The Road to Damascus

The week has been good, not too much to report. Haven't been able to meet with our investigator for about two weeks. I want to teach him again so bad. He is close to baptism, I know it. They went out of town for a bit.

We are still having great success in the less-active lesson area. I enjoy teaching them so much. In my first area I felt bad because I didn't think I was truly fulfilling my purpose by just teaching so many less-actives but something that our president said really hit me hard: "I don't think the Lord sees someone getting baptized and someone returning into full activity really any different". It is the work of the Lord. We are building up His Kingdom. I'm amazed I have been called to this mighty work. In such an amazing time as well. The Lord truly is hastening His work. I have never seen so much focus on missionary work ever. Seems like a lot of the general conference stuff and Ensign things are discussing missionary work. Must be important I guess!

This week has been a humbling week for sure. I have been pondering some more things that I would like to put on here so again hopefully you are okay with another random tangent. I have been reading in Acts for the past couple weeks. Really trying to picture all of these events that happened in my head. And I came to Saul. He was a part of the killing of Stephen. He was a bad dude, he received permission to put Christians in prison for believing in Christ. Then of course on the road to Damascus he was visited by the Savior himself. An evil vessel was visited by the Lord and his life was changed forever. He was a completely changed person. That was because of Jesus Christ. He had a completely different view on the world and then, from then on preached the word of God. I also think of Alma the younger and his conversion and other people as well that have had a change of heart. I know that this gospel has the power to change everyone in the world's life. It is through the Atonement that we receive this change. We must accept it and apply it in our life. God will never force us to use His Son's sacrifice because He respects our agency so much. But when we follow the words of the Savior we come unto Him and accept His life and Atonement. This gospel and changed my heart and my desires to wanting more of what God wants for me. I'm not perfect yet and I still need to do some major work in changing my complete will to His. 

We are teaching this less-active lady and it has been one of the most inspiring experiences on my missions. When we first were teaching her she was pretty so-so about things but after she started to exercise faith everything started working for her. She slowly had that change of heart. She now is repenting and doing things to build her testimony everyday. Just by talking to her you can tell that she gave her heart to the Savior so He could change it. And He did as He always will. This lady's change of heart wasn't like Saul/Pauls, she never went blind but I still consider it a miracle. Because it is nothing short of one. I just love talking to her and listening to her talk about her road to the Savior. She is now doing her own missionary work and doing great things. It is just so exciting. 

Well I better go! I love you all

Work with all diligence

How are you all doing? Hopefully good.

This week was a good one. It was hotter then ever though. I can't believe how hot it was. We pressed forward through it though. We were able to pick up a new investigator last night. So that was really good. Dorothy came to stake conference yesterday, that was so sweet! She loved it. Actually we haven't talked to her but who couldn't love stake conference? Stake conference was good Elder Choy was there and he taught so well.  I was jealous of how well he was able to convey his message to all of us. He taught about making correct choices and also on how we must respect priesthood leaders and understand that we don't receive revelation for them, they receive it for us. Once we do that we can fully get all the blessings in store for us. 

I have learned many lessons this week, one being that I can't live in Sacramento. It's too hot. I will live in Utah. Second, that diligence is what we need to get to where we want to be. If we aren't diligent (in missionary work) we get nowhere. Really why are we even here? We chose to be here so why aren't we working our hardest for the Lord?. But we must also be diligent so we can enter into the rest of the Celestial Kingdom. It isn't going to take shirking and laziness to get there. It is going to take getting up and doing something for the Lord and His Children. I feel strongly that we need to have a better and stronger determination to act. Sometimes we are lazy! I'm sorry but we are. I look back at my life right before I came on my mission and I put forth pretty much zero effort to go to the temple and worship my God. When really I should have been putting forth all the effort to get there and enjoy it. But life gets in the way. That is really no excuse for holding back salvation for the dead. I guess I have really strong feelings about this today because the spirit has really been prompting me to set goals for when I get back for getting to the temple. I hope that I can put off my natural man and become more spiritually minded. We must be diligent so that when we are there on judgement day we can be guiltless and blameless (two words i hope so badly i can be that day) before God and we can answered to him "I was diligent in all my callings and in reading the scriptures, in my temple worship, in my service to other children of God". I hope we all can say that on that day. I love this missionary work. Please pray for me so I can work with all diligence. I love you all!

