Thanksgiving!

Guten morgen!!

You better believe I have had another great week out here in Alabama. Didn’t have a Family Home Evening though, and yours sounded amazing! Andy has some mad skillz putting on that nail polish. And y’all play capture the flag tonight??? I might need to actually attend Young Single Adult activities when I get home haha. And I will tell Pres. Holzapfel “hi” from Larry Johnson. Hopefully he will remember him haha. I’m sure he will, though.

And for the shirts, a 17 neck will be perfect, and my shirts now say "34/35" and they are a little too short. So maybe you need 36's. But I will let you decide on that. And no button-down collar. I don’t like that stuff…

I saw Furby's at Wal-Mart a while ago and I couldn’t believe it ... why would they ever bring those devilish things back? Many-a-night I was awakened by the terrifying voice of Furby. I will never buy my children anything like that!

Tell Kelsey to send me a letter already haha. Shoot, I’ve been waiting like a year and a half to get one from her ... come on! Oh my days...you went to BJ's?? I miss that place pretty bad. I miss a lot of food haha ... still.

That is good that the young single adult’s are loving dad as well. Is he starting to get the hang of things yet? Does he have any spare time to breathe and he still needs to write me, his only son, and tell me his conversion story and how things are going ... get on it, papa bear! Choir is always good, even ponytail dude... :) So stop worrying, mom. Just conduct your little heart out and it'll be alright. The stake choir here in Huntsville is famous. They are crazy good and put on a Christmas concert for the community every year. They have an orchestra and everything. Last year they had 500 non-members show up!! So I’m pumped for this year. It will be December 7-9th. And I heard them sing Saturday for stake conference and it was amazing. Angelic haha. And it sounds like you still have a blast with the "los al ladies" running around So Cal causing a ruckus. And what is bunco??? I thought old ladies played that ;)

And Nick is doing everything nowadays ... getting a job, rowing, going to college, he is leaving me in the dust haha. Got some catching up to do when I get home. Definitely send some pics from Thanksgiving. Is Jackie still planning on coming? And send me some almond roca! I tried making it last year and that was horrible. Burnt my hand and everything! :( So I will not be trying that this week. And yes, I have like 8 invitations for Thanksgiving and we are for sure going to one. Don’t know who else we are going to stop by and see. Elder Yogoh and I are staying together another transfer. So we will be having Thanksgiving and Christmas together! Big deal right there. Also, after this next transfer I will have had a black companion for 9 months straight ... shoot haha :) So I guess I’m not learning something about racism or something? Haha but its been great and so has the teaching. We have been able to do a lot of teaching but we are struggling a little bit finding new investigators. So that is going to be our focus this week and I know we will be able to find some! Field is white, especially in Huntsville.

Sophia Em is waiting for a missionary????? Who dat? And I was actually thinking about her the other day wondering how she is doing? She was always so nice!!! Tell her I say hi if you ever have a chance.

Y’all are getting 100 new missionaries?? Dang, that is a ton for that small of a mission. Here we currently have 140, and we will have 272 by next year. 122 of which are going to be sister missionaries. And we are only going to have 118 elders ... so there are going to be more sisters than elders haha! It’s going to be weird for sure. And our first 18 year old missionary comes in January 1st. That’s way exciting too! It’s cool to see how the Lord is hastening his work, and its great to be a tiny part of it! It’s the best! I still love being a missionary each and everyday, and I keep on learning things too. I finished the Book of Mormon for the 4th time this week as well! Holler!!! I wish I would have read it before my mission. I’ve had to do a lot of catch-up out here. But it’s not that hard. Is definitely worth it as well. It’s weird that I have been happy for more that a year strait, I haven’t missed a day of work in more than a year, and I’m doing great. Who would’ve thought!!! Blessings definitely do come as you keep the commandments. Its simple! Mosiah 2:22 action right there (“And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you”). All we have to do is keep the commandments and we will be blessed. Don’t need to worry about anything. I love the gospel and I can’t wait to keep living it when I get home. Keep up the bishop-ly goodness back home and keep the faith. I'll talk to y’all soon and have a great week! Oh, and I moved ... so my new address is 8003 Benaroya Lane apartment R-2. Yea, I moved downstairs but still, I have a new address haha.

Love,

Elder Oppenlander