"Seamons, it's hard. I can't do it." "We have seen miracles this week"

Elder Seamons is doing very well this week. Kent sent him a question while he was on e-mail and he said he was at a 9 out of 10. Several people sent him letters of advice on the companion issue and he seems to have worked it out. This is a long letter, and it would have been easier to read if I had divided up some of the paragraphs, but I sent it as Eric sent it to us since I have little time right now. If you don't have time to read it all, at least read the third and fourth paragraph. One thing I know about Eric is that he is the most persistant person I know. He does not give up, and it paid off.



Linda


January 31st, 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was an awesome week. Elder Rybin and I are working very well together. We are having a lot of success right now. I hope I don't move areas, because we have 7 people who will be baptized next transfer, and most of them are pretty solid. President said that I might stay for a little bit longer. It just depends on what the Lord wants. So we will see. At least I will know that I played a part in these people being baptized if I don't get to see it for myself.

We met this girl named Gennger last week. Her Mom's name is Itasienne and her sister is named Jenny. They are an awesome family. Gennger has read Alma 11-13, Alma 32, Helaman 5, Moroni 10:3-5, LDS.org, and the Picture Book of Mormon, and we assigned her some verses in the bible that she said she would read. She read the first 21 chapters in the Picture book with her sister, and they were both recounting the stories in great detail. They have the best understanding of the scriptures that I have ever seen in an investigator before. We have taught them a lot, and they love the gospel. We told Itasienne about Eternal marriage and forever families and baptisms for the dead and she loved it! It made her so happy. Her husband died 8 months ago and it has been hard on the family, especially Gennger. Gennger has had a lot of hard experiences in her life. She struggles a lot with self-esteme and she isn't the most confident of people. But she is very intelligent and she asks great questions. She loves everything we have taught her and it all makes sense to her. We taught Itasienne and Gennger about the Restoration, Plan of Salvation, the Gospel, Tithing, Fasting, and Offerings. They are taking it all in and they love it. Elder Rybin and I are so happy with their progress. We gave them a baptismal date for the 6th of March and they are very on track for their date.

There is just one problem though. We had the craziest experience with Gennger the other day. I will never forget it. We were teaching Gennger the Plan of Salvation on Tuesday and then we committed her to being baptized on the 27th and coming to church that Sunday. She told us that she had been isolating herself for a long time and that she rarely went outside anymore. She used to do part-time home school and public school, but it got bad enough that she did full-time home school. She is afraid of even going on to the front porch and having people see her outside. She stays inside all of the time and only goes out if she really has to. She said that it was a miracle that she got so comfortable with us so quickly because she doesn't like talking to people very much. I am still shocked, because she acts like she has known us for a long time but she isn't good at getting to know other people very well. She was terrified of the idea of going to church because of all the people who would be there. She told us that she would go to church if we were the only ones there. She asked why everyone had to meet in church together. She told us that she was trying to find an online church so she didn't have to get out of the house. She was telling us all of these weird things. It is really strange because she is perfectly normal apart from that. She is a normal girl with normal interests and she is very intelligent and is very sane. She just has a huge fear of people for some reason. She said that she used to go to therapy but that her therapist said that she was perfectly fine. She just wouldn't say anything to them at all. We realized that if she didn't conquer that fear now, she would never do it. We needed to help her conquer her fear so that she could go to church, get baptized, and receive all the blessings of the gospel. We told her to go onto the front porch. She shook her head and refused. We talked to her a long time and tried to help her. She wouldn't budge for a long time. We didn't have any appointment for a while, so we stayed there. We were there for a long time trying to get her to go outside. We did everything we knew how to do. She told us all of these things that were horrible to hear. She told me that she liked being isolated from the world and that it made her happy and that she just wanted us to give up on her. I told her that we would never give up on her and that we were sent from God. She knew it and admitted it. She told us that we had the power of God with us because she got the courage to talk to us when she wouldn't have done that and gotten so used to anyone else. We eventually got her to go out the gate in the back yard to the front yard, but then she ran right back inside. Then we were trying to get her to go outside to the front porch again. Elder Rybin tried really hard and so did I. I didn't give up on her at all. Neither did Elder Rybin, but he stopped trying to convince her because we had tried so many things. I pushed it to the limit. Eventually she told us that she would come outside only because she felt so sorry for us because she had kept us there for so long. We got her outside. We had victory. She has been going outside more and more and we even brought people over to the house and she is getting more and more confident. I have seen a miracle with her. I didn't think it was possible. I thought of giving up when she wouldn't budge and just said that she didn't want to do anything with her life and would rather stay inside and abandon her dreams of becoming a nurse and doing all of those things. It was a crazy experience. Thinking back on it, it is so weird because she isn't a weird insane person. She has just been though a lot we think. We don't know why she was acting that way or what experience gave her such a weird phobia. She didn't know. She didn't used to have it. We are thinking it might be something to do with the death of her father. We don't know. We both put so much effort to try to get her outside. But I was pushing super hard. She was saying, "Seamons, it's hard. I can't do it. Why don't you just give up on me already and talk to people who aren't a waste of time." She was saying all of these things about how she didn't think she was anything in the eyes of God and how she had nothing she liked about herself. We told her a huge list of things, and she said that we were lying. She was just beating on herself. I tried so hard to get her to go outside. I even started to cry at one point. It was so hard to watch her be like that. We knew she had so much potential.

