Sunday, October 26, 2014

Stitchery Mom made this week.













Oh my gosh! I LOVE the stitchery!!! It's us!!!!! :)
 I am happy because we are seeing so many miracles here in Comitan! I really appreciate your prayers and that you have kept my name on the prayer roll. 
Give each of the boys a HUGE hug from me. I miss you all. I love you all.
Well we are going to have 2 baptisms this week!!!  I am so excited to see them enter the waters of baptism and follow the example of our brother Jesus Christ! 
 
Comitan
Please tell Damon how much I love him, I miss him like crazy--honestly!!!!! 
 
 I am learning so much just by being a companion! I am the senior companion, but I feel like I learn more from my companion then she is learning from me. I love her so much! I love being able to work with her and I am sad that transfers are already the next Monday! It's crazy how fast this transfer has gone. 

 
Comitan at night
 It's the truth! the mission is  SOOOOO much harder than I thought it would be! haha
 
 
I love you! "foreber"
Hermana Oliphant
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We ate some interesting things this week. We aren't sure what this was but we think it was the throat of a Pig..... yep I wanted to DIE... :( but we ate the whole thing!


And this one was tacos with .... who knows what kind of meat. We think it was cow stomach... but aren't quite sure! I didn't have trouble eating this one, but my companion didn't like it. I actually ate one of her tacos because it grossed her out so much! hahaha That's what companions are for I guess!
With Hermana Allen.  I seriously love this girl!
Well this day has been really fun but we only have a short time to write.
We started writing earlier and I wrote the mission president, but then we were all really hungry and decided to go get something to eat and then come back, we all meaning the other sisters from our ward. Well we went to Burger King and then bought our groceries in Walmart ( I feel really North American!) and now we are back here at the internet. We had a good time looking at all of the Halloween things at Walmart. HEY! Trynn, I love your costume! It's way awesome!!!!! What are the other boys going to be for Halloween? 
I am thinking that maybe not all of my letters are coming through to you all. I sent those flash cards because I don't use them anymore. I had them on a ring and would practice in the street! Maybe you can all learn a little Spanish with them :)
 
 
 
 
With Hermana Guerrero after lunch with the bishop
 I have learned so much about the atonement. I LOVE the atonement of my Savior Jesus Christ. I know that He knows EVERYTHING I am going through. I love that I can be comforted even in the most trying of times if I just rely on Him. HE knows. HE can help. HE has felt everything I am going through and everything I will go through. We have been dealing with a friend who has really bad depression. I never knew much about depression. But I know now that it is a real thing and SO many people have it. Some are stuck in this sickness and feel like they just can't ever make it out. There are so many signs of depression and so many things that people can do to avoid it, but once you´ve fallen into it, it can be hard to get out. I am so thankful that there are so many great people who can help; Doctors, Bishops, Stake Presidents, Mission Presidents, mothers, friends, grandparents, brothers. We are surrounded by our team members who are here to help us overcome these kinds of sicknesses. I am so thankful to be surrounded by so many loving and kind people who help me when I need help and I am thankful that the Lord has sent me here to help people when they are in need of help.
Package from home!
 
 
 
As for your questions that you asked, yes, I am the senior companion. I have been senior companion my whole time here in Comitan! 

Mom made me a skirt
I am reading in Mosiah about Abinadi right now and I love how strong he was and how he would NEVER deny what he knew--even to the point of death. I love his testimony. I love his courage! I keep asking myself if I have enough courage to do something like he did. I am here, as a representative of Christ, people tell us we are wrong, they tell us they are fine without listening to our message, and in a way, I am standing up for what I believe every day when I bear my testimony (in Spanish!!) and tell them that THIS is the ONLY true church on the face of the earth. Do they listen? Yes. Do they change their ideas? No. Does that make me a liar or a failure? NO! It just means that Satan is really working on them! WE WILL BEAT HIM!!!!
 
We haven't been able to get an appointment with one of our investigators because of his work, and he didn't go to church so he doesn't have a baptism date now. :( We are hoping to pass by tomorrow and catch him at home. The sister we have been teaching also didn't go to church and since she isn't married, we are having to let her go :( but we are working with two people right now who are super ready! One man ( I think I have told you about him) can be baptized as soon as he tells us that he has received his answer and we finish all of the lessons! We feel strongly that he could be baptized this week or the next. We are PRAYING that everything goes well tonight when we invite him to be baptized this week!
Another is an old (as in previous) investigator. She has been to church so many times but has been having a hard time understanding that she needs to be baptized again. She was baptized as a young child in a different church, but we finally got her to understand that we need to be baptized by the spirit and not just by water. So we are hoping that tonight at FHE with a family in the ward, she will feel the need to be baptized. 
I have felt the Lord a ton, but the day that I really felt him was when we were fasting yesterday. We fasted to have lots of people keep their commitments and honestly everything fell through so we were a little sad. But then we were able to see the Lord's hand in some personal things that we were working on and realized that sometimes we have to fall down (hard) so that we can get back up and be SUPER WOMAN!!!! ;) 
 
 
Taco delivery!
I really LOVE Taquitos. They are tacos rolled up and fried. YUM!!!! I also love the tacos here. Seriously, there is no way to explain them. We have a sister in our ward who has her taqueria (taco store) and we can call her and she sends them to us for free we just pay for the taxi that brings them to us. Needless to say, we are never hungry in the night!!!
 
