Hello to my dear and amazing loved ones!
I'm so excited that another P-day is upon us and I'm really looking forward to talking to you today! We have had a very amazing week and we found some new, awesome people to teach! I'm really excited to talk to you but first, let me just thank you for the very awesome emails and Pictures! You sure do make this missionary happy!
It makes my missionary work even more enjoyable and I always look forward to seeing your emails in my inbox! You had such an awesome week and I had so much fun reading about what you got to do! Today for P-day, we will do our regular P-day activites and then we will clean the apartment. I have some cool news! Elder Solomon's birthday is this next Sunday the 4th and so he is really excited about that! We also have our new missionary meeting with all of the trainers and trainees on Halloween and so it will be a fun week for sure! So much happened this week and I enjoyed it so much! I love being a missionary!!! Love you so much!!!!
Wow! Last P-Day was really awesome!! I really enjoyed the time that we got to spend talking and it was so much fun to hear from you! I had such a fun day and we got to play sports at the Morristown Chapel and we had a blast! It felt so good to run around and play some chair soccer and gator ball! The highlight of my day was being able to talk to you and I loved hearing about your day! We had our zone leaders, the Morristown English and the Morristown Spanish Elders come and play and so there were 8 of us total! It was a great time and we were all laughing so hard because none of us could aim very well and so we kept missing the chairs with the soccer ball. It was hilarious! Hehe! I'm so glad that you had a really great day and all is well! We stocked up on hot chocolate when we went shopping and so we are all set! Bring on the cold! Hehe!
After our amazing P-day ended, we went to do some tracting for the evening and I'm so excited to say that we met some really solid people! We are pretty excited about this one lady that we found named Leah! She seems like she is Hispanic but speaks perfect English and so her Family might be from a different country. It was exciting because she seemed so open and willing to learn more! We talked to her and found out that she is Catholic and is raising her kids in the Catholic religion. We read Moroni 10: 3-5 with her and offered her a free copy of the Book of Mormon. She told us that she would only accept a copy if she was committing to join our Church and doesn't want to rush into things but once she reads and prays about the Book of Mormon, she will feel the converting power of the spirit! It was exciting because the whole street was so nice and it was nice to be out and about and not have the police called on us! Hehe! We got to give out 2 copies of the Book of Mormon and we hope to go back and teach the people we met! It was so great to talk to you today! We got some great news from Sister Hess! She said that every missioanry will now be getting $175.00 each month instead of $155.00! It was a fun suprise! I hope you all had a great day and I hope everyone enjoys work and school tomorrow! LOVE YA!!!!!!!!!!
Tuesday was so amazing! When I woke up and saw your email, I was really excited! Thank you so much for all your help filling out the sheet and getting everything set up! I was really excited to hear from you! The temperature here was the exact same as it was there in Nibley which hasn't happened for a while. It seems like when you would have a cold day, we would have a warmer day and then when we were cold, you were having warmer temperatures! The skies were so blue today and it was such a great day! Our district meeting went really well and we presented the challenges with Ricky and his Wife not accepting the Book of Mormon and so they gave us some scriptures that might help! After our meeting, we went to help Sister Campbell in her yard again and she told us that she would feed us dinner and so we were looking forward to that! We got to rake up tons of her leaves and we made some huge piles. She has lots of old trees that have been there for many years and so there were leaves everywhere. The weather was really nice for us and so it was really nice to be be out in the crisp, fall air! We raked up her leaves and used an electric blowers to clean up and area that is rocky that had lots of leaves on them. Then she made us a yummy pork roast with potatoes, homemade gravy, bread, and salad! We also had pie for dessert and had a great conversation about member missionary work! Then we did some tracting for the rest of the day and the last door we knocked on, a very nice man opened the door but he was from another country and so he asked his wife to come talk to us. She was really nice and listened to our message and we even set up a return appointment! I felt a prompting to ask her what was an interesting thing that she learned in Church and she told me that an interesting thing she learned the last time she went to Church was that our Family's can live together forever! She goes to a reformed Christian Church and so we were able to testify of the Plan of Salvation! It was really amazing and such a powerful moment! It was a perfect way to end our great day! Thanks again for your email! I really loved to hear from you! 1 week until Halloween!!!
