Lots to Report Today

cleaning the baptism font.

analia, with her mom sonia and her siblings micaela and ezequiel.  

analia is the girl that found us in the street and asked us 

"are you the girls that sing?"

 kevin and his brother angel.  they remind me of perry.

 with natalia and her kiddos christmas eve day.

santa claus found us in orán!

 can i get a hyyyyyyynah!

 oh yeeuh.  my family´s great.

 natalia and gabriel and carla and anabela.  happy day, all is well.

thanks to ma, rachel, gee, renee, jacob, jmag and hna stetson for thinking of me this week!  and thanks to flia branchini, hna debinion and the bryan fam for your letters!

lots to report today.

merry christmas bedford falls!:  last week (christmas eve) we had lessons in the morning, ate lunch with members, took care of p-day stuff, then went to the family(ish) of my *comp (where i talked to the fam.  and i DO NOT have an accent, thankyouverymuch.).  she lives with the parents of her boyfriend.  he is serving as a missionary in bahia blanca.  hna rodriguez finished her mission papers this week.  we ate a little (asado) but no one had arrived yet for the big party.  christmas eve dinner is late (like 11) and we had to be in the pench by 10:30.  watched fireworks for a bit at midnight.  christmas day we opened presents that santa left and studied in the morning instead of during the siesta because no one was awake until muuuuuuuuuuuuuch later.  even still, wasn´t a heavy lesson day.  it was sooooo super incredibly hot in the morning/afternoon and then in the late afternoon, there was a huge storm that resulted in a city wide power outtage.  we went home early because dark streets are not a good place to be for sister missionaries.  today we had to work in the morning (instead of at night) and have to be in the pench at sundown.  we´re planning a dinner with the other hnas.

the field is white all ready to harvest:  kevin and analia got baptized the saturday before christmas.  kevin cut his hair the week after, but left his hair nasty and long in the back.  progress.  we´re teaching his younger brother angel.  hopefully he´ll get baptized in a few weeks.  carla and anabela, natalia´s daughters, got baptized this weekend.  we´re keeping busy.

lead me, guide me, walk beside me: we weren´t having a good day yesterday until we passed by agustina´s house.  she was a referencia of one of the young women in the branch.  we taught her once, i thought she had a ton of potential, but then we never could make it to her house again.  until yesterday when i "happened" to remember about her.  turns out that the day before, she found the pamphlet we left the first time and started to read it.  she was super super receptive the second time around, said that she felt something special when she prayed in the first lesson, and accepted a baptism date.  we are excited.

it makes me sad: our golden young couple valeria and armando that we just found came to church for the first time with their super cutie baby.  they left before sacrament meeting ended because a 10 yr old boy kept turning around to loudly shush their mildly squawky baby.  carmelo and yanet´s house burned down to the ground christmas night.  they almost didn´t get out in time because the door was locked and they couldn´t find the key.  they lost everything.  mariluz´s husband abandoned her and their six kids.  the relief society president came with us to visit her and to assess her welfare needs, told her she could receive help, and then never went back to provide/give help.  (sniff.)

wuv is what bwings us together today:  natalia and gabriel are getting married on wednesday!  it almost didn´t happen because they didn´t have the 30 pesos (less than $10) for their blood test.  we paid for it and did all their paperwork for the registro civil.  totally worth it.  gabriel is now actively attending church and we need worthy priesthood holders.  if natalia can quit smoking this week she´ll get baptized on saturday with her son agustin.

i´ll take spanish trivia for 300:  the word for speedbump = lomo de burro (donkey back).  the word for crust (like the crust on your slice of white bread) = the same word for river bank (orilla).

we are sin stoppers:  we found an unopened package of cigarettes.  we destroyed every single one and had fun doing it.

coming home will be weird: i saw an audi and a bmw this week. i was like, whoa.

the church is true!
hermana magnusson

*Lisa's companion is local girl who is stepping in until visa waiter companion from the US is able to come.

Feliz Navidad!

Hello Hermana Magnusson!  Nice to see you!  

This is the family skyping with Lisa Christmas Eve

 

thanks for all the christmas wishes!  i got the jamison´s letter this week (yay!) and thanks to mark o, jess (via fb via ma), grandma harris, los walton, jecia and carrie, ma, gee, rachel and jmag for the emails.

this will be short this week. highlights:

had a white christmas: two baptisms on saturday.  will send photos next week.  kevin (13 yrs old) and analia (9).  happy times.

had a good zone conference on friday.  pres. levrino will be a GA (general authority) one day.

christmas is tomorrow!  our plans:  WORK!  people need to hear about jesus on his birthday.

the church is true!
hermana magnusson

Happy 16 Month Anniversary, Sis. Magnusson

thanks to pa, sis. patiño, jmag, rachel, sam, sis. mangum and ma and gee for your emails this week!  glad to hear gee made it home safe and sound.  can´t believe next week is christmas.  i´m sweatin´ up a storm, man.  it´s like the middle of july in las vegas, but with more humidity.  but there are a few businesses with lights/little trees, so maybe it feels a little bit like christmas?.  and during the year, i cut out and saved every christmas activity from all the december church magazines, so i have festive things to look at/do.

 happy birthday dave!  all week long i was on the look-out for your name all big on some wall to take a picture of, but i had no luck this year.  glad you had a good day anyway.

today is my 16 month anniversary.  sheesh.  time flies, right ma?

this friday we have a special christmas zone conference.  we have to bring a gift for a gift exchange.  this year i´m bringing a box of cake mix and a can of peaches.  some elder will love it, no?

this week´s happenings:
ricardo (antiguo investigador from last week´s letter) hung up on us when we called him to invite him to church.  and he wasn´t home for his 2nd appt.  maybe not as interested as i thought?

hna rodriguez, my temporary comp, is teaching me a ton--like the finer points of drinking mate ("it´s part of who we (argentines) are"), and how to know if a mango is going to be stringy or no.  remember all the mango trees that we have here??  all the mangos are starting to ripen.  we have a tree that hangs over into our patio out back.  we climbed up onto the roof this morning (totally safe, don´t worry) to pick a bunch.  she also taught me how to soften them up, then make a hole in the top, and suck all the flesh out.  so easy.  and that means i can eat mangos anytime i want to (ie, freshly picked from the street) without a knife or getting my hands sticky.  it´s going to be a happy summer.  i just gotta be careful, or i´ll have some big-time problems.

