He's there!

So we finally made it to Lisbon. It has been a long string of airplane rides but I'm doing alright. We're all really excited and happy, but very tired. My brain hurts just from even thinking of what to type. We almost missed our flight from Paris to Lisbon because JFK took forever to leave but a lady called the plane and they waited for us and a couple other people going to Lisbon. Our mission President met us at the airport; he and his wife are very nice. We are going to spend the night at the mission home and then get matched with our trainers tomorrow. Right now we're just kind of relaxing while the mission president interviews people. We're going to get pizza here in a little bit and have orientation. I'm so excited, Lisbon is awesome! Well I've got to go, take care I love you. Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 11/25

All,
Elder Lindquist called this morning from the SLC Airport. He has received his visa and is on his way to Portugal. He said he got about three hours of sleep last night and additionally he will lose 7 more hours due to the time difference. His district will all be going. They had about an hour before his flight left; they were going to grab a bite to eat. He couldn’t wait to eat some “normal” food; he was getting tired of the same old cafeteria food at the MTC. He will arrive in Portugal at around 7 a.m. He will fly to New York, and then have a stop in Paris, then to Lisbon. He was a little worried about the weight of his luggage. They weighed in just fine with no additional fees!
He is so pumped and excited to be going. He is going to be a great missionary! We want to thank everyone for their love and support.

The Mission Home address: (Letters only)
Elder Jordan Michael Lindquist
Portugal Lisbon Mission
Apartado 40054
1500 Lisbon
Portugal

Elder Jordan Michael Lindquist (Packages only)
Portugal Lisbon Mission
Rua Jorge Barradas 14C
1500 Lisboa
Portugal

Click on Google link to view Elder Lindquist's Mission Home in Google Earth:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=109940560602722579917.00045c862cd56389b7672&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=38.765327,-9.195385&spn=0.060499,0.153809&z=13

Elder Lindquist 11/21

Hello everyone,
This last week was amazing! It’s crazy to think that we only have three more days here. I am definitely going to miss this place and all the people I've grown to love. But I am ready to head out into the real world. Yesterday was the last day with our teachers, (one is getting married tomorrow and the other is going out of town for turkey day.) So they brought in pictures from their missions and told us stories and stuff. It was really cool and it got us super exited to leave, we also threw a bachelor party for Irmão Harmon. All of us brought all of the goodies we have received in the last week up to the classroom, (which consisted of like a hundred pounds of every kind of candy you can imagine...) and we decorated the room. We surprised him big time. We scarfed dinner down then ran up to the room so we could be there before him then turned off the lights and waited, I've never seen anyone smile bigger than he did. It was awesome. This whole last week has been the perfect way to end our stay here everything has gone very smoothly. We had an awesome experience this last Tuesday; Elder Jeffrey R. Holland came to speak to us for our devotional. It was by far my favorite meeting we've had here so far; he is such a good speaker especially with the missionaries. After each of the devotionals we have devotional review where we go back to our classroom and discuss our thoughts on the talk. The spirit was super strong that night as we discussed our feelings about the devotional and then bore our testimonies in Portuguese. Yesterday was our last time to teach the second lesson. We also had to incorporate the law of tithing into it. (o lei de Dízimo) it went really really well. There was also a ton of volunteers at the TRC that day so we got to have a "member" there during our lesson. It was super helpful to have them there and let them bear their testimony about the law of tithing and the plan of salvation. Everything is going really well, I'm feeling really comfortable with the language but I know that's about to turn around real quick here in four days or so. We're getting really busy in our last few weeks with departure meetings and things like that.
I'm not looking forward to packing but oh well it's got to happen. This Sunday Elder Craig and I are released as zone leaders, which is a relief but sad at the same time because we've gotten to know our zone so well and now we're taking off but we enjoyed serving. Oh I forgot to mention we had a new district come in on Wed. there were only supposed to be eight missionaries but a ton of elders, and one sister were sent here due to their visas being delayed. So we had a group of 17 new missionaries show up this week, orientation went really well except for the tour of the MTC campus was a little hard to keep everyone together but other than that things went well. I'm just so excited to head out into the field, I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing right now than serving the Lord in Portugal. I love my district, I love the MTC, I love Portuguese, (even though it doesn't love me) and I hope that when I get to Portugal I can love the people there. Thanks for your support and prayers!!
ama Jordão

