To be a missionary and to be like Christ, we have to become as a little child

Dear friends and family,

Hi everyone! I am staying in Miami for my 5th transfer! I am so excited! There are so many people who are preparing for baptism right now. Elder Shipley and I have a goal for 11 baptisms this month. That is very possible because of the number of people who have been to church already, but we haven't been doing our part as much. Our obedience has been slacking a lot, but we are going to do better. We are going to give our all to these people. Elder Shipley is leaving and I am very sad about that. We have been together for 2 1/2 transfers. I love Elder Shipley so much! He is so good at prioritizing, recognizing when he can do better, and changing his actions. I have grown so much since I have been with him. My faith is becoming so much stronger. I am not someone who is very trusting in certain aspects and I have allowed myself to doubt whether everything will be okay. It will be. I am scared to death about these next two weeks. President is expecting me to do some amazing things. God is expecting me to do amazing things. I realize now how weak I am. My own abilities are really nothing. To be a missionary and to be like Christ, we have to become as a little child: humble, trusting, loving, 100% dependant on our Father in Heaven. So many people are counting on my success. I don't want to fail these people at all. I need prayers right now. My new companion and I need prayers right now. I want to help these 11 people get baptized so badly! All of them are capable of making it. All of them are very prepared. They just need the extra help. I love these people.

Down below is my letter to President Anderson for this week. These are all the people that you all need to pray for. If you don't do anything else to help me, please pray for these people. There is going to need to be a miracle to get them baptized and to help them gain the faith to make this large of a step in such a short amount of time.

By the way mom, I got the cookies that Laurie sent to me. I am so happy you sent those cookies to me Aunt Laurie. I love you so much. It is so comforting to know that people are out there to help support me when I have such a large task at hand.

I also had the Thai Peanut noodles from the package. It was really good! Thank you so much! I will have the Pad Thai noodles during the week.

I don't know who my companion will be yet. Elder Edwards also is leaving. That means that Elder Furner and I will be the only two left in the apartment from this transfer. Sister Bloomfield, one of the sisters that came out the same time as I did is leaving from the Miami Beach YSA branch. I don't like change, but God is behind it, so it will be for the best. I will know tomorrow. I think it will be Elder Terry just because of what other missionaries have told me about who is transferring and who is not. The only two Creole missionaries who are leaving are Elder Shipley and Elder Terry. Every other Creole missionary is staying.

I need to go! I love you all! Bye! Pray for those names and pray for me and my companion.

Love,

Elder Seamons

Hello President! I am so excited for October! I am so grateful that Elder Shipley and I have been able to have such great success together as a companionship. I know that God lives and that he truly is a God of miracles. I have lacked the faith to move all of the mountains that I am capable of moving. It is time to move them all.

Here is our baptismal goal for this month: 11

Here are the most likely candidates:

Ernst/Carrine
Robert/Rosemonde
Gulbert/Roni
Spencer/Cleante
Kattia
Carol/Bertony
Georges
Florise
Cheri family
Here is my actions for all of them:

Daily contact (from me and the members)
During this daily contact we will:
follow up on reading/praying
answering questions
reminding them of their baptismal date
help them find a way to get to church if none
testify
read with them if they didn't
Give each of them a goal for number of Chapters to read before baptism.
Make these people first priority and put others who are not ready yet on hold.
Focus on them being "Pricked in their hearts" as the scriptures say (Acts 2:37)
Update the area book every night
Go to bed/get up/get to studies on time
Out the door at 11:45, to first appointment at 12:00

"I know the gospel is true and I will preach it everywhere until I am done."

October 10th, 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

We are continuing to have much success in finding people. We are not worried about finding people to teach anymore. The big problem for us is helping these people understand. Some of them don't understand why we go by their house and think that we just go to do a "bible study." We realized that we need to be more clear and bold with people. I have told some people very boldly that this is the true church and that we are here to help them change their life and be baptized. Our lessons with them should be life changing and the most important thing that has ever happened to them in the eternal perspective. If they don't understand that, they aren't prepared. We do it with love by telling them that we care about them and we bear our testimony of the Savior, but we do tell them the simple fact of the matter as well.

