Dear Family and Friends,
There have been some interesting things that have happened this week.
We did exchanges with the elders that work in the YSA (Young Single Adults) branch. We had a not very good day together. We are teaching a Haitian Catholic, and he read in the Book of Mormon about infant Baptisms and he didn't like how it says that it is an abomination to baptize little children. He said that we don't have the "life of God" in us until we get baptized and that the bible says that everyone needs to be baptized to enter into the Kingdom of God. It was a very frustrating lesson. We have dropped him. Then after that we went to the house of someone named Miguel. He was from Puerto Rico but he spoke perfect English. He was catholic, but his wife and the rest of his family was Jehovah’s Witnesses. He ended up not being available to sit with us, but his wife roped us into sitting down. We got into a conversation with his daughter-in-law. We left after a while. In the case with that woman, we wouldn't have jotted down her concerns and came back. She didn't want to know our message. She just wanted to preach to us and prove us wrong. In the end, we told her that since we were disagreeing, we would just bare a simple testimony of things that we agreed on. Elder Cornwall told her that he knew that Jesus Christ was the Savior of the world and that he died for our sins and that he knew that through him that we could be saved. She then used the scripture in James 2 that says, "thou knowest there is a god; thou sayest well. So do the devil and his angels and they tremble because of it." She used scriptures and in the same way poked jabs at us. We asked if she were condemning us. She said, "Am I, or is it the Bible speaking to you?" She was an unbearable woman. I got over it though.
We went over to Peterson's house during the week. He is the 12 year old boy. He had been very well behaved for two or so weeks, so we decided to pray hard before we went, to ask for her permission for him to be baptized, and tell her why we thought that she was ready. We were hoping that Crystella was in a good mood, but she wasn't. She had a stomach ache, and she was also upset with Peterson. The day before, he got suspended for 15 days for 3 different occasions, each being 5 days. We were very upset. He won't be able to get baptized for at least a month and a half now, if not more depending on his mom's opinion, even if he does get his act together. But we did call president yesterday, and we asked him if we could take him on exchanges with us during the two weeks of his suspension so that he can have a spiritual experience and do something productive with his life during that time. President said we could do it with him three days a week, but that he couldn't stay the night at the apartment with us or eat with us for meals. We were happy that we could do that. He will get baptized eventually.
Also, Daphney Jean, one of our other dates fell though. She is Michael Jean Baptiste's Girlfriend (He is a recent convert.) We taught her with him there, and we scheduled two separate appointments with them for Friday (a few days ago, one right after the other.)
At his appointment, he was complaining about Daphney and how she was driving him nuts. She has his child, so he is obligated to stay and help her out. He is paying for her phone, and bills, because she is 21 and she doesn't have a job yet. We invited him to pass the sacrament the next day in church. Then we went to Daphney's house. She said that she felt that she needed to wait until she had the baby in six months before getting baptized. She didn't feel she was ready yet.
We did have some good experiences this week. Elder Chandler and I passed a referral to YSA of someone we taught named Jasmine. She is very awesome. She wants to get baptized, and she feels that her communication with God is not very good. We taught her how to pray at the end of the lesson, and she felt that it was a much more spiritually satisfying prayer. We taught her about how God had restored His Gospel and His Church back on the earth. It made a lot of sense to her. She told us how her family is the pastor and leaders of a church. She feels that it is all fake, and she wants to find a place that is uplifting. We told her about how she could know if our message was true by a witness from the Holy Ghost. She has a date for the 24 of May. We had her text the other missionaries. In the text, she wrote, "Hi! This is Jasmine! Elder Chandler and Elder Seamons are teaching me, and I am planning on getting baptized on the 24 of May. They want you to come down and sit with me. Could you guys do that?" She is very excited. They have had at least one other lesson with her since then. It was great! Right when she got that message, they told me that they had to drop an investigator and they were really discouraged about it. They felt so good when they got that text. That made Elder Chandler and I very happy. Elder Chandler loves having investigators text the missionaries that we are passing them to.
Here is a quick letter that I sent to president:
Hi president! We had 7 investigators at church this week! We are doing well, but we need to increase the number of members that come out to teach with them. But we did get people to socialize with the people that came to church. They liked it and they want to come back. We lost two of our dates this week, so we only have one. We need to find awesome investigators that will progress. We realized that we need to bike more, because in our experience the best finding happens on bike. We are doing well though. Thank you President! I will talk to you later! Bye! I love you!
Love,
Elder Seamons
There were three people who we were teaching which were part of the Haitian youth group. We didn't get any of the other people in the youth group yet just from talking to them the one day, but we will work on that. At least the ones who invited us to their church came to ours. They had an Easter Activity that La jeneusse was doing, so they could only stay for sacrament meeting, but they will come next week.
Also, there was this one kid named Webb, who was nineteen in La jeneusse. He was impressed with us, so he told us about there is a college club where he goes which is a Christian club. He told us that 40 + people go to the club every Tuesday at 11:00, and he arranged to have us come over and teach there tomorrow. It is in Coconut Creek, so we are having Elder Gubernick and Elder Rybin go to teach it.
Crystella, Laudia, Morelson and His friend Tefon, Laudia and her friend Weynesha, and Peterson all came to church. We were glad because the Petit frere family had missed the previous week. It is cool that they hadn't missed a week until last week. Plus they brought two friends this week. But they only stayed for sacrament meeting. They were all hungry so they went home after that. At least they came. We decided not to say anything to them about this, because we have already told them off on various other occasions.
Odline came again! She is ready to be baptized! She just needs permission. Her mom did say she could get baptized in December when she turns 11. Even if she can get baptized until then, at least she has and will continue to go to church consistently because she has a consistent ride.
Well, I love you all! I am doing well! Write me!
Love,
Elder Seamons
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
"Missionaries get the most unique experiences"
April 18, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
We had a very good week this week. Everything is going great. We went on 2 twenty-four hour exchanges, so I was taking the lead, especially in all of the Creole lessons, because for one of the days, I was with Elder Larsen who is an English elder. We had pretty decent days too. We taught many new people. There is a Haitian family that we taught. The mom is named Edite. We were over there for two hours. We got in a conversation about Haitian culture, which impressed them a lot, because I knew so much about it. They said they want to visit the church, which I was happy about. We contacted a few people who want us to come back and teach them more. I have come to learn on the mission that there are many people who are willing to hear our message. Many of them don't do it only because they are super busy. Many of them are working very hard and barely have time to themselves. It is sad that they don't have the time to hear what we have to say, because it is the most important message in the world.
