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June 30, 2012

I'm in the Middle, Now and Forever!

Just starting out last October!
Not much else to say but things are going great here in the Temple Square Mission! It has really been heating up here, and it is so busy with everyone on vacation and out of school!! I’m looking forward to my birthday next week. This will be the second year in a row to not really celebrate my birthday since last year I was working as a counselor at EFY! So it probably won't be too weird, it will just be another busy day.

We are having so much FUN at Welfare Square! We serve there on Tuesdays and Thursdays all day long. The best part of the day is at the end when we get to help host. That is when we take around a person who has a bishop’s order for food and other needs. So we get to push the cart and tell them what to get! It’s so fun!! Anyways we got to do this a lot this week. Christlike service in action; it’s so fun!

Oh here's one...I’m already half way done with my mission? What happened? All I know is that when we are in the service of our fellow beings we are only in the service of our God. I have loved my mission. And I will never be the same! But I will ALWAYS be in the middle! (Read President Uchtdorf's talk from the July Ensign) He says, "with the proper outlook, considering ourselves as in the middle of things can help us not only to understand life a little better but also to live it a little more meaningfully.  When I speak to our young missionaries, I often tell them they are in the middle of their missions. Whether they just arrived the day before or are to depart for home the day after, I ask them to think of themselves as always being in the middle...Thinking of themselves as always being in the middle of their missions will embolden and energize these faithful representatives of the Lord. As it is with full-time missionaries, so it is with all of us….Yes, there will be moments of beginnings and moments of endings throughout our lives, but these are only markers along the way of the great middle of our eternal lives. Whether we are at the beginning or the end, whether we are young or old, the Lord can use us for His purposes if we simply set aside whatever thoughts limit our ability to serve and allow His will to shape our lives……Being always in the middle means that the game is never over, hope is never lost, defeat is never final. For no matter where we are or what our circumstances, an eternity of beginnings and an eternity of endings stretch out before us….We are always in the middle.”
Thank you for all the love and support!
I love you all!
xoxooxox
Sister Jarvie
CTR
Mom's Countdown Calendar

June 23, 2012

Lots of Success, Lots of Anti-Mormons!

Former Temple Square Missionaries Danielle Bryers and Blythe Beecroft
visit Sister Jarvie's house in California
Going to the Temple with Sister Call
Awesome Sister Missionaries and Mom
Sister Di Liberto and Sister Jarvie
Things are starting to move along again now that Sister Di Liberto has gotten the hang of Temple Square. We had a lot of success in the last week. Also we had a lot of anti experiences. On Wednesday morning we were called for a tour and it was a group in the South. They didn't really say much, so 5 minutes into the whole thing we find out they are actually two different groups in one 'tour'. So there was this really cute lady and her two kids. She had just bought her son a car to use for college. Really nice little Catholic family, so Sister Di Liberto was mostly talking to them. So I was focusing on the group of about 5 or 6 youth and one adult. They were all wearing crosses and looked less than excited to be here...anti alert. Anyways, we had an appointment at 11:30am so we took them to the Christus to cut it short. While Sister Di Liberto was talking to the Catholic family, the anti group started asking me about what the statue represents. (Keep in mind that all their questions were asked in a, ‘trying to look innocent/ speculative way).’ I said “That's Jesus Christ....” Then they were like “well what does that mean? What is this room supposed to represent? Do the planets mean something? What are the orbs all about?” I just started laughing, I’m like “Ha well, if you want to look at it that way or read into it for deeper meaning, go ahead. But as far as I know it’s just a pretty room. You can think what you want.” Haha They knew I thought these questions were ridiculous. So they kept asking weird/controversial questions yada yada. Then I gave them the guest card and said “well we need to take off.” The leader said “Can we pray with you?” I said “No...”  “You don't pray?” “Oh, yes we pray. But not here with you. Not like this. If you want to pray to yourselves that’s fine but we won’t join you." Then that was that.
Anyways, the moral is that the Lord always blesses me with super great normal people in a tour when we also get anti's. And Sister Di Liberto was totally protected with her group on the other side of the room. After that tour we were walking to our appointment and saw another anti group. LATER at the Beehive House the SAME group we had just seen showed up. They were obviously so anti. Haha its funny thinking about it!! I was at the desk by myself and then Sister Kemp walks out. It was honestly DEAD SILENT in that room. So weird! That never happens... Anyways, so I wrote down "ANTIS!!" on the paper so Sister Kemp could see. We decided that we should go on an exchange for the tour. I have taken a lot of Anti Beehive tours before so I know we need to talk fast...really fast. So Sister Kemp and I took the tour. I walked with them out of the house, waved, ran back inside and closed the door! Phew...
Monday was AWESOME! We had mission FHE! So we went to President Seppi's mansion in Sandy. It was so fun. We wore our jeans and played volleyball and ate food and looked around his house. It was so so so relaxing. I haven't just laid on the grass watching the clouds roll by since Hawaii.
Well I think that’s about it for this week.
Love Sister Jarvs
Xooxoxoxoxox
CTR

June 16, 2012

I'm Learning How to Be a Better Missionary!!

Blythe Beecroft visits Sister Jarvie
Training training training! There has been a lot of adjusting going on this week. Sister Di Liberto is still feeling really self conscious about her English but I think it’s great! We were able to get a language blessing from President Harmon on Tuesday. He said a lot of great things to her and it is so nice that we can go get that blessing from him. I hope it has been helping her confidence!

