"I made it to Rancagua!"

Last pictures from the MTC

Elder Magnusson in Rancagua with Pres. and Sis. Warne

family and friends

what a week. i dont have time to read anyone's email because i only have 5 minutes.  i will next week.

i made it to rancagua! it is so different than the big city but in a good way. it reminds me alot of rexburg.

i got my new companion. he is from peru. i already like him. he is super chill. i know that i am going to learn a lot of spanish because he doesnt know any english, so i am going to have to learn.

i am in the bottom most area in the mission. you cant get any more south than us. it is called san javier. it is really big, so it is a bike area. 

ok i got to go. thanks for the prayers. i am doing pretty good for the moment. haha!

elder magnusson

"The Church is True!"

Me and my companion

Elder Magnusson:  Que Paso?  

Weekly photo from the Missionary Training Center

Family and friends,

this is my last week in the CCM!!!!!!! i cant wait to get out into the field! we leave next Tuesday so i don’t know when my next p-day is so i will write as soon as i can.

tomorrow they send our whole district out into the field for 2 hours to go contacting. i am scared out of my mind but i cant wait to go!! we will see how it goes. then on friday we go on splits for the day with the north mission. i am so excited for this. i feel like i have been here in the ccm for 6 weeks and now i get to do what i want to do. pray for me these next couple of days.

this week was a roller coster. we got a new batch of missionaries and 70% of them graduated high school less than 3 weeks ago.... no joke. they are all soooo young. they all looked so scared as well. i know that i looked exactly the same so i can t really talk.

this is something that dad and dave will appreciate. Luke worthington from the byu basketball team is here in the ccm. he is going to the east mission. we have gotten relatively close. i ate lunch with him and his comp 2 days this week and i talk to him all the time in the halls. he is super funny and really chill. he says that he doesn’t want to talk about ball so we just talk about chile and back home.

we got new roommates. one is from bolivia and the other is from argentina. i literally can not understand a word that the argentinean says. his accent is soooo thick. i can understand chilian spanish pretty well if they talk relatively slow but this is hard. it was funny explaining how the shower and sink worked. you would think that it would be simple but trust me it was hard. he is pretty chill though. they are always flexing in the mirror and always challenging us to an arm wrestle. i am going to miss them.

sunday was an interesting day. the first 4 weeks you are here you have all of your devos, classes and meetings in english except for sacrament meeting. the last 2 weeks you have everything in spanish. i didnt get much out of the day. i was more frustrated than anything. then during sacrament meeting i was asked to give a talk in spanish. IT WAS SOOO BAD!! my spanish was terrible! i could see  everyone smiling in the audience because it was so bad. i could honestly say that is was in my top 10 most embarrassing moments of my life. but then i started to bare my testimony and it was one of the most honest and sincere testimonies i have ever given. the room got really quiet and the spirit was there. afterward, everyone came up to me and said that they really liked my testimony. 2 different teachers said that they talked about it in their lessons during sunday school. it was a cool experience to see how even though you cant speak the language you can still invite the spirit.

today for p-day we went to the store to get cookies and to popeyes. i didn’t get anything tho. we also got sketchy chilian food off the street corner. it was sooo good.

ok, i wish i could write more but there isn’t much time.

i love you all and the church is true.

This video shows a day in the life of a Mormon Missionary in the MTC.  This is what Elder Magnusson has been doing for the past 5 weeks.  I think is is filmed in the Provo MTC.  Sam is in the Chile MTC (or CCM in Spanish)

You can also view the video by clicking here.  

"Jesus Christ is my Savior"

family and friends,

thank you all for the letters! honestly, this is the best part of the week. 

so i am officially a veteran of the mtc. the oldest district left today which makes us the oldies. it doesn’t feel like it though. i still have sooooooo much to learn and 2 weeks in the mtc is not enough time to learn it. 

this week was a lot better than the last one. we are learning to have more fun and to be more relaxed which helps a ton! i have made some really good friends here and it feels good to have fun with just a bunch of good guys. 

we are also getting new teachers tomorrow which i am not happy about. i have come to love the ones that we have now. there is one teacher in particular who i have come to love. his name is elder pino and he is a stud. he is super good at soccer and 2 days before he left on his mission the chile national soccer team called him up to play for them and he turned them down to serve the Lord. because of that his testimony is so strong. he is such a good teacher and he loves to have fun. anyway we have gotten really close and i know that we are going to miss each other a lot. 

This video is  similar to Elder Pino's story.  

You can also see the video by clicking here.  

it is getting colder. i don’t actually sleep in the house that we are stationed at. i sleep in the back house. because of that there is no installation and the heater is trash. last night i was so cold that i got out of bed to sleep next to the heater on the floor. i told that to the president and he said that he is going to get me more quilts so i should be warmer. welcome to the mission, huh? hahah. 

the copa de american soccer tournament is in chile right now. basically it is the biggest tournament in south america and all the games are being played 7 blocks from the mtc. you always know when a game is going on because of how crazy everything is outside. chile is doing really well and if they make it to the finals there is a good chance we could watch the game. 

this trash can basketball tournament was a blast. it was one of the things that kept me going throughout the week. i made it to the finals but lost by one point. it is amazing how much such a small thing can motivate you to keep going. 

sorry i don’t have anything more exciting to write about. there is honestly nothing else that i could write. 

this week marks my one month anniversary of being in chile. i have learned so much in these 4 weeks. i have had some hard days but i have also had some really really good days. i can feel myself being changed into a servant of the Lord. i still have a lot to learn but, what i have learned is that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that He loves me. i have gained a better appreciation of the Atonement. i have learned how powerful the Book of Mormon is. this church is true and i love being a missionary. i wouldn’t change what i am doing for anyone or anything. i love you all.

