Familia!

Hey! Wow thanks so much for all your letters. I´m with a few Elders right now and we were all just talking about how these days are just an extension of Christmas! :) ...but then Christmas would be something else too because we all getta talk... It all works out so that it is good! First off another sweet shout out out to my boy Skyler! Hehe... these last 2 weeks have been so good. He completed the "Crimson Chin" this week!!

Well what a week it has been. I´ll start off by sharing something that I don´t know if I mentioned last week or not but came to have a strong testimony of Ether 12:6! It was a pretty tough week for us in Fiorito last week. Our Zone Leader was talking to me and helping get us excited and have passion for the work that we do. He shared this scripture with us. Elder Juarez and I this last week have really worked hard to "receive our testimonies" and the Lord has truly come through for us and I can´t explain how much love I have felt this week and how much His hand is involved in our work!! We worked hard and really worked to get the standards. I learned and important truth, that preparation is a key to our success! We have been working hard in the morning hours to improve our teaching abilities and to be more unified as a companionship and in return we´ve been able to feel a greater cantidad of the spirit in our lessons. Personally I´ve been able to have a greater focus on those that we teach and it´s been a real testimony to me that we can speak with "power and authority" so that these great people begin to strengthen their faith in Christ.

This week we were blessed to find 7 people who accepted the invitation to be baptized!! Wahoo! :) A couple of these people found were a huge blessing for us that came when I was on inter-cambios with one of our Zone Leaders (the photo: Elder Orellana de Chili). Doing inter-cambios with him was such a blessing for me and also to help us evaluate some things that we can be doing better. I´ll talk about it a little later though. Anyway the first is a great family that we found named Lorena, Santa y Maria. (combine those names and it´s the name of that one boat. Ha) They are a great family and we´re barely starting to get to know them so we´ll have more information for ya later. Also Elder Juarez and I found another family a little while ago but decided to pass by again on Saturday. Come to find out they had been waiting for us to make contact again and so from that we were very excited. They called all the family to listen and we had a great chat. They are SUPER CATHOLICS! They are "gonna stay catholic, die catholic and nothing is gonna get in the way of that!" That was at the first of the lesson. The spirit was there so strong as we got to know them and truly listened and sought to be a help. Something that I´ve always loved that I heard a while ago is that, as all of us are representatives of Christ, when it comes our time to share our testimonies or to teach His doctrine it is most affective when we teach Salvation and not just principles. If we go about it in this approach the Spirit helps us to see what it is that they are looking for and what it is that they need to do. We talked about Eternal Happiness and what it is that we must to in order to qualify for this great blessing. The last person we taught is José. He is a brother of a menos activo member. We are trying to work with both of them right now but felt really strongly to invite him to be baptized. In the beginning of the lesson with José he started asking a lot of great questions, Why are you guys in this church? What has this church done for you? -Really very interested in CHANGE. He has had a few struggles in his life that I think he is ready to be done with. All were lessons extremely guided by the spirit. I have come to realize how dependent we are, and how merciful the spirit is as a missionary! So with all of them we came to the invitation to church.. All accepted.. None came! UGH.. Que bajón- enserio la fiaca aca me mata! Pero segimos adelante y adjustamos nuestros planes para el domingo q viene. :) Por favor oren para que estas personas tengan el deseo a asistir e ir a la capilla!

Time is flying! To wrap up I´ll share a little bit about the inter-cambio that we had. I was really excited to go with Elder Orellana- He´s a capo and has a reputation of being a great teacher, something that I want to become as well. So I was all ears for him. We had a good time and ended up walking a lot, not many people were home. We took care of a few things and then headed home for the night. Comp study in the morning was GREAT! As district leader I´ve been slacking a little on inter-cambios in my district but from this came to see the need to have them. He was pretty direct with me when sharing, "Elder Jolley, you need to stop thinking so much! You seem lost in thought most of the time and now more than ever you need to be out of your mind." Boom.. really a blessing to have heard that. He continued to share with me Mosiah 4:9

9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.

