I would encourage you all to read The Book of Mormon

Week #29 4-14-14

Hey Everyone!!

Wow this week has flown by just like my time here in Jaen and to be honest my whole mission has flown by! Im really enjoying it though! Nothing really interesting happened this week but im going to talk about some of the investigators we have.

Right now we are teaching a man named Amadeo and his daughter is a member of the church and he had a baptismal date in december but then he traveled to Lima before his date so the date fell through but now hes is back and we are teaching him again. We set a baptismal date for the 19th this saturday. The only problem is that he has an addiction to cigarettes, which is actually very rare here because the people generally dont have anough money to buy them. Anyways he has an addiction to them and he says that he really wants to stop and he has cut down on how much he smokes so we are trying to help him with his addiction so that he can get baptized this saturday!

The next investigators that we have that are progressing really well were a reference from a member! References are the best for the missionaries! Give them references! Anyways they are Doris and Alberto and they have three kids and shes pregnant right now! They really want to get baptized and to get married too but they are saying that they want to wait until their baby is born to get married and baptized and the baby is due the end of July almost August. We are trying to help them see the blessings of getting baptized now instead of waiting but in the end of they decide that they arent ready for the 26th of April which we suggested then there isnt anything we can do but support them in their decision and help them to keep attending church and put a date for them in August. We are going to meet with them tomorrow and watch a couple mormon messages and the bishop is going to come with us to help give his testimony of how marriage has blessed his life. Hopefully they have been praying to recieve their answer.

We also have an investigator that we are teaching that lives in an old person home but really is super old. His name is Eduardo. We always visit where he lives and we end up giving the lesson to a bunch of older people. We tried to put a baptismal date on him for the 19th but he said that he wants to attend church the 4 Sundays in April and then get baptized in the begining of May. So we are just helping him stay excited for his baptism. There are also two members in the old person home and they are helping him too! Its also pretty funny because everytime we go to visit them we walk up and all of them have the pamphlets that we hand out or an ensign or the book of mormon and they are always reading our church material! 

Other than theose people we are working with some others who are progressing a little slower and who possibly get baptized in May. Speaking of may we have less than 1 month until mothers day and then we get to Skype! 

My companion today went to Lima to do some paperwork for his Visa and so im leading my area for the next 2 days until he gets back. Hope everything goes well! Saturday for my birthday i am waiting for the pension to break eggs and maybe flour on my head but im thinking about bringing some eggs of my own to use, but who knows what will happen. Should be fun!

In other news im not sure if they anounced the book of mormon challenge worldwide or just in South America but now there is another challenge to read it in the family and to read it personally before the end of the year! They are really putting a lot of emphasis on the book of mormon and i think that is really cool! I would encourage you all to read the Book of Mormom in Family home evenings! I have really learned a lot from it in the mission!

Thats all for now! Love you guys and thanks for your love and support!

Love,

Elder Jarman

Music to our ears!

Week #28 4-7-14
Hey Everyone! 

It has been a pretty good week! 

We finally got a fan in our room! Thats makes the heat a little more bearable! Other than that we worked pretty hard this week getting Lizbeth ready for baptism. On Friday we had her baptism and all went well with her baptism! 

On Saturday morning we went to the stake center for the first session of general conference and when we got there, there were like 10 people there in total to watch it. All the other North American people and I went and got this extra TV that the stake has and we plugged it in to the cable and it worked so yes we did get to see the conference in english!!! That was probably the highlight of the week for me! After the first session of conference we went to eat lunch with the members and they fed us guinea pig and lets just say that it was not very good at all. They also said that its like the most common plate here in Jaen so lets hope that i dont see that very many times while im here. Then we came back and watched conference and after the second session we stayed in the church and played monopoly while we waited for the priesthood session to start! After the preisthood session we all went out to eat as a zone just like we do in California! We went to a place called Sabor y Miel and its actually a pretty good restaurant. I got a hamburger and one of the other elders had bbq sauce and that was pretty good and i also had this frozen lemonade which was pretty good too! Then we came back to the room and went to bed. Then we got up and went to conference and after that we ate lunch with another member and it was chicken potatoes and a mountain of rice or in mission terms, Machu Pichu de arroz. I dont even get how they eat that much food!! After we ate we ended up playing jacks with the sister and she was really good at jacks and creamed us every time! It was pretty fun though! After that we went to conference and after that we basically got to chill in our room for a while! All in all i would say that i enjoyed and learned a lot from conference and it really helped that it was in English!

Other than that we had changes in the zone but nothing big happened. One of the sister in our district went to Chiclayo and a new one is coming tomorrow night and shes going to be straight from the MTC. Ill be with Elder Flores for another 6 weeks. It might be a test of my patience but im sure that that's something i will learn in the mission! Other than that everything's going well and were hoping to have some baptisms coming up soon here!

