June 17, 2013 hm. . . that pepe happened to taste a lot more like milk and honey than i was originally anticipating

Sent: Monday, June 17, 2013 9:35 AM
Subject: hm. . . that pepe happened to taste a lot more like milk and honey than i was originally anticipating

Dear anyone that has ever looked at a yellow object and thought to themselves, hey, that’s yellow,

 One great thing about writing a new e-mail each week is that I’m sure that every introductory statement that I could use now has previously been utilized or been applied through a makeshift and similar way. Thus the statement that I will now make that my week was fantacular this week must not be overly unexpected or even very surprising to anyone that has yet made it this far through this epistle, not to mention the others that I may or may not have sent in previous weeks.

 Yesterday NINE investigators came to church! This is easily the highest number of people that I have ever had at a sacrament meeting. Three of them were some of our new baptismal dates. This last week has been absolutely insane. With Elder Ballard at the beginning of the week and the zone training that Elder Patten and I presented on Wednesday, as well as an exchange and one mid-transfer transfer, it is absolutely amazing that we had any time to do anything. But I feel that since we did our best to be diligent in the other responsibilities the lord has given us at this time; he blessed us in other areas that we weren't able to give as much time to this week.

 So the new baptismal dates are first a wonderful Filipino lady named Benita. She’s Joe's wife. She has been sitting in on the lessons with Joe but we were never able to get much of a response from her. In our last lesson with the Serrano’s the meeting began like thus. We had given Joe the testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith pamphlet in our last teach and asked him to read it in between visits. Before we even said the opening prayer Joe excitedly recounted to us what he had learned from the pamphlet. He remembered more of the story than I did! As he went through his recitation I was watching Helen Serrano, Joe’s daughter who Joe and Benita are currently living with. Through the dialogue she kept her eyes on the floor for the most part and I could see that she was getting a little emotional. She, and the rest of her extended family have been members of the church for many years now, but for some reason Joe and Benita never really wanted to learn more about, or even hear about the church. We don't know why he all of a sudden decided to investigate now. I imagined what it must be like for her to see her father, who before had not held any interest in the church, to recite Joseph Smith's history as well as bear testimony of it. After the teach we re-invited him to be baptized on the 6th of July and as well invited Benita. Little did we know that she had been listening through each of these teaches. We didn't even know she spoke English! Joe has also been explaining more to her about what we teach in-between teaches. She accepted the date. This is what joy is :) 

 I know firsthand what blessing the gospel can bring families. Some of the greatest experiences of my mission are those where I can see these same blessings being extended to another family, my brothers and my sisters.

I pray that I will be able to serve the people here as well as they deserve

 I love you guys and will be forever grateful for all the support and service that you have all done for me

 With love

Elder Jarman

p.s. I don't think I’ve sent you my address yet. . .

Here it is

6 belmont road

northumberland heath
erith, kent
DA8 1LB                                                       

 

p.p.s. word on the street is that summer may start here soon :)