Mosquitoes in the apartment

Alrighty family this was another great week here in Campo Bom! We got to see lots of miracles despite the rain that hasn't stopped for 2 WEEKS. 

On Wednesday Sister Hannah and I gave a training at the Mission Leadership Council which was incredibly nerve wracking and when I get nervous my accent gets really bad....but at the end President said that it was an excellent training so here's to giving trainings at all the Mission Leadership Councils for the rest of my mission! They'll get better with time I think lolz. We gave a training about the importance of having meaningful study and how it helps you be more productive in the work! And at the end President introduced the new program for the whole mission to read the Book of Mormon in 90 days. We start tomorrow!!! 

On Thursday we had exchanges with the lovely sisters who work in Bento Gonçalves--oh Bento! I'm glad they came to Campo Bom because I haven't been missing the hills there in Bento. During the exchange, me and Sister Sá were trying fruitlessly to find the house of one of our investigators in the rain and Im relatively new in the area but I'm not really that directionally challenged and it was just slightly (really) frustrating and we ended up walking for an hour to get somewhere that normally would've taken us 15 minutes and if I didn't already mention it, it was raining. And we got to the house and they had friends over. I just thought "Que droga, we walked for literally miles to get here and now it's all gonna be in vain" Anyway the family graciously let us in and we sat down all wet on their sofa (just imagine the scene people) I'm just there trying to play it cool because this family is REALLY SPECIAL and we're trying to baptize them but they need to get married and they weren't wanting to get married and Thursday was the day to lay it all down and decide if the baptism and marriage was gonna work or not. Anyway Jaque (our investigator) starts telling her friends that are there about how amazing the church is and how much it focuses on families and basically bearing her testimony but she didn't know it. Anyway after like 15 mins of small talk I decide well we can sit here for hours waiting for the visit to leave or leave a message and come back tomorrow. Anyway we said a prayer to start the message and out of the blue their friends get up and leave and I just think BLESS UP and then the conversation got serious and the Spirit got real strong and THEY ARE GONNA GET MARRIED AND GET BAPTIZED AND IT'S GONNA BE AMAZING and as we finished up her sister and her kids (who are recent converts) showed up. Anyway in the end I realized that we showed up at exactly the right moment so that we could have the right spirit and the right people there so that they would accept it all! And they went to church on Sunday! And while we were there she said "Jolley, I'm making some herbal tea to practice not drinking coffee" BLESS UP

Also this week a member told me "Sister do you have mosquitoes in your apartment? and I said no and then he said "Hmm I'm looking at your forehead and if it's not mosquitoes it must be toxins that are trying to leave your body" and I just said "No I'm pretty sure its just ACNE" and he said "No Sister, it's toxins, you need to detox your body, take this supplement and it will clear it right up" BRASILIANS ARE VERY FRANK and Sister Hannah and I laughed about it for a long time after and my forehead doesn't even have that much acne people and for the record I took the supplement--Ill give you guys an update next week on the forehead situation. HAHAHA 

Have a great week

Love you

Sister Jolley 

Napoleon part 2

HI FAMILY!!!!!!!

                              

This week was full of hilarious happenings. And full of miracles! This week NAPOLEON GOT BAPTIZED! And we went to the temple and had a a zone conference with Presidente and Sister Campos and it rained sooooooooooooooooooooo much. Also I got my hair cut for the first time in 13 months. BLESS UP

So lemme tell you about the baptism of Napoleon. On Saturday he got interviewed and funnily enough our district is just Americans so Sister Hannah and I told our District Leader that he was the real life clone of Napoleon. And he agreed and PEOPLE HE IS. It's sooo hard not to laugh when we teach him cuz he’s hilarious but he just doesn't know it. This week he asked us "umm so like if I do all the stuff you ask me and get baptized and then go live in the wilderness for the rest of my life so I don't have temptations will I be saved" We had to inform him that sadly that isn't the case.  Anyway Sunday arrived and we  had his baptism service. And it was  incredibly incredibly spiritual. Sister Hannah and I sang Come Thou Fount in Português and English and the testimonies and talks were really good. BUT the actual act of the baptism was just too much! The water was freezing because the heater is broken and when he and the man who would baptize him went down in the font they started yelping and then he was baptized and sprang up .05 seconds later gasping for air like a angry cat leaving the water. I'm glad I spend all of my youth learning how to not laugh during sacrament meeting with my sister because all 6 years of practice were put into action. BUT I managed to keep a straight face. 

Business 101 with Sister Jolley and Sister Hannah:

So during a lunch appointment we had this week this member told us his plans that he and his wife have to make and sell dog coats and then he said 'this is a fantastic idea because right now we’re in a huge economic crisis here in Brasil BUT even during the crisis people will wanna buy dog coats because people just love their critters” I decided I wouldn't share my opinion on the matter but Sister Hannah and I had a good laugh about it afterwords.

