Buen Día a todos!

Spring has sprung here in Argentina and apart from the random two minute snowstorm in the morning this past week, the weather has been beautiful and I haven´t even had to wear a sweater :)

This week has been a lot better. The ups and downs of the mission seem to be getting a bit smaller, but they´re definitely still there. It keeps daily life here interesting though so it´s ok. This past week, Elder Baker and Elder Caparroz (he lives with us) were sick a lot, and being the "new guy" I usually get put on babysitting duties for whoever is sick at the time. That kind of put a wrench in my productivity this week and I´m hoping this week I will be able to dig in a bit more.

Being home a lot, I was able to clean the house pretty well (hallelujah). Our house... is great... but it has a few issues. For one, our kitchen sink overflowed a couple weeks ago and the pipe got disconnected from the wall. Remember when I told you guys how our house flooded with nasty water that one time? Our plumbing is super jacked up now. There´s a hole in the wall now where the sink was connected that throws up nasty water into the kitchen just about every day... so we keep a bucket under it and dump the water outside. Usually that does the trick, but every now and then it will flood the kitchen. I´m usually the one who cleans it up... and we´ll just say that I´m pretty good at mopping by now :) Also our key got stuck in the lock this past week and we couldn't leave the house because we couldn't shut the door and lock it, so we had Hermano Requelme come about an hour later to help us. Luckily he worked in construction so he had all the necessary tools. That was a blessing!

Funny story. My pants ripped about 3 times this week. Once in the pocket on the outside seam, then another time because a nail on our couch snagged my pant leg, and then one night the sink started to freak out again, so I squated down to check the bucket and I just heard a huge ripping noise. I looked down to see that my pants had completely ripped through the crotch, exposing my garments, and inviting a nice cool breeze. haha! Luckily the Lord blesses me with patience and happiness, so I´m able to just laugh most of this stuff off. Also we live close to a lady that repairs clothes soo... double blessings :)

Another quick funny story. The other night Elder Baker went to bed early because he felt sick. So I studied and wrote in my journal until 10:30. When I went in for bed, Elder Baker was talking in his sleep and said "hmmm... hmm... Soy de...Mexico? Hmm... la verdad que no.." Haha! Missionaries always say the funniest stuff in their sleep and the mission makes you have the weirdest dreams. 

This past week, we had the opportunity to go to a mission conference and here from President Cifuentes and his wife, as well as Elder Teixeira from the Seventy and his wife. It was so good and a much needed spiritual feast. President Cifuentes talked about breaking the natural man inside of us, just as you would "break" a horse to tame it´s wild spirit and train it to be more obedient. Elder Teixeira and his wife talked about ways that we could better find investigators, especially through references, as well as obedience. Hermana Teixeira specifically talked about how we need to do everything in our power to be obedient to ALL the rules, so that we can recieve ALL the blessings. I love that and it makes me think of the analogy "The gospel is not a buffet, you can´t pick and choose which commandments to obey." In the end, all that matters is that we are doing everything we can to please the Lord. If we make our decisions with the intent to please the Lord, we will never go wrong and will be exceedingly blessed.

Love you all! Have a fantastic week. 

Elder Jolley

 Had the opportunity to see Elder Price (from the MTC) as well as ELDER ARNOLD!! Ha I can´t tell you how happy I was to see them both. Elder Arnold is exactly the same, but I wouldn´t have it any other way haha. Love them both.

 Elder Arnes stayed at our house last week the night before the mission conference and found Elder Caparroz´s Capt. America hoodie. Haha!