No More Car

 January 16, 2012

Hi Everyone! A lot of unexpected things happened during transfers. I am in a three-some. Elder Owens who is from Buhl, Idaho and Elder Snyder who is from Syracuse, Utah are my companions. They were part of the group of missionaries in the Stewart zone that were transferred to this mission from the Orlando Mission. They are both really good missionaries and they are good for coming along for the ride. A big thing that has happened is that we no longer have a car. It was made into a full bike area. I am super tired every day when we come home. I felt like my legs were going to give out. I rarely used the bike since I was sent to Miami. This mission relies on the cars so much. I didn't realize what difference it made until we had to go with out it. We are getting a lot of help though. President Boggess has some senior couples that are snowbirds that came to the area and he is going to have each of them ride us around for half a day. His vision is to get enough people driving us around that we don't have to bike a lot. Plus we got a ride to church on Sunday, which saved us, because the church is 8 miles away. I am really out of shape. The branch is doing well and we have so many wonderful members. The members have been feeding us a lot this week and coming out with us. The Hillsamer's made us some great homemade food and Brother Hillsamer took us out to where we were working so that we didn't have to go and bike the whole way. Then he took us back to his house to have dessert, then he dropped us off at home. They are a wonderful family.

We arrived a few minutes early to the Hillsamer's house and we passed by their neighbor's house who they referred us to. Her name is Susie, and her best friend is Vicky. Susie didn't seem interested at first, but then we invited to leave a blessing on her home. She talked with us for a while and she shared a lot of her problems and worries with us and we left the blessing. She was a little teary eyed and she felt the spirit very strong. She even said she was planning on coming to the church before but never got around to it. Sister Hillsamer is going to invite her, and give her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. She is still having a hard time coping with the death of her husband which happened a few years back. Vicky was also having some issues in her family and she feels that she needs help with. It was a very tender moment. We were in the place that we were supposed to be. Clair is doing really well. She has read half of the Book of Mormon already, and she read 8 chapters of the Doctrine and Covenants. We gave her an English Book of Mormon, but she wanted a Doctrine and Covenants, so we gave her a large print Triple combination. She read the pearl of Great price before we met her. Her only problem is her not feeling that she can be good enough to be baptized. She has a smoking addiction. We are trying to help her overcome that.

Clair, Nicole, and some random people who came off the street during Sunday school named Jason and Maria came to church. We were really excited that Clair and Nicole were there. Nicole didn't seem to have a good experience, so we are going meet with her and see what we can do to help her.

Heavenly Father watches out for those that are doing his work. He is constantly guiding and directing us through the spirit. He is more present and involved with your lives than you can possibly imagine. I know that Jesus Christ is always extending his grace and love to us and that we just need to believe and do our very best.

I love you all and I will write you next week! Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Letter to the President:

Hi President! It has been an interesting transition during the new transfer. We have had some rough times in the beginning, especially being switched into a full bike area, but we are learning so much. It is really causing me to have to relying on God and to look to him for strength. I have learned that we need to help our investigators keep their eyes single to our purpose. If they don't understand it, they can't show their faith and progress in the gospel. I have learned that daily contact is crucial to help them do that. Thank you so much for all that you do President! I love you so much!

Mission Wide Harvest and Elder Bolz Visits

 Note from Mom: Elder Bolz was Eric’s trainer who was visiting the mission and was able to spend time with Eric and his companion. I am really behind lately, so I will be sending out two more letters in the next week. 

January 10th, 2012

We had the most amazing week! So many things are happening. The area that we were working in before was doing better than the first area we had chosen, but it wasn't bringing the results we were hoping for. Then Sister McNamara gave us the Jean family's new address and phone number. They are a less active 50 year old couple that Elder Bolz and I had visited before. We went there and they were very excited to see us and to hear about the new branch. Jacques is Haitian and his wife is a Caribbean islander named Suzette. They both came to church on Sunday as a result of that visit. We finally had enough Haitians to start the creole class up! There were six people: Sister Hepler, Sister Samson, Sister Pierre (she taught the class), Jacques, and two investigators (not the two I mentioned in the previous e-mail. I will explain).

