Hello!
My camera was dead when I plugged it in to send photos. Every time I've come prepared there's been a reason I can't send photos. Its very frustrating.
Please forward this to dad's email, it won't let me open another window to copy and paste in his address. It was way fun talking to you all on Christmas, sorry I wasn't there on time, but the investigators come first Im afraid, even on Christmas!
Since someone stole my pajamas, they probably didn't have any and needed them a lot more than me, so no big deal, you'll get blessings for helping out someone in need Im sure :-)
As for Nathan's mission call I'm SO STOKED!!! I know a bunch of Latino missionaries there from the CCM, they are all great and really funny. Theres a lot of Chilenos and Argentines in that mission from what I saw.
I can't believe Josh, Amy, Mar-Kel, and Nora are all married. That is so weird to me. Geesh. Wish them all congratulations and give them hugs. Whew. Dang, weird.
I do wish I could've talked to Melis and Jase and Rachel on Christmas, but have a ton of fun for me! I am way jealous! I can't believe she was born a year ago already almost. It seems like a couple months ago I got to hold her the first time in the hospital!
That's so cool about grandma's life history book! I know Melissa got a bunch of that already, I bet she'd like to be a part of that somehow too. How long does something like that take to finish and compile?
As for Nichole, I am not entirely sure about UA science, but at BYU a C for the first go is REALLY good. That's my goal when I get back haha. I plan on taking both halves at least twice.
Ya, this year will be quite something for everyone in the family I think. But, change is good. It keeps us from forgetting God. It makes us turn to him in gratitude, fear, or even anger sometimes. But it makes us remember no matter in what regard. And that's good I think.
Thanks for sending me letters and pics for FHE tonight. I guess it's still morning there you haven't done it yet. Weird, the time difference haha
Well, I'm glad everyone is healthy and happy. Please help out the missionaries in your area as much as possible via food, laundry, whatever. We need it haha. Search out for references too. It's not the missionaries job to search, it's to teach. If all the members in the world did their part of the work, it would be finished by now, and we'd have millions of baptisms each year, and that....would be fantastic ha.
When do Andrew and Nathan report to the MTC? Whew, Im so happy they are spanish speaking.
Lets see what else, I have time left...
In your letters you should tell me about what's going on in the world and in the US. I feel super blind, which is good, but Im really curious! I picked up a newspaper and it was 3/4 fùtbol and 1/4 advertisements for medicines (including a popular new, gov-approved medicine that cures diabetes, asthma, arthritis, and baldness, among a ton of other stuff. Its probably sugarwater)
Kayli, In your letter I want to hear about Supernatural and any new music out.
Okay, now time is up. I love you all! Happy New Year! Get some cool fireworks and celebrate!!! I wish I could send you some from here, but they would be SO illegal haha
Love,
Elder Magnusson
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
December 21, 2009
hahahaha I'm glad you got a kick out of where I'm at. It's wonderful. If you can go down the streets, you can find the pet shop I live behind at 509 Molinos de Raffo. Don't ever send me stuff direct though, it's MUCH safer going to the Mission Office.
No, I didn't get the pj's yet haha just the trees :) Hopefully tomorrow in Zona.
So for the last month I've been sad about the fact that mangoes are unavailable, so I've been trying out different kinds of weird fruit to find a replacement (the Prez. wants us to be healthy so they reemburse us for fruits and veggies!!!) and today I found a fruit that comes close! It looks like an apple in the shape of a peach, it smells like a peach, but has the texture of a mango and tastes like a mixture between peach and pineapple. It is wonderful, now I can be happy about my fruit selection for the rest of my mission (...ha).
I'm also very tempted right now with fireworks as there are fireworks stands on every corner for SUPER cheap. In the states, Christmas is the most tranquilo (peaceful?) time of year, but here it's a month of partying. Fireworks go off constantly and all the little kids run around with cigarrettes their parents gave them to light em. Dont tell Kayli, but usually its the dogs that get the hits from them. Which I don't mind as much as I used to since I've been attacked so many times I don't like dogs half as much as I did haha.
Alright, so for Christmas, Pres. recommended our families call us instead to save the office elders sorting through bills and figuring out what all we have to pay, so you guys can call me anytime between 8 and 9pm my time (I believe that is 3-4 you time, but I have no way of clarifying). My phone number is 305-0089, look online I guess for the extensions for Montevideo.
As for transfers, this president keeps things moving fast to prevent problems in companionships. This way, you miss out on seeing a lot of people you taught baptized and baptize a lot of people you never taught, but the benefits outweigh I think. It makes the mission work more as a team and gets rid of fear of being stuck in demasiado (too? sounds weird in this context in English I dunno) tough area for too long.
On the bright side of the humanitarin FAIL, at least dad doesn't have to go to Afghanistan :) Even if he has to go somewhere else, it will probably be safer at least, and possibly closer to home in case of problems.
Don't send me any calling cards, I'll never use them since it's infinitely cheaper for you guys to call me. Use pennytalk or something I think its like 2 cents a minute or something like that. If I call its like $5US a minute.
Carmen will be baptized on the day after Christmas! A bunch of her family is coming, so we're planning on reaping that harvest like crazy.
Josè, 25, will be baptized early January, probably the day before transfers. Ali Hiatt asked me to inform her when I baptized a Latin stud to sweep her off her feet (her words, not mine), so please look her up on facebook (I think it says Alexis or Ali Hi) and inform her: mission complete. ha
Oh! Yesterday in church, we had a bunch of investigators come, and a member of the 70 spoke. That was a relief, even though it kinda got messed up by this mental dude that came in halfway through his talk and yelled "Pardon me, everyone, I don't mean to be rude being late, I'm sorry!" He always talks during all of all the meetings its frustrating, but the leadership can't very well tell a homeless mental person he's not welcome. So....good luck to them haha.
I think a few emails back when I got here I said that Uruguay makes universal healthcare work, so maybe there's a way we could follow suit. I retract that statement. This country is psycho hahaha Nearly half of the people here have severe mental problems and I'm not exaggerating. Elder Grau says its even way more out in the country. They pay sooooo much in taxes to "help" people and I swear they give these people something radioactive. Seriously, for example the other day this dude with bleeding eyes walked up to me and showed me his new HIV positive papers and asked us to save him and them starting talking about 2012 ending of the world and then started to hum and dance. hahaha We've seen so many disturbing stuff I think this country as a whole is possessed.
Well, on that note, I will talk to you on Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!! I'll be waiting :) I have approximately 45 minutes to talk FYI.
Love you! Merry Christmas! Can't wait for PJ's tomorrow!
Elder Magnusson
No, I didn't get the pj's yet haha just the trees :) Hopefully tomorrow in Zona.
So for the last month I've been sad about the fact that mangoes are unavailable, so I've been trying out different kinds of weird fruit to find a replacement (the Prez. wants us to be healthy so they reemburse us for fruits and veggies!!!) and today I found a fruit that comes close! It looks like an apple in the shape of a peach, it smells like a peach, but has the texture of a mango and tastes like a mixture between peach and pineapple. It is wonderful, now I can be happy about my fruit selection for the rest of my mission (...ha).
I'm also very tempted right now with fireworks as there are fireworks stands on every corner for SUPER cheap. In the states, Christmas is the most tranquilo (peaceful?) time of year, but here it's a month of partying. Fireworks go off constantly and all the little kids run around with cigarrettes their parents gave them to light em. Dont tell Kayli, but usually its the dogs that get the hits from them. Which I don't mind as much as I used to since I've been attacked so many times I don't like dogs half as much as I did haha.
Alright, so for Christmas, Pres. recommended our families call us instead to save the office elders sorting through bills and figuring out what all we have to pay, so you guys can call me anytime between 8 and 9pm my time (I believe that is 3-4 you time, but I have no way of clarifying). My phone number is 305-0089, look online I guess for the extensions for Montevideo.
As for transfers, this president keeps things moving fast to prevent problems in companionships. This way, you miss out on seeing a lot of people you taught baptized and baptize a lot of people you never taught, but the benefits outweigh I think. It makes the mission work more as a team and gets rid of fear of being stuck in demasiado (too? sounds weird in this context in English I dunno) tough area for too long.
On the bright side of the humanitarin FAIL, at least dad doesn't have to go to Afghanistan :) Even if he has to go somewhere else, it will probably be safer at least, and possibly closer to home in case of problems.
Don't send me any calling cards, I'll never use them since it's infinitely cheaper for you guys to call me. Use pennytalk or something I think its like 2 cents a minute or something like that. If I call its like $5US a minute.
Carmen will be baptized on the day after Christmas! A bunch of her family is coming, so we're planning on reaping that harvest like crazy.
Josè, 25, will be baptized early January, probably the day before transfers. Ali Hiatt asked me to inform her when I baptized a Latin stud to sweep her off her feet (her words, not mine), so please look her up on facebook (I think it says Alexis or Ali Hi) and inform her: mission complete. ha
Oh! Yesterday in church, we had a bunch of investigators come, and a member of the 70 spoke. That was a relief, even though it kinda got messed up by this mental dude that came in halfway through his talk and yelled "Pardon me, everyone, I don't mean to be rude being late, I'm sorry!" He always talks during all of all the meetings its frustrating, but the leadership can't very well tell a homeless mental person he's not welcome. So....good luck to them haha.
I think a few emails back when I got here I said that Uruguay makes universal healthcare work, so maybe there's a way we could follow suit. I retract that statement. This country is psycho hahaha Nearly half of the people here have severe mental problems and I'm not exaggerating. Elder Grau says its even way more out in the country. They pay sooooo much in taxes to "help" people and I swear they give these people something radioactive. Seriously, for example the other day this dude with bleeding eyes walked up to me and showed me his new HIV positive papers and asked us to save him and them starting talking about 2012 ending of the world and then started to hum and dance. hahaha We've seen so many disturbing stuff I think this country as a whole is possessed.
Well, on that note, I will talk to you on Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!! I'll be waiting :) I have approximately 45 minutes to talk FYI.
Love you! Merry Christmas! Can't wait for PJ's tomorrow!
Elder Magnusson
Sunday, December 20, 2009
December 19, 2009
Hi Family!
Thanks for the packages, I got the 2 from you guys last week! You don't have to be quite so careful on the weight haha, there was only a few ounces in them you could've send 10 times as much for the same price with those flat rate boxes haha, just FYI, cause $52 was way too much to send a couple bubble envelopes! Thank you so much though, the message tree made my week and many elders jealous haha.
First off, Im sorry to hear about your struggles with the Humanitarian move, thats pretty ridiculous. Hopefully someone will get on that and take care of it for next semester. Whew.
okay now to answer questions...
Members feed us probably 4-6 days out of the week, we eat just the one meal a day. Wonderful ward with great members, and they all have facebook. HA
Sometimes we do laundry by hand sometimes a member volunteers. Mostly we just wear the same clothes when its cool and change when its hot. It changes a LOT. Right now it is SUPER HOT and Im sweating like crazy haha
I live in Barrio Sayago, nearest major cross streets are Millan and Molinos de Raffo.
To use a cpu, I am in a cyber cafe, costs like a dollar an hour.
For lunch today I bought asado y papas fritas for $130. HA mmmmmmm I also eat a TON of Alfajors, Très Sueños and Surprise Negro are my favorites. and LOTS of fruit and milk too. The galletitas are $1 per so if im low on cash I buy a big bag for nothing.
OOOOkkkaaaayyy my news time!!
My first baptism was GREAT, I had to do it twice cause I missed an 'and' but she wasn't too mad haha The bad part was she slipped and fell coming out and I caught her in time to prevent her hitting her head, but she plopped on the ground and being a tiny brittle old woman, we were scared when she didnt show up for her confirmation on SUnday, but we visited her after and she's great. Her grandson Christoffer was really sick and still is. Ughh, she'll be at church tomorrow though for it. Next Saturday was have another baptism! My comps first baptism by contact (and mine of course) every single other hes had has been by references through members. Shows how important it is you have references for EVERY TIME THE MISSIONARIES VISIT. Thats an order haha :)
This week we had a bummer when 2 of our longtime (relatively of course) investigators didn't feel too good during church and said they know its true but won't be baptised because they didn't enjoy the service. But, all in all we are seeing success. We have another baptism on Sunday, Carmen. Her sister is being baptized too, but had to go back to Bs.As. for the holidays so other missionaries get to reap the harvest haha, That will be 2 for the month, which isn't quite our goal, but as they're the only baptisms in the zone, I don't feel quite so bad!!!!
