Winds of Change...

Hey y'all!

We have had a very exciting week, but first of all, the activity we
planned for this week of going to the art museum fell out, so we ended
up making a makeshift ping pong table in our apartment, and we went to
globetrotter, the cool store with a cold room. They also have a little
pool where you can test out canoes and kayaks! It was a ton of fun!

We've been super busy, and it's awesome! Our work has started to pay
off. We met with a less active member this week who joined the church
a few years ago, but then he moved to New Zealand for work, and wile
he was there it was really hard for him to stay active. He came back a
few weeks ago, and we finally had the opportunity to meet with him! He
is super cool! We talked about the restoration with him, and asked him
how he ended up joining the church, then his mom came in to the
lesson, and we started teaching her as well! It was very spiritual,
and then he came to church this week! One other thing that makes this
guy super cool is... You ready? He's a RAPPER! And he can rap his
testimony! So cool! The church is true, and it's for everybody!

We've been doing a lot more work with less actives recently, and we
had three less active families that we teach come to church this week.
It's been great to be able to work with the other ward members here to
help fellowship them, and help them feel comfortable coming back to
church.

We had several other appointments this week, members, less actives,
and investigators, but the highlight of the week was Definitely this
weekend. On Friday we had three appointments, plus weekly planning,
and then On top of that we had to go to the city of Görlitz for a
stake missionary weekend. Görlitz is a really cool city. It was built
around a river, which after World War II became the border dividing
Poland and Germany. So half of the city is in Poland, and the
missionaries there have permission to go to Poland. For this weekend
we had 10 elders and 4 sisters come to the city and we went on splits
with all of the young men and women from 16-18 in the stake. I got to
go out with a young man named Jeffrey Lehmann, and we had a blast
together. We went out for a few hours and just did missionary work in
Görlitz for a few hours. It was great, and we really helped these kids
prepare for their missions!

I have had a great time here in Dresden, it has been wonderful to
serve here, but, sadly, all good things must come to an end. I have
been transferred, and will be going to Erfurt, the Capitol of
Thüringen, where I will be the district leader. It's not too far away,
and it's still in east Germany. Plus I've heard that the best
bratwurst in Germany comes from Thüringen, so, I'm excited :) my new
companion will be elder Griffen, I don't know him at all, so we're in
for an adventure! But, I'll have a car! Woo hoo! (Yes it is still DDR, my comp is elder griffin, and he will be driving because i don't have a drivers license yet, but ill get one when i get there) As I got the call,

I'll be honest, I wasn't very happy. I love Dresden. I love the
members, I love the other missionaries, I love my investigators, I
just love everything about it, and I really didn't want to leave! I
didn't know why I had to go, it didn't seem fair. Then, as I was
sitting in church listening to the prelude music, the organist started
playing "Ich gehe wohin du mich heißt"(I'll go where you want me to
go) and it just reminded me that this isn't my mission, it's the
Lords. He is sending me their for a reason, and I don't need to know
why, I just need to go forward in faith. I will truly miss Dresden,
but I'm excited for a new experience in "uncharted territory" (Erfurt
was added to my mission only a few months ago).
I love you all, and I am so thankful for your prayers and support.
Have a great week

LG Elder Oliphant

Apparently they are trying to conserve on dishes by not using silverware?

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
Von meinem iPad gesendet

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  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  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
) 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

German is a lot different than gospel German

Hey mom, thanks for ordering the tie, I love you :) And thanks for giving the stuff to John, I´m glad he got that before he left. Did he like the Hawaii tie?

