March 5th, 2012 { "well moroni, you'd probably get invited to more dinner parties if you would stop hiding all the plates"}

dear all the people who can read this writing,

so i think i'd like to start this letter off by just saying this, gravy is
not an adequate substitute for salt, no matter what some people may tell you
it is just not the same. for best results use gravy when gravy is required
and use salt pretty much always. anyways moving on from tips for eating food
i think i should tell you guys about what the life is like in the mission
field that i am currently in. well transfer calls came and i am officially
staying in epsom with elder day for at least six more weeks. (you may insert
a whoop here if you so desire) i'm quite happy about this because first off
i love this ward and secondly because i don't want to leave this area till i
see a few of the different "projects" (and by projects i mean people) come
to fruition. i know that's a bit of a selfish motive but i feel justified in
the fact that i was chosen to stay by revelation sooooooo. Oh wait speaking
of revelation i just barely learned (and i mean about two minutes before i
wrote the sentence that you are currently reading) who my new mission
president and wife is going to be. it will be Roger Clive Millar and Valerie
Ann Aston Millar from the stone cliff ward in st. george utah. it's really
kinda weird to think that president shamo will be leaving soon and i will
miss him greatly but at the same time i am excited to meet president miller
as he will be the mission president that i will serve under for the majority
of my mission. in the news that actually pertains to what i did this week i
have great news. i'm not sure if i've mentioned her before but we've been
working with a sister named aurora pare, who is from the philippines, lately
and this week we were finally able to help her get to church. it's been
quite hard for her because she is working in england even though her family
is still in the philippines, because her family needed the money to pay for
her kids education back home. and her work schedule is crazy so she hasn't
been able to come for a while but she still has a stalwart testimony.
finally the stars aligned and she was able to attend church again to the
great welcome of the awesome epsom ward. we also met with kerry again this
week and talked with her about what we can do to help her partner christian
be more accepting and open towards the gospel so that they will be able to
be eventually sealed in the temple. we set some goals and taught some
doctrine (we missionaries do this quite often) and i feel like this will go
forward well, even if i'm not still around when it happens. we weren't
however able to see the whites this week and weren't able to get a hold of
them, it was quite weird because we had an amazing teach last saturday but
we haven't been able to see them since. i'm starting to think that they
might have forgot to mention to us that they were leaving on holiday. we had
some great finding experiences this week and were able to give away more
book of mormons (or books of mormon  , depending on what kind of butter you
prefer) this week than i have so far on my mission. speaking of my mission
now that i have passed my three month mark i am no longer a new missionary!
(wooot) however i still am considered a greeny. see this mission is the
third most diverse mission in the world. in that if you travel about twenty
minutes you will arrive at a place completely foreign to the place you left.
with a new accent, a new view on religion, and a new style of cooking (or
not cooking) eggs. so in this mission your considered a "greeny" until you
leave your first area because the work you do in one area and the things you
learned there will for the most part in no way apply to your new area. it's
quite crazy because i'm used to utah where the culture is pretty much
exactly the same no matter where you go for hundreds and hundreds of miles,
but even in the area where i'm now serving the culture is completely
different at the bottom of my area and at the top of my area (because the
top is part of london). it think it was shakespear who said "variety is the
spice of life, so make yours a chille con carne"
(don't quote me on that). i love this country and i love this work and i
love being a missionary and above all i love this gospel and our loving
savior who and made it possible!

the church is true amen!

with love
Elder Michael Jarman

ps. i have a wizard living in my area. he's called the wizard man of sutton.
if you don't believe me just go google slash youtube it for proof.

pps. i love it here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





pictures
1. no THIS is how you break a fast
2. a picture of our are map around our flat