Dear Family and Friends,
There have been some interesting things that have happened this week.
We did exchanges with the elders that work in the YSA (Young Single Adults) branch. We had a not very good day together. We are teaching a Haitian Catholic, and he read in the Book of Mormon about infant Baptisms and he didn't like how it says that it is an abomination to baptize little children. He said that we don't have the "life of God" in us until we get baptized and that the bible says that everyone needs to be baptized to enter into the Kingdom of God. It was a very frustrating lesson. We have dropped him. Then after that we went to the house of someone named Miguel. He was from Puerto Rico but he spoke perfect English. He was catholic, but his wife and the rest of his family was Jehovah’s Witnesses. He ended up not being available to sit with us, but his wife roped us into sitting down. We got into a conversation with his daughter-in-law. We left after a while. In the case with that woman, we wouldn't have jotted down her concerns and came back. She didn't want to know our message. She just wanted to preach to us and prove us wrong. In the end, we told her that since we were disagreeing, we would just bare a simple testimony of things that we agreed on. Elder Cornwall told her that he knew that Jesus Christ was the Savior of the world and that he died for our sins and that he knew that through him that we could be saved. She then used the scripture in James 2 that says, "thou knowest there is a god; thou sayest well. So do the devil and his angels and they tremble because of it." She used scriptures and in the same way poked jabs at us. We asked if she were condemning us. She said, "Am I, or is it the Bible speaking to you?" She was an unbearable woman. I got over it though.
We went over to Peterson's house during the week. He is the 12 year old boy. He had been very well behaved for two or so weeks, so we decided to pray hard before we went, to ask for her permission for him to be baptized, and tell her why we thought that she was ready. We were hoping that Crystella was in a good mood, but she wasn't. She had a stomach ache, and she was also upset with Peterson. The day before, he got suspended for 15 days for 3 different occasions, each being 5 days. We were very upset. He won't be able to get baptized for at least a month and a half now, if not more depending on his mom's opinion, even if he does get his act together. But we did call president yesterday, and we asked him if we could take him on exchanges with us during the two weeks of his suspension so that he can have a spiritual experience and do something productive with his life during that time. President said we could do it with him three days a week, but that he couldn't stay the night at the apartment with us or eat with us for meals. We were happy that we could do that. He will get baptized eventually.
Also, Daphney Jean, one of our other dates fell though. She is Michael Jean Baptiste's Girlfriend (He is a recent convert.) We taught her with him there, and we scheduled two separate appointments with them for Friday (a few days ago, one right after the other.)
At his appointment, he was complaining about Daphney and how she was driving him nuts. She has his child, so he is obligated to stay and help her out. He is paying for her phone, and bills, because she is 21 and she doesn't have a job yet. We invited him to pass the sacrament the next day in church. Then we went to Daphney's house. She said that she felt that she needed to wait until she had the baby in six months before getting baptized. She didn't feel she was ready yet.
We did have some good experiences this week. Elder Chandler and I passed a referral to YSA of someone we taught named Jasmine. She is very awesome. She wants to get baptized, and she feels that her communication with God is not very good. We taught her how to pray at the end of the lesson, and she felt that it was a much more spiritually satisfying prayer. We taught her about how God had restored His Gospel and His Church back on the earth. It made a lot of sense to her. She told us how her family is the pastor and leaders of a church. She feels that it is all fake, and she wants to find a place that is uplifting. We told her about how she could know if our message was true by a witness from the Holy Ghost. She has a date for the 24 of May. We had her text the other missionaries. In the text, she wrote, "Hi! This is Jasmine! Elder Chandler and Elder Seamons are teaching me, and I am planning on getting baptized on the 24 of May. They want you to come down and sit with me. Could you guys do that?" She is very excited. They have had at least one other lesson with her since then. It was great! Right when she got that message, they told me that they had to drop an investigator and they were really discouraged about it. They felt so good when they got that text. That made Elder Chandler and I very happy. Elder Chandler loves having investigators text the missionaries that we are passing them to.
