June 24, 2013 a marvelous escapade that may or may not involve a potentially explosive car, wire transferred money, and frequently renewed bus passes

Sent: Monday, June 24, 2013 4:27 AM
Subject: a marvelous escapade that may or may not involve a potentially explosive car, wire transferred money, and frequently renewed bus passes

 Dear anyone that enjoys, or at least frequently notices, the beeping noise that is on occasion made when entering a public store,

 Joe and Benita came to the visitors centre at the temple with us this last week. It was a really powerful experience for all involved. The Serrano family drove them down and the entire family attended together. This was really cool because the Serrano family recently returned from less activity and has not yet participated in the blessings of the temple. So all together learned and felt the spirit as the sisters there taught about how the temple blesses and helps families and how what is done in the temple is central to our heavenly fathers plan for our happiness. We had told the sisters to focus on teaching about families in teaching and touring the Serrano’s and they did a fantastic job. During one point of the tour when the sisters asked Joe how he felt about what had been learned so far he got emotional and bore his testimony of Joseph Smith and the restoration of the church and gospel of Jesus Christ. He is spending a great deal of time and effort now teaching and helping his wife Benita to understand and feel the importance of this message. And she has been responding. Whereas before she just kinda sat there in the lessons she now participates and reads and explains scriptures as we teach. She is now genuinely committed as well for the sixth of July!

 Megan Gilber as well has been doing really well as she's been preparing for the 13th. she told us this last week that many of her friends have not understood and even mocked her when she told them about her up and coming baptism but she doesn't mind and she knows why she is going to do it and that is what is important to her. She is a very strong individual and has even already made plans to go to efy this summer as well! Her mother has been improving loads this week as well. She has been making steps to reactivate herself and it seems to me like she is doing this in part because she realizes that she needs to be an active member in order to offer her daughter the support that she wants to. That’s one of the great things about the gospel of Jesus Christ; it makes us want to be better for those we love. Love is the one of the greatest and most lasting motives that I have seen and experienced. We want to be better because we love those around us and we know we need to improve to be a better father, mother, brother sister, or friend. We may try self-improvement in other methods but the most sure and enduring changes and improvements come as one accepts and applies the teachings of Christ into their lives and into their relationships.

I’m very blessed as a zone leader. The missionaries in this zone are all, as far as we can tell, hard working and obedient missionaries and as such the work in this zone continues to improve and increase. We do most of our work as zone leaders in training and supporting the district leaders as well as training them in their responsibilities and they then do everything that they are called to do and the work hastens. The zone currently has 13 people preparing for baptism which is about double from what is was a few weeks ago and nearly every companionship in this zone is teaching around twenty lessons a week. faith+obedience=the spirit. the spirit+hard work= miracles.

Life is pretty good!

 with love

Elder Jarman

 ps. I have eaten more cow stomach in these last few weeks than I think I have eaten in my entire life. They call it shakkee and it's surprisingly good with pepe stew and rice

 pps. Our car broke this week so we spent a little bit of time exploring London from the sidewalks. It was an experience that I enjoyed more than I thought I would.

 

 

The Serrano Family with Elder Patten and I in front of the temple,

Joe and Benita are the ones in the middle.

 

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 :)

June 11, 2013 if you give a tom-tom a name she'll be sure to want some fufu

Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2013 5:01 AM
Subject: if you give a tom-tom a name she'll be sure to want some fufu

 
Dear anyone who is most likely severely under living their scrapbooking potential,
 
So first off I must apologize again for not e-mailing on my normal weekly time that seems lately to not really be as weekly or as normal as it has been in the past. We had a great first week in Welling this last week and it was also a great week for the zone. We picked up a new baptismal date this week named Joe. He’s from the Philippines and is living with his daughter’s family in this ward. Literally every member of Joe’s extended family is a member of the church. All of his children have joined and all of his grandchildren and all of their wives, but for some reason he has never had the opportunity. His granddaughter Breanne Serrano was baptized Saturday before last and he was attending. We met him at the service and spoke to him about the message and starting teaching him on Tuesday and he also agreed to be baptized on the 3rd of July in that same teach. He is absolutely solid and amazing he keeps all the commitments we give him and has a great ability to recognize and act on truth when he hears it. He is only in the UK temporarily though and will be moving back to the Philippines in a couple months. So the plan is to help him be baptized before he goes so he can go back to his family in the Philippines as a member of the church. He has some struggles and some pretty serious physical disabilities but despite all of those he works hard to do what he knows he should do. I already have a great love for him, and that’s' not just because he's from the Philippines (I love the Philippinos btw).  And I’m excited for his baptism.

