LEARNING THE LANGUAGE OF THE SPIRIT

Hola Familia!

I just love you so much!  This week has been quite the week, I'm not quite sure where to start.  Today is my two month mark!  It's been the longest two months of my life.

 On Tuesday we had a mission conference with Elder Packer.  Not to be confused with President Boyd K. Packer.  It's his son. It was really good.  Of course.  He talked a lot about learning the language of the Spirit and teaching by the Spirit.  We also talked a lot about personal conversion and how we need to be converted so we can help our investigators be converted.  There's a difference between a testimony and conversion and we want our people to be truly converted so when the trials come, they will be strong.  I'm also trying to become a more converted missionary.  Before I came on a mission I thought I was a pretty good at being pretty good.  Wrong!  The scripture in Ether about the Lord making known our weaknesses is so true.  It's very humbling to be a missionary, and I'm trying to do what I can so that the Lord can turn my weaknesses into strengths.  I wish it would happen overnight though, because it's not exactly the most pleasant process of realizing you're not quite as good as you thought you were.  I have faith though that the Lord will keep working on me and hopefully by the end of these 18 months I will have learned what I needed to come here to learn and be refined enough to continue not missionary life.  I think both Hermana Stewart and I are going through this right now.  We're working so hard and we're not seeing a lot of success--our progressing investigators are going down, not up.  But we keep trying.  We're really trying to depend on the Lord.  

We had kind of a neat experience this week.  In our mission conference President Riggs talked a lot about Moroni 10:3-5 and what we really need to be doing to get an answer to know if the Book of Mormon is true.  We then did some practice teaching using these principles.  To be completely honest, I really don't like practice teaching.  This time though, we did it with another set of sisters and they played the role of one of their investigators.  Later that night we  had an appointment with Maruja and Victor.  This was the first time I had met them, but apparently they're eternigators.  Or in other words, eternal investigators.  Victor was talking to me, and told me that he's been the frustration of many a missionary because he just can't bring himself to be baptized.  Then he went into the kitchen to help Maruja finish making dinner (This was also the night we ended up eating two whole Peruvian dinners.  It's a miracle our tummies didn't explode!).  Hermana Stewart and I just looked at each other and we both said Moroni 10 and the same time.  So we started talking about the Book of Mormon.  We read Moroni 10 and went through the steps with him.  And everything we had talked about during practice teaching earlier today was said!  The same questions with the same answers!  It was a miracle!  We talked so in depth about real intent and how to receive an answer and to really know and when he really knew, that he would know that he needed to get baptized and he would feel at peace with that.  So we asked him to read the Book of Mormon, to make the time to read it for only five minutes every night, and if he would do that, he would know.  His eyes got a little watery, and when we invited him to be baptized, he said he would!  This made me so excited.  And our efforts in practice teaching really payed off.  It's seeing tender mercies like these that make me think I can survive another day.

On Friday we had the mission Christmas party.  It was great fun!  It's been very weird being a missionary at Christmas time, because we're so busy working that sometimes it's hard to feel like it's Christmas.  Especially because all the things that usually come with Christmas like being home and wearing sweat pants all day every day of break and eating yummy Christmas treats are not part of Christmas this year.  I've been trying very hard to focus on the true meaning of Christmas and on the gift Jesus gave to us and what I can give to him, but it's really hard not to miss you guys.  

I have some sad news.  Next week since Pday is on Christmas Eve, the library will be closed.  We're going to try and email, but I'm not sure if we're going to be able to find somewhere.  So it might just have to wait until Tuesday.  By the way, I'm so excited about that!  

I loved the story from Perry's letter.  It made me cry.  But it seems like everything makes me cry these days.  I don't really know what's going on with me.  I'm either super spiritual or just super hormonal.  Probably the latter.  

I do have a super funny story for you though!  On Friday, we went out to eat with Fredy and Marta and Kamila (who is 9).  They're recent converts and they have a 19 year old son name Jean Paul that reminds me a lot of Cameron that we're teaching.  He didn't go with us though.  All of a sudden as we were in the car driving home, Kamila tooted.  We just looked at here, pretending to be shocked, and she says,  " Well Jean Paul farts all the time!"  We died laughing.  She said, "What?  He does!"  And her mom is sitting up front saying "What did she say?!"  Kamila then proceeded to ask us if we ever toot.  We both told her no.  And she thought we were lying.  We told her that missionaries don't lie.  Hermana Stewart isn't used to farty talk, but I felt right at home.

I love you so much and I can't wait to see you on Christmas!  You're the best!

xoxo

Hermana Simpson

p.s. Kelley, isn't it about time for me to get another letter?

I COULDN'T HELP BUT PICTURE PRESIDENT MONSON WITH LONG HAIR AND BELL BOTTOMS

Hola Familia!

I love you soooooooo much!  It sounds like it's been a pretty exciting week for you!  And thanks for sharing all that exciting news with me.  Brooke is so lucky to be going to Seattle and I'm so jealous of Brittan going to Jerusalem.  Lucky girl!  I'm glad to hear that Cam looks good wrestling.  Is he still cutting weight? Mostly though, I'm super happy for you that you're done with school!  I'm so jealous that you get Christmas break!  I was thinking about that this week too, that I would be home right now if I had been at school.  I tried not to think about that too long though because it made me a little bit sad to not be home for Christmas.  What was I thinking being gone for two?!  The good news is, we found a family that we can go to for Christmas that has internet so we can Skype!  We're thinking about sometime in the afternoon because of the time difference so that you will have time to wake up and do all that Christmas morning stuff.  So let me know what time works best and if we'll be able to do it with Brady too.  

We get our packages forwarded to our apartments, so you don't have to worry about me not getting it until zone conference.  We usually get it a day or two after it gets to the mission office.  And the weather this last week has been so weird.  It's hit 70 at least once and hasn't been that cold, just wet and rainy.  But everyone keeps talking about how January and February are the worst.  And I'm sure this nice little heat wave won't last too much longer.  My bedding isn't too bad, I bought a fleece blanket from Target a couple of weeks ago, and we got the heat to work a little better in our apartment, so I'm not sleeping in twelve layers anymore.  We also put our Christmas tree up last week as well! Not as much work as the one at home.  It's a little baby one we found at Target.  We were really tempted to just cut down someone's bush outside their house, but we figured that wouldn't be very Christlike.  So we didn't.

