An overabundance of referrals and people to teach

Hello Everyone! Wonderful things have been happening with Elder Shipley and I. We are continuing to have an abundance (really and overabundance) of referrals, people to teach, etc. We have 8 people at church. We were so excited! Ernst, his wife, Jennifer (a new investigator from this week. She has an awesome story), Carlo, Duponte (another new investigator), His friend Yves, Cemania, and James, who has come very often. They enjoyed church alot. Ernst's wife Carrine came and she loved the Creole class. She told us that she would definitely visit again. The relief society sisters are so good at fellowshipping. They helped us so much with all of the people we had.

Duponte and Yves are two people who randomly showed up to church two weeks ago. Yves had met with missionaries in Canada and  he moved here, so he brought his friend Duponte along with him. They will come for their 3rd time this next week. Also Jennifer is from new Jersey. We finished teaching Rodeline and Viniel. The lesson went way over the amount of time it should have. We went in the elevator and it opened up on the first floor and a woman stood there and she said, "I am so happy to see you guys, I have been looking for you." Elder Shipley was in the process of handing her a pass-a-long card. She told us that she had been meeting with the missionaries and that she had all of her babies blessed in the church. Her husband is a member of the church. Then we sat down with her and she came to church. She is awesome!

I have recognized my weaknesses now more than I ever have before. I see how much I still need to do and I realize how little I recognize God for all of our successes and I let pride get in the way. But He is helping us. "The Harvest is great, but the laborers are few." That summarizes what is happening in the area right now. We have a huge problem. We have gotten twenty referrals and other media referrals and we haven't contacted them yet, plus we haven't had time to return to certain investigator's houses because we are  booked for the whole week. Our first available time slot is next Tuesday. Everything other than that is scheduled with appointments. We are going to tell president that we think he should split the Creole area in half and bring another companionship in. We might also tell him to give our English area completely to Elder Giorgino and Elder Edwards, because we teach all of Creole as well as half of the English investigators within the ward boundaries. We will see how that works.

We had a mission conference yesterday and Elder Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came and spoke to us, along with Elder Gay of the area seventy. It was amazing. Elder Ballard teaches so well and he understands how to teach by the spirit. He told us that we need to realize that conversion begins with feeling. That advice is so important. I realize that logic doesn't help people want to change at all. They need to feel God's love as we teach and they need to feel the impression of the Holy Ghost on their soul. Otherwise, it was all for nothing that we taught these people. That knowledge has changed my mission. I still have to work on teaching by the spirit, but I have gotten a lot better at it.

Sister Despain, on of the two sister missionaries that work in the YSA (Young Single Adult) branch had a serious kidney infection and she has been down for a week now. She spent a few days in the hospital. She is getting a lot better. Pray that she will continue to recover.

I am doing great! Pray for our investigators and that we can refine our teaching, planning, and scheduling skills so that we can be the most effective missionaries that the Lord wants us to be. There is so much work to do, but we can step up to the challenge.

I know that God lives, that he loves us, and that through him, we can do all things. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. We have been giving those books out like crazy, and I have never seen so much success before. And most importantly, I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I wouldn't be here with out him. He is the only hope we have, and we all need to use every once of time, energy, and effort that we have so that we can help everyone here the message until the work is done and everyone is safely home again. I love you all and I will right you next week.

Love,

Elder Seamons

Tremendous Success!

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been amazing! It reminds me of the scripture in Malachi that talks about how the windows of heaven pouring out so many blessings that there will not be enough room to receive them. Refferals are coming in more crazy than ever. The harvesting method has been doing wonders. We are finding another problem. We realized that more than half of our investigators don't have an appointment for this week because of all of the new people were are teaching. we had 18 new investigators and now a total of around 45 in our investigators pool, even after dropping some. We are having a difficulties making time for daily contact. We have a list in our planner of all of our investigators and we check them off each day as we contact them. We we did okay at first, but now we aren't finding much time. We scheduled an hour in just so it would happen, but we had to drop it because we have the whole week scheduled in since yesterday. We are trying to keep above the water so to speak. God has a lot of plans for this area and we are seeing how many people are prepared to receive the gospel. We taught 34 lessons this week, which is a lot. We definately aren't struggling to find things to do.

