Wow what a week!

Leih Hou!! Oh my gosh it has been one crazy week! I don't even know where to begin. Well first of all, i have missed a lot of class because of the singing practices and then the performances! It was an incredible experience but definitely a sacrifice. The first performance was for President Monson, Erying, Utchdorf, and then all 9 apostles were there except I think Elder Packer, Cook, and Oaks. The room was full of mission presidents and general authorities and i saw julie b beck on the first row and President Samualson and all these people. We were in the small little chapel rooms and stood directly infront of the apostles and prophet on the stand. Like 5 feet away! There are about 38 of us and we all scrunched in a tight pile so the camera is a close up on us the whole time. I was able to hold my emotions in while we sang precious savior dear redeemer but then right after the loud powerful part where we split into six parts i lost it completely. But i couldn't wipe my tears or anything and i couldn't sing really until the last amen. i just sat there with tears streaming down my face but i just couldn't hold the emotions in. my body was shaking and the spirit had filled the entire room. They funny thing is we didn't even sing it that well. we sang it MUCH better times before. But just because the spirit was so strong, it was so special. As I walked out I looked at the first presidency and Pres. Erying and Utchdorf were just looking over smiling. Then Elder Holland with tears in his eyes gave us the silent applause. We performed the next few days for when Pres Utchdorf spoke and there were 7 apostles there and when Edler Hollan spoke and I think there were about 8 there for that. Then Friday night I was able to attend a special fireside with all the mission presidents and any other missionaries that could make it in. Elder Bednar spoke to us about being Preach My Gospel missionaries. It was really great! Edler Nelson, Ballard, Oaks, Anderson, Holland, and Scott were there. Oh I also saw Elder Anderson in the halls a couple of times when we were in the building that we sing in. Everytime he was with his wife and he'd say hi to me and walk by. On Sunday afternoon we were supposed to sing one last time for the special Mission pres. sacrament where pres Erying spoke at. Before we went in we were in our room practicing. Our director came in and right behind him walked in Elder Bednar and his wife! haha so cool! So we all walked over and talked to him. He told us how grateful they all were for our talents and that we performed in a humble way. He told a funny story about how pres hinckely started a meeting early and the director wasn't there yet so Elder Ballard announced Elder Bednar would direct the music. Before they started he went up and said, "I'm going to wave my arm down like this and that's when you come in" so he did it and immediately sat down. Hahaha he said the one time his wife tried to teach his kids and him how to lead at FHE (using straws as the little wands) he turned it into a spit waud fight! hahaha kind of sounds like something dad would do :) haha just kidding but i thought that was so funny! Then he asked us where we were serving! I got to tell him I was going to Hong kong. He asked if I was speaking mandirine or cantonese and I told him Cantonese. Then he said he was there four weeks ago (which we were all totally bummed about cause were barely missed him!) and that I would need to fix anything that he may have messed up hahaa oh I just love the apostles personalities! So back to our performing. To make a long story short they forgot to announce us so we didn't get to sing. They let us watch the talk next door where our practice room was and once the meeting ended we decided to all circle up and sing Joseph Smith's first prayer, which was what we were supposed to perform, acapella. We began to sing with doors open and slowly mission presidents and wives started peeping their heads in and started coming in to listen. We never sounded so good and the spirit there was undescribable. We were all just crying and I know that the mission presidents could feel everything we felt. Then Our director came and apologized and then we asked if we could sing Precious Savior once last time. We sang it and had any couples that were listen on the outside to come in. The mission presidents were all in tears and one wife was even singing with us. It was such a special moment and I just know that those mission presidents have a big responsibility but are so willing to serve.

