Feliz Navidad y Año Nuevo!

Companions at mission Christmas Party

So, I apologize for my lack of emails these past couple weeks. Lots of traveling and craziness, so I haven`t had time to hop on the computer to tell y`all about my week :) But it has been an excellent Christmas time here in Sèbaco. Lots of food, miracles, rejections, presents, and happiness here in Nicaragua. Last Monday we had our mission Christmas party, and that was a blast to see all my friends and have a party. With President Collados permission and presence, we watched Minions, and we had a talent show. It was so fun, we laughed so hard, and just had a great time. And as our Christmas gift, they gave us a fruit basket of giant apples and grapes. It may not seem much to you, but those things are EXPENSIVE here, and I haven`t had a delicious apple in forever. Needless to say I`ve never been so excited to see an apple before in my life.

Sarah and Hermana Near on Christmas Day

This week we saw so many miracles! Found lots of people, but even though lots of them rejected or lied to us, we found our miracle family. It happened on accident because I needed to repare my shoes. Long story short, we ended up at their house and we taught them and the Spirit was so strong. We came back other days with members and the Spirit is just so powerful every time we`re there. They keep asking when we`ll come back, they have questions, they want to learn. They`re so fantastic, and they even came to church yesterday! It was a miracle that we got both of them, because he left for work because he said he had to. But he ended up talking to his boss and coming back, and he came for the first hour and we all crowded on a mototaxi and even got there before sacrament started and it was so great. Our literal Christmas miracle :) We`re going back with them after we finish up here, and I hope that they read the Book of Mormon together, and that they`ll ending up making the decision to be baptized.

Member family that hosted the missionaries on Christmas

For my spiritual thought, I wanted to share a part of 2 Nephi 26.
 23 For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in darkness.

shadow posing

 24 He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.
 25 Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price.
 26 Behold, hath he commanded any that they should depart out of the synagogues, or out of the houses of worship? Behold, I say unto you, Nay.
 27 Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath given it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to repentance.
 28 Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden.
I love this scripture. We are so loved, and we can`t even imagine it. Our father loves us so much that he gave his so that we could ALL participate of his salvation, and none of us are denied. We deny ourselves by not learning to live by his celestial standards. He gives us commandments, calls prophets, requires us to walk by faith, all for our benefit. He does EVERYTHING just for us. We are his purpose, just like it says in Moses.

Alright, time to go. But I hope you all have an excellent new year, and that you all write up some resolutions to go share the gospel! Ain`t no better joy ;) Okay. I love you all, have a great week!

Hermana Oliphant

Sorry! I`m alive!

Hey everyone! I swear I`m still alive! We just ended up going to Managua yesterday for a choir practice, and we were there all day! We didn`t leave Managua until 6 pm, and then we had to take the bus back. Normally it takes 3 hours to get to Sèbaco, but we accidentally shoved on the express bus, so it only took an hour and a half (and cost us twice as much...but it`s all good. It was comfy and fast.) So we got permission from our mission president to write you guys today!

This week has been slower than usual. Not sure why, but both me and my comp have just felt like this week draaaaggggeeddd on. It feels like it`s been a month since we became companions...nope. Just a week, haha.

And this comp likes to run to exercise in the mornings...so guess what I`ve been doing. Not my favorite, haha. Mainly I walk behind her as she runs around, but I`ve started to run a little bit more. And we went exploring a bit, and we found this cute little crosscountry trail that leads through lots of crops and farm land and by a little river...it was so beautiful, and it makes me want to go running some more just to go see it, haha ;)

New foods this week! I was given a whole fish by my lunch cita. I didn`t know what to do with it, so she helped me out, haha. And since Hermana Near and I felt a little daring, we each ate a fish eye. And not just the eyeball, either. The entire eye socket and some meat stuff behind it. It was actually pretty good. Not gonna lie. But on a more delicious note, we found this smoothie place that makes piña colada milkshakes. YUUUMMMM.

We`ve really been struggling with finding people who are ready to progress, but we`re still contacting and teaching and doing everything that we`re supposed to, but I guess I`m just going to have to be patient ;) I know there`s a family here waiting just for this two gringas!

