Meet My Madrastra

FAMILY! (Jenna had problems downloading her pictures this week, so we'll hope for next week!)

I am officially done with my training! Hermana Perez went on to Baní today and now I am with Hermana Rubio!! (Who does transfers on P-day? This mission just decided to -_- and it doesn't make me happy.)

Hermana Rubio is from Guatemala and she’s great. She has 6 months on the mission, she doesn't speak English, and she's super funny. I'm very excited for this transfer! On the mission, they call your second companion your step-parent, so now I have a step-mom (madrastra)! Also, I spent half the day with Hermana Geddes waiting for my new comp to get here! We got lost once trying to find our way back to the chapel to pick up our new comps, but almost everyone knows the "Mormons" here so we just asked around.

This whole week was an adventure. The wet season is starting so it’s a challenge to cross the Trash River. It fills up with water really fast, and so when it rains, we have to find alternate routes. I’ve also been pretty nervous all week because Hermana Perez was leaving and I don’t feel ready to lead the area. I know where everything is, but it’s still super difficult to communicate. I feel okay right now with Hermana Rubio, but I guess I'll know for sure how things are going to go when we start proselyting.

Hermana Cannon joined Hma Perez and I this week and we were in a trio! Her old comp went home early, and she emergency transferred into our area for 3 days. It was fun to have her around. She was with us for a lesson where I explained the importance of Adam and Eve in the Plan of Salvation, and I felt like I explained it pretty bad since I was all over and I couldn't ever think of the words to say. Afterwards, she told me I did great and that my Spanish is really coming along. I appreciated her comment, especially because she's not a native Spanish speaker and she can relate to having to learn the language.

We had Yoshwal's baptism! We had so many people show up, including the branch president!! It was such a nice way to send off Hermana Perez. And the same dog from Yensis and Lisbeth's baptism got in the church again. It was a very nice event. We're hoping to have the baptism of two more this Saturday! And we got a bunch more lined up after that. It's will be a good transfer. Hermana Rubio came at a good time.

Mom, I SO enjoyed your letter and your talk from last week! Holy smokes that was so full of deep goodness. I liked your diagram showing Sabbath Observance and Temple Worship side by side. In your talk, one part that stuck out to me is where you said that we're given more responsibility for our own gospel learning, and you pointed out how much the Lord trusts us.

There's an eternal investigator here who was very unsettled by the fact that the church allowed Evenyil, an 11-year old recent convert, to receive the priesthood. I think it's even crazier that God calls a bunch of 18-20 year-olds to be His instruments in gathering Israel. Sometimes we’re a bunch of disobedient knuckleheads. God also sent us here to earth so we could have the opportunity to learn and grow and be like Him, knowing that we’d sin-- but He trusts us to make those good decisions and find our way back to Him.

I'm so happy to be here! I feel excited 😊, but still nervous. I hope everyone has a great week!

Love you all!  Hermana Ludlam