Jusqu'a la prochaine fois...

Bonjour tout le monde! 

Well my time here at the MTC has come to an END... which is crazy right.!! I swear... I don't know what is going on.. time flies.. well all is well I am just getting ready to leave. Today is my last P-day so I have a lot to do .. packing, washing, etc..... Mom you had a fake heart attack... that's pretty killer... ha ha no pun intended.. ha ha I'm glad everything went well.. sounds like it went fine... Thanks for the package. The goodies were good, the pie was HUGE.. Me and my companions had about half of it and then the rest we just left out in the hall for others to scrounge on.. 

So this week....
Nothing super big huge happened this week... this last week like I said was full of subs... we had fourteen different subs in about a week... we pretty much had every French teacher here.. minus a couple... It was kinda rough but good at the same time...This week we have just been working on teaching in French.. we teach little lessons daily, and we practice on meeting the needs of the person we are teaching and not just teaching a lesson that is memorized... Ya think about this... Clint, Danny.... you got to read or give memorized lessons... I have to just come up with what I want to say when giving a lesson in French... ya... anyway... Frere Brown finally made it back... so it has been good to have him back......

Mercredi de l'enfer 

Ha ha.. well this Wednesday we decided to speak only French and for like real ... only speak French all day... so we did.. and it was pretty awesome.. we made it the whole day with out saying anything but in French... I only spoke in English once when I was waiting for my companions to get shots, an Elder started talking to me so I had to speak back... Speaking French made for one long freaking day... and the next day (yesterday) my brain was fried, I couldn't even think French let alone understand it...but the new Districts thought that that was pretty cool even though they hated it... but oh well their teachers appreciated us and the example we were because it made them excited to speak French... 

But ya, so we taught our last lesson in the TRC... we had prepared to teach the 'fake' investigator about the law of Tithing .. because she was supposed to have a problem with it.. but when we got in there and started teaching our lesson and asked her if she had questions about the law of tithing she said no... sooooo we just gave a little thought about faith and why we know the law of tithing is important...also we taught our last lesson to our new progressing investigator... it didn't go very well.. and it made me realize how little French I know...

Well I think that mom posted my flight plans sooo ya... I leave for Belgium in like two days.... that is going to be freaking scary... ..I can't think of much else to write about... I don't remember what I did this week and I didn't write down a list.. so I really don't remember... but I got my address in Belgium...So ya you can stop writing me here now... and I am pretty sure that you can't write dear elders to that mission. so..here is the address..

Elder Jacob Simonson 
Belgium, Brussels/Netherlands Mission 
87, Blvd. Brand Whitlock 
1200 Brussels 
Belgium 

Well... My time here at the MTC has been great, my District is SO awesome... funny... hard working.. and obedient... We have worked pretty hard but we have had fun too. My testimony has grown soooo much since I have been here.. I have realized how important the Holy Ghost is, how important le livre de Mormon is.. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be on a mission I already am soooo glad that I came .. it has already changed my life.. I have learned so much about the gospel... and I have learned a lot of French for only 8 short weeks... it is amazing what the Lord can do.. ... I love you all and I am thankful for you all being there for me.. and you might just want to pray really hard for me for about the next month... because I am going to be sooooo lost and ya, anyway I will talk to you later... literally... au revoir... 
Elder Simonson

Flight Plans to Belgium!

This is the last week you can write Jacob, (Elder Simonson) in the MTC with Dearelder.com for free...after this, he's off to Belgium.
Here is a portion of our letter I'll share with you all:

..."Well, I leave Monday the 1st of Sep. at 8:35 a.m. and fly to Atlanta. I get there at 2:27 p.m. (I think that is with the time change.) Then I leave Atlanta at 5:15 p.m. for Brussels and I get there at 8:05 a.m. on Sep. 2nd. It's freakin crazy...I'm scared, but excited, dang I only have one week left! Well, I'll give you the mission address next Friday when I have more time to write. It is not a pouch mission, I don't know exactly about email and stuff, but I don't think you have to do much different to send letters other than have a 94 cent stamp...so ya..
Well, Au revoir...and now a picture:

Elder Simonson

ONE WEEK!

Hello all...

Well my time here in the MTC is coming to an end... I only have a week left!  That's crazy... well this week was pretty busy and insane....

