Taufe!

Hallo!

So this week I had my first baptism. And it will not be the last! I say my baptism but what I really mean is that it is the Lord's baptism. But I am glad to have done my part. The name of the person who I baptized is SK and he is from Ghana. I actually performed the baptism which was a great experience. It was amazing to see after pulling him up out of the water and getting out of the baptismal font you could just tell how great he felt. In fact I didn't even ask him because I could already tell. Haha Yeah I don't even really know what to say about it. The most precious of things are usually plain and simple. And really our own commitments and promises to the Lord are simple. I am not entirely sure I really understood baptism as much I did until I came on a mission. I don't think I was ever asked what my baptism meant to me until recently. It is such a big step of faith. Yet it is only the beginning of what we must do. I like to think of it as the gate to the perfect path. Before I talk about my week a little bit I feel like I want to talk about that for a little bit. So I have been thinking about this perfect path. And about baptism and about why so many people have problems with some of the commandments. And I think about, why do other churches not have the word of wisdom or the law of chastity or keeping the Sabbath day holy, amongst other things? No Church that I can think of really asks anything of you to join. They only tell you everything that they can give you or they give you pleasing doctrine that is in harmony with your style of life rather than in harmony with Christ. And it reminds me of a few verses I read in Matthew, chapter 5, this morning and it talks about the Sermon on the Mount, Christ teaches us and gives us the higher law which is to become perfect even as He and the Father are perfect. That not only are we not to kill but we are also not to be angry with our brothers. And that not also should we not commit adultery but we should not even lust after another woman in our thoughts. So being perfect is not easy and no one will ever be perfect, that is where faith and repentance comes in, but that is not what caught my eye in the chapter. What caught my eye is what happens in the last few verses. In verses 46-47 it says "For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so?" Anyone can merely give back what is given. That is not Christ. He has given us everything. Therefore the Church of Jesus Christ asks you to give of yourself, to sacrifice yourself for Heavenly Father and for others. To me that is the testimony of the commandments he has given us. Sometimes we look at the path that he has given us and look at the commandments we have been given and we say that we don't want that. Or that we don't understand. But I testify that when we truly follow this path, that when we truly have faith in it and allow our faith to be tested. We will know more of the mercy of the Lord, we will know more of what it means to have the spirit to be with us, and we will have understanding and will know the perfectness of the way. And if ye doubt go to the perfect source of knowledge, Heavenly Father, and ask in faith and act in faith according to that prayer and ye will know for yourselves of the truthfulness. These are but a few things I have thought about this past week and I hope that some of it has helped lift one of you up today.

So anyways a quick overview of what happened this week went like this. It was kind of a strange week to be honest other than the baptism part of it. I don't really feel like me and my companion got a whole lot done and that we were racing around everywhere trying to figure out how everything was going down for the baptism and setting everything up.

Another day one of the Elders in our apartment got sick and I was chosen to stay with him because they had appointments and ours fell out. Initially, I wasn't particularly overjoyed about it but then realized I was happy to serve my fellow Elder.  The day before we went on companion exchange again with the other Elders but they had planned two appointments too close together. So we didn't get to find our own investigators that day until later that day when we were teaching a member's wife who is not a member. But even then that was also interesting because the member's husband had us over for far longer than we wanted to or we were supposed to as well. But, we had some really interesting conversations with him that just make me shake my head thinking about why he is even telling us any of this stuff. He is an interesting member to say the least and I am happy he found Christ and joined the Church.

Something else that happened was when we were filling up the font for the baptisms and then we had to head back to the building where we are having church. But our church building has been under renovation since I got here so I haven't had a church meeting in a real church yet since being in Germany and not to mention church is only an hour each Sunday because of the renovation (haha I am sure some people would love that). But getting back to the point, when we came back to the church house, the font was overflowing and flooded a couple bathrooms nearby and the hallways to them. So me and Elder Karlen, one of the zone leaders, had to hurry and brush all the water down the drains or back into the font before anyone else got there. It was kind of comical to say the least. Well, I am already out of time. I hope all is well back home. I certainly hope it is warmer there too because winter has already left here in Germany. It is the coldest August I have ever had in my life.

But anyway, I love you all and you are in my prayers. I would love if I could get more pictures sent to me of the family so I can share them with the members and people of Germany.

Tschüss!

Elder Foster

 

 

What a blessing for all these Young Men!

