Fall in Utah

A pretty fall day in Salt Lake City...before the snow started to fall!

Linnea has now experienced her first snowfall and discovered that what we consider warm clothing does not quite cut it in the snow while biking.  She asked me to find her some warm clothes.  She also purchased some thermal long johns that are helping her keep toasty warm.

She went to see the doctor about her ankle which has been bothering her since she took a tumble on her bike.  He told her she had some soft tissue damage and should try to stay off her feet and not bike.  The doctor was going to call the mission president to see if Linnea and her companion could have a car.  Linnea is worried that instead of getting a car she will be transferred to a new area and she doesn't want that!

Here are a few snippets from her letter this week.

A Wild Dinner Appointment

This week we ate with an English ward and let me tell you...there are some stories! some good and some...TERRIBLE! Lets start with the terrible. On Wednesday night we ate with a lady who speaks spanish and english but attends an english ward. We pull up to the house and my companion says "For some reason I feel like Im not going to like the food" Boy  was she right. We go into the house and my companion goes to use the bathroom and I'm sitting at the table and I see COCKROACHES all over the walls. Like not just 1 but MULTIPLE. I'm just start thinking okay...whatever its fine. My companion comes out of the bathroom and says..."You are not eating the food....there are cockroaches everywhere and I just saw a rat!" The lady brings us our food and its spaghetti and chicken wings. She gives us our food and says she wont be able to eat with us because she has a bunch of stuff to do and walks to the back room. I TRIED eating the food.....and a cockroach comes crawling off my plate. I kid you not I almost threw up right then and there. Sis Picuasi got some napkins and was like "Start putting the food in these napkins and I'll stick it in my purse" I ate a few bites just so I didn't have to stash so much. We thanked her and we left and headed straight to Julias....our angel who always feeds us. I felt like I was on a hidden camera show thats how crazy this experience was...like at any moment someone was going to come out and say Just Kidding! I felt terrible knowing that someone lives like that...especially here in the United States. It was insanity and made me so grateful for everything I have. It was definitely an eye opener.

La Tongana

 Oh funny Julia story...this happened to us Friday where a member gave us money to get food but we just went to Julias for dinner. She made like fried-chicken and rice and tortillas. I was using my fork to get the chicken off the bone which is very rare for hispanic people. Their tortillas are like their utensils/hot pads. They use the tortillas to pick up rice and beans or pull the meat off bones. So I was using my fork and Julia says "SIN EL TENEDOR TONGANA COMO ASI!"(Without the fork...like this!) and continues to show me how to eat. Needless to say I didn't use the fork anymore and I'm becoming a real hispana. Oh and Julia calls me "la tongana"(the Tongan) She likes that better than Hermana Harris hahaha. Harris is difficult for lots of hispanics to say. We also ate with these members from Pakistan. He was one of the first members in Pakistan and used to hold underground church meetings in Pakistan. It was rad to hear his stories.


Missionary Work


We had an awesome week with our investigators. We took a few families to Temple Square and all of them are now on date. We took Mikaela Amaya(Mother of Mirella Sanchez,recent convert) on Saturday. She knows she should be baptized but has a fear she will fall but Temple Square really helped her. Her husband has been wanting to get baptized but didn't want to do it without her. Her granddaughter, Jocelyn, invited her to be baptized after the movie "God's Plan" and she accepted!! So rad. She and her husband(Elias) should be baptized Nov 18. He is in MX right now and should be back by then. Then on Sunday we took Julia's sister, Rosario and her boyfriend Alejo, and showed them the same presentation. Rosario and Alejo are getting married this Saturday(my second wedding!) and have been attending church. They are legit. Laura(Julia's daughter) invited them to be baptized and they accepted! their baptism date is Nov 19! Then we also took the Perez family yesterday too. We took them to reinforce the ideas of forever families and showed them the temple replica(so legit) and recommitted them(Father Rigoberto and sons Emmanuel and Omar)  for baptism for this Sunday!  We have 7 solid baptisms for this month...so cool. We will just keep praying and working with them so they can stay solid. We might actually do the Perez baptism this Friday because this Sunday is a conference type thing for only Hispanics(well I guess if you weren't Hispanic you could come but its only in Spanish) at the conference center and we want them to attend. We have a couple other solidly progressing investigators and hope to find plenty more. Work is booming in SLC and we are pretty close to our mission goal of 3000 baptisms by the end of the year. YAY!


Thank you to all who have written to her...she always mentions who has written her letters and tells me how much she LOVES getting them.  Please keep writing to her.