Buen día a todos.

Well. Another week of ups and downs. Let's start with some ups, shall we?

Ok so last week we had a lot of great lessons and progress and invited Maria and Leo to church. We passed by their house Sunday morning before church really excited to pick them up. Then after knocking a few times... no show. Yes, bummer, but we continued on and picked up Jacob and Santiago and walked with them to church. That was awesome because we were really worried that their mom wouldn't let them, but she has been a bit more cooperative lately so that's nice. So we show up at church and we are chatting and welcoming people and all that. THEN, right before sacrament meeting starts we start to walk into the chapel and out of the corner of my eye I see someone at the gate to the church. LEO!! This little stud had slept in.. but woke up after we knocked and remembered his promise to attend. So this kid gets on his bike and pedals after us 15-20 blocks all by himself to church. Maybe not the craziest thing to you guys.. but it was obvious effort on his part and it made us beyond happy. He stayed all three hours, loved it, made lots of friends (with the help of our amazing ward), and will be going to mutual this Saturday... which he talks about every time we pass by haha. I love the kid. We were a bit bummed that Maria couldn't come, but she seemed to be sincerely sorry when we followed up with her and we hope she can come this next week. 

Second "up." Jacob is ready to be baptized.. the only thing holding him back is his parents, but tomorrow the bishop is coming with us to their house to talk with his parents about it. I really hope they will be workable... overall if it doesn't work out, at least we will have prepared him and planted a good seed, and he can make the decision later in life without being dependent on his parents to stay active. What matters most is that he has a good support and probability to stay strong.. and if it's not right now, then God will provide him more opportunities. We'll see what happens :)

That's pretty much it for the week. We haven't had a lot of lessons because Maria has been sick in bed and no one else seems to be home. That's been hard. I'm grateful for the low points in our lives though because they help us to see how dependent we really are in our Savior, and how important it is to have faith and press on through those low points. Sometimes the low points come just because we need some humbling or a specific lesson... and sometimes they come from our own disobedience/weaknesses. The end of my "Golden Transfer" is approaching.. and it really has been golden.. I have a lot to be grateful for, and being able to serve the Lord in any way possible is always a blessing. This Sunday I will be fasting and starting the "purification" process from a talk that Alyssa shared with me in preparation for this next transfer. I have lots to improve and the more I can humble myself and sacrifice, the more I will be able to work with the spirit and be strengthened/taught by my Savior. I'm calling this next transfer (get ready)... the platinum transfer... BOOM *drops mic.*  We goin' platinum baby (just like all my records would be.. if I had records).

Here's to another week serving the Lamanites, love you guys.

-Elder Jolley

Quote of the week: "get your game face on." - my Halls Cough drop wrapper "A pep talk in every drop." I have a cold so I've been getting pep talks from my cough drops all day long and it's actually quite uplifting. Thanks Halls :)

Muy Buenos Días :)

This week was a good one! We have 7 investigators right now and they're all progressing pretty well! Slowly... but steadily and I love each one! #goldentransfer I will just give updates on each real fast.

Jacob: His mom is still being a bit stubborn on letting him go to church and stuff. He didn't go last Sunday, but hopefully we can get him and Santiago there this week. We taught them a lesson and played some soccer yesterday. They continue to be really into the lessons and literally remember EVERYTHING haha. Also a couple of their friends come to play soccer with us (a kid named Esteban and his sister Guadalupe) and we've been teaching them too. 

Carmen and Marcial: These guys are a couple that own a poultry store. We saw Marcial outside with his little puppy "Felipe" one day and went to talk with him. He then showed us around their little store and we met his wife Carmen. The NICEST people ever. They gave us some milanesas (breaded chicken) and some chicken patty things when we left. They have a really complicated schedule, being newlyweds (about 35 years old each) so it's hard to teach them, but we were able to chat about the Plan of Salvation in the store one time and have a mini lesson which went well, and they invited us to come have dinner with them, not this Sunday, but the next and we will be able to sit down with them for a bit. In between now and then we will just stop by the store to say hi. This last Sunday was Carmen's birthday and we brought them some homemade banana bread with lemon icing. brownie points :) or should I say... banana bread points? ;) heh heh..

