Ein Interview mit dem Distrikt-Leiter und ein Ringkampf mit dem Präsident

Hallo liebe Schätze, 

Well it has been another week in the central heart of Germany. With the smell of Thüringen-Bratwurst in the air and the constant view of Germanland from the Autobahn. Well, this week could have been better but no fear it was not a waste by any means. So first things first, at the beginning of last week I got immediately on a train to Berlin with the Zone-Leaders to attend my very first Mission-Leadership-Training Conference. So I got to hang out with Elder Burri, my fine Swiss friend and also Elder Peterson who hails from the exotic land of Provo, Utah. We then spent the night with the elders in Tiergarten (the very heart of Berlin). So that was a good time.  On Tuesday, the meetings began, I can't really say anything really exciting about the conference for all the leaders on the east side of the mission other than it felt like some weird kind of club for a second and I got to hear stuff before other missionaries did. Or when we were sitting down to eat lunch I sat about a chair away from President Kosak where I then proceeded to look him in the eyes and said to him.....'The last supper.' Haha maybe a little bit harsh but it made him laugh. I, then later almost completely wrestled with him after the conference, haha not sure how that happened. After the conference the Zone-Leaders and I made our way back to Erfurt and unfortunately had to spend a little bit too much time in Berlin Hauptbahnhof for a couple hours before our train came. I am telling you, I know Berlin-Hauptbahnhof all too well now. On the way back to Erfurt I had an interesting experience though, compared to on the way there were I mostly just slept, or compared to the last time I came back from Berlin with Elder Burri were we had the great pleasure of listening to some drunkards singing inappropriate songs almost the complete ride back, this time about a half hour before we would arrive in Hauptbahnhof, we invited an American that was actually sitting behind us to come sit with us. I can't remember where he was from but he has lived in Germany for about the last 7 years and actually got his masters degree here. So that was cool but here is where the interesting experience comes in. So the plan was that after we arrived in Erfurt I would get picked up by the other elders and then the zone leaders would get on another train and head to Jena where they serve. But what ending up happening is that if they went all the way to Erfurt they would have missed their train because of delays. So instead they got off at Weimar and left me on the train to make the rest of the trip to Erfurt. So, of course, naturally after the other Elders were gone this guy that we were sitting with unloaded all his questions on me about the Church that he had built up inside of him over the past 3 years that he has been in Germany. Haha, no companion to back me up but it was a great conversation nonetheless and I think I handled it well. But eventually after even more delays so basically after talking with him for about a half hour and finally arriving in Erfurt, I get out of the train with this guy and guess what? There were no Elders there to pick me up and I didn't have a cell phone. Haha good thing the guy from the train allowed me to use his phone to call them. But even then it felt so weird to wait out on this corner at like 10 at night with no companion. That was pretty trippy and I thought, oh man, this would be the perfect time for Satan to lead some crazy people to me haha because missionaries always experience weird stuff in situations like that. But after sitting on the corner for about 15 minutes the Elders finally picked me up in the car.  

