Elder Tanner Paul Lindberg: Doing Well in the Big Apple!

February 21st 2018~Baptismal Date With Robert Torres!!!

Good morning my dear and amazing Family! Thank you so very much for the fun and exciting email! It was so much fun to hear from each of you and see how much snow you got! Wow! Thanks so much for every detail that you included! It is always so fun to have awesome news each week and to hear that you are all doing great! Today for P-day, we are doing something really fun! It has been so cool to be able to show Elder Williams around and take him to all of the different museums! Today we are going to go to the Museum of Natural History and what makes it even better is that's it's free! So we are really looking forward to that! After we do our laundry and go shopping, then we will head up to the museum! It will be a really fun P-Day and we will get to see lots of fun sights! This week has been very warm and really humid and we have even had some record breaking highs during the day for how early it is! Elder Williams even wore a short sleeve shirt yesterday and today. Today it is supposed to get up to about 70 degrees and so we are really looking forward to that! It feels like April or June and not February!

Last week was so much fun and we had a really great P-Day! We got haircuts from Jay and then went to the collectible shop and it was so amazing! I hope I remembered to talk about everything that happened but I'm pretty sure I covered everything! After our fun day ended, we had 2 set appointments that we were really excited about! We had the Ingram family to teach and so we prepared for their lesson and practiced how to teach the Restoration before we left. We couldn't get a hold of them and so we were a little worried that they might forget about our appointment. We got to their apartment and they didn't answer so we called them and they didn't answer either. So then we knocked on their door 1 more time and Antoine answered and he was leaving right then to do a Valentine's Day street performance and so he had to cancel. He and his family have been so hard to meet with and so we are going to try and keep contact over the phone and help him do the smaller things like say his prayers. Then we had seriously one of the coolest things happen so far on my mission!!!! So we lost contact with Robert Torres for about 2 and a half weeks and so we have been a little worried. The last time we saw him was when he asked us to find him a phone number for the detox center so he could get some help. Well, we hadn't talked to him for a long time and so we felt prompted since our appointment fell through to visit him. We have been knocking on his door and calling him for the last 2 weeks with no luck. He answered the door and we could immediately tell a huge difference in him! I got a picture with him and I in his apartment so you can see him because he is so awesome! Every time we go over, he is very drunk and slurs his speech but everything he says is Gospel related and he thanks us every time we come over. But this time, he was coherent and he smiled and let us right in! We went inside and we couldn't beleive the night and day difference it was for him when he wasn't drunk! He told us that he took our advice and because we came over 2 and a half weeks ago, he was able to get the detox treatment! We couldn't even believe it and he just sat there smiling at us and began to cry. He thanked us and told us that we have changed his life because we are the only people that care about and love him. He cried and let us know how grateful he was! Then he said that he needs to do his part and not drink alcohol and continue down this path. We taught him about prayer and how he can overcome temptation by praying. There was a moment of silence and he looked right into my eyes and he said "Do you know what I just saw??" He grabbed a sheet of paper and began to draw a familiar object. It was a lightbulb. He told us that he had just felt a light switch turn on and he felt like it was a new start to his life, he then promised us that he was going to quit alcohol because we have helped him. It was one of the coolest testimony builders that I've had on my mission! Then Charles canceled on us and so we did a few more lookups before returning to the apartment. Thanks so much for all of your emails throughout the day! They were so much fun to read! Love you all tons and Happy Valentine's Day!

