2/29/16

Some kind of week

'Twas a interesting week. The beginning was marked by an interesting journey of getting my hair cut. In the end, I sat in a chair outside the sisters apt, while sister Jarvis essentially shaved my head. So that was fun, I'm now part of the #shavecrew. Later in the week Elder Davis and I convinced Elder Gull to shave his head too. He actually did it which is amazing because we weren't even there to pressure him in person. But alas the man who loves his hair killed it too.

As for the work, we had two lessons this week. Which is doing a whole lot better than the first week so I won't complain. While talking to cats at PSU I gave away one BOM this week. He was a solid guy, it's strange the people, who end up being so open to our message, just kinda stop and stare at me when they walk up to me. Like on the inside their spirit is telling them to be there or something. Elder Curtis and I also did some fat bussing, I met a guy who had been to temple square and has a BOM. He said he'd read it. I also talked to a guy who has two friends on missions! Pretty crazy how it worked out in the end. We did service at the kitchen like we do, and some people from a local magazine were there taking some pictures of everyone. Hopefully they'll remember to send me the pics after the issue comes out!

The weekend hit and it's what is called "State Pattys day". It all starts on Thursday with Fraternity Socials, which are closed parties just to the frat members who dress all nice. They all dress in a button up shirt, tan pants generally, and their stupid brown boots. Anyways, I'm sure they all had a classy night. Friday and Saturday was just pretend to be Irish weekend and get slammed allll day, and also wear green. Elder Calaway and I were on exchanges and we mainly tracted all day, which was a beautiful thing, I enjoyed it immensely. Near the end we were walking and there was a group of college kids headed our way to pass us. I knew that I shouldn't stop and let them talk to us because they'd probably do something stupid. So when the time came I whipped out my gloved hand and waved to them and said hi. One girl, who was holding a cup, stumbled at us and said "Can you believe that this dog can pee?" It was very slurred so I had no idea what she said. Then she turned more to me and said, loudly. "why are you wearing oven mitts!??" I didn't understand what she said but after Elder Calaway relayed to me what she said and I laughed so hard. I put myself in her shoes, being drunk off her rocker, and seeing someone with fat mittens. The obvious question would be,why are you wearing oven mitts. Good times.

The week ended off so lovely. Sunday was so nice. In sacrament meeting a little boy handed Elder Curtis and I cards they said "I love you"-Will. So heart. So I made him a card that was a missionary tag that said Elder Will. It made his day from what I hear. Also Ronda and Roger got married this week! We're going to go over there on Thursday, have dinner, then a couple they know will come for Ronda's lesson. So we have an investigator, who's been to church twice already, has a lot of friends too! So by the end of the week a miracle came. And I'm super happy about it

See ya

Elder Simmons

Buzzz

Mines always free

New hat! #Nittany lions

2/22/16

What's up world! It's been a week. It's been a week. Tuesday we got to go out to PSU (Penn State University) like we always do on Tuesdays and Fridays. They are my favorite days to just talk to people, or to just say hi and compliment something about them. May I add the timberland boots trend here is the worst. All these white guys wear these unlaced brown boots and don't take care of them so they look like complete trash. With the culture in Pittsburgh the timberlands were well taken care of. The treatment of these boots are a foreshadow of freedom in this country. Atleast that's what I hear. The best part of Tuesday was when a woman walked past me and I said hi and she replied back and stared at me trying to figure out how she knew me. As she stared at me I stared back with a face that said, it's me! After a good 5 seconds of staring she said "what are you doing here??" She probably read the tag or something as she said that because she started walking away real quick. But I replied "just doing missionary work!" It was rather hilarious.

Yep, welcome to the Relief Society.

On Wednesday we did some fat driving to a referral we got! She ordered a bible, she had all the info, email, phone number, address and everything. We get there and this standard Pennsylvanian family is just chilling on their porch, we ask for the woman who was there, they go grab her, then heart break. She says she didn't order anything and acted as though she had no idea. There's no way someone would prank these people-they didn't have neighbors! So that was a disappointment, they wouldn't even take a bible. Oh well, we got some sweet pics at a bench over looking State College.

Thursday-service day was good stuff. I am actively increasing my cooking skills. This week instead of cutting 200 apples and potatoes, I help cook over 200 hundred chicken limbs and such. It's was tiring for sure but I had a good time. It felt like the good ole days at BYU football games when I worked Concessions, way back when life was simpler. But it was a good time.

Friday an event called Thon started, a 46 hour dance marathon for charities having to do with pediatric cancer. So it's a pretty big deal they raised 13 million dollars last year. I talked to like 9 people going to the event. They may or may not have been all female, but that shouldn't change any opinions of my character. The gospel was preached ok? I got to hang out with Elder Ord so that was a joy, that is as soon as he remembered who I was. Elder Olds late onset Alzheimer's is getting to him.