 

Many interesting things happened with Cemania. I don't remember if I told the first part, but I will tell you again. Cemania came to church last Sunday. Someone gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet, and she read it. It was the fifth Sunday of the month, so it was combined, and everyone was making calls and writing letters to people who hadn't been to church in a long time. We took Cemania to the side and taught her a lesson. She told us that she felt that this is where she needs to be and she felt that we really did live with God before this mortal life. Then Elder Giorgino and I taught her this week on an exchange. She told us, "I can't believe that I am getting baptized in the Mormon church." She felt the spirit very strongly. But then we met with her again and she told us that the day before, people from her old church showed up and told her that she was confused and that she needs to not be meeting with both the churches at the same time. She needs to pray and choose between them. If she meets with both, she will obviously go toward the one that sees her the most often (us). So they told her to meet with one church one week, and the other church the other week and then make a decision. She is feeling very conflicted right now and she is having a lot of opposition. She knows she if getting answers from God when she sits down with us, but there are people around her telling her otherwise. She did a fast and now she will meet with the Church of God for a week and then see us next week. Pray really hard for Cemania.

 

Cassandra and her family are doing really well. Sister Monestine took Rose Marie (the mom) to the church and did a chapel tour with her. Then they went to eat at a chinese buffet. Plus other members of the church were there (I think that one of them might be the bishop). She loved it and she calls us "her missionaries" now. We saw them last night and taught Cassandra (13 years old) and her brother Antonio (8 years old). They have so many questions. Antonio loves the bible and he was so excited to have us come over. Rose Marie said that he was asking her when we would go back to see them the whole week. They are coming to church next week.

 

Lina, Christnel, Wesley, and Ernst came to church again this week!

 

Plus there were several non-members that just showed up. We have appointments with a lot of them. One is the manager of several apartment buildings on a street we work on all of the time called 6th Ave. We contacted him in the elelvator of one of his buildings and we gave him a card with the address of the church and he said that he would be there. He didn't stay the whole time, but he said he would come back next week. We are teaching him on Saturday.

 

We recognize now that we have to be exactly obedient. When we are having this much success and we have so many investigators, there are many people counting on us. Every time we break a rule, it affects at least 50 or so people. Probably their families and friends. And eventually many more. So there is a lot hanging in the balance. Pray that we can continue to have the success we are having. There are many people counting on us now. Even if many of them don't get baptized, they need to have a good experience from us going over so that they will want to meet with missionaries in the future.

 

On preparation day, we do personal and companionship study from 8:00-10:00. Then we go and e-mail for an hour. Afterwards, we go to the store, and then we go back to the apartment. I am usually really tired after e-mailing, so I usually take a nap. We haven't been using our preparation days very productively and we need to be more obedient on several things. I recognize that we just can't do it all perfectly. That is why missionaries need the atonement. That is why everyone needs it. Sometimes I wish I could just have a few moments where I don't need to worry about missionary work. But I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now. This is the greatest experience I have ever had. So much has happened to me and I am learning so much. I still have many times where I get down on myself or I think more about myself than others, but I am doing very well. I just need to keep on a steady upward trend. I know that Jesus Christ lives. Without him this work would not be possible. Without him no one would have a change of heart. It is his work, and if his spirit isn't in it, then it was all for nothing. The spirit is what guides this work.

 

I love you all! Continue to pray for Elder Shipley, our investigators, and I. Pray that we will be able to assist them in meeting their spiritual needs despite the lack of time we have. Pray that they will change and progress to baptism.

 

Bye!

 

Love,

 

Elder Seamons

"I am seeing the windows of heaven open so much that we don't even have room enough to receive it."

August 1, 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

This is one of the best weeks I have ever seen on the mission! It was wonderful! We had seven people come to church for sacrament meeting. Cemania, Ernst, Carlo, Lina, Christnel, Wesley, and Luxom. They had a great time at church. I am not sure about Welsey though. He seemed bored during the whole thing. Lina is Christnel and Wesley's mom. They have had a rough time lately, but I will go into that later. I was asked to give a talk on reading the scriptures. Last week Elder Shipley gave a talk on missionary work and he committed everyone in the congregation to get pass-a-long cards off the table. Many people passed them out and we were excited. I talked about how the scriptures had blessed my life, and I committed each person in the congregation to get a Book of Mormon, write their testimonies in it, and to give it out. We had about 15 English copies and they all went. All the French went as well as half of the Creole. We were pretty happy about that. We have some very awesome members in this ward. I love them! They are awesome! Yesterday was the fifth Sunday, so for the combined meeting, they took names from the 600 less active members we had and they had each person in the class call someone or write a letter. 