Thursday was really incredible! We started off with a really cool conference call from President Smith! He talked about the Book of Mormon and how powerful it is to give an investigator an actual copy of the Book of Mormon. He didn't share our miracle that we had with Robert but it was still really cool! Then we met a really awesome guy named Derek while on the bus and he is from Boston Massachussets and used to meet with missionaries while living in Florida! He was so nice and told us that our church feels different because we don't ask for money like a lot of other Churches and he feels like that is all Churches want is money. It was really cool! Then we did our weekly planning and it went so well! We got in touch with lots of people and set a few appointment which is always so great because people are really busy! Then we saw something really crazy on the way to pick up our mail! We saw 2 different fights of teenage girl hitting each other. It's always so sad to see people treating each other so poorly. They broke it up and went their separate ways but it was still really crazy. Then we picked up our mail and I was so excited to get your card!!!! We got there and it must have just gotten to the mission home or they sorted main just after it came so I'm really excited to get it tomorrow when mail comes! So then we delivered the Sisters' mail and dropped it off at the Church and then came home to deliver the rest of our orders and then we went out for some more fun work! I was so excited to see your fun email and all of your pictures! That dinner looked so very incredible! I could almost smell it! Yummy! Thanks so much for sending me an email! It means so very much to have you send me emails! I was thinking about you all day and so it was especially fun to have an email in my inbox! Then we had a crazy thing happen with Robert. We dropped off our mail at our apartment which is really close to where Robert lives. We had in our plans to give him a call and set up a 5:00 appointment for the next day. We gave him a call and he was not doing well at all. He had some thoughts about hurting himself and had been drinking again and so we asked if we could come over. He gladly asked us to come over and when we got there, he was in bad shape. He had gone out and bought some alcohol even though he said that he was going to stop because he felt so good the day before but he fell into temptation. He asked us if we could say a prayer with him because he was having panic attacks and messed up and practically destroyed his whole apartment and so he had one of his friends over to help clean up. It is just a huge testimony builder for me to truly see how much the Gospel can bless lives because his life is a mess right now because of the things he has allowed into his life and ultimately take control of his thoughts and actions. He is so nice and is always happy when we are around. He could hardly walk because he had been drinking so much and he walked us out into the hallway and looked right into our eyes and said while crying "Don't you ever give up on me!" He cried and cried and gave us each a hug and thanked us for coming over. He told us that he may be in bad shape now and he keeps making mistakes but he is going to get better! It was really cool! Then we went to our dinner appointment with Brother and Sister Toomey and we had an all vegetable meal with pudding shakes for desert! It was such a great day and we saw a lot of cool things happen! It started to rain right as we got back to the apartment at 9:00 and so we were happy we were nice and dry!

Friday was awesome! We have some really excited news! I was hoping you were having a great day off from school and having lots of fun! We started out by doing a few lookups at the very bottom of the island. We are trying to start teaching Carlos again because he is really awesome but he was gone for the holidays and now he is back. We were able to share a quick message and teach a guy named David at the door and even gave him a Book of Mormon! Carlos wasn't home so we came back to the apartment for lunch and on our way we saw a really cool Chinese parade! They had tons of streets blocked off and everyone was off from school. I was hoping that you were having a fun time and playing some board games or watching a movie or two. Then we got a Facebook messege from Matt and he said that he wanted to meet with us since he works in our area! We had an appointment with a guy named Shaun Ennis who is married to a less active member and so we were excited about our appointment but he ended up cancelling and so we went to the Church to do our 12 Week and companionship study and we learned about the Book of Mormon. We messaged Matt to see if we could meet him somewhere. He was the awesome investigator that we had in the Bronx but didn't progress very much because he made up his mind about religion and he just likes talking with missionaries. We were at the Church doing our studies and Matt told us that he wanted to come and see us and so we got to talk to him and it was really good to see him! Then we had an appointment with the Esteves family who are in our AreaBook and we felt prompted to go and visit them and one of the older sons answered the door about a week ago and we were able to set up an appointment with the 4 of them! So we hurried over to Pitt Street after talking with Matt to our appointment. We had a great lesson with Evelyn Esteves at the door since we couldn't go in because we thought that her son's would be home. We taught her the Restoration and gave her a Restoration Pamphlet and then passed her records off to the Sister Missionaries and then had one of the most amazing lessons that I've ever had on my mission! Heavenly Father is so mindful of us as individuals and knows exactly what we need! We went over to see Robert Torres and it was a night and day difference from how he was doing the day before. He only drank a little bit that day but he was doing so well! It was a tender mercy because on our way, the train track power was lost for about 20 minutes and so it allowed us to have perfect timing! We knocked on Robert's door and he didn't answer for about 20 seconds and then we heard the elevator come up and there was Robert, happy as could be! We read the 1st chapter of the Book of Mormon with him and then.......we.......set a baptismal date with him!!! It is pretty far down the road but the spirit told us to set a date for April 21st. I unfortunately probably won't be here then because of transfers but I am really hoping and praying that he gets baptized on that date! It was so exciting! Then We came back to the apartment for dinner and talked to Brother Andre Cox and invited him to the 2 baptisms from our District that were going on the next day, Saturday, and he accepted the invitation to come! We were so excited to be able to go with him! Then for the rest of the evening, we called and texted a ton of people and reminded them about Church and the 2 baptisms! We have been getting tons of referrals and so we are trying to meet with them and help them progress! Then we called Brother Eades because it was his birthday and so we had fun wishing him a happy birthday! Then we were off to bed and boy were we tired!

