Back to Brussels to redeem myself!

Well family, the time has sadly come for me to leave Charleroi. I love Charleroi so much.. It is the greatest city in Belgium.. So many elect people and so many miracles just waiting to happen.. I loved serving with Elder Schmutz he is so great. But now Elder Schmutz is taking over the area and becoming the District Leader.. whooee.. haha... I am going to Bruxelles with Elder Hoskyns. I am going to the other Ward, Louise Ward... It is more in the center of Brussels so it is a new area.. I'm kinda scared to go back up to Brussels.. There is a lot of pressure up there, especially in Louise... that is like the Ward that baptizes the most.. sooooo I will have to pick it up. 
Everything was good this week.. We had some great things happen... Fatiha is doing amazing and she is ready for baptism but she just needs to have completely stopped smoking.. she only smokes like 1 cigarette a day.. She came to church like normal and loved it.. Also on Tuesday, President came down to Charleroi to interview her just to make sure she wasn't in any kind of danger.. It went great.. she is good to go.. And we taught her about the Godhead with President, because she didn't quite understand the Holy Ghost.. This Sunday Fatiha came and sat by me and said.. I just found out that I can choose who I want to baptize me.. and I was like, oh ya and who are you going to choose?  And she said, I have already made my choice.. you don't know who? And I said, no...who? and she's like, you of course... Haha I told her that was very nice but that transfers were coming soon and I didn't know If I would be there... she kinda looked at me like "what?" and I told her sorry.. and then she was like, oh well if you aren't then Elder Schmutz can do it... SOOO unfortunatly I won't be there for her baptism but.. just as long as she gets baptized... Also the 9 year old Corentin Paduwat that we have been teaching.. a son of a member that wasn't baptized when he was 8.. he is doing good we set a baptismal date for the 25th of April but I won't be there.. oh well... ummm what else?... 
Also this week we started teaching a Romanian couple named Petru and Claudia.. They are very, very humble and kinda poor but they have been searching for the good religion but didn't know where to find it... They aren't really super great at French... but they are ok... we got them some Romanian stuff and they have been eating it up.  They love it and understand that we need a prophet.. so they said they would pray to know whether all of this that we were telling them was true and when they got their answer they would be batized.. they are amazing... Sooo ya.. too bad I have to leave, but that is ok.. I can't stay in Chaleroi my whole mission... 
I love you very much... I didn't get an email from you so I don't have too much to talk about.. But I did get my birthday package. Thank you so much!  It made me very happy and yesterday we ate potatoes and gravy... ummm, ya it was just sweet and ya I got that little package.. I thought I told you, but I guess not... but I'm gonna go, I don't know the address but you can just write to the Office if you want to..
Bye 
love Elder Schmutz    (Not sure why it was signed like this??)

Miracles...

Hey hey everyone... sooo this week was pretty crazy with a lot of things to do... my birthday (I'm twenty now, that's crazy!)  So for my birthday we went to do service in the morning but the guy we were going to help wasn't there... He flaked out on us coming to help him... For my birthday we ate some Mexican food.. which is rare.. We had burritos and it was sooo good.. I miss that a lot. . There wasn't too much special that went on... soo ya. But Zone Conference was good.. We had President Oaks the Region President over the Europe West Area.. It was really good... He was a powerful man.. He loves miracles so we spênt like over an hour just telling miracles.. It was great.. I got to see Elder Reynolds and that was good.. One miracle that was pretty crazy that President shared was.. There was a lady that hardly went out of her house much and one day she happened to be about 15 kilometers from her house and she was riding her bike and she was on a back street and she saw two men in suits and she heard a voice say those two mens are going to talk to you listen to them... so she did and she was baptized like 4 weeks later along with her husband and two kids .. also he told one about a family in the Netherlands... that were having problems etc.. he was depressed and didn't know what life was for, etc... and anyway he had been searching for truth... well one night he had a dream and he saw an "angel" that told him that 2 men would come in 2 days and that they needed to listen to them... So the missionaries were porting.. kinda late one night and they knocked on a door a lady came to the door and was kinda scared.  They explained who they were and then she told them to come in... Well, they then found out that her husband had had that dream two nights earlier.. that it had been two days... so the family listened and were baptized a couple weeks later.
It is so crazy there were so many amazing miracles, all of people that are being prepared for the gospel... now it is just up to us to listen to the Spirit so that we don't miss opportunities like that guy having a dream and expecting two people to come in two days.. anyway it was really good.
As for Elder Schmutz and I.. We are doing great! I love him, he is such a good Elder.. he has changed so much.. he has started to push me now.. and we are starting to just work twice as hard...Fatiha is doing amazing she reads a ton and understands all the commandments and the Restored Gospel really, and ya, we just kinda say... well we want to talk about keeping the Sabbath Day holy today... and then she teaches us and we add a couple things and bear our testimonies and commit her to live it and then our rendez vous is done.  She puts her notes away and ask what she needs to read.. she is so amazing... She comes to church and already has a bunch of friends...and she loves church... 
President Woodland was at church and got to meet her.. it was neat.. We just have to help her quit smoking completely and she is ready for baptism.. what a blessing she is.. Well, sorry my letter is kinda junky... I don't know too much to write.. thanks for all the cards!  I got Tess and Jake's card and Clint and Katie's!  I laughed really hard at Clint's card.. it was GOOD... As for my package, etc... I didn't get it because Pres. Oaks was there so we didn't get needs.. and all that.. so I will get it around the 1st of April or somewhere around there... I love all of you and will talk to you later. Congrats to Tyler and Luke!  I am so excited for them.. they don't know what they are getting themselves into! hahahaha
Elder Simonson

