June 24

hello loved ones.

 

i dont have much time to write anything lengthy today but i wanted to let you all know how much i am grateful for your support and love. its much needed :]

 

i live in a relm on miracles. the spirit has become our constant companion. this next week will be one full of much joy as we witness so many people ive come to love be baptized.

 

love you all. soo much.

sister oliphant

June 17

I'm currently feeling super trunky right now. news today came that two cousins (congrats russ and preston) get married this week. both my age that i feel more close to. lots of news from family about life and how it keeps moving on even when i am not there. the entire oliphant herd with aunts uncles and lots of cousins are all heading out to my home and nauvoo where my parents are hosting the family reunion this year. miss you all :( CONGRATS hyrum on landing the star lead in the play!!!! you sure have talent :]

we have a super exciting week! and it ended with having 5 investigators "firm" for the month on june. maria decided to postpone her baptism to allow all her family to be in attendance. we did practice her baptism for district meeting with a chair we are borrowing just for her. elder bennet was our practice dummy all strapped the chair. i think it will be quite successful!

we had the chance to to our own temple tour with rachel and her husband tuesday morning. oh the spirit was so strong there. and the morning crisp air was heavenly. she even had the chance to step in the temple and sit in the waiting room for a bit. it was neat to hear how she explained her feelings.

i got to interpret down in MANTECA for their stake conference. i happened to be on exchanges down there and there is a deaf woman in that stake. she only had one interpreter for the meeting so i offered to help. aw so neat. funny how WHO you interpret for makes a difference as to how great the experience is. 

sister jenson is so cute. she, like me, cant "listen" to someone pray with her eyes closed anymore (unless we are the ones praying). it just feel so strange. we have gotten so in the habit of watching another sign prayers its now takes a conscious effort to close my eyes for a prayer. and even then i give up after a bit because it feel so strange. asl missionaries pick up strange habits. dont make too much fun of me when i come home.

umm i had my 1 year birthday. uhhhh........ we celebrated with donuts of course.

we have had a recent TB scare. yang our recent convert has been tested positive. so we went to get tested too. my arm turned much more red than sister jenson but they still said i was okay.

sunday was quite the day. we didnt even get to attend sunday school or relief society. but we had a great sit down with mickey and lorenzo & brianna. things are progressing toward baptism :] so happy for them as they humbly want to follow the savior. after a super LONG day we had not yet met our goal of added new investigators this week. it was our only goal we had not hit/surpassed for the week. we had an hour before we needed to be home and for some strange reason we felt prompted to visit a certain man. we were really confused because hes pretty crazy and not quite sure why the lord was asking us to visit him. really him?! this is where grace stepped in. i wasnt sure if i was even able to get out of the car let alone put a smile one and have enough energy to testify. grace stepped in. i dont know how it happened. seriously huge miracle but not only did we see this said man, he needed us at the moment and we had a short powerful lesson on his doorstep. hes already started to read the book of mormon and we committed him to praying about its origin. he also accepted a baptism invite. he is our newest investigator :] the lord is truly on our side.

Love,

Sister Oliphant

June 10th

well we added the local drug dealer. and shes progressing. she is so precious. everyone needs the gospel. i think we have met and taught about 1/2 of this entire apartment complex. they all know us really well. everyone says hi to us and its be coming the popular thing to head down the street to the "mormon church" on sundays. haha love it. well right after we have a great lesson with her we head a few streets over to see a cute couple we had a power lesson with a little bit ago. we met them in their front yard and they extended the inviation for us to come in their home. they both looked a little distraught. well they continued to explain they wanted to make sure we were off the streets and safe because in a few minutes there was gonna be a big fight. some crazy baby mama and gang were coming over for round two. they had a few bruises and scratches to prove round one shortly just finished. realizing we didnt want to be in the middle of anything nor stuck in their home we quickly said a prayer with them and booked it. oh stockton.

missionary leadership council was this week. i was the only sister there for a bit until all the others came a bit late. lots of priesthood in one room. feels pretty cool. even they are just elders.

