Hey everybody!!

Good to hear from you guys, bad to hear about your temperatures.. haha that bites! Thought I was missing the cold, but then remembering really cold weeks like that makes things seem great here! Candy I think asked if it´s "tropical" here. In Villa Elvira I think it feels a lot like California (not sure if that is considered tropical, but there is something that you can compare it to). I really enjoy it here. As heavy as the humidity can get I think it´s pretty easy to manage. Anyways, I´m hoping that you guys will survive the cold and that ya´ll keep warm. I´m not sure if the house has a fireplace or not? Hope so.

Well what a week it´s been. A really satisfying week I´d say. With different trials that we had and things that we were trying to improve on it was great to sit down last night and reflect on what we were able to achieve! I think the greatest blessing of the gospel is this feeling of having become a little bit more like Christ. We were able to work hard and work towards completing our goals. From our experience in the Temple, Presidente Stapley had been teaching us about receiving our own "vision" from the Lord as to what we can do in our areas and in the zone. We felt really blessed to be able to start a new week with this in mind, I believe that it gave us more desire to work and a greater understanding of what we need to do. We worked with different members this week to be able to find new investigators, we found several that are great and we were able to share great experiences in introducing the Gospel. It was a serious answer to our prayers. For awhile we had been pretty "dry" with our investigators, having dropped those who weren´t progressing and out working to find new ones. We continue to strive to find those who are ready to harvest. As a zone a few weeks back we put the goal that ALL areas baptize the 02 of February. In our zone meeting this last week we talked about our progress and found that we weren´t doing so great progressing towards the 2nd. It was awesome to see a "counsel" take place in the Zone and we came to the conclusion that we would all work to find and secure someone for this date- from Wednesday to Thursday we also fasted together and the results were impressive. When one depends on the Lord, he truly comes to know that we have such a special relationship with our Heavenly Father and that we are supported in all that we desire to do. We´ll be continuing to work so that we can have a good turn out on the 2nd. :)

A cool experience that we had this last week on Thursday, we headed out with a guy called Mauro Ramirez in our ward. We had made plans to do work in his neighborhood and visit several people. When we first left, we saw a group of his buddies sitting on a bench in a plaza, he led us to go over and talk with them. It was a group of like six, twenty year olds that were all smoking and they had their girlfriends and all that good stuff- in my mind I was preparing for an "interesting experience" to happen, thinking about all the things that could happen. (In Argentina sometimes the youth groups are a little sketchy), but as we got to know them and explained who we were, we got talking about what they believed and if they would be interested in hearing a message about the Savior. There was a kid named Emanuel who is 20 years who, by the look that he had, was bastante interesado en escucharnos. We ended up setting up a return cita with him. On Saturday he invited us to his house and we sat down and talked with him, his girlfriend and their daughter. It was an interesting experience for me, as we talked a little more I could see the sadness that Emanuel had seen in his life and the path that it lead him down. He has the exact same age as I do and to be able to sit down and share the message of the gospel with him was truly a blessing. As he listened and as the spirit indicated to us what to say, we felt that his heart had really softened and made room for the Savior. The spirit was really strong as we finished with them and set up a new cita to continue working with them. I had the greatest image of him and his family growing up in the Gospel as I left his house. This family is one that I´m super excited to have been able to find and we´re excited to meet with them again this week.

Well time continues to fly, gotta get going! I know that this is the Lord's church which He leads and guides. If I could express anything it would be how grateful and how happy I am!! Wow, words can´t describe what it means and how it feels to "come unto Him" really the best way is to do it! Without doubt I know that the scriptures are messages personally directed to us from our Father in Heaven. They are true. (1 Nephi 15:24-25)

I wish you all a great week! :)
Much Love!
Elder Jolley

 Elder Jolley and Elder Villalba