Jacob's Mission Blog

Last Letter!!

2010-07-05T19:03:00.000-07:00

Well last week in the mission. It has been a lot different than I expected. I feel really good. I don't feel too sad... at least not yet. It was a good week. Elder Berrett and I continued working despite the hot weather and the temptation to not work as hard. But the hard work payed off because we found some really cool people, and got in contact with some cool people who will become new investigators this next week for Elder Berrett and his new companion Elder Prunier who is french and who doesn't speak a word of English. My poor boy. He will definitely be pushed and tried to learn. Plus the sisters in our ward are getting closed so all of their investigators and recent converts that they were teaching the Elders will be now teaching. He has to describe their situations and all the things they have to do all in French. It will be a lot of work but it will be a great learning opportunity.
I am glad that Patrick enjoyed it, because he has helped me sooooo much on my mission. He helped me learn french, he worked with us all the time and fed us every Saturday... He kept me going at the first of my mission and at the last of the mission. So he deserved every last minute of it. He is a good man. A terrestrial angel for missionaries here.
You are right I really don't have much to say. It is my last email and I will be seeing you in like 3 days so... I will tell you anything you want then. I love you lots. Hope everything goes well with the trip.
One last thing that was very awesome this week was at church Timothy got up and bore his testimony and it was soooo amazing. He seriously acts like a wise 80 year old man. I love him and I got the feeling again that he will be a great instrument in the hands of the Lord here in Belgium for the years to come. Also our DMP Frere Wery whom I love an respect SOOOO much got up and bore his testimony and thanked me. For my work that I had done and for my testimony and that he had learned a lot from me.. I felt so loved and so thankful for him. He is probably one of the most amazing man you will ever meet. He is so dedicated to the work of the Lord and sacrifices so much. The Ward is here simply because of him. I appreciated that for once a member recognized the work that we missionaries do and he was grateful for it. That was a special experience. Well Trunkiness is setting in... I am ready to COME Home. I am way excited to see my family that I love... Mainly all the little kids and I feel confident in the work that I have done for the Lord and know that I am now ready to move on.
Love Elder Jacob Von Simonson

Time...

2010-06-28T06:35:00.000-07:00

NOOOOOO..... well time is running thin. I can't freaking believe that I have one week left on my mission. Triste (sad)...really. It hadn't really hit me until last night. I was thinking about my transfers in Brussels with Elder De Mass and the very special and fond memories that I have had. I realized how much I love Belgium. I don't really want to leave. I am excited to see family, especially my nieces and nephews ... But I am going to miss Belgium, there is just something special about it.
This week was pretty good. It was also very difficult because we have a VERY difficult missionary that lives with us and we had exchanges with him and his companion and that created some arguments and ridiculousness. Maybe it is the Lord's way of helping me be more excited to go home. Or maybe it is just the fact that I need to learn more love and patience for difficult people. Anywho other than that it was good.

Tuesday Elder Berrett and I had to go to Brussels to get his legality. That was cool, but it kinda ate up our whole day. Elder Berrett is soooo good. There were other new missionaries there and they were all weird and annoying haha. So I was glad to have Elder Berrett. We also had a bunch of service this week. We helped this lady from the Ward move. That was fun. Let us just say that Europeans don't know how to freaking move.

Other than that, we have had a lot of time left for finding and porting. We did hours and hours on end of just talking to people. maybe the Lord is just helping me make up on all the time I missed out on finding and porting while I was Assistant and driving to the Netherlands etc.. Maybe.

Timothy is doing very well. He went out and bought a suit for church and also we taught him about the Priesthood this week and he got and interview with the Bishop and should get it next week.

Other fun news... I played piano in Sacrament meeting... How do you like me now...?? That is right. I'm cool. I learned myself the hymn, In Humility... just mainly the top hand, but the pianist is on vacation so there was no one to play so they asked us missionaries to play... and somehow I got roped into playing. It was less than spectacular, that is for dang sure.

Well, I am way excited to see everyone and very excited to show you the beauties of Belgium and share with you some of my life for the last two years. I feel like I have finally started my life. At the end of my mission I have come to realize how important the Gospel is. I look back before my mission.. and think, "Man I was stupid.. If only I had known all this before." Oh well, right.. At least I know it now... I am so thankful I came on a mission. I would be absolutely nowhere if I hadn't come.

Speaking of nowhere... I got a letter from Brett the other day and he told me that the last he heard.. Derek was in Jail for selling drugs and Greg had moved to New York with an 18 year old girl; Oh how different our lives are. I prefer mine... my future is looking better...

Thanks to everyone for all your love and support that you have given me on my mission. Thanks for all your great examples. Sorry for being such a jerk and kinda forgetting about all of you. I don't think I ever told anyone of you Happy Birthday or wrote you letters; I literally forgot about you a little.. so sorry, but thanks again!

I am super excited to get to go to President Brubakers house with Elder Schmutz and his parents. That will be SUPER SICK; I will try and set up some more appointments.. but I was just wondering when you would want to be in Charleroi and when you would want to be in Brussels. I will try to figure that out.

Also I have a question about my talk. Do I have a subject or not.... ??? Let me know that way I can begin thinking and pondering about it. Love you lots

Bisous (Kisses)

Elder Simonson

So this is our district right now and the other picture is a member family that we are teaching. The little girl is seven and the family wanted us to help prepare her for her baptism so we are teaching her. She is soooo cute... her name is Ketsia
Enjoy! love ya
ELder Von

T-R-U-N-K-Y

2010-06-21T02:27:00.000-07:00

What does that spell?..... Trunky! Mom is trunky. I knew this day would come! But I guess I can let her be trunky because it is only two weeks away. That is understandable. But I will tell you what... this whole going home in two weeks thing hasn't really become real to me. I feel the same and missionary work is still the same. I'm not lost in a pool of trunky thoughts, at least not a whole lot. So I guess that is good because then I am staying focused, right?
This week was really good. Elder Berrett is progressing a whole lot and his French is getting really pretty good. When he wants to say something he can get it out. He thinks that he isn't saying it right, but every time it is. He is a good example to me. He tries soooo hard and isn't afraid to fail. Yes, I got my camera card a long time ago, sorry... every week I forget to tell you that I got it.
This summer has been a really rainy one.. I think it rained almost everyday... but then again it is Belgium. It is always sprinkling a little. But at least it has been warm. Not hot, not cold, just warm.
Monday we had pday. We went around in shops looking at stuff. Elder Berrett still has stars in his eyes so everything is soooo cool and different, so obviously he wants to buy everything. It is funny... I find it humorous. Tuesday we had an exchange with Elder Winkler and Hall. I worked with Elder Winkler (the Swiss) It was an awesome day. We taught Timothy and some recent converts. Timothy was ready to go. Wednesday he had his baptismal interview and passed. We went and saw him on Friday to see if he had any questions or concerns and he didn't. So we talked about enduring to the end and steps after baptism.

Saturday was his Baptism. It was a really good baptism. I was kinda worried because I didn't think that anyone would be there. But there were a ton of people there. It was short, powerful, and just really good. His Mom was so very happy for him and she is doing well and coming back strong in the church. She had an interview with the Bishop and is back on track.

Yesterday we had the confirmation of Timothy. It was the Young Men's President that gave him the Holy Ghost. It was powerful. From the blessing that he received, it sounded like God had been waiting for Timothy to be baptized and that now that he was baptized, it was like... "Allright, now he is a member, now we can use him." I got the feeling that the Lord has lots of things in store for this young boy.
Friday however, was kind of a weird day. We had Zone Conference in Bruxelles. It was so weird. I had kind of anticipated that it would be this huge spiritual experience where all the miracles and feelings of joy would just overcome me.. but it wasn't really that way. It was just kinda normal. I was happy and I felt content with my mission but it wasn't what I was expecting. But that is ok... that isn't what was to happen. I don't like when I think something is going to be a certain way, because then I am let down when it isn't. It was a great Zone Conference though, exactly what I needed. I learned an important principle that will help me through my whole life.
So that was my week. Benjamin is doing ok. He is really pushed up to a wall. He has the sincere desire to be baptized but Satan is putting a ton of opposition in his way and he just needs to show by his acts that he has the desire to be baptized. He has to choose. He lets things get in his way too easily. We are praying and hoping that he will begin to put more faith in the Lord and let worldly things go. Opposition is good because that makes him stronger... so that is the good side. Other than that we are teaching a few new people but they are just new.
Next week should be good and I still have time to find a sweet new person like Timothy or the Family Johnson.!!!!! Right? Am I right?!
Anyway. That is that. now a little bofiness. YESSSS! I am in the Architecture program.. and everything is in place for me... Luckily the Lord gave me a sweet sister and mother. That is a huge blessing for me. I didn't have to do anything or think about anything and you guys just took care of everything.. I am so spoiled. Thank you. I love you sooooo much... (however... 19 freaking credits... are you trying to kill me? haha... dang and those aren't easy classes either.) Oh well, I will jump the fence when I get to it... right?
Have a good week and get ready to poop yourself when you see how cool I have become....haha... See you Soon.
Love Elder Jacob Von Simonson

Time is passing quickly...

2010-06-14T02:45:00.000-07:00

Hola Familia.
Well I am still kicking, and things are going well. This week was a little long and testing, but it was still a great week. Timothy is doing amazing and he is all set and good to be baptized this Saturday on the 19th. That is what the blessing is. We couldn't ask for a better, more prepared person than him. After all, that is why we are here right? To help people to baptism and continued faith in Jesus Christ. So we are very grateful for that and are very excited for him. Other than Timothy and Benjamin however, we have no other investigators. We do hours and hours of finding, knocking doors... we talk to a ton of people that aren't really interested and it gets tiring doing that day after days, but we understand that that is how it goes so we are trying to not get discouraged.
Timothy will be baptized by a youth in our yard named Jeremie Pitters. Jeremie is 20, African, and he wants to go a on a mission, so this has been a good opportunity for Jeremie to come teaching with us and to be able to baptize someone. Timothy is as smart as ever. We taught him the rest of the commandments before baptism and he understood and already lives them so it was good. It was really funny...we asked him if he had any questions and he said, "Uh... ya. I have been reading in Alma where it talks about the church of the Gentiles and the things that they were doing in their church which was against the will of God," and he said, "Were they talking about the Catholic church? Because what they were explaining was the Catholic church exactly." HAHA it was funny. We told him that they were talking about any church that wasn't the church of God, but yes, that it was much like the catholic church. He is a smart little bugger...
As for Benjamin, he is doing alright. Progressing a little slower than we thought, but he is still really full of the desire to change and be baptized. He called us on Monday to ask us to come over because he needed to talk to us. He told us about some of the problems that he has had in his life and that he was sure that he had an illegitimate child somewhere out there and that he felt the responsibility of that child on his shoulders. So he said that he wanted to take care of it before he got baptized, because he wants to be clean and ready before he is baptized. He is a humble, sincere guy.
Other than that we have had rain and sun off and on.. That is Belgium... and a lot of porting and finding. We will continue, and I just need to have the hope and belief that there are people that are interested and do want to hear our message.
SO.. that is that. I don't really have too much else to tell you. I keep not having too much to say these last few weeks... I am doing well and am excited to see the family. It will be fun to see how much you have all changed and grown. As for Jacob Barrows.. I met him the day he left the mission, which was the first day in the mission field with Elder Musters.. and then I saw him later at a Stake Conference. Thanks for all that you do.. I have talked to a few people and a few recent converts to try and fix some appointments for when you come to visit and I will take care of that my last couple of days before you come... I am not too worried about that right now.
Love you
=Elder Jacob Von Simonson

Hello, Hello

2010-06-07T06:53:00.000-07:00

Hello hello,

Well thanks for the letter. No that was not sarcastic. Don't worry. Everything is going great. We had a good week with a lot of sun and some rain. It is going really good with Elder Berrett. We get along great. He is sarcastic like me so.... obviously.

On Monday we had p-day and did a lot of errands for Elder Berrett and some shopping. Let us just say I found the sweetest, classiest European suit for 60 euros so... ya you know how that ended. Tuesday, We had District Meeting and went and did hours of finding and then headed to Liege for a meeting with the Zone Leaders and to do an exchange with them.

Wednesday was our busy day. We saw our three investigators.

Benjamin is doing good but is progressing slower than we had planned which doesn't matter at all because he has the desire and is progressing , so we are not rushing it and we will be fixing a new date this week. We taught the Word of Wisdom this week and are going to begin working with him to help him stop smoking. Other than that he is doing well.

Timothy is doing soooooooooo amazing. I love this kid. We saw him on Wednesday as well and we taught him about the Sabbath Day.. because last week he didn't come to church. We found out why. I had to laugh afterwards because I was all worried that they were just being lazy and not coming to church but we asked why and the mom, Maggie said.. "Well, I drank some special herbal tea on Saturday that my friend gave me and I didn't know it was a laxative tea." She said, "...so in the morning I couldn't even leave the bathroom, let alone the house." HAHA.. so they are doing great.

The Sisters had another baptism this week in the Ward. It was a lady that was an eternal investigator.. she could never get baptized because she smoked a butt load, something like 60 cigs a day. But finally she decided to get baptized and did her best to stop smoking. She went down to 4 a day the week before her baptism and then she stopped.. I hope it is for good, but oh well. She made the covenant with God. Anyway, Timothy came to her baptism to see what it was like. He loved it obviously and it really helped him see what it would be like. He was asking a ton of questions. Then he went on Ward trip with the whole Ward on Saturday... which was awesome and then he was there for church yesterday. Also on Friday at the baptism the Bishop started talking to him and then invited him and us to come eat dinner at their house. I love the Bishop. So that was amazing. He will be ready for the 19th.

Other than that, Elder Berrett and I did a ton of finding and porting this week. it has been good practice for him and me. We have started keeping track of how many people we talk to in a day so that we can be more motivated to talk to more people. So far this last week we were averaging about 30-35 people a day. Maybe doesn't sound like much.. but we really do try hard.

So that was pretty much my week. It was good but we just need to find so more amis.

That is really cool about JR and his family. we need to get them baptized... just have them over when I get back and I will share about my mission and pretty much just tell them they need to get baptized.. HAHA :)

So I am talking on the 18th... that is cool. Good thing I still have a month, right? I got a letter from Seth Reynolds and he was telling me how powerful and amazing Elder Demass' homecoming talk was and he was telling me that I had better do good too... so no pressure, right? Anyway all is going great.. Thanks for the encouragement that you give me.. love you all

+Elder Von Simonson+

Salut!

2010-05-31T07:05:00.000-07:00

Salut.!!! The week has been a great one. It has been good to work hard and have a missionary that wants to work their butt off and talk to everyone.(Not that Elder Receveur didn't.. he did. it is just good to have another companion like that) Well mission accomplished! I successfully picked my newb up in Paris on Wednesday. It was fun. Elder Winkler and I both are training so we went down together and we took Elder Crump and Elder Receveur down to France. Both of them were going to France.
I was really scared to get my new companion, like I said before I was afraid that I would get a goon and someone hard and weird for my last transfer. But once again the Lord spoiled me rotten. I got the sweetest companion ever. He is great. Hard worker, has the desire to be on a mission and isn't scared to try and speak French and learn and make mistakes. He is great. My baby boy's name is Elder Seth Berrett from Highland Utah. He is cool. He is about two inches shorter that I am. He is a total granola. He lived, ate, and drank rock climbing before his mission. He wore little short cut off shorts, no shirt, and nice tree hugger sandals, Choccos. He isn't a tree hugger he just likes the outdoors. He is definitely my kind of person. He listens to chill music like Radiohead and his personality is like mine. So once again I get a sweet companion.

This week was so amazing. Yes go ahead and laugh at me for saying it was amazing but it was. We have been teaching Benjamin and Timothee. The best news is that Elder Berrett's second real day in the field we went to teach Timothee and we talked to him about the Gospel and what he needed to do to return to live with God. We explained the importance of baptism and we had planned to ask him to be baptized on the 19 of June with Benjamin. We had planned for Elder Berrett to ask him and we had gone over how to say it and all that. So we just got finished explaining baptism.. Timothee understood completely and the moment was coming and I was hoping that Elder Berrett was understanding so that he could invite him... And at the perfect time Elder Berrett pipes up and says.. "Would you like to be baptized on the 19th of June?" and Timothee responds by saying... "Ya, why not." So we were very excited about that. So now pretty much we are teaching two people, Benjamin and Timothee and both of the them have the desire to be baptized and are working toward a date. We don't have many other people that we are teaching. just a couple but they aren't too serious. That is alright by me I prefer not wasting my time teaching people who won't progress I would rather use the time to be finding prepared people to teach.

Well.. I can't believe I'm on my last transfer. Luckily I have a new companion who has a lot of fire because that gives me a lot of fire. I love Elder Berrett, he can barely speak french and cant understand hardly at all but he doesn't care he just starts talking to people. He has a lot of Faith. I love him for that. We are working hard and loving it.
So Elder Dewey I don't know if you remember him but he just finished his mission. We ate breakfast with him today at Patrick's house. He got released by his Stake President over the phone so now he is just vacationing it up like a real man. I thought that was kinda cool... a little weird also. It was good to see him especially because he wasn't a missionary anymore. oh well...
Well that was our week. The Sisters in our Ward had a baptism this last week. It was a little girl of 9 years. She is part of a family of 13 kids... they are members... pretty ghetto but good people.
I can't really think of much else to tell you other than things are going good and my new companion is great.
Love you all talk to you later.
P.S. Dad, those counter tops looked really good. Well done. Good on ya..
Love Elder Von Simonson

My last transfer...a little weird!

2010-05-24T10:08:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,
Well this week was an amazing week. I love how quickly things can change. This whole transfer we have been searching and searching for people to teach, and we found them and then we taught them, but they weren't really interested or serious, so we looked for more people. Then we looked and looked some more.
Our whole goal for this transfer was to simply find one solid person that was serious and who was progressing towards baptism. That is all we wished for because at the beginning we had no one. We literally had no investigators. Well this week was the last week of the transfer and the Lord blessed us amazingly.
First of all... on Monday we had a lady (that is a neighbor of some members) decide after two years of coming to church that she finally wanted to be baptized. The Sisters have been teaching her, so that was exciting for them. The only problem is that she smokes a ton... around 50-60 cigarettes a day. That is a lot. Then Tuesday, we went to Namur for a District Meeting and a District proselyting activity. While we were there, a member called us and said, "Hey... our neighbor named Benjamin is very interested in meeting with you. Can you see him tomorrow?" Of course we can... So we saw him and he had come to the Ward party not too long ago, and had known these members for a while. We sat down and started to get to know him and then he kind of cut us off and said, "Well, the reason I wanted you to come and see me was because I really want to change my life and do good. And since I have moved here (next to the members) I have felt really good. I know my baptism as a baby wasn't my choice, but I just feel like now I need to make that promise with God." He said, "You probably think I am crazy, but I just really feel that I should be baptized."... alright. So we said, "That is great! We would like to help prepare you. That is our main and only goal is to help prepare people to be baptized." So we set a date with him for the 19th of June. He is Belge.. this is the first Belge person that I have taught and set a date with. He is 27 and a nice sincere man. He is very smart and knows what is right and wrong and has had a hard life. So we are now seeing him 3 times a week. He has started coming to all the activities at the church and he was at Church on Sunday and loved it. He said, "It is weird... everything that they teach and everything that people share are like my ideas and my thoughts.. I didn't think that something like this existed." He is amazing, and once again we did absolutely nothing...other than be there and showing God that we really wanted and desired to teach someone serious.. then He just handed him into our laps.
The other sweet thing... I think I told you a little last week... but we are also teaching a 14 year old black kid who is super smart and super serious. Timothee is his name. Well, we finally got them to come to Church yesterday. His mom is a member, just inactive. We were going to set a date with him for the 19th also, but when we asked him he said, "Well, I am still a little confused... there are a lot of churches and I just want to be sure that I choose the right one because I don't want to make a decision and regret it later." He is amazing. He came to church and loved it. I went to Young Men's with him. There were 6 other young black kids in the class, so it was perfect for him. Then the teacher was asking everyone if there was a difference between immortality and eternal life and they were all saying that it was the same. Then the teacher asked.. "Timothee, what do you think?" His words exactly were... "Well, immortality is more physical and eternal life is more spiritual." Then he continued to show up the other boys who had been members for a long time. It was great..
The week was great. We finally have some great people to teach. Elder Receveur and I were very excited and happy.
That brings us to some news.. It is the end of the transfer.. and you know what that means. Transfer news. Guesses.. anyone? Well that is right... I am staying.. but sadly for Elder Receveur, he is leaving. He is going to be co-companion with a missionary his same age in a city named Cholet. They are both really young and they are going to white wash a little city. His new companion is French and is one of the biggest studs. They will do great and it will be a turning point in his mission. I loved Elder Receveur. We got along way too good. Plus he is a hard worker and we had the same desires and ya, it would have been great to stay with him for my last transfer.. However the Lord had other plans for me. I am going to be TRAINING a poor new missionary. I feel bad for the poor kid. He is going to drag my lazy butt around. I am excited and nervous. It should be interesting...Maybe a little hard. I am going to be working double, but oh well, it will be good. Plus we have sweet people to teach and baptize, so it should be a good start for his mission. Well that is that.. so my last transfer... it is a little weird. My mind has completely grasped the idea, but it doesn't change much. It is no different than any other transfer.
So that was my week. We went to Namur today to see the Citadel with the District. It was fun. That is why the email is late. so...
Thanks for the pictures. I loved seeing everyone. I love them all. It made me trunky because I would love to hang out and have a party with all those people because I love em..
Well that is really all for the week. I will be going to pick up my newb on Wednesday and bring him back to the GHETTO He is going to love it.
Take care, have fun.
Happy Birthday, Clint... 28 and still queer... pity really
Love Elder Simonson

Fast Week...

2010-05-17T07:20:00.000-07:00

Howdeee. All is going well in Charleroi, Belgium. We had a busy week. We had three exchanges this week so we spent a lot of time away from each other. That isn't always the greatest for obtaining and reaching the goals that we set together as a companionship, because we were never together and couldn't focus on them nor work on them.
Monday we had pday and I had a baptismal interview for a little girl that is 11 that got baptized in Charleroi 2 last night. Then on Monday night, Elder Receveur and I went to Mons to work with the companionship there. I spent Tuesday working in Mons. It was FREEZING cold the whole stinking day. It was like winter, raining and blowing. I loved Mons. It was soooo beautiful compared to Charleroi, and the people weren't ghetto. Plus the missionaries live with an American member... and she shops on the military base so that meant AMERICAN FOOD for a day... let's just say the taste of sweet Captain Crunch caressed by ice cold American milk, then the crunchiness of delicious corn dogs and topped off with nice cookie dough ice cream, was enough get me a little trunky.. But I quickly countered those feelings by eating a Gauffre (waffle) and some Chocolate and then I was good.
Wednesday we had an exchange with the other Elders in Charleroi. Which was good. They passed us this part member family. We are now teaching the 14 year old kid who wants to be baptized. He is just amazing! He reads all the time in the Book of Mormon and he understands really well. He is one of the most intelligent kids I have ever met. So that was exciting. Thursday we had interviews with President. That went well. Elder Receveur and I prepared some lunch for the District. We have a store that sells Mexican food.. So we had a bunch of really good burritos. Everyone was loving it.
Friday.. we planned and then went and taught a couple of people. We started teaching this beautiful little family from Rwanda. The mom is a little lost and really searching for the right church.. but.. hopefully she will put forth the effort to know the truth.
Friday night was one of the greatest nights of my mission (well funnest). Our Ward had a Ward party and it was the 'Souper Belge' (Belgian dinner). We ate authentic Belge food and it was dang good. Also they had the whole night centered on Belge culture, so that was really fun for me. I was loving it.. They did a skit on how to make real Belge Frites. It was sweet. For dinner we ate Carbonade et Frites.. and for desert obviously Brussels waffles.. carbonade is kinda like beef stew, but a little sweeter and with prunes in it.. It is good... especially on top of Belge fries.. So that was fun for me. Saturday we did some service for a lady and cleaned up her yard.. cut trees down, pulled weeds, etc. Then the rest of the day we spent finding.. knocking doors, talking to people, you name it. Yesterday we went to church. We had Ward Conference so I got to see the Stake leaders and see some people that I knew from Bruxelles.. it was fun. Then there was the baptism of the 11 year old in Charleroi 2. We went to that so I got to see all the members again.. It was great and for the most part they all remembered me.. It made me feel good.
Anyway that was my week.. It was fun and super fast.. I can't believe that we are pretty much through May.. we seriously just started it.
Well, love you lots and will talk at you later..
Elder Von Simonson

Wow...

2010-05-11T10:14:00.000-07:00

Well it was great to talk to you yesterday. It was good to hear everyone and hear that dad still has trouble talking and that Clint is still queer... We had a good week searching for new people. We met some neat people and had some good experiences. The Sisters had contacted this guy named Jean Claude and they gave him a Book of Mormon card and then a couple of days later he called them wanting a Book of Mormon. So the Sisters asked us if we would go give it to him and teach him. We did and it went pretty good. He is an older guy and very intelligent and a little special to say the least. He is a little crazy. But it was really neat how interested he was. We will continue to teach him and see what happens. The other cool thing is that I had an exchange with the Zone Leaders and Elder Berlin, my wonderful little friend, came here to Charleroi to work with me. It was a great day. We stopped by to see this guy that we had contacted on the road a few days earlier and he wasn't there, but his friend answered the door told us he wasn't there and we said, "Oh it is ok, we talked to him a few days ago and wanted to come and teach him today, but we would love to teach you the same thing"... and he said, "Ya sure, come on up." So we taught him and half way through the lesson one of his friends walked in and we started teaching him also. They were both really great and we really hope to start seeing them more so we can invite them to come to church and to start working towards baptism. So we saw the hand of the Lord in the work for sure. Also we have a lot of people that we haven't been able to get a hold of and surprisingly we ran into all of them on the street... I love how God works. Other than that we have been doing a lot of porting and a lot of finding...
I was going to tell you a story yesterday when I was talking to you... but I forgot, but since I don't have too much to say, I can just tell you now... So we were porting.. and we knock on this door and a big burly guy answers the door. He sees us and says... "No, I am not interested"... and starts to shut the door... then I was in a joking mood and felt like being a smartelic and said, "What? Is it our ties or the way we are dressed, that doesn't interest you?" So he opens the door and says... "Listen... we don't have the same beliefs" and so I say, "Well, that is ok, that is why we are here." He says... "I am a member of Satanism... and have been for thirteen years... look at my ring." (he had some Gothic looking ring on) So at this point I didn't know if he was kidding or not... so I just kept on joking with him... SO... I say very sarcastically.. "Ohhh cool... so does that bring you joy or... happiness?" and then I realized that he wasn't actually trying to come up with a dumb excuse to get us to leave his house but that he was actually part of Satanism.. He said.. "Listen, we don't follow the same master... it isn't about joy... it's about knowing who you serve." At this point I am still being nice and sarcastic... I don't know if he appreciated it or not but it was fun... SO...I said, "Well.. you are right we don't have the same master... but we know who our master is and it brings us lots of joy to serve him and he loves us." He goes off on the same kind of thing... and then says... "Listen... You need to know that very soon there is going to be a Big battle between Satan and God".... and he says... "and I know which side I am on and will fight for my master." I replied... "Well, we do too... and we completely agree with you...very soon there will be a war... in fact we are already in that war right now.. and that is why we are here." So he says... "Well, I am glad you know who your master is." And I said, "me too.. but I guess that we will see each other on the battlefield then?" He replied, "Yep".. and he says... "I respect you, and what you do, but just know when I see you on that battlefield... I WILL KILL YOU!" And I said, "Alright, we'll see."... and then he closed the door. Then I just started laughing.. and turned to my companion and said... "Oh my gosh, I can't believe that just happened!" haha.. so I was pretty much threatened. I thought it was funny.. the kind of people you meet on a mission is quite amusing.. anyway.. dumb, but fun little story.
As for the job thing.. all I have to say is.. I AM DOWN... I would love a job for the month that I wait to go to school. Like you said that is an answer and a blessing from Heavenly Father.. and I can already see the blessings that are coming after the mission. Heavenly Father is just so great.. he spoils the crap out of us... and Europeans say that there is no God because there is so much bad in the world... HA.. what do they know.. anyway.. that is all I really have to say. I love you all lots and hope that you aren't all getting too trunky to see my beautiful face and be graced with my wonderful presence ... I love you and I will talk to you soon.
PS I just attached some pics from Paris...
Elder Von Simonson

Hooray for babies!

2010-05-03T07:14:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends.

