Familie Abend? Na! Bulgarischer Abend!

Hallo Hallo Hallo,

Zuerst werde ich gerne eine Schriftstelle teilen.

"Vertrau auf den Herrn und tu das Gute, bleib wohnen im Land und bewahre Treue! Freu dich innig am Herrn! Dann gibt er dir, was dein Herz begehrt. Befiehl dem Herrn deinen Weg und vertrau auf ihm; er wird es fügen. Er bringt deine Gerechtigkeit heraus wie das Licht und dein Recht so hell wie den Mittag." Psalm 36,3-6

Well hello everyone! How do you do? I wonder if anybody reads these anymore...haha just kidding. But anyways this week was interesting as they usually always are. And as usual I have no idea to go about writing what happened. It seems that our efforts in finding people seems to no longer be a problem but keeping those same people is a another story. It seems that every appointment that we set up seems to fall out except for a few of them. One of them being the most interesting in all reality and funnily enough the place where we find the most people is in the sketchiest part of town. Basically in the general area of where we actually live if I want to put it honestly. Haha the scriptural story of Alma and his brethren who were preaching unto the Zoramites remind me of our current situation and the first few verses go like so..."1 And it came to pass that they did go forth, and began to preach the word of God unto the people, entering into their synagogues, and into their houses; yea, and even they did preach the word in their streets. 2 And it came to pass that after much labor among them, they began to have success among the poor class of people; for behold, they were cast out of the synagogues because of the coarseness of their apparel. 3 Therefore they were not permitted to enter into their synagogues to worship God, being esteemed as filthiness; therefore they were poor; yea, they were esteemed by their brethren as dross; therefore they were poor as to things of the world; and also they were poor in heart." That is basically our story here in Bremerhaven.

To continue a little bit of what I talked about last week. We met with the Bulgarian family again and they were surprising glad to see us. And of course the language barrier was still there with only the 14 and 15 year old sons able to speak with us on basic levels. However we still had our handy dandy Google translator nearby! We ended up staying there for the next two hours because we have to talk to each other through the computer. I really don't know if I have ever seen such a sincere family with the desire to know about the gospel. They even had their own questions and asked about random things that I wouldn't have even thought about, for instance like circumcision and if that needs to happen. We ended up talking about baptism with this whole family and they of course expressed their desire to do so but are afraid because they had thought that they all needed to be older and are not sure when they all should be baptized. Not to mention they are missing a lot of the basic knowledge even surrounding baptism in general. But what I thought was the most amazing thing about meeting with them is that they only have one Book of Mormon, because we only had one in Bulgarian. But despite that they all had read a chapter each day since we gave it to them, each one of them passing it on to the next person as they finished the chapter. Now that is amazing to me. That is better than some missionaries who are on their missions, let alone many members in the church. It really is quite sad to meet so many foreigners in Germany and to find that they are so ready for the gospel, yet their German is lacking so much that they cannot fully become a part of the ward or branch because of it. But however I am planning to bring by a Book of Mormon in German so that it can help them to learn German. I mean it helps me and many other missionaries to learn German so why not them?

Something else possibly worth note of sharing was last week when we were during our usual family home evening with one of the members. Elder Pilling and I sang a few hymns for our spiritual thought. He played the piano and sang while I just sang. I had never done anything like that before or with any of the members in Germany. It was a nice little experience to say the least.  I am just trying to give you the image in your head of me singing in German in some faraway place in Germany in some German member's home. Haha. I am just trying to give you pictures in your head of my comings and goings in Germany because I am horrible at taking pictures. I just always miss the perfect opportunities.

Anyway, to give you another view of my possible future as a missionary…Last week after district meeting, President Kosak came to the church in Bremen where we were having district meeting, in order to talk to the Zone leaders that were already there. However he ended up talking to our whole District as well and after said random 45 minute discussion with President and my District. We all began to head our ways back to our areas and of course, President still needed to talk to the Zone Leaders. But before leaving he got a hold of me and told me that I was a one of his potential candidates as a district and zone leader. So that is a very imposing responsibility in the near future. In one sense it is almost exciting, but in another sense it also brings a feeling of inadequacy. That is essentially the mission itself though. You are either going forward or backwards, there is no in-between. The better you do and the more that you become, the more the feelings of inadequacy come and the more the influence of evil one tries to bring you down. And so I pray for the direction of the Holy Spirit that anxiety may be replaced by inspiration without wishing to look back, but rather to note the progress of myself now. And I also pray that I will place my "trust in the Lord and do good"" so that it may also be said of me, as it was of Joseph of old, as I live as an example of the gospel of Jesus Christ," can we find such a one as this, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?" (Gen. 41:38)

God lives. Jesus is the Christ. This is His church. This is my humble witness to you today. And I hope all is well back home or wherever you may be. I pray and think of you always.

