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Elder Foster and Elder Roemer  with the Fingerle's

Willkommen meine Lieblinge!

      I coming right at you from the city of Cottbus and things are going just fine. I honestly can't tell if the weeks are going by fast or slow anymore. Nonetheless it is a pleasant time to say the least. But I never know where to start.

      We still have the same old problems with our investigators from the university. Great potential but then they can hardly ever find time to have us come teach them again. It seems every week we meet with someone new from the university area. This last week we meet with a gal from Iran. And of course I was more than happy to talk to her about Iran and the language of Farsi, because I have had many a investigator from there and they are all wonderful people. We had a great lesson but of course the time factor always plays a role and she said she would call us when she had read a little and had a little bit of time. Which basically means we will call her later. Haha but that reminds of something else. So this week my good friend Amin, who is an investigator all the way back from when I was in Weimar and who is also from Iran, told me that he is coming to Utah to study at either Utah or BYU for his doctorates degree. Haha crazy stuff! He told me that he even mentioned me in his letter to whoever that I was one of the great examples of "Mormon" people and that was one of the reasons he wanted to come study in Utah. So that is exciting to say the least.Anyways to end of this whole paragraph on meeting with people from the university we are meeting with a couple people this evening. Wish us luck!

       Now a couple experiences from off the streets of Cottbus. I will say it again and again. But it truly is a blessing to not just have the knowledge of but also to give testimony of the plan of salvation and that families can be together forever. Every week I have at least one experience with a young family on the street, where I get to give them my testimony of Christ and God's plan. This week it was with a lady and her baby and I believe to be her mother. Usually one of my favorite ways to talk to people on the street is to simply ask them what family means to them. But this time I was told that that is a big topic in their lives right now because the husband had just left the lady and her baby. I was honestly surprised that they were so forthright with that kind of information but in the end it felt good and natural to tell them a little bit of our message. And although we didn't make an appointment out, I could tell that it helped them even if it was just a little bit. Haha the mother or the grandmother even said that we were two nice sympathetic young men. It was a nice sign showing that it brightened their day just a little. Now that experience was a lot better than the experience we had a few days earlier were we talked to a middle aged lady, who also for some reason, was very open about talking about all or her problems in her life right now and that without this workout program that she is doing she wouldn't know where she would be right now. But at the same time would not allow us to even share a little bit of our message and how it could help her and then going on to deny any existence of a God, even though she has never tried to find out if he is there and is also not willing to even do the smallest thing to even try and find out for herself. Sometimes it is hard trying to share something so personal and meaningful with people who are so insincere and who cannot see their own hypocrisy in what they say and do sometimes. However it is great nonetheless and I will surely miss being able to preach the gospel in such a way. I guess I never would've thought that I would find so much joy in simple teaching others about the gospel.

 

      Okay I have to hurry up so I will finish with the best news of all: So just yesterday we met with one of our good friends. Whose name is Martin and I am pretty sure I had to be the missionary he met in his life because my crazy personality is perfect for his crazy personality. Haha but we have met with him for the past four to five weeks now. And he is just great. I honestly can't say I have heard many people pray as sincerely as he does. Last night as we were meeting with him, we were discussing baptism. And we were able to put him on a baptismal date coming up in the next four weeks or so. He has finally agreed to quite smoking and already quite drinking weeks ago when we told him to and then we gave him a blessing to help him to quit smoking. It was truly a precious spiritual experience, everyone of us could feel the spirit. And I can't wait to see how the gospel will completely change his life.

      Those are a few thoughts and experiences from the week. I hope you enjoyed and I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you and miss you!

Tschüss,

Elder Foster