Latest letters

Ninja in training. Erik's Halloween costume, I guess, complete with the missionary name tag. I'm a little jealous of the short sleeves.

I'm discovering that my weekly missionary email comes between 6:30 and 7:00 in the morning. This allows me to email back and forth for a minute. Even though Erik still manages to drive us crazy from 1000s of miles away, we miss him and he finds ways to bring some humor to our lives.

In his last email he told me he definitely bought the right phone because it allows him to do memes. This is what he does on P-day I guess. Ashlyn managed to lock us out of the kids computer by continually putting in the wrong picture password and NONE of us know the real password. The only person who might know is Erik, who unfortunately doesn't live here anymore. After waiting a week, he sent us what might work. Nope. After much trying we are able to get into the Kids account but not the Admin. Ahhhhhhhh!!!!! And he thought he would be funny by typing the the password hint as "Hahahahahahahah." How aggravating. One day we'll get that computer back to full working capacity, probably when Elder Erik makes his way back home in two years.

October 22 Letter
Here's a dumb missionary joke for ya'll. What is a missionary's favorite car? A convertible. 🤣 Anyway, like I said last week we are whitewashing our area, so we are getting to know all the members and all the investigators and others. Not a lot of super exciting stuff. I pass a tennis court every day on the bike ride to our area. I really wish I could just pause for an hour and go play, but I have more important things to do.We could get some new investigators by playing "beat you, teach you" but that isn't allowed. Bummer. I guess for this special edition 1 month in email I'll give you a pros and cons list. Here's a list of things that have been hardest for me. And I guess I'll throw in some good stuff too.

Biggest struggles so far of being a missionary:
1. Not playing tennis
2. No good music, and no, MoTab is not good music
3. No movies or YouTube, I guess I'll just say no media
4. No naps/Wake up at 6:30
5. I guess I also miss my family and friends just a little bit😁

Biggest blessings/ Pros:
1. Stronger testimony
2. I have more purpose/ I know what I'll be doing every day.
3. I'm out of the "Utah bubble" as people keep saying, which is a good thing to be out of for a little bit
4. It's not cold. In fact, its warm.
5. I can have a quadruple stacker PB&J and there's nobody to stop me.
     
On to my week, we taught an elderly couple named Sky and Clem. They are Catholic but their son's a member. They're really nice people and always feed us. We've also been teaching a Colombian guy named Manuel. He is also really fun to talk to and is really interested in our church. We've been talking to a lot of people and making ourselves known. We've also done a lot of service which has been fun. We got to do some digging the other day which was fun. This might sound kind of weird but I really miss my job and being able to dig with a shovel. Anyway, that's mainly what I spend my time doing. A lot of time is also spend riding bikes, we don't have a car, so we have about a 10 minute ride just to get to our area, plus an extra 5 to 25 minutes depending. We should be sharing a car soon though. 

Some highlights: 
I held an alligator head. We talked to a member that hunts alligators and had a whole huge freezer full of alligators that he had killed the week before. It was cool.

I went to Wendy's for my 1 month mark on Friday. And I did bring my frosty cards all the way from home, so I got 2 free frostys.

I did the worst thing ever. We were calling a member named Wanda to try to set up a time to meet with her. She didn't answer and we usually don't leave voicemails. Anyway, Elder Squires decided to leave one this time, but I didn't know that. This was late at night and we were in weird moods. Anyway, right when it beeped I was in the middle of saying "This is Wanda" in a really weird accent. Then Elder Squires freaked out and hung up. So basically a member we've never met now has a voicemail of the missionaries saying "This is Wanda" in a really weird voice and hanging up. Oh well. None of you need to know that or care, but that's what happened. 

I was told there were a lot of bugs here, that there are a lot of Alligators, that it rains a lot, and that the humidity makes things go soft. I guess I'm just lucky because I haven't dealt with any of that yet. It's been sunny, warm, and bug free. 

