Information on Homecoming

President and Sister Lindahl will be flying home July 1st, and will arrive on the 2nd.

Homecoming- July 17th
9:00 am Sacrament Meeting
Foothill Chapel at 4525 N. Canyon Rd., Provo

Mission Reunion- September 29th
6:00 PM
210 W. 3000 S., Heber City
(Half hour up Provo Canyon)

Look for more information in July on Facebook (Colette Lindahl)

Random Photos

One evening we looked out and saw a long procession of about 2 thousand people marching down the street. We think it must be in preparation for a special soccer game at the stadium down the street. Below is a short video. It just shows the solidarity of these people when it comes to supporting their TEAM.

On our way checking the pensions in the Valle de Uco Zone, we passed the chapel in Cordon del Plata and thought I had better document it. It is a tin roofed warehouse painted white. In the small town is a gas station and three stores and our chapel.

25 Mayo is a holiday seriously celebrated in Argentina. It began with fireworks the night before. The holiday is celebrated with many musical events in the plazas, special food prepared just for that specific day, and artisan booths with crafts from the region.

The Argentina Bicentennial is a series of celebrations and observances celebrated on May 25, 2010, and throughout the year. They commemorated the 200th anniversary of the May Revolution, a sequence of historical events that led to the Viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros' being ousted from office and replaced with the Primera Junta, the first national government.

Bicentennial celebrations began on Friday, May 21, in Buenos Aires, with millions of people in attendance, making it the biggest outdoor festivities Argentina has seen since it celebrated its return to democratic rule after seven years of military dictatorship in 1983 ^[1]

New Missionaries Come, Oldies Leave

Elder Cajas arrived late from the MTC in Peru. He was one of our visa waiters.

A fine group of great young men. We were sad to say goodbye to one of our favorite group of missionaries. All of them have served in leadership positions in the mission and will be greatly missed. The analogy is that the mission is like a fast moving train. Some jump on and others jump off, but the train keeps rumbling down the tracks. This is our last group of missionaries to say goodbye to. We will miss them.
(left back) Elders Wetzel, Guzman, Naranjo, Canaza, Sorensen, Coronel, Robinson, Lucas, Olson, Frischknecht, Hinojosa. (left front) Elders Beck, Campbell, Rodriguez, Brown.

Our Latino group with matching ties. Way to be united.

Reunion in our home with Elder Rodriguez and his parents.

Elder Frischknecht's mom, sister, and brother-in-law arrived to pick him up. We were able to go out to dinner with them at our favorite restaurant, La Florencia.

We went to Lujan for a surprise baptism that Elder Frischknecht had planned so his mother could be present. Selva was baptized (below you can see her better) by Elder Frischknecht.

Selva and Elder Frischknecht's family and companion Elder Evans.

Our new missionaries arrived safely.

Hermana Zepeda with companion Hermana Diaz

Hermana Bedke (California)(center) with companions Hermana Gutierrez and Anderson

Elder Rojas (Peru) with companion Elder Mori

Elder Wixom (Utah) with companion Elder Leany

Elder Cerna (El Salvador) (right) with companion Elder Linares

Elder Moon (Utah) with companion Elder Ostler and also President

Elder Baca (Peru) with companion Elder Sanchez

Elder Fausett (Louisiana) with companion Elder Evans

Elder Ortega (Panama) with new companion Elder Quintero

Elder Gil (Peru) with new companion Elder Gonzalez

A Special Weekend With Special Guests

Mendoza was privileged to have Sister Elaine Dalton the General Young Women's President, and Sister Rosemary Wixom the General Primary President come for Training Meetings with the auxiliaries. These two women should be my sisters because after two days they became like soul-sisters. I just want you all to know how strongly I felt about their presentations. I know that these two women are called for a purpose at this time. They are powerful and intelligent and their earnestness to spread peace, joy, and hope was felt by all.

Sister Dalton on Sunday, visiting with the Young Women of the Godoy Cruz ward (with some visitors from another ward). They will always remember this special day. I know I will.

A Week of Inspections and a Visit From The Past

The last two weeks I have been inspecting the pensiones (apartments) of the missionaries in the Mendoza, Godoy Cruz, and Maipu Zones. I have this interesting reputation that sends fear into the missionaries hearts. Last week, there wasn't enough fear and some of the companionships will be experiencing another visit. But these fine Zone Leaders (Elder Frost and Elder Redd) decided it was better to "brown-nose" and they were ready for the inspection. They not only had their emergency evacuation sheet posted, but demonstrated their emergency backpacks full of every item on the list. That was not all. Keep reading...

The office filmed a video a year ago written by Elder Lloyd, we call it the "Elder Squires lapping up the milk" video. It was hilarious. The story line is, Hermana Lindahl is coming to visit the apartments. She does an inspection of all the rooms, with the Elders cowering in the background. Elder Squires is asked the question, how clean is your kitchen floor. He says he cleaned it himself. I reach in the refrigerator and pull out a carton of milk. I pour it on the floor and tell him to get down and lap up the milk off the floor. He hesitates and I ask if he is scared. Of course the reply is NO. So I tell him to lick it up like a "cute little kitten." I swear you have to see it to appreciate it. Anyway, the video is famous in the mission. When I entered the apartment of the Maipu Zone Leaders, Elder Frost rolled out the red carpet (blanket) and then handed me a carton of milk. Just to prove that his kitchen floor was clean we did another reinactment of the lapping up the milk video. (Pictured, Elder Frost with the milk and cookies he used)

We had a surprise visit from Sister Ashley Walker (left of me), who served with us in the beginning of our mission. She came with another Sister missionary Kara Goodwin (and brother Brett) who went home the month before we arrived. They all came for a visit. It was fun to reminisce and talk about our "old" missionaries and how everyone is doing. We send our love and best wishes to all of those wonderful missionaries with a hope that we will see you all at the first reunion September 30th.