Also, Julie, our investigator who is part of the Haitian Renassance Evangelique church talked to her youth group and we got permission to teach them about the restoration. It was awesome! The leader of the Youth Group is a young single adult and their actually weren't any older people at the youth meeting. A lot of people were running behind schedule, so it started late. For the first half an hour, there were only Haitian Girls in there, which we were worried about because we aren't supposed to be in a room with them alone, but we already agreed to teach them, so we were stuck. But luckily some guys came in. La jeunesse is the youth group. They practiced singing and they sang extremely well. Elder Chandler and I were both very impressed. They were organizing youth activities and preparing presentations for Haitian Flag Day, which is a big deal in Florida because of the Haitian population, as well as mother's day. For a youth group running itself, I was pretty impressed. It ranged from 19-24 year old Haitians. We taught this group of 30 Haitian youth about the restoration and many of them were taking notes and opening up to the bible scriptures we shared with them. We passed around a clip board and we got seven referrals, which included the leader of the La jeneusse group whose name is Jennifer. She is a college student. She said she went to the Plantation ward because a friend invited her and she liked it a lot. She like how we broke into groups and taught out of the scriptures. She said that she watched the Finding Faith in Christ DVD and she liked it a lot. Getting her as a referral and letting us go by her house is a big deal because she runs the youth program of the church, and she was in charge of most of the service. In Haitian churches they sing a lot, and they were singing out of Chant D'esperance, which is a Baptist Hymn book with the Haitian people use a lot. We went to Julie's church so that she would come with her whole family to ours. They are coming to church with us next Sunday. Julie will go to her church for the morning part, which goes from 7-10:30. She said that she would tell people in La jeneusse about our service at 11:00 and that she would invite them. That was the best Haitian church I have ever been to on the mission. It is actually within walking distance of our apartments. Jennifer invited us back and so did the other leaders in La jeneusse. They were impressed with our Creole and they liked that we were teaching the gospel. They said we could come back and teach another time, so we will coordinate that and see when it happens again.
I love Haitians so much! Going to the Renassance Evangelique church only increased my love for them. They are a very amazing group of people. The church was actually pretty large. It had a congregation of 200 people in it. Going to a Haitian church is a fun experience, especially working with the Haitian youth. It is so fun to talk to them in Creole. It is cool that we also have an in with some of the leaders of the church. They like us a lot and the pastor was happy that we came to their church service. We are going to schedule an appointment with Jennifer this week. When we go to La jeneusse again, I will get a recording of them singing in Creole, because it is super good. It was so awesome to hear them singing.
Missionaries get the most unique experiences. We have done some of the craziest things as missionaries. But missionaries also get put in awkward situations too. The beginning of La jeneusse was weird because for the first 30 minutes, we were in the room with 15 Haitian girls. Luckily, guys came in and it was good. Then Jennifer at the end of the meeting said, "Everyone give each other a big hug." So we got seven or 8 Haitian girls each coming up to give us a hug. So we just went with it, because in the white handbook it says not to hug in an inappropriate manner, not to not do it. We figured that it would have been an insult to the culture of La jeneusse, so we just let it happen. Jennifer told us, "in La jeneusse, we do hugs."
It was a super awesome church though. There was a guy named Webb. We also got his information and we had a conversation with him about Haiti. He came here when he was 12. It was a fun night last night. We were their from 6:00-9:00, then we walked home to get back to the apartment by 9:30.
This week we had Outreach again. This is the activity that Bishop felt inspired to implement, which includes Members going out with the missionaries to visit Less-active members in the Church. We do this kind of thing all the time, but the third Saturday, when we have Outreach, we get together as a ward to do it. The attendance of the ward at outreach hasn't been very good, so Bishop had a stern talk with the leaders of the ward about how the program was inspired from God through inspiration and that if the members had problems with doing it, they can kneel down and pray to God and ask if it is an inspired Program. Bishop Bethel is very straight forward with people and he is good at getting things done. He is an amazing man!
We got a pretty descent turnout this Saturday as compared to the last two outreaches we did. After Outreach, The elder's quorum did an activity called the "Man Lunch," were they went to Five Guys. All the missionaries went to. It was so good! I am glad that we have a Five Guys in our area! It was great! Brother Zaugg, the elder's quorum president, didn't give us very good directions, so we got super lost and we wasted 20 miles on our miles limit to find it, which we weren't happy about, but it was still a good experience. That was the day that Elder Larsen and I went on an exchange together.
Also, this week Elder Chandler, Elder Anderson, Elder Hall, and I went to a KFC buffet down in Hollywood, which is part of our area still because we are Creole Missionaries. We had a lesson down there, so we went before the lesson. The only problem is that our appointment called and cancelled at the last minute. But it was a good experience still.
Well, I have to go.
Bye! I love you all. Keep on writing me!
Love,
Elder Seamons
Dear Family and Friends,
We had a very good week this week. Everything is going great. We went on 2 twenty-four hour exchanges, so I was taking the lead, especially in all of the Creole lessons, because for one of the days, I was with Elder Larsen who is an English elder. We had pretty decent days too. We taught many new people. There is a Haitian family that we taught. The mom is named Edite. We were over there for two hours. We got in a conversation about Haitian culture, which impressed them a lot, because I knew so much about it. They said they want to visit the church, which I was happy about. We contacted a few people who want us to come back and teach them more. I have come to learn on the mission that there are many people who are willing to hear our message. Many of them don't do it only because they are super busy. Many of them are working very hard and barely have time to themselves. It is sad that they don't have the time to hear what we have to say, because it is the most important message in the world.
Also, Julie, our investigator who is part of the Haitian Renassance Evangelique church talked to her youth group and we got permission to teach them about the restoration. It was awesome! The leader of the Youth Group is a young single adult and their actually weren't any older people at the youth meeting. A lot of people were running behind schedule, so it started late. For the first half an hour, there were only Haitian Girls in there, which we were worried about because we aren't supposed to be in a room with them alone, but we already agreed to teach them, so we were stuck. But luckily some guys came in. La jeunesse is the youth group. They practiced singing and they sang extremely well. Elder Chandler and I were both very impressed. They were organizing youth activities and preparing presentations for Haitian Flag Day, which is a big deal in Florida because of the Haitian population, as well as mother's day. For a youth group running itself, I was pretty impressed. It ranged from 19-24 year old Haitians. We taught this group of 30 Haitian youth about the restoration and many of them were taking notes and opening up to the bible scriptures we shared with them. We passed around a clip board and we got seven referrals, which included the leader of the La jeneusse group whose name is Jennifer. She is a college student. She said she went to the Plantation ward because a friend invited her and she liked it a lot. She like how we broke into groups and taught out of the scriptures. She said that she watched the Finding Faith in Christ DVD and she liked it a lot. Getting her as a referral and letting us go by her house is a big deal because she runs the youth program of the church, and she was in charge of most of the service. In Haitian churches they sing a lot, and they were singing out of Chant D'esperance, which is a Baptist Hymn book with the Haitian people use a lot. We went to Julie's church so that she would come with her whole family to ours. They are coming to church with us next Sunday. Julie will go to her church for the morning part, which goes from 7-10:30. She said that she would tell people in La jeneusse about our service at 11:00 and that she would invite them. That was the best Haitian church I have ever been to on the mission. It is actually within walking distance of our apartments. Jennifer invited us back and so did the other leaders in La jeneusse. They were impressed with our Creole and they liked that we were teaching the gospel. They said we could come back and teach another time, so we will coordinate that and see when it happens again.
