Sept 30

hello there friends and family,

 

well this week was a little different cause sister langi was quite the sick, BUT we had an eventful week nonetheless.

 

hmm here are a few things we did:

1. made scarves with a lessactive from various curtain scraps. yep pulled a sound of music stunt.

2. went to the public library to email

3. went to the temple! yay for the new video, so great :]

4. counted my blessings

5. had "transfer goodbye" dinner with the pishos family, well not really cause we let them know they werent getting rid of us anytime soon. we ate fried egg plant. im sure the only good way to eat it. delicous.

6. went to audrey sharps volleyball game with the young woman, (strange feeling) but was great to go support audrey. the young woman in this ward are so great, very close knit and supportive of eachother. reminds me of home, growing up in mad2 ward :]

7. we got to know this amazing family named the perkins. both converts with 3 great kids. they recently were asked to leave the private school they were attending/teaching at because of their standards. yay for people sticking up for the truth!

8. RS broadcast was great :] i almost balled the whole way through it. its amazing how much the lord just makes us feel so loved. we have the best prophet ever! really looking forward to general confernce this weekend.

9. sunday was the 5th sunday and we had a combiend class with EVERYONE. and guess what the topic was? missionary work. the "family mission plan" is in full force after months of being on the operation table. we are stoked for it to move forward.

10. im in carmichael hanging with sister repman and sister abbott while sister langi is having fun at coloma.

 

the gospel is simple. the work is true, life is beautiful.

love, sister elephant

Sept 24

sister langi and i will be companions for another 6 weeks! crazy. i would have never thought i would be with and english sister in lodi in a regular duo-companionship for 3 straight transfers. first time ever. everything else had a trio or an ET (emergency transfer) thrown in there. guess i shouldnt speak too soon though.

 

well that means another 6 weeks that we get to spend with the pishos family, the wilson family, gloria and jesse and maria, the sharp family, david pierce, and lastly the amado family! its neat to be working with so many families :]

 

well ive had short emails the last few weeks so here is a breif update on the last few weeks:

 

we sang in sacrament meeting! it was last minute, we wanted to have extra motivation for a certain individual to come to church and well it worked. our song was less than perfect but it was great practicing and sister langi can harmonize so well. it was neat to be ablet o practice with the family we stay with (their family was in town that weekend) and had a chance to have cute little non-member granddaughter practice with us. we sang This Is The Christ. Beautiful song. just beautiful.

 

After our family history training we were on a little geneology buzz. turns out my district leader and i are 5 cousins. elder hinckley and i are related through zadok knapp judd. small world.

 

we have recently been setting up loads of family home evenings. great way to teach these great families and have a little bit of fun too. ive had a chance to play scattergories and the famous thimball game already. i told them the thimball game was an oliphant favorite. also had a chance to make cupcakes when we contributed the treats :]

 

i may or may not have bought wedding shoes :] ( thas a big sheepish grin) I COULDNT HELP IT! they were screaming sister oliphant and they were $7. hehehe but seriously theyre super cute. and im dying to wear them.

 

we are teaching a 97 year old woman. she is a trooper. maybe she will set a record for the oldest person baptized.

 

we get to head up the temple today!!! (why im emailing so early) stoked to go, its been too long. and stoked to see the new temple video :] we are riding up with sister jackson and alexander which is a extra treat.

 

pictures:

 

bonnie pishos. the great woman ever. we went on a temple tour with the pishos family this saturday. bonnie is a recent convert of just a few months and is as bold as lightening. she was the one who said having the restored gospel is like living in a fairytale. she mothers us much and takes care. we are working on getting her husband tommy into those baptism waters too ;] theyre feeding us dinner including their famous fried egg plant tonight!

 

 

our district this transfer. the tall skinny one is elder hinckley, my 5th cousin.

 

and this is the planner i just retired this transfer. its one of my favorites. shout out to sister wilson who will be getting married monday. miss that woman bunches. but so happy for her that she has found the love of her life and is getting hitched ;]

 

 

LOVE FROM LODI

sister oliphant

 

 

EXCHANGES ARE OVER! well at least for this transfer. sometimes it feels like i dont ever get to see my real companion. love sister langi.

last week of transfers! we are determined to go out with a bang!

pictures are worth 1000 words and i dont have the time to write a 1000 words right now so here ya go:

ps that zone pic was from last transfer :]

 

 

Stakes in the California Sacramento Mission (11 of them)

Cali News!

cali news!

we had a great time at big trees :]

sister pitcher had a birthday. we made her cupcakes and went out to panera :]

i finally got my stockton hat! and langi got jealous cause they were so great and got one too (she never served in stockton haha)

