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

In Domingo with Hermana Guerrero I LOVE conference weekend!!! I watched all four sessions in Spanish and I was so happy that I understood the messages. How amazing is it that now people can share their messages in their own languages! I can't wait to have the opportunity to go to a session live and hear them speak their languages. Well, at least for now I heard the actual voices of a few of them. Random fact, did you know that Elder Scott does his own translating into Spanish? So although he spoke in English, we heard him speaking in Spanish! Cool right? So tell me, which talks were your favorite and why?  I loved that Sunday there were 3 talks in a row about prophets!!! We had our investigator with us for that session and we had just talked about the importance of prophets in our lives, so that was pretty neat! She is really wonderful, but her boyfriend doesn't want to get married so that she can be baptized. :( We will keep praying for her! She can now be baptized as soon as she gets married! The Elders had a baptism on Thursday and we invited one of our other investigators  and he came! He is so excited for his own baptism that is coming up on the 25th of this month! He is so great and is really just soaking up everything about the gospel! We were sad that he didn't make it to conference on Sunday, but he came on Saturday! SO we had a few really neat experiences this week. The first was that Tuesday we went to San Cristobal for the multi-zone conference with President George. I love going to the multi-zone conferences because they always share so many wonderful things! I also love them because we finally can get our mail and packages! :) I received 3 letters from Hannah!! and 5 from home and a package! The package had the different things for fall. I have the two fall decorations on my study desk and will open the others on their assigned days. When we left the church, we literally had like 10 minutes before our bus was going to leave and the Elders were freaking out and calling us like every 2 minutes. WE WERE HURRYING as fast as we could. Our taxi driver could tell that we were in a huge hurry so he was driving like "fast and furious" (which I have never seen that movie; everyone just kept saying that he was driving like the guy in the movie haha) and we get to the OCC (bus station) and find out that our bus is late and we were going to have to wait.... 3 hours!!!! so we raced there for absolutely NOTHING! Oh well, it was quite the adventure. OH and it was a little embarrassing because when we all were flying out of the taxi, I was waiting for my change because I paid and all my companions ran ahead without me, and when I got out of the taxi, the driver said ¨"hey miss, your skirt!!!"¨and yeah my skirt was hiked way up my legs. At least I had dark tights on but yeah I pretty much showed the world my panties!!!!! HOW embarrassing!!!!!!  Then Wednesday morning when we left for the day, we slipped in what we thought was mud... but it definitely was not mud! The sewer had broken and what we fell in was.... well what is usually in the sewer......... soooo we went back home and showered (again) and washed our clothes and shoes and everything. NOT a fun experience. But we laughed about it and it really was quite hilarious!  Well that is all for this week. I am so glad to be a missionary! I am so happy that we have a Prophet who loves us and receives guidance for us! I love you!!!  Hermana Oliphant P.S.  I totally forgot the most important thing that happened this week!  Wednesday night we were headed to a lesson with an investigator and it was pretty dark and there was a ton of drunks out (this is normal). So we were walking to his neighborhood and suddenly, I got the most terrifying feeling I have felt in my life. I was SO scared and started praying asking if we should keep going and got the strict answer NO. I asked my companion how she felt and she said she felt something weird. I took that as our answer and we promptly turned around and started walking the other direction. We were really scared and I just wanted to break down and cry! Hermana Benally asked if we should call someone and we called Hermana Solis ( a member who is really our mother here!) and she said we could come over. So we started looking for a taxi and the first one that passed by had a passenger but stopped and he said he could take us wherever we needed to go. That was a miracle because usually when the taxis already have people they don't stop for others!! So we took the taxi to their house and broke down in the arms of Hermana Solis. Hermano Solis said that he was positive that it was the Holy Ghost who saved us from whatever danger would have been in our path that night. I was just so happy to be safe in their house with them. They made us dinner and then Brother Solis said a family prayer with us and they drove us safely to our home. I am so thankful that I am worthy to have the Spirit guide me here in the mission. I am so happy that I didn't push the feelings away and that I listened so that we were not hurt. I am so thankful that we are protected as missionaries!  and I am so happy that we have wonderful members like them here with us to watch out for and protect us when we need anything!!! ​ I just love Comitan. There are no words to express how beautiful it is here; and pictures just don't show the beauty! I guess we are going to have to come back together so that you can experience it all!

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. 

I have a new companion, Hermana Benally. She is 20 years old and is from.... UTAH!! She is Native American and has been on the mission 10 months! 

I just LOVE her! We have been adjusting to life as two Americans here in Comitan... luckily she speaks with a Spanish accent so the people understand her! She struggles a little with understanding when others are talking, but I understand so it makes it kinda like a game. I understand and then explain to her and she talks. We had a KILLER week. I was a little under the weather ( I had the flu for 3 days) but despite that we ROCKED it in our lessons and contacting! We set goals for the week and reached almost all of them! 

