TURKEY DAY 2013

well happy holiday everyone! what a wonderful day to express so much thanks.

the good times just keep getting better.

zone conference was this last week. it was amazing experience. i had the opportunity to meet with elder baxter of the 70. he trained us for quite a few hours about how to work smarter and harder. we learned about street contacting, testifying about the restoration, self worth and that we are better than we think we are. he said that discouragement and feelings of depression are one of the greatest things satan pokes at with the valiant members of the church. because if he cant get us to stop being awesome be thinks maybe he can at least slow us down. but my most favorite part of the whole day was at the end when he asked the a few of us who were apart of the leadership council to meet with him separately. he talked with us for a bit and then kneed down with us and prayed for us. he also included a beautiful blessing on us our families, and all the missionaries of the Sacramento mission. the spirit was so strong. i dont know how to describe the feelings i had or the love i felt.

these last 10 days have been full of exchanges! i got to spend some time closer to sacramento and also down in tracy again. lots of neat things i keep learning from these sisters who cease to amaze me.

im am so proud to be apart of the lodi zone and lodi district here in the mission. we have been working hard and valiantly striving to reach our goals. not only have we hit our goals for this month we have surpassed them! our district and zone are through the roof! we have some of the best missionaries and stake ward leadership here in lodi, and im totally biased ;]

today sister langi and i are planning on doing almost nothing! it will be a great day :]

stuck in lodi, and loving it!

love, sister oliphant

Temple tour with Basconcillos

Sister Langi & Sister Oliphant

Tommy Pishos

Gone Fishing!

NOV 18

well i am being really rude and not writing much today because we spent the whole day in the foothills with tommy and bonnie and we have a few errands to run before the day is over. sorry this will be a quick hello and i will be sure to write a real good long email next pday... which is thanksgiving! so there will be lots of time for corresponding with family. (by the way, thanksgiving, dont have too much fun back home without me...my settlers of catan skills may to a little rusty but im ready to bring it come christmas ;] )

 

this week was wonderful.

 

highlight: four confirmations sunday. they had to cancel one of the speakers just because of how long it took. neat neat though. and the members are buzzing about the missionary work getting done. so happy to be apart of so many miracles.

 

i also got to go on exchanges with three great sisters this week :] you know when you are old in the mission when all the younger sisters are passing you up. they are all just exceptional missionaries and i dont feel like i have anything more to offer then, instead i just want to learn from them. One of these exchanges i as able to be in South Sacramento with sister Fenton and visit a man sister larson and i found last autumn and had to pass off the the english misisonaries. i had asked what ever happened to them so we stopped by again and the sisters have been teaching him! so neat! his name is sonny and i hope he progresses in the gospel. Also had the opportunity to go on exchanges with the famous sister jackson in stockton. it was for sure my last day in stockton as a missionary but it was a neat day and its amazing how much that area has grown. im so proud of the sisters who have served there since ive left. they are exceptional.

 

lastly we went on a temple tour with the basconcillos! so neat :] the tour guides actually didnt show up so we just had our own but it was great and so personal. i love that family so much <3

 

yep yep that was about my week.

love to all! stay warm :)

 

sister oliphant

NOV 11

best week... i know i have said that before but well they just keep getting better you see.

... started out a little rough though. for some reason i vomited at 3am monday night. i think its been maybe 7 years since ive done that. boo i broke my streak. anyways TMI probably right...

well the ward seemed to be over joyed we are staying AGAIN. brother campbell joked with us maybe they will just request our records and just make if official, haha.

the burkes (our ward mission leader and his family) took us out to dinner as a final goodbye but we ended up staying, haha but i was great to spend more time with their family. they are one of those families you want to become in 19 years.