This week has been a really great one. The last couple of weeks we really haven't had much going on... but this week we started changing that. We had a lot of porting and finding and contacting old investigators to see if they were interested... we really put our faith and effort into it.. and the Lord, in turn, blessed us...
Last week doing our planning, we really just wanted to break out of the rut and start teaching more lessons. Elder Teixeira had invited everyone to stop putting a cap on our faith and our work and to just go out and do it, and that we could teach 21 lessons a week if we wanted. So last week Elder Receveur and I had 4 lessons in total which is not too hot... so we decided we were sick of this crap, so Elder Receveur, with his faith said, "I want to teach 20 lessons.." and me and my pescimistic/realistic self said, "Well, we don't have any investigators and last week we taught 4 lessons, so I don't see how we could teach 20 lessons.." and there was the problem... I didn't have the faith to begin with and I was already putting a cap on what the Lord could make come to pass.... So together we set a goal of 17 total lessons.. and we worked really hard to accomplish that... Well the Lord blessed us and we were able to get things going this week.. We ended up teaching 11 lessons and we found 3 new investigators Which is a whole lot better than last week... so we didn't quite get 17 but we were very satisfied with 11.
One guy we found has been an investigator for years and he is a Theologist and so he knows everything about the church. We went and visited him and he was great.. so we will begin meeting with him and just see if he is ready now to join the church. The reason he hasn't joined yet is because he said he has already converted too many times.. but he had realized some real key points about the church... such as (his words) "the Mormon Church is the only church that the ordinances are for after this life..." he said, "you have such a Celestial view of things..." so i thought that was cool.
Another lady we found was near the church. We were just doing some porting and we knocked on her door and she came out and started talking to us like she knew us, she told us, "No, sorry I don't have time to meet with you today.." we were a little confused, but then she explained that the Sisters used to come and teach her.. then she says to us.. "But I want you to come by and teach me the differences between the Catholic Church and your church because I never understood the difference when the Sisters would come and teach me.." So we took Patrick with us and he just told her straight up all the good differences that he really liked and bore strong testimony of why he changed.. it was perfect.. She is busy for the next week or so, but then she really wanted to come to a baptism and there is a Baptism in Charleroi 2 in a couple of weeks.... so we are hoping and praying that she will come and love it and have the desire to start coming to church and meeting with us regularly... She is something special, I feel that she is very prepared.. I wouldn't be surprised in the near future...and plus she is Belge and has a family, car, etc... she is just a nice normal person.. Just the way I like em
The other person that we found was really cool also. We saw a cute little black family so we ran to them and contacted them.. we were talking and and then their bus came and they started getting on, but we hadn't gotten their number or address or anything.. and as they are getting on the bus, the mom says, "Pass by sometime..." and the little kid yells out the address! After they had gone.. Elder Receveur turned to me and told me that Elder Stowers and him had contacted her the begining of last transfer but she had given them a bad number and they were never able to get a hold of her.. we stopped by her house last night and taught them a short lesson and will be stopping by this next Tuesday.. they are a beautiful family from Rwanda..

So all in all that was my week... We had two exchanges this week.. I went to Namur... it was beautiful as always.. but on the train ride over I had my overnight bag with my scripturess, and my personal journal and my study journal from my whole mission and .... we got talking with a guy and then when we got into Namur, I got off the Train and realized I had left my bag on the train.. so I ran back downstairs to try and catch the train but it was already taking off.. SO I was really sick to my stomach.. I figured I would never see it again.. but I called the Elders in Liege and told them which train I was on and asked them if they would go to the station and jump on the train and try and find my bag.. they did and they found it! So I got my bag with everything in it back... WHEW.. Thank goodness.. I was praying my heart out.. because it was things that you just can't replace...
Anyway that was my week... all is great... my feet don't hurt too bad.. I just like complaining and it was more just to emphasize how much we walk... haha.. so the other funny thing is that in the morning for exercises we have been doing competitions like how many push ups we can do etc.... so for example I would start and do one pushup then the others would do one... then I would do two and everyone would do two.. and we continue until you can't do anymore... and each time it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.. so we did that with pushups and I was sooooo sore for 3 days and then we did situps and I was sore forever... then we did lunges... let's just say I won.. but at the end I had done 351 lunges and let's just say I have never had legs this sore in my life.. it has been poop walking around.. but it was fun... and it entertained Elder Receveur.. so it was worth it.. Love you lots talk to you later...

Elder Simonson

P.S. Congrats Clint and Katie!

Hey there!

2010-04-26T07:34:00.000-07:00

Hello Hello, The week blew by as always. It is crazy. Things are going very well. This week was a fun one. We did a lot of finding and a lot of walking. My feet are killing me and my companion is just running circles around me. I just got spoiled with that car. Things are going great. This week we have been passing by a few old and former investigators to see if they are interested still. A lot of them are very nice but not to interested in joining the church. Most of them told us to come by whenever. They all like us but none of them take us serious as teachers. So that was that.
Another great thing and highlight of the week was that we had Zone Conference. It was really good. We had a mission tour with Elder Texeira and his wife. He is part of the Area Presidency. So that was a real treat. He is Portuguese and of course speaks perfect English. President Staheli and Elder Texeira both really tried to get everyone excited and tried to reset and change the mind set of... oh its hard its Europe, we can't do much. It was sooooo perfect.. that is what everyone needed to hear. That way the BBN missionaries didn't pick up on the bad mindset and some of the Paris missionaries got a mindset boost. It was really powerful and it got me excited to go out and work and helped me boost my faith that we can do more than we have been doing.
I don't know what to tell you really... the other night we were working with Patrick and we just needed to stop by an inactive member and then he ended up not being there and so instead of trying to look up more people we just said go home Patrick have a good evening and we are going to do some more finding. Because we really don't have any investigators. So we just started looking for people to teach. We were out in a nice neighborhood and did some porting and not much success. Then we were walking and I see this nice little Belge couple and I said to Elder Receveur alright this one is yours. He stops them and asks them if they believe in a life after death and they just open up and , she began telling us how she used to be really believing and how she is not really believing anymore but that she would like to get back to going to church and what not... So we set up an appointment with them for the next week and they seemed pretty interested.. That was our miracle for the week... something small and dumb but is usually those ones that end up being the biggest miracles in the end... We'll see.. Well I really don't have to much else to tell you. I am doing great and having fun and am happy so that is all that matters right.
Love, Elder Simonson...
P.S. I sent a letter home with my 2 gig card with it.... I hope that it gets there if not... it is just 2 gigs of photos down the drain... but we have never had problems before.

Promised Land

2010-04-19T09:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I can't explain to you how stinking happy I am to be back in Belgium, the real and true PROMISED LAND. I like to tease everyone and say that I had to repent and spend some time down in France, but luckily I repented very quickly and made it back after one transfer. I am only teasing. I like France also, but I just love Belgium, mainly because I have spent pretty much all of my mission here. It is just easier and more familiar to me. Coming back to Charleroi after being in Versailles, the richest area of France, was a big shock. Man, I forgot how freaking Ghetto this place is, but OHH does it bring me joy. I was freaking out on the Train into Charleroi.. I was so excited to be back. People are just nice and awesome in Belgium.

Elder Receveur is pretty much one of the coolest companions I have had. It is a little weird having such a young companion. He is on his fourth transfer, he just got in the field December 7th. I just keep expecting him to jump in the lesson and make decisions and wait for his input. It is fun. He is probably the happiest person I have ever met. He has the best attitude about everything and he is super humble. He is just a dream...The last few days we have been a little lost because I don't know the Charleroi 1 area, so we have been walking a lot and I am used to 7 months of a car. So, of course I was complaining about how my feet hurt and he just kept saying... "It's fun, its companionship bonding time."...and he just kept finding all the good things in our being lost and walking kilometer after kilometer.
This will help you understand a little bit what Elder Receveur is like. First of all he is from New York, he grew up all over the East coast. He too, just like me and the rest of the Simonson family, loves playing.... "your team"... so we get along just fine. It has been really funny because we are in CHARLEROI where playing that game is like neverending fun. Let's just say that we would be better to pick out those that aren't weird or ghetto.

Anyway.. so that is me and my new life, I am loving it. I am happy to spend the last months of my mission here... though missionary work-wise, it is a little slow. This Ward just came from having 6 baptisms in the last 3 months which is INSANE (that is more than they had all last year), so that is good, but now we are just a little low on investigators because they baptized all the ones they were teaching. The Ward is really great. I already knew a lot of the members becasue of 6 months in the other ward. So all the members yesterday kept saying "have we already met? Where have we seen each other before?" So that was cool. It is however soooooo great to be with a firery new companion that loves to work and that is a hard worker and gets my old fat butt moving. It just feels good to go out all day and work hard... finding and teaching all day.. I love it.

It was good to hear from Mom, Dad and Trish.. I hope all goes well with Katie and her baby... Happy "having baby day," Katie.

As for the converts from before and old contacts... I called and talked to Esther and Dylan. They are not active at all. She seems a little busy and weird, but she said that she might have time for me to come over and visit this week. As for Daniel, he left for Africa in March. He has some business going down in Cameroon. So he is not here and no one is really sure when he will be back. I hope he will be back before I leave. Daniel is great and I hope he is still strong in the Gospel, because he was doing really great before he left.. As for Fatiha, I called her because no one has had contact with her pretty much since I left. Well, she didn't answer and then she called back later and I answered it but didn't know who it was and said, "Hey, it's the missionaries." She told me "erase this number from your phone and never call back." That made me really sad because she was so solid before. So I texted her that night and said, "Hey, it was me Elder Simonson that called you, I am back in Charleroi.. call me if you want." She did write back and said "ohhh, ok yes.. how are you.. I will call you as soon as I can."
So that is that. We are working hard and loving life. In the apartment we have Elder Broadway(from England), Elder Walker (newer missionary), Elder Winkler (swiss), and Elder Crump(newer missionary also). So it is not really people I have been around on my mission but it is all good. They are all great. ELder Broadway is pretty interesting.. and Elder Winkler is just awesome like all Swiss people.

Well that is pretty much it for me... Love you lots. Have fun having baby, going on a cruise and whatever else you are going to do.
Elder Simonson

Transfer news and Paris P-day

2010-04-10T08:46:00.000-07:00

GOTCHA.... you thought I had already left.. but not yet.. You are right however, I am going back out to the field. I'm done being AP... AWWWWww which is a big sigh of relief, but it was such a great opportunity. I learned a heck of a lot. I really was called to be Assistant just so I could learn how to be a missionary... Heavenly Father had to force me to study and learn by having me teach 'Preach My Gospel' to other missionaries... But I am sooooooo excited to go back and apply all that I learned and just work my butt off... The reason I didn't email you earlier was because we had a Paris P-day so we have been in Paris all day seeing the sights. It was fun, but really tiring. We saw the Arche de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower and Sacré coeur. It was cool, but SOOOOOOOO many tourists and a ton of people trying to get your money..... It was kinda annoying. It was such a beautiful day though... nice and warm and the sun was shining. It was fun. Oh yes, and Elder Schmutz and Elder Ferguson came down to Versailles to the Mission Home to help get all the office stuff in order before transfers. So they are here for the week until Wednesday and then they are going out to their new areas. Elder Schmutz is going to Orléans as a ZL and Elder Ferguson is staying here in Paris as ZL. They are both pumped. As for me..... well it was pretty intense helping President with transfers and knowing that I was leaving and going to my last city... and not knowing where that would be... President asked for my opinion and I gave the only thought that crossed my head and that was, "Well I could go to Liege with Elder Spicer and then my last transfer I could train..." well that is where I was for a little bit and then I was moved around the board for quite awhile.. moving all over... and then we were working on the Ardennes Zone and working on Charleroi.... and we were looking for a great District Leader and to go to Charleroi 1. Well we sat and were looking and thinking.. Elder McKay and I threw out our ideas... President listened, and then we were talking about it and voicing our concerns and the fact that it is the biggest District in the Mission... bigger than some zones ...that fact came up.. and then President said, "I know who is supposed to go there".... and he turned to me and said, "Elder Simonson!"... he asked me what I thought and I said.. "sounds great, I will go wherever..." Sooooo long story short.. I am going back to Charleroi baby...

I don't think many people could say that on their mission they only served in 3 cities but I can ..... !!!!!! Bruxelles, Charleroi, and Versailles. So I am going to be District Leader with Elder Receveur... he is still pretty new in the mission. I think he has been out for 3 or maybe 4 transfers.. He is just amazing though... I have only heard great things about him and everyone loves him. He is from upstate New York, if I am not mistaken...so that will be cool. I will leave on Wednesday afternoon and then my pday's will change back to MONDAYS... so I expect lots of letters and emails... no more of this "I used to write emails on Sunday and I always forget to write and then Saturday comes along" CRAP!!! haha.
Well some news from this week.. something cool and then not so cool happened. Well, you remember Alain... the guy I wrote about last week.. the guy who was fasting to get a testimony? Well we saw him on Wed. and taught him and asked him what he thought and if he had gotten his answer and he said he didn't really know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet, but he did tell us how he had pretty much received his answer and how a lot of the Gen. Conf. talks touched him. He told us that he loved the church, he thought the members were amazing, and they all live the Gospel and were true Christians... and he told us how he had the desire to be baptized and follow Jesus Christ ... but that it was going to be a big leap of faith because he wasn't sure what would happen after that and that all of his questions weren't answered yet, but he knew enough to be baptized and he would go from there... Soooo we were obviously freaking out.. because this is a stubborn, prideful man that has been investigating the church for over two years and he finally humbled himself and decided to act by faith and receive his answer from God. So I asked him, "Well, do you want to be baptized on the 24 of April?" and he said he would be on Vacation that week .. so we said, "How about the 8th of May?" and he said that that seemed kinda far away...he said, "I have the desire, I want to do it ... why not as soon as possible?" So we said, "Well how about this week end?" and he said, "Yes, let's go for it!" We were sooo excited... then ... dun dun dun... on Thursday we were going to see him and also talk to his daughter Celia and see if she was down for baptizing... and he called about 2 hours before the baptism and said ... "No...the baptism is off. I can't do it. I didn't sleep all night because I was thinking about all this.. and I just don't think I can." He wouldn't see us on Thursday and so we saw him last night. It was a little sad, but he had kinda gone back to the old Alain. He told us all the wrong things with the church and the things he wasn't quite sure of, but then also he told us all of the good things and all the things he knew where from God and said he had to be baptized, and we said, "Well where else are you going to find these things and a church like this? Nowhere.." Anyway, he told us that he felt like the things that were motivating him to be baptized were not the right things.. and he wouldn't tell us what his problem was, but we just came to the same road block... so we said, "Alain, we can't do much else.. you must get your answer from God or you will never know. You see bad and good and it is impossible for you to decide. You need to have that assurance from God that you can trust." He said while he is gone on his trip that he is going to finally decide .. and when he comes back it will be either yes or no.. and he will either stop coming to church and stop meeting with us, or he will be baptized...
The thing is this... that he has already had confirmations and answers from God... but there will always be the Faith aspect.. he may never know with the assurety that he wants.... when it comes down to it.. he is just going to have to act by faith.... there is no other way. He is going to have to choose to go with his heart and join, even though his questions aren't answered.. and step into the darkness and take a chance. I really think Heavenly Father isn't going to give him much more of an answer this time around. I think he already has had his answer.. or enough of his answer to get baptized, and then after that and through faith he will get the rest..
Well, that was about it this week. It was a great week and I loved serving this transfer in Versailles.. hands down the most beautiful city served in... and the most rich... and now for the change back to the Ghetto of Charleroi with the most poor people.... YAHOO... that means more people to teach and nicer people...
PS... thanks Jakis for the letter.. it was good to hear from your bones. I hope you and Tess find a job.. and I hope Trish and Dan get that sweet house so I can live with them again... thanks you are so kind... :)
just kidding.. and thanks for the pictures.. I liked them a lot..
My address will be the same as it was before 97 Rue de Montigny 6000 Charleroi.. so I am going to be in the other Ward and other area in Charleroi.. so not the same as before.. but the same apartment and the same city.
Love Elder Simonson

Happy Easter!

2010-04-03T05:38:00.000-07:00

Greetings.. Happy Easter.!!!
All is going great here in Versailles. Things have been a lot less stressful just because we haven't had to deal with office stuff. It has been great. The last two weeks have been great. We have been out searching for people who are interested. We are doing our best, but still the only people who seem to be promising are the Part member families. Last week we received five inactive families that the Ward wanted us to go and visit. Just so happens that we had felt prompted to begin seeing 3 of them even before they gave us their names. Here in the Europe Area that is one direction that the Europe Area Presidency has given. Every Ward should have a rotating list of five inactive families. It doesn't always get done, but when it does it is really helpful. So we visited them this week and 3 out of the five are part members. One family is a super rich half Phillipino family. I love it. Also the other night we visited a Hatian family, super humble, young family. We started teaching his wife who isn't a member. Her name is Nyasselande. So that is kinda how the work is going. It is definitely different here in the Paris region. People are in such a hurry. I love it though.
I kinda told you about the concert that we had on Sunday. It went really good. The Sisters that put it on were just insane. They are amazing. We had about 250 people there in the Versailles chapel. There were even people that we invited on the street that came. That was a blessing. It was pretty neat. Elder Caussé, the 70, was at church on Sunday and he spoke and then at the concert that night he got up and bore his testimony and it was very powerful. That was good because there were a lot of non members there.. So I think we touched and softened some hearts.
So the week has been great.. not a whole lot of exciting news to tell ya.. One pretty cool thing... I don't know if I have written about Alain and Celia. It is a father/daughter that have been investigating the church for about 2 years. They are French and just the greatest people. Average nice French people. Well, Alain has just had the hardest time.. and he just has soooo many objections yet he comes to church every week, reads the Book of Mormon , Celia is more active than half our young women..; she goes to all the activities; she goes to Seminary, she comes to church... they are just super great, but just need to be baptized... so.. since I have gotten here we have just taught him once a week because he knows everything and what not but he just needs to have a testimony by prayer and needs to just decide... I've taught him a few times and each time he has some question or some scripture that "proves" that he doesn't need to get baptized or that the authority isn't only in the LDS church. He is just super stubborn and prideful... and we have told him over and over... "Alain you need to simply know in your heart that Joseph Smith was a Prophet and when you know that and that answer comes from God, you can know with surety that this is the true church".... so we would invite him to do that and he would say... I am or I don't have to, I already know that the authority was never lost.. It didn't need to be restored etc.. etc... so that has been Alain for the last few weeks and really there was nothing we could do for him...
Well after the concert on Sunday night... a sister missionary that knew him well was talking to him.. I don't know really what they talked about, but she told Alain that he looked like he was weighed down by something and Alain just told here that he was just sick of not knowing and that he just needed to know.. so she told him that she would fast for him on Tuesday so that he might get an answer and that he could get that weight off of his shoulders... He really liked that and he decided to fast as well... so on Sunday night he ate a meal and then began fasting... well we saw him on Wednesday and he was still fasting... he has been drinking but not eating; We taught him on Wed and he was a completely different person... his attitude had changed... He told us that when he would try and prove us wrong and read stuff on the church and just use "facts" to back up that the church wasn't true... that really it didn't bring him any joy and the it really didn't even convince himself... and that he had decided that he just really needs to know.. he said, "I have to know.. I can't go on without knowing..." So we saw him last night and he still hasn't eaten any food; I hope he doesn't die, but I think he is showing his faith.. and I am just hoping with all my heart that he will receive and recognize his answer.. If soo we might have two amazing baptisms coming up soon. So; that was the good news of the week....
So transfers are coming up soon.. which is weird.. that went by fast.. we will be doing transfer decisions this week with President Staheli.. It should go well.. let's just say that I pretty much know what is happening to me :)
As for the travel plans.. that looks great to me.. I hope the hotel is alright; I know the Charleroise Steinweg.. it is a really big long street and there are some nice parts of that street and some super ghetto parts of that street but I think it will be ok... I love that area though and know it well it is right next to the Bruxelles 2 church.. so.. good on ya..
As for the questions you asked me.. the Assistant responsibilities have been fine.. we have really just been working like a normal companionship; sometimes in the mornings we have to do organizational things but .. it is all good. The way things go in this mission is a lot different than the Bxls mission.. and Pres Brubaker and Pres Staheli are different.. a lot.. but I love them both.. and they both get the work done well.. Belgium is a lot more international and a little more poor than France. Things are a lot more expensive here.. or at least I think they are; There is just this different feel to Belgium and France.. the French are a lot more uppity and prideful a little.. The food is about the same; there is more cheese in France.. obviously.. but I like Dutch and Belge cheese better than French cheese... I like the food here but it really isn't much different... you just have a lot less choices here in Europe... but there are some specialties that will be missed. Well, love you lots. Thanks Heather and Jaron for your letter... it was really great to hear from you.. thanks..
Love,
Elder Jacob Von Simonson

Versailles, and Sister Smart...

2010-03-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

Hey family... all is going great in Versailles.. I love it lots. We have been starting fresh like I have told you before. So we spend a lot of time finding people. So far we have found some cool people and are on the verge of teaching them and getting them on the path to baptism. The best thing is that it has been just super beautiful here. The weather has just been unbelievable. We haven't been wearing coats or suits, just white shirts. That is enough to make me happy. The work here in Versailles is great, but it is very different than what I have had throughout my mission.. It is not that it is bad, not at all... It is just interesting and sometimes intimidating contacting and teaching rich French people. That and also our area is very different because Versailles itself isn't very big... in fact the center of Versailles is very small... and we have a bunch of little towns like that in a HUGE area and each one of them is about 20-30 minutes apart.. so we spend an hour or more in an area and then you go to another little town for another hour or two etc... etc.. so I'm getting used to that... but it is just beautiful down here..
This week we went and ate at Elder Gerald Caussé house (he is a 70).... just his house... he wasn't there... he actually lives in Frankfort but his two older daughters live here and there are a bunch of young single adults that live there. The oldest Causssé girl is married to a councilor in the Bishopric and he invited us over for Mexican food. It was fun. There is not a whole lot that sticks out in my mind that would interest you that happened this week. This Sunday we are having a classical music concert at the Chapel in Versailles. So we have been porting around the church which is a Rich area... and man.... The French will not get you a time of day if you talk about Jesus Christ but if you are there to invite them to a free classy classical music concert... well.. they are just super excited and all down for it.. Inviting them to the concert has been working like GOLD.... it has been fun... The concert is being put on by three Sister Missionaries that were professional musicians before coming on a mission.. they are way good; Sister Smart is one of them. She plays the harp. A funny story now on that.. We were doing some porting in a super tiny and super rich village and we found an American lady from San Diego.. She was nice and soo we invited her to come and gave her the flyer and she was reading the names of the musicians and she was like, "Elizabeth Smart... wasn't there a girl that got kidnapped with that name?" and we said.. "ya... actually that is her.. she is a member of our church and she is a Missionary here in Paris".. it was funny... Also something that was cool was that we were porting one night in Versailles inviting people to the concert and this beautiful French family (super rich) invited us in and were really nice.. and interested also.. the mom called down all the kids to come and meet us.. it was intimidating.. haha.. also there are some really cool people that we have met in the last couple of days that are just amazing.. you will hear about them later.. Anyway that was pretty much my week.. it was a great week..
That is really cool that Seth came over.. I love him, he is great... that will be cool for him to have dinner with you on Sunday.. Tell him Hi for me... and tell him I miss his bones.. as for the whole travel thing.... we can get around without a car here in Paris.. no problem.. there are trains and metros and we can find our way around here... then we can take a train to Bruxelles... then in Bruxelles we might could use a car; Claire lives about 20 min outside of Brussels and I don't know where it is or if there is a train anywhere close.. If it wasn't for going out there to see her... we wouldn't need one; I know the Brussels transit system like the back of my hand.. I could get us anywhere but... I could also get us there by car, I drove one around for 6 months... as for Charleroi... we can take a train down to Charleroi.. and then in Charleroi we could probably use Patrick's car... He would for sure drive us anywhere we would want... he is like that.. he said if I ever came back, I could stay in his house and he would take off a week and he would drive us anywhere we wanted... When I was there he had a bunch of missionaries come.. and he took them to Brussels, to Liege, to Amsterdam.. you name it.. so I am sure I could work something with Patrick... We will see, just tell me what you are planning on and I can maybe help you modify it if needed.. but as for a car... I don't know which would be cheaper.. to buy metro tickets and train tickets or to just have a car for a couple of days. If you get a car, just make sure you get a GPS.. because Europe is tough without one..
Well... love you lots.. talk to you later
-Elder Simonson

The Birthday was great!

2010-03-20T05:58:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone... well I'm twenty one and I have got the brains and the brawn to prove it... actually no one told me that when you turned twenty one you automatically got fat... I just always thought that happened with Clint and Jaron... I thought it was just them .. but apparently it is everyone..; I don't think I told you.. but since I became Assistant in September.. I have gained about 3-5 kilos.. that is a lot.. that is almost 7-10 pounds.. In other words I am fat... I never thought this day would come..; but now I am left to look at my brothers and embrace the inevitable future......
The birthday was great. I got both grandma and grandpa Hamblin's and Simonson's card. Thank you very much for thinking of me... It was great, the day of my birthday I got a call from Sister Staheli, some Sisters here in Paris, some Sisters in Liege and also a guy named Harry in the Netherlands. I would have to say that that was the most shocking and touching. Harry is an 80 year old man that lives in Eindhoven, Nederland. He works with the missionaries everyday and he loves the missionaries. He comes to every Zone Conference and every missionary related thing. But I received a call and saw it was from the Netherlands and thought hmmm it is probably a missionary;; calling me and breaking mission rules.. and then I answer and I here.. "Hello, it's Harry..." and he said.... "What day is it today?" I said it was Thursday the 18th.. and he said, "What special thing is happening today?" and I said oh.. it is my birthday.. then he wished me happy Birthday.. it made me happy. I have no idea how he got my number nor how the heck he knew it was my birthday..
The day before my Birthday we had District Mtg in Versailles and the district Sisters surprised me with a cake.. candles, song..; the whole thing.. They stole my camera and filmed it also.. so it is recorded as well.
This week was and has been great. We have been doing a lot of finding but also we have been teaching a few people.. I don't think that I told you about a cool experience... but last Saturday we went to a baptism at the Versailles chapel... it was for another Ward but, anywho.. we had talked to a guy while buying juice for Zone Conference one day... and we gave him our number etc.. because he couldn't give us his because he was working.. etc. but then I guess the Sisters met him on the street a couple of days later and they invited him to this baptism and.. he just showed up.. then while the lady got baptized.. he turns to Elder McKay and said hey so do you have extra clothes.. I want to get baptized.. haha.. we told him. whoa; well we have to teach you a few things and then ya you can for sure get baptized... then while we sang hymns he just bawled like a baby... his name is David and he is French.. he has a cute little 4 year old girl.. named Diana... well the more we talked to him after the baptism.; we kinda thought he was just crazy.. but none the less we set up a RDV with him and we taught him on Monday.. and found that he is just a really lost, sad man... His wife left him a little while ago and he lost his daughter and his house, everything.. so he really has just hit rock bottom and just is in the middle of a break down.. We taught him and he just cried like a little baby.. cried and cried.. it was sad.. he needs the gospel. He doesn't see why he even needs to live.. and so this is great for him.. he wants to be baptized we think it will probably be around the 24 of April. Also Sunday we had 4 people show up to church that we weren't planning on.. so that was sweet. I have really lacked on telling you cool things that are going on. So two weeks ago a big huge African guy showed up to church. His named is Melaine and apparently he has known the church for a long time and has been an investigator for like 2 years or so.. but he just showed up and then this last week he came with his "wife" and his two kids.. it was cool.. we taught them on my birthday and they really want to get baptized badly; but the problem is that they aren't married legally.. just traditionally in Africa.. soooo that is what has been holding them up for the last two years apparently.. The first thing Melaine said is, "Soo why cant I get baptized... I want to.." and so we explained..... The problem is, is that they are waiting to get married until their family from Africa can come up to France an see the marriage.. well that is never going to happen.. we are going to try and get them down with the idea of getting married now and having a celebration later.. we'll see what they think. They are African and they love their traditions... sooooo.. but ... that is a little bit about the people we are teaching.. we did a lot of finding this week because we don't have any investigators.. because like I told you before, the Assistants used to just follow President around to all the interviews and what not.. so they were never really in their area.. which means they just taught old eternal investigators..
Also a highlight of this week was that we went up to Lille for exchanges.. It was great. Lille is such a happening place; there are soo many nice cool people.. We met some sweet people.. The coolest was this girl.. she was French and 21.. just a white girl... and we stopped her..she listened.. and we told her about the Book of Mormon and explained a little and then she told us that her friend had the Book of Mormon and that she had read from it already... she was really interested and wanted to know more so we got her info and she will be seeing the sisters... That was AWESOME.. you never find normal upper class white French people that are genuinely interested in the church.. but God is a God of miracles right?? haha I also got to teach a little family that Elder Nielsen taught; Greg and Raphaelle.. it was cool.. It made me happy.. all in all it was a good week..
So I don't know if I already told you but Paris is such a HUGE stinkin city.. the Parisian people are not very happy and very pressed for time etc.. they all seemed to be extremely stressed and not happy.. it is interesting.. It is weird.. we will be finding and talking to people on the road and I will see an African person and get all excited.. and I will run up to them and contact them and they will tell me that they don't believe in God and that they are late for work.. etc... I pretty much die a little inside.. "What you don't believe in God... but you are Black and from Africa.. you have to... at least that is how it is in Belgium.. for the most part..." haha.. well.. I will end my rambling...
Love you lots.. also mom, I didn't forget.. I feel great about you coming to pick me up... it will be a wonderful experience; hope to hear from you soon ...
Love Elder Jacob Von Simonson

Birthday Week!