We were going to take the investigators into another room, but many of them were in conversation with a member of the ward. So we took Cemania who wasn't talking to anyone and taught her a lesson. She got a Plan of Salvation pamphlet from someone and had been reading it. She told us that she had never heard about the premortal life before. She told us however that she felt it was true because she has déjà vous moments and she said it felt so familiar. We told her about the light of Christ and we told her about the Plan of Salvation and she believed it. She told us that she knows that this is where she needs to be and that she is starting to get used to the church. We were so happy when we heard that. Especially because a week and a half ago, she almost dropped herself (quit having the missionaries teach her), because she was part of the Church of God, and she felt like she was turning her back on them if she came here. And she was tired of trying to figure out which church was true and she felt that as long as she tried her best that God would not penalize her if she just went anywhere to find the truth. She said after Christ came again, we would all know the full truth anyway. Elder Shipley and I were so depressed to hear that. But then we told her that God wants her to find out the truth and doesn't want her to stop searching. She told us that we were right and she said we could come back over. Then we went over and we helped her understand why we needed the Book of Mormon as a second witness. Elder Shipley had the idea of focusing a lot on the Book of Mormon. She told us that God answered her through us, because she resented the Book of Mormon at first because she felt like it took away from the bible and substituted it. But now she says that the idea of the book of Mormon makes a lot of sense. She changed the signature on her phone to ***God answered me***. Elder Shipley and I are ecstatic. She is on her way to baptism. Her faith has grown so much since she has been meeting with us. She is doing amazingly!

Ernst has been reading in the Book of Mormon and he came to church today! He told us that he was going to move to Pensacola, but yesterday he said that he changed his mind and that he wants to move next to the church so that he can walk. We were so surprised and excited about that. He accepted our invitation to be baptized when he knows it is true, but he wants to pray, read, and come to church more before he accepts a specific date.

We have been getting so many new investigators and referrals lately. Elder Shipley and I have had a difficulties finding time to call, visit, and help everyone that is interested. We have worked out a system and we have been using Preach My Gospel to help us a lot. We are getting so much better at planning. There is so much to do still to improve, but we are getting there. We need to continue progressing and not get prideful because of the success we are having.

Lina's family is having a really hard time. Lina cares about her children and tries to help them out, but she doesn't listen very well and is always in her children's business. Plus Christnel has extreme anger issues. Last time we were at the house, he threw his copy of the book of Mormon at her because she kept on interrupting him when he was talking to us. Both of them were crying and there was a lot of yelling. The spirit is completely absent from that house. We are going to leave a blessing on the house in the future. Christnel feels that his mom is always bugging him, and putting him down. She feels that he can't change. It is so sad to see. But Christnel does want peace in the home and he is a good kid. He just lets his anger get the best of him. We gave all of them a copy of the Book of Mormon. We are going to see Christnel tonight. We had an investigator give us a really good Haitian meal this week. Elder Shipley was excited about it. I was too because I love Haitian food.

Cassandra and her family are doing well. We visited them with Sister Monestine and Brother Alba. They are very open to us and they really want to visit the church. Cassandra and Franzy are the ones that want to get baptized. They will be coming to church in two weeks. Sister Monestine has been keeping contact with Rose Marie (the mom) and the kids. Sister Monestine said she would even help her find a job. She is taking her somewhere on Wednesday.

I am happier now than any other time in my life. I am learning so many good skills. I hope I cannot get prideful because of how well things are going. I need to work on that.

I have felt more power come from the calling which I bear as a representative of Jesus Christ when I am more obedient. Elder Shipley and I have been doing that a lot. We had an amazing week and we have so many people that we are teaching right now. I am seeing the windows of heaven open so much that we don't even have room enough to receive it. Seriously. We have more referrals than we can even contact. I know that God will give us the strength to fit everything we need to in. I recognize that it was because of God that we have been able to get this far. We couldn't have done it without him. Pray that I may have humility always. It is crucial, or else the pride cycle will take over and I really don't want to go through that.

