Scriptures Rock!

Hey Everyone!

Sorry for being on so late again...this is the last week! If I haven`t explained exactly why I`ve been going to Managua so much...sorry. It`s not a secret, haha. We just had another charla with a general authority today, and me and my comp were in the choir. So we went down every pday this month, basically. But now we`re free! The charla/conference was so great, though. Elder Craig C. Christensen of the seventy came down, and he actually speaks Spanish! His wife too. So we listened to them, a member of the area presidency, Pte. Alonzo, and his wife, and then the mission presidents for both the missions and their wives. It was such a lovely incredible experience. I always just feel the Spirit so strongly, and I just have this overwhelming urge to get out and go teach! It`s so nice to be able to hear so much from these general authorities, and get first-hand advice from these incredible people. Lots of excellent notes, and lots of things to put into practice :)

We`re kind of tired...so I`m not going to write much. This week has basically just been a week of working our tails off, trying to improve and share the gospel. Lots of self-reflection for me. Looking at the things I`m not doing well and need to change to be a better servant of the Lord. It`s been incredible, though. Putting more emphasis on my personal study has made such a difference. Go figure, haha ;)

My spiritual thought is from the Book of Mormon :) I read a verse in my personal study yesterday that really stood out to me. It`s in 1 Nephi 17.
 13 And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led.

What really stood out to me was where it says "inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led toward the promised land." In Spanish it translates a little differently. "...al grado que guardèis mis mandamientos, serèis conducidos hacia la tierra prometida." "Al grado" basically means something along the lines of "to the level." So I read "to the level of which you keep my commandments, you`ll be led to the promised land." So basically, the level of diligence we put into keeping the commandments is the level of guidance we`re going to receive from our Heavenly Father. If we want a lot of help, we need to be really diligent ;) Because we all receive blessings according to the commandments we keep. If we keep some, but not others, we receive a few blessings according to the ones we`re already keeping. But if we want ALL the blessings...we need to keep ALL the commandments. So if I want to be a great missionary, I need to be really dilligent in being exactly obedient ;) Kind of crazy how that works, right? I really do love this scripture, though. And the promise. He WILL lead us to the promise land. But after a period of trial. But once we reach this promised land, we`ll know that it was him who led us there. We`ll see his hand in our life if we just look. Never lose the faith. I know for sure that this promise is true for all of us :)

I love you all so much! I`ll send pictures next week, I actually have some...haha. Just keep reading them scriptures and keeping the Sabbath day holy...seriously. It helps. Just do it.

Feliz semana!

Att. Hermana Oliphant

Chickens and Faith

Hey everyone!

I´m glad you all enjoyed my funny stories...especially with the pig. That was definitely an adventure to remember. I have another funny animal story, but I´ll get to that in a moment.

This week was pretty normal. Still working hard. Meeting new people, putting more fechas...being lied to and catcalled...the normal stuff ;) But seriously, I wouldn´t trade it for the world. Being a missionary is a blast, in the memories you make and also in the things you learn and the miracles you see. Highly recommend. See my last email for more details ;) Something in especial I´ve learned is that the only cure for exhaustion is to keep working. It sounds counter-productive, but it´s true. I´ve had SO many days where I just don´t want to get out of bed, let alone leave the house to walk around in the hot sun for hours. But I always do (sometimes griping more than I should), and by the end of the day I´m not ready to stop :) Something magical happens when you get to work and just feel that spirit of missionary work. It´s addictive.

 

So we have one investigator who is so great! He´s already read so much of the Book of Mormon on his own, and he loves it. Our super pilas member of the branch works with him, and they´re already great friends. He is helping him so much with his conversion, and he came to church by himself this week. His name is Juan Carlos, and he is the most open and receptive investigator I´ve ever had. He wants to take the baptism thing slowly, so it probably won´t be me and Hermana Near that baptize him, but I really hope that he continues to progress, and we can help him on that journey for as long as we´re here to do it :) 

 

So a couple funny stories...animal one first. On the very crowded bus to Managua today, I randomly start hearing some strangled clucking noises. We all start looking around, and see a bag moving, as if there´s something struggling inside of it, right next to Hermana Near´s feet. It took us a second to realize that there was a live chicken trapped inside that bag...just chilling on the floor of the bus. I guess that´s one way to transport animals...just tie them in a bag and bring it with you on the bus, haha.

