Elder Lindquist 3/25/09

Hello all, Time is going by way too fast. Way too fast! I think I hit six months yesterday or today, crazy! This last week was good we had some good lessons and it looks like we've got some new potential investigators so I'm excited to keep teaching them. I'm also excited to see general conference here in a couple weeks. If I stay in Beja then we can watch it here in our chapel but if I get transferred to another area chances are I'll have to travel a ways to see it. I have a feeling I'm out of here so if you guys send letters you should probably send them to the mission home. You usually don't stay in your first area too long in fact I'm one of the last ones from my MTC district to still be in my birth area so I think I'm taking off, (hopefully to the Azores!) But I love Beja I would be content with serving my whole mission here. So this last Sunday Pedro received the priesthood. I didn't give it to him but it was still cool to be a part of the ordination of my baptism. He was SO excited to pass the sacrament. Elder Hansen and I took all of the second hour to teach him how to do it and he passed well (without too many crazy gypsy moments.) Our zone leaders were here the other day for our district meeting then we had divisions. During lunch we planned a way to surprise Paula Cristina. So what we did was Elder Hansen and I went up there and I was like sister we have to say a prayer right now! She got this really worried look on her face and was like why? I was like we just have to I'll say it. So we stood there as I said a prayer and I prayed that we might enjoy the presence of our friends this week, especially the presence of Elder Rissi. Elder Rissi and his companion snuck in the house because the door was open and he went and stood beside her. When she opened her eyes she FREAKED OUT! I've never seen anyone so happy before. She gave him a hug. Yes a hug and it was not just a two second hug, she wrapped her arms around his head and was jumping up and down for like two minutes straight screaming her head off. He didn't know what to do because he couldn't escape her grasp so he just tried not to touch her with his hands. It was hilarious. So needless to say all the gypsies were ecstatic to see him. We are legends among the gypsy folk Rissi and I. I think Pedro is the only gypsy in the world to be baptized and receive the priesthood; it's just not part of their culture. Paula Cristina caught a bunch of giant snails in a field the other day, (she has bags of them) and said she's going to make us a snail snack. I don't know what that entails but she says they are delicious. Well I hope you all have a good week. -Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 3/18/09

Hello everyone! It's good to hear from you. This last week has been busy but it's been fun. I had to go to Lisbon two times in one week to renew my visa and we stayed with our zone leaders and had a zone meeting/interviews with president so we haven't been in our area a lot this last week. After interviews Elder Hansen went to stay in Evora and I traveled alone from Setúbal to Oriente to spend the night with Elder Craig my MTC companion. It was a long string of bus/train rides but I arrived safely and we had a great time. The next day we met up with everyone else from our district except for Elder Bennet because he's already out on the Azores. But the first night I had to go there to renew my visa he was there and we spent the night in the office. That was really fun too. It's interesting to see everyone's progress with the language, I feel extremely blessed to be able to speak the way I do. I love this language. I still have a lot of progress to make but I feel very comfortable with the way I'm speaking now. This morning Elder Hansen and I went to the castle here in Beja (it was my second time there) here are some pictures from that and a couple others from the past couple weeks, (they should tie ya'll over until my picture card reaches you..) so I'll probably send a small package there within the next few days because I just filled the questionnaire out. Thanks for the package, it was awesome. Today I think we're going to bring Pedro to lunch then I'm giving him a haircut so I'm excited about that. Recently we've been going on the outskirts of town to find new people to teach. We found this small neighborhood on the other side of the train tracks that has some promising people there. We have a couple of lessons set up for tonight and throughout the rest of the week so I'm excited to see what comes of that. I have a feeling I'm getting transferred. Missionaries usually don't stay in their first area too long and I've been here almost four months but we'll see what happens. So Pedro turns twelve this Saturday and I think I might be giving him the priesthood on Sunday so that would be really cool to give my baptism the priesthood. Also we told Paula Cristina that Elder Rissi went back out to the Azores (his birth area) and so she always talks about how much she misses him. Little does she know he's my zone leader in Setúbal and he's coming here to do divisions with us this Monday. We are going to surprise her; I'm really excited to see what her reaction is going to be. But she has bad health so I hope she doesn't have a heart attack. Well I'm going to go; I hope all is well with you guys. Se cuida e bem haja!-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 3/11/09

