Jonathan's Baptism pics

Jonathan was baptized on Aug. 3rd by his brother, Samuel and confirmed by his dad, Jeff.  We are so proud of Jonathan!

Letters from Elder Seamons!

LETTER FROM AUG. 19TH, 2013

Hey Guys!!!

Well, another week is already done and by the time you read this the first day (or couple of days) of school will be over. Sounds like it was a good last week before school and i hope you guys are somewhat ready to start school! Good luck y'all! David, your playing competitive soccer!!!!! HURREY!!! That is super exciting! Im so happy you will have the oppurtunity to play down in the Utah leagues, you'll learn so much, and improve alot to (not that you aren't already really good). Don't get frustrated if sometimes you loose, or if sometimes the reff makes bad calls, just play your very best and i promise, things will always work out! Don't get any red cards! Sam, i would like to know who is starting varsity linebacker, cause im actually really suprised your not. Im trying to think of who would be starting, and i honestly can't figure it out (if it's Willie, im gonna blow up!!!). Make sure you always play your best, and work hard so that they have no choice but to start you!!! Your a stud, i pray you have a awesome season! Ben, im serious about the whole 1500 yard thingy, i want to hear about all of them! You owe me! I pray you also have a awesome season and that you guys will make it to "THE MINI DOME" this year. You and Sam make sure you both hit hard, but play fair and be a great example for team, if you do that, you will see alot of success this season (no potty's mouthes either! Doesn't help anybody!) KOOL! Jonathan, your growing up so fast mini man, second grade....wow, i remember those days. Have a super great time in 2nd Grade and remember, girls reallly do have cooties! Stay away from them!!! Good luck with soccer too! Jacob!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Have a great time with your preschool/kindergarten school! I hope you learn alot and nice to all your classmates and teachers! Your the best Jacob, remember that everybody loves you!!! And Jacob, make sure you give Charcoal a hug from me everyday and tell her i miss her, thanks buddy!

Cool, well i wish everyone a wonderful week, and i hope its not to heptic for you mom and dad!

My week was pretty good, i was privelaged to go on two austausches (exchanges) this week, one with Elder Abbott from Neutting and also one of the Zone Leader Elder Orchard. I learned so much from both of these awesome Elders and one thing that is really cool is Elder Abbott and i think we are probaly related! He kinda looked like Great Grandfather in his younger days, so i asked him where his ancestors were from. He said down in the Masquitte Nevada and also St. George area, so taking that into account, im pretty certain we are related some how. Cool huh? He is such an awesome Elder, he is only a transfer older that me, but i still learned so much from him. We had that exchange on Tuesday/Wendsday. The other exchange i had with Elder Orchard was on Friday/Saturday. I went to Munich and worked with him in his area. He is such an awesome missionary, i can really see why he is Zone Leader! We literally talked to everyone we saw, and even though hardly anybody would talk to us, we both saw the fruits of our faithfulness later that day during a lesson with one of there new investigators. That lesson was so awesome! The girl we had the lesson with name is Annessa. She is 25 just graduated from college and is going to start teaching as an English and Geography teacher this fall. She works at the Alianz Arena right now (home of Bayern Munchen Football Club) and is a die hard fan, says she goes to literally all there games home or away. She is fluent in English and lived a year in Alabama as an Exchange student. She didn't have much religious background, but is really honestly searching for which church is true. It was such a cool experience, it was nice being able to express myself with no language boundaries, so that she really understood what we beleived. Ah man! She is so prepared to hear this Gospal! I just wish she lived in our ward boundaries! Stink! But im super excited she has the oppurtunity to learn about this church, i know it is what she is looking for!

Some other highlights of the week were we did some more service for the older lady we found week before last on Saturday. She is super nice and so thankful for all that we do, but i really don't know how interested she is in our message. We'll keep trying. It's kinda of bad, but she swears like a sailor (in English) and as bad as it is, it kind of reminds me of, well home (don't take that in a wrong way). Keep her in your prayers! On tuesday we also went by on one of the Potential Investigators we gave a Book of Mormon to who lives in Traunstein. He hadn't read, but we had a really great Gospal Q and A session with him. It lasted about 30 min. so i take that as he has some interest. He welcomed us to come back in a week or two, so hopfully, he will have the desire and time to listen to our message next time we meet with him. Great kid though, keep him in your prayers please (Andreas). We also had a Eating Appointment with one of the families we went by on last Sunday. The wife told us that last Sunday she had prayed that the missionaries would come by that day, and well we did! It was cool to hear that story from her and really raised my hopes about, well everything. She says she doesn't come to Church because of work, but she will be retiring in the next few years. She also has a Coffee drinking problem, says she knows it is wrong, but says she needs to do it to stay awake for work. I hope we can work with her, and get her somehow to chuch. The huspand just got done with kimo and he says he is always tired, that is why he doesn't always come to church. They are such an awesome couple though, i pray the best for them and really help we can help them with all their trials.