But it worked out and we have seen miracles this week. She has gone outside several times for different things. We are so proud of her. And she isn't as nervous anymore about people coming over. Itasienne and Jenny went to church, but Gennger didn't because she didn't feel ready. Gennger told us in a text afterwards that her mom was raving about how wonderful the church was and how perfect everything was. Jenny loved primary and made a bunch of new friends. Gennger said that she regretted not going because it sounded so wonderful. I am so grateful to God and to the chance that I had to play a part in the growth of this family. I can see how it is changing everyone there, especially Gennger. Itasienne loves it when other people come over. She can only speak Creole and French and a tiny bit of English, but she is a very loving person and she is so dear and awesome. Everytime we come over she says, "Mesi Seamons, Mesi anpil." She always has a big smile and says hi. I think jenny likes Elder Rybin a lot. He is really good at relating to younger kids. She is nine and Gennger is fifteen. Gennger's birthday is on March 14th. When Itasienne and Jenny went to church, all of the Haitian members immediately fellowshipped her, talked to her, and greeted her warmly. I am so grateful for these members. I don't think I will ever forget the kindness of the Haitian people. They have taught me a lot.

We were teaching Vonette and she has come to church twice. She likes the church a lot and she has read a ton in the Book of Mormon. She is one of my favorite Haitian women that I have ever met on the mission. I plan on staying in contact with her. She has only been in the United States for a few months. She isn't very good at English yet. She is a Seventh-day Advantist. She told us that she started to believe in the Book of Mormon, but then she wondered why the names in the Book of Mormon weren't in the Bible and Joseph Smith wasn't in the Bible. She also said that we used the Book of Mormon much more than the bible and she said that she didn't want to give that up. She also wondered why she would have to be baptized again. We had talked to her about those things before, but this time we seemed to have the spirit helping us a long and it seemed that in her mind the concerns were beginning to be resolved. She said that she would pray about it and would be baptized when she received a confirmation that it was true. She had been praying, but she wasn't receiving an answer. We weren't sure why. We have come to realize that she is expecting a vision instead of just a feeling. Haitians have visions a lot, but that isn't the only way God will answer them. We committed her to a date, but she wanted it on her birthday in May instead of sooner. At first she utterly refused to have a date. We told her the reason that she wasn't getting an answer was because she wasn't willing to put her faith in God and accept a date. Then she agreed to May. Finally we got her to agree to March 6th.

We were so happy and everything was actually seeming to work out, but then it all just fell apart a few days ago. She had a deeper concern, but she was so stubborn that she was hiding it until now. Her Dad goes to the Catholic church. She goes to the seventh day church on Saturday, but he wants her to go with him to church on Sunday. He is super controlling. She is 41 but he treats her like a child. She came to church twice instead of going with him and he yelled at her both times. She told him about wanting to get baptized and he said that he would throw her and her two grown up kids out of the house if she did. She doesn't have a job and she just barely got here and doesn't know anyone else, so she is stuck. Her dad has a job and is supporting the family. Plus he is paying for the kids' college. If she gets baptized, he also threatened to not pay for their college expenses either. She could get a job and pay for a house, but there is no way she could pay for two kids to go to college too. Plus her dad had yelled at her a lot before and he threatened to beat her the other day. He has her pasport and apparently he said he would send her back to Haiti. I don't know how that works with her being 41, but she is pretty much backed up into a corner and there is no way out.

She called us from another phone at another Haitains house because her phone is shared by the whole family and she didn't want her dad knowing about it. We can't go over to the house with him around anymore because she is afraid of making him even more angry. But she is having us over tomorrow at 2:15 after she gets back from school and before her dad returns from work. Pray for Vonette. We are praying for a miracle to happen so that she can get baptized. Elder Rybin said that it might not be her time yet and that she might have to wait for her situation to change so that she can find the gospel again. That may be right, but I don't know what is going to happen.

We have 7 people getting baptized though. We are super excited. I have to go but will talk to you later. Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons

President and Sister Hale with Elder Seamons and his apartment mates January 2011