A BAPTISM!! :)

Heey!! What changes the Lord can make in a week!! The whole time factor iscrazy... just nuts but if we are seeking the Lord's will and following His spirit, wow how effective our time will be!! This week we had an incredible Zone Conference about "La Fe hasta Milagros" the whole theme of this conference was to understand faith and be able to have the desires to do hard things! (easier talked about than applied). For most of the week I had been study and reviewing my notes and trying to take everything in and doing everything and become a Son of Mosiah... Slow down! It became difficult. I learned about Pavilions that come between us and God! What is most important is that we are listening and seek His guidance in our lives and not putting other motives above our Heavenly Fathers. He knows what we need and knows when and why He does things. What a special trial!! Later in the week, thinking back on the things that happened I was filled with gratitude for a firm knowledge that Jesus Christ is real! As we never loose sight of that we can do hard things and we are promised that those who build upon the Rock of Christ "will not fall."

Alma 38
4 For I know that thou wast in bonds; yea, and I also know that thou wast stoned for the word’s sake; and thou didst bear all these things with patience because the Lord was with thee; and now thou knowest that the Lord did deliver thee.

5 And now my son, Shiblon, I would that ye should remember, that as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

Well as for the week, we were busy getting things ready for Florencias baptism! Couldn´t love the Flia. Cejas more! This family is so special and has come so far.. complete change in who they are! A couple months ago the family was in wrecks and for having accepted the Gospel and applied it in their lives they have all been baptized, re-activated in the church and have goals on getting SEALED as a family!!! :) The baptism was great, Florencia had a wonderful experience and as of today left for Buenos Aires with the Young Men and Young Women to do baptisms for the dead for 3 days!! Ha baptism, confirmation, temple ordinances... not a bad weekend for her! We are thrilled!! Her brother Agustine is a member and at the baptism has been a little rebellious, he comes to the church but it´s a matter of "getting the toe wet and jumping into the water" I was sitting with him during the baptism and at one moment you saw his face change, I asked him afterwards what happened at that moment and he told, "che, algo me tocó en ese bautismo.." The next day he had an interview with the bishop and later took the decision to "jump in" and was ordained a Priest! Haha. I love being a missionary!

The coming week, we have another baptism of a little girl (9 years old como Draya) named Abril who is getting baptized! We´ve been working also with her and her family! The flia. Ortiz Martinez. We were happy this last week, we invited them to come to a couple ward activities that we had. They got to know more members and I believe had a great time. We had to leave before the activity even started.. sometimes activities start really late here so it doesn´t exactly fly with mission schedule. But they stayed and hung our with our amazing members! The ward loves this family and are super excited to support Abril next week in her baptism!

I wish I could let you guys in on everything that goes on but.. time doesn´t stop!! We´re going right now to a Zone Activity at the church! :) A little Fútsibol!

Have a great week! Know HOW MUCH I love you guys and thank you for everything!
Elder Jolley

Elder Jarvis and Elder Jolley enjoyed some hot dogs over the stove

The Florencias baptism

Hi Family! :)

Feliz Cumple Dray!! :) 9 years old ya.. Wow! I can only imagine how much you´ve grown!

What a week! We´ve been bastante occupied.. We´ve had a ton of things that have come up this week that have kind of gotten in the way of being able to work. Elder Jarvis had to take care of some visa issues so we had to make a couple trips up the Buenos Aires. A bad feeling was had for the train after this week.. demasiado tiempo sentado! Ha it was a lot of traveling and a lot of time that we didn´t think we were going to have to take. It gave us a great opportunity to work on our contacts though. When we got to certain station close to La Plata we decided to get up and start talking with the people. I wish you guys could have the train experience in Argentina. There are tons of vendedores.. people that sell random things.. that hop on and walk through the whole train giving there little shpeel and then the get off. One after the other they follow in this line and each has there opportunity to catch the attention of the people. It is amazing all the different types of people that you see, the different voices and how each gives their presentation. Well one of our goals as missionaries is to catch the attention of the people and make them happy right.. so the 2 Mormon Americans hop in line and take part in the sales line! :) It helped us a lot and was fun at the same time! There is always something good that you can do when bummer situations come.