Maria and her two sons, Leo and Carlos: Maria is probably our strongest investigator right now. She is the one who had her husband pass away and we talked about the plan of salvation with her. Things are going well and she has been praying. Next lesson (tonight or tomorrow depending on how busy she is) we will invite her to be baptized, as well as her sons. I'm excited #goldentransfer

 Meet our investigator's (Maria) son, Leo, or as I like to call him, "Mista Steal Yo Gurrrl." Stud! haha He's the funniest little kid ever (I died when I saw his shirt because he has no idea what the words mean.. just like all the other people in Argentina when they wear shirts with English phrases on them). We had a really good appointment with Maria about the Plan of Salvation last Saturday after dropping off the cake, then after Leo wanted to go to his friend's house, but his mom is kind of overprotective of him and was super worried cause it was starting to get a bit late... so we told her we would walk him there. On the way he was showing us how he could go off the curb on his bike and make huge skid marks. I was laughing so hard.. ya gotta love him :)

Celeste: A woman we have been teaching who has a boyfriend and a daughter. Kind of a complicated situation and she has a hard life. She gets emotional and the spirit is really strong every lesson we have with her, but she has a hard time keeping commitments, we are working on that.

This past Tuesday we had a really good Zone meeting. The first one in a few weeks due to complications the past little bit. It was awesome to have everyone together again. It was also Elder Tew's birthday, so at his request I made tacos for the zone and he brought a Hershey's chocolate cake to share. Very good. We had a really great meeting and it was really satisfying to feel like a good example due to the fruits we are having in our area right now. Not in a "rub it in everyone's face" kind of way, but it was nice to be able to demonstrate and testify of the happiness and success we are receiving from hard work.

Two funny things:

1. When we teach Jacob, we always sit on this huge tire all together in a group during the lesson. It's a bit short so usually my leg like falls asleep after a little bit of time. Anyway so this last appointment, we finished the lesson and the prayer and got up to go play one last game of soccer. I stood up super fast and apparently my legs weren't ready for that so I fell backwards flat on my back... all the kids laughed at me Mom... it was humiliating. ;) haha It's a good thing God keeps me humble.

2. There is this house we always pass on our way to Maria's house, and this crazy old lady lives there (also named Maria). She's like 179 years old, has no teeth, her lips are like sucked into her mouth, she NEVER blinks (I've watched... trust me), and is always smiling. Also she has a crazy son with a beard and he looks like Rambo. Anyways, so every time we pass they like freak out and call us over. So we go over sometimes and the son just says crazy stuff like "I'm a god... but I'm not the god of the... you're not god. god is.... come inside my house!" Then he goes inside and insists that we come in and we just say "uhh no thanks." Then he brings out a plate of stale crackers and insists that we eat some saying "soy amable! soy amable!"(I'm friendly, I'm friendly). Then he asks us for a paper and a pen and continues to write gibberish all over our agendas... meanwhile his mom just sits on a chair staring at me with a crazy look in her eye saying "soy religiosa...soy religiosa" (I'm religious, I'm religious) then she goes on and on about how she prays and goes to the Catholic church and sleeps with god... haha!

This place is like a giant looney bin sometimes... but it keeps you entertained :)

Les amo a todos.

Elder Jolley

 This last week Emma turned 1 years old :) Nadia threw a super cute Minnie Mouse party for her at Nico's mom's house. We made a little vanilla cake with strawberry icing for the party and passed by that night to drop it off. I was super proud of our cake, then we showed up and Nadia's sister had made all these dope cupcakes and a Minnie Mouse cake.... hmm. haha! Anyway, we stayed to sing Happy Birthday (we did it like 2 or 3 times cause Sarah wouldn't stop blowing out the candle), took some pictures and took off. I love them. Such a solid family and I'm still so grateful I was able to be a part in helping Nadia come into the church.

