Monday, May 19, 2014








What a week! So it rains everyday here and when I say rain,  I mean I have never seen rain like this before.





The thunder is RIGHT above us and it is like we are in a water globe getting shaken up! Because of all the rain, everything is green. and muddy. Our area is HUGE! and has soooo much potential! We have about 15 colonials in our half of the ward and the elders have like 20. The elders live about 30 minutes in combie from our church. We are lucky because the church is in our colonial! So I am not sure what the calles are called but we live in el provenir and if you find chederaui, it's close to that. Find the church and our house is like 3 streets away!
My companion is Hermana Garcia! 
She is from Sinaloa, Mexico! She has 8 siblings and is so cute! She reminds me of my friend Brooke Bytheway! Anyways, we have a good time together. I have kinda taken the lead in the lessons this week because she is sick. We got soaking wet on Wednesday and then walked around wet and she got sick :( But we keep going, just now, bring umbrellas with us everytime we leave the house because sometimes the rain comes out of nowhere! 
Oh, and I knew her already because when I was in San Cristobal she was in Comitan. Our zones always got together for conferences and so I had already met her. And when I transfered to Tuxtla, we were bus buddies! So I was pretty excited when I heard she was going to be my companion! 

​Look a tick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well I freaked out my first morning because I thought it was a tick or something and waited outside the bathroom door, basically crying because I was so scared, and when my companion came out she started laughing hysterically because GUESS WHAT.... it was a seed... yep. a seed from an apple. hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
I have been studying about patience this week. Patience and marriage... coincidence? hahaha But really. I have learned a lot about how to be more patient with myself, my companion, with waiting for answers, with our investigators. 
We have a lot of people to teach here, our problem is that  the area is so big and can't go to each part every day. Its definitely a HUGE change from small Jardines! 

​AND we had a baptism on Saturday. His brother was baptized the week before. We are working with some of the other members of their family now, too! 
4 investigators came to sacrament meeting which was so good and we have baptism dates with some other investigators. 
The work is moving along great here in our ward, Vista Hermosa. I love teaching the gospel everyday and learning new things myself! 
I put bug spray on first thing in the morning and also it's the last thing I do before I go to sleep at night. We have to check in our clothes before we put them on and in our sinks and in the shower for scorpians. I am sooooo scared of them and literally have had nightmares this week about them and that some huge one is going to sting me. But  I pray to not ever find one and luckily haven't yet. We do have a million milipedes and centipedes and creepy crawly things in our house. My companion is nice and kills them all because they freek me out with their little legs... eeewwww
Can you see his little feeties!!!???

 
 
Our beds haha yep we gotta be careful of the bugs!
 
 
 
Well time to go back to work! I can't believe that this last week I hit my 7 month mark. It's going CRAZY fast! I am learning to enjoy the hard things, including the bugs... and just get lost in the work. Like we have been told, forget ourselves and just get lost in this great work! 
I love my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  I love my Padre Celestial. I love my amazing family ( and congrats to Aaron on his mission call!) I love this gospel and KNOW that it is the ONLY true church on the face of the earth. I am thankful for my musical talents that I have the honor to share every day when we sing with our investigators (and when I sing in the shower to not be as scared of finding a scorpian...) and also by playing the piano in sacrament meeting each Sunday
I love love love you all. 
Until next week,
xoxoxoxoxo
Hermana Oliphant

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Justyce is being a perro!
Hello my amazing family!  It was so good to hear you all and see everyone last night. I really loved seeing how everyone is doing! Thank you for waiting for 2 hours to talk to me!! (you were ready at 5:20 right?!) Oh wait there is the time change I forgot. But still I am so glad you are all my family. Thank you all for everything and I am glad you enjoyed your Mother's Day present and tell Megan muchas gracias por su ayuda en esta regalo!



Families are forever no matter where we are living!


