September 13th 2017~So Amazing To Meet President Nelson!! Thanks So Much For The Letter!!
Hello my dear and amazing Family! WHAT AN INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE IT WAS TO MEET AND HEAR FROM PRESIDENT NELSON! It is really cool to think that you will be able to listen to the whole talk! Holy smokes! Another week has absolutely flown by and I can't believe it is already P-Day! This week has been incredible to say the least! Meeting President Nelson was one of the coolest things I have ever done! All I can say is WOW! Thank you all so much for the letter, email, and pictures! I loved seeing the stadium and Mom and Parker watching the Aggies and cheering them on to victory! I'm so happy that they won! Your email was so great as usual and I downloaded the pictures to look at! I hope I can remember everything that had gone on this week because it has been so packed with amazing events! I hope you all have another great week at work, school, football, and everything else going on! I think about you all the time and wish you a great week! I feel so much love and so many prayers as well! Love and miss each and every one of you!!!
Last P-Day was really awesome! I had so much fun emailing you! We had such a great time with Sister Cross and she told us all about your texts that she got from you and how amazing you are! She wishes thst she could have a son out on a mission. We enjoyed looking through the grocery store and then I found some really good spicy California sushi and a Boylan root beer. I enjoyed it so much while I emailed all of you! It was so relaxing and I feel so much love when I read your emails! I was so excited to go to Wal-Mart and pick up your order! So after we got done emailing, we drove to Wal-Mart to do our weekly shopping and then I got my order! I think it is really funny that is says that the toothpaste was returned. I have no idea what that's all about
Then we drove back to the apartment, put away our groceries, and then I sent out my last few emails for the week. I am always sad when 6:00 rolls around. Then, we took some frog eye salad that Elder Howard made to Sister Falatyn and gave some to Sister Cross when we met her at the store! They both appreciated it very much and then we drove over to the Sagazie's house for dinner again! They love having us over so much and they always make us really good food! They made us seasoned pork chops, potato wedge fries, suqatash, and a juice drink with 7 different fruits and vegetables. It was all very good! Then we read 1 Nephi Chapter 2 with them and they really enjoyed it. We are trying to commit them to reading on their own but they say that they need help understanding the scriptures and so they like it when we can be right there with them to answer any questions that they might have. It was a great lesson! By that time, we needed to head back to the apartment for the night after such a great P-Day! I was recharged and ready to go!!!
Thursday was a really great day as well! I feel like Heavenly Father blesses me with having great days, every day! I can feel your prayers each and every day as I get up and have a good attitude even when things are hard. I noticed that Utah State was playing Idaho State that night and I was wishing I could be there with you so bad! I really missed not being there! It was kind of a crazy day but it was really awesome! So, we woke up and did our studies and then we had a Conference Call from President Smith! He shared some of the cool experiences that were sent it to him that are going on all around the mission. Then.........he said: "It has come to my attention that it is President Nelson's birthday this Saturday!" I thought it was so cool that I was the one to tell him! He said that he spoke to Russell M. Nelson's secretary and said that he wanted the conference to be for us and he didn't want to detract from the meeting. How cool is that?? He is a really selfless and kind man! So we had a great conference call and we got all of the details about travel plans and how the meeting is going to go! Then after that, we had lunch and then drove to the Church to do our weekly planning! We had a great planning meeting and scheduled lots of appointments and service! Then, we went to go pick up Isaac again for one of the most interesting lessons I have ever been a part of. Isaac is always so willing to come with us and he contributes so much to our lessons! So we picked him up and his house and had a great conversation with him on the way to Ryan's house! So, this lesson didn't go according to plan. We were really trying to figure out what Ryan needs because he Haas so many questions about the Church and is just trying to do what's right. We have been kind of stuck with him in a way because he has been taught almost everything but he isn't reading the Book of Mormon or coming to Church and so there really isn't anything that we can do other than just read the Book of Mormon with him and walk him through it. Then, Ryan poured out all of his feeling and really let us know how he was feeling. He talked, and talked, and talked, and talked some more all about what he was feeling. He says that he is trying to find the true church on the face of the Earth because he knows that there is only 1. Elder Howard and I both wanted to yell with joy and say: "Well you found it!!!" He has literally found the only true church but he won't take the next leap of faith and read the Book of Mormon and come to Church. All we could do is just testify and tell him that this is the true church. He is having an internal struggling with himself because he wants to do what is right. He went into great depth of how our church is wrong and he basically tried to tell us to quit being missionaries and go find the true "End time" Church is what he calls it. Then he got really defensive and kind of angry with us. He said that because our church is "breaking the 10 commandments" by having church on Sunday, we shouldn't be out even being missionaries. It is a long and confusing story with Ryan. He ranted and went on for a pretty long time about our beliefs are so different and that he hasn't found the right church for him. We testified and the spirit filled the room as Elder Howard, Isaac and I testified about eternal families and how much this Gospel and Church means to us and how much happiness and joy it has brought us. We basically told him that this is the true Church on the Earth today and that Jospeh Smith did restore the Church. We noticed a big change in Ryan this lesson and we knew something was different. He explained that he will continue his search for the true church that keeps all of the commandments......even though we do!!! We kept telling and teaching him that our church does keep all of the commandments but he wasn't buying it. He says that having the Sabath Day on Sunday was organized many years ago to deceive and trick people into believing that the Sabath Day is on Sunday. It was pretty ridiculous some of the things he was saying and getting into. Then he pretty much said that we can still be friends but he doesn't want to continue our lessons. This was pretty hard for Elder Howard and I to swallow. We thought he was making such growth and progress but it just isn't his time. President Smith always says that agency in the greatest gift to man and that everyone uses their agency differently. It is always hard to have investigators discontinue lessons but we know he will be ready someday. We will limit our contact with him so he can see a hole in his life after he stops meeting with us for a few months. Then he will go "oh, I really liked it when they came over and now I have a hole." It is very effective and it gives them a chance to work out their apprehensions easier. We were so sad to walk out of their house for perhaps the last time for a while. We gave Ryan a handshake and told him what a great guy he is! They are very good people but they basically said that it wasn't their time for the Gospel. We think that if Ryan would have taken that leap of faith and read the Book of Mormon and came to Church, he would have been more accepting and willing to change. Everyone has a time and his time isn't now. After our lesson, we were in good spirits even though it was hard to say goodbye to a good friend that we have spent so much time with. We dropped Isaac off at his house and then drove over to Josh and Adal's restaurant and had a great lesson with them before we drove back to the apartment for the night. It was a really great and packed day full of great missionary work!
