December 7

Hey family,

So to answer some questions, I tried a lot of food. I still won't try stuffing though. Haha I don't think that's something that I'll like. But I loved hearing dads story about his thanksgiving on a mission. I thought that was really Funny! I ate a lot of food at this families reunion and we played tons of games. Then we went to another families house to try some food and I was so full... The following Saturday was elder fadely's birthday. We went back over to the 2nd families house and they made us shepherds pie. I decided I don't like shepherds pie. That's something I can't do yet.

The weather is up and down here. It is in the 40's one day and then it's back up to 70 the next. I've learned to bring a jacket wherever I go. We met an awesome family this week that is super excited to learn more. When we taught them from the bible and the Book of Mormon, one thing he told us was that, he knows that we don't have our own bible like everyone says. We just have additional scripture. He's excited to learn more and we made another appointment with him. Then we sat down later that same week with him and his wife and we taught them a lot about the plan of salvation and we are going to go over the restoration next time we meet them.

I was thinking about going caroling this winter as well! It doesn't seem like Christmas a lot of days. Because of the temperature fluctuations. But I love seein everyone's decorations. One thing I hate about this area is that I can't say something anymore! It always comes out as either sumpthin or sumpin I feel so much like a hic! It's ridiculous. I met a ton of awesome members this week! I met a family that next week invited us over for pday to play pool with them and talk. They are so much fun to talk to! I also met brother grant a while ago. But he is the funniest man I know! He kind of reminds me of grandpa wells a little bit, but he is more of a teenager in a 60 year old body it is super funny! I also got to talk with the O'Bara's which is one of my favorite families as well. They are super awesome and funny. They're really nice and understanding if we are having a really bad day. Some of those tough days it's nice to go see members and they are a family that help relieve stress. I love the Christmas card and I hope others appreciate it as well!

We haven't had our Christmas party yet. It is this week on Thursday. I can't wait for it! It's going to be so awesome! It supposedly lasts all day and we can challenge president Craig to anything like an arm wrestle or handstand push-ups or push-ups or whatever (he owns four gyms so...) but I'm going to be the first elder to beat him in something! No other elder has beat him yet.

Also as far as helping out families and stuff, it is in the white handbook to not ask your parents to sponsor anyone or anything in my area. I'm not sure about Christmas. I'll ask my mission president and get back to you as best as I can. For Christmas I'm not really sure what I want. I'll have to think about that more as well.

I love you all so much. I'm doing all I can to be right with God and "stand blameless before God at the last day." Stay safe and keep me updated. I love you all so much! Merry Christmas 

Love

Elder Salter

The Salt Shaker

Thanksgiving in Waycross

Hey mom, dad!

So thanks giving was awesome! Turkey is okay, ham is okay, I like pork better, I think. When I see meat right now i just think it's meat. I don't think, oh that's chicken, or that's something else. It's just I think it's meat. And I ate potatoes yes, they're pretty good. One thing I don't like is shepherds pie. That made me almost throw up though. We also played a game called kuub or Viking chess. It's super fun. Best way to describe it is like wooden horseshoes but mixed with Corn hole. It is a lot of fun though! There was so much dessert. Holy cow. I feel so huge... After lunch and dinner I had such a tough time trying to stay awake...

We got a referral from someone who's grandson said they wanted to be baptized. So after elder fadely and I ran around screaming and jumping around he told me, "there's always a catch, it's never this easy." So we left to go teach this kid who is about 10.

So we are teaching this kid who wants to get baptized, he has a 20 year old sister and we are teaching them both. In the middle of he lesson his girl gets up and moves over to a bed that is next to the couch that I'm sitting on and she starts typing things into her phone. So I look at her and she shows me her phone, I think it's like a joke or something. I look at what it is and it's a message that reads, "ur cute." Now I'm like, oh crap what do I say? I didn't think this was possible on a mission.... I'm a missionary and I'm not gonna provoke more of this conduct. I am a man of God, a representative of Jesus Christ. So I end up just saying, "thank you." ... She goes and sits back over next to her brother and holds her hand up to her ear and makes the phone sign and asks, "can I get your number?" My companions face just turned soooooo freaking red. And I don't know what to say. I don't want to say yes, because I don't have a phone and I'm a missionary and I'm not supposed to date or anything on a mission. Like making the wrong choices could get me excommunicated! :o but at the same time I can't just shoot her down, because if I do that then she won't want to talk anymore. And she is a less active member of the church and so I have to visit her more. So I just say, "we will talk about it later."