This area is crazy. We also have 2 baptisms set for the beginning of January. 3rd or 4th or somewhere around there, can't remember. Changes are on the 5th, Im praying I get to stay here for another change with my comp. The Pres. doesn't ever leave someone in the same area with the same comp more than 2 changes, not super often more than one. For the security of not being stuck with a bad comp he moves things around constantly. Cross your fingers!
Today we went to the temple and its a LOT bigger than the Bs. As. one! The rooms were about the same size as the Mesa, but probably fewer of them.
I tried to send photos just now, but the cpu wont read my camera, Ill try it on a different type of cpu next time.
Congrats on all your swimming kayli and school Levi!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS! I'll send my telephone number and all that on Monday-ish so you guys can call me on Christmas instead and save me the hassle of a HUGE bill haha
Love you tons, serve the missionaries please! Do their laundry and feed them!
Elder Tylan Magnusson
Thanks for the packages, I got the 2 from you guys last week! You don't have to be quite so careful on the weight haha, there was only a few ounces in them you could've send 10 times as much for the same price with those flat rate boxes haha, just FYI, cause $52 was way too much to send a couple bubble envelopes! Thank you so much though, the message tree made my week and many elders jealous haha.
First off, Im sorry to hear about your struggles with the Humanitarian move, thats pretty ridiculous. Hopefully someone will get on that and take care of it for next semester. Whew.
okay now to answer questions...
Members feed us probably 4-6 days out of the week, we eat just the one meal a day. Wonderful ward with great members, and they all have facebook. HA
Sometimes we do laundry by hand sometimes a member volunteers. Mostly we just wear the same clothes when its cool and change when its hot. It changes a LOT. Right now it is SUPER HOT and Im sweating like crazy haha
I live in Barrio Sayago, nearest major cross streets are Millan and Molinos de Raffo.
To use a cpu, I am in a cyber cafe, costs like a dollar an hour.
For lunch today I bought asado y papas fritas for $130. HA mmmmmmm I also eat a TON of Alfajors, Très Sueños and Surprise Negro are my favorites. and LOTS of fruit and milk too. The galletitas are $1 per so if im low on cash I buy a big bag for nothing.
OOOOkkkaaaayyy my news time!!
My first baptism was GREAT, I had to do it twice cause I missed an 'and' but she wasn't too mad haha The bad part was she slipped and fell coming out and I caught her in time to prevent her hitting her head, but she plopped on the ground and being a tiny brittle old woman, we were scared when she didnt show up for her confirmation on SUnday, but we visited her after and she's great. Her grandson Christoffer was really sick and still is. Ughh, she'll be at church tomorrow though for it. Next Saturday was have another baptism! My comps first baptism by contact (and mine of course) every single other hes had has been by references through members. Shows how important it is you have references for EVERY TIME THE MISSIONARIES VISIT. Thats an order haha :)
This week we had a bummer when 2 of our longtime (relatively of course) investigators didn't feel too good during church and said they know its true but won't be baptised because they didn't enjoy the service. But, all in all we are seeing success. We have another baptism on Sunday, Carmen. Her sister is being baptized too, but had to go back to Bs.As. for the holidays so other missionaries get to reap the harvest haha, That will be 2 for the month, which isn't quite our goal, but as they're the only baptisms in the zone, I don't feel quite so bad!!!!
This area is crazy. We also have 2 baptisms set for the beginning of January. 3rd or 4th or somewhere around there, can't remember. Changes are on the 5th, Im praying I get to stay here for another change with my comp. The Pres. doesn't ever leave someone in the same area with the same comp more than 2 changes, not super often more than one. For the security of not being stuck with a bad comp he moves things around constantly. Cross your fingers!
Today we went to the temple and its a LOT bigger than the Bs. As. one! The rooms were about the same size as the Mesa, but probably fewer of them.
I tried to send photos just now, but the cpu wont read my camera, Ill try it on a different type of cpu next time.
Congrats on all your swimming kayli and school Levi!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS! I'll send my telephone number and all that on Monday-ish so you guys can call me on Christmas instead and save me the hassle of a HUGE bill haha
Love you tons, serve the missionaries please! Do their laundry and feed them!
Elder Tylan Magnusson
December 14, 2009
Hey!
My pday is Saturday this week because we're going to the temple, but here's a quick message to say I changed my USAA password to -----, dont know if that helps. The phone code is ------, pin is -----, I tried paying it online just now, but it says I have to call a 1-800 number and obviously I can't, so please just explain as best you can to them the situation and pretend to be me if you must. If worse comes to worst, an $8 bill won't get higher than $20 in 2 years, maybe just oh well it. haha Yes, I can open pics, but I want actual pictures cause people like to see them. I hope I get a package tomorrow in the meeting! Until Sat, tata
And yes, the baptism went through it was great!
My pday is Saturday this week because we're going to the temple, but here's a quick message to say I changed my USAA password to -----, dont know if that helps. The phone code is ------, pin is -----, I tried paying it online just now, but it says I have to call a 1-800 number and obviously I can't, so please just explain as best you can to them the situation and pretend to be me if you must. If worse comes to worst, an $8 bill won't get higher than $20 in 2 years, maybe just oh well it. haha Yes, I can open pics, but I want actual pictures cause people like to see them. I hope I get a package tomorrow in the meeting! Until Sat, tata
And yes, the baptism went through it was great!
7 December 2009
A handwritten letter from Tylan:
Dear Familia!
My email failed today, so you get a legit letter haha :) I hope it gets there by my next email, they say sometimes it gets there by Saturday :)
This week was phenomenal! I'm baptizing Elena on Sat!!! My first :) So stoked!! Usually we want members to actually do the baptism so converts have that 'connection' with someone that's here to stay, but theres a stake activity the same day and we won't ask anyone to stay. It should be great though.
We were worried when we came and found a nearly empty area book since there hadn't been hardly no success here, but this field is so white. With this kind of success in the hardest area, I sure can't imagine what it will be like in Salto (that zone has about a third of the baptisms in the whole mission)!! I don't relaly want to leave here, though. It's really such a funny place, we've gotten to know the locals pretty well :) Carlos is who we buy bread and candy from; there's the local hippie with a blonde fro, leather bandana and red leather pants singing as he walks around; the 40 year old downs guy that walks around all day every day picking flowers, etc... It's something from a sitcom!
Anyways, here's a little list of a few of our progressing investigators:
Elena, 73, taking care of a full household, living in one small room together. Has nothing and she makes us tortas frites (Uruguayan specialty). Grandsons Pablo (12) and Cristoffer (14) were baptized 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 months ago. Elena is going to be baptized Saturday, 12th.
Maria, 75, Elena's sister! New investigator. Had baptismal date the 26th of Dec. but lost it because they must attend church 3 times and she has to take care of her (their) super old and senile older brother and can't leave him for church. We have to find a way :)
Maria, 23, a REALLY REALLY pretty (haha) girl who got a BofM from Juan Ramon (3 year convert/seminary teacher/ward mission leader) and loved what she saw. She has 2 kids and isn't married, lives with her mom to take care of them since she's a nurse and works a lot. Her mom is nuts and flirts with us. She had a baptismal date of the 26th but lost it for another week because she got in a fight with her mom and couldn't go to church.
Nelida y Carmen, upper 60s, low 70's... sisters both widowed, happiest women in the world, slightly crazy in a funny good way. They love the feeling of the spirit and really want that always so they asked us to be baptized haha. Carmen will be the 26th, but Nelida not for another week because she'll still be visiting someone in Argentina then. They talk forever.
Susannah, upper 40's, 50's maybe, Milagro (11), and Salvador (8) are a really close family. Susannah was an investigator 8 yrs ago, but since lost interest. Now, Milagro is especially interested. They are all incredibly intelligent and ask TONS of questions, good solid ones, especially about what they read. They are all still unsure about baptism but are studying and praying hard to gain a testimony. Hopefully they will all be baptized on the 26th, we'll see!
Well, those are a few of our investigators :) Such good people. The ward has tons of wonderful people too, even though there is presently no bishopric. Before it was dissolved officially, the man who was the second counselor (a 23 yr old RM de Ogden) is conducting meetings and taking care of things. We have most lunches with members and sometimes they do our laundry too. When its as cool as the last few days though and we don't sweat, I pretty much wear the same shirt and pants for 4-5 days to minimize haha :)
There are lots of dogs though not nearly as many as on the streets in Argentina. The ones I see every day I have named. Some are friends, some are foes. If the mean ones come at you, when you bend down to pick up a rock they turn tail and run shrieking haha. It's funny but sad too.
If you want to see where I live, the closest major crossstreets are Millan y Molinas de Raffo in Barrio Sayago of Montevideo. Dad could probably figure it out on google earth. It's about 10 kilom from downtown, capital I mean, mas o menos.
Estamos teniendo muchissimo exito de acuerdo de obedienca y fe y sus oraciones. Por favor, sigan orando para nosotros y todos los misioneros en nuestro barrio y en todo el mundo. Tambien, provean un luger donde los misioneros pueden traer investigadores. Necesitamos la ayuda de los miembros mas que pueden comprender! Gracias por todos!
Love,
Elder Magnusson
PS: Write Obama and tell him get milk in bags. It's so good and could solve a lot of problems!
Dear Familia!
My email failed today, so you get a legit letter haha :) I hope it gets there by my next email, they say sometimes it gets there by Saturday :)
This week was phenomenal! I'm baptizing Elena on Sat!!! My first :) So stoked!! Usually we want members to actually do the baptism so converts have that 'connection' with someone that's here to stay, but theres a stake activity the same day and we won't ask anyone to stay. It should be great though.
We were worried when we came and found a nearly empty area book since there hadn't been hardly no success here, but this field is so white. With this kind of success in the hardest area, I sure can't imagine what it will be like in Salto (that zone has about a third of the baptisms in the whole mission)!! I don't relaly want to leave here, though. It's really such a funny place, we've gotten to know the locals pretty well :) Carlos is who we buy bread and candy from; there's the local hippie with a blonde fro, leather bandana and red leather pants singing as he walks around; the 40 year old downs guy that walks around all day every day picking flowers, etc... It's something from a sitcom!
Anyways, here's a little list of a few of our progressing investigators:
Elena, 73, taking care of a full household, living in one small room together. Has nothing and she makes us tortas frites (Uruguayan specialty). Grandsons Pablo (12) and Cristoffer (14) were baptized 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 months ago. Elena is going to be baptized Saturday, 12th.
Maria, 75, Elena's sister! New investigator. Had baptismal date the 26th of Dec. but lost it because they must attend church 3 times and she has to take care of her (their) super old and senile older brother and can't leave him for church. We have to find a way :)
Maria, 23, a REALLY REALLY pretty (haha) girl who got a BofM from Juan Ramon (3 year convert/seminary teacher/ward mission leader) and loved what she saw. She has 2 kids and isn't married, lives with her mom to take care of them since she's a nurse and works a lot. Her mom is nuts and flirts with us. She had a baptismal date of the 26th but lost it for another week because she got in a fight with her mom and couldn't go to church.
Nelida y Carmen, upper 60s, low 70's... sisters both widowed, happiest women in the world, slightly crazy in a funny good way. They love the feeling of the spirit and really want that always so they asked us to be baptized haha. Carmen will be the 26th, but Nelida not for another week because she'll still be visiting someone in Argentina then. They talk forever.
Susannah, upper 40's, 50's maybe, Milagro (11), and Salvador (8) are a really close family. Susannah was an investigator 8 yrs ago, but since lost interest. Now, Milagro is especially interested. They are all incredibly intelligent and ask TONS of questions, good solid ones, especially about what they read. They are all still unsure about baptism but are studying and praying hard to gain a testimony. Hopefully they will all be baptized on the 26th, we'll see!
