Saludos!
Today begins my last transfer in the mission field. Wow, I can't even believe it. I was looking at all of the pictures on my camera this morning, and I feel like my mission has lasted a lifetime, in the sense that I've learned and progressed so much, had so many soul – stretching experiences, and met so many people that I love and cherish. My life back home in Billings almost seems like the pre-mortal life, a life that I knew I once had, but that doesn't feel so real. I feel like this is my life here. So I'm determined to make every last second count. And President Castillo is keeping Hermana Funes and I here in Navarrete, so I know he has a work here for us to accomplish.
Last Thursday, I woke up in the middle of the night to gunshots. I peaked out the window and there was garbage all over the street. A riot. It was unexpected because no one had announced it, and we didn't know what it was for or how long it was going to last, so we stayed inside all day. Luckily nothing bad happened, there were just huge tree branches in the streets and garbage everywhere. I still don't understand the purpose of these huelgas.
On Saturday we had our Sister meeting with the sisters from Navarrete, Esperanza, Mao Sabaneta, and Montecristi.  We shared a message from a talk by President Uchtdorf called "Forget Me Not."  We had lunch together and then celebrated Hermana Ririe's birthday. After we finished, Hermana Seenaraine got a phone call from the Sisters in Bonao saying that our investigator Regina was getting baptized that day! She was our golden investigator that wanted to be baptized so bad, but couldn't quite stop smoking. Hermana Seenaraine had told me that they weren't really visiting her after I left, so I was so surprised and happy to hear that she was getting baptized!  Hermana Seenaraine and I called her on the phone to congratulate her. She said she wished we could be there, but that she was so happy and excited to be baptized. She is going to be an incredible member of Christ's Church.
When I arrived in Navarrete, the sisters had been working with the Polanco family.  They reactivated the mom, baptized the father and older son, and my first Saturday there, two more children were baptized. The sisters had spent a lot of time working with this family, and they always invited their family friend, Osiris, over for the lessons. He always came to hang out and make jokes, so I didn't take it very seriously. After hermana Richardson left, we started spending less time with them to focus on other people we were teaching that were progressing. About two weeks ago, the elders told us that they had passed by his house and he came out and asked why the sisters had stopped visiting him. He said he thought he was going to be baptized and didn't know why they had stopped teaching him. What? I didn't know he wanted to be baptized. So the elders invited him to church and we called and invited him, and he came! We thought, "wow, maybe he is serious."  So last week we visited him and talked about the power of prayer and invited him to the baptism the elders had. He came to that as well, but he arrived after the ordinance and just as the Restoration video was ending.  After the baptism, he told us that he needed to see that video and asked when he could. So yesterday we watched the Restoration movie with him at the Palanco's house. We shared our testimonies about the Book of Mormon and how Joseph Smith was called of God to restore the true church again on the earth. We then invited him to be baptized, and he accepted! This week I learned that you never know who is ready to accept the Gospel. So share it with everyone!
Love,
Hermana Jorden

Fior and Ariel got baptized.  Kelsea and Hermana Funes are so happy!

The Elders had a baptism, too.  Kevin joined the church.

Fior and Ariel got baptized! It was such a sweet baptism. They arrived an hour early, before anyone else, and sat in the Relief Society room and sang hymns together. They are so sweet. We did a special musical number together- I sang, Elder Eddy played the piano, and Hermana Funes played the recorder. :) We did He Sent His Son. Everyone loved it. It was cute. A lot of members came and supported them. It was a special day.

There's not a lot to report this week. We had quite a few intercambios with the sisters. It's stinking hot. I finally tried a zapote shake, and it was delicious. I love being a missionary. And that's about it! Have a great week everyone!

