It's a Zoo Out There!

yep, this is where I live

Hello,

Yesterday we went to the Oregon, Portland Zoo with the McVey family! It was fun! While there I kept thinking of the good ol' LA zoo. Sorry Lisa, you probably didn't go to the zoo on your p-days in Argentina.

i wore my cheetah shirt in honor of going to the zoo.

Go COUGARS!

i almost have the wing span the size of a california condor

so a few months ago there was no glass between me and the sea life.....

You can read about some of Sister Magnusson's 

pre-mission adventures in the deep blue sea by clicking here

 i am with the daughter of the members that took us. she's a cute kid.

This week we taught a lot which is always good. We picked up a new investigator.  She is happy and smiley. The elders found her and she on is the edge of our ward boundaries and theirs and they didn't realize till after they taught her a couple times.   Then they handed her over to us. She is pretty golden.  Our first lesson with her went really good. Taught her a little more about the Book of Mormon. She said she wanted to go to church and the member we brought with us said she would love to pick her up, sweet. We had another appointment with her later that week on Friday but that fell through. We did see her briefly though and she still mentioned that she really wanted to go to church. Well, Sunday rolled around and when the member went to pick her up she wasn't there at her apartment. So frustrating. Man on man, if you guys ever see a missionary's investigator show up at church, just know a miracle happened. Remember that. 

So at our new investigator’s same apartment complex we picked up another investigator. He looks slightly disheveled. He's 48, long curly hair, scratchy beard, wears wife beaters with swim trunks, and fuzzy socks. Talking to him I'm pretty sure he is autistic in some form or another, super nice. We started talking to him after we saw our first investigator and it turns out he used to meet with missionaries a lot in Gersham, a city kind of near us. He remembered a lot and really enjoyed meeting with them. He was asking us questions about the Pre-Earth life. We saw him again on Sunday and we were talking about the Restoration/Book of Mormon/Joseph Smith. He was way into Moroni and how Joseph Smith got the gold plates. And into temples. Especially angel Moroni on top of the temples. He knew A LOT! It was actually pretty cool. We gave him the Children’s Book of Mormon Scripture Stories along with the regular Book of Mormon and he was super excited. 

We had the Milwaukie Stake Country Fair on Saturday! The missionaries didn't have to wear proselyting clothes which was great....but you know what, I might have been cooler in my skirt than in pants but whate’vs. I wore my 50 cent plaid shirt I got at the garage sale the other day. It was A LOT of work. Lots and lots of people were there. There was a lot going one. Games, live band, car show, games for kids, wagon ride, free dinner, face painting, that sort of thing. 

the Milwaukie stake county fair! 

me with one of the most incredible people i know!

She has taught me a lot about overcoming trials.   

One of the most frustrating/stressful part about that whole ordeal was finding a ride for some of our investigators. Holy macheral! And on top of that we were trying to find two members that day to come to two lessons in the morning. Well, trying to find the members for that morning started the day before but literally NO ONE IN THE WHOLE GLADSTONE WARD was available! Everyone was either out of town, helping setup for this fair thing, busy, working, etc, etc etc. So we couldn't have a member with us for those lessons....which actually one of them fell through anyway. Go figure. BUT! Our first lesson went so good! She was pretty awesome. She has had a pretty hard life and is very smart and intelligent but never had an opportunity to go college or anything. She might of not even finished high school, not sure. Anywho, she started reading the Book of Mormon and she totally gets its. She's not one that you can really make an appointment with to sit down and have a specific lesson but she wanted to meet because she had some questions about what she was reading. She read up to 1 Nephi 13. We met with her and she had questions about the two plates Nephi was writing in (the small plates and the large plates). She also had a question about the gathering of Israel in reference to the olive tree. And she wanted to know what the Doctrine and Convents and Pearl of  Great Price was because she has a triple combination. We gave her a large print Book of Mormon and it's actually a triple combination so she has the three books. 

Alright, I gotta go. Sorry for not emailing yesterday. To make a VERY long story short:  We went to the zoo in the morning. Got home around 3pm, then we were helping an investigator from 3:30 till 9pm. Made for a very long, exhausting day. 

I love you guys! The church is  true!

Love,

Sister Magnusson

"Blackberries Grow Like Weeds Here"

keeping portland weird

we were on foot on saturday and blackberries grow like weeds here... 

...so we were just pickin' blackberries 

at a zone meeting

Hello everybody! 

Sooooooooooooooo, its been kind of a long, stressful week. I like can't even remember everything that happened. Maybe I'll start with yesterday, I remember yesterday. 

So yesterday we had a lesson with a family....but actually it was more of them talking to us about some crazy things that has happened in their family and some marital problems that they have had. Good gravy. They should have a class in the MTC (Missionary Training Center) called, "Things-that-your-distict-meetings-and-Preach-My-Gospel-will-never-teach-you".

Saturday was a nice day so we left our car at our apartment complex and walked everywhere. That was good for my soul to do that...even if i did get pretty sunburned on my neck. Don't worry, I'll remember to put on sunscreen next time. We thought we would be able to talk to more people walking around but literally like NO ONE was out and about! Even on a nice day. They were probably all at the river. BUT THE BEST NEWS OF ALL! I got a dress from Dress Barn for 2 BUCKS at a garage sale! And a plaid shirt and a sweater thing....everything totaled to $3.50. I am going to wear the plaid shirt to the Stake Country Fair on Saturday. I'm really excited for this fair because it's gunna be pretty legit. They are doing a Classic Cruise-In Automobile Show, wagon rides, cotton candy, face painting, food and drinks, live entertainment, games, etc, etc, etc. We have invited lots of people! 

Friday we helped a member clean out their house and they had a TON of food that they needed to get rid of. They asked if we knew of anyone that could use the food. YES WE DO! So on Friday we went around and dropped off food to one of our investigators and a couple of less-actives. It made me sad when we went to see one of our less-actives.  She is one of the most incredible people I have ever met. But she has had such a hellish childhood that has carried over to her adulthood. She continues to have a lot of trials. She joined the church a couple of years ago and just clings onto the gospel because it has offered her such hope and healing. But right now she is trying to overcome some serious addictions. It is hard to see her struggle, but she is determined to get through it. I am so proud of her and all the changes she has made in her life. 

Thursday we had a lesson our star investigator from last week. His wife couldn't come to the lesson which was bummer. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. It went good, still wish his wife was there though. He believes in reincarnation. Man oh man, it seems like that is a thing....I think almost every time i've taught the Plan of Salvation to non members, they believe in some reincarnation. They said that they were going to be at church this week but weren't. Ugh.  He did said that if he came to know that these things are true that he would be baptized, so, um yeah, we gotta see how his praying is coming along. 

Our less active who is coming back to church and quitting smoking is doing so good! She is on day 12 I think....or maybe 13. She came to a lesson with us. It was with someone, age 26, who recently got out of prison, has a little boy, overcame some addictions, and it was a really good lesson. It was really good that she came because she could relate to him in ways that we couldn't. That's why it is so important that we have all walks of life in the church. We need people who can support and be there for each other. I have seen it first hand.

This movie is a good example of someone 

who has overcome addictions to come unto Christ

 You can also see the video by clicking here

Okay folks, I am always so happy to hear from my family. I am so blessed to have such an amazing family! 

Lisa, Kathleen, Scott, Sam, Renee, Rachel

Janelle, Dave, and kids

Until next Monday.....but of course if you want to snail mail me I'm always open fo' that! (Sister Magnusson's snail mail address is listed on the right side of this blog)  

Love,

Sister Magnusson

"At least you got pics this week"...

......a lot of pictures!

 at the timberline lodge 2 mondays ago

with the sandy sisters

it's good at the hood

Mt. Hood

we went to calamity jane's restaurant before zone meeting last week in sandy 

calamity jane's ceiling

only in oregon

SOUPLANTATION.  a member gave us money to eat there.

the "brier patch"

Janelle lived in a Greenbrier apartment complex in Rexburg, Idaho when she met Dave.

happy rock

Maybe Scott's school should make him one of these when he retires

this is justin.  he is pretty hilarious

sis a was really nervous to hold the snake

eating out with sis. Leppert last week

 

some crazy all organic, all natural, all whatever soap shop in downtown

these bike signs are all over portland

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLA!

This has to be another quickie, but hey! At least you got pics this week. 

Today we went to Mt. Hood with some other missionaries. We went to the Apline Slide... I got a 20 dollar "Drug Rug" out of it! *See attached picture. I am way excited about it. Mt. Hood is a year round ski mountain. So the little towns on Mt. Hood are funny because it's all like surfer people walking around but with more clothes on....cuz surfers and snowboarders are of the same breed. It feels good up there. Fresh air, lots of trees....oh wait, there are lots of trees anyway, but these are like different kind of trees. Like mountain trees. 

mt. hood is in the background

us and the clackamas sisters.  they are our sister training leaders.  

riding up the ski lift

madison and nathan....they drove up up there

These peeps were just chillen from skiing all day i guess....

these aren't so awesome

i love donuts.  this place is in sandy.  

*so i got one....50% off.  

they are totally eco friendly, made from all recycled products.  

cuz we are in portland, ya know.  

So we live right next to the Seven Day Adventist Conference Center. And once a year they have a conference. Well, this week was the conference. They have a ton of land and all the Seventh Days park their RVs and camp there for the week and do conference things. Anyway, Sister Allen and I were pretty curious about it so one morning for morning exercise we went and explored incognito because we were wearing our exercise clothes. Oh my goodness, there was so much land! Like acres of acres! All filled jam packed with RVs. Like it seemed inches away from each other. I kept telling sister Allen this has got to be a fire hazard. So on a Friday evening we were doing this ward member lady’s grocery shopping at Safeway because she was sick and asked us to get her stuff and this random guy comes up to me and was like, "I would like to invite you girls church tonight." I'm like huh? He's like at the 7th Day conference. I was like ooooooooooooh, that makes much more sense. He was like "I see you missionaries all around the world and I just felt like I should invite you." We are like sweet, we'll go. So we did. It was alright. We didn't get to hear the sermon because we had to leave a little early for an appointment so that would have been interesting to hear. It was on "Covenants". 

We had like the best lesson I have ever had with a couple we tracted into a couple of weeks ago.  All the stars aligned just right....we had the perfect member with us, the man was already reading the Book of Mormon we gave him, he had some questions about it, the Spirit was there, AND THEY ASKED US WHAT TIME CHURCH STARTED! That has never happened to me. They actually didn't end up coming to church because they got called into work but they said next week for sure! We shared the Restoration with them and after I told them the Joseph Smith vision in his own words, you know...."I saw a pillar of light....." part, the lady was like "Wow." And had a genuine look of awe on her face. That was pretty cool. When we were explaining what the Holy Ghost was and how it was a warm good feeling, she was like, "I feel that way right now!" It was pretty  awesome.  

We are helping a recent covert quit smoking.  Check out our church’s addiction recovery program here.  After she got baptized, she started hanging out with some friends that weren’t very supportive of her change and went back to old habits.  But she is on day 6!  We went to Safeway with her and got vitamin C cinnamon gum, grapefruit juice, mouthwash because Sis.ter Allen  know this 15 step program thingy that helps people to quit with those things.  We call and text her everyday as well to see how she is doing. She tagged us on Facebook getting the stuff and throwing away her cigs.

K, time is up. p-day is over. Love you guys. 

Love, 

Sister Magnusson 

ho, hum

...I don't think so!

Editors' notes are in italics 

"I'm just saying, love you guys!"

Hey!

So this email is going to be short because  I'm typing it on the iPad because the family history library internet isn't working.

Today we went to downtown Portland. Downtown always fascinates me. It is quite a unique place. Very hipster/hippie-esk, with interesting people. Too bad I can't send pics this week because there are some good ones. A lady from the ward took us. So nice. She is awesome. She also lets us do our laundry at her house every Monday. She took us out to eat at Elephants. It was way good. Very portlandish restaurant. Very organic, vegan, gultan free...that sort of thing, they serve salads on 2 by 4s. 

Oh my goodness the beginning of this week was very emotionally exhausting. One of our investigators became homeless, along with her friend so trying to get help for them was very hard. We have since lost track on them but hopefully they will pop up again. I can never be a social worker and deal with this stuff all the time...I kept telling Sister Allen that. I kept thinking of my favorite BIL (brother-in-law) Dave . Dave just got his doctorate in social work.

On Saturday night we had an appointment with our less active neighbor. Anywho, we knock on his door and his roommate's 10 year old brother answers and we start chit chatting a bit. Super smart kid. Like probably the smartest 10 year old I've ever met. We end up giving him a Book of Mormon and give him the war chapters to read. We figured he would get into that. Our neighbor comes home and we end up teaching him and the boy the Plan of Salvation. The boy totally got into it. And he paid attention the whole time and asked some good questions., “how do you repent?" And when talking about the Atonement he's like “hmmm, that makes sense." He was so open to the whole thing. He doesn't live in our ward boundaries so we got to tack him down and get the elders to teach him.

Thursday we had zone meeting up in the Mt. Hood area. Then we had interviews with President and Sister Ballard. We didn't get home till 9pm. There was seriously such a long line of missionaries to be interviewed. Poor president Ballard, he looked so worn out. Can you imagine doing interviews for like 9 hours straight? And it was all week. My goodness. They have a different style than the Morbys but they will be good.

Friday we had like 4 solid appointments and they all fell through. Ugh. We were able to teach a spontaneous member present lesson to a lady that we got as a referral a few weeks ago that we helped moved from Milwaukie to Gladstone. We had a young woman with us. This lady is so open and I thinks really likes us. She took a Book of Mormon and said she would pray about it, that's pretty cool. She is going through some not so fun health problems.

Yesterday we were frustrated with one of our investagators because she was had every excuse under the sun not to go to church. I can not begin to tell you how hard satan is working on her....

OK, my time is up. Sorry this email is so lame. I hate typing on the iPad. And there is no pics. And I can't reply personally to your emails.  I'm just saying, love you guys!

Sister mag