March 30, 2015

Well the big news this week is Transfers! I will be going to Durrës to serve with Elder Richards! I will be in a trio, but the third elder is going to England in a couple weeks, he is an Albanian being trained here, I think, it's a weird situation. However I am very excited :)

I guess I don't have a lot to say this week, sorry guys haha this might be a lame one. Elder Waters and I had an awesome transfer together, and it was 5 months of our missions with each other, which is just about a quarter. It's been awesome serving with him again!

We had a good but slow transfer. We learned a lot together and I have grown a lot as a missionary. I feel like I could have done a better job as a trainer and as a District Leader, but now I have something to learn from so in the future I can learn from experience!

It is absolutely incredible that I only have 9 months left! That is so crazy. It seems like last week I was saying how crazy it was that I only have a year left, and now 3 months later I only have 3
transfers left! And I know that we are doing the work of the Lord. As Easter approaches it is such a wonderful time to study and just think about the Savior and His Atonement!! He has performed for us an infinite atonement in which we can leave behind all sin and all suffering and feel peace. He has provided us with a way to return to our Heavenly Father, and Because He Lives we have the opportunity to live again with our families forever!

http://www.mormon.org/easter Watch this video and feel the Spirt. He loves you.

Have an awesome week!

Elder Simons

A few distict photos (borrowed from Facebook)

Laundry - sweater didn't do so well

March 23, 2015

Hey Everyone!

This week wasn't anything special. Our area is slowly picking up and that is really excited for the Ward and for the people here and hopefully we will start to see some real success in finding those that are ready and prepared to accept the Restored Gospel. It really is such a wonderful Gospel and I really wish people would accept it in their lives because I know how happy it can make us!

We had 2 extra elders in our house this week, Elder Opper and Elder Smoot. They were having some trouble in their area, I don't know what the problem was, but it was awesome having them! It is always nice to spend time with other missionaries and to hear their testimonies. Not to mention they are just both awesome and hilarious so it was a good 3 days!! One thing that is ridiculous is that the transfer ends next week!

It was awesome that I got to serve with Elder Waters again, but it's already almost over! This transfer has absolutely FLOWN by. I literally don't know where it went. We had an awesome time together, we learned and grew a ton and it was an honor to spend 5 months of my mission (in total) with him! He is an awesome Elder and will really make a difference here in our mission!!

This is such an incredible Gospel. Heavenly Father has prepared such a beautiful plan for us to come here and learn and grow and return to him! And He has so mercifully offered us His Only Begotten Son to perform an Eternal Atonement for us! He has made it possible for us to be forgiven of all our mistakes and to feel absolutely guiltless. He is truly our loving Heavenly Father and is Always ready to pick us up when we fall, we just need to reach up and grab His hand!

I love you all and hope that you have an awesome week, I know Elder Waters and I will!

Love,

Elder Sajmëns!

March 16, 2015

Hey!

This week was good, still a little slow, but it is starting to pick up! We have a very big area, geographically haha so sometimes it can be very tiring getting from place to place. We take buses a lot and do a lot of walking!

Nothing super exciting happened this week so I don't really know what to talk about! haha. There are only 2 weeks left of the transfer! it is incredible how fast it has gone by! I can't believe how fast my whole mission is going! It is truly a wonderful experience! I feel very blessed to be here doing the Lord's work! There really is no other thing that is more important than this work! I am so happy to be here in Albania and though we aren't finding too many people who want the Restored Gospel I know that we are planting seeds and that soon we will find those who are ready and will be able to share the message that we can live with our families together forever with our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ!

I don't know what else to say, but as missionaries when we don't know what to say we just testify. I testify that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer! He has performed an eternal atonement for us and through it we can be cleansed from ALL of our sins! We truly can become worthy to return to our Heavenly Father and Creator. He love us so much, so much that He restored His true church to the earth so that we can partake of the saving ordinance of the Gospel, and has given us His authority and priesthood and through that we have a living prophet today, President Thomas S. Monson. This is the true church. This is the way back to God. This is the way to true happiness.

I love you all and hope that you feel the love of our Savior and have or can gain a testimony of the Restored Gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Have an awesome week!

Elder Sajmëns

March 9, 2015

Përshëndetje,

So this week the post might be a little shorter, cause I'm a little slow with typing today! haha. So last Tuesday we had to run to get home on time, and trusty Albanian roads have a lot of pot holes and aren't the safest places to run. Well we were going pretty fast and I ate it haha. I stepped in a pot hole and well, I fell haha. I ended up fracturing a bone in my wrist and spraining my elbow. So that was a fun time. We ended up NOT getting home on time, but had I not fallen we would have made it haha. So that's that story out of the way.

I have one other story that I would like to share with you. So our area has been pretty slow, it could be the time of year, I don't exactly know but we've been working hard and hoping and praying for a miracle. This week we prayed for a family to find and teach. We set up some time the next day to tract and planned to find a family. We unfortunately came home empty handed. We were a little down, but by the end of our planning session, we got a call from our trusty Zone Leaders saying that they had a family for us to hand off. It was an awesome experience! It was an amazing miracle to see. The Lord is working in the Vineyard with us. This is His work and He provides missionaries with Miracles! We were so lucky to have this experience and it has increased my faith so much that we have a loving Heavenly Father looking out for us, and a Savior who has provided us with an infinite atonement and He walks along side us and lifts us up when we trip into pot holes.

I love you all and miss you, but I am so happy to be out here and wouldn't change it for the world!!

Elder Simons!

March 2, 2015

Hey Everyone!

Sorry I didn't write a blogpost last week!! I procrastinated and ran out of time haha. but this week I did it way earlier so I could at least send something home! However I still don't have a ton to talk about this week, because our area is pretty slow right now, but we worked really hard this last week.

In my studies this past week I read something and realized how important it is to set personal goals. Not only that but how important it is to include God in the setting of those goals! God knows us all, very personally and better than anyone else! He knows the fullness of our potential and knows what we can become in this life. He knows so much better than we ever could, what we need to do to improve. So we should ask him through prayer what goals we should set. We are here on this earth as part of His plan for us, to grow and to prepare to meet Him! So we should take a few minutes every once in a while to prayerfully set goals about how we can learn and grow and prepare to meet God. And of course we should frequently review these goals, to see how far we have progressed. God wants us to progress, the way a Father wants His children to progress. And He is our Heavenly Father.

That was probably the most eye opening study I had, because we set a lot of goals, and we pray when we do that. But now I realized that I can be more sincere in my goals of personal progression! I know that God lives and that He sent us here so that we can return to Him! And as it says in Moses 1:39 "Ford behold this is my work and my glory-to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man". His work and His glory to to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life. He loves us so much and just wants us back with Him. How important is it than that we do our part in preparing to meet Him. How happy will we be to see the smiling face of our Heavenly Father and of His Son Jesus Christ, our Savior! It will be a joy that is indescribably. So my challenge to you is to take a few minutes and prayerfully set some goals on what you can do better, maybe it'll be having more charity and love for others, or maybe it'll be being more humble. Those are some examples from my life, but with God's help you can set the goals that will help you the most!

I hope that you have an awesome week and that you come closer to God this week :) He loves you!

With much love,
Elder J. Simons