We met our goals and finished with one baptism!

Week #44
7/28/14

Hey Everyone!!

This past week was pretty awesome!! We ended the week meeting almost every single one of our goals and we finished with one baptism!!

On Saturday we had the baptism of  Carlos!! Hes a really good guy! In total there were only 7 people who showed up to his baptism which is very little but in the end i think it was more special for him and it was a good experience for him!! The bishop was able to baptize him which was really cool because Carlos looks up to the bishop! Calros will be a great member of the church!!

This week we have been visiting Luz and she is ready to be baptized and had her baptismal date for this Saturday but her sister went out of town and so we moved the date back another week which is fine! I just hope that i will be here for her baptism! Transfers are coming up the 12th of August and its likely that i will have a change even though i dont want to get changed!! Oh well what happens happens! If her sister doesnt come before i have changes i might miss her baptism but thats alright! The missionaries get changed but in a way i think it helps them to establish more friendship with the members! Its really important that they can establish friendships with the members so that when the missionaries go it doesnt hurt them that much!

We have also been visiting a youth whos name is Luis and hes really cool too! Hes really good and hes progressing really well the only thing is that he needs to attend church and so this week were going to go pick him up and so hopefully he'll come! Other than that he understands everything really well and wants to change which is the most important part! Hes also got 2 thumbs on his left hand which is a little strange but kind of cool too! Haha!

We have been finding some new investigators this week that we really think can progress because we really dont have that many people to teach right now! So were relying a lot on the members to present us to their friends wo that we can have more people to teach who are really going to progress because they have a friend that will take them to church and sit with them and explain them whats going on!

We are still visiting Gregori but he really isnt progressing very much... Hes reading the Book of Mormon and asking us questions which is really good but hes analyzing it more logically than spiritually.. Hes asisiting all the activities of the church and everything hes basically a member but he doesnt want to get baptized yet! Hopefully his time will come soon and he can gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon! Thats the key for him! Also that there is a living prophet that recieves revelation from God!

Other than that everythings going well! I know this church is true and that there is a living prophet on the earth today and that Jesus Christ guides this church today through his prophet and that when we follow the prophet we are directly following Christ! Love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Jarman

It's a good feeling when your investigators come to church!

Week #43
7-21-14
Hey Everyone!!

I hope you all had a great week! Last week went pretty well here in Peru! It was a little strange because my companion went to Lima to do some paperwork and so i was with another companion for 3 days!? We also played a joke on everyone from our ward that my companion had an emergency change and that he wasn't going to come back... We set everything up perfectly! We left a picture and he wrote a little note too! The pension and her husband were really pretty sad! We played the joke for a couple days but then the Sisters told our pension that it was a joke the night that my companion was supposed to get back. When we went to dinner with Elder Aves that night the pensions husband ended up coming in when we were finishing up and he smashed an egg on my comps head for playing the joke! It was really pretty funny!!!

It was a little strange not having my companion because you get so used to the way that your companion teaches and when hes not there you have to adapt to different ways of teaching! I guess it could be a good thing to change it up every once in a while and to learn some new things! 

This week we got some new references from some of the members and some of them seem really cool! We also found a really cool family yesterday who seem like they could really progress but well see about that this week! This Saturday if all goes well we could have 2 baptisms! One would be Carlos R. who is really cool! We are really going to have to do a lot of work this week to have these 2 baptisms! We have to give quite a bit of lessons to Carlos and Paul if they are going to be able to get baptized this week! Its a little bit hard sometime because a lot of times we cant find time where one of us isn't busy to be able to visit them but somehow we'll work it out!

This week we have also been visiting Luz and on Sunday we went by her house and she said she wasn't going to be able to make it to church because her kid was sick.  We went to church kind of bummed but towards the end of the sacrament meeting she ended up coming to church anyway and that was awesome!! Its a good feeling when your investigators come to church! We were also going to give the class but all the investigators that came had something to do and so they couldn't stay and so we didn't end up having to give the class!! That just means that we have to give it next week though. Haha we got saved for only a week! 

Other than that everything's going well! I uploaded some photos of our District and when we went hiking to that little waterfall! We also took some pictures with Luz and Ruth in their garage on some mototaxis! We were also messing around and taking pictures with a lighter and a flashlight leaving the exposure open for a long time! Well i hope you guys have a good week! For any of you guys who are reading this who aren't members of the church i would encourage and invite you to come to church one of these Sundays! I know that it could help you all a lot! The members are all friendly there! It will feel like family! Love you guys!

Love,

Elder Jarman

This is a little bit from Damon's personal email to me. There is nothing more that I want than to have happy children and happy is he!
"Yes i still love the mission!!!! There's always hard times but i feel like the good times definitely outweigh the bad times!! No i never think about coming home! I like the mission too much! I sometimes think about time, but when i think about it i usually think that i don't have enough!"I sure love my boy!!!

10 Months!

Week #42
7-14-14

Hey Everyone!!

Everything has been going well here in Jaen! The coolest thing that happened this week is that we got to meet President and Sister Williams!!!!!

On Friday we had interviews with them and we showed up at 5:30 for our interviews and there was this huge parade that the president got stuck behind and so he ended up just getting out of the car and walking up to the church! At first sight he looks really cool and funny! Whats actually pretty interesting is that he looks somewhat similar to President Risso!? So when he came up he started the interviews with the Zone Leaders so we waited around for a little while until it came my turn to have my interview! It was really nice and cool to get to talk to him! Hes a really cool guy and I feel like he is definitely called to be our mission president! He said we can report in English and call in English too which is pretty cool! The interview went well and then after that I also got to talk with Sister Williams and that went really well too! They are both really awesome and im excited to learn from them! 

