Hello my dear and amazing family!!! Hello my dear and amazing Family!! Wow! What an awesome email you sent! I'm so glad that you had a great and fun week getting back into the swing of things! It has been a cold and bitter week this week with tins and tons of snow! We get to watch President Monson's Funeral this Friday in the Manhattan Temple Chapel with our district and also have the new missionary meeting on Friday! It will be a very fun and busy week! It has really warmed up to a balmy 40 degrees this morning and it might as well be spring because of how cold it's been that it feels warm. Hehe! Today we are going to the 9/11 Museum since my trainee hasn't gotten to go yet and so I'm very excited to go back! It is so worth every penny just because of how amazing it is and everything that we get to see! Here goes my week!
Last P-Day was a lot of fun and really exciting! I had a blast emailing you throughout the day and getting all of your responses. So, I hope that I mentioned everything that happened because a lot of awesome and fun things happened. We woke up and I got to train Elder Williams on our P-Day schedule and the usual morning routine. We woke up and he said that he slept really well despite being in a different bed. He has been adjusting very well and it brings back a lot of good memories when I was 1st starting out. After we got everything done like laundry and shopping, we headed out for some sightseeing! We got to see the One World Trade Center, Statue of Liberty, and the Sphere. It was fun to see them again and I loved showing the new Elders! We even got to eat a dollar slice of pizza at Papa John's and then our P-Day ended. Then after our P-Day ended, we taught Charles and Monae about tithing, fast offerings, and obeying and honoring the law. It was a nice refresh for them since they had been taught those commandments before and so they had lots of great insight and Elder Williams shared a story about how tithing blessed his life. Then we travelled all the way to the west side of Manhattan and met Sister Anderson, who is the wife of the 1st councilor in the bishopric. Brother Anderson wasn't able to make it so we met her at Chipotle with their newborn son Theo. Sister Andersen just got released as the Young Women President and so she has had a lot more time and so she decided to take us out to dinner. It was so tasty and I got a huge pork burrito and we had a great talk about member missionary work and how we can use Gospel terms in her everyday conversations. She thought it was a cool idea and so she decided to try it out. Then we rushed back to the apartment after a really great day!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY DEAR AND INCREDIBLE MOM!!! I hope you had an amazing day and felt my love! Thursday was an awesome and snowy day! We woke up and it was a crazy blizzard! There was snow everywhere and it was like a giant snowglobe. There was quite a bit of snow and so we were excited to do some shoveling once the weather died down. We went outside all bundled up to stay warm and toasty and we made the trek to the church for our planning. I have been so many prayers and I have known exactly what to teach Elder Williams because I felt like everything has gone so smoothly the last week. We planned like the wind and then had a really cool conference call from President Smith saying that everyone who is allowed to drive a car, has to stay inside due to the bad weather. The wind was so crazy and there was snow blowing everywhere. It was nice to sit down and have a chance to go over everything with Elder Williams! I showed him how to use Area Book, and we called and texted lots of people! The blizzard was very crazy and it left tons of snow. I tried to get lots of pictures of us out shoveling people's cars and giving out our phone number and address to the Church. That morning in my studies, I read my patriarchal blessing again and I just felt the spirit really strong. Lots of different things stood out to me and I was able to know that everything will work out with his training. I also had lots of thoughts come to mind at how I can prepare myself now to be married in the Temple one day. I love in my blessing how it says that special souls will be sent to my life. I just could picture in my mind how amazing the next few years will be! It was a really special time and I just felt at peace even though training a new missionary can be overwhelming. I KNOW that it's because of your prayers that I have known what to say and teach him! So after our planning and rundown of all of our investigators and members, we went to get some lunch in the blizzard at 2 Bros pizza. It was really yummy and then one cool thing that President Smith invited us to do was to shovel and find service opportunities while the storm settled down. We were able to go out and we said a prayer to know where to go. We saw tons of people out shoveling since it calmed down and so we got to talk to lots of people. I was thinking about you a lot Mom on your special day and I was wishing so much that I could talk to you! I wish I could have wished you a Happy Birthday on your special day! So we shoveled for about 2 hours and just