Week 71 - Taiwan - December 22 - Lead Thou Me On

Hi family!

Well here it is...........it's time to move onward and forward in the Lord's work........just in a different field :) Let's just say emotions have been all over the place, but I'm sooooo grateful for the enormous blessings I have felt from Heavenly Father to just be excited and have faith in the future......it's helped me sooo much! Truly as I ponder on what I've learned and experienced, how I've changed through the Atonement and who I am today........I just think of my Savior and I feel that through faith in Him, He has helped me to have so much hope and faith for the future and that makes me excited :) In my Reflection with the mission this week, I shared how my mission has prepared me for the future and Eternal Life. This week is definitely all over the place, but as I stay focused on my Savior, everything just seems ok :) We have been blessed past understanding in the last few days..........it has blown me away and my heart is so full of gratitude. CJM was able to have her baptismal interview on Saturday and she was more prepared then we even knew...............then the ward was wanting to have the baptism before Church on Sunday so badly and they were able to and it was such a wonderful baptism............so many ward members were there at 8 in the morning! Absolutely full! and then CJM was sooo ready and sooo happy and she bore her testimony for about 5 minutes.........with laughter and we learned even more about her testimony then we knew.........I truly had no idea she was so ready to make that covenant with Heavenly Father........she is incredible and that is all becaue of the Savior :) Then 30 minutes later she was baptized and confirmed in church.........with such a beautiful confirmation about her being married in the temple.........then Sister Grigg and I bore our testimony in tears (oh Sister Grigg is also moving!!! to Gaoxiong.........they are closing the Tanzi Sisters for 3 weeks because they are short sisters, but will open again in 3 weeks- so the Elders are taking care of all of our investigators, RCs. and everything!) and we sang O Holy Night with the Elders and we just love this ward with all of our hearts.......................then we had dinner with some members last night and they asked me to share some of my pioneer ancestor stories and what an incredible experience. Since the beginning of my mission, that has been something I have always wanted to do............we were all so touched and strengthened by their faith and I will for sure continue to read and share more about these ancestors that I owe everything to. Tomorrow we are spending the entire day with different members...........what a perfect day :) They always say the last weeks are full of tender mercies.............it's very, very true :) It may not always be easy, but it's absolutely miraculous :)

This week we also sang at three different schools for Christmas with some members and what a special missionary opportunity..........we also attended a funeral and all the speakers focused on the non-members there and it was incredible as they testified of the Plan to them...........we also had our Christmas Activity at Sun Moon Lake with an incredible devotional with Pres. Blickenstaff leading us along in an institute-like study of Isaiah about the Savior's Atonement. Wow.................and it just keeps going..................my heart is turned to the Savior in absolute gratitude. I am eternally grateful for this time to be on the front lines of building the kingdom of God on the Earth..........of experiencing true conversion in myself and others and seeing the Lord's hand in the lives of many. Words can't quite express.........I'll just have to live it the rest of my life :) Thank you for all the support you have given me this year and a half..........you have helped many souls that you have never even met...........I love you all so much and so excited to see you and hug you! May you have a marvelous Christmas in remembering your personal conversion and the power of the Atonement in your own lives..........I know the Savior lives, we are God's children and this is His eternal plan.........I love you!

Sister Jarvis

 With my hometown neighbor--Elder Anderson

By Sun Moon Lake 

 Reunited with Sister Schultz

 Taiwanese food.....yay!

 CJM's Baptism

With Sister Adams from Fruit Heights

Taiwan - Week 70 - December 15 - Merry Christmas...Almost :-)

Well fam so sorry, I spent all my time today getting the pictures for next week's farewell at the mission home ready so I'm pretty close on time!!

This week in a nutshell:

- Nitti came for dinner!!! She is doing soooo well, but really having a hard time with the mission decision in regards to her mom wanting her to wait, but feeling she needs to go.......so we cried together as we talked about the blessings that come to our families as we serve the Lord :)

- Etiquette Dinner! So great! not a lot of investigators there, but they are trying to do these consectutively so the youth can bring more and more friends!

- My companion is my angel, literally an angel from Heavenly Father and she is so intune :)

- CJM is still doing well, just helping her to have her own personal answer to rely on :) 

- This week is Christmas Activity and all!! We are singing in the schools and we have the ward Christmas party too :) Will be a week to remember :) So great to have felt Heavenly FAther's love so deeply in the last day or so............I'm so excited for the future and so grateful He has prepared me for it :)

I love the Savior and I love you all too!