it´s fun working with hna rodriguez.  we have made some good contacts, and have met some promising people.  she makes good contributions in the lessons, is great with the kiddos that we teach, has clicked with all our current peeps.  i will miss her when i get my real comp.  but from what the office elders say, it may be a while.  like, if she doesn´t come during this transfer, i prob won´t train her, because you need 2 transfers to train.  it´s chill man.  we´ll just keep plugging away here.

school finished this week.  that means summer vacation, which means more members can accompany us for lessons, and it will be more convenient to set up appointments.  i love summer vacation.

had a good fhe with gabriel and natalia and kiddos.  i always forget to take pictures.  that´s my one big regret of my whole mish--i have like zero photos with the people i love.  we read and talked about lehi´s vision, iron rod, etc.  and then they all came to church on sunday (best thing ever) and in one of the talks someone was talking about the iron rod.  good timing.  they are supposed to get married this week.  we´ll see if we can pull it off.

had a lesson with a new lady on tuesday that told us that she can see the spirits of people who have died.  apparently there are lots of spirits that hang out around our chapel.  great.

analia ("are you the girls that sing?") is scheduled to get baptized this weekend.  her mom was too, but she´s not married.  i absolutely hate teaching the law of chastity.  i hate telling people "look, you have to either marry your jerk husband or you have to separate your family and raise your 7 kids all by yourself, or you´ll go to outer darkness.  questions?"  but i really do have a testimony of this oh-so-important commandment.  it just is so super hard to help others gain a testimony of it too.

all my converts here are innactive.  that makes me so sad.  the kiddos that we baptized recently haven´t come back to church after getting confirmed.  their aunt, silvia, that always brings them was drunk this weekend.  daaaaaaaaaaahhhh!

hmmm....there really were lots of happy things that happened this week.  basically, finding good people to teach makes a missionary happy, but they didn´t leave me with any good juicy stories to report.

next week i can talk to y´all!
the church is true!
hermana magnusson

"Christmas is Around the Corner"

thanks to jmag, sis. young, gee, ma, rachel, sis. patiño, and sam for the emails this week!

hard to believe christmas is around the corner.  like in two weeks?  i´m making a christmas card/ornament thing for my investigators/ward members like last year.  it´s my christmas gift to the world.

today is the first day of a new transfer.  i´m staying here in orán.  my comp hna villegas left.  i´ll be training again, but my new comp is waiting for her visa.  she won´t get here for a few more weeks, or so i was told.  so in the meantime, i´ll be working with a "mini"--a local ward member that will be set apart to be my comp.  she is hna. rodriguez--21 yrs old, a convert of 1 yr.  she worked with hna wills for 5 weeks so she already kinda has a little experience.  not quite sure what it will be like--like a new missionary, but without mtc training, i guess.  stay tuned.......

this week´s happenings.....

we found ricardo.  23 yrs old, antiguo investigador.  was super buddy-buddy with the elders for years when they served here--would play tennis with them on p-days, etc.  but never was super interested in the lessons.  has stayed in touch with a few of the elders and has gone to the USA to visit them--has visited mecca (slc, st. george, logan, ogden, provo, rexburg, idaho falls, plus las vegas and texas).  from our first and only meeting with him, he still doesn´t seem super interested, but heck, anyone who has been to temple square is someone worth teaching for a bit.   i was super direct with him from the beginning--("look buddy, we´re not here to play tennis, you need to get baptized") and he still let us set up a return appt, so we´ll see how things go.

gabriel (less active) and natalia (investigator) are progressing.  natalia is taking care of paperwork to get married.  we taught word of wisdom--she smokes, but had already started cutting back on cigarettes.  she didn´t come to church, and neither did any of her kids, so that means we have to push back their baptism ANOTHER week.....grrr........  she made us yummy scone thingys to eat after a lesson.  with honey.  i don´t love honey, but i love fried bread.

gabriela came to church for the first time.  i am so embarrased that i didn´t let ma invite any of her friendies to hear my goodbye talk in church.  please invite people to sacrament meeting every single week.  it makes the missionaries and heavenly father soooo happy.  she is one that i think will really "stick" once she finally gets baptized--she really GETS it.  but because she gets it, she wants to do a careful job of investigating.  she´s one that´s not married and whoes "husband" wants nothing to do with us.  i can already sense a slow down in her progression because she can´t get baptized right away.  you really have to act quick while the spirit is good and hot.

mariluz and her newly baptized kiddos did not come to church.  their dad is a total punk and was drunk and violent the night before.  please do not EVER drink alcohol.  it is so not even worth it.

we finally got a ward mission leader!  we´ve been working without one for a while.  hno ramirez has the mel. priesthood, is endowed, but has been innactive for years.  one day soon after arriving here, i had the impression that we should pass by his house and talk to his son, and we met him.  we invited him to return back to church and he hasn´t missed a sunday since.  he was a mission leader before and i think is excited to help us.  i´m excited to help him.  the gospel is so inspired.  i swear callings are really just a way to help us all help each other.

sheesh, there is always too much to say.  it´s pretty emotionally draining to think back over the week and try to condense it all down into like 30 minutes of writing time.  i walk out of the cyber every week feeling like i just ran a marathon while holding my breath.  maybe mormon can understand?

the church is true!
hermana magnusson

Your Assignment: Endure to the End.

daniela, soledad´s sister, handing out party favors.  soledad´s little house is in the background.

