Week 48

January 24-February 6, 2017

These past two weeks have been amazing and packed full of spiritual moments. The best of all is that for two weeks now we have had 6 investigators attend church with us... thats just mind blowing to me!! We found an amazing family who lived in Utah for 15 years but never went to church or got baptized and then they moved back to Buenos Aires to be with their family and felt like they had hit a wall. Nati ( the mom) explains that in Utah they were living the Mormon life and didn't even know it. When they got to Buenos Aires she says that they were just culture shocked. They couldn't stand that groups of people would be out in the street drinking and that everywhere they went people were smoking and they could just let their kids play outside anymore because it's not safe. Well two missionaries were walking by one day and saw their licenses plates and ran up and knocked on the door and wanted to talk to the owner of the car (they were utah plates). Well the family Palavencino started listening to the missionaries and prayed to know if their message was true. Nati and Pablo have very strong testimonies and know that God has restored his gospel here upon the earth once again!!! They moved here a few weeks ago and have been building their house from the ground up literally. They don't have anything not even a house or furniture. They are super super humble people and so warm hearted and full of love. We´re helping they spiritual as well as temporally at this point. A few times a week we go over and help them out. We´re super excited because the Lord has been blessing them in sooo many ways and even though they have nothing they are always happy and counting their blessings. They know that they have to work for what they want and that as long as they have their family and Heavenly Father everything will be alright. 

I love this work and I know that the Lord is with us. Every single day we step outside our apartment and get to work He blesses us with miracles. He loves us and understands each one of us perfectly. Without a doubt I know that He lives and that He is our Savior, Lord and King. Heavenly Father has given us this life to grow, learn and progress so lets make the most of it and help others, love others and choose to do the right always!! May God bless you wherever you are. En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen. 

Hermana Jarvis

family Palavencino

Week 45

January 10-January 16, 2017

This week was incredible!! We found a bunch of new investigators!! Mirta, Natasha, Gonzalo and Luciana all come too church with us this week and we about died of happiness! Luciana we found knocking on doors looking for a woman named Alejandra who told us she lived in a certain house at the end of the street so we just asked around and knock on a few doors but we never figured it out. Luciana came out of one of the houses and when we found out that she wasn't Alejandra we shared the gospel with her anyway. We taught her about the restoration right there in her yard and we invited her to get baptized!! she said that she had never been baptized and that she would really like to. We set up a time to visit her the next day and ask if she knew anyone else that would like to hear our message and to invite them to our lesson.  When we went to visit her the next day we brought a member (hna Nunin) and taught Luciana and her mom. We invited them both to be baptized and her mom said that she wasn't so sure yet but that her daughter Luciana (13 years old) had told her she wanted to get baptized and that she had no problem with that. At our next appointment with her we showed up and she was swimming in her pool out side with a bunch of her friends and we thought okay well we´ll at least share something with her mom inside. Luciana told us that her mom was inside waiting and that we could just go on in. We sat down with her mom and talked for a little while trying to get to know her better while  Luciana and all of her friends dried off and got dressed. then they all came to listen to our message and sat down with us. We taught them the plan of salvacion and they loved it!! We invited all of them to get baptized too and they all accepted. One of them was Gonzalo who said that he had been wanting to get baptized  but didn't know which church to go to. It was AMAZING!! They both went to church and Luciana´s mom already signed the permission form and welp they will be getting baptized January 28 at 7!! All I can say is that I am so grateful for all of our blessings!! I know that the Lord is preparing people and leading us directly to them!! That's all for this week!! Hope you all have a great one!!

Hermana Jarivs

Week 44-quick note

January 3-January 9, 2017

Elder Neil Anderson is going to come here in a few months to bariloche for a special meeting with the missionary liders here (IM INCLUDED IN THAT GROUP!!! :D) and I'm super excited. He is coming just for our mission Nueque but the even cooler part is he is going to be staying in MY stake in Bariloche and everyone from our mission is going to have to travel here and wow I just hope I stay here one more transfer so that I get to be here and soak up a little extra time with him haha!! Yeah I'm already more than halfway done with my mission its sooo crazy!! I don't want to go home :( haha!! Talking to my mom was super awesome I showed off my Spanish a little haha we also sang her a hymn in Spanish and she was definitely tearing up :) 

