Hey y`all!

Sorry, it`s been a little while. Time`s been a little short lately.

But lately we`ve been seeing so many miracles, and it`s been so incredible. We`re seeing the love and unity increase in our ward, and we`re helping the members get so excited about missionary work! We have so many people preparing for baptism now, and most of them have already been to church before, and know members already, and are being fellowshipped by new members. It`s incredible to see how much the work hastens and how much more positive our investigators are when the members really step in to make this ward great, and when they fulfill their commitments. 

So the pictures are of Rudy and Kevin. Kevin (the darker one on the far right) is a recent convert, and the one on the left is our investigator who`s preparing to get baptized, and he`s so excited. He`s been to church a couple times, he`s loved it, and he keeps saying he wants to be Mormon, haha. He has a lot to change, but Kevin is so down to helping him do the things he`s needed to do, and I`m so happy for them. I`ve loved seeing the change in their lives as they come closer to Christ. 

And the other picture is a pancake that I made...it turned into a flower (more specifically, the saccuanjoche flower from my hair a few weeks ago ;) The national flower of Nicaragua!)

Something I`ve been thinking a lot about lately is a talk from April conference last year about The Music of the Gospel. I can`t remember who it was by, but I just love the comparisons he makes to the music. Our primary responsibility como parents (and missionaries) is to help our children (and investigators and recent converts and less actives) hear the music of the holy Spirit, not just teach them the dance moves. As we all strive to hear the music more in our lives, our desire to dance (keep the comandments) will just come naturally.

I love you all so much. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Att. Hermana Oliphant

Rudy (investigator), Missionaries, Kevin (new convert)

saccuanjoche flower in a pancake ;)

Another hot week in Chinandega

Saccuanjoche, the national flower of Nicaragua

Hey everyone! Sorry for being super slacking on the emails lately...I´ve been pretty good until these past couple of weeks, haha. This weeks has been full of finding. We´re been having terrible luck with all of our existing investigators...so lots of contacting and meeting new people. Especially helping my new comp get to know her new area :)

Noche de Hermanamiento (or Sisterhood night, like RS activity evenings)

 We have the best members in the entire world. They love helping us meet references and teach lessons. But lately there´s been a bit of drama causing some divisions within the ward itself. But some hnas decided to take a stand. So they´ve redone Noche de Hermanamiento (which is like mutual for adults), and talked about love and how they all need to work together to help reactivate members and be more united as a ward. It was so incredible to see, and I love how much these members care about their ward and the state of the unity and the spirituality of the members. They want to help out so much, and it´s really starting to make the difference. 

Big scorpions. Big. Scorpions. 

We´ve been having lots of run-ins with...scorpions. It´s been terrible. 3 this past week, one was a baby. And another one was hiding in my clothes...thank goodness I saw it before I put it on my body. That, and lots of other things has got us considering moving, haha. Our lunch cita is moving, and her house is huge, in our budget, and she´s totally willing to let us take it over. So we´re going to see about that ;)

The baby pineapple growing at the church

We´ve also been focusing a lot on helping out the menos activos, especially the punks. Haha we have lots of young men/young adults who are in the crossroads of going on a mission or not, and we´ve been making them help us out on visits, and they´ve really been seeing the joy of missionary work. It´s changing their perspective, and they´ve all been getting more excited about missionary work. If anyone of you are thinking about going on a mission or know people who are questioning going on a mission, tell them to go out with the missionaries for a few hours a couple times a week. (supposing the missionaries are cool...hehe). I promise it´ll change your mind.

Mosiah 24:13-16

When we have sins and weaknesses and struggles, God promises to help us. But he also promises to help us on HIS time. And sometimes we need to be patient. But as it says in the scriptures, he will never forget us. He will ALWAYS complete his promises. We just need to have faith in him and do a little waiting.

I love you guys so much. Thanks for everything. Until next week!

Sarah and her new companion, Hermana Barron

Comps as twinners ;)

Love, Hermana Oliphant

[Note from Mom: I mistakenly said last week that her companion was new to the mission, but I think now that there was some confusion from her previous note. Her companion has been out 16 months, not a couple. I think Sarah meant to say that her companion has only a couple of months left in the mission before she leaves, rather than she's only been out a couple of months.]