Holler Holler

Hola Familia y Amigos!

I really need to think of a better way to open these letters.. But I've got more pressing stuff I guess hahah. Anyways let's see... what happened this week. We're continuing to dominate Spanish (humbly) and our teaching is getting better and better. I really love our two teachers, Hermano Urquhart and Hermano McCleve. You can tell they care so much about the success of this work and they always bring the spirit. So baller! I'm thinking I'll try to get a job at the MTC after the mission when it won't conflict with volleyball. Speaking of volley, I never play it in here. I could play in gym if I wanted but it would be pretty sketch so I just stick to basketball. Elder Neff is currently trying to fix my jumper. I know I write about gym a lot but hey it only comes once a day and it's like Christmas. Me encanta El Evangelio. Inserio. I seriously love learning and searching the scriptures and hearing others speak on the importance of missionary work. My testimony grows every day. Unfortunately we get a little cagey in the MTC and our district and Neff's district have started pulling dumb pranks on each other a lot. I'm still not sure if we're sinning or not but it's not mean spirited so it's cool. Moral of the story, don't leave your food unguarded or you're drinking salty root beer, or salty milk, or salty anything really.... We are children.. But we know when to turn it on and work, and thats what we doooo!

So my beautiful mother wrote me this week asking if I wanted her to send me a talk by Elder Holland, and I would have responded yes except for the fact that he came to speak on Tuesday. Not a lot of cooler sights than 3000 missionaries standing as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ walks into the room. It was so poderoso. He spoke a lot about what it means to be a missionary and what we mean to this church. I realized that the prophet, the apostles, and almost the entire Church pray for missionaries on a daily basis... I teared up thinking about the love. Know that those prayers are felt. Miracles happen every day in here. Every time, EVERY TIME I start to feel down (yes it happens) something comes along to fire me up and make me happy. I know that is through the prayers of all of you. LUHHH DAATTT. Anyways, I also thought about what this mission means to my little brothers. I'd be lying if I didn't say a huge part of me serving a mission is so my brothers would serve one too. Now that I'm here I see the bigger picture but that hasn't left me. Cooper and Riley, I love you little fools. And if I'm being honest I miss you two the most (tied with Mom). Speaking of examples and great people, shout out to Chris Pace and his mission call to Arizona! And I'm not sure if I shouted out to Coulter yet but DUDE, go watch the mormon message on LDS.org about the temple in San Salvador and see how beautiful that city is. It's nuts. Speaking of that, I think it's safe to say I've seen every mormon message there is. I love the way the church embraces technology and uses it to spread messages of hope and Jesus Christ. I also heard that a lot of missions will start usuing iPads here in the next few years, but I doubt i'll see any of that in Mexico, which is fine by me. Speaking of Mexico, all the letters I got this week were telling me not to worry about my visa situation and that the Lord knows what he's doing. So right. I still don't know what the dealio is yet but honestly if I get reassigned stateside for a little bit I'm cool with it. Serving in 2 totally different places would be sweet.

My spiritual thought this week has to do with the other thing that Elder Holland spoke about on Tuesday, and that is the Book of Mormon.

Essentially he said that anyone who has a testimony rooted in the Book of Mormon will never fall away from the church. I second that 100%, but I would add weekly temple attendance to that. Anyways, about the Book of Mormon, I've never really doubted its truth and for that reason I don't know if I've had a strong confermation from the Spirit on it, so thats what i'm really striving for right now. I've read the whole thing cover to cover in these 7 weeks and it has been such a great experience. As I continue searching the scriptures and growing my testimony, I want to urge my buddies and my family to do the same. Reading the word of God daily will guide and direct your life. I know it. Anyways, keep reading and keep praying. If you haven't read it, try it. There is literally nothing to lose from reading the pages and praying to know if it is God's word. If you don't find it to be true, then your life doesn't change at all, but if it IS true (which I know it is) then essentially everything in this life hinges on it. So try it out. Leaps of faith are super cool.

Anyways, I'm gonna end this one but just know that I love you all and I feel like I'm gaining a more Christlike perspective every day. Above all else, love. That's it. IF you can't do anything else show love to everyone around you and you will be blessed tremendously. Never judge others. Not our job. Our job is to love. If you're judging, re-evaluate. For realz.

Entonces, estoy animado para ser misionero y animado para ir a Mexico. Me encanta espanol y latinos especialmente. Se que Cristo vive. El murio por nuestros errores y pecados y podemos vivir con Dios en gloria otra vez mediante El. Simepre siempre siempre recuerden Jesucristo y todo lo demas seguira. La vida es buena y cada persona es un hijo de Dios y El nos ama. Demuestren esto amor a todos. Paz y gozo!

Con amor,

Elder Jarman