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Sunday, November 8, 2015

The Gospel Just Hit Me... Like A Truck

Ok so this week has been interesting, as my companion has had a series of minor health issues.
BUT...
On Monday I had an awesome companion exchange with Hermana Anderson from Virginia. We went with a member named Ellie to a referral named Wendi. She was super sweet.
Then we visited Brittany, our recent convert. She has been sick lately, so it was good to see her again.
Then we went and asked the store to set some things aside for a Young Women´s activity that we are doing on Friday, THEN we contacted another referral from the Assistants to the President. 
Their names are Jonathan and Cati. Jonathan is Dominican but lived in Pennsylvania for 22 years. We asked them how they met the elders, and they were like, ¨They didn´t tell you?¨
Then they told us that they were on their motorcycle when a big white truck came the wrong way and caused them to crash. Cati was showing us her bruises and scratches. ¨I had a hole in my ankle!¨ she said.
She said that a ¨Gringo¨ (American) and a Mexican came out and were freaking out. They gave her a blessing. They ended up having to pay 2,000 pesos for the damage and medical care, but Cati let them go pretty easily. They managed to get their contact info and they wanted us to pass by. 
That would be the BEST conversion story, wouldn´t it? 

In other things...
Juana and Tony came to church! Tony is less active but is coming back. He even got up and bore his testimony, saying that we are working with his wife so that they could get sealed in the temple! 

Tomorrow is my one year mark in the mission! Time flies by toooooo quickly!

Love you guys! Thanks for writing me!
Hermana Twiner
Jarabacoa, Republica Dominicana

I Survived a Hurricane and a Waterfall!



​So... that ¨Hurricane¨....  It was raining from Thursday night until about 3pm Friday. We were getting ready to leave when our district leader called and said...

¨Hey you guys had better not leave today.¨
¨What are you guys doing? Just staying in the house?¨
¨Well... My comp just went back to bed...¨

We waited around until 4pm, and there was no rain. So we left to go see some recent converts, and their aunt opened the door and was like, ¨Sisters! What are you doing out of the house? There´s a hurricane coming, we are in the eye of the storm!¨
Having survived a hurricane (Hurricane Katrina in 2005), I got nervous, and said to my comp ¨Hey I think we´d better go home. But first let´s get some snacks.¨
So we went to the supermarket... And our branch president called, saying that we needed to get into the house RIGHT THEN.
So we got home, watched a church movie, and......... NOTHING. We wasted a whole day, thanks to Erika.

The rest of the week in terms of numbers... stinked.

Hermana Kellogg left monday morning ðŸ˜¢ But she´s safely back in California, ready to start BYUI! She left me a bunch of stuff... I like ¨Killing¨ a companion! (¨to kill¨ in missionary terms means to be their last companion before going home.)

I stayed in Santiago for 2 days with Hermana Snow in Nibaje, near the mission office. It was fun... We rocked out to Christmas music. Which reminds me... It´s September now, and Christmas starts in September in the DR!!!!

So now I´m back in Jarabacoa with Hermana Landaverde from El Salvador. She´s 26 years old and is nearly done with her mission. I´m excited to get to know her!

Today we visited a waterfall near my area with the zone!!!  It was beautiful! (I fell down one of the smaller ones, hence the title of the email... My arms hurt because I had 2 people grab me at once and yank me up.

Beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who preach the gospel..

Ok so when I was a kid I loved to play Pirates of the Caribbean online, which was a virtual pirate world where you could fight different kinds of enemies such as zombie pirates, alligators, man eating plants and... Giant caribbean wasps. This week I discovered that I am better at battling Caribbean wasps in the virtual than in the real one... But in my defense on the game I had a sword and was battling only 1 at a time instead of 11. (See below for all the beautiful details.)

I´m really loving training. Hermana Peters is so adorable. She´s practicing her Spanish at every moment possible. It really takes me back to nearly a year ago in my first weeks in the field. You learn a lot in the mission. And I learn more from her than she learns from me I am sure.

We set a baptismal date with our investigator Nelson for Halloween yesterday. I´m really excited for him!

Things are looking up in Jarabacoa. THe members are excited for the work. I gave a talk in church on Sunday and the entire meeting was based on the work.

