October 23, 2014

Oct 23, 2014

Time passes really fast here and sometimes I dont ever remember how long I have been here.  But today is Oct 22nd, which means that in one week it will be the 29th, and that is the day that Katie comes home.  So congrats Katie!!!!! You made it!

Umm, ok, highlights of the week.  I forgot my journal so this email may be a little bit scatterbrained, but here we go.

We got to go to the temple.  So the CCM is sit right between the Buenos Aires Temple and a dirty field full of trash.  Oh Argentina.  But we switched rooms this week (the old groups all left on Tuesday and so there were only the two northamerican 2 weeks in districts for 2 days) and we got the room right facing the temple.  So the view from our window is the BsAs temple.  But today we are getting new latinos and new northamericans.  It is sooo exiting.  (Little things are really exiting here . . .  like you should have heard all of the missionaries whooping and hollering out when Joseph kisses Emma in the Joseph Smith prophet of the restoration movie). But we got a new Hermana from Spain today!!!  How cool is that!  She has a kind of hard accent to understand though.  My favorite accent is Mexican because they have a really clear accent.  They are easy to understand.  Peru is pretty good too, and Ecuador and Columbia I like.  Argetine is getting easier I think because that is how our5 teachers talk to us all the time.  But some argetines have kind of lazy spanish, and they drop the ends of their words, which is hard.

But anyway, the temple.  The Buenos Aires temple is one of the prettiest temples in the world I think.  I am not just saying that because I live next to it.  It is so geourgeous.  The session was in Spanish which was really interesting, but I know that God blesses us for going to the temple even if we dont understand becasue I had a question in my mind all week and it was answered while I was in the temple.  So that was a cool miracle.

Another miracles is that we had several lessons that went really well.  And I am learning that the spirit is not something we earn really, it is something that we are given.  We have to qualify for this gift through our obidience, but it is not because of our obedience that we have the spirit with us, it is because of the infinite power of the atonement that we have the spirit.  Me and Papa (Jarman) talked about this one time before my mission, but I didnt really understand it as well as I do now.  But there were some lessons that just went really well because God looked down upon my little trio of hermanas, and our preparation, and our desires, and he gave us the gift of a spiritual lesson, and the investigators really felt it I think. (The investigators are really just my teachers, but i have also learned that when you treat them like real investigators you can recieve revelation for them, the spirit can bear testimony of your words, etc.)

So in 2 days I get to go preselityzing for the first time.   Basically they take us into a city near BA and leave us there for 4 hours with pamphlets and such, and we go contact people, teach street lessons, etc.  Before I thoguht we got to take a latina with us, but we don{t.   It is just me and my 2 comps.  Crazy, right!!  I am really exited.  And also really nervous.  I think the first time the missionaries here do it, they always come back with an extra dose of humility. 

Speaking of humility, I still love that scripture that I found my first week.  D and C 67, verse 10.  I would say that I want it to be my mission scripture, but I feel like if you have a mission scripture about humility everyone thinks that your mission was super hard all the time, and really, I love my mission right now.  It is great!! But everytime I read that scripture, I just love it.  So if you haven{t read it, read it!

Another cool thing that happened this week, or rather something that didnt happen this week is that I didnt get sick.  I always get every cold or respiratory illness that comes around, and so when my companion got sick I knew I was next.  But I didnt get sick.  This may seem insignificant, but to me it is really cool becayse I really have been praying to stay healthy.

Anyway, I love you all.  The gospel is true.  That is why I am here.

Over and out.

Hna Jarman

This is a picture of my and my roomates. 

From left to right

Hna Cardenas (de Mexico)

Hna Mortensen

Hna Hall

me

Hna Deluca (We called her our little Hermanita because she was so small!!)

This is me and all the northamericans that came with me.  My comps are Hna HAll (black curly hair) and Hna Mortensen (pixie cut, brown hair).  I love them both.

October 16, 2014

Oct 16, 2014

Hey Katie, I have some questions for you . . . .

1. How did you best study the language in the mtc.  is there a way that you loved, or just learning vocab and phrases.

2. How do you know if you are teaching with the spirit because I feel like I am not teaching with the spirit well at all.  I feel like the spirit is really helping me in my lessons and the spirit is just not there as much as I want it to me.  and neither is the language but I feel like I understand how to work on that a little bit more. 

