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.

 

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

Baptisms on Saturday

Fried chicken & the last of the Chick Fil A sauce.  A little bit of home. . .Thanks, Beck!

 

                                                                                            

My first time eating a Mango pina.

Bautismo por los elderes! la famila Ballinas son muy buenas!!!!!! (elder cavasos y elder caldwell)

I miss high heels!

I tied my hair in a knot but it works!

Guess what is in the Nesquik bag?

A DEAD quija !

We found an Office Max

Tire swings!

On the way to meet with the Mission Pres. today, we found this tire swing.  Of course, we had to stop and try it out!

By the Tuxtla Temple with Hma Rodriguez

I got my nails done!

 Literally NO ONE was in the streets on Friday. No stores were open. It's the Catholic holiday (Viernes Santo, I think is the name). But yeah no one was in the streets and the people who were out were all drunk... yup fun times.

Hermanas Oliphant and Favia on Companion Splits

This would be how we washed our clothes today. It's our broom handle and the top of a soda bottle. It's like a hand made washing machine! hahahahahaha Hey it's better than washing by hand!

Hola,

Hermanas in my area

 I got the Easter package but sadly I don't know when Easter is... was is yesterday? haha oops

I am so thankful for my trials. I have a lot. I have been studyng about trials and how to overcome them in the scriptures. I love how  each person deals with their trials in different ways. I am currently reading in Ether about the brother of Jared and how he had to come up with a way to light the barges. It is interesting to read the stories I have always known again but this time in Spanish! I don't  understand 100% but I see the stories in a different way. I love the book of Mormon. Its soooooooooo wonderful! It was definitely written just for us in this time!!! I have also studied a lot about patience, again. I love the scripture in Alma 17 where it talks about how if we are patient in our afflictions the Lord will make us an instrument in his hands. I love it because 1. I love instruments (harp, piano, hahaha) and 2. because I am a missionary now and trying to do the work of the Lord and do all that the Lord is asking of me. But if we are patient and accept the Lord's timing, anything can happen! I am working on accepting the Lords timing. We had a lot of really good investigators. They were reading and praying and kept saying they would get work off to make it to church. I really felt like we were finally going to see success in this area! But one by one, we have had to stop visiting most of them. One, had a really scary problem and then left her house and we don't know where she went, Last Sunday we visited her with Obispo Ruiz and his family and everything seemed fine! We had an appointment to go back Tuesday but Monday night felt like we should go see her. A hermana in our ward and her son were with this investigator and she was SOOO drunk. She said she could see Devils, people in her house, in her trees, their eyes, that they had stolen her keys. All kinds of weird things. So a few members of the ward came and the Elders and they blessed her house and we said a prayer and sang her a song and then left because she had calmed down a little. But we went to eat lunch with our ward member friend the next day and she said that the hermana had left in the middle of the night, It's a weird situation because she doesn't have any close friends or family and doesn't have any money. We pray for her, but don't know what happened. It's really sad because her problem with alcohol has taken over her life. :( Another 2 investigators we had to stop visiting because after visiting them for 2 weeks they both asked me out on a date.... soooooo  We think it's best that we don't go back because they weren't interested in the Gospel... we gave their number and address to the elders so they can maybe go and visit them though!

Well that's all for today! We are headed to downtown to get some shopping done and then hopefully will have time to just relax today! Oh, and we don't have lunch with anyone today so we are going to buy some fried chicken and use up the Chick Fil A sauce that Becky sent me!

I love you all remember, Decisions determine DESTINY (Thomas S Monson)

Hermana Oliphant

p.s. I have been out for 6 months this Wednesday! and yesterday, the 13th, marks ONE year until I go home. This is seriously going soooo fast!!!!

Letters from home!

Hola Familia y amigos!

Wow! We really had a good week! We taught many lessons everyday (in total 33 for the week!!) and ended the week with people progressing and keeping their commitments! One investigator has now gone one whole week with no alcohol which is AWESOME! She received a blessing on Friday from the Elders to help her stay strong and not relapse. So far so good. She is also reading el Libro de Mormón everyday and studies her pamphlets of the lessons thoroughly. We have only been visiting her for 2 weeks but, oh my gosh, her life has turned around! She is so much happier now and has even gone to a Relief Society meeting and made some friends in the ward. We went on Tuesday and helped her clean her house, her bathroom kitchen, walls, floor. Everything! It's really a big change for the better!

We have 3 investigators that we teach at their work in a tortillaria. Well 2 of them work there, and the other one, across the street in a construction site.  One has a baptism date and has been reading el Libro de Mormón. It's exciting to teach them because the tortillaria is next to a Christian church. It always makes Hermana Rodriguez and I giggle when the members of that church give us funny looks, or glare at us.

We have been receiving so much help and support from the members of the ward! One hermana helps us with her neighbor, visits her neighbor daily to check up on her, and is just such a great help! Another hermano drove all of us to conference on Saturday morning and is always willing to come with us or the elders to our appointments. Hermana Mauricio just got home from his mission to Costa Rica about 2 months ago!

That's our fun bishop in the background!

I was a little upset on Sunday because we had 6 people committed to come to conference with us, and not one single person could go. I really didn't understand why people always make excuses as to why they can't go and it really made me sad! But we are still working hard! We have a quote on our wall that says : Faith + obedience + diligence = Miracles! We are really putting that to work by being obedient with every part of our missions; the time we get up, the times that we are studying, leaving the house on time to go to work, and making sure we are always home on time. We are starting to see those miracles in our investigators and the people we are finding to teach! I am excited for this week because we have a lot of new people to start teaching. I love this work. I love the excitement it brings to us when we find new people who are just searching for the truth, searching for God in their lives, and then here we are all ´hey look! We have what you want!!´ I love love LOVE this work!

