Week 48, June 26, 2017

Until they know how much you care. So I think this might be how my letters go from now on. I will tell you a bit about my week. Then I will try to have a topic each week which I will write about. So this week we had zone conference which was good and I will tell you more later. We also were able to meet several new people which is always fun. We also have been having lots of fun at all the activities the YSA puts on. We also went on exchanges with the Zone leaders and had a lot of fun. I got to hang out with Elder Gerber who came out with me so that was a lot of good times. Met a lot of people with him and got some new investigators. So that was great. Now the message of the week. Love. So love is a weird thing. It doesn't always make sense and is hard to define. It is something that people talk about a lot but nobody in my opinion fully grasps the concepts behind it. Especially not me. And to let you all know I am not talking about the mushy type of love, the type we see in chic flicks. That's not what I am speaking of. I am talking about the type of love Christ had. Love for our fellow man. Love that is selfless and kind to EVERYONE. Not just the ones we like. And now that I have identified what I am talking about here is my thought. "No one cares how much you know, Until they know how much you care." That is why love is so important. Recently I have been struggling. Struggling to love others, to feel as though I am loved, and just being loving in the way I act. I just was angry. For a lot of reasons. Mostly because I was frustrated with the way things have been turning out. Frustrated with the lack of visible results. Frustrated with leadership. Frustrated with my own lack of progress. But back to zone conference. In zone conference we have the opportunity to meet with President Gifford and have an interview. That was a huge part of conference for me. I have especially been struggling with leadership and feeling as though they did not care nor love me. But in that interview President told me how he felt as though I was one of his own kids. And the Spirit just hit me. Hard. I could just feel the love that the Savior had for me. The love of God. I could feel the love president had for me. And that was what I needed. I needed to know I was loved. I feel like that was what has been holding me back. I need to learn to love. I need to feel God's love. To know that He knows me. And I got that. So there. I feel like that is the most important thing we can do. Show people how much we love them. So I want you all to know how much I truly deeply love you. I have only briefly known some of you that I met on my mission. But I love you. That is for sure. And if you ever need a reminder of that. Let me know. Cause I will tell you as many times as you need me to. I LOVE YOU. You guys are all so amazing and I love each and every one of you. I hope you never forget that. And never forget that as much as I might love you, God loves you so much more. I promise you that. I love you all. Nathan Lindh

Week 47, June 19, 2017

This has been an amazing week. We have met with a lot of people and have done a lot of work. We have seen people work to change their lives so that they can come closer to Jesus Christ. I love being a missionary. But I need to talk about something that happened to me that totally rocked my world and changed the way I see things. So I need to talk about Prayer. Sometimes even as members we don't fully understand the power of prayer. Even when we have been praying for almost our entire lives we sometimes miss out or forget what a blessing prayer is. It is a miraculous gift from our Father in Heaven. It can change our lives. Just think, for those of us that are members of the LDS church our entire religion started with a prayer. It is AMAZING to feel the power that prayer has in our lives. I must confess I did not learn this by watching someone else pray. Instead I learned it in what is probably a much harder way. You see even as a missionary I have bad days. Some days are really hard and I end up feeling pretty lousy. Not to say there aren't amazing days where I feel the spirit extremely powerfully, but often there are days where things seem really hard and I kinda want to give up. And Saturday was one of those days. I just did not have a good day. Things did not go well, I felt like I was wasting my time, that nothing I did mattered, and that I might as well give up. But that is why prayer is such a wonderful thing. The Lord does not want us to ignore those feelings. He doesn't want us to pretend to be perfect and never worry. He wants us to instead take those feelings and turn them over to him. To tell him how we are feeling and let the Atonement of Jesus Christ work in our lives and erase that pain that we feel. And so that is what I did. I knelt down and I just prayed. I told God all of it. All the pain, the disappointment, the feelings of inadequacy, the feelings like I could not do this, that I didn't make a difference anyway. I told him every single thing. And guess what? Nothing "miraculous" happened. I didn't see angles, the prophet didn't appear at my doorway, and quite frankly I don't think anyone besides God even noticed let alone cared. But that's the amazing thing. I felt peace. Not that my problems disappeared. They are still there. But I just felt as though I knew that God loved me. That He was listening. And that I could do this. I could keep going and doing what I needed to do to help others come unto Christ and feel that same love. That is what is so stupendous and wonderful about the Gospel and more importantly about our God. He is not some aloof being that doesn't care what happens to us. He is our Father in Heaven. He knows us so individually and watches over us constantly. He is always there. And He so desperately wants to help us through our trials. We just don't let him when we refuse to pray. When we turn away from him. And trust me all of us need his help. There is not a single way we can get through life without God's divine assistance. We are all too weak and helpless to try and make it on our own. We NEED God. I NEED God. And He is always there for us. We just have to reach out and bring him in. I love this gospel for that reason. It brings God into my life. It allows me to feel his love for me. It allows me to make sacred promises to my Heavenly Father which have blessed my life so much! I cannot tell you how much this means to me. I usually don't express it very well. But this gospel means the world to me. It means so much to know who I am, where I came from, and where I am going. To know that once again God speaks to man through his servant the prophet. That there is a prophet on earth today whose name is Thomas S Monson. To know that this is Christ's church RESTORED to the earth. I love that. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I love my God. I love this church. But to close it all out I want each of you to know I love you. That you are a child of God with infinite worth and even more than that You are my friends and I love you. You are amazing and have always inspired me to be better. Thank you all so much. I love you. Yours truly Elder Nathan Lindh

