" I am starting to understand how the English missionaries feel now."

March 7, 2011

Family and Friends,


We have had an interesting week, but it was really awesome! We finally got permission to baptize two kids out of three in the Petit-Frere family. The mom, Crystella, signed Morelson and Laudia's baptismal records, so now we can proceed with their baptism next week. Peterson, the youngest, hasn't sat with us a lot, so we need to teach him more and prepare him more than the other two. Plus he has been causing trouble, so his mom doesn't feel he is ready to get baptized. We are going to work with that. We are so happy about that.

Up in Coconut Creek, there were seven people baptized. The Creole missionaries baptized 4 people and the English elders baptized three. I know all of the Haitian's that were baptized, so I was so happy. Jenny Decimus, the grandchild of a recent convert got baptized, plus Itasienne, Gennger, and Jenny got baptized too. I am so happy about that, especially Gennger. She had many challenges, but she was able to overcome it and get baptized. God is truly there and he watches out for his children. No one but God and Jesus Christ alone could have possibly brought such a miracle about. Plus Itasienne, the mom, had a church she was a part of already and had a calling in, so it was hard, but she got baptized and changed churches. I am so happy that those people made it all the way to baptism!

We have been trying to find new investigators to teach, but it has been very challenging. I am starting to understand how the English missionaries feel now. When you teach Haitians, you can get so many investigators and many more people who will listen to you. But when you are dealing with everyone else, they reject you and say they already know Jesus Christ and don't need to hear from you. We spent seven hours finding one day, talking to many people and we only got one potential investigator out of it. It has been tough. But luckily, when I was on a double exchange with one of our recent converts, I found two Haitian families. I don't always knock on doors without cars in front of them, but for some reason, I was lead directly to a Haitian house with a family inside. The mom doesn't seem super interested, but her daughter seems a lot more promising. We have found a few other potential investigators as well this week and we got several new ones this week.

We have a ten-year-old investigator named Odline who loves the gospel and is one hundred percent ready to be baptized. She has been taught since Elder Rybin's first six weeks in the area, but she had problems with getting permission from her parents to get baptized. Her parents are Haitian. Her dad finally said yes this week, but he wants to get the mother's okay on it before he signs the paper. Odline's step mother lives with them, but her dad is going to get in contact with her real mother and get her approval. We are hoping to get that within the next two weeks. Odline was allowed to come to church as much as she wanted, but her dad is a taxi cab driver and is never home. I have only seen him once or twice since I have been here. He isn't able to give Odline a ride because he was never around to do it, and he didn't feel comfortable with people he didn't know giving her rides. But this week he said that he trusts us and he says that anyone who we know and is a member of the church can give her a ride. So we got the Tua'one family to give her a ride. We think they will be a ride for her to church consistently. She came to church for the first time in four months! She loved it! She enjoyed sitting with the tua'one family because they have kids and she loves kids. She is a very smart girl. She is very outgoing and has a lot of energy. She remembers stuff very well. She has read through the picture Book of Mormon all the way through and she loves it. She is almost done with it for the second time. She lost her first copy and when we gave her another one, she hugged it and was so happy. She has a ribbon that is tied on both ends and she uses that to mark her place in the book and hang it on her door knob. She reads in it every day. She loves primary. She is so ready to be baptized. Pray for Odline that her mother will have her heart softened and give her permission. We really want her to get baptized.

Yes, things are working out well with Elder Chandler. He is a really good missionary. I have learned a lot from him. I don't cook a lot in the apartment. I have a few times. Elder Chandler and Elder Bolz cook a lot for the whole apartment, so I don't really need to. It is fun with all of us living together again.

We have such awesome members here in the ward. We have one named Sister Rowe. She is Hispanic. She has a husband who isn't a member. His name is Butch. She has a lot of struggles, but she always calls us, "her angels." She always says, "how are you doing, my angels?" Last night she told us how she always loves it when her angels come and visit her. The missionaries are very special for her. She has a lot of faith and she has a great love for other people. Members make such a difference in the lives of others in helping them receive the gospel. We couldn't do our work with out them. I realize now how much of a difference one person can make.

We have been working with several of the recent converts on their Genealogy work. There is senior couple in the mission named Elder and Sister Graff, whose mission is to go around and help people get started on Genealogy work. The ward has a goal of getting every recent convert into the church to get their Genealogy done and have their family history started so they can take names into the temple within the first three months after their baptism.

I have been working on having more love for other people. I have a hard time trying to have charity. Often, many of my motives for serving others are selfish. I want to have more baptisms than others or I want to help people so that I have good stories to tell after the mission. Plus I have been feeling a little less satisfied because I am sad that I am not still in Coconut Creek. I need to have love for the people down here. Because when I have that, I will be able to do amazing things. Please pray for me to have more love for other people. It is one of the hardest things to have, but it is the most important thing anyone could ever have.

We are still hanging in there. God has put so much effort in this mission. President has insisted that each companionship get a minimum of one baptism in March and two in April. We want to do better than that, but we need help. We need to be obedient and have spiritual power so we can accomplish the work.

I know that God is watching out for the missionaries and that this work is real. The mission is doing well right now and we are hoping that we will be able to experience the tremendous success that the first presidency has prophesied for this area. We will need humility, faith, obedience, and charity to accomplish this work. I know that Jesus Christ is the son of God and I know that he is watching out for all of us. All we need to do is know and the door will be opened.

I need to go. Bye! I love you all. Please continue to write me!

Love,

Elder Seamons