Busy week...

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!

..... 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...

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

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...

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..

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

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