Saturday was a really awesome and jam packed day! We invited a lot of people to the 2 baptisms that were going on at the Lincoln Square Chapel and we got one of our less active members, Andre Cox to commit to come! So we did our studies and then headed up to the 11:00baptism! The baptism went really well but Andre wasn't able to come because he had to run a few errands and so he promised that he would be to the 5:00 baptism. Her name is Eleanor and she is a part of the Morningside Heights ward. After the baptism, we hurried and had some lunch and did our studies and learned more about the Book of Mormon and what a powerful tool it is! It was cool to put into practice what we learned for Robert the night before and we were able to set a Baptismal date with him and the spirit was so strong because we read out of the Book of Mormon! It was so cool to study about it and then have it be the focus of our lesson with Robert! Then we went over to visit Brother Eades and Brother Forbes! We shared about a half an hour of the Restoration video with them and focused on the Book of Mormon! They hadn't been taught the Restoration for a while and so we thought it would be fun to give them a visual aid instead of just talking about it. They thought the video was really amazing and they both bore their testimonies afterwards! We had a great lesson and afterwards, we went back to the Manhattan Temple Chapel for the 5:00 baptism but Andre had a few things pop up and so he wasn't able to make it. We invited lots of people to come to the baptism so they can feel the spirit and so we love it when people can make it! Then we tried to visit Charles and Monae but they canceled again. They told us that they would be in Church and so we were praying really hard that they could make it! Then it started to snow and the flakes were huge but none of it was sticking because of how humid it was. Then we had a few minutes to spare and so we came back to the apartment to fill out our weekly progress record and it was so fun to put Robert's baptismal date on it! It was a really great day and I hoped that you had an awesome and fun day off! I can't even believe that I'm saying this but it was transfer call night again! I feel like we just had them and that we were just finding out were Elder Brown was going and here we are 7 weeks later. This transfer has been 1 week longer but it has gone by in the blink of an eye! It was so nice to know that Elder Williams and I would be staying together and that we were locked in for another transfer! We knew that we would be getting a new zone leader and district leader! I was excited because I knew that I could potentially get called to be either one of those and so we awaited the call patiently! It was so nice to not have any pressure on us during transfer calls. We could take it easy and enjoy the moment! We also knew that Sister Larsen from our ward would be returning home for her mission and so Sister Gray would get a new companion. We got our transfer calls and Elder Ropati is our new District Leader and Elder Norton will be our new Zone Leader with Elder Smiley. There were quite a few changes within our Zone and so it was fun to hear all of the awesome new missionaries that will be coming in!

