Moving, hit by a car, voodoo and the power of the priesthood

Eric just moved and a couple, the Hawkshaws, who have been in the branch from England have sent us several e-mails with photos lately. There are photos from the new place he has moved to, as well as some from the talent show and some from the going away party for the Hawkshaws.

March 26, 2012
 

This area is really amazing. We have transfers in 9 days. We are really hoping that neither of us is being transferred. We just hope that we can stay together and make everything in this area work really well.

We both decided after talking awhile that part of the reason that are investigators aren't doing as well is because we haven't been planning and preparing for our lessons as effectively as we could. Elder Pearce taught me some of the things that they taught him in the missionary training center about planning. We have decided that their is no point in teaching unless we plan the best we can, so we are going to make sure that every person we teach is properly prepared for before the day is over.

We have been trying to help out our investigators better and we have come up with several ideas of what to do. We are not going to waste time on people who are not willing to keep their assignments. I tend to keep investigators a long time and try to help them out, but it is sometimes better to drop them. We just dropped many people in the last few weeks and we have only the really willing ones left. Elder Gonzalez told us when he came to the mission,"We don't abandon investigators, we just put them in the area book. :) "

We also have a talent show in the branch. Elder Pearce is planning on singing, and I am playing the piano to accompany him. We will see how it turns out.

We are a block away from the church. We got permission to e-mail in the church using the clerk's office computer. We walked here.

We are focusing less actives, our most progressing investigators, other names that the ward council gives us, getting people to the new English class that is starting this week, getting people to the talent show on Friday, and getting people to general conference. We are really excited! This next week will be great.

I bought some shrimp, which we will put with rice, green beans, and some other stuff. We will cook that today. We made a goal to not do microwaveable meals for a week. Elder Pearce has been telling me that he feels like he doesn't have a lot of energy and he feels that a contributing factor is the way he has been eating. I haven't been eating very well either. We won't go into that. But we will try to eat better.

By the way, I got hit by a car on Monday. I was on Commercial Blvd. going straight across while someone a side street wanted to turn right. It wasn't at a stop light. The person was stopped and I was starting to cross and then they shot forward because they were looking to make sure that cars weren't coming, but they didn't look for bikers. They shot in front of me when I was entering into the intersection, and I slammed into the front right corner of the car. Elder Pearce said he saw that I had the right of way. The lady didn't even get out of her car. I got out of her way, she turned stopped, rolled down the back window, asked if I was okay, told me to be more careful, and drove off. Elder Pearce got her license plate number, but the church legal department doesn't want to have me contact her because the damage wasn't severe enough. My front tire was really bent and my brakes were knocked out of place, but it wasn't a huge cost. The mission took care of it. I went to an urgent care center to get checked out, and they told me I was fine. Florida drivers never give bikers or pedestrians the right of way. When we are at lights and we push the button and the light flashes for us to go across, we always have to check. I have almost got hit so many times. Even when it is clearly the right of way of the pedestrian and they know it, they still cut in. It is very a hard to be patient with these people. But I have learned not to let it bother me as much.

Elder Koleber also got hit by a car a few days after that. I think most of my companions have been hit by a car sometime on their missions. But he is fine.

We had an interesting week. We moved out on Wednesday. We are a block away from the ocean, so we went jogging two mornings in a row and took pictures at the pier. We also found a Jamaican restaurant that is really good. Sister Maurer took us out to eat at an Italian Restaurant named Umberto's just west of the intercoastal. After our lesson with Elizabeth, Sister Terron gave us Mexican food. It was really good! Elizabeth has a strong testimony and is ready to be baptized, but she is telling us that he Mom doesn't like the church very much, and their relationship isn't doing well now, so she doesn't want to ask her mom in case it makes things worse. Plus she hasn't been very willing in the past. We talked to her about faith and how no miracles can be performed without it. We saw her at church, which was good. We will see what she does with her mom. Brother Terron knows the mom, since the Terrons are friends with Elizabeth, so Brother Terron wants us to go with him to their house and talk to the mom. Elizabeth has to talk to her mom too though. If they are available, we will do that.

Just to answer Dad's question, Marius isn't currently a minister as a profession. Since his church is in Haiti, he goes to another church and has a lower position. He does gardening outside houses and apartment buildings.

We had five investigators and two less-active members at church: the investigators were: Jason and Maria  (his wife from Colombia. She got back from a trip to Colombia on Wed.), Elizabeth, and Marius and his wife Fernand. The two less active members were both Haitian (Malene  and Jeanne ). We were so excited to see Marius, and even more excited to see his wife Fernand. Marius went and bore his testimony since yesterday was Fast Sunday because of conference, and I translated. It was so great! They both said that they are coming to General Conference on Saturday. We will take them to Coconut Creek because more Haitians will be there and they can see that we have many Haitians in the church. Maria said that she wants us to come and leave a blessing on their home. She has started to read the Book of Mormon.