Elder Orellana and Elder Jolley

When all is said and done this is what our lives come down to, this is the solution of our trials and how we come to reach our full potential! I was so grateful to refocus my thoughts on a loving Heavenly Father, i spent a while thinking about the love that Mom and Dad have for us as kids and then just imagining the love of a God. He is so tender in His reproof and so genuine in His support. I felt like I should fast the next day and was truly humbled as the trials and weaknesses that I had been facing disappeared! I am thankful and bear testimony of a loving Father in Heaven and of the power of fasting. We will grow closer to Him and He will unfold His matchless power in our lives. I love Him and know that He loves each and every one of us! I testify of the Savior and how far He is willing to go to help us realize what God "comprehends" for us- what we are meant to be.

Todo mi amor
Elder Jolley

¡Querida Familia!

Estoy tan feliz que ustedes pudieran tener una vacación tan lindo en Mexico! Tambien que pudieron disfrutar en la cultura Latina... es hermosa no? Tengo indecición si voy a volver a la cultura Americana. Gracias tanto por compartir su semana conmigo, agradecido que ustedes están en casa. Tequila me suena... haha Elder Juarez le gustó su descripción de Mexico. Me miró y dijo... "eh.. es cierto que te puedo decir?"  haha. Nosotros esta semana tuvimos muchas experiencas muy beneficiosas tanto por nosotros como Fiorito. HAHA me reí tanto despues de haber visto Escolíto!! Che flacito no te quemes, haha siempre hagas así. :)

What a week that it´s been for us! We´ve worked hard and even better we´ve been shown A LOT of weaknesses in ourselves and the area that right now we have the blessing to "rise to the occasion" and be able to fix! It´s been a little bit colder this week and we´ve had some rain, but for the most part we were able to, everyday, be out in the field serving the Lord. Ha I´ll share an experience with ya´ll that ugoes pretty good with your vacation that ya had! I don´t know if you saw down there, but Mexicans LOVE their chilies.. We were at the house of Juan Garnica (our convert) and were sharing a great lesson with them about the temple. Well his wife is the owner of a vegetable store... Verdulería? Elder Juarez asked her if they had anything spicy! Haha she brought out these HUGE chilies and he got a huge smile on his face and ended up buying about 30 of them. Entonces in our week we´ve been eating a lot of chili. Now I´ll do a little comparison for ya. Jalepiños... for babies. Locotos... for people without a lot of common sense. These BURN. When we were with Juan and the family, Elder Juarez downed one and started crying (he grew up with the stuff though) had a little prideful moment... I ate a lot of hot sauce packets at Taco Bell in my day, what´s a Locoto gonna do? I ate a little peace and chou.. me fuí. I was red, my lips were on fire and my stomach was all the above. Family: Taco Bell isn´t anything to base yourself off of! I ended up going back to the Pinch and just sitting down to try and get the burn off! It was a funny experience that we had together! Today as a Zone we all ate a Chili (picture) haha we had Elders throwing up and others just sitting down with fire coming outta their mouths! My lips and arms were tingling for like 20 minutes. Crazy crazy chili!

Well we also did spiritual things. This week we´ve been super focused on getting things ready and prepared for our temple trip THIS SATURDAY!! So excited to enter the temple again. A few Elders have gone already and say that it is the most beautiful thing they´ve seen. I´ll tell you all about it in the week to come! :) We´ve had to do a lot of the organizing, right now our Rama is passing through a huge trial! The members aren´t responding to their responsibilities and aren´t willing to communicate with each other.. It creates a tough situation for the Church to grow and for us as members to receive the blessing that we need. We´ve had to pass by and calm several members down and as well try to keep ourselves calm with A LOT of love in our work. I´ve seen a huge theme this week, Love is key in what we do. We had our 2nd SUPER SATURDAY this week :) We had a theme of Juegos Olimpicos and it turned out really really well. Members were able to bring investigators and we also, as a Rama, went and delivered flyers to every house in Fiorito. It was a HUGE success for us! :) but during our activity we had a couple struggles with the participants getting "animated" about the games and I had a super humbling experience as I fought off getting frustrated. There were times when I wanted to throw in the towel, "why in the world would we go to this much trouble when they're just fighting against us", that type of feeling. I gave myself a couple minutes to think about "what Jesus would do" and realized how many times we as people fight against Christ. So many times things are so clear, but we complicate the work of our Father in Heaven. Again a special learning experience of the Atonement. Never once would our Savior have thought, "why in the world am I going through so much trouble when all you do is fight against what I´m trying do?" I was very grateful in the end and grateful for this lesson that I was taught. Our Savior is so merciful and His love is never-ending! :) I know that we must love what we do and who we serve.

