Hello my dear and amazing family! Wow! What a great and fun email! You guys had such a great week! I really cant believe that another week has already come and gone by so fast! Alright, whose messing with the speed of time again because it is flyin'! I had a blast reading your emails and loved seeing your pictures! Thanks for the time that you spend to send them to me! It was so fun to see you and see all of the fun things that went on! I'm so excited that Dan and Becky get to come down and see everyone! That is so fun and exciting! This week had been so amazing and I can't wait to tell you all about it! I hope everything makes sense and that it is interesting! Thanks again for your awesome emails and all of the pictures! It really does make me fell so close to home and like I've been a part of everything going on. I'm doing really well and loving being a missionary! It's fun to put on the black tag each day and go to work! We are trying our best and working hard so I can make you all proud! I miss you all so much each and every day! I'm really excited to say that today is trainer call day and this coming Saturday is transfer calls. I really can't believe that it's here again! Since Elder Howard only has 1 more cycle which is 6 weeks left, we are both almost positive that he will stay. That would be pretty pointless to send him to another area for the last 6 weeks of his mission because then he will have to get used to everything all over again and then fly home. I'm so excited to be companions with someone who is so close to going home because he has a lot to teach me since he is a seasoned veteran! So today, all of the new trainers for this upcoming cycle will get called sometime today. Then this Saturday night, we will find out the transfers. I really hope that I get called to be a trainer at the end of not this cycle but the next after Elder Howard goes home. That would be so cool to train a brand new missionary! We will see how things shape up! Since Elder Howard is leaving this next cycle, if he stays until the end, that means I would stay at least 1 more after he goes home, to incorporate another missionary into the area. They rarely send both missionaries out and bring 2 new ones in because that just makes it hard for them together to the new area. So we aren't expecting that Elder Howard leaves since he only has 1 more left but I guess we will see! It is going to be so exciting to see what happens! I may or may not have a new companion this next Tuesday! That would be hard especially on Elder Howard since we have a baptism coming up. I can't wait to tell you all about it!
Last P-day was so amazing but I felt bad that I didn't send very many emails! It was so much fun to say the least! I hope I remembered everything that happened because it was go, go, go the whole day! I think I talked about everything that happened and all the fun things we got to do! After our P-Day ended, I read your awesome email and then we drove to Saugerties to visit sister Shambo. Her and Ann had a bit of a disagreement and so now they aren't really talking to each other or even being in the same room together. It is hard because Sister Shambo is supposed to be the one helping us teach and help Ann feel the spirit. So we went over to visit Sister Shambo and didn't even get to see Ann. We talked for a while about some of the things Sister Shambo was feeling and then we read out of the Book of Mormon. It really brought the spirit in! Sister Shambo has changed quite a bit because she just had surgery on her arm and so we think that has something to do with how she interacts with Ann. They are both really great people and we love teaching them very much! After our lesson, it was time to head back to the apartment after such an incredible day! Thank you so very much for your emails and love you always send my way! You are the best! We got a new app update for the app that every single missionary uses who has a tablet. They had this grand reveal and so we were really excited to get a new update. Well......everyone feels like they took a step backwards because the app is really unorganized and confusing. On the old one, we used to have a calender that helped us organize our day as a visual. Now, there is just a confusing list of events that we have to try to follow. It doesn't look like a schedule or agenda and so it makes it hard. I guess we will have to get used to it! Hehe! 
I had such a great day and was so happy to hear all about your fun week!
Thursday was really awesome! It was such a great day and we enjoyed the ice cool, fall weather so much! We got a call the day before from a member outside of our mission and she said that she is a painter and sold one of her painting to a lady who lives in our area! She found our number online and asked if we could come help her! Of course we did so we scheduled to come over at around noon and helped her. The lady she sold it to broke the frame and it was stuck on their mantel so we went to go help! We woke up and did our morning routine and then we drove to the Parks' house to do some service and more yard work! I feel bad because they are both really busy and Brother Parks works at the Kingston hospital as a anesthesiologist and so he is really busy. They have a beautiful house and lots of land to take care of. It always looks so nice and we love helping them! So we did some more spraying for weeds, raking leaves, and edging. It was great and then Sister Parks made lunch for us! She had some French bread and some really good sweet squash soup and then we drove to pick up Bill for our service project in Red Hook! Since he is a member now, we can drive him to and from lessons which is awesome because he is always so willing help out! So we drove over to a lady named Emily's house and she was so nice! Her house was so amazing and was huge with beautiful views of the Rhinebeck mountains! The service went sooooo quick because all we had to do was take the picture off the wall and lay it on the table so the girl who sold it could fix it. It was a huge hand drawn picture of a character that could be from the Book of Mormon or Bible. The outside border of paper had not been glued properly so the girl who made and painted it could remove it and put a fresh later of