Cambio 2

Hola todos! I´m a little short on time this week, but here´s the important stuff :)

I saw so many miracles this week with our investigators. We put several fechas this week for baptism, and they were all in contacts and first lessons! So many people ready to change and receive the gospel. It´s incredible. We also found some old investigators that disappeared off the face of the planet, and we´re going to keep teaching them, too :)

 

This week I feel like my Spanish has just SKYROCKETED. I don´t know what happened, but suddenly my understanding of everything is so much better, and I´m speaking faster and my vocabulary is growing, and it´s the best feeling. I actually do know where it came from. There´s no way I could learn this language so fast without the help of my Heavenly Father, who knows I´m trying my hardest to speak to these lovely people of Nicaragua and share my testimony of the gospel with them. The gift of tongues (and the interpretation thereof) is real, people. So real.

 

It´s been raining like crazy here. But I love the rain. I don´t get to swim here, so it´s the next best thing ;) Who needs umbrellas?

 

So, my spiritual thoughts. I did some studying this week in True to the Faith, which is AWESOME. Buy it and read it if you haven´t already. This week I studied specifically in Conversion, Covenants, and Conscience. I would share my specific thoughts, but I don´t have much time. Besides, it´s better to let you all learn for yourself the things you need the Spirit to tell you ;)

 

I also had some thoughts about faith. Everyone says that faith brings miracles. How? How does believing that something will happen make it happen. It doesn´t. And that´s the truth of it. But what does bring miracles? Trusting in our omnipotent God of miracles,and that through Him, all is possible. But not just that, either! We have to show HIM our faith through our corresponding actions and obedience to his commandments. When we work towards worthy goals, having our initial faith that it´s possible to achieve that goal, that is when we see our righteous desires come to pass, and occasionally a little miracle comes with it. Or maybe the righteous desire needed a miracle. But we can´t sit around and expect miracles to happen because we have faith, or a passive belief in something. Oh no no. Remember the scripture, faith without works is dead. It´s so true. A passive belief does nothing. But an initial belief, followed by action and obedience, is what truly brings us miracles. 

 

I also read something by Elder Bednar in the New Mission President´s Seminar at the Provo MTC this week (we got the talk in a pamphlet here in the mission) about teaching. It´s pretty eye-opening, especially as a missionary. He says, "Sometimes we think talking is teaching, and it is not. Teaching is observing and listening--eyes to see, ears to hear--that precedes discerning by the power of the Holy Ghost. Then, and only then, do we know what to say. If we talk without observing and listening, we talk to ourselves in front of other people." I´ll let you all make of that as you will :)

 

This week truly has been incredible. I´m learning so much every day, and I can just feel God´s love for me, this work, and all the people here and everyone around me. I love being a missionary, and I love being here. I´m so glad I still have 15 months left here :) Thank you for all your support and love. I´ve definitely felt any prayers that happened to have come my way. I hope you all have an awesome week. Never forget how much our Heavenly Father knows and loves you. He´s honestly right there, literally waiting for you personally to come unto him and humble yourself. It´s a beautiful thing to watch it happen, and even better to feel it yourself :) I love you all. Feliz semana!

- Hermana Oliphant

 

Photos:

We helped some girls take some fotos of some braids for something they're doing, (I´m not entirely sure what it is, honestly), and they gave us braids, too :) Enjoy these pictures of me and Hna Miza rocking our braids these sweet girls gave us :D

 

Week 6: Cambios!

Pic with "Hermana" Coke

Close up of Hermana

 Well, this was the last week of my first change. Crazy! We´re getting a new zone leader, and our district leader is training this change. I´m excited to meet the new greenie. This means I´m not the youngest here! Ahah!

Anyhow. I don´t have much time right now, but I went on divisions a couple times (which gringas, yes!) And it was good. I learn much more about the culture when I talk to people who actually find it strange x3

We had an activity for the Gospel Essentials class where all our recent converts and investigators attend. It was this past Saturday, and since on Sunday we learned about service, we decided to all clean the chapel. It was super fun, and we had a decent turnout. Afterwards we celebrated the birthday of the girl that we baptized a couple weeks ago, and we ate sweet bread and fresco de chicha. It´s an interesting juice...it kind of tastes like a hamburger in a juice. At least that´s how it tastes to me.