Friday was a very great day! We woke up ready for another great and productive day of hard work! We did our studies and then headed out the door to visit David! He wasn't home so we did lots of other lookups and then went to the Mid Hudson Buffet with Sister Wootton for lunch! There is always something so good to eat there and enjoy so much talking with her and letting her know how the work is going! Then after lunch we did lots of lookups and found a lady from Poland. We were excited because that is where Sister Parks is from! We talked to lots of cool people and then went to go visit Kari and did tons of lookups and knocked on lots of doors to try to find people to teach. Then we went to go visit Nick who we found a few weeks ago and it was so great! We talked a lot about how much the Gospel and Book of Mormon can and will bless his life. Then we went to Sister Heil's apartment and boy.....was that an experience. She is a very nice lady who is in her mid 50s and lives were her husband who isn't a member. Let me just paint a mental picture of how this place smells. This poor lady has to live with a husband who has to smoke about 2 or 3 times every 5 minutes. But instead of him going outside, he just does it in their tiny apartment and so the smoke just sits there stagnant. You walk in and there is just a cloud of cigarette smoke. It is the strongest smell of cigarettes thst I've ever smelled in my life. It was so bad that it almost took my breath away and I couldn't take it. We didn't want to be rude and ask if we could have the lesson outside so we stuck it out for a half an hour. It was so hard to concentrate on the Book of Mormon and what we were reading. I don't mean to complain but it was really, really bad. We thanked her for her time and then headed back to the apartment and had dinner. We feel really bad for her because she is such a nice lady and really does love her husband even though he has this addiction. She has developed many health problems just because of all the smoke she inhales each and every day. Elder Howard and I both smelled like avid smokers after just 25 minutes in her apartment. My clothes were emanating the smell of smoke and so we both had to come back to the apartment and change completely into new clothes. It was a great lesson but pretty hard to sit through. Then we had dinner and then met a lady that has been talking with Sister Missionaries in Salt Lake and she has really been enjoying it so they referred her to us. We met her at a really nice gas station convenience store and gave her a Book of Mormon and gave her the brief rundown of the Restoration. She really enjoyed it but she had to get going so we said goodbye and scheduled another time to come back! Then we went to a lesson with Bill and it went so well! We talked all about his Baptism coming up and what we still needed to do to get ready! We are all so very excited and can't wait for this special event! We went through all of the interview questions and explained how everything at the Baptism will go! It was really great and then we got a text saying that President Smith was going to have a Conference Call and we we had to be back by 8:45. We were so excited to hear from him and he explained how travel plans will work and the agenda for the meeting! He told us the final details before we all went to bed. We all couldn't wait and then I was SO excited to see your email! It was such a great way to cap off the night!!! Thanks so much for your amazing email!
WOW...WOW...WOW!!!!! What an incredible and amazing day! Words can't describe how awesome it was! We woke up so, so excited to go to Manhattan for our Conference! It was such a great day as you could imagine! We woke up and got ready for the day and then we drove over to the Church and got there at 9:00 to help Brother Harris who is the 1st counselor in the Bishopric, fill up the Baptisimal font for a baptism that was going on that day. There is a member named Brother Pease who's son lives in Idaho and they came up to New York for his Grandson's baptism. We felt bad that we couldn't stay for it but we were glad to help out! We helped him mop up and clean the font before we started the water and then we said goodbye to him and then Elder Howard and I drove to Newburgh! We couldn't wait and knew that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity! So we got to Newburgh and we got there right on time and everything went to smooth! It took us about 45 minutes to get to Newburgh and then another hour and a half to get to Manhattan. The drive was amazing as usual and it was so weird to be in the city again. We pulled up into the Inwood chapel which is the area right next to the Bronx that I was in. We had 2 huge passenger vans that the office Elders drive and we had about 10 missionaries in each one. I found out something really cool! Elder Dick got called to serve in the office! He is now an office Elder and so it was really gold to see him! So we all got out of the vans and I just took a look around and it was so amazing to see so many missionaries walking down the street in the Bronx. It was such a cool experience! Then we had to buy MetroCards and use our mission cards to buy 2 trips on the subway. Then we took the subway from Inwood to downtown Manhattan! I love the city and I love everything that is going on! It is just so different and there is always something cool going on! So we had a little bit of time before they wanted us to go into the chapel and so we decided to have some lunch at one of the food carts thst they have all over the place! There is a cart thst everyone knows by name that sells these really good gyros that everyone loves so of course I wanted to try it! So we both got one and it was so good! We had a really fun time talking with the other missionaries and spending some time in the big city before we headed inside to the Temple! I just couldn't help but think as I was talking to some of the missionaries that I am starting to become one of the "older missionaries"! I was talking to one of the Elder that was in our van and he got here last Tuesday and I just thought to myself how new he is! I enjoyed talking with him because he is straight from Columbia and he learned English in the MTC! It was such a pretty drive! To get there by car, we actually got to go into New Jersey for about 20 minutes which was so cool and amazing because they had the best views of Manhattan from the bridge that we were on! I feel bad because I couldn't get very many pictures because I was in the middle. It was really incredible! So we got to Manhattan and enjoyed the many sights and then we bought our food! Then as Elder Howard and I were eating, a guy came up to us and he was a member just about to go into the Temple for his Sister's wedding. We asked him where he was from andnhe said he was from Boise Idaho! I was so excited to tell him that I have been there and love it! We had a great conversation and then it was time to head in for the big Conference! I'm so excited to tell you about something that I got that will be a keepsake for years to come!! So all 200 missionaries from the mission piled into the gym of the chapel in the Temple! We went into the gym and there was prelude music playing and they had everything all set up for a picture! President Smith told us that President Nelson requested a picture and handshake from each missionary. Luckily all of the missionaries got there right on time and they told us to plan ahead to be there by 1:30 since President Nelson and every one else showed up at 2:00 so we could be right ready for the picture! I can't even describe how lucky and blessed I am to be in this mission and that we get to have these good men and their wives come speak to us! I mean just having 1 of the people there would have been amazing enough but we had President Nelson, Elder Gong of the presidency of the seventy, Bishop Waddell from the Presiding Bishopric, and President Buckner who just got called to be the area seventy, and all of their wives! I mean, that is just so amazing! So all of the missionaries got there right on time and everything went so smoothly. They had us all take our spots for the picture while singing hymns. Then we waited about 10 minutes in our position just singing and then in walks President Nelson! Talk about feeling the Holy Ghost! He walked in and we all started singing "We Thank Thee, Oh God For A Prophet" and it was one of the most amazing things ever. The spirit just filled the room as he walked in. Then following right behind him was Elder Gong and his wife, and Bishop Waddell and his wife. It was a true testimony builder for me to have these great men and their wives in the room teaching us. President Nelson and his wife walked arm in arm and listened to us as we sang. I can't even put into words the feeling that I had! They all listened and then President Nelson said "Wonderful! We all made it!" He is such a powerful man and just the way he conducts himself was contagious! I could feel of his enthusiasm and love so much! So we took the picture and afterwards I was so excited to see it! We went into the chapel for our Meeting which was incredible! While We were standing there and after President Nelson walked in, we heard from the very back row that a missionary had passed out. Can you believe that?!? Elder Staker who was trained by Elder Howard got way too hot from standing with everyone that he passed out from it. It didn't distract from anything because he woke right up and was fine after that but still really crazy! After the picture, we all filed into the Chapel and We got to shake everyone's hands which was amazing! President Nelson looked right into my eyes and said "Elder Lindberg, it is SO good to see you and be with you today." I just