Hello my amazing family!! Wow it was so exciting to hear from you! Thank you so much for your amazing email! A lot has happened this week and I can't wait to tell you all about it! I hope I can explain everything well and that you enjoy my email! Today for P-day, I'm so excited to say that we finally might be able to go to the top of the Rockefeller Center! It may just be Elder Brown and I and so we will have a ton of fun! Here goes my week!
Last P-Day was so much fun! I was so excited to get your email about the Rockefeller tree being lit up and all of the cool things happening! I had such a fun time emailing you all and hearing from each and every one of you! We decided to bust out our laundry and grocery shopping so We could spend the rest of the day out and about! We got to see so many cool things like the Saint Patrick's Cathedral and the Rockefeller Center and tree! I was so excited that you were able to watch it and I loved your pictures so much! It was really fun to see! So a little bit more about Elder Staker, he is from Pheonix Arizona and is the middle child of 3. He has an older sister and a younger sister. He has been out of his mission for 14 cycles and so he will most likely spend the rest of his mission here in this apartment! We got to take a ton of pictures and we even saw the news set where they would be filming the show for the tree lighting! It was all so amazing and we had a really fun day! Elder Brown bought a cool Manhattan T-shirt that has all of the subway lines on it. We all had a really fun and exciting day! I am always sad when P-Day ends because I can't email you for a whole week but I always love it when I get so many great emails during the week! Then we went to visit a Bible referral named Moses. We weren't able to give it to him last time we went over because his Sister was there and we are supposed to give the Bible to the person who actually ordered it. So we went over and Moses was home! He is an older gentleman who has lived in Manhattan for over 65 years. He took the Bible and invited us back over to read it and explain it with him! He is a pretty cool guy! Then we went to visit Charles and Monae and we taught them about Obedience, keeping the Sabbath Day Holy, and prayer. It was a really great lesson and they have been learning so much and reading the Book of Mormon almost every day! Then we came back to the apartment and called and texted lots of people and then our Zone Leaders texted and asked if they could do a split with them the following Friday into Saturday! Then I got your awesome email and it was such a fun way to end the day!
Thursday was a really great day as well! I was so excited to wake up and see your email of the Rockefeller Tree all lit up and ready to roll for Christmas! We went outside to do our morning run since the weather was beautiful and almost 50 degrees. On Wednesday, it got up to 60 degrees!! Can you believe that??? 60 degrees on November 29th! Then we came back to get ready for the day and then after our studies, we headed over to the Church for our weekly planning! After we did some weekly planning, we went to the Manhattan Temple to get the mail for our District again and pick up our missionary supplies that we always get. Then we brought it all back to our chapel and then finished our weekly planning there. We always enjoy talking with lots of different people! We set up a few appointments but other than that, not a whole lot of people answered their phone. Then we had a lesson scheduled with a recent convert who was baptized over a year ago. The Bishop and President Smith asked us to start meeting with and teaching him because he is a really valuable asset to the ward! We had it scheduled but unfortunately, he never showed up. We were really wanting to meet with him and looking forward to our appointment with him. Then we had another appointment right after that with Brother Mishler and we were excited because he told us that we were going to go to his work and he had some people that he wanted us to meet and teach! We were both stoked and excited to meet them! We went over to Brother Mishler's house and we had a great visit with him! He has 3 kids and they are all under the age of 7. Lilly, Jason, and Peter. They are really funny kids and love having us over! I totally forgot to mention that I will be sure to get pictures of everyone before I get transferred in a few transfers. We read from the Book of Mormon with him and we read in Alma about missionary work! Then we hurried over to out later dinner appointment with Brother and Sister Toomey! I will have to get a picture with them to because they are so awesome and feed us delicious home cooked food every week! They are both returned missionaries and so they know what it is like to get a home cooked meal! They are feeding the Sister Missionaries right before we get there and so it works out perfectly! We had baked chicken, apples, and stuffing for dinner and it was really good! I had a really good idea come to mind a few days after you sent me those 2 Christmas stories that I love so much!! When it get closer to Christmas, I want to share those stories with our members because they always bring the Christmas spirit in! We had such a great and busy day and really enjoyed the beautiful weather that we were having because it wasn't too cold. We headed back to the apartment for the night and realized "Wow! November is over already!?!?!" We couldn't believe that it was already December! Christmas......here we come!!!!!
