Oct 12, 2015

Oct 12, 2015

I dont really know if that works in English, but I had my first wedding this weekend!  And it was so cute!!  

But the best part was that they got baptized.  I know that that is the happily ever after of the mission (ok, actually  . .  and they got ceiled is the better happily ever after) but I just love baptisms.  Because when someone gets baptized they put into use the atonement of Jesus Christ in their lives.

And the atonement is something that I think I never understood. Being a good mormon girl I understood the commandments well, but really, I had never sinned bad enough for someone to really tell me ¨Liza, you HAVE to use the atonement in your life.  Because if you dont you cant . . . . anymore¨.  But how I wish that someone had told me that.  Had told me . .  you arent happy.  You feel lost, you feel frustrated, you feel . . .  any kind of bad feeling or temptatation . . . It is because you are not using the atonement in your life.  The people tell you to pray , to read your scriptures, to go to the temple.  Why . . . because this is how you put into action the atonment in your life.  But I think I read the wrong things, or prayed to be happier or better.  I never studied the life and atonement of Christ, nor prayed for the remission of my sins.  To be a seminary graduate, I read a lot and prayed a lot, but I still didnt understand WHY I was doing these things, WHY they made me happy.

But really, the gospel is so simple that I can be said in very few words.

Wickedness never was happiness.

I (being the good girl that I was) was sinning, and sin makes us unhappy.  And even if that sin is not being greatful, that is a a sin, and it certainly brings unhappiness.  Not being as focused on the my future (serving a mission), and family history and the temple was a sin, and it made me feel frustrated sometimes.  Because I was sinning.  

So I guess that I love baptizing because it is such a visual reminder.  We have sins.  We are dirty.  We cannot return to god with our sins and fifth attatched.  So we repent.  So we read, and pray and do all the Thou shalt commandments.

And then we are clean.  And happy.

I love the gospel so much.  And my Savior even more, because he gives me hope to always be clean and happy.  

Love,

Hermana Jarman

I got your xmas package this week!  Haha, you are very on the ball.  The funny thing was that through a turn of events I knew I had a package like 4 days before I got it.  And so I was exited to get it.  and my comp was ssssuuuuuuupppppppeeeeerrrrrrr exited.  So when I opened it, I went straight for the pictures.  That was the best gift you could give me.  And as I looked at the pics with 2 elders and laughed and loved them, my comp unwrapped almost everything and was eating the sourpatch.  Haha, she is so funny sometimes.  Its like . . .  hermana . . . this was for xmas . . . and was like . . . well there is no way that you were going to wait that long to open it anyway.  But it was actually a good thing because a lot of the presents are things I need for mosquitos, when I am sick, etc.

But guess what.  Dilma got baptized this week!!  It was a huge miracle because we went one day to teach her, and then we were talking to her daughters, and then she was preparing fruit salad for us and her daughter said ¨my mom hasnt told you anything special yet, right¨with a big grin.  And we were super surprised and said no!!  What happened. And Dilma said, yesterday I brought all my kids together and gave them the last hidden box of ciggarettes and we broke them to peices all together.  I am DONE smoking, because I want to be baptized!  It really was one of those times where you just sit there a little shocked because we have been praying about this for like 5 weeks now, and she never ever could give it up.  But then, she decided, and that was it.

Other super cool experience.  There is an hermana that is a convert of 6 months.  She is also the RS preident and is super amazing.  she has followed God her whole life, loves the bible, and to see her come to be converted and understand the fullness of the gospel of JC is just a miralce.  The other day we read Alma 5 with her and she read and read and read and then got to the end, closed the BOM and started crying.  We sat there, feeling the spirit super strong, listening to her cry for like 20 seconds.  And then she said ¨Y pensar que yo dudè¨ And to think that I ever doubted (that the book of mormon is the word of God).  I felt super strong in this moment that the BOM is sooooo powerful.

Anyway, I love you all so much!  Really, so very much!

Hermana Jarman