Hola todos!

I was totally about to start writing this letter in Spanish...the transition is really hard sometimes.

This week has been really really slow. We`re trying to find new investigators, and work really really hard to get them to come to church and progress. Or, read the scriptures and their assignments and pray. We`re trying, but it`s still hard. It never gets easy. Once you figure out how to be a missionary, and learn the language, you just understand even more how hard it is to help people gain a testimony of this gospel. They need to be ready, and you need to do all you possibly can to help them feel the Spirit. But when you find that pair, it`s so worth it. Even though it`s hard in so many ways that I`d ever thought it would be, I wouldn`t want to be anywhere else. I`ve felt the Spirit confirm to me so many times that I NEED to be here. Not only for what I have the potential to do here, but for all the ways I`m learning and growing here. I needed this so badly, and I`m so grateful for every second I`ve been able to spend here in Nicaragua, serving the Lord, and working and teaching in His name.

We had a visit from Elder Snow of the Seventy, Elder Alonzo of the Seventy also (area Seventy) and Brother Turley. Elder Snow and Brother Turley are the historians of the church, and Elder Alonzo is one of our area seventies here in Central America. They had a devotional/meeting with all of us missionaries in Nicaragua this Saturday and it was so good. I also loved listening to their wives talk, and I just love the Spirit these representatives of the Lord and the church bring. It`s such a privilege to hear from these general authorities :) They talked a lot about missionary work, obviously, and how we need to treasure this time, and record it! I`m starting to get a little lazy about my journal entries, but I`m determined to fix it.

My Spiritual thought. There`s a general conference talk from April of 2015 by Elder Christofferson that I loved. "Why Marriage, Why Family" I just love these talks. They always explain the plan of salvation, and the divine role that marriage plays in this plan. I love the understanding I receive from these talks. My favorite part is a quote from a Christian martyr from the early 1900`s named Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He wrote in a letter to his niece, talking about marriage, "Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more than something personal--it is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man...So love comes from you, but marriage from above, from God." I just love that. I love that peace that comes from the understanding that marriage isn`t to please us. It is a divinely instituted part of the plan of salvation, and nothing else can change that, no matter what anyone says. 

Stay true to your testimonies of the gospel, and always remember that the words of the living prophets and apostles mean more to us than the words of dead prophets. They are here for us personally, and they will never lead us astray. Doubt your doubts before you doubt your fears, and you will receive a testimony. I promise you that. It`s happened to me several times in my life, and on my mission. We all need a little reminder every now and then ;)

I love you all. Thanks for the prayers and thoughts and kind words. Remember your faith, and where it came from, and keep an eternal perspective. Have a great week!

Att. Hermana Oliphant

And Yet Another Week

This week felt super slow and super fast at the same time...I don´t know how that happens! :)

But this week was pretty good. We´re having some problems finding people, but that´s how it goes, right? We´re working hard to help our investigators feel the Spirit and keep their commitments! Because if they´re not keeping commitments with us, they won´t keep them with God. And that´s something we´re really working on helping them understand. But we do have some new families that we´re so excited about. They have some real potential, and I know that they can truly find the answer to their questions if they´re willing to put their part.

We also have a couple of less active young men that we´ve been visiting with. Since I got here. They´re both struggling hard core with their testimonies and bad influences. We´ve been trying to help them for months to no avail. But finally this week, in both of them, I saw a change in their eyes. They had actually done the reading we assigned them. And you could tell. We´re still trying to get them to church, but it´s something. Just like a story in the Liahona from a while ago called "The Rescue of the Hummingbird" (or "Hummingbird Rescue". Sorry, it´s in Spanish) By William Hoggan. I´m not sure which issue, but read it. In all your efforts to bring your friends to the church or to bring them back, never discount a single thing you do for them, because it´s making a difference. That´s what the Spirit does. That´s how the Lord works. Sometimes he works big miracles, but not often. Pray for them. Share your testimony or a scripture with them. Help out the missionaries ;) But seriously, you have no idea how much of a difference you can make just by sharing your testimony. Every little drop of sugar water is saving that hummingbird. You just can´t tell until it wakes up again. Never lose faith, and never get stressed or worried or afraid for them. That gets rid of love, and the Spirit, too. (vease también, 1 John 4:18)

I hope you all can do your part to also make the Sabbath a delight, filled only with the things that help you draw nearer unto God and that help you feel the Spirit.

Feliz semana! Los quiero un montón. Gracias por todo!

Att. Hermana Oliphant

We made cake today for Hna Hatt´s birthday! (Nica style...without measuring utinsels. Or hot pads. Pouring oil in a waterbottle to measure it. You know.)

Cute little pastries from a baby shower this week (homemade!)

Birthday selfies!

Another Week!

