Subject: "Dey be crazy in dur, screamin' an hollerin'"
Hola Amigas
Another awesome week has come and gone!
This last week I felt like we had a billion meetings.They were all really good and uplifting and all...Just take away from our precious teaching time. We went to Baton Rouge on Thursday for a new missionary meeting. Super good. Our mission president and his wife are incredible. I want to be like them someday. We saw the Baton Rouge temple. It is beautiful. And tiny. Like a barbie temple. So cute.
The people we are teaching right now are so incredible. Melissa is so cool. She came to church Sunday and couldn't stop talking about it she loved it SO MUCH. She is just ready to learn and learn and learn and is eating up everything. She has prayed and knows it is true. Her husband is coming along too. Her family is going to be SOLID in the church I can't wait to see them sealed one day. Jon who is 19 wants to go on a mission already. He is cool. Matt is so very smart and loved church on Sunday too. He loved the good discussions and appreciates that "we know our stuff." We had over 10 investigators at church Sunday. It was mind blowing. They are all just READY. Our doctrine principles class is full of recent converts and like 7 investigators, who are all so intelligent and participate in class. One guy is this awesome Jewish guy who is just really searching for truth. I am glad he landed in the right place.
So Friday, we were going to teach Melissa and we had a member with us to come help, and Melissa asked us to come back because she had just woken up. So we went back to our apartment complex to teach Jon. We teach Jon by the pool. I went to grab a chair from the other table and this older man was sitting at the table. I just said "Hey would you like to join us?" and he goes "I most certainly would!" Hahahahahahahahahahaha. I can't even explain how funny it was. I mean..we ask everyone things like that. I just expect the "No thank ya baby no thank ya" (everyone here calls me baby or honey its cute) haha. So when Aaron (the guy at the table) said I most certainly would, it just threw me back. I'm like...oh yeah!! sweet! Come on over! We had an AMAZING first lesson. The spirit was so strong. Sister Torres was the member with her and she bore her testimony and it brought almost all of us to tears. It was SOO AWESOME. Aaron has just gotten released like a week ago after serving 15 years in prison. He is the kindest man I have ever met. He has such a good good good spirit about him. He said he is searching for truth. When we were talking about how you need to pray and ask Heavenly Father if these things are true, he is like "Yeah Imma do that. But you gotta ask with a sincere heart to get an answer from God!" I was like....YES!!! YES YOU DO! Ahhhh! how are people so awesome????? The Lord has so many prepared children out there! They are being dropped into our laps! At the end of the lesson Aaron said the most beautiful sincere prayer. Asking Heavenly Father to continue to guide his path and lead him to truth. It was absolutely beautiful. Being a missionary is the coolest thing EVERRR!
Saturday was HILARIOUS. We went and met with Miss Verline, who was baptized late last year I think. Anyways, she is the coolest lady EVER. She loves the bible. She is still "makin relationships" with the Book of Mormon, but it is coming along. Anyways she got me laughing TO TEARS. I don't think I have laughed this hard on my mission.
"Girl I be baptist my WHOLE LIFE. Yall been to da baptist church? Shooot! Dey be crazy in dur, screamin and hollerin!!! One day in church dis lady she get up and she start RUNNIN FULL SPEAD round the CHURCH! She be shouting, "I CAUGHT DAA HOLY GHOST!" Shooooot she don't catch no Holy Ghost! Dat girl be actin a fool, das all she goin on catchin. Ooooh and dem pastures. Dey be growlin up der just GRROOOWWWLLINNN dey ain't speakin scripture, dey just be growlin about dem lives and stuff. Girl dat church be crazy. I be in dat church my whole life, but it ain't no place of reverence. Dey be shoutin and singin and dancin. Break dancin. All kinda crazy stuff. It fo yo own entertainment, dat all dat good for." Man I wish I could record the things I hear here. People are sooo funny. I honestly love each person I meet from the bottom of my heart. They are amazing.
So after we saw miss Verline we went to the church to get ready for...Catia's baptism! My first baptism. It was lovely. Tia is 13. She is a beautiful young girl. She loves the gospel. Her baptism went really well. Her older sister Ire just got baptized last year in September. She spoke about the Holy Ghost and it was one of the best talks from the heart I have ever heard. It was really touching. They had a bunch of family there. Ire and Tia are such great examples to them, they all want to learn and be taught. It is really amazing to see how one life changed goes on and blesses so many other lives. That is what the Gospel does. It blesses you. Your family. Your friends. Your life. Ire's boyfriend will be baptized soon too. And they want to get married in the temple. Amazing people here!
I leave to Milano, Italia in ONE WEEK and a day. Tuesday, April 5th. It will be SOO sad to leave these incredible people. I love them soo much. I am so thankful I have had this opportunity to serve here. What a huge blessing from Heavenly Father. Each person has touched my life, and taught me things that I will never ever forget. I LOVE THEM! I am excited for Italy. But this next week my companion and I plan to work EXTRA EXTRA hard. Be everywhere we gotta be. Teach as many people as possible. It is going to be a week FULL of miracles, I am sure. That is what happens when you work hard and live right. It is returned to you from Heavenly Father, x1000. PLEASE everyone that is reading this. Remember our Father in Heaven who has given us EVERYTHING. Remember his Son who is our SAVIOR. Take a step closer to them, and see the miracles and blessings pour into your life.
I LOVE YOU ALL!