felt so much love even just for the brief few seconds we were together. It was amazing to have him call me by name! Then we went down the line and shook everyone else's hand and then the meeting got started! We started by singing "Redeemer of Israel" and then Sister Waddell spoke, then Bishop Waddell, Sister Gong, Elder Gong, Sister Nelson, and then President Nelson spoke. Their talks were all incredible to say the least. I couldn't beleive how young President Nelson seems for being 93! He is still sharp as a tack and is such a powerful speaker. They all talked about how the Book of Mormon is our most powerful tool as missionaries and then they also talked about you all! President Nelson got up to speak and he did such an amazing job! He started his talk by saying how grateful he was for us and what we are doing and then he said "It almost feels like my Birthday!" "Oh wait.....it is my Birthday!" He would crack a few really funny jokes here and there! His talk was on missionary work and how we can improve and become better. He said that we could first send home a letter or email to your family and thank them for all that you do and for all of your support and tell you how much I love you! I'm so happy to say that Elder Howard used his recorder that he has to record the whole meeting and he is going to give it to me! I can't wait for you to hear it! We had the best time ever and loved hearing all of the amazing talks! It truely was a once in a lifetime opportunity! I just want to hear my testimony that I KNOW without a doubt that this church is true! I have found my own testimony through sincere scripture study and through the experiences that I have been blessed with so far. I KNOW that Joseph Smith is a true Prophet who did restore this great church! I am so grateful for this Gospel and for all of your rightous examples and love. Being with President Nelson just strengthened my testimony even more. These experiences are building and building into an unshakable testimony that will last my whole life. I heard a quote one time that says a missionary is his own greatest convert. I am truely converted to this Gospel and will not deny it. I am just so thankful for all of you and everything that you do for me! You truely are the greatest and most loving family in the world! I have been so blessed to be your son, brother, grandson, or cousin. I am working hard and trying my best to make you all proud! I just wanted you to know that I love you and that I KNOW this church is true!!!! So after all of the amazing talks, President Nelson stood up and so we all did to and then he slowly walked out and into the elevator. It was so cool to think that the next time I would see him is on tv in General Conference! It was one of the coolest and most spiritual experiences of my life! I am so blessed to have been able to be a part of this great event! Ok, here is the cool souvenir that I got! I know you will think that I am really weird but you know how sentimental I am when it comes to these kinds of things. We went back into the chapel to take the back entrance of the Temple. We were saying goodbye to each other and we were just about to leave when I saw something. On the comfy soft chairs that President Nelson, Elder Gong, Bishop Waddell, President Smith and their wives were sitting, there was a slip of paper telling everyone where to sit. They had the names of everyone and President Nelson and President Smith were right next to each other as you saw in the picture. So these strips of paper with the names on them were just sitting there and so I asked one of the senior couples who made them if I could have President Nelson's. She said that they were going to get thrown away anyway and so I grabbed President Nelson's tag that was on his seat. Pretty cool I thought!!! So I put it in my bag as a souvenir to say that President Nelson sat in the chair that this was on!! Weird I know but I thought it was cool! I can't wait to show you all when I come home! So after that, we took the train back to Inwood and then we waited in the parking lot for another group of missionaries and then we found out some bad news. 2 sets of missionaries took the wrong train headed in the wrong direction that only makes a few stops a few miles apart and so they were about 45 minutes away from where they needed to be. So we waited for them and it almost took them an hour to get back to the Inwood chapel. It was pretty crazy! Then we had a great trip back to Newburgh and we saw some really awesome cars! We saw 2 Lamborghini Mercialagos and lots of Porsches! Then as we were driving we saw a Utah license plate! I wanted to get a picture of it but it sped off before I could take one. Then we got back to Newburgh and Elder Wallace gave me a letter and it was from you! I can't thank you enough for the amazing letter thst you sent! I was so happy to get it and I loved everything that you said! I loved seeing your handwriting so much! THANKS! We drove back to the Church straight from Newburgh and cleaned up the font from the baptism thst happened that morning. We were on cloud 9 and were so grateful we had the experience of going to Manhattan and hearing from such amazing men and women! It was a truely amazing day that I will never forget!
Sunday was great! I am so happy to say that we had a total of 6 investigators thst came to Church! It was so great! We woke up and had to hurry because we had Ward Council at 8:30. We enjoyed talking about everyone that we are teaching and whose faith we are building! We talked about Bill and his Baptism coming up. Then after our meeting, we had a really great sacrament meeting and Brother Lopez brought Bill to Church! Then we had Michael Young who is really hard to teach because he doesn't give out his address to anyone and so we just get to see him when he comes to Church on his own. Then Alejandro who is a member brought Felix and Jonathan! Then we had the Velasco's bring Joshua and Adal and then Brother Larin's daughter's boyfriend was there and so we had 6 investigators in Church! Then, Sister Shambo's friend who we are teaching got a ride from Sister Wootton! It was so amazing to see all of these people come and enjoy Church! It let us know that our hard work is paying off and that people are seeing the blessing that come from coming to Church! After church, we drove back to the apartment and had lunch and then headed back out into the beautiful, cool weather! It reminds me of football every time I feel that crispness in the air. It was even chilly! Then I realized that it was probably opening day of NFL football and thst was pretty hard to miss. I just miss so much spending time with you all! I love watching and going to football games with you so much and so it has been even harder to be away from home. Being away from you has been the hardest thing by far. This time of year just reminds me of when you dropped me off and that fun time of going to school at Utah State, working, going to Aggie football games, and getting my mission call. I really can't believe that it is almost my 2nd General Conference on my mission. I mean.....i'm almost to 8 months!?!? How is that possible. I know how many more football games we will be able to watch and go to together when I get home so that gives me a lot of peace. Those memories are so special to me!! We went to go visit Sierra and Lorenzo, Dorrette, David Salas, but none of them were home so we left them cards and wrote inspirational messages on them telling them that we are thinking about them and that they are cared for. Then we went to visit Marco who is in 6th grade. He didn't come to Church so we went and said Hi to him and scheduled an appointment. Then we called Sister Wootton to see if she could come with us to an appointment with Danielle and she was pretty nervous about the Hurricane Irma in Florida. It has been all the talk around here and everyone seems to know somebody who's house in right in the thick of it. She said that her grandson didn't want to leave their house so he made his wife who is having a baby soon, drive out of town while he held down the fort in Florida. I was thinking about and prayer for Matt, Jay, Megan, and little Nathan that they would be safe. She told us how terrible the storms were and how fast the wind gusts were. We had a great conversation and then came back to the apartment for dinner and Elder Howard and I made some cookies and muffins to take to a few families. He likes to do most of the baking so I don't get to very often and you know how much I love to help you in the kitchen Mom and Dad! Making dinners with you is one of my fondest memories! I am so grateful for them and I'm so glad I have those memories! I can't wait to continue when I get home! Then after dinner, we got a call from Brother McClure and he wanted us to come with him again to take the sacrament to Lacey. So we took a plate of cookies to the Smith family and then we met Brother McClure at the care center and we gave Lacey the Sacrament and shared a spiritual thought. Then we dropped a plate of muffins to the Parks family and had a great lesson with them! The Baptista family was there and so we got to teach lots of people! We taught the lids about making the right decisions and standing up for what you believe in since school just started and they may be faced with tough decisions. Then after our quick visit, we drove over to Lisa Martin's house to bring her a plate of muffins as well and had a great visit with her. Apparently, she told us that Elder Hughes, who was the missionary here before me, is now engaged about 2 weeks after meeting her. He got home less than 2 months ago and met her about 2 and a half weeks ago and now they are engaged. Crazy huh!? I think that is way to fast but hey, that is just me.
