Die vorletzte Woche! Die Dämmerung bricht an!

Hallo meine geliebte Schätze! Ich hoffe, ihr habt euch außerordentlich über diese Woche gefreut!


   You think by this time you would have overwhelming sense of despair because you are about to go home and there is essentially no time left. But even to this day it does not feel like I will be leaving and that at the end of the transfer the next one will begin just as per usual. But I guess it gets more and more real as they start sending you all your tickets to go home. Like today I got emailed my ticket to Freiberg where it will all end. So yeah....haha.

   But this week was pretty good and also pretty eventful. Our week started off pretty well because after emails we just stayed in the church and waited for an investigator to show up to our appointment and thankfully he showed up which is awesome because most appointments I have actually made out where we meet in the church they hardly ever show up. However he is a really cool guy and he is originally from Spremberg which is about a half an hour from here but he studies here in Cottbus at the university. His parents are actually Atheist and was raised that way as well. But he always felt that there was something missing in his life that alcohol and cigarettes and other things like that could never quite make him content. But as he actually started watching a Sunday church service and reading in the Bible he noticed that this hole in his life was starting to be filled. So obviously we had a really good lesson with him and he is very willing to read in the Book of Mormon and find out for himself whether it is true. So I am excited to see how all that will turn out.

      We, of course, had some time to do some finding and as always the Lord has seen it fit to bless us and lead us to people that are willing to listen. This time it is a little Syrian family that invited us over to talk and meet with him. And they are super awesome! The dad was actually on the national basketball team for Syria and studied English literature when he was still in Syria. You always meet the coolest people on the mission. We talked a lot with him and a lot of what he believes is very close to what we believe which is really awesome because he also said he is not really Muslim but simply has his personal relationship towards God. Unfortunately, we weren't able to have a very long lesson with them because then I got a call from one of the assistant's of the president who told me that one of the missionaries in my district was in the hospital. So we needed to leave as soon as possible to go and pick up his companion and spend the night in Forst with him so he was not alone, while his companion was in the hospital. It made it really interesting because the train leaves only once in the hour from Cottbus to Forst and it was already 8:30 at night when they called us and the train leaves at 9:07. We were on the other side of the city and we still needed to go home real quick and pack to spend the night. So, of course, we missed the first possible train but then we get to the train station and we find out that there is no train that leaves in the 10 hour at night. So we had to wait another hour at the train station and didn't even leave Cottbus until 11:13ish which means we didn't even get to Forst until like close to midnight. Then we still had to walk to the apartment from the train station. It wasn't until about 1 or a little after that I actually got to go to sleep. So it was a really long day and really unusual because missionaries are supposed to be home by 9:30 at the latest. To make a long story short, we still don't know what is wrong with this Elder but the very next day they sent down another missionary who was just kind of sitting in the office. But it seems that the missionary is doing alright in the hospital and it is not life threatening or anything so that is great news.

      Another great thing that happened this week was that a Seventy came and visited our church which was really awesome because I already know him and because he is just a great man in general.

One of the members of the Stake Presidency also came to church and gave a talk along side of him and oh goodness those were some good talks. I really hope I can look forward to good talks like that when I get back home. I feel like talks from the Stake Presidency should be just as exciting as the ones I experienced this last Sunday. I also strongly feel that Stake/Ward-Conferences should be just as exciting as missionary meetings are. We truly do need this missionary Spirit in every aspect of our church and if you look at the beginnings of our Church that is exactly how it was. Every member WAS a missionary.

      I guess my concluding thoughts for the week are that I am extremely grateful for the time that I have had here. It really is true that you can go out on a mission and have so many wonderful experiences and meet so many wonderful people and have lots of joy but the most important thing that has been for me is simply the faith in Christ that I have developed and the desire to continue growing it and knowing that there is still much much more room to grow. Without that I think I honestly would not have gained very much on my mission. And of course, I plan to continue to share this faith in Christ because there is no other thing in which we can have absolute assurance. There is no other foundation in life that can bring the same peace, joy, and hope. In uncertain and difficult times, faith is truly a spiritual gift worthy of our utmost efforts. 

      I wish you all a wonderful week! And you will hear from me again in the final stages of my mission. The metamorphosis is complete. I love you and I pray for you!

Tschüss,

Elder Foster