I forgot to talk about my investigators! They are all doing great. We are excited about the progress they are making!! I will tell you more next week!!

His angels are with me

That is too bad about Sam [editor's note: our 13-year-old dog, Sam, died this past weekend], I was basically in tears until i read Dad's comment. Typical dad, always trying to bring his sense of humor into serious matters. I love that man though. Speaking of which, Happy Fathers Day,, Dad and all of you other dads out there.

This week has been another good and fast one. I got invited to another meeting this Friday. I swear my mission is like 50% meetings. Its crazy. I do like meetings though, because i get to see my mission buddies.

Anyway Sela, our recent convert, got called to be a ward missionary. I'm pretty excited for that because she has no fear. She will be a really good help in lessons and fellowshipping. But I have a good feeling that I am being transferred. We will get the call Sunday night. I'm so nervous. I really don't want to get transferred! I absolutely love Roseville. I have become obsessed with it. Its getting close to how much I loved Gridley. But I don't think it has topped it yet. But I'm hoping for another six weeks here but who knows what will happen? I feel like i may get transferred to Chico or Auburn. I wouldn't mind Auburn. I guess we will just have to wait and see. 

So all of our lessons with the people we teach this week have fallen through. It was frustrating to say the least. And this next week most of those same people will either be out of town or too busy. I want to leave this area in full swing but it will be hard to if i can't teach anyone! I will put my trust in God though, and know that whatever happens, his hand is in it. I will hopefully be able to come back for our investigator's baptism. I would never miss that one. His family left to go on a cruise yesterday so we had to say early good byes in case I do get transferred. It was pretty sad. My mission has really helped me in hating good byes. They are the worst!! Another reason why i don't want to get transferred. I have built so many good relationships that i don't want to lose. Time doesn't really help either because then the relationships start to fade in my mind. But that's okay its all part of the game. I wish i could tell you that we picked up a new investigator this week. Or set another baptism date. But it was a tough week. It happens though. Again like i said, its all part of the game. You win some weeks and some weeks you lose. As i gain a more eternal prespective on why i'm out here I find it easier to deal with those losing weeks. I know God is with me. By my side. I love this scripture in D&C 88 "...for I will go ^bbefore your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my ^cSpirit shall be in your hearts, and mine ^dangels round about you, to bear you up." He is with me. I know that. His angels are with me. Life is not easy. But with the knowledge we have and having modern prophets we can do it. The easiest way i get through tough times in my life is to have fun. Have fun while working. Have fun while tracting. Have fun while suffering! Its possible. I guess I learned that from my parents. Anyway i love this work. Thank you for your prayers of support and love. I feel them daily. I love you all! 

What shall we eat?

Hey mom and dad!

What a beautiful day we had yesterday! I love that we have holidays that are solely dedicated to our Lord and Savior. I love Easter and the meaning behind it. 

So we didn't have dinners this whole week which kinda stinked but oh well and my credit card that the mission gives us somehow got hacked on to and we got that cancelled and I'm waiting on another one. So basically what I'm trying to say is I ran out of food this week. Which was interesting. I feel like i lost some weight. Then i got my package. Full of nothing but candy. So all the weight i might have lost was gained back by Peep-mania. So thank you for the package!! It was perfect timing. I wonder how I'm going to get groceries today but I'm really going to take the Savior's request literally: "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father ^aknoweth that ye have need of all these things.33 ^aBut ^bseek ye first the ^ckingdom of God, and his ^drighteousness; and all these ^ethings shall be ^fadded unto you."  So we will see how that goes.

So our baptism for this weekend got cancelled on Friday night. Her dad said no. So that put a major damper on things. But I knew that the Lord was just testing our faith. I prayed harder than I have ever prayed. I pleaded my case with the Lord and i listened and i felt through the feelings of the spirit that everything was going to be okay. Saturday night before going to bed we got a call from the investigator, and she said her dad said yes. (and remember this guy is like...anti-mormon to the extreme) I was so humbled. In a way that i never thought was possible. I felt joy that i had only felt a few times before on my mission when an investigator says something that is an answer to a prayer. Like "yes" to a baptism or in this case "yes my dad is letting me be baptized". I was so happy. I could barely sleep. So the baptism is happening this Saturday. I can't wait. I feel like i don't deserve these blessings. But i won't complain that I'm getting them. 