Editor's note:  Check out that little house in the background

 

birthday party of soledad´s daughter, celeste.  

this is soledad with her three girls (and one niece) and dad of her youngest.

 baptism of cristina and cristian

 after-baptism-refreshments.  does this dress make me look tall????
Editors answer to question:
No.  Who you stand next to makes you look tall.

this has got to be a quickie...new rules with email use...now we only have an hour to do everything (read, write to fam and pres, take care of other mission business).  it goes fast.

thanks to sis. stetson, rachel, gee, jmag and ma for your emails this week!  loved the photos, like always.  glad to hear everyone is good.

last week i forgot to write about meeting natalie.  hna sanchez and i were in a remis (taxi) going to the bus terminal for our trip to salta and we shared the remis with a young couple.  we struck up a conversation with them and natalie was so excited to hear that we are missionaries: "how exciting!  i´m just starting to know god!  missionaries have just begun teaching me!  (but from another church)  what message do you have for me?"  uhhhh.....no one has ever asked me to share something with them...so i start teaching the first lesson (prophets, apostacy, restauration), quick and basic, because we don´t have much time--and she gets it all.  is eating it all up.  i can tell she´ll accept a baptism invitation, so i lead the conversation to baptism.  and she got soooooooo excited.  she wants to get baptized so bad.  so i set a date.  only problem is that she lives outside of oran in a pueblo where there is no ward or branch.  she technically belongs to the oran branch, but the hnas don´t ever have time to visit where she lives.  i got her phone number and address and left her with some pamphets.  she seriously was so excited.  the only problem is that the other hnas haven´t been able to get in touch with her.  never is home.  never answers the phone.  and then, randomly (but not randomly because heavenly father knows his children), we were walking to our lunch appt and someone calls out to us from a car that is waiting in the street--natalie, in a remis.  our paths crossed for like 30 seconds--enough time for me to get a different phone number from her.  not sure if the hnas have been able to make contact with her since then.  but wow, there are prepared people out there.  we just have to open our mouths!

we had a zone conference with elder viñas, from the area presidency.  he was quoting scriptures like it was nothin, man.  like, it just was part of his everyday speach.  good stuff.  talked a lot about helping people get to the temple.  like, baptism isn´t enough.  it´s true.  retention is a challenge.  and getting people to the temple isn´t enough.  we all have to endure to the end.  that´s your asignment, k?

the church is true!
hermana magnusson

We Have a Homecoming Date: March 15ish

thanks to sis. mangum, gee, renee, jamg, rachel, pa, and ma for your emails this week!  and waltons, got your package!  you are the greatest!!  can´t wait for christmas!  was fun to see the pics from the ut/id excursion.  we didn´t do anything to celebrate thanksgiving--too hard without family and good food.  there´s really nothing else to do to celebrate.  but today i pulled out all the christmas activities i´ve pulled and saved from old church magazines all year long, and listened to christmas music while i mopped the floor.  so christmas will be celebrated for sure.

this week was pretty blah.  got called to salta to finish visa paperwork (for the last time, thank goodness).  that wiped out 1 1/2 days.  had to go down tuesday afternoon/evening, got in late that night, slept in 3 cerritos with the other hnas that also came in from out of town.  was fun to catch up with hna andrus and hna mortensen.  did paperwork wednesday morning, hung around the mission office afterwards waiting for everyone else to finish up.  pres. came in and i asked him about how things would be changing with the announcement from pres. monson.  he said that everyone´s time in the mtc will be shorter--those not learning a language will only be there for 2 weeks (instead of 3), and those learning a language will be there for less time (6 wks and 9 wks, instead of 9 and 12).  when i was there, i met someone who was there for a shorter time, as part of a pilot program.  goes to show that this was in the works for a long time.  anyway, to compensate for less time, materials and books will be sent to all foreign-going missionaries to prepare at home before entering the mtc.  innnneresting, eh?  and also that all church curriculum for youth (seminary, institute, gospel doctrine, yw/ym) has been revamped and rewritten to parallel better preach my gospel, also to aid with mission-prep since missionaries will be leaving straight out of high school.

wouldn´t it be so cool to work in the curriculum department of the church right now?  dream job.  also with the influx of sisters, pres. will have enough missionaries to put an extra companionship in many areas.  that would be awesome.  our area is huge.

other side effect of all the changes in the time spent at the mtc: our transfer that ends in march will be 7 weeks instead of 6.  TRANSLATION:  i´ll be coming home a week later than planned.  like around march 15ish.  that will make it almost exactly 19 months to the day that i left.  but who´s counting?

thursday night got a little sickie so we spent all day at home on friday.  my comp wasn´t feeling good either so that was convenient.  but i was fine by saturday so we went back to work!

the primary program was this sunday.  holy moly, brought me back to my spanish branch days--handmade crepe paper bows in the primary colors that decorated the chapel, the girls all wore these matching headband thingies, etc.  i played the piano for them.  that was fun.  i think all primary programs are the same.  funny.

analia ("are you the girls that sing?" from last week) wanted to go to the baptism that the other rama had, and was getting ready to go with us when her dad came home.  he told her she absolutely could not go.  she almost starting crying.  reminded me of when leandra wanted to go to church with ma.  i wanted to cry too.  but her mom whispered to us, "her dad won´t be home tomorrow, so we can go to church with you."  score.  they came.  sat through "in our lovely deseret" as the opening song in sac mtng and the law of chastity lesson in gospel principles (remember, they´re NEW investigators).  wonder what they thought.  heh.

not much else to say.  we´re in a different-than-usual cyber today and it´s SUPER loud (explosive computer games, little kids crying, people watching movies good and loud).  i have a headache.  and i can´t send photos.  so stay tuned next week.

the church is true!
hermana magnusson

Heaven Bless Girls that Sing

thanks to pa, gee, rachel, ma, jmag sam, y los branchini for your emails this week!  and to sis. terrill for your dear elder and sis. vaughn for your card!  and jen urena, you rock my socks off!  thanks for the goodies!

hard to believe that this week is thanksgiving.  it´s definitely a "just USA" holiday.  we´ll see what hna wills and i can come up with to celebrate good and hard.

ORÁN FUN FACTS:
there are lightening bugs here!  we see them when we visit with mariluz and her family.  they like to hang out in the sugar cane fields.    the first lightening bug i saw in real life was in winter quarters last summer.  and now i live with them.

we always pass an heladeria (ice cream shop) in our comings and goings, and there is always the same old man out front and we always share pleasant exchanges with him.  the other night he invited us to have ice cream for free!  he is the owner.  super nice.  and now our best friend.