paper down. Then, Emily made us some frozen pizza and we had a great talk! Bill was so impressed with the house and enjoyed coming with us! The girl who made and sold the painting went to Byu Idaho and served her mission in Salt Lake! She was born in Hawai'i and has lived her for a while. She was so nice and we had a great discussion while we ate! Then, we brought Bill back home and then we changed back into our white shirt and ties and then we had a lesson with Nick! He is very attached to his church and made it very clear that he just wants to learn more about our church. We don't usually like to spend much time with people like Nick not to be rude, but we like to find people that are more prepared and ready for the Gospel. We taught him the Restoration and we explained how our church has the Priesthood authority directly from Jesus Christ and we have a living Prophet on the Earth today. We showed him the pictures of the Prophet and Apostles and he really enjoyed that! Then after our great lesson with Nick, we drove back to the apartment for dinner! Then after dinner, we drove to visit Brother Nichols, Sharon, and Dorette. They were all home but they couldn't meet and we couldn't even share a quick message with them so then we drove to the Church to have our weekly lesson with Brother Young. He is such a great guy but is pretty wishy washy when it comes to lessons. He doesn't really like to just sit and have a scheduled time to talk about the Gospel. He never showed up so we worked on Mike's Baptisimal Programs and invitations! They look really good and we can't wait to have another baptism! Really exciting I think!! So we worked on them while we waited for Mike Young but he ended up not showing up. So then we drove back to Kingston for one of the best lessons I've ever had! We had it at Mike's house and it went so well! We like to switch off our lessons every other, so it works out that we can just talk to and teach Mike one lesson, and then have the whole Larin family for the other. It works out so well! We taught Mike the Law of Chastity and he told us that all of the lessons just make sense and he can't wait for his Baptism on the 21st! It is coming up so quick and I can't believe we are having another one! We always like to connect to our investigators and after we say the closing prayer, we like to talk about regular stuff for a few minutes. We talked about his cars that he has. Mike is 24 and he bought an old BMW and so he was showing us around and he also owns a Honda Ridgeline that is all blacked out. He is such a great guy! We drove down the street back to our apartment with big smiles on our faces! Being a missionary is so rewarding and it is so great to see the fruits of our labors!
Friday was a really great and productive day! Thank you, thank you, thank you for the awesome email! I can't believe it was 1 year ago that I got my call! I really appreciate all the love and support! It was so fun to see how far I've come in just a year! We woke up and did our studies then we drove over to the church for weekly planning. The weather has been so amazing andnthen leaves have all changed colors and are now starting to fall! It's amazing! Also, the moon has been so bright and light! It is huge! We had a great weekly planning session but it was very different on our new app. We got a call from Elder Wallace and he wanted to go on 1 more split before the cycle ends! So I got to stay here and Elder Wallace came to our area! So after our weekly planning, we drove to the buffet to meet Sister Wootton for lunch and it was so good as always! Then we went to visit Sister Heil but she was in a hurry and just about ready to leave for a doctor's appointment so she was waiting for her taxi. So we talked with her and shared a quick message about hope and peace and then we went back to the apartment and picked up a vacuum to help Bill clean off his new couch that Charlie gave him! It looked to nice after it was all done and he was thrilled! He bought us some chocolate covered pretzels to say thanks for everything that we have done for him! It was so awesome! We taught him about the Priesrhood since he was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood last Sunday! We showed hum a conference talk from 2011 given by President Monson and he loved every second! Then we drove to a gas station just down the street to split! The New Paltz elders drove to meet us and then we split! I was excited to show Elder Wallace our area and how the work is going! So Elder Wallace came with me into our area and then we immediately drove to Saugerties for a lesson with Ann! Our lessons always go really well with with her and we always feel the spirit so strong! Her faith is growing and she is seeing the importance of our message! We taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the importance of baptism. Then we grabbed a quick dinner at McDonald's since it was right there and then we had another lesson at 6:00 with our good friend Marco, his Mom, and the Larin family! So we met at Marco's house and then the Larin family showed up! Marco is the 11 year old kid who comes to Church each week but since his Mom only speaks Spanish, we haven't been able to ask for permission to baptize him. So now that we had Brother Larin, we could have a lesson in English for Marco and then Brother Larin could translate. It went really well and Marco accepted out baptismal date of November 11th but then when Brother Larin translated, I could tell that the Mom didn't approve. She told Brother Larin that he isn't old enough to know for himself that is what he should do. We were pretty sad because we really think he is ready for baptism, especially because he is so knowledgeable about the church and comes to Church each week. So after our lesson with them, we were pretty sad but we knew it just wasn't his time. After Marco, we had a great visit with Bob Costello but he talked for most of the time and so we left him with a prayer and then went to go see Josh and Adal but they weren't there so we set up another time to come back. Then it was 8:55 So we decided to drive back to the apartment for the evening. It was such an awesome day and I had a really great time with Elder Wallace! He is a really great missionary!