It´s so crazy how fast this week went! But it was definitely a lot better. I´m working a lot on not being so shy :) Even though I can speak Spanish now, it´s so hard to force myself to talk when I don´t feel like it. That´s for sure when the Spirit comes in. I can tell it´s there when I can talk without thinking about it. So my goal is to really truly have the Spirit conmigo SIEMPRE. That´s what makes me an effective missionary, right? This isn´t my work, it´s the Lord´s. The Spirit does the work, I just have to open my mouth and let it :)

We had a couple of cool experiences this week! We have an instigator who is the friend of a recent convert. He´s progressing so well, and he loves going to church, and he agreed to be baptized! He´s getting surgery this week, so we don´t know when. But he wants to wait until December! We´re trying really hard to help him understand that he doesn´t need to put off something the Spirit tells him he needs to do! But he´s so cool, and we´re working hard with him.

The other thing is we found an old investigator! He agreed to be baptized in the contact, but every time we tried to visit him, his sister would lie to us about where he was, and telling us that he didn´t want us to come back. And we didn´t have his phone number, and she wouldn´t give it to us, so we basically gave up on him. We didn´t believe her, but we had no way to contact him. Then randomly, as we were seeking shelter from the pouring rain, we saw him! We talked to him, he confirmed that his sister was lying, gave us his phone number, and agreed to be baptized again :) We´ll have to work harder with him, because he has a problem with the word of wisdom. But he´s been super positive, and I know how much of an impact the atonement can have on his life.

This week we´ve also been having lots of ants in our room...like a lot. They´re crawling all over everything and even eating our dirty clothes...it´s pretty bad. But we just have to be more careful at cleaning up our food x3 It´ll help.

So, my spiritual thought. I was reading references for lesson 2 (the plan of Salvation) and I found some really good scriptures in Alma 34. The whole chapter is excellent, but the verses that really stuck out to me are 31-35. We can´t put off the day of our repentance! And if we sin with an attitude of "I´ll repent later," we´ve already given our hearts to the adversary, and don´t truly understand what it means to be able to repent. I´m sure you all can find more out of the chapter, but I just wanted to share that little bit I got out of it :)

Thank you all for your prayers and love! Sorry I don´t have any pictures today...again. It´s a struggle to find things to take pictures of. And my comps memory is still on the fritz. But I´ll get you some soon, I promise!

Take care. Have a wonderful week!

Love, Hermana Oliphant

Semana de los Musos...

...Or, week of the flirts. Most of them drunk...I´m not sure what made this week so special, but I felt like I had to quickly walk (run) away from a few this week. But they´re all harmless...no need to worry :)

So I hope all of your weeks have been fabulous! I´ve had a great week. We set a goal to baptize 5 people, two families, and 2 priesthoods this month. We even took a picture ;) It´s kind of bad, but all the good ones are on her camera, and it´s not working. So here´s this for now. Me and my new comp, Hna Palencia :) She´s lovely.

One of our goals this week was to bring a lot of investigators to the conference this week, and I even stayed up all night (well, not quite) making a map so we could do divisions and get them all there. But unfortunately there´s someone very powerful trying to stop the work of the Lord. We only brought a few to the conference, and everyone else had something come up (like always). But the few people who came really enjoyed it, and I knew they felt the Spirit. We had a brand new investigator show up with his little son, and I was so beyond excited. So so so excited. It was kind of ridiculous. I almost ran to the door in the middle of the talks when I saw him come in. But I´m glad I feel that way. I love my investigators, and I love all the people here. I just want them to experience the same joy I´ve been able to experience through Jesus Christ and his atonement :)

So, funny stories. This random guy through a plastic bottle at us and yelled "Oy, profesora!" It was pretty funny. But it was dark, so I´m not entirely sure what was initially contained in that bottle ;)

We were taking a bus to a meeting, and a guy got on a played the guitar and sang. It was pretty funny, and it was super fun to listen to. Normally we get people dressed up as clowns selling candy or preachers shouting the word of God, but this time it was just this guy and his guitar singing. It was super cool. I love taking the bus, even though I have to hold on for my life sometimes. 

Spiritual thoughts, we got an assignment from our mission president in DyC 136, and verse 31 stood out to me the most. I needed it a lot, and I´m pretty sure it applies to all of us even as members. It made me think that if life was easy, the reward would be a twinkie and a coke, just like Elder Holland said ;)

I hope you all got to watch conference. I only got to watch the morning sessions in english, but they´re so good. I can´t wait to read the rest in the Liohona ;) But seriously, we are so blessed to have a prophet and apostles on this earth with all the priesthood keys to guide Christ´s church with his authority. Never forget how amazing of a blessing that is, and treasure it, and show God you treasure it by listening to and applying their words in your lives! I promise that the Lord will bless you for this little you do every day to try and be a little bit better. It´s our responsibility, but we will be blessed for it. 

So I hope you all have a good week. Stay safe. Read your scriptures, say your prayers, go to church. All that good stuff. They really make the difference, I promise!

Take care!

Hermana Oliphant