December 12/10/2012 Letter Home

So this week has been kind of crazy with transfers and stuff because my companion Elder Mingo was ET'ed, emergency transferred, to be a zone leader. I was disappointed about it but you know you roll with the punches. So now I have Elder Thornton. We're getting along so far and I think he's ready to get down to business and work.

Our investigator Kathryn, the only one with the date, is doing awesome. She's went cold turkey with smoking and coffee which is AWESOME!!! We recently had the tithing and fast offerings lesson she did have a concern with it. But she was like there's blessings with it! And we were like YES! So she's progressing quickly and she's so very excited about it as are we.

Paul the other investigator in our area is coming around I believe and this week we're going to try and set a date with him. It's going to be pretty intense lesson but we're committing him to a date! Hopefully the Lord sees our faith and gives Paul a little extra dose of the spirit and he accepts. It's going to be quite exciting but we'll have the story of how that goes next week.

So crazy person of the week we talked to. His name is Al and he came up to us and started talking about UFO's and how they and the crop circles are the signs of the 2nd coming. He was a very interesting black man to say the least. He looked like he was homeless but said he had a radio show called the conversation or something like that he was very interesting person.

I would just like to let you all know I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Proclaiming the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is the best thing for me to do. Every day I fell my faith growing. Every day I am enlightened by the spirit and everyday this gospel makes more sense to my head and even better my heart. The seed that Alma is referring to in Alma 32 is beginning to swell and it's becoming delicious to my soul. I know the gospel is true it's testified  everyday I go and preach it to them people I meet. I know Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration and it was through him the miracle of the gospel blesses our family and others around the world. I love this opportunity I have to be an ambassador of Jesus Christ. I love you all and love hearing from you!

Love
Elder Marvin

Beginning of December Letter

So as of right now I am companionless because Elder Mingo won't get here until Tuesday sometime. So I'm hanging around the zone leaders until then. So I'm excited and stuff for the change because I kind of like a little chance every now and again. So this past week was actually pretty good. Met with Kathryn our investigator and we set a date with her for December 22. She is so EXCITED! On Friday we taught her the word of wisdom and she asked if we could have soft drinks and were like yes we can. Because she thought we couldn't so she didn't buy a Pepsi because she said it'd be a temptation if she wasn't able to. But we assured her we could. It's awesome to see her chance from when we started and where we are now. The gospel truly brings peace to the soul and joy to the heart.

Another awesome experience we had this week were were able to have dinner with Paul and we had little lesson with faith in Alma 32 one of his concerns was why we couldn't see the gold plates. I read through Alma 32 and in verse 21 really stuck out and the words knowledge went BOOM in front of my face, and I felt I needed to say if we had a sure perfect knowledge of the plates it would almost condemn us if we chose not to follow the Saviors council and so that we have a loving Heavenly Father he in his infinite wisdom took them and had us walking by faith rather than sight. Paul then told me you know that has been the best way he's heard it explained. To say the least I'm glad that I was being led by the spirit I love feeling the spirit and I love being a missionary for Jesus Christ. I hope from our lesson with Paul helped him and moved him toward baptism and opened a door to help him feel the spirit. It was an amazing experience!

As well this week it's been raining cats and dogs an elephants. We had a lake in the front of our apartment complex. I got soaked. But it's warm here in California so I was still very warm I didn't freeze. But all is well over here in California the church is true even here so it must be true hahaha! Anyways I'm still in the same place I was at the beginning. Love to hear from you soon!

Love your son, brother, and whatever else you'd like to call me.
Elder Marvin

Some Other week in November

So this week has been pretty good, to say the least. So we were able to meet with our investigator Kathryn and her husband. The lesson was going fairly well when we brang up prophets he then said we told him that God was a man, he then got up and very juvenility and sarcastically said he believes God is a black woman and then left into the other room. Kathryn our awesome investigator said she was sorry for that and told to continue with her and her progression towards baptism. It was very upsetting, for him to do that but he's 65 years old and shouldn't have done that but he did and he has his agency. Turned out to be a great lesson with her as we strived to invite the spirit back into the lesson.