Elder Nelson explains why missionaries 

are sent out to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ

You can also see the video by clicking here

"The Lord has Blessed Me So Much"

family and friends once again we have less than an hour to write so if i don’t respond personally i’m sorry.

this week was pretty hard and yet really good at the same time. i have come to accept the fact that i’m not going to learn that much spanish in the mtc. we only have an hour to work on spanish and even then it’s not the most effective hour. we get new teachers every two weeks and each time we get new ones they know less and less english so it is really hard for them to explain how to do certain things. pretty much all i can do is pray, bare my testimony and give a rough intro about the book of mormon. i can understand the teachers pretty well when they are talking about gospel topics but when they start talking about the language i loose them. the first 3 or 4 months in the field will be rough.

when you get a group of 18, 19 ,20 year old kids sitting down all day in a classroom you would figure that they go a little crazy. because they go a little crazy. they start making up dumb games to do during their 10 min break every 2 hours. we have perfected a paper/trash can basketball game. we are going to have a triple elimination tournament over the next couple weeks. the game is what keeps us going during class. honestly i live for breaks, and meal times.

this week the mtc was like a sick house. the cold was flying around and EVERYONE got sick. i was lucky and didn’t get it too bad. my comp did though. i felt bad for him. some people got the flu as well. i felt so bad for them.

i am starting to appreciate the food. it isn’t the best but it has gotten better over the weeks. i have gained 7 lbs. thats probably not good but once i get into the field it will come right off. the bread is where all the weight is coming from. it is soooooo goood. i love it. i wont be able to eat north american bread anymore.

This picture is from the Internet

we got a new group of elders living with us and out of the 6 that came 5 are over 6 foot. they are all super athletic which makes the 20 minutes that we have to play sports in the morning super fun because they are a good competition.

i wish that i could take/send more pictures but you can only take during your 3 hours of p-day and they don’t really want you to anyway because they say that they don’t want missionaries looking like tourists.

the mtc has been pretty hard but it has been good for me. i can definitely feel myself becoming more humble and teachable. my testimony has grown so much and my love for the gospel has only increased. i have been blessed with a good comp, teachers, and district. when ever i can feel myself complaining inside my head i just picture dad smiling and saying "good! its good to do hard things elder magnusson! now forget yourself and go to work"

i know that this church is true and the book of mormon is the word of God. i would do anything for the Lord because he has blessed me so much. i love being a missionary because i know that i am doing the Lord’s work. thank you for your prayers.

You can also see this video by clicking here

"I Love this Gospel"

once again there is no time to write. hopefully we get more time in the field.

this week went by pretty fast. i am starting to get used to everything... except for the food.  every day we have the same thing. bread and jam for breakfast, rice and chicken for lunch and pasta and chicken for dinner. it doesn’t taste bad except it is just really bland. i hear the food is better out in the field.

the 12 hour day in the classroom is killing me. we only get 20 minutes in the morning to work out and i always want to die in class. i have so much energy that i need to get out but i can’t. it’s a good thing my district is pretty chill because we are able to joke around a lot and believe it or not, that really helps get some energy out.

the latinos that came in with us left today to the mission field. we became SUPER close with them. we knew just enough spanish and they knew just enough english that we would communicate pretty well. today they sang God be with you till we meet again and there literally wasn’t a single dry eye in the room. every one was crying because the spirit was so strong. i had come to really love them.

today we had 2 hours to do whatever we wanted in the city, so our district took a couple of taxis to down town santiago and went to some mall thing. everyone spent at least 30 bucks buying stuff and all i got was a cheap ice cream. its like, come on guys, you have 2 years to do all the shopping you want, save it up. a few  people tried talking to us but we couldn’t understand them. welcome to my life for the next 4 months. i guess the missionaries are pretty famous down here.

 funny story... some drunk guy asked us for money for a beer and when we told him no and started walking away he followed us yelling stuff in spanish so we basically ran away.  he tried to chase us but couldn’t. 20 minutes later he found us again and somehow he wasn’t as drunk so we managed to talk to him for a little.  it was pretty funny.

i really am learning a ton down here. my spanish is coming along i think. one of the natives said out of the 9 of us in our district i can fake a chilean  accent the best. i just don’t know enough spanish to say much. i have come to love our teachers and i’m sad that we are getting new ones in a few days cause they rotate every two weeks.

homesickness hasn’t hit me at all. i can tell some other missionaries are struggling but i am grateful i don't have it. (That's because his family is praying for him everyday!)

my testimony has grown so much. personal study has become one of my favorite parts of the day. the book of mormon is awesome. it really is an inspired book. and the gift of tongues is real. but i have learned that you must do your part. i love this gospel and i love being a missionary even though i haven’t been outside the mtc much. the church is true and i love you all.

"Click here to learn about the Book of Mormon