They really do come home!

Tuesday was the big day! We decorated the house and yard with yellow ribbons on any surface that we could tie a ribbon to!

This is Elder Simons coming down the escalator at the airport...

What a sweet, tender moment.

He met his nephew for the first time!

I loved seeing both of our boys walking side by side, catching up with each other as we walked through Temple Square after leaving the airport.

What a delight to watch Elder Simons as he interacted with the other missionaries on Temple Square. He was so confident and interested in meeting them and hearing their stories.

It was an amazing, tender, emotional, sweet, wonderful day. I will miss having a missionary out, and will miss the emails, but I can't express how grateful I am to have him home and to feel of his extraordinary spirit. He accomplished great things, but as our stake president so wisely said, "Likely the greatest conversion of the past two years happened within Wilson". We are so proud of all that he has done to faithfully serve the Lord to his very best. He is a great example for each one of us and we love him!

Disciples Forever

When we were able to Skype with Wilson yesterday, I broached the subject of receiving no email last week, and he quickly checked and apparently on his end, it went out, and ended up floating in cyberspace somewhere. But, he re-sent it, and I'm so glad he did. Its a wonderful letter. Keep in mind it was written a week ago, on May 6th.

Hey mom, first of all I will most likely send a short email next week, because I will have some extra time at the mission office. And about Mothers Day...I don't know. I know you have church at 9 right? What will be the best time for you? I could probably do it at like 4 or 5 or at night. I'm going to call though. If that is okay?

But what a week, my emotions have been all over the place and I have no doubt they will be just the same this next week. I really don't want to go home. Everyone always says "your last week you will just go all trunky and want to be home". And as much as I love home and my family and everything that goes with coming back I don't know if I want to come home yet. I feel like my work isn't done. If I was able to extend I would do it in a heartbeat. I feel like I have been out for like 10 months. I wouldn't be surprised if someone said, "you still have over a year". I would be like "okay that makes sense". Because right now, going home in 8 days isn't right. I am going to miss all of these missionaries that I have come to love and grow under their influence. So many missionaries have made life changing differences in my life. I can't thank them enough and I don't how I would get started to even telling them how much they mean. Their love has helped me endure trials and everything else I have gone through. 

I have had the best companions anyone could ask for. I have taught the most wonderful people in the world. I have witnessed miracles that have confirmed my faith that our Savior lives and loves us with a  perfect love. I have learned how to love and show charity. In no way am I saying I am perfect at this... far from it. But I have grown since two years ago when I was just a punk kid who only cared about himself. My mission has changed my life. It has brought me to the depths of humility. I have cried for joy and I have cried because I have been in the depths of sorrow and sadness. But every experience I've been through has strengthened my faith that God lives and that we can do hard things and we can endure if we trust our Heavenly Father. I thank all of you that have ever prayed for me. EVER. Or the missionary force as a whole. We and especially myself have felt that influence. I love you all. I thank you for your support. 

My mission has taught me God needs us, His children, to be disciples forever. Not just missionaries for two years or stake presidents for 9 years or missionary presidents for 3 years or a nursery leader for a couple years but He needs us forever. To constantly striving to be better and doing the things God would do if He were there. I hope and pray we can all be worthy to be called Disciples of Christ until the very end. 

This week has been interesting. We met with a Seventh-Day Adventist. He was a great guy, with amazing faith but his views have been skewed by the wisdom of men. Which is sad. I'm just thankful we have modern revelation with modern prophets and apostles. What a blessing we have! Let us all take advantage of them and that revelation! 

But I have to go! I love you all!

Elder Simons

There is no greater work

Hey mom,

This week has been good, although there have been some disappointing things that have happened. First of all, our baptism for this Saturday is getting post-poned. He was the one that was young and at the baptism he received divine revelation that he needed to be baptized. But his dad is saying no as of right now. He already said yes before but now he is saying no for right now. It has been sad and frustrating to watch this. But i know that eventually this kid will be baptized. Hopefully sooner than later. I want to be here when it happens. 

So this week we were visiting some LA's and we came upon this one that we decided to go and visit and he was such a cool guy! We were talking about technology and stuff and he was updating me. Then I started turning the conversation to the gospel and he was like "if you are wanting me to come back then it is no". I was like...whoa what? And we were talking about it and discussing religion as a whole. Basically this guy's beliefs are the same as Korihor's in the Book of Mormon. He believes in no Christ, no guilt, no afterlife, no God, no nothing basically. It was sad to hear him talk about this and I see his two kids, probably 1 and 3 years old and imagining their future. With no teaching of the Gospel of the Truth. That is Satan's plan, to attack the parents so the kids never even have the chance to hear the beautiful message of the gospel. How sad will that be for the kids? Their parents were sealed in the temple and they will have no knowledge whatsoever of that. They don't have the knowledge that if one of their parents passes away that they will see them again. I can't even imagine. I have been thinking about those two kids. I know that the Gospel can and will save all of those people who will and would receive it either on the earth or after. 

I do love this Gospel with all of my heart. I can't put into words how grateful I am that I have been able to do nothing but preach the everlasting gospel for the last 22 months of my life. There is no greater and more rewarding work. Even when we don't teach a ton of people or things aren't going our way, I still feel blessed to be one of the Lord's chosen servants to serve a mission. I hope you all have a great week! Thanks for the support.

Elder Simons

p.s. Thanks for the package mom! That "Last days of Jesus" was the best. It makes it so real and intimate, like you are really with the Savior. Thank you so much!

Amonds or Almonds?