I am beginning to realize how big of a responsibility we have as missionaries. There are so many people who are relying on us. If we are not obedient, we won't be able to help them at all. We were doing Harvest the field and we met a Haitian woman named Dani Anne who had a daughter named Martine who is a burn victim. She had boiling water fall on her. The backs of her legs and her back are destroyed. It paralyzed her so she can't even walk. She is four. She can't stand up by herself. I want to help her more than anything. I realized that as a holder of the priesthood, I have the power to heal her. But If I am not in tune with the spirit and exactly obedient, I won't know if it is God's will for her to be healed, nor will I have the power to do it. I hope that we can help this family. This woman can't work because she has to watch her daughter, and her fiancé is in Haiti, waiting for his papers to be processed. She pays for the house with money that she receives from friends that visit her.

Everything is going well. There is still a lot of work. I know that Jesus Christ lives. He has carried me this far and will continue to do so. He has never failed me.

Bye everyone! I love you! Thanks for all of the support!

Love,

Elder Seamons

By the way, about that boy in the last area, Peterson, Elder Chandler told me that he got a tumor in the back of his brain because he was so angry all of the time, and his Mom doesn't want it to be operated on. But I heard that a new young men's leader moved in and is watching him very closely and his Mom agreed to let him be baptized if he is on his best behavior for the next two weeks. Pray for Peterson and Christella. They need it very much.

Elder Seamons sent his letter to the president, so I included it.

Hi President! Everything is going very well. I am loving the Harvest the Field method! We haven't been doing it every day as we should because we have so many appointments, but we realize that we have to, so we are going to put it in the planner every day so that we don't schedule too many appointments in. But it is working very well. I am learning to love the people and have a desire to serve them. I am excited to do this, because I feel the spirit very powerfully every time I do it. It is so exciting to exercise the priesthood in such a direct way. People feel the spirit and it opens their minds and hearts.

Elder Edwards and Elder Giorgino have some good investigators and they are very good at finding. They have found several people for us, some of which came from harvesting the field.

Sister Buckley and Sister Despain are very enthusiastic about the work. They need to find more investigators though. They have been passing so many referrals. That is one of the reasons why Elder Shipley and I need to go harvesting: so we can help them find investigators.

We are doing well. We are exacting our obedience. It isn't getting there yet, but it will be. Thank you for your counsel and direction. I love and appreciate you a lot. I will write you next week, President!

Love,

Elder Seamons

"We have too many referrals and we can't even contact them all" and "the craziest experience"

July 26th, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
 
We have had very interesting things happen this week. Analia was doing really well. She passed her baptismal interview and was supposed to be baptized this last Sunday. She called us and asked what she needed to bring to the baptism. But then she never showed up. We asked her cousin and he said that she had been called to work. We talked to her husband and she told him she went to the church. So we are not sure what is going on. We have been trying to get a hold of Analia. We hope we can. She is so spiritually prepared for the message that we have. That would be sad if she never got baptized. We hope that she isn't trying to avoid us. We have had such difficulties in getting a hold of her. Pray for her.


We have also been having a lot of success in street contacting. We have too many referrals and we can't even contact them all. We gave 13 blessings last week. There are a lot of people who want to hear more. The blessings have opened up so many doors that wouldn't have been possible before.

Carlo Joseph also came to church! We are so excited. He is upset because he can't come to church every week. He told us that he cried every Sunday at work because he wanted to come so badly. His boss finally pitied him and let him come for one or two Sundays. He is looking for a new job now. We have a member who works at the trump hotel in Miami and he is going to look for an open position for Carlo. He is so happy about that.

We had the craziest experience last night. We have two Haitian members who live with an English member in the same duplex. Elder Giorgino and Elder Edwards have an investigator from Russia who needed a place to stay at, so they Talked to Bro. Hassan who owns the apartment that the sisters live in and he gave her a place. The duplexes hold six people. Elder Giorgino and Elder Edwards wanted to get this investigator fellowship in the church, so they wanted to do a family home evening night with those three sisters, the investigator, and some other members. They wanted us to come because we knew the Haitian members better and could help reach out to them. They do speak English. Those elders told us that the investigator and the Haitians hated each other and that they were clashing. So he wanted to do a lesson on Charity. Then they could help them become friends and they could fellowship her. That didn't go very well.

