6 more weeks por lo menos

Buenas Tardes Familiars!

 

First things first got give a big shout out to the sister for turning 22! Congrats on being old! Hope you partied hard for me.

 

This week was another good one. Another fast one too. It was the last week of the change (transfer? they are called cambios here so when I say it in English I say changes...) The whole week I was messing with Elder Hansen and telling him he was for sure getting transferred and being made a zone leader and it was bugging him so much hahah. Because I know he secretly aspires to be an Assistant to the Mission President. But Saturday Night came and we're both staying here in Tenechaco. I knew I wasn't going anywhere but it’s cool that Elder Hansen will be staying here with me. We've got a lot of solid prospects.

 

This week we had 2 bautismos. Leticia is 13 and her grandma Maria Luisa who is 72. Her grandma has this super gnarly flesh-eating thing going on her leg. We wrapped it in a garbage bag and taped it up so she could get baptized. They are really great but were very tough to teach. They both are very easily distracted. Unfortunately only Maria Luisa got confirmed because Leticia left to visit some family on Saturday night and when we went by in the camioneta with Rogelio on Sunday morning she wasn't there. Kinda frustrating but she'll get confirmed next week. I get frustrated because the concept of commitments, appointments, and overall paying attention to time is very foreign here. But hey it’s all good. It’s just a difference in culture. They make up for it by just being overall nice to people. So yeah the baptisms this week were sweet! I’m gonna send the pictures. I’m also sending a picture with mud on my face. The climate here is messing up my face real bad. I'm all sunburned and splotchy and that great stuff and this dude gave me some mud stuff that is supposed to help. So that explains the other photo I'm sending hahah.

 

I made a note to describe our house in this weeks email. I've been living in it for 6 weeks now and I'm finally getting around to tell you what its like. We rent an apartment that is on the property of this super catholic family. We have a Giant Virgin Mary painting right outside of our house. The family is really nice. They also own a veterinaria and we live right behind it. A lot of mornings I study to the sweet melody of dogs screaming while they get neutered.... It’s interesting. Our house is really infested with ants and every once in a while we find a giant spider like the one I found on my bed in Cazones. They are so fast and they freak me out a ton. We have 2 bathrooms though which is sweet. It’s a pretty sweet set up.

 

I'm excited to stay in this area for another 6 weeks. I think we're gonna really see the work rolling. I'm finally grounded in an area for more than a month and a half! Hahah and I should stay for the next 3 months or so.

 

Also we've got a buddy in the ward who helps us with so much stuff. His name is Aaron Cruz (Jessica accept his friend request on FB). Aaron is the man. He got home from the mission about 4 years ago and he hangs out with us on p day and goes to lessons with us and brings us tortas every once in awhile and any other favors we need. He lives on a property with like his whole extended family and they are all members and they are the best!

 

So that’s this week for ya, before I go I just want to say that I love you all so much and I'm grateful for all the support. 

 

Elder Jarman

Greetings from Tuxbread!

Greetings from Tuxbread!

Pan means bread so I call tuxpan tuxbread sometimes. Not sure if I already explained that but as all my friends know I'm notorious for repeating stories...

Before I do anything else I gotta write the new address for the mission office so here ya go…

Elder Price Dix Jarman

Misión México Xalapa

Ave Arco Vial Sur #738

Colonia Lomas Verdes

Xalapa, Veracruz 91098

Alrighty now if you want to write me you can send me letters. Now for the latest in the Adventures of the Two lost Gringos in Mexico.

This week was another fast one. It’s impossible to describe time in the mission. It just goes fast. This transfer is already almost over. Elder Hansen and I should be sticking together because of the new mission president and chances are nothing will change. My mom asked for more info on Elder Hansen so here’s a short bio:

Elder Alex James Hansen from Murray Utah. Parents recently moved to Texas so I guess he's from Texas now? He is like 6 foot with brown hair and glasses. He graduated in 2010 but is only a couple months older than me. He likes running and manual labor and Disney music. He is slightly OCD and sometimes it's really funny. Overall he's a good guy and a hard worker. Our personalities clash sometimes but the best thing I've learned in the mission is that its best to just apologize to someone within like 5 minutes of offending them so we get along well for the most part. He likes to describe books and when we're walking from appointment to appointment and there’s no one in the streets he will describe the plots of entire movies in detail to me. He also explained to me the whole Eragon series in detail because I didn’t read the last two books. Now I don't have to hahah. So that’s Elder Hansen!

