Dear family and friends, Sometimes it takes something discouraging to help us become stronger. This last week has been so good for me. I have been able to really study diligently and although we haven't left our apartment much, I feel like we were able to accomplish so much. Tuesday we made invitations for our ward mission activity that we had on Saturday. We also taught two lessons, one with a less active sister and her non- member husband, and the other lesson was with our friend and his cousin who is a member. We met this investigator because he was in church last week with his cousins. He himself told us that he would be at church the next Sunday but yesterday his sister had an accident and he was with her in the hospital. I hope everything is better so that we will be able to teach him again soon.  The family that I told you about have decided to go to church with the TJ´s- Testigos de Jehova. We are really sad because the little girl was so ready for her baptism but at the last minute her father said no. The other Sisters and the Elders went to their house for the interview and everything went well, but just before they left the father asked to talk to them alone and said that he was sorry but that they have been receiving the lessons from the TJ´s and that they have decided to join their church. We were so devastated when the Sisters told us because this family was so ready to be active in the gospel and receive all of the blessings. I hope that soon their hearts can be touched and can come back into the true fold of God.  Sister Trad has been having a lot of pain in her ankle and foot. I am not really sure what her problem is called in English but its called Esguince. Basically she tore some tendons and now they are healing. It's so weird because her foot is not swollen or anything but hopefully after all this time of resting we will be able to go back to work really soon! My knee hasn't given me any trouble this week, so hopefully after my doctor appointment this Friday everything will be all good to go!  I have really enjoyed this time together with Hermana Trad. She is 21 years old and from Mexico City (well, District Federal!). She is planning on going to BYU-Idaho when she finishes her mission--who knows, maybe we will be roommates! Needless to say, her English is SO good. She did BYU-I Pathways before her mission and is planning on studying English. We have so much in common--music, movies, food, everything!   Well I am just about out of time, but I love being able to write you all each week. I love being a missionary! I love studying the gospel each and everyday. I am working on reading "Jesus the Christ". It's quite a large book and it's hard to read because of the wording. But I am learning so much about our Savior and his importance in our lives!      Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! I love my family. I love this gospel! Thank you for all that you do for me!  Love  Hermana  Oliphant Hermanas Oliphant and Trad ​

Receiving a blessing from an ancient stone hahahah!

Well this week definitely did NOT go as expected. I can honestly say that it has been the hardest week of my whole entire mission. Not lying. I had problems with my knees after the activity last Monday where we got to hike some Mayan ruins 2 1/2 hours outside of San Cristobal.

 It was a multi-zone activity and I got to see many of the friends I have made here in Chiapas.

Our doctor told us to take it easy and go home and rest if it really hurt. I had an appointment with a specialist on Friday in Tuxtla Gutierrez so we had to wait to see what he said. We aren't sure what happened. I think its just sore muscles, but he wants an x-ray and I am going back to see him on the 29th. Oh, and I can't walk up or down stairs or up or down hills. SO I am stuck in the house. Hermana Trad has problems with her ankle and has been told that for 10 days she also can not work.

 So Last night President George called and told us that Hermana Trad and I will be living together, and our companions will be working together. (Hermana Trad and Hermana Allen are also serving in our ward, so they will be working in the whole ward, both areas.)

I am frustrated that this has happened, but I have faith that it will all work out. I am going to use the time to study a ton!!!!! 

 

 

 

I am sorry this isn't very long or exciting. 

I know the church is true and I know that my Savior loves me!!! 

Oh I spoke in church yesterday as well as Colin!!! I did not write a talk I just used some quotes I liked from conference in April and spoke about sins and addictions and how we can over come them and be forgiven. I think it went okay. 

Well I love you! 

Love 

Hermana Oliphant

 

Today was really long. We woke up at 4 AM to take a bus to SAN CRISTOBAL!!!! for our multizone activity. It was about 2 hours to San Cris and then everyone got in a tour bus and we traveled like 2 and a half more hours to our destination!!!! We went to some ancient ruins that were SO cool. Literally we were walking around on these ancient pyramids and walked through one of them. (I'll send pictures next week).  SO cool. Mom, you would absolutely LOVE it here! After hiking up and down the steep pyramids our legs and bodies were so sore and most of us slept the whole way back. It was fun to be back in San Cris even just for a little. 

Hermana Davidson is in my first area and she told me some sad news. Maria Rosa (my first baptism) died a few months ago. :(     I am sad but I am also happy because she is now living with Heavenly Father and is not in any pain.  She was such a sweet Hermana and had such a strong spirit. 

