Elder Lindquist 5/13/09

Hello all, so this week was good. It feels like I just talked to you a few days ago. Oh wait I did. So I don't have a lot of time because we're leaving here in a little bit to go to Sintra for the second week in a row!! Last week we hit up Palácia da pena and castelo dos mouros (I'm sending pictures) and this week we're going to check out the quinta da reguleira it's sick! It was great to talk to you sounds like everyone is doing well, congrats on the news Nat and Isaac! It's always rad to know I have another little cousin coming along even though he/she will be a year and a half old by the time I see him. Well things are going good in Torres, our conference with Elder/sister Kearon (I think that's how you spell their name) from the Seventy was great! Yesterday Paulo our investigator took us out to lunch and it was pretty good, we each got a plate that was covered with a bunch of meat. I ate a pig’s ear and two feet and a bunch of other stuff it was carne demais! This week for some reason everyone has been asking us about why our religion doesn't believe in sex before marriage which has lead to at least a dozen discussions on this topic. Elder Peterson and I are sick of teaching that this week so hopefully this coming week the lessons we have will be more in the direction of the restoration/plan of salvation. I know Christ’s church was restored to the earth by the Prophet Joseph Smith. There is so much confusion in this world about which is the doctrine of Christ and there's no doubt in my mind we have the truth. It is very easy to see that outside of Utah where everyone is Mormon. Very plain to see.Well have a great week everyone!

Elder Lindquist 5/6/09

Hey all, this week has been good. This transfer is going by WAY fast, which is a good thing it's crazy how fast it has gone. In a couple days we have a huge zone conference with all the missionaries in the mission because someone from the Seventy is coming to talk to us. Right now I'm down in Cacem and after email we're taking a train to Sintra to visit some rad castles! They are way cool looking they're up on this mountain so I'm stoked for that. Last week I went to the Convent in Mofra with Elder Perkes while we were on divisions and that was pretty cool too, I'm sending a few pictures.
The other day we decided to go down to São Pedro da cadeira to do some finding because our chapel is there and it's easier to invite people to go to church. We made our way up this big hill where this huge farm was then we decided to walk down to this little town on the other side, and we kept walking and walking till we almost reached the sea. We didn't have much luck over there but when we walked back to São Pedro we found a Brazilian family and taught them the message of the restoration. The next day one of the sons and one of the daughters of the family went to church. It was cool to find them right before we took our bus back to Torres we had just enough time to teach a lesson.
The landscapes here are stinking beautiful, I've never seen so much agricultural land it's a cool place. Oh and I forgot to tell you Paulo hasn't left yet so we're still working with him to get him baptized. He might be leaving to Holland, or Switzerland, or he might even stay here but he doesn't know when, so we're going to continue teaching him as if nothing had come up. He remarked for baptism. Our branch is on fire! We and the elders from Mofra have some one marked for baptism every weekend this month and into next month. Starting this week! No unhallowed hand can stop the work of the Lord. Have a great week! Good luck and boa sorte with baseball Dal, I'm excited to call you this Sunday! Feliz dia de Mãe!
-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 4/29/09

Hey everyone how's it going? I hope you're all enjoying spring and life etc. This last week was good, this transfer is going by way too fast. I hope I stay at least one more with Elder Peterson he's a stud. Well we had some interesting lessons this last week one of which was with the director of marangos com açicar (strawberries with sugar) which is a teenage drama show that is pretty much the equivalent to the O.C. or something in America. He's a way cool guy, his wife and daughter are members so they help a lot with reading the Book of Mormon and everything so that was fun.
Maria de Graça is doing well, but due to complications with her marriage we had to push the baptism date up to June 6th (she wanted to receive the holy ghost on the day of the Pentecost which just so happens to be the day after the baptism so that was a cool coincidence. I love doing service in her quintal, her backyard is like a jungle that's crawling with lizards and frogs and crazy stuff. She's kind of a packrat so we have to clean out these sheds filled with tons of stuff and right now we're weeding this big area with hoes and stuff, I'll have to take some pictures there one of these days it's really cool. And we invited her 11 year old daughter Ana to be baptized and confirmed on the same day as her mom and she accepted so we're excited about that.
Recently I've realized that my desire to share the truth of the restoration has really exploded. Never in my life did I imagine I'd be this determined; almost obsessed with sharing the gospel with people but that's all that's on my mind. It drives me crazy to see people going down the wrong path and it drives me even crazier to be rejected when I try and help them get on the right path, but that's how the saviors’ life was like right? He was despised and rejected of men. I've become pretty anxious to find every scripture I can to use when talking with people from other religions. Elder Peterson have had laid some smack down on some J-Dubs and Catholics lately, (without the spirit of contention) we just tell them the truth, which is that our church is the only true and living church on the face of the earth. And we have scriptures to back it up. Missions are awesome. Never before have I felt this ambition to talk about this stuff, I don't know maybe it's because I can communicate with the people better but I've just felt this great care and love for the people to show them the truth. I don't know it's hard to explain.
So today I'm doing a division in Mofra and we're going to go take some pictures and check out the huge convent here it's pretty awesome on the outside I'm excited to see what's on the inside. I'll send some pictures next week.
Oh I forgot to tell you about our new investigator we found this last week. He's from Russia but has lived in Spain, Switzerland and now Portugal. He speaks four or five languages and he's only 18. We made the first contact with him in a park after he pretty much just made a deal. He's a way smart kid and we told him that he's not doing the right thing and he's going to ruin his life and lose opportunities if he keeps doing these things. Initially he told us he doesn't believe in God but in our last visit with him he told us he's going to try saying a prayer and he wants to go to church on Sunday. It's amazing what the light of Christ does to people Não é?
Well have a good week I'll talk to you soon, (on Mother’s day!)
-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 4/22/09

