Promised Land

Well, I can't explain to you how stinking happy I am to be back in Belgium, the real and true PROMISED LAND.  I like to tease everyone and say that I had to repent and spend some time down in France, but luckily I repented very quickly and made it back after one transfer. I am only teasing.  I like France also, but I just love Belgium, mainly because I have spent pretty much all of my mission here. It is just easier and more familiar to me. Coming back to Charleroi after being in Versailles, the richest area of France, was a big shock. Man, I forgot how freaking Ghetto this place is, but OHH does it bring me joy. I was freaking out on the Train into Charleroi.. I was so excited to be back. People are just nice and awesome in Belgium.

Elder Receveur is pretty much one of the coolest companions I have had. It is a little weird having such a young companion. He is on his fourth transfer, he just got in the field December 7th. I just keep expecting him to jump in the lesson and make decisions and wait for his input. It is fun. He is probably the happiest person I have ever met. He has the best attitude about everything and he is super humble. He is just a dream...The last few days we have been a little lost because I don't know the Charleroi 1 area, so we have been walking a lot and I am used to 7 months of a car. So, of course I was complaining about how my feet hurt and he just kept saying... "It's fun, its companionship bonding time."...and he just kept finding all the good things in our being lost and walking kilometer after kilometer.
This will help you understand a little bit what Elder Receveur is like. First of all he is from New York, he grew up all over the East coast. He too, just like me and the rest of the Simonson family, loves playing.... "your team"... so we get along just fine. It has been really funny because we are in CHARLEROI where playing that game is like neverending fun. Let's just say that we would be better to pick out those that aren't weird or ghetto.

Anyway.. so that is me and my new life, I am loving it. I am happy to spend the last months of my mission here... though missionary work-wise, it is a little slow. This Ward just came from having 6 baptisms in the last 3 months which is INSANE (that is more than they had all last year), so that is good, but now we are just a little low on investigators because they baptized all the ones they were teaching. The Ward is really great. I already knew a lot of the members becasue of 6 months in the other ward. So all the members yesterday kept saying "have we already met? Where have we seen each other before?" So that was cool. It is however soooooo great to be with a firery new companion that loves to work and that is a hard worker and gets my old fat butt moving. It just feels good to go out all day and work hard... finding and teaching all day.. I love it.

It was good to hear from Mom, Dad and Trish.. I hope all goes well with Katie and her baby... Happy "having baby day," Katie.

As for the converts from before and old contacts... I called and talked to Esther and Dylan. They are not active at all. She seems a little busy and weird, but she said that she might have time for me to come over and visit this week. As for Daniel, he left for Africa in March. He has some business going down in Cameroon. So he is not here and no one is really sure when he will be back. I hope he will be back before I leave. Daniel is great and I hope he is still strong in the Gospel, because he was doing really great before he left.. As for Fatiha, I called her because no one has had contact with her pretty much since I left. Well, she didn't answer and then she called back later and I answered it but didn't know who it was and said,  "Hey, it's the missionaries."  She told me "erase this number from your phone and never call back." That made me really sad because she was so solid before. So I texted her that night and said, "Hey, it was me Elder Simonson that called you, I am back in Charleroi.. call me if you want."  She did write back and said "ohhh, ok yes.. how are you.. I will call you as soon as I can."
So that is that. We are working hard and loving life. In the apartment we have Elder Broadway(from England), Elder Walker (newer missionary), Elder Winkler (swiss), and Elder Crump(newer missionary also). So it is not really people I have been around on my mission but it is all good. They are all great. ELder Broadway is pretty interesting.. and Elder Winkler is just awesome like all Swiss people.

Well that is pretty much it for me... Love you lots. Have fun having baby, going on a cruise and whatever else you are going to do.
Elder Simonson