November 18, 2013: Week Eighteen: iz transfer time baby! November 18, 2013

Howdy Y'all
 So to start off....We got a call from our Elders last night and the first thing they said was, "Why didn't you guys tell us that you were getting another sister?" WHAT? So naturally I responded, "What are you talking about?" sooooo we're going to be in a trio wahooo! It came as a big surprise because we weren't expecting any change seeing that Hermana G goes home at the end of this transfer. I'm excited for this new change, it'll be different but I'm sure it'll be fun!

Sooo highlights of the week:

This morning we had breakfast at the Harris' (the ones with the 500 deer). After breakfast we went on another safari :) Interesting fact about brother harris....He trains world class boxers! He himself was also a boxer back in the day and he fought Ali!! He said that he took a train to chicago and got pneumonia on the way...But he still fought, unfortunately he lost...one of his only losses. He said that if he were healthy, he would've beat him! How awesome is that! He's a big strong guy and he kinda sounds like tommy lee jones :) I love that family so much! They're true southerners...maybe too true...he still likes to call black people the "n" word lol....oh brother harris.

anyways....

This weekend was stake conference! I'm serving in the College Station Texas Stake (where Texas A&M is at) The drive to the stake center is 100 miles round trip so President gave us permission to spend the night at the Hermanas' place over there! Saturday night after the evening session, we stayed with Sisters Zabriskie (she's really good friends with Emily Sheffield!) and Sister Stockton. We might have had a too much fun haha...All of the talks given during the saturday session were about missionary work! It was so inspiring, especially because two of the speakers were baptized just a couple of months ago! And our wonderful mission president and his wife spoke saturday and sunday. To make things even more amazing, me and the 42 other missionaries serving in the stake sang as a choir! On saturday, we sang the EFY medley and it gave me chills when we proudly sang the words, "We are as the Army of Helaman, we have been taught in our youth. And we will be the Lord's missionaries to bring the world His truth." I'm in the Army of Helaman and I'm helping the Lord's work move forward. And guess what? You can help too! A member from the temple presidency also spoke and he gave some interesting stats..He said that if the 48,000 adult members that live in the temple boundaries attended the temple just ONCE a month, we could operate FIVE temples in the area. If the 14,000 members with temple recommends went once a month, we could have 2 temples working at full capacity. What does this mean? GO TO THE TEMPLE! The Lord is in the temple! The missionary work is to gather everyone in, to the temple, so that the work is not done in vain!

For the Sunday session....we were surprised to have the primary come up to the stand and sing "I hope they call me on a mission" then we sang Called to Serve with them...That was probably one of my most favorite moments of my entire mission! Some of the little kids would turn around and just stare at us with bright eyes, hoping one day, they'd be called on a mission.

For our investigators....friday was fantastic! We were soo busy, we were running from appointment to appointment! We had three spanish appts in a row so needless to say...my brain was going to explode. We taught Maria (the one who came to the Halloween party) part of the Restoration..She was juggling her twin babies so it was hard to teach the whole lesson. She asked if she needed to be baptized in order to come to church. We said no, you can decide to get baptized after you come a few times if you'd like. So her response was, "Okay, I need to come to church!" After Maria, we went to Luis Espinosa's with his family (we usually see them on friday nights). Well scary part here....We decided to teach them the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson and guess what? I've never even studied how to teach that one in spanish yet! So...I put complete trust in the Lord..I knew the vocab words, I just needed some help forming sentences :) One of the most amazing feelings is knowing that the Lord is using you as His instrument. I feel these promptings to say something and fear tries to creep in and stop me. Before I let it, I open my mouth and the words flow out. Sometimes, I surprise myself by thinking, "Woah did I just really say that?" because perfecting the accent takes time! I love the feeling I have when I'm teaching, I feel as if the Spirit surges out of me and carries the words to the hearts of the people. Hermana G told me that she loves it when I teach because I speak slower than a native so the investigators hold on to every word and understand what I'm saying!

The after effect of teaching in spanish all day is this: YOU CAN'T SPEAK. You don't know if you should speak in English or Spanish...And when you go to say something, it comes out half english half spanish. Hermana G fears that she's forgetting how to speak english because sometimes, her mexican accent really comes out and it's hilarious. Or when we say a prayer in a member's home, she'll start saying it in spanish!

