Monday June 9, 2014

So i'm still waiting for a letter but while I'm waiting. Alright got the letter :p wow 100 to send the box...........sorry, I didn't realize it would cost so much. So I would be perfectly fine if that was the last box you send me. That sounds like a ton of fun and the world cup shoud be pretty sweet saturday. So the brazilian game is thursday and we have to spend the entire day at home. We cannot leave. ALL the brazil games we have to stay home. SO should be fun, but I picked up a book that has all the games whose playing an where and a history of eveysingle world cup. Yeah it was free. i'll take pictures of the streets this week and send you all pictures. they are crazy, banners in the streets, painted streets. Its so pretty. Its kinda like christmas.

 Anyways we are all good here, add that member on my facebook and add a woman named tati. I keep forgetting to tell you to add her when I was in linhares. So por favor. JUst don't add the whole world.....THis week we had stake conference and Elder Ballard and Elder Scott spoke via de broadcast from salt lake to about almost all the stakes in brazil. It was a really cool experience and elder scott's portuguese, was really hard to understand in the beginning because he speaks with a spanish accent but his talk was about prayer. The ELder Ballard talked and he was very straight forward....basically be smart about how and when you use your smartphone and value your time with your family. Be where you are phyiscally. AND DONT use the phone during sacrament. It was a very good and plain talk. THe night before we had the opportunty to go to the adult session of conference and listened to a man President Castro talk (2nd counsler stake) who is leaving in a couple weeks to be a mission president in Manus.....WOW he talked about temples and the whole time you were just amazed. It was such an amazing talk. Super cool.

Anyways we had an investgator that 180ed this week. I went there with a member and our recent convert 10 year old Melissa) and tried to teach her...was one of the most difficult lessons I've had yet. Do you feel good? No. Do you feel good when we visit? No. bunch of questions to which she replied no and then do you believe God loves you. No. Yeah so We taught here that her heart is closed and that unless she opens it the spirit cant do anything she wont feel anything. She has to pray. And we left...the Next day 180!!!!! She was happy she prayed the Lord answered her prayer and she was feeling the SPirit. Miralces happen and we must always give thanks to God for them. ALways trust the Lord because He loves us and is our father.

Anyway this week I've  decided that i'm going to study magnifying your calling and the inlfuence of the spirit. I read a talk by PResident Eyrig tittled serving with the SPirit. SO that's were I'm starting. I'll write more next week but it also has to do with jacob 1:19 and ALma 17:3 teaching with the power and authority of our calling. There is a story that I like that was important for me. If you would like share it with the sisters. (the whole talk :p )

Bishops have that feeling come to them during the night and each time they sit on the stand looking at the members of their ward or thinking of those who are not there. It can happen to them when they find themselves near a hospital or a care center. More than once I have heard the words when I walked in the door of a hospital: “I knew you would come.”

We need not worry about knowing the right thing to say or do when we get there. The love of God and the Holy Spirit may be enough. When I was a young man I feared that I would not know what to do or to say to people in great need.

Once I was at the hospital bedside of my father as he seemed near death. I heard a commotion among the nurses in the hallway. Suddenly, President Spencer W. Kimball walked into the room and sat in a chair on the opposite side of the bed from me. I thought to myself, “Now here is my chance to watch and listen to a master at going to those in pain and suffering.”

President Kimball said a few words of greeting, asked my father if he had received a priesthood blessing, and then, when Dad said that he had, the prophet sat back in his chair.

I waited for a demonstration of the comforting skills I felt I lacked and so much needed. After perhaps five minutes of watching the two of them simply smiling silently at each other, I saw President Kimball rise and say, “Henry, I think I’ll go before we tire you.”

I thought I had missed the lesson, but it came later. In a quiet moment with Dad after he recovered enough to go home, our conversation turned to the visit by President Kimball. Dad said quietly, “Of all the visits I had, that visit I had from him lifted my spirits the most.”

President Kimball didn’t speak many words of comfort, at least that I could hear, but he went with the Spirit of the Lord as his companion to give the comfort. I realize now that he was demonstrating the lesson President Monson taught: “How does one magnify a calling? Simply by performing the service that pertains to it.”

I've been thinking alot about the power and authority of the Priesthood and how the SPirit radiates based on our wothyness and our obedience. HOw important it is the have the Spirit with you to leave the impression on the person.

ANyways I love you and hope your week goes well! Love Elder Simonsen