Mario and Miriam are doing great.. we keep crossing paths and haven´t been able to meet and have a good lesson in awhile, but we´ve talked and kept communication with them. It´s good, but better to talk! Ha. We´ve been blessed with several great references from members. One is a CAPO! His name is Fabian and has 22 years. He is a Remis driver (a taxi basically). We´ve met with him a couple times and are working to be able to talk with him more, his schedule is super complicated, but the other night we snuck (?) in and found him and his family working on building an extra part on their house. We dropped everything and helped em out for a while, it was a great service project that we were blessed and definitely guided to have. After we finished they were very grateful and let us talk a little bit. Their family is super! We shared with them about the Book of Mormon and it was a great lesson, they committed to read the book and we really felt like it was a heart felt commitment. I saw the power of service in opening the hearts of the people. Really we are able to share the love of Christ in a special way when we give all and a little bit more to help those around us.

Last night we found algunos antiguos investigadores. Walter y Silvia and their 4 chicos. We had talked with them a few months ago and they asked for time to think. Well with the temple open house and all the blessing we are seeing with this event we took them a special invitation and ended up teaching them about eternal families and what it is that Christ has asked us to do in order to receive this blessing. The spirit was SO strong and we really felt their interest and their need for what we were sharing. We started things back up with this family and are praying that they will come with us to the open house this Saturday! (feel free to join in :) ) They need to go. I know that if they do we will see some baptisms.

This week for us and for the District has been pretty... challenging. Lots of pruebas that we are facing. I´ve been fasting and praying to know how to be a better example and to help the other missionaries reach their full potential as missionaries. Our Zone Leader shared with me something that I loved. He referred to Ether 12:6. No testimony is received until after the trial of our faith. We have been tried and it has been a true battle for us. He explained that we must trust in this promise. He said, "Elder you have passed through a trial and now it is time for your success." What a great and motivating invitation. I´ve been thinking a lot about Magnifying my calling and the importance of going and doing... not waiting for a step system to say what we need to do- only do it! The faith that we have takes us to new heights and levels of what our Heavenly Father wants for us. I was given a new excitement and am working hard to magnify my calling. :) I invite all of us to do the same. Trust that trials will come, but don´t have to stay because the time must come that our testimonies will grow. It depends on us and our faith in the Savior as to when we give all we have to grow in testimony!

I love you all and am thankful for your example and your fun experience that put a smile on my face! :)

Con mucho amor

Elder Jolley

 

The Elders enjoying their Locotos

(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

Herro familia!

WOW! Just want to say how much I love you all and how special all are to me!! Thank you so much for the package that you all sent! :) the camera.. re piola enserio! I have been capturing photos and been hiding it better, no chorro va a robarla jamás! Thank you all so much for being so incredible. I love your letters, I love your example and I love the weird Pepsi videos with Mexican music in the background! Haha son raros ustedes. Speaking of Mexicans.. I received an Elder Juarez from Mexico City, Mexico! :) SOO sweet! He is a capo and has so much new missionary spirit! He´s very excited to be here in Argentina finally (was serving for 3 months in Mexico waiting for his visa) and is fascinated with el país. It´s interesting going from an Argentine to a Mexicano... the cultures are so different. I´ve had in my mind all this week Nacho Libre :) I´ll leave it at that, but haha it´s been great! The first couple days we had to keep a pretty close eye on his mouth.. In Mexico they use some words that here in Argentina you´ll get a nice trompada if you say them. (a punch in the face) It´s been fun to be with a brand new missionary and to experience again all that comes in the package of getting used to this work and to be in a new country with a new culture. He already is an excellent teacher... every missionary comes with their own way of teaching, but I realized that mine needs a tune-up pretty badly. He´s a great example and a funny little guy! We have a good time and we´re gonna do great work in Fiorito!

