Sunshine in My Soul!

Family!  This week had lots of highlights and also some I-need-to-pray-for-more-patience moments.

Everything from having 9 people in church! and hanging out with Mama Taty! to getting stuck up in Cacao until 8 at night (we normally go down at 4 or 5) because the last guagua decided he wouldn't take us because there weren't enough passengers, and it wasn't worth it for him to go down. And we tried to flag down anyone who would give us a ride for several hours with no luck. Finally, we found a ride with a guy who was going to the capital and we lived on the way, so we were in no way inconvenient for him, but he still made us pay $1000 pesos! (Jen says this is only $20, but it is like asking for $50)

Mesi and Chichi, the two cutest Haitian kids we teach

Jenna playing a card game with Isbeka

We have FOUR people scheduled to be baptized in November. This will be my first baptism since I left Azua, my first area. I am so happy! All four of them live in this itty-bitty town some 30 minutes walk above Cacao called Las Avispas. I can't believe how random and crazy it is that I am a bajillion miles away from my home in this random town to find all these people that have just been waiting for the gospel! I like knowing I'm being used in God's hands.😊

  A guy with his green guineos (bananas)

I am trying to learn There is Sunshine in My Soul Today in Creole. Hermana Lopez and I made an Oreo smoothie on Friday, and we've been running everyday we don't need to go to Cacao or have Church (which is like 3 days of the week, but) and we are working hard every day rain or shine. But lately there's been more rain ☂ than shine.

I love you family! I hope you have a great week.
Hermana Ludlam

I made an agenda for Hermana Rubio. She likes pandas.

and Alberto (recent convert) making fritos

12 People at Church!

Fam!

I had a good week! This week the guagua for Cacao was up and at 'em and brought 7 people to church! And even though our phone ran out of minutes, and all odds were against us, and we didn't know how we could remind everyone to come to church, we still had a whopping total of 12 people we're teaching at church!! Woo hoo-- that's my record.

The ward members were AWESOME at accommodating everyone! They took everyone to their classes and scavenged the building for enough seats, and gave their Bibles to people who didn't have one, and one guy translated for our two Hatian investigators! I hope the visitors could feel how happy everyone was to have them!

In the picture above ↑, some drunk guy bought us breakfast while we waited for a guagua to take us to Cacao. Originally, he bought Malta Morena (liquid cardboard and stale carbon monoxide) and crackers, but Belito let us switch the Malta for chocolate milk, bless his heart.💓

Me, Alberto (recent convert), and Colombina from Cacao

We also had a great Zone Conference this week. We talked about lots of things. Our mission president is very motivated. He has caught the vision, he says.

Another good thing is that Hermana Lopez and I will be together for another transfer! 6 more weeks. We are going to conquer. 💑

I also gave a talk in church this week. I remembered to write it an hour before church. And I think it went okay.

We taught some Haitian girls who ended up coming to church the same week we found them! They don't really speak Spanish and we don't really speak Creole, and it was super stressful, but also super funny and we are definitely going back with a translator.

We bought $6000 pesos worth of food this week because the money came in and I got to go back to my area in Madre Vieja and --  ha ha --  I met my old freco (flirty person) friend. He remembers my name and I don't remember his. We transported our groceries from the moto taxi to the carrito to our house and struggled very much to carry all of our groceries to the house, but Dominicans came from far and wide to help us. I love how service-y people are here. <3

I love reading Nephi's story because it reminds me of my own conversion story. Born of goodly
parents, asked to leave my riches behind (to live in a 3rd world country), being blessed of the Lord, and being tied up by my siblings (jk). I like how Nephi just goes and DOES things and he doesn't have vergüenza (shame) and he doesn't question or doubt things.


Have a great week!
Hermana Ludlam

 

Mountains from Cambita. Too bad you can't tell how giant they are.

 

Me in the mountains driving through an itty bitty town

People are already getting their Christmas stuff out!