That was probably the biggest event during the week other than things like one of the families we are teaching tried to Tschüss us as we call it, or in other words try and break contact off with us. But lucky while I was on exchange with Elder Karpowitz we went by and saved the day and managed to get them back on the right track and apparently after it was all over it just ended up being some kind of weird misunderstanding, which still confuses me to this very moment. Have I also mentioned that my district has gotten quite a bit bigger? I know have 10 in all, with 4 of them being senior couples. It is very interesting to now be planning all the district meetings. But something else that has truly been a rewarding and a big learning experience is that as a district leader i am the one who is in charge of giving baptismal interviews in our district other than of course my own investigators. I say that because just today I had a baptismal interview with an approximately 60 year old man today who will be baptized this coming Saturday. First it is very impressive to see someone who is already a little bit aged making such a change in his life but also because none of his friends or his own kids understand why he is doing such a thing and are still under the impression that we are a cult. The wife wants to be baptized too but unfortunately is waiting until things cool down with their kids and they can actually see that we are not a cult in any sort of way. It is really awesome to see such faithfulness and willingness to follow Jesus Christ despite such opposition from his very own kids. But the second thing I wanted to talk about was.....really? I am now holding baptismal interviews for people? If you would have asked me that at the beginning of my mission or a year before my mission or really at all in my life. I would have told you that I couldn't see myself doing stuff like that or that I would have the capability of doing something like that. But yet here I am. It reminds me of what the visiting Area Seventies said to us last week during zone-conference. He explained a little about his life and that at one point he and his wife were going to go on a mission together but right before they were going to put their mission papers in. He was called to be a stake-president and that at first he didn't even want to be a stake president and he was kind of confused that why not a mission instead? Why did the Lord feel that he needed to be a stake president rather than going out on a mission with his wife. Later on he was eventually called as one of the Area-Seventies to be in Eastern Europe, one of the places he presides over is Romania. But it was very interesting to hear him talk about how he never would've thought that he would be called as a stake president and that even as a stake president he never thought he would have been called as a Seventy. And there was two things that I learned from this story one of them being that I am seeing the same thing in my own life. I am being called to positions and doing things that I never thought I would be doing. The Lord truly prepares you without your awareness, there is always the hope that when you follow the Lord he will make the best out of you, and it will be beyond your expectations once you truly realize it. And the second thing I learned from this story was that bishops, stake presidents, mission presidents, and seventies are called to do the work that they do. But a missionary, he or she chooses to take on the calling. When I really thought of it like that, it put more meaning into the decision that I have made and that I need to show even more through my actions that this was something that I chose, that I wanted to do. It just gave me a little more meaning I guess.  

Well that is about all I have time to write about today. Hopefully I can get you guys some pictures of my district and of some of the missionaries so you can all see who I am talking about. Well I miss ya all, I have forgotten what America is like, all of the Elders in my apartment are sleeping in the same room, and I love ya!

Tschüss,

Elder Foster

zum Angriff blasen

Hallo Hallo, 

Welcome welcome to the Erfurt saga of the Elder Foster mission adventures. Well this week was kind of a let down. I mean I love zone conferences and the other meetings that we have as missionaries but I am still not a fan of how much time they take and the amount of traveling that needs to be done in order to do them. What could have been a pretty effective week ends up turning into a half-effective week. But I must say that Zone Conference in Berlin was very good. And now I can say that I have driven in Berlin the most populated city in Germany as well as driven on the Autobahn.  

Living in a 4-man apartment has its ups and downs. Probably the most visible negative is the fact that if you are with people that are messy and unorganized then basically you have no hope of having a clean apartment for more than a day. Which is the current situation that I am living in. You can always tell were I sleep or study, let's go with that. But on the upside there is never a dull moment and whenever you have had enough of your companion, not exactly because you don't like them but rather because we are with are companions about as much as a mom is with her new-born baby. So it is nice to get a little variation in there and you get to know your companion far too well. Every little single habit and mannerism that they have. Haha it is great in that you begin to develop a strong tolerance for the little things. Or the complete opposite if you are learning or developing in the wrong ways.  

Sometimes I just come to a complete blank when I right these letters. As of right now I would say that time is going by really fast but not in a good way. Like in a whoa there is no time to do anything and or get the things done that I want to accomplish kind of way. Oh and that reminds me, I have to be in Berlin again tomorrow for mission leadership training. Which is awesome and sad at the same time. Because it is my first one but also the last time that I will ever get to see President Kosak as my mission president. It really is unfortunate to see him go. Maybe I will get to see the new mission president while I am there.  

Basically this week was a disappointment but I can't say that good things didn't happen. We and when I say that, I mean the Elders in Erfurt, it is kind of a joint effort thing, we did commit 3 brothers from Syria and there friend to baptism. And probably their mom and dad too later if things go right. It really is kind of sad sometimes to see all the people's bad opinions about Muslims and people from Muslim countries. Because honestly for the most part of my mission it has been these people from the middle east that have been willing to talk to us, willing to let us in, and humble enough to accept or try the doctrine. And when you are invited into their homes, you are certainly treated as an honored guest. Haha it has almost inspired me to try and learn Arabic or Persian. But don't worry I am still focused on the Germans, far more so than other missionaries. Because of course Germans are the ones who are going to stay in the ward and support the ward in the best way. That is every missionary's dream, to baptize a German family. I still have a year!  

