Cool Grey Suit

Dear Mom,

This week was great! We baptized a family of 7!  Only 4 of them were old enough, but same difference. It was super sweet. The Spirit was so strong there! It was amazing!

Well I don't really have a lot to say this week. I got to go to Myrtle Beach on an exchange. Off in the distance I saw the ocean. That was cool I guess.

There is no hurricane danger here. Just kinda windy and cold. It didn't even rain. Myrtle Beach got a little rain. No biggie though. I hear up North it's going to be a "perfect storm" or something. Huh. We'll see.

Elder Abankwa's first name is Chris.

I don't know Linda. Or at least I don't think I do. So add her if you want to. I don't really care.

I love being a missionary so much!

Glad to hear everyone is doing well.

I'm wearing a cool grey suit I found in our apartment right now. It had a hole in the knee. It also had a vest. But I gave it to a member, she chopped up the vest and she patched up the knee. I like having a suit that's not black.

Being a missionary is the greatest. I would not trade it for anything in the whole world. Ever.

I love hearing about y'all's missionary experiences! Nothing brings greater joy in the whole wide world. "How great shall be your joy," and all that. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I'm tired.

We worked pretty hard this week, and it really paid off. There are so many miracles in the mission field. It's amazing!

Yeah go ahead and read my journals and all that. The journals are just for you and dad. 

Anywho. That's about it for this week.

Love y'all muchly!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Seaver

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

There are Going to be Tons of Young Missionaries!

Dear mom,

Holy Moses conference rocked! We watched all 5 sessions at the church, and Sunday between sessions the Mattsons fed us some awesome chili, and a recent convert of Sister Chai's (she came out with me), Diego. It was a lot of fun.

There are going to be tons of young missionaries! It'll be weird having sisters younger than me. There used to be that "older woman" thing so the temptation was lessened. I wonder how that'll go with all the young sisters and elders coming in. :p It used to be cool when I said, "I left on my mission when I was 18 and will be home when I'm 20." But now that's average. Ha-ha.

Elder Holland's talk was almost identical to a talk he gave in the MTC in Jan 2011. All our mission apartments have a copy of it because it's so powerful. Of course there were differences seeing as the audiences were different, but I love anything and everything about Peter, sweet Peter. He is awesome. And it was awesome that Elder Hales gave almost an identical talk ha-ha. Just goes to show how inspired these people are- they all pray and plan and write those talks not knowing what anyone else is going to say. But there always seems to be a theme! I counted 5 times that D&C 121:34-46 was quoted, as well as a ton of other repeats. It's awesome. I also felt really cool when they would announce speakers or mention people and I could say, "I am friends with his grandson," or, "I shook his hand once." Haha.

For those inquiring minds, I have met, or associated in some way with the following:

• ·      Quentin L. Cook (spoke in a stake conference I was at, shook his hand)
• ·      Walter F. Gonzalez (spoke to our whole mission)
• ·      Robert C. Gay (spoke in the Greenville stake conference they had when I was still in  Anderson, he was just an area authority then, now a seventy)
• ·      William R. Walker (came and toured our mission just a few months ago, shook his hand, too)
• ·      Elder M. Keith Giddens (came and spoke with Elder Gonzales, he is our area seventy)
• ·      Elder Alvin f. Meredith (spoke when the W. Columbia stake was reorganized with Elder Walker, shook his hand when President Holm introduced Elder Stanley and me and we thought he was just another brother in the area. When he started speaking we felt so dumb for being all like "how are ya brother?" ha-ha)
• ·      Jay E. Jensen (Alex. Nuff said)

Did you sense the urgency the Brethren had? This work is far too important to waste any time. "Don't delay, it's getting late," said Elder Holland last conference. You can really feel their earnestness and zeal and urgency, can't you?

  

I found out Saturday that I will be being transferred this week to a new area. More details next Monday...

I was reading in PMG the other day and I found something fun. It's a personal study activity. So, to fulfill it I must ask y'all to please respond to the following question

Pick a commandment (tithing, Law of Chastity, Word of Wisdom, etc) and write to me how keeping that commandment has blessed your life.

So glad to hear the hike went well! Pictures?? :)

Love y'all so much!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Seaver

Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy

James's mom was out of touch living her life the last two weeks and did not update his blog- to you loyal readers I apologize.  There are two new posts, so read on below after this post.

Dear family,

This week was a blur. So fast! Plus I had a nice cough going on from the fall allergy season coming in, so I have been in and out of a Benadryl coma. Ha-ha.

We worked hard and it paid off. There was a lady named A. who got baptized in Lexington ward on Saturday, and we as a district (6 of us) sang Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy. Then on Sunday, President and Sister Holm spoke in the Lexington and Gilbert wards. Lexington had us missionaries sing that song again for them and it was awesome! We practiced a lot and it paid off.

