The Latest Photos

One of Linnea's companions.

Linnea moved into an apartment previously occupied by elders.  Their standard of cleanliness was different than hers.

Linnea with her current companion, Hermana Adorable (yes, that is really her last name.)

She never tires of making snow angels!

Ready..... Set....

SNOW!

Practicing some of her newly acquired recipes...

Enjoying the results of her efforts.

The elders in her zone.

Linnea with an elder in her mission.  What is crazy about this is that his sister was Linnea's grandma Harris live in companion.  He is from Tonga.  Small world.

Best picture of my life. Family baptisms are great.

Linnea and her companion, Sister Adorable (yes, that really is her name) with the family they baptized in December.

Merry Christmas

Linnea with one of her investigators sons...She adores him!

From Linnea's letter dated December 3, 2012...

Okay, so this week has probably been the best week of my whole mission...here's a little bit about what happened. So transfers came and on Tuesday morning we got the transfer info. I really felt like I was staying in Forest Dale and sure enough..I am still here!  Sister Falcon was super surprised that she was being transferred. But the Lord knows best,right? Sure enough our prayers were answered and Sister Adorable and I are now companions. If that wasn't a great enough miracle listen to what happened this week...

     We hit the dry Standard of Excellence!! We have 4 people on date, we had 10 people at church(virtually unheard of in this branch) 8 lessons with member, and 5 new investigators. Let me give you a litle recap on some investigators...

     THE M FAMILY: The most prepared family ever. We had a lesson with the dad outside the other day and he was just beaming. He said he could feel the presence of God in his life more than he ever has. He said he felt it so strong it made him want to be better in all aspects...including his long hair and beard. Crazy! We invited him to be baptized outside of his house and he said yes! He is now on date for the 16th of Dec. That night we had a lesson with their son with the YM pres in his home. it was one of the best lessons ever. We read when Jesus came to the Americas and talked about baptism. He too accepted to be baptized Dec 16. on Sunday the family came to church (except the wife who works crazy hours) and something had happened that offended the dad. As he was telling us what happened we thought again...man this is going to be our last visit...but no. He said, "Hermanas, I dont just see you as women...I see you as the angels that God has sent to me to become closer to Him...nothing is going to ruin that. I go to church to become closer to Him and I made a promise to do so by being baptized the 16th. Its going to happen!"  We are praying for a miracle that his wife gets to be baptized as well that day...she works almost all day Sunday.

      

     Time just flies around here but just now that BIG, BIG THINGS are happening and I'm excited to have the best transfer of my mission thus far. Love it and I love all of you. Cuidense mucho!

Día de acción de gracias!‏

Here are some thoughts from Linnea's letter dated November 26, 2012...

This week was thanksgiving and it was great. We ate at this Chilean woman's house with her, her daughter, and this older grandma in the branch who is from Argentina. It was super fancy but the food was great and the company was awesome. Love it. Here are some updates....

        So when everything is good in Zion...Satan attacks. Last week we talked about how Noemi got her divorce papers and everything was all good...well her boyfriend-husband decided he didn't want to get married.  She's way bummed about it but tonight we will be meeting with her and talking to her about the things the Lord wants for her and how He will provide as she continues to be faithful. 

 We also were way stoked to put a family on date(the one who moved here from Las Vegas) but the wife picked up an extra shift at her job and works all day. We were trying to meet with the husband but it never worked out. We finally saw them on Thursday and we invited them to be baptized and to pray about it and they are. They came to church on Sunday so that was great. All the members are stoked to have a new family at church. We found a woman who is not a member but comes with her daughter and niece who are members. She has been coming for a couple of weeks and we have an appointment with her on Thursday.  We also had a YW bring her friend to church and her friend asked us how she could be baptized...she lives in Taylorsville which is out of our mission but she's already planning on coming to church here in SLC every week so we are just going to make things happen. So even though Satan is trying to destroy our area we are working harder to see miracles and they are coming. Its awesome.

Linnea with all the sisters in her mission.

    

We did a priest and laurel activity for the English stake and it was awesome. I don't remember doing one of those at home but maybe its just because I didn't go.All the kids got a mini Preach My Gospel and we taught them about missionary work. They were all pumped up about it and at the end the Stake President made all the boys stand up and committ to serving a mission...then he had all the girls stand up and committ to serving a mission if the circumstances were right, it was way powerful.

Photos from the Trek...

Here are some of the photos taken during the Trek.  It is very common for youth in the church in the US to go on one of these "treks" to give them an idea of the challenges the pioneers went through crossing the plains to come to the Utah valley.  Since many of the missionaries in Linnea's mission are from other countries the mission president and his wife thought it would be a good experience for the missionaries in the mission.  Linnea said it was an amazing experience.  The missionaries from other countries all carried the flags of their own country.