I love you all!
Hermana Twiner

Quick Note

Everything is going great in Jarabacoa!!! 

We currently have 3 people with a baptismal date... Nelson for Nov 21, Juana for Nov 21 as well and Marlenis for Nov 28!!! I´m super excited! 

Nelson invited us to his house on Monday for a BBQ party and I can officially say that I have eaten the best chicken in the world. We also played Dominos, which is a Dominican favorite. Someone commented ¨Wow they learned really fast!¨Someoneelse said ¨It´s because they´re white!¨ Then I said something in Spanish and he said ¨She learned SPANISH too???¨ haha I love Dominicans.



Rainbows are beautiful here, and I have seen more on my mission than I have ever seen. It rains everyday in the late afternoon which makes it perfect rainbow weather.

Things are going great here in Jarabacoa... I love my mission and I love the people. Sorry I don´t have a lot of time to write a ton!!!

Here are some chicken eggs Nelson gave us... I ate one this morning and it filled me up like 4 eggs.

Surviving a Dominican Hospital for 5 Days... I´ll put that on my resume.

Ok before anyone freaks out I wasn´t sick, but my companion was.
It began a week ago, when she felt really dizzy all the time. On Friday we left the house 2 hours late because she had a migraine, and she was really suffering the entire time we were out, but didn´t want to go home. Our branch president kept telling us to go to the doctor, but we thought she was just a little nauseous.
At 5:30 am Saturday morning I was awakened to her shouting in her sleep... She was delirious with 102 fever. I called our Branch president and he and another member came by and took us to the emergency room. After they stuck her a million times (I felt bad for her because she is scared of needles!) they took us to room 303 and left us there until this morning... Well not exactly. They occasionally left a plate of rice for my companion and would wake us up at all times of the night to take blood tests... I´m not sure if 4am is the best time to wake up a patient, but whatever.
I´m really grateful for the members here in Jarabacoa. I think I gained weight from the food they brought us everyday. On saturday we had basically the entire branch squeezed into our little cell.
Hermana Peters´s family sent her a huge bouquet of sunflowers yesterday... We managed to get it into the house!

But we´re good now! We got out 2 hours ago because Elder and Hermana Grange came and saved us... They wouldn´t even let my companion leave her room until we payed the 19550 peso bill... She wasn´t even supposed to be unhooked from her IV but she took it out by herself.
Well this week was interesting but I sure learned a lot of Spanish medical terms!
Con amor,
Hermana Twiner

The Heroic Tales of Hermana Twiner

Ok sorry for the super cheesy title... My creative juices just aren´t working that well today.

Anyways... We´ve been super busy this week. We´ve made it a goal to contact every person we can on one street, then move on to the next. It´s really fun! Even if they aren´t interested they are usually nice and have interesting things to say. We even met a guy who regularly goes to Utah for work and loves the temple and wants to go inside. He said that we can teach him and he lives right behind the church!

My investigator Nelson is officially the sweetest, cutest old man in the world. He likes to invite us to crackers and cheese and orange juice and told us that he always feels better after our visits. He´s like my Dominican Grandpa.

My companion and I have started to try to get into shape... We´ve started running every day and have cut out sweets and fatty foods... We save a treat for Pday so we have something to look forward to. I´m already feeling better and have more energy. We are taking advantage of the avocados which are in season right now.

This week I hit 13 months... WHAT??? 

I love you all! 
Con amor,
Hermana Twiner

Conference, Yaroa, and Creepy Haitian Guy

Well This week was awesome... General Conference was amazing as always! To watch a session in the church on the computer, we bought yaroa, which is one of the best dominican foods... French fries topped with pork and sauce and cheese. 

We made lots of contacts this week, one of which was a guy from Haiti, who is super nice, but I think he´s more interested in his visa to the US than in the church. He´s come to every activity that we´ve invited him to and he tried to walk home with us last night.... We managed to get out of the church and take a detour. We made it to the corner where there is a big cement wall and BOOK IT! we were laughing... Only in the mission would we have this experiences. 

We have 3 investigators that have accepted to be baptized and we have set an offical  date with one of them.

I am really loving training. My ¨daughter¨ is just amazing. I am learning so much.