To answer the companion question, yes.  I love my companion.  I can't believe we get along as well as we do.  We balance each other out in lessons and we laugh all the time.  I'm scared for when we're not companions because now I have really high expectations.  I just showed her the story about Nathan and Santa and we got some dirty looks for not being reverent enough in the library.  Oops.  We laugh so hard we cry probably on a daily basis.  The Spanish is coming amazing.  I don't know how it's happened, but I can speak Spanish!  It's a great feeling to know that people understand what I'm trying to say.

The best part of the week...hmmm.  It was a pretty hard week, we didn't feel too successful.  But, a kind of neat thing happened yesterday.  Saturday night we stopped by a recent convert, Ana's house.  She the one with the three terrifyingly naughty little kids.  When we pulled up we saw a man walking into their apartment and we were worried that she wouldn't want to talk to us.  But she did.  I started talking to the man, Cristobal, right as we were getting ready to leave.  I didn't really want to, but I felt like I needed to invite him to church on Sunday.  So I asked him what he was doing tomorrow and invited him.  We invite a lot of people to church and hardly anyone ever comes.  But he came!  I was so excited.  He couldn't stay for the whole thing, but he stayed for sacrament meeting and Sunday school.  And he's going to let us teach him some more!  It felt really good to have followed that prompting and seen the fruits of it.  We also have started teaching a lady named Priscilla and she's come to church a couple times and wants to know how to become a member! 

This is probably the funniest part of the week though.  The mission just started doing a new thing called Walk About Wednesday, where don't use our cars at all on Wednesday.  It's kind of terrible when your area covers an entire zone and you can't use your car, but we're doing the best we can.  We had walked for not even half a mile when we ran into this guy who let us start teaching him.  We ended up going into a restaurant because we were standing in the parking lot and it was really windy.  We started teaching him.  He was so weird and maybe a little drunk.  He smelled like alcohol.  But he told us that he wanted to change but that he didn't think he could.  He said a lot of things that were kind of weird.  And then he just kept staring into my companion's eyes and saying "Your eyes.  There's just something about them."  I just thought, yeah, they're blue.  And you can probably see the light of Christ in them.  So we kept trying to teach him, and he kept commenting on her eyes.  One time he told me that I was pretty too, but that I just didn't have eyes like Hermana Stewart.  At the end we exchanged numbers so we could try to teach him more.  Except we actually gave him the district leader's number.  Hermana Stewart was kind of creeped out by him and that it would be better for the Elders to have a stalker than us.  

Our other story is that we were teaching one of our recent converts, Sebastian, and we asked him what the role of a prophet is.  He said, "A prophet brings peace and balance to the world."  I couldn't help but picture President Monson with long hair and bell bottoms because it just sounded like such a hippie thing to say.  But I guess he's kind of right.  Ish.  

For Pday today we went into DC.  It was so fun!  We went to almost all the memorials and the White House and we went to the Natural History Museum.  We loved it.  I wish we could go more than every other transfer.

I also started driving this week.  Driving in downtown Alexandria during rush hour is the worst thing I've ever done in my life.  I've never been so stressed out.  And Hermana Stewart even told me that I'm not as funny when I'm driving.  Duh!  It takes all me energy to keep us from dying.  I can't be witty too!  It's been so scary, but hopefully by the end of 18 months I might turn into a good driver.  Maybe.  

As for Christmas list, I think I might like a yoga mat.  We've started doing yoga every morning because it's way better than walking to the gym.  I don't know if you could send one of those in the mail, but maybe I could just buy one here?  Really though, it's not like I really need anything.  Our needs are pretty well taken care of.  Maybe some chocolate?  

I also want to tell you that you're email about Sister Gubler made me cry.  Please tell Sister Graff thank you for me.  I've always loved Sister Gubler and I've been thankful for her example as I've grown up.  I know that she's on the other side of the veil with Brother Gubler and they're working together to accomplish the work Heavenly Father needs them to do there.  How thankful I am for the plan of Salvation.

Well family, I wish I had time to write more, but that's about it.  Please tell Grandma and Grandpa I love them and I love getting their emails and I'll try to write them a letter soon.  I love you so much!

xoxo

Hermana Simpson

Justin Beiber or Taylor Lautner? They're Both So Cute!‏

Hola Familia!

I love you, I love you, I love you!  It sounds like you've had a pretty busy week!  I'm glad to hear that the kids seem to be doing pretty well with sports.  Yay Cameron.  Maybe you should just stay at 170 so you're not grumpy!  And Kelley, sorry that you lost, but I'm glad you scored some points!  Keep up the good work.  Mom, you're life is crazy.  That doesn't surprise me, but I'm really happy that you are almost done.  The end is in sight!  What day are you done for Christmas break?

As for the mustard down east skirt I have, I'm pretty sure I don't have a mustard down east skirt...But if I do, go ahead and send it I guess.  And maybe the denim looking one with the buttons?  If you send my camera, can you make sure you send it with the cords so I can connect it to the computer to send pictures.  Or I guess I could find a card reader here too. I'm so glad you loved my pictures!  And I am so happy to have brown boots!  

I'm sorry hear that Sister Gubler died.  That must be so hard.  I too, am so grateful for the Plan of Salvation, and I'm so grateful that I have the chance to teach it to people that really need to hear it.  Life would be so different if we thought that death was the end.  I'm coming to understand more about temples and I'm so thankful that Heavenly Father has made it possible for us to be sealed to our families forever!  What a blessing that is.  

Thanks for getting Laura's address.  I'll try and resend her card.  Also, I got a letter from Alena this week.  She got her mission call!  Ft. Lauderdale, Spanish!  I'm so excited for her!  And kind of jealous because she's never going to be cold!

