Tanner has been out 2 whole weeks. I can't believe it. We just got his letter and I have to say that I am so proud of him. He has done and learned so much his first few weeks. I am so excited he was called to be the Zone Leader. That says a lot about how well he is doing. Also, I am super excited he gets to be a host missionary. That is so cool!
January 31st 2017
Hello my wonderful fam!
Mom, Dad, Abby, Brandon, and Parker and all my other family members who may be reading this!
Wow I have missed you all so much! Sounds like you are all doing great! It is always so exciting to read your emails and hear what has been going on throughout the week! I have been thinking of you all alot since I have been here and wondering what you were all doing at any specific time during the day! I would be sitting in class on a Saturday and wonder, "Hey! they are probably sitting down for dinner right about now!", or "Hey! I wonder if they are watching a movie or playing board games?" Our district has sacrament meeting that starts at 1:00 so I'm always thinking: "Hey, they are doing the same thing I am right now!" I always think of stuff like that! I cannot believe how fast this week has flown by! I am so happy to be able to email again and tell you all that has been going on here in the MTC! First of all, Thank you all so much for the awesome emails, letters, packages, treats, and prayers! It has been so fun to go back and read all the letters and emails you have sent while I have been here! You have all been such a blessing not only in my life but while I have been out here! I can't thank you all enough for how much love and prayers I have felt so far! ...And I've only been out here 2 weeks! I loved eating all the delicious treats you sent while reading your letters and emails! It is so fun to go get a package or get a dear elder letter! I have been so blessed by all of you and can't thank you enough!! All the members in my district were so jealous about all of my treats! I have felt the love and support of an army of family behind me each and every day! Thank you all so much!
Wow! What a great week! A lot of cool and exciting events have happened that has really helped me love serving even more! I'm not sure where to start because a lot of cool things have happened! This week we have had "investigators" to teach which we meet with every other day. They are usually students at BYU that are hired by the MTC to pretend to be non-members. They are usually really convincing so it makes the situation seem a lot more real! We practiced teaching on a 68 year old named Dennis Everett and a 21 year old named Guilhermé de Souza from Brazil trying to learn English! They are both so nice and fun to talk to! All of these investigators that the MTC hires are members of the church but they usually try to pretend like someone they know or what they used to act like before they were members. So it has been pretty fun to get to know them and it gives us good practice on talking to people about the Gospel! We got brand new investigators that we will be teaching all this week and they look really nice as well! On Wednesday, we got an announcement that there was a worldwide missionary devotional! All classes were canceled due to this devotional, so everyone was wondering what they were going to tell us! For the first hour and a half, they taught us how to teach by the spirit more. And then they made changes to our daily missionary schedule! They said that effective immediately, all missionaries may return to their dorms at 9:00 instead of 9:30! They normally announce lights out at 10:30 but they said we could go to bed in between 9:30-10:30! So we get an extra hour of sleep if we want to! Which has been very nice so far! A few days ago our whole district got an email from Elder Barney (the Elder that had to go home due to sickness.) said that he went in for x-rays and had a camera put into his stomach and they found a few ulcers and some broken blood vessels. The doctor told him that they were all caused by stress and too much anxiety. Poor guy! We all felt so bad for him but he was in good spirits from what he said in his email. He has surgery a couple of days ago and we haven't heard from him since, but I'm sure he is doing just fine!
OK, now on to some exciting news!! Right after doing one of these mock teaching lessons we went back to our classroom to do some personal studying, and the Branch President told my companion and I to come to his office! We had no idea what he was about to tell us! He called my companion and I to be the next ZONE LEADERS! We were so thrilled! So, we are in charge of all the districts in our zone! The older Elders left this morning and so effective today we are the new zone leaders! So we are in charge of taking care of the new missionaries that came in last Wednesday and the new missionaries that come tomorrow as well as the sister missionaries! It is a real honor because I now how much I looked up to our zone leaders when I first got here! So I hope for the short amount of time we have left, I can help the new missionaries with whatever they need! I sent a picture of our first zone leaders in my email last week! So we are very excited for this opportunity! We will be in charge of blessing the sacrament and organizing speakers, topics, Elders quorum lessons, and music. So it should be a great experience! He said he was impressed with how friendly I was to the new missionaries and those around me and so they wanted to get us into a leadership position as soon as the older missionaries left! It will give us the chance to be leaders before we even get to the missionaries field!
This week has been really fun also because the new missionaries came in on Wednesday! I have really gotten to know them well because we wanted to make them feel welcome and make sure they were adjusting ok! There were 4 new elders that moved into our zone just down the hall from us! They are all going to the Knoxville Tennessee mission! Two of them are from Arizona but the other 2 are from Utah! Today our district said goodbye to some awesome missionaries as they head to the Kennewick Washington mission. (I have some pictures with them.) They have been such an inspiration to us all and have helped us build our testimonies even stronger! They have also been really funny and tried to make sure all the new elders felt welcome! There is an MTC ritual here in the building where our dorms are located! They have these 2 Nerf guns that get passed down from zone leaders to zone leaders! Pretty funny but we had some fun with them. It is obviously more of a joke than anything but still kind of fun! They had a duel and then dubbed us the new zone leaders! Being a zone leaders also has another perk! We get a cell phone that can call the front desk.....and that's it!! We can't wait for the short but fun times ahead as we lead the zone! We sure are going to miss Elder Christiansen, Mortensen, Havea, and Johnson!
I have been doing great this week but I am still missing you all very much! But that is to be expected since I haven't been away from home much! I have been learning so much more about this great Gospel! I have made so many new friends and have enjoyed playing basketball with all the Elders! Our branch presidency is amazing! I have become really good friends with them all! They and their wives do a great job of making everyone feel like they can be the best missionaries ever! This week we have been doing mostly classroom study but we do have excersise time every day which has been so nice! In class we have been learning how to teach the first 3 lessons in Preach my Gospel! When I get home I can recite the whole Preach my Gospel to you, because we have been getting to know it really well! On Sunday we all got to go on a Temple walk again which this time was much better because it wasn't a blizzard! I love going on these temple walks because we can get out of the classroom for a while and sit peacefully as you look out over at the mountains! I have been loving the devotionals that they have on Sunday and Tuesday nights as well! We've had a member of the presiding bishopric, director of MTC operations speak but still no apostle! I really want Jeffery R. Holland or Russell M. Nelson to show up one of these times!
I CANNOT believe I am saying this but this is my last week in the MTC! Time has been flying by! I have made so many friends and learned so much in just a few short weeks! Something pretty cool that I found out at one of the devotionals is that Donnie Osmond's son is here at the MTC right now! Then while we were playing basketball I got to meet him! It's funny how much he looks like Donnie Osmond...only the 18 years old version!
Our district has been working really well together and have loved getting to know each other better! But, two of the sisters have been dealing with depression and some health problems. Which has been sad because they have thought on multiple occasions about going home and one of them is headed to the New York, New York North mission. They've had to leave the classroom every 10-15 minutes to go compose themselves and take a break. All the other sister missionaries have been very helpful to make sure that they are OK but they have needed many blessings to keep them out here. I am sad that none of the Elders that I've gotten to know so well won't be coming with me to New York, but I will make many new friends in a few short days when I get there!
I am so excited to say that our entire district was chosen to be Missionary Hosts to the new missionaries tomorrow! I have been looking forward to it very much since last Thursday when I found out! I will get to welcome 3 new missionaries to the MTC and help them with their luggage and take them through the line to get their name tag, room key, etc! I was telling Mom and Dad that being a missionary host would be so cool and now I get to do it! Since my companion and I are zone leaders, we are in charge of organizing a tour for all the new missionaries that come into our zone at the end of the day! I have kept in touch and become pretty good friends with the Elder that took my luggage! I told him a few days ago that it was so nice of him to let us all get out of the car and take a picture! I know we all appreciated it very much! He told me that when he was dropped off, the missionary just took his luggage and wasn't very friendly. So he was motivated to be a great host! I can't wait! It will be so cool! I was so excited when the Branch President told me and my companion to go tell the whole branch that we got to do it!
