Moin moin moin!
Greetings from the windy north
coast of Germany! Or in other words Bremerhaven. So if you are wondering if
there is any snow yet where I am at. That would be a negative. It may not ever
snow if it keeps up at this rate. And honestly that is okay because then that
means it won't be that cold of a winter and remember I have to be outside for
most of the day. However that won't stop us from being blown nearly into the
streets by the strong gusts of wind that seem to always come around right when
we leave the apartment.
So of course as you all know
this last week we had New Years and you might be wondering what it is like to
be in Germany during what they call Sylvester. Honestly I can't really tell you
a whole lot about that because we were supposed to be in our apartment by 6pm
unless we were being dropped off by a member personally. But they certainly do
not have any kind of firework laws in Germany as far as I am concerned. It
seems like days before and after there was still kids running around and
chucking M80 firecrackers everywhere. And I thought it was like a war zone
sometimes in Utah when everyone set off their fireworks. Literally everybody is
out on the street lighting off fireworks of all kinds. And the next morning it
was like a ghost-town no city. And all you could smell was sulfur. And used
fireworks were strewn throughout the entire city. And believe me it was the
entire city because we had to run across the entire city in order to catch our
train on time because barely any of the buses where running and the one that
was supposed to be there didn't show up. Haha so it is safe to say that I had
an interesting New Year’s. I mean it was certainly a nicer feeling this time
around when I realized where I was and where I am now in my life at the end of
the year. Last year feels like an eternity away and like I was a completely
different person. Although of course outwardly probably not that much has
changed at first glance. But inwardly I am certainly different…more at peace
maybe or maybe just a tinge of true freedom for the first time in my life in a
long time. When you put yourself in the hands of the Lord, you will achieve and
become much more than you ever thought that you could before. In fact the thing
that becomes scary is the fact that your potential almost seems limitless and
that your only fear is that you won't ever reach the full potential that you
have.
It is never a great feeling
when I am unsure of what to say. It either means that not much new has happened
or that I am forgetting everything ever so quickly. Doing work in Bremerhaven
is quite a bit different than doing work in Hannover. Here we do a lot of doors
because that is unfortunately where you are going to get a hold of a lot of
people. Because if you are directly in the heart of the city, you will talk to
one person and then the next 50 people will not talk to you. Or even worse
everyone thinks you are a J-Dub (Jehovah’s Witness), the utter bane of every
missionary’s life in Germany. I am not entirely sure why there are so many in
Germany. So yes a lot of what we do is knocking on doors. And Germans do not
like that very much. And what is weird is that there are a ton of German houses
where the front door of the house is actually on the back of the
house...weird...so you really do feel like you are trespassing because you have
to go through their entire yard and see into their entire house before you even
ring the door bell. And then usually one of three things happens most of the
time. People will say no before you finish saying anything. They will say I
have no interest. Or they will say that they have no time. And then every once
in a while people will be rude and call you a cult or what not. Or I am even
surprised by some of the nicest rejections I have ever heard. Haha and I know I
know sometimes my letters may seem kind of negative sometimes. But I don't mean
it that way; I am just trying to share a little bit of the experience. Right
now it is hard but even then I am glad to be where I am and not a minute that I
have spent here whether I am teaching or baptizing or neither; it is not a
minute wasted.
In various times, the Lord has
chosen and trained men and women for the completion of his great purposes. Many
of these examples can be seen within the scriptures. I believe that Heavenly
Father has something of the like in his designs for me and for everyone else.
Although, they may not be in the categories that we wish to be in so if there
is anything that I wish to leave with you at the beginning of this year it is
this. How great it is that we live in a way that the Spirit of the Lord may
dwell in us and the Holy Ghost may speak through us; So that we can bring to
pass these wonderful designs of the Lord for ourselves and for others. It is
not beyond our capacity. Our lives won't always be determined by great awesome
decisions. However our greatness is truly set by the little day to day choices
which we make whilst on the track of life. I only hope that I too can always
live in such a way.
Tschüss
Elder Foster
No comments:
Post a Comment