Well why not go with first things first....
So this week.. our Zone Leader and my roomate Elder Larson went home... It was super tough for all of us but we all know that he did the right thing... He had been talking to the District President for a little while and we all didn't reallly know what was going on but we hoped and thought everything would be alright... But on Tuesday after dinner him and Elder Sorensen came back both really puffy eyed... and we kinda guessed what was happening... anyway.. Elder Larson lives in Orinda (San Fran) and he was the only Mormon in his school etc... but he said that before he came he didn't really have a testimony and said he had come to be a good example to his little brothers and his family... but he said he didn't realize how important the church was... he said he had gained a true testimony here and had gained a love for the Lord.. and in Preach My Gospel says as we grow to love the Lord and follow his commandments and teachings we feel his love and it brings us to want to repent and come closer to Christ.. and E. Larson said that was true.. he said there were things that he needed to clear up and he said he wasn't going to be selfish and continue on... he said he wanted to be fully ready and have the spirit when he taught investigators.. he wanted to be completely ready and worthy because some of the investigators that we are going to teach that may be the only chance they have to hear the gospel so he didn't want to be unworthy and teach by the spirit and not give them the full chance to accept the gospel.... well it was rough but it was a really good experience.. we all pretty much cried Tuesday night and a lot of Wed. morning when he left at 4 and after that too... It made me really appreciate the amazing opportunity to be here... and how thankful I am for this gospel and the gift of repentance..... We all didn't realize how close we were until E. Larson left... but ya... anyway... I could write on and on about this event that occured but for times sake I will move on ... and you can ask me questions if you feel the need...

New things...
Well since Elder Larson left... E. Robinson and I are now companions with E. Sorensen... and also since they were the Zone leaders that means we are now the Zone leaders!! yay! I guess... ha ha I don't know it's pretty much no different but I will just have to go to more meetings... ha ha but ya...

Progressing investigator...
Well this week our progressing investigator was baptized....!!! ha ha It was an awesome experience to be able to teach to the needs of an investigator and it really was like a real person.. or at least I think it was... We did the whole thing in English and it went awesome... so this next week we are starting another one in French.. so we will see how that goes...

TRC..
Well we have now taught the 1st lesson twice in French and this week we taught the second lesson along with the parole de sagesse . or the Word of Wisdom... The lesson went ok ... I don't know, I never feel really good about teaching in French because it just isn't as good as English but we seem to get through it.. but this week we all have been trying to speak all the time and it has been going really good my French has improved.. but i know it is still not good enough to go to Belgium...yikes!...

Dallin H. Oaks...
Well I finally got to see an Apostle speak... Elder Oaks came and spoke to us on Tuesday it was pretty kickin.. he was really good... short and sweet and to the point... he talked about how we need to teach with the spirit and the way we keep the spirit is always is to always be worthy to take the sacrament... he really spread a new light on the importance and the simplicity of the sacrament... ..

Teachers...
Well this week we haven't had any of our teachers.. Frere Brown is on vacation so... we have had subs all day everyday.. and it kinda sucks seeing as how they don't really know us and where we are and what we need to learn.. sooo it's definitely tough... but oh well...

So all the new people.... are different there are some really cool ones though... The dutchman is pretty awesome he is really funny.... also E. Milburn from London, England is pretty awesome.. so hilarious..

OH>... I almost forgot.. Brett left this last week.. we met up at the temple and got some pictures.. he was the same old Brett..... ha ha.. but ya... well... I have more to write so I will continue in a letter peut etre..

au revoir..
Elder Simonson 

More pictures!

August 15th received another batch of pictures from

Elder Simonson aka. 'Jake'
(again...his captions, not mine!)

Me & Elder Robinson on our visit to the Provo Temple.


My District (District 45c) From Left to Right:
Elders Schmutz, Fergueson, Robinson, Me, Sorensen & Larson.

Our room, chillin' after class. Left to right: E. Robinson, Me, Larson, Sorenson.
Also we are rockin the maracas Elder Segure (my mexican friend) handed down to me!

Just us...Dang it feels good to be a (gangster) uhh...I mean missionary!

Pictures!

This week we got two sets of pictures from Jacob (Elder Simonson) from the MTC.

