Hi everyone!
Jamani, one of our top investigators that Elder Chandler and Elder Bolz began teaching last transfer gave up. He just wasn't committed to doing the things we asked him to do. He is having a ton of problems in his life and I don't think he sees how what we are sharing with him can help him. We had an awesome lesson about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how he can find healing and comfort in that, but he doesn't feel he has the faith to continue. We were both very sad about that. Also, Jeff, another teenager that we are teaching is avoiding us. Jeff loved the Gospel before and he had a huge desire to be baptized. We don't know what is happening. He seems less excited now-a-days about the message we share.
We are getting work with the less active members of the church rolling. We have assigned every available active member in our area 5 or 6 names or less-active members to stop by and invite to listen to the missionary lessons again/come back to church. It is going very well. Brother Bradford, the member who took us to Shark Valley for our p-day, has already visited all of the names we gave him and he has been talking to a whole bunch of his neighbors about the gospel. He loves teaching people about Jesus Christ and inviting people to hear us. It is awesome! He has been fellowshipping his neighbor Bob Stytes very well and Bob isn't ready to sit down and here about the church yet, but he is getting into Genealogy and he went to the chili cook-off. He was pleasantly surprised. He ended up loving the activity and the people in the ward. He said that everyone was very nice. He definitely is warming up to everyone and feels like he has a place there.
We are going to go knocking doors and contacting around Brother Bradford's house because they will have immediate fellowship. Brother Bradford said he is willing to come out with us anytime when he is not working. He is such an awesome member! He also said he wants to take us out to a Seminole Native American Museum. We will also need to get permission from President for that one too. I am very excited for that.
We have the Petit-Frere family that has three kids. They love church and the Gospel, but they need permission from their mother Crystella. Crystella wants her kids to be baptized, but she is uncertain about their preparation. She wants to wait for a long time, but we believe they are ready. Just pray from the Petit-Frere family. If all goes well, we could have her permission for them to get baptized this week.
Yesterday was a very rough day. Almost every appointment we set up fell through on us. Plus we had a horrible experience at an investigator's house. Charles is a black guy who is really nice and takes us seriously, but his sister just plays around with us. She wears some of the most immodest clothes I have ever seen in my life. We didn't even go over there to teach her. We actually dropped her because she was trying to fool around and flirt with us. This last appointment she was trying to give us hugs, exposing herself, and saying a whole bunch of suggestive stuff. We are not going over to that house again. Of all the people I have met, she is one of the deepest in sin. It amazes me that you could get so far. She openly admits all of her sins as if it is a joke and her only goal in life is sex. She lives such an empty life. She said she wants to get baptized, but we refused to do it because she is not repenting at all and she is trying to seduce us. We can't go in a place where someone is trying to do that. We are going to meet with Charles in a different place away from the house so that this doesn't happen again.
We did have a good end to the day though, we saw Michael, a recent convert who got baptized the week before I got in the area. He is doing very well and he wants to go to the temple and take some of his ancestors names in. We are helping him to get the priesthood and get a temple recommend. The bishop has a goal to get all us the recent converts to the temple within the first three months of getting them baptized.
I have seen so many blessings that have come from having the Holy Ghost in my life. There are simple truths that I can understand and things that make sense to me that cannot possibly make sense to other people. Shaquita couldn't understand the type of lifestyle we live. She doesn't understand the happiness that comes from keeping God's commandments. It amazes me how little these people understand. The simple Gospel truths that make so much sense to me seem ridiculous to all these other people that do not have the constant companionship of the spirit. It reminds of the 1 Corinthians chapter 2. The things of God seem foolish without the spirit. The whole point of the mission rules, the standards we have, and the commandments of God is to be worthy to have the spirit. Because when you have the spirit, you are happy. When you receive Christ's help in your life that he has for us through his Holy Spirit, there is not a force on earth that can stop us from succeeding in this life. I have seen some powerful manifestations of the spirit as I have been here in Fort Lauderdale.
I love you all and I will talk to you all later. Write me! Bye!
Love,
Elder Seamons
Monday, February 28, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
"I have seen so many miracles and I know that God is the Director and Head of this church."
February 22, 2011
Hi everyone! We had a very good week this week. Lezlie and Tilia Coicou got confirmed this Sunday. I was so excited. They are doing really awesome! They are going to Wednesday night activities without us even reminding them about the activities. They are super excited about the gospel. They love church and they are going to girl’s camp in a month. We had a Chili-Cook off on Friday. Many members cooked chili and other food. Most of the food was free, but they were selling desserts to raise money for girl’s camp. They also had extra food like ribs and other stuff that they were selling too. They also had a huge auction and they made a ton of money. They auctioned off all sorts of things, including services, meals, and items. Brother Solano auctioned off three haircuts, and all three of them went to missionaries. They also had a Jersey that John Beck had worn in a game with the Miami Dolphins. That got auctioned off for 50 dollars. All the missionaries said that they should have just put in on e-bay, because they could have gotten a lot more money for it. They activity was very good and they ended up getting around 1300 dollars, which is what they hoped for, because their are 13 girls going to girls camp and it costs about 100 dollars per girl. We were happy that it all worked out, because now Lezlie and Tilia can go to girls camp. We knew their parents couldn't afford it, because neither of them have a job right now.
We are now teaching Lezlie and Tilia's parents. Their Dad has been reading in the Book of Mormon. He likes what we are teaching him. The Mom is indifferent to it all. Sister Cook came with us and helped us teach them. Both of their parents go to the Catholic church and are very strong in that background.
Here are pictures with us, Lezlie and Tilia, and Lezlie and Tilia's parents. Elder Bolz baptized Tilia and Elder Chandler Baptized Lezlie. Brother Bradford, the one who took us to Shark Valley (the part of the everglades we went to last P-day) confirmed Lezlie. Elder Chandler Confirmed Tilia. Brother Bradford is such an awesome member! He has helped us out so much this week. We are doing a ton of work to get less-active members of the church back as a result of President Monson's "To the Rescue" order. We made a list of all of the less actives that live in our ward boundaries and we pinpointed which members live near by them. Each member has four less active members. Back in Coconut Creek, we have 800 people who live in our ward boundaries who have records, but only 250 of them show up. As missionaries we meet less active members on a weekly basis. Many of them are people who aren't even in our record. Many of them moved without transferring their records over and never went back to the church. The members are super excited about the church-wide less active rescue plan though. I know that those people are precious to God and that they are missed. They have so much that they can contribute to the church and so many wonderful attributes and talents that they can share with other people.