This week has been a little bit crazy! We picked up the new Elders from the mission home on Tuesday after an incredible meeting that we had to be trained as trainers (weird irony in that). We were truly filled with the spirit of these new missionaries and the blessing that they are to a mission. We talked about how important it is to be obedient. I have been working hard this week to be 100% obedient. It truly is the key to a successful mission. The Lord aligns His purposes in our lives as we committ to this principle. I love the help that our Heavenly Father provides to use in D&C 82:

8 And again, I say unto you, I give unto you a anew commandment, that you may understand my will concerning you;

9 Or, in other words, I give unto you directions how you may act before me, that it may turn to you for your salvation

10 I, the Lord, am abound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.

Sometimes we lose track in difficult times in our lives and we can begin to go off by just 1 degree as Pres. Uchtdorf explained. The consequences are tragic. Even the loss of His spirit. However, as we are diligent in obedience to the Lord we are blessed in abundance with the direction needed for our Salvation. I love also the comforting invitation that He gives for us to return and "refrain from sin,"

...Peace be with you; my blessings continue with you.

 24 For even yet the kingdom is yours, and shall be forever, if you fall not from your steadfastness. Even so. Amen.

What a tender father that we have! I am humbled to know that I am His son and that He goes to the very ends of the universe and to the deepest of pits to touch our hearts with this invitation. I feel it in my heart and testify that it is true.

Friday we had a meeting for leaders. It. was. long. Ha, but it was worth every minute. I remember that I didn´t look up very much because my concentration was to my notebook! :) I am excited to be apart of helping Argentina Buenos Aires South grow and reach it´s full potential. I was impressed again by Presidente Stapley and his love for us and his desire that we all grow to become more like Christ. We can do that by Love, Desire, and Joy! We talked a lot about these 3 things and what we can do to help others grow in these 3 attributes. The Elders in our District are great! This last week we were able to get to know each other a little better and share in uplifting experiences that we have in the obra! I am excited to see how things go and know that I´ll be learning more from them.

Well this week the spirit of the temple continues to grow as we get closer to the opening of the Temple of Buenos Aires! :) Each companionship in our zone has been given 5000 flyers that we are to hand out... :) We talk to a lot of people right now and it is so great! My testimony has grown as I have thought why the temple is so important, what it means for us, and what we receive from these sacred houses! I was able to give a lesson this last Sunday on what happens in the temple and was so grateful to realize how important it is. I hope you all make it a PRIORITY in your lives to go, when it is so close we can´t afford not to visit His house as often as we can. D&C 43:16 is an incredible scripture! I invite you to read it, it helped me to understand more clearly the importance of the temple.

I love you all so much!! I´m grateful Mom and Dad for the decision that you both made to marry in the Temple and all that it means for us as an eternal family. I pray that we can be obedient with exactness so that our Father's Kingdom may be ours! Have a great week! :)

Saludos!
 Elder Jolley

¡Queridos!

What a week, what a week! The baptisms.. A HIT! and one of the best baptismal services that I think a missionary could have! I´ll tell you about them a little bit later. Elder Alvarado and I had a great week in Fiorito helping and preparing our investigators for their baptism and also helping to animate the "area" for this service that we were going to have. We had a lot of emphasis in bring as many people as we could to the baptism. We had a great turn out!! Especially for Juana, Donene, and Sandro I think it was extra special as their families were able to be there and take part in this special event. (They brought a whole crew!.. It was sweet!)

