thanks for all your prayers! the church is true!

muchas gracias a pa, hna patiño, ma, jen w, jmag, renee, grandma harris, rachel and gee for your emails! and to jen u for the dearelder! LOVED the birthday video courtesy of the anderclan. savannah is SO BIG. the last time i saw her, she wasn´t even crawling yet. and so glad that she can correctly identify my picture. good work, jmag!

trivia answer for last week: most commonly used "spice": SALT. is used big-time in everything, even on a lettuce salad. nothing is spicy. no, no no. i want to make homemade salsa, but can´t find jalepeños anywhere. most commonly used "condiment": mayonesa (mayo). also used on/in everything.

this week´s trivia question: "Barfy" is the brand name for what food product?

juana got baptized this saturday. super great. her family was one of the first people we visited when we arrived in this area. her two teenagers got baptized a few years ago and have since gone innactive due to dumb stuff members of the ward said/did. she wanted to get baptized when her kids did, but due to some interesting circumstances, she couldn´t. we had to get permission from the mission president and she had to be interviewed by the bishop before she could get baptized--but miracles happen! a lot of missionaries have been working with her family for so long, so it is a priviledge to be able to take a small part in the story of her conversion. her kids have been coming to church with her and have been more involved with the youth activities. juana has a daughter my age that we´re teaching too, and hopefully she´ll be baptized in february. the church really does make a difference in people´s lives and the lives of their families.

hilda and her daughter veronica and her two granddaughters attended juana´s baptism. (we had a TON of investigators show up--it was so great!) we had a lesson with them the next day and all want to get baptized. we´ve been working with their family for a long time too, and have been a little frustrated at their lack of progression. but randomly in one lesson, veronica was way more receptive to the idea of baptism. she has been coming to young women activities and feels more comfortable at church. in our lesson on sunday, we set a date with her, then asked hilda if she would be baptized on the same date. hilda said she still was lacking something, not sure what, and veronica asked her, "can´t you feel something different when you pray?" SO GREAT! hilda said the closing prayer and afterwards said, "i know what i have to do." their date is for february. hopefully they will continue to progress.

yesterday was hermana rojas´ birthday. i made her a birthday banner. we ate lunch with juana and her family and they made a fantastic cake. and later that night we had a lesson with nicolas and natalia and they fixed us up with some fantastic ice cream. nicolas and natalia also were at the baptism, and both want to get baptized, but natalia doesn´t want to marry nicolas because she feels like she can´t trust him yet. they are making progress, though slowly. they are eager learners and love coming to church and read and understand the scriptures. their relationship is still really rocky, though. their squirrely 2 1/2 year old daughter will sit on my lap and be really still and sing along when we sing hymns with them. so great.

thanks for all your prayers!

the church is true!

hermana magnusson

Third Week in January 2012

a cool catholic church/cathedral in downtown salta.

built about the same time as the salt lake temple (1880s)

las vegas has followed me to south america!!!

hola hermana rojas

i KNOW the elders don´t spend their p-days making visual aids!

muchas gracias to betsy, jacob, rachel, sam, jmag and ma for your emails and photos! reading emails from home is my favorite part of p-day. and thanks to ma for the birthday packages (small box and big evelope) and to aunt lynn for the package! (not sure if it´s for my birthday, but i´m waiting until then to open it.) can´t wait!

answer to last week´s trivia question: everyone uses a WEED WHACKER to "mow the lawn." (sorry ma. your guess was a good one.) *editor's note: Lisa's ma guessed they used a machete. there is a big plaza/park/playing field in front of our apartment building and with all the rain, the grass/weeds/vegetation got pretty out of control. it took several men two days to cut everything.

trivia question for this week: most commonly used spice (used in EVERYTHING) and condiment (put on EVERYTHING)?

