Become Who You Wish You Were....

for our district meeting, the theme was orange :)  

i picked it.  more specifically, i said "mango orange."

p-day hike picture

What is up?!  Before I forget, I saw the best bumper sticker the other day.....

Hilarious man. 

Well another week has come and gone in the Happy Rock. We had the prize for the lesson of the week! The only problem is we didn't have a member present to witness such an event. Sighhhhh.....it was very difficult to get member presents this week in general. School back in session, people back to work, back to BYU, too busy....ugh.  Anyway, we taught her the Plan of Salvation and she loved it! We told her that she didn't have to take our word for it but she could pray to know if it is true and she said, "I already believe it is true!" So awesome! She had a stillborn grandbaby that took a toll on the family.  Now the challenge is to get her to church. She has a lot of health problems so she doesn't get out much.  So we will see if she is willing to come one of these days. She is a referral from a member of the ward and she is reeeeeeaaaally good friends with her so that always helps. Referrals are seriously the way to go.

We also had good lesson with someone else on the Word of Wisdom....It was funny cuz we were a little early and she wasn't in her apartment when we got there so we were just waiting on the bench outside her door and then she comes out of someone else's apartment and was like, "Oh hi! Sorry, to keep you waiting...I was just having coffee with one of my friends...." Me and Sister Powner both look at each other and were like, ooooooookay, we will see how this goes! But it went really well! She loved the pamphlet! And we read through the Ten Commandments with her and she liked that too. She really is the sweetest lady. I really like her. Her soul is so good and pure. 

We were able to have dinner with a wonderful couple this week! She recently moved to Gladstone she has a TON of really good Mormon friends in her old town and has made some Mormon friends here too. We had dinner with them and showed them the new Mormon Message, "The Hope of God's Light" as an after dinner thought. The husband was a little confused on why we showed that to him because he's like, "I already believe in God...." As if to say, So why did you show me that video? Because the video talks about a man coming to know God. We explained to him that we just wanted to hear their insights on what they thought of the video etc.....ie, maybe something about answers to prayers....that's kind of what we were going for.

You can also see the video by clicking here.

Next Monday is transfers. I have a feeling I am staying and Sister Powner is leaving.  Or maybe not. Maybe I'm leaving. Regardless, I have a feeling that there is going to be a change. So if no email next week it is because I will be at transfer meeting and you will hear from me Tuesday.

Love you guys so much you don't even know!

Love,

Sister Magnusson

11 Month Mark

this is sister coffey garden- the coolest garden ever.

 i want a really cool garden when i grow up. 

we picked lots of tomatoes here. 

oregon has this nasty looking rodent thing called nutria (pronounced "new-tree-a"). it looks like a beaver but it has a rat like tail. they are nasty lookin'! they like swampy marshy places. we were going to do some weeding for service at our investigators house and there he was! 

the first thursday of every month we go out to dinner, 

but first we have a lesson at their house.

What up my family and friend in Cali, Utah, Idaho, and wherever else!!!

Well the summer clock is ticking. it is getting a lot cooler in the mornings. I take my jacket to morning exercise to our baseball field next to our apartment. Some leaves have already fallen by the river and there is a noticeably difference in the light or lack of it around 7pm and onward. Phooey.  That was seriously the best part of missionary work....it still being light out at like 8pm. People wouldn't give you weird looks when you tried to see them so late at night! "Um sisters, it's 7:30.We are going to bed, why are you out this late?" Dah! 

We picked up a new investigator last week….She moved into the apartment complex where we teach so many people. We did service for her last week (helped her separate clothes and fold them that we everywhere in her bedroom) and then she asked us to come by to ask us advice on how to deal with some drama that has already been happening in her life. We gave her our two cents and then I asked her if she ever heard of the Atonement. "No, what is that?" I told her she probably had but hadn't heard it called that term before (I have realized since I have been on my mission that even the strongest of Christians don't know what the word atonement means). I told her it's when Christ died for us and suffered for our pains and sorrows. "Oh yes! I know what that is!" She said she grew up Christian and still goes to Church but probably isn't living the most Christian life. We watched Mountains to Climb, the Mormon Message about enduring trials and receiving strength from the Atonement. It went good. She got pretty teary eyed. She says she knows what Christ can do for her and how she needs to give a lot of baggage to him but she is just not ready for that yet. We asked what is something she can do to get her closer to that step. She said, "I need to read my Bible." Okay, we will followup with her with that. A couple of weeks ago we offered her a Book of Mormon and she declined. Maybe in a little bit we will bring it up to her and see if she has changed her mind. 

We had a good experience tracting during our Finding Friday time. So we started tracting this street and I'm telling ya, everybody was pretty rude. Except for this guy making beer in his garage, he was nice, but not interested. But at least he was nice. This one lady opened her door and before we could even say hi, with a look of disgust said, "No." and shut the door on us. Well, at least she let us save our breath. Anywho, the last house (it's always the last house) this lady with kind eyes opens the door and starts talking to us and when she finds out we are Mormon missionaries, not Jehovah Witnesses, she's like "I have never seen girl Mormon missionaries before! " I have actually gotten that a lot. Anyway, she has had some great Mormon friends growing up and has always admired how family orientated we are and she said that in nearly every Mormon home she has been in, there has just been a different feeling there. She is a studier of all religions and believes all good people are going to heaven no matter what you believe as long as you practice what you preach type of deal. We asked if she has ever read the Book of Mormon and she said parts. But like she said, she believes all religion is good and if the Mormons follow the good teachings of the Book of Mormon, good on them. Okay lady. We told her about The Family Proclamation and she said she would be interested it reading it. So we ran to our car (didn't have any on me, thought about it but didn't grab any) and we were able to give it to her. She said she was excited to read it.

We had a good lesson with a referral from one of the members. We helped her move from Milwakuie to Gladstone a couple months ago. We have seen her on and off since then. But this lesson was good because most times when we have seen her she just talks the whole time then we only have a little bit to share a message, but this time she expressed that she was sincerely interested and was basically like, okay ladies, teach me. Then she was quiet and let us talk! We didn't have a whole lot of time cuz we had dinner real soon so we talked about the Book of Mormon and showed her the Mormon Message "A Book of Mormon Story"with the Jamaican man that lives in England that is a Bishop. She was like, that is something that I have always noticed about Mormons is that they are always wanting to share with others their religion and their Book of Mormon. Well, because it is amazing! We kind of got talking about her grandchild that was a still born and I shared with her Moroni 8 about how little children do not need to be baptized and they automatically have eternal life. She was like, where is that in there? I put a book mark there and she said she would read it. Awesome! That is why the Book of Mormon is so great because it can answer a lot of questions and give one a lot a peace even in the midst of troubling circumstances. One of my favorite things to read with people when explaining the Book of Mormon is, "It puts forth the doctrines of the gospel, outlines the plan of salvation, and tells men what they must do to gain peace in this life and eternal salvation in the life to come."  -Book of Mormon Intro, paragraph 3. Who wouldn't want to know that is beyond me. 

K, love you all! Tomorrow is my 11 month mark. It's weird to think that just a year ago I was totally freaking myself out and being totally anxious about this whole mission thing. Remember that ma? I was constantly bouncing my knee up and down. At dinner, on the computer, watching TV, and when I wasn't doing anything, my leg was moving and grooving. Well, it's all good now. Hope y'alls have a great week! And remember, the church is true! 

Love, 

Sister Magnusson

Happy Labor Day!

Hello everybody, 

Happy Labor Day.  Hope none of you were too laborious on this Labor Day Monday. 

Weeeeeeelllllllllllllll, man oh man!….Just so you know, sometimes writing on Monday is overwhelming. Like you read all these emails from home and it's so great, you are super busy during the day doing p-day things, and then you sit down to write the family email and it's like, I wish my thoughts could just be transferred to this computer.  

Today we did laundry at a member's house, went to Walmart, then we played kickball with the Zone at the baseball field right next to our house. It was fun. I forgot to take a picture, though. Man, elders can be super crazy together. It was sweet because these two random girls came up to us and asked if we were a league. Um, not really....why? They have a kickball league and they play every monday at 5:30 and they need teams to play against. YEAH! We will come and play with you! So, it's a zone finding activity. Next Monday.  5:30. Bring it on. 

