Elder Lindberg - 75 Baker St Apt #2 Johnson City, NY 13790

Well I don't have a ton of time this week, as I'm currently in the hospital. But I'll try to keep this interesting.      First of all, concerning the hospital visit. Not nearly as exciting as one would hope. I texted Sister Rogers to ask what allergy medicine she recommended, because my allergies have been crazy now that spring is here. New York has about a billion more trees than Utah, so allergies are a billion times worse. All I was expecting from Sister Rogers was a text that said, idk, "Claritin is best" or something. But instead, I was called by two doctors and so today we've driving an hour and a half to Oneonta to see Dr. Jones, the mission doctor. So, sadly, there's no exciting story involving a stab wound or anything, not yet at least.      The rest of the week, with the exception of Sunday, was kinda bleh. It's been slow, and we got dropped by the two investigators we were so excited about a few weeks ago... So that's just dandy. ...

  Alright to start, before too many of you guys get to thinking I'm being far to harsh and rude to Elder Chan, just know that I literally do EVERYTHING I CAN to be nice and helpful, and I really am going out of my way to be helpful, and teach, and serve. It's just that after so long, and seeing minimal results, it begins to test one's patience. And as crazy as it may sound, I am not exaggerating or making stuff up, I'm simply telling it how it is. And I guess the only people that will understand my current situation, are the people who have served as a missionary with someone who does not share the language or the desire to work... Despite those differences, I am trying, and it's clear I ain't doing it perfectly, but that's bc I AM A HUMAN.       Anyways, this week was longggg. We had our interviews last Monday, and I learned that I will be leaving JC at the end of this transfer. I'll have been here for 6 months. And within the next transfer, I will be...

 Alright here's the low down. My patience has been stretched thinner than the worn out lycra bibs I wore in my last Lotoja... Some days are just fine, but then there's the other days. These "other days" are becoming more and more regular, and I don't quite understand why. I'm constantly being asked questions that can very easily be answered by some quick detective work. When you've got a watch and a smartphone, you should be able to reasonably determine what time it is, at least that's my opinion... And every morning, when he wakes up, he walks to the front window, opens it, looks out, then asks me what the weather is... It's a struggle. But it's goin.       I guess I should provide you guys with a little detail on the language barrier, and language status. Elder Chan does not need help with English vocabulary. When I first found out I would be training him and teaching English, I was worried that was the case. Luckily, it is not. The problem...

 Alright, last night I had a realization. I am a parrot. There has not been a time where I'll explain something, without having to repeat myself. It's quite the experience. The good news is, we saw some success that week, and that lifts one's spirit immensely. We had a service opportunity finally pop up. A lady called us and asked if we'd be able to come help at a community meal thing on Saturday. We were pumped for that, so Saturday morning we walked to this Church, and put on our hairnets and gloves, and started taking orders. Before it started, I explained to Elder Chan what we were going to do. There were 2 options to choose from, we just had to ask the people which one they wanted, then go get it from the kitchen. These choices were soup, or ziti. After reviewing this process 4 times, I just told Elder Chan to follow me and see what I do, then try it at another table. He eventually caught on. We successfully took orders for about 67 people, and got them fed and hap...

     First of all, my parents are currently in New York City. This is the first and probably last time we will be in the same state until July of next year. They're 180 miles away, I've biked further than that in less than a day. So that's interesting.      Second, this week was the big week. The one we've been waiting for since November. We finally got smartphones. And wow, after all the hype, all the District Meetings, all the waiting, the Zone Conferences, we got them set up. And if we're honest, they aren't as much "smartphones" as they are glow in the dark scriptures. Yes they do a lot of awesome things, and help with Facebook to contact people, the "Phone Tiwi" makes it so we can't even get LDS.org to load. They area book planner app is actually way cool, but we've it ourselves quite a project to get all of our paper records inputted into the system. So that will be a process. And with Elder Chan's smartphone abilities now...

    Alright bros, it's been rough. There ain't no way around it. I'm not saying I had much experience  living away from home when I got out here. But like, I knew how to do things like shop, unlock doors, make a bed, light a stove, scrape car windows, use a doorbell, etc. Just basic everyday things, so I thought. But as I now have the opportunity to see, there are in fact many people people who do not have the luxury of having experienced these things. So now, as a trainer, am I having to focus the majority of my time, energy, and patience, teaching these things  before  I can get a chance to have a good "12 Week" discussion or practice lesson. Don't get me wrong, Elder Chan is very sincere and nice, but the poor kid is 5'9" 108 lbs of curious, lost, confused, and silent missionary. This is a rather stark contrast to my 6'2" 200 lbs of nonstop talking and just doing things. So this whole training thing has been a struggle. I'm learning a ...