Love
Sister Simkins
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Baton Rouge- Week 3
Subject: "OOOOHH Satan got PLAYED!" -Brandon (referring to the fall of Adam and Eve)
This week flew by. WOW! I will start from last preparation day so I can get in all the good stuff that has happened!
Last Tuesday Sister Holmes took us to the aquarium in New Orleans. It was fun, yay for aquariums and the bishops wife who paid for it all. She is incredible I love her and was very appreciative. Down town N'Orlinns is pretty cool. We saw the entrance of the French Quarter but didn't go in. All I hear about the French Quarter is how unsafe and eerie it is there. The french market is really cool I have heard, but over all the French Quarter isn't a place for missionaries to really go, especially two young girls. We walked along the Miss-sipie river, and enjoyed a few relaxing hours on our preparation day.
Wednesday I met one of the most awesome crazy ladies ever from the ward! She came out teaching with us. She is loud, super super talkative, kind of extreme and others might consider her extreme or too weird, but I absolutely LOVED HER and learned some really good things from her. She talks so much it was soo funny. At the end of the day I compiled and wrote out all the crazy stories and principles she taught me in my journal. For example: "So there is this homeless guy who lives on the bridge that I see walking around everywhere and one day it was raining really hard so I told him to get in my car so I could give him a ride home and that is when I realized he didn't have a home so he told me to drive him to the homeless center so I drove him an hour down town to the homeless center but I don't cares he's my brotha and needs my help and my time so I go do what I do and I took'em to the homeless center down town about an hour away then I tolds that man that if he needed me anytime he better call me because I would help him with anything and then later on he did call me and asked get rides to drop of these applications for work he had and I just told him he can borrow my car for the day I don't mind I don't worry what he might have done with my car it ain't my car its the car God gave me and what that old homeless guy does with my car ain't between me and him it is between him and God and if he crashes God will see what I be doing trying to help someone out and provide me with a new car I know that he will, its like with this lady I know she does me bad everyday she steels my money and says sorry I forgive her she steels my camera I forgive her she does me wrong over and over again does me real ugly but I forgive her every time she says to me once why do you always forgive me after I treat you so ugly over and over again and I say honey you ain't doing me wrong you doin God wrong God taught me to forgive you 7 x 70 so imma forgive you everytime girl you ain't doing me wrong you be doing God wrong what you do is between Him and you I always gonna let you in you do what you do I figure everything we have is a gift from God nothing is mine in the first place so if you take my stuff you be stealing from God and if God wants me to have that something back he gonna provide a way for me to get it back so you do what you do honey that is between God and you.." Oh man. She went on and on and I was just wide-eyed listening to her I loved it. She is awesome. She kept saying "God and me, we's tight, God and me" and would tell me experiences of her prayers being answered and ALL KINDS of stuff and she told me her whole conversion story which was way awesome and way all over the bored but I LOVED listening to her. She really did remind me some important things and about the nature of God and His relationship with his children. The last story she told me at the end of the day brought tears to my eyes. This amazing lady because of several things, had her kids taken away from her. She hasn't had them for a really long time. She said "I made the mistake of praying to God for the faith of Abraham. The patience of Noah (or someone I can't remember. But she prayed for the faith, patience, and love or something of 3 ancient prophets..anyways) Well..God gives me what I pray for thats for sure never will I pray for that again because He took my kids from me. Now I don't blame God I love God they are His children anyways so He can use them in his plan how he needs...but I know now....what it feels like to not have your kids. I know now exactly how much God loves each and everyone of His children. I know now how he would do absolutely anything in His power to save even just one of His children (by this point her eyes were welling up and the spirit was just burning in the car..) I know He loves his children. And is sad when we don't talk to him. Because He LOVES US. EVERY ONE OF US. He do EVERYTHING to get us back to Him."
So. Those are some lessons I learned in the words of my new friend. She is awesome I love her.
She came with us to meet Jacob who is a boy we are now teaching. He is amazing! He understood everything and just wanted to know more. He said casually "This is great give me a week and I will have this whole book read (Book of Mormon). When is your church, can I come?" HA it is phrases like that that just warm up a missionaries heart and make being a missionary the best thing in the world.
So the week continued on full of miracles. One thing I know for sure. When you obey with exactness, do everything you can to keep the commandments, and work HARD.....GOD BLESSES YOU AND BLESSES YOUR LIFE WITH MIRACLES. Seriously. MIRACLES! I can't even explain how blessed I am to be a missionary and experience these incredible things. It is amazing. Our investigator Melissa had a really bad toothache when we were teaching her the other day. She did NOT look good. She was in pain you could tell. She could barley talk. This was our...I don't know maybe 4th or 5th time teaching her...but I just kept getting the thought in my head...priesthood blessing priesthood blessing. And I learned the first week I was here..."if you think it, do it" as a way to follow the promptings of the spirit. So I said Melissa would you like a blessing from some brotheren in our church holding the priesthood of God? Thinking in my head (unfaithfully) ahh she is going to think I am crazy and that this is weird...(shame on me for thinking that, but never again will I..) Because she said oh yes anything please. So we called the a brother in our ward who was busy but said he'd find some people and send them over to give a blessing. And guess who comes over? Brother Roberts, who is a dentist haha. Awesome. They chatted a little bit, he looked, gave his recommendations, gave the blessing with another brother from the ward, and were off. Like minutes after they walked through the door Melissa goes, "Wow I don't even feel any pain anymore! My tooth feels completely fine! WOW!" She got all cheery and bright and was talking none stop after that. It was a miracle. I am so blessed to have witnessed it. Soooooo cool.
