9 months photo!

Hello!
We do a lot of walking and praying that someone will open their door and let us in!

 

I miss my harp so much. I don't have calluses to play it but I can't wait to build them up again!

We had our interviews with our new mission president this last week! His name is Arley George and he is from Cody, Wyoming! His wife doesn't speak Spanish and while we were waiting our turn for our interviews, I had the opportunity to work with her in the kitchen (making sandwiches!) and got to know her and also translated everything so that my companion could participate in the conversation! 

 

 

 

 

In my interview, President shared a few scriptures that I really love about how we are the clay in the hands of the Lord. (Isaiah 64:8 and Jeremiah 18:1-6) I love them! We then talked a lot about marriage and how I am learning things from each companion to prepare me for when I find my future husband. He also talked about having the end in mind when we make choices. El fin en mente! We need to remember that every choice, every decision, has a consequence and it can be either good or bad! President George also told me about the meaning of thresh hold (the part under a door). It's called that because before there were floors in houses people would put thresh (like the stalks from wheat) on the floor so that it wouldn't be so muddy, but when people would walk out of the house they would drag the thresh with them. So they put a piece of wood across the opening of the door to hold in the thresh. Therefore, its called a thresh hold! (I hope that makes sense!). 

 

On Friday I forgot my name tag! but we had our meeting with our ward mision leader, Avijavier Bernabe at the church and after he was going with us to lunch, and then to some visits, so we stopped by his house and he lent me his name tag. The funny thing is that no one noticed that my name was Elder all day! People always just see the black tag and that's it. It was a funny joke for us 3 though!

We have been going to provide the sacrament to a family who lives far away each Sunday. We leave before 8 in the morning and ride in the back of a pickup in the wind!!! Needless to say our hair is a bit messy when we get there, but hey its all part of the adventure! 

 

 

 

Well as for my investigators, we had to stop visiting a lot because they just don't want to read, or pray, or go to church. We were teaching a teenager who seemed really excited to learn, accepted baptism and wanted to come to church; but then something terrible happened and his girlfriend died. Now he doesn't want to pray, or anything. We have been visiting him with some guys in the ward, but there isn't any progress happening which is so sad. 

Two sisters are progressing towards their date for baptism!  One has told her older sister who is a member, that she wants to be baptized! The other sister does too, but she is a little scared. We pray for them every day and have been trying to visit them different times each week. It's a little hard because they work, but if everything is good they can be baptized in about 3 weeks! 

We have another investigator who loves listening and wants to change her life but won't go to church!! She always says that her and her family will be there but haven't made it. But she has been sharing the gospel with her friends and invited them to listen to our message, so at least she knows that it's true! 

Well I am afraid that my time is just about up for today. I love you all! 

Love
Hermana Oliphant

Angel missionary!

I just cannot believe that this week I hit the half way mark. It is sooo weird to tell people that I have been out for 9 months already. . . and that I have 9 months left.

We had a rough week to start out.

 

 

 

 

 

 I was really weak from the hospital trip and the meds were a little funky with my body. Tuesday we didn't teach much and had a meeting with our bishop. Wednesday we had our zone meeting and welcomed 3 brand new missionaries into our area! We have a new Mission President, President George.  For now, we have all the same mission rules and guidelines, which yes, means that I still cannot drink Mexican Coke.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was getting my hopes up that I could finally try real Mexican Coke, but I guess now's not my time hahahaha! We worked with our bishop a lot this week. Arnold, our old ward mission leader, was with the elders in a different ward and couldn't come with us so our bishop made time to go on visits with us. We found 13 new people to teach this week. Saturday was an AWESOME day because we taught many lessons and found 9 new people and invited all of them to be baptized. Almost all of them said yes! Now we just need to work really hard to get them to church and help them progress. Sunday morning, nice and early, we went to take the sacrament to a family who live REALLY far away and can't get to the church, and we also taught them about the temple and invited them to start preparing to be sealed as a family. I love the temple and I love teaching about the blessings we can receive if we are faithful!! When we got to church, I rushed up front to play the piano and we received  a new Ward Mission Leader, Bernabe. I KNEW HE WAS GOING TO BE CALLED! Revelation.... :) He is going to be so great to work with; he returned home from his mission about 8 months ago where he served in Monterrey, and also has a calling in the stake young men presidency. On our way back home last night we stopped by his house and I asked for a blessing. I had a migraine all day yesterday and it was soo hard to concentrate in the lessons that we had.  I am thankful that there are worthy men who hold the priesthood of God and can give blessings. I never knew the power of the priesthood until I came here on my mission. I know that the Lord loves me and through his faithful servants He can bless my life!!!!!! 

