August 17

Well, another week has passed. It's been a pretty good one. Really it
just slipped right by. We've been really trying to get to know this
city as well as we can. It's a big city, and for two brand new
missionaries, it's pretty intimidating. But, we're making really good
progress! We can now get from our apartment to most major places in
the city with the buses/tram. Taking public transportation is a lot
different than biking and walking everywhere, which is what we did in
Freiberg and Leer, but it's also fun, plus it gives you the
opportunity to take little 5 - 10 minute power naps every once in a
while  but, yea, Dresden is really great!

We had an exchange this week with our zone leaders, and I was able to
work with elder morales (don't let the name fool you, he's from
Austria). And we got to work in FREIBERG! It was cool, but also really
weird. We came in Friday night, and we had their weekly GeMiKo
(ward-missionary correlation meeting). So, I got to sit in one more of
those meetings. Yay. Super awkward. The new sisters in Freiberg were
also on exchange with some of the sisters in Dresden, so half of the
missionaries there weren't even in the ward. But, despite the
awkwardness, I really enjoyed it. Freiberg has really changed. The
ward seems a lot more excited about the work, and the sisters. Well,
mostly the sisters. But hey, it is what it is! :)

We had the exchange so I could show those elders around Freiberg, and
so they could show us around Dresden. So, yea. I showed them around,
met some members, said hi to some former investigators, ate some
delicious Freiberg döner, and yea, just had a great time :)

There's one more thing I want to tell you about this week. So here in
Dresden there are a lot of refugees from a really small country in
east Africa. We try to talk to a lot of them, but most of them speak a
little German, a little English, and some random African language. We
met quite a few of these people this week, and normally we would just
give them a card, because we can't teach them. Well, we gave a card to
some guys, and it just so happens that they have a roommate who just
made it to Germany last week, and who was looking for a church to
attend. So, they gave him our card an he called us! This guy is super
cool (I can't remember/spell/pronounce his name) but he's a really
nice guy, and he speaks english! He came through church yesterday! We
taught him, made out a return appointment, and he helped us find a
Book of Mormon in his native language! The lord knows that there were
all of these people coming here who need the gospel, and he's given us
a way to share it with them! The church is true!

Well, that was my week. I just learned one more thing that I would
love to share. As I was in Freiberg, I had a lot of people ask me why
they couldn't go into the temple. They were upset because in the bible
Jesus says to love everyone, and exclude no one. Well. I've been
thinking about that and studying it, and I've come to a conclusion.
Jesus Christ does accept everyone, and we accept everyone too. We love
all of our brothers and sisters, and that's why everyone can't go into
the temple. In Leviticus, it talks about the tabernacle that the
children of Israel had, and how not everyone could go inside. It says
"Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee,
when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it
shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations: And that ye
may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and
clean;" (lev. 10:9-10)

If just anyone could enter into the temple, without being worthy, then
these people would suffer spiritual death, and we don't want that for
our brothers and sisters. We want them to have the blessings of the
temple by living worthily and following Christ.

Love you, have a great week!

 Elder Oliphant
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