Now is the time to think about it!

Hey Mom & Dad!
What a week! Okay so on Tuesday we visited a less-active lady and we read some of the beautiful Book of Mormon with her and it went great and her grand- daughter came out and started talking to us (she isn't a member, but I have talked to her up in Biggs on the street like three or four times before). So i was like "your grandma is a Mormon how come you aren't??" and she said "well i don't know i never have really thought about it" then i was like "well now is the time to think about it!" and she is like "well i guess you are right!" then i was like "okay when can we come over and teach you?" and she gave us a return appointment. It was really wild. I loved it though, it was a really, really cool experience.
The lessons for Wednesday all got cancelled except for the deaf investigator. Which was bad but that's okay. There is always good within the bad, we just need to do some looking at the situation from a different angle and see what the good was. Maybe the lessons we planned weren't the ones that would help them in the way they needed help that specific day. I love the Lord. He has taught me so much. There is ALWAYS good. The scriptures have so many stories and examples of that. What a great blessing to have those.
The deaf investigator said "yes" to baptism again and he was like well i may be busy next Saturday (19th) so i was like...okay how about this Saturday (three days later) and we almost got it except there was stake conference so we couldn't do that. But this next week we will get him baptized though. He wants to be baptized. I just really think he is just plain scared of how it is going to take place.
So anyway we were up in Biggs on Wednesday i think and it was really cold and so we decided to go into Buckshot Grill to go the bathroom (the one place to eat in Biggs) and in the back they were giving out flu shots, and i told the nurses that i hated shots and they were trying to convince me to let them stab me with a needle (thats still seems twisted to me). They said "we will even give it to you for free"! And i was like "no!!" Man i hate shots.
We went tracting after that and we went up to a pomegrante tree and we both grabbed one and ate them. Its sweet we can just do that while tracting. I figured Whitney would like that. :)
Anyways other than that i am still plugging along just doing my thing, trying to work as hard as i can. I love missionary work. I love being out here. I want my mission to be longer than two years. Again i love the Lord with all my heart. He is my buddy. We get closer daily.
Love
Elder Simons

The lessons I have learned

So this week has been a week of total ups and total downs. First with the ups, me and Buhler are getting along so well, maybe too well. Its so awesome how well we fit together. I love that kid, i am so glad he is my son. It has been alot of fun living with the other Elders in Gridley. We have had a good time.
We picked up an investigator this week! I have been trying to visit this former, for about five months now and she has really NEVER been there and we just decided to randomly go over there and she was for once there! And she was like "it is crazy you guys came now because i am usually gone (yes i know that lady!) and today i just had a sick day". I said "well maybe you were sick for a reason and we came and visited you for a reason!" And she laughed and said "maybe", and we talked a little more and set up a time to go back on Wednesday.
I am really excited about Wednesday. We will be meeting with all three of our investigators. Hopefully we will set three baptismal dates!
So that was some of the ups of the week. There were just a couple downs. First of all my bike got destroyed this week. So Elder Buhler has really bad luck when it comes to bikes, so the bike that he was on was being dumb so i decided to try it and try to make it work so i had him riding mine for a day or so, and right before he gave it back it started making this crazy sound and we are like what the heck! So we took it back to the apartment to fix it and i took the bike completely apart. And then put it together again and figured out that the chain got destroyed. So we bought a new chain and we are back in business now. So it wasn't that bad.
The real bad of the week happened on Wednesday though. We had a lesson with our deaf investigator and we went in planning to talk about how Jesus fufilled all righteousness as it talks about it Matthew by being baptized then tying it into 2 Nephi 31 and then inviting him to be baptized. And there was silence... silence... and he is thinking and thinking, and i was praying in my head harder then ever for him to just say yes. Not for my benefit but for his and he says "yes". (when he says yes i squeeze Elder Buhler on the back because i was so excited) and then i get back into my game face and ask him when worked best for him. And he says well i first need to work out a couple problems ("oh no..." i say) and he went off for about twenty minutes about how Halloween is for satan worshipping, and how the church doing trunk or treat was a bad thing and we defiled the church parking lot. I was like "come on, would you let that stop you from getting into the kingdom of god?" And he said that's besides the point. So that was really hard for me. I felt like he was playing around with us. I was wondering why i have been teaching this man for five months and put my sweat and tears into this process to hear that about Halloween.  I had a long conversation with God. And I never got the impression that it will be alright in the form of him being baptized but i got the answer that it will be alright in the form of you learning something Elder Simons. It was really a wonderful experience. This man may never get baptized or progress while I'm here but the lessons i have learned alone from teaching him are incredible. I just love how the Lord works. It amazes me. In my gospel study i have been studying the Plan of Salvation. And I had the thought that i might have the chance to teach him in the spirit world. It just came across my mind. But i would rather teach him here so he can go to the temple and be sealed to his wife.
Overall the week was wonderful. I love my mission. Why me? I always ask myself why i am lucky enough to be able to be out here. The Lord truly blesses each and every one of us. We just need to make sure we have our eyes open and are watching for them.
I love you all, Have a wonderful day.
Bye!

