2/27/17

This week was pretty great.

Tuesday night we were asked to go give a blessing to a guy in the hospital. He got in a Bike accident and his cousin who is a member from Colorado asked us to come. So we gave the guy a blessing, the spirit always seems to be the most present to me when giving a blessing. It was a very good experience, tears were shed. But not by me. We also gave a blessing on Friday. The Halls from Lititz ward were in Baltimore, her mom wasn't recovering well from a surgery to remove an infected knee replacement. Yikes. It was really cool to see them again. It's a humbling thing when you get to represent God in blessing someone.

Anyways back to the ups and downs of people. On Wednesday we taught a guy named Davon. Davon talks like there's no tomorrow. But we were able to go through the Plan of Salvation because his questions were aimed right up that alley. That part was good but then he started talking he about what he thinks is the truth. He has some out there theories that all churches and religions are part of God's plan and through all of them we can see the big picture. So he thinks Pope Francis has a major role before the 2nd coming, but also thinks an Anti-Christ will come and take Pope Francis' spot. He later said he think's the Muslim's Allah is the Anti-Christ. That is just an example of the craziness this guy has. Whatever people tell him he takes as truth and forms it into his theory. He wants to know the truth, it was frustrating to have the truth but he wouldn't stop talking to let us tell him it. Kind of a mess but we met with him twice. The first time we were there 2.45 hours. I was not happy about that. The next time we saw him I said we've got till 5pm, then we're leaving. So it worked out better. Davon is going to be taught by the YSA elders but his roommate Edward we'll still teach. We invited him to church but that didn't happen.

We've met quite a few people in town. A surprising amount have said hi to us on the street. Others we've met and they've gone to church before or had met with previous missionaries. Met a lot of cool people, just need to find those who are ready for the message and to act on it. One fun thing we see all the time are what I call Leaners. People on some sort of drug that makes them start falling asleep while standing. The best part is that they don't ever fall over. It's really impressive.

Another cool thing we saw was a bunch of people trying out for the Voice. There were quite a few members there as well who said hi to us. Felt special. It rained a lot on Saturday and the potential Voice stars had to stand in line in the rain.

What else.. a guy let me take pictures of his BMW i8. What a car.

Sunday night was super fun as well. We had dinner at the Hydes and the four of us in the picture below had a competition to see who could eat the most dessert. The qualifier to get in the competition was to eat 2 full plates of food first. Then the dessert of brownies and ice cream. I had 3.5 brownies and 3 scoops of ice cream. But I gave up and the two obvious winners had over 7 scoops of ice cream. It was awesome, except the pain I was in the rest of the night...

The hope this week is to find and teach some new investigators. Get some referrals that are actually in our area. Survive Zone Conference. Try to have the Spirit. That's about it. Oh and don't get shot.

Elder Simmons

2/21/17

Before I talk about my new area the farewell tour pics should be shown.

The Italian Sensation's Crew

My Friend Thor

My friend Kelbert!

The Knoxs!

The Mullins!

The Andersons!

The Uhligs!

The Browns!

The Garvers!

On Wednesday I went to Columbia and Elder Hyde picked me up. He and Sister Hyde are the senior couple in our ward. They are awesome. My Companion is Elder Dameus! He's awesome, he's been out 12 weeks. Straight from Haiti.

My area in Baltimore is probably the best one around. We've got downtown Baltimore and the actual harbor. Pretty great place to be, i'm glad to be in this part of town. Though we do have some fun West Baltimore that is a popular place for us to go.

We started the Transfer right by contacting 8/10 referrals and following up on a few more. Its fun to be thrown into it all.

(This is our apartment, its pretty sweet.)

We have an investigator named Stacy that I have yet to meet. But the work here is super awesome. The Elders I'm serving around are great and the Hydes have treated us right.

On Sunday we had dinner with the Hyde's their apartment has a super cool view of the Harbor.

On Mmonday we took a bus an hour and a half up to JoAnns so a majority of us could buy fabric for their home made ties kick. It was adventurous. Then that night we celebrated a birthday for a woman in our ward by going to Cheese Cake factory. It was a good time.

Life is pretty great here, plenty of work, awesome area, great companion. Looking forward to going hard for my last 6 months!

Elder Simmons

2/13/17

This week has gone by really fast. We had some good weather early in the week and we were able to walk Daisy the Dog around the neighborhood that actually had people milling about. We met some nice people. Dogs are quite the ice breakers.

Then the weather went south with a winter storm and we found ourselves riding bikes in the snow. It was a hilarious sight.

On Friday we gave out Hot Chocolate for the last time it turns out. It was moderately successful, we gave out 7 cups. We also had dinner with the Giglio'tos' which was fun. We hit tennis balls with a racket which their dog Randal loved.

Saturday was alright as well. I swung on a vine. And we had dinner with Walt again and they invited us to share a message with them. So we shared the Restoration with them and they accepted a Book of Mormon. They're not going to just jump ship to our church but I'll take whatever I can get.

On Sunday we both gave talks. Mine showed examples of how we have Faith that God knows all and has mercy for us in life and in missionary work. I tried to show that the faith they already have in the Gospel is the same that is used in missionary work. I only had 8 minutes so I didn't get to share all the thoughts, it was nice.

Sunday night we waited for the transfer call. Turned out we were both leaving! So I'm like half way packed already. I had a feeling we could both be transferred so I made a nice packet about the area and the people I've gotten to know so the new SISTERS coming in aren't in the dark. Hopefully it'll be a smooth transition for them. Just like that, the Hot Chocolate project is in a box ready to gather dust.

This morning I found out where I'm going, I'm replacing Elder Lewis (my first companion in this area) in Inner Harbor. As in inner city Baltimore. Pretty crazy, it'll be a HUGE change of pace for me that's for sure. I'm pretty excited.

-Elder Simmons

2/6/17

Hey people that are experiencing real winter. This week we didn't have a car so we biked a whole lot. I've had a good time getting used to bike seats once again.
On Wednesday we were able to teach a young guy who recently moved into the ward who hasn't come to church in a while. We had a good time reading the scriptures and answering his questions. It made our day for sure.

On Thursday we went to the temple. Its always a good day when that happens.

After we had interviews with president. Mine was scheduled for 3pm and it ended up being from 5:55-6:00. So kinda lame, I only had a five minute interview but whatevs.

Friday morning we biked a few miles to go tract an apartment complex. Because that's all we can come up with at this point. When it became apparent that those apartments weren't getting breached into I walked towards the 2016 Stingray Z06 that was there. We got talking to the owner and had a fun 20 minute conversation. Gave him a restoration pamphlet and we hope to be able to go to a car meet with him some day.

We took a back woods route to get home and had to have some fun with the river and bridge that was there.

We also gave out hot chocolate on Friday and gave out 2 copies of the Book of Mormon, a Bible, and 2 pamphlets. A pretty productive time but no one wants to meet with us or learn more... so who knows.

Saturday we biked and I can't even remember what else happened besides not much. Sunday was the super bowl, not that it effected my life in any sort of way but that's cool.

VR is kinda fun.

Elder Simmons