So we went back home after talking to you all and walking Karla home and then planned for the night. We gave our numbers to our District Leader Elder Beardsley and then started writing in our journals and getting ready for bed. We were just about to turn the light off because it was after 10:30 and our phone rang. Weird right? It was our District leader!!! He had been given the transfer list. I am headed to Vista Hermosa Tapachula! They called last night so that we could pack and clean the house because I leave at 2 PM today and have to be in the OCC (bus station) at 1PM. So we washed my dirty clothes and hung them up all over the house and the clothes line, and Hermana Rodriguez and I packed up my things with tears streaming down my face. I really felt all day Saturday and Sunday that I would be leaving but I didn't want it to be true. I have really loved working in this area with my companion and the members and the Elders and our investigators.
 
Missionarios in my zone
 I am sad to be leaving, and a little nervous for my new companion and because Tapachula is SOOOOO hot and rains SOOOO much. But I will go where the Lord wants me to go. We listened to that song so much this morning 
(" I´ll go where you want me to  go"). I felt like the words were speaking what is on my mind! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Hermana's in my zone
With Karla and her family
So that's the big news! We said goodbye to our investigator, his mother, and his brother. I really hope that soon they accept this gospel into their lives! It's already changing them. He only needs to go to church a few more times and then he can be baptized! 


I love you all. So much.
Happy Birthday to Colin.  Can't believe you are 12 and get the Priesthood.  Can't wait to go do baptisms for the dead at the temple with you when I get home!
I am going to miss the great people of Tuxtla Gutierrez!
Keep smiling and keep praying as a family and personally! 
Hermana Oliphant
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sunday, May 11, 2014


I am excited to call next Sunday. We have our lunch at 2pm and then we have a meeting from 4 to 6pm.... can you guys do it at 7:15 (ish) my time here in Tuxtla? We have a few teaching appointments that we are working around plus Hermana Rodriguez is going to use my skype name to call her family because she can't remember hers haha. Sorry that its such a hassle... I hope that it will work for you all. ( I think it's like 6pm your time). Just be on and ready--like playing games or something and then I will call as soon as it's my turn. Our awesome bishop is letting us use his computer in his house, so only one of us can call at a time and Hermana Rodriguez asked if she can call first and I thought that would be okay!  I am so excited to talk to you all and hear your voices- Damon included! Yes I have received a few emails from him and they are printed and in my journal! OH I only have 4 pages left and my first mission journal is filled up! Que Padre!!!! 

We have been working on helping people with the desire to go to church. We have our fingers crossed that 2 of our families will be able to come with us next Sunday. They have said yes, so I have faith they will be able to! 
I am so thankful for the leaders I have been blessed with. We have AWESOME zone leaders- Elders Caldwell and Cavazos. They are also in our ward and are so willing to help us out with anything we need. They regularly call us to cheer us up and help us feel animated for the work! Our Zone leader, Elder Beardsley calls us about every night to check up on us, and we talk about our days, how many lessons we taught, who we taught, who we contacted, if we invited people to baptism or not. He is a really good District Leader and is soooo funny! 
 
Our Sister training leaders, Hermana Guzman and Hna Favila came over on Thursday morning to do our weekly planning with us and to check up on us. We had been struggling with a few communication errors in our companionship but they helped us sort everything out! I know that's why we have leaders. they are all so great! Plus we have an awesome ward with so many people looking out for us. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hermana Claudia fed us dinner last Tuesday and we have a blast talking and joking and having a good time with her family. (We are fed by the Hermanas in the ward every day at 2pm for lunch and if we are hungry we eat something like fruit or granola at night.  It's a treat when they call us to come have dinner with them!) I am going to seriously miss Hna Claudia and her family when I get transferred! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I have been studying more in the New Testament this week, especially about the miracles that happened. I love learning through Christ´s parables. They are so good! I want to start teaching and using his teachings from the Bible more. That's why I have been studying it. I have really put to use the quote `You will only get out what you are willing to put in¨ I love that quote. It means that We have to be willing to do all we can to get to the ending goal that we want. We can not just be lazy and wait for the miracles to come to us! 
Well my time is just about up. I can't wait to talk to you all this Sunday! Have your questions ready because we only have 30 minutes.... But it will be the best 30 minutes of my week for sure!! 
 