I will write a separate letter and tell you more of the details of what has been happening, because I didn't tell you a lot of the things that have been going on. Elder Chandler and Elder Bolz found this Haitian guy who is married to a white girl named Naomi. Naomi Vottair is now scheduled to be baptized on the 27th of March. She was very open and excited about it. She told us that the only thing holding her back was work which she has every Sunday, which will cover our church meetings from 11-2.
Thank you so much for the Cookies Laurie! It was so thoughtful of you. They were so delicious! I loved them a lot. I still have some left, but I am enjoying them.
Thank you everyone! I love you a lot! Keep on praying for our investigators and dates. Pray for the less-active plan to go well. We need help with that church wide and it is not going to be easy.
I have seen so many miracles and I know that God is the Director and Head of this church. If it were not so, the work would not be progressing the way it has been. Jesus Christ's sacrifice is real and using it in your life is simple. It will give you strength and relief from the burdens you have. I have seen it work in investigators. I know it will work for you too. You are not an exception to the Gospel; God's laws and promises have no exceptions. It is for everyone, no matter how weak you feel. I know that what was written about Christ's ministry in the Bible is true. He really came to earth, set up his church, lived a perfect life, and died for us. I don't doubt it one bit.
I love you all! Please keep on writing me. A missionary can never get too many letters. Thank you so much!
Love,
Elder Seamons
This is Brother Beale. He is a convert of one year and he goes out with the missionaries a ton. He is weird, but he is so hilarious. He had his birthday on Sunday, so Elder Anderson made a cake for him. After church, us, Brother Keyser (the ward mission leader), and his wife all sang to brother Beale. I will tell you about him later.
By the way, Antoniel Sovis got confirmed in Coconut Creek last Sunday. I was so happy about that!
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These are pictures from last P-day when Eric went to the Everglades and saw aligators.
These are pictures from last P-day when Eric went to the Everglades and saw aligators.
Monday, February 21, 2011
An Elder Seamons Sighting!
We won't hear from Eric until tomorrow because of the holiday, but received the following e-mail from a friend we knew in Pittsburgh. I will just post the part of the letter about seeing Eric.
Hi Linda and Kent,
This is Darrell Rhoten from when we were in Pittsburgh. Kim and I are now living in Weston Florida which is in the Ft. Lauderdale Stake. I am in the High Council and was assigned to speak in the Ft. Lauderdale Ward yesterday. When I entered the chapel I always go straight to the missionaries and who should I find, but Elder Seamons! I recogninzed him immediately as he looks just like his dad. He looks great and is doing a super job. He sat near me on the stand during the meeting and I could hear him translating for the Haitian members. I could see he has grasped the language very well!
Brother Goodstein had dinner for him and his companion as well so I believe he is eating well also.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
New Mission President announced for Fort Lauderdale in July and a Northern Zones picture
Mission presidents serve for 3 years and President Hale's time is up on July 1st. The new mission president was announced today and President Hale has put the following info up on the mission blog. Someone on the missionary mom's list said that President Hale's Grandmother and President Anderson's grandfather are brother and sister. So these two are second cousins! Also, the mission had a special visitor and they had three sessions. Eric is in the Northern zones session. See a picture below. Click on it to make it bigger. His current companion, Elder Chandler is 3 people to the right of Eric in the picture.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
"It felt like I left my heart in Coconut Creek" "We saw a ton of Alligators"
Hi Mom and Dad!
I am with Elder Chandler in Fort Lauderdale. He, Elder Anderson, Elder Bolz, and I are together again. It is so much fun. I did get the package and the address is correct. Thank you so much for the package. It was really good and I loved getting the letter that you sent me.
It has been so hard to go into a new area. I really miss coconut creek. I was upset to move, especially since Coconut Creek has turned into the most successful area in the mission. Elder Rybin and I got 10 people with a date to be baptized and the member work was exploding. Now 15 people have a date for baptism over there. The cool thing is that I know all of them. I have been waiting so long to see all of those investigators accept, and finally after all that time 15 of the people who I have learned to love have accepted a date. Most of them are super solid too. I do have the pleasure of knowing I made a difference. It has just been hard to think that I won't see any of their baptisms. Plus Elder Rybin and Elder Gubernick are both training new missionaries up there, which means I won't have an opportunity to go back for a long time. It is very painful.
It felt like I left my heart in Coconut Creek. I got so used to everyone up there. By the end of last transfer, member work was exploding up there and everything was doing so well. It was a selfish desire on my part to stay. I got people to progress toward accepting a date and now I need to move on. I should just try my best and not worry about how successful I am or how hi my numbers are. I have learned that if you do all that and you don't love the people, it is all for nothing.
I have seen a lot of miracles throughout the mission. I saw many of them last transfer. Elder Rybin taught me so much and we had tremendous success together. We were able to teach and be unified in a way that was astounding to me. I hope that Elder Chandler and I can have the same amount of success and that we can help people come closer to Christ.
I am in the Fort Lauderdale Zone. I am serving in the Fort Lauderdale ward. There are three pairs of missionaries: Elder Chandler and I, who make up the Fort Lauderdale West Creole, Elder Bolz, and Elder Anderson, who make up the Fort Lauderdale East Creole, and Elder Turnblom (who I was with for my second transfer in our second apartment) and Elder Larsen, who make up the Fort Lauderdale South area. It is different. The boundaries for the areas are different than they used to be. We teach both English and Creole now. So for the first time, I have been teaching people who aren't Haitian. We still have many Haitian investigators though. We are now teaching someone from Trinidad and we are teaching a few Jamaicans. It is so weird. At least we aren't teaching any white people. I think that would be a little too weird. Plus white people are less open minded than everyone else. I am always afraid of opening the door and a white person answering because they aren't always as nice as the Haitians we talk to. The hard thing about being in an area where we talk to more people who aren't Haitians is that you don't know whether or not to speak Creole. However it isn't always too hard to tell, because Haitians act differently than the other black people.
