Mission Conference Thursday!

September 10th 2018~9/11/2001-We Will Never Forget!17th Anniversary Of September 11th 2001 Mission Conference This Thursday!

Good Morning to all of my dear Family!!! I feel like it was JUST P-day and now we are having another one! Yahoo!!!! First of all, I have to thank you for your amazing and fun emails and pictures! You sure had a fun week and I'm very excited to talk to you today! I am so happy that you are all doing so well and having lots of fun! I'm very glad that school and work is going so great! It is raining pretty hard today and so we are going to do the usual P-Day activities and then I am going to get a haircut for our mission conference on Thursday! It should be a really great day! I'm so excited that today is my "100 Days left" mark! Thank you so much for the fun email and I was thinking about that picture the other day and how it seems like my 100 Days into the mission mark was just yesterday! 100 more days!!!! WE CAN DO THIS!!!! I'm very excited to talk to you today! Well, here goes our awesome and fun week of hard work!

This next week is going to be so busy! We have another split with the Clinton Elders tomorrow night and I always think it is fun to go on a split with missionaries that haven't been out for very long! Hehe! Elder Broberg is our District Leader and he has only been out 8 months and Elder Sparks has been out 6 months! To think that I'm almost to 20 months is so crazy! This Wednesday, I will get my flight plans and the mission office secretary will buy my flight ticket home and so hopefully she will send it to you on Wednesday and so we can find out the time that I fly in! So exciting! Then on Thursday is our big half mission wide conference in Morristown with Elder Bennett and then on Sunday, we have the Morristown Stake Conference! I'm so excited for this week and we have tons going on!

Last P-Day was a very awesome and fun day! I had so much fun talking back and forth with each of you and I was so thankful for your many emails that you sent! It turned out to be a very nice day and the sun was shining so bright! We had lots of fun and got to see some fun things! The grocery store was packed with customers and they had so many great deals going on and so there lines were huge and we got lots of food for only $20.00! There were lots of people going to some of the nearby lakes and it was a fun sight to see! I was thinking about all of you a lot as you all had a fun party and had some yummy food! After our really fun P-Day was over, we headed out the door and just as we were leaving, we got a call from the Sister Missionaries and Sister Wagner asked for a blessing. She said that her Family is going through some really hard times and she has been having a hard time with staying on her mission because she really wants to be at home to support them. So I was able to give her a blessing and it is so amazing to have the spirit as my guide because I wasn't really sure what she was going through until after the blessing and she said it was just what she needed. She was so excited after the blessing and she pretty much ran out the door, hopped in the car, and drove off really quickly because she was so excited to work again! I love being able to see the blessings of the Priesthood firsthand! Then we went to a very pretty neighborhood and let me just say that people were not happy that we were knocking on their door at 7:00 at night. It has been getting dark and so most people think that it is much later than they think. The first door that we knocked on, a lady yelled at us and said "Really?? This late at night....on Labor Day of all days. Really guys!?" She basically told us to stop what we were doing and that we shouldn't be out talking to people. I think it's funny when people tell us that because it actually gives us motivation! Hehe! There weren't very many people home but we just kept plugging away! We might go back and get that whole neighborhood again for those people who didn't answer. It was such a great day and I was so excited that we got to talk so much! I hope you all had an amazing and fun rest of your Labor Day! Love and miss you so much!!!


Tuesday was another very awesome day! I'm so happy that you all had a great and fun trip to Star Valley! I was thinking about you all a lot! It was so crazy to think that it was District Meeting again! It seems like we just had one and now we are having another one! The weeks are starting to feel like 1 Day! I was thinking about you all a lot as you went to Star Valley and I was cheering Brandon on! We had a very great day and we keep plugging away working hard! Thank you a lot for all of your many prayers because I really appreciate them! I hope that you had a great first day of work Mom! I hope that you love your groups and your schedule! We had a great district meeting and got to practice teaching the Restoration on each other and we were excited to talk about the Marvin girls and let the Distirct know how they are doing! I read out of the Book of Mormon and loved the stories and the spirit that I felt! I know that the Book of Mormon was translated by Joseph Smith and that it provides the answers to life's greatest questions! After lunch, we were able to go and visit a few more less active members on our list and none of them were home. We looked at the notes of the previous missionaries and we don't think that the ones we tried to visit live there anymore. So then we went tracting for the rest of the day and wow was it so great! The weather was very nice and we were able to go tracting in a very nice area! We met a nice lady who had the most tattoos I think I've ever seen on a female but she lived in a beautiful home that overlooks the Appalachian Trail and referred us to one of her neighbors that lived close by! We were able to talk to a lot of nice people and read a few scriptures and ask people what they believe in and the most promising guy that we met said that he is more spiritual than religious and said that he wants to know more! He told us that he wants to "Get into what we are doing" and so we were excited about that! He had heard of the Book of Mormon before but had no idea what it talks about! We wanted to get in touch with the new Family that moved in and that we had dinner with from the Philippines. They came to Church once and then we had dinner with them but nobody has heard from them since. They did say that they might have to miss a few Sundays but we haven't been able to contact them at all. We left a note in their door and so hopefully we hear back from them! It was another great day and it was really hot and the mosquitoes were out and about and so we put on tons of bug spray and didn't get bit at all! We got back to the apartment and I was really, really excited to get your email! I was so happy that you all had a fun and safe trip and that Brandon got to play! Good job Dubbie! I was sad to hear that they lost but that is a neat experience to play up there! It was lots of fun to see the pictures and see how pretty it is up there! I'm so proud of you all and I'm so thankful for you! As always.....I love you lots and miss you lots! Have such a great day at work and school! LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