Another miracle was going to this apartment complex to contact a referral we received. Knocked the door. A guy answered and we were like..uh are you Taylor? "He is like no I am Brandon, Taylor is my sister, she don't live here!" We were like oh ok....then started talking to him! He walks out of his apartment, sits on the steps, and wanted to know EVERYTHING about what we had to share! We taught him about the restoration of the Gospel, about Joseph Smith, about the Book of Mormon, but he wanted more! So we taught him the whole plan of Salvation, read lots of scriptures...He was just LOVING LIFE. He was SOO funny, we would explain something and he would be like ""AHHH YEAH I GOTCHYOU I GOTCHYOU!!!" Then would repeat back to us in his awesome black way of saying it the doctrine or principle we just taught. HA it was SO COOL Heavenly Father has totally prepared Brandon to hear the Gospel. He is soo sweet. He can't wait to get baptized.
Miracle after miracle this week. It is so simple. LOVE! Work hard. obey. THEN PROSPER. Be BLESSED. That is it!
So DO IT!
One more important thing I promised myself this week. Never ever put myself first before God. Never seek to satisfy my carnal needs before what God needs me to do. It is something I plan to strive to do my whole life. It might not seem like a big deal be late for church, buy something you want on the sabbath, putting off commandments so you can make money, etc etc. Anything that is you going after your desires when its not the right time or day or place, and won't build your spirit and bring you closer to God...No. That is putting myself and my wants before God. Just something I don't want to do! :)
Well. Louisiana is beautiful. The weather has been like 75-85 degrees this last week. My favorite part of the day is waking up at 6:30 and running along the lake and watching the sunrise. I might of put that last update, but really, it is my favorite time of day. The sunrise over the lake is so beautiful and full of so much color.
I tried sending pictures, that is really sad they won't work. I will try again when I get some more time.
Much love!
Love,
Sista Laurel Skye Simkins
This week flew by. WOW! I will start from last preparation day so I can get in all the good stuff that has happened!
Last Tuesday Sister Holmes took us to the aquarium in New Orleans. It was fun, yay for aquariums and the bishops wife who paid for it all. She is incredible I love her and was very appreciative. Down town N'Orlinns is pretty cool. We saw the entrance of the French Quarter but didn't go in. All I hear about the French Quarter is how unsafe and eerie it is there. The french market is really cool I have heard, but over all the French Quarter isn't a place for missionaries to really go, especially two young girls. We walked along the Miss-sipie river, and enjoyed a few relaxing hours on our preparation day.
Wednesday I met one of the most awesome crazy ladies ever from the ward! She came out teaching with us. She is loud, super super talkative, kind of extreme and others might consider her extreme or too weird, but I absolutely LOVED HER and learned some really good things from her. She talks so much it was soo funny. At the end of the day I compiled and wrote out all the crazy stories and principles she taught me in my journal. For example: "So there is this homeless guy who lives on the bridge that I see walking around everywhere and one day it was raining really hard so I told him to get in my car so I could give him a ride home and that is when I realized he didn't have a home so he told me to drive him to the homeless center so I drove him an hour down town to the homeless center but I don't cares he's my brotha and needs my help and my time so I go do what I do and I took'em to the homeless center down town about an hour away then I tolds that man that if he needed me anytime he better call me because I would help him with anything and then later on he did call me and asked get rides to drop of these applications for work he had and I just told him he can borrow my car for the day I don't mind I don't worry what he might have done with my car it ain't my car its the car God gave me and what that old homeless guy does with my car ain't between me and him it is between him and God and if he crashes God will see what I be doing trying to help someone out and provide me with a new car I know that he will, its like with this lady I know she does me bad everyday she steels my money and says sorry I forgive her she steels my camera I forgive her she does me wrong over and over again does me real ugly but I forgive her every time she says to me once why do you always forgive me after I treat you so ugly over and over again and I say honey you ain't doing me wrong you doin God wrong God taught me to forgive you 7 x 70 so imma forgive you everytime girl you ain't doing me wrong you be doing God wrong what you do is between Him and you I always gonna let you in you do what you do I figure everything we have is a gift from God nothing is mine in the first place so if you take my stuff you be stealing from God and if God wants me to have that something back he gonna provide a way for me to get it back so you do what you do honey that is between God and you.." Oh man. She went on and on and I was just wide-eyed listening to her I loved it. She is awesome. She kept saying "God and me, we's tight, God and me" and would tell me experiences of her prayers being answered and ALL KINDS of stuff and she told me her whole conversion story which was way awesome and way all over the bored but I LOVED listening to her. She really did remind me some important things and about the nature of God and His relationship with his children. The last story she told me at the end of the day brought tears to my eyes. This amazing lady because of several things, had her kids taken away from her. She hasn't had them for a really long time. She said "I made the mistake of praying to God for the faith of Abraham. The patience of Noah (or someone I can't remember. But she prayed for the faith, patience, and love or something of 3 ancient prophets..anyways) Well..God gives me what I pray for thats for sure never will I pray for that again because He took my kids from me. Now I don't blame God I love God they are His children anyways so He can use them in his plan how he needs...but I know now....what it feels like to not have your kids. I know now exactly how much God loves each and everyone of His children. I know now how he would do absolutely anything in His power to save even just one of His children (by this point her eyes were welling up and the spirit was just burning in the car..) I know He loves his children. And is sad when we don't talk to him. Because He LOVES US. EVERY ONE OF US. He do EVERYTHING to get us back to Him."