Hannover and sum

Mion,

 

So this week I went on my first austausch or in other words my first companion split. So I got to do some missionary work in Nienburg for a day. This is a somewhat small Dorf west of Hannover. And Nienburg definitely felt a lot more like Germany to me than Hannover seeing as it is so multicultural. But anyways so right when I arrive there with Elder Gerhartz who is currently serving in Nienburg and is also the district leader. We head straight off to an appointment with a weniger aktiv (less active) member. And Elder Gerhartz tells me that he is a little crazy. So I thought hmm this will be interesting. So we ride our bikes over there. This is also a first for me since being on my mission. Seeing as in Hannover we just use the Bahns and hoof it everywhere. So we get there and right when I walk in I know it is going to be very interesting. So the first thing I see is a coffee table filled to the brim with big empty bottles of beer and cigarettes. The place is an absolute mess. The only clean spot in his tiny apartment is his bed which has nothing but a sheet on it. The TV is on but is on a broken channel with the constant buzzing sound going off. So I am laughing to myself and just telling myself lets do this. So of course I sit right next to him while Elder Gerhartz sits in a chair across the table of innumerable bottles. So most of the time while we were visiting him, we just listened to him talk. And Elder Gerhartz didn't say much which I knew means there is nothing to say or no way you can respond to something like that. I could barely understand what he was saying but all I knew is that it was weird. What I did catch though was interesting. Like for some reason every time he has the chance to have some little aside with me. He would turn to me and say "Jesus came to me in a dream." And he told us that our wives will be named Emmanuelle and Issai. And he would stop in the middle of what he was saying and look up and ask god what he should tell the missionaries. After I had given a pray he wanted to say one of his own too. Of which he prayed to Jesus, Mary Magdelen, and Aphrodite. And he said many others things as well. But to say the least it was the oddest experience I have had since being here. And somehow we got him to agree to come to church. The rest of that day was pretty standard and we taught a couple people after that. To say the least though I am happy I am not in Nienburg because it is very interesting there at the moment. However I was surprised by how many people are being taught there at the moment. Elder Gerhartz is a pretty good missionary.

 

Another thing to note during this week is what happened last Saturday. The missionaries from our area in the city of Hannover which is only six missionaries got invited to a Polynesian get-together in a dorf not too far away. Where we would give a short lesson to everyone there and have some food with them. And it was really interesting to see a bunch of Tongans and other Polynesians all gathered together in Germany of all places and even speaking the German language. Just imagine some of the energy you see when watching Polynesians at a party and then just picture them all speaking German. It was very odd to say the least. I never thought I would be eating buried pig even less Polynesian food or be hanging out with a bunch of cool Polynesians while serving in Germany.

 

Yeah so this week was a very interesting week to say the least. Something else that I have come to the knowledge of while being in Germany is that there is not a lot of variety or options of food here in Germany. All the grocery stores are small and don't have a ton of options. Even just eating out here there isn't a whole lot. Or truly a whole lot that is worth getting. I mean you can find decent German and Turkish food just about anywhere but when it comes to anything else it is just not very authentic or very good to say the least. So the stuff me and the other Elders eat at our apartment most days doesn't really vary from what we would be eating back in the states. Actually less options in my opinion. But whenever we are fed by the members it is always good food. So it is always exciting when we have an eating appointment which only happens once maybe twice a week.

 

But yeah the mission has been great so far and I am very glad to be here. It seems to me that a lot of people in our area are ready to be baptized or just need a little push, they are so close. Hopefully if everything goes right I will be able to see my first baptism next week. This is very exciting to say the least. But oh mensch have i met a lot of really good people. Like this one tall man from Iran named Reza. He wants to be baptized so bad but he struggles with drinking and smoking. This last Sunday when he came to church and talked to me and my companion you could just tell how upset he was that it was so hard to stop smoking. I know he can do it though. And just yesterday we talked to a man named Michael (not pronounced the same). He is so troubled by his past and would constantly say that he was searching for the full truth and has been in the catholic and envangelish (protestant) church but yet he still feels like he is in Finsternis which means darkness. We walked with him and sat down and talked with him and had a really heartfelt conversation and he really opened up to us. It was very interesting to have this 39 year old man really lay his life down for us. So before we had to go we got his number and his address. And will definitely be teaching him this week. Or another man that we met the other week his name is Mark, he is from the Philippines but has been living in Germany for 20 years. It was just so interesting to see how he lit up after hearing us. And getting to know him a little and what he wants in life. It is just amazing to see how the gospel can affect all these people’s lives. And how it can give them exactly what they have expressed to us. Now it is up to them, if they keep the commitments that we give them I know they can get what they need or that they can receive answers their prayers.

