Sorry again!

Well so this week I am going to try real hard not to delete the email.. I hope it works. So everything has been going really good. This last week the work has started to take off with Elder Schmutz.  We are seeing so many miracles and starting to get some more investigators. 
I sent you a big letter last week with a little surprise inside...! So I hope you get it. Also as soon as you get it try and hurry to get it back to me becuase my other card is almost full and it has recent pictures and a lot better ones as well. Also Patrick showed me your little comments on a bunch of my pictures and I also noticed that a few people were thinking that it is me that is getting on facebook... Man, thanks...you are making me look like a boafy disobedient missionary.. haha, just kidding!  You should put a big disclamer that it is not me that is getting on Facebook and that it is you... 
As for mission stuff.. things are going great like I said.. Last week we found this lady named Kathy .. I wrote her story in the letter.. anyway nothing has happened with her lately, but she is like kinda living with this guy named Luc and I guess she left the Book of Mormon at his house and he picked it up one night and started to read it.. Well, so we get a call Saturday morning from him saying that he was Kathy's friend and that he started reading the book and found it very very interesting and that it was a beautiful book.. and that he wanted to meet with us.. So we went and saw him last night. He is a little ghetto but he is very prepared for the gospel.. He is very believing and at the start of our rendez vous he asked if we could come over like one time a week so that he could learn more about our religion and the Book of Mormon.. We were like.. how about 3 times a week .. and he was just alright with that... haha so that was a pretty great miracle..
Also Daniel is doing soooo amazing.. he has his baptismal interview today with Pres. Woodland... and so I hope everything goes well with that.. He is so great! He loves the church and it has just become a part of his life.. He already has a calling in the Young Mens all set up for him when he is baptized and he has the Bishop as his home teacher... He will be baptized this Saturday.. By??  Actually, we don't know yet because he hasn't chosen yet who he wants...he has been trying to decide... He said he would tell us today.. We gave him the Conference DVDs and that article that talks about Pres. Monson and his life because he said he didn't know if he was a prophet because he didn't know anything about his life.. Yesterday he said that he had watched the whole priesthood session and had started another.. he said he loved it. So all is well with him..
I hope that he doesn't choose me to confirm him, because next Sunday we will have a General Authority in our Ward.. We think we are getting a new Bishop which is sad because our Ward is getting really excited about missionary work and Bishop Hoffmann is a huge part of that.. We had a great lesson in church yesterday with all the members about missionary work and why we ask or need members to come teach with us... 
By the way you should get on top of helping our neighbor towards baptism... invite him and his family over for dinner and have a little lesson with them and just bear your testimonies and tell them how the gospel has blessed your lives.. That would be sweet, plus you would be helping Heavenly Father with his work.. And that is what we are here for.. Call the missionaries and get them on top of that and help them... I hope they aren't boafs there because they have a lot of strong members that could help alot... unlike here in Europe..
Sounds like you are going to have fun in the east... that is pretty crazy.. also Grandma, I got your letter today thanks again for all your letters nearly every week.. I love them.. As for the package that Tess sent, I didn't get it.. When and where did she send it?  Anyway Elder Schmutz and I have to go meet President at our apartment in 15 minutes to go have an interview with Daniel ... so pray for us and for him... I love you, sorry I haven't been sending emails... but keep on truckin and I will talk to you later....
Elder Simonson

Pictures from Patrick

This morning there were new pictures on Patrick's facebook, and they were all of Jacob!  He must have been able to download his card at Patrick's this week or something,  but thanks once again to Bro. Natus...we are able to see more pictures of Elder Simonson!

Jacob with Patrick Natus and another Elder

Elder Simonson and Bernard Nicolas

Elders Simonson and Warnke

Elder Von Hallmen and Jacob

Robert Leonard, Elder Simonson and Angele

Yet...AGAIN!

Well you are just going to hate me again but I seriously just pressed the wrong button and it didn't send.... So another letter coming and another wasted half hour of typing a good letter... 

Letter from 1-12-09

Just me and my goofy looking self with Pere Noel

Elders: Dewey, Me, Ferguson, Davis, Pere Noel, Gonzalez and Reynolds at the Ward Christmas Party in Charleroi 

Dear Family,

Well sorry that my stupid email was deleted...it was really good...I promise, it was sick to the maxis saxis...Anyway this week went really, really well. E. Reynolds took off to Arras, France on Wednesday early morning along with E. Gonzalez who finished his mission! Man, that was crazy...you always feel like that is a long time away and that day is in the future forever...but it's not! He was such a good missionary, he taught me so much. E. Reynolds and I had a couple of really good transfers. We saw Esther and Dylan baptized and found Daniel and did a lot of growing (spiritually...maybe weight wise too...) and a lot of changing too.

