Last week in the MTC!

Hey Everyone!

So this is my last week in the MTC, I actually only have 6 days left! Next week I will be in Albania!! Pretty Crazy!! This week is going to be very bitter sweet!!  I am so excited and ready to leave and go to Albania to start serving the people there, but at the same time, the MTC has been such an amazing experience! It is truly and amazing place where the Spirit can reside everywhere!  I have learned so much about myself, the gospel, and how to do missionary work!! I am so thankful for this opportunity to serve! It's also pretty intense to think that this is our only MTC experience, ever!  I am trying to get the most out of this last week, so that I can take as much as I can with me before I go out into the mission field! 

So this week is a lot of culture lessons and tomorrow I have infield orientation so I will get a better sense of the field! hahaha.  The language is coming along smoothly, but I think once I get there it'll be a bit of a shock! hahah and I won't be good until I've been there for a few weeks! hahah but I can still testify in Albanian hahah!  Hopefully I can get a TON of studying in before I leave, and even in the field! 

The teaching is going better!  I have been struggling a lot with focusing too much on what I was going to say and not enough on who I was teaching.  But Yesterday I had an amazing experience in a lesson with an "investigator"!  I didn't think at all about my self, and I testify that what it says in Doctrine and Covenants 84:85 "Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man" is so true! I focused on my investigator, and my companion and I planned with the Spirit; I just kept my mind on him and the Spirit led me to say the things that we prepared, and he resided there to testify to the investigator that the things which we said were true! 

It has been so awesome having Emily here! I don't see her a great deal, but it is so awesome to see her going through all of the stuff I went through at the beginning of my MTC experience!  She is doing really well, but I'm sure you'll hear ALL about it in her blog, if you follow hers! haha.  I don't know when I'll have a P-Day will be so I don't know when I'll be able to email again, or send another blogpost, so sorry you may have to go a while without my awesome emails and blogposts!  Just kidding!! Bëj Shaka (I made a Joke) that’s how you say it in Albanian.  Anyways thanks to those who read my blog and are following my mission! It's going well! haha

Love,

Elder Jake Simons

Week 7

Hi,

I semi hosted Emily haha. I didn't pick her up from the curb because I was hosting another elder and then I saw Emily on the way back and did the rest of her hosting :)  She's studying right next to me so that's really exciting!!  It will be really good for the both of us to have each other! And who else can say that they overlapped with the sibling in the MTC, in the same Zone/Branch, studying right next to me?! It's pretty cool!!  We had to say goodbye to the old ones (the missionaries going to Hungary who just left) which was really sad cause they were awesome! So Emily and her fellow missionaries have some big shoes to fill!  She also was kind enough to let me have some of her Jamba Juice that she brought with her!  So it's definitely a blessing having her here! haha

Today marks the beginning of our Consecration week, so we have to speak nothing but Albanian and have our companion translate!  So that's gonna be hard, but also super fun! I'm excited, plus we'll learn a ton! I'm really coming to love the language! It is so beautiful and I can't believe that in 10 days I'll be leaving to Albania!!! And I'll be speaking it with Albanians!! Well trying to speak it hahahah.  The MTC has been so fun! But I'm glad I get a few more days because it truly is an amazing place to be!! The Spirit can be felt so strongly all over campus!!  Oh quick MTC news for those of you who served and had the tree that smells like cream soda, yeah they ripped it  out of the ground and took it away... Sad because it is like tradition!! However I did manage to take a couple whiffs before that took it away!

The language is coming and I'm sure I'll get a lot better this week haha.  I am still growing spiritually which I will be saying forever, because that's the point of this life! We come here to learn and grow, and there is no stopping for us haha because we are trying to become like the savior! and He is perfect so we'll be growing our whole earthly life, until we are perfected in and by Him.  The devotionals are great and Sundays are my favorite days, you learn SO much about how to grow and become a better missionary!! Both full time and member missionaries!  And I don't know from personal experience yet, but I would like to reiterate the wise words of my awesome brother, that you members should definitely get involved with the missionary work in your ward or Stake, except those of you in Israel haha You just go keep on being good examples hahhaha sorry.  

I love you all so much, especially my family!! I miss them so much and I feel so grateful and SO blessed to have my older sister with me in the MTC!!

Love,

Elder J. Sajmënz

Some of the zone

Me and Elder Haws 

Me and Elder Chambers

Me and Elder Tuttle

Me and Feil Nover who I really hope trains Emily (in Hungary)! 

She is such an awesome person!!

St. Patty's Day

Elder Waters and Brother Vance Selfie bombing me haha

MTC Week 6

Hey Everybody!

