We had 34 lessons this week, most of which were Spanish

Note from Mom- Eric is a Haitian missionary in his mission, but he has had the opportunity to use his Spanish in this area, which has been fun for him.   

Hi Everyone!

This week has been a really awesome week! We had 34 lessons this week, most of which were in Spanish. We have been leaving Harvest the Field blessings like crazy. We blessed 21 homes this week. The stake president, President Current said that the people could choose whether they would rather go to this branch because it is closer, or go up to Lauderhill, which is a Spanish Ward. We decided that we will have the Spanish Elders from that ward, which cover our area, come and teach all of these people, around 15 or more families, but they will come to our branch and a member will translate, and Sister Terron or Sister Contreras, who are only fluent in Spanish, will teach a Sunday school lesson to them.

Note from Dad: I told Eric that his 34 lessons this week is probably more than I taught my entire 18-month mission to England!

Edwin and Miriam are from Guatemala and they are progressing very well. We took Brother Terron over there with us last night and their interest was sparked by the message of the restoration. We thought that families and the plan of Salvation would interest them, since they have a whole family and two small girls, but somewhat know about it already. Miriam has had questions about how to know if someone was a true or false prophet. She has agreed to come to church, I think with her husband and family as well! We are really excited!

The area that we have spent most of our time at nowadays is Andrew's and ne 40th st and ne 40th ct in Oakland Park. There are so many Hispanics and Haitians there. Elder Pearce is really not feeling super useful because our number of language lessons is enormous lately. I have been studying Spanish for language study lately, but then I realized that even though we are teaching that a lot, my assigned language is Creole, so I need to stick to that. My Creole has taken a little bit of a dive since I haven't been teaching as many of them lately. But it is starting to pick up now that I am studying it more.

We found a Haitian man named Clement who studied with the missionaries for 4 years in Porte-au-prince. He was going to be baptized, but the day of his baptism, they put candle displays all around the room to light it up. He said, "there was fire in my baptism." That bothered him, so he stopped going. He is kind of an opinionated person, and makes a big deal of a lot of things. But he seems very open still and has agreed to come to church, when he can get work off. The problem is that he works in the Everglades and now he only works Saturday and Sunday, so he can't afford to get a day off with such few hours. He says that when things get busier are during other times of the year. But he is really awesome.

We met a nice lady named Shawn from Jamaica, which made Elder Pearce really happy because he could actually talk to her, and because she was Jamaican. She says that she has promised God several times that she would get baptized, but never ended up following through with it. She told us how, once, when she was living in England, she wanted to fly a child in to live with her, but she didn't have money for a ticket. There was a man driving a truck who felt inspired to stop and she told him that God wanted him to do something for her. He said that he couldn't do it, but she kept on persisting, so she told him she needed money to pay for a plane ticket, so he gave her the money and he also went with her to pick up her child from the airport since she didn't have a car. She promised God that if she could get the means to do that, she would get baptized. She is looking for a church that she can get baptized in as soon as possible and not need to take a class with them for a year or so beforehand. She has agreed to be baptized, but she has work problems. But we are excited to work with her.

Question from Mom: Is your Spanish good enough at this point that you can understand and help teach these people? How does Elder Pearce deal with all of the language teaching when he doesn't know the languages?

I can teach them a fair amount, but without studying it regularly, it is very difficult. With my skill level before the mission, I wouldn't have had a problem. Elder Pearce, when we first started, wanted me to translate, but now we have both realized that it can be a distraction and sometimes it is hard when I am focusing on what these people are trying to say while trying to translate at the same time in Spanish. My Spanish level now is such that I need to concentrate to be able to pick stuff up. But I can communicate with them very well still. We can have a full-blown conversation. Elder Pearce just lets me teach them, unless it is a serious investigator that we have been teaching for a long time, such as Marius and Fernand.

We saw Marius and Fernand this week. We decided that Fernand needs to be brought up to Marius' level, because she is never in the lessons because she either misses them completely or walks in late. So we went and taught Fernand the restoration and she said that of all things we have taught her, that has intrigued her the most and she feels that she actually understood it. She told us that she feels that God guided us to knock on her door. She says that every time we see her and she always gives us a hug. She is the cutest old Haitian lady. She is around 65 years old. We are going to teach her all the lessons and start focusing on her because we have put too much focus on Marius. If we had put more focus on her from the beginning, Marius may have been baptized already. She wasn't at the same spiritual level and she was dragging him down. He had a testimony, but she didn't, so she put doubts into his mind. But things are going a lot better. Marius shared the Book of Mormon with two people in his Sunday school class and he said he would follow up them the night we met with him, because he had a meeting at his church. We gave them a For the Strength of Youth Pamphlet in Creole, which they were very excited about. Marius told us that every time we came we brought something bigger and greater, which raised his desire, especially since he didn't see us every day and he had a greater desire to see us.

