The Spirit Talking to Me!

Hi Family,

I had a good week. Probably the most exciting thing is that we had FOUR investigators in church, and we put a fecha with two investigators! (Fecha means date in Spanish, and putting a fecha is when you help set a baptismal date goal.) It's the first fecha I've put in this transfer. We also haven't had anyone in church this transfer except Paulino (who's not progressing) and someone the Elders are teaching. But MIGUEL and WILLIAM went to church! Wooo! I forgot what it's like to teach people who are actually interested.

I had more intercambios and adventures this week. I was with Hermana Torres, who goes home next transfer, and Hermana Madsen, who only has 3 weeks in the mission!! But it doesn't feel like she has 3 weeks because her Spanish is great, she understands Dominicans really well, and knows how to teach all the lessons on her own. She has a good trainer.

We visited San Cristobal Park

Doll Maker's Shop

I've always doubted my ability to recognize the Spirit talking to me, because my comp always tells me after we get out of a lesson "I can't believe I just said that! I never say that, but I just felt I should say it-- did you see his face after I told him that?" And I was like, "That's cool, but that doesn't happen to me." On my intercambio with Hermana Madsen, our day was not going well and we couldn't find anyone, so I decided to look at the list of the people we need to track down. I had a random urge to try Maria who lives clear out in Villa Mercedes. I've never even met her, but her contacted her mom several weeks ago who said her daughter, who wasn't home at the time, might be interested. We trekked all the way out to Villa Mercedes with all the big house and giant gates. 1. The front door was open (which means they're home, and if we yell they might answer, because we don't knock on doors, we yell.) And 2. Maria had just gotten home from school! We had a great talk with Maria to see what her beliefs are and I think it went well. Also they moved right after we talked to Maria, so if we tried to find her another day, she would'nt have been there.

Before and After Jenna's Dirt Diva skills

I also felt like visiting Orlando, and I could tell it was me following another prompting. Other citas (appointments) fell, so I tried to think of where to contact. I thought of some streets that were far away, but I just felt like going to one of them. We found some people conveniently sitting outside in their chairs on the street, and we met Bryda who has been to our church before! She told us to come back the next day. I came back with Hermana Earl and Bryda was with two joven (young) brothers who were Italian, and not super interested. And all 3 said they had to go back to Europe soon, but Bryda said she would for sure go to church this Sunday. Bryda didn't even go to church, but one of the Italian boys went all by himself! He said he liked it, and we asked if he wanted us to come to his house and teach him more, but he said no. I know that there wasn't much that came out of that, but it was nice to look back and feel like I was in the right place at the right time. And to recognize my own promptings!

Favorite lesson from this week: We taught William the Restoration (we explain that Christ's church fell so that they understand that a Restoration of His church was necessary, and that it happened! through Joseph Smith.) I was kind of worried because William is a doctor, so he's intellectual and he knows the Bible inside and out, and I don't. But his heart was SO OPEN and we told him about when Joseph Smith saw God and we recited the words Joseph Smith wrote about his experience and when we finished he took a deep breath and said "Whoa. That's fuerte (powerful)." And he told us that he feels this feeling in his chest, and my comp told him that that's the Holy Ghost testifying that this is true. I've never taught anyone who was so blown away by our message.

I'm sorry for writing so much, I hope it's not boring. We didn't break any keys or bank cards or get lice but it still felt like a wicked whack week.

I love you all!
Love,Hermana LuHAN

Be More Loving

We got some hefty mangoes!

Family,

I am so jealous you've all held baby Hannah!!
 

More adventures this week:

 

We had 3 intercambios. Because Hermana Earl is an Hermana Leader, that means we have to trade off with the 6 girls we're in charge of, plus the super Hermana Leaders. I got to be the senior companion for the first time! I was with two girls who only had 3 months on the mission, and one was a gringa! But she knows as much Spanish as I do with 7 months. All went well. We have two more intercambios planned for this week, but I didn't get my whole apoyo/ money, and gua gua guys like to rip off Americans. So hopefully I can afford everything.

We broke our house key. It all played out pretty suspicious, looking back. We were walking home last night in a hurry because it was about to bucket, and we kept seeing all these flashes of lightning in the distance. About 3 minutes from home we saw a big black cow in the street and we stopped to take a picture. Of course, only then a guy contacts us and talks to us for 5 minutes until it started really coming down. Then we had to run because now we're late to be in the house and we're getting soaked. We get to the gate outside our house and I can't hardly see because it's super dark and there's so much rain. I turn the key once to unlock it and then I turn it again to pull out the bolt out of the lock without hardly any force, and pop! the key breaks and we're stranded outside our house in the pouring rain!

 

Our mega water bottles

Our neighbors across the street let us wait under their porch until the rain stopped. After the rain goes down, my comp notices that the other gate to the house (which is never open) was left open the entire time and so that great. Now I just hope our neighbors downstairs, who use the same gate, don't lock us out until we can get a new key :) This all started with that big black cow!

Homemade Domican shoes with little metal brands from clothing

We are seeing blessings. We keep meeting more promising people. And my lice went away. And an investigator came to church. And I bought a Bueno Bar. Also God finally sent me a Bon Bike (a guy who sells Bon ice cream on a bike) and so I finally got to buy ice cream.

I love learning and growing in the gospel. I found a Come Follow Me manual so I can finally follow along with the rest of the world! I like Paul. I like 1 Cor 1:27: "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty" because sometimes God chooses 2 little 20-year old gringas who hardly know Spanish (weak, foolish) and puts them together as companions and lets them conquer Madre Vieja Sur (mighty).