LOVE & MISS YOU ALL TONS & TONS!!!!!!
I thought of a really neat story that I would love to share with you!
Last Sunday in Elders Quorum, the teacher told us this incredible and amazing story about missionary work! It is a true story and just blows my mind every time I hear it! Enjoy!
There was a missionary that really wanted to get called to Japan because that is where his Dad served 20 years earlier. He prayed and asked to be sent to Japan and everyone thought he would serve in Japan. He got his call and was assigned to serve in a South American country speaking Spanish. He was pretty upset and almost didn't even go on his mission because he felt like he would serve in Japan and really wanted to go there. He ended up going on his mission but didn't even try and just wished the days away. He felt like a failure and wanted to quit and he couldn't understand why he would get called to South America when he wanted to go to Japan. Well, here is the crazy part. He and his companion were standing at a bus stop one day and off in the distance, he could hear Japanese. He had learned Japanese before going out and so he could understand what they were saying. He turned around and it was a huge group of Japanese people. He went over to talk to them and they ended up setting an appointment with them. When he and his companion got to their apartment to teach them, one of the people pulled out a dusty book from their bookshelf. When the 2 missionaries got closer, they realized it was a Book of Mormon. They opened it up to find the missionaries' Dad's signature in the front cover from when his Dad served in Japan! Isn't that amazing!?!? I thought it was a fun story to share! It just goes to show that our Heavenly Father knows us! LOVE YA!!!!!
Wednesday was such a great day too! I hope each one of you had a fun day and enjoyed work and school! I feel like the days are just absolutely flying by and I really don't have much time left at all. We had a few appointments scheduled for today and so we were very excited about those! We had some really pretty weather today and the fall colors were so pretty! It's interesting how we haven't had any more problems with the police being called on us and so we are happy about that! Hehe!
♂️ It is an exciting time to be a missionary and this time of year always reminds me of home and the holidays! The best time of the year is right around the corner and I couldn't be more excited! We started off the day by going to a lesson with a lady that we found tracting named Erica! Unfortunately, she didn't answer and so we had lunch and did our studies before our next lesson. It was a lesson that we scheduled with a referral that we got from a lady in Texas. She told us to go and visit him because she was worried about him. She told us that he was depressed and was going through lots of challenges and struggles. So we went over to teach him and we had a hard time even getting a word in because he talked forever. He talked our ears off about all of the challenges he is having and he is a pretty interesting guy. We had to take control of the teaching and so we asked him questions that related to the Gospel. He is a Christian Scientist and so he believes in science helping us with our challenges and so it was really interesting to learn more about what he believes. We aren't sure how to help him because he wouldn't really let us teach and didn't really comprehend what we were teaching. So after that lesson, we went with Daniel and we got a call from Sister Campbell and she asked us to help her tighten a pipe that was leaking at her friend's house. So Daniel drove us up to Highland Lakes and we helped tighten the loose pipe. The day just flew by and I can't believe how fast it went by! I was thinking about you a lot and sending my love your way! I have something really cool to tell you! So Sister Campbell called us and asked us to tighten a leaky pipe at her friend's house down the street. We got there and found out that it is her Mom's cousin that lives there. Shania in her 90s and so is her husband. It was amazing to be in a house where 2 people lived and had over 180 years of life experience! The husband was in the Russian army and was born in the Ukraine and fought as a German officer in World War 2. Sister Campbell told us that he fled from the Russian government and was almost captured. It was so cool to meet him and his wife! His wife was from Austria and that is where Sister Campbell's parents are from. After that, we got to teach Carrie and a new investigator named Louis Bustamante! He just graduated from Seton Hall University and so I mentioned how they had a great basketball team and how they busted my bracket every year in basketball. Hehe! He thought it was really cool that I knew about Seton Hall! He wants us to come back on Tuesday or Thursday and so we hope to teach him! After that, we did some tracting for the rest of the day and we knocked on a ton of doors in Stockholm! Towards the end of the evening, we had some pretty upset people yell at us for knocking on their door at 7:30 and so we were worried that we would get the police called on us but we never did! Wheww! We met a really cool guy named Gary (what a great name!