Oh! Before I forget! We went to the Ortega's to remind them about stake conference and share a short message. Elizabeth (mom) was the only one home and she said that she has been wanting a change in her life and she feels that this is it. She doesn't know what exactly it's going to happen but she feels that it's going to in the future! (This was in reference to baptism!) She told us that she loves it when we come and she feels like we've been a great blessing in their life! WAHOOO!!! I was shouting for joy on the inside! Please pray for them! They are so prepared and ready for this! Oh! She went to conference yesterday :) wahoooo!

Well, I think that's all the exciting news I can write at the moment because I'm out of time! I love you all so much and one thing that President Pingree always says if we're going through any sort of trial, "Study the Atonement." If your first question is why? Just do it! We can get through ANY trial with the Savior by our sides. I know this is true.

We watched the Josesph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration Movie with Jo Ann, one of the recent converts last night...Watching it strengthens my testimony of Joseph Smith. I know that he truly was a prophet and He was able to restore the Church of Jesus Christ once again on the earth today. I also have gained a great appreciation for him and the early saints. They went through so much... more than we could ever imagine, just so we could have the wonderful blessings of the gospel in our life today. The Church is true my dear friends and family. I know it and God knows that I know it.

con todo mi amor en mi corazon,

Hermana Emma Seymour

November 11,2013: Week Seventeen:It's the last week of the transfer, WHAAAT?

Hi family!

At my first zone conference back in July, a missionary said during his "dying testimony", "Your mission is like a roll of toilet paper...it starts off slow, gets faster and faster, and then is gone before you know it!" How true it is!

Let me start off by saying THANK YOU EVERYONE for everything I received this past week! Not just the physical things like the letters and packages, but the blessings I felt from your prayers! This week has been the best week of the transfer! We had SO MUCH FUN! We would laugh until tears rolled down our faces and we'd be on the ground, holding our not-so-tough abs haha...On Thursday night, we helped a member move and she gave us a ton of christmas lights hehehe sooo when we got home and finished planning, we put them up all around the apartment! And let me tell yall this...we almost died multiple times haha (not really) We'd stand on top of the couches, trying to put tacks into the ceiling! This resulted in uncontrollable laughter! And my oh my it felt sooo good to laugh!

My favorite moment of the week was when we taught the Ortega family..We taught them the Restoration about a month ago with President Prior (the stake president). Javier and Elizabeth have been going through a difficult time because their 16 year old daughter is pregnant...We know that this trial has softened them so we taught them the wonderful Plan of Salvation on Saturday. The lesson went really well and it was very unique because we'd switch back and forth between english and spanish at some parts because Javier is still learning English. At the end of the lesson, I extended the invitation to be baptized by someone holding the Priesthood authority of God. Immediately, Elizabeth innocently said, "I've already been baptized." We quickly dissolved this concern by explaining to her that her baptism was a beautiful display of her commitment to the Savior but she needs to be baptized by someone holding the Priesthood. We told them the story of how the Savior Himself walked 40 miles just to be baptized by John the Baptist. Why? because he was the only one that had the Priesthood. This made sense to them and as President Prior shared his testimony (he's also a convert), Hermana Gutierrez whispered to me, "We need to pray really hard, right now!" So I kept a silent prayer in my heart that the Ortega's would accept this invitation to be baptized. When the time was right again, Hermana G had Javier read Mosiah 18:9-10, and as he read "What have you against being baptized..." A smile came to his face..Hermana G then invited them to be baptized on December 15th. The Spirit took over as we explained to them that by setting the 15th as their goal, they would be showing their faith to Heavenly Father that they WANTED to know if these things were true. We promised them that as they set this goal, they would receive an answer to their prayers. We told them, "We can only know that these things are true if we have a SINCERE desire to know..Meaning that if we were to receive an answer, we'd act upon it and follow the Savior by being baptized."

Ah! Family! it was so good!

And yesterday, we met with Kristen, a 17 year old girl who is getting baptized on December 1st! Kristen has known for a long time that the Church is true, but her parents are against her decision so she has to wait until she turns 18 which is on December 1st :) We're going to teach her all of the lessons again before her baptism, just to make sure that she's prepared (even though she could teach us all of the lessons haha) It was so wonderful to teach her the beautiful message of the Restoration and help her strengthen her testimony of it. We could all feel the Spirit so strongly and she'd tear up at some parts. She's so happy that she has found the gospel! She's on fire!

So those were my two favorite lessons for the week :) I hope yall enjoyed! We've been hearing that it's going to get "cold" this week haha...my body is used to the warm weather so when it's 55 out....I die!

