Hola!

Well, another great week here in the DR!

We had two investigators come to church! They were both late, so we were so sad that no one came, and then they both showed up, and Hermana Hunsaker and I were so excited! We were practically jumping in our seats. It was so wonderful! Yudi could only stay for sacrament (apparently we forgot to tell her that church is 3 hours haha), but Yesenia stayed for all three. She left as soon as it was over, and she wasn´t home for her appointment, so were weren´t able to ask her what she thought, but we are hoping to stop by this week and teach her. We met with Yudi on Monday, and she told us that she really liked church. She had a few questions, so we answered them and then we taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ. After we taught her about baptism, Hermana Hunsaker asked her if she would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized, and she said yes! I asked her how she felt about baptism and if she believed what we´ve been teaching her, and she said she believes everything we have taught and that she wants to be baptized. She said that she´s heard that we don´t drink alcohol and she knows that it´s bad and she shouldn´t drink, and she wants to change her life. She has truly been prepared by the Lord. I´m so grateful for the oppotunity to teach her. We set a date for October 4. I´m so excited! 

Really, that´s all the news I have for this week. haha We spent most of the week walking and walking, kind of like the pioneer song. haha But we´re staying positive and trying to work hard! 

I´m really starting to understand and make a contribution to the lessons. It feels so good. I am starting to be able to do more than give my planned part of each lesson, and I feel like I can actually help people. I just can´t wait until I can really talk to these people!

Being a missionary is wonderful. There are many hard days, sad days, and long days, but they make the good days so much sweeter. I´m learning so much every day, and I can´t wait to see what the Lord has in store for me. 

I love you all!

Hermana Jorden

Hello hello friends and family!

Thank you all so much for the love and support. I love you all so much, and I think every day how lucky and blessed I am to have all of you in my life. I miss you all so much, but I´m so grateful to know you all and for your examples to me. 

So this week, there wasn´t anything too exciting going on. I´m starting to get everything down, and to get into a rhythm. The past few days have been super hot. I don´t know if I´ll ever get used to that, but I´m so lucky to be in the mountains during the hottest part of the year. That´s such a blessing. 

There are two investigators that we´re teaching that are so awesome. The first, Yudi (Y´s are pronounced as J´s), is great. We´ve been teaching her since I arrived, and she loves everything we have to say. She always has great answers that always apply to the things we are about to teach. We´ve been able to answer a lot of questions that she´s always had about religion, and I love being about to answer her questions. She´s great. The other, Yesenia, was a reference from the assistants to the president. She´s engaged to a member who is currently living in the US, and she wants to learn everything before they get married. She is incredible. She wants to know everything, and read everything, and pray, and go to church. Which is so wonderful, because we have a hard time with investigators that don´t fulfill commitments. Her brother was there with her, so we taught him too. At first, he wasn´t really interested in listening to us, but while Yesenia was getting us juice and crackers, he asked to see our Book of Mormon, and he was reading it. After that, he listened to every word we said, and afterwords, he was so appreciative of us coming. It was really neat to see his change of heart. I really hope he comes for our next lesson with her. She told us that if everything goes well, she would like us to go to her wedding in November! 

I have found my new love- avacados. Holy moly, they´re delicious! Yesterday, we had them for three meals! Avacados with eggs and toast, avacados in grilled cheese, and avacados in rice and beans. I had never really had them before my mission, but they are so good here! 
Another thing I love here is the juice. All of the members offer us different juices, and they´re delicious! They alway´s different. Yesterday, we had this rice milk with pineapple. It was soooo good. It tasted a lot like horchata.

DR-
Well, in case any of you were wondering, my self esteem is doing so great right now. All of the men say ¨Hola, mi amor! Hello beaut-tee-ful! Linda, hola!¨ as we pass by. haha It´s actually pretty gross, but I´ve learned to ignore it. The only bad thing is, sometimes I ignore people when they´re actually trying to be friendly. haha 
Today we went to La Vega to watch the Saratov Approach with our zone. It is so good! Then we went to a national catholic cathedral and saw some ruins. It was neat to learn more about the culture and history of the island. Something I learned recently, is that Christopher Colombus actually landed here in the Dominican Republic! He´s played a huge part in the history of this island. 

