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
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
"My first encounter with voodoo" "I was scared."
January 10, 2011
This week has been very interesting. Some of it was really good, and some of it didn't turn out so well.
On the 5th we had a really horrible day at first. Elder Rybin was sick with a cold, We had all of our appointments fall through. We had three appointments fall through and all the referrals we stopped by and called didn't answer their phones at all. Luckily one of the appointments we saw later. Her name is Jyna Jean-Fransois. She has been a member of 5 years now. The last time I heard anything from her was the beginning of last transfer when she was in a hospital in Fort Lauderdale and we sent Elder Rybin and Elder Steele to go give her a blessing. We did see Vonnette though. Vonnette has read the whole book of First Nephi and she understands it so well. She has also read the talk the President Monson gave on Charity, which I gave to her before the transfer started. She loved the talk.
Dabinsky got out of the Hospital. Dabinsky is Mona Jean Fransois's son who is 16. She is a recent convert that my MTC teacher Nate Nelson baptized. The day of transfers she called us and told us that her son was in the hospital. I couldn't understand everything she said. Later we found out that he had been stabbed in the heart and that he was bleeding all over the street. Their house is two streets over from the hospital. God really did save his life. They said that if he had been five minutes later to the hospital, he would have died. It is also a miracle that he recovered so quickly. He was stabbed on the 28th of December and he got out on the 8th of January. We visited his three or four times during his recovery in the hospital. Mona wants to move out of that neighborhood after the whole incident. The scary part is that he was stabbed on the street that Mona lives on. He was stabbed a house or so down from where Jyna lives, which is on the same street. Luckily that has not been known to happen very often. Mona is so awesome. She is so nice and she is always asking us to come over and to pray for her. She has so much faith.
I also had an extremely weird experience this week. It was my first encounter with voodoo. I was scared. There is this investigator named Odeline has been visited by the missionaries since May when Elder Bolz and Elder Anderson started visiting with her. All of the family is very cool and likes us a lot. The Mom is just super stubborn. She loves us too, but she isn't interested in the Gospel and she just doesn't pay attention. She sometimes listens, but she is a goof off and she just doesn't care. She doesn't go to church and she isn't even that into religion at all, so we are puzzled as to why she won't let Odeline get baptized. Onide loves us. The other elders found out that she was into voodoo back in Haiti. She used to go to church, but then she got into voodoo and stopped going. Well, we thought that we should focus the lesson on Onide, the mom. We were asking questions to get to know her. We asked the question, "Onide, How is your relationship with God." Then she burst into tears and bent over and put her hands on her face. Elder Rybin and I thought that she might have a hard past and that she was going to go into it and that we finally got her to tell the missionaries. But then she started doing weird stuff. She was stomping her feet and hitting herself, and then she was trying to get away from everyone and she ran into her room. She came out and looked like she was in a complete trance. She was bobbing her shoulders up and down and humming songs. Odeline, Isenada who is her friend and is a recent convert, and the rest of the family said that they were songs that dealt with Voodoo. Onide wasn't even responding when we were talking to her and she would hum, do weird motions, and she would pace slowly around the room. She was leaning up against the wall at one point. She even tried to go outside. It is really hard to explain, but she wasn't pretending. Isenada was friends with this family since she was in Haiti and she said that Onide has done this for years ever since she got into voodoo. Odeline said that she had friends whose parents were into voodoo and had similar things happen. They would lose control and go into fits and hit themselves, cry, scream, and do other weird things. Onide has this happen every year during certain months and it has been a problem that they have dealt with since they have been young. Marie, the youngest, was so scared and was starting to cry. The rest of the family just shrugged it off because they had seen it so much growing up. Elder Rybin and I tried to give her a blessing, but she wouldn't stand still long enough. She sat down on the couch and stayed put for a tiny bit and we started to give the blessing, but then she started freaking out and stood up and tried to get away. We started doing the blessing and followed her and did it while we were walking, but then she got away and ran outside. It was super weird. We left and went to our next appointment. We had a lesson with one of Isenada's friends and she was helping us teach him. We asked her what happened. She said that Onide came around and she asked why we weren't there anymore and she didn't believe them when they said what happened. I don't know why she doesn't. We don't know what to do about the whole Voodoo issue. That isn't the biggest problem. The problem is that she can change, but she isn't very willing right now. We don't know how to help Onide. She has been so difficult and we haven't had success in helping her. We decided to do a morning study where we turned to a part in the book of Mormon and read until we found an answer as to what we should do to help her. Turned to a random part in the Book of Mormon and started to read. I read Alma 59-60, and then I turned to another random part and read Mosiah 27. We received some cool revelation about how we can help her. We decided that we need to bring people over who can help her and be her friend, some of them who have had the Voodoo problem and can help her through it. We also read a scripture about how we can pray with great faith that someone can be brought to knowledge of the truth. We are going to pray that she has an experience that will bring her the gospel and help her realize that she needs to change.
I am learning so much on the mission. I can't even begin to write my experiences down. I will just do my best and let God do the rest. I know that what I am teaching is true and I know that Jesus Christ can help me solve any problem and that as long as we are together, nothing can stop us. It has been very hard, but I am loving it. I just hope that I can make as much change on the mission as I desire and that I can help others come unto Christ.
I have to go now. Bye! I love you!
Love,
Elder Seamons
This week has been very interesting. Some of it was really good, and some of it didn't turn out so well.
On the 5th we had a really horrible day at first. Elder Rybin was sick with a cold, We had all of our appointments fall through. We had three appointments fall through and all the referrals we stopped by and called didn't answer their phones at all. Luckily one of the appointments we saw later. Her name is Jyna Jean-Fransois. She has been a member of 5 years now. The last time I heard anything from her was the beginning of last transfer when she was in a hospital in Fort Lauderdale and we sent Elder Rybin and Elder Steele to go give her a blessing. We did see Vonnette though. Vonnette has read the whole book of First Nephi and she understands it so well. She has also read the talk the President Monson gave on Charity, which I gave to her before the transfer started. She loved the talk.
Dabinsky got out of the Hospital. Dabinsky is Mona Jean Fransois's son who is 16. She is a recent convert that my MTC teacher Nate Nelson baptized. The day of transfers she called us and told us that her son was in the hospital. I couldn't understand everything she said. Later we found out that he had been stabbed in the heart and that he was bleeding all over the street. Their house is two streets over from the hospital. God really did save his life. They said that if he had been five minutes later to the hospital, he would have died. It is also a miracle that he recovered so quickly. He was stabbed on the 28th of December and he got out on the 8th of January. We visited his three or four times during his recovery in the hospital. Mona wants to move out of that neighborhood after the whole incident. The scary part is that he was stabbed on the street that Mona lives on. He was stabbed a house or so down from where Jyna lives, which is on the same street. Luckily that has not been known to happen very often. Mona is so awesome. She is so nice and she is always asking us to come over and to pray for her. She has so much faith.
