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
