Monday March 31st, 2014

Alright so don't really have a ton to write today...oh well. But I really appreciated your letter and was really happy it was long. Just would like to know how courtney's birthday was :p i hope she had a ton of fun and that all is going super well. As for going to institute, just let her go, it will help her a ton and Bro. lowery is awesome. As for the singles ward....yeah I'm not to fond of them. Just have her go to relief society. It might be better. And that's awesome about the temple! I'm so jealous. I really want to see the fort lauderdale temple. Idk why but just send me tons of printed pictures to put in my album. As for the phone plan...it's funny because i'm at the point where for me all that matters is if I can call for however long I want. Everything else doesn't matter. That's sweet about all the stuff yall are getting. Sounds super sweet but I honestly don't know anything about either of those phones....like at all. But it sure will be cool for you all to have phones and to be so connected. 

So funny thing, I saw the womens broadcast :p we had lunch at a members house and they were transmitting it during that time for all of brazil and it was only like an hour long....so we literally ate and watched. It was pretty cool. but I was eating so I don't really remember much at all. Just a little of President Eyring's talk. Yeah and then that like the first woman that got up was already crying ;) but it was super cool to watch it. 

As for the missionary disscussions a way that is a ton easier is if you invite the missionaries over for a fhe and have friends there. Then your not full on asking them to take the disscussions. They best way to do it for families is the proclamation to the Family. Have the sister missionaries do practices with you about how they do street contacts. And yes use your house because a lot of people don't want to invite people into their house in the states. We don't have a problem with that here but they do there. It's something we talked alot about with our zone because the best people to teach are the friends of the members. They have the most potential. Just don't be scared, more often then not you'll be rejected but when you get a yes, and then they change their lives you forget all the rejections. And the discussions would be something cool for the girls to see because if they want to be missionaries or would like to know what I'm doing, listen to the discussions. i like to reteach the first vision or the first lesson with members because it always increases our faith.

Yes that was a super sacred and cool experience for me as well and taught me alot about temples and temple marriage.

Okay my week. Was spent in Nova Venécia, which is literally new venice. So it looks a lot like italy. It's super beautiful there, and has rolling hills and sharp moutains and has vineyards on the outskirts. Beautiful! And i din't take a single picture....oh well. But the funny thing that happened is we went to go get icecream to relax and talk about the day (with the missionaries I worked with that day) so we get our ice cream and I go to pay AND they didn't accept cards....and none of us had any money....so we had to go run around looking for a bank to withdraw money from an american credit card...found one and ran back to get our ice cream. It was funny afterwards but I hate that feeling of wait I can't pay for this. So yeah. Learned that lesson. But working with those missionaries there was really fun and learned alot about the Spirit and helping others. And listenin to the Spirit and then not continuing to listen to the Spirit when you get there isn't very smart and you end up bible bashing....but learned a lot this week and i'm still reading Jesus the Christ in Portuguese...it's fun its not hard but It's difficult to find time to read. but I'm well and fine and happy and as for shoes, still havent bought any but one day I will. When I find my size. Don't worry about shoes and dont send me shoes. It's way better to by them here. My boots are holding up amazing so I will be fine for a while. I'm little nervous though because I feel the new ´president will say that we cant use boots any more but well see in june/july when he gets here. Love you all and miss you all so much.

love,

Elder Simonsen