The day after Christmas email from Hermana Magnusson

hey everyone! good to talk to ya´ll yesterday. funny how 40 minutes isn´t long at all, eh?

(These are the Christmas pictures we sent Lisa)

muchas gracias to ma, rachel, sis. mangum, and sis. young for the emails and sis. terrill for the dearelder and jen u for the christmas card (happy bday tomorrow!). and happy anniversary tomorrow, andersons, and to ma and pa in two days. loved the photos of the fam, ma. gee, you look stunning in my dress. and nea, i like your shirt, and cuh, i like your hair. and sam, your muscles look bigger under your shirt. good work.

friday morning was so blazing hot. and humid. usually it´s not humid. then that afternoon there was a horrific rain/wind/hail storm. we were working out in a barrio in the boondocks and all the roads were rivers. we realized as we were waiting out the storm in some little shop that we left our bedroom windows open. pucha (darn it). we had a ward christmas party that night that was announced to start at 7:30 pm. we showed up with two investigators fashionably late (8 pm) to find the chapel empty. the party started according to argentine mormon standard time--9:45. funny. we need to be home by 10 pm at the latest, but pres. levrino was also at the party and he said we could stay later because lots of people brought non-member friends. so he drove us home at 11. and yes, our bedroom window was open and my bed and our "nightstand" got soaked. thank goodness my mattress only got soaked halfway through, and thank goodness i had another set of clean sheets, and thank goodness i write in my journal with a waterproof pen. hna rojas´ journal was not so lucky. sad.

christmas eve/day were pretty chill. christmas eve morning we sang christmas songs as a district at an old folks home. it was raining and a little chilly. (super weird because the day before was so hot.) after we sang a few songs, one of the residents asked us when we were going to be done and go home. funny, eh? afterwards we went to a panaderia and bought ourselves treats. and then we visited a few people (investigators/less-actives/recent converts) and read the christmas story in the bible with them and invited them to church the next day. and i gave them a christmas gift that i made--a little drawing i did of mary/joseph/baby jesus that i "laminated" with contact paper and turned into an ornament. making them kept me busy in my "free time" (ie: while eating breakfast) but i like making things like that and it made things feel a little more christmasy. and everyone loved them. ("oh, que liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinda!") and then we went to silvia´s house for dinner. hna rojas talked to her family that night because they couldn´t on christmas day. silvia is so nice that she let the elders that serve in the ward that we share a building with (got all that?) come to dinner too, because no one in their ward invited them. and then she was nice and drove us all home at 10:00 (our curfew) while all her family was gathering/preparing to eat.

christmas morning i opened my presents and we watched the first presidency devo that a ward member burned to a dvd for us. and we went to sacrament meeting. not many people were there. christmas eve is the big deal here, and everyone eats a big BIG meal around midnight. and there are lots of fireworks at midnight too. so, everyone sleeps in way late on christmas day. i asked hna rojas if santa/papa noel brings gifts on christmas morning and she said that yes he brings gifts, but i think they get opened on christmas eve. not really sure when the gifts from santa "arrive". after church we ate lunch at a member´s home way out in the boondocks. there is no bus service where they live, so we have to take a taxi, but since it was christmas, taxi service was scarce. we got out there ok, but had a hard time finding a way to come back. hence i was late to make The Phone Call. after talking to ya´ll, we visited a few more families and then christmas was over.

salta trivia--first person to respond with the correct answer gets 300 points: what is the most commonly seen roadkill in my area? (hint: not dogs or cats).

better go. love you all!

hermana mag

Missionaries at Christmas time

Click here for thoughts of missionaries at Christmas time.

December 19, 2011

happy p-day before christmas! we have sac mtng only on christmas day (yeehaw), then a lunch appt with one of my favorite families in the ward (i made my first empanadas with them). i will be calling around 5 pm my time (maybe a bit earlier or later, like 4:30-5:30). i get 40 min of talk time. maybe the andersons can call billy-sue style? i´ll call the home phone. can´t wait to talk to everyone. when does nea come in? and i got rachababy´s package and ma´s christmas cards/photos/stamps. wahooooooo!!!! can´t wait for christmas morning!

many thanks to all the christmas emails--jen u (got your dear elder), gee, aunt aliece (congrats to julina and enrique!), mark o, hna patiño, the waltons, grandma harris, jmag and dave, ma, pa, and rachel--so good to hear from you all!