We had a great lesson with her and then we said goodbye and drove down the street back to the apartment for the day! It was a really great and productive day!
Monday was such a great day as well! I couldn't believe that I was in New York on September 11th. I was thinking about it the whole day. It's just crazy to think that it happened 16 years ago. If I was still in the Bronx apartment, I could have seen the huge lights that they shine out of the fountains each year. Maybe I will even be in Manhattan next year which would be so cool! I got an email from Sister Smith and she sent 2 pictures of President Nelson and I!!! How cool!! She told me to treasure them forever because you never know, he could be the next prophet! I was so happy to see them and couldn't wait to show you! We had such a great District Meeting! Elder Wallace is our District Leader and he did a great job at running the show. We talked about all of our investigators and then talked about how we can better use service to our advantage and get some new investigators. Then we came back to the apartment and had lunch. Then we went to go visit Manny but unfortunately he wasn't home. Then we did lots of lookups and not a single person was home. It was pretty hard but then we had an appointment with our new investigator Danielle, and we were going to have Sister Wootton come with us and have a lesson and church tour. We called her a few times and she didn't answer so Sister Wootton and Elder Howard and I showed up to the gas station but she wasn't there. So we went down the street to try to find her address but the address didn't exist. So we knocked on a door thst didn't have house number at all and an older lady answered and told us that Danielle lived there but she wasn't home! It was a small miracle that we found where she lived! It was so amazing! Danielle got called in to do some babysitting and so she wasn't there. We scheduled another time to come back and thanked Sister Wootton for her kindness. Then we went to go knock on lots of door but not very many people were home. There have been tons and tons kids from all of the different school and so we are very careful when we drive around. There is so much going on! Then, we decided to go to Bill's house a little early since our appointment with Danielle didn't work out. We called him up and he was really excited for us to come over! So we went over to Bill's house and he wanted to watch the Restoration video and read from the Book of Mormon and so we watched the video and he really enjoyed it! We all felt the spirit so strong and enjoyed teaching him! He is getting really excited for his baptism! We read Alma 52 with him since that is where he is at in his reading. Then we talked about his Baptism and he gave us some names of who he would like to give short talks and baptize him. Then after our lesson we came back for dinner and then we changed into clothes to do service in and went over to the Walker's house to help them out. They felt bad because they lost some of the tools that we were going to use to help them mud the walls of their mother in law suite out back. They didn't have much for us to do and then Sister Thompson came over and brought them dinner. Brother Walker just went in the other day for the first of his skin cancer treatment. We have been keeping him in our prayers because it has been so hard for their family. Sister Thompson came over and Sister Walker told her that she could have as many apples as she wanted off of their tree so we helped her pick lots of apples. I had been thinking about September 11th all day and I just couldn't beleive that i am in New York for such a crazy and sad event. I asked her where she was that day and she said she was at a repair shop getting tires put on her car when the lady behind the counter told her the news. The lady that was working at the repair shop had a son high up in one of the towers but got out safe and sound. You know how much September 11th fascinates me and so it is amazing to hear these stories firsthand from people thst were there. I hope I get to serve in Manhattan next year and talk with people who were actually in Manhattan. So many people lives were affected that day. It was great to talk to her and then we said goodbye and drove over to the Goodwill that is just around the corner to see if there is a white shirt that Bill could have since he doesn't have a real dressy shirt. We thought we would surprise him with a tie that was Elder Hughes' and a white shirt. They had a really nice almost brand new Van Huesen white shirt for $8.99 so we decided to get it. Well, the woman behind the counter made our day! She folded it up all nice and commented on how nice the shirt was. She asked who it was for and we told her it was for a friend of ours who was getting baptized. She was so happy to hear that and said "You know what I'm going to do for you today? I'm just going to give it to you." We couldn't believe it! We insisted on paying her but she wouldn't take it. I was a miracle and such a great blessing! We were so happy and excited! Then we drove over to the Church and worked on Bill's Baptisimal program and then drove home for the night! It was such a great day!
I totally forgot to tell you last P-day that yesterday was Zone Conferences! I couldn't believe how fast time has gone and that we are already to another one! I couldn't wait for yesterday night to get your amazing email! We had to wake up a little bit early since we had a 45 minute drive to Newburgh and had to be there by 8:00 for breakfast! It was such a nice and pretty drive! I got to enjoy the views as Elder Howard drove us! So we got to the Newburgh chapel and they announced that the vehicle coordinator senior couple missionaries would be inspecting our cars while the conference was going. We got it all nice and vacuumed out and looking like a new penny! Then we went i side to have breakfast and had a wonderful conference! They took lots of pictures and so I hope there were lots of cool ones on the blog! They did such an amazing job with our Conference! They talked a lot about how we can become better missioanries and how we can find new people to teach! It strengthened and built my faith so much! I always love these conferences because I feel the spirit so strong and love hearing from President and Sister Smith! William is a really funny kid and loves all of the missionaries! I just remember seeing pictures of these conferences before I even left and here I am in the thick of it! It is so cool! Zone Conference took up most of the day and so by the time we got back to Kingston, it was 4:30. We went to a lesson with Anne and Sister Shambo and I can't even describe how great the lesson went! Anne is changing so much and really feeling the spirit so much! We read from the Book of Mormon and asked Anne to say the closing prayer. She was nervous because she had never said a vocal prayer and had no idea how our church prayed. We helped her every step of the way and she said a great prayer! She started by saying: "Dear Heavenly Father, it's Anne, I'm going to pray now and I want you to listen." She has a very timid voice and so it was great to hear her pray! It was a really awesome lesson and we were so grateful to be a part of that great experience! My faith has been increased so much and I just want you to know how much this Gospel has blessed my life and I know it has blessed all of our lives. As we all strive to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I know that families that we teach can find so much more happiness and joy. I love this Gospel and love sharing it with others because it has brought me SO much joy and has blessed my life more than anything! You are the best family ever! Your love and support makes my life so much more enjoyable! So after our lesson, we drove over to visit Marco but he and his family were just getting into the car as we were pulling up and so they couldn't meet but we kept trying! We did a few lookups at Dorette, Kristina, and the Nash family. None of them were home so we knew that Heavenly Father needed us somewhere else. We were walking down the street to knock on a few doors and it was getting pretty late and we walked passed a covered bus stop and a couple were sitting and having a smoke break. We said hello to them and then got into a conversation. Their names are Gary and Cheri. Cheri is a pancreatic cancer survivor and so we asked her how she made it through that trial and if she ever prayed to help her. She said that she hadn't ever really prayed and so we gave her a Book of Mormon and Restoration pamphlet and invited her to read them. We promised that reading and applying what she learns will bless her life more than anything! It was such a great way to cap off the night! I was so excited to see your email when we got back to the apartment! I couldn't wait to read it!