Well, those were really the highlights of the week, i won't bore you with the hours of tracting and contacting had. But i want you all to know that i have a testimony of this Gospal, and i really honestly know that the Holy Ghost is real. I know that he is a member of the Godhead and works through promptings and feelings. I know that he really does dwell with us in our everyday lives, as long as we are obediant and have recieved that ordinace of the Confirmation of the Holy Ghost. He has the power to influence people, to testify of truthfulness, and to help people know what they should do next. It is so cool to see him change the life of others, it is definately one of the greatest things about being the missionary is seeing him work in others to convince them that this is the Church of God, that Jesus is the Christ, and that what we say is true. One of the biggest things they talked about at the MTC was making sure that we are listening to the promptings of the spirit and saying what God wants us to say. I have to admit, i got pretty paranoid with myself and wondered almost constantly if what i was saying and if what i was doing was indeed a "prompting" from the Holy Ghost. That might sound kind of weird, but it was really stressing me out. However, towards the end of my MTC exericnce we had the oppurtunity to watch a clip from an address that Elder Bednar gave at the MTC a couple of years ago. In it he gives a story about him when he was in the mission field and Elder Packer came to take care of some church business. Im not going to have time to irriderate the story, but after he is done with the story, President Bednar tells the missionaries, "you don't have to recognize in the moment that what you do or say is indeed a prompting from the Holy Ghost. Just be a good boy and be a good girl and i promise you everything will work out the way the Lord needs it to." You'll have to read the whole story to understand the context, but it was such a releif and help to me to know as long as i was doing my very best being as obiedient as possible, that the Holy Ghost would indeed give me promptings i needed to be an effective missionary.

Well i got to go, again, i hope you all have a wonderful week! Keep working hard in all you do and remember how much i miss and love each of you!

Viel Spass!

Elder Seamons

PS: If you guys have a chance, could you try to get me Sawinski's Email address. Thanks! Also i was thinking alot about this, if Sam wanted, he could get in touch with the missionaries in our stake and tell them that he would love to go on Joint Teaches or splits with them. Im not sure how much that is needed over there, but i could tell you right now if somebody that was a priest over here came to us and told us that, we would be exceedingly joyful like to a point that i can't even explain. That is one of the hardest things over here is getting joint teaches, so ya, if you want to help the work, let the missionaries know you would love to do that with them. They would be so thankful!

LETTER FROM AUGUST 12, 2013

Hey Guys!

Sounds like another busy but fun week! Im glad you got my letter, i wasn't sure if it would get there. Sounds like Lyceum was fun just like it was last year! Sports and school are starting up this and next week, good luck to all of you and have fun with 9 monthes in Gefangnis (prison)! Na, school's not that bad...most the time. Cool, ya, good luck again and....may the force be with you!!! (wow, thats really cheesy, sorry)

An die Wocke:

This week we had a Wedding for one of our members. It was really cool to see how involved the ward is with weddings over hear. We (meaning the Elders) were incharge of setting up all the decorations and taking down and cleaning everything afterwards (so ya we were the slaves) but it was super fun and we got alot of free food out of that. We set up everything last Monday and then spent alot of Saturday cleaning up and "reputting the church bad together". Fun though. The man from our ward who was gettting married name is Thomas Lubke. He is a convert of about 3 years and married this gal whose name i can't remember or pronounce, but she's from....uh that same country that Yanni's from. I can't rem....Armenia!!! That was it! She is super cool and speaks really good english (no German). She served a mission in Chicago and ya she can play the piano super good. The wedding took up a big chunk of our week.

This week was kinda sad though. The appointments we had set up fell out, but we were able to find this really cool old lady on Wendsday who we ended up doing service for on Saturday (garden work). She lived in Manhatten for about 20 years, but she can't speak that much English anymore. It was kind of funny when we got to her house on Saturday, cause she didn't think we were really actually going to come. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she would read a little from it this week. I pray she does.

Yesterday was really cool though. Not that anything breath taking happened, but we went by on about 6 less actives and i feel like we got a lot accomplished. They were all really nice, and we have appointments or at least permanant contact with most of them now. I was super glad, cause lately, we haven't had to much success with less active for bei's. We also walked about 8 miles to find all these people, but it was sure worth it!

