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Sunday, January 17, 2016

My Death Sentence Arrived....

Ok so I knew it was coming sooner or later, but... It came.

My awesome mother is coming down here to pick me up and to see my areas before we go home, so she had to buy the return tickets and plan it with the mission office, but yeah... I have my flight plans. We'll be leaving March 13 at 2:30pm and arriving in Knoxville at 10:30pm. (We have a layover in New Jersey.)

Anyways... this week was a little crazy, but good. As sister leaders we have to do exchanges, so I went on 2 exchanges in 2 days... On Thursday we had zone meeting and I went directly from there to Sabaneta with Hermana Palmer from Utah, stayed the night there and had a dinner of eggnog and cookies, then in the morning we headed straight back to Navarrete to have a zone conference, after which I headed 2.5 hours to Monte Cristi (Almost to Haiti) with Hermana Hall. I was super tired afterwards, but I had fun!

We had a family come to church on Sunday! Their names are Manuel, Ana Iris, Gianni, Scarlet and Camili. They are a good family and I think they will progress. The girls were crying when they left because they wanted to stay in the Primary class. 

Well, we'll see what this week brings. Next week my pday will be on Tuesday because Wednesday will be a special worldwide training for missionaries, so they changed Pday so it wouldn't take up too much of our preparation time. 

Love y'all!
Hermana Twiner
Crazy Mormons on a bus with Dominicans...

​One of the elders is from Samoa and was teaching the other elders in the zone how to play rugby... Here they are throwing my zone leader Elder Moses up into the air... He hit the cieling.

​One of the lessons we had in Monte Cristi... We kept hearing a goat bleating and this little guy comes galloping in... Then he slipped and fell, reminiscent of Bambi on ice. I thought he was too cute!

Bye Bye 2015!

Ok so it's still 2015 as of right now, but I have been reflecting upon the past year a lot recently. A year ago I was in Mao with my awesome trainer Hermana Gonzalez. I remember thinking that 2015 was going to be the longest year of my life because I wasn't going to be with my family. 

But I was wrong.

This year flew bye with every laugh, cry, plate of rice, rainy day,... and now we are starting 2016, the year I begin the new chapter in my life. 

The highlights of my year are all the days when I saw people I loved get baptized, like Jimmy and Ricardo Villanueva on April 25. They both now have the Aaronic Priesthood and are still faithfully going to church. Then we had Jose and Pola... I began teaching them when I had about 3 weeks in the mission field. We baptized them 8 months later on July 11, my last weekend in Mao.
Then Brittany was baptized on August 8 and Juana Vargas on November 28. I love these people and am honored to have had the privelege to see them enter into this sacred covenant with their Savior.

I have grown so much. I am not the same person I was a year ago. I am less afraid and more sure of myself. Not only can a speak Spanish, but I can also express the deepest feelings of my heart because I have obtained a stronger testimony of the things that I have learned since childhood.

I have met some of my closest friends as well on my mission. Many of them I might not see in the flesh while on this earth, but I will forever be grateful for their friendship and their examples.

Goodbye, 2015. You were good to me. Welcome 2016. I am ready to meet you.

Love you all and thanks for reading my messages!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
Love,
Hermana Twiner

The other night I was writing in my journal and I heard, "Hermana Twiner!" and I looked up and nearly died when I saw this...

​It was my companion after being bored while eating a piece of bread.

This is the Turkey we ate on Christmas Eve... Don't the feet and the neck add a nice touch?



​Me getting my nails done... I swear that lady was trying to take my fingers off!!! They looked pretty though, but they HURT!!!!!!!

Transfers!

I got transferred! I know that's nearly unheard of, since in the last 15 months I've only been transferred a whopping 1 time. 

I got transferred to Navarrete, which is in the same zone as Mao. I am also a Sister Training Leader (STL), which is a leadership position given to 6 sister missionaries in the mission to help other missionaries with whatever thing might happen. I am in charge of doing companionship exchanges, going to each area in my sisters' group to see the progress in the area and to give suggestions. I also have to go to leadership meetings in Sangtiago with President Castillo every few weeks. It's a little overwheming, but I can't express how excited I am to be here! 
My companion is Hermana Funes (pronounced Fooness). She's from El Salvador and is super cute and nice!


Last Friday in Jarabacoa we had our branch Christmas Party. The pork was good, but it was a little harder to eat when you could actually see the poor creature you were eating...

The Jarabacoa Branch President owns a restaurant and invited us to eat pizza last night for my last night in Jarabacoa. It was really yummy and was even better to share one last time with that awesome family. 