Last Tuesday we were able teach our investigator kind of an impromptu lesson. She had a friend there that is trying to overcome smoking. We watched "The Savior Wants to Forgive". It's a good one. The problem with our investigator is she is super flaky. Not because she means to be, but she'll forget our appointments or yesterday we called her at 9am to make sure she was up to going to church at 11am and then when someone came by at 10:45 she said she wasn't feeling well. Ahhhhh! When someone is so prepared and doesn't keep commitments it drives missionaries up the wall! But that's okay, we got this. She is going to progress! 

Wednesday was Zone Meeting. We talked about Finding and OYM (Open your mouth). President Ballard has made a huge push for OYMs. We should strive to have at least 10 a day. And OYM is opening your mouth to complete strangers and have a meaningful conversation about some gospel topic. Tell you what, it is hard but it can be done. We already have had some miracles from it. Like, we had exchanges on Thursday and I was with Sister Schmutz .  I stayed in Gladstone with her. We were coming from an appointment with a someone and we saw this guy chilling in his garage flying a little helicopter thing. We already drove away and Sister Schmutz was like, we should talk to him. Okay, so we parked at walked back and talked to him for a little bit. Not at all interested. He believes that when we die we become a bunch of nothing. We become like "squished bugs". Squish, that's it, done. Well my goodness, that's not  a fun way to live with that kind of thinking. Still didn't want nothing to do with the Plan of Salvation, so we left. His dog didn't like us anyway. 

We walked by this one house and a lady was in her driveway and it looked like she just pulled up and she was getting out of her car. She had this big bandage thing on her nose. Sister Schmutz was like "Oh no, what happened to your nose?" Then we struck up a conversation. She does ministry stuff in woman's jails and she accepted Christ as her savior at 5 years old, so she is saved and she said it is the most wonderful thing seeing these women in jail that she volunteers at raise up their hand and accept Christ as their Savior and they are SAVED! Hmmmmmmm, is that how is works....? Faith without works is dead. But she was so nice and she invited us in for lemonade. I can count on one hand how many times a stranger has let me in....maybe just on two fingers. It was really good! She had a lot of misconceptions about the church that we were able to answer. And she had a very thick wall about us talking about the Book of Mormon or prophets or any of that in the beginning but by the time we left we were able to give her a Book of Mormon and committed her to read Alma 32. We told her it was a great sermon on faith in the Book of Mormon She should read it. “h—- yeah, I would love to hear some good words on faith." Well, of course you do! She is moving soon, so we also said we would help her move too because we believe Christianity is practiced!  

Another good OYM on our exchange was this random lady and her two sons were just coming from a garage sale and we started talking about the new dog kennel she just bought. "Oh, did you just buy this at the garage sale? Do you have a dog? Oh you don't, but you are planning to get one! Well that is sure exciting!" Anywho, she has ALSO excepted Christ as her Savior when she was 9 so she is good to go as well. And yes, she has had conversations with missionaries before and she doesn't agree with most things…they were things that she had read on anti-Mormon literature.  Well, actually none of that is true. But the thing I've notice when talking to people and they say something to the effect of “Well, you Mormons don't believe this....or you have this some crazy belief....or you add onto the Bible cuz it says in Revelations....you guys believe only Mormons go to heaven....you guys discriminate against gays....." They usually hardly take a breath for us to say, "Um, actually you are completely wrong on EVERYTHING...." They usually don't ever give us time to answer and when we do start to answer they are like, "Um whatever....." and walk away.  But this lady actually agreed to let us answer her questions at a later date. And she  lives in Clackmas, where Sister Schmutz serves. So they set up to do brunch next week.  Swa-eet! 

And we stopped by a new investigator’s place yesterday night. They are a couple we found street contacting at the river a few weeks ago on another exchange (man, exchanges are usually full of miracles!). We have taught them just a couple of times. Both are super active in their faith. She has served on missions too. But we were just visiting with them last night and they had a friend come by (about 60s) and we learned her husband just died in May. And she asked us, "So what do you girls believe in the afterlife....." Well you are going to be sure glad you asked! We taught her part of the Plan of Salvation, part of the Restoration, and the Book of Mormon and such. She also lives in Clackamas so she might be given to the other sisters as well. Good thing it is all the same work right? 

