Buenos dias!

There has been a lot going on this week! My trainer, Hermana Hunsaker, finished her mission and is headed home to Idaho! She was a great trainer, and I´m going to miss her. I´m still in the same area in Jarabacoa, and my new companion in Hermana Clove from St. George, Utah. She was in my zone last transfer, so we´re already friends, and we´re so excited to work together. Yesterday, the zone leaders asked us to sing a last minute musical number in the transfer meeting (and by last minute, I mean we decided what we were doing when we got up to sing! haha), and our voices blended so well. It was so fun to sing with her, and I´m really excited to sing with her in lessons. She´s so great, and I´m really excited to see what I can learn from her. 

I´ve learned that a big part of the mission is about planting seeds. We haven´t seen a lot of progression here, but we´ve planted a lot of seeds. Two weeks ago, one of our investigators died. She was an old lady who couldn´t hear very well, and she was just in so much pain. We visited her and her caretaker every Sunday afternoon. We mostly taught the lady who took care of her, Dulce, but she always loved to hear us sing. She couldn´t hear much of what we said, but she was always touched by our music. She wasn´t able to get baptized, but I feel confident that when the missionaries reach her on the other side of the veil, she will remember the two missionaries who sang to her every Sunday and be open to listening to their message. Another seed we planted was in the hearts of two little girls who live near one of our investigators. Whenever we pass, they run up to us and hug us and beg us to read the Bible with them. We had a lesson with them once, and we tried to come back to teach their parents. They weren´t very interested in our message, but they were willing to let us read scriptures with their daughters. They are such sweet girls, but we can´t baptize them without their parents. So I left them a pass a long card to use as a bookmark in their Bible. I hope that someday when their older, while they´re reading the word of God, they will come across that pass a long card and be pricked by the Spirit. 

Lately, we´ve been working with a young boy in the ward named Owens. I think I mentioned him before. We´ve been teaching his mom, and about a few weeks ago, she told us that she had kicked him out of the house for stealing her money. A few months earlier, he had stolen and sold the iPod of one of the missionaries (luckily he got it back). I felt so sad for this boy. He really is a sweet kid, he just hasn´t grown up with a father or good friends to help him choose the right. I had been thinking of what I could do to help him change his life around. One day, after visiting his mom, we saw him walking around his neighborhood. We talked to him for a minute, and then kept going. About halfway home, I couldn´t walk any further. I knew we needed to turn back and talk to him. So we asked him what was going on, and helped him realize that he needs to apologize to his mom and to stop stealing so that he can change his life and be happy. We told him that, even though his mom can´t go to church, if he goes, we could tell him mom that he is being responsible and trying to change. Since then, he has talked to him mom and made things good with her, he´s gone to every branch activity, he went to church on Sunday, we went to the Noche de Rancho at the Rosario´s house, he´s made friends with the Young Men, he went out to teach with the elders, and last night I saw him at seminary. It´s incredible. He just needed to know that someone cares. The branch has given him a place of belonging, and he loves being around the Young Men. It´s been so incredible to see him change so much. 

A Day in the DR:

Something I love about this country, is the confidence that these people have in themselves. They see their strengths and they are always willing to share their talents. In Sunday School this past week, the teacher asked each of us to go around and share one of the talents that God has given us. A few of the missionaries had a hard time thinking of one to share, but the members knew exactly what they wanted to say. I think sometimes in the US, we try to potray ourselves as humble by focusing on our weaknesses rather than our strengths, but it was so sweet to see these people proudly proclaim their strengths and talents. My favorite was when a recent convert talked about something he was good at, and then added ¨But my special talent from God is humility. I am so humble.¨ I love it. I hope each of you this week can think about your talents and focus on the strengths you have, and give thanks to God for what you have been given. 

Love, Hermana Jorden