The captions underneath them were Jacob's own words that he wrote on the

back of each picture.

Elder Robinson & I learning real hard. Notice my killer PVL card...ya I drew it!

Just little ole' me in the classroom!

Ah, yes...me and Brett! Oh ya, I got two big cold sores as you can probably see.

Elder Segura and I. My killer Mexican friend, from Chicago. I wonder why I get along with Mexicans so well? I have a theory that includes me being born in Blackfoot, but just a theory!

Me & my Colleague...and the person taking the picture may
or may not have been _____. (Probably shouldn't write that
on the blog, I might offend someone!)

Me & my companion Elder Robinson after our haircuts!

My District.

My Zone: minus the ones that left a few weeks ago.

Me and my companion on the 4th of July, trying to witness some fireworks from the parking lot.

Salut

Bonjour! Comment s'est passé le semaine? Mon semaine etais super! Je crois....
Donc...

Leaving missionaries...
This week two districts left us... it was kinda sad, we were pretty close to them because we came in when they were three weeks into the MTC.. but the district going to Touluse left Tuesday morning..And the New Caledonia people were supposed to leave on Saturday, but when they all got ready to leave.... no one was there...no driver, no tickets, no info at all... their flights hadn't been booked and some of them apparently had visa problems...it was a big mess and their mission president didn't even know...and they kept getting in trouble with the MTC because they weren't gone... it was just a big mess and no one knew what was going on... but on Monday the front desk paged our classroom because Elder Larsen and Sorensen are the ZL's and they asked if we knew where Elder Troutman and Payne were because they were leaving in 15 minutes and they didn't know it.... ! So we all scattered to try and find them... we found them and then helped them throw everything together to leave... it was pretty intense.... but unfortunatly Elder Livingston and the 2 Soeurs didn't get to leave because they had visa problems... soo... ya two of them are leaving to Pheonix, Arizona on Wednesday and on Tues. Soeur Carter leaves for Kennewick, WA... so.. ya they have state side assignments for a month or so... and...ya anyway... we have 2 weeks from this coming Monday.... I think I just might throw up...

Pass alongs...
With leaving Elders comes the fabled tradition of passing on all of your junk to the younger Elders before you leave and writing your name on it and telling them to pass it down... .. some how... I don't know how but if you write your name on a piece of junk it some how becomes something.... well marvelous... NOT...but that's what they seem to think... well I guess some of them were cool... such as..... my tie that I received... You could say that I was deemed the Roi of four square... or the king.. and I have the passed down roi cravate to prove it... it was given to me by Elder De Lora.

(Just me and E. De Lora of Portland, Or. I am now the King of 4-square

 because E. De Lora was the king, but I took what was rightfully mine and

 he gladly handed it down to me. I feel blessed!)

Soeur Thornhill...

Well our teacher Soeur Thornhill had her last day with us on Wed. It was sad... she was a freaking awesome teacher.. she was sooo cool... She went to Geneva, Switzerland on her mission so on Wed. we had story time with pictures... it was pretty cool... but we will miss her... also our other teacher Frere Brown is leaving for a week here in a couple of days.. so our last couple of weeks are going to be a lot of subs... kinda sadening.. but oh well...

NEW ELDERS...
So we got new Elders a couple of days ago... it was insane we got 16 new Elders and 4 new Sisters... it is sooooo weird... I don't know if we will get to know them super well since we only have a couple of weeks left... but.. I have met a few.. and they are pretty cool.. we got 3 international Elders... two are from England and one has a terribly thick, thick accent...and also ......drum roll... we got an Elder from the Netherlands!!!! From my mission!  He is pretty funny... he always just comes and chills in our room... it's awesome... he said my mission president is awesome.. he said that was the first person he called when he got his call (to Paris). He also told me that the Belgium people are weird... ha ha it was pretty cool... anyway.. so our whole floor is new Elders and a lot of them are really stupid.. and annoying.. not our Elders but some english speaking missionaries and some guys going to Mongolia..