had a really good zone conference this week. pres. levrino and his wife spoke, along with our stake president, and the zone leaders did some training on getting referencias (referrals). all the missionaries in the zone were asked to come prepared with a 5 min talk on alma 38 (like sac meeting in the mtc--the speakers to be announced on the spot). my district leader and i were asked to speak--glad i was prepared with notes! last week i was feeling pretty crummy (congestion/cough/achy) and that day i basically had no voice. but i´m feeling better now. president levrino´s counsel was very good--he talked a lot about the miracle of jesus feeding the five thousand. the disciples had to act in faith as they distributed the loaves and fishes--the food wasn´t multiplied until after the savior blessed it and it was distributed to the crowd. we often pray to have increased resourses or that our efforts are magnified, but it isn´t until we bring what we have to the savior, allow him to bless our efforts, and then demonstrate faith by working really hard that we see the miracles happen. i wish i had my notes with me now to share more, but it was all good. it´s been worth serving a mission just for the training i´ve gotten. good stuff!

this sunday was kind of exciting--the handle of the door to the relief society room broke, and no one could open the door to enter or leave. the meeting was just starting, so hardly anyone was in class, including the rsp. the poor counselor was in a tizzy--the teacher and the president were in the hallway and she didn´t know what to do. the windows have metal bars on the outside, so we couldn´t escape that way. someone gathered some priesthood brothers and they removed some ceiling tiles in the hallway, climbed up into the ceiling, and then removed some ceiling tiles in the classroom and lowered themselves in and used a little tool to open the door. pretty exciting.

i am gaining a testimony that satan really is opposed to the progression of god´s kingdom. helena, our golden investigator, has become sluggish in her progression. she´s getting a ton of opposition from her family and the catholic church because she´s going to be baptized. she can´t cut back on her cigarettes. she slept through church. dah! nicolas had another drug relapse (after fighting the urge to consume last week) and natalia says she´ll leave him for good. monica had an excellent experience at church last week (was super emotional as she described "this feeling she had that was super strong, and she can´t really describe, but was overwhelmingly good"), but we found out in our last lesson with her family that she and her husband alejandro aren´t married. alejandro doesn´t like that there are restrictions to being baptized--he doesn´t like the idea that he has to give up smoking or get married to be baptized. DISCOURAGING!

but, i also know that the stone cut out of the mountain without hands won´t be stopped from filling the whole earth! and missionary work has it´s good moments too--like when we stopped by to visit a super innactive older lady to read the book of mormon with her, and she told us thanks for not forgetting about her. and like when we were at church, and the kids of an innactive mom (they all attend church on their own without her) ran up to tell us how excited they are for the fhe we´ll have with their family tonight. (i planned the lesson/activity: parables of the lost sheep/coin and then we´ll play boolah-boolah. straight-up fhe of my childhood.) and we have a baptism for this saturday--juana. yay! it feels good to help people change their lives.

the church is true!

hermana magnusson

Third Week in January Email

many thanks to gee, jen w, rachel, sam, ma, and pa for your emails! give baby c a big beso from his favorite tia! congrats to juan branchini on his mission prep. can´t wait to hear where he gets called.

aunt christy is right once again--the personal item that i bring with me every day is an UMBRELLA. i use it every single day...for the sun or the rain. i think i would die without it. this week´s trivia question: what do people use to cut the grass? (grass being a very loose term that applies to anything green that grows where there are no rocks or cement)

this sunday we had a record number of investigators in sacrament meeting--seven!...

monica, with her two little girls. we recently started teaching monica and her husband. they are neighbors to a part-member family (familia decilia), who invited them to the ward christmas party. they live out in the campo (country) without bus service, so we can´t visit them as often as our other investigators. her husband told us that if we can convince him that the church is true, he´ll be baptized. glad to know that i don´t have to worry about the convincing part--i´ll leave that up to the holy ghost.

yayo, nonmember husband in the decilia family. he told his wife that for the new year, he would start a new life and start going to church with her. last week he came in a suit. that was cool. their son that is my age is the stake exec sec.

veronica and rosio. daughter and granddaughter of hilda. wrote about them last week. passed by their house to pick them up and they had just woken up. hilda couldn´t come because of a sick grandbaby she had to take care of. couldn´t talk to them after church, so hopefully they had a good experience in young womens and primary.

