"It has been such a pleasure and Joy to serve this whole time"

March 12, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been really great! I am learning so much for the mission. Our area doesn't have a lot of things going on. I feel like this point in the mission is more for me to learn and prepare for life. But we still had some great things happen this week:

We have been teaching Marius and he has been reading all of the pamphlets and he told us that the spirit keeps on pushing him to learn more about our message. He is a very open and humble man. On Saturday we gave Marius a tour of our church building. Marius has a car, but he wanted to make sure that he knew firsthand where the building was so that he didn't get lost. We had Sister Samson, a Haitian member, meet us nearby Marius' home and she drove us all over to the church. He was very impressed by how the church was organized and he felt the spirit. Sister Samson bore her testimony about how great of a difference the church has been in her life and she shared her conversion story. Marius told us how he loved that everything we do in the church points to Christ's atonement and resurrection. He told us that when he was a pastor in Haiti, He was over several different congregations. Someone he knew asked him to assist in starting a new church up. The church grew very rapidly and one of the co-pastors joked saying, "it's a Mormon church," because it grew so fast. The news spread and attendance in the church declined rapidly because people in Haiti have heard a lot of bad things about the church. Then the people finally realized it was an evangelical Baptist church and not a Mormon church and started going back. Marius said that he was grateful to God that we found him and were able to enlighten him and let him know what our church truly believed. He wished he could take us with him to Haiti and go to the members of that church and tell them what Mormon's truly believed about Jesus Christ. He is concerned still about being rebaptized, and about the church not being primarily in Creole, but other than that, he is doing super well. As he reads more and feels the spirit, sooner or later, he will be baptized. He committed to come to church yesterday, but because of Daylight savings time, it messed it all up. He is a Sunday school teacher at his church by sunrise Blvd. and he has Sunday school at 9:00 for 45-60 minutes. He was then planning to drive up to our church and be there around 10:00. But he went to his church and Sunday school was already over, and so he stayed at his church. We will get him next week though. His wife Fernand likes us a lot as well, but she is always up at their son's home, babysitting their granddaughter while he is at work. They are the parents of 12 children: one in Deerfield beach, north of Pompano, and eleven in Haiti. The second youngest is around my age and the youngest is 14. He showed us all the pictures. His family is very important to him.

We have been working with Jason as well. He is a CPA ( an accountant). He is the man, I don't remember if I told you about him, that was raised Jewish, but has many problems with what has he been taught. He left the religion and he even wrote a book called Leaving Judaism. He gave me a copy of it on Thursday, so I will send it home and you can read it. It is super interesting. Not that I have read it, but it has all of the stuff Jason has been telling us about, and it is pretty interesting. He has been to church seven times now. He is attracted to the Mormon church because he says that it has a greater sense of morality as well as right or wrong than do many of the other religions. Plus he says that we are the only religion, including many of the Christian sects, that will listen to him talk about how the idea of a Holy land is wrong, and that what Joshua did to those people to conquer the land is wrong. He told us that many Jews have the idea that they should have more land than each other, especially in the holy land and that it has led to many territorial issues, as well as an Idea that they are better than anyone else. He also doesn't like in the five books of Moses when the Israelites cheered when the Egyptians were drowned. He is very resentful toward the culture he has grown up in and he can't get past it. We told him that he needed to hear our message and that dwelling on what others have done to him will not help him find peace of mind. He told us he came to our church to find that. We were at his house on Thursday with Brother Manzur and he went off on all of what I just wrote for about an hour. Brother Manzur told him that he was learning Hebrew and Jason, who speaks Hebrew, told him it was a waste of time and that he doesn't feel that people should be attracted to a culture of with such nationalistic pride, such a superiority complex, and selfishness. Brother Manzur started singing a song he memorized in Hebrew from Prince of Egypt before Jason said that, and the song happened to be about how the Egyptians were drowned in the sea with their horses and chariots, but Brother Manzur has no idea. It was an uncomfortable situation. Jason is such a nice guy. He gets frustrated a lot, but never at us. He doesn't ever yell. He is probably one of my favorite investigators that we have. We all feel bad about all of the things he has gone through. He has had a lot of family difficulties because of his differing opinions. He is great though. His wife is named Maria and she is from Colombia. She is in Colombia for some things, and she said she will come and sit with us when she get's back. Jason came to church yesterday. Jason wants to move out of Florida, and he says that he is applying to a big accounting firm in Ogden, so he says if he gets a job offer there, he will accept it, and his wife has agreed. So you could all get to meet him. I pray that he will get the job offer, because I would love to see him in Utah after the mission.

We are also teaching Theresa, Sarha's best friend. Sarha is a member who is 18 and graduated, while Theresa is 15 and a freshman. Theresa loves the church and the Book of Mormon, but she goes to her mom's church some times and she forgets to read in the Book of Mormon. President Boggess ( our branch president) says that Sarha needs to help her friend more and encourage her to keep her commitments, or else she will never get baptized. We sat with Theresa and she committed to come to church with us more often. We are excited about that. I taught Theresa with Elder Bolz and Elder Rybin. My MTC teacher, Brother Nate Nelson even taught her when he was on the mission when she was 12. It is pretty interesting. She has been to church a lot and she has a very high opinion of the church and the people in it.

