Hello my dear family! Wow, I miss you all so much! Thank you very much for your amazing email! I loved hearing about your great week that you had! This week, I have been thinking a lot about you all and the amazing Skype call we had! I still am so glad that everything worked so well and we were able to talk about so much! Can you believe that it was a week and a half ago that we Skyped??? Because I can't! It was the best time ever Skyping and seeing you all! Thank you so much for the "4 months" picture! It is so crazy to think that I have already been out for 4 months! It was really fun to get!
I have some really exciting news! Next week we get to go to the Temple! We scheduled a temple day for next P-Day and I'm so excited to get to go back! Every time I go to the Temple I think of you because I always remember how special it was to go through with you for the first time. It is such a great memory! So we will get to go to Manhattan and do a session! It will be great!
I'm so excited for you to be done with school! It will be so fun for you to have a break! I am way excited to hear all of the fun things you get to do!
We have something really fun coming up! The Spanish ward put together a pot luck and a movie night and then invited our ward! Brother Danquah invited all of the missionaries! It is a really smart idea because we can invite our investigators! It will be a really fun time! Right after church we will have a pot luck with lots of food from both wards. Then after we eat we will watch 17 Miracles! So we are all getting really excited for that!
Last P-Day was so great! We all had a blast at the zoo! So we woke up, got ready for the day, did our laundry, and then went shopping! After we got everything done we were so excited to go to the Bronx Zoo! We were so happy that it was free day! We actually got to walk over there since it is so close to our apartment! So we walked over and got our tickets! The zoo is amazing! They have a ton of animals! We couldn't believe how hot and humid it was! The temperature said it was 94, but it felt so much hotter. Then to think that you were getting snow was crazy! Even though it was very hot, we still had a great time! We saw so many animals like seals, bears, giraffes, monkeys, lions, birds, fish, tigers, and my favorite....the red panda! I remember that they have a red panda at the Boise zoo when we went! So we looked all around the zoo for about 4 hours then as we were walking a really nice lady with her son and Grandson , stopped us and said: "Hello Elders!" She asked us where we were from and told us that she was from the New Canaan stake. We talked with them for a few minutes and then said goodbye. We went in the opposite direction as them and went to go look at a few more exhibits. Then as we were walking we saw them again. They approached us and said: "You need something to eat and drink!" She handed us $40.00 and said that she really wanted us to treat ourselves. We told her that it was very nice of her but we couldn't accept her money. She said that she really wanted us to go eat somewhere. So we accepted! She was so nice and thoughtful to do that! We originally thought that we would go find a food stand somewhere in the zoo but everything was so expensive. For us all to eat at the park it would have been very expensive. So we decided to go to Outback Steakhouse in Co-op City! So we looked around for a bit longer and then headed back to the apartment to cool off then we headed to Co-op City! We were really excited! We were so hot and hungry after a fun day! So we got to our table and ordered. I ordered the house salad, potato soup, steak, and cheesecake for desert! They had a really good $14.99 deal that we all got. We each had to pay a few dollars but it was such a good dinner! After dinner we had an appointment with Matt! So we headed over to City Island. We wanted to have a quick lesson with him and see how interested he was in progressing in the Gospel. He is just really nice and loves having missionaries over! So we asked him a little more about his religious background and he said that he likes church but he has a hard time understanding some of the people in the ward when they teach. He has been to Church a few times but not since I have been here. We really want him to progress toward baptism since he has had so much interaction with missionaries. So we had a really nice lesson with him and then it was time to catch a bus and headed back to the apartment for the night. It was an amazing day!
Thursday was another great day! Having P-Day on Wednesday makes time seem even faster. We had a great weekly planning session! So we woke up, got ready for the day, and then did weekly planning. We planned for all of our investigators and scheduled in service, and APF activities. We always love spending time planning everything out! While we were weekly planning, Elder Smiley and Elder Knudsen went over to the Church and split with the Zone Leaders! So Elder Smiley went over to their area with Elder Davis and Elder Castro came over here! Then after we got everything squared away with our week, we had an appointment with a really nice member! We scheduled this lesson with her a while ago and she even had her nephew come over so we could go into her house. So we headed over to Sister Sangster's house and she made us dinner! We were so grateful for her hospitality! So we talked with her and her nephew, Kenny, while we ate. She made us Jamaican cabbage, rice and beans, and Jamaican pork chops. It was very tasty! We taught her about family history and Temple work! It was a great lesson and we enjoyed getting to know her more! We had a goal for this cycle to visit all of the active members and so far we are doing great and we are going to hit that goal! After our lesson with Sister Sangster, I couldn't believe my eyes what I saw as we were walking to the bus stop! We were walking and I got looking at all the different license plates. It has been so cool to see license plates from all over the place. I've seen so many from Connecticut, New Jersey, Vermont, Maine, and Pennsylvania. It has been really cool! But as I was looking at all of the cool license plates, guess what I saw!?!? A Utah licence plate! Then, we walked a few more blocks, and what do I see?? Another Utah license plate! How cool is that!? I completely forgot to take pictures of them but I thought it was so cool! It was a great day and we were beat and ready for a nice long sleep!