I love Haitians so much! Going to the Renassance Evangelique church only increased my love for them. They are a very amazing group of people. The church was actually pretty large. It had a congregation of 200 people in it. Going to a Haitian church is a fun experience, especially working with the Haitian youth. It is so fun to talk to them in Creole. It is cool that we also have an in with some of the leaders of the church. They like us a lot and the pastor was happy that we came to their church service. We are going to schedule an appointment with Jennifer this week. When we go to La jeneusse again, I will get a recording of them singing in Creole, because it is super good. It was so awesome to hear them singing.
Missionaries get the most unique experiences. We have done some of the craziest things as missionaries. But missionaries also get put in awkward situations too. The beginning of La jeneusse was weird because for the first 30 minutes, we were in the room with 15 Haitian girls. Luckily, guys came in and it was good. Then Jennifer at the end of the meeting said, "Everyone give each other a big hug." So we got seven or 8 Haitian girls each coming up to give us a hug. So we just went with it, because in the white handbook it says not to hug in an inappropriate manner, not to not do it. We figured that it would have been an insult to the culture of La jeneusse, so we just let it happen. Jennifer told us, "in La jeneusse, we do hugs."
It was a super awesome church though. There was a guy named Webb. We also got his information and we had a conversation with him about Haiti. He came here when he was 12. It was a fun night last night. We were their from 6:00-9:00, then we walked home to get back to the apartment by 9:30.
This week we had Outreach again. This is the activity that Bishop felt inspired to implement, which includes Members going out with the missionaries to visit Less-active members in the Church. We do this kind of thing all the time, but the third Saturday, when we have Outreach, we get together as a ward to do it. The attendance of the ward at outreach hasn't been very good, so Bishop had a stern talk with the leaders of the ward about how the program was inspired from God through inspiration and that if the members had problems with doing it, they can kneel down and pray to God and ask if it is an inspired Program. Bishop Bethel is very straight forward with people and he is good at getting things done. He is an amazing man!
We got a pretty descent turnout this Saturday as compared to the last two outreaches we did. After Outreach, The elder's quorum did an activity called the "Man Lunch," were they went to Five Guys. All the missionaries went to. It was so good! I am glad that we have a Five Guys in our area! It was great! Brother Zaugg, the elder's quorum president, didn't give us very good directions, so we got super lost and we wasted 20 miles on our miles limit to find it, which we weren't happy about, but it was still a good experience. That was the day that Elder Larsen and I went on an exchange together.
Also, this week Elder Chandler, Elder Anderson, Elder Hall, and I went to a KFC buffet down in Hollywood, which is part of our area still because we are Creole Missionaries. We had a lesson down there, so we went before the lesson. The only problem is that our appointment called and cancelled at the last minute. But it was a good experience still.
Well, I have to go.
Bye! I love you all. Keep on writing me!
Love,
Elder Seamons
Monday, April 11, 2011
President Hale is doing great and recovering quicker than expected
Many prayers have been answered in regard to President Hale. He had the surgery to take out his tumor on Thursday. It was not embedded in the spine but was offset, and they were able to get all of it. They will find out in the next few days if it is malignant or benign. He went to his brother’s house to recover. The doctor expects he will be ready to go back in 2 weeks instead of 3. Sister Hale is heading back to Florida tomorrow. Everyone is happy with his progress.
April 10, 2011
Hi Everyone! We had a very good week this week! We were having a super slow week where finding efforts were concerned in the beginning of the week, but the last three days we have found 20 or more people who want to hear the message we share, many of which we have already scheduled appointments with. Elder Hall and Elder Anderson are zone leaders and Elder Chandler is the district leader for our district. The zone had an awesome week. Elder Anderson was telling us about how he found an investigator who already has a super powerful testimony that the Gospel is true and she loved the Book of Mormon. The YSA elders found two super awesome investigators who already had their own set of scriptures and have a testimony and have marked their scriptures, gone to church, and prayed about everything that we teach. They went to church in Washington state already. They are going to be baptized really soon.
We also met this Haitian girl the other day that was super excited that we spoke Creole. Most Haitians are super excited about that. We stopped by the house again, and she introduced us to her sisters and she said that we were her friends. All three of them were super excited and were giving us drinks, a place to sit, and talking to us about Haitian culture. There were some guys in the room, but they didn't really seem as interested. They were probably most interested because we were young white guys who spoke Creole. They did understand the message we taught them though, and we thought that they were engaged in the lesson too, not just in us, which was a good thing. One of the guys there invited us to their Haitian Baptist church, which we accepted on the condition of them coming to our church. So we have that all planned out. Plus they are going to talk to the pastor of that church and ask if we can go in front of all the youth in the congregation for a youth activity and teach our message to them. That would be so awesome! Plus Julie, one of the people there said that she would make Haitian food for us when we came over again, which we were excited about, because it has been a while since we have gotten a good Haitian meal. Well, there were elders in Miami who were allowed to stand up and give a presentation in front of the church in a Corps de Christ church. So we will see how that goes. There were elders in Miami who were allowed to stand up and give a presentation in front of the church in a Corps de Christ church. So we will see how that goes. In the Corps de Christ church, the elders were telling everyone about the Joseph Smith story and the pastor had a look of Horror on his face and seemed to regret letting them speak. The congregation was very interested and even one of the assistant pastors had a question, but the head pastor just told the missionaries that the congregation could ask him instead.
Today after we write our e-mails, we will do companionship study and we are going to buy groceries and go over to Fort Lauderdale South's apartment to play Volley Ball with them. We cook a lot more meals for ourselves here than we did in Coconut Creek. Most of the Haitian members in the ward are in Elder Anderson and Elder Hall's area. In Coconut Creek there are a lot more Haitian members.