Tschüss,

Elder Foster

 

 

Es Gibt Licht!

Moin!

And so a new transfer has begun and already a life lived outside of the mission life feels like a long lost life that is now caught in time-space. I was simply always a missionary and will continue to always be one. Or at least that is the current mind-set. But I digress...so my new companion's name is Elder Pilling from Burly, Idaho. He is also only a transfer younger than I am. So once again I am to fill the role of the senior companion. Although, you could hardly say that I have much more experience than he does. But I am happy to note that he is definitely willing to work hard and to be obedient. And I have already seen the blessings that have been showered upon us because of our desires to please the Lord. To give you a quick explanation of what I mean. Last transfer with my former companion, we only managed to find one new investigator in the entire six weeks. However in the last two days my new companion and I were able to find 10 new investigators. Now I am not trying to say that numbers are everything or put the focus on numbers. I am just saying the Lord will bless those who desire to please Him and to follow Him. And this week certainly wasn't free of its downs let me tell you. Our very first day truly working together we were in Cuxhaven. And that day we ran into just about every opposed person to the church that we could have. I mean there were people who tried to call the police on us, another who I thought was going to hit my companion, another who tried to tell us what we believed in and told us that they knew that we do not do this work free willingly (HAHA!), and then to make it even better all of our appointments that day fell out. Our only comfort that day was when we stopped by one of the members real quick who were in the area and they ended up inviting us to have dinner with them before we headed back to Bremerhaven. But it is when you have endured through trials in an attempt to do what is right that you will receive your reward or the promised blessings. Because then the next two days as we were going by contacts and talking to everyone that we possibly could on our way.

We saw success that I have never seen yet in Bremerhaven. Just the other day as we were trying to get in contact with an old investigator and honestly having no idea where he lived in the apartment building, other than he lived in it. So as we haphazardly knocked on all the doors in an attempt to ask people, "If they knew where Herr Shap lived?" We came to a door where two young boys answered and then eventually family members started popping out from everywhere and although they could barely understand us and as they themselves tried to look for someone in the building who could speak both Bulgarian or Turkish as well as English or German. It was just chaos haha but during the chaos we kept trying to talk to them and actually did find out that they were Christian and eventually ending up saying that if we could find one of our books in Bulgarian we would come by the next day. And then even after that we found the person that we wanted and set out an appointment with him for this week. And then something even more ridiculous happened by complete accident on our part. So we actually ended up getting a Book of Mormon in Bulgarian from the Sisters and headed back to this same apartment building. Of course, we get there and we realize that we didn't catch or remember the last name to this family so we basically we just hoped we would ring the right person. And guess what....we didn't haha but the person let us into the building after having stuck his head out the window but a 3 or 4 stories above us and yelling down at us. So we went up the stairs and actually talked to him outside of his door and he actually end up being interested too and we set up an appointment with him for a later date as well. And then finally! We got to the Bulgarian family's door. And at first we were expecting just to drop off the book and leave because of the language barrier. But because they were an awesome family, they invited us in right away. It was pretty funny actually because as we struggled to talk to each other and tried to show them the lds website in Bulgarian so they could read or do something while we were there we ended up having the realization that we could use Google translate. Haha so basically we wrote to them over Google translate and asked them if they understood as we typed messages. It was one of the funniest and most interesting experiences I have had yet since being on my mission. And we are meeting them again later this week! It is definitely safe to say that this week was filled with new experiences and a long needed boost in our missionary efforts.

