Monday, July 23rd {it's a little bit like normal olive oil but it tastes more like tabasco, thats why we called it a spanish branch. . .}

queridos los que están aprendiendo acerca de mi amor por el idioma de español,

So we have had a great week of miracles with all of the people that we've been blessed to work with here in staines. yolanda is progressing really really well and has already integrated herself amazingly quick into the staines ward. we were able to teach her this week a few different times, most often with memebers that spoke spanish as well either translating or clarifying by conversing en español. this last tuesday at six o clock we had taught her with a member at the chapel. the realy cool thing was that at six o clock yolanda showed up with her sister in tow. she's been loving the message of the gospel so much she's started doing missionary work in her family by herself. and then when the member showed up we found that the member had also brought her non member mother so she could be taught as well. i was amazed and humbled at the blessings we've seen in working with these amazing spanish sisters. while we were teaching them they spent a lot of time talking to and teaching each other in their native tongue, and often times began to bear their testimonies of the restored gospel in spanish. as i was sitting there listening to the non member mother bear her testimony in spanish about the amazing spirit that she always feels at out church i was again impressed with just how amazing the gospel is. here in england i have been blessed to work with people of every kind of nationality and ethnicity that you could possibly think of and the gospel holds power and meaning for all of them. no matter where they come from or where they've been the gospel fits them and their needs. it doesnt' matter what language you speak or just how much chilli pepper (or curry) you put on your rice the gospel with help you become a better person, find more peace, and return to live with our heavenly father. i could feel the spirit of this columbian womans testimony even though i could not understand the words that she was speaking. it was so cool!!!!! i've had similar experiences throught my mission but every time i do it still amazes me.

Another really cool miracle we had this last week came on sunday but began a few weeks ago. we met a man named ailan on the street a little while back. when we stoped him he explained that he couldn't talk to us due to the fact that he didn't speak english (this happens a lot). so we explained to him as simply as we could that we were representatives of jesus christ and that we had resources to teach him in any language. he began to be excited and explained he was christian and had recently moved here from spain so we gave him a link to mormon.org and invited him to visit our chapel on sunday where we had people who could translate for him. unfortunantly he didn't come that week. but this week when we came to church we were surprised to find him outside the chapel doors talking enthusiastically with one of the spanish members of the ward. he explained (through the member) that he had tried to come the week before but that he got lost and was late but then he tried again this week and was successful. he absolutely loved church and we’re going to start teaching him the gospel with a translator this week! Yay ethnic-conglamatory-miracles!!! me and my companion basically have competitions to see who loves the spanish members more. it often ends with phrases like "i know i do but how about you" (-poetic licence;) ) the work is going really well here in staines and i love being a missionary more than ever. this is the lords work and we see his hand in it every day :)

thank you all for your support and your prayers

with love

Elder Jarman

Monday, July 16th {no no i only streched your shirt pocket becaus you resisted}

dear cheese fans,

i think it smells like a monday morning. and whenever i feel this way i usually express myself by typing out a few of the funtivities that were fun for me and my companion during the duration of the week. so we had a phenomenal week that ended in a phenomenal sacrament meeting. yolanda was able to come again and she bore a powerful testimony about the power of the book of mormon and the impact it has had in her life. she has begun to start sharing the gospel with all of their family because even just reading the book of mormon (el libro de mormon in her case) has already impacted and changed her life. unfortunately we have to move her baptismal date to a little further back because we need more time to cover all of the material but she is still absolutely determined to be baptized. we had a great end of the week particularly as we were able to pick up a gaggle of new investigators! one of which is a musical theatre student named arron. it was kind of funny because when we met him the first thing he said to us, before we had yet had a chance to speak, was "are you guys mormons" when we replied that we were he told us that he had recently seen the book of mormon musical. we told him that that play wasn't actually very accurate and he replied that he guessed so and that he really wanted to know what we actually did believe. so we gave him a book of mormon to read for himself and came back another day. when we met with him again we had an amazing teach where afterward he told us that he really has been feeling that he's been missing something in his life and he feels like the church is exactly what he's been looking for! (whoooooooooooot!) we also started teaching an italian born african who has lived in england since she was fourteen. her name is samuella and she is the single mother of two kids. a boy at 4 and a girl at 2. she is also looking for truth and really wants to find a church that will help her family stay strong and united especially as her kids get older. i was more than happy to inform her that i had a strong testimony that nothing will help her family stay strong and united and happy and fun loving than the gospel. because the gospel has done just that for my family and has helped us, as eccentric, sporatic, and just plain weird as we are, stay close to each other then it will work for her family as well. good things are happening here is staines. i love being here and i love being a missionary. i know that this is what i am supposed to be doing right now and i would not want to be anywhere else

love you all

Elder jarman

ps. i'm out of time so i don't have time for a ps. .. . . .

