Wednesday, September 28, 2011

CHICKENS from MAINLAND

September 21, 2011

From: Sister Rachel Kiene

Leih hou ma!? So we had many miracles this week! And something I’ve realized more and more out here is that even very small things are HUGE miracles! A few miracles are on Saturday we planned for a few lessons and then one miracle lesson. Well turns out that for 2 of the planned ones we got fonged ('fong' is a term we use meaning they didn't show up haha) but a recent convert in the ward called us and said her sister wants to go to church and asked if we could meet with her later that day! We said of course! Except we had another lesson scheduled at the same time, so we had to split and have members be our companion. So I was with A-Sin and her sister A-Choi. They also have an older sister who is a member too, A-Saan, and she helped Sis. Chinison teach. Anyway, I had to teach this girl the first lesson alone and it was pretty nerve wracking! You'd think after two months of being in Hong Kong I would have everything down right? haha not quite. but I know I had a lot of help from Heavenly Father. A-Sin helped me so much too! She was such a blessing! Miracle number two...we had 4 people come to church!! And A-Choi was one of them. She is so humble and sweet and I really hope that she continues to learn more!! Another miracle we had was seeing a girl we contacted on the street, Mag. She is SO hard to contact and we finally were able to see her again! we watched the restoration video and she felt the spirit. she is very shy and quiet too but so sweet. I just know how much the gospel can bless all these people's lives and I wish they could see it too!! but it all comes with time. Another miracle was we had English class last night and afterwards we were putting the TV away from when we taught Mag. Two girls who are also hard to schedule, but like learning languages, asked why we had a TV and said they wanted to watch a movie! we told them it was the Restoration movie and if they wanted to watch it they could. they said yes hahaha and we thought they were joking! but they said they would and then after we had a really good discussion. They had no idea that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ were two different people. Sometimes you forget that even those small little things need to be taught. And although small and simple, they are all vital pieces of information that make up the amazing gospel. One more thing, we realized there is a CD player at the church so I brought the CD's you all sent me and we had a partially active Thai sister, Lam Ji Muih come so we could go over the lessons. Anyway, she hasn't been feeling well and she has had a lot of problems from the past..she went to a church that would play really loud harsh music and do weird things and she didn’t feel good when she went. anyway, it caused her to start taking medicine to sleep at nights. she's not taking medicine anymore but she has problems sleeping. so we put in jenny oaks baker's CD and sat and listened to a few songs. she said she never heard music like that before and really loved it! so we are going to try to get her some uplifting peaceful music. The power of music and the hymns is incredible!!

Sister Chinison and I get along really well. We are different in so many ways but when it comes to the gospel and what we want to achieve, we are exactly the same. We have a good time together and she is such a hard worker and good example to me. We experience opposition, like everyone does, because the work here can be harder at times, but we draw closer together as we try to uplift each other and work on becoming better missionaries. Things are going well and we have found many people that have so much potential!! We pray that their hearts will open more and more and their desires will increase! The gospel has changed my life in more ways than I could ever express, and the only way for others to understand is learning, growing, and experiencing for themselves!! I’m so grateful for the spirit and pray constantly that the people we teach will also recognize it. Well, love you all and hope everything is going well! Aubs is having a girl! woo hooo! So fun! Named after me of course ;) haha just jokes, Krystal survived the Philippines without disease...or so we think...Jason and Mar sound good and the girls are just growing up!! Mike sounds like he's working hard and enjoying everything, mom, hopefully you get my letter soon, I’ll send pics today and take care of your knee! Dad, thanks for the uplifting letters and everything. I love my family!! You have no idea how grateful and blessed I feel to have you as my parents and siblings! soo blessed!!

Kahm Lohk Yih Ji Muih

Come to Zion Come to Zion!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011, 7:55 PM
from: Sis. Rachel Kiene
What a week it has been! The new missionaries have come and it's fun seeing familiar faces! They are all doing really well and seem to be adjusting just fine. It's been yet ANOTHER roller coaster week :) haha it's so hard because we are constantly finding new investigators and losing others. My comp and I are trying to be patient and trying our best to help anyone we can. I totally understand how Mike feels when he says that they can't get people to come to church! there is one thing that Hong Kong and Montana have in common! haha sadly none of our investigators came :(. However, Sister Lam, the less active Thai sister came for the whole 3 hours! She is so good and so humble! She has been sick and so she asked if she could get a priesthood blessing. The bishop was able to interview and meet her since she just came from a different ward and then they were able to give her a blessing. As we shared our message she was just in tears the whole time. She has a strong testimony and the more and more we see her and the more she comes back to church she has been realizing how important the gospel is to her. Saturday we had our stake music night and the missionaries performed Israel Israel God is Calling! I have it on video hahaha our little duet at the beginning was alright. we were a little off but I don't think anyone cared! the other performances were HILARIOUS! There was a group that sang some English Spanish song! bahahaha then some other dances and songs and it just reminded me of William hung on American Idol :) haha they just have so much spirit and happiness when they sing and perform. it's so cute! I got a couple of them on video so no worries, you'll have a chance to see them!

