"So many miracles happened Sunday night to lead us to the exact location we were at to meet her. It definitely wasn’t an accident."

March 22^nd, 2011

[The first part of this is a handwritten letter that we just received. It is Eric’s experience of a wonderful miracle that happened. Eric is fluent in Spanish, although he says that speaking Haitian Creole has mucked up his Spanish a bit. In this circumstance, it served him well. See his e-mail from last Monday below that. Between parent/teacher conference, regular lesson plans, homework for the last session of a professional development yesterday and district choir festival, I have had no time to post this sooner.

Also check out the limited edition post card drawing of the soon coming Fort Lauderdale temple that Eric sent us.]

Hello. I am going to share an experience that we had on Sunday:

We were going to teach an employee of Brother Galeas’ at 7:00 pm. (Brother Galeas is from the Spanish Branch, but has attended our ward before.) We were almost a half an hour late. We couldn’t find Brother Galeas’ apartment. Eventually we got there, but we didn’t know which building in the complex it was. We ended up driving half way down the complex away from his building. We couldn’t find any parking, so we had to park far away. Plus we were driving and there was an open guest spot closer, but the person driving in front of us took that spot. So we took a long time to walk down to where we were supposed to go. Along the way, a Hispanic woman named Jane T Gaitan drove up and recognized us as missionaries. She didn’t speak any English at all. She told me she was from Ecuador. During that conversation, Elder Chandler called our next two appointments to tell them what was happening.  Our seven o’clock appointment that we were late to, as well as our eight o’clock appointment, both canceled on us. So we had all the time we needed to talk to her. She told me that she had many Mormon friends and that she loved them a lot. She loves the church. She told me about the temple in Ecuador and how beautiful it was. I told her that a temple would be built just ten minutes away from here. She was so excited. She told me how she had met with the missionaries for three years. The only reason she wasn’t baptized was because her husband, who was Catholic, was adamantly against the church. She said that she has been divorced from him for a while now. She said she hasn’t sat with the missionaries because she didn’t know that there were missionaries here, or where to find them. She said she would like to sit with the sister missionaries, and that she would like to get baptized.

The good thing is that because we were going to teach the employee and next door neighbor of Brother Galeas, we were in the apartment complex of a Spanish member He talked to her with me. We gave her the address of the church as well as the sister’s phone number. We also have her information. She agreed to come to church this coming Sunday. She was very excited about that. Brother Gleas has Janet’s number and he is now fellowshipping her. We will see what happens.

So many miracles happened Sunday night to lead us to the exact location we were at to meet her. It definitely wasn’t an accident. Elder Chandler pointed out that had he been put with any of the other 14 Creole missionaries this transfer, they wouldn’t have been able to find her. It could have taken several more years to find the missionaries. It feels so wonderful to be an instrument in the Lord’s hands to find someone and help them received the restored gospel. I am very grateful about that experience.

Monday March 28^th, 2011

We have had an awesome week! We had seven investigators at church this week! Odline, the 10 years old Haitian girl who read in the picture book of Mormon a ton came. Brother Bradford promised to give her a steady ride to church. She was so excited! The Bradford’s have a daughter named Lucy. Her and Odline were going everywhere together. We had Stephanie and Eludes Orange (a mother and her daughter) come to church, with Stephanie's nieces and nephew (they are Haitian too). We also had Daphney Jean, the girlfriend of one of our recent converts, Michael Jean-Baptist. Plus Morelson brought one of his friends to church. Plus Odline. And Crystella and Peterson, who are family with Laudia and Morelson, the recent converts came too.

