Fastest week of the mission

this had to be the fastest week of the mission. it flew by.

so the biggest news is latest investigator. we were able to teach him 3 times this week. one of those times we taught law of chastity and word of wisdom. it was a really good lesson. out of everything the only thing that is going to be hard for him is tea. but he said that he is willing to do it. so we went to the store and bought him herbal tea and gave it to him. he said that he is going to start the switch over soon. we will see what happens with that. he also came to church this week but only for 2 hours  because he had something to do. we will see what happens with him this week.

my comp and i were called to be counselors in the elders quorum this week. basically we are going to have to work a lot more with less actives. we are pretty excited but there is a lot of work to be done. we have 115 people come to church every week but we only have 5 elders in 3rd hour so we are going to have to work hard to get that number to go up.

this week we also did divisions with the assistants. i went with the assistant that was brand new and had only been in his sector for a week. i felt really bad because we kept getting lost but it was still a really good day. i learned a lot. plus a drunk guy tried to fight us. we exchanged words with him and he tried grabbing the assistant but we were too fast. we took off running. he tried chasing us but ended up running into an electric fence. definitely one of the funniest moment of my mission.

my comp is sweet. he is a guy that is always positive and happy. he loves to laugh and work hard at the same time. i’m going to miss him after this change. i have a feeling that his is going to be made zone leader in 3 weeks. he is a special guy.

today for p-day the sisters were in charge of the activity. we went to some zoo type thing and went in a car ride in a caged truck in a lion field. the tour guides threw meat up on the top of the truck and the lions would climb up on top of truck so the lions were literally 2 inches away from us. we were able to pet it and let it lick us. it was pretty sweet. it was definitely a good activity.

the mission is going really well. i am learning so much and i think i can feel my self changing. i can tell my priorities and the way that i think has definitely changed. i wouldn’t trade anything for the mission. i know this church is true.

elder magnusson

ps everyone asked me if i felt the earthquake..... i didn’t even know that one happened hahaha

More pictures from Elder Magnusson's p-day activity

"Jesus Christ is our Savior and He has so much love for us."

this was a super good week.

ok so remember the story of the guy that stopped to talk us  in front of the JWs? anyway he is doing amazing. we  had 3 lessons with him last week and the first lesson that we had with him was amazing. even before we could ask him if we wanted to get baptized he asked us if he could do it!! we were sooo excited. that has never happened to me in my mission. the other 2 lessons that we had with him went just as well. we told him that we would stop by his house early sunday morning to pick him up for church. he was so excited to go. well what happened was on sunday the sisters had a baptism and they called us in a panic cause they couldn’t get the font to work so we had to save them but because of that we were 15 min late of picking him up. and he wasn’t in his house and he wasn’t picking up his phone either. we were so sad. so we left to go to church and he was sitting there waiting for us. he said that his phone was dead and that when we didn’t show up on time he left on his own. he stayed for all 3 hours and the hour after to watch the baptism to see what his baptism is going to be like. we couldn’t be more happy for him. this week we are going to teach him word of wisdom and law of chastity. he lives alone and we don’t think he smokes so we will see what happens.

also our other investigator and his family (girlfriend and kid) came to church but they only stayed for the first hour. i think that they liked it too. it will be hard to help them progress cause they are living together (out of wedlock) but we are happy that they are coming to church. let me tell you, when you have a lot of investigators in church it is stressful but everything worked out. the members were really nice to them

my comp is sweet. we are getting along really well. we haven’t had any problems and we are working so hard. i have never worked so hard in my mission and i know that the Lord is blessing us especially with our new investigator. i wish we could stay together for longer. i think that we are going to get split apart next change which is sad but its all good.

we had interviews with president this week. i really like our president. he is going home in 5 months and we are all going to miss him. he is such a good leader.

i cant wait for winter time. i’m getting tired of contacting at 3:30 in the afternoon in 90 degree weather.

i know that this church is true. i know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that He has so much love for us. thank you for all of your love and support.

elder magnusson

"The mission is sweet and is changing my life"

happy birthday to my big sister, lisa!!! hope you have a good day today!! i miss you!