The RC...
So in the RC this week ... I got to talk to a ton of people which is a weird occasion... I only made 15 calls in an hour and a half... and 5 of them were answering machines... so ya that means I talked to a lot of people... I sent missionaries and copies of the Book of Mormon to a family, I talked to a southern black lady that LOVED Jesus... and I shared some scriptures with her from the Book of Mormon and she said she had a Book of Mormon and tried to meet with the missionaries a couple of times but they never showed up for their appointments ... JERKS, they can't even do their job... but I gave her a couple of chapters to read in the Book of Mormon because she said she wanted to grow closer to Jesus...it was awesome.. I also talked to a guy in Quebec.. he was REALLY interested in the church... so I invited him to church and gave him the times and the place.. and we set up some visits with the missionaries... he didn't speak English very well and I knew he spoke French but I was way too scared to try and speak French to him...

But.. anyway,... I might have someone to play soccer with now that the Hollander is here.  He loves soccer... anyway I'm running out of time... I love you all.. hope you dig some of the pictures I sent.... au revoir je t'aime

Elder Simonson 

BONJOUR!

Bonjour ma famille...!Je t'aime beacoup... ! Ya I know it's pretty good french... I try...

Well it has now been a month and 6 days to be precise... everything is going well. OH mom you shouldn't throw away any of my letters... D'accord..!.. 

Well this week went quick and it was good and bad... 
We started to speak only in French last week and it went good for a while and then we didn't do very good a couple of days so Elder Robinson and I had to re-commit... so ya on like Tuesday we started again and it has been going a lot better.. It has helped a lot... I feel like I'm getting a little better... but I dont know... Also this week was the first week that we taught the first lesson in French... it went ok.. I was really nervous and was like cramming for the whole morning trying to remember phrases and stuff... and I guess the lesson went pretty good... I felt like that was the best we have taught it but I definitely don't feel like it went amazing... but I guess it went good for 5 weeks... um ya... Elder Robinson and I had some Brazilians come contact us to bear their testimonies and share a scripture with us in English... and I was thinking.. this is what I am going to sound like to a French person.... haha depressing......

SOCCER.... 
I finally got to play some freaking soccer.... it was awesome... Elder Schmutz and Pickford (from australia), and Elder Harding (an elder from Utah going to Tahiti..) we played a little game of soccer on on Tuesday.. it was great... a little tiring as well... 

Progressing investigator... (Jacquelin) 
This week we met with Jacquelin twice and we taught her the third lesson and some of the commandments... It went really well... it's a really awesome thing ... it feels like she is a real person... well of course she is a real person.. but it feels like she is a real investigator.. she has real problems and concerns and questions etc... so it's neat because we get to prepare and study for her and her needs... 

Changes....
Well this next Tuesday two districts in our zone are leaving... the Toluse France district.. and the New Caladonia/Reunion islands (by Madagascar) are leaving... and then this next Tuesday we get 37 new elders... ya.. insane.. we are not sure whether they will all be in our zone or just some of them... but ya... so this last week we had some changes... Elder Larson and Sorensen are our new zone leaders, and Elder Ferguson is our new district leader... so ya 

Foreigners...
So this week I decided that I love foreigners... I don't know why but our gym time and just our schedule is the same schedule as all the Brazilians, Chinese, Spanish, Mongolians and Tongans... and when I say all... I mean like pretty much all.. like at devotionals when I look at the translator section I see everyone who we have gym with... but it's awesome.. I love it!  Yesterday we had some Chinese Sisters playing four square... and some Tongans and a Japanese kid and a couple of Brazilians.... it made for quite a funny round of four square with lots of confusion... but it was funny..... the Mongolians are soooo cool... and same with the Brazilians... well... 

I'm sorry I don't have a lot to say this week.. Trish im sorry I didn't get to write you a letter I didn't get your letter until Saturday for some reason... so I didn't know what to write you... anyway Mom I got your package... thank you so much...also I got Grandma's letter (twice... once from her and once from mom) and I got letters from Tess and Jake... and Dad... thank you... Clint I can't remember if I got a letter from you or not... I couldn't find it when I gathered my letters together to read and respond... well... Also I sent some pictures.. but I sent them to the house before I got your letter (mom) that said to send them to Trisha's./.so sorry about that... And again sorry with the temple I dont have as much time to write letters so... bear with me but know that I am fine and that I love you and love your letters... 

