September 2013

Gospel Gazette
Salt Lake City Mission,
P.O. Box 142, Salt Lake City, UT 84110 -
God Will Finish What He Started!
I was born in
Los Angeles in 1962
as the oldest of four
(4) kids. Mom was
taken out of school
very early. She was
the oldest of ten (10)
kids, so her mom and
dad needed her to raise
her brothers and sisters
while they worked.
She had her childhood
taken away from her
and raising nine (9)
brothers and sisters could not have been easy. I feel by the time
me and my brother and sisters came along, my mom was
already tired. Mom was always nervous and easily agitated.
Dad and mom were both alcoholics and drug users. Alcohol
and drugs were an everyday part of my life and they never tried
to hide that they were users. I remember as early as eight (8)
years old that dad would give me beer on fishing trips. I had
watched my parents give my little brother alcohol in his bottle
to get him to go to sleep. So, I can only imagine they had given
me some bottles with beer to get to sleep.
Mom and dad were also swingers or “wife swappers,”
which meant there wasn’t a lot of love or trust in my family.
Dad would come home drunk, accuse my mom of things, and
smack her around. If we cried too loud over their fights and
mom getting smacked, we would get hit, too. I usually caught
the biggest brunt of the abuse. I’m guessing it’s because I was
the oldest boy. Mom would use two or three coat hangers on
my bare butt and sometimes not stop until I was bleeding. Mom
had no control over the ways she would punish me. She broke
my leg and arm in one of her rages of punishing me. Mom
would use anything she could pick up to whip me then send me
to my room with the final threat of “Wait ‘til your dad gets
home!” I would wait sometimes for hours and hope my dad
wasn’t drunk when he got home or the punishment would be
worse. Dad would use a belt to hit me and kick me. Then, he
would compare me to dog poop and say that the poop was better
because he could “clean up the poop and be done with it.”
Some of my other punishments were being grounded to my
room for a month at a time, I couldn’t play with toys, I couldn’t
come out of my room except to eat, do chores, use the
bathroom, and go to school.
Phone 801-355-6310
September 2013
I grew up pretty much a loner. My best times were by
myself. I had a very low self-esteem, have been nervous, sickly,
and shy. My parents never came to any school plays, sporting
events, boy scout events, or church plays. I never played catch
with my dad or had help with any of my homework. Even today,
the only time I felt accepted was fishing with my dad and getting
drunk with him. So, an alcoholic was born. I drank all of my life
and started smoking pot at age 16. I tried most other drugs but pot
and alcohol were my drugs of choice.
I met my wife when I was 18. I was still very shy and did
not think about women much. Due to my shyness, I liked girls a
lot but found it was easier to leave them alone so I would not have
to face rejection. My wife had come onto me. That’s really the
only reason we got together. She was easy. That’s how I feel I got
her. She had gotten pregnant and we were soon married. We were
blessed with a daughter in 1981 and a son in 1982. I never let my
mom meet my wife or talk to my kids. After 17 years of marriage,
my mom still had never met any of them. I found out later that my
wife had cheated on me our entire marriage of 17 years, but I
couldn’t prove it until the last six (6) years we were married. We
had broken up three times and my wife always had someone
waiting for her before we broke up. Really, that’s how she got me.
In one of her breakups with a friend of mine he had brought me to
her house to meet her. He was glad to see her go.
So, I’m still a loner. I spend all of my time alone and I like
it that way. After my divorce, I spent all of my time in bars and
went kind of crazy. I got six (6) DUI’s in five (5) years and moved
and moved away from Oklahoma to avoid prosecution from the
law. I later moved to Salt Lake and wanted to find Jesus. I got a
job right away, made good money, and forgot about finding Jesus.
I let the flesh get in the way instead of the Spirit. I later lost my
job and became homeless. I spent some time at a homeless shelter
during the winter months when the Salt Lake City Mission
accepted me into their program. I’m still trying to give my life to
God. I have an anger problem and don’t get along with people I
see as selfish and self-centered. I still like being alone with my
Bible. I’m trusting and waiting on God to help me love myself and
my brothers. I have faith this will someday come. For the Lord
has started something in my life. The Bible says what He starts,
He will finish. Praise God! He will finish it in me! So now, I just
trust and wait on the Lord. — Ernie Lindt
Philanthropic Bites
Estate Planning:
While planning the distribution of your estate,
many complicated questions arise. Our desire is to take
this complex process and simplify it for you. To
discover resourceful ways you can be a good steward,
visit us at www.saltlakecitymission.org/pcx.html and
click on the link to read our pages on What Do Other
People Do?
How we steward the assets God has entrusted
to us matters a great deal to Him who owns it all. To
discover creative ways you can be a good steward, visit:
www.saltlakecitymission.org/pcx.html and click on
"Secrets of Giving Wisely" section.
Did you know that by establishing a gift
arrangement now you can obtain current tax benefits,
create a stream of lifetime income and provide a future
gift to Salt Lake City Mission? To learn more about
life income gifts, please visit the
“www.saltlakecitymission.org/pcx.html” pages of our
website and click on “Secrets of Giving Wisely.”
Did you know that with a retained life estate
you can donate your residence, vacation home, or farm
to Salt Lake City Mission and retain full lifetime use of
the property? Not only are you establishing a future gift
for Salt Lake City Mission, you will receive an
immediate income tax deduction for a portion of the fair
market value of your property.
The Prayer of Faith
James 5:13-20 NKJV
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.
Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.
14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the
elders of the church, and let them pray over him,
anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and
the Lord will raise him up. And if he has
committed sins, he will be forgiven.
To learn more, visit the
“www.saltlakecitymission.org/pcx.html” pages of our
website and click on “Secrets of Giving Wisely.”
16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and
pray for one another, that you may be healed. The
You can maximize the positive effect of the
effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails
dollars left in your tax deferred retirement accounts by much.
specifying Salt Lake City Mission as a contingent
beneficiary (after your spouse). Simply obtain a “change
of beneficiary designation” form from your account
administrator, and list Salt Lake City Mission on the
form as the sole contingent beneficiary, or as one of
several charities you care about, in whatever percentage
you desire. To learn more, visit the
“www.saltlakecitymission.org/pcx.html” pages of our
website and click on “Secrets of Giving Wisely.”
Avoid capital gains tax on your property steward all or a portion of it to Salt Lake City Mission
either as an outright gift or in exchange for a lifetime of
income. To learn more, visit the
“www.saltlakecitymission.org/pcx.html” pages of our
website and click on “Secrets of Giving Wisely.”
17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and
he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it
did not rain on the land for three years and six
months.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain,
and the earth produced its fruit.
19 Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from
the truth, and someone turns him back,
20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from
the error of his way will save a soul from death and
cover a multitude of sins.