Our Dads Served Together More Than 30 Years Ago!!!

Elder Jeff Jarvie and Elder Max Bryers in New Zealand Christchurch Mission, 1979

Sister Lauren Jarvie and Sister Danielle Bryers, Utah Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission, 2011

Max and Jeff at President Sonntag's Missionary Reunion, 2010

I LOVE Being A Missionary!

Final Days at the MTC

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Today is Thanksgiving and the whole mission has the day off so we're going to have a big event somewhere!  It’s kind of a big secret so I have no idea what we're going to do! 

We met a lot of people who are kind of against the church this week. I was writing a letter to JESS today and I was telling her that it really helps me strengthen my testimony when it is challenged by nonbelievers, if that makes sense. And I got asked a few pretty hard questions this week too. Two people had the perception that women don't have an important role within the church, and wondered if we think women have the same ability to have a relationship with God as men do... So interesting! So, it was really neat how I seemed to be able to give an inspired response to those questions. Man, it really took it out of me! haha! But I LOVE being a missionary! There are so many things that I am beginning to realize are blessings from serving the Lord. I don't think I would be able to remember answers to these questions people ask me if it weren't for the extra help I am getting. It's wild!

This week went by really fast! I am trying to remember what even happened. Well, last week I got food and so I was able to cook for the whole week! I am going to have to start doing that a lot because we start our Christmas schedule tomorrow and it's going to be SO busy here! I passed off on my driving test! So that means I can take a car (minivan) on PDAYS!! And I can drive people to the doctors during the week if one of the sisters needs. So Yesterday I took my friend Sister Gheirske to the dr and then we stopped at The Sweet Tooth Fairy on the way back (hush hush), which was totally on the way! haha! I left a note for Meg and Eth there so I hope they got it!!! 

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! I am so grateful for all of you and I love you so much!!!

xoxo

&

CTR

Sister Jarvie

Sister Jarvie and Sister Lindsay Wright, who will serve in New Jersey

Sister Jarvie and Sister Knutson, who will serve in Thailand

Sister Jarvie and Sister Carter, a fellow Temple Square Missionary

Eating dinner at the Lion House on Temple Square

We Are Serving On HOLY GROUND!

Lauren with President and Sister Holmes

Hello!

I think this has been the best week ever. The girls at Temple Square are all so nice and friendly. I have friends from all over the world now!

So things have been going great! Sister Au-Yeung got a baptism on Friday so it technically counts as OUR first baptism, haha. We met some great youth on Saturday and asked them for names of people that they think might benefit from the message of the gospel. One of the girls gave us a name and I called her that night. Our first lesson with her was on Tuesday and she committed to get baptized!!!! So I sent out a request for the missionaries in her area to go continue teaching her. BUT they haven't contacted her yet. Ugh! haha Temple Square is so much more efficient than some of the other missions we have had experiences with. haha It has been SO incredible to have multiple teaching appointments everyday and to be so busy ALL the time calling people and taking them on tours. There is honestly no down time here, it’s so gnarly. Anyways, we have also been seeing major progress with our other investigators too. Sister Au-Yeung already has a lot of contacts since this is her 5th transfer, but that’s awesome because we get to teach them together! Night time is super busy for her because that is when it is best to call for teaching appointments in Asia. Mostly Hong Kong. So cool! The other day we went on our first Japanese tour together. Haha So funny because all I do is just stand there and smile...I don't know JAPANESE! haha But it was so cool to hear them rattling off anyways... We also took 3 awesome guys on a tour the other day. They were SO interested in the history and everything. They all wanted to know more! So we are going to set up appointments to teach them soon. There are SO many MIRACLES on Temple Square everyday... it's insane. The Spirit of the square that hits you the moment you step on is undeniable. And almost everyone can feel it. That is what makes being a missionary here so special...We are serving on HOLY GROUND! I know that the Lord is helping all of us so much because we work so hard... BUT we still SMILE and are so friendly all the time! haha And it is not even hard to have a good attitude. If I was not set apart as a missionary, I could not do this. It is so incredible to be here. Every single sister is so nice and so genuine... It doesn't matter where you are from; we are all serving the Lord for the same PURPOSE.

Well I haven't seen anyone I know yet! I think once the Christmas lights come on it will be a different story. OH so we all got cell phones on Saturday! But it's for the senior companion only. Still cool though! The phones will be used so that teaching and contacting can be more frequent!  Gotta love technology!