THIS WEEK:
on tuesday, we were running to an appt, and a little girl saw us from across the street and waved and waved like we knew her.  we didn´t.   she crossed the street with her mom and asked us, "are you the girls that sing??"  "uhhhhhhh...sure, i mean, YES!  we sing!"  turns out that sometime in the past, sister missionaries, a gringa and a latina like us, had contacted them and had sung in the lesson.  and so we asked if we could sing for them quickly, which we turned into a mini-lesson and two baptismal dates.  heaven bless the missionaries that sang for them in the past.

on friday, we passed by for victoria right before lunch.  we found her crying because her son was being a punk and wasn´t helping her with a home-improvement project.  so we did.  and i will forever kick myself for not having my camera.  it was so great.  everyone here has "chapas" for their roof--corrugated sheet metal that they lay overlapped over the framework of wood for their ceiling.  uhhhhh, can´t really explain it, so just imagine, k?   crippled little victoria climbed up on her roof and heaved her heavy chapas down to us below and we cleaned them with a hose and brooms in preparation for patching the holes in them.  it was super hot that day, we got good and sweaty, but she lent us old clothes (an apron for me and a dress/smock for my comp) and hats to use to protect us from the mud and sun.  being a missionary is so great.  we already had a lunch appt, but victoria invited us to eat with her, so we had 2 lunches!  good thing i have a heavy-duty digestive system.

fredy, franco and emanuel got confirmed on sunday.  it was an emotionally draining weekend for their family--their dad started drinking saturday morning and was good and schnokered when we passed by at noon.  we found mariluz, the mom, crying--she was afraid of a confrontation like a few weeks past.  she didn´t want to be home that night with him, but had no place to go.  so we left, prayed good and hard to be inspired to find members that could help us, and were led to the flia saban.  they live nearby, agreed to let mariluz and kids sleep in their house that night, if needed, then offered them their second house--where their married daughter had been living but currently is not and now is vacant.  heavenly father knows his children and how they can be helped.  mariluz ended up staying in her own house that night, but her husband and other relatives kept drinking all day/night and so she couldn´t go to church.  we have a lesson with them tonight.  ahhhhhhhh.  fredy, the 12 yr old, will get the priesthood next sunday.  happy!

the church is true!
hermana magnusson

Discovery of Heaven on Earth

baptism of fredy, franco and emanuel!

 julio and mariluz and family

 the boys with daniel, our 19-yr old young men´s pres.

thanks to mark o, the waltons, ma, rachel, gee, jmag, and sam for your emails this week!

can´t believe i forgot wish pa a happy birthday last week.  happy birthday, pa!  we celebrated here by having a really successful, happy day.  i told a few people it was my dad´s birthday.  entonces, algunas personas aquí mandaron saludos a mi papá.  ¡Feliz cumple!

the week ended happy:
fredy and his brother franco and their cousin emanuel all got baptized yesterday!  their baptism was on a sunday because we had district (stake) conference and there was a leadership meeting saturday night.  and since they weren´t going to be confirmed this week anyway, why not on sunday night?  their dad was the drunk/abusive dad of last week´s letter, and miracle of miracles, we had a lesson with him on saturday afternoon, invited him to conference and to his sons´ baptism, and HE CAME TO BOTH!!!  and because he came, mariluz was able to come too.  we are so happy.  we had good ward support at the baptism, and so hopefully that made a good impact.

district conference was really good.  and we had a record 15 investigators that showed up...our best church attendance ever!  the speakers talked about making good decisions, baptism, staying true and firm to what we know is right, and they all taught from the scriptures--perfect for all our little sheepies that were there.  pres. levrino presided--didn´t realize that although we have a district president, he works under the leadership of the mission pres.  interesting.  we had interviews with pres. levrino afterwards.  he is a wise leader.

we spent all morning sunday rounding up all our little sheepies to come to conference.  it was super stressful.  we passed by once to wake them all up, then made a second, and then a third go-round to the key players to get them going and out the door.  have you ever tried to herd a bunch of baby chicks?  just try to imagine it.  but 15 came!!  and that made it all worth it.  soledad and daniel were two of our key players that showed up.  miracle.  the RSP came to one of our lessons with soledad this week.  that was so good.  afterward she told us that she might be able to help her with some clothes and medicine for her girls.  that would be awesome.

we taught monica, a friend of natalia.  she told us that the night before she had made the decision to change her life.  and then we stopped by the next morning.  it´s nice to hear things like that because i don´t often feel guided by the spirit.  but obviously we are being helped.  anyway, super receptive.  AND SHE´S MARRIED!  i think she is the first non-mormon married lady-with-kids that i have met here.  crazy, eh?

gabriel and natalia had their very own noche de hogar (fhe) all by themselves!  we had talked about ndh briefly during our gospel principles class last sunday, and they decided to give it a whirl.  natalia says she can feel a difference in her home.  we weren´t able to teach them as often as we wanted this week, and gabriel was the only one that came to church on sunday.  bah.

i have discovered heaven on earth: vanilla yogurt mixed with mixted-fruit necter, then frozen.  the ultimate frozen-treat.

the church is true!
hermana magnusson

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly...

 

with kids in soledad´s neighborhood.  soledad´s daughter, emilse (red pants) is savannah´s age.  she calls me tia. (and i didn´t even teach her that!)  she likes to toe dance (that i did teach) and my stickers.  and her nose is always running.

 walking to gabriel and natalia´s house.

thanks to sis. stetson, rachel, gee, sam, renee, jmag, ma and pa for your emails this week!  loved hearing about halloween/elections/hurricanes/school/work/basket ball practice, etc.

halloween is low key here.  saw a few kids in costumes running around downtown the night of halloween.  i think they were trick or treating at the businesses downtown??  a little different than back home, eh?  other than that, nada.  nov 1st (or 2nd?) is the day that everyone goes to the cemetary to pray for their passed-away relatives.  had some people ask us our stand on that.  THAT day was a huge deal.  the bus we take to our farthest-away-area passes by the cemetary and it was super packed.

this week:

THE GOOD
gabriela is our investigator de oro!  30ish years old, mom of three.  she reads from the book of mormon and prays every single day.  her questions are super bunea.  i loved our plan of salvation lesson with her...she GETS IT!!!  wants to repent of some pretty serious transgressions in the past  and she is excited that our message gives her hope for the future.  FINALLY accepted a baptism date, but has school all day on saturday and sunday which means she can never come to church, so we´ll probably have to keep moving it back...blah.  her husband is never home when we teach her--sounds like many husbands of the women we teach: drinks, smokes, uses coca, known to be abusive.  we want to teach him too to help the whole family.  that´s the goal for this week.