Wednesday was Toms Bday, we celebrated that evening at the pishos' with banners, cards, cheesecake, and gifts. it was a wonderful evening and full of lots of joy. that ole man is 79, but still is just a boy at heart.

im realizing im getting rusty at some missionary things, havent done them in a while. blah i have so much i need to perfect. and then you just have to keep it up or else it all goes away :(

tom had his baptism interview

the byutv food nanny came! shes so great. never seen her show but loved her in person. it was a neat missionary opportunity that the stake was trying to involve the community with, lots of people brought their friends. also her book sounds fantastic. especially for her bread recipes. it may be going on a christmas list.

we added a new investigator this week who is philipino. wish i had the great philipina ladies from stockton ward to help fellowship her. shes a sweet pea who would love to learn and study with us. it looks promising :]

we met damien's father... pray for us. he didnt come across super supportive and we dont want to cause contention in the family especially with damien's circumstances.

and of course of week was finished off by a beautiful baptism that i cried through. sister langi and i both got to bare testimony, share some of our experiences teaching tommy, and perform a musical number. president and sister lewis even joined us along with many friends of tom and bonnie.

love,

sister oliphant

Tom Pishos

Sunday may have been thee happiest day of my life.

Congrats to Tom, a short man with an exceptionally large heart.

My favorite moment at the baptism was after tom entered the font he turned and blew a little kiss to each of the children peeking through the glass. I've never seen that man happier.

Mr. Tommy Pishos

Bidding a solemn farewell to their home in pastoral Greece, The Pishos family sought a life of greater ease.
They said their goodbyes to their 3 goats, family and friends,  Never to return to the Motherland again.

And so little Tommy Pishos bravely voyaged across the ocean. He tragically caught pneumonia from all the commotion.
But that wouldn't defeat tenacious Tom at three, Who proved at a young age his remarkable resiliency.
This sickness may have stunted poor Little Tommy's growth, But because of his enormous heart, one would never know.

In America, the Pishos' secured their living through hard work and mom's Greek Cookin' With a restaurant venture called "Paul's 5-N-Dime" in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.
In Tom's boyhood years he often stirred innocent mischief,
By neglecting the water heater and being arrested as a watermelon thief! But anyone with eyes open could see he did so without guile,
You couldn't stay mad at Tom with his charm and winning smile!
Tom was strong, athletic quite the baseball player of Mt. Pleasant High,
and would've been its most-lettered if a cheating rival wasn't nearby.  Tom furthered his advancement at Central Michigan University,
How proud his parents were, who didn't have the same opportunity.
He became a school teacher for many in New Ark,
Tom changed the lives of the future with his distinguishing mark. Then in a surge of opportunity, Tom changed careers.
He expanded Round Table, and became a pizza pioneer!
There was still a void in Tom's life when a blonde beauty shook up Tommy's world!
She became his confidante, partner in business and crime as their newly-joint lives unfurled. Despite the many turbulent changes of weather stormy and fair,
Tommy's babe and sweetheart Bonnie has always been there.
A good family friend saw they were in spiritual need,
And everything changed when Bili gave Bonnie a Book of Mormon to read. So Bonnie was baptized first, in the spring of April.
"Tommy you're up next!" said the sister to no avail.
Although imperceptible and unexpected, a change in Tom's heart was occurring.
It would be touched the the Lord's spirit, causing a stirring. The spirit helped Tom remember who he really is, 
That Tom is a son of God, Tom is really His!
We will always remember Tom enjoyed a smorgasbord of pursuits:
Golf, fishing, jazz music, flying, shooting, entertaining and picking fresh fruits. Above everything else though, his friendship we hold most dear;
And await to call him a fellow citizen in a day drawing near. 
Through all life's experiences, no matter where Tom roams,
Heavenly Father's hand was in it all to lead Tom safely home.

Written by Sister Langi

LOVE FROM LODI

 

 

NOV 5

IM STAYING IN LODI!

my last 6 months will be in Lodi (sometimes we call it "low-dee" cause its funny). And sister langi is still my companion! We may come close to breaking mission records with the two of us still together in the same area... doing english work. its been a fun run and its only going to get better. sister langi is the best, we have WAY too many inside jokes and she keeps me inline. love her and honored to have her as my last companion. and to think.... who would have ever known we would be companions at all.

this week was awesome. we have been looking forward to it all transfer.