So now to the meaty stuff:  ELDER BALLARD CAME TO OUR MISSION YESTERDAY!!!! We had a surprise conference yesterday. It was a pretty crazy day trying to organize the entire zone enough to get them all up to Hyde Park chapel on a moment’s notice but all went well and everyone arrived safely. Apparently it was a surprise because Elder Ballard was visiting Sweden with the area president and had a choice of where he was going to travel and teach for yesterday before an appointment he had in France tomorrow. He prayed and decided to visit the missionaries in London. The London mission met with him first but we came in for the end of their conference and had about twenty minutes where Elder Ballard addressed both the London and the London south missionaries at the same time. This was a powerful experience as he expressed to have all the missionaries serving in London and the surrounding areas together at once with an Apostle. He spoke to us about the simplicity of our message and the privilege it is to testify. He expressed how much he loves testifying to people about the incidents and the doctrine of the restoration, about the mission and call of Joseph Smith and about the truths of the plan of salvation. He told us that as an apostle he has many times where it seems that he does not have the strength to do what he needs to do. This was especially touching at this moment because since he arrived in Europe a few days ago he hasn't had much opportunity to rest, not to mention the jet lag, and you could see that he was fatigued even as he addressed us. He told us that when he has moments like that, he takes out a picture of the Savior and just looks at His face. Somehow while doing this he always finds the strength to do what he is required to do. He then challenged us to do the same and remember this counsel anytime our duty seems too much to bear. He challenged us to always keep Gethsemane and Golgotha in the back of our minds no matter what we are doing. He taught us many more things but these are the things that stood out to me the most through his address.

Side note: I had no idea that David Jordan was the mission president for the London north mission! I had about a triple take when I saw him on the stand coming into the conference. Unfortunately I didn't have the opportunity to speak to him due to the incredible rush and multitude of people there. I’m pretty sure he didn't see that I was there, but it was still a completely unexpected and cool experience to have a run in with my old high school lacrosse coach!

We've had a lot of miracles this last week and even today in the time I’ve been e-mailing you guys and I wish I had more time to express more to you guys but hey this is kinda how things have been my entire mission :)

Love you guys tons and I love hearing about the many great experiences you guys are having.

 
With love

Elder Jarman

 
p.s. have I mentioned that I occasionally go running along the Thames where I’m living now :)
 
p.p.s. I recently started exploring my Asian roots and started cooking with a wok. I’m happy to report that no one has yet suffered any fatal injuries.
 
p.p.p.s. it is not yet uncommon for me to occasionally eat peanut stew, just throwing that out there.

 

Elder Keller, me and loads of other missionaries in London on our way to see Elder Ballard

 

May 27, 2013 Brief but not berev

Sent: Monday, May 27, 2013 5:07 AM
Subject: brief but not berev

 

hey guys sorry about this shortitude of this e-mail I'm not going to have too much time to e-mail today but I should have some time on Wednesday. got lots to tell you :)

love you guys

sincerely

Elder Jarman

 

 

Sent: Saturday, June 01, 2013 3:21 AM
Subject: Re: drivers license

 

Sorry I wasn't able to e-mail on Wednesday I ended up being on the road all day and now am living in Welling.

I'll repent and give you guys more details when I e-mail for reals on Monday.

thanks

with love

Elder Jarman

 

 

Another successful transfer stuffage

 

May 20, 2013 when the elves departed, only the taste of the river remains

Sent: Monday, May 20, 2013 4:53 AM
Subject: when the elves departed, only the taste of the river remains

Dear anyone who feels surprisingly cool anytime they inadvertently make use of the word "wherefore",
 
So in starting we have now OFFICIALLY moved in! All of the stuff that we call ours, as well as the stuff that just kinda seems to follow us around, have now been transferred to our new flat in the Hamble River area--which of course meant that numerous portions of the week were spent "sorting" various materials into new positions that comprise bunk beds, desk spaces, and furniture sculptures. Due to the suddenimity of the move we ended up moving into another set of missionaries’ flat instead of buying a new one, so we have been creatively conforming what used to be a two man space into a four man space. I must say the experience has been quite fun and has involved a lot less duct tape than I previously would have supposed.
 
I’m so excited to open up a new area! Like really this is something that I have wanted to do for nearly my entire mission and I really thought that I would probably never get the opportunity. We built our new area book a few days ago and it was really quite intimidating/ exciting to open up the area book and see absolutely nothing inside of it. It’s a little bit like looking at a blank sheet of paper that eventually is going to be turned as you your mid-semester art project and picturing just what you’re going to do with it. This area has so much potential. We haven’t had much opportunity to work in our area because of moving and exchanging hassles but the time we have been able to spend, has been fruitful and we've gotten loads of names from the people in this ward that we will be visiting this week so we have some great places to start. So get ready for some miracle stories :) cuz they're coming.
 