As for the work this week it went pretty well. We're preparing a 2 people for baptism this coming weekend. Leticia is a teenager and her 72 year old Grandma Maria. Maria talks so fast you would swear she does cocaine. And she doesn’t remember a whole lot so it’s hard to teach her but yesterday we reviewed the baptismal interview questions and looks like she'll pass. She loves church and talks about how alegria comes over here when she comes. Sweet! So if all goes well we'll have 2 baptisms Saturday. This past week was highlighted by a conference in Poza Rica where we met our new presidente, Presidente Lopez and his esposa! They are so awesome! Presidente Lopez is funny and he's super loving and I already think he's the best. If you want to learn more about him he's got a profile on Mormon.org I think. We spent essentially the entire day in Poza Rica because the conference started 2 hours late and after there were interviews. I hung out with Elder Sulzen on the bus ride back to Tuxpan. He’s a funny dude. Look up his band on iTunes and tell me if they are any good. (They’re called Negative Zero)

I wrote a note to myself saying to describe Sundays in this letter because they are so stressful. We leave our house 2 hours before church starts and walk to our ward mission leader (Rogelio)'s house and hop in the back of his truck. Then we go all around our area loading all the investigators we can in his truck. Then we get to church and try to pair them up with people from the ward to sit with and try to show them their classes after and I try to keep the niños from screaming by showing them pictures from pamphlets and its all really stressful. Your day of rest is my day of stress. And why do we do all that? So these people will keep the Sabbath Day holy and come remember their Savior in his house. The message for this week is KEEP THE SABBATH DAY HOLY! Rest from your labors and grow spiritually. Approach the sacrament with specific plans of how you want to improve yourself during the week and then make the changes. Then go home from church and find ways to study, serve, and get closer to our Savior. The church has infinite amounts of materials to learn and grow each Sunday and use that day to visit less active members of the church instead of napping.

That whole speech was also a speech to myself because before the mission I was terrible at that. So if I fall back into watching basketball after the mission, somebody show me this letter.

This week I will hit the 6-month mark on the mission. It’s pretty crazy. Don't really have much to say about it except for the fact that its happening hahah. My observations from the first 6 months of my mission are these. The world is a crazy messed up place, but it is full of a lot of good people. There is no such thing as a bad person, just people whose circumstances have caused them to move away from God. I am not the best missionary, but I'm also not the worst. Mexico is nowhere near as scary as some people think. Spanish is a pretty cool language. God expects us all to struggle, to fight, to cry, and to feel alone at times. He lets us hit our limit sometimes, and then some. But the thing is, if we go past our limit of what we think we can endure, then we set a new one, and a new one, and so on. He doesn't take hard things away most of the time. He lets us see that we can push through hard things.

To finish up I want to give a big shout out to my boy B Fish for the mission call to Spain! You're gonna be great man! Also gotta congratulate Zach Taylor for getting married here soon. Can't believe that one hahah. You'll probably have kids when I get home. Craziness.

Another week of walking a lot and not contracting any diseases. Today I'm gonna go see a guy about making me an alligator skin scripture case!

Hasta la pasta!

Elder Jarman

USA

And I'm proud to be an American! Where at least I know I'm freeeeee...

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

Danza Cuduro Josefina

¡Buenos Dias Buenos Dias!

Holy crap this week went by so fast. Time is really starting to fly by. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was sitting in this ciber writing you guys. Now I gotta remember what happened this week.

