Hello my dear family! Wow! What an amazing email! Thank you so much for the pictures and email! You always include so many details about everything! I loved hearing about your awesome week and everything that happened! Sounds like you all kept busy and had so much fun as well! So glad to hear you are all doing great! I loved reading every word as usual! First of all, I have been doing great! I think about you all every day and pray for you and all the you do! I have seriously felt so many prayers! I am always so motivated and I find myself always ready to do the work! I know it is because of you and all your love and support! I smile every day because I know you are right behind me!
I was re-reading some of your amazing emails and it was so fun to go back and read everything! I was reading your first email and Puck said: "Can't wait to video chat on May 14th!" Then I got thinking how fast that is coming up! Then I realized that general conference is even closer! I can't even describe how excited I am to Skype you all on Mother's Day! Before I left, Dad told me that once you make it to general conference and start hitting those milestones, time really starts to fly! I feel like time is really flying by already! We are already talking about general conference and how much fun it will be! It will be cool to think that you are watching it at the same time!
First of all, shout out to Abby and Brandon: Happy Birthday! I was thinking about you Abby all day! I really loved looking at all the cool pictures Mom and Dad took! I really wish I could have been there because it looked like a blast! I loved all the pictures! I will be thinking about Dubbie all day as well! I hope you have an incredible day buddie! I love and miss so much the everyday events like birthdays, holidays, making dinners with Mom, drink runs with Dad, Mom, and Abby, playing football in the backyard with Dubbie and Puck, and so much more that I miss, but having all these amazing pictures really helps me feel right at home! So thank you! Even though I can't be there, I will always be thinking of you and all the fun stuff you are doing and just the everyday events like work, school, scouts, sports, church, and mutual! You are always in my prayers! I was reading a conference talk the other day and it asked the question: "What do you treasure and enjoy most in life??" I could only think of one thing: FAMILY! I treasure you all more than anything in life! You are such an amazing family and I know that families are such an important element to Heavenly Father's plan! I have been so blessed to have such an amazing and supportive family that is always there for me! I miss you all so much each and every day! I really miss spending time with you all and seeing you every day! Elder Kirkham and I have been teaching lots of Plan of Salvation lessons. We talk about how much this Gospel is centered around families and how our families bring us so much joy!
This week has been awesome! I continue to learn so much from Elder Kirkham and the other companionship that is in our apartment! They always teach me so much! Elder Kirkham has been in this area for just under 4 months. He really enjoys this area a lot! I will have him as my trainer for at least 12 weeks because we have a training program that lasts 12 weeks and so I will at least have him for that long. We actually will get trainer calls on Wednesday and then transfer calls this coming Saturday! I can't believe I've been here this long already! I have been thinking a lot about Dad and all the cool mission experiences you had! I loved looking through his scrapbook of his mission right before I left and now I am experiencing the same things! I know it has blessed your life and I know it will bless mine for years to come!
My monthly funds have been really good! Luckily I have been taught well by you and I budget everything out so I have enough. At the beginning of the month, we get $351.50 put into our cards. Which is a lot! But then we are responsible for getting our monthly "MetroCards" which we can use an unlimited amount of times to ride busses, trains, and subways! So we go buy that for $116.50 and then the rest is ours for groceries and laundry. It has been really nice! Something cool also is that the funds transfer over at the end of each month. The last two months I have had $30.00 taken out each time for bedding. So I actually didn't have to spend my cash that I brought!