Friday was a great day! We woke up and did our studies and then we had a conference call from President Smith! It is always so great to hear from him! He talked about the many miracles that are going on in the mission! It was so great to hear from him! So after the Conference call, we did an APF activity! So we gathered some Books of Mormon, and headed over to Pelham Bay Park train and bus station. We set up shop and started talking with everyone to try and set a return appointment with them! I always love talking to so many people! We talked to a lot of cool people from Jamaica, Dominican Republic of Congo, and Puerto Rico! We got a few phone numbers and so hopefully we can set some return appointments! So after our APF activity we headed back home for some lunch and then we did our companionship study, and language study. After that we headed over to the church and we had a split! I got to go over to Elder Smiley and Elder Knudsen's area and Elder Smiley went to our area with Elder Dick! I was really excited to go to their area! While we were splitting to go to our areas for the night, we had something so cool happen! We heard piano music coming from the relief society room and we went in and they were getting ready for Francisco Molina's baptism!!! How cool is that!?!? Francisco was the investigator who was in our area book and had just been sitting there and I felt like we should call him and so I called him and he was so on board to have lessons! But since he didn't understand English very well, we sent him to the Spanish Elders and Friday was his baptism! It was such a miracle that we called him because now he is baptized! It was so cool to see! So after we split, I went with Elder Knudsen and we had a lesson with their investigators named Freddy and Carla! They are so cool! I got a picture with Freddy and Carla when we saw them when we were waiting for a bus! They are such cool people! So we headed over to their apartment and they had some treats for us! They had oreos, juice, and Pringles! We had a great lesson with them! We taught them about prophets! They have both loved coffee their whole lives and so the last lesson that Elder Smiley and Elder Knudsen taught them, they committed them to stop drinking coffee and so we followed up to see if they kept their commitment and they did! We were so happy that they are working toward baptism! It was a great lesson and after the lesson, we walked back to the apartment for the night! It was such a great and productive day!
Saturday was another great day! We woke up, got ready for the day, did our studies and then we headed out for another great day of missionary work! It was really nice to be in someone else's area! I learned so much! Elder Knudsen is a great missionary and it was really nice to get to know him better! We first headed over to the church and had a lesson with a great guy named Oscar. Elder Smiley and Elder Knudsen scheduled this lesson a few days ago. So we talked to him about the Book of Mormon and how it can bless his life if he reads and prays about it. We had a great lesson with him and I really enjoyed getting to know him more as well. Then after the lesson with Oscar, the zone leaders had a baptism!! We always love to see baptisms happening in our zone so much! Her name is Elisa and she is a great lady! So we had the baptism at 1:30 and it went great! During the baptism Elder Davis called me over and said that the member who was supposed to bring the refreshments hadn't shown up yet so he told Elder Knudsen and I to run to the Chang Li supermarket just right down the street and buy some cookies if they didn't show up. They didn't show up and so we hurried to Chang Li and we bought some Pepperidge Farm cookies and hurried back to the Church and put them on a platter for everyone that was there! We were happy to help! So after the baptism we enjoyed the cookies and talked for a little bit and then we headed back near our apartment and we had a quick lesson with a really cool guy named Tony! We met him on a park bench and had a great lesson with him! He has been taught about half of the lessons and he is in their area. He is a great guy! We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he really enjoyed it! Then we headed back to the apartment and had some dinner and then we unsplit! So after our lesson we had the adult session of Stake conference but we needed to find someone to go with. President Smith told us that we could go to the conference if we brought an investigator or less active member. So we called around but nobody was available tonight so we were bummed about that. Elder Smiley and Elder Knudsen had Freddy and Carla to go with but when they got to the Kingsbridge Church, they weren't there unfortunately. So they came back and got home at 8:00. Since we didn't have anyone to go with, we headed out and looked up a few people. We even found someone in our area book that spoke Portuguese so we knocked on his door but he wasn't home so we gave him a call and he answered! So Elder Dick spoke with him in Portuguese and found out that he moved to Brooklyn a little bit ago. He was such a cool guy! After we looked up a few people we walked home all the way down Gun Hill Road and said hi to everyone we saw! It was such a great day!
Sunday was such a great day! We had such a cool miracle happen! We had our Stake Conference! I was so excited for Stake Conference because I was really hoping to see Jamie and her family! I hope I didn't confuse you in one of my emails. We had the Multi-stake broadcast a few weeks ago but this was our actual stake conference! Sorry about that!