Sunday was incredible! I was so excited to see your email when I woke up! I still can't believe that I'm at 13 months!!!! Thank you so much for the fun email! I loved it so much! We were so excited for church especially because we really wanted to hit our weekly goal to have 3 people in Church and so we were excited to see everyone there! We had about 4 investigators committed to come to Church and so we tried really hard to make sure that they were there! So we headed off to Church and we tried to pick up Charles and Monae to go to Church with them but they didn't answer their phone or door. So we took the 14D bus all the way to the Church and had an amazing meeting! The talks here are always really interesting and fun to listen to! The snow had pretty much melted because the temperature warmed up to the mid 40s and so there was a lot of water and slush everywhere. We had so many really awesome visitors from Utah and you aren't going to believe one! We were welcoming in lots of visitors and most of them were from Utah and one couple said that they were from Ogden and Elder Williams even knew their son but they were in completely different Stakes. Then when I told them where I was from, the guy told me that he works in Logan. Then I asked him where and he said "G.E Healthcare!" I told him that Dad used to work there! Isn't this such a small world! His name is Neil Clark and he and his wife were on a business trip. It was so cool to talk to him and think that he might know Dad! We even had some visitors who graduated from Utah State and so it was like having home with me! We had a really great ward correlation meeting and some really awesome talks about marriage! We had a homeless guy come in to the Church and he asked us if we could get him a Quad scriptures. He was really nice and even used to go to Church on Olmstead Avenue and knew a lot of the members from my old ward! Then we called a few of the people that missed church before we headed over to our 4:00 appointment at Penn Station with Mike Vargas! We were excited to teach him the Restoration! It ended up that he misunderstood that we are in Manhattan and he lives in Brooklyn and so we both met at Pennsylvania Station but we were in Manhattan and he was in Brooklyn and so we had a really nice lesson over the phone. Then we sent his record over to the Brooklyn missionaries and then went over to visit Robert Torres. We had a later dinner appointment with the Cabral Family at 7:00 that we were really excited about! We had a really nice dinner and we shared a fun video and they all really enjoyed it! Then we came back to the apartment after an awesome day of hard work! THANK YOU SO MUCH for the fun email with the video and pictures!!!!! It was so much fun to see and hear you all and I loved hearing from you!!! I felt like I was in the living room with you! It means so much to me and I love it so much!!! Thanks! I have to tell you something so funny that happened in Sacrament Meeting!! So we have a high councilor in our ward named Brother Baum. He is a really nice guy and I think he is originally from Utah. The 1st councilor in our bishopric turned the time over to Brother Baum for some stake business and Brother Baum says "It is proposed that we sustain, and if he's here will he please stand, Brother Caleb Ward as an assistant Stake clerk." Brother Ward, hesitantly stands up with a sheepish expression and everyone knew something was up. Then, Brother Baum turned around and paused for a good 15 seconds. It was one of the longest pauses ever and he looked back at the Bishopric and then looks at Brother Ward and says "Brother Ward, did we even extend this calling to you?" Then Brother Ward says: "I mean I guess I will accept it if you want me to serve there." Then Brother Baum said "I can't believe it..........I extended the call to the wrong person. I've never been so embarrassed in my life!" It was hilarious and every single person was laughing their heads off and it took a few minutes for the congregation to settle down. It was a lot funnier to actually be there!!

Monday was a really awesome day as well! I loved watching your video over again and it put a huge smile on my face!!! We started the day by doing something really fun! Brother Mishler and his family had us over for a huge breakfast for Elder Williams' "Greenie Breakfast." They even used green food coloring to color his oatmeal and smoothie green! It was a lot of fun and we had smoothies, oatmeal, bacon, and oranges. Then we shared a message about Baptism since Lilly is turning 8 and getting baptized in April! Then we went over to visit Andre Cox to help him move his huge couch out of his house. We were in a time crunch and so we hurried to his apartment and got there just in time and we also had our roommates, Elder Staker and Elder Latu come and help too! Unfortunately, Andre was in the Bronx and so we weren't able to move his couch and so we did our studies at the Church and we focussed on our investigator Fabhaa. We are so excited to help him progress because he is really smart and has lots of great questions! After our studies, we returned a bag that Sister Mpembe gave to us to keep our food hot in when she fed us dinner and then to our appointment with Fabhaa! The whole appointment was kind of up in the air the whole day because he wasn't sure if he would be able to get away from work to meet with us but he told us that if he could, he would meet us at 3:00. I was thinking about you a lot and hoping that you were all having a really fun day off from work and school! I wish I could have been there to play some games or do something fun! The trains were very backed up and delayed and so we were 30 minutes late to our appointment with Fabhaa and he only had until 3:30 and so we felt really bad but he understood because New York transportation is really crazy. So then we showed 30 minutes of the Restoration video to Brother Eades and Brother Forbes and their testimonies grew so much! It was fun to tell them that they are the next chapter of the video because they are a part of this latter day work. Then we came back to the apartment for dinner and we had some leftover steak and mashed potatoes that the Mishler Family sent with us after our breakfast. It was really tasty and hit the spot. Then we went to our lesson with Alexsander Feliciano right across the street from our apartment. We saw his Mom and Dad on the bus earlier that day and it was really fun to talk to them! We had a great lesson and then we did a few lookups around our apartment and tried to visit Robert to see how he was doing! Let me just say, Robert Torres is one of the coolest investigators EVER!! I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for allowing us to teach him! He has made so much progress and it is all because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon! Elder Brown and I saw his record in our area book and so we knocked on his door but he wasn't home. Elder Brown and I couldn't get a hold of him and so we didn't really try to contact him until Elder Williams and I felt prompted to visit him. That night that we found him, he was in rough shape and couldn't concentrate at all and was really drunk. He was running all over the house and he wasn't really paying attention. Well we went over tonight and he was coherent and he told us that he only had 1 beer that day. We couldnt believe it and we were so excited for him because his whole countenance changed and he looked directly into our eyes and thanked us because he is slowly progressing. But by small and simple means are great things brought to pass. We invited him to read at least 1 verse in the Book of Mormon and pray both morning and night and we are going to follow up tonight to see how it went. He went from drinking 1 pack of cigarettes and 1 and at least 6 cans of beer per day, to 1 beer and 1 cigarette. It just amazes me at what this Gospel can do because us visiting him 3 times per week and talking to him about Jesus Christ and reading 1 or 2 verses in the Book of Mormon has allowed him to cut down to just 1 can per day! It has been the coolest thing to watch him make this change! We headed off to bed with a big smile on our faces and thankful hearts!