Well.....I love yall so much and I cant thank you enough for everything that you've done for me! Work hard in your portion of the Lord's vineyard! Instead of praying for me to find people, try praying for people to find that are around you! The Lord is hastening His work and there are many that are ready for the message of the Restoration!

Con todo mi amor,

Hermana Seymour

November 4, 2013: Week 16 Holaaaa Familia!

buenos dias mi familia!

Soooo this week was interesting as usual haha...Hermana G got really sick after we cleaned a less active's home..Like, I'm surprised she hasn't coughed up her lungs! So we had to stay in for a couple of days so she could rest up! But we still got to teach people..don't you worry about that!

My favorite lesson was with Sylvia..She's from Peru and she's the caretaker of one of the ward members who had a stroke and has really bad dimentia (spelling?)..That woman's husband is also not a member so we also taught him. It was certainly different teaching a lesson in both spanish and english! One time, Hermana G started talking to him (he doesn't know a lick of spanish) in spanish so I giggled and nudged her. Then she was like, "Oh! I'm so sorry, I didn't even realize what I was doing!"

Teaching Sylvia was a little bit hard for me because at the last second, we changed out lesson plans to the Ten Commandments (I had been preparing to teach the Plan of Salvation for the past two days)..Soo...I did my best and left the rest to Heavenly Father. At one point she said that she was confused as to why there are so many churches on the earth and how there are so many different interpretations of the Bible. I felt the strongest prompting to share with her an analogy. Fear struck me because I thought I wouldn't be able to do it in spanish. So I just opened my mouth and let the Lord handle the rest. I was able to say what I wanted to say! The analogy goes like this: Imagine drawing a dot on a piece of paper. This dot represents the bible. How many lines can you draw through this dot? Countless! These lines are a representation of all the different interpretations of the Bible. But, draw another dot next the the Bible. This represents the Book of Mormon. How many lines can you draw to connect the Bible and the Book of Mormon? ONE. There is one doctrine, one gospel, one church (see ephesians 4)! And that doctrine and gospel is found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! How lucky I am to know of this. Every day I think about the BILLIONS of people on the Earth and I am one of the few that knows of the truth. This is my motivation to go out and serve the Lord's children. EVERYONE needs to hear this joyous message!

Last p-day was BEAUTIFUL. We went to the Harris' and after we ate lunch, Brother Harris took us on a safari :) They've very wealthy so they've purchased some deer from Africa and other animals! No lions though...It was so beautiful to stand in the back of his truck and drive around his 500 acres. I felt like I was on a National Geographic documentary! There were herds and herds of deer running around. And at one point, we got to watch these two bucks fight from like 15 yards away! I tried to get an action shot for yall!

When Hermana G was sick, I got to study spanish like no other haha..She said that everytime she has gotten sick while on the mission, it has actually been a blessing for her companions because they grow so much in that time. And it is so true. I'm surprised by how much I can say! The Lord has truly had mercy on me and I'm really picking up the language! I can understand almost everything that people say, as long as it's gospel related and I can feel the Spirit work within me when I communicate with the people.

We had zone conference this week! It was so uplifting and I got my spanish name tag so it's official! Wahoo! At the end of the meeting, President usually picks 4 or 5 missionaries to give a short talk about Christ-like attributes. Well...I got picked and I'm a lame person and forgot to prepare. But the Lord really helped me out because the day before, I had studied a talk about faith in Jesus Christ. The talk is called, "Remember Lot's Wife" by Elder Holland...Yall should read it! It's actually a BYU devotional..But anyways, I had written down a couple of quotes that I really enjoyed so I was prepared for this talk! I also shared the story of when Peter walks on the water towards the Savior. Everyone focuses on how he faltered, but we should focus on the amazing faith that he had to walk to the Savior on water! Peter grew afraid when he saw the waves and the wind but he cried out to the Lord. If we do our best to ignore the waves and winds of life and focus on the Savior, we'll make it! That is a promise! We need to put our trust in the Savior that He'll make up the rest!

Hermana G has taught me so much, she has the coolest analogies! One was this: Imagine having a beautiful grand piano in your living room. The piano can't play itself, we have to come to it and play it. Only then, will we be able to listen to the music. The piano represents the Savior. We have to come to the Savior and then the beautiful music of the Spirit will be played!

My purpose is to help others come unto Christ. I want people to hear the beautiful music of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yo se que vive mi Senor. Yo se que el Evangelio de Jesucristo ha sido restauro atraves el profeta Jose Smith. Yo se que la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias es la iglesia verdadera!

I love yall so much!

Hermana Seymour