We had a ward campout and we were able to get a family that we are working with to go. It was sooooooooooooooo hot all week then the weekend of the campout, it rained. Sis Powner and I came for the Saturday morning Father and Sons pancakes breakfast and it was raining hard. Not many people were prepared for the rain. Like the dad of the family didn’t have a jacket for his  4 year old, so I gave her mine. Come on peoples, I thought you were Oregonians, ya always got to expect rain! Even in August! 

ward campout....

the place is COVERED in blackberries!

Well, folks it's that magical time when p-day is almost over and I still got to email President Ballard. And dinner is in 20 min. 0K, we can do this. 

The Church is true and I love you!

Sister Magnusson

I Love to See the Temple

sister krualt from the ward is wonderful!... 

...they shared some yummie treats from their garden!  they have an awesome garden. 

seeing people's gardens here makes me appreciate our gardens growing up. 

Hello beautiful people of the non missionary world! Well of course, every member a missionary....so I guess to the non-full time missionary world!

Well, its been a good week I guess. Our long time investigator came to church yesterday! Can I get a hallelujah?!  It’s been hard to work with her lately. But I don’t blame her I guess. She cut her knee open a little bit ago and got some gnarly stitches. She just came for sacrament meeting because her knee was bothering her. The miracle is we found someone that could pick her up AND drop her off after sacrament meeting, the Lepperts. May the blessings of heaven be pored out upon the Leppert family! And we were able to ride with them to church to pick up our investigator. (And another shout out to the Lepperts is that they fed us that night when we had to cancel our original dinner because we were at the visitor center later in the evening. Someday y'all will have to meet them. They are cool. They are getting sealed very soon! They are just younger than Mom and Dad. Bro Leppert reminds me of Uncle Craig. And his first name even is Craig too) Our investigator was only in the chapel for the sacrament and one talk before she had to go to the foyer to sit on couches to be more comfortable. She was asking if they passed around a basket for offerings. We explained to her we don't do that but we do pay tithing and bam, right then and there we had a lesson on tithing. We showed her the slip and everything and she said she wanted to donate 5 dollars. Well, sure! We showed her what she could put the money towards. She really wanted to put it toward Ward Missionary fund! So that's what she did. We committed her to pay a full tithe when she gets baptized and she said yes! Easy peezy man. Lots of people said hi to her after sacrament meeting which was good. She said she really enjoyed sacrament meeting and she is looking forward to coming to all three hours next week. The first thing she said when she walked into the foyer was, "Oh, I love the pictures!" Something interesting we learned about her was she smoked from when she was 15 till about three years ago. She is 57 now. Wow, that takes a lot. Trying to get someone to quit is like stopping all conflict in the Middle East. But it can be done! On Saturday we were able to stop by and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson. We have been trying to teach her that for a long time. She was also able to open up more about herself. She has gone through a lot. I feel like she has been prepared to learn and accept the gospel! 

So remember in my last email how I said that we just got a text from someone we have been working with that basically said she didn't know what she believed anymore? Well, we were able to meet with her on Tuesday and it was really good. We watched that new Mormon Message, The Hope of God's Light and it was really good for her. She was able to come up with on her own that she needed to meet with the bishop. It's always better when you get the people you are teaching with to think up ideas, concepts, ways to build their testimony, etc, on their own because then true conversion is more likely to happen.

this mormon message truly has a powerful message.

some pretty profound things are said in this video.

i notice something different each time i watch it.

it just might be my new favorite mormon message.  

You can also view the video by clicking here

We were able to meet with another investigator again. We read 1 Nephi 18 with her. She is our star Book of Mormon reader. She reads and gets it. It's awesome. She said the closing prayer and she said a good one. Of course there is no right or wrong way to say a prayer but she just said some things that made me happy like, "Lord, I thank thee for sending the Sisters over today, it was a real special treat...." Yeah, things like that. She has been through a lot and has learned a lot from her past. It's also made her pretty wise. 

We were able to go to the temple and have two visitor center lessons! One was on Wednesday. I was kind not in a good mood because our ride literally canceled on us AT THE LAST MINUTE! You just can't do that to missionaries! So may the heavens also be poured out on our bishop's wife who took us last minute.