So this last week was good. We spent most of our time looking for new investigators, after the baptisms we kind of hit a wall on people who are progressing and whatnot so we're trying to build an investigator pool now. Yesterday the Elders from évora and santo andre were here and we did a street meeting it was fun. I spent all morning writing our number on DVD's, pamphlets, pass along cards, etc. It's always a party when our district is here as a whole. And today is Elder Young’s birthday so we made a cake and drank some guaraná last night. We had zone conference last week and on our way home on the bus I started talking to the guy next to me and his buddy joined in our conversation, then a girl sitting next to him joined in to because she was from Porto and had a friend from our church. We talked for like two and a half hours, about school, work, and missions. They were very curious about what it is we do; all the youth here just think we're strange because we have the same name. All the time we'll be walking down the street and you'll hear O ELDER! They think it's so funny that we're both called Elder. So it was good to clear some things up with them, and I could tell everyone in the packed bus that was sitting in our area was listening too. When they got off in évora they expressed their respect for us and wished me good luck. I was thrilled about that visit because I've never really talked to the youth here so it was fun to find out that we actually have a lot of things in common. Last night Elder Cap, Elder Young and I went to the guy’s house that is a missionary for another church; we invited him to come to our church and told him we'd go to his. We asked him some questions about their beliefs and it is very interesting to see other people’s views on things like the Godhead, the gift of tongues, and prayer. So I'll let you know how the church meeting goes. Well I'll send your package next week, once I receive yours so I can include the questionnaire and stuff. It's good to hear you're doing well, especially mom! Tchau e ficam bem.-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 3/4/09

Hello all thanks for the emails, sounds like you guys are doing great and had a fun time at grandpa's birthday party. (By the way Grandpa B happy birthday! ou feliz aniversário!) sorry anyone else who had a birthday and I haven't done a shout out I don't know all these things.. Well this last week was pretty good, but it was a little slow. We had to go to évora for a couple of days and then when we got back Elder Hansen was sick so we didn't get a lot of work done here in Beja. This weekend we have zone conference in mirateijo, I love zone conferences they're awesome and spiritually uplifting. A lot of times it's easy to allow yourself to slip into the blues because no one wants to listen to you but zone conferences help lift the spirits. I especially enjoyed Elder Bednar’s visit a couple weeks ago. He's so straight forward I love it, he has inspired me to be more bold with the less actives here, (still being sweetly bold of course) but just giving it to them how it is ya know. The night before he talked to us they had a meeting with members and investigators, people came from all across Portugal to see him so the chapel was packed. I guess it was a question answer type deal and a young man asked Elder Bednar what significance a mission had for him and the other young men there. Elder Bednar responded, you would be betraying yourself if you did not serve a mission. You would miss out on blessings and would be withholding blessings from other people’s lives. I thought that was pretty neat. Missions are awesome and will bring blessings to your life and the life of your future family. I know I would have been betraying myself if I had not come on this mission. So last night we had our first English student since I've been here! He already knows a little bit and he's Brazilian so of course he's open to hearing about our church. So I'm excited to see what comes from this. A couple weeks ago we had divisions here in Beja with Evora and Elder Coombs and I went to a guy’s house that is a missionary for another church. We had taught him before, just about the restoration and he was pretty open to our ideas. But this time pretty much the second we sat down he started firing questions at us. It was pretty intense, but we handled it pretty well. Of course he'd heard bad things about us from members of his church so the questions he had were pretty interesting. It's interesting to see the progress of understanding another language. It's funny because I understand people well enough to know when they contradict something they had said earlier. Well hope all is well with you; it's freezing and raining here in Beja. Ficam bem meus amigos. -Elder Lindquist