HAPPY EASTER! 復活節快樂!!

Happy Easter everyone! This is really one of my favorite times of the year. Easter, Conference, and Birthday. ...and home... ;) I hope your Easter was as good as mine was yesterday. It was a great time to reflect on the Atonement and all the things I've been able to do and overcome because of it. I want to steal a quote from Elder Holland, "Today we celebrate the gift of victory over every fall we have ever experienced, every sorrow we have ever known, every discouragement we have ever had, every fear we have ever faced—to say nothing of our resurrection from death and forgiveness for our sins. That victory is available to us because of events that transpired on a weekend precisely like this nearly two millennia ago in Jerusalem." I feel like Easter deserves an even bigger celebration than Christmas. I love Easter. I personally am so grateful for His Atoning sacrifice for me. I've learned so much on my mission about what His Atonement is and how to use it. ...and I'll never stop learning. I've had my fair share of falls, sorrows, discouragement, fears, and mistakes. But through Christ, I've been able to repent, be healed, recover, move on, have hope for the future, and press forward. My plaque scripture is Moroni 7:41 for that reason. "And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise." Through His Atonement I've received so much hope. I know that through Him, we will all be "restored" to a perfect state with God. And that's not just something that comes right before the final judgement. If we repent everyday, we can have our own little "restorations" to Heavenly Father everyday. So my invite to you this week is to "restore" yourself to God everyday, by repenting everyday. I've been trying to do it again lately, and while it's hard, it's absolutely worth it. 願意嗎?
That's my thoughts right now about Easter and the Atonement. "God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son." (The Living Christ)
   Our 2 biggest miracles of the week were from being bold and inviting to baptism. As I said last week, we've been focusing on the baptismal invite in 12 Week and Companion Study. So I feel like God's been giving us a lot of opportunities lately to practice in real life.
   On Thursday night we visited our Golden Family, Xu JT, from last week. It was amazing. Their house already feels like a member's house. They fed us dinner and were asking us tons of questions about missionary work in general while we ate. Perfect time for some How to Begin Teaching! When we were talking about church attendance the Dad said he suggested to his daughters that they go to church just every other week, but his oldest daughter said no. So then we were a little nervous, thinking she wanted to go less than that. Then he said, "She loves church and wants to go EVERY Sunday." We were in shock! Amazing!
   After dinner we shared a really basic lesson 1 with an emphasis on the Book of Mormon at the end. Their Aunt who had been visiting last week had already given them one, but they weren't exactly sure what it was still. Perfect opportunity! We read the introduction with them. The parents asked perfect questions and gave us perfect answers to all of our questions. They were soaking everything up! It was one of the coolest lessons of my whole mission. As we were sharing I felt like I needed to extend the baptismal invite. Lately I've been giving the baptismal invites to Sister Xiao to give her practice, but this time I felt like it was my turn, and that I needed to give her an example. I was a little nervous because I didn't want to scare away this perfect family with the thought of such a big commitment. But I know that Preach my Gospel is an inspired book and we should be inviting to baptism after the first lesson. I know we are blessed as we follow it's counsel, no matter the outcome. So I followed the spirit and said whatever came into my mind. They all readily accepted the invite to be baptized, and even set dates. It was such an amazing and fulfilling feeling to be bold and follow the spirit.
   When we got home that night, Sister Xiao excitedly wrote their names up on our white board and said, "Until now I wanted to get my visa really quickly. Suddenly, I want to stay in Zhudong until May so I can see them get baptized!" So it hurt a little bit at first, but the Lord has his ways to make his children happy and motivated. So I'm grateful that we've been able to see these miracles! I've been praying to know how to help Sister Xiao love Zhudong as much as I've grown to love it, and God has truly been answering.
   On Sunday they all came to church, wearing Sunday clothes, and got there even before our RC's. The girls were brave enough to go to Primary and Young Women's this Sunday. And the Mom and Dad fully participated in a discussion in Gospel Principles about the Atonement, of all subjects. It was a great Easter Sunday. This family was sent to us straight from God. I'm a little sad I probably won't be here for their baptism, but that's what FaceTime and Skype are for right?
   The other miracle of the week was a resurrected investigator on Saturday. I called her on Monday and thought to myself, "We haven't met with her for a month. If she doesn't answer or set up with us we aren't going to keep meeting with her." Well, she answered, apologized for being so busy lately, and readily set up with us! So even then I was a little bit skeptical. Friday night during planning I told Sister Xiao to plan on setting expectations, stating our purpose, then probably dropping her. In the lesson the next day, our member asked a few really good questions at the beginning, that let us see where her desire was. Just simple questions like, "Why did you start meeting with the missionaries" and "What has changed in your life since starting to meet with them", let us see that she had seen the gospel start to change her life and her family and she wanted more. Again in that lesson I felt impressed to invite her to baptism. Then I thought, "Ummm we were just about to drop her and now we want to invite her to be baptized? What??" But again I somehow got up the courage and faith, followed the spirit, and invited. And again the Lord worked a miracle and she also readily set a baptismal date. It was so amazing. I know that when we open our mouths they will be filled with what the Lord would have us say. We just have to put our fears and doubts aside and get out of the way.
   I'm grateful for all of the humbling that has taken place the last few weeks to allow me to get out of the way of Heavenly Father's work. I hope these last few weeks we'll still be able to see miracles and help His work go forward. 永遠向前進!
-Sister Oviatt

