It Has Changed My Life

That is pretty exciting about the new stake presidency. That will be great for the great stake of Corner Canyon. I will miss President Beard a lot but luckily he still is in our ward so that will be fun. 

So this week has been good, yes we got sprayed on by a skunk. We were coming out of the members' house that we live at to walk towards our house then as soon as we opened the door it was right there and sprayed us. I knew it got me so I just ran and was screaming. It smelled pretty darn bad. Luckily it only got on my shirt and I won't be bringing that one home so I'm over it. It was a cool story though, I will tell my kids about. 

This week has been good, the work has been slow and the time has gone fast. I really wish it was the opposite, like that the time went slow and the work was going fast. We have been meeting with a guy and last night we taught the restoration and it was just awesome. My companion shared the part about Joseph Smith and where he had the first vision and the spirit just hit me so hard like it always does that Joseph Smith was and is a Prophet of God. I love that story. I will never get tired of it. That story is true, and I will never deny it. 

Elder Solomon is still a trooper, we are having lots of fun. We are trying to find those true seekers. We had some funny experiences this week.  Its been a lot of fun. 

We are going to the temple this Friday with a group of people from Gridley. Bo and the Pratts and some other choice people are coming. I'm so excited! I will be sure and send some pictures! But I think that is about it from my end of the world. As I always say I'm thankful for my mission, It has changed my life in so many ways. It has been such an amazing experience. I want to thank everyone who helped me get out here. which is so many people! I love you all!

Elder Simons

p.s. I'm glad you made it home safely. Can't say I wasn't worried, but I did pray really hard.

Simple and Divine

It was great to hear from you Mom. Make sure you let me know if you are safe or not. 

Wasn't conference a treat? I can't stop thinking about it and the wonderful messages we heard from God's servants. I can't wait to get the Ensign and read all the talks again, although that will probably be when I'm back home, which is a daunting and scary thought. I love how simple and divine the messages were, they were on deep deep doctrine but on the simple and pure truths that we all need to work and improve on. I love President Monson's Message on obedience. It was amazing! How simple but yet how powerful was his message. We all must be obedient or we can't be successful. I just loved it. I can't wait to study that talk more in depth. 

This week has been a lot of coordinating between our areas that we cover. Elder Solomon is great, we are working hard and we are obedient. I want to finish strong and he wants to work hard no matter what so i'm happy i'm with him. We are struggling to find people to teach still. That is and may be the universal struggle throughout the world, but it is hard because our areas are sooo big that it is almost impossible to get out of the car and tract because there is like a big distance between most homes. That won't get us down though. 

I'm hoping to go to the temple with Bill soon, I talked to him earlier this week and it almost brought me to tears to hear his and his wife's sweet voices. I love those people with a love that I can't really describe. ANyway I will keep you updated on that.

 I love you all and pray for you always!

Elder Simons

Elder Andersen was amazing

It was great to hear from you Mom! Your email was awesome. The new dining room sounds pretty cool too.

So this week was really good, slower for missionary work in general but a good week nonetheless. Elder Andersen was amazing. He is just a testament that God loves us and doesn't leave His children without direction and guidance on how to make it through life. Elder Andersen taught about the Atonement and how we are to use it in our lives. Elder Andersen holds apostolic keys, he is an inspired man. I can't describe how good it was. He is guided by the Lord. 

I love my mission. And that I have chances to listen to apostles. How blessed am I? I got to see all of my mission buddies. That will most likely be the last time I see all of them. While sitting in the chapel just waiting for Elder Anderson to come I was just pondering on how lucky I have been to be on a mission. I saw many missionaries that I have worked and made great memories with. I will miss them all so much. It is really just sad when I come to think of it. I will miss my mission so much. It goes too fast. But meeting with Elder Andersen was one of the highlights of the mission. I will never forget it. 

So in other news I got food poisoning Saturday night and I was out of commission basically all Sunday. The lesson that i learned? Never have a fillet of fish from McDonald's. I knew when I got it I was making a big mistake. But now I feel good and am going to play some basketball later on today. We still are trying to find some more peeps to teach. We need to start baptizing here and get this ward going. I'm excited for the potential here. 