Saturday was so awesome!! It was so jam packed and crazy busy! Busy is always great because it makes time absolutely fly by and it makes us feel so good that we are using our time wisely! So we woke up and had a scheduled lesson with David Salas and we were excited because we had planned to set a Baptisimal date with him but he always cancels our appointments or just isn't even home. It has been pretty hard. We drove over to his house and knocked on his door but he didn't answer and he didn't answer his phone either. We made sure that he knew about our appointment and we watched him write it down on his calender but he just must have forgotten about it all together. In a situation like that, there isn't anything that we could do if they don't answer their door or phone. So then, we drove to the Church for our weekly Ward Correlation meeting and we filled out a progress record and then talked about Mike and the lessons we taught him! We are so excited because his Baptism is coming up so quickly and we are all so excited for him! It is fun to have so many people to teach! Then after ward correlation, we did our other studies and then had some lunch at Wendy's! It was really good! Then we talked to Brother and Sister Goodin who were at the Church and we set up a dinner appointment for the very next day! They are really great people! Then we drove to visit Brother and Sister Pease. Sister Pease has had cancer for quite a few years now and she is taking the treatments well. She is still pretty sick but always has a huge smile on her face! We went into their house and shared the first 4 minutes of President Uchtdorf's conference talk and they really loved it especially because they didn't have the chance to watch conference. We had a great discussion and then went to go visit Bill and drop off a thank you note for the pretzels he gave us! We were so grateful for it and were so appreciative! He wasn't home and so we just left the note in his door and then went to go see if Manny was home but unfortunately he wasn't. He has been so, so hard to get a hold of. I am trying my best to make sure people feel the spirit and enjoy our lessons! We really love teaching and seeing the growth in people! Then after that, it was time to drive back to New Paltz for the unsplit. As we were driving, we noticed a white Toyota Corolla pull out onto the main road from a house. We couldn't believe it but itnwas the other set of Elders! The chances of thst happening are so slim! So we pulled off the road and just unsplit there. I had a really great time with Elder Wallace and learned a lot from him! It's always so nice to have our plans go so well and be able to teach so many great people! It was getting pretty late and so we drove over to have dinner with Sister Cross and her family! Elder Howard and I were really glad to be back together serving! We had a great lesson with them and enjoyed the meal! She made us really good sloppy Joe's and then we had milkshakes for desert! It was such a great day and we enjoyed teaching so many great people!
Sunday was really cool! I woke up and was so excited to see I had an email from you! I loved the picture quote that you sent and for the well wishes! I just appreciate you all so much and want you to know that I alwaysnthink about and miss you SO VERY MUCH! It always brightens my day so much when I get an email from you! We had to be to Ward Council which is something that they didn't do in Olmstead and so it has been great to have these meetings and discuss everything in the Ward! I have some really cool and exciting news by the way about Mike's baptism! Lots of great things happened today and I can't wait to tell you about them! We woke up thst morning to pouring rain due to the hurricane thst we heard is going on right now. It poured and poured and just before we were ready to leave for ward council.....the power shut off. We discussed all of the upcoming events like Stake Conference and our baptism coming up. We had just 1 problem though.....We had this baptism schedule for almost a month now and so the member should known about it. We have been bringing it up for a while and making sure it was a great event! Well, lots of things got scheduled that day like a youth temple trip to Connecticut, Super Saturday, and a few other activities were scheduled over the baptism. We had already moved it from the 28th to the 21st and so we really didn't want to move it around a whole lot because then people get confused. So we ended up moving Mike's Baptisim to the 20th which is a Friday. We are set on that date and nothing should come up. So I'm very excited to say that Mike's baptism will be coming up a week from this Friday! I can't believe that we are having another baptism. Our hard work really is paying off and we are trying our best! There is so much great work going on! We told Mike if that would be ok to change it and of course he was fine with it! He is such a humble guy! We had 4 investigators in Church and they all loved it! Bill was sustained and ordained to the office of Priest and got to receive the Aaronic Priesthood! He leaned over to me after Sacrament Meeting and he had tears running down his cheeks. He told me he was so touched and grateful for the card you sent!
He couldn't believe he got such an amazing card from you and appreciated it so much! He really was so overcome with emotion that he just couldn't hold it in. It was such an amazing day seeing Bill get the Priesthood and have him love your card so much! I really appreciate it Mom and Dad and it means so much to have you send him a card! So after our awesome Sacrament Meeting, we taught our usual Gospel Principles class and we taught everyone about prayer! We usually have Bill, Ann, Mike, and Graciella for moral support! We had a really nice couple from Rigby Idaho visiting and then I told them that Grandpa Evans was born in Malad! They thought that was so cool and told us that they were visiting Pete Sagazie! It was really cool! Then after Church, we drove straight to have a late lunch with the Goodin family! They made us really good shredded venison and beef sandwiches with barbeque sauce, pasta, and broccoli and then ice cream for desert! We had a great lesson and visit with them! We get to be in charge of a station at the ward Halloween party coming up and so we are excited about that! Sister Goodin is in charge of the whole thing and so she assigned us to do that! Then after our lesson, we had a 45 minute drive back to the apartment and then we changed and did our companionship study! Then we drove to visit a referral named Adam Iskowitz and we were excited but he thought we got paid and so he thought our lesson would be kind of like a job interview! Hehe! We taught him the Restoration and he really enjoyed it and he said that he was going to read the Book of Mormon and then we set another appointment and then went to go visit Lisa Martin and her family. Her and her husband really don't get along and it's pretty sad to see. We had a great lesson with them and enjoyed talking with them andnseeingnhow they were doing. We left their house right at 8:55 and we pulled into our parking lot right at 9:00! Perfect timing! It was a really great day and I was so excited to get a message from you! I really appreciate your love and support! Thank you so much for thinking about me!