 This last Sunday we had Elder Tew and Elder Bennet over for Sunday dinner and I made your chicken enchiladas. They turned out a lot better than I thought they would. We made homemade tortillas and even some homemade sour cream. Yum! I love cooking your recipe's Mom, it's a fun way to bring a little piece of home out here with me :)

"Pass the Cake" - So Nadia and Nicolas live on the same street as us, but about 10-15 blocks away... but the thing is that there is a rail yard in the middle of us so we have always had to walk like an extra 10-15 blocks to go up, cross the tracks, and come back down to their house. So this last week we got sick of that and decided to find a way somehow through the rail yard to make a shortcut. The rail yard is bordered with a barbed wire fence... but this is Argentina... so of course we found a little opening that we can squeeze through (takes some flexibility) to get in. THEN we had to climb over, under, and through like 5 different trains to get to the other side. So we did that the day we brought the cake because we didn't have much time to drop off the cake before an appointment we had that night with Maria. It was super funny though cause we had to play "pass the cake" the whole time and we looked so random just walking through this rail yard with a little pink cake. haha! So of course we got a pic.

What a week! 

Not too much time so I will get right into it. This last Saturday was probably the best day I have had in my mission (for now :)). We contacted in the morning and got hardly any. Then in the afternoon we passed by Jacob's house to remind him and his mom about church (his mom didn't end up coming, but Jacob and his brother Santiago did.. woo!). 

 This is one of our new investigators :) His name is Jacob and he is 11 years old. His mom is an inactive member that was baptized 11 years ago. We are working on reactivating her, as well as working with Jacob towards his baptism. This last week we taught him the Restoration and played a few games of futbol. He's a super smart and witty kid, keeps us laughing, plays soccer quite well, and looves to go to church. It's almost weird how receptive he is. I love teaching little kids! Sometimes he is a bit crazy.. but when we teach him something he's super good at remembering it. We also teach his 7 year old brother Santiago (with the glasses.. see picture). Cutest kid! He reminds me a ton of Cooper and I love it. Funny story: So I sat by him during sacrament on Sunday and he looked a bit bored during the talk so I pulled out our cell phone and pulled up a little car game we have to keep him occupied and turned to give it to him. When he saw he just shook his head, looked at me and whispered "How am I going to listen if I'm playing a game?" *chick-chick-BANG!* My jaw just dropped and I whispered "Oh... ok sorry." haha! Humbling moment :) 

Then after (this is the good part) we were about to go to a baptism that the Hermanas were having in their area next to us, because we didn't really have anything important to do. So we left Jacob's house and as we were walking I just felt bad about going to the baptism. Not that it was a bad thing.. but as momma always used to say.. "good, better, best!" So I asked Elder Jackson if he wanted to just skip the baptism and contact and try to get to our goal of 20 instead (that morning we had gotten about 3). He said sure and so we turned around and went contacting, and I'm not kidding when I say that RIGHT after making that decision the spirit just took over for the rest of the night. We decided to visit an old referral so we talked to a woman to ask if she knew where the street we were looking for was. We ended up chatting with her and I felt like I should ask about her family. She ended up telling us that her husband had died a year ago and she looked pretty hurt. I then bore my testimony to her that she would see her husband again and that the message we carry could explain how. The spirit was so strong and the woman began to cry. She said we could come back to teach her and we pressed on. Every single contact after that went so well and we found so many great people. At about 8:00 we had 15 contacts and had to start towards home because we were pretty far away, but we were determined to reach our 20 and had faith that it was possible. Just as we finished discussing that, we walked to the next block and passed some kids playing futbol and as we passed they asked us if we wanted to play. We said "Sure!" and went over to talk to them... there were 5 kids. :) Plus another that came later on. Before we left we told them about the church, and mutual, and that we could help them with their English homework.. haha. That got their attention! They all gave us numbers and we will be working with them later on. #goldentransfer

The kids we met and played futbol with at the end of the day on Saturday.

Not everyday is like that, but everyday that I work hard, and every time I make the decision that I know would please my Savior the most, I know that the influence of the Spirit is involved. I feel really insufficient for this work at times and feel like I don't know how to work or teach, but it doesn't matter because all I have to do is try my best and strive to have the spirit and after that I become an instrument and everything runs smoothly. I loove being a missionary!

