1/25/16

Fat week this week. Well kinda, numbers got stabbed with a icicle then marinated in rubbing alcohol. But oh well. We did contact a lot of referrals, and some good things came from it. We got three new investigators, who are all pretty awesome. Evon ( pronounced Ivan) Dover a sweet guy from Brazil, and Ned a dude in Wilkinsburg who asks awesome questions. So let's hope they read.

We visit Leona all the times, she is doing well but physically. We had the greatest lesson with her-ever. She's going through a lot with her body, the broken femur and now blood pockets in that leg. Yeah it's that bad. So we had a lesson inside for the first time, we first showed her a bible video to calm her down and bring the spirit. That brought the spirit in, then we knew we should give her a blessing. So for the first time we taught her the restoration, even tho she's in 3 Nephi and has a strong testimony of it. We told her about Joseph Smith and the restoration, and how we have the priesthood authority to bless her. She knew what we were telling her was true because she already knew the BOM to be true. We gave her a blessing, I sealed. And it was crazy spiritual. The Holy Ghost was so strong. The crazy part was "He wants you to be baptized." Which scared me to say but I felt a confirmation afterwards that I was supposed to say it. After we sat back down and she was crying and just bearing her testimony on the BOM, on the spirit. She said it was the first time she'd ever felt the spirit like this even though she'd been to other churches her whole life. The spirit was so strong people I can't even begin to tell you how powerful it was for us. No doubts for her or me. We've visited her more this week following and she's still going strong. She wants to be baptized, she's working on not smoking, and more importantly her health needs to be up. It'll take some time, I won't be here for it but she'll be baptized. A lot of people are converted for the social part of church, not her she's converted by the Holy Ghost. That was a the highlight for sure.

It snowed a lot, but not that bad. We had a lot of great dinners with members so that was awesome. Also on an exchange to Northside with Elder Sundergord, we were standing on federal street and a school bus with kids drove past. That's when you need to be paying attention, the kids are the real thugs. But thugs with no throwing arms. They threw a locker lock at us, it bounced off the brick wall to my right then rattles in the ground. pretty scary but kids will be kids? I kept the lock of course. Another highlight was Snoodernord downing a packet of grape koolaid. Both Dave and Tony canceled on us this week so that's unfortunate. But we'll keep it going! K bye

Elder Simmons

1/18/16

It's winter now people. This week was overshadowed by coldness. Tuesday we had a productive morning finding referrals in Homewood. We were able to teach quite a few lessons even tho it was cold.

The day downtown froze over

We went downtown and finally saw Dave again! He's been softened a lot because his mom is on her death bed. He's paying attention to the Book of Mormon now and is slowly but surely changing. The difference from when I first saw him and now is pretty different.

The highlight of Wednesday was Elder Howard and I teaching two different people at the same time. It was Leona and her friend Eric. Leona again told us again how happy she was that we were her "angels." Sadly later in the week we learned that people above her weren't doing their jobs. But it was a cool night. There's been some ups and downs for sure. Some afternoons were just walking around trying to find some less actives and nothing happened, those days are always rough. We also had a zone training where I learned about how bad of a planner I am. So now I get to repent and try the right way of planning out. The longer I'm out the more inexperienced I feel. It's ironic and a work in progress. We also got to see Tony again. He has problems with prophets on the earth again, and he still hasn't been able to go to church. Really if people want to learn fully about the church they need to read, pray, and go to church. So that struggle of getting people to church is too real.

At church Nick gave a awesome talk! I tried to record it but on accident I was already recording, stopped it as he talked, then started it again as he sat down. Face palms for days! The spirit was really strong. He said he is eternally grateful for Elder Gille and I. I don't think he realizes the magnitude of saying "eternity". I feel like her was just trying to quote Toy Story, but It was really cool for me to hear. Sunday night we had a lesson at the Langes, with the zone leaders teaching Eva, the referral we contacted. She is so solid, the lesson went really well. She'll be baptized for sure, especially because she has such good friends in the church already. Good week, really cold, ups and downs but that's the life I live! Also it's worth it.

I "got" to play Pokemon today

1/11/16

Another solid week in the books!

The beginning of this week was fantastic. Our goal this week was to have about 7 lessons a day and get thirty in the week. Monday we had a good time Elder Howard and I preaching it and taking names. Our main focus now is to make sure we get contact information now. If we don't get info we don't count it as a lesson. But we had a productive day and got new people to get in contact with.