We actually met some investigators a couple of weeks ago and we had a lesson with them this week. We taught them about the Plan of Salvation and after we explained what we were here to do on the earth and that baptism was something essential. The dad of the family stopped us and asked us if they had to get married to get baptized and so we explained that they did and why they did and the mom of the family said that she wanted to get married and join a church at the same time and it was like music to our ears! We are going to work with them in the near future and hopefully helped them to get married and baptized as well! That would be very cool!

Anyways that all for this week! Hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Jarman  

Lizabeth's baptism!

I think its a giant ant...careful to look at it from the right angle. Also if you look real close you can see a small black ant to the right of this giant insect.

No water for 2 days.

Week #27 3-31-14
Hey Everyone!

Hope youre all doing well! I apologize because this probably wont be very long because the internet is being super duper slow it took like 15 minutes just to load the emails. 

Anyways this week went pretty well! The only downfall is that on tuesday it rained super hard and usually after it rains we dont have water where we live for a couple hours maybe a day but this time it rained so hard that they said we werent going to have water for 5 days.. So everyone wwas bringing water to their houses with huge barrels and buckets. The water did end up coming back on like 2 days after but since then it has been going on and off and it really stinks when we dont have water! 

Other than that we were planning the marriage and the person that we normally use to do the marriage wasnt going to be able to. So we called somebody else who lives in a place called Chumba and he said he could so we went out to Chuma on wednesday. We took a car out there and we took a really old toyota corrola that only fits like 5 people but we ended up going 7 people so it  wasnt very comfortable and on the ride there it started to rain pretty good. The bummer is that the front windows t the car didnt roll up so yeah there was some water that was entering the car for like half the ride there. Then after we had dropped off three of the people the car got a flat tire in the middle of a dirt road that was all muddy and so the guy had to change the tire in the mud while it was raining! Then we finally got there and it was this tiny little town where there id barely anybody and thee cell service is terrible unless your standing in this building in the town. We turned in all the papers and got everything ready for saturday and then we waited for a car and we went back to Jaen.

Nothing much else happened until saturday when we had the wedding and then the baptism of Fanny Rafael Rimarachin. The wedding went pretty well even though there were only like 10 people there at the wedding because in Peru you say a time and everyone shows up an hour later. Anyways after that we had her baptism and everything turned out well except for the fact that she didnt come to church the next day to get confirmed. So we called her after church and asked her why she  didnt come and she said she adn her husband didnt have enough money to pay for a moto taxi to come to church. Its really pretty humbling how poor some of these people are out here. I feel like i really have gained an appreciation for the things that we have.

Other than that nothing else really interesting happened. Miss you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Jarman

I just don't really feel like eating that much.

Week #26 3-24-14
Hey Everyone! 

I'll apologize in advance but i don't have any pictures to send. I'll walk around this week with my camera and try to take some pictures of what we do and how a day is like. Anyways i have been feeling better for the most part although i did get a migraine on Sunday and it hurt to move my eyes but it already passed and now I'm doing pretty well i just don't really feel like eating that much.

Other than all that we have been working hard. We actually had an interchange with some missionaries in the zone and i got put with a zone leader Elder Muhun from Guatemala for 2 days. That was pretty interesting but they have a lot more hills in their area than we have in ours so i was pretty tired by the end of the day. Then we came back and we weren't really having much luck finding the people that we needed to find in our area. This past week its like the people were avoiding us and we could never find them. In spite of that we are hoping to have Boris and Fanny get married this Saturday. Its actually pretty stressful for us because we're the ones who have to do all the paperwork and basically plan the wedding although its something simple and its in the church, but still we have to take the papers to the office and call the people to come down to do the marriage and its very stressful to get everything ready beforehand. Especially when they are lagging in getting all their papers together and we have a paper that the mission is sending us and it still hasn't got here yet.. We also have to have all the papers ready by tomorrow and so far we have none of them so we have quite a bit of work to do! Hopefully all will turn out good with the papers and the marriage. 

Other than that we have another investigator named Dilcia and her son Smith that have baptismal dates for this Saturday. The only thing is is that she said she was going to talk to her husband about her baptismal date. Her story is actually pretty interesting. Her husband was serenazgo which is like a branch of the police and there was someone robbing a bank and so he discharged his weapon supposedly to scare the robber but the bullet ended up hitting a kid and so now hes in jail for like 5 years. So she could really use the gospel in her life to help her through this time! Her husband said that hes okay with her going to church and everything and that that was good for her but we still haven't gotten any news about what he thinks about baptism. Hopefully it goes well with him and that he gives them permission! 