Well, that all I have for this week. I hope you are all doing well! 
Love, Hermana Jorden

Kelsea said, "First off, I want everyone to see how good I look in my fanny pack. I definitely see this coming back into style. haha

Kelsea and her companion, Hermana Hunsaker

Kelsea said, "Sometimes we make mangu, which is mashed platanos. It´s so good. We make it with eggs and garlic."

The night of the "huge moth" experience

Some pictures from her first area.  The 3rd one is the view from their apartment.  The 4th one is a picture of the church.  (Look familiar, Damon? -haha)

Kelsea said, "We wash our clothes in a weird little washing machine, but it´s kind of fun. We put it in the machine for a little bit, take it out, let it soak in clothes softener, and then put it in the ¨dryer,¨ which doesn´t actually do much, but it helps a little. We let out clothes air dry.  Then we drain the water and sweep it off the balcony.  I think it´s fun."

Kelsea's apartment family room

Hola!

First off, I want everyone to see how good I look in my fanny pack. I definitely see this coming back into style. haha

I sent some pictures of our apartment. We´re so lucky to be in such a nice apartment. It´s bigger than any of the houses we´ve been in, and a lot cleaner. We have electricity, and hot water, which is such a blessing. I´ve only had to take a bucket shower once, and that was my first day. It was a fun experience. haha We wash our clothes in a weird little washing machine, but it´s kind of fun. We put it in the machine for a little bit, take it out, let it soak in clothes softener, and then put it in the ¨dryer,¨ which doesn´t actually do much, but it helps a little. We let out clothes air dry.  Then we drain the water and sweep it off the balcony.  I think it´s fun. The only thing that isn´t very fun is that we can´t flush our TP, we just throw it away. Luckily that hasn´t been too gross, but I definitely make sure to only use the bathroom in our apartment or at the church.

I gave my very first talk in Spanish this Sunday. And I found out about it Sunday morning. haha So I didn´t have a ton of time to prepare it. I chose to talk on Faith, and I felt like it was an awesome talk, but once I got up to speak, I just couldn´t relay it the way I wanted to. Sometimes it´s a little frustating that I can´t say what I want. I just need to have patience, and I know it will come. I just wish it would come a little sooner. haha But really, it´s going pretty well. Everyone tells me that I know so much to begin with, and I can understand at least part of what everyone says. It just takes time. 

Last week, we had a ton of meetings in La Vega, so we didn´t have a lot of time to proselyte. I was so frustrated because it meant that we missed a lot of our appointments. I was also feeling frustrated because the people we did teach were just not willing to keep their commitments. But on Monday, I worked as hard as I could to get to all of our appointments, and to have the Spirit, and that made all the difference. We were on time to all of our appointments, and they all went so well. I´m starting to see the power of hard work. I know that when I do my best, the Lord will do the rest. 

Here are some of my thoughts about teaching with the Spirit. In the CCM, my teachers stressed the importance of focusing on having the Spirit, rather than knowing the language. They said that as long as you have the Spirit, it doesn´t matter how much Spanish you know. On Monday, I had a really wonderful personal study, and I felt the Spirit so strong. Then we had our district meeting, and I still felt it. But afterwards, we all went to lunch and starting talking about normal things, and I lost it. It wasn´t a bad thing to talk about those things, but I wasn´t focusing on the Spirit, and I could feel the difference. Afterwards, I was reading the BoM in Spanish for language study, and the Spirit came back. I worked hard to keep it with me throughout the rest of the day, and our lessons were so wonderful. It made me think of something my CCM teacher said. When he was a missionary, his president challenged him to always talk about things with his companion that brought the Spirit, so that when they arrived to their appointments, they already had the Spirit and the didn´t need to try to find it during their lesson. I saw that in my mission, and I know that if I focus on keeping my thoughts always on my purpose, that I can teach so much stronger. I think that applies to every day life too. When we give talks, when we teach a class, or even for FHE. I believe that, as a teacher, it doesn´t matter what you say, it´s the Spirit that matters. So my advice is, when you are teaching a lesson, focus more on having the Spirit with you BEFORE you teach. Prepare enough in advance that you aren´t running to the classroom stressing about what you´re going to teach. Maybe listen to church music before. Or take a few peaceful moments to think about what you´re teaching and how important it is to you. Have everything prepared so that from the moment you walk into the classroom, the people you teach are learning from the Spirit that you bring. That´s my two cents for this week.