Then we randomly had a guy we taught months ago named T. H. show up at church. It was pretty sweet! He stayed for Sunday school, and then took off, but during class one of the members said something like, "When I was investigating the church I would just make up excuses to not go because I thought it was a 'cult'." Then Timmy said, "That's what I've been doing! I have made up excuses for the past 2 months, but today I couldn't think of one, so I had to come..." It was so funny ha-ha. But he is being prepared and I can't wait to teach him!

         

The Master is so good at diffusing bashes with people (Matt 21:23-27). I wish I were good at not bashing... But it's too fun to confound people by proving what I believe with their own Bible. :p

We have been having geese fly-bys every morning for the past few days. They honk and honk and honk for a good minute before they pass overhead. We saw a bunch of ‘em land in a field on our way to the library today. It was fun stuff. Today it was extremely foggy as well. Er. Is foggy. Currently foggy.

That's about it for this week though. Glad to hear all those kids are doing well! Send ‘em my salutations next time you see ‘em.

Love y'all a ton!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Seaver

Time is Blowing Past Like Crazy!

Dear Mom,

This week flew by. Time is blowing past like crazy! We had a crazy time going and visiting less-actives all week. We had 1 non-member at church (that's about average for me so far on my mission), but we had 5 less-actives! That's a ton! The way I see it, a baptism is just as good as a reactivation right? So even though it doesn't count as a key indicator, I still feel like Father in Heaven is pretty pleased with our efforts this week.

So I forgot to take pictures of the last baptisms... Good thing I'm not a sentimental person ha-ha..

Elder Kerr made me an awesome belt pouch for my mini- Book of Mormon I got. It is awesome to tract around with it, not having to carry anything! It's just all there on my belt. Only problem is -now I feel like a janitor with all the keys and stuff on my belt ha-ha.

We were tracting around this pond the other day when what did we behold? A crane. The only crane I've ever seen in real life! The animal kind, not the construction kind. It flew to the opposite side of the pond as we passed by it, so we chased it a bit to try and get it to fly again. It didn't. It just trotted happily around and around. It was pretty cool!

I was wondering if I could get the following items sent to me- the lyrics to the song Shenandoah, and a recipe for scones. Random? Maybe. Useful? Definitely.

Well the only other thing of consequence this week is that I found some SWEET pants at TJ Max last Monday. They are tighter than the normal pants (you know how I like my tight pants) and they are grey. They are currently the only proselyting clothing I own that isn't black. Hah.

That's it this week.                 

Love y'all so stinkin much!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Seaver

P.S. Yes I got my absentee ballot to vote. I had no idea who anyone was but Romney- Ha-ha. So I just prayed for guidance and picked the people I felt prompted. Whoa look at that alliteration (the repetition of initial consonant sounds).  Picked.  People.  Prompted.  Posture.  Postage.  Pancake.  Puke.

Done.

James - Just remembered this li'l fact. Last night we got permission and had a district sleepover! It was way fun! We still went to bed mostly on time and got up on time, but it was fun. Elder Cooper is going home in a few weeks, so they let us have some fun time before he dies. Anyway. Just a fun fact. :)

Mom - I assume you meant does and not dies

James - Nah, it's mission lingo. You're Born, your trainer is yo’ daddy, you get old, and you die when you go home. I meant dies :)

James - So our district is going over to play pokemon cards with a member today for p day. I don't want to buy a deck for no reason. Do you think it's worth $10 to play 3 times and possibly never again? Let me know what you think before we leave. I want to just for fun, but I don't want to waste money. I have wasted a lot of money on crap I used once in my life..

Mom - Buy and enjoy!  Everyone needs a little splurge now and then.. Have fun and laugh and kick back a little....  I choose you Pikachu

James - Remember that one time nearly last year where we were on the computer at the same time? That made me so trunky. Ha-ha I was like "Shoot dang if I talk to you anymore mom I will cry and go home..." Ha-ha. Now it's like "Eh, it's just 11 1/2 more months." 

A Vision of the South

Dear Family,

So, this weekend W. E., C. F., and T. W. were all baptized and confirmed! Elder Horne and I both also got to do our first confirmations, I on C. and he on T. It was an awesome experience seeing these 2 part-member families be completed. Well... mostly completed. There are still a few more family members to harvest. We're working on it. W. bore her testimony at the end of the baptismal service and it was so powerful! She made all the ladies cry and all the men pretend not to care so they didn't start crying, too. It was awesome! W. has been investigating for over 2 years now. Her daughter C. was baptized last year. W. had had a testimony for quite some time, but she just couldn't quit smoking. So... We gave her a blessing. Just a few days later she got way sick. I don't know what is wrong with her, but basically the doctor said that if she smoked another cigarette she would kick the bucket. So... She quit! Not what we had in mind at all, but she was able to quit and get baptized, so it worked out for the better. How cool is that?! Haha.

