Wednesday, August 30, 2017

the JWs

Alrighty folks THIS WEEK WAS AMAZING AND FULL OF MIRACLES AND I'M SO EXCITED AND CAMPO BOM IS LEGIT THE BEST AREA EVER.

Also I've realized that my emails have gotten worse and worse with time so this week I'll send a longer one to make up for all the other ones lolz.

So on Monday we went to Porto Alegre to have a meeting with President and the assistants to plan the leadership council which I'm really excited about. This one, it was inspired! I'm excited for this Wednesday when we'll be able to give our training!

Sister Pedrosa and I invented a new way to go on splits so we talked to President and we did a test run on Tuesday and Wednesday. Sister Pedrosa stayed in Porto Alegre and I took Sister Aguayo to Campo Bom with me! She is so cute! She was trained by the sister I trained, so it was cool to get to know her. Also on Wednesday it was SOOOOO HOT I got sunburnt. 

On Thursday morning Sister Aguayo and I left home at 6 am and got to Porto Alegre at 8 am where we met up with Sister Pedrosa and Sister Aguayos comp. Then Sister Pedrosa and I took a bus to Santa Cruz where we met up with President Campos to start traveling to Passo Fundo! On the road President passed through my first area- VENANCIO AIRES- and I got out of the car to take a photo. It was really weird to see all the same places and same roads, we passed in front of the apartment where I lived. Can't believe it was a year ago that I was there! Then we continued the trip to Passo Fundo. 

So Passo Fundo is the zone where every missionary wants to be transferred. There there are the best members, the best lunch, the biggest zone, the best area to work, the people are receptive and all the missionaries hear stories about Passo Fundo their whole missions. So logically I wanted to be transferred to Passo Fundo BUT looking at how things are I've realized that some dreams just don't come true. BUT We asked President if we could go with him and sister Campos to Passo Fundo and he let us! We got there on Thursday afternoon and started splits with the sisters there and on Friday as well. Well I learned that not all tall tales are true and that Campo Bom is the best area in the mission! BUT Passo Fundo is pretty cool! Passo Fundo is also the farthest area in the mission so we took a bus at 2am on Saturday and got back to good 'ol Campo Bom at 8:30! And then we worked all of Saturday afternoon and Sunday and it was great to be back home!

On Saturday we went to visit Nicole, I think I wrote you guys about her a few weeks back. Well in these last few weeks it turned out that her dad wasn't gonna let her be baptized until she had 18 years! It was really disappointing news. But we kept going back there with lotsa faith that it would all work out and started teaching her sister and her grandma. Well on Saturday her grandma told us that that morning a missionary from the JWs had visited her. And I just thought ''QUE DROGA" And she kept talking and she said that after he left she thought to herself "you know what, I'm just gonna get baptized in the Mormon church" HAHAHAHAHA I think this may be the first time the JWs missionaries were used by God to help one of his children enter into the TRUE CHURCH. Anyway so now Nicole and her Grandma are gonna get baptized on the 10th!
 
I'm so grateful for the miracles that God lets happen in the lives of His children so that they can receive true happiness!

Have a great week

love

sister Jolley

Friday, August 25, 2017

the biggest fabric store

Oi Familia!

I'm running late on time this week BUT I'm e-mailing photos so get happy about that!

This week was really fantastic, just so you guys know..the Lord's work is continuing here in Campo Bom.

The photos are of us and the Assistentes at the Porto Alegre Temple just three weeks ago. We all went with the new missionaries. Also I went to the  biggest fabric store I have ever been to in my whole life.

love you guys

Sister Jolley






Friday, August 18, 2017

knockin' doors

Y'ALL AREN'T GONNA BELIEVE IT but this week I visited BENTO ! The hills there haven't missed me and I haven't missed them, that's for sure! It was weird to walk the same streets and see the same people again but it was really nice! It was cool because Sister Pedrosa served in Bento a transfer before I did, so it was sorta like going back home! We went on splits with the sisters there, they are so great! I always learn something new when I got on splits with the sisters! 

We had a special experience this week with a girl we met named Nicole. So just as a back story I stopped knocking doors as a way to find new investigators way back in Bento because it just doesn't really work that well but on Saturday FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MONTHS we ended up knocking doors. It was weird. We walked into the neighborhood and I felt like we needed to turn onto a certain street so we did and we started knocking, and like always no one let us in but then I saw a girl about my sister Bethany's age (13)  walking on the street and we made contact and then walked with her to her house where we taught her and her sister. The lesson was so incredibly spiritual! And I know the the only way we could've found her was going to knock doors on that very street. I'm excited to continue teaching her and prepare her and her sister to be baptized!!!

line of the week
Member *bearing testimony about the importance of having a prophet* "What's the name of our prophet again?"
I had to stifle my laughter! 

I've realized that my emails have become full of bad grammar and lame, I'll do better next week

Have a great week

love, 
Sister Jolley

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

the faith of campo bom

OI FAMILIA

This week was great! Sister Pedrosa and I went to the airport and we got to welcome the new missionaries to the mission! It was SICK! There is a sister missionary from Texas that arrived! We also had a fancy dinner at the President's house that was FANCY and the food was SO GOOD! President Campos' daughter tried to teach me how to samba but it didn't go very well. ITS A GOOD THING YOU DON'T HAVE TO DANCE WELL TO BE A GOOD MISSIONARY! 