When we got home to the apartment last night we did some cleaning... Take a GOOD look at the kitchen. You'll know when you see it.

I'll miss serving with Hermana Peters in Jarabacoa. I might have been her "trainer," but I am pretty certain that I learned more from her than anyone else. She's now with Hermana Ririe, who has only one more transfer. They are going to take Jarabacoa up by storm!!!!

I love you all and miss you tons!!! I can't believe that it's already Christmas next week! I have a feeling that these last 2 transfers are going to be the best 2 transfers in the history of tranfers. 
Hermana Twiner

Harry Potter in the DR!

Well this week was really good... We found tons of new people to teach and even set a baptismal date with 5 of them! 

On Sunday I got some stomach virus that´s been going around... It wasn´t very fun, but I survived. We tried going out to teach, but we only managed to have one lesson because I began having chills and nearly fell asleep in my chair! 
SO we went home, but ON THE WAY HOME...
We saw Daniel Radcliffe.
Sorry?
WE SAW DANIEL RADCLIFFE. WALKING THE STREETS OF JARABACOA.

Well, at least it LOOKED EXACTLY LIKE THE BLOKE. He even had the same style, same hair, skin, eyes, strut, smile...
And if you guys know me I´m a Potterhead. I know Harry Potter when I see him.

My companion was walking a few feet ahead of me and she turned around with a shocked look on her face and was like... ¨Is that Daniel Radcliffe?¨ And then her eyes widened and she said ¨Snap, he´s coming!¨

Turns out that Daniel Radcliffe has a Dominican Doppelganger that lives in Jarabacoa, and that he came to talk to us because he saw two blonde Americans with some intense interest in his looks... He seemed really upset when I told him that he looked like Harry Potter... Apparently everyone thinks so. I should have gotten a picture.



​We had a sisters´ christmas party in La Vega on Thursday... Take a look at that hot chocolate!!!!! We also had a white elephant gift exchange of things from the house, which I gave...

​Yeah it´s a chickfila cow with gummy hamburgers. 


​And here´s a picture of our sisters´ group... I think everyone is looking at her own camera... Hence I´m the only one looking at mine.

Well, transfers are next week... We´ll see what they bring! DUM DUM DUM... Is Hermana Twiner staying in Jarabacoa, or leaving? Tune in next week for the ADVENTURES OF HERMANA TWINER!!!!

Con amor,
Hermana Twiner

Baptism!

Jalepeños give me hiccups, but I still eat them.

Juana´s baptism for the 28th is still going well! We are really helping her with her goal to leave coffee by passing by every day to encourage her. She´s already said all the things she wants in the baptism, like speakers, food, etc. 

We also met Angela this week... She was a referral from our mission leader Jonathan. She came to church and loved it! Hopefully she´ll continue coming to church and will be baptized soon! 

And about the Jalepeños... I got a can of Jalepeños this week and discovered that I love eating them... but they give me terrible hiccups. My companion makes fun of me because I keep hiccupping while continuing eating.


​This is a picture of just how cute Dominican babies are!

​My daughter and I... Anyone see a resemblance? haha

Con amor,
Hermana Twiner

Holy Cow! 14 Months!

I hit 14 months yesterday... It seems like I should have hit 13 yesterday... Or 9...
ANYWAYS!
Juana Vargas is getting baptized the 28th of this month!!!! All the members are super excited, and we are planning a bunch of activities that are centered in the soul purpose of supporting her before and after her baptism. Please keep her in your prayers!!!
I had companionship exchanges on Friday with Hermana Anderson from Virginia (The Northern part). We found AIRHEADS in a corner store! I bought 2 because they were only 5 pesos (about 10 cents) each and I hadn´t seen them in my entire time being here. It´s funny what you take for granted living in a first world country...
We also had district conference (It´s like Stake Conference, but we aren´t big enough in this area to be a stake.) on Sunday. Juana came, as well as a new investigator who is a friend of our recent convert, Hillary. His name is Leo.
We also have new people who moved into the ward who are from BOSTON! AMERICANS!!!!!! Well, They´re Dominican, but they´re raised there. They are super nice... We need to figure out where they live exactly so we can get to know them better.
Today we went to the Jimenoa waterfall... I had already gone back in September, but Hermana Peters wanted to go, so we went with our Branch mission leader, Jonathan. It was pretty fun! Afterwards we went to Pala Pizza and I got a yummy caramelized onion and bacon flatbread pizza... I had to be rolled home afterwards, but it was worth it.


​I love you guys and hope you have a stellar week!
Love,
Hermana Twiner