So yeah. This week was full of walking, Spanish, crazy dogs, catcalls, near death experiences on buses, the works. I love this crazy little country and I´m so glad I get to spend the next 15 months getting to know it even better. Thank you everyone for your love and support, and sorry this email was so short.

This week, I reread the talk by Elder Holland from this past conference entitled, "Where Justice Love and Mercy Meet." Herman Miza has a recording of it in Spanish, so I listened to that and then found the Liahona issue in English and read it in my own language x3 It´s fantastic. If you want to understand the beauty and the complexity of the atonement more, I highly recommend looking that up. 

I also read a scripture somewhere in the Bible, I can´t remember where right now, about being chastized. Specifically that of God. When we´re shown the things in which we need to improve, we often feel taken aback and attacked, which is normal. It hurts to be told that we´re doing something wrong. But I love what the scripture said. When God chastens us, he´s doing it because he loves us. It hurts at first, but if we take what we learned to heart, and try our best to improve, we will be so blessed, and we will see the rewards of our efforts. 

Never forget that God has a plan for each of us! Life is so hard, and it´s so hard to do the right thing. But it´s always possible when we remember the reason we do all this things. 

Until next week! I love you all!

- Hermana Oliphant

After service at the church

all the sisters in the zone

Zone picture

Sunset last Saturday

Week 5

1st baptism. Hna. Miza, Adela, Sarah

The tiny cyber cubicle where she goes for mail.

Day 3 tan line

Week 5 tan line

Oh my goodness, cambios are almost here! Next Tuesday is our first set of transfers :) Only 11 more cambios left to go! And yes, mom, they`re each 6 weeks ;)

And how I use computers: There are lots of places called Cybers where you pay a certain amount an hour to use computers here. It`s about c$12 an hour, which is like $0.40. It`s not that bad ;) It`s just a little cubicle with sketchy mousepads and horrible keyboards. But it works :)

This week was pretty exciting. We had a multi-zone conference where we got taught *ahem* lectured *ahem* about food safety...because it`s so easy to get sick here or to get a parasite from the water. So we all need to be better at that. 

I also went on divisions with Hna Nicholls this week, in her area. I actually enjoyed that pretty much. Lots of cat-calling, a flock of freaky noisy birds, and 2 massive huge cockroaches in their bathroom. Such is the life.

So, Hna Miza and I made a contact this week, and they were super pilas and so we went back the next day to teach them, and they had friends over and were drinking vodka shots and pepsi...so it goes without saying that that lesson didn`t happen.

We have a group of 12 and 13-year olds that we`re teaching. There`s three of them, and they`re so cute and happy and they love hearing me speak English. I love that they love it, honestly x3

I had my first baptism this Saturday!! Al fin! Her name is Adela, and she just turned 16. She lives with her Aunt and Uncle and their kids, and they were less active. But they`ve started coming to church now and Adela has been baptized! I was so happy for her. I asked her how she felt as we were walking home, and she just told me, with a big smile on her face: "Libre." Or, free. Oh man that`s the best. Seeing the gospel work in people`s lives and change them for the better. It`s amazing.

 

So, neither Hermana Miza nor I enjoy contacting, which is pretty bad. So I came up with an idea to get us talking to people. We were going to try having a competition for the day to see who could contact the most people, and the loser had to buy the winner food today. I ended up winning, but not by much, and neither of us contacted that many people. It`s something I need to work on for sure, but hey. I won. Free brownie from TGI Fridays. (We got special permission to go eat lunch there, since it`s outside the mission boundries. But we were already in that area for choir practice, so it wasn`t that bad.)