Friday was such an awesome day!! First of all, HAPPY DECEMBER!! I really can't believe that it's already December and we are less than 25 days away from Christmas! I was thinking about Dad all day as he travelled to Omaha! I was hoping he had a great and safe flight! We had a split planned with our Zone Leaders and we were really looking forward to it! We also got some awesome news! We were told that we were going to help out with the Carols on Columbus activity on Saturday so we were so excited for that! We woke up and Elder Staker and Elder Rocha got ready early in the morning so they could head off to Missionary Leadership Training. One interesting thing is that even though they live in our apartment, we aren't in the same District since they are YSA missionaries. Elder Rocha is the District Leader for their district and does a great job! It has been a little weird to think that this transfer is only 5 weeks long! That means it will go by even quicker than it usually does. First we went to visit our good friend Neal! We had a great chat with him but we haven't been able to share anything related to religion because of his atheist beliefs. His name is Neal Hoos and apparently he is a pretty famous photographer. We talked about Thanksgiving and some of his recent pictures that he had taken and they were all so amazing! Then we headed back near our apartment to visit with Mary Miles who is the member that we met on Thanksgiving! We stopped by but unfortunately, she wasn't home and so we walked back to the apartment for lunch. I got home and realized that Dad was probably on a plane or traveling to the airport by that time and so I was thinking a lot about him! After lunch, we went to visit a lady at a hospital who Sister Honeycut referred to us. She called us that morning and said that there was a lady who was being admitted into the hospital and that she wanted a blessing. We were more than happy to go give her one so after lunch, we took the train up to the Presbyterian Hospital to give her a blessing! So I packed my bag for a split and then headed off to the hospital! We got there and we met a really nice family! The Mom and Dad aren't members but their daughter, Carolyn is and she served a mission! Her parents didn't speak very much English but they were very nice! We gave the Mom, Maria, a blessing because her kidneys have been having some problems and they are trying to get a transplant. She is doing just fine and it was so awesome to give her a blessing! After that, we headed all the way to 96th street to do an APF with our whole zone! We decided to split up there and so once we got there, I was companions with Elder Espinoza, and Elder Smiley was companions with Elder Brown! So we headed back to the apartment for dinner and we had a great chat about how the work is going! We got to talk to this really nice lady on the bus from Spain! She was in her late 70s and was so fun to talk to! She told us how her grandson plays the piano and just got to perform at Carnegie hall! It was really cool to talk to her and get to know her better! Then we had 2 video lessons with a girl named Che and a guy named Julio. They both went really well and then we headed off to bed for a good night's rest!
Saturday was so incredible! I had such a great time on my split and we had so much going on! We started the morning by waking up and taking the train to 106th street and playing soccer with some of the ward members and our Zone Leader's investigators! We had a really fun time getting to know them! They had a really cool turf field that we got to play on! Then we came back to their apartment and got ready for the day and then did our studies. We got a text from one of the ward members from the Manhattan 2nd ward asking us if we wanted to go to Subway for lunch! We were of course really excited and not about to turn down that offer! So after our studies we met them at Subway for lunch! On the way, Elder Espinoza and I just got talking and he said he knows how hard it can be to find people to teach in the city. There may be tons and tons of people all around us nut it's hard to find people who want to learn more about Jesus Christ and change their lifestyle and start coming to Church. It is a huge commitment for someone and so it's hard to find those people who are ready to change. He said that he has had many times on his mission where there just hasn't been anyone to teach but then Heavenly Father blesses you with people to teach in other areas. It has taught me a lot about patience and waiting for the right people to come our way. He gave me a lot of comfort! I just don't want to let anyone down if we don't have anyone to teach. Especially you all at home. I'm sorry that my emails haven't been filled with lots of teaching and baptisms but we are working so hard and diligently and trusting in Heavenly Father's timing. I am just so blessed and grateful to be able, physically and spiritually, to serve a mission. It has blessed my life in countless ways and I can't thank each and every one of you enough!!!!! I have to tell you something really cool! I wasn't able to tell you in last week's email because we found out about it on Thursday and so it was kind of short notice but on Saturday we got to do something really cool! So there is a really famous and well attended event that happens every year at the Manhattan Temple Chapel called "Carols on Columbus!" There is usually someone well known like David Archeleta who performs and this year it was Alex Boyea! He didn't come to this particular concert but he did do a concert just a couple of days