JULY 29

sorry its short this week

exchanges with sister kim. we may or may not have stayed up pillowtalking about geek technology stuff and how much we love google and smart phones. haha joy.

exchanges with sister jenson. got to spend a day in stockton. love that city. and it will forever hold the title of home in my heart... but its not my area anymore. it was hard to say goodbye to that place but it was good to move on. life makes us do that sometimes. cant wait to be able to stay better in touch with all those loved ones via facebook, etc in the future. they may only be 15 minutes away but communication with other missionaries is close to impossible. Sister Jensen also sent me to a link to a profile of a mom with a deaf son: mormon.org/sherri. check it out. stockton was great. got to see the yeasmans, dede, larry, doug, lani. maria and many more. still haven't gotten a pic of kevin yet... and he moved :(

pioneer day activity on saturday! we dressed up like pioneers and looked great. sister langi even did my hair to match. pics to come. david wilson, a man we are currently teaching even came in his authentic native american garb and we ate time period food: homemade beef jerky and johnny cakes.

miracle for this week: we have now gone a full two weeks without any milk in the house. haha the lord provides.

at the close of yesterday we were invited over to dinner with a tongan family. sister langi was on cloud 9. and i even ate all the food. lots of fun stuff including otai = chunky drink and ota = raw fish veggie/coconut milk salad. we have lots of leftovers in the fridge cause of course they send you home with lots of food. i was the only palangi (white person) there. great times. maybe ill get horse before long ;]

1Nephi 11:21-22 has become one of my favorite passages in the book of mormon. how great it is to share the message of the love of god, the things that all desire most.

lovin the work and lovin lodi

peace,

sister oliphant

JULY 22: dont keep the faith, spread it

my cali pride is getting thicker

we moved again... to a home out in the country! sister langi have moved into a little apartment in the basement of the barrettes, member in our ward. its cute and real country like. kind of feels like we live in a cabin. its wonderful. we have horses in our backyard, (nbd). and a large patio/deck in the backyard with chairs and bench swings. its like a little piece of eden. quite serene. we plan out there late at night under pretty lights.

learned this week how much my companion is afraid of snails. (sister jackson mentioned it in passing awhile back but i forgot). yeah well there are a lot of snails out here.

exchanges this week were with sister bishop in galt. we were on a quest to find investigators that day so we decided to go contacting at the local flea/farmers market. i think we may have talked to only person there who knew english. and even at that it was very broken, he was from the holy land. seriously this area is so diverse. the pun-jabi indian people always are out walking in the evenings, they have the neatest mannerisms. We didnt have the time or miles to head back to dinner so we stopped and had $4 all you can eat chocolate chip pancakes at denny's for dinner. Seriously exactly what we needed. A real nice member couple came in as we were finishing and stole our receipt, told us it was on them. i am serious so impressed with how much members give so freely to missionaries. Also had a chance to have sister muaghn came to lodi with me :] She's a great missionary. I always learn so much from the other sisters on exchanges. Our area is so lucky! We get the chance to bring so many powerhouse sisters to our area.

I have become attached to grandma like figure here in lodi. Shes a recent convert. Bonnie. Oh shes a sweetheart who is just so solid. She describes finding the restored gospel like a fairy tale. She's seriously just the cutest. She just got her first calling as Relief Society pianist last week :]

Sister Langi is seriously so great. She pulls her weight so well its hard to believe shes not even 9 months yet. Shes a champ and keeps me stretching. We have had the chance to have some great personal studies as we just dive into the scriptures and the gospel. I love asking questions cause the lord jsut points us in the right direction and he pores out knowledge and inspiration.

Saturday I had the chance to go back to stockton for Belle's baptism! It was quite the miracle that after all these years of her staying strong she received permission from her mom to be baptized. She is neighbors to Lorenzo and Briahna. We have 3 recent converts all on the same street! I was asked to speak at her baptism about the holy ghost. it was a neat opportunity even if i was only given less than 24 hours notice. I gave her a homemade oliphant candle actually in reference to having her light always burning bright. thanks from home.

We got some more practice in front of an audience as we also got to teach gospel principles class sunday: signs of the second coming. im starting to feel a little more comfortable in front of people. teaching/leading a discussing still wind by far over speaking though. blah.

being mormon is being happy.

love from lodi, sister oliphant

ps: pluots (plum and apricot mix) are the best! they grow in our backyard and they are good. way good.

