Hooray for babies!

Dear Family and Friends.

This week has been a really great one. The last couple of weeks we really haven't had much going on... but this week we started changing that. We had a lot of porting and finding and contacting old investigators to see if they were interested... we really put our faith and effort into it.. and the Lord, in turn, blessed us...
Last week doing our planning, we really just wanted to break out of the rut and start teaching more lessons. Elder Teixeira had invited everyone to stop putting a cap on our faith and our work and to just go out and do it, and that we could teach 21 lessons a week if we wanted. So last week Elder Receveur and I had 4 lessons in total which is not too hot... so we decided we were sick of this crap, so Elder Receveur, with his faith said, "I want to teach 20 lessons.." and me and my pescimistic/realistic self said, "Well, we don't have any investigators and last week we taught 4 lessons, so I don't see how we could teach 20 lessons.." and there was the problem... I didn't have the faith to begin with and I was already putting a cap on what the Lord could make come to pass.... So together we set a goal of 17 total lessons.. and we worked really hard to accomplish that... Well the Lord blessed us and we were able to get things going this week.. We ended up teaching 11 lessons and we found 3 new investigators Which is a whole lot better than last week... so we didn't quite get 17 but we were very satisfied with 11.
One guy we found has been an investigator for years and he is a Theologist and so he knows everything about the church. We went and visited him and he was great.. so we will begin meeting with him and just see if he is ready now to join the church. The reason he hasn't joined yet is because he said he has already converted too many times.. but he had realized some real key points about the church... such as (his words) "the Mormon Church is the only church that the ordinances are for after this life..." he said, "you have such a Celestial view of things..." so i thought that was cool.
Another lady we found was near the church. We were just doing some porting and we knocked on her door and she came out and started talking to us like she knew us, she told us, "No, sorry I don't have time to meet with you today.." we were a little confused, but then she explained that the Sisters used to come and teach her.. then she says to us.. "But I want you to come by and teach me the differences between the Catholic Church and your church because I never understood the difference when the Sisters would come and teach me.." So we took Patrick with us and he just told her straight up all the good differences that he really liked and bore strong testimony of why he changed.. it was perfect.. She is busy for the next week or so, but then she really wanted to come to a baptism and there is a Baptism in Charleroi 2 in a couple of weeks.... so we are hoping and praying that she will come and love it and have the desire to start coming to church and meeting with us regularly... She is something special, I feel that she is very prepared.. I wouldn't be surprised in the near future...and plus she is Belge and has a family, car, etc... she is just a nice normal person.. Just the way I like em
The other person that we found was really cool also. We saw a cute little black family so we ran to them and contacted them.. we were talking and and then their bus came and they started getting on, but we hadn't gotten their number or address or anything.. and as they are getting on the bus, the mom says, "Pass by sometime..." and the little kid yells out the address! After they had gone.. Elder Receveur turned to me and told me that Elder Stowers and him had contacted her the begining of last transfer but she had given them a bad number and they were never able to get a hold of her.. we stopped by her house last night and taught them a short lesson and will be stopping by this next Tuesday.. they are a beautiful family from Rwanda..

So all in all that was my week... We had two exchanges this week.. I went to Namur... it was beautiful as always.. but on the train ride over I had my overnight bag with my scripturess, and my personal journal and my study journal from my whole mission and .... we got talking with a guy and then when we got into Namur, I got off the Train and realized I had left my bag on the train.. so I ran back downstairs to try and catch the train but it was already taking off.. SO I was really sick to my stomach.. I figured I would never see it again.. but I called the Elders in Liege and told them which train I was on and asked them if they would go to the station and jump on the train and try and find my bag.. they did and they found it! So I got my bag with everything in it back... WHEW.. Thank goodness.. I was praying my heart out.. because it was things that you just can't replace...
Anyway that was my week... all is great... my feet don't hurt too bad.. I just like complaining and it was more just to emphasize how much we walk... haha.. so the other funny thing is that in the morning for exercises we have been doing competitions like how many push ups we can do etc.... so for example I would start and do one pushup then the others would do one... then I would do two and everyone would do two.. and we continue until you can't do anymore... and each time it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.. so we did that with pushups and I was sooooo sore for 3 days and then we did situps and I was sore forever... then we did lunges... let's just say I won.. but at the end I had done 351 lunges and let's just say I have never had legs this sore in my life.. it has been poop walking around.. but it was fun... and it entertained Elder Receveur.. so it was worth it.. Love you lots talk to you later...

Elder Simonson

P.S. Congrats Clint and Katie!