Hello From Versailles

Well hello .. I don't think I am in Belgium anymore.... sad huh. This week has been a crazy one. Sunday was great, Kadio came to church and after we taught him about the law of Chastity, he was very accepting and understanding and he said that he would have to make a choice. It will be interesting and exciting to see what happens with him.. He is awesome. Well then that brings us to Monday... Monday was a crazy day to prepare for the switch and transfers and what not... Tuesday we had Zone Conference in Antwerpen so that was cool! I got to say goodbye to some of the Dutch missionaries. Then that brings us to Wed; in Lille, President and Sister Staheli and the Assistants of the Paris Mission came up. I think that was the day that started freaking me out. It all of a sudden became very real that we were soon not going to be our mission anymore. So they interviewed all the missionaries while we did trainings and what not... then on Thursday we were in Brussels.. The day went good, but I was also dreading the day a little bit because that meant that this change had to happen and that I had to leave my home in Brussels.
I had all my stuff packed and ready to go right after we finished in Brussels and that is what we did. It took us about 3 hours to drive down to Paris and so I got to know President and Sister Staheli and the Assitants Elder Mecham and Elder Mckay. They are all sooooo great: I really like all of them and surprisingly I really just haven't felt out of place or weird yet so that is really good. Elder Mecham is sooo much like Dustin Hubbard it blows my mind. He acts like him, looks like him, and ya it is weird. Also just a little cool thing; Elder Mecham's parents just got called as Mission President in Mongolia.
So the change is made.... I will be honest and say that I am a little sad. Things were finally going SUPER great with President Brubaker.. Everything was awesome. Everyone was finally on the same page and we were baptizing up a storm on the French side. President Staheli is a lot different than President Brubaker, not in a bad or good way, just different...and ya... but it will be interesting... I am excited, but I really hope that the mindset won't change for the missionaries in Belgium and the north of France, because that is the most amazing part of our mission (the BBN), was that everyone had the mindset that the work would go good and that they could baptize anywhere. Here, even in Paris, the mindset is a lot different. I guess you could just say that I am like a parent seeing a kid that is succeeding and then my kid that is doing super well starts hangin out with kids that aren't succeeding as much... But I know that this change was obviously inspired and it will be a good thing.. I hope that it will have the opposite effect, and all the fromer BBN missionaries will help explode the work in France...
So despite the differences, it is good to be here. I am living in le Vesinet, it is supposedly a rich suburb of Paris.. It is in Versailles.. not Paris. Anyway things are well.. It will be cool to serve in France.. I will miss Bruxelles and Belgium.
So that also sounds cool about the Apartment that you found... sounds like it is perfect.. thanks for getting all that in order. I also bought a card last week too.. sorry... I am a little preoccupied, so that is why this letter is all over the place. We did transfers yesterday, ALL DAY.... it was hard. But I will stay here as Assistant for one transfer or maybe more.. we will see.. anyway the address for the Mission Office is: 23 Rue du Onze Novembre 78110 Le Vesinet France

Love Elder Simonson