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

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