But after we had that visit with the Jean family, we were told by the mission leadership that the mission was going to do a mission-wide harvest on Wednesday from 5-7. If we had appointments at that time, we were to move them. They promised us that if we were to do what we were supposed to, we would find someone that was prepared to be baptized in January. It was a great success. We harvested 6 homes, two of which came to church. The first one's name was Clair. We knocked on the door and she answered. 50 year old white woman. She asked us if we were Jehovah’s Witnesses. Then when we said no. Realizing that we were LDS missionaries, she said, "you guys won't believe what I just finished reading." She went into her house and brought out a book called Mormon Murders. It is a true story about some Mormon people who were murdered. She told us that she loved the church and that 20 years ago she was studying with the missionaries, but her husband, now ex-husband, wouldn't let her get baptized at the time. She felt like God had sent us to her. She said that she needed a Book of Mormon because she lost her old copy. I happened to be carrying one with me, which lately, I had forgotten to do. Then she asked us if she could have a Doctrine and Covenants and a Pearl of Great Price. She really wants to get one and she looked really excited as she talked about it. She also really wants to get her hands on a Joseph Smith Translation. We are going to try our best to get her all those. We  took Sister Isaacs and Sister Maurer over to her house for the first time yesterday. They are two 50-60 year old empty nesters, and are both retired, so they told us any time we need them, they will come out with us. They were awesome. Sister Isaacs taught seminary, so she knew a lot and Sister Maurer has an amazing testimony. They are awesome! Clair read the story about the Anti-nephi-lehi 20 years ago and she could still remember it without even reading about it. She has an amazing comprehension and memory. Plus she started reading the Book of Mormon since Wednesday and she has already gotten to Jacob. We invited her to be baptized on the 22nd of January, and she said that she would pray about it, but when God told her to, she would. She really wants to.

Also, We harvested Nehemiah, who lives in the same building as Clair. He came to church on Sunday and he bore his testimony at church about how God sent us to his house and he said that he would definitely come back. He is amazing!

The same street they live on NW 42 ST just off of andrews and prospect in Oakland park is amazing! We have been having so much success. News of us is spreading amongst the haitians on that street. We have contacted dozens of them and they are all friends. They said that they have seen us on this street the whole week. We love it! We have been running into a ton of Seventh-day Adventists and they seem willing to hear our message. Two of them are named Claudine and Imelda. They are two sisters that are 30 years old. They both came to church with Imelda's two children. We made a deal with her that if she came to the church this Sunday, we would go to the Seventh-day Adventist church this Saturday. So 9-12 we are going over there. It will be cool because there are a lot of Adventists on that street, and all of them probably go to the same building, so we will probably see all of them. It is always good, because even though we won't openly proselyte, we always have Haitians come to us and ask us questions about where our church is and which church we are a part of.

Imelda is interested about the Book of Mormon and she wants a copy in French now because they were talking about it in the Creole class.

We have had many interesting experiences this week. Elder Bolz visited Oswald Morancy (the recent convert who used to cook for us all the time) and he came out on an exchange with us. We visited Jener Louis, who I taught with Elder Bolz, we ran into Jener earlier in the week. It was really exciting. Jener remembers a lot of the things that we have been taught, and he is praying about baptism and he will come to church this Sunday.

Nicole and Juslaine weren't able to come to church because of some last minute emergencies. Nicole's grandma flew in, so she had to pick her up from the airport, and Juslaine's sister went to the emergency room the night before, but they are both planning on coming to church on Sunday.

Sister Maurer and Sister Isaacs wanted to feed us, but they don't have a man at either of their houses, so they took us out to the Smokey Bones' restaurant. It was delicious. We asked them about Elder Bolz coming because he was on the exchange, and they said, "the more missionaries, the better." We had an amazing time. Elder Bolz and I thought back on all of the adventures we had together.

Elder Plowman loves all of the Haitians that are in our area. They are always the first to let us in to teach them. They are always laughing and joking around. Elder Plowman has a good time even though he hasn't been able to do much this week, because we have been teaching mostly Haitians. But he has been really helpful where he can help. He is a great missionary. I will miss him a lot.

I know that the Gospel is true and that God is preparing his people to hear the Gospel.