gabriel and natalia are progressing too!  gabriel is the innactive man that found us (see letter from last week).  his wife natalia (really, the live-in girlfriend) is super receptive, met her three kids from a previous relationship, and she and two of the kids accepted baptism dates.  and all of them came to church on sunday!  gabriel´s teenaged sister was suprised to see him at church--she bore a sweet and powerful testimony about the power of prayer.  said that she prays all the time that her brother would come back to church and bring his family with him--his attendance that day with them all was the answer she was waiting for.  gabriel and his family were emotional.  happy happy day.  the ward is being great about fellowshipping them--inviting to seminary, mutual activities, fhe´s, etc.

had a combined branch talent show.  had some investigators show up and they had a great time.  was fun to watch the little kids perform.  lots of guitars/singing and traditional dances.  hna wills (other gringa in the pench) and i did a little piano duet (the one we learned i think from aunt karen cousins...like heart and soul, but more jazzy/blues-y).  simple and a crowd pleaser.  great.

THE BAD
had our reading class and only silvia showed up.  i was bummed because i was way stoked to teach the whole neighborhood.  blah.  i was especially excited about the little white board i made (scrap cardboard covered in contact paper--use a dry erase marker--TA DAH!  i am brilliant!)  silvia´s sobrinos liked my whiteboard.

it´s still hot.  will only get hotter.

abril, our little 8-yr old planned baptism didn´t show up.  told her mom that she didn´t want to get baptized because she wanted to do the catholic communion.  dah.  her grandma is a member but doesn´t live with her, so she has no family support, church-wise, at home.  maybe it´s better that she didn´t show up...i have a hard time baptizing kids that i know will go innactive in 2 weeks.  but hna wills was one of those and now she´s a missionary.  so i guess they´re not all bad.

THE UGLY
soledad (sobrina of silvia, one of our up-next baptisms) had a date set to get married to daniel so she could get baptized.  then at the end of last week, she caught him cheating on her. they separated, she was way depressed.  we had a hard time finding her this week--never was home, maybe was avoiding us, etc.  found out the other day that she began drinking again.  she thought she lost her chance to get baptized because she wasn´t married.  we re-explained the requirements for living the law of chastity (marriage or living seperately).  yesterday she told us that daniel came back (silvia told us that soledad, drunk, went to go get him and invite him back) and that they want to get married so she can get baptized.  oh man.  her situation really is awful.  we´re fasting/praying to know what to do with her.

mariluz (in the group foto from last week) couldn´t come to church on sunday because her husband was way drunk saturday night, they began fighting, he got violent, and the police got involved.  early sunday morning, they hauled him off to jail to cool off.  but she´s so great that she sent her three oldest kids to church with silvia.  her son fredy is scheduled to get baptized this weekend with his cousin emmanuel.  well, mariluz signed the form authorizing his baptism.  now we´re afraid the dad will be opposed to it all.  hopefully we can talk to him tonight.

bad idea to end on a sad note.  ummm...the church is true!  that is happy!
hermana magnusson

" I seriously love these people."

thanks to gee, rachel, jmag, sam, and ma for the emails!  and thanks for the "real life" updates (hurricanes, terrorists, etc).  it is super weird being totally removed from reality.  although the only time i really realize that i am super removed from reality is on mondays when i´m reading emails.  so crazy.

Answers to rachel´s questions:
--Are you used to the metric system yet?  not really, but kinda.
--When you cook do you use milliliters and stuff?   butter and things like cheese are sold in grams (i think 1 cup is 200 grams).  fruit/pasta, etc is sold by the kilo (strawberries were 12 pesos/kilo when i got to orán (good deal) but  now they´re up to like 20 pesos).  liquids are sold by the litro.
--How about when people talk about temperature and weight and speed?  i know that 40 grados (degrees) is like 100+, 50 grados is like 120.  all week it´s been 40+.  i have a mini thermometer keychain that has celcius and farenheit--best $6 i ever spent.  and weight and speed don´t really matter here.  people don´t watch their weight and cars/motos go fast or slow, that´s it.
--Not to make you trunky or nothing, but how far in advance will you know your coming home date?  the mission secretary sends "trunky papers" (travel plans) when you have 6 months left.  not that i´m trunky or anything, but i only have 4ish months left and still haven´t gotten anything, so i talked to him about it.  he´s working on it.  i´ll let you know.

things that are going on here:
we have district (stake) conference in two weeks, and so some lady in the branch asked if i could help her with a choir.  the two branches that meet in our chapel are doing a combined youth choir--divina luz (lead kindly light) and oh mi padre (o my father).  it makes me happy to use my talents to help.

(see photo) i seriously love these people.  L-R (back row), fredy, marta, cristina, silvia, me, cristian, mariluz.  (kids in front) mercedes, franco, emmanuel, ramon (in the way front) gladis and leonel.

 all of them are related somehow and all of them are referrals from silvia.  i love them because mariluz (mom of fredy and franco) tells her boys they have to do their homework on saturday so they can go to church on sunday, and because emmanuel knows the answers to all our questions, and because cristina went to an all day super-seminary activity and loved it, and because none of them can really read, but are so excited about having the book of mormon because it talks about God.  we want to teach the husbands/dads, but they work in the campo and aren´t super interested in listening to us when we´re there at night after they have just gotten home from their long day of working all day in the 110+ heat.  we´ll be starting our first reading class with everybody on wednesday!  i´m so excited.  mariluz said that her husband will partipate in that.  our reading material will be our pamplets, of course.  and probably the book of mormon stories book (with pictures).  so they´ll get a lesson whether they like it or not.  but all the kids are progressing fantastically.  only problem is that the moms can´t come to church (have to watch the kids/cook/watch the house, etc).  we´re working on that.

