Glauben und Hoffnung

Hallo Hallo,

So next Tuesday I will be heading on a plane/planes to Germany. Time is running short in the MTC. Which in this case is a good thing. A lot of the missionaries in the zone are starting to face reality in a lot of different ways. I however couldn't be more excited. And lets make one thing clear for anyone who may or may not be reading these letters. I refuse to believe that the only thing I will be doing in Germany is planting seeds. For in D&C 4 it says the the field is white and ready to harvest. It does not say that it is ready to plant it does not say that it is ready to water it says that it is ready to harvest. And that is what I feel like sharing a little about today. So many people within the church and outside of the church when they hear that you are going somewhere in Europe. Like to say that oh you are going to a hard mission, oh you will probably only be planting seeds. Or on the flip side if you are going to Mexico or Brazil or similar countries people will say oh you are going to get so many baptisms. But I do not believe in these words. The Lord knows his elect, he knows where they are. It is through your faith and hope in Christ that will lead you to them and will make you a successful missionary. Do not leave on a mission with little faith and little hope of helping very many people come unto Christ because someone told you that you are going on a hard mission. Do not give up on the people of the country you are proselyting in. For me it is not giving up on the people of Germany. It may be a country notorious for having lots of atheists. But I think there is a special kind of beauty to be able to hear someones first uttered prayer to Heavenly Father. Do not take for granted the power of God. Faith and hope must be a power in my hands. Through them I may attain power of Jesus Christ himself. I may merely be a tool of this power but it is still my choice whether to be one or not. It must needs be that I use them with all my might while on this mission otherwise no work will be done and no miracles can be had. It is no puzzle to me to figure out why the most basic of principles of the gospel are so essential to be a successful missionary and having the greatest possible life while here on Earth. There truly is no limit to what you can do on your mission if you have enough faith in Christ. I will not go into my mission with an expectation or a certain number of which I can attain. Because truly through Christ all is possible. I know that when you can find a way to trust the Lord. You will do so again. You will grow line upon line. You will develop greater faith in a God who knows and loves you perfectly. As you focus your life on the most basic principles you will find a way to the greatest happiness. Pray, pray, pray. Do not take prayer for granted. Ask and ye shall receive do not be afraid to take advantage of this divine promise. Pray for direction. Pray to the Lord in supplication. Pray to be filled with God's love. Pray for his words to fill your mouth. Once again the Lord promises to help all those who ask. So have faith and rely on Him and His Holy Spirit. Do not forget to search for answers to those prayers, do not forget your own personal responsibility for your own salvation. It is after all that you do that you are truly strengthened. So your best is always good enough. Because through your faith in Christ we can truly accomplish anything. The Atonement is so central in that way. How simple it truly is. And how majestic and heavenly is our Father's power. It comes to us by the simplest means so that we can accomplish the impossible. No longer compare yourself to others only become one with Christ our Savior. I need to be in Germany, I need to exercise my faith.It is a power yearning to be tested. It is almost as if the Lord challenges us to call upon His name. To have us see what great wonders can be accomplished through faith on him. I hope to please him. I need him to help me accomplish his sacred work. What glory there is to be obtained in the name of Christ. I fear no man! I love all! I love the Lord. 

 

So here I am in front of a computer. At the MTC. Waiting until I can head out and finally do the work. I have met some good elders and sisters in my zone while at the MTC. And unfortunately some of my favorite people are going to the Frankfurt mission. Everyone in my district is going to Berlin but I don't know if they are my most favorite. Could be because I spend a little too much time with them. But there are still plenty of great people that will be in Berlin with me. I will have to send some pictures before I leave of some of these people and some of the places I spent most of my days while here. It is very interesting to begin to see the subtle changes in everyone since coming here. It is interesting to see the change in myself. One of my fears while on my mission is that I will become stagnant that I will suddenly stop growing in some way. For to truly endure to the end means to constantly grow. But now it seems as if a new adventure has suddenly begun again and I have only just read the introduction. So that is all for today. I have already gone over my allotted time for emailing by quite a bit. So I will end with saying I miss you all and I am thinking of you all and I hope I will have much more exciting and interesting things to tell you in the future. 

 

Sincerely,

Elder Foster

Des wegen?