Sister J. :)

Taiwan - Week 69 - December 8 - The Saviors Love

Hi family!

Well what a week :) So grateful for the love of our Savior and His example..........this week at our follow-up training meeting, the thing which President Blickenstaff emphasized the most was kindness, love, and charity. How amazing.......sometimes it's so easy to get caught up in the "work" part and the skills and all.........but what most importantly did the Savior do? He sacrificed for all of us because He loves us. Without love, we truly can't do anything well or really by the Spirit :) The times of my mission when I have loved my companion with all my heart, when we have felt such Heavenly love for investigators and members...real charity.......have been the happiest times of my mission!! and the closest I felt to the Savior :) This week I want to seek a renewed desire for love and charity for all..........to share it, show it, and live it. and that is only possible through the Savior- for He has changed my life forever!

The work is hastening! The members are so wonderful..............they are finding more and more friends who are being prepared by Heavenly Father to hear the Gospel :) We have an Etiquette Dinner for the youth next week the RS is throwing with us to help them also get more excited to bring friends to church!! So grateful for the miracles we see every day!

O and HJM got her Patriarchal Blessing last week! She wrote me and told me all about it :)

A scripture that I love to share after we teach the Plan of Salvation.......

"And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the Atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise."
-Moroni 7:41

O I love this scripture!! These words ring true! Because of Him, we can have hope, we can have faith, we can have joy.......in this life and in the life to come! The greatest joy and hope I have felt in my own life has all come from the changing power of the Atonement. It brightens our lights and we can truly be filled with His love and a fullness of joy! Believe in Him, trust Him, increase your faith in Him, and your days will ring with hope and joy.......for we will see Him again! I love you all so much!!!!! Have an amazing week!!

Love you!

Sister Jarvis

oh PS you can keep CJM in your prayers! She is doing well, just trying to help her really obtain her testimony and feel the power of the Atonement :)

Members took us to lunch and we ate sooo much!

Taiwan - Week 68 - December 2 - Happy December!

Hi my dearest wonderful family!!

Wow!!! What a week!!!!! Let's go through the play by play.........

First off! Mission Tour with Elder and Sister Funk!!! So incredible!!! Sister Blickenstaff spoke on perspective with the Plan of Salvation and invited all of us to study it and gain our own testimony of every part...........President Blickenstaff talked about working with the members and the best way to do so.......received a lot of inspiration for our circumstance right now! Sister Funk talked about the Spirit and revelatory experiences in such meetings as well as the importance of the Holy Ghost, Elder Funk talked about His talk from the Priesthood Session on having spiritual power as a missionary through humility, listening to the Spirit, and being obedient. He also talked about teaching the Restoration...........he talked about teaching that which was expedient......most importantly the Restoration and the Atonement. It was just so wonderful and it helped me realize how I can improve with our member efforts- really, really getting to know them first and then more natural ways of seeking their help with missionary work, such as PmF, etc. I have already seen a difference in the last week! I had a chance to chat with Sister Funk at lunch and they are former mission presidents from India so Elder Barlow served with them! Sounds like a super special mission........very grateful to Heavenly Father for the words and inspiration they brought to us.......that as we use, will change us, and help us become better disiples of Christ.

Second off! We had the tri-ward Thanksgiving Party on Saturday and we weren't sure how it was going to go......but it went fantastically!!!! We had over 150 people there and everything went so well!!!!!! We made a gagillion chocolate cookies that were gone in about 5 minutes and some of the members helped us make them so that was fun :) The amazing part was we also had two investigators there and the members took great care of them :) Then the previous Sunday we had invited all of the Sisters to invite one friend, family member, neighbor etc. to the party and one sister brought her sister-in-law and the other brought one of the girls who lives in their apartment- so amazing!!!! They brought them up and introduced them to us right away and one of them came to church the next day too and she can feel the Spirit so easily!! At the party we had some football, hand-turkey making, and a whipped creme/ unwrap candy in your mouth contest that everyone loved!! It was just incredible! The Elder in charge did such a great job and I was estounded by how successful it was! The work is truly hastening!!!! The members and the missionaries are taking action together.........I came home that night so grateful to Heavenly Father for such a successful missionary activity.......I know that through our smallest efforts, the Lord will work wonders and the work will hasten!

