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