July 18, 2011

Hey Mom!

First of all, the pants do fit. Super skinny though and the other missionaries say I look like a nerd, but whatever, I'm used to looking dumb as a missionary and it doesn't hurt my feelers any. I look good : ) They are super tight though but it's all good.

Extreme sour warhead otter pops are horrible!! hahah They don't even have a taste -- just sour! If you wanna send me snacks, send me some healthy stuff so I don't get all fat! Like powerbars or crystal light things for water bottles. Something I can carry around in my backpack all day while I tract...because that's pretty much all we do all day. 6 to 8 hours of tracting a day. So I get super sweaty and stinky and wet from rain. I love it! and I actually didn't wonder how you got my address hahha. It's the only mail I've gotten besides a picture from the CTR 5 class. It's super cute and hanging up on my wall. But yeah i was just so happy to get something!

The forty days of fasting sounded crazy at first but after reading sounds awesome! Get that ward into gear and get some good vibes to the missionaries! A helpful ward works wonders on us missionaries. The ward here is seriously awesome! I just came from lunch with Sis. M. She's an old lady who's awesome. Took us to a mexican restaurant that was actually good! I got BBQ jalepeno nachos which were amazing. No horchata though, which is super lame. People in the ward are only allowed to feed us before or after prime proselyting time, which is 4:30 to 7:30, or during that time if they have a non member, investigator, or recent convert there. So haven't gotten many dinner appts so far, but I have one tonight. Mostly people just buy us KFC and drop it off at the appartment or something.

Bishop H is awesome and his family is 1/4 the ward haha. There are members of his family running around everywhere and everyone is related to each other somehow! There's only a certain amount of members here so they all marry each other. One big happy family hah. umm, I don't know who specifically to talk about. They are all nice, but I think my favorite so far is Bro Murphy. Elder Lofthouse and I call him Murph-dog haha. We met him last Tuesday for team ups to visit Richard, the excommunicated dude. Murph-dog threw down!!! haha it was pretty much us watching him teach and bear testimony and just be cool. Elder Lofthouse and I were awestruck. Elder Lofthouse said he's never seen a member throw down like that and not annoy or frustrate the investigator. It was way cool. But after lunch today I think Sis. M might be my favorite. We'll see who comes out on top at the end of this thing. And about the excommunicated guy -- we've been teaching him the lessons and he really had trouble with faith and courage to get back into the church. But yesterday he came to church and stayed the whole time! He usually leaves after sacrament. and he talked to the bishop for like over an hour after church! We called him last night and he was so happy! Said he's been smiling all afternoon and the bishop said he can be baptized within the year. So he's pumped! It's a big deal haha.

We taught 24 lessons to investigators this week, which is a crazy amount I guess. But the people are punks out here haha. Always bailing on me and it's frustrating that people have such a bad idea about us as mormons and never even get to know us or hear the message. Just base it on what they've heard. That leads me up to yesterday. I finally got "anti'd"!!!! Which means I walked up to this guy and started talking to him about the gospel and he started yelling at me and the first thing he said is "how can you believe in Joseph Smith!!' and from there tells me I'm gullible and I believe in a child rapist and what not. Telling me all this stuff about how mormons are stupid pretty much. He keeps telling me he "read" about all of this. So I just ask him where he read it...its obvious he's just read anti-mormon stuff...and then he says just books but he's never read the book of mormon. Sucks that people won't spend the time to find out for themselves if the Book of Mormon is true, just take the word of others and tell me I'm gullible haha. I had a good laugh about it though afterwards. He's a downey and nothing I could have said would have made him happy.

Stuff like that makes you so awkward though!! I'm 100% sure that I'm worse at communication than I was before my mission haha. You're always expecting people to yell at you or slam the door haha. So when I talk to nice people now, or members, I don't know how to not be awkward. It's weird to have a conversation that actually lasts more than 2 minutes haha. I'm all small talk nowadays and I'm going crazy! My sense of humor is retarded! I'm so tired that everything is funny and Elder Lofthouse and I laugh about random stuff and members are like what the heck are you laughing at?? And I serioulsy have no idea haha. I'm going crazy pretty much. but I love it and I enjoy every moment of sweating and being embarassed. I'm so weird...alright well I'm gonna try to upload some pics real quick this thing is sketchy.

Love - Elder Oppenlander