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