Here is a quick letter that I sent to president:
Hi president! We had 7 investigators at church this week! We are doing well, but we need to increase the number of members that come out to teach with them. But we did get people to socialize with the people that came to church. They liked it and they want to come back. We lost two of our dates this week, so we only have one. We need to find awesome investigators that will progress. We realized that we need to bike more, because in our experience the best finding happens on bike. We are doing well though. Thank you President! I will talk to you later! Bye! I love you!
Love,
Elder Seamons
There were three people who we were teaching which were part of the Haitian youth group. We didn't get any of the other people in the youth group yet just from talking to them the one day, but we will work on that. At least the ones who invited us to their church came to ours. They had an Easter Activity that La jeneusse was doing, so they could only stay for sacrament meeting, but they will come next week.
Also, there was this one kid named Webb, who was nineteen in La jeneusse. He was impressed with us, so he told us about there is a college club where he goes which is a Christian club. He told us that 40 + people go to the club every Tuesday at 11:00, and he arranged to have us come over and teach there tomorrow. It is in Coconut Creek, so we are having Elder Gubernick and Elder Rybin go to teach it.
Crystella, Laudia, Morelson and His friend Tefon, Laudia and her friend Weynesha, and Peterson all came to church. We were glad because the Petit frere family had missed the previous week. It is cool that they hadn't missed a week until last week. Plus they brought two friends this week. But they only stayed for sacrament meeting. They were all hungry so they went home after that. At least they came. We decided not to say anything to them about this, because we have already told them off on various other occasions.
Odline came again! She is ready to be baptized! She just needs permission. Her mom did say she could get baptized in December when she turns 11. Even if she can get baptized until then, at least she has and will continue to go to church consistently because she has a consistent ride.
Well, I love you all! I am doing well! Write me!
Love,
Elder Seamons
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
"Missionaries get the most unique experiences"
April 18, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
We had a very good week this week. Everything is going great. We went on 2 twenty-four hour exchanges, so I was taking the lead, especially in all of the Creole lessons, because for one of the days, I was with Elder Larsen who is an English elder. We had pretty decent days too. We taught many new people. There is a Haitian family that we taught. The mom is named Edite. We were over there for two hours. We got in a conversation about Haitian culture, which impressed them a lot, because I knew so much about it. They said they want to visit the church, which I was happy about. We contacted a few people who want us to come back and teach them more. I have come to learn on the mission that there are many people who are willing to hear our message. Many of them don't do it only because they are super busy. Many of them are working very hard and barely have time to themselves. It is sad that they don't have the time to hear what we have to say, because it is the most important message in the world.
Also, Julie, our investigator who is part of the Haitian Renassance Evangelique church talked to her youth group and we got permission to teach them about the restoration. It was awesome! The leader of the Youth Group is a young single adult and their actually weren't any older people at the youth meeting. A lot of people were running behind schedule, so it started late. For the first half an hour, there were only Haitian Girls in there, which we were worried about because we aren't supposed to be in a room with them alone, but we already agreed to teach them, so we were stuck. But luckily some guys came in. La jeunesse is the youth group. They practiced singing and they sang extremely well. Elder Chandler and I were both very impressed. They were organizing youth activities and preparing presentations for Haitian Flag Day, which is a big deal in Florida because of the Haitian population, as well as mother's day. For a youth group running itself, I was pretty impressed. It ranged from 19-24 year old Haitians. We taught this group of 30 Haitian youth about the restoration and many of them were taking notes and opening up to the bible scriptures we shared with them. We passed around a clip board and we got seven referrals, which included the leader of the La jeneusse group whose name is Jennifer. She is a college student. She said she went to the Plantation ward because a friend invited her and she liked it a lot. She like how we broke into groups and taught out of the scriptures. She said that she watched the Finding Faith in Christ DVD and she liked it a lot. Getting her as a referral and letting us go by her house is a big deal because she runs the youth program of the church, and she was in charge of most of the service. In Haitian churches they sing a lot, and they were singing out of Chant D'esperance, which is a Baptist Hymn book with the Haitian people use a lot. We went to Julie's church so that she would come with her whole family to ours. They are coming to church with us next Sunday. Julie will go to her church for the morning part, which goes from 7-10:30. She said that she would tell people in La jeneusse about our service at 11:00 and that she would invite them. That was the best Haitian church I have ever been to on the mission. It is actually within walking distance of our apartments. Jennifer invited us back and so did the other leaders in La jeneusse. They were impressed with our Creole and they liked that we were teaching the gospel. They said we could come back and teach another time, so we will coordinate that and see when it happens again.