And here we are again another P-day has arrived. And only one more P-day in the MTC until I am on my way to Germany. And oh I can not wait. I think back to right before I left for the MTC and everyone's favorite question to ask you was "So are you excited?" And of course I said yes. But really it was kind of an odd excitement. It was an excitement that you still had some worries about. I mean I wondered how I would adjust to the missionary life or if I could hack the work. But as time has gone by in the MTC it has actually been the exact opposite. I have felt more purpose and more meaning in my life than I ever have before. There is nothing else in my life that has allowed me to give so much of myself to. I mean not everything has been perfect so far and probably one of the harder things to get used to is having to deal with a companion. And I have learned something about companionships and it is this. So you either get along with your companion or you don't. And if you are getting along with companion it means you are working together in righteous or you are working together in unrighteous or in other words not really caring about the mission. So really what it comes down to is this. If you are not getting along with your companion it means that one person cares and the other person doesn't really care. One person is serving a mission and the other person is merely on a mission. So sometimes you have to be bold and say "is what I am doing really wrong or do you just not care?" Because if you do care then I need to know because I need to be the one who does the changing. So if you probably can't tell I hope I can have a companion in Germany who has progressed enough that he desires to work hard. Which brings me to another thing I have learned while being here and that is over-bearance is boldness without love. So be bold! I fear no man! Haha sometimes I imagine myself standing up on a park bench in Germany and yelling to all the people to come hear what I have to say. I am not going to Germany to convince the people and that isn't truly the missionary duty. Sometimes you just have to say hey this book is pretty crazy and it has some pretty crazy stories in it BUT I know that it is true. If you experience this book for yourself if you experience prayer and if you exercise your faith you will come to know of its truthfulness by yourself. You can not be converted by any other way you cannot rely on the testimony of others. I do not want the people of Germany to be convinced by my words that would be the worst mistake. I want them to be convinced by their own experiences through the holy spirit. I am merely there to love them, and to help them have their own experiences with finding the truth. So back to what I was saying forever ago. I am very excited to be so close to going to Germany. I am excited to walk up to the very first person in Germany and with my half broken German ask them if I can talk to them about the Book of Mormon. I am even excited to be rejected. How weird is that? I want my faith to be tested. If that is what it takes for the Lord to trust me then so be it. What good would it do me if I could lazily go about my mission breaking the mission rules or not really trying and still baptize somebody. It would do nothing for me and would serve as a bad example to other missionaries who would think they could do it the same way. So come what may. I fear no man! A mission truly is a privilege and a blessing. I am sorry if any of you feel like I am ranting right now. It is just some of the feelings I have been experiencing while I have been at the MTC. You experience a lot of the same things every day at the MTC but you always learn something new each day and you feel a little bit different about the work each day. I guess I am just ready to leave. And I only have 13 days left until I do but it still can not come soon enough. The MTC is like the bump in the trail before you even ascend the mountain. There is still two years left to serve and to give my all to the Lord and know to have patience and that if I am trying my hardest that is always good enough. Nothing I do is in my own name. Everything is done in the Lord's name and that is why I can say with confidence that I am good enough to do this work because through the Atonement of Christ I am made more than just pure but I am able to progress limitlessly.

So what else can I say about the MTC experience? I feel like every possible thing to make campus a little more tedious has happened while being here. Like for instance in the cafeteria they had to block off one half of the entire cafeteria while all the new mission presidents were here being taught by the first presidency and the twelve. And for three weeks the temple was closed down for cleaning and maintenance. And finally they are re-doing the floors in the building where we have devotionals so we have to walk to the Marriot Center to have all of our devotionals. So essentially I came to the MTC during a very busy time. Other random things I can talk about. So every Wednesday my zone or in other words the Germans like to get sack lunches and eat out by the bookstore, so we see all the new missionaries come in. So around 20-30 of us in the zone like to gather around them and applaud and sometimes make tunnels for them and even give giant group hugs for some elders. So basically the Germans of the MTC are sometimes called the Germs. Haha Other random things. So in the residence halls the Germans share the floor with the Russians. And sometimes you feel like the "wall" needs to be put back up. Some real cold war tension. I haven't participated in it yet but some of the Germans and the Russians gather on opposite ends of the halls and play a game called Frisbee Roulette. Which basically you throw the frisbee as hard as you can down the hall at the opposing people at the other end and if you flinch or you move you are out of the game. I have no desire to be blasted in the face with a frisbee. One last random thing. So some of the guys in one of the districts have come up with this thing called Schutzbrille or in english it means goggles. And basically what this is all about is that while in the MTC apparently there will be sisters in the district who at first you may not find the prettiest but as time goes on you will be under the Schutzbrille effect and they will become pretty to you. They have a lot of fun with that. So if anything these little stories just go to show that even though you are a missionary you are still just a 18 or 19 year old or whatever. I try to keep myself away from those sorts of things because then I don't feel like a missionary or my focus is being drawn away from the work. But I can not lie that it is sometimes entertaining to watch the other elders go about it. But yep that concludes another P-day update. Hopefully next time I will be a little more organized with what I have to say in general. But as always I am thankful to be here and I am thankful for all the support I was given to help me get here. And you all are always in my thoughts and prayers.