WOW! What can I say about last P-Day other than it was INCREDIBLE! It was so amazing!! I wanted to tell you a little bit more about it because I didn't have much time to email after we got to our apartment because we had an appointment right after. So now I can go into more detail about everything! Elder Kirkham's first area was actually Manhattan South so he knew the city like the back of his hand! He knew right where we were amd knew exactly which subway would drop up off right by the One World Trade Center! So first Elder Smiley, who is in our apartment and also our district leader, said that there is a really cool museum called the Museum of the City of New York and we had to go because it is so amazing! So we took the train from our apartment to Central Park! It dropped us off right in front of the Central Park entrance which was awesome! It was so cool because there have been so many movie scenes in Central Park and it is such an icon! It was amazing to think of all the movies that have been filmed there but the 2 that I thought of right off the bat were: Home Alone: Lost in New York and Elf. Elder Bradley told us that he has actually been to the coffee shop where they filmed Friends! I immediately thought of you, Mom and Dad, when he told me that! He said it was just up the street from where we were but it was out of our way to go to it but I really wanted to get a picture of it for you! The New York Museum is right next to Central Park so we headed inside and it was really amazing! Most of the museums in New York are free but donations are recommended so we all just donated $1.00. This museum had so many amazing things to look at! First we walked through the main museum and it had interactive screens that told us how New York came to be and some of the major people and events from New York! They had different artifacts from New York as well! The first half of last week's pictures were from this museum. The artifact that I thought was the most amazing was a shoe that was actually worn to George Washington's Inauguration Ball! It was so amazing! And then we headed into a video that they play every once in a while called "Timescapes." It goes through each period of New York and the major events that took place. It started at 1600 and went all the way up to present day! They showed all of the incredible technology that goes into building skyscrapers and subways stations. It was so cool! Elder Bradley and Elder Smiley really wanted to go to the 9/11 museum but they didn't have much personal money to spend so they decided not to go with us. We split up after the New York Museum and Elder Smiley and Elder Bradley went to the Natural History Museum! (The exact one from Night at the Museum!) So we said goodbye to them after we ate some lunch and we headed for the subway to the One World Trade Center! I was so excited and couldn't wait to see everything! The subway ride was really cool because it stopped at Grand Central Station! When we got off the subway and walked up the stairs... there was NEW YORK CITY! It is so incredible to see these huge buildings all over the place! I have never seen such tall buildings before! Elder Kirkham has been to the 9/11 fountains a few times because this was his first area and he said that he has never had the chance to go to the 9/11 museum but he has really wanted to. We first went to the fountains where the original Twin Towers were built and they were so amazing! One thing that I noticed was even though we were in the middle of New York City, it was was very quiet and peaceful. Everyone was just quietly looking and listening to the fountains. The fountains are huge because they are the exact same size and the World Trade Center building. They have all the names of the people who passed away engraved into the granite. It was a really cool experience all in itself but we still had the incredible museum that was right behind us!
After we spent about 20 minutes at the 2 fountains, we bought our tickets and headed inside to the Museum! I couldn't wait! Like Mom said in her last email, I have always wanted to go there so much and now I was here! Right when you walk in they have airport style security. Then after security you walk into the main museum and right off the bat there is the huge section of steel from the actual World Trade Center. Then they have the information desk where I got a map. They have a guided tour for $20.00 but we wanted to spend as much time at certain exhibits as we could so we paid the extra $4.00 and both he general admission. It was well worth it! They have the whole museum layed out in a big time line with different videos and artifacts. When you first walk into the tour there are audio recording of phone calls and accounts of what happened on September 11th 2001. It was such a sad time in history! It was so cool because it started off with a picture that was taken on the morning of September 11th at about 8:30 and they had these plaques all over that described everything. After that there is a big room with all the news reports playing and TONS of artifacts! They saved so much stuff from the cleanup. They actually had seat belts and a section of the plane's window. It was crazy to think how much this event has impacted everyone. Some of the sections of the museum we were not allowed to take pictures because they had artifacts that were donated by the family of the people who passed away. So I couldn't take pictures of some of those exhibits. It was very quiet throughout the museum as well. Everyone just quietly looked and listened to everything that was around them because it was breathtaking just to have artifacts from the event itself! They had so many amazing things like newspapers from the next day, the actual fire truck who responded first to the towers, an actual window that was on the bottom of the building that didn't break, and lots of personal items! It was all so amazing but sad at the same time! This museum was huge! It was really cool also because there is a flight of stairs that takes you down to the original foundation of the towers and right next to the stairs there is actually stairs that survivors used to exit the towers. We actually had to hurry through the last little bit of the museum because we had to be back to our apartment by 6:00. So we left at about 5:15. We both had such and fun time, it was incredible! After we got done looking at everything we went to the awesome gift shop that they have! I bought an awesome keychain that says "Remember September 11th 2001" Then I got some really amazing post cards of pictures of the World Trade Center. It was all so amazing!