2010-03-13T06:32:00.000-08:00

Well.. well.. the months start winding down and the whole family all of a sudden starts making comments about when I will come home and how hard and scary it will be for me.... HAHAHA I laugh in the face of the unknown... It will be fine and.. I still have time to kick some butt here in the field...
Well this week was no different than last week in terms of busy-ness. We had Zone Conference..; I know we just had Zone Conferences in the BBN .. but it was a really great and powerful week. Monday we were in Angers France that is like central west France.. then On Tuesday we had a couple of new sister missionaries come in a little late.. so we spent that day orientating (24 percent sure that is not a word) them. I think the best part of the week was we finally got to go out looking for new investigators... we got owned and no one was interested but it felt soooooo good to go out and work and talk to people searching for the one person that was interested... Then on Wednesday we had Zone Conference right here in Paris.. The chapel in down town Paris is in an old hotel that was built in the 1600's it is awesome and one of the most expensive pieces of church property... It is situated right next to the George Pompidou center/building.. its famous apparently.. We had two days of Zone Conferences here in Paris and then I WENT HOME BABY.... It was so good to go back to Brussels.. I love that place.. It is literally home away from home... We had Zone Conference in Brussels yesterday and it was good to see more of the BBN missionaries..;
However I really love the missionaries from the Paris mission there are some super great missionaries.. It is also fun to make new friends and learn from so many new people...
So I thought I might tell you about a little cool experience that I thought was neat. At Zone conference President's training was on Personal Revelation. It was very great and very powerful. However it made me think twice about going into architecture and you coming to pick me up..(just because he told the story about how he was training to be a fighter pilot and that was his dream from since he was little, but how during his schooling his friend and elders quorum president told him he felt like he wasn't supposed to be there and they fasted together and President Staheli got his answer that even though that is what he really wanted to do... the Lord had other plans and then how he became an employee of the church and how he came to be President Hinckley's personal assistant..) I just kinda thought to myself hmmm am I sure this is what the Lord had in mind. But I think so..
Anyway during his training he called on a few people to share experiences about personal revelation and how it had changed their life etc... so blah blah blah... While he was teaching.. I got the feeling that I should share an experience.. and when I finally went to raise my hand the moment had passed so I ended up not raising my hand and just kinda said a little prayer and said well if you wanted me to share that..hopefully president will feel to ask if someone wants to share something more... Well just as I thought that little prayer..; President Staheli paused for a second and then looked up and said.. I feel like there is someone who who felt that they were going to be called on to share an experience... so... whoever that is just raise your hand... It was just crazy.. I was astonished.. I kinda thought to myself no way did that just happen.. so I raised my hand, shared my experience and that was that.. I don't know exactly why I was to share that.. maybe it helped someone..; or maybe it was to just reinforce and help my testimony that personal revelation is true and real... probably the latter..;
Thanks so much for all the letters.. and thanks for the package.. i already opened it. You are the best.. I loved all of it. Elder Simonson

Remember Me?

2010-03-06T07:24:00.000-08:00

Hey there... so my name is Elder Jacob Von Simonson... I don't know if you all remember me or not... but believe it or not I was once your (son, brother, cousin, friend, grandson, or that one kid) you go ahead and choose one.... but that is me and I am still alive. HAHA
Well all is well here in Le Vésinet. The France Paris Mission is great. They are a bit different than our mission but ultimately the same. At first I was freaking out a little, just the weird ways they did things, but the more and more I think about it, I realize it really doesn't matter at ALL.. the same thing happens and all the little bureaucracy doesn't matter. So to clear up a few questions from Mom. They are on the same transfer cycle as we were so don't get your hopes up, I am still coming home the same date. When we first heard of the merger we thought that they were on a different transfer cycle but it ended up being the same. BUT.... Question.... Are plane tickets cheaper to Paris???? Think about it.. because with all these changes and all that has happened.. going home won't be the same experience that it would have been and if you want to come.. I wouldn't be completely against it... because then I could go back to Bruxelles and see everyone before I leave. Just something to think about. I know you probably love me and are thinking man he is about as indecisive as his father or Clinton.. ha :) Um so Elder Mecham and Elder McKay were the Assistants, but now it is just Elder McKay and I are the Assistants and Elder Mecham is on his last transfer and is training a sweet newb. I thought I told you in the last email that last Friday we spent all day doing transfers with President Stahlei it was crazy. I guess that brings us to this week; probably the craziest weeks ever.... SOOOO much stuff to do and stuff going on and people complaining and people with tons of dumb little questions and re-working forms and just a bunch of busy work. It has been crazy. I literally have not been out of this office since I got here on Thursday of last week. This last week was transfer week, so Monday we had stats and then we spent the rest of the day mapping out transfers and how they were going to work because we did them two different ways and the Paris France missionaries were freaking out because we do them differently and visa versa.... wow.. so we were on the phone for hours .... Then on Tuesday, The new missionaries came in so we had our little program with them..as usual it was awesome, you gotta love new missionaries. Then we had the Departing missionaries on Wednesday. There was a missionary named Elder Andrus from Post Falls Idaho... he asked where I was from and I said Pocatello and he got this look on his face and then I said, "Hey do you know the Andrus' in Pocatello?" and he said, "Ya, they are my cousins we were there all the time." He told me that the one of the youngest, Kim I think her name is.. is married.. hmm cool.. That brings us to Thursday.. that was our day to plan out for this next week and also we met with President to talk about our mission leadership council that was for the next day... ... so there went that day... believe it or not... And then Friday we had Mission Leadership council, where we cleared up a bunch of stuff... With the changes and the merger.. there have been SOOOOO many questions and everyone is just kinda feeling lost.. so that is why it took so much planning and what not.. But the meeting yesterday went well.. we are finally all on the same page. But then after that we came back to the office because we had to finish and finalize plans for this next upcoming weeks of Zone Conferences..... FREAK.. it feels like i just got done planning for Zone conferences and did them...OH WAIT I DID.. that is one of the differences.. the week after transfers they have their Zone Conferences. whereas we did Zone Conferences the week before transfers... it all works out the same except now that means I have almost 4 weeks of complete craziness. Another very different thing is that President Stahlei used to have his assistants go to all the interviews and go everywhere with him so they were never in their area and they never really go to much time to be regular proselyting missionaries. Luckily that will change this transfer.... I am just soooooooooo hungry to get back out to the field... ya I am still a pros missionary while assistant but I don't have 100 percent focus on the area with all the responsibilities etc.. so that is my little dream if you will; to go back to being just a measly senior companion and working my butt off... we'll see what happens; maybe I just need to wipe my tears away and pull up my pants and get out working now... Ya I think that is it. So if all goes well and as planned, after next week it will be home free we wont have to do anything but go out and teach people the gospel and search for some sweet miracles.. One cool thing did happen this week.. On my way into Paris on the metro/train.. I started talking to this guy and he used to go to church in Bordeaux... and he was a really cool African guy.. he wanted to come to church and doesn't live to far away from the church in Versailles.. Another fun fact; Elder Gerald Caussé, a Seventy, lives in the Versailles ward.. so how does that make you feel??? haha Well that is about all for me this week... next week will be Zone Conferences we'll go to Angers France and then stay here in Paris twice, and then up to Bruxelles.. my home... ahhhhhh Belgium here I come...
Sorry I haven't had a pday to go into Paris yet so I don't have cool pictures to send to you; I have a dumb little picture of the area around the mission home but that is really about it.. lame I know. Well love ya lots..
-Elder Jacob Von Simonson

Hello From Versailles

2010-02-27T07:14:00.000-08:00

Well hello .. I don't think I am in Belgium anymore.... sad huh. This week has been a crazy one. Sunday was great, Kadio came to church and after we taught him about the law of Chastity, he was very accepting and understanding and he said that he would have to make a choice. It will be interesting and exciting to see what happens with him.. He is awesome. Well then that brings us to Monday... Monday was a crazy day to prepare for the switch and transfers and what not... Tuesday we had Zone Conference in Antwerpen so that was cool! I got to say goodbye to some of the Dutch missionaries. Then that brings us to Wed; in Lille, President and Sister Staheli and the Assistants of the Paris Mission came up. I think that was the day that started freaking me out. It all of a sudden became very real that we were soon not going to be our mission anymore. So they interviewed all the missionaries while we did trainings and what not... then on Thursday we were in Brussels.. The day went good, but I was also dreading the day a little bit because that meant that this change had to happen and that I had to leave my home in Brussels.
I had all my stuff packed and ready to go right after we finished in Brussels and that is what we did. It took us about 3 hours to drive down to Paris and so I got to know President and Sister Staheli and the Assitants Elder Mecham and Elder Mckay. They are all sooooo great: I really like all of them and surprisingly I really just haven't felt out of place or weird yet so that is really good. Elder Mecham is sooo much like Dustin Hubbard it blows my mind. He acts like him, looks like him, and ya it is weird. Also just a little cool thing; Elder Mecham's parents just got called as Mission President in Mongolia.
So the change is made.... I will be honest and say that I am a little sad. Things were finally going SUPER great with President Brubaker.. Everything was awesome. Everyone was finally on the same page and we were baptizing up a storm on the French side. President Staheli is a lot different than President Brubaker, not in a bad or good way, just different...and ya... but it will be interesting... I am excited, but I really hope that the mindset won't change for the missionaries in Belgium and the north of France, because that is the most amazing part of our mission (the BBN), was that everyone had the mindset that the work would go good and that they could baptize anywhere. Here, even in Paris, the mindset is a lot different. I guess you could just say that I am like a parent seeing a kid that is succeeding and then my kid that is doing super well starts hangin out with kids that aren't succeeding as much... But I know that this change was obviously inspired and it will be a good thing.. I hope that it will have the opposite effect, and all the fromer BBN missionaries will help explode the work in France...
So despite the differences, it is good to be here. I am living in le Vesinet, it is supposedly a rich suburb of Paris.. It is in Versailles.. not Paris. Anyway things are well.. It will be cool to serve in France.. I will miss Bruxelles and Belgium.
So that also sounds cool about the Apartment that you found... sounds like it is perfect.. thanks for getting all that in order. I also bought a card last week too.. sorry... I am a little preoccupied, so that is why this letter is all over the place. We did transfers yesterday, ALL DAY.... it was hard. But I will stay here as Assistant for one transfer or maybe more.. we will see.. anyway the address for the Mission Office is: 23 Rue du Onze Novembre 78110 Le Vesinet France

Love Elder Simonson

Paris...this week!

2010-02-20T06:30:00.000-08:00

Hey mom, and Fam. Well this is my new email account... jacob.simonson@myldsmail.net...They updated myldsmail... so.. it is better now...

I still got your emails... It transferred everything... and I can still get on the old one for a little while so... but now just write to this new one...

Well... I am feeling pretty weird.. I feel like I am in a limbo state... I'm still here in Brussels and I know that I will be going to Paris this coming Thursday. We went and picked up the new Dutch Assistant this week, Elder Christensen's new companion. His name is Elder Wells.. He is a great guy.

It was cool, this week we have been doing a lot of exchanges because our companionship is closing.. So we have just been working in other people's areas...that way the work we do is more effective. On Monday we had a lot of planning and prep for Zone conference and the switch. Then on Tuesday we went up to the Netherlands! My last time in that beautiful country.. We went and did an exchange with the Zone leaders in Apeldoorn.. I got to try out my Dutch speaking skills... I understood a little, enough to answer back in English... how long I had been in Europe and what not.. It was cool.. It was a great day. We went to this beautiful city called Deventer, just outside of Apeldoorn. We slept there and then we brought Elder Wells back with us (he was in Apeldoorn) and we had a mini transfer in Roosendaal with a few missionaries.. Then the rest of Wednesday we finalized our plans for Zone Conference with our new comp Elder Wells... and that ate up the rest of Wed.

Thursday, Elder Wells and Christensen went to St. Niklaas in Belgium to work with the Zone Leaders and I stayed in Brussels and did an exchange with Elder Benito.. We had a big exchange with the Brussels Zone. It was an awesome day... It was full of miracles.. we stopped by this inactive member of Brussels 2 Ward, who's wife is not a member and they were home... so we got to meet his wife, and by coincedence, her father had just recently died and it was the day that he was burried when we came over...so they were a little sad and somber.. but we taught her about the Plan of Salvation and it was very powerful...

Yesterday we did a lot of stopping by our investigators and telling them that we are leaving and that new missionaries will be coming to teach them...

It will be sad to leave Kadio.. he is still doing great.. it is just taking him time to prepare to be baptized.. I can almost guarentee that he will be baptized... he shows up to church every Sunday and he has a testimony.. Now he just needs to get married or move out so that he can be baptized..

I went to see the Family Johnson one last time last night... It was very special. They were all sad.. but they are doing so amazing that I am not scared to leave them... Mercy has a calling in the Primary.. ans she loves it and she has awesome visiting teachers that visit her... Bro Johnson will be getting a calling.. but he already has home teachers who visit him.. and he is a home teacher and he is doing his visits on Sunday... They are very well integrated.. Elisa is in with all the youth and will be going on a youth trip with them... so I am very thankful for an awesome Ward that is taking such good care of them...

Now I am just ready to go down to Paris and find a new Family Johnson... I am ready to work... and in French especially. I miss teaching and doing missionary work in French... It is better, I promise... that and it is easier to find people who speak French... English is a lot less common... hmmm weird huh?? :)

Well, I will stay here in Brussels until Thursday... We have Zone Conferences on Tuesday (Dutch side) then on Wed. in Lille, France and Pres. and Sis. Staheli and their Assistants will be there for Wed and Thurs and then I will go back down to Paris with them... Weird... I don't know what I will be doing exactly. I don't know if I will stay Assistant or if I will just help Pres. Staheli with transfers and then head out to a new city... I would love that! Anyway.. that is about it..

I love you..

Elder Simonson

Hmmm...so get this....

2010-02-13T06:57:00.000-08:00

Well this week has been great... one of the weirdest, but good. I will now narrate my week as it has unrolled. Monday morning everything was good.  We had a great meeting with President and things are going well in the mission.... ha... more on that later... so then afterward we went about our business like normal and we found some cool new people, a lot of Ghanians so that was cool. Also on Monday we taught Godwin. (He also came to church last Sunday so that was cool) Our lesson went well with him.. he really understands, but he is just not ready to join the church... I don't know why... We talked to him about the Book of Mormon and what it meant if it was true and and he said, "I know it is true but..." Then we invited him to be baptized once he knew it was true.. and he was a little reluctant... and said, "I don't know.. I like the church but I don't really want to be baptized.." which was ok... so that was that...
Tuesday... nice little day we had a great District Meeting and then we went out to find so more people... and we had a little member appointment with the sweetest little family from America.  Their names are the Whites.. They are sooooo much like Trish and Dan... and they have two little boys and a little girl... it is cool because both the little boys speak French perfectly and still speak perfect American English... Anyway the Whites were really cool. They lived in Hillsboro for a long time, so I got really excited about that and told them that my sister had lived in Forest Grove and I had been there a few times and LOVED it.
Wednesday... was the day my whole entire universe got flipped upside down.... haha... aren't you just dying of suspense.... I will now have a philosophical pause for everyone to take a guess of what is happening.... HINT... it is HUGE... and it affects the WHOLE mission.............................................drum roll please .............bebebebebebebebebbhpbhpbhpbhpbph....
Well.. ... let's review ironic things from Mom's letter.... 'I just can't believe the wonderful miracles that you all have in the Belgium Mission! You are truly blessed...so many golden people just out there waiting, and dreaming, and finding Christ...it is truly amazing...I just think how very blessed you are to be able to serve there. I really believe it is one of the greatest Missions in the world! You are so lucky! I know that there is a purpose for you being there...I know that you are as special as the Mission you serve in, and I know that is where the Lord wants you to be'... Well good comments mom... haha.. now comes the news... you remember the Belgium Brussels Netherlands Mission?  Well... remember was the key word.... I am no longer in the Belgium Brussels/Netherlands Mission.... in fact that Mission no longer exists. Have you ever heard of Paris? Well... let's just say that I am now in the Paris France Mission... didn't see that one coming did ya?? HAHA and I am not even joking you, I bet you checked the date on your watch to make sure that it wasn't April 1st...
That is the Huge news... On Wednesday President Brubaker called us (in the morning) and said, "Hey, we need to have an emergency meeting this morning."  And I said,  "Ok.. I don't think I will be able to make it because I will be on exchange with Elder Cabrera going to France to my legality appoinment... but Elder Christensen can be there.." then President said,  "Well can you change the appoinment?" and I said.. "No, I have been illegal since November... and I had an appoinment in Dec. which I had to cancel because of Zone Conf. and I haven't been able to fix an appointment until Feb... so I can't miss this one."  And President tells me, "Ok, it's fine.. go get legal in France because you are going to need it, because you are going to Paris."  I started thinking in my mind.. what? why for... hmm that is weird... and then he told me that the night before he had received a phone call from the Area Presidency telling him that the Mission boundaries would be changing and would be effective March 1st... and that all the French speaking missionaries would now be part of the Paris France mission... and the Dutch speaking missionaries would be a new Mission... I don't know if you noticed but... this is a HUGE ordeal and TONS of things to change and do and we have about 2 weeks... haha should be interesting.
Logistics.... Well I am not exactly sure what is happening with me, seeing as how I have a Dutch companion.... President said I will likely be going down to Paris to help my new Mission President, Pres. Staheli (pronounced Stailey) get to know all the former members of the BBN mission... but we will see... might happen, might not... Pres. Staheli will have to begin thinking about transfers really soon, like this next week, and he has no idea about any of our areas in our Mission or any of our missionaries sooooo.. There is a possibility that I might be going down to Paris before March 1st.. but we will see... This is going to be a difficult change for lots... but I am stinking excited.... there are so many areas and opportunities that await me...
I am not going to lie, I was pretty sure that I was done being Assistant and that I would be moved to my last city where I could be a little more calm and just work and not worry about responsibilities... but then the Lord had other plans....... Oh.. man... I have been freaking out since Wednesday, because I have no idea what is going to happen or what it is going to be like.. and I know that no matter what, I will be out of Bruxelles and going somewhere else... and there is a Whole other Mission to get to know and to get used to.. it is going to be crazy...
President Brubaker will be the Pres. of the new Netherlands Mission so... ya.  Anyway.. that is the big NEWS....
Thanks for your letter this week, it was nice to hear from someone.... and yes this is a big guilt trip for everyone to write me... I hate you all... haha :) well, really I love you and I will speak at you later...
Elder Simonson

Great Week!

2010-02-06T07:18:00.000-08:00

Hey there Family and friends...... Well this week has been one of the greatest weeks of my mission. I have loved this week. Things have seemed to finally slow down a little... after having the Mission Leadership Conference we haven't had to prepare for anything.. SO that meant a sweet open week to go out and work sharing the gospel... I really miss having all day everyday to be out teaching and finding and teaching...
We have been a little down lately because not much has been going on and things have been stressful and slow... So last week while we were planning, we decided... "Alright, some things need to change." So we decided that we needed to find a bunch of new people... We decided that we would no longer take our car around, but take metros and the tram and buses, because then we have all day to talk to people... So that is what we did... and it has been great.. the first day on Monday we were waiting for like 2 hours to get Elder Christensen a metro pass and we talked to a bunch of people. But it was really cool because we were just sitting their talking.. and this girl that had been in the line about half an hour before came walking back up to us and said... "Hey you speak English right?" and then she said... "Well, I was sitting there looking at you and I thought hmm they look like Mormons.. ya know, I don't really know what Mormons believe..." and she said, "...so I really want to sit down and talk to you more about your church and what you believe.. I don't know if you do that or what.. or if you have time during the week, but I really want to know." So we got her number and address and what not, but she was in the other Ward's area so we told her that some Sisters would call her.. so we will see where that goes. She was awesome, she was from England, 24 years old, and is a head person over this big Non-denominational Christian Organization of West Europe.. and they believe, and try to follow, as closely as the Bible explains.. soooo that should be sweet.. that was cool experience number one.
Then on Monday night we got a referral from a convert named Rachel. She is super solid and is from Burkina Faso. She talks to people about the church all the time. So she gave us a referral of a Ghanian man named Godwin ... We saw him on Thursday and he has three best friends from Ghana, all served missions and are very solid in the church. He told us.. "I know Latter-Day Saints very well.. I went to Latter-Day Saint church all the time in Ghana." He is really cool and will be coming to church ...
Another cool thing was that we really want to help Kadio to be baptized, but he never has time to see us and then he will come to church and love it. So he comes to church, but can never meet with us so that we can teach him. So this week we decided that we would just pray really hard for him and for the chance to see him during the week so we could set up some plans on how to prepare him for baptism.. Well.... let's just say prayers work. On Wednesday we were in Liege to attend some interviews and Kadio texts us and says... and I quote "Hi can we meet 2moro from 11 to 11:30 to talk on baptism".... how sweet is that... unfortunately he had something come up and asked if we could move it to Sunday... so this Sunday we will see what he has to say... He is such a great guy..
Also last week or so we went to just stop by an American family just to say Hi and to get to know them better and ask them about some recent converts that they helped teach that are now inactive and.. long story short, they told us about their neighbor and how the missionaries used to teach him.. so we went over their and found a beautiful little family from Kenya.. they have two little girls and ya... his name is Roy and he is a super intellegent and believing guy. We taught him last night about the Book of Mormon and he had his doubts and then he told us all about how the Bible came to be. He is really smart and knows all his stuff.. but what was great was that he was humble enough to say, "Well, I can't say this isn't the word of God if I have never read it." And he said he was going to read it all and pray about it and then he will be able to say yes or no.. we will see in 2 weeks.. we are meeting with him again and we will talk about his findings..
This week has been really cool.. We did some exchanges. We went on an exchange with Elder Spicer and Elder Canonica... Elder Spicer is a stud, he is doing very well and I love him.. They stayed the night at our apartment and Elder Spicer and I talked forever about Pocatello and what not and then I said, "Man, I would have never guessed that I would be in Belgium laying in bed talking to Daniel Spicer!" It was funny..
Anyway that has been my week. It has been really great and it only continues.. so... Working makes me happy... Anyway I still love you, even though I didn't get any mail... :) : ) haha.. but I think that you got my camera card... As soon as you send me back the one, I have another one almost ready... and today we are going sight seeing in BRUSSELS.. we are going to see like 4 sweet Cathedrals and Castles and cool stuff.. so lots of pictures will follow.. Love you, talk to you later..
Elder Simonson

Oh Glenda!!

2010-01-30T11:52:00.000-08:00

"WHAT???????; YOU HAVE BEEN LOOKING AT MY PERSONAL STUFF.... AND LOGGING INTO MY THINGS, Mom...oh... wow. I feel like you have really over done it this time.. haha! Hey, well that sounds like you had some fun. By the way.. this Glenda lady sounds like she is from Europe.. :) haha

 Alright... enough of this boafy and trunky-ness... let's talk about things that are eternally important... So this week we had a really good Leadership meeting with all the Dl and ZL's of the whole mission, both Dutch and French side.. We have been preparing for this meeting this last week..
Anyway... we all came fasting and ready to council together and set goals and plans for the year 2010 and how many baptisms we would set a goal for.. we came to the point where every Zone had set their goals and we had to make a decision for a Mission goal... and President was directing the discussion and he heard everyone's opinion and then he said... well now I will turn the time over to my Assistants... so we had to decide on a goal with the help of everyone.. I had no idea what to do or what to say.. anyway.. it was good.. Very powerful.. so... the goal for the Belgium Brussels Netherlands Mission is 325.. for 2010.
As for our brother Kadio.. he is doing super well.. he has now been to church something like 5 weeks in a row.. he is a solid guy, but the only time we can teach him is Sundays after church.. so that is what we have been doing.. After church this last Sunday we taught him with a recent convert... and talked to him about baptism.. and he said, "Well, yes of course that is the next step.. but I want to continue learning and make sure I know what I am promising with the Lord.." so he is a stud and I love him.. .. well I know this is kind of a short email but.. I love you and all is well.  We are beginning to find some new people..
- Elder Simonson

Survival of Transfers...

2010-01-23T07:33:00.000-08:00

Hey there.... Well I survived transfers week one more time.... It was pretty busy, but all went well and we got THE coolest bunch of missionaries... They will be the future of this great mission... They were really awesome and have the best attitudes.
Monday was pretty cool we had meetings and then we taught this lady named Marga.. we have taught her a few times.. but she is just a really nice lady. She lost faith after one particualar year that was really hard for her in her life. She split from her husband, her son turned gay, her daughter moved out on the streets, etc.. and her other daughter got diagnosed with cancer.. So.. now she doesn't really believe God is there... and she is pretty hard and coullaced... (I don't know how to spell that.. ) Well in that appointment.. her daughter who had cancer was there and she was really anti God.. she told us... "God isn't there.. or else why would he have given me cancer"... and we talked a little and said, "Well just because there is a God doesn't mean that everything in life is going to be perfect etc... then she was like.. well.... "I (capital i ) I OVERCAME CANCER.... GOD DID NOTHING.... IT WAS MY POWER THAT OVERCAME THE CANCER..." .. oh man I wanted to punch her.. I don't think I have ever heard someone that Prideful.. here she is still living and she says God isn't there because 'I got cancer and then I overcame it.. and he did nothing for me...' Hmmmmm... sounds like God is pretty nice and just... BECAUSE HE LET YOU LIVE... haha it was ridiculous.. that was one of the most offensive things I have heard on my whole entire mission.. That gives you a little taste of Belge people... They have pretty good lives, but it is supposedly because of them and their power.. and they all are very bitter towards God... But you gotta love em...
Well then Tuesday we had the new missionaries arrive.. they got in around 8:30 and then we had orientation and what not and went to the Mission Home to eat lunch then later we went to the Dedication Site and then to Grande Place.. It was a fun night... and like I said it was a really cool group.. Super solid..
Trasfers.. well.. I will stay one more... Elder Christensen and I will try to kick some butt this transfer.. so that means I stayed for the departing missionaries also.. It was sad, there were a lot of really sweet missionaries that left... It was kinda weird sending them home because they have been the group that was always there and were still pretty young when we first came in..
So now time for a cool miracle... Last night we were invited to a member's house... the family Whidiger.. He is from Russia and she is from Tahiti.. and they both speak English like Americans... in fact they are pretty much American.... They are both converts and awesome missionaries and they have the most beautiful little family.. Anyway, last night we went over to their house and they had invited a friend named Carlos.. Carlos was from Columbia but has lived here for about 15 years and he has a family of a wife and two kids 14 and 8. He was super interested and really open and wanted to come to church... Sadly he was in the other Ward's area... but.. it was a really special experience having a member give you a referral and teaching him in their house.. That is what it is all about..