The baptism was lindo! We started our preparations at about noon, we had to clean the chapel, clean the font, and set everything up. Además we had a farewell party for an hermana that will be leaving to serve a mission in Paraguay so we were able to take a minute and help set that up as well. The farewell started about 3 o´clock and was great! Reminded me a lot of when I left. Several people were asked to share their testimonies and any counsel that they had for her. A lot of people showed up from the rama to support her and was a HUGE blessing for us because while we were eating torta and other goodies Elder Alvarado and I locking the doors so that everyone would stay for the baptism. Haha just kidding.. They all stayed willingly and it was a great reunion. We had set up chairs and everything in a separate room, but because of how many people showed up we had to move everyone to the sacrament room (?). It was a huge joy for me and was really special to be able to sit with everyone and be able to just smile. I was thinking a lot about our investigators and how special the message of our Savior is and the peace that it truly brings to us. I was filled in that moment with a greater love for Fiorito. While everyone was changing we had planned to show the movie of "The Restoration," SOO good! Juana and Donene brought their daughter and granddaughter and later they told us how incredible that it was! I learned a lot about how important focused planning is. Thinking about the baptismal service the week before I never imagined that it would have turned out how it did, but It was a testimony to me that as we faithfully plan and truly include the spirit in our plans the Lord fills in the gaps and then puts a little garnish on the top! ;) Learned this week that planning and focus is so important. Time is flying by... Hay que aprovechar cada minuto que tenemos y cuando no estamos enfocados cómo debemos, tiempe puede soltarse de nosotros aún mas rapido. Fue una semana dura en este sentido pero un lección que lo agradezco a mi padre celestial por haberme enseñado.

We also received an interesting phone call from Presidente Stapley during our preparations. He had a couple things the "run by me." Ha Elder Alvarado has been called to be the new pencionero en las oficinas and has headed there now. He´s super chocho (happy) because he gets to drive again and the mission just got a brand new Toyota.. Ojito in the streets of Buenos Aires. He told me a couple of stories of car crashes that he had in the past.. I´m praying I´ll see him again! haha No, but I´m really sad to have switched.. Elder Alvarado was an amazing help to me and a great friend. I´m just hoping that I´ll be able to get another Latino, he put me on a super spanish high and speaking 24/7 with a native is grandisimo! Presidente Stapley has called me to be the new District Leader in Fiorito and has asked for me to be a Trainer again! I´m super excited, nothing else! Just full of thanks for what I´m able to experience and all that I´ll be able to learn. I notice that the Lord qualifies us and can bring us to a higher level in order to call us to new assignments. I feel "weak" in knowing what to do and how i´ll be able to do it but I know that I´m able to! I realized this last transfer all the things that I need to be able to do in order to serve better and feel that this is my blessing to be able to step up and put into practice. As a leader for the Lord, we really are blessed with a 2 part blessing. The first is to DO and APPLY all that we can in order to have a testimony of what the Lord has asked us to do. By gaining a testimony we then are blessed to speak by the power of the Holy Ghost and He will be our witness that those things a true- with this spirit we can teach and bring others to new heights. I´m thrilled to love and support those in my District. D&C 84:106 was a powerful scripture that Presidente shared with me and a humbling challenge as I go into the next step of faith!

I´m grateful for your prayers. They are a true support! I hope you have a great week and all the blessings of our Father in Heaven. I´ll fill ya in on pictures next week with the hijo!

Elder Jolley

Dear Family!!

AH! Welcome Home Ryan! :) What a crazy week to be a part of... I´ve been literally shaking as a read your letters! I was so excited to see what this week was like for you guys! I was trying to follow the day a little bit as to when he´d get home, but turns out I was sleeping when he got home! Igual had a little bienvenida for him in the house of Donene and Juana! He had a sweet gorra that reminded me of Mongolia so I asked permission to use. (also please get a good look at the tie I was sporting! haha)

 

