January 5, 2015

Jan 5, 2015

Ahh, I never have enough time to really write you.

The day of Christmas Eve was super super hard.  I was really struggling, and I didnt know how I could get better. 

The day of Christmas before I called you the hermana leaders came over and talked with us and studied with us.  Mostly because I was having a hard time.  One of them was talking to me alone and she had me list all the things I HAD to do.  It was long.  And had a lot of things I couldnt do anything about.  Then she wrote me a new list

Be happy

Testify

Study the atonement

Pray to apply the atonement in my life

Invite people to repent come to christ and get baptized.  

This, no more than this is what I had to do.

Ever since then I have been doing the things on that list.  and I have been a lot happier.  Last monday was a little harder, I have hard days still, but the rest of the week was miracle after miracle.  I am so happy.  The atonement is so good.

But thanks for the house of the hear talk.  I really wanted to study and read it becasue it really is about teh atoenemnt

I love yuoui sooo myucg

Tell dad congrats,  He will do so good!!!

Love

Liza

Ok bueno.  I was going to try and send pictures, but its being rough.

This week we had a really cool zone conference.  In the South American area, they are really trying to focus on using all of the people in the casa to redeem the vineyard.  (d and c 101 . .55).  So we really trying to focus not just on baptizing, but on retaining and reactivating at the same time.  And we have had some really cool less active miracles this week.  Like we went to ask a less active if we could have lunch with her one day, and she was walking to the house of her cousin, so we went with her to meet her cousin, and passed the house of someone that we didnt know that is a member that hasnt gone to chuch in ages, and then we met her cousin, and taught a little mini lesson (basically just got to know her) and set a time to come back and it was like Yeah!  Becasue we were finding people with a less active person, thus strengthening them both.  How cool is that.

Now for the funny story that is also a miracle.  So we were contacting (umm, so really trackting.  We clap at peoples doors every day . . .this is definately a mission in which we trackt).  Beuno.  And we found this girl, and were teaching her  a street lesson and we were talking and we showed her the picture of Jesus getting baptized by ÇJohn the baptist. And my comp said ¨Have you seen this picture before¨  ¨Yes¨  ¨What is happening in this picture¨.  Then this girl, looks closely and says ¨It looks like one of the man is about to hit/punch the other man.¨  Oh my gosh, you know how easily I laugh.  Well I was dying trying to hold it in.  Because this is the really spiritual part of the lesson, and I just was dying laughing on the inside.  I dont know if i will ever be able to look at that picture the same.  Aw man, it makes me laugh even now.  I mean, how could you see that coming.  But the miracle is that she said yes, and she is super cool!  She just has problems coming to church.  But she wants to get baptized!  Her name is cnythea and she is super cool.

Bueno!  Love you all,

Hna Jarman

December 29, 2014

Dec 29, 2014

Merry christmas you all!!  I hope you really had a great day and that you are enjoying the snow!!  Here it is finally getting to be summer.  So I guess for you that would be gong from really hot to blazing hot.  But really, I had the blessing for arriving for spring so I am fairly adjusted to the heat. So its not that bad.  Also there always seems to be a breeze. This is a gift  sometimes.

So I finished cambio 1!  I am officially not the youngest person in the mission anymore!  And really, this cambio has been one of development.  Because the mission, its just not like real life.  And it takes a second to adjust to.  But really, if there is anything I have learned this cambio, it is that things are supposed to happen the way they do.  And that no matter what area you are in, no matter what comp you have, no matter what investigators you are working with, God has sent you there for a purpose.  

Also, that the atonement is so good.  Because we can´t do anything by ourselves.  There is a scripture in 2 Judges,  I think . . .  it is when David is talking to Goliath.  And Goliath is making fun of him, asking how he thinks he is going to beat him.  And then David says something like ¨This is the battle of the Lord¨or something like that.  A byu professor shared this with me in Jerusalem and taught us a lesson about how sometimes we cry out that we can´t do things, that things are too big, and certainly with our end goal being perfection, the goal is impossible for us.  But the miracle of Christmas, the miracle of the atonement, is that it was never our battle to fight.The battle has already been won by Christ. That really, without him, we can do nothing, and with him we can do everything.  This is my testimony.  That we can do all things through Christ who strentheneth us. 

