What's Going on in the Florida Jacksonville Mission

http://floridajacksonvillemissionnews.blogspot.com/

This week was pretty good it's hard to recollect everything that has gone on though. My new companion is Elder Ivory. I still have elder Romero as my trainer, Elder Warren went home due to back issues but he will be back in about 2 months.

Kaisen's family is doing great! We haven't seen them recently but they are really excited to keep reading the Book of Mormon and test it out to feel the peace. They want to know our first names so I told them that each visit that we make they can have a few guesses and if they don't get it right by the fourth lesson then I'll just tell them. By that time we should be onto the commandments and they'll be used to calling me Elder Salter anyway haha!

The mom wants to be baptized and have her son baptized too so she's super open to learning more and so we are super excited to teach her how she can know what we teach is true. I am excited to get to know them more and really work with them to help them make the right choices.

As far as self reliance goes, it is extremely important. A big thing that I've learned is that self reliance keeps you safe. We have been teaching a lot about the law of chastity for role plays because we never really teach it to people. The biggest thing I've learned from that is that a huge blessing is self mastery. In that you can have such self control to control desires of your body and in essence control any thoughts that you feel are weighing you down. That is really what the word of wisdom and the law of chastity are there for. It may always be a challenge  for people but that is how we grow. Gaining self control requires self reliance. I'll try to think of more but I know that it is so important to be self reliant because otherwise you're always dependent on others. Self reliance will help you're family in success I see so much, families that can't support each other because everyone else is used to being able to have a "fall back" It is extremely important to be able to support yourself before you support others. That may not make a lot of sense but I have been sporting it up for the past 4 hours...

My ponderize scripture for this week is alma 60: 7-8 I can't remember it but it talks about being dependable rather than dependent.

I love you all and I hope you are all being blessed for my service and I love you so much. 

Also! One more thing with self reliance. The greatest thing is to always trust in the Lord and know that you're not alone. The Lord will provide as long as you are trying to be obedient and worthy. His Holy Spirit will guide you in all you do. I know this to be true and I had an experience last pday, I thought I was going to waste time by biking for 30 minutes to someone who wouldn't be home... Then they weren't home... I was super mad and thought it was myself. It was 8:15 and would've taken 30 minutes to bike home. On the way home, I had an impression to visit a lady that had been really flaky all other times. We decided to see her and we learned that she had been reading! She was super excited to learn more about resurrection and we were able to clear up a hole bunch with her. I know that the Lord will always help us to be self reliant.

I love you all and I love hearing from you. Ali! I'm sorry I'll try to get some mail mailed with a letter for you and the family this week or the next I didn't have enough time to email everyone but I love you and you're the best sister I could ask for!

Love Elder Salter

Hey Sam

Hey Sam! Way to go. I have not tried that yet, crocodile, but I have tried a bunch
of new foods. I don't know if I like eggs or not. I hate them
scrambled, but I'm not sure if I like them sunny side up or over easy.
They taste strange and I don't know how to make them taste better. My
mission is going pretty well! I met some awesome people. One person is
named Daquan.  He is awesome and wants to be baptized now! We also met
some awesome people named Evan and Victoria. We are really good
friends and they want to learn more about what we believe. I just
watched the primary program twice in two wards. I was thinking of you
and how awesome it would be to talk to you and see you in the program.
What's your favorite song you're singing? My favorite song you might
sing is "we'll bring the world his truth" or "we are as the army of
helaman" they're the same songs but they are named differently I
think. I love the brain teaser dude! Hopefully you're holding up okay
and if you ever need help or advice from me just send me an email! I
love you so much Sam! I'm reading about the stripling warriors right
now in alma chapter 53 and onward and it's one of my favorite Book of
Mormon stories. Love elder salter

New Buddies Oct 19

Hey,

I got another companion and he is Elder Ivory. He is super awesome! It has been loads of fun with him around but at first he was not excited to be in a trio and he was stuck in the back of the car for so long and he just started going crazy! He was joking around and it was super funny. It was 8 o clock and elder ivory looks to me and just says, "let's go bowling and call the young women in your ward! Oh wait we can't our district leader is here..." And we had a good laugh but he mainly does stuff like that to try to get my trainer to laugh or just get super uncomfortable because he always tries to hold in a smile. He tries to be super mature to the point where smiling isn't allowed... It's nuts! But I still love elder Romero regardless if he decides to smile or not haha! We are also all in the same apartment. 

So this week we got to know this awesome couple named Evan and Victoria. They have a son named Kaisen who is normally shy around guys but he just opened up to me and we're best buddies now! So Evan and Victoria are thinking we are celestial beings or something haha! I really am excited to teach them more and we think they could be ready for baptism.