I love Haitians so much! Going to the Renassance Evangelique church only increased my love for them. They are a very amazing group of people. The church was actually pretty large. It had a congregation of 200 people in it. Going to a Haitian church is a fun experience, especially working with the Haitian youth. It is so fun to talk to them in Creole. It is cool that we also have an in with some of the leaders of the church. They like us a lot and the pastor was happy that we came to their church service. We are going to schedule an appointment with Jennifer this week. When we go to La jeneusse again, I will get a recording of them singing in Creole, because it is super good. It was so awesome to hear them singing.
Missionaries get the most unique experiences. We have done some of the craziest things as missionaries. But missionaries also get put in awkward situations too. The beginning of La jeneusse was weird because for the first 30 minutes, we were in the room with 15 Haitian girls. Luckily, guys came in and it was good. Then Jennifer at the end of the meeting said, "Everyone give each other a big hug." So we got seven or 8 Haitian girls each coming up to give us a hug. So we just went with it, because in the white handbook it says not to hug in an inappropriate manner, not to not do it. We figured that it would have been an insult to the culture of La jeneusse, so we just let it happen. Jennifer told us, "in La jeneusse, we do hugs."
It was a super awesome church though. There was a guy named Webb. We also got his information and we had a conversation with him about Haiti. He came here when he was 12. It was a fun night last night. We were their from 6:00-9:00, then we walked home to get back to the apartment by 9:30.
This week we had Outreach again. This is the activity that Bishop felt inspired to implement, which includes Members going out with the missionaries to visit Less-active members in the Church. We do this kind of thing all the time, but the third Saturday, when we have Outreach, we get together as a ward to do it. The attendance of the ward at outreach hasn't been very good, so Bishop had a stern talk with the leaders of the ward about how the program was inspired from God through inspiration and that if the members had problems with doing it, they can kneel down and pray to God and ask if it is an inspired Program. Bishop Bethel is very straight forward with people and he is good at getting things done. He is an amazing man!
We got a pretty descent turnout this Saturday as compared to the last two outreaches we did. After Outreach, The elder's quorum did an activity called the "Man Lunch," were they went to Five Guys. All the missionaries went to. It was so good! I am glad that we have a Five Guys in our area! It was great! Brother Zaugg, the elder's quorum president, didn't give us very good directions, so we got super lost and we wasted 20 miles on our miles limit to find it, which we weren't happy about, but it was still a good experience. That was the day that Elder Larsen and I went on an exchange together.
Also, this week Elder Chandler, Elder Anderson, Elder Hall, and I went to a KFC buffet down in Hollywood, which is part of our area still because we are Creole Missionaries. We had a lesson down there, so we went before the lesson. The only problem is that our appointment called and cancelled at the last minute. But it was a good experience still.
Well, I have to go.
Bye! I love you all. Keep on writing me!
