Returning Home

Because of physical and mental health concerns, Jarrek returned home from his mission on Friday, May 11, 2018.  He gave his homecoming talk on May 27, 2018.

Email 05/07/18

I do not know for sure what the plan is, but I will probably talk with you again this Sunday. I don´t know what time it will be. Things are going better. This last Monday immediately before our chat as we were at the bus stop I received a call from an Elder Barrett. If by chance you do not know him; he is basically the designated shrink for the missionaries here in Brazil; at least that is what I got from talking with him. I talked with him again on the phone this last Friday and I will be talking with him again this coming Friday. We attended a baptism of one of the sons of one of the members here in the ward. Why did you go to the Dollar Store?😕 You're sanding Grammy´s deck, why is that? Jostan's snake got out. I hope that went well. I remember the photos I took of a snake that appeared in the street while we were at lunch. They can be very dangerous animals. Thank you for the Jokes. Thank you for the Spiritual Thought. I have more photos in Drive. 😀

Email 04/30/18

Thank you for the encouragement. I will keep working on following the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I have God protecting me. I am SAFE. I am happier when I have the Holy Ghost in me. I will continue seeking to have it stronger within me. It´s working. Please list an example of a problem you might think that I would be having in the mission field?  Your request is too general; nonetheless I do at times have a hard time finding good food to buy in the grocery stores and/or markets. I am doing better, I am feeling the spirit a bit more now than at times in the past. Nothing really is going on. Things have been very strange here lately. My mental and emotional state have been awful at times past, but it is gradually improving. There are many good people here in Brazil. I have made many friends. There are people here in Industrario that are helping me with my mental and emotional state. Why do you want to speak with me on video chat❓Anything that you want to talk about you can just talk about here in e-mail. I am glad to hear that things are well at home. Jeffrey made madrigals, that is an accomplishment I never pursued. I hope he´s liking it. I enjoyed much of my time in choir. Sure I have to use my LDS password every P-Day, but Dad told me to never send passwords via e-mail. I guess I will have to send it when we have a video chat. I have been and will continue to be wise in the decisions that I make. I am seeking the will of my Father in Heaven and the enemy of all righteousness is trying to give opposition. Don´t worry I will fight him as I have hitherto been trying. Other than that my week has been pretty good. Our District leader and his companion visit us the night this whole thing started too see how we were and as usual we were alright. I got to meet a greeny whose name is Elder Martinez. He is from Mexico he got here last week and he is speaking really good Portuguese already. The next day the Zone Leaders visited and I got to meet one of the American missionaries here that is also from Utah.  Thank you for the jokes, the Spiritual thought, and I liked the photos. Thank you for your concern. As I am faithful to the Lord he will continue to support me as he has hitherto been. I am very grateful that he has watched over me. I am happy that things are going well for you all. I put some photos in Drive for you. Have a good week. Tchau. 😀

Email 04/23/18

I am doing well. My investigators are alright. I have had some challenges this week, but I have learned from them. There is something common here that is kind of sad. In all the areas that I have been in there is something that seems to be common. I learned of it in Cáceres. There exists 600 people baptized and confirmed in the city of Cáceres that are not attending. I was given the knowledge that this is common throughout the mission. I have the success of learning some more of how blessed so many people have been. Sounds like you had an interesting week. Jemma cut her hair again, I wonder why. Thank you for that. My week was pretty good.  Enjoyed some good experiences. Today is transfers. I will be staying here another six weeks with Elder Claper. Thank you for the thought from Elder Echo Hawk. Hope you have a good week.  Tchau😎📷

Email 04/16/18

I have had a pretty good week. We had another baptism this past week. Ester, the Mother of Julia and Juliana; was the person who was baptized. I have photos of both in Drive. We visited a family I love. They live near to my Ward Mission Leader. They´re a family that fell away from the Church. We are trying to bring them back. I am grateful for the opportunity the Lord has given us to help them. I hope to visit them again before I leave Industriario.

I have been thinking about some stuff lately. Have you been reading the Joseph Smith Translation? It has a lot of important information that I can tell that you may need to read again. I can tell that there are some things that it would be a good idea for you to read it again. There are many in the footnotes all throughout the Bible. Reading the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible in the appendix and in the footnoted of the Bible in part is the reason that I have at least a somewhat good understanding of how to keep the Higher law. I still have much to learn myself, but in the mean time I ask you to READ IT.   Have a great week. Tchau 😎

Email 04/09/18

I am better actually. My week was great. Things are going excellently with me and my investigators, in fact we had two Baptisms yesterday. I baptized a little girl named Julia; and my companion baptized her fraternal twin sister Juliana. I will put pictures in Drive. I am happy to have been able to do so. The Lord helped me do it. I hardly remembered the words to the baptismal ceremony. We still need to confirm the twins this next week. I hope to have photos of that as well.  Thank you for telling me what went on during the duration of the week. I am having a hard time remembering what happened this last week or two. I know that they were good weeks. We visited a bunch of people. I remember visiting this last week,I think it was Friday; We visited a young woman that the lord arranged for me to meet while I was with Elder Luiz Claudio. We met her at the bus stop. We were there because I had a physical therapy appointment downtown. We talked with her on the bus all the way there and a few weeks later we were able to visit her in her house with her sister and her mother. We visited her this last week and felt the spirit nice and strong whilst she was there after she left for work at the mall the spirit gradually left. I am grateful that the Lord has helped me during the duration of my time here in Brazil. I have needed it. I am glad that you all are alright. Thank you for the joke. One thing I noticed where is Jostan I didn't see him in the photos. Thank you for the Spiritual thought from President Nelson. If either of you have any questions as to my Patriarchal Blessing I am willing to answer some of them. I am grateful to see that dad is alright.  Thank you for the email and have a good week. 📷😀

Email 04/02/18

My week was pretty good actually. General Conference was awesome. I had trouble hearing much at the conference. I was told afterward that one of them (the new apostles) is Brazilian, which is great. I did succeed in hearing about the temples. One more in Utah and at length one in Russia. My Easter was pretty good. My week was kind of slow. This week was feriadas or Holiday for Brazil and so we visited very few people. They were all traveling or doing something. General Conference was good during the last two Sessions a bunch of people showed up.  The majority of them were members, but we did have some investigators there. I enjoyed the hymns, but I had a really hard time hearing and or listening to the talks. The speakers were really soft and the whole thing was in Portuguese and I had to listen really well to even have a chance of getting anything from it. I did notice that the Apostles and Prophets are at length giving some of the information I have been granted. They were using verses from the Book of Mormon in their talks to support the point of their talks. I am grateful they are still faithful even after all that has happened. Thank you for the jokes. I am grateful that you took the time to put so many in there. The photos were good. The thought from President Nelson was good. Have a nice week. 😀 Tchau.

Thank you!!!!!!! I am completely ignorant of the majority of these things. PLEASE when I get back give a good run down on everything that has changed in how the church is functioning, because I am not getting much news on this here. No visiting or home teaching, got it. No high priest's group, that is strange; but okay. I got nothing from those talks, I mean it. Who gave them? I could hardly pay attention to them. Even Elder Christofferson's talk which was translated in to Portuguese by him; I had a hard time getting anything from him. I understood the majority of the words, but I don´t remember anything. Oh I hope I will be able to do better next conference. All things considered I enjoyed being with so many people yesterday. The sisters were there and that was great. This mission has been hard. I am grateful the Lord has helped me with my problems that I have had. Thank you for responding so quickly. 😃