enjoyed being out in the streets of New York City and then we headed over to the Mishler's house for a lesson and so Elder Williams could meet our ward mission leader. We texted him in the middle of the blizzard to see if it was still ok for us to come over but Brother Mishler forgot about the meeting since school got cancelled and everything. We got about 6 inches of snow and the wind was blowing like crazy. There were cars that were completely buried in snow and the wind created huge snow drifts. It was quite the sight! It made me think of your Birthday last year Mom when we got caught in that huge blizzard at Cafe Sabor. That was one of the most fun Birthdays ever just because of how memorable the weather was! I was hoping that you were having a wonderful Birthday! I wish I could have made you breakfast in bed and given you a Birthday hug! I can't believe though that we are making the rounds again through birthday season! Then we did tons and tons of lookups and knocked on lots of doors to give Elder Williams the whole missionary experience! I really tried to submerse him in the work as fast as I could and help him stay busy! Then we had dinner at the Toomey's Apartment at the regular time after the Sister Missionaries ate there and then it was our turn to finish off the night with a yummy dinner and lesson! I was so sad to hear about the passing of President Monson so we shared the tribute video that was on lds.org. I was so sad to hear about him passing but I thought it was really cool that President Nelson, who we just met not too long ago is the new Prophet! By the time we got to the Toomey's at 7:00, It was probably the same time that you were all chowing down on delicious Birthday cake and yummy dinner! We had a great time and headed back to the apartment and saw an incredible snow sculpture that a guy was making near a little Chinese food stand. It was pretty cool and I even got some pictures! We both were very tired and we fell asleep so fast. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!
Friday was another really great day! The training could not be going any better and Elder Williams has been doing really great! The snow was piled high but there was a bright blue sky! I woke up and was SO VERY excited to see your email! I loved your pictures that you sent so much and I was so glad to hear that you had a great Birthday and enjoyed your time with the Family! It really was so fun to hear about! Thanks again for the awesome email! We were doing just fine in the snow storm and having a great time serving others! We started the day by doing our companionship study and then starting the 12 Week program. It was great to start it again and it brought back lots of good memories when Elder Kirkham and I did it. Then we called lots of people and practiced teaching the Restoration. I hope that when I get home, I can teach you all the Restoration because I have been improving a lot! Then we called lots of less active members since our district goal this week is to use technology more to spread the Gospel. So we started at the top of the list and then called this one less active lady who I had never met and she was so happy to hear from us. We talked for about 15 minutes and she said that she wanted the sisters to come over since she lives alone. Then we headed out into the brisk 10 degree weather with a 0 degree wind chill to visit a less active member, Andy Lam. We hadn't seen him in a long time and we finally were able to get into contact with him so we rushed over to teach him and see how he was doing! He was doing much better and we were able to share the Thomas S Monson video with him. He really wanted to talk to a missionary that serves in Danbury but he didn't have their number so we were able to call them for him and he talked to them for a few minutes. Since he is in a wheelchair and we are always looking out for service opportunities, he asked us if we could go to the grocery store around the corner and buy him a few grocery items. We were glad to and so we grabbed his groceries and then away we went to do some lookups, we knocked on 3 doors. Benny Hichez, Cecilia, and Jesus Mena. Jesus was sleeping and Cecilia told us that she wasn't interested and wouldn't open the door for us but we had a really cool talk with Benny. He ordered a Bible and we just stopped by since we were in the area but we didn't have a Bible so we introduced the Book of Mormon to him. He was really grateful for it and he said that he would try to read it! He told us to text him to meet again so we can share more! It was really exciting! Then we made the snowy trek back to the apartment for dinner. I was really thinking about home a lot since Elder Williams was talking about Utah since he was just there. It made me miss home and of course all of you amazing family members! After dinner, we headed back out and this time, it was even colder. The wind was the culprit and made it feel so much colder that it was. With the wind chill, it felt like -5. Brrrrrrrrrrr! We went back to the apartment of Latasha who told us through the door the day before to stop by. She wasn't home and we called her but she hung up when we told her that we