Wow this last week has been a rollercoaster. A lot of good stuff happened and a lot of unfortunate things happened. Everything happens for a reason so we'll just pray that everything works out, Heavenly Father knows everything right?So Paulo is doing awesome, we had arranged plans for him to get married in the coming weeks and he was really excited about that and his baptismal date for May 9th and he's really close to quitting smoking. He's been without work for a while and we've really been encouraging him to find a job, (he just wanted to study the scriptures all day.) So the other day we were in Mofra and got a call from him and he told us he got a job he applied for and that he has to move to Holand. He leaves this Monday so he won't be getting baptized next month. We are bummed but feel certain that he will stay strong in the gospel and continue to progress even though he's in a country that doesn't speak his language. Last night he thanked us for everything and told us he was in one of the worst conditions he's ever been in his life when Elder Peterson found him. And he said having us as friends and the things he's learned from us has changed his life. I know he'll get baptized eventually, I just don't know if I'll be around to see it.Well church on Sunday was amazing, we had tons of people there and the new chapel is beautiful. The members are excited to meet in a place central to the two main cities and now we can have all three hours of church!! Our branch is doing awesome; the Elders from Mofra and us combined have about eight people marked for baptism for next month. Two of these people live in a little city called Gradil and Elder Peterson and I take a bus out there every Thursday to do service and teach Maria de Graça and her little daughter Anna. They are amazing. This story is really long but I'll just say that it's a miracle and it has really strengthened my testimony of fasting and prayer but I'll just give you the general picture. Maria has like four kids with her boyfriend and they've been together forever, he's never agreed to being married but we fasted together with her last week and she talked to him and he agreed she will be baptized next month. That's the really short story, there were actually two fasts involved and each time Heavenly Father did his part and it was amazing.Well our landlord is a ding-dong and messed up our water bill situation so yesterday morning a man came to our apartment and shut our water down. We talked to our landlord yesterday and we spent the whole morning today and the place downtown getting it sorted out. Hopefully we get water by the end of today I want to take a shower. I heard it was worse the two weeks before I got here and the area had just opened, they didn't have electricity for four days or gas for nine days. Elder Peterson said he loved taking a cold shower in the dark! Best two years baby!I know this is the work of the Lord and that he's helping this work move forward until it covers the face of the whole earth. Sometimes things happen but there are lessons to be learned from every single situation. Well I hope you all have a good week, Fiquem bem e faz orações pelos missionários!-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 4/15/09

