April Photos

Mary, in the pink pants, and her friend Keshia who wants me to baptize her haha. In the projects of Tuscaloosa. The baby is "Cookie", Keshia's daughter.  Keshia had 2 more kids but they died in the tornado.

 Kerry and me

Frisbee Gold 

Sister Monroe is the one who made me chitterlings (aka chitlins). She's holding the picture of us that she keeps it on her fridge - haha

The Bakers from Vestavia Hills, Alabama with Elders Jensen and Oppenlander
Showed them how to longboard down the hills

Last Transfer!

Hola!!!!

It’s my last transfer on Wednesday and I am leaving!!! So I have to pack again, but I think I’m going to wait until tomorrow so if they decide to last minute me again, at least I won’t have to unpack all my stuff. But with that comes a question. I don’t need my winter stuff anymore...should I send some stuff home, or give it away or what? I don’t want to pack it all in my suitcase… plus I got a ton of books to send home. So let me know if it’s worth it to send it all home.

And I’d be so down for Pres. Holzapfel’s homecoming talk!! That would be awesome! And Estefan won the student Emmy!!! That’s what I’m talking about! That means she gets to go to the real Emmy’s, right??? Sweet, and Lauren was looking pretty cute...what happened? hahaha :) Jackie knows how to do her thing ;) but that is awesome. Hopefully, Lauren will make some more movies so I can go to an award ceremony.

And tell Van and Shirley that the missionaries in Talladega live 2 streets behind the School for the Deaf and the Blind where they grew up, and I have been there!!! Rode my bike all over that place.

Jackie is gonna move her records to the singles ward? Y’all just wanted me to get sucked in to going to the singles ward haha. It’s going to be funny to have dad as my bishop! :) And yeah, I have no idea what is going to happen when Chris gets home. We'll just have to see! And I haven’t taught the people in the mall all week because I was on exchanges. But Kendra, she works in Radio Shack, said she is going to Denmark to find an Oppenlander so she can have that last name hahahahaha. She is super funny! And I got fed once this week at the Bakers’ house. We had Family Home Evening over there with some recent convert, and they had just bought some longboards....so you already know that the dad, the teenage son and I were downhilling it hahaha. They had this li'l hill outside their front door. Too much fun!

No meetings, no tornadoes this week, just a li'l rain. Mariana will be getting baptized on Sunday but I won’t be here :( haha. No biggie though, I’m just glad its happenin’. Took over a year, so it’s about time! And Paige and Connor are graduating and I’m missing it haha. Shoot! But the party in Hawaii will make up for it all. That will be so much fun. Time is for sure flying by. Corbin only has 2 weeks left! And now I only have 6...email me back right quick if you can! I’m doing great and I’m excited for this week.

Love y’all!

Elder Oppenlander

April 22, 2012

Family!

I thought y’all would have been home by now for sure! So that means you are probably driving home as we speak! Drive safe!!!!! And yeah, I love the good ole Deedee memories! Makes me want to get another dog, don’t you feel the same way? :) And are y’all both driving a car a piece home, or what? Also, sounds like your week wasn’t too busy, but you were able to have a lot of fun. And I can picture you and Rick going through Gma’s stuff and crying haha. That must have been good though, to spend that time with Uncle Rick and talk. I have no idea what we should put on Gma’s gravestone. You should put one of her songs that she used to sing all the time on it haha. I'll keep thinking of a scripture, but none are jumping out at me right now.

I can’t believe that Tyler is going to have another kid by the time I get home. Geez! I won’t know two of my relatives. And why is Lauren being so mean to me hahaha. Tell her she knows that she wants my room because its way better than hers, and Nick would never sell all of his burritos to her. He has a special supply just for me. And I could absolutely not feel any love from what she said :(   She needs to step up her love game.