Other random news my companion cut my hair yesterday and I also cut his as well too. Oh the random things you learn how to do while on a mission. And my district has once again 4 people from my original group in the MTC. When I was in Hannover there were 4 of us from the same MTC group and now it is the same here in Bremerhaven, although last transfer there were only 3 of us. Other random news I gave a talk at church yesterday. Can you imagine me giving a 10 minute talk completely in German? I still can't imagine myself doing it, even though I am the one who did it! And now we are getting to the point of my letter where I am not sure what to say anymore. It is really weird being a missionary I guess. You can't ever forget what a marvelous work you are engaged in. You can't ever take for granted what you do and think and how you use your time. Or you will more than likely find that you have been slacking at something you once had been doing very well at. Sometimes it feels as though there are so many things to think about at once and in so many areas to develop in that you forget the end goal in order to try to fulfill all the desired prerequisites of said goal. I guess I am simply still in the middle of my journey. I can't see the beginning anymore and I cannot see the end either. It is as if I am traversing the arctic and I can see not only where I will be the next day but also the day after that. Well I hope all is going well back home. And you all are never too far away from my thoughts.

 

Tschüss,

Elder Foster

 

Lasst uns frohgemut alles tun, was in unserer Macht liegt.

Moin! 

     Ah yes already at the end of another transfer, which means I have done 4 transfers out of 16 that I will have in Germany. And if you divided that in your head you would know that means I am 1/4 of the way done with my time in Germany. I still can not tell whether the time is going by fast or slow. The easiest way I can go about explaining it is that the days go by slow and the weeks go by fast. However back to the point of the email. This week was a little bit eventful to say the least.  

     First and foremost we had mission tour this week, which means that a few zones came together to hear from Elder Kepischke who is a seventy. And oh what a good experience that was, it brought a much needed hope and renewal of strength into my mind. It also made me remember of a principle that I had at the start of coming to Germany that I had somehow lost on the way to the present. And that was to be bold but not just to be bold but to do it with love. To do all that I could for the members and the investigators, to not worry about where I measured up but rather to give all that I had. Because in D&C 4, the first memorized scripture for any missionary, says in the second verse,"see that ye serve him with all 'your' heart, might, mind, and strength." Emphasis on the "your." And as a missionary and really as a human being in general, the Lord only asks that we give the best that we have. Not what someone else's best may be. And to me that is truly a comfort. Something else that I learned during Mission Tour was something about faith that I am almost ashamed to admit that I didn't quite understand until this point. Your faith can only be measured by what you do. Although in the scriptures it may say that your faith can move mountains. That does not mean that you will exert all spiritual energy or something until it moves. But simply pick up a pick and shovel and get to work on removing that mountain. Maybe that sounds a little bit crazy but that is just to explain the concept. Here is a more realistic example, okay so as a missionary we ask people to come to church all the time. Some missionaries may say, I have the faith that, that person will show up to church. That is the wrong concept of faith. Because that is involving the free agency of the person. However, if when you extend the invitation, you also ask them to come with a question to church, or you ask if you can call them to remind them, or if you arrange to meet them at their house and take them to church yourselves that morning, or something of the like. When you are actually using your own actions to help someone get to church, your are exercising your faith that it will turn out for the benefit or for the accomplishment of the end desired result. You may just say that is a missionary being intelligent. The only thing I can say to that is try putting faith into your own actions, and you will see the difference. Maybe that was already common knowledge but for me that opened up faith for me in a whole different way.  

     In other news apparently there was a hurricane warning for Bremerhaven, and my companion and I had no idea. Because of course we are completely cut off from the communications of the outside world. No TV, Radio, or Internet so how could we know? So we were basically almost outside for a hurricane..haha whoops. The port flooded though because the wind was blowing so hard that it pushed all the water onto the shore. We didn't even know there was a hurricane warning until we were at an eating appointment at a members house on Sunday. So yeah I am sure you could imagine how well missionary work went for the past couple of days because of the stormy weather.  

     Other information that I guess is of worth noting. Yesterday I taught the lesson in priesthood meeting at church. I am not sure why they asked us because we teach the gospel principles class anyways, but oh well what can I do? However something that is really nice that I get the opportunity to do because I am in a branch is that I got to bless the sacrament this last Sunday. I mean it feels a little bit different because I say it in German, but it was still a nice experience to be able to do that again. In the past blessing the sacrament was truly a treat for me because of the spirit that always come along with it. It was nice to look out at the members as they partook of the sacrament, and to ponder upon its significance, it added strength to my testimony to say the least.  