Some of the beautiful Utah fall foliage.

Linnea and opponent playing the "stick" game.

Linnea looking a little exhausted after the trek...I don't think she wanted to be photographed!

Pulling the handcart up a steep hill.

Looking a little happier.

Some food after completing the trek up the canyon.

MILAGROS Y BENDICIONES!!‏

Linnea eating lunch at a zone conference!



I have taken a little vacation from updating this blog for Linnea.  The holidays have kept me busy and I have not taken time to do the updates.  I am catching up so some of what is posted will have occurred in months past.

From a letter dated November 19, 2012 Linnea shares the following...

We found a family this week!! They just moved here from Vegas and are really struggling. They moved here thinking a job was lined up for the dad but it turned out it was a scam. They sold everything in Vegas to make it here. Breaks your heart. They are from Guatemala and have 4 kids. Jaffet who is 16, Jose  11, Jean Pierre 5 and Bridgette, 1. They are the sweetest family. We met them on Friday night and we shared a Book of Mormon story with them. They loved it. They asked us for 4 copies of the Book of Mormon. The next day they came to the Thanksgiving activity and the members were so great in getting to know them. Sunday they ALL showed up to church...except for Jaffet. The YM president went to go talk to Jaffet and Jaffet made it for sacrament. They all loved church. Even the kids. It was great. The branch is so stoked to have legit investigators, its awesome. Tonight we are having an Family Home Evening with them in the the branch president's home and hopefully by tonight they will be on date. They want us to stop by everyday and teach them. They are just soaking up the gospel.  It's awesome!

BIG things are happening and I hope the Lord keeps me here next transfer. Next Wednesday is transfers so we will see what happens...this transfer has passed by way too quick. Miss and love you all. Cuidense mucho. Remember...every member a missionary.

Winter Wonderland

Linnea making a snow angel..."It's so much fun!"

Oh, man. Winter has arrived here in SLC. We got a little knock on our door at 6:30AM Friday morning from the giddy elders who live above us wanting to let us know that it would be snowing that day. It started to snow Friday morning at 9AM and it did not stop til Sunday at 1PM. I'm being serious when I say it didnt stop. We probably got like 2 feet of snow. My companion and I went to see an investigator who lives way up close to the mountains on Saturday and they had not shoveled their walkway so we decided to run across the lawn to their front door...little did we know we would be running up to our knees in snow. Super funny/super hard. Loved it. The snow just makes you so happy... I think part of that being that I'm in a car and not biking in it this year. But I think that it snowed more in these last 3 days than it did all winter last year. Pobrecitos on their bikes/walking. Since it has been snowing we have been playing Christmas music and it really does feel like a winter wonderland. I hope to be able to attach some pics of it in this email. We shall see....

  I wonder if she will still feel that way about the snow after a couple of weeks!

Linnea with her favorite English speaking sister...Sister Yates.  They are trying to convince President Winn that Sister Yates should be assigned to Spanish so they can serve together.

 On to some exciting news...Remember Pedro and Maria from Rose Park?!?! They got baptized this weekend!! Sister Corrales and I were invited to go since we found/taught/put them on date before we left but unfortunately I was unable to make it because my companion, Sis Falcon, and I were in charge of an activity in our branch that same day/time. Sister Corrales was able to go and said it was awesome...her first baptism. Remember how Pedro was listening to the Book Of Mormon on CD...yeah he finished it like a week after we left. He's listening to it again...4 hours everyday. SO LEGIT. The bishop of the r.park 14th ward baptized them and Pedro got baptized first and with tears in his eyes he watched his wife be baptized after. SO COOL. Wish I could have been there but the most important part was them taking that step in their lives and feeling without a doubt the peace and joy the gospel brings. Can't wait to come back when they go through the temple. I love them. Pedro is the most humble/quiet guy ever but whenever he talks he's so funny. And Maria is just so focused on following Christ and doing what is right...shes no doubt a future Relief Society President. 

Viva Rose Park!

Linnea wrote in one recent letter that her mission call should have read..."You have been called to serve in the Salt Lake City Rose Park mission"  since she has spent all but one transfer in that area.  Transfers were this last week and she was sure she would be leaving but since I heard nothing from her (she said if she was transferred she would email on Friday to give me her new address) I think she is still in Rose Park.

She LOVES her watch tan!

She took a picture of the Mexican cure for mosquito bites...cover the bite in Vapo-rub and
then but a piece of saran wrap on the top of it.