Jamie V and Elizabeth C, our new recent converts, are doing really well. Jamie has been to church every week since her baptism and Elizabeth is staying strong. Elizabeth was made first counselor in laurel's class and she has a super strong testimony of the Gospel. Her Home Teachers are Brother and Luis T, the ones that have been fellowshipping her. Branch missionaries have been assigned to go over to the T's and teach her the new member lessons. Brother and Sister V bought Jamie some new scriptures which they say she has been marking up. She was called to be Young Women's Secretary, so she will be working with her Mother in Law, Sister V, who is the President. She was excited about it. We had 90 people at sacrament meeting, which has been happening for multiple weeks now. We are so excited that the branch has been growing. Jamie now has a gospel principles book, a True to the Faith book, and a Book of Mormon Stories Children book. She is excited to have all these new materials to read in. She has a really strong testimony. She also recently figured out that her Dad and his whole side of the family were baptized into this church. Some of them are still active in it. She had no Idea. Her mom isn't a member of our church, but she is really supportive of Jamie's decision.

4:00-5:00 Elder pearce and I will be skyping from the Vega's home on Sunday. 30 minutes each.

We went sunrising as a district to day and we went to Denny's for breakfast. Elder Pearce and I, Elder Gray and Elder Koleber, and Elder Wood and Elder Marsh. Such good memories.

My time is up. I will talk to you later! Love you so much! Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Dear President!

We are continuing to leave the savior's peace and blessing and many people are accepting it. We left 21 blessings on people's homes this last week.

We saw a woman braiding her daughters hair. We told her we were representatives of Jesus Christ and after she agreed to have the blessing, we told her we would get her information and pass by another time when she was not busy. She then asked if we could leave it then. We entered into the home and the full family, parent and two baptismal aged children were kneeled down with us. They felt the spirit in the blessing and they readily agreed to have us back. Some people are jumping to have us come in.

We also blessed another woman named Shawn from Jamaica who has the desire to be baptized now. She is looking for the chance to commit her to God. God has prepared people to receive baptism.

President! I love you! I will write you next week!

Love,

Elder Seamons

"Pray for me that I will have a fantastic end to the mission"

April 30, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,
 

This week has been pretty good. We don't have any investigators that are seriously progressing at this point, but we did meet some amazing people though. We met one person named Alex, on the 20th, who lives in government housing for a program and he was kicked out of his parent's home and he has had a rough time. He said that the blessing we left with him left him hopeful. He wants to be baptized. We hope he ends up getting to that point. We took Brother Manzur, who is 21-22 and is married and has a child and another one on the way, over to his house yesterday and he helped Alex open up a ton. He was a great fellowship for him. Our exchange yesterday went really well. There was also a woman named Wisline who was Haitian that we came across. We were about to leave the area we were working in, then I saw a woman at the top of the stairs leading up to the apartment complex. I felt that we should talk to her. She walked away before we could, but we went up to the complex and started knocking doors. We didn't find her, but we found Wisline and she has accepted a return appointment for Tuesday. You never know what will happen if you don't try.

We also had another cool experience. We were out on bike on Friday and Elder Pearce saw a man and we passed him, but he was thinking about giving a card to him. Later on, Elder Pearce's bike was going flat again and we had to stop multiple times to pump it up. Then we passed the same man that Elder Pearce saw earlier and we talked to him. If we hadn't had all of those problems, along with several other things that happened, we wouldn't have seen him. Elder Pearce recognized his shirt. Right as we passed the second time, He was digging in the trash and drinking something he found in it. Elder Pearce thinks he is probably homeless. His name is Kevin Olmar. He also told us that he is Hypo-Glycimic, which means he has a low sugar count. Elder Pearce gave him some granola bars for him to eat and we gave him our phone number. We were happy that we could be their right when he needed us, even if he doesn't end up calling. He will have the card and remember how he felt and how we were there, even years down the road.

