Ahoj!
Well it is the day after Mother's day and after having the opportunity to hear all the latest going on's in the other world. All I have to say is....scary. Everybody is growing up or people are coming back and just everything is changing. It really is just a whole new beginning to a different adventure once I get back. An adventure I don't want to start. Haha I am happy with what I am doing here. I even had a dream the other night where my Mission was extended by an extra six months. The year mark is just a little more than a month away. But do not worry my mind is not constantly flooded with thoughts of home in fact it is probably more than other way around. When I think of home, I think of how much more I need to do here before the time is up. Times like these make me think of Alma the younger and the sons of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon. They spent many years in fact far more than I will ever stay here in Germany. But do you ever think they felt like they were leaving a piece of themselves behind once they went back to the Nephite people? Although the blessings that come from missionary work are always the same for those that receive the Gospel or those who help proclaim it. I have learned a long time ago that, that does not entirely mean that it is proclaimed in the same way or more clearly stated, the missionary work is not always the same. Actually just yesterday I was thinking about this because in the newly formed Erfurt Ward. We got a new GML (Gemeinde-Missions-Leiter), and he was talking to us about how he was excited to be called as the new GML and that he was also hoping he would be called as the GML. And really it seems like he will be the first good GML that I will have had on my Mission. So that is exciting but what got me thinking was yeah I definitely want to still be involved with missionary work like this guy. But at the same time I thought....but it is not going to be the same. Being a GML in Germany and being a GML in Utah are definitely two different things. Once again the joy and blessings received from it are the same but it is nonetheless different, not sure how to describe it. There are just some things that I have right now that I do not really want to give up. For instance a silly one but something nonetheless is.....who am I gonna speak German with on a regular basis? And yes, yes I know there are some of you out there who can speak German to some extent, but we will see how long you will speak German with me before it seems like a chore. Haha I am just saying it is fun to speak a foreign language, and the minute I walk out the door there are thousands of opportunities to speak German with someone and getting to know random people and learning new words or expressions that are honestly completely different from English in general. That is one thing about German and probably many other languages as well but you can't just translate your English thoughts into German. You just have to speak it and think in that way. Think like a German! I don't know, like recently I have just been having fun talking to some of the university students here in Weimar. Yeah because there are a lot of international students you run into those people who have much better English than German so you are forced to speak in English but still just the other day we were talking to this lady from Taiwan who has been here the past 4 years getting her Bachelor at the Bauhaus University. It was just fun talking to her and she was really cool and had interest of course! But naturally she left today to go back to Taiwan until August....boo! Or even days before that we ended up having a long conversation with this lady from Cambodia who has been here for the past year. Yes I am talking to people from Cambodia in Germany, weird right? When people actually let you have a conversation with them it is really fun to speak German. Not so fun when you walk around all day saying the same things just trying to start a conversation.
At the beginning of this letter I think I was going somewhere with it but I think I lost whatever it was somewhere in the middle of my quatsch (hehe German). Anyways the work is still going pretty slow in this area, although out of the now six missionaries in the Erfurt Ward, we had 13 investigators at church, and actually had 3 baptisms on Saturday. So generally missionary work in this region isn't too bad, not bad at all, but in Weimar it is slowly making its way back up with the possibility that I just leave next week anways haha. We actually found a guy named Fady this last week who is from Egypt. He seems to have a lot of potential, and has actually been going to random catholic and evangelisch churches in the area because he is orthodox and there aren't any orthodox churches in the area. So there is definitely some hope there. It is always about finding those people who are looking for truth or at least willing to look for it. And since we have the truth, I know they will find it, that is if they want the truth and not their own version of the truth. But that leads onto a whole different topic that I don't feel like talking about right now. And it suffice me to say that once a upon a personal study time. I was annoyed by J-Dubs and decided to prepare for future bible warfare. Haha and actually in my quest to disprove the J-Dubs in every possible way, I ended up actually finding a lot of things pertaining to the Holy Ghost itself and Prayer and many of the other basic Gospel principles that we probably more often than not take for granted. This study time actually turned into something that was good for everyone including myself. Maybe some other day I will discuss my latest scriptural opus. Lest they fall upon philistine ears. haha only joking.
Well this week's letter was not very informative. But I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless. I hope you are enjoying the warm weather as much as I am or that it is also warm wherever you are. I hope you have a nice week and of course I love you all.
Schöne Grüße von der Gemeinde Erfurt
und
Tschüss,
Elder Foster
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