Well I had just finished typing my whole email and was attaching pictures when the computer shut down so now I'm angry and running out of time and I'll try and make this shorter than usual.. This last week was good our district, (all four of us) broke the record for new investigators in one week. We rounded in 12 here in Torres, (more than I got in four and a half months in Beja.) so that was exciting. Our investigator Paulo is doing good we have him marked for baptism and we're trying to help him quit smoking as soon as possible. It's crazy to think that it was just three weeks ago that he came in contact with the missionaries. It's amazing the change the gospel brings in people lives. On Sunday we took him with us to church (a forty minute journey by train then bus to the city of Mofra.) our branch has been renting this building to have sacrament meeting the past couple months but our new chapel is finished so we're excited to start going there so we can have more than one meeting. The new chapel is in São Pedro de cadeira, a small town central to Torres Vedras and Mofra so it should only take about 25 minutes to get to church. Yesterday we spent most of the day moving stuff into the new building, chairs, tables, cabinets, and the piano. It's a nice building, (doesn't really look like a chapel it's a business building) but we're excited to start church there. Elder Peterson is great, he's a drummer too so every time we sit at a table it becomes a jam session. Our neighbors got mad at us the other night, (it's not our fault that the walls are paper thin in our apartment complex.) Torres Vedras is a beautiful city surrounded by hills and small mountains that are crowned with tons of windmills. It kind of reminds me of some parts of California. So we are having fun and working hard and we are seeing miracles happen every day.
Well here is my address, feel free to send letters/ packages/ letters:
Praceta Professor José Carvalho Mesquita
Nº 9 R/C DRT
2560 Torres Vedras
Well hope you all had a good Easter, have a good week! -Elder Lindquist

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

Elder Lindquist 4/1/09

Hey everyone it's the 1º de Abril, (april fools day) and I would try and trick you guys but mom threatened me in her email so I won't.. So yesterday was T-calls day and......I'm going way up north to a city called Torres Vedres! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. It has been closed for a short time but they just barely re-opened it two weeks ago so my new companion, (Elder Peterson) and I will basically be revamping it this transfer and I'm so excited. My MTC comp Elder Craig is going to the Azores to serve with a Brazilian... Punk. But I'm way excited to head up north; it's about an hour by car North of Lisbon. I love Beja but I’m excited to meet new people and work on new ground. I went around to a lot of the members yesterday to tell them, Paula Cristina cried. ha but I'm way excited. Wow this last week was crazy. We have a lot of potential investigators and things are going good in the branch right now so I really feel like I'm leaving the area better than I found it as it says in Preach My Gospel. The other day we went clear on the border of town to find some less actives out there. That was the most ghetto part of Beja I've ever seen. Pretty much just shacks made of ply wood and tin, and there was little kids going number 2 in the streets and stuff, pretty crazy. Then we stopped at a new church that had just opened up that some Brazilians created. There's no doubt in my mind that our church is the only true church on the earth. And later in the week we had a lesson with Edson and Rose that was the most intense lesson of my mission. They've been really flaky and slow to do the things they're supposed to so Elder Hansen and I laid it out for them. It was intense, and I have faith that they'll take the initiative to do the things they're supposed to. Sometimes people need a little, (or a big) poke in the butt to get things rolling. So what I hear about my area is it's bigger than Beja, (not hard to find a city bigger than Beja) and there's about 20 people in our branch which is 30 minutes south of us. But I'll give you all the details next week. A little trivia for ya all about Beja, it was founded by Julius Cesar and was originally called Pax Julia, but then became Beja.. Christopher Columbus was born in a small town about 10 kilometers from here called Cabeça Gorda, and the castle here is the tallest in Europe. At least that's what I was told. Well I hope you all have a good week I'll let ya know what's going on next week. Tchau-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 3/25/09

Hello all, Time is going by way too fast. Way too fast! I think I hit six months yesterday or today, crazy! This last week was good we had some good lessons and it looks like we've got some new potential investigators so I'm excited to keep teaching them. I'm also excited to see general conference here in a couple weeks. If I stay in Beja then we can watch it here in our chapel but if I get transferred to another area chances are I'll have to travel a ways to see it. I have a feeling I'm out of here so if you guys send letters you should probably send them to the mission home. You usually don't stay in your first area too long in fact I'm one of the last ones from my MTC district to still be in my birth area so I think I'm taking off, (hopefully to the Azores!) But I love Beja I would be content with serving my whole mission here. So this last Sunday Pedro received the priesthood. I didn't give it to him but it was still cool to be a part of the ordination of my baptism. He was SO excited to pass the sacrament. Elder Hansen and I took all of the second hour to teach him how to do it and he passed well (without too many crazy gypsy moments.) Our zone leaders were here the other day for our district meeting then we had divisions. During lunch we planned a way to surprise Paula Cristina. So what we did was Elder Hansen and I went up there and I was like sister we have to say a prayer right now! She got this really worried look on her face and was like why? I was like we just have to I'll say it. So we stood there as I said a prayer and I prayed that we might enjoy the presence of our friends this week, especially the presence of Elder Rissi. Elder Rissi and his companion snuck in the house because the door was open and he went and stood beside her. When she opened her eyes she FREAKED OUT! I've never seen anyone so happy before. She gave him a hug. Yes a hug and it was not just a two second hug, she wrapped her arms around his head and was jumping up and down for like two minutes straight screaming her head off. He didn't know what to do because he couldn't escape her grasp so he just tried not to touch her with his hands. It was hilarious. So needless to say all the gypsies were ecstatic to see him. We are legends among the gypsy folk Rissi and I. I think Pedro is the only gypsy in the world to be baptized and receive the priesthood; it's just not part of their culture. Paula Cristina caught a bunch of giant snails in a field the other day, (she has bags of them) and said she's going to make us a snail snack. I don't know what that entails but she says they are delicious. Well I hope you all have a good week. -Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 3/18/09

