January 18th, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
This week we met a family of four Haitians: two cousins named Elvie and Bonnie, and their daughters Valerie and Sabrina. Elvie lost everything in the earthquake in Haiti and is now living with Bonnie. Elvie doesn't have a job right now. Bonnie loves the church. She says that Mormons are Christian people and that they look out for each other and teach good principles. She thinks very highly of us. She wants her daughter to get baptized. She knows that the church has a reputation for having high moral standards and is full of honorable people. She told us that she has a problem smoking and wants us to help her with this problem. She also told us that she doesn't believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God but rather that He was a good man who taught good principles. This is really weird for a Haitian. I have only met two other Haitians like this. One was Islamic, and the other was an atheist, but the atheist one was about 25 years old and grew up in America and spoke English perfectly. No traditional Haitian would have those beliefs. If you did, you would be an outcast. Everyone believes in Jesus Christ in Haiti, save very few people. We are going to help her gain a testimony of this. We met them last week and they came to church this Sunday. They all loved the experience, especially Sabrina and Valerie. They said that they felt it was very personal, and that they learned a whole bunch. They said it was better than Calvary Chapel, which is very renowned in southern Florida (just look up Pastor Bob. He is actually a disfellowshipped member of the church. He is very anti-Mormon.) They also loved it because it wasn't a Haitian church, which all of the Haitian youth hate because the pastor just yells the same things and it is not edifying at all. I have been to Haitian churches here and I don't like them.
We had an awesome lesson with a girl named Daline who is a freshman in high school. We have taught so many young women. Many of them should have been baptized. The problem is that their parents don't like the church or don't want them changing religions, so we have to stop teaching them because the parents tell us to go away. She is related to one of our Recent converts named Peter Septembre. She is from Gonaiv, Haiti. She speaks perfect English though. I think she has six years in the United States. She is very intelligent and always tries to find out what is true and what is not true. She recognizes that there are many different religions and that there are many people She says that she loved church and that she feels different every time we go over there. She said that she wants to be baptized but she wants to make sure that she is ready. She doesn't care if she is doing things on her own. She told us that she doesn't need anyone else's approval and that she just wants to do what is right. Her mom doesn't like us coming over, but she doesn't care what her mom thinks. We had a lesson with Sister Quintaro, one of the councilors in the Young Women's presidency in the ward and Angela, who is a young woman convert into the church. It was an awesome lesson! We are seeing her Thursday at 2:00 with the Young Women's president, Sister Thurber. The only problem at this point is that Daline is in another church, which she is willing to leave, but her Pastor called her because she missed church to come to our church and she is conflicted about which one to go to. She told us that she would pray about where to go. We also gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon to read. I think we will give her a DVD about the Restoration when we see her again.
Elder Rybin and I are doing very well. We have several potential candidates for baptism right now. Most of our investigators right now are very open-minded and have a desire to change. They have all said that they want to be baptized. Elder Rybin and I are working more closely with the ward leaders, especially the YW presidency. We are telling them about the status of all the potential baptismal candidates who are in their class. We are having someone in their presidency, along with someone in the class to come to every lesson with these investigators. We are also working on getting them to call these investigators during the week to see how they are doing. Our AMT's are becoming more effective and are not done just to get better numbers. We have also eliminated all less active stop-by's and are only do that which is part of the ward mission plan. We haven't had a baptism in this ward for a while now, but we should have one coming up shortly.
Elder Rybin and I are working well together. He has taught me so much about missionary work. We are having a lot of success in finding people. We have a ton of really awesome investigators who are very prepared to be baptized. We just need to do our part to make sure that they are being fellowshipped and prepared well.
I am doing pretty well! I feel that I am at about an eight right now. [8 out of 10]
I have to go now. Bye! I love you all so much! Continue to pray for our investigators.
Pray for
Vonnette (she needs the courage to change religions, it is a bit of a problem for her) , Elvie and her family (her, Bonnie, Sabrina, and Valerie), Antoniel, Daline, Abel, Geudy, Batony, Lionel, Sainy, Marie Vicsamar, Itasienne and her family, Ludna, and Mestine. Those are the main ones. just take a few and choose which ones. If you do no one else, make sure Daline, Vonnette, and Elvie and her family are your main prayer priority. They are our top investigators right now.
Love,
Elder Seamons
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