In Limbo

My Thanksgiving

Hi Family!

I had kind of a wild week. I am being transferred, again. I do not know to where, or who will be my next companion. All I know is that I will miss my companions so much! They're so amazing and so fun. This Thanksgiving, I am grateful for Hermana Lopez and Hermana Reyes.

My Thanksgiving consisted of a lovely feast of bread with smashed avacado on it, and a special "morir soñando" concoction. (morir soñando is sour oranges mixed with carnation milk and ice and then at the end you dump in 2 pounds of sugar.)

I hit 11 months on the mission yesterday! And I have a hole in my shoes :) I keep forgetting to take pictures of the hole. The rest of my shoe is entirely in tact, so its not worth throwing them out and looking for more. I get by with making patches.

This week I got a copy of Saints! And I am chipping away at it. Mom sent me a talk called "The

measure of our hearts" that I reread this week. I like how God doesn't look on our outer appearances or abilities. He measures us by our hearts, and whether we have soft hearts, or willing hearts, or honest hearts.

I love you family! Thanks for all your letters.
Love,

Hermana Ludlam

He 100% Perfectly Loves Me

Santo Domingo Temple, DR

Hi family!

Whack week. Check this out:

1. I don't have parasites
2. I got put in a TRIO
3. After being in a trio for two days, they white washed my area and emergency transferred me to a different area. Still in the same branch, same Cambita. But no more Cacao (my mountain town) and there goes the baptisms we had planned :/
4. I went to the temple today!!! Those are good buildings. We ought to have more.
5. A letter Mom sent a month ago finally arrived! And it could've have gotten here at a better time. It gave me lots of animo (enthusiasm), and I realized I'm kind of, well not kind of, I'm super ungrateful to God and all the amazing blessings he has given me!!

Lately I've just been frustrated with my ability to receive and recognize revelation, and somehow it eventually turned into me feeling like I don't know how to recognize the Spirit, which turned into me thinking maybe God doesn't really talk to me. How silly.

I definitely learned that is not the case this week. I don't understand why God let me be confused for so long, but I think everyone has to learn to trust His timing. He certainly does talk to me, He knows what I'm going through, and He absolutely 100% perfectly loves me and shows it in a perfect way. I just have to stop focusing on everything I don't have and focus on how God has blessed me.

I'm still with Hermana Lopez! But now Hermana Reyes is my companion too. They are gifted teachers and like to work hard. I don't know what will happen at this end of this transfer in a week, but hopefully we'll get lots of work done in the time we have together.

I love you family!! Happy Thanksgiving.

Love,
Hna Luna (a mispronunciation of my name that I liked this week)

Parasites...?

On the road to Las Avispas

Hi family!

This week was pretty good. We found some new people that I am very hopeful for.

Romeo Santos came to San Cristobal (the province where I am) and offered a free concert, but I didn't go.

Here is how my week went:

1. My comp and I have parasites.

Hitching a ride in a truck

2. My comp and I decided we're only going to Cacao (my town in the mountains) once a week, as opposed to 2 or 3. The people aren't progressing as well and our baptisms fell through for now.

3. We had Stake Conference this week! It was all about missionary work, and how much the church in San Cristobal is growing. I saw all my friends from the Madre Vieja Ward (my old area) and it was a happy time!

Jen's house!  See her Christmas tree in the window?

4. In the MTC, I learned that missionaries bring the gospel message to the hearts to the investigators, and the Spirit brings the message INTO the hearts. But last week my mom told me that she taught something different in Seminary-- that the Spirit only brings the message to the heart, and that the investigators invite the message INTO their hearts.

We must all choose to accept truth. In my scripture study, I found that the full pattern of conversion kind of looks more like:

• We hear the gospel message (whether taught by missionaries or seminary teachers or the prophet)
• The Spirit carries the message to our hearts (2 Ne 33:1)
• We have sufficient faith
• God changes our hearts (Alma 5:7)
• We "awake unto God," and are humbled, and we put our trust in God.
• Then we endure faithful to the end

So my mom was right-- it requires our agency to accept what we hear/ receive.