Onto some more exciting news! Everyone in our district has been waiting patiently for a while now for our travel information! At lunch on Friday our district leader went and got mail and we finally got our travel info!! When he walked into the lunchroom our district started cheering! I can't believe that I am less than a week away from flying out! I will fly out on Monday February 6th and I will be flying Delta Airlines! I need to be at the MTC travel desk at 3:30 AM!!! No, that's not a typo, 3:30 in the morning! Hopefully I can pack quickly on Sunday so I can have a nap because the only thing I have going on that day is church! I will be so excited so I probably won't get any sleep! We have the 2 Sisters missionaries that are going to the New York, New York North mission and 1 other elder who I have never met before named Elder Lee is going to the same mission! So I'm excited to meet him! Then we have a sister in our district going to the Trinidad Port of Spain mission and my companion going to California Los Angeles mission leaving that same day from our district! So there will be 5 of us from our district leaving on Monday and then the other 6 will all be leaving Tuesday for the West Virginia Charleston mission! So there will be 4 of us going to the New York, New York North mission together! Here is some more information about my flight! I will get to the airport at about 5:00-6:30 and my flight takes off at 7:29! It's flight 1286. Then we will fly to......wait for it!........ the Detroit Metro Airport! As Ella would say... "Scary!" But, I'm really excited to be in Detroit for an hour or two! Then I will catch flight 3702 at 2:15 then we will fly to the Westchester County New York international airport! Which is about 40 miles away from New York City! We will arrive in New York at about 4:00 (which I'm not sure if they factored in the time change?) So it could be 2:00 our time! The airport is pretty close to Scarsdale which is where the mission home is located! It is going to be such a cool experience to fly over New York and see where I will live and serve for the next 2 years! I'm so excited for you to watch me come off the plane! I really hope Sister Smith follows through with recording it!
I CANNOT believe I am saying this but this is my last week in the MTC! Time has been flying by! I have made so many friends and learned so much in just a few short weeks! Something pretty cool that I found out at one of the devotionals is that Donnie Osmond's son is here at the MTC right now! Then while we were playing basketball I got to meet him! It's funny how much he looks like Donnie Osmond...only the 18 years old version!
Our district has been working really well together and have loved getting to know each other better! But, two of the sisters have been dealing with depression and some health problems. Which has been sad because they have thought on multiple occasions about going home and one of them is headed to the New York, New York North mission. They've had to leave the classroom every 10-15 minutes to go compose themselves and take a break. All the other sister missionaries have been very helpful to make sure that they are OK but they have needed many blessings to keep them out here. I am sad that none of the Elders that I've gotten to know so well won't be coming with me to New York, but I will make many new friends in a few short days when I get there!
I am so excited to say that our entire district was chosen to be Missionary Hosts to the new missionaries tomorrow! I have been looking forward to it very much since last Thursday when I found out! I will get to welcome 3 new missionaries to the MTC and help them with their luggage and take them through the line to get their name tag, room key, etc! I was telling Mom and Dad that being a missionary host would be so cool and now I get to do it! Since my companion and I are zone leaders, we are in charge of organizing a tour for all the new missionaries that come into our zone at the end of the day! I have kept in touch and become pretty good friends with the Elder that took my luggage! I told him a few days ago that it was so nice of him to let us all get out of the car and take a picture! I know we all appreciated it very much! He told me that when he was dropped off, the missionary just took his luggage and wasn't very friendly. So he was motivated to be a great host! I can't wait! It will be so cool! I was so excited when the Branch President told me and my companion to go tell the whole branch that we got to do it!
Onto some more exciting news! Everyone in our district has been waiting patiently for a while now for our travel information! At lunch on Friday our district leader went and got mail and we finally got our travel info!! When he walked into the lunchroom our district started cheering! I can't believe that I am less than a week away from flying out! I will fly out on Monday February 6th and I will be flying Delta Airlines! I need to be at the MTC travel desk at 3:30 AM!!! No, that's not a typo, 3:30 in the morning! Hopefully I can pack quickly on Sunday so I can have a nap because the only thing I have going on that day is church! I will be so excited so I probably won't get any sleep! We have the 2 Sisters missionaries that are going to the New York, New York North mission and 1 other elder who I have never met before named Elder Lee is going to the same mission! So I'm excited to meet him! Then we have a sister in our district going to the Trinidad Port of Spain mission and my companion going to California Los Angeles mission leaving that same day from our district! So there will be 5 of us from our district leaving on Monday and then the other 6 will all be leaving Tuesday for the West Virginia Charleston mission! So there will be 4 of us going to the New York, New York North mission together! Here is some more information about my flight! I will get to the airport at about 5:00-6:30 and my flight takes off at 7:29! It's flight 1286. Then we will fly to......wait for it!........ the Detroit Metro Airport! As Ella would say... "Scary!" But, I'm really excited to be in Detroit for an hour or two! Then I will catch flight 3702 at 2:15 then we will fly to the Westchester County New York international airport! Which is about 40 miles away from New York City! We will arrive in New York at about 4:00 (which I'm not sure if they factored in the time change?) So it could be 2:00 our time! The airport is pretty close to Scarsdale which is where the mission home is located! It is going to be such a cool experience to fly over New York and see where I will live and serve for the next 2 years! I'm so excited for you to watch me come off the plane! I really hope Sister Smith follows through with recording it!