Well, those are a few of our investigators :) Such good people. The ward has tons of wonderful people too, even though there is presently no bishopric. Before it was dissolved officially, the man who was the second counselor (a 23 yr old RM de Ogden) is conducting meetings and taking care of things. We have most lunches with members and sometimes they do our laundry too. When its as cool as the last few days though and we don't sweat, I pretty much wear the same shirt and pants for 4-5 days to minimize haha :)
There are lots of dogs though not nearly as many as on the streets in Argentina. The ones I see every day I have named. Some are friends, some are foes. If the mean ones come at you, when you bend down to pick up a rock they turn tail and run shrieking haha. It's funny but sad too.
If you want to see where I live, the closest major crossstreets are Millan y Molinas de Raffo in Barrio Sayago of Montevideo. Dad could probably figure it out on google earth. It's about 10 kilom from downtown, capital I mean, mas o menos.
Estamos teniendo muchissimo exito de acuerdo de obedienca y fe y sus oraciones. Por favor, sigan orando para nosotros y todos los misioneros en nuestro barrio y en todo el mundo. Tambien, provean un luger donde los misioneros pueden traer investigadores. Necesitamos la ayuda de los miembros mas que pueden comprender! Gracias por todos!
Love,
Elder Magnusson
PS: Write Obama and tell him get milk in bags. It's so good and could solve a lot of problems!
December 7, 2009
I just wrote a really long email, and then the comp kicked me off when I tried to send it, so sorry but my time is up.
I get to baptize on Sat (Elena), 6 investigators attended church and tons more progressing: we're seeing loads of success.
Sorry this email is so short, but it's the cpu's fault and I want to maintain obedience anyways haha
Love you all,
Elder Magnusson
I get to baptize on Sat (Elena), 6 investigators attended church and tons more progressing: we're seeing loads of success.
Sorry this email is so short, but it's the cpu's fault and I want to maintain obedience anyways haha
Love you all,
Elder Magnusson
November 30, 2009
My Pdays are Mondays now :)
I'm in Uruguay, serving in the most dangerous area of the city Montevideo, it's so awesome! We're opening it up again, as theres only been 3 baptisms in the last year here, so we made 4 our goal for December ha. We're on the right track, we have a grandma set to be batized on the 12th but she has some medical stuff we're praying for a miracle she can actually go in the water, so keep Elena in your prayers. Her grandsons Cristoffer and Pablo (14,12) were baptized 3 months ago, and their mom died shortly thereafter, so Elena has been taking care of them and their younger brother and cousin. They all live in one tiny room with a canvas roof, cement walls, and dirt floor. The interior of my mission is cityish, but the outside (its a few miles in diameter and we walk it all hahaha its nuts) is pretty....campo in castellano. Countryish? Super old and pretty ghetto. We have 4 other investigators we think will be baptized in the next month or so as long as they attend church. we're only 5 days in, so things are looking up for sure!!
My comp is Elder Grau from Asuncion Paraguay. Hes a great missionary of 9 months, and we're beginning to understand eachother. He speaks NO english whatsoever, so I'm trying to teach him as he teaches me.
Daniel Leatham was in my district!!!! I love that guy!!! You got the picture!? I bought a copy to send to you haha cool.
As for Christmas, you really don't need to send anything haha. If you do, though, I'll get anything after some time cause the office elders can pick it up from customs, but just follow the guidelines and it will get to me here, they are way less strict than Argentina. I think the guidelines were something like under 4 lbs (well under to be safe), and mark it as missionary supplies, and put the value under $50 (again, pref well under).
Lets see...yesterday was elections here, tell Jason to look up Uruguayan politics, he'll get a kick out of it. These people are even more political than Americans, and I thought the whole Obama fanaticism in the states was wild, this is just ridiculous, the new president has generated more excitement than the olympics, superbowl, and election combined. I guess he's a hardcore leftist in a party that hasnt had majority in 100 years or something like that. People are psycho for him, there was partying in all the streets as soon as the results came in, fireworks going off like crazy, people running around screaming with their party flags as capes, stuff like that. We had to go into our apartment early last night in fear of opposition gunfire haha. The Presidential Palace is between us and where we went to church (our ward closed for the election so we went to our zone leaders) and there were tons of armed guards EVERYWHERE with M16s. Pretty sweet.
Lets see, I forgot my camera now, but next week I can send pics I think. My apartment is the worst in the city, but they say some of the country ones are way worse. Its so funny, I laughed at the thought of you, mom, walking in and seeing the mold hahahaha You would cry its so funny. I need flipflops, after this we're gonna go get some. We live behind a pet store. Kayli would be so happy. And I DO wash my clothes by hand, dad :)
So the weather here is nothing like what it said online. I think the online stuff was probably for the vacation cities on the coast. Here it gets up to 125 with 100% humidity its nuts I sweat so much hahaha but after it gets hot it rains like NUTS and cools down to like 55. It gets steamy with that kind of change. SO....sometime its super hot and super cold in the same day, weirdest thing in the world. I like it, though, I don't mind the humidity like I thought I would.
As for Rachel, shes in my prayers always, keep me posted I wanna know everything going on with her for sure, and always send me pics with letters please!
For the family newsletter, you can write mine cause I do NOT have time haha. Just make it sound like me as much as possible.
Oh ya, I forgot to tell you how I spent my Thanksgiving! I bought my favorite Alfajor (Surprise Negro) and covered it in another layer of dulce, and spent a good 15 mintues savoring it slowly. My comp thought I was weird. It was a good day though we met a ton of members. The members here are very few but very strong (about 40-50 active, like 7 good old families and tons of younger individuals), but the Bishop went off the deep end so we're also trying to help as much as possible in the ward. Hopefully things will be reorganized soon.
Oh ya! Michael Jackson has an AWESOME house/palace/mansion here. Well, had. I don't know who lives there now, but it's pretty cool. I guess missionaries have never been inside yet, so we'll try hard haha.
All in all, this is an awesome place with some outstanding people in it that are very prepared to hear our message, and I am blessed with an outstanding trainer! President and Hermana are also really really phenomenal, but unfortunately they will be leaving in July, so I'll have a new Prez most of the time Im here. :(
mmmmm....No super weird food yet, and most of the missionaries say they have never had anything too bad, so thats way nice to hear. I have duck eggs waiting for me in my apartment for dinner haha Elena made us fry bread and gave us 2 eggs from her duck to take home yesterday. Sweet lady.
Take care all, I love you dearly and am thinking about you! I promise I'm working diligently and obediently, and we're being blessed hardcore for it! The Spirit is a wonderful third companion and I encourage you all to work on having His accompaniment always.
Finally, I ought to mention I spent $130 on a sandwhich with fries today. It was so good!
Elder Magnusson
P.S. $21 Uruguayo = $1 American
P.S.S I ate an entire thing of dulce yesterday cause I physically was unable to stop myself its sooooo gooooooodd. Also, I ate an entire bag of vanilla yogurt. The yogurt and milk come in bags haha its so much tastier here than the states, too!!! I can't get enough milk I want to move here after just for it.
I'm in Uruguay, serving in the most dangerous area of the city Montevideo, it's so awesome! We're opening it up again, as theres only been 3 baptisms in the last year here, so we made 4 our goal for December ha. We're on the right track, we have a grandma set to be batized on the 12th but she has some medical stuff we're praying for a miracle she can actually go in the water, so keep Elena in your prayers. Her grandsons Cristoffer and Pablo (14,12) were baptized 3 months ago, and their mom died shortly thereafter, so Elena has been taking care of them and their younger brother and cousin. They all live in one tiny room with a canvas roof, cement walls, and dirt floor. The interior of my mission is cityish, but the outside (its a few miles in diameter and we walk it all hahaha its nuts) is pretty....campo in castellano. Countryish? Super old and pretty ghetto. We have 4 other investigators we think will be baptized in the next month or so as long as they attend church. we're only 5 days in, so things are looking up for sure!!
My comp is Elder Grau from Asuncion Paraguay. Hes a great missionary of 9 months, and we're beginning to understand eachother. He speaks NO english whatsoever, so I'm trying to teach him as he teaches me.
Daniel Leatham was in my district!!!! I love that guy!!! You got the picture!? I bought a copy to send to you haha cool.
As for Christmas, you really don't need to send anything haha. If you do, though, I'll get anything after some time cause the office elders can pick it up from customs, but just follow the guidelines and it will get to me here, they are way less strict than Argentina. I think the guidelines were something like under 4 lbs (well under to be safe), and mark it as missionary supplies, and put the value under $50 (again, pref well under).
Lets see...yesterday was elections here, tell Jason to look up Uruguayan politics, he'll get a kick out of it. These people are even more political than Americans, and I thought the whole Obama fanaticism in the states was wild, this is just ridiculous, the new president has generated more excitement than the olympics, superbowl, and election combined. I guess he's a hardcore leftist in a party that hasnt had majority in 100 years or something like that. People are psycho for him, there was partying in all the streets as soon as the results came in, fireworks going off like crazy, people running around screaming with their party flags as capes, stuff like that. We had to go into our apartment early last night in fear of opposition gunfire haha. The Presidential Palace is between us and where we went to church (our ward closed for the election so we went to our zone leaders) and there were tons of armed guards EVERYWHERE with M16s. Pretty sweet.
Lets see, I forgot my camera now, but next week I can send pics I think. My apartment is the worst in the city, but they say some of the country ones are way worse. Its so funny, I laughed at the thought of you, mom, walking in and seeing the mold hahahaha You would cry its so funny. I need flipflops, after this we're gonna go get some. We live behind a pet store. Kayli would be so happy. And I DO wash my clothes by hand, dad :)
So the weather here is nothing like what it said online. I think the online stuff was probably for the vacation cities on the coast. Here it gets up to 125 with 100% humidity its nuts I sweat so much hahaha but after it gets hot it rains like NUTS and cools down to like 55. It gets steamy with that kind of change. SO....sometime its super hot and super cold in the same day, weirdest thing in the world. I like it, though, I don't mind the humidity like I thought I would.
As for Rachel, shes in my prayers always, keep me posted I wanna know everything going on with her for sure, and always send me pics with letters please!
For the family newsletter, you can write mine cause I do NOT have time haha. Just make it sound like me as much as possible.
Oh ya, I forgot to tell you how I spent my Thanksgiving! I bought my favorite Alfajor (Surprise Negro) and covered it in another layer of dulce, and spent a good 15 mintues savoring it slowly. My comp thought I was weird. It was a good day though we met a ton of members. The members here are very few but very strong (about 40-50 active, like 7 good old families and tons of younger individuals), but the Bishop went off the deep end so we're also trying to help as much as possible in the ward. Hopefully things will be reorganized soon.
Oh ya! Michael Jackson has an AWESOME house/palace/mansion here. Well, had. I don't know who lives there now, but it's pretty cool. I guess missionaries have never been inside yet, so we'll try hard haha.
All in all, this is an awesome place with some outstanding people in it that are very prepared to hear our message, and I am blessed with an outstanding trainer! President and Hermana are also really really phenomenal, but unfortunately they will be leaving in July, so I'll have a new Prez most of the time Im here. :(
mmmmm....No super weird food yet, and most of the missionaries say they have never had anything too bad, so thats way nice to hear. I have duck eggs waiting for me in my apartment for dinner haha Elena made us fry bread and gave us 2 eggs from her duck to take home yesterday. Sweet lady.
Take care all, I love you dearly and am thinking about you! I promise I'm working diligently and obediently, and we're being blessed hardcore for it! The Spirit is a wonderful third companion and I encourage you all to work on having His accompaniment always.
Finally, I ought to mention I spent $130 on a sandwhich with fries today. It was so good!
Elder Magnusson
P.S. $21 Uruguayo = $1 American
P.S.S I ate an entire thing of dulce yesterday cause I physically was unable to stop myself its sooooo gooooooodd. Also, I ate an entire bag of vanilla yogurt. The yogurt and milk come in bags haha its so much tastier here than the states, too!!! I can't get enough milk I want to move here after just for it.
November 24, 2009
Dear Families,
If you receive this email, it is because your missionary has arrived safely and is on his or her way to the area that has been assigned to them. We are very grateful and excited to have them with us here in the Uruguay Montevideo West Mission. Your Missionary will be able to write you on p-day which is on Mondays´, with an exception during change week it is moved to Tuesdays. The next p-day will be Noviembre 30th , 2009. Thank you for your support, love and prayers.