I'm almost 20!

Well well... how is everyone doing? Things are going pretty well here. Thanks for the emails Trish, Mom and Dad... It was good to see pictures of Nick and Michael Chow.. This week was pretty crazy again.. This whole transfer has been super weird and unnormal.. or at least that's how I feel. 

Today we are all in Namur, probably one of the most beautiful cities ever... it is soo sweet. It has a huge citdel so we went exploring in it. It's so pretty, I am sure there are photos on the internet.. check it out.. I have photos, but Ya... It was pretty fun... we walked through all these caves/tunnels.. etc; but ummmmm

 
So the week... on Tuesday we had a pretty good day and we just saw our amis and taught them with Patrick.. Then on Wednesday, we had a workday with the Assistants... Im not§ sure why President wanted them to work with us, but he did.. probably to make sure we aren't terrible missionaries... haha.. but anyway that was pretty good.. Elder Schmutz went to Brussels and worked with Elder Carey the Dutch Assistant.. and Elder Bailey, the French Assistant went with me down to Namur to work.. We had a charge in Namur.. so like we had all the Leaders in the Zone come to Namur, so I think we had 6 companionships just finding all day in Namur.. it was pretty good.. It was interesting working with Elder Bailey the Assistant... He is obviously a great missionary.. just a little special.. but we found some elect people... a big Congolais famille and a younger student from Ruwanda.. It was a great day.. 
As for the week we were pretty busy.. Fatiha is doing pretty good. Because she has a daughter that is like pro-Muslim, she wasn't able to come to church this week.. her and her daughter were having some problems or something.. but we taught her this last Friday with Esther at the library.. It was so great... Esther is a stud(ette)? haha She is s solid convert and she understands the Gospel well.. Also.. other sweet news we just began teaching Daniel's bother.. he is really great... he just isn't super reliable with rendez vous etc....
On Friday we had an exchange with some Elders in Liege, one is from Kaysville (Elder Spackman) and the other from Austria (Elder Schaunig) Oh man, it was such an amazing day.. I worked with Elder Schaunig here in Charleroi and we worked with both Esther and Daniel.. it was great teaching with people I taught.. Elder Schaunig is an amazing Elder... he is one transfer younger than me but he is way better.. man... We found a sweet Congolais family that is Pentacostal, but they felt the Spirit and are going to read in the Book of Mormon.. 
The week was kinda stressful a little but it was still really good.. I got to drink AMERICAN MILK this week and eat AMERICAN CEREAL... it was sweet.. so good... We got some supply from the American Army Base in Mons.. Anyway.. I love you all!  Thanks for the letters etc.. I hope I get my package, but we are having a Seventy come for Zone Conference and I have heard that we aren't getting any packages etc... SO we will see.. 
Elder Simonson

MIRACLES!