Marius has been unsure about baptism lately. He used to understand that he needed to be baptized to receive the Holy Ghost (Act 19), but now he is starting to second guess it. Fernand has been impeding his progress. We gave him a scare when in the last lesson we told him that he had heard our message and that it was time for him to accept it or reject it. He asked if we said that because he wasn't being baptized a second time. Both him and Fernand begged us to have patience with them and he said that eventually, he may come to the decision. They both testified of how much of a difference we made in their lives and Fernand started crying. She said that we were there for her when her sister died and she said that it would hurt really bad when I left and I would no longer be their to translate anymore. I promised them that I would stay in contact with them after the mission. They know I am almost done. Marius assured us that are efforts were not in vain. We gave him a whole bunch of copies of the Book of Mormon and he has agreed to share them with his pastor friends in Haiti, as well as with his sunday school class. They are a great family. We hope that us telling him these things has motivated him a little more to act.

I have been worried about my teaching ability lately. I feel a lot less confident than usual. Sometimes I notice that if I have a companion that is a lot more assertive, then I stand back and they move forward, then I feel more nervous about teaching. We have been learning about teaching to the desires of the investigators verses just teaching a lesson. We teach the why so that their desires to act will increase. It has been challenging to find a why for each individual and knowing how to ask the right questions to get to the root interests and wants of the investigators. But it will come. I realize that I just need to love the people and keep teaching them and getting to know them and God will bless me with my desires. I will just let God direct me. Sometimes I have noticed that thinking about something too much inhibits my abilities. I need to keep it in my mind, but continue to move forward while I do. Then God will give me the ability to improve.

Well, I need to go. I love you all! Pray for me that I will be able to have a fantastic end to the mission and that our investigators, Especially Alex, will continue to progress and feel the power of our message!

Bye!

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Seamons

P.S.

Just a few quick notes: Elizabeth and Jamie are both active and doing well. And at the service activity where the family from Fort Lauderdale moved in, Peterson was there (the boy whose mom wouldn't let him get baptized and was giving him a hard time). He is baptized, confirmed, and he has made friends with the boys his age. He has changed a lot and he is doing so well. It made me so happy to see him.

Hi President! We are doing well! We don't have people that are progressing super well, but we have found a lot of amazing people that have potential. We realize that in order to sift through these people and find the elect, we need to hit standards so that we can teach and effect as many people as possible. We have seen wonders and the work has picked up since we have been obedient to your counsel. It has been great. We are a little worried about what will happen to this area in the next few transfers. There are so many Spanish and Creole speakers that we are teaching, that if there were only two English missionaries in this area, it would be very hard for the work to be progressing the way it has. We feel their needs to be at least one language missionary, preferably two (one English and one Creole). But we are doing our best to refine our skills in teaching and to improve the area. We love you President!

Love,

Elder Seamons

2 baptisms and "Don't know what will happend, but whatever does, the Lord is in it"

April 23rd, 2012

Hi Everyone!

We had a really great week. Elizabeth and Jamie were baptized this Sunday! I have some pictures I will send to you. The service was super spiritual and they both have very strong testimonies. They were both ready and God worked miracles and enabled them to get baptized this week.

Elizabeth (16 years old) has been meeting with the missionaries for two years. She used to go to the same high school as Luis. He befriended her and introduced her to the missionaries. She is so involved in the church. She has given out five books of Mormon, she has born her testimony several times, and she has been involved with the young women's group. She left her record with some other paper from school that she needed to be signed. She went back to retrieve them later and saw her Mom's signature on the baptismal record. We found out when we went to the church on Wednesday and everyone was gathered together for mutual activities. Everyone was so excited. 

Jamie (21 years old) is Brother V's daughter-in-law (Brother Vega owns Pop-eyes). She lived in Kendall/Miami for her whole life and she moved up here within the last month. Her husband, Brad, has been less-active since he was about 18. He is starting to come back. They have an awesome family! Jamie and Brad came to church for the first time April 8th at 10:00. We met them and scheduled an appointment. Elder Pearce and Elder Marsh who were on an exchange taught her for the first time on Wednesday the 11th and gave her a Book of Mormon. On April 13th Elder Pearce and I taught her. We focused on how she was feeling from our message and from what she read. She said that she felt peace from what she read. We asked her if she wanted to feel that more often. She said yes. We invited her to be baptized on the 28th and she accepted. She came to church again on Sunday the 15th. Then Monday night (the 16th) we had Family Home Evening at Brother and Sister V's home with Jamie and Brad. We taught them about eternal families and the blessings that come from them. Everyone in the room was crying, most of all Jamie. We recommitted her to the 28th, since before she wasn't 100% certain. She said that she would, but the V's would be out of town that day. We told her we would do it that week. She accepted!

