Oct. 27th

Hello again... Charleroi is great... This week went really good. We had a bunch of lessons that we taught and we got six new investigators.. We had Cyr, our baptismal date and another miracle guy at church this Sunday. 

The miracle guy...so on Saturday we went porting, (tracting) whatever you want to call it...anyway... we had chosen a road the night before.. but when we got to the road it was a little sketchy... and there was not very many houses, so we walked a little way and found a great looking road.  Well the second door we knocked on a 12 year old came to the door and we asked if his parents were there.  He told us they were gone but that his brother was there.  Well his brother came to the door and was like hey.. and really excited to see us.. then he was like, you guys are at Goessili (that is where our church is) and we were like ya.. and he told us that he would come with us on Sunday... so we thought hmmm.. that's kinda weird.. but ok... well on Sunday guess who was there waiting for the bus with us.. ya this guy!  His name is Christian and he is from Burundy.. he is sooo good.. he goes to school in Mons and knows the missionaries.. I guess he had been meeting with them but with transfers and also him moving, he just kinda got lost in the cracks... so crazy, what a miracle!  It was great.. well.. everything is going great.. French is coming along.. I feel good about it sometimes and then another time I get humbled... so ya but it's ok... anyway... 

Ummm answers.. Packages have to be sent to the Mission office.. but you can send letters here in Charleroi... so ya that's that... the pictures were good.. umm.. sorry I haven't really sent you any pictures. I don't take that many pictures.. so I haven't filled up my card yet.. but maybe I will take a bunch and then send my card.. so ya... I can't believe how much different Corgin looks... it's crazy.. Tess looked weird in the picture you sent and Addi had long hair... anyway, ya that's pretty much it... ummm I don't know what else to say...better go love you, bye Elder Simonson

Charleroi

Well hello from Charleroi.... Charleroi is great, I love it... I'm not quite sure how big it is? I don't think it is super huge, but it is good sized. The reason I think it is smaller is because A LOT of people know who we are.. and we see a lot of the same people.  I am loving Charleroi. My new companion is Elder Reynolds from Kuna, Idaho.. just outside of Meridian... He is SOOO good, we get along super well and he is a hard working Idaho boy just like me.  He is still kinda young in the mission I think he has been out something like 8 months... I think he is on his 7th transfer or something like that.  We have been working hard here, I love it.  We do a lot more finding and have a lot less investigators but.. that is ok.  Charleroi is kinda dirty.. it's known as the dirty city in the mission... but it really isn't that dirty.. there is just a bunch of factories that's all .. it is definitely an older city too... but I love it... The Ward here is absolutely amazing... it was almost like an American Ward.. and we have some super hard working members... This one member named Patrick works with us a ton.. like he swaps between us and another companionship throughout the week... he is sooo amazing... Let's see what else?  I gave another talk in church already.  I seem to have the luck to replace someone who has a talk in the coming week because.. this is my second already... and it was my first Sunday here in Charleroi and I had a talk.. 
The apartment isn't too bad.. it's pretty nice.. It is kinda dirty, but just from the Elders living in it and never cleaning.  I am now kind of a clean freak on my mission, after living in a nice apartment and seeing nasty apartments all day.  So this morning I cleaned.. for like 3 or 4 hours... haha, and I barely made a dent.. What else... Day to day stuff... We get up.. exercise.. which I'm not good at unless we go running which isn't often... then we get ready, have personal study and companionship.. then  a half hour of language study, so we leave the apartment at about 10:30, do contacting or have a rendez vous.. then we have an hour for lunch and then we just go outside, have meetings and ya... contacting... that until 9.  So ya, that's my days...We eat a lot of Pasta and that's about it.... I don't know, I don't have time.. I have to go, Sorry, I love you all... sounds like everything is going well... thanks for the prayers... I will talk to you later...Elder Simonson

Changes...

Hello family and friends! 
Things are going good here in Belgium... but you might have guessed that I have been here for 6 weeks.. and that means we have transfers.... yep... which means changes.....but I will tell you later of these changes...

