"Some of it wasn't good. Some of it was awesome!"

Note from Mom- The Florida mission moms in the area, who were able to come, got together for a semi- anual gathering last Saturday. There are 5 Florida missions and quite a few people came. It was nice to meet Eric's companion's mom, Jill Bolz and one of the other guys in his apartment's mom, Kristin Anderson. We ate lunch, saw ideas of things to send our sons and daughters and met some new people. It was fun! Jill sent me a picture that her son had sent her around the first week Eric was there, so I have included it.


Hi Everyone! So much has happened this week. Some of it wasn't good. Some of it was awesome!

I got the package and I loved it! Thank you so much for the circus Peanut candy. It is my favorite. Elder Bolz loves that candy too! He had some. I love the encouraging letters. Luckily, I am so busy that I don't think about it until the day comes for me to read my e-mails.

So Mirana, the baptism we were supposed to have this Sunday got dropped. Hard. Elder Bolz has been teaching her for four months. It took a long time, but she got a baptismal date. She had work on Sunday and she said she wanted to get baptized, but she wasn't putting forth that much of an effort to find another job that didn't require her to work Sunday. She said that she as praying about it every night though. We told her that she needed to do everything she could to be baptized, but she said she needed to send money to her kids in Haiti. She didn't trust that if she quit that job, that the Lord would help her find another one. We told her to keep God's commandments, and then everything will work out the way it is supposed to be. But she just said she would pray, and then she would quit that job when the Lord presented her another one. But it doesn't always work out that way. Then she ended up quitting the job. I was happy, but then we figured out that it was because her boss had never paid her the whole month she had that job. But she can't report him since she is illegal in the country.

We were preparing her for baptism the following week, but she said that she couldn't be baptized until she had enough money, because she needed "new" clothes. We just told her that the relief society could give her clothes. She said that that wasn't good enough, because, when someone is baptized, it is not just an inward change that is necessary: an outward one is also necessary too. Otherwise you are not changed. For her, that ended up meaning that she needed money for new shoes, skirt, shirt, etc. I was extremely frustrated with that. We were thinking it was just an excuse because she didn't feel ready. She can't read in the scriptures, because her eyes water up when she reads because her eyes are bad, so we had Sarha Pierre (the daughter of Mirana's cousin, with whom she is staying) read to her. Sarha read, but that didn't last very long, because she said that she didn't want to get baptized, and that she didn't ever believe what we were telling her was true. Afterwards, sister Pierre told us in English that Mirana was getting money from a man to have a sexual relationship with him. That is how she pays for her kids. And she has a cell phone too. She just isn't willing to do what is right and sacrifice. I told before I knew that that God is way important than money ever will be. She told me that I misunderstood her. I wanted to say so many things to her, but I didn't. I was so angry with her at that time. I was very sad about it too. Luckily, during that lesson, One of Sarha's friends who had been going to church off an on for a year with Her texted and said that she wanted to be baptized. She had had a spiritual experience during the week. It made the idea of dropping Mirana bearable. Sister pierre told us that Mirana was planning on moving out of the house to live with this guy.

After that, on Tuesday (the morning after that night.) We worked with Violet (Moisena's cousin who lives at the house with her). She is having the same problem as Mirana. She doesn't have a job, and she is getting money from a guy to have sexual relationships. We had a lesson about faith. We told her to ask the guy if it was okay for her to stop, so that she could get baptized. She said that he would stop paying for their apartment if she did that. They we told her that she needed to stop seeing him immediately, and then, with faith, god will provide a way. She said that she had been praying and that she didn't have any other choice. I told her, "do you think that God will be willing to help you if you aren't keeping his commandments." Then she told us that she didn't want to accept a baptismal date as a goal, because being baptized would be hypocritical in this situation and would be lying to God. I told her that we were asking her to change so that she could be ready. At this point, I was frustrated because she was praying for God to help her, but she wasn't willing sacrifice the money she was getting and start keeping God's commandments. I told Violet something that surprised me after I said it. I said, "yes, you don't want to get baptized if you are not ready, but when you are praying for help, and yet you are not willing to exercise your faith and do what is necessary to keep the commandments, that is hypocritical and that is a lie to God. I was shocked when I said it. She didn't seem angry though. She just was unwilling to change. God loved her and wanted her to change. She wasn't happy in the situation she was in, and she told us that she felt that she had no strength left in her life. She was having pains in her body all of the time. We told her that if she exercised her faith, that God would help and heal her. When you put God first in your life, and don't get caught up on other things, then that is when miracles happen. She wasn't willing to change, so she is dropped as well. It was sad. Then we had the lesson with Theresa, Sarha's friend, and that was awesome. Sarha has been reading the Book of Mormon with her over the phone. I am excited about that.