I need to go. Time is running out on the timer.

Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons


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Hi President! We have had such an amazing week! The mission-wide we did on Wednesday from 5-7 was so inspired! We had so much success. As a result we had two people come to church, one of which got up and bore his testimony. We were so excited. The other one, who was in relief society, knew who Ezra Taft Benson was and many other things about the church. God is a God of miracles and we have met so many people, who told us afterward, that God had sent us to them. We had 5 people come to church and we were so excited.

We now know all of the members and they have the trust of the missionaries. I am sad that Elder Plowman is being transferred, but I am happy that we had such an amazing transfer together.

Thank you for all of your inspired guidance, President! I love you so much!

Love,

Elder Seamons

"I ran from door to door in order to find the one that I knew was there""

Kent and I really chuckled when we read Eric's letter to the president where he says he ran from house to house to find the "one" he knew was there. That is so much like Eric to not give up. He is amazing!

January 3, 2011

Hi Everyone! This week has been a really good week. The missionary work is picking up a lot. We have a lot of dates, but we are going to drop some of them probably. But one of them, Shaniqua, is doing really well. We will get back in contact with some of the rest who kind of dropped off the map within the last three days because of New Year's.

Yesterday, We saw Shaniqua with Hermana Camargo. Shaniqua is an 18 year old African American girl and Hermana Camargo is 22 and she is one of the branch missionaries. President Boggess wants the branch missionaries to come out with us once a week. All of the branch missionaries have super open schedules, so that won't be too hard. We met Shaniqua by going to her house and blessing it. We gave her the 15th of January as a date, and she told us that she really wanted to change and that she has wanted to get baptized. We were really excited. She overslept on Sunday because of new years, but she is coming to church on Sunday, and she is really excited about it.  She has a ton of questions that she was asking us.

We also saw Nazareth Contreras, one of the Hispanic members. She doesn't speak English at all. She is a really nice lady. Her two daughters Lady and Ilene were there. Plus her Fiance Raul was there, who isn't a member of the church. He went to church for several months at the Lauderhill ward with Hermana Contreras. He should be coming this Sunday. She said he wants to be baptized, but he has some things he wants to sort out first in his life. We blessed their home, we gave her mom a blessing, who was sick, and we ate with them. We felt the spirit in their home and I feel at home in this branch. The Contreras are from the Dominican Republic and the food they made for us was very similar to Haitian food. Hermana Contreras is coming out with us tonight to see Edwin, one of our Hispanic investigators.

We have several part-member families in the ward who have agreed to take the lessons. We are really excited about that. The work is moving forward.

There is someone named Steve Landis who is less-active in the church, but his mom is active. She is 94 years old. We gave a blessing to her husband Francis who is around the same age. He died two days later. The family and President Boggess is working together to make the arrangements for the funeral. We found the Landis family because they were going through the ward list and we found Larry Landis, who is also less active. Steve had moved, but Larry still lived in the same place. Even though he didn't like the church, he gave us Steve's information. We found out his phone number and where he currently lives. Now the relief society is able to help them and they have been to church for two weeks in a row. We are really grateful that Heavenly Father led us to them. We realize that the ward might not have found them until months after the whole ordeal. And Steve's mom, Ethel, really needed the ward. Sister Poor, our Relief Society president, has been a huge comfort to her.

We have eaten out four times at Chick-fil-a in the last week. Brother Poor likes us coming over. He gives us free food every time. They have some of the best waffle fries ever and their shakes are delicious. I usually get a large Oreo shake. Brother Vega has also been giving us Popeyes every preparation day.

We have such wonderful members that have helped us so much. The work couldn't possibly go forward without the work of the members. God has definitely guided all the members that he needed to move into the branch boundaries. All of them have the most amazing desire to do missionary work that I have ever seen. We have never seen anything like it before.

I know that God has laid out a plan for what he wants everyone to do. While you are still living on the earth, he has placed you where you are for a reason. No matter how hard you have to search to find it, it is possible. He has sent us to several people for a particular reason this week, and we had to look very hard to find them. Jesus Christ lives, and he helps us all find people so that we can learn from them how to better access his atonement and come unto him.

