Hola!

Things are going pretty well down here in the Dominican Republic! It´s starting to cool down here in the mountains, which is so awesome! It´s definitely not cold enough to wear a coat, like a lot of the Dominicans think, but it´s nice and cool. 

Our little investigators are doing awesome! Yesenia has gone to church 3 times in a row, which is awesome! Investigators have to attend church 6 weeks in a row to get baptized. During our lesson on Sunday, we invited her to be baptized on October 4, and she said she would! Yudi hasn´t been able to attend the past two Sundays, so she can´t baptized as soon, but she really wants to. We taught tithing yesterday, and we told her that after she gets baptized that she has the blessing of paying tithing, and she asked if she could start paying it now! haha We love her so much!

This week we visited a cute litle lady named Moma. She was talking about making sacrifices, and she taught me something really important. Turns out, that´s not actually what she was saying, but I still learned it from her, right? haha She ¨said¨ that when we have lived our whole lives abstaining from alcohol or coffee or things like that, it´s not a sacrifice, it´s obedience. It´s not something difficult for us, because we´ve done it our whole lifes. That got me thinking, living the gospel isn´t a sacrifice for me because I´ ve done it my whole life. It´s just obedience to the things I´ve always been taught. And I realized that I haven´t had to make very many sacrifices for my Savior. But how else am I supposed to go through the refiner´s fire and become all that He has intended for me? It´s my personal opinion that we should always be making sacrifices to better ourselves and to purify ourselves through Christ. It´s how we become ¨clay in the potter´s hands.¨ Everyone has different sacrifices that they can make, because we´re all different. For some people, the Word of Wisdom is a huge sacrifice. For others, it could be something like humility or charity. But we can all make sacrifices and better ourselves. So my challenge is for each of your to find some way to sacrifice for your beliefs and your Savior, because when you are giving yourself to Him, He will raise you up and you will become everything that He has in store for you. 

A Day in the Dominican Repulic

There are so many cockroaches in the church building. We clean it every week, but they all find their way into the church. And the kids love to play with them! It´s disgusting! But what they love to do even more is throw them at us! They think it´s so funny because we scream and run away! haha Here´s a picture of the cockroach Ismael found outside last night. They´re not all that big, but now you know why I hate them. haha 

Hello hello!

Things are going pretty well here! Yesenia and Yudi are still absolutely wonderful! We taught Yesenia for the second time on Saturday. She´s so funny because she LOVES talking about families and how important they are to hear. And we love hearing it. But it´s hard to get in a lesson because that´s all she talks about. haha she´s so cute. But we talked about families on Saturday and left her The Family A Proclamation to the World. She also talked about how important flowers are to her and how she loves the positive energy they bring. She says she always has flowers in her home. And when she left, she let us pick out two roses to keep. I felt so loved. It was so nice to get that from her, because right now I haven´t really been able to connect with the members because I can´t really communicate with them, so it was nice to get that special love from someone. She´s so great. Sunday night, we brought a family with us to talk about the importance of families in the church and to talk about the proclamation. She spent most of the time talking about her family, but I know that she loved having us and the Abreu family there too. Tomorrow we´re going to teach her the rest of the Restoration and ask her to be baptized. 

And Yudi is amazing. The last time we visited her, we left the Word of Wisdom pamphlet for her to read. Before, she had mentioned that she knows that we don´t drink alcohol, and that she wants to quit and change her life. But when we got there to teach it, she didn´t understand why we don´t drink coffe. So we explained that it contains caffeine and can become addicting, and God doesn´t want us to be tied to things like that and it prevents us from having the Spirit. She totally understood and told us that she drinks coffee with her friends every morning, and a few days ago, when they came over, she told them that she wasn´t going to drink it anymore. And that´s before we even taught it to her! she´s so wonderful. She had a huge headache that day because she had quit, but she knew that it´s what she needs to do. 

A Day in the DR

Today we went to Santiago to go to the mission home and the office for P day. After Hermana Hunsaker talked with the doctor about her heat rash, we went to the National supermarket so the elders could buy food. When we walked in, I felt like we were in Disneyland! There was happy music playing, all of the employees were smiling, and it was so nice. haha It was just like Walmart, which doesn´t seem that exciting, but it felt like a palace. haha Most of the buildings here aren´t quite that nice. But it was fun to go and have a fun day in Santiago!

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."