Elder Lindquist 8/23/10

Wow what a crazy week! Well things are going well here in Lisbon. I can't even start to explain the craziness that went on. Leaving the island was super sad and hard to do, and a few of our recent converts cried. Which always breaks your heart. It was cool to go there with Elder Mclean and leave with him. Thursday there were 20 new missionaries that arrived in the mission! It was fun to do the orientation meeting and see all the new scared, tired, anxious faces. Oh if they only knew what lay ahead of them. We are always running errands and many times have to wake up early and go to bed late, but I like it a lot. My companion is the best! He’s the coolest Brazilian you will ever meet. His name is Elder Seraim. He's planning on attending BYU in the future. Our area is huge and quite ghetto. The heart of Lisbon is really old and beat up. We work in a lot of poor African barrios. We were able to mark an African lady named Marlett on Thursday and she was baptized yesterday. There are a lot of very humble poor migrants here. Driving is great, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I'm a little nervous when Elder Seraim gets transferred in six weeks then I'll have to know where to go all over the massive city of Lisbon. I'm in a triple right now with Elder Price, (one of my MTC comps) he will be leaving in 4 days along with a few others from my district to go to school. (they are pretty trunky) Our house here is probably the worst house I've ever seen. The first day we got here we spent hours cleaning it. Oh man, I can't wait to get out of that house, but every thing has its pro's and cons right? I just hope we can kill the rat that keeps pooping all over our food and silverware. Behind our house is basically a barn which cages full of rabbits, chickens, roosters, (that crow at 5:30 in the morning) and other fun friends that smell great! We have another companionship that moved into our house that we will share our area with. It has been a great week and there's always a lot going on so there's no time to sit and think about anything so that will help the time go faster. I had a good B-day. President Torgan took me out to lunch to Chilis the day before so that was great eating ribs and dessert. Then on my B-day we went to the massive shopping mall in Lisbon and ate some Brazilian BBQ and it was delicious. Thanks for the package Brazilians love beef jerky. Have a great week I love you all:)
-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 8/16/10

Well, well, well, it looks like my time has ended on the islands. (it wasn't enough) ha time passed really fast in the two transfers that I spent here. We got T-calls this morning and I'm going to Lisbon to be the new Assistant and Elder Mclean is going to be a trainer on the mainland. We came and we're leaving together!! Oh man I love that kid and I love this place! We had Carmina's baptism this last Friday and it was great. We also were able to baptize Marcelo, the son of the awesome family we're teaching. He was super happy, it was great to see the huge smile on his face when Elder Mclean baptized him. So things are going really good here the work is definitely progressing, we tried our best to leave the area better than the way we found it. It took some time but it got there. Well, needless to say we're both nervous/excited. It will be interesting to drive again, especially in the heart of Lisbon, please pray for me!! Wow I can't believe time is passing so fast. I just want to call a time out sometimes. But before I go home I will be able to come here one more time when we have zone conference so I'm excited about that. And my companion is a stud. He’s a Brazilian and he's the most humble and awesome missionary in the whole world. I'm excited for Elder Mclean to train. It seems like just yesterday I picked up Elder Wheeler and caught the train to Torres Vedras. Well today we are going to the senior couples house to eat lunch, (an old tradition on transfer day) and then we should be going to "Lagoa de Fogo" it's a beautiful lake just north of Ponta Delgada if you have time to check it out on Google or something you can see it. Well I don't really know what else to say. My brain is kind of going a hundred miles an hour right now, but the Lord will take care of us and everything will run smoothly. Just know that I am well and I'm happy and I think of you guys often. I'll let ya know how things are going in a while.
-Love Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 8/9/10

