Rain in Mexico

One more picture from this week.  Here we're in the rainy season, so it rains about every single night.  And most nights, when it rains, it pours.  :)

Elder Jarrett

Hello all,

The biggest highlight of this week was that Elder Alan Walker (of the 4th Quorum of the 70) came to visit our mission.  Our mission president has been preparing for weeks, he made sure we all had haircuts, studied Preach My Gospel, and that we all arrived at least an hour early.  These preparations made it even more special when he visited.  He taught that we should invite all of our families to serve mission (adults and young ones alike).  He also challenged us to be full-purpose missionaries and start teaching our investigators with the end in mind (the end being baptism, temple, and then the Celestial Kingdom).

There was a giant storm this week, and we figured out that when there's storms, the cockroaches come out.  We saw a huge one out our window and so we went out to get a picture and they were Everywhere.  All the walls, the floor, they were all covered with them. I was getting a picture and I felt something on my back, so I screamed and ran inside telling my companion to "get it off".  Luckily, I was okay though. ;)  I attached a picture of one of these big cockroaches, but it doesn't do it justice because you can't see the real size.

Also, I ate my first fried grasshopper this week.  :)  My companion filmed me on my camera, but it's too big of a file to send through email.  They don't taste very good and the look on my face tells that.  But I'm loving the new experiences!

I love you all!  Remember to include God in all you do!  He really is your father and loves you so much!  Bye!

Elder Jarrett

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Another Week in the Life!

Hola mis amigos!

This week was interesting.  We went to teach one of our investigators with a planned baptismal date, and found out she is in jail.  But we got another baptismal date with another investigator, so that's Awesome.  My Spanish has gotten a lot better since the MTC, but I still have a hard time understanding everything that people say.  The other Elders in our district had a baptism this week, so that was super cool to go to.

As far as culture here goes...  Food:  We eat a lot of soup or rize and chicken.  And tons of tortillas every day.  A lot of extremely spicy salsa too.  We like to have competitions as missionaries at dinner of who can eat more of the spicy stuff.  But it always ends in tears.  :)  Festivities:  Every weekend is a party here.  Lots of music in the streets and such - and Everyone listens to American music (in English too, even if they don't understand it).  They celebrated Cinco de Mayo with a day off of work.  But nothing huge.  They also have some holidays we don't have.  For example, Dia de los Niños (Day of the Children) was celebrated last week.  People:  There are many different kinds of people here.  But they are all so kind and friendly.  Traffic:  They don't have stop signs or speed limits, so they have lots of speedbumps.

One super cool "coincidence" (I think not) this week.  The other day, me and my companion were starting our day and we were both really hungry.  On our way to our first lesson, I said, "Maybe someone will just open the door and say 'Oh we have this cake, do you want it?'"  We laughed.  The very first house we went to, we taught a lesson to the family and when we finished, the mother said, "It's our daughter's birthday today and we have some cake.  Would you eat a slice?".  And we got cake!  My companion whispered "Ask and ye shall receive."  It was pretty cool.

Well, I think I'm out of time.  Until next week!

Hasta luego!

Elder Jarrett 

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Week 2!

Hola!

Hey Everyone!  Sorry, not a lot of time to write, but I wanted to share a little about my week!

This week we worked hard and taught lots.  In my first two weeks of the mission, we have set baptismal dates with two of our investigators.  Now we're working hard to get them ready for baptism!

Yesterday, ten minutes before sacrament meeting started, the bishop told me, "Hey, since you're a new missionary, the ward hasn't gotten a chance to meet you yet.  Would you share your testimony with us today in Sacrament Meeting?"  "Uhhh... yep."  "Great.  And ten minutes would be perfect."  Ten minutes?  I was worried I didn't even have a Spanish vocabulary large enough to teach for ten minutes straight, especially not for it to make any sense.  :) 

But I looked through my scriptures and found some really good scriptures about relying on God.  Then I prayed that God would help me.  And he did!  I shared the experience of hiking King's Peak that I shared in my farewell talk, and I shared a scripture about us all needing to trust in God and our Savior.  I bore testimony of my love for the gospel, and I challenged the congregation to help the missionaries find people to teach.  All in all, it lasted about 8 minutes.  It was great!  I know that the Lord filled my mouth with the words I should say.  And one guy actually shared something he learned from it in Priesthood meeting, which means that they were able to understand my Spanish!

Well, I wish I had more time to write.  But just remember, have faith in the Lord!  He will help and you can see miracles!

Love you all,

Elder Jarrett

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First Week in the Field!

Mis amigos!

How are you all?  I hope you are all Fantastic and loving every second of every day!  :D  We are so lucky to have so many blessings from God!  One of which is knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!  We are so blessed!  Always strive to include our Heavenly Father in everything you do - strive to live that he could walk beside you at all times, study his words, and pray to him because he wants to hear from you.

I finished my first week in the real life of a missionary!  So my area is...(drum roll) Jardines de Iztapalapa!  It's an Awesome area!  And my trainer is Elder Marsh from Plain City, Utah.  He is district leader over our district and is a great guy and a powerful missionary.