I picked up E. Schmutz Wed. morning...we came back to the apartment , did some planning and unpacking and then we had a pretty good but crazy and stressful day. Then Thursday rolled around and it was still stressful, and Friday...and Sat. ha ha...no...It was really good. We have already had some insane experiences. On our first day we found a sweet Muslim guy named Grid Mohamed. We taught him this Friday night and it went really good. He kept asking us why he had never heard of Christ coming to the Americas and all that. He really liked it and said he would start reading the Book of Mormon...he said it would only take him 3 or 4 days to read it (we'll see about that). Also we found this awesome Belge couple named Marie-Claire and George. They are super interested and super believing and we are seeing them next week on Wed. One thing I realized after E. Reynols left was that we don't have many investigators...So we are really working on that...other than Daniel we don't have many progressing investigators. Cyr is not doing anything...he is never there at his rendez-vous and never comes to church. It seems like he just doesn't have the desire to live the Gospel...Also it seems like he is bugged by us calling him and trying to set up rendez-vous or inviting him to church. So I think for the moment...we are going to let him call us when he is ready. A lot of our investigators (other than Daniel) are like trying to get a fat kid that sits and plays video games all day...to get outside and run a marathon. They're only going to do it if they have the desire. Daniel on the other hand is still doing awesome. He has never missed a day at church, he has never missed a rendez-vouz and he always reads in the Book of Mormon.

This week we were rushing to get everything taught so that he could be baptized on the 17th..but on Wed. we had a rendez-vous with Frere Van Buyten and we taught him the law of Chastity and he was a little hesitant...I got a little discouraged that night because the lesson didn't go real good and Frere V.B. told us that he didn't think he was ready for the 17th. I was humbled that night because I realized he was very right...we had a rendez-vous with him the next day and we really focused on the spirit and how we feel and recognize the spirit. We asked him why he comes to church and what he feels...he told us that the first time he came was just to see what it was like, but he loved it because it was tons of people talking and teaching, not just a preacher. He said that's why he keeps going because he loves it, and he says he feels good when he is there. Then we asked him how he feels when he reads the Book of Mormon and why he always reads it...and again he said that when he reads it, it just makes him feel good and it is just "truth" he says. Then we asked why he keeps meeting with us...and he was like..."well, I've never told you this, but I really like you guys. I love the message and I just love meeting with you." It was such an uplifting rendez-vous because he realized that all these feelings that he was felling was the Spirit testifying to him.

Well...I had some other interesting things to say, but uh...I can't remember them, and I gotta go. But I love you so much. I am going to try and back up my photos at Patrick's house and then send you my card!

Well...Love, Elder Simonson

Shared Letter from Grandpa and Grandma!

1-5-09
Sister Grandma and Elder Grandpa!

Hey, Sorry I have just been so terrible at writing...letters...and you are SO good at writing me. Thank you...I enjoy receiving and reading your letters. Sounds like you and Grandpa both stay pretty busy. In between working with Sister missionaries and in the Temple it sounds like you're serving our Father in Heaven well. What a great blessing you have to work in the Temple. The Temple is such a blessed place ...I miss going really bad.

Isn't it so good to be on a mission! You truly realize how important and grand the work of our Heavenly Father is. We had a great Zone Conference on the Atonement. It was SO powerful and we really learned about what our goal as missionaries is...SALVATION OF SOULS. What a huge work we have, but it isn't just the goal of missionaries but of all disciples of Jesus Christ -- all members of the Church have the responsibility to help bring Salvation unto the Souls of our brothers and sisters.

This next transfer should be interesting! As you may have noticed...I will be serving with E. Schmutz who has also only been out in the mission field for 4 months just like me. It is going to be a lot of work and will definitely be a huge humbling and learning experience! I am going to be in large need of your prayers and support. I am excited to serve my Heavenly Father and am grateful for a couple of AWESOME grandparents who are amazing examples to me.

Ester & Dylan are doing so great and Daniel should be an amazing baptism as well.

Thank you for the package with the tie, candy and socks...they were well needed and already well used. Keep working hard and remembering your Grandson in Belgium. I Love you two very much.

Love, Elder Jacob Simonson

Sorry!

Oh my gosh... so I just wrote a whole email and then I hit some button and it deleted it all... I AM SOOOOO Sorry, but I gotta go.. so I will write you a letter and I promise... Freak! Sorry, It was a good one too!