Well, I have to go soon. I love you all so very much!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Letter to the President:

Hi President! We had a great week this week. We really didn't have anything to do, so we just went harvesting and finding as many people as we could. We went on an exchange with the assistants last Tuesday and we learned things that would change our way of doing missionary work for the rest of our missions and our lives. We were extending dates to everyone we harvested, but we didn't meet anyone who would accept. Elder Kalemikia taught us about how to find " the one" that God had prepared to accept the message. It was getting really late and everyone else said that it was time to finish up the exchange. But I ran from door to door in order to find the one that I knew was there. At the final door we knocked on, a girl named Nicole answered and she let us in, though reluctantly at first. The spirit came into the room when we harvested, and Elder Kalemikia committed her to baptism on the 8th of January. She immediately said yes and told us how she had a new year's resolution to be "saved." She said that she was really excited. Our testimonies of how God puts us where we need to be when we need to be there grew so much from that experience. Have faith that there is someone out there, no matter how many people refuse before we can find "the one."

We gave a total of 8 dates this way this week. It has helped us find the people who are prepared and who have a desire to follow Christ. We took members to two of these investigators and it has been a really awesome experience. The branch is doing very well. The leaders are awesome and the work is going a lot better. We didn't have anyone at church, but it was just a bad Sunday for people to come because they all stayed up super late. We will get many to church this Sunday. This branch was definitely inspired. The members are by far the most willing to come out with us. The harder part is finding the investigator pool, but that soon won't be a problem.

We are going to continue to commit people to a specific baptismal date for every harvest blessing, we will use the ward to fellowship these people, and we will use the pray, plan, practice, and do pattern that you showed us. We can do this. Thank you so much President! I love you so much! We definitely couldn't have come this far with out your help.

Love,

Elder Seamons

"We have been a little discouraged"

We spoke to Eric on Christmas day. He sounded good. He went caroling with his district around the area before Christmas. Then on Christmas day, they went to church and then to eat with two different families. He is a bit discouraged with the new area because it is difficult to get things going when you are starting from scratch. 

 

December 27, 2011

Hi everyone! The library was closed yesterday, so I couldn't e-mail. We had a great week last week. We don't have a lot of investigators that are progressing, but there were a lot of less active members/active members/non-members that didn't know about the new branch: Brother/Sister Landis, Sister Samson, Jessie Pierre, Brother Shoetel, Brother Farfsing, and others. So that was really cool.

We have been focusing a lot on less actives, but not a lot on getting new investigators, so we are going to try to shift our focus. We have been a little discouraged because we have been meeting several people that either aren't very nice or aren't very interested. So we are reevaluating where to go finding, what more we can do to help these potential investigators progress, how to better follow up, etc.

Today will be a great day. Starting a new area is difficult, especially since we contacted several Hispanics and we taught one Hispanic family last night and it was really hard because it has been so long since I have spoken. I have been a little discouraged because my Spanish used to be so much better and it takes a ton of mental effort to bring it back because I didn't maintain it for such a long time. It will work out though. We are going to have success. I know that the gospel is true and that Jesus Christ lives. I am so glad that his atonement works with missionaries, because we definitely need it a lot.

I also have a story from when I was in Miami about someone named James that I wrote in a handwritten letter to president that I want to share:

Elder Terry and I were walking down the street and we felt that we should knock on a door. The people living there were named Kathie and James. They were moping the floor. They just went in ten minutes before to officially move in. They hadn't even moved the furniture in yet. We left the blessing and they loved it, especially James. He said it was the "Miracle of the Year," because the first thing they did before anything else, even before moving everything in was to kneel down and leave a prayer. He was baptized two weeks ago. :) He loves the Book of Mormon. He loves the restored Gospel. He is very awesome, and he is active in the church

From mom- We heard from Elder Terry, who is from our area, that James was baptized this week.

I won't write a ton this week. I am a little worn out. I will write a lot more next week.

