"So Like Elder Lindsay... Hot" -Elder Sterling

Good afternoon everyone, 

I decided not to put it in the subject because I wanted it to be a bigger surprise once you opened this email up, but I got an exciting phone call on Friday... my visa came in!!! No jokes!

The first thing I have to say is a BIG thank you for all the prayers you offered on my behalf! The fact that my visa came in less than three weeks is nothing short of a miracle, a miracle that I'm sure would not have been possible without all of you. Even before COVID, I have never heard of a Brazillian visa being processed in any amount of time less than a month. Again, thank you all so much!

This past week consisted of a lot of preparation for me leaving the area and Elder Romero leaving the country. We did our best to get everything wrapped up on the mobile side of things and to get our physical side (packing, cleaning, etc.) figured out as well.

On Tuesday, our big project consisted of going down to Orem to record audio for a music video that will soon be coming out on the Portuguese Facebook page: O Caminho da Esperança é Paz. We met up with the Portuguese-speaking sisters down there and spent a few hours recording and re-recording.

Wednesday was my last full day with Elder Romero as a companion. It was also my first "Mission Tour" of the mission. It is very similar to a Zone Conference, but lead by leaders from the church. Elders Kevin Pearson and Sean Douglas of the Seventy came to the mission to give us some training and instruction. If the name Sean Douglas sounds familiar, it's because he just barely spoke in the October General Conference! There was an incredible spirit present in that meeting and I was able to learn so much! 

That evening, after finishing up our packing and eating dinner with Elder Romero's new mission president's sister and brother-in-law, we met with a Brazilian woman named Camila and her family. They are Catholic and we were able to have such an incredible conversation with them that it lasted for over two hours! The spirit there was perhaps the strongest I have ever felt since being in the mission, and it was evident that they could feel it too. They told us they would pray to know if the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon without us even invited them to! It's a shame we can't meet with them anymore, but I know the Sisters that will replace us will be amazing and help them feel that same spirit again!

Thursday I was became the only missionary to attend two "Mission Tours" as it was the only way we could drop off Elder Romero at the Mission Office and get together with Elder Sterling, my new companion. It was honestly incredible how I was able to get things out of that second time around that I didn't the first time even though it was over the same topics! It was a learning experience to me that personal revelation does not travel horizontally from speaker to listener, but vertically from our Father in Heaven to us. 

Elder Sterling is great and we have been able to see some great things happen in the Orem Cascade and Orchard Stake Area! This past Sunday, I was able to meet the family of Elder Brigham Eggett, one of the missionaries that was in my district during MTC. I had no idea they lived in the stake I am now covering and we just happening to go to their ward when Elder Eggett's sister gave her homecoming talk. I was able to go up and introduce myself, and we're now coordinating a time for Elder Sterling and I to go over for dinner!

Yesterday we were also able to teach a 5th grader named Cooper. His dad is uninterested in being religious but feels it would be good for his son if he chooses to be so. Cooper has been going to church with a friend of his, Aden, and his family. We were able to teach him about the Restoration of Christ's church in this family's home and get to know him, and honestly, he's an awesome kid. We are so looking forward to getting to know more about him and help him become closer to his Father in Heaven!

If I can just ask one more favor of you all, it would be to please pray for my travel plans to come in as soon as possible. Regardless of having a visa or not, I do not get down to Brazil without them. I hope this experience with my visa has been a strength to all of your testimonies of the power of prayer. I know it has been for me. How incredible is it that God is always there to hear and communicate with us, and how incredible it is the power that prayer can have to bring people together in a single focus. 

"And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you."

3 Nephi 18:20

Thank you all again so much! It's been amazing to hear from all of you and I hope to continue getting your messages to see how you are doing. Please know that I love you, appreciate you, and pray for you!

Happy Thanksgiving, 
Elder Lindsay





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