Well that is really it.. not too much more than that going on.. that was too bad to hear about Grandpa Hunt.. Last night when I was praying.. I thought.. hmmm.. I feel like I am going to receive some bad news from home.. and viola.. weird huh.. well.. Hope everyone is going well.. I will talk to you later... Oh and I haven't bought anything yet.. we are going later today and we will see if there is anything worth buying.. if not I won't spend money..
Thanks..
love you bye..
Elder Simonson

Zone Conference Week

2010-01-16T07:39:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody.... come see how cool I am.... HA! Just kidding. Well the week was pretty crazy. It started crazy on Monday.. we had to plan, prepare and finalize everything for the Zone Confereces so that took up that day and then on Tuesday we had our first Z.C. in Antwerpen. It went pretty well, we had a few kinks but we worked them out for the next day in Amsterdam. Then on Thursday and Friday were spent in Bruxelles and Lille. It was a good week, a little stressful but ok...
We have gotten so many awesome new missionaries. They are great. ummm.. Ya, I can't think about too much else to tell you... You would be bored by all the Zone Conference stuff it was more or less the same everyday. We talked about teaching and President talked about optimism and using goals to stay happy and optimistic... It was cool.. He shared a really funny example. I'll bore you and share it with you... So we all know the white roller coaster at Lagoon.. And how it is really old an rickety.. well one day the cars got stuck at the top of one of the humps...all the people were just stuck up there and they couldn't budge the old wheels.. They tried to rock back and forth to budge it loose but couldn't get it.. so they tried to get a helicopter to come rescue the people but it was too windy and they couldn't, so about 3 hours later a rescue team came and used climbing gear to get all the passengers down.. Well the first people to get down were a middle aged guy with his kids and when he got down he was FREAKING out saying how terrible it was and that he was having a heart attack and he called an ambulance and they took him away... Well the next people to come down were a group of teenagers... and they were all cheering and laughing and loving it.. and were like, "Oh man, that was AWESOME... we could see clear out to Antelope Island.. we were up there for three hours.. you could see the whole valley.. and then we got to repel down... oh.. that was sick!  We should do that every weekend!"
I liked it because it just really portrays the importance of your attitude.. you can make whatever situation awesome.. whether it is really a poopy situation or not... Because in this example it was the same situation and showed how differently the people chose to react... what a crappy life it would be if we all CHOSE to act like the grumpy old man..
Anyway that is something that really hit me in Zone Conference...
So.. I had no idea that Jake and Maddie were pregnant.. but that is really cool... Oh and guess what.. There is a Dutch missionary named Elder Weatherston from Blackfoot Idaho.. but really he is from Snake River.. he came up to me and said, "Hey, did one of your brothers marry the Stander girl?" and I said, "Ya, you know the Standers?" and ya I guess he lives pretty close.. the world is small and I talked to Elder Sanford, the one from Jaron's Ward.. He is awesome.. And also I talked to Elder Adams, Mark and Colleen's neighbor..
Well you asked about the winter and the weather. It has been pretty cold.. not quite as cold as last year.. but then again I am in a car a lot of the time.. so I am not out in it 24/7 like last year.. but it has snowed a little on an off.. it snowed about 5-6 inches at the begining of winter and then it has just snowed skiffs here and there and they all don't stay for very long..
Second thing.. I am pretty pumped about this book thing.. it sounds pretty cool.. What did you use to make it?  Was it that Shutterfly thingy?  Anyway... sorry I don't have too much to say.. we didn't have anytime this week to see our investigators.. But Blessing is doing well and Kadio called us in the middle of the week and wanted to set up an appointment with us.. so that is always a great sign..
Sorry this letter is pretty BORING, but oh well.. love you.. and tell Clint that I would be willing to take the risk of marrying Jeff if he wants to play that game with his class. :) haha.. I love you all and will talk to you later..
Oh P.S... I need Tess's address and also Drew's address and ya, I think that is it.. could you please email me those.. maybe even today so I can get them and send out my letters on Monday.. Thanks, that would be cool..
Also I might take out some personal money.. It is SOLDES time in Europe.. that means cheap awesome stuff.. I have to go shopping.. I have no other choice..
Elder Simonson

L'hiver à Bruxelles (Winter in Brussels)

2010-01-09T06:47:00.000-08:00

Well things are going very well... I'm glad to hear that Dad wrecked the CAR.. nice.... "Young man, if you aren't responsible enough to drive to work you are going to have to take the bus." haha... just kidding..
Anyway, sounds like things are in a little disorder after the holidays.. but I think that is kinda universal, because that is how I feel as well a little. Things have been interesting. We have started doing transfers and also planning for Zone Conference and trying to balance seeing investigators and what not... It was crazy because we had a new missionary come in just randomly AGAIN. He was sick when the rest flew out, so he came late, but they told us he was flying out like the day before he got here so it made things a little more difficult.. but oh well.. So Monday we had meetings and the new missionary flew in... then on Tuesday we had to take him clear the heck up to the north of Holland.. up to Apeldoorn.. at least it wasn't Groningen where he was going, which is about 5 hours from Brussels or more.... Then on Wednesday we had a cool little Brussels exchange. All the companions got together and switched and then went and had a cool day.. I went with Elder Mitchell, a newer missionary, and it was really cool.  They just had a baptism.. her name is Veronique and she is Congolaise.. and she is sweet.... We taught her about missionary work.  She said she wants to go on a mission (she is 23) but that she thinks she would be too scared and not have courage to talk to people and just that she is too sensitive.... So then we were leaving and she asked us what we were going to do and we told her that we were going to talk to people on the street.. and she said... "CAN I COME?".. and we said "Sure, why not.."  So she went contacting with us and it was SICK... she was running after people and talking to them and she was telling us.. "Oh.. go get that guy, I will get this lady... Oh.. I will try this girl..." it was crazy.. and people were super open to talking to us with her there.. It was a neat experience..
That was one cool thing that happened this week.. another amazing miracle is the referral that Bro. Johnson gave us last week on Sunday. Her name is Blessing Osifo.. she is from Nigeria and she is soooo cool.. We went and taught her the first night with Bro. Johnson and she told us how she had seen a difference in Brother Johnson and his family and she liked how we would come by and help them learn the Word.. so she told us that she wanted to start coming to our church and become a member.  So then we saw her again on Tuesday and we taught her about the importance of baptism and all that, and we set a baptismal date with her for the 14 of February.  She has a lot to learn. She isn't super educated... she can't read and her English is fine, just super African street.. haha.... She always tells her kids, "You people be quiet o' I'll beat you." haha.. it's funny.  She also really likes to feed us.. and we will just say she cooks really African food.  On Tuesday we ate SUPER spicy rice with "schuky" or something like that.. what it is is cow intestines cut open into chunks!  It looked like tongue.. it is really fuzzy and has the same texture as a tongue... it was rough... I almost lost it.   I was forcing myself to finish it.. and I was just invisioning myself on Fear Factor... haha..  But she is awesome and last night we went and taught her and she had a friend there named Mama Blessing.. also from Nigeria. And in fact, her brother is a member back in Nigeria and her brother's wife also... so that is cool... one referral has turned into many.  She is also going to bring her friend Rose to church...
Things are going well... I love you all... I will talk to you later..
-Elder Simonson

Happy New Year Everyone!

2010-01-02T06:14:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year also.. ! It was so good to see all those pics. Thanks... and it looks like Clint is getting fat...haha (it's a little ok cuz I'm getting kinda chubby also.. I think having a car is catching up to me a little.) We took a picture at the Johnsons last night and man did I look fat. It was good to hear about the family...

Anyway.. This week was awesome. I am so grateful for new beginnings and a new year and all it holds. Things went back to normal and we were able to go out and work and have had a really good week.
We started teaching this new lady from Uganda and will have a new guy from Uganda come to church tomorrow.
Also we were a little worried because Kadio, our most progressing ami.. told us in the beginning of the week that he was busy and that he would call us if he had questions and told us that he would just read from the Book of Mormon, and what not... so that usually means... "ya, I'm not interested and I will never call you." But about two nights after he told us that, he texted us and said, "Hey, I want to meet with you tomorrow. When can you see me?" So we fit him in and it was awesome. We got to the appointment and he had a paper with about 6 questions on it and they were just really simple questions. Things that people have been telling him about the church, and so he wanted to understand what we really believed.. So that was AWESOME.. because soooo many people bad mouth the church and tell our investigators that we believe this and that... and they have no idea what they are talking about and then our investigators just believe them and never want to see us again.. So it was nice for once to have someone like Kadio that took the time to truly understand what we do believe and learn for himself. It was sweet. And then he says to us, "Well things have been a little crazy with the end of the year, but next year I really want to sit down a make a schedule with you so that we can meet more regularly." THANK YOU HEAVENLY FATHER !!!!! It was sweet and he will be coming to a baptism tonight and we will talk to him about baptism... This guy is awesome..
Another cool thing is that last night we went over to the Johnson's house and we taught them about the Book of Mormon, because they don't have a huge understanding about that and not much of a testimony about it either... so we taught them and it was awesome and everythign and then Brother Johnson said "Hey we have a friend that has expressed that she wants to start coming to the church with us... so I want to give you her phone and also want to go teach her with you and you can bring her to the church with the trams.. " It is this little Nigerian family with a mom named Blessing.. (ironic uh?) and she has three little kids 5,3, and 2. Anyway, while we were there Brother Johnson calls her up and fixes an appointment with her on Sunday night for us to go over and meet her and teach her. He is going to come with us... Brother Johnson is a stud and has a strong testimony.. They also told us about all the opposition they have been having from all their friends... because there are a lot of unitellegent Evangelical and Pentacostal Africans here... and they know NOTHING about our church but they will not let anyone join the church.. They bombard them by saying, "Oh that is the church of Mormon they pray to Mormon and they don't believe in Jesus Christ..." etc etc... and most of their African friends listen to them and steer way clear of us... so Bro. Johnson has a TON of friends like that and all of the people in their old church have been telling him how he shouldn't come to our church because we worship Mormon.. etc. and he tries and tries to tell them that the the church is the true church of Christ and how we don't worship Mormon and all this stuff.. anyway it has been hard for them but they are staying strong and they know the truth. He said he has just been inviting them to come to church with him so they can see and learn that we don't worship Mormon. I really don't like ignorant people that stop others from joining the true church, because they have no idea what we believe or what our church is about. Oh well..opposition in all things..
That is what is going on ... next week is the week before Zone Conference so things will begin to get crazy soon...
I love you and will talk to you later...
-Elder J Von Simonson

Merry Christmas again!

2009-12-26T07:34:00.000-08:00

Well it was awesome to talk to you.. I think all of you thought I was really awkward... I was being normal.. I just could barely hear everyone.. and no one had much to say.. Oh well it was good to hear your voices.. It feels good to hear those familiar voices.
Christmas night went well. We went to a little family's house that is in the ward and sang christmas songs and shared testimonies and then we had a big feast at another family's house.. so that was fun...
This week has been quite interesting.. It seems it has been really lazy and boafy..
I forgot to tell you but..on Sunday, church was cancelled because it had snowed so much.. we got about 5-6 inches and it actually stayed for a couple of days .. and Brussels is just not quite used to that.. so Sunday we stayed inside and had a big apartment study and breakfast.. then Monday we had meetings and other things.. and then Tuesday we picked up the a couple of new missionaries that came in early... they were both really cool.
One of them is a Sister and her name is Sister Stephanie Clark or something like that.. anyway the moment I saw her I knew I had met her before and that I knew her... so we started talking about why she looked familiar... and we found out that in the summer of 2007 she was down in Inkom and she came to the singles branch a few times and went on little trips and activities with them.. and it just so happens that I went to the singles branch a couple of times that summer and I think that is where I had seen her.. It was pretty crazy.. I know her..
Anyway the two new missionaries got assigned to Charleroi.. and President was in France doing interviews and what not and so Elder Christensen and I got to pick them up and then also take them down to Charleroi and get them settled in...
So on Wednesday.. We traveled down to Charlroi and also a senior couple that works on the apartments came down also and we spent most of the day fixing up the Sisters apartment and get them all squared away ... It was good to go back to Charleroi like always.. I saw Daniel's brother that we were teaching when I left.. it was cool
Then that lead us to Christmas eve and Christmas and we pretty much spent both days at members houses and president's and ya it was really good...
I am more excited though that it is all over and we can start into a new year and get the work going... I think we have lost a little focus on the work in the past few weeks and I kinda think the whole mission was like that.. So now I am ready for things to go back to normal a little so we can start teaching more people and find more people to be baptized..
Anyway.. that is about it... I will try and send a camera card as soon as possible.. I love you and hope you have a great week...
-Elder Simonson

A - O Merry Christmas Everyone!

2009-12-19T08:27:00.001-08:00

Oh boy... well the time has flown and Christmas has arrived... and to be honest, I forgot that it was the time to be planning the phone call and times and what not... Elder Christensen and I kinda thought about it and I think it would be allright to call around 8 your time (4 our time)... I don't know if that is early enough to be able to talk to Trish and Clint.. but.. anyway.. I have to get on my email on Monday to send President some letters so.. if you would prefer a different time just email and tell me.. It is our cell phone so no matter where we will be we will pick up the phone..  talk to ya on Christmas.. we might end up going to the Johnsons home.
By the way, I got your package.. Thanks.. I have already eaten most of the goodies.. and I also got Grandma and Grandpa's package also.. thanks so much!!
Well thanks so much for all the letters and emails.. you guys are pretty much the coolest family.... and it is good to hear from you.. I'm excited to hear from you all on Christmas..
The mission is going well.. Elder Christensen is a stud... and we have been teaching our brother Kadio.. he is doing well and is super solid.. I have a really good feeling that he will be baptized... He lives like right next to the church and has been living here for about 6 months and when he got here he was looking for a church to go to.. and he went on a walk and found our church.. but didn't know how to get in contact with someone to find out more about it.. and then.. viola... we met him a little while later.. he said he tried going to other churches including a Nigerian church but he didn't like it.. and he said he feels good and comfortable in our church.. He is cool..
The weather has been so interesting here lately.. It was totally different than last year.. Last year it got freezing by Nov.. this year it was pretty warm.. until about three days ago and all of a sudden it got stinking COLD... and it snowed about 5 inches two days ago and it is lasting.. which is weird for Belgium.. usually it snows about an inch and then melts.. but.. not the case..
We had Zone Leader Council this week and it went well.. Ya anyway.. I don't have too much to say.. because I will talk to you later..
Today.. we Spring cleaned... in December.. it was so nice.. our apartment is finally clean and way nice.. We have been working on it for the last two transfers.. I am proud of it.. I took a video.. and I will send it to you later...
Well I will let you go.. sorry for the small letter...
I Love you all.. and wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS from Belgium.. happy holidays..
Just let me know if 8 in the morning for you is ok to call... you can call whenever you want.. just let me know.
Love,
Elder Jacob Von Simonson

Craziest 2 weeks of my Life!

2009-12-12T08:13:00.000-08:00

Ok.. so maybe the title is a little exaggerated but it really has been crazy...I promise... huh Katie...?
Well everything seemed to work out this week. We got the new missionaries on Tuesday. That was really an awesome experience.. We received 16 new missionaries and 2 are coming later (one has visa problems and one was sick)
New missionaries are soooooo FIRED up and excited to be out... They have so much faith and just want to be able to have cool experiences so that they can write home with a cool story... One Elder was really funny.. He was just the kind of Elder that would say something like ... "Yes, I just got mugged for the first time!" He asked,  "Sooo... when people mug you, what is the most common weapon they use?"  HAHA, Oh man what a weirdy.. it was funny.
So Tuesday we were with them all day we went contacting in Grand Place with them and took them out to eat and got back to the Mission Home to have them open their calls. I think I was more excited to hear where they were going than they were!
Then Wednesday we had transfers and departing missionaries. There was all sorts of strikes on one of the streets so that blocked up traffic which was ridiculous!  It took us 2 hours to get from the Mission Home to the station which usually only takes about 15 min. So that made for hectic-ness...
It was weird to see Elder Reynolds leave and go home and also Elder Hoskyns.. I can't believe how stinking fast time flies.. it is crazy..
While we were at the airport, Elder Hoskyns couldn't find his passport, so Elder Christensen and I had to run back to the Mission Home and try and find his passport. Well we found it, but traffic was so bad on our way back to the airport that he missed his flight and had to book a later one... poor guy.. anyway, that just meant that I didn't get to say goodbye to Elder Reynolds and the other missionaries that left.. but oh well...
Then on Thurday we had the huge Missionary Choir from Holland come down to Brussels.. and we spent all day in the center of Brussels putting on little outside Christmas concerts. It was really cool.. we talked to a ton of people.. and the concert that night was a pretty big hit.. so.. all the stress and planning for that wasn't in vain.. but it is nice that it is over.
Elder Christensen, my new companion and AP... is a young buck.. he is only on his 8th transfer and hasn't even hit his year mark yet... but he is nevertheless a stud.  He is really good with people and he is good at making decisions (which we all know that I am not good at that) so it is nice. He is from Riverton and likes to swim.. has three sisters, one older, two younger.. his older sister is on a mission in Indonesia.. anyway.. I like him a lot and it is going to be fun..
We had a cool little miracle this week.. While we were with the new missionaries, we received a text that said... "Hi my name is Blessing, I met you people at North Station.. I ask you a Bible".. so I called her to fix an appointment and she said that she had seen missionaries in the North Station about 4 months ago and they had given her a card with our number on it.. and she said she wanted a Bible, but also that she was looking for a church to go to... so we went and taught her last night. She is from Nigeria and is just like Mercy Johnson.. Sis Johnson. I love it.. But she is coming to church with us on Sunday.. I love how the Lord works.. it is really nothing that we do... you never know.. we give out a billion cards and you just never know how much that may affect one person.
Also Kadio, our brother from Liberia.. came to church last week.. we have only taught him once and he has come to church 2 times in a row..
Last Sunday was one of my best, most joyful days on a mission.. It was Stake Conference, so I got to see all the members from Charleroi.. and Elder Gerald Caussé came and spoke... He is a Seventy.. from France.. he is in the Europe Area Presidency along with Elder Kopischke.. Well I don't remember if I told you the treat about Stake Conf.. but.. Daniel was asked to bear his testimony in Conf. He got up and said that he has never been happier and loves his life since he has become a member and then he said,  "Since I joined the church.. I have heard many people get up and say that they knew the church was true.." he said.. "I even watch General Conference and I heard the Prophet say he knew the church was true.. but me.. I have never said that phrase out loud.." and then he said.. "SO I would just like to pronounce it to all of you and testify in front of everyone here today that I KNOW THE CHURCH IS TRUE.." ahh.. It was very special..
Also we stopped by the Johnsons before Elder De Mass left and we had a little testimony meeting... It was really special.. Mercy told us how much Bro. Johnson has changed since their baptism and how he used to never want to pray with her or what not.. but now he has changed and he kneels down with her every morning and night and they pray together.  And then all the girls said how much their family has changed since their baptism.. and what touched my heart the most was that Osazuwa said... "Thanks Elder Simonson and Elder De Mass for bringing theGgospel to my family."  That was really good to hear and feel.. I'm so grateful that they accepted something that is so close to me but that I am trying to share and it is special that their lives are changing and they are finding joy through membership in the Church..
I love you all.. and hope you have a Merry Christmas..
Elder Simonson

I'm an Uncle again x 9!

2009-12-05T06:19:00.000-08:00

Hey-O.. Well I guess I am just a little uncle again.. That is really weird that I have a new niece and just a bunch of neices and nephews that have grown and changed.. I guess I kinda think that everything back home is just kinda on pause.. but not really so the case... apparently the whole world doesn't revolve around me... Ouch.. it is really just earth shattering.. haha jk..
It's weird to think how much I am out of the loop about what is going on back home with all my brothers and sisters... probably because they never write me and I never write them... I really do love you and I think you love me... contrary to what our actions may show...
Well this week has been SOOOO INSANE... It was Zone Conference which went really well. We went to the Temple on the Dutch side.. and then Sister Brubaker wanted to give us all a present which was Swiss Fondue for our lunch.. Cheese fondue for 50 people with a limited amount of time... You do the math.. it was a lot of work and was pretty stressful and threw off our agenda by about 2 and a half hours .. but it was way good and a special treat.. so it was ok.. So Monday we finished prep for Zone Conference and also had meetings with Pres. and then Tues and Wed we were in Zoetermeer where the Temple is.. and then Thursday we were back in Brussels for Zone Conf. and then yesterday in Lille. SO.. We didn't have any time to see any of our investigators.. sadly.. but. that leads us to today our p-day... so tonight we can finally do some work in our area..
It was weird to hear Elder Reynolds give his departing testimony this week.. He has always just been there since my second transfer.. well... anyway.. I was soooo tired and soo exhausted this week but.. the work continues... We will be finishing transfers with President tomorrow and then this coming week will be transfers... It is going to be SUPER crazy as well.. we have 18 new missionaries and the 15 leaving and then we have a HUGE missionary choir coming to Brussels.. so that will take up Mon, Tues, Wed, and Thursday and then things should settle back to normal.. CRAZINESS...
Our Brother Kadio from Liberia that we met, came to church.. and he loved it.. he didn't have time to see us this week and niether did we, but he is planning on coming to church.. I called him yesterday and he said, "I will sse you on Sunday right?"   SO.. things are just going fine ... once we get our schedule back to normal and there isn't so many things going on, it will be a little easier to focus on GOLDEN people that are waiting to be baptized..
Well sounds like everything is going well.. I am excited to talk to you as well.... It will be good.. I don't have too much else to say so I will talk to you later...
_Elder Jacob VON Simonson

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-28T08:18:00.000-08:00

Wow sounds like a pretty awesome Thanksgiving...
The good news is that the Lord blessed us and we got invited by a beautiful American family who are investigators... pretty lucky huh.... I don't remember if I told you about them but.. I guess the wife is a member, she was baptized a while back, but she really doesn't remember anything. They are sooooo nice. We went over to their house on Tuesday to teach them. The sisters came over because they decided to pass them to us... they have been teaching them for some time but the father.. (Darius) isn't quite ready to be baptized.. he is really fighting his conscience and trying to rationalize that he wants to be a member. He pulls out the 'I don't know about polygamy or black not receiving the priesthood,' etc..
Anyway, after Tuesday night they asked us what we were doing for Thanksgiving and we joked around with them that we had been trying to hint to the American members that we didn't have any plans but that they didn't catch on. And then they both invited us over. So.. we told them we would make stuff and bring it over and join them.. So Thursday night we had an amazing Thanksgiving!  Also.. I made 3 pies for it... I made a beautiful apple pie and also two peanut butter pies... which were a huge hit... I was pretty proud of myself.. I have pictures to prove it.. So that was that.
This week has been a very interesting one.. There has been a lot of things to do... little administrative things that have kept us from getting out doing normal proselyting but it has still been awesome. Wednesday we were able to have an exchange with the Zone leaders from Apeldoorn and we taught five amazing new people.. FINALLY.. One is from Liberia and we just met him on the street.. and he knew where the church was and said he had been wanting to visit it.. so the next day we had an appointment with him and he is just searching for a church and is super dependable which not most Africans are.. so that is a blessing. Then we also taught this couple from Congo and they are in the same boat just looking to come closer to Christ and find a new church.. and we are seeing them again tonight and they will come to church tomorrow.. Then Elder De Mass on the work day.. taught this Iranian family who are super Christian and really intelligent and well to do.. and they loved the Book of Mormon and the message of the Restoration.. so we finally have some people with potential.. I feel really good about them.. Also we have still been teaching Melody the Ghanian.. but she is getting close to having her baby.. so.. we will just see her once a week for a few weeks and then hopefully she will be prepared to start working toward a baptism date.
Some other awesome news... We went down to Charleroi this week.. we went to a District Meeting there to see how everyone was doing... It was my first time back since I left last April... OH MAN I MISS that city... it was so good... I felt like I was going back to the home that I grew up in.  I missed it.  I also got to go by and see Daniel... He is doing so great.  He is still fully active and loving the church.. I think I already told you but he will get the Melchizedek Priesthood in Jan after he has been a member for a year.. He also will be talking in Stake Conference next week-end.. I'm so excited.. he is a stud... I tried to stop by Fatiha, the Muslim lady that we were teaching that was to be baptized, but her daughter was there and wouldn't answer the door.  I tried to call her but I think her daughter answered and said it wasn't Fatiha's phone.. oh well I was a little bummed by that.. because no one knows what happened to her..
Also exciting news... we have been working on transfers and I know who my new companion will be! ha... it's a secret until transfers come..
This next week will be crazy busy, but awesome as well. We have Zone Conferences and on the Dutch side they are going to the temple.. so I get lucky and will get to go 2 times.. in a row.. :) that makes me happy.. but other than that.. there isn't a lot new here.. We had a Dutch missionary who has got some back problems move in with us.. and he is helping out the Office Elders.. but
Well I love you and can't wait to hear about the new baby..
I love you
Elder Simonson

Hello all...

2009-11-22T21:24:00.000-08:00

Well, first of all, I hate Clint and Katie for going to a Thrice concert... and second of all.. it is pretty crazy that Grandma and Grandpa are home.. in fact that is REALLY weird..
As for Thanksgiving... I don't know what you remebered from last year but we didn't go to a member's house, that was what I cooked for Thanksgiving.. haha.. Europeans don't even know what Thanksgiving is... I'm actually not sure if they are even very grateful for what they have :) I don't think we wil have anything special but it really doesn't matter.. There are some American Families here in Brussels, but so far no invitations.. but don't feel bad for me.. I signed up for this, I signed up for a mission with the intentions and the knowledge that things wouldn't be the same and that I wouldn't really have Christmas' etc...
As for the Christmas package.. I really don't need too much.. I could use some new slippers.. I have thrashed the ones Tess gave me.. You use slippers so much here in Europe... everything is tile.. I DON'T need new shirts or pajama pants.. I have enough stuff as it is... I would however like some butter popcorn. They don't really have that here and I found a pack in our apartment and it was GOOD.. so you could send me some of that and I would be content... I don't know if you want to throw in a new pair of cotton/poly garments I would be ok with that.. mine are starting to wear out..
So that is that.. This week has been interesting.. We have really been trying to find some new people that are interested and have time for us... Everyone is always too busy or just saying yes to be nice but they aren't really too interested.. a lot of boafed RDV's. But we taught Melody and Kofi, the Ghanian family that I told you about. She is really great, she understands very well and loves meeting with us.. we have been emphasizing baptism a lot and she knows why we are there.. so.. it is only a matter of time. She also will have her baby soon so she might not be baptized til Jan or so.. They are coming to church on Sunday though.. so that will be great..
This is a cool little miracle... so this week we had a BIG Brussels exchange where all the missionionaries in Brussels came together and we exchanged companions... also we were all fasting together.. We all tried some new finding ideas etc. Well the day went great.. I was with Elder Benito and we wrote questions on the ground in a big Place and then contacted people as they walked by.. It was pretty neat we found some cool people. Elder Benito is from Spain and so he was like, "Do you think we should write a question in Spanish?"  Well there aren't many Spanish speakers in this area.. but I said, "Ya, why not?"  Then we ended up meeting like 6 people who all spoke Spanish.. from Spain, Equador, Columbia etc. It was awesome.. we spoke to more Spanish people than French speaking people.. it was fun.
Then we all met at the church to end our fast together.. and while we were all waiting for the Sisters.. I see this lady come up to the door of the church and she was looking at the sign with the name of the church. So I run to go talk to her.. and I asked her how she was doing and if she had some questions.. but I asked in french and she was like, "Do you speak English?" and I said ya.  She was from the Phillipines and she said that she saw the church and wanted to know what it was, and what the church was all about. So I invited her in and told her we could meet with her another day (she said she had to go..) she told me she would come right back.. so ten minutes later she shows back up and I invite her in and introduce her to everyone. Then she said.. "I was just walking by and I felt goose bumps and I wanted to know what this was." So Elder De Mass was like, well let us take you on a church tour.  So the Sisters took her on a church tour and showed her everything and she told them that it was an answer to her prayers. She has problems with her health and her lawyers and so that night she was looking for a clinic and a new lawyer... and she found the church instead. She is going to church this Sunday(in Brussels 2 that is filled with middle aged Phillipino ladies about 6 or 7 of them) so she will fit right in... the Sisters in the other Ward will be teaching her.. so that should be sweet.. It is amazing the blessings and miracles the Lord gives when we pray and fast together..
Anyway that was a highlight.. also we saw the family Johnson last night and taught them about the Priesthood.. It was good.. The girls have a little part in the Primary program tomorrow. They had to write their talks on how families can be together forever thanks to temple ordinances and what the Prophet has counseled us to do as families to stay strong.  Their talks were amazing... their parents didn't help them (because it was in French and they don't speak French) and it was like they had been born into the church. Etiosa said, President Monson teaches us to have a Family Home Evening.. where we pray and sing and read scriptures together.. then Osazuwa said, Sealing is an ordinance that we do in the Temple. Thanks to temple we can be sealed together as a family so we can live together forever.. I have always dreamed of going to the temple and I can't wait to be in the temple together with my whole family.. haha it was crazy... Then Bro. and Sis. Johnson asked if we were going to come back when they go to the temple and we both told them yes.. So I am hoping that next Thanksgiving break the Lord will provide a way for me to be in Belgium so I can go with the Johnsons to the Temple, hopefully with Elder De Mass by my side..
Well I hope you have a good Thanksgiving.. eat some pie and turkey for me.. and we will talk to you later..
Love Elder Simonson

Neva Betta

2009-11-14T09:27:00.000-08:00

Hidy ho Family and I guess friends as well.  Well it seems as if I fell asleep for ten minutes and woke up and it was Saturday again. I can't believe how fast it has been going.. It is ridiculous and someone needs to slow it down.. haha..
This week was really great. We saw some cool miracles as always and it was just good.
Haha so funny note, this week we had two different Africans try and get us to sign papers saying we knew them and they were associated with the church so that they could get nationality here in Belgium.  It just so happens that both of them were possibly women of the world (if you know what I mean), it was sad. But we just told them well we are American, so I don't think that Belgium is going to take that, sorry.  Then we said, "Hey if you decide you wanna come to church we will see you there.. but otherwise we will be seeing you later."
We saw a lot of members this week and it was so cool.  I realized what amazing and strong members there are here.  We taught this one guy, his name is Omar Haruna.  He was baptized about two transfers ago and he is from Ghana.  He walked all the way from Ghana to Belgium.  He took a little row boat from Moroco to Spain.. haha.  It took him four years and when he got here he had no place to stay.  So he stayed in the train station for 2 weeks.  Then finally another Ghanian took him in.  It just so happens that it was a inactive Ghanian member.  Well long story short..Omar was Muslim and then one Sunday Bro. Francis. (the inactive mem) and Omar showed up at church.  Omar got baptized and he is so solid and ever since he has found a really nice job, and things are just going amazing for him.  The Lord is taking care of him and he is so hungry to learn.  He recorded his whole conversion story on a tape and we are going to type it out so I can have it on paper to read because it is crazy.

