Hello my dear Family! Wow, what a great email! You guys had a really awesome week! That makes 2 of us! I can't even tell you how excited I was to hear all about you week and everything that you got to do! What a great and fun way to end the summer! I have some VERY exciting news that I can't wait to tell you about! I just really want you to know how much I appreciate you and your emails, pictures, and videos! They are always so detailed and I appreciate it very much because it makes me feel right at home! Today for P-Day we are doing something really fun! Our Zone Leaders arranged today to go bowling in Poughkeepsie! So after we get our laundry done and email, we will drive over to Poughkeepsie which takes about 45 minutes so it's about from Nibley to Farmington. It is such a pretty drive! So I will get to see lots of different sights from New York! So that is going to be very fun and we are all excited for that! Well everyone, I can't wait to tell you about my week!
P-day last week was so great! We had a really great and fun time emailing you and talking back and forth! We had a great time at Sister Cross' house and eating Taco Bell! She bought a ton of food and it was a really great time! Then after we had our lunch, we headed to Aldi's to do our weekly shopping! Then we came back to the apartment and cleaned and then I emailed pretty much every single family member which is awesome! I enjoyed chatting back and forth with you all, Grandma Evans and Grandma and Grandpa Lindberg! Then, after our P-Day ended, we drove to a ladies house named Linda Buley. Her husband was a member but she isn't and he passed away this last April. It has been so hard for her but she is staying strong. She is in her 60s and moved out of thst house the very next day to North Carolina. Elder Howard told me that she had been trying to move for a very long time and she finally decided that was the best thing for her to do. Then, we headed to our awesome dinner appointment with Pete and Cheri Sagazie! They are some really cool people and have lots of cool stories to tell! We enjoy going over there especially because they have a really long history with missionaries. They aren't members but know a few of the ward members. They made us a really good mountain man type meal for us and it was all so good! They made us grilled pepper pork, grilled potato wedges, and corn suqatash! Then we read with them the introduction and Testimony of the 3 and 8 Witnesses. We all felt the spirit and had a great lesson with them! It was such a great P-Day and I couldn't wait to get your next email!
Thursday was another great day! We had our split that night and so it was really fun to go to New Paltz! I got to go with Elder Wallace who used to be in the ASL sign language area and now he is companions with Elder Newbold who is our District Leader! We woke up, did our studies and then headed over to the church to do our weekly planning! We planned lots of lessons and called lots of people and then after weekly planning we had an awesome lesson with Bill! He is doing so great and is really looking forward to his Baptism! The only problem with him is that he doesn't have a way to get to Church each week. That has been quite the challenge but we are working through it the best we can. We taught Bill about the Law of Chastity and being obedient even though we may not understand why something is a commandment. We taught him how commandments are meant to protect us not restrict us. It was a great lesson and then we came back to the apartment and had dinner! I have been so grateful for your cooking skills even though we don't have much time to cook so I try to make simple versions of food! I really miss not cooking with you! Then after dinner, we headed out for the rest of the evening and then we drove to New Paltz to split with our District Leader! New Paltz is such a pretty area and we have been having some really good weather! I also like to check the weather too and it makes me feel close to home! We did a few lookups and knocked on some doors and then it was time to drive to New Paltz. We made it to the Church and then I went with Elder Wallace to the New Paltz area and then Elder Newbold went to out area with Elder Howard. We started with a prayer and then we headed back to our apartments for the evening. I haven't ever started a split that late at night and so it was weird to go straight back to the apartment. It was a great and productive day! I got to know Elder Wallace pretty well! He is from San Diego California and has been out on his mission for 11 months now so he hasnt been out for much longer than I have. He was in the sign language area before coming to speak English here in New Paltz. It was a really great day!
