"I'm changing. I'm grateful for that."

this week was a week full of miracles. i know that the Lord is behind this work.

the first thing that happened is that even though it was raining the whole week we still got a lot done. usually when there is rain nothing happens.

one day it was pouring rain and we had no idea what to do. so we said a prayer and i remembered a family that we talked to outside of their house about 4 weeks ago. we stopped by and had a great lesson with them. they only had about 15 min but it went really well. they invited us to go back to their house and we taught  them about the restoration. they really liked it and they now have dates to be baptized on the 27 of august. we have another lesson with them tomorrow and we are going to teach them about the plan of salvation because they told us at the end of the last lesson that they had a daughter who died when she only was one month old. they are really worried about what happened to her. we are excited. pray for us so all goes well with this family.

also, we got a reference from another sector for family that lives on the edge of our sector. we went by and talked to the mom out side of their house. she is a member but was baptized along time ago. her boyfriend and 3 of her kids aren't members. her boyfriend just proposed to her but she said that she wants to get married in the temple.  she said that we could stop by tonight and teach her and her family. we are super excited.

our investigator is still doing good. he still wants to get baptized in 2 weeks so we are excited. there isn’t to much to report on him.

another thing that happened was on tuesday night. i went to bed feeling kinda sick. i woke up at one in the morning with the biggest fever that i have had in a while. i woke my comp up and he gave me a priesthood blessing. he blessed me that i would have the strength and the energy to get though the next day. as he said that i thought to myself that there would be no way that i would be good enough to work the next day. well, it looks like the Lord blesses people with little faith cause i was able to get though the whole day. it was a huge blessing.

things are going well here in chile. i’m liking the work more and more everyday. its crazy to think that the Lord trusts such young stupid kids with something so important. i’m trying not to be a young stupid kid but its hard. but i can say that i’m changing. i’m grateful for that. i think that one of the greatest gifts that we have from God is the ability to change. i didn’t realize how important that was.

I love you all and i love this work. thanks for your love and support.

elder mag

"I love the work"

Elder Magnusson and his last companion.  

what a week!! it was the first week of the change and the first week is always crazy but i feel like this one was even more loca.

so first off my comp is pretty cool. his name is elder rodriguez and he is from mexico. he is super humble, and he likes to work hard. but he is super shy and quiet. i haven’t had a shy comp in a long time so it has been an adjustment. but this should be a good change.

our investigator is doing good. he is going to get baptized on the 6th of august. we have already taught him everything so it is hard to teach him cause every time we try to review something he gets frustrated. plus he is kinda deaf and it is harder for him to understand gringos. let’s just say that our lessons are kinda interesting. but at least he is ready. he just has to go to church a few more times and he is good.

this week i had to go up to rancagua on thursday because all of the district leaders in the mission had a meeting with the new president.  it was a really good meeting. this new president is on top of everything. he is super good. we talked about all the things that we have to do as district leaders. nothing was really new stuff but we could feel the love that he has for the work. our zone is going to have another meeting with him tomorrow. it should go well.

another thing about the meeting is we got stuck in rancagua on friday after the meeting because here in chile they are on winter break and everyone was traveling. we were in the bus station for the whole day and we were never able to catch a bus. the big bus station in rancagua is in my old sector of recreo so i called the assistants to the pres and they gave me permission to visit camilo and his family. ( he is the teen that i baptized my last change). so i showed up at his door without calling him. he answered the door and just stared at me in shock for about 3 seconds and then he started screaming. he invited us in and it turns out that his mom just got baptized last week!!! when we found the family she didn’t want anything to do with us. about 2 weeks before i left she started listening to us more but now she is doing great. i was so happy. it was the highlight of my week. plus 2 other people that my comp and i found contacting my last week there are also probably going to get baptized soon. i was happy to hear that.

this week i’m going to be doing another baptismal interview for some investigator of the hermanas. i’m pretty excited to do another one. ill let you know how it goes next week.

all in all, even though it was a crazy week, it was good. i love the work and i love what i’m doing. the church is true. have a good week everyone.

elder mag

"The Church is True."

Elder Magnusson with his zone leader.  

