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