For my spiritual thought, I stumbled upon Jacob chapter 4 and I really really loved it. Everything about it. Especially verses 7-14.
 7 Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things.
 8 Behold, great and marvelous are the works of the Lord. How unsearchable are the depths of the mysteries of him; and it is impossible that man should find out all his ways. And no man knoweth of his ways save it be revealed unto him; wherefore, brethren, despise not the revelations of God.
 9 For behold, by the power of his word man came upon the face of the earth, which earth was created by the power of his word. Wherefore, if God being able to speak and the world was, and to speak and man was created, O then, why not able to command the earth, or the workmanship of his hands upon the face of it, according to his will and pleasure?
 10 Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works.
 11 Wherefore, beloved brethren, be reconciled unto him through the atonement of Christ, his Only Begotten Son, and ye may obtain a resurrection, according to the power of the resurrection which is in Christ, and be presented as the first-fruits of Christ unto God, having faith, and obtained a good hope of glory in him before he manifesteth himself in the flesh.
 12 And now, beloved, marvel not that I tell you these things; for why not speak of the atonement of Christ, and attain to a perfect knowledge of him, as to attain to the knowledge of a resurrection and the world to come?
 13 Behold, my brethren, he that prophesieth, let him prophesy to the understanding of men; for the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be; wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls. But behold, we are not witnesses alone in these things; for God also spake them unto prophets of old.
 14 But behold, the Jews were a stiffnecked people; and they despised the words of plainness, and killed the prophets, and sought for things that they could not understand. Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it. And because they desired it God hath done it, that they may stumble.

These verses just really stood out to me, about how we can never understand how incredible our God really is. And how often do we seek to counsel him in our daily lives? It`s not literally telling him what to do, it`s the way we revise his commandments inside ourselves by justifying even the slightest sin. If we`re justifying our weaknesses and sins in our hearts, we`re not being humble, and we`re being stiffnecked just like all those horrible Jews ;) But seriously, a big part of being humble is putting OUR knowledge aside and just doing what the Lord tells us to do, because we have faith that he knows better, and he will lead us down the path of happiness.
Okay, so we`ve got to head out now. I hope you all have an excellent week! Remember Ether 12:27 and 2 Nephi 9:28-29 and Proverbs 3:5-6 ;) I love you all so much, and thank you for all your love and support and prayers and everything. It means the world!
Feliz semana!
Hermana Oliphant

Buenas tardes todos!