 

And because of that I have been thinking a lot about prayers and blessings and answers this week. That in my mind it is simply to strive forward with faith. To do what you can to receive these things and to just simply have the desire to have faith to know that these things will come and be answered. In Alma 5:45-46 alma talks about he knew of these things to be true and even asks the  how do you think i know of these things to be true? And then goes on to explain that he fasted and prayed many days to gain this knowledge and then you go to D&C 9:7-8. And it talks about that you must study these things out in your mind that ye should take more thought than to merely ask the Lord. So do your part and be faithful and be led not into temptation thinking that your answer will not come. If you keep striving forward with faith that it will come then it will come. But aw yes there is still so much more to learn while I am here and there is still so much I must do to help people find their own answers about this gospel and their very lives.

 

But in ending on a more informational note, I want to say to anyone who is sending me letters or packages that I have not received any. It is because the mail that gets sent to mission home will only reach me about once a month. I will probably have to send my apartment address in the future if I want things more often or if you want to get these things to me faster. But anyways thanks to all those that read these letters. And I think and pray about everyone and I hope everyone is doing alright. 

 

Tschüssy,

Elder Foster

 

Hannover is in Germany?

Hallo!

Hannover doesn't feel like Germany. Like I haven't even taught a lesson to someone that is German. Everyone that we have talked to and has had interest or that we have taught a lesson to has been from some of the following countries. Afghanistan, Iran, Nigeria, Ghana, Libanon, Vietnam, Hungary, Czech, Russia, Denmark, and all kinds of other countries. Which isn't that bad all the time because sometimes the people speak better english than they do German. But what is kind of frustrating about being in Hannover and it being so multicultural is that everyone has a different German accent. There are people you can completely understand there are people who you can understand about half of what they say and then there are people that you have no idea what they are saying whatsoever. So I imagine myself shaking a magic eight ball every time I approach someone. Will I understand them or will I not? However what surprises me also is the responses that people will give sometimes. So just the other day me and Elder Lyon were contacting in this park. And we saw this lady that look to be in her mid-thirties and talked to her. She was even nice enough to turn her ipad off as she talked with us. So we get to a certain part of the conversation and I ask her if she desired to have eternal life with her family. And she said no. NO! She said she was totally fine with leaving her family when the time came. To me that was a little shocking because I would hate that. There is no way I would want to leave my family forever. So after she said that I didn't even know what to say and just kinda stood there feeling a little sad inside really. It didn't end badly though, we felt the spirit as we talked to her and we know she did too, so it was an odd experience but also a good one not sure how to explain it. Another thing I have experienced while being here is that the Lord truly does put us where we need to be when we are trying our best to follow the spirit and find people. Everytime we travel all the way across town, or an appoinment falls out, or we are completely bombarded with people who have no interest or just straight up walk away from you in the middle of what you are saying and other miscellaneous ways. And we feel like we have wasted our time and should have done something else. We find someone who is interested or set up an appointment right afterwards without fail. Just yesterday we went across town to try to contact someone that we have not been ablto get a hold of. And Hannover is pretty big, more people live in this city than I think live in Utah all together or it is close at least. So it takes some time getting to places and transfering onto a few different bahns in the process. And we get there and of course there is no one home. But there is a man in a wheel-chair sitting right outside of the apartment buidling. We then decide to talk to him. And this guy liked to talk, he just kept going and going, and didn't give us hardly any room to talk. We barely even talked about anything religous. So we ended up talking to the guy for half an hour. And all I am thinking is this is a waste of time but for some reason it felt okay to stay and keep talking to him. And lo and behold the person we wanted to talk to came walking around the corner. So we were invited to come up in ten minutes when we were done talking to the man outside. But then get this as we are finishing up talking to this man. Three other guys come out and start talking to us and they weren't confrontational or anything they were really cool guys and listened to us and discussed with us. And then another guy come out and listened and then another guy came out and listened. There was even a guy leaning out his window smoking a cigarette who started listening. So out of nowhere we ended up having like seven people listening to us. So all because we talked to this man in a wheel-chair out in front of the apartment buidling we were able to share our message about the restoration and the book of mormon with several different people. We even made out an appointment in the process. By the time we were done talking even one of the guys said the spriit was strong. Which is really cool that he recognized it but unfortunately all too often they don't realize that is the spirit confirming the truth that we have taught them. A lot of really cool experiences like that since I have been here. I am very glad to be here that is for sure. Right now I am thinking about one of our investigators his name is Mustafa. And he is from Afghanistan. He has already been converted to christianity but he has been meeting with us. And he doesn't speak the best of German either, and what I mean by that is he doesn't know the meaning of critical words. Like for instance umkehren which means to repent. So you can imagine how interesting these lessons with him can become. But what I wanted to share about him was this. So he was telling us that he has been having a hard time while being here in Hannover and while looking for a new apartment here and his friends that he has known for 2 years while living here and goes to church with at another church naturally. But he was telling us about all his stresses and then he said. That one day when he was feeling really stressed he read from the book of mormon and that all his stress disappeared. Essentially in his limited German he testified to us of the truth of the book of mormon and that he just needs time. I know that he will be baptized in the near future. And I testify of the Book of Mormon too that when you read from it. It truly will give you peace. While I have been here in Hannover I have been reading the Book of Mormon more than I have in my entire life. And oh what a blessing it has been for me, it has given me peace and freedom from all negativity. Just earlier this morning I was reading from 3 Nephi 22. It is a very short chapter only 17 verses. But it talks about the Lord hiding his face from us for a moment in wrath but then turn back in everlasting kindness and mercy. Although mountains and hills may be removed and tempest tossed his peace shall not depart from us, and he will lay the foundation of our paths with sapphires. As a servant of the Lord in whatever capacity, all oppression and fear will gather against us. But he hath created all things and when we accept our heritage as servants of the Lord in righteousness we shall triumph. So I leave that with everyone in saying that even though I have had some troubles here with one thing or another I am ultimately very very happy to be here and serve and that as I continue to trust in the Lord I will triumph. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. I hope that everyone has been doing well and has done something fun during the summer. It is weird knowing you are all eight hours behind me.