Speaking of choir. We`re performing a musical number in a few weeks when a member of the Quorum of the Twelve comes to Nicaragua. All the missionaries from both the North and the South mission are coming, and there`s about 40 of us performing Divina Luz (Lead Kindly, Light). I`m pretty excited :)

So, there`s a milk company here called Eskimo. I know it`s just a central america thing, and it`s based in Nicaragua, but I need to find a way to get this stuff shipped to the states when I go home. The milk itself is kind of strange, but the ice cream is out of this world. I have literally never had a better ice cream bar or milk shake than I have here in Nicaragua. THey`re to die for. I had a vaca negra the other day, which is a root beer float in milkshake form, except with coke. One of the most amazing things I`ve had here. For sure.

Hermana Miza got really sick this weekend. We`re not sure what`s up, but it got pretty bad last night. She didn`t fall asleep for a long time, and so we both ended up awake at 3 in the morning. I didn`t know what else to do, so I gave her some pills that the enfermera told her to take, and then put on The Testaments in our little dvd player x3 we both ended up falling asleep around 4:30 or 5 in the morning. So that`s been my day.

So yeah. This week`s been crazy and exciting, but it`s been good :) I love you all, thanks for your emails, prayers, support, and everything else. I hope you all have an awesome week. My spiritual thought for the week is 1 Ne. 3:7 I feel like I use it a lot here. There is always a way to complete every single commandment we have been given. But also, since they`re commandments of God, we`ve also been promised blessings for following them. Not only are we automatically protected from the dangers of not following the commandments, we also get more blessings. How awesome is that? That`s something I`m trying to help our investigators and less actives understand, especially when it comes to going to church. It`s a commandment, but I don`t say that to condemn or judge you. I say that because our loving Heavenly Father has promised us so many blessings for keeping those commandments. So we should just do it :)

Have an awesome week!

- Hermana Oliphant

Bed and desk

Closet

Safety measures at apartment

Outside looking into the apartment

Week...4?

Hola todos! My goodness this week has been ca-razy. But, I won´t focus on that now x3 This week was definitely hard, to the point of tears a few times. But I have an awesome companion, and awesome zone leaders. AWESOME zone leaders. It´s so great to have someone there who can be like, "I went through this too. I know it´s hard, but keep going, keep working, and it will come." exactly when I need them. My main issue right now I suppose is the Spanish. One of the worst feelings is not being able to have conversations with people because you have no clue what they´re saying. And I´ve been struggling hardcore with that. But, honestly, after Tuesday, it´s all been uphill. I suddenly understand a little more, and I feel like I´m actually contributing as a missionary and not throwing out my jumbled mess of a whatever testimony randomly. This week has been such a growing and learning curve for me. And it passed by so fast :)

I had divisiones (exchanges) twice this week, once with the APs and another time just with some sisters in our zone. I´ve had to do them ALL THE TIME because my companion is Sister Training Leader...so you know. It happens. But it´s actually kind of fun. I always seemed to be with Latinas that didn´t know ANY English...that was fun. It always makes me more grateful that Hna Miza knows English enough that she understands me when I need to say something in English.

But when we went on divisiones with the AP, I was with a gringa, Hna Wilkins. She´s been here a year, and my gosh I understand why she´s one of the APs. She walks like a maniac, so much that I had to practically run to keep up with her. For 8 hours. She talks to EVERYONE and contacts everyone. She´s so happy and unafraid to ask Catholic contacts if they want to be baptized xD I didn´t have any warning and suddenly she turned to me and told me to invite this one girl to be baptized. At first I was like, um, are you crazy? But later she told me that we can never know who´s ready to be baptized. And we´re here to invite everyone to come unto Christ. That definitely made me think.

 

But by the end of the day, I was literally exhausted. I had worn holes in my socks and I couldn´t feel my feet, almost. But we taught so many lessons, talked to so many people, and I saw what missionary work truly is. Here´s what I wrote in my journal that night: "This is the obra misional. Holey socks and shoes, tired feet, sweaty bodies coated with dust, hands germy from shaking so many hands, a sore throat from talking to everyone (soon!), and a heart full of love for everyone you meet, without fear or shyness. Maybe one day I can be like that. But I´ve got to start somewhere." I´m struggling, but I´m learning. I know I have the capacity to be the missionary I want to be. But everyone has to start from the beginning. And I know if I want it and work for it, I can achieve it :)

A scripture I used a lot this week was Ether 12:4,6-7. Oh, and 3 Nephi 19:25-29 is excellent, too. I love that we need to test out the word of God before we can say if it´s true or not. I´ve seen that a lot this week with the people I teach.