Friday was another crazy busy day!! It was a full day of a split and so I got to spend the day in New Paltz! Elder Wallace and I woke up, got ready for the day, did our studies and then headed out the door to do some service for a lady that lives right across the street from the Church! So we drove over there and she wasn't home but luckily she already explained what she wanted done and so Elder Wallace just told me what she wanted done. We stabilized a huge stone that she is using for one of her steps on her wooden deck and now it is really steady! So after we got that done, we had to change at the Church and then we had a lunch with the Goodin's planned! So Elder Howard and Elder Newbold drove to the Goodin's house and then we met them there after our service project! We taught them a lesson and then had a really great lunch. Then, we headed back to New Paltz which is a quick drive and then we did something really cool! We did an APF where we talk to people on the street! The New Paltz Sisters came with Elder Wallace and I and we talked to as many people as we could on a street corner. The Sisters brought a really cool idea! They had little slips of paper that had 1 good deed that someone could pick up and do. They asked a whole bunch of people to pick one and go do that 1 good deed that was on the paper. We had lots of people stop and tell us that what we were doing was pretty cool and that the world needs a lot more good deeds and kindness. We agreed! We talked to lots of people and then just as we were ready to pack up and head out, a really nice guy named Todd walked up and I asked him how he was doing. We was surprised that someone would ask him that. We got talking and he believes almost everything that we do! We got talking about the Plan of Salvation and how blessed we are to have the knowledge thst we do. He said that he had never heard anything like it and really enjoyed talking with us. He told us that he was a stage 4 cancer survivor and is now running and doing triathlons at age 69. He was a very kind man and very respectful. Then Elder Wallace shared a very personal story about him. He got talking about how his Mom had stage 4 cancer and recently passed away from it. It was shocking to hear. I can't even imagine what he is going through being on a mission and having to go through something like that. It was unbearably hard on him as you could imagine. We had a great talk with him and he told us that he already has a Book of Mormon but hasnt read it much. We invited him to read it and he said that he may come to church in New Paltz this Sunday! So after our APF, we headed over to the Church to do language and companionship study. Then we had an appointment with a really cool guy named Jack Klix. He just turned 81 and works on fixing cars and loves every second of it. He has been reading the Book of Mormon a ton and has lots of great questions! We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he asked why there couldn't be a simplified version because he was having a really hard time understanding it an applying it to himself. We read some scriptures with him and then headed to have some dinner! I have to tell you something really cool! We have Jack's lesson in his garage that had a nice couch and area to relax. So we walked into his garage and I couldn't beleive what I saw! He had two 1950s dark blue Volvo cars sitting in his garage. Volvos are pretty rare since they are from Sweden especially that old. I told him that my last name is Swedish and he thought that was pretty cool! Then we went to McDonald's for dinner since it was so close and that's what sounded really good to the both of us. Then after dinner, we went to the Church for ward correlation meeting. I wasn't any help because they talked about investigators and the ward member and since I didn't know any of them, I wasn't much help. After ward correlation, we headed back to Kingston to unsplit. Elder Howard and Elder Newbold were at the Parks' house having a late dinner and invited us to come unsplit there. So we drove to their house and had some really good papusas and tamales! It was just a quick visit because it was almost 9:00 so we headed back to the apartment for the night after a great and busy day! One cool thing that I have noticed about upstate is that there are SO many different license plates! I have seen TONS of different and cool licence plates! I have been keeping track my whole mission of the licence plates that I see. Get ready for a crazy statistic! So far, I have seen 33 out of the 50 license plates! Crazy huh! I have seen tons of Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maine, Delware, Connecticut and of course New York license plates. It has been really amazing! The greenery up here is so cool as well! There are lots of winding roads and beautiful trees and hills. It has been so cool to serve here! While we were on our split, Elder Howard and Elder Newbold told me that they had a great lesson with Manny and that he was getting really excited for his baptism! That night, it was SO humid outside. I have never felt so much moisture in the air before. It was so sticky outside and really wasn't very nice to be out in. It had rained a little bit off and on which made it even more humid. It was a very great day!
Saturday was a really great day as well! I woke up and was thinking about you Dubbie all day as you started your season! I was cheering for you and hoping you were crushing the other team! Look out for big #41!!! I really was thinking about you all day and wishing so much that I could see you play! I know you will have a great season! Know that I miss being there for you and that is very hard to miss but there will be lots more seasons to come!
Sunday was so awesome!! I woke up and I was SO very excited to see that I had an email from you! Your emails always make my day! I was SO excited to hear that Brandon won his game!!!! It was really weird not to be there but I knew that he was having a good time! GO DUBBIE!!
Monday was such an amazing day!!! I have some incredible news and I can't wait to tell you all about it!! First of all, Happy Eclipse everyone! Elder Howard's parents sent him a card and it had 2 pairs of eclipse glasses for us both to watch the eclipse. His Dad told him all about it and what time we could see it. We woke up, did our studies and headed off to New Paltz for District Meeting! We were really excited because usually when we have a conference call at a different time other than Thursdays at 10:00, then it's usually something really exciting and important! So we had a great District Meeting and then we all anxiously waited for the Conference Call to start. It was rescheduled from the night before and so we were all really.......REALLY anxious! Then President Smith called in and told us some incredible news!!! He said: "Elder and Sisters, we are so grateful and blessed to be welcoming in another Apostle to our mission! We are pleased to have Elder Gong and Bishop Waddell from the Presiding Bishopric touring our mission!" Which we were told a week ago so we were excited about that! Then he announced that.....wait....for.....it!!! He told us that President Russell M. Nelson would be touring the mission in a few weeks!!! How cool is that!! I can't believe all of the amazing people that I have been able to meet! So in a few weeks, President Nelson will come tour our mission just like Elder Gong did my first month here. It will be so exciting! He has always been one of my favorites! I looked up when he was born and he turns 93 on September 9th. I can't believe that he is still touring missions and traveling at the age of 93. It really is amazing! So we are all very excited and the whole mission is buzzing with excitement! Then after District Meeting, we drove back to Kingston and and went to the church to share a message with the guys that play basketball but they weren't there. We then drove back to the apartment and got to do something really cool! We looked at the eclipse and it was so amazing! Then we went inside to have some lunch and then we went to a lesson that we had with Ryan! We talked with a really great member named Isaac Blue and we invited him to come with us for our lesson and he gladly accepted! So we picked him up and drove him to our lesson! We had a really great lesson with Ryan! He is such a great guy but is always so hard on himself. He always tells us that he isn't good enough to come to Church or get baptized. We were really excited because we were going to set a baptismal date with him but he still just won't accept the invitation. He feels like he has to be 100% perfect and make absolutely no mistakes. We always tell him that is why we have the atonement because we are all not perfect and we all make mistakes. It was a very good lesson and he felt a lot better. He struggles with self confidence issues and so he beats himself up for making a mistake and he thinks that he has to be perfect. Brother Blue had some great comments and shared lots of cool personal experiences. Then after our lesson with Ryan, we brought Brother Blue back to his house and then did some lookups before going back to the apartment for dinner. We were both really happy about how the lesson went even though we didn't set a baptismal date with him. It was a really great and packed day! It is always go, go, go and we are always busy which is awesome!