We had two baptisms on Sunday. We had Lezly (13) and Tilia (15) get baptized. Their parents are Catholic, but the girls really wanted to get baptized so their parents allowed them to get baptized. They are Haitian. We started teaching the parents for the first time on Thursday. We are going to see if we can help them be baptized too. Nesley, the Dad, has been reading in the Book of Mormon and he says that he would like to be baptized when he studies it out and know that what we are teaching is true. The only problem is that he is going to Haiti on February 28th and he is going on a four month visit. Usually when Haitians go to Haiti it is for a long duration of time like that. We are going to try to set him with a date for baptism before he leaves and have missionaries in Haiti teach him and help him be baptized. We will work with the mom here. Tilia and Lezly are awesome! They love the church and they love learning about the commandments and about Jesus Christ. They are most excited that we have a modern prophet and that they can learn God's will for us today through him. It was a really good baptismal service. Sister Cook, who is a Haitian woman who is the second counselor in the young women's presidency, gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. She did it in English and then at the very end she switched into Creole and talked directly to the parents. It was a very powerful talk. She has been fellowshipping the family and she is one of the driving forces in helping the family get baptized.
There has been a lot of success in this area. When I got here, there were nine people with a date to be baptized. Things have been a little rough since then. Many people are having problems getting baptized, partially because of parental permission, and also because of situational problems such as rides to church. Others are having problems committing. So that is hard. It is really sad because many of these investigators have a great desire to be baptized, but things are getting in their way. We are going to get the people the help they need so they can make the changes they have to and progress all the way. We have a lot of work to do in this area. I have been wondering why I was sent here of all places. I think it is partially because of the experiences I had last transfer, but I will learn more about my reason for coming here as I move along. I realize now that I really am not needed in Coconut Creek anymore. The work in that area will move forward without my help. It is sad to me, but it is true. Elder Rybin and Elder Gubernick are doing a wonderful job. There are some people up there that I am worried about and I hope they will be able to overcome the barriers in their lives. Vonette is one that I am really worried about. But there is not much more that I can do. I have just been praying a lot for Coconut Creek and all of the investigators up there. I am so happy because Antoniel, who we started teaching at the end of my third transfer, got baptized on Sunday!!! He is doing so well and he has a lot of faith in God and in the Scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon. Plus Daline, the one whose Mom was hesitant of her coming to the church accepted a date to be baptized. Apparently everything is working out. I talked to Elder Rybin about it. I am so happy about that. Plus Gennger went to church again. She has been to church twice, mutual once, and she also went to a baby-sitting activity at the church last Wednesday. It is a complete miracle! I am so amazed at how many blessings have been seen in Coconut Creek. I am glad that it is better than I left it. Now I just need to trust in God to take care of that area and put my heart into this one. I put so much care and time into that area and I came to know the people so much that it seems so difficult to learn to love another group of people the way I loved that one.
Plus we had a man named Michael Jean Baptiste who got confirmed this Sunday and became an official member of the church. He is the uncle, cousin, and brother of some investigators (Bonnie, Elvie, and Sabrina) we have in Coconut Creek. We went to his house and I saw some of my investigators from there. It was so weird to see them. Elder Chandler and Elder Bolz were the ones who referred them to us. Apparently they met them at Michael's house.
We have also met some really cool people through our finding efforts. It has been awesome.
By the way, I am worried about Vonette. She was pretty discouraged when I left the area. I am not sure how she is doing. I really want everyone who knows French to write Vonette a quick letter of encouragement. Just look through some of my e-mails about her. Tell her that you know Elder Seamons and she will know who you are talking about. Tell her I miss her and pray for her often. I know she would love to hear from you all. Her address is 3011 ne 7th Ave Pompano Beach Florida. I am not sure about the zip code. I am dead serious about doing this though. She is one of my favorite people I have ever met on the mission and she needs help. Please do this. I promise that you will be blessed. She will love hearing from people. Also pray for her. Her name is Vonette Vivian. Thanks. Awesome. I love you all. Pray for Fort Lauderdale, and also pray for Coconut Creek. I want those investigators to progress very badly. I love them all dearly.
Well, I have to go. I will talk to you later!
Love,
Elder Seamons
P.S.
We went to the everglades for P-day today. We got special permission from President. We were allowed to because we made a certain goal. We saw a ton of alligators and we were only 5 feet away from some of them. I will send you pictures next week. Brother Bradford from the ward took us there. We went to Arby's afterwards.
I am with Elder Chandler in Fort Lauderdale. He, Elder Anderson, Elder Bolz, and I are together again. It is so much fun. I did get the package and the address is correct. Thank you so much for the package. It was really good and I loved getting the letter that you sent me.
It has been so hard to go into a new area. I really miss coconut creek. I was upset to move, especially since Coconut Creek has turned into the most successful area in the mission. Elder Rybin and I got 10 people with a date to be baptized and the member work was exploding. Now 15 people have a date for baptism over there. The cool thing is that I know all of them. I have been waiting so long to see all of those investigators accept, and finally after all that time 15 of the people who I have learned to love have accepted a date. Most of them are super solid too. I do have the pleasure of knowing I made a difference. It has just been hard to think that I won't see any of their baptisms. Plus Elder Rybin and Elder Gubernick are both training new missionaries up there, which means I won't have an opportunity to go back for a long time. It is very painful.
It felt like I left my heart in Coconut Creek. I got so used to everyone up there. By the end of last transfer, member work was exploding up there and everything was doing so well. It was a selfish desire on my part to stay. I got people to progress toward accepting a date and now I need to move on. I should just try my best and not worry about how successful I am or how hi my numbers are. I have learned that if you do all that and you don't love the people, it is all for nothing.