Love,

Elder Seamons

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Hi President! Last week was good. We harvested many people. We have many potentials. Our main problem is that we aren't getting a lot of progressing investigators out of it. We realized that we could follow the counsel that you have given us to teach a lesson right after harvesting so that we don't lose contact with these people. We are planning on harvesting at least three hours by knocking door to door. The rest of the day will be doing 4 different member harvests. We were a little discouraged because we haven't been having many investigators come out of it, but we are doing better. I speak Spanish pretty well, but I definitely need some help with it. There are a lot of Hispanics here and we should have a Spanish missionary. We will try to get other Spanish speaking members to help us once we get a return appointment with the person.

We have a great place picked out for harvesting that we feel really good about. We are going to pray, plan, practice, and do so that we can help some people receive the Gospel. I know that if we ask God and do what we are supposed to do, he won't let us down.

The branch will be built up, even if it takes time. Many less actives are starting to come back. We will build up the ward the best we can. We have a lot of great stuff planned. Starting off a branch is difficult, but that means it will be really good by the end.

I love you President! Take care!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Elder Seamons transferred to start a new branch

 Hi everyone! This has been one of the greatest weeks I have ever had on the mission. Some really unexpected things have happened.

Last Sunday, they talked about starting up a new branch on the 18th. The boundaries for the people that lived there who will be in the branch presidency, etc. have all been set up. The big question that we had was if they would have missionaries or not at the branch. President Current, the stake president, said that he had a vision of this branch and that it's soul purpose for creating it was to bring back less actives and to build the kingdom in that particular area. That area was rarely ever visited by missionaries because there wasn't very much success there. Who ever was going to be chosen was going to start from the very bottom.

Elder Koleber and I got a call and the Assistants said that I was being transferred into the new branch with Elder Plowman, an English Elder. The transfer would take place Wednesday night. Elder Larsen, Elder Plowman's companion was sent up to Palm Beach, and Elder Koleber's new companion wouldn't come until the night time. His new companion is named Elder Fitts. He is a Portuguese elder. He had to go home for back surgery and He was reassigned to this mission. He is really nice.

This branch is a multilingual branch. President Current said that he wants people to go down there, despite what language they speak. It is in the transition stage, so he is giving people the choice at first. But we are able to teach any Haitians that we want in the boundaries of the branch. So I am really happy about that. We have a woman named Juslaine that we are teaching that agreed to come to church on Sunday. They already called Sister Pierre as the Creole Sunday school teacher. There are Spanish members who could potentially give translation in Spanish. There is also a Portuguese member named Sister Walker if we need Portuguese translation. We have an awesome new family that used to go to the Lauderhill Spanish ward named the Terron family. They love missionary work and they have given us 4-5 referrals already. Their son Luis is coming out with us on Friday to take us out to these people. Nadia, his sister, is bringing a non-member to the mutual activity on Wednesday. We are very excited. We got

I moved back into the Windward Lakes apartment that I lived in with Elder Rybin and Elder Anderson. But the apartment is different than the one that I was in before when I was there last year. So don't look through my old letters and use that address. It won't be correct. I don't know the new address. It is on McNab road.

I don't even know where to begin. So many things have happened to us this week. Thursday Elder Plowman and I were officially companions, but we were on exchanges for the whole day, because the south area of the ward that Elder Plowman was serving in was being collapsed so that we could be transferred to the branch, so Elder Plowman took Elder Chandler to all of his progressing investigators so that he could meet them all. We didn't want them to fall away after the transition.

Elder Plowman and I officially started working in the new area for the first time on Friday. The nice thing about the whole experience is that I already know many of the members from the Coconut Creek ward. I am still in the exact same area I was in two weeks ago. They just took a chunk of the Coconut Creek ward and made it into a branch. We had 6 people on a list, 4 of which were potential investigators. So we just started from the very bottom.

The church is using a church building that was previously being used by a non-denominational church. It is a super cool building. It looks like an LDS chapel. It doesn't have a baptismal font though. It just had a foyer and one big room, but they put up walls in the big room and took out some of the chairs and put in classrooms. It looks so cool. They also put an official sign on the front that says: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The whole branch is very excited. They already gave out all the callings and they announced them all in sacrament meeting. The building is so perfect and the location is so good that it seems like it was prepared by God for the work of starting and building up the new branch. Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts tried to buy the building and convert it into a restaurant, but the city denied it. It is so cool. There is a permit required parking lot next to it, but on Sundays the City has agreed to allow us to use it without a permit for people to park. I will take some pictures and send them to you.

