Hello my awesome family! I have missed you all so much! Thank you so much for your email and all the details you included! I always love hearing that everyone is doing well with all of your activities! I have felt so many prayers! Not a day goes by that I don't think about you all and miss you so much! First of all, I was so glad to hear that Dubbie had a great Birthday! It looked like a blast! I can't believe you are 13 years old already! I just realized somthing the other day that I thought was interesting. I have already been out here for longer than 2 seasons of Survivor! That was something interesting I though of the other day! And then Dad pointed out that he would just be leaving the MTC. It had been so cool to see the Bronx and New York but I miss Nibley, the ward, and of course....you. I'm so glad that you found out that you can transfer my emails over to my regular account! That would have taken forever to do later on! That website really sounds cool and helpful! I'm so glad that everyone is having fun doing the tournament challenge! I have to admit...it was really weird not to do one! It is so weird to not be watching the games with everyone!
I really hope I can remember everything that happened this week and I can explain everything well! As you know, I love emailing lots of details and events that have happened! This week has been awesome! Tons of opportunities to serve and being out helping everyone we see! The temperature has warmed up a little bit as the week has gone on so it hasn't felt as cold! It has still only been about 40 degrees but there hasn't been as much cold wind which has been really nice!
I CANNOT believe that I am already over 2 months in! Time really has been flying by like you said but at the same time it seems like I haven't seen you in forever! In less than 2 months, we will be able to Skype and I can finally see some familiar faces! I love seeing your pictures that you send because they always make me feel right at home! I can't wait for May 14th!! We are all getting so excited for General Conference as well here in less than 2 weeks! We are looking forward to it very much! I loved getting your email on Saturday that said: "Happy 2 Months!" Crazy how fast time goes! Also, I can't believe that I'm already done with my 1st cycle! Everyone in the apartment explained to me what goes on during cycles. On Wednesday, President calls all of the new trainers. Then on Saturday, President Smith and the assistants call those who are being transfered. Pretty soon, we will have new missionaries coming in so I won't be the youngest Elder anymore like Dad said! That night President Smith announced to everyone who the new trainers would be but I didn't recognize their names. We knew that Elder Kirkham and I would be staying here and Elder Smiley has been in this apartment as long as I have so we knew the 3 of us were staying. Elder Bradley who is in our apartment has been here for 3 months so we were hoping he wouldn't get transfered but we thought he would since he had been here so long. I have loved the missionaries in our apartment so I didn't want him to leave but Elder Bradley did get a call to serve as district leader in the Central Manhattan area! We were all so excited for him! He has been a great example to us all! So now we have a new Elder named Elder Knudsen that will be switching Elder Bradley this coming Tuesday! I looked at his picture on the New York, New York North Christmas card and he looks really nice! That was a fun night waiting to hear where Elder Bradley was going! Before he got the call, he told us all that he really wanted to go to Manhattan and sure enough, that's where he got called!
Last P-Day was great! We woke up and got so much done really quick so we had extra time to email! We woke up at 6:00 instead of 6:30 (I am pleased to say that I haven't had a problem with waking up in the mornings!) and got ready for the day and headed down to the basement of our apartment to put in a load of laundry. Then we went back upstairs and finished getting ready for the day. After that we had breakfast and switched out laundry over to the dryers. I have been so grateful for you Mom and Dad, to teach me how to do laundry because a lot of missionaries at the MTC didn't know how to do laundry. Some even put their whites and darks together in the same load. So thank you for teaching me! After we got all of our laundry done we typed up the rest of our emails! And by this time it wasn't even 9:00 yet. So at 9:15 we headed off to do our weekly grocery shopping. Some apartments all pitch in and buy food for the whole apartment but our apartment decided we would all just buy our own food. Which has worked out really well! This week, in honor of Abby, I bought stuff for smoothies! I have been eating lots of smoothies with bananas, strawberries, raspberries, and yogurt. They turn out really good! I also really like the canned clam chowder that they have at Aldi's. So I have been eating a lot of that. I always buy a gallon of milk and some cereal too! So after we got back from grocery shopping, we emailed everyone for about an hour and then headed off to our activity! Dad pointed out in the last email that some missionaries don't have the luxury of having a tablet. I am so lucky to be able to have a tablet where I can email you all from right her in our apartment! I got an email last week from an Elder in my MTC district and he said that the library was closed and so he couldn't even email at all last week. He is in the West Virginia Charleston mission so everything is very spread out and the nearest computer was the library. So I am definitely blessed to have a tablet!! So we headed to the church and started our activity with the zone leaders! It was a really fun activity! First we divided the 6 companionship in our district into teams. Elder Kirkham and I went with the zone leaders and the 4 Sisters were a team and then Elder Bradley and Elder Smiley went with the other Elder companionship. The zone leaders told us that we were going to do a picture scavenger hunt around the Bronx! The zone leaders gave us a list of things we had to take pictures of around the Bronx! So we had one hour take as many pictures as we could and be back to the church within an hour. So we started the timer and figured out which things we could take a picture of. Some of the items on the list where: Take a picture with all 4 missionaries by a Porsche (That was my favorite one!), someone with Yankee gear. It was really fun! At the end we showed everyone our pictures and tallied up the score. Our team actually won the whole thing because we had the post points. Each picture was worth a different amount of points. The picture that was worth the most amount of points was a picture with President Smith worth 50 points. Nobody got that one because President Smith lives about an hour away from us. It was pretty funny!
