The work is progressing in La Pradera!

12-16-13 Week #13
Hey Everyone!

Hope you're all doing well and enjoying the weather because it is getting really hot here and were just sweating all the time now! Christmas is in a week and a half!

Well this week was pretty good i guess! The numbers don't reflect out efforts but that's not what matters. We actually have been having some success, we have two for sure dates for baptisms the 28 and we have two that are tentative for the 28th as well! This week were going to challenge two more to the 28th so if best case scenario we could have 6 baptisms on the 28th and on top of the 3 we already had early this month that would be 9 baptisms for the month of December! We are helping one of our investigators get married and i think its kind of funny because 18, 19, and 20 year old kids are giving advice on why people should get married and were not married. I could just see the investigator being like "what do you know about marriage". But yeah we are working on organizing an activity do hermano Julio can get married and get baptized and if he does get baptized then the whole family will be members and they can put the goal to go to the temple! We have hermana Graciela who is just awesome! She just needs to talk to her husband and let him know but she wants to wait until he comes home from Lima to talk to him because she is hard of hearing and cant really talk on the phone! The two set dates that we have are two little girls, Noemi and Shantal, and they live with their grandmas because their parents died. We are going to invite their cousins to be baptized too this week! The work is progressing in La Pradera! 

We are looking for another capilla for our branch because we have so many people that on Sundays there's like 30 people standing because we don't have enough chairs! We have more people attending than almost every single ward in this stake but yet were still a branch! Soon they will build a capilla here though and that will be awesome for this branch!

The food is sometimes hard to eat... For breakfast sometimes we get tuna with onions and bread. Thats what we had this morning and its not really the great thing to eat on the morning, or at all for that matter. We eat sooooo much rice! Two meals a day everyday we have rice! Although today for lunch we had pizza! Every Monday from now till the end of the change in January we are going to my comps old areas to say goodbye to the people nd one of his old pensionistas made us some pizza and it was so good!! We eat rice with everything and we actually have lomo saltado a lot but its not nearly as good as it is in the U.S. 

My companion is really funny! He likes to give massages to but he gives really really hard massages and they hurt!! He also likes to sing too! He knows quite a bit of English too! Sometimes he'll tell me things in English about the people were teaching and its pretty funny. He sounds really funny when he speaks English and i wonder if i sound as weird as he does when i talk in Spanish! Its kind of nice that he knows a lot of English because i can ask him about words in Spanish and he knows what they are in English!

Hope everyone's doing super well! Have a great week and if i don't get to email this next week than i hope you all have a merry Christmas!!

Love,

Elder Jarman

I will be in La Pradera at least until March

12-9-13 Week #12
Hey everyone!!

This keyboard that im using doesn't have any of the letters on it and is very dumb  so i hope that you guys can understand me! Well this week i got a new companion  and his name is  Elder Quilpatay from Argentina! Hes actually really cool and hrs a funny guy! He goes home at the end of this transfer which means that i will be in La Pradera at least until march which is cool because i like my area. 

Since Elder Bunker left i have had to speak so much spanish its ridiculous but it has made me realize how much spanish i have learned in such a short amount   of time which is awesome! This change is going to be really fun because were going t try to plan a Christmas activity in our branch and were also going to have an activity with all the missionaries who are close to us and that should be really  fun! My comp says Christmas in the mission is the best so im stoked  for Christmas!  

Stories for this week aren't to interesting but  there was thus little kid who ran by us crying   when we were walking towards one of our visits and then he turned around and came up behind us and hr grabbed  my hand and just started walking  with us and so we started talking to him and we were trying to find out why he was crying and finally he told us that he was scared of a dog. so he kept walking with us for a while   and then he freaked out and pointed at this dog and said that's the dog and it was this tiny little dog that this little kid was freaking out about so that was pretty funny. 

Nothing much more to report. Sorry for the little amount its  super hard to type on this keyboard.

Love,

Elder Jarman

We had a new record...

12-2-13 Week #11

Hey Everyone!

This week has been pretty awesome!! The three baptisms went well and we had a new record of 112 people in the chapel and it was crazy because there were like 30 people standing up who didnt have seats! We also just got a podium and a speaker and microphone for our capilla and its pretty awesome, although were in the process of looking for a new chapel and were going to have to move rooms too. The one thing thats kind of a bummer is that we have transfers tomorrow and Elder Bunker got transferred but we dont know where yet. Its kind of a bummer because everythings just starting to take off and then he got transferred. We find out tomorrow where hes going and who my new comp will be. Elder Bunker will probably be a zone leader somewhere. The thing that im most scared about is that i have to lead my area for the first couple of weeks because my companions not going to know the area! So im going to be the senior comp in a way for the first couple of months even though ive only been out for 3 months! Its going to be a good experience though and everything should go fine. So today were going to go around to everyone and say goodbye.