All is going well over here in Cahaba Heights! Elder Jensen and I did a fireside for the youth in our branch last night, and everyone loves us!! Throwing down some good info for them, and I had such a good time. I love teaching people. :) I have been being all kinds of awkward lately walking up to everyone and talking to them. Y’all would be proud! We are teaching the entire store of RadioShack in the Brookwood Mall. All of the employees are either less-active members, or investigators we have picked up from talking to them as we visit the less-active folk. We also are teaching the lady in Sunglass Hut, the dude in the Snack Shack, and the guy at Journeys (both are less-active members). Haha so we spent a lot of time in the mall this week but we weren’t shopping!! We were teaching people. We also got fed like 8 times this week. I don’t know what was going on, but I was loving it. I barely ate any of the food I bought for this week. And last night at the fireside they sent us home with a bunch of snacks. So we are pretty much good for this next week too. So yeah, I’m doing great. Nothing is wrong and I am learning tons and tons everyday. Transfers are in 9 days, so I think its kind of crazy that I only have like 7 weeks left on my mission. But it is good, because just the thought of going home is making me push myself to work harder and do more and more. Can’t give up just because time is running out!  1 Corinthians 9:24 “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain”. Gotta keep on running haha. But yeah, if you have any questions, ax me! I love y’all! Hope you have the best week ever. 

Love,

Elder Oppenlander

April Showers!

Sup yo!

Yeah, we had some crazy weather this week but it wasn’t a big deal at all. We had to stay inside our apartment for a while, but there has seriously been a lot worse weather than that before. We just had to play it safe :) It just rained for part of the day and had some good wind. Not bad at all.

The front yard looks great! Those plants are going to take some time to win my heart, but I will give them a chance :) Sounds like you had a good week, and you are going to have a busy week coming up! When did Lauren decide to move back to California? I haven’t heard anything about this!!! Is she just going to work or what? That will be good, though.  You won’t be an empty nester anymore! And I get home in less than 2 months. Oh, and today is my 22^nd  month mark!! Crazy or what???? I’m glad people still asking about me back home. I thought I would have been old hat by now haha. All of these other missionaries are out from the ward.

And Nick isn’t working at Mimi's anymore? That is cool that he will be working at a Mexican place. I’m gonna have to visit him when I get home....

But wassup here in the dirty south is I’m tired! We had our zone activity today and it was off the chain! We got the Elders Quorum to bring a BBQ to the church and we grilled burgers, hot dogs then played some volleyball, basketball and frisbee. I was out of control a lil bit haha. It was so much fun. I’m drained right now though. I’m also on exchanges with Elder West (Elder Ingersoll trained him :) so since I trained Elder Ingersoll, he's my grandson...if our mission used that terminology but we don’t haha.

We had 5 meal appointments this week, so you can rest assured that I will be coming home fat and happy. I have been working out like crazy and I had the fattest blister on my foot! From playing basketball on Thursday with our investigators. I taped the skin in my journal hahahaha. I know that is super weird but it was worth it :) We had a really good week meeting tons of people. We walked around Southside and contacted for hours this week. The weather is seriously perrrrrrfect. 73 right now and I’m diggin it. Seasons are changing up in here! It is good though, all of the new missinoaries are doing great in the zone and we had a blast today in the zone activity. Also it is weird because all the new missionaries look up to me because I know so much about the scriptures. I don’t feel like I know that much, but I know a lot more then I did back home that’s for sure. Haha its amazing what will happen if you actually pray and read your scriptures! Who would have thought!

But I am in love with my mission. I have grown so much, and I am still growing! I’ve learned how to be happy no matter what, and I’ve learned how to talk to people and connect with anyone. Like this week I made a new friend in this homeless dude named "Freedom" haha nuff said. You can guess what he was like just by his name ;) Also met a Christian Science lady. Hasn’t gone to the doctor her whole life and she is like 67! Crazy stuff!

I never did get around to buying shoelaces, but at the same time I’m just waiting for the ones I have to break. No rush :) That’s just how I’m feeling lately. Not worrying about the little things, and just trying to focus on the main things and get them going well so I won’t have to worry about regrets or anything. Are there any questions y’all have for me? I feel like all I do is blabber on and on in the emails haha. So if there is anything you want to know, email me back right quick. I got 17 minutes left!'