). He was so nice and being able to share a scripture out of the Book of Mormon made it all worth it! Another great day is in the books for T-dog!
I hope each of you had a great awesome day! LOVE YA SO MUCH!!!!!!
Thursday was awesome too!!! HAPPY 2 MONTHS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!!! I'm so excited that we are only 2 months away from Christmas! Today was a really amazing day and we got so much done! I have some extremely exciting news and I can't wait to tell you all about it! The weather and the temperature was absolutely perfect today and it reminded me of a day that I remembered from last year when I was in Manhattan! The skies were so blue and big fluffy clouds which I always love! I love the cool air and the Fall! We got to visit with a lady that we met tracting with Elder Draughn on our split and she is really cool! She is really into Theology and said that she has read the entire Book of Mormon cover to cover when she lived in Arizona! She told us that her Mom is a Romanian Gypsy and is a part of the Wicken religion. It is such a different way of life and was so interesting to hear of a religion that doesn't exist out West. Here comes the exciting news! So while we were tracting this last Tuesday and we met a very awesome lady named Em! I am so excited right now and we think we have a baptism with her coming up because that is how awesome she is! We met her tracting on Tuesday and she asked us to come back later. So we went back at the time she told us to and she wasn't home. We were pretty bummed and so we said a prayer and felt like we should do some tracting in the area and then come back later. Heavenly Father defintly knows where we need to be and knows his children because after we went tracting, we came back to Em's house and when we drove up, we saw light on in her house! We knocked on her door and she was home! She was very happy to see us and apologized for not being home when she told us to come back. She told us thst she was curious about what we talked about and so she read the whole Restoration pamphlet in the 2 days that we first met her until now! We found out a little bit more about her and she is so awesome and prepared for the Gospel! I can't even put into words right now how I am feeling other than I'm so excited for her and it is a huge blessing that we found her! So we found out that she is married and has a little son. She is from Hungary and moved here when she was 18 and worked as a nanny for a Family that lived on Long Island. She said that she is coming to Church this Sunday and so we are saying extra prayers for her to make sure she comes. We are so excited and we feel it is such a blessing to have met her! She is so humble and is so excited to learn more! We both feel like she will get baptized very soon and that she is one of the most golden investigators ever! We also found out that her real name is Emoke Bilo! Another very cool thing is that Elder Solomon's Sister just got home off her mission from Hungary and so we had an instant connection with her! It is defintly by divine design that we met her and her Family! We hope and pray that she can continue to work towards baptism and we are thrilled to teach her! It was such a cool way to end the day! We have been working on Facebook proselyting and we are searching for people that live in our area! K was thinking about you a lot today and I hope you all had an amazing day because we sure did! LOVE YOU TO THE MOON & BACK!!!!!!
Friday was so awesome too!!! BRRRRR! It sure was cold today! It looks like we were both in the same boat because the temperature was pretty much the same for you too! I hope you had an amazing Friday and I bet you are so excited for the weekend! I had a really cool dream last night! I had a dream that once you get to a certain point in your mission, they let you fly home to your Family and spend 1 day with them and then fly you back out to finish your mission. Isn't that funny?!?! Hehe!
So when I got down to 1 Month left, they had me fly home and I got to spend the day with you and then I flew back to New Jersey for my last month! It is funny how all of my dreams have to do with my mission! I don't have dreams very often but it was fun to "see" you all! Hehe! We had a really great time helping out at the food pantry again and it was pretty busy. I always enjoy helping people through the lines so they can pick out their food and I enjoy organizing all of the shelves and making everything look nice! I have had so much fun looking back in my journal and reading what I was doing 1 year ago today! I love looking at the pictures you sent 1 year ago and it is so crazy to think it has been a whole year already since they happened! While we were tracting, we had something really funny happened. We knocked on a door and a kid came to the door and yelled up to her Mom that "2 guys were at the door." The Mom came down the stairs, opened the door and said "Oh! We heard you were in the area because someone posted on our neighborhood watch group on Facebook that you were in the area!" So it turns out that someone saw us and posted on Facebook to watch out for us. Then the lady said "I'll go get you some money." It was so strange to us that assumed that we were asking for money! Hehe!
