Flood! Oops

hi  what a week! but it was a good week. 

first off... on friday we had the wedding of gustavo and tatiana. it was supppper suppper good. they have  been waiting for this moment for a long time and it finally happened. we went to their house early in the day to help with everything and we were there all afternoon but its ok cause if we weren’t there i don’t know what they would have done. at 6 o'clock we went to the church and by 7 they were married. it was a really good moment. one of the happiest of my mission. there is no words that could describe the joy that i felt for them. they were both an emotional wreak. it was a happy moment. 

on sunday we had the baptism. i have never been so stressed out in my life. we had to run home twice in the middle of church because we forgot all of the paperwork for their baptism and then during the 3rd hour he told us that he forgot his tie and a shirt. (read the next paragraph for another reason)  but the baptism was special . there were 76 people that stayed after to watch it so we couldn't have been more happy for that. the bishop did the baptism and when they both came out of the water they were balling their eyes out. it was a good moment

ok funny story of the week...... WE FLOODED THE CHUCH. we got to the church early to fill up the font. and we only turned on the hot water. after sacrament meeting it was about half way filled up and it was really hot so we turned off the hot water and then turned on the cold water all the way and locked the door so no kids would die. 30 minutes later my comp and i were in the back of the church in a random classroom filling out paper work when we heard a lot of commotion outside. the font had overflowed and was going all over the church. turns out we were the only one with the keys to the font so they couldn’t turn off the water. i will always have in my mind the image of me running down the hallway in my suit with 2 inches of water on the ground to turn off the water. it was so funny. so turns out we only flooded the cultural hall, the kitchen and some closets because the font is in the back corner of the church. we then spent the next 45 minutes pushing out all of the water and mopping up. (the church has tile floors) the bishop and every one else was really cool about it. they all thought it was really funny. makes for a good story. 

there isn't really anything else so say. thanks for the love everyone. i know that this church is true and that Jesus Christ is our Savior and brother. i know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that we have a modern day prophet today.   Click on this link to learn more about what Elder Magnusson is teaching.  

elder mag

"Things are going good down here"

it is so good to hear from everyone every week! Thanks for the updates and love. i really appreciate it.

This week was a long but good week.

my comp goes home soon so he has had a lot of meetings and special events this week. i was with another comp for the first 3 days of this week. it was cool to be with someone different and to learn from them. I always like doing divisions because there is always something to learn from other elders and i learned a lot this week.

we are really excited for our investigator couple . their marriage is on friday and they get baptized 2 days later.  satan likes to work on people before they get baptized, but we’ve worked hard to help them keep them on track and keep their testimonies strong.

our new mission president and his wife got announced this week. their names are reed and kathleen harris from twin falls idaho. our current mission president goes home in july so i’m going to have almost a year with each one. that should be pretty cool.

Things are going good down here. we are excited for our investigators who are getting baptized on Sunday. i will send pics with them next week.

i’m praying for all of you. thank you again for your love and service. this church is true.

elder mag

"If you want to be truly happy, all you have to do is live the Gospel."

family and friends

this was an interesting week... full of drunk people, service, sketchy places, and talking to people.

the big news this week was new years eve and day. i’m serious. new years eve and day is bigger than christmas here. its kinda sad but it’s the way that it is. because it is so big we received instructions to use our time as wisely as possible. we spent 3 full days doing service. one day we went to another sector to help a person change houses. the sector that she was moving into was super sketch. in the sector that we were working in if something is going on, the police won’t enter because it is so dangerous. there was some stuff going on in the house next door to the members new house that was definitely against the law. it made me appreciate the sector that i have and the house that i have in california. i’m serious - it was sketchy.

the other two days we helped a member tear down and rebuild a shed in his yard. it was really fun work and it killed the hardest two days: new years eve and new years. the guy was really appreciative and i think he is going to give us a few references. we will see what happens with them.

for new years eve we had to be in the house at 7 so we got special permission for the zone leaders to come over to our house and we made a HUGE dinner. we all pitched in $10 and bought a ton of meat, potatoes, salads, soda, and dessert etc. it was definitely the highlight of the week.