Well my dear and amazing family, you know how much I love emailing you and reading your emails and seeing your pictures! I always love knowing you are reading them and looking at my pictures! Today for P-Day we are doing something really cool! Our Zone Leaders organized an activity for our whole Zone to go Apple picking! We will drive down to New Paltz and get there at about 11:00. I feel bad that I may not be able to read emails until we get back to the apartment to go shopping and finish laundry. I hope I can talk back and forth today! I want you to know how much I love, miss, and appreciate you! I miss being there with you all so much. I know how fast time flies and I will be in Elder Burt's position before we all know it. I hope you all have such a great week and have lots of fun as well! LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!
Love You Always!
~Elder Lindberg
Hello my dear and amazing Family! WHAT AN INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE IT WAS TO MEET AND HEAR FROM PRESIDENT NELSON! It is really cool to think that you will be able to listen to the whole talk! Holy smokes! Another week has absolutely flown by and I can't believe it is already P-Day! This week has been incredible to say the least! Meeting President Nelson was one of the coolest things I have ever done! All I can say is WOW! Thank you all so much for the letter, email, and pictures! I loved seeing the stadium and Mom and Parker watching the Aggies and cheering them on to victory! I'm so happy that they won! Your email was so great as usual and I downloaded the pictures to look at! I hope I can remember everything that had gone on this week because it has been so packed with amazing events! I hope you all have another great week at work, school, football, and everything else going on! I think about you all the time and wish you a great week! I feel so much love and so many prayers as well! Love and miss each and every one of you!!!
Last P-Day was really awesome! I had so much fun emailing you! We had such a great time with Sister Cross and she told us all about your texts that she got from you and how amazing you are! She wishes thst she could have a son out on a mission. We enjoyed looking through the grocery store and then I found some really good spicy California sushi and a Boylan root beer. I enjoyed it so much while I emailed all of you! It was so relaxing and I feel so much love when I read your emails! I was so excited to go to Wal-Mart and pick up your order! So after we got done emailing, we drove to Wal-Mart to do our weekly shopping and then I got my order! I think it is really funny that is says that the toothpaste was returned. I have no idea what that's all about
Thursday was a really great day as well! I feel like Heavenly Father blesses me with having great days, every day! I can feel your prayers each and every day as I get up and have a good attitude even when things are hard. I noticed that Utah State was playing Idaho State that night and I was wishing I could be there with you so bad! I really missed not being there! It was kind of a crazy day but it was really awesome! So, we woke up and did our studies and then we had a Conference Call from President Smith! He shared some of the cool experiences that were sent it to him that are going on all around the mission. Then.........he said: "It has come to my attention that it is President Nelson's birthday this Saturday!" I thought it was so cool that I was the one to tell him! He said that he spoke to Russell M. Nelson's secretary and said that he wanted the conference to be for us and he didn't want to detract from the meeting. How cool is that?? He is a really selfless and kind man! So we had a great conference call and we got all of the details about travel plans and how the meeting is going to go! Then after that, we had lunch and then drove to the Church to do our weekly planning! We had a great planning meeting and scheduled lots of appointments and service! Then, we went to go pick up Isaac again for one of the most interesting lessons I have ever been a part of. Isaac is always so willing to come with us and he contributes so much to our lessons! So we picked him up and his house and had a great conversation with him on the way to Ryan's house! So, this lesson didn't go according to plan. We were really trying to figure out what Ryan needs because he Haas so many questions about the Church and is just trying to do what's right. We have been kind of stuck with him in a way because he has been taught almost everything but he isn't reading the Book of Mormon or coming to Church and so there really isn't anything that we can do other than just read the Book of Mormon with him and walk him through it. Then, Ryan poured out all of his feeling and really let us know how he was feeling. He talked, and talked, and talked, and talked some more all about what he was feeling. He says that he is trying to find the true church on the face of the Earth because he knows that there is only 1. Elder Howard and I both wanted to yell with joy and say: "Well you found it!!!" He has literally found the only true church but he won't take the next leap of faith and read the Book of Mormon and come to Church. All we could do is just testify and tell him that this is the true church. He is having an internal struggling with himself because he wants to do what is right. He went into great depth of how our church is wrong and he basically tried to tell us to quit being missionaries and go find the true "End time" Church is what he calls it. Then he got really defensive and kind of angry with us. He said that because our church is "breaking the 10 commandments" by having church on Sunday, we shouldn't be out even being missionaries. It is a long and confusing story with Ryan. He ranted and went on for a pretty long time about our beliefs are so different and that he hasn't found the right church for him. We testified and the spirit filled the room as Elder Howard, Isaac and I testified about eternal families and how much this Gospel and Church means to us and how much happiness and joy it has brought us. We basically told him that this is the true Church on the Earth today and that Jospeh Smith did restore the Church. We noticed a big change in Ryan this lesson and we knew something was different. He explained that he will continue his search for the true church that keeps all of the commandments......even though we do!!! We kept telling and teaching him that our church does keep all of the commandments but he wasn't buying it. He says that having the Sabath Day on Sunday was organized many years ago to deceive and trick people into believing that the Sabath Day is on Sunday. It was pretty ridiculous some of the things he was saying and getting into. Then he pretty much said that we can still be friends but he doesn't want to continue our lessons. This was pretty hard for Elder Howard and I to swallow. We thought he was making such growth and progress but it just isn't his time. President Smith always says that agency in the greatest gift to man and that everyone uses their agency differently. It is always hard to have investigators discontinue lessons but we know he will be ready someday. We will limit our contact with him so he can see a hole in his life after he stops meeting with us for a few months. Then he will go "oh, I really liked it when they came over and now I have a hole." It is very effective and it gives them a chance to work out their apprehensions easier. We were so sad to walk out of their house for perhaps the last time for a while. We gave Ryan a handshake and told him what a great guy he is! They are very good people but they basically said that it wasn't their time for the Gospel. We think that if Ryan would have taken that leap of faith and read the Book of Mormon and came to Church, he would have been more accepting and willing to change. Everyone has a time and his time isn't now. After our lesson, we were in good spirits even though it was hard to say goodbye to a good friend that we have spent so much time with. We dropped Isaac off at his house and then drove over to Josh and Adal's restaurant and had a great lesson with them before we drove back to the apartment for the night. It was a really great and packed day full of great missionary work!