Love y’all! Hope your week goes smoothly!!

Love,

Elder Oppenlander

General Conference

Mom and Pop! 

General Conference was way too good! I took like 300 pages of notes and I love the way I feel afterwards! I’m always so excited and hopeful! Who wouldn’t want to feel like that!? Elder Holland threw it down once again! “Lord, I believe.  Help Thou mine unbelief.” I loved the way he compared how important belief is to the father getting his son healed. You need to first see and acknowledge your strengths, then worry about your weaknesses. LOVED IT! I really liked Elder Uchtdorf’s quote, “Spiritual light rarely comes to those who merrily sit in the darkness waiting for someone to flick the switch” as well. There were too many good ones this conference. The music was amazing too! I think the BYU choir was amazing! There were two missionaries from my mission in it!

Oh, and speaking of Costco! I had a Costco pizza for the first time since I was home. That stuff is way good! And the gopher season already started, huh? What do you mean Abby didn’t want to play with it? haha. I can’t believe she is still obsessed with playing ball. Has she lost any weight, or is she still a big ole chub? OUR YARD LOOKS BARREN!!! I CANT BELIEVE Y’ALL WOULD DISRESPECT OUR YARD LIKE THAT! haha. Man, it is going to take a while for all of that to fill back in. I’m sad you took the Japanese maple tree out! That thing was my favorite.... :( its ok though, I’ll get over it.

How was I looking in the pictures from the interview?? Good, or no? haha and why doesn’t Dad want to go to the Student Emmy's? That should be the most exciting thing he has done for a while. He’s turning into grandpa O haha. : ) That would be sweet if Estafan wins! I could claim that my sister is famous! That would be awesome…

And my week has been uh-mazing. We got our car back on Friday, its a new car but same style and all of that. So it has been nice to be able to see some more areas that are out of bike range. We also went on exchanges with the Spanish elders and it was so fun. I found a 5 dollar buffet that is money! I’ll have to bring y’all to eat there haha. My bike is holding up, the wheels are a lil off true and the brakes are acting up, but I can take it to the shop and they could fix all of that. My shoes aren’t holding up, though! I might need dad to send out that polish. They are looking pretty shady right now, and I’m on my last pair of laces. I have to switch the laces out between my dress shoes and my walking shoes. So hopefully they won’t break or I won’t have any laces for either pair haha. Don’t worry about sending any, I can probably pick up some out here, we have a Macy’s and all of that. I probably won’t have to burn anything when I get home haha. Both my suits are still good, and my shoes just need to be taken care of more. I won’t be able to fit in any of my pants, like jeans and stuff when I get home. My thighs are way too big haha, and they are still chickeny, just buff chickeny : ) haha. And we try to go to the botanical gardens each week, but this week they have a spring plant sale, where they sell like 100,000 plants. It’s out of our area, so we couldn’t volunteer for that, but we will go there next week.

But nevertheless, this week was great. We weren’t able to find too many new people, but we did find a couple. Also Marianal, the Swedish Brazilian lady I have been teaching since LAST April is finally ready to be baptized!!!!!! So I am soooo pumped about that. I have taught her for no joke an entire year. So I am super excited for her baptism. Also we went to follow up with this one couple I met on exchanges a month or two ago, and they were doing great.  We left a blessing with them and blessed them that the wife would find a job, and the husband would be able to do well in school and keep his family his top priority. So we show up one month later, and the wife has three jobs!!! It was awesome to see, and she said, "oh yeah, I heard about you guys. As soon as you left last time, my husband called me all excited!" So that was good to hear, and we told him about General Conference, and he watched it at his house. So I’m excited to see what happens with them. They aren’t in my area though! So I’m going to have to be on the missionaries’ back to get it done. It is always good to see how the gospel really does bless people! So excited to see some more miracles in my life.

And that is good that Gene will be able to help out a little. I hope I can get that job! That would be amazing. And classy. I sure do look good in a suit ;) haha. If you have any questions, I will be on for a while longer! I love y’all and I hope you have a great week! Keep praying for me! It helps!