So this week was pretty great. On Thursday we had a multizone conference, and it was honestly just fantastic. I felt the Spirit so strongly, and I learned so so much about how to be a better missionary. We were urged to use the Book of Mormon more. We read a quote from one of the apostles that basically said that we can`t start teaching our investigators until they have a Book of Mormon in their hands. We hadn`t been using the Book of Mormon that much, but they handed us giant boxes full of soft-back copies and we`re supposed to use the whole box in a couple months. Not wasting them, but teaching with them, and helping our investigators to progress by reading it. It just helped me even more in my testimony of the Book of Mormon, and how powerful it is in teaching and converting. We watched the story of Parley P. Pratt, and his conversion. Basically, he followed another church to New York, and there he met someone who had a copy of the Book of Mormon, and showed it to him, and told him the story. Pratt was intrigued, and once he got the book, read the whole thing in one night. Then he new he had to find Joseph Smith and join his church. Isn`t that incredible? He didn`t even need a missionary. Just that book was enough. Not saying we don`t need missionaries, but we need to rely more on the power that`s already been placed in our hands for us, instead of trying to convince everyone that they need to get baptized. I loved it, and I`m so excited to continue teaching more from the Book of Mormon.
And now I have a funny story. So my old companion just went home this week, so I new I`d be getting a new companion this change. So on Sunday, my comp and another sister from Matagalpa would be going to Managua together for their final interview, and her companion, Hermana Near, would be staying with me in Sèbaco. While we were here, Hermana Near got a call from her zone leader saying that she was closing her area, and she was going to have changes too. Basically, that meant running over to catch a bus to Matagalpa so she could pack and say goodbye to some people. And clean the house and take care of keys and everything. Thankfully there are still Elders in her area, so we just had to hand them the keys to the apartment and they`d take care of the rest. So, in the middle of our running around Matagalpa, my zone leader called me and said that Hermana Near and I were actually going to be companions!! We both laughed, saying that we knew it. We both did have a hunch, but now we knew for sure. That meant, also, that we didn`t have to take the long bus to Managua to pick up our new companions, because we were already together! We just had to finish packing and taking care of a few other details before we came back here to Sèbaco. One of those things was getting the keys to the apartment and her phone to the Elders in the ward, and they were going to meet us at the bus station. But as soon as our taxi (with a BUNCH of suitcases and bags) pulled into the station, we had people yelling at us, asking us where we were going. We said "Sèbaco," and so they just threw our suitcases on top of the bus and yelled at us to get on because the bus was leaving. I hoped on with my mountain of things and got settled, and I realized that Hermana Near hadn`t gotten on the bus, and it started to leave! So I ran to the door, and asked her what she was doing, and she reminded me that we were supposed to wait for the Elders. I didn`t know what to do, so I told her to get on, because that`s where our stuff was. So she got on, and called the Elders and said that they were going to have to get everything another time. They told her that that wasn`t possible, and that we NEEDED to get off the bus. So we headed to the front of the bus and told the driver that we needed to get off and we needed our stuff. So all the guys were all irritated, so the let us off (and I bumped into a bunch of people on that crowded bus...sorry guys. They were laughing at all the stuff I had. Not my fault, haha). And they chucked our luggage off the top of the bus, and also some random bags of plants and flowers and things that were up there too, that they somehow thought were ours...and then it left. We just stood there, thankfully near a gas station so we could tell the Elders where to meet us, and felt so bad for that poor lady who lost her bags filled with things she was probably going to sell. But we couldn`t do anything about it...so we left them there, hoping that maybe she`d think to come back and look. I`m going to be praying for that, for sure. Al fin, the Elders found us, took the keys and phone, laughed at how much stuff we had, and let us catch the next bus that came by where we were. And then, settled on the bus, a little calmer, we realized that we didn`t give the Elders the rent money, or the number of the landlord. We`ll deal with that later. Maybe they`ll find the number on the phone.
Then we got back to the house in TWO mototaxis, then started cleaning our crazy mess of an apartment.
And that was my p-day. Crazy and stressful, but amusing. A day I`m never going to forget, for sure. And we`re so excited to be companions, even though saying goodbye was really hard.
I`m out of time, but hopefully you all enjoyed my story. Lesson learned: Plan things out a little better. But as missionaries, we sure do get pretty good at winging it. We can handle ourselves here, right? ;)
Alright, I hope you all have a great week. I didn`t get to watch the Christmas devotional, but I hope you all take the time to watch it and enjoy it. I`ll sure do my best to get a hold on it :) I love you all, and remember to read the Book of Mormon! You WILL gain a testimony of how important it is in your life, and to the church. I promise.
Love, Hermana Oliphant

Another week in Nicaragua

So I´m out of time this week but it´s been pretty slow anyways. Everyone´s started the Christmas fiestas, haha. Lots of lights and decorating and parties. Christmas here is basically the same, but lots more Catholic statues of Christ and the Virgin Mary. The norm.

I´ve been falling in love with teaching, and just helping people understand the Restoration and the Plan of Salvacion. Especially the Restoration. Just going over it over and over again really helps me understand it better and gain a testimony of how much God loves us, and how inspired everything about the Book of Mormon, the Restoration, and everything is. I love it so much. I also read 2 Nephi 9 this week in my studies, and It was so powerful. I hope you all get a chance to read it and ponder it. It´s kind of long, and it covers a LOT, but take it piece by piece, and it´s a really beautiful and wonderful chapter of the Book of Mormon. 

 

We had an interesting experience this week. We were looking for a reference, and we contacted a house to ask for directions. My companion said, "Sorry to bother you sir, but..." and he´s just like "No, it´s no bother, the word of God is always welcome." and went inside to pull out chairs. We´re just like, well cool. Guess he was ready for us, haha. Turns out he was very very drunk, and basically cried and told us that he was struggling to stop drinking, and that we were his angels sent to save him. We said a few things, gave him a pamphlet, and promised to come back later when he wasn´t drunk so we could actually teach him a lesson. But we went back and he was asleep, and we haven´t been able to visit him since. But we felt in the moment we contacted him that we were supposed to meet him. He turned out to be the brother of the person we were looking for, and so we´re definitely going back again. The Lord definitely knows how to guide us when we´re working under his authority. I´m so glad to have this opportunity to help his children learn about the plan he has for each one of us.
I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving, and I hope your preparations for Christmas go smoothly, and remember to keep Christ in Christmas :) I love you all, feliz semana!