So, this week was... Something. We spent most of our time with one amazing member, brother Adolf. He helped us out with 3 joint teaches this week, and they were great. The first one was Tuesday with an older woman who we teach. She´s really nice, and she really likes me. Sometimes maybe a little too much... But anyway, we taught her the plan of salvation, and man, it was such an amazing lesson! We centered it on the family, and how we can go through this whole plan with our families, and she told us as we were talking that she felt something really special whenever we came, a calm peace in her heart. We were able to bear testimony that that was the holy ghost telling her that what we´re saying is true, and she got so excited! I hope we can continue to teach her. She´s really, REALLY old (like 85) and she´s in and out of the hospital a lot, but we love her. Then, right after we were finished with this appointment, we were driving back and I had the impression that we should go by on a woman that we´d met a few week earlier. She investigated the church for about 3 years, and then lost contact with the missionaries. We went by, and man, that was something totally different. She let us in, but she just wanted to fight us, and explain why we´re wrong. It was actually kind of funny, her biggest problem with the church right now is what goes on in the temple. She doesn´t understand why it has to be a secret, and why we couldn´t explain it. Then, brother Adolf asked her "What did you do for your work? How long did you do it? Ok, you worked in medicine for 20 years, you know a lot about it, right? Explain it all to me, so that I can understand it, and do it all in the next 15 minutes.... You can´t! It´s too complicated. In order for me to understand, I would have to study and gain experience. I´ve been going to the temple for over 40 years, and I still don´t understand everything, so how can you expect to understand it, even if we explained every detail to you?" This really helped me out. I don´t understand everything that goes on in the temple, and I don´t know if I ever will in this life, but I know that it´s from God, and I know that it´s true. I´m so glad for the opportunity I´ve had to come here to Freiberg. I´ve gained such an appreciation for the temple. It rocks!

To say thank you to brother Adolf, we helped him fix his internet... I want you to imagine this situation. The computer was probably older than me, it had an operating system that wasn´t super compatible, they still use DSL for their internet, the person you´re trying to help is really old and has no idea what any of this stuff is, and on top of all that, everything is in German. And, let me tell you, computer German is a lot different than gospel German. It took a little time, patience, and prayer, but we finally fixed it, and now he can email his nephews again. Hip hip, hooray!

Not a pedicure, but helping with an ingrown toenail

So... Elder Drazin. Yea, we get along really well :) he just reminds me so much of John, it´s crazy. And we were wearing sweaters because it was sweater weather, around 55 degrees that day. That was a fun exchange :)

Thank you for being yo awesome mom, you rock! I love you! Thanks for all that you do. I hope you have a great week! And please send me those socks!!! :)

Love you!

Great Week!

Hey mom!
So, this week was up and down, but overall great! So, remember my
letter last week? Well, we met with our investigator, and he had
discussed baptism with his wife, and she told him that he couldn't
meet with us any more until he finishes his studies 😕he's been in
Germany for 4 years, and they want to go back to China as soon as
possible, so... Yea. We were really upset for a while, but then we
decided that we did our part. We taught him, invited him, and gave him
the option to use his agency to choose, and that's what he did. But
it's ok. We still love him, and he is still our friend ️

After this lesson we were able to meet with 2 great families in our
ward and we discussed the plan for Europe given by the area
presidency. It's a really great plan, with 3 goals:
1. Double the active membership of the church in Europe

2. Become temporally and spiritually self reliant

3. Discover the blessings of enabling the salvation of our ancestors.

I really love these goals, and the plans that the brethren gave us to
accomplish them, and it was really great to meet with these members
and help excite them about this work, the work of salvation.

Also, did I tell you we started an English class here? We started it
with the Hubrichs just to offer a service for some of the people here,
and also to help the church here get a little more exposure. So far
it's been great. We've had a lot of support from our ward, and we've
been able to help some people.

There were two other things from this week that I want to tell you
about, the first one was our zone conference in Leipzig. Once again,
my hate for that city has grown. I don't understand why, but every
time I've been in Leipzig there's been a problem with the
transportation. We either had a train fall out, or our first train was
late, which caused us to miss our connection, or something else. This
time, we drove there with the Hubrichs, and, of course, there was a
ton of road construction, an accident, and the GPS took us to the
wrong church... I don't like that city.

But despite all of the transportation difficulties, we still made it,
and we got to meet President Fingerle! He is awesome! I already love
him! His son was also there at this conference, and I was talking to
him for a while, and it was a little weird at first, because it seemed
like he already knew me a little bit. Guess how? He follows the blog!
Shout out to president Fingerle's son!

The conference was really good. It was all about the temple and family
history, and I felt pretty special because I'm serving in Freiberg
right now  We had a great time together, and learned a lot. After
the conference we went on exchange, and I came back to Freiberg with
elder Drazin. Haha, he's a funny guy. He really reminds me of John. We
had a lot of fun together, and we got work done! We found a new
investigator together, and had a couple really good conversations with
the people here. I love that guy :)


Well, that's all from my end. I hope you have a great week!

Love you,

Elder Oliphant