Elder Lindquist 4/29/09

Hey everyone how's it going? I hope you're all enjoying spring and life etc. This last week was good, this transfer is going by way too fast. I hope I stay at least one more with Elder Peterson he's a stud. Well we had some interesting lessons this last week one of which was with the director of marangos com açicar (strawberries with sugar) which is a teenage drama show that is pretty much the equivalent to the O.C. or something in America. He's a way cool guy, his wife and daughter are members so they help a lot with reading the Book of Mormon and everything so that was fun.
Maria de Graça is doing well, but due to complications with her marriage we had to push the baptism date up to June 6th (she wanted to receive the holy ghost on the day of the Pentecost which just so happens to be the day after the baptism so that was a cool coincidence. I love doing service in her quintal, her backyard is like a jungle that's crawling with lizards and frogs and crazy stuff. She's kind of a packrat so we have to clean out these sheds filled with tons of stuff and right now we're weeding this big area with hoes and stuff, I'll have to take some pictures there one of these days it's really cool. And we invited her 11 year old daughter Ana to be baptized and confirmed on the same day as her mom and she accepted so we're excited about that.
Recently I've realized that my desire to share the truth of the restoration has really exploded. Never in my life did I imagine I'd be this determined; almost obsessed with sharing the gospel with people but that's all that's on my mind. It drives me crazy to see people going down the wrong path and it drives me even crazier to be rejected when I try and help them get on the right path, but that's how the saviors’ life was like right? He was despised and rejected of men. I've become pretty anxious to find every scripture I can to use when talking with people from other religions. Elder Peterson have had laid some smack down on some J-Dubs and Catholics lately, (without the spirit of contention) we just tell them the truth, which is that our church is the only true and living church on the face of the earth. And we have scriptures to back it up. Missions are awesome. Never before have I felt this ambition to talk about this stuff, I don't know maybe it's because I can communicate with the people better but I've just felt this great care and love for the people to show them the truth. I don't know it's hard to explain.
So today I'm doing a division in Mofra and we're going to go take some pictures and check out the huge convent here it's pretty awesome on the outside I'm excited to see what's on the inside. I'll send some pictures next week.
Oh I forgot to tell you about our new investigator we found this last week. He's from Russia but has lived in Spain, Switzerland and now Portugal. He speaks four or five languages and he's only 18. We made the first contact with him in a park after he pretty much just made a deal. He's a way smart kid and we told him that he's not doing the right thing and he's going to ruin his life and lose opportunities if he keeps doing these things. Initially he told us he doesn't believe in God but in our last visit with him he told us he's going to try saying a prayer and he wants to go to church on Sunday. It's amazing what the light of Christ does to people Não é?
Well have a good week I'll talk to you soon, (on Mother’s day!)
-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 4/22/09

Wow this last week has been a rollercoaster. A lot of good stuff happened and a lot of unfortunate things happened. Everything happens for a reason so we'll just pray that everything works out, Heavenly Father knows everything right?So Paulo is doing awesome, we had arranged plans for him to get married in the coming weeks and he was really excited about that and his baptismal date for May 9th and he's really close to quitting smoking. He's been without work for a while and we've really been encouraging him to find a job, (he just wanted to study the scriptures all day.) So the other day we were in Mofra and got a call from him and he told us he got a job he applied for and that he has to move to Holand. He leaves this Monday so he won't be getting baptized next month. We are bummed but feel certain that he will stay strong in the gospel and continue to progress even though he's in a country that doesn't speak his language. Last night he thanked us for everything and told us he was in one of the worst conditions he's ever been in his life when Elder Peterson found him. And he said having us as friends and the things he's learned from us has changed his life. I know he'll get baptized eventually, I just don't know if I'll be around to see it.Well church on Sunday was amazing, we had tons of people there and the new chapel is beautiful. The members are excited to meet in a place central to the two main cities and now we can have all three hours of church!! Our branch is doing awesome; the Elders from Mofra and us combined have about eight people marked for baptism for next month. Two of these people live in a little city called Gradil and Elder Peterson and I take a bus out there every Thursday to do service and teach Maria de Graça and her little daughter Anna. They are amazing. This story is really long but I'll just say that it's a miracle and it has really strengthened my testimony of fasting and prayer but I'll just give you the general picture. Maria has like four kids with her boyfriend and they've been together forever, he's never agreed to being married but we fasted together with her last week and she talked to him and he agreed she will be baptized next month. That's the really short story, there were actually two fasts involved and each time Heavenly Father did his part and it was amazing.Well our landlord is a ding-dong and messed up our water bill situation so yesterday morning a man came to our apartment and shut our water down. We talked to our landlord yesterday and we spent the whole morning today and the place downtown getting it sorted out. Hopefully we get water by the end of today I want to take a shower. I heard it was worse the two weeks before I got here and the area had just opened, they didn't have electricity for four days or gas for nine days. Elder Peterson said he loved taking a cold shower in the dark! Best two years baby!I know this is the work of the Lord and that he's helping this work move forward until it covers the face of the whole earth. Sometimes things happen but there are lessons to be learned from every single situation. Well I hope you all have a good week, Fiquem bem e faz orações pelos missionários!-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 4/15/09