I also had an extremely weird experience this week. It was my first encounter with voodoo. I was scared. There is this investigator named Odeline has been visited by the missionaries since May when Elder Bolz and Elder Anderson started visiting with her. All of the family is very cool and likes us a lot. The Mom is just super stubborn. She loves us too, but she isn't interested in the Gospel and she just doesn't pay attention. She sometimes listens, but she is a goof off and she just doesn't care. She doesn't go to church and she isn't even that into religion at all, so we are puzzled as to why she won't let Odeline get baptized. Onide loves us. The other elders found out that she was into voodoo back in Haiti. She used to go to church, but then she got into voodoo and stopped going. Well, we thought that we should focus the lesson on Onide, the mom. We were asking questions to get to know her. We asked the question, "Onide, How is your relationship with God." Then she burst into tears and bent over and put her hands on her face. Elder Rybin and I thought that she might have a hard past and that she was going to go into it and that we finally got her to tell the missionaries. But then she started doing weird stuff. She was stomping her feet and hitting herself, and then she was trying to get away from everyone and she ran into her room. She came out and looked like she was in a complete trance. She was bobbing her shoulders up and down and humming songs. Odeline, Isenada who is her friend and is a recent convert, and the rest of the family said that they were songs that dealt with Voodoo. Onide wasn't even responding when we were talking to her and she would hum, do weird motions, and she would pace slowly around the room. She was leaning up against the wall at one point. She even tried to go outside. It is really hard to explain, but she wasn't pretending. Isenada was friends with this family since she was in Haiti and she said that Onide has done this for years ever since she got into voodoo. Odeline said that she had friends whose parents were into voodoo and had similar things happen. They would lose control and go into fits and hit themselves, cry, scream, and do other weird things. Onide has this happen every year during certain months and it has been a problem that they have dealt with since they have been young. Marie, the youngest, was so scared and was starting to cry. The rest of the family just shrugged it off because they had seen it so much growing up. Elder Rybin and I tried to give her a blessing, but she wouldn't stand still long enough. She sat down on the couch and stayed put for a tiny bit and we started to give the blessing, but then she started freaking out and stood up and tried to get away. We started doing the blessing and followed her and did it while we were walking, but then she got away and ran outside. It was super weird. We left and went to our next appointment. We had a lesson with one of Isenada's friends and she was helping us teach him. We asked her what happened. She said that Onide came around and she asked why we weren't there anymore and she didn't believe them when they said what happened. I don't know why she doesn't. We don't know what to do about the whole Voodoo issue. That isn't the biggest problem. The problem is that she can change, but she isn't very willing right now. We don't know how to help Onide. She has been so difficult and we haven't had success in helping her. We decided to do a morning study where we turned to a part in the book of Mormon and read until we found an answer as to what we should do to help her. Turned to a random part in the Book of Mormon and started to read. I read Alma 59-60, and then I turned to another random part and read Mosiah 27. We received some cool revelation about how we can help her. We decided that we need to bring people over who can help her and be her friend, some of them who have had the Voodoo problem and can help her through it. We also read a scripture about how we can pray with great faith that someone can be brought to knowledge of the truth. We are going to pray that she has an experience that will bring her the gospel and help her realize that she needs to change.
I am learning so much on the mission. I can't even begin to write my experiences down. I will just do my best and let God do the rest. I know that what I am teaching is true and I know that Jesus Christ can help me solve any problem and that as long as we are together, nothing can stop us. It has been very hard, but I am loving it. I just hope that I can make as much change on the mission as I desire and that I can help others come unto Christ.
I have to go now. Bye! I love you!
Love,
Elder Seamons
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
"I think this transfer will change my entire life."and "I am having to grow into a big boy."
Note from Mom- This is an interesting letter to read. If you know Eric, you know that he is a perfectionist and takes everything hard and expects that he needs to do it all. We will caution him to take it down a few notches and realize that this is normal for missionaries to be overwhelmed when they are suddenly responsible for more things and that he doesn't have to do everything perfectly. I expect in time, he will learn to balance things more, as all of us have as we have gotten older and gotten more complex things to deal with. It didn't help that he, being an anxious person, had to go through the experience of someone accidentally taking his backpack and not finding it for a week.
January 5th, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
This has been such a humbling week for me. It was one of the hardest I have ever had. It was hard in a different way than the last trouble I had. I realize how much I relied on Elder Bolz and Elder Anderson. I let them take the front wheel in many areas. Now I am the one with the most experience in my area. I know how to get to several places from memory, but that was just because I remembered which places to turn at from a certain starting point. I found out that from other starting places, I was just as lost as Elder Rybin. I also realized that I relied on the GPS so much that I just forgot certain places we went to if we didn't go to it to many times. I also realized how many members of the ward that I knew. I didn't go up and talk to any ward members to get to know them. I just listened to the conversations that Elder Bolz and Elder Anderson had with ward members they already knew. I am only familiar with the ones we use a lot, and I don't know where several of those people's houses are. I realize now that I need to get to know everyone, memorize the area and create a complete map of the main roads in my head. I worked hard on trying to learn the Gospel and I focused on the investigators a lot, but I let Elder Bolz and Elder Anderson do many of the planning details. I would make suggestions of people who I thought we should see, but I wasn't thinking about how many miles it would take for all of the appointments during the day or if we would have enough time to get between two appointments. Wow, I have made so many mistakes in this regard. If I could take back the last four months, I would have done those so differently. It has been so hard. I have been so discouraged.
Elder Rybin is such a good teacher! He is really good at teaching "people and not lessons." He really asks people thought-provoking questions and searches and gets to know who they are. He tries really hard to remember all of the details about them. He is a very good missionary. He is very good at balancing all of the important aspects of missionary work. He has a very bright future ahead of him.
There are many things that I neglect just because I am not good at keeping everything in focus. I realize now that I need to put myself out and just press forward. I have felt so low and inadequate these past few days. This is the biggest stretch of my skills and abilities that I have ever had. I really need to grow up and start doing things for myself. I took many things for granted. I just knew that certain things worked out without me putting effort into it and I went on. I need to focus on every aspect of missionary work, including the logistical things like planning out where I am going and plan out when I am going to take the mission car in to be fixed.
