Update on Annie

Merry Christmas!  Annie has had an eventful week.  Last Friday night we received an email from her saying they had finally received a reassignment.  She was being sent to Atlanta, Georgia.  At first they told her it was to the Atlanta North mission but when she arrived in Atlanta she was assigned to the Atlanta Georgia mission. (Sorry Whitney, we were sooo excited but she's in Georgia at least)  She was able to call us Monday morning from the SLC airport and we got to talk to her for about an hour or so.  It was so great to hear her voice and just chat with her for a while.  She was excited to be leaving the MTC and get on with her mission.

6 Silly Kids on Christmas

We love our Annie!

Today we got to skype with her!  It was great!  She is now in Fayetteville, Georgia just south of Atlanta.  Her companion is Sister Smith who has only been out about 8 months and is from Hawaii where her parents teach at BYU Hawaii.  They are in an area that hasn't had missionaries in it for at least 6 months.  They have giving out the pass along card for the He is the Gift campaign.  She said people have been pretty nice and several have gotten very excited about talking about Jesus but no discussions.  Of course she has only been there 2 days.  She found one little boy wearing a Kevin Durrant jersey and started talking to him about basketball.  (Kevin Durrant is Annie's favorite basketball player.)  She's doing good and adjusting to a new companion and a new routine after almost 12 weeks in the MTC.

Taiwan changed its visa process this summer.  Annie's group filled out the new forms and went through the new process. But the groups before did not and got backed up, pushing Annie's group further back than it should have been.  The group before Annie's left on Annie's departure date - Dec. 1st.  So the hope is that Annie's group will leave for Taiwan around January 12th, the departure date for the next group in the MTC.

Her email address is still annie.oviatt@myldsmail.net and she loves getting emails.  Her p-day is still on Mondays.  DearElders don't work the same once they leave the MTC, you are paying them to mail a letter for you but she won't get it the same day any more.  Her current address is 1903 Cobblestone Blvd, Fayetteville, GA 30215.  Thank you to everyone who has sent her packages, letters, cards, etc.
 She really appreciates it and so do we!

Week 11... WO-MEN HAI ZAI ZHE LI!! (WE'RE STILL HERE) yes we're THOSE missionaries that have been here forever.

Yay! Still at the MTC! 

We just wanna go to Taiwan!!!

We have no idea what's going on. We've heard so many different things! We could still potentially leave for reassignments this week, but if we don't leave by Thurday there's a rumor that because of holiday blackouts we could be here until Dec 30th!!! That is such a scary thought!!! But we really don't know. And we're getting a new Taipei district Wednesday who is supposed to move into our classroom! Craziness! Our 5th set of Sister Training Leaders/Zone Leaders in the MTC got called Sunday! We've been here foreverrrrr! (Note from Annie's dad: I'm calling the travel office tommorow around 1:00 MST and they should have more information then on when she'll be leaving. I'll put a note here when I find out more.)

There's a ton of construction going on at the MTC right now. They moved all of us sisters in the newer nice 17M into the old 3M that's all the way on the other side of campus today. :( The rooms are smaller and there's not a lot of showers. We've been in 17M since the very beginning in October so packing today was a pain! Plus we're leaving soon so none of us want to unpack anything. Our Elders are SUPER awesome and helped us move our luggage all the way over to 3M. I love our district so much. It's been a crazy PDay!!

Chips & Queso party!
Nothing like Texas, but you take what you can get here! ;)

So about 3 weeks ago we got 2 sisters put in our residence room with us. They're going to Taichung in January and their names are Sister Gardner from Pocatello, ID and Sister Carlson from Georgia. Well they're adorable and we're so glad they got to move into our room! We were pretty sad last Monday night after another week had gone by with no news on our visas or even leaving. We got back to our residence and had an awesome surprise! There were 2 big bags of chips, queso, and spinach artichoke dip sitting on a table in the middle of the room. They also put up Christmas decorations! :) <3  We were all so shocked and happy! They bought it for us just in case we were leaving. They are so cute and we love them(:

One cool experience we had this week was Thursday night. All of the Taiwan missionaries from both zones who were supposed to leave Dec. 1 or today all got together and prayed. We said a prayer not that our visas would all come in, but that we'd be able to know what else we needed to do here at the MTC. We wanted to see the Lord's hand in this process. We wanted to know and do His will for us. It was a pretty sweet and unifying experience. The next day, after lunch, Sister Kirkham, Hendricks, Good and I went to the French building to look for one of our old substitute teachers who we love! So we looked all over for him, but didn't see him. 

Walking up to the temple with the adorable Sister Haupt!
Who thankfully is going to Taipei too! (:

As we were leaving, this cute Hispanic guy with a gold name tag on started asking us questions. When someone has a gold name tag that means they're just at the MTC to see how it works and kind of "investigate" the church. We told him we were learning Chinese and had been here for almost 11 weeks. He was really interested in how we've been able to learn so much from just our short time here. He said he's struggled with his English, so then we told him that if the Lord could help us learn Chinese, he could definitely learn English, too. He then started asking us about how Joseph Smith could really be a prophet. We discussed the restoration with him and some of Joseph Smith's story. We also taught him that we need to exercise our faith in order to receive answers. We were able to testify of Christ and His Atonement and how it could help him in his life. He started to tear up at one point when he was feeling the spirit. We were all talking to him for about 40 minutes! It was an amazing experience to be able to teach a real person. He had real concerns, real desires, and real questions. We know he has a real desire to be happy and find truth. He even set up a return appointment with us, tomorrow at 11! Even though we were in the French building, there was a Spanish Book of Mormon sitting on a table right by us! We gave it to him and asked him to read Alma 32 before our next meeting. It was so perfect!! We all really loved the experience actually impacting someone's life and helping them have happiness.  It made us sooo excited to go to Taiwan, but we've got a little more motivation to stay here. We all left that meeting with a renewed desire to preach this gospel and help others turn to Christ. 

Our cute district at our 3rd "last temple walk"

Earlier today, Sister Hendricks and Sister Good saw him and his wife! They told us he said, "You know those times when you're really thirsty and you just want a drink of water? I felt like you guys gave me that water Friday." That made us all feel so good! That's exactly what we hoped we did for him. It reminded me and Sister Kirkham of a scripture we read during Companion Study this week. John 6:35.  "And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst ." We know God was looking out for us and Jose by making our paths cross. I believe we needed this experience just as much as he did. 

I am so grateful for Heavenly Father's perfect plan for us and all of His children. I know Christ is the Living Water. We truly will never hunger or thirst when we are turned to Him. The Lord is my light and my salvation. He cares for us, cries for us, and prays for us more than we will ever know. I am so grateful for Christ and His Atonement. One bright spot of still being at the MTC is getting to have some Christmas spirit. All of the devotionals and everything lately is so focused on Christ and God's love for us. Christmas will be so great in the MTC if we're still here. I really hope we'll be in the field somewhere, but it will be cool to be here, too! Well I'll talk to you guys later!

Thank you for all the Dear Elders, letters, emails, and packages! I love them so much(:

-Sister Oviatt

Week 10!!! Still in Utah

Well we're just about done with Week 10 here! :O The next district after us is scheduled to leave next Monday. They've got some going to Singapore & Taichung, Taiwan. They all have their travel plans!!! :( But no. Not us!!! The travel office applied for their visas the same time as ours, so we should all get them at the same time. They're thinking they'll all come in this week sometime. The difference between us is that when we get our visas we'll probably leave the next day or so. But when their visas come in they can't leave til their departure date. So basically they don't want to book our flights because they don't know when our visas are coming. So it's all craziness and we're done with the MTC. Still trying to work hard, but it's old teaching the same 2 teachers all the time. And just everything is old. I still love all the people though! Our district is getting even closer and Sister Kirkham and I are too. Yeah. That's really all that happened this week. The same old stuff! 

​So last Monday we were really depressed that we hadn't left yet.
So we had an all black day. We're so cute right?
We're thinking about doing it again today. hahaha

Possibly the last Temple walk - Me and some of my faves!
I love these girls and I kinda don't wanna leave them this week.
but I really want to leave the MTC :/ MIXED EMOTIONS!!!​

Now for my embarrassing story of the week. I don't even know how it happened honestly! haha
So in our residence, I sleep on the top bunk and Sister Kirkham sleeps on the bottom bunk. I leaned over the railing to tell her something. Then I started slipping. I kinda caught myself and everyone was like Sister Oviatt! You're gonna fall! Get back on your bed! So I kinda tried to get back up, but I FELL! I fell onto that same hard concrete ground Sister Kirkham fell on a few weeks ago and got a rug burn from. It treated me much nicer. Somehow I didn't land on my head! I don't even have a scrape anywhere! I did hit my arm pretty hard on her bed, but I think it will just be a big bruise. Sister Kirkham kinda caught me on my way down so I think that's some of the reason I didn't break my head open! It was quite a blessing that I just have a sore arm today and nothing else! It was super embarrassing and all 6 of us were laughing for 10 minutes after. I don't understand my life sometimes! haha

Alrighty now for the spiritual. 
1. I bore my testimony in sacrament yesterday! All in Chinese of course! Our whole district got up because it was possibly our "last Sunday", but we'll see! 

​This is our district yesterday with our
 Branch President and her wife,
President and Sister Teng.
We love them sooo much!!

2. One time this week in class our teacher had us role play with our companions, but really try to help the "investigator" have a spiritual experience in the lesson. So Sister Kirkham started teaching me about why Christ is important. She had me say the opening prayer and ask why Christ is important. She shared some good scriptures and then started to talk about how Christ already performed the Atonement so we can and should always use it. She said EXACTLY what I needed to hear that day. I had been feeling a little guilty for always praying for help with all of the hard stuff that's going on here at the MTC. I felt like "I'm just too needy and I need to get over all this stuff so I don't have to keep asking for help all the time." I know I can always use the Atonement, but for some reason I was feeling bad for that. Satan really doesn't want us to use the Atonement! Anyways, she said that Christ's Atonement is always there for us to use and he wants us to use it, or something to that effect. She made me start crying!! She thought she was teaching a fake investigator, but I was totally just acting like myself. The spirit was so strong! She learned a big lesson about teaching through the spirit and so did I! We really can teach to people's needs even if we don't know what they are. Heavenly Father knows all of his children and what they need at any given time. We need to be in tune with the spirit so that Heavenly Father can use us to help his children. 

Triplets! ​Yep we decided to all match one day.
So yeah we're adorable and stuff. :)

I'm really excited to go to Taiwan and do REAL missionary work and affect REAL people's lives. I want to see the changes in their hearts and see the joy the Gospel brings into people's lives. But most of all I want to follow God's plan for me and apparently for me that's to be here at the MTC even longer. I've actually learned a lot of good lessons this week, and strengthened lots of bonds. I'm not 100% sure why we've been delayed in going to Taiwan, and I'm not sure I'll ever know in this life, but I know Heavenly Father knows all! He "is the ruler of the universe, being omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent (through His Spirit)." (Bible Dictionary, God) God is perfect in every single way possible and he wants to help us any way he can. One of my Mom's favorite scriptures, that will forever be burned into my memory, is Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Gotta be constantly remembering this scripture right now! He will direct our paths if we have faith in Him and then act! This church is true!

​We got to do our favorite thing ever on Wednesday - Traffic directing!
 It was so cold so we got to wear super cute jackets! (;
I love these girls so much!! I'm gonna miss them!

 Thanks for all the prayers for our visas(; and all the support! I'm so grateful for my awesome family, their examples, bringing me up in the Gospel, and everything we've been through together the last almost 20 years! :) THANK YOU!

-Sister Oviatt

Week 9! And I'm still in the MTC!...for who knows how long...

Note from Annie's Mom:
Annie and her district were scheduled to leave the MTC for Taiwan on December 1st but due to visa delays they are still in the MTC and probably will be for the next week or 2.  Last week we received her email and within minutes it was out of date.  She received a reassignment email right after she sent us her weekly

email. It's a long story but I decided not to post until we had a bit clearer picture of where she would be.  The reassignment letter was cancelled and now they are staying in the MTC a few weeks longer.  The travel office is waiting to receive the visas from the Taiwan consulate and they could come at any time.  It was a confusing week for Annie and for us.  We are so proud of her for her faith and patience.  Life rarely goes the way we expect it to and Annie is very well aware of this, especially right now.  If you would like to send her a package or a DearElder letter please note the change of departure date from Dec 1 to Dec 15.  I've changed it on the blog as well.  So here is her latest email and pictures.  ENJOY!

​So we thought it might be our last temple walk as a district so we took this picture.
 PSYCH!! It's not. But we're still awesome. so whatever!

Hello everyone!
Yes, today was our scheduled departure date, and yes, we're still at the MTC! No, we don't know when we're leaving. We got our departure date changed to December 15 for Dear Elder, letter, and package purposes, but we don't actually know when we're leaving. Just whenever our visas go through! We did get reassignments last week, but they got officially cancelled because they think our visas will be coming soon. My reassignment was to Pocatello Idaho! Crazy! Patience is hard, but the Lord has a plan and a reason for all of us to be here a little longer.

Alright. Got the sad news out of the way. This week was super eventful because of Thanksgiving! This Thanksgiving I've been thankful for so many things Heavenly Father has blessed me with. This email I'm going to write about 3 things I was grateful for this week.

1. I'm thankful for our great MTC Presidency that organized 3 AWESOME devotionals this week! Tuesday night we heard from Elder Oaks!!!! The spirit was so strong from the moment he walked in the room and we all stood up for him. The reverence and calm stayed the entire night.One of my favorite quotes from his talk was, " You are acting in similitude to the Savior, because as a missionary you are doing something for them they cannot do for themselves." We are inviting them come unto Christ, and have faith in His Atonement unto repentance. We help them receive baptism and the gift of the holy ghost. They can't do this without our selflessness and charity for them. Our teacher also taught us this week that we are learning Chinese, so that we will learn to have Charity towards the people of Taiwan. We're working hard to learn this language in order to help them come unto Christ. We're willing to "sacrifice" and "suffer" for them to know God & Christ. We know the happiness and purpose it has brought us, so we're willing to do this to help them have that, too. We are willing to follow Christ's example from 1 Nephi 19:9 and "suffer" because of our love & kindness towards them. When they see how much we had to learn & do to bring them the message of the restored gospel, they'll see how much it means to us. The rest of his talk was amazing and I wish I could tell you more! But as I said there were 3 awesome devotionals this week so I gotta get going.

Because of Thanksgiving we got to have a devotional Thursday morning. AND we got to sing in the MTC choir for it! We participated in an MTC first, by singing "Come Thou Fount". WOW I LOVE THAT SONG. It is so powerful and has so much truth in it. I don't have time to tell you all my favorite lyrics and why. But wow. That song spoke to my heart this week. They usually tell us right before the devotional who is speaking, but for this one they didn't say anything until he walked through the door! So we're singing the prelude music and in walks.... DAVID A. BEDNAR! That was AMAZING. Again like Tuesday, the spirit flooded in when one of the Apostles of the Lord walked in. This devotional was broadcast to all 14 MTC's all over the world! His devotional was a little bit different than what we're used to in the MTC. He announced that he was going to just answer our questions the whole time! The even cooler part was that he passed out a couple hundred cell phones and had us text our questions to his iPad. Then he'd choose some of them to answer. The other MTC's also had a way to send in questions through email! A WORLDWIDE Q&A SESSION WITH ELDER BEDNAR. WOW. I'll just really quick share my favorite quote from him because I don't have enough time. :( 'Nobody who has consistent, heartfelt, and meaningful prayer and study of the Book of Mormon will wander off the path." He said those two things were the key. I've had the opportunity to do that here, much easier than in real life. ;) I've felt the effects that those can have on us. I know it's soo much harder to do in real life, but I know that it works. the rest of this answers were great too, but I loved that one the most. These devotionals. Wow. Highlights of my week.

Yesterday was awesome too. Sheri Dew came and spoke at Relief Society. She's so strong and has so much wisdom. She talked about spiritual "wrestles". Like in Enos 1:2, "And I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God, before I received a remission of my sins." She said most spiritual enlightenment & inspiration comes after a spiritual "wrestle", like in Ether 12:6, "And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." I've had lots of spiritual "wrestles" here and I anticipate many more when I go out in the field, and for the rest of my life really! I know that really doesn't make sense because you need to hear the whole talk to get it. But I hope you at least understood a little! It was great. What a week it has been. Finally, last night, we had our Sunday night devotional. It was Vocal Point from BYU! We finally got to hear music again! They sang the most perfect songs, that I needed to hear last night. And they shared great tips and stories from their missions. Then I got to say the closing prayer in front of all 2,000 missionaries and the MTC Presidency! So scary!! But it was great to hear President Hacking say, "Sister Annie Oviatt from Round Rock, Texas going to the Taiwan Taipei Mission." It was great to hear my first name again and my hometown!! (adopted hometown) :) So yeah. That was my amazing week of devotionals!

My Mom's the BEST!
#TEXASFOREVER

2. I'm thankful for the packages my family sent me this week!! My Mom literally ran all over Texas to get me the stuff in that package! I got new shoes, Texas stuff, Christmas presents, and BUCEE'S BEAVER NUGGETS! Bucee's is like at least an hour away from Round Rock. so it's a pretty big sacrifice for her to get me those!! We GREATLY appreciated them! So I showed them to my TX friend Sister Good. She freaked out!!! She grabbed them from me, hugged them, and started crying!! We miss our TX! She made me start tearing up too! We had to take a picture with our Bucee's shirts, Beaver Nuggets, and the flag because of how much TX pride we had at that moment. :) So THANK YOU for those! We shared with everyone and now they're addicted ;) Somehow we haven't eaten them all. We're still savoring them! <3 I also got a couple packages with more food from my Grandma Liz that were great! We hate this MTC food now so all the food we've gotten, Beaver Nuggets, Granola bars, chocolate, has been from HEAVEN. None of it has gone to waste! My whole district is grateful for my packages(; 

Note from Mom: Beaver Nuggets are a Texas thing and if you'd like to understand why they freaked out over them you'll have to come to Texas. ;)  But really they are a snack from a BIG gas station here in Texas called Bucee's.  Maybe I should have sent more. :) I was more excited about the other stuff in the package but those were the hit! 

3. I'm grateful for Jesus Christ and His Atonement, love, mercy, and His Gospel. I am so grateful that I can share His Gospel & wear His name everyday. He truly lifts me up everyday. It is only through His power that I can do anything. I am so grateful to have been raised in this church and to know of the fulness of Christ's Gospel. I am excited to help others taste of the exceeding joy of this Gospel. I don't know when that will be, but God has a plan for all of us. We are exactly where  we're supposed to be right when we're supposed to be here. Lean on the Lord and everything will work out... eventually. ;) The Lord is my light, then why should I fear?! I know this Gospel is true. Christ LIVES. He atoned for us. He LOVES us. Joseph Smith restored this Gospel. He saw God the Father and the Son. Thomas S. Monson is a true and living prophet on the earth today. The Lord directs his church through him. The Book of Mormon is true and will help us and guide us in our lives.

Thanks for all of the prayers and support everyone! Talk to you next week probably!

-Sister Oviatt

Week 7

Hey Everybody!

A huge shout out to the Round Rock High School football team and my "little" brother Matthew for beating Westlake! Awesome! I wore the RRHS homecoming shirt Mom sent me as much as I could this weekend to represent! Good luck this week! I've been bragging to the other 2 Texans in my district that my team is top 20 in the state of Texas! haha! 

Also a shout out to Corner Bakery Cafe for hooking me up with those cookies and the sweet notes! Everyone loved them! Especially monster cookies of course! haha :) I've had crazy dreams about going back there the last 2 nights! In both dreams I didn't know how to do anything anymore! :) 

SNOW! 

Anyways, now to the funny and spiritual. I have 2 of each this week! It was a great week ....except for the snow on Thursday! I HATE SNOW. So much. 

First the funny. One morning we were at breakfast and the MTC president and his wife were sitting at a table near us. President Nally looked over at us and asked where we were going. So we said Taiwan Taipei. Then I thought I heard him say, "say hello to the Taiwanese!" so I responded, "Oh we will!" then Sister Kirkham looked at me like I was crazy! Then she said, "Ni hao!' to him, looked at me and said, "He said say hello IN Taiwanese, what were you thinking??" so I explained it to her and we could not stop laughing! Apparently, I don't understand when people speak English to me, let alone Chinese!

This is the mouse we scared our roommates with! :)

The second one is even better, because I wasn't the one getting embarrassed this time! Wednesday night Sister Good and Sister Hendricks were in the new district's room right before bedtime. Sister Kirkham and I found this fake mouse with a motion detector on it so whenever it got moved or anything it would start making mouse noises! So we got this genius idea to put it in Sister Good's bed while they weren't here! Sister Kirkham placed it perfectly on the bed just enough under her covers that she couldn't see it at first glance, only if she looked hard. SO CREEPY. So they came back in and about 20 minutes later we start hearing it squeak. It was the funniest thing ever! Both of them freaked out sooo bad! They had no idea where the noise was coming from and it sounded so real! Sister Kirkham and I were on Sis K's bed trying so hard to be good actors and act like we didn't do anything. We're awful! hahaha We were just laughing our heads off but they were so scared they weren't even paying attention to us! It was all so perfect I can't even describe it! We told Sister Good to look under her pillows and blankets, then she found the mouse! She screamed SO LOUD! Then Sister Hendricks freaked out and was on my bed on the other side of the room in about .3 seconds! But the best part was when Sister Good jumped off the top bunk onto the cement floor and went spread eagle and continued to freak out! :D haha We then told them it was fake and we had put it there. They were sooo mad for a few minutes, but now they're laughing about it so it's all good! haha Later when we were laughing, Sister Kirkham decided to do an impression of Sister Good jumping off the top bunk, except when she did it she got a super bad rug burn on her wrist! It sounded painful and she couldn't write in her journal because of it! I kinda saved the day and bought her ice cream from the vending machine to cool it down. haha We have so much fun in our sushe!! (residence) :)

These are the sisters in our zone now!
 The 3 girls on the right are new from this wednesday!
 They're adorable! :)

Now for the 2 spiritual stories. On Tuesday night for the devotional Bishop Dean M. Davies, the 2nd counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, came and spoke to us with his cute wife Darla. At the end of his talk he asked if they could sing a duet for us instead of singing the normal closing hymn. They sang "As I Have Loved You" once as a duet then we all joined in as they sang again. It was the cutest thing ever! When they were singing he would look down at her with the sweetest smile. I'm pretty sure there was not a dry eye in the room when they finished. The spirit was so so strong! Seeing their love and adoration for each other helped me feel the Savior's love for me.

This is my chinese nametag!
 These are the only characters I know how to write
so don't be too impressed! haha

The next story is pretty cool too. It's kind of a long story about how it all ended up, but you can go read Sister Kirkham's update on Facebook if you want to read the whole story! I'll spare you. It is kinda her story, but I was there for all of it sooo anyways. Sister Kirkham has been kinda sick with a sore throat/cold thing for about 3 weeks. So we were talking to these other Mandarin Elders who were also sick, and they told her, "Don't hesitate to ask your Elders for a priesthood blessing". We'd thought of that but didn't think to actually do it. So that night she asked Elder Tan to give her a blessing. That was one of the coolest experiences of my mission so far. It was super amazing to hear these 18 year old Elders give her one of their first ever priesthood blessings. Right when they started, the spirit immediately filled the room and I started tearing up even though I wasn't the one getting the blessing! It was a sweet and simple blessing of health and strength, but so beautiful! The next day she improved a lot and she's pretty much better now! We were all so grateful for the priesthood that night!

This week I learned a lot about healing and strength, both physically and spiritually. I didn't feel very good on Thursday either, but not bad enough to get a blessing. So that night and the next morning, I prayed really hard for us to know what we could do to feel better. We kept up on our medicines on Friday and took some time to rest. We felt so much better on Friday and Saturday! 

Now the healing on the spiritual/emotional side of things. Satan has pushed on me so hard here. I start feeling like I'm not good enough compared to my perfect companion. He tempts me to feel extra guilty and not worthy to have such a good comp. It is so dumb!! Some days are so hard because of his temptations. Sister Kirkham knows me pretty well now and she can tell when i'm thinking like that. She always helps me sooo much! She encourages me and helps me know that Satan's lying to me. She helps me remember to not compare myself to her and that she's actually not perfect either. I'm so dang grateful that Heavenly Father let me be comps with my long lost best friend. :) 

Also, through lots of prayer and scripture reading, I am able to regain confidence and be strengthened. My heart becomes healed from Satan's traps and temptations. I know this is only through the atonement of Christ that we can be spiritually healed and strengthened. I am so so grateful for everything I've learned about the atonement the last 7 weeks! I've gained a personal relationship with Heavenly Father and Christ. I am so grateful for the gospel and the knowledge I have that I can continually improve through Christ's grace. My favorite talk ever is still "His grace is sufficient" by Brad Wilcox. It has helped me a ton through the past couple weeks remember that I don't have to be perfect the first time. I'm always going to make mistakes, but when I humble myself to Christ he will ALWAYS help my weaknesses become strengths. So grateful for the atonement. I've also gained testimonies of the Book of Mormon, prayer, and Joseph Smith. Those tangents will have to wait for another time!

Love you all and I appreciate the prayers and support!

-Sister Oviatt

Week 6!!! Ni hao jia ting he pengyou men! :)

Ni hao jia ting he pengyou men! :)

Hello family and friends!

In order to not bore you to death, I'm gonna start telling one spiritual thing from the week and one funny thing. I never know what to write anymore because everyday is the same! 3 weeks from today we leave for Taiwan! Hopefully our visas come in so we don't have to get reassigned stateside! Pray for us all in District 39A! :)

Getting ready to go to the Marriott Center

Okay so I think I'll start with the funny. Well It's kinda just the best thing that happened this week that wasn't spiritual. idk. Well. Tuesday was a wonderful day. We got to go to the BYU Tuesday Morning Devotional at the Marriott center! Plus we had our normal Tuesday Night Devotional so that was a great day! As we were leaving to the Marriott center I saw Whitney Sanders! :D AWESOME! I missed her so so much. She's been a great example to me ever since I met her when my Mom taught her in Young Womens. So good to see her! 

Then we walked down to the Marriott center and it was SO NICE to be out of the MTC!  We were just chillin waiting for it to start, when I saw Ashley Oldroyd and Emily Hancock coming down the stairs! 2 of my favorite Mormon sistas from Austin! <3 I gave them hugs, only teared up a little.., talked for a second, took a picture, then had to say bye again. :( so basically Tuesday was super good because I got to see 3 of my favorite people. And the devotionals were good too... ;) 

Me, Ashley Oldroyd and Emily Hancock

So when we were making our sad walk back to the MTC, Sister Kirkham said, "Goodbye real world! ...I never thought I'd call BYU the real world." I was laughing sooo hard! We are so isolated from the world here! It was weird to see normal people in normal clothes, using phones and laptops, and sitting alone. Like where's your companion?! haha I'm already turning into a weird missionary and I've only been gone 6 weeks! :O Tuesday was definitely the highlight of the week!!

Okay now for spiritual. I kind of have 2. Sorry. First I memorized the First Vision in Mandarin this week! ...with a lot of help from Sister Kirkham! It was soooo hard! But I mostly got it all down now. It's a little choppy, but I DID IT! Next, Sundays are the best days of the week. Everyday kinda feels like Sunday so they have to make Sundays even better than the rest of the week. It's a great spiritual recharge for the week! so I may have already said this in another email, but it's whatever. 

Every Sunday they announce right after the sacrament which 2 missionaries get to give a 4-5 min talk in Mandarin. And last week one of the districts in our branch left for Singapore! So it's just us and a district that came in 2 weeks after us. We currently have 6 sisters and 8 elders in our branch for them to choose from to speak. Sister Kirkham and I heard that they usually don't call on new people, or people in leadership, like STL's (Sister Training Leaders,) and ZL's (Zone Leaders). So that narrowed it down to me and Sister Kirkham for the sisters, and Elder Mertz for the elders. Basically we knew we had to prepare good talks this week! 

This is us after we gave our talks.
 The weather was so perfect!
 Yesterday was so good!
So proud of us(:

So Saturday night we wrote our talks out about the Holy Ghost and luckily we actually had our personal stories translated into Mandarin the night before, so that helped a lot! We went to sacrament meeting and after we took the sacrament, Brother Hardy got up to announce the speaker. I was freaking out, but I kinda wanted to speak, to get it over with for the next 3 Sundays. He said, "Our first missionary speaker today will be Sister Kirkham." Ah relief! I was excited for her, and a little jealous that she was getting it over with! Then he says, "We'll also be hearing from.. SISTER OVIATT." Okay he didn't say it like that, but that's how I felt. :) I let out a big gasp and was like, "WHAT??". Because it's usually a sister and an elder! I was shaking all the way through Sister Kirkham's talk, but she did super good! She talked about how the Holy Ghost comforted her when she got her mission call. She read D&C 31:3. Great scripture!! I felt the spirit really strong, even though I've heard that story like 35 times in the last 6 weeks. :) She's the best. I'm so glad we got to speak together. It was so perfect. So then I got up and gave my talk. My personal story was about how the Holy Ghost comforted me the first week of senior year in Texas. My story was in a different part of my notebook than the rest of my talk. so I told that story, and then I couldn't find the rest of my talk notes! I was up there giving my talk flipping through my notes. haha embarrassing! So I just opened up to the scripture I had prepared, John 24:16-18. I talked about it for a second then I just testified. haha I felt the spirit really strong though, and I started to tear up a bit! My church vocabulary is expanding and it's getting easier to share my testimony. In fact I think I'll end this email with my testimony in Mandarin. :) 

Wo zhidao Tianfu he Yesu Jidu cunzai. Wo zhidao tamen ai women. Wo zhidao tamen yao bangzhu women. Wo zhidao moermenjing shi zhenshi. Wo zhidao Yuese Simi shi yige zhenshi xian zhi. Wo zhidao tougou Shen de liliang to fayin moermenjing. Wo zhidao Yesu Jidu siwang wei women. Tade shuzui shi zhen de. Ta ai women hen duo de. Ta wei women meitian zuo daogao. Wo ai tade fuyin. Tade fuyin gei wo hen duo de kuaile he anwei. Wo hen ganxie wei wode fei chang hao tongban. Tai wei wo hen hao bangyang. Wo hen ganxie wei wode fei chang qinai de jiating. Wo AI tamen. Feng Yesu Jidu de ming, Amen.

Well if you didn't understand that then sorry! Maybe google translate can help you... except there's no tones sooo it might be completely wrong! Email me and I'll translate it for you :)

Anyways. Talk to you all soon! Thanks for all the support and love!

-Sister Oviatt

-Ou JieMei

More Pictures!

This is a humidifier our teacher brought one day and it's my best friend. I hate how dry it is here! I love just holding it up to my face and feeling the moisture. I MISS TEXAS. TAIWAN HERE I COME!

Look who I found at the MTC!!! :) Sister Knapp! She leaves Dec 1 too!
Note from Mom: These 2 were in Activity Days with me when they were 8 years old!  :)

So there's this parking lot on the way to the temple and theres tons of out of state cars all the time. I finally found a texas one and it made my day! Sis K thought this was a creeper pic. But it's fine. I <3 Texas!

LOOK HOW SMALL OUR ZONE IS! AAH! We get more Taibei sistas on Wednesday though! :D

Week 5! Wo ai yesu jidu he tade shuzui!

 Hello everyone! 

That subject line says, "I love Jesus Christ and his Atonement". I just felt like showing off my chinese skills for a second. Sorry. Another eventful week here!  I mean eventful, but also the days all feel the same. haha 

Package from my family in Texas!
I LOVE IT!!!

Highlight of the week was definitely the package!!! Everything in it was so perfect! I put up the decorations and such next to my bed and said guys look at my Texas shrine! and Sister Kirkham was like ummm I don't think that's allowed here. That's against our religion I'm pretty sure! Then I said I'm sorry Sister Kirkham, Texas is my religion. :) She was being sarcastic of course, but I wasn't! Okay. maybe a little. ;) I miss Texas a lot, mostly the people, but the food here is terrible so I really really miss my Austin food trucks and Monument Cafe and Hopdoddy. :'( I'm super excited because Sister Kirkham is totally coming down to Texas after the mish so I can show her the amazingness. I feel like she's sick of me and Sister Good talking about how great Texas is all the time, but she'll learn eventually. :) Oh man I miss Texas tons, but I'm so glad I'm here.

This is my beautiful Texas shrine! :D
 #texasforever

 My testimony has grown a lot and I'm actually learning Mandarin! One of our biggest improvements from last week was in TRC. We hardly had time to plan this week! We just went in, got to know the people for a while, talked about my family, and then we shared our favorite scriptures and how they strengthened our testimonies of the Book of Mormon. Oh yeah ALL IN CHINESE. It's cool. Sis K shared D&C 31:3 and why she came on her mission. (Super grateful that she did!!!) And I shared 1 Ne. 3:7 and how the Lord gives us hard things to do, but he always has a plan for us! We were so much more confident this time and the spirit was so strong. We got some good feedback from the volunteers! One of the cute old ladies gave us candy because we missed halloween! and she said our chinese was easy to understand :) yay for confidence boosts! I was so proud of us after that! No script, all spirit for the first time! We're gonna try to do it again today for our lesson! Ah! Pray for us! haha 

We hate this food.
But we're cute. kinda. except me. haha

This week we had some great devotionals! They were given by Rosemary Wixom, Primary General President, and Wendy Nelson, who is Elder Russell M. Nelson's wife! They had great words of encouragement and cool stories! I was spiritually recharged after those! We might go to a devotional at BYU on Tuesday afternoon and we definitely have one that night, possibly with an apostle, so we're all pretty excited! 

Friday was Halloween, but it didn't really feel like it! Until Sis. K. got a package from her family with tons of cookies! We knew we couldn't eat them all, so we went to all the apartments in our zone and did reverse trick or treat! So fun! 

Yesterday was fast sunday! Loved it! Testimony meeting in chinese was awesome!! So much spirit there! There's a district leaving for singapore today so they all got up and it was amazing! They also sang at the end! Now we're the oldest district in our zone! 4 weeks from today we leave!! CRAZY! 

We're pretty done with this place. haha. I'm excited to leave the MTC, but then Sister Kirkham and I will have to be split up! :(( So sad! I really hope we get to be comps again in the field! That will be great! But hopefully not til later in the mish, so our chinese is better! :) I love my companion sooo much! She helps me so much everyday. She's so understanding and patient! She listens to me vent and complain about how bad of a companion I am. haha She deserves someone so much better than me! We have so many good times and I know the Lord was looking out for me when he put us together! 

Me and Sister Kirkham on the Temple Walk yesterday!
This girl is super great. 

Anyways. The hour of emailing goes so fast here! So I've gotta go! Thank you family for the packages this week! I love them! And I love the Dear Elders and Letters of support! I really want to respond to them all, but we only have a few hours on Mondays to respond :( But thank you! I really do appreciate them all! 

Just wanna leave you with a quick message. Someone in the MTC presidency told us this on the first day, "Not much growth happens in a comfort zone, and not much comfort happens in a growth zone." Well the MTC is definitley a HUGE growth zone. I'll have just a moment, like literally 30 mins. where I feel comfortable w/ the MTC then something comes along and makes me uncomfortable and able to grow again!  I've already learned and seen how much I have to rely on Christ and Heavenly Father to do everything! I've learned so much about the atonement and prayer here. Through the Atonement of Christ I'm able to continuously become a better missionary and servant of the Lord. I use it everyday!

 I know that Heavenly Father and Christ care about us individually. They want to help you with your problems. Don't be afraid to ask, or feel like you're not worthy. They LOVE you! 

Anyways. Thanks again! <3

-Sister Oviatt