August 30th 2017~Another Awesome Week From Kingston! Thanks So Much For The Card!
Hello my dear and amazing family! Wow! What a great email! I enjoyed reading every word as usual and loved looking at your pictures! It's so awesome to have a weeks worth of events all in 1 email! Today for P-Day we are both getting haircuts! We get to go to a really pretty area of Kingston right by a bridge that goes over the Hudson River so that will be lots of fun! We want to look sharp for President Nelson! I can't wait to get a nice haircut! I also have some exciting news! Transfers are a week from yesterday and so we will get transfer calls this coming Saturday. We are pretty sure that Elder Howard and I will stay but you never know. Also, some more exciting news about today is that tonight anywhere from 6:00-10:30, the Assistants and President Smith will be calling the new trainers! So I won't be able to tell you what happens until next week if I am called to be a trainer! Thst would be so, so cool but thst means Elder Howard would be leaving. I would be honored to train! We will have to wait until tonight to find out about trainers and the new leadership calls! It will be so interesting to see how things turn out because Elder Howard may stay with me here until the end of his mission or he could get transferred on Tuesday. So by next week, I may have a new companion. Crazy huh!! Also, the guy that was going tomtake us on our temple trip couldn't make it because he is on a trip to Utah and so we had to reschedule. It was going to be next P-Day but he couldn't take us. We understood and we know that there will be another time to go soon! He will definately take us another time! Well, I'm so excited for the next week and some changes that could potentially happen. I can't wait to tell you all about it!
We had a great time last P-day! We got our usual laundry done and then we headed to Poughkeepsie to go bowling! We had a really fun time and we even got to play 2 games for $6.00! It was a very great deal! We had our whole Zone there which made it even more fun! I got to drive and so I got lots of good practice! One cool thing that I forgot to tell you about is something that all of the missionaries have in their cars! We have a device called "Tiwi" and it's like a driving helper. It uses the GPS to tell us if we are going to fast, don't have our seatbelt on, or if we take a turn too sharp. So far, I haven't gotten any violations so that has been so nice! I have made it a goal to have a big fat goose egg on my record! I wasn't the best at bowling but I definately had lots of fun! Then after our 2 games, we drove back to Kingston to do our shopping and by that time, it was time for dinner! I couldn't beleive how fast our day went. I had so much fun emailing you and hearing all about your week and day! It was such a great P-Day and we got to see so many cool sights of New York! It was a very pretty drive! I love P-Days!!! Then after our P-Day ended, we went to go pick up a member who really wants to serve a mission. His name is Alejandro and he has cancelled on us the last 5 lessons that we have had with him. It has been so hard because we will have a lesson set with him up until it is time for us to pick him up, he is a great kid but has a hard time keeping commitments. So we went to our lesson with the Lopez family but unfortunately, they weren't home. So we went to plan B for the evening. We were driving down the street and we called one of our new investigators, Dorette. We wanted to check up on her and see how she was doing. She said that she has been sick recently and it won't go away. We asked if we could come by and see her for just a couple of minutes and say a prayer with her. She said yes and so we drove over to her house and then asked her ifnthere was anything that we could do for her. We even asked if she had some dishes that we could do! She didn't have anything for us to do and so we said a prayer with her and then she got back to resting. It was a great opportunity to give her some comfort! Then we drove just down the street to Wayne Nichols and Sharon Robertin's house. They were so glad to see us and then we scheduled a longer visit with them for Tuesday night. We had a nice talk with them and shared a quick message and then we drove to downtown Kingston to go visit Joshua and Adal! First of all, let me tell you about Adal. This poor kid has to sit in the break room of his parent's restraunt the whole day and they don't give him much to do. He is such a funny kid and loves it when we come visit him because he gets so bored. I would be too if I just had to sit in a break room all day! So we talked with him and he is very friendly and will talk your ear off. He is probably a little bit younger than Parker so I would say, 9 or 10. So after our visit with Adal, we drove to David Salas' house to see if there is any chance that he would be home. David is the guy that Elder Hughes and Elder Howard set a baptisimal date with right before I got here. Well, his baptismal date is for this coming Saturday so that cant happen. We have tried, and tried, and tried some more to find him at home but he hasn't answered his door or phone ever since I got here. I haven't even met him and yet he had a baptismal date. So we tried again and we drove up......and......the lights were on!! We knocked on the door and he was finally home after over a month of trying! He is a very nice guy and so we chatted with him for a little while and then it was time to head back to the apartment for the evening! It was a great way to end an awesome P-Day!