Elder Rybin didn't voice it out loud, but there were several things that he was surprised that we didn't do. For example, the car we had had never been taken in to be checked, nor had we done a super deep cleaning of the apartment. Many times we just left certain things the way they are. I just did what Elder Bolz and Elder Anderson told me too. It is not totally their fault. I should have thought about certain details more. I know one of the reasons I am here in Coconut Creek and why I have Elder Rybin as my companion. He has taught me so much this week! I had to be in the same area so that I couldn't rely on someone else leading me around. I needed to step from behind the backs of the people who have been leading me and taking care of me for so long and face the problems and challenges of life with my talents and abilities. I am having to grow up a lot. I think this transfer will change my entire life. I have had to face up to many things which I didn’t fully need to before. I had many skills before which would help me have success, but I wasn't fully ready to live completely on my own with no one managing any part of my living conditions. Mom, even in college I had you to help me with signing up for classes and housing. Now I have the Mission office to take care of many of those negotiations. I am having to learn to deal with things on my own. Well, I am never truly dealing with things on my own, because God is with me, but I am having to learn to use the talents that he gave to me to deal with those challenges. I am having to grow into a big boy. I thought I already was to a certain extent, but I now know that I have a several things to learn before that happens.
I get super nervous when I wake up at 5:45 and realize that in 45 minutes, we will be starting the new day. It just gives me a lot of anxiety. I don't feel on top of everything right now. I feel like there is so much for me to handle. I don't feel l like I am being a very good missionary right now. It has been a rough week.
After the transfers meeting, we had a small luncheon and we got to socialize with the other missionaries. I put my backpack in the back of the cultural hall. Afterwards, I couldn't find it in the place where I had put it. I looked everywhere in the cultural hall and in the chapel, in case I had left it there somehow. We went to the mission office and sent out a mass text to the whole mission about it. I told President and Sister Hale and the assistants about the bag. I haven't had the bag for a whole week. That has also been adding to my anxiety and discouragement. Sister Hale spent an hour and a half at the Plantation church building where the event took place and looked in every area of the church with her kids and a family friend. She got the keys from the bishop so that she could check in his office too, just in case. She found nothing. She says she has been praying about my bag a lot because it has a lot of important items in it. They then sent out another mass text about it again. Then a missionary called our cellphone and said that he had accidentally picked up that bag, thinking that it was his companions, which was the same type of backpack (I think his companion had his bag, so the other one was left unnoticed somewhere.) The senior couples go down south a lot, so they are going to go to the Miami lakes south apartment to get the bag. That was a great thing for me! I am so grateful to Sister Hale for her efforts.
Sorry, but I have to go.
Keep on praying for me.
Bye!
Love,
Elder Seamons
January 5th, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
This has been such a humbling week for me. It was one of the hardest I have ever had. It was hard in a different way than the last trouble I had. I realize how much I relied on Elder Bolz and Elder Anderson. I let them take the front wheel in many areas. Now I am the one with the most experience in my area. I know how to get to several places from memory, but that was just because I remembered which places to turn at from a certain starting point. I found out that from other starting places, I was just as lost as Elder Rybin. I also realized that I relied on the GPS so much that I just forgot certain places we went to if we didn't go to it to many times. I also realized how many members of the ward that I knew. I didn't go up and talk to any ward members to get to know them. I just listened to the conversations that Elder Bolz and Elder Anderson had with ward members they already knew. I am only familiar with the ones we use a lot, and I don't know where several of those people's houses are. I realize now that I need to get to know everyone, memorize the area and create a complete map of the main roads in my head. I worked hard on trying to learn the Gospel and I focused on the investigators a lot, but I let Elder Bolz and Elder Anderson do many of the planning details. I would make suggestions of people who I thought we should see, but I wasn't thinking about how many miles it would take for all of the appointments during the day or if we would have enough time to get between two appointments. Wow, I have made so many mistakes in this regard. If I could take back the last four months, I would have done those so differently. It has been so hard. I have been so discouraged.
Elder Rybin is such a good teacher! He is really good at teaching "people and not lessons." He really asks people thought-provoking questions and searches and gets to know who they are. He tries really hard to remember all of the details about them. He is a very good missionary. He is very good at balancing all of the important aspects of missionary work. He has a very bright future ahead of him.
There are many things that I neglect just because I am not good at keeping everything in focus. I realize now that I need to put myself out and just press forward. I have felt so low and inadequate these past few days. This is the biggest stretch of my skills and abilities that I have ever had. I really need to grow up and start doing things for myself. I took many things for granted. I just knew that certain things worked out without me putting effort into it and I went on. I need to focus on every aspect of missionary work, including the logistical things like planning out where I am going and plan out when I am going to take the mission car in to be fixed.
Elder Rybin didn't voice it out loud, but there were several things that he was surprised that we didn't do. For example, the car we had had never been taken in to be checked, nor had we done a super deep cleaning of the apartment. Many times we just left certain things the way they are. I just did what Elder Bolz and Elder Anderson told me too. It is not totally their fault. I should have thought about certain details more. I know one of the reasons I am here in Coconut Creek and why I have Elder Rybin as my companion. He has taught me so much this week! I had to be in the same area so that I couldn't rely on someone else leading me around. I needed to step from behind the backs of the people who have been leading me and taking care of me for so long and face the problems and challenges of life with my talents and abilities. I am having to grow up a lot. I think this transfer will change my entire life. I have had to face up to many things which I didn’t fully need to before. I had many skills before which would help me have success, but I wasn't fully ready to live completely on my own with no one managing any part of my living conditions. Mom, even in college I had you to help me with signing up for classes and housing. Now I have the Mission office to take care of many of those negotiations. I am having to learn to deal with things on my own. Well, I am never truly dealing with things on my own, because God is with me, but I am having to learn to use the talents that he gave to me to deal with those challenges. I am having to grow into a big boy. I thought I already was to a certain extent, but I now know that I have a several things to learn before that happens.
I get super nervous when I wake up at 5:45 and realize that in 45 minutes, we will be starting the new day. It just gives me a lot of anxiety. I don't feel on top of everything right now. I feel like there is so much for me to handle. I don't feel l like I am being a very good missionary right now. It has been a rough week.
After the transfers meeting, we had a small luncheon and we got to socialize with the other missionaries. I put my backpack in the back of the cultural hall. Afterwards, I couldn't find it in the place where I had put it. I looked everywhere in the cultural hall and in the chapel, in case I had left it there somehow. We went to the mission office and sent out a mass text to the whole mission about it. I told President and Sister Hale and the assistants about the bag. I haven't had the bag for a whole week. That has also been adding to my anxiety and discouragement. Sister Hale spent an hour and a half at the Plantation church building where the event took place and looked in every area of the church with her kids and a family friend. She got the keys from the bishop so that she could check in his office too, just in case. She found nothing. She says she has been praying about my bag a lot because it has a lot of important items in it. They then sent out another mass text about it again. Then a missionary called our cellphone and said that he had accidentally picked up that bag, thinking that it was his companions, which was the same type of backpack (I think his companion had his bag, so the other one was left unnoticed somewhere.) The senior couples go down south a lot, so they are going to go to the Miami lakes south apartment to get the bag. That was a great thing for me! I am so grateful to Sister Hale for her efforts.
Sorry, but I have to go.
Keep on praying for me.
Bye!
Love,
Elder Seamons
"I am staying in Coconut Creek!"
Be sure to check out the Christmas card at the bottom!
Tuesday December 28th
Hi Everyone! I am staying in Coconut Creek! I am very excited. Elder Anderson, my companion is getting transferred though. I am very sad about that. I heard from Elder Bolz he is staying, but Elder Rybin is being transferred. Elder Anderson is not training. We are all pretty certain that my next companion will be Elder Rybin. I am very excited about that. He was in my MTC district. We are going to be so busy this transfer. We are getting this Ward Mission Plan mobilized. We have slacked off so much when it comes to working with the ward leaders. That will change very soon. I have several things that I am hoping to change.
We are going to make sure that we keep in contact with the auxiliaries so much more than we have. They are supposed to know all of our investigators by name. We have been so bad at that.
There is no unity between the Haitian and White parts of the ward because of the language barrier. They don't communicate at all. I want to bring up in PEC the idea of starting a Creole class for the English members, so that they can learn how to communicate with the Haitian members. We might even call him this week about that. That would change a lot of things if the English Members started reaching out to the Haitian members better.
I feel so overwhelmed trying to take over this area. I know all of the members and all of the people who are in it, so I will have to take care of a lot of things.
I have had some great experiences this week. We still have about four people with a date for them to be baptized.
Church is one of the most frustrating things. It is so stressful. We have people whose rides are falling through, people who wake up late and say they won't come anymore, members who call asking for rides, people getting upset saying that the ride we sent for them wasn't there, etc. Church is the most stressful three hours of the week. We are running around setting up equipment, solving ride problems, talking to Haitians about welfare issues that they want to bring up to the bishop, etc. It is a lot of fun though. It is very rewarding.
We had a really cool experience with Vonnette, our investigator who has read the first 17 chapters in 1 Nephi. She understands them all perfectly. She had a dream where someone was shooting at her and she fell into a hole. When she felt her back, she didn't feel any bullet wounds or blood in her back. Jesus pulled her out of the pot hole she was in. The thing that she said helped her is that she was holding the Book of Mormon and never let go of it for any reason. She said that it made it so that she couldn't be harmed at all. Elder Anderson and I were so happy about that after that appointment with her. The only thing she needs now is good fellowship and church attendance. She has been praying and still has not received an answer.
We are thinking that it might be because she is expecting God to tell her in a dream to get baptized in our church. She knows the book of Mormon is from God. She just needs to know that what we are teaching her about everything else is true. The book of Mormon is supposed to give that knowledge. It will just take time for the connection to hit.
Christmas is a normal procelyting day, except for the dinner appointments with the members. It just depends on who invites us over.
For Christmas, we went over to the Crance's house at 7:30 in the morning for breakfast. They had muffins, juice, sausage, and other things. They also did a white elephant exchange. They got six ties and each missionary got a bag. When someone opens the bag, they can either keep it or exchange it. It was a lot of fun. Sister Crance and her parents are all converts. Their parents were there too.
After that we went to Oswald's house.
After that we went to the Hillsammer's house. Sister Hillsammer makes the best food. She does everything homemade because Brother Hillsammer has an allegy to dyes in foods and artificial flavoring. So does their daughter Kate. While the food was cooking, we put together a scooter and a car garage car set with tracks for their adopted son Joseph. Brother Hillsammer is 60 and sister Hillsammer is 45ish. They got married in 2004. Brother Hillsammer works in a hospital doing respiratory resuscitation. He works with a lot of newborns. Brother Hillsammer's sister Nancy came over with her husband John, who are both non members. We taught them a lesson. Nancy was very open to it.
Well, I need to go now. I will tell you about what happens with everything this week. Bye! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Seamons
P.S. Thanks for the Packages and letters everyone! I am so grateful for everyone who gave me wonderful Christmas gifts.
Tuesday December 28th
Hi Everyone! I am staying in Coconut Creek! I am very excited. Elder Anderson, my companion is getting transferred though. I am very sad about that. I heard from Elder Bolz he is staying, but Elder Rybin is being transferred. Elder Anderson is not training. We are all pretty certain that my next companion will be Elder Rybin. I am very excited about that. He was in my MTC district. We are going to be so busy this transfer. We are getting this Ward Mission Plan mobilized. We have slacked off so much when it comes to working with the ward leaders. That will change very soon. I have several things that I am hoping to change.
We are going to make sure that we keep in contact with the auxiliaries so much more than we have. They are supposed to know all of our investigators by name. We have been so bad at that.
There is no unity between the Haitian and White parts of the ward because of the language barrier. They don't communicate at all. I want to bring up in PEC the idea of starting a Creole class for the English members, so that they can learn how to communicate with the Haitian members. We might even call him this week about that. That would change a lot of things if the English Members started reaching out to the Haitian members better.
I feel so overwhelmed trying to take over this area. I know all of the members and all of the people who are in it, so I will have to take care of a lot of things.
I have had some great experiences this week. We still have about four people with a date for them to be baptized.
Church is one of the most frustrating things. It is so stressful. We have people whose rides are falling through, people who wake up late and say they won't come anymore, members who call asking for rides, people getting upset saying that the ride we sent for them wasn't there, etc. Church is the most stressful three hours of the week. We are running around setting up equipment, solving ride problems, talking to Haitians about welfare issues that they want to bring up to the bishop, etc. It is a lot of fun though. It is very rewarding.
We had a really cool experience with Vonnette, our investigator who has read the first 17 chapters in 1 Nephi. She understands them all perfectly. She had a dream where someone was shooting at her and she fell into a hole. When she felt her back, she didn't feel any bullet wounds or blood in her back. Jesus pulled her out of the pot hole she was in. The thing that she said helped her is that she was holding the Book of Mormon and never let go of it for any reason. She said that it made it so that she couldn't be harmed at all. Elder Anderson and I were so happy about that after that appointment with her. The only thing she needs now is good fellowship and church attendance. She has been praying and still has not received an answer.
We are thinking that it might be because she is expecting God to tell her in a dream to get baptized in our church. She knows the book of Mormon is from God. She just needs to know that what we are teaching her about everything else is true. The book of Mormon is supposed to give that knowledge. It will just take time for the connection to hit.
Christmas is a normal procelyting day, except for the dinner appointments with the members. It just depends on who invites us over.
For Christmas, we went over to the Crance's house at 7:30 in the morning for breakfast. They had muffins, juice, sausage, and other things. They also did a white elephant exchange. They got six ties and each missionary got a bag. When someone opens the bag, they can either keep it or exchange it. It was a lot of fun. Sister Crance and her parents are all converts. Their parents were there too.
