Hallo liebe Schätze,
Well it has been another week in the central heart of
Germany. With the smell of Thüringen-Bratwurst in the air and the constant view
of Germanland from the Autobahn. Well, this week could have been better but no
fear it was not a waste by any means. So first things first, at the beginning
of last week I got immediately on a train to Berlin with the Zone-Leaders to
attend my very first Mission-Leadership-Training Conference. So I got to hang
out with Elder Burri, my fine Swiss friend and also Elder Peterson who hails
from the exotic land of Provo, Utah. We then spent the night with the elders in
Tiergarten (the very heart of Berlin). So that was a good time. On Tuesday, the meetings began, I can't really
say anything really exciting about the conference for all the leaders on the
east side of the mission other than it felt like some weird kind of club for a
second and I got to hear stuff before other missionaries did. Or when we were
sitting down to eat lunch I sat about a chair away from President Kosak where I
then proceeded to look him in the eyes and said to him.....'The last supper.'
Haha maybe a little bit harsh but it made him laugh. I, then later almost
completely wrestled with him after the conference, haha not sure how that
happened. After the conference the Zone-Leaders and I made our way back to
Erfurt and unfortunately had to spend a little bit too much time in Berlin
Hauptbahnhof for a couple hours before our train came. I am telling you, I know
Berlin-Hauptbahnhof all too well now. On the way back to Erfurt I had an
interesting experience though, compared to on the way there were I mostly just
slept, or compared to the last time I came back from Berlin with Elder Burri
were we had the great pleasure of listening to some drunkards singing inappropriate
songs almost the complete ride back, this time about a half hour before we
would arrive in Hauptbahnhof, we invited an American that was actually sitting
behind us to come sit with us. I can't remember where he was from but he has
lived in Germany for about the last 7 years and actually got his masters degree
here. So that was cool but here is where the interesting experience comes in.
So the plan was that after we arrived in Erfurt I would get picked up by the
other elders and then the zone leaders would get on another train and head to
Jena where they serve. But what ending up happening is that if they went all
the way to Erfurt they would have missed their train because of delays. So
instead they got off at Weimar and left me on the train to make the rest of the
trip to Erfurt. So, of course, naturally after the other Elders were gone this
guy that we were sitting with unloaded all his questions on me about the Church
that he had built up inside of him over the past 3 years that he has been in
Germany. Haha, no companion to back me up but it was a great conversation
nonetheless and I think I handled it well. But eventually after even more
delays so basically after talking with him for about a half hour and finally
arriving in Erfurt, I get out of the train with this guy and guess what? There
were no Elders there to pick me up and I didn't have a cell phone. Haha good
thing the guy from the train allowed me to use his phone to call them. But even
then it felt so weird to wait out on this corner at like 10 at night with no
companion. That was pretty trippy and I thought, oh man, this would be the
perfect time for Satan to lead some crazy people to me haha because
missionaries always experience weird stuff in situations like that. But after
sitting on the corner for about 15 minutes the Elders finally picked me up in
the car.
That was probably the biggest event during the week other
than things like one of the families we are teaching tried to Tschüss us as we
call it, or in other words try and break contact off with us. But lucky while I
was on exchange with Elder Karpowitz we went by and saved the day and managed
to get them back on the right track and apparently after it was all over it
just ended up being some kind of weird misunderstanding, which still confuses
me to this very moment. Have I also mentioned that my district has gotten quite
a bit bigger? I know have 10 in all, with 4 of them being senior couples. It is
very interesting to now be planning all the district meetings. But something
else that has truly been a rewarding and a big learning experience is that as a
district leader i am the one who is in charge of giving baptismal interviews in
our district other than of course my own investigators. I say that because just
today I had a baptismal interview with an approximately 60 year old man today
who will be baptized this coming Saturday. First it is very impressive to see
someone who is already a little bit aged making such a change in his life but
also because none of his friends or his own kids understand why he is doing
such a thing and are still under the impression that we are a cult. The wife
wants to be baptized too but unfortunately is waiting until things cool down
with their kids and they can actually see that we are not a cult in any sort of
way. It is really awesome to see such faithfulness and willingness to follow
Jesus Christ despite such opposition from his very own kids. But the second
thing I wanted to talk about was.....really? I am now holding baptismal
interviews for people? If you would have asked me that at the beginning of my
mission or a year before my mission or really at all in my life. I would have
told you that I couldn't see myself doing stuff like that or that I would have
the capability of doing something like that. But yet here I am. It reminds me
of what the visiting Area Seventies said to us last week during
zone-conference. He explained a little about his life and that at one point he
and his wife were going to go on a mission together but right before they were
going to put their mission papers in. He was called to be a stake-president and
that at first he didn't even want to be a stake president and he was kind of
confused that why not a mission instead? Why did the Lord feel that he needed
to be a stake president rather than going out on a mission with his wife. Later
on he was eventually called as one of the Area-Seventies to be in Eastern
Europe, one of the places he presides over is Romania. But it was very interesting
to hear him talk about how he never would've thought that he would be called as
a stake president and that even as a stake president he never thought he would
have been called as a Seventy. And there was two things that I learned from
this story one of them being that I am seeing the same thing in my own life. I
am being called to positions and doing things that I never thought I would be
doing. The Lord truly prepares you without your awareness, there is always the
hope that when you follow the Lord he will make the best out of you, and it will
be beyond your expectations once you truly realize it. And the second thing I
learned from this story was that bishops, stake presidents, mission presidents,
and seventies are called to do the work that they do. But a missionary, he or
she chooses to take on the calling. When I really thought of it like that, it
put more meaning into the decision that I have made and that I need to show
even more through my actions that this was something that I chose, that I
wanted to do. It just gave me a little more meaning I guess.
Well that is about all I have time to write about today.
Hopefully I can get you guys some pictures of my district and of some of the
missionaries so you can all see who I am talking about. Well I miss ya all, I
have forgotten what America is like, all of the Elders in my apartment are
sleeping in the same room, and I love ya!
Tschüss,
Elder Foster
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