We had a really weird experience. We were at Berta's house and she was saying the prayer. Brother Hawkshaw was with us. She was praying very loud and intensely. But I could have sworn that she spoke some things that didn't sound like Creole and even though Haitians are very passionate when they pray, it didn't seem right. All three of us thought it was some voodoo thing and Elder Pearce and I felt a dark presence. We both felt very very strange. We called President Anderson and he told us to get a blessing. We called Elder Koleber and Elder Gray to come over. As they were traveling to our apartment, we were singing hymns and things to bring the spirit. It was helping, but it still didn't feel complete. Elder Pearce lifted his arm to the square and commanded the evil spirits to depart. Instantly I felt this huge weight lift off of my chest and I felt peace. It really gave me a greater testimony of the power of the priesthood. I am so glad that he had done that before in Jamaica, because I had no idea. President Anderson told us that Satan loves to make God's servants feel uneasy and miserable. It is so nice to know that Jesus Christ has all power.

I know that the gospel is true. I will talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Note From Dad:

I liked Eric’s comment last week when he said that Jesus asked us to be a light to the world, not the spotlight. I asked him if he had heard that idea from someone or thought of it himself. Here is what he said:

I didn't come up with it. The spirit did. I didn't hear it from anyone in particular though. It just hit me one day as I was thinking about it.

Letter to the President:

Hi President! We are doing really well. Our district has increased the number of blessings that we got this week. We have been focusing a lot on people that are progressing and putting the rest to the side. Elder Koleber was hit by a car this week, but he is doing well. Elder Grey is very happy and he is getting involved in the missionary work. Elder Piarrotti is doing well and so is Elder Wood. Elder Pearce and I have been working on planning effectively for our investigators. We decided that we haven't been able to hit the standards because the fundamentals of planning have been very lacking in our companionship.

I love you President! Take care! Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Talent show photos

Elder Seamons and Elder Pearce with Brother Vega

Elder Pearce and Seamons with Brother and Sister Somerfelt

Jesus Christ asked me to be a light to the world, not a spotlight

March 19, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

Hi everyone! We had a really good week this week. We haven't had much progress with our investigators, but Elder Pearce and I are becoming really united and we are both really happy. We had a huge conversation yesterday about how we can have more success. My way of doing missionary work was getting everyone's information and trying super hard to get into every door, which thus far on my mission has worked pretty well. I learned from him is that sometimes it is better just to move on to the next house. If people don't feel pushed, they will be much more likely to respond positively when they meet the missionaries again, plus we will be able to invite many more souls to come unto Christ. We have been figuring out how to have a unified way of preaching and contacting, and it seems to be working. It is important that we do this because we have had many people missing their appointments, avoiding us, not keeping commitments, etc. We have a plan and we are hoping that it will yield good results. We have been talking and we realized that even if the rest of the time we are together we don't baptize anyone, we are still fulfilling our purpose because our purpose is to "Invite others to come unto Christ." I have felt happiness on the mission from extending this invitation to everyone. As long as we try our best and invite "all men to come unto Christ," then we will have had a good experience together. We decided not to let our happiness depend on whether or not people say yes when we invite them. Even if every person's door we knock on we get yelled at, it will be okay. We are not going to let our happiness depend on the agency of other people.

Elder Pearce has taught me so much. He was into listening to motivational speeches when he was younger and he is really into positive thinking and self-worth. He reminds me a lot of Elder Furner actually. Elder Furner is probably one of my favorite companions. He changed my life. I feel differently than I have ever felt about myself in my entire life. We have had a few conversations on these things and the first one we had this week, I realized that any jealously, comparisons, or pride all come from us feeling unconfident with ourselves. Once we learn to accept who we are as people, all of those will automatically evaporate. God has a place for us in the celestial kingdom. He has a purpose, assignment just for each one of us and how well others fulfill their assignment or their purpose doesn't affect us receiving our reward. Nothing can change our worth. We can just diminish it in our own minds. I have felt different times in my whole life that I was missing something even though I had the gospel. I think I have found it: my realization of my own self-worth and who I am as a child of God. It is one of the greatest things that a person can know. My whole life I have always let other people's opinions compliments, criticisms rule how I thought, felt, and acted. I realize that it is not only okay, but good to openly express how I feel, even when it contradicts someone else's opinions. As long as I do it out of love and sincerity. It is okay if I have something different about me or something that I like that isn't the same as what someone else likes. I am my own unique person. I don't need to be the best at everything. I don't need to be everyone's favorite person. I don't need to do everything. I just need to do my best, and help others to do theirs. Jesus Christ asked me to be a light to the world, not the spotlight. There is a major difference. I feel at peace with myself. I have always been happy with myself and I have always felt a lot of happiness, but I feel like I have made a big change in my life as I came to these realizations. I feel like my self-confidence has increase by leaps and bounds. I have experienced the healing power of the savior as I have gone through this experience.

