Friday, July 22, 2016

More Pictures

1-  Taking all of the Missionaries to the Airport.  My selfie failed, but there's a tiny bit of my head on the right side of the picture.  :)

2- Saying goodbye to Elder Sorenson in the Airport.

Rainy

Sorry, the first two pictures were of my two Zone Leaders, Elder Stout and Elder McClure and then them and my companions and I, Elder Chavez and Elder Tanner.

These two pictures are:
1-  It's rainy season here in Mexico City.  For the past few weeks and until now, every single afternoon, it turns into a downpour.  The streets turn into lakes and the water drainage that comes off of the roofs becomes a river.

2-  After a District Meeting about Goals.

Transfer Week

Hey!

Well, just as predicted, this was another crazy transfer week.  Lots of running around.  Little sleep.  Just how I like it.  :)

Well, there's not too much to say.  Elder Sorenson is now back in good ol' Hyde Park, Utah.  It was sad to say goodbye to him and all the other great missionaries like him that left this week.  Elder Chavez and I continue to be in a trio.  Elder Tanner, from Mesa, Arizona, is the new Secretary of Materials and References.  

I got a new zone leader this transfer and it's Elder McClure!  You remember him?  He was with me in Jardines de Iztapalapa when I started my mission, then he was my District Leader in Ajusco, and now he's here with me in the Churubusco Stake.  So that's fun to be with him again too!

This change I started thinking, wow, all of the leaders have really little time in the mission.  Then I realized that they only have a transfer or two more than me!  Then I realized that now, the majority of the missionaries appear to me to have little time in the mission!  So I guess that's part of enjoying the mission, you lose track of time and soon realize that you have to use every second in the mission because it passes way too quickly!!!  :O

I love you all!  I'm going to try and send you some good pictures today, so watch for more emails to come!  Have a great week!

Elder Jarrett


Fwd:



Friday, July 15, 2016

Ending off the Transfer on an Excellent Note

Hey Everyone!

Sorry, I don't have tons of time to write this week, but I'll try to get all of the highlights covered.

This week was the last week of another transfer!  It's crazy how fast they're flying by!  Next week, us secretaries are going to be super busy with all of the normal stuff for the changes.  We'll be going to the MTC, have a new missionary training, going to the airport a few different times, and all of those that go stay in our house for their last two nights so we'll be organizing and cleaning this weekend to prepare for them and next weekend to clean up after all that they leave.  :)  

The biggest highlight of this week was definitely Tuesday.
Tuesday was one of the best days of my entire mission!!!  It all got off to a great start with our District Meeting.  I always put a lot of thought, prayer, and preparation for our District Meetings.  This week, I felt that we should just have a Testimony Meeting with our District.  In every companionship of our District, there is one missionary that is now finishing their missions here and will be leaving next week.  So we had a Testimony Meeting that was super powerful!!!  A testimony is a powerful thing.  It changes our lives, and if we share it, it can change the lives of others.  That's the reason that Satan fights so hard to convince us to keep our mouths shut, because he knows the power of a sincere testimony.  I shared with the District that being able to share our testimony every day and in every moment is one of the greatest blessings and privileges that we have as missionaries.  After lunch that day, Elder Chavez and I went looking for some Less-Actives and References that we have received, but we also wanted to contact lots of people in the streets (because we don't really have any investigators anymore).  It was Awesome because Every Person and Family that we talked to in the streets was willing to listen to us and chat with us for 5-10 minutes and they all wanted to listen to us!  All of them except one wanted us to come back another day so that we can talk more!!!  Street contacting is normally hard because it usually seems like no one wants to listen to us or they reject us or ignore us or blow us off!!!  Tuesday was Incredible because we were able to share our sincere, humble testimonies with Everyone and we could see it touch their hearts and accept us and our message!!!

Well, that's it for this week!!  I Love You All!

Elder Jarrett

A picture of our District

Friday, July 8, 2016

Sorry, here's the photo of the six of us.

More Pics!

