"I am happier now than almost any other time in the mission."

Notes from Mom- Eric got a new mission president this last week. We had the opportunity to go to his old mission president’s homecoming and get pictures with him. I will post them at the bottom. It was very nice to meet him and his wife and they had wonderful things to say about Eric. Eric loves both of them but had an extra special bond with Sister Hale. We knew that from his letters, but it was nice to hear the things she said about him. She thinks he is a very special person—pure, gifted at language, honest, brilliant, insightful, etc., and we agree. We are very happy that President and Sister Hale could get to know him and that he had the opportunity to have them for the first half of his mission.


President Uchtdorf, a member of the first presidency in the church, is the next door neighbor to President Hale and he was at the homecoming and spoke, It was really neat to hear him and I got to meet him as I lost Sara and Kent and went out the wrong door. It was a great meeting. 

One thing that is very interesting to us is that although we may get annoyed by some companions at times, feeling they are pushing Eric too much, he actually feels they have helped him the most. He always uses every situation for the positive. That is a good trait.

Eric forwarded his message to the president, so we have included it.
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Hello President! I am so happy for the experiences we have had together! I feel that I am becoming a better missionary and a better servant of Christ as I have been training Elder Shipley. He is a very obedient missionary and he is willing to do what is asked of him. He also wants to help in any way possible and he contributes much to this area.

We have been working on member work for the last week. We have committed several members to do missionary work and they responded enthusiastically. We are also becoming way better at planning and preparing. I know that the rules we have are here to help us be more successful missionaries. I feel so happy! I am happier now than almost any other time in the mission. "Happy is he that keepeth the law" I remember you saying that out of the scriptures, and I won't forget that.

This area is doing well right now. Member work is going better than it ever has. We have been using the DVD players and watching the District and following Preach My Gospel, and we are both learning so much.

The sisters have two (baptism) dates for the 17th of July and they are very excited. Sister Buckley and Sister Despain are getting along great. Sister Buckley has grown so much since I first moved into the area. She is a great senior companion. They said that they are doing well on their white handbook goals. Elder Giorgino and Elder Edwards are very good at helping their progressing investigators. Elder Giorgino has a lot of love for them. It is something that I admire. Elder Edwards has a great understanding of Preach My Gospel and how to work with the ward to increase the effectiveness of the work.

We are doing well. The spirit is very strong where we are. Thank you for your help. We love you so much. I will write you back next week!

Love,

Elder Seamons

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Hi Family! This has been a very good week! The mission as a whole is working very hard to be more exactly obedient and to plan more efficiently and Elder Shipley, my new companion, and I are doing very well with that. Elder Shipley is from Los Angeles, California, but he was born in Blackfoot, Idaho. I love him a lot! He is a very easy missionary to get along with and he is doing all he can to be the best person that he can be. I am so glad that I have gotten so many good companions. I haven't had any companions that I have not liked. Every single one is a great missionary and I can trust any of them.

I have gotten so much better at planning in the last 9 weeks. I have Elder Furner to thank for that. I know that Preach My Gospel is inspired of God, because my companion and I are following it more closely than we ever have, yet I have never been happier. I feel that I am actually thinking ahead for once in my life. Elder Furner helped me change. I feel like I have grown up and changed into a man. I have done so much growing in the past two months. I am so different from who I was when Elder Furner and I became companions. I wouldn't be who I am now if it weren't for him. I have him to thank for that. He is a very powerful missionary. Him and Elder Rybin are opening a new Creole area in West Palm Beach together. They are going to have much success together. I am really excited to hear about how they are doing, because they are both excellent missionaries. I have grown more from those two than any other of my companions combined.

We got back in contact with one of our main investigators, Analia. Elder Furner and I committed her to read in the Book of Mormon and she has been reading in it every day. She had a dream where God told her to read page 29 in the book, so she read it and started to cry. So she knows that the book is true! We are so excited! She also hasn't been drinking Coffee or Tea for the last two weeks, which Elder Shipley and I were very happy about. It is crazy how we got out of contact with her two weeks ago. First she dropped her phone in the water and it got ruined, then she lost the church invitation card with the address of the church on it and our number. A few days later we had an appointment with her, but a few minutes before the appointment, our car battery died, so we couldn't go. But since her phone was dead, she didn't know that. Plus she and her husband tried to go to the church, but they got lost, so they turned back. Apparently Satan doesn't want her to get baptized. She has one of the most powerful testimonies I have ever seen. She actually missed the appointment on Saturday that we had with her, and she didn't come to church, which is concerning us. We are pretty sure that it is just more obstacles, because she is really invested in sitting with us. Just pray for Analia. She really needs the message we have for her and she is so close to baptism.