A good deliverer of the truth

Hey family!
What a week! What a week!
So first we went to our investigator's house and we talked to him a little bit about baptism, then i was like "Hey man, we know that you want to get sealed to your wife and son, and the first step is baptism, so how about it?" And he said that not right now, but he gave us a couple things he wasn't sure on about the church and told us he wants more information. So we plan to teach him tomorrow and get that date set. See we can look at this as like "Oh shoot we didn't get a baptismal date set, lets let this ruin our week shall we?" or we can say "What a blessing, i have been teaching this guy for five months and this is the first time he has opened up and voiced his concerns so we could be happy because of that" so i made the decision that we would chose the last option. So we are still happy and learning not only patience, but the worth of souls. That may be hard to understand, but what i have learned is some investigators are going to be hard to get them progressing but it helps me (Heavenly Father is reminding me) realize that the ordinance of a baptism isn't a small ordeal. It is monumental! It is the first step into the kingdom of God. And these people that i have the blessing of teaching are real people with real concerns. And its my job to be a good deliverer of the truth.
I have learned alot and the Lord is teaching me so much. I love it. I love my mission. I NEVER have been happier anywhere else or at any other time in my life. Gridley/Biggs must just be heaven or something. Or maybe the Lord is just letting me know but helping me be happy, that this is the place where i need to be. Anyway! The next day we had a visit with our deaf investigator, long story short we didn't get a baptismal date with him either. He is coming along though. He has made some progress. Bro Brock keeps saying he has never been closer then he is now. So that was nice of him.
We did a lot of biking this week. It was really nice. I love biking now. Isn't that crazy? I used to hate it. I used to wake up in the mornings and be like "I do not want to ride anywhere today" but now i wake up and I'm like "Get me on a bike!". Its a lot better too because we can talk to more people on the street as opposed to the car.
Its also funny to me to think about how much i didn't love Gridley at first. I wanted out! But the Lord chastened me i think and is making me love it here. Now i dont want to ever be transferred. The people here are so great! Member and non- members. Everyone is really nice. The rice and walnut harvest is going strong. Maybe i will send home some Gridley grown walnuts one of these days.
I love you guys! We are going to big bad Oroville today to get some shopping done, then we are playing sports here in Gridley after!
I love you guys!
Elder Simons!

I am honored to be a missionary

Hey mom!!
So Elder Buhler and i get along so well its crazy! I love this kid!  He is doing great, his wrist is feeling a lot better so that is good. We can ride bikes again! I missed bikes a lot!
This week was crazy! We had a lesson with our deaf investigator and i had this lesson plan that i thought was great and was fit to convince everyone in the world to be baptized. But as soon as we got in there i was inspired to ask him if he had any intentions of being baptized and what was holding him back from taking that step and that leap of faith. And he said he wanted to at some point and he just had a couple things he needed to find out. Then Brother Brock (his fellowshipper) was inspired to have me ask him the Baptismal Interview questions, so i asked them to him and we figured out the problems that he had and we were able to resolve them and help his progress which was being hindered by unknown things to us, but known things to the Lord. I know that Heavenly Father was there with us and he wanted us to follow that spirit that he was giving us and we did, and we were able to get a soft commitment to baptism. Which is such a change from how it normally goes in there. He has been investigating the church for (his wife said 50 years) a while. The Lord is totally blessing us here! We hope to get a baptismal date with him for November 19th. Ah i can't wait!
We also are planning on getting another date for our other investigator. He has been investigating for a long while too. I have a feeling that baptisms are coming soon!
So we had to do some service (mow a lawn) and so I decided to do it in my church clothes so here is a picture of that:

then Buhlers bike got a flat so i fixed that too. It was a good week.