Wow! Wednesday was so great and we got tons done! We didn't have any meetings or appointments and so we were out knocking on doors all day and we met some really cool people! The weather was really nice and in the mid 80s and so we made sure to put on sunscreen and we drank lots of water! My Book of Mormon reading is going really well and I'm up to Mosiah 3 and I'm to Doctrine and Covenants section 19! I thought about you all a lot today and missed you guys a ton! It's so crazy to think that I'm at the point in my mission that Elder Hwoard was at when we were companions! I have really enjoyed being a missionary so much and what a blessing it has been in my life! I have seen many blessings in your life as well and I'm so thankful for all of your many prayers! We had a great day tracting and met a really nice guy in his 70s and he said that he was a teacher for many years and he really enjoyed it! He was more intrigued by what we do as missionaries than what we had to share and he gave us the advice to study business and finance and go into the business world for a future job! We were able to share a scripture with him and then he told us that he was Catholic but that he should be going to Church more often. It always amazes me how there are hardly any people that go to Church each week. It has been an eye opener to hear that most people only go to Church every once in a blue moon and they usually go to whichever Church is closest or cheapest. We were walking past a really nice neighborhood and there were 2 guys outside and they were just so out of breath. They were washing windows for their company and it just happened to be one of the hottest days in a long time. I saw one temperature thermometer that read 102 degrees! It was probably in the mid 90s but we drank a lot of water since we were outside the whole day. We burned tons of calories and luckily found a lot of people at home! We shared different scriptures of comfort to those we met and we also offered to help a lady out in her yard but she said with a smile "Where were you guys this past weekend? I really needed you!" She was joking but thought it was funny that we would offer to help since she just paid some guys to come and cut down and trim a few of her trees. We gave her our phone number so hopefully she calls us soon to help out! We were in the area of a member that hadn't been to Church in a while and the last time we had a lesson with her, she came to Church the very next Sunday! We hadn't seen her for a while and we knocked in her door and she was home! We got to know her and her 16 year old son who plays Football and so as you can tell, we had a great conversation and he is a really cool kid! He is a junior and plays running back. He kind of reminds me of what Brandon or Parker will look like in a few years because he was really nice and very athletic. He says that he is hoping to get a Football scholarship to Rutgers, Penn State, and Stanford and he says that he will try out for one of them and hopefully he can make it to one of those teams! After dinner, we had some awesome success while tracting on a beautiful street called Skyline Drive! When it got dark, we could see for miles and miles and see all the way into Pennsylvania and we could even see the High Point tower 20 miles away! We were able to give out a copy of the Book of Mormon to a guy who says he is open to learning more but we will have to try in a few weeks because he is going on vacation. Then we met a really nice lady and she wouldn't accept a copy of the Book of Mormon but she says that she will call us to learn more! It was a very successful day and we were so happy that people were receptive! The work is moving along great here and we are so excited to have a baptism coming up! I hope that your day was awesome just like ours was! Love you tons and tons!!!!!