We have three other investigators that are really close to baptism as well: Carlo Joseph, Margerie, and Georges. All three of them are almost ready, but they all have problems with coming to church because they work Sunday morning. Georges went to Haiti on Sunday to get married to his fiancee and he will be back. He told us that he would start searching for another job when he gets back. Margerie needs to get work off, so we are going to fast with her this Friday. Carlo Joseph already started job hunting, so he is on his way as well. Carlo is so funny. He was telling us how he went to a Corps du Christ church and how he doesn't like how they do things. He was telling us how they fall to the ground and have obnoxious music, and he was acting it all out. He is so animated. I love Haitians! His testimony has grown a lot since we have met with him. He learned how to pray and he is saying such specific and sincere prayers. It is awesome! He used to disagree and have huge problems with Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, but We called him on Tuesday and he said that he was starting to see things differently.

Elder Shipley has learned to love the investigators so quickly, and he is already bringing up several suggestions of how we can help them.

I am still driving. There are a lot of responsibilities for being a district leader. I have been communicating better with the district though. There are a lot of exciting things happening in the mission. A member of the seventy told us that he expects us to double baptisms for this mission, and on Wednesday, the zone leaders will reveal some new techniques that they are giving to us to help us. We are also testing out a new training program for the church. It is something that the trainers are doing with the new missionaries. We now have two hours of companionship studies with new missionaries and it gives us an outline of what to study in Preach My Gospel.

Just pray for me, because there are so many things to do as missionaries to stay organized. We have been working on keeping the apartment clean. We even took 20 minutes during lunch to pick up and maintain the cleanliness. I learned that the temple really is the example of heaven and how we should run our lives. We have been trying to make our apartment like a temple, and the spirit has been so much stronger since we have started that project. But to do that as well as keep the area book updates and well as be updated on our calls, it requires so much time and work.

By the way, thank you so much Grandma and Laurie for the letters that you are sending me. I love reading them and it is so nice to know that people are cheering me on over there.

I have to go everyone! I love you all! Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons

President and Sister Hale with the missionaries that were still there

 

"Pray Hard for me"

July 5^th, 2011

Hi everyone! We had a zone conference yesterday and President and Sister Anderson were there. As he spoke, I knew that he was called of God, because what he said was exactly what I needed. He has a vision of this area and what it can become. President Hale's vision spanned the three years he was there. President Anderson was shown the vision of how the mission can grow beyond that. He is God's servant for this mission and he is a prophet to us. That is how every priesthood leader is. They have keys, and they are prophets to those who are under their stewardship.

I know that God is there and that he builds us up. Elder Furner was the only person who could help me. He has helped me overcome problems that I have had my entire life. He finally helped me to stop pitying myself and start fixing the problem.

Two new creole missionaries are coming today. Elder Furner is being transferred mid-transfer and I am training one of the new missionaries. I feel a little inadequate, but I know God will help me be equal to the task. Elder Furner has helped me become good at planning and following Preach My Gospel, and that is what is going to help me as I move on.

I remember the song "Consider the Lilies." It is based on the verse in the bible. Jesus says that they don't toil to receive, but God gives them. I learned that certain things are out of my control and I need to trust in God to provide the answers to how everything will work.

There is a lot to do in the area we are in. It was a rough week with numbers and lessons. I am worried about how I will get a good pattern established for this area. Because even though I was the senior companion, Elder Furner still lead in planning and many things, just because he is so good at that. He is ahead of many of the oldest Haitian Creole missionaries in the mission. But now I will really be leading out, for the first time since I have been a missionary. Pray hard for me. I am nervous. But God will get me through it. He has done that with so many other things in my life.

Yes I got the package from Sister Spear. I loved it. Thank you so much! I am just so busy that I hardly have time to tell anyone these things.

I also got the Dear Elder Package from Aunt Laurie. I loved the cookies and all of the treats in it. It is always such a comfort to receive those things.

Love,

Elder Seamons

"I will forever cherish the experience I have had in the mission field."