Things are going well here!  Things are always pretty busy in the field.  We taught lots this week.  Many people that we teach say my Spanish is very good for me only being here a week. So that's a bonus.  :)   It was really hard my first couple of days because I couldn't understand anything that people said.  I would just sit there and let my companion teach, then I would bear my testimony.  But it's gotten so much better!  Now I can usually have a good idea of what others say and I can actually help answer their questions and teach what they need to hear.  I am learning really fast, I believe it's all thanks to the gift of tongues and the blessings of God.

Things here are different!  Although, they're already becoming normal to me now already.  So, before I forget, here's a couple things:  There's So many people here.  Also, doors are unlocked by turning the key left, not right.  Next, to knock on a door, you do so with a pen with a pen and then they yell ¿Quien? (Who?) and you respond "Los misioneros" and then they open their doors, or not. 

They have super delicious ice cream here where they hollow out a fruit (orange, apple, pinapple, coconut) and then they fill up the fruit with ice cream of that flavor.  You can only buy them when a certain truck comes by, but I was able to have an orange with orange ice cream inside last week.  It was delicious.  

Well, I'm out of time, but I'll have new adventures to share next week!  I love you all!  Have a Wonderful Week!

(a picture of me and my new companion, Elder Marsh)

--

Elder Jarrett

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Week of the Key

Just because everyone else in the district thought it was important enough to mention in all their emails this week, I'll quickly share a funny thing that happened to me this week.

We all have keys to our closets in our rooms.  I keep mine in my pocket and I like to throw it in the air when I'm walking around.  Last Thursday, I was walking back from dinner throwing it in the air, and then catching it again.  Then I would throw it higher and higher each time.  Hermana Mortensen said, "Don't!  It's going to get stuck in that palm tree."  "Yeah right," I thought.  So I threw it once more, right underneath the tallest palm tree.  I threw it up as high as I could.  And it touched the branch.  And didn't come back down.  It was stuck.  For the next ten minutes, we all threw whatever we could at the tree to knock them loose.  Finally, Elder Tams hit the branch with a dirt clod and the keys fell loose.

The next night, we were standing around after dinner as a district.  I was fidgeting with my key.  All of the sudden, I noticed the key was a little bent.  I showed it to the others and said, "Look my key isn't perfectly straight.  I'll bend it back into shape."  Elder Potter said, "Don't bend it, it will break."  I said, "If it can bend enough to be crooked, it can bend back into shape."  So I applied pressure ever so slightly and... Crack.  My key was broke in two.  

Hermana Anderson thought that these two tales were such good parables for obedience that she wrote and illustrated a little story of my adventures with my key.  

But, lesson learned.  I got my new key and I have not had any new adventures with it yet.

--

Elder Jarrett

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Almost Conference Weekend!

Hola!

Hey Everyone!  I hope you are all Super Excited for General Conference this weekend!  I Sure Am!  Possibly more Excited than I've ever been before!  While here at the CCM, we've gotten to listen to so many talks by the apostles and prophets of the Lord.  And while I've listened to some of them before, many of them have inspired me and touched me in ways like never before.  I know it's weird, but I feel like I've grown to know the apostles as friends.  I've listened to them enough that you hear their stories, get to know their personalities, and feel of their testimonies.  As my companion said, "All the apostles have a way with words that no one else has."  And yet, they're all unique!

I know that as you all pray about any questions you have, and then intently listen to General Conference this weekend, you will find answers to your questions.  God loves his children and wants them to know of his Plan for them.  The scriptures are one example of this, and the living prophets are another!  As we listen to the words spoken at General Conference, we can hear the words of God.

This week was a good week here!  And this morning, we got to go see the Mexico City Temple!  The Temple is closed, but we toured the Visitors Center there, which was super cool.  While there, we watched a video on families.  One powerful line I remember is the dad asked his wife after their baby was born, "Do you ever wonder what is the most important thing to teach them? (their kids)"  And his wife responded, "That they are loved.  And that they are a child of God." 

And it's so true!  It made me So grateful for the Incredible parents I have.  I know that I am who I am because of my family.  And I'm so grateful for ALL of you, my friends, and the love that you have all shown to me.  I hope you all know of the love I have for you, and the love our Father in Heaven has for you.  On my mission, I get to share the message of God's Love to people that may not know of it.  But also, I hope all of you will express your love to one another and gratitude for one another.  One of my favorite quotes is: "They do not love that do not show their love."  So show it!  :)

Yesterday, again, we got to welcome the new missionaries to the CCM.  And Hermana Zara Beck from Sky View arrived!  That makes four of us from Sky View here in the CCM!  Which is quite a lot!  I want to get a group picture of us all before we leave, hopefully I can.  Last week, there was close to 150 missionaries that left, and we had about 20 arrive on Wednesday, with a few more the day before.  The officials say there's close to 200 missionaries here now, which is really few for the CCM, I guess.  During the summer, they have close to 1,000.  

Well, anyway, that's all for this week!

I hope y'all are doing Fantastic!  Enjoy Conference this weekend!

--

Elder Jarrett

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