Thursday was another very great day! I was so excited because I got your letter in the mail today! It was so much fun to get and I really appreciated it! We were very excited because we had a lesson with the Marvin Family and also a dinner appointment with a brand new Family that just moved into the Ward! We also were excited for Daniel to drive us around! I hope that your day was great and everyone enjoyed work and school! The days are really starting to fly by and I feel like they keep getting faster and faster! 1 Month from today is General Conference and 1 Week from today is our mission conference with Elder Bennet! We had a very busy day today and had lots of fun sharing the Gospel! Today I was thinking about just how blessed I am to be your son and Brother and I'm so grateful for each of you! You have had the strongest impact on me and I really love you so much! I have given my mission my all and tried my hardest to be everything that Heavenly Father wants me to be! I have a testimony of Eternal Families and I am so looking forward to talking with you and spending as much time as I can with you when I come home! Missionary work is tough work and I have grown so much in the process! After we did our weekly planning, Daniel knocked on our door and he was excited to take us out for a few hours! We love visiting with less active members with him because he knows a lot of them who went inactive. It is great to have him with us because we love having a connection to the people we visit! It was a really nice day and the sky was really blue! We had some very pretty, puffy white clouds. We had a great time with Daniel and we had one of the coolest lessons with the Marvin girls! We taught them about 4 of the commandments and they have almost had all of the lessons before their baptism! We taught them about praying and studying the scriptures and we also showed them a picture of President Nelson! It is always fun to teach kids and teach the points simply so they can apply them to their lives! They have all learned how to say prayers and they have fun taking turns saying the opening and closing prayer! They are a really cool Family and we are so thankful that our lessons with them have gone so amazing! We just have 2 more lessons to teach them before they can get baptized and so we are so close! We are praying very hard to help them get baptized on September 22nd and we are so excited for it! After we got back to the apartment, guess what I saw!?!?! Your letter in our mailbox!!! I was really excited to get a letter from you and I was so thankful for the schedules! It was a lot of fun to see Brandon in the newspaper! Thank you so very much for the awesome letter! After that, we had a dinner appointment scheduled with a new Family that moved in and their last name is Bautista! We met them at a yummy pizza shop named Frank's Pizza and had a really awesome time! The Bautista Family moved here from Ohio and they have a son and he looks a lot like Brandon! I honestly wanted to yell "Brandon!" When we walked into the pizza shop because he looks so much like him! They have a 2nd grader son, Bhodi, and a 6th grader son, Aspen. Brother Bautista started working for UPS many years ago and has now worked his way up the ladder and so they asked him to move closer to one of their facilities. They are so nice and treated us to a yummy dinner! I got a buffalo chicken slice and a Sicilian slice that was mostly a yummy sauce and a dollop of soft feta cheese on top! It was a very nice place to eat and the food was great! I had a lot of fun telling them about my mission and it is always fun to reflect back and I just pinch myself every time! I am SO blessed and thankful that I was able to serve in Manhattan, Bronx, and Kingston before coming to this area! I must be the luckiest and most blessed missionary in the world! It was a very great day and I was sending lots of love and thoughts your way! Thank you again for the very awesome and fun card in the mail with the schedules! It was lots of fun to get! LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!!

Wow! Friday was another very awesome and busy day! I was thinking about you a lot today and wishing you all a great day before the weekend! I hope that each of you had a very aweosme day at work and school! Our service at the pantry went really well and there were 2 new volunteers and so we got to explain how missionary work works! They are always so nice to us and they said that we hold everything together which is an awesome compliment! The lady who is in charge told us that we are the hardest workers she has ever seen and are so willing to help out with anything! She gave a shout out to you and said "Whoever raised you did an amazing job so tell your parents thank you!" You are the greatest parents ever and I loved telling them about how awesome you are and everything you do for me! It has been so wierd to tell people that I go back home to Nibley in just a few months and I say, "Wait what!?!?" Hehe! It seems like it is coming up so soon and it will be here before I know it. They always send us home with a few goodies and snacks and so I got some Idaho instant potatoes and we got a 12 pack of Ritz snack chips and so it is always fun to go and help out! We were able to do our studies after the service at the food pantry and I always love to have time to study and ponder! I have been thinking a lot about the person that I've become over these last 20 months and the person that I want to continue to become once I come home! I was really excited to get Dad's email and I enjoyed hearing from you so much! I love seeing your emails pop up so much! Then we got to go tracting and we looked up a few former investigstors that have been taught by missionaries a few years ago. The notes said to visit them in a few years to see if their schedules have freed up or they are willing to keep commitments. We were also able to visit with Brother Lisondra who is the less active member that moved in from East Orange New Jersey! We were just down the street from his house and so we decided to pop in and share a message and he was home! He is the member from the Philippines and loves the missionaries. He used to be the head Pastor for the Pentecostal Church for all of the Philippines! After we had a good visit with him, he told us that he would come to Church this week and so it was a successful visit! I love helping less active members come back to Church! Then we got to do some tracting in the area since we knew that missionaries haven't tracted in that area since they just moved in. So we went around and it got dark really quickly. Elder Caccioppoli is very concerned with bears and he gets pretty nervous when it gets dark. He is pretty scared of bears as well but I have felt so safe and we be sure to pray for safety throughout the day! We have only seen 1 bear cub while driving but I feel safe. We try to stay safe and I never feel like we are in an area where a bear would be. Then we met this really awesome lady named Lee and she is the Mom of 4 kids and she is in her 20s. Her kids are very young and she told us that she was interested in learning more and loves learning about other religions and so we are excited to go back and share more of our message! Since school started, people haven't been as willing to open their door and so we have had a lot more rejection but that is to be expected when they want their kids to be asleep. We just keep going and keep the Faith that we can find a golden investigator! I sure do love and miss each one of you so MUCH! Thanks a ton for all of your thoughts and prayers because I can always feel your love!

