May 06, 2013 when all else fails pineapple is probably your best option

Sent: Monday, May 06, 2013 5:00 AM
Subject: when all else fails pineapple is probably your best option

dear anyone that has either intentionally or unintentionally used scriptural adverbs in daily conversation,

One of my favorite things about serving in leadership positions as a missionary is conducting 24 hour exchanges with other missionaries. This week I had the opportunity to have two. With twenty two missionaries in our zone we have to do them quite frequently in order to work with as many people as we can. We also found out we're getting six new missionaries in this zone next transfer as well so we'll soon have twenty eight! Anyways during one exchange we had this week with one of the Chinese area's in Portsmouth, I got a call from Elder Manga telling me that while I was on exchange Rebecca accepted a baptismal date for the 25th of May! After much celebration and not a little whooping, I hung up the phone and we continued working. (side note, the Chinese elder I was working with, is named Elder Wu and he's from mainland china in a little town near Shanghai! how cool is that! he joined the church as a student in Sweden and left on his mission shortly afterwards!)

About five minutes later I got a call from one of the assistants with some more exciting news, he told us about the new six missionaries coming into the zone and then told us that we would be getting a new Chinese companionship coming in in the middle of the transfer as in about a week from today and that they would be taking our spot in Southampton( there's a lot of Chinese people in Southampton) so we needed to find a new area for us to move into on the fifteenth of May. They asked us to evaluate for ourselves where we would be needed and then to counsel with the Lord and the stake president on where we could go. This was a little bit of a shock to find out we're going to be moving mid transfer, especially so soon after picking up a baptismal date, but we were exited as well. After a lot of counsel and prayer we've decided we're going to go and open a new area in the Hamble River ward, called Farham Gosport.  I'm really excited to open up a new area. This has seriously been a dream of mine since practically the beginning of my mission! I’m sad to be leaving Southampton ward after only three weeks of being here but I’m sure I’ll love Hamble river ward just as much.
 
We had a really cool experience teaching one of our Chinese investigators named Tom this last week. He’s also from mainland china and had no religious exposure before he came to Southampton to study at university.  He met the missionaries a few months ago and has been coming to YSA activities since then but hasn't had much time to meet with the missionaries. We recently began teaching him the lessons. When we asked him about his beliefs he told us that he believed in Jesus Christ and in the Church because whenever he came to church or read from the book of Mormon he felt a lot happier and felt like he wanted to do all he could to make others happy as well. As we then taught him about the doctrine of the Holy Ghost he did have a hard time understanding but he frequently expressed that he still felt like it was true and that it was good.  It was amazing to me to see such pure faith and to see that with the power of the Holy Ghost Tom could know that the gospel was true; he could feel it was true.  He may have not understood very much but he had already received a witness of its truthfulness.  It made me think of the brother of Jared's response to the lords question if he would believe the words which he would speak. The brother of Jared knew that what the lord would tell him was true even though he did not know all the details yet. Tom knew that what the church teaches was good and true by the power of the Holy Ghost even though he had not yet received a firm understanding of the gospel principles or doctrine, this belief though is enough to motivate him to seek that greater knowledge.
 
Love you guys and I am always grateful for your support and you prayers

With love

Elder Jarman

 
ps. i feel like something earthshateringly important is happening this Saturday that might make a lot of people, including me, very very happy
 
pps. i'll have to get back to you guys about the details for calling this sunday, cuz i don't know them yet
 
ppps. i probably say the words dingo and crocodile about 70% more than i used to currently