I thought Elder Giorgino was exaggerating, so I convinced both of the Haitian members to come in because they trusted me, even though they seemed extremely reluctant to enter. The Russian investigator was very authoritative. The lesson went okay at first, but then one of the Haitians wanted to turn on the Air conditioning and the Russian didn't want to because she was next to it and she said it was cold, but the rest of us were hot. She wouldn't move. We just continued the lesson, and one of the Haitians was staring at the Russian with the look of purest Hatred I have ever seen. Then the other Haitian chimed in and said that she was charitable to sisters of her church and only those who treat her kindly. She said that people who don't treat her kindly will be shunned. Then the Russian started to chime in and said that she had only been in there for two days and that it was a mess, the Haitians were loud in the morning, and that their kids were bothering her all of the time. Then the Haitians were complaining about how she had called them "Haitian pigs" the other day. We tried to stop the argument and just continue the lesson, but they cut through us.

Then Brother Alba got up and rebuked everyone and started teaching the principle of Charity and told them that we were not there to argue, but to teach the gospel and help them come to Christ and reconcile with each other despite their differences. It worked for a while, but then the argument resumed and the Haitian members started freaking out and one of them threatened to move out. It was so sad to see the two Haitian members that I loved so much lose it like that. I tried to tell them to not worry about it and that we were there to teach them about Christ, but they wouldn't listen. They were so angry. It was an ugly situation. The spirit of the devil was in that house.

We were about to leave because there was no way that anyone was going to listen, but we decided to leave a blessing upon that house and we some how got everything calmed down. We left the blessing by the authority of the Holy Melchizedek priesthood and Brother Alba was the voice. Then we gave the Russian and one of the Haitian members a blessing. Those two members apologized to each other and the Russian said sorry for calling them pigs. The other Haitian member was as angry as ever, but she calmed down and seem more happy when we said good bye. It gave me a stronger testimony of the power of the priesthood and the healing power of Christ's Atonement. It was such a spiritual experience to have the four missionaries and the member standing around these members and in turn give them blessings of comfort. We didn't council them on the personal matters, but we persuaded them to believe in Christ and we told them that he could help them.

Today went Sunrising again! Miami is the best place to do it, because there is pier that goes out into the ocean, so you are surrounded by the water on the left and the right sides.

Elder Shipley is doing really well! He is very good at organization and prioritizing, which is really good. He is an obedient missionary and he tries his very best. He is a very self-motivated person and he focuses on what is going to help these investigators to be converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ the most.

I am learning so much from Elder Shipley! By the way, We are staying together for another 6 weeks. Also Elder Giorgino and Elder Edwards are also staying. Only three people in the zone are getting transferred. The YSA sisters are staying, which makes me happy too. By the way, did I tell you that Elder Edwards went to the same Junior High and High School as I did and that he was in my percussion class in Junior High?

And we met an awesome family last week! A 12 year old Haitian girl named Cassandra and her sister Franzy ordered a bible from a bible pass-along card. We called her the day we got the referral number and 15 minutes later we knocked on the door. The mom Rose Marie seemed very cold at first because she thought we were Jehovah’s Witnesses, but when she realized we weren't, she got excited and let us in. She felt the spirit and all of the Haitian Culture that I knew won her heart over. We left a blessing and she appreciated that we mentioned each person in the family by name. We learned to love them and we gave them the bible. It so happens that Cassandra and Franzy are taking a class in their Presbyterian church to prepare for baptism, because they both really want to do that. Her mom is excited to allow us back to teach them, and she told us that she would make Griyo for us. The Lord has been blessing us so much that there almost isn't enough room to receive it. That is very apartment due to the amount of referrals which we can't even begin to have time to contact them all. We decided that we would only do an hour of Harvesting that we are required to do, and not find until we can start to get caught up. There is no point in continuing to contact people that we can't follow up with for a while. But we have been giving out a ton of Pass-along cards especially the bible ones. Everyone in Florida wants a bible and we have gotten more of those media referrals than any of the others combined.

Bye everyone! I love you!

Love,

Elder Seamons



Eric sent his letter from the mission president, so I have included it.



