Photo Jackpot!

Elder Magnusson figured out how to get his pictures off his virus laden camera card. Hence, all these pictures for you to enjoy! He didn't explain what any of the pictures were about.  I did figure that this first picture was taken at the baptism last week.  

this was a good slow week. we were still able to get some stuff done but it wasn’t overly crazy. 

but first off. i’m leaving Recreo! i never thought i would say those words cause i have been here for 7.5 months but its true. i’m going to a sector called lontue down south. there aren’t too many houses and the branch there only has 20 people. it is going to be different. basically it is a small farming town.  i’m going to be with a kid from mexico named elder bernal. and i’m going to be a District leader. it is going to be a lot of changes for me but i know that change is good. we will see how it goes. i don’t really know what to expect so i will keep you all posted. just pray for me because i have no idea what to teach for and hour and a half for my class in 2 days. 

it is so weird saying goodbye to everyone here in recreo. it is really hard. i have grown to love these people a lot as i have served beside them. the hardest goodbye that i had to do was to the young man we baptized last week. we have grown really close and it was sad to say goodbye. i’m really going to miss this sector. 

speaking of him, yesterday he was confirmed in Sacrament meeting by the bishop. the bishop gave him a great prayer and told him that he will be a great and faithful missionary in the future. he was so excited to hear that. he said that the only plan that he has in his life is to leave on a mission in 3 years when he turns 18. that was special for me to hear.  

 the theme of this week was meetings. we had a ton of meetings this week. it was namely because my comp is new so he had a bunch of trainings and stuff and plus we had our normal weekly meetings. let me tell you i am not a fan of sitting down listening to someone else talk. but whatev’es its part of the mission. 

i’m loving the mission. i’m grateful for the things that i’m learning and for the things that i’m going to learn. it is crazy to think back that i have grown so fast in such a little time (one year). and i’m grateful that i have a year to grow some more. i love this gospel and i love the happiness that it brings. 

thank you all for your love. 

elder magnusson

One year mark.

first and foremost. i hate technology!!!!! i have soooo many pics but i cant send them. i talked to some tech guy and he said that i have a big virus on my card so we are going to see what happens. but i’m really sad right now.

Yeah so yesterday my investigator  got baptized!!! it was sooo sweet. he asked me if i could baptize him and that was a special moment for me. it has been amazing to watch the change that he has had in his life. literally a complete 180. and now his family is starting to change too. they all went to the baptism yesterday and they all loved it. they told us that they felt the spirit so strongly and that gave me hope that they are going to start investigating seriously soon. we couldn’t be more happy for him.

there was a week or two this change when we were finding like crazy. but we are starting to slow down again. this week we really need to focus on finding so we have more people to teach.

i am super famous here in this ward now. i have about 7 months now in this ward and all of the members are joking saying that i’m going to finish my mission in this ward. even the stake president in church yesterday asked me if i am the same elder that was here in november. it was pretty funny. but this week we find out our changes and i think this is my last week here in recreo. it is going to be really sad to leave but i am ready to get a new sector to help me progress. it will be interesting to see where i’m going to go.

this week i hit my year mark. i was weird to think that i have been here in chile for so long. this has been a year of a lot growth for me and i am so grateful for that. it is also really sad to think that i only have one year left. i am going to have to make the best of this year.

thank you all for your love and support.

Elder magnusson

"I love what I'm doing and I would't trade it for anything."

this was a pretty solid week.

this week went really well and here is why….

Our teenage investigator is progressing. he is going to get baptized this sunday if all goes well. yesterday we taught tithing and tonight we are going to do his pre-interview. the kid is amazing. i have seen a huge change in him during the month that we have taught him. i couldn’t be more proud. we just have to survive this week and all will be good. i know that satan is going to work overtime on him so pray for him.

his mom is starting to progress as well. when we first found him, she walked out of the house because she couldn’t stand being in the same house as us.  but now she is going to church and i think she likes it. she is living with her boyfriend but we can deal with that. she is going to come along slowly but she will come along.