 

 

My new companion is from Ecuador! Her name is Hermana Guerrero. She has been in the mission for 4.5 months and I am senior companion. But really, I think I am learning more from her then she is from me. She is SO awesome! We have been having a lot of stress this week because we are both new in the area, don't know where anything is, or where anyone lives. And we have had to start completely over with finding people to teach. It was a little rough this week with only teaching 5 lessons but we really pushed through and contacted lots of people and have appointments for this week. We do have one family whose 3 children have the desire to be baptized- the parents are members and are working on coming back into activity in the church. As of right now, they will be able to be baptized August 30th! Our area is all of central (downtown) and it's my first area to be really in the city. So that's a little weird for me, but I really am starting to love it. I miss Tapachula and my ward Vista Hermosa, but I know that this is where the Lord wants me.  

 

Estoy muy feliz por la oportunidad a servir un mision. Estoy agradacida por todo los bendiciones que tengo. por mi familia por los oraciones de ellos. Yo se sin dudas en mi corazon que esta es la Iglesia verdadera en la tierra. Yo se que mi padre celestial me ama y me conoce. Se que Jose Smith fue un profeta llamada por Dios para restaurar esta evanjelio en la tierra. Yo se que el sacerdocio tiene mucho poder y podemos ver milagros cuando tenemos fe. Les amo con todo mi corazón. Hacer sus oraciones y siempre recuerden que tengan muchas bendiciones en sus vidas.Hasta la proxima semana, Les amo! 

Hermana Oliphant

Hermana Garcia and Hermana Oliphant

Well, the time for me here in Vista Hermosa, Tapachula is over.  I am headed to Comitan tomorrow. It is cold like in San Cristobal and our zone meetings are in San Cristobal so I will be headed back to my first area at least once!!!!! I am really sad to be leaving this area and the people here. I really felt at home with everyone, the investigadors, the members, my leaders. I loved being here even though it was hot and rainy!!

We had an activity as a ward on Friday night and it was a success! We played sports and, honestly, there was more non-members there than members! I participated in soccer and basketball and led volleyball! It was such a blast! It was a little weird because we had permission to wear jeans and I hadn't worn jeans in FOREVER!!! We had a whole family come that we are excited to begin teaching! I was with Hermana Aldas because we had companion exchanges on Friday. I love companion exchanges because I always learn so much from the other sisters!!!! 

We made yummy crepes at the church with Hermana Susi!!!!

The two men are Nicasio and Lizandro ( recent converts in the ward). They are so awesome! Lizandro went out with our ward mission leader on Saturday to visit some less active members. He loves working with us. Nicasio and Lizandro are going to give their first talks this Sunday and so we went to help them prepare!

We contacted a lot of people this week and most of them accepted a date for us to come back and teach them. We had to say goodbye to other investigators, though, because they weren't reading or praying or going to church. But I know that this area has sooo much room to grow!!! 

Well, we are in a hurry because I am going to be spending the night in a different area with the sisters there, so we have to run and finish packing. I love you all and am so happy that you are all okay.

Thanks for all the support and the messages of encouragement.

 Give everyone hugs especially Jessica and Liz!! 

I love you 

Hermana Oliphant

 I don't have much to say today. so I am going to  just send a lot of pictures because its been a while since I sent tons!

















 We have a new Mission Leader.  He is a recently returned missionary (home for 8 months) and is an incredible resource.  We go visiting a lot with him.








Adventures from this week :) The stories will  have to wait till I can tell them in person ;)

Ya se que soy loca... pero me ama verdad? 

 Love,
Hermana Oliphant

Hermana Oliphant

It has been extremely hot this week! It's only rained like 2 times, but hopefully, it will rain today! 

 

 Patience is something that I have always struggled with. I have learned to Face my Trials with Faith. I found a quote that I like.  It says,  "Even when the future seems uncertain, your faith in the Savior can give you Peace".  We all have trials and each trial is different, but if we have faith in Jesus Christ we can conquer anything! I KNOW that is true. We had some difficult days this week. But like my Momma said a few weeks ago, it is okay to struggle, it is not okay to give up. We need our trials to make us stronger! 

 

We had an adventure the other night. We were sleeping and I woke up with pain in my right side. I was trying to get back to sleep and felt something cold hit my foot. I shook my feet and kicked my sheets off but I didn't see anything so I put my sheets back on and started to try to sleep again. Then I felt something hard and cold on my thigh so I lifted my sheet and saw something black. ´COCKROACH!!!!¨ I yelled at my companion and threw off my sheet. She grabbed my sheet and turned the light on to shake the cockroach out of my sheets when AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH it wasn't a cockroach it was a ALECRAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (scorpian). It crawled up my companion's wrist and she shook it to the ground and we killed it. I WAS SLEEPING WITH  A SCORPIAN! :( Needless to say we didn't sleep very well the rest of the night!) We were literally protected because it didn't sting either of us!

I am pretty sure I am in love with hammocks!

 

 

 

 

Well family and friends I love you so much. I know that families are forever. 

Thanks for everything! 

Hermana Oliphant

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!