We weren't able to pick up any new investigators. Which kinda stinks. But thats okay. Its interesting because everything can be going wrong and one right thing can be going on (the baptism) and its totally fine. I love my mission. I wish i could press the pause button though. Its going too fast. Like unfairly fast. 

So some pictures for you. One with me and Rasmussen:

and another with me and Elder Frank:

And the one with the kids is from Easter yesterday:

They are my favorite kids in the world. I love their family. They were awesome to take us in on Easter. This ward is amazing. But i feel I'm being transferred in May. I hope not.

I'm glad everything back home is all good and fine. I love you all. Have a good week. I can't believe its April!

The trial of your faith

Such a good week!!
So first i will start off with the training we had down in Citrus Heights. Wow! That's about all i can say. I learned so much about the Atonement, and how we MUST use it in our finding, teaching, and every aspect of missionary life. It the central theme in our church. They really helped us all understand our purpose better. I love what they said about waking up in the morning: "at 6:30 you wake up and show the law of obedience and at 6:31 we show the law of sacrifice and get going to exercise" That is always how it is. Sometimes it makes no sense at all why i have to exercise. I bike a thousand miles a day usually! But i still exercise because Heavenly Father put that in my path to see how much i want it. It takes sacrifice but the blessings from it are far greater than the worth of getting myself out of bed and exercising. I love the sacrifices i get to make on my mission. They ALL result in an abundance of blessings. They also said at the meeting if we truly understand our purpose we will double the amount of people we have in the pool for baptismal dates. So we had zero. But double of zero is one right? :) I was a little down. But i figured if (and these guys are from SLC, that were teaching us) they promised it, we could do it. So the next day we had our "do or die" lesson with the deaf investigator, and we watched the Resoration DVD and let me just tell you the spirit was there. Everyone could feel it. No one, absolutely no one could deny that this Church is the Church that Jesus Christ set up personally and under His direction. And i said "our purpose is to teach and baptize, we have been teaching you for months, i have been personally teaching you for seven months, and missionaries have been teaching you for over twenty years, are you ready to be baptized?" and he said..........he said... ......he said...."yes its time." I about...cried..you know what i think i did. I could not believe it! It truly testified of the truthfulness of the scripture "And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that ^afaith is things which are ^bhoped for and ^cnot seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no ^dwitness until after the ^etrial of your faith" We did not get this baptism until after the trial of our faith. It really took so many tears, and sweat (biking there), and days upon days going hungry pleading with the Lord for this miracle to happen and I'm happy to say he will be baptized on December 31st 2011! I still cant believe it! It is so nuts! AH!!! I love this guy, and I'm so proud of the journey he has been on and where he is now.  He will not regret this decision. AH! So yeah! we had lots of blessings this week! I cant believe it. But everyone pray hard for my investigator so he can make this date. Please.
But it has been a really good week. My leg is basically almost better. I love this work. I love the Lord.
Elder Simons!