Att. Hermana Oliphant

Eating interesting foods

Hola todos! We went to Estelí today, and this week was pretty slow, so this´ll be a pretty short letter. Just more walking, talking to people, teaching, getting to know this massive area. I´ve also got a picture this week! I´m not sure how good the quality is, since for some reason my camera is only taking blurry pictures.

I got to give a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday. I didn´t know about it until 7 am that morning, with church starting at 9. And I didn´t have time to prepare anything, since we had to run around to bring investigators to church. I also didn´t have a topic. So I just picked a couple of related Liahona articles I had found in my search of cool things in old Liahonas. I based it off of "Living with Real Intent" from this October, and just talked about how we need to always have a goal in mind, to keep an eternal perspective, and never stop doing good things of our own free will. I felt the Spirit so strongly, and I knew that the Spirit guided me to know what to say. I urged all of the members to go to the temple, because there´s a trip to Honduras in the district at the beginning of December. Not many are planning on going, and I just urged them with all my heart to go. Because I´m so beyond jealous that they can go to the temple, and I´m over here dying because I want to go so bad and have to wait another year. It´s so far, an 8 hour bus ride, but I´d hop right on that thing if I could. I can´t wait until I can go to the temple again ;) Please treasure that wonderful sacred building. Go as often as you can. Go for me, haha.

 

So also, I ate chicken heart. I didn´t know what it was at first. It´s called Titile, or Piedra. It´s a part of the chicken´s chest cavity, including cartilage and part of it´s heart. They wouldn´t tell me what it was, it looked like some kind of sea food, but I ate it and it was pretty good. Then I learned later what it was. First time I´ve ever eaten anything crazy over here ;) The people are pretty tame with their food, but they eat all of the animal. They don´t understand why we throw their organs away, haha. 

So yeah. I hope you all have an excellent week. Strive for the temple! Keep the commandments! You´ll be so blessed if you do, I promise! That´s really the secret to life. I know it is.

Att. Hermana Oliphant

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 :)

 

Changes have arrived!

Last zone activity in La 14

I´ve finally moved to a new area! It´s called Sébaco and it´s in the department of Matagalpa, in the zone Estelí. It´s actually pretty cool over here, which is so weird after 4 months of sweltering heat. But it´s so beautiful and I´ve fallen in love with my area. Which is good, because I have to get to know it really fast since my new companion, Hermana Mendez, is going home this next cambio. And this next cambio is only 4 weeks instead of 6 weeks so missionaries aren´t coming right during Christmas, so I´ve only got 4 weeks with her to learn this GIANT area, and all the people and everything. But I´m so excited. I´m so sad to leave behind all the wonderful friends I´ve made in La 14, but I know I´m here because the Lord wants me to be here, and I´ll go where He wants me to go. Por donde me mande, iré!

Also, they´re closing La 14. There´ll be Elders working in there de vez en cuando (now and then), but there aren´t missionaries assigned to the barrio (ward). I hate having to leave all of our investigators and recent converts, but Hermana Palencia is still close by in a neighboring area in the same zone, so she can go visit our investigators and keep them animados! I know they´ll all be alright. We have some awesome members in that ward, and they´ll keep the work going, for sure.

 

In my last week in La 14, I just had some awesome experiences. I got to feel the Spirit work through me when I open my mouth. It´s exhilarating to start talking and just feel the words flow so effortlessly and perfectly with a peace and Spirit that practically screams that it´s the Lord talking. It´s such an honor to be able to be his mouthpiece to these people, to be able to help and guide these lovely people in a camino (way) that will lead them to true happiness. I just saw so many small miracles this week because I listened to the Spirit. One of the great things about being on a mission is learning to word hard, of course, even when you don´t want to, but also learning how to recognize and follow the promptings of the Spirit. You don´t always see the results of that decision immediately, but when you do it feels like a slap in the face when you realize that, wow, that´s how it works.

 

Thanks for all your prayers and love and support. I can´t believe I already have 5 months on the mission! Almost a third of my mission. I´ve still got a year to go, but I´m so excited to learn and work and teach and baptize and reactivate these incredible people of Nicaragua!

Hasta la proxima!

Att. Hermana Oliphant

 

(If you want to see the church map to get an idea of where Sarah is at, click here.)