President Risso came to Jaen for the last time.

Week #37
6/9/14

Hey Everyone!!

This week has been pretty awesome!!

On tuesday night we had visits with less actives in the Elders quorum and it was Elder Flores and I and Luis Benites the president of the quorum and Gregory our investigator! I went with Luis and my companion went with Gregory to visit some people and it went alright. When we got to dinner afterwards my companion told me that during the visits Gregory, whos and investigator was like another missionary and was actually teaching the less active members of the church!? I think thats super awesome the only thing is that Gregory doesnt want to accept a baptismal date! He has given us more references than monst of the members but doesnt want to accept it yet for himself! We actually went and hung out with him today and hes become really good friends with us but he just wont accept a date... He also went visiting with us on wednesday also and hes coming to all the activities and bringing his friends and everything so were hoping that something will touch him pretty soon! Hes basically a member who hasnt been baptized yet!? 

On thursday Presidente Risso came to Jaen for the last time before he goes home and he talked to us for a little while and its was pretty sad and its a bummer thats hes going home but it will be a good experience to have 2 mission presidents! After he talked to us for a while he took us out to eat lunch and it was really good! After that we took some last pictures and then he was gone for the last time. Im going to miss him! Then at the end of the conference the zone leaders talked about new beginnings and things and how we need to start off right for the new president whos coming so its time to work hard! 

Then on thursday night we had a missionary night and we had organized a mini championship in the ward with soccer and volleyball! There were actually a ton of people who showed up and a lot of members brought investigators so it was rather succesful too! We ended up playing with the high priest agains the bishop and his counselors and a couple other people and they were talking so much trash before the game saying that we were going to lose our legs and everything like that and then we ended up working them!!! It was really funny and fun! Everyone was all suprised that i could actually play soccer and that was pretty funny!

On Saturday, Norbil one of our recent converts took us out to Shumba to meet his family and have lunh with his family! It was a really cool experince! They live really far away from town and its pretty much in the middle of a bunch of rice fields! The live in a pretty cool place though! When we first got there we went and laid in some hammocks and ate some oranges from his orange tree and they were super good! Then he took us to some park that was pretty cool! After that we had lunch with his family and then we went to this thing called Cachimbo which is this tradition here when the people who are graduating high school give a welcome to the new people who are coming in! The welcome isnt very nice though! As they are walking in the tradition is to hit them with like cardboard sticks wrapped in tape and then later their godmother or their godfather cuts their hair in a random spot and the people who are graduating pour water and flour on the new students head!! It was really pretty funny! Then while we were walking back it was really dark and there aren't any lights but when you looked off to the side to the rice fields there were thousands of fire flies and there were a bunch of blinking little lights! It was a super cool day! Norbil is the best too! It so cool when the people share the gospel with their friends and their families and you can see the blessings they receive in their lives!

Tharts about all for now! Im really enjoying serving a mission and i know that this church is true and that it can help everybody! I have seen people completely change their lives around and have seen the blessings they have recieved!! Anyone can recieve the same blessings! Love you guys!

Love,

Elder Jarman

Doris and Alberto found a house

Week #36
6/2/14

Hey Everyone!!

This week has been pretty good although nothing too big happened.

Doris and Alberto did find a house but its in an area thats got a little fame for being dangerous so hopefully nothing bad happens to them! They moved to an area called Pakistan. On saturday we went after lunch to help them move into their new house. We loaded up a little pick up truck twice and that was sufficient to move all their stuff to the other house! On the second trip i went riding on top of a mattress on top of a tower of thing in the back of the truck and it was pretty fun and everyone was looking at me like i was crazy as usual! When we were unloading the second load we looked off in the distance and you could see that it was raining and that it was coming towards us so we started running around like crazy trying to unpack all the stuff and get it into the house before it starting raining. We almost made it but it started to rain when we were just about finished unloading. When everything was in the house it started pouring and i think it was the hardest that its rained while ive been here and the thing that was kind of a bummer is that there were a bunch of holes in the roof and the windows dont have glass in them so there was a lot of water getting into the house!! After like 20 mintues the rain basically stopped and they got some stuff situated so we went back to our room and it was already pretty late so thats all we ended up doing that day. They moved to the areas of a different ward so we might not see them very much anymore unless they decide to keep attending our ward.

Last monday we played with soccer with the young men and lets just say its been a while since ive played soccer or really exercised for that matter so i was really sore for the next couple of days. Luckily that on tuesday a member came with us for the afternoon and he has a mototaxi so he just drove us a round for a couple of hours while we visited some people! 

On thusday we went to Gregorys house, hes one of our investigators and his mom is a decorator for her profession, and the University of Chiclayo asked her to make a model of the University and so we went to help them paint it more than anything but it was pretty cool! Then she invited us to go to her kids b-day party the next day and we decided we would go for a little bit and when we got there it looked like a quincaños party which are the big b-day parties here and the little girl was completing 3 or 4 im not sure but it was a huge party!! I guess it probably didnt cost that much though because the mom, Angelica, is a decorator and so she probably did all that with the stuff she already had and her dad, Jose is a clown for his profession so he had his hook-ups to get some clowns for the party! It was pretty crazy! We only stayed for a little bit and while we were leaving Angelica gave us those little gift bags they always hand out at parties but it was this big mickey mouse club house cone filled with candy and goodies and it was really awesome!! Shes really awesome the only thing thats a bummer is that she cant come to church because she always has to work on sundays. Bummer! Maybe someday she can make it to church! 

