January 24th 2018~NEW MISSION PRESIDENT ANNOUNECED!THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE AMAZING PACKAGE AND HALF TIME WISHES!!!!
Hello my dear and incredible Family! Thank you all bunches for your awesome email, pictures, and package! I hope you got my letter to show my appreciation for you! I wish I could give you a hug and thank you in person! I am so glad that you pointed out that yesterday will be a year from when I come home! The countdown is on!!!
Last P-day was so much fun and very relaxing! We woke up to light falling of snow but it wasn't too cold which was nice! It was an amazing day and I appreciated so much your emails and your well wishes! We had a really fun time emailing and getting our apartment straightened up and nice and tidy and then at about noon, we headed over to the Temple for our session! We had a really good turnout and we were the only 2 missionaries in the session and so it was fun to get to know some different people! It was such a cool experience to be able to go on the 52 week mark of getting dropped off and the day before my year mark! It was really awesome! It was a really fun P-Day and I was sad that it was over. Then we went to go visit Charles and Monae but they told us to come a little later because they were having an argument and they had some business to deal with and so we did some tracting and we were able to pass out a Resteration pamphlet with our phone number and so hopefully we get a call soon! Then we went over to visit Charles and Monae and we found out from Charles that their 13 year old daughter, Monae, has been taking different things from around the house to school. Charles was pretty upset but we were able to bring the spirit into their home and by the time we shared a video about the Atonement, they were both getting along much better! The spirit can fix almost anything! It was a cool experience! Then we had an appointment with Antoine but he ended up leaving the house right after he called to confirm with us about our appointment. We are so confused as to why he keeps setting up these appointments and calls to confirm them but then at the split second, decided to take a trip to Brooklyn and left the house. We are so sad for him because we know how much peace and happiness he can feel in his life if he just takes this step and commits to reading the Book of Mormon and coming to Church. It will help his marriage so much but if he chooses to not be home for our lessons, then we will have to stop teaching him. We see so much potential in him but sometimes people have a really hard time seeing the importance of our message at first. So then we did a few more lookups and knocked on Evelyn Esteves door who is an investigator and we met her son, Chris. So it was awesome that we found another guy to teach! Then we walked back to the apartment and I was just so excited that it was my year mark! I realized that it was exactly a year that I was set apart! On our way back, we met a really cool man from Brooklyn who just recently moved to a homeless shelter on Avenue D where our apartment is and said that he was looking for Infomil formula for his 4 month old baby but he couldn't find a place that donated money. I really wish I could help everyone that we see but it's so hard to give money. It was a really awesome day and I was so excited for Zone Conference and my year mark hump day!!
Wow!!! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR THE HAPPY HUMP DAY WISHES!!!! Thursday was such an amazing day! I woke up and was SO very excited to see your amazing email! Thank you a million times for you awesome pictures and fun video!!!!! It was so much fun to see and hear you and watch you eat your delicious ice cream! You all look so well and happy! And that makes me so happy! Thanks again for the well wishes and the fun package! I was smiling ear to ear the whole day and just couldn't even believe that it has been a whole hear since I got dropped off! It really blows my mind! We woke up a tiny bit early to get to Zone Conference on time. It was so much fun to have Zone Conference on my actual year mark! We took the train to the Temple and had a delicious breakfast! We had an amazing zone conference! It was all centered on faith and helping our investigators keep commitments and the importance of the Book of Mormon. It lasted until about 4:00 and we were able to celebrate my year mark afterwards! They had mail on the stage and I was so excited to get your fun thank you card! Thank you so much for everything that you wrote and all of the fun thank you notes! I really appreciated it so much and loved reading what you all wrote! I watched your video again and loved every second of it! Then we were able to go out to eat and celebrate! We decided to go to Taco Bell and I used your gift card and so it was like you were there! It was a really fun way to celebrate and I got some really yummy food! Thanks again so much for all of the fun gift cards! I had a blast using them and eating at lots of fun places! After our delicious dinner, we headed towards our apartment to go to a few lessons that we had! I was having the best