IT'S RAINING FAMILIES!!

It was a week of full rain! Really HUGE thunder storms and also MIRACLES from God. It was truly a miraculous week. I won't even get to write half of the miracles we saw this week. We really tried to work hard, seek the Lord's will for our area, and follow the spirit. It was one of those weeks where we were lucky enough to see some of the fruits of our labors and faith.
This weeks miracles involve 4 families. Yes. 4. I'll quickly explain why each of these families was a miracle to us this week.
--On Tuesday, we went to visit an LA family that has a steak restaurant. After we ate there, we were SO full, almost guo nian full. It was uncomfortable to even walk. And it was POURING rain all day, so we were soaked to the bone and freezing. But, we decided to stick with our plan to go finding around the LA's house. 30 minutes and about 20, "We're Buddhist" "Go home, it's raining" "We don't have time" 's later, someone let us in! She was a mid-20 year old girl living with her grandma and grandpa while she tried to find work. We sat down and taught all 3 of them how to pray, told them about our purpose as missionaries, and found out a bit more about them. The girl, Lu JM, shared about how a few years ago she'd met some missionaries from another church, but had a really bad experience. We were amazed that she still let us in! Then my awesome companion, Sister Xiao, did some great How to Begin Teaching, without even realizing it, to help her better understand how we're different from those other missionaries. Sister Xiao taught about how we are just there to teach her about Christ and His church, but she can choose whether or not to accept and act on the message. We aren't here to force her into doing anything, or to even get baptized. Just to guide her in learning about our message. It's up to her to use her agency to choose what she wants. It was amazing and I was just in shock. It really made Lu JM feel a lot more comfortable with us. The more we shared with her about the gospel, the brighter her eyes got and more interested she became. Then she said we could go back and visit her again later in the week. We were so grateful as we left her house that night that God had led us to find His prepared children.
--Next family, Zhan JT. 2 weeks ago, Sister Tan and I found a cute family with a Mom and a Dad, and 5 year old twin girls. We talked to them for a bit about their religious background, and found out that they were christian, but haven't been to church recently because of the kids and their work situations. They still pray every night, and occasionally read the Bible. Their home definitely had the spirit because of their righteous efforts! But when we found them they were going to Taoyuan for the Lantern Festival, and said they were busy for the next 2 weeks. Usually that means you call them 2 weeks later, they're still busy, and eventually they disappear. Fast forward to this week. I felt like we needed to go drop by and see if they would be home, but I had no idea where they lived, I only remembered the street name. Well the Lord really needs this family to be found because I was able to follow the spirit and find their house in just a few minutes. And, the Dad and twin girls were home! We prayed with them, and invited them to church, which they readily accepted. It was so amazing to be able to see them again. Unfortunately, probably because of the rain, they didn't come to church yesterday. But I know that God has led us to find them twice, so I have faith that everything will work out!
--Next family, Chen JT. Remember a few weeks ago when I shared about the son who had gotten into drugs and the mom who we started teaching, who was really worried about him and wanted him to learn more about the church? Well this weekend we were finally able to meet with the Dad, too! They both have so much faith, and really want the best for their son. We taught and testified a lot about how the gospel has blessed our families and could bless theirs if they kept meeting with us. They were just soaking everything up! At one point our member asked, "How do you expect God to help you?" Then Chen DX, responded, "I don't want to ask what God can do to help me, I want to ask God how I can serve him." I was just in shock. No words. He gave lots of great answers like that that really showed his desire to follow God. At the end of the lesson, I felt really impressed that we needed to invite them to be baptized on May 7th. Specifically for Xiao JM to do it, because that's what we've been talking about in 12 week lately. It took her a little while to get to it because she was nervous, but she did it! It was really great! Unfortunately, they didn't accept, mostly Chen DX. Peng JM was a little bit more willing, but still didn't fully accept. They started talking about how all religions are good as long as they teach people to be good citizens, serve others, and stuff like that. It was a little discouraging, but I know that it is NEVER bad to act on a prompting. I know that I felt an undeniable witness that we were supposed to be there teaching them. I know that God has his plan for them. I don't know what it is, but I know that as long as we keep following the spirit and doing His will everything will work out. It may not end in this family getting baptized, but as long as God's work is going forth, that's all that matters.
--Last family, and possibly the most miraculous. Xu JT. We're sitting in church and I'm getting a little discouraged by the rain, and the fact that the 2 families and some other investigators we'd invited to church all hadn't come. Then I looked up and saw a family I didn't recognize sitting in the 2nd row. One of the stake high councilors in the ward came up to me and said they had never come to church before and that we needed to go introduce ourselves to them after sacrament meeting. So we did! We found out that one of them was a church member from Germany visiting her family here. She invited her younger brother, his wife, and two teenage daughters to come to church with her and they all did! They all happily came to gospel principles with us, then the mom and two daughters came to Relief Society with us. They fit right in with the ward. It was so miraculous!! They really loved church and set up for us to meet with them this Thursday! The older sister from Germany told us that her daughter had just started her mission 2 weeks before, but was waiting in Germany for her visa to go to the SLC temple square mission! Just like Xiao JM, except different mission! Pretty cool! As she was leaving she gave us hugs and said, "Take good care of them for me." And we promised we would. So even though we only had 1 investigator at church, we still were able to have a miraculous Sunday!
God really loves Zhudong a lot. He is raining families down on this ward right now. And the elders have been finding more men lately, future Melchizedek Priesthood holders! I know that God is truly preparing the hearts of his children here to receive his gospel. I am so lucky to have front row seats to see these miracles happen! All of these people are being found right here at the end of my mission, so I may not get to see the fruits of these labors, but as long as these people are in the Lord's hands, it doesn't matter to me who baptizes them. I know that everything will work out for those who trust in the Lord.
Sorry for the long email this week! It was so amazing though. This week I've really been trying to be more humble, and believe and practice what this verse teaches, "And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him." (John 8:29) I know that as we always do things that please HIM, not man, He WILL NOT leave us alone.