Hello everyone! It's good to hear from you. This last week has been busy but it's been fun. I had to go to Lisbon two times in one week to renew my visa and we stayed with our zone leaders and had a zone meeting/interviews with president so we haven't been in our area a lot this last week. After interviews Elder Hansen went to stay in Evora and I traveled alone from Setúbal to Oriente to spend the night with Elder Craig my MTC companion. It was a long string of bus/train rides but I arrived safely and we had a great time. The next day we met up with everyone else from our district except for Elder Bennet because he's already out on the Azores. But the first night I had to go there to renew my visa he was there and we spent the night in the office. That was really fun too. It's interesting to see everyone's progress with the language, I feel extremely blessed to be able to speak the way I do. I love this language. I still have a lot of progress to make but I feel very comfortable with the way I'm speaking now. This morning Elder Hansen and I went to the castle here in Beja (it was my second time there) here are some pictures from that and a couple others from the past couple weeks, (they should tie ya'll over until my picture card reaches you..) so I'll probably send a small package there within the next few days because I just filled the questionnaire out. Thanks for the package, it was awesome. Today I think we're going to bring Pedro to lunch then I'm giving him a haircut so I'm excited about that. Recently we've been going on the outskirts of town to find new people to teach. We found this small neighborhood on the other side of the train tracks that has some promising people there. We have a couple of lessons set up for tonight and throughout the rest of the week so I'm excited to see what comes of that. I have a feeling I'm getting transferred. Missionaries usually don't stay in their first area too long and I've been here almost four months but we'll see what happens. So Pedro turns twelve this Saturday and I think I might be giving him the priesthood on Sunday so that would be really cool to give my baptism the priesthood. Also we told Paula Cristina that Elder Rissi went back out to the Azores (his birth area) and so she always talks about how much she misses him. Little does she know he's my zone leader in Setúbal and he's coming here to do divisions with us this Monday. We are going to surprise her; I'm really excited to see what her reaction is going to be. But she has bad health so I hope she doesn't have a heart attack. Well I'm going to go; I hope all is well with you guys. Se cuida e bem haja!-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 3/11/09

So this last week was good. We spent most of our time looking for new investigators, after the baptisms we kind of hit a wall on people who are progressing and whatnot so we're trying to build an investigator pool now. Yesterday the Elders from évora and santo andre were here and we did a street meeting it was fun. I spent all morning writing our number on DVD's, pamphlets, pass along cards, etc. It's always a party when our district is here as a whole. And today is Elder Young’s birthday so we made a cake and drank some guaraná last night. We had zone conference last week and on our way home on the bus I started talking to the guy next to me and his buddy joined in our conversation, then a girl sitting next to him joined in to because she was from Porto and had a friend from our church. We talked for like two and a half hours, about school, work, and missions. They were very curious about what it is we do; all the youth here just think we're strange because we have the same name. All the time we'll be walking down the street and you'll hear O ELDER! They think it's so funny that we're both called Elder. So it was good to clear some things up with them, and I could tell everyone in the packed bus that was sitting in our area was listening too. When they got off in évora they expressed their respect for us and wished me good luck. I was thrilled about that visit because I've never really talked to the youth here so it was fun to find out that we actually have a lot of things in common. Last night Elder Cap, Elder Young and I went to the guy’s house that is a missionary for another church; we invited him to come to our church and told him we'd go to his. We asked him some questions about their beliefs and it is very interesting to see other people’s views on things like the Godhead, the gift of tongues, and prayer. So I'll let you know how the church meeting goes. Well I'll send your package next week, once I receive yours so I can include the questionnaire and stuff. It's good to hear you're doing well, especially mom! Tchau e ficam bem.-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 3/4/09