I also have some awesome and exciting news about the day I fly out as well! ........THERE IS A CHANCE I GET TO CALL YOU!!!! They told us that we might be able to call home before we take off to let you know how I am doing! How cool is that?! The only problem is that it will be very early in the morning by the time I get to the airport! But I am so excited if I can actually call you! If I did get the chance to call you it would be somewhere in between 5:00-7:30 AM! I know that's a big gap but we will probably get there at 5 and then I'm not sure when I will be able to get to a phone but I'm so excited to hear a familiar voice! I'm so excited to fly, I really hope I get a window seat so I can see the beautiful New York skyline and the Statue of Liberty! Also, I found out yesterday that I get to email you Sunday night right before we pack up!! I can't wait for the rest of this week!
Well I wish I could talk longer but I used up the hour they give us to email! It has been so much fun to email you and let you know what's going on here in the MTC! I can't wait for this week because I have a lot to look forward to! I will say goodbye to many friends here at the MTC but I can't wait to make new ones in New York! I can't thank you all enough for everything you have done and the love and support you have given me! I really appreciate everyone and everything they've done to make sure my mission experience is a great one! I have loved and cherished all the letters and packages that you have all put together! It has made my MTC experience that much better! My time here at the MTC has gone by in the blink of an eye but I have learned so much and made so many friends during this short time! I feel like I was just saying goodbye to you all but I blinked and now I'm almost 2 weeks in! I have truly felt everyone's prayers! They have given me so much strength so I can be able to complete the work I have been called to do! I was telling everyone in our zone that not only do we have Jesus Christ's name on our name tags, but an army of family and friends written on it as well because it takes all those people to get a missionary out! I look forward so much to the many memories that I will make while I travel to New York and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those good people! I can't wait to tell you about all the many experiences that I will have! I love you all so much and I am thinking and praying about you and your safety every day! I hope you have a great week! Love you all so much!
~Elder Lindberg
P.S: If anyone can't access the pictures or have any questions about them (who they are? etc.) Let me know and I would be glad to help
Here is another email that he sent just to our family. As you can tell we like nicknames in our family!
Hello Nibley Lindberg Fam!!! Another P-Day has come upon us! I love writing to each and every one of you! I just want you all to know that I have felt your prayers! I just got thinking yesterday that I have not had one headache (knock on wood!) since I have been here! Or I haven't been sick or injured! I know it's because of your prayers!
Well I wish I could talk longer but I used up the hour they give us to email! It has been so much fun to email you and let you know what's going on here in the MTC! I can't wait for this week because I have a lot to look forward to! I will say goodbye to many friends here at the MTC but I can't wait to make new ones in New York! I can't thank you all enough for everything you have done and the love and support you have given me! I really appreciate everyone and everything they've done to make sure my mission experience is a great one! I have loved and cherished all the letters and packages that you have all put together! It has made my MTC experience that much better! My time here at the MTC has gone by in the blink of an eye but I have learned so much and made so many friends during this short time! I feel like I was just saying goodbye to you all but I blinked and now I'm almost 2 weeks in! I have truly felt everyone's prayers! They have given me so much strength so I can be able to complete the work I have been called to do! I was telling everyone in our zone that not only do we have Jesus Christ's name on our name tags, but an army of family and friends written on it as well because it takes all those people to get a missionary out! I look forward so much to the many memories that I will make while I travel to New York and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those good people! I can't wait to tell you about all the many experiences that I will have! I love you all so much and I am thinking and praying about you and your safety every day! I hope you have a great week! Love you all so much!
~Elder Lindberg
P.S: If anyone can't access the pictures or have any questions about them (who they are? etc.) Let me know and I would be glad to help
Here is another email that he sent just to our family. As you can tell we like nicknames in our family!
