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