Sorry I didn´t have a lot of time to write today, but I love you all bunches!!!!!
Con Amor,
Hermana TWiner

The DR has survived Hermana Twiner for 1 Year!

Wow, I never thought that I would have ever made it this far... It´s definitely been a roller coaster this last year.  But I have learned SO much. I am not the same person that I was this time last year.
This week has also been a roller coaster... not much happened. We are trying to find more people to teach, but it seems like almost everyone isn´t interested.
On Friday we had a Young Women´s activity in President Buret´s house... I taught them the magical deliciousness of Smores! They LOVED it! And of course we ate a rice dish... It´s not a Dominican activity without rice and salami!
We had a lesson with Jackson, an awesome guy from Haiti. He accepts all our doctrine except for one VERY important one... the way in which we baptize. We are still working with him, telling him that God gives us answers depending on our efforts. We´ll keep praying for him.
Today we had Pday Santiago! We went with Hnas Frost and Bradford to the office and PriceSmart (It´s like Sams Club) and Wendy´s. It was pretty amazing. Hermana Frost goes home next week, so it was good to spend some time with her.
I love the mission... it´s the hardest but best thing I´ve ever done!
Con amor,
Hermana Twiner

Actually I'm in my 9th of 13 Transfer

Wow! It´s Wednesday AGAIN???? 
Well, this week was interesting... No baptisms, no one new accepted a baptism invitation, we had no investigators in sacrament meeting (Although we passed by someone´s house and they PROMISED that they would go!) 

Something fun? We went with the Elders to eat pizza at some touristy place in town... They served us some over priced and under flavored cherry juice. Oh, and there were about 20 other Americans there... This may sound strange, but I feel really awkward around Americans. They talk so... American. And they look weird. What´s it going to be like when I am IN America again, surrounded 24-7 by them? 

Our branch president, President Buret, is an awesome chef. He made us pizza last week, which was divine. I just realized that the last two paragraphs were about pizza... 

Have I ever mentioned that Dominicans think that the US is New York? I can´t tell you how many times I have to argue with someone that they are NOT the same thing... Dominican men have a tendency to ask us to marry them so that they can get their visa to ¨Nueva York.¨ Then I tell them that I´m not from New York, and they ask me where I´m from, and I reply the US. Then they say, ¨Well it´s the same thing!¨ 
Luckily there is a map of the US in the back of my Book of Mormon, which I have gladly colored in the state of New York and Tennessee to show that the US is MUCH bigger than New York.

What else happened? Oh yeah! 
My companion and I watched Charly a couple days ago... We cried. 

We are going to change Juana´s baptism date AGAIN because she isn´t coming to church. She´s been worried for her daughter, who was in a serious motorcycle accident about 2 months ago, but she wants to come back. She´s doing great with leaving coffee though!!!!

So we have a Haitian investigator named Jackson who is super smart and really religious... and strong in his opinion. He had a doubt about the manner in which we baptize (In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost), because in Acts 2 Paul tells everyone to be baptized in the name of Jesus. Then 3,000 people were baptized. 
So, I studied especially for him, found Matthew 28,19, when Christ commands his apostles to preach the Gospel and baptize in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost. I happily shared this scripture with him, to which he replied ¨But no one was baptized in this instant!¨ I still don´t completely understand why it has to say that someone had to be baptized in the instant, but I know that what Christ commanded his apostles to do is how we should do it.
It was a struggle to not lose my temper in that lesson...

Another funny Dominican tendency... First lesson... We ask what their beliefs are about God. Then they tell us all about the Virgin Mary. 

I found mint-chocolate cookies! 

Today for a zone activity we had a barbecue and karaoke party, and watched a version of Beauty and the Beast while eating. Everyone got me to sing ¨I Dreamed a Dream¨ from Les Mis.

Well, I love you all very much and hope that everything is well with you! Thanks for your support and prayers on my behalf! 