Hello all thanks for the emails, sounds like you guys are doing great and had a fun time at grandpa's birthday party. (By the way Grandpa B happy birthday! ou feliz aniversário!) sorry anyone else who had a birthday and I haven't done a shout out I don't know all these things.. Well this last week was pretty good, but it was a little slow. We had to go to évora for a couple of days and then when we got back Elder Hansen was sick so we didn't get a lot of work done here in Beja. This weekend we have zone conference in mirateijo, I love zone conferences they're awesome and spiritually uplifting. A lot of times it's easy to allow yourself to slip into the blues because no one wants to listen to you but zone conferences help lift the spirits. I especially enjoyed Elder Bednar’s visit a couple weeks ago. He's so straight forward I love it, he has inspired me to be more bold with the less actives here, (still being sweetly bold of course) but just giving it to them how it is ya know. The night before he talked to us they had a meeting with members and investigators, people came from all across Portugal to see him so the chapel was packed. I guess it was a question answer type deal and a young man asked Elder Bednar what significance a mission had for him and the other young men there. Elder Bednar responded, you would be betraying yourself if you did not serve a mission. You would miss out on blessings and would be withholding blessings from other people’s lives. I thought that was pretty neat. Missions are awesome and will bring blessings to your life and the life of your future family. I know I would have been betraying myself if I had not come on this mission. So last night we had our first English student since I've been here! He already knows a little bit and he's Brazilian so of course he's open to hearing about our church. So I'm excited to see what comes from this. A couple weeks ago we had divisions here in Beja with Evora and Elder Coombs and I went to a guy’s house that is a missionary for another church. We had taught him before, just about the restoration and he was pretty open to our ideas. But this time pretty much the second we sat down he started firing questions at us. It was pretty intense, but we handled it pretty well. Of course he'd heard bad things about us from members of his church so the questions he had were pretty interesting. It's interesting to see the progress of understanding another language. It's funny because I understand people well enough to know when they contradict something they had said earlier. Well hope all is well with you; it's freezing and raining here in Beja. Ficam bem meus amigos. -Elder Lindquist

ELder Lindquist 2/25/09

So this last week was good. It was a different experience getting a new companion it feels weird without Elder Rissi around to make most of the decisions but it's my turn to be in the driver’s seat. Elder Hansen is cool; he's 23 and has been a convert for three years this week. Speaking of dates I left for the MTC exactly five months ago yesterday. Scary huh. I'm freaking out because the time is going by so fast and it scares me. But I'm still in my first area so I've got plenty of adventures ahead of me. The language is coming still. Yesterday a lady standing next to me in the grocery store line complimented my Portuguese! I felt awesome after that. We started talking about our church while we waited in line and I was pretty pumped about that. Now that I don't have that safety net of my trainer I have to be more self reliant with my language and I think this has helped me a lot. When people hear your accent that sounds different they either ask if you’re from Porto or Brazil haha that's where the other Portuguese is. So the other day Paula Cristina told us that her daughter in law is messing around with some witches in Beja so we might give her grandson a blessing. He is a crazy little kid and she thinks he has a demon in him or something. Oh and we can't find her records in the church so we might have to baptize her again. She was baptized 20 years ago and we can't find her records on the computer so her getting baptized again will be complicated because she's married under gypsy law but not legally. So we'll so what we need to do about that. Well I hope all is well with everyone back home and with the ward and everything. Spencer got his call to West Africa? Is he going to be speaking Portuguese? Well fica bem tudo mundo espero que tudo vai correr bem esta semana para vocÊs. Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 2/18/09

Wow this last week was great and I've only got a little time so I'll let you know what happened real quick. We just got done playing soccer with the gypsies and I don't mean to brag but I'm basically a pro now. Last week we played with them and they were all laughing at me hysterically so later that day I went and bought a ball and have been practicing in our little area between our predio this week for exercises. Needless to say the practice has paid off and they weren't laughing because I was schooling them. Seeing Elder Bednar was one of the most spiritually uplifting experiences of my mission. He was awesome and I'll have to be honest before his visit I thought he was kind of a dull apostle, compared to Jeffery R. Holland. But he was way down to earth and had an awesome personality. His wife talked to us then he followed her. We had kind of a group discussion, all of the missionaries from the mission were there and it definitely exceeded my expectations. Our new mission president has been called, his name is Moroni Bing Torgan and he's from Brasilia Brazil. I'm excited and sad at the same time because President Terry is such an awesome president. I also have a new companion, his name is Elder Hansen and he's from San Diego. It's funny because we just stayed with him and his companion, (whose place I took here in Beja) this last weekend in Lisbon for Elder Bednar’s visit. Elder Rissi has been called to serve in Setúbal as our zone leader so I'll still see him quite often. I pick up my new companion from the bus station tomorrow morning. Again I'm sad and exited at the same time. Well I hope all is well with you I'd like to write more but I've got to go wash up so Elder Rissi can say his goodbyes to people. Até logo-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 2/11/09