Setting up the service was a fiasco and everyone was shooting out ideas of what time to do it and there was so much miscommunication, but the service came together and it was one of the most spiritual services I have ever been to. We had the service in the V's backyard, which boarders the inner-coastal waterway and has a swimming pool. I actually like it better than a baptismal font, because their backyard is beautiful and it is a lot easier to baptize someone when the water is deep like that. No problems getting them all the way under. Luis baptized Elizabeth, and Brother V baptized Jamie.

The service started at 8:30 in the morning, so we walked from our apartment and got there by 8:00. They had several chairs in the back facing the pool with the piano on the side. I was asked to play the piano for the service. The opening hymn was Come Follow Me (116). Brother T gave the talk on Baptism and Sister V talked on the Holy Ghost, after which Elder Pearce and I did a musical number When I Am Baptized (103) from the Primary Children's Songbook. The spirit was so strong. Jamie was crying, and then it was Elizabeth's turn to be baptized. She needed to go under twice because Luis didn't say the right words. Then Jamie got baptized. We had a testimony meeting while they were changing, and then the branch and auxiliary group leaders welcomed them to the branch and to Young Women's/Relief Society. Then we had church at 10:00 and they were both given the Gift of the Holy Ghost in sacrament meeting. Jamie went through this journey for two weeks. Elizabeth went through this journey for two years. It was amazing.

Bye!  I love you all!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Hi President Anderson!

What a great week we had! Through the power of the Spirit we were able to lead two people to motivate to act through increased desire. Jamie V came to church for the first time April 8th, and through helping her recognize the reasons for baptism and the blessings it can bring, she is now baptized two weeks later. Elizabeth C, after nearly two years of growing and building her testimony, she felt the motivation to act and summed up the courage to get her Mom to sign her baptismal papers. They both have the Gift of the Holy Ghost and they have super strong testimonies. One knows a ton about the church, and one knows not very much, but they both know it is true.

In our companionship, we learned that if we keep the commandments, obey the mission rules and the counsel given to improve our teaching, we will be happy missionaries. There were times where we felt that the standards were too much about the numbers, but we have come to balance the numbers and the souls in such a way that they work in harmony and it propels us forward so we can accomplish our maximum potential. God has called you to be our mission president, and I know that as I follow you and your counsel for the last transfer and a half of my mission, I will be blessed, and so will our companionship. I don't know what will happen with these last transfers, but whatever does, the Lord is in it.

I love you so much President! I will talk to you later.

Love,

Elder Seamons

They both admit that we were sent by God to give them comfort and counsel

April 16^th, 2012

Hi Everyone! We have had an amazing week! The area is doing really well.

First off, Our Branch mission leader's name is Brother Vega. He is the one who owns Pop-eye's. His wife is the Young Women's president. You probably saw her as the hostess in the "Young Woman Peagant of Values" in the talent show. Their son and daughter in law, Jamie, just moved in from Kendall/Miami area a week or so ago. Brad has been less active for a while but is starting to come to church, and Jamie has agreed to read in the Book of Mormon and pray with Brad. She has already been to church twice since we met her. The last lesson we had with her was really spiritual. She said that she felt peace as she read in the Book of Mormon. We asked her if she wanted to feel more of it. She said yes. We committed her to baptism on the 28th of April, and she has agreed to work toward gaining a testimony and preparing for that date. The Brother and Sister Vega will be out of town that day, so we will have to put the baptism forward. We are going to meet Jamie and Brad at the Vega's house at 8:00 tonight, so we will talk to her then.