we are deciding that we are going to change the way we will work in the sector. cause obviously the way that we are doing it isn’t the right way. we are going to offer more activities like soccer and english class and we are going to teach the *first lesson we give to investors about at the Restoration to members and then ask them for references. it’s the only way that we are going to have success here. i’m excited for this week cause i think that our plans are going to work.

nothing too big happened this week. thank you all for your love and support. it means everything to me. i can feel myself changing and growing more right now than i ever have in my mission. or maybe i’m finally becoming humble enough to see these changes.  i’m grateful for the experiences i’m having right now because they are making me into a better person. i love you all. this church is true. if you want to be truly happy all you have to do is live the gospel.

elder mag

Christmas week

this week was probably the craziest week of my mission. with that being said, we really didn’t get anything done. we literally had 4 lessons with investigators. that is a record low on my mission. but, it was still a really good week. 

one of the days this week my comp had a fever. i think i might have given it to him. when he came with me i had a cough and a sore throat. anyway i thought it would be nice to stay in the house but it was super boring. there isn’t really anything to do in the house, but whatever. i did take the first nap of my mission. it was only for an hour but it was still nice. all in all it is definitely better to be out in the streets contacting. 

because it was the week of christmas, it was super hard to find people. everyone either had family over or were out of town. it was really frustrating but that is how it goes. we ended up doing a lot of service. we helped a family dig up their yard to plant grass. i ended up getting blisters on my hands from using the pickax. let me tell you that blisters on the hands hurt a lot...just fyi. it was nice to help the people. this week is going to be the same cause the new year is just as big or even bigger than christmas. 

for christmas eve we had a huge dinner and a family home evening with a family in the ward. i literally haven’t eaten so much in my life. i honestly thought i was going to throw up. it was good to relax and laugh with the family. 

and it was good to talk to the family christmas day. the hour flew by. i didn’t think i was going to go that fast. i thought i was going to be more trunky after the call but it didn’t really effect me which i am happy about. 

thanks for all of your love and support. i love you all so much. 

Christmas in Chile

this week was pretty crazy. it is always good when it is crazy.

so this week i got my new comp. his name is elder troncoso from santiago. he goes home this transfer. one thing that is funny is his accent. his accent is supppppper strong. one of the worst i have heard in chile. i can understand him but there are sometimes where it is harder.

we found 3 new people this week which we are really happy about. but only one has real potential. one of the 3 lives outside of our sector and the other one that we found is co-living. it is harder to get these people to progress. there is hope for them but it is just harder.  but the last one that we found is a 14 year old boy. he is really cool. we taught him about the restoration and really wants to learn. we are really excited for him. he lives in the richest part of our sector. in his yard he has a pool. that might not sound very impressive but we are in a 3rd world country and i haven’t met anyone in 7 months with a pool. we have one lesson with him tonight so we will see how it goes.

we had a family home evening with our  investigators and they are doing really well. they are both really excited for their marriage and baptism. we are excited for them.

dad asked some questions so i am going to answer them.

we receive lunch every day from the members. it is usually chicken and rice with a salad. for dinner we are on our own. i usually make hotdogs with eggs and soup. (yes you read correctly. i’m am making eggs now). or we buy something off the street corner. we have to be careful with food form the street because it can be sketch. my last comp learned that the hard way. luckily that day i didn’t have money so i was saved.

for comp study we usually just do practices for the lessons that we have planned.

and Christmas here is weird. a lot of people here have Christmas trees but that is about it. and Christmas isn’t that big of a deal. what is big is Christmas eve and new years eve. we are planning on having on having a huge Christmas eve dinner with a really rich family in the ward so it should be good. i’m excited.

 You can also see the video by clicking here.  

the mission is going good right now. we are working harder and are seeing more success. i am still learning a lot. i know that this church is true. i love you all. thanks for all of your support.

Love those photos!

Laundry time

 After a hard day's work

  

 You've got to love his smile! 