Last Saturday, we had an appointment with a woman named Princilia. She wanted us to go over to teach her kids and get them to go to church more. We met her Daughter, Nica, who is graduated and is 18 years old. She is awesome. She has been telling us that since she met us last week, that she feels a peace and a comfort that she has not felt in a long time, and that was during the second visit when she told us that. The next day after we met her. She came to church for Sunday school and relief society and brought her younger siblings Ashcarla and Jeffrey along. Nica said that she had a falling out when she was younger and that she had faith in God, but that she kind of got caught up in daily life. She says she wants to become a better Christian. She says she wants to get baptized in the near future, but that the date we extended her was too soon for her liking. She felt that she wasn't prepared yet, and that she would fall away if she got baptized then, because she wasn't sure she was strong enough spiritually yet. She has a hard time understanding the Bible, so she stopped reading it for a while, but I assigned her some verses in the Bible for her to start reading. Plus I gave her the pamphlet which talks about the atonement, christ's ministry, and the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the prophet Joseph Smith. She said that she learned a lot from reading it. She read the last two paragraphs in the introduction of the Book of Mormon, and she read Mormoni 10:3-5, and she stayed up until two o'clock the night before we came back for our next appointment. She was pondering about it and she started to cry, and she told us that she had prayed to know if the Book of Mormon is true, and she said that she got her answer. So now she knows it is from God. She told us during the visit that we heard this that she felt that God had sent us to her, and that He was trying to teach her something through us. She said that when she came to visit the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she really enjoyed it and she understood the scriptures better there than when she learned from the scriptures at the church that she was going to. We are going to give her a baptismal date again, and tell her how she can be ready by that date, and the blessings of baptism, and how it will help her to become a better Christian, which is what she said that she wanted to become.

We also had some conversations from angry parents/guardians on the phone this week. I contacted a boy named Sean. He was interested, and we wanted to go over to the house to teach him. His grandmother was telling me about how he already was in the Roman Catholic church and how she wanted me to stay away from him and not mess with his mind and confuse him. She told me that he knew God better than I did. It was not a fun conversation. The worst part about it is that she switched into English part way through the conversation. I think that angry Haitians on the phone switch to English so that we can understand every word and have it be as painful as possible, because that has happened with both the phone calls like this that Elder Bolz and I have had. Woodline, who is nick-named "the modest Haitian girl," (she is nicknamed this because she was modest, which for Haitians, is rare. She is a teenager. The 40/50 year olds are even worse. I am starting to think we should teach a lesson on modesty, because the Haitian women desperately need it) was interested, but her parents say she has a church and want us to stay away from her. Elder Bolz talked to the dad on the phone, and said, "You are the Mormons aren't you. Don't try and hid your Identity. And you use your own Bible." Elder Bolz told him that we weren't trying to hid our identity, and that we used the bible along with the Book of Mormon. He wasn't very nice.

We had awesome exchanges this week. Peter Septembre ( Moisena's Nephew and Violet's God son) came out with us twice and went with the other Creole Elder's once. He has the Aaronic Priesthood too, and he is the second assistant in the Priest's Quorum right now. Plus we are having one of his non-member friend reading the Book of Mormon with him at lunch, since he is bad a understanding it and has a hard time reading. He is reading with Odline, an investigator that the other elders have who loves the Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized so bad, but her parents haven't given her permission yet. She turns 18 in a year. We laughed that a non-member is fellowshipping a new convert. It is pretty funny.

We went to Princilia's church to visit. She agreed to come to the LDS church only if we went to hers first. They did something called praise dancing. It was kind of cool actually.

Sorry to cut short, but I must go. I love you all. Pray for all of our investigators!