Love,
Elder Seamons
Dear Family and Friends,
We had a very good week this week. Everything is going great. We went on 2 twenty-four hour exchanges, so I was taking the lead, especially in all of the Creole lessons, because for one of the days, I was with Elder Larsen who is an English elder. We had pretty decent days too. We taught many new people. There is a Haitian family that we taught. The mom is named Edite. We were over there for two hours. We got in a conversation about Haitian culture, which impressed them a lot, because I knew so much about it. They said they want to visit the church, which I was happy about. We contacted a few people who want us to come back and teach them more. I have come to learn on the mission that there are many people who are willing to hear our message. Many of them don't do it only because they are super busy. Many of them are working very hard and barely have time to themselves. It is sad that they don't have the time to hear what we have to say, because it is the most important message in the world.
Also, Julie, our investigator who is part of the Haitian Renassance Evangelique church talked to her youth group and we got permission to teach them about the restoration. It was awesome! The leader of the Youth Group is a young single adult and their actually weren't any older people at the youth meeting. A lot of people were running behind schedule, so it started late. For the first half an hour, there were only Haitian Girls in there, which we were worried about because we aren't supposed to be in a room with them alone, but we already agreed to teach them, so we were stuck. But luckily some guys came in. La jeunesse is the youth group. They practiced singing and they sang extremely well. Elder Chandler and I were both very impressed. They were organizing youth activities and preparing presentations for Haitian Flag Day, which is a big deal in Florida because of the Haitian population, as well as mother's day. For a youth group running itself, I was pretty impressed. It ranged from 19-24 year old Haitians. We taught this group of 30 Haitian youth about the restoration and many of them were taking notes and opening up to the bible scriptures we shared with them. We passed around a clip board and we got seven referrals, which included the leader of the La jeneusse group whose name is Jennifer. She is a college student. She said she went to the Plantation ward because a friend invited her and she liked it a lot. She like how we broke into groups and taught out of the scriptures. She said that she watched the Finding Faith in Christ DVD and she liked it a lot. Getting her as a referral and letting us go by her house is a big deal because she runs the youth program of the church, and she was in charge of most of the service. In Haitian churches they sing a lot, and they were singing out of Chant D'esperance, which is a Baptist Hymn book with the Haitian people use a lot. We went to Julie's church so that she would come with her whole family to ours. They are coming to church with us next Sunday. Julie will go to her church for the morning part, which goes from 7-10:30. She said that she would tell people in La jeneusse about our service at 11:00 and that she would invite them. That was the best Haitian church I have ever been to on the mission. It is actually within walking distance of our apartments. Jennifer invited us back and so did the other leaders in La jeneusse. They were impressed with our Creole and they liked that we were teaching the gospel. They said we could come back and teach another time, so we will coordinate that and see when it happens again.
I love Haitians so much! Going to the Renassance Evangelique church only increased my love for them. They are a very amazing group of people. The church was actually pretty large. It had a congregation of 200 people in it. Going to a Haitian church is a fun experience, especially working with the Haitian youth. It is so fun to talk to them in Creole. It is cool that we also have an in with some of the leaders of the church. They like us a lot and the pastor was happy that we came to their church service. We are going to schedule an appointment with Jennifer this week. When we go to La jeneusse again, I will get a recording of them singing in Creole, because it is super good. It was so awesome to hear them singing.
Missionaries get the most unique experiences. We have done some of the craziest things as missionaries. But missionaries also get put in awkward situations too. The beginning of La jeneusse was weird because for the first 30 minutes, we were in the room with 15 Haitian girls. Luckily, guys came in and it was good. Then Jennifer at the end of the meeting said, "Everyone give each other a big hug." So we got seven or 8 Haitian girls each coming up to give us a hug. So we just went with it, because in the white handbook it says not to hug in an inappropriate manner, not to not do it. We figured that it would have been an insult to the culture of La jeneusse, so we just let it happen. Jennifer told us, "in La jeneusse, we do hugs."
It was a super awesome church though. There was a guy named Webb. We also got his information and we had a conversation with him about Haiti. He came here when he was 12. It was a fun night last night. We were their from 6:00-9:00, then we walked home to get back to the apartment by 9:30.