With Elder "Old".

Anyways on Friday was the memorial of Sister Wells, what a great experience. (Mission Memorial Page) The spirit was so powerful it was madness. There was talks on the plan of salvation and with my recent New Testament studies I just got the overwhelming peace, joy and love that the Savior gives us through his atonement. It's such a higher plan that I cannot understand. "The Plan of Happiness is an understatement."

Friday was a good day, except busing the sisters around like I was some kind of chauffeur for the freaking back seat driving circus. Saturday we went out and tracted, which is what we need to be doing a lot. We finished a street, gave out a Book of Mormon to a guy who loved his bible but shockingly took a Book of Mormon. Eventually we turned down a street which got rich real quick. Most of the cars had PSU staff stickers on them, no one was interested but everyone we talk to is kind at least. I did however get chased by a dog who tried to bite me. But don't worry, it was an obese, old bloodhound, who looked like a beached whale as it barked at us in their lawn.

To wrap it up I Gave a talk on Sunday, it was about hope. It was decent I only had a day to prepare it so it wasn't the best. Also a returning member moved into our ward with his fiancé. Their getting married this week hopefully. Then we learned she isn't a member although she said she used to be a Catholic, and soon we'll make her a Mormon! It's pretty exciting that The Lord is helping us out as we put the effort in.

Anyways,

Elder Simmons

Iced windows are fun!

2/15/16

A week on the steep end of the Learning Curve.

Tuesday was a very crazy day indeed. When I got to transfer meetings I learned that I was to be driving my van back to State College. I wasn't too mentally prepared to drive for 2.5 hours after not driving for half a year, but we were on the road before I knew it. TiWi nailed me 7 times for driving too fast, I soon got the hang of it. Man TiWi is no fun at all! It was a decently snowy day and the windshield wipers were awful, also I didn't realize I had my day lights on the whole time. It got pretty late into the evening while I was just using day lights, so that was sketchish. But in the end we made it.

I met Elder Curtis, who is a good guy, no complaints there. I learned about the area which is slow to say the least. We do a lot of tracting and OYMing (Open Your Mouth) out here. There's also another set of Elders, Elder Hummer and Calaway. Both quality gentlemen. Then there's also 7 sister missionaries, now that's different. There's Sisters Wong, Chuah, and Danso they're from the Temple Square so they've all confirmed the tunnels under the temple, etc. then there's Sisters: Jarvis, Thorson, Brown, and Palmer. So there you go, I'm sure plenty of stories of them will come up in the future. Anyways Tuesday night we got the news of the sisters getting in the car accident. Think we all know that story by now, it was humbling to hear, after my own decently sketchy drive an hour north of them. I am very grateful for my safety.

Other highlights of my week would be the OYMing at Penn State. In Pittsburgh the main people I didn't bother talking to were people my age. But now it was students walking by and I'm supposed to get them to stop and talk to me about the Gospel. Pretty nerve racking at first, I started with saying hi, next I added a compliment, then the hard part was asking if I could talk to them for a second. A lot of nopes but I enjoyed my style of talking to them fools. I did have really good conversations with three people. I didn't bother with handing out cards, but I did get to give away 3 copies of the Book of Mormon. So that days' mission was accomplished. I had a jolly good time, I kept myself entertained in the cold snow. Also this place has buses so that's still my favorite.

Saturday night we went to a little place called Stormstown. The tracting right by our place is rough because the people are very wealthy. The part of Stormstown we found wasn't ridiculous. So for like a hour and a half Saturday night we knocked on doors. The people in general were all very kind, they all were concerned for our warmth. It was 9 degrees outside, plus humidity and windchill got us down into the negatives I'm sure of it.

A few did let us in to say our spiel, one was a cool Russian family, another a Witch. Yeah we were in a witches house. There were a few houses that the strange vibes were real. One of which I felt a tensing/strain in my shoulder that I hadn't felt before and it stopped after we left the porch. P.S. No one was home. Though "unsuccessful" it was a good night, we were doing our job, we worked hard, we talked to some really kind people. That's a win in my book. I'm happy that I've been optimistic in this new place, the change of pace is very different but we'll pick it up.

Welcome to State College.

Elder Simmons

2/8/16

Oh man what a week, to begin the week... oh snap it was so slow. I thought "really, my last week and I'm doing nothing great". Thursday turned things around a bit. The problem for the beginning of the week was that I knew it was my last week and we kept finding ourselves standing there in a stupor of thought of not knowing what we should do. Thursday night we had the same thing happen. I thought we should just start walking, then I got a thought to try someone we've only met once. We knocked and they opened, they were super kind and we had a great lesson on the BOM, introducing it, explained it and explained why it's so important for everyone. I figured out I get a whole lot of happiness giving out the Book of Mormon because it has the potential to change everything for them.