Con mucho amor,
Hermana Twiner

Beginning Transfer 8 of 13! (August 12)

So today we had transfers! We are finally going to have a normal 6 week transfer! 
I am still in Jarabacoa with Hermana Kellogg!! She´s going home in a few weeks to start school, and I found out that I will be recieving a sister from my group who went home in my first transfer... Yep! That means I´m training!!!
Brittany got baptized on Saturday! It was amazing to see the love and support we recieved from the members. Afterwards we went to her house and made cupcakes in celebration.
Last night we had a girls´ night with our Sister Leaders. We made apple pie and had a good time talking. It was Hermana Bates´s last night... She, Hermana Gonzalez (My trainer) and several other awesome missionaries are going home today. I am grateful for my time in getting to know them.
Funny story... One of our less actives was fed up with her 12 year old son constantly leaving the house on his bike, even when she told him not to, so she told us that she slashed his tires... Just enough to let it explode when he put his weight on it. In that moment her son came up and said ¨Mom! My tire exploded!¨ and she said ¨Well, maybe you should listen better.¨ She was cracking up laughing!
I am loving the mission more than ever... It is amazing how the Lord can change you as you forget yourself and get to work. I love these people and am grateful for how the have embraced me as part of their family.
Love you all, and hope you have a wonderful week!
Con amor,
Hermana Twiner
p.s. I passed my 11 month mark the other day... Can someone tell me how to slow down time?

Monday, August 10, 2015

Week 1 in Jarabacoa!

So I am exhausted, but pretty happy after my first week in my new area! The area is HUGE. I thought Mao was big. It´s huge, and we have only a small branch. 

I´ll admit that I was a little intimidated about being in a branch after serving in Mao, where there are 2 wards, but I have come to love the branch and all the members super quickly. I am currently serving as a missionary, primary pianist, and a counselor in the Young Women´s program.

We had a farewell for the Carrolls, the senior couple who has served in Jarabacoa for nearly 2 years. They are headed home today for their home in Nauvoo, Illinois. For their farewell, the kids sang and played the piano because Sister Carroll had taught them music. We also sang ¨Oh My Father¨ to the tune of ¨Come Thou Fount.¨ I was pleasantly surprized to find that most of the members can actually carry a tune and beat, quite the opposite of my old ward! 

After church on Sunday we had lunch with the Carrolls... We were in charge of it, so we had to wake up early to bake potatoes and make meatballs. It was pleasingly delicious, and we accompanied it with a fruit salad of watermelon, pineapple, and mango, then finished it off with a cake with BLUE icing from the Elders. My mouth was blue for the rest of the day to give you an idea of the incredible blueness of this pastry.

The elders in Jarabacoa are Elders Memmott and Henriques... E. Memmott is from Provo, Utah and Henriques is from Jamaica. It´s interesting to have all English speakers. We try to use spanish as much as possible though.

We have one investigator with a baptismal date named Britany. She´s 15 years old and knows SO much about the gospel. Her testimony is amazing. She is one of those people that makes the missionary feel like the investigator. For example, we were talking about faith with out works is dead. She said that she knew that to be true, because one day she was in the shower and the water ran out and she was praying that the water would come back, when the thought came to her mind that she had to act. She decided to search for water and she found an extra bucket of water sitting beside the shower. She knew she had to search and act to be able to have an answer to her prayer. It´s a simple story, but I really felt the spirit as I listened to her testimony. She´s getting baptized on August 1.

WE HAVE HOT WATER!!!!! I know that that´s not something THAT big when it´s a normal thing, but after 9 months of cold bucket showers, I was really happy to find that our apartment has the rare commodity of hot water. It´s handy because I am currently in one of the ¨Colder¨ areas of the DR.

Well I´m running out of time... Got lots to do! Love you all and miss you all!

Hermana Twiner

Marriage, pioneers, baptisms, and WHAT???? Goodbyes???

So the marriage was a success!!!!!!! We ran out of the internet center to go to Jose and Pola`s marriage. Hermana Gonzalez my trainer came as well, and it was awesome to see her! 
That night we had the pioneer activity.... super successful! Everyone loved it! We had a dance, 3 legged race, tug of war, and of course the legendary stick pull... The bishop and another brother broke the stick. At the end of an activity we found a mouse in the chapel and Elder Ramirez killed it by stepping on it. THEN someone put it in the trashcan without us knowing, so you can imagine how wonderful the chapel smelled two days later.
Saturday we had the baptisms. ´Jose was so funny... He said, ¨Hermana Twiner, I am excited today because I won´t be a dry mormon anymore!¨ Mariela had done Pola´s hair in a cute fishtale braid. We had lots of people come support them.