I try to keep my emails lighthearted, but seriously I have been learning a lot. I think I'm going to start putting a "Spiritual Spiel" (cool name, huh) in each of my emails, or maybe once a month. But here it is. 

SPIRITUAL SPIEL
My testimony of The Book of Mormon, Christ and the Atonement, and Prayer has grown so much. It has been great being a full time servant of the Lord, because if you put your trust in him he wont let his servants down. I've really learned even in just 1 month that sometimes you just need to pray and ask Heavenly Father to help you and to show you the way. This is a lot harder than it seems, but it does help immensely. There's no way I could leave home and come here and be a missionary day in and day out without his help.
   

I guess that's how you write a big long email about a pretty uneventful week. And as always, check this link out for all my photos. I got a photo with an alligator head, which is pretty sweet.

October 29 Letter
I'm 354,240,000 milliseconds into my mission. Not much happened this week. I'm not sure what to say. We did go to a Trunk or Treat which was fun. We were going to starve to death until my prayer got answered, so we aren't going to starve anymore. I also had to give a talk on Sunday about my favorite hymn, which was fun. I did a lot of service, knocked some doors, taught some lessons, and met with members.

Trunk or Treat was really fun. There were lots of good costumes. There's a kid named River that always wanted to race us and fight us. He thought he was the strongest person in the world because he dressed up as Black Panther. It was funny. 

One of my prayers was answered yesterday. I wasn't given the full amount of money for the month because I got here a little into the month. I also had to buy lots of hygiene products because I just got to the field, we also had 5 p days this month which means we had to go another month without money, and we're whitewashing our area so we had to buy lots of food and apartment supplies to get us started. Anyway, we have no money and no food and we have to go another week. I prayed that it would last its the week, but there was no way. We had a dinner today, and it was amazing. It was with Sister Boileau and her nonmember husband. They had cleaned out their food supply earlier that day and had 3 huge bags of food to be thrown out that wasn't even expired. She decided to give them to us. We now have food for a month. 

There are so many people that slam doors in our faces like Sister Young said. What's really been working for us is when they say "Leave me alone, go bother someone else, bye" we just offer our help with anything they're doing. We've gotten to talk to lots of people that way. They realize that we actually want to help them, not lecture them about repenting or anything like that. Anyway, life's good out here when I'm working. It's when I stop for a minute that I get homesick or start thinking about all the stuff I can't do. Like you said, I had an easy life before coming out, but I'm trying to always stay focused on my purpose. Time really does fly here. It's already been a month.

I also gave a talk 3 weeks in. And we had 2 investigators there that heard me, which is great. 

More missionary emails

Having multiple missionaries out at the same time is such a rewarding experience. Grandma and Grandpa Seamons flew out last Saturday for the Cook Islands. I finally got an email that they made it and were still waiting for their luggage to catch up with them.

Disclaimer: This email was titled "naked and afraid." It came from Grandma's email so I was so confused why she would title it that way. Then I read it to discover that Grandpa wrote it, but I was still confused. My kids had to tell me that it is a TV show.

This morning I really was naked and afraid.  e got here yesterday (landed on a dirt runway) and this morning I knew I had to face the music and take a cold shower.  All we need to make hot water in the shower is a couple of D batteries but there are none on the island.  I WAS afraid but I learned when I was in Chile to rub yourself hard when the water hits you and it doesn't take your breath quite so bad.

We are stuck until our luggage gets here which could be tomorrow or who knows when.  Meanwhile we walked to a store and bought a loaf of bread, some hard rolls, a pound of butter, and some dry milk powder for $59.00.  There are no eggs or Spam or anything on this island so I really need to get out the fishing pole and go catch something. There is one thing in abundance here though and that is wonderful people. The branch president and his wife picked us up at the airport and she  had made these leighs for us.  I'll bet she spent 4 hours on each one of them. They bought new sheets for the bed with their own money and cleaned the place up.  Last night she brought over a cover for the bed so we would be warm.  (It got chilly last night) Yesterday someone dropped off a bunch of bananas and someone else gave us some donuts (not like you think of) and some mango. So far we have been treated like rock stars.    
     