so the big news this week is that i got a new comp and he is sweeeeeetttttt! his name is elder conger and he is from colorado. but he is a complete farm boy. his family has a bunch of land and this is the first time in his life that he has ever lived in the city. he has a year in the mission but during that time he has only had sectors in the middle of nowhere. he says that the city is really weird. anyway he is way cool. he loves to work which is nice. he is also a big guy... like 6 foot 4 inches and about 215 lbs. we get a lot of comments from people in the street that we look really big together.  that was really funny. anyway the point is, i’m super excited for this change. we are going to do a lot of good things together. 

we worked hard this week and contacted like crazy. we have a lot of good potential. we are hoping that we can find them again but we were definitely blessed. the sector is doing better than any other time (at least while i have been here) 

the sad thing is we had 5 investigators tell us that they were going to come to church and no one came. that is probably the hardest thing as a missionary. i hate it when people don’t come to church. the people can’t progress if they don’t go to church. we are going to improve this next week. 

so i guess lately i have been talking in my sleep in spanish a lot. elder troncoso would always complain that i woke him up cause i was talking in my sleep. i guess last night i was teaching a lesson about the sabbath day. my comp said that he was listening for about 5 min before he woke me up. but he said that it was a good lesson. apparently i used some scripture references. 

 i don’t know if i have written this but i love the ward that i’m in cause we play basketball every week. now the people that go aren’t as good as people in the states but they can still play. it is so much fun because it is soooooo much better than playing soccer and it is also fun to have elder conger here because he is really good. this past week we had 21 people there to play. we were happy because they are starting to like basketball more and more. it’s the best part of this ward.

I know that this church is true and that the only way to be truly happy is by living its concepts. the mission is sweet and i promise that it will change your life cause it is changing mine. i know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and i love Him so much. i love the mission. i honestly don’t want to come home. i love you guys. thanks for the support.  

I know without a doubt that this is the true Church

it was good to hear from everyone this week! thank you all for your letters, love and prayers. it really does mean a lot to me.

this week was ok. we found a new guy to teach. it is a funny story. we were walking in the street and we were walking past a bunch of Jehovah Witness’ standing in the shade. they just finished doing there contacting and they were talking together and we heard one of them ask the group if they found anyone or if they entered a house. no one had any luck. right then a guy on a bike went past them and stopped us to ask if we could visit him in his house this week. this was probably 15 or 20 feet away from the group of JWs. it was really funny cause they had just spent their morning contacting and had no luck and we found someone without even trying. Anyway we stopped by his house and we only had 20 min to teach him but he seems really good. we have an appointment with him tomorrow.

i don’t know if you remember but about a month ago i wrote about a guythat we are teaching. he wasn’t really progressing until this week. he came to church yesterday and he LOVED IT. all of the talks were perfect for him. he literally couldn’t have come on a better sunday. he told us that he has a lot of desires to get baptized but we cant really do anything cause he lives with his girlfriend. but we are going to keep working with him. he is a really good guy. he is really humble and he likes the lessons that we have. hopefully we can help him some more.

this was a pretty unlucky week for me as well. one day we were standing under a tree looking for a direction. i bent down to tie my shoe and i felt a huge splat on my back. a bird pooped on me. but not just like a little bit.... like a lot. (see photo, but the photo doesn’t show how bad it really was.)

the next day we were walking in the street and i stepped on a cement cover that was covering a bunch of water pipes. it wasn’t placed right and so it collapsed under me and i fell into the hole. i cant really describe what happened to well in email but it was pretty bad. everyone that was walking by stopped to see if i was ok. it was pretty embarrassing. nothing too big happened to me though. i just cut my knee and ripped my pants but it should have been a lot worse.

so this week we got the call for changes. i’m staying in recreo and i’m getting a new comp. he is from the states and his name is elder conger. from what i have heard from him he is sweet. everyone that i have talk to said that he is a really cool kid. i’m really happy. i’m expecting good things this change.

i know without a doubt that this is the true church. i know that if we live the commandments we will be happy. there is no other way to have true happiness than live the gospel. thank you all for your support.

elder Mag


You can also see this video by clicking here.

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