Monday November 18, 2013

Okay so I'm a bit later today because we got here and they didn't haveany computers open so I had to wait but I'm finally on. Anyways, this week not to much has really happened. We worked hard this week and tried to find a bunch of new people to teach and we did. We have a couple of families that we can teach now. We did a lot of walking this week, so I'm super tired but today is p-day so I can rest. My companion only has 29 days left in his mission and he is going crazy he is so excited and so nervous to go home. But the funny thing is it's so hot here that when he goes home to Utah, he is going to freeze. But he'll probably be fine.

Portuguese is coming along really well, I can speak it almost the entire day but then I miss english and slip back into it. I'm getting pretty far in the book of mormon. I'm in alma 42 now and it is still so cool reading in a different language. It's starting to feel more comfortable then reading in english sometimes. Thank you for all the pictures, I really appreciate them and I should be able to send a few today because we recieved some from the mission and my companion is sending me some. So you all should be able to see them.

So my big focus this week has been the Holy Ghost. I feel like I focus on that all the time but it's so important because without the Holy Ghost you cant do anything. This isn't our work but the Lords work and through the Holy Ghost you will know what to do. So the first experience this week was during lunch when I gave the thought.I had the thought to share something I had read from Jesus the Christ (pg. 511 if you want to go look) that talks about the two greatest commandments and its when Elder Talmage is explaining how if we love the Lord that we will keep all of His commandments. The spirit was so incredibly strong and was like a wave rushing over me.For me it was like a conformation of what I knewand how important that is. Literally obedience will bring the Spirit into your life more than anything else. Then I had the opportunity to later that day recieve inpiration that we weregoing to teach a lady about the restoration and how exactly we weregoing to do it. And it was cool because right afterI recieved it my companion looked at me and basically said do you have an idea what we should do? Then the next day while I was bearing my testimony about the book of mormon the spirit was overwhelming again. And I literally recieved the words that I needed because I spoke clearly and fluently in portuguese. Following that yesterday we were visiting a woman and we decided to show her some mormonmessages and I had the prompting toshow her the oneabout marriage and divorce. I thought that's weird why would I do that? Turns out that's something huge in her life because she is on her second marriage and such. SO all in all the Spirit is huge in our lives and will guide us and help us as long as we are obedient.

So that's the little sermon for this week.I hope all is well and look forward to hearing from you all next week and how things are going. Happy Thanksgiving! (I think it's this week...)

Love Elder Simonsen

Zona Serra (Zone Conference) 

  The bottom picture is Elder Simonsen's current location. They are going in the church to perform a baptism.