Tuesday was so awesome! It was transfer day and so we were excited for all of the missionaries that would be getting transfered into our zone. This group of missionaries that went home today was pretty big and so there were quite a few that came in! We did all of our studies first thing and then had a quick bite to eat before we did lots of lookups at the very bottom of the island. We have been trying to contact a lot of investigators that we have down there and try to teach them. We had our district meeting at 3:00 since transfers had been going on until about 2:00. It was so weird to think that Elder Williams and I have been together for 7 weeks already. It's also weird to think that he isn't the youngest missionary anymore. Crazy how fast time flies by and to think that this group that just came out doesn't go home until February of 2020. I will be home for over a year before this group comes out. Even crazier to think that I could possibly be married by the time this group of missionaries go home. Weird! So we did a lot of lookups before going to district meeting. We found a few people at home and even set up an appointment to bring someone their Bible that they ordered! Then we took the trains up to district meeting and it went really well! Our new District Leader is Elder Ropati and he was companions with Elder Kirkham a few transfers ago. He is pretty quite and shy but still a really great guy! We also have Elder Norton and Edler Schott who are joining our district! Elder Lusk and Elder Macedo both got transferred and so their area has 2 brand new missionaries which is always a little hard because they don't know anybody. We talked about our investigators and how they were doing and it was fun to talk about how Robert was finding peace and strength to resist temptation when he reads the Book of Mormon! Then we had a great lesson about the Book of Mormon with Brother Eades and Brother Forbes and then came back to the apartment for a quick dinner before our fun lesson with Charles and Monae. On our way to visit the McClain family, a group of 4 or 5 mothers, who were playing with their kids on a swing set, came up to us and wanted us to say a prayer for them right there in the middle of the project building complex and she started yelling for her friends to come over because "Her brothers were going to pray." So the 8 or 9 of them gathered together and we said a prayer before heading in for our appointment. It was pretty cool! We are kind of stuck with Charles because he wants to get baptized but doesn't keep any of the commitments required for baptism and so we are trying to build his faith every time we go over. It was an awesome day and I was SOOOOO excited to get your fun email! I saw the pictures of the snow and I couldn't believe how much you got! It was a really fun Tuesday and it is always so fun to read your emails and see your pictures before bedtime! It is also excited to know that P-day is the very next day because we always have so much fun!

Well my amazing and dear Family! It was so much fun as usual to email you and it's hard to believe that another week has come and gone! I just want to let you know that I love and miss you so very much! The picture that I uploaded with Elder Williams and I are of Robert Torres. He is a great guy and has taken many big steps to progress in the Gospel! I hope you enkoy them! I have noticed that I haven't been taking as many pictures because I feel like I have gotten a lot of almost everything. I hope you also enkoy my email! We had another really great week and I can't believe how fast time is going. I have less than 11 months left and I'm getting really excited to see you all in under 11 months! Thanks again so much for your fun email and all of the fun things that you wrote about! It means so much to have these great emails to read! I hope each of you have another amazing and fun week! I know this Gospel is true and I have a sure testimony of Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the Gospel back onto the Earth. LOVE AND MISS YOU TONS AND TONS MY DEAR FAMILY!!!!!