Monday was so great! We woke up to buckets of water and quite a bit of wind. We had huge puddles all around our apartment and it was coming down in sheets of water. It was pretty crazy! So we did our morning routine as we always do and we studied like the wind. I was thinking about you all the whole time and hoping you were having a great day off from school! Thanks so much Dad for going to work so we can have a roof over our head and so I can keep serving my mission! We had a great District Meeting in New Paltz and enjoyed talking about all of our investigators and then we drove to have lunch with Sister Wootton! It was so yummy and we enjoyed our conversation a lot! Then we all drove over to the Church to have a lesson with Brother Larin's basketball guys! Sister Wootton said a great prayer with them and then we taught them about families. It is really hard to teach a whole bunch of people because it isn't as personal. Then we had an incredible lesson with Bill! We walked in and he had a big smile on his face and was so happy to see us! He showed me your awesome card that you sent him and I even got a picture with him! He was so thrilled and you seriously made his whole day.....week.....I mean....month.....year!! We read with him a few chapters in the Book of Mormon and explained them to him. Like I was telling Dad, I'm not a scriptorian and I don't know all of the stories like Elder Howard does. He explains things so well and I wish I could know the Book of Mormon like the back of my hand. He will explain that such and such is the brother of him and he is the son of another guy and is really interesting to listen to. I have learned so much from him! Today is the trainer call day again but since Elder Howard only has 1 more cycle, we are almost positive that we will both be staying until he leaves to go home! We also taught Bill about the Priesthood and explained how we bless and pass the sacrament and he is very excited to pass it this next week! After our lesson, we drove back to the apartment and did the rest of our studies and had dinner. We were stilled pretty stuffed from the buffet so we didn't eat a whole lot. I have been so grateful for Sister Wootton because it is always so fun to go and we really appreciate her taking us out! After dinner, we drove down the street to look up Danielle and Dorette. Danielle is the lady that called Salt Lake and said a prayer with them and we also met her at the Quick Check a while ago. Neither of them were home so we said a prayer to know where to go even though we had plans, we still wanted to be guided by the spirit as we always do! We visited with Josh and Adal again since they weren't there the last time we came. We read from the Book of Mormon with them and bore our testimonies! Then we went to go visit Richard and Lisa but unfortunately they weren't home so we left them a note and went to teach Charlie the Restoration! He had a bookshelf for our investigator Ann and so we thought we could fit it in the back of the car but it didn't fit. Whoops!
We felt the spirit and so did Charlie! The message of the Restoration is so special and we love sharing it and explaining it to those who haven't yet heard it! I have a strong testimony of Joseph Smith and the Restoration of this Gospel! So we tried to fit the bookshelf in the car but it didn't fit so we had to bring it back inside and then we drove back to the apartment after such an awesome day! I hope my emails are interesting and they don't seem repetitive. I really do love typing them up and recording everything that happens! Being on a mission has been such a blessing!
Tuesday was a really great day! I couldn't wait to read your email last night and see your pictures! We started off the day by having a miracle call from President Smith right off the bat! It was so great and we heard lots of cool stories from the past week! Then we went to the church for a few minutes to work on Mike's Baptisimal programs and invitations! They look so good and I can't wait for you to see them! After that, we had a really late Birthday lunch with Sister Parks since we have been so busy! We had a REALLY great lesson and enjoyed the delicious food! It was so nice of her to take us out to celebrate! Then we drove over to visit and do lots of service for Sister Falatyn. We helped her and Ben peel pears for a pear compote that she was making. I immediately thought of you Mom and Dad because you made the best compote ever! It made me laugh and think of you! We helped her peel and chop up the pears with Ben and then we had to get going to Saugerties for an appointment with Ann and Sister Shambo. They refuse to be in the same room together now so we have to have our lessons individually downstairs in the big recreation room that they have in the lobby. They have been arguing and fighting with each other and it has been really hard to see because they are such great friends! We had great lesson about being Christlike and we shared and told them that being Christlike will help their relationship so much! After our amazing lesson, we drove back to Kingston and finished Mike's invitations and sent them to Staples to get printed. It is so fun to send them in the mail and I can't wait for you to get them! After that, we quickly drove over to visit Wayne and Sharon. They have been really hard to meet with and so last week, they told us that they were busy and so we let them pick the time and date for us to come over. We stopped by and they weren't home so we were pretty disappointed but we kept going strong! The key to missionary work is not getting discouraged or giving up. Just keep trying your best! We knocked on a few more doors and then drove to the apartment for dinner. I was getting more and more excited for your email! Tuesday nights are the best! We drove to Wayne and Sharon's house but they told us that they just got back from doing groceries and so we thought that was a perfect opportunity to serve. They didn't want us to come inside and so they scheduled another time to come back. We have been trying to get a hold of them and teach them ever since I got here. Wayne is the less active member and Sharon is an investigator of ours. They are really great people but so hard to teach. So then, we drove to our appointment with Mike and the Larin family! It was great as usual and Mike is getting SO excited for his baptism! SO ARE WE!! We taught him about tithing and the blessings that come from paying tithing. I do have to tell you something so crazy!!! When we got there, Mike and Graciela had just pulled up in the car and had been there for just a few minutes. Brother Larin and the rest of the family were at the Church for a while and were just coming home for our lesson. When the Larin family got there, Brother Larin looked pretty upset. Graciela asked what was wrong and Brother Larin said that he lost his huge set of about 30 keys. He read somewhere that having so much weight on your keychain while driving isn't a good idea since it will damage the ignition. So he took of his house and car key and now just drives with that. Well, he lost the rest of his keys with the church key, his work key, and tons of other keys. He looked and looked in the car and checked again in every possible spot they could. Well.........the keys weren't in the car.......they were......ON the car. Brother Larin walked to the back to open up the trunk and couldn't believe what he saw! On the back bumper, not attached to anything, were his keys!!! They were just sitting on the back bumper and hadn't fallen off. HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE!?!? I took a picture so you can see how crazy it was! Anyway, we had an awesome lesson with Mike and the rest of the Larin family! What made the keys staying on even crazier was that he drove all the way from the Church going 55 miles per hour on the freeway and then going through lots of stop signs to get back so it was truly a miracle that they stayed on! Sister Larin made us some amazing pastalitta potstickers! It was so yummy and then we drove back to the apartment after an amazing day! I read your email and loved every word as usual! You guys are the best!