Other than that the weather here is super hot as normal and sometimes it rains and its still super hot when it rains and yeah I'm getting tired of living on the 4th floor and having to climb up the 4 flights of stairs like 10 times a day! We still don't have a fan which is a bummer but the assistants are coming out to Jaen this Wednesday and we asked them to bring us a fan so hopefully they come with a fan! Other than that all is well and were still working with some investigators to put some baptismal dates. More news about them next time! Hope you all have a great week and that all goes well for you!

Love,

Elder Jarman

Little by little I'm getting better.

Week # 25 3-17-14

Hey Everyone!! 

Im doing alright i guess. The allergies went away but i still wasnt feeling pretty good and so we went to a doctor and he told me that i either have patitis or dengay... So yeah i havent been feeling the greatest but as of yesterday im starting to feel better! I didnt really have an appetite for anythning in these past days but now im starting to gain my appetite so little by little im getting better! 

This week nothing too interesting happened although there was an earthquake and we felt it here. We were right in the middle of teaching a lesson and we had asked the investigator(Karina) a question and she paused and while she was thinking all of the sudden she said earthquake and then like  seconds later we all felt it and it lasted for like 20 seconds but it wasnt too strong where we were! Anyways that was pretty fun! 

I feel like it always manages to rain on sundays when we want the investigators to go to church! Not just rain but pour.. The last two sundays it has rained quite a bit! Even in spite off the rain we still have some faithful investigators that show up! We share our area with the sisters and so when we go to church the bring their investigators and we bring ours and the room where we teach gospel principles is filled with investigators and new converts and its pretty cool to see! 

We had a baptism planned for Rosa this last saturday but it didnt end up happening but were hoping it happens this saturday and that she can get baptized along with her daughter Ingrid and Bryan another investigator that we have but were not sure that we will have the baptisms  because its not very sure their situations. Other than them we are working witha couple named Boris and Fanny so that they can get married the 29th of march and then the same day Fanny would get baptized! Boris is already a member. We first told them about the idea like the first week of march and its kind of wierd to think that like 3 weeks later they are going to get married! Anyways we have some work to do with them to get all the paperwork ready before the marriage because last time we almost didnt have the marriage because the papers werent all ready so were going to try to get everything all prepared at least a week before so that we dont have a ton of difficulties!

Other than that its very hot as always even when theres no sun and its raining and it doesnt help that we dont have a fan but thats all part of the fun and the experience as a missionary! Other than that im doing pretty well and recovering! Hope we have a good week this week and we can complete our goals! Have a great week everyone! Thanks for your prayers and your support! Love you guys!

Love,

Elder Jarman

6 Months in the mission!

Week #24 3-10-14

Hey Everyone!

Wow this week has been strange! Oh and tomorrow i will already have 6 months in the mission! Its going by very very fast!

To start off the week it was pretty good. We played soccer on Monday and then we ate at Chifa canton and i had shrimp with rice, the same as my companion, but that night it didn't really sit well with my stomach and i ended up throwing up a couple of times. The next day i didn't feel good but i still went to the zone meetings because they only happen like 1 time per month because the whole zone covers areas which are like 6 hours away. Then on Wednesday and Thursday i felt pretty normal and then on Friday towards the middle of the day i wasn't feeling very good. I felt like i had no energy and i had the chills even though its burning hot and it turns out that that night i got a fever. The pension gave me a pill to take and it really helped but the next day i got a rash on my arm and so i think i was allergic to the pill but im not sure. Then the rash got worse and it spread to different parts like my stomach and my legs and it was even hard to sleep because it itched so bad. I put some itch cream on and ever since then it has started to go down which is good! On Sunday morning at like 4 in the morning it started raining pretty softly and then it started to get harder and harder and then pretty soon it was pouring rain! By the time we went to eat breakfast it had rained so much that the streets were like rivers and we ended up having to cross one of those rivers to get to the pensions house! Luckily we crossed it when we did because while we were in the pensions house it started raining even harder and the street got even worse! It was so full of water that it was going over the curbs in some areas and even going into peoples houses! So we ended up waiting in the pensions house for a long time until it went down a little and then we went to church and we were expecting there to be nobody there but we actually had a good attendance! Then after ward council we went home and reported the numbers. Then today the other elders in our district called us to ask if we could help move their pension so we went and helped. Right when we were about to leave i got really bad allergies and i was sneezing a ton! I took a pill and we went but the pill didn't help at all and it made it even worse that they were moving and so there was a bunch of dust! I was sneezing like the whole time but we managed to finish like 3 hours later and then we went back to the room and now im here writing!