I love my mission so much and life is great. I don't have much to say but I love you!

Elder Simons

Conference was amazing!

Its always good to get home after a long time being home Mom.  I feel like I have turned into someone who really enjoys to just be home just hanging out. We will see if that changes when I go home. 
 

Anyway conference was amazing! I have learned sooo much. The main message that I feel that I got was to prayer harder, listen better, and act quicker. I'm excited to be able to utilize these truths more in my personal life and teaching God's children. I also realized that I need to stop being so judgmental!!  I need to give everyone a chance to have this glorious message of the Gospel. Sometimes I pick and choose who I think will accept the message, but I wasn't called to do that. I was called to preach the gospel to all. That was a big kick in my side on something that I need to improve. 

I loved Jeffrey R Hollands talk on Peter and the other apostles. It was life changing. I always feel like I need to repent after his talks but still I'm drawn to him and how he speaks. I think you hit it on the head Mom, when you said  "He is a powerful, spiritual speaker, and his talks find their way right into my heart and soul. I always go away from it knowing I need to be, and can be a better person".  I feel the same way. The whole time during conference I was just pondering about how anyone who watched conference with a sincere humble heart had to know of a surety that Thomas S Monson was and is a prophet of God. And that everyone else who spoke has been called of God and are His appointed servants. I loved conference so much. Its sad that the next one will be in six months. I don't know if i can wait that long!! I cant wait till we get the Ensign so we can read and read again the plain and simple truths that were spoken of. Elder Bednar's talk really made me think about my personal testimony and conversion. Also the people I'm teaching. It made me think about what is my next step to furthering my personal conversion? What am I doing to get myself closer to God. Ah, I just feel so uplifted. 

Life is good though. I'm having a ton of fun and life is just going by so fast. I don't know how I feel about the changed age for missionaries. I can't decide. It obviously is right though. I do'nt know if I will even notice a difference since I'm out here already. Who knows. 

I love you all though

Here are some pictures for you!

Conference was amazing!

Hey Mom and Dad!

Conference was amazing!!! I loved Jeffrey R Holland's talk! If that doesn't make you stop and think then I don't know what will! I love the fire and brimstone talks, with a bit of love intertwined! What a spirit that was there! Conference super charges me to want to go and baptize everyone in Roseville. I also loved Richard G. Scott, the master of Personal Revelation talks. It was great, unfortunately i can't quote anything for you but i do want to share (and i feel prompted to do so) a quote from a previous talk of his: "I witness that as you gain experience and success in being guided by the Spirit, your confidence in the impressions you feel can become more certain than your dependence on what you see or hear". How amazing!! What a statement given to us from an apostle of the Lord. When we master for ourselves the principle of Personal Revelation (which is essential to getting into the Celestial Kingdom), we will hear and feel and know what the spirit is wanting us to know stronger and more powerful than what we see with our eyes, or our ears. How amazing. How simple. I noticed that in a few of the prayers people mentioned how they were grateful for what they felt. Not what they saw. I'm not saying its not wonderful to see the prophet and the beautiful choir, but what did we feel? What was the spirit whispering to us? There are a million and one lessons we could have learned from conference but the most important lesson learned is the one learned through and by the Holy Ghost. Conference was wonderful. Mom that talk from Neil L. Andersen was brilliant. How about that child singing "I'm a Child of God"? Man I was tearing up like a baby! Just re-testifies to me the power of becoming as a little child. What trust that child had! I can't believe it. 

This week went by so fast! I can't believe it. Oh funny story, we were tracting and we accidentally knocked into a member's house (they just moved in) and they invited us in and gave us See's Chocolate. It was like a little taste of home. Then that night another one of our members made the exact same recipe of Texas Cake that mom makes. I was like "what the heck?" It was great though. We did a lot of tracting this week, not the most successful week in that way but the Lord came through for us, as He always does and put in our path 2 new investigators. They are sweet and we are meeting with one of them tonight and another one of them next week. I'm excited for both of them. 