Other than that thing are going pretty well here in Morro Solar! I think we might have a baptism coming up not this saturdayt but next saturday! Hope all goes well! Hope you all have a wonderful week! I know this church is true and i have been so blessed by it! I know the book of mormon is true too and that it can bless anyones life who will take the time to read it!!

Love,

Elder Jarman

Pray for Alberto and Doris!!!

Week # 35
5/26/14

Hey Everybody!!

This week has been pretty normal! We did have two baptisms though which was awesome!

The baptisms were for Jhair which is a friend of someone we baptized 2 weeks ago, Norbil! The second one was the brother of Norbil, Jose! It was really cool because Norbil brought his friend to the church and the first visit we had with Jhair we challenged him to baptism and he accepted along with Norbils brother! Then Jhair brought his sister to one of the lesson and we taught her a couple times and this past week we ended up challenging her to baptism but well see if the date sticks because Jhair was telling us some of the stuff that she said to him but that she doesn't want to say to us. So when we visit them tomorrow were going to talk to her about some of that stuff and she if she really wants to get baptized! Jhair also brought another friend to the church that we still haven't been able to contact yet but well hopefully meet with him this week and see how that goes! Its a big chain of people that resulted from one person and its super cool! Hopefully it keeps going on and on!! What was also cool is that Jose asked the stake president to baptize him! While we were talking to the stake president he said that they usually baptize 1 person every 3 years so that was pretty cool to have him there in one of our baptisms!!

This week it has been raining quite a bit and the river that goes through Jaen overflowed again! A lot of people had to move out of their houses because the water was just going straight into their houses and got up to knee deep! There were some missionaries that went to help at like 1 in the morning but nobody told us until after so we didn't get the chance to help! Maybe next time we can go down and help them because the people think its going to happen again but its going to be a lot worse the next time it happens. The people are saying that the climate is weird because it usually never rains this much in Jaen so they think something big is going to happen! Hopefully it doesn't overflow again though!

Right now Doris and Alberto 2 of our recent converts are in a pretty desperate situation! Alberto works as a painter and he hasn't had work for like 2 weeks now and they have no money. On top of that they were renting a house but the person asked for the house so they are frantically trying to find a house but they still haven't found one and there's only like a week left till they have to be out! On top of that Doris is like 8 and a half months pregnant and is about to have a baby! On top of that their kids have been sick for the past week! They are an awesome family though! They just got into the church and look what happened to them! Dang Satan! Anyways we have been talking to them and they know its just a trial of their faith and they say they are going to keep strong and that they will eventually get through it! Maybe you guys could pray for them that they can find a house and some work! That would be the best!! 

Other than that we have an investigator named Gregory and we have tried to invite him to baptism twice and we had a good talk with him about baptism last week but he doesn't want to accept. He said to us that he could get baptized right now but that it would be for us and that there is no guarantee that he would stay active in the church but he said that he would like to wait a little while to really ponder if this is something that he should do and find out if the church is true and then he said he would get baptized but that it would be for him and not for us and that he would be a faithful member of the church! Hes a really cool guy he 20 and has a really good understanding of the things and really likes to think things through! I think if he gets baptized that he would be a really faithful member of the church! 

Other than that there's nothing much else to report! Were going to play soccer with the young men in our ward at 4 so that's why we are writing so early! If not it would be at the same time as usual. Thats all for now! Have a fantastic week and serve someone else this week!!

Love,

Elder Jarman

 Our pet bat that lives in our room!

Showering with a bucket of water and a cup.

Week #34
5-19-14
Hey Everyone!

Hope you all had a great week! Nothing much happened here this week so this might be a shorter email.

We found out about changes on saturday but neither my comp or I have changes which is weird! It wierd that my comp will have 5 changes in one area and its even weirder that we will be with each other for 3 changes but its all good! This change is only going to be 4 weeks too because the president goes home after this change! Its going to be kind of weird. I wonder if president is going to have a goodbye party when he goes home? Anyways so ill be with Elder Flores for another month! 

This saturday we had the priesthood session of stake conference and it was pretty good! We had 2 investigators come to the priesthood session which was pretty cool! Then on sunday we had the general session and the stake center was filled all the way to the back which was pretty cool to see here in Peru. The only bad thing about that is that it was very hard to find people and see if our investigators made it to church or not. 

This saturday we have 2 baptisms. One of them is Jair and another one is Jose. Jose is the brother of Norbil who got baptized two weeks ago and Jair is Norbils friend! We are also teaching the sister of Jair and Norbil is going to present us to another friend this week hopefully! Its funny how the new members give more references than the members who have been in the church for a while! 