Best Wishes,
Elder Novoa
Secretario Ejecutivo
Uruguay Montevideo Oeste
Querida Familias,
Si receben este email es porque su misionero llego con seguridad a la mision y esta en camino a la area que se les indico. Sus Misioneros puden comunicarse con su familia el dia de preparacion que son normalmente el dia lunes. El siguente dia de preparacion o P-day es el 30 de Noviembre 2009. Gracias por su Apoyo, amor y oraciones.
Un Abrazo,
Elder Novoa
Secretario Ejecutivo
Uruguay Montevideo Oeste
If you receive this email, it is because your missionary has arrived safely and is on his or her way to the area that has been assigned to them. We are very grateful and excited to have them with us here in the Uruguay Montevideo West Mission. Your Missionary will be able to write you on p-day which is on Mondays´, with an exception during change week it is moved to Tuesdays. The next p-day will be Noviembre 30th , 2009. Thank you for your support, love and prayers.
Best Wishes,
Elder Novoa
Secretario Ejecutivo
Uruguay Montevideo Oeste
Querida Familias,
Si receben este email es porque su misionero llego con seguridad a la mision y esta en camino a la area que se les indico. Sus Misioneros puden comunicarse con su familia el dia de preparacion que son normalmente el dia lunes. El siguente dia de preparacion o P-day es el 30 de Noviembre 2009. Gracias por su Apoyo, amor y oraciones.
Un Abrazo,
Elder Novoa
Secretario Ejecutivo
Uruguay Montevideo Oeste
November 19, 2009
Hello Family!
First of all I wanna talk about today cause it's going to be so awesome! Since Monday, Pres. and Hma. Wilson have been in another part of town with Elder Bednar and last night they got back and couldn't stop smiling and I asked Hma. Wilson for her notes but she said they were too sacred, so I bet they learned some way tight stuff! Now today, in a few hours, we're driving a little over an hour away to go listen to him for 3 hours! Pres. asked him what he was going to talk to us about today and he said that after he meets us all, he would know and that he wouldn't be speaking to the missionaries as a group, but that everything he said would be directed towards an individual. So... Pres. said we had better pay REALLY close attention!! It's so tight I'm stoked for it!!!!
In other news, proselyting was pretty tight, we had more success than ever! We only probably had like 50% rejection, compared to a normal 95%. We ran out of scheduling time for lesson appointments after 7, and made 7 more "stop by" appointments, so we're pretty booked. Even if most of them fall through we'll be super booked just revisiting people and checking up on committments. One of the funny things that happened was our first people we talked to were 2 guys (Mariano and Alberto) sitting on stools on the edge of the street. They said that was their job, so we were confused but taught them anyways. They loved it and one of the dudes especially wanted to learn more about the Plan of Salvation, so we made an appoinntment to teach them there again this week. While we taught them, every single time a car drove by they would force it to stop and pay them to pass, and at random times people would just walk up and hand them money, but they were such nice guys we didn't think much of it haha. When we got back to the CCM, we asked Hmo. Zanzi what they were doing and it turns out they are most likely drug dealers. So that's cool, I never thought I'd have an appointment to teach a drug dealer the gospel while he's working hahaha we're going to ask them what they are doing and if they "admit" we're thinking about teaching the word of wisdom, cause this week we finished learning to teach the commandments (I can teach all the lessons in spanish now! Yay!) Wish me luck, should be interesting hahahaha. I don't think anyone else we taught that day was a drug dealer. One dude (Vicente) we taught had hardly any teeth though so we couldn't understand him so when he invited us in and we were teaching him, we'd ask him questions and he'd say something that sounded like "blegheawioehoahdi" and we'd be like "uh huh...." and bear testimony and teach some more and I guess somehow we said the right stuff cause he was crying hardcore it was great. I love the cryers cause its so easy to tell they feel the spirit. The spirit is the best companion ever!!! Another guy (Jose Raul) was so smart! We introduced ourselves from the Church of Jesus Christ of L.D.S. and he said "then why do they call you Mormons?" so that was a nice intro, and then he kept asking tons and tons of good, solid questions and read parts of the intro, which led to questions like "Who is Lehi? Nephites? Lamanites? Jaredites?" etc... so I'm certain he's going to read the whole book pretty quickly, if he hasn't already, just to settle his curiosity. He takes care of his niece most of the days all day cause he's retired and spends his time working on his car at his brothers house so we'll get to teach both of them.
Lets see... well, all is well here, today is my final Pday until I'm in Uruguay, I'll be departing from here at about 4am on Tuesday morning for the airport downtown. Flight to Montevideo is really short and I imagine we'll spend most of the day Tuesday at the mission home getting stuff organized and trainers set up. Hopefully I'll get to my area Tues afternoon so I can get to work Wednesday or even that evening!
I'm going to miss the food in the CCM, but on the streets I've seen 2 kilos of meat for like 2 bucks, so that like 50 cents a pound I'm gonna get so fat I can't wait! Also, fruit is super cheap so maybe not! :)
Send letters to my new address that I hope you still have, I put it on facebook.
Love you all a TON, pray that the plane makes it over the Rio, ha chiste
Elder Magnusson
PS: Happy Birthday Candy (5 days ago)! Give her a hug for me!
First of all I wanna talk about today cause it's going to be so awesome! Since Monday, Pres. and Hma. Wilson have been in another part of town with Elder Bednar and last night they got back and couldn't stop smiling and I asked Hma. Wilson for her notes but she said they were too sacred, so I bet they learned some way tight stuff! Now today, in a few hours, we're driving a little over an hour away to go listen to him for 3 hours! Pres. asked him what he was going to talk to us about today and he said that after he meets us all, he would know and that he wouldn't be speaking to the missionaries as a group, but that everything he said would be directed towards an individual. So... Pres. said we had better pay REALLY close attention!! It's so tight I'm stoked for it!!!!
In other news, proselyting was pretty tight, we had more success than ever! We only probably had like 50% rejection, compared to a normal 95%. We ran out of scheduling time for lesson appointments after 7, and made 7 more "stop by" appointments, so we're pretty booked. Even if most of them fall through we'll be super booked just revisiting people and checking up on committments. One of the funny things that happened was our first people we talked to were 2 guys (Mariano and Alberto) sitting on stools on the edge of the street. They said that was their job, so we were confused but taught them anyways. They loved it and one of the dudes especially wanted to learn more about the Plan of Salvation, so we made an appoinntment to teach them there again this week. While we taught them, every single time a car drove by they would force it to stop and pay them to pass, and at random times people would just walk up and hand them money, but they were such nice guys we didn't think much of it haha. When we got back to the CCM, we asked Hmo. Zanzi what they were doing and it turns out they are most likely drug dealers. So that's cool, I never thought I'd have an appointment to teach a drug dealer the gospel while he's working hahaha we're going to ask them what they are doing and if they "admit" we're thinking about teaching the word of wisdom, cause this week we finished learning to teach the commandments (I can teach all the lessons in spanish now! Yay!) Wish me luck, should be interesting hahahaha. I don't think anyone else we taught that day was a drug dealer. One dude (Vicente) we taught had hardly any teeth though so we couldn't understand him so when he invited us in and we were teaching him, we'd ask him questions and he'd say something that sounded like "blegheawioehoahdi" and we'd be like "uh huh...." and bear testimony and teach some more and I guess somehow we said the right stuff cause he was crying hardcore it was great. I love the cryers cause its so easy to tell they feel the spirit. The spirit is the best companion ever!!! Another guy (Jose Raul) was so smart! We introduced ourselves from the Church of Jesus Christ of L.D.S. and he said "then why do they call you Mormons?" so that was a nice intro, and then he kept asking tons and tons of good, solid questions and read parts of the intro, which led to questions like "Who is Lehi? Nephites? Lamanites? Jaredites?" etc... so I'm certain he's going to read the whole book pretty quickly, if he hasn't already, just to settle his curiosity. He takes care of his niece most of the days all day cause he's retired and spends his time working on his car at his brothers house so we'll get to teach both of them.
Lets see... well, all is well here, today is my final Pday until I'm in Uruguay, I'll be departing from here at about 4am on Tuesday morning for the airport downtown. Flight to Montevideo is really short and I imagine we'll spend most of the day Tuesday at the mission home getting stuff organized and trainers set up. Hopefully I'll get to my area Tues afternoon so I can get to work Wednesday or even that evening!
I'm going to miss the food in the CCM, but on the streets I've seen 2 kilos of meat for like 2 bucks, so that like 50 cents a pound I'm gonna get so fat I can't wait! Also, fruit is super cheap so maybe not! :)
Send letters to my new address that I hope you still have, I put it on facebook.
Love you all a TON, pray that the plane makes it over the Rio, ha chiste
Elder Magnusson
PS: Happy Birthday Candy (5 days ago)! Give her a hug for me!
November 12, 2009
Hello!!
First of all, CONGRATULATIONS ANDREW!!!!!! Dang I'm so happy he's gonna be speaking my language!!!! And that he won't be left out in his family hahaha
This week was pretty cool. Most of our appointments for proselyting fell through. 2 of them were pretty heartbreaking, great people who can't accept anything more than atheism, we felt like had lost something in ourselves it hurt so bad. I'm beginning to understand the scriptures when the sons of Mosiah wept out sadness for those that rejected them. We have a message that is so incredibly wonderful, and I hate seeing people not take a smallest leap of faith when it could bring them so much happiness. The appointment that we were most excited for fell through because the mom (82) was unable to get up from being really really ill, but her son met us at the door and thanked us for bringing her peace to her heart, so it was worth feeling good. She'll accept it once she has the opportunity soon in the next life I think. Whew, theres just so many good people... I love em!
This week was the first for the newbies, meaning it was my first week being in the oldest group at the CCM!! On Tuesday, we hit our 2-weeks-left mark, so now Im down to like 12 days. I think we're prepared though. I sure hope so!!! haha
It feels like I've been in here months and at the same time just days. I hope being in Uruguay slows down!
A week from today, Elder Bednar is coming into town, so I'll get to meet him! I'm pretty excited to hear from him and Elder Snow of the Seventy.
I watched a MTC devotional from January 13,2009 (we get them a little delayed from Provo haha) by Elder Holland, and I was looking for Will and I think I saw him!!!!
Look up the song "I Testify of Christ" the music is by Janice Perry and its pretty good, but the words are by someone else and they are my favoritre church song words EVER. Its so good!
In my personal scripture studies, I discovered that the Mulekites are descendants of Babylon, not Israel!! Still trying to figure out why that's significant, but I had never heard it referred to before. Mulek was the cousin of Nebuchadnezzar. Maybe its why Christ appeared in Bountiful instead of Zarahemla. Pretty cool!! Check it out!!
We had cow stomach pizza again this week. It was way better than last time, but I think alongside eggplant and zuchinni stew, it is my least favorite dish thus far. I can eat it, buuuuuut...I would rather starve. ha
I would advise not to send anymore letters to this address, but rather my mission address in Uruguay. I'll get there the 24th, just in time to spend my Thanksgiving showing thanks in a very different way than you guys haha. Have fun, and give lots of hugs out to the family, I miss them all a lot!
Thanks for the pictures of Rachel hahaha They made me so happy, I got them last week, but couldnt remember if I told you. You should send pics whenever you send letters I think, cause I love pictures.
As for Trevor, please tell him he better write me real quick or Im gonna lay down the law, or just send me his address cause I wanna write him ASAP. Next time you see Sis. Stockman give her a bear hug from me, too, it's gotta be tough to see 2 sons off to the military.
I love you all a ton, and please tell all my buddies and lady friends I love them a ton, too.
Spanish is piecing together nicely, I can read the scriptures and understand mostly now! yay!
Pray always,
Elder Magnusson
First of all, CONGRATULATIONS ANDREW!!!!!! Dang I'm so happy he's gonna be speaking my language!!!! And that he won't be left out in his family hahaha
This week was pretty cool. Most of our appointments for proselyting fell through. 2 of them were pretty heartbreaking, great people who can't accept anything more than atheism, we felt like had lost something in ourselves it hurt so bad. I'm beginning to understand the scriptures when the sons of Mosiah wept out sadness for those that rejected them. We have a message that is so incredibly wonderful, and I hate seeing people not take a smallest leap of faith when it could bring them so much happiness. The appointment that we were most excited for fell through because the mom (82) was unable to get up from being really really ill, but her son met us at the door and thanked us for bringing her peace to her heart, so it was worth feeling good. She'll accept it once she has the opportunity soon in the next life I think. Whew, theres just so many good people... I love em!