We had kind of a rough week this week.  A lot of our appointments fell through, and we didn't really find that many new investigators.  And then on Saturday, our investigator Moises had his baptismal interview with the district leader.  He did great!  But then, when it came time for his mom to sign the paperwork, she wouldn't do it.  She doesn't believe that he's ready and his grandma doesn't either.  The thing is, we've taught Moises all the lessons and he knows everything.  He's so ready, but without the support of his mom, he's not going to believe it or say that he is.  He needs to know that this is something that his mom wants for him, and he doesn't.  She just keeps saying that she only wants it if he does.  We talked a lot about faith and having the faith the make the decision, but we didn't get anything.  It was maybe the saddest moments of my entire life.  And that's no exaggeration.  I felt so awful.  I felt so sad for Moises, because really, there's only two choices, to take the steps towards salvation or not.  And right now, he's stuck.  He can't move forward.  And I know how much baptism would help him.  I've seen such a change in him since we started teaching him.  This is a kid who wouldn't even make eye contact, let alone talk to you before.  Now he's laughing with us and joking with us, and he's praying.  Out loud!  He told us he's never prayed before in his life!  And all of that is coming to a stop, at least temporarily.  He's confused because we're telling him one thing, that he's ready, and his mom and grandma are telling him something else, that he's not.  Hopefully we can continue to move forward, and help his mom understand why it's so important that she's not the only person that is baptized in the family, and that Moises is indeed ready.  But right now, it's so heartbreaking.  Hermana Stewart and I have shed more than a few tears over this.  But we keep praying for him and we'll keep trying.  At a time like this it feels like it would be so easy to just give up, because it feels like it's impossible to make progress from here, but we can't do that.  Jesus never gives up on us, and as His representatives, we can't give up on Moises either.  

Saturday night was a little bit better.  We went with one of our recent convert families to the temple!  It was so beautiful!  And I got to see one of my good friends from the MTC there too.  Also, they're doing concerts every night of December and the night we went Jenny Oaks Baker was performing!  It was only about 45 minutes, but it was so good.  On the way back home we were playing would you rather with Kamila, she's nine.  My question: "Would you rather eat a worm or a booger?"  Her question: "Would you rather marry Justin Beiber or Taylor Lautner?"  Obviously she doesn't have younger brothers.  I said "What would you choose?" And she said, "Oh that's so hard!! They're both soooooo cute!"  It was super funny.  She proceeded to tell us that we should probably marry Taylor Lautner because he's closer to our age.  She loves to keep us up to date all the pop culture we're missing out on.  I'm not exactly sure how reliable it is though, coming from a nine year old. 

Yesterday we didn't get to go to the Christmas devotional because we had to take a recent convert, less active, or investigator and none of ours could go.  We were really sad about that, but I guess Heavenly Father had other plans for us.  We decided to knock doors for the hour and a half before it was time to go home.  We knocked three entire apartment buildings and not a single person let us in.  Not one!  I was getting so discouraged, and we still had about 30 minutes until it was time to leave.  So we started on building number four.  At this point, I wasn't really hoping for anything, but then someone answered!  We could barely even say that we were missionaries before we were being invited in.  The woman knew exactly who we were!  It turns out that her mom and brother are actually members and they were baptized years ago.  She went to church a few times with them in Peru, and went to family night and all sorts of activities.  She had only met the missionaries once since living here, and they were English missionaries that said they would send Spanish missionaries, but no one ever came.  That was about two years ago. Her son still remembers going to church and they have a Book of Mormon and everything!  So we taught them the sweetened condensed version of the Restoration and we have a return appointment for Friday!  This woman's boyfriend was also there and he had never heard of the Book of Mormon before and he's really excited for us to come back and to learn more.  Maybe they're finally ready to hear the gospel and apply it.  And their Peruvian.  Peruvians are some of my favorite people to teach! So we had a good end to a kind of bummer weekend.  And now it's P-day!  We don't have very big plans this week, other than to get a Christmas tree!  We're really excited about it though.  I love this time of year.  It's been really fun to see the all the lights and decorations that have been going up around here!

I think that's about all I have to say for this week.  I'll start thinking about Christmas.  It's kind of hard because in order to skype we have to go to a members house and almost no one has internet here, so we're trying to find a way.  Figure out what's going on with Brady and we can try and coordinate.  Also, I have exactly two things that I've already added to my Christmas list:  A body warmer and a water bottle.       I just get so cold in the morning doing personal study and I'm thirsty all the time.  

I also have a question for you mom.  You were a ward missionary like a million years ago, right?  Well what could we do to work better with the ward, do you think?  We're kind of having a hard time communicating with them and working well with them in our correlation meetings.  I know that we could be doing much better, and I'm just wondering if you had any good ideas?  

I think that's about all I have to say this week.  I love you so much and I miss you.  It's almost Christmas!  

xoxo

Hermana Simpson

p.s. The Spanish is really come along, according to Hermana Stewart. This morning she told me I was talking in my sleep in Spanish! Success!

WE HAVE BEEN EATING THE MOST AWFUL FOOD

Hola Familia!

I love you so so much!  It sounds like you had a good Thanksgiving!  I'm glad to hear that.  And so fun that you got to see Brad and Karen and Bro. Fowler!  The bishop ended up inviting us to his house, so we got a traditional Thanksgiving dinner!  The bishop and his wife are both super gringo.  That was really nice though.  But no green bean casserole.  I ended up making a little dish of it for myself on Friday. She did fry the turkey though, and that was delicious.  

I have no idea where my old ipod is.  But if you can find it, he's welcome to it.  Also, I have no idea where the camera charger could be.  Maybe in the top desk drawer? Do you have any extra memory cards?  Could you maybe also send a copy of the First Noel in the David Lanz book and my Paul Cardall book.  I'm thinking about doing a musical number here for Christmas.  And if there's room, maybe my old man sweater might fit?  Our apartment is so cold in the mornings while we're studying.  I don't think it has any insulation.  But we're surviving.  With lots of layers and lots of hot chocolate.  

I'm so happy you got the pictures from Michelle's mom!  It was so fun to see her.  If you have time, I would love it if you could print those and send them to me!  

I was so sad to hear about Josh's wife.  I will remember to keep his family in my prayers.  It's really heartbreaking to hear that though.  Thanks for sharing her words to live by.  I am so thankful for the Plan of Salvation and for the knowledge that we have about Heavenly Father's plan for us.  

Just this week we were teaching it to one of our investigators, Ana.  After teaching it, we found out that her daughter's husband was killed by a gang in Honduras just a few months ago.  When we taught her the first lesson she asked what we believe about after death and it lead perfectly into this lesson.  She lives here with her 14 and 16 year old sons and her husband and daughter and granddaughter are still in Honduras because their papers didn't go through.  It's so sad to see.  But Ana is so special.  After we taught the first lesson, she called us to have us come back!  When we got there, she told us that she didn't know why, but she felt like she needed to call us.  So she did.  And then we taught her the plan of salvation.  And then we put her on date to be baptized on December 30th!  We called her on Sunday and invited her to church and she wanted to come!  She called us back about five minutes and asked what she needed to wear.  We told her a skirt and she said that she didn't have one.  So we grabbed a few out of the discarded clothes basket and ran them over to her so she could have something to wear to church.  This woman is a miracle.  She really liked church and wants to keep coming.  The Lord truly has people prepared for us.  

