New York, New York!
To teach a young man, about 30 years old, to use the past simple tense, I gave him a scenario to use. “Your friend came to visit from New York. You took him on a tour of your city. Tell us what happened.”
He replied, in complete seriousness, “He came and stayed at my apartment. The next day we went to the metro to go on a tour of the city. We went downstairs, he got on the train, the doors closed, train left and I haven't seen him since! It has been three weeks!”
I still laugh at how clever that was. And he used the tense correctly!