Keep the commandments

Elder Magnusson is in the back row, third from the right.

It looks like their zone is having fun bowling on their day off.  

i’m sorry to hear the news about grandma harris. tell her that i love her and that she is in my prayers. 

this week was kinda lame.  it was the week leading up to Easter and no one wanted to talk to us. (it is called semana santa) plus chile had a huge soccer game so that didn’t help the matter plus my comp was sick so we ended up staying inside for a day. the good thing is that winter is on its way. i’m so excited. i hate the heat as a missionary. but i must say that the heat is better than rain and we are going to be getting a lot of rain this year. all i want is the cold and i will be happy.

basically the big news is our long time investigator again. we were going to move his baptismal date up one week but he isn’t ready. so we are going to have a baptism in 2 weeks. on the 10th. basically the only thing that we need to teach him is about tithing and we think that he is going to accept it pretty easily. there isn’t much to say about him. he is progressing pretty well. yesterday he came to church in a suit cause he "wanted to fit in". it was just funny the way that he said it. its just not the same in english.

the family from haiti is starting to die off. we taught them 3 times this week about the importance of baptism and the priesthood but they just don’t want to accept it. we have tried everything to help them understand but it’s getting harder. we are going to try some new tactics this week but if it doesn’t work out i don’t know what we are going to do.

my comp is pretty funny. he is a short and stocky elder from chile. i’m going to miss him when he goes home. at first this change was pretty hard but our relationship has grown.

my testimony has grown so much in the mission about the commandments. if we just live the commandments that Dios (God) has given us we will be happy. it is as simple as that. there are so many people that try to make it so much more complicated and they are the ones that aren’t happy. so please, just keep the commandments. i have been thinking about that a lot his week.

the church is true. i love you all

You can also see this video by clicking here.  

"I'm loving my mission"

first and foremost i would like to give a shout out to my 2 sisters,  janelle and kristine. i hope you have a good birthday!

Kristine is in the beige blouse in the back row 

and Janelle is in the flowered blouse in the front row.  

this was a super good week for us. we saw a lot of good things happen. first off with our investigator.... we were only able to teach him once but the lesson that we did have went really well. he is really interested in the spirit world. we spent about an hour and a half talking about it. both of his parents died so he is really concerned about where they are. he told us that the day before the lesson he was thinking about the church and everything and he said that he wants to get baptized. he has gone more than a week and a half without drinking tea and is still going strong. his date to get baptized is the 10 of april, but we want to change it to the 3rd and do it in between the sessions of conference.  we have to get special permission from the stake president to do it so we are going to have to talk to him this week. things are going well with him. we just need to help him along the way.

1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

You can also see the video by clicking here

the family from haiti is doing really well.  we weren’t able to teach them a real lesson but we saw them almost everyday this week. we helped him do a resume and as we were doing it he told us that he literally doesn’t have any money to buy food for him and his wife. let alone for the 3 kids that he has in haiti. when we left we called the bishop to see what he could do and he said that he would work on it. 3 hours later he asked us if we could pick him up and bring him to the church. at the church the bishop called him into his office and he told us and the bishop his story. it is honestly the saddest story i have heard in my life. there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. he talked about how hard life is in haiti and how he wants his kids with him and everything like that. afterwards the bishop brought him out to his car and his car was FULLLLLL of food that the bishop had picked up from families. he and his wife were soooo grateful. it was honestly like a story you would read in the ensign. they are honestly some of the most humble people i have met in my life.

plus yesterday our 3 investors all went to church. we couldn’t be more happy.

i honestly want to stay in this sector. i never thought i would ever want to stay in a sector for 5 changes but we are finally finding success and i love the people here. but i know that i’m going to leave so i just have to prepare myself for that.

the mission is going really well right now. i’m loving it. i am learning so much right now and i wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. the church is true.

"This was a week full of miracles."

things are going smooth down here.

this was a week full of miracles. first off our investigator was having trouble giving up tea. we were getting worried that he wasn’t going to do it so we retaught the word of wisdom to him again.  we could tell that he didn’t understand it cause he didn’t want to understand it. basically we told him that to gain a testimony you are going to have to have faith and you are going to have to live it. it clicked in his head right then and there. he said the closing prayer and pleaded with heavenly father to give him the strength to give up tea. we passed by his house 3 days later and he said that he didn’t drink tea in  those 3 days. and he said that he felt better. we were so happy. we area going to pass by tomorrow to see how things are going with him. 

Click here to learn more about what Elder Magnusson is teaching about the Word of Wisdom.

this week we also found a family from haiti. it is kinda random how we found them. we are working with a less active guy. we went there for a lesson with him on wed. and he said that a family is renting a room in his house and they want to learn about God. Sweet we were pretty happy. turns out that they have 3 kids and one on the way but the 3 kids live back haiti. they came here to chile 12 days ago and they are looking for work. they literally have no money and they are super humble. they don’t speak much spanish and its kinda hard to teach them but they have a lot of potential. the first lesson was kinda rough cause they couldn’t really understand us very well but for the second lesson we printed off the lesson 1 pamphlet in creole (their native language) and so they could read and follow along. we are really excited for them. 

yesterday we had stake conference and it was a transmission for all of chile. elder nelson, and some other general authorities spoke. did you know that elder nelson knows spanish?? it isn’t that great but he gave his talk in spanish. just a little fun fact for y’alls. it was really good. our investigator and the guy from haiti went. they both said that they liked it. the wife from haiti was going to go but she woke up sick from her pregnancy. i hope she can come to church next sunday. 

Click here to see an interview with Elder Nelson as he discusses missionary work in Texas and around the world.  

so my new comp is pretty good. he is older. he is 24 years old and is going to finish the mission in 3 months. he is a pretty cool guy and he has a really cool story about his conversion. things are going good.

the church is true. i love you all. thanks for your support

"What a week"

How to celebrate your 20th birthday as a missionary

what a week. its sooo true what lisa said. the days are soooo long and the weeks are so short. i don’t know how that is possible but it is.

i’m writing early today because we are going to get 2 zones together and go paint balling. we are so excited. it is going to be a blast. all of the latino sisters are pretty scared. i’ll fill you in next week on how it goes.

we spent a lot of this week contacting trying to find new investigators. we had some success. the thing is, we just have to find them again. it is so hard to find good people again. it is the most frustrating thing about missionary work. but, it is the life of a missionary.

here is a cool experience that we had this week. we were coming out of a house of a less active’s house one night at about 9:30 at night and right when we were walking out, a neighbor was walking into her house. she saw us and started to talk to us. she said that she remembers me because i contacted her in the street about 4 months ago. as she was talking, i remembered her. we contacted her and she rejected us kindly and said that maybe she would talk to us later. well, it turns out that her 90 year old mother was in her house and was suffering pretty bad. she asked us if we could say a prayer so that her mother could rest. we ended up giving her a blessing blessing and i felt very strongly that she was going to die that night. the lady was very grateful and we have plans to visit them tomorrow. its crazy how the Lord works through us. we will see what happens.

James 5:14
14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

well so we got transfer calls on saturday. i’m staying for another change in this sector. this will be my 4th change here. my comp is leaving to become a zone leader. i’m going to be getting another companion from chile. he is going to be finishing the mission soon in 3 months.  i’m really going to be miss elder conger. he is such a good kid. i think he is going to go down as my favorite comp.

thanks for all of your love and support. you guys are great.

the church is true.