Now for the miracle of the week.

We had 3 people that came to church this week.  This was the first week of my mission that we had people in sacrament meeting!  It was such a miracle.  This family that we have been working with for forever came (a couple with two 3 year olds). Also the father of a recent convert who has health problems came too!  This was such a miracle because people here dont usually have cars, so we had to get a member in the lesson, and then have that member offer their car, and just everything went so well.  It could not have been better.  And all 3 of them said they are for sure coming next week, so I am exited that we finally have some people really progressing!

I love you guys so much, 

Hna Jarman

Mom, 

In answer to your question, I am working hard here.  And I am really doing well.  So dont worry about me.  Missions are just harder than people think.  But I know that one day, if I fight everyday to be happy and have the spirit with me that I can one day arrive at that day when I cant imagine coming home, because I just love being in my mission so much.  And that day usually takes a little while to get to, so I am trying to put in the work so I can get there.  But I just have to keep fighting everyday.  I think that this is really the first time that I really have to grow up and be an adult, and at times it is sobering, but everyone out here is just doing their best.  And really, I am learning that if the justice of the mission is the numbers, the goals, the conference talks of chastening that we have to read a page of everyday, the mercy is in the prayers.  The mercy is in that at the end of the day, you can pray and you can recieve an answer from God that you are doing ok.  That he loves you.  This is so good, and this is how I get through everyday.  Because God loves me.  And this is enough.  And we have really good leaders.  I have a really good district leader, and during intercambios (splits) one of the hermana trainging leaders asked me to list everything I thought I had to do.  Then she gave me a new list.  And this list was A LOT more simple, and doable, and turned me to the atonement.  And this helped me soooo much.  So I really am doing so much better. 

Anyway,

I love you so much, and I loved hearing about all your purchases and gifts.

Hna Jarman

December 15, 2014

Dec 15, 2014

Sorry I haven´t been answering all your questions.  Last week I only got half an hour to write and normally we only get an hour so my email time is a little cramped (a lot of missionaries have more time than this).   But I LOVE getting all of your letters and I read them all.  Thank you for the support.  I dont think you realize how much missionaries love letters until you are one.  

But the ward.  In paraguay the wards are small, but they have a family or two that are second generation, and these guys are the studs of the ward.  The wife is the primary president, and the husband is the bishop. In another family the son is the ward mission leader, the mom is the RS president, and the dad is in the stake.  So there are some really solid members in the ward.  But the problem is that nobody is really all too exited about missionary work and retencion.  They all want new members but they dont know how to keep the members they have.  I am not quite sure how to fix this yet, because the culture is really different, but I am working on it. But when you ask them to accompany you to a lesson they are really good about coming with you.  So that is really good.

Everybody en Paraguay works all the time.  And when they arent working they are sitting on their house trying to stay cool.  It is funny becasue I realized that the missionaries are more accostomed to the heat than the paraguayans because when it is really hot, they stop working and relax or nap or whatever, and we are still working.  Funny, right  

As for the standard of living.  The country just is more dirty and sweaty, because it is hot all the time and humid, and the roads are cobblestone and sand.  But nobody is worried about this,  They are just chill.  That is the thing about paraguay.  They are nothing if not tranqillo.  That is their goal in life.  They also love their familes a lot.  They often have 3 generations living in the same house.

NOW FOR THE MIRACLES

Ahh, running out of time.  Umm a short one.  So this week we were on the way to an investagadors house and I saw a couple sitting outside.  I paused for a second and kept on walking, promising myself that I would come back and if they were still outside, I would contact them.  And I came walking back, I had totally forgotten about them, and there they were.  So I contacted him.  The boy didnt believe in God.  I got to bear testimony to him that there is a god, a god that loves him.  It was powerful.  We gave him a pass along  card and challeneged him to watch the new christmas video of the church.  I think he is going to do it.

Anyway, love and Merry Christmas.

Hna Jarman

More pics----my district-

December 9, 2014

Dec 9, 2014

Hello All!