I have seen a lot of miracles throughout the mission. I saw many of them last transfer. Elder Rybin taught me so much and we had tremendous success together. We were able to teach and be unified in a way that was astounding to me. I hope that Elder Chandler and I can have the same amount of success and that we can help people come closer to Christ.
I am in the Fort Lauderdale Zone. I am serving in the Fort Lauderdale ward. There are three pairs of missionaries: Elder Chandler and I, who make up the Fort Lauderdale West Creole, Elder Bolz, and Elder Anderson, who make up the Fort Lauderdale East Creole, and Elder Turnblom (who I was with for my second transfer in our second apartment) and Elder Larsen, who make up the Fort Lauderdale South area. It is different. The boundaries for the areas are different than they used to be. We teach both English and Creole now. So for the first time, I have been teaching people who aren't Haitian. We still have many Haitian investigators though. We are now teaching someone from Trinidad and we are teaching a few Jamaicans. It is so weird. At least we aren't teaching any white people. I think that would be a little too weird. Plus white people are less open minded than everyone else. I am always afraid of opening the door and a white person answering because they aren't always as nice as the Haitians we talk to. The hard thing about being in an area where we talk to more people who aren't Haitians is that you don't know whether or not to speak Creole. However it isn't always too hard to tell, because Haitians act differently than the other black people.
We had two baptisms on Sunday. We had Lezly (13) and Tilia (15) get baptized. Their parents are Catholic, but the girls really wanted to get baptized so their parents allowed them to get baptized. They are Haitian. We started teaching the parents for the first time on Thursday. We are going to see if we can help them be baptized too. Nesley, the Dad, has been reading in the Book of Mormon and he says that he would like to be baptized when he studies it out and know that what we are teaching is true. The only problem is that he is going to Haiti on February 28th and he is going on a four month visit. Usually when Haitians go to Haiti it is for a long duration of time like that. We are going to try to set him with a date for baptism before he leaves and have missionaries in Haiti teach him and help him be baptized. We will work with the mom here. Tilia and Lezly are awesome! They love the church and they love learning about the commandments and about Jesus Christ. They are most excited that we have a modern prophet and that they can learn God's will for us today through him. It was a really good baptismal service. Sister Cook, who is a Haitian woman who is the second counselor in the young women's presidency, gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. She did it in English and then at the very end she switched into Creole and talked directly to the parents. It was a very powerful talk. She has been fellowshipping the family and she is one of the driving forces in helping the family get baptized.
There has been a lot of success in this area. When I got here, there were nine people with a date to be baptized. Things have been a little rough since then. Many people are having problems getting baptized, partially because of parental permission, and also because of situational problems such as rides to church. Others are having problems committing. So that is hard. It is really sad because many of these investigators have a great desire to be baptized, but things are getting in their way. We are going to get the people the help they need so they can make the changes they have to and progress all the way. We have a lot of work to do in this area. I have been wondering why I was sent here of all places. I think it is partially because of the experiences I had last transfer, but I will learn more about my reason for coming here as I move along. I realize now that I really am not needed in Coconut Creek anymore. The work in that area will move forward without my help. It is sad to me, but it is true. Elder Rybin and Elder Gubernick are doing a wonderful job. There are some people up there that I am worried about and I hope they will be able to overcome the barriers in their lives. Vonette is one that I am really worried about. But there is not much more that I can do. I have just been praying a lot for Coconut Creek and all of the investigators up there. I am so happy because Antoniel, who we started teaching at the end of my third transfer, got baptized on Sunday!!! He is doing so well and he has a lot of faith in God and in the Scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon. Plus Daline, the one whose Mom was hesitant of her coming to the church accepted a date to be baptized. Apparently everything is working out. I talked to Elder Rybin about it. I am so happy about that. Plus Gennger went to church again. She has been to church twice, mutual once, and she also went to a baby-sitting activity at the church last Wednesday. It is a complete miracle! I am so amazed at how many blessings have been seen in Coconut Creek. I am glad that it is better than I left it. Now I just need to trust in God to take care of that area and put my heart into this one. I put so much care and time into that area and I came to know the people so much that it seems so difficult to learn to love another group of people the way I loved that one.
Plus we had a man named Michael Jean Baptiste who got confirmed this Sunday and became an official member of the church. He is the uncle, cousin, and brother of some investigators (Bonnie, Elvie, and Sabrina) we have in Coconut Creek. We went to his house and I saw some of my investigators from there. It was so weird to see them. Elder Chandler and Elder Bolz were the ones who referred them to us. Apparently they met them at Michael's house.
We have also met some really cool people through our finding efforts. It has been awesome.
By the way, I am worried about Vonette. She was pretty discouraged when I left the area. I am not sure how she is doing. I really want everyone who knows French to write Vonette a quick letter of encouragement. Just look through some of my e-mails about her. Tell her that you know Elder Seamons and she will know who you are talking about. Tell her I miss her and pray for her often. I know she would love to hear from you all. Her address is 3011 ne 7th Ave Pompano Beach Florida. I am not sure about the zip code. I am dead serious about doing this though. She is one of my favorite people I have ever met on the mission and she needs help. Please do this. I promise that you will be blessed. She will love hearing from people. Also pray for her. Her name is Vonette Vivian. Thanks. Awesome. I love you all. Pray for Fort Lauderdale, and also pray for Coconut Creek. I want those investigators to progress very badly. I love them all dearly.
Well, I have to go. I will talk to you later!
Love,
Elder Seamons
P.S.
We went to the everglades for P-day today. We got special permission from President. We were allowed to because we made a certain goal. We saw a ton of alligators and we were only 5 feet away from some of them. I will send you pictures next week. Brother Bradford from the ward took us there. We went to Arby's afterwards.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
"I can tell that our companionship was chosen by God"
So, Elder Seamons is getting transferred, although we won't know where until next Monday. The president tells them on Monday of transfer week whether they are moving or staying and then they go to a meeting on Tuesday all together and find out where they are going and who their companion will be.