 

Second story. We have a lot of people comment about how we look...as is the Nica culture and our very-whiteness. But one time it just caught us off-guard. We went to a pulpería to get some snacks, and as we stop by the window, this middle aged man says to us with a straight face and a slightly-amused tone, "Wow, look at these two beautiful women. Do you live close by?" We both stood there, speechless, not knowing how to respond to him. So he took that to mean as though we don´t speak Spanish, haha. Oh, don´t worry. We do. But he said he´d be sure to teach us Spanish before we left Sébaco...we´ll still have to see about that.

 

So, now on to the spiritual stuff. I´ve had some great personal study and personal spiritual experiences about faith and the atonement. And just some great reading of the Book of Mormon. I´m short on time, so I´ll share them really quick. This first one is in 1 Nephi 2.

 19 And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me,saying: Blessed art thou, Nephi, because of thy faith, for thou hast sought me diligently, with lowliness of heart.
 20 And inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper, and shall be led to a land of promise; yea,even a land which I have prepared for you; yea, a land which is choice above all other lands.

Something that I realized (especially after dealing with all the opinions of people here saying that faith is just a belief in Christ) is that faith without actions truly is dead. Nephi wasn´t blessed because of his belief in Christ; that does nothing. Satan believes in Christ, but he´s not blessed purely for that. Nephi was blessed because his belief led him to humble his heart and search diligently for Christ, which led him to keeping the commandments. Isn´t that what repentance is? Nephi was blessed for his faith that led to repentance, and that´s what we all want. We all want miracles to happen, and repentance is one of them. But the Lord can´t work miracles in our lives if we don´t give him anything to work with. I learned this the other morning when we were running. I wasn´t feeling it, so I prayed for Him to help make me a better runner. That was fine, but when my comp started running up and down our giant hill we go to, I was standing there, not wanting to run the hill. As I sat there, I realized that if I´m not running, the Lord can´t make me better. If I want him to make me a better runner, I need to give him something to work with; I need to start running. So I did, and he made me a better runner. This spoke a lot to me about how faith truly is a belief-propelled action. When I have faith, I know something is possible, so I´ll do my best work to make it happen, and the Lord will do the rest. 

To finish, I wanted to share something a member said the other day in an investigator lesson. "The Lord gives us trials to see how obedient we are."

Never let your trials get you down. Don´t let Satan win! Trials are a part of our existence, but we choose how to respond. We can continue to exercise our faith and be obedient, or we can falter and fail. Keep on the straight and narrow path, and all will work out just fine :)
I love you all so much, and I hope you have a fantastic week!

Love, Hermana Oliphant

"Es mejor casarse que quemarse" ("For it is better to marry than to burn")

Buenas noches, mis amados amigos!

I´m writing a little late tonight because we were in Managua again today for another choir practice...that I´m actually singing in this time, haha. And so we don´t have to work today so we can finish up our pday things that we couldn´t do from traveling. 

This week has been normal, more or less. Some exciting stories and unexpected adventures, but I´ll get to that in a moment ;)

We´ve been working super hard this week to find more chosen people that are ready to get baptized! We got an idea from our TLs (which I was hesitant to do again, because it never worked for me in the past) to invite EVERYONE to be baptized!

...Well, almost anyone.
When we contact, we mainly just invite them to attend church with us. Based on how they react, we teach principles and ask to come back and visit them and such.

Our TLs have been doing something where if someone says they´ll come to church (and really seem like they mean it), they invite them to be baptized! And we finished divisions with them and were determined to give it a shot, because they´ve been baptizing a lot...so they must be doing something right.

We started off the week with 3 fechas (or 3 people committed to being baptized on a certain day), and we now have 11! All for the month of January. Obviously, not all are going to be baptized, but if we work hard, at least 2 or 3 should make it to the waters of baptism, and I´m really seeing the fruits of just opening your mouth and not being afraid. Of course, this isn´t something that´ll work in other parts of the world, but it really generates a lot of success here in Nicaragua, because so many people are so humble and looking for the truth.

