No More Car

 January 16, 2012

Hi Everyone! A lot of unexpected things happened during transfers. I am in a three-some. Elder Owens who is from Buhl, Idaho and Elder Snyder who is from Syracuse, Utah are my companions. They were part of the group of missionaries in the Stewart zone that were transferred to this mission from the Orlando Mission. They are both really good missionaries and they are good for coming along for the ride. A big thing that has happened is that we no longer have a car. It was made into a full bike area. I am super tired every day when we come home. I felt like my legs were going to give out. I rarely used the bike since I was sent to Miami. This mission relies on the cars so much. I didn't realize what difference it made until we had to go with out it. We are getting a lot of help though. President Boggess has some senior couples that are snowbirds that came to the area and he is going to have each of them ride us around for half a day. His vision is to get enough people driving us around that we don't have to bike a lot. Plus we got a ride to church on Sunday, which saved us, because the church is 8 miles away. I am really out of shape. The branch is doing well and we have so many wonderful members. The members have been feeding us a lot this week and coming out with us. The Hillsamer's made us some great homemade food and Brother Hillsamer took us out to where we were working so that we didn't have to go and bike the whole way. Then he took us back to his house to have dessert, then he dropped us off at home. They are a wonderful family.

We arrived a few minutes early to the Hillsamer's house and we passed by their neighbor's house who they referred us to. Her name is Susie, and her best friend is Vicky. Susie didn't seem interested at first, but then we invited to leave a blessing on her home. She talked with us for a while and she shared a lot of her problems and worries with us and we left the blessing. She was a little teary eyed and she felt the spirit very strong. She even said she was planning on coming to the church before but never got around to it. Sister Hillsamer is going to invite her, and give her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. She is still having a hard time coping with the death of her husband which happened a few years back. Vicky was also having some issues in her family and she feels that she needs help with. It was a very tender moment. We were in the place that we were supposed to be. Clair is doing really well. She has read half of the Book of Mormon already, and she read 8 chapters of the Doctrine and Covenants. We gave her an English Book of Mormon, but she wanted a Doctrine and Covenants, so we gave her a large print Triple combination. She read the pearl of Great price before we met her. Her only problem is her not feeling that she can be good enough to be baptized. She has a smoking addiction. We are trying to help her overcome that.

Clair, Nicole, and some random people who came off the street during Sunday school named Jason and Maria came to church. We were really excited that Clair and Nicole were there. Nicole didn't seem to have a good experience, so we are going meet with her and see what we can do to help her.

Heavenly Father watches out for those that are doing his work. He is constantly guiding and directing us through the spirit. He is more present and involved with your lives than you can possibly imagine. I know that Jesus Christ is always extending his grace and love to us and that we just need to believe and do our very best.

I love you all and I will write you next week! Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Letter to the President:

Hi President! It has been an interesting transition during the new transfer. We have had some rough times in the beginning, especially being switched into a full bike area, but we are learning so much. It is really causing me to have to relying on God and to look to him for strength. I have learned that we need to help our investigators keep their eyes single to our purpose. If they don't understand it, they can't show their faith and progress in the gospel. I have learned that daily contact is crucial to help them do that. Thank you so much for all that you do President! I love you so much!

Mission Wide Harvest and Elder Bolz Visits

 Note from Mom: Elder Bolz was Eric’s trainer who was visiting the mission and was able to spend time with Eric and his companion. I am really behind lately, so I will be sending out two more letters in the next week. 

January 10th, 2012

We had the most amazing week! So many things are happening. The area that we were working in before was doing better than the first area we had chosen, but it wasn't bringing the results we were hoping for. Then Sister McNamara gave us the Jean family's new address and phone number. They are a less active 50 year old couple that Elder Bolz and I had visited before. We went there and they were very excited to see us and to hear about the new branch. Jacques is Haitian and his wife is a Caribbean islander named Suzette. They both came to church on Sunday as a result of that visit. We finally had enough Haitians to start the creole class up! There were six people: Sister Hepler, Sister Samson, Sister Pierre (she taught the class), Jacques, and two investigators (not the two I mentioned in the previous e-mail. I will explain).