We had Gordon H. Smith from the area seventy there and he did a great job! I enjoyed his talk SO much! Before stake conference started, we were standing at the doorway of the chapel welcoming people in which was so fun! Then a man walked in and he looked so familiar but I wasn't sure where I had seen him. It bugged me for about 5 minutes until it clicked. I shook his hand and then he went to go sit down in the congregation. It clicked and I remembered that he played Adam in the Temple endowment video! How cool is that!?! Elder Dick also recognized him but he wasn't sure where he knew him from either. It was pretty cool! Then Elder Dick told me that he is a Bishop in one of the wards in the mission. It was really cool to meet him! He was a very nice guy and was so friendly! Before the conference started, President Smith walked in with his family! It was so nice to see them as always! The Stake President, President Jeffries, started the meeting and welcomed everyone. We had some really great speakers! 2 returned missionaries from the Stake spoke and they did a great job! One missionary served in Florida and the other served in Guatemala. It was so fun to hear returned missionaries speak and hear of their experiences! They told us how fast missions go. He said that it is so amazing to come home and see you family! He said to enjoy all of these missionary experiences because we will be home before we know it. Then after they spoke we heard from the Manhattan Temple President and his wife! They did a really good job! Then we heard from President Jeffries and the 2nd Counselor in the Stake Presidency. Then we heard from Gordon H. Smith and he did a really good job! His theme was.........missionary work!! He spoke about his experiences in New Zealand and how he had a hard time on Christmas of 1971. He had been feeling so homesick and considering going home. He said when he woke up, it felt like a regular day and didn't feel like Christmas since there wasn't any snow or presents so it was really hard. He read the Christmas Story in the Bible and then he said that his homesickness and depression completely went away! It was a great and powerful story! Then after our amazing Stake Conference, I looked all around for Jamie and her family but I didn't see them. There weren't a ton of people there so I was pretty sure that they weren't there. I was really hoping to see them! So after Stake Conference, we headed back to the apartment and had some lunch. Then we did our companionship study and then language study. I have been loving learning some Spanish while Elder Dick practices and keeps up on his Portuguese. I have been learning quite a bit! Then we had something really cool happen! We called a lady about a month ago and she said that said she would be really busy until this last Saturday when her schedule freed up. We called her and she was so excited to hear from us! We set an appointment with her and she was so on board to learn more! We are really excited to teach her! Then after that we had a great evening! We went over to see Sister Johnson for our weekly visit and she was so happy to see us as usual! We talked with her and showed her a video and then we headed over to see a few less active members! We had a great evening and as we were heading back to the apartment, we decided to walk the rest of the way. We both felt like walking since the weather was so beautiful! As we were walking back to the apartment, we saw a car up ahead of us with it's hazard lights on. We got closer to their car and noticed that a man was trying to jack their car up to change a flat tire. We were so happy to help them out! It was a really nice Mexican family with their Granddaughter in the car. The wife spoke very little English but the husband spoke pretty good English. We stopped and said: "looks like you need a hand!" So we stopped and started helping them! We were so glad that we walked because we knew that this family was put in our path on purpose! He was just started to change the tire so we were there to help through the whole process! So we helped them change the tire and while we did that we talked with them and Elder Dick spoke Spanish to the wife. It has been so great to have a companion that speaks another language! He has been really handy!
Monday was another great day! We had another really cool experience later in the evening! We had our weekly district meeting and it was great! So we woke up, and headed to our district meeting and we talked about our investigators and how they were doing. We had the Sister Training Leaders there as well! So we had a great district meeting and then afterwards, Elder and Sister Coleman made us a delicious lunch! It was so good! So we headed downstairs into the gym and we had a pasta bake, chicken alfredo, garlic bread, salad, and Häagen-Dazs ice cream bars! It was all so good! Then after our delicious lunch we thanked Elder and Sister Coleman and we went and made some flyers for the weekly Family Home Evening. We really wanted to hand out some flyers to let everyone know about the class that the Colemans teach. So we made some flyers and then we headed back to the apartment and did our daily contact to our investigators, language study, and companionship study. It was great! Then we had an APF activity planned but then.......it started to rain. We were sad that we couldn't go out and find some people to teach but we knew nobody would want to stand out in the rain and talk with us. So we decided to go knock on some doors and find and schedule some appointments. We knocked on some doors for an hour or 2 and then came back for some dinner! Then after we had some dinner, we decided to do something really cool! We decided to call every single potential investigator that we have in our area book! Potential investigators are people who have their information in our area books but haven't been taught anything. So we wanted to schedule a time to teach them and invite them to family home evening. So we started calling around and lots of people answered which we were so happy about! It was so amazing how many people could meet with us this week! I am so excited to say that we scheduled 5 lessons for this week! We called over 50 people and had lots of nice people that we called! It was so great! So we set our lessons and then we had a great Skype call with Matt! We talked about the Great Apostasy and the Restoration with him. After our lesson it was 9:00 so we decided to head back to the apartment for the night. It was such a great and successful day of missionary work!