Linnea took a photo of this license plate for her good friend, Manny!

Her mission was able to do their own version of the Pioneer Trek and this is a picture of her on the trek.

Another photo from the trek with the Salt Lake Valley in the background.

The sisters in the Rose Park zone make a pyramid.

General Conference

    Let me first just start off by saying conference was amazing. Every single session was awesome. I was able to attend the Saturday morning session where the big announcement of missionary ages was given. That was an awesome moment. There are going to be sooo many more missionaries now its going to be great. It was awesome to be there Saturday morning and we were sitting right where the apostles and prophet enter. It was super cool because as all the apostles were leaving they saw a whole section of missionaries practically and they all just gave us signs of encouragement...winks or thumbs up. Elder Holland gave us his Elder Holland glare with a big 2 thumbs up. It was awesome. While I was at conference I saw Phyllis Livingston, Emylee Hill and Eric Bennett! It was awesome. It was fun to talk to Eric yesterday in Spanish. Its going to be great being able to speak to all the old school 7/10 ward RMS in Spanish. (Nate, Austin, Eric, etc) Emylee Hill took a picture of us and its probabbly on facebook so look for it.

Linnea with Emylee Hill at Conference in October 2012

     We were able to have 5 people attend watch or attend conference. Pedro and Maria watched at the conference center and LOVED it. No better/or more powerful lesson than one the prophet himself teaches. We also watched with an investigator named Juana. For some reason it didn't get broadcast until way later in Spanish so Sister Corrales translated it all into Spanish. What a champ. We are so blessed here to be able to take people to conference. While Pedro and Maria were inside the conference center Hermana Corrales and I watched it in the assembly hall in Spanish. That was an experience. Never have I watched conference in Spanish. It was different to not hear their real voices but it was cool because the assembly hall was PACKED with Hispanics. Love it.

Plague of Locusts

  

 First, to explain the title of the email...I'm pretty sure the plague of the locusts is coming to pass here in Rose Park. There are about 8 billion tiny green bugs flying around and when I say 8 billion I'm not exaggerating. We ride our bikes and get covered in bugs. Its really quite disgusting. I'm not sure what the cause of them is or why there are so many. All I know is that I want them to go away. Enough of the disgusting bugs. Let's get on to what happened this week.

     Oh, before I forget...I will be at the Saturday morning session of conference...chilling up front by the prophet so be on the look out for me. We are also planning to be there at as many other sessions as possible. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir president lives in our stake/area and so we are hoping to get some more tickets for our investigators and ourselves. Its going to be great. We've been talking a lot to our investigators about conference and getting them excited about it. We are so lucky in this mission to be able to go to conference with our investigators. There is nothing like being in the same room as the prophet and apostles.

   We have been seeing the fruits of our labor this past week and hope to continue to see much more.  Hope you all have a great week. Good to hear from you all. Cuidense Mucho!  (October 1, 2012 letter)

HELLO WORLD‏

Linnea, Hna. Adorable, and Hna. Guerra at the SL Bees game. Don't mind how gross I look. I blame it on the unbearable heat.

My district last transfer at the Elder's favorite restaurant...La Familia

This week the Spanish Elders in our area gave us this big apartment complex to work in that is actually part of their area. They never work in it and our real area is a little low on Hispanics so we were super stoked to add it to our area. It's called Canterbury Apartments. We have already added 4 new investigators from this complex and we are excited to keep up the finding and eventual baptisms. We are finally starting to get the work moving more steadily here and we love it.

My companion putting vaprub/plastic on my bug bites. 

Obispo Meneses en his Mexico pancho. VIVA MEXICO!

 This weekend was Mexican Independence Day and let me tell you...it was great. There was a strong aroma of carne asada lingering in the air of Rose Park for a good 3 days. There were tons of bounce houses and even a few bandas. Our bishop even was wearing his littleMexican flag pancho at the ward activity. I even learned how to make horchata from scratch. So good. I'm definitely going to be making a little Mexican feast when I get home. It's going to be awesome.

CHECK MY TURTLES!!

‏

   Monday we went to the SL Bees game(the minor league baseball team) with the entire mission. It was super hot. We were sitting right behind home plate, really good seats, but the sun was just pounding down on us. Unbearable. We opted to move up to the nosebleeds to be protected by the shade. My companions and I didn't stay for the entire game because we still had to go home and clean, etc. It was really fun though and we got a souvenir bees mini baseball bat. 