On Friday we had the zone conference with all the missionaries in the zone and President and Sister Williams gave a presentation of their family and talked a little bit about themselves and the President talked a little bit about how the goals for the mission! At the end of the conference Sister Williams bore her testimony and it was really cool to me because she doesn't know Spanish very well but that wasn't what mattered because im sure everyone could feel the truth of what she was saying! It was a simple but powerful testimony!! Im excited for these next 14 months with them!

That was another cool thing that happened this week! I completed 10 months in the mission! I cannot believe how fast the time is going by! A couple more months and ill already have a year in the mission!?

We have been teaching three people this week who are progressing really well and it feel really good as missionaries to see that progress! The first one is Carlos Ramos! He was a reference of  member of the church and he is really cool! Hes a teacher and he understands everything really well! He is one of the very very very few people that highlights and underlines the pamphlets that we give to him which is really cool! It helps us know that hes actually reading and that hes understanding too! Another investigator that we are teaching is Luz Vargas and whats cool is that she also underlines the pamphlets! Haha that's pretty rare to have two investigators that do that! She is the sister of Ruth and she hadn't come to church yet but yesterday she came to church!!! We also had 6 less actives that came t o church and that was a record too! It was cool to see her there at church! She is progressing really well and were hoping she can keep progressing like that!

Today was really awesome too! We had found out that there are some little waterfalls in Las Naranjas where we had gone a couple p-days ago  and so we all decided to go again! This time we left a lot earlier and had a lot more time to hike around and explore! They told us it would take about an hour to walk to the waterfalls and so we started hiking! We were hiking up the banks of this little river and there were a ton of times that we had to cross the river and it was a really fun hike! After about an hour of walking and not finding the waterfalls we had gotten to a part that was pretty tough to get around! Elder Henry and i decided to go up ahead to what looked like a dead end to see if it was even worth it and we almost didn't end up going but we though why not! SO we got past that tough part and walked another 20 feet and off to the left was this waterfall!! It wasn't super big but it was pretty cool!! So we helped the sisters get through that part and then we all took some pictures but once again we didn't have time to go back to the room to get my cable for my camera so im going to have to upload them the next P-day! Sorry! So yeah we took some pics and we ate lunch there by the waterfall and enjoyed the cool breeze for a while and then we headed back down slowly taking some pics and admiring the view! They should call that trail butterfly trail because there were seriously tons and tons of butterflies that we saw on that hike! All in all it was an awesome P-day!! We had lots of fun as a district! Were all pretty tired now though! Haha! Back to work tonight though! Missionary life is the bomb!

Other than that everything's going well here in Jaen! It still really hot even though supposedly its winter time, the water in the shower is still freezing cold, and we eat rice ll the time but you got to love the mission! Well i know without a doubt in my mind that this church is true and that the church is the same all over the world! Its the same church and the same teaching in all the parts of the world and its cool to know that almost wherever you go that you will have family there with the church members! Love you guys! Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Jarman

Its really pretty awesome being on a mission!

Week #41
7/7/14

Hey Everyone! Hope everyones doing awesome!!

This week was really pretty normal! Just walking a ton everyday teaching a bunch of people about the gospel and feeling the spirit! Its really pretty awesome being on a mission! Its hard sometimes and its kind of a bummer when people dont want to hear you or when they shut the doors on us or dont have time to hear us but then on the other hand when you have these awesome lessons filled with the spirit and when the investigators accept baptismal dates and especially when you seem them change things in their life and get baptized it makes everything worth it!! 

 The work has slowed down a little bit in the past couple of weeks. Right before Elder Flores left we baptized all of our investigators that were progressing and so when Elder Aves got here it was like starting over again finding new people and getting references from the members, but thats the way the mission is! We have to work hard to see the fruits of our labors! Right now we have found a couple of people who are progressing pretty well! A member gave us a reference of her cousin named Carlos Ramos Ninanya and hes really cool! The first time he came to church he came all dressed up in tie and everything! We ended up contacting him this last week and he was very prepared to hear us! We ended up inviting him to be baptized this 26th of July and he accepted! We have also been visiting Luz Vargas who is the sister of Ruth, a recent convert in the ward! Luz is really cool and she has good questions the only thing is that she has lots of family that are Jehovahs witnesses and she was attending there for a time but ended up leaving it. The first time we taught here she said the final prayer and it was really cool! She basically said thanks for sending these youth at the right time and thanks for helping me find he word of God! The only thing is that she still hasnt come to church yet but she is really trying to work everyhting out to be able to come to church! We feel that she could progress really well especially because she has the support of her sister to help her! Another good thing is that she is married! Thats very hard to find here in Peru especially in smaller areas like Jaen! Our next goal is the talk to her husband to help him to know the message of the gospel!

We have been visiting Gregory too but he has basically stopped progressing for now. Hes reading the Book of Mormon but not very frequently so i think were going to have to start leaving him things to read or hope that he can start to read by himself so that he can gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon because thats one of the main things thats holding him up! We have seriously tried almost everything with him! We have watched videos from the church and have brought members and have talked about almost everything and he just wont progress so were going to have to let him read the Book of Mormon for himself so that he can gain his own testimony of it! 

We were kind of able to celebrate 4th of July this week! We ended up just going out to eat with the missionaries that are here in Jaen! It was pretty fun! I ended up coloring one of my ties and it turned out pretty cool! It was just red white and blue and while i was wearing it everybody was looking at me evn more than normal! They normally look at me just because im a gringo but when i had that tie on it was even worse haha! It was pretty funny though!

Other than that there wasnt anything too interesting that happened this week. The new president couldnt come last week so hes going to come this week on Friday and that should be a cool experience! Weve heard from the Zone leaders that hes a really cool and funny guy so it should be fun!! Anyways hope you all have a great week! I know this Church is true and I have been so blessed in my life by it!

Love,

Elder Jarman