Bonjour from Brussels

Bonjour! Well, two weeks in Brussels... craziness... k, first of all... Mom, I am sorry that I didn't get a chance to call you again in Atlanta but I was seriously almost late for the plane sooo.. ya...questions... 

Letters...
Well... I just really have about a half hour for emails but it isn't timed like in the MTC.. so that's good... but President asks us not to use it longer than 30 min... sooo...everyone can send emails to you and then you can just send an email... or you can send letters...whatever you want. As for my address just send it to the Mission Office.. because we are just a few minutes from the office so... ya.. but later when I get transferred I will send you an address so that you can send letters there. You always send packages to the mission office. And as for packages.. when you fill out the customs thing you just say it is worth very little like 20-30 euros or less whether it's worth more or not.. because they will charge me a big ole tax which will then be taken out of my MSF (money fund) and I will not have money to eat!  For emails I go to the office... or at least today... but if we don't go to the office we just go to an internet cafe.. so ya..that is all the letter stuff... and I just have internet access for myldsmail.net. sooo there you go... 

P-days.. 
Well today is actually my first real p-day because last p-day we were in France getting my legality stuff started.. but ya we really just have to go shopping because we have a washer and drier in our apartment... so we just do laundry whenever we need.. as for that we don't do a whole lot more... we can do pretty much what we need/want to do.. 

French...
Well the french...hmmm.. I would have to say that we speak it a lot less here but I hear it a lot more here... So I have gotten better at understanding .. but I am pretty terrible at speaking... sooo ya.. it's rough... I can understand the jist of things... but I don't understand perfectly... sooo ya, but hey good news... I have to talk in church next week...!!! Oh man, that it is going to be terrible... but oh well... 

Food... 
Well the food here is pretty good... we just really eat what we buy so we really have the choice of what we eat... The Baguettes are awesome... cheese is good and the chocolate is good... I eat much more junk food here... but ya.. I have had two Mangez-vous.. in English, a dinner appointment.  One was with a Russian family and one was with an African family... The one with the Russian family was interesting.. and terribble... I seriously almost threw up at the table... The first thing we ate was a Huge salad of onions, tomatoes and cuccumbers covered in oil... with pickled beats or something on the side... it wasn't too bad but earlier that day (it was zone conference with Elder Paya from France) and I had eaten three baguettes sooo I was full.. and well I made it through about half the huge salad and I was full and sick of it... and about that time she brought out the biggest plate of rice I had ever seen ya... so I started eating that... and... whoa.. it was intense.. I was soooo full I was sick.. but I just kept eating .. I almost finished the rice and she brought out a Huge piece of warm pie......and I was like, Oh, 'im full but I am sure that I can eat this pie... Wrong!  I ate it and then I just felt it coming back up .... and I kept trying to old it back.... finally I asked to use the bathroom.. and just standing up and walking to the bathroom was enough to fix the problem ... but ya that was my first experience with eating at a members.. but the African family, the food was SOOO good.. we had lamb... fish, sausage, and deep fried bananas.. it was good... 

Missionary work..
Well the work is going pretty good... I found out at Zone Conference that Brussels is a lot better area than other places.. we teach a lot more lessons and have a lot more investigators ... but .. this week and last week the work has been slowing down because everyone is just getting back from vacation and starting school and work.. so everyone is busy and doesn't have time... so that stinks but it's still going well.. We have been working with Paulo, Iness and Javier, Franc, Elias and those are just our progressing investigators that are doing really well... we found Franc my first day in Brussels.  He was terribly drunk and was wondering the streets bothering people with his two dogs.. so we talked to him and made an appoinment with him... we didn't think much about it.. but.. ya.. we went and met with him and he was AWESOME.. he said on the card we gave him was a book and he was wondering what it was and if he could buy one from us because he wanted to read it and know what it was about so we gave him one.. and he was excited.. we taught him the plan of salvation and it was great because he lost his one year old daughter, his brother, and his mom... sooo ya.. then he said he wanted to go to church with us.. before we could even ask him.. soo we were like, ya... so he wrote it on his calendar and ya.. he is sweet...
Paulo is an Italian guy.. he is pretty good, we have taught him a bunch of times we see him about 3 times a week and we meet him at the church.. he is always there always reads what we give him.. so ya.. he is really scared of people so we can't get him to go to church... but he asked us if he could see the baptismal font.. because we had asked him to be baptised.. and he said he would when he knew it was true.. haha.. and then he said he was 94 percent sure that the Book of Mormon was true.. hah a
Iness and Javier are a mom and son from Columbia (I think ).. they are great.  They come to church every Sunday and we teach them a lesson on Sunday too.. so that is going well... she really likes the church and she wants her son to grow up in the church... soo.. ya .. 
Elias..is the most prepared man that Elder Musters has seen on his mission before.. He showed up to church the Sunday before I came.. just showed up.. and we haven't been able to meet with him for like a week...he kept not showing up to his rendez-vous.. so ... ya but then the other day we finally goT to meet with him.. and it was awesome.. he had been reading the Book of Mormon.. he said he had been looking for the right church his whole life but he hadn't been able to find it because every church tells him how to worship differently.. so he really liked the restoration... he was just awesome, he understood everything and it was like a lesson in the MTC where they gave you all the answers you wanted and ya... it was great.. we are meeting with him this Friday with President.. so ya.. he is awesome... sooo those are just a few of the investigators that I have.. i have a ton more but those are the ones that are doing really well.. 

Oh and for Dad... I am in the Strombeek First Ward area.. I'm not sure what the boundries are really but.. ya I'm just in like down town Brussels.. and contacting is just where you go and talk to people and try to set up an appointment with them to teach them more.. Oh, and there are a TON of Muslims here.. insane.. and we are not allowed to teach them, sooo.. ya makes it hard to contact and find people.. 

Well I think I have used more than my time so I have to go.. I love you all.. Bye, Elder Simonson