We did a lot of finding this week! (Finding=contacting) Monday we had a zone find and we went on exchanges but each companionship had a different number and color. The number indicated how we were contacting the person, 1 lesson -2 lesson -3 lesson -testimony -word of wisdom -Joseph Smith- proclamation to the family- etc. The color was the color shirt they were wearing haha we do A LOT of finding here and so over time they have tried to be creative. So Sister Cecil (from Cedar City--she is going home next move) was my comp and our contacting weapon was our testimony and color was light blue. So as we traveled to our area and once we got there we were just chasing down anyone wearing light blue! it was pretty funny but at the same time we experienced so many miracles! one guy was on the MTR and he was pretty far down but since he was wearing blue we trekked over to him. His eyes were closed so we just said hello a few times and then he opened them and we began talking to him about the gospel! hahaha turns out he was a less active! but from a long time ago. he doesn't have a book of Mormon or anything anymore...not sure if he even remembers it much. so we got his name and number, gave him a book and told him that we were going to help him come back to church! James looks like he's maybe 28...turns out he's 19! haha so we told him he can even go on a mission still! he asked if mission are fun and of course we told him they are the BEST! We also met a lot of other really good people and some cute school girls in their light blue dresses that were willing to learn more! There were some elders that were near us also finding and their color was fuchsia haha well since that's not a super common color they were contacting pretty much anyone and one of the Elder's is a mandarin speaking so he was just finding anyone that knew mandarin. So as we headed back to the MTR to meet the other missionaries there was a woman walking with a little girl in a light blue dress! so we stopped her and talked to her for a bit and turns out she speaks Mandarin better than Cantonese! we told her there was a mandarin elder just back behind us that she could meet! so they met and exchanged numbers and it was awesome! and guess what, she was wearing fuchsia!! haha Some other elders were finding and their color was apple red. They said not a whole lot of people would listen to them and then they saw a guy walk out of the bread store wearing apple red so they darted over to him and I guess he's played soccer with other missionaries! haha it was just really cool and I don't know, I felt like the brother of Jared. We were telling God that we need to find a way to preach this gospel to them and he allowed us to come up with an inspired way of doing it. Some may think it sounded silly or funny, but it worked! The lord works in hysterical ways. But we have to be willing to act and to have faith in the work that we are doing!

Tuesday I had the opportunity to help the International Zone with statutories. International zone (except one companionship who works in the English branch) teaches the Philippine women in Hong Kong. whenever there is a big holiday (lunar moon festival and Tuesday! big holiday!) they get a day off. So the zone needs extra missionaries to go finding and teach lessons! so we all headed over in the morning to central/ worldwide and I had a member, Berna, help me! We just went up to tons of women and contacted as many people as we could! It's hard though because they ALL go to church and believe that it doesn't matter what religion you are because there is only one God and etc. But we did our best to help them and with the help of the Lord, were able to get quite a few numbers. Then after that we had a lesson with Daisy, a cute girl Sis Chinison and I contacted on the street last week. Now on the other end of the spectrum, she doesn't believe in God. It's just crazy how you deal with literally all sorts of people with all sorts of believes and you have to learn how to help each of them. We talked a lot about families and we really feel like she can learn so much and realize how much the gospel will bless her and her family! we'll see her again before Sunday and I pray that she will come to church!! We also did more contacting yesterday after visiting Hoh Poh Po our 80 year old investigator (who is coming to relief society activity on Saturday! yeah!) and at first we had no success. People see our tag and instantly run away. But we were able to teach a lesson to two sweet girls on the street! They just finished school and they were so nice! One is struggling in school so we taught about prayer and how it can really help her with her studies. Despite all the hard things that we've been going through like losing investigators or feeling like we are giving everything to help them and not seeing the results, we have been able to witness the tender mercies of the lord. Sis Chinison and I are learning and growing a lot together as we share our insights, thoughts, and feelings about everything we are experiencing and how we can become better teachers, missionaries, and representatives of Jesus Christ. I love this work. I am so grateful for everything God has given me. A family that loves me and supports me in all that I do, a family who also loves the gospel and as we all strive to live by its teachings, we become closer to not only our Savior, but each other! I love you all so much! Thank you for the package! it was soooo good! We roasted Starburst last night on our gas burner right before bed hehe and I’m exposing Hong Kong to REAL food like Fruit roll-ups! hahaha Mom, I sent you a letter last week and this week printed pics that I will send you! Hope you are enjoying Ohio and tell everyone hello! Send the girls my love! And the story about Ty and putting himself in time-out is hilarious! What a cutie. Thank you everyone for your support, love, and prayers. The language is slowly coming but I still need a lot of help! haha you all rock! Hello Grandma Peterson, Grandma Kiene and Grandpa Kiene! I love you all too!!

love,
Sister Piano

Monday, September 5, 2011

Week 5?? oh and early p-day!

