"We are already in December!!"

it’s crazy that we are already in december!! time is finally starting to pick up down here.

So this week has been a lot like the others. i feel bad cause i feel like i write the same thing every time in this sector, but there isn’t too much to write about. We did pick up a few new good people this week that i hope to write about next week. We will see. One good thing is we are starting to work really hard with this couple that are going to get married and baptized in the first part of january ( i think i wrote about them before). the wife is ready. she is golden but the husband still has some doubts about Joseph Smith. he believes it is true but he doesn’t know for sure. we are working with him to increase his faith. i think he is ready but he doesn’t think so. we still have a month and i know every thing will work out. we are going to fast with him this week.

You can also see the video by clicking here.  

so i few weeks ago i wrote that it would be a miracle if i didn’t get bit by a dog.... well yesterday I GOT BIT!!! we were trying to find a house by some apartment buildings and there was a guy sitting outside of the apartments with his dog. as we walked past the dog jumped up and before i knew it, the thing was bitting the back of my leg. it held on for about 2 seconds. when it let go i tried to kick it  away, but missed. it went in for a second bit but my comp kicked it away. the owner got the dog and then cussed my comp out for kicking his dog. ahhhh are you serious?!? my pants are ripped and bloody and you are yelling at my comp for kicking your dog... whatever. i showed the mission nurse and she said i need to go to the doctor tomorrow to get 5 shots. shoot man i hope i live.

this week i went on divisions with a zone leader and an assistant to the president. it was suppppppper good. i learned a lot about teaching and contacting which i am trying to use more. it was a really good day. both of the missionaries are really humble and really good teachers so it was good to see how they taught. i can definitely feel myself improving as a teacher because of all of the examples around me.

this week it is going to be in the upper 90s early 100s..... that is too hot for a shirt and pants but we will survive.

i feel good about this next week. thank you for your prayers. i love and miss you all!!

This week was pretty normal.

This week was pretty normal. nothing too special.

so, because we have basically no one to teach we did a fast this week. let me tell you that fasting in the mission is killer especially in the summer. i thought i was going to die of thirst at the end of it. but we survived. and we are hoping that it pays off. we found some good people at the end of this week. we are hoping that they progress.

here is the story of one of those people. we were walking to a lesson with a less active when we past a man sitting out side of his house. we past him but he called out to us asking if we wanted something to drink. he invited us into his house and said that when we turned the corner onto his street he literally saw a light surrounding us. he said that he had to talk to us. he said that his daughter joined the church 3 years ago and he sees the same light whenever he sees us. he told us that he wanted to know what it was. we started to talk to him a little more and it turns out he is divorced and his mom just died as soon as he started talking to us about this he started to cry. he reached over and got a bottle of vodka and before we could stop him he took a huge swig. we both felt the spirit leave the room. i have never felt it leave that fast. it was like someone has literally turned off a switch. he told us the only way to deal with his problems is to drink. within 3 minutes he was gone. he wasn’t the same. we ended up leaving promising we would come back. but in that moment i realized why we don’t drink. it literally drives away the spirit. we are going to go back this week when he isn’t drunk cause he is good.

there isn’t a whole lot to write about. we are spending most of our time contacting and with less actives. i’m getting so much better at contacting. i don’t really mind it anymore. at first i hatted it but now it is just normal. plus with my comp my spanish is getting so much better. i no longer struggle with grammar. my grammar is pretty good. the only thing that is hard right now is my accent and vocabulary. but i know that it will improve with time.

a lot of you guys have been asking me a lot of questions that i’m going to answer cause there isn’t really much to write about.

1. the food here is really good.  a lot of rice  eggs and meat but it is different than the states. i don’t know why it is different but it is. we have salads at every meal but i haven’t had salad dressing once. its because they put a ton of lemon juice and vinegar on the lettuce. its going to  be weird to have ranch again. plus i’m starting to like eggs. i can now eat them with out anything on them. i still have trouble with hard boiled eggs but i am getting to like them.

2. i thought coming to the city would mean that there wouldn’t be any dogs. but that is false. there are still a ton and they still want to attack us. this week i kicked 3 dogs that tried to bit me. if i escape the mission without getting bitten it will be a miracle.

3. in this sector we have a walmart... well kind of. it is a store that walmart bought out and so they carry a lot of great value products. it is nice to have cereal and stuff from the states. but it is a little more on the expensive side so we have to be smart.

4. there are places everywhere with computers to write you all. they are pretty cheap but sometime they are really slow. i have pictures to send but this place that i am at is really sketch so i’m not going to send them cause i don’t want to mess up my camera.

not much info. next week i'm hoping to write that we found more people to teach. have a good week everyone.

