A Whole New World

Linnea at a mission training meeting in March 2012

Linnea's letter on Monday, March 26th informed us that she had been transferred to a new area.  After spending 6 months in the same place she knew that a change was inevitable.  Here are some of her comments....

I have been transferred. And let me tell you...it really is a whole new world. A whole new life for me. I got the call Tuesday morning that I was being transferred(which was inevitable) and I spent that day with Sister Solomon saying goodbye to my North Star family. It was really hard. I have met a lot of great people in Rose Park and in the North Star Ward and it was surreal saying goodbye to them. I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to be there though and know I will be making many visits there when I return. One really great moment I won't forget was talking on the phone with my recent convert, Antonio. We tried stopping by his house Monday but he wasnt home so we sent him a text and he called us back after we had already got home. Hna Magdaleno told him that I was probably getting transferred on Wednesday and had wanted to stop by to say goodbye. I knew that Tuesday was his birthday so he probably wasn't going to be there which is why we tried Monday. He asked to talk to me and he said he just wanted to thank me for changing his life. He said I had helped him change his life in a way he never imagined. He asked me if I remembered a prayer I had said at his house one night(I didnt really remember but Hna Magdaleno helped me remember). He said that he thinks about that prayer every morning when he wakes up and every day after work and he said he knows that because of that prayer his days go well. He said it was a testimony builder for him. I just wanted to cry. It was so great. One of the best and most rewarding experiences of my life. Antonio was a miracle in our area and I know the Lord put him in our path so that we could get to know him and help him but more so that he could help us. He's great and I know he'll continue to be a strong member of the church.

A little information about her new area...

Transfers were crazy because all the sisters(Spanish) had been in their areas for awhile and one sister went home early so we knew that one sister would be alone with a visa waiter or something crazy like that. I thought I was going to the East Zone so when the ZL's held up their signs of who was in their zone I was standing by the East and to my surprise...I wasnt there. Sister Magdaleno ran over to me and said..."I KNEW IT! You're the one white washing with the visa waiter!" Sister Magdaleno had been telling me that I was going to be the next trainer and I kept telling her no, but what do you know....she was right.

        So I got white washed into the Salt Lake Zone with a new visa waiter named Sister Lomiga. She had been out 1 week but was with the Burmese refugee program before so this past week was her first week in Spanish. She is 26 years old from  Torrance California and is going to the Argentina Buenos Aires Sur mission. She is Samoan and graduated from BYU-I with an English degree. She is cool and we get along well. We think its funny that we are together...the 2 polys speaking Spanish. I really miss my last companions but know that we are going to do big things in this area. So as far as the area is concerned....ITS HUGE! We cover the area of about 20 stakes. Woof. So, obviously we have a car. We live super close to the Temple (about 1.5 miles away) in the basement apartment of a members home. Its weird because in this apartment everything is separate. They can't walk down the stairs and come into the basement like my last place..they have to leave their house and come down to our separate entrance so we hardly ever see them. The place is way bigger than my last apartment and there are only 2 of us so its quite roomy.

         Back to the area. We cover about 20 stakes and we are in the Sugarhouse and Granite areas. We cover two Spanish branches. Lucero and Forest Dale 2do. Both in the SL Granite Stake but each of their branch boundaries cover the area of about 10 neighboring stakes. The area is like the complete opposite of Rose Park. Hispanics are few and far between. And the ones there are are already members. I'm excited though because this area in the past hasn't baptized much but I'm ready to change that around. The members here are GREAT! Sooooo willing to help.

Linnea is excited about being in Salt Lake for General Conference and will be at the Conference Center and able to attend if she and her companion are able to get tickets.  

She always expresses her appreciation for the letters and cards she receives from her friends and family at home.  Keep on writing...even though her area has changed her mail continues to go to the same place.

Celebration!

Birthday Celebration

This family had a little party for Linnea for her birthday!