Well that is about all I can think of for this week unfortunately, hopefully next week I will be a little bit more inspired and have some better insights or that I will remember more things that happened during the week. Well I hope you all have a great week and that you will be just as enthusiastic as I am to go out there and just get some work done! Love ya!

 Tschüss,

Elder Foster

 

Das war sehr geistreich von dir!

Hallo geehrte Damen und Herren! 

Well welcome back, I hope you had a nice week and now you can start off your week with another letter from the historian of legends! But unfortunately he couldn't make it so you will have to settle for a letter from me. haha 

Well this week certainly started out better than last week. Namely we actually had money for food. But also to that when we went finding at the end of our P-Day. We ended up finding about 5 new people in the space of an hour. Not to mention we ran into one of the brothers of the Syrians that the other Elders teach. And then he proceeded to invite us to his home and then met the whole family and actually was in their house before the other elders ever did and actually still have not. Haha, kind of funny if you ask me. But unfortunately the next day, which is when we set up all the appointments with the people that we found the day prior, fell out. Good thing I have already experienced that kind of thing in another area on my Mission or that would have really bummed me out. 

Something else that has also been really cool to notice this past week, was really the noticeable increase of my finding skills and by that I don't mean that I have now become a better sales person because believe me. You cannot sell the gospel if you even tried. Or at least the people ain't buying. Haha. Really in this past week, I have focused on the simply the confidence and sincerity of its delivery and also on the very invitation itself. A simple invitation can really be a powerful thing. It actually surprised me just the other day. Usually when you invite someone or talk to them and they say something like they will check it out or that they will come by. You usually never end up seeing them again. However, this Sunday, after inviting someone earlier in the week to come to church and talking a little about eternal families and a few other principles. He actually came! Despite not even getting his number. But he loved it at church, especially the gospel principles class. So even though we found a lot of people that just turned into fallen out appointments, we did end up finding him.And also by some other kind of miracle, I managed to get our Persian friend from Weimar to get to church. 

I don't have a lot of time to say much more but of course after sending home a big ol' package of books back home. I, of course, ended up just getting even more of them! I need to stop finding interesting German books that I cannot get back in America, particularly church books that have been translated into German. But what I wanted to say was that last week I actually managed to get my hands on an old combination of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. That is actually in prime condition and written in the Old German lettering. Haha I am pretty sure I am the only missionary in Germany that has something like that and I already know missionaries that would almost literally kill someone to get one. So you could say I got really lucky. 

Okay one more thing and then I have to end this letter.....German roads are messed up! I would never recommend driving in Germany. Okay, okay they have the Autobahn but even then German roads and traffic signs and just simply how they all run together is just absolutely terrible. And if you think people in America drive crazy you just need to get in the car of a German. They don't all drive bad but there sure are a lot of them. Even though honestly I can't say I was happy with the driving of my companion the other day which certainly does not convince me to let him drive him anymore than is absolutely necessary.

But don't worry we have a cap on how fast we can drive on the Autobahn so no worries.

Well I hope you all have a great week and this is Elder Foster signing out!

Love ya!

Tschüss,

Elder Foster

 

Ein Durcheinander

Hallo!...gel 

Well I am now writing you from a different city, namely, Erfurt. But you already knew that. And unfortunately I am also writing to you on a Tuesday and not a Monday because here in Germany, whenever there is a holiday almost the entire country is shut down. So even if you are out of food in your entire house, you don't have the option of going to get some unless you are eating out or going to someone else's place which isn't good when you are a broke missionary. But we will get to that in a second.  