Family Update 11/20

I was reprimanded for not keeping up on our family a little more often. It is just our son Jordan has really consumed our every thought and energy. I know this is a lousy excuse, but it will have to do.
Suz has been doing relatively well since her completion of her treatments in September. She still gets weak really easily and also gets frustrated that she can't do more. I have reminded her she is doing great considering she went through 4 months of chemo and 5 weeks of radiation therapy. She feels as though she takes one step forward and two steps back. All in all she is doing well and we feel very blessed to have her in our lives and have her as healthy as she is. Her next PET scan is in a couple of weeks and we will get a better idea of how her body has responded to the treatments. As anybody who has dealt with this dreaded disease knows, it is a waiting game until the next PET or CAT scan. We are hopeful and have the faith that all will be well for many years to come.
Dallan is done with football for the year. Suz, Dallan, and I attended the Annual banquet held on 11/18. Dallan was awarded a football letter. He is now focusing his attention to "working out" and the baseball season in the spring, which actually starts in February. He attended Sadie Hawkins a couple of weeks ago. They wore Cubs shirts and I believe I heard Dallan state he had a good time. Dallan doesn't say a lot, so when he does, you have to be tuned into what he is saying. Dallan also sold the hand-me-down vehicle from Jordan (which was a 90 Toyota Corolla), and bought an 85 BMW 318I. I believe he is pleased with the vehicle, because he hasn't stopped smiling since the purchase!
Ryan is doing well. He always has a smile on his face and if he doesn't it isn't very difficult to get a smile to come to the surface. He completed a scout pow wow this last week. He is looking forward to his birthday in a month or so. He will be receiving the Aaronic Priesthood and is looking forward to becoming a Deacon. However, he was a little disappointed when he found out that the Deacons don't play in the Young Men's basketball league. He will be playing Jr. Jazz though.
We have been and are very blessed. I am grateful for the plan of happiness and for the opportunity our family can be a forever family.

Elder Lindquist 11/18

Elder Lindquist 11/14

So this will be the second to last email I am able to send while at the MTC.
This last week was busy but it went by super fast. I hope this next week goes by that fast so we can head out of here without it dragging on too much. Speaking of which, we got our flight plans today. On the twenty fifth we report to the travel office at 5:00 AM, our flight is at 8:25 and we fly to NYC. Then we eat and fly to Charles de gau, Paris. We have about an hour layover there then it's about an hour long flight to Lisbon. I'm so excited; this week is going to be hard to focus when we know we're leaving so soon. A bunch of missionaries from our zone, (including one from my district) got their visas to go to Brazil. So they will all leave this Tuesday to go to Sau Palo. This is a sad thing because we are really getting to know them and they're a really cool group of Elders but everything must come to an end. So this last Thursday we taught the second lesson, (the plan of salvation) for the first time at the Teaching Evaluation Center. When we were talking about Adam and Eve neither Elder Craig or I could remember how to say multiply and replenish the earth, so I said, o primero mandamento Deus deu para Adão e eva foi para faz bebes. If you couldn't understand that I basically said the first commandment God gave Adam and Eve was to make babies. Both my companion and the investigator started busting up laughing. We'll have to work on the vocabulary more for that lesson but other than that it went well. Hopefully my bags aren’t overweight because if they are it's a $150-300 charge. We've all enjoyed our stay here but I think it's time to head out into the world and spread the gospel. We've all grown to be really good friends here, our district is by far the coolest one in the MTC. So it's going to be a sad thing to separate but we're really excited to go to Lisbon even if we can't speak a lick of Portuguese! Well I'll stop blabbing. Thanks to everyone for writing me.
ama Jordão