This week we had Outreach again. This is the activity that Bishop felt inspired to implement, which includes Members going out with the missionaries to visit Less-active members in the Church. We do this kind of thing all the time, but the third Saturday, when we have Outreach, we get together as a ward to do it. The attendance of the ward at outreach hasn't been very good, so Bishop had a stern talk with the leaders of the ward about how the program was inspired from God through inspiration and that if the members had problems with doing it, they can kneel down and pray to God and ask if it is an inspired Program. Bishop Bethel is very straight forward with people and he is good at getting things done. He is an amazing man!
We got a pretty descent turnout this Saturday as compared to the last two outreaches we did. After Outreach, The elder's quorum did an activity called the "Man Lunch," were they went to Five Guys. All the missionaries went to. It was so good! I am glad that we have a Five Guys in our area! It was great! Brother Zaugg, the elder's quorum president, didn't give us very good directions, so we got super lost and we wasted 20 miles on our miles limit to find it, which we weren't happy about, but it was still a good experience. That was the day that Elder Larsen and I went on an exchange together.
Also, this week Elder Chandler, Elder Anderson, Elder Hall, and I went to a KFC buffet down in Hollywood, which is part of our area still because we are Creole Missionaries. We had a lesson down there, so we went before the lesson. The only problem is that our appointment called and cancelled at the last minute. But it was a good experience still.
Well, I have to go.
Bye! I love you all. Keep on writing me!
Love,
Elder Seamons
Monday, April 11, 2011
President Hale is doing great and recovering quicker than expected
Many prayers have been answered in regard to President Hale. He had the surgery to take out his tumor on Thursday. It was not embedded in the spine but was offset, and they were able to get all of it. They will find out in the next few days if it is malignant or benign. He went to his brother’s house to recover. The doctor expects he will be ready to go back in 2 weeks instead of 3. Sister Hale is heading back to Florida tomorrow. Everyone is happy with his progress.
April 10, 2011
Hi Everyone! We had a very good week this week! We were having a super slow week where finding efforts were concerned in the beginning of the week, but the last three days we have found 20 or more people who want to hear the message we share, many of which we have already scheduled appointments with. Elder Hall and Elder Anderson are zone leaders and Elder Chandler is the district leader for our district. The zone had an awesome week. Elder Anderson was telling us about how he found an investigator who already has a super powerful testimony that the Gospel is true and she loved the Book of Mormon. The YSA elders found two super awesome investigators who already had their own set of scriptures and have a testimony and have marked their scriptures, gone to church, and prayed about everything that we teach. They went to church in Washington state already. They are going to be baptized really soon.
We also met this Haitian girl the other day that was super excited that we spoke Creole. Most Haitians are super excited about that. We stopped by the house again, and she introduced us to her sisters and she said that we were her friends. All three of them were super excited and were giving us drinks, a place to sit, and talking to us about Haitian culture. There were some guys in the room, but they didn't really seem as interested. They were probably most interested because we were young white guys who spoke Creole. They did understand the message we taught them though, and we thought that they were engaged in the lesson too, not just in us, which was a good thing. One of the guys there invited us to their Haitian Baptist church, which we accepted on the condition of them coming to our church. So we have that all planned out. Plus they are going to talk to the pastor of that church and ask if we can go in front of all the youth in the congregation for a youth activity and teach our message to them. That would be so awesome! Plus Julie, one of the people there said that she would make Haitian food for us when we came over again, which we were excited about, because it has been a while since we have gotten a good Haitian meal. Well, there were elders in Miami who were allowed to stand up and give a presentation in front of the church in a Corps de Christ church. So we will see how that goes. There were elders in Miami who were allowed to stand up and give a presentation in front of the church in a Corps de Christ church. So we will see how that goes. In the Corps de Christ church, the elders were telling everyone about the Joseph Smith story and the pastor had a look of Horror on his face and seemed to regret letting them speak. The congregation was very interested and even one of the assistant pastors had a question, but the head pastor just told the missionaries that the congregation could ask him instead.