3.  Haha, I feel like I can tell you how things really are.  Things are good.  Not great, but good.  I have been praying for humiilty lately and it is starting to come but I guess the thing is . . . I think because I am loud and love to help people, or something like that . . . . people always told me that I was going to be the BEST missionary.  Like there were ok missionaries, and then there was good missionaries and then there was me.  Above all of them.  And now, I kind of wish they hadn{t said those things.  Because your personality means absolutely nothing on a mission.  The spirit does.  That is what changes lives.  A good missionary is a humble missionary.  And I am happy.  Like I feel great.  I like life here a lot.  And I am learning and growing and I love my comps and I love my district (we sometimes got task because we have sooooo many funny people in my district.   But that is what I am pondering about right now.  Anyway, I guess I am just wondering if you have any advice.  Because I just love you, and I look up to you so much.  And I am so greatful that you served a mission right before me because then you can help me soooo much with mine!

Anyway, I am happy, dont worry.  I tell you these things for your advice and wisdom and because mom would get super worried about me, but you know more recently waht missions are like so you dont worry as much and you just worry less in general, so dont worry about me. :)

Love,

Hnita Jarman

Katherine Jarman <katherine.jarman@myldsmail.net>

10/21/14

Um I studied a whole Book of Mormon about humility. There are a couple good quotes about it that they said in that zone conference that you went to. Like Humility isn't thinking less of yourself, it's thinking less about your self. You can have confidence and still be humble. Be teachable and that's a huge part of it. I liked playing conguation games with my district members. We would write a verb and then we'd right up the conguagtion chart (like yo, tu, usted, ect) and then we would point to one and have to conguate the verb to the right one. It's good on getting faster. Read PMG in spanish. That's more practical than the book of mormon when you're starting out. And the pamphlets are great tools too. 

About the spirit, if you're doing your best, the spirit will help. Don't stress and trust that it will come.

Hey, 

I havent gotten the dear elder stuff yet but I am sure I will get it soon.  

Umm, can you send carl my email.  He asked for it but I forgot to send it to him.  

What else, what else.

How are you.  Do you miss your girls. I am happy that katie will come home soon to keep you company.   Not like I think that you sit around weeping and eating bon bons all day.  I just hope you aren}t lonely. I am happy that Jess is home now!!! How is that.   Have you seen her yet?

So in the CCM they dont let you take pics.  Dont know why becasue you can in provo, but that is a rule here.  so I have pics from the airport but I forgot to bring my camera up here so . . . . ya.  next weeek.

love love love love

Liza

This feels really surreal.  Haha, you should hear the flurry of typing going on right now.  . . . . MISSIONARIES LOVE MAIL!! (read Poverbs 25:25 . . . it goes both ways)

So I am now a missionary.   And it is just great.  It feels real now, so not as much like a utopia, but good.  And I am learning a whole lot.  Ya!  Spanish has a lot of words . . . . but it is so cool because I am learning so much faster than I think I could ever learn normally.  Like I was always wondered how missionaries teach lessons on their 3rd day.  Now I know.  You just do it and somehow you always seem to know just barely enough words to express your self.  But my favorite thing is praying.  I like praying in Spanish and now I am fairly comfortable with it (You pray like 10 times a day here so you get pretty good pretty fast.)

Umm, I have been writing the miracles down because there are just so many. I am at miracle number 27 I think.  But I will just tell you some of my favorite miralces.  

So we live with latinas (in our little apartment) and there is one from MExico she is so cute, and we can understand her so well.  But for the first 2 days I could not understand DeLuca for the life of me.  And my compainons couldnt either (I am in a trio . . .I dont know if I told you that . . . .).  Anyway,, she couldnt understand us either.  We have bad accents right now.  But then I had the thought to talk to her about her family because I know a lot of the worlds for family . . . .that is pretty basic Spanish.  Anyway, that night we talked to her about her family and we totlally understood her and it was great!!  Now we talk all the time.  She talks slower for us and clearer and she has learned how to get the just of what we say and now we talk all the time.  I love the latinas.  They are only here for 12 days though so they leave next Wed.  Sad.

Other miracle . . . .this was on the first day.  I wasnt on the list of people they thought were coming so there was some confusion, but then everything worked out and there was this one teacher Hna Cristeche and she was super awesome!  She seriously helped me like 10 times that day.  She just saw me, and with her alright english and my very very broken spanish, we got everything figured out.  Yay!  

Another miracle . . .  .One day I was feeling like I didn}t feel the spirit every minute of every day (I know, unreal expectations . . . . I have adjusted) and then we had a lesson about how we have to tesitfy of Jesus Christ, and that is the most important thing.  And we all got up afterwards and the spirit was one of the strongest times I have felt in my life.  That doesn{t make sense.  You know what I mean.  And I felt it the strongest when this elder told the very common story of footsteps in the sand (where christ will carry you during the hard parts of your life) and I just knew that God wanted me to know so much, more than most anything else, that during this mission, he would carry me when it got too hard.  And if I let him, he would carry me for the entire mission.