Elder Magnusson's sister and new BIL (brother-in-law) 

Dave and Renee got married July 5th in the Bountiful Temple

family and friends,

thanks for your letters and support. i loved hearing about how the week went with the 4th of july and renee's wedding. i’m pretty sad that i wasn’t there but i’m glad that i’m here in chile.

this week was pretty low key. there isn’t too much to report.

the big news is the guy that was in the hospital just got out this week. he is doing really good. he is super prepared. we were able to talk about baptism this week and he said that the only goal that he has in this life is to get baptized. we set up a date with him this week and he has plans to get baptized on the 6th of august. the only problem is that its hard for him to get to church. he is in a wheelchair so we will see what we can do to help him. he is such a good guy.... really humble. he lives in a shack literally so this week we went to his house and helped him clean a little bit. this week we have to help him progress a little bit more.

i was able to do a baptismal interview this week for an investigator of the hermanas. she was a 9 year old girl but she knew a lot. it was really cool to talk to her and explain a little bit more about  baptism. she is pretty excited. i should be doing another interview either this week or next week. i’m pretty excited about that.

i forgot to write this last week but our new president is here. his name is pres. harris from twin falls, idaho and he is super good. we had a conference with him last week. we talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ and we learned a lot about our purpose as missionaries. we also were able to have interviews with him and his wife for 3 minutes with our comps. there wasn’t much time but it was a good time to get to know him. we can tell that the mission is going to change but we still don’t know in what ways, so it will be interesting to see what time tells.

so on saturday we got transfer calls and i’m staying in my sector but i’m getting a new comp. his name is elder rodriguez and he is also from mexico (just like my last comp). i don’t know a thing about him. i honestly have never even heard of him so we will see what he is like. it’s going to be good to have some changes. i’m excited to see what this change brings.

i love you all. hope all goes well with the house move. i’m going to miss hearing about duarte.

the church is true.

elder magnusson

"Happy Birthday to the greatest country in the world"

first off i just wanna give a birthday wish to the greatest country in the world...... sorry USA but no one in chile cares about your birthday except for all of the mormon missionaries down here.

plus shoutout to renee. hope your marriage goes well this week.

today has been pretty sweet. we skipped our studies and met up with at the Zone leaders house early at about 9:30. we all pitched in and bought about $80 worth of meat  and had a huge BBQ and played baseball. all of the latino elders didn't understand why today was so special.... the answer we kept giving them is.... porque no es de 'MURICA jajajaja. its been a pretty good day to just chill out and relax.

one year ago it was my first saturday here in the mission field and i remember that we had to come home early because chile had a huge soccer game. i remember the struggle that my comp and i had communicating that day cause i didn't know spanish and he didn't know english. plus i remember i was really homesick because it was 4 of july. i'm glad i'm no longer in my first area anymore.

speaking of hard times this week hasn't been the best week. in fact it was really hard. i can tell that satan is doing his best to destroy this work in anyway that he can. but we just have to keep pushing through. we are having trouble helping our investigators progress. we have so much potential but we just cant seem to get over the last hump with our investigators. a lot of them just need to get married but for some reason getting married in chile is super hard or it just isn't the cool thing to do. plus other dumb things are keeping them from getting to the waters of baptism. but there isn't much to do but just pray and have patience.

one a happy note.... we have an investigator that was in the hospital for 2 months and had his toe cut off but today he is leaving the hospital. he says that one of his goals is to get baptized so we are going to talk with him more about that this week to see what we need to do to make that happen. his name is orlando so if you guys could pray for him that would be great.

my class went well this week. i talked about how can we find more people to teach. i have really been blessed with a good first district. they are all willing to participate. and they are all really good workers so i have been really blessed.

sorry there isn't too much to talk about. this week was just kinda a slow boring week.

 but i know that this church is true. we are doing a great work down here and i know that Jesus Christ is at the head of this church.

love you all

elder magnusson

New Mission President

Dear Family of Elder Magnusson,

We are President and Sister Harris, and we just arrived in Chile as representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to direct the work of Jesus Christ in this part of the world. Also, We are excited to work with Elder Magnusson, who we had the opportunity to meet this week.

Thank you for the support that you are giving him. Elder Magnusson is an excellent missionary, and we are ready to work hand in hand in this great Work of Salvation for the children of our Heavenly Father.

President and Sister Harris