Stephanie and Eludes are people that I contacted while I was on an exchange with a member. It is an interesting story. I wasn't going to knock on their door because there was no car in front of their house, but I did anyway. I met Stephanie and she seemed pretty interested. We are teaching her and her friend who I also contacted across the street. They are all Haitian. Stephanie is 14. She is a Seventh-day and so is her mom. Stephanie goes, but she really isn't into it at all. Eludes on the other hand is a very devout seventh day. We invited them to church on Sunday, but Eludes said she would only go if we went to her church. So on Saturday, we went to her Seventh-Day Haitian church. It was an interesting experience. We showed up 15 minutes before it was supposed to start, but we were the only ones their except for two other Haitians. The pastor didn't even show up until ten. She commented on how early we were. Everyone showed up around 10:05. It didn't start until 10:15. The pastor was telling the whole congregation how the only people who were on time were us two as far as she could tell. She told everyone that no one knows when Jesus Christ will come. She said that if he had come at 10:00 this morning, they would have all been lost. Elder Chandler and I laughed about that afterwards. It was frustrating because most of the service was in French. The spoke in Creole once and a while though. I understand a lot of French, but it is still hard to understand. They basically sung the whole time and different passages out of Psalms. The singing was so loud. Pastor and some people on the stand had microphones and were singing as loud as they can into it. I could barely hear anything else. People would say amen after everything. Some Haitian churches are done in Creole, but this one was in French. I was hoping the songbook would be in Creole, but it wasn't. I have been trying to learn French on my own a little bit.

We have a member who took Stephanie, Eludes, and the young kids to church. We went to Stephanie's house and walked with them down the street to this member's house. Eludes almost made Stephanie stay home and watch the kids, but I talked to her for five minutes, and eventually she agreed to let the kids and Stephanie come too. Eludes is a stubborn Haitian woman and I and amazed that she even said yes. I don't know what convinced her. Eludes didn't have a good time at church just because she wasn't paying attention and she was thinking about how she had stuff to clean back at home. The only reason that she came was because we made a deal with her. We are pretty sure that if Stephanie hadn't come, Eludes wouldn't have ever let her go, because Eludes didn't have a good experience. But since Stephanie has gone and loved church, that will give her mom a better reason to let her go. Stephanie also happened to have a friend at church, who was Laudia. Elder Chandler was trying to figure out who would be a good person to have Stephanie sit by and Laudia happened to pop into his head. We were amazed when they already knew each other. This has to be lead and guided by the spirit, because Elder Chandler had a experience when he was lead by the spirit to find Laudia to begin teaching her. Then I had a similar experience with Stephanie. Then they both end up together in the same church. We were so happy! Laudia is coming to teach Stephanie with us on Friday.

Peterson was having a hard time this way. He is always swearing at his mom and siblings and back talking to them. We were telling him that he needed to change. We were upset with him. But then he started to cry and told us how his mom, from when he was young told him how she had him by accident and how she never wanted him. Plus Laudia and Morelson don't treat him very nicely, which Elder Chandler and I believe, because we have seen it several times. He told us how the ideal family picture would have his Mom, Laudia, and Morelson all crossed out and just have his dad in it. We felt so bad for him. We taught him about the love of God and of his Divine worth. He was telling us how he felt unloved and felt like trouble to everyone. We realized that his horrible behavior was greatly due to the fact that it is the only way he ever get noticed in that house. He is only twelve years old and his mom has told him that she never wanted him. That would be horrible if Mom said that to me. I am glad I grow up in a good family.

I am doing great! We have three solid baptismal dates. We met this awesome guy named Andre who has two sisters who both come to this ward. He really wants to get baptized and says he will come to General Conference this week.

I love you all! Please write me. I haven't heard from some of you in a while.

Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons

P.S. I did get the Girl Scout cookies. I loved them a lot. Thank you Mom!

Elder Chandler and I went to a Haitian seventh Day church on Saturday. An investigator’s mom only agreed to come to our church if we went to hers. She and her mom came to church yesterday.

Plus someone else I knew in Coconut creek got baptized. Her name is Sabrina! She is Haitian. I am so happy about that.

 This is a computer generated image of the South Florida Temple, 

which will be built just ten minutes away or less from us. It

will be on Griffin Road and I-75 in Fort Lauderdale.

This is what the Fort Lauderdale mission blog says about the cards:

Upon authorization of the use of the new temple rendering and through a

generous donation; a few thousand of these limited production

"South Florida Temple Pass-Along Cards" were produced.

