June 13, 2016

Hey Y'all,

This week was pretty good, we were able to get some new investigators this week. We started out by teaching a guy named Krishna. Well we kinda taught him. He invited us for dinner, so we tried to teach him before we ate. So we started to teach the Plan of Salvation, but since he was in a hurry he wanted us to teach in like 5 minutes, so that was interesting. We ate dinner, and then went on our way. Krishna is a Hindu and has family members that are Christian so thats how we found him to teach. He has been coming to church and is learning a lot about Christianity. Sadly Bro K was very busy, so he wasn't able to get baptized this week, but we are shooting for 2 weeks from now. We also had another member referral very far away, and taught them the Restoration. (I dont remember his name) but they were nice and were interested to hear more. There is a guy who is about 30 years old and his parents. We gave his father a blessing and will hopefully meet them this coming week. We also got a new bishop who seems really good, and understands that missionary's purpose is to teach people and not do other callings that are ward members' responsibilities. He had created a ward missionary plan that helps the ward assist with finding people to teach and to get some baptisms. I was able to eat at Mcdonald's this 

week, and a place thats called Cream Stone, which is basically Cold Stone. Other than that it was a normal week. President Berrett will be leaving at the end of the month so we will be having a last get together with him on Wednesday. He's been a really good mission president and it will be sad to see him go, but I know this new mission president will be awesome too!  

Love,

Elder Magnusson

I'm dull?

June 6, 2016

Hey y'all,

Again not much happened this week, we have implemented our plans to get member referrals, luckily we were able to get about 2-3. This coming week we'll try to visit these people so that they can learn the gospel. We didn't have much going on this week again, but went on an exchange with the zone leaders. Thats probably the excitement for the week. We have a baptism scheduled for this Sunday (Bro K). But we have 2 more lessons we need to teach him before baptism, and its really hard to meet with him because he's busy. His father is a member, and could possibly come to see his baptism. But if we cant meet with him this week, then the Baptism will have to be moved back. 

We also visited Kranti, and I was with Elder Semadeni and taught him why we have The Book of Mormon. His wife read the first 4 chapters, and had some clarification questions. She actually was raised Hindu, but converted to Christianity. Kranti downloaded the Gospel library app, and has been listening to General Conference talks. They are great investigators, but are too busy to come to church, but will hopefully find time to come this Sunday. Some cultural things I've noticed this week is that here its okay to call people fat. Its so awkward to be at church or something, and someone telling someone else that they got fatter. Its also okay to call someone dull here. Some people have asked me why I'm dull, and why I don't talk. ( The reason isn't that I'm dull ((though some of you may disagree)) but we will be with a group of people and they'll all be speaking Telegu ((an Indian Language)) and obviously I don't know what they're saying, so how do I be apart of the conversation? I have pointed that out to them after being called dull numerous times, but they go right back to speaking in Telegu). So I guess I'll be called known as Elder Magnusson the Dull or something. 

Other than that that basically covers the week. I haven't died yet because of the traffic so thats good. 

Love,

Elder Magnusson 

Danger Everywhere

May 30, 2016

Hey Y'all,

Not much happened this week, we had some appointments but a lot of them bunked. We were able to meet with Kranti this week, and taught him the Plan of Salvation. After the first appointment he has been busy lately, but he has shared our message about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ at work, and wants to get his family and his co-workers in on a lesson with us. We taught Brother K about following the Prophet, and the Law of Tithing. His father is a member, in a different city. Bro K takes notes every Sunday about everything he learns, and studies it through out the week, he is very interested in learning more.

There is a lot of ice cream places in Hyderabad and go to this place called Ice stone all the time. Man, after being in Rajahmundry for 6 months, I kinda forgot what Good QUALITY Ice cream taste like. They also have Gelato there, which is fantastic and am sure I'm addicted to it. This Sunday is the 5th Sunday of the month, so in the Hyderabad stake they have the missionaries give talks. My talk was on the Holy Ghost, they told me to prepare a 20 min talk, but ended up talking for only 10 minutes. 

I talked about 4 of the roles that the Holy Spirit plays;

1.Comforter ( In times of sadness)

2.Witness ( testifies of Christ, and helps us know what is true and what is false)

3.Compass (Guides us on what we need to do in life/ decisions we make)

4.Protector ( from physical and spiritual danger)

I wish I was able to give the whole talk instead of give a watered down version of it in church, but it was a great opportunity for me. Last time I jokingly and statistically talked about the traffic here in Hyderabad.  Im not joking now, the traffic is extremely dangerous. The drivers don't care, or watch where you are. Side walks do not exist here. I could be walking on the side walk and have it be 20 feet from the road, and I still have the chances of getting hit. Cars and motorcycles use the sidewalk for some reason. They honk here all the time, which apparently means "get out of my way I'm coming through". I could be walking the direction of traffic and have a bus fly pass me being 12 inches from my body. Man I hope I don't die here. Other than that it's been a pretty good week.

Love,

Elder Magnusson

A Quick Week

May 23, 2016

Hey y'all,

This week was pretty good, there was a lot to do. We went to the mall last P-day , and it was the weirdest thing. The malls here look like the ones in the U.S, they're clean, big and have lots of stores. When we were in there, I felt like I was back in the U.S, and then when you look out the window and you see the dirtiness of India. It is the weirdest feeling, going from a mall to the outside "realistic" world of India. Mom sent me Twizzlers, so I opened them up and shared them with some members. One of the funniest things that I've seen on my mission is to watch a bunch of Indians eat Twizzlers. They didn't like them nor did they like the Gold fish either. TO give you an idea of the traffic system, and the dangers of India: The number of cars on the road in India is 74 million. The number of death rates due to accidents is 196,000 a year. Thats 22 people dying from a crash here an HOUR. One missionary told me when he was in Bangalore, he saw a family of four on a motorcycle (yeah, they try to fit as many people as possible on them) and this family hit another motorcycle head on, which caused everyone to fly off, and in that moment a huge bus came by and hit all of them. The bus was on top of all 4 people, and for some reason the driver ran away, so local people moved the bus away, and tried dragging the bodies to safety. This week I had to fill out an Absentee voters ballet, for Americans that are currently out of the U.S. So I had to go to the U.S Embassy and give them my form. It was pretty fun to step on American Soil. We looked through our phone I tried calling some people up to teach, and were able to get 9 new investigators this week. We met one of them in a pretty sketchy area, so when we went there we took off our name tags and ties to blend in a little more. We taught Ravi Teja who isn't progressing, but have started teaching his mom. We also met a guy named Kranti who is a golden investigator. We met with him and his family, and wants us to meet with his friends. He knows a lot about the church because one of his friend's is LDS. He is very interested and has asked many questions. They even fed us dinner and we only knew them for an hour, and gave us a ride back to the main road (which was a good distance away). Its hard to believe that I graduated a year ago, man time flys. We went to a resturant called Absolute BBQ, which was pretty cool. It was sweet , because people come with racks of meat and gives us unlimited chicken, fish, lamb etc. Other than that, it was a good week here in Hyderabad India. 

Love,

Elder Magnusson