Thanks for all your support!!
Hermana Jarvis

Week 43

December 27, 2016-January 2, 2017

We had transfers on Wednesday and Hermana Farr got sent to Roca and I got a new companion!! Hermana Ventura is her name and she's from Mexico!! Whoot whoot!! We also ended up get two more hermanas instead of a set of Elders so that was a big surprise!! They don't have their own apartment yet so they have been staying with us. At first I was like "great four hermanas in a one bedroom apartment- this will be interesting" but now I am loving it. We all had a pajama party for New Years and we got two giant kilos of ice cream, made brownies, banana bread, pizzas, oven roasted chicken, empanadas, salad and a few more things that I cannot remember at the moment haha. It was super fun because I found this board game that someone had made with the plan of salvacion and it was super awesome and hilarious. We joked around laughing so much we didn't even get to finish the game because we kept changing the rules up ever five minutes to make it even more hilarious. We had a great time together and I am soo going to miss them when they get their own apartment :((

Well this week we made a goal to serve someone every single day and each day there would be people in their yards or in the street cleaning and we would offer to help them all. Most of them said no but a few said yes and we got to serve at least one person everyday. Two days this week we found a lady named Verna walking home with large heavy grocery bags and me and my companion ran up and just took the bags from her and started walking with her all the way to her house and she was so grateful because she is supposed to have knee surgery this week and the doctor told her she cannot carry anything heavy or walk very long but she was having all her kids over for New Years and wanted to have food for them so she walked to the store (like everyone here) and was carrying it all back alone. It was awesome we helped her inside her house and then she invited us to come back again and sit down and teach her about Christ so we're going to visit her this week :) She is super sweet!! We also have been teaching a girl named Sofi who is 16 years old and half believes in Christ and half believes in buddism. This week me and my companion have a meeting in Neuquen so well be traveling for a few days and I'm super excited to see what president has to say this transfer.

Hope you all have a very very happy 2017!!! Don't forget about the wonderful tool we have for our life!!! Las escrituras!! Usenlas y aplicenlas a su vida porque son para nuestro provecho!!! 

  1 Nefi 19 23-24

 23 Y les leí muchas cosas que estaban escritas en los libros de Moisés; pero a fin de convencerlos más plenamente de que creyeran en el Señor su Redentor, les leí lo que escribió el profeta Isaías; porque comparé todas las Escrituras a nosotros mismos para nuestro provecho e instrucción.

 24 Por tanto, les hablé, diciendo: Escuchad las palabras del profeta, vosotros que sois un resto de la casa de Israel, una rama que ha sido desgajada; escuchad las palabras del profeta que fueron escritas a toda la casa de Israel, y comparáoslas a vosotros mismos, para que podáis tener esperanza, así como vuestros hermanos de quienes habéis sido separados; porque de esta manera es como el profeta ha escrito.

Hermana Jarvis

Week 42

December 20-December 26, 2016

Hope you all had an amazing Christmas!! We spent Christmas Eve (La nochebuena) with the Italians (Massi family) and they made us a 3 course Italian dinner with fresh caught trout and salmon and fettuccini, lasagna and ravioli!! All home made right in front of us!! The coolest thing ever. We took them gingerbread cookies and they just about died of happiness- they were passing around the plater and all taking pictures with them! It was a very Merry Christmas for sure. 

So this week we spent a good chunk looking for apartments because the mission is getting 30 more elders and they are giving our ward elders along with us. (it has just been us, the hermanas forever) It will cut our giant area in half which is perfectly fine with us because we just don't have time to visit all the neighborhoods and it's a huge area for just me and my companion. 

We also got to teach the plan of salvation to Antonia and she seemed to really love it. She has been reading the Book of Mormon almost every night before she goes to bed and she always says, ¨thank you so much for always passing by¨ and that just made my heart swell. She´s awesome so keep her in your prayers!! :) 

If you haven't seen the video from light the word that came out yesterday for Christmas you should go watch it now!! It will just put a smile on you face with gratidude!   

https://www.mormon.org/christmas/in-25-ways-over-25-days/jesus-disciples-followed-him

https://www.mormon.org/christmas/in-25-ways-over-25-days/jesus-disciples-followed-him

We have transfers this Thursday so I'll be staying or leaving we never know. I would honestly just love to stay because we have a some great people we´re teaching and I just love them so much!! BUT If I get called to somewhere else I know that I´ll make amazing memories there as I did here. I hope you all have a very happy new year and that you all make a great goal like to serve others more this year because being more like Christ is one of the best goals that we could ever make!!!

