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

Make every minute count

Hey mom!

So first about transfers! Elder Vaitai is getting transferred to actually be with Elder Bowerman. So that is kinda sweet. I will be getting Elder Solomon from Idaho. I went street contacting with him on his first day on the mission when I was a ZL down in Antelope. Good stuff. I'm excited for it. We are going to work our tails off but I will miss my crazy Tongan companion. He will have a good time up north though. 

So I have 6 more weeks. That is just unreal to me, it is just scary but makes me realize the time I have left is so precious. I need to make every minute count. I do not want any regrets! None at all. Last week I was defining the word "regret" to Elder Vaitai because his English isn't perfect yet so he still doesn't know a couple words. It is always fun explaining stuff to him. Like last night I explained "red neck" to him. Good times. But anyway I was defining regret to him and while I was defining and thinking about it I was like "wow I do not want to have any regrets from my mission". If I do I will think about them for the rest of my life. I don't want that! 

Anyway another slow week but things are going to be changing around here, I can smell it in the wind. Can't you? It is just so hard to find the people to teach. We got a little more area to cover though, we are taking some of the Alta Sierra ward and half covering it with sisters which will be...weird. They are so many sisters that they double cover wards now. Luckily we get all of Lake Of the Pines to ourselves. 

Wasn't Easter nice? What a special time we have to reflect on the Savior and His life. It was amazing to partake of the Sacrament and realize that our Savior has done so much for us and through His resurrection we can be saved in the Kingdom of God. We are so blessed! 

This week is going to be crazy. It will probably fly by but oh well! Our new district has 12 missionaries in it. That is crazy. It will be good though. Thank you for everything you do! I have to go but remember the Church is true and don't forget to listen to conference. It can change your life, only if you let it though. I love you!

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!

Become as Little Children

Another great week up in LOP. (Lake Of the Pines) I feel strongly that our ward is turning in the right direction. We set a baptismal date on Saturday that was great and really unexpected. We asked one of our investigators to come to a baptism that was happening in the stake. Before this he decided to wait till he turned 12 to get baptized to wait for his testimony to grow more, which I was kinda sad about and we had a couple lessons where we explained that God has gifts and blessings that He is willing to give to you now. Don't wait! But he was still pretty set on getting baptized when he was 12 which is in December. We were talking to him after the baptism and he was saying "the feelings I had made me feel like I have to get baptized now. I can't wait, it is supposed to happen now." 

I just love that example and will probably never forget it for the rest of my life. No wonder Jesus said we must become as little children. They are so open and willing to listen to the Spirit. It was just humbling to realize he was open to the spirit and it came to him because he asked for it and he was willing to act upon whatever the Lord had prompted him to do. Just a special experience. So he's getting baptized on the 30th, so we have to hurry and prepare for it. 

We are about to pick up some new investigators that I'm really excited about. One of them that really wants to change his life around, I'm hoping we can teach him and he will understand that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the way to turn your life around for the better. And eventually be saved in the Kingdom of God. But he will find that out later. 

Anyway life is just good, I'm having fun just living life. I can't believe transfers are in two weeks. And then it is my last transfer. Ah...crazy. 

Anyway we are going to play some ball today as always so that will be good. Anyway I love you all and thanks for everything you do for me! This Church is 100% true and Christ is Living and Loving.

Elder Simons

Photo of Elder Simons

Editor's Note" I'm not sure who Wilson is with, but a member texted this photo to Bob a couple of nights ago. I LOVE it when we randomly get a photo of our missionary! It makes it seem like he is right around the corner, somehow!

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

A week full of blessings!

Hey mom,

This week has been full of blessings! First of all we got a car! This area is like the area where bikes shouldn't be allowed because it is sooo dangerous and there are like mountains we have to somehow bike over. So we got a brand spanking new 2013 Toyota Corolla with 100 miles on it. It is so amazing to drive. We are loving it. Since we have a car we are able to travel around more easily and visit so many more peeps. 

We were visiting this less-active and she has a friend living in her home that is interested so we are teaching him too. I'm so excited for him. He said yes to the question 'if you knew these things were true would you be baptized?" That is always good to hear. So basically i'm hoping and praying he will be baptized soon. 

We also picked up another investigator.  He is about 10 years old. He wants to get baptized too. We have our first lesson with him on Wednesday. It is great! What else is new? So funny story... every time my companion sees a big fat dog he says "good meat". He used to eat dog in Tonga and so he like sizes them up and how they would taste and stuff. It is funny. I love him so much! 

Anyway there has been some great things happening. I love how excited the ward is about all of the work. So this week on Saturday Elder Neil Anderson is coming! I can't wait. The whole mission is going down to Roseville. It is going to be amazing. Thanks for everything! I feel the prayers coming my way and I appreciate it so much and can't thank you all enough.

Elder Rasmussen, Elder Simons, Elder Wilson