Well I had just finished typing my whole email and was attaching pictures when the computer shut down so now I'm angry and running out of time and I'll try and make this shorter than usual.. This last week was good our district, (all four of us) broke the record for new investigators in one week. We rounded in 12 here in Torres, (more than I got in four and a half months in Beja.) so that was exciting. Our investigator Paulo is doing good we have him marked for baptism and we're trying to help him quit smoking as soon as possible. It's crazy to think that it was just three weeks ago that he came in contact with the missionaries. It's amazing the change the gospel brings in people lives. On Sunday we took him with us to church (a forty minute journey by train then bus to the city of Mofra.) our branch has been renting this building to have sacrament meeting the past couple months but our new chapel is finished so we're excited to start going there so we can have more than one meeting. The new chapel is in São Pedro de cadeira, a small town central to Torres Vedras and Mofra so it should only take about 25 minutes to get to church. Yesterday we spent most of the day moving stuff into the new building, chairs, tables, cabinets, and the piano. It's a nice building, (doesn't really look like a chapel it's a business building) but we're excited to start church there. Elder Peterson is great, he's a drummer too so every time we sit at a table it becomes a jam session. Our neighbors got mad at us the other night, (it's not our fault that the walls are paper thin in our apartment complex.) Torres Vedras is a beautiful city surrounded by hills and small mountains that are crowned with tons of windmills. It kind of reminds me of some parts of California. So we are having fun and working hard and we are seeing miracles happen every day.
Well here is my address, feel free to send letters/ packages/ letters:
Praceta Professor José Carvalho Mesquita
Nº 9 R/C DRT
2560 Torres Vedras
Well hope you all had a good Easter, have a good week! -Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 4/8/09

Hello all, This week has been great so much stuff has happened. I arrived in Torres Vedres without any problems, I love this place its sweet but I still miss Beja though. Elder Peterson is a stud he's so cool. He's from Missouri or as we say it Zion. He reminds me a lot of my friends, we're having a lot of fun and working really hard. I can see how much perfect obedience (from both members of the companionship) can make such a big difference. We're seeing the blessings of this every day. So Torres Vedres has not had missionaries living here since about ten years ago so we're basically opening the area and the field is white, the field is white. People here are a lot warmer with us, in Beja people were sick of the missionaries (I swear I contacted everyone in that city at least 5 times) but here since most people haven't seen us they’re a lot more open to hearing our message, it's amazing. A week before I got here the elders found this man named Paulo and we've been teaching him about every other day now he's amazing. We teach him on a park bench, (his girlfriends house isn't really the most inviting place for the spirit) but he's studying the Book of Mormon like crazy and he's been asking for more books/manuals that will help him study the Book of Mormon better so we gave him a copy of preach my gospel and he's studying that daily.Ha the other day we met with him and the first thing he asked was "so when can I go to church??" we took him to watch General Conference down in Mofra and he liked it a lot. During the Priesthood session they mentioned dress and grooming and how men should not have tattoos or piercings (he has both) after conference we went outside and he removed his earrings. As he quickly lit a cigarette he told me "it's amazing that I went two hours without smoking. I had the urge to but I ignored it because I wanted to hear the prophet speak". Never have I seen anyone progress so fast. Last night we brought him some cd's that have Portuguese hymns on them that he requested he told us that he realizes that some of the rock bands he listens to have bad material in the lyrics and he wants to change the music he listens to. He also told us about the struggles he had with hard drugs a few years ago, he said he reached the conclusion that he had to discontinue the life he was living and follow God. He has a really good heart.The other day we followed up on a contact and talked to a family from Moldavia? It was a really good lesson. I felt the spirit really strong, and even though they're devout Catholics they said we could come back. I know this gospel can change lives and it's awesome that I can be an instrument in God's hands to help people change. Today we went up to the castle here and to the mall it was way fun maybe I'll send some pictures next week. Well I hope all is well with you all, have a good week. Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 4/1/09

Hey everyone it's the 1º de Abril, (april fools day) and I would try and trick you guys but mom threatened me in her email so I won't.. So yesterday was T-calls day and......I'm going way up north to a city called Torres Vedres! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. It has been closed for a short time but they just barely re-opened it two weeks ago so my new companion, (Elder Peterson) and I will basically be revamping it this transfer and I'm so excited. My MTC comp Elder Craig is going to the Azores to serve with a Brazilian... Punk. But I'm way excited to head up north; it's about an hour by car North of Lisbon. I love Beja but I’m excited to meet new people and work on new ground. I went around to a lot of the members yesterday to tell them, Paula Cristina cried. ha but I'm way excited. Wow this last week was crazy. We have a lot of potential investigators and things are going good in the branch right now so I really feel like I'm leaving the area better than I found it as it says in Preach My Gospel. The other day we went clear on the border of town to find some less actives out there. That was the most ghetto part of Beja I've ever seen. Pretty much just shacks made of ply wood and tin, and there was little kids going number 2 in the streets and stuff, pretty crazy. Then we stopped at a new church that had just opened up that some Brazilians created. There's no doubt in my mind that our church is the only true church on the earth. And later in the week we had a lesson with Edson and Rose that was the most intense lesson of my mission. They've been really flaky and slow to do the things they're supposed to so Elder Hansen and I laid it out for them. It was intense, and I have faith that they'll take the initiative to do the things they're supposed to. Sometimes people need a little, (or a big) poke in the butt to get things rolling. So what I hear about my area is it's bigger than Beja, (not hard to find a city bigger than Beja) and there's about 20 people in our branch which is 30 minutes south of us. But I'll give you all the details next week. A little trivia for ya all about Beja, it was founded by Julius Cesar and was originally called Pax Julia, but then became Beja.. Christopher Columbus was born in a small town about 10 kilometers from here called Cabeça Gorda, and the castle here is the tallest in Europe. At least that's what I was told. Well I hope you all have a good week I'll let ya know what's going on next week. Tchau-Elder Lindquist