Hi Mom! So this week has been pretty intense...

So first off, Monday we just played kickball, volleyball, and ping pong all day. Them the next day me and elder warren went with our zone leader for a trade off. We ended up needing to give an 8 month old baby a blessing that stopped breathing on Monday. It was so hard to go into that hospital room and look at this little baby with his eyes wide open gasping for air... It's something when someone is hooked up in the hospital but when it's a baby that is hooked up to a respirator a long with a hundred other cords, it's really hard to see. The three of us elders were praying so hard and we cried so much in that room. I don't know if I've prayed harder in my life. I wanted so badly for this little baby to be healed. Unfortunately after we gave the blessing, I just learned this morning that Jesse Adam Murry jr passed away a few days ago. That was the baby's name. But instead of being angry or upset, I felt comforted when I heard the news. I knew that a lot of that was just hard to watch and deal with. God in a way may have protected the child from something horrible that is coming, or that would happen to him. The elders in there area were able to explain to them that they have a child waiting for them in the celestial kingdom and they are now helping them to reach that glory in heaven

Later in that week we were able to meet elder Dubé who is one of the quorum of the 70. He is super nice and super funny! We had a training with him and we were talking about a section in preach my gospel called how to begin teaching. It has a bunch of bullet points in there for introducing ways to comfort and prepare people for the message that they are about to receive. So when elder Dubé asked who uses that in the teaching I raised my hand and no one else did. I was super confused. He asked me how many points I used and I told him I use about 3-4 on average before I dive into the lesson. Then he called me up to teach him and his wife using whatever materials I had with me, so I brought up my iPad and gave them a lesson just by the spirit. I was so scared to go up and teach a general authority in front of a whole bunch if experienced missionaries, but I went up and trusted that I would be guided. Every time I said something the spirit put words into my mind and heart so I knew what to say next, it was perfect! Then when we were done my mission president started to tell him that I've been in the field for 4 weeks which was okay until elder Dubé blurted in the mic that I've been out for 4 weeks and he kept saying that it was unbelievable haha. It was funny but all I could think was, I'm never raising my hand again.

After that we went to Daquan's house who has a baptismal date for the 26th and invited him to church and he was super excited to come and he was even going to go to work early so he could get out In time for church. We were so excited! News kept getting better, we were able to contact another investigator named Chris and reset a baptismal date for the 10th of October and his girlfriend Chelsea had so many questions that we were able to put to rest and we had a 2 hour lesson that reached every single lesson at some point. So we have a lot more to teach her because she has all of the right questions. We have a possible baptismal date for her for the 16th of October I believe, if she reads and receives an answer it is true! I was super excited. Then that same Saturday evening, Daquan messaged us saying that God told him he already had his spirit with him and that he didn't need to be baptized and that he wouldn't be coming to church. That was a huge downer and I kept getting an impression that these dreams he is having are not from God or his spirit, but are from another source mixing truth with lies that he is caught up in.

We were able to at least get him over to a members house for dinner and we talked a bunch about feeling the spirit and how we know it truly is the spirit and we were able to commit him again to studying the scriptures (which he had not done when he got this answer) and taught him how to prepare sincerely to our Heavenly Father. He agreed to continue to pray and meet with us so we were super happy to be able get ahold of him and help him out.

Thanks for all of the uplifting messages I really appreciate it :) so for my birthday I'll I really want is maybe more ties because they're super fun to wear different ties and everyone loves to trade ties, and there is a book called the power of the everyday missionary. I am borrowing one from another elder right now, it is a book that president Craig had to go to the first presidency of the church to get it approved and for this mission we got it approved. I don't know if I can keep this extra copy but if I can't that would be a great gift :P and maybe some cinnamon rolls or some other treats. We really enjoyed the peanut butter balls and we want the recipe xD also German pancake recipe would be awesome too hahaha! I don't really know of anything else yet, but if I think of anything I'll let you know :P

So after we talked with elder Dubé we were able to meet up with a lot of the missionaries from the MTC that were my roommates and we took some pictures! We also shared some videos that we made and I'll send those in this email as well. I have been watching a lot of Mormon messages recently and one I want to share is called, Bearing our Burdens with hope. You definitely need to watch that one. I love the fact that it talks about how our burdens that we have don't just challenge us but they help us achieve greater heights and do better.

I know that each challenge we receive helps us grow, I remember praying to grow physically and spiritually and it was then that I realize that I was asking for another challenge to be thrown my way so that I could struggle and then overcome it as well. I know that our heavenly father won't throw us something too challenging but it will challenge us and make us stretch so that we can grow.

I love you all so much and I can't wait to hear more from you, hopefully we will be going bowling today so I can email more there, but I love you all and I can't wait to hear from each and every one of you again. I love you mom, dad, Ali, and Sam! Be safe and know that the lord is on our side!

1 Month!!!

We had a zone pday today and it was so much fun. We played kickball basketball volleyball and ping pong all day. We played tennis this morning and tomorrow morning we are gonna play with the ysa elders and were gonna play tennis for exercise.

It's awesome, I've tried 5 new foods this week. Rice, is pretty good. This interesting pasta that my companion made is odd but I'll eat it, I tried a new type of salad, two actually, and I tried chicken. It doesn't really taste like anything it's just warm and odd with a texture.