day and just couldn't even believe that I now had more time behind me than I did in front of me! It blew my mind that my mission was now more than half over! As I looked back on this last year of my incredible mission, I just can't help but smile! I'm so appreciative of you all and all of your love, prayers, and support!! This year has been so incredible and I've learned so much! I can't wait to see what this next year has in store because I know it will be incredible too! After our dinner, we brought the mail back to the apartment and then went to go teach and help Robert Torres come closer to Christ. We knocked on his door and he was just released from the hospital that day and so he was recovering from his illness. We said a prayer with him and then called Antoine Ingram to remind him that we were coming over. He told us that he was down the street eating at IHOP with his wife and so we went over to have a lesson with them! It was later and so there were hardly any people in the restraunt and so we had a great lesson! We found out that they really love coffee and they just went to IHOP so they could have their unlimited coffee deal. We will work through that issue soon so they can progress towards baptism. We were able to meet his new wife, Sylvia and give her a Book of Mormon and a Restoration Pamphlet and then we invited them both to Church and to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. They both are showing so much promise and we are really excited to plant those seeds of faith. They are both religious and Sylvia grew up in Savannah Georgia and she is so nice. We were praying and asking Heavenly Father to let them make it to Church! We left the IHOP feeling so excited and blessed to be teaching them! We are helping them in any way that we can and planting those seeds of faith. Then we got a text saying that the De Jesus family are moving to California in a few weeks. It was pretty shocking at first but they have been talking about some job offers that have come up and so at the beginning of February, they will be moving. I had an AMAZING hump day and really loved your treats, packages, videos, pictures, and funny "Hump Day" picture! Grandma Evans also gave me an incredible card and I'm so grateful for each of your love and support! You are the best Family ever!!!!! I was thinking about you the whole day! Love you!
Friday was so awesome!! I woke up and couldn't believe that I was more than half way done!! I loved your videos, pictures and well wishes so much! I enjoyed the treats and reading your fun cards so much! We found out that we had a conference call so President Smith could share all of the cool stories that have happened within the last week. I submitted our cool stories about finding people to teach and how we found Antoine and what a cool miracle that was! He shared some experiences where people were found by cool miracles just like Antoine! It was so cool to have our faith built by former missionaries. Then we did our weekly planning and called lots of people and even found a lady named Aida for the Florida missionaries to teach! It was a cool miracle! Then we went to go teach Neil but he just isn't progressing and so we aren't going to go over to his apartment any more because he just wants to talk about life and not about religion at all since he is an atheist. We thought we would go over to help build his faith that there is a Heavenly Father but he would stop us and change the subject. He is still a really good friend and he is such a nice guy but isn't someone who will accept the Gospel. So then we went to the Church to do our studies which is our 12 Week program and then we did our companionship study!We have been learning a ton from each other and we are having fun watching some District videos for missionary training and reading from Preach My Gospel together! Then we had 2 of the COOLEST and most AMAZING lessons I think that I have ever had so far on my mission! I'm telling you that these 2 lessons were so incredible and the spirit was really strong! We started off by scheduling a dinner appointment that morning with the Toomey family but it ended up getting cancelled due to a late train and Brother and Sister Toomey weren't able to make it home to feed us and so that allowed us some extra time for these amazing lessons to happen! First, we knocked on the door of a man named Robert Torres who I met for the first time about a week ago. He told us to come back and so we did. He has been struggling with drug and alcohol problems most of his life and was so frustrated and just wants peace and to be freed from this addiction. He poured out his feeling to us and told us that he wants to stop smoking and drinking. He then said that he was done and at wits end and just wants help and that he knows that it wasn't by coincidence that we came by. We saw such a change in him for the 45 minutes that we were over there and we promised him that he can be freed from this addictions as long as he reads the Book of Mormon and says his prayers to help give him that power to overcome his addictions. He is in his late 50s and lives alone and gave us a big