We were sad that we didn´t get to do a whole lot of visits this week, it really put a slower feel to the work here. We are super excited for another couple baptisms that we´re gonna be having this week! Florencia, the daughter of the Flia. Cejas this week is going to be baptized. It has been so great to see her progress. When we first were meeting with this family she was so shy, or just didn´t want to participate at all because she stayed in her room the whole time that we were there. A few weeks ago she started to come and listen a little bit more and when she told us that she wanted to get baptized we were SO happy! She has been watching her family change and knows that it comes from God. She also has been reading and praying and has been able to feel the spirit in her life and personally has been able to make changes like her family. She still is super quiet but it´s a ton better. We´ve been working with the Young Men/Young Women program in our ward to help her feel welcomed to the church. Los Jovenes have been great missionaries, they´ve gone to look for her for mutual and also gone to visit her and read scriptures! That is one thing that Villa Elvira has, our members are incredible. Abril is la hija de la familia Ortiz Martinez. She came up to us on Sunday and told us that she decided that she wants to be baptized. She has 9 years and talks like she's 30. She is super smart and on several visits she asked us to talk to her not like a little child but a grown up... well excuse me! :) haha. We´ll be finishing up teaching her and we´re hoping that she´ll be the foundation for her family, that through her desire to go to church also her family will continue to make their way back in the church.

On Saturday we had a sweet activity in our Stake. The area presidency has started a program called "Visitor Center in the Chapel." They want to bring the same spirit that is felt in Salt Lake to those who live in Argentina. It is an amazing program and the spirit was felt so strong! I gained a huge respect for Sister missionaries. After standing there, my feet hurt! Fa.. I felt like a baby, but it takes some skill to know how to stand for hours! What Elder Jarvis and I were able to do is give a little presentation at the Baptismal Font. Groups of people would come in and we would take 10 minutes and teach them about the Ordinance of Baptism and help the people feel the spirit. With a few investigators that came they were touched so greatly by the spirit of the chapel and the whole program that they accepted a baptismal date then and there! What a special experience! :) It went from 4-8 on Saturday and really was a huge help for us there.

Well family I´m out of time, but I wanted to thank you for your letters and for all the things that you guys are doing there to be such a great example to me here!

Love you guys tons!
Elder Jolley

 Damian Avila and his little sister Mité's baptism

 Visitor Center in the Chapel Program

A BAPTISM!!! :) Wahoo!

Hey family! ah.. how refreshing to have a baptism. The Lord really has taken us for a great "journey" to be able to get to this point. I took a minute today and thought back on everything that the Lord has put in our path to first take us to the bottom, second to purify us, and last to become the missionaries that He needed us to be. Words can´t explain how grateful I am for these last 6 months. I wouldn´t trade them for the world, but it sure was time for a baptism! Haha. Damian Avila (el hijo de la familia Cejas) and his little sister Mité made the decision to get baptized this last week. The original plan was to wait for the whole family, but as we taught them about the blessings or baptisms they made the decision to get baptized before so that their family would be more fully blessed by the spirit of the Lord in their house! Damian is 9 and Mité is 8.. they are awesome kids and it turned out to be an excellent baptismal service! The stake primary choir (super official right!..) came and sung for them and were there to welcome them into the primary. We had a few investigators there and we all felt the spirit really strong. I believe I told you about Karina and her son Jhordan (shordan). They were able to be in the baptism, afterwards I talked a little bit with Karina and she said that she had never seen something so beautiful and the whole time just felt joy! She is progressing incredibly!! From the first time she prayed she had her answer that this is the Lord's church and that it´s true and from that moment she has been super sensitive to the spirit and can recognize it in her life! The baptism went really really well and look forward to the end of the month when another daughter of the familia Cejas will be baptized. I loved the testimony of her mom in the baptism, " Estoy re feliz que mis hijos hayan tomado este decisión para bautizarse y que por medio del Evangelio nuestra familia es cada vez más unida. Espero el día cuando nos sellemos como familia!" GENIAL!! They have the Gospel as their base and the temple as their goal! :)

