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¨

Quick Note (May 6)

I really don´t have a lot of time this week, but here´s something....

My birthday was sunday... 20 years! The elders threw me a surprize party on Saturday, which was awesome. They made me eat 3 pieces of cake.

This morning we got locked in the church. We entered, and the person there didn´t know we were there, so he locked us in. The elders that came didn´t have the keys and had both cell phones, so we just sat there talking through the window for 45 minutes.

I made a lemon cake that was really tasty... I´d call it a success.

Sorry I don´t really have time today, but everything is going wonderfully here in Mao. The investigators are all wonderful and we are working hard. Love you all!

Hermana Twiner

Baptism!

Let´s just say that this last week has definitely been a trial of patience and courage for me... But at the same time it has definitly been one tender mercy after another.

Last week my companion and I felt that we should invite Jimmy and Ricardo Villanueva to baptism. They are children, which is why we didn´t baptize them before because their parents can´t get married for legal issues.

However, when we asked them, their faces lit up and they said that they had been waiting for us to ask them. Jimmy has been begging us for months because he really wants to attend the temple in Santo Domingo, and he was able to go see it a few weeks ago with the Bishop. He was so excited to just be in the waiting room for a few hours! When I asked him if he would like to be baptized, his jaw about hit the floor and he wasn´t able to speak for more than 30 seconds. I knew they were ready.

SO we set to work! We set their baptism date for the 25th of April, the same date that the Elders had for 2 of their investigators. We got speakers, a special musical number, and everything ready in about a week.

During the entire week I was SUPER stressed... I was having nightmares about it and everything! Finally we got to Friday when we had the interviews and everything turned out fine. Then Elder Whitworth our zone leader was like ¨Just prepare yourself, Hermana, something´s bound to happen.¨ (He was joking but serious at the same time.) 

So we get to Saturday... We went to the chapel at 1pm to clean and set up for the baptism when we find... Dirty water in the baptismal font from the last baptism in February. And it wasn´t draining. 

Ricardo and Jimmy came to help clean up, so we set them to work with Elder Irish draining the font with buckets while we mopped the floor. 

I wasn´t super happy at this point, but then Elder Rodas came in with my birthday package from home and I found the CITY OF JOSEPH cd inside, which I put in the DVD player and we had fun dancing to it. Ricardo began learning the chorus and is still singing it everyday. That was really a tender mercy for me... Just the music made me feel better.

After we finally got the font all ready, we went with the boys to their house to help their mom make refreshments for the baptism. When we finished, we all piled into the car (7 people in a 5 person car isn´t uncommon here and isn´t necessarily illegal.) and headed to the church.

Hermana Bates and Elder Garcia were able to attend the baptism, which was amazing! Elder Garcia was able to baptize Jimmy and Elder Irish baptized Ricardo.

I couldn´t keep from crying when I saw them enter into the water... I have been teaching these kids since I got here six months ago. Afterwards we all sang hymns together and I lead them. Everyone was so happy... I truly felt overwhelmed by the Spirit. I felt that that day made every single hard moment worth it. 

I love being a missionary and I love this gospel! I want to let you guys know that I love you all so much! Keep smiling, love more, and always remember who you are (Children of God of course!). 

Con muchisimo amor,

Hermana Krislee Nicole Twiner

Quick Update

Howdy all! 

I just wanted to send a quick note to you, telling you that all is well in Mao! This last week has been pretty great, with its ups and downs. 

So being senior companion is pretty stressful, but it´s also gotten me up and running and more focused on the work. We are leaving as soon as possible in the mornings,and running home at night to be in on time. 

My spanish is getting much better, but it´s still hard at times to not be able to ¨let it out¨ in English. 

I´ve eaten rice nearly every day this week.

I passed my 7 months this last week.

On Sunday we were feeling really tired and down because nobody was home, so we went to Mariela´s house, where she got a pole and gave us a bucket of mangos... Hermana Nauca ate 10 and I ate 6 (They weren´t very big, but I still felt like I ate 6 mangos afterwards...) It was pretty awesome to just sit there and talk and eat mangos freshly picked from her front yard... Not something you get to do very often in the States!

We had interviews with Pres. Douglas this Monday, which was awesome because we always have a nice lunch and get to talk with both President and Sister Douglas. We also were able to talk with the other missionaries for a few hours. The only minor issue was that we were at the church from 10am until nearly 5pm, making proselyting hours super short. 

Yesterday we had English class, which I was in charge of...  It was better than I was thinking, considering that I am NOT a good teacher in groups! I had Elders Irish and Whitworth helping me... We are working as a team beause we are the only 3 ¨gringos¨in Mao right now. We are beginning the church 12 week english program next week, which from what I´ve heard is really effective.