Until next week 

Hermana Jarvis :) 

Week 41

December 13-December 19, 2016

So this week was yet another crazy week!! We went to San Martin de Los Andes and did intercambios with the two sisters there. It was very spiritual. Then we got back to Bariloche and had our zone conference with president. We sang christmas hymns talked about the birth of Christ and the blessings we have to share this amazing gospel with everyone. We had a big sleepover  with El Bolson and San Martin so our apartment had 6 awesome sister missionaries and we made pancakes and smoothies for breakfast before the conference and it felt awesome to get together with everyone. Oh this week I learned what athletes foot is!! Because i got it... I was talking to my companion and telling her that my foot was just on fire. and she had me show it to her and yep it was athletes foot. I used the cream that mom and I had bought jokingly at the dolor store and I'm all cured wahoo. So now for the more spiritual stuff. Natasha wants to get baptized so we are rolling full steam ahead with her. She's been to church soo many times and she has a testimony of the Book of Mormon. She's already in alma!! She has a few things she has to put in order in her life like GET MARRIED or just live the law of chastity. We then found a new investigator last night that is just amazing and we taught her the restauration and committed her to being bauptized on the 21 of enero (January). Her name is Griselda and she live just around the corner  from us. We were walking home yesterday and we saw her outside and as our goal is to talk to EVERYONE... we did. And she was awesome!! I see miracles like that everyday on our mission. Last week we found this Italian family on the way to lunch and we asked if we could come in and share a message with them and they opened their gate and said come on in!! Do you want some lunch too??  I thought they were joking... but their mother in law was in the kitchen making pasta and they had us sit down at the table and eat with them and teach them about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith!! It was  just awesome!! They are the Massi family and their mom is from Italy visiting them because this couple just had a little baby boy and guess what his name is?? Bautista ( baptist ). We got an Italian Book of Mormon and were going to go and give it to them because well he is from Italy and yes he speaks Spanish but his native language is Italian. Those are just a few examples of the amazing adventures and miracles we have had these past few days. Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!! FELIZ NAVIDAD!!

Hermana Jarvis 

Week 40

December 6-December 12, 2016

We did intercambios/ exchanges with El Bolson this week so I got to be Hermana Sant´s companion again for a day!!! It was sooo awesome!! We went and visited Norma and invited her to get baptized this last Saturday. AND SHE DID!! Norma is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!! She was super excited to get bauptised because that means she can enter into the celestial kingdom with her little boy that past away under a year ago!! She was so happy to find out that he is just waiting for her in paradise and is not damed or just sleeping but that he is actually rooting her one just waiting for her to be able to join him in the presence of our Father in Heaven. So she wasn't too sure if she wanted to get bauptised this week or wait tell next week when her friend gets back from vacation. I told her that both would turn out very nice and then I told her that the truth is that God has been waiting for her all this time. Even more when we started teaching her and she wanted to get baptized but couldn't because she was living with her boyfriend and they weren't married. (what happened was a few days before I got there to be with Hermana Sant for intercambios her boyfriend got mad and hit her... so she left him...) Last transfer we had taught her the law of chastity and we had been trying to help them either get married or move into separate houses and well live the law of chastity but her boyfriend wanted to wait a year to get married and she said she would wait for him so we all were going to have to wait a year until she could be bauptised. But when I got there she had moved out of her ex-boyfriend's house and had decided that she had had enough and wanted to get bauptized. She literally asked us, ¨So when can I get bauptized now?¨which was just AWESOME. Yes so back to the story, I was telling her that both this week and next week would be good and then i felt like i had to tell her something so I did. I said the truth is God has been waiting for you all this time and now your ready to get bauptized and He is still waiting with His arms stretched out. I then said, ¨I know that if you get baptised this week it would a step of faith.¨Then Hermana Sant told her how Evelyn (her best friend that's a member that was the one who shared the gospel with her in the first place) will see the change in her as soon as she sees her because Norma would be getting the gift of the Holy Ghost and Eve would defiantly be able to see the change in her and the glow that she would have.Then we told her that it would also be awesome for Evelyn to be there. I totally thought that Norma was going to choose to wait for Evelyn to get back from Cordoba but she turns to me and says, ¨I just feel like I should do it this Saturday¨ It was SO AMAZING I definitely started crying.. :)  and then hugged her goodbye.  She got bauptised on Saturday and she got the Holy Ghost Sunday in church!! WHOOHOOO I was so happy and we've still got two more weeks of this transfer to see even more miracles!!! That was the best part of my week, to see another one of God´s children enter into the waters of bauptism and to be able to know that She KNOWS that its all true. Every last bit <3 I love this work. I love the mission and I love my Savior Jesus Christ!! This Christmas share with everyone you meet a warm smile and a cheerful Merry Christmas and look for opportunities EVERY DAY to serve those around you. Even if it's just helping someone carry their groceries to their car or opening the door for a few people. Look and pray for the opportunities and you will feel the Joy that this season brings!! Love you all and I hope you have a fantastic week!!! 

Hermana Jarivs

ps here is a pic of me and Hermana Farr-My newest companion