I hope that Sam is doing well now that you're back! Sorry it took so long to email we were playing ultimate frisbee and tennis and ping pong!

I love you all and I hope you have a great day!

Love Elder Salter

Bible Week Oct 12

Hey!

This week was pretty interesting. One thing that has been frustrating

is that we don't have a lot of solid investigators. We are working on

finding people but it is pretty hard to find people that just want to

talk. We found one family that is pretty young. Their names are Evan

and Victoria. They have a son named Kaisen. They are super nice and

fun to talk to. They are extremely open to hearing about what we

believe and learning more. It's really funny because they asked us

what our first names were and so I am having them guess for the next

few visits. The husband and wife both thought my name was Derrick

haha! But they're excited to meet with us next Sunday and so are we!

We also had the chance of meeting a man named Brandon. He is a super

nice guy but he likes to tell us every sin that he has done, which is

kind of frustrating. But he saw us riding our bikes and he called us

over and told my companion and I that we need to come over and teach

him so that he can have that faith aspect in his life. So we are

having a very interesting dinner combo on Friday that consists of

pizza and French toast. He is really excited to learn, we just need to

have him stop confessing everything to us.

Another amazing experience that I had was, a family we met only wanted

to learn out of the bible until they need the Book of Mormon. So our

next lesson with them we are going to focus on the use of the Book of

Mormon and why we need to teach through it. However, we taught the

restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the bible and

scriptures that I found and matched up to our lesson in the bible. It

was so amazing! Even though the bible is good and has a lot of truth,

it is missing the mark insanely without he Book of Mormon. Even so,

after I had taught the restoration with the bible, I was so confused

to how many people, who are scholars in the bible, skip over so many

of these key points. Even with the plan of salvation. In Corinthians

12 it talks about the kingdoms of glory. What we teach is directly out

of the bible and people still miss all of this information. One thing

that would really help is a scripture, not only in the Book of Mormon,

that talks about God having a body of flesh and bone. That is one

thing that is a bit harder to teach when I can only find scriptures

that says they're separate.

Something that has been awesome has been that since I learned to teach

the restoration through the bible, my companion and I have gotten

loads of dinner appointments because others want to learn the

restoration through the bible as well! It really builds my testimony

of everything that I believe.

I have never really understood the bible completely and it was really

hard so I had really just focused more on the Book of Mormon. When I

was teaching the restoration through the bible it really solidified my

testimony in the Book of Mormon and that the church of Jesus Christ

really is the lords kingdom on earth!

A verse that I have been ponderizing has been alma 38:5 it reads, "and

now my son, shiblon, I would that he should remember, that as much as

ye shall put your trust in God, ye shall be delivered out of your

trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and he shall be

lifted up at the last day." I like to modify it and reread it as, "and

now my son, Elder Salter, I would that he should remember, that as

much as ye shall put your trust in me [God], ye shall be delivered out

of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and he shall

be lifted up at the last day." This verse gives me such great comfort

because if we trust in our father in heaven he will not let us fall.

If we follow Jesus Christ's example, then we show we trust our father,

and we will be delivered out of any hardship we endure. I love those

scriptures because it means that I can promise so much more blessings

for those who are investigating the church. That is really my favorite

scripture that I have read this past week. I can't wait to learn even

more though with the bible and with the Book of Mormon and how they

really are intertwined just as all of the apostles tell us and that we

tell others. I can build my testimony on those teachings and really

share them with others. I'll send a few pictures of some scriptures

that prove that the LDS church is the lords kingdom established on the

earth.

What were your favorite conference talks? I had a couple. I liked

Devin G Durrant and his talk on ponderizing. I also loved David A

Bednar's talk on obedience and forgiveness. And last but definitely

not least, I loved Larry R Lawrence's talk about "what is keeping me

from progressing?" These talks really stood out to me! What did you

think of conference?

I love the Book of Mormon and how much we are able to learn from it. I

also really have grown to love the bible and its teachings. I was

discussing the bible with some of my new friends in the ward and

recent converts and reactivated members and we talked a lot about how

the teachings of the bible are nearly exactly the same as the bible. I

know that the teachings are true and every lesson my testimony is

strengthened especially when others try to teach us their

interpretation of the gospel. I can never feel the spirit when they

are "teaching" us like I can when I bear my testimony. It really

solidifies my testimony of my beliefs. Also I'm going to be sending a

tithing slip and money to pay tithing since I found more money on a

card then I had thought I made.