Hermana Pitcher our roomie was kind of sick this week :( hard to see someone that stressed out it makes them physically sick. yuck. had the chance to be her a comp for a bit as we went and got her a blessing. so grateful for amazing positive examples. there are just so many sisters i want to be friends with forever. they are so great. probably my most favorite thing on the mission has been getting to know so many wonderful people. im so glad god has helped me see a little bit of how he sees each of his precious children.

this week was exchanges again! woo-hoo.

we had deaf miracles this week! we received a referral this week for a deaf investigator in Angels Camp CA. and then thursday we met two more from angels camp at a deaf social! and one is a less-active! miracle, miracle. the lord seriously just lined them up for us to meet.

sister smith on friday (she is seriously the cutest thing. i dont know if i have EVER met a more innocent girl)

sister jackson on saturday

this is a copy and paste from sister jackson's weekly email home (hopefully im allowed to do this sister j):

"I also had the opportunity to go back to Stockton on Saturday on exchanges with Sister Oliphant, aka, Mama O. She has taught me so much, but really. It sure is a privilege to serve in the same mission as one of your Best Friends. But back to what we actually did. We got to teach DeDe. Have I told you just how much I love her? Cause its a lot. A lot, a lot. It was kind of one of those moments where she has been taught everything and so the lesson was to be in tune with the Spirit and Discern her needs. (I really really love going and teaching with Sister Oliphant - That is when the challenging and testifying missionary comes out. So awesome. So Spirit led.) Probably one of my Favorite Lessons on my mission. She had a question about Alma 42:9 - and Sister Oliphant did a great job of explaining about what "Spiritual Death" is. DeDe has continued to study with the missionaries and also the J-Dubs (Jehovah's Witness), and she is finding herself very confused and its holding her back a little bit. She knows what she wants. She knows how she feels when she hears TRUTH. She knows how she felt when we invited her to be baptized."

so other than the fact sister jackson likes to boast about me it was a great lesson and exchange. really most of the credit goes to her keeping me in check. i dont know what i would do without her. we had a few minutes to just chat as we were waiting for her ride to show up for exchanging back. something about just sitting in a car and chatting with a bestie i miss bucket loads. there are just some simple tender moments i'll never forget :)

maria had her baptism interview! shes such a hoot. we cant ever stay focused in her lessons cause she just makes up laugh at all her funny stories. anyways shes getting wet. and its going to be quite the splash. prepping for a paraplegic has been no small task. so excited for saturday!

 love you all SO MUCH!

SISTER OH

ps: its hott here. like a lot. now if only i were getting tan.

pss: pic of me changing a tire a while back. yep learn more than just the gospel out here. pray for me.

June 3

this is way too much fun... uh i mean amazing. i always want to be a missionary.

i have the best companion in the state of california. she understand me and listens. and talks me though stuff. and sings with me at the top of our lungs as we jam to hymns. this morning it was battle hymn of the republic :]

well we associated with lots of amazing people this week:

we contacted a legally blind man. we are going to teach him the gospel :]

went to the temple with maria and angela. ahh amazing experience. temple tours are seriously the best. and we all got to help maria move from wheelchair to truck. quite the experience and not as hard as i thought it was going to be. maria is already a saint. good thing shes getting baptized on the 15th :]

dede and our other investigator taylor actually are now doing in-home care for maria. miracles all around. i love the wonderful support system on the church and how we all just take care of each other.

lindsey came to church on sunday! she reminds me of the sweet innocent luna lovegood character. she brought her little one and had fun as everyone oo-ed and ah-ed over her son. i love that members were so welcoming, answered all her questions and were genuinely glad she was there. love members. speaking of which... some sweet sweet members gave us a gift card to home town buffet because they ended up not being able to have us over for dinner. it was a fun "girls night out" for the two of us and we had the chance to just chat. loved it. we sacrificed not getting drinks and turned around and gave the remaining balance of our gift card to the people behind us in line. charitable act for the day.... CHECK. so glad we were representing the church. doing little small acts of service like that makes you feel so good. and everyone benefits. love love.

dede hasn't smoked since friday!!!!! its a miracle. she is on the patch. but we are so excited and proud of her. as soon as she kicks the habit she is as good as wet.

we added a family! Janelle is such an amazing patient mother.

our asl class is GROWING! we dont fit in our room anymore! so glad the ward and the community is so excited are coming to classes regularly. we have found a few people thru asl class. love it.

there is a family in our ward that i just love. one of those families that gets a label "this is what i want my family to be like when i grow up." funny the mom reminds me of natalia a lot. and her husbands name is aaron ironically too. anyways all so amazing and have great examples. i love being in so many homes and learning from so many people here.

And last, but not least, we might be adding the local drug dealer as an investigator tonight! Whaaaat? Yes. That is happening. :) Gotta love Stockton. Even here, the church is true. <--- quote from sister jenson.

Love you all,

Sister Oliphant

Maria at the Sacramento Temple

Sisters Oliphant and Jenson at Sacramento Temple