But after we had that visit with the Jean family, we were told by the mission leadership that the mission was going to do a mission-wide harvest on Wednesday from 5-7. If we had appointments at that time, we were to move them. They promised us that if we were to do what we were supposed to, we would find someone that was prepared to be baptized in January. It was a great success. We harvested 6 homes, two of which came to church. The first one's name was Clair. We knocked on the door and she answered. 50 year old white woman. She asked us if we were Jehovah’s Witnesses. Then when we said no. Realizing that we were LDS missionaries, she said, "you guys won't believe what I just finished reading." She went into her house and brought out a book called Mormon Murders. It is a true story about some Mormon people who were murdered. She told us that she loved the church and that 20 years ago she was studying with the missionaries, but her husband, now ex-husband, wouldn't let her get baptized at the time. She felt like God had sent us to her. She said that she needed a Book of Mormon because she lost her old copy. I happened to be carrying one with me, which lately, I had forgotten to do. Then she asked us if she could have a Doctrine and Covenants and a Pearl of Great Price. She really wants to get one and she looked really excited as she talked about it. She also really wants to get her hands on a Joseph Smith Translation. We are going to try our best to get her all those. We  took Sister Isaacs and Sister Maurer over to her house for the first time yesterday. They are two 50-60 year old empty nesters, and are both retired, so they told us any time we need them, they will come out with us. They were awesome. Sister Isaacs taught seminary, so she knew a lot and Sister Maurer has an amazing testimony. They are awesome! Clair read the story about the Anti-nephi-lehi 20 years ago and she could still remember it without even reading about it. She has an amazing comprehension and memory. Plus she started reading the Book of Mormon since Wednesday and she has already gotten to Jacob. We invited her to be baptized on the 22nd of January, and she said that she would pray about it, but when God told her to, she would. She really wants to.

Also, We harvested Nehemiah, who lives in the same building as Clair. He came to church on Sunday and he bore his testimony at church about how God sent us to his house and he said that he would definitely come back. He is amazing!

The same street they live on NW 42 ST just off of andrews and prospect in Oakland park is amazing! We have been having so much success. News of us is spreading amongst the haitians on that street. We have contacted dozens of them and they are all friends. They said that they have seen us on this street the whole week. We love it! We have been running into a ton of Seventh-day Adventists and they seem willing to hear our message. Two of them are named Claudine and Imelda. They are two sisters that are 30 years old. They both came to church with Imelda's two children. We made a deal with her that if she came to the church this Sunday, we would go to the Seventh-day Adventist church this Saturday. So 9-12 we are going over there. It will be cool because there are a lot of Adventists on that street, and all of them probably go to the same building, so we will probably see all of them. It is always good, because even though we won't openly proselyte, we always have Haitians come to us and ask us questions about where our church is and which church we are a part of.

Imelda is interested about the Book of Mormon and she wants a copy in French now because they were talking about it in the Creole class.

We have had many interesting experiences this week. Elder Bolz visited Oswald Morancy (the recent convert who used to cook for us all the time) and he came out on an exchange with us. We visited Jener Louis, who I taught with Elder Bolz, we ran into Jener earlier in the week. It was really exciting. Jener remembers a lot of the things that we have been taught, and he is praying about baptism and he will come to church this Sunday.

Nicole and Juslaine weren't able to come to church because of some last minute emergencies. Nicole's grandma flew in, so she had to pick her up from the airport, and Juslaine's sister went to the emergency room the night before, but they are both planning on coming to church on Sunday.

Sister Maurer and Sister Isaacs wanted to feed us, but they don't have a man at either of their houses, so they took us out to the Smokey Bones' restaurant. It was delicious. We asked them about Elder Bolz coming because he was on the exchange, and they said, "the more missionaries, the better." We had an amazing time. Elder Bolz and I thought back on all of the adventures we had together.

Elder Plowman loves all of the Haitians that are in our area. They are always the first to let us in to teach them. They are always laughing and joking around. Elder Plowman has a good time even though he hasn't been able to do much this week, because we have been teaching mostly Haitians. But he has been really helpful where he can help. He is a great missionary. I will miss him a lot.

I know that the Gospel is true and that God is preparing his people to hear the Gospel.

I need to go. Time is running out on the timer.

Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons


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Hi President! We have had such an amazing week! The mission-wide we did on Wednesday from 5-7 was so inspired! We had so much success. As a result we had two people come to church, one of which got up and bore his testimony. We were so excited. The other one, who was in relief society, knew who Ezra Taft Benson was and many other things about the church. God is a God of miracles and we have met so many people, who told us afterward, that God had sent us to them. We had 5 people come to church and we were so excited.

We now know all of the members and they have the trust of the missionaries. I am sad that Elder Plowman is being transferred, but I am happy that we had such an amazing transfer together.

Thank you for all of your inspired guidance, President! I love you so much!

Love,

Elder Seamons

"I ran from door to door in order to find the one that I knew was there""

Kent and I really chuckled when we read Eric's letter to the president where he says he ran from house to house to find the "one" he knew was there. That is so much like Eric to not give up. He is amazing!

January 3, 2011

Hi Everyone! This week has been a really good week. The missionary work is picking up a lot. We have a lot of dates, but we are going to drop some of them probably. But one of them, Shaniqua, is doing really well. We will get back in contact with some of the rest who kind of dropped off the map within the last three days because of New Year's.

