It was a crazy busy week! Mom you may have gotten my letter telling you all about it...what would we do with out moms?

It was such a great week though! We got to go and pick up the new missionaries! Which is always a fun time! They always have this "What is happening?" look on their face! Well so do the missionaries that are leaving haha....But then we got all of them with their trainers and President Jacobsen handed me the camera to take what seemed like a million pictures...and then the camera broke...hahaha! We had about 8 sisters in our apartment at a time and Sister Rogers and I slept on the floor...that wasn't too good for our backs hahaha!  AND THEN WE PLANNED FOR KYLE'S BAPTISM! He is the best person....

So Kyle was soo excited to be baptized!!! The spirit was soo strong as he stepped down into the font! Sister Jacobsen was sitting next to me and she just started crying and grabs my arm and so I started crying! There really is nothing like that moment.  He is the sweetest most sincere person I have ever met! We were in Sunday school the other day and he asked me if I was going home for Christmas and I said "Well...probably not...haha" and he said that is okay! We can Skype! We get to Skype Kyle while he is in China! :) and hopefully meet his parents!!!! He is soo great! I know how to count to ten in Chinese and say thank you, uncle, and very nice! I am moving up in life! Oh I am so blessed to be able to teach him! SO BLESSED!

Valerie is doing a bit better! It was a rough first half of the week for us. Just pray for her parents hearts to be softened please. She wants to be baptized sooooo bad :( We had a long talk on Tuesday night and I just came home and cried! I didn't know what to do! It is the hardest thing I have ever seen anyone deal with...but she has been a HUGE part of my testimony! A VERY big part of it.

We taught a new investigator (Valerie says we should call them ponderers instead of investigators) Chris! He is soo nice! We were teaching and at the end of the lesson he said "what are you going to go to school for?' so I told him a few things I was thinking of and asked him why he asked. He said well I thought you were going to be a psychiatrist! You are very good at reading people....haha I was thinking "that is the spirit Chris...that is the spirit..." Haha but a very cool moment! Sometimes as missionaries we never know if we are actually saying things that they need but sometime you can get little hints that let you know that the spirit is leading you in ways that you don't even know!

Thien didn't come to church this week and so we text him and said "Thien we missed you at church!" and he text us and said "I was there maybe I was hiding from you..." Oh Thien....

Ramya came to Kyle's baptism and she absolutely LOVED it! She text us after and told us how excited she was and how happy she is and she just wants to be baptized now! It was soo wonderful! We are happy because she is staying for winter break! So we can teach her a lot this break! :) But she also has to talk to her parents. I guess in India you have to either wait until you are 35 yrs old or you have to get permission to switch religions. So hopefully her parents hearts will be softened!

This week was soo wonderful!!! It was a crazy week with lots of stress, but as I watched Kyle going into the font to be baptized EVERY single hard thing on my mission was worth that moment right there. Richard, the elders recent convert from China, got up to bear his testimony yesterday and he talked about how people are soo thirsty for this but all they have is salt water...which only causes things to be worse! But here in the church we have fresh water and the only way for others to get that fresh water is from us. We have plenty to share. He went on to say how a big reason he knew this was good is because of the people he met here and he wanted to be just like each of us because around us, God is everywhere. I was so touched by that. We have what everyone in this world needs and they look to us to share and to give them that living water! It made me step back and think about who I am! Do I share that living water? Am I living my life in a way that people would look at me and say "Yes, she is a person that has God always with her. That is someone I want to be like." I wrote down the things I needed to work on and resolved to be better and to work harder. My heart has to be fully changed. Coming here to earth is about changing your nature. Changing yourself to the very core. Not just simply changing your behavior. Just like Elder Christofferson said "We also came to do the will of him who sent us."  Sorry that was long and drawn out...but that's what brings true HAPPINESS.

Much Michigan Love,

Sister Oswald

1. Kyle with Bruce and us!

2. Kyle...is the best....

3. Sister Bish in the office wanted us to set up the Christmas tree they had...she thought it was going to take a long time and be pretty hard...turns out it took ten minutes and only had 2 pieces...we all thought it was pretty funny.