June 4, 2012
Hi Everyone! This week was
really eventful. We got the results for Elder Pearce's CT Scan and it turned
out okay. That is good. They found a lesion in his neck, but they said it
wasn't bad. There was another one that they couldn't tell what was going on
with it, so his parents are going to get other doctors second opinions on it.
But everything will be fine.
We continue to cook rice with
different meats and sauces and it is very delicious. Elder Pearce has taught me
some techniques for cooking, which I can use to cook for all of you when I get
home. We bought enough rice for the rest of the transfer because we cook
it on a daily basis. We bought other items so that we won't need to buy as much
on preparation day for now on.
We had a great Fast and
Testimony meeting at church today. We had two investigators at church: Jason,
and Paul. Paul is an Italian man who was raised in Brooklyn. He is very nice.
He has a 15 year-old daughter and is remarried to a Latina woman named Monica.
They are having marriage troubles and they are now separated. She has talked to
him about getting a divorce. She is a member of the church along with the
children who attend the Coconut Creek Ward. He has decided to take lessons from
the missionaries and get baptized so that he can fix their relationship and
create a happy family environment. We want to make sure that he is doing it for
his testimony and himself as well as for his family. He was in Publix the other
day and he slipped and fell and had several fractures in his ankles and his
wrists. They are very swollen and he showed us. His back is also in a lot of
pain. Despite all of that, he knew he had to come to show that he was really
committed to all of this. We got in contact with him over the phone on the 18th
of May, but because of his Plumbing job, which is on call, he has been very
busy and the accident and going and getting x-rays and doing doctors
appointments/therapy for it has taken a lot of time. He was very happy to come
to church and he said he always feels good when he comes to the church. He went
to church in the Coconut Creek building and at the Coral Springs building a few
times.
Jamie and Elizabeth, the new
recent converts both bore their testimonies yesterday. Their testimonies are
very strong and Jamie started to cry. It is so awesome that they are doing so
well. Jamie has had the new member lessons with the Branch Missionaries: Sister
Isaacs and Sister Maurer, and she has also been to Family Home Evening at her
Father-in-law's, Brother Vega's, house weekly. She has her own quad and she
reads regularly. Elizabeth is still fellowshipping Ghaelle, one of our
investigators who is 15 years old. She has also read a ton in the Book of
Mormon and given out many copies of the Book of Mormon. She has a very strong
testimony. Jason, our investigator who was raised in a Jewish education, also
went up and bore his testimony. He has been very argumentative lately so
anytime he wants to say something, we always expect him to voice his opinion on
how he doesn't agree. Lately, he has just come to church just so he can find
people who will listen to his view. But when he bore his testimony, he told how
the story he heard in Priesthood last week about the Martin and Willy handcart
company had really touched him. He loved how Brigham Young sent people after
the companies through the snow, risking their lives so that they could get
their brothers and sisters to safety. He also remarked on how he remembers
studying in a book about how the church has gone through all of the persecution
in its early days, and he admired that Brother Preston, who was teaching the
class, didn't express any bitterness towards anyone for that persecution. He
said that he felt something. Also, during Gospel Principles class, we taught
the class about the life of Jesus Christ. We now teach the Gospel Principles
class weekly for Sunday School. It is the class that all of the recent converts/investigators
ages 18 and up go to. Jason said that he admired Christ's compassion and
humility. We talked about how Christ died for us and took on all of the pain
and sins of every human being who has or ever will live on the earth. He said
that that was amazing that Christ suffered all of that. We have high hopes that
over time his heart will continue to be softened and that he will see the
positive influences in the world and in his life.
Also we taught Ghaelle
this week. We have decided that we need to get to know our investigators and
build a relationship with them to create trust so that they know that we care
about them, instead of just instantly jumping into the lesson. It has seemed to
work so much better. We did the same thing with Alex, one of our other
investigators that we found before Ghaelle. Alex is in a program, we are pretty
sure it is a half-way house or something like that. The program provides
housing and also other things. He graduates from his school on the 6th. It is a
special school where they teach skills such as how to work with air
conditioners/refrigeration units and other skills like that. He is thinking of
going into that and there are a few companies that have already accepted him on
if he chooses to pursue that route. Also, he likes medieval fantasy books. He
is a really nice guy. He is 18 years old. He is a lot more open with us now.