Love,

Elder Oppenlander

Spring Photos

 Elders Oppenlander & Jensen, Zone Leaders for the Birmingham Central Zone

Service at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham, AL

Caught at General Conference

 Interviews

Waiting for Conference to start

Happy Easter!

Yo yo yo!

Easter was way too beautiful over here in Alabama. It might have been raining outside, but it was raining the spirit inside!! Haha! It was really good, and Elder Jensen and I got to teach Sunday School. Bore some mad testimony about the resurrection and everyone loved it. And you still need to send me some pics of the yard ‘before’ so I can appreciate what the gardener is going to do.

And Elder Holland is my favorite speaker for sure. I always get so much out of his talks, and it has been great to learn from him. I can’t believe I never watched General Conference growing up. That was dumb of me! There is so much good stuff that I have missed. And what is the dry packer or canner or whatever? I’m guessing that is for food storage.  Never knew there was one in Fountain Valley though. How is John doing? Does he still come to church and all of that? And yeah, I can’t believe that all of this time has already flown by. It’s weird that I have less than 12 weeks left of my mission haha. Goodness gracious. I can’t believe it. Doesn’t feel real at all. And what type of smoothie thing did you get? It even makes tortilla soup??? No way! That sounds so cool! I just got a plain ole smoothie machine, but it still works wonders.

This week was good again. And yeah, that picture was of me putting together Sister Butt's bike. She is a sister in the zone, and they were struggling. Elder Jensen is doing well on the bikes and we still don’t have a car, so we are going to get fit :) I love it! We have had to bike to church and we have to bike there tomorrow for Zone Training meeting as well! Luckily, we didn’t have to bike to the temple on Tuesday, that would have been rough. We got a ride there and we were able to relax and enjoy it. I got to see Elders Yogoh and Ojelade this week at Zone Leaders Council as well. And I got my first temple recommend interview since being back home. Can you believe that 2 years have gone by since I first got a recommend?!  So this week was action packed and i still love everything about being a missionary. Today we’ve got to shop, eat, and then we have two appointments with recent converts. What’s new with y’all? Anything exciting planned? 

Let me know!

Love, Elder Oppenlander

March Photos

President Holzapfel's Car Died so Elder Oppenlander came to the rescue 

President's Friend, Jeff Cottle, out with Elders Oppenlander and Jensen

Chivalry is not dead in Alabama

From 7 to 13 Zones

Palm Sunday

Mom and Pop!!!

How are y’all doing this week! Did you meet Miss California? She has a profile on mormon.org!!! And why don’t y’all have one yet? And I want to go to a Long Beach State volleyball game so badly. They sound like they would be super fun and I would be down to have a 70’s dance off!!! Haha, We are going to have to go see one of those when I get home! That is good that Jackie got an Easter basket, too! I love mine ... besides all the candy! Are you trying to fatten me up or what!? I love the peanuts and other things, though! Thank you so much! That boating shirt is super classy as well!

My week here was great. I thought I was leaving then they changed it up on me. I’m still with Elder Jensen and they split the zone to Birmingham Central and Birmingham Northeast Zones. So I’m the Zone Leader for the Birmingham Central Zone, and it’s only 4 units. We have 16 missionaries, 8 Sisters and 8 Elders. We got 24 new sisters this last on Wednesday and only 1 Elder haha. So it has been kind of crazy, but fun. We had to give our car to the new sisters, so we have been biking everywhere and Elder Jensen isn’t diggin’ it too much. I love riding around, but he likes getting rides haha. I also tracted into this lady who works at a nice salon, and she is going to cut my hair today! Super excited about that.

So Dad, you want a story?....Here’s one for ya!