So. Those are some lessons I learned in the words of my new friend. She is awesome I love her.
She came with us to meet Jacob who is a boy we are now teaching. He is amazing! He understood everything and just wanted to know more. He said casually "This is great give me a week and I will have this whole book read (Book of Mormon). When is your church, can I come?" HA it is phrases like that that just warm up a missionaries heart and make being a missionary the best thing in the world.
So the week continued on full of miracles. One thing I know for sure. When you obey with exactness, do everything you can to keep the commandments, and work HARD.....GOD BLESSES YOU AND BLESSES YOUR LIFE WITH MIRACLES. Seriously. MIRACLES! I can't even explain how blessed I am to be a missionary and experience these incredible things. It is amazing. Our investigator Melissa had a really bad toothache when we were teaching her the other day. She did NOT look good. She was in pain you could tell. She could barley talk. This was our...I don't know maybe 4th or 5th time teaching her...but I just kept getting the thought in my head...priesthood blessing priesthood blessing. And I learned the first week I was here..."if you think it, do it" as a way to follow the promptings of the spirit. So I said Melissa would you like a blessing from some brotheren in our church holding the priesthood of God? Thinking in my head (unfaithfully) ahh she is going to think I am crazy and that this is weird...(shame on me for thinking that, but never again will I..) Because she said oh yes anything please. So we called the a brother in our ward who was busy but said he'd find some people and send them over to give a blessing. And guess who comes over? Brother Roberts, who is a dentist haha. Awesome. They chatted a little bit, he looked, gave his recommendations, gave the blessing with another brother from the ward, and were off. Like minutes after they walked through the door Melissa goes, "Wow I don't even feel any pain anymore! My tooth feels completely fine! WOW!" She got all cheery and bright and was talking none stop after that. It was a miracle. I am so blessed to have witnessed it. Soooooo cool.
Another miracle was going to this apartment complex to contact a referral we received. Knocked the door. A guy answered and we were like..uh are you Taylor? "He is like no I am Brandon, Taylor is my sister, she don't live here!" We were like oh ok....then started talking to him! He walks out of his apartment, sits on the steps, and wanted to know EVERYTHING about what we had to share! We taught him about the restoration of the Gospel, about Joseph Smith, about the Book of Mormon, but he wanted more! So we taught him the whole plan of Salvation, read lots of scriptures...He was just LOVING LIFE. He was SOO funny, we would explain something and he would be like ""AHHH YEAH I GOTCHYOU I GOTCHYOU!!!" Then would repeat back to us in his awesome black way of saying it the doctrine or principle we just taught. HA it was SO COOL Heavenly Father has totally prepared Brandon to hear the Gospel. He is soo sweet. He can't wait to get baptized.
Miracle after miracle this week. It is so simple. LOVE! Work hard. obey. THEN PROSPER. Be BLESSED. That is it!
So DO IT!
One more important thing I promised myself this week. Never ever put myself first before God. Never seek to satisfy my carnal needs before what God needs me to do. It is something I plan to strive to do my whole life. It might not seem like a big deal be late for church, buy something you want on the sabbath, putting off commandments so you can make money, etc etc. Anything that is you going after your desires when its not the right time or day or place, and won't build your spirit and bring you closer to God...No. That is putting myself and my wants before God. Just something I don't want to do! :)
Well. Louisiana is beautiful. The weather has been like 75-85 degrees this last week. My favorite part of the day is waking up at 6:30 and running along the lake and watching the sunrise. I might of put that last update, but really, it is my favorite time of day. The sunrise over the lake is so beautiful and full of so much color.
I tried sending pictures, that is really sad they won't work. I will try again when I get some more time.
Much love!
Love,
Sista Laurel Skye Simkins
Friday, March 18, 2011
Baton Rouge: Week 2
WHO DAT!?
You see 'WHO DAT' EVERYWHERE here. People here LIVE for the Saints. My companion said that during football season no one ever let them in and they could never make appointments. People be watchin dem Saints play, der be no time fo dem church ladies!
Ahh the South. I just love it here. I really feel like I have been here for ages. I can't believe it has only been two weeks. We just do SO MUCH during the day!! By the time I am getting ready for bed at night, it seemed like the morning work out happened the week before. It is awesome though. It gives me a grand feeling of accomplishment that I have never experienced before the mission.
Highlights:
- I have finally had a few dinner appointments! hahaha. I was really looking forward to trying crazy food at people's houses! But it is a rule that missionaries can't eat at members houses unless there are investigators there. So we can only eat at investigators houses. We had some delicious Jumblia prepared by Roy. It was sooo super good. Cajun food is not pretty looking at all. Most every dish I have seen just looks like a big mushy mess. But the flavors.....and spices......ahhh my mouth is watering. Super good. All kinds of sausages. Chicken. Craw fish (never call it crawdads or they won't know what you are talking about). Creole food is more flavorful while cajun food is more spicy burning hot, generally speaking. Yum yum. Sunday we ate at a Brazilian ladies house and had delicious Brazilian food and LOTS of fruits that was the best part. Alright, lots of detail on food haha sorry. It is just super here!