Do the important things!

-Sister Oviatt

I'M TRAININGGGGGG!

So. It was Tuesday night and Sister Tan wanted to go out to eat at a "nice" restaurant for one of her last meals. (If there's a such thing as "nice" in Zhudong.) So we're waiting for our food at this Italian pasta place and President calls. I assumed it was about her going home or something, so I gave her the phone. Then it was actually for me. President asked how my day went, how the transfer had gone with Sister Tan, then he says, "Sister Oviatt can you do me a favor?". Then I just assumed it had something to do with being English unit leader. NO. "Will you be a trainer for your last transfer?" The shock that came over me when he said that didn't leave until at least 3 days later. I literally felt like I was in a dream.

Then the next morning I got morning sickness. JK. We got food poisoning and spent all day Wednesday inside throwing up, going to the bathroom, and sleeping. It was awful. The next day, Thursday, we went up to Taipei in the morning, dropped off Sister Tan, cried a bit, and went up to the training meetings and got my new baby! Since they stopped doing transfer meetings :'( they have been introducing the trainers their new trainees a little bit differently. They have the trainee go up to the front and read a letter that sounds just like our call letters, "Dear Sister Xiao. You have been hereby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You have been called to serve with... Sister O.. I don't know what this says..." President Jergensen then says, "Oviatt" Then I jumped up out of my seat and gave her a huge hug. It was literally more stressful than the power point they did before. So there's the big story of the week. CRAZY.