Tuesday was another great day! A few days ago we got an email that said we would be having interviews with President Smith! I always enjoy them very much! He always is so caring and open to helping us with whatever we need! So after we did our studies, we headed over to the church and had our interviews with President! Elder Dick's interview was at 10:10 and mine was at 10:20. So after we studied for about a half an hour, we headed over to the church. We got to the church right on time and Elder Dick went in for his interview. Then it was my turn! I always enjoy talking with President Smith one on one! We talked about how the ward was doing and all of our investigators were doing! Then we talked about you all and how you were doing! I told him that you were all doing great and getting excited for summer! Then after our great interview, we finished making our family home evening flyers to hand out to people! We bought some colored paper like green and orange and printed out some flyers. Then Elder Smiley and Elder Knudsen had an appointment with Sister Oppenheimer to give her a blessing and asked Elder Dick and I if we would like to go with! So we all headed over to her apartment to see how we could help her. When we got there she told us that she wanted a blessing because she has been taking a blood thinner and every time she sneezes or blows her nose, her nose will start bleeding. We were so happy to give her a blessing! Elder Knudsen performed the anointing and then Elder Smiley gave her a blessing. Then afterwards we asked her if there was anything that we could do for her. She said that some movers were supposed to come and remove an old couch that was sitting in her living room a while ago and they never showed up. So we took her couch and threw it in a dumpster across the street. She was so appreciative and said that she really wants to make us a big nice dinner sometime. We were so happy to help! It was a great experience! Then after that we headed back to the apartment and had some lunch and then did our companionship study and language study. Then we went to a neighborhood where Bishop Jessop lives and we knocked on many doors to invite them to family home evening at the church! Then we went to go visit the Francis family! They were the family that we helped shovel their driveway when that really bad snow storm hit. We have kept in touch with them and they are so nice! We knocked on their door and the wife, Arthel, answered and was so happy to see us! We invited her and her family to the ward activity pot luck and movie on Sunday and they were thrilled to come! They said that they would love to come but they didn't have much money. We told them that it was completely free and just a good and fun time for her and her family! She couldn't believe that we did things like that! She asked us what she could do to repay us and we said that if she wanted, she could bring a favorite dish that they make in Jamaica. We are really excited to have investigators come! So after the Francis family, we headed over to Bishop's house but unfortunately he wasn't home. He is always so busy with his job and so he is hardly ever home. We enjoyed being outside so much! It was so nice and pretty! Every time we are out walking in the nice cool evening, I always think of you taking walks! I wish I could go on walks with you, but we can when I get home! It was such a great day! By the end of the night we were ready for an awesome P-Day! I was so excited to read your email! I get so excited to see them every Tuesday!
Guess what we get to do today!!! So, a few days ago, Elder Dick was using his tablet and the battery died. So he plugged it in to charge it. Well, he had been relying on his fingerprint for so long that he forgot his word password. When our tablet batteries die, and then you turn it back on again it requires you to put in your word password. Well since he forgot his password.......he couldn't get in. Poor guy! So he has been without a tablet for over 5 days now. It has been a pain! So he sent in an error report email to Salt Lake and they never got back to him. So he called the assistants and they said to take it to a store like Best Buy, Radio Shack, or a Samsung store. So I was hoping that today when we go get it fixed that the store we go to would be next to something really cool........and sure enough........it's right next to Yankee Stadium!!! We searched for the nearest Best Buy Geek Squad, and it is just down the street! So we will get to go fix his tablet and then go see Yankee Stadium again! Would it be OK if I spent $15.00 on 2 mini bats? They were very good quality! I was so excited to go back and see it again! I'm not sure if I should just put it on my credit card or take out cash from my debit card. I am so excited! I'm hoping that there is a game today so there will be TONS of fans and tailgating! It should be a really fun time! I will be sure to tell you all about it!
I dropped the ball this week at taking pictures. Sorry! I have my camera with me all the time but I just never saw anything to take a picture of that you haven't seen. But, I did upload all of the pictures that I took! I even got a picture with Francisco Molina! I still can't believe that he was just sitting in our area book for so long and now he is baptized! He is a really great and loving guy!
Well everyone! I think that is everything that happened this week. I hope everything makes sense and it doesn't seem too choppy. I just want you to know how much I love and appreciate you all! You are in every single one of my prayers! I am so excited for you to be done with school! I hope you have a great last full week of school! I will be thinking about you the whole time! I get to email back and forth today! I hope you all have an amazing week! LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!
Love Always!
~Elder Lindberg
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