Peterson has been taught everything that he needs to know and he really wants to be baptized. The only problem is that Crystella (Peterson's mom) says that he has been a bad boy and that he isn't ready to be baptized. But she has been giving us dumb reasons for it, and she is expecting him to be perfect. Crystella, when Laudia and Morelson were about to get baptized, told them that if they partook of the sacrament unworthily, they would choke on it and die. She says she has seen three people in her old Haitian Pentecostal church have that happen to them. We are kind of frustrated with her. Hopefully we can help her realize that he is ready. We are going to start sitting down with her more often and make sure she understands baptism better. We did that once or twice, but it will probably take more time than that. She has come to church every Sunday for the past four months though. And she came to the investigator/new member class on Wednesday which teaches people basic gospel principles. We were happy about that.
Peterson's Mom has not been baptized yet. She reads out of the Gospel Principles Manual at home and she has read through the entire book of Mormon. At one point, she was the most likely to get baptized. She was apathetic at first and didn't want to come to church, but then she had a dream where god told her to start going to church again and pursue this, so she changed her mind and hasn't missed a day of coming to the church with her kids since. But she has a weird personality and changes her mind a lot. We were lucky that Laudia and Morelson got baptized.
Well, I have to go. Bye Everyone! I love you!
Love,
Elder Seamons
P.S. Also, I figured out that one of the people that I taught with Elder Rybin named Victor Huberson got baptized. It is so cool that six people that I taught with Elder Rybin got baptized after I left. I realize that so many things have happened since then. What we did together paved the way for much success where he is. I am very happy about that.
April 10, 2011
Hi Everyone! We had a very good week this week! We were having a super slow week where finding efforts were concerned in the beginning of the week, but the last three days we have found 20 or more people who want to hear the message we share, many of which we have already scheduled appointments with. Elder Hall and Elder Anderson are zone leaders and Elder Chandler is the district leader for our district. The zone had an awesome week. Elder Anderson was telling us about how he found an investigator who already has a super powerful testimony that the Gospel is true and she loved the Book of Mormon. The YSA elders found two super awesome investigators who already had their own set of scriptures and have a testimony and have marked their scriptures, gone to church, and prayed about everything that we teach. They went to church in Washington state already. They are going to be baptized really soon.
We also met this Haitian girl the other day that was super excited that we spoke Creole. Most Haitians are super excited about that. We stopped by the house again, and she introduced us to her sisters and she said that we were her friends. All three of them were super excited and were giving us drinks, a place to sit, and talking to us about Haitian culture. There were some guys in the room, but they didn't really seem as interested. They were probably most interested because we were young white guys who spoke Creole. They did understand the message we taught them though, and we thought that they were engaged in the lesson too, not just in us, which was a good thing. One of the guys there invited us to their Haitian Baptist church, which we accepted on the condition of them coming to our church. So we have that all planned out. Plus they are going to talk to the pastor of that church and ask if we can go in front of all the youth in the congregation for a youth activity and teach our message to them. That would be so awesome! Plus Julie, one of the people there said that she would make Haitian food for us when we came over again, which we were excited about, because it has been a while since we have gotten a good Haitian meal. Well, there were elders in Miami who were allowed to stand up and give a presentation in front of the church in a Corps de Christ church. So we will see how that goes. There were elders in Miami who were allowed to stand up and give a presentation in front of the church in a Corps de Christ church. So we will see how that goes. In the Corps de Christ church, the elders were telling everyone about the Joseph Smith story and the pastor had a look of Horror on his face and seemed to regret letting them speak. The congregation was very interested and even one of the assistant pastors had a question, but the head pastor just told the missionaries that the congregation could ask him instead.
Today after we write our e-mails, we will do companionship study and we are going to buy groceries and go over to Fort Lauderdale South's apartment to play Volley Ball with them. We cook a lot more meals for ourselves here than we did in Coconut Creek. Most of the Haitian members in the ward are in Elder Anderson and Elder Hall's area. In Coconut Creek there are a lot more Haitian members.
Peterson has been taught everything that he needs to know and he really wants to be baptized. The only problem is that Crystella (Peterson's mom) says that he has been a bad boy and that he isn't ready to be baptized. But she has been giving us dumb reasons for it, and she is expecting him to be perfect. Crystella, when Laudia and Morelson were about to get baptized, told them that if they partook of the sacrament unworthily, they would choke on it and die. She says she has seen three people in her old Haitian Pentecostal church have that happen to them. We are kind of frustrated with her. Hopefully we can help her realize that he is ready. We are going to start sitting down with her more often and make sure she understands baptism better. We did that once or twice, but it will probably take more time than that. She has come to church every Sunday for the past four months though. And she came to the investigator/new member class on Wednesday which teaches people basic gospel principles. We were happy about that.
Peterson's Mom has not been baptized yet. She reads out of the Gospel Principles Manual at home and she has read through the entire book of Mormon. At one point, she was the most likely to get baptized. She was apathetic at first and didn't want to come to church, but then she had a dream where god told her to start going to church again and pursue this, so she changed her mind and hasn't missed a day of coming to the church with her kids since. But she has a weird personality and changes her mind a lot. We were lucky that Laudia and Morelson got baptized.
Well, I have to go. Bye Everyone! I love you!
Love,
Elder Seamons
P.S. Also, I figured out that one of the people that I taught with Elder Rybin named Victor Huberson got baptized. It is so cool that six people that I taught with Elder Rybin got baptized after I left. I realize that so many things have happened since then. What we did together paved the way for much success where he is. I am very happy about that.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Prayers needed for President Hale, Eric's mission president- special fast on Wednesday
We just had our semiannual general conference of our church and were reminded that everyone has trials, no matter who you are or what good you are doing. Eric wrote in his letter that his mission president just found out he has a tumor in his spine and that he will be coming to Utah for at least 3 weeks to have it operated on and to recover. They are having a special fast on Wednesday and ask that everyone keep them in their prayers. Eric is struggling a little bit, although he didn’t say it in his letter but mentioned it to Kent who was online when he wrote his e-mail. I expect the president’s absence will be hard on him.
Dear family and friends,
This week was a great week! We had a lot of meetings, so we didn't have as many lessons this week, but it was really good. We had a specialized training on Friday. President Hale wasn't there because he was in a conference call with the General Authorities of the church. Conference was amazing, but it was super hard to get people to come. The problem is that we had many Haitians who weren't responsible and we called to check and see if they were coming, and they said that something came up. Haitians don't plan ahead or do anything like that super well. It is really annoying. But we did get three investigators at church: Daphney Jean, Peterson who is Laudia and Morelson's younger brother who is going to get baptized sometime soon, and Stephanie Orange. All three of them are Haitian. I have two pictures of Peterson (left), Stephanie, Laudia, and Morelson (right). I don't know how much they got out of conference, but the fact that they were there was good.