Funny story... SO when I was still in the MTC we came to temple square on Saturday just to visit...I heard that in years before us the bus driver would take all the visiting sisters to McDonalds before getting back to the MTC....SOoooo I presented this idea/plan/plea to the bus driver.. HE ACCEPTED! :) On the way there, my companions and I had to take down everyone’s orders and collect cash money. Then we got there and ordered everything. We were like 1$ shy of 60 bucks for everything!! hahah It was so awesome. Every sister on that bus was so stoked. I got a large Diet Coke (duh) and drank one while I was in there then, filled it up again for the ride home. SO GOOD!!! And while we were in there, there were two truck drivers who had just gotten into town and they were talking to us. They were so nice and friendly. So I had Sister Carter grab some pass along cards when she was taking some of the food to the bus. So we gave the guys the pass along cards! They were so grateful :) It was a good night... Pretty fun because I was kind of in charge of the whole thing hahah

Happy Thanksgiving week everyone! Gobble gobble!

Love you all

xoxo

Sister Jarvie

President and Sister Holmes

Michael H. Holmes, 67, Utah Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission; Dimple Dell Park Ward, Sandy Utah Granite View Stake; Area Seventy; former president of the Missouri Independence Mission, regional representative, stake president, bishop and gospel doctrine teacher. Retired general contractor. Born in Wichita, Kan., to John Harvey and Doris Catt Holmes. Married Marian Roberts.
Sister Holmes served with her husband in the Missouri Independence Mission and is a former stake and ward Young Women president, ward Primary president, ward Primary teacher, temple receptionist and temple ordinance worker. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Boyd Elmo and Louise Fahrni Roberts.

Mom's Missionary Countdown Calendar

Final Memories of the MTC

Lauren sent home some pictures of her time at the Missionary Training Center:

Sister Jarvie with friend Rique Carroll, who saw each other at the temple

Sister Jarvie and her companions, Sister Martin and Sister Carter

Sister Jarvie's MTC District

The district in front of the Provo Temple

Sister Ting, a friend of Lauren's from BYU Hawaii

Elder Fackrell, the district leader

Surprise meeting with friend Clark Goldsberry on the way to the temple

The district and their trainer, Sister Christensen

Yesterday Was My First Day on The Square!

Hello!

Yesterday was my first day on the square! We weren't there for very long before all the new sisters got to go the WALMART to go shopping for groceries. So for this transfer my new official Pday is on Thursday from 1pm until we go back to our apartment. My companion is Sister Au-Yeung from Hong Kong, China! She went to BYU Hawaii too and we share a lot of common friends there, but I had never met her!  She is so great. She will be my trainer for the next 2 transfers (12 weeks). I am excited because she is so sweet and I have so much to learn from her. Everyone here loves her too so I know that we will have fun together. She speaks 4 languages I think!! Cantonese, Manderin Chinese, Japanese and English! So apparently we will be giving tours in all of those languages when needed! Well.....SHE will be giving the tours, I will probably just stand and smile! haha But it is rare in the winter time to have a big group come and need a tour in a different language.

We spend half our day walking around on the Square and the other half in what is called "motors". That is when we are making or receiving calls or on chat. We will spend a lot of time calling the referrals that we get while on the square. We are able to follow up with people, teach them the lessons and commit them to baptism before we send the local missionaries to them. We can call anywhere in the world except China and Middle East. It is great with so many international sisters here, it makes calling different countries so much easier.

All of the sisters here are so friendly! I am so glad that I was called here to serve my mission! I was able to talk to Sister Jenna Mettra a lot yesterday. This is her last transfer which is so sad but she has served a GREAT mission and made such a huge impact on peoples lives.

We are getting cell phones tomorrow! So we won’t have to be using pagers anymore. That will be nice. It is probably just one per companionship, pretty cool! Also we can only email family! So make sure that you have my correct address if you want to send me Dear Elder letters or actual mail:

Sister Lauren Jarvie

Utah Temple Square Mission

50 N. West Temple St. Rm. BSVC

Salt Lake City, UT 81450-1891 

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to get mail so Pleeeease don't forget about me :) I know you must be sick of hearing from me because I have had 3 Pdays in the past weekish! Hahah Sorry bout it! There will be A LOT more to share next week!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

CTR!

Sister Lauren Jarvie

         

I Only Have 5 More Days in the MTC!!

