Wednesday, April 22, 2009

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

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