I have come to realize that in order to help the people overcome the natural man I must first overcome the natural man in myself, (or at least be in the process of doing it while I am helping others. I can't be perfect yet.) Then I will see clearly so that I can help others overcome the natural man.

This week. Elder Pearce cooked a really delicious Jamaican meal. He cooked curried chicken. It was really good. We also went out to two Jamaican restaurants. I think some of this may have happened last week, but I don't remember exactly. We are finally moving out this week! We are both super happy about it. We won't have to bike into our area anymore.

Elder Pearce has been a little nervous lately, because he has been having things stolen and tampered with. Last preparation day we went to Publix the grocery store. After we went back out, the front light on his bike was off, and his chain was off before he got on and it wasn't like that when he locked his bike. He also has been having trouble opening his U-lock and we think it is because someone has been jamming things in it to try and brake it, because it wasn't like that when he first got it, and their are random scratch marks on the u-lock that weren't their but were when we got back. Plus he got a letter in the mail and both sides of the letter were already split open. He is very conscious of his security and privacy. But things have still been going really well for him. He is happy.

I am pretty sure I told you some of this in last week's letter. We had a chapel tour with Marius not last Saturday, but the Saturday before. That way he would know where the church was. He didn't come because of daylight savings time two Sundays ago. He told us he would come yesterday. He was sick, so he didn't come. We were really sad about that. But Jason did come. He is still having a hard time overcoming all of those concerns. On Saturday we took Marius over to the Coconut Creek chapel to show him where we will be holding General conference. He said He would come to the first and second session of General conference and maybe the others if he could. He felt the spirit. He still has his concern about being baptized again, but he is having a large seed planted in his heart for the future. He doesn't want to be baptized because he feels like that would mean that he was never converted and that he has lied to all of those people he converted into his church. At least he knows where two of the church buildings are now.

Tonight we are going to the Schoelzel family's home. Sister Schoelzel is a member of the church. Her husband Thomas is not. He is German. We are going to eat with them and then share a lesson.

I need to go now. My time is up. Thank you so much for all of the support that you have all given me. I couldn't have made it this far without all of the help that I have received from all of you. I am amazed that I have had as good as an experience as I have had on the mission. I will always remember it. I know that the Savior lives.

Bye! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Hi President Anderson! I loved the conference with Elder Gonzalez. I learned so much about how to help people become converted. Elder Pearce and I have resolved to focus on finding the elect, and once we have found them, we will apply all of the things that Elder Gonzalez said.

We are just plugging along down here.  We really feel like we need some new investigators, so that will be a huge focus of ours this week: to find the elect.

Elder Pearce is still a little concerned about his safety, but he is working on it.

We are doing well president.

The Coconut Creek English Elders are happy. They had three baptisms and they have a lot of enthusiasm. They don't have any investigators left since they baptized most of their progressing ones. So they will be finding this week.

Elder Koleber and the new missionary that he is training are doing well. The work is starting to pick up in their area.

Thanks President! I love you!

Love,

Elder Seamons

"It has been such a pleasure and Joy to serve this whole time"

March 12, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been really great! I am learning so much for the mission. Our area doesn't have a lot of things going on. I feel like this point in the mission is more for me to learn and prepare for life. But we still had some great things happen this week:

We have been teaching Marius and he has been reading all of the pamphlets and he told us that the spirit keeps on pushing him to learn more about our message. He is a very open and humble man. On Saturday we gave Marius a tour of our church building. Marius has a car, but he wanted to make sure that he knew firsthand where the building was so that he didn't get lost. We had Sister Samson, a Haitian member, meet us nearby Marius' home and she drove us all over to the church. He was very impressed by how the church was organized and he felt the spirit. Sister Samson bore her testimony about how great of a difference the church has been in her life and she shared her conversion story. Marius told us how he loved that everything we do in the church points to Christ's atonement and resurrection. He told us that when he was a pastor in Haiti, He was over several different congregations. Someone he knew asked him to assist in starting a new church up. The church grew very rapidly and one of the co-pastors joked saying, "it's a Mormon church," because it grew so fast. The news spread and attendance in the church declined rapidly because people in Haiti have heard a lot of bad things about the church. Then the people finally realized it was an evangelical Baptist church and not a Mormon church and started going back. Marius said that he was grateful to God that we found him and were able to enlighten him and let him know what our church truly believed. He wished he could take us with him to Haiti and go to the members of that church and tell them what Mormon's truly believed about Jesus Christ. He is concerned still about being rebaptized, and about the church not being primarily in Creole, but other than that, he is doing super well. As he reads more and feels the spirit, sooner or later, he will be baptized. He committed to come to church yesterday, but because of Daylight savings time, it messed it all up. He is a Sunday school teacher at his church by sunrise Blvd. and he has Sunday school at 9:00 for 45-60 minutes. He was then planning to drive up to our church and be there around 10:00. But he went to his church and Sunday school was already over, and so he stayed at his church. We will get him next week though. His wife Fernand likes us a lot as well, but she is always up at their son's home, babysitting their granddaughter while he is at work. They are the parents of 12 children: one in Deerfield beach, north of Pompano, and eleven in Haiti. The second youngest is around my age and the youngest is 14. He showed us all the pictures. His family is very important to him.

We have been working with Jason as well. He is a CPA ( an accountant). He is the man, I don't remember if I told you about him, that was raised Jewish, but has many problems with what has he been taught. He left the religion and he even wrote a book called Leaving Judaism. He gave me a copy of it on Thursday, so I will send it home and you can read it. It is super interesting. Not that I have read it, but it has all of the stuff Jason has been telling us about, and it is pretty interesting. He has been to church seven times now. He is attracted to the Mormon church because he says that it has a greater sense of morality as well as right or wrong than do many of the other religions. Plus he says that we are the only religion, including many of the Christian sects, that will listen to him talk about how the idea of a Holy land is wrong, and that what Joshua did to those people to conquer the land is wrong. He told us that many Jews have the idea that they should have more land than each other, especially in the holy land and that it has led to many territorial issues, as well as an Idea that they are better than anyone else. He also doesn't like in the five books of Moses when the Israelites cheered when the Egyptians were drowned. He is very resentful toward the culture he has grown up in and he can't get past it. We told him that he needed to hear our message and that dwelling on what others have done to him will not help him find peace of mind. He told us he came to our church to find that. We were at his house on Thursday with Brother Manzur and he went off on all of what I just wrote for about an hour. Brother Manzur told him that he was learning Hebrew and Jason, who speaks Hebrew, told him it was a waste of time and that he doesn't feel that people should be attracted to a culture of with such nationalistic pride, such a superiority complex, and selfishness. Brother Manzur started singing a song he memorized in Hebrew from Prince of Egypt before Jason said that, and the song happened to be about how the Egyptians were drowned in the sea with their horses and chariots, but Brother Manzur has no idea. It was an uncomfortable situation. Jason is such a nice guy. He gets frustrated a lot, but never at us. He doesn't ever yell. He is probably one of my favorite investigators that we have. We all feel bad about all of the things he has gone through. He has had a lot of family difficulties because of his differing opinions. He is great though. His wife is named Maria and she is from Colombia. She is in Colombia for some things, and she said she will come and sit with us when she get's back. Jason came to church yesterday. Jason wants to move out of Florida, and he says that he is applying to a big accounting firm in Ogden, so he says if he gets a job offer there, he will accept it, and his wife has agreed. So you could all get to meet him. I pray that he will get the job offer, because I would love to see him in Utah after the mission.

We are also teaching Theresa, Sarha's best friend. Sarha is a member who is 18 and graduated, while Theresa is 15 and a freshman. Theresa loves the church and the Book of Mormon, but she goes to her mom's church some times and she forgets to read in the Book of Mormon. President Boggess ( our branch president) says that Sarha needs to help her friend more and encourage her to keep her commitments, or else she will never get baptized. We sat with Theresa and she committed to come to church with us more often. We are excited about that. I taught Theresa with Elder Bolz and Elder Rybin. My MTC teacher, Brother Nate Nelson even taught her when he was on the mission when she was 12. It is pretty interesting. She has been to church a lot and she has a very high opinion of the church and the people in it.

We are also teaching Elizabeth. She really wants to get baptized, but she is waiting until she moves out of her mom's house in a month to do it. She wants Luis to do the baptism (the Terron's are a family in the branch that are friends with Elizabeth). Elizabeth got a concussion this week when she passed out after giving blood, but she is out of the hospital and even came to church this week.

