Saludos!

The miracles are just coming and coming. I feel so blessed. Last week, we left with one of the counselors in the Young Women's presidency to find less active YW, and we ended up at her mother's house. Her mother has met with the missionaries before and has learned a lot, but she has some doubts and has never progressed. But we shared a message with them about receiving personal revelation and they were excited for us to come back. On Monday we had a Family Home Evening with them and Nicole and her husband, and we shared the message of the Restoration. Nicole told us that something she doesn't like is that we focus so much on Joseph Smith and not enough on Christ. We explained that the first lesson is focused on Joseph Smith because he is the prophet that restored the Gospel on earth once again, but once she believes and accepts that he was an instrument in the hands of God, she'll understand that everything is centered around Christ. I showed her a Book of Mormon, and told her that this book testifies of Christ, not of Joseph Smith. I read 2 Nephi 25:26 that says "we talk of Christ, rejoice in Christ, prophesy in Christ...." She started smiling and look around at her family and said "Okay, now we're getting somewhere!" haha Nicole had her share some experiences that she's had with a conference that she attended or the times that she's prayed to know if the Church is true. We talked about how we feel the Spirit and that it sounds like God is speaking to her, and she said "I'm starting to feel the Spirit. These girls have the Spirit!" It was a really special lesson. It lasted two hours, but we were able to resolve some doubts that she has had for a long time. I hope she keeps progressing and opening her heart to let the gospel fill her life!

For the past two weeks, it has been really cloudy and thundering, but the sky is just teasing us because it isn't raining. So on Friday, we decided not to bring our umbrellas because we knew it wasn't going to rain. Well, we finished our first lesson and it started to pour. We ran for shelter under a building, but we were still getting wet, so a man grabbed us big pieces of cardboard to use to get to a different building. We waited out the rain for about 10 minutes, but we had a lesson to get to, so we decided to run home with our cardboard to grab jackets and umbrellas. We looked pretty silly but we sure had a good time!

Today I was thinking about this fast-paced world we live it. When something breaks, we buy a newer, better version. The value has been lost in homemade repairs and hardwork to fix something that was broken. Today I've been thinking about the value of broken things. Like us. Or our relationships with other people. Or our relationship with Christ. We are all broken, but we can be fixed. There are fewer things more joyous in life than the satisfaction of fixing something that was once broken or lost, like a restoration. If there is something in your life that just doesn't seem to be working out, don't give up. Ever. Keep pushing through, and some day you will see the beauty of all your hard work and feel the satisfaction of saving something once lost. Today I realized that broken things are the most valuable. 

A Day in the DR:

So, my companion has a large birthmark on her cheek by her mouth. It's really cute, and I know she likes it. We started visiting a less active family a couple of weeks ago, and the youngest son has a birthmark just like hers that goes from his eye down his cheek. After a couple of visits with them, he ask her what her birthmark is from. She told him that it runs in her family and the oldest child always has a birthmark like hers. He told her that his was from a sopao (a type of soup). I was really confused, so when we left I asked my companion what he was talking about and she told me that Dominicans believe that, during a women's pregnancy, if she ever has a craving that she doesn't eat, it creates a birthmark on their baby. What? The funny thing is that she knows exactly which craving it was that caused the birthmark. Dominicans are so funny.

Love, Hermana Jorden