Sister Xiao from Taichung, Taiwan and is a visa waiter waiting to go to the Oakland/San Fransico California Mission. She just turned 19 in December, but has gone on 4 "mini-missions" in the Taichung mission to the south of our mission. She's been a missionary before for a total of 8 transfers! So she knows a bit about the work already. Oh and her Chinese is perfect so that's cool(; She lived in Riverton, UT for 2 years when she was 16 and worked as a soccer coach, so her English is pretty good, too! Yesterday in Gospel Principles the teacher asked when she would be leaving and she said oh probably in just 2-3 weeks. Elder Sumsion, who also waited for his visa to come to Taiwan, and I had to laugh a little because we remembered just over a year ago when we were saying the same thing in our reassignments... 12 weeks later! hahaha

I've had so many different emotions this week. I've felt overwhelmed, stressed, lost, alone, and even a little trunky sometimes. But yesterday through taking the sacrament and just a good Sunday, I've been able to refocus and calm down. I've felt that this is what the Lord needs me to do right now. I've been so humbled this week. I think the HARDEST time to train is probably your last transfer. You know what you're doing. You've got your routines and you've been doing them for a while. It's hard to then be with someone who's brand new to missionary work and relies on your guidance. You really have to kind of forget your routines and what you think may be right to do, and follow the spirit. One time I was getting kind of down on myself about how the first few days had gone, then I remembered a line from Preach my Gospel that helped me last time I took over an area after a companion went home. "Avoid comparing yourself to other missionaries and measuring the outward results of your efforts against theirs." We cannot compare ourselves to anyone else. We should not be afraid of man, but of God. We should take our validation vertically from Him, not horizontally from the world around us. I felt like as long as I was in good standing with Heavenly Father and he accepted the work we'd done, it would all be okay. I've really had to humble myself so much this week to realign my will and expectations with God's. I've had to relearn to rely on Him for acceptance and guidance, and not rely on man.

So here goes the last 6 weeks. I feel like it will be a big "cumulative test" of ALL the things I've learned on my mission. From visa waiting (GA), to having a Taiwanese companion (Sister Mao), to training in my last transfer (like Sister Pieper), to taking over an area after killing a companion (Sister Tate), to helping a companion get used to a new mission (Sister Komatsu), and just learning how to love this work. I know God has a sense of humor, oh, and He has a very specific and perfect plan for all of us. He loves YOU.

We're ready to continue to see lots of miracles in Zhudong!

-Sister Oviatt

​

March 7, 2016

What a week. Pretty successful considering we went to Xinzhu and Taipei this week!!

One of our new investigators from this week was actually our investigator's mom. We found him way at the beginning of February, but haven't been able to meet with him for a while. We kept calling him every week to invite him to church and to try to set up with him, but things always came up. Normally we would've dropped someone like that, but every time we called either his dad or his mom would answer the phone. His mom sounded like such an angel on the phone and was just so sweet and patient with us. Finally last week we asked if we could meet with him at his house, because we wanted to meet his mom. She was honestly showing more potential than him. So we went out and tried to find their house last Saturday with a member, but after 45 minutes of biking, walking, and asking for directions, we gave up. We set up again for this Saturday, hoping to finally be able to meet with his mom.
We called the member again and met up with her at the church. This time her husband brought down in their car! God loves us, because when we finally found his house, they lived up 2 HUGE hills and we just never would've found it if we were on our bikes. God really needed this daughter to be found. We pulled into their driveway and she was waiting for us outside. She came right up to us and told us how grateful she was that people from the church had come to help her son. She told us more about his situation and how he'd been getting into drugs in the last year and didn't have a job any more. She really loves her son a lot and is scared for the direction his life is going right now. Right when we got into their house I felt confirmation from the spirit that she was who we were supposed to be focusing on. She was the reason we found him. We planned on sharing a lesson directed more towards the mom about how the gospel blesses families, and it was exactly what she needed. She was just like a sponge. She soaked up every word and was just so engaged and interested in every thing we said. Her son kept going off about his Taoist beliefs and how our church is just like the things he already knows from Taoism. His mom would just get a sad look on her face and say, "I think this is all from him playing with the drugs." She needs the peace and comfort that this gospel can bring her. At the end of the lesson, she readily set up another lesson with us for the next Saturday. 
I am so grateful that I've been able to see God work these miracles here in Zhudong, and my whole mission in Taiwan. Sister Tan is going home this week, and it's really hard to see. We've done a lot of reflecting and talking about our missions during our down time. She's taught me a lot about this work in our time as companions, and this last year. If I could sum up everything she's taught me it would be to never forget the essence of the gospel. It is when we lose sight of that that we lose our way. The gospel is as simple as one relationship, us and Heavenly Father. If what you're doing is strengthening that relationship, then it's a good thing. If it's not, then you should repent and get back on track. I'm so grateful to her for reminding me of this truth. It was something my mom taught me all growing up. Thank you Mom! :) Sometimes we need more time and more people for us to fully learn the lesson. I'm grateful that God is patient enough with me to let me have the time I need to learn these lessons!