Trials of faith,...
Well this last week was a kinda rough week... It started out ok.. kinda slow.. we didn't have many rendez-vous fixed or anything like that.. but.. on Tuesday.. we were contacting for quite a while and we got tired because we weren't finding anyone.. so E. Musters decided that he would call some people and try to set up some meetings.. well he did and within about 30 min. we had 22 scheduled rendez-vous. So things were looking up... so by Thursday we still hadn't taught very much or found that many people but on Fri. we had about 6 appointments and 5 on sat.. and about 4 on Sunday plus we had about 7 people confirmed to come to church... so.. it was going to be good... well Friday was ok... a few people cancelled... then on Sat. everyone but 2 people cancelled and on Sunday... NO one showed for church... we went to pick up a guy... and waited for him for about 45 min. We called everyone else and they were either sick, or tired.. or their phone was off... We had a special fast for our investigators.. and for the Sister's investigator, Marie, who just set a baptismal date!! She is an amazing 20 year old... Well.. we didn't see much progress but maybe that is coming later... All of our solid investigators like Elias and Joseph.. and Iness and Javier... kinda just didn't do anything this week... it was sad... and hopefully they just had a weird week... anyway... some good things still happened.
Paolo, our investigator from Italy.. has started to come out of his shell... he came to Gen. Conference last week... and we saw a change in him this week ... and he knows it is true.. now it will only be a matter of time until he really has a strong testimony and says... BAPTIZE ME haha.. he is doing sooooo good... he is really scared of people but he tried to go to FHE last week and he actually showed up at the International Ward this Sunday to come to church... he didn't realize that we were in the French Ward.. he thought because we were English we were in the English ward... but he is doing great.. anyway though... the sad thing is that I am actually leaving Brussels... sad... I know .. but I am actually headed to Charleroi, Belgium.... I have heard that it is a little dirty but it is a really great city and Ward too.. probably one of the best in Belgium or what I have heard... I will be with Elder Reynolds... I don't really know much more than that.. but I will be leaving all my investigators on Wed... so ya.. I am sad to leave Brussels but it will be all good. Pres. and the Lord had different things in mind for me... so now that I am leaving Brussels will explode... I'm just a wet blanket named Elder Simonson that doesn't know French!  Well I better go.. sounds like everything is going well... I love you all.. and I will talk to you later...Elder Simonson

Conference de Generale

Well this week was an amazing week with many miracles and just busy. Elder Musters and I went on two exchanges this week. One was with the Assistants in which I got to teach and contact in English.. and I was terrible at it... ha! But that's ok, I could say more than I could in French. This weekend was amazing. We had 5 of our good investigators came to General Conference. Joseph came and said it was amazing, he got to hear the Prophet talk and he was impressed by how big and grand the church was. He also said that his son asked him if he could come to church with him next week. Joseph was sooo happy.  Early in the week we had met with Joseph and he told us that we should invite his son to church the next time we came to visit.. So Joseph thought that we had invited him.. but we hadn't... Anyway.. Joseph read about the Plan of Salvation and loved it. He said it answered so many questions... so this week we finally have some more time to meet with him and answer his questions... Ya!! So that was great. We found 5 new investigators this week... One of them we met at this investigator's house that we have.. his name is Fred... and wow... Fred... has some problems. Anyway... some plans fell through so we called Fred to see if we could meet with him and he told us to come over. When we arrived there, there was a man, a very clean looking well to do man..and he looked very Muslim.  He had followed us and he was Fred's friend from work...but when we got to Fred's appartment, he had a wood pallet in the middle of the floor and he had been burning something in the middle of his house... and by looking at all the clues and hearing him talk .. we were pretty sure he was in the process of making some drugs... some very serious drugs... which was a little wierd.. but that could have just been our assumptions.. but nevertheless there was black stuff all over and it smelt like when we burned garbage on Promise Ln. Well .. We started talking to Fred's friend Ali... he was born to parents who were Muslim but he wasn't actually Muslim. He was really great and had heard a little bit about the church and he was very interested. So we fixed a rendez vous with him this week, On the other hand while we were there.. Fred smoked about 6 or 7 cigarettes.. hahaha man... that was interesting... so our not so progressing investigator got us an awesome new investigator... Awesome! Well my week was great we worked hard... and I got to work in a different area with my Zone Leader Elder Leavitt for a day which was great. 
French is coming along... I understand pretty good.. but I don't speak a whole lot soooo,... my speaking is kinda terrible but... ya it's going better... I can contact people and set up a time to meet with them... so that is all that matters... K... as for emails.. and things.. my immediate family can email... so the bro's and sis'.. you can email with out going through Mom and Dad... but, like you said, the more emails I have to read, the less time I have to write.. .. so it's up to you.. I like both and I really don't care.  Also I got Tess's letters, both of them... and also I got Grandma and Grandpa Hamblin's note from the Belgium people and I got your two hugs... that was interesting.. the guy actually came and found me during General Conference... so.. ya .. hmmm... other questions.. I can't think of the other things I was going to answer.  I sent Tess and Trish a letter last week I think... sooooo... ya.. by the way Tess, your letter came in 4 days... not too bad huh?  Well I should probably go... love you all, thanks for your support...keep it up.. 
Elder Simonson