Another thing that happened this week is that like 2 days ago it rained really hard again and the tubing broke so right now we dont have water and they say we arent going to have water for a long time which is really a bummer! This morning i had to shower with a bucket of water and a cup but hey at least i got to shower!! I guess for this next little while we might have to be luggin water up to our room and showering out of buckets but hey it just adds to the fun! 

Well thats about all for this week but i hope you all have a good week!

Love,

Elder Jarman

It took us by surprise

Week #33
5-12-14

Hey Everyone!

This week has been a good week!! I dont really have too much to say so it might be a little short.

This saturday we had the baptism of Norbil and everything went well with that! He brought a friend to his baptism and introduced us to him and he seemed pretty cool! The next day we only had church for 1 hour because it was mothers day. After that we had a lesson with the friend of Norbil,Jahir, and the brother of Norbil, Jose. We had been talking about putting a baptismal date on Jose for the past week so we took the opportunity to put his date for the 24 of may! He accepted and then towards the end of the lesson we asked if there were any questions and Jahir asked up of it was necessary to be baptized twice and so we used a cool example to explain to him about having the necessary authority and then he said in that case i would like to be baptized the 24th also! That kind of took us by surprise but it was a really cool lesson and a cool experience!! Hopefully all goes well with these next 2 baptisms and we could end this month with 5 baptisms!

After we had the lesson we got ready to talk to our parents and we were going to do it in the chapel but we ended up going to someone elses house to do it but there was no power there so we went back to the chapel to do it. Right when i started talking with my family the power went out in the chapel too!! Dang satan! After like 20ish minutes of waiting the power came back on and we were able to talk with our families and that was awesome! Other than that there's nothing much else to report! Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Elder Jarman

Mothers Day Skype

That family is seriously the best!

Week #32
5-5-14

Hey eveyone! 

Hope you're all doing really well! I have had a fantastic week this past week!

Sorry for writing so late! We went to a waterfall today and it was super awesome! I'll explain more about that later!

On Friday President Risso came to Jaen and we had the last zone conference that he will give before he goes home. We were planning on dropping of the papers for the marriage at 3ish and when we got the the meeting president said that we were going to try to finish at 3:30ish and these things always go over time so things were not looking good for us. Long story short we ended up leaving early and going to get the papers but they took forever to get the papers for us and by the time we got to the place to drop off the papers it was like 5:45 and luckily we got there just in time to catch the alcalde! He had been waiting for us for a long time and was about to leave when we got there but luckily he didn't! So we got the papers in but then we were worried because we had the baptismal interviews of Doris and Alberto in Jaen which was like 25 minutes away! We got into a car and luckily we were the only two there the whole time so it wasn't uncomfortable and we got there fast! We got to the interviews at like 6:25 but they family hadn't gotten there yet. A couple minutes later they showed up and both of them passed their interviews! Then on Saturday we really didn't do much at all because we had weekly planning in the morning and then we had lunch with the members and then we prepared for the marriage and for the baptism! Then at 6 we had the marriage and me and my companion were the witnesses which was cool, but really nothing too special! Afterwards we had their baptism and I baptized Alberto and my companion baptized Doris and it was really cool! Alberto has so much dedication! He fasted the whole day of his baptism!! That family is seriously the best!

We are teaching another investigator whose name is Norvil. He has family members who are members of the church and is really cool! We invited him to be baptized this Saturday and he accepted so this Saturday were going to have the baptism of Norvil and we are also going to teach his brother who said he wants to hear the missionary discussions too! Luckily in the past couple of weeks we have found some more new people to teach because we were really running out of people to teach! 

Anyways, today we all went as a zone to Gocta! We got up at 5:30 this morning and we all went to the Church and then we all got into a Combi and we headed out to Gocta! We passed through Bagua Grande and picked up some more missionaries and then we drove 2 more hours until we got too Chachapoyas which is where Gocta is! Then we paid for the tickets and got our guide and we headed out to the waterfalls! The guide said that it would be a little bit muddy on the trail because it had been raining there a lot recently! The lady said it was about 3 miles but it felt like it was more! Maybe because im really out of shape now! Anyways we all hiked out there and it was super beautiful! Gocta is part of the amazons and so for parts of it we were walking through the jungle and it was super green and super cool! As we got closer to the waterfall, which i guess is like the 2nd or 3rd tallest waterfall in the world, i think, it started to rain lightly and when we got even closer the mist from the fall started to get to us! It was super cold and super windy! We stood there for a minute and we basically got soaked! I didn't want to get my camera wet so i left my bag with some of the others and a couple of other people and I decided to try to make it behind the waterfall by walking around! Wow!!! There was so much wind and so much mist you could not see anything and the water was hitting me so hard it felt like needles! We eventually made it behind the waterfall and it was super cool and super cold! It was basically the close thing you could do as a missionary without swimming! When we finally got out of all the mist we were all soaked to the bones! It was as if we had jumped into a pool! It was super crazy but it was super fun!! After that it was seriously raining almost the whole walk back and the trail was super muddy but all in all it was super fun!! Right now im super tired though and tomorrow i think i might be somewhat sore! That's about all i have to report for now! 

Hope you have a fantastic week this week! Thanks!

Love,

Elder Jarman