We also have another investigator named Santo.  We call him Scary Santo, because we're both terrified of him.  He's Seventh Day Adventist. I think.  And he asks really hard questions.  But we've invited him to church.  And he also wants to come, but he's a truck driver and he couldn't come this Sunday because he was driving to Texas and back.  The funny thing is, we got this phone call on Thanksgiving night from a number that we didn't recognize.  Hermana Stewart answered it on speaker and someone started talking to us on English.  It was Santo!  He said, I'm just calling to tell you Happy Thanksgiving!  It was so sweet!  Maybe he's not so scary after all.  Maybe.  We'll see what questions he has to ask this week. 

We also are teaching the son of one of the families that was baptized about three months ago.  He's 19.  He's really good, but he doesn't want to go to church because it's always when the Redskins are playing.  We went over last night and taught him the first lesson.  Hopefully he reads the Book of Mormon.  We're going back over on Wednesday to watch The Testaments with his family for a family movie night!  

Just so you know, Brady and I email each other every week.  I get a little paragraph from him.  So I send him a little paragraph or two back. He sounds like he's maybe doing better this week?  I hope so.  I think about him a lot.  There's a woman in our ward from Brazil.  She only speaks Portuguese.

We have a baptism lined up for Sunday, so we're really excited about that. 

Last Pday we went to Mt. Vernon.  It was really neat.  I'll send pictures!  George Washington was quite an interesting fellow.  

I hope you all are doing well.  I love you so so much and I miss you.  Keep being good.

xoxo,

Hermana Simpson

p.s. Kelley, why haven't you written me a letter yet?!

I have another quick story though.  We have been eating the most awful food this week!  Last Saturday we ate eggs fried in oil with tomatoes and broccoli over them.  Both Hermana Stewart and I were so sick for the rest of the day.  And then last night we were fed fish and onions.  I think I've brushed my teeth about seven times since then.  And I think I can still taste it.  Thank you for being such a good cook.  But maybe if you weren't, I wouldn't have such high expectations.  I'm more of a picky eater than I thought! 

IF YOU ARE ON THE COMPUTER WRITE ME AN EMAIL!!!

Note from Mom : This weekend was crazy and I did not get emails out Sunday evening as planned, so I got up early on Monday but alas both missionaries had already emailed and I about died when I saw the emails.  Lucky for me both were on the computer while I was!! Tender mercies for sure!!

Hola Familia.

I looooove you.  But I wish you would write me emails so that when I have Pday I can read them.  Remember we are three hours earlier here.  And we usually come to the library first thing after we finish our studies.  So that means about 10:00.  Which means I need an email in my inbox by about 7:00 on Monday.  Feeling chastised?  Good.  It's just becuase I love you and I miss you.

Happy Thanksgiving week! Commence the best part of the year (minus the cold).  Are you so excited to only have two and a half days of school?  I am.  Or at least I would be if I were in school.  No breaks for missionaries.  What are your plans?  To eat delicious food I hope.  I'm not sure what we will be doing.  We might have made plans with two different families, but we're not exactly sure.  So we'll either be eating a lot of food or no food.  But I'm pretty sure it won't be a traditional Thanksgiving.  And I'm pretty sure there will be no green bean casserole.  When we do our grocery shopping today I am going to buy supplies to make it.  Then at least it will feel somewhat like Thanksgiving.  What are you most thankful for this year?  Me, I'm most thankful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I've been studying a lot about the Atonement, and it's everything.  Even when I'm not studying about it, somehow everything circles back to it.  I'm so thankful for my Savior, and for what he did for me, personally. I don't know if you knew this, but being a missionary is hard work.  It's hard, and it's work.  And I couldn't do it by myself.  It's the same thing with everyone.  We each have our own trials--our investigators have very difficult lives--and their are things we simply can't do on our own.  The beautiful thing is, we don't have to.  I was reading a quote by John Taylor today that said that Jesus descended below it all so that he could raise us above our trials and our weaknesses.  He said, He could not save us from something He could not do himself.  But He did it.  And because He did, He knows how to help us.  Why?  Because he's already been there and He's already overcome it.  Whatever the challenge might be.  So no matter how much we feel we're on our own, we're not.  If we have the faith and humility to turn to Him, to rely on Him, and to cast our burden upon Him, He will rescue us and He will heal our hearts and our souls.  The more I learn of Him, and the more I begin to understand the Atonement, the more I come to love Him.

It's been amazing to see the atonement work in the lives of the people here.  There is a recent convert in the ward, Ana, who I look up to so so much.  She is a single mother of three crazy ninos.  Those kids are so naughty.  And I love them. I think I might have been predisposed to love naughty children.  And she comes to church, by herself with her three ninos every week.  Even though they are noisy and they don't listen and everything.  She still comes. We sit in front of them, and usually at least one of the kids comes to sit with us (speaking of that, do you think you have any of those sacrament meeting matching velcro thingies that you could send me? I would love to put together a little church bag and I think those things would be great!).  I can imagine it's probably a relief to drop them off in Primary.  And why does she come?  She said, coming to church has changed my life in ways I couldn't have ever imagined before.  I've noticed a change in myself and a change in my children.  I'm more patient, and I have more strength to be able to do hard things.  And she's being a missionary!  She's probably a better missionary than I am!  She has a friend, Walter, that she's invited to church, we didn't even know he was interested.  He's looking to change his life, and she told him that she knows that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the way to do it.  He wants to keep coming and he wants to take the missionary discussions.  I am so proud of her!