See the pictures below. With a picture of Elder Rybin, Eric said "Elder Rybin is the only missionary in our apartment who is staying in Coconut Creek this transfer. I have learned so much from him about missionary work and I will miss him a lot. I can tell that our companionship was chosen by God, because it was perfect for both of us and for the area of Coconut Creek at the time."
He never told us they had a bedbug infestation, but he sent pictures of them throwing away the couches and mattresses. See below.
Transfers
I am getting transferred. I am very sad because of all the people I will have to leave behind and because I will miss out on ten baptisms which are happening this transfer. I am also sad because I don't want these investigators to forget about me since I will not be in the group of missionaries that we carry them all the way to baptism. I talked to president about all of these concerns and he said that really, it all comes down to the fact that the mission isn't about the missionaries; it is about the people we teach and their conversion. I am learning to grow up a lot. I have learned to let certain things go and to not worry about certain things. I am just hoping that I can continue to do that. When I talked to President, he said that I was going to an area which is having as much success as Coconut Creek is right now. That makes me happy. I hope that I can have a great next transfer. I know that God is aware of me and what I need. I know he will take me to people who are prepared for me to meet. I have met so many of those kind of people this transfer.
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Hi everyone! We have had the greatest week together! This is the best week we have had in the mission. We taught a ton of lessons, got many members to come out with us, and we had 12 Haitians at church on Sunday! Creole Class was huge. Plus Gennger, the girl who was afraid of going outside came to church! I have pictures of her and her family which I will send. Itasienne, Gennger, and Jenny are all doing really well. Itasienne is the mom, Gennger is her 15 year old daughter, and Jenny is her 9 year old sister. Their dad died during the summer, so it has been really hard on the family. Gennger had lost hope when we got there. She didn't have very good self esteem, and she was shut off from the world. But now she is doing so well! She read 21 chapters in the Book of Mormon Stories picture book. She read the words of Mormon, Alma 32, Alma 7, Alma 11-13, Ether 12, 1 Nephi 1, Alma 40-41, plus she has watched Finding Faith in Christ and The Restoration DVD. She loves the gospel so much! She loves the scriptures and she told us that she receives strength from them daily. Her favorite scriptures is Alma 7: 12. She told me that she reads it every night before she prays. She is not super outgoing, but she is getting more confident and sure of herself as we have been meeting with her. She was trying to figure out what to wear for the whole week. She told us that she needed to "look extra presentable for God." She bought a black, heart-shaped, snake skin purse to bring to church. It was huge. She bought stockings to go with her dress, but they got lost the night before, so she went to walmart to buy some new ones. They were late, but she was there for the 2nd half of sacrament meeting and they got to hear people bear their testimonies for fast and testimony meeting. She is getting baptized on the 6th of March with Itasienne and Jenny. We are very excited. We have 10 people who are scheduled for baptism in this area for the next six weeks. Most of them are very solid and are pretty much guaranteed to be baptized. We have two baptisms for next week: Antoniel Sovis and Batony St. Jean. We are already preparing the baptismal program. Isenada, an 18-year-old girl that Elder Anderson and Chandler baptized told us that she wanted to give a talk on baptism at the service if we hadn't chosen anyone already. She told us that she needs help preparing, so we have an appointment to go help her with that. This area is doing so well! I am amazed. It is probably one of the top in the mission. I am sad that I have to leave it when it is doing so well and so much will happen, but I am happy that so many people are going to get baptized.
Creole class was interesting. There are many different opinions and sometimes there can be false doctrine going around. The bishopric tells us to be on the lookout for that because we are the only ones who can speak Creole apart from Brother Mildor, the second councilor in the bishopric. Luckily Sister Hepler, the teacher, is really good and sticks to the book. There was a discussion about the trinity and people were asking whether God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost were one person or three separate people. Sister Hepler answered it very well. Batony told her that it bothered him that he goes to one church and he hears one thing, and that he goes to another church and he hears another. Apparently we need to teach him about the Restoration of the Gospel again because he doesn't seem to understand it. We are doing that with all of our investigators. It is hard to get people to understand it. We especially want Batony and Antoniel to understand it because they are getting baptized this Sunday.
We saw Vonette. She is very discouraged right now. She isn't reading in the scriptures at all because of how discouraged she is about the situation she is in. I told her that she would get comfort if she reads in the scriptures and prays. She isn't able to get baptized right now because her dad threatened to kick her and her two college aged kids out of the house and not pay their tuition. I don't know if I said that already. Plus Vonette Got here 4 or so months ago and can't speak English so she doesn't have a Job to pay for a house. I hope she finds a way. If I ever return to this area, I promise that she will be one of the first people I track down.
By the way, I am short on time, so I won't tell you everything that you asked. I am sorry. Ask me the questions next week. I had a crazy experience last night where it was 12:30 and the East Elders still weren't back, so I called president and the ward mission leader who called hospitals and did a whole bunch of crazy stuff to try and track them down. Long story short, they went on an exchange with another group of missionaries and both stayed there for the night and didn't tell anyone. Plus they left their phone in the car. They did it with the District Leaders. So everything worked out well, but Brother and Sister Anderson were scared (the ward mission leader and his wife.) I lost three hours of sleep over it. I was mad, but president said I could sleep in for extra time.
Love,
Elder Seamons
Vonette is one of my favorite Haitian women that I have met on the mission.
Genger and I
This is Jenny, Itasienne, me, Genger, and Huberson. Huberson.is Itasienne's cousin. She refered him to us this week. He had met with the missionaries five years ago and he loved what they taught, but he lost contact with them. He loves church and is coming next week.
Elder Rybin laying back. I have learned so much from him about missionary work and I will miss him a lot. I can tell that our companionship was chosen by God, because it was perfect for both of us and for the area of Coconut Creek at the time.
Here is a picture of a bed, a matress, and a box spring that we had to throw away. We had a bed bug infestation which started 3 weeks ago and we had to get an exterminator and everything. It has happened in several apartments in the mission. I was just so busy that I forgot to mention it and I just barely remembered when I looked back through our pictures. we put the couch and everything on the top of the mission car and took it accross the apartment complex to the dumpster.