Hello Nibley Lindberg Fam!!! Another P-Day has come upon us! I love writing to each and every one of you! I just want you all to know that I have felt your prayers! I just got thinking yesterday that I have not had one headache (knock on wood!) since I have been here! Or I haven't been sick or injured! I know it's because of your prayers!
~(PARKER): Hey Puck! Wow I have missed you so much! I loved reading your sweet email you wrote to me! Sounds like you have had so much fun this week going to Article Circle and Old Grist Mill! That sounds so yummy bud! This week has been so awesome and I have been doing great! I'm so glad you got to play your recorder in school! That is so cool! Too bad the Saints aren't in the Super Bowl so you could play it during the game! Sounds like the Jazz are having a great season! I feel really bad that your stomach has been hurting so much! I really hope you get better soon! That is so not fun! I hope you have so much fun watching the Super Bowl on Sunday and I hope you have the biggest party EVER! I really can't decide who I want to win! It will be really weird not to watch it but I know you will cheer extra loud! I love you so much and I miss you so much! Love you Puck!
~(BRANDON): Hey Dubbie! Wow I have missed you so much! I loved reading your email you sent to me! I am so glad you had such a good week! I think it is really cool that you got to tour Utah State and eat Aggie ice cream! That is such a cool Tuesday night activity! I can't believe that you saw Matt Wells and Kent Myers bud! That is so cool! I'm so glad you got to watch a basketball game! Sounds like you had such a fun day! I hope you have a ton of fun watching the Super Bowl on Sunday and I hope you have the biggest party EVER! I kind of want the Falcons to win but (don't tell Parkie!) I love you so much and I miss you so much! Love you Dubbie!
~(ABBY): Hey Abbs! Wow I have missed you so much! I loved reading your email you sent to me! It sounds like you are having so much fun! I hope Ridgeline keeps on doing well, it sounds like they are having an incredible season! I'm so glad you have been able to go to so many games! That is so crazy to think that you are the only one in your whole class to have a sibling out on a mission! It is so crazy to think about! I just can't wait to get to New York...even though I have liked the MTC! Also, thank you so very much for thinking of writing me a letter! I loved everything you said! I was at lunch when it came and thought it was very nice of you to think to do that! I love you so much and I miss you so much! Love you Abbs!
~(DAD): Hey Ericy! Wow I have missed you so much! I'm so glad to hear that everyone has been doing good! I was so excited to read that you don't have to report into Kiran any more! That is great news! And I was really glad to hear that you will like your new boss! I'm so glad you had a safe flight home from Dallas and a safe flight to Arizona! You have been traveling all over the place! I hope you get to do something really fun while you are there! Thanks for taking blacky out for a spin! He misses all those drives to the Maveriks! They need to be visited at least 5-6 times a week! I hope you have been diligently visiting the lonely Maveriks! I have been emailing on my tablet while we wait for our laundry and then I get on a computer and finish my emails and then send my pictures. So it works out really well! The only thing I can think of that I forgot is a comb. I have been doing fine without it because my hair has been short enough not to comb it but I do get a haircut today since it is my last P-Day before I fly out! I can't help but think of your MTC experience and how much it has probably changed! Hope you have a huge Super Bowl party! Should be a great game! I love you so much and I miss you so much! Love you Dad!
~(MOM): Hey Weenay! Wow I have missed you so much! I loved reading your email and hearing about how everyone is doing! Thank you so much for the pictures of my luggage! I really hope I can pack it as well as you and Dad did! I just realized that I have been using shampoo, gel, cologne, and deodorant so my luggage should be a little lighter! Also, I did forget a comb as well! I am FIRED at packing! I cannot believe that you have gotten so much snow! I thought we were done! We had a ton when I left but another foot....that's crazy! I am so very glad that you get a long weekend! It will be really nice for ya! Hopefully you and Puck get to go out and eat! Thank you so much for being willing to send my big heavy boots and coat! It will save me in the long run! I am just so excited to get to New York! I have always wanted to go there and now I get to live there for two years! It will be so fun to meet President Smith and his wife. I can tell already I will get along with them really well! I love you so much and I miss you so much! Love you Mom!
Love you all so much! And have so much fun watching the Super Bowl! I maybe hear you cheering all the way from Nibley!
~Elder Lindberg
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