Today my first zone leader Elder Esquivel is going home and i sent some letters with him for hm to put in the mail when he gets home so there should be some letters there soon within this week! The weeks are going by so fast i cant believe it although when i think that i still have 21 months left it feels like an eternity! We have been getting a lot of references lately from the members and so hopefully we should be able to see some more baptisms in the ward and maybe soon they be able to build a chapel in La Pradera. We have 200 members now but only about half of them are attending church so if we can reactivate a lot of them then we can get a chapel here soon. We only need more priesthood holders and we need people to pay there tithing and thats about it. We have been working tons with the members and things are going well so we should keep getting more and more references of people we can help. We have 4 people who are ready and want to get baptized but they need to get married, so were going to try to help them get married for christmas time!

Nothing much more happened this week, except now that my comp is getting changed im going to have to do a ton more talking!! That will be good for me though! Hope all of you are doing spectacular and that you all have a fantastic week! Love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Jarman

Thanks for all the pics and the emails!! I love them!

Love you guys so much!!!

Conference with Elder Russel M. Nelson

11-25-13 Week #10

Hola!

Hope everyone's doing fantastic! This past week was super awesome!!

We had Elder Russel M. Nelson and his wife and Elder Waddell and his wife come speak to us!! We all got to the chapel super early to get good seats because the whole Chiclayo mission and the whole Piura mission was there for this talk. Anyways we got there like 2 and a half hours early and i so we just started talking with friends from the CCM and such and then i also saw Elder Harper!! That was cool and we got to catch up on some things and talk about how mission life is! There were 420 missionaries at this conference and it was super cool because when Elder Nelson walked in everyone stood up and then we all got to go shake his hand along with Elder Waddell! It was such a cool experience! All of their talks were super good! A main theme was about how there are people on the other side of the veil praying for us a missionaries and as members of the church to find their ancestors and teach them the gospel because they are waiting to receive the ordinances but they cant. When we help people find the church we are not only helping them but we are also helping people on the other side of the veil too! Also something cool that Sister Nelson said is that not only do we have 15,000,000 people on this side of the veil praying for us, we have tons more on the other side praying for us too! The Conference was super awesome!

This week we have been seeing some of the fruits of our labor! We have three baptismal dates set for this Saturday. We have Jonathon a 9 year old, Livia whos living with our pension now, and this girl named tathiana whos been taking the discussions or charlas as we call them in Peru for a couple months now and shes finally getting baptized so were stoked! This week also we have another conference with an area seventy which should be pretty cool! 

Christmas is just beginning to emerge here. They are putting up this giant christmas tree right now in a plaza in the center and thats going to be awesome! The main food here fro christmas time is called Paneton. Its this bread with red and green gummy things and raisins in it. It comes in a package almost like a cake and they eat sooo much of it here during christmas time! Weve already eaten a lot and it istn even December yet. Elder Bunker and I put up the christmas tree and somewhat decorated it!! There are a couple of houses that have lights already and so things are starting to look like christmas although it doesn't feel like it because here were just entering summer and its hot!

Not much else to say for now! Hope you guys have a fantastic week!! Love you all!

 

Elder, Jarman

It makes me want to be a better missionary!

11-18-13 Week #9
Hey Everyone!
 

This week was pretty good in general! It seems like it went by super duper fast! Ive almost been in my area for a month already! Christmas is coming up soon and im stoked for that!

This week i did a work visit with one of the zone leaders for a day and that was pretty cool! Hes fluent in Spanish and English and so he helped with some Spanish while i was there. While i was there we had a really good day, we had 6 lessons with a member present! Nothing else too interesting this week, although we did have a seminar with all the gringos in the closer parts of the mission which was cool. It was a seminar on how to adjust to missionary life and how to deal with stress and we watched a video about how when were doing missionary work we are bringing to pass the salvation of souls and how sometimes its not easy and it was never easy to bring to pass the salvation of souls and it wasn't easy for Christ! We watched a video and in it Elder Holland said that when people yell at us spit on us slam doors on us that we are standing shoulder to shoulder with Christ, that we are walking a very small part of the path that he walked to bring to pass the salvation of our souls and i thought that was so awesome and it makes me want to be a better missionary! That seminar was also cool because i got to see all of the people in my district from the CCM!

In two days Elder Nelson is coming to speak to us!!! Thats going to be so cool! Also the night before we have four more missionaries that are coming to stay with us in our chapel house which is going to be pretty sweet!

Me and Elder Bunker are working well with each other, were meeting most of our goals and getting the new branch here started off right! They just organized a lot more stuff and they called a bunch of people to new callings on Sunday and that was really cool to hear all of those people getting called to positions. Some of the people are starting to come back to church too which is awesome! We have a baptismal date for a nine year old named jonathan for the 30th of November and we should have a couple more dates soon too because we have a couple people that only need one more little thing and then they can get baptized so were working with the president of the branch to help them resolve their problems and then we should be able to help them get baptized pretty soon.