This week was the first for the newbies, meaning it was my first week being in the oldest group at the CCM!! On Tuesday, we hit our 2-weeks-left mark, so now Im down to like 12 days. I think we're prepared though. I sure hope so!!! haha
It feels like I've been in here months and at the same time just days. I hope being in Uruguay slows down!
A week from today, Elder Bednar is coming into town, so I'll get to meet him! I'm pretty excited to hear from him and Elder Snow of the Seventy.
I watched a MTC devotional from January 13,2009 (we get them a little delayed from Provo haha) by Elder Holland, and I was looking for Will and I think I saw him!!!!
Look up the song "I Testify of Christ" the music is by Janice Perry and its pretty good, but the words are by someone else and they are my favoritre church song words EVER. Its so good!
In my personal scripture studies, I discovered that the Mulekites are descendants of Babylon, not Israel!! Still trying to figure out why that's significant, but I had never heard it referred to before. Mulek was the cousin of Nebuchadnezzar. Maybe its why Christ appeared in Bountiful instead of Zarahemla. Pretty cool!! Check it out!!
We had cow stomach pizza again this week. It was way better than last time, but I think alongside eggplant and zuchinni stew, it is my least favorite dish thus far. I can eat it, buuuuuut...I would rather starve. ha
I would advise not to send anymore letters to this address, but rather my mission address in Uruguay. I'll get there the 24th, just in time to spend my Thanksgiving showing thanks in a very different way than you guys haha. Have fun, and give lots of hugs out to the family, I miss them all a lot!
Thanks for the pictures of Rachel hahaha They made me so happy, I got them last week, but couldnt remember if I told you. You should send pics whenever you send letters I think, cause I love pictures.
As for Trevor, please tell him he better write me real quick or Im gonna lay down the law, or just send me his address cause I wanna write him ASAP. Next time you see Sis. Stockman give her a bear hug from me, too, it's gotta be tough to see 2 sons off to the military.
I love you all a ton, and please tell all my buddies and lady friends I love them a ton, too.
Spanish is piecing together nicely, I can read the scriptures and understand mostly now! yay!
Pray always,
Elder Magnusson
November 5, 2009
Holy smokes this was the best week ever!!!!!
On Friday we went proselyting since we had a devotional saturday ill talk about in a sec.
We first checked up on a lady named Maria we'd talked with a lot and shed kept her BoM reading commitments, and then we assigned her Alma 40 and 41 in prep for Plan of Salvation next week. Then we went from appointment to appointment and almost all of them went through and those that didnt, something came up to replace it.
These 2 ladies we talked to for like an hour and a half answering their questions (dunno how we spoke, it was pretty sweet!) and Saturday we're teaching their 3 generations of family together. I got to say a prayer with them and we gave scriptures, etc... It was so incredible! Then, we went to an appointment with a girl named Mariel who was 14 and she wasn't there, but her mom was and saw we were sweaty so she invited us in to cool off and we got to teach her the full 1st lesson and she loved it, and confided in us that her daughter (14...ironic?) had been having sleeping problems the last 2 weeks since she met us and had suddenly sparked an interest in finding faith because she didnt really believe in the Catholic stuff like her, so we were amazed how the Lord prepares people to hear the message. Friday was really just a ton of PERFECT experiences one after another it was possibly the best day of my life. I can't wait to do that every day, although I doubt we'll see so much success every day.
On Saturday, our devotional was with Hma. Beck and Hma. Matsumori of General relief society and primary (Hma. Matsumori spoke in GC this last time!) They shared a bunch of missionary experiences it was cool. It was also fun hearing them speak spanish. The translator (one of the teachers) was still needed hahaha. They were great though. Nice ladies.
On the 19th Elder Bednar is coming to talk to the Bs. As. Missionaries and Pte. Wilson hooked us up with some buses to go as well, so that will be pretty cool!
Saturday was the last day for the temple to be open and it was soooooo busy all day! After it closed the president and a few area authorities spent the night here at the CCM, meaning the cooks made extra-delicious food! On Monday we spent the morning taking hundreds of pictures, chairs, etc... out of the temple and into the CCM. It was weird going through the temple in jeans and a tshirt. Now theres construction workers outside the temple shattering all the mirrors, sledging the chandeliers, etc... Cause I guess most of the stuff in the temple has to be destroyed. I was hoping to get a crystal from the big chandelliere :( haha
Todays pday is super long since we're not going to the temple, so we're holding the CCM's first 'Man Games'. Should be funny.
Congrats Kayli and Kristine on your swim!!!!! Thats way tight!
Sorry to hear Halloween was different, but I imagine it was well worth it! My Halloween was different too hahaha we carved tangerines.
Its getting warmer here as it cools there, but Im getting used to the humidity, it aint too bad, just a little extra sweaty. ugh.
As for scripture study, I'm now in 1 Sam 12 and its wonderfully violent, anytime I miss movies, I can just turn to the book of Judges and get the same action!
After I leave for uruguay in 3 weeks, they will forward my mail, so no worries about that :) Just send it to my new address starting my last week here and it should be perfect.
Yes, dad, we get fresh bread every day, some kid brings a huge basket of fresh rolls to us, and yes to facturas too cause Hmo. Zanzi snuck them to us hahaha mmmm me gusta.
Keep me posted on life! I love you all dearly! Trust in the Lord and he will provide, trust in the Spirit and he will make manifest you all things.
Work hard and find some references for the Tucson missionaries!!!!!!!
Love,
Elder Magnusson
p.s. where is Andrew going on his mish!!!!!??????
p.p.s. tell Trevor I need his address ASAP!!!!!!!
On Friday we went proselyting since we had a devotional saturday ill talk about in a sec.
We first checked up on a lady named Maria we'd talked with a lot and shed kept her BoM reading commitments, and then we assigned her Alma 40 and 41 in prep for Plan of Salvation next week. Then we went from appointment to appointment and almost all of them went through and those that didnt, something came up to replace it.
These 2 ladies we talked to for like an hour and a half answering their questions (dunno how we spoke, it was pretty sweet!) and Saturday we're teaching their 3 generations of family together. I got to say a prayer with them and we gave scriptures, etc... It was so incredible! Then, we went to an appointment with a girl named Mariel who was 14 and she wasn't there, but her mom was and saw we were sweaty so she invited us in to cool off and we got to teach her the full 1st lesson and she loved it, and confided in us that her daughter (14...ironic?) had been having sleeping problems the last 2 weeks since she met us and had suddenly sparked an interest in finding faith because she didnt really believe in the Catholic stuff like her, so we were amazed how the Lord prepares people to hear the message. Friday was really just a ton of PERFECT experiences one after another it was possibly the best day of my life. I can't wait to do that every day, although I doubt we'll see so much success every day.
On Saturday, our devotional was with Hma. Beck and Hma. Matsumori of General relief society and primary (Hma. Matsumori spoke in GC this last time!) They shared a bunch of missionary experiences it was cool. It was also fun hearing them speak spanish. The translator (one of the teachers) was still needed hahaha. They were great though. Nice ladies.
On the 19th Elder Bednar is coming to talk to the Bs. As. Missionaries and Pte. Wilson hooked us up with some buses to go as well, so that will be pretty cool!
Saturday was the last day for the temple to be open and it was soooooo busy all day! After it closed the president and a few area authorities spent the night here at the CCM, meaning the cooks made extra-delicious food! On Monday we spent the morning taking hundreds of pictures, chairs, etc... out of the temple and into the CCM. It was weird going through the temple in jeans and a tshirt. Now theres construction workers outside the temple shattering all the mirrors, sledging the chandeliers, etc... Cause I guess most of the stuff in the temple has to be destroyed. I was hoping to get a crystal from the big chandelliere :( haha
Todays pday is super long since we're not going to the temple, so we're holding the CCM's first 'Man Games'. Should be funny.
Congrats Kayli and Kristine on your swim!!!!! Thats way tight!
Sorry to hear Halloween was different, but I imagine it was well worth it! My Halloween was different too hahaha we carved tangerines.
Its getting warmer here as it cools there, but Im getting used to the humidity, it aint too bad, just a little extra sweaty. ugh.
As for scripture study, I'm now in 1 Sam 12 and its wonderfully violent, anytime I miss movies, I can just turn to the book of Judges and get the same action!
After I leave for uruguay in 3 weeks, they will forward my mail, so no worries about that :) Just send it to my new address starting my last week here and it should be perfect.
Yes, dad, we get fresh bread every day, some kid brings a huge basket of fresh rolls to us, and yes to facturas too cause Hmo. Zanzi snuck them to us hahaha mmmm me gusta.
Keep me posted on life! I love you all dearly! Trust in the Lord and he will provide, trust in the Spirit and he will make manifest you all things.
Work hard and find some references for the Tucson missionaries!!!!!!!
Love,
Elder Magnusson
p.s. where is Andrew going on his mish!!!!!??????
p.p.s. tell Trevor I need his address ASAP!!!!!!!
October 29, 2009
Hiiii!
First of all, yes dad I LOVE milanesa and empanadas they are pretty awesome.
Secondly, I hold the record for most letters since I get the most every week. Its great. Keep em coming hahahahaha Send pictures too, cause people always ask to see your family and friends and new pics are fun.
K, last Saturday proleyting was super awesome. The very first dude we talked to in front of his house invited us to come teach him tomorrow, so our first person in the area is our very first appointment!!!! THEN, the very first house we knocked on did the same thing. Soooo....Elder Mace and I are basically rocking Buenos Aires. Just kidding. Sorta. Every time we do ANYTHING, we pray for the spirit to guide us, and it works so well. I encourage you all to do the same, even with some simple and seemingly unimportant things it can be good to be spirit-guided. He the ultimate convert tool :)
All in all, tomorrow we have 4 appointments set up for sure, and another 2 possibles, so on top of regular proselyting, it should be a really full and quick day. Im so stoked to teach a legit lesson in someones house in spanish its gonna be the greatest day ever.
In other news, on Monday, Elder and Sister Aidiucaitis (i think thats how its spelled haha) of the first Seventy came to visit us and talk about missionary work. It was sooo coooolll!!!!! The entire thing was in spanish and the gift of tongues was on fire in that room cause we understood every word! Already seeing miracles! Its so neat!
Today is our last day to go to the temple because its closing for 2 years after Saturday. Its been soooo busy with huge numbers of people setting up big picnics on the temple lawn and just spending all day. Its cool to see how much people love their temple here. The next closest is Montevideo so one of my teachers has to get married there now instead haha.
My district is still working hard, they are an excellent group of men. I guess after our missions are over, we all go to the Montevideo temple together and fly out after, so that'll be humorously reminiscent of our arrival. Its pretty cool, though.
Congrats to Kayli on her swimming, she is such a beast. Congrats to Levi on his height, but tell him too bad he'll never reach mine. Sucker :) haha
Good luck with your pack meeting Colton, make em fall off their chairs laughing!
I hope you gave Aunt Liz and Michelle hugs for me!! I cant wait to see the yard in a couple years, send me pics when it starts to grow nice.
Oh, and my friend Hannah wrote me this last week and Steven is in her ward in Idaho hahahaha Its pretty sweet :)
I love you all and am glad to hear you are all succeeding, please keep me in your prayers with the whole learning spanish thing, I want to be fluent really soon really badly, I have found it is so hard to fully express your thoughts and feelings without english, which is essential in teaching the gospel. So, Im excited to get out into the field!!!
Its finally warm, and it was like in the upper 80s and humid and it felt so good, but if it gets much warmer we're not gonna get along too well haha. It will, but thats okay too. As long as the mosquitos leave me alone they are HUGE!
I love you all and am thinking about you when I have a moment to spare, keep working hard, especially you mom with health stuff!!! Never stop smiling because we have the greatest reason to rejoice ALWAYS!
Love, Elder Magnusson
First of all, yes dad I LOVE milanesa and empanadas they are pretty awesome.
Secondly, I hold the record for most letters since I get the most every week. Its great. Keep em coming hahahahaha Send pictures too, cause people always ask to see your family and friends and new pics are fun.