Sincerely,

Elder Foster

Dritte Woche

What to talk about this week. The MTC experience doesn't vary all that much. A regular day usually goes like this. You wake up and you do the most basic of things to get ready in the morning like brush your teeth, put your contacts on, shave if you need to, and then put on some clothes. And not even missionary clothes just some shorts and a t-shirt. You head back to your room and you study for about an hours time. For me that usually consists of me reading or searching for things in the Book of Mormon. Then me and my companion and usually the other elders in my district go to get a sack breakfast because you do not need to be dressed up for that. After we are done eating breakfast it is our scheduled gym time or exercise time. Which I like to spend in the weight room although it doesn't really have much in it, there is still enough to let me feel like I can stay fit. However I usually only go every other day because no one in my district wants to go to the weight room every day so on the other days we usually go to the field to play soccer. After we head back to the residence halls and get showered and dressed up in missionary clothing. Then promptly head of to our first class section of the day. Where we get sat in a room with our district and a teacher who talks to us in German 90% of the time. And that class time is usually split up in three sections. One section is used to go meet with our fake investigators and give lessons in German, another section is used to talk about grammar or other components of German, and then the third section almost always ends in a lesson of how to better yourself as a missionary and even practice these concepts with your companion. And this all of this transpires in about 3 hours and then you go to lunch and after lunch you have an hour of additional study time that you use to get ready for class or go grab mail if you are the district leader or not. Then you get to the second section of class time which is basically the same thing with maybe a little bit more variation in what you are taught but all in all the same thing. Then you have like a half hour of daily planning which you use to plan out your next day and what you are going to teach your investigators and what have you. Then we head to dinner and have the dreaded three hour study block. Where one hour is dedicated to personal study, one hour is dedicated to companion study, and the last hour is dedicated to language study. And these three hours are not monitored by teachers or anything. Actually by this time of the day I am almost sure that there is almost no one on campus other than missionaries themselves. So we basically have free reign. So I am sure you can already tell that the temptation for some people and even myself sometimes to not study at all is real. But to my surprise we all handle our selves quite well and things never really get out of hand. Those three hours of the day really make or break you. You either learn a ton or you just feel like time is dragging on forever. But after this block of study it is already 9:30 and it is time to get ready for bed and write in your journal and go to sleep. And that is your most general day at the MTC. I mean on Tuesdays we have devotionals and on Sundays it is mostly church meetings and leadership meetings but it really isn't that much different. And of course your P-day is usually spent doing errands all day. But yeah that is pretty much my life at the MTC not a whole lot to report on every Wednesday. 

So you might be thinking hey that sounds pretty boring or that's a pretty strict schedule. And you would probably be right. But really you learn so much. Often I write down questions or have questions in my head in the beginning of the day that I want answered or that I am searching answers for. Like how do I get Herr Gnädinger to interact more in a lesson?! And I will find that it is never a big lesson in class or a big experience in class that will answer my questions but it will almost always come to me after I pray and simply search the resources available before me. And I have learned so much more at the MTC than simply the language itself. I have learned that even if I see zero baptisms. That I will at least be successful in one conversion of someone unto Christ. And that person is myself and that is probably one of the greatest blessings you can have from a mission is to strengthen your faith and hope in Christ. So that ye yourself may never fall away. I cannot say enough how important it is to be converted unto Christ. Because we are not converted to the church or some program of the church. We are not converted to the Prophet or Apostles. The prophet himself could fall away from Christ's church and it would not bother me. It would sadden me however it would not diminish my faith in Christ and that this is his church and that this is his gospel. I am so very grateful for this opportunity to serve a mission and even now even before having entered the field I know that someday in the future I want to serve another mission with my future wife some day. And I am grateful to see that I have others in my family that are willing to step up to the call of missionary work. I am proud of my cousin Chandler and his decision to leave his family and everything else to come serve the Lord. I know that there are people he must teach in Colorado. I know that mission calls are sacred and that they have been willed through the Apostles by Heavenly Father. An interesting statistic I learned while being here is that 70% of all missionaries that have been called EVER have been called while under the presidency of Thomas S. Monson. The Lord is truly hastening the work. It reminds me of Captain Moroni when he raises the title of liberty. (Paraphrase) In memory of our God, our religion, our freedom, and our families. And many Nephites rose to the call to defend their lands. So we missionaries too raise up in memory of those things to preach his gospel. I am on this mission for those very things. I am certainly made free through this work. No matter how restricting it may sound it has made me free. And so I end this letter saying that through Faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end is a recipe of freedom and a recipe of happiness. Oh how I have seen it wrought in my life. 

Sincerely, 

Elder Foster

Mien Kampf?

Sent: Wednesday, July 2nd

So now it is the second week of the MTC experience. And here I am again sitting in front of a computer wondering what to say. Truly the MTC experience varies. It goes from great to okay to obnoxious. But its a good experience and it only makes you more excited to get out in the field and do the work that you have been called to do.