We also saw Rose, an 18 year
old Haitian girl who has graduated from High School. We reviewed Alma
7:11-16 with her and talked to her about the atonement. We committed her to
read the part about repentance in Gospel pamphlet, because she doesn't know
very much about repentance. She was very happy by the end of the lesson and she
loved it! We are glad that our investigators are understanding us and feeling
the spirit. We have come to realize that we need to help them be converted step
by step and not try to push baptism on them the first few lessons every time.
We don't want to scare these people off. As they feel our love and the relevance
of our message in their lives, they will want more, and we can then proceed to
give it to them.
With Rain and lightening,
getting the medical results, and some other unexpected circumstances, we
haven't been able to teach as many people as usual the last few weeks, but we
have learned a lot and we are trying to bring the gospel to some people.
Sometimes, that is all we can do.
On Friday we had an
interesting situation. We were in a less active member's home named Marsha. She
lives on nw 43 st. in Oakland Park. Before we went to her house, we went down
the road and parked our bikes on different stop signs. After that lesson we
went across the street to see Michelle and Widzernaud, and Mikael, some of our
investigators that were outside playing dominos. But they ran inside and
didn't want to talk to us. So we went down to get our bikes, but all the way at
the end of the street where our bikes were, here was a large white man with a
white braided beard and he had tattoos on his arms. He was facing our direction
and pointing straight at us and yelling. He was swearing a ton and he
yelled some thing like, "I am going to *&*^*(*& blow your
faces off!". Then a woman next to him went up to my bike and looked down
at it with a disgusted look on her face. I didn't notice any of that though. I
was focused on other things. I did notice the woman go up to my bike and Elder
Pearce told me he thought that she wanted to steal my bike. Elder Pearce said
that we should go look for one of our tough friends that could deal with them
for us. We hid around a car next to an apartment complex. Then the guy swearing
at us got in a truck and his buddy in the truck drove him down the street
towards us. We ran up the stairs and went down and through the back of the
apartment complex. We didn't have anywhere else to go, so we went back around
to the front. Meanwhile when we were running up the stairs, the white bearded
guy got out of the truck and ran up the stairs as well to find us. By that time
we had already circled around to the front of the building again. His
friend in the truck saw us and called his friend to come back down the stairs.
The guy started swearing at us and told us that we didn't have a right to put
our bikes on his property. Mine was the one locked on the stop sign on his
yard. He told us that he was going to blow our faces off us and slit
our throats. He had a knife in a sheath strapped to his left leg. He looked
like he had been in prison a few times. He also had a ton of friends watching
us from inside the house. We got our bikes off the sign and we biked away. I
wasn't going as fast as I probably should have because most of the details of
what the guy was doing are things that I didn't even notice. Elder Pearce told
me most of them. But I did see the knife on his leg though. I didn't hear the
yelling from down the street, and I didn't notice a ton of other things. It is
a good thing Elder Pearce was observant enough to pick up all of those details.
I decided that I would work on being more observant of my surroundings after
that. We are no longer permitted to go in the area where that guy lives and in
the vicinity, so we have to drop several of our investigators. Plus we aren't
going into any ghetto areas, which means many more of our investigators will
have to be dropped as well. Elder Pearce doesn't feel comfortable going into
anymore run down areas where something like that could possibly happen. That is
definitely a good thing.
Well, the work is going
great! We are trying to find some new investigators to replace the ones we had
to drop. We will continue to keep moving forward. I know that God is real and
that he is refining us every single day to shape us into the type of people he
would have us become. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that he can heal all
pain and strengthen all our weaknesses. I love you all and I will write you
next week. Bye!
Love,
Elder Seamons
Hi President! How are you
doing? Our recent converts are doing very well and we are continuing to share
the Book of Mormon with other people. We shared Alma 7:11-16 with one of our
investigators named Rose. We went through verse by verse to make sure that she
understood it and we asked her questions. She felt the spirit and by the time
we left, she was smiling and she had opened up so much. We feel her desire to
learn more about the Restored Gospel growing.
We are doing well after the
encounter with the man that threatened us and our companionship is doing great.
We are happy and we are doing our best to increase our companionship unity and
we are learning so much. I love you and I will make sure these last three weeks
of my mission experience are the best I have ever had.
Love,
Elder Seamons
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