Week 46, June 12, 2017

Howdy! So I have now been in the Belleview are for a week now and things have been totally insane! The Belleview YSA is totally different from any ward I have served in so far so the adjustment has been strange. I still miss my last area and all the amazing people and beautiful scenery. This new area is in Denver so not as many beautiful mountains all around. But I am excited to be here and to work here. My new companion is Elder Lunt, He is an elder that was in my MTC District. And already we have both been called Lindh, Lunt, Lundh, and Lint. Its like being in the MTC all over again. But He is a fun Elder and I expect to learn a lot from serving with him. The work here is different from most other wards I have been in because we have so many less actives. The Young single adults are often the age group who has the hardest time coming to church. But I enjoy being able to see these members come back to church and feel the blessings that come from coming closer to Christ. The crazy thing is that at the moment our only investigator just got baptized last Saturday so we have no investigators, and yet I have been going non stop since I got here. I have hardly had time to unpack we have been so busy. It is awesome to have so much to do. I love that. That is the best feeling as a missionary. That I have too much to do and not enough time to do it all. That means there are a lot of people who are coming unto Christ. And that is an amazing thing. I love being a missionary. This week as I have rushed around and taught so many lessons the thought that comes to mind is that the Lord's work is hastening on. That as a whole people are coming unto Christ more and more. It gives me hope in a world that seems to be full of hatred and violence. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. He is the reason that we can repent and change our ways. I love him. I love all of you and hope you are all doing well. Without you all I would not be here. Whether you were a mentor or teacher, a loved family member, a good friend, or someone I met on my mission I want you to know that without you I would not be the man I am today. The person I have become would not exist without the influence of such amazing people. Thank you so much. It means so much to me. Sincerely Elder Nathan Lindh

Address update

Nathan's new address is 8567 W Hampden Ave, #16-107 Lakewood, CO 80227

Week 45, June 5, 2017

So I have some pretty big news! As you can tell from the title I am leaving Paonia. Sadly I am going to miss all the pretty mountains and amazing people. I have loved my time here and will never forget it. I am transferring to the Belleview YSA or Young single adult ward. It is in Denver and it used to be the district leader area when I was in columbine. So I have actually been in the ward before. But it will be new and exciting to be serving there full time. I will also get a chance to say Hi to some of the members I left in columbine. So that will be nice. I am definitely going to miss Paonia though. Other news is that we will be having a baptism here in Paonia on the 17th. Unfortunately I will miss it but I wish them the best and I know that they will be extremely happy to join the church. I bear them and all of you my testimony that I Know that this is the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. It has been restored to the earth by modern prophets. And it is the way to come back to our Father in Heaven. I love this church so much. I love my savior so much. I want you to know I love all of you. You all mean so much to me. You are amazing people and I would not be the person I am today without all of you. I especially want to mention my Grandma and Grandpa Lindh. It is my grandmothers birthday on the 12th and their anniversary on the 17th. I wish I could be there in person to celebrate but cannot. But I want them to know I love them and am constantly thinking of them. They are so special to me and I would not be the man I am today without them. I love you Grandma and Grandpa! I love all of you! Sincerely Nathan Lindh

Week 44, May 30, 2017

Howdy Y'all! Today concludes the last of week five of this transfer. It was full of fun and adventure along with some sad news. So our investigator Chelsea has lost her house and is having a really hard time with things. I know she wants to come closer to Christ but is struggling because life is not exactly easy right now. We spent most of last week helping move stuff to her storage space here in paonia. Hopefully things change and start getting better for her soon. Other big news is that we have 5 new investigators! the Hendricks family! They are a part member family where the father is a member but the rest are not. The strange thing is that She has a calling in the scout program. She loves it and has good feelings towards the church so she is happy to begin learning about the gospel. They have 4 kids, 2 girls, and 2 boys. The kids are all awesome and seem interested in learning more about the gospel. I sure look forward to teaching them more about the gospel. Other than that it has been a slow and uneventful week. Although I have learned lots. A short spiritual thought for the week is that sometimes its the small things that make the most difference. Listening to someone when they have had a hard day. Telling someone you love them. These things can change someones life. And no that is not an exaggeration. Chelsea always is telling me how much it means to her to have someone who cares and is willing to help her when life gets hard. More than anything else I could do, showing her I care and that God loves her, has changed her life. Thats what I love about what I do. Anyway I am sorry this is a day late, yesterday all the libraries were closed because of memorial day so I couldn't email. I love you all! Sincerely Nathan

Week 43, May 22, 2017

Howdy yall! So this week was full of fun and adventure and learning experiences. Our two most progressing investigators are continuing to do well and progress towards baptism. Chelsea has some problems that are holding her back and causing problems in her life. She is losing her house and has nowhere to go so all prayers you can send her way would be appreciated. She loves God and the gospel and wants the blessings that come from being a member. She is so prepared but life isn't always easy. Especially when you want to make good choices. Amber is doing well although unfortunately we have not met with her recently. We should be able to sometime this week so I will let you guys know how she is doing. I had a good experience this week with some members who are preparing to leave the ward. They reminded me that my influence goes beyond just the investigators and can touch the hearts of even members. I love being a missionary for this very reason. I get to help lift others and bring them closer to their Savior Jesus Christ. I love you all so much! Love Nathan Lindh