Hallo Hallo Hallo!
Welcome, welcome to Elder Foster tells tales of his
mission adventures!
This week was certainly a good one. Definitely one to be
recorded in a journal for future reference and enjoyment. The first two days of
the week weren't super exciting. P-Day definitely goes by a lot faster than you
want it to that is for sure. And then there you are standing on someone's
doorstep just wondering if anybody will answer or at least give you enough time
to say anything in particular. Then P-Day is over. Sometimes we are invited
over the the Farnsworth family's house for family home evening, which we are
tonight. Woo! But other than that P-Days aren't super exciting here in Cottbus,
but they still go by unusually fast.
Tuesday we were supposed to meet with Koffi, our recent
investigator that was put on baptismal date but that fell to because he had to
go to a dentist appointment. To an actual appointment as well! It wasn't just a
made up excuse. So suddenly our day got a little longer because that meant we
had to do that much more finding. Which isn't a bad thing because I can enjoy
finding, it can just be taxing on your patience sometimes, depending on who you
talked to on that particular day. But at least during our finding time we got
some numbers from some cool people that we can meet up with later this week so
that was good. But after that we headed to the church to go to our appointment
with a lady that we had met the week before. And we were totally excited for
that except for the fact that she didn't show up.
:/ However we did get in contact with her later and she
didn't show up because her house got flooded somehow and she was too busy
figuring all that out that she totally forgot about our appointment. So we will
have to see if we can set up another appointment sometime soon. That just
reminds me of how many contacts we have that we/I need to call in the next day
or so. I have never had to manage so many things at once in my life. But
anyways the day came to a close with gemiko (a meeting with the ward mission
leader) and choir. Choir was of course fun and the gemiko was of course
interesting as per usual because the ward mission leader is so sassy and
sarcastic with me sometimes that I sometimes wonder why he even meets with me
in the first place. anyway, at the end of the day I was calling the district as
per usual and the idea struck me as I was talking to Elder Schulte that we need
to expect more miracles! And then it all began.
Wednesday we had district meeting, which of course went
well. There is one thing that we decided to do as a district and yes I know it
is rather simple. But we decided to have a short conference call every morning
in order to pray together and ask for miracles. That was definitely a turning
event of the week. The rest of the day went by smoothly enough. We had our
lesson with Koffi and have begun to talk about the commandments. Ooo the
lessons that either break or make the person you are teaching. Fortunately our
discussion of the Word of Wisdom went over well and wasn't really a problem. I
would love to go into more detail about the Word of Wisdom but I think I will
keep the letter this week a little bit more informative and descriptive of the
week’s events.
After our lesson we began the days finding routine. Not
that it has become an actual routine, I just like calling it that.
We collected even more numbers and contacts which just
added to the pile of people that I already need to call, have mercy! And of
course had a great conversation with a young mother, her baby, and her two
small children. Interestingly enough she no longer believed in God but her two
young kids who were probably 9 and 6 still believed, the baby not being old
enough to speak. It is certain moments like these that make me grateful to be a
missionary but at the same time it frustrates me because I could tell she
wanted to know more, I could tell she was touched by the Spirit. But she of
course has her free-agency. The real frustrating part is this....she of course
wouldn't invite us over or meet with us because we are just two young guys from
America, every bit of what she has grown up and the society that she is in is
telling her in her mind to say no. Random example, the Sisters this week were
visiting a former investigator in the hospital this week and they talked with
her and cheered her up. And then the next time that they went to go visit her,
they find out that the person who was sharing the room with this lady that they
were visiting asked to be moved to a different room because she didn't want to
be around when those dang Jehovah's Witnesses when they come around again.
Obviously, we aren't Jehovah's Witnesses but we get put in the same group
nonetheless. It is rather sad how societies can build up false images in the
minds of its inhabitants. Anyways back to the point I think if this lady was
invited by one her friends to meet with the missionaries or had had this
conversation with one then it would have led to more things.....so is the lot
of a missionary in Germany. Always, keep hope though, that is why we keep going
out.
Thursday is where things really start to kick off. And I
have to start writing faster aaah! We went on exchange and I was with my good
buddy Elder Schulte in Cottbus. Haha he needs a break from Forst shall we say
and we needed to do an exchange anyway. It was good for my trainee to get
thrown out in the wild anyways with another trainee. (we are terrible
trainers...kidding!) Anyway, we start our day off with a prayer with the
district, simple, inspiring and motivating. And then we head out into the
thankfully sunny day to go find some Menschen! And of course the first 15
people or so that we encountered were not very happy to talk to us at all. But
at one moment when we were waiting for the light to turn green at a crosswalk I
had the thought it my head. Well so far....not so much success but I KNOW the
Lord will lead us to the people that we need to talk to and quite literally the
next person we talk to is interested and gives us his name and we set up an
appointment for the next day. Haha remember that. And we are pumped of course
after that but we need to head to our appointment with Koffi. If you are
wondering why we are meeting with him so much it is because.....baptism is
important! You need to be ready to make a covenant with God! That is no small
thing. So we are helping him.
After that we did some more finding and found another guy
and set out an appointment for Saturday. Then we met with one of the new
converts and he told us an awesome story of how he has been going almost every
night to where his friend lives to go and pray with her and that the other day
they got the feeling that this pregnant friend was going to have the baby the
very next day and what do you know....it happens. Prayer is real don't forget
it! And even in the middle of our meeting he gets a call from her telling him
that she is having contractions. Crazy stuff right?! Then we had English class
and met with another new convert that has been doing good and that was
basically our exchange. Woo!
Friday, there is only one real thing that I need to
mention about this day and that is we met with the guy that found the day
before the one that we talked to right after having that thought and his name
is Bashar and he is from Jordan, he lives like 3-4 hours away from Jerusalem,
how cool is that. And he is already a Christian and had only just barely moved
into Cottbus to go the university here a few days ago and we met with him and
taught him the first lesson....and it went great! Afterward we asked him if he
would get baptized if he got an answer that the Book of Mormon is true and he
said yes. We then made out a baptismal date for the 16th of April. Even at the
end of the lesson, he looks at me and say "you know, you are strong, I am
proud of you!" The only thing I could think of to say in return was to say,
no I am proud of you! Once again praying for miracles works!
On Saturday we found even more cool people and met with
Koffi again. I even got to talk to these two students from the university on
the Bahn that are from Iran and that was a really good time. It reminded me of
the days when I used to meet with Amin back in Weimar. I miss that guy and by
the time they had to get out of the Bahn they asked me for our number so that
we could meet up again at some time. It was a rather fine day to say the least.
It was also sunny too! Which is of course always appreciated by a missionary.
Sunday we had church and we also met with about 5 Muslims
and we are glad to report that we did not get beat up or anything. We read lots
of scriptures out of the Book of Mormon. It was good!
Anyways I have to go! I love you! Bye!
Tschüss,
Elder Foster
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