Thursday we were  walking to an appointment and contacted a young man. We taught him how to pray right there in the street and he said the most heart felt prayer I had heard!!!!!  Even though we were in the middle of the street and could hear children yelling and playing, the spirit was so strong! We knew that he needed to feel God's love for him. We invited him to church and he accepted!!!

Last night we went with the Relief Society to the hospital to give service. I have never seen a situation like that before. There were so many people sitting outside of the hospital just waiting for their chance to get in or just waiting for their loved ones to be released from the hospital.   Hermana Benally and I went on a split with two different sisters from the ward to contact people, and the sisters had made sandwiches and hot chocolate and they had 15 blankets to give away with the name of the church on them. It was a really humbling experience to see how grateful the people were to receive a cup of hot chocolate or even just to have someone to talk to. We were hoping to get references to be able to go and teach them, but I think our examples was what counted most for those people. We did give away about 20 folletos of the plan of salvation and the restoration! Maybe someone will show up at church?!

Yesterday we had 4 investigators in sacrament meeting.  I was playing the opening song when one sister walked in. I was sooo excited to see her that I totally lost where I was in the song and messed up! Ha but who cares, SHE CAME! We had been teaching her but we stopped going over because she stopped reading the Book of Mormon and kept making excuses as for why she couldn't go to church. Well she went last week alone and then yesterday alone... so we are going to start teaching her again and see what happens. 

I am so happy to be on a mission. 

I am so happy you are my family. 

I love you all. 

I pray for you all.

I always will! 

Love

Hermana Oliphant 

We  helped a family in the ward clean their fruit stand! :)

Today is independence day of Mexico!!

Well we had transfers and  Hermana Trad went to Tuxtla as a  Sister Training Leader!!! We were sooo sad to have transfers; I think we tried to convince ourselves that we wouldn't have transfers. But she will do so good there! 

I am still here in Comitan and will meet my new companion in the night. I don't know who it is or anything, our zone leaders won't tell me!!! so for now I am spending the day with Hermana Guerrero and Hermana Allen. Wow, Hermana Allen is doing so good with her Spanish!!! I think I need to practice a lot harder on my own Spanish ;)

We had our activity last night (the fireside) and we had about 40 members who came to support us but sadly it was POURING rain... we are blaming the rain for the reason that there wasn't more people or investigators. But it went well. I sang His  Hands (Sus Manos) with the recording.... it was a little weird... but I played the piano the rest of the time. It was fun! The Elders had a baptism after church and since I was at the church they asked me to play the piano for that also. I am just playing all the time! haha Oh and almost the whole time I have been here in Comitan I have been playing the piano for the Primary, so I haven't been to Relief Society for a while!! 

I went through my clothes this morning and set some things aside to donate to an activity that the Primary is doing next week. They are taking clothing and food and toys to a shelter. We might go with them, but we don't know the details yet. I love helping out wherever I can!

I am so glad to hear that you are all using your talents! Good luck to everyone with your upcoming concerts and I wish I could be there to hear them, but make sure to record them and practice a ton so I can have my own personal concert when I get home! 

my picture wall

 

I love my Savior; I love this gospel; and I love our mission president, He is so wonderful!!! He is so loving and I just love talking with him. 

Sorry I don't have a ton of time, but I will be sure to tell you all about my new companion next week!

I sent a letter last Monday so it should come in a few weeks!  :) 

I love you all!!!! 

Hermana Oliphant

 

P.S.  I am happy to be here and to be honest I don't want to go home. I love LOVE the people here and I LOVE being a missionary. It's not easy every day. In fact it's really REALLY hard. We get rejected. We have people tell us we are wrong, We get lied to. But it's all worth it because now I know for certain that it's true. I always THOUGHT it was true, but I KNOW now. I have a better out look on life, and I know what is really important. And I have realized that things I used to think were important really don't matter in the big picture. I have all I need, my family and God. ( and Hannah of course :) :) :) )

Thanks for everything you do for me momma. You are my best friend. I love you forever :)

I can't wait to talk to you every single day, even if it's over text message when I am at school :):):) 

 

P.S. I forgot to tell Trynn happy birthday. I have a new companion, she´s American but her Spanish is really good. I love you!! Happy Birthday Trynn!

 I am so happy to hear that everyone is doing so well. I needed to hear from you today. I am so happy to hear that Damon is doing so well at work and that he is training to be a manager! He will be good at it if he gets it. Wow the boys have shot up! they are so tall! when did that happen?!?

