November 19th 2018~HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! Have So Much Fun On Your Trip To Washington D.C Abby!!!! 1 Month To Go!!! Let It Snow!!!
Hello and good morning to my dear and amazing loved ones!
Last P-day was really awesome! I noticed that it got down to 15 degrees in Nibley! Brrrrrrr! We got everything all packed up and it went so well! It is always a little sad to leave a place that I have lived in for so long. I've been here in this apartment and this area since July 10th and so I've made a lot of memories in this apartment! I had so much fun emailing you and I was so happy that we got to email back and forth! While we were packing, we got a text from Sister Hess and she asked us to see if we could get into our new apartment in Newton and move in today! We thought that we would just move in tomorrow morning and so we were excited to move in! I couldn't wait for you to see pictures of it! So we got everything all packed up and cleaned the whole apartment and it looked really nice and clean for the new missionaries! Our new apartment sure is nice! It is probably the exact same size as our current one and it is so modern! The building itself was built in the 1890's and was recently updated and has its own heater and a very nice kitchen! I'm so excited to spend my last 5 weeks in this apartment and it will be so fun! Brother Boyle showed us around and we got all settled in! We actually spent the night in Franklin because we couldn't get our working pass that will allow us to park in the tenant parking since it was Veteran's day and so we had 1 last day in Franklin! We had a great day and it was so awesome to be able to talk to you! We headed to bed 1 last time in the good old Franklin apartment! Our apartment in Newton is going to be so awesome! We don't even have any keys to the apartment. It has a finger recognition to get into our apartment and so it is really nice! It is really spacious and had nice cabinets and granite! It is on a really cool street with lots of local businesses and shops and so we are so excited to work here! I hope you all had an amazing and fun day! LOVE & MISS YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH!!!!
Tuesday was an awesome and great day! I was thinking about you all a lot today and wishing you a great day! We officially moved to Newton and started our work and it was so great to see the different sights! Our apartment was so bare when we left it for the other Elders and so we hope they feel welcome and at home! We did all of our studies and took the rest of our stuff out to the car and met the Elders in Franklin to give them their keys and then we headed back to the Newton apartment to have lunch and then we headed out to do more work! It was weird to be in a different apartment but in the same area and ward that I'm used to. I was so excited to see your fun and exciting emails! Thank you so very much for thinking of me and writing to me! I was really excited to see that Utah State made it into the Playoff top 25! That is so exciting and I was thrilled! It amazes me how they can be ranked 14 in the nation AP poll but only be ranked 23rd in the Playoff rankings. Thanks so very much for the picture! We met the Elders in Franklin and they are so excited about their apartment! We left it spick and span and there wasn't any clutter anywhere! We talked to them for a little while about the area and who we were teaching and some things about the area. It was so fun to give them a rundown and know that they would be in our area! Then we drove back to Newton to unpack and at up our stuff! We unloaded the car and got to settle in and out up our personal areas and set up our desks! It was wierd to think that I will be taking it all down again in just 5 short weeks! Crazy! I didn't unpack everything and left a few things in my suitcase that I won't need for the next 5 weeks and so it went really quickly! We had a great day and I was so thankful for your emails! I hope you all had a great day too! LOVE YA TONS & TONS!!!!!!!!!
P.S: I just got the news that Elder Solomon will be driving this next transfer and so the next time I drive, I will be home! Wow! It will be nice to have him drive me around! I have driven these last 3 transfers and so it will be nice to have a break even though I love driving! Elder Solomon is very excited! Love you!!!!