Some of the other people we are teaching are Berta (she is awesome. She is a 40 year old Haitian woman who loves joking around), Elda, and Susie (the Hillsamer's neighbor who we had a family home evening at this last week. The Hillsamer's make homemade food and it is really delicious! They are the best cooks in the branch by far.)

We went out with the Hawkshaw's this week. They are one of the snowbird couples that have been taking us around. We went out to a German restaurant (Sister Hawkshaw is German.) called the Cypress nook. It was amazing. We went their before with Elder Snyder and Owens. Elder Pearce heard me talk about it and he wanted to try it.

Sister Isaac's and Sister Maurer took us to a restaurant called Catfish Dewey, which has some really good seafood.

We have been busy, but we haven't had nearly as much as we want to happen. We are deciding to put the part member families, the member referrals, and less actives first on our list and fill the week up with those, and then on the side do our own finding, because we have been finding a ton of people that seem awesome at first, but then lose interest, aren't willing to act, get anti-ed, or some thing else like that. We need to find some more awesome investigators to teach.

We are moving into a new apartment on the 21st. This apartment will be two blocks from our church building. It will be nice because it will actually be in our area. Our current apartment is outside our area.

I feel that throughout the mission experience that Heavenly Father truly knows me and he has been giving me all the areas, companions, and experiences that I have needed. I have become so much more responsible and self-sufficient as I have been serving the Lord for two years. I am very grateful for the mission that I have had. There are many people that I have grown to love, and many seeds that have been planted. I am going to look up so many of these investigators after I finish the mission. That is one reason I am excited to finish, because I can call and contact any of my investigators/recent converts/members that I want to. I have a lot of missionary work to do still when I get home. I hope that you all can meet some of them.

Yesterday we went out with Brother Hepler, his wife is Haitian. President Boggess said that members could go out with us and we could do home teaching with them. Most of the members on the list are less active, so if we can contact any of them, President Boggess wants us to start reteaching them the missionary lessons. We went to Sister Georges' house (a Haitian woman) and we drove her over to the church. She has wanted to go to church, but she doesn't know how to get to the church and she doesn't want to get lost. She was super happy to see Brother Hepler, Elder Pearce and I again. That really lifted her spirits. We were able to attempt to contact all of the less actives on the list. Brother Hepler has come out with us many times since I have been in the Cypress Creek Branch, and he told me that I am the missionary that he has gotten to spend the most time with and has gotten the closest to. Brother Hepler is awesome! We have had some great experiences. Valerie Ortiz and how we found her was something that neither of us will ever forget.

The day that we went out with the Hawkshaw's, we went tracting. Sister Hawkshaw was translating a book by an LDS German Author into English. It is about what the Bible says about life after death and how it fits into the LDS doctrine. She met with Sheri Dew about it on Saturday, and they discussed whether it would be able to be published into English as a desert book publication. Sister Hawkshaw has some connections. I never asked her how it went. There was a woman's activity in Orlando and Sheri Dew spoke at it. But while she was revising her text, we went harvesting and we found a really awesome new street. We found a ton of receptive people. They were busy at the time, but we are seeing all of them tonight and we have enough people that it filled the whole night. It was so awesome. We got 15 fairly willing individuals who gave us their address/ phone number. We hope they will be receptive to our message.

I am learning so much from Elder Pearce. I prayed for a companion who was very knowledgeable and one who would get a hang of things really quickly so that we would be able to work together. He is a very good missionary. He knows a ton more about missionary work than I do. President Anderson told me that during my time in the missionary training center, they focused a ton on the doctrine of Chapter 3 of Preach my Gospel, but during Elder Pearce's time, they revised the MTC so that they focus a lot more heavily now on the Fundamentals of teaching, contacting, and addressing and meeting the needs of the individuals instead of the doctrine. He can teach circles around me it feels like. But I am learning a lot and he is teaching me so much on how to be a better person, teacher, and missionary.

I know that Heavenly Father knows me and that He truly has a plan for all of us, which was created long before we were born. He has guided me through the entire journey, and even despite the mistakes I make, He has guided me back and has helped me through His Son, Jesus Christ. It has been such a pleasure and Joy to serve this whole time. I will make the most of the last 3 months and two weeks that I have left.

Well, I need to go now.

Bye! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Hi President Anderson!

Thank you for teaching us about obedience. I know that as we stick with the counsel of the mission leaders, we will be better off and we will be able to accomplish our deepest desires and help more people come unto Christ as missionaries.

Elder Pearce and I are planning on working more closely with the ward and use the people the have found for us to teach rather than just going off of our own efforts alone. We know that we need to get 12-15 Harvest blessings this week. We realized that there is more than one way to do it.