Dear Family and Friends,

I am feeling pretty good. I am at about a 7 [out of 10]. Elder Furner has taught me a lot about thinking more about other people. He is direct, but he is doing it because he wants me to improve. I have judged him in a way that wasn't good a lot of the time. He is one of the best missionaries I have ever seen and he is very good at focusing on other people. I realize that many of my motivations have been selfish. Elder Furner is helping me improve. The things he has taught me have helped me face and learn to overcome problems that I have dealt with my whole life. I know that this is a "divine rendezvous" as Sister Hale would call it. Elder Furner taught me that I need to think "what is this person feeling?" "how would it affect this person if I did... ?" He also said that the motivation for wanting to be obedient and being a good missionary shouldn't just be "I want to have the spirit," but it should also be "My companion needs me to be obedient so he can have the spirit and so that he can reach his greatest potential. Plus I will be able to help others better.".

I got the hump day package. I loved it a lot. You are always thinking so much of me. It is something I admire about you, Mom, Dad, Laurie, Grandma, Sara, and everyone else. I will never forget the lessons I have been taught. [Hump day is middle day of your mission]

      I will send back the survey today.[We send him a survey with questions sometimes to get answers] I promise. Elder Furner understands that I have a problem with prioritizing things, and he told me that I need to make a schedule and not put things off. That survey wasn't on the top of my priority list, so I didn't worry about it. Today however, I am going to use this preparation Day to take care of unfinished business.

They had the Groundbreaking on the Temple site, but the image was broadcast to about 26 other church buildings. Members of the Quorum of the Seventy as well as Elder Gonzalez from the Presidency of the Seventy came. Elder Gonzalez dedicated the temple ground. The members are very excited about the coming of the temple. It is something that people have been waiting for for years: to have the blessings of the temple readily accessible for them and their families. President Hale brought several shovels for the groundbreaking and painted them Gold so they would look really fancy for the pictures. He gave each of the civil leaders a shovel, as well as some of the church leaders in the area. It was a wonderful event!

A few days ago the Car battery died and we needed to replace it. We were at Pepboys for a few hours because it took a while for them to take a look at the problem. When they discovered the problem, they replaced the battery and we were on our way. It took a lot of time out of our day though. 

We had our baptism with Analia not work out because she didn't come to church last week or this week. We met with her and she was doing pretty well. We hope that she will answer her phone, because it has been about two days since we talked to her. Georges needs to come to church one more Sunday so he can be baptized. He just needs to get work off. He works at a hotel and it has been hard because he has a coworker who had a heart attack, so he has been working almost every Sunday. 

I have learned so much about charity and about how to help other people. I have also learned so much about God since I have been out here in Florida. I will forever cherish the experience I have had in the mission field. 

Love,

Elder Seamons

Elder Seamons: "I have had to take a hard look at the kind of missionary who I want to be"

Hi Family and Friends,


I have had to take a hard look at the kind of missionary who I want to be. It was a hard week between the two of us. It is getting better, but Elder Furner is so direct and he points out when I need to change something. I think it is supposed to be that way, because for all my life there are certain things I haven't faced up to and problems I need to solve. The hard thing is that Elder Furner is able to discern how people are feeling, so every time I got mad and judged him, he was able to tell. I can't hide my feelings from him. He challenged me to tell him when he was doing something that bothered me, so I am going to start working on that. I just have a hard time dealing with the way he does things. But he is a very good missionary.

This week we had Georges come to church! We were so excited about that! He wasn't going to come because he has his two-year-old daughter with him and he can't ride on his bike to get to the church. But they we encouraged him to take the bus, and so he came. Georges is awesome! He has heard all the lessons and he wants to be baptized very badly. He knows that our message is true. If he comes to church next week, he will be baptized. We are very excited about that. He is already making friends with the members of the ward.
We also had an investigator named Crayda come to church, because her Fiance, Robinson, is a member of the Nova YSA branch, which meets in the same building with the Fort Lauderdale ward. He came down to attend church with her. We will talk to her this week and see what she thought of it.

We are hoping for a really good week this week, because we have been planning far in advance. We are trying to teach with better unity. Plus we have been communicating more, which is really good.

We also taught Rodeline and Viniel. They are still unsure about the date. We had a lesson with them where the spirit was very strong. We told them how they will know that the message we are sharing with them is true. They don't want to jump into it. We know they just need to have faith and move forward, and then they will be ready. People don't understand that we won't just baptize someone until they are ready. We have the power and authority to discern whether or not these people are ready. But they don't always have the faith and trust in God to know that it will turn out okay.

I need to go.

Love, Elder Seamons

"We have been finding many awesome investigators."