Wow this last week has been busy, and good. It's starting to look like spring here in Beja so I'm very grateful for that. This coming week will be pretty busy as well. We have another baptism. It's an awesome eight year old girl. Her name is Ines and she's so easy to teach. Whenever we go there she's always like what are you going to teach me today? Where do you want me to read in the Book of Mormon? Man I wish teaching everyone was this easy. She's way funny we have an awesome secret handshake that we can do in like three seconds. She's pretty well behaved so I don't think there will be any cannon balls at this baptism unfortunately. So this Monday Elder Bednar is coming to talk to us and we're all very excited. He has an interview with the government TV station in Lisboa and then we're going to have a three hour fireside with him so I'm way excited. Well last night we had an interesting experience that I'll share quickly. There is an inactive lady from Brazil that our Brazilian investigator told us about and she's having a hard time going to church because her mom is very sick with cancer. We visited with her last night and it was a great opportunity to share my experience with her and share some scriptures that helped me during this difficult time in my life. I was able to testify to her that her Heavenly Father still loves her and her family and is watching over them. I'm grateful for this opportunity I had to relate to someone and help lift their spirit in this difficult time. Elder Rissi and I invited her to our baptism this Saturday and church on Sunday and she said she'd think about it. I said I have a talk at the baptism and it's a good one so you better come! We all laughed and said a prayer. Missionary work is so rewarding, I'm so grateful for the chance I have to serve the Lord and help bring light to people’s lives. Oh and before we went to that house we were walking there and saw a lady and a man carrying a big piece of a bed frame. So we immediately grabbed it from the lady and helped the man carry it. The lady was like no, no we don't want to distract you from your work. Elder Rissi said this is our work. We helped them carry it up a big hill and past the castle to their house. We probably walked a mile or so and while walking we talked about our church and missionary work. When we reached the man’s house we talked to them about the Book of Mormon and gave them both a copy. They asked if they could give us anything in return and we asked if we could come by and teach them another day. They agreed and thanked us again. I was so excited about that. I love service because a lot of times people don't recognize you and the Lords servants they just think you're two weird guys walking around in suits that are from the CIA or something. But service helps break that mentality and shows people that we're just here to help. Well this is the last week of the transfer and we're pretty sure Elder Rissi is getting transferred so I'll let you know what happens. It has been nice to have a native for a trainer. I get the feeling that President likes me the best because he has entrusted me with this great gift.. Well I hope all is well with you. Se cuida, Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 2/4/09

This email was received on 2/11, but Elder Lindquist sent it on 2/4.

Hello all, I can't believe it's already Feb. That's crazy. This last week has been pretty busy and the next two weeks, (last two weeks of this transfer) will be even more busy.. This last Saturday was Pedro's baptism. For some reason he changed his mind the day before and wanted me to baptize him so I did. Needless to say it was probably the most memorable baptism in the world. After I baptized him I went to give him a hug but what he did shocked me to a great degree, he let out a loud gypsy yelp, jumped up, and did a cannon ball. Water almost splashed all over all the people watching. Elder Rissi ran over and started to close the baptismal gate so no one could see him swimming around. I reached down and grabbed him by the collar of his vest and dragged him out of the baptismal font. When we got to the top of the stairs and I started to head into the bathroom when he jumped off the top stair and did another cannon ball. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I yelled at him to get in the bathroom and he stopped swimming around. We should have filled the font with cold water so he'd want to be in and out; it was pretty interesting. Who would have thought that my first baptism would be a gypsy? After the baptism I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. On Sunday Pedro bore his testimony. He's reading the Book of Mormon and praying; it has been awesome to see the change in him the past two months I've been here. We have another baptism on the 14th so I'm excited for that. It won't stop raining here, and our space heater broke so it's pretty cold, but other than that all is well here. Thank you for your support and love, Fica bem.-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 1/28/09

