June 18, 2012
Hi Everyone! We had another
amazing week. I don't even know where to start off this week. We had two people
at church this week: Linda and Miriam. Miriam's daughter, Sister W has been
keeping in contact with us from Montana. Sister W told us that the week
before, her Mom, Miriam, had seriously talked to her about being baptized.
She has decided to go through with it. Her son-in-law, Ted, will be performing
the baptism. She will be going on vacation mid-July to see her other daughter
Sue, who is also meeting with the missionaries in Connecticut. Then in August
she will be going to Montana, where she will be baptized. They are all very
excited. She has felt so much peace as she has been coming to the church and
learning of the Gospel. It has been 7 weeks since her husband passed away. She
says that this is the first social thing she has done in a long time because of
his death, and also because of his health before he passed away. She always had
to watch him. She also has wanted to become more involved in church for a very
long time, but her husband wasn't a religious kind of guy at all. She is really
enjoying herself and we have seen her grow on this spiritual journey. Sister Warner
told us that she has noticed a difference in Miriam. She has a cheerfulness and
a joy in her voice that wasn't there before she met with us. We are all really
happy for Miriam. We feel the presence of the Spirit very strong in our lessons
with her.
We also taught Linda. This
week she told us that she would come to church, so we scheduled a chapel tour
with her. Us and the Sommerfeldts met her at our chapel, and we showed her the
different rooms, told her what she should expect, and why it was so important
and relevant to her in her life. She started to cry during the tour and she
told us she didn't know why. We told her it was the Spirit that she was
feeling. She was really excited. We asked her what she was looking for during
this spiritual journey. She said she was looking for a church where she could
feel loved and cared about and where she could feel uplifted and instructed in
what she needed. We testified to her that she would find all that as she
continued to meet with us and come to church. It was a powerful experience. We
played some hymns with her and really told her how much we loved and cared
about her. They both loved church on Sunday and it was great. Linda had to
leave right after sacrament meeting, but it was still a wonderful experience for
her.
We went with Brother Michael
Manzur on Friday from 1:30 to 7:00 and it was awesome! He is a spiritual giant
with the faith to move mountains and some amazing miracles happened! First we
saw Jener, an investigator we had for a long time. Brother Manzur was able to
relate to him and he is going to be fellowshipping him and reading with him
once or twice a week in the Book of Mormon between our visits with him. After
that we went a few streets down and we were headed to the C family's
house, a part member family. On our way, it was pouring down rain. Brother
Manzur stopped the car and had the impression to turn around. Though both Elder
Pearce and I didn't notice, there was a man with a white beard with a wheel
chair and a cane. He was in shorts and a T-shirt and he was under some
trees. He walked very slowly and it was painful for him. Brother Manzur found
out that his name was Owen Lee B, and we helped him get his wheel chair in the
back of Brother Manzur's van and he hopped on in. We learned he was a retired
navy seal who served in the Vietnam War. He was very kind and extremely
grateful for the ride we gave him to his house, which was a minute 30 seconds
in car from where he was. As soon as we pulled up, the hard rain turned to golf
ball sized hail. In Florida! It was so crazy and we couldn't believe it.
Brother Manzur said a prayer that God would calm the storm and help us be safe.
He then proceeded to give Owen Lee Brown a blessing. I was in the passenger
seat and Brother Manzur was driving, so we turned around in our seats and all
three of us, after Brother Manzur anointed, placed our hands on his head. It
was such a powerful experience. Elder Pearce and I both had the thought come
into our heads during the blessing that the hail would stop as soon as we
finished blessing Owen. As soon as Brother Manzur said amen, the hail turned
into rain and within 10 seconds after that, it calmed to a drizzle soft enough
to allow us to get out of the car and get Owen back into his house. Owen really
needed that blessing because he was in pain when he walked and we know that God
put us there so that we could bless him at that time. We are grateful that
Brother Manzur was listening to the spirit and he had the faith to allow that
miracle to happen. It really demonstrated the power of Priesthood service to
me. We didn't teach a lesson, we didn't invite Owen to be baptized, we didn't
do much. Just blessed him. I don't know if we will ever see him again, but we
know that we helped save him from being seriously injured from the hail or possibly
even dying. And we were able to show him God's love. It was a powerful
experience that I will never forget. God has blessed us so much.
Also we saw the Cs'
directly after that. Sister C is a less active who lives with her less
active brother. She has four children, three of which are ages, 8, 11, and 12.
We are going to be teaching them. She would like them to hear the lessons and
be baptized. We will see how they feel about that. But when we went to her house,
her 1-2 year old baby had a 103 fever and was screaming. When we were
on the phone with her that morning, I was thinking, "wow, he doesn't sound
very happy." So we offered to come over and give him a blessing. It was
also a powerful experience and we knew that the spirit was there and they all
felt our love for them as well as God's love for them. Wilson, her brother,
agreed to come to church and Brother Manzur ran home quickly and brought him
back a white shirt and two ties for him to wear on Sunday. His Mom, Maricia,
who only speaks Creole, is super nice and she loves it when we come by. She told
us that she would come this Sunday. Unfortunately they didn't come. But we will
continue to work with that family. We love them a lot.
After that we went to see
Andreen, Elder Pearce's Sister. She is going through a hard time and she is
struggling a lot. Her daughter, Ladreen is super cute and she is really smart.
She can count to one hundred by 2's, 5's, and 10's. She can also play
games on the computer and get on the internet browser. She is only five years
old. She can spell her name and spell out all of the numbers out one to one
hundred. For example, "T-H-R-E-E is 3." Andreen had her do that for
about 10 minutes. It was super cute. She wants a good environment for her
daughter. Plus Ladreen told us that she didn't want to go to public school
because she didn't want to turn into a "bad girl." So Brother Manzur
gave her a blessing. We also gave Andreen a blessing. It was a super powerful
experience. Andreen felt a difference by the end of the visit. She is still
acting the same way as before we had the visit though. We were hoping to see
more of a change in her. We realize that change will take time. We
just need to be there to help her. We haven't been going through much of the
missionary lessons with her. We have been really talking about faith and
repentance and nothing else. We were so grateful for
Brother Manzur because we know that we couldn't have a day like that if it
weren't for him. He had the faith and the means of transportation to make that
possible. God really place him in our path.
We went to the Sawgrass
Recreation Center today. We got to hold baby alligators, boa constrictors, and
we got to see panthers, leopards, and other animals. Plus we had a picnic with
the Sommerfeldts afterwards. It was great!
Well. I have to go. Bye! I
will write you next week!
love,
Elder Seamons
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