Turns out we didn´t have the baptism. Juana wasn´t quite ready so she wouldn´t have been able to be baptized. When we talked to Donene about that he was firm in wanting to do things as a "team" something that turned out being a lot better I believe. This last week we´ve passed by a few more times and have put thought into each lesson and la verdad is que nosotros tuvimos algunas leccions LLENO con el Espiritu! They´ve been able to grow more and more firm in their testimonies. I love our soon to be converts they are fantastic and truly are convertited to this gospel. My day gets better from the happiness that is there when we can speak with them. This Saturday (for sure!) we´ll be having 3 baptisms!! Donene, Juana, and a man named Sandro. Sandro was a reference that we received from a couple Elders in another zone. He had been listening to them for algunos meses, was ready to be baptized but needed to fix some problems on the home front. His relationship wasn´t healthy and to be able to put his life in order with the Lords standards he got separated and moved away. He has a powerful and profound testimony of the Book of Mormon. A true desire to follow our Savior and has felt His love in his life. We are extremely thankful for this addition in our work! This week was mainly focused on them, to make sure they are definitely prepared for Saturday. Sorry, wait one more week for the finale! :) ...Luis. Uh we´ve been trying to pass by to meet with him and figure out what he´s thinking but every time we came by he had something to go and do, but later found him outside al pedo! It´s been pretty sad for me but we keep pressing on and trying to help him obtain the gospel in his life! I´ll keep ya updated.

Right now we are realizing that we´re in need of "fresh meat" that is ready to receive the gospel. We´ve had a couple great contacts and follow up lessons with FAMILIES! Wahoo. How great it is to meet and teach a family!! Truly i´ve been able to recognize our Fathers plan for this sacred...thing? (I´m lost as to what you´d use there..) Yesterday we met with both of them.. only were able to teach one because of a futbol game that was happening, bummer! I´m super hopeful for this family, Mario y Miriam and their 3 kids. We were able to teach a great lesson about the restoration. This week i´ve been really working to become a better and more powerful teacher. In being direct and preaching "Salvation" has been a true blessing to us as we´ve had the companionship of the spirit with us, also it has helped us to progress further in helping these people accept our message. It is a project to become a good teacher and requires a lot of patience. I´ve been really involved in reading Jesus the Christ this week. An inspired book!! I am learning about how Christ developed and began His ministry. Precept upon precept we are able to grow in grace and truth. He truly is our greatest Teacher because of the example that He set.

John 1 it talks about the when Christ called His disciples who were curious but desirous to learn and to know more about this Messiah that they had heard much about. We too can be related to these disciples as we look to become better in our lives:

36 And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the aLamb of God!

37 And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

38 Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Master, where dwellest thou?

39 He saith unto them, Come and see...

Many times in our lives we have great challenges that we seek solutions to. In these challenges, I thank my Heavenly Father that we have the example and the invitation of Christ himself to "come and see" what it is that He offers. I know that we must grow in our understanding of The Son of God, by doing so I promise that our testimonies and endurance will grow and the things that He will show us will give us the exit that we need to a live full of peace and love! I hope you all have a great week! I love you all and love my Savior Jesus Christ. He is Gods beloved son, I know it to be true!

With all my love, Elder Jolley

 A picture of the Semena. A new system being tested in
our home to better manage our area

  Pizza! I continue with my habits and got Papa Murphy's! haha

Mmm... mangos!

Querido familia!

What a great day for emails. I was filled with your love and loved to hear about your summer fun! Glad to hear that all is well with everyone and that ustedes están tan felices. (I put until September of 2013 for the new Jeep!) Wow... super weird to hear about Ryan's week. Kinda hit me strangely to imagine that he´ll be with you all tomorrow. I am glad to be here en La Argentina and this last week have really realized the need for passion in our work and for what we do. I´m excited to hear about this experience that you´ll have. (I´d love to know strange details Skyler.. if the waist has "expanded" if there is facial hair!! haha the works).

It´s been a great week in Fiorito. The highlight of the week was entrevistas con Presidente Stapley! I know without doubt that that man is inspired by God. We had an amazing chat and was truly uplifted from how he has lived his life, things that he has done and still maintains to be the great man that he is. I have a great respect for Mission Presidents and am so grateful for the impact that they have on missionaries. Time after time there comes the advice that is needed! We had the entrevistas Thursday that took up most of the morning, we also were given some training by the Asistentes and Lideres de Zona. They have been super impressed by the change in Fiorito (I think everyone has been) and left us with some big desafios to aumentar our work and to grow in faith and desire for what we can achieve. Translados are coming up in a couple weeks, I should stay for at least one more, but I´m really not liking the thought that my time is getting shorter here in Fiorito. I have been blessed beyond measure by being here in this area and truly feel amazed at all that the Lord has allowed us to do. We left from Entrevistas with a new desire and a greater fire for what we were going to do.

