January 23, 2012

Madre and Padre!
I had a great week, don’t even worry about that! The ward fed me.....actually they didn’t haha. But I got dinner from a member of the other ward last night so no worries. Interviews with president were great, just asked how I was doing and all that good stuff. Nothing special haha. I don’t remember Aunt Doris at all. I doubt I have seen her in the last 10 years haha. Cool to hear that we are direct descendants of Abraham Clark. Maybe I can use that nowadays to get some attention haha. Maybe someone in Alabama will be obsessed with the Declaration of Independence. Who knows? Sounds like your stake conference thing was way exciting! All I have to do for church is show up, maybe give a talk, and talk to our investigators. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! I don’t have to type anything last minute or stress out. And I got described as "cool like a cucumber" this week by a young single adult dude. He's all “you don’t seem like you ever get stressed out”. But really, I have no reason to haha. I don’t know, I just thought it was random that he said that as I was knocking on a door. So I thought I would share. The mission has changed me for sure. People say I have a strength with talking to people.... I was like you got to be kidding. Back home I was in my own world. But whatevs, I have no idea why I’m saying this, so I’m just gonna stop.
That’s so cool that Eric is on a reservation! I want to chat it up on a reservation. That sounds way different from Tuscaloosa. Yeah...Lewis the wiener dog was a classy fellow and that squirrel was sketchy for sure. Tasted a lot better than it smelled and looked. Wasn’t too shabby. Send me some pics of Nick’s winter formal when you gots a chance. I love that kid. I got the Irvine Oppenlander’s Christmas card this week and I loved it. Got a good letter from Aunt Kris and Nick wrote me a letter that had me lol'ing all over the place haha. Elder Hardy thought I was crazy! But it was good to finally hear from that kid. I’m so glad I’m not forgotten! Its good to know that some people out in the world actually care about me and what I’m up too.
And I have not forgotten Lauren’s birthday … (or Connor’s :) and tell Jackie I have the recorder and I love that thing so good. I’ve recorded a bunch on it already and its embarassing haha. But it’s just good to hear her voice and Zac’s, and see that it’s possible to have some fun without me around. I thought everyone would just be sitting around depressed all day counting down the days till I come home. I guess I’m not that big of a deal...:)
But seriously, we only have like one investigator who is doing well and that is Mary. She’s getting baptized this Saturday at 10 am!!!! Happy birthday Lauren, that’s your present...but yeah, we are so pumped and the ward is too. They only had 3 baptisms all last year and we already have one the first month of this year. So we should be able to get way more than 3 haha. Its good to see how happy Mary is nowadays and see how the gospel makes all her trials and problems easier to handle. It feels good to help people out like that. That’s why I love being a missionary.
I haven’t had any near death experiences lately. Crazy storm last night with some tornados but we were good to go. Just kept getting woken up by all the lightning and rain but it was good. Everyone is safe and sound. I can’t believe that I only have another week and this transfer is over. Doesn’t feel like it’s been 5 weeks with Elder Ingersoll already. Time is going by too fast! I love it and I’m scared at the same time hah. Bitter sweet. Only 3 more transfers till I hit my year mark...crazy!!!!! Doesn’t feel like it, but its true facts. Lauren still hasn’t told me what she wants for her birthday so I’ll just get her random stuff and she'll just have to deal with it. Hope y’all have a good week and I don’t know what else to say. Oh, it was the 176th anniversary of Doctrine & Covenants section 137 this week, the revelation on salvation of the dead and the celestial kingdom! That’s cool and we had a mission-wide conference call about it. Celestial kingdom is good to go.
Haha have a great week, westerners!
Love, Elder Oppenlander