Funny story . . ..at the airport we met up with this kid from Canada (there were a bunch of us that traveled from the US together) and we were getting to know him and we asked him about his spanish and he said ´´I don{t know hardly aney spanish at all, all I know is Bonjour¨.  Nobody else laughed but I thought it was so funny. I turned to one of the sisters and was like ´´that{s french!´´.  Then she laughed. I dont actually know if he was joking on purpose or accident.  

Well, I love you all.  See ya in a week.  The gospel is true.  That is why I am here.

Hermana Jarman

P.S. My favorite scripture . . . I just love it is now D and C 67:10.  I am working on being humble and putting my trust in the Lord and I just think this scripture is so beautiful.  

October 9, 2014

Oct 9, 2014

Hey! I made it here, after a lot of hours of flying and more attempted sleep than actual sleep (but there was an extra seat in the middle that I got to use, and that was wonderful.)

Anyway, I love it here.  The CCM is RIGHT next to the Buenos Argentina temple.  I feel like I have just entered some utopian compound where everyone is really nice and every smiles and everyone just loves each other.  You pass by this georgeous temple and then these elders come running up and help you with all your bags.  They are 3 weeks old and SURE that you are going to just love it.  Then you see the sisters, smilely and kind, asking you how the flight was.  Its just perfecto!!

My p day is thursday, so I will either write you tommorow or possible next Thursday.  I am not quite sure.  Wait.  Today is thursday.  Hahaha, ya, I will write you next Thursday.  It still feels like one really really long day for me.  But I started writing down miracles and I am already at 10.  And I have only been on a mission for 24 hours and I already have 10 miracles.  I am going to love this.

Love,

Hermana Jarman

P.S. The people at the mtc didn}t have my flight number so they didn}t know I was coming.  So I am companionless and bedless for the moment.  Don}t worry though.  They are fixing it right now.  And they will take care of me.  I mean, this IS a utopian society.

P.S.s. Funny story . . . 

So I introduced myself to one of the elders at the airport and I said Sister Jarman.  He shook my hand and with a burst of confidence responded Sister Mendoza!!  What??  He mumbled some more and got flustered and said I mean Elder!  Elder Medoza.  It was funny because he was so sure of himself when he said it.

Anyway, love you.  Church is true.

P.S.S. what is dads email???

Letters Home . . . . Prelude

So I am back from my mission.  And I realized that this blog really is a wonderful journal, so I am going to put all my mission letters that I sent to my family.  I guess this is some of the group emails, but also some of the harder weeks that I just wrote my family.  So this is the real mission, real and uncut.  But make no mistake, this was the best 18 months for my life, and of my life.  The mission is hard, yes, but also so good.  The mission scripture I had chosen at the beginning of my mission was D and C 67:10.

 10 And again, verily I say unto you that it is your privilege, and a promise I give unto you that have been ordained unto this ministry, that inasmuch as you strip yourselves from jealousies and fears, and humble yourselves before me, for ye are not sufficiently humble, the veil shall be rent and you shall see me and know that I am—not with the carnal neither natural mind, but with the spiritual.

And it was true.  I wasn't humble enough, and as I was humbled, I did come to know with a stronger feeling than ever, that my Savior lived and was the Redeemer of all mankind.  But it is also a little harsh, and as I came to better understand the atonement of Jesus Christ I learned so much about the love our Heavenly Father has for us.  So the scripture that I ended my mission with, that I just feel like describes the mission like no other scripture is Alma 31: .

 38 And the Lord provided for them that they should hunger not, neither should they thirst; yea, and he also gave them strength, that they should suffer no manner of afflictions, save it were swallowed up in the joy of Christ. Now this was according to the prayer of Alma; and this because he prayed in faith.

Someone once told me that the mission is like a field of roses, that when you are running through, there are so many little pricks, there are ditches and hills, and you feel yourself gaining calluses from the little pricks.   At the end of the mission is when you have crossed through this rose field and looking back all you can see is beautiful roses that stretch on for miles.  All you remember is the good, because the good completely overpowers the afflictions.  So here is my mission journal!

This is Not Goodbye

This is my last post before I leave to serve a mission in Asuncion Paraguay for a year and a half.  I will first go to the missionary training center in Buenos Aires, Argentina to learn Spanish until the beginning of November and then I will go to Paraguay.  But this is not goodbye, because I don't like final goodbyes.   And I am not dying or anything, just going on a mission.  But even if I were, I would not say any final deathbed goodbyes because that would be assuming that there was an end to that relationship.  And I believe that there no final goodbyes, no ends to relationships.  I believe in a gospel of infinity and eternity.

A leader of my church, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said . . . .

"In light of what we know about our eternal destiny, is it any wonder that whenever we face the bitter endings of life, they seem unacceptable to us? There seems to be something inside of us that resists endings.

Why is this? Because we are made of the stuff of eternity. We are eternal beings, children of the Almighty God, whose name is Endless¹³ and who promises eternal blessings without number. Endings are not our destiny."

