Last Email.... I'm going home!!!!!!!!

Who knew? The time is here! This time next week I will be in the mission home having my last interview with President Castillo. 

Anyways... What happened this week???????? ahhh the days are going by too fast!

DOMINGO GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! He was going to get baptized this coming Saturday the 5th, but he was going to go to a church sponsored course for 3 months, so he asked to get baptized on the 27th. We found out the day before, so we had to run like crazies over to his house with the elders to have his interview. 

It really was an honor to see him take upon him this covenant... Let's pray that he remains faithful!

​

We have been working like crazy to get some new investigators for this area. There's always that moment after you have your baptisms that you are like, "Now what?" 

We have been working a lot with our Stake President and his family... They are AWESOME! 

So I ALMOST made my whole mission without throwing up. 3am on Sunday I was up chucking a mixture of cabbage, avocado and ice cream... Don't ask. But now I'm fin! Just not eating cabbage...

LAST PDAY... They happen to be filming Vin Diesel's new movie in OUR area in Navarrete... We went to watch them film some double stunts on a skateboard. Lots of Americans. Then as we were going down to our house we saw HIM landing in his helicopter!!!!! (Of course I had to take a picture!)

​

But yeah... These last 18 months have been quite the adventure... I have never cried, laughed, walked, sweated so much. 

It was hard. There were so many times that I thought that I couldn't do it, but there was always SOMETHING pushing me on. 

Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for writing me. Thank you for cheering me on. I needed it more than ever.

I can't believe that I have only 1 week left. It feels like a week ago that I logged on for the first time to talk to my family through email chat. 

I learned to love a people that I hardly knew existed. I have lived on a Caribbean Island for a year and a half and never went to the beach, but I was in paradise among the tin roofs and the dusty roads, the constant loud music keeping me awake at all times of the night.

I met some of my best friends. My companion Hermana Nauca has been with me a total of 5 months of my mission and I couldn't have asked for a better companion. We are crazy. Together we helped 6 people become baptized. We talk about EVERYTHING, and I will miss her terribly. I will definitely be flying out to Peru sometime. 

​

And again, thank you! I will see you all soon. I am forever changed for the better. I will move on confidently, always remembering the beautiful memories I have made here in the DR. 

See you soon!

NOS VEMOS PRONTO!!!!!!!

Hermana Krislee Twiner

Spiders, Exchanges, Muffins, Oh my!

Well this week flew by. Seriously, I don't know where the time went. We have been working super hard, having 2 more companionship exchanges last week. We went to Mao on Friday and I stayed with Hermana Santiago from Mexico. It was fun, but as always I was excited to return home to be with my real companion.

On Monday I did an exchange with Hermana Palmer in Sabaneta which was super fun, and we didn't get drenched like last time!

About the muffins... We had interviews yesterday with President Castillo and he brought muffins for breakfast. I really just needed a third thing to put in my title. 

And a giant spider invaded our house last night... I have a video of the slaughter, which I will be happy to show you guys when I get home. It's pretty hilarious

We have a baptism planned for next week! Sorry I haven't had a lot of time to write today... Still have lots of things to do before going home. 

Love 

Hermana Twiner

Baptism!!!

The Bishop´s dad Luis De la Rosa got baptized this last Saturday.It was a super special experience, because the bishop has waited so long for this day. One of the members gave a wonderful talk about how Jesus went to John the Baptist to be baptized. The greater went to the minor to have that saving ordinance, as did Luis with his son. 

In other things, these last few weeks have FLOWN by! I love being with Hna Nauca again. We are best friends and we work as a complete team. We laugh a lot and we study together to help our investigators. It´s the best of the mission. 

Please pray for our investigator Johanna... She was in a car accident on Sunday where the truck rolled over 4 times... They thought she was dead at first but she began breathing afterwards. The air bag hit her and that hurt her. 

We have another investigator that will be baptized on March 5 named Domingo. At first he was a little skeptical about the message but he told us this week that he has been having dreams about the church and that he feels like he needs to be baptized. Let´s pray that he continues onward!

I want to thank you all for all the support you have given me while I´ve been on my mission. I´m still here and I´m working hard and I will continue being a missionary until they release me back in Tennessee. But your prayers and thoughts are needed and very much appreciated. 

love you all!

Hermana Twiner

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!

12/02/15 at 2:36 PM

Juana Vargas got baptized!!! We were super excited 
because her husband, who is
 recently reactivated in the church was able to
 perform the baptism for her. We 
also had a really good turnout of members! We 
even had 6 investigators come and they loved it!

On Monday we went to Juana´s house to see how
 she was doing (She was doing well)
 and before we left her husband Tony invited us to
 stay for their FamilyHome Evening. He made all the 
kids sit down still while he taught them about what
 baptism is. He also told them that he expects every one
 of his children to be 
baptized so that they can go to the temple as a family and
 be sealed together forever. I was really proud of him doing that,
 and it was a privelege to be there to see it.

Today we went and saw the Baiguate waterfall here in Jarabacoa
 with some people from our zone. It was really pretty. It had mist
 coming up so you could stand there and feel the freshness wash over you.

I´ve had the goal to read the Book of Mormon in Spanish before
 going home, so I´ve been keeping track... 
Uh oh.... Yesterday I hit my 100 day mark before going home!
 I now have 99 days to read 103 chapters... I 
think I can do it! 

Love you all terribly and miss you more!

 

​

❤Hermana Twiner

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

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 😢 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