January 4th, 2012 {why running around half naked in the snow at twelve o one in the morning is not a good idea on your mission}

dear THE WORLD!!!!!!!,

let me tell you a little bit about holidays on missions. they are not at all like holidays for people that aren't on missions. instead of being like this fun thing that we do where we feast on cheese and wine imitation drinks and ring silver bells with angels that we hear on high, it’s more like an annoying occurrence that makes it harder to teach. it’s okay though because now the holidays are over we don't have random (okay i know there not random but they kinda stick out in weird places if you think about it. . . . ish) days where we’re not allowed to preach due to the fact that people get are less likely to listen to you when you knock on their door in the middle of a party and start crying repentance unto their souls. like it said in my last letter it was just really really weird to have days where we didn't really have opportunities to teach as much.

anyways on new year’s we were able to do some teaching in the morning and we found some good potential investigators and then we were able to teach david and marie again but then we had to go back to our flat early due to the rampant groups of people celebrating in streets. needless to say celebrating the new year is a little bit different when you’re on a mission, for example this was the first year in a lot of years where i was not able to begin a new year by freeze drying my skin to the sound of pots and pans being crashed behind my back (i just realized that that makes our standard new year tradition seem kind of . . . violent).

so now that i'm done talking about things that don't actually matter let me tell you a little bit about the work that we've been doing in the area.

i want to share with you guys the story of david leonard our 80% blind investigator. he had a incredibly difficult childhood where he used to be into all sorts of illegal carousing and drug taking and at one point he even had to live off of money that he made doing nighttime street fights. he was incredibly bright though and at one point was even something like the third most recognized student in the uk. when he was about twenty one he got into a life threatening accident and was badly injured, the doctors told him that, to keep his life, he would have to undergo a radical surgery that had the possibility of leaving him both blind and deaf. he accepted the surgery and two days later he "woke up", if you can call it that, to find that he had no sense of sight, sound, smell, or taste and that the only tactile sensation he had was the two fingers on his right hand. in his own words, everything else was pure pain. he lived like this for over a week, where he couldn't do or feel nearly anything and he had next to no sensation of the world around him. and he told us that he never, not once felt alone. before his accident he didn't have any faith in his life he knew what christians believed but he never made any sort of step to find it for himself but when he had absolutely nowhere to turn and no way to do anything to better his situation he had help. he told us that he felt someone there with him through this entire ordeal. he felt someone there who was constantly strengthening him and comforting him. since he was able to recover most of his senses he has since strived to draw closer to god and to our savior jesus christ. he's told us that he is grateful beyond words for his accident. he completely lost the life he had before and even lost most of the functions of his body but because of his accident he was able to find the gospel in his life, and he also tells us that he's grateful because if he hadn't become disabled he would have never met his wife. david is such an example to me of what it means to be truly humble. he understands, more than i could ever hope to, the power of the atonement and the effect that it can have in our personal lives. he wants so much to be able to be part of the church and if he could just overcome his need for coffee there would be nothing that could stop him from doing so. i don't know if i've explained this before so i'm just going to do it anyways. david, because of his medical issues needs to take as many as fifteen different prescription medicines. these medications knock him out quite literally. and since marie will not tolerate david being out of it while she is in the house with him, he has to drink copious amounts of coffee to stay awake for her. he tells us that he wishes that he had never tasted the stuff and he honestly doesn't want to drink it but he does anyways because he loves his wife and will do anything to make her happy. but despite all this he never loses sight of what the atonement means to him. i know that this church is true, i know what it can do for people, i have seen what a greater understanding of the power of the atonement can do for someone. i can tell you all that there is no greater source of strength for any trial that we will face in this life than that that we gain from the sacrifice of our loving brother and savior jesus christ.

i'm here because i love him and i will do what he has commanded us to do in return for his love, as he told peter, if we love him we must feed his sheep.

i love you all and love to hear from each of you

with love

elder michael jarman

(: