Are You From Russia?

happy monday. thanks to hna patiño, gee, ma, sam, jmag and rachel for your emails! and congrats to julina and enrique!

trivia answers: most common soda flavors: coca-cola, fanta (orange), sprite, pomelo (grapefruit). juice flavors: pear, pomelo, apple, orange. congrats to ma and hna patiño for your correct contributions!

trivia question for this week: what does it mean if there is a full bottle/jug of water on the roof of a car?

we´ve been asked some random questions lately. they include (but are not limited to):

are you nuns? (um, hello, do we LOOK like nuns??)

do you buy bibles? (no...but do you want a book of mormon for free?)

(to me) are you from russia?

can you write in spanish too??

so, you can speak english???

this week was way hard. the majority of our citas fell through, as did all of our back-up plans and the back-up of our backup plans. it´s interesting because interest seems to come in waves, and right now is a dry spell. no one is interested. people we contact don´t want to hear what we have to say. the investigators we do have aren´t progressing. i´m way excited for general conference. i know it will be good for the people we´re teaching to hear from the prophet and the apostles. i know it will be good for ME to hear from the prophet and apostles. do you realize how lucky we are to have a prophet lead us?? lucky, no. blessed, yes!

friday morning was not very successful, and i thought that life would be just a little bit better if i could eat empanadas for lunch. and what do you know, the family we ate with made empanadas!! tender mercy. i am becoming quite proficient at making them (stuffing and "folding" them...not quite sure how to make the inside yumminess yet.)

saturday night, we planned a noche de hogar (FHE) as a ward activity--for members to invite their friends. we only had one investigator (nicolas) and about 7 members show up, but it was a fun group. we watched the movie "together forever". dude, that movie totally brings me back to my childhood. holy cow...the bangs, the baggy sweaters, the bowtie....so great. although the spanish dubbing isn´t very good. ("you´re in luck, i have a shop in town....c´mon!!" doesn´t really translate well, i guess.) and we played a version of scatergories. a little tricky to play in another language. i could only think of responses in english. and the ward mission leader made homemade pizzas for the treat. every time we have a NDH with members, we eat pizza.

a big batch of gringo missionaries just arrived. they were all waiting their visas. we have two new elders in our district. i met one today when we ate lunch together as a district. can i just say i am so glad i am not new anymore? i TOTALLY knew how the poor elder felt--had no appetite, kept using mexican-spanish, asked me if was safe to drink the tap water, sat and looked lost as everyone else talked about old companions/areas/investigators. it really feels like yesterday that i was in his shoes. and holy cow, i´ve been in argentina for 5 months already.

in other news: it´s more autumn-ish now. cloudy. drizzly. getting a little chilly. school started up again at the end of february, so we see kids coming and going to school. the end of this transfer is on sunday. we´ll see if i get transfered. i´ve been in the area for a little over 5 months, but there have been missionaries in their areas for up to 7 months. hna vega´s feet are always swollen and it´s hard for her to walk a lot, but she got a special boot to wear at night so it´s a little better now. and...........i can´t think of anything else. ¿preguntas?

the church is true!

hermana magnusson

A Week in the Life of a Missionary....

thanks to aunt karen, jacob, ma, sam, renee, rachel, jen w, jmag, and gee for your emails! good luck, gee, with your presentation. that would totally stress me out. and an ESPECIALLY HAPPY thanks to ma and the cuh and jen u for the goodies! i am one lucky kid.

happy birthday to my two baby sisters this week--though 25 and 22 are hardly babies. holy cow. my 25th birthday was on a sunday and it was my first day as RSP. i celebrated by going to a fireside with elder perry. and on my 22nd bday i was student teaching. wow. time flies. anyway, happy bday, jmag and gee, and happy one year anniversary of getting my mission call!

congrats to aunt karen for being the first to correctly idenitify ALEX BOYE as the famous person in the gospel principles book. (click here to see the picture Lisa is talking about)

this week´s trivia: what are the most popular drink flavors here? (soda and juice...because no one drinks plain water)

this week was pretty much like every other week. nothing new or exciting. but it did occur to me that y´all don´t know what a normal week is like. so here´s a play-by-play:

MONDAY: we had an fhe scheduled with an inactive family, but they forgot about it and no one was home. so we contacted a few references. no one was home/interested. we also had a lesson with the flia (familia) funes--the mom/dad/daughter that we met due to a reference from an innactive recent convert (i wrote about getting their referencia a couple weeks ago). we watched the restauración DVD, and sergio the dad liked it so much that he copied it to his computer. not sure how legal that is, but, meh.

TUESDAY: had our weekly district meeting in the morning. passed by the house of gustavo and mariela--gustavo is the brother of an innactive girl we found due to the mini-CCM activity (patricia--pretty sure i wrote about her?). gustavo works nights as a taxi driver, so he sleeps all day long, so it was pretty miraculous that he was home and awake when we passed by. we taught his wife the other day. he appears pretty golden--his number 1 priority is his family. he wants to serve others. we shared with him the scripture in mosiah 18 ("if you have desires to lift others burdens, etc, what have you against being baptized?...") he accepted our baptismal invitation, but it was pretty conditional (ie: wants to learn more before he is FOR SURE). we have visions of him being a bishop some day. had almost all of our citas (appts) fall through in the evening. bummer.

WEDNESDAY: contacted more references from the mini-ccm activity. no one was home/interested. had lunch with an innactive member that i didn´t know. she was way nice, and is mostly innactive due to health problems. lunch was yummy. had most of our evening citas fall through. stopped by the relief society activity to find out more info about the ward RS-anniversary-activity for saturday. they were making soy hamburgers and fed us a sample. we contacted the daughter of a lady we just began teaching. turns out she is neighbors to tessi and dulce and friends of silvia. small world.

THURSDAY: our day of weekly planning. this lasts ALL. DAY. LONG. and we eat lunch in our appt. hna vega made a scrumptious lunch. she likes to cook and i like to eat, so it´s a good arrangement. i usually contribute fruit/veggie side dishes. we taught gustavo again and the lesson went way long and so we didn´t get to a few of our other citas. bummer. so far, our numbers are pretty low, and we don´t have any lessons with members present (one of our key indicators). frustrating.

FRIDAY: we pray extra hard that our lessons won´t fall through and that the members that we called to accompany us in our citas will remember. heavenly father answers prayers and we had a great day. a member joins us for our lesson with natalia chaile. she tells us that she is having doubts and doesn´t want to get married/baptized after all. the sister that joined us had great experiences/insights to share. THIS is why we have members join us! we dropped the flia cruz (hilda/veronica/etc) because they weren´t progressing and have no interest in joining the church, but hna vega has been getting promptings that we need to stop by. so we pass by to visit veronica with one of the young women, and veronica is crying. she didn´t want to tell us what was wrong, but we share a scripture, testimony and prayer and she feels a little better. we pass by a part-member family that we visit on and off (they live kinda far away and it´s hard to committ them to be home for citas). but we talk to the innactive dad for the first time ever. and the mom and 9 yr old brother accepted a baptismal date. we called a ysa-preping-for-a-mission at the last second to join us in our cita with the flia funes, and he can join us. sergio and carmen have lots of questions and the member was a big help. great day!

SATURDAY: we meet with the bishop and ward mission leader in the morning. we have a lesson with nicolas and natalia. the EQP joins us for the lesson. natalia doesn´t want to get married. nicolas wants to get baptized. he is frustrated and says he will marry the dog instead. we don´t know what to do! we are hoping that they will go to gen. conf. and get the answers they need. we contact more references. no one is home/interested. we stop by the RS activity because we heard that there will be lots of non-members. there are none. we teach veronica, daughter of juana (recent convert). she says she will go to church tomorrow if we stop by to pick her up.

SUNDAY: we stop by veronica´s house to pick her up for church. she says she will just keep sleeping, thanks. no one else that we called to wake up/invited/had-members-pick-up came to church. what more can we do in our vineyard?????????! the lessons in church were good--PERFECT for the investigators that weren´t there. dah. we eat lunch with silvia. we have some good 1st lessons with florinda, one of our ward missionaries. we contact an "antiguo" (an investigator that was receiving the lessons before, but is not now)--a mom with 9 kids, 8 of which are girls. we think that she has potential.

and now it´s monday again. i love p-day. laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, making invitations for general conference and the fhe activity we planned for the ward, emailing. busy, busy.

the church is true!

hermana magnusson

Where's Waldo?

Have you ever heard of, Where's Waldo?

How about, Where's Alex?

He is in the picture below.

He is the answer to the question of the week

that was in Lisa's last email.

Maybe his picture will help out.

Find out about Alex Boye

and what makes him so "Mormon-famous" here.

Photos and Email

walking to Mi Refugio--a little cluster of homes in the country part our area. there is a member family that lives there, and they introduced us to their neighbors and we began teaching them. problem is, there is no bus service to mi refugio, and to take a remis (taxi) is way expensive and so a few times we walked. it´s 45 minutes. so i worked on memorizing d&c 4 en español...pues he aqui, el campo blanco está ya para la siega...

hola

we teach anyone/thing that will listen...

with florinda, one of the ward missionaries. we walked around all night trying to find a referencia in another little cluster of homes out in the campo. this is when we finally found it.

with elena. she´s quite a character. her daughter lives in long beach.

hey sam, i was thinking of you on your birthday!

eating amazing stir fry last week with hna. vega

thanks to sis pierce, jmag, rachel, gee, pa and ma for your emails this week!

trivia answer: the most common excuses given by kids is: "she went downtown" or "she´s taking a shower". i´ve always wondered why everyone in salta is so squeaky-clean...the whole world is bañandose when the missionaries pass by. the other most common excuse is "she´s sleeping", but usually that´s not a lie, especially if it´s between the hours of 2:00-6:00.

trivia question for this week: what famous person* is pictured in the photo for chapt. 24 in the gospel principles manual? (*like, mormon-famous, not famous-famous.)

president eyring is so great. have you read his talk from the latest priesthood session lately? you should. here´s a good quote from it: "For us to qualify for eternal life, our service in this life must include working with all our heart, might, mind and strength to prepare others to return to God with us."

miracle of miracles--nicolas and natalia have a wedding and baptism date. so happy. the only sad thing is that is in a few weeks--and in the next transfer. i don´t think i´ll be here for it. but it really has been good to watch their conversion. i remember our first lesson with them--it was pretty miraculous that we found their house, and when we left, we knew we had found a good couple. they have had a messy past, but hopefully their conversion is deep enough to be lasting. we watched "together forever" with them the other day. dude, it´s been ages since i watched that. so crazy. they are excited to have the goal of being sealed in the temple.

man, we have to leave the cyber. they´re going to turn off the electricity...sorry this email wasn´t really beefy......

the church is true!

hermana magnusson

I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Find out what Lisa is teaching by clicking on the links below.

For a graphic of who Mormons are click:

Mag Pad News: I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d...

For Mormonism 101: FAQ click here

Three-legged Dogs?

muchas gracias to ma, renee, rachel, jmag, sam and jamie for the emails and sis. terrill for the dearelder! and to the D2 relief society for the love note--i loved it! it made my day!

trivia answer: the most people i have seen on one moto is FOUR: dad, mom, two kids. and all without helmets.

Lisa didn't send this picture.

I got it off the Internet.

trivia question for this week: when we tract/contact people in their homes, what are the most common "excuses" (lies) that kids give for why their parents can´t come to the door?

i´ve seen two three-legged dogs in two weeks.

I also got this picture off the Internet

hna vega made stir fry today for lunch. it was so amazing.

we taught nicolas and natalia about fasting this week, because nicolas wants to get baptized and natalia still doesn´t want to get married. the four of us fasted together this past sunday that they would be able to work together to reach their goal of baptism on march 31. they are sooooooooo close. the fast was a good experience for them, i think. on sunday, i was thinking that their baptism will be a complete miracle. but then i was thinking about the other baptisms we´ve had, and they have all been miracles. conversion IS a miracle. people have problems in their lives due to their bad choices, or the bad choices of others--or maybe they have good lives, but there is somthing missing--and they listen to a couple of kids (us) teach them about the gospel of jesus christ, and they repent and completely change and then they are happy. and then one day they go to the temple. so great, eh?

we´ve spent the bulk of our time this week trying to contact all the references we got from the MTC activity (when the young men went tracting). the majority of the people aren´t really interested. but one of the references was for a girl my age--Patricia, married, with a little girl and a baby on the way. she´s actually a member--was taught and baptized by the missionaries at age 8, but went innactive shortly thereafter because she´s the only member in her family and circumstances didn´t really allow her to attend church. six years ago, her younger sister committed suicide and ever since then, she´s been anti-religion (though not anti-God) because the catholic church was adament that her sister is in hell. she requested a book of mormon from us, and still has really good memories of when she went to church as a little girl. her mom was also taught by the missionaries, but never was baptized. we´re hoping that we can work with the mom--she came to church with us on sunday. patricia´s husband also is a non-member, though is living in southern argentina for work right now. hopefully we can really help this family.

the church is true!

hermana magnusson