K, last Saturday proleyting was super awesome. The very first dude we talked to in front of his house invited us to come teach him tomorrow, so our first person in the area is our very first appointment!!!! THEN, the very first house we knocked on did the same thing. Soooo....Elder Mace and I are basically rocking Buenos Aires. Just kidding. Sorta. Every time we do ANYTHING, we pray for the spirit to guide us, and it works so well. I encourage you all to do the same, even with some simple and seemingly unimportant things it can be good to be spirit-guided. He the ultimate convert tool :)
All in all, tomorrow we have 4 appointments set up for sure, and another 2 possibles, so on top of regular proselyting, it should be a really full and quick day. Im so stoked to teach a legit lesson in someones house in spanish its gonna be the greatest day ever.
In other news, on Monday, Elder and Sister Aidiucaitis (i think thats how its spelled haha) of the first Seventy came to visit us and talk about missionary work. It was sooo coooolll!!!!! The entire thing was in spanish and the gift of tongues was on fire in that room cause we understood every word! Already seeing miracles! Its so neat!
Today is our last day to go to the temple because its closing for 2 years after Saturday. Its been soooo busy with huge numbers of people setting up big picnics on the temple lawn and just spending all day. Its cool to see how much people love their temple here. The next closest is Montevideo so one of my teachers has to get married there now instead haha.
My district is still working hard, they are an excellent group of men. I guess after our missions are over, we all go to the Montevideo temple together and fly out after, so that'll be humorously reminiscent of our arrival. Its pretty cool, though.
Congrats to Kayli on her swimming, she is such a beast. Congrats to Levi on his height, but tell him too bad he'll never reach mine. Sucker :) haha
Good luck with your pack meeting Colton, make em fall off their chairs laughing!
I hope you gave Aunt Liz and Michelle hugs for me!! I cant wait to see the yard in a couple years, send me pics when it starts to grow nice.
Oh, and my friend Hannah wrote me this last week and Steven is in her ward in Idaho hahahaha Its pretty sweet :)
I love you all and am glad to hear you are all succeeding, please keep me in your prayers with the whole learning spanish thing, I want to be fluent really soon really badly, I have found it is so hard to fully express your thoughts and feelings without english, which is essential in teaching the gospel. So, Im excited to get out into the field!!!
Its finally warm, and it was like in the upper 80s and humid and it felt so good, but if it gets much warmer we're not gonna get along too well haha. It will, but thats okay too. As long as the mosquitos leave me alone they are HUGE!
I love you all and am thinking about you when I have a moment to spare, keep working hard, especially you mom with health stuff!!! Never stop smiling because we have the greatest reason to rejoice ALWAYS!
Love, Elder Magnusson
October 22, 2009
Hi everyone!
This week was another good one. Although I dont have much to say haha time is going by really quickly and it seems like I just sent an email.
Lets see... on Saturday I went proselyting for like 8ish hours and it was way cool, we taught 14 full lessons (counts as a lesson if you teach at least 4 principles and extend a commitment) and saw a lot of success. Our area was a lot harder than our others had been previous weeks, but I was glad to experience a bit of what a real full day of proselyting will be like. and Im excited cause it's a blast and a LOT easier than I thought it would be to just go up to strangers and chat. I love these people so much. Oh, and the cooks gave us a full stack of oreos in our lunches. And juice boxes. They have excellent juice here. ha
This week we learned a ton, and tomorrow we're being 'evaluated' on lesson 2. By evaluated I mean we teach a teacher the whole first 2 lessons in spanish, it takes like an hour or so, and we incorporate all of our ´´skills´´ with scriptures and questions, etc... and they give us feedback on things we can improve with. Its pretty cool and really helpful.
I got Steven's letter yesterday, it made me really happy :) Dang I miss that kid, hope he's doing well since the letter was dated a month ago hahaha
I still dont know what day Im leaving for Uruguay, its like November 24th or something, whenever the Tuesday is. I'm near halfway through and I feel totally inadequate but the Lord will provide :)
My email inbox was empty and it made me sad since I dont have much to write, so you all should send me some short notes throughout the week so I know whats up sooner than 2 weeks after via snailmail ;-)
Tell Fofo and Rosie at Pizza Hut that ellos necesitian ofrecer los chorizos en el menú. Chorizo rocks my world. Oh, and todays spinach lasagna was the BEST. Its like pasta, meat, spinach and tons of mayonnaise (they put mayo on everything and tons of it its weird and awesome) with some other weird stuff and I need to learn to make it!!!!!!!!!!!!! Possibly in my top 5 favorite foods ever.
My district is doing well, although sometimes class gets rowdy. But what can you expect from 12 19yrolds in a tiny room crampt together for 8 hours a day haha. Its fun though. Hmo. Zanzi only has one more kidney stone to pass. I told him he should name them. They're sorta like babies without feelings.
I finished the Book of Mormon again this morning! I felt victorious. I'm trying to finish the standard works and the whole mish library in 6 months, so Im on track! I love the scriptures so much and I always find new things in them that I hadn't realized before or stood out in an entirely different way.
Oh, and the cooks started buying kiwis. I really want mangos though. a LOT.
As for packages, some big ones get through, but many tiny ones dont. So....Send my meds in a slightly oversized envelope with nothing more than a letter or something. Im almost out of em by the way so I hope its on its way haha. I cant leave the mtc to pick up packages at customs, so dont send anything else some elders get a customs notification every single week. No bueno.
Times about up, I love you all dearly and hope all is well. Tell my friends that if they arent gonna write me soon, they oughtta email me their addresses so I can write them! I'm especially eager to hear about Andrews mission call to UMO!!!! Oh, and can I get Bishop Hendersons mailing address? We're encouraged to keep in contact with our Bishops :)
Well, I know that this is where Im supposed to be and Im glad that its true cause its a blast! Estoy orando para ustedes siempre!
Love,
Elder Magnusson
This week was another good one. Although I dont have much to say haha time is going by really quickly and it seems like I just sent an email.
Lets see... on Saturday I went proselyting for like 8ish hours and it was way cool, we taught 14 full lessons (counts as a lesson if you teach at least 4 principles and extend a commitment) and saw a lot of success. Our area was a lot harder than our others had been previous weeks, but I was glad to experience a bit of what a real full day of proselyting will be like. and Im excited cause it's a blast and a LOT easier than I thought it would be to just go up to strangers and chat. I love these people so much. Oh, and the cooks gave us a full stack of oreos in our lunches. And juice boxes. They have excellent juice here. ha
This week we learned a ton, and tomorrow we're being 'evaluated' on lesson 2. By evaluated I mean we teach a teacher the whole first 2 lessons in spanish, it takes like an hour or so, and we incorporate all of our ´´skills´´ with scriptures and questions, etc... and they give us feedback on things we can improve with. Its pretty cool and really helpful.
I got Steven's letter yesterday, it made me really happy :) Dang I miss that kid, hope he's doing well since the letter was dated a month ago hahaha
I still dont know what day Im leaving for Uruguay, its like November 24th or something, whenever the Tuesday is. I'm near halfway through and I feel totally inadequate but the Lord will provide :)
My email inbox was empty and it made me sad since I dont have much to write, so you all should send me some short notes throughout the week so I know whats up sooner than 2 weeks after via snailmail ;-)
Tell Fofo and Rosie at Pizza Hut that ellos necesitian ofrecer los chorizos en el menú. Chorizo rocks my world. Oh, and todays spinach lasagna was the BEST. Its like pasta, meat, spinach and tons of mayonnaise (they put mayo on everything and tons of it its weird and awesome) with some other weird stuff and I need to learn to make it!!!!!!!!!!!!! Possibly in my top 5 favorite foods ever.
My district is doing well, although sometimes class gets rowdy. But what can you expect from 12 19yrolds in a tiny room crampt together for 8 hours a day haha. Its fun though. Hmo. Zanzi only has one more kidney stone to pass. I told him he should name them. They're sorta like babies without feelings.
I finished the Book of Mormon again this morning! I felt victorious. I'm trying to finish the standard works and the whole mish library in 6 months, so Im on track! I love the scriptures so much and I always find new things in them that I hadn't realized before or stood out in an entirely different way.
Oh, and the cooks started buying kiwis. I really want mangos though. a LOT.
As for packages, some big ones get through, but many tiny ones dont. So....Send my meds in a slightly oversized envelope with nothing more than a letter or something. Im almost out of em by the way so I hope its on its way haha. I cant leave the mtc to pick up packages at customs, so dont send anything else some elders get a customs notification every single week. No bueno.
Times about up, I love you all dearly and hope all is well. Tell my friends that if they arent gonna write me soon, they oughtta email me their addresses so I can write them! I'm especially eager to hear about Andrews mission call to UMO!!!! Oh, and can I get Bishop Hendersons mailing address? We're encouraged to keep in contact with our Bishops :)
Well, I know that this is where Im supposed to be and Im glad that its true cause its a blast! Estoy orando para ustedes siempre!
Love,
Elder Magnusson
October 15, 2009
Missionary Scrip: dont have scriptures with me haha, but I think I'll stick with Isaiah 40:3-5. I think that was it haha. if it makes no sense, Ill email you the right one next week.
and yep, I got the Visa card on Sunday! yay!
K, so this week was pretty fantastico again. Friday we had another milestone that we ACED, he said he had no suggestions for us to improve teaching lesson 1 in spanish and english. Tomorrow we have another milestone where we teach lesson 1 in spanish, with comprehension questions, scripture explanations, etc... Itll be awesome and we're gonna ace it again I think.
Saturday, we went proselyting for 2 hours. It was so much fun again, and we definitely got a baptism. We felt constrained to talk to this MASSIVE dude, he was super tall and...large in general. Big guy. He laughed a bunch and said he was an evangelist with a lot of faith. We shared our message anyways and his countenance slowly changed til he was super serious mode and got teary eyed. We ended with a challenge to read the BoM and all he said was ¿sin costa? meaning 'free?' we laughed and smiled and he expressed his gratitude and we shared Moroni's promise and all that and he was way excited to read it. We got his and a few other addresses and phone numbers for some solid referrals. Unfortunately, we're going to a different area on Saturday (7 hours!!!) so we dont get to teach him :( Right after we taught that dude, some really old, very eccentric lady with beads and scarfs and stuff was strolling down the street and when she saw us, she sprinted over to us old-lady like hobbling and told us we had a message for her. We were kinda blown away confused haha but we shared with her some stuff and gave her pamphlets and she went off to work.
The people here are so much better than in the US haha, they are way nicer and so much more sincere! I think Ill live down here one day hahaha
Anyways, Sunday was good and Monday-Wednesday we just have classes, nothing special, so that pretty much sums it all up :)
Today I got letters from Kamrie, Dad, Mom, Kayli, Melissa and Nichole, and 3 dearelders from mom (they are all partial letters that cut off and the next one begins halfways through a different letter hahaha dearelder is so ridiculous)
Spanish is coming along great, and since transfers occurred tuesday, today we got 8 new north americanos. suckers. i feel pretty good being better at spanish than some people now haha. No longer the rookies!
Dang, its been 3 weeks already and it feels like a lifetime and at the same time just a day. Hope it slows down though I love the CCM, and can't wait to get some work done in uruguay. With the amount of success we've seen in 4 hours of proselyting, we're gonna convert uruguay in a day or two i think.
Keep the letters coming, everyone is super jealous of my wonderful friends and family. Trevor, Candy, Stacy, Alyssa, Kylyne, etc.... that means YOU. <3 (hahahaha)
Oh, and I miss my latino friends who left on transfers (theyre only here for 3 weeks of course) I got some good pictures on Sunday (every 3rd sunday we can take pics for an hour before the elders leave) I hope this one is a good batch of latinos. Dang, they are so much fun.
