Welcome one
and all to another addition to the Elder Foster chronicles. Yeah, sounds
exciting huh? How do I begin, how do I end?
This week
was pretty nice. If only for the fact that the sun came out to play.
Anyways
moving right along we started off our week quite nicely in that we went to the
Farnsworth Family's house for family home evening.It is always
nice to spend some time with them because they are a fairly young couple with
three kids. So other than the whole being parents and having kids thing, we can
relate on a pretty good level. This particular family is half American because
they met on their missions in Switzerland and then got married afterward. It is
always interesting to see these things happen because I have no idea how they
even happen to begin with. But it was nice to spend some time with them and their
children and to share the good word of God and apply to our everyday lives,
especially to the children because they need that stuff.
I don't know
how to write letters anymore, completely uninspired sometimes. So I will just
do it day by day for the most part and add in whatever comes to my mind. But
Tuesday went pretty good as well too. Okay, sudden inspiration, this was a
first on my mission. Okay so we visited a certain investigator on Tuesday and
as of recent we have been having discussion about the law of chastity.
And this
time I was really speaking to him that if he wants to follow Christ then he is
going to have to throw away all of his pornography. And this time he finally agreed
to get rid of all of it but here is the catch. He had to do it right away. So
we made him get a garbage bag and to throw it all away and we watched him throw
it all away but of course didn't look too closely. And then afterwards we
finished our lesson and gave him a blessing to help him to overcome any
possible temptations. But WE had to get rid of it for him so that leads to two
missionaries walking around the city with a big bag of pornography looking for
a dumpster to throw it into. As you can imagine, I hoped and prayed that we
didn't run into any members in the meantime as that would have been a very
interesting situation. However I was proud of him in the end and although it
might have been really awkward we were glad to help him out.
On that day
as well we managed to have an appointment with one of our contacts and it looks
like we will be meeting with him more in the future because the first lesson is
always the deciding factor of whether or not things will continue in the
future. And we also met with Eleonora our Russian friend that goes to the
university here. It is good to meet with her again because she had been gone
for 10 days in Italy. I really do enjoy meeting with people that are around the
same age as me. I really feel like I can talk to them on a more real level. A
sincere testimony from a friend can have a greater effect than just that of a
somewhat foreign missionary, although that too can have an effect don't get me
wrong!
On Wednesday,
we had district meeting of course and that went pretty well. I still don't
think I am the greatest teacher in the world but I can say with certainly that
it has definitely become a lot more natural and easier for me to do. But we
also met with Eleonora again because she wanted help for her paper from a
native English speaker. And of course we jumped at the opportunity because
number one why not and number two it gave us another opportunity to teach her
something before she leaves back to Russia which is actually this week.....but
anyways I found out that although she is Baptist, she is not baptized. Hopefully we
can get her in contact with the missionaries in Russia or something.
But after
that we met with another one of contacts and we will probably meet with him in
the future too. Although for a second there I thought I was going to get really
frustrated when he started saying that he already knew all truth. But in the
end, he listened to reason if not the Spirit itself and should be giving the
Book of Mormon a sincere try. “Sincere” being the emphasized word there.
On Friday, I
experienced something that I have also never before experienced on my mission.
Well on Friday we were invited to a member’s house to eat and when this
particular member picked us up from the train-station, he also told me that
they had other visitors at their house and naturally I thought. Oh your
daughter from Jena and her friend or something and then he said no. It is one
of our friends that we have recently made. So we had an eating appointment with
members and an invited friend! Okay maybe that sounds totally normal to you to
have friends and missionaries over for dinner or something. But that does not
happen at all that often in Germany or at least not with the Germans in my
experience. They never do that, nor have I personally met any missionaries
where they have experienced that in such a way. Glad I got to experience it! As
it was really awesome and it wasn't awkward at all. Coolest thing is that their
friend will be coming to General Konferenz next week. Woo! I thought that was
really special. I was just proud of the members and also happy that they
trusted me enough to do something like that.
All in all
it was a good week and naturally as per usual I was not able to explain
everything that I wanted to or to really give you a good perspective of what I
did like I didn't mention meeting Mahya, the Persian gal, who is also a student
here. But it suffices me to say that I am so very grateful to be able to preach
the gospel and give testimony of Christ especially when people look at us funny
all day and judge us because we wear white shirts and ties. It is fun to show
people that we are normal and friendly and that most of all that Christ lives
and that is more than just a faith but it is a power in our lives that makes us
stronger and happier.
I hope you
all have a lovely week. I pray for you daily!
Tschüss,
Elder Foster
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