Well my dear and amazing family! I'm so sad that this email has come to an end because I had so much fun typing it up and telling you all the great and fun things that are going on in good old Kingston! I'm so very excited for everything going on both here and back at home! Today for P-day we are doing something SOOOOO fun! It will be an experience that I will never forget! We are going to drive to Poughkeepsie and do what's called "The Walkway Over The Hudson!" We will meet the New Paltz Elders and Sisters there and then we will get to walk over the Hudson River!! How cool is that!?! I feel bad because I really want to talk back and forth but I know you are busy too! We may not have Wi-Fi until we get back so I will email you as much as possible! I just uploaded my pictures and even a video and I hope you enjoy! The video is of Stella trying to eat ice cream and she kept trying to jump inside the bowl as you can tell! She was being so funny and we were all laughing so hard! Sister Cross even invited Bill so he was there too! It was a great lesson and Bill bore his great testimony that he has! Stella is the best! I hope you all have an amazing week and have so much fun with everything going on! I really appreciate every single thing that you do for me! Tell Dan, Becky, and the rest of the gang hi for me! I will miss being there so much. I will also really miss not being there for the Homecoming game and parade. That is going to be so hard. I hope you all have such an awesome week at work and school! LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!
Love You Always!
~Elder Lindberg
Thanks so much for sending Bill an awesome card! You are the best and he loved it so much!
Thursday was really awesome! It was such a great day and we enjoyed the ice cool, fall weather so much! We got a call the day before from a member outside of our mission and she said that she is a painter and sold one of her painting to a lady who lives in our area! She found our number online and asked if we could come help her! Of course we did so we scheduled to come over at around noon and helped her. The lady she sold it to broke the frame and it was stuck on their mantel so we went to go help! We woke up and did our morning routine and then we drove to the Parks' house to do some service and more yard work! I feel bad because they are both really busy and Brother Parks works at the Kingston hospital as a anesthesiologist and so he is really busy. They have a beautiful house and lots of land to take care of. It always looks so nice and we love helping them! So we did some more spraying for weeds, raking leaves, and edging. It was great and then Sister Parks made lunch for us! She had some French bread and some really good sweet squash soup and then we drove to pick up Bill for our service project in Red Hook! Since he is a member now, we can drive him to and from lessons which is awesome because he is always so willing help out! So we drove over to a lady named Emily's house and she was so nice! Her house was so amazing and was huge with beautiful views of the Rhinebeck mountains! The service went sooooo quick because all we had to do was take the picture off the wall and lay it on the table so the girl who sold it could fix it. It was a huge hand drawn picture of a character that could be from the Book of Mormon or Bible. The outside border of paper had not been glued properly so the girl who made and painted it could remove it and put a fresh later of paper down. Then, Emily made us some frozen pizza and we had a great talk! Bill was so impressed with the house and enjoyed coming with us! The girl who made and sold the painting went to Byu Idaho and served her mission in Salt Lake! She was born in Hawai'i and has lived her for a while. She was so nice and we had a great discussion while we ate! Then, we brought Bill back home and then we changed back into our white shirt and ties and then we had a lesson with Nick! He is very attached to his church and made it very clear that he just wants to learn more about our church. We don't usually like to spend much time with people like Nick not to be rude, but we like to find people that are more prepared and ready for the Gospel. We taught him the Restoration and we explained how our church has the Priesthood authority directly from Jesus Christ and we have a living Prophet on the Earth today. We showed him the pictures of the Prophet and Apostles and he really enjoyed that! Then after our great lesson with Nick, we drove back to the apartment for dinner! Then after dinner, we drove to visit Brother Nichols, Sharon, and Dorette. They were all home but they couldn't meet and we couldn't even share a quick message with them so then we drove to the Church to have our weekly lesson with Brother Young. He is such a great guy but is pretty wishy washy when it comes to lessons. He doesn't really like to just sit and have a scheduled time to talk about the Gospel. He never showed up so we worked on Mike's Baptisimal Programs and invitations! They look really good and we can't wait to have another baptism! Really exciting I think!! So we worked on them while we waited for Mike Young but he ended up not showing up. So then we drove back to Kingston for one of the best lessons I've ever had! We had it at Mike's house and it went so well! We like to switch off our lessons every other, so it works out that we can just talk to and teach Mike one lesson, and then have the whole Larin family for the other. It works out so well! We taught Mike the Law of Chastity and he told us that all of the lessons just make sense and he can't wait for his Baptism on the 21st! It is coming up so quick and I can't believe we are having another one! We always like to connect to our investigators and after we say the closing prayer, we like to talk about regular stuff for a few minutes. We talked about his cars that he has. Mike is 24 and he bought an old BMW and so he was showing us around and he also owns a Honda Ridgeline that is all blacked out. He is such a great guy! We drove down the street back to our apartment with big smiles on our faces! Being a missionary is so rewarding and it is so great to see the fruits of our labors!