Tuesday was a awesome exchange with my man Elder Lundberg! We had a crazy day of walking somewhere, then getting a bus, then walking and the cycle repeated. In under 30 minutes we taught 4 lessons. It was pretty nuts, but the best one was a guy walking his dog. He had some great questions for us as we taught him. By the end of the 15 minutes with him we had taught him the first 3 lessons! Of course it was overwhelming and he was skeptical. But that's where the Book of Mormon comes in handy. He said he'd start reading and learning from it. It was awesome to be able to teach and testify to the guy and spew the things that I study about all the days but not too often get to teach. Also Elder Lundberg and I were rocking it while we taught. It was pretty cool.

Firetrucks are a must.


Thursday was a district meeting on planning, then Friday we planned. I feel like a stinky missionary when I take hours but I don't see progress in the planning. So that's rough. I seem to get down on myself rather easily. But I got time to figure this out.

The weather has been so pleasant, till Sunday it started snowing a bit. We also saw a adorable dog that lives right down the street. Elder Howard and I were walking at some point in the week and I said let's try the girl down the street. We finally got to talk to her after many attempts to give her a Book of Mormon. Ironically we had ran out by then.. Point is she is good friends with some members who took her to the DC temple. (visitor center) In our first visit she said she almost became a Mormon but doesn't want to now because her Catholic parents wouldn't be able to see the sealing. But if that's her concern she'll be baptized in no time!! #splitthedifference. So that's really exciting.

Other interesting things that happened would be our friend Dan the homeless man seems to be pretty receptive to the message of the restoration. He hasn't finished reading it yet but he said he liked how simple they have it. OH Leona broke her femur bone which is a really bad problem right? Well she's actually doing really well because she's getting a new place to stay in. She said the Book of Mormon helped her get the place because of her renewed faith and relationship with God! Booyah! She really wants to go to church once she's doing better.

We met with Tony and had a good lesson about going to church but he didn't make it. Dangers. But we did get a investigator to church. His name is Bernard and I talked to him in Kevin's apartment a few weeks ago. Super unexpected but it was cool. He only is down to talk about Jesus, doesn't like Joseph Smith and knows zero about him. Also not willing to have us come over. Also in class he made some outlandish comments about always being forgiven before you sin.. But uh he'll get it right one day hopefully. His problem is that he thinks he knows everything but umm.. He don't.. So good luck Bernard.

We also saw the coolest car I've ever seen in Wilkinsburg, a Polaris Slingshot but the guy turbo charged the junk out of it.

The coolest car ever.

The guy I'm with is a random gawker that we don't know, but he was chill enough to be in the pic with me.


Oh hey the Lovelands are back, we've been there twice now. Booyah. All in all it was a fat week. Hopefully this next week will have a lot of first lessons.

Elder Simmons

The day I stole Elder Syndergaard's coat!

The harmonica has been found!

1/4/16

Hey people. This week was a roller coaster. On Tuesday and Wednesday we crushed it. It was insane I tell you. It was crazy. On Monday we got a lot of lessons. We talked with everyone we could. There were times where we both didn't want to talk or didn't feel it. But we'd just do it anyways. One instance in particular was cool. We just started off in the morning. I was struggling to have a good attitude because we had like one thing planned to do in 3 hours. We walk past the convenience store and we see two guys, one in a wheel chair and another guy chilling there. I thought we should talk to him and my body said keep walking bud. So I literally put on the breaks and dragged my feet before we crossed the street to stop. I went back with a questioning Elder Howard behind me. We talk with him and he asks us for a bible. He got a Book of Mormon. That was cool.

Another highlight was we got a hospital Refferal and it turned out not to be the guy at all. But we got that guys address and gave him a BOM! On a blitz with Elder Devey we went to visit a lady for a second lesson. That morning she had gotten in a fight with her man then went out and got drunk. Then we came. We had a crazy spiritual lesson about the church is the answer to her needs in life. She wants a support system and this church has it. She didn't come to church which was a disappointment. Rollercoasters.

So we crushed it in the beginning of this week. Then the weather turned south and things got way hard. And I got humbled, or at least exhausted. Crazy how He gives then He takes. But one night we were out of ideas and prayed to know what to do. So we tried Diana Gladstone, I thought it would ether be a get a return appointment or a drop. So I didn't have the best attitude. But I was trying K? So we knock and she lets us in because she had her nieces and nephews over who were over and are Mormon! So we had a sweet lesson reading the Book of Mormon, then the kids bore testimonies about it! It was so powerful, it was amazing. As we left the kids parents pulled up from the airport and we got the chance to praise their kids for a minute. That was so cool.

Alright last one. Sunday we were out in Lawrenceville and we knocked on a door of a referral named Kevin. He was a really nice guy and let us in his house for dinner!! It was crazy. It was awesome.

Point being we had a crazy week. Ups and down galore. Got to love it!

Elder Simmons

Having fun with Gummy bears