Wednesday, February 22, 2017

transfers



Alrighty y'all I'll start my email with a call I got from President yesterday morning.
 we were just chatting a bit and then he asked "Sister how are your knees?" 
and I replied "President I don't have knee problems" 
"And how are your feet?"
"But President I don't have feet problems"
"That's good Sister because you're being transferred to BENTO GONÇALVES where there are a lot of really steep hills"


SO I GOT TRANSFERRED AND I'M LEAVING NEOPOLIS, tears but what can you do? I'm really excited about my new area though! 


So this week we went to the temple to do baptisms with LAIS! It was so incredibly amazing! And there were so many miracles that happened to get us there. We went on Friday, and on Friday Laís didn't have a recommend yet but the Bishop here who is an angel jumped through many hoops to make it work and then we went to eat a bit of lunch and then catch our bus. We got a ride to our bus stop and when we got there Laís realized that she had forgotten her recommend and we were really far from her house and the bus was aboutta pass by in about 15 mins. So we called a sister in our ward who left everything she was doing to find Laís' recommend and get it to us in 10 minutes flat! and then when we got to the temple they told us that that baptistry wasn't open. If only they knew how much sacrifice we had to get the temple that afternoon. But I wasn't gonna give up easy, and in the end we had a beautiful experience in the temple and the temple president and his counselor came and talked with us! MIRACLES ARE REAL Y'ALL



Also this week my comp and I cut the grass of one of our investigators and Ill tell y'all I knew she didn't have much faith in me when I volunteered to cut her grass but after she said, "wow Sister Jolley you cut grass so well and so fast!" HA if only she knew how many times I've cut grass in my life

Have a great week

Love you guys!!

Sister Jolley

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

The Rescue

Alrighty people! This week was great! The young man that went to church last week is legit amazing! He told us that he wants to serve a mission! Legit the Lord always sends us miracles. We're really excited to continue teaching him! He doesn't have much of a religious background so we're starting with square one! He really wants to be baptized because he wants to receive a remission of his sins. He's had a pretty rough life and has done  a lot of wrong things and the look on his face when we explained that all that could be washed away was priceless! The atonement of Christ  makes all the difference!

Also we have another lady that we've been teaching for a while now! Her name is Giacomina and she's pretty legit!  She's been reading the book of  Mormon and is finishing up 2nd Nephi and when we went back to teach her again she asked "what does the word apostasy mean?" and we explained and then she said "So that's what happens in all those other churches" and she went on to explain why the world needed a restoration! and why the Book of Mormon is evidence of God's love for all His children. SHE'S LEGIT! I nearly fell off the sofa y'all. She told us she doesn't wanna be baptized, but we'll see about that. After our lessons together she always invites us to drink some herbal tea and have some jam and toast and it's just so cute and quaint and fancy! 



The Rescue: So this week yours truly went off to rescue the lost Sister Lopes...lemme tell you how it went down. We were on the bus going from stop 69 to stop 61 and the bus was packed and our stop came and we all got off the bus but Sister Lopes didn't make it off the bus. And her comp was just devastated and my comp can't run so I just handed them my things and volunteered to chase the bus and I went running after her and the other sisters were yelling and I was running and it was 8 in the morning and in the end Sister Lopes was rescued and the whole situation was so incredibly hilarious that I just can't stop laughing about it. 

Also shoutout to the 5th ward Laurels and Beehives!! I loved your cards!!!

line of the week
Sister Arana "Sister Jolley are you gonna wear a braid again?"
Me "uhhh yup"
I'm going 3 weeks strong on the right side braid #braidsforlyfe 

love you guys

Sister Jolley

photo: Bus stop 89. 
One day when I have more time I'll tell you guys about bus stop 89, I feel like I've lived 3 transfers waiting for a bus at bus stop 89. HAHAHA
 

Sunday, February 12, 2017

The Midlife Crisis--Halfway there and livin' on a prayer

Alrighty y'all, on Saturday I hit 9 months on the field and it was surreal...I feel like I arrived here last week, time sure flies!

This week I've got a bunch of great stories for y'all--

On Tuesday we went to the temple which was GREAT!!!!!!!!!! My comp and I needed to stop at the mission office to do some stuff so we ended up taking a different bus to the temple than we normally take and then we got off at the wrong stop and our phone was dead so it was just us. So we went about asking people if they knew where the Mormon temple was and no one knew where it was and then we started asking people if they had any idea where the neighborhood "Villa Jardim" is (which is where the temple is) and one guy just told us "This is Bom Jesus and here we don't talk about Villa Jardim. It'd be best if you leave." So we just left. The gangs in Porto Alegre aren't a joke people. Anyway 2 miracles later and we made it to the temple.



On Thursday our day wasn't going too well and all the appointments were falling through and no one wanted to talk to us and my comp had a fever and it was just all around a little tough. So anyway, we started knocking doors and no one wanted anything to do with anything but then all the sudden I found a lime tree in the streets and I just thought "when life gives you limes make limeade" so my comp and I went and picked a whole bunch of these huge huge limes! Anyway that night we returned home and I was just so excited to make this limeade and it turns out that they weren't big limes they were unripe oranges. It was a hard pill to swallow y'all, I was about ready to cry I was so disappointed. ( I tried to make unripeorange-ade and it just wasn't the same lolz) The day was rough and this little experience of the limes and the limeade just was such an accurate representation of my day. When you try and make the best of the situation, the situation makes the best of you.

But the week ended up with a huge miracle---the nephew of a member moved in the ward and wants to be baptized, he's 16 years old! Then on Sunday a member, outta the blue, gave us real limes and when we got home I made some really good limeade. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA My mom always said "its better to laugh than to cry" and I've been making that my life motto recently

Also just wanted to let ya'll know that this week a member served us pineapple juice out of a trash can.....it was really good juice but it was a little different, ya know? She swore up and down that it was clean lolz

I'm so incredibly grateful for the opportunity that I have to be a literal representative of Jesus Christ. Everyday I learn so much, and everyday I see miracles. The Savior really leads this work. By small and simple things great things come to pass.

Read your scriptures, say your prayers and when life gives you limes well just try and make the best of the situation

Love you guys,

Sister Jolley