Elder Lindquist 6/24/09

Hey everyone sounds like ya'll had a pretty busy week and the week ahead sounds pretty busy too. That's cool, it's better to be busy than bored right? Well I'll just get the big news off my shoulders right now then I can type this thing. Elder Peterson is being transferred to Lisbon area to be a zone leader and I've been called to take his place as District Leader. Oh and I'm TRAINING too. Ha I'm way excited I did not expect either of those things to happen but yeah tomorrow morning I'll go to the office to get my greeny. It feels like just yesterday that I was trained there in Beja. But yeah that's the news with transfers. Oh and Elder Tipton got called to serve out in the Azores with the first kid he trained. He trained him in Beja and had about the same number of transfers as me. I'm really excited it's going to be sick to train in Torres it's a great area with so much potential were going to tear it up with that greeny fire! So we played soccer in Lisbon with about 15 elders today it was way fun. We've been working really hard there in Torres and we're always tired but things are going really good. We got to eat breakfast with Elder Peterson's sister the other morning (she was in Europe and decided to swing by) and she's going to leave for a mission before he gets home so president gave us permission. So right now we're about to go have a sweet BBQ in the house of our zone leaders because Elder Oliveira is leaving tomorrow, (they live with some members) so it will be sick. Then tomorrow morning we'll head to the office and split our separate ways. I love these missionaries they're awesome. They've really helped me grow as a missionary in the last two transfers I've been here. Well I don't know what else to say today. I'm mostly just nervous, anxious, and excited about this transfer. It will be sweet. Tu tens jeito meu! Have fun at Park City I'll be soaking up the sun here in Torres.
Well have a good week everyone.-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 6/17/09

Hey thanks for the weekly emails it's always a great hour to read and hear from you guys. Holy smokes this transfer is going by fast. We only have like one more week its crazy. Elder Peterson says he has a feeling he's leaving but I want him to stay, ele é realmente boeia de fixe! So it has been pretty hot here recently and we've been doing a lot of finding in little towns outside our area so we've been doing a lot of walking. The past two days I feel like I've been hit by a train. We're pretty tired but we're working hard and loving Torres Vedras. I have a pretty funny tan line. A collar line on my neck, (which with a regular shirt on looks ridiculous) a farmers tan at my elbow and then a long sleeve shirt line. So we've been battling the little devils in our house that have been biting the poop out of us, (which are not fleas but another type of small bug that we got from one of our investigators houses.) I've only been able to catch one and it was a wrestle, they're sneaky little buggers. I taped him in my journal, ha!So this last week we had a huge number of investigators, we beat our district goal. Now it's just a manner of getting those people to "stick" and actually progress. But I've seen that when someone has stopped in their progress that was doing fairly well and you drop them the Lord makes up for it and you're able to find new people to teach. We found a great Brazilian family on Sunday and they are really nice and a family that has a son that's a member who lives in England and they have a really good view of the church because it "saved" their son/brother from the path he was on so we're excited to continue visiting with them. Ha the other day we stopped by the Igreja Maná (we wanted to see the miracles they do where the people pay the pastor like 50 bucks and he beats them in the head and they're supposedly healed) but unfortunately we only had time to stay for the music at the beginning. It was pretty funny Elder Peterson and I was grooving out dancing around and one part of the song the lady singer was like raise up your bible! This is your tool your weapon, use it against the enemies of God! I look over and Elder Peterson is holding up the Book of Mormon, ha it was classic. I know without a doubt that this is the true church of Christ, he is the head of this church and there is a living prophet called by him on the earth today. I see daily, how lost people are. It is so plain in my eyes the truthfulness of this message. I know of with conviction that this church is true. And even though we don't have thousands of baptisms in this part of the world as it says in 1 Corinthians chapter one I was called of God not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. That is my greatest desire right now and it's a pretty awesome privilege to have a name tag on my chest that also includes the name of the Savior. So today we're kicking back for P-day after tons of crazy ones this last transfer we're just going to chill and play tennis. I hope you all have a great week,Com muito amor..-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 6/11/09