They will surely be a powerful instrument in our hands as we invite

others to come (for the first time and others to return) unto Christ

"I am staying with Elder Chandler in Fort Lauderdale for another transfer!"

March 22nd, 2011

Hello Everyone!


I am staying with Elder Chandler in Fort Lauderdale for another transfer! I am so happy about that. So was Elder Chandler. He has been transferred so much during the mission. If he had been transferred again, he would have been very upset. He hasn't stayed in an area longer than 2 transfers in a row. This is his third transfer in this area, so he is excited to finally stay put. Elder Anderson is training, but Elder Bolz is transferring. We are very surprised, because President Hale told Elder Bolz that he would stay in Fort Lauderdale for the rest of his time in the mission field. He only has two transfers left. We are wondering where he will go. Elder Bacon, one of the assistants said that he would have a wonderful leadership opportunity. We are wondering what that is. He is already a zone leader. We thought that he would be an Assistant to the President, but we weren't sure.

Yes I did get the popcorn package down here. Elder Rybin called and said that there is a package up there for me. He will probably give it to me at the next specialized training.

Laudia and Morelson got confirmed on Sunday. We were very excited about that.

We have a fair number of people that can get baptized in the month of April. We are both very excited. I will write a written letter and tell you about more of the stuff that is going on. Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons

“There are many prepared people in South Florida who are ready to receive the Gospel. I have seen many fulfillments of that prophesy.”

March 13, 2011


Great news! We had the baptism of Laudia and Morelson Petitfrere yesterday after stake conference. We had the service at the stake center. Peterson, their 12-year-old brother is not getting baptized yet because his mom doesn't feel they are ready. They are Haitian. We had a really good baptismal service and President and Sister Hale stayed after for it. We had seven baptisms in our zone yesterday. It was awesome! I will send you pictures of the baptism in the future. Peterson has his baptism scheduled for April 3rd, so we are hoping that we can help him meet that date. He still gets in arguments with his mom, so his mom might delay it because of those problems. But we can tell that he feels bad and wants to change. We are excited for when he can get baptized too.

We have a ten-year-old girl named Odline who has read through the kid's book of Mormon 3 times in a row. She loves the church and definitely has a testimony of the Gospel. She is living with her dad and her step mother. Her dad said that she can get baptized, but he wants to get the permission of the real mom before he tells us yes. Odline asked her and she said that she would think about it and tell her when she talks to her again. We are hoping to get permission this week. The only problem is that her step mom and her dad work, and they can't take her to church, so we are trying to find a permanent ride for her.

We also have an awesome investigator named Cherline who is Haitian. She loves the church, made friends without us introducing her to a whole bunch of people, and she really wants to get baptized and stay in the church for the rest of her life. The only problem is that she works two jobs, has no one else in her family who has one, so she is trying to scrape a living to pay for the house as well as get money to go to school. We need to find time to meet with her, but between her two jobs, she works twelve hours a day sometimes. Pray for Cherline and that she will find a way to meet with us and come to church more. She is awesome! We have several people in this area that are ready to be baptized, but they are stopped because of their circumstances. It is really sad. We are having a fair amount of success though.

