The best hamburgers!

Week #73
2/9/15
Hola Familia y Amigos!!

Well this week went really well and was really cool!

One of the coolest things that happened this week is that we had a zone conference with a couple of the zones in the mission and President and Sister Williams and the Assistants! It was all in all really good!! The best part of that was the hamburgers they gave us! ;) Haha no im just kidding but they did give us the best hamburgers that Ive had in Peru so far!! No but really it was a very awesome meeting and i feel like i learned a lot! One thing that President Williams shared that i really like is about the scriptures that talk about us talking up the cross and following Christ! He also shared a quote from ¨Jesus the Christ¨ (pg.365 for those who want to look it up) which talked more about the cross and that surely taking up the cross would mean denial and privation of some of the things that we love in life! I really enjoyed that part and feel like i learned a lot from the conference and i have a lot of things to work on!!

Anyways this week we have been contacting some more and just talking with the people that pass by us in the street and its always kind of funny some of the thing that you see while contacting! People with sometimes just keep walking as if you hadn't said anything to them! Sometimes there are some cool people that you meet and that are interested in the Gospel so i guess we just got to keep contacting no matter what to find the chosen people!!

This week another cool thing that happened was that we invited Jhordy, Blancas son, to baptism for the 21st of February and he accepted! One by one we are working with the whole family and it would be awesome if in the future the whole family could become members of the Church and enjoy the blessings the Gospel has to offer!

Well not much interesting besides that has happened this week! I love you all! I know that God is there to help us in whatever circumstances we may find ourselves in!ª We just need to reach out to him!

Love,

Elder Jarman

We are planting seeds

Week #72
2/2/15
Hey Everyone!

Well this week was actually really uneventful!

We had really only one really weird experience!! One day we were walking around trying to find this one house really far away and we ended up walking all over the place trying to find this house and we walked down this one street and we saw this strange looking house that had a lot of different rooms and when we walked around the corner there were a couple tents and this man was sitting there and this lady was walking around and the lady said, "Elderes!" and so we decided to walk over and see how she knew us and so we get over there and the guy that was sitting down tells us to sit down and then brings out some Mango and some Watermelon to eat and starts talking to us and he was a little drunk.. He told us he was from Italy but that his parents had moved to Peru and bought a whole bunch of land and when they died they left it all to him and his brother.. He was a very strange man and had a really pretty nice and big house and it was all really just a very strange experience!! That ended up taking all morning because they guy kind of liked to talk a lot! We did end up finding the house we needed to at the end which was good!

Other than that this week we have been trying to talk with some more people and find some more people to teach because the pool of investigators that we have right now aren't really progressing... 

We have a lot of people who could progress its just that none of them are married!! Not a big surprise here in Peru... We seriously have a like 5 or 6 families who need to get married!! Maybe we will plan a mass marriage for all of them soon! 

We also went to an activity in the stake center with Blanca and she learned a little bit more about how to do her Family History work and she seems pretty interested in it because her mom has actually passed away and so we were explaining all the things that she could do for her mom and other things like that and it was actually really cool! Blanca is progressing really well so far she just needs to come to church on time every Sunday! She comes but she always gets there late..

Well the missionary work is going slowly but surely and even if we don't see the fruits of our labors now at least we are planting seeds and helping the people out! I know that the Lord directs his work in this day and that he leads and guides his church today by living apostles and prophets! 

Elder Jarman

Blanca's baptism.

Week #71
1/26/15
Hey Everyone!

So this week went really well actually!!

On Monday we went over to some other Elders room and we all met over there and had a BBQ kind of thing and ate some hamburgers and played Ping Pong and kind of just hung out and it was actually really fun!!

On Tuesday we had a lesson with Blanca and in the beginning we started explaining that before her baptism that she was going to have to go through an interview and then she started to tell us that she didn't feel ready and that she was going through some problems and she wanted to push the date back a little bit.. She started to tell us a lot of things that had happened to her and we felt that we needed to sit there and listen to her and we ended up being in her house for a little over 2 hours but to make it shorter and then end after listening we bore testimony and told her that she was ready to be baptized and then invited here again and we waited there for like 30 seconds in silence just letting her think and feel the spirit and at the end she said yes and so we started to get everything ready for the baptism! On Tuesday we also had interviews with the President and his wife and those were awesome as usual!