"Thank you for all your love and support"

this week there isn’t much to report. honestly, i cant really remember what we did.

we have people to teach but we they really aren’t progressing. it’s really hard because we know that we have to stop meeting with them but we won’t have anyone to teach. it’s going to be an act of faith and we are going to do it to find more people.

the good news is this week is that  a couple that have been investigating the church for 2 years decided to get married and baptized. we are pretty exciting. the court system here is really messed up so the soonest that this can happen is january 16th. we are pretty excited for them. we have to keep meeting with them because many times people back out last second.

this week i did a division with an elder in the most dangerous part of the mission. i thought i was going to get shot, knifed, or who knows what. it is supppppper ghetto but, because the people are so humble, it is one of the most successful parts of the mission. we had a lot of good contacts and had a lot of success. we stick out so much in that sector because we are two north americans in a white shirt and tie.


it is soooooo hot now. we are talking in the 90’s plus. it kills being in a white shirt and pants all day. i would much rather take the winter than the summer. i wear sunscreen everyday and i am still burning. in fact we contacted one house and some women came out and as soon as she saw me she told me to wait cause she had a gift for me. she ran back into the house and gave me a tube of sunscreen cause she doesn’t want me to get any more pink. it was pretty funny.



my comp is doing well and is almost done with his mission. it is pretty different being with a native. we are working hard. just a little fun fact about him is he is missing his right thumb cause when he was 15 he got it caught in a pump and it ripped off. our fist hand shake was a little awkward. he is a cool guy.

thing are going good as usual. thank you for all of your love and support. i love you all. the church is true.

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

Elder Magnusson figured out how to download pictures.  Hallelujah!  He didn't send any explanations on who's who or what's what in each picture.  We are just happy to see his smiling or expression filled face.   

first and foremost, happy birthday to the man that gave me  life. i hope you have a good day tomorrow. I love you dad.

So I am here in down town Rancagua, in the sector Recreo. ok, it is soooooo different than my last area. first off it is one of the richest sectors in the mission. in one of my last letters i said that i miss grass. i take that back. Grass means that the people are rich and want nothing to do with us. almost every house here has grass. like this secor is realllllly rich. like there are parts that would be nice in the states and that is saying something. i have had more people be rude to me here in this past week than my whole mission.

that being said there are still people here that like us. we don’t have a lot of investigators so we spend a lot of time contacting. we spent the whole week  in the street contacting and on saturday it payed off. we found 3 new investigators. we are pretty excited about them. we have appointments with all of them this week so we will see how they turn out.

my comp is pretty cool. he has 20 months in the mission so he knows what he is doing. I have a lot of trust in him. he is on fire. he is doing really good. i am happy to be with him. he doesn’t know a word of engish so my spanish is doing really good right now. and i mean that. things are starting to click in my mind . we are on foot which makes us talk in the street so things are improving with my spanish.

we live in a really nice apartment building. which is completely different than my last sector. my old house was one of the worst in the mission.  we live alone but there are 2 other sets of missionaries that live a few doors down from us so we hang out with them every night which is fun.

the ward here is good. we have lunch everyday with the sister missionaries which is pretty fun. also the ward is huge!! like 120 people come every week. that is pretty good for chile. in my last secor we did a lot to keep the branch afloat but here we don’t have to do much which is nice.

i don’t know what else to write about. things are good here but it is definitely going to be a hard sector. that’s ok though. it will help me with patience.

thanks to everyone. i am doing really well. i love you all and the church is true.

"There is a special place in my heart for the city and people of San Javier"

hey sorry this computer is soooooo slow so we will see how much i am able to write.

ok, first order of buisness is i am heading up north. i got transfered and i am going to the heart of rancagua, a sector called Recreo.  im pretty excited about that. i talked to some people that served in the sector and it sounds like it is good. im am being placed with a companion from peru that has 2 transfers left in the mission. his name is elder Ancajima.  i'm excited to have my spanish improve by having a peruvian companion.

it was sad to say goodbye to everyone yesterday in chuch. i have really come to love the people here. i really couldnt have asked for a better first sector. i have learned a lot here. there is a special place in my heart for the city and people of san javier. when i got set apart, i thought it was going to be hard for me to love a group of peple that i don t even know. i cant believe i said that. that was really selfish and dumb of me. the love that i have for these people is to great to describe.

it was especially sad saying goodbye to the sister that was baptized last month. she is doing so well. she has plans to go to the temple in 2 weeks. she paid her tithing and fast offerings yesterday. plus she bore her testimony. i am so happy for her. i hope i have a chance to come back to san javier later in my mission to see her.

This video explains what it means to pay Fast Offerings

You can also see the video by clicking here

it is going to be weird going to the city. here down south it is all just campo. i dont know what the word is for it in english.  it is kinda like farmland but it is also the culture. i dont really know how to describe it.

there isn't anything else to write about. i am excited for the adventure that lays ahead of me. i know that im going to learn a lot this next change. it all starts tomorrow at 8:30 on the 4 hour bus ride.

thanks for all of your prayers. i know that this chuch is true.