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

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.]

Hey!

Hey everyone!

So I`m a little short on time this week, but this week has been relatively normal. We`re still working on helping our large family get to church, and its a struggle. BUT, we got to see the 13 year old daughter get baptized! She was baptized when she was 8, but somehow her records got deleted, so she had to get baptized again. But, she`s been pretty inactive and rebellious lately. But with lots of love and the Spirit, she`s been coming back to church and was so happy to get baptized again. I love seeing the miracle of conversion on the mission.

I don`t have a scripture today, but I just want to encourage all of you to sincerely pray to your Heavenly Father today. Kneel down on the ground. Pray to know if he`s there. To know if he loves you and is aware of you. Plead forgiveness for your sins and the help you need to stay strong and resist temptation. Plead for the blessings you need. Then stop and listen. Feel. I promise you that if you do that, you will feel something. I promise you that the moment you kneel down to sincerely pray to your Father in Heaven, even if you`ve already down it before, He will answer you again. Or if you didn`t receive an answer the first time, He`ll bless your faith and diligence with an answer if you keep trying. But I know that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and is waiting for us to exercise our faith and come unto Him.

I love you all so much. I hope you have an amazing week!

Att. Hermana Oliphant

P.S. no pictures because the computer isn`t cooperating. Sorry! Next week!

Another week passing by way too fast...

Hey everyone!

This week has been pretty normal. No more scorpions, thank goodness. Lots of visits with less actives, and I`ve been able to see so many miracles from that. One family in particular we`ve been focusing on have started to go to church, little by little. And 12 people live there. 10 are members, and 2 have baptismal dates :) The family is super crazy, and it`s kind of draining going there, but I love every second we can spend with every member of that great family. I know the Lord has great things in store for them, and I know that with the help of the Spirit, we can help them all become closer to Christ, and truly converted to this incredible gospel.

My scripture of the week is in Mosiah 1.

3 And he also taught them concerning the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, saying: My sons, I would that ye should remember that were it not for these plates, which contain these records and these commandments, we must have suffered in ignorance, even at this present time, not knowing the mysteries of God.
 6 O my sons, I would that ye should remember that these sayings are true, and also that these records are true. And behold, also the plates of Nephi, which contain the records and the sayings of our fathers from the time they left Jerusalem until now, and they are true; and we can know of their surety because we have them before our eyes.
 7 And now, my sons, I would that ye should remember to search them diligently, that ye may profit thereby; and I would that ye should keep the commandments of God, that ye may prosper in the land according to the promises which the Lord made unto our fathers.

Always remember what a great blessing the scriptures are. Read them, ponder them, and pray to know of their surety and how to better apply it in your lives. I love you all so much, and I hope you have a wonderful week :)

Att. Hermana Oliphant

A member's pet (!?)

Part of a family they are working to reactivate

Crazy Week!

Hermanas Arias and Oliphant

 Hey everyone! I`m so sorry for not writing last week. I ended up traveling to Managua on Monday, and then ended up staying the night. I hadn`t even brought clothes or toothpaste or anything! It was a very exciting adventure running around Managua, and what`s more, the night before on Sunday, we were up late helping a sick member of the ward (with permission), so I was just super exhausted.

This week's been pretty normal. We had a multi-stake

Chinandega Zone Activity

Zone Activity

Chinandega YW activity

conference with all of central America, broadcasted from Salt Lake, this Sunday. So great. And we were able to bring 4 investigators, which was super great.

We`ve had some interesting experiences these past 2 weeks. Full of scorpions, flooding the apartment, investigators who just think we`re pretty, and some real talk as companions. It`s been crazy hot, too. So hot that at night, once I`ve finished my cold shower, I start sweating even before I`ve dried off. Craziness.

Aaaaaand we have scorpions, and one literally almost stung me. I was laying on my bed with my arm on the wall, and suddenly my comp screamed at me to get off my bed, so I jump/roll off, and there`s a GIANT scorpion that was crawling toward my arm. We killed it with a baseball bat.
And we think we`re seeing more scorpions because we accidentally flooded our house the other day...there wasn`t water, and we left the tap on on accident. Lots of stuff got wet. Hopefully the mouse hole too.

And the work goes on as normal. Talking to people. Teaching them the word of God, and slowly but surely gaining my own testimony of how true it is and how much our lives would be blessed if we could just trust God and keep the commandments. But we`re all pretty weak. 2 Nephi 4 has helped me a lot :)

I love you all so much, and I hope your week is fantastic and spiritual and stress free! At least as stress free as it can be.

Love, Hermana Oliphant

(P.S. I`ve officially hit 9 months on the mission...halfway done!)

New Week

Hey everyone!

Sorry for not writing next week, even though I actually did. Apparently there was some kind of mix up in the system and none of my emails and pictures sent. But the main news is that last Sunday we had a baptism! He`s 17, and so great. Just yesterday he received the Aaronic priesthood and is now a priest! He`s going to bless the sacrament next Sunday, and we`re all excited :)

We also got to listen to President and Hna Collado in a Multizone meeting. It was fabulous, as always. I learned so much that I`m so excited to put in to practice :)

I`m kind of in a hurry this week, but I just wanted to share some scriptures that I loved from my scripture study this week in Alma 29.

 6 Now, seeing that I know these things, why should I desire more than to perform the work to which I have been called? //
 9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.

What was his joy? Being able to bring souls unto God. And if we keep this eternal perspective in our minds, we should have no other desire. I`m so grateful for this opportunity I have to be here, to teach and be taught by these lovely souls here in Nicaragua. I hope all of you can find ways to be missionaries this week, whether full time or part time, it`s really the best.

I love you all!

Hermana Oliphant

Missionaries with Bryan Joven, a member who works with them preparing for a mission

Cute selfie pic