Monday, July 9th {remember that when the cheese runs thick, just cracker on}

dear developing peoples of the current century,

the first line of my e-mails are probably the most difficult part for me to write because i'm never really sure how to transition from a blank screen to a letter of uplifting and ennobling experiences that you experience while doing missionary work. cuz missionary work is pretty great. :) (yay the gospel!) anywhays i think now would probably be an appropriate time to talk about the last week that we encountered. so probably the most notable experiences of this week all centered around helping yolanda prepare for her soon approaching baptismal date. it's a little bit tricky teaching her due to the fact that she doesn't speak as much english and we don't speak too much spanish. (side note, remember how i said that coming to england i wasn't going to have to learn any new languages, ya that was basically false because we definitely give out nearly just as many book of mormon's in different global languages than we do in english.) so the teaching process is slow but very rewarding because she just eats up everything we teach. she's gained a strong testimony of the power of the book of mormon and has been trying to get her family involved as well. one time when we were over there her boss stopped by who actually doesn't speak english at all. so while her boss was there yolanda basically turned and repeated everything we taught to her boss except that she would always exclaim ¿no es fantástico? after everything that she said. it's been amazing to see just how much power the book of mormon has in the conversion process. and this doesn't just apply to investigators. every person that reads the book of mormon consistantly and prayerfully will grow under the influence of its power. (i love this book !) yolanda is also very much engaged in the ward and absolutely loves church. There’s actually quite a large spanish community here in the staines ward so they all support and fellowship each other incredibly well. me encanta la gente de español! the ward here is fantastic and something i've really noticed lately is that every individual and family faces different and distinct challenges. even the best of saints will have troubles come up in their life that will try and test them more than anything else. but as long as we continue in the gospel of jesus christ and keep the commandments we are guaranteed that everything will work together for our good and that the lord will strengthen us through our dificulties. i love this gospel and i love this work. i can't tell you how happy it makes me when i hear about the different missionary experiance that you all are having back in the states and throught the world.

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

with love

elder jarman

ps. did you guys know that bear grills is the head of the scouts. . . .

pps. i've gained a new appreciation for cheese in the last few weeks. it may have something to do with my swiss zone leader

ppps. swiss cheese is not the best kind of swiss cheese. . . think about that one

pppps. i have good news!!!! the gospel is still true

the london temple (insert gasp of amazingment aproval of amazingness)

around the back side once again with temple in back of the side

 me and elder peach's parting picture (now accesable via facebook as john david peach)

they may or may not be about to do the hakka . . . just saying

me and elder lamb my favorite irish missionary (elder petterson from norway is in the backround)

 i heart the man on my left

the one and only staines zone!

jump pictures are the bane of my existance

me with two of the most amazing people to ever walk the face of the earth,gonna miss them :(

the only real problem with phone booths comes after flossing but long before your afternoon nap

dear anyone who is not currently writing what it is that you are currently reading,

curazy changes have happened this last week. first and foremost is probably the fact that i now officially have a new mission president whose name is president millar. i actually got to meet him the first day he was here which was really cool. he is from idaho originally but lived and worked in st. george. he is a heart surgeon (worked under elder nelson btw) and has a pretty big medical practice back in the states. one of the coolest things about him, that i know of so far, is that he was an assistance to  president Bruce R. McConkie on his mission! He seems to be a really really amazing guy and i'm super exited to be working with him for the rest of my mission.

 in other news (i'm not sure if i've mentioned this yet) i'm staying in staines for at least the next six weeks (i'm hoping to pull an Elder Folkerson and stay for a year). and i'll be staying with elder pond as well. it's really great as well because everyone from my district is staying as well and most of the zone is staying the same too. it's really nice because in my last area the entire zone was basically changes every single transfer so it's nice to know that i'm going to be around these people for longer. we had a great week this week as far as teaching and finding are concerned probably the most notable miracle of the week would happen to be the fact that yolanda now has a baptismal date !!!! (insert a reasonable amount of confetti throwing at this point, it doesn't have to be crazy multicolored confetti if you don't have the resources you could just use some cut up bits of packing peanuts or maybe the stuff that’s left in the bottom of a paper hole puncher. you know just be creative) we had a bit of a scare when she wasn't able to come to church on sunday but we stopped by after to see how she was doing and she was a little bit ill but very excited about what she had read in the book of mormon since the last time we had met, she had actually started marking her scriptures as well (whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaT!) she's really excited to make this step and i'm really really excited as well. unfortunately we weren't able to meet with henry or sundi this week because they're both been really busy but we should be seeing them again soon. the work here in staines is going really really well :)

i've been studying about what we need to do to have really effective study a lot lately and i've noticed a really interesting connection in both preach my gospel and in the scriptures. preach my gospel says that "studying is an act of faith and requires the use of our personal agency" and the scriptures say "seek learning even by study and also by faith" so i've spent a lot of time thinking about what we need to do to learn by study and by faith. the way i see it we have to have faith when we study because we need to believe that we can learn by the power and gift of the holy ghost when we study otherwise we won't be expecting to learn anything and therefore won't learn anything. it's much the same way that i'm not going to get up and press a light switch if i don't believe that it is going to turn on the light. so in this way i have to have faith in the revelatory power of the holy ghost when i study so that i can rely more on that power when i seek learning. we also need to seek learning by study which is where we exercise our personal agency. we need to do all that we can to make connections, pay attention, and seek to understand the gospel as we study if we are going to use our personal agency. the lord told oliver cowdery that he needed to "study it out in his mind" instead of just ask. in this way we can the process of learning is in respect to how we use our agency. so instead of having information forced into our brains without any effort on our part instead the lord gives us the opportunity to truly learn. and it is when we "diligently seeketh" that "and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost"(1nephi 10:19) it's become a habit in my study and in my church attendance that when i do not feel that i am learning anything new i ask myself "what more can i be doing to learn" and i've found that in this way i'm able to be more aware of the many things that i am not doing. you see, there is always more that we can be doing. and as i've applied this principle of seeking learning by study and by faith i've been greatly blessed with more understanding of the precious doctrines and principles of the gospel.

have i ever mentioned that i really really love the gospel :)



with love

Elder Jarman



Ps. okay i've now received at least two letters where the post scripts are at the beginning of the letter. . . . i'm not sure if i'm really comfortable with this. . . .



pps.thumbs are meant to be fun, if you don't believe me look at the monkeys



ppps. no i mean i like really really really like the gospel!!! just so you know :)