As for Halloween, we aren't going to do anything super fun. I might dress up as... A MISSIONARY... but I am not sure... ;)

Well that's about it. We were really really excited this week because we met all of our goals that we can control ( number of lessons, contacts in the street, and invitations to be baptized) and are hoping to get even more numbers in this week too!!
Just a reminder that TODAY! marks 6 months until my release date (April 13th!!) and Thursday is my 1 year mark!!! Can you believe it!!!!! I sure can't.!!
I sure love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!!!!
Hermana Oliphant
 
P.S. This would be my creation that we ate this week. Salchichas (hot dogs) fried with cebolla (onion) and cheese on top hahahah it was NASTY :( I am not the best chef

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Monday, October 6, 2014


4 places I have served


I love hearing about all of the wonderful things that you are all doing to stay busy. I wish I could have heard Ammon sing. I am sure that he did an amazing job!  I use my musical talent and gift on a daily basis. Of course I play every Sunday in church, but we also sing multiple times a day and I am constantly being asked to sing a special song for some one somewhere. Friday we were working in the area by the church and had to go to the bathroom so we ran to the church and showed up just in time to be asked to play the piano for a baptism. We had no idea that the elders were having a baptism, we just needed to go to the bathroom! The Lord really knows what he is doing and always puts us in the right places at the right times. 
We found a few new people to teach this last week and are really excited to go back and see if they are going to progress or not. It's kinda a game we always are playing, find people to teach, teach them the first lesson, wait a few days, pray for them constantly, and then go back and see if they have kept their commitments ( usually after the first lesson it is to pray and read the pamphlet ( I am not sure how to say folleto in English....). Sometimes they have done their homework, and sometimes not. This week we had a lot of the ´not´category which meant, yep, looking for new people! We did contact a reference who is SO ready! but she is being influenced by her older sister who is a teacher in a different church. But We are going to keep praying and visiting her :) 
One brother went to church again yesterday! When we went to pick him up with  a priest in the ward, he had on a white shirt and tie and was bursting with excitement!!!! We presented him with a Book of Mormon and he has already started reading. We asked him if he was still wanting to prepare for his baptism and HE told us yes!!! and he remembered what day! If everything keeps going this well with him, he will be baptized on October 25th!! 


 
I absolutely LOVED the Relief Society session of conference Saturday.  I loved how every talk was about the temple and how we can prepare to enter the temple to make our own covenants with the Lord. Here are some questions for each of you to answer,
1. ¿Cual es mi lugar en el reino de Dios?
2. ¿Como puedo preparar para recibir los bendiciones que Dios tiene para mi? 
3. ¿Soy ejemplo para otros personas? 
4. ¿Que necesito cambiar para ser mejor ejemplo?
5. ¿Cuales son los promesas eternos que tengo de Dios?  
I hope you understand my questions! They are some things that I thought about when I was listening (and understanding ALL of it!) in the Women's Conference. I also love the phrase ´Never stop your steps to the Temple¨ 
I am so thankful for the temple in my life. I miss it: its  been SOOOO long since I have been able to go, almost 11 months!!! but I am so thankful that as long as I am worthy and obedient to the commandments I will be blessed for the covenants I have made. 
My newest sunburn!
Well I need to finish up but I just want to end with telling you how much I love you all. I know that we all have made the choice to come here to earth and be tested. Sometimes this test is really hard. I have had to learn a lot about agency this week. It is so hard to watch people reject our message that is sent from God. It is hard to see people make dumb choices. But I have been reminded over and over again that we all have the ability to choose for ourselves. We are children of God, and he wants us to be happy but he has to let us choose. We will always be children of God. We are here on earth to prepare us for things FAR GREATER then we could EVER imagine. I love this gospel. I LOVE that my Father in heaven has a plan just for me. He has my life written out for me. I just have to trust him. I received some really amazing revelations this week. Maybe I will share them some day. But for now, just know that I KNOW that my Savior loves me. I KNOW that I need to be here in this mission to help INVITE people to come to Christ. I know that everyone has the CHOICE to keep the commandments and that we ALL have the opportunity to return to live with him again. 
I am so thankful that CHRIST gave his life for me and always did the will of the Lord. Its my hope and prayer that we can always do our best to do the will of the Lord.  
Until next week
Hermana Oliphant
 This brother is from my second area--Jardines in Tuxtla Gutierrez.  We taught him and now he is finally a baptized member of the church. Yeah!!














ps Do you just LOVE my new shirt? :) 
It says "the higher the heel the closer to heaven"! I bought it in Walmart last week with my new bag.  I think I love this color of blue hahaha














La hermana es la Hermana Solis. She is basically my mom here; I LOVE her so much!!!! She is the Stake Relief Society President :) She lives a few blocks from our house :) She has 4 girls and says that we are like her girls and if we ever need anything we can go to their house :) We sang kareoke with them Thursday night :)


My Pretty Missionary daughter

Will you read this book?


 Hermana Oliphant and Hermana Benally love taking pictures together.  Here are several of them having fun together.


 Missions are great!  I just want to add my testimony to that of my daughter's.  I know this church is true.  The sacrifices we make so that our missionary children can learn and grow in the gospel and invite others to become members of Christ's church and part of a forever family is worth it.  I am grateful to be a missionary's mother.