Levi's Mission News

Levi's Mission News

Monday, January 18, 2016

Happy Pongal

January 17, 2016

Hey y'all,
This week was tiring cause all we really did was went finding. There is this Holiday the Hindus celebrate called Pongal and its all about getting rid of old habits and things, and starting new. So they burn firewood on the streets (everywhere) and they get a few new clothes. All the members were out of town this week due to the holiday, I'm not quite sure why cause its a Hindu holiday and they're all Christian but I would assume because their ancestors are all still Hindu. There is another Elder that came to my zone named Elder Porter and I was talking with him and turns out he went to the same school/graduated with Elder Thompson (my companion in Idaho). Some exciting news this week is we were able to find 3 new potential investigators, The Nari Mani family who we met and invited us to dinner when we met them 5 min previously (we were kinda confused and sketched about the invitation) which turns out missionaries taught them a year ago, so thats why they acted like they knew us (or at least LDS missionaries) We met these two other dudes named Chandu and Joseph who wanted to meet with us, and also wanted us to speak at a wedding this week, so that'll be interesting if we get permission from our mission president to go. Elder Conrad thought they were drunk, I wasn't quite sure but hopefully they weren't. The sad moment of the week was when we were walking to a members home and when we got there, they were warming up water by fire out on the street and used it as their shower water, and bathed in front of us. It was sad cause we all have water heaters but they have to resort by warming it up themselves and bathing. The black pearl (my bike) is constantly falling apart, everyday random nuts, bolts, and screws are falling off of it. I swear my bike is made by Chevy. We had a missionary devotional the other day where we played games and shared a message. It was fun and was a good turn out. At the end, out of the blue they decided to play music and I would expect some weird Indian song.. but no.. They played Zac Brown Band, and asked me to do some American dances for them. Lets just say it was a shindig to remember. The next day some members went with us and wanted to get fried Chicken. Though the Chicken isn't very good and is nothing like the way Georgia makes it, it was a good ole American memory. Also at church I was asked to teach Primary and Sunday School, and taught the first couple chapters in Genisis about Adam and Eve and the Creation. All and all it was a pretty good week. Elder Conrad disappointed me, because he didnt know who AC/DC was or Diane Sawyer, or miss Frizzle, or even Bill Nye the science guy and most importantly Billy Mays. Until next week!
Love,
Elder Magnusson



This was a little boy in Levi's primary class... Levi had a hard time staying awake himself.. so he just made this little guy comfortable and let him snooze.  hahahaha

Finally Realizing I'm in Asia

January 11, 2016

Hey y'all,
This week not too much happened ( I seem to say that a lot, cause India is not big on Christianity). We went out and saw lots of members, and were able to teach Rajendra Presad who doesn't understand us. We would be reading some scriptures and then he would bring up another scripture that had nothing to do with what we were  talking about. Teaching him is very interesting. Krishna is getting good at praying on his own and taught us a lot about the Hindu religion. They believe in some guy that is equivalent to Jesus Christ who also died for the sins of the world. The most success I had this week was getting a couple Indian people to download country music. They now know who Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney etc is. I still fall asleep during lessons between 3-5pm which sucks but I try not to. We visited this crazy lady who is a member that talks a lot in Telugu of course, she is very interesting and does Hindu rituals during our meeting. She also doesn't know when she was born all she remembers is world war 1.  The last two weeks were the hardest week of my mission. Probably because I wasn't home for the holidays, but I am happy that this mission is teaching me a lot. I was reading some of Mitchell Dunhams emails and love reading them because it sounds just like him! He has changed a lot! Again and again I am thankful to be an American. 
Love,
Elder Magnusson







Happy New Year

January 4, 2016

Hey Y'all,
This week started out celebrating Elder Conrad's Birthday. We got him a cake and got him little toys (tennis ball, basketball hoop, etc). We also went finding this week in very poor areas of India, but everyone there was Hindu, and only knew Telugu. We have been teaching Krishna who is a member referral and is starting to understand the concepts of Christianity. We have started teaching a guy named Rajendra Presad and his son Kirin. They both have gone to biblical school and have know a lot about the bible, we will be meeting with them tonight and they have been learning a lot from us.We went to a family's house that speak Telugu (they are a part-member family) and brought a guy from the ward to translate for us. But he got nervous because apparently he doesn't know much English so he didn't translate for us. New Years is big here, as it is everywhere I would assume, and all they sell is Biryani and they shake basically everyone's hand and say happy new years. Also on the 1st of January everyone writes "Happy New year 2016" in chalk on the cement. The most exciting highlight of the week was getting yelled at by some man telling us no one in India is Christian, and that we need to "go home and close our business". He also told us he was gonna call the cops, I wanted to stay and get arrested (possible) but Elder Conrad wanted to leave. Satish got baptized on December 27th, and is excited. Other than that its been a normal week in India.
Love,
Elder Magnusson





Christmas In India

Hey Y'all,
This week started with us having to deep clean the apartment, cause of transfers that will be happening. I can tell some of the cabinets in our apartment haven't been open for years, and I sadly was the one to open them. We had a secret Santa gift exchange this week (among the other missionaries) and I had elder Singh, I got him a Levi's brand wallet, so know he will never forget me, until the wallet's life is over. Within the branch we went Christmas caroling to lots of peoples homes and was able to spread holiday cheer. On Christmas eve, the church had a devotional and afterwards people preformed skits, Indian skits are hilarious and of course require a weird Indian dance to go along with it. The I cooked pancakes while the other elders played soccer in the apartment (not the best idea). On Christmas I was able to open my package that my mom sent me, and then headed to the church again for another devotional that morning. Later I was able to Skype my family home and see how they were doing. We went by our investigators and members homes and shared a little message and gave a little gift to them. The sad thing is, is that (with some of the families) the gift we gave them was the only gift they got for Christmas. Typically people give a pair of clothes for Christmas, but even yet thats not always common. Other then that, not much happened this week, and I am excited for the New year! 
Love,
Elder Magnusson