Elder Andrew Simonsen
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Villahermosa    |    Mexico


Called To Serve
July 2018 - July 2020 

Week 47. . . Changing of Keys!

6/29/2019

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Aijaaa!!!

What up "squad"?  How's it been rollin in the hood? It has been goin good here, livin it big. Y'all know how it is. Lol It was a crazy week for sure!! We were getting a ton of stuff prepared because we got a new mission Presidente!!!! Yup Presidente y Hermana Haws hauled out of here yesterday and we received Presidente y Hermana Whitworth!!! They're from Centerville which is pretty dang close to home and it's even a smaller world because they know Uncle Jeffy! It was a super crazy experience this week honestly. hahaha. 

This week we went around buying materials, cleaning, preparing EVERYTHING for the new Presidente. It was super fun to spend a little last time with Presidente y Hermana Haws but dang it was a lot hahaha. We got into our area to work a grand total of 2 hours this week hahaha. Super busy but you got to do what you got to do! We took a little time to enjoy it though. One day before leaving Presidente Haws brought in all of his ties and gifted us all a few of them! They're a little wide for my taste but still how dope is that! It really was rough saying goodbye to them. Especially Hermana Haws because when she came to say goodbye she started crying super hard and it made me want to die. We have a nice new road ahead of us though!! Presidente Whitworth is super excited to step into the the spot and honestly is a really cool guy. hahah He was telling us about how he ran into Presidente Monson one time at a Jazz game when they were going through their special entrance hahahah. Being in the offices for the Presidente transition really is something else. Just seeing the change of keys is amazing and we're going to have the opportunity to get to know the new Presidente really well before everyone else! 

This week a few of my best friends in the mish went home. Elder Stewart, one of my buddies from the ccm has been super sick for his whole mission. He got typhoid and salmonella when he was in this super tiny pueblito called Benemerito. So he's been having health problems ever since and this week had to go home a bit early! But I remember something that my boy Hunt said when he came back from his mission when he said "God gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers." He's a super cool guy and I'm gonna miss him a freak ton but he did what he was called to do! Also some of my other friends went home like Werner and Schwab. hahaha Cool guys and I'm gonna miss them. Schwabs parents came down to pick him up and they took us out to dinner one night! They took us to eat barbecue and I ate some nice tender brisket. hahahah Best thing I've eaten in a whole year!!!

Super cool week and can't wait for what the next one has to bring!

Love you all.
Adiooo
Elder Ricardo 
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Week 46 . . . I Love to See the Temple!!!

6/22/2019

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​What up y'all?

How has it been going? I didn't write last week because I'll be honest writing emails isn't my favorite thing but that's what you gotta do when you're out here in the wilderne, am I right? hahah It has been a super busy couple weeks here getting ready for the new presidente to get here! There have been people nonstop walking through the office, painting, moving stuff, hammering for some odd reason that has made me want to kill someone! But it's going good and we're just trying to make sure that everything is prepared! It's crazy to think that Presidente Haws is leaving. He's going to be here for less than a week and then Presidente Whitworth will get here! The Whitworth's sound like awesome people. I'm super excited to meet them. Also I am so excited because they're die hard Jazz fans!!! Maybe he'll give us permission to watch some games with him next season hahaha. 


It has been a little tough finding AND teaching people lately here in barrio espejo. We've found some good people and people that I really think could progress, but we have had zero time to meet with any of them or they aren't home when we go. hahaha I can't tell you how many citas have fallen in the last little bit because people haven't opened the door or weren't there. It's ok though because this next week we're going to kill it! A few cool things that have happened though honestly. One day this week we had been trying to meet with people all day but everything was falling. We got to our last set cita of the day at about 8ish and you'll never guess what happened!!! He wasn't there hahaha but we were thinking and my comp said, "You know what, lets say a prayer." So we're standing there on the sidewalk and he says a prayer asking for someone who we could talk to and boy oh boy did somethin happen!!! La neta 15 seconds. So many things happened in the span of 15 minutes hahaha 1- the guy's sister in-law shows up with her family 2-some random guy starts talking to us and thought it was awesome that we come out here on pure faith and we're gonna go meet with him 3- these inactivo kids passed and we're going to go visit them tomorrow and they are going to come to church with us!!!! The day went from having nothing to being overwhelmed in the blink of an eye! So dope honestly. 

