Dominican Republic Flag

Dominican Republic Flag

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Two Weeks In!

Wow, it's already 2 weeks in! me really does fly by on missions!!!

So... What did I do this week?

We taught our "investigator" Victor on Saturday... all in Spanish but it went well. We teamed up with elders Martinez and Skinner and they were teaching at the time, and couldn't remember how to say something so they were looking through their notes and Victor says in a strong Dominican Accent.... "You look more lost than Adam on Mother's Day!" We nearly died laughing... All of us were seriously crying and laughing for 5 minutes straight... Not sure exactly why it was so funny, but I think our brains were fried from speaking a language we don't even know! 

On Saturday Hermana Brimley and I went running around the temple grounds for our exercise... we met some other Hermanas nearly done witht their missions... one was american and the other was latina. We were able to talk with them in Spanish and they were surprised that we knew so much after only 1 week of speaking it! 
Right before Saturday dinner we were talking about how we really wanted hamburgers and pizza... something "American." well, we get to dinner and what do we have? HAMBURGERS! and then we realized that the next day was Sunday, which means PIZZA for dinner!!!! haha it was a great night!

The old missionaries left on Tuesday morning :( I really miss them! They will do amazingly on their missions! Well, after they left there were only 16 missionaries in the entire MTC! AND Hermana Brimley and I were the only 2 Hermanas! It was a little weird but nice because we didn't have to wait in line for food.
Hermana Twiner and Hermana Brimley trying to develop accents.
Apparently sticking a pen in your mouth helps to develop an accent.


Oreos in the Dominican Republic taste better according to Hermana Twiner. :)
MTC


                                                                             Santo Domingo temple

Thursday, September 18, 2014

September 18, 2014: First Week Down

SO, I've been here for over a week now! Crazy! The first two days were really long and tiring, but everyday seems to go faster now! Spanish is going well... I bore my testimony in church on Sunday... IN SPANISH!!!!!
You can see the ocean from the MTC... The temple is right in front, so it's absolutly GORGEOUS!
My companion is Hermana Brimley, who I knew over Facebook before I came! She's really nice, and we get along super well, but it's still hard to get accustomed to being by someone's side 24/7. But it's all good!!!
My brain feels completely fried from having so much spanish crammed in... I've already begun thinking in SpanGLISH... I even had a dream in Spanish once.
Funny story-- Two elders in my district have been having a hard time with learning the language, but the other day Elder Skinner told us that he was woken up in the middle of the night becuase the two elders were speaking spanish to each other. One said "Me gusta Español!" and the other replied "Oh! Yo tambien!" They didn't remember it in the morning, so they were sleeptalking in Spanish to each other!
It's been physically and emotionally exhausting... but I love it! I'm leaving for Santiago on Oct. 21 (My sister's 16th birthday!)
Tomorrow we are going to the University tomorrow to contact people.
Hermana Twiner
 Elder Martínez, Elder Skinner, Elder Tippets, Elder Holbrooke, Elder Nielson, and Elder Borries... And then Hermana Brimley and Hermana Twiner


Hermana Twiner and the Mission President and his wife


Hermana Twiner in Santo Domingo, Domincan Republic

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Where Has the Time Gone?!

In 1 WEEK I will be getting set apart as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! I had my farewell talk at church on Sunday and my farewell open house Sunday night.
For my church farewell my mom, sisters, and I performed Rob Gardner's arrangement of "Savior Redeemer of My Soul." My youngest sister Kara and I played our violins at the beginning and then we all had a singing solo. :) My mom also did a wonderful job at playing the piano for us! I began choking up at the end because I felt the Spirit so strongly and was again given that feeling of peace at my decision to serve a mission.


At 6pm on the dot a HUGE wave of people came to our house at the same time... Usually only one or two people arrive on time and then the rest trickle in, but by 6:03 we had at least 10 people there! We counted over 70 people in all who came throughout the night! We had to let people out onto our back porch to make enough room!


Here are some pictures!


My mom came up with this cute idea to have everyone write notes of encouragement for hard days on my mission. She's also awesome at making everything look fabulous!!
We also had everyone sign one side of my pillowcase... The other side I will have my mission companions sign it!
It was wonderful to see that so many people respect and support my decision to serve... Both member and non-member! I had several non-LDS friends attend both my sacrament meeting talk and my open house! I had such a good time talking with everyone!

And of course, how could we pass up an opportunity to take silly pictures?



Overall, I had a wonderful time visiting with friends and family. I had no idea the support and love everyone had for me! I'm so grateful for them and the courage and strength I have already gained from their fellowship.