wanted to share a message that will bless her life. Then we knocked on Patricia Marquez' door. She is the recent convert security guard at the Temple front desk and we just stopped by since we were so close. We were able to do some service by taking out her trash. We take any service opportunities that we can! Hehe! Even if it is taking out someone's trash. Then we saw something crazy happen. We were in China Town and a lady was standing inside of a bank where the ATM machines are. It has a card entry so only members who are a part of that bank can scan into. A homeless guy saw that she was standing in there getting warm while we waited for the bus and started knocking on the door to get warm as well. He turned his back for a half second and the lady opened the door and closed it because the bus was coming. She hurried over past where we were standing underneath the bus stop pavilion and the homeless man chased after her. He was yelling lots of gibberish and she his behind Elder Williams. The homeless man turned the corner and there stood Elder Williams. All 6 foot 5 of him and he turned away and took his cart and left. Then we were knocking on a few doors and a lady told us that the person we were looking for wasn't home so we said that we would come back another time. After she said that, we turned around and another lady was coming up the elevator and when she turned the corner and saw huge Elder Williams standing there in a trenchcoat and hat, she screamed. She was so scared and looked like she just saw a ghost. It just surprised her that 2 guys were standing outside of her Grandma's apartment. Then we went to go check how long the bus would take and it was about 2 miles away so we did some more lookups but just not very many people answered the door. Curt answered but he was very busy around his house and he gave us back the Book of Mormon that we gave him. He thought that was why we were there was to get back the Book of Mormon but we told him to keep it. After that, the bus was there so we hopped on and the bus made it's way through the sludge and slush of the roads. It was a really awesome day but our legs were tired from trudging through the snow and slush. Earlier that day, we practiced teaching in our apartment and I realized how much my teaching skills have improved. Elder Williams is a great teacher but just like everything, practice makes perfect and we are both getting better! We hit the hay ready for a nice rest! Plus, it was a chance for us to defrost after being outside all day.
Saturday was so awesome! It takes me a while to adjust to a new companion but I have really gotten used to working with him really quickly. I forgot to ask Dad how his new job was going last P-day and so I was curious all day about how things were going with you! I have really been thinking about you all a lot and hoping everything is going great with Junior Jazz, work, school, and everything else! The weirdest part about being a missionary is not being able to talk to you whenever I have a question or just wonder how you are all doing at any point in time. That is something that I'm really looking forward to when I get home is being able to text or call you whenever I need. School and Utah State have also been on my mind a lot lately. I know I'm still a year out, but I start to get anxious about coming back and starting that exciting time in my life where I need to create a plan and a goal for school and a career. I've just been thinking a lot about it and even though I'm still a year away, I still get a little anxious and very excited for that exciting time! It's just really exciting to think of everything coming up in my life within the next year. Time just keeps on flying by and I'm so close to hitting my "HUMP DAY!!!!" We did our studies and then we did our companionship study and also our 12 Week program. We have been focussing a lot on getting into contact with people that we don't know. We called lots of people and we had a list of names of investigators that had been dropped and no longer were in contact with missionaries. We called 3 people and they all answered and we set up 2 appointments with them! It was a cool miracle and we were so grateful that they answered! Then we read through the "Adjusting to Missionary Life book" and then we had lunch before heading up to the Temple since mail got there. We have been doing a lot of studying since Elder Williams is so new and then applying what he learns each day as we are out talking to people. It has gone so smooth! I am so grateful that this transition ahs been so smooth and I know it's because of your love and support and all of your prayers! In my prayers, I always pray for each of you individually and that you will be blessed with safety and peace. I am so grateful that you are all doing so well! That is the biggest blessing of all! It has just been so fun and interesting to watch Elder Williams grow spiritually and see how his faith has grown since he has been here. It has taken me back to when I was getting trained and how much I appreciated Elder Kirkham and his testimony. I love to take each moment to teach Elder Williams and just help him in any way that I