Happy Birthday to me...

Hey everyone! Sorry, I`m writing a little earlier today because we have an activity planned for my birthday at the time we normally write...so we`re writing right now :) I send you all pictures and let you know how it goes next week ;)

This week has been a little stressful, but also very spiritual. We had a multizona reunion on Tuesday, and I learned so much. I had even more desires to work harder, be more obedient, and make the changes in the way we do the work so that we can bring even more souls to Christ!

This week Fernando was going to get baptized, but he was having a lot of personal doubts that took his desire to get baptized. But we went ahead with his interview, and our District Leader really helped him to understand that he didn`t have to be perfect before he got baptized. All the changes come later, poco a poco, if we`re ready to make the sacrifices. So  he didn`t get baptized this past Saturday, but we`ve set a new goal for him on the 4th of June and he`s so excited now to get baptized and be a member :) 

This week in the Book of Mormon I`ve been reading about the missions of the sons of Mosiah in Alma 18-20, and they`ve been really inspiring to me. How they were able to keep the faith they`d gained through they`re own experiences, and how much they trusted in the Lord and strived to do his will even when things got hard. That`s something we can all apply to our lives, whether we`re missionaries or member missionaries, we can always strive to do the will of the Lord, and to firm in our faith when struggles abound.

I love you all so much, and I hope you have a great week!

Love, Hermana Oliphant

Fotos

1. A little flower from a plant some little kids gave me. I`ve been taking good care of it and it`s the first plant I haven`t killed...I guess the mission`s taught me something ;)

2. The piñatas we`re using for my birthday party today...the whole ward`s invited.

3. My comp made me a ham and cheese pancake in bed...excuse my just-barely-woken-up-face

4. Rafa gave me a present...that I had to return to the church, so I took a picture :)

5. From left to right, Me, Candi, Hermana Barron, Valeska, Rafa

Mibebecitotanlindo...eseplupblu

Hey everyone! Sorry for not writing last week. We went to Managua and time flew away from us...so I didn`t really get a chance to write about my week. And sorry for the title. That`s my comps favorite little baby voice she uses with everyone, haha. So the past two weeks have come and gone pretty fast. We`ve had another set of changes, but for the first time since my training (and I`m getting ready to finish a year on the mission), I haven`t had any kind of changes, comp or area. Thank goodness. But, that means I`m killing again. Which I`m happy about, because Hermana Barron is awesome. But I`m not going to lie, killing is tough. Talk about trunky, hehe. 

We`ve been pretty preocupied these past two weeks helping two of our investigators get ready to get baptized. Rudy and Fernando. And Rudy did end up getting baptized on Saturday! It was such a great day, and we were so happy for him. However, he wasn`t able to go to church yesterday, so we`re working real hard with him to make sure he gets confirmed this next Sunday. We`ve just loved working with him and getting to know him and helping him find the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Fernando is getting ready to get baptized this Saturday, and he`s also super excited. He`s 11, and his Grandma`s a member. He loves going to church, and he`s such a cute kid. We call him my son, haha. Or, Mijo, I`d call him. He`s in the first picture :)

Yesterday we also started a music class! Only 5 people came, and we didn`t study anything beforehand, so it was a little confusing...but it went really well. The members who came were great and so patient, especially since explaining music in Spanish is hard, especially since I don`t really know how to teach music, since it`s just been a part of my life for as long as I can remember...haha. We just taught how to direct music, and they were such a good class :) We`re going to get into reading music, playing the piano, and working the electric piano to automatically play the hymns for sunday! This next week we`ll do a little more studying ;)

For my spiritual thought I just wanted to share one that reminds me a lot of one of my absolute favorites of the Book fo Mormon, Moroni 10:32. This one is in Omni, and when I read it in my study of the Book of Mormon it just really stood out to me.

 26 And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption.Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying,and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will besaved.

That`s pretty simple and self explanatory, haha. I just love this invitation. That we offer our souls to Christ. We stop doing the bad things, fasting and praying for strength to do that, and keeping at it. Always humbly looking for ways to improve. Because even though we want to think we`re perfect and know everything...we don`t. Ha. 

We`ll I`ve got to head off now. But I love you guys so much. I hope you all have a great week!

Love, Hermana Oliphant

Fotos

1. Our little band of misfits. From left to right (excluding me), Rafa, Lauren (a recent convert), Fernando. We brought those boys together :)

2. Taking selfies after church! Left to right (excluding me and my comp), Rudy (on the bottom), Pablo (on the top), Valeska (we`re finally getting her back to church, and she helped Rudy get baptized!!)

3.Baptism! It was one of the craziest nights of my life, but it was so great. We`re so excited for Rudy to get confirmed!

Hey!

Hey everyone! So I`m short on time, again, but this week has been super great. And a little sad. It`s been really hard to get our investigators to church, but that`s always the hard part, right? But we`ve also been working really hard with our futuros elderes, or Future Elders, and helping them get ready for missions! And we`ve been using the members a lot, and it`s so great to see their animo to help with the work. They just need a little encouragement sometimes. 

We also had great divisions this week with...guess who? My MTC comp, Hermana Walborn! She`s my TL now, and so we were companions for a day in my area, and it was so incredible to see how we`ve both grown, teach together, and see so many miracles. She`s an incredible missionary and I hope I can be like her some day :)

So to finish up, I`ll explain the pictures. A couple days ago, we got home at night, and I was getting ready to take a shower...and then got in the shower. I was all ready to clean myself, and then I saw that scorpion on my loufa...and I had a panic attack basically. I was in the shower, and basically trapped by that evil (sleeping...tailless) creature. My poor comp was great enough to throw me a shirt over the wall so I could put some clothes on, and then she passed me a broom so I could unlock the bathroom door, and she calmly coaxed me out of the shower curtain so I could escape before I started crying...and then I started to run out and I tripped and banged my knee against the wall and now it`s really purple. As I calmed down in my bed I told her to burn the scorpion after she smashed it...so she did. That`s the fire picture. Our little firepit for the demon. Funnily enough, we had smashed the tail off a scorpion a few weeks ago that escaped...so maybe it came back for revenge. It definitely did scar me a bit, but it`s dead. So we`re okay. Moral of the story, scorpions are demons. Watch out.

tailless but still frightening scorpion

fire pit for the demon scorpion

But on a spiritual note, I`m in Alma in my BoM reading, and I just read some really great scriptures in chapter 7.

23 And now I would that ye should be humble, and besubmissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.
 24 And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works.

That basically sums up everything we need to do in life. I want to challenge all of you to pick one of these things to work on, and then pray for the help you need to accomplish it. God really does work His miracles when we show Him our faith. That I`m certain of.

I love you all so very very much, and thanks for everything you do!

Love, Hermana Oliphant