Thursday was awesome! Sorry that I usually don't have much news on Thursdays. We spend our whole morning up until lunch planning for our whole week and so there isn't anything really exciting. We planned for our whole next week and actually got a few more dinner appointments! We really appreciate all that this awesome ward does for us as missionaries! They are so nice to always feed us and take care of us! So after our weekly planning session, we drove over to Isaac Blue's house to pick him up because he wanted to come with us to our lesson with Ryan! So we picked him up and then drove to Ryan's house and we had another really great lesson with him! Isaac shared pieces of his talk that he gave this last Sunday and Ryan really enjoyed it! It was on developing Christlike attributes. It was a great talk and we all really enjoyed getting a sneak peak for Sunday! We had a dinner appointment scheduled for 4:00 with a member and her family but when we got out of our lesson with Isaac, she called and said that she couldn't get our phone number and so she couldn't call us to let us know that she had to go to a funeral. Her friend's aunt passed away and so she was helping the family out. She felt really bad about our dinner because she was going to make us steaks and potatoes so she made us some homemade chili with rice! We were so appreciative and thankful for her dinner! There was enough that we even invited Isaac to eat with us and so we drove over to the church and then had our dinner there and then we drove Isaac back home! It was so great to have him come with us! Here comes some more dinner trivia! So I asked him where he grew up and then he told us that he went to a few years of school at the University of Pittsburgh. So I of course said: "Nice! You were a Panther!" Then he told me that he loved Texas A&M, and Penn State. "Aggie and a Nittany Lion!" He thought it was pretty cool that I knew all 3 of those!
Friday was AWESOME! We had such a great and busy day! It was really jam packed with lots of good lessons and visits! So first, after our exercise, studies and getting ready for the day, we had a Conference Call miracle line at 10:00 and so we really enjoyed listening to that! It's always really cool to be able to hear from President Smith so often and be able to hear his guidance! Then, we headed right over to the McClure's house for some service! We are always so glad when people call us and schedule appointments for us to come over and help out! So we went over and finished listening to the conference call and then headed inside to help them! Sister McClure had us go up into their teenie tiny attic crawlspace and organize a few boxes and put some space saver bags filled with blankets and stuffed animals into totes since she can't get up in there because of her bad knee. We were so happy to help and then we had another service project right after that! We drove over to the Parks' house and did lots of different things around their house! First, we got a gas powered blower and blew some grass clipping and rocks out of their garage and into their driveway. Then we went inside and had a really good sandwich that Sister Parks made for us. It was like a grilled cheese on Italian bread with pesto sauce and ham. It was really good and then she had some hot chocolate chip cookies for us. It was so nice of her! Then we went back outisde and helped her boys put away a tent that they had been sleeping in for their last few days of summer. Then we weeded and then tried to start up their lawn mower but she thinks that the battery might have been dead because the engine wouldn't even turn over. I'm so grateful for you and how much you taught me how to work and do things by myself. It has helped me so much and I have been applying everything you have taught me! So thank you! Then after our service project, we had to hurry back to the apartment and change because we had a lesson at 3:00 with Manny Styles but he wasn't home. His Mom said that he wouldn't be back until this last Monday. So we went to our backup plan and drove over to the restaurant where Joshua and Adal Velasco's parent work and so we went to go share a message with them. They always just have to sit and entertain themselves all day every day and so they are always very excited to see us! Joshua is Dubbie's age and Adal is 6. They are really funny kids!
Saturday was so awesome! We had our usual lunch with Sister Wootton and then a couple of days ago, Sister Cross invited us over for a Mexican food night! We were stoked! So we woke up, excersised, did our studies, and then headed over to the Church for our weekly Ward Correlation meeting with Brother Lopez. I've got some pretty bad news though...... We texted Alejandro Duran that morning to confirm our appointment with him and his younger brother Felix, who was on baptismal date for September 2nd which is this coming Saturday! He was right on track to be baptized but we got a text back from Alejandro and he told us that he and his Mom had a discussion the night before and she doesn't want Felix to have anything to do with us or getting baptized. Alejandro defended Felix because their Mom is a strong member of the Catholic Church and Alejandro is a member of our Church. So our Baptisimal Date and our contact with them is pretty limited. She doesn't want him to study with us anymore or get baptized. So that baptism thst we were getting really excited for is now not going to happen. I wish I had some better news for you about it. So sorry! We will still try to go over and see how he is doing from time to time but he isn't old enough to make his own decisions. So we were a little disappointed about that but we know that things like this happen and their Mom just wants what's best for her kids......even though him getting baptized would most definately be the best thing for him!