On Tuesday, the snowstorm everyone was talking about was CRAZY! It was so nice to get your email warning us of the storm! On Monday, President Smith actually sent out a text to everyone (each companionship actually has a cell phone to call investigators, President Smith...etc) and he said that he was going to do a conference call right after everyone got back to their apartment for the night. Everyone in the he mission called in at 9:00 and listened to President Smith. He said that the storm was going to be really bad and windy! Boy was he right! He said to watch out for the many service opportunities that would come our way! So after that we went to bed. He said the storm would last from 2:00 in the morning to 6:00 in the evening. The wind and amount of snow was absolutely crazy! We had gusts of wind over 50 miles per hour!! It was such a crazy blizzard! It snowed all night long and by the morning there was snow everywhere because the wind blew it all over the place. The wind actually woke us up a few times during the night because it was whistling like crazy! When we woke up, there was a good 2 feet of snow in some places. The wind blew a lot of the snow up against building because it was so windy. I thought it was really crazy in one of your emails that you said that store shelves were completely empty! So we got ready for the day and we all bundled up like crazy! After we studied we decided to call our investigators and wait out the storm because there is no way we could go out in that crazy weather! We normally have our weekly district meeting at 11:00 on Tuesdays but they decided to cancel it at 8:00. But half way through calling our investigators, they said that we were still going to have district meeting. By this time the storm wasn't as bad so we all bundled up and headed to the church. It was treacherous! I am the only missionary that brought boots from our apartment so I was VERY grateful to have boots! Then while we were on the bus, the snow turned to rain because it warmed up to 40 degrees. So now the rain was turning the snow into gross slush. When we got off the bus, we had to walk a few blocks to get to the church. The slush was everywhere. It was really weird snow/sleet that was falling. I was going to bring my camera to record and take some pictures of us walking through it but my camera would have gotten pretty wet. It was quite the sight to see! When we got to the church we had our district meeting and it was really good! I can't believe I am saying this but this was our last district meeting of the cycle! It's so crazy to think that I am already done with an entire cycle! Time is flying by! After our district meeting, we went back to our apartment to get even more bundled up because we were going to find people that we could help shovel their driveways! I always love these service opportunities!