On Thursday was the baptismal interview for Blanca and she got there a little bit late and the interview ended up taking like 2 hours too so we were a little bit nervous that something had went wrong but she came out and everything was alright! So we didn't really get to do much on Thursday because the baptismal interview took up all afternoon and then we went to a missionary farewell kind of deal for a missionary who i leaving for the mission from our ward tomorrow! It was kind of like a testimony meeting which was pretty cool!

Then on Saturday was the big day!! We went to the church at ".30 to clean and fill up the baptismal font and we ended up taking a long time to drain the water that was already in it.. gross! clean it out and clean the church up too and fill it back up but its okay because the Baptism was at 4 but it never starts on time here in Peru so we got everything done at about 4:15ish and then a couple people showed up but all in all it was a pretty small thing! Blanca got there at like 4:45ish and some other members got there at like 5ish and then we got dressed and we went outside and took some pictures and then we started the baptismal service! All went well and when it was time to do the ordinance i got down into the water and right when she was going to get into the water her little 5 year old kid started crying and screaming hysterically and it was insane!! He would not let go of his mom!?! Don't really know exactly what was the problem but he would not let go and they tried to pull him outside to be able to do the ordinance but he would not let go... They decided they were going to have him come into the font with us for the baptism but he wouldn't come in and finally they just grab him when the opportunity came and took him outside and we did the baptism really fast and all went well! During that whole time that the kid was crying i was standing in the baptismal font getting cold because the water was cold! After the baptism she gave a powerful testimony and it was really awesome!! It made me feel really good!

Well this week went really well after all and it was really cool! I'm grateful for the opportunity to be an instrument in the hand of the Lord and help bring souls unto Christ! I know that there is a special feeling in the Church of Jesus Christ and it will fill any empty space there is! I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Love you all too!

Love,

Elder Jarman

 

Power to do anything!!

Week #70
1/19/15

Hey Everyone!!

Well this week went alright i guess but there were a couple minor setbacks!

So this week my companion ended up getting sick on Thursday and we couldnt really go out.. I guess my companion is still getting used to the food and to the culture! It took me a while too so its whatever! Hes better now though which is good!! So other than that it was a little rough this week because the members who were going to come out visiting with us ended up bailing out on us... That has happened quite a bit recently... I guess theres not much we can do though...

So this week church was kind of cool! I ended up giving a talk again.. Three times in the last 3 months!? It went pretty well though! What was even cooler is that we ended up having like almost 140 people in church which is a lot more than we have had in a long time.. even since before i got here! Whats even cooler than that is that one of the recent converts in our ward brought her whole family to church!?!? It was so cool to see the whole family there!! There were also a lot of the less actives that we are teaching too so it was kind of cool to see all the people that had come to church.. all to hear my talk... haha no just kidding! 

So this week we have been talking with Blanca and everything has been going well with her and if everything continues to go well she might get baptized this Saturday which would be awesome!! I have seen a big chnage in Blanca and i can tell that she feels the spirirt and she is just so awesome!!

This week we were able to teach a couple new families too which was really cool! One of the recent converts in our ward invited us over to talk with his family this week and the lesson went really well! They were all really receptive and they said they really liked what we talked about!! They seem like a really cool family and we should be able to help them out a lot!! 

Well not much has happened this week other than that.. More to come next week!! Love you all very much!! I know that through the grace of Christ we shall be saved, or through the enabling power of Christs grace that we shall be saved and have the power to do anything!! 

Love.

Elder Jarman

The power of fasting!!

Week #69
1/12/15

Hey Everyone!!

Well this week went a lot better for us and it was pretty awesome!!

So i guess things are started to get back to normal now that all the parties and things are over because we were able to visit a lot more people this week which was awesome!

We were able to visit some new people this week which was really cool! Its kind of hard sometimes when the members dont give us references to go off of but we have to do the best with what we have got! So yeah a couple of the people that we contacted this week let us in and so we have started working with them!!