After that we went to Oswald's house.
After that we went to the Hillsammer's house. Sister Hillsammer makes the best food. She does everything homemade because Brother Hillsammer has an allegy to dyes in foods and artificial flavoring. So does their daughter Kate. While the food was cooking, we put together a scooter and a car garage car set with tracks for their adopted son Joseph. Brother Hillsammer is 60 and sister Hillsammer is 45ish. They got married in 2004. Brother Hillsammer works in a hospital doing respiratory resuscitation. He works with a lot of newborns. Brother Hillsammer's sister Nancy came over with her husband John, who are both non members. We taught them a lesson. Nancy was very open to it.
Well, I need to go now. I will tell you about what happens with everything this week. Bye! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Seamons
P.S. Thanks for the Packages and letters everyone! I am so grateful for everyone who gave me wonderful Christmas gifts.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
I will be Calling you on Christmas Morning
Dear Family and Friends,
I will be calling you at about 10 o'clock on Saturday morning (Christmas Day). We are going to Oswald's house and we will be doing it over there.
We had a pretty good week, though we didn't have any members come out with us until Sunday night. Oswald came out with us on Sunday night. He came with us to see Mama Julien too. He loves Mama Julien. He loves her food, and how nice she is. They were getting into very random conversations last night. It was a lot of fun though. It helped strengthen member relationships a lot.
This week wasn't as good of a week for me I feel. I have a hard time getting up in the morning and I feel more tired. Plus I keep falling asleep during personal study.
Vonnette, a new investigator, is progressing very well. She has read the 1st 11 chapters in Nephi, and the whole restoration pamphlet. The thing that amazes me is how well she understood them both. She told me about Lehi having four sons, Nephi, Sam, Laman, and Lemuel and she then told us how two were obedient and two were not. She thought it was crazy how Laman and Lemuel tried to beat up Nephi, and then were visited by an angel and were still angry and doubting afterwards. She loves chapter 8 though. She described what she understood in it. She said it had beautiful words in it. "Li gen bel pawol landan li." She loved it. She told us that she wanted to know if Joseph Smith was a true prophet and she said that she is a Seventh Day, but says that if she gets an answer that she needs to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that she will quit the Seventh-day Adventist church. She told us how she got to the seventh day church. She had a dream with three churches side by side: Catholic, Baptist, and Seventh-Day. She tried to enter in Catholic and Baptist, but both times a hand pulled her back out of the churches. Then she entered into the seventh day church and no one stopped her. She told us that that was where God wanted her to be the most at that time. But she says she is always praying for God to tell her where to go. She will join the church when she gets an answer. I just hope she isn't expecting a dream to be the answer and not be paying attention to what the spirit is telling her. She could very possibly get the answer in a dream. I have seen it many times in Haitian Culture. These people are very visionary, and dreams and visions are common. But they need to feel the conformation of the Holy Ghost to back that up. It runs so deep in the culture that I don't know if they expect anything else.
One bad thing did happen with Vonnette. We were going to get a ride for her, because she isn't too close to the church and she doesn't have a car. She told us she was excited to go and very willing, and had a strong feeling that she should go. We weren't able to find a ride for her. Two people fell through in the morning. We could have tried way harder than we did. But we just didn't continue searching. We had a lesson with her yesterday, and everything was great. The only problem is that she says she doesn't want to come to church anymore because we couldn't find her a ride. She told us that today was the day that she felt very strongly about and she said we blew it. I hope we didn't ruin this for good. We are going to be praying very hard for her to receive an answer. She told us after we talked to her for a while that she would think about it and let us know. She ponders, reflects and studies very hard. She is also very into prayer. From what I see of her, she is very able to get an answer. I wonder if Heavenly Father is testing us to see if we want her to get baptized badly enough to work hard for it and pray with real intent. It might also be because she is expecting a different answer and might have gotten it. I do think that our lack of faith could be a huge part of it. We definitely haven't tried as hard as we could have.
I realize now that the only things necessary for a successful mission are obedience and hard work. Because with those two things, faith, desire, love, patience, and everything else. I realize that I can obey the White Handbook rules so much better. I have done many things not right. But at least I realize that now and can fix it.
Widlyne is not doing well. She is never around, she is smoking again, and she hasn't been keeping any of her commitments. We go over there for Edeline and Junior who are both recent converts, but we don't see Widlyne there. We have been trying our best to help her.
Jener is doing okay. He is a really great guy, but he says he doesn't want to get baptized because he can't read and he wants to know the bible more. We told him that the requirements are to have a righteous desire, be willing to take upon him the name of Christ, be keeping the standards, and willing to serve others. He is doing that already. Also, it is hard because he feels that his only problems in life are short memory, not knowing English, and not being able to read. We help him with English and he is excited, but when we teach him the Gospel, he starts to lose focus. We just need to help him have a greater desire to get baptized. He likes the Gospel, but it isn't this huge excitement for him.
Everything is going well though. Hey Laurie! Thank you so much for the Christmas package. You chose really good candy and the BYU T-shirt was awesome! I love getting stuff from you, because it helps me know that you all are still thinking about me.
Bye! Mom and Dad, I will be calling you around 10:00 am -10:15 am. Hopefully we can keep on time and on schedule. The Crance family, who are members will be feeding us breakfast before, so we will try our best. Bye everyone! I love you!
Love,
Elder Seamons
I will be calling you at about 10 o'clock on Saturday morning (Christmas Day). We are going to Oswald's house and we will be doing it over there.
We had a pretty good week, though we didn't have any members come out with us until Sunday night. Oswald came out with us on Sunday night. He came with us to see Mama Julien too. He loves Mama Julien. He loves her food, and how nice she is. They were getting into very random conversations last night. It was a lot of fun though. It helped strengthen member relationships a lot.
This week wasn't as good of a week for me I feel. I have a hard time getting up in the morning and I feel more tired. Plus I keep falling asleep during personal study.