August 31, 2011

So sorry! I forgot to tell you that we had p-day today (Wednesday) instead of Thursday this week. It is ONLY for this week though. I was wondering why I only got an email from dad and then realized that I was retarded and forgot to mention it. but I still want to know what's going on! Dad told me about Greg and Aubs Ragnar race and that is SO awesome! I'm so proud of them both! How did soccer go for them? Oh and WHAT IS AUBREY HAVING?!?! I'm dying to know and pretty sure she already knows by now. And what is her due date? January baby?!?! (represent!!) Anyway, it's been a great week! So we finished up EEFY and because it was in Kwun Tong and we serve in TKO we didn't get any new investigators from it. but we did have investigators come and Kwun Tong got 7 investigators! There was one guy that I started talking to, Tommy, and he was so good. I knew that he would be open to listening more about the gospel. He was in my group when I taught the first lesson and at the end we had them write down questions. He wrote, "Where was I before this life?" My face was beaming when I read those words! And I wasn't even going to teach him! (b/c he was in a diff area and he is a male. we can only teach males if there is also a female in the family listening to the missionaries) So Tommy is 26 and he said that he was getting of the MTR (the train) and was praying because he wanted to know more about his purpose in life. Then all of the sudden Elder Smith came up to him and gave him an EEFY flyer! He was really excited and felt that it was an answer to his prayer! Another girl Vicky who is 15, also received a flyer while walking. She and her mom showed up and I talked with them for a bit. Vicky was in my class for a few days and she was so good too! Afterwards she told us that she wanted to be baptized!! So amazing! She's also in Kwun Tong but it's just all so exciting! We also got to watch prince of Egypt and Mulan! (oh and before we joined to watch Mulan, we grabbed lunch and it started POURING! We ran back to the church with no umbrella and were completely drenched. The market has coverage so all the Hong Kong people just stayed under them and here were are sprinting around. everyone thought we were crazy!)

So our summer missionaries left us on Monday and it was pretty sad. I got really close with ours and it was sad to say goodbye but I will see her again, I can feel it! My listening has gotten a lot better but my speaking is still at the same spot. I’m learning a lot of patience though and it's all coming slowly. I'm being very blessed and noticing the small tender mercies of the Lord. Right now we are working with a lot of less active members and trying to help them strengthen their testimonies. There is little improvement which is better than none. One girl came to ALL of church for the first time this entire year! woohooo!! Our investigator Cherry's grandma came to church to see what it was about and it see why she talks about getting baptized. We talked with her and she is giving Cherry permission! but now cherry is nervous and scared. She's 11 and thinks she's too young and it's hard sometimes because she knows all the answers and understands everything but isn't willing to step forward with faith. it's something that has to develop with time and we are trying to be patient with her. It was super funny though because usually they kind of make fun of my Chinese and stuff because their kids and that's what kids do haha so we were teaching and reading from 2 Ne 32 and Cherry read the first verse, then Michelle (her member friend) the second verse, and then Sis. Chinison asked me to read the next verse and Michelle turns to me and says, "Jung Mahn!" which is 'Chinese'. haha usually what we'll do is just read in English and they'll read along in Chinese and vice versa. So anyway, I grab the Chinese scriptures from her and start reading it. You should have seen the look on their faces when I started reading this verse! Hahaha little did they know that that verse, 2 Ne 32:3 is the ONLY complete verse that I know in all the scriptures! Hahaha it was just so perfect! I just hope that they don't ask me to read something else another time :) haha.

We had a cheng out (where people treat us to dinner) last night and it was really good! I was nervous because apparently in the past Gwok Ji Muih will put frogs in the potatoes and whatnot. Anyway, we had chicken and veggies and taro and these peanut sauce on other vegetables and this yummy taro drink and fruit and shrimp rice and there was just SOO much food! She kept bringing out more and more and more and more! It was amazing and I was so full by the end! The Chinese people LOVE food. Food is how the show their love. They always offer whatever they have to anyone and everyone. And they feed you more and more whether you want it or not! They grab your bowls and just fill them up. At another cheng out they put blended tofu and fish in my bowl. I survived!! haha anyway, I gotta wrap this up but today for p-day we had a combined zone activity and hiked this mountain! the scenery was beautiful, we found a waterfall, and we walked through this old village in the middle of nowhere! I LOVED it! then we went to the beach and played football and Frisbee. I had my first squatter experience (not sure what they're called but the toilets that are holes in the ground) and I got super sweaty and I smell nasty. I share this with you because guess what...we have no running water til tonight! so I get to go to English class like this :) yummy! Anyway, things are amazing and good! I’m learning so much! we had members of the general Sunday school presidency and ym presidency come speak to us yesterday and they gave incredible advice and really boosted our spirits and fire! We are all ready to give all that we have and add oil! I love you all and pray that you are safe and healthy and doing well! I hope you know how much I love and appreciate all of you and my love for you and everyone in Hong Kong grows every day. Ga yauh!

Sis Kiene