we had a christmas zone conference this week. was really good. pres. levrino gave good training on getting referencias (referals) and being an overall better missionary. he talked about peter´s experience of walking on the water--we need to have the faith to "leave the boat" and do things that may be a little scary. but if we do, miracles will happen. it´s a good story to revisit in the new testament if you haven´t read it in a while. (matt 14, i think) sis. levrino also spoke. i really like her. and we ate a gangster lunch and had a visit from santa (one of the zone leaders) and a gift exchange. i received a bag of candy and a little toy that came in super handy this sunday when an investigator came to church with her toddlers. the best gift was a humongous watermelon. i gifted colored pencils. it´s true that we give to others gifts that we would like to receive, yes? hna levrino took a bunch of photos. and i heard that she has a facebook account for the mish (mision argentina salta). ma, maybe you need to check it out? and we all got budín, a traditional christmas bread (similar to pound cake)--way better than fruitcake. :)

recent convert silvia bought us a mini christmas tree and decorations this week. our apartment feels a bit more festive. christmas eve is the big deal here--everyone gathers for dinner at midnight (christmas morning, i guess) and so the day of christmas eve everyone is busy with preparations for the meal/festivities. if we have a "dinner" appt, we need to be home by 10 pm, otherwise we have to be home by dark. lots of drunks/crazies, i guess. silvia invited us over for christmas eve. we´ll leave before the meal, but will help with the food prep. all the native missionaries are sad that they´re missing out on all their traditional festivities, and all the gringos are missing the snow. i made sure to buy facturas (the argentine equivalent of a donut, i guess) today for christmas breakfast, en lieu of scones. i´m set. we work both christmas eve and day, though have plans to sing as a distict at some hospitals/rest homes on christmas eve afternoon.

dulce was baptized this saturday. dulce is the greatest ever. her mom came to the baptism and her dad to church the next day. her parents are divorced and she lives with her gma so i´ve never met them. and several of her friends and neighbors came to the baptism too. she is our most faithful book of mormon reader and wants to serve a mission someday. wahoo! school is out for the summer, so we´re going to have her accompany us on some of our appts during the day. it will be so great.

i taught gospel principles BY MYSELF on sunday! it was my first time ever, and it wasn´t even an easy topic (like baptism)--it was about the second coming. we had 4 investigators at church--our record. dulce´s dad, a mom and her teenage son that we´ve recently begun teaching, and natalia, who we´ve been teaching for awhile. natalia lives/d with her boyfriend, but he just went back to using drugs and being abusive, so she has a restraining order on him. the sad thing is they have two little girls, one who is handicapped, and natalia is young (23). but she really wants to get baptized. but her situation is a bit messy right now because she wants to wait to marry the boyfriend. dah. not sure what will end up happening. thank goodness the ward mission leader is a lawyer.

thanks again for all the christmas love! it´s good to be on a mission and help people access the greatest gift anyone could ever receive--the blessings of the atonement.

love, hermana magnusson

Pictures and an email from Hermana Magnusson

feliz cumpleaños a mi favorito cuñado

(translation: happy birthday to my favorite brother-in-law)

baptism of silvia

this is in my area. we pass this field just about every day. pretty, eh?

(Editorial comment from Lisa's mom:

The mountains remind me of the San Gabriel Mountains by Lisa's hometown of Duarte)

salta has the coolest clouds in the entire world. like, all the time. i love it.

D&C 42:6

(Click on above link to read the scripture that describes the next picture)

laura and areceli. they are sisters. we always teach them outside because their house is just one room, and it started to rain. and so we pulled out our umbrellas and kept teaching. areceli has come to church once, and at one time was super interested in getting baptized. her interest is currently luke-warm and we can´t get laura to commit to anything. dah.

us teaching laura and areceli

muchas gracias to jen w, betsy (loved the insights from your talk. thanks!) rachel, jmag (the computer screen is slobbery from my kisses to bgp), gee, sam (i always love your news, sam. you´re turning into quite the writer.) and ma for your emails. and happy birthday to dave mañana. sending all my warmest thoughts your way! can´t believe it´s almost christmas. don´t have very firm info about what we´ll be doing and when i can call home, but from what i have heard, it´s for 40 min and we need to call from a land-line, but not at a member´s house. i think we´re going to try and get the bishop´s keys for the clerks office and call from the church? not sure. i´ll get more info this week and let you know next monday. i don´t know what the time difference is. can you find out and let me know? ma, got your package this past tuesday. yippee! thanks for sending it. can´t wait to open it on christmas. and thanks for mailing me that other stuff too. can´t wait.

we have meal appointments for christmas eve and day. so glad. and we will be singing somewhere as a district on christmas day--old folks home or hospital. there were two big holidays this week (for the virgin, i think), and that signaled the beginning of the christmas season here. we see more christmas decorations in people´s houses, though definitely not as elaborate or extensive as in the states. people (or, at least the members that we´ve eaten with) generally have a small christmas tree that stands on table, with a simple nativity set and maybe some garland on the wall. and maybe MAYBE some lights with the garland. and a christmasy table cloth. but that´s about it. the weather will be hot one day and rainy and cold the next. the cold days make it seem more like december back home.

rachel asked for ideas for my birthday: the latest general conference ensign and liahona. and piano music--a book of piano prelude chains by brent jorgenson would be great. i already have a book of his, but i have no idea where it is. and an apron. i think mine are with my kitchen stuff in the shed, but i´m not sure. even a crusty one (sans kleenex) from the kitchen closet would be great!

this saturday is my 4 month anniversary on the mish. time flies when you´re having fun, eh?