Hey all how's it going? This week was sick! We were so busy oh my goodness, sometimes the things I miss most is just a nap or simply just hanging out at the house, ha the simple days. So we had a good week even though we've got fleas in our apartment now. But we will destroy those suckers. So the reason I didn't send an email yesterday was because we had an activity with our stake called "day of the youth" all the youth got together with their friends at the stake center in oeiras and first they had them rotate from classroom to classroom while us missionaries taught a short lesson. Then we had lunch (which sat horribly in my stomach and I ended up spending half the talent show in the bathroom later that day). Then after lunch they had a talent show of the missionaries! Elder Peterson, Elder Marriot, Elder Oliveira, and I played "Island in the sun" by Weezer, foi boeia de fixe! We opened the show and the crowd loved it. I sang, Elder P and Elder M played guitars and Elder Oliveira played the scissors. Yes, the scissors and danced around. We were messing around in their house the night before and we decided to have him play that so it was pretty funny. There was also a bunch of magic tricks preformed by a native missionary that is from Portugal, he is 28 and was a professional magician before the mission. Then later all the missionaries preformed the Hakka (the Tongan war cry dance) for everyone, then Elder Peterson taught the crowd how to do it. Then we had dinner and took off. It was a way fun day. Then we stayed with the zone leaders again last night because we had interviews with president today, (our last one with President Terry). So we'll finally make it back to our area after we do Internet here today. So yeah we took P-day on Tuesday, and then had the activity on Wednesday and interviews today. It has been a crazy week oh I forgot to mention that for p-day on Tuesday we went to the huge mall in Lisbon, (Columbo) and ate at a Brazilian resturante and went bowling.. It has been forever since I've Bowled but I still managed to win one of the three games we played. Too bad it wasn't the game that we bet a sundae on. Well the work is going good in Torres, the baptisms didn't go through on Saturday due to complications with the marriage, but we have patience and Maria de Graça has incredible faith so her and her daughter will get baptized eventually. Paulo disappeared for a while but we found him the other day. His life is pretty complicated but I have faith that he'll be able to overcome the difficulties he's facing so he can get baptized. Ate já, ficam bem!-Elder Lindquist

So this week was crazy so I'll try and remember all the stuff that went on. We were all over the place. So the craziness started on Saturday when we had service in Mofra, there's a brother there that has back problems so we went there to help him with his back yard. He has a bunch of trash back there and these shacks he built with a bunch of different stuff and the purpose of the service were basically to get rid of everything so he can expand his garden. It was the funniest service I've ever done. We all just grabbed like a metal bar or a shovel and started beating the tar out of these shacks, it was so fun to destroy all that stuff we had a good time. But next week is going to stink because we have to haul all the debris away. Later that day we went up north to a city called Santa Cruz, It's basically a little party town that's right next to the beach and we have some inactive members there that we went to find. OH MY GOODNESS that water looked so refreshing and it was hot as a mug so we were just dying to take a dip as we walked along the ocean. It reminded me of California, (except the beach was better here) and I got saudades demais! It was a good trip, we only found one of the three members we were looking for but strangely enough we ran into someone we contacted in Torres Vedras a couple of weeks ago and we were clear out in a small town away from the beach that only has a few houses it was so crazy. Portugal is a small country but I don't think that that was by chance. So yeah basically it's getting really hot here, (probably is there too huh?) and with the humidity here it's ridiculous. I just lay on top of my blankets at night feeling like I have lotion all over my body but it's just the thickness of the air. So yesterday our Zone Leaders came to do divisions with us and after our district meeting I stayed in São Pedro da cadeira with Elder Oliveira, (a native from Brazil). He's such a funny guy and a great missionary. He doesn't speak English besides a few phrases like "freaking heck man", so that was fun to spend the day with a nativo. At night we were walking up to teach Maria Reginas sister when all the sudden I heard a yell in front of me and when I looked up I saw an old lady fall over, she fell hard on the cement and bashed up her elbows and knees. Elder Oliveira and I ran over to help her up it scared the bejeebies out of me. Then we had a lesson with the other elders and Maria Regina, her sister, her sister’s husband, and their son. It was a pretty good lesson we we're all crammed in a tiny room basically sitting on top of one another to watch "the restoration" I swear I already have that movie memorized. So today the elders from Mofra are coming up and we're having a "special p-day" with the zone leaders it's going to be sweet. I think we're going to play settlers of catan or some other board game up in the castle, estou animado! Have a great week I'll talk to ya next week-O missionário mais Giro no mundo...Elder Lindquist