One of the investigators that is progressing is Blanca S.!! She hadnt come to church these past couple of weeks but she came to church yesterday which was awesome!! She said in one of the later visits that we had with her that she had felt that something was missing and that when she went to church she felt a lot better and she think that she was missing something because she hadnt come to church! So this week we have met with her 3 times and the first time we met with her we talked for a little while and she started telling us that she knew the church was true and how she knew the Book of Mormon is true and everything so we decided to extend her a bapttismal date for the 17th of January and we told her to pray about it and she said she would! So the next time we went to her house she told us that she had prayed but that she was passing through some difficulties and had some fears and that she didn feel prepared to get baptized.. That was a bummer because we totally thought that she was going to accept and it was going to be awesome! SO we just invited her to keep praying about it and see what God wants her to do! When we got to dinner that night we decided that we were going to fast for her! So on Saturday we started a fast for her and on Sunday after the fast we had a lesson with her and it was a super awesome lesson!!! We could definately see how fasting had helped and the miracles and blessings that God had given us!! Blanca accpeted a baptismal date for the 24th  of January and we feel like she is prepared to do this and she knows everything is true!! That had to be one of the better experiences of the mission right there!! It definatley built my testimony of fasting and the power of fasting!! 

Other than that the drunk people still come up to us and they always have to talk to the two gringos that are walking around and the people still yell out things all the time at us!! You got to love Peru though!! Haha!! Well thats about all that was interesting this week!! I know that God lives and that he hears our pleas! I have witnessed it first hand many times!! Love you all!!

Love,

Elder Jarman

A ton of smoke it was even hard to breath!

Week #68
1/5/15

Hey Everyone!!

So its been a little while since ive been able to talk to everyone! Hows everyone been?? Ive been great during these Holiday seasons!

So the work has been going pretty slow and has been hard for us right now because nobody has had time to visit with us! But thats alright because it should start to pick up a little bit now!

So our Christmas went pretty well! The 24th we went home at 9 and a member brought us some Pollo a la Brasa which was pretty good! Then we kind of just waited for the night and at midnight we came downstairs and we ate another dinner with the Pensions family! We had the usual Panneton and the Hot Chocolate and it was yummy! Then we went to bed and the next day for us was P-day and so we woke up a little bit later than normal (president said we could! :) )and after breakfast we opened up the little gifts that we had. The best part though was skyping with the family after 7 months!? It was really nice to see everyone and talk with everyone!!

Then for New Years the schedule was about the same but this time we had to come back to the room at 8 because sometimes it get really dangerous on New Years because eveyone does crazy things and a bunch of people are drinking the whole time!? So we came back and 8 and we ate dinner then and then we just waited and cleaned up the room and did just whatever until it was like 11:45 PM and then we climbed up on top of our roof and we had a pretty unobstructed view of everything and all the fireworks!! By 11:45 there were a ton of fireworks going off and they just became more and more until it was 12 and then at 12 everyone lit their Muñecos on fire and it was so loud and there were soooo many fireworks and there was a ton of smoke too it got a little harder to breath! That was my last New Years and Christmas here in Peru and im definatley going to miss the New Years celebration here because its just so insane!!! It was all really fun!!

Anyways so during these last couple of weeks we havent really had much success in the work but were still trying to work with the people! We dont really have very many investigators that are progressing and not very many people in the ward are helping us so everyhting kind of just slowed down... Blanca hasnt come to church for the past couple of weeks which has been a bummer!! All of the people just kept telling us that they would come to church and everything but then they never ended up coming so yeah it hasnt been the greatest lately and it has made it really hard for us lately!! On top of that there have been a lot of drunk people in the streets lately and since were both gringos walking around they always like to come up to us and start talking to us and its really annoying sometimes... One time this drunk guy came up to us and started to talk to us for like 10 minutes and at the end he pulled us in to a group hug and he said a prayer with us and it was really wierd and uncomfortable!?!

Anyways so these past couple have weeks have gone pretty well and my copmanion is doing alright! It always hard the beginning of the mission and hes hanging in there still! Its hard for him so far because of the spanish barrier but he´ll get the hang up of it little by little! He is really cool and is able to express his love and kindness freely and openly and hes a very sincere person too!

Anyways that about all for now!! Love all of you guys!! I know that God gives us trials to make us stronger to develop us into the person he needs us to be and the person that we will need to be to succeed in the future! In a way im grateful for the trials that i have because they make me who i am!! 

Love,

Elder Jarman

 Caroling in the town center

 Ran into my first area pensionista and she gave this cool little pillow.

 President and Sister Williams

 Elder Harper and Elder Jarman (stolen from elderbaylorharper.blogspot.com)

It's already 2015?!

Week #67
1/1/15
I just really cant believe its already 2015 and that i will be coming home this year!?!

 Training Elder Mecham!

 Merry Christmas Elder Jarman and Elder Mecham!

 Pannetone (like fruit cake)