So guess what I got to do after that?! Well since the mission presidents were in the building where we usually have sacrament, we had combined sacrament meetings and our was with 15 branches. Guess who was the lucky missionary that got chosen out of all the missionaries to speak....yep, me. hahaha so mike and i both got to speak on sunday! My talk was on faith and I think it went ok. It didn't go exactly how I was planning but I hope that the spirit taught them something. I was surpised with how many people thanked me for it. I think it's partly because they're missionaries and pretty much obligated to be nice :) haha but some were very genuine and I really appreciated it. Ok as for my companions, I have two, Sister kelly from north ogden and sister burningham from salt lake. Sister burningham is korean! she knows Kade lyman from school too. She's quiet but really sweet and sister kelly is really spunky and sweet too haha they've been fun to have around!! Sorry this is so random i'm just trying to get my thoughts out quick! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE! And I'm soo excited to see you tomorrow! Everyone knows that you're coming and if any Cebuano speaking Elders attack you or anything (because they're hosting and know that you are coming) don't be alarmed. hahaha Oh and krystal, I am rocking the four-square. Actually, all the Elders think I'm evil because i have no mercy. I think they just notice things when a sister does it because if elders get them out they don't care. Anyway, it's hilarious and I'm pretty much obsessed. who would have thought?! haha ok well I have to go! But I love you all! Thanks for the package mom! it was a life saver! have fun in utah!

Love,
Kahm Ji Muih

Still flyin solo

So I'm still a solo....literally SOLO sister right now. No companion so I've been going on splits with my cebuano roommies Sis. Apina and Sis. Shaw and also some sisters in the branch. Besides that I'm just stickin with my jeung louh (elders). They've been doing a good job taking care of me. Ok so this last week has been pretty good! I feel the Cantonese coming slowly. My comp send me a quick letter from Hong Kong and says all the missionaries out there have great Cantonese...that just motivates me to push myself that much harder. It's tough but when I look back from day 1, I've definitely improved. It's just hard speaking tones when one, I'm nervous, and two, I'm emotional. Yes...I cried in our lesson again on Saturday haha our investigator Caleb is actually from Hong Kong and he's 18. (the real caleb is going to turn his papers in soon!) But he's very patient with us and I appreciate his service. It helps so much listening to an actual native. MY teacher Lauh Ji Muih (sister lau) is the sweetest thing on earth and comes from Hong Kong. She was only able to teach us Saturdays until just over a week ago and it has been such a blessing having her. We have so much fun and I always seem to do something retarded to make her laugh. She taught us "He sent his son"....well the first verse that is, in Cantonese and reading characters! haha it's hard but characters are really cool! Anyway, we finished up and prayed, and the missionaries were on a water break and i was kneeling on the ground still because we kneel when we pray. Anyway, Lauh Ji Muih came back in and I was starring at the characters (probably looking like this little primary child) and she just smiled, patted my head and said, "oh Kahm Ji muih" hahaha she seriously is so cute. And she has spunk too! So, our teaching is still not exactly where we would want it, but we are trying our best to teach with the spirit. I think the Cantonese (especially grammar) is what is holding us back so much. But we contacted Tommy (another cantonese teacher who is chinese) and taught him a mini lesson and tried to set up an appointment to meet with him again. Suprisingly, we understood a lot about what he was saying! They only problem was trying to respond to it. We just need to practice and practice. We are doing a much better job SYLing (speak your language) and hopefully we can progress quicker. So I don't think I mentioned this last week but I applied to be in this mini choir and I got in! I didn't really know what it was for but come to find out that we are singing for the New Mission President Seminar and have mandatory practices every morning at 7-8 and if we missed any we were out. That goes into some of my class time but they said it took presidence over any other MTC activity. They promised us we would be blessed for our willingness to sacrifice time. We have 5 pieces we are singing and they have to be memorized. So I have had to spend time with that and then trying to stay ontop of everything else has been a little crazy! Anyway, we sing on Thurs, Fri, Sat, and twice on Sun and it's all during my class haha but it's ok because it is going to be an AMAZING experience. Why, you might ask? Well Thursday we sing Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer for President Monson, Friday we sing Come Thou Fount for Pres. Uchtdorf, Saturday we sing I'm trying to be like Jesus for President Packer, Sunday morning we sing This is The Christ for Elder Holland, and Sunday afternoon we sing Joseph Smith's first Vision for Pres Eyring. They said the First Presidency and 10 apostles are coming! I honestly can't believe I've been given such an amazing opportunity to sing for the prophet and apostles. However, I'm going to need a lot of prayers. I get emotional even in the rehearsals and I want to be able to really sing for them. Anyway, that's my exciting news! Then I got called on Sunday to be the coordinating sister for the branch so i had a lot of training meetings and we have two meetings with the new missionaries that come in on wed and thurs (12 cantonese and 12 english!) which happen to be during class as well! I guess I'll need to just really take advantage of any time I have to study!! It will be good though and I know everything will work out. Well, things are going well. Once again, thank you for letters and prayers. I can't believe Mike will be here in almost a week!! He's going to love it. It's going to be amazing! And I'm pretty sure the temple closes from july 4-26 for cleaning so Mike, take advantage of the temple before you leave! Well I'm excited to meet the new missionaries and hopefully I will be able to help them as much as sister bishop helped me! Well I love you all! Do good! Oh one more thing, we listen to the spoken word every sunday and the last song they song was, "I got the whole world in my hands!" I nearly died! Luckily the sister next to me has seen rocketman and we just laughed about it! haha so awesome.