Teaching the gospel is so fun.  There are two boys, Juan and Luis, that have been taught by the missionaries for a couple of months.  They are 10 and 12, and we love those boys.  They come from a crazy home life, as in sometimes I wonder if they have parents.  Don't worry, they do.  But they also live with their sisters and their brothers and their boyfriends and girlfriends and there are a ton of ninos born to not married parents running around like crazy.  But Juan and Luis are so well behaved.  And they are so good!  They love the Book of Mormon and they love learning about Jesus.  And they really want to come to church.  So on Saturday we invited them (and we finally met their mom).  She said they would come, so we set up a ride and everything. Well somehow we had a miscommunication and they thought we had arranged for a ride to pick them up at 10:00.  They woke up at 9 and got ready and everything.  But then, when nobody came at 10:00 (because church starts at 11) they left.  When their ride showed up, nobody was home.  They got home about 15 minutes after their ride showed up to take them.  They were so sad.  When I heard that I felt so sick.  We didn't have their phone number so we couldn't call them, and they lost ours. It was so sad.  But they want to come again.  We have their mom's phone number now and we are going to get them to church this Sunday!  After we figured out that confusion, we started talking about the Book of Mormon.  Luis (the 10 year old) asked why we needed two books.  And I talked to them about how the Bible had been translated a lot and how there were lots of different versions of it, so a lot of important things got lost.  And then I explained how the Book of Mormon was translated once through revelation. Then Juan (the 12 year old) said, "Oh, so the Book of Mormon is more important?" Basically yes!  These boys really seem to get it, we just need to get the mom on board. Agh they're so good! I was teaching them and some of the other kids, who are probably about three and four cam in and were so noisy.  Hermana Steward distracted them so that I could teach.  The little girl pulled out her finger nail polish and started painting her nails and she started spraying her with body spray and feeding her chips and everything.  Weird.  And she smelled so bad. But we decided this is why we have companions: so one can teach while the other distracts.

We also put one of our investigators, Moises on date for baptism.  His mom got baptized two weeks ago.  He's still not sure that he's ready for it, but we told him we would help him prepare for it.  He's 15 and so so funny.  Even though he doesn't try to be.  He's just kind of socially awkward. As in he reminds me of Jon from the pool, but less chatty.  We texted him the other day to see how he was doing and he just texted us back saying, "No duck, duck, goose.  Bad day." Hermana Stewart and I are still laughing over that. Apparently they had played duck,duck, goose in PE the other day and he thought it was the dumbest thing ever. 

I hope you all are doing well. And that you have an awesome Thanksgiving.  Give Baby Alex lots of hugs and kisses for me when you see her.  I can't wait to skype you at Christmas.  When we figure out what's happening for that, I'll let you know.  Thank you for being so wonderful family.  I love you lots and I pray for you lots too.

xoxo

Hermana Simpson

We're Not in Kansas Anymore, Toto‏

Hola Familia!

I love you so much.  It was so good to talk to you (Mom and Nathan) on Wednesday.  I miss seeing you everyday and it was nice to hear your voices again.  I finally made it to DC!!! Well kind of.  We have exactly 0% of DC in our mission.  But I'm glad you got the email from President Riggs.  He did indeed take us to George Mason University and we did street contacting.  That was the very first thing we did after leaving the airport. And it was terrifying!  As soon as we got there and he told us what we were doing, I wanted to jump back into the car, lock the doors and hide under the seat.  I was so scared!  But, since that wasn't really an option, we companioned up and started talking to the gente.  And they were so nice!  The first person we talked to was totally interested.  I just opened my mouth and words came out.  It was a miracle.  But we gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he'd read it and that he'd like to meet with the missionaries!  Yay!  That night it was so cold.  Even when it's only a little cold here, it's freezing.  I don' think I like that very much.  After GMU we went to the mission home and ate some yummy food (way better than the MTC) and had some meetings and had an interview with President Riggs.  I've never met a person so full of love.  I'm excited to get to know him and work with him more! 

Thursday we had a transfer meeting and I got my new companion!  Her name is Hermana Allie Stewart, she's from the Mesa/Gilbert area and she's awesome!  We hit it off right away.  She actually reminds me a lot of Liz, so we have a lot of fun together.  

Thursday night we had a neat experience.  We stopped at a McDonalds for a bathroom break.  As I when in there Hermana Stewart started talking to a big black man.   I came out and thought we were going to leave. Nope.  We talked to him for another 45 minutes.  We talked a lot about why we are serving missions when we could be doing pretty much anything else, and we also talked about the atonement.  He was very interested and he said he liked being around us.  He also said he'd love for his kids to meet us (he is divorced and has three kids).  Unfortunately, he doesn't live in our zone.  Boo.  But we gave him a mormon.org card and got his number and gave him ours.  He put the card inside his cell phone holder because he said that's where he puts the things that are important to him.  If he didn't care about it, he said he would have put it in his back pocket and probably washed it.  Woohoo, he liked what we had to say.  He also told us that if we ever needed help in talking to people he would like to help us out.  He said that a lot of "young guys" wouldn't listen to us because they were too hard and too tough and the wouldn't respect us.  He then proceeded to tell me that part of my problem was that I look like "I'm from the burbs."  But those young kids would respect him because he's OG.  Don't know what that means?  I didn't either.  Apparently it means original gangster.  Like the real kind.  Not the kind with saggy pants.  He's been around the block a time or two and people respect him.  I'm learning all sorts of things here.  Like the meaning of OG.  But also that no matter how rough around the edges someone seems to be, they can always use the gospel.  And a lot more people than I've expected are receptive to it.  

Saturday was a bad day.  All of our appointments fell through.  As we were heading to the bishop's house to give ask his family if they had received revelation for anyone that we could help, we got into an accident.  Before you panic, don't.  Here's what happened:  We were heading down the street and the person three cars ahead of us tried to make an illegal left turn.  Bad.  And then the car behind her slammed on it's breaks and the car behind that car swerved and then the car in front of us slammed on his breaks.  And we slammed on ours.  And rear ended the guy in front of us.  But no one got hurt and hardly any damage was done to either car.  It could have been a lot worse.  We're glad it wasn't.  But that took up a huge part of our afternoon after we exchanged information and got an accident report and filled out all the paperwork we needed to for the mission and blah blah blah.  I'm glad I wasn't driving.  In fact, I think I never want to drive here.

On Sunday I met the ward.  This ward has so much personality.  And it's so diverse. I love it.  Also, the people were very surprised at my Spanish.  They asked if my family speaks it or if I grew up speaking it.  When I told them no, they were even more surprised.  Hermana Stewart likes to tell them I'm from Mexico.  And sometimes they believe it!  Silly.  When they ask where I'm actually from, and I tell them Washington, they get really confused.  Most people here don't know that Washington is a state.  I try to explain that it's on the west coast, close to Canada.  Then they start thinking I'm from Canada.  It would probably be easier just to tell them that.  