Friday was a really great and productive day! Thank you, thank you, thank you for the awesome email! I can't believe it was 1 year ago that I got my call! I really appreciate all the love and support! It was so fun to see how far I've come in just a year! We woke up and did our studies then we drove over to the church for weekly planning. The weather has been so amazing andnthen leaves have all changed colors and are now starting to fall! It's amazing! Also, the moon has been so bright and light! It is huge! We had a great weekly planning session but it was very different on our new app. We got a call from Elder Wallace and he wanted to go on 1 more split before the cycle ends! So I got to stay here and Elder Wallace came to our area! So after our weekly planning, we drove to the buffet to meet Sister Wootton for lunch and it was so good as always! Then we went to visit Sister Heil but she was in a hurry and just about ready to leave for a doctor's appointment so she was waiting for her taxi. So we talked with her and shared a quick message about hope and peace and then we went back to the apartment and picked up a vacuum to help Bill clean off his new couch that Charlie gave him! It looked to nice after it was all done and he was thrilled! He bought us some chocolate covered pretzels to say thanks for everything that we have done for him! It was so awesome! We taught him about the Priesrhood since he was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood last Sunday! We showed hum a conference talk from 2011 given by President Monson and he loved every second! Then we drove to a gas station just down the street to split! The New Paltz elders drove to meet us and then we split! I was excited to show Elder Wallace our area and how the work is going! So Elder Wallace came with me into our area and then we immediately drove to Saugerties for a lesson with Ann! Our lessons always go really well with with her and we always feel the spirit so strong! Her faith is growing and she is seeing the importance of our message! We taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the importance of baptism. Then we grabbed a quick dinner at McDonald's since it was right there and then we had another lesson at 6:00 with our good friend Marco, his Mom, and the Larin family! So we met at Marco's house and then the Larin family showed up! Marco is the 11 year old kid who comes to Church each week but since his Mom only speaks Spanish, we haven't been able to ask for permission to baptize him. So now that we had Brother Larin, we could have a lesson in English for Marco and then Brother Larin could translate. It went really well and Marco accepted out baptismal date of November 11th but then when Brother Larin translated, I could tell that the Mom didn't approve. She told Brother Larin that he isn't old enough to know for himself that is what he should do. We were pretty sad because we really think he is ready for baptism, especially because he is so knowledgeable about the church and comes to Church each week. So after our lesson with them, we were pretty sad but we knew it just wasn't his time. After Marco, we had a great visit with Bob Costello but he talked for most of the time and so we left him with a prayer and then went to go see Josh and Adal but they weren't there so we set up another time to come back. Then it was 8:55 So we decided to drive back to the apartment for the evening. It was such an awesome day and I had a really great time with Elder Wallace! He is a really great missionary!
Saturday was so awesome!! It was so jam packed and crazy busy! Busy is always great because it makes time absolutely fly by and it makes us feel so good that we are using our time wisely! So we woke up and had a scheduled lesson with David Salas and we were excited because we had planned to set a Baptisimal date with him but he always cancels our appointments or just isn't even home. It has been pretty hard. We drove over to his house and knocked on his door but he didn't answer and he didn't answer his phone either. We made sure that he knew about our appointment and we watched him write it down on his calender but he just must have forgotten about it all together. In a situation like that, there isn't anything that we could do if they don't answer their door or phone. So then, we drove to the Church for our weekly Ward Correlation meeting and we filled out a progress record and then talked about Mike and the lessons we taught him! We are so excited because his Baptism is coming up so quickly and we are all so excited for him! It is fun to have so many people to teach! Then after ward correlation, we did our other studies and then had some lunch at Wendy's! It was really good! Then we talked to Brother and Sister Goodin who were at the Church and we set up a dinner appointment for the very next day! They are really great people! Then we drove to visit Brother and Sister Pease. Sister Pease has had cancer for quite a few years now and she is taking the treatments well. She is still pretty sick but always has a huge smile on her face! We went into their house and shared the first 4 minutes of President Uchtdorf's conference talk and they really loved it especially because they didn't have the chance to watch conference. We had a great discussion and then went to go visit Bill and drop off a thank you note for the pretzels he gave us! We were so grateful for it and were so appreciative! He wasn't home and so we just left the note in his door and then went to go see if Manny was home but unfortunately he wasn't. He has been so, so hard to get a hold of. I am trying my best to make sure people feel the spirit and enjoy our lessons! We really love teaching and seeing the growth in people! Then after that, it was time to drive back to New Paltz for the unsplit. As we were driving, we noticed a white Toyota Corolla pull out onto the main road from a house. We couldn't believe it but itnwas the other set of Elders! The chances of thst happening are so slim! So we pulled off the road and just unsplit there. I had a really great time with Elder Wallace and learned a lot from him! It's always so nice to have our plans go so well and be able to teach so many great people! It was getting pretty late and so we drove over to have dinner with Sister Cross and her family! Elder Howard and I were really glad to be back together serving! We had a great lesson with them and enjoyed the meal! She made us really good sloppy Joe's and then we had milkshakes for desert! It was such a great day and we enjoyed teaching so many great people!
