SOMETHING BIG IS HAPPENING THIS WEEK 11/13/2017

     You read it in the subject line, this week is going to be a big week. After almost 2.5 fairly slow transfers, we have an event happening that will both raise our spirits, and bring us hope. Last night we received a call from the Zone Leaders, and they delivered some pretty big news. Long story short, we will be traveling to Potsdam at 6:15 am Wednesday,  where we will meet the Zone Leaders, and join them in attending the ribbon cutting ceremony of the Potsdam Taco Bell. District Leader and companion go on exchange with the Zone Leaders, and we have been truly blessed in the scheduling of our blitz. We will begin our day with some tacos to fuel the work. 
     I apologize if you were expecting that to be a baptism announcement, or something along those lines. We are working hard every single day to make it so we can indeed have a baptism, but it's hard. "Finding" in the North Country is rough. Over the last two days we've knocked on close to 50 doors, and only one guy has let us in. He accepted a BoM and heard the whole first lesson, and said he would read. So that was good. The only other person who talked to us answered the door in a t-shirt that said "Lancaster Bible College." His face lit up when he saw us, and said "let me grab my jacket and I'll come out and we'll talk." After he was inside, I looked at Elder Hill and said "this is either going to be awesome, or really awesome." And golly it was awesome. A good 45 minute bash session. Probably the most stubborn/ignorant person I've met thus far. I am glad our Heavenly Father loves him, because I can't say I feel the same... It truly is weird and uncomfortable to have a conversation where you KNOW the Spirit is NOT. We do a lot of "seed planting" here in the North Country, but even after teaching the Restoration, and bearing testimony to this guy, I feel like we dropped a seed on the sidewalk, rather than dirt of any kind... Many of the people here in Massena are very nice, but they are simply not interested. The whole mission has a goal of finding 5 new investigators a week. It used to be 4, which many areas struggled with reaching, so this past week it was raised to 5, because if you're shooting for the moon and miss, you still land among the stars. (given that the closest star to the moon is more than 25,000,000,000,000 miles from the moon, I question the validity of this statement.) However, setting goals makes us more effective, and we start our day with what we want to accomplish in the back of our minds. So, we are spending a great deal of time tracting, trying potentials, and praying for new investigators. It is slow going. But it is fun, tracting is seriously one of my favorite things to do. I love when you knock on a door, and someone yells "come in!" However, when that happens it rarely ends in a lesson. Usually they see the BoM around the corner, laugh and say something along the lines of "ohhhh nevermind, don't come back here. We don't need your dumb book." There was also a potential we tried at about 1:00 in the afternoon, a fairly good time to try a retired elderly man. I thought. When he answered the door, soaking wet, wearing only a button up shirt (which wasn't even buttoned), I came to a sudden realization that 1:00 was in fact, not a good time. Apparently we had interrupted his shower, and being the kind old man he was, he hopped out, threw on a shirt (nothing else) and answered the door. So, to summarize, "finding" this week has been rough.
     This Thursday we had an awesome conference in Liverpool. The whole west half of the Mission was there. I got the lucky job of being the driver. After 2 transfers where I only drove like twice, being the designated driver is a blessing. We also had a wonderful drive, because our TiWi  appeared to take the day off. We set cruise control at 76, started bumpin some MoTab, and ended up being the first car to arrive. The conference was a LONG one. Like 9-5. Sitting in the Chapel. However, it was a meeting with Elder Kim B. Clark of the Seventy. And he gave an awesome and uplifting training, focusing on working with the members, and working both smart and hard. And from what I see and hear, many companionships, including my own, decide on either smart or hard. So that was awesome. For this conference, every companionship was asked to prepare a 5 minute lesson on repentance, and to have it ready. This is always an intimidating prospect, because it means that a few missionaries will be called up, to teach a General Authority. Now, I'm one of the taller missionaries, and as you all know, my hair is very rarely  able to be fixed in a subtle manner (I blame genetics.) Those two facts mean I stick out in the crowd, it also didn't help that I was sitting in almost the last row, dead center, with nobody directly in front of me. So when Elder Clark looked out the the crowd to call on a missionary, it didn't necessarily require the Spirit for his gaze to be guided in my direction. So, Elder Hill and I went to the front, and in front of like 90 missionaries, taught President and Sister Rogers about repentance, while a General Authority stood next to me and observed. And it went awesome. So if Elder Kim B Clark speaks in the next General Conference, and mentions 2 missionaries in the NYUM teaching repentance, that's him giving a shoutout to Hill and Lindberg.
     The rest of the week has been pretty good, we had a few great lessons with our progressing investigators, and they're movin right along. We texted Aja to invite her to read and pray each night, and she's read 14 chapters this week, and has prayed each night. At first she was uncomfortable with prayer, and wouldn't do it. Now she does it all the time and says she feels peaceful and calm when she does. So that's awesome. It's cool to see investigators actually keep commitments, and progress on their own. 
     That's about it for this week. P-Hours (not P-Day, because that implies it's a full day) are always good. We got our haircut this morning, and the lady who cut mine was super nice. Asked lots of questions, and said she was proud of me for what I was doing. And then she said if we don't have a place to go on Thanksgiving or Christmas, we were required to go to her house. So that was awesome, we'll have to baptize teach her. But for today, we're headed to DD's to play Irish games and win money. Hopefully I have a good day, because I found a Patagonia coat I wanna order. 

LOVE YOU ALL. TALK TO YA NEXT WEEK. 

-- 
Elder Lindberg 

179 Main Street, Apt #5
Massena, NY 13662


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