 

This is Elder Monson from South Jordan!

This morning something CRAZY happened! About 6:20 am we were violently awakened because our beds were shaking and our whole house was rumbling (we live in the second story of a house). We jumped out of bed and clung to each other to stay standing up ( I am serious, the house was SHAKING) and without shoes or anything ran to the door and as we were trying to unlock it, the shaking stopped. It lasted about 1 minute, but MAN, we were so scared!!!! I have felt little tiny quakes here but never like this one! Needless to say, it was pointless to go back to bed, and our hearts were POUNDING, so we put on our tennies and went running. Oh how I love running! it helped us calm down! 

 

 

 

 

 

Well I love you all.  I was happy to see all the pictures from camping. I don't think I will ever complain about the mud and bugs from camping anymore... haha I am now just used to always having dirty feet and red bites all over my arms and legs! 

Happy birthday Grandma and Grandpa and Wendy!!!

Love

Hermana Oliphant

Yes as my subject line says, I spent last night in the hospital.

But don't worry because I am better... or will be soon! I don't know really what I had or have but they put me on an IV and, yes, I was brave and didn't cry when they poked me... two times--once in my right hand and they couldn't get it in the vein so they poked my left wrist and it went in great. Here I am with Doctor Arriaga and my nurse. I will be honest I don't remember her name. Elder Perez was also here with us because he has Dengue, and he will probably be there for a few more days. 

I started feeling sick Sunday at church and that night I had a really high fever and my companion took care of me all night putting cold water on my forehead and stomach and helping me to the bathroom and everything. We went to the doctor Monday morning and returned home this  Tuesday afternoon. I am still weak a little but I am ready to get working again. 

Our new area is HUGE and the investigators are so far apart! The members are really good and have been helping us SO much by going with us and introducing us to the investigators. I have received 3 priesthood blessings in this last week. One from my District leader, one from a counselor in the Bishopric and one from my Obispó... Bishop. :) I am so thankful for the power of the priesthood in my life especially right now where I am so far from home.  I know I am being watched out for and protected. 

We were asked to go help provide a sacrament meeting to some members who live really far away (in our area!!!) on Sunday and left at 7:50 am and made it back right in time to start our sacrament meeting at 12. We drove about an hour and then walked about 30 minutes up a mountain to their house. It was so neat to see the Priesthood in action and that we don't have to be in a church to partake of the sacrament.  We only need someone who holds the Priesthood and has permission to bless the sacrament!
I am so thankful for the opportunity to serve the Lord. I am learning so much. I love this work . I love this gospel. Yeah I get muddy shoes every day and come home with stains on my backside from sitting in dirt. Yes, I eat weird food EVERYDAY ( we ate cow STOMACH that looked like BRAINS this week. I wanted to BARF right there....) But I am happy to be here. I am happy to learn, to repent, to grow, to cry, to become stronger. It's not easy but I don't want to go home. I love it here and I love love love love love LOVE the people. Everyone is like my family. They all watch out for us as missionaries. 

Oh and something a little funny, Hna Garcia and I are friends with the pastors of the other churches here in our colonial. Its so funny because they are so friendly to us and their people... not so much. But hey we do what we can.

Well I have to go; we didn't have much time today. I will write more next week. Have a happy FOURTH of JULY! and know that I love you all soooooo much!
Love

Hermana Oliphant

I can not believe that 8 Months ago today I was headed to the Provo MTC. This is literally FLYING by!

Mom sent me some money for my birthday and I bought myself a new outfit! Its super cute and I wore it to the interviews with President Cardenas on Thursday! Momma also sent me this necklace! 

A couple we have bee teaching are progressing so well. They have such a huge desire to be baptized and are praying and fasting for the opportunity to be married legally. They study Principles of the Gospel each night and are always full of questions when we go over to their humble home. To get to their house we walk across a huge bridge that scares my companion everytime we walk on it. I think its quite an adventure! 

Our mission leader in our ward, Arnold, is always so willing to come with us to visits or to introduce us to his friends. 