can. After we got mail, we visited Brother Eades and Brother Forbes and taught them about prophets and showed them the really cool video on President Monson and his life. Then we invited them to share a Conference talk on Facebook. We were still so excited that we got 2 lessons from calling some former investigators! It was a huge miracle! Then we went to dinner to visit Brother and Sister Ward! We had a really good soup that warmed us right up and a salad with Olive Garden dressing. Let me tell you, it tasted so good since the temperature has been the coldest I've felt before in my life. I can't even describe how cold it is. The humidity and wind combined just makes it so much colder. It's like being in a freezer but having high powered fans on blowing the cold air up our sleeves and pant legs. It is a whole new and different kind of cold. It's on a whole new level of frigid. We had an amazing lesson with them and Maya was playing hide and seek with us! She is the baby who just turned 10 months old and so in a way, she is like my mission in the form of a baby. Hehe! We shared the same video with them and then we invited Charles over for church and then had a few lookups not answer their doors and then we ran back to the apartment to fill out our weekly report for ward correlation. It was a really awesome day and I was so excited for Sunday and for Elder Williams to experience church in the mission field! I was hoping that you had an amazing day! Love you all tons and tons!!!
Sunday was so amazing as well! We woke up and it was 5 degrees outside. Brrrrr! We were both really looking forward to Church and fast Sunday especially because it was Elder Williams' 1st Sunday in the mission field. We both had a really great time and he had so much fun meeting the members. It has been a remarkable experience to train him and help him with whatever he needs to become an amazing missionary! We had lots of great testimonies and when I was asked how long I have been out, I couldn't beleive that I was telling them that I've been out about a year. As I look back on this last year, I just can't help but think of how much I've grown and developed. I am so grateful for the many amazing experiences I've been able to have. We met the sister missionary who just got transferred into this area who has already served in this ward and this is her last cycle. I asked her where she was from and she said Rock Springs Wyoming! She knew exactly where Kemmerer was! We had a great correlation meeting and I was able to present a training goal setting. We have been talking a lot about setting goals and I wrote down a list for some long term goals that I set. As I get closer and closer to my year mark, it just makes me relaize how fast time is flying by. It has made me think a lot about goals and what the future holds! It is really exciting! I was hoping that you were all having a great Sunday and having lots of fun with each other and watching some football! You are always in my thoughts and prayers and I can always feel your prayers! The attendance in Church was great and we were expecting 3 investigators in Church but none of them showed up even though we made sure that they would be there. Charles, Godson, and Kevin were all supposed to come but the cold must have kept them inside. After Church, we came back to the apartment to do our studies and we were able to set some goals to have a baptism these next 2 cycles. We also did our 12 Week program and continued reading through Preach My Gospel and the adjusting to Missionary Life book. We were really excited about our 2 appointments we had with our investigator that we called the day before. They both live really close to our apartment and so we talked to some people on the streets as we walked to our appointment. It was still really cold but I have been so thankful for my warm winter gear. I remember like it was yesterday that we were shopping for me and now I'm actually wearing all of my gear. I just appreciate everything that you all do for me! We had some dinner and as we were eating, I decided to call Bill and Mike to see how they were doing! It was so great to talk to them and hear how they were doing! Bill told me that he really appreciated your picture collage that you sent him. It meant a lot to him! We called Brother Toomey to see if we could come to our appointment that we had and he said yes and so we were excited to have a fellowshipper there! So we met Brother Toomey outside of the apartment that we were meeting at and we had some of the coolest things happen and it was just an amazing evening with lots of miracles and cool lessons! Normally, people who live in project buildings have a hard time keeping commitments and appointments so we were a little nervous that the 2 lessons we had would cancel. But we were inside the lobby and Brother Toomey called us and said that he was right around the corner. So we walked outside and could see him at the end of the street. Well, because we were in the right place at the right time, we were able to meet a cool guy named Antoine and give him a Book of Mormon and a Restoration Pamphlet! We also setup an appointment with him for later tonight! Then we