Treasures of knowledge

We had a great week this week. We picked up two new investigators this week. One of them was an excommunicated member. And another one was a former investigator. I'm excited about the prospect. So we got the transfer calls on Saturday...and i...will...be..staying 6 more weeks! I'm so excited! Maybe i will get to stay longer. Who knows? We had president's interviews this week. Man that was exciting. I had a bit of a cold but not a biggie. But i love President Weston so much, I would do anything he asked me to do. He is such a great leader.
Anyway this week was cool.  Elder Buhler and i set up our beds to be bunk beds so we have more room for activities at our house. Its has been really fun. We are really grateful for this extra six weeks we have together. I totally thought i was getting transferred.
I'm glad you guys are going to enjoy yourself this week. That sounds wonderful. The Pratts (of course) are taking us in on Thanksgving. We told them we would bring something to eat. We are still working on that. That will be interesting with a microwave that doesn't work and an oven that takes 3 hours to make a personal pizza. So that will be sweet. Maybe jello. We have a fridge so that is helpful.
I'm trying to think about things we did this week. We still are working on getting with that lady's grand daughter. She is slippery though.
With our deaf investigator we almost dropped him. We still may, but he really isn't progressing towards baptism. But he came to a different ward's baptism and he liked it so we may not drop him. We will see. We talked a little bit about the Word Of Wisdom, and i was explaining to him, in v. 18-21 we get some key blessings here that are pretty important to our personal salvation. First we will receive health. If anyone has been sick or in pain because of a sickness we know how important being heathly and alert is in our daily lives. Second the Lord will pour out his wisdom, and treasures of knowledge. I'm sure anyone who has read the scriptures and randomly the spirit hits you really hard at a particular verse and you are like "wow...i never noticed that before" and it helps build your testimony, that is what hidden treasures of knowledge is to me. And i want that. I want that to happen every time i open scriptures. Third we get to be able to run around! And for me, if i wasn't able to go do that i would go insane. I'm a jitter bug and i can't sit still so not having that ablility would be like putting me in prison. And in the next verse, this is where we receive the best blessing (in my eyes) I wondered what exactly the destroying angel was. And through study and prayer i have realized that when Jesus comes he will know who is clean and who is not. And he will cleanse the earth.   18 And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, ^ashall receive ^bhealth in their navel and marrow to their bones;19 And shall ^afind ^bwisdom and great ^ctreasures of ^dknowledge, even hidden treasures; 20 And shall ^arun and not be ^bweary, and shall walk and not faint. 21 And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the ^adestroying angel shall ^bpass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen. And i said to him "either you will receive wisdom or you won't, you will get more knowledge or you won't, the destroying angel will see you clean or he will see you not clean and he won't pass by you. It is up to you." Then we tried to commit him to live the Word of Wisdom. He said he would work on it. So overall i think it helped.
But Anyway i love you guys. I am so grateful for everything in my life. I would not be here if it wasn't for the Lord. I will be eternally in debt to Him. I am so grateful for Him. He lives.
Elder Simons

All these things shall give thee experience

So we were supposed to get transfer calls on Saturday night but that didn't happen. So then we were going to get them Sunday night but no, and we just barely got them and this is the verdict:  Elder Peterson will be going to Colfax and I will be staying and training a new missionary from the MTC!!!  I am super excited, but a little nervous. I feel so young! Maybe because I am only four and half months out! But don't worry, I am going to train a warrior! He is going to be such a good missionary! AH! Hopefully I don't mess him up though. I am sure i won't because the Lord is on my side and He will help us figure this thing out.
This week has been a good long one. We have done a lot of service for people, which is always fun because you get to meet new people.  We helped clean up Biggs the other day. I love Biggs alot, its a great little town of about 1700. There are some really nice people and really hard-core gangsters there. Well not really but "wanna be" gangsters. The other day a little girl made fun of my helmet as i rode past and I frankly agreed with what she said but i am wearing the helmet for you, mom,' and thats the only reason.
Haha funny story so on Friday for lunch i called Elder Osejo and was telling him goodbye (he is going home tomorrow) and i saw a craw-dad in the canal across the street from our house so i run inside and grab a pan and i catch two of them. And i am looking for more and then a cat (not gangster) came and started messing with my lunch and ripped one of the claws off. So i just decided to go in and start cooking them. So i threw them in a pot and boiled them up real nice. And then cracked them open and ate the meat. Two good sized pieces of meat. One was the size of a quarter and the other the size of a dime. Haha good eating in Gridley!
This week we still have been doing some good work with our less-actives. We met some nice people tracting too. It was cool. Nothing much has changed. I love my mission so much though. I love Gridley and Biggs so much. One of our investigators came to all three hours of church yesterday! It was such a miracle! Also we had six less-actives come to church this week. What a great week!! The Lord is truly blessing our efforts!
That is really wonderful about Lindsay and Ryan getting married in the SLC temple. I so wish i could be there but i understand why they are going ahead with it. A temple marriage is what we should all strive for. I don't understand how people could turn away a church that binds husband and wife for eternity. I guess alot of people don't really understand it, but oh well, i am working to find those people that are looking for the truth!
I want to share a sweet scripture with you. It's in D&C 122:7:
"And if thou shouldst be cast into the ^apit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the ^bdeep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to ^chedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of ^dhell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee ^eexperience, and shall be for thy good." 
Holy cow! When i was reading this i was like "oh sweet, this is going to end with something like 'you will be saved and you won't have to endure this if you are faithful' ".  But no. It just ends with "it shall be for thy good"! Wow. This is just a testament to me that life is hard. It isn't meant to be a breeze. We are meant to get tested and prepare to meet God. And if all this stuff happens to us we need to realize and have the faith to be able to accept that it is for our good. We go through trials to learn from them and grow. I have found that to be true in my mission. The hardest days are the ones where i grow closer to the Lord and learn the most stuff. Also, on those hardest days, that's when i find new helpful insight on the scriptures. I know the Book of Mormon is the Word of God. We must read it daily. We must know that book cover to cover. READ IT DAILY! I love the Lord, I love my mission, I love my family.
You guys have a great week! I will send you a picture of my new comp next week!