Dear President,

I am enjoying myself a lot! I am finally realizing that my first priority is to have the spirit with me in the work. Even before seeing someone, we must always have the spirit. Even before going out, we must have the spirit. I am so happy and satisfied with the work right now. We have seen great success from the Harvesting. We are getting more referrals than we know what to do with. We just need to make sure we are following up on all of our referrals. That is our biggest challenge. But we are doing very well, and we are motivated to do more. Thank you so much President! I love you! I will talk to you later.

Love,

Elder Seamons

"Harvesting the Field"

Note from Dad: We have been in Ohio visiting family until today. In Eric’s letter this week, he talks about a new finding technique introduced by the new mission president called Harvesting the Field. This is the exact program that we used throughout my mission in England 30 years ago. It is so interesting to see Eric start using this program and have some of the same kinds of experiences that I witnessed on my mission.


July 18, 2011

Hi Mom and Dad! How are you doing? The program of Harvesting the Field is the same thing you did on your mission. We have given many blessings in the last week and I have seen more miracles than I ever have in the mission before. It is an amazing program. The people are feeling the spirit much more strongly now in the lessons as we find (people) using this method. I have some cool stories to share with you.

On Saturday, we were doing Harvesting the Field down south and we ran into an old Haitian man whose skin was peeling and had a rash on it. He was in a lot of pain and he said it was from Voodoo. He told us that an evil spirit went in him and changed his skin. We told him that we were servants of God to leave the peace and healing power of the Savior in his home. He let us in his house across the street. We kneeled down and said the prayer. We blessed him that he would find healing in his home and that as he listened to our message he would be healed. We said several other things. At the end of the prayer, he told us that something had changed and that the pain in his leg was gone and as we left, he was in a really good mood and chuckling. We have a return appointment with him on Tuesday.

I am loving the mission. I am feeling more power and authority coming from my calling then ever before. We are using a program called Harvesting the Field, which President Anderson introduced to us as a way to help people recognize us as servants of God from the very beginning of the teaching relationship.

How it works is that when we approach the door or talk to people on the street, we say, "We are representatives of Jesus Christ. He has sent us here to leave his peace and blessing in your home. Can we come into your home to do that?"

If they say they are too busy, we say, "This blessing is in the form of a short prayer and will only take a moment of your time. May we come in and leave His blessing?

If they say they have their own religion already, we say, "Do you believe in Jesus Christ? This blessing is from him and it is for all those who believe in him. May we enter and leave his blessing?"

If they say that Jesus Christ has already blessed their home, we say, "You can't have too many blessings from Jesus Christ, can you? May we come in and leave his blessing?"

If they say they are in a hurry, we will say, "it will only take a moment because we too are in a hurry."

I have seen so many miracles come out of this method. I have seen some of the most stubborn people let us and change their hearts. I will tell you a few of the amazing things that have happened.

And with the Harvest the Field, an important part is to tell them that the feelings that they felt were the result of the Holy Spirit. We do the blessing and leave quickly so as to not interrupt the Spirit in the house. If we linger too long and distract them, the feelings they had might be forgotten.

Yesterday we knocked on a Haitian woman's door. She said she had a church and that she felt that Mormons didn't worship the same God and that we weren't his representatives. We used some of the techniques I mentioned, and then she asked me how I became a representative of Jesus Christ. I told her that he called us and selected us, and she let us in. By the end of the blessing, she allowed us to get a return appointment and she told us that she felt the spirit of God was present when we gave the blessing. Elder Shipley and I were so surprised that there was such a big change in her so quickly. She knows we are representatives of Christ now. Most people we used to teach didn't recognize that, but now she has evidence of our power, as did those who witnessed Ammon. And now maybe she will believe in our words. This is such a cool program they are having us do. I am so grateful to be a part of it. I hope all missionaries can have a chance to do this.

Many more people are opening their doors to us than ever before. I am feeling the spirit and I am growing more than ever. I just hope I can maintain the humility because when things are going so well, it is easy to forget whose power it is that is bringing us this success. We are no better than any other missionaries. We are just having a different experience. That is what I admire so much about Elder Furner. He doesn't use his skills to boast about his strength. I hope I can be like him some day.