Saturday was so great! I was thinking about you all and wishing you a great day off! We have been hearing about a huge rainstorm that is supposed to hit us this next week either Wednesday or Thursday and we heard that we are supposed to get tons and tons of rain so we are prepared to get lots of rain. I'm really excited because we have our mission Conference this next Thursday with Elder Bennett who is our area Seventy! It will be such a neat experience and I'm so excited for it! Elder Caccioppoli is getting excited to see his Family again and he is a little nervous too about starting school and getting a job but he is mostly excited! We have been talking about his plans and I've had so much fun hearing about what it's like to grow up in Queens! He said that he never got a job just because of how scarce they are and how they don't hire people very young and so when he goes home, he will have a job for the first time. We got talking and he is my 1st companion that hasn't lived in Utah for at least 4 years. Isn't that so interesting?!?! All of my companions have either lived in Utah their whole lives or have lived there for at least 4 years! It was a fun thought! I pondered about my goals that I've set for when I come home and I just can't believe how fast time is going. I'm getting so very excited to see you and I'm thrilled that I will be home for Christmas! We are working so hard and we are praying that the Marvin girls baptism goes well! I really want to have a baptism for Elder Caccioppoli right before he goes home! It's always fun to have 2 missionaries that have been out for a long time be companions! I hope that you all had a great day and had lots of fun on your Saturday! I was excited because I saw that the Aggies were playing on my handy dandy schedule that you gave me and so I was excited to think that you might be at that game! We had a very great day and got to do so much! I love having things to do and people to visit and time to find more people to teach! First, we tried to visit some members and former investigators that live near our apartment! It went really well and we enjoyed being outside! It was a much cooler day and was in the High 50s and low 60s and so we really enjoyed the cooler weather! It rained off and on but the water droplets were so tiny and so it felt like a mist! While we were tracting, we had something crazy happen! While we were walking up somebody's driveway, we heard the door swing open and bang against his house and out walked a very angry, irate, muscular guy in his 30s and he started yelling at us. He yelled "What are you doing on my property?" We hadn't even knocked on his door or said anything but then it clicked that he thought that we were Jehovah's Witnesses and so he had some pretty bad experiences. He yelled at us and said that he was calling the cops and that it was a private neighborhood and we could be arrested even though it clearly wasn't a private road because it was right next to a highway. So we walked away and he started walking towards us but he was still pretty far away. We just walked away slowly and then he went inside. Wheww! We aren't sure why people get so upset but we were glad he calmed down. The rest of the tracting went great and we met some vey nice people! I was so very excited to get your fun email and I was really happy that you were at the game! It looked like a ton of fun and Dubbie and Parker sure are looking good! We drove to Montague and we knocked on the door of 4 people that we had met while tracting and got to see Robert again and so we invited him to the ward pot luck that we are having tomorrow! Then as we were driving back to the apartment for dinner, we got a text from Bishop Jensen and he invited us over to a "going away moving" party for Brother Lloyd. He graduated from Utah State and so we get along great! He loves Angie's and wants to take me there when I get home! He is moving to Salt Lake with his 93 year old Mom and they are excited to move back to Utah! The food was amazing and they had steak, salad, and tons of different desserts! It was quite the party and was at Bishop Jensen's house! It was a come and eat when you want style meal and so people were in and out and as we were eating, a couple that are in the Sparta ward came in and they had Army gear on! They said that they had just gotten back from the Army VS Liberty Football game and so I had fun talking to them about that! We had lots of fun talking with the members and we all had a great time! It has been weird to have members tell me "Wow! You are almost done with your mission and don't have very much time left!" It makes me feel like such an old, seasoned missionary! Hehe! I still feel brand new to be honest! Hehe! We then went out for more work and a lot of people were gone for the weekend and so it can be hard to find people to talk to. It was a very great day and I was wishing you a very fun time at the Aggie game! "Go Aggies! Go Aggies! Hey! Hey! Hey!" LOVE YOU ALL TONS!!!