- We are teaching some AMAZING people right now. Two have baptism dates for next Saturday, and two have baptism dates for April 9th (which sadly, I will be gone by then...) Tia and Kim are sisters. Their older sister Ire (20 yrs old) got baptized last year and is a power house. An amazing example to her younger sisters. Tia is 13, Kim is 16. We taught them the plan of salvation last night and they were just like sponges. Soaking everything up, wide-eyed and happy. It was so great. Teaching people the plan of salvation is one of my favorite things to do. It is incredible. I LOVE Heavenly Father's plan for all his children! It is so basic that you can draw a few circles and explain it, yet so deep and dynamic that I could spend weeks studying about it. It is just amazing. It gives people such peace and happiness knowing where they came from, why they are here, and exactly where they are headed after they die. It is a message of hope. We are also teaching John Rector, 19 years old, from Flordia. He is a sweetheart, would never ask a thing from anyone, just a kind-hearted giving person. His aunt who he is staying with is Donna, who I might of mentioned, got baptized right before I got here. Anyways. He loves the Gospel. He loves learning. Melissa Ibarro is in her 20's. She is incredible. She has 3 baby boys and a hard working husband. She is getting baptized next week and her husband will soon get baptized too, I am sure. I think I told you a little about her already..She is just one of those people that after like 5 minutes of listening to the missionaries KNEW they were sent to her from God and that the gospel is true. Teaching her is amazing. One of my other favorite parts is hearing these people pray after the lessons. They give such honest good prayers. They love their Heavenly Father and are so grateful. We are also teaching a few other really cool people. A mission is amazing.
-I still LOVE tracting haha. It is so funny! People are SO FUNNY!!!!!!! One door will be the nicest lady ever and just want to talk to us for hours. They very next one will be some CRAZY toothless guy who has no idea what is going on. The diversity here is SO AWESOME! It is so great because all these diverse people, all races and nationalities, just live here in total peace. No racism. It is beautiful I love it!! We have had some awesome miracles while tracting this last week. We will just pray to be directed to a street, and then we will meet someone like they just fell into our laps, ready to listen and learn about God and his plan and his church. It is amazing. I feel SO BLESSED to be able to be directed by Heavenly Father to these people. It is a blessing. We are so small and imperfect yet God still does His work and reaches out to His children through us. Such a blessing. Everyone go on a mission.
-Little message for everyone. DO YOUR MISSIONARY WORK! Seriously! We are SO BLESSED TO HAVE THE GOSPEL! To know about it. To be able to study about it and learn about it. To know God's plan for us. So your gratitude and share they things you know with someone else! Everyone else! Thanks:)
-Ummmm transfers were yesterday! My companion and I are staying here..haha. Which is awesome because my companion is amazing and I love her. I really can't imagine anyone else I could get along better with as a companion on a mission. Such a blessing.
-So..I have over two weeks left or something here in Louisiana I think? Then off to Italia. I don't really think about it too much. When the time comes, I'll go. For now. I just am loving it here. It is gorgeous weather everyday. Beautiful sun rises and sun sets, I see both everyday haha. But the people here....ahh they are simply amazing. I love them all. I love being a missionary. I love learning new things everyday. I love having a question about a gospel doctrine or something I don't really understand, then praying to Heavenly Father, sit down and study it, and have my questions answered. It is the best feeling. I just want to do it the rest of my life. There is so much to learn.
Well. I can't think of much else. Today the bishops wife is taking us to the Zoo for preparation day. Ahhh yeahh. I am excited haha. My camera broke so I will be buying a new one. But I took a few on sis Dupaix's camera that I will upload and attach.
I just love yall soo much!
Love,
Sista Simkins
You see 'WHO DAT' EVERYWHERE here. People here LIVE for the Saints. My companion said that during football season no one ever let them in and they could never make appointments. People be watchin dem Saints play, der be no time fo dem church ladies!
Ahh the South. I just love it here. I really feel like I have been here for ages. I can't believe it has only been two weeks. We just do SO MUCH during the day!! By the time I am getting ready for bed at night, it seemed like the morning work out happened the week before. It is awesome though. It gives me a grand feeling of accomplishment that I have never experienced before the mission.
Highlights:
- I have finally had a few dinner appointments! hahaha. I was really looking forward to trying crazy food at people's houses! But it is a rule that missionaries can't eat at members houses unless there are investigators there. So we can only eat at investigators houses. We had some delicious Jumblia prepared by Roy. It was sooo super good. Cajun food is not pretty looking at all. Most every dish I have seen just looks like a big mushy mess. But the flavors.....and spices......ahhh my mouth is watering. Super good. All kinds of sausages. Chicken. Craw fish (never call it crawdads or they won't know what you are talking about). Creole food is more flavorful while cajun food is more spicy burning hot, generally speaking. Yum yum. Sunday we ate at a Brazilian ladies house and had delicious Brazilian food and LOTS of fruits that was the best part. Alright, lots of detail on food haha sorry. It is just super here!