miracle of the week:  we were looking for some old investigators in an area where we never work and some guy pulled up on his moto and stopped us and said he was a member, innactive, but could we please stop by and visit his family?  we know his mom and sisters (they are on the active side of innactive) and they are great, so i was excited to meet his wife (really his live in girlfriend).  their house is like in the jungle.  our area is surrounded by campo and i don´t know who organizes this all, but all of a sudden people just start building little settlements.  no one has to pay for the property, you just scramble to claim your land and it´s first come first serve.  but someone has to stay on your property all the time, because people can come and claim it as theirs (because after all, you don´t have any paperwork/deeds, etc proving that it´s yours).  it´s like camping.  but with a wooden shack tent instead of a nylon/canvas tent.  it is seriously unreal.  the next time we visit them i´m bring my camera.  anyway, his wife is great, super receptive.  and she had like 4 friends visiting when we came so we added a few more to our pot of nuevos.  great experience.  gabriel (the guy that found us) said that a few days before, they had been talking about religion, and then he randomly saw us walking around in the neighborhood where he´s working.  random?  i think not.  he came to church on sunday.  made me so happy.

had a super great meeting with the branch president and his councilor yesterday.  we had a branch mission leader that wasn´t really doing anything, but he was just released.  and so now we´ll be working directly with the branch presidency and they are really supportive.  really want to help the obra misional.  they are all returned missionaries and that makes all the difference in the world.  we tossed around some ideas for some upcoming activities to reactivate members and invite investigators.  they are really working as a branch council with the 15 families (reactivation plan to get families to the temple).  i´m excited to work more actively with the branch.  this is the Lord´s work!

the church is true!
hermana magnusson

21 Nuevos! (keep reading to find out what a nuevo is)

thanks to rachel, gee, sam, pa, ma, and jmag for the emails.  i gobble them up every week.  sorry, i have no photos to share...hopefully next week? 

had to travel down to downtown salta to do paperwork to renew my visa this week.  it´s a three-visit process.  will go back this upcoming week for the last step.  it´s kinda a drag--a 5 hour bus ride, have to leave at 1:30 am, we sit around waiting in the immigration office for a couple hours, sign two papers, and then a 5 hour bus ride back.  but we do in as a group with all the missionaries that we came with.  that´s my favorite part.  it´s fun to catch up with hna andrus, my mtc comp.  and the elders are pretty funny.  they are truly boys--swapping stories and trying to one-up each other with stories about drunks, getting robbed, eating asado, gaining/losing weight, tracting, 1 hour comp inventories, etc.

hna torres (living in the pench with me, was my guemes comp) went home this week.  she was still so sick and wasn´t getting better.  its weird to think that she´s done.

we found 21 nuevos this week--i think that´s my mission record for one week.  a nuevo is someone that you found, taught a lesson to and set up a return appt with.  the goal is to have a nuevo turn into a progresando (progressing--someone that is keeping their committments).  a lot of our nuevos came from silvia, our last baptism.  she introduced us to a ton of her nieces and nephews, almost all of which are baptism-aged.  and four of them came to church with her!  when i asked cristina (13 yrs old) what she had done the night before (making small talk), she said, "we prayed!"  a missionary always likes the sound of that.  they are super great.  the mom lost her leg in a motorcycle accident a few years ago.  remember how i said i would never own a motorcycle?  

at church on sunday, silvia said that this week she´ll introduce us to the parents of all the kids.  score!

another nuevo was adelina, the daughter of a lady that hna torres met while in the hospital in salta.  adelina had been praying the night before because she felt sad and empty and felt like something was missing in her life.  and then the next day we contacted her.  it´s nice to have experiences like that.  she is interested in learning more, but is holding back a little because she´s already baptized in her church and attends semi-regularly.  but i still feel encouraged because she said that she felt like she was lacking something.  that would be the spirit and the restored gospel.

elizabet didn´t get baptized this week.  prob won´t get baptized for a while.  not converted yet.  but we figured out it´s because she´s not reading the book of mormon.  gotta read the book that holds it all togther, yo.  stay tuned.

outta time.  the church is true!

hermana magnusson

Soledad, Silvia, Victoria. Roberto, and Elezabet being touched by Hermana Magnusson

 happy birthday!  (photographic evidence of the huge rainstorm from last week)

zone conference this week, with hna rojas and hna torres.  all of us have been comps with each other, but at different times.

silvia´s baptism this weekend.  part of her family came, which was awesome.  we´re teaching them all.  we hope soledad (far left, with baby) gets baptized next...just has to get married.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MA!!!  hope you had a good day!  i love you!  remember last year when i called you from the airport for your birthday?  can´t believe that was a year ago.  and i can´t believe i forgot to wish the one true cuh a happy birthday last week.  looks like it was a good one.  happy belated birthday cuh.

loved all the photos this week.  yay.  can´t wait to meet my babies.  i have to meet savannah all over again. 

and thanks to sam, gee, bridget, ma, rachel, jmag, renee and aunt christy for the emails!  so good to hear from home.  can't believe baby shane got married.  if he had a wedding video, i sure hope the clip of uncle craig spanking his hand from the big bear reunion made it.  ;)

more details about orán:

--there are mango trees EVERYWHERE!  and they all have little baby mangoes.  can´t wait for them to be ripe.

--i saw two motocycle accidents this week--makes for a total of 4 that i have personally seen here on the mish.  i have never seen a car accident.  the first one was bad--a man got thrown off and was laying in the street without moving, the driver had a broken nose for sure.  the second one was not too bad--the kid got back on and kept going.  i will never own a motorcycle.  and my husband will never own a motorcycle.  ok.

--this areas is way more evangelical than my other areas.  people aren´t so HARD CORE catholic.  it´s kinda weird.  hard core christians are a little bit harder to teach.  well, they just present different challenges.

--there are LOTS more drunks here.  i don´t like running around picking up people for church on sundays because passing all the passed out men on street corners and sidewalks makes me sad.  it really is a humongous problem.  alcohol is so destructive.  in lessons, women all the time talk about how they wish their husbands would change and stop drinking.