So we have totally tracted all of Gridley and Biggs so we are on to the smaller cities in our area (Richvale, Nelson, Butte City) Tiny, tiny places. In Richvale they teach anti-mormon doctrine at their church, so it is pretty fun going tracting there and everyone wants to bash with you. Man i just wish people had the truth and weren't blinded by what their pastor taught. I'm so glad we have the same church everywhere. We teach the same truths. We are so blessed for that. I love the Church and I'm honored to be able to be a missionary! But anyway we never get to go out to the small towns because they are super far away so we usually get a member to take us. We got Romney, the bishop's son. He is way cool and we are like the best of friends. Here is a picture of all three of us and a way cool sign:

Elder Buhler finally did get his new bike. It is pretty nice and really lightweight. Yes both of my brake pads got stolen. It happened in Biggs though. Crazy, weird stuff happens in Biggs. Like it doesn't surprise me that my brake pads got stolen. Next it will be like my handle grips or something. I will replace the pads as soon as i can find a place that sells them. We have nothing in Gridley so there aren't many places to shop. Oh well, i love it here and the Lord wants me to be here for a reason. 
I love you guys!
Have a great week!

100% Committed to the Work

Training has been a humbling experience. My companion is named Elder Buhler and he is really great. He is from Highland, Utah and he already is such a great missionary! I feel like he has been a missionary for quite a long time. I have already learned so much from him, mainly how to be teachable. He does a great job at that, and that is something that i want to work on. He is great. We (Bo and I) picked him up at Yuba City. It seems like i was just in that same building when i was meeting Elder Osejo. 
Seems like you guys had a great week! I did too. It was pretty tiring though, but that is always good. We tracted a lot on Elder Buhler's second day and we met this lady and she had some questions about the Plan of Salvation so we answered and taught a little about the Book Of Mormon. We are going back Wednesday night, so i am super excited about that one. We really need to pick up some solid investigators. We are going to visit some former investigators this week for about the third time over. It's pretty funny because they all know me and pretty much are my friends now, so maybe this time around they will let us in and start teaching again!
We had such a good Trainer/Trainee meeting on Friday. President Weston taught some of the doctrine of Christ and our missionary purpose. Man i love that man. He is awesome.


President Weston, Elder Buhler, and Elder Simons

Still doing some good work with the less-active people. We have fully activated one woman in our ward. She is so awesome. I love going over and teaching her. We have been working with her for basically my whole mission and she is totally coming every week. Heavenly Father is showering down blessings upon us. I feel so lucky to be on my mission. It has been hard. It is hard not having too much success in the baptism area but i feel so successful as a missionary, because my success is based on my commitment. And i am 100% committed to this work. I love this work so much, this is the Lords work!
So this week when i got Elder Buhler they totally forgot to bring his bike down from the mission office. So we had to use a member's bike that is from the sixties with some newer parts put on it. I let Elder Buhler take my bike and i used the other one. Man that bike needs to be retired! It is so insane to ride.


Elder Simons, on p-day, riding the old borrowed bike from the 60's

But then we got Elder Buhlers bike and on Friday night we were riding around and he used his front brakes (he was used to mine, where both of my front brake pads have been stolen) and totally fell over the top of his handlebars and sprained  his wrists. So now we have to walk around. We are on direct orders to stay off bikes. So the Lord is truly trying to humble me. I loved the car so much, then i started loving bikes incredibly a ton, and now i get to start loving walking! Haha i love the Lord. I have to go but i hope all of you are doing wonderful! I love you very  much.
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!

Loving Gridley

Elder Simons & Elder Peterson

Elder Simons taking a bike for a spin

Hey mom!
I'm sorry for the delay on the email! We had to move a member into our ward and it was...insane. There was so much stuff to move. It was..ah crazy. But i am here. I feel a lot better which is good. I am excited for this next week to finish out this transfer strong. So this past week was kind of slower which isn't great but that's okay.
So conference was so amazing!! It was so much different now that i am on a mission. I felt the spirit so much stronger this time around. It was because i actually paid attention.
But anyway I hope you guys had so much fun at the cabin, i thought about you a lot but i didn't have trunky thoughts. How much did dad sleep during the sessions? Just kidding dad!
But yeah i hope i don't leave Gridley. It's so awesome. I went to Oroville today for groceries and there were so many cars i was like getting aniexty! I was like wow i am too crowded here. I want to go back to Gridley. So that made me realize that i want to stay. But we get transfer calls next Saturday so we will see what happens. I know though wherever i am sent that's where the Lord needs me.
But hmm what to tell you. Still mostly less active work right now. I love to see people bear their testimony who thought they had lost it. It's a miracle. I want an investigator way bad though. A solid one that is. I know the harder i work the closer i come to him or her. I love the Lord. His hand is in all things. 
anyway i love you guys. Have a wonderful fhe!
Elder Simons!