Sigo en Villa Elvira! :) I´m super excited to be doing another transfer in Villa Elvira and SO excited to be working with Elder Jarvis, my new companion. We´ve known each other in the mission. (When I first got to Argentina he was in my district.) He is a stud Elder with a lot of ganas para trabajar and continue the work here. He just got called to be a Zone Leader so I´m thrilled to hear his fresh ideas! He is from Mesa, Arizona. A heads up for the Nielsons, he and his family are Mountain View Torros! I don´t know if they would know the Jarvis Family?? I´m super excited for the new transfer. This one is only gonna be 4 weeks because of changes in the mission program so RIGHT TO WORK for us! :)

Elder Villalba ya se fue.. wow it was super hard to say goodbye to him. In the end we became super good friends and we saw and felt the Lord's hand many times while we served. It was also a weird transfer meeting having to see 4 of my 6 companions head home. Elder Lewis, Elder Merritt, Elder Mines and Elder Villalba are all headed home together... I´m left a little solo.

Well family we´ve got a packed afternoon and we gotta get to work. I wanted to share with you guys a couple scriptures I found on Sunday. We talked in Sunday School about the fall of Adam and Eve. I am so grateful that they did!! We learned that by them falling the marvelous Plan of God was put into play and because of their separation we now can know about the merciful gift of the Atonement. As we talked about how it must have felt for them to have experienced spiritual and physical death, I thought a lot about the many times in our lives when we feel like we "die" or for one reason or another are separated from God's love. It happens a lot. In Moses 5 the angel of the Lord teaches Adam what the "remedy" for our personal falls is- the Savior of the World. I love Moses 5:10-12

10 And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth, saying: Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God.

11 And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient. 

12 And Adam and Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all things known unto their sons and their daughters.

Gracias a la Expiación de Cristo nosotros podemos encontrar gozo en nuestras vida y ser consolados por todas las bendiciones que nos proporciona el Salvador. I know that it is true. I have felt this redemption in my life and have been redeemed of the fall and with all my heart I want everyone to feel as I do. We must continue with steadfast faith in Christ until the end! This is the true church and the Book of Mormon was written to convince us the Jesus is the Christ- it has that evidence.

Have a great week! Love you ALL tons! :)
Elder Jolley

Hello family!! :)

Who knew it was superbowl weekend??.. hmm. Hope that you are all doing well! I´m short on time this week.. so sorry. With this being Elder Villalbas last week we´ve been taking care of different things (cleaning the apartment...) we´re kept busy! Elder Villalba is such a stud.. so proud of the Gaucho! He is such a good buddy and I´m sad to see him leave but couldn´t be more grateful for the time that we´ve been together. In Villa Elvira we´re working harder than ever and "I believe in Miracles", the Lord has truly opened up the heavens for us! We had one of the most incredible Sundays. We had 5 Investigators show up in church and 2 less active families!! Some of the hardest trials that we´ve had is having the people be interested in the Gospel message. They are free to accept or reject what we teach. This week we´ve found more people that are READY and INTERESTED in the Gospel!! :) what an incredible joy that that has brought into my life! The familia Ortiz Martinez, such capos, came to church and were able to get to know members and just be in the chapel after many years! They have hit some speed bumps, but I know that they are willing. Each time we go I´m convinced more and more that we were sent to their home! Their daughter Abril accepted a baptismal date for the 23 of February.. I was on an exchange the day that they invited her with some Elders in our Zone but was so happy to hear about it! That same day Elder Villalba and his companion contacted a reference that we received named Carla. When I was with Elder Mines we had seen her a
couple times but as far as teaching we never were able to get very far. When they passed by though she told them that she wanted to listen to our message and said she was willing to prepare herself to get baptized as well!! :) Ha.. viste?? Last night we finished our day and our weekly goals with a lesson that an hermana in our ward had set up for us. She had a friend named Martina, she is a single mom with the cutest little daughter named Zoe.  Martina went to church yesterday and said that she would love to talk with us. We talked to her about the things that happen in our lives and the decisions that we can end up taking. We felt to share with her the experience of the Sons of Mosiah:

24 For, said he, I have repented of my sins, and have been redeemed of the Lord; behold I am born of the Spirit.

25 And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters;

26 And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.

She had been looking for a change of perspective spiritually and when we invited her to prepare to be baptized she willingly accepted. My favorite moment of the day was the prayer that she gave at the end of the lesson. We had explained to her that when we pray we will know that God hears and answers us by the feelings that come to our hearts. She began to pray and in the middle of the prayer just stopped... for a moment it was just silent but then she continued and finished the prayer. After we asked what had happened, she said that she had felt something different than anything she´s ever felt before that made her feel so good inside. Wow! My testimony that the Lord works with us is so strong. I honestly say that "as to my own strength (or ability) I am weak" but the Lord is capable to do all things! He really has opened up the windows of Heaven for us. I am eternally grateful and filled with so much love for my Savior. I know that this church is true and will go forward in the time and ways of the Lord! It is better that way!

Love ya family! :)
Elder Jolley

Dear Family!

FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS MAMA!! :)

What a week to tell you guys about! I´m not sure HOW but I´ll do my best. I sure believe that there are special moments when we are blessed to learn more about ourselves and in turn grow closer to our Heavenly Father. Through revelations and the still small testimony builders that happen every day it could not be more clear that God loves us so much and has GREAT things planned for our futures. It´s impossible to deny that there is a God in His heaven who knows us. This week has been a special week to see that tanto cómo misionero y con nuestros investigadores.

I think I told you a little bit about the Flia. Ortiz Martinez... maybe not?? No me recuerdo.. Anyways there is this amazing family that we met recently. Betina and Javier are married (it´s a big deal when you find married people) and are both inactive members of the church. They have two amazing kids, Elias and Abril. They were happy to receive us and from day one we were laughing and were able to develop so much confidence with them. They´ve gone through some hard times and from what they told us they are in great need of the Gospel. Last night we passed by and taught them about Jesus Christ, His propósito en el Plan de Salvación por todos nosotros. It was a great lesson.. but what was
even better was what we were able to open up and then teach more about. They expressed to us doubts in their faith about God and His nature. The Lord has so kindly taught us that these are His children and can´t just be talked at, but has allowed us to see what they need and then give them the porción of the Gospel that they need. Abrilita isn´t a member so our goal is to activate this great family and help them to be an eternal family!! It was genial, last night we were talking about how our Heavenly Father teaches us even when we make mistakes, Betina made the comment, "Oh, I get it. God really is a father, He is our Dad!" then began to explain what she had learned to her husband and family. Wow!! The spirit was soo strong and a really great experience!

Also this week we were working hard to continue to help and get to know our zone! We´ve put the meta to help all the areas work better with their members, in a way to grow the spirit of missionary work in the wards and to help our investigators feel more comfortable in the chapel. It has been a really inspired work that Pte. Stapley is helping us to learn! In our exchanges that we´re doing I went out with Elder Escobar from Chili. He is new in the mission but this Elder is incredible. Such a powerhouse missionary! A lot of the time I was just letting him take over and do everything! We have an amazing zone! Fa wish you guys could meet them all! This last week we had some of the highest numbers we´ve seen (numbers aren´t what matters- we are more than happy because it shows that we are understanding and working as a team!)

On Friday we had surprise interviews with Presidente Stapley! We were supposed to do them in the coming week but had to change his schedule. SO we got everything ready for him down here in La Plata and turned out to be the best interviews that I´ve had. I got to be first and Presidente and I were chatting for about a half hour or so.. he is an amazing and inspired man. I learned things about myself that I didn´t know. I had been praying that the Lord would continue to teach what it is that I can do to help the zone and Villa Elvira and had some of the strongest impressions in that interview. President shared with me a scripture that I wanted to share with you guys in 1 Pedro 1:5-9:

5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be,ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

My testimony is that it is like Peter explains. Sometimes we cannot see what the Lord has in store for us and we must pass through trials at times, but I love Him and am grateful to serve Him. I promise that what we go through will all be worth it one day and know our Savior Jesus Christ will teach us as we allow Him to mold us. I love being a missionary- couldn´t be who the Lord wants me to be without this experience.