Wednesday was better. We were in the Beehive House!! I have missed it so much. Summer is so much busier there then when I served there during the winter. It was great though and Sister Di Liberto learned about it really quickly!
 
All the zone leaders, district leaders and trainers had to go to a leadership training meeting this week. It was at a really cool house up in the avenues! This place was honestly a mansion! It was up on the hill too so it had a great view of SLC. The meeting was great. I learned so much about being a better missionary. Of course that's what these meetings are always about but we learn more every time.
The amazing mansion where we had leadership training!
Yesterday was a very long day. First thing we had training. Then we rushed off to Welfare Square only to find out that it was closed for the day! But it kept going back and forth between yes, there would be tours and no, there would not be tours that day. So we ended up kind of just sitting there for an hour trying to figure it out haha. Eventually we got picked up and taken back to Temple Square. My companion was having a really hard day. She was really struggling with homesickness. So I talked to her and then we tried to get a hold of President Gillette for a priesthood blessing but he wasn't at the Square. So we went over to Sister Gillette’s office and she talked to Sister Di Liberto for a while. It made her feel better. I think she was just putting too much pressure on herself to know English right away. She will be fine. I’m not worried.

Well I am so happy that today is p-day! The time is still going by pretty fast around here!!

I hope everyone had a good week!

xoxoox

Sister Jarvie
Sister Jarvie and Sister Wong

June 9, 2012

The More I Rely on the Lord to Help Me With This the Easier it is...

My new companion Sister Di Liberto of Milan, Italy
CIAO! Oh my goodness. I never ever thought I would get to the point on my mission that I would be training another sister missionary. The past few days I have been feeling like I do not know enough to do this. And how am I ever going to teach her enough to be a good missionary at Temple Square?! But it gets more obvious each day that the more I rely on the Lord to help me with this the easier it is. It is interesting to take a step back and explain why we do certain things and how that will help us be better servants of the Lord. It has really helped me to gain a stronger testimony of this work we are doing. Because myself, being about half way through my mission already I can promise to her that these things work because I have seen it!
Anyways, on Wednesday when we were about to be assigned to our trainee's I honestly felt like I was going to throw up I was so nervous! Haha But when the time came, I was okay! Her name is Sister Di Liberto from Italy. She is from Milan and learned English in the MTC. So we are really working on getting more familiar with the language. We have a lot of time to study together as a companionship which helps a lot. There is so much we have to learn to be a missionary at Temple Square. There is so much history here. All the dates and facts about every little thing. AND then we must know how to relate it back to the gospel so we can teach them! So for Sister Di Liberto, learning this all in English will also be a challenge. But we are taking our time and having so much fun!
We will be serving at Welfare Square this transfer on Tuesday and Thursday! So that means that we will be at the Beehive House on Wednesdays! I am so excited to be at Welfare Square. We got some training for it this week and I think it will be so fun to serve there. So that means that we have even more information to learn! With Welfare and the Beehive House!
Other than that, not too many updates in the past few days! Things are going great! Letters of encouragement about training a new missionary would be nice haha

LOVE YOU
xoxoxo
Sister Jarvie
Goodbye for now to Sister Chen!
Flag removed from nametag and ready
to fly out!!

June 4, 2012

"This will be the best summer on Temple Square ever!"-- Elder Jeffery R. Holland

Sister Call and Sister Jarvie
This morning at 7:30am we had a mission meeting and we all stood up when ELDER JEFFERY R HOLLAND walked in! We had our transfer conference last night and President Gillette announced that a general authority was going to speak to us in the morning but he wouldn't tell us who it was going to be.
It was so incredible! I took so many notes and learned so much from him. He talked about the attributes of the Spirit, and said we should emulate those same things. That will apply to all people and situations in life when dealing with different people. He said “If the Spirit is mild, you be mild. If the Spirit is bold, you be bold”, and so on.
He also said "This will be the best summer on Temple Square ever!"
I think I will photocopy my notes and send them to other missionaries.
Before the opening prayer we sang ‘Called to Serve’, our Temple Square Mission Version:...all 3 verses!
Called to preach the gospel to all nations
On the mount a banner is unfurled
Sisters, couples serving all together
from all corners of the world:
Chorus: Australia, Asia, Europe,
Pacific Islands, Africa
Russia, North America
Central South America
Jesus Christ our Master His gospel we will share
See all nations flow unto it.
Our lovely Temple Square!
See all nations flow unto it.
Our lovely Temple Square!

All the sisters wave their hands for whatever part of the world they are from during the song. It’s so great!
This week has been so busy! Getting ready for the transfer and arranging all the cars and rides and knowing who is going outbound before anyone else! Ha its madness here! Last pday was SO FUN! We got extra fancy dressed up and went to Cheesecake Factory with some other companionships in our zone!
So I will be in Extended Zone this transfer, with Saturday for pday. Oh and I'll be training a new missionary for the next 12 weeks; she comes in from the MTC on Wednesday. Sister Au-Yeung was such an awesome trainer for me when I got here-- 
“The responsibility to train a new missionary is a sacred trust from your mission president and from the Lord. A missionary’s first companion has a profound, lasting influence on the development of the missionary’s attitudes, habits, and ability to fulfill his or her purpose.”
I'm so excited--I can't wait!
Love you!!!!!!!!
xoxoxooxox
Sister Jarvie
Sister Wong and Sister Jarvie
--
Sister Lauren Jarvie
UT- SLC Temple Square
50 N. West Temple St. Rm. BSVC
Salt Lake City, UT 84150