D'acorrd ... je t'aime... et aussi je suis recconisant pour l'eglise de Jésus-Christ des saints des derniers jours... et pour le temple et l'évangile dans me vie. 
Au Revior 
Elder Simonson

August 1st

I have now reached my half way point in the Mtc.. crazy.. it doesn't feel like I have been here a month. ..

This week in the MTC./..
first of all I got some of your letters after I had already sent my mail last friday.... mostly just mom's and Katies.. possibly Jakes I can't remember. .. anyway...this week was super busy and a lot happened....

The RC....
This week in the RC.. I got to talk to a few people... and this one guy I had a real good talk with him... and I even invited him to church and he was like ya I think I will go... and then I was like well have you heard of the Book of Mormon.. and he was like no.. and I was like... well it is another testimony of Jesus christ.. and I started telling him more and he promptly hung up... 

The Temple.. 
The temple was awesome last week and I am excited to go again today.. it will be awesome.. 

Sister Ryskamp...
One of our branch presidency counciler's wife... we found out this week that she wrote the primary song children all over the world... I thought that was pretty cool.. she talked about how when she was in France she saw a bunch of little children in primary and how they were sing primary songs and she thought, Kids back in the US don't have any idea that there are kids in other parts of the world that love their heavenly Father just like they do... so hence the reason she wrote the song. 

Package...
Mom I got you cinnamon rolls... they were pretty good... I have sooooo many goodies and I eat so much I am afraid that I am going to gain weight.. 

Progressing investigator and TRC...
So this week in the Trc we had to help someone "move" and share a message about prayer and teach them how to pray... in French... it went ok.. then we taught the second lesson one more time... and for the last time in english next week we teach all in french,....Also last saturday Elder Robinson and I started what you call a progressing investigator... it is when teacher pretend to be real investigators.. and we have to go to their door and try to get in to start teaching them.. we have to choose what to teach them.. and they act like one of their investigators that they had.. so we have a lady called "Jacquelin" the first day she was like oh... I think you have the wrong house.. then we talked a little and shared pretty much the first lesson at her door and then she invited us in and we gave her some committments.. she really like the book of mormon ... then the next appointment we had with her she was really great.. we had taught her the first two lessons and she accepted them and prayed about them and really felt good about them... and then we went to see her yesterday... and she had a ton of questions for us like poligamy, tithing, and word of wisdom.... we answered her questions pretty well and made her feel comfortable again.. we also asked her if she would be baptised in a couple of weeks and she turned us down... but ya we will see how that goes....

The CRAZIEST decision we have made so far.....
So this week we decided that we would be ambitious.... our district came up with the idea that we wanted to impliment.. speaking all French... all day every day or... PVL tout jours Chaque jours... ya so we started yesterday... it was pretty funny we were teasing our teacher saying that this was a BIG moment and that we needed to have some sort of closing or I guess commencing ceremonies if you will... haha so that is exactly what we did... we sang God be with you til we meet again." in English... and then we went around in a circle and all said our favorite english phrase or word... it was pretty funny.... and then it was all French,.... pretty terrible French at that... it was really hard and it is going to be really hard but I think it is going to be awesome... we already speak French about as good as the Elders getting ready to leave next week so by the time we get ready to leave we will be hopefully ready... and more prepared than most... because we might all go crazy only speaking french we allowed English outlet time... from 9:30 to 10:30 .. thank goodness.. but so far it has been super helpful... I have never felt this good about french.. and I still have a month left... so... ya... 

Also this week... one our speakers was President.. Bryant Richards I think I think he might have been Jake's mission president in Manchester England... anyway he was awesome... and I thought of you Jake,..because he talked a lot about England... also I got to see brett .. I was so excited..I didn't see him til dinner on Wednesday night... but I knew I could find him.. it was awesome... I felt kinda bad his companion looked pretty nerdy and possibly annoying... but I don't know... also I got thinking and I thought, man Brett is going to hate the MTC... because sometimes he doesn't have the best outlook on things.. but he seems to be doing fine.. I don't see him a lot because he is on a different eating schedule than I am but oh well.. welll I am running out of time.. sorry if this letter was terrible grammaticly.. and didnt make much sense it is hard to concetrate in here but love you all and talk to you later ....  Elder Simonson