Yes, I am writing on a Tuesday.  This is becasuse yesterday was the day of the virgen of Caacupe.  AKA, the day when all the people flee to a city called caacupe to worship Paraguay´s version of the lady of Guadalupe.  Ya, pretty crazy.  And the funny thing is that many people walk to Caacupe.  Like hours and hours in the hot sun . . . . Haha, but we got to go clean the temple yesterday, and that was sooo good. I love the paraguay temple.  It is so pretty.  I will try and send pics next week.  Also Asuncion was like pretty much abandoned because it was a holiday.  So we were just walking around to the temple with no cars of the streets, etc.  But it was really fun becase we rarely get to go to the tempe (once a year) but when you clean the temple you get to go.  And there is such a spirit in the temple.

The miracle that happened this week was that we showed this new video (El es la dadiva . .  .so I think that translates to he is the gift . . . anyway it is the church´s new iniciative and I love it . .  the video is so powerful . . .so everybody should go watch it.) to one of our investigators who has been struggling to progress and at the end of the lesson after sharing this video with her and she said she wanted to start really doing her part.  Anyway, this was so cool!

Love,

Hna Jarman

Hey Katie, can you look on my old iphone and find me the email adress of rachel stout.  I think she is getting married this week and I really want her email adress.

Also tell mom that I cant chat.  My mission is very strict, entoces, if she emails me during my time online I cant email her back.  So ya.

But I am doing much better.  Some days a are just hard though.  I just dont love being a missionary every single moment.  But I am sure this comes.  Also I am really attatched to the numbers, but I am working on forgeting about this because they dont count.  But this are better every week.

I love you,

Hna Jarman

December 1, 2014

Dec 1, 2014

Wow!  There was so many emails I recieved today!  It was amazing!  So thanks to you all for sending them!

First of all Feliz Dia de the Accion of Gracias.  Also Feliz Viernes Negro.  Yes there are names for both of them in spanish.  Although they dont celebrate thanksgiving here, they do celebrate black friday!  Haha, one of our investigators (I will talk about her later, I just love her, her name is Juana) called and cancelled our apointment with her because it was black friday and she needed to shop.

So everybody has been asking about Paraguay and my trainer. . .  so here goes.

My trainer is Hna Lindsay, from Idaho.  She is super nice, and super tranquilla.  well, most missionaries are pretty laid back here.  Everybody is laid back in Paraguay. About everything.  I think that that could be one of the reasons I was sent here to Paraguay.  To learn how to be more laid back. She is really nice and lets me do the things that I want to do, and the things I can do, and she picks up the rest. (Aka, she is a good trainer)  She is always smiling, and is very loving with the people.  She is 22 and went to BYUI for two years before the mission. She wants to teach children.  I mean that is her major.

The obra misional in Paraguay . . . so everyone you talk to here wants to talk about Jesus, and everyone here is way friendly.  If we clap at the gates of like 8 houses each day we´d probably get like 5 return appointments.  But a lot of times they forget and arent home when we come back, and getting them to progress is a whole different matter. So we do a lot of contacting and teaching first lessons.  And we have some progressing investigators too.  I love them too, although I can´t understand everything they say sometimes.

I am in basically the suburbs of Asuncion, but it is a city of its own.  It is called San Lorenzo.  And it is city, and parts of it are nice, but parts of it are also really worn down houses, and have really poor people too. Its just kind of a mix of everything.  There are some paved roads, some rocky roads.  Like maybe half are paved.  Just depends.  All the areas are walking areas, so if you need to get somewhere you take a collectivo, which is essentially these worn down public buses that you flag down, pay a small fee, and jump on board.  Sometime you get a seat, sometimes you are nearly hanging out the door.   I have had both!  I actually like collectivos.  They are kind of an adventure everytime you get on them.

One of the many miracles this week.  We have this amazing investigator named Juana.  Hna Lindsay and her last comp found her.  But she just is golden.  She just knows that she needs to join the church.  She fulfills her commitments and is gaining a testimony.  But her husband (or the man that she needs to get married to before she is baptized but is basically her husband) is a bit lazy and says he wants to listen, but then never is there when we come.  But last night he was there and we taught him the restoration.  And their two 3 year olds were terrible the whole time, so I am not quite sure how strong the spirit was, but at least he was listening right!  I really hope that they get baptized because they are so good.

