I love each one of you. I miss you all so much that it hurts sometimes (mostly right at this moment), but knowing you are all at home praying and sending your love makes me be able to embrace every single day here in the mission. I was thinking of the best thing that I could send and I thought I would send you my testimony, but first off I want to share an experience that happened this week. We have been teaching a woman named Gisella and her two kids are baptized and she comes to church all the time. She has had so many struggles in her family and personal life that she has put off baptism for so long. So Hermana Smith and I decided to go over there and re invite her to be baptized. So we stood outside the door trying to reason with her about the things she already knew. She didn`t seem to be budging much. So then my companion asked if we could come in her house and say a prayer. As we entered the house, we all got on our knees around the bed and we told her to express all that she was feeling to her Heavenly Father and ask him if she should get baptized on the 23rd of December and then wait for a minute or so after for her answer. She began to pray and pour out her heart and tears to the Lord. It was so sincere and heartfelt. She expressed her desire to be better, her need for the love of the Lord in her life, and she expressed that she knows the church is true. Then she asked if she should be baptized on the 23rd. After the prayer ended, we all sat in silence with our heads bowed, and my companion and I praying in our hearts that she would get an answer. As she looked up she said, "Yes Hermanas I will be baptized on the 23rd. I know I should." We all felt the love of the Lord on our knees that night. I felt so much gratitude for prayer.

   On Saturday Luz Maria was baptized and it was a wonderful baptism...although there was no water in the font when we got there...oops...hehe. Then after we threw a Christmas party with the ward for the investigators and it turned out to be a huge hit. Everyone was having so much fun. I borrowed a guitar from an hermano in the ward and Hermana Smith and I sang a song. It was a lot of fun. They make us feel like movie stars here.

   Well, as for my feelings this time of year. I feel so happy right now in my life. I feel so blessed to be here to help my Heavenly Father in helping others to find their way back home. I know this church is true with every fiber of my being. I feel it so strongly inside me and I have watched the pain, suffering and heartaches of those we are teaching literally melt away. I know it could only be done through the power of a loving Savior who received the punishment for our sins, he who had no sin. He suffered that we might have joy. He bled so that we might live. I love Him so much and feel eternally indebted to Him. The Atonement covers all sin. There is no sin to great or too small. He who created the Universe can heal us. We just need to have faith in Him and just leave it all behind to find the greatest happiness that awaits us. He is ever calling us to return to him. The commandments, to me, were created out of love so that we wouldn`t stray to far. I know he lives to help us. I know it. I have felt him here with me. I am so grateful to him.

    This Friday we hope to have 3 baptisms as our gift to our Savior this Christmas. I remember mom saying a few years ago that we should offer something to Christ at Christmas because he has given us everything. The only thing we can give him that he doesn`t have is our hearts. That has always impacted me. I have shared it with the people we are teaching here and they look forward to be baptized before Christmas to give the Savior their greatest gift. I love you all. Feliz Navidad. I can`t wait to talk to you.

Always,

Hermana Salmon

P.S. Good news is I got your package, but we got robbed! I just recieved the magazine and nothing else! I was so sad because I know you went through such sacrifice to send it to me. 

December 13, 2011: Faithful Daughter in Ecuador by Dr. Henderson

Dear Salmon Family:  
     I am serving as the Area Medical Advisor for Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador.  Sister Henderson and I are presently in Guayaquil helping out with the situation of a sick missionary, and had the opportunity to meet with the sister missionaries of the Ecuador Guayaquil South Mission with Sister Montalti about health concerns.  I have included a group picture from the meeting.

      I have also included a group picture from the short taxi ride back to the Mission office.  I guess I can be criticized for it, as we were packed a little tight, but it was a lot of fun talking to your daughter and the others.  Sister Henderson is somewhere back in the pile.

      Your daughter seemed to be very happy, and spoke highly of President Montalti, and of her companion.  Her Spanish was very good, and the Ecuadorean food seems to be agreeing with her.  You can be quite proud of your daughter and her courage in serving.  I look forward to working with her for the health of the Elders and Sisters in the mission.

Dr. David Henderson

P.S.  I am the old bald guy in the front seat of the taxi.

December 12, 2011: One Year in Ecuador!

Family,

        I just can`t believe I arrived in Ecuador 1 year ago this week. How time has flown. I am enjoying myself too much for words. Sorry that last weeks letter was a little short. I was SO TIRED from all that's been going on. We are enjoying the work and seeing much success from the love of the members and of the Lord. We are just reaping all the blessings from it all. This last week Javier Cabrera was baptized and confirmed a member of the church and we are just so happy. Almost all of our converts are going strong in the church and even Pedro got up to share his testimony in church this week. He is a man who has hunger for knowledge of the things of the Gospel. He has just soared since his baptism and there is a noticeable light in his eyes. It makes the fire inside me grow bigger and have the desire to share the gospel until I cant go any longer. This week I have been fighting the feeling of being so tired. I am just warn out but I feel so much of the help of the Lord when we feel like we can`t move one more step...that's when the Lord steps in.  I know this is His work and any efforts we make to help bring his children back to him, he can use and he will help us to soar. I love you all. The Church is true.