Today after we write our e-mails, we will do companionship study and we are going to buy groceries and go over to Fort Lauderdale South's apartment to play Volley Ball with them. We cook a lot more meals for ourselves here than we did in Coconut Creek. Most of the Haitian members in the ward are in Elder Anderson and Elder Hall's area. In Coconut Creek there are a lot more Haitian members.
Peterson has been taught everything that he needs to know and he really wants to be baptized. The only problem is that Crystella (Peterson's mom) says that he has been a bad boy and that he isn't ready to be baptized. But she has been giving us dumb reasons for it, and she is expecting him to be perfect. Crystella, when Laudia and Morelson were about to get baptized, told them that if they partook of the sacrament unworthily, they would choke on it and die. She says she has seen three people in her old Haitian Pentecostal church have that happen to them. We are kind of frustrated with her. Hopefully we can help her realize that he is ready. We are going to start sitting down with her more often and make sure she understands baptism better. We did that once or twice, but it will probably take more time than that. She has come to church every Sunday for the past four months though. And she came to the investigator/new member class on Wednesday which teaches people basic gospel principles. We were happy about that.
Peterson's Mom has not been baptized yet. She reads out of the Gospel Principles Manual at home and she has read through the entire book of Mormon. At one point, she was the most likely to get baptized. She was apathetic at first and didn't want to come to church, but then she had a dream where god told her to start going to church again and pursue this, so she changed her mind and hasn't missed a day of coming to the church with her kids since. But she has a weird personality and changes her mind a lot. We were lucky that Laudia and Morelson got baptized.
Well, I have to go. Bye Everyone! I love you!
Love,
Elder Seamons
P.S. Also, I figured out that one of the people that I taught with Elder Rybin named Victor Huberson got baptized. It is so cool that six people that I taught with Elder Rybin got baptized after I left. I realize that so many things have happened since then. What we did together paved the way for much success where he is. I am very happy about that.
April 10, 2011
Hi Everyone! We had a very good week this week! We were having a super slow week where finding efforts were concerned in the beginning of the week, but the last three days we have found 20 or more people who want to hear the message we share, many of which we have already scheduled appointments with. Elder Hall and Elder Anderson are zone leaders and Elder Chandler is the district leader for our district. The zone had an awesome week. Elder Anderson was telling us about how he found an investigator who already has a super powerful testimony that the Gospel is true and she loved the Book of Mormon. The YSA elders found two super awesome investigators who already had their own set of scriptures and have a testimony and have marked their scriptures, gone to church, and prayed about everything that we teach. They went to church in Washington state already. They are going to be baptized really soon.
We also met this Haitian girl the other day that was super excited that we spoke Creole. Most Haitians are super excited about that. We stopped by the house again, and she introduced us to her sisters and she said that we were her friends. All three of them were super excited and were giving us drinks, a place to sit, and talking to us about Haitian culture. There were some guys in the room, but they didn't really seem as interested. They were probably most interested because we were young white guys who spoke Creole. They did understand the message we taught them though, and we thought that they were engaged in the lesson too, not just in us, which was a good thing. One of the guys there invited us to their Haitian Baptist church, which we accepted on the condition of them coming to our church. So we have that all planned out. Plus they are going to talk to the pastor of that church and ask if we can go in front of all the youth in the congregation for a youth activity and teach our message to them. That would be so awesome! Plus Julie, one of the people there said that she would make Haitian food for us when we came over again, which we were excited about, because it has been a while since we have gotten a good Haitian meal. Well, there were elders in Miami who were allowed to stand up and give a presentation in front of the church in a Corps de Christ church. So we will see how that goes. There were elders in Miami who were allowed to stand up and give a presentation in front of the church in a Corps de Christ church. So we will see how that goes. In the Corps de Christ church, the elders were telling everyone about the Joseph Smith story and the pastor had a look of Horror on his face and seemed to regret letting them speak. The congregation was very interested and even one of the assistant pastors had a question, but the head pastor just told the missionaries that the congregation could ask him instead.
