Monday June 23, 2014

yeah i haven't heard very much about the US. Honestly I'm at the point where I don't even bother asking. I got tired of everyone bashing the states and all that stuff. I've just decided to not even mention it for a while. I hear that brazil is doing good though. France and holland. Spains out, englend is almost out (the english are still pretty sweet though, I saw their line up when I passed in a members house super quick)  australia is doing pretty good but that's about all I know. LAst week was pretty sweet, went to the mall, found mcdonalds but just didnt have the courage to eat there. it's expensive so I didn't. Went to the nike factory............yeah we stayed there about 3 hours :) will never buy anything from the nike factory in brazil though. Haha you think our nike factory is expensive. the cheapest shoes they had there were about 100 reals. Normal shoes were about 300 reals. its about 150 bucks. so yeah i didn't even buy anything. Just looked and tried on shoes. We went there because an elder in our district needed new shoes. All the pool pictures were pretty sweet. Can't imagine the heat, haha it's cold here and rainy and cold and rainy. SO yeah i'm  using the long sleeve shirts.but it really isnt that bad. Just when it rains. But it's all good.

Not too much is happening here. This week we had the game, stayed home all day (literally all day) got a new oven that day (yeah I can cook pizza now!) wednesday and thursday and friday were all moderately normal. Saturday spent the whole day home.......we went to lunch and my companion had an allergic reaction to something ( we still don't have a clue what it was...) so yeah we took him to the hospital and stayed there for like an hour and a half and then went home and he slept from like 4 until the next day when we had to get up and go to church. SO I have tons of energy because I've been home a ton recently...so today we are going to hike a mountian :):):):)  yeah I'm super excited so I have even more energy. We just have to be home by around 2 because of the game today....but my companion is fine, he didn't die, he just had trouble breathing......but he was really no where close, we went to the hosptial because they accept the insurance of the mission.

Went to church yesterday, was pretty much normal. Yesterday just kind of passed. No one was home and the only person we visited cut us. So this week we have to find new investigators. I was wondering the last couple days (because we had a couple experiences) how is it that people open up to us so easily. Literally they tell us everything within the first or second visit. We had a guy who helped us on the day we helped an elderly sister move, call us over in the middle of the day and tell us everything about his life. He just opened up like a book, and it really struck me, all I had done was during the move just talk a little with him, little about the world cup, mentioned the church and where it is and other than that I didn't really do anything else. I left me wondering, and thinking about how the Spirit really opens people. Like through the Spirit opening the people and them explaining themsleves, we have a better opportunitny to teach people and not lessons. To really apply the gospel to their lives and help them out. The SPirit really literally shows you what to do and guides you. Sometimes they still don't accept the message, and sometimes they do but later decide to not to but it really is something to ponder about and realize how great is the power of the Lord and how we must truely rely on Him and His infinite wisdom and strength. I was reading Mosiah 2 today and he describes exactly that. How that with out the Lord we are nothing and we are unprofitable servants. it just makes you stop and wonder and really thing a little bit. Anyways don't have much time but I love you all and miss you tons

 Love Elder Simonsen