Good mornin!!!!!
This week has been awesome! I cannot believe its already Thanksgiving! I’m so excited to play in the turkey bowl though. Our ward is so into it it’s crazy. I finally got to meet them yesterday and it’s a pretty small ward. Only 98 people showed up, so Elder Hardy and I are going to have to change that. There are 20 pages of members so over 400 don’t show up haha. But I love Tuscaloosa so much. I seriously love the people here. Like this less active member, Sis. M. She’s an awesome lady who is pretty serious and hasn’t come to church for a long time. So Elder Hardy and I went over to meet her and she loves me!! Haha I got her to agree to cook me some home made mac-n-cheese, butterbeans, and all the “fixins”. She invited us over for Thanksgiving but so did like 5 other people. So we are going to be making the rounds, but Bro. M, our ward mission leader, will be the main dinner. It was awesome though, because I was just myself around her and we started laughing and she opened up and said she'll "holla at me, when she cooks it." and that she won’t cook just any meal but "mix it up" for me hahaha. I love her so much. We taught her with bishop W last Tuesday but she was sick yesterday and couldn’t make it to church. So we swung by and let her know we missed her and she appreciated it. I love being a missionary. I get to meet so many awesome people and I don’t have to worry about myself at all and there’s no stress really. I don’t know why some missionaries freak out. All you have to do is love others and teach everyone. Easy as pie. And if you do that, everyone loves you back haha. Oh! And yesterday I taught a deaf dude! I found him the other day but yesterday I finally got to talk to him more and actually teach him. I loved it! He was just laughing and he felt comfortable right off the bat. Elder Hardy knows a little sign language from high school so he could understand a little, but I did all of the signing and teaching. It was so much fun oh my goodness. I love sign language. His name is James by the way, and he kept telling us how nice we are and how his dog loves us. He has the cutest dog. It barks when people knock on the door so he knows there is someone there. Its smart! And when we left he held on to our hands after we shook and said "I love you". It was an awesome experience. It was the first time Elder Hardy had taught a deaf person and he said it was one of the coolest experiences of his mission. I think its because deaf people are so sincere and they don’t lie to you haha. They tell you straight up how they feel and it’s awesome.
But yeah yesterday, was just good. This whole week was and I’m so happy. Even though no one mailed me all week and I felt like a loser haha. We had dinner last night with the Mulders. (The guy who took us fishing and his wife). We caught so many fish last week! Bro. Mulder was fly fishing and catching big bass all over the place. Elder Hardy caught a lot of bluegill, brim and 2 bass. And I caught a big bass and some blue gill. I'll send the pics next week. We took my bass home and cut it up but then we didn’t eat it haha. We were going to, but Bro. Mays told us that bass around here are sketchy to eat. So that was that haha. But yeah we were fishing for like 4 hours and it was so relaxing. I had like 45 minutes to write letters last week and clean so I just wrote Jackie and cleaned the kitchen. I love fishing though. But yeah, dinner last night was so good. Bro. Mulder threw down some roast, mashed taters, corn and some juice. Oh and chocolate chip cookies and milk :)) I was in heaven! And he had an indo board. A balance trainer thing Bennett has, so I did that for a while and then he did it....shoot he made me look like a punk! He’s so good at that thing. And I got to meet his wife for the first time yesterday too. She’s about to pop she’s so pregnant. But they are awesome and we had a lesson about mormon.org because Pres. Holzapfel wants us to use it more and get our wards using it. I went to leadership training with Elder Hardy this week and we learned a lot about that. I saw Elder Clanton there and it was awesome. President is awesome.