So there is a less active member in the branch I have been working with since last April. I’ve gotten pretty close to the family, and this past week the husband died because of heart failure. We stopped by their house and found out he died, so we got their home teacher and came over to give them a blessing. And the daughter is also having surgery today, so she wanted a blessing for that. We are sitting down visiting, and then we do the blessing. And as we are standing there getting ready to go, the wife says ..."Elder Oppenlander, you'll be home in a year, right?" and I say "Yes, ma’am" then she drops a bomb on me! She says, "Can you come back to Alabama in a year and stand in for my husband, Rod as his proxy in our sealing ceremony?".... haha! I freaked out, and so did their daughter! She was all, “Mom, we need to talk about this”! And then the mom says, ''Your Dad and I talked about it before he died, and we had it settled between Elder Oppenlander and another missionary, and we made our decision and chose Elder Oppenlander!".... so what I’m trying to say is that I guess I know when we are coming back to visit Alabama hahaha. Next year, Spring Break! That threw a big one on me! That is a super big deal!!!!!!! And of course I couldn’t say no, so I said yes. And right after that, we left, and we got in the car and I said "Oh, Dear..." and our ride, Bro. Sadler, Elder Jensen and I just started laughing we were so excited! It was so unreal. We laughed the whole way home and I just kept thinking, did this really just happen? So, Mom and Dad --- I need to come back to Alabama a year from now to help Sister Sokolowski get sealed to her husband for time and all eternity. There is a story for you, Dad.

Things have been going great, I have investigators to teach, I have service to do, and I have to come back to Alabama a year from now.  : )

Elder Oppenlander

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Good morning!

My week has been great out here! Got to do a lot of service and met a ton of cool new people. And I found out that I will be leaving Birmingham on Wednesday! I have no idea where I’m going!! Hopefully, somewhere sweet! I can’t believe that this transfer is already over! Sad to say goodbye! Tell Sis. Reynolds I got the package and I loved it! I thought that I had written her back? I guess I didn’t! Anyways, tell her I loved everything she sent, and Elder Yogoh appreciated it as well. We had a great time with it!

Is Paige still dating that one kid that came with us to BJ’s? And they are opening a pit bull rescue??? Haha I wonder why that is their plan. But I will for sure take a dog from them :) By the way, did you take that black lab yet?? If not, get on it!!! How did Becka and Jackie like Schooner or Later? I ran into some people in Huntsville who actually knew about that place! I think I might have told you that, but still, that’s pretty crazy! I miss the water so bad. Goodness gracious.

That is also good that you heard from Zac! Tell him to step it up and be a firefighter! That is sweet! Jackson got his mission call to Australia??? What the heck? How old is he???

What do you mean that your talk at church went "ok"? I’m sure it went great! And I wish I could have heard about Larry Johnson’s trip to Israel! Sounds like it would have been interesting for sure. And I can totally picture Pres. Holzapfel rushing to class and doing that. It’s ok, I’m sure he rocked the seminary class.

And what do you mean Mimi's house is cinnamon? Did she paint it red?????

Thanks for the advice! I really appreciate it! Like I said in the letter, I really do want y’’alls support and guidance. I understand the need to prepare! That’s what we do as missionaries everyday, and I know that I will for sure need to prepare for the rest of my life. And hopefully, I can show to y’all that I am ready, and that I am thinking about the long term, and not just worried about getting married and being happy now. I know that I will be blessed for keeping an eternal perspective, and that part of that is doing all I can in the moment. But no matter what happens, I know that we will be all right as we put our trust in God and ask for his help. I love being able to trust the Lord haha. Probably the biggest thing I have learned on my mission. Gotta love that!

Thanks again, Mom and Dad. I really do appreciate it!

And I’m glad you loved the letter! Email me back ASAP.

Love,

Elder Oppenlander 

Spring Forward

How are you!!!!!

Take the black lab puppy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Come on!!!! I can’t come home to no puppy haha. But sounds like y’all had a good time hanging with the family this week. And Garret is a hockey star! Shoot, he is going to be famous after getting out there on the ice with the Kings and showing everyone how to do it. That is pretty cool. I’m bummed I'll be missing that, too! And I’m going to miss Connor’s graduation party! Just by a hair though. And didn’t Uncle Bill and Aunt Suzy go to San Luis Obispo? I’m pretty sure they did. That is sweet! I can’t believe that all my lil baby cousins are growing up and ahead of me in school  haha.