I had a really good week with my health too. I had a good week with my Spanish! Yeah, I am not perfect in my language skills but I am starting to see the improvement! And Our new district leader, Elder Beardsley said that it has improved a lot! (He was in my zone when I was in San Cristobal!!!). I love how much support we receive from the members, our leaders and especially from you all at home! I love reading your updates!

I am so happy to be here! Even when the days are long, even when my feet hurt, even when I am just so tired! I love it! I love it because I know that it's true. I know that Jesus is my Savior. I know that God is my Father in Heaven and that he loves ME! I know that he loves YOU! I know that Thomas S Monson is a prophet of God and I am so glad that we had the opportunity to listen to him and his apostles!

Thank you all for your prayers. Know that I pray for all of you!! ç

Con MUCHO Amor,
Hermana Oliphant

Recent converts in our ward.

Hermana Oliphant

¿como están? Espero que ustedes hayan tenido una buena semana! Yo aprendí muchas coses. una de esos es la importancia de ser exactamente obediente. Siempre estuve enfermo, mi estomago, mi piernas, mi cabeza, mi cuerpo, todo! Siempre culpe el sol, el agua, la comida, etc. Pero me di cuenta que los días que ira obediente con exactitud no me enfermaba. Entonces, es muy importante ser obediente! Si, es difícil levantarme temprano o dormir a tiempo, pero es posible. Y es necesario ser obediente en nuestras propias vidas. Disfruto esta obra. Recibe sus cartas de las fechas de 12 y 19 de Febrero y también 3 de marzo. También una de Della (12 de Febrero)  y Hannah Avery! OH la dirección do la oficinas de mi misión es Fracc. Los laureles. not Pracc... te hehehe just FYI!

Estoy muy agradecida por la apoyo de mis amigos y mi familia. Muchas gracias! 

The missionaries in our Ward!

 

This transfer has been rough to find and teach people. We do a ton of walking and lots of our appointments fall through, but we keep going. Hermana Rodriguez and I were the first Sister Missionaries to work in this ward in over 12 years and we opened the area. Well, the elders had the whole ward and then they split it with us. So, it's a new area, but other missionaries had been working here. We have been working a ton with the members, active in the church and not active. We have taught many lessons to them and also to their friends. We have a few noches de hogar (FHE) each week in the homes of different members. 

 

Usually they have a non member friend with them, which is awesome! It's fun to watch the members having fun sharing the gospel with their loved ones and friends.  A member of the Relief Society presidency introduced us to her vecina (neighbour) last week. She is progressing so well! Each time we go to visit her she has read what we asked her to and is ready with her questions and wanting to learn more. She lives alone and has a lot of family problems (with her 2 children especially). She also is an alcoholic. But she wants to stop and knows that we can help her by helping her live the gospel. Christ can help her accomplish anything! 

 

 

I am so grateful that I get to be in this area for at least 6 more weeks! Hermana Rodriguez and I get to stay together! Yay!! I am so thankful for her. I am thankful for the members in this ward. I am thankful for my leaders. I am thankful for all of you! 

Mike Wisouski Breakfast my hermana made for me!

Thank you for your emails. I printed them and they really helped me. I am doing well. My body is finally getting better. I drink electrolites everyday, they are so SOOOO nasty. They are flat and make me gag, but the doctor said they will help. I also exercise each morning and night now. So its helping with the stress and everything.

Hermana Kelsi Wilson took violin with Ammon!

I wasn't able to go to the Women's Conference, and we can only go to the sessions this weekend if we have investigators to come with us. I really hope people keep their promises and are able to come! I am excited to watch it and see how much I can really understand from the Spanish. I will at least feel the messages through the spirit. 

Thank you all for everything. I love you.

Fellow missionary from South Jordan!

Justyce is getting better at braiding her own hair!

Pizza!!?? in Mexico!???

I can't believe how fast the time is flying by! Each day brings new adventures, new challenges, new trials and new experiences. Today we went to the mercado (downtown area... lots of people and shops and it's kinda crazy!!). Hermana Rodriguez and I wanted to find new clothes. I bought a cute dress and a new skirt! I will take pictures when I wear them and send them next week!
Speaking of next week, its already transfers again! Next Monday we will find out if we stay here together, or if one of us is leaving. I have really gotten so close to my cute companion and will be so sad to leave her! And this ward. I absolutely LOVE working with the members here in our ward Jardines!! They are always so willing to come with us to appointments and if our appointments fall through, they bring us to their friends and family so we can teach them. Just yesterday, Domingo, we taught 4 new investigators because the members asked us to come teach their friends. It was such a good day! And tonight we have 3 lessons lined up with new investigators also. It should be a good evening!

A few scriptures I loved from my study this week.

3 Nefi 22:14 (live rightously and don't worry!!)

3 Nefi 27(KEEP A JOURNAL!!!)

Also--I went on companion exchanges this week with Hermana Guzman. She is so awesome! I have a surprise friend that I saw too... but at this internet place we don't have a way to upload pictures... so you're gonna have to wait to know who my surprise is! Lo ciento!!! jajajaja

I really love you all so much! I have learned so much about being OBEDIENT and DILIGENT while I have been here. I have so much more to learn also.

I invite you to study and learn with me! I am working on studying 3 Nefi right now, about how Christ taught when He came to the Americas! (ps I think its sooo cool reading the Book of Mormon because it was sorta written where I am at!!!! kind of...)

te amo mi familia!

Con MUCHO amor

Hermana Oliphant
ps.  Do you have a picture of me and Daddy on or around my baptism?  I am hoping, maybe, one in the church.  It's to show the investigators what it's like a little . . .  I sure am happy to be here!

Hermana Oliphant and her Daddy.