Only two and half weeks left!! The MTC has been incredible! and I will miss it a ton, but I'm also ready to get out of here! hahah Don't get me wrong it's great!! But learning so much about Albania and having spent so much time preparing to speak it and teach it, really makes you want to go! SO bad!!  Albanian is so beautiful and I can't wait to be able to speak it well!  We have all taken guesses of where our first area is going to be!!  We all think I'm gonna be born in Tirana, but IDK we'll see what the teachers say haha I'll let you know their guesses! I have sorta got into drawing with a friend/fellow missionary in my district Elder Squire!  It surprisingly calms me down in times of stress and when I get a little too overworked which is always a blessing hahah.

The Language is coming a long! I'm really starting to understand all of the grammar principles and conjugations and stuff haha which is good because it was giving me a hard time before! But it is coming together :) I just need to work my absolute heart out for the rest of the MTC, just so I can be ready for Albania haha then work my heart out there! :) Which I am excited to do!  Speaking of Albania! They just got a new Stake!! Their first one!! Which is really exciting!!! It is such an honor to go after all the hard work from all the RM's from Albania and all the worthy members from and living there!!  I am really excited to get there but pretty glad that I get a couple more weeks to prepare!

SO EMILY (soon to be Sister Simons) IS COMING NEXT WEEK!!  I am so excited to have my older sister be in the MTC with me!! She has been SUCH a good example to me throughout my life!! She is gonna be such an amazing missionary!! Also Get this!! So She is going to serve in the Hungary, Budapest Mission! So she will be in my zone!! And her class room will be right next to mine! SO I'll be seeing a lot of her and I can show her the ways of the MTC hahah. 

I've moved from playing basketball at gym to playing volleyball hahah my Slight friends would be so proud! hahah so a bunch of elders from my district have all started playing volleyball and so we're are slowly getting better! I did start to get better at basketball so maybe I'll switch off every other day hahah.  

So Life is still good here and I am so happy to be here and to be doing the Lord's work!  It is such a humbling experience and I'm so grateful for it!  I love the Lord and the wonderful gift of the Gospel and the Atonement that He has given to us! Everything that is good is from our Heavenly Father! So I'm working on always thanking Him for the blessing in my life!

I love you all!!

Elder J. Sajmënz!

Me and Elder Temple, a really good friend!!

MTC Week 5

Hi,

So I really don't have a lot to report this week because we mostly just study all day!  I have learned so much though!! It's incredible how fast you grow when you are in the MTC.  unfortunately you don't physically grow so I'm still short, and I'm getting fat haha so that's happening, but the walking around all day in Albania should fix that problem hopefully, so long as I stop eating the way I am haha.  I have been hearing a lot about the situation in Ukraine, which worried me cause of Elder ZACH Simons or as I like to call him Older Elder Simons serving there.  But as I'm sure a lot of you have heard he is safe and optimistic and doing awesome as I would expect.  He is such an inspiration and role model!! I'm want to be a missionary like him! and like my Dad.  I have been missing my family a lot, but not enough to keep me from my work, just a healthy amount hahah  I miss them a ton and I want to return home to them with honor.  It's a little sad but it's sorta hitting me in the face how many amazing examples I had growing up, through out school and church and most of all my family!  My incredibly loving parents and siblings and even more than that my extended family!  You have all directed me and helped me stay on the path that has lead me to this wonderful experience serving the Heavenly Father!  

As for my life here, I'm finally starting to make actual progress in basketball at gym, but that's the least of my worries so haha.   The Albanian is coming along.  My comprehension is pretty good, but my grammar and pretty much everything else is still trying to catch up hahaha.  It is a really beautiful language though and I feel so honored that Heavenly Father chose me to speak it and to teach the people of Albania!!  This Gospel is so true, and I want everyone to receive it!! So I'll do my best to bring it to the people that I serve!!  It brings so much happiness and joy in my life, and it strengthens my family so much!! I am so grateful for it!!  The food here is jo mirë (not good)  which is a bummer, but it's still food and I am very thankful for it and for those people who work to prepare it for us!  I think I'm pretty much done for today haha

So on another note hahah the rest of my district and I. oh and btw there are 15 missionaries going to Albania, and we're split 7 and 8 District A and District C.  My district has 8 elders and we are D C.  So my district and I have been assigning each other characters in several different categories.  We haven't done very many, but we plan to hahah.  For Disney I'm Buzz Lightyear haah I dont know why, I have just accepted it.  For Star Wars I'm Darth Maul, which I don't get hahaha I didn't think I was that mean hahah! but he's cool to so whatever haha.  

