First week en Sébaco!

This week´s been pretty exhausting. My area really is huge, and the entire city of Sébaco ours! Oh my first day we went up a really steep hill, and there was a gorgeous view of the valley. My comp turned to me and said, "Take a good look, Hermana." And I´m just like...why? Then she responds, "This is your area. The whole thing." And she now only has 3 weeks to show it all to me. But I´ve seriously been helped out by the Lord this week. I´m learning my area so fast. For those who know me, I´m not super good with self-navigation. And I was pretty worried, but I´ve been helped out so much this week, and it´s really strengthened my testimony of prayer and hardwork (and paying attention when we walk).

It´s also super different, because it´s a branch here instead of a ward. There´s about 50 faithful members, but they´re so great. Everyone here is so warm and loving and has accepted me like part of the family. I´m so excited to get to know it even better!

 

Something interesting is also that people are much more fascinated by the fact that I´m a chela, or white. People are always staring at me, as if they´ve never seen a gringa before, and all the little kids I´ve met are so fascinated with the fact that I can speak English. All of them. Back in Managua no one really cared, and so getting here and having little kids all over me going "Talk English! Talk English!" And asking me a bajillion questions is super cool, and kind of exhausting. I´ve never been interrogated so much in my life, haha. But they´re so cute. 

 

And my apartment is much bigger than our old room in Managua. Much bigger. I don´t have pictures of it yet, but I´ll get there. And we do have a shower, (but honestly I wouldn´t mind bucket showering, it´s kind of relaxing), but no one here really has a washing machine...so we hand wash all our own clothes. Which I also don´t really mind. I´ve been washing little batches in the morning throughout this week, since I brought a massive load of dirty clothes from Managua, and then this morning I finally got to washing everything else. And after 2 hours of scrubbing and rinsing and washing and wringing, I finished washing all my clothes. And when I was hanging them up to dry, the clothes line broke. Sooooo I went and rinsed everything off again. Exhausted, but hurrying to get the things that fell into my bucket of bleach (yeah I bleach my own whites). And as I went to hang everything up on our OTHER clothes line, that one broke too, again dumping all my wet clothes in the durt. So, frustrated, exhausted, and feeling a little feverish (I´m really bad at keeping hydrated), I dumped all my wet clothes in the pila(the thing we use to wash clothes, see picture) and went to take a nap, haha :) Hermana Méndez and I basically spent all day cleaning our apartment, but it smells super good now :) I enjoy the cleanness. 

 

I´ve been doing lots of reading on temple covenants and sealings (I´m not trunky I swear), and the more I read, the more I understand how important it is to strive for the temple. It really is the single most important thing we could do, is go to the temple to make those sacred covenants, and then keep them! Remember 2 Nefi 31:19-20. I´ve only got it in Spanish, so you´ll have to translate. "Y ahora bien, amados hermanos míos, después de haber entrado en esta estrecha y angosta senda(here it´s talking about baptism, but I think it can apply to temple covenants as well), quisiera preguntar si ya quedó hecho todo. He aquí, os digo que no; porque no habéis llegado hasta aquí sino por la palabra de Cristo, con fe inquebrantable en él, confiando integramente en los méritos de aquel que es poderoso para salvar. Por tanto, devéis seguir adelante con firmeza en Cristo, teniendo un fulgor perfecto de esperanza y amor por Dios y por todos los hombres. Por tanto, si marcháis adelante, deleitándoos en la palabra de Cristo, y perseveráis hasta el fin, he aquí, así dice el Padre: Tendréis la vida eterna." [19 And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.

 20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.]

Once we´ve made these covenants, we can´t quit! We´ve got to stay for dessert. Don´t just eat the salad and then say you´re good. We need to remember and keep these covenants that we´ve made, and then and only then can we have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God.

 

So that´s about all for this week. I´ll attach some of the fotos of me and Hermana Palencia running around saying goodbye to everyone last week. I hope you all have an excellent week, and read your scriptures. It´s the small things that make all the difference. I love you all, and I hope you all have an awesome week!

Att. Hermana Oliphant

final selfies

final selfies as companions

La Familia Aguirre! We reactivated them and baptized their niece Adela, and they´re still going strong! I´m going to miss them so much.

Jefferson. He´s 18, and less active. We´ve been visiting with him trying to get him back to church, and we got pretty close. He´s my bud. He even speaks a little English, haha. I´mma miss him too :)

La Familia Paredez! He´s in the stake Presidency in Villa Flor, and his wife and daughter. And Elián, his nephew, who got baptized earlier this year, and he´s super excited to get the priesthood!

Hermana Mayra, her daughter in law, and two of her grandkids. Her daughter in law isn´t a member, but we´ve been using the slow and steady method with her. But they´re a super cool family (the ones who fed us lunch every day and washed our clothes), and I´m definitely going to miss them :)

 

Hola todos!!

So this week has been a little slow, but we´re still working hard! It went by so fast because we went on a LOT of divisions, or intercambios...or exchanges. Not sure how to say it in english. But lots of traveling around, and it´s always fun to work in other areas to meet new people.

We had a super awesome ward council meeting this week, and we´ve got so many plans for bringing less actives back to church and inviting new people to investigate the church, and it was just so fun to see the ward council actively involved in the missionary work. Because after being here, I realized just how much we depend on the members to get anything done. The whole ward is responsible for the missionary work, not just the full time missionaries. It helps us out so much when we have people excited about it, and it´s made me want to be a better member missionary when I get back home :) We´ll see how that goes, haha. But really, I just never want to stop contributing to the edificación de la iglesia!

 

Today was also really fun because we had a zone activity for the last p-day of the cambio (transfer period). Lots of running around buying things to make cake, and then lots of getting wet with water balloons! And sack racing and getting sunburnt and nica cake! And chips and coke for lunch. The best. I´ll see if I can throw in some pictures for you guys :) It might take until next week...sorry. 

 

My spiritual thought. I just went back and reread all of the general conference talks from April of this year, and I loved the talk by Elder L. Whitney Clayton. There was one part that really stuck out to me near the end. I don´t remember it word for word, but it was basically talking about how we don´t choose to believe any more than we choose to pray or pay tithing. Having faith is a choice, and a choice we need to make for the rest of our lives.

 

Sometimes it´s hard to have faith in the midst of doubts. But if we just remember Pres. Uchtdorf´s advice to doubt our doubts before our faith, and choose to have faith even when it seems everything is telling you not to, we´ll be blessed with the reassurance and a testimony. God has promised this to us. I just hope you all can press forward in your faith, even when there are doubts, because we will never cease to have these doubts. It happens. But what matters most is how we respond to these, and we are so blessed when we choose to actively pursue this faith that we desire. 

I love you all, and have a fabulous week!

Love, 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