Well everyone, I have rabies...

So, as I said above. I have rabies. I was throwing up some weird foam this morning that turned into a really nasty urine colored liquid! So you are all welcome for that visual! But yep, first time being sick in the MTC checked off my list. It actually was really cool cause they have the doctor like right next door so I got in fast and was able to get some medicine for the virus I had. I repeat it was a virus and not really rabies! 

Alright, so this week has been an eventful one. And by that I mean the last two days. See on Saturday I made the mistake of praying to gain more humility. Well, let me tell you. You truly can not expect what the Lord will put you through when you pray for that. Though I still encourage you all to pray for it anyways because lets admit we could all use a little more humility in our lives. So ladies and gentlemen, you know now the Mandarin Chinese's Sister Training Leader. Yep. Its the new assignment for the sister missionaries. Similar to a zone leader but for the sisters. I get to attend all the leadership meetings with the district and zone leaders and all the sunday meetings with them too. I think the thing I am most excited for about this assignment is that I will get to help with the orientation of the new missionaries coming into our zone on August 7th! So so so excited for that! So please everyone pray for me to be able to do this assignment well and be able to help the sisters when they need it. My purpose is, "To be a missionary to the missionaries, and minister to them according to their needs" PLEASE pray for me. 

Here at the MTC we get a lot of random missionaries coming up to us asking to practice their tracking skills which normally is a little odd cause more often than not they are speaking another language which you can not understand, but this last time I learned a really valuable technique! Real them in through... COMPLIMENTS! So an elder came up and was like, "hey! I really like your shoes!" "Are they comfortable?" "Walking in the footsteps of Jesus Christ is more comfortable, would you like to hear about it?" HAHA we were dying! So great ah those good old Portuguese speakers. 

Another lesson I learned from another Elder in my district Elder Leo was that at all times have a confidence about you. He had just finished being an example investigator for us all as our teacher was demonstrating how valuable it is to get to know your investigators so you can teach as Jesus would- to their needs. Which actually was a very cool lesson which I will talk about further down towards the more spiritual stuff- but anyways Elder Leo goes up to his companion and says, "Now Elder Carbine, the real question is, Was I good? Or was I great?!" But really, that is the attitude to have here. My branch president is always telling me to look up to be happy the Lord is blessing me and even if I screw up and say something I think is stupid I am trying and working very hard to qualify for the spirit to teach through me and so he will. It matters less of what I say and more of how I feel towards the investigators.

I really have been learning how truly weak I was when I first came here. How much I still need to learn. To really love. And give 100% int this work because the Lord needs us. And it will be hard, because, "Salvation is not easy.. it was hard for the Savior and so it will be hard for us" -Elder Holland. So the thing I learned in our class demo the other night, our teacher Wen LaoShi turned to us all and bore a simple testimony to us. We are there sitting in for Jesus Christ. And every time one of God's children is meeting with the missionaries, God is there. Because that is his child. And he wants them back home. Please everyone at home. Realize this. You are God's child! Do you even know what that means?! Ponder it. Because it will change your life if you wake up everyday and remind yourself of who you are. My really really good friend Kipp helped me realize this. As we were on ballroom tour we all started asking silly getting to know you questions and stuff to help us all stay awake. Well, then Kipp decided to test my knowledge and simply asked, Kimberly, who are you? And no matter what answer I gave he would say yes that describes you but Kim, who are you? And finally I decided to give up. I looked at him and said I don't know Kipp. I am a child of God okay?! And he said, "exactly." "until you help your investigators know that and truly believe they are God's children they will not progress." And so I invite you all, come to know who you are. Because it is incredible. 

Tonight I get to skype an investigator from TAIWAN!!!!! I am so scared! but it will be sweet Im stoked! Except... the chinese may be a bit shaky. But yeah I am so excited! Real live TAIWANEESE people!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoot whoot! And next monday my district gets to help clean the temple! This is all just super cool and I love it all! i love you all and i hope you have a great week!

-Sister Thornley

 Found someone else with a screwed up pinky!!! I am not ALONE! ;)

 Found Hailee Waldvogel! Sad day though its a gross picture.

And for service here this week we got to clean the showers! Goggles and all!

Half-Way Through The MTC

Well everyone, I was offered a job and so I am coming home. HAHA! No but seriously, I was sitting in sacrament and there is a missionary here from Finland who owns some businesses  So He was sitting in front of me and so I politely asked, "Hey Elder! Do you really own a business !" And he turned around and pulled from within his coat a business card which read, SCANDI a modeling business where he and his partners rent out models. He handed it to me and said ever so politely, "I do. And if you need a job when you get back from your mission give me a call." HAHAHAHAHA! It was the funniest inappropriate thing to have happened to me thus far on the mission. He then signed the back of the card and handed it to me. Classic. So, anyways, I am not really coming home yet. Sigh. But The good news is that so long as I do not gain anymore MTC weight I have a job when I get back home in Finland! 

Alright, so my week, it was very good. The days here are SOOO long but the weeks are fast. It is crazy to think that this week I will have hit the one month mark. I love it so much here... but I cannot wait to get out of here all at the same time! We had another TRC this week, which is where volunteers who speak the language come in and we teach them lessons. My former district leader Elder Dickson put it like this, "It feels like when in Monsters Inc they line up at the doors on the scare floor and count down and then suddenly a buzzer goes and we enter the rooms to scare." It seriously is though. They line us up at the doors in a hall and then say, "Okay missionaries say a prayer with your companion and begin. You have 20 minutes." And then we all enter the rooms to begin teaching. Which at times feels more.. well like a scare floor run than a missionary opportunity but I love it. The Chinese volunteers are incredible! And I am beginning to be able to teach better. By that I mean, my companion and I are starting to understand how each other teach and alternate off allowing the other to say something intelligent. I will admit sometimes I need to hold back and allow sister Nicholas teach. That is my goal this week.

The Lord truly is blessing me here. I can say honestly he is giving me the gift of tongues as I now can recite the first vision. There is no way that is on me. But it is definitely something I have to work for. I feel like Enos, I am literally praying like all day. I have a cool story-

So I have made a goal to memorize 40 words every other day and I was sitting at the computer for TALL which is a program for language speaking missionaries to help us cause it has native speakers recording. Anyway its very valuable time and we are only given an hour for it. So I was sitting staring blankly at the computer not sure what words I should learn that day. And i had idled away 30 minutes of the time I had. STUPID. But I knew I had to be productive. So I said a prayer. I asked for him to guide me on what words to work on and to please bless me with the gift of tongues. And for the next 30 minutes I was able to memorize 35 new words. The Lord lives. He is blessing us. 

Alright, so I LOVE when it is my week to be senior companion! Cause then the week goes how I want it to go and it ROCKS! (for me.) And this week is my week! Whoot Whoot! OOOOHHHHH!!! Good news! I saw Hailee Waldvogel! She is such a cutie and lives in my building .. for the week that she will be here. She is such a gem. Although I find it hard at times not to get jealous that she gets to go so soon when I am just barely passing the half way mark this week. But it is okay. It's humbling because I see them leave so much more converted to the gospel in one week than I am after being here for 4. Perhaps that is why I was called to speak another language. 

I think last week I said something about the statistic of missionaries getting hit by cars in Taiwan? Breanna, you are not in Taiwan. Stay away from the cars you could get hurt ;) HAHA!

So the last bit of good news I have for this week is that I now get to be an investigator! Well we all do. We will begin teaching each other this week only its us acting as someone else. I am so stoked to make the Elders life so hard! okay no, but I am really excited, although its a little odd to pretend not to understand the gospel. I think it will take just as much prayer and faith to be an investigator as it is to be a missionary. Well, farewell for now!

Zai Jian!

-Sister Thornley

 Me and Dylan Thomas

We had an English Fast.. alas we had no pockets for our pocket dictionary

 How Sister Smedley blow dries her hair

The lyrics to As Sisters in Zion MTC version

We found a cool thing my camera does!!! It cartoons and sketches!

 At the Temple

 Me and Sister Sarah Nielsen

A reading assignment I wrote up for one of our investigators

Another week down and I didn't hit my companion despite the urge!

Well! I feel like my subject line is enough said. ;) This week was really good!  I was able to do a little bettwer when i can to patience with outhers so thank you all for your kind words of encouragment as you told me not to hit her.  I'm sure she truly appreciated it as well :). So, there is a really cool version of sisters of Zion that we as sister missionaries sing here every sunday, but I forgot them.  So i'll tell you them next week! (something to look forward to)I had to go get an X-ray on my ribs for those of you who know me you should know why and if not just ask Kipp Lewis, Hailee Waldvogal, or Rich Fauci. Anyway the MTC had me go get an x-ray done as it was starting to really bother me. Alright no just kidding! All missionaries going to Taiwan have to.. i"m not sure why the older generation is telling us it's to check to make sure we have all of them in us. But you'd think they would just have the elders have to do it sense the mormon belief is that we were made out of Adams rib! Ba-dom-Chi! ;) haha!!! bad joke bad joke. As you can all tell the mission humor is getting to me. Oh! Shout out to Elder Dickson my district leader! Apparently his parents found my blog and now read it! If so, I want you parents of his to know he is a wonderful missionary and is leading us well. I truly appreciate him. 

So the Mandarin branch got to watch the Testament in chinese yesterday... I understood like maybe 3 words. which kind of sucked. But I got it understood Korihors line of, "there is no Messiah!" Which cracked me up :) I'm glad I'll at least be able to tell what the Taiwanese are telling me if they are denying that there is a Messiah! As I'm sure i'll need that at least once or twice on the mission. No but in all seriousness, there is such a spirit with that movie. Christ lives again. I know it! 

So I dont mean to make it seem like I am not catching onto chinese at all because that isn't true. I am getting it pretty well actually! I have the missionary purpose memorized in Chinese now! actually i have been able to for a week now. Which is super cool! And I am getting better at understanding my mudaoyoumen better now! Which means investigators. They are crazy fast speaking. So some questions have arose about them. They are my teachers. Though the first one that commited to baptism we didn't know was our teacher for the first week. You can imagine my surprise when our cute little investigator walks in and starts talking in English to us. Needless to say I had to tip my desk back upright. And now they are not going easy on us at all. So in total we have had 3 and two are still progressing investigators. The new ones are both very.. hmmm... actually they are very different. One is super shy and the other is very... bold in her opinion of us and yet she continues to meet with us. But we have a game plan! Its called... pray like there is no tomorrow. We actually have been jipped of our time with her lately cause the other missionaries have been going way over on their time. Punks. So anyways we had to "text" her to extend some further council to a question she had about prayer. Which is in a picture I believe sent to my email so to those who I gave that information to please upload that as well :) Cause its awesome. 

So once a week on sunday we get to go on a temple walk. Well we were in for a surprise this time! There were two protesters standing in front of the temple! They had huge white crosses and were screamin to us all, "There is only one God! And we must do all we can to return to him! He loves us we are his children! We have to come to God through Jesus! We can not be worshiping some building! Or one man! We must only worship God!" Oh boy, can I just tell you how hard it was for me to not go dancing like a black woman in church behind him shoutin hallelujah with him! it makes me a little sad to think so many churches are pretty dang close to the truth they just don't have the complete fullness and due to some rumors they will not listen to our message to hear that we believe essentially the same thing and help them come to realize God's gospel is back on the earth in its fullness!  Oh! On the walk back I saw Sisiter Sarah Nielsen! Shes a cutie! I'll send that picture next week. 

Well, So today I was feeling a little overwhelemed and so, I got my chi on by practicing up for Taiwan! I did a headstand against the wall for a whole minute! Another picture I think is in my email account of that... no judging. its p-day so i didn't get ready. Well, this is a bittersweet week. Tomorrow we are loosing over 20 missionaries. They are going out into the field! But they were such good examples to me! Elder Sam Mitchell who was my zone leader from bear river high leaves tomorrow as well! As I said.. bitter. And now for the sweet! HAILEE comes in WEDNESDAY! Whoot whoot! I am so excited for her! Hailee you better read this, be prepared to feel so much stinking joy! Its so terrific here! I am so excited for you and cannot wait to see you! Meet me... uh.. Well I dont know your schedule. But email me and we'll figure out something. Actually if youre on this campus we will most likely see each other as its pretty common. But yep I am so excited! I love you all and appreciate your prayers in my behalf!

-Sister Thornley, or more formally known as here 

yao jie mei

this one is a good one to read cause :) well its really funny

So, the second week is over! Crazy to think about that. I got punished this week :( I was talking to much with an elder that I sat by and we were laughing a lot (its easier to get distracted here than you think after reading the scriptures for two hours straight) any way i got punished and moved to a lonesome corner in the room all by myself. But I am seeing benefits from it! Now I can study for 2 and a HALF HOURS without getting distracted!!! HEhehe :) So I told you all last week that we taught a lesson in mandarin Chinese on the third day here right? Don't worry to all those going to a language mission... they make you do the same thing. So i take it back- worry. ;) It actually is a really amazing experience to see how much the Lord will bless us because my companion and I were able to communicate our message. Anyways we had taught her three lessons and were studying for our fourth, I had been reading a lot about the concept of baptism just in my personal study by chance. But when my companion and I talked about it we decided it was too soon to prepare that lesson ( we have to choose lessons because we have to learn the chinese for it, its very hard because if they ask you something else you can't answer because you don't have the vocabulary) Any ways so we planned to talk about the plan of Salvation instead. And then of course our investigator asked us five minutes into the lesson that she had read in the book of Mormon about baptism, and then asked if she could be baptized  Well needless to say that was a rough rest of the night for me as we were not able to talk to her about it when I had been prompted to. We were however the next day able to talk to her about it and she actually committed to begin preparation for baptism! 

So we got to all have an extra meeting for the fourth of July! As you would assume I was just soooo excited to go listen to some more speakers for another two hours before we would get to go watch the stadium of fire fireworks... not. But then I had a nice surprise! We got to watch 17 miracles instead!! WHOOT WHOOT!!!! Funny thing is, here everyone is so bipolar with emotions. Everyone was bawling within the first five minutes of the movie. Liike I mean even the Elders. It was hilarious! I mean... super spiritual.  ;) The fireworks were great! It was fun to be able to stay up past 10:30! We all felt like crazy rebels... unil the next day the Lord taught us all why he has us go to bed by 10:30 as the entire MTC campus was a replica of a zombie movie. :) 

Yesterday was fast sunday which actually was probably one of the easiest fasts I've done. Heavenly Father really is watching out for his missionaries here. I was fasting to know how to get along with my companion better because lets face it, I can't always hod in my sassy side of me and it may have come out when she was making fun of my laugh and I accidently punched her.... uh... oops. ANYWAYS so I was fasting to gain inspiration on how to be more Christ like. And I felt almost thhat it had been for nothing... until later in the night we attended a talk from David Bednar. On Characters of Christ. It was so good! He counseled us to recognize that Christ would turn out when the natural man would turn in. I realized that we do that so often in life without even knowing it. So needless to say that is now what I am working on daily. Please everyone pray for me so that I will have the self control to not punch her again as I'm sure I'll get introuble for it eventually. 

I have a movie quote!!! 

- "You have forgotten yourself, and so you have forgotten me" 

Alright whoever writes me first to tell me that reference I'll... send you somethin real cool from here! 

Anyways that came up because my district and I were discussing how we wear Christs name and must never forget who we are while wearing it because it would well, it would not be respectful to him. It was neat :)

Next quote from one of the Elders here, 

"The Lord does not ask us to do things according to our ability, he asks of our AVAILABILITY. Then when we increase our availability he will increase our ability." 

Which is just really neat to think about not just for missionaries but for everyone because the Lord is asking us all to do things. Everyone should everyday be constantly  wondering what the Lord is trying to tell them to do that day that hour because I can guarantee he is asking you to do something. So that is Kim oops, Sister Thornley's challenge for you all. During this week commmit to listening to the spirit to recognize when he is asking you to be a servant in his hands.  

Well, that's basically everything! I have a TON of letters coming your way! Please keep them coming they are such a relief we get them that day you write them twice a day once after 12 and once after 6. I love you all keep the faith! And may I encourage one more thing. Personal Prayer. Make of it all you can. 

:) -yao jiemei. 

(aka Sister Thornley)

First Week

Well hello guys! I am a little dissapointed in you! I was expecting more emails than that. Bu. which in chinese means bad. ironic eh? It means the same thing!! hahah!!! Alright so this week was really good! Very different than what I thought it would be thats for sure. The first day we go into class as soon as we get here and I was of course the last one to enter the classroom... typical. ;) But the teachers here are only allowed to speak the language we are being sent to. Crazy huh?! Good thing they are all such good actors! It was very cool though, at the end of the lesson for the day our teacher started talking slower and pointing at things... suddenly I heard some words that I recognized. She was bearing her testimony. It was incredible. Though I was only able to understand some of what she was saying the spirit was astounding. I love my teacher she is awesome! So my companion rocks! Which is good news because well I didn't have very high hopes after all I am going to Taiwan and they only send nerds there so the good thing is is that I fit right in! The other girls in my district are so cute and sweet! Sister Tracy (not my companion) is amazing! She took four years of Chinese so she basically kicks my trash! They do a thing called SYL here which means the words we know in our language we have to say in our language. So we have conversations with random occasions of us saying random words we know. But already I can tell we are recieving the gift of tongues as we dilligently study. On the third day here my companion ni jiemei and I were to teach our first investigator nice right?... Until we find out we have to do it in Chinese! WHAT?!!! So weird. even weirder- we were able to. I was amazed. They're are truly miracles in teh works here! Pardon my spelling we have very limited time for me to be caring about that at all. Alright, so yep I love it here!!!! I have seen so many friends from SUU and High school its crazy, kind of sucks though becasue we aren't allowed to hug the elders but you just get so excited to see a familiar face!

So everyone... there is a website called DearElder.com. USE IT! my district is in an unspoken competition on who can get the most letters per day, and well basically I have to win so... yep :) Please make me feel loved. It's nice to hear... okay yeah actually I dont really know yet what is nice to hear and stuff after all I've only been gone for 5 days. But overall its awesome and I love it! uh... I had more stuff to write but now that I'm put on the spot I can't remember... OH! SHOUT OUT TO ALICIA! okay... umm... Oh! Cool and fun fact- I can pray and bear my testimony in chinese. so... take that as you may but I take it that the Lord truly is here watching out for his missionaries that are going into the field becuase my entire class can. It is not without effort though. We do 16 hour days here. And 6 of them are under a teachers guidence the rest is up to you to study your touche off to make sure you will be prepared to teach the next lesson. I truly love the people here and already love the people of Taiwan. Our investigator is from Taiwan and she is such a doll! She just smiles and trys to guess our acting skills when she asks a question we dont know how to answer in Chinese. It is really cool. The last lesson we taught on Saturday, I was able to understand every question she asked... I couldn't answer them all in fluent Chinese but I understood! I am learning to really listen to the power of revelation. it is not easy by any means so i would appreciate any prayers that you could offer on my behalf as well as my companion- Sister Nicholas. Well... I have others to try to write to quick but I love you all and please please write me letters! Use dear elder.com!

Mom, I am really glad the other moms out there are looking out for you. I really hope you are doing okay and I am praying for you guys all the time (mostly because I know how to say that in Chinese) But I am doing fine. Please send my skirt fast! and.... hmmm there was something else But I can't remember. Oh I have a rule here I didn't know. We are only allowed to write letters on P-day (mine is monday) thats hand written too. So I can only answer one day of the week but I am trying! I promise I will get better!

Kyle, Thank you for writting me! Best brother so far! ;) Tell Breanna I love her!

Tisha and Justin, you two are spectacular. We talk about our nieces and nephews here a lot. I want you to know how much you and your children mean to me.

Bryan and Meghan, I want to thank you for the influence you have had on my life! You both have always looked out for me, Oh meghan- I love my hair so thank you for that!

Tiffiny and Trevor, Tiff... I can't tell you how much you mean to me. I pray for you and your lovely family each night. I really really hope you know how much I love you. You have always been there for me and I am so grateful for the friendship we have. Thank you for the letter, it was so nice to hear from you!

Alicia- well you little hole. ;) I love you to pieces thank you for writting me for mom and dad you are an angel. I have a letter coming in the mail for you! You are my darling little girl. I miss you.

Friends- WHAT THE HECK?! WRITE ME YOU LITTLE BRATS! ;) I love you all and really, if you have not sent in your papers DO IT! Get here! The Lord needs us. We are as Helamans Army. Serve the Lord.

Sister Thornley and her companion