Then we were also able to go to the temple on Sunday. Again, our ride canceled on us because something came up. So may the blessings of heaven ALSO be poured upon the Kuralts for taking us. The Kuralts are truly one of the greatest missionary minded individuals. They are so great and so kind and generous. And Bro. Kuralt makes the best dinners (besides our Ma of course). Our investigator  said her favorite part was watching the "I'm a Mormon" videos at the visitor center. 

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllll folks, I think that is all I am going to write about for this week's adventures in Happy Rock. Y'alls have a great week! The church is true! 

Love,

Sister Magnusson

Hello, Goodbye, Hermana Baker

i was with sister baker for a short three days....this was taken at the clackamas river.  

we asked someone to take a pic of us as a conversation starter.  

we gave them mormon.org cards  

me and sister powner, round two!

we hiked mirror lake today up at mount hood.  

Editor's note:  I think I know why they named this lake Mirror Lake. 

 Hello my dear family-

Man oh man, it has been a CUR-AZY week. First off it was transfers. So Monday we had the transfer craziness. That's when Sister Baker and I became companions. Then on Tuesday was p-day. We didn't do anything too exciting. Sister Baker just unpacked and stuff. Wednesday was our usual district mtg. Then a little bit after our district lunch we get a call from President Ballard. Here is the scoop...

At this transfer we were suppose to get one more Spanish speaking sister from the MTC that never left the MTC. President Ballard didn't know this until he was driving from the airport to transfers with the new missionaries that he just picked up. There is now an odd number of spanish speaking missionaries. So within a couple of hours he had to make quite a few switches. Hermana Baker became my companion….but, she wasn't going to be originally. Then there is a sister in Oregon City that was very sick and needed to come home. President told us all this over the phone on that Wednesday afternoon. So Sister Baker was going to be transferred to the visitor's center as a Spanish speaking sister because right now they have none. Since the sick sister had to go home, her companion was going to become my companion which was Sister Powner, who I was with right before I came to Gladstone. After he told us all this he said the change was going to take place the next day....sometime. The APs would call us with a time and location to meet. So then we go back home and Sister Baker packs everything that she just unpacked. Then we were like, so now what do we do. We didn't want to make any new visits because we didn't want the poor people of Gladstone just confused with seeing three different faces of sister missionaries in like a three day period. So we "street" contacted at the river, facebooked, that sort of thing. We had ward coordination that evening. At 10pm the APs call us and tell us to meet at a church building on the other side of the mission....like 50 minutes away at 12:15. So Sister Baker finishes packing and we make the switch. Then on Friday Sister Powner has to unpack and go through the whole thing over again. So needless to say we didn't teach as much this week. But we were able to do some. 

Bad news is that one of your investigators, got a super deep cut in her knee, had to get a lot of stitches and now her whole leg is puffy and swollen. We have made several appointments with her but she keeps forgetting we are coming and she is a little distracted because of her leg and rightly so I guess. Ahhhh!

We did have a good lesson with our neighbor on Saturday. He calls meeting with us "church". He will tell a buddy, "Hey, sorry I can't come by. I got church coming over tonight!" Or, his dad called in the middle us talking and he's like, "Sorry dad, can I call you back? I got church over right now!" I think he is 41. We were going to teach him the Gospel of Jesus Christ but we only got to faith. But that's okay. Baby steps man, baby steps. Although he did say he was going to the real church on Sunday but didn't. Grrrrrr. Next time.

Alright, I got to go. Thanks for all your love and support! I have the greatest family ever! And the church is true!

Love,

Sister Magnusson

Everything you've ever wanted to know about transfers....

the saturday before transfers. 

we had lunch as a zone and we got zone t-shirts.  "Eye on the Prize" was the theme.  

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLA!