Man....I’m so ADD today haha. All over the place. Ok well, I’m going to start to respond to your letter haha. Ummmm yeah its crazy that turkey day is already here! Man, time is flying by. I was looking at the calendar yesterday and I was like dang! 5 weeks till Christmas! Crazy! And I’m excited for Lauren to come home too! You don’t have to be loners any more and get to see one of the babies :) That’s awesome that Jackie is planning to come over for Thanksgiving! Her mom too? That would be awesome. Show ‘em how the Oppenlanders do it haha. I’m glad Jackie is still involved with the family and stuff. That’s good :) makes me happy. And is Drew getting married this week?? Shoot, I forgot about that. And it won’t be strange not having me at Thanksgiving, you guys are already used to having me gone and you’re happier than ever I’m sure :) Just play some guitar hero for me and it will be like I’m there.
Man, the missionaries back home are getting it good from y’all. Smoked meats left and right, and Christmas with you? Shoot. I miss lefse...I’ve asked like 30 people here in the south about it and no one has ever even heard of it. And its warm here! Its crazy but the weather sure is going crazy. Cold, then hot, then rainy, then warm. And yeah, I think a tornado went through Demopolis this week. I wanna see one! And my investigator in West Point was going to send my package home. She better have sent that thing! Might take a while though I’m not sure. But I trust her. And yes, people over here are going crazy about football. They are all pumped because the teams that needed to lose, lost and Bama has a chance. I could care less though haha. All I know is people don’t open doors and the streets are empty when a game is on. How is JT doing? Is he still loving college life up in Idaho? And man, Zac and JT’s farewells are right around the corner. Are they nervous or excited? I’m excited for them. JT is gonna look like a white tree out there around all them tiny Filipinos. Haha I thought about that this week randomly. And stop having migraines!! Shoot mom, you’re worse than I am. I had one this week right before the team-up with the bishop. But it went away with the pain medicine. I love those things. Do they work for you? And I’m glad people still enjoy my letters haha. I love writing home and just spilling all my week and thoughts onto the computer. I feel so ADD when I do it though. Because I just type as I think it, so its all over the place. Gma and Gpa get to brag about me to all their friends. That’s right :) and your Sundays are worse than mine are haha. Missionary Sundays out here are: get to church early, have a meeting, then church/greet people, go home, eat, tract, visit members, teach investigators, go home, eat and go to bed. So that’s a missionary Sunday at least for me.
Haha sucker! Nick is going to have to pay a lot of money it looks like. At least he was wearing his seatbelt and not drunk or something. So it’s not too bad. Driving people before a year is a lame law anyway. But still gotta follow the rules. That’s awesome that he’s gonna work at Tilly's though! Man that’s a teenage kids dream job :) Tell him to get me something from there...I don’t know what, but something. We did not get any visa waiters, and yes there is a tiny washer and dryer in our apartment. It barely fits my whites and my darks (pants, socks, t-shirts, towels, and bed sheets) takes like 3 loads haha. I’m glad y’all are grateful for being able to do the rafters and for having a cute son. I’m grateful for you, too. And for being able to be out here serving the Lord. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, no joke. Meeting all of these people and learning and growing so much. Couldn’t do this back home and I’m glad I’m away from you and Jackie too, because it makes me appreciate things more and helps me see what I want in life from an outsiders view. But really, just being able to have time to dedicate to other people is what’s making me grow the most. Christlike attributes are my main focus right now, and those babies help out with everything that I do. Especially patience, gratitude, and love. I want these next two years to change me and for people to see that change in me. If I don’t change at all I’m failing. So let me know what you think of me :) haha
I love you all and I hope you enjoy the holidays and be safe:) I’ve been walking everywhere this last week. And I’m safe and sound. Losing weight too :) I love carpet I can workout on haha. Oh, and this Indian dude name Ezhil showed up to church yesterday. He’s a Phd student studying physics and some missionaries tracted into him a while ago and invited him to church. So he came. He was in his house during the tornado and his whole neighborhood got destroyed. He doesn’t understand why he's still alive and all of his neighbors are dead, and that made him think about a god for the first time in his life. So he’s very open, smart, and humble. So I’m looking forward to teaching him more. :) It was a good week. Love ya!
Peace, love, chicken grease.....
Elder Oppenlander
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