Did Andrew get his call yet? Dont tell me in an email, tell him he better send me a letter! And tell mi amigos to send me pictures too. Everyone, especially the latinos, love to see pics of family and friends. They were super impressed by the tall cactus pic we got. haha
mmmm, every Friday is asada day, so we have some kind of grilled meat, chorizo, and a ton of other delicious stuff, so be jealous tomorrow. Your missing out. The food is sooooooooo goooooooooooddddd. Im definitely getting fatter. I hope my temple pants still fit alright today. Some people are going on bread fasts for weeks at a time to prevent gaining weight. As long as my clothes fit, I could care less since Im gonna lose it all in Uruguay. I still run for at least a half hour a day - ish haha.
ummm oh ya, 2 days ago it was really warm and humid (yesterday and today its so cold again) and I got MAULED by mosquitos. It sucked they are HUGE!!! I got a bunch of bites, but they all went down by today so its okay. Im glad we got that net for when Im in UY.
K, time is up. I love you all dearly, may God be with you and bless you all, this is a marvelous work and wonder, and stay safe.
and yep, I got the Visa card on Sunday! yay!
K, so this week was pretty fantastico again. Friday we had another milestone that we ACED, he said he had no suggestions for us to improve teaching lesson 1 in spanish and english. Tomorrow we have another milestone where we teach lesson 1 in spanish, with comprehension questions, scripture explanations, etc... Itll be awesome and we're gonna ace it again I think.
Saturday, we went proselyting for 2 hours. It was so much fun again, and we definitely got a baptism. We felt constrained to talk to this MASSIVE dude, he was super tall and...large in general. Big guy. He laughed a bunch and said he was an evangelist with a lot of faith. We shared our message anyways and his countenance slowly changed til he was super serious mode and got teary eyed. We ended with a challenge to read the BoM and all he said was ¿sin costa? meaning 'free?' we laughed and smiled and he expressed his gratitude and we shared Moroni's promise and all that and he was way excited to read it. We got his and a few other addresses and phone numbers for some solid referrals. Unfortunately, we're going to a different area on Saturday (7 hours!!!) so we dont get to teach him :( Right after we taught that dude, some really old, very eccentric lady with beads and scarfs and stuff was strolling down the street and when she saw us, she sprinted over to us old-lady like hobbling and told us we had a message for her. We were kinda blown away confused haha but we shared with her some stuff and gave her pamphlets and she went off to work.
The people here are so much better than in the US haha, they are way nicer and so much more sincere! I think Ill live down here one day hahaha
Anyways, Sunday was good and Monday-Wednesday we just have classes, nothing special, so that pretty much sums it all up :)
Today I got letters from Kamrie, Dad, Mom, Kayli, Melissa and Nichole, and 3 dearelders from mom (they are all partial letters that cut off and the next one begins halfways through a different letter hahaha dearelder is so ridiculous)
Spanish is coming along great, and since transfers occurred tuesday, today we got 8 new north americanos. suckers. i feel pretty good being better at spanish than some people now haha. No longer the rookies!
Dang, its been 3 weeks already and it feels like a lifetime and at the same time just a day. Hope it slows down though I love the CCM, and can't wait to get some work done in uruguay. With the amount of success we've seen in 4 hours of proselyting, we're gonna convert uruguay in a day or two i think.
Keep the letters coming, everyone is super jealous of my wonderful friends and family. Trevor, Candy, Stacy, Alyssa, Kylyne, etc.... that means YOU. <3 (hahahaha)
Oh, and I miss my latino friends who left on transfers (theyre only here for 3 weeks of course) I got some good pictures on Sunday (every 3rd sunday we can take pics for an hour before the elders leave) I hope this one is a good batch of latinos. Dang, they are so much fun.
Did Andrew get his call yet? Dont tell me in an email, tell him he better send me a letter! And tell mi amigos to send me pictures too. Everyone, especially the latinos, love to see pics of family and friends. They were super impressed by the tall cactus pic we got. haha
mmmm, every Friday is asada day, so we have some kind of grilled meat, chorizo, and a ton of other delicious stuff, so be jealous tomorrow. Your missing out. The food is sooooooooo goooooooooooddddd. Im definitely getting fatter. I hope my temple pants still fit alright today. Some people are going on bread fasts for weeks at a time to prevent gaining weight. As long as my clothes fit, I could care less since Im gonna lose it all in Uruguay. I still run for at least a half hour a day - ish haha.
ummm oh ya, 2 days ago it was really warm and humid (yesterday and today its so cold again) and I got MAULED by mosquitos. It sucked they are HUGE!!! I got a bunch of bites, but they all went down by today so its okay. Im glad we got that net for when Im in UY.
K, time is up. I love you all dearly, may God be with you and bless you all, this is a marvelous work and wonder, and stay safe.
8 October, 2009
Here's a handwritten letter from Tylan:
Dear Family,
Hello!! Hola! Como esta??? I got your (Mom's and Coltons) letters today! Thank you soo much I LOVE letters!
Michelle and Karl's came yesterday (we get them Wed night and Thurs morning) so they beat you though, haha. Tell the other kids that Colton is my favorite sibling at the moment, ha ha.
I pretty much told you all about my proselyting experience in the email, but I wish we had more time to write emails! The 30 minutes goes by fast so I don't have time to read over or correct what I write :(
I LOVE the CCM - Centro de Capacatacion de Misioneros - it's such an incredible place. General Conference was fantastic and since preiesthood meeting wasn't over til 11, we got to sleep in til 7:30 the next morning. Needless to say, Sunday was pretty fantastic!
Today my temple pants were tight, so I'd better lay off the bread buffet wth every meal. :)
I started the Book of Mormon last week again and I'm almost done! I meant to put a "halfway" between almost and done. Whoops. On page 220 or something.
Spanish is coming pretty quick for all of us. We're finishing up ALL of the first discussion in Spanish! I'm so stoked! The Gift of Tongues, Interpretation of is pretty wonderful!
Kayli - grats on swim! Keep at it!
Colton- thanks so much for the letter, I laughed (and my whole zone laughed) pretty hard at the Boots part. :)
Levi - start reading the Book of Mormon now and gain a testimony of it ASAP!
Love,
Elder Magnusson
Dear Family,
Hello!! Hola! Como esta??? I got your (Mom's and Coltons) letters today! Thank you soo much I LOVE letters!
Michelle and Karl's came yesterday (we get them Wed night and Thurs morning) so they beat you though, haha. Tell the other kids that Colton is my favorite sibling at the moment, ha ha.
I pretty much told you all about my proselyting experience in the email, but I wish we had more time to write emails! The 30 minutes goes by fast so I don't have time to read over or correct what I write :(
I LOVE the CCM - Centro de Capacatacion de Misioneros - it's such an incredible place. General Conference was fantastic and since preiesthood meeting wasn't over til 11, we got to sleep in til 7:30 the next morning. Needless to say, Sunday was pretty fantastic!
Today my temple pants were tight, so I'd better lay off the bread buffet wth every meal. :)
I started the Book of Mormon last week again and I'm almost done! I meant to put a "halfway" between almost and done. Whoops. On page 220 or something.
Spanish is coming pretty quick for all of us. We're finishing up ALL of the first discussion in Spanish! I'm so stoked! The Gift of Tongues, Interpretation of is pretty wonderful!
Kayli - grats on swim! Keep at it!
Colton- thanks so much for the letter, I laughed (and my whole zone laughed) pretty hard at the Boots part. :)
Levi - start reading the Book of Mormon now and gain a testimony of it ASAP!
Love,
Elder Magnusson
October 8, 2009
Hello family, it's Pday again :)
This week was another GREAT one! I got letters from Michelle and Karl yesterday, and from mom and Colton today, so they come anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks from when you send em I guess. Dearelder.com makes it even way longer by the way. I still havent gotten your letter from it you sent before I left, mom hahaha.
Anyways, the food this week was still great, my comp is a great guy anad we play tons of ping-pong in free time and Im getting much better at it haha.
On Friday it was the coolest day ever! We went proselyting using whatever language skills we had at the time. The first guy we talked to in our area wanted to learn more and asked us to send missionaries to his house! Im giving the address to the other mission cause he lives across town, but it was awesome! Keep Mateo Somose in your prayers! Then we contacted a few more people until we came across a dude named Gustavo Perez. He was wearing a crazy hat and had a porn shirt on, but we talked to him anyways and he corrected us with our spanish a bit, and eventually we taught him most of the first discussion out there on the street corner. Finally, we told him about the BofM and he got all excited so we gave it to him and he promised to read it. Missionaries are going to go visit him too (another across town) so add his name to your prayers as well!
Then, we came to this Catholic lady who had read the BofM and loved everything we taught and believed in, but her best friends son was a convert and he was abusive, so he totally ruined her view on us Mormons. Which is dumb, but thats alright, she has a good seed planted in her so I pray that one days she'll realize it really is worth it to seek after it. Dang my grammar is BAD! sorry.
Finally, down the street we saw this ancient old lady using a stick as a cane so I figured poor=humble=convert GOLD!!! We chased her down and started teaching her and she loved our message and kissed the pamphlets we gave her and kissed us, and then after a few minutes forgot who we were and our message. After about 5 rounds of teaching and forgetting, we realized she was senile and got depressed we'd spent so much time teaching her and shed forgotten it all right away haha kinda funny but sad. She was a sweetie though. Noone has teeth here by the way. Word of advice: brush your teeth, cause when you got none your breath smells terrible!
Let's see... I dont need anything Ive got more than enough stuff to keep me happy, just keep me in your prayers that Ill keep learning lightning fast. We can now teach the entire first discussion in Spanish and answer many questions, so as long as the people dont want to talk about anything else, we're good. Im looking forward to Saturday proselyting cause we're going to set some really high goals and we're definitely gonna conquer them.
I DO, however, need you to tell my friends that they better have some letters on the way. Every week is sort of a lottery on who gets letters and its a HUGE and exciting deal. I won this week in my district, so lets keep em coming! I promise to write back, but I just love seeing your handwriting it makes me feel so happy :)
Ask Grandma if shes already sent something, and if not and she doesnt plan to this week, could you send me her address? I remember its 852 university, but not the zip :(
Wish Hannah and Kayleigh a late happy bday for me (the letter sent with that arrived, dunno if youve sent another mom, it takes forever). Also, HAPPY BDAY LEVI AND MICHELLE AND ANNABEL!! If someone elses bday I missed, sorry my mind is preoccupied with glorious truths.
Hmo. Zanzi has kidney stones, so they combined my district with the other and its 12 pple in a tiny classroom now. Remeniscent of Provo, UGH. Its fun though I love all the guys theyre great. Keep him in your prayers though, hes passed 1 of 4, and he said theyre huge since they dont break em up like they do in the US I guess like over 1cm in diameter. Gives me chills just thinking about it! Ew...
Im healthy, although probably at least half of the 60 something missionaries here are sick, getting sick, or getting over being sick. I better not get sick cause Im on a winning streak. That would suck.
Oh, and the toilets instead of wiping with paper you use the baudette (dunno how to spell) where it shoots water to clean you. I love it and we should get one. Then all you have to do is wipe away the water! The US is so primitive in the bathroom arts.
Anyways, I love this work and I love Castellano. I love the Book of Mormon and am about halfway done since I started a little over a week ago during personal study. I discovered DC 11:21 (crap i hope thats right!) I dont have to study spanish to learn it, just the gospel! Spanish is just a tool to teach it :) I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOO MUCH, but Id rather be here its the best place in the world for me right now.
~ Tylan
This week was another GREAT one! I got letters from Michelle and Karl yesterday, and from mom and Colton today, so they come anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks from when you send em I guess. Dearelder.com makes it even way longer by the way. I still havent gotten your letter from it you sent before I left, mom hahaha.
Anyways, the food this week was still great, my comp is a great guy anad we play tons of ping-pong in free time and Im getting much better at it haha.
On Friday it was the coolest day ever! We went proselyting using whatever language skills we had at the time. The first guy we talked to in our area wanted to learn more and asked us to send missionaries to his house! Im giving the address to the other mission cause he lives across town, but it was awesome! Keep Mateo Somose in your prayers! Then we contacted a few more people until we came across a dude named Gustavo Perez. He was wearing a crazy hat and had a porn shirt on, but we talked to him anyways and he corrected us with our spanish a bit, and eventually we taught him most of the first discussion out there on the street corner. Finally, we told him about the BofM and he got all excited so we gave it to him and he promised to read it. Missionaries are going to go visit him too (another across town) so add his name to your prayers as well!