Basically this whole week was like a disaster. I don't even know where to begin! So, first of all at the beginning of last week and even until now I have had no money because the last few weeks I have had to travel a lot and therefore buy a lot of tickets. So starting right from Monday, my still Frankfurt companion and I had to pack all our stuff and clean the entire apartment spotless and just get rid of whatever we could in order to get ready to move and then we had to go visit some of his relatives for the last time in Weimar. Kind of cool right? Haha funnily enough he asked me if I would come visit him again. And then still do the normal P-Day stuff like emails and what not. And then Tuesday we take all our stuff in buses, trains, and city-bahns all the way to the apartment in Erfurt and then we had to coordinate with the Elders in Erfurt and Gotha so that someone could give us the keys to the apartment. And then after we dropped off all our stuff we had to head back to the train-station and pick-up my new companion, go back to the apartment, drop his stuff off. And then head all the way back to Weimar and give a couple lessons. And also mind you this is all during the DB strike so basically every train in the world falls out and we had no idea if we could even make it back that night. And also that night and on Wednesday night there were about 10 Elders in our apartment about half Frankfurt missionaries and half Berlin missionaries. So the place was packed with suitcases and all other manner of things. Once again to mention that there is no food already at this point. And then Wednesday we had district meeting and we had to go back to Weimar again for appointments and what not. And then Thursday we sent off all the Frankfurt missionaries and we had to register ourselves in the city and also had to help the other Elders in Erfurt with some of their appointments. And then by some miracle we four elders in Erfurt had to be in Werdau on Friday, which is about 2 to 2-1/2 hours away by train and bus. We managed to make it because one of us had enough money to get us all there. And we had to be in Werdau because we were having a special zone-training-meeting because we were getting iPads, and for us Elders in Erfurt we were also getting a car. However, when we got the car and thank goodness we did because we did not have enough money to make it back. We did not get a gas card, or at least we don't have one yet. So that means we have to use the funds we get every month to fill it up with gas and just send in the receipts for reimbursements during the month. Which believe me the money goes fast. The other day Elder Johnston spent 74 euro of his own personal money to fill up the car with gas. They go by liters instead of gallons here in Europe. But yeah I don't remember what we did for the rest of the day it was already a long day of traveling. And then on Saturday there was a baptism and we also had a meeting with our ward mission leader and we had to head back to Weimar to get some stuff from the apartment before they shut the apartment down. And then finally but not really on Sunday we had a little bit of a rest but still lots to do. So that is kind of a basic overview of my last week. A not so well written one and it is also missing lots of details. I am just glad that now, finally I am no longer eating rice and whatever kind of spices or random things we could think to put in it.  

So on a quick and happier note. The apartment that we have is really nice and it is right in the center of the city where all the people and the cool stuff is. Although that doesn't make it fun for the fact that we can't really park our car anywhere, and we are actually not even allowed to drive it up in front of our apartment because it is in the pedestrian zone. We did it anyways haha until the police told us we couldn't. So, even though this week was such a mess and not a whole lot got done in terms of missionary work I still learned a lot and this week we have already managed to have a good start. So really there is a lot of hope for this area. We are just going to blow the minds of everyone in our mission.  

Well sorry for the mess of a letter haha, hopefully next week I can manage to write something with a little bit more quality. I hope you all are doing well and you are constantly in my prayers. Love ya and... 

Tschüss,

Elder Foster

 

 

 

Erfurter Missionar!

Hallo hier ist Elder Förster! 

Welcome to the brand new season of Elder Foster's weekly letters. Why a new season you might ask? Because it is a whole new transfer and with every new transfer comes also change. And I will now begin to explain all the new changes that have now been made. So first and foremost, I am finally back in the Berlin Mission, whew! Although we will still have some Frankfurt missionaries here until they are transferred away on Thursday. But now instead of being the Erfurt Zone we are now the Leipzig-Süd-Zone. Which also means that the Chemnitz Zone is being dissolved and being split up between us and the Dresden Zone. So there have been a whole lot of changes in the Mission since I have been out here. And to the news more related to me, I will no longer be serving in Weimar but will be sent to Erfurt to serve there, although there is a catch. Because the churches in Weimar and Gotha were shut down the two Elders programs in Erfurt will be sharing a car together. So my companion and I will still visit Weimar during the week, as the occasion requires, and the other Elders program will go to Gotha when it is needed. So it will be another interesting transfer because I basically get to open up a new program in Erfurt but still manage to retain the investigators we have in Weimar. Oh and another thing is that I will still be District-Leader and now my district has grown a bit. So now there are now 6 missionaries, including me, instead of 4, and now I have 2 senior couples instead of just 1. And everybody is older on the mission than I am so that will be interesting as well. Hopefully I will manage to add to their already ever increasing drive to do more and be better.  