Love,

Elder Seamons

 Moisena Juedy and Jacques Mesidor baptism- August 2010

Eric's companion, Elder Bolz is standing next to him

"so much missionary work that it is crazy"

September 20th, 2010

Hi everyone! I have had a very busy week. I just wrote President Hale my weekly letter. It tells about many of the things that are going on, so I will just send that to you and build on it.

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Hi! Things are going well right now! Peter Septembre was confirmed this week and he is going to get interviewed for the Aaronic Priesthood next Sunday. We have some of his friends being baptized, so we are going to get him to baptize them. That will be awesome. There is no better way of keeping a member strong that by fellowshipping him, giving him something to do in the ward, and teaching him the word of God. We are going to take him out on exchanges with us this week. He will be passing the sacrament in two weeks. We have Mirana Reazard being baptized this coming Sunday! She quit her job because she wasn't being paid for her work, so she will be home this whole week. She came to church yesterday! We are having Sarha Pierre, Mirana's Cousin's Daughter read out of the book of Mormon every day. Plus we are getting several members to call Mirana and talk to her. We have a lesson with her tonight and a strong member hopefully coming with us. We are helping her strengthen her testimony and her confident in the wonderful decision she is about to make.

We had 4 investigators come to sacrament meeting, plus 4 more who came to the other two meetings as well! We are planning on helping many more to come next week. This is going to be a very good week for that!

We have been working the members hard. I love the members here so much! We are having Sarha Pierre read to Mirana (she read two chapters out of the Book of Mormon in Creole for her!!!!!), plus she has been bringing a friend with her to church. We are doing a member present lesson with her and her friend Theresa. We will go early and do Active Member training with her. We did an AMT with her on Saturday too! We go over to the Pierre's house every Saturday morning, so we will keep Sarha pierre and her Mom strong in the work. Mirana will soon be a strong, active member with a powerful testimony of Jesus Christ.

We go over to Mama Julien's house every Sunday night. We always use her to help us with the work. She is such a wonderful Haitian women! She is so funny. She has been fellowshipping Moisena, Peter's Aunt. She called her on the phone a few times and talks to her at church. Today we asked her to do the same thing with Mirana. We did an AMT with Mama Julien on using Preach My Gospel. We gave her a copy! She likes it. The week before we asked her to give a Book of Mormon to someone she knew. She gave it to her neighbor, Dottie! We were so excited to hear about that! I love it so much when people keep their commitments, including the members. We went over to Dottie's house and she said she read the book and enjoyed it very much! She is big into reading and she was glad to have something to sit down with and read. We have a member present lesson with her on Thursday, I think. Mama Julien is coming over. Dottie is black, but she doesn't speak Haitian Creole, and Mama Julien doesn't speak English very well. Mama Julien has been coming to English class though. We are trying hard to push that by the way. It is challenging, especially considering that many Haitians don't have cars. If all of the willing Haitians had cars, I would die happy. That in and of itself makes this work so difficult, especially church attendance. Many Investigators and Members want to come so bad, but they can't. We have been working on getting people rides. By the way, we have an awesome investigator who lives in Coral Springs named Michelle. She is awesome! Her daughter Beraldine and her neice Duline are both investigators too. They don't have a car and they live very far away. Brother Dacosta says he can give them a ride every week! I am so happy about that! Michelle has a baptismal date already, and Beraldine and Duline will be next. We also had Bro. Dacosta's wife fellowship an 18 year old girl named Nica. We met her on Saturday, and she is awesome. She enjoyed church for her first time and she is coming again next week. I saw her in relief society. We needed to be in there to translate for Mirana and Michelle.  She brought three siblings with her too!!!!! They are coming next week! That will be so cool! Sister Dacosta will come with us to see Nica this week, and Peter Septembre will come with us to see her brothers. He will be a great fellowship for them.