Before I go, I want wish a happy birthday to one of the best missionaries I know, who turns 20 this next week! Happy Birthday Sister Tycksen. Thank you for your example and friendship to me. I... respect you lots :) #missionarytalk

Elder Jolley

P.S. I heard "Love Bites" by Def Leppard in the store this past week... and you better believe I did a subtle air-guitar solo just for you Pops :)

 Downing some milk after eating that darn chile.. Glad you guys enjoyed my pepper video haha. This past week I had to sleep with sweats on, and eat an onion like an apple, cinnamon challenge, and eat a pepper again. No videos sorry haha.. but I will tell you that eating an onion like an apple is NOT something you want to do.. bleeeh! The contacts goal is hard to meet, but we have reached it a couple times, and it motivates us to contact more. Personally I think it's motivating and fun.. but I don't think Elder Jackson is a huge fan of it so we will see how long we keep up with it.

Las Malvinas...  long story. Ask Brayden.

What a week! I have millions of things I want to tell you guys.. but little time. So we will do what we can. 

First. This week has been a lot better working wise. Elder Jackson and I have been making plans and goals to improve and have found a lot of ways to improve the way we work. Lately, as I've said before, we have been struggling to get new investigators and a lot of that is because we haven't been contacting a ton for various reasons. It's important though, so we started an activity called "Castigos" (consequences). So basically we have daily and weekly goals for contacting, and if we don't reach our goal, we have to receive a castigo :) We made a list of things like: eat a dried chili pepper, bar of soap in your mouth for 2 minutes (if it worked when we were kids, why not now? ;)), 500 pushups, sing a primary song on the balcony for everyone to hear, 10 "sting pong" shots from your comp, sleep with sweats on, etc. haha I think its hilarious and so far it's been pretty motivating. Our daily goal is 10 contacts each, and the first day I got 9... so I drew a paper from the bowl and got the dried chili pepper. Usually I'm fine with spicy so I just popped that baby in like nothing... then my mouth turned into Sodom and Gomorrah when fire came down from heaven and destroyed the people...WOW that thing was spicy. Elder Jackson got a video and it's pretty entertaining when you're not the person suffering 3rd degree burns in your mouth. 

Then the next night Elder Jackson got some karma his way for laughing at me and didn't get his 10. He got the bar of soap and was dry heaving after like 30 seconds haha! I laughed and laughed. Good times. "Ok I'll contact I swear!"

Second. This has been a week full of good messages and thoughts. On Sunday, Hermana Mussi (from the family with 6 boys) gave a really good talk about marriage... not my alley right now, I know, but it still works for a missionary companionship.. plus all you married folk can use it as well so your welcome. She quoted a talk from Elder Nelson about how the first four minutes of when we come into contact with our companion (in the morning, starting a conversation, coming home from work) will determine how the rest of the day/conversation goes. If those first four minutes are all positive, patient, and loving, the rest of our time together will follow that pattern. The same goes for if there is anything negative or rude in those first four minutes. It helped me to realize I could be more loving and patient with my companion as well as others in my life. We need to make sure we always approach/treat others and live with a positive and loving attitude. Not too deep of doctrine, but a good reminder. 

Another cool experience I had was this last Sunday when Elder Jackson and I were walking over to the house in Independencia (Elder Tew and Bennet) to stay the night for service at the bakery in the morning. We passed by an Evangelical church that was having a meeting. That happens all the time, but this time it caught my attention and I asked Elder Jackson if he would go in with me. He said sure and we went in to sit down and listen for a few minutes. At first I went in with a very judgmental attitude like "Oh boy.. here we go"...then as I sat there listening I thought "if someone visited my church, I would want them to listen with an open mind and heart." So I decided to really listen and be more open. As I listened I realized there was really nothing wrong with what they were preaching, against what I had concluded before entering. Yes.. it was pretty funny when people shouted strange things... and the lady singing/crying/moaning strange words in the corner wasn't the most comfortable thing, but they were just preaching of Christ like we do. The only thing though that kept doubts out of my head was my knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. That hit me in a different way as I sat there. Everyone knows that through Christ we can be saved, but no other church preaches about God's plan of exaltation for us. We really don't change much about peoples beliefs as missionaries... we just add more, and it's such a precious addition that I'm so grateful to be able to share. I know it's true.

So our stake mission leader Cristian Unzaga owns a bakery. I think I talked about it last week maybe.. but anyway we have been going to help him on Monday mornings at 6am for the past couple weeks. We make bread and facturas and cookies and all kinds of stuff with him. It's a super cool experience. Also a free factura every now and then is definitely worth the service :)

Selfie with Elder Tew (from St. George)

 Cristian guarding his prize facturas from the hungry Elders.

