Monday, December 19, 2011

Hello family! 2 months have come and gone today.. I don´t know how, time goes by so fast! Today are transfers and one of the Elders from our Pinch left for casa today, it was so strange to see someone go home and even though I have a long time to go I just dread the thought of going home! Also yesterday with Chris´s farewell I was following the hours and what would be going on during the day with him. I felt like that was yesterday and am just in awe by the blessing from my dear Savior who has blessed me up to this point. I hope all that went well.

Well my week! Nothing but experiences and opportunities to see the Lord's hand. I loved in Elder Jolley Sr. email he talked about how we don´t know the final outcome of what the Lord is doing with our missions, but my thoughts have been amazed at all the possibilities that are going to come. Argentina has been pretty cold this week. (Remember how I told the guy that I didn´t need an umbrella until winter.. Well it dumped one day as we were walking!) so it has given me a new perspective. This week I have been able to learn a lot, with a lot of help from Elder Lewis. He continues to be so patient with me as I learn to work out little bugs in my missionary self. He is a capo! We´ve been able to teach a little bit this week and have a couple solid investigators that we´re really excited to keep teaching. One is this old Bolivia man who LOVES to work! He told us this last week that 2 hours of sleep is just fine for him, other than that he just goes all day! He is really smart and has a great desire to learn! Most of the people that we find down here in Argentina wonder about why there are so many churches... hmm boy do we have a story to tell them! The restoration has come to be something new as we teach it. I have loved learning how significant it was to have a restoration, but more than that, that there is a way highlighted that they can find out for themselves! We have lots of people shout at us saying that all we do is say fancy words to ¨win the people over¨ but if nothing else the restoration helps them decide for themselves. One lady that we have been teaching named Sylvia has been to several different churches and this week, we invited her to pray and find out for herself. She did, but she was confused as to what she should be looking for as an answer! This opened up such a great lesson for us. We taught her about the fruits of the spirit and at the end of the lesson invited her to say the closing prayer, she did, and was overcome with a feeling of tranquilida from the prayer. As missionaries we sometimes promise people things with the hope and faith that because our Heavenly Father loves us that He will answer, it is a leap of faith for us to promise those things on our own but in this experience it built my testimony that the spirit would be given! That all things that testify of the truth will be visited by the comforting power of the Holy Ghost. Teaching is definitely so new in spanish, but I love being able to practice!

The highlight of the week was the baptism that we had for The family Cordoba/Larrea yesterday. It was a family of 4 and it was an amazing service! The family is really quiet and is just comfortable how they are, not very outgoing or anything like that but just so nice! I was able to baptize the boys and Elder Lewis baptized the girls! Baptisms are so incredible. We are able to see the power of the Atonement in a new and SO powerful way. These people are completely cleaned and to be able to see that is more than a blessing. Modesto (the dad) as we were walking to the font was literally jumping up and down just giddy with excitement, he is not like that at all! The spirit was so strong there and I felt like jumping up and down with him but had to refrain!

Buenos Aires continues to grow on me everyday that I am here. The people and the culture are so funny, but I love it so much! Lately Elder Lewis and I have got up on the roof of our pinch the enjoy the night sky of Buenos Aires and I stand all amazed at what the Lord is doing for me. I finished Alma today as a goal for the transfer and have such a love for this book and testify that it is true! It will teach us truths that we must have in our lives! Hard to believe that we all are gonna be talking this week. Hope all is well for you. May we remember our dear Savior this week and realize what He did, it's different to remember in 90 degrees and humidity, but it is the reason for the season!

Love you all and am grateful to my Heavenly Father for you and pray for you all!
Les amo
Elder Jolley Jr.

Cordoba/Larrea family baptism. (Modesto-dad, Norma-mom, Dana and Nahuel)

Enjoying the beautiful night sky on our roof- a new thing we´ve started to do.

Enjoying some home made (from the bag) pasta!

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