To everyone back home, I miss you tons!!!!  Whats everyone doing?  Any fun stories or news?  I hope everyone is doing well. Things are going great here. Still loving the MTC and having fun. its getting more and more crowded every day!!  Keep those missionaries comin! The language is coming along, as of last week we can't use notes during the investigator lessons anymore.  All we have are our Fijian scriptures and whatever we can memorize. So hard!! Luckily the language itself isn't too complicated so I've learned enough vocab and sentence structure to understand what people are saying. We got some elders from Fiji in our zone so they're helping us out alot. To those of you who didn't hear, I got a calling a few weeks ago. I'm the music coordinator for our branch (saw that one comin lol! ) so I pick all the songs and musical numbers for the meetings. its been really fun.  Its been so fun having a ton of islanders in my district,. I'm picking up on their behaviors and words already. They do this hissing thing when you want to get someones attention in a crowd. Most people don't notice unless you're used to it, and the other day I heard an elder calling me from across the lunch room!! So cool!  By the time I get back I'm going to be full Polynesian! As one of the elders says, I'm "palangi (white) on the outside, poly on the inside". well I'm almost out of time and I want to send some pictures, so I gotta go.L ove to everyone!! Good luck with finals and stuff and have fun.

 

au lomani ena!!

Sister Pyne

Things have been going well, although it was a rough week.  Alot of things reminded me of home :( but I think I'm over the worst.  I'm officially half way thru my time at the MTC on Wednesday, so weird!!  Some of my room-mates left this morning so we should be getting some new ones tomorrow (Wednesday the 17th).  The language is so hard! We have to teach investigator lessons every day and we aren't allowed to use notes anymore.  Everything is memorized or improvised and all in Fijian!! :)  Crazy huh?!  I've been seeing tons of friends,and I love the new districts in my zone.  My first day as music coordinator went well......uummmmm other than that I just have classes, food, classes, food, maybe the gym or computer, then more classes and food!  That's pretty much my life.

Love Sister Annie Pyne

I just finished our final lesson with our first "investigators" (one of our teachers). When we teach lessons they have to be completely in Fijian, even the scriptures and stories.  I've memorized how to pray and bear my testimony and I can share scriptures. (I included my testimony in Fijian at the bottom of my blog) The hardest part is answering questions because we can't understand what he is asking!  But today I got enough to piece together an answer, it was really cool!  I can't believe I've only been here one week.  We do almost the same thing every day so it's easy to lose track of time.  The sisters in my zone are great and we all get along really well.  My companion, Sister Vai is from Samoa.  Two sisters are from Micronesia, and one is from Australia but her parents are Samoan.  The elders are so fun, and whenever we do things together we have a blast!  We got a new group in our "zone" yesterday (April 3rd).  There are two sisters and five elders, and they are headed to Mongolia.

Sister Vai and I get along really well. She's turning 22 in June.  Most of her family are inactive or non-members so she doesn't have much support from home and she's been kinda homesick.  She speaks English pretty well, but wants me to help her with it.  I can't imagine how hard it is to be learning Fijian when the classes are not in her native language.

I've seen a lot of the Brighton girls, and a few girls from Highland, there are more on the way.

I'm having a great time!  Love, Sister Pyne.

So far its been amazing!! I love everyone in my zone! Most of them are from Samoa or New Zealand but their parents are Samoan. There are about 15 of us going to Fiji, only 5 being sisters. I'm the only white sister and my teacher says I'm the first white sister going to Fiji in about 3 years!! So that's gonna be interesting. The language is really hard but fun. I'm catching on pretty quickly and I can already pray, bear my testimony and kinda teach in Fijian. They started us on the language the second we got here!! I've seen so many people I know!! There are 5 sisters from Brighton and I saw someone from Highland and Katie Roth. There should be more coming in the next few weeks. Pretty much all we do is study and go to devotionals.  My companion's name is Sister Vai from Samoa. She is still working on her English skills so its kinda hard to communicate but we get along really well.

My departure date is set for May 5th but I hear they change alot so who knows. I'll let you know if it changes. I'm having tons of fun!!

 

Sister Pyne