Well now that all the technical stuff is out of the way, I guess I can talk about other things. So naturally as it seems to me now, it takes a transfer to really get things going. Although this week was also a struggle to try and find rides for people to get them to church, we made some progress this week. The biggest news being that this week we were able to set up a baptismal date with a German family. Yay! Very exciting indeed, and I know that if they stick to what we have committed them to do that they will progress and be ready to be baptized when the time comes. And thankfully we managed to get them a ride to church, although we had to come back with them on the train. We almost made out another baptismal with the Henning family too. Their mother being inactive and the two children being 9 and 11. They have the desire to be baptized just not the desire to come to church. Unfortunately we were not able to get them to church. :( But actually the reason we didn't make out a date was because the children weren't sure how to recognize an answer from God and what someone has to do to be ready for baptism. So next time for sure we know what we want to talk about. Usually we have a hard time trying to keep their attention but this time they were definitely more involved. They really are so close, we just need to get them to church and I know they will get baptized (and be spiritually ready for it too of course!) Grr! But as a missionary there is something that you learn, and that is you can only do that which is possible for you to do. And then trust on the Lord that he will help you with the things that you don't have any control over. But you will always get there if you do everything that is physically possible for you to do. And all of this go directly along with what I have been recently reading in my studies and actually with my interview with president last week, and even this very morning! It is always interesting when it seems that everything you have been reading and thinking about in a given time suddenly has one big connection. Times like these I know I am being led by the Lord to learn something in particular.  

So really the quote I would like to share is from Joseph Smith who is explaining the latter outcome of the march of Zion's Camp to go and help some members in Missouri who were being severely persecuted and many had actually been driven from their homes. In the end they did not manage to help the members in Missouri and actually suffered much affliction in this whole endeavor. But what Joseph Smith later said was "God did not want you to fight. He could not organize his kingdom with twelve men to open the gospel door to the nations of the earth, and with seventy men under their direction to follow in their tracks, unless he took them from a body of men who had offered their lives, and who had made as great a sacrifice as did Abraham." 5 months later the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the First Quorum of the Seventy were organized. And seventy-nine out of the eighty-two positions were filled by men who had been proven in the march of Zion's Camp. With also four of them being future presidents of the church. If I or anyone wants to truly open up the doors of this gospel to the world then we need to be willing to offer ourselves up as these men and women did. It was this very same question about Abraham's sacrifice that the Mission president asked me on Saturday. It was also when I was reading in Jeremiah where Jeremiah asks the age-old question of why do the wicked prosper despite their many abominations and asks that the Lord sends his righteous judgment upon them, and then the Lord reproves him for this outburst of ill-nature and impatience by telling him that he must patiently endure still worse. Showing his long-suffering towards a people ripe for destruction. That made me think upon my own endurance and own sacrifice that I must make for the sake of God's children. Or even when I later read in D&C where the Lord said "Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom; otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself. And my people must needs be chastened until they learn obedience, if it must needs be, by the things which they suffer." Where I once again thought that for the work to truly progress we must hold ourselves quite literally to the standards of the Kingdom of God. It now makes more sense when Elder Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve said that we need to raise the bar of standards even more for missionaries and that what we need now is "the greatest generation of missionaries" that this world has ever seen. As always I only hope I can talk these things and make the decision to fully apply them into my life, and with assurance knowing that I will achieve the highest outcome. For I know in him I trust.  

Well I hope this week’s letter was alright and that you will all have a wonderful week. I love you all and pray for your wellness.

 Tschüss,

Elder Foster

 

 

Etwas in mir ist anders. Etwas in mir erwacht.

Ahoj!