July 15

I'm in the middle of no where. but that means lots of fresh California fresh fruit. this is a new experience for any asl sister. loving it but its different. we go on exchanges only about twice a week. we are leaders for 14 sisters! its so much fun to get to know them.

did i tell you my comp is Tongan! she is so funny. and shes one of the older missionaries in the mission so we reminisce about the ancient missionaries a lot and can relate a ton more. we even can laugh about those crazy deaf branch days cause she was serving in Carmichael up there by me at the time. we laugh lots and i am getting more used to the cultural gap. she is American, born in Hawaii and grew up in SLC but still very Tongan at heart.

our tuesday this week was nothing but meetings all day. but it was so good to see missionaries again. it seems all the good missionaries just keep leaving, there are still great ones around though too.

this week i was on exchanges with sister smith and we were knocking on a recent converts door. no answer as we turned to leave, sister smith in her cute little innocent voice asks if we can knock on his neighbors door. OF COURSE! miracle. it was a less active that the ward didn't even know lived there. his brother was in town even and was at that moment talking to him about how he should go back to church. hey and then the missionaries just show up. great day with sister smith. shes just the cutest thing in the world.

that day we also felt prompted to go back and talk with a family sitting on the ground we had just passed. we park and walk back and end up having a lesson in the worst broken spanish ever, his daughter ended up just translating most of it. when we finished we asked for his contact information and he said he didn;t know it. he had just moved here. so we ended up just giving him our phone number and the address for the church. that night the spanish sisters laughed as we said we had a powerful lesson with spanish man and kids but that he promised he would "call us back." well he did!!!!  silly miracle but he called! haha spanish sisters have less faith than us ;] jokes!!!

our first week in the area we had a strange miracle happen to us. after a number of promptings we ended up on a door step and met Christian at his friends home. we gave him a book of mormon and he said his family wouldn't be interested. we got his home address and stopped by a few days later. turns out he wants to be baptized. miracle. also turns out his mother is a member. and she sat down with us and testified of everything we taught. miracle how the lord just lines us up perfectly with the people he knows are in need.

one time it was really hot. and we were having a slow afternoon. some cute kids and mom are selling slushies in their drive way so we stop by in hopes for a slushie and a chance to make another contact, you know leave a card or book of mormon or something. nope turns out its out young woman's president and her kids. we tried. and we still got slushies :)

this week we met the bishop! he asked us to speak in sacrament meeting within 60 seconds of us meeting. we politely accepted. our talks went surprisingly well for very short notice. and i'll tell a secret. that was the first time i've given a real full length talk in sacrament meeting before. now i don't mean to brag or anything but it was kind of really good. haha (oh no i'm starting to sound like richard!)

bonnie a recent convert in the ward, who is on fire and mission famous might i add, is this cute tall elderly woman. we have been meeting with her short greek husband. and he came to church Sunday! hahaha he was like sister Wilson in a donut shop! grinning ear to ear the whole time and might i add hes also a huge flirt haha.

we have a neighbor who likes to hit on us. everyone likes sister Langis brown skin ;]

Thats about it for my week.

love from Cali.

Sista elephant

July 8

well i'm in lodi.

in english work. i already miss signing. even if its just simply prayers or with my companion. side note to my dear future husband: learn sign. a yes might be conditional on this.

time flies fast. what a week. its amazing how much the lord provides when we go on faith and give it what we have, even if that's not very much.

my week:

M- Wendy's parking lot when transfer calls came. "Hello President... Lodi... English work... Leaving Stockton." I didnt have much time to think about it thank goodness because when i finally did it hurt a lot.

T- tried not to think that this was my last day in the land i have learned to love so much. if only so many knew how great stockton really is. (got a comment this week for a recent vet: "i would compare stockton to iraq. no actually i would take iraq before stockton") again if only they really knew. i had the chance to say goodbye to a few loved ones. some it was easy, i know there will be no real goodbyes. these people will be in my life for forever. others it will never be the same. we stopped by lorenzos and briahnas. lorenzos hug touched me the most. cute little 11 year old boy wouldnt let go of me. and with tear filled eyes he tried to be strong. me too. tried to be strong. i wish i could just adopt him.

W-transfers. said to goodbye to so many loved missionaries on their way home and hello to many more missionaries fresh and with faith. since lodi previously was an elder area we were "shotgunned" unto the area we had to track down our phone, car, and where we were living. we are living temporarily with the spanish sisters in their apartment. rumor has it we are movin in with members soon. that evening we met the ward mission leader and bishopric. lodi is a power ward. they are very on top of things and missionary minded. i can tell the work is just going to boom.