Sunday was so great! It was a really busy day which is always great! In the words of Dad: "Can't complain!" It was a very awesome day and I enjoyed it very much! I woke up and was really excited to see your email! I really love to get emails throughout the week!! I was so sad to hear that Brandon lost his game. It sounded like they played great even though it was a tough team! We were very excited for Church because we knew that Bill was coming! So we drove to the Church for our Ward Council meeting and it went so well! We got some great ideas on how we can best work with the ward and some of the member who need some extra help. Then after our meeting, we went with Brother Monterroza to pick up Bill. We aren't allowed to use our car to bring investigators but we can go with members to pick them up. So we drove to Bill's house and brought him to church. He was very excited to be there and enjoyed church very much! We introduced him to a lot of members! Sacrament Meeting went really well and we had some great speakers. Elder Howard and I passed the sacrament and then taught the Gospel Principles class and Elders Quorum class. It was so busy but a great opportunity to serve! We taught about President Monson's recent conference talk about the Book of Mormon. It went really well! Then after church, we took a picture outside of Bill and us so you can see him! He is a really great guy and is excited to make this step in his life. So then Brother Monterroza took him home and Elder Howard and I drove back to the apartment and had lunch and changed out of our suits. I will wear my gray suit this next week so I can keep my black suit all nice and clean for President Nelson! We had lunch and did our companionship study and then drove over to visit Richard and his family but unfortunately they weren't home. So we did a few lookups of some teacher and priest age boys that we had in our records. None of them were home either and so by that time, it was time to drive over to the Parks' house for dinner! They are always so nice and we love going over and sharing a message with them! Sister Parks made us some really good fish tacos with coleslaw and tilapia fish. I'm not going to lie, they were really good even though "fish isn't my favorite!" Hehe! We had a great discussion with them and then got talking about Brother Parks and his mission. He met his wife on his mission to Poland and was telling us about how crazy it was over there and how much his mission has blessed his life. They are a very great family! Then we had a lesson with them and their 3 kids, Ryan, Brandon, and Isabella. We talked about the Holy Ghost and based it off of Elder Stevenson's talk from this last General Conference. They really enjoyed it and it went really well! Then, we drove over to visit Bob Costello. He is a less active member who got offended years ago and hasn't come back since. Thst seems to be the biggest problem in this ward with people just "being offended." We have a talk from Elder Bednar about people getting offended and how much they are missing out. It is really sad to see. So we talked with him for a while and then we drove over to the Church and had a great 1 on 1 discussion with Bishop Wootan. He has been so busy and so ever since I got here, we haven't been able to sit down and just talk with him! We had a great discussion about the members in the ward and who needed us to come over. He gave us lots of great information and we wrote it all down to be sure we remembered everything! It was such a busy and jam packed day! We had such a great Sabbath and I was thinking about you guys all day! I was thinking about you Mom as you went back to school the very next day. I was sad that you had to go back but I just wanted you to know that I was thinking about you and wishing the kids a great 1st full week back!
Monday was a really awesome day as well! I was thinking about you all day mom as you started your 1st day or work! I was wishing you well and hoping you enjoyed your day so much! We woke up, excercied, did our studies and then drove to New Paltz for District Meeting. It seems like the weeks are just going by faster and faster. I really can't believe that it is already football season and you are back in school! It's so crazy to think that you dropped me off all the way back in January and here it is almost September. It really is hard to believe! District Meeting went so well and we got to talk a lot about our investigators and how the work in our zone is going! I was SO VERY EXCITED to get your letter! It meant so much and was a lot of fun to get! I always feel bad that the mail takes so long to get here. I didn't want you to think that I forgot to thank you for it last P-day. I am so excited to see the Aggies' schedule! It is so weird to not be there and be a part of the action. I didn't even know when or who the Aggies were playing and so know I feel right in the thick of it! Thank you so much for thinking of me and for your thoughtful card!!!
Tuesday was another really great day! Time flew by and I was SO excited for your email! I always get so excited to read your amazing emails and looking through your pictures! We woke up and after our studies, we went over to fix a laptop for Brother Monterroza. He bought a really nice Asus laptop at a yard sale for $25.00. It retails for around $300.00. The only reason why they were selling a brand new laptop was because the guy forgot his password and so he didn't have the time to fix it. Well little did he know that Elder Howard is really good with computers. Brother Monterroza got the deal of a lifetime and we were able to erase the whole computer so it was practically brand new! We enjoyed helping him and then after we did something really fun! He took us to Pizza Hut but this specific store has a buffet from a certain time each day. So we got unlimited pizza and breadsticks and it was awesome! Then, we did lots of lookups! The weather has been cooling down even more and the weather feels so much like fall already! We had a really great rest of our day! After our lookups, we drove to Saugerties New York which I can't remember if I told you but it is the very tip top of the mission. We are litteraly on the very edge of the entire mission which is pretty scary because I was driving and I had to be careful to make sure I got off on the right exit. The exits are so far apart that if you miss one, you will have to drive the 15-20 miles before hitting another one. We had a great Restoration lesson with Sister Nanci Shambo and her friend Anne. Then we drove back to the apartment and had dinner and then went to go visit our good friends Wayne and Sharon! We shared a quick message with them and then we drove to Manny, Janice, and so many more! We had a great time driving around beautiful Kingston and talking with lots of people! Then we drove over to the church and shared a message with the guys who play basketball every Tuesday night with Brother Larin. We taught them about prayer and how we pray in our church. It went really well and for the rest of the evening, we played basketball with them! It was such a great day and I couldn't wait to read your amazing email!
Well my awesome family! It was so great to email you all today and hear that you are all doing well! I hope that I remembered everything that I wanted to tell I'm so happy that you are all having a great time at work and school and that you are adjusting to the non-summer lifestyle! I think and pray for you all the time and I'm so proud to be your son! I appreciate you all so much and everything thst you do for me! I hope you all have another great week at work, school, and all of your other activities! I hope you have a great game on Saturday Brandon and that you guys play your hearts out like you always do! I am always your number 1 fan and cheering you on! Thanks so much for answering all of my questions and thanks again for the card! I miss you guys SO much and pray for you every single day! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!
Love You Always!
~Elder Lindberg
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