Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Chimarrão -- shim-ma-how

HEY FAM!!!!!

This week has been great--way better than last week. Mostly because we are way less lost now- BLESS UP!! My comp and I have found some people that are ready for the gospel, knocking doors has led to something! But they need to get married first so I'm aboutta become a part time wedding planner! We have a ton of new investigators (@ door knocking) and we walk allllllllll day long. No joke. My calves are aboutta be fantab. 


The weather here was way cold last week but today it's warmed up a bit so I'm not exactly sure what's going on...It hasn't rained yet during proselitismo BLESS UP  but I was talking to some branch members and they said it rains all of August so I'll enjoy the dry life while I can. 


Fun facts about Venâncio Aires
1. There are fruit trees everywhere--mostly clementines--and it's the best thing ever 
2. There are these people that ride motorcycles with huge speakers on the back blasting advertisements--I'm not sure what for, but I'll figure it out by the time I leave lolz
3. There are tons of dogs--more than I've ever seen and they wander the streets in huge packs (10-15) but they're all relatively small dogs and their barks are low key the most annoying thing on the planet. 
4. Venâncio Aires is like the capital of chimarrão. Chimarrão is this herbal tea that you drink out of a special cup and special straw and you pass it around in a circle and todo mundo drinks it. It actually tastes like liquefied hay but it's growing on me--probs cuz I drink it at least once a day. When in Rome do as the Romans do, amiright?

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Other fun facts
1. Somehow I became the cook in the family (we live with another companionship) so I get to work miracles with the food-- usually I just make spaghetti not gonna lie.
2. The floor of our apartment broke (It wasnt me lolz) but my desk is right over it so I spend my study time trying not to die. 

Lost in translation-
One lesson this week both compansionships taught and Sister F Oliveira gave her part and Sister Portilho gave her part and ended right at faith so I talked about repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end...welll poor Sister Nelson was lost and only understood the part I gave and thought we were teaching the Plan of Salvation when we were actually teaching the the Gospel of Jesus Christ and ended the lesson talking about the spirit world. I THOUGHT IT WAS HILARIOUS BUT NO ONE ELSE DID. LOLZ LOLZ WE'RE ALL LOST IN TRANSLATION EVERYDAY. 

And if anyone out there is wondering how the sister missionary fashion is going for me...well my first week here I wore 3 different colors of tan and 4 shades of black all in one outfit. I'm blaming it on the cold. But if you start getting pics of me only waist up y'all will know why lolz

Sister Jolley

A note from Sister Jolley's companion-
ola irma tudo bem? eu me chamo sister portilho com muito prazer estou treinando sua filha, parabens ela é muito boa e dedicada, fala portugues muito bem ja e juntas estamos tendo um grande aprendizado, ela é muito esforçada admiro muito ela.
Sister Portilho



Tuesday, June 21, 2016

always lost

HEY Y'ALL!!! 

I MADE IT TO PORTO ALEGRE AND I'M IN MY FIRST AREA!!
I left the MTC on Tuesday morning and arrived in Porto Alegre, stayed there for 2 nights and came to my very first area, Venancia Aires, on Thursday morning! My trainer's name is Sister Portilho and she is so sweet. She's been out for 7 months and I'm the first person she's trained, which is way cool. There are 2 companionships here in Venancia Aires, and we share an apartment. ALSO WE ARE OPENING THIS AREA WHICH IS WAY COOL!!! But let me tell ya when we arrived at our apartment the place was hardly fit to live in, so we cleaned and cleaned all of the apartment for a whole day, it was the worst. But now it's better and we have been knocking doors for 3 days now and have a bunch of new investigators.

BUT since we're opening the area, my comp hasn't a clue where anything is and neither do I, so we went and bought a map, brought it back home, and starting planning and 3 minutes in my comp said--I don't know how to read maps, sorry. You're gonna have to be the captain-- And all of the sudden I was taken back to that lesson I had in 2nd grade geography about how to read maps--shame I didn't pay more attention really cuz WE ARE LOST ALL THE TIME--NO JOKE Lowkey stressful and it doesn't help that half the streets don't have signs but it's all an adventure, right? 