ELder Lindquist 11/7

Wow this last week was busy, but awesome. Elder Craig and I were called to be the new zone leaders, so this last week has been pretty interesting. We had a new district of twelve come in on Wed. so we got to do orientation with them and give them a tour of the MTC campus. They are a good group of Elders and Sisters; we're excited to get to know them better as we have the district below us. It's crazy to think that in three weeks we'll be out of here. The oldest district left on Monday and Tuesday of this last week. It's nice that our branch is good about following the rules and getting in on time. But other missionaries like to meander around the hallways at night much later than they're supposed to, so we kind of have to baby sit people and make sure they're getting in on time. Anyway, the Portuguese is coming along. We taught the first lesson for the second time and it went ok. I can't wait to teach the second lesson next week, even though I don't know very much of the second lesson in Portuguese we learn fast. Oh I just remembered a funny story that happened on Tuesday. There is a building here where you can practice teaching people and you can sign up any day to practice. There's a thing called a "progressing investigator" where this guy that served in Lisboa pretends to be an investigator, he asks different questions with every set of missionaries that teaches him (he acts like investigators he taught.) So Tuesday was our first time teaching him and first off he had us practice a couple door approaches. The first one he just said no thanks and shut the door, the next one he pretended to be a timid old lady and cracked the door open a couple inches to look at us. When we started talking to him he just mumbled something and slowly shut the door in our face, it was pretty funny. The third time we made it into his home and started getting to know him. Before we started the lesson we asked if we could start with a prayer, he said ok and stood up. We asked him to please sit down and I said I would offer the prayer. As I started the prayer he started copying everything I said. I couldn't help it I was laughing so hard, Elder Craig started busting up too. Even the "progressing investigator" was laughing too. I said probably like two things in the prayer then closed because I was laughing so hard. I was in tears by the end of the prayer. But after that I got myself together and we continued to teach him the first lesson and it went ok. We challenged him to read the intro to the Book of Mormon and pray about it so I'll let you guys know if he's following up on his commitments. ha well I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you for your letters and prayers.ama Jordão

Elder Lindquist 10/31

Hello, This week was sweet. I think I mentioned last week that Elder Craig and I had to learn/teach the first lesson in Portuguese in a weeks time. I did not believe that this was possible. But we studied hard and with the help of the spirit, were able to teach most of the first lesson in thirty five minutes. That's a lot of Portuguese. The only time we struggled was after I recited the first vision to the "investigator" he asked the question, so if I pray will God appear to me like he appeared to Joseph Smith. I barely understood that to begin with so you can imagine that answering the question was a little sketchy. I felt like a five year old trying to answer the question but both Elder Craig and I can testify pretty well so when we're in doubt we just testify about stuff! This last Tuesday, L. Tom Perry came and spoke to us and it was cool. I liked Elder Scott's address more though. But it was still good, we didn't get to meet him so I'm glad I was able to meet Elder Scott. We go to the RC (resource center) every Wednesday, that's where we chat with people online and talk to them on the phone about their questions and stuff. For some reason everyone I talked to this week thought that God was a "hypocritical killing machine" when people have that point of view it's kind of hard to convince them that God loves us and wants the best for us. But I tried to testify and answer their question to the best of my ability. But anyway the language is coming a lot easier, Elder Craig and I found that it's a lot easier to just learn vocab for the subject you want to talk about them just piece the words together instead of memorizing the phrases that are writen out in our Portuguese books. That way your message is more personal and you're not just reciting something you memorized. Of course we do memorize stuff like Tiago 1:5 (James 1:5) and the first vision and stuff but it's a lot more fun to speak in your own words. This Monday we're going to be the oldest district! The old phogies ship out Monday morning and we get a new district or two on Wed. It's kind of weird to think that we're going to be the old ones now. It kind of makes the reality that we're leaving in less than a month a little more tangible. I still have so much to learn though, I feel like I'm learning a lot but at the same time I'm kind of scared to go to a country where that's the only language they speak. But at the same time I'm super exited. Well hope all is well with everyone, take it easy. ama -Jorão (Elder Lindquist) Eu estou muito grato pelo evangelo de Jesus Cristo Eu tenho não dúvida que elevive. Este é melhor trabalho sempre!