I love you all!! I hope you have an amazing week!  The Church is true and so is the Gospel!

Love,

Elder J. (Littler) Simons/Sajmënz

Fourth Week in the MTC

Hey everyone!

Another amazing week here at the MTC! We have seen a lot of missionaries come and go and that has been sad but we manage hahah.  This week came with it's challenges with language and learning, but I have grown from those experiences and I'm that much stronger now because of it!  I don't have a lot to write because the MTC is a lot of the same every day! hahaha I've been sick the last couple days, but just a mild mild cold so I'm just powering through it! I started getting worse at basketball somehow but I'm back on an uphill with my shooting, but still loads of work to do hahah but thats only a problem for Gym time hahah!  

Class is good! I have some of the most amazing teachers!! Motra (siser) Iftiu, Vallai (brother) Hoxha, and Vallai Vance!  They all have different teaching styles, but somehow they all work in pretty good harmony with each other!!  The Albanian is coming slowly, but it's coming! But for now I'm just working at it during language study and I spend additional and personal study on doctrine and gospel stuff, like Scriptures, Preach My Gospel (PMG) and some of the Missionary library (right now I'm reading "Our Heritage"

My companion is still awesome! I don't what to say, I lucked out.  We get a long awesomely and we tend to sort of balance each other out!  So it'll be hard for my future companions to live up to!  Also I'm pretty sure that I want to migrate to New Zealand and become a Kiwi hahah because every Kiwi I meet is awesome!!  So maybe when I join DS or FBI I can  go work at the embassy in New Zealand, maybe pop over and see Elder Waters hahaha  

I'm sorry I really don't have much to say about what I've done, because it's just a lot of studying!  It is pretty crazy that its been 4 weeks!! It has flown by but at the same it feels like I've been here for a long time!! It's a weird feeling but its cool! I love being a missionary and representative of Jesus Christ!  And doing His work! I can't wait to go to Albania and teach the people there about the truth! I know so firmly that this is the truth and I am going to give 100% of myself to this mission call because that is how I will show the Lord that I am dedicated to His work!  I am a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at all times, and in things, and in all places!  And those of you who are members, remember you are missionaries too!!  

Spiritual Experience: So when our teacher Vëllai Vance took us to a spot on the MTC campus that we now call our personal sacred grove because we had an amazing discussion there and all knelt down in prayer to rededicate ourselves to the Lord and His work, because we weren't being the best we could and got too lazy! We weren't being as obedient as we could be, but we were set back on the right path to being a true missionary of the Lord!  This work is true!

Some Albanian (these could be very very incorrect haha!): 

Nuk e mirë dhe e keq, atye është vetëm fuchi (ch should be a different letter but idk how to get it) dhe ata shumë i dobët të kerkuar atë

This should mean "There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it!" roughly hahah   - Voldemort (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone)

Ai shkallëzua shpejt!  "That escalated quickly!"  Rob Burgundy (Anchorman)

Unë ndjej keqardhke menjëherë për këtë vendim 

"I immediately regret this decision!" Rob Burgundy (Anchorman)

Ti je një zotër dhe një shkollar!

"You are a gentleman and a scholar!" - Michael Scott (The Office)

I miss you all and love you so much!!

Elder J. Sajmëns (Simons)

Third Week in the MTC

Hey Everybody!

SOO I layed in bed too long and now I have a really limited amount of time to write this post!! Sorry, I know they're amazing, but it'll be short today.  That was 100% a joke! but I do have to go fast that part was true!  This week was really really good! The speaker at our devotional on Sunday was Elder Holland's son and he gave an incredible talk about Joseph Smith! Elder Holland was there too, and he got to introduce his son which was so awesome to see him as a supporting parent, and not just an apostle!! Brother Holland's talk was incredible, and he definitely is a spiritual man and an incredible speaker! Our devotional on Tuesday was also awesome! The speaker was Elder Perkins of the 70 and he gave a great talk on what missionaries need to look at to improve! And we all noticed that we could improve in every single area! Fortunately for us we have the Lord on our side and through Him we can progress spiritually! Without Him we would get absolutely no where and I have a firm testimony of that!! So if you wanna get better pray and ask for help, because that's how it is going to happen! I have already notice a great change within myself! And boy have these 3 weeks flown by! and yet if feels like we've been here forever, but I love it here and I am so grateful to have this opportunity!!  