This week was a week of hard work. Lots of contacting and new investigators. We found 12 new investigators this week and we set baptismal dates with 11 people. That sounds great but setting a date is one thing and actually seeing them have the opportunity is another. We've got a lot of faith though and we're gonna work hard to see these people really come unto Jesus Christ. The most frustrating part though is even when we work our absolute hardest it still only covers a tiny percentage of what needs to be done. They have to exercise their agency to read the Book of Mormon, pray, come to church, and truly have a repentant heart. I just wish I could do that for them hahah. I've seen how much this gospel has blessed my life, and I just wish they'd take it a little more seriously. People here don't like to commit to much of anything. But hey thats okay. We got a wondeful text message this week from our recent convert Gaby. She is on vacation in Xalapa right now and is attending church there. She was so golden oh man. Super cool to see somneone really accept Jesus Christ. So yeah we have a lot of hopes for the coming weeks. This weekend Bertha couldn't be baptized. Her situation (vague I know, but it's her life so no details) has gotten worse and we haven't seen her in a few days. We're worried about her. But we'll find her this week and help her out. Someday it will work out. This weekend coming up we should have a baptism with a young man named Erik. He is a prime example of the power of the word of God. He started reading the Book of Mormon and he just can't get enough of the gospel. He is really stoked for his baptism and to leave his past life behind. His mom and sisters are slowly coming around as well. They used to hide when we came by but the other day we played kickball with them for a rato (a sec?) and now they kind of listen in on the lessons but refuse to participate. We're hoping through his example they'll all open up more. So yeah we're stoked for Erik.

I'm sending pictures with this email. Hopefully Jess has a chance to post them somewhere where people can see them. Mexico is super cool. I hope everybody likes my gelled combover. It's a mission rule to have a visible line in our hair so we GO HARD with the hair gel. Yeck hahah

As for other interesting things this week, the mission split. We went to Poza Rica on Saturday for a conference to say goodbye to President and Hermana Treviño and their family. They are truly great people. I didn't have a chance to get really attached but they are wonderful and I'll miss them. After the conference we ate Chinese food. YES. So good. 

The mission split yesterday and President Lopez and Co. should get here by Thursday I think. I am excited to meet him and see what's gonna change and stay the same. As for now who knows who's in charge of us. ANARCHY!! Just kidding...

As many of you probably don't know or care, the Mexican presidential elections were yesterday and at like 6 pm we got a call from our zone leaders that we had to go straight home. Apparently somewhere in the mission there was some kind of something and they decided that all the missionaries needed to be inside. Who knows what happened but civil unrest is always cool. From what I heard today it sounds like Peña Nieto is gonna be the next president. Mexico is getting a nuevo rumbo as his slogan says.. I personally would have voted for Josefina. SER MUJER EN MEXICO VA SER DIFERENTE: LA MUJER TIENE PALABRA. Their slogans are so cool here. I especially loved how they sent cars driving around with speakers on top bumping classic Mexican pop songs but with the lyrics changed to have their name in it. Josefina changed Danza Cuduro to have her name in it hahah. I don't thnk copyright laws are really strict here. But what do I know.

This week I've been thinking a lot about trials. I think of the story in First Nefi 7 where Nefi's brothers tie him up, and rather than praying that he is freed, he prays for the strength to free himself. There's a great talk written by Bednar in the January (I think) Liahona or Ensign about that.. How much better is it to recieve the strength to push through trials rather than just have them be taken away! Much better! Because then we get double blessings. We will overcome that trial (so the trial goes away, there's a blessing) and as well we can learn and grow so much! We were not put on this earth to have it be easy. We were put here to learn, grow, and prove our devotion to the Lord. We can't learn and grow without getting hit in the face with trials a lot of the time. So my invitation to anybody reading this is to embrace your trials, love your problems, and echarles ganas (never quit? not a literal translation there). We can overcome any problem that comes our way.

I hope this letter finds everybody well and I hope you know I love you all. 

Sale pues bye

Elder Jarman

Let's get down to business to defeat the huns

What up fam! (and friends)

First things first, gotta pedir perdon for not writing anything about Father's Day last week. So much craziness was happening in my life that I forgot you guys have lives too. I gotta give a shout out to my dad. Literally the greatest example in this world. NO man treats his wife the way my father treats my mom. I've never seen anyone serve more willingly in the Church, to his neighbors, or to his family. I literally have never met one person who doesn't like my pop. That's a tough thing to do in this world. I just want to say I love him and that I want to be just like him when I grow down (cause I'm taller than him hahah).

So this week we worked our butts off. We were all over the place teaching and contacting and trying to do as much good as possible. The area I'm in has only had 4 baptisms in the last 6 months. And I don't think it's for lack of work, but for some unknown reason. The only thing I know is that it's gonna change. Elder Hansen and I ain't never gonna quit. So along with being a great guy Hansen loves to sing and he has tons of Disney song lyrics printed out, so you already know we start our comp study with a hymn and also singing the classics from Mulan, Hercules, Goofy Movie, and Little Mermaid. We live beneath our dueña (landlord?) and behind somebody else and its very close quarters and they probably think we're insane but yeah we sing real loud to get pumped.