The Portuguese is coming along as quickly as I think it possibly could...I understand almost everything and can get my point across. But my comp has a really really thick northern accent and it makes it hard to understand sometimes, but it just makes for funner times right?? haha that's what I tell myself at least--somethings will just always get lost in translation no matter how hard I try, haha

FUNNY STORY
We knocked on a door and this guy let us in--this was abbouttta be my very first real lesson.
So we introduced ourselves and sat in his front yard and my comp started teaching the restoration and lemme tell ya that accent of her's gets me sometimes and she was speaking soooo fast so I kinda lost track of the conversation and then this guy's cats started having a fight in his front yard, which was way more interesting than the garbled Portuguese. Anyway, all the sudden it got quiet and I realized that my comp had asked me to share something, but I hadn't a clue what I was supposed to share so I just bore my testimony real quick and hoped for the best--I feel like what I said wasn't exactly what my comp was hoping for cuz for the next 3 people we taught she didn't invite me to share any thoughts--LOST IN TRANSLATION EVERYDAY

Line of the week
*after we found out how much money we get for food*
One of the trainers said: 
Sister listen, we dont have food
other trainer: but we can buy food
other trainer: Yeah but we never have money
WELCOME TO THE POOR LIFE Y'ALL

love you guys,

Sister Jolley

Sunday, June 12, 2016

3 DAYS TIL THE END

 HEYYYYY FAM

I LEAVE FOR THE REAL DEAL, THE FIELD IN 3 DAYS!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited but also lowkey nervous cuz English is about to be a far off dream, haha I'll make it...I hope. But the actual scary part is after we arrive at the Mission home and get our area assignment we HAVE TO RIDE A BUS ALONE THERE. So if you don't hear from me ever again it's cuz I got lost in Brazil...

But on the bright side we had 3 general authorities come to the CTM, Elder Tad R Callister, President Holmes and Elder Mazzagardi . It was way cool and I led the music during the devotional we had with Elder Tad R Callister and it actually went alright! Haha I was way worried about it. But the actual exciting thing was when Elder Mazzagardi spoke, he spoke in Port. and I didn't use headphones for translation and I took notes in Port. MIRACLES GUYS STRAIGHT MIRACLES. 



Also we went proselyting and it was soooo much fun!! All the people laughed at our accents, and a lot of people told us we sounded German, haha. I also denied 3 different guys hugs (my first iron hand experience lolz) and another guy kissed my hand cuz he couldn't kiss my cheek!! LOLZ I WAS DYING



On P Day Sao Paulo graced us with a downpour as we were walking na rua and within 10 mins it looked like I'd stepped out of the shower...JOY...maybe next time I'll take my shampoo and just have a quick shower JOKING but for real I was so wet. No joke.



Being a missionary is so amazing, I love testifying of Christ (and I can't wait to do it in the field every day), and it's such a humbling experience to wear His name every single day. I have learned so much in just 6 weeks here.

love you guys,
Sister Jolley

Friday, June 3, 2016

ONE MONTH DOWN

Hey Yall!!!

The weeks are going by so fast now, I can't believe I've been here for one whole month! I also can't believe that my whole life has been confined to one building for one month, the MTC is high key starting to feel like a prison. 

Last P Day we went out in the rua (pronounced whoo-a, probably my favorite word) and got some açai with our instructors-- the açai here is the bomb. com and I'm in love. It was way more fun to go out in the rua with people who actually know what's going on, because our district is usually just low key lost at all times-- good times. Speaking of our district, a bunch of Americans left last week so our Branch, Zone and District consist of the same 6 people, and we're all sisters. It's pretty much the best cuz elders are beyond annoying- not sure why, but they sure are.

I have splits (where I work with a different companion) three times a week for a few hours and I have a Brazilian comp-- she's the best! She's from Uruguay but speaks Portuguese teaches sooooo well. When I taught I informed our investigator that good people go to spirit prison and bad people to spirit paradise...whoops...Lost in translation everyday. I figured it out though (probably because our investigator laughed) and tried to fix it, oh well.

When my comp and I were teaching Lucia, (our other investigator) we tried to read the ten commandments but we forgot to mark the verses in our Portuguese bibles. I accidentally had my comp read Exodus 20:18 out loud-- go give it a read, it's pretty funny. Our poor investigator (who is actually our instructor) tried to keep a straight face, but it was a lost cause.


ALSO I'M PUMPED BECAUSE TOMORROW TAD R. CALLISTER ( a leader in the church) IS COMING TO THE MTC, and I'm leading the music, which is not usually a problem, but the hymns are in Portuguese and it gets a little rough sometimes.

I love being a missionary. It's such a humbling experience to wear Christ's name every single day. I'm learning so much and I see miracles in my progress as a person and with Portuguese every single day. 

Phrase of the week:
We're basically nuns with a expiration date

Some Brazilians tried to learn hymns in English and this was the result:
"I will go, I will do the things the Lord condemns" 
sung quite loudly in the halls
(it's supposed to be "the things the Lord commands") 
HAHAHA I bet they all laugh at us all the time too


Love ya,
Sister Jolley

p.s.
We have been asked to speak in just Portuguese now and I spend most of the day trying to translate my thoughts in my head. Pretty much a recipe for a constant headache...hahaha oh well