Fam jam slam.

Last week of the transfer! Super weird. Things are flying.

First, the sneak peek I gave you guys last week was changed... that's what I get for giving sneak peeks. I was all excited, then the holy spirit was like "psych! plot twist!" All is well in not-zion :)

SO this week we have our last zone conference here in Bahia Blanca. Then besides that we will be doing a bunch of transfer prep and trying to reach our contact goal in between. Wish us luck!

Yes this is short, but I have nothing else to say and I don't wanna be writing you guys no paja.

Love you all! Even though some of you get engaged and force me to miss my life's most special moments ;) 

- Elder Neveratweddingsbutstilljolley

 Sis. Cifuentes takin risks to hunt for flamingo feathers.

 Nature walk at a place called "parque luro" for pday with President and Sis. Cifuentes

 Went out to lunch at the Cifuentes' favorite Italian restaurant in a place called "Villa de la ventana" about an hour away for Elder Paleka's "last lunch." It was super good.

Selfie with Sis Cifuentes and the boys after Elder Tree and Elder Frischknecht's baptism on Saturday.

Bom dia! (sneak peek: practicing my portuguese for my next comp in a couple weeks! good things to come)

Well it's been years packed into weeks the past little bit. Traveling a lot, and working hard when we're not. We are seeing growth in our area and getting a lot of help from our ward and our new mission leader Facundo Curulif.

The zone conferences are going really well. Traveling around and seeing pretty much the whole mish is really cool and a blessing, but with great blessings come great duties and little sleep :) It's been really rewarding to see and hear about results from the things we are doing and teaching in zone conferences. We've had missionaries share experiences with us where they had applied what we had taught and saw results. That's been really cool.

Things are going great with Elder Paleka and I. We have a great time, work hard, and it's so nice leading with him by my side. There is an awesome feeling of equality between us and we always try to do what's best and follow the spirit as we counsel to make decisions for our area and our missionaries here in this mission. I'm learning a lot from him and President as well.

I'm loving the mission and I am loving the feeling of direction I have right now. I have so much to improve still and I always will, but I feel happy from the hard work I am doing and I know I am pleasing my Savior because of it. I hardly know Him and I hardly know the gravity of His love for me. The closer I come to him the smaller I feel, but the more I depend on Him and work to do my part, the more unstoppable I feel because of His grace and the enabling power of His everlasting atonement.

I love you all and I know He lives.

Elder Jolley

Road Trippin + Ridiculous Argentine road signs

 Super fancy bathroom with eternity mirrors (#mormonobservations) at President's hotel in Mar Del Plata. (No, this isn't exciting for you guys, but it's been a year since I've used a motion-activated sink so it's cool.)

 Pic with Elder Mendez and Elder Espinola in their house where we stayed in Mar Del Plata. They are both crack-ups and VERY Argentine haha. They talked in vos the whole time and every other word they said was "loco." I don't hear that a lot anymore since I'm not in the ghetto so I was loving it.

 Mini Golden-Gate Bridge in Viedma

 The BEST ice cream (strawberry cream and chocolate hazelnut) at a fancy place called Figlio in Tandil. If I ever come back to Argentina it most likely will be to come here again. We may or may not have gone three times while we were in Tandil last week :)

 Did a little sight seeing after dinner in Tandil. SUCH a beautiful city. I wish all of Argentina was like it, oh man. It has a little bit more of a European twist to it and I love it! 

 Taco date in Tandil.

Food court at the mall and fourth of July in the office.

Burger trip in Bahia with Elders Frischknecht, Tannyhill, Miller, Tree, Paleka, Tucker, Ribeiro, and Schauffhauser.

Hey Fam!

I have absolutely no time, sorry. We are heading out right now for a zone conference in Tandil. This morning we played some sick games of soccer at the church. I love being here with all my buddies so close.

Love you all, gotta go!

Elder Jolley

Happy 4th!!

Happy 4th of July!! It's been an awesome week. LOTS of traveling, but the zone conferences are going great. It feels like it's been a month, but it went by too fast... time in the office is even worse. The Necochea conference went well but had a couple slow parts that I wanted to fix. For the conference in Viedma I created a Powerpoint to help go along with my part and it helped a lot. I love being able to see and associate with all the missionaries. It's cool to feel my love for them grow as we visit each zone. I can feel the spirit with us as we teach them and I hope and pray that they will apply the messages we are trying to send. Our mission is getting better, but it's slow and steady. We just need the missionaries to be more proactive and meet their goals. I love the lessons I am learning and that President and the Lord are trying to teach us. Principles that will help us so much throughout our lives. Planning well, working hard, and reaching goals.

Things are slow in our area with the little time that we have, but we were able to get some contacting done this last week and saw some success. It's a bit of a bummer coming from Olavarría where I had 11 progressing investigators and I knew exactly where I was going with each of them and how to get there, to an area with not too much activity at the moment. I feel like I'm adapting myself well to the ward and we have some great leaders here. We had a really efficient meeting with both our ward mission leader and the bishop yesterday. Very grateful for both of them and their efforts and excited to work with them. 

Heading out to Mar Del Plata today! We also selected the new zone leaders last week for this next transfer and will be giving training to each of them through the next month... adding to the travel plans! Wow.. then this Thursday we have a leadership conference at President's house. Busy busy, but I can't be more happy about it! 

Before I go I wanna wish a Happy Birthday to my sister, pal and partner-in-crime Kendyl! I love you so much and am so proud of the woman you are becoming. I love your drive and vision as to who you want to be and where you want to go. I'll probably end up having to work for you when I get back cause you'll own Utah or something ;) You're the best.

God Bless the USA! ... and my sista :)

Elder Jolley

I think one of the biggest testimonies the mish has given me is that of my country! Elder Paleka and I were shouting the Star Spangled Banner this morning after prayers, annnndd about every 10 minutes since then. Our truck is decked out with an American car tree and a sweet American flag keychain on the keys. Maybe it will get us robbed someday, but at least we're patriotic ;)

Argentine breakfast to start off a good p-day with Elder Paleka. (pretty much just a bunch of dessert)

After our zone conference in Viedma last week we went and stayed in San Antonio with Elder Numbers and Elder Brown, then the next day we had our p-day and went to a beach called "Las Grutas" with Pres. and Sis. Cifuentes. I just walked around with my jaw on the ground the whole time. Pretty impressive for an Argentine beach, right? Wow. "Grutas" are naturally formed caves in the side of ocean cliffs. Also on the upper cliffs all these parrots live in the tiny caves. Pretty amazing! We walked through caves and along the beach and also did some shelling for a while. We then went to lunch at a place on the beach and I ate SEAFOOD! I was convinced I would never eat seafood here because it's all pretty nasty, but this place was nice and seemed trustworthy so I got a plate of shrimp "a la provenzal." Sooo good. Afterwards we went to another beach nearby that had a ton of shells, so we did some more shelling, and the best part was while we were looking at shells we looked out in the ocean and saw WHALES!! God really does love me :) Haha I flipped. Such a chill relaxed day, much needed after all the running around :)