Elder Pearce and I are becoming more and more unified in our teaching. I am learning so much from him and I love him a lot. We are becoming very good friends.

The district didn't have very high numbers. What I will do to improve that is by keeping contact with them often. Even Daily. I will make sure that I do that. I can't really guide them and instruct and lift up the district unless I am there by their side on a more personal and frequent level in a way that the other missionary leaders cannot.

Thank you President! I love you so much!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Pray that I can have a great end to the mission

March 5th, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

Elder Pearce and I are the only two missionaries in the branch, and it will probably stay that way until the branch starts to grow a lot more. It will probably stay that way until the branch becomes a ward. President is expecting a lot of baptisms in this area and so is the branch council, so pray that we can have some. I don't mind if we don't but this branch needs to grow and progress. There are many amazing, prepared people here, so have many be baptized is not impossible at all. We just need more prayers and a final push and many of them will fall into the water.

I am a district leader. Elder Koleber, Elder Reese, Elder Wood, and Elder Piahotti (I don't know if I spelled that right) are all in our district. The Coconut Creek missionaries and us in our district.

Elder Terry, Elder Shipley, and Elder Koleber are all training the new creole missionaries. I believe they will be coming in next Tuesday. We are almost half way through the transfer. That is so crazy! It is going by so fast. The scary thing is that in three or so weeks, I will only have three months left on the mission.

I have taught Elder Pearce a little bit of Haitian Creole. There was a time where he wanted to learn Spanish, but he wants to learn Haitian Creole with me again.

We have an investigator named Marius who was a pastor in Haiti. He doesn't speak English at all, but I have been translating in the lessons and Elder Pearce feels that he has a great connection with Marius. In language study a few days ago, I taught Elder Pearce how to pray. He asked me how to say certain things, and he wrote it on a card and said the opening prayer for one of the lessons. Marius is really awesome. He has been reading in the Book of Mormon. He says that something keeps on pushing him to learn more and more about our message. He is praying about whether or not our message is true, whether or not he should be baptized again, and about the date we gave him to be baptized on the 24th of March.

Last week Marius committed to come to church on the 11th of March, which is this Sunday. We will remind him of his commitment. He is excited.

About 80% are Haitian Creole. We have a few Hispanic investigators, but we haven't been able to get a hold of them.

I have actually been using a lot of Creole and a fair amount of Spanish. Elder Pearce used to want to find more English Speaking investigators, but one day this week, we went finding in the neighborhood where Sister Rosato lives and where we found Dana, and we had many doors slammed and many people reject us. Plus, Elder Pearce's second day out, he wanted to find by the beach, which many of my companions didn't want to do, but I was fine with it, so we went over there. After the second door, a woman asked us if we were Latter-Day Saint missionaries. Then she started screaming at us and told us to go out of her neighborhood or she would call the police. She grew up in a polygamist colony and was abused and had knives pulled on her and she was really bitter about it and took it out on the church, even though we have nothing to do with it. I was just going to continue knocking because she had no business telling us to leave, but then I changed my mind as Elder Pearce was very uncomfortable and she continued to yell at us, so we both speed walked out of there super fast. Between both of those experiences, he says that he doesn't want to talk to any more English speaking people anymore. He wishes he could be a language speaking missionary. So we have been finding in the Haitian neighborhoods and we have been finding many people. We haven't had any language speaking people come to church yet, so we haven't had to worry about translation. One of the Haitian members will do it though, or one of the Spanish members, because the missionaries have been discouraged from doing it in this ward, because President Anderson said that there may not always be a Creole Elder in this branch.

We haven't had very many service opportunities, but we did go to the Imperial Point Hospital last week and blessed Daisy Torres, a member of the Riverside Park Spanish Branch in Fort Lauderdale. She has been very sick and we were able to give her a priesthood blessing. She was very happy about it. Elder Pearce was too, because he loves it when we can give blessing, because he has several stories about priesthood blessings he has received and how he has been miraculously healed. Ask his mom about it.

I love the branch we are serving in so much! Elder Pearce does too. We have the most awesome members. They are coming out with us, feeding us, and finding people for us. We went to the Terron's house on Friday, and we met with Elizabeth Chupp, Luis Terron's friend. She is 16 going on 17 pretty soon. She is an amazing girl. She has already decided that Luis is going to baptize her. She just needs parental permission. Hopefully we can get it. Sister Terron only speaks spanish. She is super nice. She gave us food before Elizabeth came over. It was amazing. Brother Terron also bought La Granja for us on another occasion. It was so good. We also went and saw Theresa Desinlord (I taught her when I was with Elder Bolz.) She has come to the branch twice since it was created. She has committed to the 24th of March and she has committed to read in the Book of Mormon everyday. Hopefully this will be the time. She has so much potential and we know that she can do it.