tommy is preparing for baptism THIS WEEKEND! tommy and bonnie have become a highlight of my mission. Tommy turns 79 tomorrow. and hes been days and days clean from his chewing tobacco. ive never seen tommy like this! He is SOO happy. he also loves mormon messages haha, he just loves feeling the spirit. hes always like "one more! one more!" haha we used to have to be sneaky and happen to be in the same room as him when we had lessons with bonnie. haha. tommy has taught us also how to properly weed a garden, water the garden, crack walnuts, play the ukulele, wing "just a closer walk with thee," how to say lots in greek, and he wants to take us fly fishing soon. haha he is seriously the greatest. we pretty much are skipping as we walk we are so happy he's getting baptized. its been a long one in the making :]

we had another missionary leadership meeting this last tuesday. we have another improptu one friday... we have been having a lot more of those recently. im guessing inm preperation for "white christmas" comning up.  i hope we're not in charge of doing training this time. did i tell you last time we had a impromptu leadership meeting (all the zone leaders, district leaders and sister training leaders were invited) sister langi, an assistant (elder morley), and I did a training for 2+ hours back to back. we had 24 hours to prepare and we were on exchanges for that entire time too. haha it was fun. it was a little winged but neat to be able to have that expereince to do some training and see all the zone leaders and district leaders in the mission. good day.

wednesday was our ward's halloween party. we had been telling the ward we were going to be dressing up for while now, its was fun to hear them guess our costumes cause we told them in was a secret... but low and behold we show up as a  NEPHITE and LAMANITE. not every companionship -- might i add -- can pull this off ;] we pulled up our car and handed out candy from our trunk and handed out article of faith cards or pictures of christ to all the kids. but the best part of the evening wasnt even the nachos... we had an estimated 50 non-members there! it was a hit! the primary kids were all great missionaries! they made invitations and were asked to invite one of their friends. it was so neat to have so many kids be the reason why we had so many non-member families show up!

... our ward is already prepping for the christmas party this year. its going to be epic and super spiritual. it will be an extra big hit for the missionary work and we are stoked :) (many thanks to heidi robison who moved from the stockton brookside ward and gave our ward all her old decorations!)

Halloween day we planned all day. a little boring but needed. We ended the evening watching "Ephraim's Rescue" with our zone and eating pizza donated by papa murphys. fun evening. maybe too fun. we ended it on a spiritual note though, we had our zone training meeting before we all headed home. Sounds like a fun halloween at home! go stu and terrill for invite friends and the missionaries ;] glad the donut tradiiton lives on!

Friday we spent a little time in a town in the boonies: Linden. it has an interesting history of a cerial killer BUT a nice family in our ward lives there. they live seriously in the middle of NO-where. hmmm friday we also met a 90 year old woman named bonnie... she was crazy and kept repeating herself, cute little thing. Saturday we met a 92 year old man (lodi is full of old people i guess) who loves the mormons and thinks mormon women are classy ;] haha hes cute. anyways hes a referral from his active son in texas who has been working on him for years. hes very prepared and excited to see where this goes.

sunday was a bit of a bummer. none of our investigators came to church. but the lord knows why and he told us to be patient and not to get discouraged. we are looking forward to a transfer full of harvesting :]

The Burkes (This amazing family in our ward!) took us out to dinner yesterday. we went to Lodi Beer Company. Sister Langi and I have been wanting to go there for a while (its fun to eat at the local places) but were afraid of what it would look like if 2 sister missionaries came walking out of a place called "Lodi Beer Company." turns out it was no different than a Red Robin. and we had a great time. Brother Burke is our ward mission leader and work closely with him and his family. he just has the cutest family.

We dropped by the galt flea market again today (its not open on normal monday pdays) met a few people and spent a bit of money on christmas presents. its fun and i feel like im in mexico with a bunch of street vendors... haha no ones speaks englsih there haha.

its going to be a great week!

LOVE,

sister oliphant

pictures included:

Halloween costumes. can you guess which one is the nephite and which is the lamanite? hahaha

Our Zone this last transfer on Halloween

A random picture i found that makes me snicker. Especially sister white at the end. This is just proof of the life long friendships one makes on the mission. And of course sister pitcher has me in a head lock... why does this represent our relationship so well? ;] love them all.