Peterson, who was having a lot of problems getting in trouble, has only gotten in trouble once the whole week! We are so happy with him. He told us to ask his mom if he had caused trouble, and she said he had been a good boy for several days. The Saturday night that we had shared the lesson of his divine worth before God has changed everything. We told him that he wasn't a mistake in God's eyes and that he was the way he was supposed to be. For the first time, he feels like he isn't worthless, which is what he thought for a long time. The love of God changed everything. Something that we heard in a zone counsel once is that sin is the evidence of unmet spiritual needs on the part of the sinner. Many people are willing to change, but they are just lost. If shown the way out, they will repent and take it. That is what happened with Peterson. This week he told his mom that he had been a good boy for a week and he felt he was ready to be baptized. She said that she wanted to wait to make sure that the change would stay. We are confident that Peterson will be baptized before the end of this month. We have taught him everything he needs to know, and he has come to church consistently. As soon as his mom gives him permission, we can baptize him the Sunday following that.
We also met an awesome woman named Wilma. When she heard about how Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, she told us how happy that made her feel, and she told us that she wanted to do what Joseph did and pray about if what we said was true. We didn't have to ask her to pray. She just told us she would. We were amazed about that.
Stephanie's Mom refused to let her come to Mutual on Wednesday. We were super upset about that. She said that she would only let Stephanie go to the church if she was there with her. We talked to her for 15 minutes using every tactic of persuasion that we could think of and she refused still. But then later on, we took Sister Cook with us to a lesson and Laudia who is good friends with Stephanie. Sister Cook is Haitian so she could talk to Eludes. Eludes at first was reluctant to let Stephanie go to church without her, but Sister Cook eventually persuaded Eludes to let her come to the last session of General Conference. We were all so surprised. Eludes is one of the most stubborn Haitian women I have ever met. But Sister Cook was able to convince her. That is the power that women have that not even the Elder's have. Plus on Sunday, Eludes thought about not allowing Stephanie to go to conference a half an hour before Sister Cook was supposed to pick her up because her Grandpa was coming and they needed to clean, but Sister Cook was able to persuade her again. I think we found Eludes' weak spot. Elder Chandler and I would have been so mad if Stephanie wasn't allowed to go, because Eludes uses the excuse of cleaning every single day. She is always cleaning. Stephanie had a pretty good time at the church. Plus Sister Cook talked to Eludes and she said that she would think about letting Stephanie go to mutual on Wednesday. She will let her know Tuesday night.
We have several new investigators who are very promising: Andre (who is the brother of a recent convert), Wilma, Daphney, and Marti al (who is Daphney's brother. He is a 14 year-old boy who just came out of Haiti). We just need to help them progress to baptism.
We also had some very surprising news yesterday. President Hale set up a conference call after General Conference and he told us that he has a tumor in his lower back around the lower part of his spine. He has had a loss of sensation in his feet for a few months and he has been consulting medical experts all over the country. He chose very carefully. He needs to go into a fourteen hour surgery to get the tumor out. They are not sure if it is cancerous or benign yet. We are praying that it is benign. He is going to be away from the mission for at least three weeks, if not more depending on what condition he is in after the surgery. For now President Lake of the mission presidency is taking over, along with the Assistants to the President. President was in a conference call with the General Authorities for several days and they said that they have prayed specifically for this mission and that God has great things in mind for our specific area. President Hale had a blessing in which he was told that this problem would be an immediate blessing for the mission. He also was told that Satan wanted to destroy the work of God in south Florida, but that he wouldn't succeed because it was not God's will.
President Hale has a very positive outlook on everything and he says that he is at peace with everything. The mission is having a special fast Wednesday afternoon and anyone who would like can also participate in this special fast.
I have to go! I love you all a lot! Bye!
Just keep on praying for me, especially that every companionship will be able to baptize 2 people in April. It is what President Hale has asked of us and we must obey. I don't know exactly what will happen. We will just need to trust in God. Especially pray that Eludes' heart will be softened and that Sister Cook can have success in reaching out to her and Stephanie. Pray for Peterson that he will continue to be a good boy and that his mom will acknowledge his good progress.
Thank you!
Bye!
Love,
Elder Seamons
Thursday, March 31, 2011
"So many miracles happened Sunday night to lead us to the exact location we were at to meet her. It definitely wasn’t an accident."
March 22nd, 2011
[The first part of this is a handwritten letter that we just received. It is Eric’s experience of a wonderful miracle that happened. Eric is fluent in Spanish, although he says that speaking Haitian Creole has mucked up his Spanish a bit. In this circumstance, it served him well. See his e-mail from last Monday below that. Between parent/teacher conference, regular lesson plans, homework for the last session of a professional development yesterday and district choir festival, I have had no time to post this sooner.
Also check out the limited edition post card drawing of the soon coming Fort Lauderdale temple that Eric sent us.]
Hello. I am going to share an experience that we had on Sunday:
We were going to teach an employee of Brother Galeas’ at 7:00 pm. (Brother Galeas is from the Spanish Branch, but has attended our ward before.) We were almost a half an hour late. We couldn’t find Brother Galeas’ apartment. Eventually we got there, but we didn’t know which building in the complex it was. We ended up driving half way down the complex away from his building. We couldn’t find any parking, so we had to park far away. Plus we were driving and there was an open guest spot closer, but the person driving in front of us took that spot. So we took a long time to walk down to where we were supposed to go. Along the way, a Hispanic woman named Jane T Gaitan drove up and recognized us as missionaries. She didn’t speak any English at all. She told me she was from Ecuador. During that conversation, Elder Chandler called our next two appointments to tell them what was happening. Our seven o’clock appointment that we were late to, as well as our eight o’clock appointment, both canceled on us. So we had all the time we needed to talk to her. She told me that she had many Mormon friends and that she loved them a lot. She loves the church. She told me about the temple in Ecuador and how beautiful it was. I told her that a temple would be built just ten minutes away from here. She was so excited. She told me how she had met with the missionaries for three years. The only reason she wasn’t baptized was because her husband, who was Catholic, was adamantly against the church. She said that she has been divorced from him for a while now. She said she hasn’t sat with the missionaries because she didn’t know that there were missionaries here, or where to find them. She said she would like to sit with the sister missionaries, and that she would like to get baptized.
The good thing is that because we were going to teach the employee and next door neighbor of Brother Galeas, we were in the apartment complex of a Spanish member He talked to her with me. We gave her the address of the church as well as the sister’s phone number. We also have her information. She agreed to come to church this coming Sunday. She was very excited about that. Brother Gleas has Janet’s number and he is now fellowshipping her. We will see what happens.