Love,
Kahm Ji Muih

going on week 5

Leih Hou! Leih hou dim a?! Pretty sure I saw what a week every email, but it really has been quite the week! I try to write down little bulletpoints throughout it so I remember to add everything I need to in the email so hopefully I can remember everything I want to! I'll start from last Tuesday. Sis. Bishop and I made our way to the temple and when we were in the waiting room this man next to me asked if we spoke any other languages. we told him we were learning cantonese and he asked if we knew spanish hahahah but sis. bishop has actually studied spanish and I, of course from taking it in 8th and 9th grade, am practically fluent myself. So he asked us if we knew where this certain scripture was in revelations. I finally help him find it and then we chatted un poco. He's peruvian, probably in his late 30's. Anyway, Sis. Bishop was trying to tell him that we live at the MTC because we are missionaries and she kept busting out Spantonese! I was dying! Anyway we enjoyed the session and we were just in the celestial room and all of the sudden there is our little friend (literally...he was prob 5'2") and he starts talking to sis bishop. he was whispering really quietly and he had a thick accent so I didn't know what he was saying really. So I just sat and pondered. But after about 30 min I was like...ok what is going on?! Finally she told him that we needed to leave. Once we were out she was dying laughing because apparently he started telling her his life story and all about his dreams and whatnot...oh man there are some funny people!! haha too bad we prob won't run into that in Hong Kong hahaha

Elder Kakuchi came and spoke to us at the devotional and it was amazing. He talked about the importance of Joseph Smith and his sacred experience in the sacred grove. He challenged us to find our own sacred grove and be consistant with our morning prayers so that we will be guided throughout the day. I'm still not perfect at it, but I've definitely improved and I'm so grateful for everything he taught. He shared his conversion story too which was incredible. If i had time i'd tell you but pretty much the missionaries were completely inspired to knock on his door when he was about 14. Their testimony of Joseph Smith touched his heart. I learned so much just from his talk and I know he was inspired to say the things he did. So i'm officially a SOLO sister! I have no companion! yes, the older district left yesterday and the new doesn't come until NEXT wednesday. So I just float around from Sister to sister or with my district. I get left some places and all that fun jazz haha it's not too bad but I do miss my tuhngbuhn (companion). She helped me so much and now I have the responsibility to help the younger when they come. it's going to be tough but hopefully this week i can really focus and getting the language down even that much more and building that confidence in myself and in God. I have seen my faith grow but i know it can grow so much more.

We taught in the TRC in Cantonese for the first time this Saturday and I studied really hard and learned new words to use and when we got there I felt like I forgot everything haha I was really nervous and it didn't help that our old investigators got switched and we had three new ones (including Tyler Sharp from Mesa...Krystal is good friends with him too!) So that was even more nerve wracking because I had a friend there listening to my try to speak Cantonese. Our task to teach how to pray went pretty good and the lesson wasn't bad either...I felt like there was a lot more i could've said, but it's ok because it was simple but we still taught what we needed to. The only hard thing is we don't know what they say back to us hahah so it's hard to teach to their needs. During our lesson I was trying to think of things to say but then when Elder Farnsworth started talking about Joseph Smith I just thought of how grateful I really am for him and how special his experience was. I started freaking out because I could feel the emotions coming and I was going to quote the first vision in his own words. yep, you guessed it, totally started crying. And it's SOO much harder to speak Cantonese when crying than English because you still have to hit the tones haha but I got through it and it was really cool that even when speaking another language that you hardly know, the spirit is still so strong.