     And oh yeah I am getting a new companion and staying in Bremerhaven. Haha forgot to mention that part of the whole transfer ending thing. This will be the 5th companion in the 5th transfer. Woohoo! haha lets see how long I can go for without getting a new companion after every transfer. No I think I will stay with my next companion for longer than a transfer this time. But yeah that was a glimpse into my life for this last week. I hope you all are doing well back home or wherever you are. Hopefully things don't change too much while I am away unless its for the better. Because I get the feeling that June of 2016 is a lot closer than I may think. I hope and pray that we all can grow and accomplish something within this period of time. 

 

Tschüss,

Elder Foster

 

 

Guten Rutsch!

Moin moin moin!

Greetings from the windy north coast of Germany! Or in other words Bremerhaven. So if you are wondering if there is any snow yet where I am at. That would be a negative. It may not ever snow if it keeps up at this rate. And honestly that is okay because then that means it won't be that cold of a winter and remember I have to be outside for most of the day. However that won't stop us from being blown nearly into the streets by the strong gusts of wind that seem to always come around right when we leave the apartment.

So of course as you all know this last week we had New Years and you might be wondering what it is like to be in Germany during what they call Sylvester. Honestly I can't really tell you a whole lot about that because we were supposed to be in our apartment by 6pm unless we were being dropped off by a member personally. But they certainly do not have any kind of firework laws in Germany as far as I am concerned. It seems like days before and after there was still kids running around and chucking M80 firecrackers everywhere. And I thought it was like a war zone sometimes in Utah when everyone set off their fireworks. Literally everybody is out on the street lighting off fireworks of all kinds. And the next morning it was like a ghost-town no city. And all you could smell was sulfur. And used fireworks were strewn throughout the entire city. And believe me it was the entire city because we had to run across the entire city in order to catch our train on time because barely any of the buses where running and the one that was supposed to be there didn't show up. Haha so it is safe to say that I had an interesting New Year’s. I mean it was certainly a nicer feeling this time around when I realized where I was and where I am now in my life at the end of the year. Last year feels like an eternity away and like I was a completely different person. Although of course outwardly probably not that much has changed at first glance. But inwardly I am certainly different…more at peace maybe or maybe just a tinge of true freedom for the first time in my life in a long time. When you put yourself in the hands of the Lord, you will achieve and become much more than you ever thought that you could before. In fact the thing that becomes scary is the fact that your potential almost seems limitless and that your only fear is that you won't ever reach the full potential that you have.

It is never a great feeling when I am unsure of what to say. It either means that not much new has happened or that I am forgetting everything ever so quickly. Doing work in Bremerhaven is quite a bit different than doing work in Hannover. Here we do a lot of doors because that is unfortunately where you are going to get a hold of a lot of people. Because if you are directly in the heart of the city, you will talk to one person and then the next 50 people will not talk to you. Or even worse everyone thinks you are a J-Dub (Jehovah’s Witness), the utter bane of every missionary’s life in Germany. I am not entirely sure why there are so many in Germany. So yes a lot of what we do is knocking on doors. And Germans do not like that very much. And what is weird is that there are a ton of German houses where the front door of the house is actually on the back of the house...weird...so you really do feel like you are trespassing because you have to go through their entire yard and see into their entire house before you even ring the door bell. And then usually one of three things happens most of the time. People will say no before you finish saying anything. They will say I have no interest. Or they will say that they have no time. And then every once in a while people will be rude and call you a cult or what not. Or I am even surprised by some of the nicest rejections I have ever heard. Haha and I know I know sometimes my letters may seem kind of negative sometimes. But I don't mean it that way; I am just trying to share a little bit of the experience. Right now it is hard but even then I am glad to be where I am and not a minute that I have spent here whether I am teaching or baptizing or neither; it is not a minute wasted.

In various times, the Lord has chosen and trained men and women for the completion of his great purposes. Many of these examples can be seen within the scriptures. I believe that Heavenly Father has something of the like in his designs for me and for everyone else. Although, they may not be in the categories that we wish to be in so if there is anything that I wish to leave with you at the beginning of this year it is this. How great it is that we live in a way that the Spirit of the Lord may dwell in us and the Holy Ghost may speak through us; So that we can bring to pass these wonderful designs of the Lord for ourselves and for others. It is not beyond our capacity. Our lives won't always be determined by great awesome decisions. However our greatness is truly set by the little day to day choices which we make whilst on the track of life. I only hope that I too can always live in such a way.

Tschüss

Elder Foster