natalia and nicolas. also talked about them last week. they both have great desires to change, and both have a lot of changing to do. we set a marriage and baptism date with them this last week, so satan is working extra hard on them. they have been fighting all the time over dumb stuff, so we have been focusing on how to build family unity through family scripture study, prayer, improved communication, etc. a good, strong family in the ward has taken them under their wing and had a great family home evening with them last week and will join them again this week. nicolas and natalia LOVED fhe. and they love going to church. silvia joined us for a lesson with them last night and contributed a lot of good stuff to the discussion. working with members is the only way to go.

the seventh was a nonmember boyfriend of ward member. we haven´t been teaching him, so he was a gift!

helena is continuing to progress, though she´s been pretty sick this last week. because she´s so hard-core catholic (her uncle is some head-haunchito of the church in rome) the local catholic bishop called her in on sunday morning (so she couldn´t attend our church...grrrrrrr...) to try and talk her out of meeting with us. she doesn´t have a testimony of joseph smith yet, but has asked that we hurry up and teach her the word of wisdom so she can get baptized without her cigarettes. she talks A TON which is a little aggrevating...but it´s hard to be frustrated for very long with her. she really is pretty great.

today for my p-day activities, i searched through a bunch of old liahonas/ensigns that we have in the apartment for photos/illustrations to use as visual aids. i was in heaven. i love doing stuff like that. way better than cleaning or laundry.

thanks for writing me with news from home and for the prayers! it is appreciated!

the church is true!

hermana magnusson

January 9, 2012 Email

many thanks to ma, rachamay, jmag and sis. patiño for your emails and lisa baird for the christmas card. loved the photos of the ander fam.

today is the first day of translado (transfer) 3. both hna rojas and i will stay in tribuno for another 6 weeks. my 12 weeks of "training" is officially over. basically the only difference is that we have 2 1/2 hrs of study now instead of 4. it will be interesting to see what difference that will make. i am excited to be out in the streets for more time.

it´s been a while since i gave an investigator update. here´s the scoop on people we´re teaching:

helena. taught her three times. older woman that lives across the street from our chapel. is catholic, but disagrees with basically all catholic doctrine and traditions. basically, that means she´s a golden investigator. has a testimony, based on her own personal study, that jesus came to visit the indiginous people in the americas before columbus. is very well versed with the bible. has a framed picture of john wayne in her kitchen. her daughter lives in long beach, ca, and likes to "speak english" with me. is a total crack up. went to church with us this sunday and LOVED it. is praying to know if she should be baptized. smokes A TON. no prob, eh?

natalia/nicolas. unmarried couple with 2 little girls. we´ve been teaching them for a long time. natalia is on the brink of baptism. only hang up is that nicolas has disappeared twice in the last month and blown a ton of money on drugs. natalia is willing to forgive all and marry him, but can´t because of the restraining order she put on him after the first disappearance. legally he can´t be in the house, but they´re back to living together. natalia is great and i hope she can be baptized soon. nicolas wants to change, but addictions are hard to break. their progress is kind of on hold right now.

hilda (mom) and martin (son) and veronica (daughter) and rosio (granddaughter). we started teaching this family because the son was a reference, but i think the mom is the one with the most potential right now. martin is 18 and works all day at a car wash so it´s hard to have lessons with him. the whole family is catholic, though not really the practicing type, but martin is way into all the catholic traditions (virgin, santos, etc). hilda cleans houses and doesn´t have time to read the pamphlets or the book of mormon. plus, reading/comprehension is hard for her, so there´s little motivation. but, she is sincerely looking for something better for her family and understands what we teach and is very very receptive. and she has attended church and the ward christmas party and the weekly RS activity. has a baptismal date for the end of this month but isn´t sure because she hasn´t had a strong feeling that THIS is IT. veronica is 13 and is very nice and receptive, but not sure if she is super into what we´re teaching. you know, it´s just eternal life. whatevs. rosio is 8 and told her grandma (hilda) that she wants to be mormon too. great. we can work with that. this family had the discussions from the missionaries about 7 years ago. hopefully the seeds that were planted before are ripe for harvesting now.

mauro. 18 yr old brother of the bishop. has been experimenting with drugs and his girlfriend is 7 months pregnant. wants to change his life. in our first visit, he asked us about baptism, said he´s been thinking that it´s something that he needs. only problem is that after two lessons, we can´t get a hold of him because he went to live with his girlfriend for a bit.