I have now completely abandoned any worries when it comes to the language now. The language will come and that will never be an issue. However there is a very simple message that has been relayed to me through every possible resource while being here and it is this. Unser Ziel (Our purpose) is to invite others to come unto Christ but at the heart of the preach my gospel and at the heart of the MTC the message is you must first come unto Christ. You must first come near to Christ so that he might come near to you. You must put being a disciple of Christ above everything else. We must be converted to the Lord himself. We cannot not be converted to the church we cannot simply have a testimony. All of those will fail, and they are only meant to strengthen your own resolve for becoming a better disciple of Christ.

The other day after having been in class all day we were now in our three hour study block of torture. And we were studying outside, one of the teachers from the building across from ours come out and asked us if we wanted to teach an investigator in English. As he could tell that we were going to be serving in a foreign country. So wanting to escape studying for a bit we said sure why not. So we went into the building and we ended teaching this lady named XXXX.

And yes we have random investigators that come to be taught at the MTC all the time. They have gold name tags so you can recognize them. But is was very interesting experience to just be taken in a moments notice to teach this lady. And this lady didn't have any real religious background and even said her only real knowledge of a prophet was from the show Supernatural.

We didn't really get to teach her much and you could tell she was a little nervous. But it was nice just to sit down and talk to her and get to know her and her get to know us. That way it felt like we were real people and there was a real purpose and we weren't just robots trying to get another number. We managed to slip in our testimonies of eternal families and I feel like we left her just a little bit more strengthened in faith than she was before we left her. In the end we are going to see her this Thursday to teach her again.

What else can I say? We are now teaching two people in German each day so two lessons a day. So viele Rollenspiele! And its amazing to see in just one weeks time how much better I have been able to speak German and even the quality of me and my companions lessons have skyrocketed. I am constantly amazed at how much we all can accomplish when we rely on the spirit to lead and guide us to literally be taught by God himself. And that when we go into a lesson with love and compassion for the investigator whether they be fake or real. And just listen sincerely and feel the weight of their words said instead of thinking of the next thing to say in German. The spirit will give us exactly what we need to say.

There are a lot of instances I can continue to talk about but I feel for now this is good enough to say. It is actually quite the daunting task to write a big letter and write down every single experience you had whether spiritual or not. I hope you don't expect a miraculous change in me every time I send a letter. What I have learned is that I will find myself once I lose myself in the work of the Lord. But I can only do it if I am not looking for myself. To be like Christ means to turn yourself away from the natural man to turn away from yourself when everyone else would turn in. As a missionary you must always turn towards others. I hope I can show Christ's love to the people of Germany and show them an eternal love not just a you live only once kind of love. And now I end my letter and say that I love you all and I pray for everyone's safety and happiness. I will write you on the next Vorbereitungs Tag!

Tchüss!

Q&A

Sent: Wednesday, July 2nd

Here is the questionnaire email.

Note:[Mom’s questions to Elder Foster]

1. [What is your companion’s name]The name of my companion is Elder Jacob Harris

2. [Where is he from?] He is from Detroit, Michigan

3. [Do you like him?]I like him and he is a good guy.

4. Real mail? Anybody is free to send me mail in any way they want to but if you send me letters and not emails I am probably more than likely not going to respond. While if it is an email I will more than likely respond to it than not.

5.[Do you need anything?] I can't say I really need anything. I mean I can think of random stuff that I want but nothing I need.

6. [How many are in your district?]There are six people in my district including me. 2 sets of elders and 1 set of sisters.

7. [What is your favorite thing to eat in the MTC?]I can't say anything is my favorite thing to eat at the MTC. But I do enjoy rice. haha

8. [What do you wish you had and don’t have?]I wish I had music because more often than not I have to listen to every body else sing random songs at the top of their voices.

9.[What is the hardest part of beihng in the MTC?] I would have to say its a mixture of being with someone all day, I mean even to the point where you are waiting outside of the bathroom for them. And having the three hour block of studying at the end of the day after being in your learning room all day. (Our room where we are taught literally has nothing in it, just white walls, and a window that is almost entirely blocked by a TV).

10. [Did the detergent help?]I am sure it will help in Germany. I don't use it here because they actually put money on our mtc cards every Wednesday to get laundry detergent and stuff like that.

11.[Have you put your suit into the dry cleaners?] I actually just put two of my suits in the dry cleaners today.

12. [Do you have to wear a suit everyday?]No i only have to wear a suit on Sunday and on Tuesday because of devotional.

13. [What day is your P-day?]As of right now while in the MTC my P-day is Wednesday. However I have no idea what day it will be while in the field.

Elder Foster