Friday was a very great day! We woke up ready for another great and productive day of hard work! We did our studies and then headed out the door to visit David! He wasn't home so we did lots of other lookups and then went to the Mid Hudson Buffet with Sister Wootton for lunch! There is always something so good to eat there and enjoy so much talking with her and letting her know how the work is going! Then after lunch we did lots of lookups and found a lady from Poland. We were excited because that is where Sister Parks is from! We talked to lots of cool people and then went to go visit Kari and did tons of lookups and knocked on lots of doors to try to find people to teach. Then we went to go visit Nick who we found a few weeks ago and it was so great! We talked a lot about how much the Gospel and Book of Mormon can and will bless his life. Then we went to Sister Heil's apartment and boy.....was that an experience. She is a very nice lady who is in her mid 50s and lives were her husband who isn't a member. Let me just paint a mental picture of how this place smells. This poor lady has to live with a husband who has to smoke about 2 or 3 times every 5 minutes. But instead of him going outside, he just does it in their tiny apartment and so the smoke just sits there stagnant. You walk in and there is just a cloud of cigarette smoke. It is the strongest smell of cigarettes thst I've ever smelled in my life. It was so bad that it almost took my breath away and I couldn't take it. We didn't want to be rude and ask if we could have the lesson outside so we stuck it out for a half an hour. It was so hard to concentrate on the Book of Mormon and what we were reading. I don't mean to complain but it was really, really bad. We thanked her for her time and then headed back to the apartment and had dinner. We feel really bad for her because she is such a nice lady and really does love her husband even though he has this addiction. She has developed many health problems just because of all the smoke she inhales each and every day. Elder Howard and I both smelled like avid smokers after just 25 minutes in her apartment. My clothes were emanating the smell of smoke and so we both had to come back to the apartment and change completely into new clothes. It was a great lesson but pretty hard to sit through. Then we had dinner and then met a lady that has been talking with Sister Missionaries in Salt Lake and she has really been enjoying it so they referred her to us. We met her at a really nice gas station convenience store and gave her a Book of Mormon and gave her the brief rundown of the Restoration. She really enjoyed it but she had to get going so we said goodbye and scheduled another time to come back! Then we went to a lesson with Bill and it went so well! We talked all about his Baptism coming up and what we still needed to do to get ready! We are all so very excited and can't wait for this special event! We went through all of the interview questions and explained how everything at the Baptism will go! It was really great and then we got a text saying that President Smith was going to have a Conference Call and we we had to be back by 8:45. We were so excited to hear from him and he explained how travel plans will work and the agenda for the meeting! He told us the final details before we all went to bed. We all couldn't wait and then I was SO excited to see your email! It was such a great way to cap off the night!!! Thanks so much for your amazing email!
WOW...WOW...WOW!!!!! What an incredible and amazing day! Words can't describe how awesome it was! We woke up so, so excited to go to Manhattan for our Conference! It was such a great day as you could imagine! We woke up and got ready for the day and then we drove over to the Church and got there at 9:00 to help Brother Harris who is the 1st counselor in the Bishopric, fill up the Baptisimal font for a baptism that was going on that day. There is a member named Brother Pease who's son lives in Idaho and they came up to New York for his Grandson's baptism. We felt bad that we couldn't stay for it but we were glad to help out! We helped him mop up and clean the font before we started the water and then we said goodbye to him and then Elder Howard and I drove to Newburgh! We couldn't wait and knew that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity! So we got to Newburgh and we got there right on time and everything went to smooth! It took us about 45 minutes to get to Newburgh and then another hour and a half to get to Manhattan. The drive was amazing as usual and it was so weird to be in the city again. We pulled up into the Inwood chapel which is the area right next to the Bronx that I was in. We had 2 huge passenger vans that the office Elders drive and we had about 10 missionaries in each one. I found out something really cool! Elder Dick got called to serve in the office! He is now an office Elder and so it was really gold to see him! So we all got out of the vans and I just took a look around and it was so amazing to see so many missionaries walking down the street in the Bronx. It was such a cool experience! Then we had to buy MetroCards and use our mission cards to buy 2 trips on the subway. Then we took the subway from Inwood to downtown Manhattan! I love the city and I love everything that is going on! It is just so different and there is always something cool going on! So we had a little bit of time before they wanted us to go into the chapel and so we decided to have some lunch at one of the food carts thst they have all over the place! There is a cart thst everyone knows by name that sells these really good gyros that everyone loves so of course I wanted to try it! So we both got one and it was so good! We had a really fun time talking with the other missionaries and spending some time in the big city before we headed inside to the Temple! I just couldn't help but think as I was talking to some of the missionaries that I am starting to become one of the "older missionaries"! I was talking to one of the Elder that was in our van and he got here last Tuesday and I just thought to myself how new he is! I enjoyed talking with him because he is straight from Columbia and he learned English in the MTC! It was such a pretty drive! To get there by car, we actually got to go into New Jersey for about 20 minutes which was so cool and amazing because they had the best views of Manhattan from the bridge that we were on! I feel bad because I couldn't get very many pictures because I was in the middle. It was really incredible! So we got to Manhattan and enjoyed the many sights and then we bought our food! Then as Elder Howard and I were eating, a guy came up to us and he was a member just about to go into the Temple for his Sister's wedding. We asked him where he was from andnhe said he was from Boise Idaho! I was so excited to tell him that I have been there and love it! We had a great conversation and then it was time to head in for the big Conference! I'm so excited to tell you about something that I got that will be a keepsake for years to come!! So all 200 missionaries from the mission piled into the gym of the chapel in the Temple! We went into the gym and there was prelude music playing and they had everything all set up for a picture! President Smith told us that President Nelson requested a picture and handshake from each missionary. Luckily all of the missionaries got there right on time and they told us to plan ahead to be there by 1:30 since President Nelson and every one else showed up at 2:00 so we could be right ready for the picture! I can't even describe how lucky and blessed I am to be in this mission and that we get to have these good men and their wives come speak to us! I mean just having 1 of the people there would have been amazing enough but we had President Nelson, Elder Gong of the presidency of the seventy, Bishop Waddell from the Presiding Bishopric, and President Buckner who just got called to be the area seventy, and all of their wives! I mean, that is just so amazing! So all of the missionaries got there right on time and everything went so smoothly. They had us all take our spots for the picture while singing hymns. Then we waited about 10 minutes in our position just singing and then in walks President Nelson! Talk about feeling the Holy Ghost! He walked in and we all started singing "We Thank Thee, Oh God For A Prophet" and it was one of the most amazing things ever. The spirit just filled the room as he walked in. Then following right behind him was Elder Gong and his wife, and Bishop Waddell and his wife. It was a true testimony builder for me to have these great men and their wives in the room teaching us. President Nelson and his wife walked arm in arm and listened to us as we sang. I can't even put into words the feeling that I had! They all listened and then President Nelson said "Wonderful! We all made it!" He is such a powerful man and just the way he conducts himself was contagious! I could feel of his enthusiasm and love so much! So we took the picture and afterwards I was so excited to see it! We went into the chapel for our Meeting which was incredible! While We were standing there and after President Nelson walked in, we heard from the very back row that a missionary had passed out. Can you believe that?!? Elder Staker who was trained by Elder Howard got way too hot from standing with everyone that he passed out from it. It didn't distract from anything because he woke right up and was fine after that but still really crazy! After the picture, we all filed into the Chapel and We got to shake everyone's hands which was amazing! President Nelson looked right into my eyes and said "Elder Lindberg, it is SO good to see you and be with you today." I just