prior! There were 2 shows, 1 at 5:00 and the other at 7:00! Our whole zone was asked to be ushers for the event!! So at 3:00 on Saturday, we got to head over to the Manhattan Temple and unsplit and be ushers for this awesome event! There have been so many cool decorations everyone and it really is looking cool! It was such an amazing experience that I will never forget! So we got there at 3:00 and then they did a brief training for all of the missionaries in our Zone and then they had a huge pizza dinner for us and then we got to work! We unsplit and then Elder Brown and I got to welcome in people that were coming up one of the flights of stairs and we were in charge of directing them where to go. Then we got to go inside and watch the concert! They did a really amazing job and there was so much talent in the concert! They sang lots of great Christmas songs like Silent Night and Angels We Have Heard On High! We enjoyed listening to all of the Christmas songs and I was just so excited for Christmas and couldn't wait for it to get here! Then after the 5:00session, we were in charge of being ushers toward the back of the gym. It was held in the chapel and overflows and since it was a special occasion, people were allowed to clap. They even had a special musical number from the ASL program! We enjoyed talking with tons of people and I even met someone from Meridian Idaho! It was also so cool because I was able to meet all of the new missionaries that just came in this last cycle and let me tell ya, it was weird to think how new they were! I feel like that was me just yesterday and now I'm almost a year in and meeting brand new missionaries right out of the MTC!! I can't believe how much I've grown! The concert lasted until about 9:15but since we had to be back to the apartment by 9:00, we had to leave at 8:15. We had such an amazing time and I was so excited to get your email telling me that Dad made it safe and sound! Those are always great emails to get!
Sunday was another really awesome and productive day! I have something SOOOO exciting and amazing and I can't even believe it to be honest!!! I also have some incredible exciting news that I can't wait to tell you!! It was such a cool miracle and I'm so blessed! We headed off to Church and had tons of visitors from all over! There some really awesome members from Utah and Arizona and I had so much fun talking to them! Well we were deciding where to sit for Sacrament meeting and I went to go sit down next to a man that I had seen before at church but just didn't know but about him. I still to this day can't believe it because how crazy it is and I bet you won't believe it either! After Sacrament Meeting, I leaned over to him and said "I don't think we've officially met yet, what is your name?" He said, "I'm Brother Nibley!!" I said, "Well, that's where I am from!" Then he told me that his Great Grandfather was the founder of Nibley!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it and was so excited to be talking to the Great Grandson of the man who founded the town that I love so much and has been my home for most of my life! It was so much fun to talk to him and find out more about him but I really could not believe it! This world keeps getting smaller and smaller! We had some great testimonies and even had some visitors from Utah get up and bear their testimonies. It was great to talk to some fellow Utahns because it always makes me feel at Home! Then we had our weekly correlation meeting and we had a great turnout of leaders and we got to discuss everything going on in the ward and things are going really great right now! Afterwards, we called a whole bunch of investigators and one of the ward missionaries, Sister Coburn, told us that one of her friends who has been to Church before, wanted to meet with us so we stayed at the church to meet with him! His name is Kevin and he has some issues with the Word of Wisdom and wasn't able to get baptised a few years ago but loves the ward and coming to Church! So it was such a cool string of events that happened and the spirit was definitely there! So Kevin has been coming to Church off and on for the past 5 years and has been taught everything multiple times but has had some things he has been trying to clear up over the past few years that hasn't allowed him to get baptized. For one, he has some issues with the Word of Wisdom like I talked about and is living in the same apartment as a lady who was baptized a year and a half ago. So we we're talking with Sister Coburn who is a ward missionary and told us to meet with Kevin because he has been wanting to talk to us! We had said hi to him a few times but never had the chance to sit down and talk with him. So we called Kevin and he was just right down the street and came right over when he got our call. We met with him and the first thing he told us is "Guys, I want to be baptized!!" We were so thrilled and excited! Well we got talking to him and he told us that January 11th was the correct date for him and we set it right then and there! Isn't that amazing!?!?! We have had a zone fast fast that day for the companionships in the ward that don't have a Baptisimal date and there were a few of us that didn't and we got one that very same day! The other amazing thing was that we were talking to Kevin in the basement floor of the Church. We didn't know that anyone else was in the building since it was a few hours after church. Kevin told us that he wanted to get baptized but wasn't sure if he could and so he wanted to talk to Bishop. Well......about 10 seconds later we heard the elevator door