Our week has been focused a lot on our Fechas. Really toning into what we need to do to help them arrive at baptism. This Saturday that is coming we are going to have a baptism for Donene!! I´m so excited. As of a couple weeks ago he was sitting on the fence with his decision, hadn't really accepted the spirit as an answer. In these weeks though we´ve been blessed to have outstanding spiritual experiences with him that has allowed him to put himself firm in the decision. Haha... the only day he told us, "if it were for me I´d throw myself in the water today!" We like that kinda attitude! :) It´s been a tremendous journey with him and to see Heavenly Father extend His peace and love to Donene´s heart to allow him to feel secure. I know that this church is true. Couldn´t know it more! There is a power behind true testimony, it WILL NOT FAIL when we ask our Heavenly Father and His spirit confirms the truth. Highland, Utah doesn´t really give the world's view on religion, I´m grateful to see SO much confusion in religion, but to see so clearly the truth.

Luis is trucking along. Here there is something call fiaca.. it´s a beast! Fiaca = Laziness. The "simple" cure is patience and an increase in our faith in Jesus Christ and these tender whisperings of the Spirit. We started this treatment a while ago, but this week were able to see the man progress!! :) We´ve been going to visit the Familia Martinez often just to read from the Book of Mormon. When we come we explain what we are going to read and from that point on Luis is the man! He wants to read everything. We read from Alma 36 about the conversion of Alma- taking all his pains and having them transformed into pure joy! At the end of the lesson Luis was explaining how amazing that change was... He was super interested in this change! What touched me the most was that he told us, "I finally get it, I finally understand what this Book is talking about. Before it was confusing, but today was Bien Claro!" Vamos todavia! He is kapo and is a real testimony of the power of change that the Atonement brings! We´ve been counting on the Book of Mormon to be our best friend and it´s been working absolute miracles in laying out the pure doctrine that The Church of Jesus Christ offers.

Yesterday was a satisfying Sunday! President Pulido has become a best friend. We can truly rely on him now and know that he is going to teach according to the spirit. He has changed completely. Yesterday he taught the Gospel Principles class and I sat in the back just filled with joy as he taught. Nobody gave 2 pesos to his cause, but I´m thankful to see what Love and Patience is capable of doing. I love Nephi 32:

1 And now, behold, my beloved brethren, I suppose that ye ponder somewhat in your hearts concerning that which ye should do after ye have entered in by the way. But, behold, why do ye ponder these things in your hearts?

2 Do ye not remember that I said unto you that after ye had received the Holy Ghost ye could speak with the tongue of angels? And now, how could ye speak with the tongue of angels save it were by the Holy Ghost?

3 Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.

4 Wherefore, now after I have spoken these words, if ye cannot understand them it will be because ye ask not, neither do ye knock; wherefore, ye are not brought into the light, but must perish in the dark.

5 For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do.

When the Spirit of the Lord enters into our lives and we accept Him, we will be guided in what we are supposed to do and who we are supposed to become. We must give ear to what He says because He will tell us what to say.. we truly take the place of Angels. When we learn to follow and do as the spirit says, God sees no need to send anyone else because that same glory and power will be given to us! President Pulido has been able to do that and I know that we can to.

We continue to be excited for the temple re-dedication! Missionary efforts are beginning to be focused in this event. I miss the temple so much! We were told that all missionaries will participate in the Re-dedication of the Buenos Aires Temple! How great of an experience that will be! We´ll be working a lot with our members and menos-activos this month in helping them be prepared for this event! President Eyring should be coming! :)

My time is up, but thanks again for all the letters! Please, give Ryan a super big hug for me and tell him (in person) how much we all love him and are grateful for his example! Mom and Dad.. Happy Anniversary!! :) My mind went back to Lake Powell A YEAR AGO! I hope you had a great time together! Thanks for your example of a covenant keeping matrimonio. Love you all and love my Savior Jesus Christ and LOVE being His missionary.

Elder Jolley (el Único)