Vonnette, a new investigator, is progressing very well. She has read the 1st 11 chapters in Nephi, and the whole restoration pamphlet. The thing that amazes me is how well she understood them both. She told me about Lehi having four sons, Nephi, Sam, Laman, and Lemuel and she then told us how two were obedient and two were not. She thought it was crazy how Laman and Lemuel tried to beat up Nephi, and then were visited by an angel and were still angry and doubting afterwards. She loves chapter 8 though. She described what she understood in it. She said it had beautiful words in it. "Li gen bel pawol landan li." She loved it. She told us that she wanted to know if Joseph Smith was a true prophet and she said that she is a Seventh Day, but says that if she gets an answer that she needs to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that she will quit the Seventh-day Adventist church. She told us how she got to the seventh day church. She had a dream with three churches side by side: Catholic, Baptist, and Seventh-Day. She tried to enter in Catholic and Baptist, but both times a hand pulled her back out of the churches. Then she entered into the seventh day church and no one stopped her. She told us that that was where God wanted her to be the most at that time. But she says she is always praying for God to tell her where to go. She will join the church when she gets an answer. I just hope she isn't expecting a dream to be the answer and not be paying attention to what the spirit is telling her. She could very possibly get the answer in a dream. I have seen it many times in Haitian Culture. These people are very visionary, and dreams and visions are common. But they need to feel the conformation of the Holy Ghost to back that up. It runs so deep in the culture that I don't know if they expect anything else.
One bad thing did happen with Vonnette. We were going to get a ride for her, because she isn't too close to the church and she doesn't have a car. She told us she was excited to go and very willing, and had a strong feeling that she should go. We weren't able to find a ride for her. Two people fell through in the morning. We could have tried way harder than we did. But we just didn't continue searching. We had a lesson with her yesterday, and everything was great. The only problem is that she says she doesn't want to come to church anymore because we couldn't find her a ride. She told us that today was the day that she felt very strongly about and she said we blew it. I hope we didn't ruin this for good. We are going to be praying very hard for her to receive an answer. She told us after we talked to her for a while that she would think about it and let us know. She ponders, reflects and studies very hard. She is also very into prayer. From what I see of her, she is very able to get an answer. I wonder if Heavenly Father is testing us to see if we want her to get baptized badly enough to work hard for it and pray with real intent. It might also be because she is expecting a different answer and might have gotten it. I do think that our lack of faith could be a huge part of it. We definitely haven't tried as hard as we could have.
I realize now that the only things necessary for a successful mission are obedience and hard work. Because with those two things, faith, desire, love, patience, and everything else. I realize that I can obey the White Handbook rules so much better. I have done many things not right. But at least I realize that now and can fix it.
Widlyne is not doing well. She is never around, she is smoking again, and she hasn't been keeping any of her commitments. We go over there for Edeline and Junior who are both recent converts, but we don't see Widlyne there. We have been trying our best to help her.
Jener is doing okay. He is a really great guy, but he says he doesn't want to get baptized because he can't read and he wants to know the bible more. We told him that the requirements are to have a righteous desire, be willing to take upon him the name of Christ, be keeping the standards, and willing to serve others. He is doing that already. Also, it is hard because he feels that his only problems in life are short memory, not knowing English, and not being able to read. We help him with English and he is excited, but when we teach him the Gospel, he starts to lose focus. We just need to help him have a greater desire to get baptized. He likes the Gospel, but it isn't this huge excitement for him.
Everything is going well though. Hey Laurie! Thank you so much for the Christmas package. You chose really good candy and the BYU T-shirt was awesome! I love getting stuff from you, because it helps me know that you all are still thinking about me.
Bye! Mom and Dad, I will be calling you around 10:00 am -10:15 am. Hopefully we can keep on time and on schedule. The Crance family, who are members will be feeding us breakfast before, so we will try our best. Bye everyone! I love you!
Love,
Elder Seamons
Monday, December 13, 2010
The VERY special Guest and the Golden Ticket
[I will bring to the top what Eric said at the bottom:
“P.S. Get people to send me letters. That is the best thing you can ever get as a missionary.”
If you get time, even after Christmas, you can write him at the mission home at:
Elder Eric Seamons
Florida, Ft Lauderdale Mission
7951 SW 6th St Ste 110
Ft Lauderdale, FL 33324-3211
This week was so amazing! We had so many things happen. We had so many fun mission gatherings that we did. We got to see all the missionaries in the mission again and we learned a lot. It meant we had less time to go out and teach, but we were still very excited.
As a mission we had a Christmas luncheon on Saturday and we had some really good food that they made. Stake presidents and their wives were there, as well as Elder Gay from the seventy. President Hale had something called the Golden Ticket. This is his third year doing it. He has this small golden plaque that he would give out to one person. He had a drawing where they drew 10 names out of a hat from all the 150 or so missionaries. Then he would draw 6 people from the 10 to go on to the next round and so forth. He took pictures after every round. The Golden Ticket is a really awesome prize which President would give out, but it wasn't redeemable until 2020. He said that the person would have to follow certain conditions in order to still be eligible for the prize when the time comes around, such as calling president Hale every six months the day of General Conference until 2020. He did that so he could stay in contact. He said it could be a whole number of things for the prize, including a paid for cruise with the family or something else. He was very well off before the mission, so I could definitely see him doing that. I got to the final two people, the last round out of everyone in the mission. Sister Crane and I were the two finalists, and Sister Crane won. I was glad she won, but I really wanted the Golden Ticket. Sister Crane is in my zone. She is in the Coral Springs Ward with Sister Lealagata. This is Sister Crane's last transfer before she goes home. The Golden Ticket thing was fun though.
[The missionaries were told they were going to have a special guest fly in on a jet. I have inserted a great description from Elder Terry about his experience. He is from the town next to us and went to Lone Peak High School also. He was in Eric’s MTC district and they were companions for a short time at the end of the MTC when Eric’s companion went to Canada. I get Elder Terry’s e-mails and I love his dramatic way of telling things.]
And then
through the door,
walked,
PRESIDENT DIETER F. UCHTDORF!
We all jumped to our feet as they waved and smiled and then, one by one, we were able to shake their hands and look into their eyes . . . his eyes . . . and it was incredible.
This is another one of those experiences which words cannot adequately describe.
It was incredible.
And a very Disney-ish devotional, because President Uchtdorf talked about how "dreams really do come true" (his words), and that we must "move forward every day." He taught about nightly prayers--thanking the Lord for all he has done for us, asking him to accept your sacrifices, asking for forgiveness, resolving to move forward, and then putting your trust in God and retiring to bed. He promised resolutely that God will forgive you of your shortcomings and allow you to wake up anew the next morning.
It was powerful.
He also spoke of a blessing--as real as if his hands had been on each of our heads individually--that all our concerns and challenges--at home or here now--will be resolved with a satisfactory conclusion because of our faithful service.
It was a sacred experience.
[Back to Elder Seamons’ letter]
We had the mission-wide Christmas Devotional. It was such a spiritual experience. They had several musical numbers as well as the Mission Choir singing. The speakers were President and Sister Uchdorf. It was awesome. The Hale family was next door neighbors with them in Utah, and they were super good friends. It was such a powerful experience. They both have such love for the missionaries and the members of the church. Everyone in the room got to shake hands with President Uchdorf and all of the Sisters got hugs from Sister Uchdorf. I wrote all my notes for the Devotional in my Journal. We all got Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission Journals. They said they e-mailed all of the parents to buy one. Thank you so much Mom and Dad! You are awesome!