Well it is the day after Mother's day and after having the opportunity to hear all the latest going on's in the other world. All I have to say is....scary. Everybody is growing up or people are coming back and just everything is changing. It really is just a whole new beginning to a different adventure once I get back. An adventure I don't want to start. Haha I am happy with what I am doing here. I even had a dream the other night where my Mission was extended by an extra six months. The year mark is just a little more than a month away. But do not worry my mind is not constantly flooded with thoughts of home in fact it is probably more than other way around. When I think of home, I think of how much more I need to do here before the time is up. Times like these make me think of Alma the younger and the sons of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon. They spent many years in fact far more than I will ever stay here in Germany. But do you ever think they felt like they were leaving a piece of themselves behind once they went back to the Nephite people? Although the blessings that come from missionary work are always the same for those that receive the Gospel or those who help proclaim it. I have learned a long time ago that, that does not entirely mean that it is proclaimed in the same way or more clearly stated, the missionary work is not always the same. Actually just yesterday I was thinking about this because in the newly formed Erfurt Ward. We got a new GML (Gemeinde-Missions-Leiter), and he was talking to us about how he was excited to be called as the new GML and that he was also hoping he would be called as the GML. And really it seems like he will be the first good GML that I will have had on my Mission. So that is exciting but what got me thinking was yeah I definitely want to still be involved with missionary work like this guy. But at the same time I thought....but it is not going to be the same. Being a GML in Germany and being a GML in Utah are definitely two different things. Once again the joy and blessings received from it are the same but it is nonetheless different, not sure how to describe it. There are just some things that I have right now that I do not really want to give up. For instance a silly one but something nonetheless is.....who am I gonna speak German with on a regular basis? And yes, yes I know there are some of you out there who can speak German to some extent, but we will see how long you will speak German with me before it seems like a chore. Haha I am just saying it is fun to speak a foreign language, and the minute I walk out the door there are thousands of opportunities to speak German with someone and getting to know random people and learning new words or expressions that are honestly completely different from English in general. That is one thing about German and probably many other languages as well but you can't just translate your English thoughts into German. You just have to speak it and think in that way. Think like a German! I don't know, like recently I have just been having fun talking to some of the university students here in Weimar. Yeah because there are a lot of international students you run into those people who have much better English than German so you are forced to speak in English but still just the other day we were talking to this lady from Taiwan who has been here the past 4 years getting her Bachelor at the Bauhaus University. It was just fun talking to her and she was really cool and had interest of course! But naturally she left today to go back to Taiwan until August....boo! Or even days before that we ended up having a long conversation with this lady from Cambodia who has been here for the past year. Yes I am talking to people from Cambodia in Germany, weird right? When people actually let you have a conversation with them it is really fun to speak German. Not so fun when you walk around all day saying the same things just trying to start a conversation.

 

At the beginning of this letter I think I was going somewhere with it but I think I lost whatever it was somewhere in the middle of my quatsch (hehe German). Anyways the work is still going pretty slow in this area, although out of the now six missionaries in the Erfurt Ward, we had 13 investigators at church, and actually had 3 baptisms on Saturday. So generally missionary work in this region isn't too bad, not bad at all, but in Weimar it is slowly making its way back up with the possibility that I just leave next week anways haha. We actually found a guy named Fady this last week who is from Egypt. He seems to have a lot of potential, and has actually been going to random catholic and evangelisch churches in the area because he is orthodox and there aren't any orthodox churches in the area. So there is definitely some hope there. It is always about finding those people who are looking for truth or at least willing to look for it. And since we have the truth, I know they will find it, that is if they want the truth and not their own version of the truth. But that leads onto a whole different topic that I don't feel like talking about right now. And it suffice me to say that once a upon a personal study time. I was annoyed by J-Dubs and decided to prepare for future bible warfare. Haha and actually in my quest to disprove the J-Dubs in every possible way, I ended up actually finding a lot of things pertaining to the Holy Ghost itself and Prayer and many of the other basic Gospel principles that we probably more often than not take for granted. This study time actually turned into something that was good for everyone including myself. Maybe some other day I will discuss my latest scriptural opus. Lest they fall upon philistine ears. haha only joking.

 

Well this week's letter was not very informative. But I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless. I hope you are enjoying the warm weather as much as I am or that it is also warm wherever you are. I hope you have a nice week and of course I love you all.