This particular service project was very memorable! We grabbed our shovels and headed down the street to help anyone we saw! All four of us actually stuck together and shoveled together which made it even more enjoyable! There was so much snow we didn't know where to start. We started by shoveling the stairs of the Senior couple in our ward. They are very nice! Their names are Elder and Sister Coleman. They were teaching a class at the church so we thought we would help them out! So we shoveled their stairs and then headed to find more people to help. As we were walking to find a house, we saw a car that was stuck in the middle of an intersection. Luckily nobody was our driving in this crazy weather so we went and pushed their car over some snow that had been pushed up by a snow plow . It was so slushy! After that they rolled down their window and yelled "Thank you!" because they didn't want to stop and get stuck again. So, we continued down the road and stopped at a house that we shoveled last snow storm! Their last name is Francis. We met them last snow storm and got to know them a little better. They are really nice and friendly and always try to offer us money but we explain to them that we can't except money and we are just helping people out. Then we had a really cool experience with their next door neighbor! After we shoveled the Francis family's driveway we offered to help their neighbor. His name is Jesús. We offered to shovel and he immediately said: "How much are you charging??" And we told him that we were just out providing service and helping people out. He said that nobody has ever offered to help out around here. He couldn't believe that we were helping out for free. We started to shovel and then he said that there is no way we can leave without $100.00. We told him to just pass on the act of service and that would be our payment. After we were done he said he has to give us something for all the work. We said that we can't accept anything and he said: "How about a glass of water?" We agreed to that and he went inside and got us a glass of water. We started to talk about where we were from and what a typical missionary day looks like. He was really impressed that we all leave everything at home especially our families. He said that must be really hard! After that we started to talk to him about his religious background and he hasn't gone to any church for a while but he said he would really like to come to ours sometime! We told him that would be great if he did a this Gospel can bless his life! Then he told us to have a great day and as we were walking away, his wife came out amd stopped us. She handed us a plastic bag and she said it was a book for us. We thanked them and headed down the street. Before we started shoveling the next driveway we opened up the plastic bag and inside was "Heaven is for Real" book. We thought it was really cool that she would give that to us. Here is the most amazing part! Inside the book was two $50.00 bills! We were obviously going to return the money right away but then Elder Kirkham and Elder Smiley both had a great idea! They said that when we go back to the apartment, we should write them a note and put the money in 2 Books of Mormon for them! They said we should tell them that the message in the Book of Mormon is far more valuable than money! We all agreed that would be a great idea!
Wednesday was such a great day! Happy Birthday to Dubbie! I was thinking about him all day long and how much fun he was having on his B-day! It sounds like he really got spoiled! I loved to see his cake and presents! We had some really amazing events happen on Wednesday! When we woke up the temperature was 25 degrees, which isn't too bad but with the wind chill it felt like -5! So we got ready for the day, planned, and studied. We had a scheduled lesson with a woman named Sandra Ramirez. We planned out her lesson and we're looking forward to getting to know her better. She has a few kids but we have never met her before because Elder Smiley and Elder Bradley found her. But since she is in our area, her records got sent over to us. So we made the TRETEROUS journey over to her house. The snow piles were huge and very slushy. I'm so grateful for my boots! It would normally have taken us 10 minutes to walk there but since we had to climb over the snow piles it took us over a half an hour to get there. Luckily we were all bundled up so we stayed really warm! We got to her door and unfortunately she wasn't home. But we still knocked on some doors around her since we haven't been to her neighborhood much. We didn't have much luck with the houses and apartments around her but it was still a good experience! After that, we headed back to the apartment for some lunch. We were both starving from all that walking! When we got home, we ate, studied, and then did our "The First 12 Weeks" book. The rest of the day was even more awesome!! After we were done, we headed back out to go schedule an appointment with a man named Edwin. We didn't know much about him because the missionaries before Elder Kirkham and I hadn't met with him in a while. We both had the impression that we should go meet him. So we headed to his apartment. When we knocked on his door, a dog started barking like crazy so we both knew that he probably wasn't home. Then, Elder Kirkham and I both felt like we should knock on every door on the floor! (There are about 8-10 doors on each floor in this particular apartment complex.) We started knocking on doors and the first 7 didn't answer. It was during the day so we figured everyone was at work and school. Then the last door on the floor had a poster on it that said: "The Lord is my light" We had a feeling like this door was a winner! We knocked on the door and we didn't hear anything for a second but then we heard: "Who is it?" Then a woman looked through the peephole and yelled: "Missionaries!" She flew open the door and asked us how we were doing! She was so glad to see us because she had never met with missionaries before! Her name is Yenice. She said that she had seen missionaries like us around and has always wanted us to come over! She said that she was Pentecostal. When we went inside she had TONS of vinyl scriptures on her wall! She was so nice and friendly! She has 4 kids. Their ages are: 17,15,9,2. She started talking with us and she said that she loves scriptures and loves going to church. We asked her if she had ever heard of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She said she hadn't. So I quickly pulled out a Book of Mormon and began telling her what we believe and how the Book of Mormon has blessed our lives. She had never heard of the Book of Mormon before so we knew she would enjoy it even more. She couldn't believe that there was another record of scriptures she could read and enjoy. We told her to read and pray about what she reads and she will know for herself that it is true! She was so on board with learning more and couldn't believe that we stopped by. It was such a cool experience because she wants to come to church and having us come over and teach her and her family more! It was such an amazing experience!