Wednesday was so very awesome too! We are really enjoying our new apartment and it is so nice! The building itself was built in the 1800's and so one of the walls is still original and they restored the old brick and out plaster over it and painted it white and so it looks so cool! There is tons of space and lots of room! I hope each one of you had a very amazing and fun day! I was thinking about you a lot and sending lots of well wishes your way! We are expected to get snow tomorrow and so I'm looking forward to the first snow storm of the year! Elder Solomon got to start driving today and it was really weird not to be driving for the first time in 4 months! It will be cool to be a passenger for the last month of my mission! I'm so excited because we have our interviews coming up and my exit interview will be this Tuesday! It is really early but we are the first zone to have our interviews and President Hess spread them out over the next 2 months. Our district meeting went so well and President Hess came and so it was great to see him! Our District leader now lives in our Franklin apartment and our District is really big. We meet at the Ledgewood Church again and we got to know each other better. Then we headed back to Newton and had a great day of missionary work! There has been a lot of talk around the town and the people we are teaching that there is a snow storm coming in and we should get up to 2 inches tomorrow evening. One cool thing about our apartment is that Sister Harriott, who is a member, lives right below us and the Landlord is a member of our ward too and so it is nice to have members in charge of the building. We also have a heater in our bathroom and so that will be really nice during the winter! Our new district is really awesome and every single missioanry in our District is either from Utah or Arizona and so we all thought it was funny! President Hess said that he didn't do it on purpose! Hehe! We did a ton of tracting and we could tell that a snow storm was rolling in and it was really cold. There was some really bitter cold wind and we had some very nice people open up the door and let us in since it was cold! Last year at this time, I was in Manhattan and so we didn't do very much tracting and so it has been so cool to have people let us in! The highlight was talking to a man named Tony Romano and he told us that he was born in Manhattan! People are always shocked when I talk to them about the city and know the buildings and so it is always fun to connect with people about the Big Apple! He told us that he was Catholic and he lives right around the corner from the Church building and so he says that he already knew a lot about the Church but wasn't willing to come or pray about the things the missionaries taught. We were able to share some scriptures and tell people that we are missionaries from the Restored Church that Jesus Christ himself established and it was a really great night! We are doing great here in Newton and I love getting to know this area better! Lots of love from New Jersey!! Love you so much!!!!!
P.S: Snow......here we come!!!
Wow! Thursday was so awesome too! LET IT SNOW!!!! We got the first snow storm of the season today and I was singing "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!!!" I hope you all had a very awesome day today! I was thinking about you and sending my love as always! It was really cold for both of us in Nibley and New Jersey. We had another busy day planned and we wanted to do some service by shoveling snow! I was really happy and excited to get your email and picture! I was so grateful to hear from you and it made my whole day! Thanks a bunch for thinking of me and sending me an email! When I saw your picture, my mind automatically said "Bee-Doe! Bee-Doe!" Hehe! The snow started at about 2:00 and it dumped a few inches on us. Christmas season is officially here!!! We wanted to be out and about knocking on as many doors as we could because we knew that people would be home. We trudged through the snow and went house to house knocking on doors and praying that someone would be interested in hearing our message. We heard that school got let out early so the busses could pick up the kids and drop them off early before the snow storm hit. Elder Solomon and I both stayed really warm and put all of our gear on. We were out walking and the blizzard got really bad and it snowed almost 6 inches in 3 hours! Wow! It was really interested because Elder Solomon has never, EVER, seen snow in his whole life and so it was so crazy to him! He grabbed a big pile of snow and was just in awe of it! We tried to drive to the Church to shovel the walkways but our Corrolla got stuck and so we had to turn around and then the Zone Leaders sent out a big text and they told us not to drive for the rest of the day. They told us that it was too inclement to be out and so we shoveled around our apartment building and it was Elder Solomon's first time shoveling snow! It was a really cool sight to see everything covered with a fresh layer of snow. I thought of "It's a Wonderful Life" and started whistling some of the songs from the movie! Hehe! Seeing snow really got me excited because that means it's almost December!!!! We got to finish unpacking and we rearranged our beds and finished organizing everything. It was so weird to think that I will be packing all of my stuff up again in just 5 short weeks! As we were having dinner, we got a crazy phone call from the new Elders that are serving in Sparta and the ones that are now in our old apartment and they said that they were grid locked and stuck in traffic because of the blizzard and so President Hess told them that they needed to spend the night with us and he wanted them off the road. They were driving back from Morristown and on their way back to Franklin and traffic was so backed up. We have 1 extra bed since there used to be 3 Sisters living in this apartment at one time and so we were glad that we had an extra bed but they called us back later and told us that they couldn't even make it to our apartment. So they ended up staying with the zone leaders for the night. Something crazy happened while we were out! We got back to the apartment and Elder Solomon realized that I had icicles on my glasses! Can you believe that??? He took a picture of me with his phone so you can see! It was about 28 degrees and the wind chill made it seem a lot colder. Sister Campbell called us and she said that she heard on the news that a man has been stuck in his car for 6 hours and has only moved a few feet. She said that the news is receiving calls to interview people that are just stuck in their cars. Crazy huh! We also got a few texts with pictures from some of the members and it looked like quite the storm all over New Jersey! "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!!!" I hope you all had a very amazing and fun day! I love and miss each one of you so very much!!!! Hugs from New Jersey!!! Love you!!!
