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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love,

Elder Seamons

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

Dear Family and Friends,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love,

Elder Seamons

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Letter to President Anderson

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

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

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

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

Love,

Elder Seamons

"This has been a really good week"

September 12, 2011

Hello Everyone!


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

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

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

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

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

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

Love,

Elder Seamons

Duponte got baptized this week!

Hello Everyone!

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

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

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

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

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

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

P.S.

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


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Eric sent his letter to the president:

Hello President! The district is doing well!

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

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

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

Bye President! I love you. Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Dupont's baptism

Elder Shipley and Elder Seamons

 Elder Seamons at the computer

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

"We have more investigators coming to church than ever. "

August 29, 2011

Hello everyone! This was an amazing week! We have many great things going on. This week was the "White night" [I assume this has something to do with the baptismal clothes being white] Baptismal night. The stake had a goal for 100 baptisms. There were 18. We were still really happy though. Elder Giorgino and Elder Edwards had 5 baptisms, which was awesome! Merline, one of the people being baptized, was someone that Elder Shipley and I found, so we were really happy. They are all very prepared and have very strong testimonies of the restored gospel already.


We have more investigators coming to church than ever. We had six investigators and one non-member come this week. Kattia, Kervins, and Fabiola, brother and two sisters came. Kattia especially loved the church. They stayed after for the baptism, which is good, because those are very powerful spiritual experiences for investigators and 80% of all people who go to see a baptism end up seeing their own.

Duponte is doing very well. He is very self-motivated and self-reliant. We don't have to get a ride for him or anything. He just made friends and got a ride from some members himself. That is a big faith growing step: when their desire motivates them to come without being asked. We realize that we need to work better on making sure that our investigators have that testimony. They are doing the actions, but now they need to have the conversion.

Ernst, his wife Carrine, and his daughter Karen all came to the Saturday night baptism on the bus. They liked it a lot. Carrine is feeling the spirit. We can tell. When we are in lessons with the whole family, the spirit is so strong. That is how they are meant to be taught, as a family. We won't make the mistake of just focusing on one person in the family alone. The family is the most important unit in the church. I know that is true.

Some interesting things have happened this week. Kattia has a crush on me. It happens with Haitian girls that only speak Creole. They think that a white guy who speaks the same language is interesting. We have been dealing with that the whole week. Last week she called three times a day for two to three days, then I just told her to not call so much but text when she had questions. Then she asked personal questions and she asked me out on a date. I told her that I couldn't as a missionary and she asked me how much time I had left. She told me to do a good job on the mission and that we would stay in contact and talk later. Elder Shipley and I were freaking out about it for a while. We can't pass her to YSA because she only speaks Creole. We wondered if she was keeping her commitments just for me, but then she ready 6 chapters in the book of Mormon and we didn't ask her to read that far. Then she understood mostly everything and had some very insightful questions. But then she wants to know about me to. I told her that I would stop texting if she didn't pull back a little bit and I told her they could send me away. I had Elder Shipley text her, but she threatened to not come to church. We talked her into coming and she actually is doing a lot better than she was. She is turning out to be a very good progressing investigator. I wanted to drop her because I was tired of dealing with it, but she is calming down a lot. We know for sure that she does have a sincere interest in the gospel. She is doing very well. We are going to give her and her brother Kervins a baptismal date.

Cemania is now officially dropped. She stopped texting us for several days. She had done that before. We texted her and told her that we knew that she was to afraid to tell us she didn't want to continue, but that we knew the message is true. We asked her if she wanted to continue. She texted and said no. She decided not to get baptized in any church. She said there is just too much confusion. The other two times that we tried to help her continue the studies, I felt a strong feeling to continue. But this time the spirit restrained me and told me to let her go. I got the impression that she would come and meet the missionaries again in the future, and that she would me more prepared. She said she was really sad to say goodbye and that she loved us. I don't feel too sad, because I know that it will all work out for her if she does what she is supposed to. She has great desires. She just is confused and she needs some time to ponder.