There is a place in Fort Lauderdale that is well known called the "Swap Shop" It is like a mall. Different businesses come in and pay a tiny bit to set up a stand, and they sell new stuff for a very low price. A few weeks ago on P-day, I bought three ties for 9 dollars. They are really good looking ties too. They also have shops outside too. Anyone who wants can buy a spot and they can sell stuff. Last transfer the missionaries put up a stand, made a poster, and contacted everyone really close to the stand. They got several people's information out of it. It was a pretty good way of contacting. Elder Chandler and I did it again for four hours on Saturday. We had so many people reject us. I am now beginning to realize how fortunate the Creole missionaries are. Americans can be wonderful people, but there are a large number of them that are extremely intellectual, prideful, hard-hearted, and rude. I have met a lot of rude people in the last week, especially at the Swap Shop. It amazes me that anyone would ever treat another person like that, no matter what religion you are from. The Haitians were so much nicer to us, and even if they declined our invitation to hear more, they didn't treat us horribly. One person went by the stand and said, "You missionaries are so easy to spot, I could recognize you from a mile away." He sounded negative about it too. I walked toward him as he was walking away. I asked him where he had seen missionaries and if it was okay if I gave him a card. He told me that it was not okay and that I was harassing him. He didn't even turn around to talk to me. He just walked away from me the whole time. This other guy came up and told us he had a friend who was Mormon and he started bashing on us. He told us that we were going to burn in hell and that we believed in a different Jesus because we believe he was "a created being." He told us that he prayed that we would be brought to the truth. But despite all of that we got thirty to forty people give us their information to contact them again. We were very happy about that. Out of the forty potential investigators that we contacted, only three of them were in our area. Luckily we got this awesome woman and her husband who has met with the missionaries before and she loved them. She remembers a lot of what she learned.

I don't know what makes the youth come despite the fact that their parents are not members. Actually, most of the young men/ young women are converts. There are 19 young women, and out of them, there are 11 of them that were baptized in the last three years--same thing with the young men. Most of the ward is converts to the church. Our Bishop, Bishop Bethel has only been a member of the church for 8 years.

We have explained the fact that someone doesn't have to be perfect to get baptized, but for a Haitian, that is very hard to understand. They feel like you have to be very, very, very prepared to be baptized.

Often, the missionaries find the youth, but they become friends with the youth in the ward very quickly. Recent converts in the youth are fellowshipping each other. This ward is different, because a large portion of it is recent converts.

Lezly and Tilia, our recent converts from this transfer are at girl’s camp right now. We are so excited. We want them to have a really spiritual experience so they can have a strong testimony of the Gospel. On Wednesday night near the end of mutual, we had a lesson about the temple and eternal marriage. We have been teaching them a lot about the temple. We also had a talk with them about getting to church. They have been to mutual almost every week, but because of their parents making excuses not to take them, they haven’t' been to church on Sunday for 3 consecutive weeks. Their parents don't mind that they are baptized, but sometimes they make excuses not to drive them their because of laziness or some other excuse. We told them a whole bunch of alternate options if their parents fall through on them. We told them that the church is only a mile away from their house and that they can walk if their parents are doing something else. Plus this will show their parents their dedication. They agreed to that, so we will see them at church next week.

The youth are by far the most receptive. The only reason the youth program is not growing faster is because of the hard-heartedness of their parents. I have run into dozens and dozens of youth who are ready for the gospel but can't progress because their parents told us never to pass by the house again. We had three awesome teenagers we passed by last night, one of which was a friend of Lezly and Tilia. But then the dad came home. When we left the house, the dad came out and told us that their minds were impressionable and that he didn't want us to lead them off of the good path. He told us to never go back to the house or else he would call the police. We were both sad. But despite that, we are spreading the gospel and finding a pack of amazing youth. There are many prepared people in South Florida who are ready to receive the Gospel. It has been promised by President Uchtdorf and many others. I have seen many fulfillments of that prophesy. I know this is God's work and no barrier will be able to stop it. I am so excited for the success that we are having. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that he can bring us strength and healing. What a great message to bring to the entire world. No one else has a message that is more important than that. I love you all! Keep writing and pray for the hearts of the people to be softened!

Love,

Elder Seamons

"If you feel prompted to go somewhere, tell me to hit the brakes!”

 Once in a while, we send Eric a survey to get him to answer some extra questions. We ask him to just finish it and then send it back in the mail. This time with the survey, we got a couple extra small letters, so I typed them up and put them in. 

Also, the mission had a zone conference and I have attached a picture of all of the missionaries in the whole mission. Eric is on the back row. You can click on it to make it bigger.