As Spanish missionaries, we cover the entire zone.  Zones are set up according to stakes. We're in the Mount Vernon Stake, so yes, Mount Vernon is in our mission, as is the Masonic Temple, and TC Williams (as in Remember the Titans!).  We have some fun Pday plans!  Our zone covers all of Alexandria and half of Arlington.  But not the cemetery half.  We're about 10 miles outside of DC and we're allowed to go to DC every other transfer.  We're planning on going closer to Christmas.  Could you find out from Phyllis where Dustin is at?  I thought she said he's in Alexandria, but I can't remember.  And does he still speak Spanish?  We're always looking to have members present at our appointments.  

I really love it here.  We definitely don't live in the classy part of town, but that's okay.  The people here are amazing.  They are being prepared by the Lord.  Sometimes I feel like Buddy the Elf because I just love everything so much!  I love the people, I love my companion and I love sharing the gospel.  

One of the scariest most exciting thing we do is knock doors.  I never want to because it's scary, but when people open their doors and want to learn more, it's so exciting.  Anyone that's looking for an adrenaline rush should probably just go on a mission.  We've had some really neat things happen when we've knocked the last few days.  On Sunday we were at an apartment complex and a women answered the door.  She's from the Congo!  I taught the entire first lesson by myself!  Of course, we had to give her a watered down version because neither of us had English scriptures with us so we had to paraphrase.  Luckily we had an English Book of Mormon in the car that we gave her and she said she would read it and wants to learn more.  She speaks better French than English so we're looking for someone that can go with the English Elders that speaks French.  I'm meeting and teaching people from all over the place.  I'm keeping a list.  So far I've met people from El Salvador, Honduras, Peru, Venzuela, Bolivia, Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, China and the Congo.  And I haven't even been here a whole week!  Last night we also had a neat knocking experience.  We had about 30 minutes before it was time to head home and so we picked an apartment building to knock.  We prayed that we would be able to find people and we did!  We made four return appointments!  The best part was that one girl answered the door and she was on the phone with her dad.  I thought she was going to shoo us away, but she didn't.  Instead she said "I'm just talking to my dad about my brother that is having some problems.  It's so perfect that you stopped by!"  And then she said to her dad, "Dad, some women from a church just stopped by and they want to talk about it, isn't that good timing!"  We're going back to teach us the first lesson tonight.  And we also met a family from Honduras that wants to learn more.  I'm so excited.

We have a couple of golden investigators.  One of them is so close to being ready to be baptized.  He was on date once, and then got scared so we pushed it back.  But I asked him again the other night if he would be baptized and he said yes, now we just need to get him back on date.  The only problem is his girlfriend.  She's not supportive and she's really not making his life easy right now.  We all think he would be much happier if he would break up with her.  But he's too nice to do that.  Hopefully though we'll continue to make progress.  

I love you all so much and I hope that you are all doing well.  You're the best!

xoxo

Hermana Simpson

One last MTC experience

Jessica sent a letter to her Aunt Elise in which she shared the following experience.  I thought I would share with you.  

"Being a missionary is so fun.  I never thought it would be like this.  I love teaching the gospel.  We had a teaching appointment today (the last one before we go into Babylon aka the real world)  with our progressing investigator.  Her name is Hely and she's from Guatemala.  She was talking about how she loved going to churches as a young girl in Guatemala because she felt safe and she felt loved.  I then explained to her that through the gift of the Holy Ghost she could have that peaceful feeling with her every second of every day if she wanted.  Then my companion invited her to be baptized.  I have never during any of our teaching appointments felt the spirit so strongly.  The only way I can even think to describe it was that a hush and stillness began to fill the room until I was sure it was leaking out the cracks in the door and window.  It was so powerful and we all felt it.  I know she's just a volunteer here, but if the spirit testifies so strongly here where most of the investigators are already members I can't wait to see what it's going to be like for reals.  Being a missionary is the best."

FOUR MORE DAYS!!!

Hola Familia!

 

Sorry you didn't get an email yesterday.  We had in field orientation all day long so our Pday got moved to today.  You know what that means? I'm going to DC in four days!! I got my flight itinerary earlier this week.  It looks like this:

Depart: SLC 6:00 AM

Arrive: DALLAS 9:35

Depart DALLAS 10:55

Arrive: WADC 2:35

We have to leave the CCM at 3:00 in the morning.  Yucky.  I will call you after my flight lands in Dallas.  So that will be at like 7:30 or 8:00 your time?  I hope someone will be home.  Mom, I'll try to call your phone first, so have it on you.  I'm very excited to get to DC.  I'm bursting with excitement to share the gospel.  Yesterday during In Field Orientation I learned so much.  Like how to contact people (we got mormon.org passalong cards to share on the plane, which is awesome!), and how to utilize members.  Members are so important in missionary work.  You have no idea. But the missionaries are here to help the members share the gospel.  It's so important.  I've learned so much during my time here at the CCM.  I was joking with one of my teachers that I should have stayed in the intermediate Spanish class because I still have so much to learn. He just said, "No, Hermana, you need to get to the field.  I'm starting to feel more confident about approaching the people about the gospel as I've come to understand more of my purpose as a missionary.  And that is to help people fully access the atonement of Jesus Chrsit through baptism, which is the gate to salvation.  We are not just sharing a nice idea, we are working in the same work as Christ, which is bringing salvation to as many souls as possible.  And that is why the gospel is so important.  It's not about the people at church or the fun things that different groups do, it's because it's the way to get to the Celestial Kingdom.  Now if only I could say it that well in Spanish. 

 

 I'm glad to hear that Brady is doing well.  I got a little note from him.  He's going to be a great missionary.  How did the game last night go?  I hope it went well. Tell everyone to write me letters my last few days. If you do it on dear elder it means i get it the exact same day and it's free.  And I've gotten more letters from Grandma than I have from you guys.  You're slacking!  Just kidding, but I would like to hear from you (Kelley I know you're reading this).  It would be best to send the package to DC if you haven't sent it yet, or else I don't think I will get it.  Also, if you can't find my patriarchal blessing, I know you can have another one sent to me if you log in on my lds.orgaccount.  And did you have a chance to find anything out about my brown boots?