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This week there were specialized training for the Leadership in our zone. I was with Elder Chandler for two days. It was a lot of fun. We contacted some awesome people, and we also contacted some very weird ones too. There was one person we contacted who had a friend who just died of breast cancer and he wants to go back to church and be more involved in that. Another person says that he believed in Jesus Christ but had a tainted testimony and wanted to gain it back. There was one person in a wheel chair who we contacted and we started to talk to him about our message, and he said, "Get away from me Satan!" Another person said he met missionaries in Africa (I don't think they were LDS Missionaries), and they were influencing everyone's beliefs and changing people's ideas. He was very negative about the whole thing. There were several homeless people I have contacted in the last few days. There is a very large group of homeless people in southern Florida.

Just the other day, after the training was over, Elder Bolz and I stopped the car at a gas station and there was this homeless woman on the curb, her name is Virginia. Her boyfriend got sent to jail, her dad had kicked her out of the house four days earlier, and she had nowhere to go. She said that she had been praying all night for God to send someone to help her out. We told her that we were the servants that he sent to help her. We taught her on the side of the curb, we got her phone number, she told us that she was just going to be at this gas station, and we rode off on our bikes. (She has a cell phone. I don't know how a homeless person can have that. She was living with her dad not too long ago. I am thinking that it will be cut when the bill is due.) When we got back several hours later, she was resting behind the bushes. We asked her if we could buy her food, but she refused. If I were her I would have said yes right away. I hope she is getting food. We called her yesterday and she answered the phone, so she hasn't starved to death yet. We are going to pass the referral over to the other elders, and they can continue to keep contact with her.

We rarely use our bikes. I have only had a few rides on mine for the past month. Elder Bolz and I have the car, and the other Elders just ride their bikes, their area is more condensed than ours. With Elder Chandler, we used the car the first day (my area) and they we worked in his area the next day during specialized training. I rode my bike during that one day more than I have for the past month. We really need to use the bikes more often. We only have 1100 miles per month and we are running short. It is hard because we have three main places in our area where we have appointments, and we usually go to all three in one given day. However, we can stop using the car inside each subdivision and just ride our bikes to each appointment. That will help us conserve miles. However, we are usually running late and we have been having long appointment. We need to cut down a lot. We have so much missionary work to do that it is crazy. We have at least thirty investigators or more right now. It is so hard to help them all. It is nearly impossible. But the Lord will help us accomplish His work.

I love you all very much! I have to go now. Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons

"si dieu vle" If God Wills It

September 13, 2010


Note from Mom- I asked Eric some questions, so that is what he is responding to in his first paragraphs.

I got the "Letters from Home" I was very excited to get the whole package with all of the people who wrote and encouraged me. Thank you all so much for that.

I have only talked to three people in Spanish since I have gotten here on my mission. Two of the times were because Elder Bolz was doing a baptismal interview for other elders in the district and I went with a Spanish Elder. I can barely speak it anymore. I couldn't remember how to conjugate and I have to think for a minute or so to even remember anything. I heard someone talking Spanish, and I could barely understand it anymore. I am losing my Spanish and it is very frustrating and sad. I accidentally say Creole words and put tense markers with verbs instead of conjugating. I have only spoken in Spanish for a total of a few minutes, and that is it. I could talk to one person pretty well considering how much I have forgotten. I use Creole all of the time. You wouldn't think so, but Haitians are more commonly seen in many places than white people are. There are many of them.

We are getting along in our apartment very well. All of us are from Utah. Elder Anderson, who is the other senior companion of another companionship, is from Pleasant Grove. He was trained by Elder Bolz. Elder Chandler is from Springville and he had Elder Anderson as his MTC companion. We all get along very well. We just buy all of our food together and split it evenly. Elder Anderson and Chandler made French fries last night and we ate them. They were very good. They are doing a specialized training with our zone. Elder Bolz, who is the district leader of our zone, and Elder Anderson, who is the district leader of another zone are going to meet with the Assistants to the president for two days, while Elder Chandler and I are going to be companions.

We got Peter Septembre baptized yesterday! That was very exciting. He is being confirmed next week. We had a young man baptize him, and we had two other young men give the talks. We are working hard to make sure he is fellowshipped well. He said that he didn't always like going to church because he didn't know anyone.

