The Awesome Life of Sister Kiene

MTC Tuesday May 17, 2011

Hello hello! Ok I have a lot of random things I'm going to tell you about so hopefully this runs smoothly. First off, things are going well! I entered on Wed not feeling too well and it was good but a little rough the rest of the day. My body just wanted to fall apart. At least that's how it felt. When I got my tag I noticed the lovely white sticker in the corner that said "SOLO". yep, i'm a solo sister! hahah which means i'm the only sister in my district. luckily i still have a companion, sis. bishop (who is the girl from aunt annette's stake!) and she has been such a blessing to me. she's been here 7 weeks now and is doing well on learning the language. she's also a solo sister and she was completely alone for about a week so she was pretty stoked when i got here! so thurs morning i woke up and i couldn't stop throwing up. i'm pretty sure jason was throwing up on their road trip home so i think i may have gotten a little bug. luckily thurs we didn't have class til the afternoon and all morning was just personal studying. sis bishop new exactly what to do and called the front desk. they let her class know that we'd be in the room for the morning until i felt well enough to go out. around lunch time i wanted to try to get a little bit of food in my system and didn't want to miss class. i felt super weak but i could tell the nausea had passed by. Alhtough I'm not completely healthy, I'm feeling MUCH better and so grateful for my good health now.

My district is me and 5 other elders. Our personalities are so different but everyone is really great and we all have similar goals. My teacher Bro. Jackson is really good. He pushes me a lot and always stretches my thinking. I have learned so much already and i know that the learning will continue to come. The other teacher can only come on saturdays right now b/c of her class schedule but she's incredible too! She's a native from hong kong and she has such a great spirit. We also have a temporary teacher Bro. Raule who is really good too. I feel very blessed to have such good teachers! So the language...it is very hard. I am slowly learning how to read and hear the new vowel sounds and the tones....they're hard to hear sometimes but I know with time it will get easier. i can SLOWLY say a prayer and when people speak I can pick out words. but a lot of words sound the same but they are on different speaking levels like mid level or low. so i am trying to learn to hear the differences. i new learning a language would be hard but this is something else hahaha but i really enjoy it. it's so difficult but i love taking on the challenge. I know with time things will start making more sense and start falling into place. please just keep me in your prayers. I need as much help as i can get right now.

We are starting to learn how to teach and that's another thing i'm struggling with. I know what type of teacher i want to be, but it's just figuring out how to get to that point. i think i'm slowly starting to get it. i just need to practice teaching more and studying the principles. what i've noticed that has helped is thinking of how the principle we're teaching has impacted my life and why it is important to me. it's as if i'm regaining and strengthening me testimony of everything. it's really neat but does take a lot of pondering. i teach with two elders and i'm glad i'm paired with them. they are really hard workers and we understand each other pretty well. not going to lie, it's a little different working so much with elders haha sometimes i wish i had a sister to study with and teach with but i know i'm a solo sister for a reason and i know there are things i need to learn from this experience. i'm excited to see how these next few months pan out! my branch president, president miller is awesome. he has a lot of faith in me and always encourages me. well it's been a good first week so far. there is SO much work i have to do but it is all worth it. thanks so much for the letters. I'm sad to hear Mike got hurt in his last meet but excited to have him hear! everyone knows that he's coming haha the older district won't meet him because they leave a few weeks before but my district will get to. he'll love it! and they're is a SLIGHT chance he could be in my branch! we only have cantonese and english speaking missions! sis. bishop and I are the only sisters in it right now haha pretty crazy. anyway, i'm glad to hear everyone is doing well! love you all and thank you for your love and support!

Love,
Sis Kiene aka kahm ji muih