--interesting roadblocks to conversion:  lots of people can´t read or can hardly read.  i want to start a reading class.  there is power in the book of mormon and people are seriously missing out.  also, a huge percentage of people say they can´t come to church because they need to stay home and "watch the house".  people don´t have ways to secure their homes (there are no doors/windows that shut/lock) and theft also is a huge problem.  dah.

it´s been a while since i´ve given details about the people we´re teaching:

soledad is the relative of silvia (just got baptized).  she was a contact that the hna´s made a while ago.  is 21 years old, has three kids, lives with the dad of the last baby and really wants to change her life.  is soo ready to get baptized, just needs to get married.  i think she lives a few doors down from her mom and step dad and all her younger siblings (maybe there´s 8 kids total?) but everyone is always in the house of the mom.  it´s a super humble house--two small bedrooms made from scrap wood, metal siding, and plastic tarp and everything else is outside (kitchen etc).  not sure where the bathroom is.  they cook over an open fire.  one night after a lesson, i left with my leg covered in flea bites from where my skin was touching the chair i was sitting on.  her prayers are sincere.  i have seen a light come into her eyes.  daniel, her boyfriend, comes home drunk every night, but we began teaching him, and he is also changing.  pulled us aside after our last lesson and asked what he has to do to get married so he can get baptized.  it´s almost an hour walk to the church  from their house (shorter commute if she takes the bus, but more expensive) so it´s a little hard for her to come to church, but she´s come twice.

silvia almost didn´t get baptized because she disappeared for almost a whole week before her baptism on saturday.  turns out she went to visit relatives in bolivia and came home on friday night.  just in time.  she is the cousin of soledad´s mom.  can´t read, is super humble.  our lesson in gospel principles on sunday was about talents.  she shared that her talent is helping people.  it´s true.

victoria has been kind of turned off lately with the idea of baptism.  her kids were baptized years ago and have since become super innactive (drugs, alcohol, etc).  she told us that her life went upside down after they got baptized (two daughters were tragically killed, etc) and so she thinks she was being punished.  she told god that she would get baptized if her kids turned around.  she came to church fasting on sunday (and WE had forgotten that it was fast sunday!).  she says that god is helping her learn how to read.  she can hardly read, but her comprehension of what she does read is fantastic.

roberto is a guy we met while contacting a referencia.  is super hard core into his christian church.  has a hard time accepting joseph smith because it doesn´t talk about him in the bible.  (it also doesn´t talk about gravity in the bible, but that doesn´t mean it´s not a true law...)  he frustrates my comp.  we´ve only had 1 1/2 lessons with him so i´m not frustrated yet.  if he prays with real intent, he´ll get a testimony.

elizabet is another one that is close to baptism.  is 14 years old.  told us the other day that it would be nice to be cleansed from all her sins, but that she has a few favorite sins that she isn´t ready to give up yet.  next lesson after that: plan of salvation, and i think i saw a light bulb go on in her head.  she wants to live with heavenly father and her family for eternity, and i think now realizes that her favorite sins aren´t so worth it.  her planned fecha bautismal ( baptism date) is this saturday. we´ll see if she´s ready.

the church is true!

hermana magnusson

Learn what a person needs to do to get married in Argentina

thanks to jecia, sam, ma, jmag, rachel, gee, and mark o for your emails this week!  and to sis. terrill for your dear elder.

general conference was so great, eh?  super surprised by the missionary announcement...will be interesting to see how the work explodes with younger missionaries.  i´ll be super excited to leave the mission a whole 11 years older than the elders entering.  ;)  favorite talk by far was elder holland, with elder andersen a close second.  elder bowen (baby died) was my stake pres at byui for like a semester and he is the uncle of my last comp (hna mortensen).  innnneresting, eh?  all during each session i was thinking of how each talk was perfect for (insert name of investigator) who hadn´t shown up.  but we did have a record 9 investigators show up en total, which was nice.  the award for the best investigator goes to 10 yr old ezequiel, because walked to and from the chapel by himself for 2 sessions (we picked him up for one) because he wanted to listen to a prophet.  after the final session, he thanked us for inviting him and said that he thoroughly enjoyed himself.  too bad his mom said he can´t get baptized because he´s a real gem.  we haven´t ever talked to her personally, so hopefully we can win her over.  the award for investigator-that-made-us-the-saddest goes to claudia, who said she couldn´t attend conference because she had to play bingo.  bah.

friday night before conference, we had an activity in the huge main plaza of orán--we showed "finding faith in christ" and "the restauration" on a big screen.  there was a protest going on in another part of the plaza, so not sure if that helped us at all.  we were able to make some good contacts while the movies were playing, so hopefully we´ll get something from it.

spent tuesday morning running around figuring out what a person has to do to get married.  we found the registro civil, waited in line for a long time, found out we were in the wrong line, waited in the right line, left to make photocopies (the lady at the desk had just run out of the paper that we needed...not sure why we had to make our own photocopy when they have their own machines...but whatevs), had to find the bookstore where they sell this little book thing that you need, found the other government building where you get the book stamped blah blah blah.  the process sure is complicated.  no wonder everyone just lives together--it´s a ton easier (and cheaper).  we did all the sleuth work for a few of our investigators that are so close to getting baptized--just need to get married.  you learn a lot of stuff unrelated to missionary work while serving a mission.  like, how to get married if you´re living in argentina.

the weather is heating up--was 100+ all week, with a humongous rain/thunderstorm friday.  we got caught in the rain unprepared and got super soaking wet in 0.03 seconds.  pretty funny.  thank goodness it after our last lesson of the day, so we just ran home.  not too excited about the heat.  everyone says it will just get worse (we are just starting spring, after all).

the church is true!

hermana magnusson

"let us do whatever is required to qualify for the holy ghost as our companion..."

from a photo shoot we had in guemes the p-day before i got transfered.  too bad it´s a little blurry, eh?

erika´s baptism a few weeks ago.  with her mom.

souvenirs from my welcome-to-orán committee.  don´t worry, with better repellant, now it´s not so bad. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RENEE!!!!!  i have lots of good memories of visiting you on your birthday...meatloaf, nasty-little-buns, grading papers and the like.  and remember your bubble gum cake the year you got your braces off?  that was a good one too.  thanks for being a great example to me!  hope you get over your sickies.

and thanks to jmag, ma, sam, gee, rachel, renee, pa and sis. stetson for your emails!

great RS conference, eh?  we got to see it in our ward building (it´s our district (stake) center) and it was broadcast live, at 9 pm.  was the choir director the lady in 17 Miracles?  i´m pretty sure she was.  and we were all excited because they did a close up of a girl singing in the choir that was a missionary here in salta, hna. wiscomb.  i met her in the airport as she was going home and we were arriving.  and sis. reeves was so great.  i would have told everyone in the building that my sister broke her leg on her trampoline, but i don´t know how to say trampoline in spanish.  didn´t know that abt pres. reeves almost dying.  and pres. eyring is always one of my favorites.  we invited quite a few people to the broadcast, but no one showed up.  i´m excited for this week--i love inviting people to conference.  it is seriously so great to teach about prophets and then tell people that they can listen to him this weekend.  do you realize how incredibly blessed we are to live when there´s a prophet to teach us?  

speaking of elder eyring, i came across this super great talk in my studies the other day: "Serve with the Spirit", pres. eyring, oct 2010, priesthood session.  some of my favorite parts: (and promise me you´ll all read the whole thing, k?)