 
 
 
 I love you all!!! hugs and kisses!
Hermana Oliphant
 
 
 
 Hermana Oliphant with some of the beautiful children in her ward and area.

 

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Hello!!!!!  So I sent pictures about this stuff and explained a little, but I made crepes last night; seriously, best idea ever!! They were soooo yummy!!!



Making empeñadas!! yummy!!!



























  And I ate fish last Wednesday.... not sure how much I loved it, but I ate every last bit! So this is the first time I have eaten something with eyeballs and antennas. (The shrimp was whole) and the fish had skin and fins and bones and everything. Sometimes, it's hard to be a missionary and smile and eat everything on our plates- But other than the fact that it smelled really FISHY (haha) It wasn't that bad.
But I did have an allergic reaction to it and we couldn't leave the house (on doctors orders).... but hey it's an adventure. right?
I am not sure what it was honestly but it had legs...



We finally had investigators come to church with us yesterday! First time in this area for us! We had two brothers and another man. We have been teaching him in his work (his family own a ciber for internet) since before conference weekend! We were thrilled that he could come with us!!!!! And we also have just started to teach his family. We went to his house for the first time on Friday (he is basically our neighbour!) and his mom expressed her gratitude for teaching him; she said he has been changing and she loves it. He is the oldest child of 5 and he is 24 years old. He has a baptism date and is working on receiving his answer. We are always soooo happy after teaching him! He is awesome.
The two brothers are the grandsons of a member. One is 16 and the other is 18. They are trying to decide if this is all true, but they haven't said no to their baptism date that is set for the 10 of May! It's next week!! Their mom supports them with whatever they choose to do and they liked church yesterday so we have our fingers crossed.
Vivi comes with us a few times each week. 
She is a convert of 2 years!!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I have been working on being comfortable with talking and contacting. I contacted a lot more people this week and even talked to 2 whole combies of people! I am really starting to see progress from all my practicing each day!
I have learned to just have patience with myself and with the others who are trying to understand me. I have been frequently asking if people understand what I said or if I need to say it again (especially with questions that I try to ask). If they don't understand I used to get frustrated but this week I have been really good at just repeating for them or changing how I say something and using different words. It works! Hermana Rodriguez and I try each day to contact more people than our District leader (he calls us almost every night). We won 3 days this week!!! And for the first time here in Tuxtla, we contacted more than 100 people in total this week. 

Elder caldwell says hello to you all (and his companion but he was in the front of the taxi haha)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Once upon a time my companion and I were Mario and Luigi for Elder Caldwell's birthday. hahaha We all went to a member's home for cake and ice cream and Hna Rodriguez and I made up a birthday missionary song to the tune of Mario Bros because he is obsessed! hahaha
It's always good to see a familiar face!
 
Oh I almost forgot, I spoke in church yesterday. I decided to speak about prayer. I didn't write out my talk; I just wrote down some quotes from "True to the Faith" and President Monson and Uchtdorf and marked some scriptures and then went for it! Mauricio and Mario (brothers in the ward that speak English) said that they understood everything! BAM! que Padre!!!!!!! 
Well my times about up. just one more announcement!!!! I AM CALLING HOME IN 2 WEEKS!!!!!!! Does Sunday work for you? We are going to ask our bishop if we can call from his Ipad.... so we aren't sure what time, but I will let you know the time for sure next week. How awesome that G&G will be there too! Make sure Damon will be there, too, 'cause I didn't get to talk to him at Christmas. 
I love you all soooooooo much! 
Can't wait to talk! Each of you think of 1 specific question to ask (anything, food, how's my house, the church, the roads, be creative). That way we can use the hour more productively! deal? I don't want to just ramble on about nothing!! haha
yep 112 farenheight blah!
 
hasta la próxima
Love,
Hermana Oliphant