Well, I´m out of time. Thank you for your prayers and your love and support. I´ve felt it this week, for sure :) We actually have baptisms this week! I hope. We´ll see.

Until next week! Love you all!

Hermana Oliphant

Semana 3

Hola everyone! This week went by crazy fast. I don´t have a lot of time, so I´ll try and squeeze everything in ;)

I realize I haven´t really talked a lot about the missionary work itself. The reason for that is I´m not entirely sure what´s happening half the time x3 I´m still trying to get used to everything. But I don't understand most of it ;)

We have about 25 investigators right now. I don´t even know half of them xD I feel like we have more Investigators, RCs, (recent converts) MA, (less active) and IA (inactive) then we can keep track of. Is that just me, is something wrong, or is that perfectly normal? There just aren´t enough hours in the day.

Most of the time we just walk past RC and MA and sing a hymn, read a scripture, and say a prayer. You know, to keep them going to church :) We also have lessons with our investigators, and we have lots with fechas (challenges to be baptized). It just seems that a lot of them are falling through, and that´s a little frustrating. But they have their agency, and they can choose for themselves. But man, they´re missing out :) 

We get a lot of references, so that´s how we find our new investigators mostly, but we also contact. We don´t really go door knocking (You don´t really knock on doors anyways...you stand at their gate and shout "Buenas!"), we just contact people in the street. We ask their name, if they have any family, and where they live, and tell them that we´re missionaries for the church, and invite them to attend church. Occassionally, we ask them if there´s a good time for us to come and teach them. But only if they seem interested. Most people aren´t, but some people definitely are.

 

We have a companionship goal of 12 baptisms a month, I think. Normally that´s the case, but we´ve been having a hard time lately. We have this couple, who were supposed to get baptized this past saturday, but we found out less than a week ago that they´re not married...so that didn´t happen. They´re still planning on getting baptized. But they just need to get married and go to church! Ay. We didn´t realize they weren´t married because they have a teenage son and she´s currently 7 months pregnant with twins. So that´s also causing problems, because she´s having a hard time getting to church and doing anything because of her health. But they´re tuanis! We´re going to baptize them for sure. 

I also got to teach English to a couple people this week. It´s harder than you think x3 English is loco.

Well that´s all I have time for. I´ll get pictures next week. I promise! I´m sorry I´ve been slacking. I love you all!

-- Hna Oliphant

Semana 2

This week wasn´t terribly exciting, unfortunately. Well, a little. We moved rooms. The place we live has two little rooms side by side, and we moved to the one next door, which is much prettier, and that bathroom´s a tiny bit bigger. So that´s a plus. And we have shelves and a spot for hangers. YES. That´s fantastic. And I don´t have any pictures of our old room, and I forgot my cord to show you all my pictures from this week :( Sad day. But next week! And my companion is awesome and has pictures that I will be sending ;) So I won´t leave you without anything again.
We also super cleaned our room for our room inspection/interview with the mission president. Those went well, and Hna Collado (the mission president's wife) said our casa was "¡Que linda! pero pequeña." Haha. I´ll take it.

We also were supposed to have three baptisms this week, but all of them fell through...ay. No bueno. But Hna Miza and I are working hard on our current investigators and on the baptisms that fell through to make sure they all get baptized :) Hna Miza loves her baptisms. But for a good reason. We´re not trying to get numbers up; we´re inviting children of God to change their lives for the better and come unto Him to receive all the blessings waiting for them. I love it. We actually placed our first baptismal fecha since I got here! That was a super neat experience, and I´m excited for him. He´s related to one of our recent converts who´s super strong in the church, so hopefully all goes well with him.