Few random stuff: 

1. Our old lady neighbor Graciela (not sure if I've talked to much about her) LOVES us right now. When I got here she hated the "chicos" upstairs, but Elder Jackson and I have been helping her to take care of the building and we always try to be really friendly with her, and so far it's working! She makes us bread, gives us eggs and veggies from her farm/garden. It's so cute haha.. by now she knows that we can't kiss women on the cheek as missionaries so she always kisses her hand and waves it saying "gracias mi amor!" I don't think she would ever let us teach her (I've tried), but I really hope our relationship/example to her sparks some curiosity in the church for her some day.

2. Last night as we were working we passed by a house with an old man in the doorway playing some kind of accordion instrument. I have contacted him before and he wasn't very friendly, but this time we went back after we passed and said "Wow! That's so cool! Can you play us a song?" I think he forgot about me because he was friendly and played us a couple really cool songs on his weird instrument... also the whole time he played he stared at us with this suuuper serious face without blinking, I think cause he was super focused, but it was soo funny and it took all I had not to burst out laughing. I love random experiences like that. His name is Luis and we might pass by another time to listen more... oooor teach him ;) #goldentransfer

There is more to tell, but no time. Love you all! Have a great week.

Elder Jolley

P.S. Our ponderizing scripture this week is 2 Nephi 31:21

Bus ride to our leadership conference in Bahia with the Hermanas (Hermana Palma is the Sister Training leader). Had a fun time, ate lots of snacks, and Hermana Palma even taught me how to do a Rubik's cube... ya learn somethin new every day I guess.

 The ONLY other passenger on the bus decided to sit right behind us on the bus and ended up sawing logs the whooole time. haha so I took out my camera and got a video and was about to go sit by him and take a selfie... but then the Hermanas said no.. so I took a couple from my seat :)

 So yesterday was super hot, so Elder Jackson and I decided to camp out on the roof. The temperature came down a bit so it was soo nice, and the sky was so clear, tons of stars, aaaand a full moon. We had a fun night chatting and eating homemade popcorn. Then we went to sleep and I think it rained a bit in the middle of the night cause we woke up wet in the morning. Whoops.

Today after lunch we went downtown to take care of a couple things. As we were walking we saw this chess table in the park that looks just like the one from the Pixar short film with the old guy! So I looked around and whadda you know... there was the perfect little old man sitting on a bench across the park! So I went and asked him if he would come sit at the table with me to take a picture. He said "Sure! but I don't smile very good..." Ha so then we sat down to take the picture and he wouldn't look at the camera haha, so we chatted instead and got some nice candid pics. His name is Hugo. Great guy.

Happy Valentine's Day this past week... definitely the most romantic one for me so far. ;) An old drunk guy gave me a kiss on the cheek so that was cute. Anywayyss moving on.

Another crazy week in the life of a zone leader. We had a mission conference last week, a zone conference on Tuesday, a leadership conference next Tuesday, and a broadcast from Elder Bednar the day after. It's ok I don't like sleeping anyway ;) Ha kidding... really no complaints here. I love being busy... I just hope we can fit in some time to do some good normal missionary work as well because I really am craving it right now. We have actually contacted a lot more lately and have found a few great people to teach. I will tell more about that later as things progress.

Last week we took a trip to Mar Del Plata to hear from President and Elder Resek of the Seventy. Lots of great messages, and the best part was we drove through Monolito where I was born! That was a trip.. holy moly. Also on the way back I talked the bus driver into stopping at the bakery across the street from my house in Monolito called Rincon Dulce, annnnd we might have bought 3 dozen facturas for the zone and the zone from Tandil who were traveling with us. YUM! 

 Elder Kleinman from my first area! This guy is such a great missionary and helped me so much in my first area. He dies this transfer and it will be sad to not have him around.

 The new Zone.

The homies reunited!

Pictures during lunch on Tuesday's zone conference. The zone leaders are always in charge of arranging everything for the conference.. including lunch. Normally zone leaders just order food or pay a member to make stuff... but I thought "nah...we can do better." So I printed off one of my favorite recipes from Mom, Pineapple Salsa Chicken, and we went all catering on the place! We had to times the recipe by 7 to feed everyone, but with the help some of the missionaries in the zone, we pulled it off! It turned out sooo delicious. Also, you can't find sweet chile sauce here so we made that from scratch as well. I felt like a chef haha. "Tastes just like my momma used to make!"