Carlo is back in the mix of people who can get baptized within a week or so. Carlo's Supervisor got a call from a place in Hialeah asking how hard of a worker he was, how reliable he was, etc. They realized that he was trying to leave the job because he couldn't get Sundays off. He has worker at the place for 25 years and he is a very good worker, so they don't want to lose him. His boss let him come to church this Sunday and today he will tell us what his boss said about all Sundays in the future. We pray that the president of the company's heart will be softened as well. His supervisor definitely has been.

Things are going well. We haven't been as obedient as we should have been. We haven't been doing an hour of Harvesting the Field because of how many people we have to teach. It is definitely making a difference in the spirit we feel as a companionship. I have to go now. Bye everyone! I love you!

Love,

Elder Seamons

"Thanks for all of your prayers and support"

Dear Family and Friends,


We had a great week. We didn't have as many people at church, but that was okay. We didn't follow up with people and get them prepared as well for church, which is probably why. We had stake conference and it was great. We had three investigators there: Carlo Joseph (fourth time at church), Jenifer (second time at church), and Duponte (third time at church in a row!). The young single adult sisters had a baptism for Shannon, a very long time investigator. He is very awesome. We had to plan four baptismal interviews to get it to happen, but it did. There were a lot of people there too! :) Duponte stayed for the baptism and Duponte's friend Yves came to the church after conference ended to see it.

Duponte is awesome! He was in the Jehovah’s Witness church for 8 years, but he doesn't feel good about everything that goes on in that church. He has been to many other churches in search of the truth. He is very willing to act. He came to church randomly with his friend Yves two Sundays in a row and we sat with him. He read the first 15 chapters of the Book of Mormon in two days. We gave him a date for the 4th of September accepted. We have the baptism, the interview, and all the appointments until his baptism planned out. He told several members when he was getting baptized. We are really excited.

Jenifer said that she would like to go to the North Miami Beach Spanish ward instead because she likes it better. So we will be passing her [to the Spanish Elders]. We were really disappointed, but we are happy that she is enjoying the church so much. She says that she wants to get sealed with her husband in the temple some day after she gets baptized.

Cemania is having a really hard time. She loves the church and she feels that we teach the truth, but then she looked up stuff on the internet about the church that bothered her (Blacks and the priesthood) She was really conflicted about it and on Saturday she texted us a lot and said that she didn't want us to come back over and teach her anymore. We went over immediately and she told us how she feels so confused and conflicted. I don't know enough about the subject to be absolutely sure about what all of the facts are. We told her several things. She said that in general she is tired of all the churches saying different things because she doesn't know what to do or where to turn. She told us that she thought of just giving up and not going to any church and just studying on her own. We shared with her 2 Nephi 26:33 which talks about how God inviteth all, Black, White, Bond and free, male and female to come unto him and he denieth none. That helped her feel so much better. She told us that she knew that understanding why God does things won't be easy and she decided to keep studying with us because it would be the more difficult route. She knows that the easy route isn't always the best one. We were so grateful for the spirit. I was out of words to say to her. But she felt something undeniable and she decided to stick was it. This is the second time that she has almost dropped us.

Great news! Georges told us that because he now has six months working in the Marriot Hotel, he will now have the ability to request days off and get them. He says that in two weeks he will be able to have every Sunday off! That means that he will be baptized! We picked the 4th of September for him. We are all really excited.

We have several new investigators who are really interested in what we have to say. We met someone named Jacques whose house we blessed and the same day we passed by. He read the whole introduction and testimony of Joseph Smith and he knew the whole story of how Moroni appeared to Joseph three times in the night and another time after Joseph came back from the field on his way home. We were so amazed. He says he will read more and pray. We also met Katia, who is the sister of someone who came up to us and wanted us to come over. She called us yesterday and today to say hi to us and she told us that she wanted to come to the church yesterday, but it is too far. We told her to take the bus and she said she will. We are so excited.

Bye! Everyone! I love you so much! Thank you for all of your prayers and your support!

Love,

Elder Seamons

An overabundance of referrals and people to teach

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love,

Elder Seamons