This week we went on an exchange with the zone leaders. It was great! Elder Orton is a great leader. I stayed in our area while Elder Shipley went to the other elders' area. We had a good exchange. We found Analia again! She missed our last appointment because she had the actual surgery to get her gall bladder out. She is doing a lot better. She was out of it the last time we came. She has read 61 pages out of the Book of Mormon. We committed her to come to church this week and she did. Her baptism is next week if we can meet with her enough times. We are trying to get members to come out with us so we can have her be fellowshipped. I don't want to see her fall away after baptism. It happens far too often. We had a meeting with the Ward Leaders yesterday and in our ward we have 600 people in the records, but only 200 people show up. Many of them were baptized within the last three to four years. A few of them are even within the last year and a half, which is awful. I am really beginning to realize why members of this church have such a big influence. You don't need to be missionaries to make a difference in someone else's life.

We got an awesome new investigator named Samaynia on the exchange too. She heard many negative things about the church, and she was very defensive at first, but she said she wanted to hear from us herself before made any conclusions. She was so relieved after she met with us and she said that the idea of the Book of Mormon makes a lot of sense, because it seems logical that God would give another group of people who lived in America prophets as well. She came to church yesterday and both her and Analia committed to come this coming Sunday. There is an activity at the church where people will watch the movie Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration. She said that she would try her best to come and Analia really wanted to come. We are going to commit Samaynia to be baptized on a specific date during our next lesson. We are going to get a member to be there.

Elder Shipley is so good at getting things organized. He made a chart that has all of our progressing investigators, when the last day we contacted them was, who is fellowshipping them, how many lessons they have had with a member present, how many times they have been to church, when our next appointment is with them, when our last appointment was with them, etc. This will help us keep track of every one of our investigators, because some of them went a week and a half without being contacted, which is horrible. They won't get closer to Christ if we don't keep in contact with them.

We met this really awesome woman named Merline. She was getting her car fixed in the parking lot next to Lina's apartment complex. She lives in the same apartment as Lina, one of our investigators. Merline loved it when we came over and she gave us a person to teach when we called her the next time. That is so cool! We are going to pass her to Elder Giorgino because she speaks good enough English that we don't need to teach her. She lives in their area, so unless she needs us to teach her because of the language, she goes to them, even though she is Haitian. It is okay though. I was really disappointed about having to pass her, but as President Hale said, we are all wearing the same jersey. We need to be just as happy, if not more happy about the successes of others than our own.

There are a lot of good things happening in the work. The hardest part is being efficient and effective with our time so that we can do everything we need to. We have so much we need to manage, but I know that God will help me do it. Elder Shipley and I have grown so much in the last two weeks. I am amazed at all of the wonderful experiences we have had together. When the spirit is strong, the work is a lot more fulfilling.

Bye everyone! I love you all! Growth is painful and hard, but it is very satisfying. I just hope I don't lose momentum. I won't, because I won't let it happen. Pray for our investigators, especially:

Analia (baptism this week)

Samaynia (will know Joseph Smith and Book of Mormon are true)

Carlo Joseph, Margerie, Georges (Get work off)

Rodeline, Viniel, Prince (overcome obstacles)

Edward (Feel the Savior's love and desire to get baptized)

Ernst (be willing to pray to know and come to church)

Luxom Paul (feel the spirit to tell him this message is true)

and all the rest we have.



Note from Mom: Eric forwarded us his letter to the president, so I have included it.

Hi President Anderson! This has been a great week for Elder Shipley and I in terms of finding people and teaching with the spirit. We have had some of the most amazing finding experiences ever. We are finding more prepared people than I have ever found as I have been a missionary. This Harvest the Field program is such an amazing thing and it helps us use our priesthood and help others to recognize us as servants of Jesus Christ. I am having more fun than ever.

We are doing well in getting people to accept dates. We are focusing much more on our purpose and as we have been more bold and focused on Christ, the spirit has been much more present and our message is being received better.

Our district is doing well and the obedience level is on the rise. I haven't been so obedient and happy in all of my time in the mission field. Everything is going well. I will continue to push forward so that my efforts and progression don't go down. I know that this time is easier than any other to stop progressing because of pride or a false sense of security. Please continue to pray for us. I feel so much strength coming and I am amazed. His guidance is so real and I am finally starting to take advantage of it. Elder Shipley is a great missionary. One of the most obedient, motivated, and purpose driven people I have ever met. He is doing great! I know that he was meant to be with me. Bye President! I love you! We will talk to you later.

Love,

Elder Seamons

"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