Today we went to the temple!!!! First time since the CCM in Ciudad de Mexico that we got to go to the temple! I honestly forgot the feeling that you get when you're in the temple. I was sitting there and reading the scriptures and read something really cool in Mormon 9: 6-13 which is a little long to put right here but it really was amazing! Just yet another reminder that we can become puros through Christ and that we can see miracles in our every day lives. If we have enough faith and act upon our faith.  Just something that I really liked and that you can think about.

Well the only other thing that happened is that Presidente Haws gave me and Elder Rasmussen some of his old hats that he doesn't want so now we're gonna be looking like G's walking around the ghetto of Villa, shooting from the hip and keeping it real.

I love you all and cuídense mucho, les amo machín. <3 

Elder Jones..... Indiana Jones
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Week 45 . . . Happy Father's Day!

6/15/2019

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Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there!!!  

Something really funny that happened this week.  My comp and I had left the the office and we were walking in the getto of Villa.  There were these drunk guys on the side of the street.  I looked down and one of them was wearing a Davis High School football shirt.  I was laughing so hard.  I asked him if I could take a pic with him. Sorry I don't have time for a letter but have a great week!

​Adioooooo!
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Week 44 . . .   Baptism Day!

6/8/2019

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Yeehaw!!!

Emelyn, Darlyn and Martin got baptized!!!!! Holy, we just barely got finished with the service and I'm not going to lie, it was the most spiritual baptism I've ever been too. This family is honestly amazing. They have been going through a really hard time and they told us that finding them has completely changed everything. So, this is the family that we contacted when Martin jumped out and scared us with the nerf guns on our way home one night. hahaha We have been working with them a lot lately and they really are incredible people. They accepted the gospel so well and have been waiting for this day their entire lives honestly. A couple days ago we went with them for their baptismal interviews. At the end I asked if I could take a picture with them. They were so excited to take the picture and then after their mom, Reina, says to them "Someday you're going to look back at this picture and think ´these people changed my life´". When she said that I didn't think i could ever be so happy. To know that i could have done something so small but that made such a big change in the lives of this family. They have been waiting for this opportunity their entire lives and today they were able to take that step. We were getting changed for the baptism today when Martin ran out of the changing room and he ran up and hugged us and yelled "I'm so happy!!!!" Oh my it was honestly the coolest experience ever today. I got to baptize Martin and Emelyn and then Rasmussen baptized Darlyn. It was such an awesome service and it's something I will never forget!!! Hermana Reina was talking to us after and said that she had never felt anything like that ever before and that she had just put her kids on a bus to salvation. Holy Moses, that was so cool!!!!!! I'm so happy right now I can't even describe it. Something amazing happened today and I"m just lucky enough to witness it. 

Other than that, being with them all wee, the only other thing that happened was that we had the last conferencia with Presidente Haws! He taught us about the importance of the temple and how we always need to be worthy and remember the convenios that we make there. He is such an awesome guy.  How he teaches is different than anyone I've ever seen. hahaha He is so animated and is just all over the place. It's the best! He told us how we need to really think about how cool it is that this is the only time we are going to live the law of consecration in our whole lives for most and we need to take advantage of it. It's something that I always new but it really made me think about how remarkable the mission is. To be able to be our here for 2 years searching for people like Reina, Emelyn, Darlyn, and Martin and introducing them to something that can change absolutely everything.  Loving the mish and loving the feeling that I have right now!!!!

Hope you all have a good week and I also love you folks!

​Adioooo
Elder Simón
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Week 43 . . . A busy couple of weeks!

6/1/2019

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Howdy to all my goof goobers out there!