This week we decided we needed to mix this up and try a different way to find.  So we decided that we would pick member families and go to their house, pray with them and then go finding/tracting in their area.  So we did that and the first member family we chose.. just happened to live in pretty much the richest part of Brussels.. haha We thought, man this is different than being in poopy/slummy areas, so we went forward with faith.  Not a whole lot of people were interested, but we knew we would find someone.  And we had promised the family that we would come back and tell them miracles..SO we were OBLIGATED:)  Well at the very end of our finding time we found two Phillipinos.  One hadn't heard too much about the church but she knew it a little, but the second one we talked to had friends on missions.  He knew all the lingo and everything about the church and he was like, ya I used to talk to the District President all the time.  He used to feed the missionaries and it was crazy.  He was really positive, so we will see if we can get him going.  But it was cool to go back and share the miracles with the family.

On Thursday we were up in Zwolle, Holland.  It is a BEAUTIFUL dutch city WAY WAY up north.  There were some struggling missionaries and areas so the District Leader asked if we could come up and do a huge finding activity.  He asked Elder De Mass to bring his bag pipes, so we went up and it was awesome.  I wasn't super effective because it is such a Dutch city that not everyone spoke English.  Haha pretty much every Dutch person speaks perfect English.
Yesterday was an awesome day.  We saw the family Johnson and taught them about temples and somehow Bro. Johnson already knew a lot.  He was like, "Well in one year we can prepare ourselves to go to the temple where we can be sealed together for eternity."  So of course I was happy.
Oh I almost forgot, the highlight of the week was Sunday.  Sunday was so special.  The whole family Johnson got confirmed and received the holy Ghost.  It was really powerful.  The whole family sat on the stand and so all the Ward knew they were new members.  When Bro. Johnson received the Holy Ghost and after the blessing was finished he got up and his eyes were filled full of tears and he was just crying. He gave everyone a huge hug and a lot of the members all were teary eyed as well.  I can't explain it.  It was really one of the most powerful experiences I have had.  I love that Family with all my heart.  Last night we took a member from Guyana (South America) to teach them.  Wilfred (is his name) he is 73 and you would never guess it. He was honestly one of the most powerful joint teaches I have had on my mission.  He is the happiest person and every time you ask how he is doing he says Neva Betta (Never better).. I love it.  I wish you could meet some of these people..
Well I will stop boring you.  I love you Lots and it sound like you are all gearing up for a fun next few months.  And to answer your question.. it is more than likely... no, it is for sure that I will be here for Christmas.   Elder De Mass has been Assistant for 5 transfers, so I will be getting a new companion next transfer which is the second week in December.. so..
Love... Simonson, Jacob, Von, Elder... PhD.. in awesomeness..

Another Week.

2009-11-07T01:58:00.000-08:00

Hey, hey... oh.. it was so good to get all those pictures thanks so much.. Alli, Addi, Grant and Corgin are so freaking cute... and that looked and sounded like a pretty intense wreck Katie.. good on ya.. Thank goodness that everything worked out ok.. and no one was seriously hurt..
I didn't get in a wreck so that is good.. I don't know if I ever told you but we have a sweet car. It is a little Renault Clio and it is a Diesel 6 speed turbo.. you can say we are spoiled.. driving in Brussels is pretty crazy, but fun also. Let's just say people just do whatever they want and there are no rules.. or at least it doesn't seem like it..
This week was great.. not too busy or stressful. We have been doing a lot of searching for people who are ready to join the church.. and for the moment we are seeing and finding a lot of people, but a lot of them aren't really serious about it .. etc.. so we just keep searching.. I might have told you last week but every companionship in the Brussels 1 District have the sweetest most prepared people ever and they all have baptismal dates and are preparing for baptism.
We think we have found some golden people... we have only taught her and her husband 2 or 3 times but they are great. They are from Ghana and they are pretty well to do which is rare for Ghanians. They have a nice house, they have a car, etc.  Her name is Melody and his is Kofi. Melody is pregnant right now and she has the cutest little girl named Felicity. It was crazy how we found her... we went to teach another Ghanian that we hadn't seen for a while and when we went in, Melody was siiting there and she just started asking all these questions and we taught her and she UNDERSTOOD really well which is rare for Ghanaians .. haha.. but we went back twice this week and met her husband last night. We told her that we wanted her to find out herself if this church was the true church of Christ and that if she did we wanted her to be baptized and she is like, "ya."  So we said, "Well, December we are having a baptism" and she says.. "Well, that might be a little early but.. I want to continue to learn and then we shall see what can be done."  So we are seeing her 3 times a week and it is going to be awesome. They are supposed to come to church tomorrow so we will hope and pray.. they will be another sweet family addition to Brussels 1.
This week we also had Zone Leader Council.. which went well. My training was a little rough.. I had a hard time, but Elder De Mass and President threw it down.  Both of their trainings were very powerful.
Well I am doing very well.. Just enjoying serving the Lord and it is amazing how well He knows us and watches out for us.  Yesterday I woke up feeling like I needed to write Elder Reynolds a nice little thank you note and I didn't have time so I was just like, oh well I'll do it on Pday...and then we went to interviews in Antwerpen.. and the Zone Leaders did an activity where we talked about friendships and people who had built us up and influenced our lives and then they said.. "So today we thought it would be good to build up those we love in the Mission."  Then they told us to write to someone and thank them and let them know our appreciation for them. So that was an awesome little "coincidence"... anyway I was grateful for the pictures and they brought me a lot of joy.. so. thanks.. I love you all..
Talk to you Lata..
Elder Von Simonson

Baptism of the family Johnson

2009-11-02T15:37:00.000-08:00

Sunday, November 1st was the baptism of the Johnson family that Elder Simonson has been teaching. Jacob loves this special family so much...they are truly elect!

Transfer week

2009-10-31T08:28:00.000-07:00

.... Ah.... well this week was transfer week.  Things were pretty crazy.  We only had one new missionary come in... so Tuesday wasn't as crazy as it usually is.. He came in on Tuesday and we did a few things with him.. we went to the dedication site and also to teach the family Johnson with him... It was funny... fam. Johnson fed us Kidney.. it was sooooo sick.. and the new missionary was just gaggin it down.. Elder De Mass and I were laughing sooo hard.. because fam. Johnson always feeds us such good food.. but they just decided to feed us kidneys...so I hope he liked that and that got him pumped up for his mission.
   Then on Wednesday we had the departing missionary day.  Wow.. what a stinking powerful meeting that is... We lost two of our best Sisters and some really awesome French and Dutch Elders... It was hard.. On Wed. we do transfers at the Gare for half the day.. then we go back to the office and have a meeting with the departing missionaries.. where they tell us what the Mission needs to work on.. and the things we could do better etc... and it is a great learning experience.. then we head over to the Mission Home and eat.. and then have our devotional where they all share experiences from their mission and their testimonies.. it's pretty crazy...they all have a hard time and just cry and the spirit is sooo strong and special.  I was just bawling for half of it.. because I was realizing how the Lord has just spoiled me with an awesome mission and I just had the biggest overwhelming feeling of gratitude for everything I have been through and everything that I have learned.. It made me realize it is going to be hard to leave.. mainly just because all the blessings I have had on my mission is going to come flooding back and hit me so hard.. .. anyway.. that's that.
     THE FAMILY JOHNSON is doing so good and are good to go for tomorrow.. We had their baptismal interviews on Thursday and they all passed and are sooooooo ready and excited to be baptized.  I am baptizing the 14 year old, Elisa.. and Elder De Mass is baptizing Osazuwa the 8 year old and brother Chaussé, our Ward Mission Leader is baptizing Brother and Sister Johnson and an intern, Rich... is baptizing Etiosa.. It is going to be amazing.. 9 people in white.. I will send you pictures as quick as I can.. I will email some on Monday because we are in the office for numbers and meetings...
Elder De Mass and I will stay together one more transfer.. which will be awesome.. he is a diligent hard working man.. I love him lots.
      I hope all is going well there.. it sounds like it is.. I received a letter from Brett... I was sooooo happy to hear from him.. and he is doing well..
So everything is going well here.. we are just searching for more prepared people.. and looking for another family johnson.. we might have found one.. they are a Ghanaian family they have two kids.. and we will see.. they are hard to get a hold of and have RDV's with.. but we'll hope and pray that we can get them coming to church and wanting to get baptized..
Well I love you all and hope you have a great week.. I will talk to you later..
Love
Elder
  Jacob
      Von
         Simonson

Pictures from Jake!

2009-10-25T08:48:00.000-07:00

at the Chinese Pavillion

The Japanese Tower

Assistants, and Office Elders and Sisters

At the Atonium in Brussels.

"This is our night before the first day of school picture."

(The night before Elder Nielsen went home and Jake became an Assistant)

"This is the sweet apple pie I made."

Jacque's Baptism

Eating Ghanian Fufu!

The forest near our Apartment in Brussels 2

The Manneken Pis...(the peeing statue)

in Brugge

Zone Conference, 103.4 fever and aftermath...

2009-10-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

What a crazy week this has been... Zone Conference was pretty nuts.. Tuesday we were in Lille having a Zone Conference, Wednesday we were in Brussels, Thursday, Antwerpen and Friday in Amsterdam... Zone Conference started at 10 and went to 5..
So we were gearing up for a crazy busy week... and we were not prepared for our training, so half of the day was spent preparing for that. I will go ahead and say that everything went pretty well.. Our training turned out good and it was great spending a little more time around President and Sister Brubaker... BUT.. and here comes the kicker.. on Tuesday in Lille, I could start feeling myself getting really sick and I was just like, "ah crap.. oh well.." Well by Tuesday night I was feeling like crap but just took some Ibuprofen and went to bed early.. when I woke up the next morning and left for the Brussels Chapel for Zone Conference I felt ok.. definitely sick, but not too bad.. well.. just about half way through the Conference, right before our training, I starting having major chills and what not and started running a fever and was sick. I did our training. I kept loosing my voice and then after, I was OUT of it. After lunch, President told me to go lay down in the back, so I did. I had a sweater on and my suit jacket and my coat and I was freezing...... anyway I have NEVER had the flu that bad. I was in soo much pain and after the Conference was done I went straight home and jumped in bed and took my temperature and it was a 103.4! It was ridiculous... but I slept it off and kept the fever down with ibuprofen and am doing fine. Thursday in Antwerpen I felt a lot better and yesterday in Amsterdam I felt really good...

Now.... comes the after math. Because of my fever (this is what I'm guessing) my mouth decided to break out in the biggest patch of fever blisters..(like literally the whole left side of my mouth) and my mouth is all swollen up and has cankers, so my mouth hurts. I hate the flu...
haha .. oh well... it happens..
Sorry, last week I didn't give you an update on the family Johnson. I didn't get to see them because I was on exchanges, but we saw them this week and they also came to church on Sunday.. again.. like the 5th time in a row, but Mercy brought her sister and her niece and they loved it too.  They live up in Holland in Rotterdam.. so we asked her if the missionaries could go by her house and she said the sister missionaries already had come over.  They just started coming over last week! It was crazy, but the family Johnson stayed for the baptism of Mariama, a lady the office Elders have been teaching, and they Loved it and are no longer scared or nervous to get baptized.  So this next Sunday they are getting baptized, Nov. 1st.. That will be sweet..  This email is so late because we stayed in Amsterdam for p-day. It was cool!  We went to Anne Frank's house where she hid. It was cool and we walked around town and saw the sites. It was fun, and on the way back we stopped by a place called Kinderdijk, it is a sweet little river with a TON of old traditional windmills... It was beautiful.. but, anyway.. I love you... I didn't have too much time because we are late getting back..
Next week is transfer week and so tomorrow we have to finish transfers with Pres.. should be interesting..
Love ya..
Elder Simonson

Hello from Bruxelles...

2009-10-19T07:16:00.000-07:00

Elder De Mass and Elder Simonson, Assistants

Well, sounds like things were good back home.. I'm glad you got my letter and that you liked my answers.....
This week went very well... It is honestly insane how fast time goes by with p day on Saturday and being Assistant.. It is ridiculous... I love it though... This week we had a pretty long meeting with President (getting ready for transfers in a week and a half and getting ready for Zone Conference this next week... ) So we had a lot to do and talk about... I love President.. he is so funny.. he reminds me of Dad a lot... One day we told him a story about a missionary... and then three days later he starts telling us stories and is like, "Hey, have you heard this story yet.." and starts telling us the story that we had told him three days earlier... haha makes me laugh.. we just played along and said, "Ya.. we heard that one." Him and Sister Brubaker are so great. They care so much about the missionaries..
OH.... so this is pretty cool... Steven Covey.. you may have heard of him before, well he came to Antwerpen to do a fireside and he wanted to meet with all the leaders of the mission before his fireside to talk to us and just teach us for 2 hours or so... so that was a neat experience.  Then at the end, just in between our meeting and the fireside, Elder De Mass and I were about to leave and someone came and got us and said we were wanted in a meeting.  So we went to the back of the church and were welcomed into a meeting with Steven Covey and President and Sister Brubaker and some other people.. and well, it wasn't much of a meeting... it was just dinner... hahaha... reeping the benefits of being an Assistant!  It was cool, we got to talk to him one on one.. it was neat.
Also this week we had a week of exchanges... Tuesday the Zone Leaders from Antwerpen came down to Brussels to work with us.. we try to work with about half of the Zone Leaders a transfer... and they come down and work in our area so we get double the work done in one day.. it is sweet. The day was great, we found a lot of really cool people and went and saw a beautiful inactive Cameroonian family and I just hope they will come back.. Wednesday we needed to plan and do a bunch of stuff to prepare for Zone Conference and it was the only day of the week that we weren't working with another set of missionaries.
Thursday was a pretty special day. It was my one year anniversary since I was with Elder Reynolds.. and guess who came up from Liege to work with us?  Elder Reynolds and Elder Carpenter! So I worked with Elder Reynolds exactly one year later. It was the exact date that we got together in Charleroi. It was awesome... I love him so much, he is a stud and going strong too.. he goes home in December.. crazy huh.  We saw a cool lady who has two awesome kids from Ghana. We gave her a blessing and brought a Ghanian member with us to speak Twi to her.. it was cool.
Yesterday I worked with Elder Bybee back down in Brussels 2 in my old area.. it brought back a lot of memories.. it was nice. I got to see Claire and she is doing alright.. she gets a little down because before, the doctors said that she would be back to work by now, but now they tell her she can't, so... she feels like she is handicapped and can't do anything.  So she just sits in her house and and doesn't do too much and sometimes she gets super depressed.. but she is still the same Claire.... I was happy to hear that the Ward is really taking great care of her.  Her Visiting Teachers come often and they help her do her grocery shopping. They carry all the stuff from the store to her house and also.. there are Wisters in the Ward who call her and see how she is doing and she really loves and needs that.  Also Elder Bybee told me that Jacques is doing very, very well and that he is finally getting the Priesthood.  They said that he is always at church has not missed a Sunday and is always at FHE.. haha I love Jacques so much.. he's so funny.  Well that was pretty much my week. I don't think I will get the coat. My other one is fine but it is just really ghetto and gangster looking, so it looks really funny with a suit, but.. oh well huh. I guess it doesn't effect the work that I do. I love hearing from you and I finally finished a card so I will be sending that home.. it is a pretty sweet card, I'm not going to lie .. there are some really cool pictures on it..
Elder Von Simonson

Conference was sick RIGHT?

2009-10-10T07:29:00.000-07:00

Well, well... This week has been busy and a little crazy, but awesome! Sat. and Sunday were great and it was sooooo nice to hear and receive guidance and direction from the Apostles and Prophet and more importantly from the Spirit. I think that got Elder De Mass and I pumped up and also helped us in preparing for Zone Conference. It was great...and also I think that it got all the missionaries pumped as well, so that was great. On Monday we had our regular meetings and then we had an exchange with the Office Elders here and I got to go see Ines and Javier, whom I taught at the first of my mission with Elder Musters. They are such great members, but she is having some health problems, so we gave them both blessings and it was such a help for her. She just expressed all her worries and she vented to us.. and she just sat a bawled.. it was a special experience for me. I love her, she is an awesome mom and lady. After that we went to FHE with their sweet investigator Mariama who is going to be baptized this next Sunday. On Tuesday we journeyed up to the Flemish part of Belgium to Gent.. and went to a District meeting and then worked with some Dutch speaking missionaries. I worked with Elder Noonan... one of the most interesting missionaries I have ever met. We spent a lot of the day looking up our investigators who have just seemed to have fallen through the cracks... and then we saw THE FAMILY JOHNSON... with our Ward Mission Leader. It was such a great feeling for him to finally get to teach them with us because the Spirit you feel in their home is incredible.. and they are just amazing. All the girls are so smart and participate.. and.. ya I just remember how blown away I was when I first met them... I mean it is almost to good to be true... and that is what our Ward Mission leader said. He was like, "Wow, that is just the ideal family that you could ever want as an investigator." He was sooo excited for them that he ordered a big set of scriptures (high priest style) for Brother Johnson.. haha! I love Bro. Chaussee, our Ward Mission Leader. Wednesday was the crazy weird day for this week. The Lord had different plans for us that day than we had planned the week before. Two investigators who are getting baptized this week in the Netherlands needed baptismal interviews from me... because they spoke French and they needed someone who speaks French... and President Brubaker was busy all week.. so I was the next contact who spoke French. So Wednesday we drove allllllllll stinking day around the Netherlands. We left at around 10 and got home at 10. First we went up to Utrecht to drop of a new car to a missionary couple, then we took their old car over to Den Haag to the Zone Leaders there, then we drove down to Gouda outside of Rotterdam and there we interviewed a family from the Ivory Coast who is getting baptized this weekend. The kids spoke Dutch and the mom spoke mostly French... she spoke Dutch too, just not super well. The interview went great with her... she used to be Muslim, but no more. She had a great testimony. Then after that we drove down to Dordrecht to interview a guy from Guinea named Siku... he was awesome to. He also spoke Dutch pretty well, but his native language was French, so I interviewed him.. and he was sooo prepared and amazing. He used to be Muslim, then he had a dream of Jesus Christ telling him to follow him 3 times, so he converted to Christianity. He said he was baptized into a Penacostal church but said that was just his way to make the transisiton so that he could find the truth, and he said when he saw the missionaries he said he had something pushing him to talk to them so he did... and he has been coming to church since then and has just loved it and has gained a great testimony. It was a special experience. but lots of driving. It was beautiful though... I saw lots of canals, cows, and sweet windmills. Also I took a ferry... that was AWESOME.. haha.. and it was only 2 euros. Thursday was an awesome day too. We had an exchange with Zone Leaders from Apeldoorn. They came down here and we went to Rogier, a Shopping Center, and Elder De Mass played his bagpipes and we gave out Books of Mormon and like 60 flyers for the Young Single Adult Center here in Brussels. It was so fun and we found some sweet people. Well the Johnson family is doing well. We saw them last night and we finished teaching them all the commandments and told them that we had taught them enough and all they needed to know to be baptized and that they would continue learning, so we asked them if they would feel ready for the 18th and Johnson said it was too early, but.. they are so great. We are just moving it back 2 weeks to give them more time, but Johnson told us, "You know this is a very important decision... this is a whole family joining the Church, not just one person, I want all my kids to understand very well so they can grow up in the Church and so I can be very proud of them.. and don't worry.. we will be baptized. If we were questioning it, you wouldn't be here and we wouldn't be coming to church." So, it felt right and of course we respected his decision as a father. So probably November 1st is the new date. They are doing so great though.. and they loved Conference. Well, I should probably go. I love you and I sent you a letter, so you should get it soon. I'm doing great. The Lord has helped me, I haven't been as stressed as I was before ... so all is well!

Love ya.. bye.. Elder Von Simonson

Going to the Netherlands

2009-10-03T02:42:00.000-07:00

Well.. so this is my new email address...jvonsimonson@myldsmail.net... I don't know why, but my other one will not let me in... I swear I am typing the right password and address and I have checked everything and even tried to find out what my password is, but it wouldn't accept that... so sadly I didn't get any of your emails.. that makes me a little sad, but oh well, I guess what can I do?.. 
This week went so stinking fast it was crazy.. I can't believe that it is already Saturday.. Things fly... The week started out pretty great... we had meetings with President and the Mission is really doing great... everyone is getting back that fire and excitement to do the work and they are all finding amazing people to teach... so everything went up... 
We also had to make trip to Gent, a Flemish city about 40 km from brussels... to help a recent convert move some things... that was interesting.. 
The week was pretty crazy come to think of it,... on Tuesday we had a new sister come in.. and we had found out the day before... She is actually Dutch and she went to the MTC in England for three weeks... but she doesn't speak English very well.. so.... after a few days the MTC Pres. and Pres. Brubaker decided to send her out early... and to have a Dutch Sister be her MTC teacher here in Brussels, so Tuesday was full of doing all that.. getting her from the airport and getting her and her companion all situated etc...
Wednesday we had Zone Meeting and some service for a member and then we had to leave for Amsterdam that night... so that day was eaten up too... it almost seems like we didn't get much accomplished this week.. but.. we did.. right before we left our car died.. and we had to find some jumper cables and someone the help us... but there was no one, so we had to call the Office Elders and have them come to our rescue. 
I LOVE THE NETHERLANDS!!  It is so stinking beautiful... everything is so clean and the architecture is insane.... I now know why I was on the French side.. God knew I would be distracted on the Dutch side.. both by cute Dutch girls and architecture.. haha.. but Elder De Mass and I went up to interviews in Amsterdam and Apeldoorn with President.. So Thursday we went to interviews and also went on an exchange with the threesome that is in Amsterdam that night... so I got a chance to learn a little Dutch and practice it... we will just say I'm not so great at it... 
I worked with ELder Lundgren for the day and he is such a funny Elder.. He is a pretty nerdy kid so it made for some sweet awkward situations..haha.. but he loved the people so much... and he was so excited to share the gospel....
Then the next morning on Friday.. we headed further up north to Apeldoorn.. a BEAUTIFUL city in Holland... it was a pretty special opportunity to be able to meet some of the Dutch Elders and to see what the other side of the Mission is like... it is way different.. 

Last night we saw the Family Johnson... they are doing so great... they came to church on Sunday and loved it.. and again I felt soooo much joy when they showed up... Last night we taught them about the Word of Wisdom and of course the only problem is coffee, but that isn't even a problem.. it is only Mercy, the mom, who drinks it.. and she said she would stop... it was soo good to see them.. They are doing well but I think we might be moving their date because we asked Johnson how he felt about the 18th of October and he said that he didn't know if everyone would be ready... but they will be.. we are going to just keep going and the Lord will prepare them and whether it be on the 18th or a week after or a few weeks after.. it is ok just as long as they understand the Gospel and keep coming to church and understand what baptism means and all the commandments they promise to keep... if they know that.. it's fine by me... 
Well it is finally starting to get a little colder.. but we will see.. we will most likely switch to suit coats after Conference... so should be good.. 
Well that's about all I have because I didn't get your email... sorry.. I don't know what happened or what, but.. oh well.. I'm doing great and enjoying life and loving serving the Lord.. the Spirit teaches me sooooo much everyday.. and so does Elder De Mass, he is the Man.. I love you all very much.. and hope that you are all doing well.. I will talk to you later.. 
Elder Jacob Von Simonson

Family Johnson=SUPER ELECT...and Awesome...

2009-09-26T06:09:00.000-07:00

Well.... This week has been a taste of what it is like to be an AP, and we will just say it is so much fun... I love it. Things are going so great... It isn't as hectic as I thought it would be.. We have a meeting with President once a week.. talk about stuff and then ya, we have other responsibilities, but we still have a ton of time to proselyte and Elder De Mass is just so stinking hungry and urgent that we get twice the work done in that time. I love it!  We have been seeing huge blessings all over the place...
So .. Family Johnson is their name and GETTING BAPTIZED is their game... They came to church on Sunday and LOVED IT.. and the whole Ward got excited and loved them... It was ridiciulous.. I was so HAPPY.. it was a beautiful sight to see them in church... after the first hour Elisa, the 14 year old, came up to the dad (we call him Johnson..) and said, "Papa, I love this church"... and all the little girls went to primary and loved it as well...On the way back from church Elder De Mass was talking to Osaeratin and Osaswa and asking them about what they thought about church.. and Osaswa told him that Mercy, the mom, told them that this was their new church... and that they would be coming from then on.. and Osaeratin in her African English said she loved church too much..
So we went back to see them on Tuesday and had a little family night with them....and the first 15 minutes they just talked about how much they liked church and how the classes were split up and how all the kids liked it.. then... we talked more about the Plan of Salvation and all their girls are so stinking smart and well behaved.. they were understanding better than their parents and they were asking questions like "So if we don't repent and aren't baptized, then we can't go live with Heavenly Father?" haha so we asked them to be baptized on October 18th and they said Yes....!!!!!! oh man it was probably one of the happiest moments of my life.. you have no idea how much I love this Family.. they are such a good family.. The only thing Mercy, the mom, was worried about was if she would have enough time to get the stuff prepared for her party after the Baptism.. haha it was funny.. Also the Office Elders and the other Elders have people going to be baptised on the 18th also so we are planning on 7 baptisms that day.. That would be sweet to have 14 people in WHITE.. WE would think we were in South America somewhere, where that is not unusual..
This week was just filled with insane miracles.. then we met with President on Monday and talked about the things Elder Kopishke had commented on what our Mission could work on.. and so we reviewed that and Pres. gave both of us a topic that he wanted us to do a training on.. so that we could work on the things that Elder Kopishke had asked us to.. which was Referrals and working with the members.. I got working with the members better and Elder De Mass, referrals... well since we were working and studying these things.. we focused on referrals this last week and had the most crazy experiences with them..
One day we taught this sweet African student and we asked him if he knew anyone who would be interested in speaking with us and he told us his friend that lived above would be.. so we walked up there, knocked on his door, and he let us in a we taught him and he was awesome.. and from Cameroon.. looking for a church here in Brussels because he is a new student.. then later in the week.. we went and taught a recent convert... she was home alone and her husband was supposed to be there.. so we taught her on the door step and asked her who she knew who needed the blessings of the Gospel in their lives and she said.. "Oh I have a friend from Ghana and she wants to come to church."  So yesterday we went over with her and taught her friend Barbara and her sister, from Ghana, and they should come to church this Sunday.. the lesson went well, they loved it.. and the recent convert loved sharing the Gospel... that same day that she gave us the referral we were leaving her house and her husband was walking up and said, "Hey.. I was talking to a friend the other day and she said that she hadn't seen the missionaries in a long time and wanted to talk with you.." so he took us to her house and we are going to be seeing her this next week... still this day we got a referral from the office, and we went searching for it.. and the guy no longer lived there.  So we asked the lady if she was interested .. she said no and then we asked, "So do you know who would be?"... and she said, "Oh .. my best friend down the street would be interested in speaking to you."  So we went and contacted her and sure enough .. she was.. and we will teach her this next week....CRAZINESS...
So sorry, I will stop boring you with sweet miracles... or what I think are sweet miracles.. haha.. but Thanks for all the news. I love hearing what is going on... even if you think that I don't.. SORRY Trisha and Jaron, and Dad.. I hope you have and had a Good Birthday... I am so bad at remembering all that stuff.... but I do love you and think about you often... so don't worry about that...
Things are going to get busy this next few weeks.. we have a lot of exchanges and we have to go to interviews and do a week of Zone Conferences.. so.. this transfer will go fast....
I love you all and hope you are doing well...
Elder Von Simonson

See ya later, Elder Neilsen...