So we get through the lesson and while we are leaving she hands me a note with her name, Number, and a message. The message read, "we can be friends first and see what happens." I was so dumbfounded... I didn't know what to do! You'd be surprised with how much this happens. I think something happens when you're a missionary. These other girls like the first week were trying to set me up with their friend who is serving in Las Vegas and tried to give me her email, but every hint went right over my head. I'm gonna be so out of the game when I get home...

After we left my companion said, "there's the catch." The problem is, I can't just flat out reject her because she is a less active and I have to still go and teach her. So it's frustrating! But I don't want to lead her on either. I think I'm just going to say for these two years I'm a missionary and it's against the rules.

I loved the music haha! Thanks so much I was actually singing Billy gilman like two weeks ago. You should send me pictures of the sheet music I had in the music folder of the songs by him! That would be awesome, if you can't find it that's okay. I'll keep you updated with everything and I'll try to take more pictures of my area this week to send them to you next pday. I might try to send home a few gifts for some people. There gonna be small but just some fun stuff hopefully you all will like.

I hope you all have an awesome week and I can't wait for Christmas! I am definitely going to miss you all but I've heard all the elders love the Christmas parties! They are supposed to be super fun! I'll try to find some fun little gifts to give to y'all!

I'll keep you updated with everything here like you've done there! This week was pretty slow but next week should be a lot more jam packed hopefully. Have an awesome week I love you all so much!

Love

Elder salter

The Salt Shaker

Video Elder

Waycross Georgia Way Cool!

Hey family!

So Monday and Tuesday last week, I was pretty stressed out because we were leaving so many of our investigators that I had come to know and love.

This week was really different being in Waycross Georgia. The people here are extremely friendly  and a lot of fun to be around! I love the ward and a lot of the missionaries that are here. In my area I'm serving near one missionary that came out at he same time I did and I got to know him a little bit in the mtc but not enough!

The elders here are super funny though it's hilarious! Our apartment in Jax was super small but now it's really big. We have an upstairs and basically have a mini version of a 2 story house at home! It's super awesome.

So first impressions were that it was really really hard to leave the people I've grown to love. I don't know if it was quite so hard to leave it was just super hard to leave not knowing if I'd ever see them again! But I was kind of nervous to come to waycross Georgia since the food gets more and more southern. So there is really just two families where I can't eat their food but other than that I realized that I can eat meats and stuff (just not like hamburger or beef because it smells and tastes gross and hot dogs) but I just prefer grains instead of meats and stuff. But every meal I've had I've eaten something new so I've really branched out. I don't like ground beef either, like in tacos. I'm still not good with Mexican food, and I don't know about oriental food yet. But to give you an idea of what I'm eating now I took a picture of our last meal at B dubs:

It was super good. I love the people here because even if they're not interested they are still super nice and will talk to you. I love my new companion, his name is elder fadely. On the conference call while elder Romero and Ivory and I were listening we heard my companion and elder Romero (my trainer) thought it said fadeweed. And elder Ivory instantly responded saying, "THAT IS NOT A NAME! CALL SOMEONE AND FIND OUT WHAT IT REALLY IS" it was super funny. The work is kind of slow just because elder fadely has only been out 6 months and this is is first time taking over an area and because all of our investigators dropped us. So we are doing a lot of finding. But the work is super fun and elder fadely and I are getting a long great! He is a lot of fun to be with and is a great worker!

Our district is really awesome but we only have one set of sisters with us which I thought was interesting :P just because before we had 3 sets of sister missionaries! 

It was crazy! The past 3 days have been like 45 degrees which has felt so flipping cold because until then the weather has been a constant 80-85 degrees. So it got super cold out of no where! But the area just reminds me of a game I used to play with Conner Vince and Joo-an. It was super funny! It's super weird but I like it haha! It's really funny to see everyone out here, even the kids in high school all are dressed up in camo clothes and they all seem like motorcycle racers or hunters. It's like a redneck town haha! :D

It is a bit more hilly than Florida which I like even though I'm biking half of the time. Our area is huge but we are in a car share it's ridiculous! I'll send some more pictures of a bunch of our companionships that I said goodbye to since sometimes the mail doesn't go through for some reason if there are a bunch of pictures. And my address is, 823 Saint Mary's drive waycross Georgia 31501. If there is any way you could send some more music like Christmas songs or something, even Motab that is Christmas music or other fun songs that would be awesome too! For example like the song from oh brother where art thou, the oh sinners lets go down, song would be awesome! We listened to that a bit with some other elders that had it and it was awesome!