Also there is Rita.  She is a member of the ward and is soo awesome!!  She always is ready to leave with us and contact with us or teach with us.  She is a really strong member of the ward who is there every Sunday without fail.  She is also super funny.  And for some reason, I understand her really well.  Anyway, I just love her. The other day, we went past to see Juana, and Juana wasnt there.  We called her.  She had forgot. but could we come back in like 4 hours.  So there Rita, instead of going home, stayed with us for those 4 hours and visited past contacts and stuff with us.  She is so cool.

Anyway, I love you all.  I am greatful for you all.

Love,

Hna Jarman

November 24, 2014

Nov 24, 2014

Ok.  So this week was crazy, and I dont even know how to tell you about everything.  So I will just make a list of firsts.

First comp in the mish . . . .my trainers name is hna lindsay and she is from idaho.  Its crazy because there were 5 na hermanas that needed trainers in the mish, and there was 4 latina trainers and 1 northamerican one.  And I got the na one!  Still trying to figure out what that means . . . haha, but it is a blessing none the less because we have a lot in common.  I like her a lot.  She reminds me of Katie a ton.  She is really chill but also happy and also just really good at teaching.  

First rainstorm . . .  oh man it rains in paraguay.  And the streets are like streans.  I have heard they can become like rivers but so far they are just streams.  But we got soaked so we went and grabbed trash bags from a members house so we could keep on working.  Then we went out to work again.  And then it REALLY started raining.  So we clapped at the house of some random person and she let us sit on her patio to wait out the storm.  She was really nice, but one of the more hard to understand people.  Well, everyone here is hard to understand but rather she couldnt understand me.  Neverless nice.  All the Paraguayans are nice when you clap their doors. 

First Sunday . . . . . . without any investigators coming to church.  So this one was actaully a little disheartening for me because I was so exited that all the people we had talked to had said they would come to church, and then nobody came.  But apperantly this is fairly typical in Paraguay.  Well really all missions but especially paraguay they say they will do something and then they will forget to do it.  But I love them none the less, and next week we have an openhouse of the chapel.  So after that i have faith that more people will come to church once they see how normal and cool it is.  Also I love the ward.  They are super chill.  This week was the primary program and the little ninos were sooo chulina (cute).

First chipa, gueso, empanada, etc.  I LOVE paragayan food.  So far it is pretty normal, but really good,  Especially the empandas.  I love the empanadas.  I love them.

First week in Paraguay . . . so good, so different, so full of emotions.  I cant believe I have a year and half of this.  

Well, love you all.

Hna Jarman

Hello Fam!  How is hawaii!!!  

I assume it is pretty good becasue no one wrote me.  but DONT FEEL BAD (mom). Haha the only person that wrote me was trent so be glad he is now oficially almost part of our family or that would be sad.  Oh, actually katie wrote in the letter too.  So props to katie and Trent.  And you are engaged.  Oh my goodness!  That is probably the favorite moment of this whole entire week.  I am so happy for you!!!

This week was . . . good.  But also hard.  I promised all of you that I would tell you if I have hard weeks if you tell me when you have hard weeks because then we can stay close while I am so far away. Anyway, so now you have to keep your end of the deal.