Always,

Hermana Salmon

December 5, 2011: Stake Conference

Family,

  What a week! This week was a whirlwind! So this weekend was stake conference and a few weeks ago our bishop set the goal for us to bring 30 investigators to church. I know we are in Ecuador and all, but 30 was a little bit of a steep number (or at least I was thinking...oh me of little faith). So we created a plan and my companion and I did divisions several times with the members to invite everyone we could. On Saturday we spent the whole day walking through our sector, confirming all the invitations we had made. Then Sunday came..the time for "the Harvest". We set out with Hermano Soliz in his car and we drove around waking people up so they could start to get ready! Then we found this sweet little bus and we loaded everyone in. It was nuts, but so much fun! But we arrived with 25 people at the conference and it was such a wonderful day with the great efforts of the whole group. It really brought the ward together and I love it here. I feel quite at home and I love these people so much. Now we cant lose a beat and need to go find all of them to teach this week. We are excited but need lots of prayers! Love you. It has been so much fun!

Always,

Hermana Salmon

November 28, 2011: Another Great Week

Family,

Well I have some great stories to share from another fabulous week! Right after I finished writing you last Monday, we were trying to print something off the emails and Hermana Smith said her name out loud. What we didn`t realize is that a lady was listening and as we left to walk home, she came running after us with the Mission Handbook that Hermana Smith had lost a week earlier. She said that she had found it and was waiting to find the owner. We asked her if we could go visit her and we did that night. We shared a message with her and she told us that she hasn`t lived here very long and feels very lonely. She said that her mom and sister are members of the church in another city far away. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted! What a miracle! The Lord really has so many means of bringing others to find us or us to find them. I love it! It is so fun!

Then that night we found out that the wedding we were hoping to carry out was not going to happen because of a confusion in the papers. We ran and got an hermana in the ward who is a profesional with those things on Tuesday night and all said a prayer together that all would come out right because they had to get married Wednesday. Then, Wednesday morning we got a call from the Hermana saying, "Okay, they are going to get married today at 3 pm!" We did a lot of running around to find witnesses and got a nice cake to celebrate and I can happily say that the family was married! After their interview the dad Pablo said, " I can`t wait any longer for my baptism. I am so ready." Then Sunday came and the husband and wife were baptized by their son Junior who was baptized a month ago. It was such a beautiful service and we left feeling so incredibly happy.

Everything else is so great. We are incredibly happy and we had so much fun celebrating Thanksgiving with the Family Hidalgo. They made turkey, mashed potatoes WITH gravy (which doesnt exist here) and pumpkin pie!! They looked up a recipe online! We were so happy and they had the tree all set up too. We talked about our traditions at home and we felt the Thanksgiving spirit. What a memorable day. Everyone wants to give us Christmas dinner...and we are so okay with that!

Oh, another thing I think you would enjoy to know. Hermana Smith is so great and she reminds me so much of Taryn. She does so many things like her and when we are walking and I am not looking at her, I think she is Taryn. It is so sweet. It makes me feel quite at home. I love you all.

Always,

Hermana Salmon

November 21, 2011: Black Monday

Family,

Yeah, today Hermana Smith and I are celebrating "Black Friday" as "Black Monday" because today is our day to shop and we both confessed how much we loved "Black Friday" in the states. So today we made a shopping list and attempted to buy some clothes and stuff we needed. I didn`t come away with much other than milk, a pancake mix, and some other goodies just because I couldn`t find any clothes to buy. Sheesh! But we felt so happy to be at the mall with the Christmas lights up. It feels weird that it`s Christmas time here and it`s so hot. Luckily today is a little overcast and quite nice. But we are so excited for this Thanksgiving because we have this wonderful family in our ward, the Familia Hidalgo, that wants to make us a Thanksgiving Day feast and they are inviting all their kids to come celebrate with us. They told us to arrive with empty stomachs so we can eat our hearts out. She is looking up the traditional foods on the internet so we feel quite at home. We are really excited. We are going to feast, feast, FEAST!

And now let me tell you about last week. I remember I left you hanging on the edge with Antoni and his mom and how she came to the church for the first time and we were hoping that it was going to mean she was going to let him get baptized....well, then that night we went to his house to have a lesson and right when we walked in, his mom said, "Antoni can get baptized this weekend. He wants it with all of his heart." My companion and I were smiling ear to ear. Once again, another answered prayer. Then the next day we went to tell Carlos because he was waiting to get baptized with Antoni and things were so up in the air, and he also accepted to be baptized. And so we are so pleased to say that Rosa, Carlos and Antoni were all baptized this weekend. When the week started out, Rosa was the only person who was to be baptized, but Heavnely Father had other plans. We were so happy.

Another funny experience. In a few weeks we are having our stake conference and so President Montalti came to talk to the stake and ward leaders about it. He asked us all to commit to the amount of investigators we were going to bring as wards. So Hermana Smith and I sat talking with our Bishop and first counselor and we all decided that we could bring 20 people...and that that was a high goal, but achievalbe. So we said, "yeah we`ll bring 20" and the bishop said, "yeah 20 sounds good" and then he stood right up and said, "President we`ll bring 30!" Ha, my companion and I did a double-take at the bishop and couldn't hold back the shock. Ok, Bishop, that`s the spirit! So this week we set out with him and the ward mission leader to go out and contact all these people. It has been going so well. We also have so many plans for this week as well until the conference. We are having great success for the faith of the bishop. We are tired as can be, but happier than ever. We are excited to look for the miracles that will come with the help of the whole ward.

Oh, and today, we went to the center to renew my visa and it was in my old sector that I was in for about 6 months. I was thinking on the bus ride how I wish we could`ve met up with one of the ladies whom we had been teaching for so long...Flor Maria. Then lo and behold, we began walking and I looked up and there she was standing in the street. I screamed and we hugged each other and cried. It was such a tender mercy from the Lord.

Love you all,

Hermana SALMON