Marius is progressing very well. We have had three lessons with him this week. He told Brother Poor and Brother Preston that he didn't feel that baptism a second time would be bad at all, but he felt that it would be as if he were a ball, rolling around which ever direction the wind took him, not having faith. He did say however that he felt that what we have been sharing with him is true. We committed his to pray about the 21st of April. He said yes. Two lessons ago on Saturday, he prayed at the end of the lesson and while he prayed he brought up Acts where Paul told the people that they needed to be baptized again so that they could receive the Holy Ghost. He told God that he had received the baptism of repentance, but he may not have received the baptism for the Holy Ghost. He admitted that that is what we were probably referring to. During the lesson, before the prayer, he brought that up a little, and he was agreeing with us and defending us. Fernand was trying to argue. We evaded the questions she asked us, "for example, if someone is already baptized would they need to be baptized again." She already asked the question before, so to avoid any argument and so that the spirit wouldn't leave during the lesson, we just told her to pray and ask God about it. We switched the subject and were about to pray and she told us that we didn't answer her question. Marius turned to her and said that we answered it by telling her to pray and let the Holy Spirit reveal it to her. Marius, in his prayer, mentioned that we didn't want the spirit of contention in the room. He gets it! He is so close. We just hope Fernand doesn't pull his progression down. She has changed so much since we have met her, but she isn't quite ready for baptism yet. But they both admit that we were sent by God to give them comfort and counsel. The last two or so lessons, Marius has been crying in them. Pray that he will have the final push of the spirit to help him make the choice to be baptized. The only thing that could possibly stop him is the fact that there aren't very many Haitians and the social atmosphere isn't the same because none of the other members speak creole. We will see what happens.

In the branch, pretty much no one speaks creole. We only have three active members, none of which are priesthood holders, so if he gets baptized, no one can home teach him. Plus President Anderson said that the branch may not always have a creole missionary serving in it. So it will be interesting. Elder Pearce knows a few words such as Hello, Good bye, how are you doing?, I'm good, but other than that, he doesn't know much. We hope that President sends a creole missionary after I leave, because if not, we can't go back and teach Marius. The three active Haitian members we have are all very busy and can't come out with us. I went harvesting yesterday and we blessed three Spanish people. I really need to brush up on it when I get back though. I haven't had any time to study it.

We still have members taking us out to eat every once and a while too. Sister Maurer, Sister Isaacs, and us went to Denny's. Elder Pearce and I have gone several times to the one on Dixie and Commercial since we have been together. There is a Jamaican lady named Aleisha. She is really nice. Whenever we go in, she doesn't even bother asking us what we want to drink anymore. She just brings out water because we come enough times. She is really friendly and we even got her phone number, because she has agreed to let us come over and share a message with her and leave a blessing on the home. She would come on Sunday, but she has to work. There are so many people that we have met together that we are really attached to and have become friends with. Marius is one of them. He was the first person whose door we knocked on together and let us in. The first day we met each other as a companionship.

 It is so hard to remember everything else that has happened. It all seems like a huge blur. Elizabeth Chupp is really motivated now to approach her mom and get the papers signed. We had a baptismal interview for her on Thursday. She passed and she will go to her mom with the papers and get it signed. We told her she can't trick her mom or forge the signature. She has been waiting for two years and she wants to get baptized so bad. We are praying really hard for her. If all goes well, we could have three people baptized this week: Marius, Elizabeth, and Jamie.

We have worked a little bit with a man named Derrick Shoemaker. He is very into the Pentecostal beliefs and he is very different in the way he likes to worship. He says he wants to read the Book of Mormon, but he isn't quite ready yet. He has heard anti about the church, so it isn't easy. We are focusing more on his friend, Joe, because he is more open to what we teach.

Elder Pearce has been having a lot of bike problems. He has had four tires pop in the last week and a half. We realized that we were probably over inflating them. But he did run over a piece of metal the other day. We are learning a ton about how to fix bikes. It will be good for Elder Pearce to learn all this early on in the mission. I didn't learn most of it until now.

We also were guided to bless some homeless people. Where they always are. There names are Taylor and Christopher. They were very nice. They seemed like they were going through a rough time and Christopher had been in a car accident before and was in a wheel chair. They just slept outside and when we found them it was raining. Luckily they found a tin overhead to sit under.