Sunday was such an amazing Sabbath Day! I hope that you all had an amazing day! I couldn't wait to read your email and I was so very excited to hear from you! I always get so excited and can't wait for your fun emails and pictures to come! Guess what I realized today!?!? You aren't going to believe this!!! I realized that it was Septmeber 9th and so it is President Nelson's 94th Birthday today and the 1 year Anniversary of getting to meet him in Manhattan! It was a really fun thought and it is so hard to believe that it has been a whole year! We had a very yummy breakfast with Brother Stevenson and he made us pecan waffles and then we got to have ward council for the 1st time with the new Bishopric and it went really well! Church was so amazing and we had 3 great talks! Sister Murray related a haunted house to the iron rod and like a haunted house, there are distractions and set backs that keep us from achieving our goals. But there is also 1 thing to help us stay safe and make sure that we are on the right path and that is the Gospel. I got to bless the Sacrament and then we had a ward linger longer after Church and so we had lots of fun staying for that! They had some yummy chili and tons of salads, soups, and desserts. There are a lot of move outs and moves ins happening all over the ward and so they wanted to do something special! I got to talk to Brother and Sister Asay and how Connor was doing over at the University of Wyoming! They told me that he got to go to the Washington State game and sent lots of fun pictures! We are having a hard time getting our investigators to Church but in the end, it is their choice to come or not and so we just keep working hard! Before sacrament meeting started, we had the idea to go and hold umbrellas for members coming into the Church because it was raining the whole day. We woke up and guess what!?!?! We had our very first cool day of fall and it got down to the 50s! I really love the cold weather and so it felt so nice to have it feel like fall! I was wishing you a wonderful day at Church and I hope you had an amazing time in the good old Nibley 1st ward! After the ward potluck, we had a great rest of our day! I just couldn't believe how cool it was an it almost felt like October or November fall weather. This time of year is so amazing and I'm so happy that I get to come home during the fall! I love this time of year so much! It's so fun to think that conference is coming up too! There are so many exciting things coming up and I just can't wait! In my studies, I have been reading the book, "Jesus The Christ" and it has been so interesting! I am always trying to become more Christlike and that has been a big focus for my entire mission is to become more like Christ. Reading this book has helped me so much and I have really enjoyed learning more about Jesus Christ's life! Then we got to do some tracting in a nice lakeside area and we found out that not very many people live there and they only live there during the summers and on the weekends. Since it was rainy and cold, not very many people were in that area. We did knock on some doors and people were so confused as to why we were out in the rain knocked on doors. Hehe! We did meet a guy who has been to Salt Lake before and he said that his flight landed at 5:30 in the morning and he thought that the airport would be empty but it was full of missionaries! Hehe! We did share a scripture with him and so we were happy about that! Wow! What a great day it was and to make it even better, I got to read your fun, exciting and thoughtful email! I was so very excited to hear from you and all of the news about the week! Your email was so fun to read and I really appreciated all of your details! I'm so excited to talk to you! We just got the news that we are supposed to have some effects from a hurricane this Thursday. Yikes! Thanks again for the very fun and exciting email! I am always so happy when you are all doing well and happy! You mean everything to me and you are the best Family ever! Love and miss you all tons and tons!!!!!
Well my dear and amazing Family! Thanks again for the awesome email and pictures! I hope that each of you has a great day at work and school and that you have fun! I think about and pray for you all the time and I can feel so many prayers! I'm so very happy that all is well with you and that it has been a successful transition from summer to school year! I love each one of you more than you can imagine and I'm beyond grateful for you and everything that you do for me! We will be sure to stay vefy safe for the Hurricane Florrence that is hitting to the south of us and we will make sure that we are prepared. I got thinking that Elder Dick and his Family live in the Outer Banxx and so they might get hit pretty bad. It will be an exciting week for sure with lots of fun meeting and tons of rain that's for sure! Well, I hope that you all have an incredible and fun week with everything going on! You are my greatest source of joy and happiness and I'm so thankful for you! Family truly means everything to me! Have a great week! LOVE & MISS YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH!!!!!

Love You Always!
~Elder Lindberg