had a cool lesson with a guy named Aaron Dais. He came out into the hallway and we taught him a little but about the Plan of Salvation and gave him a Book of Mormon and a Restoration Pamphlet! It was so cool how things just worked out perfectly! He told us that he wanted to come to Church with his 7 year old daughter! Then we went to go visit Tony Soto and he was really nice and we were also to meet a Hispanic lady named Dora. Since Brother Toomey served a Spanish speaking mission in Tennessee, he was able to talk to her and find out that she lives in Queens so we sent her records over. Then we did tons of lookups and almost everyone was home but they either looked through the peephole and ignored us or they just weren't interested. It was a great and fun night of missionary work and everything fit together like a puzzle! I know it is because of your prayers! Our recent extra boost of success has come from so many prayers from my dear family back at home! I hoped you all had a great Sabbath and had lots of fun together! We went to sleep so tired and ready for a nice snooze!
Monday was a really fun and busy day of missionary work!!! I woke up and was SO excited to see your email! I appreciate every single email so much and it means the world to me! You have always been there for me throughout my life and I so appreciate you!!!! I loved the quote that you sent! That is a powerful quote to live by and I love making my family happy! You all make me so happy each day and I love to live my life to make others happy! You are the best family ever! We woke up, exercised, and got ready for the day and then did our personal study and we prepared for a training that we got to do for District Meeting! We ended up running out of time since we had lots to discuss and so we enjoyed talking about our investigators. Kevin and Godson have been a little iffy and so we are praying to find more people to teach and we were able to find Aaron Dais, Antoine, and Tony! I feel bad that I haven't shared that much about Kevin and Godson but we are trying so hard to help them in any way that we can. It has been such a blessing to work with them but they are having a hard time keeping commitments. Plus, Godson has been really sick. After our meeting, we came back to the Church and did our 12 Week and read through some adjusting to Missionary Life book and did our companionship study. We have been calling lots of investigators and trying to find lots of new people! We watched a couple of videos to help our investigators become more like Jesus Christ and help them understand the importance of keeping commitments. Then we had a really busy rest of our day and we visited Brother Eades and Brother Forbes and taught them about the new curriculum about teaching the Savior's way. We had a cool video about Jesus Christ and being servants of him. We also read 3 Nephi 11 with them and read where Jesus Christ himself visits and teaches the people. We also helped them set up their family history apps so they can do some temple work! They are progressing so well and their faith has grown so much! Going over there 3 times has helped them so much and we are all having a great time learning how to be more Christ like together! Then we had some dinner at Arby's and as we were walking out, Elder Williams recognized a famous person who was sitting in the booth in Arby's! He is from a tv show called American Grit hosted by John Cena and he was able to talk to him for a while. Then we heard some people talking about the National Championship between Alabama and Georgia. I was so excited to hear who was playing and know you where all having fun watching it! It's so weird to me that I had no idea that it was even on. I had a feeling that it was either this Monday or next just because of past games. I wished so much that I could have been there cheering with you! I couldn't help but think who was winning in the prediction challenge! After we ate our delicious dinner, we went to visit Alexsander Feliciano but he wasn't home so then we knocked on some doors of people that we had records for but haven't met before. We met this really cool guy named Robert Touris but he told us about all of the health challenges that he is facing right now. He was a little confused when he opened up the door and we knew his name because neither of us had met him before. He told us that he is an alcoholic and is trying to get some help but has major kidney problems. We said a prayer with him and he just could beleive that we stopped by. He knew that it was Heavenly Father that sent us over. If we would have been in a lesson with Alexsander, then we probably wouldn't have knocked on his door. It was a really cool experience to see the spirit direct us in where we needed to be. Then we visited Charles and Monae again and showed them the video about President Monson and then we got to explain how the church is organized and they were so amazed how it works and how the senior apostle becomes the next Prophet and selects 2 councilors. It was a really cool day directed by the spirit! We are studying like the wind and preparing Elder Williams to take over the area in about 12 weeks. Love you all tons!