Monday, January 31, 2011
"Seamons, it's hard. I can't do it." "We have seen miracles this week"
Elder Seamons is doing very well this week. Kent sent him a question while he was on e-mail and he said he was at a 9 out of 10. Several people sent him letters of advice on the companion issue and he seems to have worked it out. This is a long letter, and it would have been easier to read if I had divided up some of the paragraphs, but I sent it as Eric sent it to us since I have little time right now. If you don't have time to read it all, at least read the third and fourth paragraph. One thing I know about Eric is that he is the most persistant person I know. He does not give up, and it paid off.
Linda
January 31st, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
This week was an awesome week. Elder Rybin and I are working very well together. We are having a lot of success right now. I hope I don't move areas, because we have 7 people who will be baptized next transfer, and most of them are pretty solid. President said that I might stay for a little bit longer. It just depends on what the Lord wants. So we will see. At least I will know that I played a part in these people being baptized if I don't get to see it for myself.
We met this girl named Gennger last week. Her Mom's name is Itasienne and her sister is named Jenny. They are an awesome family. Gennger has read Alma 11-13, Alma 32, Helaman 5, Moroni 10:3-5, LDS.org, and the Picture Book of Mormon, and we assigned her some verses in the bible that she said she would read. She read the first 21 chapters in the Picture book with her sister, and they were both recounting the stories in great detail. They have the best understanding of the scriptures that I have ever seen in an investigator before. We have taught them a lot, and they love the gospel. We told Itasienne about Eternal marriage and forever families and baptisms for the dead and she loved it! It made her so happy. Her husband died 8 months ago and it has been hard on the family, especially Gennger. Gennger has had a lot of hard experiences in her life. She struggles a lot with self-esteme and she isn't the most confident of people. But she is very intelligent and she asks great questions. She loves everything we have taught her and it all makes sense to her. We taught Itasienne and Gennger about the Restoration, Plan of Salvation, the Gospel, Tithing, Fasting, and Offerings. They are taking it all in and they love it. Elder Rybin and I are so happy with their progress. We gave them a baptismal date for the 6th of March and they are very on track for their date.
There is just one problem though. We had the craziest experience with Gennger the other day. I will never forget it. We were teaching Gennger the Plan of Salvation on Tuesday and then we committed her to being baptized on the 27th and coming to church that Sunday. She told us that she had been isolating herself for a long time and that she rarely went outside anymore. She used to do part-time home school and public school, but it got bad enough that she did full-time home school. She is afraid of even going on to the front porch and having people see her outside. She stays inside all of the time and only goes out if she really has to. She said that it was a miracle that she got so comfortable with us so quickly because she doesn't like talking to people very much. I am still shocked, because she acts like she has known us for a long time but she isn't good at getting to know other people very well. She was terrified of the idea of going to church because of all the people who would be there. She told us that she would go to church if we were the only ones there. She asked why everyone had to meet in church together. She told us that she was trying to find an online church so she didn't have to get out of the house. She was telling us all of these weird things. It is really strange because she is perfectly normal apart from that. She is a normal girl with normal interests and she is very intelligent and is very sane. She just has a huge fear of people for some reason. She said that she used to go to therapy but that her therapist said that she was perfectly fine. She just wouldn't say anything to them at all. We realized that if she didn't conquer that fear now, she would never do it. We needed to help her conquer her fear so that she could go to church, get baptized, and receive all the blessings of the gospel. We told her to go onto the front porch. She shook her head and refused. We talked to her a long time and tried to help her. She wouldn't budge for a long time. We didn't have any appointment for a while, so we stayed there. We were there for a long time trying to get her to go outside. We did everything we knew how to do. She told us all of these things that were horrible to hear. She told me that she liked being isolated from the world and that it made her happy and that she just wanted us to give up on her. I told her that we would never give up on her and that we were sent from God. She knew it and admitted it. She told us that we had the power of God with us because she got the courage to talk to us when she wouldn't have done that and gotten so used to anyone else. We eventually got her to go out the gate in the back yard to the front yard, but then she ran right back inside. Then we were trying to get her to go outside to the front porch again. Elder Rybin tried really hard and so did I. I didn't give up on her at all. Neither did Elder Rybin, but he stopped trying to convince her because we had tried so many things. I pushed it to the limit. Eventually she told us that she would come outside only because she felt so sorry for us because she had kept us there for so long. We got her outside. We had victory. She has been going outside more and more and we even brought people over to the house and she is getting more and more confident. I have seen a miracle with her. I didn't think it was possible. I thought of giving up when she wouldn't budge and just said that she didn't want to do anything with her life and would rather stay inside and abandon her dreams of becoming a nurse and doing all of those things. It was a crazy experience. Thinking back on it, it is so weird because she isn't a weird insane person. She has just been though a lot we think. We don't know why she was acting that way or what experience gave her such a weird phobia. She didn't know. She didn't used to have it. We are thinking it might be something to do with the death of her father. We don't know. We both put so much effort to try to get her outside. But I was pushing super hard. She was saying, "Seamons, it's hard. I can't do it. Why don't you just give up on me already and talk to people who aren't a waste of time." She was saying all of these things about how she didn't think she was anything in the eyes of God and how she had nothing she liked about herself. We told her a huge list of things, and she said that we were lying. She was just beating on herself. I tried so hard to get her to go outside. I even started to cry at one point. It was so hard to watch her be like that. We knew she had so much potential.
But it worked out and we have seen miracles this week. She has gone outside several times for different things. We are so proud of her. And she isn't as nervous anymore about people coming over. Itasienne and Jenny went to church, but Gennger didn't because she didn't feel ready. Gennger told us in a text afterwards that her mom was raving about how wonderful the church was and how perfect everything was. Jenny loved primary and made a bunch of new friends. Gennger said that she regretted not going because it sounded so wonderful. I am so grateful to God and to the chance that I had to play a part in the growth of this family. I can see how it is changing everyone there, especially Gennger. Itasienne loves it when other people come over. She can only speak Creole and French and a tiny bit of English, but she is a very loving person and she is so dear and awesome. Everytime we come over she says, "Mesi Seamons, Mesi anpil." She always has a big smile and says hi. I think jenny likes Elder Rybin a lot. He is really good at relating to younger kids. She is nine and Gennger is fifteen. Gennger's birthday is on March 14th. When Itasienne and Jenny went to church, all of the Haitian members immediately fellowshipped her, talked to her, and greeted her warmly. I am so grateful for these members. I don't think I will ever forget the kindness of the Haitian people. They have taught me a lot.