 

we felt inspired to use the amazing family history center here in lodi as a better tool in our missionary work. and we help set up a wonderful training for the zone about it! it will be a great benefit!

these are just a few of the sunsets we experience all the time here. its beautiful! (photo courtesy of sister langi and jenson)

 

i got to go on exchanges with sister mclelland and sister zenger! we have the best sisters in the world right here in cal-sac. got to do a bit of deaf work! it felt so good to use my hands! ive been in english work far too long! but yeah we walked right into a deafie drug party. house smelled awful. lani was all ready to sit down and have a lesson with all who were there after they cleared all the drugs and ashes off the coffee table. yeah so grateful for the spirit and how the lord protects his missionaries :] i got to give big hugs to dede and maria too! i just wish i could take home with me so many of the people i have come to love out here. i dont ever want to say goodbye.

we have had the best lessons this


week. so simple and spirit led. we are doing all we can to help prepare these people we love so dearly for baptism. they are all just so close and i love them all way too much. we are trying to work so close with the spirit so we can resolve their concerns! they need the atonement too!

love from lodi. the work moves forward!

 

love,

sister oliphant

 

SEPT 2

I LOVE SEPTEMBER!
best month on the year by far. its going to be an amazing month :]

Well yesterday was fast sunday.... not a slow one ;] time sure does zip by. there are really just never enough hours in a day.

a few updates from my neck of the woods:
we found deafies in lodi! actually a whole bunch of them. five! i was walking past a man taking out his garbage and politly said hello, i got a knod and he just kept walking. typical. well he comes back and i ask him a question about the lay out of this apartment complex, we were looking for an apt number and were a little lost. well he points to his ear and signs that hes deaf. I GOT REAL EXCITED. oh hey i know asl too! forget the question about where the apartment was, whats your name, etc. miracles, well we taught a lesson to danny and his roommate toni right there and had a prayer with them too. we met another roommate named d'wan too. well turns out they have 5 college aged deafies all living as roommates. it was a gold mind. i was able to have a pass off lesson with the asl stockton sisters which was way neat to have a full asl lesson again but it was sad knowing i had to pass them off to other missionaries. i know sister jenson will take good care of them though.

sunday in church we joined the young womans class. we participated in a miss in-the-world-but-not-of-the-world pagent. we participated with the interview questions and got to wear cute sashes. so much fun. young womens is such a great program and i miss it much :] they have so much fun! also its fun being a sister missionary cause you can hang out with the young women. this adorable 15 year old mia-maid ran up to me on sunday... "SISTER OLIPHANT! ... oh my goodness i thought you had been transferred! i saw this other blonde missionary here on wednseday and i was so worried!" haha so cute! love them. biggest compliment ever. made my day.

speaking of exchanges. this week i was able to spend a day with cute sister moss, a visa-waiter soon to go to Australia. shes great. Also i finally got to be sister vaughns companion!!! (for a day) i have been hoping to be able to serve with her since the day she arrived. shes so cute and just a transfer younger than me. we had an exchange all set up back in january when i was companions with sister wilson who did exchanges, but i was emergency transfered days before it happened... so this day was in the making for almost a year. haha it was great and i love her so much.

zone conference this week. the food was great. i sign Called to Serve by myself though :(

the lord placed us in a spot to see our former contact as she was washing by hand her car. actually more like scrubing/waxing her car. her son had washed the car using dishwasher soap and it had left a film all over her car that was awful. she finally found something to take it off but it required ALOT of elbow grease. she was trying to do this in the dark at 8pm at night. haha shes so funny. anyways we had the chance to serve her and comfort her a little. i love how the lord perfectly sets up things like that. yeah dishwasher soap on a car, no bieno.

we finished our family mission plan!!! it is beautiful. it took weeks to do but its done is going to foster miracles :]

I had some GREAT studies recently. I LOVE the scriptures! ive been pulling them apart. (a little to literally, my binding is coming undone) Had a chance to find some great insights and apply Jacob 5 The Allegory of the Olive Tree to myself as the end draws near. Also im pretty sure i can support Einsteins theory of relativity with scriptures and doctrine. pretty good stuff.

quotes from this week:
-little eight year old as he's praying for us "... bless them they will get home safely..." pauses for a moment and looks at mom "do they even have a home?" :]
-"you can't stop loving someone - you can't destroy love" and "god doesn't ask you to like someone, he only asks that you love them" -bonnie pishos
-"our boldness must be equal to our love" -me

We are heading to big trees national park this week! so im off!

LOVE FROM LODI!
sister oliphant