Wow! I've been here for a whole transfer now! I can't believe it!
Yesterday I hit my 4 month mark on the mission! ...and I'm still in America. Kinda weird! I submitted my papers 9 months ago and I'm still in America. Sister Call, who I live with put in her papers in October, left for the MTC mid-November, and has been on the mission for a little over 2 months! Everyone's got a different story. My story's theme seems to just be WAIT. wait. wait. wait. Patience. hehe Well I've got a lot to learn about that apparently!
This weekend we had Stake Conference. So that means I got to see some of my favorite people! Sister Kirkham, Lindsay, and Facer (who's been here since the end of October) are all in my stake! Yay Taiwan Visa Waiter party! haha well. I think I told y'all last week about how we just had to send in our Ministerial Certificates and then we'd be in the final stages of the visa process. Last week we also got an email from President Day that said 15/19 visa waiters had all their paperwork in and were in the final stages. We were all pretty sure we were in the group of 15, not the 4 that were behind. Well. Sister Lindsay told me right before the Adult session on Saturday night, that we were the 4 missionaries without all the paperwork in. 
Yeah we had a little freak out...if you can imagine. I signed my Ministerial certificate like 3 weeks ago, but our Senior couple office assistant wanted to wait til all of us got that signed to send them in to SLC. That day was last Friday, Jan. 23rd. So apparently we're a bit behind all the other Visa Waiters now. I have no idea what that means though! Yesterday we did a fast for all of our visas. Also we didn't hear anything new from President Day today about them, so that was kinda sad. It looks like another 2-3 weeks here! Chinese New Year is coming up on the 19th, so we're all hoping and praying that we'll be able to be there for that! So there's your little update on my visa situation. Not much has changed on it in the last... oh 9 weeks. We still don't have them is all you need to know. :P
So now for some little miracles and tender mercies of the week!
We were able to do a lot of service this week so that was fun! and we also worked on our My Family booklets to help us teach better about Family History work. That was really good too! But because of that our numbers suffered a little. We did get to teach a lot of members this week though! That's always good. This ward is so willing to help and serve the missionaries. It's great!
Thursday nights in our ward we have a thing called "Miracle Night" which is where we meet up with ward missionaries and members and go on splits with them. We will go out to teaching appointments, go visit less-actives, do visiting teaching, and even just tract sometimes! It's a really great tradition! Well this week Sister Smith went to teach Virginia and I got to go visit a few less-actives with Sister Campbell. Well the first 2 we visited weren't home. Then Sister Campbell looked at the last one and got nervous about going there, because she wasn't sure if this guy had a very good relationship with the church anymore. So we both mustered up all the courage we had and knocked on the door. A younger looking lady, mid-30's, answered the door and said that she was the girlfriend of the guy we were looking for. She told us he was really sick, but we could come in and talk to her. Over the time of our visit we found out that she wasn't a member, was in the middle of a divorce, her boyfriend, our less-active, had been really sick for 3 days, has 3 girls and the oldest, 14, wasn't making very good choices and needed Jesus in her life. We were able to tell her a little bit about our church and it's Young Women's and Activity Days programs. Sister Campbell has 4 girls from ages 14-23 so it was really perfect that she came with me that night! We taught Crystal a brief Restoration overview lesson and she really liked it. She said it all made sense and that her boyfriend had told her a little bit about it in the past. We aren't sure on his story yet, but we'll meet with them again this week and finally meet him! We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she'll read it. I know that we were supposed to go visit Crystal that exact night with Sister Campbell. She really needs the Gospel in her life right now and she is really thirsting for it. They've been going to a baptist church for a few months, but they don't really like how their preacher talks bad about other churches. She wants to find the truth! I'm so grateful I got to meet Crystal and her daughters. I hope we can keep meeting with them and help them find the truth and light that they all desperately need right now!
Earlier that day we were out tracting and saw a small miracle. We came to this house and a lady in about her 60's answered. She didn't seem too interested, but she did let us say a prayer with her. She asked us to pray for her and her husband's health. Let me tell you, the spirit comes in so strong through prayer! When we finished I had started tearing up and Miss Margaret had too! She then told us that she'd had cancer and was in remission. Her husband had been sick as well. She said they really appreciated and needed that prayer that day. I love praying with people so much.
I just love seeing the light and happiness that the spirit brings to them after we finish those prayers. We've been planting lots of seeds through these doorstep blessings. Sometimes we'll just give them a mormon.org card. Other times we'll set up a return appointment, but they don't come. Just knowing the fact that I was able to brighten someone's day and bring them closer to Christ makes it all okay for me. Unless I'm having a day where I'm impatient and say to myself as Elder Bednar says, "I WANT BAPTISMS NOW." Faith in the Lord's timing and then doing ALL you can to fulfill your purpose is everything, as I've said like every week. I don't know what will happen with Miss Margaret or Crystal. But I know Heavenly Father LOVES each of His children and has a specific PERFECT plan for each of them. He even has a plan for my visa(; I know this gospel is true and that our church is directed by Jesus Christ. Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer. He wants to help us. His Atonement is REAL.
-Sister Oviatt
-Ou JieMei