hug before we left and told us thank you! He just kept telling us how grateful he was that we stopped by and he wanted us to help him! Then we went to go visit a lady named Lillian Rios who wanted us to give her a blessing. I had met her before but we hadn't been able to meet with her for a few months because of the busy holidays. She told us that she is going in for spine surgery and just wanted some peace. Her daughter passed away last March and so she has been having a rough time coping with raising her 3 grandchildren with her husband. She came into the dining room and just didn't look good. She was hunched over in pain because she has some pinched nerves and so she was in a lot of pain. She could barely sit let alone stand and so we gave her a blessing of comfort and healing. We closed the blessing and I kid you not but she stood right up and told us "Boys!!!!! I don't feel any pain." She walked us outside to the elevator and said that he pain was virtually completely gone. It was so incredible to see such an immediate answer to a blessing! It was so cool for all of those involved! Then we came back to the apartment for dinner since Brother and Sister Toomey weren't able to make it and so we had a nice dinner at our apartment. Then we checked up on Charles and Monae and their cousins were over and so we got to say hi to them. We invited them to Church again and to the linger longer lunch and they said that they would come! Then we tried to visit a guy named Radames but he wasn't home so we talked to people on the streets for the rest of the night. It was a really great day and then we got some exciting news when we got back to the apartment! We got a text from our Zone Leaders telling us that President Smith was having another conference call the very next morning and so we knew that he was going to announce something big!!!! We went to bed excited for the morning to come so we could hear the news!
VERY EXCITING NEWS!!!! Saturday was a really aweosme day! We woke up to an amazing sunrise and we enjoyed exercising before our studies. After our studies, it was time for the conference call that we were all really looking forward to! We got on the call after our studies and were so excited to hear his news! He told us that as of July of this year after the new mission President comes in, it will be the New York City mission!!!! It will be its own mission and then he told us that a new mission President got called! His name is President Toosher! I'm not sure how to spell it but it was exciting to hear a name! It was really exciting and I recorded it on my new recorder while eating your treats! I'm not sure exactly what the new boundaries will be but it's so crazy to think that New York City will have it's very own mission. I am so excited to meet President Toosher in July! It's crazy to think that when the new mission President comes in, I will be 6 months away from coming home! After our awesome Confernece call, we went to visit Andre Cox because we have been wanting to get to know him better and he called us that morning and asked if we wanted to come help him clean his apartment. We were so happy to help out! Elder Brown and Elder Macedo went over to his house to share a message when they were on a split and said that his house was really messy so we went over not knowing what to expect. We got to his floor and there was a funky smell. Then we got to his door and realized that it was coming from his apartment. We walked inside and the smell was overpowering and Elder Williams and I couldn't even hardly stand to be in there. We kept fighting through even though it was so messy. We helped him clean up and carry garbage bags full of garbage out to a nearby dumpster and really made the place look a lot better! It was so sad to me to see how some people live. He is a really nice guy but likes to keep everything and sometimes has a hard time taking care of his house. We brightened his day and worked up a big appetite and then went to our lunch appointment with the Bryan Family! Brother and Sister Bryan, and their daughter Riis, met us at a teriyaki place called "Glaze" and it was so yummy! I got a pork and rice platter with brown rice and lots of good teriyaki sauce! We had a great chat but Riis was getting a little fussy so we are quickly and then went over to the Church for the rest of our studies. We did our 12 Week and companionship study and then went to go visit Brother Eades and Brother Forbes. I was hoping that you were all having a great day! We taught them about Temples again since Brother Forbes is still preparing to go and so we read through the first few pages of the "Preparing to Enter the Temple" book! Then we had a quick dinner and then went to visit Arcangel! We hadn't seen him since before Christmas and so we were anxious to teach him again! The spirit directed us to teach about the Priesthood because he had many great questions about how the Priesthood works! Then we came back to the apartment to prepare our online progress record of everyone that we are teaching. We sent it off at about 9:30 and then enjoyed writing in our journals and resting for a new day!