Then we got back to good 'ol Campo Bom and started a whirlwind of work to to find and visit and follow-up with everybody. We're teaching a girl named Alexia who is 13! She's so sweet and she plays basketball! Her friend (a recent convert) brought her to church a few weeks back and we've been teaching her! If all goes well she'll be baptized next Sunday!

So this was Sister Pedrosa's first time going to church here in Campo Bom...and LEMME TELL YOU the first time can just give you a bit of a fright. Lemme tell you why (if I've already said this in other emails I forgot so you'll just get to hear it again) First off- we meet in a falling apart old blue house that has cracks in the walls and despite all the cleaning never gets clean, sacrament meeting is held in the garage and if it's raining hard enough it rains INSIDE the sacrament room and if it gets quiet enough you can hear the rats running in the ceiling. Also NO ONE can sing the hymns. If you guys can imagine an out-of-tune choir, imagine it and then make it ten times worse. Once an investigator said to us "in your church the hymns are REALLY different" with a nauseated look in her face. Don't worry, she got baptized later. Anyway the classes, well they could use a bit of help. One time we had a HEATED debate in Relief Society and a talk about Satan and his angels in Gospel Principles,  and when the class was about repentance but we just talked about temptations. BUT despite it all, the Spirit is really strong, the members here have SO MUCH FAITH. It's amazing to see! For the last few weeks our sacrament meeting attendance has been better than some of the wards in the stake! AND THE BEST NEWS IS we're getting a new meeting house! Hopefully before I leave it'll be all ready!

quote of the week
member- "Sister, I was studying English this week and learned that in English 2 d's make an r sound"
me- "Portuguese is much easier, isn't it?"

A day later I realized that 2 d's don't make an r sound. 

love you guys

Sister Jolley

transfers

THIS WEEK WAS PRETTY COOL! We spent half the week in POA and the other half here in good ol' Campo Bom. Sister Hannah and I went to the temple with the other missionaries that are headed home on Tuesday with President and Sister Campos. While we were in the waiting room one of the helper ladies asked my comp where we were serving and she said "Campo Bom" and jokingly added that the field is white here and then the helper lady said "are you guys having a frost in Campo Bom?" and I mean it's kinda funny and I gave a little chuckle but Sister Campos LOST IT laughing until she sat down. She laughed so hard, she just cried and watching her laughing was so funny that we both ended up laughing and laughing and laughing and all the helper ladies were trying to shush us but it was a lost cause. And then during the session I ended up with a really bad case of hiccups that just got louder and louder and everyone was stifling their laughter and once again I felt grateful for all the times in Sacrament meeting I learned how to not laugh! Probably one of the most memorable temple sessions EVER. LOLZ.

So Sister Hannah's family came to pick her up which was really cool! It's funny how crazy everyone gets about Americans and American candy! My new comp is SISTER PEDROSA from SERGIPE! She's on her last transfer so I'll be sending another one home! 


This week I had the opportunity to teach a really special lesson to Napoleon's sister and her husband. We've been working with them for a bit and they have a baptismal date marked but they were getting ready to sorta give up and wanted us to come back when their life was easier. HAHA people life isn't gonna get easier. As I sat in the lesson searching for the right things to say I learned a lot about faith and the commandments. This couple, they know the church is true. They've received an answer, actually a few answers, that they need to get baptized but they don't have the faith to do it. They can't see the blessings that they will have if the keep the commandments and don't have enough faith to try. During the lesson I felt a little bit like how I imagine parents feel. They can see things that their kids can't see, and they understand things that their kids don't understand, but lotsa times the kids don't do what their parents counsel them to do. It was a frustrating experience but something finally went right because THEY WENT TO CHURCH YESTERDAY and LOVED IT, AGAIN. Hopefully you'll be getting their wedding pictures in a month! 

line of the week
Recent convert who is 79 - "If you don't love our church, you don't love Jesus"
It was killer one in our Gospel Principles class! She was trying to convince an investigator to get baptized. LOLZ

Have a great week

love,
Sister Jolley

little miracles

Hi Family!

This week was amazing as usual! We had a mission tour with Elder Aidukaitis, who will become the president of the Brazil area on the first of August. It was really great and I learned a lot about what I need to do to be a better missionary. He talked about the importance of goals and trying to reach them. He said something that I'll try and translate into English, "it's better to set a goal to reach the stars and end up on your roof than set a goal to get on your roof and end up just reaching the dumpster." I'm not sure if it makes that much sense in English but he was trying to say that it's better to set high goals and not reach them than set low goals and reach them because only by trying will you start to reach your potential. 


We had another wedding! and the speaker wasn't working so yours truly played the music when the bride walked in, so it was just me and my inspiration. Afterwards the Branch President told me he loved it. LOLZ So that was on Friday and she was baptized on Saturday in really COLD WATER. People the water was so cold that I could hardly put my hand in it, but Cintia was a trooper and GOT BAPTIZED and it was so wonderful. Her family came from Novo Hamburgo and Caxias which was really cool and really special. Her husband should be getting baptized in a few weeks! 



On Sunday I saw a lot of little miracles. Napoleon passed the sacrament for the first time and another recent convert went to church with a white shirt and tie and another for the first time using a skirt. It was so special to see them sitting there all dressed in their Sunday best ready to worship God. It's miraculous to see the changes that God makes in our lives. 

This week we're going to be giving a lot of training and we're gonna go to the TEMPLE!!!  which will be amazing! 

Read your scriptures
Say your prayers
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM

love
Sister Jolley