We are going to the Hillsamer's tonight and they are going to feed us, and then after that we are going to sit down with Susie Holker and do a family home evening with her. Sister Hillsamer has the lesson already. It is on the Plan of Salvation. Susie has lived next to Brother Hillsamer for 19 or so years. He is a convert to the church. Him and his wife have been married for five years and they have two adopted children: Katie and Joseph. Brother Hillsamer is a respiratory Therapist. I love that family so much. The funny thing is that both Christmas' that I had on the mission I went to their home for dinner. They make the best homemade food ever! It is great! I am excited for that.

I have to go now. Bye! I love you all so much! Pray that I can have a great end to the mission.

Love,

Elder Seamons

Hi President! I am doing really excellent.

Elder Pearce is an amazing missionary. He is doing really well and he is overcoming his fear of the Ghetto areas and he is learning to love the people. We are refining our teaching and we are becoming more and more unified as a companionship.

We have been extending many dates and we are having a great experience.

The district is doing pretty well. Their numbers weren't as high as they could have been. This week we will focus on Preparing for the Prophets month by making sure that we have a good start. We will get 5 dates and 15 blessings, each companionship. That is a promise. I will do everything in my power to make sure that works out well. I will follow up on that in my next e-mail. Also I will do more follow up in my district throughout the week. I will make sure that I get to know my district on a more personal level than I have been doing.

Thank you President! I love you!

Love,

Elder Seamons

We had a really great week!

February 27th, 2012

Note from Mom- I saw that Elder Pearce's Mom registered on the missionary mom's list and wrote that Eric was his companion, so I wrote her an e-mail. She says her son was so happy to have a really good companion and trainer, and she sent me a picture. It is at the bottom of this letter. 
 

Hi Everyone! We had a really great week! My new companion is named Elder Pearce. He is an English Missionary. There are three Creole missionaries coming in mid-transfer. Elder Shipley is training. Note: Eric trained Elder Shipley in Miami. I will have a grandchild. That is what they say in the mission. Elder Pearce is originally from Salt Lake City, Utah. He has lived in Las Vegas, in Draper, and in Jamaica. His dad is Jamaican and his mom is American. His Dad isn't a member, but he knows a lot about the church and the rest of his family is a member.

He is a really great missionary. I am learning so much! He has a very tender heart and he has a really strong testimony of the Gospel. Our first week has been really great. He has taught me about what he has learned in the Missionary training center and the Missionary Training Center has been refined so much since I have been there. He already seems to know more about how to teach than I do. He has learned lessons that it took me most of the mission to learn. He is really loving the mission. I was scared that I would get a new missionary that was rebellious and didn't want to do anything and my prayer was answered. He wants to go out and work really hard. He told me that he was afraid of not having a good companion either and he feels that his prayer was answered.

We have gotten along very well. The only problem is that there are times where he is uncomfortable with some of the areas we have been working in or with different things like that, which I have gotten a little impatient about, but I am just so used to working in some of these areas that it doesn't even phase me anymore. I realize that I need to get used to his different personality and quirks. But it isn't a big deal. He has great desires and drives. Me getting impatient at times is something that I will have to work on.

Here is who we have been teaching:

Dana Vaughn

Donna Vaughn

Darice Vaughn (all three have a baptismal date. With Dana, we have planned out his interview and the time of his service, so he is really set on it.)

Joanne and Shawn Hawes (we will be giving them a date tonight)

Marius Verticier (he was a pastor in Haiti and he loves reading the Book of Mormon)

Berta

Betty, Adrianne, and Marie

Jason and Maria Wach. Jason is Jewish. I don't know if I told you about him.

Susan Haddad, who is Clair's roommate

Wanita Brown

We had a few cool finding experiences this week:

We were in an area and we had some extra time. We were in Pompano. We saw this door with lights on above it. The rest of the doors were pitch black. We both felt inspired to knock. We went and David and Wanita (husband and wife) accepted us into their home and it was a really good experience. We went back and Wanita agreed to be baptized. However her husband didn't want to continue because he didn't want to change churches and from what Wanita said on the phone, she seemed to not want to go against her husband. We will have to talk to Wanita again. She wasn't very clear on what she was thinking. It was unfortunate.