felt so much love even just for the brief few seconds we were together. It was amazing to have him call me by name! Then we went down the line and shook everyone else's hand and then the meeting got started! We started by singing "Redeemer of Israel" and then Sister Waddell spoke, then Bishop Waddell, Sister Gong, Elder Gong, Sister Nelson, and then President Nelson spoke. Their talks were all incredible to say the least. I couldn't beleive how young President Nelson seems for being 93! He is still sharp as a tack and is such a powerful speaker. They all talked about how the Book of Mormon is our most powerful tool as missionaries and then they also talked about you all! President Nelson got up to speak and he did such an amazing job! He started his talk by saying how grateful he was for us and what we are doing and then he said "It almost feels like my Birthday!" "Oh wait.....it is my Birthday!" He would crack a few really funny jokes here and there! His talk was on missionary work and how we can improve and become better. He said that we could first send home a letter or email to your family and thank them for all that you do and for all of your support and tell you how much I love you! I'm so happy to say that Elder Howard used his recorder that he has to record the whole meeting and he is going to give it to me! I can't wait for you to hear it! We had the best time ever and loved hearing all of the amazing talks! It truely was a once in a lifetime opportunity! I just want to hear my testimony that I KNOW without a doubt that this church is true! I have found my own testimony through sincere scripture study and through the experiences that I have been blessed with so far. I KNOW that Joseph Smith is a true Prophet who did restore this great church! I am so grateful for this Gospel and for all of your rightous examples and love. Being with President Nelson just strengthened my testimony even more. These experiences are building and building into an unshakable testimony that will last my whole life. I heard a quote one time that says a missionary is his own greatest convert. I am truely converted to this Gospel and will not deny it. I am just so thankful for all of you and everything that you do for me! You truely are the greatest and most loving family in the world! I have been so blessed to be your son, brother, grandson, or cousin. I am working hard and trying my best to make you all proud! I just wanted you to know that I love you and that I KNOW this church is true!!!! So after all of the amazing talks, President Nelson stood up and so we all did to and then he slowly walked out and into the elevator. It was so cool to think that the next time I would see him is on tv in General Conference! It was one of the coolest and most spiritual experiences of my life! I am so blessed to have been able to be a part of this great event! Ok, here is the cool souvenir that I got! I know you will think that I am really weird but you know how sentimental I am when it comes to these kinds of things. We went back into the chapel to take the back entrance of the Temple. We were saying goodbye to each other and we were just about to leave when I saw something. On the comfy soft chairs that President Nelson, Elder Gong, Bishop Waddell, President Smith and their wives were sitting, there was a slip of paper telling everyone where to sit. They had the names of everyone and President Nelson and President Smith were right next to each other as you saw in the picture. So these strips of paper with the names on them were just sitting there and so I asked one of the senior couples who made them if I could have President Nelson's. She said that they were going to get thrown away anyway and so I grabbed President Nelson's tag that was on his seat. Pretty cool I thought!!! So I put it in my bag as a souvenir to say that President Nelson sat in the chair that this was on!! Weird I know but I thought it was cool! I can't wait to show you all when I come home! So after that, we took the train back to Inwood and then we waited in the parking lot for another group of missionaries and then we found out some bad news. 2 sets of missionaries took the wrong train headed in the wrong direction that only makes a few stops a few miles apart and so they were about 45 minutes away from where they needed to be. So we waited for them and it almost took them an hour to get back to the Inwood chapel. It was pretty crazy! Then we had a great trip back to Newburgh and we saw some really awesome cars! We saw 2 Lamborghini Mercialagos and lots of Porsches! Then as we were driving we saw a Utah license plate! I wanted to get a picture of it but it sped off before I could take one. Then we got back to Newburgh and Elder Wallace gave me a letter and it was from you! I can't thank you enough for the amazing letter thst you sent! I was so happy to get it and I loved everything that you said! I loved seeing your handwriting so much! THANKS! We drove back to the Church straight from Newburgh and cleaned up the font from the baptism thst happened that morning. We were on cloud 9 and were so grateful we had the experience of going to Manhattan and hearing from such amazing men and women! It was a truely amazing day that I will never forget!
Sunday was great! I am so happy to say that we had a total of 6 investigators thst came to Church! It was so great! We woke up and had to hurry because we had Ward Council at 8:30. We enjoyed talking about everyone that we are teaching and whose faith we are building! We talked about Bill and his Baptism coming up. Then after our meeting, we had a really great sacrament meeting and Brother Lopez brought Bill to Church! Then we had Michael Young who is really hard to teach because he doesn't give out his address to anyone and so we just get to see him when he comes to Church on his own. Then Alejandro who is a member brought Felix and Jonathan! Then we had the Velasco's bring Joshua and Adal and then Brother Larin's daughter's boyfriend was there and so we had 6 investigators in Church! Then, Sister Shambo's friend who we are teaching got a ride from Sister Wootton! It was so amazing to see all of these people come and enjoy Church! It let us know that our hard work is paying off and that people are seeing the blessing that come from coming to Church! After church, we drove back to the apartment and had lunch and then headed back out into the beautiful, cool weather! It reminds me of football every time I feel that crispness in the air. It was even chilly! Then I realized that it was probably opening day of NFL football and thst was pretty hard to miss. I just miss so much spending time with you all! I love watching and going to football games with you so much and so it has been even harder to be away from home. Being away from you has been the hardest thing by far. This time of year just reminds me of when you dropped me off and that fun time of going to school at Utah State, working, going to Aggie football games, and getting my mission call. I really can't believe that it is almost my 2nd General Conference on my mission. I mean.....i'm almost to 8 months!?!? How is that possible. I know how many more football games we will be able to watch and go to together when I get home so that gives me a lot of peace. Those memories are so special to me!! We went to go visit Sierra and Lorenzo, Dorrette, David Salas, but none of them were home so we left them cards and wrote inspirational messages on them telling them that we are thinking about them and that they are cared for. Then we went to visit Marco who is in 6th grade. He didn't come to Church so we went and said Hi to him and scheduled an appointment. Then we called Sister Wootton to see if she could come with us to an appointment with Danielle and she was pretty nervous about the Hurricane Irma in Florida. It has been all the talk around here and everyone seems to know somebody who's house in right in the thick of it. She said that her grandson didn't want to leave their house so he made his wife who is having a baby soon, drive out of town while he held down the fort in Florida. I was thinking about and prayer for Matt, Jay, Megan, and little Nathan that they would be safe. She told us how terrible the storms were and how fast the wind gusts were. We had a great conversation and then came back to the apartment for dinner and Elder Howard and I made some cookies and muffins to take to a few families. He likes to do most of the baking so I don't get to very often and you know how much I love to help you in the kitchen Mom and Dad! Making dinners with you is one of my fondest memories! I am so grateful for them and I'm so glad I have those memories! I can't wait to continue when I get home! Then after dinner, we got a call from Brother McClure and he wanted us to come with him again to take the sacrament to Lacey. So we took a plate of cookies to the Smith family and then we met Brother McClure at the care center and we gave Lacey the Sacrament and shared a spiritual thought. Then we dropped a plate of muffins to the Parks family and had a great lesson with them! The Baptista family was there and so we got to teach lots of people! We taught the lids about making the right decisions and standing up for what you believe in since school just started and they may be faced with tough decisions. Then after our quick visit, we drove over to Lisa Martin's house to bring her a plate of muffins as well and had a great visit with her. Apparently, she told us that Elder Hughes, who was the missionary here before me, is now engaged about 2 weeks after meeting her. He got home less than 2 months ago and met her about 2 and a half weeks ago and now they are engaged. Crazy huh!? I think that is way to fast but hey, that is just me.