This place is beautiful. It is as pretty as Christmas Island was ugly.  There are only 500 people on the whole island and it is very quiet except for these obnoxious roosters that start up at 3:30 and never let up.

Before I go I need to tell you one more story. On the way to the Salt Lake airport we stopped at a Subway for one last bite. Julie didn't want anything so I went in alone. I ordered a sandwich and tried to pay for it with a 50.  The young man asked if I had anything smaller and I didn't. I offered to go get some change and he hesitated a bit and then his co-worker, a 19 or 20 year old young lady stepped in and said to him, "Don't worry.  I'll cover it."  I said to her, "you can't do that. I have more money than you. Just let me go to the car and get some money from my wife." She insisted on paying and then I had the thought that I should let her do it. So I did. I thanked her profusely and then as I opened the door I turned to thank her one more time and the tears came out of nowhere. How often do you go into Subway and come out raining tears?  The thought later occurred to me that it was the missionary nametag I was wearing  with the name Jesus Christ on it...….It happened again when I offered to pay this dear sister for the new sheets for the bed. "NO NO NO, she said, pointing to heaven. Jesus will bless me more.  What a tremendous blessing to wear a missionary nametag. Those who never go will never know what they missed out on.  Miss, would you forward this to the rest of the bunch, especially our compadre Elder Erik? I hope he is having as much fun as we are.  Erik, you are the MAN!  I love you all.

Elder Papa Bear

Little miracle in the classroom

When you invite God into all facets of your life, little miracles can and do occur. This year I have a student (whom I'll call Mr. T.) who struggles to be happy and do work. I've included him in my prayers, asking to know how to help him succeed. Several weeks ago our district had a professional development day with speakers and classes. As I was listening to the opening speaker and thinking about this Mr. T., the speaker said that we need to help students find their passion. And the thought that came to me immediately was "have him write about video games." Mr. T. LOVES to tell me all about his video games and their ratings and how to play them.

Fast forward a few days and Mr. T. wasn't wanting to do what I had planned for the class. I gave him a writing page and said,"Why don't you write about your favorite video game." Well, he immediately latched on to that idea and wrote two pages in one sitting. During morning meeting he asked to share with the class. They were all impressed he could write so much. Later that day I found an old 3-ring binder which I gave him to keep his writing pages in.

He's been taking it home and brings it to music where he normally likes to be disruptive and make noises. But not this past week or so. He sits and writes. I have had a breakthrough and am praying that I can continue to help him progress. Mr. T. even invited me to his house to play games and gave me a hug on the way out of class the other day.

God is very much aware of all aspects of our life. Work, play, home, spiritual, physical. I know I can get revelation for even the kids in my classroom. They are under my stewardship for six hours a day, and while I am still getting to know and understand them, God knows their name and their needs at this very moment.

October 13 Letter

What a crazy couple weeks it's been. Basically there have been two lives in the past 2 weeks. In my previous life, I invited my first person to be baptized and he said yes! I also gave my companion a blessing, got to host some new missionaries and got to watch general conference. In this new life I've gotten to breathe underwater all day every day here in Palm Bay. I've also talked to real people for the first time in weeks, ridden my bike around all day, seen lots of jungles, and strengthened my testimony by relying on the Lord.

That was the summary. I'm going to start back at the beginning and go into depth. 2 weeks ago sense like a different lifetime. My companion had been sick for our whole stay at the MTC, and I'm grateful I have a strong immune system so I didn't get sick, but he had been sick so I had the chance of giving my first priesthood blessing. It was a really cool experience for both of us. He got much better over the next few days. Say what you want but the blessing definitely helped. 

We also taught Tanner again. He was very excited about the gospel and what we were teaching. (And yes he is a real investigator even though we were at the MTC.) We invited him to be baptized by the missionaries in the area and he says yes! It was really cool to get to experience that at the MTC. He's a really amazing guy. 