- We are teaching some AMAZING people right now. Two have baptism dates for next Saturday, and two have baptism dates for April 9th (which sadly, I will be gone by then...) Tia and Kim are sisters. Their older sister Ire (20 yrs old) got baptized last year and is a power house. An amazing example to her younger sisters. Tia is 13, Kim is 16. We taught them the plan of salvation last night and they were just like sponges. Soaking everything up, wide-eyed and happy. It was so great. Teaching people the plan of salvation is one of my favorite things to do. It is incredible. I LOVE Heavenly Father's plan for all his children! It is so basic that you can draw a few circles and explain it, yet so deep and dynamic that I could spend weeks studying about it. It is just amazing. It gives people such peace and happiness knowing where they came from, why they are here, and exactly where they are headed after they die. It is a message of hope. We are also teaching John Rector, 19 years old, from Flordia. He is a sweetheart, would never ask a thing from anyone, just a kind-hearted giving person. His aunt who he is staying with is Donna, who I might of mentioned, got baptized right before I got here. Anyways. He loves the Gospel. He loves learning. Melissa Ibarro is in her 20's. She is incredible. She has 3 baby boys and a hard working husband. She is getting baptized next week and her husband will soon get baptized too, I am sure. I think I told you a little about her already..She is just one of those people that after like 5 minutes of listening to the missionaries KNEW they were sent to her from God and that the gospel is true. Teaching her is amazing. One of my other favorite parts is hearing these people pray after the lessons. They give such honest good prayers. They love their Heavenly Father and are so grateful. We are also teaching a few other really cool people. A mission is amazing.
-I still LOVE tracting haha. It is so funny! People are SO FUNNY!!!!!!! One door will be the nicest lady ever and just want to talk to us for hours. They very next one will be some CRAZY toothless guy who has no idea what is going on. The diversity here is SO AWESOME! It is so great because all these diverse people, all races and nationalities, just live here in total peace. No racism. It is beautiful I love it!! We have had some awesome miracles while tracting this last week. We will just pray to be directed to a street, and then we will meet someone like they just fell into our laps, ready to listen and learn about God and his plan and his church. It is amazing. I feel SO BLESSED to be able to be directed by Heavenly Father to these people. It is a blessing. We are so small and imperfect yet God still does His work and reaches out to His children through us. Such a blessing. Everyone go on a mission.
-Little message for everyone. DO YOUR MISSIONARY WORK! Seriously! We are SO BLESSED TO HAVE THE GOSPEL! To know about it. To be able to study about it and learn about it. To know God's plan for us. So your gratitude and share they things you know with someone else! Everyone else! Thanks:)
-Ummmm transfers were yesterday! My companion and I are staying here..haha. Which is awesome because my companion is amazing and I love her. I really can't imagine anyone else I could get along better with as a companion on a mission. Such a blessing.
-So..I have over two weeks left or something here in Louisiana I think? Then off to Italia. I don't really think about it too much. When the time comes, I'll go. For now. I just am loving it here. It is gorgeous weather everyday. Beautiful sun rises and sun sets, I see both everyday haha. But the people here....ahh they are simply amazing. I love them all. I love being a missionary. I love learning new things everyday. I love having a question about a gospel doctrine or something I don't really understand, then praying to Heavenly Father, sit down and study it, and have my questions answered. It is the best feeling. I just want to do it the rest of my life. There is so much to learn.
Well. I can't think of much else. Today the bishops wife is taking us to the Zoo for preparation day. Ahhh yeahh. I am excited haha. My camera broke so I will be buying a new one. But I took a few on sis Dupaix's camera that I will upload and attach.
I just love yall soo much!
Love,
Sista Simkins
Baton Rouge: Week 1
HEY YALL!
OHH my!!! Life is so great!
-Tuesday I arrived here in Louisiana! Plane ride was fine, talked to some swell people. Was warmly welcomed by a senior couple serving their missions here. We then went to the mission office and met the President, President Woods. HE IS FANTASTIC! So happy, so spiritual, so great, so loving, so welcoming. He gave me my call letter. Kenner Area, just a little big west of the city center of N'ORLINNS!!!!!! (New Orleans) HA! I was SOOO excited! WHO would have ever thought I'd end up in New Orleans! Right in time for MARTI GRAS! hahahahahaha. So awesome. We met with a few other missionary couples including our assistants to the president and 3 other sister missionary couples, then went to the mission home. It is beautiful. We met Sister Woods, who is our amazing happy beautiful mission mom! She is great. We then all went to dinner and had.......Blackened Alligator! It was tasty!! Slightly rubberary tasting, but really good! And then I got a pork po-boy. Po-boys are wayyy popular here. It is a Louisiana thing. I heard the deep fried shrimp po-boys are out of this world but I wasn't daring enough to try that yet. Anyways, the pork one was delicious:) I have been craving one ever since. So after that, my wonderful new companion/trainer and I got in our crystler sebring and made our way to n'orlinns.
-Companion: Sister Dupaix from Tooele. Ah she is GREAT!!!!!! Seriously, I couldn't have even dreamed of a better companion. She is sooo easy going, happy, nice, hard working, rule-following..She knows the area and people SOoO very well. They had three baptisms the Saturday before I got here. The area is just booming with ready people to hear the Gospel! Anyways she is great. We live in a tiny studio apartment with bunkbeds, a bathroom, and a little kitchen. It is cosy and cute, kinda smells like musty smoke (smoker must have lived there before) so that is kinda gross but I am good at fabreezing:)
-First day in the field: March 2nd. One month anniversary on a mission! I was as green as can be and eager to learn the ways of a mission. We went running by a beautiful lake right behind our apartments. It's gorgeous, lake ponchatrain. The sun is always rising behind it, its perfect. Comp walks, I run up and back and up and back circling her haha because I have to stay in sight. Then we go home, get ready real fast, eat, and then have personal, comp and language study (Italian. Pres Woods made it clear I need to still study an hour of Italian everyday, so I am thankful for that!!!!!!) Then we get on with our day!