So that´s what we´ve been doing this week, is teaching a lot about the restoration and why it´s important for these lovely Nicas, and baptism. Why it´s necessary and why they need to be baptized in OUR church by the proper authority.

And I´ve never been happier, but I know that I can still do more. That´s the frustrating part. I´m doing my best every day I feel like. Even though my best is different every day ;)

Okay, so some funny stories. We´ve had some traveling difficulties lately. This Wednesday, we had a zone meeting and interview with President in Estelí in the afternoon. And they ended up taking longer than we thought, so we missed the last buses that would take us down to Sébaco from Esteli. We were going to stay the night with the Hermanas in Rosario, but President gave us money for a taxi. So on the way home, in the middle of nowhere, at 9 at night, the engine (or something) overheats. So we´re just stuck in the middle of nowhere with this random taxi driver and no way to get home. So that was exciting. Thankfully, we eventually got it figured out, and we made it home before 9:30.

Then today, we were on the bus coming back from Managua, and about halfway there, something pops a hole in the back right tire and it goes flat. And there´s people on it and everything. So...we just had to wait for them to fix the tire and we were rolling again. But it was pretty crazy. We all heard the POP and the air gushing out of the tire as we rolled down the freeway. It was pretty amusing. Lots of travel things this week, haha. [Comment from Mom: Of course when I read this, I have horrific visions of the bus careening down the freeway completely out of control.]

And yesterday, we were standing at a members gate talking to her, and then her pig named Peppa just strolls on by. She´s a BIG pig, and we were just admiring her when she decides to step outside, and she refused to go back in the member just ended up chasing it around while the neighbors were helping corral it back to the house. I wanted to go help, becasue it was partly our fault she got out, but I didn´t know what to do. And that pig was angry. And it was dark. It started chasing after us and we flipped out and both me and my comp ran in different directions, haha. That giant pig got close enough to bite my legs and I was NOT having any of that. Thankfully, like everything else, it was all taken care of and it was put back in its pen.

Also yesterday, we had a classic language barrier scripture mix up. We were teaching this super pilas (golden) couple about the law of chastity. We hadn´t brought it up before, but they´ve already agreed to be baptized, so they need to start making plans sooner rather than later. So my comp shared 1 Corinthians 7:9 with them, because our DL gave it to us to use. And she hadn´t read it before. I had, which was why I hadn´t brought it up. But the girl read it out loud, and she got the message loud and clear.

9 But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.

Nuff said. The JST was a little less strong, but I left it at that. They got the message, and thankfully weren´t offended. I guess they needed that reminder, haha. They all know it´s bad to live together before they get married, but literally no one marries in Nicaragua. We´re always very very surprised to meet people who are married. It´s mind-numbing at times. But that´s the Nica life.

So, my spiritual thought. My comp just read this out of Our Search for Happiness, and I just wanted to share it with a final plea. 

"Through the years I have watched countless missionaries come and go, and I have seen extraordinary things happen in their lives and in the lives of their families as a result. The work they are called to do is hard and sometimes discouraging. But because they have the assurance that they are on God´s errand, they are able to valiantly serve Him. I often suggest to those who want to know if the church is true that they spend a few hours working with our missionaries. It doesn´t take long to learn that no one can do all of the things a missionary does every day without knowing beyond any question that what they are doing is right and true.

"The Lord does bless His missionaries just as surely as they bless the lives of those they teach and baptize. Difficult languages are learned with astonishing speed and skill. Financially strapped families back home find unforeseen means to support their missionaries. Weaknesses become strengths, challenges become opportunities, trials become triumphs, and adversity becomes an adventure in the service of the Lord--another fruit of gospel living"

- Elder M. Russell Ballard.

 My first plea is that you read this book. It´s so incredible. It´s an invitation to understand us members of the church, and whether you´re a long member, convert, or nonmember, please read this book. It will only strengthen your testimony of the truthfulness of this church and how there REALLY is no downside to living this gospel :) SO incredible.