open and guess who walks in?? Bishop Duprieu! We had an amazing discussion and Kevin and Bishop set a time to meet the very next day! It was one of the coolest string of miracles that I've ever seen and I'm so grateful that we now have a baptism! Then we headed over to our late dinner appointment with a really awesome family named the Michon family! They have 2 little kids and they both grew up in Virginia. Brother Michon went to Byu and Sister Michon went to Utah Valley University. Their kids' names are Duke and Scarlett. Duke is 5 and Scarlett is 2 and a half. Duke really loves Legos and was showing me all of his Lego books and some of the sets he has put together and some of the books he was looking through since Christmas is coming up fast. He really wants a police station Lego set for Christmas! We had some really good tacos with guacamole and had a great time getting to know each other. By the time dinner was over, we became really good friends! Just so you know, your names are all mentioned at every single dinner appointment because I love my family more than anything and love telling people how awesome you are all what great examples you are to me and what a blessing you all are! I love to show families a picture of you and tell a little bit about each one of you and it has been so much fun to do! After dinner, they asked us if we were watching the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and we hadn't heard anything about it. It made me a little sad because watching it is such a fun tradition and I wished so much that I could have been at home by the warm fireplace watching it with you. But we will have to postpone it for a couple of quick years. I was hoping that you were having a great time watching it together! They are memories that I will never forget! One cool thing about the Michon family is that they both really love classic cars. Brother Michon has a 1969 Dodge Charger and Sister Michon has a Trans-Am from the 70s. They got talking about how they also love football and even told me that Alabama made it into the Playoffs after a big debate if Ohio State should be in. I have to say that I will really, REALLY miss not facilitating the College Football Bowl Prediection Challenge this year. But don't worry, I will do it as soon as I get back! I hope the boys aren't too disappointed!
Monday was another really great and fun day of missionary work! We did our morning exercise and studies and then we headed to the Manhattan Temple Chapel for District Meeting. I couldn't even believe that it was already December 4th and we were just 3 short weeks away from Christmas and Skyping!! I was beyond excited! One amazing thing that I totally forgot to mention about Brother and Sister Michon is that they told us something so cool! They were walking in a park near their apartment one day and you will never believe who they saw! Tom Brady and his wife were just taking a stroll in the park! They told us that it happened last summer and how cool it was to see them! I thought it was so cool! So we went to District Meeting and it was a lot of fun to talk about our new Baptisimal date! We all had so many cool stories and it was a lot of fun to tell all of the missionaries! Then we got some really good food from a very popular food truck right across the street from the Temple called "The Casbah" and then did our companionship study. I got a lamb gyro and it was so delicious and tasty! I have really loved the food here and enjoyed trying so many new things! It's not as good as your cooking but it is a good substitute for 2 years! Hehe!
Tuesday was awesome! I had a pretty hard morning just thinking about home and family and how much I miss you all. It has been pretty hard to be away especially during the Christmas season. I have just really missed all of the traditions, spending time with you all, and making holiday treats and watching Christmas movies. I want you to know how much I love and appreciate each of you and everything that you do for me! We woke up and did our morning exercise and studies and then headed out for the day! First, we went down to Lower Manhattan to wish Ellie a Happy Birthday! Sister De Jesus told us that it was her Birthday and so we were able to go wish her a Happy Birthday! We thought it would be a fun idea and Sister De Jesus really appreciated it! Ellie was in school and so we met Sister De Jesus during Ellie's school lunch time! We got there and they were down the street at recess in a gym and so we got to say Happy Birthday to her and she didn't know we were coming so it put a huge smile on her face! It was a lot of fun to wish her a great day! Then we came back to the apartment for lunch and companionship study and had a great talk! Elder Brown and Elder Rocha are having the same problem with missing home and family. They were both here for last Christmas but they said it is still really hard. For me, it's the hardest thing I've done in my life to leave you and home. But I know how much this Gospel blesses families and your Love, prayers, and support keep me going strong!!! So thank you!
Well my dear family! It has been a blast to hear from you and email you! I hope you have a wonderful time going to Elder Howard's Homecoming and have a great time as Christmas approaches and gets closer and closer! I love and appreciate you all so very much and I can't wait to hear how this week goes! I love and appreciate you all so much! You are the best family ever! LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH!!!
Love You Always!
~Elder Lindberg
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