So I guess I'll just break up my days and talk about that! So we spend many ours a day in the class room on personal study (usually scripture reading or Preach My Gospel), Language study, companionship study (mostly we plan our lessons). hahah The language is coming along, slowly but surely! hahah um I can speak very little right now, but I do translate movie quotes to help me understand and figure out the grammar principles and structures that we have been learning.  My favorite thing to say its Ka gjarpër në çizme time! which roughly translates to There's a snake in my boot!  I know I'm pretty awesome at Shqip (Albanian) hahah just kidding!!

Ok I'm really running low on time now!!! Um I spend gym time trying to play basketball, which normally doesn't go well, but I have improved a bunch!! I do have a tendency to hit the rim over and over and over, instead of make baskets but oh well, I'll get there! hahah and because I'm getting fat, I've even started getting up at 6 to go running, although I've only done that twice so far! hahah hopefully I'll get better at that!!!  

Ok that's it, sorry folks, I've run out of time, that's on me! hahah My bad, next weeks post I'll write first so that I can have loads of time!!!! Just remember that God loves you, Jesus Christ loves you, and I love you.  Heavenly Father Answers our prayers and I testify of that because he answers mine!!

Have an amazing week!

Love,

Elder Simons

Selfie with companion during class haha

Me playing with my MTC card...and cool retractable key chain thing!

This face that my companion can't do...yet!

You can draw on the desks like a whiteboard!

P-day selfie with Elder Waters and Elder Myers (he's in the other Albanian district)

Packages from Jojo and Mike, and Grandma :)

Me and Elder Waters doing (a) pukana

Second Week in the MTC

So I'm not sure what to write for this weeks blog because it is a lot of the same.  However I'll do my best! haha.  So this week had a couple tough days, just cause of stress and language and teaching skills, but no point lingering on those, because I've taken what I need to learn out of them, and I'm just leaving the rest behind haha.  The language is tough, but its so beautiful and I love it.  I'm not so stressed about the language though, yet.  What is cause me the distress, although not so much anymore, is the teaching.  It sorta hit me in the face that I don't know how to teach effectively, but Preach My Gospel is an AMAZING resource that I am learning to utilize to it's fullest capacity!! 

We studied the fundamentals of teaching in class, and then had to apply it in a lesson with an investigator (who was just another teacher. haha)  But I love all my teachers!! anyways haha.  Me and my companion made a quick sorta lesson plan, to find out what the investigator wanted to learn from us!  Before the lesson we said a prayer (in Albanian/English, we call it Albanglish, but it was mostly Albanian;) )  and we went into the lesson prepared, but with the Spirit.  We got really positive feedback and said that we were sooooo close to finding his main concern, and that if we had, we could have gotten a baptismal date out of it.  Which happened in the third lesson for our first investigator.  So technically thats two hypothetical baptism for the Waters/Simons companionship ;) hahah no just kidding, but we work well together and it was all the Spirit, we were just doing our best to apply what we learned in class, both teaching skills and Albanian, and letting the Spirit talk through us!!  We were really excited and we have another lesson with him on Saturday haha cause that's when he teaches us again! Hopefully we can find that concern and get a baptismal date!!!  

I miss my family as usual, but I also really miss Israel!!! Learning about the Savior all the time, both increases my testimony like CRAZY and makes me super homesick!! It's really making me appreciate the time I had there and it makes me realize how much it helped my testimony.  I miss the branch there too! and everyone in it!! I send my love to them, and to everyone really hahah I'm learning to love everyone!! Which is a shame that I didn't really before, but hey its hard to love someone you don't know!! This is such a humbling experience for me and I am loving every second of it! Even the hard times hahah we have trials to help us grow!! All is still very well with my companion and district!!! I can't WAIT for Emily to come though!! I'm so excited to get to be here for her first couple weeks!!! 

My companion made me go to choir on Tuesday hahah cause he's such a good singer, so that was awkward for me because my singing makes people cringe, and probably ears bleed haha.  But it wasn't so bad, and we ended up not even being in the choir for the devotional hahah Oh an the devotionals are always so amazing!!! They have really good speakers.  But I was pretty mad that I forgot my journal on Tuesday hahah guess I won't be remembering that one! hahah jk.  It was so good though!!  

I don't know what else to say other than I'm having a blast and I love being a missionary and putting on the nametag!!  OH shout out to my Aunt and Uncle JoJo and Mike!! Thank you so much for the packages!!! I love them so much!!! Sorry I don't have your email but I love you guys and I appreciated the packages very much!!  

I love you all and I'm so thankful for your support!! Have an amazing week and remember that you are a child of our Heavenly Father and that He loves you more than we can comprehend!!