 This is a picture of Sam's dog bite.  I had to censor the picture before posting it onto the blog because it was on his upper thigh.  We need to thank his companion for saving his life by kicking the dog away before he ate Elder Magnusson alive!   

all is well down here in the south. i’m just just drowning in my own sweat. but its all good. i’m surviving.

So nothing really exciting happened this week. but we do have some good news. 2 weeks ago we found a girl that was golden. she was visiting her boyfriend for the weekend because she is from santiago. we had a super good 2 hour lesson with her and all went well. she was really prepared. i didn’t write about her because i thought i would never see her again, but it turns out that she moved into her boyfriends house this weekend. this is really good and bad. We have a chance to teach her but she needs to get married and not co-living right now. but hey, we will work with it.

one of our investigators we are working with  is doing ok. we had 2 lessons with him this week and they went well. he was out of town yesterday so he couldn’t come to church but we are going to keep working with him.

our investigator couple is doing well. we were able to see them this week and still everything is going good for their baptism on the 17th. they didn’t go to church this week though cause they were out of town.

This weekend we had a chance to sing in a missionary-member choir. it was made up of 12 missionaries and 15 members. we have been practicing for about 2 weeks and this sunday we went to a plaza and sang. there were a ton a people watching us and we think that we got a lot of references from it. we will see what happens.

so this week we got transfer calls. so i’m staying in my sector and my comp is going to another part of rancagua. the comp that i am getting is from chile (santiago). i’m going to be his last comp. he goes home in 6 weeks. we will see how this change goes.  he is a good missionary. so this means that i have at least 3 more months in this sector which isn’t a bad thing because things are getting better. we have a lot of potential.

the mission is going well. i’m happy to be here. i am learning more and more everyday. thank you for all of your love.  sorry i don’t have more to write about but that is what happens when you contact all day. the church is true.

It's almost Christmas time.

it's almost christmas time and it doesn’t even feel like it. But every time i tell someone that down here they think i’m crazy cause this is all they know.... super hot, really sunny, with zero snow. being from california, i guess i don’t really know christmas with snow, but still.

big news this week is that we found someone to teach.    we still have a long way to go with him, but he said that he has a desire to change his life. he has a baptismal date for the 2nd of january but he still has to get married so that probably won’t happen. we are happy that we found him but we just need to work with him now. his work is crazy so he isn’t home very much but he is willing to meet with us. we will see what happens with him.

we are still working with our other couple. they have a marriage date for the 15th of jan and a baptismal date for the 17th. we are really trying to focus in them cause it is around this time that people back out of everything. they are doing really good. the testimonies this week in church were perfect for them. we will see them tomorrow so lets see what happens.

crazy story of the week. so, i need to go to the hospital every week for the next 5 weeks for shots for the dog bit. kinda stupid but its what i have to do. on thursday we went to the hospital and when we walked up an ambulance pulled up. when they opened the door we saw a man who had been shot 4 times. once in the head, once in the neck and twice in the stomach. we watched for 2 minutes as they did CPR in the ambulance. blood was running out of the ambulance like a river. i honestly have never seen so much blood in my life. after the 2 minutes i literally thought i was going to throw up. we talked to the diver of the ambulance and he said the man probably wont live... really sad. i had never seen anything like that in my life. my goal as a lifeguard now is never to do CPR. i don’t think i will ever forget that moment. ever.

for the first time in my mission it is a little bit hard to write in english. i have struggled a little bit in this letter with formatting sentences and everything. i guess that is a good sign.

things are going better. i’m changing my attitude about this sector and things are getting better. everything about the mission is about attitude. i know that this Church is true and that the book of mormon is the word of God. i know that we have a living  prophet today and that if we follow his word we will be blessed. where my testimony is really starting to grow is with the Atonement. i know that Jesus died for us and all we have to do is repent and we will be blessed. thank you for all or your prayers. i love you all. Happy holidays.

These two videos talk about the Atonement:

You can also see the video by clicking here.  

You can also see the video by clicking here.  

ps this week we find out about transfers. we will see what happens. i want to stay here for at least one more change but we will see what happens.