Sunday was so amazing!!! I am so excited to say that we had a whole family of that investigators come to church! We had Antoine, Sylvia, and Elijah come to Church! We woke up excited to see how many people we invited come to Church especially because we had the Linger Longer Ward Activity with a free lunch and so we were hoping to get tons of people there! So we cut some olives for our Ward lunch and then went over to Church! We had an amazing turnout but when Sacrament Meeting started, we realized that we didn't have any investigators at Church and so we were sad about that but when we got to Gospel Principles class, Sister De Jesus called us out of class and told us that Antoine and his family showed up! We were so happy and grateful that they were able to make it to the last 2 hours of Church and the lunch! We had some really great speakers! We had Brother and Sister Bryan give introductions to their family and some of their hobbies. Then Brother Bryan shared one of President Monson's 1st conference talks that has to do with missionary work and gathering those who are lost. Then Bishop Duprieu gave a really great talk about how he went to the Temple with his good friend and his son who is about to leave for his mission to the Czech Republic! We were sad that the Ingram family couldn't make it to hear those amazing talks but I was able to get a picture with them! It is just so amazing that we ran into Antoine on the street and now he and his wife and son are in Church! It was a really cool sight to see! They really enjoyed the classes and loved how the church is organized and they had tons of people come up to them and introduce themselves and then we had a great Hawaiian Haystack lunch and they thought it was so yummy! We got to talk to them for about an hour while we ate and mingled with members and even taught them about the Plan of Salvation! It was a true miracle that they were able to come and feel the spirit! I am so grateful to Heavenly Father and all of your prayers because I know that they made Antoine and his family feel prompted to come! After Church and our aweosme lunch, we had a really good ward correlation with the sister missionaries and Brother Mishler and talked about all of our exciting investigators! The Sister Missionaries have 1 person on baptismal date for February 3rd and so they are working hard to keep that date on track. Then we came back to the apartment to change and we did our 12 Week program and learned about following the spirit to teach people according to their needs. On our way back to the apartment, we met a man who is a native New Yorker and started talking to us who is Jewish. He asked us if we were both from Utah and sure enough, we both are so we enjoyed telling him all about Utah! Then when we got back to the apartment, we watched a cool district video about how they were teaching a lady and found out more about her to teach based on what the spirit directed them to teach! Then we went to find some more people to teach and along the way, we stopped to visit Andy! He is doing well but he still just doesn't feel happy or peaceful because of everything going on. He has also been feeling sad that he has a disability and so we read out of the Book of Mormon about the resurrection and then we tried to visit Isaac and the McClain family but neither of them were home. We knocked on the door of an older lady and found another son named Angel. Each time we have gone over, we have found someone new so it has been really cool! I was thinking a lot about you the whole day and hoping you had an amazing and fun day! I love and miss you all so much!
Monday was so awesome! We went to district meeting and got to split with Elder Lusk and Elder Macedo! It was Elder Williams' 1st split and so he was excited to go to their apartment! So we had our district meeting and then we hurried to get some lunch and then we did a quick companionship study because we had a really busy day planned! Elder Lusk is from Clinton Utah and is our District Leader! He is such a great missionary and I learn so much from him! As we were studying together and practicing our teaching skills, we got a call from the sister and they told us that they had a guy named Wayne that wanted to meet with us and get a Bible. He had met with missionaries before and so they told us that he would be by the Church in about 45 minutes so we waited for him but he ended up cancelling because he was so busy. So we finished up our studies and then went to visit Brother Forbes and continue to learn about Temples and how special they are and the peace that we can feel! Brother Eades was out helping a neighbor with some grocery shopping and so he wasn't able to make it. So then we had a delicious dinner at Arby's since they have their $1.00 small size everything and so it was really fun to talk with Elder Lusk since we have so much in common. Then we saw something so crazy! We were headed over to give Andy a Bible and we saw a group of 3 boys in their 20s and we walked past them since we were in a hurry. As we got about 10 feet in front of them, we heard them yelling "Hey!" "Hey you!" We thought that they were yelling to us but we realized that they were yelling at another guy