Ok hello everyone this last week was a good week. And I have been feeling better about my language capabilities. Last night we were on divisions here in Beja and some old guys that own a bird shop around the corner from our house asked if we could help them this morning. So this morning at eight six of us, (the elders from Évora and our zone leaders from Setúbal) went over there and helped unload half of a semi full of bird seed bags that weighed like 15 or 20 pounds each. It was awesome! I was beginning to think that we'd never be able to find a service opportunity here because everyone refuses our help. Even if we want to help a ninety year old lady carry her 30 grocery bags up a huge hill they always shut us down. They're pretty stubborn here, but this morning was really fun. One of our zone leaders that’s been out for a year and a half said that that was the best service he's been able to do here. So it was good to have that opportunity because service opens so many doors in missionary work. The work is going good here, Pedros baptismal interview was last night and he's getting baptized this Saturday. Edson and Rose were not able to get married in time so I think that we're going to try and do their baptism on the same day as our other person we have marked for the 14th of Feb. But everything is good, we have a new investigator that is Brazilian and last night while on divisions three of us taught a Brazilian guy here that is a missionary for another church. It was a lot of fun Brazilians are so easy to teach and so willing to listen to anything you have to share. I'll tell you a story that happened a couple of days ago. The other night Elder Rissi and I were headed to talk to a referral we'd received, (the first one we've gotten since I've been here! but that's another story for another day) and on our way there we saw this guy that was drunk out of his mind. I was like let’s go talk to this guy, Elder Rissi said but he's wasted. I said lets go anyway. We crossed the street and started talking to him and joking with him a bit and after a few minutes I had a feeling to tell him something. I said António I want to share a message with you, God loves you. He stopped swaying back and forth and mumbling and he looked down at me. He put his hand on my shoulder and started to cry. He continued to cry for a minute or two as I put my hand on his shoulder and I felt for that minute he was not drunk, he was feeling the spirit. I think one of the greatest if not the greatest messages we can share with people here is that we are Gods children and he loves us. I don't know why I told him that I just felt I should. I don't know what is going on in his life but I know he needed to hear that. And even though he was wasted he is still a child of God, and he needed to know that his father in heaven loves him. He gave us a hug and we left. I know that God loves us, and knows us individually and if you do not know that I would encourage you to ask him in prayer if he does or not. I'm so blessed to be here at this time and share the message of the gospel with these people. I hope all is well with everyone, thank you for your letters and support.-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 1/21/09

So this last week was good. We had zone conference in Meiratejo and holy cow! I've never received so many packages and letters in my life! I came out of the room with the mail in there and as I walked with my gigantic heap of mail in my arms people were drooling with jealousy. I think I had more mail than my zone and the other zone that was there combined. So thanks everyone who has sent me stuff it was great. This was an interesting week as far as visits go. On Sunday an awesome guy named Hélio was here, he's from Brazil and lived here for a few years and everyone loves him. Yesterday he drove us out to a little city called Aljastrélo that is about 40 minutes away but it's still in our area. We have a few members there and lots of inactive members. One of which was a good friend of Hélios so we went by her house and she was very bitter about the church here, (people get offended very easily here. If you look at someone wrong they'll leave the church.) So she was nice to her friend but not to us. She said if he wasn't there she wouldn't have had us over. The whole time we were there she was ragging on our branch and the leaders in our branch. I was sick of hearing this, just because she was offended by a leader of our branch that doesn't mean that the missionaries are bad too. I told her it doesn't matter who the branch president is Christ is the leader of this church and this thing that happened shouldn't keep her from coming to church because the sacrament is more important. (No she didn't break down crying and say she'll come back every week) but she did say I realize I'm the one losing. She said I know it's not enough to just read the scriptures here at home and try and light up my family with a candle. I hope she eventually comes back because she knows the church is true, it just breaks my heart to see these people losing out on the blessings of the church because of their pride. But when we left she did say that we would be welcome back in her house if we wanted to come back. That was just one layer of many that we need to break in order to get her back to church. Now we just need to do that with the other 300 inactive members of our branch. Well that was a long story so I'll keep the rest of this short, at the first of the week I thought the language was coming along ok but honestly right now I feel like I'm horrible. Two people this last week were trying to talk to me and when I wouldn't understand something they'd be like he doesn't understand anything! Then they'd talk to me like I was a three year old. This has been discouraging. My confidence has dropped quite a bit since last week but I'm still trying to communicate to the best of my ability. I know the Lord will help me learn. I hope all is well with you, continue to pray for the missionaries. We need all the help we can get! Love Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 1/14/09

