Elder Lindquist 7/12/10

So this week was pretty crazy. But things are going fine here on the island of São Miguel. We saw this lady get nailed by a mo-ped that tried passing some cars on the sidewalk. The bike threw her into a wall as well. People here are such crazy drivers. A bus the other day on the same street we were walking on killed a person. The door for the luggage was open and struck him. The sidewalks on these streets are literally 3 inches wide. Seriously you have to suck in your belly for the rear-view mirror to not hit you. Or just do more exercises. It was also Elder Mclean's birthday and Bruno, (our first counselor) and I surprised him and took him out to lunch. We have also been suffering a big loss of people in the branch. A lot of people are going inactive and it is very sad to see. Many times people leave the church for such trivial reasons and it kills you to watch people throw their salvation away. Some people just don't get it. They think that the church is like a game and we can stay active when they want to and play around in the world when they feel like it. But as Elder Holland says we can't live in the city of Enoch most of the year and have a summer cottage in Babylon. There are a lot of good things going on too. It just seems like sometimes there are so many people that are in distress and the situation gets pretty real. We had an investigator of ours come to the chapel after our sacrament meeting ended and we talked to him for a good 2.5 hours. He is going through a lot and needed some comfort. It's funny you know, I never would have imagined that I would be where I am doing what I'm doing as a missionary. In other words I never imagined that my mission would be in a country like this and that I would have the experiences and face the challenges that I've faced. Probably because I didn't even know about this culture therefore did not know what experiences I would have in such a place. But I'm grateful for the opportunity that the Lord has given me to serve a mission and have these type of experiences I know they will help me out later on in life when I pass through places and things that I haven't imagined yet. Anyway, we had a meeting yesterday with a Seventy (Elder Rocha) and he gave our branch some great instructions. I hope we can start baptizing people here!! We are not completely happy if we aren't completely fulfilling our purpose. There is nothing better than seeing some one enter the waters of baptism. The island is beautiful but without a doubt in my mind I know the best sight I can see is some one dressed in white :) Well keep up having a blast this summer. I'll keep working and we shall see each other soon enough. I love our Savior and Our Heavenly Father and I love being a missionary. Hey tell everyone to stop getting married! My goodness I don't think there will be any single women when I get home.
Love, Elder Lindquist