So many miracles happened Sunday night to lead us to the exact location we were at to meet her. It definitely wasn’t an accident. Elder Chandler pointed out that had he been put with any of the other 14 Creole missionaries this transfer, they wouldn’t have been able to find her. It could have taken several more years to find the missionaries. It feels so wonderful to be an instrument in the Lord’s hands to find someone and help them received the restored gospel. I am very grateful about that experience.
Monday March 28th, 2011
We have had an awesome week! We had seven investigators at church this week! Odline, the 10 years old Haitian girl who read in the picture book of Mormon a ton came. Brother Bradford promised to give her a steady ride to church. She was so excited! The Bradford’s have a daughter named Lucy. Her and Odline were going everywhere together. We had Stephanie and Eludes Orange (a mother and her daughter) come to church, with Stephanie's nieces and nephew (they are Haitian too). We also had Daphney Jean, the girlfriend of one of our recent converts, Michael Jean-Baptist. Plus Morelson brought one of his friends to church. Plus Odline. And Crystella and Peterson, who are family with Laudia and Morelson, the recent converts came too.
Stephanie and Eludes are people that I contacted while I was on an exchange with a member. It is an interesting story. I wasn't going to knock on their door because there was no car in front of their house, but I did anyway. I met Stephanie and she seemed pretty interested. We are teaching her and her friend who I also contacted across the street. They are all Haitian. Stephanie is 14. She is a Seventh-day and so is her mom. Stephanie goes, but she really isn't into it at all. Eludes on the other hand is a very devout seventh day. We invited them to church on Sunday, but Eludes said she would only go if we went to her church. So on Saturday, we went to her Seventh-Day Haitian church. It was an interesting experience. We showed up 15 minutes before it was supposed to start, but we were the only ones their except for two other Haitians. The pastor didn't even show up until ten. She commented on how early we were. Everyone showed up around 10:05. It didn't start until 10:15. The pastor was telling the whole congregation how the only people who were on time were us two as far as she could tell. She told everyone that no one knows when Jesus Christ will come. She said that if he had come at 10:00 this morning, they would have all been lost. Elder Chandler and I laughed about that afterwards. It was frustrating because most of the service was in French. The spoke in Creole once and a while though. I understand a lot of French, but it is still hard to understand. They basically sung the whole time and different passages out of Psalms. The singing was so loud. Pastor and some people on the stand had microphones and were singing as loud as they can into it. I could barely hear anything else. People would say amen after everything. Some Haitian churches are done in Creole, but this one was in French. I was hoping the songbook would be in Creole, but it wasn't. I have been trying to learn French on my own a little bit.
We have a member who took Stephanie, Eludes, and the young kids to church. We went to Stephanie's house and walked with them down the street to this member's house. Eludes almost made Stephanie stay home and watch the kids, but I talked to her for five minutes, and eventually she agreed to let the kids and Stephanie come too. Eludes is a stubborn Haitian woman and I and amazed that she even said yes. I don't know what convinced her. Eludes didn't have a good time at church just because she wasn't paying attention and she was thinking about how she had stuff to clean back at home. The only reason that she came was because we made a deal with her. We are pretty sure that if Stephanie hadn't come, Eludes wouldn't have ever let her go, because Eludes didn't have a good experience. But since Stephanie has gone and loved church, that will give her mom a better reason to let her go. Stephanie also happened to have a friend at church, who was Laudia. Elder Chandler was trying to figure out who would be a good person to have Stephanie sit by and Laudia happened to pop into his head. We were amazed when they already knew each other. This has to be lead and guided by the spirit, because Elder Chandler had a experience when he was lead by the spirit to find Laudia to begin teaching her. Then I had a similar experience with Stephanie. Then they both end up together in the same church. We were so happy! Laudia is coming to teach Stephanie with us on Friday.
Peterson was having a hard time this way. He is always swearing at his mom and siblings and back talking to them. We were telling him that he needed to change. We were upset with him. But then he started to cry and told us how his mom, from when he was young told him how she had him by accident and how she never wanted him. Plus Laudia and Morelson don't treat him very nicely, which Elder Chandler and I believe, because we have seen it several times. He told us how the ideal family picture would have his Mom, Laudia, and Morelson all crossed out and just have his dad in it. We felt so bad for him. We taught him about the love of God and of his Divine worth. He was telling us how he felt unloved and felt like trouble to everyone. We realized that his horrible behavior was greatly due to the fact that it is the only way he ever get noticed in that house. He is only twelve years old and his mom has told him that she never wanted him. That would be horrible if Mom said that to me. I am glad I grow up in a good family.
I am doing great! We have three solid baptismal dates. We met this awesome guy named Andre who has two sisters who both come to this ward. He really wants to get baptized and says he will come to General Conference this week.
I love you all! Please write me. I haven't heard from some of you in a while.
Bye!
Love,
Elder Seamons
P.S. I did get the Girl Scout cookies. I loved them a lot. Thank you Mom!
Elder Chandler and I went to a Haitian seventh Day church on Saturday. An investigator’s mom only agreed to come to our church if we went to hers. She and her mom came to church yesterday.
Plus someone else I knew in Coconut creek got baptized. Her name is Sabrina! She is Haitian. I am so happy about that.
This is a computer generated image of the South Florida Temple,
which will be built just ten minutes away or less from us. It
will be on Griffin Road and I-75 in Fort Lauderdale.
This is what the Fort Lauderdale mission blog says about the cards:
Upon authorization of the use of the new temple rendering and through a
generous donation; a few thousand of these limited production
"South Florida Temple Pass-Along Cards" were produced.
They will surely be a powerful instrument in our hands as we invite
others to come (for the first time and others to return) unto Christ
Thursday, March 24, 2011
"I am staying with Elder Chandler in Fort Lauderdale for another transfer!"
March 22nd, 2011
Hello Everyone!
I am staying with Elder Chandler in Fort Lauderdale for another transfer! I am so happy about that. So was Elder Chandler. He has been transferred so much during the mission. If he had been transferred again, he would have been very upset. He hasn't stayed in an area longer than 2 transfers in a row. This is his third transfer in this area, so he is excited to finally stay put. Elder Anderson is training, but Elder Bolz is transferring. We are very surprised, because President Hale told Elder Bolz that he would stay in Fort Lauderdale for the rest of his time in the mission field. He only has two transfers left. We are wondering where he will go. Elder Bacon, one of the assistants said that he would have a wonderful leadership opportunity. We are wondering what that is. He is already a zone leader. We thought that he would be an Assistant to the President, but we weren't sure.
Yes I did get the popcorn package down here. Elder Rybin called and said that there is a package up there for me. He will probably give it to me at the next specialized training.