I am leaving to go share this glorious message of everlasting life and eternal happiness with others because I have seen how it has shaped and improved my life, and I want others to experience this same happiness.

I will see you all soon!

Love,

Sister Liza Jarman

Walking in the Footsteps of Christ

My professor told me an awesome story here on the steps of the temple.  This is it.  I found it online.  

This is a paragraph from Thomas Friedman’s book From Beirut to Jerusalem and only seems appropriate given the news of Neil Armstrong’s passing (h/t Stephanie Butnick):

When American astronaut Neil Armstrong, a devout Christian, visited Israel after his trip to the moon, he was taken on a tour of the Old City of Jerusalem by Israeli archaeologist Meir Ben-Dov. When they got to the Hulda Gate, which is at the top of the stairs leading to the Temple Mount, Armstrong asked Ben-Dov whether Jesus had stepped anywhere around there.

“I told him, ‘Look, Jesus was a Jew,’” recalled Ben-Dov.
“These are the steps that lead to the Temple, so he must have walked here many times.”

Armstrong then asked if these were the original steps, and Ben-Dov confirmed that they were.

“So Jesus stepped right here?” asked Armstrong.
“That’s right,” answered Ben-Dov.
“I have to tell you,” Armstrong said to the Israeli archaeologist, “I am more excited stepping on these stones than I was stepping on the moon.”

This is how I felt on these steps.  Jesus walked here.  So did I.  There was nothing more that I wanted to do in life then keep on walking where Jesus walks, doing what he would do, saying what he would say, loving like he loves.  That is one this Jerusalem really did for me.  Being in such a holy place constantly filled me with desires to be better.  Desires to grow closer to Christ.  I hope I can keep that flame of desire in my heart for the rest of my life.

Kotel Wall, and other adventures . . . .

So, I know.  I am home from Jerusalem now.  So why am I blogging.  But the secret is . . . . this blog was really meant to be a way to remember Jerusalem for me and my life, so during these weeks where I have not much to do because I am waiting to go on a mission, I am going to finish what I started.   I am going to tell the rest of the story of Jerusalem.  Because about the time I stopped blogging, Jerusalem started to really change me.  It also got crazy busy and the time I wasn't on some field trip or in the city was spent with my new best friends because by this point we really were like a giant family that ate together, went to class together, laughed together, played Rook together, went exploring in the city together, etc.

So this is the rest of the Jerusalem story, told in probably the next couple posts.

THE KINNESET

We went and visited the government building of Israel.  The things I remember about it was that we had a British Jew tour guide.  He was cool.  Also, half of the Jeru Center group stopped to take a picture or something and got lost.  So we are sitting in one of the committee rooms and our tour guide has been talking for 5 minutes, and then like 6 people walk in (all from the Jeru center).  We all kind of laughed and the tour guide said something to the effect of "Did you lose your way?".  Of course it was Jeru kids.
The other thing I remember is that I got a seat not at the table where the important official people sat, and about half way through, Ben Lenhart got out of his seat and offered to switch me so that I could sit in the important people chairs and I was really impressed by him.  It was so considerate of him.
Also there was this crazy artwork by Chagall.  Very abstract.  I am not sure what the messages were supposed to mean, but there were three panels.  One representing the past of Israel (Bible), and one representing the present, and one representing the future.

Our British Jewish Tour Guide

 The main assembly hall of the Kinnesset is shaped like a menorah.

 The Jewish Declaration of Independence (from the 1950's--they are a super new country)

Me and Ben on the outside of the Kinnesset.

UNDERNEATH THE WESTERN WALL

We went on a tour underneath the western wall.  I remember that the tour guide kept on asking questions and we knew every single answer.  Every date, every location, everything about the geography, history, you name it of Jerusalem.  This was one of the moments when I remembered how much I had learned in Jerusalem.  Also, seeing the ancient stones that supported the temple and knowing that Jesus really did walk here, above these stones made me want to touch each and every one of them.  I felt the spirit as I realized that I was in a place so close historically to Christ's Jerusalem.  

 The stone is ginormous.  It weighs 500 tons.  Nobody knows how they got this here, but this is one of the foundation stones of the ancient temples.

 The closest spot to the Holy of Holies on the Western Wall.

An ancient mikvah (ritual bath).  And of course we touched it.  Thank you Dr. Seely.

OTHER RANDOM PICS

 In the quarry where they got the bricks for the Temple on the temple mount. It is called Zedekiah's caves.

This is in the artists colony in West J.  We kind of stumbled upon it.  Isn't it gorgeous! I tried to find it later with a group of friends but we never could find it again.  So it is like my little secret garden that I found with Jordan and Valerie and Ben and Jake.