On Thursday we had our weekly planning session in our apartment! I really enjoy this time to focus on our investigators and plan out a weeks worth of events. We schedule in study time, teaching, and finding. We write down everyone that we are focusing on and call them to set up an appointment. Then after weekly planning we headed over to the church and did some service by shoveling snow! There is a layer of snow on ALL of the sidewalks still so we broke up the ice and shoveled it so now we can actually see the sidewalk! Then after shoveling we went and did some trackting in Co-op City! We knocked on a few floors of doors but nobody was interested at the moment. But we kept going! We handed out a few cards to the people that answered the door and they said that they would call us sometime. We had a great time talking with people and seeing if anyone would be open to being taught! Then after that we headed back home for the evening. Friday was such a great day as well! Unfortunately, Elder Bradley woke up with a head cold and didn't feel the greatest all day. Luckily, none of us have gotten sick yet and he is doing much better then he was on Friday! I have been so lucky so far that I haven't gotten sick! Elder Kirkham was telling me that once you get to New York you are exposed to all kinds of new germs. So we woke up on Friday, got ready for the day, and studied. There is still quite a bit of snow so we planned to go do some more snow shoveling for service. Since it was Saint Patrick's Day, we decided to do something really fun. We decided to go to Applebee's! It brought back so many memories of eating with you all right before you dropped me off! Everyone thought it was cool that we went to Applebee's right before coming to the MTC! So we went inside to eat before we shoveled! It was so good! Since there were 4 of us we did 2 of the 2 for $20.00 deals. I had a burger with fries and buffalo wings for the appetizer that the deal came with! It was really fun!
Saturday was really awesome! We had a lesson at 10:00 in the morning so we did our studies and then headed out to Burke Avenue! His name is Evans Omobude. He is from Nigeria and loves having us over! We had only taught him the first lesson about a week ago but he is really busy with work so it has been pretty hard to meet with him. We headed over to his house and knocked on his door. He answered right away and told us that he was going to visit one of his friends that lives in his apartment in the hospital. He said that his friend slipped and fell about a week ago and was recovering in the hospital. He told us that he was doing well and recovering quickly. He said that he was on his way to the hospital to visit him and invited us to come! We said that we would be glad to because we could talk to him on the way about Priesthood blessings! We got talking about how we can place a drop of consecrated oil on their heads and give them a blessing! He thought that was amazing and really wanted us to give his friend a blessing! So we walked to the Bronx hospital and went inside to see how his friend was doing. When we got their, his friend's wife was there and she said that he was undergoing some blood tests and he wasn't available to see for a few hours. We really wanted to give him a blessing but we said a prayer with his wife. She really appreciated it and was thankful we were willing to help out! I got a picture of Evans and I standing outside the hospital. He is a great guy! Afterwards, we got talking with him and starting teaching him and Elder Kirkham had the prompting to invite him to be baptized on April 22nd and he accepted! So we now have another baptismal date! We invite indivividuals to be baptized on a certain date which we can adjust to their specific needs. So now we have 3 baptismal dates! Evans (Which is a great name!) on April 22nd, Kojo on April 29th, and Wanda on May 13th!! Unfortunately, we did have to push back Kojo's baptismal date because he has been near impossible to get a hold of. Our investigators have to come to church at least 3 times before they are baptized. Kojo, Wanda, and Evans have been very busy of Sundays but we are trying really hard to get a hold of them. But the good news is that Evans is going to talk to his boss to see if he can switch his only day off to Monday so he can come to Church! We thought it was really amazing for him to do that! This area has been so great to start off in because there are so many humble and diligent people! I've heard that the people in Manhattan aren't as diligent. So I'm thankful to start out in such a successful area! We really love getting to know them more! Then after that we headed home for some lunch and did our companionship study. Then after lunch and studies, it was about 3:00 so we decided to go knock on some doors in Co-op City. Unfortunately, not a lot of people were at home during this time but we still had fun saying hello and passing out cards to those we passed on the streets! Then after about an hour and a half on trackting, we got a call from Elder Bradley and Elder Smiley and they said to Elder Kirkham to meet them at a taco truck at 5:15! Elder Kirkham didn't tell me where we were going but we headed to a taco truck called "Tacos El Bronco II" It is right by our apartment so we will have to visit it more often! We got in line and I saw the menu. They had so many good Tacos to choose from! I didn't know which ones to get. I took a couple pictures of the menu and truck. While we were standing in line, it was so cool to think that I was eating at a taco truck in the Bronx!! When we got to the front of the line, I ordered my Tacos. They are $1.75 per taco which isn't too expensive for a really good taco! I ended up getting a Mexican sausage, spicy pork, and my favorite.........beef tongue! I knew Dad would want me to have that one since I'm sure he had beef tongue on his mission! The taco truck was really cool! There were about 4 brothers that owned in and ran it themselves. It was really cool also because it was right in the middle of everything! So we got our food and headed around the corner back to our apartment! The Tacos are the exact same size as the ones you make us at home. They come double wrapped in the tortillas we make crunchies with! They were all so good! The cow tongue was actually my favorite taco because it was so tender and had a really good flavor! It was such a cool experience!
