2 Weeks for the Price of 1

Here are 2 weekly emails and pictures from Chase.

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Oct 6, 2015

General Conference!

Hey mom!

Well, this week was difficult, but rewarding. I had the opportunity to
go on my first exchange as a district leader with elder Adams, one of
the coolest guys ever! (And his mom follows the blog. Shoutout!) we
got to go up to Meissen, and have a great time together. But, before
this, we were walking through a park an we saw a man slack lining. We
looked at each other and said "hey, let's go try!" We talked to the
man doing it, and asked him if we could give it a try, and he was all
for it! Elder Adams was really good, me, not so much  but it was
still a lot of fun. We were able to have a really good conversation
with the man, and it turned out he was from Australia! He's living in
Hamburg, but he came down to Dresden for a few days. After a while he
asked us why we were here, and it gave us a great opportunity to give
a brief testimony of the restoration. Wonderful! Not only was this a
great way to share the gospel, but now I have taught at least one
person from every continent! Church is true!

On the negative side, I was a little sick, but... Naja. It happens.

Then, the beast of the week was definitely general conference! Man, I
loved it SO MUCH!! It was so amazed to hear from the prophets of
today. I especially loved the testimonies of the new three apostles.
Right after they were done I felt such a strong feeling of love, and a
knowing that these people really are called of God. I am so grateful
for modern day prophets. We invited several different people to come
to the conference, but, sadly, none of them were able to come to the
church to watch it with us. But fortunately, we have the internet now,
so the inspired messages that we've heard are still available to them,
and to us. I would invite everyone to go through and study them again!

Thanks for being so great, I love you so much!

Elder Oliphant ️

October 13, 2015

TAUFE!!!

Hey y'all!


Well, this week was really interesting, and I learned a lot. During
the past week we had to tschüss (say goodbye) to a lot of our teaching
pool. A lot of them just weren't progressing, or there was nothing
more that we could do. It was hard, because we love these people, but
we know that it's what is best for them and for us right now. Because
of this big change we have had a lot of time to go out and find
people! And, we have been working hard, and this week we found no new
investigators. We had a lot of really good conversations, and met a
lot of really cool people, but there was no one who wanted to learn
more. But, like I said we did have a lot of great conversations, and
some funny answers to questions. Here's a list of the top five
questions and answers from our week.

5. Q: What have you heard about the Mormons?
A: Oh I know everything! I watch South Park! (Happened multiple times)
4. Q: What brings you joy in life?
A: My polish dog! (Then went off for 20 minutes about Poland and
ended with "church? Oh no!")
3. Q: What does your family mean to you?
A: a lot
Q: What would it mean to you if you could be with your family for eternity
A: We're actually discussing our divorce right now. Could you
leave? (SO AWKWARD!)
2. Q: What brings you joy in live?
A: To recognize truth (then went off for 20 minutes about how
Joseph smith is a false prophet and how we were servants of the devil)
1. Q: Do you believe in God?
A: There is no one God, but many. Go look up the ancient Egyptian religions.

Sometimes it's hard to go and go and go without any really results,
but whenever we have funny comments like these, we just take a moment
and laugh. I love these people, even though it's hard to work with
them sometimes. We were eating with some members and they told us that
the highest concentration of atheism in the world is here in east
Germany. This does make it a little difficult to find people who
actually want to learn or who are searching, but the trick is to just
love the people more than the statistics, and remember that statistics
don't apply to individuals.

So, the subject of my letter today is taufe (baptism) because Sandra,
the sisters investigator, got baptized! This was the first baptism
that I have seen on my mission, and it was such a wonderful experience
:) the spirit was so strong, and I am so grateful that we had the
opportunity to take part in the her coming unto Christ :)

I love every day of my mission, and I'm so glad for the opportunity I
have to serve! I have 11 months left, and I plan to make the most of
them!

Have a great week!

Elder Oliphant ️

Hey Mom :)

I have that letter you sent in the mail with the answer's written :) you should get it soon. Also, can you send me the Crockett's mailing address? I want to thank them for giving dad the tickets. 

Well this week has been a big one for sure. I saw so many people from home! I saw the Crockett's, I saw dad and the boys, and I ran into Amy Fillmore! That's pretty cool! We went to the BYU Heath clinic because my companion needed a prescription, and she was there. Pretty cool stuff :)

Also, thank you for the packages, and for all of that hippie food :) yum yum yum! But I found out that you can go to the wrap line just ask for a tortilla with a bunch of cheese, and then go microwave it and make a quesadilla! I'll be living off those for a little while now :) So how did you enjoy conference? I loved it, especially Elder Bednar's talk. He basically just did my job for me :) So guess what? This week I found out my mission is probably getting iPads! That's so cool! It's just another example of God using the resouces we have to help hasten the work :)

I had some very spiritual insights this week. Go look up Romans 5:3-5. Paul writes to the Romans about trials, and how we overcome them. In fact, you should just read the entire Epistle to the Romans as a family. There are a ton of things in there that we as member's of Christ's Church need to remember. He says it like it is.

No travel plans yet, but that's because we have no idea when we're actually leaving. We were told the 28th, and the travel office says the 28th, but the official schedule says the 21st, and if we stay an extra week we won't have any teachers, because they will all be teaching the new Germans. So I have no idea what's going to happen... But Oh well.

So in 2 days I'll have been out for one whole month. only 23 more to go... wow.

Sorry, but this week I accidentally deleted all of my pictures on my camera, so I don't have a ton, but I promise I'll send what I have, and then next week you'll have a bunch! Thanks for your patience.

Don't worry, I promise I'm following all the rules. Exact obedience brings miracles. That's what they say around here.

I hope that everything is going ok with the ward, and with the family, and that everyone's not too sad about me leaving. 

I love you all, and miss you lots

Elder Oliphant

Thanks :) you're the best

General Conference