our other investigators are also progressing. we were able to put dates for them to get baptized on the 12 of june. they weren’t able to come to church yesterday cause they had stuff to do but i think they might come this week. we have other people progressing but these are the ones with baptismal dates. we are planning to challenge more this week so stay updated.

this week we had interviews with the mission president and it was good to talk to him. he said that he has seen a huge growth in me and he his happy for the things that i’m doing. i love my pres... i’ll be sad to see him go. (he goes home in 2 months)

My comp is doing well. i have seen a huge growth in him. it is cool to see it. i see a lot of me in him. so i feel like i can help him a lot. i’m really grateful to be with him. he is going to go down as one of my favorite comps.

the mission is great. i love what i’m doing  and i wouldn’t trade it for anything. i love you all. take care.

elder mag

"I love this gospel and I love you all"

this week was a great week. the sector is doing the best that it has been in more than a year and a half so we are super happy.

first off our new investigator is doing amazing. he is doing everything we ask him to do. he is reading, praying, and going to church. plus all of the youth activities in the week. all of the youth love him and he loves all of them. today we are going to teach him the law of chastity and word of wisdom so if we can survive this lesson i think i will be able to see him get baptized before i leave this sector which would be sweet. plus when we first contacted him, his family didn’t want anything to do with us. now they are kind of progressing. the mom went to church yesterday and the dad wanted to go, but had to work so we will see how they turn out.

this week we found 5 new investigators so we will see what happens with all of them. some of them have a lot of potential. almost everyday we got into a house contacting which never happens. i was sooo happy. all of our work is paying off.

my comp is doing really good. in the first part of his mission i think he struggled really bad with homesickness and we were doing a lot better with that but now he took a little dive after the skype call so, hopefully we can get him refocused. but other than that, the kid is doing great. i love training him cause he is so teachable. he always wants to improve and do his best so it pushes me to work harder and do better.

it was good to talk to the family yesterday. i wish that i could do it more but i think i can survive until the next call for christmas. yesterday made me realize how grateful i am for my family. i truly am blessed.

View from the Salt Lake City Skype session

View from the Duarte Skype session

the mission is great. i would recommend it to anyone and everyone. i love this gospel and i love you all.

"The mission is sweet!"

thanks for the love everyone. i loved hearing about everyone's week.

Elder Magnusson's family gathered together this past week 

as they attended his Grandmother's funeral.

so this week started out really slow and bad but by the end we got things rolling.

so by the time friday rolled around we had only had one lesson. but it wasn’t because we weren’t trying. we legit had 5 lessons with members fall through and 3 others fall through. i have never been so frustrated in my whole life. we were literally trying so hard and EVERYTHING was falling through.  but the one good thing was the kid that we found last week went to english classes and mutual and he said that he really liked it. then on saturday we found a lot of new investigators. it was a miracle. the Lord really blessed us. the problem will be finding them again. but i have faith. anyway we had a suuupppperrrrr good lesson with investigator we found last week and he said that he was excited to go to church the next day but he said that he didn’t have any cloths. so we ran home and went through  all of the old cloths that missionaries left behind and hooked him up with some good cloths. the next day he went to church and the youth did a great job taking care of him. he said that he loved it. he is progressing really well.

then yesterday i ran into a guy that i talked to back in november and he said that he was praying to find us again. he said that he remembers me saying that we can bring happiness into his life. he is going through some hard things and he said that he wants to change his life. he started crying and he said that he feels good when we are with him so we set up an appointment with him today and we are going to teach him and his kid. we will see how it goes. we are pretty excited. maybe he is the reason i am still in this sector.

my comp is pretty cool. he is pretty shy but he is starting to open up with me. when we are alone he has no problems speaking spanish but when we start talking to people he freezes up. i feel bad for the kid cause i know how he feels. anyway i’m trying to help him with that and he is doing better. i really like him though. i couldn’t have asked for a better person to train.

i love my ward cause they play basketball every week instead of soccer. it is sooooo nice to play basketball. i’m going to miss it when i leave.

things are going well. i am learning so much now that i know (more or less) the language because now i can focus on other things. i’m really enjoying my time here. the mission is sweet!

love you all

elder mag