"let us do whatever is required to qualify for the holy ghost as our companion, and then let us go forward fearlessly so that we will be given the powers to do whatever the Lord calls us to do."

"whenever darkness fills our minds, we may know that we are not possessed of the spirit of God...when we are filled with the spirit of God we are filled with joy, with peace, and with happiness, no matter what our circumstances may be; for it is a spirit of cheerfulness and of happiness.  the Lord has given unto us the gift of the holy ghost.  it is our privilege to have that holy ghost reign within us, so that from morning till night and from night till morning, we shall have the joy, the light and the revelation thereof." (quoting george q. cannon)

spent quite a bit of time with victoria this week.  still coqueando.  but holy cow, i´m getting to love her.  she´s had a super duper hard life, and she´s one of the most amazing women i´ve ever met.  college degrees or head-haunchito jobs or plastic surgeries do not make women great.  she lives alone, except for when her drunk/drugged up son crashes in his room.  she washes her clothes by hand, is adding on to her house by herself, cooks over an open fire, is teaching herself how to read, really prayers super sincerly, loves going to church, wants to pay her tithing.  she feeds us every time we go over.  she gives us fruit from her fruit trees.  i feel like i am in my own house when we´re visiting her.  she is crippled because her dad beat her mom while she was pregnant with her.  when we were over at her house last night, her son came home, drunk.  they yelled at each other for a while, then he packed up his bag and left, he said for forever.  then she broke down and cried and cried.  she´s worried for him.  she said that he has beat her and done physical damage to the house when he´s been drunk in the past.  he was baptized as a teenager, so we´ll see what kind of help the church can do for him, and for her.

one of my ripening tomatoes in guemes got baptized this last weekend.  so great.  we have a baptism planned for two weeks from now.  also so great.

hey, the church is true!

hermana magnusson

Mormon Temples: A Conversation with a Church Leader

This is one of the messages that Lisa is sharing with the people in Argentina.  

Click on the arrow to watch it.  

Read About the Piano Pratice Payoff

thanks to ma, carrie, gee, renee, rachel, jmag, sam and the waltons for your emails this week!  so great to hear from you all.  i loved the photos.

working hard over here in orán.  (funny...oran means "they pray".  just fyi.)  here is a taste of orán:
*it´s super easy to have lessons here.  everyone lets you in.  everyone accepts baptismal dates.  (yay!)  not everyone progresses.  (boo!)
*the accent is different here.  maybe more like bolivian?  not sure.  but definately not so argentine.
*i was getting eaten alive, but not by mosquitos.  not sure what they are but they look like gnats, they bite something fierce, and then the bites itch like crazy.  i finally bought better repellent and haven´t really had a problem since.  thank goodness.  a lot of our area is surrounded by sugar cane fields, and the bugs are worse in those parts.  but how can you be neighbors with alma and amulek and peter and paul in heaven without having some sort of affliction on the mish?
*i definitely have seen my poorest homes here--open to the elements, flies everywhere, humble furnishings, dirt floors (or mud, if it is under the water spigot).  we are very blessed.
*and this is my first area where i have seen houses built with wood.  everywhere else have been brick/cement.
*everyone in the branch was excited to have me play for sac mtng.  they haven´t had a piano player since the last missionary that could play, which was months and months ago.  thanks ma, for making me learn.

my comp hna villegas is a convert of 2 years.  only member in her family.  she writes to her home ward bishop every week because her mom doesn´t know how to use a computer.  hna torres is still sick (remember she had a ton of problems when we were comps) so she has been in salta getting more tests done.  her comp, hna wills (arrived with me) is working with a "mini-missionary"--a local member that was set apart by the branch pres to be a missionary for as long as we need her.  we use minis a lot in the mission--basically for when the gringos can´t get here because they are waiting for visas and there are not enough comps to go around.

we found victoria this week (was a referencia from someone in the other branch).  she is 50-60, a little crippled and stinkin´ hilarious.  she is learning how to read.  she reads our pamphlets until the wee hours of the morning.  she also is hard-core addicted to coca--a leaf that people chew here, like chewing tobacco, i guess.  but it´s from the same plant that they use to make cocain, so it´s super addictive.  she starting using coca when she was 9, working in the campo with her family.  she REALLY wants to get baptized, so we taught word of wisdom right away--she told us, "i know i can´t quit this by myself.  but with god´s help, i can do it!"  we bought her a ton of gum.  but every day when we pass by, she´s coqueando (coca-ing).  she came to church this week and loved it.  she has a banana tree and gives us a ton of fruit every time we pass by.  she is great.  and she will get baptized.  i just know it.

we baptized a 11 yr old daughter, erika, of a menos activo this weekend.  erika walked 40 min to church by herself so she could receive the holy ghost.  what 11-yr old in the states that you know would do that?

another girl, daiana, was baptized 2 months ago, but arrived to church late the next day and never got confirmed.  her stepdad didn´t know that she had gotten baptized and got mad when he found out and has since forbidden her to come to church.  now that it´s been 2 months without the holy ghost she has to be baptized again.  we stopped by to talk to her and her mom.  daiana wants to get baptized again, wants to come to church, but won´t because she´s scared of her stepdad.  her mom asked us to never come back because her husband is violent.  so so so so sad.  hopefully some day, daiana will find the church again.  

hopefully photos next week.  the church is true!
hermana magnusson