Third off! Our investigator CJM is absolutely incredible.......because she works nights, it's sometimes hard to talk to her throughout the week, but we shared the Plan of Salvation with her yesterday and she was so prepared.........she had read the pamphlet the day before and she has consistently been praying :) She was adorable in church yesterday, as she introduced herself..........that she is in the baby stages of the Gospel, not baptized yet, but wants to share it with everyone :) She's an absolute miracle from Heavenly Father..........she is going to be such a strong member and be the means of helping many others ETTE as well.........again, all I can offer is Gratitude to Heavenly Father and my Savior!!!

I want you all to know I love you so and that Hastening the Work of Salvation is exactly what the Lord wants us to be doing........each and every member!! Whenever we get focused on it, pray about it, or act about it......miracles just happen and I feel the spirit so strongly guiding us along! We are seeing little miracles take place here in Tanzi- these members are incredible :) O how much I have seen my own weaknesses get in the way, but the Lord so miraculously helps me to work over them and know I will continue to :) The Atonement of Jesus Christ is real and there is no other means by which we can enter the kingdom of God or be near Him..........that I know to be true with all my soul. Have an amazing week and love you all!!

Sister J. :)

Our Christmas tree

Taiwan - Week 67 - November 24 - Happy Thanksgiving

Hi Family!!

Well happy Monday! We're all moved in.......well everything's in, but haven't had time to put it all away :) Kind of funny being in the Elders' old apartment, but it's closer to our area so that's a blessing! Our amazing new investigator still has her goal for Dec. 28th and she's so amazing! She has to work nights so we met really fast with her on her off day and she told us how much this Gospel is already changing her life......I had to keep reminding myself that she's only ever heard the 1st lesson because it sounded like she's been around it for much longer :) She has such sincere questions.....how can I be more confident? How can I overcome bad memories from the past? Ah! All answered through the Savior! She also told us Saturday night that she had shared the Gospel! We asked her how and she said she went to the store to buy stuff and told the people she met that this Gospel has really helped her! Wowee! She wants to serve a mission too! and we've only met with her 3 times! I know that Heavenly Father has prepared her heart at this time and she said she feels the Savior knew she needed help :) You can keep praying for her and the other amazing mother- how grateful I am to Heavenly Father for these Sisters!

It may not be easy, but it's oh so worth it!! We are beginning to see movement in Tanzi with hastening the work of salvation! We had dinner with a family yesterday who invited her nephew and his girlfriend over to meet us!! The sister shared she had before been nervous to do so, but after reading that missionary work was members' work too, she knew she could do her part and the Lord would take care of the rest! and then we have been asking members for names to pray for and they have been giving us names and then contact info and then saying they would invite them to the party this weekend! "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass"- this weekend is the tri-ward Thanksgiving party! Turkey, football, whipped creme pie eating contests and all! We are excited for the members to go out and invite their friends and family to come!

This week Elder Funk of the Seventy is coming for our Mission Tour and we have been asked to prepare a talk on his talk from Conference about how we obtain Spiritual Power. This topic just speaks to my soul! I have been spending some of my personal study time preparing our talk on how we receive spiritual power. It has been an incredible experience.........as I read Elder Funk's talk, the scriptures on the Atonement that have touched my life so deeply, and the PMG pages that have changed my life and faith in Christ.....Heavenly Father has just sent the Spirit into my heart and I have been able to pour my personal testimony into the pages! It has reminded and strengthened me of how much the Atonement has changed my life and the power that faith in the Savior and repentance have, especially how closely it has brought me to Him. I've come to feel more and more how much we have to consistently be strengthening our testimony of the Atonement, our Faith in Him, and sincere repentance and acknowledging our need for His help. As the third article of faith says......all can be cleansed through the Atonement through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel- I love this....it means far more to me now then ever before! Love you all so dearly! Remember Him always!!

Love Sister J. :)

Packing up

 Whipped Creme Race--they loved it!

Pumpkin and choc chip cookies--all gone

Taiwan - Week 66 - November 20 - Another Temple Trip

Just want to say I LOVE YOU ALL!!


We got back from the temple a little late today and moved apartments to one in Tanzi so my email will be quite short today but I will write more on Monday :D

For the miracle, 2 Sundays ago, Sister Grigg and I felt impressed to have a special fast to find a prepared soul. We turned everything to the Lord and put all our faith in Him........met a mom on the street who was just searching for the truth! She is so prepared by Heavenly Father and she was in tears the first time she prayed with us..............THEN we received a referral from the Da keng sisters they had met on the road Friday morning, set up with her for that day and she was incredibly prepared by Heavenly Father too! Has already felt Heavenly Father's love and is working towards her baptismal goal! Words can not express my gratitude to Heavenly Father for sending not one, but TWO prepared souls to us who are incredible......pray is real, fasting opens the power of Heaven, and this is His work!