Monday we had a service with the Mao 1 elders to take down an old fence at a members house. There were ants. Everywhere. That bite. I still have bumps all over my arms and legs.

Tuesday we went to the rest home as a zone and helped out for an hour before sitting down together to find out tranfers. They said that I was going to Jarabacoa!!!! I knew I was going because I already had so much time there, but I couldn´t believe it!

So now I am here in Jarabacoa... In the mountains with Hermana Kellogg! I only have 2 hours or so here, so I´ll tell you more about it next week!

Love yáll!!
Hermana Twiner

Super Quick Note (July 8)

Hey so I don´t have much time today... Jose and Pola are getting married at 3 and afterwards I have to run and get everything ready for the activity. 

But Jose and Pola had their baptismal interview last night and both are ready! I´m getting a little frustrated though with their baptismal records because niether of them knows their birthdays... I looked at Jose´s ID but Pola left hers at the house. 

this is the last week of the transfer... So it´s possible that I won´t be in Mao next week... (bursts out crying.) We´ll see what happens!

sorry I didn´t have a ton of time!
love you all!
Hermana twiner

Rest Homes, Chocolate Oatmeal, and Marriages (July 1)

Ok so I think I might be getting better at titling my emails... Or maybe not. 

ANYWAYS...
We have a new Mission President, President Castillo, who is from here in the DR. I haven´t met him yet, as he got here yesterday, but I am looking forward to seeing him. I´ll definitely miss the Douglas´s and all that they did for me at the start of my mission and throughout the rest, but I´m trying to be positive and see what the Lord has in store for us with the new President.

Ok so the rest home...
We went with the Elders yesterday to help with the Mao rest home. I took pictures, but I am in the library right now and they don´t allow us to connect anything to the computers.
We cleaned the sidewalks and grass before talking with the people there. They are so cute and funny... Elder Ramirez was talking with a lady named Blanquita who called him her boyfriend, and I talked to a woman named Ana who was telling me about her plans to get married and run off to New York. (Dominicans think that the US is New York... I have to explain to several times a week that the US is WAY bigger than New York.) 
Overall I loved the service. The workers recieved us really well and we actually managed to get a few contacts. I hope to do it again before transfers!

Chocolate oatmeal...
We get our support money to buy groceries and such every 15 days or so. Not sure what happened, but somehow every one of us in the house managed to spend all our money and eat all of our food. We had to get really creative with our food. 
I had oatmeal, but no milk or sugar. So what did we do? Hermana Nauca gave me a little bit of Nesquick and we made CHOCOLATE OATMEAL! really tasty and easy to make. 
We got our money yesterday and bought food today... I made sure to buy Nesquick and oatmeal .

Marriage...
Jose and Pola are FINALLY getting married! We´ve been planning their marriage and baptism since March and it´s FINALLY happening! It´s really a blessing that our bishop is a lawyer, who has helped us so much with the process.
They were going to be married this Friday, but we had a little hiccup with the date, so now they are going to be married one week from today on the 8th and baptized on the 11th... Please pray that everything turns out!!!!

Honestly this last week flew by faster than ever... A week used to seem like forever to wait to talk with my family, but now it seems like I log off and then log back on. I can´t believe how fast this transfer is going by... And it´s the longest transfer that I´ll have in my mission! 
I love you all and hope that everything is going well in your lives. You are always in my prayers.

Fe en cada paso
Con amor,
Hermana Twiner

Another Week (June 17)

Hey guys!
So this last week was FILLED to the brim! We are trying to work more with members...last week wasn´t that great, as we only had 4 lessons with member, but somehow we managed to fit in 18 lessons without a member??? Plus a few with less actives and a couple hours of service...