President Uchdorf gave very good advice and counsel:
He said that we are always in the middle of our mission. It doesn't matter whether we just started and have less experience, or are almost finished. He said that many people feel inadequate as missionaries and think that they don't have enough experience to be a powerful teacher and do the work effectively. He said that we are better with the convincing power of God and the spirit than any amount of experience, practice, and training. We will continue to learn and grow, but we don't have to wait until we are perfect before we begin to change lives. It is not our talents and power that makes us so great but God's. We should never think we have too little experience to do something, or think we are above everyone else and have it down. We just need to try our best and everything else will work out because God is there and loves us and will help us.(this next part is my own commentary) That is what President Uchdorf meant by always being in the middle of the mission. You rely on God and work hard as you would at the prime of your mission. You don't slump and give up at the end because you are almost done. You are always in the middle of the mission until the very end.
He said that "God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called." and "God promises you a safe landing, but he didn't promise you a calm journey."
When he talked about teaching the Gospel with power, he used Brigham young's experience that is in Preach My Gospel. Brigham Young said that the missionaries who taught him were not super intellectual. He could have easily have out-talked them. But they taught with convincing power of God. (a good chapter in the scriptures that this makes me think of this is in 1 Corinthians ch. 2)
He also said,"Don't be a character; have character" I think that means that we aren't supposed to be someone we are not or try to act like someone. Just be who you are and be good and righteous. He said, "You do not need to impress the Lord."
He talked about the holiness and the power of the calling which we hold--That we are "the extended arm of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles." That means that we are an extension of Jesus Christ and we represent him to all of those who we meet.
The last thing that I will tell you about his talk was that he said that all of us have a special purpose in this specific mission and that as we follow the spirit, we can know what our individual purpose is, and why we are in this mission and in no other and how the Lord will bless us to accomplish this purpose. And he testified of the call of Prophet that President Monson has, just as Moses did, the truthfulness of this church, and the reality of the Living Christ. He said that it is "a fact that Jesus Christ lives."
I know that is true. Deiter F. Uchdorf is an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. God lives and he loves us. Everything will work out. There is no one who can be against you when you are with God. We have a hard path to walk, but we have strong shoes for it, and that makes all of the difference. I have come to realize how weak I am and how little I can do by myself. But I just need to obey the rules God has given me, do the simple things, trust in him, and everything else will work out. I know it.
I love you all and I need to write president now, but I will talk to you later! Bye!
Love,
Elder Seamons
P.S. Get people to send me letters. That is the best thing you can ever get as a missionary.
See pictures of President Uchdorf as well as pictures of Eric
almost winning the golden ticket
and him at the Christmas missionary dinner.
President and Sister Uchdorf and President and Sister Hale
The mission blog had pictures of the mission dinner and Elder Seamons was in 6 of them, but there were two particular photos that showed us the Eric we know when he is very happy.
Th is one is of Eric in the food line. He has that "I love this food" look on his face!
This is Eric when he has learned he is one of the last two
who are in line to win the Golden Ticket. This is a look we are
very familiar with.
Monday, December 6, 2010
"The holiday season is wonderful as a missionary!"
Hi Everyone!
This week has been a really good week! We had a lot of really good experiences. It has been very interesting.
We have some investigators and member who are struggling, so pray for them!
We went and talked to Widlyne, who is 20. She is the one who has been smoking and doing all of that stuff. She is super busy and it is hard to get her to sit down with us. She has school every day and she has work a ton, many weeks on Sundays. We saw her twice this week: once on Wednesday and once on Saturday. We saw her on Tuesday and she said that she is not doing well on quitting with smoking. She also admitted that she hasn't been trying super hard. She knows the doctrine and reasons why it is wrong, and why it won't make her happy, but she still has a hard time giving up the habits. We talked about God's plan for her and how we will all be able to live with our families and a spouse who loves us if we just do what God asks us to do. She told us that smoking is taking a toll on her health too. She doesn't feel as good, and her throat hurts more and more lately. She was even coughing up blood the other day. She has been smoking since she was fourteen, so it is hard for her to quit. We were talking to her brother Junior, who is a baptized member, and he told us this week that she had gone over to her boyfriend's house for the night. She hasn't been doing too well. When we went over on Saturday, she told us that she had just finished smoking a cigarette before we had come. I asked her if she had any more. She said no, but as I kept on asking, she eventually said that she did have some left. She brought them out, and we asked her if she would rip them up. We dug a hole and buried the ripped up cigarettes in the ground. Junior keeps on telling us that trying to get her baptized is a waste of time and that she doesn't want to change. He doesn't have the confidence in her to believe she can, but we always point out that he used to be in that situation at one point and he overcame it. We are trying to help him be more supportive of her. Edeline, their mom, is very supportive of her. Edeline is a recent convert too.
Wow, the Creole part of the ward has grown so much since I got here. Mesidor, Moisena, Peter, Isenada, Claudia, Junior, Edeline, Vely, and Jaleel have all been baptized by the four Creole Elders since I have gotten here. And there are many more from when Elder Anderson and Elder Bolz were together. The hardest part is retention though. Some of the Creole members don't have cars, so they don't come to church. Or some of them like the church a lot, but they get caught up in other things that are going on in their lives. There are a ton of Creole members though. There was one week when we had 25 people in Creole class, which isn't even everyone there. We have a lot of good Haitian members. Anyway, Widlyne hasn't been reading her scriptures or praying, so she won't be able to succeed and overcome these problems unless she does that. She told us that she feels horrible right now in her life. We testified of the atonement and how Jesus Christ can help her overcome all of her temptations, because he felt them and overcame them too in the Garden of Gethsemane. She said that she wished she could do certain parts of her life over again. We told her that she could have a new start through the suffering of Jesus Christ. I know that is true. The atonement is so powerful and far-reaching. If we used it to the full extent it was meant to be used, Satan would be done for. I heard someone say that the only principle you have to be perfect at is repenting, because if you repent every day and truly turn to God, he can help you have that change of heart and turn away from all darkness. We also told Widlyne about staying in good places and not getting into situations where she can be tempted. She said that she bought cigarettes with extra money that she had with her. We told her to only bring enough money to take the bus to work and take it back, so that she wouldn't be able to. If she did, she wouldn't be able to get home. She told us that she smoked 16 cigarettes in one day. That is a ton! Please keep Widlyne in your prayers. She is in great need of help.