Sorry time is gone!!! But we had an amazing week last week!!! Love you all and I'll email again on Monday!

Sister J.

P.S. Temple was amazing. I love it! :D

 On the bus to the temple

The Zone

Love the temple!

Taiwan - Week 65 - November 11 - This Is The Time....

Hi Fam!!

Sounds like a lot of excitement at home this week :D Grateful for your emails every week! Well this was definitely a week to challenge our faith, but it only makes us stronger :) We had a number of investigators tell us they didn't have a desire to keep learning about the Gospel right now or too busy too meet.....even though I know the Lord has a perfect plan, and Sister Grigg and I personally have felt that one of them will be baptized in the future, it is still hard. When you come to love them so dearly and know how important this is for them, it really does cause you to rely whole-heartedly upon your faith in the Lord......that's all I can do many days :D We've got HOPE and that carries us along too! BUT we did still have so many miracles this week!

We have a new investigator who I met on the road about a month ago. She's probably about 50, single, had some hard things in the past, and has a heart of love :) Yesterday as we were meeting with her she told us that she had lots of missionaries talk to her on the road before and just turned them away. The night when I ran into her, she had just had a hard time with her friend and was feeling quite sad, but as I started to talk to her she thought that this must have been God telling her that He wasn't giving up on her...she thought we were angels sent to her :) and because of that she was willing to meet with us and is now coming to church this Sunday! Yesterday she was telling us a lot of her concerns and challenges in life (she likes to talk :) ) and I realized that everything she said can be overcome and she can be changed through repentance, forgiveness, and the power of the Atonement. It's a true fact.....every single soul needs the healing and enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. For this dear sweet sister, I'm so grateful for Heavenly Father's an pai and love for her, He knows her worth and potential.......she has a desire to be baptized and she can truly come to know her Heavenly Father and be healed by her Savior.

Well I must say that it has become even more clear as to why Sister Grigg and I are in Tanzi........to help in Hastening the Work of Salvation :) We came to Ward Correlation on Sunday and were handed a calendar with the names of some of the High Priest's wives' names. They have signed up for different times and we will visit with them weekly to do missionary work together......beginning with getting to know them and build their faith, and then with results of visiting their friends, family, or LAs together. The 1st Counselor in the Bishopric is incredible! He is leading Hastening the Work of Salvation in the ward- He has the faith, vision, desire, and drive! The question is that the members aren't sure how to do it, so we brainstormed with him for a little bit after church about how to help them act and it truly does begin with prayer and faith! He said the Tanzi Ward loves the missionaries and will listen to us even more than the Bishopric sometimes :) So we came home from church yesterday and I dedicated my whole personal study to how we could help the members live this. It was incredible!! I prayed with all my soul to Heavenly Father open the windows of revelation, opened my scriptures to Alma and verses just came alive on every page that I felt impressed that we could share with the members about the power of the scriptures, faithful prayer, the Lord preparing souls, and our own conversion through the Atonement. I started writing and then even more ideas came for speaking in church, firesides, hand-outs for RS and all! Then I opened up to April Conference and read a few talks on missionary work and received even more thoughts and impressions from the Spirit and soon an entire page was filled! Even as I prayed last night, I felt Heavenly Father just confirm to me over and over again by the Spirit that this is what He wants us to do here- this is our vision :) I'm so grateful for this incredible ward and their desire to hasten the work, so grateful for prayer and the Spirit that open the windows of revelation, so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that speaks to His children constantly, and for this miraculous work :) My vision for the coming months.........to help Sister Grigg become the best missionary in the whole world and to help Tanzi get going in hastening the work of Salvation :)

Today I had a Costco hot-dog and it was delicious :) Also went on exchanges this week with Sister Jian from Taipei who is just stellar and learned a lot about giving your whole heart to the area :) My dear Fam, you are incredible :) If you don't have a vision for your life for next year, you should make one :) Pray, read, ponder about....make a vision, then set the goals and plans to accomplish it......my mission changed completely when I made mine :)...the Lord has great plans in store for each of us and with a united vision with Him, we can accomplish great things :) I love you all- have a stupendous week!

Sister J. :)