Hello I'm cold :)

Haha...Well, Last week I was struttin around in my short sleeve shirts and stuff... not anymore! For some reason this huge cold front came in this week and I have been freezing my little niblets off (I don't know what a niblet is... but whatever it is, it's now frozen). Our house has a heater, but it doesn't work so in the mornings I turn on all the burners on the oven and stand there to warm/wake up a bit. Also I think I lost my columbia jacket cause I can't find it.. but I'm probably gonna buy Elder Jackson's coat from him because he's goin home soon :) Ha but all is well in Argentine Zion and the work goes on! 

Another great week under the mission belt. We will start with last Sunday. So none of our investigators showed up which was kind of a bummer, and we definitely got some stink eyes from some of the members during the meetings cause the gospel principles class didn't even happen haha... I just wanted to yell "Look, I'm sad too, ok!!" but it's ok because I know that we did all we could to get everyone there. We passed by everyone that said they would go that morning and called the others. Angelica didn't answer the door, Haide and Raul were "just barely getting up" and I literally laied down on the ground and fake cried cause I told them the night before that I would if they didn't go to church. Haha... that was fun :) She just said "bueno....bueno perdon!....bueno basta....ayy bueno vamos la próxima semana...si Dios quiere.." (we will go next week... if God wants) everyone uses that phrase and I hate it.... OF COURSE GOD WANTS. So anyway no one showed up and it's hard cause everyone works on Sunday... but this week will be better :)

Investigators.

It's been another week jam packed of lessons and appointments. We have a couple newbies on the investigator list.

Damian: A contact Elder Dement and I made when we were going to visit someone out in the boonies (a place called Barrio Ceco) when they were here. Damian is the coolest guy. He owns a meat shop and we actually contacted him as he was working cause we asked him for directions and ended up teaching him. He is so humble, has a little family with a wife and one little baby girl. He works so hard for them all the time and really wants the best for them. So far he has accepted so well everything we have taught him and really likes the Book of Mormon. He kind of reminds me of an Argentine Ryan almost (not a lot but kind of)... so I think that's why I like him so much.

Karen: A referral from Damian (what a stud... right?). She lives in Barrio Ceco and she's about 20 years old and lives on her own. She has a lot of problems with insecurity and her parents left her when she was really young and she's been abused and stuff... it's so sad. In just the short time we have been teaching her she has changed so much. She says she is so happy now and doesn't cry anymore because she feels like God is with her (she didn't know a lot about religion when we met her). She's super nice, and it was hard at first to teach her just because we couldn't go inside until we had Elias Fuentes (our mission leader) come with us one time because she lives alone. She gets attached really easily and always wanted to give us hugs and didn't understand why we couldn't, but now it's better because we've helped her to understand our purpose here and that we have rules and stuff. She's awesome though and it's been amazing to see the happiness that the gospel has brought her. She is nervous to come to church, but we are really hoping and praying she will.

Zulma: Zulma is a contact in Barrio Fonavi (where Angelica lives). We have taught her and her daughter Barbara a few times and they are so humble and receptive! We've had a lot of great lessons and when we explained about and invited her to baptism she was so excited and said "I need that... I really want to do that." Right now she is finishing up some work things cause she cares for old folks, and in a couple weeks she should be able to go to church. She will definitely get baptized :) and it's cool because Elder Tew and Elder Bennet are teaching her sister who lives in their area and she's exactly the same haha. woo!

We had a few volunteers from the ward this last week come help us with some lessons. So helpful! I love our ward. 

 Juan Antonio Mussi

 Pamela Lopez

Rafael Quinteros

Updates:

Haide and Raul are doing well. She gets so excited when we come to teach them. I always walk in and she shakes my hand and looks in my eyes and says/yells "I missed you!" and she tells us how happy she feels after our lessons. Also Raul started praying! I guess he never prayed before we came, but Haide the other day told us that caught him praying haha. They're both so great. It's hard to get a lot of progress out of them because they aren't married... but are just friends, like they sleep in different rooms and don't have any intimate relations or anything... they just live together. We still don't know what we are going to do about that, but we have to either get them married or separated before they can get baptized.

Angelica is doing so-so as far as her health. We passed by at the beginning of the week after Sunday a ton to see if she was ok, but her neighbor finally answered and told us she was in the hospital. So we went and found her there. Poor thing is pretty weak.. but throughout the week we have visited more and she is doing a lot better now. We share scriptures with her when we go and gave her a blessing and she's always so grateful and humble about her situation. Not sure what will happen, but she still wants to be baptized. Updates to come.

Carlos... we passed by Carlos this week and he had a visitor. We knocked on the door and he came to the window and told us that we couldn't come in and that we couldn't visit anymore... no!! I hate Satan.. he seemed sad to say it though, as if he was pressured into it. We are gonna give it a bit of time and pass by later to see what happened.

That's pretty much it for my week I think. I wanna wish a Happy Birthday this next week to my dad and my brother Ryan. I love you both so much and I am grateful for the great examples of good men and worthy priesthood holders you are to me. Que se cumplan feliz :)

con amor,

Elder Jolley

 Pictures from our last zone meeting and Elder Wineager's birthday so we celebrated with brownies, ice cream, and a zone photo shoot.

 The hermanas had service with a lady in their ward and she gave them tons of concord grapes and they shared some with us so I made some homemade grape jam. Yum! I also made homemade peanut butter (no pics) so we have been enjoying some pb and js and stuff.

They don't have any fish sauce here in Argentina (for thai/indian food) and I really want to make some massaman curry so I am currently making homemade fish sauce haha :) It is currently fermenting, but I will send a pic of the results in a couple weeks when it's done.