Hi everyone. This is the written portion of my letter. In our ward, we do something called “outreach”. Once a month on Saturday, members of the ward, the missionaries, and the ward leaders get together at the church and go on exchanges to see less active members. We usually choose areas where there are less members that live in that area, because otherwise it is super hard to get people to go out of their way to see these people, but the ward works super hard. Many missionaries and others say it is the best ward in the mission. I can see why member work is unbelievable down here. I just need to take advantage of it. I went with Brother Keyser, the ward mission leader, and his wife. We went to four people’s houses. One person’s  husband answered the door. He was very nice. His wife was a member, but he was not. He was very interested in coming to church and going to ward activities.

We had some investigators and less actives who came to the chili cookoff. It was a great event. We had a good experience when we went tracting in the Bradford’s neighborhood. We met a war veteran from the army. His name was bob Stytes. He is super nice. We passed by his house in the morning. He said that the Bradford’s had helped him with Genealogy a while back. We asked if he would be interested in continuing that. He said he would. We met with him at 2:00, a few hours later with Sister Bradford. He is very nice and we had a great conversation. His wife died not too long ago, and he has gone through chemo therapy for throat cancer, so he has had some rough times lately. He was very interested in continuing with genealogy, but he is not religious at all and doesn’t believe in God, so he wasn’t interested in hearing more about this message. But he did come to the chili-cookoff and he liked it a lot.

So I will tell you about the experiences I had with the spirit inspiring me to go certain places. The first week I was with Elder Chandler we went finding in the neighborhood that Jamani lives in. As we were finding , I felt impressed about two doors that were next to each other. I especially felt that way about the second door. Elder Chandler finished the finding session because we had somewhere to go after that, and I didn’t want to stop what he was doing, so I didn’t say anything. We were in the area again, and I felt the same thing. Time went on and I felt guilty that I hadn’t knocked. This week, we were on our exchange with McKendy, a Haitian youth, and on the way to an appointment, there were some Haitians in a conversation. We stopped and talked to them. They hadn’t heard about Mormons before and they had some questions. They agreed to sit down with us. We asked them where they lived and they told us that they lived in the corner house, the same one I felt very impressed to stop by. After that, I told Elder Chandler what I had realized and he told me that I should listen to promptings. We stopped by Junior’s, an investigator’s on that street from Trinidad. Then I told Elder Chandler about the other house I felt prompted to visit. We knocked and talked to a daughter and a mother. They weren’t Haitian, but they had both sat down with Elder George and Elder Shefford eight months ago. We have an appointment with them.

Elder Chandler told me, “I don’t care if we are going 65 miles down the street. If you feel prompted to go somewhere, tell me to hit the brakes!”  I realize that I wasn’t doing the job, so I learned and knocked on the other one. I realized that I could follow the spirit and God would direct me if I asked and listened.

Love, Elder Seamons

" I am starting to understand how the English missionaries feel now."

March 7, 2011

Family and Friends,


We have had an interesting week, but it was really awesome! We finally got permission to baptize two kids out of three in the Petit-Frere family. The mom, Crystella, signed Morelson and Laudia's baptismal records, so now we can proceed with their baptism next week. Peterson, the youngest, hasn't sat with us a lot, so we need to teach him more and prepare him more than the other two. Plus he has been causing trouble, so his mom doesn't feel he is ready to get baptized. We are going to work with that. We are so happy about that.

Up in Coconut Creek, there were seven people baptized. The Creole missionaries baptized 4 people and the English elders baptized three. I know all of the Haitian's that were baptized, so I was so happy. Jenny Decimus, the grandchild of a recent convert got baptized, plus Itasienne, Gennger, and Jenny got baptized too. I am so happy about that, especially Gennger. She had many challenges, but she was able to overcome it and get baptized. God is truly there and he watches out for his children. No one but God and Jesus Christ alone could have possibly brought such a miracle about. Plus Itasienne, the mom, had a church she was a part of already and had a calling in, so it was hard, but she got baptized and changed churches. I am so happy that those people made it all the way to baptism!