We were teaching Vonette and she has come to church twice. She likes the church a lot and she has read a ton in the Book of Mormon. She is one of my favorite Haitian women that I have ever met on the mission. I plan on staying in contact with her. She has only been in the United States for a few months. She isn't very good at English yet. She is a Seventh-day Advantist. She told us that she started to believe in the Book of Mormon, but then she wondered why the names in the Book of Mormon weren't in the Bible and Joseph Smith wasn't in the Bible. She also said that we used the Book of Mormon much more than the bible and she said that she didn't want to give that up. She also wondered why she would have to be baptized again. We had talked to her about those things before, but this time we seemed to have the spirit helping us a long and it seemed that in her mind the concerns were beginning to be resolved. She said that she would pray about it and would be baptized when she received a confirmation that it was true. She had been praying, but she wasn't receiving an answer. We weren't sure why. We have come to realize that she is expecting a vision instead of just a feeling. Haitians have visions a lot, but that isn't the only way God will answer them. We committed her to a date, but she wanted it on her birthday in May instead of sooner. At first she utterly refused to have a date. We told her the reason that she wasn't getting an answer was because she wasn't willing to put her faith in God and accept a date. Then she agreed to May. Finally we got her to agree to March 6th.
We were so happy and everything was actually seeming to work out, but then it all just fell apart a few days ago. She had a deeper concern, but she was so stubborn that she was hiding it until now. Her Dad goes to the Catholic church. She goes to the seventh day church on Saturday, but he wants her to go with him to church on Sunday. He is super controlling. She is 41 but he treats her like a child. She came to church twice instead of going with him and he yelled at her both times. She told him about wanting to get baptized and he said that he would throw her and her two grown up kids out of the house if she did. She doesn't have a job and she just barely got here and doesn't know anyone else, so she is stuck. Her dad has a job and is supporting the family. Plus he is paying for the kids' college. If she gets baptized, he also threatened to not pay for their college expenses either. She could get a job and pay for a house, but there is no way she could pay for two kids to go to college too. Plus her dad had yelled at her a lot before and he threatened to beat her the other day. He has her pasport and apparently he said he would send her back to Haiti. I don't know how that works with her being 41, but she is pretty much backed up into a corner and there is no way out.
She called us from another phone at another Haitains house because her phone is shared by the whole family and she didn't want her dad knowing about it. We can't go over to the house with him around anymore because she is afraid of making him even more angry. But she is having us over tomorrow at 2:15 after she gets back from school and before her dad returns from work. Pray for Vonette. We are praying for a miracle to happen so that she can get baptized. Elder Rybin said that it might not be her time yet and that she might have to wait for her situation to change so that she can find the gospel again. That may be right, but I don't know what is going to happen.
We have 7 people getting baptized though. We are super excited. I have to go but will talk to you later. Bye!
Love,
Elder Seamons
Linda
January 31st, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
This week was an awesome week. Elder Rybin and I are working very well together. We are having a lot of success right now. I hope I don't move areas, because we have 7 people who will be baptized next transfer, and most of them are pretty solid. President said that I might stay for a little bit longer. It just depends on what the Lord wants. So we will see. At least I will know that I played a part in these people being baptized if I don't get to see it for myself.
We met this girl named Gennger last week. Her Mom's name is Itasienne and her sister is named Jenny. They are an awesome family. Gennger has read Alma 11-13, Alma 32, Helaman 5, Moroni 10:3-5, LDS.org, and the Picture Book of Mormon, and we assigned her some verses in the bible that she said she would read. She read the first 21 chapters in the Picture book with her sister, and they were both recounting the stories in great detail. They have the best understanding of the scriptures that I have ever seen in an investigator before. We have taught them a lot, and they love the gospel. We told Itasienne about Eternal marriage and forever families and baptisms for the dead and she loved it! It made her so happy. Her husband died 8 months ago and it has been hard on the family, especially Gennger. Gennger has had a lot of hard experiences in her life. She struggles a lot with self-esteme and she isn't the most confident of people. But she is very intelligent and she asks great questions. She loves everything we have taught her and it all makes sense to her. We taught Itasienne and Gennger about the Restoration, Plan of Salvation, the Gospel, Tithing, Fasting, and Offerings. They are taking it all in and they love it. Elder Rybin and I are so happy with their progress. We gave them a baptismal date for the 6th of March and they are very on track for their date.