 

Schöne Grüße von der Gemeinde Erfurt

und

Tschüss,

Elder Foster 

Ach ja! Hallo hallo herzlichen willkommen zu dem wöchentlichen Brief von Elder Foster. Ich hoffe dass ihr eine angenehme Zeit habt!

As always constantly at a loss of words right before I begin writing these things which is never good because the time only continues to tick by while the screen continues to stay blank and white. Well, I guess I can start as usual with a little update of what may be coming in the possible future for me and for the City of Weimar so as far as I am concerned and also according to a few sources. I will not be in Weimar after these next two weeks. And will most likely be sent to Erfurt with and be with either the Elder that is already in Erfurt or serve there with an Elder that will be coming up from Gotha, who of which I have already served with before. Of course the now newly created Erfurt ward would love to keep all the current missionaries and even give me a car so that not only can I stay in Erfurt but I can also visit the Weimar area. However nothing is 100 percent sure as always, although it seems so far that my assumptions on the Mission have been correct so far. What I think will happen is that I will be sent to Erfurt without a car and just become an Erfurt missionary; my wishful thinking would be that I also got a car but I don't know. Even more wishful thinking is that they actually closed down a missionary program in Marzahn, which is an area in Berlin, in order to send missionaries down here but because we are closing about three areas down here that leaves a little bit more room. So what I am saying is that I would gladly go open up that program given the chance. But that is just my wishful thinking, although Erfurt is also highly favourable.  

It is really quite interesting to be in a big ward again. And actually the members there that came out of my branch in Weimar are trying to get used to it even more so than I. I mean the moment I came into Bremerhaven and Weimar, you immediately begin the process of absorbing yourself into a family. But now sitting in the chairs in Erfurt with all the members, albeit being the first time, you get the sense of whoa I don't even recognize half of these faces. It reminds me of back when I was in the singles ward in Murray. And even after almost being a year in the ward, somebody came up to me and asked if I was new in the ward and then after telling them that I had been there almost a year and even establishing the fact that I had been there longer than them. They continued to say "oh wow well I can't say I have ever seen you around before." And I find that sad to be honest. There is certainly something special about being a missionary and being invited into people’s homes whether it be simply for a meal or for a lesson. It is always a pleasure to be able to feel the Spirit in someone else's home or to invite the spirit into a home that has been missing it. I am also getting the Impression that it is hard to truly say you know someone until you have been in there own home and interacted with them in some manner. I truly hope that I will still have chances in the future after my Mission to interact with people on such levels to truly get to know and love the people within my ward. 

Something that has really been coming up recently during my time here in Weimar is truly the wealth of potential that I see in the people that I talk to out here. However, it always ends abruptly with a casual no thanks. How do I reach the hearts of these people?! This whole entire last week I talked to people who were so sweet and kind and even agreed with what I had to say and where even flattered when I expressed the reason why we wanted to share this with them but then ends in no although it is probably some of the most polite no's. I guess it is better than what happened to me earlier this week when we were doing a little bit of doors before a lesson and while we were having a very nice conversation with a lady and even setting up an appointment for sometime later. When her neighbor coming up the stairs of the apartment building after recognizing who were began to tell us to leave immediately right in the middle of our conversation with this lady. And then continued to get louder and ruder, and beginning to call us trash and a cult while continuing to point down the stairs and yell at us to leave in a not so nice way. The lady tried to stand up for us but to no avail because the guy eventually lost his Patience because we had not moved up to that point and began to try and grab onto me and physically remove me from the apartment. No worries though I kept cool and told him that we would leave and even politely told the lady it was nice meeting here and to have a nice day. As we walked down the stairs we could still hear the lady backing us up and honestly herself too as well. Truly it is unfortunate to have people call us such things and treat us in such ways and believe that we are such bad people and then turn around behave like that, only proving that they themselves  are contradictory. Other than him this week was mostly meeting lots of nice people who just didn't have interest to listen. I wish I had the time to go into more detail about all the different people I have met these past couple weeks.  

Anyways I am out of time again. And unfortunately I don't have any method to upload pictures on this library computer so it is yet another week without any pictures to send to you guys. But I love y'all and I hope you have a nice week. 

Tschüss,

Elder Foster