in his 20s that was walking in front of us. The group of 3 boys came walking really close up behind us and I hear in my right ear "Let's knock him out." I couldn't beleive that they said that and my heart was racing like crazy! Then we started to walk faster but then they walked right past us and walked up behind the guy who was in front of us and one of them ran up to him and punched him. The guy just stood there shocked and he had headphones in so he couldn't hear anything. He reacted very calmly and we walked across the street and the 3 guys yelled at him but the other guy was just so calm and kept walking which helped calm them all down. They split up and went different ways but we had no idea why they did what they did. It was so crazy! I am so grateful that we were safe and sound! Then we dropped off Andy's Bible and then went to a lesson with Lillian. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she even had a friend over who is a 7th Day Adventist and we found out that we both have almost identical beliefs and he agreed to everything that we said! Then we had an amazing lesson with Robert Torres. He had his brother over at his house but he listened in from the other room and thanked us for coming over and teaching his brother. Robert was struggling with the Word of Wisdom and said he just doesn't know how to resist the temptation but we continued to encouraged him to read the Book of Mormon and pray for guidance! Then we walked back to the apartment excited for all of the fun things happening in our aweosme area! It was such a great day and I really appreciated your email so much! It was a ton of fun to hear from you!
Tuesday was an awesome day! We woke up to warm weather and a little rain but it was a nice change! First thing, we went to the Temple to unsplit and then we got to see a huge tour that the Sister Missionaries organized to look at some Book of Mormon art and they were all from a local Catholic Church. Then we headed back out excited for the day because it was really busy and we had a dinner appointment scheduled that evening with the Shumway family at the World Trade Center which we were very excited about! Then we dropped off Elder Williams' overnight bag and had some lunch before heading to a visit and lesson WIT H Jesus Mena. We had met with him only once before so we were excited to talk to him again! When we got there, a lady told us that he wasnt home and so we knocked in some doors around his apartment and then did our 12 Week and companionship study at the church before going to visit Brother Eades and Brother Forbes. We learned how to work well with members and how we should always ask for referrals. We continued to learn about Temples with them since they both really want to go and someday be sealed to a spouse. Then we got really excited for our dinner with Brother and Sister Shumway at the World Trade Center. It is a really fancy shopping and eating district called "Brookfield Place" and it was remodeled after it was destroyed when the Twin Towers collapsed and so it is really crazy to be eating dinner there as a missionary! I look around and I'm just so grateful to be serving here! We got to Brookfield Place right on time and enjoyed being there while we waited for Brother and Sister Shumway to get there. It is such an amazing building and has lots of fancy shops and restaurants! They have a really nice food court there and so we could eat get whatever we wanted and so Elder Williams and I both got a brisket sandwich with fries and a drink and had a really fun time eating and getting to know them better! They are both from Utah and so we all connected really well! Sister Shumway had to leave early so I was only able to get a picture with Brother Shumway. Then we went to an appointment that we had with Charles and Monae but Charles cancelled last minute and so we decided to go visit Robert instead. We are so close to helping him break his addiction to drinking and smoking. We have seen a changing his behavior and he is slowly but steadily recovering and he has drastically cut back on how much he smokes and drinks each day! We have only met with him 3 times and I have never taught anyone who has these addictions and so it has been a real growing time for me to focus on what he needs to break these addictions. It has been such a testimony builder for me! I was really excited to get your email and see your pictures as always! It always makes my whole week and I love every single thing that you write! We got back to the apartment right in time and I enjoyed writing in my journal before seeing your pictures and reading your awesome email!
Well my dear loved ones! It was so fun to email and hear how your fun week went! Thank you again for your fun package and your emails and pictures! I know this Church is true and I have seen how much it has blessed our lives and I know how much it can bless others! Thanks so much for your constant love and support! I hope you have another great, fun, and safe week! Good luck with work and school and know that I think about you all the time! YOU ARE THE BEST FAMILY EVER!!! LOVE AND MISS YOU SO MUCH!!!
Love You Always!
~Elder Lindberg
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