I have to go now! Thank you! I know the Gospel is true! Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Hi President! Everything is going really well. We have several people that are preparing to be baptized: Elizabeth Chupp, Jamie Vega, and Marius Verticier. We have focused with all of these people on helping them feel the spirit and once they do, immediately committing them to act. It has changed the way the work in the area is going. It has changed the way we harvest. We don't wait for a spiritual moment. We plan for it. And when it happens, we see it as an opening and a springboard to greater spiritual growth and commitment, especially that of baptism. As we have focused on the spirit, we have become more obedient, more aware of what the spirit is prompting us to do, more unified in our teaching, and in turn, more happy. Elder Pearce and I have talked and we will be very sad the day that won't be companions anymore. We are also worried because we are teaching a lot of Haitians and contacting many Hispanics as well, and if an English elder is assigned to this branch with Elder Pearce, it will be hard, because they won't be able to talk to any of these people, and our language members aren't very available. I just want you to know that for the future when transfers happen. Whatever happens though, it will be for the best. Thank you so much President! I know you are inspired of God. Our companionship is so perfect for the area, the investigators and people we contact, and for our own personal challenges.

Elizabeth Chupp has been meeting with the missionaries for two years, and she has finally decided to take action and ask her mom to sign her baptismal record. She has always wanted to be baptized, but she was afraid to talk to her mom. The spirit has helped motivate her.

We also prayed to accomplish a certain number of harvest blessings, and we did it yesterday. We are so excited!

Thanks President! I love you!

Love,

Elder Seamons

"We had the most amazing Sacrament meeting for Easter"

April 9th, 2012
 

This week was really amazing! We had the most amazing Sacrament meeting for Easter. In the Foyer, there were displays with different items from Jesus' life with different scriptures next to it printed out. It has the crown of thorns, the nails, the sign that said, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews", it had the unleavened bread, different pictures of Christ's ministry, and one of the rooms was decorated to look like the garden tomb with the bed where Jesus laid. There was a very strong spirit. The talks were amazing. Sister I gave a talk on the atonement and how she had been rebellious much of her life and how the atonement had the power to heal her and help her have that change of heart. Sister G sang the song, "His Hands." I cried during the service. I was so happy that our investigators were there for it. We had nine investigators at church: Joe, Derek, Clair, Jason, Marius, Fernand, Jaimie (a new investigator who we met for the first time yesterday at church), Thomas, and Elizabeth. We know that they felt the spirit. Sister Hepler translated for Marius and Fernand and they loved it. For the opening hymn, we sang "Christ the Lord is risen today" #200. They knew the song in French, so they felt very involved. We taught Sunday School about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and everyone got involved and our investigators even answered Jason's questions, which was cool. Jason has been letting the same old problems bother him and he just can't get past them. We probably won't continue to teach him. We will still see him at church because he always comes, and we have never asked him to. We are teaching Maria his wife, and she is progressing really well. We committed her to baptism and she said that she will think about it.

We also saw Elizabeth on Friday. She loved General conference. She watched three sessions of it. She has pages of notes and her favorite quotes from each talk. She had a lot to say about it. She is pretty much a member already. For the talent show a few weeks ago, they young women had a skit called, "The Young Women Pageant of Values" and she performed in the skit and she has relationships with many people in the branch. She also performed a poem for the show as well. She already knows that she wants to be baptized and she has chosen Luis to do it, since he is the one who first introduced her to the missionaries two years ago. We hope that she will be able to get permission from her Mom. We will see what happens. She has another church that she is a part of as well, which is okay because she has a testimony of this one. She does service with them. Her church has land they own in Haiti, so they church is doing a two week trip over to Haiti to do service, such as building a school, going to orphanages, delivering food, etc. I am so happy that she gets to do that. She says that there is a lot of preparation involved. She even went to a five hour Haitian church. She is learning some Creole. Her Creole class starts this week.

After church yesterday, Leanna and her Parents invited us over to Leanna's house for Easter Dinner. They are the teachers of the Daily Dose English class for the branch. They invited everyone from the class to the dinner. Only Marius and Fernand were able to make it. We took a picture with them. Leanna has photography backdrops and lights, so she took the picture with my camera and used her equipment for her job. The food was really good and the Rosato's brought a whole bunch of leftovers to our apartment after our appointments were done. Marius and Fernand are planning on coming over to the English class on Wednesday.

We are excited about the English class. So far, the people who have gone to the class are Sister T, Sister C, Sister G, Marius, and Maria. We have invited Berta, Yvonette, Rose, and Joseline (Sister G's friend). We have a ton of other people to invited, so we are hoping we can get a good turn out this Wednesday. It is a great service that the church can do to get people comfortable with the church and see the church building. We hope that we can even get enough people where we have to make two or more classes. We definitely have enough people we know that we could do that.