Goal for the week is to be more loving. I was reading an article Mom sent me and Elder Cook's talk from last general conference, and they're both about how we have to do the gathering of Israel with love. I wish I had a more open, loving heart. 💓

Love,
Sneaky little rat
(Story: We contacted a guy washing his car and he responds to us in fluent English. He put an appointment with us to return, but when we came back he wasn't there. We stopped by a different day and found him. We told him in English "sorry we are dropping by unannounced, but we wanted to know if you had time for us to share a quick message." He laughed and said "sneaky little rats." Then he let us in.)

A New Lease on LICE!

Hi Family!

My comp and I had more adventures this week. After we got home from our last P-day adventure, with the whole crazy bank card incident, everything whacky that had happened, I itched my head and a big bug was crawling on my hand. I flicked it away. Then I itched my head again and the same bug came out! Then I asked my comp to look at my head. I have LICE!🐞

This predicament is totally whackola because I was in Azua for 4 months with some very dirty children-- you could practically see the lice crawling around their heads from a distance. Then I come to this rich city and just now I get lice! Hermana Earl is super patient and pulls lice out of my head for hours. It's still not totally gone yet.

Also my companion is an Hermana Leader of 6 sisters way outside our zone. Wednesday we got a call that we need to have intercambios with a sister who is sick with Dengue Fever clear out in Haina. We expertly navigated Dominican public transport (guaguas) and I sat in the house with the sick sister for a few hours and read PMG (Preach My Gospel)with lice treatment in my hair while my companion ran around Haina.

Then we get a call that we're going to have Hermana Leader Training in the capital on Friday. We navigated the guaguas again because neither of us really knew how to get there. We weren't really in our area much this week, but we still had 15 new investigators (more than I ever had last transfer), but nobody went to church, except one guy who is the investigator of the elders in another area.

Also I got a camera adapter! But I can't send pics because we're in the internet cafe that gave my other camera memory a virus. I don´t risk it! Next week...

We are finally finding people with potential! Our hard work is paying off. I don't want to write about them because whenever I write about the people we're teaching, I jinx it and then they stop progressing. But it's refreshing to have people who are generally interested in learning about God, as opposed to the other people who think we're just here to share pretty Bible scriptures.

I love sharing the gospel. I love searching and feasting on the scriptures, and learning new things every day. I like to see myself improving everyday.

Love,
Hermana Looplan (Jen has been sharing the many pronunciations of her name each week) 😁

Angels Among Us!

Hermana Earl

Hi family!

I have a new companion! Hermana Earl! She's the best! She's a gringa like me, and we learn Spanish together. She has a year on the mission and this is her fifth area. (Jen is still having photo loading issues, so no current pictures of Hermana Earl yet.  Snagged this one off the internet.)

This week, in my quest to forget numbers, I got the best numbers I've ever received on my mission. Hermana Earl taught me how to forget numbers and just work. She teaches me what it actually means to "talk with everyone" (a goal on the mission) and how to love everyone we talk to. Also, she totally blew me away with how she took this stubborn area by the reins and now we are totally winning. This is going to be a good transfer.

This week we had lots of adventures. One was when we were teaching someone and there was a flash flood. Domincans don't like rain or lightning, so we just sat in Elisa's garage with some neighbors that found refuge with us and waited for 3 hours until the water in the streets went down enough and the Elisa actually let us leave.

Saturday was a long day. Most of our appointments fell through and we contacted for a long time under an especially hot sun 🌞. We contacted probably one of the most conniving, meanest people I've ever met in my life, and everyone wanted us to just leave them alone.  Lots of "we already have our religion, why don't you go find some actual lost souls." Also we were fasting. It was a sad day.

Then we saw a member far off crossing the street. We waved and then he almost walked away, but then seemed really conflicted-- as if he didn't know if he should come talk to us or not. Well thank goodness he listened to the Spirit and talked to us. He gave us a reference of a woman whose husband was a member, but he died and thought we should visit her. We had a great chat with her, and we're going to visit her later. I don't know what will come of it, but I'm still happy we could visit her.

Also, just today we had a whack adventure. Hermana Earl just happened to forget her PIN to her bank card (we take out money today) the same PIN she's been using her entire mission, and I told her, "No problem, I'll pay for groceries." Well, in between the time that I took out my money and the time we finished grocery shopping, someone broke the ATM only we didn't know, so Hermana Earl (who at this point remembers her PIN) puts her card in the ATM and then it gets stuck! And we didn't know what to do! So for 45 minutes, we have all these angel people come and try to help us.

Story of the Three Angels (Hector is in the middle)

Angel 1 bought us tweezers and nail clippers to try to pull out the card (didn't work) Angel 2 (a less active named Hector) let us use his phone to try to call the bank, and Angel 3 drove us and our groceries to the nearest Scotia bank and waited with us for an hour in line until they told us we have to cancel the card. Also Angel 2 Hector walked all the way up at the bank (a 30 min walk) just to see if everything was okay. They both stayed with us until we figured everything out, and then Angel 3 drove us all the way home. I tried to pay him and he refused. He goes to a church called Oracion Contestada (Answered Prayer), and de verdad (truly) he was an answer to prayer. Also it restored my faith in Dominicans after we met all those wackos on Saturday. They are some of the nicest people I've ever met in my life.

I think that sums up my week. God is good. I am so happy to be here. I can't believe I already have 7 months.

Love you all!
Hermana Gooselang