Monday, August 10, 2015

Dresden, Dresden



Well, first week in Dresden is over, and honestly it's been the
longest week of my life! It all started Tuesday. Tuesday was transfer
day. We just packed up, and were planning to go over and catch a train
to Dresden. 30 minute train ride, no problem. Well, we still wanted to
do some stuff here, like show the new elders around, say goodbye to
the Hubrichs, check out the temple one last time. No problem right?
Well... Made it to the temple and we did everything we wanted to do,
and we had 25 minutes to catch our train. The temple is 30 minutes
from the train station. Fortunately, the Hubrichs drove us, but it was
really close. We barely made the train! Woo hoo! We made it 2 stops,
and then the train broke down! So we got out, and had to wait 40
minutes for them to send another train to come and pick us up. Not too
bad, it was just really hot. We finally made it to Dresden, but by the
time we got there, two of the wheels on my big gray suitcase were
broken :/ they just weren't made for cobblestone. So, we got there,
unpacked a little bit, and then the other elders showed us around the
city a little bit. Dresden is huge! It's the fourth biggest city in
Germany (actual size, not population), so, it was very fun for too
missionaries who don't know the city at all to try and find
everything. But, we're managing :) There are also 4 sisters here in
the city, and this is my first time working with them. It's weird. We
see each other almost every day. I also live with elder drazin now, so
that's fun :)


For all who want more

Elder Oliphant's take  on For all who want more
So, like the mission blog shows, all of the missionaries coming in
will now be taken to Freiberg. And because Dresden is so close to
Freiberg, all of the trainers came and stayed the night with us. It
was fun, and I got to go with elder Roth and elder Sagmeister (the
former ZL's here who stayed the night with us) to visit a recent
convert That they baptized. A really nice girl with a great family,
and I started to have a pretty good friendship with her brother, who's
also really interested in the church. It was fun having 11 elders in
our apartment,but they ate all of my food Imp but hey, forgive and
forget.


So yea, this week was long, but great. Even though we don't know the
city we were still able to find 2 new investigators. One of them is a
cool guy from Syria. Haha, he's Muslim, and when we told him about the
Book of Mormon, he just kept asking about evidence that proves the
boom of Mormon is true. He then showed us a video about the Koran
that, in a very intense way, talks about all of the evidence that
proves that the Koran is the word of God. Now, we wanted to stay
respectful, and kind, but man, it was really funny, and elder Teuscher
and I both struggled to keep from laughing.

So, yea. Great day. Great week. I'm hoping to have some great times
here in Dresden :) this is seriously the prettiest city in the whole
mission.

I love you, have a great week :)

Elder Oliphant




The believer, the cigarettes, the Czech, and the white wash‏






Hey mom!

Well, as you can probably guess from the title of this letter, I had
an interesting week.

We've been meeting with one investigator for the past couple weeks,
his name is herr Arndt. He's a really nice, really, REALLY OLD German.
When I say old, I mean like 90. His body isn't the best anymore, but
his brain still works 100%. Whenever we go over he tells us all of his
crazy stories about pre war and communist controlled Germany. They're
really cool stories, but, the best part of our visits is always when
we talk about Jesus Christ. This man is more sensitive to the spirit
than anyone else I've met here on my mission. Every single time we
teach he starts to cry (it's actually pretty cute). This week he
shared with us his desire follow the work of wisdom, so, we took his
cigarettes! It was actually really funny. As we walked out of the
home, we just had to take some selfies Winking faceWinking face it was great to see him
progress like that!!

I also learned something ridiculously cool this week. We talked to a
man on the street this week from Lebanon. I love people from Lebanon,
I feel like I already have a connection to them :) we talked to him
about Jesus Christ, and he got all excited and said "yea! I love
Jesus! I think he was the most important prophet! Except for
Muhammad." He's Muslim, no surprise. We told him about how the Book of
Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, and then asked if he had
ever heard of it. His response shocked me. He said, "Mormon? Yes,
that's an Arabic name. It means 'The Believer.' My brother is called
Mormon." The church is so true! There is no way that Joseph smith
could've known that Mormon is a middle-eastern name. I love the
gospel!

This week we went out with the Hubrichs to visit some less active
members. We drove out to a tiny village called Niedersaida. The member
we wanted to visit wasn't home, but she was coming back in about 30
minutes. So, we went to the Czech Republic! Well, to the border. It's
a river, and it's cool :) of Course we didn't go over the border, but
we saw it! Then we drove back to the village and had a great lesson
with this member. She has been less active for a while, but she wants
to come back to the church! And, she has a 9 year old son who wants to
be baptized! We were pretty excited about that, but then, everything
changed.

And this leads to my last point, the white wash. We are having a big
change here in Freiberg. Our awesome new mission president has a new
mission focus.

"Faithfully we baptize with the focus on the blessings of the temple."

That is awesome, I love it! I love the temple, and I love how I've had
the opportunity to serve here in Freiberg, and see the temple almost
every day. But, sadly, my time here is now over. President Fingerle
has decided to move our zone leaders from Dresden to Freiberg, and
he's also bringing in sisters, kind of like what they have at temple
square. So, elder Teuscher and I are switching programs with the Zone
leaders. They're coming here, and we're going there. It's going to be
a big change for us, we'll go from a city of 50,000 to a city of
500,000, we'll be living in a four man apartment (with elder drazin
Grinning face with smiling eyes) and we'll be in a ward with sisters. It's a big change, and
honestly, I'm not to happy for it. I'm excited to be able to serve in
one of the biggest, and most beautiful cities in the mission, but I
would like to stay here. Freiberg is special, and I've made a lot of
really good friends here that I will really miss. But, we go forward
with faith. I believe that president fingerle receives revelation for
us, and if that's what the lord wants, then that's what I'll do. Plus,
I'll be staying with elder Teuscher, so I'll get to finish training
him. But, yea. Big change. But, on the bright side, I'll never have a
boring p day! Because there's so much to do!!

I'm excited, a little scared, and kind of overwhelmed. Pray for me!

Love you!

Elder Oliphant