Been thinking about how the volleyball team used to sing that for warm ups. So true. Happy 4th of July!
This week went by crazy fast too. We had some success, although not as much as Brock. Shout out to the homie on his 5 baptisms! We had 1 though, so still solid. Erick got baptized this week and he seems so stoked to be starting his new life as a follower of Jesus Christ. He's a good kid. But getting him baptised was craziness. So he passed his baptismal interview and everything and it wasn't until after when we were starting his paperwork that we realized he doesn't turn 18 til the 30th even though he'd told us at the beginning that he was 18. So we needed a signature from his mom which wouldn't have been a problem except for the fact that she was on a vacation in some pueblo an hour away.. and out of our area and our zone too I believe. I was on an exchange with our district leader Elder Valdez and we got permiso from the zone leaders to go track down his mom. So we took a bus full of rancheros out to this rancho and found his mom and she was sick and she signed the paperwork and then we ate some fruit that I forgot the name of that we don't have at home and I sucked on some sugar cane.. Then we came back and yeah. After the whole fiasco he was able to get baptised no problem. That was really the highlight of the week. We found a couple more people who are really ready to be baptized, but we have the same problem that Brian has in Taiwan.. People who are part of some other faith but don't go to church or anything and think they are too old to learn, grow, change, come closer to Christ, etc... They have no idea why they are a part of their church and they don't understand the Gospel and they refuse to try to learn.. It is very frustrating to see people reject something before they even know what it is.. Not sure if I already mentioned this but our area is really tough.. Since January there have only been 5 baptisms and Elder Hansen and I had 2 of them.. We're hoping to turn that around though. We've got some great people we're working with and we're trying our absolute best to help these people. But everybody comes with their own sets of challenges.. The fact of the matter is is that we can't do it. Only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can truly help these people. We just have to show them how by the Spirit. It's a tough gig sometimes though. When we explain repentance to someone plain and simple and testify of the blessings that come through that change of heart and coming to Christ and they look us straight in the eye and say they don't want to repent. It's tough.
This week was another one of personal growth and seeing growth in others. Most of the time I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing but I do it anyway and things seem to come out alright. Learning a lot about putting my trust in the Lord. He's got it all figured out. There is a plan to everything. My dad wrote me something a couple weeks ago that won't leave my head. He told me that whatever I go through out here its just for my good because the Lord is preparing me to be the man he wants me to be for the next 70 years.. I love that. It's all about the preparation. But we can take that a step further and say that the Lord is preparing us all during our lives here for who he wants us to be for eternity. Let's get prepared people, so that when we meet our Savior and our Father in Heaven again, we'll feel comfortable and happy in their presence. It's never too late to change for any of us.
I love you all and I really love agua de piña.
Elder Jarman
i miss you
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