 

Our district has grown even closer this week.  I think we realized that this will be our last week together.  They've really become my family here at the CCM and I love each and every one of them.  We've started going around the room at night before our district prayer and giving compliments to each other.  This has become one of the best parts of the day because it's so uplifting and we laugh a lot.  A couple of nights ago our district leader decided to compliment me.  He said, "Hermana Simpson, you are the Americanized one in the group.  But you really love Spanish and I like that."  The Americanized one?  We all laughed, but it's true.  I'm the only one that's had to actually study Spanish because I didn't grow up speaking it.  That has been really challenging for me, but I think that I'm improving.  It's hard for me to be able to say exactly what I mean in English, but to have to state it more simply in Spanish because I don't know the words.  Especially when we're teaching.  But I can tell that I've improved and with the Lord's help, hopefully I'll be basically fluent by the time I get back.  We've also been playing volleyball as a district and that has been really fun as well.  And a little crazy.

 

Michelle got here on Wednesday.  And she lives on my floor, right down the hall!  I've actually run into her a lot, and it's so good to have her here.  I love Michelle!

 

Being a missionary is seriously the best thing ever.  Right now I never want to not be a missionary.  Does that make sense?  I just feel just a joy within me when I think about sharing the gospel and how it's changed my life, and I want other people to feel that same joy and purpose in their lives.  I hope all of you at home seriously consider serving a mission.  Pray about it.  Ask Heavenly Father if it's right and he will answer you.  He loves you and he wants you to share that love with others.  This gospel is so much bigger and so much more important than we reailze. 

 

Keep being awesome and being good examples.  I love you so much and I miss you. You're the best family in the world. 

 

xoxo

Hermana Simpson

WEEK 1.5

Hola Familia!

I love you soooo much!! And I miss you and sometimes I catch myself thinking that I can't wait for class to end so I can go home and hang out with you guys...then I remember I'm in the CCM and that going home actually means going to the building next door. Not quite as exciting.  Oh well.  I can understand what Brady is saying about the CCM feeling like a prison, because I kind of feel the same way.  I think it's especially hard becuase BYU is right here and all my friends are there and we can hear the bell tower ringing.  I'll be really excited to finally get to DC.  Which, by the way, will be so soon!  Since I'm in the advanced class, we're only here for three weeks.  My companera got her travel plans yesterday and she leaves on November 7th.  I haven't gotten mine yet, but I imagine it will be the same.  If so, it means we leave the CCM at 3:00 in the morning.  Gross. 

I resent Brady's comment about packing.  I just have way more cute clothes to pack than him.  Tell him that at least my letters are more than a paragraph!  Anyway, last Saturday's letter was kind of an accident.  We had half of a P-day to do laundry and we assumed we could email too, but we learned after the fact that we were actually supposed to wait until today.  Oops.  It's okay though, it all worked out.  This week started out really nice.  It was about 70 degrees and sunny so we went outside and played soccer on the fields.  That was especially good.  I even have some battle wounds that make me look tough.  And then, all of a sudden, we woke up yesterday morning, and it was snowing!! I am definitely not ready for that yet.  This morning when we went to the temple, there was a little bit of snow on the ground too.  Hopefully it melts.  The temple was really nice though and it was a really spiritual experience.  We had to be there at 6:30, which means that we wake up earlier on our P-days than any other day. Kind of ironic if you ask me. 

There are 11 people in my district, and I'm really starting to love them.  It kind of makes me sad that in two weeks we will be leaving and going all over the world, because we've had so much fun and we've learned so much together.  I wish everyone were coming to DC.  I also ran into Alyse Nelson on Wednesday.  She lives just around the corner from me on my floor.  She seems to be doing really well, so you can tell her parents that she's still alive.

I have a funny story for you.  So on Sunday when we were all sleeping peacefully in our beds, the fire alarm randomly went off in our building at about 6:00.  Of course we all had to evacuate and we had no idea what was going on.  So we were all there, waiting outside the building in our jammies, freezing, when we realized that every single sister had her nametag on.  Some didn't even grab sweatshirts, but they all had their nametags. Those little black pieces of plastic have truly become out identity here.  And it's really something special to have your name right next to that of JesuCristo.

I also wanted to tell you, Mom, that I've gotten so many compliments on the skirts that you've made.  Like more on those two than on all of the rest of the clothes combined.  And the wool skirt is so warm.  And soooo cuuuuute!  You're the best.  And everybody wants to give me their measurements so that you can make them skirts too!  I was wondering, if you had time, if you could find my gray striped maxi skirt and maybe hem it so it would hit me right below midcalf.  I saw a girl wearing one almost identical to mine with boots and it was super cute.  And I feel like I don't have enough skirts.  I have waaaaaay too many shirts though, I'll probably be sending some home.  Also, could you find out about replacing the soles on my tall brown boots?  My gray boots fall down and hurt my feet.  I'm hoping that will get better.

So I wanted to tell you a few things I've learned at the CCM.  Probably most important, I've learned how to shower.  Just kidding.  But really, I think I've almost pefected the art of a quick shower.  And also the body rinse when you don't want to get your hair wet.  And as a side note, even the showers are spiritual here!  Every time I'm in the shower it's like we have an official MTC shower choir! I also stepped out of my comfort zone and sang in teh chooir for devotional! Alto!  Also, having a companion is hard work.  It's hard to be together for every single second of the day, and it's also hard to make personality types and different views of life mesh.  But I'm learning how to trust her and how to be a companion and I think it might be getting easier.  I'll let you know next week. Everyone is singing hymns and harmonizing and it's kind of weird to be harmonizing with someone while you're in the shower, but whatever.  You're only in the CCM once.  But what I've really learned is how much we really need to depend on the Lord, He can make us so much better than we are by ourselves.

The food here is sub par.  It kind of gives me a tummy-ache and you just cook so much better, mom.  I miss all the yummies you make.  And I try really hard not to eat dessert.  It's not that hard, because it never looks that good.  Except for ice cream night.

Well I'm out of time.  I love you soooo much!!

xoxo

Hermana Simpson

First Few Days in el CCM‏

Hola Familia!

