March 26, 2012
This area is really amazing. We have transfers in 9 days. We are really hoping that neither of us is being transferred. We just hope that we can stay together and make everything in this area work really well.
We both decided after talking awhile that part of the reason that are investigators aren't doing as well is because we haven't been planning and preparing for our lessons as effectively as we could. Elder Pearce taught me some of the things that they taught him in the missionary training center about planning. We have decided that their is no point in teaching unless we plan the best we can, so we are going to make sure that every person we teach is properly prepared for before the day is over.
We have been trying to help out our investigators better and we have come up with several ideas of what to do. We are not going to waste time on people who are not willing to keep their assignments. I tend to keep investigators a long time and try to help them out, but it is sometimes better to drop them. We just dropped many people in the last few weeks and we have only the really willing ones left. Elder Gonzalez told us when he came to the mission,"We don't abandon investigators, we just put them in the area book. :) "
We also have a talent show in the branch. Elder Pearce is planning on singing, and I am playing the piano to accompany him. We will see how it turns out.
We are a block away from the church. We got permission to e-mail in the church using the clerk's office computer. We walked here.
We are focusing less actives, our most progressing investigators, other names that the ward council gives us, getting people to the new English class that is starting this week, getting people to the talent show on Friday, and getting people to general conference. We are really excited! This next week will be great.
I bought some shrimp, which we will put with rice, green beans, and some other stuff. We will cook that today. We made a goal to not do microwaveable meals for a week. Elder Pearce has been telling me that he feels like he doesn't have a lot of energy and he feels that a contributing factor is the way he has been eating. I haven't been eating very well either. We won't go into that. But we will try to eat better.
By the way, I got hit by a car on Monday. I was on Commercial Blvd. going straight across while someone a side street wanted to turn right. It wasn't at a stop light. The person was stopped and I was starting to cross and then they shot forward because they were looking to make sure that cars weren't coming, but they didn't look for bikers. They shot in front of me when I was entering into the intersection, and I slammed into the front right corner of the car. Elder Pearce said he saw that I had the right of way. The lady didn't even get out of her car. I got out of her way, she turned stopped, rolled down the back window, asked if I was okay, told me to be more careful, and drove off. Elder Pearce got her license plate number, but the church legal department doesn't want to have me contact her because the damage wasn't severe enough. My front tire was really bent and my brakes were knocked out of place, but it wasn't a huge cost. The mission took care of it. I went to an urgent care center to get checked out, and they told me I was fine. Florida drivers never give bikers or pedestrians the right of way. When we are at lights and we push the button and the light flashes for us to go across, we always have to check. I have almost got hit so many times. Even when it is clearly the right of way of the pedestrian and they know it, they still cut in. It is very a hard to be patient with these people. But I have learned not to let it bother me as much.
Elder Koleber also got hit by a car a few days after that. I think most of my companions have been hit by a car sometime on their missions. But he is fine.
We had an interesting week. We moved out on Wednesday. We are a block away from the ocean, so we went jogging two mornings in a row and took pictures at the pier. We also found a Jamaican restaurant that is really good. Sister Maurer took us out to eat at an Italian Restaurant named Umberto's just west of the intercoastal. After our lesson with Elizabeth, Sister Terron gave us Mexican food. It was really good! Elizabeth has a strong testimony and is ready to be baptized, but she is telling us that he Mom doesn't like the church very much, and their relationship isn't doing well now, so she doesn't want to ask her mom in case it makes things worse. Plus she hasn't been very willing in the past. We talked to her about faith and how no miracles can be performed without it. We saw her at church, which was good. We will see what she does with her mom. Brother Terron knows the mom, since the Terrons are friends with Elizabeth, so Brother Terron wants us to go with him to their house and talk to the mom. Elizabeth has to talk to her mom too though. If they are available, we will do that.
Just to answer Dad's question, Marius isn't currently a minister as a profession. Since his church is in Haiti, he goes to another church and has a lower position. He does gardening outside houses and apartment buildings.
We had five investigators and two less-active members at church: the investigators were: Jason and Maria (his wife from Colombia. She got back from a trip to Colombia on Wed.), Elizabeth, and Marius and his wife Fernand. The two less active members were both Haitian (Malene and Jeanne ). We were so excited to see Marius, and even more excited to see his wife Fernand. Marius went and bore his testimony since yesterday was Fast Sunday because of conference, and I translated. It was so great! They both said that they are coming to General Conference on Saturday. We will take them to Coconut Creek because more Haitians will be there and they can see that we have many Haitians in the church. Maria said that she wants us to come and leave a blessing on their home. She has started to read the Book of Mormon.
We had a really weird experience. We were at Berta's house and she was saying the prayer. Brother Hawkshaw was with us. She was praying very loud and intensely. But I could have sworn that she spoke some things that didn't sound like Creole and even though Haitians are very passionate when they pray, it didn't seem right. All three of us thought it was some voodoo thing and Elder Pearce and I felt a dark presence. We both felt very very strange. We called President Anderson and he told us to get a blessing. We called Elder Koleber and Elder Gray to come over. As they were traveling to our apartment, we were singing hymns and things to bring the spirit. It was helping, but it still didn't feel complete. Elder Pearce lifted his arm to the square and commanded the evil spirits to depart. Instantly I felt this huge weight lift off of my chest and I felt peace. It really gave me a greater testimony of the power of the priesthood. I am so glad that he had done that before in Jamaica, because I had no idea. President Anderson told us that Satan loves to make God's servants feel uneasy and miserable. It is so nice to know that Jesus Christ has all power.
I know that the gospel is true. I will talk to you next week!
Love,
Elder Seamons
Note From Dad:
I liked Eric’s comment last week when he said that Jesus asked us to be a light to the world, not the spotlight. I asked him if he had heard that idea from someone or thought of it himself. Here is what he said:
I didn't come up with it. The spirit did. I didn't hear it from anyone in particular though. It just hit me one day as I was thinking about it.
Letter to the President:
Hi President! We are doing really well. Our district has increased the number of blessings that we got this week. We have been focusing a lot on people that are progressing and putting the rest to the side. Elder Koleber was hit by a car this week, but he is doing well. Elder Grey is very happy and he is getting involved in the missionary work. Elder Piarrotti is doing well and so is Elder Wood. Elder Pearce and I have been working on planning effectively for our investigators. We decided that we haven't been able to hit the standards because the fundamentals of planning have been very lacking in our companionship.
I love you President! Take care! Bye!
Love,
Elder Seamons
Talent show photos
Elder Seamons and Elder Pearce with Brother Vega
Elder Pearce and Seamons with Brother and Sister Somerfelt
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