Picture Info and update

I finally remembered to ask E Petersen about his pictures. Who they are and what is special about them.

This special sister really likes Jared. Something about him got her to go back to church. I asked him about her.

" I just made friends with her and made sure that she knew I wanted her to go to church because it was good for her and not because I just wanted to add numbers. I also helped her realize that there's a lot of people there who really wanted to see her there and be able to help her."
"When I left and I was telling her goodbye she said "you're probably worried I'll stop going to church after you leave, aren't you?" so I was like "Well I'm hoping you'll keep coming." so she told me she was going to keep going and the Elders there have told me she still goes every week."

Jared just loves this brother and his dedication to the Lord. This brother had an amazing conversion story.

"Helm's conversion story is one of my favorites. He was really sick when he was like 19 , basically on his death bed, so his neighbor who was a member of the church told him that he needed to come to church with them. So he went that next sunday and he says as soon as he got there he could feel that it was true and he needed to join, so he got baptized after church that day and it wasn't until a few weeks later he actually found out what the name of the church was. And he's been to church every week he could since then."


"He's a really funny guy, and he's just about as southern as they get. He's also super dedicated to helping less active members and he was more than willing to do anything for us. E Houghton mentioned one time that a 7/11 slushie would be really good, but the closest one was in Atlanta Georgia and Helm over heard him and was like "Y'all need to go to Atlanta? Let's go!" and so we were like "no Helm, it's alright we just wanted a 7/11 slushie from there." and he was like "Well let's go get a 7/11 slushie!" so we had to tell him that Atlanta Georgia was outside of mission boundaries so we'd get in a lot of trouble if we went, but he really wanted to take us. He also went to visit less actives for his date nights and spent about $600 a month on gas just to drive to all of the less actives."

This couple was Jared's Mission President and wife. 

He got a new one July 1st.

Jared is doing amazing! He is happy and loving the work. He loves the people and is tolerating the weather quite well. Here is his response to my question about what is his least favorite, 

" Once apon a time there was a road called Alice Bell road. Two elders on bikes were trying to get to an appointment and had to bike up this big hill on Alice Bell Road. It was super hard. That's probably about the worst. "    (such a funny kid) =)

First Transfer from Morristown to Knoxville

Jared was transferred on June 18th. He is officially trained. I can't believe it has been over 3 months since he left.

Here is an excerpt from his letter:


"I'm in grove park south! it's in Knoxville and my new companion is E Bills, he's pretty cool. I also got to go to my first baptism this last saturday!! Her name is Emily and she was already scheduled to be baptized when I got transferred in. President Irion and an area 70, Elder Hymus both came to the baptism so it was really cool."

 E Bills, Emily, and E Petersen

 E Houghton and E Petersen

BEAUTIFUL TENNESSEE MOUNTAINS!

June 6th 2014

Here is our latest picture from E Petersen (far left)

I believe this is Zone Conference

His trainer E Houghton is in the middle with the dark hair. 

He is enjoying his mission. He is so happy it makes me happy. He is working with some members and is teaching an investigator. He encourages us to be involved with the missionaries in our area and to feed them often :)  Jared encourages everyone to read the scriptures and gain a testimony for themselves of the truthfulness of the gospel.

E Houghton thought it would be great for Jared to have the full southern experience and attend a Baptist church. They were not well received. The Pastor came up to them and told them that their church worships Jesus and not Joseph Smith, he then walked away before they could say anything. Jared was not impressed.

Letter Home ~ One month

Having a missionary in the field is one of the most rewarding experience I've ever had. I LOVE to watch his growth! Is fun to have him see it in himself.

Pictures

 He loved your Easter package Ambur!

 I love to see his quilt and know that he is wrapped in love every night! (His is the one on the left)

 He is still Jared. Loves his hats. 

Excerpt from his letter that he wanted me to share:

They had a missionary homecoming on Sunday. The Missionary told this cool analogy.

"Imagine if there were an apocalyptic type disease spreading throughout the world. Most everyone is getting infected, but some people are immune. Doctors and scientists are looking for a cure, and they are checking the blood of the immune, but the blood they need is rare and they can't find a match. You and your family are immune, and you go in to see if your blood can save the world. They test your family and the results come back. The doctors are pretty excited, they say,  "We finally found a match!" They go on to tell you that your son's blood is probably the only blood in the world that will work. You are excited and ask how much blood they need from your son. The smiles on the doctors faces fade away and they say,  "Well..... we didn't expect it to be a child, we didn't account for a child.... In order for it to save the world, we will need all of it." Can you imagine what would be going through your mind? Would you be able to do it?