No I didn't really hit him we were just messing around! He is such a good support to us and to the Elders in our ward! 

I had a really good birthday! My companion decorated my bed with paper balloons and confetti when I was in the shower and made a yummy breakfast and "cake" out of bread and peanut butter! Then we taught some lessons and our bishop asked us to come to the Ward Counsel meeting at 3 at the church. So we went to our lunch appointment and the Hermana wasn't there so we went to the church hungry and decided that we would eat something at the house after the meeting. Well there wasn't anyone at the church for the meeting except the bishop and he was interviewing someone so we waited for a little and were watching mormon messages. Then the elders came and so we waited with them. 

​Okay and when I say waited, maybe we partied a little bit...

A hermana came and asked us to come with her so we followed and.... SURPRISE!!!!! 

They threw me a fiesta! haha Elder Reyes has more pictures on his camera that I will send later but it was so fun! We ate tostadas and tamales and had cake! Oh the Mexican traditions are fun!!!!. They have a tradition of biting the cake... I didn't want to but they said just bite the frosting in the corner. I though, hey it won't hurt anyone! So I bent down to bite the cake..... and

BAM! My face was pushed into it!!! haha The sister behind me is Sister Jairu and she helped my companion shove my face into the cake. Ha there is a first time for everything! 

​ I was asked to sing in the other ward that meets in our building yesterday with their bishop. It went well! and after church this Cute Friend came with us to a few visits! It POURED on us!!

Well that's all for this week. I am so happy to be a missionary and I can't believe I am 21 years old! I couldn't think of a better place to be then here serving our Lord and Savior. I know He lives and I know He loves me! 

Thank you all for everything you do to support all of us missionaries!!

Love

Hermana Oliphant

Just another day in Tapachula

I am so thankful for the power of prayer and the opportunity and blessing we have to fast. I was really struggling this week with different things. I just felt so sad and alone to be honest. But Saturday night I took the opportunity to fast and spent a very long time on my knees talking with my Savior and with my Heavenly Father.We went to the baptism of an investigator the elders have been working with and he bore the sweetest testimony I have ever heard. He is 12 years old and his mom and sister are members but he did not want to get baptized until recently, and he is such a sweet boy. Then I woke up Sunday morning and had a new energy, I felt so happy.  We went to church and I partook of the sacrament and was able to feel the spirit SOO strong. After church we worked hard and received a reference from a member for a family and when we went to their house we were able to talk to 4 of the children and they are so excited to learn more! We have an appointment to go back this week. Literally as soon as we left we had the impression to go to a house where we had contacted a woman a few weeks ago, we went and they were so receiving and accepted our invitation to be baptized. I went home last night almost in tears because I had felt the Spirit guiding me, helping me when I really just didn't know where to go. I love when I have opportunities like this.
 They help me so much.

Thank goodness for umbrellas!

RAIN--LOTS OF RAIN

scrapes and cuts from walking in the jungle

Falling up the hill.

I am so happy to hear that you are reading in Ether. I LOVE Ether 12. I seriously use it in every lesson. I love teaching about faith. I think my favorite scripture of all times (or for this week) is Ether 12:27. Look it up! I love that we have weaknesses to help us to be better!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank  you so much for the cute birthday package! I LOVE the cute shirts and the earrings! I also got the letter with the necklace! Thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It actually came before my birthday which is surprising! Some things take months to get here and others come in like 3 weeks! 

Sweet birthday wish from Colin.

Surprise!

Birthday tradition:  Hanging up the banner!

 

My new birthday shirt!

It made me so happy to hear Trynn's comment about the scriptures and how he doesn't understand everything but he knows they are true. I have used his words in a few lessons abut the importance of the Book of Mormon! Thanks buddy! 

Well I Love you all so much. Thank you for everything! Keep reading your Book of Mormon, keep smiling and know that I always love you!

Hermana Oliphant

 

PS  Here are some "investigators" that were pretty stiff.  

Sadly, we weren't able to get a second appointment.

Hello everyone! so I wrote letters home today. We will see how long they take to get there!

This week wasn't really interesting. We did a lot of walking in the rain, yelling in our lessons to teach because the rain is so loud on the roof ,and waiting in houses for the rain to lighten up. OH and did I mention that it rained this week?