Jenna, Criseily, Hermana Lopez, and Crismeily

5. Some homeless lady on the street passed by our house this week (we leave our door open, because that's what everyone does to show you're home) and yelled at us while we were studying and told us she's come to give us our diagnosis of AIDS. How kind. I'm more enferma (sick) than I thought.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Love,
Hermana Lu (because Ludlam is too hard to pronounce)

I wanted you to see their man buns, but it is too dark!

Fried Oreos

Hermana Lopez and her glamorous eyewear

Alberto catching up to the sisters

A doll I liked!

Metestifies

Rain in DR today = No Internet = A favorite photo of Jenna from 2017 😊

Fam:

This week was a little whacky. They called on Tuesday to tell us we have zone conference in Azua on Thursday-- which takes up the majority of the day with travel. It's kind of hectic to have something so big thrown in our schedule last minute, especially when we were planning to do intercambios (switch off with other sister missionaries) that day. But we just planned to switch after the conference.

Then after the conference, I was told that the intercambios aren't happening because my comp was going to the capital to have her eyes checked, so I ended up spending a day and a half with Hermana Reyes. So, we still had intercambios, just not as planned.

We had church up in Cacao this week. This means someone from the bishopric (Daddy Bup isn't a Bishop anymore!!) and a member or two come with us to have a quick sacrament meeting/ gospel principles class. It takes the whole afternoon because it takes so long to get up and down the mountain, so it's a big sacrifice for us. It's also $$$. We try to do it often though because it's so much more convenient for all the people we're teaching-- And yesterday only one person came!! It was the biggest bummer. But I'm glad Yisel could make it because she's getting baptized next week! I'm so excited for her.

While I was with Hermana Reyes this week, I got to read the first 60 pages of Saints (you can read here)! I never realized what a big deal it was for Joseph to actually retrieve the gold plates. All those years of angelic boches (chastisements) and nothing to show for it! Until he finally gets them-- and then that brings its own challenges. But also it re-emphasizes how much God was SUPER careful in preserving that record. And maybe just the fact that God was so protective of it is reason enough to not just read it, but feast on it. Methinks it's an important book. Metestifies that it's an important book, because I have seen what it has done for the converts in Cambita! I've never been in an area where the converts quickly become more converted than the members who have been around the whole time. The Book of Mormon is so powerful.

I love you, Family. Hope you have a great week!
Hermana Ludlam

That is Some Good Soil

Happy Halloween from the DR Divas!

 Hi Family!

We went up to Cacao three times this week!  We get dizzy from that guagua making all those turns!

Little Isbelka makes another appearance this week!

To answer Mom's questions from her letter: Yes, I do use my solar Luci light! It gives me light and reminds me of Luci. Congrats for getting your patriarchal blessing Luci! I can't wait to hear all about you.

Halloween doesn't exist here. Everyone knows what it is, and dique there's some people "out there" who dress up, but I didn't see anyone. Everyone has been DECKED for Christmas since October 1st.

I read Joseph Smith History this week. That is a good book. I don't remember the last time I ever read past the First Vision part. I also really liked Oliver Cowdery's words at the end. I want to get all refreshed on my church history before the next general conference and I'm starting now. (Click here to understand why Jenna is starting to study now.)

We flooded our apartment ☺

We met Karen this week. She's an "intellectual" who "thinks they are wise," so they hearken not. Which is too bad. We tried teaching her about Joseph Smith, and she found some interesting things to be bothered about. "Joseph said God was as bright as the sun. If someone looks at the sun, they go blind." And so I guess that discounts the entire First Vision. Then she kept trying to cite stories in the Bible. All I heard was vain jangling (reference from Come Follow Me). I used my expert AP Environmental Science knowledge and graded her soil as "thorny" because when we planted the seed, it got choked by worldly things. Learn from Karen, and don't be Karen.

Be like Colombina. We have only taught Colombina a few times, and she doesn't talk much, but my companion and I both feel she is good. She always comes to church even though she lives up the mountain and past the bogs of the hinterlands. In Sunday School, she heard we don't drink coffee. The next time we taught her, she told us that she hasn't been drinking coffee-- and we never even taught the Word of Wisdom! That is some good soil.

As Hermana Lopez says, Estamos tocando los cielos!" We are touching the sky! She also says, "We are eating healthy. We have the companionship of the Spirit and that is what is most important." I agree.

I love you family! Besos!
Hermana Ludlam

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.