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

12/28/15

What a week. The theme of this week was service. On Christmas Eve we went caroling for days! The highlights included a woman in the front cussing us out, an old lady who was so touched she needed to kiss my cheek. A cool experience was going to a members house and having ten missionaries sing to her outside her house, the high was 73 degrees that day. When we started she was overwhelmed and started crying. Awe heart.

Caroling at Veteran's Place


Christmas Eve night we went to Brother and Sister Pope's house. We made some awesome gingerbread houses. I forgot how much I struggle with making gingerbread houses when hot glue guns aren't available. So the time lapse shows the sloppiness and a gummy bear tower falling over a couple times. It was a good time.

Christmas Day also was great! I got to Skype with my family! It was pretty awesome, I miss them and their quirky humor that you just don't see anywhere else. Probably cuz we're the only ones who like dry humor that's seasoned in sass. I also got some cool presents, one being Lego Star Wars, a photo album with pics from the mission so far, and some long cat ties. After I was kind of in a slump because we just lounged around for like 6 hours that day. But a highlight was riding the train outside of Pittsburgh to the end of the line, where we then got picked up to go to the mission home. I suddenly found myself in a bizarre world called NOT Pittsburgh. Some days this place feels like a movie set, like the movie "The Truman show" because I can't leave, there's rivers and tunnels to leave the city. Anyways Elder Masina and I found ourselves outside a movie theatre welcoming people to the movies and saying merry Christmas. To find out information on a movie I didn't know of I'd say. Oh that's the one with...and then they'd answer and I said oh yeah right her. So that was a good time. We had a fun time at the mission home with the ping pong robot.

On Tuesday we were going to get some quarters to do laundry. We saw Jonny, a really old homeless guy. He was struggling that day with walking because he's got cancer and he's old. (Like his 50's. Just kidding suckas.) point is he asked us to walk him across the street to their camp. Across the street he was slowing down and we decided to pick him up. We did a fireman carry and to get him up we skootched him onto our arms. He had a cute smile as we picked up the pace substantially. We got him situated in his bed, put his covers on him, gloves, beanie. Everything was good except I had poop all over right leg from Jonny! But honestly I wasn't too distraught as I thought I would've been. It was really humbling to help someone like that. Obviously we took pictures so enjoy that. Then went back and got quarters and pop tarts, and ice cream.

So there's you have it. Another week in the life of Elder Simmons.

Timelapse of walking from Northside

12/21/15

Hey people, this week was crazy!

On Tuesday I went in an exchange into Northside with Elder Syndergaard. We turned out to have a stacked day and with some extra exerted effort we got a rather above average lesson day. It showed me that A.) We can always have something to be doing. And B.) Setting mini goals during the day can also be really effective.

Caroling


The second highlight of this week was the fat amount of caroling I got to do. Our zone activity was awesome. Elder Montgomery was my companion for the day due to the car accident of Elder Bell. Which was awesome. We were going and Bell had a which way to turn folly. As he started turning right a truck came from our right and we bounced off it. It was just some scrapes, and the guy was super nice. So that was fun. Elder Bell got red-dotted, so on our blitz he couldn't drive! ANYWAYS Montgomery and I got to do some awesome street contacting before going to a hospital to sing. When we got there early a guy stopped us by saying BYU? Sure BYU what's up. Turns out his wife was in the hospital and their nephew is serving in Spain. So a smaller group went up and sang to her. Then her next door neighbor because she heard the singing too. That was a really cool experience.

The zone activity was quite fun, we did a white elephant gift exchange. That was pretty entertaining, I almost got stuck with a shake weight. That would've been useless.

The third highlight was a blitz with Oakland on Saturday. I got to drive for the first time since coming out, but luckily it was a Corolla! Just like at home so I felt no problems driving. Also TiWi never talked to me. We got an awesome new investigator from that day, which was nuts. We got to her door and she just opened it! She was super solid and we'll be teaching her this week. Turns out we wouldn't have been able to ring the doorbell and her number was jank. That was totally lined up by God.

In other news this Pday morning we went to a museum that had 6 floors. We pretty much just saw the WW2 section, the sports, and visited the Mr, Rogers wax figure. All in a hour. Last time I ever go to a museum.

