District and Zone Leader

I have again posted 2 posts on the same day,

so read on... -  don't judge!!

Dear mom,

I am in Florence Area, Florence district, Florence Zone, Florence, SC. Everything Florence ha-ha. It's awesome. My companion is Elder Abankwa from Ghana, West Africa. He is awesome! A fun-loving guy and a powerful teacher. We are the Zone Leaders here in Florence. Our area has Darlington in it, home of the Southern 500! Hopefully we'll get to travel all the way out there and get a picture one day. We are in the biggest Zone of the mission, and probably the biggest area. It's HUGE. Our zone covers all the way from Conway, to Cheraw, to Hartsville, Sumter, to Marion, to Myrtle Beach, and even over to Tabor City, NC, the only area our mission has in North Carolina (which is where President Holm served his mission years ago). Unfortunately Tabor City is currently closed to missionary work- for a while. Anyway, I am also the district leader here in Florence. The district is the sisters, Sister Browning from Idaho, and Sister Garlick from Centerville, Utah, and us.

This area is great, it's loaded up with people to teach and baptize! Speaking of which, on the 27^th we are baptizing a family of 7, the F. family (only 4 will be getting baptized, the other 3 are too young. They also have one in the oven due in about 6 months). They are awesome! They were found by tracting done by Elder Abankwa and Elder Fisher before I got here (this is the 2^nd time I have reaped the reward of Elder Fisher's tracting. The last time was back in Anderson. He found Cecil and Michelle with Elder Greear right before I arrived there). I love it here! The ward is great, and it is filled with awesome people!

So, I can hardly believe how much goes on every day. It's nuts. Being out here in the world as missionaries we get to see a lot of things. Everyone knows someone who isn't keeping the commandments, or who is doing their own thing. But out here we get to experience people who are truly wicked -People who are "past feeling," as Nephi so aptly put it. There is a lot of just pure evil in the world. I am so glad I have the chance, and that 58,000 other Elders and Sisters, and thousands more to come, have the chance to share the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with our brothers and sisters. There is nothing more rewarding and joyful than seeing the Atonement applied in someone's life. Problems, pains, worries, struggles, and sins and temptations go away when you apply the Atonement. In essence, Satan doesn't exist in the baptismal font.

Well anyway. So glad to hear about all the babies popping up outta the woodwork! Babies are awesome!

Oh, interesting note- Elder Stanley and I whitewashed Gilbert, right? Well, then Elder Stanley left and I trained. I left my dear trainee there and who is his new companion? Elder Stanley's trainee! Our dear sons are serving together in the area that their fathers whitewashed and prepared for them. It was pretty cool to see that, and Elder Stanley got a kick out of it at transfer meeting Wednesday. Ha-ha. Oh yeah, as a Zone Leader, we go to Zone Leader Council at the beginning of every month to discuss the mission and prepare to help the zone at Zone Training Meeting the following day. Elder Cardon is a ZL in Columbia, so I get to see my good ol' MTC comp every month for a while! :) Oh, to answer your question, there have been Zone leaders who served for 1 transfer, all the way up to 9 months- it all depends on what the Lord tells President Holm to do.

I love being a missionary!

Love y'all so much!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Seaver