Yo! First off, I haven't been out two months yet haha! Not until next Monday - get it right! and Jeffy Given is coming home Monday?? Man, that was way fast! That's awesome that Tony, Paige and Aaron spent the weekend there! It's weird that life is going on without me haha. I'm pretty much shut off from the rest of the world - it's weird. Earlier this week, we were talking to this guy and he's talking about the stock market crashing again or something and asking me if I was worried...I was like I don't even know what you're talking about. It's funny because I don't even think about things like that so when people are all worried about it, it doesn't even phase me. Doesn't matter to a missionary really. Maybe when I get home it will matter but for now ignorance is bliss :)
And I miss California and the amazing weather haha. It's been so hot here and stormy. Yesterday was so humid it was ridiculous. I wish I was sitting on the beach watching people at the U.S. Open haha. Just kidding. I love it here. The storms are tight. Monday night we had a crazy storm!!! I thought it was a tornado no joke! I woke up like midnight because the wind was so loud and the lightning was going crazy! More than one strike a second. The whole sky was just lit up from lightning! And the thunder was crazy too. Just constantly rolling and never ending. Elder Lofthouse and I went to the living room and just watched it for a while until we were too tired. There was 60 mph winds and the 70 foot trees outside our apartment were swaying back and forth. I thought for sure they were gonna snap. It was sketchy! A lot of trees did blow down around us though. There are fat trees all over on the ground and some hit houses and some lady got smushed as she was sleeping...her husband right next to her in bed was fine...that must be awful!
And Jackie and Zac dropped by on Wednesday??? I thought Zac was in Arizona haha? I sent him a letter last week to his Arizona address haha. Shoot. That's good that you liked the pictures though! I barely took any this week but I took some good green ones. I love Alabama and all the trees and stuff. I caught another toad and praying mantis this week too haha. Things like that make my day. I was cracking up at this praying mantis, like no joke, laughing so hard.
Where is Jackie going on vacation! That's tight she gets to get away for a while. Speaking of hair cuts ---I'm getting mine cut today at 12:00 by Sister H, some young mom in my ward. My hair is super long and fluffy. I'm glad to be cutting it. I was embarassed bearing my testimony at church yesterday because I was like, I probably look retarded right now but nothing new haha. I'm glad to hear the grandparents are doing better. I've been praying a lot for them lately and I fasted for them and your dumb arteries yesterday. I bet Grandpa is excited with all of these gophers plopping in the pool, gives him somthing to do everyday and something to look forward too haha. Abby and him can team up on them. And about the artery thing, that's good that you finally got it looked at and a specialist told you what's up! Are you feeling more confident about them nowadays or still worried? At least you know what's wrong and what you can do to help it along. Makes me relieved a little bit to know what's wrong. At least you aren't dead haha. Have you been having migraines a lot still or how is all of that going? How is Dad doing? Are you guys finding things to do on a day to day basis to stay busy? And that was jacked up not getting that bulldog puppy? 2200 dollars is worth it...thank you for calling JT a punk too, by the way. That kid needs to learn his lesson.
This week was just as hard as last week haha. Tell Dad thanks for praying though because it worked. We met this guy named Robert and barely talked to him and set up a return appointment and gave him the restoration pamphlet. We came back on Saturday and he had read the whole thing and was so excited about our religion. He told us the last couple of weeks he's been praying to find out how he can get his 7 kids into a church. He's really worried about his teenage daughters in the world today. He said after we left him last time he had the best feeling but had questions about the modern prophets. So he said a prayer and an overwhelming feeling came to him like why wouldn't there be? Why would God stop after Jesus? He straight up asked us "after I read the Book of Mormon and find out it's true...what do I do then?" So we told him about baptism and we set a date for Sept. 3rd. He's way excited and wants his 16 year old daughter to sit in with our next lesson. He says she's the ringleader of the children so if she goes along with it they will all follow haha. He truly wants the church to be true and it's awesome. So we have Robert with 9 people in his family and Donald with 10 people in his family. If we get them both that's 19 people brought into the gospel!! So exciting haha. And the last week we've really been struggling to get lessons, like 1-2 a day. It was really slow. And that day we taught Robert, last Saturday, we taught 10 lessons!! We rode our bikes home so happy and felt so blessed to be out here doing work. That night we talked to these crazy hicks too. Drinking whiskey and seriously smoking cigarette after cigarette. One of them smoked 2 packs the hour we were there. It was gross haha. But we talked to them and one was crazy smart! Got everything we said and would explain it to the other one all redneck haha. It was so fun. They love us! Way proud of us for being out here and they thought we were crazy for paying to be out here. One said if he had enough money for two years at once he would '' go and buy a jetski" hahaha funny!
After the storm we helped this 81 year old lady pick up all the branches and rake the leaves in her huge backyard. Her name is Marjorie and we talked, it was way fun. She saw our bikes on Saturday and spent an hour and a half tracking us down throughout the neighborhood until she found us. She tried giving us 40 bucks but I shut her down and told her talking with her and her giving us water was repayment enough. She started tearing up a little bit and it was cute haha. So Saturday was a great day and Elder Lofthouse and I are starting to feel loved around here.
Oh yeah. I had my first interview with President Holzapfel! It was just a short interview seeing how I'm doing and if I'm still worthy and what not. He told me to read the book of Mark out loud because it was written to be read out loud?? I don't know how he knows these things but he does. He told me to do that because I told him I want to learn more about the Bible and the Gospel. He said to call me after that and he'll give me another assignment.
Thanks for the prayers and just know I'm loving it out here and loving being a Missionary!!
Love ya! Elder Oppenlander
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