It is frustrating to work with some of our investigators. We call many of them, and they never call us back. Many of these people like us, but they are unreliable, or they just get so caught up with life that they don't take time to learn more about Jesus Christ. We have one investigator who we have worked with for three and a half months who we just dropped two days ago because he was being unreliable and he said he didn't want to do it anymore. He was supposed to be baptized yesterday. He didn't have a job, but he always went out with friends, and he never answered his phone. He would miss appointments, and he never reads. He was interested for a long time, but even he admitted that he was lazy. Charite, who is a recent convert and a friend of Junior, always complains about how lazy Junior is and how he always lies and never does what he says. Everyone who knows Junior says the same thing. Junior lives with five other Haitians in the same house. We see them outside playing dominos sometimes. Dominos is a big thing in Haitian culture. Jonas, someone who we dropped yesterday because he wasn't interested, was talking about how Satan was working on Junior and how he was going to hell. He was complaining about him. We saw junior outside the house yesterday, and we asked him when we would see him again. He just said, "si dieu vle" and then drove off. "Si dieu vle" is a Haitian phrase that means "if god wills it." Many people just use it as an excuse. Many Haitians who are uncommited and miss appointments will just say, "si dieu vle" every time we ask them if they will be at church. After the fact, they will just say, "well I guess it wasn't God's will for me to be there." I really do not like it when they say that. God actually wants people to put forth an effort to keep commitments to read the scriptures and to go to church. Many people will just go if they have absolutely nothing better to do with their lives. They say if they didn't show up, it wasn't meant to be. But God won't just magically put people in church if they are meant to be there. God wants people to act for themselves. He won't support laziness. There are the other people, however, who say, "si dieu vle," to acknowledge God as being in charge, while still trying their best to follow him and put forth an effort. Some investigators are so frustrating! It is so hard to love some of them, but it is necessary. You have to twist people's arms backwards to get them to do anything. We have one investigator who reads the Book of Mormon every day. It is a miracle. We have another who has read the first three chapters of first Nephi.

One of the hardest things about getting people to church is that many Haitians don't have cars. Our ward is so far spread too, so it is a big hassle for many people to give them rides, since we are the only ward with Creole members in the whole area. All the Creole members meet with us.

The Haitian people are awesome. They are very nice and they are willing to listen to us. Many Americans just reject us right then and there without listening. They are a lot more open to God than many other people are. We have been fed so much this week! I can't continue to eat like this, especially since Haitians here don't ever have fruit with any of their meals, because all the fruits they would normally have in Haiti are not as common here. Plus Haitian food is extremely fattening. It is very good though. Grillo is probably my favorite meal we have had so far, along with the rice and beans with different spices in it.

I need to send President Hale an email now. I will write you all next week.

Bye! I love you so much!

Love,

Elder Seamons

The Haitian People Have so much Faith and "being fed like Crazy"

Note from Mom- When there is a holiday on Monday, they will be writing a day later, since the place they go to e-mail is closed.

Tuesday September 7th, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,


There is so much for me to write. I don't think I will be able to keep up. So much has happened to me.

I am being fed like crazy. We have had lunch and dinner outside of the house for the past week and a half. Anytime we haven't, we always have food from members, or investigators. We have one investigator named James, who is living with his girlfriend, who has had food for us the last three to four days. I can't eat this much food. I had three meals other than breakfast. And they are haitian meals, which means that they will give us a ton. We had patrick, a recient 21 year old convert, come out on exchanges with us yesterday, and he was telling us about a technique some of the other elders he has gone out with would do. They would keep a trash bag with them and when the people left the room or weren't looking, they would gradually spoon it into the bag throughout the visit, because they would get food at 4-5 different houses a day. And this is pretty common. People love making food for the missionaries in this mission. I don't want to do that because I like actually eating the food that people gave me to be kind. Elder Bolz went into the bathroom and said that he felt like he was going to throw up. I won't starve at all for the next two years. We had another member who bought us groceries even though we said not too. And she brought us Pizza when she was doing a member present lesson to have us teach her brother. Her name is Fontana, and her brother's name is Louis. She was an investigator when she was 15 and she became inactive. She always had a testimony, but she let herself fall away. She said that she wanted to be active again. She is very active now and is doing all she can to bring the gospel to her family too.