No baptisms this weekend but we're teaching some really solid people. We're teaching this young mother named Bertha who truly wants to change and be better. Shes all set to be baptized this weekend except for circumstances outside our control. I won't get into details but it is possible for her to be baptized this weekend if we get a miracle. PRAY FOR SOME MIRACLES! We found a lot of great people as well this week and got to give priesthood blessings to people who needed them. I feel the spirit very strongly when I get to give a blessing. Love that stuff! As for interesting things, it's rained almost every day this week and we've gotten real muddy and real wet. We had to sprint home one night in the rain and there were rivers of water up to our knees in the streets. It's crazy.They say it's pretty early for the rainy season. Hopefully I get to experience a hurricane. We got up at 5 this morning and ran halfway/took the bus halfway to the beach and watched the sun rise. I got sweet pics that you all can see in 18 months because I never have time to copy pictures onto here.. blahhh. Also the elections are coming up here and if I were a Mexican I would vote for Josefina just because she's a girl. I think Peña Nieto is gonna win though. I think the members like AMLO... hay que votar!

This week has been the fastest of my mission thus far and also one of the hardest. There came a point where I literally had to just stop, sit on the curb, and start praying.. And you know what, in that moment, comfort didn't come right away. I had to get up, dust off my butt, and keep knocking every door in sight and talking to every person. But later, comfort did come, the Lord did provide, and here I am another week longer trying to help everybody I can. My achilles heel in the mission has been patience. Everybody knows I'm not exactly a patient person, and that is something I want to change. I'm learning to turn negative experiences into learning experiences so that there never are negative experiences. It's a rough process and I couldn't really put it into words if I tried but I I truly feel like I'm taking steps forward. That's what's so beautiful about what Jesus Christ did for us. He saved us from ourselves, and we can CHANGE through his love. It comes step by step and piece by piece but if we seguir adelante we do see progress. Just gotta say, don't quit. Never Quit. Echele ganas. Being a life champ is more important than being a state champ (did I just say that??)

To answer a few questions that have been posed...

Yes a dog has bitten me already, but it tried to get my ankle and only got my shoe. I don't have rabies yet.

I can eat spicy food now no problem, today I ate a coconut with chile on it and it was delicious.

When little kids see me they point and laugh and old people look scared. I'm the Godzilla of Mexico. I try to smile a lot so they don't get too freaked out.

But yeah that's about it. Hope everybody's doing well and loving life. Mexico is real cool. Sale pues byeeee

Elder Jarman

Ladies, don't wait for me...

Miss me?

So yeah it's been two weeks but that's because of some craziness that's been going on. Where do I start... I´ll try to remember everything that's happened.

So in Cazones two weeks ago we had a sweet talent night and I did some nice line dancing and sang Jumper by Third Eye Blind while Hernandez played guitar. Then I did a rubik's cube and everyone was pretty amazed. I got sweet videos. you can all see them in 19 months when I get back. Speaking of, I finished 5 months today. Still not sure if it's going fast or slow but it's definitely going hahahah. Also in Cazones a week and a half ago we had some craziness. As you know Ezequiel and Guadalupe got baptized 4 weeks ago on a sunday so they needed to be confirmed the following Sunday. But then they couldn't come to church because she's pregnant again and was sick. So not yesterday but last Sunday they were gonna get confirmed. Guadalupe did get confirmed but Ezequiel couldn't because we went by on that Friday before and he was running around drunk out of his mind swing a machete at dogs and then he tried to choke Hernandez... I swear we taught him the word of wisdom.. But the next day we went by and everything was tranquilo and he is working with the branch president now to fix things so he can get be baptized and confirmed.

So then last week transfers came and I'm guessing due to all the drama from going to Veracruz and all that they decided to change things. I got transferred to Tuxpan, Barrio Tenechaco and Hernandex was supposed to go to Martinez de la Torre Tezuitlan. But then last Monday he got called to Veracruz. I went with the zone leaders (why I couldn't write last week) and Elder Hernandez got sent home. Apparently some things came out about what he and his old companion did. I don't know details, but all I know is that it was incredibly sad.. I've spent this whole week feeling like I failed him in some way.. I wish I could express the way I feel on the mission better in words.. But it's a trip.. that's all I can really say..