We told her that we can't accept money and she told us that she really wanted to donate some money but when she found out that she couldnt and that we just wanted to share a message about Jesus Christ, she shut the door. It was a bizarre and strange experience! Hehe! Then later on in the evening, we met a guy named Brendan (shout out to Dubbie!
) and when we asked him if we could share a message, he just said "yep!" Hearing responses like those get us so excited and are just what we want to hear! So we were able to explain what the Book of Mormon is and how it can help him add to his knowledge about Jesus Christ and His teachings. He was a younger guy in his late 20s and had a black beard and kind of reminded me on someone from Duck Dyansty show. We ended up getting turned around as we were walking and even though we knew on the map where we parked the car, it still took us 20 minutes to find it. Luckily, we found the car and headed back to the apartment for the day! We are very excited for the Trunk or Treat and dinner activity at the Church tomorrow! We invited a ton of people and Emoke Bilo said that she would come! Cross your fingers that she does! We are hopefully going to set a baptismal date with her soon!
I hope you had a very awesome Friday! Happy weekend! We are supposed to get a gigantic rain and wind storm tomorrow and it sounds like it is going to be crazy! We will see! LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!!!!
Saturday was another very awesome day from New Jersey!
We woke up and it was raining really hard and there were puddles of water everywhere. We were really looking forward to the Halloween dinner at the Church! I have loved every minute of my mission and its so fun to talk to so many people! I hope you all had an amazing Saturday and got to do lots of fun things! I'm so excited that you got to go to the Aggie game! It sounded like an amazing game and I'm so excited I have been doing really well with my Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants reading! I am up to section 103 and I have loved being able to read and study it all the way through! I have felt my testimony in Joseph Smith and the scriptures increase so much since I've come out! I have changed in a lot of ways and I am so thankful for my Mission! Elder Solomon is doing so good and he and are LOVE working with each other! He says that he feels like time is going by really fast already. He is pretty sad that we won't be companions for Christmas but we will keep in touch because we have become really good friends! It's so amazing that I've been so blessed to have the best companions on my Mission! It has been such a neat experience to get to know then personally and help them in any way that I can! It has been such a privilege to share the Gospel for these last 21 months and I just want to thank you for your sacrifices so I can be out here! It is hard to be away from you but this has been such a rewarding and spiritual experience! I have learned to rely on Heavenly Father a lot more and learn more about Jesus Christ as I study His life. I am so looking forward to seeing you again and I just can't wait to give you a big hug!!!!! About 7 more weeks!!!! We had something crazy happen while we were out tracting! The first door we knocked on while we were in Highland Lakes, was a lady and she looked like she was pretty overwhelmed. She told us that her daughter and her husband were visiting her and that her daughter was in labor at that very moment and she opened the door because she thought we were the medical paramedics. We thought it was so crazy that someone was actually having a baby while we were tracting. It was one of the strangest tracting experiences ever! We went to Montague and did some tracting and followed up with a few of the investigators that we met but nobody was home. The weather was pretty dismal and so people were really nice and sympathetic. They couldn't believe how dedicated we were to be out in such harsh weather. After 5 hours of tracting and only finding a few people to plant a few seeds with, it was time to go to the ward Halloween party! We were really looking forward to It! Unfortunately, neither Em or Tricia showed up but we had a very amazing and fun time! I was REALLY excited to hear from you and I was really happy that you got to go to the Aggie game! It was so fun to see a picture of you and I so appreciate the fun picture! Thanks so much for thinking of me! The Halloween party was so much fun and the turnout what was really good! They had so much food and we got a ton of candy too! They had chili, salad, cornbread, chips, and so many different kinds of desserts! The costumes were really awesome and we had fun talking to the Kochevar Family from Riverton! They said that their son comes home from Argentina in 8 months! It was a really great day and I'm so happy that you got to go to the Aggie game! I hope you stayed warm!
LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!!!!
Sunday was so very awesome!
Your email and pictures are so awesome! I couldn't wait to hear from you and I was really excited to get your email and pictures! I woke up and was very excited to see your email! I always love to hear from you! The Aggies are doing amazing and I'm so excited for them! This has been one of the best seasons ever it sounds like! We had such an amazing day and it was a great Sabbath! We had a very amazing day at Church and they had the primary program and so it was really fun to listen to the kids and their talks! They only had 2 boys total and about 9 girls and so it was a very different primary program than what I'm used to. We also had a shocking announcement! Brother Stevenson got released as our ward mission leader. So we won't be having our early morning Sunday breakfasts anymore.
But the good news is that Brother Averyt is our new ward mission leader and he is hilarious and will do such a great job! We are really excited to work with him! We got invited to a Halloween dinner at the Stevenson's house and Elder Solomon is going to make a pen on the lathe! We also got invited to the Averyt's house for dinner today and so we were happy about that! We got to give Jane Morse the sacrament in her care center and she also asked for a blessings and so it was a really neat experience to do that for her! The primary program went really well and they sang lots of great songs! It made me think back to when I was in the primary program and what a fun and memorable time that was! After Church, Brother Gibbs pulled us aside and told us that he had a pineapple upside down cake for us and lots of members signed up to feed us these next few weeks! Our lesson was on ministering and also service and they were really interesting! I hope you were having a very awesome Sabbath Day and I hope you could feel my love!!!
We had 2 Hour Power again and it was really cool! 2 Hour Power is where the whole mission joined together and starts with a conference call prayer with President Hess and then we all go out and find like the wind! It was so cool to have all of the missionaries doing the same thing at the same time! We got to also have dinner with Brother and Sister Averyt again! They cooked us quite the meal and it was really tasty! I always tell the members how much I appreciate them and their meals and I also tell them how much you appreciate it too! It's a lot of work to make a meal and so it's always much appreciated! They cooked us turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, cranberry sauce, and a marbled chocolate cake for dessert! Then we did some more tracting and talking to Brother Averyt during dinner abiut what we can do for him since he is the new ward mission leader! We got back to the apartment and I was so very excited to read about your week! Thank you so, so, SO very much for your thoughtful, fun, and detailed letters! It always makes me feel closer to home and I can always feel your love! I'm so happy that you had a really great week and had so much fun at the Aggie game! I'm so happy that you are happy and doing great! You truly make me so happy and you put a smile on my face each and every day!
Talk to you tomorrow and good luck on your first day Dad! I'm so excited for you! LOVE & MISS YOU TONS MY DEAR LOVED ONES!!!!!
Well my dear and amazing Family!
This week sure has been a great one for us all and I thank you again for the fun email and pictures! I'm doing great, working hard, and staying strong! I know that my time is very limited and so I'm making it count that's for sure! This ward is awesome and I am convinced that I ended up in the best possible area to finish my mission with the best companion to finish my mission too! In just 6 weeks from tomorrow, I will be taking my Statue Of Liberty trip with the other missionaries that are going home! It's just so amazing to me how fast time goes! Thanks so much for everything you do for me and I really appreciate your continued love and support! I miss you so much and I'm so excited to see you after all these months! I hope you have an amazing and fun week! Happy Halloween! I hope you get tons of candy and have lots of fun! Good luck with work and school and all of your other activites going on! I know thst this is the work of the Lord and I know for sure that this is the true Church, restored by Joseph Smith. I have felt the confirmation from the spirit and I know the Book of Mormon is true and can help us come closer to our savior, Jesus Christ. Happy Halloween everyone!
Love and miss you SO much!!!!!
Love You Always!
~Elder Lindberg