New Missionaries Arrive Late

Elder Navarro from El Salvador arrived late after finally receiving his visa.

Elder Tinoco from Mesa (left) was fast-tracked in the MTC but couldn't get his visa in time to come, served for a short time in Texas. Elder Gomez from Peru also with visa problems finally arrived from the Buenos Aires MTC.

Zone Leader Consejos (counsel) May 2011

This is the second to the last Consejos we will have on our mission. Today is the last time the Zone Leaders will come to my home for their special taco dinner (the movers will have taken all my pots and pans by the June date). It was a memorial meeting for all involved. Little did I know the Assistants and President had something up their sleeves.

Elder Fielding and Elder Rabanal (Valle de Uco), Elder Gomez and Elder Cabranes (Guaymallen).

Elder White and Elder Moncur (Godoy Cruz), Elder Garcia and Elder Orduña (Mendoza).

Elder Frost and Elder Redd (Maipu), Elder Burr and Elder Hopkin (San Luis).

Elder Menocal and Elder Roberts (not shown, Chimbas), Elder Morinico and Elder Abella (San Rafael), Elder George and Elder Mason (San Martin).

Sorry bad photo- Elder Scoville and Elder Barra (Alvear), Elder Harvey (standing, AP), Elder Williams and Elder Esplin (Villa Mercedes), Elder Hyer...

Elder Hyer and Elder Sandford (San Juan), Elder Hoggard and Elder Ivie (Off-ice), Elder Lucas (APT).

Elder Lucas and Elder Robinson (AP Traveling), Elder Leal and Elder Harvey (AP's), Me

New Zone Leaders called in April. Elders Mason, Scoville, Ivie, Hoggard, Rabanal, Orduña.

Winner of the April "Copa" (best numbers) goes to Elder Orduña and Elder Garcia from the Mendoza Zone. The missionaries asked me just said last month which zone I thought would never win the cup and I said the Mendoza Zone. So congratulations to Elder Orduña and Elder Garcia for proving me wrong.

After my Consejos talk, President and all the leaders decided to give me a special treat. Elder Harvey was voice, and they expressed their love and thanks for all the dinners and treats and awards that I have given over the last three years. To express this thanks, they gave me three special gifts to remember Argentina for.

The first gift was to represent the great beef that Argentina is known for. Elders Esplin and Williams presented me with a fancy silver knife to slice up my beef with.

Our great office secretary Elder Ivie had looked up all the facts about the Argentine beef and presented them all to me as I admired my knife.

Next came the second gift. It also represented Argentina. The main discussion we have with the missionaries is that they can't drink Mate, a drink that has a stimulant in it. The main reason is that the custom is to sit around all afternoon and visit with family and drink from the same Mate cup and straw. So you can imagine the two things we don't want, missionaries spending hours for lunch and then sharing germs. I was presented (in the box) a special silver Mate cup by Elders Scoville and Barra.

Last but not least was the largest of the gifts. It was presented by Elders Sandford and Hyer. I was kidding that the last gift should be a bottle of wine because that is the main production in the valley, with miles and miles of vineyards and bottle and bottles of wine. I was a bit thrown off by the shape and the weight. But my husband wanted me to know that this was a special gift, not just a regular bottle of wine. And boy was he right. They gave me a beautiful hand crafted (took 10 years to make by the artist, one of a kind) bulls horn that is about two feet long (if not curved) and adorned with silver. It is a cask for carrying wine like the olden days. I joked that it was for carrying my lemonade. You can sort of see the picture of it below. According to the artist and others, this size horns is not allowed to be sold anymore.

All my wonderful missionaries together, just so I can remember the moment.

After the Consejos meeting (which lasts about 5 hours), the missionaries come to the mission home for lunch/dinner. I cooked 16 pounds of hamburger for tacos, but my recipe has rice and lots of other good things in it. So for that volume of food it should be sufficent for 33 people, right? There wasn't a scrap left.

They look very happy with lots of food in their stomachs.

Elders White, Esplin, Hyer.

The Zone Leaders with a special flag, made to represent their goal for May. When Nephi was commanded by the Lord to build a boat to take his family to the Promised Land, the Lord said to Nephi, "Thou salt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show thee, that I may carry thy people across these water." This wasn't just any kind of boat. It was a huge boat and Nephi didn't have the tools or even know anything about building boats. But he trusted in the Lord. Sort of like the trust these missionaries have with their President when he says that he knows that they can do miracles because they have faith in the Lord that He will help them. If Nephi can build a boat with the Lord's help, then our missionaries with sufficient faith can do great things. The challenge is 130 baptisms in the month of May. Let's see if they can do it.

The Army of the Lord!
(Left back) Elders Morinico, White, Esplin, Redd, Barra, Frost, Cabranes, Scoville, George, Hoggard. (Left Middle) Elders Garcia, Gomez, Moncur, Rabanal, Fielding, Menocal, Roberts, Abella, Burr, Sandford, Hopkin, Hyer. (Front) Elder Orduña, Leal, Harvey, Robinson, Lucas, Mason, Williams (not shown Elder Ivie).
Thanks to all of you for a great day.