2009-09-19T03:23:00.000-07:00

Hello family... well I finally got your package with the goodies and the blogs. It was so good to hear from everyone. I love being able to see pictures and just see what you have been up to. And plus I love hearing stuff about Josh's and Tylan's missions .... now if I could just hear from my former best friend, Brett, I would be happy.. I tried to email him a few times but he doesn't respond... so I wrote his family a letter and sent them a few photos with hopes that they would write me and give me his address but.. so far nothing .. I hope he is at least still on a mission.
I also got a letter from Drew... maybe I already told you that but if not... ya it was good to hear from him..
Well this week has been great... It has been such an opportunity and a blessing to be working with Elder De Mass.. he is the man.. he is a hard worker.. and super humble and solid too... it is going to be such a great transfer... Also it's been great to be around President Brubaker... It is amazing to see how much love he has for all the missionaries and how much he cares about them... it is great..
So, I sent Elder Nielsen off on a plane on Thursday morning...along with the other departing missionaries... On Wednesday Elder De Mass and I were at the gare(train station) half of the day doing transfers and then the other half of the day in meetings with the departing missionaries and President.. after the meeting we went to the mission home and ate some dang good lasagne prepared by the one and only Sister Brubaker. Then after we ate we had a little devotional and all the missionaries that were leaving were able to share their testimonies.... oh boy was it super powerful.. the whole time I was just thinking about Elder Nielsen leaving and how good our three transfers were together... and how much I had learned from him... On Thursday at the aiport you could really tell that it was hitting them all really hard that they were finally actually leaving.. I think it was the hardest for Elder Nielsen.. he was freaking out.. haha it was funny, I was teasing him the whole time..
So the Lord just seems to bless me so much and give me some amazing opportunities to serve.. and I think a lot why I deserve it or really if I even do.. and I have come to the conclusion that I think that I don't.. haha but I am thankful anyhow..
Well.. the transfer to the north part of Brussels is going good but I swear that it feels like I have been transfered down to Ghana and Nigeria because Elder De Mass and I prosylite in English.. he speaks Dutch, I speak French.. so we teach nothing but Ghanians and Nigerians... every once in a while some other race... but so far ... I have been learning some Twi .. or Ashanti... haha so.... you could say I might be getting a little taste of what Tylan is living right now... minus the bad living conditions and malaria etc etc.. I think that I have the better situation.. maybe that is still in question...
But the biggest blessing and miracle is that>>> WE ARE TEACHING THE SWEETEST MOST BEAUTIFUL FAMILY EVER... They are African.. The dad is from Liberia and the mom is from Nigeria and they have four girls.. Elisa 13, Osaswa 8, Osaeratine 6 , and Etiosa 11. They are amazing.... Elder De Mass and Reynolds had just barely begun teaching them... When we went over this week, I think it was like the 4th time teaching them... But it was great we did a little review of the Restoration and all the girls were sitting around quietly with their Books of Mormon.. listening, and they told us what happened with the story about Joseph Smith.. it was so cool... Then we invited them to come to church and the dad looks at me and says... "Simonson, I am happy to have you in my house and my family will be in your church on Sunday morning."  And they have a car with a GPS and everything... which is pretty rare.. for an African family.. so that will be so easy for them to come to church... he also told us that he has seen a difference in his family since we have been coming over and since they have been reading in the Book of Mormon and praying together.. he told us that the girls loved us coming over.. they are the most amazing family I have ever taught... I would do anything to have them be baptized... so.... you see how merciful the Lord is..
Well I should probably go... I love you lots and will send you some pictures soon... talk to you later...
p.s.... my brotha is gettin fine ... I speak English like an idiot now because the way all the Africans speak English.. the Ghanians speak weird English.. and the Nigerians speak half-broken to you.. it's ok, you're welcome..
Elder Von Simonson

 P. S. Also, this is the blog for the mission that Sister Brubaker and the Office Elders keep up.. it has good pictures and all the news of the Mission.. check it, you will like it.. belgiumbrusselsnetherlandsmission.blogspot.com
Elder Simonson

Letter sent by Elder Schmutz' mother:

2009-09-15T12:28:00.000-07:00

Elder Simonson, Davis and Schmutz at Zone Conf.

*Elder Schmutz was in the MTC with Jake and was also Jacob's companion in Charleroi for quite some time. His mother has been in contact with us occasionally, and sent this portion of Elder Schmutz' letter to me this week regarding Jacob:

"Big news family, well we have a new Assistant to the President in the Belgium Brussels/Netherlands Mission, and it's none other than the one and only Elder Simonson. And yours truly is going to be living in the same apartment with him!
Dad, you remember how you were telling me that you thought that it would be a great learning experience if I went to the office, well I certainly hope you're right, because you are currently reading a letter from the next Legality Secretary of the BBN. So that's exciting, my companions are Elder Berlin and Elder Harper, both of which came into the field with me, and I'm living in Elder Simonson's apartment. So that's crazy. It's funny because Elder Simonson and I were talking at Zone Conference on Wednesday, and he was telling me about how the office Elders are kicking butt right now, how they mostly just have the 3 hours at night to work, but how they're doing more work than any other equip in Brussels right now, so that's pretty sick. They've got two baptismal dates, and we're going to be setting another one on Wednesday night when I get there.
I'm pretty excited to be going back to Belgium... plus Elder Ferguson [another MTC roomate of Jake's] is going to Nivelles, so we're all going to be in the Brussels Zone together!"

Pictures from Jake

2009-09-14T06:53:00.000-07:00

We got a letter from Jake this week with a few pictures. This first one is of Ines and Javier...Jake taught them his first transfer with E. Musters and Elder Carpenter (pictured) also taught them...they were baptized a little later after Jacob came back to Brussels.

The last District Mtg. of the last transfer. . . Brussels 2

Jacob and Lyze Bentoto at her baptism.

Jacob on his P-Day at Waterloo, a huge battlefield.

His letter this week is posted below...

Changes...Challenges...

2009-09-14T06:21:00.000-07:00

Hello all. First of all, sorry that I forgot to answer your questions from the last email... I guess I will start with that.. You asked how much longer I have with Elder Nielsen .. and now the answer is, approx. 2 and a half days. It is crazy how fast this transfer flew by... but things were great with him... I love it. I learned so much from him, mainly how to set a vision and go towards it and also to use the time at Sacrament to receive guidance from the Lord.... But like I said I will be killing him... and yes, that means he is headed home to Tremonton, Utah and yes, that means you should go to his homecoming... don't know if that is possible but I recommend it because he will be fresh from the field living with me.. you understand??? That is like the closest you will get to me for a while haha... I'm glad you got my letter finally.. Unfortunately I haven't gotten yours.. or your package, but it should come soon.. I got a letter from Drew.. he was riding a camel.. I was jealous.. but it sounded like he was really scared to leave Mongolia... haha he doesn't want to come home... 
But now I guess I gotta tell ya what is going on with transfers.. for some reason God really, really wants me to stay in Belgium .. more specifically Brussels.. The crazy news was that I will be switching back to Brussels 1, so I will be leaving Brussels 2 ... I thought for sure I would stay and train a new Zone Leader .. but instead they white washed the companionship.. So I will be working with Elder De Mass...President called me last night and asked me if I was ready to come and be Assistant to the President.. and asked me yes or no.. and if no then he was going to send me home.. haha so I was obligated to say yes.. ..
I'm excited but really pretty nervous.. There is a lot of responsibility... and quite a bit of pressure. It hasn't really set in yet, but I think I will start stressing come Thursday... I didn't really want to tell you, but Elder Nielsen told me I should.. you can just not worry about needing to put that part on the blog .. haha 
The week was really good.. It was pretty crazy.. and really busy. We had our Zone Conference and Elder Kopishke came and threw it down on us... it was really intense. He is sucha good teacher. We had a Zone Leader Council with him, so we were 14 ZL's and him. and he just let us ask questions and taught us some great principles for a few hours .. 
It has been weird having Elder Nielsen getting ready to go home.. It was making me a little trunky.. but we tried to work hard this last week... His mind was all over the place but he was trying real hard to stay in the Zone and for the most part he did well.. .. I don't know too much else to tell you.. my mind is kinda all over the place.. this week we got fed a lot.. We went to a less active member's house and ate African food.. some fufu to be exact. It was good! It was fufu and peanut butter soup, nice and spicy with chicken.. it may not sound to good, but it is wow, good.. then also we ate at two Phillipino member's houses. They are the nicest.. for sure... but all in all.. it was good.  Also .. Elder Nielsen and I went to a Jehovoh's Witness church..... interesting... it's like our church, but they don't think.... They read out of this little magazine.. and then they ask questions and people answer by reading the paragraph they just read.... there is no thinking involved... It's pretty awesome .. we got invited to be baptized by the lady that invited us ... and we told her that we were already baptized with the true authority of God.. haha; I couldn't believe how big and nice their church is... and how many members they had.. they had some seroius priesthood potential??!  We will just say, I worked some magic and gave out a few cards... And got invited to come eat fufu at a Ghanian lady's house.. haha freaking JW's.. gotta love em!  They are proud to be JW though.. there are a lot of Mormons who are proud of it, and we actually have the Restored Gospel.. ... anyway my p-day will now be on Saturdays soo .. I will be emailing you this Sat.. 
I love you.. I hope everything will go well with Clint and Carter.. I will try to keep them in mind and pray for them... just remember, keep the commandments and give your time and life to God and then he has to bless you.. 
Love ya, buh-Bye.. 
Elder Von Simonson

I think this must be the time that everyone forgets that I am gone...

2009-09-08T12:59:00.000-07:00

Man; the letters stop and the emails begin to get smaller and smaller.. haha I am just teasing you. I just like to cry and complain like I don't get anything so that people will feel bad for me and then send me stuff... haha good strategy huh? 
Oh and speaking of sending stuff to me.. I am running low on some supplies.. It would be great if you could send me some more deodorant - try and get the solid stuff deodorant/anti persperant it lasts longer than the gel type.. you understand what I'm talking about. Also I could use some more exzema lotion and some face lotion and some more Aveeno shaving cream, non fragranced stuff... sorry we will just say toiletries are not really Europeans forté... they prefer cigarettes and beer.. especially Belge people.. haha that is not an exageration... but you gotta love them .. also some taco seasoning is always a huge blessing.. and gravy isn't too bad either.. but taco seasoning is pretty awesome.. just some suggestions; also did you get my letter with pictures in it? 
Everything went well this week.. nothing too out of the ordinary has happened... we have been teaching some cool new people... we found a sweet new lady.  She is African of course.. from Congo and she has two kids.. she is really open and doesn't have the African mindset either.. I mean she doesn't think all churches are good.. she understands when we teach her and she knew that she needed to pray to receive the answer if this Church was the Church of God.. and she reads what we ask her to read.. We found her this week and we have already seen her twice and even ate some African food with her.. some chicken and pondu.. (nasty green stuff) good with beans in it and stinkin nasty with fish in it... luckily for us she cooked it with beans instead of fish... 
Yeasterday we had such a great day... Patrick from Charleroi came up to work with us for the day.. It was good to see him again and to hear about what is going on in Charleroi.. it made me a little trunky for Charleroi... but it's ok, Brussels is pretty sick too... Patrick is such a solid guy... and we taught Charlene the new lady from Congo.. and it was awesome... and also Jacques is understanding so well now, he now remembers who Joseph Smith is and what he did ... and why it is important... but he is doing so well he is at almost all the activities... always early... church starts at 9:30 and he is there at like 8:45 haha.. so all is well with him.
Also I don't know why.. well I guess I do... (We have been praying and trying to strengthen the relationship between us and members) but the Ward just seems to love us now... people have been inviting us over and wanting to cook for us etc.. and this sweet Brazilian member.. his name is Danilo.. he just got off a mission a few years ago.. he came to teach a Brazilian family with us.. but the couple wasn't there and just her brother who is 23 or so was there and he has been in Belgium for like 1 month .. so we didn't get to teach the couple ..but Danilo just started talking to the brother and invites him to church and tells him he will come and get him .. so yesyterday at church, Junior, the Brazilian came to church with Danilo.. Then Danilo wanted to integrate the new converts so he invited us and Lyze to come eat at his house.. so we got to learn more about Brazil and ate Brazilian food.. it was good... 
It is crazy to see how blessed we are by the Lord.. we ask for help building the relationship with members and then the Lord blesses us with great solid converts who stay active after their baptism and then members are happy and don't think that we are just lazy and baptize bums that go inactive after their baptism.
I gotta go, I will talk to you later 
Love you all 
Elder Von Simonson

Baptism week

2009-08-31T06:25:00.000-07:00

Hey family... thanks for the emails and letters .. I got a letter from Grandma... Thanks.. and also I have been getting emails from Clint as well. .. You have an email awaiting you now Clinty poo.. 
Well as for the week.. it was pretty rockin... We had a Great baptism.. it was really powerful... and also the other Ward had a baptism also.. sooo we can't complain... 
Last Monday we took Jacques to a member's house and had a Family Home Evening with them. It was great even though Jacques sometimes has a hard time understanding, he is really good socially.. oddly enough..
Then we had a couple of days doing planning for the baptism and getting to know the members better as well and of course, trying to find the Lord's people that have been prepared.. we have been running thin on serious investigators.. but we just keep on truckin.. striving to do the Lord's will...
On Thursday I helped roof a European house... you know the nice clay tiles... it's interesting.  The member had Sai, he had done two of them already, but he had no clue what the heck he was doing.. together.. Elder Nielsen and I figured it out and explained to him how he needed to do it.. Elder Nielsen's Dad is a contractor.. .. soooo.. It was interesting and a little scary.. because the buildings are a lot, lot taller.. 
Other than the baptism, the week wasn't super eventful... But the baptism went very well.. we were kinda nervous because we couldn't find a member to give a little talk on the Holy Ghost.. .. we found someone finally.. but it was discouraging.. no one wanting to do it. 
But.. we had a good little lesson with Jacques just before his baptism.. and we asked him why he wanted to be baptized and he simply said.. "Because I need to... Life is hard.. and this is what I need to do to fight back and to be strong enough to live.. the Lord will help me.." he said.. "it's like a boxer needs gloves.. if he doesn't have them .. that won't do anything.. It's the same for me without baptism." haha.. that is Jacques.. so like at 5 minutes before the baptism .. there were 6 people there and the Bishop wasn't even there.. but it all was ok.  Bishop showed up at 7:05 and we started at 7:10 and everyone showed up during the opening hymn.. The Bishop really enjoyed it, he had tears in his eyes the whole time and got up and gave a great testimony.. 
Lyze also gave her first talk at the baptism as well.. She is such a solid convert... she wanted to know mora about the Temple and she gave two refferals .. and went with the missionaries to teach them.. one of the ladies she just found in the market.. 
Anyway sorry this is short.. I love you and hope you get my little letter with photos.. I will send some more probably.. but talk to ya soon.. 
Elder SIMONSON.

Time is Flying...Brussels bathed in blessings

2009-08-24T07:41:00.000-07:00

SO I will go ahead and agree with you and say that summer did fly by... Here in Europe everyone is getting back from vacation and people are starting school back up and work.. SO that is nice, our Ward is returning to normal.. SO freak, Emmy has changed sooo much; she looked so old and cute too.. I can't believe she won all that stuff.. lucky little girl.. 
I'm glad that everyone had a great summer.. My summer was great with Elder Nielsen in Brussels..The missionary work may not be as much fun as all that traveling but ... the joy lasts a lot longer .. sorry.. haha.. 
So I am going to have to tell about how much the Lord has been blessing the Brussels Zone.. in the Last 11 weeks we have had 12 baptisms.. there were 2 weeks when we didn't have a baptism, but other than that we have had a baptism each week... and they aren't just poopy people that don't stay active, but really awesome people.... In Brussels 2 there has been 5 baptisms and Brussels 1 there have been 7; so the work is going well.. As a Mission we have been slowing down a little, but our Zone hasn't been affected.. AND the blessings and miracles continue to happen.. there was a baptism last night in Brussels 1... a member referal.. and it was super spiritual and powerful and the Sisters have been teaching an awesome girl named Rachel from Burkina Faso and she has been hesitating about baptism.. and so they hadn't been able to set a date with her.. Well I guess last night at the baptism, she loved it so much and felt the spirit so strong she wanted to be baptized... so there will be a surprise baptism this next Sat..crazy.. also in the other Ward there was this lady from Romania that just showed up to church.. she had went to the Church in Romania and really liked it and one day she just decided she wanted to go to the church that she went to in Romania so she looked it up and found the address.. and showed up with a friend and she said that in Romania the Church is considered the closest practice to the Bible.. so that is awesome as well.. The Elders taught her this week and she expressed the desire to be baptized.. so she will be baptized in a the next month.. TOTALLY AWESOME.. haha.. Also another blessing this week; I think that I have told you about Wilma Vandam a Phillipino lady that was reactivated about 2 months ago... her brother is a Mission President in the Phillipines.. well she has gotten completely active, gotten a temple reccomend everything... She is so solid; well she got back from vacation and she brought her two 15 year old boys to church and told us that we would be teaching them in a week... so... there ya go.. thanks Heavenly Father.. 
It seems like we aren't doing any work because the Lord just kinda hands freebies to us! 
JACQUES TEMFACK.. will be baptized this Friday the 28th.. He is awesome. He is the Cameroonian that is the Urologist.. I told you about how he is a little slow and he wasn't understanding much.. We were wondering if he really was a doctor or not.. .. also we just didn't know if he understood anything and was at all ready for baptism; so this week was the testing week.. We taught him all the commandments and he had no problem with any of them and said he would live them all .. He understood perfectly and .. ya.. all was good. So this Wednesday we had a lesson just going aver the baptismal questions to see if he understood what baptism was and what he was going to promise the Lord.. and IT WAS CRAZY!  That was probably the second strongest I have ever felt the Spirit.. He completely understood that when he was being baptized that he was promising that he would live all the commandments and that he would be loyal to the Church.. I could not believe how well he understood because usually when we teach him he hardly seems to understand.. but then he told us about His 'ACCIDENT' So he did all of his studies here in Brussels, then he went back and was practicing in Cameroon and was a really big doctor, well known, everything.. then he was riding in a car with another doctor and they got hit by a big log truck.. and he went into a comma directly.. they flew him up to Brussels to get treated.. and when he came out of his comma (after a few weeks) he had forgotten how to do everything.. walk, talk, eat.. everything.. he had some pretty intense brain damage ... Well now he speaks and walks and understands very well.. sooo.. now we know what was going on and that he is a normal person and isn't just special!  He is so full of joy, he is great.. and the Ward is really excited for people to be baptized because the recent converts are active.. so .. they don't hate when we baptize someone... 
Another quick story; that was pretty funny.. Elder Nielsen and I enjoy going to Evangilist churches and some how we always get invited.. SO .. we went to this awesome African church yesterday after church.. oh my gosh, it was the most ridiculous thing.. so it was this guy that was the Pastor.. he had a beautiful family of 5 boys and they looked well to do.. they are from Congo.. and they invited us to their church last week.. so we decided to go because the wife wanted us to preach.. haha we were all over that.. so we go and we meet them on our way there.. in the Metro.. and so we are like, "Obviously this is God's will that we go to this church and teach this family".. SO we show up to this really ghetto part of Brussels.. and we go down this street to (what looks like) an abandoned apartment... the door is all broken.. and we walk to the basement of this apartment and the wife is like, "Ahh this is it"... well, we walk into a room the size of your little living room.. there is like 20 chairs and it is just that family and us.. so.. the dad gets up and starts preaching ... it was so apostate.. but we got to talk to them and gave them a Book of Mormon and explained a little.. 
Well... I hope all goes well.. I gotta go but talk to you later..
ELder Von Simonson

Haha....Elder Bailey...

2009-08-17T05:28:00.000-07:00

Well I am glad that you got my message. Elder Bailey spent his last day with Elder Nielsen and I, so I gave him your phone number and and told him to call you.. so I'm glad he did. Elder Bailey is a good man and I respect him a lot.. Did he talk about Reinhilda?  Because I did her baptismal interview and she is awesome.. I'm sure he told the miracle about Christian and with the family Peters ..(that was with Elder Nielsen)
He has a tendency to blow things up a little, so I'm probably not as great of a missionary as he said I was.. 
This week has been great.. we saw Elder Nelson at a Mission Conference in the Netherlands, Rotterdam.. It was an awesome experience and I got to see Elder Schmutz and Elder Spicer and all the missionaries I love... Elder Nelson was very powerful and it was crazy how the Lord worked with the Spirit through Elder Nelson and Pres. Kopischke . They all congratulated the Mission... and maybe it was just me and questions I had, but it seemed like all the speakers touched on all the good efforts we were giving to the Lord.. They really built us up and helped us feel good about ourselves.. Because I think a lot of missionaries in this Mission really break themselves down.. It was a great experience.. 
Other than that.. the work was a little slower than usual, but just because we had to clean out our teaching pool .. We hadn't been finding any new amis and all of our others weren't going anywhere hardly.. So this week we did a lot of finding and the Lord blessed us very much.. A quick miracle with that.. the whole week we had been focusing on finding new people and we just weren't having too much success and this Saturday we had only one rdv planned and the rest was just kinda left open for .. finding.. well, I think both elder nielsen and I were a little discouraged, so Friday night we took some time and just prayed and studied... I was just praying that we would do His will and not waste time and telling Him the desires I had.. and well Sat went awesome.. We found this cool student from Cameroon and he is really smart.. Then Nelito, our Ward Mission Leader, calls us up and asks us to come to the hospital with him to see Claire and to meet him at the church at 1:30.  So we changed our plans and went to grab something quick to eat at the church.. Right as we finish eating, someone rings the bell of the church and so I go thinking it's Nelito and it is just some older Belge guy.. and so I opened the door and he said, "I rang three times like it says.." (you are supposed to ring 3 times for the Geneology Center..) so I told him that the Center was closed for the day.. and he said, "What? .. I just saw the sign of the Church and I wanted to know more about it."  So we let him in and he was awesome.. the first thing he said .. was, "I want eternel life.  How do i get it?"  So we told him.. anyway he was Seventh Day Adventist, but he was really open and knew a lot about the original Church with Jesus and His Apostles and he said he was looking for a church like that.. ... so of course we told him about the apostasy and he was in agreeance.. and then we told him about the Restoration and the Spirit was so strong .. it was intense.. I was scared to mess something up, because he was so amazing.. Well, half-way through, Nelito came in and helped us teach this guy and testified, and it was awesome.. he left with a armful of things, Book of Mormon, pamphlets.. etc.. because he lives up in Gent, it's way north Belgium, Dutch speaking.. SO the ball is in his court now.. 
Jacques Temfack; is still doing wonderful.. he came to church for his third time in a row this last Sunday and he loved it again.. he is on track still for baptism and is accepting all the commandments .. and has no problems with them anyway.. it's great. We will see him tonight to teach him and to go to Family Home Evening with him.. I love him .. he is great.. 
Bayana is doing really well too.. we passed her to the Sisters this week and that will go well.. 
So real quick, I don't have much more time.. I just wanted to tell you about the fufu that I ate yesterday.. There is a sweet part member famliy.. he is Belge and she is from Ghana.. and she is the funniest lady ever.. she calls us her boyfriends.. haha.. well the fufu she made us was intense... it had a full fish plopped in the soup... eyes, scales, fins, bones... you name it.. haha!  It was pretty good.. interesting but good, and if you want to know what fufu is, look on Tylan's blog. I imagine he has a photo of it or explains it.. 
Well love you lots.. talk to you next week.. Tess and Mom, I got your letters, thanks and Trish and Kenyan, I got both of your emails .. Thanks both and I love you both.. 
ELder Von Simonson

Laboring in Brussels

2009-08-10T05:52:00.000-07:00

Oh ya... so it was great to hear from you... I love when I just get random news that I didn't even know.. such as everyone having BABIES.. freak.. that is insane.. and Tess is having a baby girl!.. another stinking cute Addi... 
SO things haven't changed too much here in Brussels other than we got Elder Benito from Spain in our District and lost a companionship in our Ward but gained a companionship of Sisters... 
We had a pretty good week. It was transfer week and I saw all the missionaries that I loved go home.. some less than others haha.. but Elder Von Allmen and Leavit. They were my Zone Leaders when I came into the field here in Brussels... It was a little wierd for Elder Nielsen I think because that was the group just right before him; 
But all went really well this week.. we have been teaching Jaques and he loves the church and feels the Spirit and so he is on route.. for baptism.. ALSO BAYANA came back from Vacation this week and we got to teach her more and she came to church again... She is great, but unfortunatly .. a Russian speaking member .. WHO LOVES SISTER missionaries came up to us on Sunday and informed us that we would no longer be teaching her ... OH THANKS for that news.. haha.. it was interesting ..but it is ok. We had pretty much planned on passing her to the Sisters anyway... Other quick news.. Antonio went on vacation and Claire entered the hospital to get operated on... We went and saw her on Sunday after church.. and she was doing allright.. she was in a lot of pain.. but she was still laughing and smiling.. and joking around about how she is going to have a funny looking little ball for a boob.. that is Claire...We went with Serge, a member who we work with often and he has scitzophrenia... and Claire just owned him about how it was all in his head and that he needs to just get over it and not listen to the voices... haha .. I love her, she is a great example... She asked about getting sealed in the temple.. but she is sad because her boyfriend isn't believing at all... soo.. but she really wants to go to the temple.. 
As for your letters, I didn't get your letter.. or Tess's, but I will get them soon and the package I got a long time ago.. sorry I forgot to tell you about it... 
Today for P-day we went to the University of Brussels, ULB... and played some tennis.. I don't mean to boast ... but I am getting pretty good at tennis... Get ready to get beat Danny and Jake .. in the near future ... luckily you have a year left to practice up... 
I have told you about Lyze and how awesome she is and about how her mom isn't really interested or likes the church too much... well she is coming around.. we went and ate at her house on Tuesday... A HUGE African meal.. insane... but good.. and we asked her if she was going to come to church on Sunday and she said, "I don't know... maybe, maybe not."  She said that "Lyze never even knows if I am going.. I just decide and come.".. SO?... hopefully she will just continue to come; She really likes church I think.. I loves when recent converts bring people into the church.. they are such good examples for the old lazy members.. oh; pardon me .. I meant less motivated.. haha .. Well I'm sorry, I bet you all don't really enjoy my letters.; I just kinda inform you on how all the people that we are teaching are doing .. I don't share to many experiences with you.. 
One funny experience was.. yesterday.. I got the opportunity to translate from French to English.. and this whole week has been 'speak French' week so I was all practiced up but .. kinda in the wrong way because I had been thinking in French the whole week.. then try and translate into English when only French words come to your head... I wasn't too scared.. and I figured it would be ok.. WELL... then I found out who I would be translating for.... and Uh.. you know Debbie Wright?  Well Soeur Brebois is the French equivelent.. she is kinda crazy and speaks really fast... and her talk was definatly no exception... I thought I would be ok.. because you recieve a copy of their talk.. well I would imagine that you have never seen European hand writing.. but it is about the slopiest cursive you have ever seen... ans Sister Brebois was no exeption and she decided to use note form Rrench with abreviations that I don't understand.. haha it was a disaster for my first time.. haha ... I had a member read it to me before Sacrament because I had no idea what it said; I couldn't read it.. and after that I felt good about it.. but... she didn't really follow the talk and she talked soooooo fast... everyone had pitty and told me I did good... . I felt like a two year old who is getting potty trained and who missed the toilet.. and everyone was trying to make sure I didn't cry by encouraging me.. haha.. 
no it was ok.. well I don't have too nuch to say.. I love you all for the great examples you are to me... I am just trying to stay working hard... and do what the Lord desires of me.. sometimes (a lot of the time ) I fall short.. but we just gotta try harder and harder... 
The weather here has been pretty nice; not too hot, not too cool; I quite like the weather here.. and this next week we will also be having a Mission Conference with Elder Nelson... and interviews with Pres. Brubaker.. 
Love ya.. peace.. 
Elder Von Simonson

Transfers...dun dun dun...

2009-08-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

Transfers and the guesses.......?anyone??? 

Well I am staying right here in Brussels, Belgium ... YA! I am still with Elder Nielsen... and he is probably the only companion that I would love to stay with... He is a stud.. That means that I will be killing him off here in Brussels... SO I have at least 12 more weeks here in the wonderous city of Brussels.. I love it and things are great and on the uphill...
This week went very well.. we had a big focus on trying to get all of our investigators doing something coming to church working towards baptism and what not so that they aren't just sitting there doing nothing.. and we saw a lot of great things...
Antonio is doing very well he is the guy that the Assistants passed us. I love him, he is such a good guy and really smart too. Like I told you a little in the last letter we fasted and the fast went really well. We feel that he had his answer but he feels like the commandments are too strict.. The Law of Chastity and all that... so he just keeps hesitating.. but we will see him tonight and just ask him what he is waiting for and what is holding him back to start living the commandments and be baptized... He is great though..
Also we have been teaching Jaques but.. like I said, he is a Urologist, but frankly I am pretty sure he has the mental capacity of an 8 year old... We teach him and he doesn't understand too much ..but he is really great... soo happy and he understands a little so we kinda set a beptismal date with him and we will just see how he starts doing... so far so good he came to church and loved it... and understood pretty well.. 
We had a Brazilian couple come to church as well and the members loved it... 
The work is going great and I am soooo happy to stay here because we have a bunch of people with a ton of potential.. I would do anything to see Antonio become a member.. 
Yesterday after church we went by Claire's house and ate lunch with her... She made us some Senagal cous cous.. it was good... and she just told us about her life in Africa and it was pretty crazy she had an intense life... But She brought me so much joy this week.. She is a solid member and is doing very well... She comes to church and to baptisms and activities and just loves and understands the Church.. What a blessing she is to me... She is like my mom here... she treats Elder Nielsen and I like her kids... 
We had another baptism in the Ward this week.. It was LYZE; I don't remember if I told you about her.. She was the investigator that Elder Kam and Elder Wallace were teaching and then Elder Cabrera... she is 20 years old, she speaks French, English, and Dutch all perfectly.. She is super smart and super solid.. she came to church 12 or 13 weeks in a row before her baptism and she had a ton of opposition from her family and her mom.. they all think that the church is a cult.. and they all hate it.. but she knew it was true and was baptized and she felt the spirit so strongly.. she had cold water and said she didn't even feel the coldness.. haha gotta love that one.. but she is amazing ... The lord has really been blessing this Ward with a bunch of really serious and true converts... When I came here they had 14 people that had been baptized in the last like 6 months and all but 3 were inactive completely... But since then .. we have had 5 baptisms Oko, Esther, Claire, Ayi, and Lyze and they all come to church every week and have callings and are just learning and progressing.. It's awesome.. That really helps everyone be excited for missionary work in the Ward... 
Well .. I love you .. sorry again about last week's letter... I feel bad and now I get the payback.. But I love you and will talk to you later Bye..
Oh P.S. I got Terryn's Wedding announcement.. that was a little wierd but awesome.. he looks like a cool guy.. oh, also how far along is Tess? I totally forgot she was pregnant... the other day it just kinda hit me.. and I thought oh freak!..maybe I have a niece or nephew that I don't know?..Because I don't remember when she found out... go ahead, call me a bad brother.
Elder Simonson

Ha Ha Gotcha...ya!