We have a huge teaching pool, but some of our investigators are having difficulties with their commitments. Novotna and Barbara are flaking out now. They are 15 and 17 year-old Haitian girls. They are both reading and praying, but they have had difficulty coming to church and they aren't really working towards baptism. We are planning on having a serious talk with them next time we come to see them. We will see them on Tuesday. Ernst and Carrine are having the same marital problems. It is really sad and also frustrating. They don't ever spend time together anymore, sleep in the same bed, or even talk to each other. Ernst feels that Carrine isn't doing her part, so he wants her to start doing counseling and then he will follow after her. Carrine is ready to be baptized, but she doesn't want to be baptized until the marriage problem is resolved. We are not sure if they should still be baptized when they are having marital problems like this. But not all marriages will work out. It may be the spouse's fault or something like that. If they fulfill the requirements in the interview, I guess that is what is most important. That shows that they are doing their part.

We blessed a Haitian family. Jezila, Paul (her cousin), and Marrise ( Paul's wife), and other people live in that house. It is full of Haitians. They all think it is funny that we speak Creole. Jezila is a seventh-day Adventist, but last night in our second visit with her, she told us that she was baptized into the LDS church when she was 18 because she had a whole bunch of friends in it, but then a year and a half ago she got baptized in the Seventh-day church. However, she is interested in reading in the Book of Mormon, praying about it, and coming to the church. She agreed to come to the church and we said we would find her a ride for her first visit back in a long time.

On the fifth Sunday a month ago, the ward called 50 percent of the less actives during a combined meeting and got a status check up on them. It is called the Shepherding List. We have contacted several of them who have agreed to let us bless their homes. One of the families we are visiting is the Louhidan family. Their mom is less active and the kids aren't baptized yet. They are awesome. We gave them the picture book of Mormon and agreed to throw them a pizza party if all three of them read the whole book.

Gulbert came to church for the first time! Plus his brother Roni randomly showed up. We weren't expecting that at all! I hope they had a good time. Carlo came again and was the only one in the Gospel principles class, so Brother Richens, the ward mission leader, answered his questions for the whole time. After church, he fed us and Brother Melkisedeck rice and beans and pork with spices in it. It was amazing!

Well,

I am out of time! I love you all! I know the gospel is true and I will preach it everywhere until I am done. Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons

"I loved this conference. I feel it was meant for me."

October 3rd, 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

We had conference this week! All the sessions were broadcasted in our building. The chapel was for the Spanish translation, the Cultural Hall was for English, and the Nursery was for Creole. But for Creole The TV had a transmitter hooked up to it, so they could sit in the English room while they listened to it in Creole. Salt Lake translates everything and sends it to each meeting house where the broadcasts are being done. The Saturday sessions were very empty because most people watched them at home, but the Priesthood session and the Sunday Sessions were a lot more full. We had four investigators come to the building during both of the days. We had many more who had promised to come and had even found a ride for themselves, but they didn't come, so we were disappointed. But we still had a great weekend. Carlo, Carrine, Ernst, and Novotna came to Conference! Carlo Came to 3 of the sessions and so did Carrine. Ernst was there for one and Novatna came for half of one.

Carlo invited us over for lunch after the first session on Saturday. We had diri kole and Chicken and Sauce. It was so good. Plus Carlo had a really good Salad with it. He has been cooking for us lately because he wants to make sure that we will have enough strength to baptize him without dropping him. He is so funny! He also has been asking us to find a Haitian member of the church to have him marry because he doesn't want to be alone. He wants to go and tell people that he is single and has no woman to take care of him. We told him to do that himself.

I loved this conference. It was so wonderful. It is such a blessing to have prophets and apostles to guide us. They counsel that was given is so applicable to me and my investigators. I feel it was meant for me. I realized that I need to be up-ing my efforts and looking heavenward for answers. I realize that I have let obedience slack and I haven't been magnifying my call as I should. Plus I need to recognize that I can pray for help to specific problems. I don't do that as much as I should. My biggest thing I will do to change is to focus on the most important things and just trust that everything else will work itself out.