Today after we write our e-mails, we will do companionship study and we are going to buy groceries and go over to Fort Lauderdale South's apartment to play Volley Ball with them. We cook a lot more meals for ourselves here than we did in Coconut Creek. Most of the Haitian members in the ward are in Elder Anderson and Elder Hall's area. In Coconut Creek there are a lot more Haitian members.
Peterson has been taught everything that he needs to know and he really wants to be baptized. The only problem is that Crystella (Peterson's mom) says that he has been a bad boy and that he isn't ready to be baptized. But she has been giving us dumb reasons for it, and she is expecting him to be perfect. Crystella, when Laudia and Morelson were about to get baptized, told them that if they partook of the sacrament unworthily, they would choke on it and die. She says she has seen three people in her old Haitian Pentecostal church have that happen to them. We are kind of frustrated with her. Hopefully we can help her realize that he is ready. We are going to start sitting down with her more often and make sure she understands baptism better. We did that once or twice, but it will probably take more time than that. She has come to church every Sunday for the past four months though. And she came to the investigator/new member class on Wednesday which teaches people basic gospel principles. We were happy about that.
Peterson's Mom has not been baptized yet. She reads out of the Gospel Principles Manual at home and she has read through the entire book of Mormon. At one point, she was the most likely to get baptized. She was apathetic at first and didn't want to come to church, but then she had a dream where god told her to start going to church again and pursue this, so she changed her mind and hasn't missed a day of coming to the church with her kids since. But she has a weird personality and changes her mind a lot. We were lucky that Laudia and Morelson got baptized.
Well, I have to go. Bye Everyone! I love you!
Love,
Elder Seamons
P.S. Also, I figured out that one of the people that I taught with Elder Rybin named Victor Huberson got baptized. It is so cool that six people that I taught with Elder Rybin got baptized after I left. I realize that so many things have happened since then. What we did together paved the way for much success where he is. I am very happy about that.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Prayers needed for President Hale, Eric's mission president- special fast on Wednesday
We just had our semiannual general conference of our church and were reminded that everyone has trials, no matter who you are or what good you are doing. Eric wrote in his letter that his mission president just found out he has a tumor in his spine and that he will be coming to Utah for at least 3 weeks to have it operated on and to recover. They are having a special fast on Wednesday and ask that everyone keep them in their prayers. Eric is struggling a little bit, although he didn’t say it in his letter but mentioned it to Kent who was online when he wrote his e-mail. I expect the president’s absence will be hard on him.
Dear family and friends,
This week was a great week! We had a lot of meetings, so we didn't have as many lessons this week, but it was really good. We had a specialized training on Friday. President Hale wasn't there because he was in a conference call with the General Authorities of the church. Conference was amazing, but it was super hard to get people to come. The problem is that we had many Haitians who weren't responsible and we called to check and see if they were coming, and they said that something came up. Haitians don't plan ahead or do anything like that super well. It is really annoying. But we did get three investigators at church: Daphney Jean, Peterson who is Laudia and Morelson's younger brother who is going to get baptized sometime soon, and Stephanie Orange. All three of them are Haitian. I have two pictures of Peterson (left), Stephanie, Laudia, and Morelson (right). I don't know how much they got out of conference, but the fact that they were there was good.