Some days are better than others with the Spanish. Some days i feel like i just cant understand anything and the words get all mixed up in my mouth and then other days i feel like i can understand almost everything and I will use words and sentences that i didn't know i knew how to say! Its really cool when that happens! Elder Bunker said i know so much more than he did and he read me some of his journal entries from when he had about one month on the mission and he said that it was so hard for him to understand people so hes helping me learn faster.

We think that Elder Bunker got fleas in his bed which really is a bummer cause hes gotten bit so much and Ive gotten bit a couple times but hes washing all of his stuff today so hopefully the flea problem will go away soon. Its getting hotter and windier which is crazy because it was already pretty windy before! The wind stinks because then all the dust is blowing everywhere. In the morning well see people out sweeping their dirt and watering their dirt so its not flying everywhere.

Today were going to teach our pension how to make breakfast burritos! After that were going to play some volleyball with some of our investigators which should be a blast! Other than that everything's all good down here in Peru! Hope all of you have a fantastic week! Love you guys

Love,

Elder Jarman

The second picture is of some of the church members at our game night that we do every Friday.

Things are great here in Peru

11-11-13 Week #8

Hey Everyone!

Things are great here in Peru. Its starting to get hotter here which is gonna stink but its all part of the adventure!

On the 20th Elder Nelson will be visiting the Chiclayo mission and all of the missionaries will be in the same place so hopefully i will get to see baylor! Also it will be the first time in the history of the mission that every missionary in chiclayo will be in the same place! Some of the places are 10 hours away so all the missionaries in the whole mission haven't all been in the same spot at the same time so that's kind of cool.

Today is p-day and we went to the institute building to play soccer for a little while. We were going to go play soccer on the beach but not everyone wanted to. After we played for a while we went to one of the pensions houses whos pretty wealthy for Peru and we had a birthday party for one of the sisters and we had hamburgers and tons of candy and cake! When we sang and the girl blew out the candles its a tradition in Peru that the birthday person has to take a bite out of the cake so she went to take a bite out of the cake and people shoved her face in the cake! After that we went to take a big group photo on the roof and i guess its another tradition in Peru too but while we were taking pics the zone leaders took eggs and flour and smashed the eggs on her head and then poured flour on her hear too! It was really funny but i got flour and egg on me too!

We are starting to work more with the members in the ward because we feel like there are some people who are so close but they just need more friends in the church so were working with five member families and each of them have their own mission plan with names of people so we think the work is about to take off in this area. We have an investigator named Graciela who wants to get baptized but she needs to get the okay from her husband but thats taking a while because he works in Lima and only visits once a month so soon she should get baptized. We have another investigator named Aurora who wants to get baptized too but she needs to get permission too. Another one named Veronica who is practically a member but she cant get baptized until she gets married so were working on that. We have another one whos named Tathiana whos progressing really well she just has loads and loads of questions but things are going well with her. Another one is Palma who needs to get married too and then he can get baptized. The biggest problem here is that people aren't married! If people were married we would have so many more baptisms in this area. Anyways were teaching about 17 lessons a week and we try to get 9 with members every week. This week we made almost every single one of our goals so were doing well and were starting to work well with each other and soon we should see some more growth in this area.

Not much more to share about this week! Hope all of you have a wonderful week! Love you all! Thanks for all your support! Ill try to get some more pics but were not really supposed to take pictures because well most likely get our cameras stolen. But yeah ill try to get some more.

Love,
Elder Jarman

Time to get to work!

11-4-13 Week #7

Hey Everyone!

Hope everyones doing fantastic! I think im starting to get used to it out here. Showering with cold water isnt too bad anymore and im used to it when theres like 15 mosquitos in the bathroom in the morning. Im still not used to all the dust though! There is so much dust and it always gets in my eyes. Other than that and getting used to the food its kind of cool out here. 

The culture is a little weird though. For the most part they have really basic houses which look really small from the outside and then you walk inside and there's a bunch of different rooms and then out of nowhere you'll see a fairly nice TV with a big sound system attached to it. Also they sometimes have some pretty nice phones. Their priorities are not focused on their houses. I don't know its just kinda weird.

The weeks are going by really fast out here. We have like three investigators that are ready to be baptized but they need to get married first. Sometimes its hard to talk during the lessons because i dont really know what theyre talking about because they talk super fast and slur their words but after a while i should be able to start to understand what they are saying. So sometimes ill only say a couple things to the investigators the entire lesson. Some of the lessons though i can understand almost everything and there will be stuff that i want to say but i dont know how to say it yet. 

Im not sure if elder bunker will be with me all the way through my training but i hope he is. Our little family branch in La Pradera just became a rama, so now were officially a ward and we have our own bishop and everything now. Only 50 more members and we become a barrio. Time to get to work.

Im not sure if the pictures wroked because the computers here are a little funky, and the keyboards stink which is why everythings all messed up, but if the pictures worked then they are of my first zone and my room and the view from my room window. 

Thats all i have for now. Hope you all have a good week!

Love, 

Elder Jarman