Sorry this has taken me so long to get out. I have been in a two week nightmare music education course that ended Friday. We had the opportunity today to go to Eric's first companion's homecoming. The first companion is called their trainer. He had great things to say about Eric and how well he is doing right now. We had our picture taken with him on my phone, and I have posted it at the bottom of the letter. Eric will be thrilled that we got to meet him.~Linda

Dear Family and Friends,


This week has been really good with missionary work. Elder Furner and I gave three people dates for them to be baptized and they were very excited about it. One of them is named Analia. She is a really outgoing Haitian woman who is really willing to act on our message. She is so funny. She was telling us about the dream she had the night before about how a really tall giant came to her and said, "Analia, you are always praying, and now today you will get something you need." She said that when she woke up she was waving her right arm and saying, "thank you Jesus thank you Jesus." She was showing us what she did and it was really funny. The day she had the dream was the day we returned and taught her another lesson. That was yesterday. She is awesome! She was so excited that we are teaching her. She said that she would be baptized on the 26th. The other two were Jeffery and his wife. Jeffery is in his 40's and he has serious ADHD, but he loves learning from us and he tells us that he was baptized as an infant, but that he feels it wasn't right and that he needs to be baptized again. He told me that he feels the spirit in this church and that it is something that he hasn't felt quite like that before. He says that this church is a 'living' church and not a 'dead' one, where the spirit of the Lord is not present. He recognizes that the spirit is with us and that this message can deeply bless his life. He loves to talk with people and he is very pure in heart—probably one of the most pure in heart I have ever met in my life. His wife is very nice too. Her name is Emma and she agreed to be baptized on July 24th with her husband and her family, if they choose to do it also. We haven't yet asked the kids if they want to be baptized.

We have been exacting our obedience so much lately, and we have been finding many awesome investigators. The work is going really well.

I am staying in Miami Shores for another transfer. This way we will be able to continue the success we started having together at the end of this transfer.

Love, Elder Seamons

"The mission is the hardest thing I have ever done."

June 6, 2011

Dear Friends and Family,

Things are going a little bit better. Elder Furner and I had a long talk, and we realized that there were a lot of assumptions going on about how each other was feeling and the reason why him or I said something. We are starting to understand each other a lot better.

We have been learning to become more unified as a companionship. Elder Furner is a nice missionary, but he has a very different personality and way of acting that I haven't come across before, so it has been a little hard. He is a very good companion and he is actually a lot like I am.

Rodeline has been progressing a lot. We have taught her five times, and she came to church with two of her children who are of baptismal age. She said that she is trying to find a church where she feels at home and she says that she knows that our message is true. We have taught Her, her husband Viniel, and her son Prince. We challenged them to be baptized on the 26th and they said they would pray about it, but they thought it was a little soon. They are coming to church again next week and She was invited to a relief society activity and she accepted. Prince said he would go to the Wednesday night activity. They are reading in the Book of Mormon a lot and are praying about it.

June 1st was the beginning of Hurricane season, so during our zone council, they did a hurricane preparedness training with all of the procedures we are supposed to follow. It is overdue for a hurricane now. If there is one, we will become service missionaries and we will help at red cross shelters. They have a packet about everything and we are supposed to read it. I have already started to look at it. We are also supposed to restock and replenish our 72-hour kits.

We have gotten a ton of new investigators this week. We had 10 of them. They were all pretty interested too.

We also are teaching a man named Georges, who is also from Haiti. He told us that he has seen changes in his life since he has started meeting with us and he says that he knows that the message is true. He will be baptized on June 19th. He has made friends with a few of the Haitian men in the ward. We tried to teach his brother who we figured out was a Jehovah's Witness, but he was trying to argue, so we are giving him the Book of Mormon and we told him to read and pray about it.

The mission is the hardest thing I have ever done. You get to know who your savior is so well. There have been several times that I have wondered if there wasn't an easier way to do this. I have had some low moments the last two weeks. President Hale at the training this week shared what Elder Holland said. He said that we are not the first ones to wonder that same thing. The greatest of them all also had that question. But there wasn't an easier way for Christ, and there won't be an easier way for us. But it will be the way that leads to the most joy.

Elder Furner and I have had a few rocky moments together. I do recognize why I needed to be with him and no one else. I know a lot better how to deal with a wife. That couldn't be much harder than this anyway. We haven't been getting in that many arguments or anything. It is just we both have things that bug us that the other person does. It has been getting a lot better though. He isn't a nightmare companion or anything. I don't want him made out to be that. He is very obedient, he follows preach my gospel, he tries his best, and he has a desire to help other people come unto Christ and have the direction of the Spirit with him.