We have been trying to find new investigators to teach, but it has been very challenging. I am starting to understand how the English missionaries feel now. When you teach Haitians, you can get so many investigators and many more people who will listen to you. But when you are dealing with everyone else, they reject you and say they already know Jesus Christ and don't need to hear from you. We spent seven hours finding one day, talking to many people and we only got one potential investigator out of it. It has been tough. But luckily, when I was on a double exchange with one of our recent converts, I found two Haitian families. I don't always knock on doors without cars in front of them, but for some reason, I was lead directly to a Haitian house with a family inside. The mom doesn't seem super interested, but her daughter seems a lot more promising. We have found a few other potential investigators as well this week and we got several new ones this week.

We have a ten-year-old investigator named Odline who loves the gospel and is one hundred percent ready to be baptized. She has been taught since Elder Rybin's first six weeks in the area, but she had problems with getting permission from her parents to get baptized. Her parents are Haitian. Her dad finally said yes this week, but he wants to get the mother's okay on it before he signs the paper. Odline's step mother lives with them, but her dad is going to get in contact with her real mother and get her approval. We are hoping to get that within the next two weeks. Odline was allowed to come to church as much as she wanted, but her dad is a taxi cab driver and is never home. I have only seen him once or twice since I have been here. He isn't able to give Odline a ride because he was never around to do it, and he didn't feel comfortable with people he didn't know giving her rides. But this week he said that he trusts us and he says that anyone who we know and is a member of the church can give her a ride. So we got the Tua'one family to give her a ride. We think they will be a ride for her to church consistently. She came to church for the first time in four months! She loved it! She enjoyed sitting with the tua'one family because they have kids and she loves kids. She is a very smart girl. She is very outgoing and has a lot of energy. She remembers stuff very well. She has read through the picture Book of Mormon all the way through and she loves it. She is almost done with it for the second time. She lost her first copy and when we gave her another one, she hugged it and was so happy. She has a ribbon that is tied on both ends and she uses that to mark her place in the book and hang it on her door knob. She reads in it every day. She loves primary. She is so ready to be baptized. Pray for Odline that her mother will have her heart softened and give her permission. We really want her to get baptized.

Yes, things are working out well with Elder Chandler. He is a really good missionary. I have learned a lot from him. I don't cook a lot in the apartment. I have a few times. Elder Chandler and Elder Bolz cook a lot for the whole apartment, so I don't really need to. It is fun with all of us living together again.

We have such awesome members here in the ward. We have one named Sister Rowe. She is Hispanic. She has a husband who isn't a member. His name is Butch. She has a lot of struggles, but she always calls us, "her angels." She always says, "how are you doing, my angels?" Last night she told us how she always loves it when her angels come and visit her. The missionaries are very special for her. She has a lot of faith and she has a great love for other people. Members make such a difference in the lives of others in helping them receive the gospel. We couldn't do our work with out them. I realize now how much of a difference one person can make.

We have been working with several of the recent converts on their Genealogy work. There is senior couple in the mission named Elder and Sister Graff, whose mission is to go around and help people get started on Genealogy work. The ward has a goal of getting every recent convert into the church to get their Genealogy done and have their family history started so they can take names into the temple within the first three months after their baptism.

I have been working on having more love for other people. I have a hard time trying to have charity. Often, many of my motives for serving others are selfish. I want to have more baptisms than others or I want to help people so that I have good stories to tell after the mission. Plus I have been feeling a little less satisfied because I am sad that I am not still in Coconut Creek. I need to have love for the people down here. Because when I have that, I will be able to do amazing things. Please pray for me to have more love for other people. It is one of the hardest things to have, but it is the most important thing anyone could ever have.

We are still hanging in there. God has put so much effort in this mission. President has insisted that each companionship get a minimum of one baptism in March and two in April. We want to do better than that, but we need help. We need to be obedient and have spiritual power so we can accomplish the work.

I know that God is watching out for the missionaries and that this work is real. The mission is doing well right now and we are hoping that we will be able to experience the tremendous success that the first presidency has prophesied for this area. We will need humility, faith, obedience, and charity to accomplish this work. I know that Jesus Christ is the son of God and I know that he is watching out for all of us. All we need to do is know and the door will be opened.

I need to go. Bye! I love you all. Please continue to write me!

Love,

Elder Seamons