Hello all... so this week was pretty stinking crazy.. We didn't have time for a lot of normal missionary work but we still had a great week packed with miracles like always... Monday was a pretty normal day, but Tuesday I had to go down to Namur to meet with the Zone Leaders for District Leader Council.. and Elder Palomaki and I had an exchange in Charleroi.. Elder Schmutz went to Liege to work with our French brother Elder Villain .. Our exchange was soooo great.. Elder Palomaki is an insanely good missionary.. I learned lots.. also we saw Fatiha that day.. and she had still been reading and had lots of questions and anyways to make a long story short she now has a baptismal date for the 18th of April.. She is so elect she wanted to understand how to use the atonement of Jesus Christ and be clensed from her sins.. so we taught her from the Bible and the Book of Mormon and she completely understood...and wants to be baptized... on Wednesday, Elder Schmutz and I spent the morning on trains back from Liege.. and then we had a service project all morning at this member's house.. I guess you can call it that.. it was terrible!  But, Thursday like always was spent planning for the week and going to Ward meetings.. so we didn't have too much time to find teach and baptize haha... Friday we had to go do legality in Lille, France and that ate up the majority of the day .. but then on Saturday Elder Davis and I had an exchange and I went and worked in the Charleroi 1 area.. It was so intense we found sooo many solid sweet people.. and taught a ton of people... Sunday was a sweet day like always...so back to Fatiha.. on Saturday at like 1 o'clock in the morning we get a text from her saying that we scare her and that she only has confidence in God, etc... she was like wondering what we really want from her or something like that.. it was really weird and we were kinda worried and didn't know if she would come to church.. Well, SHE CAME.. and she asked if we got her text and we told ya but we didn't understand really what she wanted to say.. so she pulls out a letter for us.. anyway I read the letter and talked to her after church.. She is and was scared of us because she feels like we have been reading her thoughts and seeing and knowing what is in her heart.. The spirit has been working on her super hard and she isn't used to it and it kinda scared her.. We talked to her and told her that it was the Holy Ghost and God that knows her and what's in her heart and that we are just trying to follow the Spirit and what God wants us to teach her and tell her.. I guess last time we talked to her.. we had decided that we wanted her to read Alma chapters 40, 41, and 42 and when she read it, it spoke to her directly and answered her questions that she had been asking herself for a long time... in her letter she said that she knows that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true and that she really wants to be baptized and recieve the Holy Ghost.. she is so insanely elect it is just freaking ridiculous.. last week in church in amis class we talked about the Word of Wisdom and she stopped coffee, tea, and is starting to stop smoking.. freaking crazy... Charleroi is such a blessed city.. how greatful I am to be here.. We will see Fatiha tomorrow.. so I'm excited... I got Grandma and Grandpa's package.. thanks so much! I loved the Book of Mormon, that is soooo sweet.. but I gotta go for now.. I love you very much.. sounds like things are going well back home.. Keep prayin' hard.. I need all the stinkin' help I can get.. chao chao
Elder Simonson

Muslims?

So this last week has been a really great one..some great miracles...
The week started out pretty good.  We had interviews with President.. which was great. I had a lot of things to ask him and he had a lot of things to tell me.. so I've got lots to work on. But one miracle that stood out above the rest was a wonderful lady from Morroco named Fatiha Asmana.. Elder Reynolds and I first contacted her like his last 2 weeks or something like that, anyway nothing really came of that because she was Muslim and she was telling us about Mohammed and all that fun stuff.. Well, like the first week with Elder Schmutz we contacted her and she was really cool and nice and she gave us her number so we called her and met her in a cafe near our house.. the rendez vous went pretty well, but she had a lot of questions and liked to tell us about Islam.. but.... we gave her the Book of Mormon and explained it and she loved it.. and was super interested in it.. so we gave her some stuff to read and set up another rendez vous..then the next week we felt like we should talk about the Plan of Salvation a little bit but, really focus on the fact that Jesus Christ is our Savior and not just a Prophet, because she said she had always thought that Jesus was more than a prophet and that there was something special about him.. so we did, and we gave her a bunch of stuff to read on the Atonement... Well, she called us on Tuesday saying she had read it and was wondering if there were things that she had to pay for or atone for.. and she said she hadn't slept well and just felt weird and bad since we had talked to her.. so she told us that she needed to see us soon... so we set up a rendez vous for the next day and she just had tons and tons of questions... we will just say that she has a very Muslim background and just doesn't understand a lot of base simple things.... well after the appointment on Thur. we didn't know exactly what to do.. well she continued to read in the Book of Mormon and she called us on Friday night wondering when and where church was because she wanted to come.. so Sunday morning she was there at the bus stop just waiting... well long story short... she loved church and felt so good afterwards and she totally changed after church... Then last night she sent us a text thanking us for taking her to church and saying that, "Well I don't know how to say it, but I think that Jesus Christ is the son of God and I think that he has entered into my heart and I feel protected"..and then she was like "thank you, God for putting me in your path".. It was sweet... If you understood Muslims you would be as excited as I am.. This lady is elect but we have to set up a meeting with Pres. and her to make sure we can continue teaching her.. she isn't practicing but .. ya still dangerous.. Anyway other news.. things have just been all coming together this week.. Heavenly Father has really been guiding his work.. We have been meeting with Anastasie and Valery and they had read in Alma 7 and they said it talked alot about baptism and how we need to be baptized to return to our Heavenly Father.. and then she was like, "Can we talk about baptism?" haha .. so we were like, "Well, ok if you want"... anyway so we set a baptismal date with them for the 11th of April but they have a lot to work on still... 

Well it was great to see the pictures of Emmy's baptism.. I can't freaking believe how much she has stinkin' grown up, it's insane.. she looks so much older in the face.. anyway things are going great.. but super super busy... and ya.. so sorry if I stink at letters and emails.. love you all talk to you later.
Jacob