 Zone Conference lunch

Pineapple Salsa Chicken

Also... Happy Birthday to my sweet little diva sister Andraya! She's turning 21... whoops I mean 12, but she acts like she's 21 so it's really all the same. Ha I love you so much Draya and hope you have a great day! Wish I could be there for your first time in the temple... I hope you have an amazing first experience!

Sorry for the short email... but my time is up and rules are rules. Love you all and hope your week goes fantastic!

Elder Jolley

We have had a ton of cool storms this past week, and we finally figured out a way to get on our roof, so we went up to watch the lightning (I know... intelligent, but we're missionaries so we're safe) and got some cool pictures in the process. We have seriously had some monsoons and lightning storms that look like the Fourth of July. I love it! Two nights ago we got home at the end of the day and it started to pour, so we went outside in the street in shorts and t-shirts to be in the rain. We have a haircutting place right below us and the owner saw us and came outside laughing and took some pictures of us. haha! Then his friends asked us if rain meant something in our religion because "esto...no es normal." he said. haha! People don't know how to have fun here ;) 

So we're starting a rap group after the mish and this is our new album cover. All of our names are going to be dessert names... we're still working on the names though so for now we are "Orhinge Jooleu$ & the Cr3w"  droppin our hottest mixtape summer 2016 (it's just EFY remixes cause that's all we have).

Mom: If you wanna be in our rap group, your name can be "Teri-Misu." Genius!! or you could start a restaurant/pastry shop and you can name it that.. we'll even give you the rights to the name for free ;)

Happy end of transfers everyone!

So the results are in and all the missionaries are finally moved into their places.. mostly. So I will be staying (for the first time) with my companion for another transfer! That's going to be weird haha, but I'm excited. As far as the zone we only had 3 changes. Elder Searcy went home and Elder Tew is training a new Elder from California named Elder Bennet. Elder Marin went to Mar Del Plata and got replaced by Elder Wineager from Idaho, and Hermana Fasanando went to Bahia and was replaced by Hermana Cardinas. We have all of our zone in our area right now because tomorrow we all travel to Mar Del Plata together for a conference, but besides that transfers are done. Yay! Ha I got to catch up on sleep a bit last night, but all the other nights this week have been like 2am trips to the bus station and other crazy stuff haha. It's fun. Poor Elder Tew missed his bus to Bahia on Tuesday evening, then we bought another ticket for 2am the next day. Then after we dropped him off we went home and slept. Then he called us right at 6:30 and said "umm... I'm still in Olavarria." WHAT? Ha the poor guy just sat in that bus for four hours and it didn't move anywhere... and he isn't the most assertive guy so he just sat there patiently and didn't ask what was going on. haha. So apparently the bus was just having problems and they didn't tell anyone or do anything until 7:30 when they just moved everyone to another bus and sent them...*sigh* Argentina.

So as you can see in the pics. Nadia got baptized! Saturday night at 9 it took place and it was such a happy experience. We did it late because Nicolas had to work. She said she felt really good after the baptism and her mother-in-law told me yesterday that this whole week she has just been glowing and can't stop talking about how happy she is. Such a blessing to be able to serve her and her family to help bring that happiness into her life.

Nadia was baptized by her brother-in-law Federico

So that's pretty much it for this week. After a nice spiritual boost tomorrow at the conference I will be able to get things back to normal and really dig into my golden transfer :) This week as far as the work we have been doing a lot of divisions with Elder Numbers, Tew, and Wineager and contacting a TON! It's been really good and we have found a lot of ways to make contacting more interesting. I taught Elder Numbers and Wineager a game called "contactos unicos" where on each contact you have to do some different requirement like stop a car, tell a joke, or sing a hymn. It's super entertaining haha. It's been really fun doing divisions as well. Elder Numbers is probably the most pure person I've ever met. He is truly a man without guile and working with him is so fun. Elder Jackson and I also had a great planning session yesterday again and set some great goals. We're both really pumped up and excited to work hard this transfer. Woo! 