Then, we came to this Catholic lady who had read the BofM and loved everything we taught and believed in, but her best friends son was a convert and he was abusive, so he totally ruined her view on us Mormons. Which is dumb, but thats alright, she has a good seed planted in her so I pray that one days she'll realize it really is worth it to seek after it. Dang my grammar is BAD! sorry.
Finally, down the street we saw this ancient old lady using a stick as a cane so I figured poor=humble=convert GOLD!!! We chased her down and started teaching her and she loved our message and kissed the pamphlets we gave her and kissed us, and then after a few minutes forgot who we were and our message. After about 5 rounds of teaching and forgetting, we realized she was senile and got depressed we'd spent so much time teaching her and shed forgotten it all right away haha kinda funny but sad. She was a sweetie though. Noone has teeth here by the way. Word of advice: brush your teeth, cause when you got none your breath smells terrible!
Let's see... I dont need anything Ive got more than enough stuff to keep me happy, just keep me in your prayers that Ill keep learning lightning fast. We can now teach the entire first discussion in Spanish and answer many questions, so as long as the people dont want to talk about anything else, we're good. Im looking forward to Saturday proselyting cause we're going to set some really high goals and we're definitely gonna conquer them.
I DO, however, need you to tell my friends that they better have some letters on the way. Every week is sort of a lottery on who gets letters and its a HUGE and exciting deal. I won this week in my district, so lets keep em coming! I promise to write back, but I just love seeing your handwriting it makes me feel so happy :)
Ask Grandma if shes already sent something, and if not and she doesnt plan to this week, could you send me her address? I remember its 852 university, but not the zip :(
Wish Hannah and Kayleigh a late happy bday for me (the letter sent with that arrived, dunno if youve sent another mom, it takes forever). Also, HAPPY BDAY LEVI AND MICHELLE AND ANNABEL!! If someone elses bday I missed, sorry my mind is preoccupied with glorious truths.
Hmo. Zanzi has kidney stones, so they combined my district with the other and its 12 pple in a tiny classroom now. Remeniscent of Provo, UGH. Its fun though I love all the guys theyre great. Keep him in your prayers though, hes passed 1 of 4, and he said theyre huge since they dont break em up like they do in the US I guess like over 1cm in diameter. Gives me chills just thinking about it! Ew...
Im healthy, although probably at least half of the 60 something missionaries here are sick, getting sick, or getting over being sick. I better not get sick cause Im on a winning streak. That would suck.
Oh, and the toilets instead of wiping with paper you use the baudette (dunno how to spell) where it shoots water to clean you. I love it and we should get one. Then all you have to do is wipe away the water! The US is so primitive in the bathroom arts.
Anyways, I love this work and I love Castellano. I love the Book of Mormon and am about halfway done since I started a little over a week ago during personal study. I discovered DC 11:21 (crap i hope thats right!) I dont have to study spanish to learn it, just the gospel! Spanish is just a tool to teach it :) I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOO MUCH, but Id rather be here its the best place in the world for me right now.
~ Tylan
October 1, 2009
Hola mi familia!!!
Como estan ustedes???
This week has been sooo looonggg and wonderful :) Dad, we didnt have a silent Sunday, but were not supposed to speak english unless we absolutely dont know how to speak it. I was lucky to know a HECKA lot more than the other guys in my mission, I am soooo lucky cause they start off hard and its been super hardcore. But Im hardcore too so its all good.
The first day of classes we learned to pray and testify in espanol, and now, Im as far as teaching the first 4 principles in the first discussion en espanol. Writing in my journal, Ive already noticed my english spelling and grammar sucks now, so itll be interesting to see how bad it gets haha.
My teachers are AMAZING. They are all from around here and dont speak much english, so both students and teachers get booted into learning constantly. Its great. My favorite teacher is Hmo. Zanzi from here in Bs. As. He served in Resistencia, and got off 6 mos ago. On the 11th, he started dating one of his comps sisters via skype (from Chile) and now theyre engaged after one week hahahaha hes the bomb. he says after we get off the mission, finding a wife will be like baptising someone. If you commit them early on, your set.
My president is a little intimidating. He says jokes with almost a scowl and then starts laughing after we all pee ourselves not knowing if were supposed to be laughing or not. Then we all fake laugh along out of fear. But its great. His wife is pretty funny though. Shes a germophobe and goes psycho if you dont wash your hands after EVERYTHING! Theres purel at every corner.
My days are spent eating and learning pretty much is it. i have class like... 7ish hours a day. Its long, but enjoyable. Im learning SOOO much. The food is bomb. The cooks are employed here as a career so theyre legit chefs and they feed us waaay too much. My temple pants were tight today (it was in english yay!!! the temple is TINY but the people are way cool). They incorporate spinach into EVERY meal, so Im glad I like it. Ive had like 30 different spinach casseroles and they were all delicious. So far ive eaten intestine, tongue, and fish. The tongue was alright, but it was in a sweet italian-dressing type sauce that was nasty, so my comp ate it for me. The fish was weird, but it was in a cheesy spinach sauce that was way bomb so I enjoyed it. The intestine was AWESOME! It was really thick, but stuffed with sweet sausagy goodness. We Americans can make a good hotdog, but we ought to learn to use our animal wastes for better purposes like these people do!
My companion is great. He reminds me a bit of Mark sometimes, except WAY calmer. Tell Stacy Beeston he looks a lot like Cory Kheun except part Mexican. She knows who he is.
My district is pretty good. They all have their struggles and two of em hate Spanish right now cause they dont think theyll ever get it, but were all learning and it doesnt matter too much we'll get it eventually. I think I just found the apostrophe button finally! yay!!
Tell Jason congrats, thats incredible!!!!!!!! Hes going places, Im excited to see where this will take him!
I just saw all your questions, but i only have 5 mins left, so Ill answer quick. The temple is right outside my window a few yards away and its beautiful. A member who spoke no english picked us up... BAD idea. Customs saw our nametags, smiled and didnt even make us put our bags through the machine to check their contents, we got expedited they loved us i guess :)
Oh, and mail came today and I didnt get nothin, but I figure it takes awhile. Send stuff by snail mail, to the address on the pink sheet, NOT straight to the MTC cause that goes to the temple distrib center. DONT send me lots of emails, cause the longer it takes to read, the less time i have to send anything. It has a 30 min timer that auto shuts off. Keep me in your prayers and Ill keep you all in mine!! Send me lots of letters please, and tell all my friends to cause I miss you all with what little time I have to miss people haha. I promise to write back :) Oh, and get me Stacie Schuetta's address for me. Ask her on facebook or something please cause I promised Id write her first haha. Give my siblings and friends hugs and tell em I love em!
Elder Magnusson
Como estan ustedes???
This week has been sooo looonggg and wonderful :) Dad, we didnt have a silent Sunday, but were not supposed to speak english unless we absolutely dont know how to speak it. I was lucky to know a HECKA lot more than the other guys in my mission, I am soooo lucky cause they start off hard and its been super hardcore. But Im hardcore too so its all good.
The first day of classes we learned to pray and testify in espanol, and now, Im as far as teaching the first 4 principles in the first discussion en espanol. Writing in my journal, Ive already noticed my english spelling and grammar sucks now, so itll be interesting to see how bad it gets haha.
My teachers are AMAZING. They are all from around here and dont speak much english, so both students and teachers get booted into learning constantly. Its great. My favorite teacher is Hmo. Zanzi from here in Bs. As. He served in Resistencia, and got off 6 mos ago. On the 11th, he started dating one of his comps sisters via skype (from Chile) and now theyre engaged after one week hahahaha hes the bomb. he says after we get off the mission, finding a wife will be like baptising someone. If you commit them early on, your set.
My president is a little intimidating. He says jokes with almost a scowl and then starts laughing after we all pee ourselves not knowing if were supposed to be laughing or not. Then we all fake laugh along out of fear. But its great. His wife is pretty funny though. Shes a germophobe and goes psycho if you dont wash your hands after EVERYTHING! Theres purel at every corner.
My days are spent eating and learning pretty much is it. i have class like... 7ish hours a day. Its long, but enjoyable. Im learning SOOO much. The food is bomb. The cooks are employed here as a career so theyre legit chefs and they feed us waaay too much. My temple pants were tight today (it was in english yay!!! the temple is TINY but the people are way cool). They incorporate spinach into EVERY meal, so Im glad I like it. Ive had like 30 different spinach casseroles and they were all delicious. So far ive eaten intestine, tongue, and fish. The tongue was alright, but it was in a sweet italian-dressing type sauce that was nasty, so my comp ate it for me. The fish was weird, but it was in a cheesy spinach sauce that was way bomb so I enjoyed it. The intestine was AWESOME! It was really thick, but stuffed with sweet sausagy goodness. We Americans can make a good hotdog, but we ought to learn to use our animal wastes for better purposes like these people do!
My companion is great. He reminds me a bit of Mark sometimes, except WAY calmer. Tell Stacy Beeston he looks a lot like Cory Kheun except part Mexican. She knows who he is.
My district is pretty good. They all have their struggles and two of em hate Spanish right now cause they dont think theyll ever get it, but were all learning and it doesnt matter too much we'll get it eventually. I think I just found the apostrophe button finally! yay!!
Tell Jason congrats, thats incredible!!!!!!!! Hes going places, Im excited to see where this will take him!
I just saw all your questions, but i only have 5 mins left, so Ill answer quick. The temple is right outside my window a few yards away and its beautiful. A member who spoke no english picked us up... BAD idea. Customs saw our nametags, smiled and didnt even make us put our bags through the machine to check their contents, we got expedited they loved us i guess :)
Oh, and mail came today and I didnt get nothin, but I figure it takes awhile. Send stuff by snail mail, to the address on the pink sheet, NOT straight to the MTC cause that goes to the temple distrib center. DONT send me lots of emails, cause the longer it takes to read, the less time i have to send anything. It has a 30 min timer that auto shuts off. Keep me in your prayers and Ill keep you all in mine!! Send me lots of letters please, and tell all my friends to cause I miss you all with what little time I have to miss people haha. I promise to write back :) Oh, and get me Stacie Schuetta's address for me. Ask her on facebook or something please cause I promised Id write her first haha. Give my siblings and friends hugs and tell em I love em!
Elder Magnusson
September 24, 2009
Hey, Im at the MTC now, but I cant find the apostrophe on the keyboard. Its rough. haha.
The plane was fun, I placed of BoM with an attractive young lady I was sitting beside. Gods funny how he sets a missionary up like that. I met up with a bunch of missionaries in Dallas, I think there was 14 total elders and a sister. Theres only like upper 50s low 60s in the entire MTC! Its pretty tight.
The plane from Dallas to Argentina was LOOONNNNGGG, but I slept probably around half the time. I knew enough Spanish to have a conversation with the guy next to me. He didnt like mormons. The people in front of me, an old couple, made me feel good, so oh well. Maybe one day...:) Oh, and there was some good movies showing that I had to turn down. AND good music. BUUT, thats okay it was worth it I guess.
The weather is GGGRRREEEAAAAATTT but not for long I bet so I'll cherish it while it lasts. Well, send everyone my love and especially make sure you send this to Pennie cause I told grandma Id keep her posted.
Love,
Tylan
p.s. I think they said my Prep day is tomorrow, so I think Ill be writing again then.
p.p.s. Send letters to the Bonplast or whatever address, not the one in the packet!!
The plane was fun, I placed of BoM with an attractive young lady I was sitting beside. Gods funny how he sets a missionary up like that. I met up with a bunch of missionaries in Dallas, I think there was 14 total elders and a sister. Theres only like upper 50s low 60s in the entire MTC! Its pretty tight.
The plane from Dallas to Argentina was LOOONNNNGGG, but I slept probably around half the time. I knew enough Spanish to have a conversation with the guy next to me. He didnt like mormons. The people in front of me, an old couple, made me feel good, so oh well. Maybe one day...:) Oh, and there was some good movies showing that I had to turn down. AND good music. BUUT, thats okay it was worth it I guess.
The weather is GGGRRREEEAAAAATTT but not for long I bet so I'll cherish it while it lasts. Well, send everyone my love and especially make sure you send this to Pennie cause I told grandma Id keep her posted.
Love,
Tylan
p.s. I think they said my Prep day is tomorrow, so I think Ill be writing again then.
p.p.s. Send letters to the Bonplast or whatever address, not the one in the packet!!
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