Wow this week went great! We're really starting to see the work progress here in Ponta Delgada. Our favorite family of investigators came to church yesterday, (all 5 of them) the parents aren't married yet but hopefully we will be able to baptize the two kids that are old enough to be baptized here pretty soon. The dad, Paulo is a great guy who is super humble. He used to smoke over 20 cigarettes per day, then Elder Mclean promised him that if he read and prayed every morning and night and if he thought about the Savior during the day he wouldn't have the desire to smoke. The results were almost instant. The next day we passed by to check up on them and he only smoked 3 that day and it stayed at 3 this whole week. They're great. He brings the Book of Mormon with him to work, (at the army base) and reads when he has spare time. Please pray for them, Paulo, Sónia, Marcelo, Vitor, and Diana. Well there were some great baptisms that the north side of the island had this weekend. I had the privilege of interviewing them. It really strengthened my testimony that the Lord truly is preparing his elects. Just last weekend one of the assistants to the president that was here for zone conference was on a division up there and they found this kid on Saturday, (they were supposed to come to our baptism but missed their bus so they stayed and worked there). The kid went to church on Sunday and then was baptized yesterday. Even though he knows the church a very short time he has a strong testimony of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was inspiring to talk to that 17-year-old boy. You know, I absolutely love my mission. I would not trade this time for anything, absolutely nothing! The other night we were eating dinner at a member families house and their daughter spent this last week in the northern part of Portugal at the first EFY that Portugal has ever hosted. They were the pioneers of EFY this year and it will be done every 2 years. There were over 250 youth there. So anyway she was talking about it during dinner and I had a feeling to look at the pictures she took. I don't know why but something was telling me to look at her pictures so I asked if I could see her camera and as I scrolled through them I saw a young woman named Magda. She was in this member's group. A little over a year ago I handed Magda a pamphlet about the restoration and talked to her on her porch, (Elder Wheeler and I were teaching her cousins in Torres Vedras). We started teaching her and her sister. Then we were both transferred. Well her and her sister were baptized (I think I already told you about that) but their mom was also recently baptized. They have already gone to the temple in Madrid, Spain and now I was looking at pictures of her at the first EFY in Portugal... I was super happy, (to say the least.) the member was like, "you know Magda!!?? oh my, she is so amazing!" the member said that she bore a strong testimony there and said that her goal is to get married in the temple. I don't really know if there is a word to describe your feelings when you have experiences like that but I like the feeling. Even though we only baptized one person in the six months I was there I was extremely happy to see that the seeds we planted are giving fruit. And I was grateful that the spirit prompted me to look at a young woman’s camera so that I could have that experience. Well we have a lady marked for this Friday named Carmina, she is kind of an elderly lady but a very kind hearted person. She lives in the same building as an inactive member and was a reference from her. (We love references!) Well family that about wraps up the week. I love you all and hope you are alive and well, (physically and spiritually) have another great week.
-Love, Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 8/2/10

Wow this week was incredible! By far my favorite week since I've been here on the islands. Monday night I went to Lisbon and Tuesday we had our meeting with Elder Teixeira and the zone leaders, it was really cool. My favorite part was the interview that we got to have with him after the meeting. He is an extremely loving and genuine person and a very spiritual man. I really enjoyed that meeting. Then on Friday we had our zone conference and the other elders from the other island stayed with us for a couple of days (which is always a blast). And the zone conference was really edifying, we had more great instructions from Elder Teixeira and his wife who I enjoyed talking to, (she let me have it when I told her how often I write in my journal. AHH it's so hard!!) She is an extremely nice lady I felt like she was my mom from Portugal, (well... one of many). Then on Saturday we had Francisco's baptism!!! It was wonderful! He is such an awesome guy and has made so many changes to do what is right and you see the new light he has in him. He is a completely different person now than he was two months ago. The sisters also had a baptism so both Elder Mclean and I got to baptize some one. It was a great day and the spirit was strong. That night we had a fireside with President Torgan and Elder Teixeira and it was great. Then on Sunday we had the confirmations, along with a bunch of changes in the leadership in the branch, (which was sorely needed.) we got a new ward mission leader. Bruno, our best friend here that was the first counselor is now our leader so we're super excited to get to work with him. I'm starting to see a change in this branch. It's kind of like the Miratejo but it's taking a little longer but soon enough we will make it there. I loved this week it was great. So today we are going to a place on the east part of the island that is called "as furnas" it is like Yellowstone but on an island. There's a bunch of hot springs and cool looking lakes. The islanders have a tradition here where they cook a traditional meal that's called "cozida portuguesa" in the ground. They put all the stuff in a pot and dig a hole and then it takes a few hours for the ground to cook it but I heard the sulfur after taste is delicious. Well I hope you have a great week.
-Love, Elder Lindquist