Dana is doing really well. He is planning on being baptized March 17^th on Saturday at 11:00 am at the Coconut Creek chapel. His baptismal interview will be at his house on the 16th at 8:00 that night. He says that he feels that it is the right thing to do. The thing that touched him was the Plan of Salvation, and how God provides everyone an equal chance to accept and to reject the Gospel, even by giving those who never had a chance an opportunity in the spirit world to learn the Gospel. Things are going really well with him.

We are hoping that tonight we will be able to see Joanne and Shawn and give them, as well as their daughter, Ashanti, a date to be baptized.

We are doing well. Keep praying for us and our success. Pray that Dana, Donna, Darice, Joanne, Shawn, and Ashanti can all get baptized this transfer. They are all so close.

Bye! Love you!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Hello President!

We are doing really well!

We are internalizing the lessons that are found in the fundamentals. My companion is an expert in them. He is doing really well with prioritizing everything. He knows how to do missionary work and how to help people become converted and prepare for baptism.

Elder Pearce is a little uncomfortable about some of the areas that we are going into and he expressed some concern about it. I have been doing my best to accommodate him and to make sure that he feels comfortable about everything that we are doing.

The district is doing well. I will make sure that we focus on Member Referrals and Member Present Lessons this week. That is crucial. We will also focus on Dates going into March.

We will all have five dates for March to be baptized. Thanks President! I love you!

Love,

Elder Seamons

 

Thankful that you trust me enough, and that the Lord trusts me enough

February 21, 2012

Wow! This has been an awesome week. A lot of good stuff has happened that I will have to tell you about.

Both Elder Owens and Elder Snyder are being transferred. Elder Snyder was transferred two days early though. Elder Neeley, one of the assistants is going home, so they chose a new assistant. Usually they put the new assistant in the area a few days prior to transfers. Elder Snyder is in the new assistants old area until transfers. Then he will be told where he is going. I am sad that they are leaving. I feel very attached to them now.

The interesting thing is that we had a conference call with the zone leaders to here the transfer information last night. We heard that Elder Owens was being transferred, but then they called back after the call to tell me that the assistants for got to tell them that I am training again. There are six missionaries coming into the mission: three English and three Creole. I am training one and Elder Koleber is training another. It went so well when I was training Elder Shipley, but Elder Shipley took the initiative so soon after getting in the mission that within a few weeks he was working side by side with me. I hope that this training experience will be as good. I know that Heavenly Father will help me and support me, because he has done it so much before and he has never let me down.

Elder Chandler is going home this week, as well as Elder Anderson. Two of my companions from the first year of the mission are going home! That is so weird. I don't like it, because I have been thinking about this day for a long time. When they left, that would me that I would only have 3 transfers (4 1/2 months) left on the mission. I am glad that I am training though. That is a great way to end the mission. I don't know how long I will be in the area. I hope they keep me in Cypress Creek for the rest of the mission. The chances are high of that since I am training, and they usually keep a missionary with his trainer for 2-3 transfers.

We got some amazing new investigators: Joanne and Shawn! We were going to an appointment with Brother Preston, and the people we were seeing weren't home. As we were leaving, someone opened the door and said "What are you doing? who are you?" We told them that we were representatives of Jesus Christ. She told us, "Then come on in." We went in and blessed the home of Joanne and Shawn Hawes and the spirit was so strong. They identified the good feeling and they have sense agreed to go to church and read the Book of Mormon cover to cover. We were led to them, and they were led to us. There is no possible way they could have known we were outside. The window is covered by a huge plant. God prepares amazing families to receive his Gospel. The elect with "hear [His] voice and harden not their hearts."

We also have an amazing family that is named the Vaughn Family and they are very open. They have agreed to read the Book of Mormon and they understand that our purpose is to help them be baptized. We will hopefully give them a date tonight, and give the Hawes family a date tomorrow night.

I know that the Gospel is true and that God prepares the hearts of people to hear his message. This area is being prepared so much and I am so grateful that I can have a part in it with the new missionary that I will be training.

Yes I got the Valentines package. I love you very much and I am glad you all keep on thinking about me.

Well, I need to go now. I love you all. Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Letter to the President:

Hi President! Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to train. I Loved the last time I was given that opportunity. Training a new missionary is one of the greatest things you can ever do on a mission. I am so thankful that you trust me enough, and that the Lord trusts me enough to handle the responsibility.

We have many new investigators emerging that have an extremely high likelihood of getting baptized in March. We are very excited!

I am making a plan on how to best lead and guide the new missionary that I am training. He will have a blast. I hope that it will go as well if not better than what happened with Elder Shipley.

Bye President! I love you! I will talk to you at transfer meetings!

Love,

Elder Seamons