A farewell lunch for the visa waiters (the two sisters standing) who wanted to eat at their favorite place (Taco Bell) before leaving the next morning for Spain.  On the table by Linnea is the giant cookie Shane and Juli and family sent to her for her birthday...she shared it with her zone.

Linnea celebrated her birthday last week.  Here is what she had to say about the first birthday she has celebrated away from home:

First off, thanks for the plethora of birthday cards and surprises. It was fabulous! On Monday the mission office called saying there was a GIANT cookie that I needed to pick up but I told them my ZLs would come on Tuesday when they went to get the visa-waiters mail. Juli and Shane sent me this huge cookie from some place in SL. It worked out perfect because on Tuesday our entire district went to Taco Bell(Hna Marshalls fave place) to eat lunch to say bye to the visa waiters who were leaving on Wed morning so I got to share the cookie with all of them.

     On Monday, Hermana(mom of my recent converts Emmanuel y Omar) called and asked if we could stop by around 4ish so they could say happy birthday. I was like ya we can stop by for a little bit but the visa-waiters have to pack and blah blah blah so it might be closer to 5 but little did I know that everyone was in on it. We went to Hna Vicencio's house and all her kids jumped out and screamed HAPPY BIRTHDAY and attacked me with silly string. They gave me some balloons and were playing some festive mexican happy birthday music. YES! Little did I know that they had planned an entire surprise party for my birthday! Hna  made suuuuuper good tacos de carne. She had a gelatin cake(not a mexican bday without one) and cookies and agua de jamaica. She makes the BEST agua de jamaica from the actual plant. Then there is a knock at the door and another Family (the RS president[who i LOVE] and her husband and daughters) came with a HUGE princess pinata. It was soo fun. We all ate tacos, the kids danced it up and had a great time. Julia and her sister Rosario came over too right as she got off of work(her and Hna Vicencio live in the same town home complex). We broke the pinata and had cake. All my favorite people were there and it was literally so great! Best birthday I've had yet. hands down.

I read this week on a missionary mom site that the Salt Lake City mission was being split and they 

were making two more missions.  Linnea discovered this same news this week.

 On Saturday we got this text from the ap's suuuper early telling us we had to meet at the mission office at 8:30PM that night(everyone in the valley) and at 9:30PM Tooele and Wyoming would have a conference call. We knew something big was happening. Some of the elders told us ahead of time and when we got to the meeting President Winn confirmed. They would be making 2 new SLC missions. SLC central and SLC west. SLC west will be taken out of our mission and will only comprise 16 stakes with 8 missionaries in each. SLC central comes out of the south mission I believe and our mission will be taking in some of the Ogden mission. So much work to be done here in SLC! The only thing is is that since the west mission is coming out of our mission I may get put into that new mission. If on the June 13 transfer I get moved to the west zone I will be in the SLC west mission. Everyone wants to stay in this mission but wherever the Lord sends me is where I'll be going. The only thing  Id be bummed about is that Pres and Sis Winn wouldnt be my mission presidents. But no need to worry about that yet because there are still 3 transfers until then. There is more info on the changes but I dont have time to write it. Its in the Church News though I think. Its crazy to think that they are going to create an entire mission out of 16 stakes. They are really trying to get the missionaries more involved with members which is really hard right now because some missionaries cover the area of like 15 stakes. Its hard to get personal when there is so much area to cover with so many members living in thos boundaries. 

SNOW

This week we were at a lesson at night and we were leaving and as we come out the door we see someone at our car and then they just run away. We just happened to be teaching on the same street where the English elders live. They saw our car and decided to write MORMON huge on it since it dumped down snow that entire evening. Oh, I forgot to say we had the first "storm" of winter. It snowed pretty heavily for like 4 hours. Just happened to be that night. Anyway, we leave the lesson and see the huge MORMON tag in the snow on our car and then all of a sudden we start getting attacked by snow balls. So, Sister Magdaleno and I start making snow balls and fighting back. It was super fun. The culprits were Elder Green(my first AP) and his trainee Elder Christian. there was no lack of snow so the fight lasted a little while. Who said missionaries couldnt have fun?!