Yes, transfers were yesterday and I was not transferred out of  G-stone but I got a new companion: Hermana Madeline Baker.  She is a Spanish speaking sister but got moved to be English for a little bit to serve in the Happy Rock. This transfer was a big one. Every missionary companionship in our zone had a change and we heard from the STLs (sister training leaders) that all but 16 companionships in the mission had a change. It was pretty nutty. How transfers work is we all meet at the Lake Oswego building right next to the temple and we have opening exercises, the new missionaries get introduced (they are sitting in the stand looking like a deer in the head lights) then the new companionships are announced. So on a projector screen in the chapel, your picture will pop up with your new comps picture, under the ward you are serving in. So President Ballard will say something like this from the stand...."In the Gladstone Ward, Sister Magnusson will be with Sister Baker."  Then every watches as you and new comp stand up and walk to each other to give a cute little hug then sit in the middle of the chapel pews. The Elders do a bro hug, they come together and give each other a couple slaps on the back and the Sisters do a Relief Society hug. Anyway, the nutty part about this transfer was companionships that were already companions got put back together, sisters that weren't called to the Temple Visitor Center got put in the Visitor Center...crazy stuff like that. A sister that I came out with me got put back with her trainer. Hope you like each other when that happens. President Ballard said before hand that some crazy stuff was going to happen but he said without a shadow of a doubt each companionship was inspired and the Lord was behind everything. 

Tuesday we visited with someone.  It was only my second time meeting her. We ran into her daughter at Safeway a few weeks ago and she said to come by the house. So we did and we had a good visit with her. She has sure been through a lot....most people in this area have. She didn't go to church the first time we saw her but the second time, she came that Sunday with her daughter! Her daughter is like her caregiver. The mother is like in her 70s maybe. Her health isn't good. People were talking to them after church which was good. 

We taught one of our investigators on Tuesday too! She is so awesome. She is 58 and always so happy, even when she is so tired. She loves us coming over. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she seemed to really connect with it. We had a great member present which is always great (folks, if you ever get a chance to go teach with the missionaries, do it! You will make a world of difference!) We asked her if she would be baptized Aug 26th and she said YES! Whew-who! We have someone with a date! But the thing is she was sick on Sunday so she couldn't got to church which means we will have to push her baptism back because you have to go to church at least three times before you are baptized. On Friday we came over and talked more about church and what happens there and she was really excited to come. She was like, "Wow, it sounds like this is one big church family!" YES! IT IS! Our member present said she would add great things to the Gladstone Relief Society. Everybody needs someone as joyful as her in their ward. 

So Tuesday night we are at the church updating our lessons to our iPads and there was Institute class and some other things going on.  A few people came up to us as we are sitting in the foyer all within like 20 seconds of each other and were like, "Hey look!   There are some missionaries right THERE! Some random guy just walked into Institute wanting to know more about the Church! Go! Find him!" We started gathering our stuff when another person would come up to us and be like, "SISTERS! There is someone here that JUST WALKED IN that wants to know...." Then we are like, "We know!" We are going!" We meet this dude in the hall with the Institute teacher and another YSA guy (institute just ended) and we start chatting. This guy is obviously distressed about something (31 yrs), says he came here for some spiritual guidance, we started teaching him the Restoration but I knew that's not what he needed but we didn't know what he needed. Turns out after I told him about James 1:5, he's like, hmmmmm, that's a nice scripture and then really starts to open up. Turns out he was high on Vicodin and Rockstar and went to 5 different churches looking for help because he lives in this house that will give him a urine test at the end of the night when he goes home and he will not pass it because cuz he was high as a kite at the moment. He is worried about different stuff. Turns out he just needed to talk. We gave him some info about the addiction recovery class, said a prayer with him, he said he felt better, and we made an appointment with him to meet him the next day. He didn't show up the next day so we have no idea what happened to him but it made for an interesting night. 

Wednesday we went on exchanges. I stayed in Gladstone, Sister Allen went to Clackamas and Sister Munger was my companion for the day. It was a good day. We went contacting by the river and picked up a new investigator! So lady was just chillin' on a bench and we said hi to her and she invited us to sit next to her! That never happens! She is very religious and has been on a few mission trips to Hawaii and Fiji and such. She had a Bible in her bag that she says she likes to read when she is at the river. When we started talking about the Book of Mormon with her I thought she was totally going to turn us off but she was very polite and seemed genuinely interested. Her husband walked up and started listening too. We gave her a Book of Mormon and some scriptures to read out of it and she voluntarily gave us her address and said we can come by anytime. Again, that never happens! Usually it is the other way around. We got to go back on Saturday to have a lesson with her and kind of do a review on the Book of Mormon and where it came from. Hopefully next time we can do the whole Restoration. 

Alright folks, I got to go! 

I love getting emails from everybody every week! The church is true! 

Love, 

Sister Magnusson 

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