Highlights of the Week

Alrighty folks so this week was fantastic!! 

Highlights of the week

We are teaching 4 sisters and they all went to church this week! And yesterday we had a family night with them and the Young Women's President! 

Osmar is doing really great and is prepping to be baptized this Saturday!!

Also we are teaching some Hatians who don't really speak Portuguese and we don't speak Creole or French (where you at Katana??) but they went to church this week which was great!!

We had splits 2 times this week and traveled all the way to Ivoti which isn't that far away but its a small little town so there isn't any buses that go there so we had to go on this crazy journey to 3 different cities to get there but I GOT TO BE WITH MY TRAINER ONE LAST TIME BEFORE SHE LEAVES FOR HOME THIS NEXT TRANSFER!!!!

I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story

love you guys

Sister jolley 

This week I met a girl that literally cried with happiness when I told her I was from Texas (see first pic)---She told me her dream is to live in Texas. TEXAS PRIDE FOREVER Y'ALL

I'm here to stay

Alrighty folks this week was crazy busy as usual but also crazy good! It was, as per usual filled with bus rides and miracles! 

On Tuesday our whole district (Us and the elders) went to the Carlos Barbosa to help the sisters there! We were able to find tons of great people and mark a few baptism dates! Later that day when we went to stay at the Sisters apartment (the elders went home) we made churros and chocolate pastels which are like fried chocolate tacos! On Thursday my comp and I went to Porto Alegre and back! I renewed my visa and I am here to stay! None of that deporting business for me! BLESS UP 

This week we also started teaching Osmar!  We contacted him in the street. We taught him on Wednesday, marked a baptism date and left a Book of Mormon for him to read. He understood everything and was really pumped to go and pray to ask God. He's about 50 years old and lives with his 20 year old son. On Saturday we went back to follow up and teach the 2nd lesson! We brought a member couple with us and LEMME TELL YOU GUYS OSMAR IS GOLDEN!

The second lesson we taught about baptism for the dead. While teaching the lesson when we arrived at the spirit world he asked about baptisms for the dead, hahaha in Portuguese baptisms for the dead is confusing because of and from is the same word so it’s like we're saying baptisms from the dead---anyway we cleared that up for him and he is so excited to do baptisms for his deceased family! BUT THE BEST PART IS YET TO COME--we asked him how his prayer went and he answered "Well I prayed and I read a bit of your book and then I laid down here on that sofa and I had a dream" Meanwhile I’m just thinking "oh dream answers--this is gonna break it or make it" and he goes on and says "and in the dream a man came up do me and said "The time has come for you to follow the Savior" YALL THE SPIRIT WAS SO STRONG! He's getting baptized the 29th and when he went to church yesterday he said "I’m getting baptized on the 29th right?" WE ARE SO PUMPED 

Also Muriel, y’all remember Muriel right, the kid that is 11 years old and got baptized a few weeks ago? Lemme tell you that kid is GOLDEN! We're teaching him the Book of Mormon stories and on Friday we showed him the picture of Samuel the Lamanite and he said "Sister I think Samuel died, do you see those arrows?" Anyway we left the chapter with him to read and yesterday at church he leaned over and whispered to me during sacrament meeting "SISTER SAMUEL DIDNT DIE" My heart just melted. He gets to church at 7 o'clock every Sunday and goes to all the activities for both wards. There aren’t many 11 year old boys like Muriel in the world! 

We're also planning an activity for the ward about the BOM--we made videos and sent them to radio hosts and sent them to the whole ward. They better show up. 

joke of the week

Sister de Paula "Sister do you know why the sky is blue?"

Me *not knowing is a joke* "I dunno something about science and oxygen I think"

Sister de Paula "Its because heavenly father is a boy!"

The jokes are getting a little dry here in Bento--feel free to send me an email with your favorite!

Love you guys

Sister Jolley

Singing in the Rain

Alrighty y’all this week was great!

Sister de Paula is literally amazing and I’m so glad to be her comp! I’m learning tons, she might just end up training me again. lolz

This week we had tons and tons of miracles, we received a lot of referrals from members each one has so much potential! We're really excited to start teaching them!

We're teaching a really special family, a mom and dad and their 13 year old daughter. They are receiving the messages really well and I’ll never forget when the mom said "I’ve been feeling like my family isn’t progressing anymore spiritually and I know that we need to change" or when she said "so right now my family is living a life that will lead us to the terrestrial kingdom" THEY ARE GOLDEN. They have  accepted baptismal dates for the end of the month! 

We are also teaching some other really special people, a young man named Franklin. I’ll tell you about him next week!