2009-07-22T06:19:00.000-07:00

Well.. today is Wednesday... and we have P-day... We had to change our p-day this week because we had interviews and training for the other district on Monday and a bunch of other stuff... so that is why I wasn't able to write... but... here it is now...
Well from the sounds of your letter, sounds like you are just chillin' having fun.... just vacationing it up and playin' around.... man it is really too bad that you didn't get to go down to Logan... I guess Elder Nielsens parents went and said it was awesome and all the missionaries that I served around were there... tant pis... sorry...too bad.. haha 
Well this week was pretty awesome...I really don't remember anything that I told you last week.. and I don't know ... because we didn't have p-day on Monday, it threw me off.. I don't remember what was this last week and what was the week before that... 
This week we had a baptism in the Ward... His name is Ayi Satchivi.. he is 28 and is from Togo ...he is the most humble guy and has a huge testimony already of the gospel... Elder Cabrera and Elder Wallace are the missionaries that taught him... His baptism was really spiritual.. and plus...Elder Cabrera asked Claire to give the talk on the Holy Ghost.. We went over to her house before the baptism just to see if she needed any help with it and she had it all prepared and gave us the talk right there... It was a pretty special experience just to hear here bear testimony and to see how much she really understood the Holy Ghost and the gospel... After her talk the Bishop got up and said .. I am very astonished by our Sister Claire who was baptized a couple of weeks ago and to see how fast she is progressing.. It was good... Her talk made her sound like she had been a member for a long time.... also she asked us about a calling in the Ward and what she needs to do .. she asked if she needed to see the Bishop about it or if she needed to wait for him to come to her.. we told her go to him, it's better.. so she did and now the Bishop is working on getting her a calling.. 
I do believe that I told you about Antonio... and well.. he is doing really awesome.... We saw him this week just right before the baptism.. and it was our fisrt time teaching him... and so we were just hoping to get to know him and see what he was feeling about when he is going to be ready for baptism... so we said the opening prayer and asked him if he had any questions... and he just opened up and told us about his interview with Pres. Brubaker and how he had felt scared by the law of tithing.. and the ''obligation'' of it.. but he helped him understand.. and he was reassurred... so .. then on Monday we taught him with the High Priest Group Leader and it was soo good.  We talked about a testimony and what he needs to have before his baptism.. because we think he feels like he needs this big vision or answer so he is still waiting for that... and it isn't coming because he has already felt the spirit at church and in reading the Book of Mormon and everything.  He says he feels really good about it and about everything but he is just waiting for his answer... but we are really wroking with him and PRAYING hard so that he will get his confirmation and be baptized because he is really ready.. he should already be baptized he is so good... 
Ummm what else... oh.. we got some news this last week that Elder Russel M. Nelson will be coming next month and we will be having a Mission Conference in the Netherlands and afterwards all the French missionaries get to go to the temple...SOOOO THAT ROCKS... Thank you Heavenly Father... so now I will get to go to the temple 3 times on my Mission instead of only twice... and plus right after hearing from an Apostle...
President and Sister Brubaker are great.. we have had some more time to be around them a little these last few weeks.. and they have so much love.. Sister Brubaker was at the interviews on Monday making crepes for all the missionaries.. haha .. 
Things are going very well .. I am enjoying serving with Elder Nielsen .. he is a stud and so Christlike.. and we have a lot of joy together....
Speaking of joy we have started teaching this new man named Jaques.. he is from CAMEROON.. yes that is right.. the blessed country of God where the elect people are born.. haha I'm a little partial to cameroon.. 
Well he is great.. he is a Urologist.. I don't know how to spell that.. and he reads the Bible everyday and takes notes and loves God... AND PLUS he is super humble and excited to learn.. he brought me so much happiness yesterday... so hopefully things go well with him... other than that .. I don't have much else... I haven't gotten your package yet, but I think that is because you haven't sent it.. maybe... as for transfers, we still have a couple of weeks.. and it is possible that I will leave... 
Love you All! 
Elder Von Simonson

BLESSING WEEK

2009-07-13T05:24:00.000-07:00

SOOO.... hopefully you aren't sick of hearing about wonderful things that are going on.. but this week was such a wonderful turning point in my mission.. I think I might have written you about how the last little bit I have just felt like I could do so much better and that I had just felt a lack of faith and enthusiasm.. Well this week was finally a little break through.. WE HAD TONS of miracles... 
First of all we went back and talked to David before he left for vacation to Italy.. and he had read in the Book of Mormon and had liked it.. and he had a few questions about church... but he said he loved the church... We had a really bold lesson with him and talked to him about the importance of finding out whether the Book of Mormon is true..
He asked a few questions about 3 Nephi 11 and we got talking about authority and why that was important.. and then we were straight up and told him that this is the only true church with the true authority of Christ... and it clicked in his head... He just said..."WOW... WOW so you say that the Church of Jesus Christ is the only True church with the true authority of God... .. WOW.. now you really give me a reason to know if that is true because that is important..." and we challenged him to read the Book of Mormon on his trip (he will be in Italy for like 2 months ) ..so he said, "I have homework now.."  He understood that if he knew the Book of Mormon is true, then he knew that Joseph Smith was a Prophet and that the authority was given to him and restored in the church of Christ.. today... SOOO that was really good... He is great.. toO bad he is leaving... 
Also this week we worked a little with the Assistants.. and they found this really cool girl named Bayana... Bayana is probably on of the happiest people I have ever met and she loved talking to us.. she is from Kirkistan or something like that.. she is Siberian.. so she looks like a little Chinese girl but she really speaks Russian... She is pretty young and is studying tourism here in Brussels; Well we taught her with the Assistants and they passed her to us because she lives in our area... so she came to church this Sunday and LOVED it.. and the members loved her.. we have a bunch of Russian members and they all like attacked her; it was soo good... she stayed for like an hour after talking to members.. and all the Phillipino members loved her too... so.. she is really awesome as well... but she is leaving for vacation today and won't be back until next month.. THAT IS VACATION here in Europe.. everything closes up for TWO months and everyone leaves for months on end.. 
We had an insane week of finding a ton of new people to teach. We found a Brazilian guy last week and we went one night and taught him and his wife .. and they loved it.. they are coming to Family Home Evening and are friends with some of the members already.. their names are Inacio and Aurea .. you will be hearing about them more... 
Also we went to teach this new guy named Pierre.. and he had his friend there named Gaston and Gaston loved us.. he invited us over to his house and said he will be coming to our church next week... 
Then we went to visit Claire and see how she was doing.. and she had her cousin there and she just started telling her about the Church and invited her to church and we might be teaching her sometime soon...
Another miracle or two and then I am done... 
We were walking to talk to David after an all day meeting with Pres. and all the Zone leaders.. and we see these brothers unloading their truck, so I asked them if they wanted help and usually they say no.. but they said yes.. so we unloaded their truck and then they told us to sit down and share our message with them... .. their names are Uriel and Roland and they are from Benin.. They showed up to CHURCH too and they loved it and CLaire talked to them because she is from Benin (by origin) and she told them why she liked this church and taught them about some stuff.. we called Uriel last night to see what he thought of church and he told us that he loved it perfectly and that he would be there each Sunday.. Haha .. his exact words... I freakin' love it... things are just exploding in Brussels... 
Then last night a little tender mercy of the Lord.. the Assistants have been teaching this guy named Antonio.. and he is SOLID.. he is a Kingdom builder for sure.. well he lives in our area but they were teaching him and he was supposed to be baptized in our Ward this last week.... but he didn't feel quite ready and wanted to come to the Ward that he would be baptized in... soo he put it on delay.. well the Assistants finally decided to pass him to us... which was nice.. so now he will be baptized soon... 
One last thing.. we have been getting better at doing consecrated hours... where we give an hour to the lord and just do finding where he wants.. and well last night we went to the place we felt like he wanted us to be.. and we started with a prayer and started talking to this Polish guy and he had been to Salt Lake and had missionaries come to his house in Poland... well... he wasn't interested, but right after he rejected us.... This Brazilain girl starts running towards us yelling "ELDER, ELDER..." she had just moved to Brussels, she has been here for the last 2 months.. and she had the address of the church but couldn't find it.. she didn't really speak French so we had a member call her and she is coming to Family Home Evening tonight .. it was a little blessing.. it's funny how the Lord takes care of his children.. 
Well I gotta go, love you all... 
Elder Simonson

Gosh! What are you doing in Inkom....

2009-07-06T06:35:00.000-07:00

Oh freak!  Sounds like you had a great 4th of July....
that is insane! I'm impressed...(also Elder Nielsen seconds
my title) So I'm not sure if you got my email last week..
I kinda think you didn't... maybe you did... so I just checked
it seems as if you did get it... That's good.. I thought it
cut off before I sent it...
So my 4th of July... Well we got to meet President Brubaker
and his wife on the 4th.. It was kinda like a mini Zone
Conference.. but he just introduced himself talked a little
about the vision that the Lord has given him and then ya
they told us how they met etc.. Sister Brubaker talked as
well and she is an awesome lady.. She wears the pants.. haha
Elder Nielsen and I were joking around saying that she was
the Iron Fist .. haha, but it is going to be awesome they are
great.. there is definately a different feel there with them but
they have a lot of love and you can feel it..  so the first
of the day was spent getting to know the new Pres. and him
getting to know us; then we ate some lunch.. and some
watermelon.. YAY for the 4th! and then after that.. we had a
couple of rendez vous and then we ate at a member's
house and went and taught a crazy African Jehovah's Witness.
It was intense... but we owned her by only bearing testimony
and using her logic and her answers to tell her how she could
know that the Book of Mormon was the word of God also... haha
so that was that...
Yesterday was a really good day at church.. we had a guy
named David from Nigeria there at church.. he is a Pastor
missionary for his church.. and it is a great church.. he is
such a humble man.. he loves Jesus Christ and is ready and
willing to do whatever to get closer to Him... so.. he got
someone to cover for him on Sunday and he came to church..
and he loved it.. he loved that we were all volunteers and
that not one person was payed.. he found that amazing, that
we were all doing for God... also he told us last week that
the first time that we shared with him the Book of Mormon he
was a little hesitant and so after we left he decided to ask
God if it went against the Bible and he got an answer that it
worked with it, alongside it... it was really cool that he just
asked God like that and got an answer.. we just hope he is ready
to leave his church and his job... but we will see.. I think he
will because he feels the Spirit and wants to do what God wants...
Well, sorry that you didn't have a very fun 4th of July!
Memorable for sure... maybe just in the wrong way...
Things are going well with me.. the Lord is humbling me and
teaching me a lot.. luckily I have a companion that is patient
with me... I have definately been going through a learning
proccess here in Brussels...
Claire had the operation and everything went well.. she entered
in the hospital on Thursday and got home yesterday.. we stopped
by to see her and she was really good.. she had taken her Book of
Mormon to the hospital and was reading it and a lady came up and
started talking to her about it and the lady was actually a daughter
of a lady that used to be Mormon.. and then she left the church and
joined another church etc...the girl was telling Claire that the Mormons
were a cult because they had helped her mom and her with money
and clothes and support, but as soon as she left the church they
stopped helping her and stopped talking to her... gosh.. but Claire
is blunt so she told the girl what she knew and thought and that it isn't
a cult and the girl tried to get her to come to her church, so Claire
took the invitation and then threw it in the garbage after she left...
hahaha .. am I sick because I think that is funny...
So a quick funny story that will make you smile.. So we are all aware
of the death of Micheal Jackson... sigh... sad... Right???? Well there
is this pretty cool member that works with us a lot.. his name is Denis
and he was a convert at 20 or something and he went on a Mission
to France and now he is like 30 and is working and ya he is cool and
a stud.. but lately his work and stress has been getting to him and he
has litterally gone a little weird and crazy... ( that isn't the funny part I
swear I'm not that heartless..) Well when Michael Jackson died... we
were at Claire's baptism, and he showed up and was just sad looking
and deprressed and wouldn't really talk to anyone..; and I went and
started talking to him and asked him about his day and he just started
in on how sad it was that Mikey had died... I was thinking,  "Oh freak,
you are kidding right?"  he said his day was terrible because of that...
well.. this Sunday he gets up.. and bears his testimony and starts
talking about how he lost a close friend and how it has really been
hard for him and that he was really troubled and had gone and
talked to President Woodland about it.. and that Pres. had helped
him and assurred him.. it would be fine... well Elder Nielsen and I had
an arguement whether he was talking about Michael Jackson or not..
well it was confirmed.. last night.. IT WAS ABOUT MIKEY (our black
man wanna be white woman)... so.... ya.. awkward.. haha
love you..
Elder Simonson

Baptism!

2009-06-29T06:33:00.000-07:00

Yahoo... so everything went well with the baptism this week... Claire Adjalla is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!! She is soo good.. I have pictures.. you will see them sometime soon.... 
The week went all right.  We had transfers and stuff on Wed..I saw Elder Kam off and Elder Wallace moved out of the apartment and so Elder Nielsen and I are FREE, FREE, FREE and all calm and quiet in the apartment... It is really nice to be alone in an apartment... It is the first time on my mission that I have been alone with just my companion... With transfers and making sure everything was in order for Claire's baptism... the week was a little wierd, kinda hectic, but not too stressful...We have been going up to Strombeek Chapel because our building is having some remodeling done... so we still had the baptism in our building with all the construction rubble.. which was interesting.... but Claire didn't mind.. but we had church up there... 
Well I'm kinda not knowing what else to say.... Oh.. Elder Nielsen baptised Claire becuase she said either one of us could baptize her.. and of course niether of us wanted to take the chance away from the other.. so she decided to write down our names and then pull a name from a hat.... and short story short..it was his name.. 
Claire bore her testimony after the baptism.. it was so funny... she got up all nervous and then just told how when she was meeting with us we kept asking her to be baptized and all that and she just kept telling us, "Oh no, I was already baptized." etc... and then after having asked her a bunch of times and continuing to come over and teach her.. she said everyone around her started telling her to be careful and to not get too involved with us because we were a cult... and everyone kept telling her and finally she decided to see truly for herself by coming to church, by reading in the Book of Mormon... and she found out... that we weren't.. hmmmmm that's wierd..? stupid people...but she loved church and saw that we were normal.. and she had told us before that she knew what we were teaching her was true... but... ya... she is an awesome lady.  She has really been overcoming a lot and sacrificing a lot for the Lord and to become a member..... We helped her do her shopping the day of her baptism.. because with her pre-cancer stuff she is really weak and has a lot of chest pains and abdomen pains so she can't really carry too much.. Well, while we were helping her with groceries she told us that she needed to tell us something that happened.. she starts by saying, "So the other morning I was at the gare and really wanted a cup of coffee.." and I was like, "Oh CLAIRE!" and she said, "Wait, wait listen... let me finish.." so she wanted coffee really bad so she went to the vending machine... thought for a second and then decided not to .. then she went back again, thought and decided not to.. then she went back a third time and decided to get some and right as her cup was all full and she took it, she turned around about ready to drink it and saw a big group of missionaries... she hurried and turned around and ran the other way avoiding us and threw her coffee away... She said she was laughing her whole train ride.. she couldn't believe that... it was funny. I told her that God likes to play jokes on us too.. because Claire is so funny!  We went and ate at her house this Saturday... it was good... 
Well I'm thankful for all the news... that's crazy that Terryn is engaged... didn't see that one coming... NOT... haha...BYU-I DO!.. haha, but seriously... I love you all .. even if you don't write me.... haha, I will talk to you all later!!! 
Love, 
Elder Simonson

Still in Brussels!

2009-06-23T10:57:00.000-07:00

YO... well I don't have a super lot of time today because we are doing emails late today and so I gotta go soon but.. I just wanted to write you a quick note and let you know that I am doing well.. This last week was a really great week.. It has been bitter-sweet. It started with the interview with President which I told you about.. then we had our last Zone Conference with President.. It was sooooo good because all the French missionaries were there.. I got to see everyone.. Zone Conference was really powerful and it was very sad as well because Pres. Woodland is such a great man.. seriously, you don't understand... You need to find out when his homecoming is and go and listen and then you will get a little taste of what I had as a Mission President...
Also we had some trainings that we did and I had a crazy experience with Elder Carpenter.. we taught each other for a little practice in listening to the Spirit and adapting teaching to the needs of the person.. well he shared a scripture with me and we had a really long talk and I will say that it probably changed my mission and my life for the better. I was able to understand the work of God a little better.. I bet I sound pretty stupid, but it was seriously something huge for me... haha, laugh it up.
Anyway? Things are good.. Transfer news came in today... and I have never been so excited for a transfer in my mission... I'm staying here in Brussels but the two Elders that were in our apartment are both leaving.  One is going home..Elder Kam from Rexburg.. who's homecoming you should also go to... and the other was Elder Wallace.. so we get the apartment to ourselves... which will be such a stress reliever for me.. we will be way more focused and the work will go a lot better.. and it will be the first time I have ever been only 2 in the apartment.. and Elder Nielsen is probably one of my favorite companions... SO..
Also Claire is doing so good... She is all ready for her baptism and she has passed her interview so she will be baptized this Friday...!!!!! So continue to pray for her and for us.. because opposition is a witch... haha .. but seriously.. We had a baptism in our Ward this last week.. and it was kind of a mess; it was put together last minute by the Sisters... and sooo, long story short.. our chapel has renovating going on and the water for the baptismal font was freezing and we had a hot tiny Relief Society room with no mic, so no one could hear and no one could sit.. etc... but it was still a great baptism and she was baptized!!!  Well I have to go .. I hope you got my letter and Card; also I wanted to make sure that you had the pictures with Dinant and Christmas and the pictures of Esther and Dylan's and Daniel's baptism.  I think you do but not sure.. thanks, love you bye..
Elder Simonson

Check it...

2009-06-16T20:13:00.000-07:00

Well fam and friends... what's going down?  Well Elder Nielsen and I had a great week..... I remember in the beginning of my mission I was always soooo amazed by the hand the Lord has in the work or really just how much He is in control and well ... needless to say I have gotten a little used to it but... I am still amazed... 
The other day we had two rdvS that we needed guys to come with us.. to see Claire and to see Jackie... well, because Elder Nielsen and I weren't on top of things like we should have been.. we didn't get a member in advance... so the day before we were calling everyone and everyone was going to the temple trip the next day.. soooo... Well that night, a member named Denis Mabika called us and was stressing big time because of work and moving and just everything that had fallen on top of him at once.. so we went over and helped him move and and clean up.  We gave him a blessing and it was great.. and he was all excited to go to the temple the next day to recieve some guidance; soooooo the next day rolls around.. we had still not found anyone.. and we were just hoping and praying for a miracle and solution.. we had figured that we would just have to cancel and go another day.. Well early in the morning, Denis calls us to ask where the bus was meeting for the temple trip and at what time etc... he had missed the bus and didn't get to go the temple... But.... later in the day we called him to see if he would go with us.. and he was all over it.. he's like, "Yes I NEED to work with you guys"... so he came out with us.. he was late to the first one and Jackie had to leave, so we weren't able to see her, but we stopped by Clotilde to see how she was doing .. and we ended up teaching her.  Then Denis just went finding and contacting with us and we talked to a really cool guy and then the next person we talked to used to be Denis' old neighbor... so we taught him and then we went and taught Claire .. and everything just worked out perfectly.. it was crazy.. Denis is so full of faith and he really understands that if you put the Lord and His work first everything else kinda just falls in place... It was cool. 
Claire is doing great! She has been taught everything and she has been living the law of chastity and the Word of Wisdom.. etc... so she is good to go for the 26th.. Also this week I got to do a baptismal interview for one of the assistants' investigators.. it was such a good spiritual experience.. it was like giving a blessing.. it was crazy.. and she is a really cool girl.. she is Ghanian and she is only 17 and her whole family is against her, but she got baptized and got over all the oppostion to be baptized.. ALSO... a really sweet side note... Do you remember when I was with Elder Musters and I taught Iness and Javier?  Maybe not, well they are a mother/son family that I taught with Elder Musters.. she is from Columbia and she was so good. She came to church all the time when I was there in Strombeek.. well she also got baptized this weekend... It was soooooo good to see them finally accept baptism.. she is sooo good! I will have to send you pictures.. 
Another awesome, but sad thing is that I just had my last interview with President Woodland today.. It was pretty intense.. he pretty much prophesied and recited my Patriarchal blessing ... not joking either... he told me all the things I need to do etc.. and said a few sentances directly from my blessing and I just had this astounded face on and laughed.  He smiled and said, "Have you heard these things before?" and I said, "ya..." and he said, "From your Patriarchal blessing?" and I said ya.. and he said, "Well, now you have two witnesses that this is what Heavenly Father wants you to do..and needs you to do." It was crazy.. 
Well, sorry to bore you with all of this.. I can't believe you guys are just boafing it up in Florida and in Palmyra with Grandma and Grandpa.. it sounds like fun... as for Belgium we have had rain, rain, rain and one day was really sunny and nice and hot.. but not the rest... We have this week with Zone Conference and then the week after that is transfers and then the new President comes in.. it should be great... By the way... there is this kid in my District who looks, acts, and is pretty much Jake!  He is from Hillsboro, Oregon and is El Salvadorian of origine .. but I swear it is like hangin out with Jake Larsen!  I will have to send pictures as well.. maybe I will send my card with the Brugge photos.. etc... Well I love you lots.. also .. Fatiha has just kinda been on the back burner.. there was some stuff with her family going on.. but I believe she should begin meeting with Elder Schmutz soon.. like tomorrow or something like that.. Well, I love you all and will talk to you later... 
Elder Von Simonson

P-Day in Brugge

2009-06-08T08:48:00.000-07:00

Hey Famille...comment allez vous? 
Well I'm doing great... today a few of us that are in Brussels went to a sweet tourist town named Brugge.. it's in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium... it was really cool... We had a lot of stuff to look at and to do... it is a town with canals and houses just built in the canal .. you know like in Italy... so that was pretty cool, but it took up a lot of time so I don't have much time to do anything else....

Brugge, Belgium
The weather has been really nice for the last 2 months or soo.. it is usually pretty perfect .. not too cold, not too hot... it rains every now and then and it hasn't been too hot either... maybe once... but nothing big...
The missionary work is going really. really well.. the time with Elder Nielsen is great... everything is just a little more calm and under control and I don't feel so stressed all the time... we have been seeing a lot of blessings here in the Bruxelles Zone and everyone is starting to catch fire... The Zone was way down in attitude and faith and just kinda everything.... a few weeks ago we only had 2 people in the whole Zone who were preparing for baptism... this week we have bumped up to 18.. and a lot more are still really close... and all the people with a baptismal date are really solid and will be strong converts ... most of them have been to church over 4 times... Things are going well.. and the blessings are greatfully accepted....
As for things with our companionship... we had a great week.  We found an awesome new lady named Jacquelin.  She is from Uganda and speaks English and has a little daughter that is three and is named Bianca... Jackie is really cool, she has been searching for an English church because she doesn't speak French and she hates all the churches she has gone to... She was Catholic.. but some weird things happened and she didn't like the church... the whole 'Do what I say, not what I do' thing... and so she changed to some little break off the Catholic church and then she left that and went to a Pentacostal church and then moved here.  She said all the churches back in Uganda that she went to... all of it's Pastors have been getting charged with molestation and all sorts of junk like that.. sooo she says that she is just looking for the truth... and wanting to know who she can trust... SO she is great and she has already said she will be coming to church this next Sunday....Also we taught Enrique, our Mexican bro. and he had read up to 1 Nephi 10 and he was loving it.. but he left on vacation this weekend so we won't get to see him for a couple of weeks... but.. things are great... 
This week was Stake Conference and so I got to see a bunch of people from Charleroi which was sooo good!  A lot of them remembered me and were really nice to me.. that made me feel good.... also I talked to Bishop Hoffmann from Charleroi and he told me that Daniel is doing really good... Unfortunatly Esther and Dylan haven't been coming to church.. soo.. that's sad.  Claire, on the other hand, is doing well... she came to Stake Conference and she loved it... we have pretty much taught her everything... now she just needs to live it and keep coming to church until her baptism and all will be well.... also.. I don't know if you remember, but when I was with Elder Musters we taught a mom and her son all the time.. her name is Iness and her son's is Javier... well they are getting baptized this next weekend.. and I will be there... That is really exciting... they are great.. she has been going to church like ever since I was there...she is way solid and so excited for her baptism... 
Well, can't think of too much else... thanks Trish for the letter... It made me trunky to come back to your house... haha ... but It sounds like you are going to have a lot of fun in Florida and back east... 
Love you lots.. peace... bisous!!!!!
Elder Von Simonson

Sweet Jesabelle

2009-06-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

Well... the weeks continue to fly.. I'm pretty much used to life here in Belgium.. and I love it.. It keeps things interesting.. and I am never surprised at the blessings and the miracles that the Lord puts in our path... 
This week we had a lot of work to do.. sorting out the investigators who are ready to act and dropping those that are doing nothing, wasting our time and the Lord's.. and it was great! The Lord put some great new people in our teaching pool. Also we dropped those that weren't doing much.... 
The first great little news is that we set a baptismal date with Claire this week.. I think I told you about how she got mad at us because she wanted to be baptized... Well we went and she understood that baptism is a promise between her and the Lord and that we are just here to help her understand the promise she is making and as soon as she knew that.. it was between her and the Lord.. (and she knows that), she was like, "That's between me and God no one can stop me from being baptized...that would be judging me"... so anyway we are working toward the 26th and I think she can make it... We also taught her about the Word of Wisdom and at first she was just kinda against it.. but then Elder Nielsen and I threw it down on her and bore our testimonies and also a member named Serge bore his... and she was just like... "Well ..ok alcohol, easy, I don't even drink it very often.. and coffee... well.. that's just what's easiest in the morning... but I do like hot chocolate better".. and she was committed.. she's so freaking funny... she feels the spirit and tells us all what we teach is true.. sometimes she likes to be a little stubborn at first and then if we are bold and blunt with her like she is with us.. she will do it... I love Claire Adjalla, my sista from Senegal... 
WORK DAY WITH ASSISTANT REYNOLDS... .. so this week I got to work with Elder Reynolds.. just like the good old days... minus the whole Charleroi thing... but.. it was so good.  I love Elder Reynolds, he is a good man.. he has grown alot since the last time we worked together.. that gave me a big boost... 
MEXICANS..... so this last week we went and taught some Mexican brothers... they are both really sweet... we contacted the one brother while waiting for a Metro a couple of weeks ago.. and he went home and told his brother all about us.. then Elder Reynolds and I went and taught him and he is sooo cool.. he loved the message of the Restoration and at the end of the rendez vous he says... "So you guys will come back and explain to us more about all of this.. because this is really good."  Well we had set up a rdv. but he called and cancelled. He had something come up, but he had read the intro to the Book of Mormon all the testimonies and started the Book of Mormon.. and he rescheduled with us when his wife, daughter, and brother would be there.. sooo we are excited about that... 
NIGERIANS... "I got te telya iwanta batize ya!"... freaking Nigerians and there broken english.. we learned some phrases in BROKEN... it's a language...I promise... anyway last night we taught some stinkin awesome brothas from Nigeria.. they are both some sort of Pastor/Missionary here for 2 years to help some churches out.. Well they are elect brothers... their names are Victor and David and they both said if they recieved an answer from God, they would join the church... they are way humble, completely understand the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, and they accept it.. usually with black pastors.. they don't understand anything... They are so closed minded and prideful that you can't even show them the Book of Mormon... 
Well, it sounds like everyone is good.  Thanks Heather for the letter and the little blog excerpt. It was sooo good to hear from you... hope everyone is doing well... 
Gotta run... 
ELder Von

Busy week...

