New Photos Have Arrived!

Linnea sent some new photos!

Christmas at Temple Square.  Linnea is taking the photo
of her two companions.

With one of the many children she has grown very fond of.

Linnea and her companion bought some white underwear for a woman who was going to be baptized.  When the sister opened the package she was surprised that the undies were soooo big.  Linnea and her companion were also surprised.
They are not too aware of underwear sizes.

Linnea is developing quite a taste for Mexican, Salvadorian, Cuban and other Hispanic foods.  Here are some of her condiments of choice.

Linnea's companion is Samoan and a visa waiter...headed to Argentina.

 A little bit from April 30th email...

This week was pretty crazy actually. We met with our investigator Nivin from Iraq this week. Her story is gnarly and so cool(unfortunately I can't share too much about it, but trust me she's awesome) We had a lesson with her and she told us she loves LDS people. She loves the church and every time the other sisters(where she used to live) visited her she felt so good. She asked us if we were going to pray with her because she loved how she felt with the other sisters when she prayed. She told us she wanted to be baptized but had to move all of the sudden so didn't get the chance to. We asked her to pray about what date the Lord had prepared for her to be baptized and she said the most simple humble prayer. Then she looked down at the calendar and said...May 26! So she will be baptized May 26 and we are stoked about it. We met with her again last week to teach her a real lesson(the first time was more of a get to know her lesson) and there was a lot of google translate going on. She speaks English pretty well, but the doctrinal words she's never heard in English before. So for words like prophet, apostasy, etc. we would type the word into the computer and it would translate it into Arabic. We also gave her an Arabic Book of Mormon and she was in heaven. She's so cute.

Linnea sings in church...

      Also, this Sunday Sister Lomiga and I sang in the Forestdale branch.  We don't sing terribly together but who would have ever thought I would be singing in a Sacrament meeting. Everyone told us we sounded great but I'm sure they were just flattering us

One of these sisters' mom sent these hats for them to give to some of the children in their area.
They decided to model them first.  

Some excerpts from her May 7th email:

 Probably the most interesting news would be to know about transfers right? Well, lets start with Monday. Monday night I got a phone call from President Winn saying that I would be training one of the 28! Yes, 28 new missionaries coming in on Thursday. How appropriate...this week I hit 9 months, I get a daughter(the mission lingo for training a new missionary). I was pretty excited yet nervous all at the same time. Big responsibility and I still feel like a little baby missionary...not yet capable of doing big girl missionary things but we shall see. Since I got a call about training I figured I was staying in my area and Tuesday we got a phone call confirming that news BUT to our surprise Sister Lomiga found out she was getting transferred. We thought she would for sure be staying until she left for Argentina but not the case. Tuesday our whole zone got together for a fabulous lunch at Chuck-a-rama to discuss transfer info and who was training etc.

Her new companion...

My new companion/daughter is Hna Guerra. She is from Georgia and is a boss. She's a way good missionary already. WAY better than I was when I started.  She's super cool and has a belly laugh like Tess. Love it! Her mom is from Honduras and her dad from El Salvador. She lived in El Salvador for 2 years and Honduras for 6.

A cool experience...

We went looking for an investigator the last sisters were teaching who we can never find at home. We went to try and find them and again they weren't home, but Hna Lomiga saw a guy laying on the grass in this alley behind the house. We decided to see if he needed any help. As we got closer we noticed he was shaking and we started thinking we were getting in a little over our heads...like it was more serious than we thought. We get closer and realize its a hispanic man so we ask if he needs help and he tells us yes. He was riding his bike and didn't notice the gravel and fell off. He was shaking pretty bad and he told us he also had Parkinsons disease. We helped him up and walked with him to his house. We shared a little about the gospel and he asked us when we could come back and tell him more. We have an appt tonight and we are pretty excited. We were so grateful we saw him because if we hadn't he would have been there forever. I know we were there for a reason. 

We were able to visit with Nivin, the Iraqi woman we have on date. She is so special. The spirit felt when you are with her is outstanding. Its crazy. When she prays its incredible. Its so simple because her English is pretty broken but its so powerful. I love her and her excitement about the gospel. Even though like every other word we have to put into google translate the message still gets across.

All Girls Sports Day and a trip to Burma

All the sisters in the mission got together for a Sports P-day.  They played volleyball.

Here they all are!

Linnea's letter this week mentioned a free trip to Burma.  That got my attention.  Here is how she explained it...