Con amor,

Elder Jolley

 Zone pot luck for the last meeting :)

1. Biscuits and gravy with hash browns (Elder Tew and Searcy)

2. Aji de gallina from Peru with steamed potatoes (Hermana Fasanando)

3. Chicken pot pie (my comp and yours truly)

4. Tacos (Elder Miller and Howlett)

5. Calzones Rotos (Elder Marin and Numbers)

6. Brownies (Hermana Palma)

yep.. lots. yum!

Last zone pic

I'm running out of ways to start my emails... hi?

Well, best week in the mission so far :) Normally I would say that every week just to be positive, but I probably would count this past week in one of the top 5. It's been reee piola (Spanish)

So last Monday. We had (yet again) a trip to Bahia for a follow up leadership conference to discuss area changes and play soccer with President in the morning. That was super fun as always and the meeting went well. President is continuing to make a lot of changes, which freaks out a lot of missionaries. I understand that on his end it's still a new thing for him and he is just trying to do what is best for the mission and to fix the problems that existed when he got here. I really trust him, and know that as long as he is following the spirit as to what the Lord desires of us in this mission, "it'll all work out." (name that conference speaker). <-- p.s. no one ever names things when I do this haha... lame!

This week was good as far as the work. I have really been trying to contact more. I know that I have been working this transfer... but at the same time I feel like I barely have. It's a strange feeling. So it was super refreshing to be doing some normal work again this week. Contacting is not my favorite... and we get a lot of referrals here so sometimes I use that as an excuse to not contact... but I know I need to get better on that. I had a few succesful ones this week that ended with scheduled appointments so that was really exciting. It's such a good feeling when you step outside of your comfort zone and receive the promised blessings. I'm stupid for not doing that more often, but I have goals to fix that this next transfer. Also I'm calling this next transfer "the golden transfer" cause I've got big plans for change and improvement. It'll be great :)

Speaking of next transfer. We've got transfers coming this weekend! That's always a chaotic time, especially for a zone leader, but I'm excited. I feel like I will be staying here with Elder Jackson, but we'll see. I really like Elder Jackson. He's such a peacemaker. He doesn't have a lot of time left so sometimes I think he's a bit trunky haha... but everyone's got their thing so it's good. We'll work with it :) The past few weeks we've been a bit silent with each other, but yesterday we had a great weekly planning session and talked a lot about new goals and stuff and that pumped us up pretty good. Funny story: Last night I looked in my Christmas package and saw the "Christmas Crunch" you guys sent (that was a miracle haha... I was so happy to see that) and I took it out and asked Elder Jackson if he wanted a bowl. His eyes LIT UP and he said "um, yes!" ha so I poured some out for us and asked him to say the prayer. Then in his prayer he said "please bless... this Christmas Crunch. and please bless the Jolley family... for sending us these beautiful things" (but in Spanish) and I was this close to busting out laughing. I'm pretty sure Heavenly Father was laughing too so it's cool. 

Alright Imma get right to it. NADIA IS GETTING BAPTIZED! After almost a month of lessons falling through and being somewhat worried as far as things were with her.. we finally had a solid appointment last Friday. I was in divisions with Elder Marin while Elder Jackson was in Bolivar. So we went that night and brought some peaches and dulce de leche for them (that's a popular dessert here). At the beginning we caught up and laughed for a bit. Then as we started the lesson, I was super nervous to bring up baptism cause she usually gets a bit nervous when we talk about it. As I started to talk about it though, she caught me off guard and said "ya so with the baptism thing... I was actually going to tell you guys.. I've been thinking a lot about it and I'm going to do it..." jaw. on. the. floor. haha I just said "oh!....uhh. ok!" ha then we had a great lesson after that reading some scriptures about baptism and talking about how it will all go down. So anyway this Saturday she gets baptized and I'm super excited. Obviously to have a baptism is always exciting, but mostly I'm just so excited for the progress I've seen in her and Nicolas as I've come to know them. She is seriously so prepared and is doing it completely for her and because she feels it's right. Not just a baptism.. a convert :)

Well sorry for the shorty.. and I have no pics. I'm a dummy, but I love you all and I hope you have an hermosa semana!

Elder Jolley