Moin!
I am never sure how to start these letters to be honest. So
let’s talk about what is about to happen in the mission and what may happen to
me quite soon. So after this week it will be the end of my first transfer in
Germany. Which means a couple of things: One of them is that my trainer is
going back home. Which means that I will either get a new trainer or I will
become a trainer; Why you might ask? Well a new batch of missionaries will be
coming in this next transfer and another batch will be coming in the transfer
after that. So basically very shortly we will have a very young mission.
Because many missionaries are leaving at the same time to go home and even
during the trainer/trainee phone conference we had last week, President Kosak
said that it would not be at all odd if some of us will be training or becoming
district leaders or zone leaders after our first transfer..
Something really cool about my
area is that we have tons and tons of cool members. I cannot think of a
member's house that we have ate at or that we have visited that have not been
cool in some way. They are always willing to help the missionaries too and to
go to appointments with us which are really awesome as well. The Kn family even
has all six missionaries in Hannover come over to their house every Thursday
for dinner and encourages us to bring investigators which we hope to do this
week. One of my favorite families is the K family which is Schwester
K and her two kids a boy (14) and girl (12) and their two dogs. We
usually go over for family home evening and give a short lesson and have
some Abendbrot (a
cold dinner consisting mainly of breads, sliced meats, cheese, and pickles) with
them. They are just a sweet little family and they make me laugh. Especially
when we ask the girl a question and she proceeds to bite the table and the dog’s
ear instead of answering our question. Haha so fun stuff to say the
least.
So this week was way better than last week in terms of
missionary work. We had a baptism last week but everything else this week was
far better as in just more in every single area. We even set up two
baptismal dates which is really exciting. The first one was very interesting
too! So every Friday or at least that is the plan now. We head out to Bad
Falling Bostel or I like to call it Bad Bostel (for fun) which is this cute
little dorf about an hour away by train. There is a British military base
nearby so a bunch of British soldiers live there and we happen to have some
members there, too.
But anyway, we met with this man and
his nickname is “ Ice” so that is what we call him. He and his family are from
Fiji but they are stationed here in Germany because he is in the British army.
But it was interesting at first when we began the lesson. It was just me, my
companion and him because his wife was outside trying to entertain and settle
down their two kids that are just a little bit older than 1. So the first thing
he says is that he is a Jehovah's Witness (which is kinda annoying because
everyone always thinks we are Jehovah's Witnesses but that is another story)
and that is what he is and that is what he is going to stay as. But he is
always happy to talk about the gospel and will always invite missionaries
inside his home. So you are already thinking oh great he is already telling us
he is not going to switch churches or so to say. Because I don't really see it
as switching churches. So we taught him the lesson and discussed with him
and gave our testimonies. By the end he had completely changed. The spirit was
there and you could really feel it. And he said he would really give it a go at
reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it and if he got an answer on his
side he would get baptized on October 12th. Very interestingly enough too, he
said that he wasn't baptized in the Jehovah's Witnesses church because he is in
the military and you can't be baptized if you are. Ice has actually been trying
to get out of the military because it is truly his desire to get baptized. So I
really felt like we were sent there to him. So I have a lot of hope for him. We
also got another baptismal date with a man named S from Iraq. His German
isn't very great so sometimes he is hard to understand but he is a very cool
young guy in his early twenties.
Okay, now I have to tell another tale. This last Saturday as
we were going around to some of our contacts before heading home for the night
and we had just left this compound and were heading back to
the Haltestelle (train-stop). We stopped a man before getting to the
Haltestelle and he didn't say much to us but still asked us if we had time. We
said yeah and started following him to where he lived which coincidentally was
in the same compound we had just left. For some reason, I get this feeling that
this is either going to be really good or really weird. So we get to his
apartment he lets us in and we sit down. He
turns on the radio and then we just sit there in silence while he stares off
into space. So we finally start trying to talk to him and its weird because we
would talk to him in German and then he would respond back in English and then
we would start talking in English and then he'd be like "I don't understand."
And then we would switch back to German but he would still talk back to us in
short English sentences. So, during all this
I notice that he only uses one arm because his other arm is handicapped so it’s
really thin and it doesn't move and just is kinda hanging there. So I got out a
Book of Mormon and started talking to him about it. But he just stops us and
says here is a good book. And then gets up and grabs a book from his book-shelf
and hands it to my companion which from the cover you can already tell that it
is a sketchy looking book. And of course the first page my companion randomly
opens up to has inappropriate drawings of people. And my companion is just like
"what?!" and the guy is like, good book right? And my companion just
looks at me and is like no no and has a very awkward expression on his face.
The guy grabs the book away after he goes through a couple pages. The whole
time I am just trying not to burst from laughter and I am unsure if that is the
book he wanted to grab in the first place because of how he grabbed it back and
got another book from the book-shelf and handed it to us and once again said,
that is a good book. This one didn't have any pictures in it but even then he
didn't say anything about the book other than it was good so, we were like
okay? By then we knew it was time to leave. He got us some glasses of water and
my glass was kinda shady looking not even sure if I should have drank out of
it. Yet somehow he still wanted us to come back and said he would come to
church tomorrow although he never ended up doing so. I don't think we are going
back but shows how different the experiences are while out here in the mission
field and perhaps even demonstrates how lonely or in need people are and how we
can reach out if even we really did nothing other than sit with this man for a
while.
So we had a great week to say the least. That concludes
another weekly update of the mission. But I hope everyone is doing well as
always. I think the home-sickness is starting to kick in just a little. But
naturally, I am glad to be where I am right now on a mission, no place I would
rather be. Schönen Woche noch!
Tschüssy!
Elder Foster
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