Aca andamos

Well Hello there. This week was solid. With a little bit of rain. And

well we have been searching night a day in our area to find new people
to teach. Seems to be a common theme here in the Mission. We met a ton
of new less actives and all of them with the own specials obstacles
keeping them from going to church. Fun fact it's easier to never part
away than to go back. But we had one miracle this week we found a man
who is the son of a less active and is homeless and living with his
cousin and told us he more god in his life and luckily that is our
specialty.

Oh and don't worry my toe surgery #3 turned out great. and I'm on a fast
track to full recovery.

And I'm not going to lie I think my favorite part of the day might be
personal study. I absolutely love the scriptures. I'm feasting upon the
words of Christ and I'm getting spiritually chunky. But I like
spiritual chunkiness :)

We had a super stellar Family home evening this week were we blindfold
a person and they had to look for a candy that we hid in the house. and
the others in the room had to guide the person to that candy and we
watched the church video finding faith in Christ and we related the
two together.

And so we live in a little apartment complex and yesterday as we were
coming back at night from a long days work. we heard someone yell
`elders` and it turns out an elderly couple that are sealed in the
temple moved in right next door. Way to many Mormons in on apartment
complex if you ask me..... ;) we are preparing a baptism of E who
is the brother of E for the first week of June and so we are
excited about that.

But ya its all good down here and the work is going forward... little
by little :)

Love you all and happy summer :)

Temples

I want to start out by saying that temples are cool. This week down here in the Argentina the Cordoba temple was dedicated. The dedication was yesterday and was done by President Uchtdorf. I forgot about how much I miss the temple until yesterday. But the dedication really made me glad that we have temples.. And another fun fact... I have my 3rd in grown toenail of my mission. So I'm limping around until Wednesday when they will do all the dirty work. An ingrown toenail is just the side effects of working too dang hard.. also the side effect of being too dang humble..

Tanner with President and Sister Franco

As for the work this week, we had a giant meeting. Multi-Zone conference with president... and his son came from the United States and they brought a bunch of US goodies.. So that was fun. Then I had divisions in  a little city called La Leonesa with Elder Regelado.. And it was fun to work in a little town like that and get to meet some of the people there... This week we were looking lots for new people to teach. Well I guess I've been doing that my whole mission but especially this week. And we have been trying to get to know new less actives in our area to see if we can find any part member families and see if we can make them whole member families... we met a few and are teaching some of their kids. We also met a lady named M and she is super nice. We taught here about the Book of Mormon and she is going to pray to see if it's true... which it is.. and so we hope the best for her. We are still working hard with S so she can get baptized. We just need a little more cooperation from her boyfriend. One thing I've really learned on the mission is the importance of the family.. After being far far away from mine so long I've realized how much they have really helped me and a huge part of this life is finding and having your own family. that's one of the reasons that I'm so grateful for the temple that helps us make that family forever. I love representing Jesus Christ. It's a big responsibility. But it sure is fun

<3

Elder Simmons

The pillowcase in Tanner's birthday package that was mailed by his family in March.  It only took 2 months for him to receive.

Dother's May

Well happy Mother's day and another shout out to my mom cause well she the best and she's mine. So that brings us to the highlight of the week... Getting to skype home!!

 I'm not lying when I say that it was the fastest hour in my life.... I could talk to my family for hours but o well I have important things to do here in Argentina.

Another highlight of my week is that I totally got a belt made out of Iguana hahahahah. I'm planning on wearing it on all my first dates.... :) But ya we have been looking a lot still for new investigators... A little miracle happened this week as that we were in the Bus Terminal... and some random dude yelled ´Elder´  and you know if someone says the secret word elder you have to stop and talk to them... His name is L and he had talked to missionaries like 2 years ago and never got baptized and so he asked us to stop by his house.. We taught him and his wife and we shared mostly about the Book of Mormon.... Well because its suuuuppppperrr important in the missionary work.... If you didn't know, and they are going to pray for it... sooo it rained a lot this week too... which is nice because it's nice and cool but then again it's all muddy and soggy..... But that's just the way it goes.. I think that S is getting super close to her baptism and if everything goes good she will be baptized the end of this month.. So pray for her... We are also working with some less actives in the ward whose children aren't members yet... The work is good here in Argentina.

This week I had divisions with a new elder in our zone... but only has 2 transfers left.. The dude knows his stuff. We had a great talk about the Plan of Salvation and I'm just soooo glad that we have a knowledge of what we have to do to return and live with our heavenly father again. The plan is sooooo deep and so simple at the same time. I've realized the importance and the fragileness of the choices we make here on earth. I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo grateful for the mission. I remember before the mission I didn't want to be that cliché missionary that always said  the mission goes by so fast  but I'm turning into that dude :(

Anyways peace

Elder Simmons

5 De Mayo

Happy Independence Day Mexico. Shout out to Rafa..... And now that I

speak Spanish I can translate 5 de Mayo.... it actually means 5 of May

for all you English people..... You’re Welcome :)

This week was transfers.. But don’t worry I’m still in the same place with the same

dude... Woot road to 6 months with Elder Heaton. No really we are

excited. We have some great people and some serious potential. But how

crazy is it that its already May............. The time is going faster

than the relationships at BYU here on the mission. It’s been kind of a

weird week... I kind of hit a mid mission crisis where I

realized...... oh no this whole mission thing is going by a lot faster

than I would have wanted. But I guess that just life right.

This week was pretty good. We had stake conference but none of the

investigators came.  Elder Heaton and I set a goal to find 10 new

investigators and we worked our bums off to complete it... that

we did. Some really great people we’ve met and I have faith. This week we met a

girl that is studying English and she wanted us to teach her in

English.. So we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ in English. SUPER

WEIRD for me. Up to that point I had only thought missionary work existed in

Spanish.......... Anyway here’s a twist.....she atheist; a good

challenge. It was interesting to hear her beliefs and how sad it would

be to believe that there is no God. Also we met this guy that told us

to sit down and listen to us. So we did and he pulled out his

Geography book and said it was his bible... Then he started reading

random facts about random countries... Haha I love being a missionary

:´)

One thing I’m pretty convinced is that the mission will do more for me

than I will ever do for the people here....

Skype this week so yea :)

See ya soon

Elder Simmons

P.S. A cold front hit us the other Saturday and it’s been super super cold..60 degrees. 

A good break and I don’t know how I’ll ever live in Utah again.