Hello all,
This last week was good. We are working really hard with our Brazilian investigators to make sure they can get baptized on the marked date. Oh and this week we marked another for baptism in Feb. before Elder Rissi gets transferred. (At least we think he is; he's been here in Beja for decades.) Her mom is a member and her brother is too but her dad isn't so hopefully we can work on getting him baptized soon too. Even though the work is going good here in Beja it always feels like we can do more. It is hard not to compare the success of areas to areas or missions to missions because we've compared things our whole lives. That is probably what was hardest for me in the MTC was not comparing my speaking to other missionaries. But we're doing really well here. We have zone conference in a couple days and I'm excited to see my old colleagues from the MTC. I gave my first talk in sacrament meeting on Sunday about the restoration. I probably would have had to do it sooner but we had Christmas programs and other things going on. It went good though. I hope all of you are doing well and working on your New Year’s resolutions.
Love, Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 1/7/09

So this last week was great. We started off the New Year on a good foot. We have three people marked for baptism! I couldn't be more excited. So the first person we marked was Pedro, the gypsy kid. We challenged him on New Year’s Day to be baptized on the 31st of this month. It was amazing because we always just shared spiritual thoughts and scriptures with him before but this time we taught him the first lesson, the restoration. After the lesson we invited him to pray about the things we had taught him, if the Book of Mormon is true and if Joseph Smith was a prophet. The spirit was SO strong during that lesson. When Pedro prays he usually speeds through it so he can unpause his video game and continue playing. But this time was different, he asked God if the Book of Mormon was true and instead of rushing through the rest of the prayer he stopped and there was about ten seconds of silence. He then said Heavenly Father is the things the missionaries told me true; and after a second he finished his prayer. With a huge smile he said he answered me! I was so happy; this strengthened my testimony so much that WE are not the ones that convince people of the truth, the spirit is. We don't convert anyone. I get chills every time I think of that experience. I know that what we're sharing with people is the true gospel of Jesus Christ but in order for other people to know they have to ask God and he will give them knowledge of the truth as it talks about in Moroni's promise. A couple days later we had fast Sunday. And some Brazilian investigators we have bore their testimonies for the first time, and their five year old son, (instead of bearing his testimony he got up to the pulpit and said a prayer. It was so funny.) They've been investigators since before their son was even born. They also have a thirteen year old daughter that has already been baptized. Edson and Rose, the parents; just need to get married then they can be baptized, this can easily be done by the end of the month so we felt the time was right to challenge them. I am excited needless to say. I am going to be doing the confirmation for Pedro; I am very excited for this opportunity I have to give someone the Holy Ghost. The members here are so nice, I love this place. The work here in Beja has been kind of slow over the past couple years but hopefully these baptisms will get people fired up about sharing the gospel. I'm getting a haircut today, I'm excited. Ok have a nice week. Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 12/31

It was great to talk to you all on Christmas day! We had a good time visiting with members and opening a few presents. This last week was pretty crazy but it has been fun. Yesterday was transfers and the only person leaving our district will be Elder Flint. He's going to be a district leader up north so I'm stuck with Elder Rissi for at least one more transfer. Ha I'm kidding he's a great missionary. The work has picked up in the last week which makes me happy because sometimes I wish there was more members and more people to teach but we're trying to make it happen. We have two new Brazilian investigators and I think we're going to try and mark Pedro, (the gypsy kid) for baptism this week. So I'll let you know how that goes. A couple days ago we were at their house and Paula Cristina fed us a wild hogs head or something. I'm not sure what it was exactly but it was way good, the teeth on that thing were huge. I think they cooked it in the ground or in a stone oven or something. I had some neck meat and half of the nose, which was crunchy but good. I had a funny experience this last week, we were walking to visit an old member of our branch and on our way there I saw an old man sitting on a bus bench and decided to talk to him. When I started talking to him he said "Eu sou um testimunho de jahova" I thought he said I have a testimony of Jesus so I said oh! Me too! (What he really said was I'm a Jehovah witness...) and then he was like "não nós accretitamos o opposto de vocês." (No we believe the opposite of you all) and I thought he said no we believe in apostles. So I was like "oh apostles we have those too! Twelve of them." at this point in time Elder Rissi was laughing uncontrollably and sat down next to him on the other side of the bench and saved me from further humiliation. I love this language but sometimes it doesn't love me. I hope one day I will be able to have a conversation with someone without telling them I'm a Jehovah witness. I love it here in Portugal and thank you all for your prayers and support. I hope you all had a good Christmas and hope you have a happy new years eve tonight.Love Elder Lindquist