We have had amazing experiences together and I will remember them for the rest of my life

 June 11, 2012

Hello Everyone! This week has been really good! We had several exciting things happen. There is a less active woman named Sister J, who is 83 years old. She has a small dog named Mitty that she has next to her on her chair whenever we come over. Mitty is very protective of Sister J, so when anyone comes in that she doesn't know very well, she always barks. If we get close to Sister Jarvis to hand her something, Mitty barks too. She is a very cute dog. Sister Jarvis is on an oxygen tank, but she is really mentally sharp still. We went this week and Elder and Sister Evans had set up her account on FamilySearch.org, so we were able to help her start up her family history. It is an amazing website! Elder Pearce and I both learned how to use it on the Evan's laptop. She gave us the names of her parents and their parents, but she didn't know very far back. But when we put in a few names, we were able to connect her to a huge line that had been traced back all the way to the 1200's. It was so cool. She told us she had some "Dragoo's" in her family line and we saw a few people with that last name. She said she has Indian ancestry from 5 generations back. It was super cool. I think that is where the name Dragoo came from. Many of the people had their temple work done or had all the information that they were ready to be done. We started with two names: her mother and her deceased son, who were ready to have their work done. The sheets are printed out, but they just need to be taken to the temple. We were so excited that we were able to find two names. That was great! Afterwards, she had a delicious lunch which her neighbor Blanch had prepared for us. There was potato salad, little beef and chicken sandwiches, olives, water bottles, and some large donut holes that had custard filling inside. They were so delicious! Sister J said it was okay if someone else went to the temple to get the names done for her in the temple, since she is the only member in her family and she is physically unable to go up. We took the names to the Priesthood Executive Meeting we had this Sunday, and the idea came up that I could do them since I will be going to the temple before I leave the mission. We will see if that works out. I would love to do the work for her son. She is such a cute old lady. She always calls us "the Fellas." She has had 100's of missionaries pass by her house and she has a map with the names of 192 missionaries and arrows pointing to where each missionary is from with the number next to it. We are on the map. We took a picture with her to add to her collection of pictures with the missionaries.

We saw Ghaelle on Thursday with President Boggess. We taught her about obedience and the reason why we have commandments from God as well as the Word of Wisdom. We told her how our bodies are temples and we showed her the pictures of the Fort Lauderdale temple. We had her imagine if someone took that beautiful of a place and threw trash around it and put graffiti all over it. We told her that is like our bodies. We need to keep them clean. We then showed her a Mormon.org video profile of a 18 year old, high school girl named Lisa, who we felt Ghaelle could relate to. She said she could relate to her after she saw the video. She told us that when she was in Haiti, she felt left out because all of the kids had hobbies and after school activities that they always did in their spare time. She didn't having anything and she told her mom that. She then got involved in Soccer and she loved it. When she came to the United States, she didn't get involved in that, but she got involved in her church Choir. She loves to sing. Her mom sings all the time and they sing family gatherings to bring the spirit into the room. She is very passionate about that, so we will see how helping her to prepare for baptism will go. But the good news is that Sister G, according to President Boggess, is wanting to start a branch Choir. We are excited about that. Hopefully Ghaelle can get involved in that. Also, we invited Ghaelle to the branch Picnic on Saturday. She said she would ask her mom if her and Oliver could go. Saturday the 9th happened to be Oliver's birthday. President Boggess told him we would get a cake for him if they were coming. We were excited!

We also are teaching Miriam J, an 80 year old woman whose husband died 6 weeks ago. Her daughter is a member and her husband is a bishop in Montana. Their son, Greg, is in his 30's and he was sealed in the temple and has children now. They have talked to her a lot about eternal families. She has been very lonely lately and she is very sad. When we have gone over, she looks like she is on the verge of tears at times. We took President Boggess over to see her with us. We talked about temple work and how she could be baptized and then be able to be sealed with her family. We showed her a video on Mormon.org about Jesus Christ and his atonement. She told us that she read the Plan of Salvation Pamphlet and The Family: a Proclamation to the World that we gave her and that it was very intriguing. She misses her husband so much. They met when they were 16 and they got married at 18. They have been married for 62 years. She works for Royal Carribean, a company that takes people from the airport over to the cruise ships and then boards everyone. Both her and her husband worked there together. She works at the airport and he worked over at the cruise ship docks. We invited her to the branch picnic, which we had on Saturday. I will write about that a little later. And we also invited her to come to church. She said that she really felt that she needed to go back to work on Sunday because she had missed so long after her husband died. She told us that she would come a future Sunday.