Dominican Moonpie and Conference! Can you see the message in the corner of the laptop screen that says I have bad internet?

Dominican: Do you want an orange? *has four oranges and only one of them is orange, but its not even an actual orange!
Me: What?

 This is Alberto's chick. My comp named him Chicken Nugget. I think being in a pan and the thought of becoming a real chicken nugget was a sensory overload for this chick. He died two days after this pic was taken.

The guagua driver pulled over to pick us up on the side of the road but he felt a little sleepy so we waited for him to take a 5 minute power nap before we got back on the road.

We're Starting a Church!

Welcome to Los Cacaos!

Hi Fam!

Woo! Cambita! I love my new area. It's just a tiny branch, but the members are on fire! Especially the recent converts! There's lots of work to do here.

We're starting a church! 🏫

There's a little town called Los Cacaos about an hour's drive away-- clear up in the mountains, and the branch president had it in his bonnet to start a branch up there, so Hermana Lopez and I make the trip up there twice a week! Missionaries haven't ever tried to get up there before but we are finding so many people READY and it's super exciting!!

Albert is the first convert in this town and he has ganas (desires) to baptize the whole mundazo (world). He's the best member missionary ever! He takes us to meet all his friends. Our only progressing investigators are from Cacao i.e. Marlon, who accepted a fecha to be baptized his first cita, and Boly told us she had a dream that she has to join our church. Didi is almost ready to be baptized, and he wants to bring his kids, too, now. We keep meeting all these prepared people.

Good luck on the guaguas!

The only stressful part is catching the guaguas to get up and down because nothing has a fixed schedule-- and this week the guagua didn't come to pick up the investigators for church! Only Alberto and Didi made it down on a motorcycle, and 5 were left waiting above. We could've had 8 investigators total at church :/

Even though Hermana Lopez and I get reimbursed for the $1000 pesos we spend getting up to Cacao every week, we're still left super super poor, so if anyone wants to send us some poor people recipes, we could use those. I don't know how we're going to pay to get up this week. I wish there was some possible way to capture how beautiful the drive is to Cacao. I love mountains! 🌄

Falls in Los Cacaos

Have a great week family! I love you!
Hna Ludlam

Surprise Transfer to Cambita!

Jenna's new area, Cambita, near San Cristobal

Hi familia!

Guess who didn´t last 3 weeks in the capital? I just got emergency transfered to Cambita Garabitos (I'm back in San Cristobal!) and my new comp is Hermana Lopez from Mexico! I'm so excited. She's a great missionary. She's one of the missionaries who blanked my first area in Azua (meaning after they took out me and Hermana Rubio, Hermana Lopez and another missionary had to start from scratch). It was great to have her tell me about how everyone is doing!

A little lower elevation now (red marker)

Azua is thriving thanks to those sisters(and a new branch president)! If you read the blog post from May 20, there´s a guy named Jesús that got goosebumps when we read a scripture, and Hermana Lopez ended up baptizing him! He's a super super strong member now. Happy for Jesús!

They closed my last area in Los Alcarrizos, so no more missionaries are going there. I'm very happy to be in Cambita.😊

Also, General Conference (click here)! Woo!! Except I'm just gonna have to wait for the Liahona to come out with all the written talks because the internet was just the biggest headache. I watched it in English with another Hermana and sometimes we would finish a half hour after everyone watched it in Spanish because it would lag every .5 seconds. Very hard to follow.

President Nelson wasn't kidding about taking your vitamins (click here to watch)! I feel like this conference was like last conference, part two, and that their messages are to get people ready to receive the Messiah and help us obtain the highest happiness. I also noticed the main focus of all these changes they're making, starting with the shift from visiting teaching to ministering, is to take away any check box approaches to living the gospel. You cannot just be a church–on–Sunday member anymore! Wheat and tares divided like the Red Sea. Woosh! Also how many speakers said the word ¨distraction¨ and how many people spoke about ¨joy¨?

I hope everyone has a great week! I love you all!
Hermana Ludlam