Ernst and Carrine are still having marriage problems. We had a sit down with them two weeks ago and told them to do read a verse in the Book of Mormon, pray together, and do Companionship inventory (the 3 questions) every night. It is something that Sister Hale implemented in the mission that everyone still does. We answer the questions, “What did I love about my companion today?” “What did I learn today?” “What can I do better tomorrow?” She majored in marriage counseling, so these questions are very good. We told them to do it as soon as we left and to text us ten minutes later. Carrine jumped on it, but Ernst told her that he was busy looking for his drivers license that he couldn't find. He didn't even take five minutes. It never ended up happening and we weren't happy about it. Their marriage will never improve if they don't do those things, neither will they come closer to Christ if they can't find time to read and pray for five minutes a night. We set a date with Ernst for possible on the 9th, but we will have to put it off because he isn't ready to be baptized. We will tell him if he can't do this inventory with his wife and start making progress, we will have to drop him.

Both Elder Shipley and I had the thought to invite Cemania to come to a session of conference, but I pushed the thought aside because I felt that Cemania would say no. But Elder Shipley told me we should invite her, so we did. She was so excited to see us and she gave us both a hug. She said she would try her best to come. She even told us yesterday the same thing when we called to confirm. But the never did. We left some messages on her phone and texted her. We are wondering if she got scared about coming back to the church, even just for conference and she ran away. She told us that she is going through a lot of hard things right now. She told us that she isn't going to any church anymore just because she is tired of all of the confusion. We told her that we would still love her even if she didn't end up coming back. We just care about her.

Well. Time is up! I have to go! Bye!  I love you!

Love,

Elder Seamons

" We have met some of the most amazing people."

Hi family and friends! This has been an amazing week for Elder Shipley and I and as a mission as a whole.

Elder Shipley and I have been extending a lot more dates lately and we have been much more bold. We realized that we need to take every opportunity to commit people to baptism ("At the drop of a hat"). My faith in Jesus Christ and the preparedness of the people of South Florida is growing so strongly. We just need to make sure to be prepared with the practice, the knowledge of Preach My Gospel, and the Spirit.

We had two member blessings and we were richly blessed with referrals. It was amazing how the members responded to it. We got four referrals from one and three from another. We will do harvesting more often with Member referrals and not just our own finding.

Duponte is doing awesome! He went out with us again and we taught him the restoration over again at his house. He explained what he understood and everything. He is very good with it. He went on an exchange to someone else's house with Elder Edwards and Elder Furner and he taught the restoration in English and he also went to another recent convert's house and helped them out. He has a very strong testimony of the Gospel. We are super excited. He also was called as an Usher last week and he received the Aaronic priesthood this week. Yay! We need to take more members over there and have them teach the new member lessons with us so that he can become even more comfortable with them.

Good news! Ernst returned home on Saturday and he and his wife sat together in Sacrament meeting. They were having arguments and they weren't getting along well. Carrine felt that Ernst was always controlling and Ernst wouldn't ever help her around the house, even though he didn't currently have a job. He left and she was really sad, but he came back. We sat with him twice in the mall and we taught him. We were really excited to hear that he went back.

As a mission president gave us instruction to commit at least one person a day to baptism, even if it was just the first visit. We had a leadership training about How to begin teaching and using the points in Preach My Gospel. We worked on testifying and centering our teaching more on Jesus Christ. President told us that most missionaries don't testify at all or barely mention Christ's name in the lesson. We have worked on testifying and bringing Jesus Christ into the lesson and we have seen so many miracles. We are finding the most prepared people I have ever seen on the mission. We just need to continue to be worthy of this responsibility. We have been blessed so much it is amazing! Preach My Gospel and the priesthood keys are amazing. They are truly inspired sources.

I am starting to realize how much prior preparation for the day makes all the difference. Besides teaching, testifying, etc, if you don't have an organized apartment and if you don't study well, It won't make a difference. Preparation is 90% of the deal. The other 10 percent is what happens outside, most of which is covered by the spirit, depending on our preparation. It is something very interesting I have learned.

We have met some of the most amazing people. I understand what role Heavenly Father plays in giving us success. Everything! This has been such a purifying experience in my life. Elder Furner pointed out to me this morning how much I have changed since the first day we were together. So has he. He has changed for the better as well.

Barbara and Novatna have skipped out on a few appointments because of practice. Hopefully they will continue to progress.

We met two people named Rosemonde and Robert who are amazing. They both have dates.

Julbert is reading, but he didn't come to church. He is working toward this week.

