Guess what?!?! For the first time in 24 weeks I have not been called to be a new trainer!!! What what?! I am staying in the Broomfield 3rd Ward with Hermana Mangum and I am soooooo happy! The ward is super great! The E family that we live with is so amazing. They were worried that one of us would be leaving and so they bought a yummy chocolate celebratory pie to commemorate our stay with them and instead it turned into a celebratory thing because neither of us were leaving. It was sooo sooo sweet! I loved it. (Mom- That is the lady who sent you a message on fb. Hopefully you got it.)
Also, our ward is really really warming up to having sister missionaries again. A group of the young woman have become our best friends because they want to make the memory of sister missionaries last because the last time they had sister missionaries was over 6 years ago so that has been really fun. I think we will be able to inspire a few of them to actually go on a mission. One of them specifically wants to come with us on teaching appts so she can see how it all works! How exciting!!!!! She is also bringing along a group of friends who now think we are cool so it has been a great opportunity to inspire some of the young women.
We also ate dinner with a family this week and one of the daughters who is in Activity Days was taking to her leader and telling her how they had us over for dinner and how she loved the sister missionaries. It melted my heart. This little girl during dinner was super shy and didn't speak very much so I never would have guessed that... The leader is going to try and do an activity that Hermana Mangum and I can go to to inspire the younger girls. What a blessing!!!!
The ward itself is also becoming more and more helpful! It has been amazing. Last night we were introduced to a Spanish family which was so much fun. The member doesn't speak Spanish but is able to communicate with the husband but the wife doesn't speak any English at all. It was fun to be able to translate a little and to use my Spanish. I LOVED IT!!! Spanish is the best! And hopefully we will be able to continue to teach them. They are going through some really hard things right now and so I think the gospel can make a big impact on their lives. And what can I say, I love teaching the gospel in Spanish!!! Cool story from last night too. We had a yummy dinner with this family and the mom speaks Spanish and so we were having a fun time and talking about the Spanish culture and the dad thought it would be cool if we shared the message in Spanish even though only the wife would be able to understand it. But he really wanted to hear it and so did the Elders and so we shared our message in Spanish! Using Spanish twice in one day, life cant get much better than that.
We also got another referral from the mission office for a sweet ol lady name R. She is 82 yrs old and she is so adorable. She is very active with religion and is currently attending 3 different churches. Crazy. We are hoping to add a fourth to that ha ha but truly she is a sweet lady. I don't know if she is interested in our message but I have faith that Heavenly Father will help us invite her to come unto Christ.
Did anyone watch women's conference?! I absolutely loved it. It really felt like Heavenly Father was answering many of my prayers. We got there a little late because Saturday was a really crazy day that consisted of service in Boulder for a couple hours removing debris from the flood, a baptism for the Elders, dinner with the Kaiser family, Women's Conference, and finding out about transfers and that doesn't include the Relief Society activity that we were sadly unable to go to because of everything we had to do and the two 8yr old baptisms that we had. IT was nuts. But anyway, watching the conference, I really felt like they were speaking right to me. One of the things I loved the most was a question. "Do you think that is how Heavenly Father wants you to feel?" I thought about this question quite a bit. This last transfer was a bit of a challenge. I was feeling inadequate as a missionary and things just seemed to be more difficult but with this question I realized that that was the adversary putting those negative thought into my mind. Heavenly Father wants us to be successful. He loves us. The way he encourages us is not through negative thoughts. That is what I have come to realize. Which brings me to my 2nd favorite part of the conference. President Monson, a prophet of the Lord, came to speak and he was so sweet. Just a few months ago his wife passed away and you can tell that he misses her and loves her sooo much. Just thinking about it makes my eyes water. Anyway, he spoke about how Heavenly Father loves us unconditionally. His love is always there. And I just put those two thoughts together that Heavenly Father loves us and that he cares about us. No matter want we are experiencing, whether we are making right or wrong choices, He will forever be there. He is saddened when we make wrong choices but because of the atoning sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, we have the opportunity to repent and ask for forgiveness and change the way we are behaving. Christ has already suffered for those hurts, those pains, and that suffering. We can be made whole again through the atonement of Christ. He has made me whole again. He has given me strength that I would not have been able to have without his help. I know Heavenly Father loves us. I know that He wants us to feel of His love. I know that through prayer we are able to have a meaningful conversation with Him and He can help us in our lives. I love this gospel. I love knowing that there is something greater in store for me. I can live with my family forever because Heavenly Father has restored his priesthood authority to the earth once again through a prophet. I know that we have a prophet on the earth today and that he is guiding us in the ways of the Lord so that we can individually prepare to meet Heavenly Father again. I love being a missionary. I love sharing the gospel. Some days are still a little more rough than others but I know that I am making a difference. I am changing lives. I am changing my own life for the better and I know it is because I am serving the Lord.
I love you all. I hope everyone is safe and sound where ever you are. Things are calming down a little bit here with all the flooding but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. And I am grateful to be involved with the relief efforts. The kindness of others speaks so powerfully to me even when they are suffering themselves. I have seen many miracles as I have been blessed to help in the homes of those people who have been affected by the flooding. Heavenly Father knows how to protect us in all things. As we learn to rely on Him, I know He will help us through the hard times. Many people here probably don't see it but we can see the blessings of Heavenly Father all around us and it has been amazing.
My heart is happy that I get to share these experiences with you all. I hope you all will look for opportunities to serve those around you. There is no greater joy than helping lift a burden from someone else. Mosiah 2:17 "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God."
Con amor,
Hermana Jarvis
yeah... that boxing glove. Signed by Muhammad Ali- yeah that was cool. We helped a man who had met some really famous people. It was awesome. He gave an elder an autographed photo of Muhammad. The elder cried...
Sister Power!!! That was a heavy tree!!!
That was just a little part of the debris that we cleared from a lady's yard. The side of that road was completely clear when we got there and I am guessing that we only cleared away maybe 25% of the debris from her yard.... Crazy- I tell you!
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