First, can I just say that I love you so much.  I never thought it would be quite so difficult to say adios, but Brady was wrong; going to the CCM is nothing like going to college. My first day and a half started out crazy!! They put me in an intermediate group and said I was a solo sister.  Wondering what that means?  I did too.  Basically, it meant that I had a companion but she wasn't in my district, so I didn't really have a companion.  That makes it difficult because you have to have a companion wherever you go.  So basically it meant that if I wasn't with my companion I had to be with at least two elders.  Even to go to the bathroom!  They would have to walk with me and then wait outside the hall! Crazy right?  I thought so too.  Being in the intermediate group was kind of a bummer because it meant that I was going to be here for nine weeks instead of three.  But then my teacher, Hermano Lee, decided that my Spanish was too good so to make a long story short, I got switched to an advanced group.  I changed districts, zones, and even rooms.  I was really sad to leave my old district.  I don't know how, but in a day and a half I came to love them.  It's amazing how easy it is to love people here, the Spirit of Christ is truly here and the CCM is a very special place.  It was also kind of fun being the only girl in a group of nine boys. 

Now that I'm in the advanced group I have a companion!  That's great because it means I don't have to have elders for babysitters.  Her name is Hermana Memmott and she's from Chihuahua, Mexico.  You would never guess it, because she has blonde hair and blue eyes, but she grew up in the Mormon Colonies.  I didn't even know there was such a thing!  Basically, she has pioneer ancestors that came and settled that part of Mexico, and her family has been there ever since.  She's really great and we get along really well.  She has such a strong testimony and is a great example to me.  She's also going to my mission!  My new distrcit is full of basically native Spanish speakers.  So I went from the hermana that knew soooo much about Spanish to the hermana that knows nothing about Spanish.  It was a lesson in humility for sure.  It's easy for me to speak my mind and my feelings in English, but I don't have quite the vocabulary to articulate those thoughts when I speak Spanish, so it's been a challenge for me.  I know what I want to say, but I feel like I'm saying in the words of a five year old.  I know it will come as I get back into speaking it and as I rely on Heavenly Father to help me. 

The CCM is crazy!  I've never been so overwhelmed in my life!  By about 7:00 in the evening I feel like it's about midnight.  And waking up at 6:30 is not the funnest thing I've ever done.  Hopefully that gets easier.  And by the end of 18 months, who knows, I might even be a morning person! (doubt it).  Basically every second of our day is scheduled.  It's an adjustment for sure.  But this place functions like a well oiled machine.  My brain is going crazy trying to remember everything.  We have class for three hours twice a day, personal and companion study for about three hours and we also have scheduled meal times and gym time.  The gym time is a kind of a joke.  Yesterday we played bocce ball on the missionary fields.  Not really a workout.  But our time was scheduled right after lunch so we had just eaten.  You can also play ladder golf, frisbee, and they used to have croquet, but all the sets broke.  You can play soccer but elders and sisters can't play together so that's a bummer.  There's not a ton of sisters that like to play soccer.  And you're not supposed to get too competitve either.  The white handbook says so.  Also, we have gym at a different time every day, so it's kind of a pain to get ready in the morning and then have to get ready again after gym.  But it's the only way that they can get so many missionaries through. 

The food here is decent I suppose.  It's not the best, but the variety is good.  And don't worry, I've stayed away from the orange juice.  There are desserts with every meal which is ridiculous.  I can't believe how much the elders eat they have like three plates of regular dinner and then about five different desserts.  And they drink soda pop for breakfast!  Sick.  I usually eat Cream of Wheat for breakfast, a salad or a wrap for lunch and then whatever entre sounds the best for dinner.  Last night it was taco salad.  And lots of fruit.  

We taught our first investigator (not a real one).  That was terrifying!  He was really nice though because everyone in our zone had a chance to teach hime and we went last so by that time he was tired and ready to go home.  I think because of that he went really easy on us.  We're doing a pilot program right now where basically you teach the same lesson to the same person three different times in a row to see what you can do to improve it.  They're going to see if this will be a successful change to the curriculum for teaching missionaries.

There is an hermana in my zone who is going to the LA visitors center.  She'll get there in about two weeks.  She our coordinating sister and her name is Hermana Nordhagen.  She's the most adorable girl ever and I told her that Grandma and Grandpa are on a mission there and that they would make her delicious French Toast!  So tell them to give her a big hug for me.  Also tell them that I love them and I miss them and I'm so glad that they're on a mission. 

Could you ask Grandma where in Germany she is from?  There is an Elder in my old zone from Hamburg so we were talking.
Well I'm about out of time so I just want to say that I love you and that I hope all is well.  Also, if you want to write me letters, use Dear Elder, it's free and they get here super fast.

xoxo

Hermana Simpson

Getting Ready

It's almost that time.  Tomorrow night I will be set apart as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Wednesday morning I will give my family a few last hugs and board a plane to Salt Lake and enter the MTC.  A few weeks after that, I will get on another plane to my final destination of Washington DC.  Sitting here, I'm a jumble of emotions. I am so excited to be a missionary! I've been waiting five months for the day to come, but now that's it's almost here I'm also so nervous.  I'm nervous to leave my family for a whole 18 months, nervous to become Hermana Simpson, and nervous to go somewhere completely new, because let's face it, to a West Coast girl like me, Washington DC is basically a foreign country. Sometimes I can't help the thoughts that come in, "Am I going to be a good enough missionary? Have I prepared enough to go?" And the clincher, "What am I going to do when I can't call my mom every time I have a problem?"
The thing is, regardless of all these nagging thoughts in the back of my mind (or more recently the front), I know going on a mission is what I'm supposed to be doing about it.  It was a hard and terrifying decision to make, but once I made it, I was overwhelmed with peace.  And even now, when what I'm about to do has finally sunk in and I can feel a little bit of apprehension, that peace is still there.  Why?  Because I know that my prayers were answered.  That the answer I received to go on a mission is still the right answer.  I don't know why it's the right answer, but I know that Heavenly Father needs me to be in Washington DC right now.  And that's reason enough for me to go.  I have felt his love and I know that he is there.  It's through his power and his love that I know, regardless of the trials and challenges I'm about to face, that I'll be all right.  In fact, I'll be more than all right.  I can repeat the words of Paul said to the Romans with the same conviction he wrote them: "What shall we then say to these things?  If God be for us, who can be against us...Nay in all things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us."
The next eighteen months are months that I have dedicated to the Lord.  Not because I have to, but because I want to.  I'm excited to learn and serve and love and Jesus Christ does.  And I'm proud to be able to wear his name next to mine.


*If you're interested in reading my letters, my mom and sister will be posting them here.   So stay a while, and maybe even write me a letter!