We had dinner at bishops house last night and we were with the ap's and sisters and with 8 of their kids and we played football in their backyard... On the way home we remembered it was Sunday. We had a little bit of repenting to do haha. But their food was so good... We ate so much and had to fast until 6!!! It was ridiculous. I picked up a pull up bar because my companions workouts are pretty lame :P they don't work me out and I feel like I'm gaining fat weight. I've gained 10+ pounds since I've gotten here. I'm like 140 now. I'm kind of glad but it's odd at the same time. We got this huge algorithm of how to gain or lose weight. I love all of the stuff in the package you sent me thank you all so much! I love the iPad cover, my kendama, the album, and all of the food!

I am having an awesome time with my companions. I have two now because one companion had a companion who went home because he was bi polar and depressed. His mom died before he came out and was being forced to go on a mission. But I'm super glad to have another companion who I get a long with so well! I miss mountains so much though! Send me pictures of mountains and your activities up there and I'll send you a lot of pictures of trees and forests. That is another thing I miss so much! I love mountains. I never thought I'd miss them so much I love them! I'll show you a picture of my zone leader and my companion as well.

I invited someone to baptism yesterday and they said yes if they find out the Book of Mormon is true. We talk so much about using the Book of Mormon to teach because that is how God talks to us specifically. We need to utilize the Book of Mormon so that the spirits power may be magnified both through us and through the Book of Mormon.

I love you all so much and hope you are having a blast in Brian head! Have an awesome day!

Love,

Elder Spencer David Salter

Jacksonville Address

8401 Southside Blvd
Apt 913
Jacksonville, FL 32256-1605

Spending Time

This week has been pretty awesome! I love going out and helping anyone we can! I've  met so many new and amazing people. I miss you guys a lot but my home sickness has gotten a lot better! So unfortunately we had to pushback a baptismal date for both of our investigators getting baptized. For one named Chris turner, we need to explain more to him and he has a job where we can't get ahold of him very well anymore. We need to find a way to get him to church one more time so that we can get him baptized. Then for our second one named Daquan Williams, we're moving his baptismal date to the 26th of September because we just finished fasting so that he could get a job that would allow him to go to church on Sunday's. He is so strong in faith though it is amazing. He has been having a lot of discouragement from his family to join the church so I showed him the Mormon message, "the refiners fire" and it talks about how the more trials and tribulations we have, the more capacity we have to feel joy!

During our bike day (I like these days the best, they feel the most productive, and they go by faster) I had a goal to hand out all of myMormon.org cards I was handing them out and I had 2 left, so I went to these 2 men in a cross walk, one of them just looked at me and said, "why do you waste your time with this?" I told him I was in a hurry but I'd love to sit down sometime and explain why I SPEND my time doing this. As I was biking to my next appointment I handed out all of my cards and I kept pondering the question, "why do you waste your time doing this" they were the first people to decline a short message about how God loves them. It made me sad that satan has such a grip on some people that they think that missionaries helping people is a waste of time. I continued to ponder on the subject of time.

Time is the most precious resource that God gives us. He gives us so many years to find out what church is true and how we can make it back to live with him again. I continued to think that we don't ever waste our time. We always spend our time. No matter what it is. We pay for life in time. It's possible to waste a payment such as spending time doing less important things. That would be a waste, but you're never wasting time. I am simply spending my time wisely and giving thanks to my father in heaven for the time he has given me so far.

Later that evening we made it to our appointments house and his name is Travis. He is a very nice man and was a missionary for 7 years through out the world. He had heard about Mormons but had never had an experience with them. He had so many questions for us. It was great. He has such an understanding of our religion but we didn't get to really teach him any lesson but we got to talk to him a lot about faith and our beliefs and his are very similar. So we are going to get to talk to him again about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Tonight we have family home evening! I can't wait haha. All of the missionaries get together along with investigators and new converts or newer people in the ward and we go to the mission leaders house and have a big family home evening. My ward mission leader is brother Christopher. If you can imagine Mary from lord of the rings with short hair then that is wars mission leader. He is so awesome! Thanks for the stories of masen and of what has been going on at home. I really love reading all of your letters!

I love sams testimony! "If I pray, the next day I have is good. If I don't, the next day is bad. I know this church is true!" Sam is such a good example of finding the simple miracles in life and that is how we all need to be. That is what it means to be child like. I've been thinking about that a lot lately. A child always has questions. If we don't ask questions how will the lord guide us? Joseph smith asked a simple question and didn't believe that God was done answering man. He had the first question for God in over a thousand years. We need to have questions so we can ask our Heavenly Father. We also need to be willing to ask the question more then once. It strengthens our testimony. When a child gets, "because" as an answer all they are going to do is ask why over and over. They want that understanding just like we do! 

I love y'all so much (I picked up on that so much faster than I thought I would) I can't wait to talk to you again and I hope you know how much I love and miss you! I can't wait to tell you more stories! Try to become child like and you will see the blessings.

Also my address is 

Apt 913

8401 southside blvd

Jacksonville, FL 32256-1605

I love each and every one of you! Be safe and smart!