Tuesday was a really great day! I was so very excited to get you email last night! I have been looking forward to it all week! We had a very busy and great day yesterday with lots of appointments! We woke up, excercied, did our studies and then we drove over to visit lots of people! Something really fun that happened is that Elder Howard got a package on Monday from his family. It said to wait and open it yesterday. He had no idea why he got a package and why it needed to be opened on a certain day. It was his 100 day mark until he goes home! It's so crazy to think that he is so close because 100 days go by so quick. It had tons of treats in plastic baggies that had 100 of everything like 100 Cheetos, 100 fruit loops and then he got a card saying that they put some money on Elder Howard's personal debit card for us both to go eat out! It was funny because his Mom found a restraunt called "The 99 Pub" and it is a restraunt in downtown Kingston to go out to eat today since he had 99 days left. So after we did our lookups and scheduled a few lessons, we drove back to the apartment really quick since we had a service project to help Sister Falatyn in her garden by weeding and doing yard work. So we changed into our service clothes and had lunch and then drove down the street to her beautiful house. We helped her dig out 5 little bushes roots and all and then we transported them into buckets so she could water them and replant them in a different spot. She is a very nice lady but is still very offended by the ward and so she hasn't come to Church in over 10 years. It is so sad that such a great lady isn't partaking of the blessings of coming to church and taking the Sacrament. We dug up her little bushes and then gave them a drink and then she had an ice cold Sprite for us. It was a great reward for a few hours of hard work out in the humidity. It was such a pretty day and the skies were as blue as could be! Which reminds me, the weather has been so nice the last month. There hasn't been any extremely hot days but most days are so nice and pleasant to be out in! We had a great discussion with her and her son Bill who was home since we have to have a 3rd male with us at every visit. Bill lives in her house and he is about 30 years old. We had a really great time with her and she was just so appreciative of our work and desire to help her. Our whole goal is to show love and support to her and remind her that people do really care about her. Our goal for yesterday's visit was to invite her to come back to church. We read a talk during our companionship study called: "And none shall get offended" by David A Bednar. It was such a great talk and he basically just tells everyone to stop being offended and just come back to church. He says thst it is hurting you and every generation that follows you for not coming to church and choosing to be offended. It was a great talk! Sister Falatyn was talking to us and she said that she was going to Florida and would check out the Church there since every ward is different and so we didn't even have to invite her to Church! The spirit was telling her before we even came over to come back to Church! It was perfect and we were so happy that she wants to come back! So we drove to the apartment to shower and change because we had an appointment at 4:00 with Sister Nanci Shambo and he friend, Anne. Sister Shambo was the lady who fell and we helped back up. She always makes us really good milkshakes every time we come over. It's pretty funny because she is very proud of her milkshake recipes and is always trying to make them better. We always look forward to having her delicious milkshakes every time we go over! We went over and taught the Restoration to them and it went really well! She had a delicious chocolate milkshake for each of us and then we headed for our dinner! We had a great time and the restraunt was really cool! It had lots of sports memorabilia from the Kingston High School football team and lots of amazing pictures, paintings, and signs from Kingston. I got some really good honey mustard and ranch buffalo wings! They were amazing! So we had dinner and I thanked Elder Howard and he said not to thank him because it was his parents that paid for it. It was a fun treat thing to do since he only has 99 days left! Then after our dinner, we quickly drove over to the Church to share a message with the guys who play basketball! Then we went to a lesson with Carmello and read the 1st chapter of the Book of Mormon with him! It was a really awesome day!
Well my amazing family! It has been a blast to email you and read your emails and look through your pictures and videos! I just want to send my love your way as you start a new year fresh of school. It was so wierd not to have a summer and work. I feel like I should be in school right now. You are all in my every thought and prayer and I always pray for blessings in your lives. I appreciate all of your love and comfort! Your emails always make me feel so much love and I appreciate your words of comfort as well! Good luck at school!! LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!
Love You Always!
~Elder Lindberg
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