So now I'm in Tuxpan, Tenechaco with my new companion Elder Hansen. He's from Murray, Utah and he was in the MTC the same time as me. He's got one more transfer in the mission than me. Straight up I was surprised that they'd put two young gringo greenies like us together but the mission president and the Lord know something I don´t. My comp is a super good guy and we speak spanish about the same level. Speaking of, I feel really great about my spanish.. The only people who are hard to understand are the little toothless old ladies who tell us we don't know about La Virgen de Guadalupe because we´re gringos. So yeah we´re just a couple of white boys lost in the city and it's pretty cool. We have a really strong ward here though with some great great people.

We had a baptism this weekend as well for a girl named Gaby. She was super esogido (elect)..  her heart was so open and touched by the gospel. She was baptized only 2 weeks after meeting with the missionaries the first time. I got to teach her right on the tail end and then see her be baptized. Great experience. This area hasn't had much success. Just 4 converts in the last 6 months, but all that's about to change..

If I had to describe the way I've felt these last two weeks it would be a lot of ehhh and a little bit good. But that's okay! Who says life is easy? Who says a mission is easy? It's not. But the people who receive hope and light from the gospel sure do appreciate it. My goal is to just love the people more. Love them like Christ would. I go through mad mood swings on the mission. I feel like everybody at home thinks I´m just doing so well but straight up it's a struggle. But it will be a struggle that's worth it. That's the faith that I have.

Ladies, Don´t wait for me, I got my first Mexican haircut today and I sweat all day and I smell and I'm gettin real ugly. That's the price to pay to serve others though!!

Hasta la pasta

Elder Jarman

Wild Dogs and a Wild Week

Sup dudes!

So yeah I'm running low on time. I had so many emails to read. I swear the hour we get for emailing is the most stressful hour of my week. I'm gonna format this letter a little differenlty. Hope it doesn't disappoint.

Spiritual stuff this week:

Manuel, the last son in this family we've been baptizing, got baptized on Saturday. I baptized him. Gonna try to send some pics but probably won't have time. He gave up drinking and smoking and his 12 year old girlfriend (hes 14) to get baptized. Kids here are crazy. No offense to Mexico but the culture here is so sex and booze driven, waayyyy more than the United States. All those people who trip out in the states about violence and poverty and drugs need to see two drunk dudes swingin machetes at each other in the middle of the street.. Not that I saw anything like that this week.....

Also, Yadira and Guillermo should get married this Thursday and Yadira should get baptized on Saturday. Guillermo will follow suit after he sees the blessings she gets, I know it.

The coolest things about baptisms are people's faces afterward. They looks so happy and pure and every last one says they feel clean and that they have a fresh start. Now we just hope this little branch can help us keep them active.

The rest of this week's craziness:

So on Wednesday I was notififed that I had to go to Veracruz to do the final siging on my visa, so I went down there with Elder Johnson and the zone leaders. While were were there everything went normal until Elder Johnson told me a bucnh of stuff that my companion told him on an exchange. I won't say details but I was like dude you gotta tell Presdient.. So when we got back to Poza Rica he told Hernandez and they both called President and then Hernandez and I were told to pack our bags and come to Veracruz on Friday. Once again won't say details but my comp almost got sent home and I almost got sent somewhere else because of it. But my comp was given a second chance after his interview with President and we came back to Cazones just in time to have our baptism on Saturday. This week was freakin crazy.. I also lost my camera and so I bought a new one today.. Now I'm gonna carry it in a case on my belt instead of in my pocket so I wont lose this one. I already had my pics backed up on my USB though so its all good..

So yeah now I'm in charge of making sure my companion is 100% obedient and I've got to motivate him to work and all that. Should be real fun!

Other interesting stuff that happened this week:

A wild dog bit me but he only got my shoe.. no blood.

Fatty thunderstorm last night, thought a bomb went off in our house at 4 am..

Okay running out of time here.. Gotta shout out to my homies who went into the MTC and who are going in this week!! Kill it boys!

Shout out to Grandma Eileen, Grandpa Chuck, and Uncle Blake for the birthdays this week. Promise you're not old!!

Alrighty so this week we're gonna be working super hard and we're gonna see some miracles! Love you guys!

Elder Jarman