Another cool experience I had that not many missionaries have is the chance to host new missionaries. I got to take 2 missionaries into the MTC, Elder Zeman and Elder Fielding. It was fun showing them around and talking to them. I tried to answer every question I wanted answered my first day and help them with their questions while also comforting them. I really enjoyed doing that. 

We also watched conference in the gym. My whole district got there really early to get the good seats. We're hung out there and talked for a while. It was fun. Conference itself was also amazing. 2hourchurch! Basically that means an extra hour of teaching for me, but after my mission that will be great. The talks about representing Christ and why were are moving away from being called Mormons, and also the talk about not holding grudges were some of my favorites. Conference seemed very inspired and it was what we needed. 

Saying goodbye to my district was so hard.😥 I love all of them so much. We had a really good time together.

I left the MTC at 5AM and had my first flight. It was fun. I enjoyed flying. I also got since cool pictures from the plane. It was weird, as soon as the plane landed you could see the water coming in. When I got off the plane it felt like I was, as Elder Thornock said, breathing underwater. 

I've gotten used to the weather and quite enjoy it now. It was rough at first because our AC didn't work so it was 85 in our apartment. 

My companion is now Elder Squires. He is very funny and is a good trainer. He's been out 5 months. He likes Clash Royale, playing card games, and getting swole😁.

It's definitely been an adjustment here. I've been praying a lot for help learning, help finding people, knowing what I need to do, and forgetting myself and losing myself in the work. Prayer works and I'm now starting to really enjoy it here. 

The MTC is a weird little bubble. It's very nice and as close as we can get to Zion here on earth, but we forget there's still a world out there. It's been good to get out and ride our bikes around and knock doors, talk to potentials, and get to know members. We were basically whitewashing an area, but we're already finding some people to teach. Our ward is also super cool so we've been eating some amazing meals. 

The geography is unusual here. It's sui flat. Not only are there no mountains for there's no hills. It's just flat. There are also little lakes and dense jungles literally everywhere. There are 2 houses and then jungle, 2 houses and jungle. It's kind of cool. There are also billions of little lizards and squirrels. It's kind of fun. And a member had a huge tortoise.

Anyway, that's a lot of info but basically it's been a good couple weeks and I'm finally in Orlando down in the Palm Bay area. Still no alligators yet and we got almost no rain or anything even with the hurricane in North Florida.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

On a side note: We have a young lady from our stake serving in the same mission, Sister Aniah Young, and a sister missionary from Grantsville who is her companion, Sister Lindsay Wilson. I ran into both their moms last week on two different occasions and we talked about the possibility of all three being in the same area. Well, it's happened. Erik is sharing the same ward with both of these girls and sees them a couple of times a week. Aniah is Kiersten's age.

Sister Young and Elder Leary

I also got our first missionary email from Grandma and Grandpa. They've made it safely to their little area of the world -- the Cook Islands.

Nate

I missed the General Conference women's meeting for conference last weekend because of this . . . 

hosting dinner for a makeup homecoming dance.

The cross country kids had an out-of-town meet over homecoming weekend so they did their own.

Unfortunately, just as they arrived for pictures, the rain began.

After the dance, he came home to find himself on the other end. Six before the actual dance and she wanted to make sure she was first!

He also had region cross country this week.

Due to a hip injury that began shortly before the start of the season, Nate didn't race as well as he would have liked and was rather disappointed in his performance. He's only a junior, so he's got next year to really give it all. Hopefully that hip won't be a nuisance.

The season seemed rather short. Maybe because he didn't race in a couple of events. Whatever the reason, I was very grateful. I hate missing things my kids are participating in, and I just wasn't ready to get a sub and hand my class over to someone quite yet. I'm excited to see what next year holds.

First official address

I haven't got a whole lot from Erik this week which he warned me about. His mission was nice enough to send Tyler a couple of photos . . . one of Erik with his companion, Elder Squires, and one with the mission president and his wife, President and Sister Clark.