We also taught Linda, a 60 year old woman whose kids take advantage of her. She said that she has thought about moving out of the country so they can't get a hold of her. She is a big pushover and she feels guilty saying no to their demands. She is concerned for her kids because they aren't on the right track. Her daughter Angela who lives with her is into drugs. Linda lacks self confidence and has depression issues. She said that she feels like she is inadequate. She is very religious and loves Jesus Christ. She is looking to increase her faith in Jesus Christ. She said that should wants to be baptized and restart her life. We just need to get the date finalized. She is a very amazing woman. Elder Pearce found her with Elder Dean on a Fire-exchange, which is just an hour long exchange where we go harvesting to keep the "fire" going. It was a spontaneous exchange. But we were able to find Linda as a result. We invited her to the Picnic and to church. She said she would come. We were so excited.

For the picnic, there were a ton of people. We had around 90 people show up! That is really good for the branch. That was the most people that have ever showed up to any activity the branch has ever had. We had several investigators come: Alex, Ghaelle and Oliver, Thomas S came with his member wife, Sister C the less active and her three children who haven't been baptized yet, Arlene, who is Elizabeth C's friend, but she isn't ready to be taught yet, Jason W, and Miriam. We were so happy to see all of them. Linda didn't show up, which we were disappointed about. It was a great activity! Brother Schilling, a member who moved up from the Miami Lakes stake was there. We talked to him about his mission in Lima, Peru 20 years ago. He loved the activity! He also came to church, which was exciting. Oliver and Ghaelle had a blast and President Boggess was true to his word and bought a cake for Oliver. Everyone at the activity sang Happy Birthday to him. He got to take the leftovers home too :) Brother Preston, the second counselor in the branch presidency gave them a ride. He told us in the morning meeting the next day before church that he was very happy because he knew that if Oliver hadn't had a birthday cake and the activity, he wouldn't have had any celebration at all. Oliver told him that he didn't have any party for his birthday, just hanging out at home. And when they dropped Ghaelle and Oliver off, it was dark inside and their mom and dad weren't home. Alex came with the Terron's. He is 18 years old and kind of quiet. Afterwards he went with the Terron's and Brother Manzur to watch a sports game, which was awesome considering that the Terron's had never met him before, and Brother Manzur had only met him once. It was the best activity ever! Everyone had so much fun and there were a ton of people.

I have so much more to talk about, but time is almost out, so I will have to make this quick.

At church we had: Miriam, Sergio (Luis Terron's friend with whom we have been trying to meet for a long long time), the three Camelus children, and Jason. It was great. We had 95 people total who attended sacrament meeting according to Brother Hillsamer! It is amazing that the branch has grown so quickly in such a short time. It was great!

Anyway, I need to go! I love you all. I know the church is true and that Jesus is the Christ. No matter how many downs you have in your life, just keep getting up and just keep swimming! Make sure to go on Mormon.org and Make a profile. It is an amazing website and everyone should have a profile. The church is pushing to get every member to have one. Get familiar with the website. It will bless lives and it is an amazing missionary tool which you can use to help other people learn about the gospel and share your testimony.

Bye everyone!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Hi President! We had an amazing week!

The Book of Mormon has been such a powerful tool for us this week. For companionship study, we made flashcards and put scriptures from Preach My Gospel in the "Questions for the Soul" section in Chapter 5. We also added in our own. We had a lesson with one of our investigators, Linda, and we shared several scriptures that talked about faith in Jesus Christ. It brought the spirit into the lesson and the scriptures have become a powerful way of teaching these people. We also used the scriptures to teach Ghaelle about Obedience and the Word of Wisdom. As she gets more familiar with the scriptures, her love for them will grow. We saw this with Linda after she read the first two chapers of 1 Nephi. She was excited to read on and see what happened to Nephi, Laman, Lemuel, and Sam as they tried to get the plates from Laban. She realizes that the family problems that they are experiencing is very similar to what she is going through. The scriptures are coming alive to her little by little.

We did as you said and harvested 9 homes by Wednesday. We saw so many blessings. We had a branch activity and there were around 90 people there, over 10 of which were not members of the church. Many of them were our investigators. Plus many of them came to church and they are integrating very well with the branch.

Bye President! I love you! I am doing my best to endure to the end and keep going. We have had amazing experiences together and I will remember them for the rest of my life.

Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons