Hello from SONGSHAN!

Nov. 9, 2015

I moved to SongShan on Friday! I miss Shuang He, but SongShan is cool too! I'm in Downtown Taipei now. Taipei 101 is in my area! But there aren't quite as many people as there were in ShuangHe. More people work here I think than they did in ShuangHe. Anyways. 

The ward is HUGE! There were literally 53 sisters in Relief Society yesterday. Last Sunday in our ward that just got split we had 12... WEIRD. But the problem is that they don't have enough Melchizedek priesthood holders to split the ward. It's like 4:1  active women to men. And everyone here has been members for like 30+ years because it's in central Taipei.

My companion is Sister Bowman. She went into the MTC a transfer before me, but the day before they got their reassignments, she tore her ACL playing volleyball. So she went home for 10 weeks for surgery, while the rest of her zone went to their reassignments. She got to come straight to Taiwan! So because she had the surgery, she's actually going home with me in April. And she actually gets 12 transfers on island unlike anyone around her! Super crazy!! She's 24 and is from Iowa! She graduated from University of Missouri and loves football & sports(:

So this week was really crazy!

I think one of my favorite parts had to be our English class party on Wednesday night! It was Halloween themed, and everyone really got into it! :) The first 20 min while we waited for everyone to get there, we had everyone go into the basement and go "trick or treating". We had members from every ward go into one of the rooms in the basement and give out candy after the students answered an english question. The kid's class teachers told the kids to dress up for the party and it was the cutest thing EVER. :)

Then we all went upstairs to play more games. The elders had a ghost costume, donut on a string eating relay race. I don't know exactly how it worked but it looked super popular! Then the sisters had an activity where the students put their hand in a box and had to guess what the stuff was on the inside. They had like spaghetti, hard boiled eggs and stuff like that in the boxes! So funny! Then for ours, we made a Halloween word search and who ever found the most words got wrapped up in toilet paper like a mummy! It was super super hilarious and fun! We stumped our advanced class students! Super fun and successful party!

Then we did a spiritual share on the Holy ghost and all the missionaries shared experiences where they've felt the spirit. It was a great spiritual share and everyone really loved it. English class is one of my favorite parts of our mission. :) It's really fun and we get to share the gospel through it! What more could you want??!!

Yesterday I read at talk from Apr. 2014 from Pres. Uchtdorf called "Grateful in any Circumstances". This part towards the end really stood out to me as I'm ending one part of my life with one of my best friends and starting a new one here in SongShan, "In light of what we know about our eternal destiny, is it any wonder that whenever we face the bitter endings of life, they seem unacceptable to us? There seems to be something inside of us that resists endings. Why is this? Because we are made of the stuff of eternity. We are eternal beings, children of the Almighty God, whose name is Endless and who promises eternal blessings without number. Endings are not our destiny. The more we learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the more we realize that endings here in mortality are not endings at all. They are merely interruptions—temporary pauses that one day will seem small compared to the eternal joy awaiting the faithful. How grateful I am to my Heavenly Father that in His plan there are no true endings, only everlasting beginnings."

I know that what he said is true. We don't need to be scared of endings. Just look forward to the future with faith. It will all work out okay. :)

Thanks for the love and support! :)

-Sister Oviatt

Nov. 2 letter

Nov. 2, 2015

What a loooong week.

We were sick most of the week with a stomach virus. But after a trip to the doctors and lots of prayers we're doing much better(:

We got to go to our Taiwan Taipei Temple Square this week and do tours! As we were setting up a member came up to us and wanted to do a tour. She's been getting ready to be endowed, but said that her faith hasn't been too good lately. We shared our favorite pictures of the Saviour and ended with both of our very favorite one. It is of Christ visiting the Nephites. I couldn't find it on lds.org, but I hadn't seen it until I came to Taiwan. It's so pretty. Because of how hard this week had been, I was feeling a little down. But right when I saw that picture, I was able to feel of Christ's love for us. I felt His presence and knew that he was still with us, no matter what.

One of my favorite scriptures from my mission is this one in Doctrine & Covenants 68:6, "Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come." It just comforts me every time. I know He suffered for US. He knows US. He LIVES. I am so lucky to be able to represent Him for the next 6 months of my life, and then try my best to live like him everyday for the rest of my life. What a blessing and a challenge a mission is. Worth it.

Sorry for the short email this week! Maybe the awesome pics will make up for it?(:

Love y'all!

Pictures

 A few weeks ago we walked out of the mission office to this. WOW. We are SO lucky!! <3

We got to see our favorite Taiwanese companion yesterday at a fireside in Taipei! We love our Sister Mao(:

Perks of living on an island. Dragon fruit and coconut. YES.

Blurry selfie after the temple last last week! :)

 Asia probs. 5 floor McDonalds!!!

Oct 26th letter

Oct. 26, 2015

Well, honestly, nothing much has happened since last Wednesday.
English Class went great, though! We read a conference talk with them for the spiritual share that had a lot of advanced words in it. It was called, "The Race of Life", By President Thomas S. Monson. One of my favorite parts of it was this story about his childhood, 

"When I reflect on the race of life, I remember another type of race, even from childhood days. My friends andI would take pocketknives in hand and, from the softwood of a willow tree, fashion small toy boats. With a triangular-shaped cotton sail in place, each would launch his crude craft in the race down the relatively turbulent waters of Utah’s Provo River. We would run along the river’s bank and watch the tiny vessels sometimes bobbing violently in the swift current and at other times sailing serenely as the water deepened.
During a particular race we noted that one boat led all the rest toward the appointed finish line. Suddenly, thecurrent carried it too close to a large whirlpool, and theboat heaved to its side and capsized. Around andaround it was carried, unable to make its way back intothe main current. At last it came to an uneasy rest amidthe flotsam and jetsam that surrounded it, held fast bythe tentacles of the grasping green moss.
The toy boats of childhood had no keel for stability, norudder to provide direction, and no source of power.Inevitably, their destination was downstream—the path of least resistance.
Unlike toy boats, we have been provided divineattributes to guide our journey. We enter mortality not to float with the moving currents of life but with thepower to think, to reason, and to achieve." 

It is such a blessing to have this gospel to guide us and help us to know our purpose on earth. Go read the rest of the talk. It's so great(:

Anyways, our gao ji ban students got so stumped! So we gave them homework to go home and read the talk again and find the words they didn't know. This week we'll go over the talk with them again to make sure they understand the meaning. We're so excited!
Then on Thursday we went finding at the MRT station in our area and had 2 other lessons with fellow Christians! It was really crazy! And then one lady who has a really xinku work for 10 days in Taoyuan then 10 days off back in Zhong He. We were so glad to meet her and pray with her.
Friday was when we started to get this stomach bug. So we stayed at home Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, except for some English Boarding one day and Church on Sunday. We started to call through our new member list. So now we have a few members to meet with this week! It's been hard to be in a new ward not knowing people, but hopefully that will change in the next few weeks. :)
We had a cool miracle happen actually! There was a man we met a few weeks ago that we kept tying to schedule. He would never set up and it seemed like he wasn't really that interested. Sister Farr invited him to pray and call us if he was interested and had time to meet. He called us this week and told us that he wasn't in Taipei, but that he wants to meet next week. I really felt like that was a huge miracle! It seems like that never happens!!! It was awesome. :)
Sorry about the short email this week! Super boring last couple days...
Thanks for the prayers and love! :)

-Sister Oviatt

Oct. 20th letter

Oct. 21, 2015 Wednesday

So today is our PDay, because we get to go to the temple! AWESOME! but that means we went 10 days between our PDays, which makes our weeks feel soooo long. Plus we didn't really buy enough food last Monday... :) hehe

Anyways. We saw lots of miracles! Our goal for the week was to have 25 other lessons and 3 lessons with a member present, (that other lesson goal is SO HIGH, and the member present one is SO LOW) but we ended up with 10 other lessons (good for how we've been lately) and 6 member presents (good for a first week in a new ward where we don't know anyone). PLUS we got 6 new investigators! Also really good! It's SO HARD to open up a new area, but as we've been working hard and being dedicated, we've seen so many miracles and blessings!

We got another GREAT new investigator from English Class last week. If y'all could pray for her, April, that would be great. She's looking for a good job right now and she's just not having a good time right now, so she wanted to know if church could really help her. She came to our English class to check it out, and then we set up with her the next day. She seems to be really solid! Maybe I'll talk more about her next week. We had some great lessons with her this week(:

I don't know if I've ever talked about Zhuang JM, but she's a great investigator I started teaching when I got here. Well because we're serving in a new ward now, we had to give her to the other sisters that cover where she lives. Needless to say it's been a really hard week because of it. We've really developed a great relationship and trust over the last 9ish week with her. She trusts us so much and has really opened up to us about her family situation. She met with the other sisters for the first time this week, and it went well, but then after the lesson she called us and said she only wants to meet with us. She started crying, too! :( So after some days of complications and struggling to know what to do, because we love her, too, we came up with a deal. We'll sacrifice 30 min of pday time to eat lunch with her and follow up with the other sister's committments. It's the only day we could meet with her cuz she's not in our area. But in order for that to happen she has to meet with the other sisters during the week. We're about to meet with her and propose this idea! 

So I have to go! But I hope you all have a great week and DON'T FORGET. Forgetting is one of the worst things we can do.

-Sister Oviatt

Pictures

These are pictures of me eating Chicken foot on my 1 year mark! It was... gross? bony? and just weird..? I don't even know. Never again though!

So we were out in our new area last Sunday and... WE FOUND TAIDONG IN TAIPEI... Okay maybe not really, but it was the closest we've felt in a looong time!! :)

I've Been a Missionary for a Year!

What a year! I've been so blessed this year and had so many really hard experiences, that have ultimately made me who I am now. I've come out on the other end a stronger and more faithful person. I wouldn't do any of this again, but I'm grateful. Hopefully that makes sense at all! haha

This week went by so fast! There were of course some difficult parts. Specifically getting cancelled on about... 10ish times. And when we went finding pretty much everyone we talked to said, "We don't need that" "We don't believe in your church" and some just straight up ignoring. But so goes missionary life! You look for the rainbows in other places!

First, Liu JM is our best investigator! She's the one who brought her whole family last week to church. AMAZING. Anyways. She came to church again yesterday and she's just doing soo great! She brought her Book of Mormon, where she's read to 2 Nephi 20, and was looking up and writing down all the scriptures quoted in the talks! She was so touched the whole time and just kept thanking us for finding her and inviting her to church. Then we invited her to a fireside in Central Taipei, and she came!!.. 10 minutes early!!! It was such a miracle! She looooved the fireside, too! One of the speakers asked how many investigators were there, so she timidly raised her hand. Then I looked at her and said, "But you will be a member soon!" And she looked at me and smiled and nodded her head. It was so sweet!! :)

Another miracle was the wards splitting yesterday! It was such a great meeting and you could feel that Heavenly Father's work is moving forward here in Taiwan! :) Even better is that Liu JM is in the boundaries for the new ward we're serving in, Zhong He 2nd. It's going to be such a crazy few weeks ahead with the new ward and new leadership to get to know, but I'm excited for this next challenge! :)

Thanks for the love and prayers and support!

See you in 6 months time(; hehe

This was my year mark meals... Peanut Butter Banana cake for breakfast and McFlurry for dinner(: YEAH MISSIONS!

Pictures

This is our district. So special, but I looove them all! :)

Bought $2.00 Kraft mac and cheese last PDay and it made us all cry. IT WAS SO GOOD.

Email from Sept. 28, 2015

This was a super long week. It was supposed to be transfer week! BUT they changed it to this Thursday! So that's kind of crazy. We'll be getting transfer calls tomorrow. But I really don''t think I'm leaving Shuang He. I've been here for 2 transfers and Sister Farr's been here for 1 now. Hopefully we'll stay together! But this upcoming Sunday they're splitting our ward, which could mean craziness for missionary work! New areas, new investigators, and possibly new missionaries! Pray for us!(;

This week's miracle? There were 2! 

First, we were finishing up our Weekly Planning on Thursday and we got a call from a member. She said, "Hey I have this friend who wants to hear about the gospel!" So then I think Oh awesome! Referral!!! Then she continues, "She's at my house right now. Can you and Sister Farr come over right now and teach her??" WAIT WHAT. It was the biggest miracle. So we went over there immediately and talked to her friend, Ye JM. Her parents are Taiwanese, but they moved the fam to Argentina when she was about 3. So her native language is Spanish, but her Chinese is super good, too. She just moved back to Taiwan about 2 years ago and is in her early 40's. She saw lots of LDS missionaries in Argentina, but never talked to them. She was always really curious though. We're so excited to meet with her again tonightand to give her a Spanish Book of Mormon! She's prepared and ready like someone from South America, but we get to teach her in Taiwan in Chinese(: YAY! hahaha

Second miracle, 5 INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH YESTERDAY! :O First was one of our investigators who we almost dropped on Saturdaynight, Zhou JM. Amazing! We met this lady, Liu JM, about 2 weeks ago at a park. She came to church last Sunday with her Mom. They promised they'd come back the next week because they loved it so much. They hate Buddhism! haha! So they kept their promise, PLUS MORE! Liu JM brought her 9 year old son, and her Dad, too! WE'RE TEACHING A FAMILY NOW! Liu JM has had a really rough life, with divorce and other family situations. None of them have ANY christian background, so it's been really awesome to have the privilege of teaching them about their Savior for the first time. Liu JM, her son, and her mom, all set baptismal dates yesterday, too! Such a miracle!!!

Lastly... I'VE BEEN A MISSIONARY FOR A YEAR ON THURSDAY.

I've really come SO far. Last week, for fun, I read my first 2-3 emails from the MTC. WOW. I have overcome and changed so much on my mission. I've learned more about the gospel, about Heavenly Father, about Jesus Christ, about love, about myself, about people, about my family, than I EVER could've imagined I would. I have become SO much more grateful for everything my Mom and Dad have sacrificed for my family. Both big and small. Even though I'm just about as far away as I can get from them, I've never felt closer or more love for my family. I feel so proud of all of them and the things they're doing. :) I know that the MOST important thing in this life is to develop a relationship with Heavenly Father and prepare to return to His presence. I know that if I didn't learn that from my parents, I'd absolutely not be here right now. THANK YOU MOM AND DAD. :)

Another thing I've learned a lot about in the last year is our Savior, Jesus Christ, and His Atonement. I've had so many experiences in the last year where I've gained a testimony of His reality and His power. Back in April I found my favorite General Conference talk about the Atonement. "The Atonement covers all pain", by Kent F. Richards of the seventy. I think this quote, for me, sums up the power of the Atonement so well, "Perhaps His most significant work is in the ongoing labor with each of us individually to lift, to bless, to strengthen, to sustain, to guide, and to forgive us." His work is ONGOING. Just because He's gone up to heaven doesn't mean He's done performing miracles. He is ALWAYS with us. His greatest miracle is not just those that He performed in Jerusalem, He is still doing the same things as He did then. I am so privileged to be His representative.
I am looking forward to the next 6-ish months that I get to represent Him and continue to do His work, "to bring about the immortality and eternal life of man." Then I'll go home and figure out how to continue to do it(: His work is eternal.

"Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." -3 Ne. 5:13

Thanks for the love and support over the last year, especially from my Family.

Couldn't do it without them!!!!!! <3

-歐姐妹

-Sister Oviatt

Email from Sept. 21, 2015

Sept. 25, 2015

So my year mark might be next week... it's really weird. I have 5 transfers left after this Friday's transfer meeting. I also just live in a really old apartment. One sister is going home next transfer, and my companion and the other sister are going home in mid December! Super crazy!!! I feel so different than I did a year ago. More on that in the coming weeks probably!

CONFERENCE IS COMING! <3 My first weekend as a missionary was last October General Conference. So the fact that it's coming again in 3 weeks (for us in Taiwan) is SO CRAZY! I'm probably more excited for General Conference than basically anything. Such a privilege we have to hear the words of our living Prophet and apostles. My first trainer, Sister Mao, got me addicted to reading conference talks. Sometimes, not tooo often, I'll just read Conference talks for dinner. It's a spiritual feast! (; SO everyone go enjoy conference in a few weeks! Invite your friends to watch a session with you! It'll be so great!

Our ward is splitting in 2 weeks!! We currently have Shuang He 1st and 2nd ward, but in 2 weeks on Oct 4th we'll have a special meeting and we'll have 3 wards in the Shuang He area! A Yong He ward, and then Zhong He 1st and 2nd wards. We thought they'd wait until the end of the year when we have stake conference, but they want to get it done now! So crazy! I never thought about this at home, but ward splitting means headaches for missionaries! Our areas are all gonna get divided up and we'll have to switch around our investigators, rc's and la's! Not to mention just getting to know a new area. The next month or so will be super busy!!!

Miracle for the week! Last night after dinner we went finding. Needless to say it was Sunday night after a long weird week. I was so tired and I didn't want to do anything. BIG props to Sister Farr for getting me out the door. She's the best. Anyways. We saw this family at the park. So we gave them an invite to English Class. Then we asked their 4 year old son if he had an English name yet. He said he's been going to an English class but they still haven't given him a name. So we thought for a second and thought that Zack would be a really suitable name. He and His parents LOOVED it! He yelled out, "I have an english name!!" Super cute! Then the mom was holding a little girl. We decided even though she was only 1 1/2 she still needed a name. So we said "Hello Lilly!" Then she started crying! :( So then we're like oh! new name! We thought for a second then said, "Hello Olivia!". She got the BIGGEST smile on her face and started laughing. Every time we said Olivia she just laughed and laughed! It was literally the cutest thing we've seen since coming to Taiwan. Then she has a twin brother who we named Oliver. The parents LOVED all 3 of the names and called them their English names the rest of the contact! :) They wouldn't give us their number or pray with us, but hopefully in the future they'll remember the 2 foreigners who gave them their English names! :) Planting seeds in Shuang He!

Well. Time's up. I'm going to the mission office to take the Phase 2 language test!! AAAH!

Thanks for the love!

-Sister Oviatt

Pictures

Georgia licence plate at a burger restaurant in Taipei! (:

DELICIOUS Peanut butter, bacon, banana burger in Taipei! Yay America! :)

Cool night picture of the temple a few weeks ago!

This is my scripture case(: made out of a granola box from costco. San Antonio temple, Family(A YEAR AGO!), SLC temple, lighthouse (cool analogy,, maybe next week), and an Elder Uchtdorf conference talk title, "The hope of God's light". :)

And the lovely Taibei 101. :) Top one's from my area, bottom one is from near the mission office. We were supposed to go to the top today, but it's too cloudy. :(

Krispy Kreme last week on Pday! :P Not as good as Round Rock and my comp doesn't believe me. Sad day for her!

Annie's email from Sept. 14, 2015

Sept. 14, 2015

What a week. Outdoor Zone Conference was so great! (Pictures to come next week!!!) I was reminded about being positive and LOVING MY MISSION IN TAIWAN. I was also re-motivated to pass off Phase 2. (Memorizing 2,000 vocabulary words) My goal now is to pass it off onOctober 1st, which is my 1 year as a missionary mark! :) In order to do that I figured out that I have to memorize 77 words a day with 5 review days. Previously I had been doing just BARELY 40 words a day. I was a little overwhelmed and freaked out at the 77. Sister Farr encouraged me and helped me find a new way to study Phase 2. But I still knew I needed some heavenly help to accomplish this. So Friday morning before Language study I said a really earnest humble prayer. I asked for the gift of tongues and the ability to get through and retain the 77 words of the day. I would do my best, and Heavenly Father would help me do the rest. So I worked all through Language study to get through the seemingly unconquerable stack of 77 cards. I got through them all!! Then I looked at the clock and I still had 10 minutes left of language study left! SO not only did I get through all 77 cards, but I had 10 minutes leftover to review them all! Such a miracle! The next day I had about 10 cards from that day that weren't super solid, but I was able to review and memorize those 10 PLUS that day's 77 cards! The gift of tongues is REAL. I know because I had faith in the Lord and I went and did my best, I was blessed. I really think I'll be able to reach my final goal!

Now we're really trying to apply this principle in this work in Shuang He. We're going to pray really hard over our goals every week/day and ask for God's help as we work our hardest to achieve them. I read a quote from an April 2015 conference talk this morning that said, "President Thomas S. Monson has taught us that 'men cannot really long rest content with mediocrity once they see excellence is within their reach.' How, then, could we be content with anything short of exaltation if we know that exaltation is possible?" Now that I've seen Heavenly Father's power in my language study, I don't want anything short of "exaltation". I know His power IS within my reach. I know that if we're doing our best and we're humble enough to rely on the Lord, we can do this great work. :)

Just our best is all he asks for! I'm not perfect yet and that's okay! (most days at least;))

-Sister Oviatt

Annie's email home on Sept. 7, 2015

Part of Annie's email home on Sept. 7th, 2015

Thanks for the football update! It's great to hear that it's all going pretty smoothly right now!(: LOTS has changed in 3 years!!!!! I looove showing off these pics to people hehe They're so huge and people don't ever ever believe that I'm the oldest(; So you know how Sister Farr is my "big sister" on the mission, cuz Sister Pieper trained her, too? This week I said, "Sometimes I can't tell if your my big sister or my mom!" and then she said, "They're one and the same." I laughed so hard! She's the youngest in her family so she's had like the opposite experience I've had growing up. It's so funny! She's been having fun being the big sister for once and I'm having to be the little sister. haha I thought you and the boys might get a kick out of that(;

Here's a funny story from yesterday when we were finding.. I had a language mess up! haha! We walked up to this college age girl to contact her. So we introduced ourselves, "Ni hao. Women shi zhe fujin de chuanjiaoshi jiemei. Wo xin Feng, er ma de Feng. Wo xin Ou, Ou Yang de Ou." 你好. 我們是這附近的傳教士姐妹. 我姓馮，二馬的馮。我姓歐，歐陽的歐。 (so that you can Google translate it(; ) So then after we say our names you obviously ask what their name is. BUT in Chinese there are 2 ways to ask, informal and formal. Usually we'll say the formal bc we're missionaries, but I randomly decided to say it the informal way, that my native trainer Sister Mao would say all the time... haha. So the formal way is to say, "您貴姓?"　”Nin gui xing?"　But the informal way to say it is, "你姓什麽？“ "Ni xing shen me?" So "xing" means last name right? Well if you just leave of the "g" it means beliefs, like religious beliefs. So when I asked, "What's  your last name?", she thought I meant What religion are you? then responded, "不好意思！我信佛教。“ “buhaoyisi! Wo xin fojiao!" Sorry I'm a buddhist！ I think I probably just killed the funny with all that chinese explanation, but basically I wanted to ask her last name, my companion also though I was asking her last name and then she was like sorry I believe in Buddhism! It was SUPER funny yesterday! We couldn't even continue the contact cuz we were laughing at the awkwardness. :)

Oh and then we were on our way home a few minutes later and we pass through this HUGE marketplace! It was like Aladdin, but CRAZIER! SO MANY old people! Anyways, we're just tryna get home and these college age boys selling shrimp stopped Sister Farr and tried to give her free shrimp cuz we're American. Then he's like just take some free shrimp! It's from Taidong! And then Sister Farr's like hey! me and my companion have both served in Taidong! So then I came up and was like what?! Taidong?! So we got some random free shrimp yesterday. It made our whole day! They still had their heads on and everything. SO fresh. But we were so excited to eat them we took the heads off before we remembered to take a picture. :( SO there's some craziness for the week! hahaha! Sister Farr and I have so much fun! We have our rough days for sure... but it's been a pretty great last few weeks! :)

So yeah.. there it is! This email took forever cuz I had to figure out how to tell that chinese mess up story... sorry! But overall I think Spiritually and emotionally it was a better week!... maybe not as far as the work goes, but we always have another week. One thing that's freaked me out though is the language... :/ Part of our language learning is to pass of these 3 "phases" of learning Chinese. Phase 1 is to learn PmG lesson vocabulary, grammar, phrases and such. Then Phase 2 is 2,000 common words and expressions I guess that we have to memorize then take a test with the AP's to pass it off. THEN phase 3 is learning how to read and write 3,000 characters. :P Usually sisters will have 12 transfers on island to do all 3 of those phases, and it's REALLY hard for sisters to do in that time. But I still have had the goal to get it all done before I go home. But I only had 10 transfers bc of my visa AND now I have 5.5 left. I still have about 1,500 words to memorize for Phase 2 and then I can go on to Phase 3. I really want to be able to pass it all off, but I don't think I'll have time. :( I was kinda sad about that this morning.

Anyways. Thank you for all of the prayers and love, momma! :) Keep up your great work and your prayers for me! They help!!!

<3/Annie

I love Taidong!

Well it was a super weird week! 

Quick update on my life. 3 Things:
1- I got to go on exchanges with our STL's (sister traing leaders), which was really great! I love learning from our leaders and learning new ways to do the work.
2- Also, I got to make a banana cake for my companion's birthday in a rice cooker! So fun!
3- And last, I got to eat chicken foot last night! It was actually super good. It was in a soup that a member made for us.

So that was 3 things that happened in this crazy week! ...also got to go to the doctor to get my back checked out. I just have some strained tendons in me lower back, which has been super hard to deal with the last few days. But I think it will all work out! :) Super eventful week!!

Love,
Sister Oviatt

21 weeks of training and 3 trainers later... I'm (technically) not a greenie anymore!

A 'greenie' is a Missionary who has been on their mission for less than 3 months. This week I'll hit my 3 month, or 2 transfer, mark on this beautiful island! So including my 9 weeks in Georgia, I'll have had 21 weeks as a greenie and 3 trainers! What a crazy mission so far!!
Anyways. On to this last week. Sister Pieper is going home this Thursday, so I'm getting a new companion on Friday. Because my new companion won't know the area and I'll have to be in charge more, Sister Pieper gave me a lot more responsibility this week with planning, preparing lessons, setting up appointments, and just taking the lead in everything. It was so HARD!! I think hopefully it will all pay off in the next few weeks when I really have to take over and I won't have a comp who know's what's going on in Taidong. So grateful to her for giving me this opportunity(; haha So that was the main struggle of the week! Just trying to be more responsible, figure everything out, and not just rely on her for everything. Every missionary's gotta do it at some point!!

BUT this week we saw one of the BIGGEST miracles I've seen on my mission so far!! We were leaving Facebook one day and Sister Pieper decided to give an English Class tract to this random guy that was walking out with us. She told him about the English class then told him that besides the english class we also share a message about Christ. So we started talking about that gospel and said a prayer with him. He was so sweet and willing to learn. Then he even said the prayer at the end! He said he'd come to English Class that night! So the contact was not a ton different than many other's we'd both had, but he did seem a bit more sincere than others have been. PLUS his last name is the same as Sister Pieper, so that made him a little more memorable, too. We didn't know how awesome he was until he actually showed up to English Class, then was willing to meet with us after! We knew he was the real deal then! We asked him where he lived and we thought it was in the other sister's area. We were a little sad, but still excited to teach him. We got a member from that branch to come help us with the lesson. They got along SO WELL! It was perfect! At one point in the lesson Sister Pieper decided to share Alma 7:10-13 with him which describe Christ's Atonement. He read it, then we asked him what he though of it. Oh by the way, he'd never prayed or had any christian background at all. He responded by saying that Christ wanted to understand everything we go through. He loves us and wants to help us. He basically read just that one scripture about the Atonement and understood more about the Atonement than I learned in like the first 16 years of my life! IT WAS SO AMAZING. The member that was with us was just as shocked as we were. None of us knew what to say after that. We finally started talking again and taught him about baptism. He easily accepted the invitation to be baptized and even accepted a specific date! It was so amazing to see that kind of faith from someone who really has no religious background. 

We were able to meet with him again yesterday after church, (yes he came to church!!), and more miracles! We asked him how church went and if he had any questions. He said he loved it all and had no problems! He loved the family atmosphere and how many kids there were. Then he said I'm also so grateful that Pan Jiemei and Ou Jiemei found me and invited to to come to church. I'm really excited to get baptized on June 13th. I didn't even know what to say!! He's just so prepared and we're really excited to keep working with him. He lives in this little city called Zhiben just outside of taidong. After our ward mission leader met him yesterday he said, "He will be Zhiben's first branch president." It was so hilarious... and might be true! Pan DiXiong is amazing! Hopefully will have some more great updates on him next week!

Side note! I opened my call 1 year ago yesterday! So crazy how time flies! Can't wait to see what the next year has in store for me!

-Sister Oviatt

May 10th email

Mission pres. Email(:
(This is part of Annie's weekly email to her mission President on May 10, 2015.)

One night we had no idea where we needed to go finding. We'd planned on going to a bike trail and contacting there, but didn't feel sure about it. We didn't just sit and wait for inspiration, though. We just went and DID. We know that faith is definitely a principle of ACTION. So we went on our way to the bike trail. Then we came to a stoplight and instead of turning right to go to the bike trail, I felt like we needed to go straight into a neighborhood. So I got up the courage and told Sister Pieper that we needed to go straight instead. So grateful she trusted me enough to listen and follow me! Then we came to this street and I felt like we needed to turn down it. Immediately as we were riding down it I felt so strongly that this was exactly where we needed to be at that time. We needed to start knocking that street.  Right when we parked our bikes this guy walked up to me and said, "Your bike skills are very good!" So we started laughing and said, "What?? You can speak English??" Come to find out he'd gone to our English Class many many years ago! Really cool! So we taught him about the Book of Mormon and prayed with him. He was really respectful to us. We weren't able to set up another time to meet with him, because he kept saying oh I'm catholic. I already have my religion. and all that. But I know we were supposed to meet with him at that time! He has a Book of Mormon and another positive experience with missionaries! Then we still had some time so we started knocking doors. A few doors in we got to meet Wu Tongxue. He was also so kind and receptive to our message. He and his family have no special religious beliefs, he'd never heard of prayer, or scriptures! So we taught him about how he has a Father in Heaven who loves him and how he's given us the Book of Mormon and Bible to help us learn more about him and come closer to him. He was so humble and willing to learn. We were able to set a baptismal date with him and we'll teach him again this week! It was such a sweet experience to help someone learn about their Father in Heaven for their first time. I know it was all because we were willing to act. We didn't know exactly what we needed to do, but we had faith that Heavenly Father has a plan. We just went and did and Heavenly Father definitely blessed us for our faith! Faith really brings miracles!!

7 Months down?!! WHAT?!

This week was really good! Friday was my 7 month mark and Sunday was 12 years since baptism! Crazy last couple days! Also, It was our first full week with out any big sicknesses keeping us from doing the work. I felt like we saw a lot of success and worked really hard. I think it was most manifest in how we either hit our goals exactly or got really close on every one of them. We were really proud of how we were able to set those goals then do our best to get them. Such a fulfilling feeling.

This week we saw a really great miracle. A few weeks ago Sister Giles and I went out tracting. We just went totally by the spirit. Turn left here. Go down this street. Visit that house. We met an English cram school teacher named Judy. She let us give her a bunch of english class tracts and talk to her students about our class. She was so nice to us! Then we told her about why we were really in Taiwan and got her number. She was actually pretty interested in the church and is christian, but doesn't go to a specific church. We didn't contact her for a few weeks, but finally got back in touch with her a few days ago.

We met with her last night and it was definitely Shen de anpai. She told us that we'd called her back at the perfect time. She's been having a hard time with her 2 teenage daughters lately and she really wants to know how to help them trust her and have a good relationship with her. She had been praying for help and was really grateful that she'd met us a few weeks ago. She said, "In my prayer I said, Thank you lord for sending me these two sweet sisters, but I think they're too young! They don't know me!" It was really funny and sweet! We told her that we definitely don't know everything, but we know that our message is true and it will improve her family relationships. Our challenge with her is just her work schedule right now. Everyone is testing right now so she has to work a lot. We're just having a hard time finding a date to set for her baptism and for our next lessons. She really has a lot of faith in Christ and a lot of desire to follow him and learn about his gospel. It was just such a big testament to me that Heavenly Father knows all of his children very intimately. He knows what we need at the precise moment we need it. I really hope we'll get her schedule all worked out so we can help her and her family receive the blessings of this gospel!

We're really excited for the next 3 weeks together in Taidong. The work is moving along well!

And I really love my companion Sister Pieper! We've got pretty similar personalities and she gets my sarcasm so that's a big bonus! I'm just super sad she's finishing her mission at the end of the month! I'll miss her sooo much! :((

Taidong is the place to be!

Pictures from the last few weeks

Note from Mom: This is a collection of pictures Annie has sent to me over the past few weeks.  A few days after her birthday she got sick and was to achy to write a large email but she sent me a few pictures of the previous weeks.  The next week after her birthday was spent sleeping and recovering from a virus that everyone in her apartment got.  They didn't do much that week other than rest and recuperate so she didn't have much to share here on the blog.  She is healthy and strong again and continues to love the adventure she is on.  It isn't always easy or fun but she is learning and growing every day.  

Pictures of the Beach 

20th Birthday in Taiwan

"Happy Birthday Annie!"

My companion made me a birthday cake in a rice cooker.

Another P-day at the Beach

I found Texas in Taiwan!

Tender Mercies and Happy Birthdays

Yesterday was Annie's 20th birthday. Last night Ashley and I received this email and picture from a member of the 1st quorum of the seventy. A tender mercy on a special day. It was the first April 18th in 20 years that we haven't spent with Annie. It means a lot to us to know that she is doing well and being watched over. We know she is where she needs to be and doing the things the Lord needs her to do.

Elder Paul and Sister Lisa Pieper
Brother Ashley and Sister Eleisha Oviatt

Greetings from Taidong Taiwan where we have met a wonderful companionship Sister Kaitlyn Pieper and Sister Annie Oviatt, two fine Preach My Gospel missionaries in whom you have much to be proud of.

President and Sister Day have great confidence in and love for these two wonderful sisters, who are healthy and well, speak beautiful Mandarin, and love and are loved by the members.

Gospel best wishes,

Gerrit and Susan Gong
Asia Area Presidency

East Coast Miracles

So this week we're having computer problems and we're only emailing for an hour because we're going to the beach again sooo short email this week! And my camera is having issues uploading pictures :/ Sorry!!

Conference was really amazing and I wish I could write about all my favorite talks! I'm probably just like everyone else and really loved Bednar's talk on Godly Fear and Holland's talk on the Atonement. Also Dale G. Renlund's talk, too, about how we should always keep trying. :)

2 huge miracles this week! First we're teaching a man in his 40's who suffered a stroke a few years ago and smokes. He's kind of slower because of his disabilities, but is very humble. This week we went over the Baptismal Interview questions with him. We asked him the first one. "Do you believe that God is our Eternal Father?" Then he told us he didn't believe and that there is more than 1 God because God needs to rest. God gets tired with all that he has to do. We tried really hard not to laugh as we tried to convince him that God is perfect and doesn't need to rest and doesn't need help doing his work. He was still having a hard time believing us, so Mao JM asked him to say a prayer right then and ask God if he really existed. So he did! He's always in the past had to read a prayer that we wrote in the back of his Book of Mormon because of his mental disabilities. He folded his arms and started to say his personal prayer. Mao JM and I waited and waited and kept looking at each other not knowing what was going on. Then he finally raised his head and said, " Wo xiangxin." "I believe." It was SO AMAZING. Just that simple statement of someone saying that they believe God exists was a huge testimony builder to me. It's something that I've never questioned. So to see someone overcome that was just so great to me. Then to close our lesson with him he said an awesome closing prayer, also not using our prayer for him in the back of his Book of Mormon. He was so humble and said, even though I'm still a little dumb, it's no problem. It made me tear up so much! He's been making a lot of progress lately! Miracles happen!!

Next miracle is that Han JM is getting baptized this week! We had a great lesson with her last week and really tried to help her figure out her problem. Then we met with her right after conference to see what she thought about it. She said she felt so peaceful and calm. She's finally realized that this is the spirit telling her the Church is true. Then she told us she knows this is what God wants her to do AND she's willing to get baptized! She also said a great closing prayer after our lesson. She's had to overcome so much to come to this point! Mao JM and I both were so so grateful to see her make this huge step in her life and get baptized. We both cried a lot after that lesson too! We're so grateful to have been able to see these miracles this week. The work is really progressing in Taidong!

Thanks for all the love and prayers and support! :)

-Sister Oviatt

#eastcoastforlife

This week went by really fast! It was a really good week though! I had lots of opportunities to go finding this week with Sister Giles, which let us see lots of miracles. We also gained a testimony of find when you teach, teach when you find! 

One night we went to find one our recent convert's house, but I'd only been there once so we got a little lost. We decided to ask a random lady on the street if she knew where he lived. She didn't know exactly where he lived, but we found his house within a few minutes. As we were trying to find his house we explained to her why we were in Taiwan and what we were doing. We found out she's on a break from her job out in New Jersey as a programmer right now and will be going back at the end of the month! She was really interested in the gospel and has been to christian churches before. She said a great prayer with us so after we asked how she felt during the prayer. She said she felt a lot of peace and that the 3 of us were in a different place during the prayer. So cool! Then without us even asking her she said her Mom and her brother might be interested in the church, too! It was such a miracle! We were really put in exactly the right place at the right time to find her that night. We want to try to meet with her a lot before she goes back to New Jersey, but obviously she wants to spend as much time with her family as possible. We'll see what happens with her! 

Our challenge of the week was that we have 3 investigators who have passed their baptismal interviews, but don't feel prepared enough to actually get baptized! None of them seem to have a real strong desire to get baptized. It's like they don't see the need for it or how it applies to them personally. They can easily answer all of the Baptismal Interview Questions, but just don't think they're ready for it. This week we're really going to focus on helping them develop the "Vision to Baptize". This was a letter from President Corbridge to President Harding in the Georgia Atlanta Mission. It talks about how we need to help our investigators develop this vision to be baptized for a remission of their sins and to unlock all of the blessings of the Atonement. It's a really powerful letter and we hope we can help these 3 investigators find their own personal "why" of baptism. Praying and fasting to see some miracles this weekend!

The other challenge of the week was that we have to wait until next weekend to watch General Conference! So sad! ... But I'm so excited! A few days ago we were on Facebook, (yes I have a missionary Facebook. It's so weird!! Sister-Annie Oviatt ;)) and a member posted an article that said they're doing a Sunday Evening session of conference starting this conference. As missionaries we were of course SO EXCITED! Then we realized it was April Fools Day and we were so disappointed. :( haha Oh missionary life... :) But. Even with "just" 4 sessions I know it will be great and I hope you all had a chance to listen to the words of our prophets. They're truly inspired of god.. at least I really really hope so or else I don't know what I'm doing in Taiwan! :) haha I've gained a testimony of that for sure on my mission. Thomas S. Monson is truly God's living prophet on the earth today. He receives revelation for our church and for us. Follow the Prophet! :)

Super excited for our plans this PDay! One of our zone leaders is going home in a few days, so members are taking him to the beach and we get to go with them! Definitely will have some cool pictures to send next week! :)

Super grateful for the prayers and support! I couldn't do this without my amazing family! My companion is the only member in her family and I don't know how she does it!! I would die! So thank you!! <3 Talk to you next week!

-Sister Oviatt