It was a very spiritual Sunday. All of the leadership is working with us closely to give us referrals and to help out with the missionary work.

I need to go, but I will write a handwritten letter, because there is so much more to tell you all.  I love you all so much! Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Also, I had to text Miami about my sheets that I left there, and Elder Terry told me that James, an investigator who we taught together was going to be baptized. I looked on the Website and he was for sure baptized. I am so happy. Also, Daline Figaro who Elder Rybin and I taught is being baptized on Christmas!

Question: Where is Elder Plowman from, and how long has he been in the mission?

He is from Chicago, Illinois. He has been in the mission field for 4 months. I am his third companion. His second companion was with him for only two weeks because they got together at the beginning of the transfer and then we got put together.

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Hello President! I am so grateful that you placed me in the branch. I have enjoyed this week so much and I have felt the spirit so strong within the last week. Elder Plowman and I are so excited and motivated to do missionary work. The transition into the new branch was smooth on all counts. If I didn't know any better, I would say that the branch had been going on for a long time. Everyone seemed to know where to go and what to do. The leaders and members of this branch are amazing. This is probably the best ward/branch I have ever been in. The branch was such an inspired idea. All of the leaders got up and bore testimony about missionary work and Sister Poor, who is the Relief Society president, is creating a program called the "lost sheep" program intended to get all of the less active sisters in the area back to church. Brother Vega, the new branch mission leader, is amazing. He said that the branch presidency will do exchanges with us every Wednesday. The Youth are doing an activity where they are going to the neighborhood by the chapel and will put chapel invitations on the door knobs with a ribbon and a candy cane. If people answer the door, they will leave their testimony and invite them to the church. I have never been more excited about missionary work! The branch is on fire. We have already met all of the members at church, and we have scheduled a few member blessings. We are really excited.

We went harvesting on Friday and we met a man named Lee, who is in drug and alcoholic rehabilitation and he has been trying to overcome this problem. His mom Veera had her sister die two days ago and will have the funeral soon. Lee had many pass-along cards from the church and he kept them and looked at them often. When we passed by, he had them laying in a row on his couch. These people really needed our help at this time and we were able to be the answer to their prayers.

We have been doing our best to keep the area book updated and we have been following up on all our contacts/referrals. We are really excited!

There were 56 people yesterday at the branch. Our goal is to double that number within the next 6 months. We are doing all we can, and we are working closely with the members.

I know that Jesus Christ is over this church and that he inspires and lifts up this work. Jesus Christ is our Savior and through him, we can obtain all the promised blessings from God, and all the righteous desires of our hearts. He still does miracles and God the Father does know all of his children. I have come to know that very well this week. The fact that I got sent to the branch shows me that he knows who I am.

Thank you President! I love you! Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity.

Love,

Elder Seamons

"I love the diversity of the Coconut Creek ward"

December 12, 2011

Hi everyone! We had a really good week. There were a lot of great things that happened!


Here is most of my letter to President Anderson. It talks about a few awesome people we found this week:

Hello President! We had a great week. We harvested 10 houses this week and we found 25 investigators as a result. We had some amazing miracles as a result:

We were harvesting and we felt inspired to go to the house of a youth counselor for a church named Nadine. She is very familiar with the Bible, but she had a very accepting nature and she told us that she learned a lot and thanked us for coming by. When we told her about Joseph Smith, the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Book of Mormon, she said that she was really interested and she would probably share it with her kids in the youth ministries. She said that if it is from God, she would share it. She has a website too and she had a friend who told her just a week ago, "don't be surprised if two white people come by to help you come closer to God and help you out." When we came and shared the message, she felt that it was from God because her friend is very close to God and we were the fulfillment of what he said. Her attitude toward us when we passed by was untrusting, but we were able to win her heart. She asked us to help her take the new bunk bed upstairs for her and she is so excited for our next appointment.