 

So this week we have been trying to find the hispanics in the area...we knocked on plenty of doors but found not a single hispanic who wasn't already a member. We did however take a free trip to Burma. You may or may not know that Salt Lake is FULL of refugees. In Rose Park the refugees were all from Sudan. Here all the refugees are from Burma and a few from Nepal. Super nice people. We knocked this indoor apartment complex(like where the doors are inside a hallway) which was 75% Burmese. When you walk into these apartments you get an overwhelming smell of, as my companion describes it, crab legs, jasmine rice and fish sauce. No joke, that is the perfect description. When you walk in it hits you HARD...sometimes it takes your breath away. Because of these 2 days in these apartments we like to say we took a quick little trip to Burma. That being said, let me talk about the 3 baptisms.

    Baptism #1: We went to the baptism of a little boy in the Lucero branch named Matthew. His parents are active members and wanted us to come over a couple times before his baptism so we could talk to him about what baptism is and what not. Super smart cute little boy. Baptism went off without a hitch. Lots of member from the branch there, it was great.

    Baptism #2: This was the baptism of Kaylene. She was the sister referral we received the first day we got into the area and she invited herself to be baptized and put herself on date. She has been coming to church for like 2 years but seriously investigating the church for a couple months. Her mom is inactive and her dad Jehovah's Witness. She attends the U and is so great. Her baptism was PACKED. Over 50 people were there and her RM friend baptized her. It was cute, her dad even bought her a brand new triple(even though she thought he was against the baptism). Another great baptism.

    Baptism #3: This was a baptism of the English elders in our district. His name was Andrew. He came to SL quite some time ago and got into hardcore partying...like super hardcore. He was living with his inactive girlfriend who was also partying hard with him. The elders received the girlfriends name to go visit and thats how they found him. After teaching him a few times Andrew decided to flush all his vices down the toilet...literally. He and his girlfriend got married and he was baptized in the evening on  Saturday with many friends and ward members in attendance. He was so emotional and so happy to be baptized to know that all his sins were washed away. In the middle of a talk he just got up and gave the speaker a hug. He also bore his testimony and it was one of the greatest and most powerful testimonies I've heard. It was so great.

     The reason I mentioned these 3 baptisms was because as I had a chance to be at all 3 baptisms in one single day it really made me look at the different circumstances of these people and how one single thing united them...the gospel of Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter where we are or where weve been, this gospel is for everyone. It was a motivator for me and its great that we have the chance to share it with others whether we be full time missionaries or not.

General Conference April 2012

Linnea is standing next to her companion and the new visa waiter is on the left.

Not sure how I feel about Linnea's earmuffs/hat.

Let's just start off by saying that conference was great. We were down there all  day both Saturday and Sunday...well until the sessions ended. Since we live super close to the temple we were able to drive ourselves down there. We only were able to get two tickets for all 5 sessions and we were giving them to this investigator William. So we were bummed we weren't going to be able to get inside but as we were walking to conference on Saturday morning we met a Samoan couple who asked us if we had tickets...we said we did for the Saturday pm session but we were giving them to an investigator and he pulled out some plaza tickets and gave them to us. So basically for the Saturday morning session we sat right in front of the pulpit..it was legit. Conference was so great! So many good talks and so many of our investigators were able to watch and said they loved it! Success. When we didn't have tickets we watched in the North Visitors Center or the Tabernacle. It's a different experience than watching at home...its really cool and you can pay so much more attention.

 Oh, I did see Brandon when we went to take some investigators to Temple Square. That was crazy. Glad you were able to see the picture. And I also saw Phyllis and all the Livingstons...minus Alan and Carter. It was crazy. We were in the food court of the new mall after the Saturday sessions with Hermana Lomigas cousin and I saw them walking across the way. It was great to see some familiar faces!

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?!

Happy 23rd Birthday, Linnea!

Happy Birthday, Linnea!

Today our little missionary celebrated her 23rd birthday.  She is so lucky because her birthday fell on her P-day.  P-day is short for preparation day and on that day the missionaries get to shop, do errands, clean their living space, do their laundry, check their mail and email home.

Here is what Linnea had to share about her special day...

 First off....thanks for all the birthday wishes and emails. Its been a great day so far! The Perez family (recent converts) sent me a text super early this morning and Julia sent one this morning,too. Then, later Rigo and Laura Perez (the oldest kids of the Perez family) sent me a text from their phone while they were at school. The mission office staff called and sang me happy birthday (adorable!) I got the birthday package and everything was great...right sizes and everything. Thanks! Last night we ate with the Cabrera family in our ward. Hno Cabrera was the ward mission leader right before we got into the area and was just put into the new bishopric. They did carne asada and a birthday cake! And then the kids pushed my face into the cake..it was great hahahaha. And tomorrow we are eating with Julia and she is making papusas...its just a week full of celebrations! I'm a lucky gal.