And by the way, Elder Pearce has a half sister from his dad that lives in Lauderhill. She is not a member of the church. We got permission to see her. She is really interested in learning the missionary lessons and she is very engaged. Her name is A. She is really nice. Elder Pearce's mom has a picture with her, him, and her daughter L. L is 4 years old and she is really cute. It took us an hour and 30 minutes or so to bike there. We are excited were that will go. Bye! I love you!

Well,

I have run out of time. Thank you for all that you do. I love you all very much! Take care!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Hi President! We had an amazing week. We got many people to church and we have many people that are prepared to receive a date now. We are going to be  "Challenging and Testifying" missionaries. We are getting along great as a companionship and we both feel that what has happened with everything about transfers has been very inspired and we are very excited to make the most out of the remainder of the time that we will both spend together. We are going to get the standards of excellence this week. We know that it is expected of us and God will provide a way so that we can accomplish the things which he has commanded. Bye President! We love you!

Love,

Elder Seamons

We are staying together for another transfer!

April 3, 2012

Dear Family and Friends
 

Hi everyone! We had so much stuff happen this week. It was so amazing! We are staying together for another transfer. We are so excited! We have many investigators that are progressing now! We had six people come to conference on Saturday and Sunday.  Elizabeth, Maria and Jason, Marius, and Thomas. They all enjoyed the conference. Many of the talks seemed to be perfect for us as missionaries and for our investigators. The interesting thing about the talks is that I know the Sentelous family that Elder Anderson was talking about. They were in the Miami Shores Ward. There is a family from Maimi named the Manzur's that moved up to the branch, and they were good friends with the Sentelous Family. The Sentelous's had some extra tickets for conference and the Manzur's went to Salt Lake. The Sentelous' moved to Utah when I was in Miami. It was so cool to hear that talk.

The branch had its first official Daily Dose English Class. Brother and Sister Rosato are the teachers. It is the same class that we did in Coconut Creek a year and a half ago. It is so nice that they have called teachers for it. Hermana, Marlene, Marius, and Maria were at the class. They all loved it and all have agreed to come for the future classes. We have more people who are coming this Wednesday.

We had the Branch Talent show on Friday. It was really good. Jason and Maria also came. Our most progressing investigators are getting immersed in the church and are becoming very active. Jason has been coming very regularly to church and activities since I was with Elder Snyder and Owens. This branch has so much talent in it. Brother Hawkshaw played several compositions on the people that he made for some famous people. It was really awesome.

We got a really awesome new investigator named Edward. We harvested into him. He was drunk when we went up to him. He said that it was a wake up call for him. We had been having trouble getting a hold of him after that. But then we passed by and he was there. Elder Sommerfeldt, one of the Senior missionaries came out with us. He said that baptism was the next step in his life and he needed to do that. He agreed to be baptized. He has a date. For the 14th of April. The Spirit was so strong in the lesson and he was very excited. But then we had a follow up lesson. We were at Sister Georges' house, which is about two or so blocks away from his house. We saw him ride his bike right past her house and he saw us. He didn't say anything. We wonder if he was drunk again. It was kind of weird because we knew he was sincere at the time, otherwise the spirit wouldn't have manifested itself in the way that it did.

At the Talent show Elder Pearce sang and I played the Piano. It turned out really well. We came up with a very creative number to do, and part of it was a skit. Sister Hawkshaw recorded it, so you can ask her to send it to you.

Love, 

Elder Seamons

Hi President! We are doing really well as a companionship. The district is also doing really well. Elder Pearce and I are really happy that we can be together for another transfer. We are going to make the most of it.

We had some really amazing harvest the field experiences this week. We made a goal of 8 in one day because we hadn't had many at the beginning of last week and because of the pray, plan, practice, and do pattern that you taught us, we were able to surpass that goal. We were really excited and great things will continue to happen. Elder Pearce and I are getting along really well.

Thank you so much President! I love you so much! I will write you next week.

Love,

Elder Seamons

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

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

March 26, 2012
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love,

Elder Seamons

Note From Dad:

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

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

Letter to the President:

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

I love you President! Take care! Bye!

Love,

Elder Seamons

Talent show photos

Elder Seamons and Elder Pearce with Brother Vega

Elder Pearce and Seamons with Brother and Sister Somerfelt