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

 

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

Journal writing by candle light

Hey Y'all!!

So this was probably one of the best weeks of my life cuz this week LAÍS WAS BAPTIZED!!! It was so incredibly special! We had the baptismal service in the sacrament room cuz there were so many people there! Laís is such an incredible person. She has sacrificed so much to receive the blessings of the gospel in her life! She is such a huge example to me! Her testimony is so strong. I feel so humbled to have had the opportunity to teach Laís. 

On another note, we finally moved!!! and now our house is LEGIT. But we were all so anxious to moved that we decided to move in before the electricity was turned on so we ended up using a lot of candles! Hahaha it was so cute to see the candles lit up but the electricity was turned on this morning which was good cuz it was getting a little tough to live without a fridge and a washing machine!

Tomorrow we're headed to the temple!! 

Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Jolley

standard: sister campos

Hey family!!! How are you guys doing!!!!

This week was pretty much wonderful!! My dear companion was cured from her ant bite FINALLY and we started working again! Who would've thought a little ant could cause so many problems! Poor thing, her feet were the size of loaves of bread! Another bit of cool news is that the sisters of Neopolis are moving to a new house!!! And we're getting all new beds and all new desks and I'm really pumped! Now we won't need to take showers at the bishop's house lol. But on the down side, the transfer ends in 4 weeks and we haven't exactly moved in yet, and I'm worried I'll get transferred! hahaha 

Anyway for more exciting news this Sunday will be the baptism of Laís!! And I'm so excited! She is so incredibly amazing! She's telling her dad on Saturday and she's already started making plans to  move into a friends house if needed. She´s so incredibly brave! and she has such a strong testimony. I feel so humbled to have the opportunity to know her and teach her! 

We're also planning some other really special baptisms for February! and I'm so excited! I'll tell you about them next week! 

This week President and Sister Campos came and gave us the new house key! Afterwards they came and inspected our current house. So they walked in and looked around and at the end Sister Campos was about ready to speak but President just said "Let me tell you something, it's not bad here, but it's not Sister Campos standard" The Sister Campos standard is worse than the white glove test ya'll. Hahahaha, we cleaned reallllll well today!!

Have a great week

Sister Jolley

ant

Alrighty folks this week was fantastic and I'm running outta time so you'll be getting the best of the best!

Highlights of the week

1. I got a new companion, her name is Sister Arana and she's from Ecuador!!!

2. My comp was bit by an ant and her foot got swollen and she couldn't walk for 3 days. 

3. We didn't have water so we took baths at the Bishops house lolz.

4. I translated 3 hours of church into sign language and nearly died of fear.

5. I STAYED IN NEOPOLIS AND I'M SO PUMPED.

6. We're also teaching some really really cool people but I haven't got time to explain but miracles are real and I'm really happy!!! 

Love

Sister Jolley

dog at church

Alrighty y'all! 

This week was fantastic!! We had some killer rainstorms, some killer commentary and a killer baptism!

Lemme start off telling y'all about the baptism! So, for almost 2 transfers we've been teaching Mauricio! and he's really amazing! He changed his life completely to recieve the blessings of being a member of the Church. He's been going to church for almost a year now, but wasn't ready to give up some things in his life to be baptized. When we started teaching him, he only needed to stop drinking! And so we made tons of goals and said tons of prayers and bore our testimonies and it worked out alright. He was baptized this Friday and just about the whole ward was there! It was so cool and so special. ALSO Y'ALL THE BISHOP'S WIFE BROUGHT HER DOG TO THE BAPTIZM. ONLY BRAZIL Y'ALL ONLY BRAZIL. He almost fell into the font and when a member was up there bearing his testimony and CRYING the dog was doing all sorts of stuff right at his feet. COMO ASSIM BRASIL COMO ASSIM  and then if y'all wanna know something else yours truly was wearing her hair down and it's a little humid here in Brazil so I was looking worse than Hermione but sometimes you've just gotta go with the flow and the Ward Mission Leader, as we were walking out to take a photo, said "you're gonna take a photo with your hair like this?" ALRIGHTY FOLKS I KNOW THAT I'M NOT A HAIR MODEL BUT IT WASN'T THAT BAD. But take a look at the photo and send in your votes--Was it or was it not necessary to make that comment?---thank you for your participation

On the other hand, we received another miracle here in Neopolis! We have started to teach a 17 year old girl that is really really amazing. She was introduced to the gospel almost 2 years ago by a friend, already read the whole Book of Mormom 2 times, and lives all the standards and has a killer testimony. The only problem is her dad won't let her be baptized. So in 3 weeks, she'll turn 18 and legally be able to be baptized. She has such a strong testimony. Her family is completely against the church and she is preparing to leave her family and live alone to be able to receive the blessing of being a member of the Church. We hope that through lotsa prayer and fasting her dad will accept her baptism and let her live at home. But let me tell you teaching her is like a scene from an action film. We can't teach her at her home obviously so we have to make all these plans to meet her at the house of someone and we can only call her during certain hours of the day and it's complicated. But it's worth it, because she is so special and has waited so long. 

Also this week we got transfer calls! I'm staying here in Neopolis!!!!!!!!!!!!! and I'm so pumped! We have tons of people who are GOLDEN here y'all!!

have a great week!

love you

Sister Jolley

Mountain Climbing

Hi everybody!!!!

This week was so great! We saw tons of miracles in our area and we got blessed with lotsa rain so it was way less hot! BLESS UP! But this week it'll be straight humidity so you know, that'll be way fun. 

But lemme tell you about one of these miracles. So my comp and I were leaving lunch with a day full of appointments in another neighborhood and my comp said Sister, lets go knock doors right here, so we moved our plans and started knocking and knocking and knocking and knocking (it's not new news to knock doors but just to let you guys know we were really knocking doors) and at the end of the street, 3 streets over we knocked at a little orange house and this grandma came out and just started saying "the sisters, the sisters, are you guys really the sisters? come in, come in." So we went right in, and turns out this lady is a member from another stake that was visiting her family for Christmas and didn't know where the church was and said she had been praying and praying for a way to go to church this week and we were sent there to help her. It turns out that her son that lives there is less active and his wife is interested in the church and we gave a lesson to the Grandma and 2 grandkids (the parents weren't home) and marked baptism dates with them and they are all so excited. It is so important to listen to the whispers of the spirit because when we do the miracles just come running! I'm so grateful for a companion that was tuned in and that we were able to help this family!

Highlights of the week

Sister Santos took a great fall and rolled down a hill (sad that I wasn't there to see it but from what I hear it was great) so we've had a great week playing nurse.

We've eaten soooo much churrasco this week! We had dinner at a members house (holla for dinner cuz it's rare here) on New Years Eve and it was a fantastic churrasco. We had churrasco for Christmas Eve, for Christmas, and today!

Today, we had P day with our whole zone and President and Sister Campos and their family and we climbed this mountain and took tons of photos and it was so beautiful and it was legit.

 
 

Have a great week

Love you guys

Sister Jolley