We are also teaching Elizabeth. She really wants to get baptized, but she is waiting until she moves out of her mom's house in a month to do it. She wants Luis to do the baptism (the Terron's are a family in the branch that are friends with Elizabeth). Elizabeth got a concussion this week when she passed out after giving blood, but she is out of the hospital and even came to church this week.

Some of the other people we are teaching are Berta (she is awesome. She is a 40 year old Haitian woman who loves joking around), Elda, and Susie (the Hillsamer's neighbor who we had a family home evening at this last week. The Hillsamer's make homemade food and it is really delicious! They are the best cooks in the branch by far.)

We went out with the Hawkshaw's this week. They are one of the snowbird couples that have been taking us around. We went out to a German restaurant (Sister Hawkshaw is German.) called the Cypress nook. It was amazing. We went their before with Elder Snyder and Owens. Elder Pearce heard me talk about it and he wanted to try it.

Sister Isaac's and Sister Maurer took us to a restaurant called Catfish Dewey, which has some really good seafood.

We have been busy, but we haven't had nearly as much as we want to happen. We are deciding to put the part member families, the member referrals, and less actives first on our list and fill the week up with those, and then on the side do our own finding, because we have been finding a ton of people that seem awesome at first, but then lose interest, aren't willing to act, get anti-ed, or some thing else like that. We need to find some more awesome investigators to teach.

We are moving into a new apartment on the 21st. This apartment will be two blocks from our church building. It will be nice because it will actually be in our area. Our current apartment is outside our area.

I feel that throughout the mission experience that Heavenly Father truly knows me and he has been giving me all the areas, companions, and experiences that I have needed. I have become so much more responsible and self-sufficient as I have been serving the Lord for two years. I am very grateful for the mission that I have had. There are many people that I have grown to love, and many seeds that have been planted. I am going to look up so many of these investigators after I finish the mission. That is one reason I am excited to finish, because I can call and contact any of my investigators/recent converts/members that I want to. I have a lot of missionary work to do still when I get home. I hope that you all can meet some of them.

Yesterday we went out with Brother Hepler, his wife is Haitian. President Boggess said that members could go out with us and we could do home teaching with them. Most of the members on the list are less active, so if we can contact any of them, President Boggess wants us to start reteaching them the missionary lessons. We went to Sister Georges' house (a Haitian woman) and we drove her over to the church. She has wanted to go to church, but she doesn't know how to get to the church and she doesn't want to get lost. She was super happy to see Brother Hepler, Elder Pearce and I again. That really lifted her spirits. We were able to attempt to contact all of the less actives on the list. Brother Hepler has come out with us many times since I have been in the Cypress Creek Branch, and he told me that I am the missionary that he has gotten to spend the most time with and has gotten the closest to. Brother Hepler is awesome! We have had some great experiences. Valerie Ortiz and how we found her was something that neither of us will ever forget.

The day that we went out with the Hawkshaw's, we went tracting. Sister Hawkshaw was translating a book by an LDS German Author into English. It is about what the Bible says about life after death and how it fits into the LDS doctrine. She met with Sheri Dew about it on Saturday, and they discussed whether it would be able to be published into English as a desert book publication. Sister Hawkshaw has some connections. I never asked her how it went. There was a woman's activity in Orlando and Sheri Dew spoke at it. But while she was revising her text, we went harvesting and we found a really awesome new street. We found a ton of receptive people. They were busy at the time, but we are seeing all of them tonight and we have enough people that it filled the whole night. It was so awesome. We got 15 fairly willing individuals who gave us their address/ phone number. We hope they will be receptive to our message.

I am learning so much from Elder Pearce. I prayed for a companion who was very knowledgeable and one who would get a hang of things really quickly so that we would be able to work together. He is a very good missionary. He knows a ton more about missionary work than I do. President Anderson told me that during my time in the missionary training center, they focused a ton on the doctrine of Chapter 3 of Preach my Gospel, but during Elder Pearce's time, they revised the MTC so that they focus a lot more heavily now on the Fundamentals of teaching, contacting, and addressing and meeting the needs of the individuals instead of the doctrine. He can teach circles around me it feels like. But I am learning a lot and he is teaching me so much on how to be a better person, teacher, and missionary.

I know that Heavenly Father knows me and that He truly has a plan for all of us, which was created long before we were born. He has guided me through the entire journey, and even despite the mistakes I make, He has guided me back and has helped me through His Son, Jesus Christ. It has been such a pleasure and Joy to serve this whole time. I will make the most of the last 3 months and two weeks that I have left.

Well, I need to go now.

Bye! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Hi President Anderson!

Thank you for teaching us about obedience. I know that as we stick with the counsel of the mission leaders, we will be better off and we will be able to accomplish our deepest desires and help more people come unto Christ as missionaries.

Elder Pearce and I are planning on working more closely with the ward and use the people the have found for us to teach rather than just going off of our own efforts alone. We know that we need to get 12-15 Harvest blessings this week. We realized that there is more than one way to do it.

Elder Pearce and I are becoming more and more unified in our teaching. I am learning so much from him and I love him a lot. We are becoming very good friends.

The district didn't have very high numbers. What I will do to improve that is by keeping contact with them often. Even Daily. I will make sure that I do that. I can't really guide them and instruct and lift up the district unless I am there by their side on a more personal and frequent level in a way that the other missionary leaders cannot.

Thank you President! I love you so much!

Love,

Elder Seamons