I am learning how to be a missionary,  And being a missionary is not exactly the ways of the natural man. Entonces, I have a LOT to learn. The mtc was just really fun and I learned spanish and it seems like you are really good at spanish compared to your peers, and then you come out in the field and realize you know nothing.  Becasue they dont have lesson plans in paraguay, you never know when or what you are going to teach, which is hard because then you just have to shoot from the hip`and use whatever spanish you have.  Which is not a ton.  But the spirit has helped me so much this week.  So that has been a miracle.  And also when you cant talk to people it gets kind of lonely.  This is why I think I have a comp that is northamerican.  Because sometimes I just need someone to talk to.  And someone that understands.  And she is really great.  And I think that it just takes a bit to get into the missionary mindset.  I have always seen missionaries with this mindset and have always wondered how they could be so happy, so hopeful, thinking everyday that they were going to find the perfect person that we could baptize that Saturday, knowing full well that it is equally as likely that you will go whole changes or multiple changes without any baptisms.  Or that you make plan after plan, prayer after prayer, trying to get your investigators to church and then your investigators just ignore you on Sunday mornings.  How can you be happy doing this.  I didnt get it.  But I read my setting apart and some talks and pme about what a sucessful missionaryis. and I think I am finally starting to understand.  First of all, missionaries are not baptizers they are representatives of christ.  And christ didnt just bring people to the waters of baptism.  He brought them closer to God, he taught the gospel, he conforted them, he brought more light into their lives.  This is what he did, and as the people who walk the earth in his place now, this is what we do.  We want to baptize, but this is not the only thing we should want as missionaries.

Tambien, it is a characteristic of God, in fact one of the characteristics that makes god god, is that he promptly forgives us for not fulfilling the comnmitments he has given us.  And missionaries become about to forgive their investigators as rapidly as god, feeling as fully certain as God does about us, that we will do better next time, that we have the potential to do better, but also comnplete faith in us that we WILL do it, because he has forgotten our past transgressions.  

This is the miracle of the atonement.  In my setting apart blessing and in my fathers blessing it talks very specifially about how i will come to have a working and living understanding of the atonement.  And I think that I am starting to learn the miracle of the atonement.   Because this week made clear to me that I cannot serve this mission alone.  I cannot learn this language alone.  I cannot have the ability to forgive those that have frustrated me alone.  But the miracle is that I never was supposed to do it alone.  Only one was supposed to do it alone, and he has already done it.

This is my testimony.  I love you all. And dont worry about me.  I am fine.  There are angels around me to bear me up, and if I have learned this much about the atonement in one week, I cant imagine what I will learn in the next 80ish weeks.

Love,

Hermana Jarman

November 18, 2014

Nov 17, 2014

Umm, I have like no time tomorrow.

I am leaving tomorrow at 4 in the morning.  I do have an international calling card, but i will be in airport between 4 and 6 which is when my flight leaves, which is really really early for you.  Also missionaries cant be alone, and yada yada yada so I will try to see if I can call you.  Just keep your cell phone around and I will call either you or dads cell phone tonight if i get in the right situation.  But dont stay up all night or anything. just put your cell phone on loud.

Anyway, I love you so much.  I briefly skimmed your letter.  I am sorry for Anna.  That stinks.  You should tell her to write me.  Or Stephen.  And anna and caroline.  I want to be a part of their lives but I really cant unless they write me.  I suppose this is the problem of every older sibling that goes on a mission.  In the woes of high school life is too busy to have time for you missionary siblings.  I just love them ya know......

Did you ever get the letter I send home by the way

Also i got to hear from bro cristofferson yesterday.  That was cool.  Two apostles in one week.  I like him a llot.  he is proabably one of my fave apostles.  So classy.

Anyway, I think I may write you when I get to the mish home.  Or possibly in a week from today.  I am not quite sure.

Love

Hna Jarman

18 Nov, 2014

I am in Paraguay.  Things are great.  I will write you a little later (next week) and I am sure I can tell you a lot more.  I am almost positive I have a latin trainer, so that is going to be an adventure.  But I am happy.  This is going to be a cool experience, and I am happy to start this new adventure.

My miracle of the day . .  . on the plane I sat next to this lady from paraguay. And we talked for the entire 1 hour 15 minute flight.  Not about the gospel the whole time, but about her family and her recent trip to Europe, and how she just recently visited the canary islands.  Which is awesome because this is where my dad served his mission.  A little peice of his mission as I go out onto mine.  But I definately have seen miracles throughout today.  My mission president and his wife, I love them. I love argentines and they are argentine.

Anyway,  more updates in a week.  I love you all!

also.  its hot here.  for sure.  they werent kidding when they said paraguay hace mucho calor.

Love,

Hna Jarman