(Letter from July 30th)

Dear Family...

A mission is to learn, I have learned to watch my phrases such as "I´m glad to be here" because I find out that that means a sweet trip to Cancun!! Haha no I´m super surprised, but super happy for you guys to be able to take get away as a family and enjoy some sun en Cancun! :) My companion got a sweet smile on his face when I told him and in English told me, "MY HOME!!" haha I´ve been teaching him sweet phrases this week and his accent is getting better! A quick funny: This week we had to buy some treats for an activity that we had, I suggested lazily that we buy crackers or something like that... Elder Juarez looked at me and told me that "the children don´t want crackers they want caaandy!" haha we´re getting along super good and getting a lot of work done as well (I´ll put that in there to avoid the idea that we´re just playing with accents here). I´ll be looking forward to hearing about all the fun that you all are having! :)

This week passed by quick and before ya know it we´ll be starting the Temple Dedication!! We´ve been focused on families this week and working on organizing ourselves in such a way that we can use this event as the greatest missionary tool! We are feeling a spirit that is different throughout Argentina as the Lord continues to prepare this people for this sacred blessing of a dedicated Temple to our Father in Heaven! We have been anxiously passing our flyers to everyone that we can see and have been able to aprovechar many opportunities in teaching the people more about the temple! Earlier in the week we passed by a house and met with a lady name Patricia. We put ourselves to talk with her for a little bit and found out that her dad was really sick and wasn´t expected to live very long. We testified of the power of the Resurrection through our Savior Jesus Christ and promised her of the peace that is found in the temples. Unfortunately she wasn´t able to meet with us that day. Yesterday we passed by to see if she and her husband had had time to read and make plans to go one of the days, we found the husband Abel. Directly he told us that they had no desire to go! Come to find out they had lost all confidence in religion because of several things that happened in the past. We talked to him for a minute and was touched by the way he explained the times when he had felt Gods love in his life and how much he missed that "peace that you just can´t explain." We promised him that by stepping one foot inside the Temple he would be filled with that peace! I am forever grateful to be a missionary- thinking back on that moment I was grateful to that we were blessed to promise such a thing to a man that needed our Heavenly Fathers love so badly. I am beyond excited for the temple... I miss it so much! I´m grateful for the promise in D&C 109 that we have though that sets this place apart and gives us the peace even when we are apart from it.

12 That thy glory may rest down upon thy people, and upon this thy house, which we now dedicate to thee, that it may be sanctified and consecrated to be holy, and that thy holy presence may be continually in this house;

13 And that all people who shall enter upon the threshold of the Lord’s house may feel thy power, and feel constrained to acknowledge that thou hast sanctified it, and that it is thy house, a place of thy holiness.

22 And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them;

23 And from this place they may bear exceedingly great and glorious tidings, in truth, unto the ends of the earth, that they may know that this is thy work, and that thou hast put forth thy hand, to fulfill that which thou hast spoken by the mouths of the prophets, concerning the last days.

I think I´ve told you guys about Mario and Miriam before? Maybe..? Anyway quick recap. they are a sweet family that we found that are soo cool! We´ve been talking to them weekly for about a month. They work like crazy so it´s been hard to meet with them en seguida but had a great lesson with Miriam and their kids this week (they have 3 girls, Mario was working). We talked about the temple and eternal families! Something that really touched them. Miriam was so interested and you could tell it was something that she wanted. Mario I guess is a little bit duro so it´s a big obstacle for them in getting married- He thinks it´s the same just being together. We have been wanting to help Miriam gain a testimony and be able to help Mario obtain his. We explained that we´re able to know if these things are true and if they are possible in our lives through prayer! In the end we asked her to pray, she wasn´t to much of a fan of the idea. But we promised her that it was important. She gave a sincere and humble prayer and WOW! The spirit was there soo strong. I couldn´t not saying anything so I blurted out.. "Wow, do you feel that?!" haha.. rookie. They answered yes and we explained that that is our Heavenly Father and that means He loves us. Such a cool experience with them!! We´re excited to help them get to the temple! :)

We have been working with the ward closely this week for our Ward Conference that we had! Turned out great and there was a special spirit that was felt yesterday. Something that Elder Juarez and I thought of this last week that we are starting up is a weekly activity called... ¡¡SUPER SATURDAY´S!! (Catchy eh?.. ;) ) We want to do more for our ward, we really want them to have a love for each other and a love for this Gospel. It is a fantastic thing that we have in our lives and it should be had with a SUPER huge smile on our faces! So every Saturday we´ll be planning a little activity where we do some fun family games and eat!! We´re super animados for what we´re going to achieve from this activity! Right now it is a Rama but we have in mind... Barrio!! We felt strongly that this will be something tha will increase the missionary work that Fiorito will have in the future. So the first week was a little bit of a bummer... We had 7 people and half were investigators! BUT not to worry we´re happy and we´ll getting the members going down here! We talked for a while and well.. it was a good first activity. :)

District Leader stuff is sweet! District meetings are not! Haha I taught last week for the first time and I´m grateful that the Elders in our District are such studs! They all nodded their heads and really held in there! haha no but really so far it has been one of the greatest blessings of my mission. To turn my thoughts to others and to be able work hard to be an example! I LOVE the Elders in our District! We´re working hard in our areas and are trying our best to be better missionaries each day! They are great examples to me and I´m excited to continue to work with them. Thank heaven but it hasn´t been cold here at all! We´ve been enjoying great temperatures all month and are usually walking around without jackets all day! What a blessing!

Well family, I love ya all ta death! I´m so grateful for you. I am grateful for my Father in Heaven and I give testimony that He lives. That He is patient and He is our best teacher. I know that the Book of Mormon gives us direction in our lives and I know my Savior cares for us and that His sweet spirit is our greatest gift. I hope this week we all can strive to find that peace that puts a smile on our face! :)

All my love, Elder Jolley

Elder Jolley with his new trainee, Elder Juarez

and President and Sister Stapley

Elder Juarez and I after hunting a HUGE fly with sauce pans.. we got him! :)

SUPER SATURDAY... #1