Spaghetti with mushrooms

Thanks for the great letter mom!! It seems like it has been such a busy week for you guys.
This week has flown by. It has already been one transfer. Isnt that weird? This is where i am supposed to be. I feel it more and more everyday.  Its so cool cause i am falling in love with the scriptures! Like as soon as we get in for the night and finish planning i just want to read.  its really nice.
The float eh? you guys are busy little bees. That sounds so much fun. I bet the girls did very well throwing out candy. 
Dang i miss you guys! But it was such a good week for letters! Mom by the way i love getting all the talks and stuff you send me! Everyone in the district knows i have the best the support system at home. Its way cool.. Im so grateful. I love you guys. I am learning how to be patient at the times where i used to not even think about being patient.  
This work is fulfilling. Even when i knock on 389 doors and 4 get opened and 3 get slammed in your face and 1 just says not today, i feel like i'm doing my part in building up the kingdom of god. So even those hard days can be made not hard. I guess cause Heavenly Father pours down His spirit and lets you know He is proud and He sees your effort. Its crazy that Heavenly Father trusts His gospel to be carried to the world thru 19-21 years olds. That shows how much love He has and also how much trust. I feel truly blessed to be serving the Lord. I have already learned many things that will affect my life.
So news about the area...I was on exchanges with Zone leader Christensen (i seriously love that kid) and we went and knocked on Tim's door, to see if he was there so we could just talk to him and see how he was doing. And also maybe that i was disappointed i didnt get to see him all slicked up in my shirt for church. But we knock on the door and he comes out and says "I'm never coming back to your church again, its a cult" and goes way anti on the church. Man....that was so hard! But Tim isn't ready right now. He will partake of this gospel though. he will be so blessed by it. I know he will because i am so blessed from the gospel. It literally turned my life around. Made me a competely different person. I will never be able to thank Heavenly Father enough. Sorry i am getting side tracked.
Next is Matt. Our little slippery friend who wants to be baptized. So we (Elder Barron i love him!) had dinner with him on Wednesday. Going in there we wanted to just go over the baptismal interview questions and see how he was doing. But he did every little thing he could not to get a lesson started.. He showed us his crawdad traps. Which were cool...but turns out getting baptized and receiving the Holy Ghost is cooler. But he has come to church the last two weeks. This next week we have an appt. on Wednesday. So we will see how that goes. Oh at their house we had spaghetti  and on it there was mushrooms and zuchinnis. I was pumped about the zucs but the mushrooms?? Come on don't ruin it like that! But i didnt want to offend this family so i wolfed them down. 
So our next investigator is an older man named Bill. He is very deaf. Like very deaf. He has a word of wisdom problem. He said he doesn't have faith to get his answer about baptism. and i was trying to get him to commit to praying FOR faith but he thought i was saying praying IN faith. That really took about nine minutes to get sorted out. Because without faith nothing can happen really. Faith can be tiny or it can be huge. I have faith that when i take my next step my other foot will catch me or faith when you have lost someone that you WILL see them again. Faith is really interesting to me actually. I love it. I want to study it more in depth this week. Sorry i am like talking to myself here!
mom exchanges went amazing this week. I will write it in yours and dads letter. Really they went great!
And to meet the Westons we had a zone conference where like three different zones meet together. and we had lunch and stuff. it was cool. i saw Elder Trevort and we hugged and had a good old time. I miss Elder Bowerman.
The Westons have four kids Twin girls who are 15, a boy who is 11, and another girl who is nine! Crazy huh?
and the cool thing mom is we do presidents letters so i totally can ask him about anything and he will write a short response to me over the week! Its so nice!
Welll i love you a ton! and the family.
Have a great week!