We have also been working with Jener, who is a 21 year old Haitian who is trying to learn English. He speaks it well enough to get by, and his vocabulary is pretty high, but he has difficulty remembering things. It is really hard for him. I think he has dyslexia too, because it is super hard for him to read, and he mixes up letters in a word. He loves learning English with us. He has been coming to the English class at the church every Tuesday night. He goes to an English class in a local college so he can learn too. It is hard, because he can't read French or Creole at all, and he can hardly read English, so he is not getting in his daily scripture study. We took some lessons to read out of the Bible and the Book of Mormon with him, but he can only read one or two verses. We just help him with his pronunciation and help him learn more vocabulary in the scriptures. Being able to read in the scriptures will help him so much. We tried one lesson where we read the scriptures to him in Creole. I think that helped. We will probably do that more. He doesn't like that though, because he loves practicing English. He is a much more visual learner. We shared the restoration DVD with him, and he remembered a ton of details and the overall story just because he saw the DVD. He remembered it almost better than any investigator we have ever taught. We are going to bring visual aids to the lesson to talk about Faith, Repentance, and Baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. We are also teaching his friend Lionel now. Lionel is very interested in what we have to say and was interested in the restoration and how God restored his full Gospel back to the earth. He said he had noticed how so many different religions say so many different things.
The holiday season is wonderful as a missionary! We have many ward activities, which are helping the members to socialize and help our investigators. We are going to have a relief society dinner program on Thursday. Hopefully we can get as many of the Haitian women as possible. Edeline really wants to go. The problem is that she lives in Coral Springs and all of the members in Coral Springs go to the Coral Springs Ward. All the Haitian members who are out of the Ward boundary, but still in the stake boundary go to our ward, because it is one of the four magnet wards in the mission. There is one in Fort Lauderdale, Boynton Beach, Miami, and Coconut Creek. The problem with that is that most Haitians don't have cars because they can't afford it. Many Haitians we meet don't even have jobs. There are so many unemployed people down here.
The mission is having a ton of meetings and devotionals this month. I can't remember all of the dates, but this week we won't be out Procelyting as much because of it. We are having a mission luncheon and we have a Sunday night devotional with a special speaker.
Last night was the First Presidency Christmas devotional when the Prophet and his two counselors speak. President Hale said to only go if we had an investigator. None of our investigators said they could go, so we were both really sad that we wouldn't be able to see it. But then Wendy, one of our investigators texted and said she could go to it. It was almost 8:00 when the devotional was about to start. We were happy because she would at least be able to see 40 minutes of the program that was being broadcast to the church. We taught someone yesterday that Elder Anderson found while he and I did splits. We had two members of the church with us, so I went and taught Jener with Brother Poor, who owns Chick-fil-a and lets us eat their for free. :) Elder Anderson was with Peter Septembre, a recent convert. The people that Elder Anderson had found were four obnoxious Haitian girls. That was such an annoying lesson. They were not taking us seriously at all. Elder Anderson was irritated too. It wasn't completely horrible though. They did listen some of the time and learn some stuff. They also had satellite and BYUTV, so they watched the whole Christmas devotional at home, and they texted us back and said that one of them wanted us to go and pray with her one day. It was pretty awesome. But anyway, Wendy went to the church, and we left Mama Julien's house (Mama Julien is a Haitian member who makes food for the missionaries to take home every Sunday night. She is so funny and nice. All the missionaries call her Mama Julien.) We were at her house and helped her find the place on LDS.org where the devotional was being broadcast. We made sure it was in the right language, and then we took the food and headed off to the church. (The Broadcast was live in tons of languages, including Haitian Creole and French. Except the Creole one didn't have visual and the French one did. It was kind of weird. Many Haitians speak both French and Creole, so it works. French is the official Language in Haiti, but you don't hear it out in the streets at all. Not every Haitian speaks French. Many don't. French is formal and is only used in the schools in Haiti. You have to speak and write in French in the Haitian schools or else you get punished. Many Haitians read French because Creole wasn't a written language for a very long time. For a long time, the spelling wasn't set. But Creole is more used in certain parts of Haiti and more and more people have come to read it. But Creole is so much fun! Elder Anderson went to eat at Burger King before a lesson we had, and there were two Haitian women working there. We talked to them for a long time and they thought it was awesome. There are a few Creole sayings that we tell many Haitians and they laugh really hard. They think it is funny when we tell them the Geography of Haiti and all of the Haitian food that we know and like, especially considering that we are American and have never been to Haiti before. There are several streets in our area that are mostly Haitian. One of the ones that we spend the most time on is Riverside in Coral Springs. Peter used to live there. Everyone has seen us and knows that we speak Creole. Many of the Haitians there wave to us. There are certain people that will ask us for money. Many Haitians ask us for food or money. We have to tell them that we can't. Some of them will ask us for money every time we see them.
Anyway, Wendy came to the Christmas Devotional which was being broadcast at the church, but the sound wasn't working because of technical difficulties. We decided to teach her a lesson with Sister Hindman. It was good.
Here is an excerpt of my letter to president. I am adding it because it tells some more of the stuff that is going on:
We have had a very successful week. We have been doing many AMT's and have been helping many of the recent converts. We have started sending out scripture texts to our investigators and members to help them get more of the Book of Mormon into their lives, and also to remind them to read. We have seen how we have been able to increase many people's faith. We are also striving to find members to come out with us not just for the sake of raising numbers, but also to find someone who can meet the needs of a specific investigator. Seth Poor, the Elders Quorum president came out with us to see Jener Louis and his friend Lionel. I went with brother Poor, while Elder Anderson went out with Peter Septembre, a recent convert. The double exchange went very well. Brother Poor was able to connect well with Jener and Lionel. Jener now has his phone number, and Brother Poor will come with us again to see them on Tuesday. Plus he lives really close to Jener's house. We are hoping that this can create a lasting bond with them.
We have had trouble being exactly obedient to certain rules, but we are striving to tighten it all up and make sure we are doing better as a companionship. We are especially trying to make sure our day to day activities fit into our purpose better.
Elder Anderson is a great missionary! He loves the Gospel, relates well to everyone we meet, and knows what things are most important. He is an obedient, hardworking missionary! He understands his purpose well and I am learning a lot from him. I am so grateful for the two great companions that I have had out in the mission field so far. I love the Coconut Creek ward! The members are so wonderful, and God is greatly blessing us with much success! It isn't perfect, but there are good things happening.
We are helping an investigator, Widlyne, to get baptized, who is the sister and daughter of two of our recent converts. We are helping her overcome addictions and helping her overcome them through the power of the Atonement. We bore testimony to her on how we can always change and how the Atonement creates a new start in our lives. We told her that reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and going to church will be the key to her conversion and change, because those things will help her have the spirit and added protection of God necessary to overcome her horrible habits.
Well, I have to go now. I will talk to you all later. Bye!
Love,
Elder Seamons
P.S. Grandma and Aunt Laurie, and everyone! I did get all of your packages and cards. Thank you so much!
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