Laudia and Morelson got confirmed on Sunday. We were very excited about that.
We have a fair number of people that can get baptized in the month of April. We are both very excited. I will write a written letter and tell you about more of the stuff that is going on. Bye!
Love,
Elder Seamons
Hello Everyone!
I am staying with Elder Chandler in Fort Lauderdale for another transfer! I am so happy about that. So was Elder Chandler. He has been transferred so much during the mission. If he had been transferred again, he would have been very upset. He hasn't stayed in an area longer than 2 transfers in a row. This is his third transfer in this area, so he is excited to finally stay put. Elder Anderson is training, but Elder Bolz is transferring. We are very surprised, because President Hale told Elder Bolz that he would stay in Fort Lauderdale for the rest of his time in the mission field. He only has two transfers left. We are wondering where he will go. Elder Bacon, one of the assistants said that he would have a wonderful leadership opportunity. We are wondering what that is. He is already a zone leader. We thought that he would be an Assistant to the President, but we weren't sure.
Yes I did get the popcorn package down here. Elder Rybin called and said that there is a package up there for me. He will probably give it to me at the next specialized training.
Laudia and Morelson got confirmed on Sunday. We were very excited about that.
We have a fair number of people that can get baptized in the month of April. We are both very excited. I will write a written letter and tell you about more of the stuff that is going on. Bye!
Love,
Elder Seamons
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
“There are many prepared people in South Florida who are ready to receive the Gospel. I have seen many fulfillments of that prophesy.”
March 13, 2011
Great news! We had the baptism of Laudia and Morelson Petitfrere yesterday after stake conference. We had the service at the stake center. Peterson, their 12-year-old brother is not getting baptized yet because his mom doesn't feel they are ready. They are Haitian. We had a really good baptismal service and President and Sister Hale stayed after for it. We had seven baptisms in our zone yesterday. It was awesome! I will send you pictures of the baptism in the future. Peterson has his baptism scheduled for April 3rd, so we are hoping that we can help him meet that date. He still gets in arguments with his mom, so his mom might delay it because of those problems. But we can tell that he feels bad and wants to change. We are excited for when he can get baptized too.
We have a ten-year-old girl named Odline who has read through the kid's book of Mormon 3 times in a row. She loves the church and definitely has a testimony of the Gospel. She is living with her dad and her step mother. Her dad said that she can get baptized, but he wants to get the permission of the real mom before he tells us yes. Odline asked her and she said that she would think about it and tell her when she talks to her again. We are hoping to get permission this week. The only problem is that her step mom and her dad work, and they can't take her to church, so we are trying to find a permanent ride for her.
We also have an awesome investigator named Cherline who is Haitian. She loves the church, made friends without us introducing her to a whole bunch of people, and she really wants to get baptized and stay in the church for the rest of her life. The only problem is that she works two jobs, has no one else in her family who has one, so she is trying to scrape a living to pay for the house as well as get money to go to school. We need to find time to meet with her, but between her two jobs, she works twelve hours a day sometimes. Pray for Cherline and that she will find a way to meet with us and come to church more. She is awesome! We have several people in this area that are ready to be baptized, but they are stopped because of their circumstances. It is really sad. We are having a fair amount of success though.
There is a place in Fort Lauderdale that is well known called the "Swap Shop" It is like a mall. Different businesses come in and pay a tiny bit to set up a stand, and they sell new stuff for a very low price. A few weeks ago on P-day, I bought three ties for 9 dollars. They are really good looking ties too. They also have shops outside too. Anyone who wants can buy a spot and they can sell stuff. Last transfer the missionaries put up a stand, made a poster, and contacted everyone really close to the stand. They got several people's information out of it. It was a pretty good way of contacting. Elder Chandler and I did it again for four hours on Saturday. We had so many people reject us. I am now beginning to realize how fortunate the Creole missionaries are. Americans can be wonderful people, but there are a large number of them that are extremely intellectual, prideful, hard-hearted, and rude. I have met a lot of rude people in the last week, especially at the Swap Shop. It amazes me that anyone would ever treat another person like that, no matter what religion you are from. The Haitians were so much nicer to us, and even if they declined our invitation to hear more, they didn't treat us horribly. One person went by the stand and said, "You missionaries are so easy to spot, I could recognize you from a mile away." He sounded negative about it too. I walked toward him as he was walking away. I asked him where he had seen missionaries and if it was okay if I gave him a card. He told me that it was not okay and that I was harassing him. He didn't even turn around to talk to me. He just walked away from me the whole time. This other guy came up and told us he had a friend who was Mormon and he started bashing on us. He told us that we were going to burn in hell and that we believed in a different Jesus because we believe he was "a created being." He told us that he prayed that we would be brought to the truth. But despite all of that we got thirty to forty people give us their information to contact them again. We were very happy about that. Out of the forty potential investigators that we contacted, only three of them were in our area. Luckily we got this awesome woman and her husband who has met with the missionaries before and she loved them. She remembers a lot of what she learned.
I don't know what makes the youth come despite the fact that their parents are not members. Actually, most of the young men/ young women are converts. There are 19 young women, and out of them, there are 11 of them that were baptized in the last three years--same thing with the young men. Most of the ward is converts to the church. Our Bishop, Bishop Bethel has only been a member of the church for 8 years.
We have explained the fact that someone doesn't have to be perfect to get baptized, but for a Haitian, that is very hard to understand. They feel like you have to be very, very, very prepared to be baptized.
Often, the missionaries find the youth, but they become friends with the youth in the ward very quickly. Recent converts in the youth are fellowshipping each other. This ward is different, because a large portion of it is recent converts.
Lezly and Tilia, our recent converts from this transfer are at girl’s camp right now. We are so excited. We want them to have a really spiritual experience so they can have a strong testimony of the Gospel. On Wednesday night near the end of mutual, we had a lesson about the temple and eternal marriage. We have been teaching them a lot about the temple. We also had a talk with them about getting to church. They have been to mutual almost every week, but because of their parents making excuses not to take them, they haven’t' been to church on Sunday for 3 consecutive weeks. Their parents don't mind that they are baptized, but sometimes they make excuses not to drive them their because of laziness or some other excuse. We told them a whole bunch of alternate options if their parents fall through on them. We told them that the church is only a mile away from their house and that they can walk if their parents are doing something else. Plus this will show their parents their dedication. They agreed to that, so we will see them at church next week.