Also it snowed once this week, it was sweet. And now it's gone, which is great because I don't like being outside in the cold.

But still Merry Christmas

Elder Simmons

We helped a girl pack all of her stuff

12/14/15

This week has been pretty long, let me tell you. First off we had an awesome zone conference. President Johnson's sister made nose warmers for every missionary in the mission. And these things are epic. They make for hilarious pictures whether you're trying or not. We talked a lot about Christmas and we also got to watch the new mission video!

And of course this week was Nick's baptism! Saturday morning we went to the church and filled the font with mildly warm water. By the time the baptism rolled around the water got slightly chilled. As we walked in we were both shivering a bit. Turns out we didn't go over the dunkage part well enough. After I said the prayer we went down and he went straight back. Not much knee bending happened, so he went straight back near the wall. I made sure he went all the way I see. Now, you all should know the font is pretty tiny. On his was up he smacked his head on the faucet...! The whole crowd went OOOH. He was ok but he got a good gash. Of course I cut this guy's head! But it's all good, there's been some good jokes about it. Also President and Sister Johnson was there too. Another profound thing that happened is when Nick came up the water was noticeably warmer! We both noticed it, it wasn't just our bodies had adjusted we could feel the warm pockets. That was pretty cool. I want to say God warmed it a bit but it's not doctrine.

Sunday is always a highlight as well. It was the Christmas program and all of us missionaries in the ward sang in the choir. I enjoyed trying to sing to the good people. The coolest part of Sunday was seeing Nick in a white shirt and tie. That was the first time I saw him dressed that nicely. That's where things came full circle and I could see the change in Nick's life more than ever. Elder Howard confirmed him a member, it was also Elder Howard's birthday. I really hope I'm not leaving Pittsburgh. We find out a few days after Christmas who's peacing out. Also we got to go to a concert at Carnegie Mellon University. Jeez this people could make music. It was pretty awesome. That about sums up my crazy week.

See ya,

Elder Simmons

12/7/15

Hello again, this week started off really slow. I have been in a rut of not knowing what to do when there is open time in the day. So we did a lot of walking. It was hard and not too fun. Then we did exchanges on Wednesday and Elder Masina helped me out a lot and now it feels like there's too much to do and not enough time! I learned how vital weekly planning is. I've also been doing better with my mornings, I promised God I'd work out every morning. So I have, but it's tough to get into the habit.

Other highlights include Tony getting a baptism date! I might be out of the area by then but as long as it happens that's what matters! Tony is great and Nick is still going good for his baptism. Testimony meeting was amazing this week, there were so many spiritual testimonies that just rocked everyone's heart. We also watched most of the Christmas devotional with Nick last night. He really loved the music. (P.s. I predicted that the last song was going to be Silent Night.} Nick's baptism is coming up fast! I'm super excited! It hasn't snowed yet, which is good and bad. It'll feel like Christmas but I have to walk in it all day. Also we set up our quaint little spruce the other day.

Our beautiful Spruce

I've also gained a lot more confidence tracking. The goal is to say something profound before some one says no to you. So one house I knock I start off just stumbling all over the place, not making much sense. The I paused and said, I'm not good at this door thing, but we're missionaries blah blah blah eternal salvation. After that most of the fear went away, these houses still have real people in them. And by their standards we are the weird ones. I always get anxiety when they come to the door but I've gotten a lot more confidence an courage to talk. All thanks to the Man upstairs.

We got volunteered and lied to by other missionaries to go to Linda's house for dinner. We were told she was getting pizza, which was the lie. So we got there and we had quite the interesting time.. needless to say I'd rather eat school lunch food for two years then go over there once a week. So that's my week in a quick flash, the weeks go so darn fast it's insane. This Saturday, Nick's baptism, will be my 4 month mark! WAT? I have two thoughts, that was fast, and this is going to take forever. But I'll just keep taking it hour by hour and week to week.

Elder Simmons

The double piggy back. Slightly uncomfortable, but worth it in the long run.

Headlights are kewl

Pizza with Kevin