I love you all so much and I can't wait to hear your stories of the

week! If you haven't yet you should look up these scriptures that I'm

going to send you all in this picture! It's amazing to see the points

of the true church from the bible! It really is amazing to include the

bible in teachings of the Book of Mormon because you see everything

really just lines up perfectly and it is so amazing! I love you all

and encourage you to read the scriptures in the following picture!

It was About Thursday and I was getting kind of discouraged and I wanted to be a little bit lazy. I'll admit it. I was just homesick and I just wanted a day to relax... That same morning, our zone leaders called us and gave us some scriptures which were ether 12:6, 12 and it reads, "6 And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith... 12 For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith." And then he left us the scripture alma 48:17 which reads, "17 Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men." I love this scripture and I immediately wrote it down in my journal! Above the heading I wrote, "what am I doing today to be a modern day captain Moroni?" After hearing my zone leaders testimony on the trials of faith and about how we can gain greater faith and a greater testimony I was so excited to go and do work!

This general conference was amazing! The talks were spectacular! They hit hard on 2 main points. Keep the sabbath day holy, and families. A huge thing that some elders and I discussed was that they are no longer saying, "don't do this, don't do that" they're now saying, follow the spirit. One of my favorite talks was by Larry R. Lawrence and his talk was on following the spirit. There was a spiritual exercise that he had everyone commit to doing on their own. When we pray, we need to ask, "what is keeping me from progressing?" The spirit gives customized answers and is direct with us. Another talk was on ponderizing this is 80% pondering and 20% memorizing. How it works is we get a scripture and we put it on our phone or fridge or anywhere for a week. During that week we ponder and try to memorize that scripture. We can learn so much more and how to live our lives by this simple thing. It is truly amazing how during this time where the world is being thrown into chaos and becomes more and more liberal and accepting of incorrect beliefs, the church is getting rid of those gray areas and they are focusing on following the spirit. I  loved general conference and it seemed like it went by so quickly! My trainer kept falling asleep and so some other elders kept messing with him! It was pretty funny! 

I probably had the most interesting experience teaching this week. We were going to teach a family from Zimbabwe about the restoration. After we got done teaching we invited them to read the Book of Mormon. They told us that they didn't fully understand the bible and after some compromising we are getting them to read 3rd nephi 11 and we will discuss how it relates to Jesus's earthly ministry in Mathew, mark, Luke, and John. But they want us to teach more from the bible right now so I am going to be learning a lot more from the bible. Once I can find some scriptures to point them to the Book of Mormon, in the bible, then they'll read the Book of Mormon. They're an amazing family though!

I found another really funny video spoof some elders in my mission made about the online training! I'll send that when I am done emailing. I hope everyone is having such an amazing time in Hawaii! I can't believe that you're finally there! That sounds like so much fun!

I love you all and I'll try to email more next week it's so hard because we didn't have much time this week with no car and we had to carpool and people wanted to go home early... It's been a great week though and I miss you all and love you all so much!

Happy Birthday Elder Salter

I can't believe that nick is home! That is so crazy!

I appreciate letting me know about his talk! Send me his email, or
have him email me so I can send him some emails as well and talk to
him about his service in the mission!  

Thanks of the shoes! Sorry for opening it early, we were playing a lot of sports

today and I need them haha! I love them too thanks so much! I got the
cinnamon rolls! They're delicious, I gave some to the APs and to my
companion! They said that they are super delicious! And
also I haven't opened anything else, just the shoes and cinnamon

rolls.

This week still has gone by so
fast! But we have done service like 4 of the 7 days of the week! It
has gone so fast. All I can really remember is that service which was
super fun! And we had a trade off so it was me and elder warren, with
another elder from our district. We made a video of us singing a song
that was awesome and we then made a video that night! I'll send it to
you when I get the chance!

Something that was amazing this week was that we were tracting in
elder warrens area and we weren't getting anywhere. We were about to
give up when we found a group off drinking beer and smoking out
front and we almost didn't approach them but we decided to try them
and leave. We ended up talking to an awesome guy named Dalton. He
basically asked us when we could come back for another visit! He is so
ready for baptism. He just has a few complications and so we probably
won't see him be baptized...

This week has gone by so fast and it's so hard to remember everything
that's going on! And sorry I have pday today and my emails didn't send
on time so that's why haha! I loved hearing about dads experience
biking! That was awesome! I met a brother who is brother Christopher,
he loves biking and I was talking to him yesterday about how he loves
climbing as well.

Love at first sight!

Gotcha forever!!!

Always ready to go

Happy!!

I can get it!

BroHams

So happy together!

Nothing keeps him down

Eagle Scout

NYC in style

Fall!

