Elder Seth Foster with his first mission President and wife - The Kosaks (they are in his current area) |
Welcome to
another excitingly not exciting report from the missionary life of Elder
Foster! Well what can I say about this week that is the question isn't it? Well
it was the last week of the transfer so it is always an exciting one. I mean it
wasn't quite so exciting for me if only for the fact that I pretty much knew
that I was going to be staying in Cottbus, which is fine because I wanted to
stay. But my companion will be leaving me and heading off to the west. Which is
also good because I wanted him to leave. Not because I didn't like him, we got
along just fine but when you just barely arrive in an area and your companion
has already been in the area for 4 transfers it kind of makes it hard to
develop a real relationship with the members.
Because they are already so comfortable with the other
Elder that they don't really feel the need to get to know you. I mean we all do
the same thing. If you invite a group of friends to hang out you will usually
talk a lot more to your friend you have already know for a while versus the
friends you just barely made a few weeks or a month ago. So yeah it will be a
nice change of pace in terms of members. Not to give you the idea that it was
bad but it could sometimes be a little annoying depending on the member.
This last week
I went on exchange with Elder Stank from my district and for some sort of
reason every time I go on exchange good things or horrible things happen. This
time it was good. So a few weeks ago I don't know if you still remember or not
but while I was on exchange as that is when it seems to always happen, we
talked to a lady on the street and she told us that she had the feeling that
should would run into us today and talk to us. So it was a really cool
experience in other words and we had a great conversation and we exchanged
phone numbers. Okay fast forward a few weeks and we still hadn't made out an
appointment, schade schade, but finally and that is when diligence pays off we
were able to set up a definite appointment with her and Elder Stank and I were
able to teach her along side with the sisters and oh it was a great lesson. The
spirit was there, she was excited to have the book of mormon, she wanted to
come to church and things were looking great!....I have left out a few details
but it truly looked like this lady could have real potential to be baptized. It
was grrrreat. But.. haha on Sunday morning we received a text that she would
not be coming to church and basically Tschüssed us, which is a funny term we
german missionaries have for when someone tells us they don't want to meet
anymore. Okay okay it was a little vague and I am leaving out a lot of details
for the sake of time. But I can not tell you how frustrating it is when things
like this happen. It really is unfortunate how many times I have met people who
know the truth of what we are saying and even admit it, but they do not have
the courage to do the simple things we ask. But i get it, I understand, it is a
hard decision to make, to change your whole life depending on whether or not you
receive an answer from God. It has not been easy finding the people humble
enough to follow the promptings of the Lord. I have already had enough
experiences in this city to know that there are prepared people here. We just
have to find them! Coming back to the actual experience though, it was a good
exchange with Elder Stank and I got my first taste of what it would be like to
have a german companion. Haha well at this point in my mission the only
difference was that he could speak better German than if I had another
companion.
haha It is unfortunate though because know he is leaving
the district to go somewhere else.
Oh yeah in
case you are wondering my new companion is Elder Williams from...I don't know
yet haha except what I do know is that this is going to be his last transfer so
yay I get to kill another missionary aka send a missionary home. I haven't done
that since I sent my two trainers home. I am a lot more prepared for what is to
come though.
Usually a missionary that is about to go home is either
very diligent or very lazy so we will see, but I think it will be good. I have
already gotten to know him a little bit and it should be good. I only say that
stuff to help you visualize the mission life or at least from my point of view.
I am not sure
what else to say about the week other than we got to meet with some new
converts within the last year here and they are doing good and I can't help to
help them to get to the temple or to get their patriarchal blessings. We also
of course have a lot of contacts that can turn into investigators pretty soon.
A few of them that are actually getting their PHD's here at the university in
Cottbus. Just have to keep being diligent and you will eventually make
something out with these people or you will at least get a definite answer
someday that they are not very interested. Either way what is the harm and
their are still others to be found in the process.
My release date is July 7th! I decided to stay a little longer!
Well I love
you all and I hope all is well on the other side, sorry but its greener on this
side. I will tell you why later haha. But I pray for you all and I wish you a
wonderful week.
Tschüss,
Elder Foster
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