Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Parenthood

Hello!

First off... lack of time. Sorry... again.

I'll dive right in. Things are going fantastic and week #2 here in Tandil with my son Elder Christensen was sick. We passed up our lesson goal last week by three lessons and have already met our contact goal for the month. Machines... I'm tellin' ya ;) haha kidding. We have to walk SO much though. We added it up and last Saturday we literally walked 6 hours JUST getting between appointments. Poor Elder Christensen has blisters, but hey.... you aren't a real missionary until you do haha. Also the shoes I use to work both have holes in the front now and I come home to dirt filled shoes every night haha. Luckily the arch is still in good shape so it's not hurting or anything... just funny to always have dirt covered feet on the inside haha. Livin the dream!

Huge blessing this week. So we found a house and also found out that it takes about a month to get all the paperwork done. So it just 'happens' that our ward mission leader is a real estate agent and deserves the homie-of-the-year award cause he worked some kinks and we will be getting in to our new house (cutting out an hour of walking) this weekend! Sooo pumped. God loves us.

Couldn't be happier, having a lot of fun and working hard. We got two new investigators last week and our previous ones (Luis and Romina) are going to church and progressing quite nicely. We visited them last week on Romina's birthday and Luis (a grown, tough man) broke down in tears because he couldn't find work and was worried about feeding his family and I quote "doesn't want to steal." Wow.. I listen to people's problems all the time and I know everyone has them, but that hits home for me. I felt so bad. We had a great lesson about faith and then that night we brought them brownies for Romina's birthday (they didn't have money to buy a cake). Such a simple thing and really the least we could do. but it made them soo happy and over the last few days Luis won't stop talking about how grateful he was that he brought brownies. Great people.

Back to work! Love you all!

Elder Jolley

 Elder Christensen and I in Tandil

 Sight seeing around Tandil last pday. We are lovin it here! 

Sorry for the kandid pic.. but I thought it turned out kinda cool. #hipster?

Tandil is COVERED in these beautiful orange trees. Reason #609 why I love Tandil. I decided if things don't work out in the States one day, I'll just get rich and move here to be a big fish in a little pond and live life laid back.. just an option :) but I love Tandil.

p.s. apparently the oranges are poisonous to some extent because they spray them with chemicals to keep birds away and make them look nice longer... we found that out a little late. They don't taste good if anyone wanted to know...

 Visited a few familiar spots with our zone leaders Elder Lee and Elder Holmes downtown. A restaurant named Golden where I went with Elder Paleka. Had a round 2 of their (fake, but delicious) tacos. YUM! Then swung by Figlio again as well! BEST ice cream ever, I'm tellin you guys. This morning we got some facturas and after writing today we will go get a fancy alfajor from Havanna. Also delicious :)


Monday, September 19, 2016

Surprise. I'm a dad.

It's a boy!

So this transfer brought a lot of changes to the mission on my end. About 2-3 months ago President asked me if I would be willing to train for him. I thought about saying no buuuut... ha just kidding. I said yes, of course. It was a little weird at first because I had gotten nice and settled in at the office, but for the past month or so I've been SO excited. I don't know how people wait 9 months for their real kids, cause waiting a transfer for mine took forever.

Let me introduce you to my son, Elder Christensen! (picture attached). He's a 6'5 basketball player from Lehi, Utah and he's a stud! I don't know what I did to get such a dope hijo, but so far I'm lovin it. 


We are here in our new area, TANDIL! (no.. I did not have any influence on President sending me here... :)) This is the city with the (almost) mountains, the cool castle, the best ZL's (Elder Holmes and Elder Lee), a fantastic zone, and the best ice cream in the world :) Our area is HEEEUUUUGE, let alone the fact that we are currently looking for a house and having to live with the Elders from Branch 3 almost an hour outside of our area. The Lord is getting back the walking debt I have with him after 3 months in the truck... oh boy haha. Not kidding, we literally walk 3 hours through forest, desert, tundra, ocean, etc. to get to ONE appointment with our investigators out in the straight boonies. Luckily my kid and I are machines and have a great time walking all over the city with blisters and working hard while we're at it. For being blind in our area we had a pretty successful week last week which makes me so happy that Elder Christensen can have that kind of a start to his mish.

Elder Christensen is working hard on his Spanish. His accent screams gringo, and it's hilarious sometimes cause he knows it, but he doesn't let it get to him. We practice vocab and conjugating on the street in between appointments and he takes every opportunity he gets to make his "10,000 errors" (they say before you get fluent in a language or get good at something, you'll have to make 10,000 errors). 

It's SO fun being dad. I love this kid and I'm working hard to give him the training I wish I would have had (I sincerely love my trainer Elder Moraes, don't get me wrong... but my first transfers were rough haha). I'm so glad the Lord inspired President to make this change for me to add a little fuel to my fire and progress even more. I'm so grateful that He knows us and our needs, provides the guidance and correction necessary in His own time and His own way.

Here's to another fantastic week working in the field! ... but first we're going to enjoy a pday in downtown Tandil and get some ice cream at Figlio. Yummm

Elder immadad-Jolley

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Bonjour :) 

Got a French Book of Mormon recently. Don't know if I told you guys that,  but I'm loving it. Does Paka still speak French? I don't remember hearing it a lot, I just know he would always say funny things in English with a French accent and it always cracked me up. Todd knows French too, right?

Speaking of French. Recently we (last transfer) changed the music rule in the mission. So basically the rule is now that we can listen to anything that is appropriate and that doesn't make us trunky. Before, the music rule was only EFY and Motab. I love motab to death, but to be honest I think EFY repels the spirit for me sometimes haha. and President & Sis Cifuentes agree. So anyway, there are still those that abuse the rule. For example, soo many people listen to James the Mormon.... not saying that its bad, because he doesn't swear, and I guess if that motivates them... power too ya dude. The reason for the music rule is so that it doesn't distract us from the work, so as long as people work good and reach their goals, we don't see it as a problem. So I've definitely downloaded a bunch of Enya, Mat Kearney, Josh Groban, annnd French music like Celine Dion, cause I don't understand anything and it's beautiful so everyone's happy :) that's all.

So updates. We are currently finishing up transfers right now and it's been a bit nuts as usual, and for a cherry on top I just happened to get a nasty cold/fever last Saturday right as things started to move faster, so that's been fun. I'm starting to feel better now though.

Lot's of changes that still haven't quite moved into position.. and after a bit of debate I've decided to tell you guys next Monday about them, cause it will just be better. Might not be much of a hoo hah to you guys, but I'm really excited for what's happening. So I will be sending updates and pics next week.

As far as investigators go. Things are going really great. My love for each of them continues to grow. The Laspina family blows my mind by how prepared they are. Gabriela and Nazareno are doing great as well. Gabriela has read a ton of the Book of Mormon, loves it, and has great questions always. She is for sure getting baptized on the third of October, hopefully with Nazareno at her side. He still has a few doubts, but we're working on it. We also have an investigator named Yesica (the niece of the Maneiro family.. our converts from July) who will be getting baptized within the next two weeks or so, along with her brother if everything goes according to plan. Also on Saturday we got approached by a cute little family outside of the bus station as we were going to buy tickets for transfers who asked us who we are and what we do, then asked us if we could come to their house next week to teach them more. Wut? I've been shocked from some of the blessings we have seen this transfer... just people basically throwing themselves in our way. "Hi nice to meet you,  please teach me." Ha it blows me away and makes me so grateful.

I love this gospel and I love being able to bring it to these people here that I love so much.

Until next week...  #cliffhanger

-Elder Jolley