Another cool experience i had this week was with Elder Young (the other new Elder). We went out contacting with eachother last Friday and i was really nervous at first cause we didn't have any "experienced" Elders with us. But, we didn't have any problems talking to people, and were able to place a Book of Mormon and find a really cool lady who said she would come to church in the next couple of weeks. So cool, and it was such a testimony builder to me that the Lord really does provide a way to do what he commands, even if we can barely (or think we can) talk to people in German.

Well, those were really the Highlights of the Week, i don't want to bore you to much, so i'll stop there. But i want you guys to know that i love you so much and i love this Gospal too. It is really miraculous to me to see how simple it is, but yet, so many people choose not to live it. I read a story this week in the Bible (you're probaly all farmilier with it) about a Babylonian General who has leporacy who goes to Israel to be healed by the Prophet Elias. When he gets to Elias' residence, Elias sends his servant out and who tells him to wash in the River Jordan 7 times and he would be made whole. The General is offended that: 1 Elias wouldn't even come out to talk to him and 2 That he gave him such a so to say "dumb thing" to do. But as he is heading back to Babylon, one of his servants says something like this: "Master, if the Prophet had ask you to do some great and difficult task you would have done it, but he asked you only to do something simple, so simple that you refuse not to do it. Why don't you try it, what is the worst that could happen?" In the end, this General does as Elias says and is healed. I found this really interesting that just as Elias gave a small and simple task, the Lord does the same for us. This Gospal is not difficult to live or do. The Lord has provided a simple way to live, simple tasks to do, and yet sometimes we act as if he has commanded us to do something difficult. I understand that sometimes it can be difficult, if we have allowed ourselves to slip from what we know is right and stop doing the simple things that the Lord asks of us such as reading in the scriptures, personal and family prayer, FHE, etc, but the wonderous thing is it is us that makes the tasks and journey difficult, not him. It is yet another testement of our Heavenly Fathers and our Saviors love, that they have made the path so simple and easy for us to return to them. They have not asked something difficult, but something so easy that yes, even a child can do.

I love you guys so much and pray for you everyday. I love hearing from you, and i hope you know how much it means to me. Take care and good luck with all your lifely endeavors!!!

Elder Seamons

LETTER FROM AUG. 5TH

Hey Guys,

Well, another busy week for you, no suprises there. Im glad to hear all is going well, and that WE HAVE A NEW BAPTISED BROTHER (that would be you Jonathan). That is so cool you all got to experience that again. Im glad Sam got to baptise Jonathan cause i know what an awesome experience that is. I remember when i got to Baptise David how honored and privilaged i felt to be able to perform such a sacred ordinace for somebody i loved so much. Wow, what a great week, i hope you have another one as cool as this last one (probaly won't be as cool though, seeing as nobody is getting Baptised, oh well, i guess you can try)!

 

Well, school is just around the corner and it sounds like everybody isn't quite ready for summer to be over! I don't know about you guys, but these past three monthes have really flown by, seems like only yesterday you were dropping me off at the MTC and now, wow, so much has happened.

 

Tiffany and Spencer are leaving all ready, so cool, they will both be awesome missionaries! Sorry your football camp wasn't "difficult" enough for you Ben, but im glad you got to go and that you will be able to play LB and RB this year for your team. I sent you a letter last week Ben, so hopefully you will get it some time this week. Anyways, good luck all yall with Lyceum this week. Hope you have as much fun as we did last year! (Oh and mom, good luch with all the little kids. I'll say some prayers for your sanity!)

 

My week was great. I am renaming this week the week of service seeing that we did service project 4/7 days this week. Cool here is how my week went.

Monday: We went and helped a investigator of the other Elders paints her house. It was fun, and her little boy reminds me of Jonathan. He fell in love with Elder Armstrong and wouldn't leave him alone most the night, then when he finally left Elder Armstrong alone for a little bit, he came up to me and just sat there and told me for about 20 minutes how cool Elder Armstrong is. What a Character!

Tuesday: We had District Meeting the i Elder Armstrong tousched with Elder Kinghorn who is working in Neotine right now. So i got to work in Rosenheim with Elder Kinghorn on Tuesday and Wendsday. He is super cool, he's from the Lone Peak High School area, and he studied Chemistry for a Year at BYU. He's been out a year, and man, he is a really good worker. We contacted all of Tuesday, and found this really cool lady who lived in Canada for several years so she spoke really good english. We gave her a Book of Mormon, shared some scriptures with here, gave here a chapter to read, and told her we would call her back next Tuesday (tomorrow) and try to set an appoinment up for Wendsday. She was so nice, and really seemed like she had a lot of interest in the Gospal and our Church. Such a cool experience!