Sunday was really great! We had a really cool experience! We woke up and got ready for Church. We headed over to the church and set up some chairs. Then Osagie showed up! He hasn't missed a day of church since we have met with him! It is always good to see someone you care about take coming to church seriously! He still has been struggling to find a job. I forgot to tell you that he is actually living in an apaetment with someone he doesn't know. They are really nice people and let him stay for free! Osagie does have to provide his own food but money is really tight so he told us that he hasn't been eating much this past week. We went over on Saturday and he was in good spirits as usual but we could tell that he is really frustrated about not having a job. So on Sunday, he went and talked with Bishop Jessop to see if he knew of a good job for him. Bishop didn't know of any at the moment but he did say that a job would come up soon because of Osagie's diligence and desire to live the Gospel. On Saturday we took over a one time MetroCard for Osagie to use to get to church and then Brother Danquah had a unlimited one month MetroCard that the ward funds provided. Then as soon as he was done talking with Bishop, Brother Danquah had a big basket of canned food for Osagie! Then Osagie told us that Bishop had set up food to be delivered directly to his apartment! It was so amazing to see Osagie so happy! We knew it was because of his diligence a faithfulness! He was so grateful for all the blessings that he had received from this church! I couldn't help but think how much this Gospel has blessed all of our lives! It was a cool experience! Then after Church we helped Osagie start doing family history! It was amazing to see him get so excited to do family history! Then after that we headed over to an appointment with the Yenice, the lady we met with all of the scriptures on her wall. She lives in an apartment and so the doors are really close together. Unfortunately, her next door neighbor was having a huge party and the music was SO loud. So we knocked on her door a few times and she couldn't hear us. We knew she was most likely home because she knew we were coming over. I had the idea to wait until the song was over and then we could knock again but the song never ended. It was a really long song so we had to head home for the night without teaching her. We were really hoping to teach her!
Today has been really great so far! We woke up at 5:50 to go put our laundry in a got it done by 7:20! Right now we are all just finishing up our emails and sending pictures! Today we decided to something really fun since it will be our last P-Day with Elder Bradley. We were going to go to the Bronx Zoo but Elder Kirkham said that they put away most of the animals during the winter and so we wouldn't get to see much. Also, at 4:30 Sister Coleman who is the Senior couple missionary organized a surprise birthday party for Elder Coleman! So we are excited for that! So instead of the zoo we are going Red Robin in Co-op city!! It will be so much fun to spend a little more time with Elder Bradley before he leaves tomorrow! We are just about to head out to Red Robin so I will be sure to tell you everything! It will be so much fun!
Well everyone, it was so much fun to email you all again! I look forward to Sunday nights so much because I know your email is coming! I love hearing about everyone's week and how each and everyone of you is doing! I miss you all more than anything but I know that this is where I need be! I just want you to know how much I love each and everyone of you! You are such an incredible family and I love all of the love and support! I continue to feel so many prayers of love and comfort! Families are the most amazing support system ever! Thanks again for the awesome email and all of the details! They are so much fun to read! I miss you all so much! Have such a great week! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!
Love Always!
~Elder Lindberg
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