HA If you can't tell, it rained a ton this week. One day we were in a new area trying to find the house of an investigator and it started POURING rain. My companion forgot her umbrella and so she was soaked. I was soaked except my head and shoulders and we were trudging through the RIVERS that were running through the streets, asking people in their houses if they knew this lady. It was quite the adventure. We found the house and they weren't there..... so we were walking back the way we came and a lady called to us to come to her house and wait for the rain to lighten up. This family was really nice but they kept saying that they have their church and that they just didn't want us to get sick. We taught them about prayer and watched the rain and lightening and the THUNDER that sounded like it was blowing our ear drums it was soooo loud! When the rain was just sprinkling we ran to the bus stop, a few blocks away and went to our house to change. What an adventure this area is becoming! I took a ton of pictures but this internet place doesn't have a place to connect my memory to send them, and I lost my cable in San Cristobal, and literally no place has cables for my Nikon camera. Weird right? I will just send a million next week! 

Today we ate hamburgers in a nice restaurant in the city. It was really nice because we were seated at a table and had a waiter and everything!  My first time with a waiter in Mexico! And, yeah, I ordered my own food and he understood me. I even said no onions hahahahhaha! 

I was asked to sing in Relief Society yesterday and it was the combined men and women meeting. And I was asked on the spot. like literally my Bishop said "and now Hermana Oliphant is going to sing a Hymn... I don't know the number..." and looked at me like," please?" hahaha I had only heard the song like 2 times but I think I did okay. Who knows the tune anyways. Oh how I love sharing my testimony EVERY week in song and through music. :) 

I have been studying a lot in chapter 9 in Preach my Gospel and also in 1st Nephi. I am so happy to hear that you are all doing well and keeping busy. I am glad Dad is home safe from his trip (I didn't know he was going hahah or I didn't remember) and I am glad that everyone is enjoying their summer! Go down the slide in the rec center for me a few times okay?!

Justyce's brothers at the rec center.

I will send more updates about our investigators next week. deal?

Love

Hermana Oliphant

Well what a week we had!! I have now seen my first scorpion in our house.  Luckily, my companion found it and had already put it in the water to die when she told me. UGH I was starting to have hope that we wouldn't have any!!!

​eewww

Also, this whole week I had been feeling really gross. Every time we ate I wanted to throw up, and was never hungry. I had a fever a few days, threw up on Saturday and had a ton of pain in my right side. After church, our bishop gave me a blessing and we called our doctor. He wanted to examine my stomach so we went to the Doctor (really we went to the stake center where our doctor was with his family). He said that I have an infeccion (probably from the food) in my intestines (from what I understood.) so I went to get the medicines last night and took both pills.

Yeah there are huge!!!!! but they are making me feel better which is good and today I was finally hungry and was able to eat all my breakfast! yay! 

Oh and I spoke in church yesterday. I was asked Saturday night to talk about whatever I wanted and they said I would be the last one to speak. SO Sunday morning I studied a bit about faith and hope and then that's what I spoke about. When I was speaking I had the impression to sing. So I shared my testimony through song. I sang "I know that my redeemer lives!" (which is my favorite song!) I sang the 1st verse in English and then the 3rd in Spanish and then the 4th in Spanish and English and made up an ending that was actually pretty cool! and yeah I did it all on the spot haha but hey the Spirit helps us when we are trying to follow his promptings!! Everyone was so quiet when I was singing, which is really rare for a sacrament meeting here in Mexico! Usually everyone is having their little conversations, but when i was singing it was soooo silent! I love the power of music! 

We have found some new people to teach this week by working with the members- I am excited to help them progress! We also had 5 investigators in church this week but none of them currently have baptism dates. We are hoping to get them all progressing along this week. 

​I learned how to braid my hair in a neat way! haha I keep practicing each day to get better! 

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So remember that time that I was in San Cristobal!!! Well this is Cute Hermana Perez and her new companion (well from the last transfer) and our friend. She was a less active member that we visited a ton! She has now come back to the church and has received her patriarchal blessing and has a calling in the Primary!!! I was so happy when I received this picture from Hermana Perez! 

This bridge is behind our house.

The rain makes for great flowers.

Well Looks like my time is about up. I love you all! Enjoy the sunshine and the nice weather (aka you aren't always sweaty and sticky and getting rained on all the time!!









hahahaha It's definitely an adventure!)

Love Hermana Oliphant