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
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
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