Buen día queridos :)

It's been quite the week so far. Things are starting to cool off here on the other side of the equator. It's definitely nice to not be sweating all the time and I LOVE fall. Wearing a sweater around working makes me pretty happy to be honest haha. I really like sweaters :) The not-so-good part about the cold is that the "wear a suit jacket" rule will be put into play within the next few weeks. May 1st is the day and until about November I'll have to truck around in that... greeeat. Don't get me wrong, I like throwing on a suit coat every now and then for conferences and lookin like a shnazzy fachero, but working in one all day? Just another test of my pride I guess. ;)

So the work. Things are awesome right now. Sorry I have been short on investigator updates and stuff. As far as the ones I have told you about,  things have kind of died down unfortunately. 

Jacob's mom won't talk to us or let him be baptized so we are just going to leave that in the Lord's hands knowing that someday he will have that opportunity to make that decision himself and a higher chance of staying firm.

Maria will hardly give us two minutes to talk when we pass by cause she's always "muy ocupada chicos..." pssh. Heard that one before. ;) We've literally tried so many ways to just get a lesson with her. We offer service, tours of the church, movies, the whole shabang... but nothing works. So we'll have to turn our focus elsewhere for now. Hopefully she can notice a difference after a little bit of time without us passing and feel that it's true and blesses her. 

Carmen and Marcial. Pretty sure I told you about them... they are the couple that owns the chicken store? Anyway, COOLEST couple and super nice. They really want to listen to our message, but they literally work 24/7, it stinks. 

So ya kind of a rollercoaster as always, BUT, I don't know if I told you guys about how President called two more APs to travel around to all the model areas to help the zone leaders? Anyway, so Monday morning I get a call from my buddy Elder Bosco (from Provo) saying that him and his comp Elder Dement would arrive that night to stay with us for a week. WOO!! I have felt super lost on how to improve our work here for quite a while cause we just don't see any progress. So this week we have been working like freakin perros out here and have found lots of great people and had some killer lessons. President is teaching us a few new methods of working with numbers as far as goals and planning, and working more efficiently with our maps to be able to use all of our time efficiently. So far I'm in heaven. Obviously Elder Jackson I were working before, but I always felt like we just weren't reaching our potential, but this week with a few tips and tricks from Elder Bosco and Dement I end the day crawling into bed with a smile on my face, then I pass out from exhaustion. Also they have been going to the gym with us every morning so through the day my body is like "che. have mercyyy" haha. But I just say "shut up nene, walk faster" and we make it through :) In it's own way this week has just been a call to repentance for me, it's always hard to change and correct yourself, but my absolute favorite part about true repentance is the feeling of joy and satisfaction that fills you after. I love the mission and the fact that my time is flying by so fast freaks me out. I always heard it would from other returned missionaries, but you never really get it until you go on the mission and in the blink of an eye you have 11 months. Kinda scares me haha. I've been talking with Jackson and he gets home in June. WHAT??? Feels like yesterday I was on the phone with him on his way to the airport saying bye. So weird.

love my fam. love my friends. love my life. love the mish. love the Lord :)

-Elder Jolley

Funny experiences:

1. We were walking to an appointment out in the boonies this last week with a member named Angelina Lopez (ward missionary) and we walked by this big potato truck and I see something on the ground in the corner of my eye. I look over and see this dog (or satan in dog form.. still not sure) foaming at the mouth and breathing really raspy like a zombie. Haha so I yell "Rabies!" and Angelina yells "ALÉJENSE!!" ("get awaaaay" like finding nemo) and takes off. She's a little on the bigger side so it was impressive how fast she got away haha. Anyway luckily it was in pretty bad physical condition and couldn't chase us or anything. I know I have joked about the dogs here being like zombies.. and they are... but this one was freaky. I walked around for the next hour singing "... I am a child of Goooood..." in my head just to try to get the image out haha. Good times.

2. Elder Bosco, Tew, and I were contacting people in the area book the other day and knocked on the door of this old couple. They opened the door and the lady like jumps up all excited, comes to the door, and begins to tell us all about how Jesus had saved her from her wheelchair or something (she was pretty much yelling and spitting in my face haha) and how she could walk with a cane now. So I go "Wow! que bueno." And not sure why, probably out of habit, but I reach my hand in through the bars of her door opening to give her a high five (who gives an 80 year old lady a high five??). I think that was her first high five offer in her life cause she definitely didn't get it. Instead she comes closer and puts her forehead on my hand and yells "AMEN!!" hahaha. Oh man, I just sat there in shock. I guess being a representative of Christ, she thought I was offering a quick one-handed blessing? I looked at Elder Tew and Elder Bosco who looked all confused and we all just said "Umm. si. amen!" Pretty funny. I love contacting so much. I just laugh all day long at all the crazy people we meet. I wish I could just record all of them for you.