You should definitely look up a talk called, "conversion of a Catholic" it is such an awesome talk that talks about a Catholic boy and his conversion story to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. When we got to our home in Georgia we listened to a witchcraft talk which was kind of freaky but extremely interesting and talks about what witchcraft really is and how it could be used. It's kind of crazy! But really intriguing. Also if you could send me a beanie that would be awesome too, we are allowed to wear them in the winter when it gets cold as a part of our dress apparel.

I'll send you a bunch of pictures in a minute, I'm just sending them in a different email.

My days have been a lot longer as of moving to Georgia just because I'm not used to the area and I don't know how to fill my time and it's hard. As soon as I got into a routine in Jacksonville the lord called me to another place in the mission and I now have work to do here. It's hard but I know there is someone that I need to reach and I need to do all I can to finish my work here for the lord. I feel like I already told you this, but my ponderize scripture is alma 60: 7-8 and it is when Moroni chews out pahoran for not helping out his brethren. But the message is that we need to not be idle in what we do. The adversary is at constant work and won't let down if he becomes fatigued and so we need to continuously stay busy and do what we can to further better ourselves. I'm not saying that we should never relax, but we just need to not become lackadaisical. I love you all and hope you all have an awesome week! 

Ali you look awesome with your braces off! You must feel great! Go show off your smile to everyone you can! Even a smile to someone in the hallway can make someone's day!

Sam I'm so proud that you were able to just hop up to the announcements and get that to the school! You're so awesome! Keep up the hard work and you'll be super happy! And make as many friends as you can and have tons of fun!

Love

Elder salter

New Georgia Address

Elder Spencer Salter
823 Saint Mary's Drive
Waycross, Georgia 31501

Transfers are Hard

Hey!

The lady was the same one who I ate with the first time I was here. She is really nice! Sorry for not getting you a good letter last week we have been really busy! I'll be sure to send some pictures. That's so awesome that Ali is being recognized for everything she's working for! I've been showing everyone all of her drawings! They love them so much!

So this week is frustrating because we had so much going on and we are doing so well with all of our investigators and I really have been getting to know and love his area and all of the people in it, and I'm being transferred to waycross, Georgia.

My trainer (elder romero) is being transferred also! And it's super ridiculous... Because the new elders are white washing our area and it's so dumb! Agh I just wish I had one more transfer to say goodbye to people and help them with their conversion. I'm positive that this area could have  5 baptisms this transfer! It frustrates me so much! I've found so many ponderize scriptures it's nuts!

I'm glad that you all are doing so well! I hope everything is going well with schooling and all other activities! Please pray for me to enjoy this area haha! I've heard awesome things about Georgia but I'm still super nervous. Thanks Sam for helping me like eggs! I'm having trouble finding ways to like them. At dinner I've been eating a lot more. Just the other night we went to a bbq place and I ate a pulled chicken sandwich. And I decided I don't like hamburgers. Beef is just gross. Unless it's like a roast or something. I'm still getting used to flavors of meat and it's super odd. 

I learned an awesome lesson about the plan of salvation and really everything we have is to give us joy. Our message to people should always help them increase their joy. Remember the Book of Mormon is there to help us on our path to find joy. Every time we share something we know that will help someone, it should be to increase their joy. I love you all so much and I'll try to get those letters and packages mailed to you all soon. I love those boots and Ali you look so good! That's awesome! I can't believe that you're done with braces! I can't believe that you're already looking so different!

Tell nick I said hi, I'm trying to write him but there are so many things going on! I still can't believe he is home! That's so awesome! I love you all and I'll get my new address to you next Monday! Love you all!

Love elder salter

I Love Texts Like This!!

Had the pleasure of feeding your missionaries this evening. They were on splits which is why they are with a different companion. Had a great lesson and really enjoyed the spirit they brought into our home. Thank you for sharing them with Jacksonville!