Wensday: We did some garden service for the Schöwalds, an older coulple in our ward. They are so funny and super nice! They have thirteen kids including two foster girls that they took into there family who both have Down Syndrome. They younger of those two girls still lives with them. She comes to church every week and even though she is really shy, when we sing those Church Hyms she's got here book out right there belting out the tune. It is so cool! Later that day we tousched back ya, that ended our day.

Thursday: We did some more service for the City of Kiefersfelden clearing/repairing some hiking pathes. It was fun, but it kind of made me think is it really that important to have these hiking pathes clean enough to eat off of? I guess it is just a German thing, but the people we talked to who were hiking while we were working seemed to be very greatful for what we were doing, so ya, i guess we did some good. Later that day we had dinner with Rita, and we were going to try to do a lesson, but she really just wanted to talk about her life and learn more about us, so i guess that was ok. I don't know if i told you guys this, but she left yesterday to Thailand for the next five weeks, so i'm really praying she will still be interested when she gets back, and that she doesn't hear anything in Thailand that would discourage her from investigating the Gospal. We did give her a card with our favorite scriptures on it, and she told us that she would read them on the plane ride over there. I really pray she does.

Friday: We did some less active work in Traunstein and went and visited Sister Timm who was having her 95th Birthday! She is so sweet, and reminds me a little of Great Grandmother. She had a lot of visitors including the Bergermeister so we didn't stay very long, but she was sure nice and tried to get everyone she talked to there to come talk to us and join our church. Man, what a lady. We also had dinner with this other less active family, the Krügel's. That was deffinately the miracle of the week. This is the family i wrote who said they loved the Book of Mormon, but didn't beleive Joseph Smith was/is a Prophet. I gave them  Amos 3:7 as a commitment last time, and you know what? They read it together and excused themselves for saying that Joseph Smith was not a prophet. I was actually surprised when they said that, and asked, "so you beleive he was/is a Prophet then?" and they kind of looked at me like i was dumb and said, "of course, it says right here in the scriptures that he would have to be a Prophet." So it was an amazing miracle. They also said they would start coming to church once they got a car in September! So wonderful! Now, we just got them to beleive in the Word of Wisdom, and we should have some solid awesome AKTIVE members!

Saturday/Sunday: Help Brother De Fillipo paint his new house the whole day. It was really fun, and we got to know him alot better. His wife and kids actually came to church on Sunday, but we still have a lot of work we need to do with him. If you could, keep them in your prayers. They are such an awesome family, and i think the wife really would like to come to church every week if her huspand would. Also on Sunday, we had Stake Preisthood meeting. It was really good, and President Miles gave an awesome talk! In his talk he shared a story about one of the Missionaries who came over here with me who met a Spanish couple on the plane, and because they couldn't speak English and he could speak Spanish reallly helped them out and gave them a Book of Mormon. Turns out that last we, this couple got Baptised! What a neat experience and testimony builder that story was for me. Another miracle i started to notice yesterday, was the fact that i can actually understand almost everthing everyone was saying during that meeting. It was actually quite a shock to me, and it may have been just because it was Gospal Talk and plus the fact that i was fasting to understand/use the language better, but it was so nice to be able to say when that meeting was over, "i understood what was going on!" Cool Beans!!!

 

Well that was my week, i've got to get going, but want you guys to know how much i know the Scriptures are the Word of God. There is a reason that Prophets have said that the Book of Mormon should be the foundation of our testimony, and also that we should read from it and the Bible everyday. I really saw that this week with the Krügel family. I know the only reasons we were able to overcome the Joseph Smith Prophet issue was one 1. We were and they were extremely blessed by God and 2. They already had a Testimony of the Book of Mormon and Bible. With less actives, i am starting to understand that it all comes down to if they have a Testimony of the Book of Mormon. If they do, it is a lot easier to reactivate them you just have to rekindle their fire, and teach them how to keep it going, but if they don't, we are litterally starting at level 0 trying to help them find that testimony that should have been there befor they got baptised. I love the scriptures with my whole heart. It is one of the biggest things i look forward to everyday is to have the time to study them. They have changed my life, and i am so grateful that God has given them to us in orde to learn and grow. They are the word of God, and are indeed a roadmap for our life, but like any Good Map you have to open it and study it to know where you should go.

 

I love you guys so much! Good luck with everything this week, i hope you have some amazing experiences, and don't forget you are always in my prayers!

 

mit freundlich Grüßen,

Elder Seamons

MTC Pics that Elder Seamons finally sent!