Showing posts with label Mission. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mission. Show all posts

Monday, September 7

Lake George

While I was in Minnesota, I also went to the beach with two of my converts, Pam and Lori Fredrick. I taught Pam and Lori in my 4th area, Andover. Sister Sheena Verduzco and I had a blast teaching them and they are like another family to us. I love them to pieces!
Their cute dog.
Lori playing with their dog.
Lake front.
Two loons.

Minnesota

At the end of June, I had the opportunity to visit Minnesota for a few days before going to visit my sister in Wisconsin. It was so good to be back! However, the same day that I landed in Minnesota and was making phone calls to go visit people, I found out that one of my converts died. . . the day before. It was quite unexpected and even after an autopsy, they are still not entirely sure why he died. This picture is of Greg (the man who died) and his wife, Pat.

My companion, Sister Sheena Verduzco, and I, loved this couple like you would any other people you were teaching. However, the hoops they put us through. . . but I do love them.

This next family is one of the very first Hmong families that I got to know in my first area, Brooklyn Park. My trainer, Sister Susan Lo, is Hmong and so we did some Hmong work in addition to English work. I love the Vang family to death! They are so much fun and their kids are super cute! Kia would always try and make me cry from eating spicy, hot foods but it hasn't happened yet.

Tuesday, May 5

San Francisco

While I was in California for Susan's wedding, I took the opportunity to explore San Francisco some more. I love the diversity of San Francisco and how because of that things are always changing. Anyways, when I was there last May, I did a lot of the usual touristy things then like visiting Alcatraz, Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf, Coit Tower, Muir Woods, etc. . . So this time, I decided to just wander around a bit and in general, just explore the city itself more. I was not able to get to most of the city that I had wanted to explore because of time constraints but it was still a lot of fun. I also went down to Ghiradelli Square for a few minutes. I did not have time to really go inside and see everything but maybe next time. I went into an art gallery that was right next to the square to see some of Salvador Dali's work. They had a sign up and so I decided to pop in for a few minutes. I rode the cable cars again. If you are not in a hurry then the cable cars are for you but if you are in a hurry, definitely do not take the cable car. They make a lot of stops and even when they are going, they still have a lot of constraints that they travel under but they are a lot of fun.

Over the months since November, I have had the opportunity to get to know one of the tax partners in PwC's San Francisco office pretty well. He knows that I am interested in the area and so when during one of our last conversations he found out that I was going to be in San Francisco for a few days, he offered to give me a tour of their office! How sweet is that?! It was not anything official or anything like that but still, I had an office visit at one of the big four accounting firms and I am not even in the accounting program yet (I just have to finish writing my essay now that we have grades back from this semester). Some people would kill for kind of an opportunity (even though it was not an official office visit geared towards getting me an internship or job). Anyways, he introduced me around the office, explained how things operated, and showed me around the different floors of the office. While we were talking, I was able to ask a bunch of questions. I felt like I asked a decent amount of questions that were good but not too few where he could perceive it as me not really being interested after all or too many questions and having him think, "Oh my goodness. Will this girl shut up already!"

Overall, I really feel like I made a very positive impression on everyone that I met and that the whole visit went very well. Plus, I was able to make new contacts within that office and strengthen the ones that I already have there. Walking out of there, I just felt so happy and pleased with how well the visit went. Success!


Hanging of the cable car. Entrance to China Town.
Transamerica Building. Coit Tower.

The beginning of the crooked part on Lombard Street.

A view of Alcatraz.

Monday, May 4

Susan's Wedding

  Towards the beginning of April, I had the opportunity to go to my mission trainer's wedding in California.  She lives (or used to, now she lives near Las Vegas) in Sacramento and got married in the Oakland Temple.  I flew to the San Francisco airport (it was a lot cheaper than the Sacramento airport) on a Wednesday night and spent the night at a hostel in San Francisco and then drove out to Sacramento Thursday morning.  Susan's family was very gracious and left Laura Sheridan (Susan's MTC and mission companion) and I both stay with them.  I was very grateful that they allowed me to stay with them.  Plus I appreciated the opportunity to get to know them better.  I had met most of her family last May when I was in California but I was only there for an evening versus the 3 days or so that I was there this time.
  On Thursday, we ran around getting stuff ready for the wedding and reception.  The three (Susan, Laura, and I) all did facials Thursday night too.  We did the whole process: scrubbing, steaming(complete with lemons/limes), mask, cleaner, and toner.  Friday morning was the wedding and then in the evening, we set up for the reception.  We set up enough chairs and tables for 400 guests!  That is a lot of chairs.  I am not too sure how appreciative the young men who were helping to set up were of Laura and I making them hunt down more chairs repeatedly.  Saturday morning rolled around and with it came at least 20 Hmong men and women to help cook the food for the reception that evening.  Within 4-5 hours all the food was ready to go (keep in mind that they were making enough food for 400+ people)!  Both Laura and I concurred that if it was white people in charge of the reception, it would have taken them at least 2-3 days to make all the food and not that many people would have shown up to help make it.  At the reception, we definitely filled all the seats that we had seat up and could have used even more.
  In the Hmong culture, you have a program and a sit-down dinner, not the stand-up line and finger foods that are more common these days.  According to Penny Lo, Susan's program was a shorter one running about 30 minutes or so.  Penny said that some programs go as long as 1-2 hours!  Another nice thing that happened is that everyone helps to clean up.  The men take the chairs, table, etc. . . and the women take the kitchen.  The women  dominated the kitchen!  They had all the dishes and food packed up and cleaned up in no time at all.
  It was all so much fun and I am really glad that I had the opportunity to be able to attend Susan and VaYee's wedding.  However, I definitely felt like all I did was eat, eat, and then eat some more.  But, I probably would eat it all again because I love Hmong food!
 The three of us with the masks on (Me, Susan, Laura).  
The Oakland Temple.                               Susan and VaYee. 
  The picture depicts the making and end result of one of my favorite Hmong dishes: papaya salad.  You can see it in the lower right part of the picture.  Papaya salad is soo good!
    This picture represents a portion of all the food that was made.
 Susan and I.