Yesterday we had our branch conference and I got to be the branch pianist and the choir pianist and if you guys wanna know how it went I'll just tell you that it's quite possible that I played better than they sang. And given the fact that missionaries don't have much time to practice sheet music and that I haven't played the piano in a few years  you can just imagine how it went. But the whole branch was like amazed and I tried to tell them that I played half the notes wrong but they didn't believe me.

line of the week

Member “Sister it looks like you've lost about 2 kilos”

Me “ yep” and just thought “how does she know I've lost exactly 2 kilos since I got here”

Her husband “ I think we should tell all the girls that they lost weight because it makes them happy doesn't it,                         Sister"

Member “I'm drinking salsa tea to help me lose weight”

You gotta watch out cuz the members always have an eye on you

hahah have a great week!!

love,

Sister Jolley

Mother's Day

 Happy Mother's Day Mom! 

So this week was filled with exciting stuff! We are teaching lotsa of great people and preparing for some really special baptisms here in Campo Bom. Campo Bom is a little branch in the middle of almost nowhere, and for the first time in my mission we don't have a Chapel, just a rented house. Its kinda funny but actually pretty normal here in Brazil when you just have a Branch. The sacrament meetings are held in the garage! LOLZ.  

We've started teaching a lot of people from Haiti and the language barrier is a little difficult but they love going to church and bring all their  friends. The last 2 rows of the chapel garage were our favorite Haitians and their friends. My favorite was when we asked one of them if he knew what commandment meant and he said "drink water" Its a learning process this Portuguese, its not easy for anyone. 

This week we taught a Lawyer, it was really interesting. I'm used to teaching preachers so a lawyer was a good change. He is real interesting and was real happy to read the Book of Mormon, so we'll see how that goes! We also are teaching some really cool couples that are LEGALLY MARRIED for a change so that is fantastic.

This week sister Hannah and I learned 50 different ways how to arrive at our first appointment and will be starting up a map reading class! We walked 5 miles in the process and I'm not just guessing because Sister Hannah uses a fit-bit! CALVES FOR DAYS Y'ALL, Nothing like getting lost to lose the mission weight. 

love you guys!

read your scriptures 

say your prayers

also shout out to my younger sister Sarah for getting baptized this week! Read Luke 12:50 Jesus is happy for you!

Sister Jolley

also pictures are gonna be rough because our internet cafe literally uses computers from the dark ages 

Transfers

So the news of the day is that I got transferred! I'm heading to Campo Bom! And my companion will be Sister Hannah from CT! 

My last week in Bento was really great! We had tons of miracles! We are still teaching the 4 sisters and 3 of them went to church this week! and are right on track to get baptized in the next few weeks! We also found Natasha! We made contact with her on the street on Saturday night and she went to church yesterday! She told us that she is going to take her husband next week! The missionary world is full of miracles!!!

I hit my one year mark this week! I never thought I would hit one year. Sister de Paula and I celebrated with cuca and grape juice!!! 

On my last preparation day we went to visit the grape vineyards with Marlene and Vanessa! The vineyards  were so incredibly beautiful. We also went cheese tasting...it was an adventure. One day when I have more time I'll tell y'all about the crazy Italian cheese man! Hahaha he's a hoot.

Line of the week

Catiele(11 years old) - "Sister are you using make up?"

Me - "Yup"

Catiele "You are much prettier with makeup"

The truth comes out of the mouth of babes

                               
hahahaha

Have a great week!

Love, Sister Jolley

Running in the rain

HEY FAMILY!!!! 

THIS WEEK WAS PRETTY GREAT!!

We had zone conference with President and Sister Campos and interviews!!! It was really good! And my comp and I had to give a training at the zone conference and it was a little nerve wracking with President there but IT WENT ALL GOOD. But lemme tell you guys we had the biggest struggle getting to the conference. So the conference was in Caxias and Caxias is about an hour and a half away taking the bus and the conference started at 8 in the morning. So we called the bus station and we decided to take the first bus at 6:30 and the lady promised us that it was direct and that it wouldn't stop at all the bus stops and would just be 1 hour. 

So we left our apartment at 6 in the morning (in the rain) and ran to the bus station and got there just in time only to realize that we had forgotten our phone and that the bus that we were taking was actually the same bus that passes in front of our  house at 6:40. Life's full of disappointments. And we didn't know where we needed to get off the bus to get to the Chapel and we couldn't call anyone.  So we finally got to Caxias and we asked a lady on the bus if she knew where the chapel was and she told us that she did! So we got off the bus with her and she told us where to go but when she gave us the directions I realized that we weren't talking about the same place and that we had gotten off the bus really early. Anyway we ended up walking/running in the rain like crazies trying to find out where the chapel in Caxias is. We ended up arriving late at the conference and sopping wet. HAHAHAHAHA IT WAS A LITTLE ROUGH Y'ALL but at least the conference was great!

Anyway on Thursday we had to go to Porto Alegre for my visa AGAIN and we left at 4 IN THE MORNING!!!! Riding buses is becoming one of my favorite things!

BUT THE BEST PART OF THE WEEK WAS YET TO COME!!!

Senhor Osmar was baptized and it was really special and he's so happy and he already started doing his family history!!!! He's so excited to take names to the temple!

Have a great week!

Read your scriptures

Say your prayers

Sister Jolley

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