This week has been great! We have taught a lot of investigators and seen a lot of growth in their testimonies. This week we have actually gone on two splits! Dad, you asked me a few emails ago if I had been on any splits yet. We split within our apartment about 2 weeks ago but I finally got to split with our zone leaders! Our zone leaders are really awesome! Their names are Elder Castro and Elder McLellan. They are both very good teachers and always have good input on how to be a better missionary. So on Tuesday evening, Elder Kirkham went with Elder McLellan to their apartment and Elder Castro came to our apartment! I had only talked with Elder Castro at district meeting so it was nice to get to know him more! Since I was staying in my own area, I had to take the lead in planning and traveling to our appointments. I wasn't sure if I knew which busses to get on....because there are a lot of them! But neither of us got lost so I guess it was a successful day! We did everything that Elder Kirkham and I planned out at the beginning of the day but the next morning, I got to plan out our day and make sure everyone knew we were coming. It was a great experience to take the lead in our area! On Tuesday before Elder Kirkham and I split, we went over to Wanda's house to drop off some cookies that we made for them because her Granddaughters really like having us come over! We haven't been able to sit down and teach them the first lesson because we are not allowed to come inside unless there is a third male. So we are trying to get Elder Coleman, who is one of the Senior couple missionaries, to come over so we can teach them a formal lesson! We have just been able to talk with her at the door. We have loved getting to know them more! She has a 9 year old Granddaughter named Alana, 8 year old named Kayla and a 5 year old named Faith. They are all really nice and they LOVE having us over! Usually kids are really shy but her 3 Grandkids are really talkative! Her oldest Granddaughter who is 9 reminds me so much of Puck because she is in 4th grade and was telling me all about school so it made me think of Puck! I told her that I had a brother the same age and she thought that was really cool! After our visit we headed back to the apartment. By the end of each day we are all beat! It just let's us that we are working hard!
At about 2:00 on Wednesday, we met up at the church and split back. We found out on Sunday that we would be having interviews with President Smith on Wednesday so I was really excited to have some one on one time with him! So after we unsplit, we headed over to the church and had our interviews with President Smith! He asked me how I was doing and then said: "This is your interview so ask me whatever you would like" We talked about our investigators and how I was getting along with Elder Kirkham. I was so pleased to tell him that we get along great and we enjoy working together! He really likes to have these interviews! They aren't really interviews, he just likes to talk with us and see how all of his missionaries are doing. It would take him a really long time to get through us all! It was a great experience!
Thursday was great as well! We have been doing a lot of splits within our district so we can teach with other missionaries which has been nice because I have seen many different teaching styles which has helped me a ton! So on Thursday, we split again with the other companionship in our apartment. So, I went with Elder Smiley and Elder Kirkham went with Elder Bradley. Elder Smiley is our district leader and so I learned a lot from him! We split right after dinner and then went to a teaching appointment. It was really fun to go to a different area and see even more of the Bronx! Splits within our apartment are really nice because we don't have to pack anything. We are just with another companion for a day! We went to an appointment to a really nice couple named Freddie and Carla. Elder Smiley and Elder Bradley have only met with them once and so we taught them the 2nd lesson, The Plan of Salvation, and they lived it! Freddie was actually a memeber and was baptized at age 8 but hasn't come to church for a while. He is 49 now and really wants to start going back to church! Elder Smiley told me that they can't find his baptismal record anywhere so he may have to get rebaptized into the church. He understood everything we taught because he grew up with the Gospel in his life and he told us that it has blessed his life so much but if you stop going to church then it makes it really hard to receive those blessings! As we were teaching, we could both see that everything was starting to come back to him and he was remembering how much the Gospel has blessed his life! It was such a neat experience! Then for the rest of the evening we looked people up in their area book that haven't been visited in a while. It was a great day!