It's been a long few weeks of weird pains and people rejecting us, but, hey, we are working in this wonderful work and are going to find the people the Lord has prepared for us. We had our companion exchanges with our Sister training leaders this week on Thursday and I was here in Comitan with Hermana Hernandez and Hermana Trad went to San Cristobal.

 We were back together on Saturday and had an interesting evening. We did a lot of walking, we both were in a little pain from our injuries, but kept going! It was getting late, well it was like 7:45 and our appointment that we had fell through so we were trying to figure out what to do and contacted a lady. She was really funny but seemed interested. Then her friend came over to talk with us as well. Well I will be honest, they were a little drunk and it really made our night. We invited them to church and they said yes; they said they want help changing their lives. One of them is a transvestite ( I am not sure how to write that--a guy dressed as a girl). Well they didn't come to church but they have the directions to the capilla so we hope that one day they make it! It cheered us up though from being rejected all day!

We are putting together a fireside for Sunday night. I am kinda nervous because guess what? I am the one putting on the fireside--as in I am going to be singing and playing piano. We need to help the members here remember their testimonies and we have invited the other ward and the branch to join with us that night. Pray for me Sunday that all goes well! I am going to use "The Living Christ" as a dialog and then I have chosen a few songs to sing throughout and we are putting together a slideshow of pictures of Christ in his life. I hope and am praying that everything turnes out well! 

I made rice and didn't burn it!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Choco milk!  Yum!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My first time using a lavandaria! We dropped it off one day and picked it up the next! 

And look what I found in my jeans pocket!!! woot woot fifteen dollars!

Se que esta es la iglesia verdadera en la faz de le tierra. Se que tenemos la oportunidad para aprender y mejorar en esta vida. Se que nuestras familias pueden ser eternas! Se que mi padre celestial me ama. Se que los pruebas son parte de esta vida, pero que podemos aprender de ellos (Doctrine y convenios 121 y 122) 

Muchas gracias por todo sus oraciones y ayuda en todo! 

Le amo muchisimo!!

Hermana Oliphant

I am so happy today because we are finally in the green to go back to work!

We ended up going to Tuxtla on Thursday morning (we left at 5 AM!) and spent the entire day with President George and Hermana George. They took  us to lunch at a nice taco place and waited while we were in the Doctors office and even took us to the farmacy to buy the medicines we needed. We were trying to get on a bus to come back to Comitan that night but by the time we got to the OCC it was too late to get back by curfew so we ended up spending the night at the Mission home. Hermana George is so wonderful. She made us food and treats and we spend the night around the piano singing and laughing and having a good time. President George told us all about his cow farm at home and showed us pictures of his family and the farm. Its so beautiful up there! 

So the x rays showed that I am okay. I am not sure what it's called that I had but basically my bones were rubbing. I can't walk  up stairs or down them and need to not stand up and sit down so much for a few weeks, but we can work and my knees haven't been hurting! ( if you want to know what he really said,  dijo que soy gorda y nesecito bajar mi peso...:) Oh Mexico and the joys of loving food! haha

 My new companion is Hermana Trad. President George wants us to work together, so we are not changing back companions and I am working in the area of Balun Canan 1 (not my original area). Hermana Trad and I have the same time in the mission and will be going home the same day!!!

Well our first day back to work was on Saturday and we taught 6 lessons and found a sister who is so ready to be baptized. Before we even invited her to be baptized she told us that she wants to. She knows she has to get married first but says her husband doesn't want to tie the knot. We have an appointment with them tonight and are praying that the Brother accepts our message and will marry her so that she can be baptized! We are putting our faith in action and are so excited to see what will happen this week. 

 

So I just wanted to share something that I studied today and yesterday. I was reading in Mosiah 27 about the sons of Mosiah and Alma the Younger. I love using this story when talking about repentance. Well yesterday we were sharing this story in a lesson and it really stuck out to me the sub-story about prayer. I think its verse 14 and 15 but it's talking about how Alma the father spend a lot of time praying for his son and it is because of his faith that his son was changed. Then, a little later, when he son is brought before him as if dead, the father rejoices because he knew that this was a miracle from God. I encourage you to read this chapter. Study it with faith, repentance and prayer in mind. I absolutely LOVE the conversion of Alma. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week. I will be praying for you! 

Love Hermana Oliphant

 

 

P.S.  Note from Mom

Hermana Oliphant,

"Because I have been blessed by they great love, dear Lord,

I'll share my love (my daughter) again, according to thy word.

She shall give love to those in need, she'll show that love by word and deed:

Thus shall my thanks be thanks indeed."

In honor of today being day 219 on your countdown calendar, I thought I'd send you a verse from my favorite hymn that shares this date.
I love you,
Love,

Mom