Two for One!

Hey hey hey!

Well, this last week was pretty good. It started of with an awesome
trip to the monkey forest. It's a park way up at the top of our area
where monkeys roam free! The whole area is fenced off, but once you're
inside there are no more boundaries, and the monkeys are free to come
up and climb all over you. It was so cool! The best part though were
definitely the lemurs! They were so curious and friendly, they would
just come and jump all over you! That was a ton of fun. Then, right
after this we went to Nordhausen, and got the best pizza EVER! Back
when there were missionaries in Nordhausen this pizza place was
frequented by the elders, and the owner loves missionaries! He has
pictures on his walls of missionaries, postcards from salt lake,
invitations to weddings, etc. While we were in Nordhausen we got the
opportunity to meet with two different "investigators" (because there
aren't any elders to meet with regularly they don't really make
progress) and both of them already have a testimony of the Book of
Mormon. We talked to them, and they told us they know the Book of
Mormon to be true, but they don't join the church because of personal
reasons. One doesn't want to get married, even though she's living
with her boyfriend, and the other works for her current church and
doesn't want to lose her job. I think there's a valuable lesson to be
learned here. Every day we have to make choices, and these choices
effect our lives. President Monson talked about this in his last
general conference talk. He reminded us to always be ready to choose
the harder right instead of the easier wrong. Both of these people
know what they need to do, but they're not willing to do it because
their previous choices have led them down a different path, and it's
much harder to leave their current, comfortable state and come into
another one that can be a lot harder. But, once we're on the right
path, we know exactly what we have to do to stay on it! So, stay on
the path!

I was also sick for a few days this week, I was having some stomach
problems, but I feel a lot better now. But we had to stay inside for a
few days so I could recover. I hate being sick on the mission, it's
the worst. On Saturday I was feeling better, and we had an appointment
with one of our Arabic investigators! He's wanted to do this with us
for a while, and this week we finally had the chance. So we made
peanut butter sandwiches, he brought Arabic pizza, and we went to a
park and ate. It was all fun, until as we were eating, he reached in
his bag and pulled out a big hookah! Hahaha, it was so funny. He
started to set it up, and it gave us a good opportunity to teach about
the word of wisdom. He still ended up setting it up, and using it, so
it hasn't totally set in yet, but we're working with him.

Well, that's all from me. Hope you all have a great week!

LG Elder Oliphant

Mother's Day, Oh I loved it!

Hey guys!

So I really have no desire to write an email right now, so we'll see
how this goes.

This week was pretty good. We had a good amount of lessons, which is
always the best. I love teaching people about the gospel, it's the
greatest! We also got to call home for Mother's Day, which was
amazing. Oh I loved it.

The best part though of this last week was that we have found a new
family to teach! The father, mother, and two daughters were baptized
many years ago, but they have not been coming to church for several,
several years. We've tried to make contact with them before, but it
has never worked out. Then, two weeks ago the mother passed away. It
has been really hard on the entire family, which has now grown with
several grandchildren, and they are starting to open up to the gospel
again! Sometimes we might ask ourselves why certain things in our
lives have to happen, like death, sickness, or war. We may not know
why, but God knows, and he has a purpose in everything. This event has
opened up an entire family to hearing the gospel, and through it they
are being blessed. It's just like Alma says in the Book of Mormon,
"And now, because ye are compelled to be humble blessed are ye"(Alma
32:13). When we are humble before the Lord, and willing to except his
counsel and guidance, then we are blessed. It's good when this
humility comes through trial, but better when we decide ourselves to
be humble. Alma also says "do ye not suppose that they are more
blessed who truly humble themselves because of the word?
 Yea, he that truly humbleth himself, and repenteth of his sins, and
endureth to the end, the same shall be blessed--yea, much more blessed
than they who are compelled to be humble because of their exceeding
[trials]. Therefore, blessed are they who humble themselves without
being compelled to be humble"(Alma 32:14-16). The blessings of being
humble before we are forced to be humble are far greater.

Now, because it was Mother's Day yesterday, I thought I'd write a
little something about my mom.

Mom, I love you! I really, really love you! You brought me into this
world, and showed me how to live my life. You were patient with me,
and because of you I am here, involved in the greatest work the world
has ever known! I'm so grateful for the testimony that you have. There
have been days here in the mission field where I've just wanted to
give up and go home, and every time a thought like that has come into
my mind, the next thought that has come has been the stripling

warriors, and how they did not give up, because their mothers knew it.
I'm so glad that my mother also knows it, and that I can always hold
onto her love and her testimony when I have no where else to go.

I love you! Have a great week!

LG Elder Oliphant

Was geht ab, dicker??

Hey everybody!

Man, this Last week has been super intense, I don't even know where to begin!

On Monday we were going to go to a zoo park in Erfurt called
"Crocworld" which is supposedly a big zoo completely dedicated to
crocodiles! It sounded really cool, but sadly when we got there it was
closed! Like, super closed, and it didn't look like they would be
opening any time soon. Which is sad :( so we did a little shopping and
walked around the downtown area of the city. Then that night we were
invited to family home evening with some members, and they taught us
how to make home made egg rolls! Super good, almost as satisfying as
our spiritual thought 😉 we talked about blessings and promises and
how God honors his promises. It was a very spiritual
moment with this family and it really strengthened my testimony.