 

To answer questions:

I haven´t had to cook yet! We always have lunch and dinner citas. I eat cereal and granola bars for breakfast, so we´re good there x3 We also don´t have a stove anymore...so yeah. Shelves and a fridge is what we´ve got to work with. 

 

We have supermarkets where we can buy normal American food, but only on P-day. For the most part, we buy little snacks and water and drinks from pulperias during the day if we need to. There´s lots of street food. Lots and lots of street food. You can buy tortillas anywhere, pollo, carne. Platanos fritos. Oh my gosh fried plantains are the best. They were a little weird at first, but now I can´t get enough. Either cooked just so their soft inside and a little caramelized on the outside, or cut thin and fried like potato chips, they´re the BOMB. 

 

Money!
The main currency is Nicaraguan córdobas. About 27 of them is a dollar. So everything here is super cheap. Super cheap. A huge bottle of water is less than a dollar. And I got a razor here for like 30 cents. Some places actually do accept American dollars, but for the small household places like pulperias and street food, we only use córdobas. There are smaller forms of currency in coin form, but we never actually use them. I´m not sure why they exist. I´ll take pictures next week, but they have bill denominations of 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 córdobas, and then there are coins of 1 and 5 córdobas. There are ATMs in some places so occasionally we can go pull out money from our cards. And I always use currency. It´s just easier to pull out all of your money to avoid lots of fees, and then keep it on you or at the house. 

 

Our ward is a decent size. We have about 100 in attendance every week. Everyone shows up late, though x3 Oh dear. But everyone is super nice and super cool.

 

We have 10 companionships in our zone, and 5 companionships in our district. We don´t work with each other that much, but Hna Miza, as Sister Training Leader, definitely does. I´ve gone on exchanges already, and we have another two set up for this week. So we work with each other a decent amount, but not plenty. 

 

I´ll talk about the food some more. So yeah, gallo pinto. Gallo pinto, gallo pinto. I´m almost starting to get sick of it. But it´s good, so I can manage x3 We eat plantains a lot, and then ensalada, which is cabbage/lettuce, not sure which, carrots, tomatoes, and onions. I´m always grateful when they don´t put tomatoes and onions in x3 My missionary taste buds haven´t kicked in yet; I still can´t stand them. Lots of tortillas. Super thick, homemade tortillas. And they´re pretty good. Oh, we also had a cita with avocado. Yum. Me encanta. And we very very rarely drink water. It´s always juice, Coke, or the powder drink I talked about last week. I´m always grateful for water. This week we had lunch that was some kind of soup, and it was amazing. It had rice, chicken, potatoes, and some kind of spinach or lettuce, and it was a kind of red/orange oil sauce. Some kind of chili. It was fantastic, and I´m for sure going to get a recipe.

Selfies at the church waiting for a meeting

First day in the mission field

Hermana Miza and Sarah hanging out with a 14 year old member named Paola

Sarah killing spiders--"Don't judge me."

Hermanas with Yanoritt, the 4 year old daughter of a member of the bishopric in her "party dress"

Hermanas eating huge desert at Pizza Hut

Alright, that´s all for now. Thanks for the emails :) I love reading them. I hope you all have an awesome week! Les quiero muchisimo!

Love, 

Hna Oliphant

¡Primera Semana en Nicaragua!

Oh, where to begin? Nicaragua is crazy. Both in good and bad ways :) First of all I´m struggling with this Spanish keyboard...but that´s overcome-able ;)

So, Spanish...that´s been an adventure. My compañera, Hna Miza is from Guatemala, but she speaks a little English and understands me pretty well, so everything´s good there. I very seldom speak English, so my Spanish is mucho mejor aquí. My understanding went down the drain, though. My goodness. I don´t understand anything people tell me x3 very very barely. Teaching is...exciting. And hard. Honestly I just translate the scripture we´re sharing and listen carefully to what Hna Miza is saying so I have context when she looks at me (which is my cue to say my part). The Nicaraguan accent is very very hard to understand. It´s not that they speak quickly, it´s just the American of Spanish accents. They drop consonants, they don´t enunciate, etc. I´m getting better. But that´s honestly the hardest part of being here, is not being able to communicate. But Hna Miza seems to think my Spanish is really good, and other people keep telling me that...but I honestly don´t believe them x3 They´re probably comparing me to Hna Miza´s previous companion, who didn´t speak Spanish much, and didn´t speak very well, since this was her first area. But I´ve been told that my accent is really good, multiple times. I´ve been reassured that my Spanish and my accent is bueno...so I´m trying not to worry so much and rely more on the Spirit, because I won´t talk to people otherwise. That´s definitely been part of my grand adventure here. 

