We've Got Our Work Cut Out For Us!

We had our first BLIZZARD! So we celebrated by also getting one from Dairy Queen! It was pretty fun. We are assigned to two wards, and this weekend we got to go to their really fun Halloween parties! We dressed up as hipsters for Ponderosa Ward’s party!

We also had interviews with President Anderson on Wednesday. He’s so great! There are some pretty good new ideas about working with members in the wards to increase interest and confidence of the ward members so that they can find people to teach. So hopefully we can utilize those as much as possible to get the work moving in this area. Apparently, it is known as one of the hardest areas in the mission because it is the wealthiest. So most of the people who live here are pretty content and don't really see a need for religion. Isn’t that sad?  If they only knew the blessings they are missing out on.  Oh well, I’ve got my work cut out for me while I’m here!

We have been working a lot with some great members here and our ward mission leader to find more ways to move forward! All of the members that I have met in both wards are so willing to help and really excited to have sister missionaries haha! I have really enjoyed working with them! Have a great week! CTR

xoxoxoxo

Sister Jarvie

Halloween Hipster!

 

Letter from President Anderson

I Love it Here in Parker!

Me and Sister Nawrocki

Not too much happened this week because almost everyone we tried to see was gone for Fall Break! But we did get to teach some great lessons. The teaching aspect of this mission compared with Temple Square isn't different at all. I MISS NON-STOP TEACHING! We do not teach nearly as much here as we did at Temple Square. I miss that so much! It is kind of nice to have a little vacation from the intensity of the work though. I find myself actually having time to write in my journal and have free time to read the scriptures!! Members feed us every night and we drive around in a car. I feel like I’m getting spoiled and it will be hard to go back to the old grind, but I miss it and I am so happy I will still have 3 months left at Temple Square before my mission ends!

On Saturday Sister Nawrocki got a migraine so the past couple of days we have been trying to help her rest. I bought something called a Smashbook; it's a lot like a scrapbook. So I will put everything in there about my outbound experience.

This weekend we had Stake Conference. Brother Theiss spoke (the Stake Patriarch) about how hard mothers work to get all of their young children to church every Sunday morning. And that he was proud they were still active in the Church!! hahah Man, he is so funny up there speaking! Then he talked about an acronym he came up with for sacrament meeting...

Prepare

Absorb

Ponder

Act

He said that the PAPA didn’t mean anything but it just worked out that way so he went with it! Haha. Something else that’s cool is that the President of GeoCaching in Colorado is in the Singles Ward here!!!

The next day there was a broadcast from SLC as our Stake Conference. Most of it was pretty much focused on the Youth. Now with the new age for missionaries, homes, quorums and classes should become missionary training centers!

Tad R. Callister spoke on prayer, and that out of all the titles we can obtain in the world, Mother or Father is the ultimate title.

Teach our children how to pray:

1-  With intensity for things of eternal purpose. The Divine output will be matched with personal input.

2- Pray for an eternal companion! haha Do everything in our ability to obtain an answer from our prayers. "We can't pray for a Celestial companion if we're living a Telestial life!"

3-Set an example of our faith in the power of prayer.

4- Teach our children the virtue of kneeling.

5- Make morning prayer a habit! Our breastplate, shield and sword come from the protective power of prayer.

6- Pray often. "When it's time to pray, pray! And if you don't feel like it, pray 'til you do!"

7- Recognize answers to prayers. Satan cannot duplicate feelings from the Spirit.

Then Russell M. Nelson spoke. My favorite thing that he said, "Satan is an incorrigible Insomniac! He doesn't sleep!"
Everything is going really well in Parker and I love it here! The members are seriously SO NICE! I can't even begin to express how much I love all of them. It is such a blessing to be here for awhile and I plan to make the most of it!

Love all of you!

xoxoxo

Sister Jarvie
--

My One-Year Anniversary!

Sister Lauren Jarvie

CO- Colorado Springs

11825 Meadowood Ln.

Parker, CO 80138

sisterlaurenjarvie.blogspot.com

Life In The Rockies!