Sister Jarvie and her trainer, Brianna Hobbins

November 4, 2011

Hello!

I know it has only been a few days but like I had explained, I get two pdays this week! It is nice because I don't have to do any laundry today haha I just get to go to the temple!

So, I start Visitors Center training on Wednesday. It is awesome!!!!! I cannot express how much I love it.. Especially since on the first night we did "Chat Training" and BRIANNA HOBBINS is my teacher! If you're reading this right now, I love you! haha So, in class we were able to do some role playing, meaning we talk to each other as if one were the missionary and the other the investigator. We had to say, "welcome to Temple Square" and stuff like that. Then we had to practice sharing the first message of the Restoration in 5 minutes... We can't say the whole thing though. We have to learn how to discern what the investigator wants to hear. It is easier when we do a "tour" because we have more time at the beginning to get to know them a little. Last night we had TRC (Training Resource Center) and we set up a big room with pictures all over the walls. Then we met a visitor and showed them around and explained some principles that were depicted in the paintings. At the end we showed the Christus presentation. It was pretty cool, I haven't seen that for years!

Another great thing that happened yesterday is that we had more chat training. So at times during my mission we will be in a room full of computers waiting to talk to people who come online to chat through mormon.org. So they come on and ask us questions about the church and stuff. We talked to a real person yesterday!!! We were so excited. Its funny because it will be a group chat with my companion and I, AND the investigator. We have to communicate what we want to say to the person and stuff. Its really interesting. People are always online wanting to talk to missionaries.

So Brianna brought us Jamba Juice yesterday! OMG it was SO GOOD!!! The food here can get old at times, so it was really nice to have a fruit smoothie! YUM. She is the best. I hope I can be as good of a missionary as she was at Temple Square. That is my goal for sure!

We have our Temple Square Experience tomorrow! So in the afternoon we hop on a bus and drive up to SLC. Each of us will be paired up with a temple square sister missionary. And we will be actual missionaries! I am excited and nervous! So we will be able to talk to people and maybe even conduct tours?! I don't really know yet. I think they will tell us more tomorrow.

I have  5 days left here!!! It went by so fast! If you're going to send me a letter on Monday I think you should use my SLC address?

Thank so much to everyone that has been supporting me and sending me some LOVE!

LOVE you all so much!

xoxo

Sister Jarvie

I am so so so Grateful I Have This Opportunity to Serve the Lord

 Hello family and friends!

What an awesome week!! I saw so many people this week. I saw Matt Clayton, Stevo and Lee! They all teach here! And I saw Landon Ball who is now engaged to Lauren Porter?! Wooo!! Congrats you two! :) On Sunday we were walking back from the temple and CLARK got out of his car right by me!! OMG! I was so happy! It was so so good to see him! Then right after Rique pulled up too! So I was able to talk with them for a little while and take pictures. Clark took some with his Polaroid but they didn't turn out right away...GOOD news though Clark, it DID indeed turn out! So now I have a really awesome picture of us! I have also seen Jake Adams, who works here. I told him to send a picture of me to Lauren Call. Lauren Call write meeee!

Well this has been a good week. I really have been trying to learn the scriptures like the back of my hand. It is hard! Pay attention in seminary! Our elders left yesterday morning so we have been able to have some one on one time with our teachers. I had the most incredible experience last night in Sister Christensen’s class. We were able to talk to her about things we had questions about. We ended up talking about our human bodies and having hope. Hope is something that I am really focusing on here in the MTC. We listened to the most incredible talk by Dieter F. Uchtdorf!!! SO so good! I can't remember what it is called right now but it was great. It really pointed out that we need faith, hope and charity. And it is so true. I have been focusing on the Christlike attributes section of Preach My Gospel (I LOVE PMG) and it has been so helpful to go through and mark the scriptures that are about those attributes so that I can try to apply them to my life. This has been a wild experience. You get torn down, and then built back up. But that is just the way HF planned it for all of us, in ANY hard time we go through. I am so so so grateful I have this opportunity to serve the Lord. I wish that the youth understood just HOW great of an opportunity this is... EFY kids!!! YOU MUST serve a mission! Especially those who have the desire to serve are called to the work!

I miss all of you and I love you so much!!

Thank you for all of the love and support!

LOVE, Sister Jarvie

ps- I start Visitors Center training on Wednesday and so I get another PDAY on Friday!

Whooooop!!