Our seventeen year investigator is still doing awesome. We are going over to her house tomorrow. I don't know if i have told you of how much of a miracle that is but its a huge one! Her parents are truly having their hearts softened. It is amazing how the Lord works. Everything is still going good for the 14th for her baptism. We went over the baptismal interview questions and she hit them all out of the park. What a testimony this one has. She is so prepared! She liked conference and she is in Mosiah right now. She is loving the Book of Mormon.

 

This next week should be a good one. I have a exchange on Thursday and district meeting tomorrow. District meeting is on Effective Study, which will be good. I have seen the Best, the Good, and the Ugly when it comes to study, and in turn i have seen missionaries with the spirit and some with not. And i think a large part of that comes from having study in the morning. I think it will be a good meeting. Other than that not too much has happened new.

My heart is feeling better now mom. So we are good. Probably just stressing over something. You know me :) I was hoping that would go away on my mission but...still working on that Ether 12:27 scrip i guess! i love you all!! have a great week!!

Testimony of Joseph Smith

Hey mom,

The week was great! We did some good work! I got over my sickness and then on Tuesday Elder Rasmussen got sick to so he just stayed in bed all day. So i got to prepare for my district meeting a little bit more. So we have district meeting each tuesday at ten thirty. And i make a lesson depending on what President wants the lesson to be on. Then we practice teach what we have learned. The past district meeting went very well. The spirit was there and i hope that everyone in attendance felt uplifted and motivated. 

Tomorrow's district meeting is on the Great Apostasy and The Restoration. So that will be great. I love talking about the Restoration. Its such a blessing in my life. And its crazy to think that people out there have never even heard of it. They are living without a restoration! But luckily i get to go out and find those elect and teach and baptize them. Amos talks about the apostasy and how there will be a hunger and thirst for the word of God. I was reading that scripture the other day and it had new meaning to me after i had had food poisoning. So last Sunday night i was thirstier then i have ever been before. It was crazy. So i sucked on an ice cube, but i ended up not being able to keep it down. And for like a hour and a half i was just chilling up being very thirsty and slowly becoming weaker (yes i was very dehydrated and it was really scary, and im here now so im okay no need to worry) and i was thinking about the things i would do for even an ice cube. What things would i do for a whole glass of water? Go tracting for a six hours straight or bike in really hot weather, just to name a few. What would the people during the great apostasy do to find that truth? They would do anything. I was so thirsty i could not stand it. So i decided to do something about it and in an act of fury and thirst i grabbed a huge glass of water and threw it down. I was pretty scared of throwing it up but somehow it stayed down so that was cool. But my point of that whole story was, think of the times in our life when we are thirsty. People are out there, right now, looking for what we have. They are literally thirsting for the truth of what the Gospel brings. People tried to act in the best way they could and made all of these churches that have some of the truths. Partial truths. Where the spirit could only be there sometime. But luckily we had someone named Joesph Smith sent to earth to question why. Joesph Smith did not go into that grove of trees to start a new church, he did not go into the trees to become a Prophet of God. He went in there because he had questions. He did something about the concerns on his mind. Joesph Smith did not start a church so he could be beaten several times, so he could riduculed from the day he testified that he had seen the Father and the Son till his last day on earth, he did not start a church so that eventually he would be martyred because he knew it to be true, and he didn't start a church so he could leave his wife and his children a widow and fatherless. But he did it anyway. I echo President Taylors words when he says "   Joseph Smith, the ^aProphet and ^bSeer of the Lord, has done more, ^csave Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it.  . Without Joesph Smith i would not be the person i am today. I thank God for Joseph Smith and everything he has done for us. I am eternally in debt to Joseph Smith. I know he is a Prophet of God, And i say this testimony in the name of Jesus Christ.

 

The young woman we have as our investigator is asking her parents tonight for permission to be baptized. I'm so excited. I'm praying every second i can for this girl's parents to soften up. Anyway we are going laser tagging and mini golfing today! Have a wonderful day. I love you all!