Sister Jenna Ludlam: I'm Banana-ing!!

Santo Domingo Dominican Republic West and East Missions. We are still looking for Jen, but she is there.

Jenna's Official Photo with Pres. & Sis Santos and Hna Perez

Angel Orvando is baptized! Jen's first baptism.

One of my first days here, an investigator told me that I am going to "aplatanar" which means “to banana,” which means to become more Dominican, because Dominicans eat a lot of bananas. 😂

Woo hoo! I had my first baptism!! Angel Orvando is a 67-year old man who lives by himself. Whenever we come over, he's always working on his house. I made Dominican cement! Which is just a little bit of cement mix with lots of dirt and rocks and water mixed in and you just stir it on the ground. Angel was already well on his way to being baptized before I got here, but I was still very happy to be a part of that experience!! It was a crazy day trying to get everything set up and cleaned-- and we couldn't even find him for 3 hours-- but it was a happy day in the end!

This week, our 14-year old investigator, Yoshwal, said he prayed twice to know if the church was true, and both times, he felt normal. My comp, Hermana Perez, turns to me and translates his question and tells me to answer him. Woah woah woah! That's a hefty question and I have no idea how to answer in Spanish (or English, really) and I told my companion I'm just going to answer in English and she has to translate it. But then, all of a sudden, I started saying it in Spanish, and the words were fluidly coming out of my mouth! It wasn't exactly what I wanted to say because it kind of felt like a cookie-cutter answer (i.e. "we need to pray with real intent" and God knows when we're ready for our answer) but maybe that's what Yoshwal needed to hear.

I still don't know what anyone is saying but Hermana Perez is really patient. If anyone asks me a question, she repeats it back to me word by word and I nod if I understand and I shake my head if I don't. Everyone here talks too fast and I don't know why because it's not like they have anywhere to be! They all just sit in front of their houses in their broken plastic lawn chairs and blast the same three songs and play dominoes all day. I learned how to play dominoes with our neighbor, Killian. He's a pro. He's like Bup with chess. Killian is my friend because he knows a little bit of English.

Also, you must be getting a lot of snow in New Jersey because a guy here commented about it, and he didn't even know I was from New Jersey. I hope you guys are staying safe and getting buff from having to shovel the driveway all the time! And thanks to Harlan for being a good soul and helping the NJ Luke-gangs (that is how one guy here pronounces Ludlam) with their snow removal.

Love
Hermana Ludlam