Hermana Jorden

Saludos!
Well, I had such a wonderful week! On Thursday we started a four day intercambio with the sisters in Sabaneta. My companion went to Sabaneta and Hermana Barnes came to Navarrete with me. Hermana Barnes and I have  almost always been in the same zone, so we're good friends, but it was such a pleasure to teach and work with her. She is so humble and willing to change and she loves the people so much. She is in touch with the spirit and she helped me a lot with our investigators. It was a great blessing to learn from her.
On Saturday Fior and Ariel are getting baptized! They are such good people. Two Sundays ago, after teaching about tithing, Fior came to church with her little bit of money already to give her tithing to the Lord. It was so sweet to see her so willing to sacrifice for the Lord.  About a month ago, we gave Ariel a book of Mormon stories book for children and he finished it last Tuesday, so we gave him a book of Mormon to start reading and today he told us that he is in 2 Nephi 27!  Fior says he just reads all day and that he understands it all. We are so excited for them to be baptized and make covenants with God.
The Aquino family went to church!  Oh, I was so happy. Saturday night we stopped by their house and invited them, and Noris wasn't thrilled to commit, but she said she would go to one hour. Sunday morning Marino called and said they were going to go at 10 and sure enough they were there as soon as Sacrament meeting ended. Mabel went straight to Sunday school with all the youth she met when she went to seminary, and Marino and Noris came with us to gospel principles. We got them to stayed the last hour as well, and we visited them in the evening to see what they thought. When I asked them about church, Marino said, "well Hermana..." in a way that made me think it was going to be our last lesson with them, but he started talking about how much he liked the lesson about the law of chastity and how everyone talks in the lessons and shares their experiences and it's not just someone preaching.  Noris said she loves the unity between the members and how good the youth are. They even expressed the desire for us to work with their children and help them stay on the path. We talked about the importance of doing things as a family, such as eating dinner together and reading scriptures, and Noris said, "yeah, maybe we can all get together and read a scripture and ponderize it (meditizar in Spanish).  I loved that from conference."
They really changed on Sunday. I asked if going to church was a sacrifice and Noris said, "no! I got up early and washed clothes and went to church, then came home and cooked and cleaned and finished earlier than normal! I even got to rest!"  I left that lesson on cloud nine. For the past three months I've worked so hard to help them understand our message and feel the spirit and make friends with the members and to stop by their house to remind him about church. I've begged the Lord in fervent prayer to touch their hearts and to help them accept the gospel because I can see them for who they can become. And the Lord is changing them.  I pray that they can continue progressing and allowing Christ's light to fill their lives.
This week we've talked about temples and family history a couple of times, and it's given me a chance to reflect on this beautiful aspect of the Gospel. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we believe in a just and merciful God. We know that for centuries Christ's church wasn't on the earth, and many died without the opportunity to accept the gospel and be baptized.  In 1 Peter 3:19 it says that Christ went and preached in the Spirit World, giving everyone the chance to hear and accept the Gospel. However, without bodies, the spirits are unable to be baptized and enter into God's kingdom. In first Corinthians 15:29, Paul mentions baptisms for the dead, a sacred ordinances that we do in behalf of those who have died without baptism. As we taught this ordinance to Fior and Ariel, A member who came with us said that being baptized for our ancestors unifies us. She said that she loves her mom, and her mom loves her mom, and the love we have ties us together. I had a similar experience when I was younger. My grandma asked me to be baptized for her mother Ruth Beatty. I don't have any memories of her, but I was able to do the ordinance for her, and now I can't wait to meet her after this life.
A Day in the DR:
This week my Spanish has been all over the place. We were visiting Ramon and he was asking us something about the Pope (el Papa), and I accidentally called him the Potato (la papa). I saw Ramon trying not to laugh. Later that day, instead of saying "advantage" I told someone that was the "window" of the situation.

Kelsea and hermana clove

Buenos dias!

Today was a wonderful P-day. Every transfer, we have one day where we are allowed to go to Santiago and go shopping or go to the mission office or the mission home, or whatever we need to do in Santiago, and since this is Hermana Clove's last transfer, we met up for ice cream. It was so fun to see her and hard to say goodbye. I told her that she was welcome to extend one more transfer so I wouldn't have to spend my last without her, but she didn't seem to think that was the best idea. haha I'm sure she's excited to be with her family again. Then we went to Hermana Funes' old area and had lunch with a member. It was a good day.