 

Sincerely,

Elder Foster

Seth & Elder Lyons

This is a picture that was randomly sent to Angela from a woman who ran into the elders in Germany. Angela does not know the lady ... She just snapped a picture and emailed it to Angela. 

Herzlich Willkommen zu Deutschland

Moin, moin!

 

So this is my first letter, straight from a internet cafe in Germany. And this keyboard is already bothering me haha. But wow what to say it is almost surreal to be honest. And unfortunately I do not have a lot of time to write this letter so let's do this. So first and foremost the airplane wasn't as bad as I though it was going to be. I even met a man from Holland who owns part of a brewing company. His name is Harry and he is also my first rejection. Woo missionary work haha! He was a really nice guy though and fun to talk with. It is kinda funny though you do all these different transfers from trains to buses to plains to more buses. And you finally get to a church in Tiergarten in Berlin. Where we unload all our stuff and finally feel like you can relax. And somewhere in between an entire day has been lost in the travel-time paradox portal. And then your tricked into thinking you can relax for a bit when they give you food. Then boom! You are all put into color coded groups. And carted off to different rooms so you can sign a bunch of different papers and get your debit cards and what not. And then you get to go on your first finding session with an experienced missionary. Even though you're looking outside and thinking wasn't it also morning when we left for Germany? Why has the day restarted? It was really fun though and I felt like I got to go to one of the cooler areas for my first finding session. I got to go to Neu Kölln which is basically the ghetto of Berlin or little Istanbul to other people. For the half hour me and Elder Loitz were there though we placed a book of mormon so that was cool and we had a nice conversation with a man from kamaroon, africa. Whoa I have a lot to talk about. Kind of strange after having almost nothing to say while at the MTC. So eventually that is done and you head back have dinner and we are all interviewed by the mission president before we leave to a hotel that they booked for us. Let us sleep in thankfully. Which didn't help me a ton because I woke up at 4 in the monring and was ready to go, so I just layed in bed for another 4 hours. The next day we head back to the church where we meet our trainers and find out where we are headed. So I found out that my trainer's name is Elder Lyon he has already been here for 2 years basically and leaves after this transfer which is 6 weeks. We are supposed to have trainers for 12 weeks so I am not sure how that is going to work for me. But anyways I found out that I am going to the Hannover area of Germany and not just the area but the actual city itself. So a big city for me right out of the gate. I also got really lucky with the apartment that I am staying in and everything, it is a pretty nice apartment. It is a bettter aparment than I ever hope to have when I first head back home and go to college that is for sure. And even one of the elders who completed his mission and had his parents come get him. Gave me a suit and it even fits and is a nice suit and said i could have the guitar he left at the aparment. So I must've had some kind of magical luck saved up. But wow what else haha. There is so much more to talk about and I only have 8 minutes left. I haven't even told you about some of the people I have taught or met or even something that I consider to be a miracle. Or that this last sunday during our Mittagessen Termin (Lunch appointment) and the awkwardness and deliciousness of all that. Let's just say it is not so fun when you can only understand half of what is going on around you. But anyways I have some investigators to tell you about later. My first lesson was with two men from Nigeria, Fred and David, so it was actually all in English. But oh goodness they are ready. As well as some other people. Haha anyways my time is all but ran out. Hopefully next time I can be a bit more specific and share more about the people I teach. And just remember everyone Germany Berlin Mission = GBM = Great Baptizing Mission.

 

Tschüss,

Elder Foster

MTC Zone picture