2009-05-25T22:17:00.000-07:00

Well another week has gone by too fast... this week we had a big Zone Leader Council on Tuesday night and a Leadership Council on Wednesday.. sooo since Elder Nielsen and I are the Zone Leaders here in Brussels and this is where they were, we were in charge of them.. so Tuesday we had to buy all the food for Leadership Council and get everything ready for that.. that took most of our day up until Zone Leader Council...ZLC 
ZLC was really, really great... President talked about how we are going to be getting ready for the new President and how the Mission will be resting on us for the next 12 weeks.. That was encouraging!  But the meeting was way good.. I am sad to be having Pres. Woodland leaving. He taught us also how to be a leader and what we are going to need to do when we become a High Priest.. it was pretty interesting.. haha.. but it was powerful.. 
The Leadership Council was really good.. we were able to get all of the District Leaders on the same page and get them excited for this transfer and the next... 
The only thing is that our area kind of lacked the attention it needed because we were focused on the meetings and other stuff.. but the week went well. Elder Nielsen is a stud and I'm learning a lot... As for some of the people we are teaching.. Clotilde is hard to see because she is going to school so much and she just can't find the time to see us or to come to church... sooooooooo funny thing is that this week we just had enough of her making excuses and stuff so we just dropped by her house and she was there.. She was excited to see us, but the first thing that she said was.. "Ya know, I'm kinda mad that my baptism keeps getting moved back and back"... shes like "Why do I have to go to church 3 times in this Ward?  I have already been to church a lot of times... I know it's true.. I just need to be baptized!"  Then she told us about when she was in Ireland she introduced her friend to the church and her friend got baptized in like two weeks and only went to church once.. she's like.. "I just want to be baptized!"  And we were like "Well, you just gotta come to church"... Etc. so that was a little hard... we want her to be baptized but we can't just baptize her like that.. but this week we are going over and are going to lay down the law...

Claire is doing really good... she also told us that she was mad at us because we told her that she couldn't be baptized because she has a boyfriend... and we told her, "Claire, you just have to live the law of chastity".. and she's like... "DO YOU THINK ALL THE MEMBERS in your church live that commandmant?"  And we said, "Well, probably not.. but that's between them and God"... Then she said, "Well it is the same for me.. I'm going to try and live it... but that is between me and God"... I wish you knew Claire.. she is sooo funny and blunt and just sassy.. that's kind of a gay word but I can't think of any better word.. she is doing great.. she said she wants to be baptized in June.. but.. we will see.. She really humbled us.. because obviously it is her decision and just as long as she understands what she is promising God and isn't living with her boyfriend.. she can be baptized.. sooo... ya she is coming to Family Home Evening tonight.. she is my favorite..

Anyway.. we did a little service on Saturday.. we pulled out a stump for a member family.. Elder Nielsen and I had that stump out in an hour and they had been working on it for like over a year.. YA.. THAT'S RIGHT... WE PRETTY MUCH ROCK... it was good to do some Physical work.. I miss it. And plus I got a little sun.. it has been really nice here the last week or soo.. pretty hot.. like 32 degrees C or something like that.. 
Well that was pretty much my week.. found a lot of great people.. taught 2 huge Romanian families yesterday.. they are really good.. we have been working hard but just haven't quite seen much come out of it... so it makes me question a lot of things.. like what am I doing wrong.. stuff like that.. It has just been a different experience here in Brussels.. It seems like the Devil has just been working a lot harder on the Mission lately.. President was talking about how the last two months were some of the greatest times in the Mission history.. and now the devil has been using criticism and negativity and stuff like that to fight against the work.. but things are going better.. we are getting out of that.. but it was very apperant... 
Well I gotta go.. I love you all.. I didn't get any letters from anyone yet but we will have to wait and see.. I got your two emails mom.. 
Thanks!  Love,
Elder Von Simonson

New companion NEW AWESOMENESS!

2009-05-18T05:41:00.000-07:00

..... Well well well, My new companion is Elder Nielsen from Tremonton, Utah... He is a Utard but I am trying to be charitable and loving.... no I'm only teasing.. things are going great. He is such a good guy. He was really sick this first week of transfers but we saw a lot of miracles still...
Soooo quick crazy story of the week to start this puppy out... So last night Elder Nielsen and I were headed home to our apartment after finding a really cool and rich Protestant Romanian family... which is usually never the case.  Usually they are really poor and are orthodox... anyway back to my story.. Well we are headed back and we get off the Metro and go to switch to the tram... well as we are getting off... of course people are getting on and I see this guy with bags getting on the metro and I see this other guy kinda quickly grab something out of his bag.. and then just hop on the Metro and out the other side.. so I start yelling at this guy in English (don't know why).. but I'm just like, "He just stole something from your bag!"... So the guy looks and just starts freaking out.. so Elder Nielsen and I just take off running.. Elder Nielsen sees where he goes and just takes off after him... Anyway long story short, we chased him for a good half a mile and then he just took the money from it and chucked the wallet.. so we got the wallet back for the guy.. which had all of his stuff, papers, credit cards, everything.. so he was really happy.. I was so dead from running after him.. haha .. it was cool.. crazy.. it's been a while since I have felt a rush of adrenaline like that.. 
Also this week I got your card with all the pictures in it.. I can't believe how all of them have changed.. it blows my mind... Also I got a letter from Josh Richardson.. it was good to hear from him. 
THE HOW I'M DOING SECTION REQUESTED BY MOTHER: Ummm I'm doing really good... I love my new companion.. He is so down to earth he is not FAKE at all.. just talks to people like they are people, he listens to the Spirit and we get along.. he also is just way good at leading a Zone..ect.... so that means I'm content. 
The work is going well.. we are having a hard time getting people to come to church and to progress but.. we keep finding a ton of super prepared people... The Lord is merciful.. so we are just working hard... we found that Romaninan family and are teaching a new Congolais guy named Titi, and ya we are still teaching Claire.. she is like my favorite.. we went and taught her just before Elder Hoskyns left.. and she fed us.. she asked when her baptism was.. she wanted it sometime in June but the problem is that she has a boyfriend and she can't get married for another year because she isn't leagally divorced until then.. and she doesn't want to live the law of chastity.. she's solid.. but... ya just that problem stands in the way... 
Love You lots.. thanks Trisha for the letter...it was good to hear from ya because contrary to popular belief, mom doesn't tell me what all goes on... 
sooo.. and mom, i just got the little update thing, not a regular letter soo.. alright.. love ya 
Elder SIMONSON

Transfers already...

2009-05-11T05:56:00.000-07:00

So it was pretty sweet to talk to Mom and Dad and Clint and Katie yesterday... It was good. It got me excited to go out and do missionary work. Things went super well yesterday. We had 3 people at church... a Columbian lady named Yolanda and Clarie came and a guy named Messi. It was good. Sadly the Brazilain family didn't make it. The Bishop's wife even called them and invited them to come.. but hopefully this next week. Also this week we met with some awesome new people. 
This one girl named Clotilde (she was taught by Elder Craig the old Assistant who is now home).. anyway that was before the International Ward was combined into the other two wards.. Soo because this girl, who is from Cameroon, only speaks English, she went to the International Ward.  Well, she had come like 5 or 6 times to that Ward and loved it, then the Wards combined and she was going to get baptized the week after the Wards were combined (that being the week before she left for Ireland for 3 months).  Well.. long story short, she got lost and couldn't find the church that week so she didn't get baptized and then she left for Ireland... Well last week I happened to call her and she had just gotten back from Ireland.. So we got to see her this week and she is so solid. She is a Theologist sooo she understands that the authority was lost after Peter and that it had to have been restored by Jesus Christ himself.. So she knows that the Church is true. She is very, very smart. We taught with a Brazilian member named Danilo who speaks English. He was like, "It is good to know in your mind that it is true, but you also have to know it in your heart as well."  Well then she told us what it was like the first time she came to church and she just testified that she knew in both her heart and in her mind that it is true.. Soo ya, she has been taught everything and has accepted it and is living all of the commandments.. so she will be baptized soon, like the end of this month.. we are going to review stuff with her and just help her get invovled and integrated into the Ward.. 
Things have been going really well. I have just been trying to get everything figured out and get in the swing of things. This transfer has flown by so fast. It is crazy. Anyway... so transfers news! I am staying in Brussels and my new companion will be Elder Nielsen.. I don't know him at all.. other than he used to be a Zone Leader down in Lille, France... Everyone seems to really, really like him and they all say that he is really easy going.. so I'm down with that... 
It was really good to talk to you yesterday!  I can't believe that Danny and Clint are going crazy with this whole Holy Sheet idea.. but whatever huh.. haha I thought it was funny.. Mom sent me a couple of pictures, man Clint, you have gotten fat..  How much weight have you put on?.. haha. I didn't get your letter yet sooo no comments yet on that. 
It was good to serve with Elder Hoskyns. He is a hard worker and is so enthusiatic about the work.. I learned a lot and it was a good transfer. 
I am really excited for this new one just because we have some really amazing people at the begining.. so.. it should be good. 
I'm sorry that my letters are always boring.. It's just that I don't know what else to write you... I know you said to write how I am doing.. but I'm doing well.. I like the food... I run every morning, mostly in the forest.. I eat a lot of Belge fries.. ummmm being here in Brussels I'm learning a few phrases in like every language.. and ya.. that's about it.. I like missionary work.. It's fun and frustrating and joyful and hard but it's good and stressful so.. I don't know what you want to hear.. haha well I am going to try to write people letters so that they might write me.. but we will see how that goes. I'll let you know next week how my new companion is.  I love you and hope all is well.
Elder Simonson

Desole

2009-05-04T06:18:00.000-07:00

Hey hey... how's it going family? Sorry I didn't write last week. I wrote a long letter and then when I sent it, it had logged me out and of course I hadn't saved it. SOOOO ya that's why you didn't get a letter... Sorry, my bad. Well this last week was really good. We got to go to the temple.. which was well needed and long awaited. The temple is up in Zoetermeer or Den Haag, I don't remember which town, but it was in the Netherlands, it was awesome! The temple was very small but it was beautiful and it didn't change the spirit that you feel in the temple... I had just been stressing about a lot of stuff and my mind was just racing for like 2 weeks before and as soon as I walked into the temple, everything just went away and I felt sooo calm.  It was good... The endownment was in French, that was cool. That was on Wednesday that we went.  We left around 7:30 and got home at like 10 because of the terrible traffic going in and out of Brussels. So that was our Zone Conference for this transfer... 
So I got all the little letters from everyone.. it was good to hear from everyone.. I had commentary last week, but I don't remember too much of that letter now.. so once again, Sorry.

This week was pretty good. We have been facing lots of opposition. Aime has been going in and out of the hospital with his cancer and had a bad little incounter with one of the members and he now hates him... and as for Claire, our other ami... she was just way busy and the only time we could see her was on Wed. when we went to the temple, so we haven't seen her for awhile... It was kind of a rough week but it helped us learn a lot.

Enough about that opposition stuff.. Last night just made the week worth every bit of roughness... SO a few weeks ago the office Elders gave us a referal of a Brazilian lady that they had contacted and we had tried to stop by but she wasn't there.. well we had fixed a rendezvous and she wasn't there so we left a Book of Mormon and she called us telling us thanks for the book and sorry for not being there and we set up another time to come over. sooo last night was that time... We went there and it was a beautiful Brazilian family.. they have 3 girls, a 17 year old, 16 and 7.  The 16 year old went back to Brazil for studies, but the other two were there. They were so humble and the lesson was really good. They all just gathered around and were listening and asking questions.. It was sweet. I have never really had a Family lesson like that. It was a huge blessing. And we are seeing them again on Wed. With a Brazilian couple from the Ward.. I am so excited for this family. They are just down to earth and searching and just a normal family... I love it... Also this random big black Congolaise lady showed up to church with her family yesterday.. Well, turns out that she is just here from Congo for a couple of months and she was just baptized about a year ago.. and her son who is like 35 or so that lives here in Brussels is a member and he came to church with his little girl.. I sat by him and showed him around.. he is sweet and we are seeing him this next Wed. too.. Miracles.... but I am loving it here... sometimes it's super crazy but... I love it still... 
So this Sunday it seems like you are ready to talk to me... that is sweet! I'm ready too. Ummm I think it will be good to call me at 9 o'clock in the morning your time so like 5 my time... I hope that is ok.. sorry I didn't get that set up better.. but I love you and I will talk to you soon.. 
Elder Von Simonson

Yo Yo Yo, Wats up? G...

2009-04-20T05:53:00.000-07:00

SO .. another crazy fast week here in Bruxelles.. The days and weeks and months just melt away.. it's pretty crazy..I feel like I'm falling down a well trying to grab onto the sides but all I get is moss and little weeds... haha  There is just so much to do it's insane..
The work is going well. Elder Hoskyns and I are trying to find time to get a little more organized and find time to do everything... but we have a lot of little stuff that eats up our time to prosylite.. (don't know how you spell that).. but ya..
Soooooo I got a couple of crazy little stories... So Elder Hoskyns has this friend that is a girl that is a Sister Missionary and he has been telling me about her the last little bit... well then last week I found out that Triena got home and I was telling him how wierd that was... Well then he gets a letter from his 'kind of girlfriend' with pictures, and he opens it and it is her with her companion who is Triena Topham... I just started freaking out like "What the freak?  Oh man, that is the girl I was talking about that is home now!"  So you will have to ask Treina if she ever talked to Sister Day about Elder Wes Hoskyns.. What are the odds?.. So that was the first crazy thing... the second was, one night Elder Kam and I were just laying in bed (yes in seperate beds) and we were talking about before the mission and it got brought up about how I lived in Lewiston and Elder Kam is like "No way!  You lived in Lewiston?  Isn't that near Clarkston?" and I said, "ya, I actually lived in Clarkston".. He was like,  "Oh man, my best friend lived there for most of his life until his family moved to Sugar City." Then he asks me, "Do you know this one lady who is married to this older guy... he's like 40 and she is like 20 or something?" and I was like, "uhhh... ya!  Is her name Lacey?" and he was like, "Ya!" and I just start laughing.  I guess his best friend from Sugar Cityy is Lacey Port's little brother.. what a small world... He was like, "That's so weird that you know them."  He knew all the kids and stuff.  I told him that I had been over to their house and that I had been their Home Teacher with Danny for a while... That was pretty cool...

Sounds like things are still crazy at home with people, with buns in the oven, and others movin..

This last week was great!  We started teaching this man named Aimé.  He is pretty elect.. We taught him a bunch of times this week and asked him to be baptized and he told us that he was not ready.  Then he was like, "I will tell you what we can do... We can meet three times a week and I will come to church every Sunday... and maybe in four weeks I will be ready."  HAHA  That was so crazy, I thought I was getting punked.. I was like.. AM I GETTING PUNKED??  ASHTON??.. WHERE ARE YOU ASHTON...??  Oh sorry that was a little boafy comment, but I just laughed because that is the direction that Elder L. Tom Perry has given us.. to teach them three times a week for 30 min.. and get them to church every Sunday and they will be baptized.. So we are teaching him and all is well...

We are also teaching this lady named Claire from Senegal.. She is so great. She is so Blunt and honest.. she will tell you straight up that you are stupid if you are stupid.. so that's great.. because we teach a lot of people that act like they like it when we teach them, but then they dodge our phone calls and other things like that... SO anyway... Claire perfectly understands that the church was restored and that she needs to be re-baptized; she was baptized Catholic.. She knows all this but she is just fighting it and it's kinda funny.  We talked to her again about baptism last night and she was like, "but I was already baptized.  It's the same thing." And so we were like, "Claire, What is baptism?"  She explained it and then we were like, "did you make the choice and the promise to follow the commandments when you were a baby?" and she said no.  Then we were like, "Did you have sins when you were a baby?" and she said no.  Then we were like,  "Do you understand that the authority was lost and that the Church of Jesus Christ was restored and that this is the only church that has the authority to baptize?" and she said,  "yes, yes I know it's all true."  So she will be baptized the end of May, around the 29th.. she is soo funny...

I love you very much.  Have a good week..

Here is my address, or just at the office.. because we are always there as well..

106 Ave. Marechal Joffre
1190 Forest
Belgium

Love, Elder Simonson

Brazilians, Phillipinos, Ecuadorians, Columbians = Miracles + Elect people..

2009-04-13T06:12:00.000-07:00

SOoooo Bruxelles... The most stinking amazing place ever... I love it sooo much here.. It is so great.. I Love Elder Hoskyns.. He is such a hard worker.. also a tiny thing I didn't tell you was that I'm a Zone Leader here in Brussels.. That is why I'm here with an older companion that works hard and that is why we see TONS of miracles... We love going out and working! This week we needed to purge our teaching pool to get rid of all the boafy Africans.. and just all the crappy, non-progressing investigators.. So we just did like a week of straight finding.. and the Lord blessed us SOOOO much .. oh man..

Dad, here in this Ward there are so many Brazilians it's sweet.. half the ward speaks Portuguese.. and the Bishop and almost all the leaders are from Brazil.  The Ward is great, it is half Americans/International people that speak English... and French. We counted and I think there is something like 14 different languages spoken here in this Ward... English, French, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Romanian, Tagolog, Chinese Lingala, Tui, and Basa and some other African languages.. it's sooo great! 
This week we found some great new Africans.. but also we tapped into the Metro contacting and finding all the South Americans.. Elder Hoskyns can kinda speak Spanish.. I can understand it for the most part but.. can't speak it at all.. should have worked harder in High School huh?  But we are going to be teaching two people from Brazil and we have a bunch of members that will help us... Also we will be teaching Ecuadorians and Columbians.. and Peruvians..Romainians.. I love INTERNATIONAL BRUXELLES! 
As for that..ya.. well so there is just some crazy news from home..  I can't believe Treina is freaking home.. I swear she left like just a little before me..... I'm confused.. but I guess it makes sense.. still blows my mind!  That's crazy...

Well... I got a little news about Fatiha... this last week her daughter found out that she was meeting with us.. and everything kinda exploded.. her daughter left and was just mad and Fatiha didn't want to loose her sooooo.. She called me here in Brussels to see what she should do. I just told her that she needed to do what the Lord wants her to do.. and then the blessings would follow.. and that her daughter would come back... sooo good news is... her daughter came back... bad news is is that she stopped meeting with Elder Schmutz until the 21st after Easter holiday; so she won't be baptized on the 18th.. but she said she will still be baptized, but she wants ME to baptize her.... but i can't.. and it doesn't really matter who does it.. but.. oh well...

(This is a picture of Fatiha)

We are going to teach a Columbian family tonight. The daughter who is 20 is sooo awesome.. she is so elect.. we were over at their house and she left for a second and she told her mom, "Don't let them leave, I need to ask them some questions".. then we taught her forever and she was like, "When can you come back and give me a Book of Mormon in Spanish and explain more?" 
Then we just randomly called this guy and he is elect as well.  He has cancer and has been wondering about the resurection and stuff.. and we taught him this week and he was just like, ya... finally something! I just need this calm...I'm going to a Protestant church and it hurts my head.. I don't like it... then another guy just randomly shows up for church.. so we are teaching him this week as well.. There are SOOOO many more stories I should tell you, but I don't have much more time.. I love you and thank you.. Good luck everyone with all the new changes and moving and... stuff... I miss you all!
Elder Simonson

(Here are some pictures of me in a park in Brussels today.)

Ghanians, Chinese... and just all sorts

2009-04-06T06:50:00.000-07:00

Ahhh back in Bruxelles.. I love it.. It is soooo crazy, people everywhere, crazy people everywhere... 3 times more Africans which equals 3 times more the awesomeness... more time on trams and metros... always having miracles and ya... It's Bruxelles... We have been teaching in English and Spanish.. a little Romanian and French occasionally.. Being back in Bruxelles reminds me of my first transfer.. and I realize now that I was so scared and lost that I didn't even realize half the people around me spoke English.. or Dutch.. now I am not lost and realize quickly well that's Dutch not French... 
I now live with Elder Hoskyns, my companion... Elder Wallace from California, Elder Kam from good old Sugar City, Idaho... and Elder Honeycut from North Carolina... We are five in the apartment.. it's a nice apartment... we have a dishwasher and a washer and dryer.. sooo I'm right at home... They are all old in the mission. Elder Kam has 12 weeks left, Elder Honeycut and Wallace have 3 transfers and Elder Hoskyns has until Dec.. he is the same age as Elder Reynolds.. speaking of Elder Reynolds... he is now the Assistant to the President.. and speaking of President, our new one comes in July... crazy huh... 
ELder Hoskyns is great, he is from Scottsdale, Arizona.. and he is a stud and loves working... it's great to be with someone excited and ready to work all the time.. 
Transfers were a little sad, but oh well.. I got to see everyone before I left .. and took pictures with Fatiha, who is doing really good...so all is well.. I saw Elder Spicer at the square.. he seems really cool.. he was sooo excited to be out there.. he fit right in... too bad he went down to France, poor guy... Belgium is just where it is at... His trainer is stinking new... he is so new that I don't even really know him.  I think that it is only his third transfer... and he is training.. I would be freaking out.. 18 weeks out in the field and you get a newbie... ouch!  But I believe he is down in Ville Neuf Dasque or Valanciennes or something.. I don't know.... Elder Spicer was like the only new missionary that didn't look like he was scared to death and had pooped his pants! hahaha new missionaries... they are soo great.. I hope I get to train one day.. that would be fun, or funny... one of the two... 
Work is great here in Brussels.  We have found some amazing people just this last week and are teaching some pretty great people... It is weird changing areas .. it's weird to get used to teaching and contacting with a different missionary.. but all is well.. I will let you know a little more when everything is not so crazy and I have settled in a little more.. thanks everyone for the letters and I love you..
Elder Simonson

Back to Brussels to redeem myself!

2009-03-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-03-23T05:13:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-16T06:23:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-09T06:25:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-03-02T05:08:00.000-08:00

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

A trip to Lille

2009-02-23T05:26:00.000-08:00

Well, well... the week flew by and it was pretty good.. Elder Schmutz is as red headed as ever and we are working hard! Things are going good. We were able to start teaching some more people this week. The Romanians are pretty cool, we taught them with Patrick this week. Also the Sisters gave us some of their investigators that lived in our area and we started teaching them and they are sweet... they are both really elect.. their names are Anastasie and Valery, they are a couple and have two boys... she is from Cote Divoir and I think he is Belge.. they are so sweet and we are going to set a baptismal date with them soon..

As for this Sunday, we got to go down to Lille, France to listen to Elder Dallin H. Oaks.  He was at the Stake Conference and all of the missionaries in Belgium and France got to go... That was pretty sweet...it was so powerful.. and he gave us direction straight from Pres. Monson that we should be teaching at least 20 lessons a week... so pretty much a Commandment.. haha 
Sounds like you all had fun riding snowmobiles... you punks... that's ok.. as for the shoes, I guess you could say that they were cute.. they were brown and pink but they just so happend to be the size that one of the Sisters wore so I gave them to her.. along with the panties... just kidding.. I only gave her the shoes..

As for the pictures and news from home...Man, President Dye looks old... haha as for Josh getting married, that is weird.. but his girlfriend is cute... I can't think of much else to say.. but I do have a couple of little requests... if you were wanting to send me a package for the 18th which happens to be my Birthday.. we have Zone Conference on the 20th so if you get it in the mail and get it here before then I will get it quickly, but I just wanted/ needed some things.. I would like some more non-scented shaving cream.. I had some of that Aveeno stuff for dry skin.. but other Elders (named Elder Davis) likes to use it so now it is gone.. also a couple of deodorants .. they like don't sell real deodorant here.. so just antipersperant/deodorant.. Old Spice.. Cool Blast or something.. I don't know.. also I would dig some more hair putty stuff.. I had Garnier, little green container with the green lid (not the yellow lid).. also I would like a bunch of Kool-aid packets and gravy packets.. There is something else but I am blanking.. so if I think of it, I will write you a letter and tell you... Love you so much, thanks for all that you do.. and for prayers and stuff.. take care and talk to you next Monday.. Choa

Oh P.S. got word of who our new President is.. President Scott Brubaker

Elder Simonson

Nice Package!!

2009-02-16T10:02:00.001-08:00

Hey...it's good to hear from you and all that.. the problem is.. is like all the little internet shops are closed today and the only one that is open is packed.. I just waited for like an hour to get this computer so.. I am trying to hurry so Elder Schmutz can email as well...
Well, I finally got Tess and Jake's package... And frankly I am a little confused... It came in this huge plastic bag.. because it had been torn in two pretty much, So on the way back from Brussels for Zone Conference, I opened it...and I was surprised to find some contents that I am 36 percent sure Tess and Jake didn't send... so the slippers and the pajamas and the letters and photos were all expected... but did you send me size 6 and a half pink and brown girl American Eagle shoes?  With little power rangers in it... and also two pairs of girls panties one white and one pink...? If so you are a little wierd... and it was a lot wierd.. haha... What I think happend was there was some other packages.. and one of them got ripped open as well... and so the workers just kinda grabbed the randoms items on the floor and put them in the package.. and taped it up and sent it to Belgium like that... hahah oh that was silly... anyway we had Zone Conference this week and it was on contacting and Elder Schmutz and I had to give an example of good contacting in front of the whole zone and we contacted President Woodland... 
As regarding your questions... no I'm not fat... yes, I got your letter with photos.. last Tuesday, It was sweet... But I think you sent another one... with goodies for Valentines and I haven't gotten that one yet... At the moment I sit at 67 kilos... I am not absolutely sure what that figures out to be in pounds but one time I figured it and if I remember right it was 145 or maybe 147 so like maybe I have gained 5 or 7 pounds..; but I didn't think I was looking fat...I will admit when I looked at pictures of me in the MTC I looked skinnier in the face and stuff... 
As for things that have been going on that you can report... I don't know... Daniel was baptized.. Esther and Dylan were baptized and... Ya... Daniel at church yesterday leaned over to me and asked if he could buy a Gospel Principles book so that he could teach his mom and help her little by little want to come to church... so that is what he did... Also he invited his brother and his mom to church, but they have yet to come to church... Dylan is coming to church... Esther comes like every other week which is sad but she has a lot on her plate right now... Just tell the Ward that the Lord is amazing.. and He can do a lot of big things with small weak things ... haha... and also tell them that it is all of our jobs to move forward the work of our Heavenly Father which is helping bring souls to salvation..
Senior Companion is tough.. we have been working hard but not seeing a lot to show for it... but we are learning tons... everything is holding up well... I love my Docker shoes.. and wear them pretty much everyday... and save my Rockports for special things ..but my Dockers are taking a beating?... they almost have a hole in them, but they are fine for a little longer.. 
Anyway... so tranfers are already here... but I am staying here with E. Schmutz and so All is well.. well... I will be having a little more responsibility as well.. I have to teach District meeting now.. Love you and talk to you later..
Elder Simonson

I Love Romanians!

2009-02-09T05:26:00.000-08:00

Well, well, well...some people other than Mom finally decided to write me... Thanks for the emails, Danny, Trisha, and Dad.. It was good to hear from you. Sounds like Dan is the same.. and Trish too... but Dad sounds like he has got some new piano skills.. SWEET.. 
Well things here in Charleroi are going well.. Elder Schmutz and I have been having trouble finding new investigators.. well I guess technically we find new people and have miracles, but then the miracle people leave for a week or are really sick and can't see us or just make other excuses to not have to meet with us..So this week was pretty much finding (tracting) all day everyday.
As for Daniel, he recieved the Aaronic Priesthood this Sunday and blessed the Sacrament... He is a stud.. He will be teaching this elect lady with us tomorrow.. 
Oh, before I forget, I got the pictures and my card Mom, thank you very much. I loved the pictures.. All the little kids have grown, especially Addi and Lilly. Craziness.. 
So yesterday I had an exchange with Elder Hoskyns my Zone Leader... It was awesome and full of the craziest miracles... So after church we had decided to go do some porting on this road before going to see a guy.. and the road that Elder Hoskyns was feeling just happened to be a road where we met this Romanian lady just a few days earlier.. So we decide to stop by.. and we ring the door bell.. and this girl comes out and is like, "ohhh no, we aren't interested" and we start talking to her for a second and then all of a sudden the girl that Elder Schmutz and I had contacted earlier named Lydia came out of the door just smiling.. and she was so excited.. so they told us to come in. We went in and started teaching her and her sister in law... it was going sooo good and we had just started talking about Joseph Smith when Lydia's husband comes bursting in the room... and is like, "who are you and what are you here to talk to me about?"... so we start explaining who we are and he starts trying to find all these faults in the Church and starts realizing that our church is pretty good.. so we are teaching him and his wife and sister in law and like three kids and the husband is just asking the perfect questions and we get done explaining the Apostasy and start explaining Joseph Smith and literally 8 HUGE mofia looking Romanians just start filing in and kids everywhere.. and we just looked at each other like "oh freak..." but then they all just start listening to us.. and the Spirit's pretty strong.. and everyone is just gathered around listening... then this really scary looking guy starts speaking Romanian and then everyone starts speaking and we are like "now, now, no speaking about me in your native tongue..." haha  No, we are just like "what is going on?"... then in broken French the ring leader looking guy is like "a besoin de la parole de dieu.." (We need the word of God..) then Lydia's husband is like "he wants you to go and give a prayer for our sick uncle in the hospital..." so we get in this huge caravan of 3 cars full of Romanians and go to the hospital where we find, no joking, 40 Romanians in the hall way and they are all just soo excited to see us... we were going to give him a blessing, but then he had to go back to his room.. so we will give it to him later..; but we are seeing this family this Friday, and everyone is just so excited to talk to us.. it was sweeeet..... Well I've got to go, but I love you all and will talk to you later..
Elder Von Simonson