we are always working with menos activos--their stories are always sad. usually they leave the church because they are offended. it´s never worth it.

there are 5 newly called ward missionaries (sisters) that accompany us. one (florinda) is great--will walk around in her neighborhood, talking to people and passing out pamphlets--doing all the finding work so we can focus on teaching. love it!

the church is true!

hermana magnusson

First Letter of 2012

*Editorial note from Lisa's Mom: Lisa makes several references to things that have happened in our family this past week (like welcoming baby Chase!) I've included pictures so you know what she is talking about.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY CHASE!!!! welcome to the fam! you´ll love it here! i love love love love love all the photos. in the photo of him with the wrinkly forehead he looks just like his papa. but jmag is right- in a different way than savanah.

many thanks to betsy, carrie and maresa for the christmas love, sis. mangum and sis. cornwall + monrovia seminary for the christmas cards, and jen w, rachel, ma, jmag, dad, gee and sam for the emails.

wow--a new tv!.....

*Below is a picture of our old TV we replaced.

It was purchased in 1994 -

hence the shocked response from our children with our new TV purchase

.....and loved hearing about sam´s friend.

*Sam's friend, Chris, from his elementary school days

has been spending the past few days with us.

He had a great time at the New Year's Eve Stake dance.

congrats to aunt christy for her correct answer to last week´s trivia: most often seen roadkill is FROGS (zappos). this week´s trivia: what personal item do i bring with me every day because i use it ALL THE TIME (hint: not scriptures, name tag, watch, water bottle etc.)

happy new year! can´t believe it´s 2012. new years here is a pretty big deal-- another big meal late at night (11-ish) with TONS of fireworks at midnight--fireworks that shoot up in the sky and loud, booming firecracker types. missionaries had to be in their apartments at dark, and we went to bed at 11, as usual. but we definitely heard the fireworks, and i got up to watch them for a bit. a sister in the ward sent us home with a ton of food which i wasn´t in the mood to eat, so i ate it for lunch today. more people were at church than on christmas, but still not many. we invited a ton of investigators to church as usual, and were positive that one would show up, but turns out that she was up all night and went to bed at 8:00 the next morning. dah.

we are working with a few families (well, parts of families) that have accepted baptismal dates, but none of them are sure and are having dudas (doubts). people here are MEGA catholic and have a hard time giving up old traditions and feel like they are disrespecting the traditions of their parents/families. it´s so hard to watch people give up the chance for lasting happiness. i´m learning a lot about the apostacy and need for restoration as i prepare for our lessons with them. THE CHURCH IS TRUE!

hermana magnusson

our christmas tree. gifted to us, plus all the ornaments, from silvia (recent convert). we also ate with silvia christmas eve night. so great.

baptism of dulce, dec 17.

waiting for the bus. this is the "downtown" part of my area. the field that i sent a photo of the last time is to my left, across the street. it was SO BLASTED HOT this day. and then that late afternoon, there was a HUGE rain/hail storm. maybe i wrote about it last week? and that night was our ward christmas party.

christmas eve morning, with my district. after we sang christmas carols at the old-folks home. it was rainy and a little chilly that morning.

with tessi and dulce. tessi is dulce´s gma, and is coming back to church after almost 30 years of inactivity. some of my favorite people that we´ve taught.

christmas morning. HYNAH! i was a good girl this year.

goodies from betsy, maresa, and carrie. SO GREAT!

since there was so much interest in my washing machine, (*we spent some time talking about it during our Christmas day phone call) i took some photos of it. the hose you hook up to the sink to fill it up. dump in your soap and your clothes, turn it on. "agitates" for a while, then you put your hose in the drain (under the sink) to drain the water. transfer your clothes to the sink to rinse and wring by hand, then put them in a separate little contraption to spin and get them more dry. then hang them to dry. it´s quite the process. this is a semi-automatic washing machine. not sure how totally-automatic machines differ. and not sure if all the missionary apartments have one, but i´m pretty sure they do.

view from the top. it´s as tall as just below my waist.

Romans 10:15. (look it up) *here

ah, the joys of funny missionary tans.

blisters of death, part 3. this is the third time i have gotten nasty blisters in the same place, and of the same magnitude. painful.