I hope that you guys have a great week! Happy February! :) Un abrazo a todos ustedes y un besito.

(Big hug, little kiss)
Elder Jolley

Querida Familia!! :)

Shooot.. looks cold there! Ha. :) (that just cursed us for a storm!) Glad to hear from you guys and love all that I hear!! Today in Buenos Aires it has been a fantastic day and we´re coming off a EXCELLENT week! This last week I felt more love than ever in my mission, I felt like it was for everyone and for everything. I think the experience that stands out the most was a lesson that we taught to some less active members while on exchanges. The familia Leva. It´s a part member familia that have kinda gotten "lazy", they believe in everything that the Church teaches buut just want to live in the world for a minute! It was a blessing to not look at them weird and ask what is going through the "coconut?!" We listened to them for a minute and felt to share in Helaman 5:10-12 (mama if you could please insert that :) ).

10 And remember also the words which Amulek spake unto Zeezrom, in the city of Ammonihah; for he said unto him that the Lord surely should come to redeem his people, but that he should not come to redeem them in their sins, but to redeem them from their sins. 

11 And he hath power given unto him from the Father to redeem them from their sins because of repentance; therefore he hath sent his angels to declare the tidings of the conditions of repentance, which bringeth unto the power of the Redeemer, unto the salvation of their souls.

12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

As we read these versículos WOW what an incredible spirit entered into the room. Not knowing the family I felt like they were my own. We testified to them that the key to a future of happiness is based on Jesus Christ and in DOING what He wants us to do! We felt like we were only sitting in place of the Savior in that lesson. I don´t know if they ended up going to church like we invited them to but the whole week was filled with special moments like this one! As I´ve been able to pray and study, focusing only on others, it has deepened my understanding and love for my mission purpose! Serving a mission is the greatest thing!! :)

This week it´s been kinda crazy back and forth between areas. To help the zone lograr la Visión de la Misión, we´ve put the goal to do an exchange with each of the areas in our zone and get to know the missionaries and get a feel for how they work and be able to get to know them better. We got two done this week and they were fantastic!! I changed with 2 American Elders in our Zone, stayed in Villa Elvira for one of them and left the area for the second. I´ve been in Villa Elvira almost 6 months now and it was nice to see some other terreno but there is nothing like being at home! (Stayed in an apartment with carpet! :) was super tempted to take a nap on it! haha) Unfortunately I wasn´t there for the appointment that we had with Emanuel and Mikaela.. it´s been kinda tough to find them and sit down and talk, it´s been something that we´ve been trying to fix with all our investigators, but Elder Villalba was able to have a really great lesson with them. They heard the message of the Restoration and were able feel the spirit! You can tell they want to change and respond to the spirit so we´re super excited to be there to help them. We´ve got a couple of citas planned with them this coming week so we´ll be sure to let you know next week! Thank you so so much for keeping them in your prayers and for the people of Argentina. We are working hard to continue to find. The Lord must have "sowers" of the word and what changes I´ve seen in my life and in those around me as we do every little thing that the Lord requires of us.. We have the 9th of February as a goal for our whole Zone to baptize. I´m confident that we´ll do it! :)

Want to wish Mam a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! (I´m excited to be able to write to you on Monday but this is a little heads up!) Love you Mom! Have an incredible day! :)

Thanks for all that you guys do! I love you tons. Saludos a la familia y les mando un gran abrazo!
Elder Jolley 
 

MAC AND CHEESE!! (I made it, didn´t burn! Woo)

Elder Jolley with The Familia Cejas

Elder Villalba and I 

Day in the Plaza • The district playing some Fútbol

 

Elder Nelson and I en el bosque

 

The winning Fútbol team!

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