Sunday was really cool! I woke up and was so excited to see I had an email from you! I loved the picture quote that you sent and for the well wishes! I just appreciate you all so much and want you to know that I alwaysnthink about and miss you SO VERY MUCH! It always brightens my day so much when I get an email from you! We had to be to Ward Council which is something that they didn't do in Olmstead and so it has been great to have these meetings and discuss everything in the Ward! I have some really cool and exciting news by the way about Mike's baptism! Lots of great things happened today and I can't wait to tell you about them! We woke up thst morning to pouring rain due to the hurricane thst we heard is going on right now. It poured and poured and just before we were ready to leave for ward council.....the power shut off. We discussed all of the upcoming events like Stake Conference and our baptism coming up. We had just 1 problem though.....We had this baptism schedule for almost a month now and so the member should known about it. We have been bringing it up for a while and making sure it was a great event! Well, lots of things got scheduled that day like a youth temple trip to Connecticut, Super Saturday, and a few other activities were scheduled over the baptism. We had already moved it from the 28th to the 21st and so we really didn't want to move it around a whole lot because then people get confused. So we ended up moving Mike's Baptisim to the 20th which is a Friday. We are set on that date and nothing should come up. So I'm very excited to say that Mike's baptism will be coming up a week from this Friday! I can't believe that we are having another baptism. Our hard work really is paying off and we are trying our best! There is so much great work going on! We told Mike if that would be ok to change it and of course he was fine with it! He is such a humble guy! We had 4 investigators in Church and they all loved it! Bill was sustained and ordained to the office of Priest and got to receive the Aaronic Priesthood! He leaned over to me after Sacrament Meeting and he had tears running down his cheeks. He told me he was so touched and grateful for the card you sent!
Monday was so great! We woke up to buckets of water and quite a bit of wind. We had huge puddles all around our apartment and it was coming down in sheets of water. It was pretty crazy! So we did our morning routine as we always do and we studied like the wind. I was thinking about you all the whole time and hoping you were having a great day off from school! Thanks so much Dad for going to work so we can have a roof over our head and so I can keep serving my mission! We had a great District Meeting in New Paltz and enjoyed talking about all of our investigators and then we drove to have lunch with Sister Wootton! It was so yummy and we enjoyed our conversation a lot! Then we all drove over to the Church to have a lesson with Brother Larin's basketball guys! Sister Wootton said a great prayer with them and then we taught them about families. It is really hard to teach a whole bunch of people because it isn't as personal. Then we had an incredible lesson with Bill! We walked in and he had a big smile on his face and was so happy to see us! He showed me your awesome card that you sent him and I even got a picture with him! He was so thrilled and you seriously made his whole day.....week.....I mean....month.....year!! We read with him a few chapters in the Book of Mormon and explained them to him. Like I was telling Dad, I'm not a scriptorian and I don't know all of the stories like Elder Howard does. He explains things so well and I wish I could know the Book of Mormon like the back of my hand. He will explain that such and such is the brother of him and he is the son of another guy and is really interesting to listen to. I have learned so much from him! Today is the trainer call day again but since Elder Howard only has 1 more cycle, we are almost positive that we will both be staying until he leaves to go home! We also taught Bill about the Priesthood and explained how we bless and pass the sacrament and he is very excited to pass it this next week! After our lesson, we drove back to the apartment and did the rest of our studies and had dinner. We were stilled pretty stuffed from the buffet so we didn't eat a whole lot. I have been so grateful for Sister Wootton because it is always so fun to go and we really appreciate her taking us out! After dinner, we drove down the street to look up Danielle and Dorette. Danielle is the lady that called Salt Lake and said a prayer with them and we also met her at the Quick Check a while ago. Neither of them were home so we said a prayer to know where to go even though we had plans, we still wanted to be guided by the spirit as we always do! We visited with Josh and Adal again since they weren't there the last time we came. We read from the Book of Mormon with them and bore our testimonies! Then we went to go visit Richard and Lisa but unfortunately they weren't home so we left them a note and went to teach Charlie the Restoration! He had a bookshelf for our investigator Ann and so we thought we could fit it in the back of the car but it didn't fit. Whoops!