Monday was such a great day as well! I couldn't believe that I was in New York on September 11th. I was thinking about it the whole day. It's just crazy to think that it happened 16 years ago. If I was still in the Bronx apartment, I could have seen the huge lights that they shine out of the fountains each year. Maybe I will even be in Manhattan next year which would be so cool! I got an email from Sister Smith and she sent 2 pictures of President Nelson and I!!! How cool!! She told me to treasure them forever because you never know, he could be the next prophet! I was so happy to see them and couldn't wait to show you! We had such a great District Meeting! Elder Wallace is our District Leader and he did a great job at running the show. We talked about all of our investigators and then talked about how we can better use service to our advantage and get some new investigators. Then we came back to the apartment and had lunch. Then we went to go visit Manny but unfortunately he wasn't home. Then we did lots of lookups and not a single person was home. It was pretty hard but then we had an appointment with our new investigator Danielle, and we were going to have Sister Wootton come with us and have a lesson and church tour. We called her a few times and she didn't answer so Sister Wootton and Elder Howard and I showed up to the gas station but she wasn't there. So we went down the street to try to find her address but the address didn't exist. So we knocked on a door thst didn't have house number at all and an older lady answered and told us that Danielle lived there but she wasn't home! It was a small miracle that we found where she lived! It was so amazing! Danielle got called in to do some babysitting and so she wasn't there. We scheduled another time to come back and thanked Sister Wootton for her kindness. Then we went to go knock on lots of door but not very many people were home. There have been tons and tons kids from all of the different school and so we are very careful when we drive around. There is so much going on! Then, we decided to go to Bill's house a little early since our appointment with Danielle didn't work out. We called him up and he was really excited for us to come over! So we went over to Bill's house and he wanted to watch the Restoration video and read from the Book of Mormon and so we watched the video and he really enjoyed it! We all felt the spirit so strong and enjoyed teaching him! He is getting really excited for his baptism! We read Alma 52 with him since that is where he is at in his reading. Then we talked about his Baptism and he gave us some names of who he would like to give short talks and baptize him. Then after our lesson we came back for dinner and then we changed into clothes to do service in and went over to the Walker's house to help them out. They felt bad because they lost some of the tools that we were going to use to help them mud the walls of their mother in law suite out back. They didn't have much for us to do and then Sister Thompson came over and brought them dinner. Brother Walker just went in the other day for the first of his skin cancer treatment. We have been keeping him in our prayers because it has been so hard for their family. Sister Thompson came over and Sister Walker told her that she could have as many apples as she wanted off of their tree so we helped her pick lots of apples. I had been thinking about September 11th all day and I just couldn't beleive that i am in New York for such a crazy and sad event. I asked her where she was that day and she said she was at a repair shop getting tires put on her car when the lady behind the counter told her the news. The lady that was working at the repair shop had a son high up in one of the towers but got out safe and sound. You know how much September 11th fascinates me and so it is amazing to hear these stories firsthand from people thst were there. I hope I get to serve in Manhattan next year and talk with people who were actually in Manhattan. So many people lives were affected that day. It was great to talk to her and then we said goodbye and drove over to the Goodwill that is just around the corner to see if there is a white shirt that Bill could have since he doesn't have a real dressy shirt. We thought we would surprise him with a tie that was Elder Hughes' and a white shirt. They had a really nice almost brand new Van Huesen white shirt for $8.99 so we decided to get it. Well, the woman behind the counter made our day! She folded it up all nice and commented on how nice the shirt was. She asked who it was for and we told her it was for a friend of ours who was getting baptized. She was so happy to hear that and said "You know what I'm going to do for you today? I'm just going to give it to you." We couldn't believe it! We insisted on paying her but she wouldn't take it. I was a miracle and such a great blessing! We were so happy and excited! Then we drove over to the Church and worked on Bill's Baptisimal program and then drove home for the night! It was such a great day!
I totally forgot to tell you last P-day that yesterday was Zone Conferences! I couldn't believe how fast time has gone and that we are already to another one! I couldn't wait for yesterday night to get your amazing email! We had to wake up a little bit early since we had a 45 minute drive to Newburgh and had to be there by 8:00 for breakfast! It was such a nice and pretty drive! I got to enjoy the views as Elder Howard drove us! So we got to the Newburgh chapel and they announced that the vehicle coordinator senior couple missionaries would be inspecting our cars while the conference was going. We got it all nice and vacuumed out and looking like a new penny! Then we went i side to have breakfast and had a wonderful conference! They took lots of pictures and so I hope there were lots of cool ones on the blog! They did such an amazing job with our Conference! They talked a lot about how we can become better missioanries and how we can find new people to teach! It strengthened and built my faith so much! I always love these conferences because I feel the spirit so strong and love hearing from President and Sister Smith! William is a really funny kid and loves all of the missionaries! I just remember seeing pictures of these conferences before I even left and here I am in the thick of it! It is so cool! Zone Conference took up most of the day and so by the time we got back to Kingston, it was 4:30. We went to a lesson with Anne and Sister Shambo and I can't even describe how great the lesson went! Anne is changing so much and really feeling the spirit so much! We read from the Book of Mormon and asked Anne to say the closing prayer. She was nervous because she had never said a vocal prayer and had no idea how our church prayed. We helped her every step of the way and she said a great prayer! She started by saying: "Dear Heavenly Father, it's Anne, I'm going to pray now and I want you to listen." She has a very timid voice and so it was great to hear her pray! It was a really awesome lesson and we were so grateful to be a part of that great experience! My faith has been increased so much and I just want you to know how much this Gospel has blessed my life and I know it has blessed all of our lives. As we all strive to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I know that families that we teach can find so much more happiness and joy. I love this Gospel and love sharing it with others because it has brought me SO much joy and has blessed my life more than anything! You are the best family ever! Your love and support makes my life so much more enjoyable! So after our lesson, we drove over to visit Marco but he and his family were just getting into the car as we were pulling up and so they couldn't meet but we kept trying! We did a few lookups at Dorette, Kristina, and the Nash family. None of them were home so we knew that Heavenly Father needed us somewhere else. We were walking down the street to knock on a few doors and it was getting pretty late and we walked passed a covered bus stop and a couple were sitting and having a smoke break. We said hello to them and then got into a conversation. Their names are Gary and Cheri. Cheri is a pancreatic cancer survivor and so we asked her how she made it through that trial and if she ever prayed to help her. She said that she hadn't ever really prayed and so we gave her a Book of Mormon and Restoration pamphlet and invited her to read them. We promised that reading and applying what she learns will bless her life more than anything! It was such a great way to cap off the night! I was so excited to see your email when we got back to the apartment! I couldn't wait to read it!
Well my dear and amazing family, you know how much I love emailing you and reading your emails and seeing your pictures! I always love knowing you are reading them and looking at my pictures! Today for P-Day we are doing something really cool! Our Zone Leaders organized an activity for our whole Zone to go Apple picking! We will drive down to New Paltz and get there at about 11:00. I feel bad that I may not be able to read emails until we get back to the apartment to go shopping and finish laundry. I hope I can talk back and forth today! I want you to know how much I love, miss, and appreciate you! I miss being there with you all so much. I know how fast time flies and I will be in Elder Burt's position before we all know it. I hope you all have such a great week and have lots of fun as well! LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!
Love You Always!
~Elder Lindberg
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