So this last weekend we had to help the elders out because they ran out of money and their gas tank was empty, so we cooked for them two days in a row. The first day we did a prank when we threw them the keys from the balcony to let them up... I put them in a bucket and Hermana Ramirez was recording their reactions as I threw them down... The elders jumped back, because I´m still infamous for dumping a bucket of water on Elder Garcia back in December. 
The next day They just passed by to pick up the food. While we were talking Elder Huertas put down the food on a shelf in the garage and I hid it behind a box. After like 5 minutes they realized it was gone, and they began searching wildly for it, thinking that someone had stolen it. Hermana Ramirez and I were watching them, laughing our heads off... I got all the blame, so I´m watching my back everywhere I go!

Monday I was able to go to Puerto Plata with Hermana Mateo, Elders Huertas and Whitworth, and some future missionaries from Mao 1 Ward to get our teeth checked... STILL CLEAN! I still have my perfect record of NOT having cavities! We arrived at the chapel in a ruta, or a dominican version of a taxi. Basically you fit 7 people in a normal 5 person car. It´s normally not a big deal, except we were squished in there for no less than 1 HOUR! Elder Huertas got a wisdom tooth pulled... ouch. There were several members of the church from the USA who were asking me about my mission, and I even had to translate for a few of them while they were doing work... It was a little hard because I´m not that familiar with dental terms in Spanish! 
We were there a little longer than we were thinking... We got out of the church at 2ish then headed to eat some food. I got to see the ocean! I´ve been on this island for more than 9 months and I´ve seen the ocean like 3 times... Someday, maybe after my mission, I´ll be at the beach. 

Yesderday was our last zone conference with President and Sister Douglas  It was awesome though... President made us all smoothies and then we had pizza and chocolate mint cake for lunch! I was really happy! 
I´m going to miss Pres and Sister Douglas, but I´m excited to meet our new president, President Castillo. He´s Dominican, and doesn´t know English, so that will be interesting. But I know that he´s what the Lord needs for this mission at this moment. He´s arriving June 30.

Well, I love you all very much and hope that this week is the best ever! You are always in my prayers! 
Con amor,
Hermana Twiner


How to know your mission president is awesome

Hola Familia (June 10)

So today is a big day! Today marks my halfway mark of my mission! Sorry in advance for the terrible punctuation and grammar... Still not accostomed to spanish computers. 

I am in Santiago right now because today was our special Santiago PDAY! I am on companionship exchanges right now with Hermana Ramirez from Guatemala,and my companion is in the house with Hermana Mateo. 

This week was a little interesting... We had 6 NEW INVESTIGATORS!!!! We have also gotten a few more references and everyone is doing great. 

SAD NEWS... The Villanueva family told us yesterday that they are going to Venezuela to visit Angela's family and don't know when they will come back... They are leaving on Sunday so I am almost certain that this will be GOODBYE. I've been feeling a little emotional for the last little bit because I love that family so much, and I have been with them since the start of my mission. 

So I have had the idea of having a pioneer activity with the 2 wards for a while now, and it's finally coming true!! I mentioned it to my District leader, Elder Rodas, who thought it was awesome. Then I talked to my Zone leader,  who also thought it was awesome, so we had a joined meeting with the bishops of our wards. 
We are going to be teaching the Nauvoo round dance and the Highland Fling, while I play the fiddle. We are also planning on cooking over a fire and making homemade butter. (Elder Whitworth suggested that we go REALLY pioneer and burn buffalo chips, so I put him in charge of finding a place in the DR that rents buffalos.)
But yeah... We are going to make this a BIG event... Bishop Garcia is even going to print big posters to hang in the city. The activity is going to be called "Fe en cada paso," or "Faith in every footstep." I feel that this is going to be an awesome and spiritually uplifting activity.

On Sunday my companion and I went to Sabaneta so she could recieve her patriarcal blessing. I waited with Hermanas Frostand Zegarra while she recieved it. Afterwards we went and ate at the Hermana's house... We made spaghetti with salami (You have to understand that we are poor and salami is a staple here in the DR... A typical DR dish is rice, eggs and salami.) And pudding! 
I fell asleep on the way home... My companion told me that she would pay my ticket both ways, so I didn't worry about it. When we were walking home, my companion stopped and shouted... I DIDN'T PAY OUR PASSAGE!!!!
She had fallen asleep as well, and we were both so sleepy that we didn't even remember the man's face. He hadn't said anything, so we totally forgot! I told my companion that I'm not sure if it's a blessing or a sin...

