December 28th, 2011 {the figgy pudding is a lie!!!!}

Dear recipients of this message,

Figgy pudding does not exist and i am entirely convinced that it's existence in song is entirely given to us for the purpose of distracting us from the holiday treats we could and should be enjoying. namely chocolate mousse, and trifle, and (if you are brave of tongue and stout of stomach) english christmas pudding. has anyone ever had figgy pudding? no? i didn't think so! and since none of my imaginary responders responded i must conclude indefinably and with absolute finality that the figgy pudding is a lie!

anyways, moving on from desert related lies i think i have a few experiences to share about my time here in england over the christmas season. On christmas we woke up early and went to a breakfast appointment with a member. after that we went to an hour of church where we sang a lot of christmas songs with some great spiritual messages mixed in between. after church we went to our ward mission leaders house and spent the rest of the day there eating copious amounts of food and incredible amounts of dessert. i don't know what is up the people here but they all seem to have the mindset that the only reason you have dinner is so you have something as a prelude to a much larger dessert. the next day was boxing day, which apparently is a real holiday and not just something they put on calendars for fun. it's basically just a round two for the christmas celebration in that everything is still closed (which is why i'm writing on a wednesday) and families get together and play games and eat huge desserts (sometimes preluded by a small meal). this was kind of a weird experience to have two days in a row where we weren’t able to do any work, it was kinda nice at first because it was like hey we’re just going to sit around and do nothing for a while, but i realized about three hours into christmas that sitting around is very very uncomfortable as a missionary. by the time christmas was over i was literally longing to go back to work. i couldn't believe that we had gone an entire day and were really able to do that little missionary work. boxing day was killer! i spent most of the day waiting for it to be over because i really could not sit still. if any of you know me you know that this is really really weird! i've always been less than diligent in work, if you don't believe me just ask my mom about how clean my room usually was, so it was really an eye opener to me to see just how much this work has changed me.

oooookay moving on from my very public introspection. on tuesday we met with david and marie again to talk about david's baptism. david has started drinking coffee again. not because he wants to and not because he feels like he needs it. he actually even told us that the desire to drink it had been taken out of him. but because david has to take about fourteen different medications each day he is subject to some intense drowsiness and he’ll sometimes fall asleep for hours at a time. on christmas day david fell asleep for most of the afternoon and marie was furious with him. so david started drinking coffee again because he wants to support her and because she doesn't want him to stop because she is afraid that he’ll pass out more frequently. this was hard because now david doesn't have a date anymore and marie is becoming less and less okay with us teaching him. but we have seem miracles wrought through david and to david. his faith and testimony are among the strongest that i have ever seen. he truly wants to be baptized and serve god in any way he can.

i have one more miracle i'd like to share before i end this letter. we've been having a hard time in this area finding new people to teach. we've been going finding for most of our proselyting time each day but so far we've been mostly unfruitful. yesterday during companionship study we were talking about our finding efforts and i realized something incredible. i realized that those we needed to teach, those that were prepared to hear the message of the gospel were out there. there were people out there as we were talking that were ready and waiting to meet with us and to grow closer to god. all we have to do is search until we find them. today when we came to the library and started to read our e-mails this girl came down and sat next to us and just started to talk to us about her church and our church and told us that she had met with missionaries briefly before. honestly my first reaction was a little bit of annoyance. i was trying to read my e-mail and i didn't want to be bothered. then the spirit gave me a thwack on the back of the head letting me know that this was one of the opportunities that we had been praying for. we had a quick but very good discussion about god and about families and we were able to set up an appointment with her and her mother on friday! the lord works in many different and amazing ways. I know that this church is true and i know that the lord answers prayers according to his will. i am grateful to the opportunity he has given me to serve and learn out here in england.

remember i love you all and i'm grateful for your continued love and support.

with love

Elder Michael Jarman



ps. i'm not going to say that you win and i can't compete because that’s not true and you know it



pps. the previous post script was a coded message so if you didn't get it don't worry about it.



ppps. fist bump!



pppps. the previous post script was a not as coded coded message to someone that most people will probably understand anyways but i don't really care because i feel like it got the message across