-I HAVE MET THE MOST AMAZING PEOPLE HERE. EVERYONE needs to go on a mission. It is the greatest experience in this world. AHHH I see MIRACLES EVERYDAY! Prayers are answered. Miracles HAPPEN! Seriously though, these people are so great. Dan and Donna just got baptized and they are amazing. So faithful, so committed, especially Donna. She is "all in" as she says regarding the church. LOVE HER! So tracting the first day was HILARIOUS! My companion doesn't really like tracting, but I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! It is so funny. People are hilarious. This Guy answered his door NAKED but thank goodness he was hiding behind the door. No on has teeth her its fantastic. And the accents are out of this world. I can't get enough of it, I could listen to these people talk allllll dayy everyday. They are so funny. But really nice! Everyone is just relaxed, and in no rush, and really nice. They like us "church girls". Tracting isn't the most effective thing in finding/teaching people though so we have only done it twice since I have been here. Referrals are ideal. Member, media (mormon.org with is really promoted here, they have commercials, billboards, pass along cards. It is an awesome website, check it out!) and really any referral! So we go visit and teach them. We also visit a lot of less active members and ward members. It is great.
-Stacy. IS AMAZING. I love her. So I heard all through the MTC- The field is ready, people are ready for the gospel, God has prepared them! And I experienced that this last week. We knocked on this lady's door, were welcomed in and just started talking. In the back of my mind I was just like ok here we go here we go, gotta teach lesson one gotta teach lessson oneee like stressing out about it a little. BUT NO. The spirit DIRECTS. Just like they tell you. It really does. Our casual conversation turned to church topics so fast and before I knew it we were in an awesome discussion about the book of mormon, Jesus Christ, the atonement, history of Israel and the tribes. It was incredible. Stacy is a nondenominational member. But she asked the BEST questions and we were able to answer and show her answers to all of them. She was blown out of the water. The news that Christ had visited the Americas BLEW HER MIND. She was just shocked but was eating it up! We had such an incredible lesson. She knows that God answers prayers, so we challenged her to pray and find out of the book of Mormon was true that night. We are going back to see her today or tomorrow, I can't wait to hear the results! I PRAY that satan hasn't gotten in her way and hardened her heart! We will see. Other things about the lesson- It is sooo true that right when you are at a spiritual climax in a lesson, some distraction happens! The door flew open once! The dog burst in the room once. Her little boy came running down the hall once. Like right at these huge moments! Soo crazy. I had always heard that happened, and now have experienced how true it is. Funny.
-We have several investigators right now and like...3 with a baptism date!!! Awesome huh! They have already baptized more this year so far then they did all together last year. EVERYONE look up the VISION OF THE SOUTH by Spencer W. Kimball. It is incredible, and coming to past right now. SOOO COOL!
-I can't tell you how much I love being a missionary. I love meeting people. I love teaching people. I really can't go fast enough. I just want to keep going and going. I need to keep going but also be very sensitive to the spirit so I don't miss it's directions. We are completely dependent on the spirit and Heavenly Father! It is amazing. Fast Sunday was so great. I woke up and could feel a little homesickness stirring in my heart. A little sadness. So I knelt down and asked Heavenly Father to please take that feeling out of my heart and have the atonement heal me. I got up, got ready, and it was gone. Completely gone. I was happen, remotivated, and ready to see miracles. Amazing huh? The atonement is meant to be used EVERY DAY in our lives. Everyday. USE IT! I testify, that it WORKS. We are BLESSED!
Uh oh, a notice just popped up. Only a few minutes left.
New Orleans is great.
Marti Gras is NUTS. All the parades are in the city center, so we won't see any, which is probably for the better.
EVERYONE talks about Katrina. All the time. It was a huge deal. I am just now learning how serious it was. Everything revolves around it here. It is a part of these people. "Well before Katrina ..." "After Katrina ..."That is how they talk. Man, it was devastating. They say it has never been the same here since.
These people are amazing. Full of culture. Such thick funny accents. So little teeth. Love them.
And I love you!
Have faith. EVERYONE do their member missionary work. NOW IS THE TIME! Use the atonement in your life and become the person you want to become. You have to depend on Christ to do that! and..Remember to LOVE!
I love you all so much!
Love,
Sista Simkins
OHH my!!! Life is so great!
-Tuesday I arrived here in Louisiana! Plane ride was fine, talked to some swell people. Was warmly welcomed by a senior couple serving their missions here. We then went to the mission office and met the President, President Woods. HE IS FANTASTIC! So happy, so spiritual, so great, so loving, so welcoming. He gave me my call letter. Kenner Area, just a little big west of the city center of N'ORLINNS!!!!!! (New Orleans) HA! I was SOOO excited! WHO would have ever thought I'd end up in New Orleans! Right in time for MARTI GRAS! hahahahahaha. So awesome. We met with a few other missionary couples including our assistants to the president and 3 other sister missionary couples, then went to the mission home. It is beautiful. We met Sister Woods, who is our amazing happy beautiful mission mom! She is great. We then all went to dinner and had.......Blackened Alligator! It was tasty!! Slightly rubberary tasting, but really good! And then I got a pork po-boy. Po-boys are wayyy popular here. It is a Louisiana thing. I heard the deep fried shrimp po-boys are out of this world but I wasn't daring enough to try that yet. Anyways, the pork one was delicious:) I have been craving one ever since. So after that, my wonderful new companion/trainer and I got in our crystler sebring and made our way to n'orlinns.