There is just one problem though. We had the craziest experience with Gennger the other day. I will never forget it. We were teaching Gennger the Plan of Salvation on Tuesday and then we committed her to being baptized on the 27th and coming to church that Sunday. She told us that she had been isolating herself for a long time and that she rarely went outside anymore. She used to do part-time home school and public school, but it got bad enough that she did full-time home school. She is afraid of even going on to the front porch and having people see her outside. She stays inside all of the time and only goes out if she really has to. She said that it was a miracle that she got so comfortable with us so quickly because she doesn't like talking to people very much. I am still shocked, because she acts like she has known us for a long time but she isn't good at getting to know other people very well. She was terrified of the idea of going to church because of all the people who would be there. She told us that she would go to church if we were the only ones there. She asked why everyone had to meet in church together. She told us that she was trying to find an online church so she didn't have to get out of the house. She was telling us all of these weird things. It is really strange because she is perfectly normal apart from that. She is a normal girl with normal interests and she is very intelligent and is very sane. She just has a huge fear of people for some reason. She said that she used to go to therapy but that her therapist said that she was perfectly fine. She just wouldn't say anything to them at all. We realized that if she didn't conquer that fear now, she would never do it. We needed to help her conquer her fear so that she could go to church, get baptized, and receive all the blessings of the gospel. We told her to go onto the front porch. She shook her head and refused. We talked to her a long time and tried to help her. She wouldn't budge for a long time. We didn't have any appointment for a while, so we stayed there. We were there for a long time trying to get her to go outside. We did everything we knew how to do. She told us all of these things that were horrible to hear. She told me that she liked being isolated from the world and that it made her happy and that she just wanted us to give up on her. I told her that we would never give up on her and that we were sent from God. She knew it and admitted it. She told us that we had the power of God with us because she got the courage to talk to us when she wouldn't have done that and gotten so used to anyone else. We eventually got her to go out the gate in the back yard to the front yard, but then she ran right back inside. Then we were trying to get her to go outside to the front porch again. Elder Rybin tried really hard and so did I. I didn't give up on her at all. Neither did Elder Rybin, but he stopped trying to convince her because we had tried so many things. I pushed it to the limit. Eventually she told us that she would come outside only because she felt so sorry for us because she had kept us there for so long. We got her outside. We had victory. She has been going outside more and more and we even brought people over to the house and she is getting more and more confident. I have seen a miracle with her. I didn't think it was possible. I thought of giving up when she wouldn't budge and just said that she didn't want to do anything with her life and would rather stay inside and abandon her dreams of becoming a nurse and doing all of those things. It was a crazy experience. Thinking back on it, it is so weird because she isn't a weird insane person. She has just been though a lot we think. We don't know why she was acting that way or what experience gave her such a weird phobia. She didn't know. She didn't used to have it. We are thinking it might be something to do with the death of her father. We don't know. We both put so much effort to try to get her outside. But I was pushing super hard. She was saying, "Seamons, it's hard. I can't do it. Why don't you just give up on me already and talk to people who aren't a waste of time." She was saying all of these things about how she didn't think she was anything in the eyes of God and how she had nothing she liked about herself. We told her a huge list of things, and she said that we were lying. She was just beating on herself. I tried so hard to get her to go outside. I even started to cry at one point. It was so hard to watch her be like that. We knew she had so much potential.
But it worked out and we have seen miracles this week. She has gone outside several times for different things. We are so proud of her. And she isn't as nervous anymore about people coming over. Itasienne and Jenny went to church, but Gennger didn't because she didn't feel ready. Gennger told us in a text afterwards that her mom was raving about how wonderful the church was and how perfect everything was. Jenny loved primary and made a bunch of new friends. Gennger said that she regretted not going because it sounded so wonderful. I am so grateful to God and to the chance that I had to play a part in the growth of this family. I can see how it is changing everyone there, especially Gennger. Itasienne loves it when other people come over. She can only speak Creole and French and a tiny bit of English, but she is a very loving person and she is so dear and awesome. Everytime we come over she says, "Mesi Seamons, Mesi anpil." She always has a big smile and says hi. I think jenny likes Elder Rybin a lot. He is really good at relating to younger kids. She is nine and Gennger is fifteen. Gennger's birthday is on March 14th. When Itasienne and Jenny went to church, all of the Haitian members immediately fellowshipped her, talked to her, and greeted her warmly. I am so grateful for these members. I don't think I will ever forget the kindness of the Haitian people. They have taught me a lot.
We were teaching Vonette and she has come to church twice. She likes the church a lot and she has read a ton in the Book of Mormon. She is one of my favorite Haitian women that I have ever met on the mission. I plan on staying in contact with her. She has only been in the United States for a few months. She isn't very good at English yet. She is a Seventh-day Advantist. She told us that she started to believe in the Book of Mormon, but then she wondered why the names in the Book of Mormon weren't in the Bible and Joseph Smith wasn't in the Bible. She also said that we used the Book of Mormon much more than the bible and she said that she didn't want to give that up. She also wondered why she would have to be baptized again. We had talked to her about those things before, but this time we seemed to have the spirit helping us a long and it seemed that in her mind the concerns were beginning to be resolved. She said that she would pray about it and would be baptized when she received a confirmation that it was true. She had been praying, but she wasn't receiving an answer. We weren't sure why. We have come to realize that she is expecting a vision instead of just a feeling. Haitians have visions a lot, but that isn't the only way God will answer them. We committed her to a date, but she wanted it on her birthday in May instead of sooner. At first she utterly refused to have a date. We told her the reason that she wasn't getting an answer was because she wasn't willing to put her faith in God and accept a date. Then she agreed to May. Finally we got her to agree to March 6th.
We were so happy and everything was actually seeming to work out, but then it all just fell apart a few days ago. She had a deeper concern, but she was so stubborn that she was hiding it until now. Her Dad goes to the Catholic church. She goes to the seventh day church on Saturday, but he wants her to go with him to church on Sunday. He is super controlling. She is 41 but he treats her like a child. She came to church twice instead of going with him and he yelled at her both times. She told him about wanting to get baptized and he said that he would throw her and her two grown up kids out of the house if she did. She doesn't have a job and she just barely got here and doesn't know anyone else, so she is stuck. Her dad has a job and is supporting the family. Plus he is paying for the kids' college. If she gets baptized, he also threatened to not pay for their college expenses either. She could get a job and pay for a house, but there is no way she could pay for two kids to go to college too. Plus her dad had yelled at her a lot before and he threatened to beat her the other day. He has her pasport and apparently he said he would send her back to Haiti. I don't know how that works with her being 41, but she is pretty much backed up into a corner and there is no way out.
She called us from another phone at another Haitains house because her phone is shared by the whole family and she didn't want her dad knowing about it. We can't go over to the house with him around anymore because she is afraid of making him even more angry. But she is having us over tomorrow at 2:15 after she gets back from school and before her dad returns from work. Pray for Vonette. We are praying for a miracle to happen so that she can get baptized. Elder Rybin said that it might not be her time yet and that she might have to wait for her situation to change so that she can find the gospel again. That may be right, but I don't know what is going to happen.
We have 7 people getting baptized though. We are super excited. I have to go but will talk to you later. Bye!
Love,
Elder Seamons
President and Sister Hale with Elder Seamons and his apartment mates January 2011
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