I love you all. I will work harder and I will work to help these people change. Pray for me that I may do that. I love you all so much as my brothers and sisters in the gospel.

Love,

Elder Seamons

"I love developing my skills as a missionary and learning to use time more effectively."

Dear Family and Friends,

This week wasn't as good, but everything is still okay. We had two days with all of our most apathetic investigators--several people who we started meeting with who were not committed to acting. We have dropped several people. At least all of our dates are still doing pretty well. Gulbert wasn't at his appointment on Saturday, but we will be seeing him tomorrow. Barbara and Novatna are having their dates delayed because they haven't been coming to church. We have the young women's leaders coming out with us to see them.

Carlo came for his 8th Sunday. He gave a member a ride without being asked to. Plus he invited us to eat a Haitian meal at his house. It was so good. Carlo is so funny. He showed us a movie clip where Jesus was baptized forward instead of backward. His date is being put back too because he wants his cousin and sister to see. They are both members of the church.

A terrible thing that happened is that Ernst left Carrine and Karen. He said that he was tired of paying the bills and dealing with the problems and he took off. We hoped that he would come back. He did call us and said that he would tell us what was going on, but he never called us back. We hope he is okay. Despite all of this, Carrine still came to church. She has so much faith.

Kattia is doing well. She has read all the way through Enos in the Book of Mormon and she has come to church 4 times now. She says she wants to be baptized. We are going to make sure that she has a firm testimony of Joseph Smith and the restoration. We are taking Aselene, a Haitian member over to her house. We want to make sure that she has fellowship so that she stays after we leave the area.

In response to a question Kent asked him about what he has learned on his mission, he wrote the following:

I love developing my skills as a missionary and learning to use time more effectively. It has been so helpful and it will help me for the rest of my life

I have to go. I love you all so much! Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons

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Letter to President Anderson

Hello President Anderson! Elder Shipley and I are doing well. We have been doing great on getting members to come out with us to teaching appointments. We need to work on member blessings though. That is a trend we see with the district as a whole.

We also need to work on getting more dates. I will make sure to train the district very well on committing people to be baptized. We will work very well on that. Also I will be following up better with my district.

Elder Edwards and Elder Furner are working on building up an investigator pool. I will do my best as a district leader to help them out more. Also, I will work with the sisters more. I think they need a little more guidance and advice because they are struggling with harvesting and with Member Blessings.

Thank you president! I will talk to you later! I love you!

Love,

Elder Seamons

"This has been a really good week"

September 12, 2011

Hello Everyone!


This has been a really good week. Dupont got the gift of the Holy Ghost. But he was living with a friend, who kicked him out of the house. He has only been in the country for four months and he doesn't have a job. He talked to Fre Laurent in the Bishopric. He slept in the front living room of Sister Lacoste's house Saturday night because he got kicked out. I don't know what he is doing now. He talked to Fre Laurent. I know they will take of him. Hopeful he is doing okay. We will call him today. We will be seeing him tomorrow.

Carrine, Carlo, and The louhidan children all came to church! Sister Louhidan was baptized four years ago and she went less active. Her son, Now that Carlo has work off consistently he wants to wait for a few weeks to make sure that it will be permanent so that they don't switch him back to having Sunday after he gets baptized.

We have a lot of investigators who are very close to getting baptized. But we need to make sure they are very converted before we baptize them.

We met someone awesome this week named Gubert. We blessed his house. It was interesting how we met him. We were harvesting and we knocked on their door at 8:15. A Haitian woman came out and told us she would call the police on us if we ever knocked this late again. We passed by another day in the afternoon and she was really nice. She was super nervous. Everyone in that neighborhood was paranoid and wouldn't open their doors that late. I realize that I am not in Utah where you rarely have any problems. He wasn't into religion, but he understood the restoration very well and he read the part in the book of Mormon we asked him to. He wants to come to church next week. We are really excited about that!

And one more thing. Kattia told us that she had Jesus already and that she was good with her relationship with God already. She said that she didn't want to keep meeting with us. We persisted and testified that this would bless her and we told her how we cared about her as our sister. She had a change of heart after that. Then she went and took a nap and when she woke up she told us that the Holy Spirit told her in a dream to get baptized again, which she wasn't wanting to do at all. She said that she is positive now that she wants to be baptized. She has asked me to perform it. I am still a little worried that she doesn't have a testimony of the Restoration and the prophet Joseph Smith. In almost every other aspect she is very prepared for baptism. But as to her testimony, she doesn't have much. We don't want her to be baptized and then to go to another church.