Another girl named Malene has been very confused about the different translations of the Bibles and why there are so many churches. She wondered why people said that prophets didn't exist anymore. She said that she has been praying for along time about what to do, and as we shared James 1:5 with her, and she told us that was her favorite chapter and she opened to it in her bible and out of all the verses, James 1:5-6 was marked with a highlighter. The spirit was so powerful in the lesson. Elder Koleber said, "you could cut it with a knife." She was also found because of Harvesting. I know that there are many good people that are "only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it." We have found so many awesome people who are just lost and confused. It has helped me fulfill my purpose and I feel like I am doing my job as a missionary.

We are going to get 7 member presents this week, because our member work has been struggling a lot this week. We are also going to give all of these awesome investigators that we found last week baptismal dates. We are going to not go home without one.

(The end of my letter to President)

We have been finding many very prepared investigators. We have been dropping a lot of people because they aren't keeping their commitments, and as a result we picked up a ton of people that were more diligent in doing what we asked them to. There are some awesome things happening in the ward to.

Since I left, they split the Coral Springs ward and some of the ward members came to the Coconut Creek Ward. The Coconut Creek ward is a very missionary work oriented ward and as a result the success in this ward has sky rocketed upward. This ward has had the highest baptism rate in the mission since I left. The elders who came in did a wonderful job. The Coconut Creek ward has now gotten big enough that they announced that in Elder Koleber's and my area there will be a branched formed. South of Copans, East of the I-95 and North of Oakland park Blvd. will be the boundaries. The interesting thing about this new branch is that it is a multi-lingual branch, so Elder Koleber and I will no longer be working in that area. Normally there is a magnet ward where the Haitian members go (which for this area is the Coconut Creek Ward) even if they live outside of the ward boundaries. But for this branch, everyone will go to it, despite language barriers. Sister Heplar, the Creole class teacher (she has been it since the first time I was here) is in the branch boundaries, so she will probably teach it. But that means we will now need a new Creole class teacher.

I love the diversity of the Coconut Creek ward. There is no other place I have been to in the mission that is as diverse. In this ward we have a Portuguese class, many Hispanics, a Creole class, and deaf members who need members to interpret for them. It is very cool.

And also, I don't remember if I said this, but Sister Helplar and her husband who are both converts to the church of about 3-5 years got sealed in the temple on the 3rd of December. I was so excited for them. Brother Heplar is in the branch presidency of the new branch.

We had four investigators come to church: James, his mom, Paula, a woman named Carline, and her son Carl. James' sister, Chelise had a baptismal date, but she hasn't been to church enough, so we will need to push it back. We had an awesome lesson with James where we brought sister Vallini, one of the Portuguese members with us. The spirit was so strong in the lesson. His countenance has changed from that time on every time we have seen him. He was touched deeply by sister Vallini's testimony and we are working on getting the whole family baptized. Chelsie is very interested. Her mom is also doing pretty well. And we had to give chelise another copy of the Book of Mormon because her fiancé took it and started reading it. We are super excited about that. But he has work, so I have never met him. Elder Koleber has seen him once. Chelsie has a cute baby girl named Destiny that is 5 weeks old. That might have been why she didn't come to church yesterday.

So for our apartment situation, We buy for ourselves, but sometimes we will buy as a group (We call it the law of consecration. We used to live entirely by the law of consecration when I was there the first time, but some of the missionaries who got transferred in didn't like that, so they discontinued it.) We had pulled pork and mashed potatoes at it was really good tasting. There is a frisbee golf course that they found after I left, which we went to. It is pretty fun. We also played ultimate frisbee. Elder Shipley threw two of the four frisbees that we had in the water. one was his own personal one. Every morning we go out and we play tennis. There is a court right behind our building. I have been having a hard time serving. They have me do every one so I can get practice. Most of them have been playing for a transfer or more, so they are getting really good. We play with the official rules. Elder Shipley is a really good teacher and has been helping me.

Elder Koleber and I have had a cold for most of the time we have been together. It has been hard, but we are both almost better. We both feel much better now.

We saw Vonette. Unfortunately, she hasn't been reading in the Book of Mormon since May after Elder Gubernick left the area. She talked to her dad in May again about baptism and he got mad at her. She is doesn't want to bring it up again. She also isn't able to come to church on Sundays because she has someone's children who she has been baby sitting every Sunday for a while. She seems less enthusiastic, though she says that he believes that this is Christ's church and that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. She has just lost her enthusiasm. We won't be going over there very often, which is sad. But we will see her every three weeks or so. Then when I get home, I can start doing more work with her. I will make sure that I stay her friend for life, even if she never gets baptized while she is still alive.