My new companion Sister Nawrocki

This is so weird! Suddenly a different place and a very different pace! The night before I came to CO I got 2 hours of sleep! So when we go outbound from Temple Square we have to pack all of the stuff we’re not taking with us. I had no idea how much stuff I have accumulated while I’ve been on my mission. Anyways, it was a disaster. Luckily, the sisters I left behind at Temple Square are nice enough to take all of that stuff to storage for me. It was so stressful! So then the next day I fly to CO and they take me to the mission office. It was really interesting because the AP's were like quizzing me on Joseph Smith and the Restoration. Hahaha… And they had asked me if I had ever seen the 12 week program (it’s the training guide for new missionaries that I used when I was training Sister di Liberto). I was like um yeah I definitely have seen that, we study it every day at Temple Square. So it was just funny, haha, but whatever, I guess that’s what they do when a new missionary comes from the MTC, so I can go with it! Originally this mission was scheduled to get a new Sister from the MTC, but she got sick there and needed to go home, so when they had a shortage they called Temple Square and asked if one of the 17 of us that were going outbound could plug in there to fill the gap. Also, the AP’s gave me this HUGE book of policies and guidelines for this mission. In short, it’s very different from Temple Square. So that’s what will be great about outbound, experiencing something new! After I was quizzed by the AP's, my companion came!!! Her name is Sister Nawrocki from upstate New York. She is so cool. She has been on her mission for only 3 months and is "training" me haha.

The next day was really interesting too! I actually had time to unpack and settle in!! Then we had lunch at a member’s house. After that we met up with some other sisters to get frozen yogurt! Then we continued to meet more members in the two wards we’re serving in. We are serving in Ponderosa Ward and the French Creek Ward. They are both so AWESOME! I love everyone we have met. They are all super nice and really excited to do missionary work!

Friday we had Zone Meeting! So I walk in first and there are like 20 elders in there!!!! So awkward hahaha. Then the zone leaders called me up to be the investigator for a role play and they asked me if I had ever done a role play at Temple Square! I took a deep breath and said YES! All the time... haha! It was also my ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!! So the sisters that we went to get frozen yogurt with the day before brought me these cute balloons with candy inside :) It was so fun! I can’t believe I just have a little over 5 months left! How did this happen?!?!? That night we had dinner at the Ropers, such a cute family! And they are really good at cooking!

We were pretty busy on Saturday meeting with members in the two wards. There is a missionary program here called 5-5-5 that keeps us super busy. Basically, each auxillary is supposed to come up with 5 names or families that we should go teach the missionary lessons to. We have the BEST ward mission leader in the Ponderosa ward, he is so cool and we love his family. They took us out to dinner on Saturday to this Mexican food place called Los Delicioso. It was pretty good. I haven't had good Mexican food in a while.

So each Sunday while I’m here we will go to two wards! And ward council meetings and stuff. It is pretty fun and Sundays go by way fast. I haven't really gone to church meetings in a year! In Temple Square we only have time for sacrament meeting and then we have to hit the Square! And I haven't been in a “family” ward since I was 15 pretty much! It was fun. I met the Persingers-- they are the best family ever! Sister Persinger is a crack up, Sister Nawrocki was like “you are going to be just like her when you grow up!” Haha she is the best! So they had us over for dinner, it was incredible. She has that same huge clock in her house that we got before I came on my mission!! Then we had another dinner appointment at Bishop Allettos house! They have 5 kids and the youngest plays football at BYU! They are a really nice family!

Things are nice here and I have been enjoying the super slow pace!!!

I feel like I'm on vacation sometimes...

LOVE

xoxoxoxo

Sister Jarvie

(minus the American flag and SL temple deco)

My house in Parker

 

Peace Out Temple Square!

Deseret News--"Sister Missionaries react to missionary age announcement"

This week was so crazy getting ready for General Conference! It was so much fun this year! We got thousands of referrals and have our work cut out for us. On Sunday night we had transfer conference and I got called to my outbound; so I am going to Colorado Springs Mission tomorrow for two transfers!!! I’m so excited! I will come back to Temple Square on January 2nd 2013 for my last two transfers!!! I don’t have much else to say right now, and I have tons of things to do before my early morning flight tomorrow. I will write more next week, and I’ll have a new address soon!  Love you all---CTR!

Sister Jarvie

October Conference
 

Last days with Sister Fredrickson!

Deseret News Article--"A Front Row Seat to a Huge Cultural Shift"
In the Whirled: When the
sister missionaries go marching in

Sister missionaries react to the news that new sisters can enter the mission field at the age of 19 that was shared at the Saturday morning session of general conference. (Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)

By Tiffany Gee Lewis , For the Deseret News

Published: Wednesday, Oct. 10 2012 5:00 a.m. MDT

As a 19-year-old sophomore at Brigham Young University, I roomed with a group of strong, intelligent women. We had watched virtually the entire male half of our freshman cohort leave to serve as Mormon missionaries. We women had the same ambition — most of us had plans to serve a mission — but because it wasn’t our time, we saw the world a different way. We took off to study abroad: in the Middle East, England, Mexico and Russia.

