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!! :)