Monday, November 11, 2013
HI!!! So youre right, we never email on the same day im pretty sure. This week we email on monday because tomorrow we get to go to the Market and the Temple and so we email today. I am so excited to hear from you! I think about you guys all the time...which sometimes is bad because it makes me a little homesick and sad but then I say a prayer and I am fine. also...they take our cameras away in the MTC...i dont really know why. they dont want us wasting all our time taking pictures..or... i honestly dont know why. I hope you got the pics that the MTC sent though..thats all youll get. We get to use our cameras at the market tomorrow and then when we go to walmart in 2 weeks. But other than that you wont be recieving any pictures until i am in the field...in 4 weeks. which is crazy to me to think that ive been here for 2 weeks. It feels like its been eternity, but at the same time i cant believe 2 weeks has come and gone. It seems like just yesterday that i left.
It has been a super hard but great week for me. I had a lot of times this week when I was feeling very down. like I dont know enough, like i cant learn this language. Then I realized I dont, and i cant. Thats why we have a Heavenly Father. There is no way I could do this without him and I keep reminding myself that. When things get hard, I think of you all and how much I love you, and how I can do this, and be able to see you all in just 18 months. It will fly by I am sure! I have learned that Heavenly Father does hear our prayers, he does answer them..it just doesnt come right when we want it to, and I think thats because he wants us to try and learn for ourselves and put all our trust in him. He allows us to struggle, so that we can see the love he does have for us. Its something I am still trying to learn, but I KNOW he hears our prayers..he will never leave us alone...the hard times will come, ALL THE TIME, but they will pass just the same. I feel like I have learned so much here already, but at the same time, I feel like I have so much more to learn! I feel like all we do is study and learn, yet I wish there was more time in the day to learn the doctrine. It scares me that I will get in the field and not know answers..but Ive learned thats ok. We arent perfect missionaries, but this gospel is perfect. Thank goodness it isnt my job to convert people...just guide them so the Spirit can convert them. Thats another thing I am trying to learn...to stop worrying about what i know...and learning to rely completely on the spirit. Its so hard, but so important.
So my companions first name is Andriel. Andriel Newman. Her blog is called 18monthsofhealing.blogspot.com...or something like that. shes not positive. (I CAN'T FIND THE COMPANIONS BLOG AT ALL!) But I love her to death. She is such a strong person. The more I get to know her, the more I know that I am here RIGHT NOW, for a purpose. Everything i learn I realize that it wouldnt have been the same if I had come in May. My companion, my district, my teachers. OH MAN! My teachers are seriously the best. Hermano Lopez is our teacher during the day. He WILL be an apostle one day. I am sure of it. He know the answers to everything. We ask him a question and he answers with a question. So we have to search and learn for ourselves. He is the kind of person that makes me want to be better and learn and grow. He is great. Then our teacher at night is Hermano Hernandez. He is the nicest, most loving teacher out there. He knows exactly what we need to hear. He is just too great. I am so blessed to have the teachers that I have. and my companion. Everyday I am more grateful that shes stuck with me. We lay in our beds at night and just talk and I love her to death!!
Sundays are the bomb.com. but also scary. (JUST BEWARE, MY MCAFEE SAID THIS COULD BE A DANGEROUS WEBSITE - YOU KNOW, THE BOMB.COM. IT CAME UP WITH THIS BIG WARNING ALL IN RED!!! FUNNY!) Scary only because you dont know who is going to speak in sacrament...in spanish, until you get to church. But I didnt speak this week. I could have...I wrote my talk and had one of the Latina Sisters edit it for me...but its still scary to do. Anyways....FAMILY! Read the proclamation to the family....we had a relief society lesson on it...just read that and talk about each paragraph as you read for FHE tonight. It is truly an inspired proclamation and can bless us if we truly understand it. MAN YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST. The hardest part sometimes for me is just knowing i wont see you for 18 months. it kills me. but its going to go fast!
So sunday night we watched "The Testaments", then we watched "Legacy"...let me just tell you....those two movies right there...SO GOOD. I have never been more grateful for the things the early saints went through. The things they went through are nothing compared to what sillly things i have to struggle with here. NOTHING. Then we watched a devotional by Elder Bednar...it was from a few years ago in the Provo MTC...shout out to Tucker Neff. hahaha -- he was in the choir and was on the screen like 20 times..and everytime he was he was laughing. hahaha it was funny! but seriously, it was the best devotional and very much needed. We learned that we MUST understand the doctrine...THE DOCTRINE IS ALWAYS THE ANSWER. The doctrine of the gospel answers the why questions. The principles answer the what questions and the principles answer the how questions. Too often I think ive been living just the principles without really understanding the doctrine. Which is still good, but it is necessary to understand the doctrine...So thats another thing I am trying to learn and truly understand. Its so hard to really understand and apply everything here while also learning the language! but i really do love it here.
I got your dear elder letters on Thursday of last week...or maybe wednesday? i dont remember...all the days run together there!! hahaha but i did get them and loved them!! THANK YOU! I sent you letters....let me know when you get them! Hows dads hip? any plans for surgery yet? just tell me about your lives!! Dear Elders are awesome! Letters are awesome...I think...i wouldnt know yet ;) haha but really i just want to hear about you guys!
There is a group of missionaries leaving tomorrow for the field. We are so sad they are leaving because we became way good friends with them..so then we are like the intermediate group...which is weird. A new group comes on wednesday! It will be way different, but I am way excited!!
I LOVE YOU GUYS MORE THAN YOU WILL EVER KNOW!! Keep smiling, and keep learning and being awesome!Hermana Oliphant
Oh, I forgot to tell you, we are assigned different days to do laundry...so we have wednesday and friday, basically all day whenever we have the time, and my comp and I share 1 washer and 1 dryer...ok not all day, like from 10-4. The showers..theres like 10 showers for all the hermanas, but its fine, because we just shower after sports everyday which is right before dinner...we are like the only ones in there....except the other day the water was shut off, so we werent able to shower...gross. or flush the toilet....or wash our hands. hahaha
The food...is fine. I miss Dads cooking, and your cooking mom. You dont give yourself enough credit. every morning we have some form of egg...wtih like beans, or random weird stuff...they ahve this rice cereal stuff...basically warm rice pudding like what you made but more soupy. ITS SO GOOD!! Sometimes its chocolate, sometimes cream of wheat...i love it all. Then lunch is HUGE usually...I can never finish..dinner is pretty small. then some random sanck at like 8 at night. which i never eat. The food is just fine..the ice cream here is delicious!! hahaha
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