this kind of general conference usually involves a lot less guns, and the color green isn't nearly as pervading.

Sent: Monday, April 08, 2013 6:17 AM
Subject: this kind of general conference usually involves a lot less guns, and the color green isn't nearly as pervading.

 

Dear anyone who has every questioned the reason behind calling a certain type of winter hat "a beanie",

 

I’ve been told that I should write weekly and not weakly.  . . . fortunately I did not take offence, mostly due to my attachment to the cows contained therein.

We’ve been blessed mightily this last week in our finding efforts and have begun teaching many new investigators and found many more interested people for our message. We had a really cool experience teaching one of the new investigators, a Portuguese lady named edna. she didn't speak english overly well but this didn't faze us, bout half the people we teach don't really speak english :) We were having a really difficult time understanding a concern she was expressing because Eu não falo português muito bem!  so while elder keller was teaching i said a prayer and just basically asked that we would be able to understand her and help her to understand us. after i finished the prayer i aked her a question about what she was trying to express, and she answered it. things still weren't clear so i asked another clarifying question. she responded bringing a little more light onto the subject (still working through the language barrier). So we asked another question to make sure we were undertanding, she told us we were getting closer but still just a little bit off but in her answer we learned just a bit more about what she was trying to express. Finally we asked one more clarifying question and she responded in a way that we were able to nail down to a T what her concern was and then adress and resolve it. In answer to my prayer we were able to learn, and discern, "by study and also by faith"

 

I had a very special learning experience about the atonement this last week as well that i want to share briefly. we began teaching a less active this last week who loves the church but has decided not to attend because his choice of lifestyle flagrently disagrees with the teachings of the church. i've taught people like him before and i've always found it difficult to disregard the natural man tendacy to want to abandon those that seem to be trying to forsake God and become confortable with sin instead of the other way around.  Recently one of our leaders shared an analogy that has stuck with me. He described missionary work as being like an ambulance driver--in that we cannot heal people ourselves but that we can help them best by connecting them to the only one who can, our Saviour and our Redeemer.

 

In this way he compared sin to physical wounds and Christ to the doctor who can treat those physical wounds. (this analogy was talked about during conference as well). when i viewed this person in this light, it was a lot easier to see him for who he truly was a son of God and my brother. it made it easier to not define him by the injuries that he was suffering from but who he truly is behind the scars and who he is meant to become.  it is natural to feel compassion to those who are suffering physically, it should be just as natural to feel the same, if not a greater, compassion for those who are suffering spiritually--even when those injuries are self inflicted. i know and i have learned repeatedly from experience that the Atonement of Jesus Christ can heal and cleanse anyone who will let him. no one has a hopeless case, in fact when we take stock of the infinite nature and power of the Atonement we can have an infinite hope for the progress of any of our brothers and sisters. to put it simply, if we look to christ hope abounds and overflows into every aspect of our lives and our future.

when conference finnished Elder Keller looked to me and simply said, the gospel's pretty freakin cool. i definantly agree :)

 

with love

Elder Jarman

 

ps. has anyone ever snickered at a snickers?