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
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