Tuesday was a really incredible day! Tuesdays I always have an extra spring in my step because I know that I've got an amazing email from you and awesome pictures! I always look forward to them so much and I can't thank you enough for all of the fun details! We started the day by going to visit Isaac Blue from Kingston who was in town for an interview at the Hartford Temple! So we were able to meet him at the Madison Square Garden basketball arena and then we went to go see Francis and Caroline! We found out that they were both reading from the Book of Mormon and so we were so excited that they chose to read! It just makes all of our hard work pay off big time when someone exercises their faith and reads the Book of Mormon or comes to church! We were able to show them a video on the Book of Mormon and how it can be applied to their lives. Then we ate at Arby's since that is Isaac's favorite restraunt and we had a great visit! It was so great to see one of my old Kingston friends again and spend the morning with him doing tons of missionary work! Then we went to the church to do our 12 Week and companionship study and then we watched a few video segments from the missionary District videos. Then we went to go visit Brother Eades and Brother Forbes and we taught them about obedience and how it can bless our lives when we keep all of the commandments. It was a really great lesson and then we had some dinner and then got some great news! We got a referral that very morning and it was from the refferal center in Hawai'i and she said that a man who lives right by the Church named Sebastian wanted a Book of Mormon so we happily went over to give it to him and show him the 60 second video on the Book of Mormon! We had something really funny happen while delivering the Book of Mormon to him. So the name that we got from Salt Lake City headquarters was Sebastian J Murray. So we went to the address and realized that he lived in Penthouse A of this really fancy and very expensive, luxury condo right down the street from the Empire State Building. We asked the front desk manager to call up to the Penthouse A Suite for Sebastian to tell him that we had a Book for him. So he called up and said that a Sebastian doesn't live there. So we texted """Sebastian""" and told him that we were in his lobby ready to deliver the Book of Mormon and he said, "Just tell him that I'm Hudson Vance because that is my real name." So he called up and then he told us to just leave the Book of Mormon and a Restoration Pamphlet on the front desk. It was quite the ordeal to just have us leave a copy of the Book of Mormon on the front desk but we were so glad to give it to him! We felt very fancy going in to such a high class apartment lobby! Then we went to visit the De Jesus family and I hope that you both got a text of Elder Williams, Ellie, and I! It was fun to know that you got it! We shared the President Monson tribute video and it really brought the spirit in. Then their 7 year old daughter, Ellie, spilled the beans that they are moving to Pasadena California within the next few months. WHOOPS A DAISY! or as Grandma Lindberg and I like to say, whoops a dandelion! Or whoops a pansie! Hehe! We all shared our favorite President Monson memory and then we headed back to the apartment and let me tell ya, I was so excited to read your email and see your pictures! We have been having so much success in this area ever since Elder Williams has gotten here! We have so many people in the works to work with and we have had tons of success finding new people! This area has really come along so well and I am so blessed and grateful to have so much work to do in New York City!
Well my incredible Family, I had a really great time writing this email this morning and I can't wait to talk back and forth throughout the day! I hope you all have an amazing week at work and school and all of your other activities! Thanks again so much for the amazing email and pictures! I can't thank you enough for all that you do for me! Keep up the great work and stay safe! LOVE AND MISS YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!
Love You Always!
~Elder Lindberg
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