His Dad said, "Just get over it!" Go getter Spencer!

Our handsome happy missionary -Proud!!

Blur

Oh man, this week went by so fast! I feel like there is not enough time in the day! Although the days are long but the weeks are short! It's ridiculous!

This week it's hard to remember everything that has happened because it's been such a blur. We have so much going on and we had to cover a few areas. But we had 3 commitments to baptism in October. We're going to try to get four baptisms in October! It's super exciting.

One of the most frustrating things on a mission is sometimes you don't know when you have the spirit because you're accustomed to it, but as soon as you make a tiny error or something as simple as a rude judgement, you can feel the spirit withdrawing from you. You are able to notice so much more when it is gone from you then when you have it.

The spirit truly guides us. However when we pray, we ask for the gift of discernment almost daily, and so with that gift, God sometimes takes a step back and he will allow us to make the decision for ourselves because he trusts our judgement. Elder Romero and I were debating weather to go help someone move or to continue tracting and so we prayed about it and didn't get an answer but we didn't have any thoughts come to mind of who we should see so we went to do service with a message prepared. We ended up getting to the new families house that was just moving in and they had just started unpacking with the AP's so we got there just in time to help out and it only took us about 30 minutes to get everything unpacked and situated In the new apartment. They thanked us thoroughly and we were able to have some delicious pizza with the Hardy family and brother hardy's sister. They thanked us so much and said that they really needed the help. Elder Romero didn't want to do the service at first because he wanted to do tracting or something but I told him we would share a message with them for like 10 minutes if they were done. They were far from done and really in need of our help. It was a little testimony of having the gift of discernment.

The week has been such a blur, it went by so fast. Earlier that same morning though we did about 4 hours of service and got to go to a sea food place, when we had finished and I tried a new type of sandwich but I had to take a few things off haha. We had a wonderful time doing service and we had such a fantastic experience meeting people. But this week really feels like all I can remember is last pday, weekly planning, service, and this pday. Everything else is just gone. I'm sorry but I don't have any more real interesting stories :P.

So this pday, we went over to a members house with the sister missionaries and the AP's and ysa elders and we had lunch then went to go play laser tag and mini golf! It was super fun but the sisters are super good at laser tag! They always somehow beat us by about 1000 points... Hut we all kept getting super competitive and had such a great time haha. Then we played mini golf and I won :P it was pretty fun but super easy. Then we went back to laser tag and played a mode called vampire where it lasts for 7 minutes and one player starts as a vampire. When you shoot him he is only disabled for 5 seconds. Humans have 3 lives and when they die, they turn into vampires and try to infect the other humans. Other people still alive basically have to not die for 7 minutes. I lived both times we played it because I found an awesome spot that no one knew where I was and it was super awesome! Elder warren and I were they only 2 people that never got out, it was super fun!

Unfortunately we came out of the place and someone had hit the AP's car and we had to grab the manager to get the cameras and an officer to get a police report about it. We had got that done and we had some awesome pizza called Als pizza, it was super delicious but it was pretty expensive.

I can't believe how fast this time is going by. I feel like I've been out maybe 2 weeks, maybe :P

I love you all and I'll try to give y'all more information next pday it's so extremely hard to remember everything because the weeks are such a blur... Anyway, I love you all so much!

There are some shoes called addidas 0's and size 10 should be good I believe. That would be super awesome if I could get those, I asked elder warren since he is a track athlete but those would be awesome. I hope that everything is going well and everyone is safe! Send me more pictures if possible, I'd really appreciate seeing what's going on in all of your lives! I can't wait to tell you more about what we do, this week was kind of hard because all I can really remember other than pdays is just service. We've done so much service this past week...

I love y'all and I'm actually writing a sister from the MTC right now :P her name is sister Conrad and she's the sister that I gave the blessing to if you remember that. I hope that you all are safe and that y'all are being blessed for my service! Haha, I miss you all so much and I'll send y'all some pictures of my best friend since the MTC. He has been such an amazing influence on me in my mission and I've grown to love him so much, it's elder smith xD.

The elder in the background is elder Vance, he is super nice and is extremely funny. We're going to go play soccer with them and another elder I really got to know well, his name is elder britch. I think is what it's called. I'll have to look at his name tag again. But he is super nice and we played soccer with each other. He is a Spanish elder. I'll let y'all know a lot more next week.

I love you all so much and dad yes I did get the package from brother spindle tell him I said thank you. And sorry I can't message you now I don't have enough time today was super busy but I'll write emails thru out the week to send to you I love you all and all of your emails.

Have a super week and be safe! Love y'all!