I hope all of your relationships with Heavenly Father are good and you're taking time everyday to work on it. :)

-Sister Oviatt

The Book of Mormon is BEAUTIFUL.

Happy leap day! We had a pretty decent week this week. I feel like it had a good balance between finding, teaching, and teaching our RC's and LA's. I think the miracle of the week was finding 6 new investigators.

On Tuesday we were out finding and ran into this neighborhood where every door we knocked was greeted by an amah(grandma) or an agong(grandpa) saying, "No. We're Buddhist." "We don't have time." "Our beliefs are a little bit different." and other things like that. We even met one amah that said, "I don't believe in your church. I believe in the 4 children." Then we were like, "Oh you have 4 kids? Cute!" Then she responded, "No. I don't. But the 1,000元 bill does." 
​We laughed, then told her that there is more to life than money, and went on our way. It was just a neighborhood full of Buddhist, greedy, grandmas, and grandpas. Earlier in the mission I would've been a little dejected by this, but we kept going with faith and didn't get distracted.

Sister Tan then felt like we should walk up an apartment building and start knocking it. I was thinking, No. My hips hurt. My back hurts. There is no elevator. No. But we went up anyways. Guess what? The first door we knocked let us in! Her name is Fan JM. She is an aborigine, and has been a Christian her whole life. She just hasn't really gone to church much in the last few years because her family life has gotten really busy and hard. She is divorced and has 2 boys. From what we understood one of her sons lives with her husband in the town over and the other boy has ran away from home and she doesn't know where he is. When we prayed for her she asked that we just pray that he was safe and had peace. She said I don't care if he doesn't want to come home, I just want him to be save and have peace. Sister Tan and I both started to tear up when she said that. She has so much pure love for her children! She was willing to sacrifice her seeing them, for them to be happy.  It reminded us of the love that each of our mothers have for us. 

We were then able to talk about how our church is different from other churches and give her a Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is beautiful. The spirit is beautiful. I wanted to share with her a scripture about how God loves His children no matter where they are or what land they're in, but I couldn't think of it. So I got out the Book of Mormon and said, "Can we share a scripture with you?" But I had no idea what scripture to share. Later I found out that Sister Tan was trying to figure out what scripture to share, too. We started explaining what the Book of Mormon was, how it's the same as the Bible, how it's different. Then the words, Alma 26:37, came into my mind. It's been one of my favorite verses of my mission. I'll share it again, in case you forgot. "Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen." She was really touched by that scripture, and Sister Tan and I were shocked at how well it related to her situation. Thank you, Holy Ghost! Her work is really hard, and the schedule isn't very set, but she was still willing to set up with us again. We haven't seen her since then, but we know that the Lord will put the prepared in our path. When she needs us again God will make it happen.

Other than that cool miracle, we met some other cool people on the street, had a pretty good English Class, miraculously met with some LA's, and got dropped by a few baptismal date investigators.

There's your week in Zhudong! This next week is Sister Tan's last full week as a missionary. It's been really hard & weird to say the least. Killing a companion, then dying the next transfer will be a challenge. I feel like I'm dying twice. But we've really gotta stay focused this week and build up this area! Pray for us!

His work never ends.

-Sister Oviatt