On Friday, we went all over their area and knocked on TONS of doors and tried to set up some appointments. It was fun to get to know Elder Smiley better as well! After our split, Elder Kirkham and I went to go see Osagie.....or should I say, Brother Edokpolor! I learned something interesting that happens after someone is baptized. We actually re-teach all of the lessons to them just to make sure they don't have any questions and they know the material well! So on Monday, we taught him the Restoration again and he remembered everything really well! So, on Friday, we taught him the Plan of Salvation and he remembered everything from that lesson and didn't have any questions! We found out that he has been still struggling a lot to find a job. He hasn't been able to find anything because he is brand new to America and only has an I.D so it makes it really hard to find a job! He told us that he doesn't have much money for food which was sad to hear but luckily a man named Brother Danquah in the ward is working with Bishop Jessop to get him a job and some more food. We really hope he can find a job soon!
Saturday was awesome! We woke up, got ready for the day, studied, and then we had the chance to go to a baptism! His name is Alex. The zone leaders, Elder Castro and Elder McLellan, found him a while ago on a train and Alex said that he would really like to hear more about our church. It's a really cool story! He is really into science but he always felt like there was something missing in his life but as soon as he started to meet with the missionaries, he said he felt the hole go away. His girlfriend actually lives in Utah and so she flew out for the baptism! The rest of his family lives here in New York. It was a neat experience to hear his testimony of how much this Gospel has blessed his life! We have been trying so hard to get Wanda and her grandkids to come to church but she has had so much come up that it has been hard for her to get to church. We invited her to the baptism and she said she was on her way but unfortunately she never showed up. So we called her and she didn't answer. She said that she had something come up so she couldn't make it. We will continue to teach her and her grandkids and hopefully she will come to church soon!
After the baptism Elder Kirkham and I had an appointment with a really nice man named Deinde Coker. He was the man that looks like he's about 60 years old but he is actually almost 90! You would not believe that he is that old! So we taught him the Plan of Salvation and he really enjoyed that so we invited him to be baptized but he said he wasn't interested because he already has his own religion in Nigeria and he just likes having us over. Elder Kirkham and I both bore our testimonies about the importance of baptism and after that he said he would think about working toward baptism! It was a really neat experience! Kojo and his wife Sophie have been really hard to get in touch with because they are busy with work and their newborn. We hope once they figure out their schedule, we will be able to meet with them on a regular basis!
Sunday was awesome! We woke and got ready for the day then headed off to church! The whole morning we tried to get a hold of Wanda and she finally answered but said she was not able to come to church today. We really wanted her to come but we will still try every week to get her to church! Church was great! I can't believe that we already are springing forward! We were all so pooped yesterday morning! We went to bed at 10:30 but then moved our clocks forward and then woke up at 6:30 so we were really tired! Right after church, we had an appointment with a new investigator named Selwyn Brown. He sounds like a really nice guy on the phone so we couldn't wait to meet him! We had the appointment all set and we had some time after church to study for him but unfortunately he got called into work last minute and had to cancel. We still had a great night!
Today we are doing something really fun! The zone leaders have organized a photo scavenger hunt around the Bronx! We will be doing that from 12:00-1:30 and then the rest of the time is ours! I will tell you all about it! Right now, I can't think of a single thing that we forgot to pack. I have been doing great with all of
Well, It has been a blast to email you all again! I look forward to Sunday nights and P-Day so much! I love hearing how everyone's week went and to see all the pictures! I loved them all so much! I have a picture slide show on my tablet homepage and I download all of your pictures and so they play through all of your pictures! I am so glad everyone is doing well! I hope you all have an amazing week as you go to work, school and all the other activities you have! I can't wait for your next email! I hope I remembered everything I wanted to say and I explained everything well! It is so fun to tell you everything! You are all in my prayers morning and night and I hope you know how much I love and miss you all! You are the best family in the world! I have surely felt your love and support each and every day! Have a great week! Brando, have such an amazing 13th Birthday buddie! I hope you eat lots of cake and ice cream and eat at a yummy restraunt! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!
Love Always!
~Elder Lindberg
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