Elder Lindquist's New Address

Elder Lindquist's Beja Address

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Elder Lindquist

Rua de Camilo Castle Branco

No 28 R/C DTO

7800-280 Beja

Portugal

Family update

This week has been pretty busy. Last Wednesday (12/3), Suzette was supposed to get her 1st post chemo treatment PET scan. This was canceled due to the solution they pump into her was not available for some reason.

Monday night we enjoyed a Kurt Bestor Christmas: A Celebration of Life concert at UVU. This concert was dedicated to all of the cancer survivors. At the beginning of the program they showed a video presentation of cancer survivors and their stories. This brought back a flood of memories and emotions. It was an enjoyable evening and it was good to have our boys join us as well.

Anyway, her PET was rescheduled for yesterday. Her appointment was at 1:00, so she had to fast all morning. She came through the procedure with flying colors and was rewarded by her loving husband with dinner at Cafe Rio. She is such a trooper and has never complained. She is a great example! Her appointment with her Oncologist to give us the results of the PET was today. Dr. Clark said that the PET was perfect. Suzette is in remission! We celebrated by attending the temple and her loving husband treated her to lunch at Olive Garden.

Suzette will continue to undergo PET scans every 6 months with CBCs (complete blood counts) on the 3 month mark in between the PET scans. We are so excited about this news!!! We have been so blessed in so many ways and are so grateful for all of the love and support shown in our behalf.

Elder Lindquist 12/10

Hello from Beja! Hey everyone how is everything? I have more or less been in Beja for about two weeks now and I love it here, this last week has been amazing. We have a new investigator and a couple is pretty close to baptism they're just waiting for their marriage papers to come through. We're the only missionaries in Beja and our area is pretty big so we walk a lot. Your feet get beat up from walking on cobble stone all day but I can't complain it is so beautiful here. Last P-day we went to the castle that's here in the middle of the city and took some really cool pictures, it's been pretty cold and rainy this last week but it's not too bad. The language is coming pretty good I feel like I can communicate pretty well but I have a long ways to go. On Monday Elder Rissi and I went to a city called Evora to do divisions with part of our district. (We have six elders total in our district, a companionship in Evora and a companionship in Santo Andre.) It was way fun and we got so much done. For some reason almost everyone we talked to that day was accepting of our message. Elder Flint and I were able to obtain about twenty addresses/phone numbers from contacting, teach two lessons, place two Books of Mormon, and get in a door. That usually doesn't happen in an entire week. So it was really fun to have that much success in a matter of 5 hours or so. We were on our way to pick up some dinner and talked to a guy in a park who was a little hesitant to talk to us but once he realized we just wanted to visit with him and not take any money or anything he really opened up. He played guitar and we talked about music, (in English). I was way excited to talk to someone in English!) We talked about Miles Davis, Neil Young, Led Zepplin, the whole gang. It was sweet. Elder Flint and I were also able to teach him most of the first lesson about the restoration of the gospel and it was really cool. He seemed really interested in the fact that we had a living prophet on the earth today. He had band practice after talking for about 45 minutes but we gave him a Book of Mormon and challenged him to read Moroni 10:3-5 and pray about the book. I wish I could be there for their next appointment with him but I am needed here in Beja. Last night we all went to the bus station to come back to Beja and spend P-day here. Elder Flint’s companion forgot some things so he and elder Rissi went back to their house to get it. While they were gone elder Flint and I decided to do some more contacting since we missed our bus and the next one wasn't leaving for another hour and a half. Every one we talked to gave us their address to visit another day, which is extremely rare here. Almost everyone says they don't have time to talk and sticks their hand up in your face. It's really funny. So as we were contacting we decided to go back into the city to visit one of their new investigators who they'd only taught once. He's like nineteen and is from Cabo Verde, Africa. He was home as well as all three of his roommates. They were all watching the soccer game between Sporting Portugal vs. Brazilia Brazil. They were way cool guys but didn't really seem interested in why we were there. We went into another room with their investigator to share the second lesson. We were visiting with him for a while, and in the meantime some of his roommates would come in to talk a little bit. The game was really loud coming from the other room, and pretty soon all of his roommates were in the room. We had a lot of fun talking to them while a couple of them bounced a basketball around, so it was really loud. Time was running a little short so I said ok guys now we want to teach you about the plan of salvation. It's the plan Our Heavenly Father has for us to return and live with him again. This got their attention and they shut the door to block the sounds of the game in the background, this was a miracle. For about twenty five minutes Elder Flint and I taught four Cabo Verdians about how they can live with their families after this life. It was the coolest thing in the world. I will always be able to skateboard and play drums and do all of that stuff I did before the mission but that is one thing I will never be able to do again after these two years here. I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to serve here and I know that I'm supposed to be here at this time.With love, Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 12/3

Hello all! How is life back in the USA? I have been in Portugal for a week and one day now and it is crazy here. Everything here is the exact opposite of America. I've started to appreciate things a lot more that I took for granted back home. My first area is a place called Beja. It's a town of about 40,000 people and its right in the heart of the mission. So we're kind of out in the middle of nowhere. It was a three hour bus ride to get here and the first week has been awesome! Beja has lots of crazy people; there are lots of drunks and gypsies. But there are also so many nice people who will give you anything they have. I feel bad because they don't have much but they are willing to help the elders any way they can. It is freezing cold here, the buildings don't have heating or air conditioning because the people think that airflow like that makes you sick. So needless to say we have the space heaters on constantly. The first week wasn't too bad at all, I had some jet lag but I think it’s wearing off.

My trainer is awesome, his name is Elder Rissi and he's a native from the Porto area, which is the northern part of Portugal. He's a really nice guy that speaks perfect English. We do a lot of visiting with members and trying to get them to come to church. We have a couple of potential baptisms but we'll see. So many things happen every day I can't even think of a story to tell.

The city here is really cool, there's a big castle right by our apartment. All the roads and sidewalks are cobblestone, most of the city is really old and the buildings look really cool. We live in kind of a ghetto area but our apartment on the inside is nice. We live by a lot of gypsies. One of which is a member, Pala Cristina. She's the nicest lady! She has a son named Pedro that's about 12 and we're trying to get him to the point so he can receive the lessons but he's got a ways to go.
Most of the members are old crazy people, church is very interesting. It is the exact opposite of the way church is in America, people will just get up in sacrament meeting and go in the kitchen to eat the left over food from the activity we had on Saturday night. It is going to take some getting used to. President Gil, our Branch President asked me to get up and introduce myself and bear my testimony. There are about a hundred members in our branch but only about thirty go to church and only like four hold the priesthood. We walk everywhere here, and it stunk because it rained a lot this last week. So yeah that's pretty much how my first week went. I'll try and remember a story for next week.
Eu espero tudo bem!ama Jordão