Open your Mouth!

This photo was from last week- sent exclusively to Elder Jarnagin's siblings.  I got access and am sharing it with you!

This week sure has been a change from other weeks!  It has been fun to be back in sun valley!  We haven't been able to do much Spanish work, English work has been so busy!  The work definitely has been different.  Elder Goudin and Elder Woolsey did a lot of service for people that aren't interested in a message.  I had to learn more humility and feel more love for these people that really only seemed to want free yard work.  Other than that it has been a great week!  I think one thing that is so cool about these wards is dinner thoughts.  When we have a spiritual thought after dinner, we can ask a question and the members give a solid answer or their testimony relating to that.  We had a great time talking with everyone and using different methods to spark their interest.  We saw that when we used a different method, we had more success! 
One thing that I saw different this week was my own reaction to people yelling rude things at us.  Before it used to freak me out or make me mad.  Now I feel sorry for those people.  
One thing I learned about this week was how true it is that the Spirit will open our mouths.  We had a lesson about service with a less active member.  During it I felt prompted to talk about Nephi as an example of service.  I got a little worried, because I wasn't sure what I should say, usually I think of Nephi as an example of obedience, not service.  I decided the Spirit knows best, so I just started talking.  As I spoke I realized that Nephi served his brothers in being an example and trying to help them choose right.  I love that when we trust in the Spirit we can say what our investigators need to hear and we can learn from what we say!  I am getting transferred back to my area with Elder Choi again on Tuesday!

Baptism and Emergency Transfer

From last Monday-  Baptism!

I have been learning more about the love that the Lord has for us.  No matter where we are, or what we have done, He loves us and wants us to succeed!  I know that He is so happy when we take a step closer to him!  I was able to feel a little of what He feels when I saw David get baptized this week.  He was just so excited and he is already helping others of his friends come to the gospel!  It is amazing to see how much the gospel has changed him, from who he was at the beginning of the transfer to now, he has already changed so much! 

Besides that awesome experience our week was rather slow. At the end of the week my companions and I had a conversation about success.  We talked about how people have their agency, they have the choice to reject us or not and sometimes they use it to reject us. We have to just keep going, because success comes from within.  We talked about how obedience, diligence and love for everyone is what makes us successful.  When we do those things, we will be changed for the better! 

From today-  Emergency Transfer!

This week was super awesome!  We have had a decent amount of member present lessons, which has been so awesome!  It has been good for our investigators to meet more members to be pretty integrated in the branch!  We were able to talk with a lot of people on the street, get a return appointment, and have them be new investigators!  When the way we do lessons changed, the one thing that I thought would be the hardest would be to get new investigators, now we are used to it, it is very possible!  We have found the easiest way to get a solid return appointment is to make sure we state our purpose, relate it to them, and to ask for referrals!  We have found a lot of solid people in Sun Valley because of it. 

The Legendary G House!

This weekend/end of the week has kind of been a struggle.  I got a call telling me that I was getting Emergency Transferred to be with Elder Gourdin, his companion became the new assistant.  I am getting transferred a week early.  I am glad I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Gourdin because, just like with any tough experience it seems, it gets easier when you do it, the buildup before of worry is much worse.  Now I am super excited to go back to Sun Valley, I am sad to leave my companions, but I can't wait to learn more from Elder Gourdin! 

Elders Jarnagin, Johnson, & Choi with their Spanish Branch (local congregation)

Finding and Drink Water!

Elder Jarnagin's email from June 27- Finding

This week has been pretty good.  We have had a couple of interesting lessons.  First off, we have had a couple of lessons with Daniel, our investigator with a baptismal date.  He has been struggling with smoking, he smoked a couple of times this week.  We told him that he had to quit for sure Saturday in order to get baptized on the 9th.  He told us he ran out and will not buy more.  Hopefully he can stay strong!  He has a good foundation of prayer and scripture study to help him along the way. 
We have been trying to focus on finding this week.  The teaching pool in East Sparks and Sun Valley are both pretty small.  We are trying to use our bikes more in order to be able to talk with everyone.  We had exchanges on Friday and we spent most of the day trying to contact potentials on bikes and talking with everyone.  It was a little disheartening because everyone was English speaking, we only ran into one Spanish speaking person.  I am trying to remember more to ask for receiving referrals and getting new investigators in prayer.  
One thing that stuck out this week is the Haggard Family.  They are less active, but seem to be progressing. This is the first time I have seen this amount of progression in a less active family!  They came to church last week and came to sacrament this week too.  It is so great to see them start to do the things they know that they need to do. My companions are great!  I feel like I am learning how to teach in unity better and how to better use the scriptures!

Elder Jarnagin's email from July 4- Drink Water!

This week has been pretty good!  We have finally figured out how to use our swamp cooler, so now our house is pretty cool!  We have still been working a lot with Daniel to prepare him for his baptism.  It has been a great experience to see him grow in the gospel! 
Some investigators that really stuck out were Luis and Belen.  They have been progressing on and off while we have taught them, they have been taught for about 2 years, but recently they have been trying to decide to make some changes in their lives.  They said they will not do this halfway, they want to do this 100%!  
We have been praying and searching for new investigators and we have found a awesome new family!  The family Escobar is their name and they are so cool!  We went over on Tuesday and shared a spiritual thought and the we set up a return appointment for Thursday!  We came back with a member and had an awesome lesson about the restoration!  They seem super open to hear more! 
We are doing pretty good here. I had a scare this week about not drinking enough water and my body started to react to that. I am making sure that I bring a 2 liter water bottle with me, just in case.