Peterson, who was having a lot of problems getting in trouble, has only gotten in trouble once the whole week! We are so happy with him. He told us to ask his mom if he had caused trouble, and she said he had been a good boy for several days. The Saturday night that we had shared the lesson of his divine worth before God has changed everything. We told him that he wasn't a mistake in God's eyes and that he was the way he was supposed to be. For the first time, he feels like he isn't worthless, which is what he thought for a long time. The love of God changed everything. Something that we heard in a zone counsel once is that sin is the evidence of unmet spiritual needs on the part of the sinner. Many people are willing to change, but they are just lost. If shown the way out, they will repent and take it. That is what happened with Peterson. This week he told his mom that he had been a good boy for a week and he felt he was ready to be baptized. She said that she wanted to wait to make sure that the change would stay. We are confident that Peterson will be baptized before the end of this month. We have taught him everything he needs to know, and he has come to church consistently. As soon as his mom gives him permission, we can baptize him the Sunday following that.
We also met an awesome woman named Wilma. When she heard about how Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, she told us how happy that made her feel, and she told us that she wanted to do what Joseph did and pray about if what we said was true. We didn't have to ask her to pray. She just told us she would. We were amazed about that.
Stephanie's Mom refused to let her come to Mutual on Wednesday. We were super upset about that. She said that she would only let Stephanie go to the church if she was there with her. We talked to her for 15 minutes using every tactic of persuasion that we could think of and she refused still. But then later on, we took Sister Cook with us to a lesson and Laudia who is good friends with Stephanie. Sister Cook is Haitian so she could talk to Eludes. Eludes at first was reluctant to let Stephanie go to church without her, but Sister Cook eventually persuaded Eludes to let her come to the last session of General Conference. We were all so surprised. Eludes is one of the most stubborn Haitian women I have ever met. But Sister Cook was able to convince her. That is the power that women have that not even the Elder's have. Plus on Sunday, Eludes thought about not allowing Stephanie to go to conference a half an hour before Sister Cook was supposed to pick her up because her Grandpa was coming and they needed to clean, but Sister Cook was able to persuade her again. I think we found Eludes' weak spot. Elder Chandler and I would have been so mad if Stephanie wasn't allowed to go, because Eludes uses the excuse of cleaning every single day. She is always cleaning. Stephanie had a pretty good time at the church. Plus Sister Cook talked to Eludes and she said that she would think about letting Stephanie go to mutual on Wednesday. She will let her know Tuesday night.
We have several new investigators who are very promising: Andre (who is the brother of a recent convert), Wilma, Daphney, and Marti al (who is Daphney's brother. He is a 14 year-old boy who just came out of Haiti). We just need to help them progress to baptism.
We also had some very surprising news yesterday. President Hale set up a conference call after General Conference and he told us that he has a tumor in his lower back around the lower part of his spine. He has had a loss of sensation in his feet for a few months and he has been consulting medical experts all over the country. He chose very carefully. He needs to go into a fourteen hour surgery to get the tumor out. They are not sure if it is cancerous or benign yet. We are praying that it is benign. He is going to be away from the mission for at least three weeks, if not more depending on what condition he is in after the surgery. For now President Lake of the mission presidency is taking over, along with the Assistants to the President. President was in a conference call with the General Authorities for several days and they said that they have prayed specifically for this mission and that God has great things in mind for our specific area. President Hale had a blessing in which he was told that this problem would be an immediate blessing for the mission. He also was told that Satan wanted to destroy the work of God in south Florida, but that he wouldn't succeed because it was not God's will.
President Hale has a very positive outlook on everything and he says that he is at peace with everything. The mission is having a special fast Wednesday afternoon and anyone who would like can also participate in this special fast.
I have to go! I love you all a lot! Bye!
Just keep on praying for me, especially that every companionship will be able to baptize 2 people in April. It is what President Hale has asked of us and we must obey. I don't know exactly what will happen. We will just need to trust in God. Especially pray that Eludes' heart will be softened and that Sister Cook can have success in reaching out to her and Stephanie. Pray for Peterson that he will continue to be a good boy and that his mom will acknowledge his good progress.
Thank you!
Bye!
Love,
Elder Seamons
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