Technology allowed us to look up where he's living for the next little while which is not too far from the beach and my Grandma Seamons's brother who lives 10 miles away. Wouldn't that be cool if they connected some way?

I can't wait for that letter tomorrow to FINALLY find out how this week has been. He wasn't really in the path of the hurricane but I imagine they had some wind and rain.

Elder Leary
Florida Orlando Mission
1117 Malabar Lakes Drive NE
Palm Bay, FL 32905

AND . . . 

My missionary parents flew out to the Cook Islands last night. I can't wait to hear from them that they made it safely. I don't know what to make of my parents and their little islands. You can't even really find the Cook Islands on a map. I'll just be praying that this time they won't have any medical concerns and they'll be able to finish their mission in its entirety.

Erik's Hurricane Michael

When Erik opened his mission call to Florida, he mentioned that he hoped there might be a hurricane.

Well . . . 

Introducing Hurricane Michael

which made landfall two days after he arrived.

As his mom I might have been more concerned had he been stationed somewhere more northward. But Orlando didn't look like it would take the brunt. They might get some wind and rain.

He flew out early Monday morning, six hours before his Grandma and Grandpa Seamons arrived at the MTC to begin their mission. Oh how I was sad they missed each other by hours.

I was sitting at a conference Monday morning knowing he would try to call.

And he did. And my phone didn't even make a buzz. And oh how I was sad about that. I would have loved to have talked with him for a few minutes. Thankfully he got a hold of his dad right before he had to board.

The last news I've had from him is

"I made it!"

And "I'm in Florida. Flying was fun, the humidity is great. I eating dinner at the mission home right now. It's crock pot chicken, just like yours. Also the mission president is great. Anyway, this is the only email I can send for the week. Have you been able to access my google drive folder with the pictures? And tell Alex to check his email sometime. I love you, Elder Larry"

He really needs to proofread his emails.

I swear it's like Christmas around here all week. I can hardly wait for Monday.

October 2 Letter

This week was definitely one of the best weeks on my whole mission so far. Top 3 for sure. It really was a great week though. I don't know how I'd be surviving if it wasn't for my district. They are the coolest. We are very good at making jokes and having fun when there isn't a lot to do. 

I'll try to write a summary paragraph in every email in case you don't want to read the whole thing. Basically I spend my days making 6 hours of class time more interesting, Elder Johnsen and I had the most glorious feast on Fast Sunday, and taught an amazing lesson. 

We are in class 6 hours a day, which can get kind of boring. Not like the teachers are boring, they are amazing, but that's still a lot of class time. As you'll see from the pictures we try to keep them fun. My district is really good at making everything really fun, while also staying spiritual. 

Fast Sunday was an interesting day. I farted [I'm sure he meant fasted] from about 5 the night before until 4:30 on Sunday. We did a companion exchange so Elder Johnsen and I could go to dinner while everyone else went to choir. I know I should have gone to choir, but dinner was definitely the better option away the time. Anyway, we had 4 plates of food plus various side items. It was fantastic.

We finally had a really good lesson yesterday. We were teaching Tanner, a very talkative, fun, excited college kid. He was so excited to hear that we have a Book of Mormon that teaches us what God wants us to know, and that we can be taught personally by God through the Holy Ghost. The spirit was so strong in that room, it was amazing. 

Other things we did include my companion and I concecrating a container of oil for every Elder and Sister in our district, we went on a walk to the temple and took pictures, and I played basketball a lot which has been fun. Elder Hodges has also been sick all week which has been a little bit of a challenge, especially for him.

I also took a lot of pictures because I enjoy it. I'll send some of the best ones.

*Our whole district at the temple

*Elder Hodges and I with the sisters in our district

*Me with Elder Wintch, Elder Bailey, and Elder Anderson [these are all young men who graduated with Erik]

 *Hate fruit, known by primitive peoples as a banana, getting what it deserves
*Elder Hodges and I with Sister Rhoton and Sister Cobb