Food. The food is actually really good. I haven´t gone a single meal at someone´s house without rice and beans. They mix beans and rice together and call it gallo pinto. They eat it with everything :) But I love it. Most people give us Coke or Pepsi to drink, which is good. A couple people have put oatmeal (here it´s called avena mosh) in water or milk to flavor it and then give that to us...it´s interesting. There´s always stuff left at the bottom x3 People also set up pulperias, which are essentially like mini convenience stores you find at gas stations, except they´re a little smaller. You can buy drinks, water, snacks, and occasionally other things like toys. They´re everywhere, and people just buy homes and set up these little shops, and they´re awesome. If I ever need a bottle of water, there´s probably a pulperia nearby that I can buy one at :)

Speaking of homes. They´re kind of crazy here. No one really uses doors. At least here in Villa Flor. They have gates instead of doors, and a lot of homes have open roofs in some spots, so they´re never completely cut off from open air. It´s hard to explain. But also, some people actually have homes that look like tiny houses, and others live on dirt floors with sheets of tin and wood for walls and ceilings. The people here really are so poor. Not everyone, but some people definitely are. And if they´re not living in tin houses, they don´t have much more. Our "apartment" that´s actualy a room with a bathroom separated by a curtain, is actually fairly decent. It´s about 12x12 ft, if I´m calculating correctly. There´s room for 2 bunk beds, two fold out tables for desks, a couple fans (thank heavens), the "kitchen" with a mini fridge, a sink, and a portable gas stove with two stove tops that goes on top of the fridge, and then the bathroom with running (but cold) water. You don´t even want hot water for a shower here anyways...the cold showers I take every night are what I look forward to when I´m walking around all hot and sweaty. I´ll remember to take pictures for next week. Our room is cozy and tiny, but I love it. There´s just enough room. We really don´t need more.

The streets...oh my land. Rules of the road?? Here: if you´re a pedestrian, do what you want, just don´t get killed. If you´re a taxi driver, honk anytime you have to stop, and go as fast as you want, just don´t get killed. If you´re a bus driver, same thing applies to a taxi driver, but you have to wait until the last person at least has a foot in the door before you leave...and don´t get killed. Road lines are more like guidelines; you can essentially drive on whatever side of the road you want unless it´s separated by a median, and unless there´s another car coming. You can crowd as many cars as you want, as long as no one gets killed. It´s terrifying, honestly. Especially riding the buses. They´re huge and massive, and you honestly need to hold on really tight, because the drivers don´t care too much as long as you´re on the bus. And then I almost tried to underpay a taxi...oops. Sorry, sir. Thank goodness my companion speaks Spanish...and knows how much to pay a taxi.

Yeah, we essentially just walk around everywhere. But if we need to go far, we´ll take a bus or a taxi, depending. The bus is cheaper, but crazy. Taxis are easy, but expensive. They´re everywhere, honking at everyone to try and get a customer. 

Church on Sunday was interesting...they don´t have a pianist in their ward at all...and they have an electric piano that plays prelude. So I play the electronic piano now for the La Catorce de Septiembre ward...haha. Literally no one knows how to play. But at least I´m here...I suppose...I can sight-read.
So that´s about it :) Nicaragua is crazy but exciting. I love it, and I´m getting more used to it. I´ll tell you all about my adventures next week :) Love you all. The gift of tongues is real and Heavenly Father really does hear our prayers. I know that for a fact. 

- Hna Oliphant