Wow! Friday was so very awesome too! We had so many cool things happen and we got to help a ton of people shovel! We woke up and it was still snowing! We heard that most people on the freeway spent at least 6 hours stuck in traffic because of the snow and Sister Averyt left at 3:00 and didn't get home until 10:30 at night even though it is only a 20 mile trip. Crazy! I checked your weather and it was so cold for you but no snow yet. The food pantry got delayed an hour and a half and so we did our studies and we went out to shovel the snow around our apartment and we did some service by scraping off the cars in our apartment parking lot. The sun started to shine and it started to melt the snow which made it a lot easier to shovel it! I always love to serve other people and having a big snow storm like this sure makes it easier! Edward is doing so well and he has been reading a ton of the Book of Mormon and Gospel Principles book! After we did our studies, we went to visit a few people and then we planned to do service until dinner! We went to the Church and shoveled the walkways and then we went to visit George, who we found a few weeks ago. He was really kind to us but he told us that he wasn't interested in our message. He is in his 80s and we think he is an artist because it looked like he had been painting. We asked him about his art and then we talked about the Restoration and how we can receive answered to our questions. He thought my last name was really cool and he said that he is reading a book about Charles Lindbergh! Then we met a teenager named Matthew and we were going to visit his Mom but he told us that she wasn't home. Matthew asked us what makes us different from any other Christian Church and we always get excited when they asked us questions! We excitedly told him about Joseph Smith and that the original Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the Earth in the 1800's! My favorite is when people ask us what part of Utah the First Vision happened and it is always fun to clear up the confusion that it happened right here on the East coast! We talked about the pioneers and how they were driven from their homes where they tried to establish Zion and that is why they ended up in Utah. We also tried to visit Jane Morse in her care center but when we got there, she was sleeping. We drove around and looked for walkways that weren't shoveled and we talked to lots of cool people and We told them why we were out there! When we got back to the apartment for dinner, I was so excited to see Grandma's card in the mail! Thank you so much Grandma Evans! After dinner, we unlocked the Church for the Elders that moved into our apartment so they could get the food that Sister Stevenson left for them. After we got back to the apartment, I was very, very excited to see I had an email from you! I appreciate them so much and It gives me such a boost! Thank you SO much for signing me up for my classes! I am so grateful for all of your help while I am gone! I'm so happy that it all went smoothly! I have been thinking about the PE credit and what I should take and I would love to do the basketball or billiards class! Either one of those would work great and I would enjoy them both! It is really crazy how fast it is coming up and it's hard to beleive that I can count how many weeks I have left on 1 hand! When we got back to the apartment and as we were walking back from our car, we could hear the fans in the stands cheering at Newton High school! We think that they made it to the state championship or the semi finals were tonight and so it was fun to hear the sounds of the announcers and fans! I am so glad you all had a great day! Thanks again for the email! LOVE & MISS YOU ALL A LOT!!!!!
P.S: Have so much fun at the Bells Concert!!! LOVE YA!!!
Happy Saturday everyone! Happy first snow day of the year! I saw that it was snowing on my weather app and I was curious to know if you got a lot of snow I hope you all had an amazing and fun time at the Bells Concert! I really wanted to be there with you but I was so happy that you got to go! I was with you in spirit the whole time and I was thinking about you! I saw on the weather that it was snowing in Nibley! I bet it was so pretty and nice over there! I hope you had a very fun trip to Salt Lake for the Bells concert and enjoyed the cool sights! We had a very great day and I can't believe that tomorrow is my 22 month mark! I have gotten so much better at studying since I've come on my mission and it will be so great to put into practice all my study habits for school! I am up to Doctrine and Covenants 129 and so I'm almost done! Elder Solomon is doing really well and his training is going so great! I love his example and he loves to work hard! So do I! I know for a fact that the Gospel is true and we can be together with the ones we love for time and all eternity. I have a testimony that Jesus is the Christ and we all have a Father in Heaven that knows us and loves us more than we can comprehend! I have been thinking about you so much and I get so excited that we will be together again soon! Today was such an amazing day and we woke up very excited because we had a lesson with Edward and we planned to set a baptismal date with him!!! We prayed about it and we both felt strongly to invite him to be baptized on December 15th! We are working so hard to help him come closer to Jesus Christ and he is keeping all of his commitments! Thank you so much for the email about the Aggies! I am so excited for them and it's so fun to think that they are 10-1!! Aggies all the way!!!!! Thanks a lot for thinking of me and letting me know who won! We were really excited for our Thankgsiving dinner at the Church for the YSA and a few other members that came! Before our dinner, we had a really amazing lesson with Edward! We both felt to invite him to be baptized on December 15th but he told us that he feels like he needs more time. We testified to him that if he continues to read the Book of Mormon and come to Church, then he will receive an answer that it is true. He told us that he doesn't feel ready yet and wants to wait until next year. I was a little sad about that because I really wanted another baptism before I come home but we can still have one! I have faith that we can find someone else who is ready and prepared! We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he understood everything really well. It all made sense to him and he is just loving the Gospel and loves everything about the Church! We can tell that it is everything he is looking for. He told us that he has been feeling prompting and he is starting to recognize the promptings of the Holy Ghost. He can see how much it has changed his life and he told us that he feels happier and more joyful! It's moments like these that I love and make me so happy when other people can feel of the same peace, joy, comfort, and happiness that we are so blessed to feel in our lives every day! After our lesson, we had the dinner and we had about 10 people come and we had some yummy food and Brother Averyt said it was a "Preview for what Thanksgiving will be like!" He cracks me up and is so funny! We were able to visit a few less active members that we have been wanting to reactivate and get to know. A few of them were home and it was sad to see unhappy they were to see us and how they didn't want anything to do with us or the Church. It is hard to see Families fall away from the Gospel. We are so blessed to have the Gospel in our lives! I say a prayer of thanks every day that I was born into this Family and I'm so thankful to be a part of this great work! I hope you are having a really fun time at the Bells Concert! I'm thinking about you! LOVE & MISS YA LOTS & LOTS!!!!!!