this week hasn´t been as discouraging. we had a few more lessons (still not very many, but more than last week) and have been focusing on finding more new people to teach. one of our areas is a bit far away, and is more farm-ish, but there is a great member (sister) of our ward that lives out there and she accompanies us on our lessons in the area. most of the time when she´s with us our appointments fall through, and she is great to go tracting with. she´s super bold and talks to everyone. it´s easy to set up lessons when she´s around. we´ve also been able to finally contact some referrals, so hopefully we´ll have more to work with next week. in ward council this week, the bishop announced that we are one person away from qualifying to be a ward. and we need more full-tithe payers and priesthood holders. the pressure is on to find some quality people!

on thursday afternoon, we found out that the next day we would be able to go on divisions with sisters in the stake that are preparing to serve a mission. one of the stakes in salta (there are 2) held a "mini mtc" for 3 days--had classes and workshops and the last day the participants got paired up with missionaries to work. kinda like arcadia stake´s "missionary for a day", but a little more intensive. it was a little scary to be the senior comp for the day and do most of the teaching in the lessons, but i prayed especially hard to be able to understand and communicate and the hermana that was my comp was very well prepared and was not shy about contributing too. tender mercies all around. it was actually a little fun to participate more than i usually do. a lot of times i feel like i did as a student teacher with a cooperating teacher--i teach and "am" a missionary, but it still feels like i´m playing dress up in someone else´s classroom. not quite sure how to explain it. anyway, divisions were good, and we were able to get more appointments in than we normally would have. we should be getting ward missionaries called this week, (sisters) so hopefully we´ll be able to do more divisions with them.

the church is true!

hermana mag

December 5, 2011

thanks to jmag, rachel, ma, and gee for the emails this week. loved the photos of the andersons.

i have photos. i just wasted a ton of time trying to get them to download from my camera. dah. it´s not working, sorry.

we had stake conference this sunday. it was a lot like something you would see in arcadia. all stake conferences are the same, i guess. oh, but here the stake president receives The White Envelope for the person going on a mission--the stk pres had two mission calls and called the young men out of the congregation and had them open and read it in front of everyone. that was pretty exciting. one is going to brazil, the other to colombia. pres. and sister levrino spoke and both were very good talks. one of the councilors in our bishopbric got called to the high council--he is 26 years old and served his mission in cordova the same time as cousin alan. he is 99% sure he went on divisions with him. maybe alan remembers him? (tony casares, from salta). anyway, kinda funny that he´s younger than me and is married, with a kid, has served in the bishopbric and is now on the high council. one of the councilors in the stake presidency also is pretty young (in his 30s) and a convert. he was called to the stk presidency 5 years after his baptism. his talk was really good too.

ma, this is for you: we ate lunch with a girl my age the other day (dalila). she´s a returned missionary and is now the seminary teacher of our ward. she said that during her high school years her parents separated and it was an ugly time for her. she said that seminary saved her life during that time. and when she was on her mission, sometimes she got asked really hard questions that she didn´t know the answers to, but then in her mind, she would remember specific lessons from seminary. she was emotional as she was telling us these stories. so, sometimes it may not seem like you are making a difference, but you never know....they may not all be asleep. there may be dalila´s in your class!

this week was kinda discouraging--we had two whole days that we didn´t teach a single lesson. that´s bad, folks. we get members to come and accompany us, and we walk all over creation, and we plan and practice and prepare, and we have set appointments...and then people aren´t home. or they are just walking out the door and can we please come back at another time that is more convenient? also, the people we are teaching aren´t keeping their committments (read B of M, pray, word of wisdom, etc) so they´re not progressing. dah. we are trying to increase our teaching pool by finding new people to teach, but that is slow work and hasn´t borne any fruit yet. as discouraging and hard as the teaching aspect has been this week, i feel like hna rojas and i are finally clicking in our preparing and practicing for lessons during comp study. i feel like we have been using our time better and that we are focusing on specific needs now, instead of preparing a script for the lesson. this is good.

we have a baptism planned for the 17th of december--dulce, 12 yr old granddaughter of tesi, who has been inactive for years. dulce lives with tesi, and both are pretty fantastic. tesi is hilarious. we ate lunch with them the other day and she was telling jokes, which i didn´t get, but i laughed my head off anyway because tesi was laughing her head off. she will participate in lessons and will attend church with dulce, which is great. double whammy: baptism and reactivation.

there is another family that we´re working with--the orue´s. i think i talked about them in my last email--they have two kids that were baptized a few years ago (ages 15 and 19) but are now innactive. the mom wanted to get baptized, but can´t marry the dad because he can´t get divorced from his first wife. messy and complicated, BUT daughter veronica and boyfriend matias have potential. we just haven´t been able to teach them this week (see paragraph above). and hna rojas had the brillant idea (inspiration?) to have melani (innactive daughter) accompany us in our lessons with two sisters we´re teaching that are her age. unfortunately, the two girls haven´t been home when we´ve brought melani with us. but we´re hoping that having melani hear the lessons again and have girls her age at church will help her.

haven´t heard any news about how calling home for christmas works. i´ll let you know when i find out (hopefully soon!!!)

hermana magnusson