Hello America!

It´s been another fantastic week here in Mar Del Plata :)

This past week I had the opportunity to go to a city called Batan for exchanges. This was the first time I have been able to be the person that leaves the area for exchanges. Each time I´ve been the one that stays. At first I was a bit worried and reluctant to go somewhere else, just because I´m comfortable in my house and I didn't want to go stay in some nasty missionary apartment somewhere else and work in a nasty area. I spoke to soon though. Batan was BEAUTIFUL. So peaceful, with quaint little dirt roads and trees everywhere, huge farm fields, blossoms everywhere because it's spring right now, and at night you can see the stars so clearly because there´s hardly any light pollution. Also, the house there is great. It´s the top floor of this cute little brick house, with a huge farm field right behind it, and even a BACK YARD! Wow. The house reminds me of a cabin or a tree house or something, and in the yard there is orange trees, kiwi trees, and LEMON trees! I´ve never seen a lemon tree and I think Heavenly Father let me go to Batan just to experience that. My jaw dropped when I saw it haha. Batan seriously felt like a mini Italy or something.

Anyway, Batan was great and fun and all the people we met were so friendly! We visited a bunch of families including the Soliz family. They are Bolivian and moved here to Argentina because they have a handicapped son and the heat in Bolivia wasn´t good for his health, so they packed up everything and came here for him. They´re all so friendly and everyone has jobs to pay for the house and Alejandro´s (the handicapped son) medical bills. They are all so happy and you can feel the spirit so strong in their house. They fed us dinner the night that we visited and we chatted and laughed the whole time. I love them so much. At the end they found out I was from a different area and was just visiting and they kept saying stuff like "Are you going to come back?" and "Don´t forget about us! Please come visit again." It was so sad and I told them I would try to and if the Lord wanted me to I might even get transferred there one day. They said "Okay, we will pray that the Lord will let you come back to see us." So glad I was able to meet them and to learn about their story.

Unfortunately I didn´t bring my camera to Batan because I´m an IDIOT, but I think we might do exchanges again and I will send you guys pics :)

Fun facts:
• Argentina loves mayonnaise. You literally cannot find a store that doesn´t have a whole shelf dedicated to mayo. It´s a bit gross. People put mayo on everything haha.
• The plumbers came this last week! After 2 months of calling haha... Argentina. They opened up this pipe in our patio.. it was overflowed with stagnant water. There were maggots and leeches and spiders and who knows what EVERYWHERE. Nassssty. Also, they cleared out a bunch of trash, including an ear of corn... Argentina... don't ask.

Lately I have been reading a lot in Jesus the Christ. I love it! It´s such a neat experience to learn more about the mortal Christ and His ministry when He was on the earth. He becomes more and more real to me as I learn about His personality and the trials that He endured when He was on earth. All my life I have just figured that because He is perfect, He never had a problem resisting temptation. I was amazed to learn that Christ COULD have sinned, but because of His complete submission and loyalty to the Father, He made the decision and set the perfect example of doing only what would please the Father no matter what. I love Him and am trying to be more like Him in my daily life, especially as a missionary. We can´t be perfect like Him in this life and sometimes we are too hard on ourselves because of our imperfections, but THROUGH Him we can be made perfect, AFTER all we can do. I testify of that, and I know that He will give us strength as we strive to be more like Him, and follow His example of doing only what would please the Father. That is what the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about.

I love you all and you´re in my prayers.
Elder Jolley

 The Liquin family fed us a ton of pizza yesterday. Hermana Liquin just kept bringing out more and more. I probably ate 2 and a half pizzas myself. Bread and cheese is life.

 The daughter of one of our investigators drew this picture of me. She is 9 and has cancer and a bunch of other health problems. Her name is Brisa and one day we went to visit her and she told me she liked to draw, so I asked her to draw me a picture and she gave me this the next time we visited. She´s so cute. And yes it does look like I have a purse and high heels...but its actually a scripture bag and manly leather church shoes :)

 The benefits of being in a soccer country. cheap remeras :) 

Elder Caparroz tryin to get creative. Almost insta-worthy