Another fairly cool experience is we were making so less-actives door the wife came to the door and said her husband wasn't home so she couldn't invite us in, but she had a referral for us. She continued to tell us about her neighbors downstairs and how they could benefit from a visit. By this time it was about 8 o'clock so we were like we'll get to it tomorrow. But all in God's timing we felt like we needed to go visit so we ended up going and knocking on the door. They answered and we introduced ourselves and said we were going around offering prayers on people and their homes. He was like sure come right on in, so we offered a prayer and talked for a minute after and he said we could come back and set up an appointment with him and his family. The next night we got a call from the family that referred them and they said they were interested in coming to church! It was awesome! So we're going to try to meet with them and start teaching the family!

This week has been great had zone conference and learned about the churches Christmas campaign. They're going to be advertising like crazy over social media sites the whole nine yards it's going to be a great tool to get people even more curious about the church than they already are. It's going to be a mormon.org/christmas and there's going to be some pretty cool things going on with this Christmas campaign. You need to check it out. As well as make a mormon.org profile to bear your testimony of Christ's restored Gospel as well as answer questions that people have. The work is hastening and Christ's message is of great importance. Anyway the work is continuing forward and I'm glad to be on the front-lines. Love you all! Love hearing from you!!

Love
Elder Marvin

Letter Home: November (Something)

Not a whole lot happened this week. Went on exchanges with an elder in my district and had a great day with that. A good change of pace in their area. There's a lot more happening I got my brake pads and replaced them no my mike works like a champ. So all is well with that. Mom heads up, especially with Ty getting ready for his mission, my CTR clothing suit isn't holding up like they said it would. The pockets in my pants are kind of starting to wear out, and holes in the pockets. Every now and again strings just come out. But it is still holding together for now. Its mostly just the pants anyway.
Upcoming is the Turkey Bowl! So could I get my cleats, wr gloves, and under armor? If I could that would be awesome, but if not all is well.
Im not too happy about the election either guys, and neither is my investigator Paul, the Catholic, who's wife is a member. It was very upsetting hearing the news. I hope I'll be able to get a job when I get home hahaha. But seriously I hope I'll be able to. What is happening to America??
Anyway enough about that. So my Catholic investigator Paul, I think he's coming along ever so slowly. He has a concern about the Golden Plates. He thinks if we had them it'd be much easier to convert peole so we gave them Alma 32 to read and his wife, the member, stopped us at church and said she read it and thought it was perfect for him and he hadn't quite read it but it'll be good for him. I hope and pray the spirit wil help with touching his heart and things start falling into place for him. Because

Letter Home: November 5, 2012

So this week was good. The investigator who went out of town had a bad experience with her sister and she said that's not what she wants. And she said that she feels peaceful when she's around "us people" members and elder Leone and me. First off Elder Leone felt like we should go visit and she said she was barely thinking about us prior to us knocking. So that in itself was a miracle! Also after our visit with her she was basically bearing her testimony about the truthfulness of the church. So Elder Leone felt impressed to se a date with her and I just thought that too but it was more of the confirmer when she left the room. We then said we're setting a date with her she came back into the room and we set her date for December 1st and she was like YES! The whole experience built my testimony on the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. Those who have the gospel have the peace of heart and the knowledge that everything is going to be OK in the end. And those who don't have the gospel quite yet they are scared and fearful because they're not sure and on't have the knowledge  that we have. Very blessed I would say.

Also another experience we meet with and investigator who was raised Catholic. But he married a less-active member and she caught fire the last few moths with the spirit of Elijah. So we had a lesson with him and I think he enjoyed it but he's not very talkative. Also before he started meeting with us he had actually got offended by a Gospel Essentials teacher because he was going to call on him to pray. He's very uncomfortable with stuff like that because he feels it's very personal. But I felt like we at least needed to invite him to and also I did but unfortunately he declined but I think it helped him because he knows we're going to ask him. Overall it was good lesson! We were expecting him to sacrament but he wasn't there but he had his wife pass along a message to us not to freak out he had gotten sick. So that was a relief.

So next experience this week. So the last week I guess I got a little homesick... OK I did because it was a bad week. So I had really been praying for something to comfort me I would have taken anything to just get my hopes up and make me plant my feet a little better and get me focused in on the work rather than thinking about home. I'm weird alright to not hear from home makes me think of home and hearing from home helps me focus. So to get into the story. Elder Leone and I went into the softball park to get a hold of some investigators on the phone and to see if anyone would wee us and come to start asking questions. Then we were approached by this lady she said Hi Elders. So right off the bat we figured she was a member and we got to talking and she asked where I was from and I said Payson Utah. She then said Oh really I have some family who lived in Payson and moved to Santaquin. So I curious I asked what their name was and lo and behold I was talking to Jake Barker's Aunt!! So her daughter came up and she actually called Jake and put him on  speaker. I was a little hesitant to talk because that frowned upon but I knew he was heading into the MTC so I figured just telling him good luck and enjoy it was fine so I did and then stopped. But let's just say all in all that experience was Gods tender mercies for me and it was an answer to my prayers. So mom be sure to text Heather Barker to tell her sister-in-law she was a God send and an answer to my prayers!