Sunday was another very awesome day from the mission field! Thank you so very much for the fun and exciting email! It was so great to read about all of the things you got to do! You sure had such a great week and it is so fun to hear from each of you individually! I was so very excited all day for your email to come in and I couldn't wait to read all about your week! I get so excited to hear from you and it is always the highlight of my week! Thank you so much for the email this morning! I was so excited that it is my 22 month mark and I was really happy to see your email! Today was our first Sunday with the new Elders in our ward and it was so great to have 4 Elders in the same ward! I have loved this ward and it has been so fun and memorable to serve here! I have made so many friends in each ward that I've served in and I have enjoyed each one so much! I hope you all had an amazing Sabbath and enjoyed spending time together! We had a very great day at Church and Brother Averyt taught a great lesson in Gospel Principles class about honesty and we had some really great talks! The talks were all about gratitude and I was thinking about how thankful I am for you and all that you do for me! I am so thankful for your examples and the love and support you show to me all the time! Edward came to Church again and had a really great experience! The Gospel Principles lesson was all about honesty and everyone in the class had some cool stories about blessings that come from being honest. Then after Church, we had lunch with the Murray Family! They are really cool and fed us chili and cornbread. They were both born and raised in New Jersey and have lived in this ward for 17 years. We talked to them about the missionary work they are doing with their son's girlfriend and she is a non member. It was great to sit down and talk to them and they were blown away that I get to be home for Christmas! I always think of you when I go over to visit a member in their home for dinner. I am always reminded of our Family dinners that we have at home and how fun those moments are. It's always fun to think that we are all sitting down for dinner at the same time! Elder Schow and Elder Geertsen really like this ward and they told us that it is a lot different than their ward in Jersey City and they like this ward a lot better. I was getting so excited for your email and I was really looking forward to hearing how your week went! Thank you so much for the fun and detailed email with the fun pictures! It is always so amazing to hear that you are doing and well and happy! We got to visit a few inactive people and we met a member named William Brown and he is from Idaho and still has a firm testimony but told us that he hasn't chosen to come back to Church. He graduated from Boise State and so it was really fun to talk to him! He told me how incredible the Aggies are doing and that they are the #1 scoring offense in the country! He told me that he was excited for the game this coming Saturday and he would be rooting for the Broncos. It was a fun connection to make! We were also able to give Jane the sacrament and a few inactive members in the ward. We met a lady and she was so nice but wouldn't tell us why she hasn't been going to Church. It has been really cold today and we could see our breath really well because of the humidity. It was such a great Sabbath and I'm so excited that you all had such a great week! You are in all of my prayers and you mean the world to me! Thanks again for the fun emails and pictures! I can't wait to talk to you tomorrow! Thanks again for the fun email with the pictures and details about your week! LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!!
Well my dear and amazing Family! I hope this email makes sense and you all enjoy reading it! I just want to wish you all a very happy and fun Thanksgiving! I will be thinking about you a lot and sending lots of love your way! We will all be enjoying Thanksgiving dinner at about the same time and so I will be with you in spirit! I feel your love and your prayers all day, every day, and you always motivate me to do my best! I love being a missionary and this experience has been life changing for me. I have developed my testimony so much and have come to know my Savior even more and more personally. I have the greatest Family in the world and you mean everything to me! 1 month from today guess what will be happening??? I will be coming home and giving you a giant hug and kiss!!!! 1 month to go!!!!!! We can do this!!!
Love You Always!
~Elder Lindberg
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