Saludos!

It´s been a wonderful week in the mountains of Jarabacoa. On Tuesday, we had a meeting in Santiago, and I realized just how blessed I am to be in Jarabacoa. It´s stinking hot in the big city!

The meeting was for the new missionaries. 2 Weeks Training. I had the same meeting after my first two weeks, but I got so much more out of it this go around. I felt a renewed love and energy for the work, and felt a new determintaion to change. We watched the video, The Butterfly Circus. I highly recommend that every watch it. It´s beautiful. I´m not a very symbolically-minded person, but here´s what I got out of it:

1."the greater the struggle, the greater the glory"

2. each of the characters used their weakness to become something beautiful

3. God sees the beauty in each of us

4. you are what you believe you are

5. don´t focus on the strengths of others, we were all created with different strengths to bless others. If my companion and I were both great teachers, then why would we have to work together. My companion has strengths, and I have strengths, and together can bless the lives of others in different ways

Our little Haitian family is doing so well. Last night we taught the law of chastity. It was such a relief to teach that to a family that is already married! Deli was still working, so she wasn´t able to translate for us, so we had Owends translate. He doesn´t have a very long attention span, so we had to repeat everything. haha He´s sweet. I don´t understand any Creyol, but I did notice that when we said "We´re going to talk about the law of chastity," he told them that we were going to talk about the law of castigo, or punishment. hahaha Glad we fixed that. :) We changed their baptismal date to the 7th of February. I´m so excited! They are going to be a great family, and I can hardly wait for the day that they become a family sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. I am so grateful for the chance that I have to teach them.

We finally found Yudi! We haven´t seen her in months! I thought she was hiding from us. We had a great lesson with her. She told us that she´s not keeping the Word of Wisdom, but that she´s still trying. So we talked about how she can do it with the help of the Lord. She told us that she still reads the Book of Mormon every night, and every time she sits down to read, she prays that the Lord will reveal to her what she needs to know. She told us that every night, she opens up to a random page, and she finds exactly what she needs to hear. She said she works on Sundays, but she told us that she´s going to talk to her boss about switching her free day to Wednesday so she can go to church. I love that lady.

So, last week, we got back to the apartment, and my comp couldn´t find the key to the house. Oops! We looked in the street and around the apartment, and we couldn´t find it. So, we called our elders and enlisted the help of our "mexican district leader." He takes pride in his heritage, and his ability to break into houses. haha They spent an hour and a half trying to break into the door and the window, and then the landlord and his buddy came over. After two hours, we were able to open the window and reach into the house and unlock the door from the inside. haha It was quite the adventure. :) 

A Day in the DR:

One form of public transportation here are the rutas. They each have a route that they take and they pick up people on the way. 20 pesos for a ride, and the commodations are oh-so-comfortable. Here are the elders in the back seat. Hermana Jimenez and I shared a seat in the front. :)

Have a wonderful week! Hermana Jorden