Overall things are going wonderfully and I am loving my mission... I'm a little scared that I only have left what I have already done! I look forward to seeing you guys, so I am going to be working harder than ever these next 9 months!

Les quiero muchisimo! Usted son los mejores! La iglesia es verdadera!
Con amor,
Hermana Twiner

Seeing the Lord's Hand in Mao (June 3)

Ok so after the baptisms of Jimmy and Ricardo back in April I´ve been having a hard time because it seemed like NO ONE was progressing. Our mission president has prohibited contacting, so we can only work with references. The only problem with that is, is that we hardly EVER get references! 

Well, it began when the sisters from Mao 1st ward (I am in Mao 2) gave us a reference for a lady who shared once with them and REALLY wanted us to come visit her in her house. Her name is Sofi. We went and she said that she´s really interested, but doesn´t want to be pushed into anything. Step by step.

The next day we left the house in the morning at 10.30. I was a little in a hurry because we left later than we wanted. Well, it turned out to be ok because a lady stopped us in the street. Here´s the conversation...

Lady... ¨You guys are missionaries for the Mormon church?¨
Us... ¨Yes...¨
Lady... ¨Hi. My name´s Dulce Maria. I want you to come work with my family. We want to all be baptized as soon as possible.¨
Us... ¨..................¨

We couldn´t believe our ears! I was a little skeptical because it all seems too incredible. She gave us her address and number as well.

We looked her up that same afternoon. It took an hour and a half to find it, and we were with Jimmy and Ricardo. We found it and she comes around the corner and was like ¨Ah, my daughters! Come in!¨ She gave us water and we asked her how she came to know the church. 

She said that she has a daughter who lives in Sweden who is LDS and a niece who lives in Brazil who is SUPER proud of being Mormon. 

BUT the thing most amazing is, is that SHE HAS READ THE BOOK OF MORMON ALL THE WAY THROUGH AND KNOWS THAT IT IS THE WORD OF GOD. She said that before it wasn´t her time, but now it is.

(MIND BLOWN)

They all accepted the baptismal invitation, we just have to put a specific date, which we are doing tomorrow. 

They all came to church on Sunday! Wooo! We had 8 investigators and 4 less actives!

EVEN MORE... Dulce Maria is now giving us REFERENCES! What?! We´ve known her for 4 days and she´s already doing more for the work than 95% of the members here! 

We´ve also recieved 2 references from our zone leader... One of them is a woman who speaks english! Now I have to remember how to teach in English... haha.

Anyways... I know that the Lord is unfolding a great work here in Mao. Please pray for these people. Everyone needs the gospel. All it takes is a desire from one person to share the gospel, and after that it is an unending chain. We are all children of a Heavenly Father who loves us. 

Con muchisisisimo amor,
Hermana Twiner

Transfers!!!!! (May 20)

So as many of you know, I´ve been in Mao for quite at time now. Mao was an awesome place to begin my mission, and the thought of leaving it was really sad. Yesterday we had our transfer meeting,  and I am pleased to say that... I am staying. 9 months out of 18 in my first area? Not bad!

Anyways...
We are planning another baptism in June! It´s Edward... He hadn´t been to church because of work, but now he has a new work that allows him to go to church. Pray that all goes well! 

I got sick this last weekend... We didn´t go out on Saturday, but the elders came by to give me a blessing and my spirits were instantly uplifted. Apparently I looked like a zombie because Elder Rodas was like ¨Whoa... Who are you and what did you do with Hermana Twiner?!¨ I was feeling better Sunday morning, but was SUPER tired, to the point of nearly falling down when I got up in the morning. So we had to stay home from church as well. Monday I was nearly 100% better. I still have a slight cough when I get out of breath or thirsty, but other than that, Hermana Twiner is back!

Before transfers I realized how much I love the people here, and how close I´ve gotten to some of them. The bishop said that he would pray that I would stay, as well as many investigators. It´s wonderful to have people to care for you... like when I was sick... Everyone was asking if there was anything to do to help... I just had a cold! I´ve never had so many people care so much. I love being here in Mao.

Well, I hope everything is well with everyone!
Con amor,
Hermana Twiner
¨The Mao Immortal¨