Tuesday was a really great day! I couldn't wait to read your email last night and see your pictures! We started off the day by having a miracle call from President Smith right off the bat! It was so great and we heard lots of cool stories from the past week! Then we went to the church for a few minutes to work on Mike's Baptisimal programs and invitations! They look so good and I can't wait for you to see them! After that, we had a really late Birthday lunch with Sister Parks since we have been so busy! We had a REALLY great lesson and enjoyed the delicious food! It was so nice of her to take us out to celebrate! Then we drove over to visit and do lots of service for Sister Falatyn. We helped her and Ben peel pears for a pear compote that she was making. I immediately thought of you Mom and Dad because you made the best compote ever! It made me laugh and think of you! We helped her peel and chop up the pears with Ben and then we had to get going to Saugerties for an appointment with Ann and Sister Shambo. They refuse to be in the same room together now so we have to have our lessons individually downstairs in the big recreation room that they have in the lobby. They have been arguing and fighting with each other and it has been really hard to see because they are such great friends! We had great lesson about being Christlike and we shared and told them that being Christlike will help their relationship so much! After our amazing lesson, we drove back to Kingston and finished Mike's invitations and sent them to Staples to get printed. It is so fun to send them in the mail and I can't wait for you to get them! After that, we quickly drove over to visit Wayne and Sharon. They have been really hard to meet with and so last week, they told us that they were busy and so we let them pick the time and date for us to come over. We stopped by and they weren't home so we were pretty disappointed but we kept going strong! The key to missionary work is not getting discouraged or giving up. Just keep trying your best! We knocked on a few more doors and then drove to the apartment for dinner. I was getting more and more excited for your email! Tuesday nights are the best! We drove to Wayne and Sharon's house but they told us that they just got back from doing groceries and so we thought that was a perfect opportunity to serve. They didn't want us to come inside and so they scheduled another time to come back. We have been trying to get a hold of them and teach them ever since I got here. Wayne is the less active member and Sharon is an investigator of ours. They are really great people but so hard to teach. So then, we drove to our appointment with Mike and the Larin family! It was great as usual and Mike is getting SO excited for his baptism! SO ARE WE!! We taught him about tithing and the blessings that come from paying tithing. I do have to tell you something so crazy!!! When we got there, Mike and Graciela had just pulled up in the car and had been there for just a few minutes. Brother Larin and the rest of the family were at the Church for a while and were just coming home for our lesson. When the Larin family got there, Brother Larin looked pretty upset. Graciela asked what was wrong and Brother Larin said that he lost his huge set of about 30 keys. He read somewhere that having so much weight on your keychain while driving isn't a good idea since it will damage the ignition. So he took of his house and car key and now just drives with that. Well, he lost the rest of his keys with the church key, his work key, and tons of other keys. He looked and looked in the car and checked again in every possible spot they could. Well.........the keys weren't in the car.......they were......ON the car. Brother Larin walked to the back to open up the trunk and couldn't believe what he saw! On the back bumper, not attached to anything, were his keys!!! They were just sitting on the back bumper and hadn't fallen off. HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE!?!? I took a picture so you can see how crazy it was! Anyway, we had an awesome lesson with Mike and the rest of the Larin family! What made the keys staying on even crazier was that he drove all the way from the Church going 55 miles per hour on the freeway and then going through lots of stop signs to get back so it was truly a miracle that they stayed on! Sister Larin made us some amazing pastalitta potstickers! It was so yummy and then we drove back to the apartment after an amazing day! I read your email and loved every word as usual! You guys are the best!
Well my dear and amazing family! I'm so sad that this email has come to an end because I had so much fun typing it up and telling you all the great and fun things that are going on in good old Kingston! I'm so very excited for everything going on both here and back at home! Today for P-day we are doing something SOOOOO fun! It will be an experience that I will never forget! We are going to drive to Poughkeepsie and do what's called "The Walkway Over The Hudson!" We will meet the New Paltz Elders and Sisters there and then we will get to walk over the Hudson River!! How cool is that!?! I feel bad because I really want to talk back and forth but I know you are busy too! We may not have Wi-Fi until we get back so I will email you as much as possible! I just uploaded my pictures and even a video and I hope you enjoy! The video is of Stella trying to eat ice cream and she kept trying to jump inside the bowl as you can tell! She was being so funny and we were all laughing so hard! Sister Cross even invited Bill so he was there too! It was a great lesson and Bill bore his great testimony that he has! Stella is the best! I hope you all have an amazing week and have so much fun with everything going on! I really appreciate every single thing that you do for me! Tell Dan, Becky, and the rest of the gang hi for me! I will miss being there so much. I will also really miss not being there for the Homecoming game and parade. That is going to be so hard. I hope you all have such an awesome week at work and school! LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!
Love You Always!
~Elder Lindberg
Thanks so much for sending Bill an awesome card! You are the best and he loved it so much!
Tanner just sent these pictures from p-day. They had a great day walking across the Hudson River!
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