Love Elder Marvin

Do you have question? Well we have answers!!

Click on this link below to view my mormon.org account!! Read about who I am and where I come from, and feel free to leave questions for us to answer!! Hi I'm Jeff Vance Marvin | Football, Mountain Biking, Jeff, Photography, Payson, Roseville, Mormon.

Writing From the Land of Roseville California!

Saturday I had an awesome experience we were on our way back to our apartment after dropping off our progress record to our Bishop when we were pulling off into a parking lot we take to cut down on travel time I had a distinct impression to turn back around and continue down this road a ways and at first I just shrugged it off like that's all in your head but again the same impression told me go down this road a bit so I was like you know what alright I'll head down that way then and I called out to my companion and said we need to go down this road a bit more and so we started heading down this road and then I had a feeling to stop right underneath this street lamp and I felt like we just needed to wait there for 5 minutes and just about as soon as I was to give up hope an Asian guy walked up to us and I asked him how his night was going and stuff like that and then he started asking questions about our church and stuff and he made it feel like he was definitely searching for truth and things of that sort and we ended up having a great talk with him and we asked if we could stop by his place to teach him more but unfortunately he said he was moving. 

So my hope and my prayer is that he'll continue to search out our church and hopefully he'll come across some more missionaries and he'll be able to find his own faith in Christ and know of the truthfulness of this Restored Gospel. It was an awesome experience and I know now that I just need to heed to the enticing of the Holy Ghost and act on faith and take courage to talk to everyone.

The baptism was amazing the Spirit of God like a fire was burning in that room and Scott, the one who got baptized, his brother was baptized a few years back but kind of went into inactivity but I think through Scott's Baptism he was reactivated and also their mom who's is not a member was against Scott's brother getting baptized but wasn't against Scott getting baptized so I think her heart has been softened since the first baptism but also I think she definitely felt the Spirit during the whole baptism it was amazing and I hope she'll soon want to meet with the missionaries because she goes to this local church called the Bayside church it's some undenominational church that holds classes on basically anti-LDS material, but I know she felt the spirit in that room because it was so strong and there's no way one could or should deny that feeling.

The baptism can I really say that the whole thing was a great and it was very spiritual experience for everyone involved.

Entering the MTC

Hey ya'll as many of you know my Brother Elder Marvin has been called on a mission. Before he left he asked me if I would take care of his blog for him, and update you wonderful people on his adventures!! Of course I said I would. So I will be posting about his letters he sends home and hopefully some pictures he will send too! (just because I loves pictures sooooo much!!)

Just so you know today is the day he starts his biggest adventure for the next two years!! Here are a few pictures of what went on today before the MTC and during the drop off.

Until I receive and email or letter from Elder Marvin I will leave you with his final words from his recent Facebook status update:

"Here are my last words for Facebook for 2 years. I know that my redeemer lives! My Father in Heaven is mindful of me he knows my faults and he knows my strengths. I am honored and humble to have the opportunity to serve him in the Roseville California Mission. I will serve him with all my might, mind, and soul. I will stand in holy places and share the light of the truth of the restored Gospel of

Christ. I will lead by example and follow with steadfastness in Christ. I will remember to be humble in the trying times and in the best of times. I challenge everyone to come to know of the truth for themselves, to stand in holy places, to follow the words of our latter day prophets, to help the less fortunate, to love one another, and to remember that Heavenly Father is mindful of you and if we but follow his teachings we may have the opportunity to gain Eternal Life and become Gods and Goddesses through his great and merciful Plan of Salvation. God be with you until we meet again.

Much love from your friend Elder Jeff Vance Marvin

"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation."

Isaiah 12:2

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These are the few of the people I will spend time and all eternity with and I was so very blessed to have the opportunity to get my endowment out with all of them present! Families can be together forever!!

Mission Letter

Called to Serve in the Roseville, California mission, english speaking.  Leaving on August 22, 2012.

Mission Call Video

The mission call letter received on the 26th of May, 2012!