So on Monday I finally got back to Bento  with my  new comp (with the keys)  we  arrived about 8:30 and Irma Marlene came to get us at the bus station. And while I was really excited to get back to my own home, I knew that we didn’t have a lick of food at home and we were both dying of hunger. But I also didn’t have the nerve to ask Irma Marlene for food so I just thought well we have one package of Ramon, that’ll do. Anyway we got home and we were just both dying of hunger and I knew that a little package of Ramon wasn’t gonna do anything to help the situation but in true missionary fashion we just decided to do the best with what we had. And as we started to prep the food the phone rang and it was Irma Marlene, and she asked "sister do you guys have food?" within a few minutes she had brought us over dinner. I am so grateful for people that are willing and worthy to act on the promptings of the Spirit! 

line of the week

Elder "Sister do you guys have food at home"

Me "Yup-half a bag of rice and a liter of guarana"

Elder "Bah sister you're living in some state of poverty"

Me "Well do you have food"

Elder "A fridge full of cold water"

Missionary poverty is real! But it’s not cuz we don’t have money its cuz we don’t have time to buy food! But don’t worry Mom, today I loaded the fridge with fruits and veggies! 

Have a great week

Say your prayers and read your scriptures!!

love, Sister Jolley

Annelise sent these pictures taken with her companions’ camera.

the week of fiascos

Y'all don't even know what happened this week---IT WAS CRAZY and full of fiascos, so sit down and hold your horses--

So on Tuesday we went to Porto Alegre to go to the temple and it was really great and after a bit of a trial we got there right on time and after the session we took tons of great photos on the grounds!

On Wednesday we had a great day planned but ended up with everything falling through and getting chased by a few dogs. At the end of the day we had an appointment on the other side of town and had to walk an hour to get there (vou ter a panturrilha do PODER! BLESS UP) but the appointment was really good. It was with Carmen, an investigator who is literally amazing! The sisters had an open house a few transfers back and she and her boy friend walked in the church and ever since then she's gone to church every Sunday and her dream is to be baptized, the only problem is that she isn't legally married and her boy friend doesn't wanna get married :( BUT God is a God of miracles and the Lord will provide a way for her to be baptized!

On Thurdsay we went to Porto Alegre again for our leadership meeting and this is where things start to get a little rough-- I LOST MY CAMERA and 11 MONTHS OF PHOTOS IN PORTO ALEGRE--so that was a real low blow 

cried a bit but reality is rough sometimes but as my mom would say "it's not the worst thing that can happen."

So Sister Montecinos for 18 months didn't buy one gift for her family (she told me she spent all her money on makeup lolz) so Saturday morning we went to the center of town to buy 7 gifts with 100 reais--it was a little bit of a mess but we ran around town like 2  crazies and got all her gifts! But after this we couldn't go back home to leave them there so we just had to walk with them all day! We had a really busy day Saturday with tons of appointments but at about 6 o'clock we remembered that we didn't have any food at home, just half a package of saltines so we went to a little market and bought 16 hot dog buns, 4 eggs, and 3 mangos and a kilo of sugar! If you're wondering why we bought hot dog buns its because they were the cheapest. Brazil you can buy eggs separately, but when you do you they just put them in a sack. So just imagine us walking around with a sack of eggs, hotdog buns, mangos and 18 months worth of presents! And we still had 2 appointments and a baptism to watch and 6 hills to climb up and down to get there! We looked like little pack mules!

And just when I was thinking that the week of fiascos was finishing up another one happened! Sister Montecinos left Sunday afternoon for Porto Alegre so the sisters from the neighboring town traveled to Bento to stay with me--well Sister Montecinos took the house keys with her to Porto Alegre! so we ended up traveling back to Carlos Barbosa so that we could all sleep there! (the only thing I had with me was my Book of Mormon, 20 reais and a notebook to take notes for conference so shout out for 2 days in the same clothes!) and I'll get my house key back 8:30 tonight with my new companion who is SISTER DE PAULA!!!

line of the week 

backstory- we were going to a follow up appointment after we had taught the Restoration to a family 

Maria "it's you guys who have 12 apostles?"

Me "Yup" *shows photo*

Maria *looks at the photo for a bit and points to Elder Rasband* "This man is corrupt"

Me "So actually that man is an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ (quick testimony about the character of Elder Rasband)"

Maria "I saw him on the TV, that man is corrupt"

Daughter "Mom you're talking about Donald Trump"

me *almost keeled over trying not to laugh*

Alrighty folks so if you're wondering why this email is really long it's cuz I'm here repenting because my sister told me that she waits all week to read my email and I only send a few sentences!

Have a great week!!!

Love,

Sister Jolley