Well, I hope you guys have a wonderful week! I love you all and hope to hear from everyone!

Senior Comp and Stepmom

Ok first things first... Sorry about the last email.... It was April Fool´s day! I´m not going to Cuba. I´m still in Mao, but with Hermana Nauca. I am Senior Companion, and her ¨stepmom¨. (We call our trainers our moms and the comp right after that our stepmom or dad) So suddenly I´M the one with all the experience and in charge of making final decisions... 

We were able to teach Edward almost every day last week becaue he was off of work and school for the Holy Week. His sister has lots of questions for us... Until she asked me if we believe in giving blood tranfusions! But really, They are golden and I hope that they can be baptized as a family.

We are now entering into Mango season... I think they are my new favorite fruit. Mariela gave us about 5 pounds of mangos the other day and we made a smoothie that night. The only problem is that they get their little hairs stuck inbetween your teeth and I had to floss like 4 times yesterday! 

So this last weekend was General Conference, which was awesome! I got to watch it in English with the other American Missionaries... We were super excited when we found out that Haiti´s getting a temple! Two temples on the island! 

The Dominican easter tradition is to make habichuela con dulce, or ¨sweet beans?¨ It´s basically beans, cinnamon, milk, sweet potato and occasionally raisins. Sounds weird, but it´s actually good! I tried it on Friday for the first time, and by Saturday night I had had it 5 times! I had some more last night, which was my favorite. 

So I´m still in Mao, still in this adventure. I´m excited for this transfer to see how much my language skills will improve... I´m going to be living with 3 spanish hermanas from Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Peru... It should do wonders! I´ll pratically be a native speaker (I hope!)

Well, I love you all and hope that everything is well with you. You are always in my prayers! The church is true!

Love,

Hermana Twiner

April Fools!

This last month Elder Jeffery R. Holland of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles came to the Caribbean and announced some pretty amazing things... One of which is that we will be opening Cuba in OUR mission!

Well, my mission president called me this morning and asked me if I would be willing to be one of a group of 7 sisters and 7 elders going to open new areas in Cuba. I was shocked, and a little overwhelmed, but trusting that President knew what he was doing, I accepted. So i´ll be headed to Cuba next week! (Doing my crazy nervous dance in the comp lab)

 

April Fools!!!!!!! (for that last paragraph)

So what else happened this week? 

I got a love letter from a guy who´s older than my dad. He´s a really nice guy and seems interested in the church... He´s already come 2 times to church since we invited him!

I was at Mariela´s house (He´s a family friend) and before we left Mariela was like, ¨Oh, Hna Twiner Alberto left a note for you guys saying sorry for not coming to church!¨ And I was like, ¨Wow, He really likes the church!¨ Then she brought be the letter and I open it and a heart shaped sucker falls out and he wrote this long letter telling me that he feels so happy coming to church while I´m there and that I´m beautiful not only on the outside, but on the inside as well. 

I had another one of those ¨I hate being blonde¨ moments... I´m basically a walking visa here. 

We met with Edward´s sisters, mom and brother! They are all perfect! Golden! We knew they were special the moment when Edward´s brother, John gave up his chair for his mom. That was the first act of chivalry I´ve seen on my whole mission! By the end of the lesson they were asking what they needed to do to prepare to be baptized... I had another ¨OK where are the cameras?¨ moments...

I was feeling a little down on Monday with stress and other things, but I had an interview with our awesome District Leader, Elder Garcia who helped a lot. He had me sing ¨Count your Blessings¨ for him and I immediately felt better!

Hermana Salazar is one of the sisters that´s in the other companionship in the house. she´s from Costa Rica, so it´s interesting to have to speak Spanish constantly. Well anyways, she knows a little English, so we are helping her as well. I taught her two new words... Creepy and awkward, which was hard because there aren´t specific words for them in Spanish. SO... I had to demonstrate what each meant. Now Hna Salazar says that whenever she thinks of me she thinks of creepy and awkward. She also wrote me a note that said ¨I love u Americana. You are creepy and awkward.¨ At least she won´t ever forget me...

She also dressed up in a white dress and a halo and floated over my bed saying ¨I am the angel Moroni... I´ve come to grant you your wishes.¨ It was funny the first time, but the 4th and 5th time at 11 at night is getting a little old. I asked her why Moroni was a girl, but she said that boys aren´t allowed in sisters´apartments. Good point.

We made brownies last night and listened to Enya... That´s my type of celebrating ¨PDAY EVE!¨ Haha!

Time is going quicker and quicker... Next week is Transfers, so we´ll see if I stay or if I go... I´ve had nearly 6 months in Mao, so it´s very likely that I´ll go, but we´ll see what the Lord wants!

Love you all!

Hermana Twiner