Tuesday was good. We went on exchange and I got to work with Elder
Seegmiller. They didn't have any appointments, so we went around and
tried to find new people for them to teach. The other program has been
struggling lately, and it's really hard for me as their DL to see
that, because I really want them to have success. I wish I could do
more, but the success of their program isn't in my hands, it's between
them, the Lord, and the people's agency. One really funny, horrible
thing happened while we were together. We were walking alongside a
river that flows through the city, and there was a family of ducks
playing in the water. A mama duck, a papa duck, and 3 little baby
ducklings. They were so cute! Then, a man came up to the water with
his big, bad, smelly dog! He let the dog off it's leash, and the dog
dove into the water! The mama and papa, recognizing the danger quickly
gathered the ducklings and got them to safety, but one was left
behind. He tried to swim away, but the big, bad, smelly dog was to
fast. He pounced on him, the duckling went under... And DIDN'T COME
BACK UP! Straight up one of  the saddest thing I've seen on my
mission.

Wednesday was normal. Skip Wednesday

Thursday was Elder Powell's birthday! And he also had a doctors
appointment... In Chemnitz, which is a bigger city almost 100 miles
away. It was his first area, and the appointment was set up before he
got transferred here, so I got to see Chemnitz. It's a really big
city, and it's super communist. The name of the city up until 1996 was
"Karl-Marx-Stadt" (Stadt is city), and they have a giant statue of
Karl Marx's head right in the middle of the city! It's huge! We had a
fun time, and we also met a professional basketball player in the
hospital waiting room! He was from Seattle, but had lived and played
in Germany for 8 years. He also knew a lot about the church, because
he played college ball for the University of Utah! Small world.
That night, after we got home we had our German class, and one of our
students, Ali, told us he really likes what we do, and our church, and
he wants to join! He has a lot to do before he can do that, but we're
really excited for him. We also had a little birthday party for elder
Powell.

Add caption

The next cool day was Saturday. We play soccer every Saturday, which
is awesome, and I'm getting way better at soccer, so when I get home I
might go pro... Just a thought ⚽️⚽️ later that day we had an
appointment with Eddy, one of our African investigators, and while we
were there he invited his friend to come over! His friend was super
cool, and was really excited to hear more about or message! We have
another appointment with them tonight, and I'm really excited to see
where it goes.

Overall this week was great, and I love being a missionary! Have a great week!

LG Elder Oliphant

Elder Weber and Elder Anderson

100th Post!

Hey y'all!

 Well, we had another week full of fun! A lot of stuff happened that
made this a week to remember. First off we got to help with two
different moves this week, both with different less active members.
One was with a super sweet older sister in the ward. She moved about a
month ago, but still needed help organizing everything. Most of time
was spent trying to hang cabinets on walls, which was really hard
because her building was build in the GDR, and is basically a big
concrete block, so we had to drill a bunch of holes into concrete
walls. The other move was with another less active, who lived on the
5th floor of his apartment, without an elevator. Wahoo. Haha, good
thing I've been doing my exercises.

 We also got to go to this super cool city called Arnstadt. It's in our
area, and we got to do some work down there. But arnstadt is one of
the oldest cities in Germany, it's been around since 705! Over 1300
years! Crazy! While we were there we got to visit a less active
family, and have a lot of really great conversations along the way. We
talked to one lady who was super excited to see us! She was born and
raised atheist in communist east Germany, but later found faith
through reading in the bible. But after she decided to become a
Christian her family shunned her, and now she's all alone  so she
was very happy to talk to anyone about religion and faith. It's so
nice when people actually want to talk about God, most people here
just say "what? Church? No thanks." Of that was good.

 We had stake conference this week in Leipzig, which means we had
another road trip! President Fingerle was there and he talked about
the promises that have been given to Germany. These saints were
promised that there will be 100s of stakes here. There are currently
around 20. Some of the members here have started giving up hope that
this promise will come true, because there hasn't been a ton of growth
lately. What president Fingerle said was very profound. He shared the
story of Abraham, and how he was promised lot of posterity, but became
very old to the point of not being able to have children anymore, and
still didn't have children. At this point it must have been really
hard for Abraham to continue to have faith in the Lord's promise, but
he continued in faith and was blessed with a son.

 The Lord honors his
promises!

 I know it! I've seen it!

 I hope you all have a great week! 

 LG Elder Oliphant

Elder Teuscher, Chase's trainee

Welcome to Heaven!

Hey y'all!

Man, this last week has just been amazing! I have had so much fun,
it's ridiculous! A lot of it is due to Elder Powell, my new comp.
We've been together for less than a week, and we're already best
friends! He's so cool! We've been having a great time trying to get
him used to the area. On Thursday we went on the double E (The Erfurt
Experience) where I showed him around the whole city and it was
beautiful. He's just coming from Chemnitz, which is known to be a
ghetto, not so pretty city. And then coming here he said "It's like
I'm in heaven on earth!" I've always known that Erfurt is pretty, but
Elder Powell's reaction to the city reminded me once again of how
beautiful Erfurt really is, and it also helped me to appreciate the
area even more. It's so interesting how we can start to take such
amazing things for granted. The same applies for the Gospel as well.
Do we take the sacrament for granted? Or the Holy Scriptures? Or the
atonement? I hope not! All of these things and more are amazing,
beautiful gifts for us, and we can always learn more and more from
them, and we can always become better. There is no limit to how much
we can improve through Jesus Christ and his gospel! So don't take it
for granted!

Morning Sport

Supposedly they "made" a cheesecake

Scholl Friedenstein in Gotha

The work is going well, we started a German class this week for
refugees who need help learning the language. We only had a few people
show up, but it was really good, and we're expecting more next time!
Teaching German is really fun, and it's way easier than teaching
English. Mostly because I actually know what the rules are in German,
and I know how to learn it. Also my English is getting pretty bad...
#ThanksDeutsch



We also had a big ward activity this week, a Kirschblütenfest (Cherry
blossom fest) there was music, games, and a dance! That was weird,
haha, really weird. But it was way fun.



Well, that's it for me. Have a great week!



P.S. There was a big sale on peanut butter. We got 10 jars