-Companion: Sister Dupaix from Tooele. Ah she is GREAT!!!!!! Seriously, I couldn't have even dreamed of a better companion. She is sooo easy going, happy, nice, hard working, rule-following..She knows the area and people SOoO very well. They had three baptisms the Saturday before I got here. The area is just booming with ready people to hear the Gospel! Anyways she is great. We live in a tiny studio apartment with bunkbeds, a bathroom, and a little kitchen. It is cosy and cute, kinda smells like musty smoke (smoker must have lived there before) so that is kinda gross but I am good at fabreezing:)
-First day in the field: March 2nd. One month anniversary on a mission! I was as green as can be and eager to learn the ways of a mission. We went running by a beautiful lake right behind our apartments. It's gorgeous, lake ponchatrain. The sun is always rising behind it, its perfect. Comp walks, I run up and back and up and back circling her haha because I have to stay in sight. Then we go home, get ready real fast, eat, and then have personal, comp and language study (Italian. Pres Woods made it clear I need to still study an hour of Italian everyday, so I am thankful for that!!!!!!) Then we get on with our day!
-I HAVE MET THE MOST AMAZING PEOPLE HERE. EVERYONE needs to go on a mission. It is the greatest experience in this world. AHHH I see MIRACLES EVERYDAY! Prayers are answered. Miracles HAPPEN! Seriously though, these people are so great. Dan and Donna just got baptized and they are amazing. So faithful, so committed, especially Donna. She is "all in" as she says regarding the church. LOVE HER! So tracting the first day was HILARIOUS! My companion doesn't really like tracting, but I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! It is so funny. People are hilarious. This Guy answered his door NAKED but thank goodness he was hiding behind the door. No on has teeth her its fantastic. And the accents are out of this world. I can't get enough of it, I could listen to these people talk allllll dayy everyday. They are so funny. But really nice! Everyone is just relaxed, and in no rush, and really nice. They like us "church girls". Tracting isn't the most effective thing in finding/teaching people though so we have only done it twice since I have been here. Referrals are ideal. Member, media (mormon.org with is really promoted here, they have commercials, billboards, pass along cards. It is an awesome website, check it out!) and really any referral! So we go visit and teach them. We also visit a lot of less active members and ward members. It is great.
-Stacy. IS AMAZING. I love her. So I heard all through the MTC- The field is ready, people are ready for the gospel, God has prepared them! And I experienced that this last week. We knocked on this lady's door, were welcomed in and just started talking. In the back of my mind I was just like ok here we go here we go, gotta teach lesson one gotta teach lessson oneee like stressing out about it a little. BUT NO. The spirit DIRECTS. Just like they tell you. It really does. Our casual conversation turned to church topics so fast and before I knew it we were in an awesome discussion about the book of mormon, Jesus Christ, the atonement, history of Israel and the tribes. It was incredible. Stacy is a nondenominational member. But she asked the BEST questions and we were able to answer and show her answers to all of them. She was blown out of the water. The news that Christ had visited the Americas BLEW HER MIND. She was just shocked but was eating it up! We had such an incredible lesson. She knows that God answers prayers, so we challenged her to pray and find out of the book of Mormon was true that night. We are going back to see her today or tomorrow, I can't wait to hear the results! I PRAY that satan hasn't gotten in her way and hardened her heart! We will see. Other things about the lesson- It is sooo true that right when you are at a spiritual climax in a lesson, some distraction happens! The door flew open once! The dog burst in the room once. Her little boy came running down the hall once. Like right at these huge moments! Soo crazy. I had always heard that happened, and now have experienced how true it is. Funny.
-We have several investigators right now and like...3 with a baptism date!!! Awesome huh! They have already baptized more this year so far then they did all together last year. EVERYONE look up the VISION OF THE SOUTH by Spencer W. Kimball. It is incredible, and coming to past right now. SOOO COOL!
-I can't tell you how much I love being a missionary. I love meeting people. I love teaching people. I really can't go fast enough. I just want to keep going and going. I need to keep going but also be very sensitive to the spirit so I don't miss it's directions. We are completely dependent on the spirit and Heavenly Father! It is amazing. Fast Sunday was so great. I woke up and could feel a little homesickness stirring in my heart. A little sadness. So I knelt down and asked Heavenly Father to please take that feeling out of my heart and have the atonement heal me. I got up, got ready, and it was gone. Completely gone. I was happen, remotivated, and ready to see miracles. Amazing huh? The atonement is meant to be used EVERY DAY in our lives. Everyday. USE IT! I testify, that it WORKS. We are BLESSED!
Uh oh, a notice just popped up. Only a few minutes left.
New Orleans is great.
Marti Gras is NUTS. All the parades are in the city center, so we won't see any, which is probably for the better.
EVERYONE talks about Katrina. All the time. It was a huge deal. I am just now learning how serious it was. Everything revolves around it here. It is a part of these people. "Well before Katrina ..." "After Katrina ..."That is how they talk. Man, it was devastating. They say it has never been the same here since.
These people are amazing. Full of culture. Such thick funny accents. So little teeth. Love them.
And I love you!
Have faith. EVERYONE do their member missionary work. NOW IS THE TIME! Use the atonement in your life and become the person you want to become. You have to depend on Christ to do that! and..Remember to LOVE!
I love you all so much!
Love,
Sista Simkins
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