In that group of 12 women, nearly all of us studied in a foreign country, but only one of us made it on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and it wasn't me, even though I had worn future-missionary as a title since I was 8 years old. Life circumstances took me on a different course.

But I would have served, and so would most of that sophomore group, if we could have gone at 19.

That, in a word, is why the change in the minimum age for missionary service, just announced at LDS general conference, is nothing short of monumental. It may well usher in an era of the sister missionary in a way we don’t fully comprehend. Not only are we about to see a flood of sister missionaries, but we are going to have front-row seats to an enormous cultural shift in the church.

The change for women goes hand-in-hand with the alterations being made to the youth programs, which put more onus on the youths to teach, testify and carry the church forward. I see this change not as a marginalization of elder missionaries, but as a terrific strengthening of both genders.

Imagine, for instance, a seminary class of high school seniors. They are talking about their upcoming plans, their goals for the future. They are all talking about missions, not as something they might do in four years if life circumstances go their way, but as a tangible choice in the near future. Think of the strength of a proselytizing army that includes nearly an equal number of men and women, and what that will do for the church.

You can pick a returned sister missionary out of a crowd, because usually they’re standing at the head of it. In the past three wards I’ve been in, I do believe every Relief Society president served a mission. That might be coincidence, but I think it speaks to the power of a mission for “fast-tracking” one’s understanding of the church and the full scope of its mission in the world. Of course, a mission is not required for LDS women, but there’s no doubt that full-time service, at that early age, is an invaluable test of character and leadership — a refining, soul-stretching experience that’s hard to replicate any other way.

I've noticed a stereotype in our culture that men are the knowledge-bearing scriptorians and women are the service-oriented saints. But, as Elder Neal A. Maxwell has noted, “We need more women who are gospel scholars and more men who are Christians.”

Because of the dual role to both serve others and study the scriptures intensively, a mission molds men and women to be both saints and scriptorians.

Beyond this, the change in minimum age for missionary service is going to have enormous cultural implications for the church, in terms of dating, education and life plans. Women who go on missions at 21 face the real-life concern of coming home to find the marriage pool has thinned considerably, or that they have to put a nearly completed education on hold. Now those concerns can be alleviated.

Is every young woman going to serve a mission? No. Nor should they feel that obligation.

But the truth is there are thousands of young women who want to serve, and will follow that call. After all, they’ve been singing “I Hope They Call Me on a Mission” right along with the boys since they were 3 years old.

That hope, quite suddenly and remarkably, can be realized much sooner.

Tiffany Gee Lewis lives in St. Paul, Minn., and is the mother of four boys. She blogs at thetiffanywindow.wordpress.com. Her email is tiffanyelewis@gmail.com 

 



Are You Ready For Some Conference??

Exploring the Tabernacle
 

The Tabernacle Organ

We are getting excited for General Conference! Only a few more days until it starts and it will be so busy here! And I cannot believe that it is October already! It seems like it was just April Conference!

Well last week was so much fun! On Thursday we had a Pipe Organ tour of the Tabernacle and the Conference Center! It was so cool, we got to go inside the organ and walk around the pipes and learn about how things work! It was really interesting to see all of that, especially since I will probably never get that opportunity again. I even got to sit at the organ and pretend I was playing!

Last week we had our zone activity. We went bowling at President Seppi’s Country Club and then back to his house to watch Beauty and the Beast! While we were there I did Sister Shamanga's makeup. She is from Zambia; it was so much fun! She is going home next week so I gave her some of my stuff to take back with her! I really will miss her. I have also been helping her twist her hair and think I might move to Zambia and work in the salon doing cool stuff to hair haha just kidding. I will visit though!

Saturday we all got to go to the Relief Society General Broadcast! It was great! On the way in there were "Relief Society" ladies handing out little packs of tissues to everyone crossing the street going into the meeting. It was so sweet! Just in case we would cry!! So then other people were warning us that there is ANTI MORMON stuff packed INSIDE OF THE TISSUES! Hahahaha wow! The work these people go through in order to "shake our testimony". It actually is very sad and pathetic that they would spend so much time and money to do this whole thing! Talk about a wolf in sheep’s clothing... The best part is that the scripture the anti's used on their card "Come unto me all that are burdened and heavy laden"...was the SAME SCRIPTURE someone in the Relief Society presidency used in her talk!! It was awesome!

 

Anyways great week! There will be more to say next week I’m sure! I’m wondering if I’ll go outbound next Wednesday.  We will have a mission conference Sunday after General Conference and that’s when I’ll find out. Only four transfers left on my mission, can you believe it? 

Love

Sister Jarvie!

Enjoy General Conference!

Mom's Missionary Calendar!