The youth are by far the most receptive. The only reason the youth program is not growing faster is because of the hard-heartedness of their parents. I have run into dozens and dozens of youth who are ready for the gospel but can't progress because their parents told us never to pass by the house again. We had three awesome teenagers we passed by last night, one of which was a friend of Lezly and Tilia. But then the dad came home. When we left the house, the dad came out and told us that their minds were impressionable and that he didn't want us to lead them off of the good path. He told us to never go back to the house or else he would call the police. We were both sad. But despite that, we are spreading the gospel and finding a pack of amazing youth. There are many prepared people in South Florida who are ready to receive the Gospel. It has been promised by President Uchtdorf and many others. I have seen many fulfillments of that prophesy. I know this is God's work and no barrier will be able to stop it. I am so excited for the success that we are having. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that he can bring us strength and healing. What a great message to bring to the entire world. No one else has a message that is more important than that. I love you all! Keep writing and pray for the hearts of the people to be softened!
Love,
Elder Seamons
Great news! We had the baptism of Laudia and Morelson Petitfrere yesterday after stake conference. We had the service at the stake center. Peterson, their 12-year-old brother is not getting baptized yet because his mom doesn't feel they are ready. They are Haitian. We had a really good baptismal service and President and Sister Hale stayed after for it. We had seven baptisms in our zone yesterday. It was awesome! I will send you pictures of the baptism in the future. Peterson has his baptism scheduled for April 3rd, so we are hoping that we can help him meet that date. He still gets in arguments with his mom, so his mom might delay it because of those problems. But we can tell that he feels bad and wants to change. We are excited for when he can get baptized too.
We have a ten-year-old girl named Odline who has read through the kid's book of Mormon 3 times in a row. She loves the church and definitely has a testimony of the Gospel. She is living with her dad and her step mother. Her dad said that she can get baptized, but he wants to get the permission of the real mom before he tells us yes. Odline asked her and she said that she would think about it and tell her when she talks to her again. We are hoping to get permission this week. The only problem is that her step mom and her dad work, and they can't take her to church, so we are trying to find a permanent ride for her.
We also have an awesome investigator named Cherline who is Haitian. She loves the church, made friends without us introducing her to a whole bunch of people, and she really wants to get baptized and stay in the church for the rest of her life. The only problem is that she works two jobs, has no one else in her family who has one, so she is trying to scrape a living to pay for the house as well as get money to go to school. We need to find time to meet with her, but between her two jobs, she works twelve hours a day sometimes. Pray for Cherline and that she will find a way to meet with us and come to church more. She is awesome! We have several people in this area that are ready to be baptized, but they are stopped because of their circumstances. It is really sad. We are having a fair amount of success though.
There is a place in Fort Lauderdale that is well known called the "Swap Shop" It is like a mall. Different businesses come in and pay a tiny bit to set up a stand, and they sell new stuff for a very low price. A few weeks ago on P-day, I bought three ties for 9 dollars. They are really good looking ties too. They also have shops outside too. Anyone who wants can buy a spot and they can sell stuff. Last transfer the missionaries put up a stand, made a poster, and contacted everyone really close to the stand. They got several people's information out of it. It was a pretty good way of contacting. Elder Chandler and I did it again for four hours on Saturday. We had so many people reject us. I am now beginning to realize how fortunate the Creole missionaries are. Americans can be wonderful people, but there are a large number of them that are extremely intellectual, prideful, hard-hearted, and rude. I have met a lot of rude people in the last week, especially at the Swap Shop. It amazes me that anyone would ever treat another person like that, no matter what religion you are from. The Haitians were so much nicer to us, and even if they declined our invitation to hear more, they didn't treat us horribly. One person went by the stand and said, "You missionaries are so easy to spot, I could recognize you from a mile away." He sounded negative about it too. I walked toward him as he was walking away. I asked him where he had seen missionaries and if it was okay if I gave him a card. He told me that it was not okay and that I was harassing him. He didn't even turn around to talk to me. He just walked away from me the whole time. This other guy came up and told us he had a friend who was Mormon and he started bashing on us. He told us that we were going to burn in hell and that we believed in a different Jesus because we believe he was "a created being." He told us that he prayed that we would be brought to the truth. But despite all of that we got thirty to forty people give us their information to contact them again. We were very happy about that. Out of the forty potential investigators that we contacted, only three of them were in our area. Luckily we got this awesome woman and her husband who has met with the missionaries before and she loved them. She remembers a lot of what she learned.
I don't know what makes the youth come despite the fact that their parents are not members. Actually, most of the young men/ young women are converts. There are 19 young women, and out of them, there are 11 of them that were baptized in the last three years--same thing with the young men. Most of the ward is converts to the church. Our Bishop, Bishop Bethel has only been a member of the church for 8 years.
We have explained the fact that someone doesn't have to be perfect to get baptized, but for a Haitian, that is very hard to understand. They feel like you have to be very, very, very prepared to be baptized.
Often, the missionaries find the youth, but they become friends with the youth in the ward very quickly. Recent converts in the youth are fellowshipping each other. This ward is different, because a large portion of it is recent converts.
Lezly and Tilia, our recent converts from this transfer are at girl’s camp right now. We are so excited. We want them to have a really spiritual experience so they can have a strong testimony of the Gospel. On Wednesday night near the end of mutual, we had a lesson about the temple and eternal marriage. We have been teaching them a lot about the temple. We also had a talk with them about getting to church. They have been to mutual almost every week, but because of their parents making excuses not to take them, they haven’t' been to church on Sunday for 3 consecutive weeks. Their parents don't mind that they are baptized, but sometimes they make excuses not to drive them their because of laziness or some other excuse. We told them a whole bunch of alternate options if their parents fall through on them. We told them that the church is only a mile away from their house and that they can walk if their parents are doing something else. Plus this will show their parents their dedication. They agreed to that, so we will see them at church next week.
The youth are by far the most receptive. The only reason the youth program is not growing faster is because of the hard-heartedness of their parents. I have run into dozens and dozens of youth who are ready for the gospel but can't progress because their parents told us never to pass by the house again. We had three awesome teenagers we passed by last night, one of which was a friend of Lezly and Tilia. But then the dad came home. When we left the house, the dad came out and told us that their minds were impressionable and that he didn't want us to lead them off of the good path. He told us to never go back to the house or else he would call the police. We were both sad. But despite that, we are spreading the gospel and finding a pack of amazing youth. There are many prepared people in South Florida who are ready to receive the Gospel. It has been promised by President Uchtdorf and many others. I have seen many fulfillments of that prophesy. I know this is God's work and no barrier will be able to stop it. I am so excited for the success that we are having. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that he can bring us strength and healing. What a great message to bring to the entire world. No one else has a message that is more important than that. I love you all! Keep writing and pray for the hearts of the people to be softened!
Love,
Elder Seamons
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)