My second plea is to go on a mission. It hasn´t been easy physically, emotionally, or spiritually. But I know that this was one of the best decisions of my life, and I know without a doubt that missionary work is for EVERYONE who can. So if you can go, and are considering going, aren´t really sure, or havent thought about it, please just go. You will not regret it, I promise. Please just reread this quote if you don´t believe me. You´ll see what I mean as soon as you get out here and get to work :)

So that´s my invitation for you all. I love y´all tons and tons, and I hope you have a great week!

Love, Hermana Oliphant

Surviving the Holidays

Hey everyone! How´s life? I´ve had a pretty great week. It went by quickly and slow at the same time...not sure how that works, but It´s all good. I´m here now :) We´ve been working hard this week for sure. Trying to find new investigators and really help them to progress. It´s hard. Really hard. Now that the language barrier is out of the way the hard part is watching people choose the wrong path. Our amazing family that I talked about last week told us that they didn´t want to come back to our church anymore. They love when we visit, because they know we´re messengers of God. But for a lot of personal reasons, they just didn´t feel comfortable and don´t want to give it another chance, and want to go back to their old church. We did all we could to try and change their minds, but in the end they have their agency, and we have to let them choose. We´re never going to forget about them, though. We´re going to keep checking up on them and everything, but we can´t focus on them right now. It honestly broke our hearts walking away from that last lesson on Saturday. It felt like they dumped us and told us we could still be friends, haha. But It gave me an idea of what Heavenly Father feels like when we disobey or go down the wrong path. He can´t force us to do anything, as much as he wants to, and so it just hurts. He hurts for us when we make wrong choices, and that Saturday night just gave me even more motivation to live a better life. One that He would be proud of. I don´t want to make him hurt more than I have already.

On a more exciting note, this New Year´s Eve was pretty exciting. Apparently there´s a tradition here in Nicaragua where people make scarecrows called viejos and stick them in front of their houses. They just chill there for the day, and then at midnight, they blow them up with fireworks. A little morbid, but hey. Welcome to Nicaragua. We didn´t do anything, haha. We went to bed on time, but we wore earplugs...the fireworks and screaming were SO loud. It was kind of crazy. But we slept really well and woke up to the new year in peace :) My first year not doing anything for the New Year´s, but it wasn´t that bad. I´ll party it up when I get home ;)

We also had a branch Christmas/New Years Eve party on the 30th, and it was pretty fun. There was a tiny spiritual thought, and Hna Near and I sang La Primera Navidad, or The First Noel, and then we ate food. Yummy food, and helping serving brought back memories when I worked at Catering at BYU. Except the way we handled the food was a little sketchy...#nicaragua. And then we brought out the piñatas and watch the children beat the living daylights out of it...haha. My goodness these kids love their candy :)

We also got to make tortillas yesterday! We have some investigators who came to church yesterday, but at first they said they wouldn´t because she has to make tortillas from 4 am until 11 am, and she sells them too, so she said she couldn´t. We offered to go over and help her early in the morning so she could finish. She just laughed and said that we can come help and even if we didn´t finish she´d still come to church :) So we went there at about 7 and helped for a little bit, and then we all went to church, and they loved it. Making (or in Spanish, echar tortillas) is harder than it looks. You just take the masa and stick it on a piece of thin plastic in the shape of a circle, and then you slowly pat it down flat while spinning the plastic around. You need to kind of settle into a rhythm, haha. And not hit it so hard and keep your fingers wet or you break it. Then you just stick it on the pan to cook. So fun to have the lady and her kids laughing at us trying to make tortillas. I´ll have to get a picture of us doing it somehow ;)

For my Spiritual thought, I chose something in 3 Nephi 13.

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break through and steal;

 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

 I´m out of time, or I´d talk more about it. I just feel like I personally need to focus on making Christ and his gospel more of a treasure in my life. Especially as a missionary. I know that we are blessed when we put the Lord first in everything. 

I love you all so much, and I hope you have an excellent week!

Att. Hermana Oliphant

Pics.

1) Our lovely member family who feeds us dinner! We love them so much.

2 and 3) Hna Near´s cumplemes pizza!