Well, Ramona's baptism has been postponed. The bishop had an interview with her on Sunday, and informed us that currently she is unable to be baptized. She was really sad, but she hasn't given up hope. She understands that there are certain things she is doing that are preventing her, and she said she is going to do everything to fix them. Even though she can't be baptized on Saturday, the bishop told us that we need to keep working with her because she is one special sister. So now we're working hard to get her boyfriend's divorce papers finalized so they can get married and she can get baptized. She is determined to everything she can, because she wants to be baptized so bad. We even got her son to go to church with her on Sunday, and he liked it! We've been working on that for a long time, and it was such a blessing. So we'll keep pressing forward!

We're still working hard with the Aquino family. They didn't go to church on Sunday, but Marino told us he wouldn't be able to because he didn't come back from Dajabon until Sunday afternoon. We brought a couple with us to their house, and they we're so helpful. Hermano Francisco was so direct and just talked about how amazing the gospel has been in his life. We taught about keeping the Sabbath Day holy and Francisco helped him understand the importance of sacrficing for the Lord. When we finished the lesson, Marino said "Hermanas, what chapter do you want to leave us?" He's such a great guy, and wants to accept the gospel, but since we can only visit him on Sundays, he loses his motivation during the week. I just hope they go this week! 

Funny story: A few weeks ago, we woke up and my companion said "The weirdest thing happened last night. I woke up in the middle of the night, and I realized that I had a piece of bread in my mouth and I was chewing it!" Then, Sunday night, she got up at 1:30 to go into the kitcken and get a piece of bread. I figured she was hungry, so I didn't say anything, but Monday morning, she said "I thought that I was going to get up a lot last night to go to the bathroom since I drank so much water, but I didn't even wake up." I asked if she was sure that she hadn't gotten up to do anything, and she said no, so I told her that she had gotten up to eat bread, and she was shocked. She had no idea! So she's been getting up in her sleep to eat bread! We had a good laugh about it.

Love, Hermana Jorden 

Buenas!

Wow, general conference was incredible. I had to watch it in Spanish, because my companion doesn't speak English, so I'll admit that I didn't understand quite a bit, but I could just feel how powerful those talks were. And now I can't wait for the magazine to come out! I love general conference. It broke my heart to see President Monson so weak, but I'm so excited for the three new apostles we have. I just didn't want conference to end. For those of you who weren't able to see conference, you can watch or read the talks at conference.lds.org.

Our lovely Ramona is on fire. She went to all four sessions, plus the Women's session the week before. She brought a friend to the Saturday morning session, and afterwards she was saying "Wasn't that so great? Isn't everything here so organized and nice?" She's a great little missionary. Sunday night, we went to her house to talk about her baptism. Before conference, we had invited her to go to the conference with a question in mind, and she told us that maybe she could try to know whether or not she should get baptized November 7th, or if she should wait a little longer. So on Sunday, we planned to talk to her about her baptism and help her understand that she is prepared. When we arrived, she told us that she received a lot of revelation in conference, and that one of the talks helped her understand that she doesn't need to know everything to be baptized. She said she's seen a lot of changes in her life and she knows that this church is good. She shared her testimony with us and said that she knows this church is true. So we invited her to be baptized Octuber 17th. and she said yes. She's incredible.

The Aquino family went to conference! I can't believe it! We've been teaching them for over two months, and they always tell us they'll go to church, but every week they don't show up. We considered dropping them because they weren't progressing, but every time we go to their house, I just see the father Marino and I know that he's going to be a great church leader some day. So I didn't give up hope. And they came. Marino, Noris, and Mabel. All three of them. Noris has always been the one who was least interested, but after the conference she thanked us so much for inviting her. They loved it. I was so happy!

Have a great week!

Hermana Jorden