Transfer News!

Well as you know, Elder Reynolds and I were able to see Esther and Dylan be baptized on Saturday!  And I got to baptize Dylan. It was soooo good. The baptism turned out very well. There was a ton of investigators there and a ton of our Ward which really surprised me. After I baptized Dylan, he was so happy. I don't think he knew why he was so happy, but I knew!  We had some great talks from some people in the Ward and the Bishop gave an amazing talk talking about how baptism is really the first step and he boar the strongest testimony.  Sunday was also a very good day. Esther and Dylan recieved the Holy Ghost. The whole time during fast and testimony meeting Esther kept trying to get Dylan to bear his testimony but he was too scared, and he kept trying to sleep with his elbows on his knees and Esther kept lifting him up.... Sound familiar?  Man I was a boaf... oh well.  Also Daniel was at church now for the 4th time in a row!  He has not missed a Sunday since the first day we met him.  He is so solid and is telling all of his friends about his baptism on the 17th.  Also he is trying to get his one friend to stop drinking and the Lord has really blessed him with a strong testimony of the Word of Wisdom (too bad his friend is Muslim or we could teach his friend too).  Cyr, on the other hand is being his boafy self and not keeping his rendez vous or coming to church... He has a lot of work. 

The work has slowed down this last little bit because of the holidays (les fetes).  So everyone here are still off work and partying with their families, so it should pick back up here in a little. 

P-days.. for the most parts are pretty busy too. We don't always go to places like Dinant.. but since Patrick was on break he said he would take us somewhere.  Sometimes we go to places like that.. sometimes we do shopping and cleaning and play hockey in the church.. so that is why I am so bad at writing letters... and since this is the p-day before transfers I can't promise anything this week. 
I'm glad you got to see the pictures that Patrick posted.. I think you probably have seen them all.. but.. you might check again... Patrick said he wrote you a little note in English... I hope you understood.. haha 

Well now the moment you might have been waiting for... TRANSFERS.... DUNN DUNN DUNNN.....! Well last night at around 9 o'clock I received a call from the Assistants.... I about peed my pants.... actually maybe I did a little but .... uh.... that is beside the point.. No... Elder Palomaki called and said... Elder Simonson... the Lord has a new assignment for you... Then he said.... remember the first day in Grand place where you, me and Elder Schmutz found Rodriguez who was later baptized?  Well the Lord would like that again only minus me and in Charleroi..... and I was like, OH FREAK..... The news was much unexpected... Elder Schmutz from my MTC district is my new companion here in Charleroi.... We have both only been out for 4 months out in the field.. and now we are both Senoir Companions... I AM FREAKING SCARED... I seriously didn't sleep at all last night... I finally fell asleep around 12:30 and then woke up again at 4:30 ... I no longer have someone to follow around or to take the lead or to speak French when I can't or don't understand.... I am in for a lot of learning and a lot of time being out of my comfort zone... I will learn very quickly because I have to... I think the Lord knows that I won't learn unless he puts me in a situation where I am forced to learn quickly....E. Reynolds was called to be Zone leader in Arras, a town in France.... Well I have to go... sounds like Christmas was awesome for you guys... love you all!  Pray for me lots... peace.
Elder SIMONSON

Baptism of Esther and Dylan

Today Esther and Dylan entered the waters of Baptism.  It has been a great journey with them and we are all so very happy for their decision to be baptized.  Patrick baptized Esther, and Dylan asked for Jacob to baptize him!

Elder Reynolds, Dylan, Esther, Patrick Natus, Elder Simonson

A Journey to Dinant Dec. 29th

Jacob spoke in his letter this week about a trip to Dinant  on their P-day with Patrick and how beautiful it was.  He took lots of pictures and said he would send them to us soon, but Patrick was good enough to post these pictures of the Elders (including Jacob) so we could see them now.

More pictures of Jake in Belgium

These photos were shared by a dear man named Patrick Natus who is the Mission Leader in the Ward where Jacob is serving in Charleroi, Belgium.  They evidently spend a lot of time with him teaching the people and also he seems to spend a lot of time with the Elders taking them sight seeing and such on their P-days.  Jacob says that they eat at Patrick's house every Saturday evening, and from these photos, he seems to take good care of the Missionaries and see that they are loved and spoiled a bit too!  Here are some of the pictures of their Christmas time together.  We spoke to Jacob on Christmas while he was at Patrick's home.

Patrick Natus with Elder Simonson and Elder Reynolds.