Thanks for the birthday package, it rocked! It was a perfect pump-up and I am verrry thankful to all y'all! :D

Jenni- I can't believe that thing you sent me had 8 stamps ha-ha! That's the most I've ever seen :p

Oh man, the Vision of the South by Vaughn J. Featherstone. I hung that up on our wall. It is so cool! Every missionary here has that given to them in a little "orientation handbook" when they first arrive, so it's fun to have a big one up on the wall as a constant reminder!

A Vision of the South

 President Spencer W Kimball stated, "Make no small plans: They have no magic to stir man's souls."  "This is the vision I have for the South. I believe that one day the South will baptize more people into the church than all other English speaking missions in the world together.""There are great hosts of marvelous Baptists, and members of the Church of Christ, Methodists and Catholics who are honorable people, and have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and love him. As they see the church veering off to the right or to the left of those basic teachings, they will begin to search for the truth. And as pivotal teachers come into the church and have influence, we will see the time when we will baptize hundreds and thousands, tens of thousands. In your day you will see a million members of the church in the South. There will be Temples plural in the South States. What a great call you have to serve with these marvelous people.""These missionaries love the South. We are making great strides and expect to continue."

Talk given by Vaughn J. Featherstone, April 30, 1984

So.. I think I am now going bald, too. I have a little bit of the forehead extensions going on that dad has. Ha-ha... HA.

Time flies.

I love y'all so much!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Seaver

Happy Birthday Elder Seaver

Dear mom,

First of all, tell Kandy happy birthday for me! 

This week was interesting. We had interviews/another round of the No More Strangers Firesides by President and Sister Holm on Wednesday- it was great! So many people came to the fireside and felt the Spirit as a recent convert of just a week bore fervent testimony of the restoration. It was so awesome to hear her (a 20ish year old who was baptized merely 4 days previous) testify of the Prophet Joseph and the Savior in such a pure way. I love the gospel! It's so true!

Also, time to recruit prayers. Please pray for W., C. and T., and Elder Horne and me this week. Those 3 sisters are all scheduled to be baptized the end of this week, but we are crunched for time and need some real miracles for everything to pull through. So. Pray for us please! :D

So yeah, my year mark and my birthday. I will say just a few lines to appease you mom, but I'm not really happy about how fast time is going. Sister Pratt made me brownies, which are delectable! I also got a cake-thing from Sisters Fastnaught and Brooks which is fantastic! The door of our trailer was decorated by the Da Rosas from the Lexington ward, (I took pictures)! And many others sang and wished me the best. I am no longer a teenager. Weird. And I will say as a final note, no matter what you wish mom, I wish I could stay another year at least out here. It is too amazing! It's hard, don't get me wrong, but it is SO worth it! It's a weird feeling being on the downhill slope, but I try not to think about it....

I'm so glad Sean got his Eagle. He is my best friend and I am so glad he is having success and joy in his life! Sean- you are a stud if there ever was one! Even if you do have a mullet.. Haha.

*Disclaimer- this is all my opinion, not doctrine*

So I was doing some studies this morning, as usual, when I happened across an idea. So when Father Lehi left Jerusalem he traveled East across the continent to the Indian Ocean (not all the way across China, just to the li'l gulf-looking part of the Middle-East) and sailed East to the Pacific Ocean and then to Central America (if they had gone any other way they would have been spotted and killed). Well, with that in mind, I offer the following:

3 Nephi 1:3  Then he departed out of the land, and whither he went, no man knoweth; and his son Nephi did keep the records in his stead, yea, the record of this people.

 and 

3 Nephi 2:9 And Nephi, who was the father of Nephi, who had the charge of the records, did not return to the land of Zarahemla, and could nowhere be found in all the land.

both state that Nephi (son of Helaman, son of Helaman, son of Alma, son of Alma who was a descendant of Nephi) disappeared just before Christ's birth and was never heard from again. Well. Here we go. Speculation time. What direction did the Wise Men come from that visited Jesus 2ish years after his birth? The East. So, if this said Nephi followed his Fathers' route back to the Holy Land, he would have come from.. the... East. Right? So. What if- WHAT IF- this very Nephi was one of those Wise Men? Yeah. Just some food for thought.

Take pictures of your hikes please? I miss mountains, and maybe it'll keep your mind off the pain? But I am verrrry impressed by you two. I still think how crazy you are for hiking the Grand Canyon. People die there! (Mostly from peeing off the edge, but still...) My dear parents are the bravest, most awesome people anyone could ever wish to have for parents! Hands down. FACT.

I love y'all so much!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Seaver