What does it mean that your 3 investigators are in a "holding pattern"? Does that mean that they aren’t progressing? That’s what I’m guessing from the context of the rest of the letter haha. Just keep working with them! Don’t give up! And the‘fathers and guns’ campout sounds sweet!!!!! And yeah, it’s a good idea to keep the girls away from that one. I’m glad that y’all had a good Sacrament meeting yesterday. I do not know Elder Solomona though, but I had to speak in Sacrament yesterday also about following the prophet. It was good and everyone said I did well! Glad I have the ability to wing talks like it’s nothing haha. It’s been a blessing. But really it was fun, and I had a good time looking for scriptures I could share. I am learning so much in the scriptures lately its not even funny! Becoming a theologian haha. I think that’s how you spell it...but don’t hold me to that. And for your talk next week on loving the Lord: John 14:15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments”. If you love God, you will do what he says. Nuff said.

Good job rocking the Psalmfest!!!! Way to show those Christians how real Christians sing hahaha. And who all wanted to sing with y’all for the Christmas concert? Just random people or what?

Becka is already on spring break?? Wow! I think all the kids around here start next week. Everyone except the missionaries! We never get a break and I love it. There is no need for a break, really. How is Rachel doing by the way? I haven’t heard about her in a while now? Is she still up at school? That road trip sounds like it will be really fun and might be a little dramatic on the way home hahahaha. ;)

The baptism pic was Logan and Emily. They are a part-member family we baptized the weekend I got here. Taught them the word of wisdom and that’s it haha. And I look like a super creeper in that picture of their baptism haha. I was laughing super hard. And Elder Jensen loves how stinky I am. And I have no idea what it is that is doing it to me! But he has been just as bad, so it’s not just me. :) I can’t tell you what’s doing it, but most missionaries I know have horrible digestive problems haha. So maybe it’s just a part of the mission.

As for what I did this week, we biked a ton! We biked all over the place and I was in heaven! It started warming back up and got about 74 degrees yesterday! We started doing service in the botanical gardens, met some awesome people! I think we will work in the gardens pretty regularly! Gonna be fun! Get the puppy!!!!!

And I emailed Becka back about Elder Rock already. As of this last week, we can email anyone we want and we have no more time limit on the computer. Obviously, I won’t be emailing all day, but I thought I would let y’all know. I think we’re getting extra time to keep up with all the recent converts, priesthood leaders in the wards we serve, and friends. I don’t know why? Maybe because of all the new missionaries coming?? But we had to tell the zone during our zone training meeting, and some missionaries were freaking out haha. Answered some people’s prayers this week. We answered this one lady’s prayers big time. She is a medical student, and is doing her rotations, and is working with terminally ill people. On Friday she was driving home crying and praying to God asking him why all of these bad things happen and she was praying for comfort. And then like 5 minutes after she got home, we knocked on her door and left a blessing with her. She kept saying, "this is so cool" and she told us how she was just praying for help and she felt as though God had sent us to her. I told her that he HAD sent us to her, and we left a Plan of Salvation pamphlet with her to read. It was a lot more than that, but I don’t want to ruin the story by trying to tell you too much over email haha. It was awesome though! It has been a pretty busy week and my body has been taking a hit haha. We are still having a pretty rough time finding new investigators. We find plenty of people everyday, but they are either just being nice and not interested, or we can never see them again. So I would appreciate y’all’s prayers about that. But really, I just have to work harder and do more to find the people who the Lord is preparing. And are y’all following along with us on the Book of Mormon reading?? We have been in some sweet chapters lately!! I’m diggin’ it! I love the gospel so much! It can help with any problem and prepare you for anything! I love it. I hope y’all are enjoying all of the opportunities y’all have to share the gospel and learn more about it. Have a good week and email me if you have any questions! I still got a lot of time on here.

Love,

Elder Oppenlander

March Photos

 Missionaries at the Mission Conference

Elders Jensen and Oppenlander