We also went to the Airport this week to drop off Elder Da Silva, our mission's only Brazilian elder, off now that he's finished his mission. 

The six missionaries that are in the Coyoacan ward.  Elder Tanner just became a part of our companionship this week as he's going to replace Elder Sorenson when he leaves the mission in one more week!  

Elder Jarrett

Part of Our Work as Secretaries

Emptying things out of an apartment that we closed.  The  apartment was on the sixth floor.

Friday, July 1, 2016

Fwd: BAPTISM OF AZUL!!!

June 24, 2016

Fantastic Family and Friends!

¿Como estan?  It sounds like there's lots of Summer Fun in Utah!  All is well down here in Mexico!

This week, we've hardly gotten to have any lessons.  We've spent a lot of time in the offices.  One hard thing about being in a trio of secretaries is that if one of us doesn't have work in the offices, another one does.  So every morning and every afternoon we're running around to get something done.  Today was the Financial End of Month, so all week I've been getting everything ready for that.  But I just finished!  Yay!!!  Now I can relax for another month!  :)

The highlight of this last week is definitely the baptism of Azul last Saturday.  This baptism was one of the best moments of my entire life.  You may think, "Why? She wasn't even your investigator."  And I'm not sure exactly why, but after interviewing her and knowing all that she had done to prepare herself, and then to enter the baptismal font myself with her and baptize her.  I just left feeling very happy and incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be a worthy holder of the priesthood and for the Restored Gospel in our lives.  After her baptism, she got the chance to share her testimony.  She told us that about a year ago, about the time that she had her baby, even though she felt older and entering a new phase of life, she began to feel alone and empty.  A few months later, a problem occurred and she went to a park, and sat on a bench, alone, and cried.  She asked for a purpose in life because she felt like she didn't have one.  A few months later, the sister missionaries passed by and invited her to be baptized.  She said no.  When they taught the Plan of Salvation in a later lesson, they testified that there is a purpose for why we're here on Earth, and that this purpose was created long before.  In this moment, she felt a loving, fatherly hug. "Like the hug that a father gives to his daughter when she has fallen down."  In this moment, she knew that she wanted to be baptized.  It was super special hearing her testimony.  She started to cry and many of us did too.

The only other big thing from this week was a Zone Conference on Tuesday.  Zone Conferences are always so powerful!  I love to hear the wisdom and experiences of President and Sister Mecham.  (Probably because it reminds me of the wisdom and experiences of Mom and Dad).  At the beginning of the Conference, the Assistants chose three companionships to teach a lesson in front of the whole zone, like what we all had to do in the last zone conferences.  We weren't one of these three companionships chosen, and then they continued teaching new topics.  And I sighed a sigh of relief because I had a feeling that I would be chosen on.  :)  Then when President was finishing up his words, he said, "Okay, Elder Jarrett and Elder Chavez, now I want you two to teach, but this time the investigator is going to say no to being baptized.  I want to see how you respond and what you do to finish the lesson."  :D  Haha, so my feelings were right.  And we were given a harder scenario than the others.  :)  So we passed to the middle of the circle and began to teach.  I feel like our lesson was very guided by the Spirit.  The words just came came out my mouth without me really thinking about them and as I heard them, I thought that they were exactly what the investigator needed. It was another awesome experience.  

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK!!!

Elder Jarrett

Photos:  Azul's baptism and me with my first authentic Mexico City Quesadilla (which don't have cheese)

P.S.  Last week, we didn't have internet in the offices, so I grabbed a Book of Mormon in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French and Japanese.  I felt like the Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French were practically the same, so I was intrigued by the Japanese.  I studied the first page for a while and noticed with symbols were repeated most and the order in which they were placed and I learned how to spell "Nephi" and I learned how the punctuation works and everything.  Then I was talking to a member in our ward who knows Japanese and I learned a little bit more.  Then he told me that German is really similar to English, and I didn't believe him.  So I printed off the first page of the Book of Mormon in German and I began to study that.  And it's true.  It is similar.  So I began to study that.  So that's what I do when I get bored in the offices.  :)