Well, I have to go. I will talk to you later. Bye! I love you!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Duponte got baptized this week!

Hello Everyone!

Duponte got baptized this week! Here are the pictures for the baptism. Duponte has only been in the United States for 4 months. He read all the way into Mosiah within three weeks of us meeting with him. Plus we never had to find a ride for him. He is self-sufficient.

[See pictures below of Dupont’s baptism, Eric at the computer, Eric and Elder Shipley, and some of the guys cleaning out the refrigerator]

Ernst and Carrine are doing really well. Ernst seems a lot more confident about being baptized on the 25th and Carrine is keeping her commitments pretty well. She has read the first 3 chapters of first Nephi and understood everything. We will need to follow up with her on the baptismal date. Ernst has been to church five times and Carrine twice. On Sunday we didn't even have to find a ride for them. Carrine texted and asked for Sister Civil's phone number and she showed up at church. There wasn't enough room in the car, so Ernst called the Castillos and got a ride from them. We are so happy about that! Carlos was at church again today! He is excited to be baptized. His boss gave him two Sundays off, but he is going to wait until he has all off before he gets baptized. He came to Dupont's baptism and he told everyone that he was the next in line for next week. He was so excited. We saw as the meets went on in church. He slowly pushed his date forward from 4 weeks to next week by the end of the baptismal service.

Kattia and Kervins came to church again! They attended their second baptismal service since we met with them. Kattia is now in 1 Nephi 17! Kervins is having a harder time because he doesn't read that well. But he read the first page in the Plan of Salvation pamphlet on his own and he loves reading out of the pamphlets while we are there. They both have a date for the 25th as well. Exciting.

We went on a companionship exchange with the zone leaders. We had some great experiences. One experience we had was super cool. Hermano Fan(~)a, the husband of one of their investigators wasn't finding time to sit with us, but his daughter and wife were. The Mom, was busy when we went, so we taught the daughter outside, because there wasn't a guy in the house. Then it started pouring outside so everyone, including the husband and many neighborhood kids went inside. The husband was standing inside not doing anything. We left because the house was crazy, but then I felt very strongly that we should go back. We sat down and taught him about the book of Mormon. I turned to 3 Nephi 9:13-16 and had him read it. The spirit was so strong. He said, "I understand what this is saying. It is talking to people like me who aren't following Jesus and telling them to come to him and repent." Elder Hansen said, "Hermano Fan~a, I don't know why Elder Seamons decided to show you that scripture, but we have read it before with you. Maybe God is trying to tell you something in this chapter. We will mark it for you and you can read it." We left and Elder Hansen told me that it was a miracle. He said that they had a situation in which they were able to sit down with him and they shared that exact same lesson: The book of Mormon, reading out of 3 Nephi 9:13-16, etc. They felt that it was inspired. We were happy that we were able to help him out and commit him to read the book of Mormon in a powerful way.

Well. I have to go. I am doing well. I love you all. Bye!

P.S.

I am staying with Elder Shipley in Miami for one more transfer. We are so excited! We have many people who are preparing to be baptized. We hope to help them be baptized and help them stay active. We recognize, especially with Dupont that we didn't do anything. He and Heavenly Father worked out the whole thing together. We were just there to guide him in keeping commitments. We were just "Baptismal Secretaries" as Elder Shipley calls it.


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Eric sent his letter to the president:

Hello President! The district is doing well!

The Sisters are doing great! Shannon, one of their recent converts, went to the temple and he had a really good experience. They could improve with the harvesting. They had six blessings this week. but they are doing well.

Elder Edwards and Elder Giorgino did really well with Both Member and Harvesting blessings. They work really hard to help their investigators and recent converts and they are great!

Elder Shipley and I are reaching the standard of excellence with Harvesting, but we have only done two member blessings since you gave the okay on them. We are going to work on that this week.

Bye President! I love you. Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Dupont's baptism

Elder Shipley and Elder Seamons

 Elder Seamons at the computer

Cleaning out the fridge. It takes two to clean, one to take pictures, and one to watch. :-)