Th-6:39 as i was making my bed the phone rings. President. Emergency transfers. Newly called to a sister training leader companionship we got put to work right away. we got to greet a new sister who just arrived a day late. pick her up, see she got her training and take her to her trainer: sister jackson! we got to help shuffling the sisters down in the south part of the mission to accommodate the new sister. we put 200 miles on our car that day. it was a great fourth of july :] that evening all the missionaries were asked to come in and we had a zone activity playing sprots and watching lds.org videos haha. happy fourth.

F- planning and organizing all day. we finally got antzy and got the chance to get out and work!

S- MORE WORK! 

Sun- miracles. and lots of yummy fresh fruit.

we may even have a baptism on sunday. seriously big miracles. did i tell you i started a miracle journal? its the only way i keep track of what happens around here.

im being stretched again. this area isnt stockton. and i dont know it like that back of my hand. good to know the lord is still blessing me, he loves me enough to help me grow.

 

the lodi 1st ward is amazing. president lewis said secretly lodi is his favorite in the mission, but mums the word. it is such a special place. the ward council is so missionary minded, such a great support. the work here is going to just boom i can feel it. the ward is also very excited to have sisters!! :] we are kind of the better bunch.

much love from here,

sister oliphant

July 2

i have two weeks to catch up on here and again less than prefered time.highlights:

i swim in miracles everyday. and this week i maybe drown in them. i have decided to keep a miracle journal. its the only way i have that i think i can stay on top of journaling. its just such a huge task normally every evening so i give up and just go to bed. aint no body got time for that!

transfers. i am leaving stockton. and i am a bit of a wreck. stockton has become home to me. wisconsin, then byu, now stockton. i dont know how i can say goodbye to all these people that i love. all eight of my recent converts are in this ward and there are many more who i am so close to. members and not. i will be serving in lodi. its central in the mission. right in between sacramento and stockton. my companion will be sister langi (an islander) we will be shotgunning and english area, previously assigned to elders. and we are the assigned companionship to do sister exchanges. it will be good to still be able to visit all my dear friends/sisters through out the mission. we literally become sisters.

we were led to this man named brandon. he is kind of amazing even though he is so stubborn. (he reminds me of the older version of virgil from high school). we asked him to read a chapter in the book of moroni, he ended up reading the entire book of moroni. so we gave him a chapter in alma haha. he doesnt know hes progressing but he is. its hard to say goodbye to people you feel so connected to. i told him he's going to have to come to utah to hike red rock with me though. 

for sister jenson's 6 month mark we set a goal to have 6 lessons that day. of course we are missionaries of faith and accomplished our goal. our days have not been the same since. the lord has opened our eyes to what we have the potential to do everyday. we have set a record for number of lessons taught in one transfer: 123!

we had a sister training meeting! all the sister in the whole mission got together. i was asked to give some training. i was so nervous. but i was so neat to see us all together and how many sisters are serving now! we are taking over haha!

we taught mama ruby the word of wisdom and she went in the kitchen pulled out all her coffee and handed us cases of it. and shes just as determined to quit smoking too. heavenly father is answering our prayers of how to help dede quit smoking. we teach and convert her best friend/ neighbor who sells her cigarettes!

well this week we were able to see four truly converted people enter the waters of baptism. lorenzo and briahna, mickey dunn, and maria castro. they each all have wonderful touching stories of how they came to know the truth.

i have never had a more happy moment in my life than when rachel casper set a baptism date. it may be one of the most special baptisms i will have out here. i met rachel my 1st transfer here in stockton with mama wilson. for some reason i have always felt so connected to her. she has a wonderful husband who is a member and she has been learning from sister for years and years now. she finally has decided to be baptized and i cannot thank god enough for giving me the blessing to be apart of it all. sister jenson and i had the chance to offer a prayer of gratitude on our knees that night specially for rachel. she is amazing :]

love from stockton for the last time,

sister oliphant

a few more baptism pics and explanations :]

belle is lorenzo and briahnas friend. she was their missionary. and shes not even a member herself. but she will be baptized soon.

maria had 3 men in the font for her baptism. shes paralyzed so we had an extra unique baptism.

all the asl missionaries at the sister training meeting. sister jackson included (we have adopted her)

All the ASL Missionaries

Lorenzo and Briahna on Baptism day

Mickey's baptism day

Maria's baptism day with the three men who baptized her