Yesterday, We saw Shaniqua with Hermana Camargo. Shaniqua is an 18 year old African American girl and Hermana Camargo is 22 and she is one of the branch missionaries. President Boggess wants the branch missionaries to come out with us once a week. All of the branch missionaries have super open schedules, so that won't be too hard. We met Shaniqua by going to her house and blessing it. We gave her the 15th of January as a date, and she told us that she really wanted to change and that she has wanted to get baptized. We were really excited. She overslept on Sunday because of new years, but she is coming to church on Sunday, and she is really excited about it.  She has a ton of questions that she was asking us.

We also saw Nazareth Contreras, one of the Hispanic members. She doesn't speak English at all. She is a really nice lady. Her two daughters Lady and Ilene were there. Plus her Fiance Raul was there, who isn't a member of the church. He went to church for several months at the Lauderhill ward with Hermana Contreras. He should be coming this Sunday. She said he wants to be baptized, but he has some things he wants to sort out first in his life. We blessed their home, we gave her mom a blessing, who was sick, and we ate with them. We felt the spirit in their home and I feel at home in this branch. The Contreras are from the Dominican Republic and the food they made for us was very similar to Haitian food. Hermana Contreras is coming out with us tonight to see Edwin, one of our Hispanic investigators.

We have several part-member families in the ward who have agreed to take the lessons. We are really excited about that. The work is moving forward.

There is someone named Steve Landis who is less-active in the church, but his mom is active. She is 94 years old. We gave a blessing to her husband Francis who is around the same age. He died two days later. The family and President Boggess is working together to make the arrangements for the funeral. We found the Landis family because they were going through the ward list and we found Larry Landis, who is also less active. Steve had moved, but Larry still lived in the same place. Even though he didn't like the church, he gave us Steve's information. We found out his phone number and where he currently lives. Now the relief society is able to help them and they have been to church for two weeks in a row. We are really grateful that Heavenly Father led us to them. We realize that the ward might not have found them until months after the whole ordeal. And Steve's mom, Ethel, really needed the ward. Sister Poor, our Relief Society president, has been a huge comfort to her.

We have eaten out four times at Chick-fil-a in the last week. Brother Poor likes us coming over. He gives us free food every time. They have some of the best waffle fries ever and their shakes are delicious. I usually get a large Oreo shake. Brother Vega has also been giving us Popeyes every preparation day.

We have such wonderful members that have helped us so much. The work couldn't possibly go forward without the work of the members. God has definitely guided all the members that he needed to move into the branch boundaries. All of them have the most amazing desire to do missionary work that I have ever seen. We have never seen anything like it before.

I know that God has laid out a plan for what he wants everyone to do. While you are still living on the earth, he has placed you where you are for a reason. No matter how hard you have to search to find it, it is possible. He has sent us to several people for a particular reason this week, and we had to look very hard to find them. Jesus Christ lives, and he helps us all find people so that we can learn from them how to better access his atonement and come unto him.

Well, I have to go soon. I love you all so very much!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Letter to the President:

Hi President! We had a great week this week. We really didn't have anything to do, so we just went harvesting and finding as many people as we could. We went on an exchange with the assistants last Tuesday and we learned things that would change our way of doing missionary work for the rest of our missions and our lives. We were extending dates to everyone we harvested, but we didn't meet anyone who would accept. Elder Kalemikia taught us about how to find " the one" that God had prepared to accept the message. It was getting really late and everyone else said that it was time to finish up the exchange. But I ran from door to door in order to find the one that I knew was there. At the final door we knocked on, a girl named Nicole answered and she let us in, though reluctantly at first. The spirit came into the room when we harvested, and Elder Kalemikia committed her to baptism on the 8th of January. She immediately said yes and told us how she had a new year's resolution to be "saved." She said that she was really excited. Our testimonies of how God puts us where we need to be when we need to be there grew so much from that experience. Have faith that there is someone out there, no matter how many people refuse before we can find "the one."

We gave a total of 8 dates this way this week. It has helped us find the people who are prepared and who have a desire to follow Christ. We took members to two of these investigators and it has been a really awesome experience. The branch is doing very well. The leaders are awesome and the work is going a lot better. We didn't have anyone at church, but it was just a bad Sunday for people to come because they all stayed up super late. We will get many to church this Sunday. This branch was definitely inspired. The members are by far the most willing to come out with us. The harder part is finding the investigator pool, but that soon won't be a problem.

We are going to continue to commit people to a specific baptismal date for every harvest blessing, we will use the ward to fellowship these people, and we will use the pray, plan, practice, and do pattern that you showed us. We can do this. Thank you so much President! I love you so much! We definitely couldn't have come this far with out your help.

Love,

Elder Seamons