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
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