She is 27 and she is living with her dad right now. She just moved here last week, and she is staying until she can leave. She wants to go to Utah. Her dad does not like organized religion at all, and he got mad at her after we left her house last week from teaching her other brother Junior. She wanted us to start meeting at the church with her and her Brother. We are teaching her Brother Louis right now. I don't feel as bad about meeting at the church to teach Louis since he is already 18. It is going behind someones back, but they are of age and it is their decision. She didn't lie to her dad, she says she would perfer not to tell him. I didn't feel good about the Idea when I heard it. I would have definitely said no if it were Junior we were teaching since he is only 13 years old. Fontana is cool. She has a son named Ethan who has Aspergers, and so does her brother Junior. They are both very socially distant. It was crazy that I met her and that her son and brother both have aspergers just like me. She was very suprised that I did when I told her. I told her about all of the symptoms that I have and all that I have overcome. Junior didn't learn to speak until he was five. I didn't learn how to speak until I was 4. plus, her son Ethan hides his face from people, as does Junior. They are not very responsive always to people who talk to them. Junior does, but it is very delayed. Junior also is very smart in some areas. He could do puzzles when he was 2 that 6-7 year olds would usually do. He is extremely smart.

We had a lesson with Louis and showed him the Restoration DVD. He told us about how he was searching for the truth and that he has visited countless churches to find it. There are so many different religions with different teachings about God, and he wanted to know which one was true. He really liked the DVD, and how Joseph asked God for an answer and received it. We gave him a Book of Mormon to read and told him about how it was a second witness of christ, and was a record of an ancient people, just as was the bible. The next day he came to church and said how he had read the first chapter and prayed. He liked church a lot.

We are preparing Moisena's nephew, Peter, to be baptized this week.

There are several people who want to get baptized, but have problems that are preventing them from doing so. Mirana is an illegal immigrant from Haiti who came here from a boat and is working every day except for monday. She can't get work off on Sunday, and she will probably not be able to get any other Job, since she is illegal. She gets paid horribly. She is living with a member family named the Pierre's. She is sending money to her Children in Haiti. She can't make it to church on Sunday.

There are many Haitians who are suffering. Haiti is a horrible place to be right now. Even though many of them can't get Jobs in America, they say that it is better than the life that they lived there. The earthquake has left it desolate. We have one investigator who said that she had many friends who lost their limbs during the earth quake from things that fell on them. She has one friend who has no arms or legs and lays at home and wants to kill himself.

However, the Haitian people have so much faith. They have a very beautiful culture. I know so many Haitians who have had revelation. Most of the Haitian ward members have. Sister Pierre said she saw her brother visit her from the spirit world. Sister Denis said that she saw a bunch of women in white and had a revelation that she would bring many Haitian women into the gospel. Mama Julien has people visit her in her dreams on a regular basis and tell her that she needs to do their temple ordiances for them. They give her the information she needs such as their birthdates, wife's name, etc. Mirana, one of our investigators, had a vision that told her that the Chruch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. We had a member present lesson this week where two members, Brother and Sister Michelle, came to teach a man, Mr. Manase. He said he knew that we would come because he had a dream about Brother and Sister Michelle coming to teaching with other people. He said that he couldn't recognize them, but that they were probably us. The Haitian people are very religious, faithful, loving, and visionary. They are amazing!

I have had some extremely frustrating experiences too. Haitians talk so much! There are some that it is almost impossible to teach them because we say one thing about God and then they agree with us on the principle we just taught, and then they talk about their take on it for a whole 40 minutes. There are also many who refuse to read the Book of Mormon and quote revelations where it says you can't add or take away from the Bible. There are also those who think that all the churches are true, because they all teach about Jesus Christ. They say that we just need to choose one. There are others who don't think we need church, authority from God, or Prophets at all. They just say we need the Bible and our personal relationship with God. That is true, but we also need authority to baptize, prophets to guide us, and additional revelation to help us throught changing times. Some people just don't understand, and it is so frustrating.

Religion is huge amongst Haitians, and amongst the people of Fort Lauderdale. There are so many different churches and so much confusion. There are so many people down here lost in spiritual darkness and doubt. It is so hard to see it. There are people who said that they are trying to get a better relationship with God, but they refuse do what we ask them to. They don't want to read the book of mormon and see if it is true scripture or not.

But we are still doing very well. We are having much success. Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons