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