Last email from our missionary

And for the last email from Elder Simons on his mission...

Hey mom,

The time has come. Here on my mission I have learned so much. I don't even know what to say. I never thought I would be here emailing for my last time. My mission has been amazing! I thank you all who have supported me and have been there for me. I love you all. I'm thankful God has put me in the amazing California Roseville Mission under President Weston. I know being here was what God wanted and what God needed. I know that President Weston was called to bless the lives of the missionaries and especially me here in the mission. Ah I will miss my mission so much! I will reflect on it everyday of my life and will refer to it often. I'm grateful for the lessons I've learned and the friends I've made. I will see you tomorrow! I love you all!

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

Transfer to Auburn - Lake of the Pines

So we got transfers yesterday. I'm getting transferred!! I'm going to the Auburn Zone. My new ward is called Lake of the Pines. I'm so pumped. I only have 12 weeks left so I'm going to crank it and do some serious work. 

My new comp is Elder Vaitai. I was there when he came into the mission down in Antelope. He is from Tonga and is probably the most chill missionary here. He loves everyone! Ah i can't wait! I will miss Redding like crazy, but it is time to leave. It has been a great time up here doing the work of the Lord. I feel like the Lord has let me witness a lot of success up here. I will miss the people so much, they have grown so close to my heart. 

I wish I had more to say. This week has been pretty good. We had zone conference, and President Weston taught the importance of the Holy Ghost in Conversion. I loved it because he didn't just focus on us teaching our investigators but also in our personal conversions. 

So each time at zone conference all the departing missionaries (missionaries going home in the next few months) bear their testimonies. I thought I was too far out to do mine. I figured I would do it next time. But nope they called me up. I got up there and so many emotions and memories ran through my brain. The first one was [one of our older investigators]  getting baptized because I saw Elder Buhler down in the audience. Also because I was in the same building he was baptized in. I looked at Elder Rasmussen and remembered the fasting and praying we did in behalf of [the YSA] we were teaching from Roseville and then I glanced at Elder Coburn and thought of the miracles we witnessed down in Antelope getting [our investigator] to her baptism. I couldn't contain myself for a bit, but then bore my testimony. I was grateful I had the opportunity to do so. It was actually really sad. In my head I was like "This can't be possible. How is it almost over? NO!" It is just heartbreaking, most of all. I will miss all of this so much. But I still have a while to go. I want to make this the best two transfers of my mission. I'm determined to make it so. I will let you know how it goes, deal? 

But I love you! I have to go play some basketball then pack!

Elder Simons

I will cherish this challenge

Hey mom,

It's good to hear from you. It was amazing seeing the whole family on Skype. I feel so blessed the Lord gives us amazing tools to interact and share memories together through this amazing technology. We truly are blessed people. 

I finished my Book of Mormon last week. Man that book is more than amazing. It has changed my life once again. Before I took President's challenge I felt the spirit so strong when I testified to [people I was teaching] that it was and is the word of God. But now I can feel it in my fingers and toes when I testify. The spirit illuminates my body and I feel the spirit literally pushing my words into their soul. It has been an amazing experience to watch. I have been humbled to dust and I will cherish this challenge as something so spiritual I can barely describe it. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. People ask "Is the Book of Mormon needed to be saved?". And I'm here to tell everyone who asks that it is. It gives us the knowledge of our Savior that we can't find anywhere else. There are people out there who are in a famine of the word of God. They are missing the piece of the puzzle. The Book of Mormon is convincing evidence that God loves us so much that He sends prophets on the earth to teach us how to be "saved". I'm grateful for this divine book. And I will read it everyday for the rest of my life. I need the pure flow of spirit that comes from it. I need that so I can withstand the adversary.

We are so blessed to have a baptism this week on Saturday. [Our investigator] is going into the waters of baptism to receive an essential remission of her sins. She has come to find out that without the Savior and His priesthood authority she cannot be saved in the Kingdom of God. A bit of useful information wouldn't you say? I also have a testimony of that. We cannot come unto the Father or enter into Celestial glory except we fall on our knees and proclaim and confess that Christ is our Savior and our Redeemer. There is no other way to receive eternal life with God. I can testify to that and will till the day I die. I love this perfect and only true Church. I will pledge my allegiance to it forever. The church and gospel work hand and hand. I love them both. We should thank our God every single day that we belong to this true church. That we are somehow and in some way blessed by it. Member or non-member, I'm sure we all have been touched by how this church runs and how it is perfect. I can testify it does because God himself is at the head of it. No one else. I love that fact. I'm sorry for babbling on and on. The spirit constrained me to do so. I love you all and I appreciate the prayers that you send my way but more then that I appreciate the prayers you send to the wonderful Children of God that I am humbled to teach. Send more prayers their way will ya? Thank you so much.