The latter half of the week got real crazy, got to see Dave, Tony, had a dinner with Nick, a dinner with Debi and Elizabeth. My favorite day was Saturday. In the morning I went out with Elder Syndergaard to Oakland, which is borderline a waste of time because it's Saturday on a college campus. But we did talk to a guy who has been searching for truth all his life. He was so grateful for the book. He said you guys don't understand how much this means to me. Those are always good moments. We had the last lunch with Kevin, in which he raged quit Uno twice!

Oh, speaking of ridiculousness, we were riding a bus one night and the driver was pulling up to a bus shelter, but he got too close to the corner of the shelter and smacked off the rearview mirror and the corner of the shelter went into the windshield! We were standing right in front of it, I saw it all. It was crazy. College. When he hit the shelter, the whole shelter shifted and one of the glass panels shattered! There was a guy standing underneath it who got out of there real quick. We also saw a bus run from behind a bus and run into a car! What is this world coming to? Also he was fine. But it was madness this week.

Anyways the rest of Saturday I got to talk to more people on the bus one last time. I enjoyed immensely to give people this book. One was a lady who had always wanted to read it and another was a young father who wants something to raise his kids with. Sunday was also surreal, I gave my testimony, said goodbye to people. Pretty crazy stuff. Elder Gull and I burned ties together, I realize I'm a few days early but It doesn't actually matter.

6 months out: burn a tie


Also I've started packing because I'm getting transferred. To.....wait for it wait for it! Actually you've already read it. It's hidden in the text. Hah! Good luck punks.

See ya Pittsburgh

Elder Simmons

(Note: Brad is getting transferred to State College - Ryan)

2/1/16

Well. What a week in the life. To begin 5 Guys has shakes now, idk if that's already a thing back in the west but you can get any flavor for the same flat price. So I got a Oreo, peanut butter, bacon shake. Safe to say it was heaven. Also shout out to Kevin Willeitner for taking us out to breakfast! That was super cool, also super trippy.

Kevin!

The Butlers got to meet Leona this week so that was really good for her! She didn't make it to church which is too bad. We had 4 people with the invitation to come to church. None came. Why is it so hard to get people to church. Struggles are too real. A new investigator we met this week is Ned. We had two awesome lessons with him one on Saturday, where he said he'd be there Sunday. Some shady things going down. A highlight for me was Friday night. We had dinner with the Lovelands then a lessons with Tony and the Butlers. We learned Tony's way he needs to learn is by just reading the text. There's a reason we have the pamphlets so let's use them eh?

After Tony we visited Rob at his bus stop. Good ole Rob. Walking home at about 9 a drunk guy off his rocker stopped us again, third time it's ever happened, asked us for money. So we prayed with him and after he apologized for asking for money, he said were family and all that. This place is nuts sometimes. Also walking home we saw Elizabeth and talked to her. Then saw Leona and Eric! We saw Leona every single day walking by. Every time. It's crazy. Shes still going through a lot, a dog jumped on her broken leg. Then on Sunday the lady in the same room as her died right by her. WAT. Taught the plan of salvation a bit.

Shopping with Leona

Another day I went to the back of the bus headed toward the hill district, I started talking to a young buck about the BOM. He was off to go chill and get high, I did ye old turn to a random verse and have it pertain to you. It worked, so that was good. Then he got curious and actually desired to have a BOM which he at first declined. As I introduced it in depth as a YSA member named George hopped on the bus and immediately started testifying with me. Booyah member present! I hope he'll read, the best part was how open he was. That was cool.

This week we also had interviews with president. He dropped some HUGE hints that I was leaving. So consider it done, I'll be ready to go. I'll miss Pittsburgh but adventure is out there.

Last thing, we were by a Presbyterian church one day and a guy came out of his car and I asked if he was the pastor, he wasn't. But he turned out to be a Elder Simmons too! So nuts. I wanted a picture with him so he gave us a tour of the church and we took a picture! He invited us to come to church and visit Saturday. So we went! We're better investigators then our own investigators. The church was very interesting and very entertaining. We had a band with a piano, saxophone and drums. We sang the birthday song, they clapped and amened, no whooping though. We didn't stay too long. We also got introduced to the whole congregation and they all clapped to us when elder Simmons told the story of our meeting. It was so cool. It was a good experience, I enjoyed seeing other people worship. Things were different and authority from God was lacking. But it was still pleasing to God. Cool beans you know.

Elder Simmons and Elder Simmons

Also can anyone fess up to sending me about 40 hand warmers back in December ish!? I don't know who sent me them but they've blessed the lives of many so thanks. Sunday we pulled through and hit 30 lessons. Miracles are real, I hope we can keep up the good work before I bounce! See ya.

Elder Simmons

When you find a box of Honey Buns in Wilkinsburg! One man's trash is a missionaries lunch!

The District

Jake Knowles and I

The Knowles and the Lovelands!