Sister Mary Grove, Elder Giorgino and Elder Jensen's investigator was baptized. It was a great event. Sister Grove was in a drug rehabilitation center and overcame drug addictions. She also stopped smoking a week ago. It was great! Rodeline and her two oldest kids attended the baptism. The statistic is that 80% of people who see a baptism end up experiencing their own. Sister Grove has a very strong testimony of the Gospel and is very prepared. She is so awesome! We are very happy for her and the other Elders.

Today was crazy, because the power was out it a few places in the city. The Walmart we normally went to was closed because of it. The computers in the church Family History Center wasn't getting an internet connection, and the library we would have gone to was out of power as well, so we had to find another one. So many interesting things happen to us as missionaries.

Elder Furner and I have been working on teaching with unity, which has been a big struggle, so hopefully we can get that worked out. I have just been stressed out the last few weeks because the work has been harder.

I love Miami and I love the people here. I am doing pretty well! I love you all! I have to go now!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Companionships chosen in Heaven and a Zone Conference Photo

Sorry this is so late. My school got out on May 27th and we went to Disneyland with Ryan, Katrina and kids, plus Sara and a friend. 

The Fort Lauderdale temple ground breaking will be on June 18th, so that should be exciting. 

May 31, 2011

Dear family and friends,

This has been a more difficult week. Elder Furner is an extremely good teacher, planner, and he follows Preach My Gospel really well. It has been discouraging because he has corrected me a lot. He is not doing it in a mean way, but I see that he is very good at doing missionary work for how new he is in the mission. He is better at knowing what to do than I am most of the time. The one thing he needs to master is Creole. I don't really know how to help him out with it. He has told me that I space out a lot and that I don't listen half the time because I am so focused on something else or because I just get lost in thought. He told me that he hasn't felt like he can share things with me because of that. We are not very unified as a companionship. It has been hard. He has been discouraged since last transfer because he has not had a baptism since he has gotten in the mission and he has seen super prepared investigators who have fallen through and they shouldn't have. Many of them knew that what the missionaries were saying is true, but they chose not to continue. He says that every time he drops people like that, he feels like he is condemning them because he is cutting them off from the chance to receive the gospel. He feels like that has been his job in the mission since he started: to condemn people. He doesn't like it at all because the job of a missionary is to baptize.

He has pointed out my strengths, but he has also given me a lot of things to work on. He tells me that I am not very good at listening to him at all.

Elder Furner is so good at following preach my Gospel and his teaching, planning, finding, and communicating skills are really good. It is hard because I struggle at all of those things. Plus sometimes I have said the wrong thing and people have misunderstood me and might have gotten offended.

I am the senior companion, but I feel like the junior, because Elder Furner is leading out on lesson plans and he is always telling me that Preach My Gospel says different things and that we need to change them. He isn't mean about it, but I just don't feel like I am doing things right.

I have noticed that it is hard to think of others when I myself feel like I haven't had my spiritual needs met. But I am trying.

At the transfer meeting, Sister Hale talked about divine intertwining or divine rendezvous. She said that these companionships were chosen by Heaven and that we were together for a very good reason.

This week we met an amazing family with a woman named Rodeline. She is from Haiti. Her husband's name is Viniel. She ordered a Bible from the church and we gave it to her. We told her that we teach about how people rejected the prophets and apostles after Jesus ascended into heaven and how because of that, they were killed and the church of Jesus Christ fell. We told her about how we have a prophet that God has put on the earth in the last days. We told her that at the door and she immediately invited us to come in and share a message without us even asking. She told us how she has always wondered what happened to the prophets, but no pastor she asked could tell her the answer. She said this was the first time she got an answer to the question. She was excited about the restoration and the Book of Mormon. We met with her husband the next time. We have met with them three times in 8 days and they were at all of their appointments. We had a really spiritual lesson with them and Sister Castillo, the Relief society President. She wants to come back to teach them again. They have four kids and they want to take them to church.

Rodeline is a stay at home mom who is married! Finally someone who is not working (on Sunday), or pregnant but not married. Florida has so many of those. She also told us that she can recognize spiritual promptings. We are going to offer them a date to be baptized in the next lesson and we will start teaching the kids too.

I will talk to you later.

Love,

Elder Seamons

The mission had zone conferences last week and they took a picture of each zone. Eric looks like he is laughing at what someone is saying as he has a big smile on his face. Click on the photo to see it bigger.