Hey Mom!,
We have a lesson at eleven thirty so we studied earlier so we could get our laundry done quicker. So what's up? how are you guys? hopefully good! Had some very interesting things happen this week. I will write them in the letter.
So everyone here says warsh for wash or Warshington. There isn't an r in wash people! And i thought i left Dad's amonds (with no L) there. But people here eat amonds too. But for me and my house we will eat aLmonds.
So one day last week with our mini missionary we tracted into this old woman named Helen. She was from Great Britain and she was hard of hearing. But i am talking to her and i literally have to yell in her ear for her to even hear me. I kept trying to say stuff and she was like Huh? huh? But i was laughing so hard and she saw me lauging and she was just so happy and she laughed too. we really were just laughing up on her doorstep for like ten minutes about how deaf she was. we were both laughing so hard. It was the best. She was probably the happiest person i have met out here. And she lives in a tiny home and lives by no family, which is hard but she is happy. She has lots of Mormon friends but isn't interested right now, but we still talked for a good twenty minutes. It was nice.
ANYWAY...So i am pretty happy. I am just super sick. I have a really really bad cold which stinks. But the bishop's wife has me on this special weird diet thing and its supposed to help it. we will see what happens. We picked up an investigator this week! Her name is Lori. She is way pumped to read the Book of Mormon. we will see her again in two weeks. I can't wait.
We had such a good zone conference this past Friday. It was great. we talked about effective companionship study. It's cool cause if we do it right the spirit can be there. And it can be a great source of Revelation for our investigators and those we teach.
Anyway..Heavenly Father answers prayers. Saturday night i was really worried about a couple of things and i was stressing and not having a good time over it. so i kneeled down and said a prayer for help. And during the prayer i had a feeling to read Ether 12. So i did. And it was great. I love how it talks about faith. So let me just give a quick background. So in verses 23-25 Moroni is sort of but not really complaining about having to write and how the writing that he does isn't great and people will make fun of his writing. and then the Lord comes to him and says that all will be okay and he is watching over his writings and stuff. the Lord excuses his writings and weaknesses. But i got to verse 40..yeah 40 where Moroni says again his "weakness in writing" And i sort of got mad at Moroni. i was like "here the Lord came to you and told you all is well and you are still complaining? come on!" But then i was like wait...this thing that i have been thinking about i have gotten an answer too...and i am still inquiring of the Lord.. the scriptures slapped me in the face big time. It was really interesting and humbling to see that. We may have already had our prayers answered we just choose not to see it. we need to start having that different prespective on life. It will bless our lives.
Mom I am so sorry. I am pretty out of it. i am pretty darn sick. I love you guys. thanks for the packages this week. So great!

So happy!

Guess what? So when i am really happy, like super super happy i get like super...smiley, not because someting is funny but because i am so happy. That has been this week. Like i have had the biggest smile on. I am happy. My mission makes me happy. I am so blessed to give just a tiny bit of my earthly life to him. I am so blessed i can walk around and i am not "deaf".  I know that's random but in the MTC i would see these kids who were "deaf" or had these crazy crutches and i am like...really Wilson? come on forget yourself.  I am so blessed to be able to walk around and hear people! what a miracle. It is funny cause we take so much for granted! Our houses! Our cars! Our everythings! Let us all try to be more thankful for the things we have! Pray for a different perspective on our lives. and we will see the blessings we already have in life!
Anyway yes i am happy! And guess how many investigators we picked up? Zero? Technically we actually picked up negative zero cause we have to drop Bill our investigator. He isn't progressing and he isn't willing to take the steps, and leave his old self to get a new self. I am happy because i am working my hardest. Well i am trying my hardest to work my hardest i guess. And i feel like the Lord is blessing me on belief. I see other missionaries get mad at Heavenly Father for no success and i say to myself..."i got up today i got to study out of the Book of Mormon today, i live in the USA, i get to do the Lord's work today, i get to make Heavenly Father happy for my effort in missionary work. Today was a great day!" I want to help people realize that just because we didn't get a baptism this week doesn't mean we aren't good missionaries or we aren't doing the right thing or that Heavenly Father isn't there, but quite the opposite... we are good missionaries and we are doing the right thing and Heavenly Father is right next to us helping us push on! Maybe i am just weird and happy? who knows! But i am happy! Gridley California is where i am going to get my first baptism. But first i have to go find that person. He is hiding but i know that Heavenly Father is preparing him for me. I feel that the more effort i put in the more prepared he will be.  And the effort comes from how obedient i am and how long i want to be out and working. The Lord is blessing me! I don't deserve it, but i will take those blessings with no complaint!
Mom!!! Isn't life great? This is what life is all about...happiness!
Scripture for the day Alma 37:40. the whole verse is great but i want to focus on the last couple of lines. First of all they are talking about the Liahona which we all know worked by faith (which was a straight up miracle) and it says "..also many other miracles wrought by the power of God day by day" So do we know where i am going with this? Miracles happen everyday. I promise and i can testify that miracles happen every single day. I have had too many beautiful things happen to me to doubt miracles happening daily. Like i said earlier lets look around us and see how blessed we are. Lets look for at least one miracle a day. Mine today is me. I am a miracle first because of where i am. I am in Gridley California. i never thought i would be on a mission but now i am and i feel happy and i know this is where i am supposed to be. So my miracle actually is me being on a mission. if anyone doesn't think that is a miracle you should have known me like a year and a half ago, huh mom? So today go look in the mirror and look at the miracle looking back at yourself. That counts for today but tomorrow you have to think of your own. but i promise that once you do this you will be blessed on belief because you will reconigize Heavenly Father's hand in your life more fully. And your prespective on life will change. That is a promised blessing.
Mom i am working hard and i may not reap what i sow but i know that what i sow someone will reap (John 4:37) and that is okay with me. Its about the people not me. I love the people.
I love my family and i know that i will be with them in to the enternies and that thought is beautiful. I love the Lord and what He has done for me.
-Elder Simons