First Transfer: Check!

Buenos Dias :)

Well, to start off... I´m pretty sure I ate the rear end of a chicken (organs and all) last week at a member's house and they say you are what you eat so.. Good Morning USA, this is Elder Chicken Butt reporting live from Argentina... and I don´t feel normal inside :) haha

Jokes aside, last week was awesome. Tuesday we did exchanges with our district leaders Elder Sanchez and Elder Inostroza. This time I got paired up with Elder Sanchez (I did exchanges with Elder Inostroza at the beginning of the transfer). Elder Sanchez is hilarious. It's the kind of hilarious that kinda makes you want to drop-kick him sometimes..but at the end of the day it's hard not to love him :) Ha we were together for 3 days and I actually really enjoyed it.

On the Thursday I took a bus with him to a city called Balcarce (about an hour away) to do a baptismal interview and returned that night to his house to find Elder Moraes and Inostroza. They had dinner plans that night and asked us to join. You don´t say no to free food so of course we did. The only problem was that Elder Sanchez and Inostroza´s area (Newbery) is the most dangerous in the mission and technically North American missionaries (me) aren´t allowed there. So the other Elders layered me up with a scarf, a beanie, and like three coats to conceal my American features, and we went to dinner! Haha. We took a bus to get as close to the house as we could and then went black ops through the sketchy/dark streets of Newbery. It was so fun haha. I felt like Krunk on Emperor´s New Groove when he´s going to throw Cusco in the river (badaladoo bop ba da...ahhh uhhh ahh uhh).

Dressin up like chorros before entering Newbery

We ate dinner with the Bericiartua family and had the best time. They´re hilarious and it was so refreshing to just chat and have some good laughs. They had me almost in tears laughing so hard haha. I haven´t had that since the MTC and it was much needed :)

Dinner with the Bericiartua family

Saturday was Elder Moraes´s birthday and I don´t think I´ve ever eaten so much in my life haha. In the morning we bought facturas (Argentine donuts.. crazy cheap and delicious), then for lunch we cooked Asado in our house with rice and a pasta salad. Then every house we visited that day gave us even more food (mostly cake) when they found out it was Elder Moraes´s birthday. Then that night a member family threw a little birthday party for Elder Moraes. It was super fun and it continues to amaze me how selfless people are here. People are so generous even though they don´t have much and it makes me so grateful every time.

Birthday festivities with the Gonzalez family.

Saturday night we received transfer details! Transfers are so exciting.. it´s like March Madness for missionaries cause everyone places bets on who will leave and who will stay. It´s a blast! haha. So I will be staying here in Monolito 1 and Elder Moraes is heading out (forgot where). We spent the night at the bus terminal sending off missionaries and waiting for the newcomers. My new companion is Elder Baker from Montana. He´s American so that´s nice and seems like a really cool guy. It´s a blessing and a curse to have an American.. It´s nice because it´s easier to communicate, but bad because you speak Spanish less. We both speak Spanish well though so I don´t think it will be too much of a problem. It´s exciting to have a change though and I´m excited for the transfer ahead!

I´ve been praying a lot lately for the desire to be here and to work. I want to be here because I know it´s my duty and I would never go home, but I want it to be a DESIRE to be here and consider it a privilege rather than a duty. This past week I have really started to feel that. Elder Moraes and I had a great companion inventory last week and he helped me to see that I need to enjoy myself a little bit more and be myself, and it´s true. I have been trying so hard to be the perfect missionary, that I´ve been leaving the fun and the joy out of it. So I´ve been trying to be myself more and mix some personality in with my calling, and it´s been going a lot better. I have inside jokes with our investigators and the members, secret handshakes with the kids, good chats, etc. Church was a blast yesterday and my ward is the best. I feel happy and I can feel my love growing for these people. They´re starting to feel more like MY people, rather than just the people I´m assigned to.

I love my people, both here and back home. I think about you guys and you´re in my prayers.

Elder Jolley