We were hoping to have a baptism this week but we didn't end up getting the permission from the dad and we actually haven't had any luck talking to him or the daughter which is the one who wants to get baptized. So we arranged to have the bishop help us and so were working on getting that permission!

One weird thing that happened this week was that we were walking in the streets and there were some drunk people on the side of the road and one of the started coming up to us. He said now let me tell you something and we thought he was going to punch us but he ended up saying i am a disciple of Jesus Christ. It was actually pretty funny to talk to them even though he gave me a hug and laid on my shoulder and he smelled like alcohol! We gave them contact cards and then just left and we both kind of laughed about it afterwards! There is actually a lot of drunk people here and they always yell out gringo or say something to me! One time someone even yelled to me to marry their daughter! Its pretty funny to hear that and the kids always want me to speak in English for them! Anyways that's about it for this week! It still wont let me upload photos to dropbox so i hope i can get some on the email even though the computers really slow! 

Hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Jarman

First transfer! Jaen!

Week #23 3-3-14
Hey Everyone!!

Well i thought it was hot in Chiclayo in my old area that is until i got called to the Morro Solar area in Jaen!!! 

I'm not going to lie I was really sad to leave my old area especially after the goodbye meeting that they held for me! It was so sad and i cried. I never really thought i would get so attached to the people after only 4 months but its like they are your second family in the mission! The good thing is that I'm going far away from Chiclayo now so that later in my mission hopefully i will be close so when i go home i can say goodbye to them one more time! Anyways, Now im in Jaen where it is super hot and it rains quite a bit too! It has rained every single day that Ive been here since Tuesday, but when it rains its still hot outside! Its always super hot in the room and its still hard to sleep but i think that ill get used to it like my companion has. Also before i came here someone told me that it was hard to breathe their first couple of weeks and i didn't believe him until i got here and sure enough its a little harder to breathe and that's making my asthma act up a little bit but not bad. Also i thought that the shower was going to feel good because its a break from the heat but it seriously feels like ice is coming out of the tube!! I'm sure that ill get used to that after a while too! The bus ride to Jaen was 6 hours long and it was in this gigantic bus and its wasn't all that bad. For a couple of hours it was just like desert but the last couple of hours it was all green and i felt like i was going up to the cabin and it also looked like Hawaii it was so green and fresh outside! I managed to not get sick on the bus ride which was a relief! We got to Jaen at like 9 at night and then we lugged my suitcases up to the 4th floor where we live. Then we went and ate at the pension and the pension is awesome and she likes to joke around a lot! After that we went back to the room and i tried to sleep but i couldn't because it was so hot but yeah the first day was pretty adventurous! Oh and i forgot to mention that we don't have a fan in our room!!!

One thing that was pretty cool that happened this week was that we had a marriage and then an hour later they both got baptized! It was a very stressful marriage though because we were trying to plan everything and we had everything planned out well but then we called the lady that was going to come down to do the forms for the marriage and she said that she couldn't come down! So we were freaking out and we ended up going to the house of that lady. She lives in a place called Las Naranjas which is like 20 minutes in moto taxi up a mountain on a dirt trail and it was actually really really cool! We got there and it was super green and really fresh air and it wasn't super hot! Then we went to talk with the lady an we talked for like a half and hour and it was not looking good for us, but after practically begging her she let us slide but instead of being in the church that we had to bring the couple up to her house! So we hurried down the mountain and got 2 mototaxis and 2motos to take us all up the mountain to go to the wedding and right when we got to the top one of the tires popped and a motorcycle ran out of gas so Satan was definitely fighting against us but in the end they got married and then we got down the mountain safely with some cool pictures but the computer wont let me load to dropbox so ill have to wait till next time to upload pictures.. Sorry!!! Anyways then we went to their baptism and it all went well! Then the next day after church we had ward council and when we left from ward council it was super windy outside and it looked like a storm was coming so we walked home really fast and when we got home it started pouring super hard and our windows don't close all the way so we had to put clothes in the window to keep the water from coming in oh and our roof is metal and so the rain is super loud on the roof and sometimes its even hard to hear my companion talk! By the way my companion is Elder Flores from El Salvador! Oh and while it was raining it was still hot outside! Anyways its was pretty fun to watch the thunder and lighting and it lasted for a really long time and it stopped sometime in the night while we were sleeping and the next morning it was so hot that almost everything was dry! 

Today was pretty fun too! We played soccer and volleyball and since not everyone in the zone lives close to us and we have a zone meeting tomorrow we have some elders that are going to sleep in our room tonight and then we have zone meetings tomorrow and probably wont have another one for at least another month!

That's about it for now! Hope you all have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Jarman