So I filled out this application for being in some special choir deal and I got accepted haha but it is a special MTC choir and we have about 5 pieces that we're singing for the New Mission President Seminar. They said it is very important that we are capable of singing well so they made us sing a hymn and went around listening to us. We have 5 practices and they are manditory. if we don't come we get kicked out and they take precidence over all other MTC activities. I didn't even know what this was all for but it sounds really cool and I'm really excited for the opportunity to sing in it. I'll be missing breakfast and class but I know I'll be blessed for the sacrifice. So one last thing before I end, Sis. Ann Dibb, President Monson's daughter, came and spoke to us in Relief Society and it was really neat! She wanted us to get to know Pres. Monson on a more personal level so she told about his life and showed all these pictures! it's just really neat to see how they are people like everyone else but also how their faith increased over the years and continues to increase. I know without a doubt that President Monson his the living prophet we have today. It is SO important that we continue to follow his council because he KNOWS what is best for us. I know that obedience is one of the most important things we need to do to help our faith increase, and then we need to ACT. I know that I am imperfect. I know that I have weaknesses, and I know that there is opposition in all things. I'm grateful for opposition, even when times are hard. I'm grateful that I have this experience to learn how to strengthen my weaknesses and then eventually help others strengthen theirs too. I love being a missionary. I have so much to learn still but the more I learn, the more my love grows for the Savior and his atonement, and the more I want to give that to everyone. Every single person deserves to know the truth and to have the gospel in their lives! And I can be a part in sharing that! I love you all and keep you in my prayers. Thanks for everything!

Love,
Sister Kiene (Kahm Ji Muih)

First of all, OH MY GOODNESS I can't believe Greg and Aubs took Ty camping! That is just adorable. Also, that is so crazy Garrett Heiner is going to Brazil!! Tell him congrats and we'll see him in a couple years! haha mom, i just got your dearelder this morning and still haven't finished it but i'm getting timed on here so i wanted to be able to write everything! Thank you for the package too, everyone loved it all! Anyway, as for my week, it has been pretty wild. I am constantly learning SO much and I have to really sit back and soak it all in sometimes. I feel that my teaching is improving a lot and I know that's because the Lord is helping really understand it better. I've realized how IMPORTANT it is to be yourself. Because who you are personally is what is going to really touch someone else's heart. We've had subs throughout my whole time being here and then the last about week and a half we had a bunch of subs and so we hadn't been going over the language. It has made me really frustrated because I feel like we are behind in some sense. But I am grateful for the time spent on learning to teach, even if it's in English. We are teaching in Cantonese for the first time this Saturday and we are going to need A LOT of prayers. We know it will be a learning experience but we still need a lot of extra help. This language is very tough. But i just have to look at the positive and see how much I've already learned. Also, the younger district comes soon (With 12 new missionaries!) and we need to know enough to be able to teach them. Something that has really helped me this week is really understanding the meaning of Faith. It would take forever to go into detail about what i've learned but just know that obedience and faith is so vital in this life! And that's how we are able to receive personal revelation. I'll share a quick experience before I run out of time. One of the teachers is a progressing investigator and sometimes it's hard to pretend they are someone else...but my teaching partners and I really tried to follow the spirit when teaching her. I can't describe the feeling, but we didn't go anyway near what we had planned to say because we knew that she needed to hear something else. We knew that the spirit was guiding us. Another teacher we taught as an investigator asked all these questions and i really felt like we were able to share experiences and tie it into the plan of salvation. Afterwards he thanked us because he said the questions he asked as the investigator were actually his own questions and we really did meet his needs. It is hard, I'm not going to beat around the bush...i think mostly because of the language...but I know that satan wants me to get discouraged. I am really striving to have more faith. Sorry this is short, but just know that this work is amazing and I can't even begin to explain the kind of impact it has had on me already. I've only been here 4 weeks and I feel like i've grown and learned so many things that never came close to crossing my mind before. I love it, and I love you all too! I pray for everyone each night, in my broken Cantonese.

Love,
Sis Kiene