What can we give or do for Christ this Christmas season?

Week #64
12/8/14

Hey Everyone!! 

Well this week went really well! I cant beleive that Christmas is soo close!? I cant believe how fast the year is going by!!

The only thing that was kind of a bummer is that we had planned to go out visiting with a bunch of members but almost every single one of them bailed out on us at the last minute!! What made it even worse is that we planned a bunch of appointments hoping to be able to go out visiting with them and then they all bailed on us!!

So this week nothing really too interesting happened so i guess ill just talk about some of our investigators!

The one who is progressing more than the rest is Blanca S.!! She is awesome!! She came to church on Sunday too! She really seems interested in the church! The only thing is that before hearing us she was a member of the 7th day Adventist church but she said that she doesnt like it because they made her get baptized without any notice and she didnt really understand why she was getting baptized! She said that she showed up to church one day and they baptized her that same day!? Thats crazy! Anyways as missionaries we usually invite the people to be baptized after the 1st or 2nd lesson with them but with her were taking it a little slower so as to not scare her! A couple days ago we talked to her about baptism and she kind of quivered when we mentioned it but after we explained it all and how she needed to get baptized by someone who has the authority to baptize her she kind of lightened up a bit! She said that she was going to think about it and pray about it! My comp and I feel like very soon that she will get baptized! 

The second group of investigators who are more or less progressing are Katy A. and Shirley A.! They are sisters and we knocked on their door one day and Katy told us to come back on Sunday and when we came back they opened up and we talked with them and got to know them a little bit more and they are awesome!! They are passing through some problems right now but the Gospel could really help them right now!! They have started to confide in us and ask us for advice and we have really been able to gain trust and confidence with them recently which is aweomse because that helps us know how to be able to help them! The thing that was kind of a bummer is that we went to pick them us to go to church and they ended up not being there.. We went back in the afternoon on Sunday and they said sorry but that something had come up out of the blue that they had to go to but that they were going to go to church next week! I feel like they have really been prepared by the hand of the Lord and that we knocked on the door at just the right time for them!!

Other than them we dont really have many investigators that are progressing very well.. We are working with a lot of less active members of the church! Lots of the people that we have been teaching recently have been coming to church which is awesome!! Its always a nice thing to see the fruits of our labors!!

Recently we have been asked to talk with all the people with something thats called "El es la Dadiva" (i dont remember how to write that in English) but its a video that the church has put out for Christmas and it talks about Jesus Christ and what a mervelous gift he was for us from our Father in Heaven! Recently since we have been thinking and talking a lot about that and what Jesus Christ did for us i feel like my testimony has grown even more! I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer! He really did pay for our sins and he really was resurected and he lives today!! What can we give or do for Christ this Christmas season?? Love you guys!!

Love,

Elder Jarman

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uzjFEMmM0Xs

 

 

 

 

This was way back in April of Elder Jarmans 19th birthday.

I have noticed it cant be viewed from a mobile device but rather a home PC. At least from my experience:)

You gotta have Faith!

Week #63
12/1/14

Hey Everyone!!

Happy December!!! Wow the year has gone by so fast!!

So this week ended up going really well for us!! We didnt reach all of our goals but we improved a lot! For the longest time we have been having trouble getting people to come to church and thats one of the biggest reasons that they can progress but his week we were able to get 3 investigators to come to church! One of the new investigators that we are teaching whose name is Blanca came to church for the first time yesterday and it was awesome!! We passed by her house in the morning to bring her to church but when we passed by she wasnt ready so we ended up just going to church and telling her to come anyways even if she got there late! After the sacrament we went outside and waited a couple minutes for her to get there and she ended up showing up after like 10 minutes!! Always got to have faith!! She ended up satying all three hours of the church too!

This week on Thursday President and Sister Williams came to our room just to see how the room was and make sure we had everything we needed! It was pretty cool! When they walked in they saw the Chrsitmas tree on the wall and they thought it was a cool idea!! They shared something from Preach My Gospel with us and they left us some Chocolate chip cookies and then they left.. In and out.. Those cookies were so good though!! Man do i miss those!!

On Sunday after church we had a couple of appointments with some people we had contacted the day before but we usually those appointments end up falling through so we didnt have much hope going into those lessons but we ended up having a good lesson with a new family we found!! Also  couple hours later we went to another appointment like that and we found a coulpe more people who are really interested in learning more!! We only talked with the wife and sister because her husband wasnt home but they said that they have been waiting for somebody to knock on the door to teach them about the Gospel!!! Also ther grandparents just passed away so we can help the to know that they can live with their grandparents after this life too!! We have been really blessed this week and it was awesome!! 

The little experiences that build your testimony are awesome!! Its awesome being a missionary!! Its hard to explain how cool and special it is! There isnt anything else like it! I'm grateful to be here as a missionary helping other families to be happier! I know that this is the most important work that i could be doing and the most important work there is! Thanks for everything!!

Love,

Elder Jarman

Lunch...

Our biggest struggle

Week #62
11/24/14
Hey Everyone!!

So this week went a lot better than last week! Even though i feel like more people shut the doors on us this week we were able to work better because my comp wasn't feeling sick this week!!

So on Tuesday we had district meeting that went really well but in the afternoon we didn't really end up having a good day but its okay because on Wednesday we got a full days work in and all went really well! We were able to visit almost all the people we had planned to visit and that day we could really see the blessings it was awesome!!