A Day in the DR:

All of the bugs here are so much bigger than they are in the US. We had a huge moth in our apartment a few days ago. It wasn´t bothering us until it flew into our room in the middle of a really spiritual heart to heart. We spent the next hour trying to get it out of the apartment. This was our method- throw a shoe near it, hide under our covers while it flew around the room, spend the next five minutes trying to figure out where it went, and then starting over. haha Very effective. We finally threw my laundry hamper over it and took it outside. We had a pretty good time. haha This is a picture of us trying to reenact that night. 

A few days ago, we taught a family. The father is a member, but his wife isn´t. We´ve been teaching the whole family. Well, this last time, we walked in, and the two youngest ones are just running around naked. When we started the lesson, the youngest boy (he was young, but not that young) jumps on his mom´s lap, pulls down her shirt, and just starts breastfeeding. I was so shocked. I knew that that happened here, but I just wasn´t prepared for it. haha After a few minutes of talking, my companion turned to me and asked me to talk about repentance, and I had the hardest time focusing and teaching. haha It was just too much nakedness for me. haha But the next time we taught her, I was prepared and I was able to focus and teach the lesson. 

Hola familia y amigos!

It´s been a great first week here in Jarabacoa! The weather here is so much nicer than down below. Even though it´s hot, there´s always a breeze. And the nice thing is, when you go in the shade, it´s cooler, but in Santo Domingo and Santiago, the shade is just as hot as everywhere else. There´s no escape. haha But up here in the mountains, there´s always a breeze and it rains every once in a while. And the mountains are beautiful!

My companion, Hermana Hunsaker, from Idaho, is wonderful! We get along so well, and she´s a great missionary. She has really helped me ease into the mission, and tries to make me as comfortable as possible. The other two missionaries in our district, Elders Galvez and , are a lot of fun. Elder Galvez came out the same time as me, but he speaks spanish, so he has the advantage. haha It´s fun to have them around. We both serve in the Jarabacoa branch.

The people in the branch and so great. They are so loving and friendly. Unfortunately, there are so many inactive people, but the members that attend are strong in the gospel. The branch president and his family, the Burets, are so wonderful. They remind me so much of the Yanez family. Two return missionaries, and three amazing children. They are so helpful. Someone in their family goes out with us to teach nearly every day. They are so willing to help, and they have really helped the people who are struggling in the branch. And they give us delicious food! haha 

The people we meet and teach here are so friendly and willing to listen. Nobody has ever told us that they don´t want to listen to our message. The only problem is, they aren´t willing to act. The other day, we taught a less active lady in the branch. I taught about the sacrament, and the importance of taking it every Sunday, and she totally agreed. She talked about the blessings we will receive if we take it and how it´s so important. So we asked her if she would attend church this Sunday, and she said she didn´t know. It´s frustrating that these people know the truth, but they won´t act. It makes me so sad. I need to help them see the importance of our message, and I´m not quite sure how to do it. But I know that if I am obedient and teach with the Spirit, that I will do my part. I can only hope that they will accept what I´m teaching. 

A Day in the DR

There are three things that I see everywhere, and that´s motorcycles, colmadas, and stray dogs. Everyone here rides a motorcycle, and they are SO loud. I can´t hear anything my companion says when someone drives by. haha And the dogs are everywhere. It´s so sad. Colmadas are little stores that sell things like candy, bread, water, and the necessities. They´re really convenient. And then there are the dreadful roosters. I don´t see tons of them in the streets, but I sure hear them in the mornings! There are so many of them. The first day, I woke up, and I had no idea what that awful sound was. It took me a good 20 minutes to figure out that they were the roosters. The best description I can think of is it sounds like dinosaurs are attacking the city. haha 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! You´re in my prayers!