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Saturday, November 15, 2014

November 15... 10 Things I've Learned

Ok so I have learned a lot in the past few weeks... Just so you know... The DR is a whole new world!
 
1) We don't say siesta for nap... we say "voy a tener una pavita," which literally means, 'I''m going to have a little turkey."
 
2) Dominicans are obsessed with playing dominos... I don't know why.
 
3) Dominicans have NO safety rules... they'll take newborn babies in one hand and a tv in the other and then drive a motorcycle. I'm not even exaggerating.
 
4) The moths are on steroids... I think they are man-eating.
 
5) To save time and money, they let their little kids run naked... the only problem is, is that I've already gotten peed on.
 
6) Dominicans love Americans... I've been told that I'm "precioso"at least 10 times a day in the past 3 weeks.
 
7) Roosters don't know when the sun comes up... I get woken up at 4:30 every morning. I think I might have a chicken dinner sometime this week...
 
8) The bishop asked me if I had Mitt Romney and Thomas S. Monson's phone number.
 
9) The adults are children here... Our missionary activity on Sunday consisted of the bishop makingus wait outside and come into the chapel one by one to play this game called Rey Jabba Jabba... we had to beat the ground with a broom and say YO SOY EL REY JABBA JABBA and then sit down in a chair.... they put water in the chair so everyone but the bishop looked like they wet themselves.
 
10) The DR is beautiful... It may not seem like it in some places, but whenyou realize that this is simply another part of God's beautiful earth that is inhabited by His children, it really is paradise.
 
Con amor,
Hermana Krislee Twiner

Week of November 5th Update

I just want to thank everyone for your prayers in my behalf. For those who didn´t know I was having a REALLY hard time last week... like, almost giving up hard. I was hit with a sudden anxiety and depression that caught me off guard so I didn´t know how to handle it.
Don´t worry... I´m over it now and it´s completely normal for missionaries in a forgein country learning a foreign language to have a little depression to start out with.
ANYWAYS...
I was about to give up hope... i had been praying for relief and reading my scriptures for days and days and I couldn´t feel anything... I was panicking and sinking lower and lower into a depression.
On Thursday I literally couldn´t get out of bed. I had even lost the will to pray. All I could manage was say a quick ¨help me¨to heavenly father. later that day we went to a lady´s house to teach her English when I got a call from the doctor, checking up on how this allergic reaction i had been having was doing. I also mentioned my anxiety, and she said that she would tell Elder Plaskett about it. (I am good friends with the plasketts... Thanks, Plasketts btw if you are reading this!) 
Anyways Elder Plaskett called me and I talked with them for a few minutes. Then The mission president´s wife Sister Douglas called me, inviting me to stay with them at the mission home for a week. 
I literally went from feeling so alone and hopless to knowing that I was cared for and loved in a matter of minutes! God really does answer prayers!

Anyways, we went down to Santiago on Friday to the mission office to wait for the douglas´s. (THey were in a conference in Santo Domingo) We talked with some of the senior missionaries there and I met the Carrolls, who live in NAUVOO! (my favorite place to visit)
The douglass were running late, so the nurse and her husband (the granges) took us to their apartment for dinner. It was halloween, so chili was good! 
the douglass were getting back super late, so the granges arranged for us to sleep in an empty apartment above them that the church has for a senior couple thats coming next month. SUPER NICE! it had hot water, which is 100X better than the cold buckets showers we have to take! 
then the granges took us out for ice cream... needless to say we were happy!

the next day i went to the mission home. I met with both of pres and sister douglas... they are amazing! sis douglas has a multi million dollar charity for the leprosy colonies in india called rising star. she also served a mission at 19 forty years ago... she bothered the mission committee enought that they finally let her go! Only she could pull that off!
I was the only child of the douglass for 2 days... my companion returned to mao with a mini companion. I cooked and cooked with hna douglas... we chopped 96 cups of turkey and chicken on monday! 
I wish I could tell you all how amazing they are... they are simply marvalous! 
Anyways, hna douglas cracks me up because she caught me studying with only my lamp on in my room and she said ¨Girly, get some light on... dark doesn´t help your depression!¨

Anyways... I don´t want to go through what i did ever again, but I am so grateful i did because of what I learned from myself and because I am now so much stronger than I was at this time last week. I still feel a little anxious, but I feel so much more prepared this time.

I got back in Mao yesterday... I had to squash a rumor that I had gone home... anyways... I met my first ¨mean dominican...¨ We approached her house and I introduced us a missionaries in SPANISH and she replies ¨I don´t understand English¨ and she gave me a mean look. she was also mean to hna gonzalez because we were mormons. anyways, we left her house and headed to the church for a meeting and it started pouring... the elders were sick so we decided to leave because the streets flood really badly here. we get to this intersection not far from our house and these guys were behind us whistling at me and calling me a pretty blonde (they don´t know that I understand spanish)
Anyways this intersection was literally a pond and sister gonzalez went first. she slipped and I grabbed her to catch her... she lost her shoe! She starts screaming it in english, which i thought was funny because it isnt her first language!
Anyways one of the guys behind me grabs my hand and tries to get me to go in the water with him... Hna gonzalez is in themiddle of the street dancing on one foot still laughing and screaming. I´m freaking out because this guy won´t let go of my hand... then he TRIES TO PICK ME UP TO CARRY ME ACROSS!!!!!!! I start shouting ¨NO! ESTA BIEN! GRACIAS; PERO ESTA BIEN!¨ Hna gonzalez was freaking out as well because she was stuck in the water. We somehow make it across, soaking wet and laugh all the way back because H. Gonzalez had only one shoe. 
We also helped a family on a motorcycle (Yes, and entire family on a motorcycle... 2 women and 2 children) get out of a puddle... we held the baby while they pulled it out and she begins screaming for her mom. Anyways it was an adventurous night.

I love you all and hope you are doing well! 
El Evangelio es verdadero y Jesucristo les ama muchisimo!


(Sorry for not updating lately.)