     That night we had an awesome FHE  (Family Home Evening) with this family we are working with. The wife's name is Johana and the husband's name is Fabian and they have a 5 yr old son. Johana is a member but Fabian is not. We have been working really hard with them but Fabian just won't budge. We decided about a week ago that this FHE would make it or break it. We decided to teach them the 10 commandments with the fabulous finger signs and we assigned every one a little job. Fabian got the spiritual thought.  We thought for sure he'd say something like "eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die" but no...he opened up D&C 136:32 which talks about being humble so that our hearts and ears are opened. We asked him why he chose that and he said because he feels like it describes him perfectly. He said he needs to be humble and listen to our message. We didn't catch half of what he said because we were just in shock that he was being so open and humble. We are super stoked to see where this goes. We love this family and we know that it's Johana's biggest desire to see him become a member of the church. We shall see what happens. 

On to check my turtles...we went to an appt that the elders set up for us and we knocked on the door...no answer. The kids sitting on the step told us the guy in the Mexico jersey lived there and so did this other little kid in a Mexican jersey. The little kid heard them and said"I dont live there!" and they started arguing back and forth about whether he lived there or not. Finally, the kid in the Mexico jersey said "DUDE go in my house...go in my room and CHECK MY TURTLES...they ain't gonna be there cuz I don't live here anymore!!" We were laughing so hard..of all the things to check in his room ... he says his turtles. So we have been saying that every since. CHECK MY TURTLES! also that same day this little Hispanic girl about 4 years old comes walking towards us so we say hi and try and ask her how she is. She doesn't say a word and just keeps walking towards us but as she passes us she just books it. Runs so fast. We just said all she was thinking in her mind the whole time was STRANGER DANGER like we were a huge bear or something...she needed to act calm in front of us but once she got passed us it was all over.

Princesa Grandota

Linnea with her Cuban friends

So first off...let me explain my subject of this email. To give a little background information...never in my life have i been identified as the "Tongan".  Never.  BUT everyone we talk to thinks I'm Hispanic(mostly Mexican) so I often get the.."What part of Mexico are you from?"  I then explain that my mom is American and my dad is Tongan...and then from there on out I'm know as la tongana. I better embrace it while I can because its never going to happen again. Anyway since there are tons of Tongans here everyone knows that generally Tongans are a large built people that eat a lot. And since I'm always starving for some reason, I eat a lot, which just helps identify me more as la tongana. So the other day we were talking to our Cuban friends Angelica and Maria Elena and we get up to leave and Angelica gives Sister Corrales a hug. She then gets to me and says 'y mira que grande es ella! eres mi grandota princessa' (which translates to...look how big she is! you are my great big princess) I cant tell you how many times people have told you how large I am. I have not gained weight ps...i think its just cuz everyone I talk to is Hspanic and tiny and so anyone over 5'3" and 120 lbs is gigantic. It makes me laugh every time. and it definitely makes Hna Corrales laugh..she won't let me live it down. I should start writing down how many times people call me big. Its great. I love tiny Hispanic people who feed me mountains of food. This week I suffered a lot because we ate with an English ward and I kid you not we had chicken casserole like 4 times. My body is yearning for some beans and rice and tortillas. This week we are eating 5 out of the 6 days with Mexican families. Its gonna be a great week.

Pioneer Day...July 24th

Pioneer Day... July 24th

In Utah, Pioneer Day is an important day since it was pioneers who settled the state.  Each town has a parade and everyone in the town comes out to be a part of the celebration.  Linnea got to experience her first Pioneer Day by going to the big parade downtown in Salt Lake City.

A parade float made by the
Polynesian Cultural Center (Hawaii, near Tess).

Linnea said the float was followed by
at least 100 Polynesian dancers.

Elder L. Tom Perry (one of the 12 apostles of the church)
  was watching the parade nearby

Snow, finally!

February Snow

Since Linnea has been in Salt Lake City the only extreme weather has been the heat.  This summer has been an unseasonable hot one in Utah but the winter was mild.  There was a little snow and here are the photos to prove it!

Linnea with her companion, Hna. Magdaleno, enjoying the snow.

After their appointment, they ran into some elders
who  had left a message on their car.

Here's the message!

A little snow covered tree!

Celebrating a Birthday on a Mission

Linnea Celebrates a Birthday (February 27, 2012)

I just received the photo disk with all photos from February to July of 2012.  That is the reason that this post is being put up now.

One of the families made her a cake.  When she went to blow out the candles
 the kids pushed her face into the cake!

The cake makers.

There were balloons,

pinatas,

birthday hats

and what is a birthday without gelatina!

I guess instead of birthday spankings there are birthday punches.

Here she is with her birthday balloons and pinata.

Her cousins, Juli and Shane and family
sent her a giant cookie

She shared it with her zone at one of
their favorite (not her favorite) eating establishments.