Sorry I didn't write last week but I just really didn't feel like writing! hahahaha.  Hey,  I completed 10 months here in the mish yesterday! So cool! We've had a ton of stuff going on though! Here in the offices we are honestly so dang busy because we're trying to get everything ready for the new President to get here at the end of the month. One thing they always do before the president goes home is to do an AUDIT OF THE MISSION!!!! I have to admit I was stressing pretty dang hard. hahah This guy came in from Ciudad de Mexico and was in here looking over all of my work for like 6 hours. hahaha It sucked but we didn't get a single complaint! That means I'm doing a good job that's what I'm talkin about! I'm not laundering money or committing fraud so that made me feel good about myself lol. That was just one of the big things that happened last week, then we had all the nuevos come in and the oldies go home which is always a ton of work and it gets pretty crazy I have to admit. It's ok though because we got through it all! This week wasn't too crazy though. Wednesday we went on a hospital tour with Hermana Haws so we know what to do and where to go with the new Mission Presidents Wife and after the hospital we took a nice step into America when we went to COSTCO!!!! Honestly the most American thing I've ever done. hahahah We walked around and ate samples and stuff and then got a nice Costco 100% all beef weenie. Que rico la neta. I thought I was going to die.

We're having some awesome success in our area too! So like last Thursday we were walking home at around 9 o'clock and we were passing through a neighborhood, i looked over and saw a couple of little kids hiding behind a rock but we just kept walking. Then all of the sudden these kids jump out with a nerf gun and a water gun to scare us. hahaha Then they started asking us like a million questions about the US and immediately thought Rasmussen and I were the coolest people in the world just because we're big white guys. hahaha. The kids names are Martin y Joshua who are both 9 years old. We were talking to them for a little and then all of the sudden the two sisters of Martin showed up, Emilyn y Darlyn, who are 11 and 13. They started talking to us about how they wanted us to teach them english and everything and then we met their mom, Reina, and we started talking about the church and they wanted us to go back the next day because it was a little late to meet and teach them. So the next day we went and put a baptismal date with all of them!! They just needed to go to church. So last Sunday we were waiting for them outside of the church and we had to go speak so we weren't able to wait very long. Turns out they never showed up and we were pretty sad but it was whatever. So that night we went to visit them in their house and Martin saw us from like 100m away and runs up to us and yells "I went to church today!!!" and we were like what the heck are you serious? hahaha Long story short their are two wards at the same time right now because they are renovating the other church and they were in the other ward!!!! So dope honestly. hahaha. So that night we talked with them and they are all really excited about the church! Reina really likes the church but isn't able to get baptized right now because she and her boyfriend are living together but Martin, Emilyn, and Darlyn and all going to get baptized here soon!!! Super awesome hahaha. Also when we were their visiting them that day Reina's brother was there and was wasted. lol He came up to meet us and kissed us on the hand and everything it was so dang funny hahahahaha and then he invited us for tacos!!!! Some drunks are real douches but this guy was a beast. It's going really good with this family and we're pretty happy with it. hahah.

This week when we were here in the offices we found ourselves an owl outside!!!! It got hurt or something so we started nurturing it back to health. So one of the other secretarios took it back to the house and now we're trying to get it ready to fly back into the wild. We named it Russel after the Prophet. I wouldn't say that we have a pet owl because that would be bad but we have a sick patient who happens to be an owl.

Also I was reading this week in 2 Nephi 25 and read something that really caught my attention. In 12-13 dice, "12 But, behold, they shall have wars, and rumors of wars; and when the day cometh that the Only Begotten of the Father, yea, even the Father of heaven and of earth, shall manifest himself unto them in the flesh, behold, they will reject him, because of their iniquities, and the hardness of their hearts, and the stiffness of their necks.
13 Behold, they will crucify him; and after he is laid in a sepulchre for the space of three days he shall rise from the dead, with healing in his wings; and all those who shall believe on his name shall be saved in the kingdom of God. Wherefore, my soul delighteth to prophesy concerning him, for I have seen his day, and my heart doth magnify his holy name." 

It really just made me think about the importance of keeping the name of Christ over our hearts, to remember the sacrifice that he made for us and the joy we can have when we are faithful to him and really take upon ourselves the name of Him. He has given us so much and we just need to accept it. 

Well that's all I've got!  I love you all!!!
​ Adioooo
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    Elder Andrew Simonsen

    "You hold in your hands the happiness of more people than you can ever imagine."
    ​
    -Henry B. Eyring ​
    ​#TheChurchIsTrue

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