Elder Koleber is a great missionary. We have had problems teaching in unity, but that is it. We have gotten along great. We have just been talking about how to get our teaching patterns to mix together.

I love missionary work! It is so fulfilling. I know that the church is true. Jesus Christ is his son and I know that he knows how to do missionary work better than anyone else. If you look to him, he can teach you how to become, "fishers of men", and he can help you prepare for the people that have been prepared by him and his angels to hear his message.

Bye! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Seamons

December 4th Back in Coconut Creek

Hi everyone! I am back in Coconut Creek again! I am so excited. I am serving on the east side of the Turnpike, which I was doing when I was with Elder Bolz. The interesting thing is that after Elder Bolz left, the area was combined into one large Creole area that Both I and Elder Anderson and I and Elder Rybin worked in. All of Elder Rybin and my recent converts are on the other side in Coral Springs, North Lauderdale, and Lauderdale Lakes, but that is okay.


It is like a weird Deja Vous moment. I have been thinking that it will be a lot like when the veil of forgetfulness is lifted from our eyes. It is happening little by little. I am starting to have memories coming back from every place I see and go to that I recognize.

We have been on nw 42 ct and nw 3 ave in pompano, which is a street that I worked on a lot with Elder Rybin and Elder Anderson. The first time I went on the street, I passed by a duplex that I recognize and a few seconds later both doors opened one after the other and two older investigators named Katione and Crystal came out. Crystal didn't stick around, but Katione recognized me and told me that she was glad I was back. She said that I haven't changed much in the last year. She is a cool girl. She said that she wants to come to church and sit down with her, but her mom is funny about strangers coming and preaching to her daughter. She also said that her mom doesn't let her go to churches. It is kind of an interesting situation and it is exactly what it was like about a year ago. It was awesome to see her again. Then we went on Ne 7 ave. and Ne 33 st. and we stopped by Vonette Vivian's house. Her Dad drove up and told me that he remembered me and was glad to see me again. He said to stop by another time for Vonette. We came back another day and her Daughter, whose nick name was mama opened the door. Her eyes got wide and she looked super surprised and she came over and kissed me. Then I told her that it was nice to see her again. Then I heard a yell from inside, "Seamons! Seamons!" I peaked around the corner and saw Vonette sitting at the table doing her English Homework. She and I went nuts. It was one of the greatest moments ever. I missed that woman so much. I thought I would never see her again. The reason she didn't get baptized is because her dad wouldn't let her by threat of kicking her out of the house, which is crazy because she is about 40 years old. She is still keeping in strong and she seems about as awesome as before. The missionaries have dropped in every few weeks since last year, so she knows all of the missionaries and loves all of them. That makes me really happy. Thank goodness for the area book and missionaries who pass the baton well. We will see if her Dad has had a change of heart. I hope he has. That woman is so ready for the Gospel. We are going over there Friday at 4:00.

There are other things I have experienced like that, but I will drift away from the old stuff and talk about the latest updates. Elder Koleber is an amazing missionary! He is originally from Australia, but he moved to the United States 4 years ago to live in Texas. His mom is Welch and his dad is American. He loves writing. He is a creative person. Elder Terry and him got along very well because of that. They weren't companions, but they would talk often in the apartment. Elder Koleber is very witty and he is very funny. He is really disciplined and obedient, but he still is enthusiastic and loves missionary work. Elder Koleber He is great! We are working on merging our teaching patterns, because they are different, but we get along very well. He is really helpful in helping me get reacquainted with the area. His last companion was Elder Clark. Elder Clark is an amazing missionary from what everyone tells me. He is really good at Creole, and it has definitely passed down to Elder Koleber. No language problems as far as I can detect. He can communicate just as well as I can.

Some of our new investigators our as follows:


Sabrina, Peterson, and Stanley (all siblings)

Lina

Michou

Meshia

Christelle and Mista

Chelsie

Dieujuste

Burea

Garye and Ketline

Marie and Cindy Luma