Elder Simons

Faith and Testimony

This week has been good. We had our zone training meeting this week (zone conference is tomorrow), but our meeting this week was on how our faith and testimony should effect our obedience level, work ethic, attitude, gospel knowledge. And if we are struggling in any of these categories we are struggling with our faith and testimony. It was pretty intense. I loved it. So the Redding zone has been averaging about 9.5 lessons a week and according to Elder Maynes the  missionaries and the ward should work together so that the missionaries teach at least 20 lessons each week. We were getting about 16 or 17 in Antelope and I really wanted to improve it but I didn't know how. Because I can't go into every ward council in the stake and ask them to give the missionaries more teaching opportunities. So I thought a lot about it and what Elder Leithead and I could do about it. I felt strongly that we should commit each companionship to reach 20 lessons per week whether or not the ward is giving us names of people to teach. Everyone was pumped about it when we issued the challenge. And so later on this week when we recorded numbers (Sunday night) we pretty much doubled in every key indicator! It was so awesome!! Also our average went up to 15.5 lessons per week. I can't wait for the growth that is going to come from this. It was so legit! I love this work. 

We picked up these two YSA aged girls and one of them committed to baptism for the 8th of December. Its so exciting. I was so pumped. The other one is really great as well and will probably have a date this week. The work is truly picking up here in Redding. I can't wait to see some of the great results but I'm not forgetting to enjoy the moment. 

Anyway, life is great. I love it up here in Redding. It is getting really cold up here. I'm always freezing!! 

Elder Simons

I love this work

This week felt really long and short at the same time. It was weird. It was good not to have as much drama in the zone as last week. We had a ton of lessons fall through though. It was extremely frustrating. But I know that we are working our hardest, and I know we will be blessed for that. Some of our investigators are progressing very well and some are not. I wish I could do the commitments we leave with them, for them. But I can't. That is in complete opposition to God's plan. They need to do it for themselves. As I learn more about God's plan for His other children I realize more about my own. When I get frustrated with my investigators for not doing the things they commited to do, I think more about how my Heavenly Father feels when I don't do what I know I should be doing. It is interesting how God works. 

We were going to have a baptism this Satruday, but he is not ready. which is so sad. I hope we can baptize him before I get transferred. We are teaching so many great people. 

We had ZLC on Friday. It was great to see all my buddies. We learned so much from President. I love that man, and I know that he is called of God. I truly have a testimony that he receives revelation for us and the mission. I love it. 

Speaking of revelation, I was asked to give a talk on Revelation, on Saturday for a talk like 12 hours later in the YSA ward. It went well I thought. I kept telling the girl before me to talk for like 18 minutes so I could just bear my testimony for like three minutes and leave, but she ended up taking 9 minutes and I also remembered that the YSA beginning part including the sacrament takes 10 minutes. So I was left with...25 minutes. I was not too excited because I only prepared a talk for 15 minutes. But somehow it worked out. Hopefully it sounded not too scatterbrained. But I learned a lot from preparing. 

Anyway I love this work. I'm so thankful I'm on a misson!! I love it!!

I have never worked harder...

Well this week has been soooooo tiring. Wow, I never have worked harder on my mission. And I never have felt more blessed on my mission. The first night that Elder Ellsworth and I got together, we bound each other to help each other work the hardest that we have on our mission. And we are helping each other do that.

We have met some prepared people. I'm so excited for them. Working in two wards is really weird. That means 6 hours of church, 3 hours of ward council, and 2 hours of MCM. So many meetings!!! I'm always so hungry during the regular 3 hour block but now my stomach will have to adjust. I am so tired!!!! That's all I can think about.

Antelope is great, though getting transferred is not my favorite. But I will get used to it. I'm learning to slowly love it here. My emails from here on out will probably be shorter, which I'm sorry about, and they will most likely be on Wednesdays or Tuesdays.

I just can't believe how busy we are. My companion is Elder Ellsworth. He is amazing. He is such a good missionary, he makes me feel like a greenie all over again! But we are doing some great work. We get along great and he is from Orem! He is from the Heatherridge Stake. So maybe Grandma is in that one?

So we live in a huge house. Its crazy, I get lost alot. But we house the departing and incoming missionaries. Its so much fun seeing the greenies.

Well, I love my mission so much. It has changed my life. My testimony has grown so much. I can't believe I have grown this much. I feel so blessed that I was able to come on my mission and serve around so many great missionaries and also serve the Lord.

Our zone is doing good. We have some room for improvement, though. We are trying to help get everyone's numbers up so we can reach the mission standard. Anyway, I love this work!

I love you all!!!!!

Elder Simons

An added portion of the spirit

This week was really good. So fast. Again. Time is really weird. But that's life. 

We picked up a husband in a part-member family this past week. He is a good guy. With a few interesting concerns that we will work on. They are concerns I haven't ever heard of before but I have had some crazy ones before. I know that as we teach him the importance of having a testimony on Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon he will forget those concerns and come unto Christ and know His church has been restored in these the latter days. I'm excited about the progress that can be made. 