That's a similar situation to what God faced while making His plan for us. The blood in the story is Christ's atonement. The infected people are all of us. We are all infected with sin. The antidote is repentance and baptism. If someone gave up their child's life just so you could be cured of a disease, would you turn it away? Would you say, "I don't think that's for me? " or "I don't think I'll try this antidote, it might not work and is not worth it." Would you take the antidote then when you see someone else with the disease say, I don't think they want it. I just won't give it to them because I don't want to intrude.

These answers are all so simple, so why is it that when we exchange the antidote for the atonement, the answers often change? Is it not as important? Or as vital? It's really much more important, much more vital. The antidote for the disease is temporarily prolonging of life. The atonement is an eternal way to achieve happiness. We should want to share it with everyone we meet.

I know I'm not looking forward to the day when someone I knew, who I didn't share the gospel with asks me, "why didn't you help me? How could you know the path to eternal life and then just leave me without it? " I want as few people as possible to ask me that. That has become a driving factor for me on my mission, and should be a driving factor in all of our lives, to share the gospel.

The First Few Weeks

Jared has had a hard time finding a good location to email us from. He doesn't have a library card yet, so we have been communicating with Jared through a website connected to his camera. He takes pictures of his letters and then when he is by a wifi hotspot his camera sends the pictures to the Canon website where we can see them. Consequently we don't get much of an explanation with the pictures unless he explains them in his letters. Here are a few of the pictures. There are pieces of his letters after all the pictures. 

 Evidently he found a friend. 

 This is E. Olson, Luis a man they teach, 
and E. Petersen

This one makes me laugh. Anyone who knows Jared knows that it was hard for him to leave his hats home. I think he may have found one he can actually wear. 

 This must have been when they assigned him to his first area. They are pointing to Morristown.

E Petersen and E Olson

 

 These are during their stay at the mission home. 

I hope you can read this statement/prophesy about the south. 

Pretty amazing! 

It had been fun to read Jared's letters home. In just the few weeks that he had been out, you can feel the spiritual lift he has experienced. He loves his mission! He is gaining so much from his trainer, E Olson. 

Jared's favorite talk from conference is from Elder Bednar. 

His favorite quote is from that talk,  "It's the load." He likes how Elder Bednar likened our burdens to a load that gives us spiritual traction. 

I ask him about spiritual experiences he has and to share them if he wants. This was one of them. 

"We studied and read about what it means to baptize someone. It made me realize that what I share with people has eternal consequences. I'm not just trying to show people a really good church that they should join, I'm showing people the one and only way to live with God in the Celestial Kingdom. My perspective on missionary work changed a little after I realized that, and it makes me want to go teach as many people as I can. "

"Reading the Scriptures is good, but reading the scriptures because that's just what you are suppose to do isn't nearly as beneficial as reading the Scriptures because you want a better understanding. So desire is really the only way that we'll actually grow and be the best we can be. So read the Scriptures out of desire and not because that is what you are suppose to do."

( I just love this kid! )

Arrived in Tennessee March 25th 2014

He made it to Tennessee!

We were able to talk to Jared twice, once from SLC airport and then from the Georgia airport. 

He sounded sooo happy! 

(That makes me happy!)

Here he is with Pres and Sis Irion and 

the rest of the new missionaries. 

I ♥ P-day!!

I love getting pictures! These first two are my favorite!!

For those of you who may not understand what Pday is, it is their preparation day where the missionaries can do laundry, clean, and MOST important .... email home!! I love my missionary and I am soo glad he chose to serve a mission and I support him 200%, but I miss him a lot and LOVE to hear from him and get pictures!

Here is his email from this week: ( I emailed these questions to him)

March 21, 2014 (email)

The letters aren't overwhelming at all, I love getting them. I also wrote you all a letter back, and sent it today, so we'll see how long it takes to get there.

What has been your favorite? My amazing companions

What has been your least favorite? sitting in a chair all day... He later told me that he was tipping back in one of the chairs and since they have wheels, he fell backwards and smacked his head and elbow against the wall. And he broke the chair. I asked if he got in trouble and he said, "Mom, you can't get in trouble here. " 

How many elders to a room? 3 in ours, but there can be up to 6

How was your first Sunday in the MTC? almost the same as every other day, except we watched the Character of Christ by Elder Bednar and it was really good

Have you gotten letters from anyone else? Nope, but you should tell people to write me dear elders before next monday

Who's emails do you want? just tell everyone to email me, it's hard to think of people on the spot

How has your stomach been doing? good

Do I need to send anything else? a like 32 gb sd card and a big flash drive would be nice for all my pictures, but it's not urgent

Have you finished the BOM? We don't really get time to read what we want to, everything is decided for us pretty much

Do you know your flight plans? times I don't know them yet. It'll be throughout the day on tuesday.

Love, Jared