Thursday went all right i guess.. Thursday morning the Zone leaders just showed up to our room out of the blue and had a study visit with us and then we went on splits with them for an hour in our area and all in all it went really well! Thursday night we had ward missionary night and we had a night where the members and who ever wanted brought a plate of food that was natural to Peru and they explained a little bit about it and then everybody got to eat some of it at then end... Before all the members got to eat though they called us, the missionaries, up to try some things first... Well lets just say i don't like some of the plates that were up there so i tried a few things and basically waited around for my comp to try them for me haha.. I thought they were going to bring more food and have a better variety but in the end it turned out pretty well and we even had some investigators there too!

Nothing much happened on Friday and then on Saturday we had a pretty good day and to top it all of at night we had a session of our Stake conference and President Williams gave a talk and also Elder Taylor Godoy an area 70 came and gave a talk too! All in all it went really well!

On Sunday we were pretty stoked because we had a couple investigators who promised that they were going to come to church this week with us and it was going to be even easier for them to come because it was stake conference and it started at 10 instead of 8! When we went to their houses to pick them up and go to stake conference they ended up making excuses and at the end of everything nobody ended up coming to church... That seems to be our biggest struggle right now is that none of the investigators will come to church.. They put up any excuse they can find not to go.. Elder Waddell spoke to us a little while ago and told us that a way we could get the people to come to church was helping read the Book of Mormon and feeling the spirit so we have starting leaving a lot more invitations to read certain chapters of the Book of Mormon but whenever we go to the investigators houses they never have read what we left them.. So were having trouble with that no too.. They don't want to come to church and they don't want to read the Book of Mormon either.. Sometimes it can be hard but just got to keep enduring!!

In spite of the difficulties i love this work!! Its awesome to be here in Peru helping people and its worth all the trials and difficulties! I know that God has a plan for us and wants the family to be together forever! God has given us the way to achieve eternal happiness through the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Love,

Elder Jarman

Nobody wants to open the door for us.

Week #61
11/17/14
Hey Everyone!!

So this week did not end up going as well as we thought it would... P-day was fun because we went to play soccer with some other Elders and then on Tuesday night my companion ended up getting sick with a cold and so the rest of the week didnt go very well for us.. 

This week it just felt like nobody wanted to open up the door for us!! Even when we had set up appoinments to go out visiting with the members they ended up bailing out on us too! Guess some weeks are harder than others!! 

I think my favorite part of this week is the Ward missionary activity that we had! It was a soccer and volleyball activity and we ended up getting there early with some investigators that we brought and they asked us if we could share something with them and so we went into a room and shared a message about the Atonement  of Jesus Christ with them and it was a really good lesson! Then when we came out of the lesson there were a ton of members of the church that had showed up to the activity to mess around and they all played soccer and volleyball and it went really well!! All in all the activity turned out really well! Next time were going to try to organize it even better though!

Well we dont really have many people who are ready to be baptized yet. We are working with Cesar Fernandez but recently now that he has basically gotten better from his accident hes gone back to working and hes gone back to some of his friends who arent necesarilly the greatest influence on him so he is losing some of the desires that he had before to change.. Well have to work a lot with hime these next weeks so that he can get married and baptized and then they can put a goal to go to the Temple!!

Other than that we have a couple of youth that are really interested in being baptized but becuase of the new rule that we cant baptize anyone younger than 18 unless their parents are members we cant baptize them yet so we are working with their parents but it seems like the biggest problem is that people cant ever seem time to come to church! I guess change can be a hard thing sometimes and its a big change that the people have to go through! 

Well nothing much happend this week.. This week will be a lot better though! One thing that has helped me a ot this week and really always is really learning about all that Jesus Christ did for us!! I know that he loves us very much and wants us to come home to him! Thats one of the reasons that im out on a mission is to help bring people back to the presence of God! Love you all! 

Love,

Elder Jarman

You learn a lot of patience in the mission!

Week #60

11/10/14

Hey Everyone!

So this week went alright i guess! We had some good days and some other days that weren't very effective.. Sometimes we have days that just no matter how many people we try to visit or how many people we try to talk to they just don't have time to hear us and we end up just walking around a ton looking for people to teach.. Gotta love the mission!

Anyways this week we started out really well. The transfers meeting was on Tuesday and we didn't have transfers so well be together at least until the 16th of December unless we have an emergency change,, Doubt it though! So instead of going to the meeting we went out working and it went well!

On Friday we had the District meetings and we had a good class on how to get along with our companions! Now that I think about it i haven't really had any trouble with any of my companions and that's one of my goals to get along with all of my comps! I always like the district meetings because all of the missionaries get to see each other!

Anyways on Saturday we were stoked to have a full day of work to try to catch up on some of our goals and it ended up being one of those unproductive days.. We were really pretty bummed but i guess there are a lot of things that we cant control as missionaries! We just have to keep going and to try to do the best we can!! I think i have said it before but you learn a lot of patience in the mission! Its good though! 

On Sunday my companion and i gave talk in sacrament meeting!! I was really pretty nervous because it was my first talk in Spanish that i was going to give to a big group of people other than the talk i gave in the CCM! It went really well though! I recorded it too! I gave a talk about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and what that does for us and a tiny bit on how it applies to keeping the commandments!! It wen well though! It was a huge relief when i was done though! Oh and on top of that the Stake President was there on Sunday too!

All in all this week went pretty well! Not too much interesting that happened this week.. In preparing for that talk i strengthened my testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and i learned a lot about why Jesus Christ requires a lot more than faith for us to be saved! If Jesus Christ didn't require that we keep the commandments we would never become like him! I'm grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ and i know that He lives today and guides His church!

Love,

Elder Jarman