Interestingly though we still are teaching Rebecca, even though she is in the Southampton area. She lives really far away from the Southampton city itself and is basically impossible for the missionaries without a car to get to so we've been asked to continue teaching her and visit her on splits with the Southampton missionaries. She is still doing fantastic and has accepted to live all of the commandments. She won't be able to be baptized this coming Saturday like we originally planned but she is still working towards baptism and we will be setting a new date with her on Tuesday.
 
I hit my 18 month mark a few days ago, which is an interesting experience for a missionary. I don't usually spend too much time thinking about the months because that only seems to make the time go even faster, but this was an interesting moment of introspection for me. I remember when I was a new missionary how much I looked up to and sought to be like the missionaries I knew that had been out for 18 months. I watched everything they did, especially my zone leaders, and copied every good thing they did and also used any mistakes they made to justify my own less than perfect choices. Being on the other side of the spectrum, with that memory has made me recognize that my actions will most likely have much more weight than I will recognize or even suppose. I still sometimes find it interesting that people listen to me at all, let alone take what I say seriously. The weight of knowing that people are watching can be quite heavy at times, but I welcome the opportunity to grow. I don't think we can ever realize how much different we are as active members of the church and how much we can stand out to those around us. And we can never fully appreciate how much of a positive affect our good choices can have on those we associate with. I find I have even more reason to "watch ourselves and our thoughts, and our words, and our deeds" when I know that others are as well. Being an example is probably one of the best helps you can be to your friends and your family.
 
I love you all and I’m very grateful to you for all of your support and help and especially your prayers,
 
With love

Elder Jarman

 
ps. my bunk bed looks out over a river so basically the first thing I see every morning is boats and swans. I highly recommend it.

 Epic view from my flat's balcony

 

 Winchester Cathedral

 

 "What the Harry Potter?"

 

Jane Austen's grave

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

April 29,2013--It's commonly misconceived that you would not be accosted by wild horses while driving through the new forest

Sent: Monday, April 29, 2013 4:28 AM
Subject: it's commonly misconceived that you would not be accosted by wild horses while driving through the new forest

 dear those who have ever changed dinner plans on account of sudden discoveries of green in unexpected places,

so we've had an exciting and eventful week this week. Elder Manga got his license this week so we've began doing missionary work in a car, which is completely different experience to what i'm used to. Mostly in that i don't get as hungry as i used to and my shoes aren't wearing out as quick, surprisingly though i still get just as exhausted by the end of the day, which is interesting. Somehow i guess i always assumed the exhausting part of missionary work was the walking but i guess it's not.

The work is going really well in south Hampton; we have an absolute miracle investigator that the missionaries began teaching shortly before i got to the area. Her name is Rebecca and she is an amazingly wealthy woman.  Half a year ago she saw a documentary on funerals and someone in that documentary was a member of the church. she was really impressed with how strong and loving this woman was especially in face of the recent death she had experienced. Then Rebecca basically forgot about the experience. A few months later her husband died of cancer. Through her struggles at this time she had many spiritual experiences and at some point remembered that woman she saw in the documentary and decided to learn more about what she believed. After researching the church for some time online she decided she wanted to be taught and the missionaries showed up a few days later. It’s crazy when we go to her house because she lives out in the countryside. So when we go there we drive down many winding green lanes that have random packs of wild horses roaming around.  It’s basically exactly what i originally pictured when i found out i was coming to England.

I’ve enjoyed working in my new calling, it is demanding and requires that i spend a lot more time doing administrative things than i've previously done but i've already learned a lot. Throughout my mission i've been taught and inspired by my leaders and i can easily think of a few leaders that changed me as a missionary and as a person through their ministering. i've been spending a lot of time thinking about those leaders and what it was about them that helped me so much. Although my leaders have helped me in many ways, the thing that i feel has changed me the most is when leaders helped me to expect more of myself. This never happened through them simply telling me to do more or even to be more. i gained these greater expectations as i worked with them and observed the way they worked and interacted with different people. Especially when i've recognized and witnessed a deep love of god and of the people we serve in my leaders it has always left me with a desire to be better and do more and expect more than i have before. None of these leaders were condescending or boastful, they never tore me down for my inadequacies but instead praised me for what i could do and helped me understand where i could be doing better. i've already had some experiences where i've been blessed to be able to recognize the great potential that the missionaries in this zone have. What i want to do and what my hope is, is to somehow help them to see it as well. i know the only way i can do this is if i trust the lord enough to let him guide me when i speak to or work with any of these missionaries.

missionary work is fun :)

i love you all and i love good cheese, of which there is a great abundance in England

 
with love

Elder Jarman 

ps. recently the sun came out in england . . . and there was much celebration