Linnea continues to be busy teaching people about the church.  She had this to share...


This weekend we had a baptism of this young guy named Antonio. He is from Vera Cruz,MX. He is the defintion of a prepared person. We found him while he was washing his car while looking for someone else. We asked if we could come back and visit later and he said sure. we asked him in that lesson who Jesus Christ is for him and he said "el amor de mi vida" Precious! Every lesson he just loved and everytime he would pray he would say he was grateful for all we were doing for him. He overcame some obstacles and was just soooo ready to be baptized. during the talk at his baptism he just started crying and then all 4 of us sang lord,I would follow thee in spanish and he was just smiling. It was so cool. After his baptism we went out to eat(us 4 sisters and him) and he said a prayer to bless the food and just said he felt soooo great but couldnt explain it. Im so glad I had the opportunity to meet and teach him. 


And about being a missionary in Salt Lake City:


Funny story...only here in Utah will sister missionaries get pulled over by a police man so he could get our number to give to the kid sitting in the back seat. HAHA.


Linnea continues to work hard and has lots of experiences that she will remember forever.  She loves hearing from you.  Her address is listed on the blog.  Please write to her.

New Year's Eve in the SLC Mission

Linnea had been telling me about their New Year's Eve celebration.  She said that Sister Winn had taken lots of photos and would be posting them on her blog.  I have been looking at her blog...http://www.mamawinnsplace.blogspot.com/... everyday and finally found that the pictures were posted.  I had to scroll through 711 photos but was able to find a few pictures with Linnea.  I have posted some of them below.

Here are some highlights from Linnea's last letter:

Today, President and Sister Winn took the ENTIRE north zone out to lunch to Tucanos(super good Brazilian Grill place) because we hit the Standard of Excellence as a Zone. That is a REALLY big accomplishment. We have been the only zone to do so this year and it hasn't happened in a while! The standard of excellence is when one companionship has ONE baptism/confirmation, THREE people on date to be baptized, FIVE investigators to church, EIGHT lessons with a member present, and THREE new investigators in a week. In our zone there are 13 companionships so mulitply all those numbers by 13 and thats how many we would need to get to meet the S.O.E. as a zone...but we surpassed it which is why Pres Winn took us out to lunch. We are so spoiled. We ALMOST got it again this week but we needed THREE more people to church...soooo close!

 We had another miracle this week..... So we have this man that Sister Picuasi and I met in November. He flagged us down and was telling us he was baptized and just moved and didnt know where the church was and was just so happy to see missionaries. Then he said "Wait a second...let me show you something!" So he goes up to his apartment and brings down this HUGE poster of the temple, but on the bottom it said "Here is the place where there are special blessings waiting for Javier" He works at a company that makes billboards and posters and this picture of the temple got printed backwards so they were going to throw it away but he asked to take it and he added the words himself. Anyway, Sister Picuasi thought to check his baptism record because he said that after he was baptized he had to go to Mexico and just barely got back. Turns out his record was lost and he needs to be baptized again. We told him and he was happy to have a fresh start and get closer to God, but family issues took him back to Mexico sudenly and we didnt see him again for awhile. I just kept getting this feeling that we should keep stopping by so whenever we were in this complex we would just knock but never got an answer...until last night! He answered the door and was so exicted to see us. He said he just got back and is ready to take the steps to become closer to God and do the things God wants him to do. Since he lives alone the other Sisters rushed over so we could go inside. He just told us that now is his time, he isnt working as much and has weekends off and he is ready to take the step of baptism. We heart committed him and he is on date for this weekend! This just shows that hard work pays off. I also realized the importance of following the Spirit. I just had this strong feeling to keep going back and it paid off. Javier is great! Cant wait for his baptism!

A comment about the time flying by:

Things are going well here in Rose Park especially since the weather has been pretty great! It hasn't snowed. Its been a little cold but not unbearable. The people here in Rose Park have taken advantage of the weather and there is not a day that goes by that I can't smell carne asada haha soo good. This may be my last full week in Rose Park...transfers are next Wed. I cant believe I've almost finshed my 3rd transfer. Time is flying by. 

 Anyway, love you all. Cuidense mucho!

 

The SLC mission sign...all the missionaries signed it and hang it up when they all meet together.

Linnea on transfer day, December 28th.  A smile because she got to stay in Rose Park for 6 more weeks.

New Year's Eve missionary style.  She said it was the first time she wore jeans in 5 months.

There was a big dodgeball game.  Those single ward tournaments paid off!

No celebrations would be complete without food.

Some strategizing with the mission president's wife, Sister Winn.

Looks like they were victorious.