You guys are getting really busy. Keep up the good work. What else happened...oh so like two weeks ago I got spit on by a man we were trying to street contact. It was sort of a neat feeling to be able to be spit on for the sake of Jesus Christ. I was proud to be a Mormon. I was proud to wear my name tag. He said a couple words i hadn't heard in a while which were interesting. Which reminds me I have really been trying to clean up my language. Of course i don't swear or get anywhere near it but still I could use some work. The words which I say can have a powerful impact on how much the spirit is present in my life and especially as I teach. I have been cutting out words and I have felt an added portion of the spirit and I love it! 

The mutual thing with the kids went alright. The deacons got crazy. But other than that i think it went well. The video is really sweet though. You will have to see it. It will be on Youtube i think. Maybe it is on now i don't know. (Sister Busch's son is putting it up so i will have her email you when its up)

Life is good on a mission. I feel so blessed to be able to be out here. Its so much fun. We are doing good. Transfers are coming up on the 19th. I wonder if I will be transferred. That will be nuts. Ah! 

Anyway I love you all! 

Elder Simons

In the eternities...

Hey Mom and Dad!

It was a wonderful week. I went on exchanges with Elder Mansell and Elder Christensen. Both are really great elders. Elder Mansell is a hard worker and his investigators and the other people he is teaching just love him. He truly is a great example of how to be a great missionary and have people love you. Elder Christensen is just as amazing. He is so knowledgable in the gospel. It impresses me with some of the stuff that he says. He is a very capable servant of the Lord. He is going home though. Which has been hard for me! He gave his departing testimony at zone conference (all the missionaries bear their testimonies the last zone conference before they leave) yesterday and I just was crying the whole time through. I feel like I haven't learned more from any another missionary than him while I have been out here. Well maybe Elder Buhler. But Elder Christensen is such a man. I keep telling him I'm not going to let him go home. He wishes he doesn't have to go home either but its his time and his family needs him before they leave to South Korea. We had a long conversation at the end of our exchange about our friendship and we have seen each other grow so much in the past year. And how we hope to hang out after our missions. Man i love that kid. I will miss him so much.

On a happier note, we had zone conference yesterday and i got to see some missionary buddies that i haven't seen in a while, namely Elder Leone and Elder Amataga. Man i love this mission thing and the friends that i have made. I love that i get to serve the Lord and have fun while I'm doing it. I think for my whole youth i figured a mission is just going to be boring and that i wouldn't enjoy it. But I could not have been more wrong. I love it! And I never have a boring moment! My president said something yesterday that has really impressed me, and the Spirit and this thought have been working on me since..it goes along the lines of this..."I'm confident that we know in many instances why we were called to the Roseville Mission, either by the people we meet and teach or the companions you have and learn from, you will know just from seeing that God has reasoning behind this call, but I can promise you there are many other unseen reasons why you are here right now, but they will be revealed to you in the eternities"...How awesome is that? That gives me the desire to want to be out and doing things like tracting where I don't know what the outcome is, and to my natural eye it seems like i just got another slammed door in my face, but in all reality the quick little response we say to a person when they open the door could prick their hearts and affect them in a time down the road. We just need to have faith that one day things will work out for the good of all people. Right now for instance if i didn't understand a certain rule or commandment but if i obey, i know with surety that i will be blessed for it, and that in the future when i die everything will be made known unto me. That promise is wonderful to me.

Elder Rasmussen and I are gelling nicely. Since we have been together so long we are pretty good teachers together. Its sweet. We get along great. We have SOSOSOSO much fun. We always have something to laugh about each day. The ward seems to love us as well. We get the line "you are our favorite missionaries" like once a week. Its crazy but I love it so much, its just a confidence booster. We are doing the mutual thing tonight. And I'm stressing a little bit. Because we are on exchanges right now with the ZL's, and me and Ras aren't 100% prepared. But we will have some time tonight to get prepared. I hope the kids like it. I'm sure they will. We are hoping to to help them realize that yes we are missionaries but we went to high school and we went through stuff as well. We hope to help them out alot.

There is a scripture that i can't find right now that I love! But hopefully i will find it soon, but its a prophet and he testifies that he will be in the rest of his Lord with his converts. I wish i could find it. But that excites me! I want to be in the presence of Savior with my family and my converts. All the people i have taught on my mission. And also the less-actives i have helped come back into the fold of God. I want to rest with them in heaven. I can't imagine my happiness level if and when that happens. I cant wait!

We had a lesson with a less-active single mom last night. And the spirit was so present during the lesson! She felt it, we felt it. She will be in the temple in five months. I can promise you that. I want to be there when she goes to get her endownment out. That would be such a great moment. She has so much potential and she has a huge desire to come back to church. I love that. When people have a desire to learn and get blessings, its easier for us to work with them and easier for the Spirit to testify of the truthfulness of the message. I love this work. This is the Lord's work.

I better go! I'm praying for everyone at home a lot!

Elder Simons

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!