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)