Guten Morgen, Tag, Abend!
Not sure whether the weeks are going by fast or whether they are going by slow. It is kind of a weird paradox to say the least. You will think to yourself whoa it is already Sunday and then at the same time you can't even remember what happened at the beginning of the week because it feels like it was so long ago already. You know the scriptures often speak of "the rest of the Lord." But I am here to tell you...that is a lie! Haha there is no such thing as rest. Even President Joseph F. Smith said,"The rest referred here is not physical rest, for there is no such thing as physical rest in the Church of Jesus Christ." However of course this rest does mean that we will be spiritually at rest and peace which come from settled conviction of the truth in our minds. And most certainly happy are they who have attained such. I say these things because that is what it has felt like for me while being on a mission. I feel a never-ending physical tiredness but at the same time I feel a limitless oppurtunity stirring inside me to become better and happier as time continually goes on.
Something that I have been doing a lot while I have been here in Germany is helping people to move in and out. I have already done it too many times to lose count or more like I have lost even the desire to remember them and then count them. It is funny too because you are never helping anyone out of the first floor of a building. It is always from the highest floor! And guess what there are barely any elevators in apartments in Germany. Haha it seems the members in Germany like to use missionaries as work horses sometimes. This is not an uncommon occurence for any other missionary in the mission. Even this week we went to a members new apartment, which is of course at the top of the building, and we helped them scrap off all of the wallpaper in the entire apartment. I don't say any of this to be begrudging or anything, I just think it is quite amusing sometimes in the ways the members decide to use the service of the missionaries.
So i have to tell you about one of our new investigators. His name is Friedrich and oh goodness he is one of the coolest guys if not the coolest guy I have met on my mission so far. Okay so a little background this isn't the first time that Friedrich has been taught by missionaries. And he himself is in his 70's. You might be thinking,"wait what, did he just say a guy in his seventies is the coolest person he has met on his mission?" Ya I did! It's kind of funny because he is the one who called us and wanted to meet with us. I guess I don't have a ton of time to say everything about him but basically he picked us up with one of our new converts and took us to a chinese buffet (so good) with him and his wife. We even said an opening and ending prayer out loud in the restauarant haha kind of funny. And basicall we talked to him about the gospel and ate really good food and got to know eachother. Then he paid for it all and took us back home in his car and took the joint teach/new convert that we brought along back home too. And he is just so goofy and hilarious. He even talked to us in English for about 80% of the time because he loves talking in English. When he speaks English he sounds British, which is funny because he is so German. Although I feel like he is collecting missionaries or something because he has a little book with missionaries names with their emails and addresses in it. Haha Times like those make you even more happy that you are on a mission because of all the great people you get to meet.
Something else that I have learned on my mission or at least that I am still in the middle of learning. Is lets say preparing for marriage in a way. Haha before you get any ideas let me explain. Learning to have to get a long with someone that you are around for 24 hours and did not choose to be with, definitely prepares you to get along with someone that you are going to be around for 24 hours whom you did choose to be with. Do we understand eachother? haha And it really makes you think about the kind of qualities you want in your future friends and wife. But in other news I went to Hamburg for the first time yesterday. To go see the Piano Guys, because all the missionaries were invited to go for free. That was pretty cool and the Piano Guys definitely have strong testimonies and had great things to say.
Another thing that has changed about me on my mission is my intrigue in the scriptures in general. Especially with the Bible right now at the moment. I mean I had read the Bible before but I never really took to it or I guess I wasn't reading/searching in it like I should have and I had always liked the Book of Mormon better. But man.....I have like 4 different bibles in German right now! Don't ask me why. Haha and I am even thinking about learning Hebrew just so I can read the Old Testament in its first form. All of this has to do with my growing curiousity in languages and how one thing is portrayed in one language to another. Fun and intriguing stuff though.
But anways thanks for reading these letters and hopefully they have entertaining and valuable insight of my life in them. I hope all is well back in the states or wherever you are at the moment. I pray as much for you guys as I do for myself. And for those that are curious it takes about 5-7 days for me to get a written letter if it is sent to my apartment. And it probably takes 3-4 weeks for me to get a package, even longer sometimes, just depends when we have the oppurtunity to get mail from the office. But yeah have a nice week everyone!
Tschüss,
Elder Foster
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