Levi's Mission News

Levi's Mission News

Monday, July 18, 2016

The British Are leaving, the British are Leaving...

July 18, 2016


Hey Y'all,
This week was pretty good, it started out with getting Elder Kitsell registered in Hyderabad so he isn't being illegal, sadly they rejected his registration and has to leave the country so he has left the tripanionship. We have been able to meet with Kranti who we haven't met with for a while and this wednesday he is inviting his co-workers and family to a lesson with us. 

A lady called me the other day, and she didn't speak English but I heard her say the words "Finances", the first thing that popped in my head was she is having a financial issue and wants the church to give her money. Her friend who speaks English called and set up an appointment with us and we met with them. We taught them The Restoration and then at the and they told us they'll take baptism and wanted to know what the benefits were. Our reply was your sins are cleansed and you have accepted Jesus into your life. I knew what they were meaning though.. She says no, what are the "Benefits". She said people tell her that Christian churches give money if you join them, and we kindly let her know that's not how church works, if that happened everyone would be christian. They left after that lesson and haven't heard from them since. 

We also met President Mortensen who seems to be a good guy, excited to have him as our new president, though I will miss the Berretts a lot he will be able to help me in my missionary work.

Love,
Elder Magnusson













Tri-Comp

July 11, 2016

Hey y'all,
This week we weren't doing to well. We weren't able to get many lessons in to FRRO (Forieng Registration) and Zone training this week. Elder Kitsell from England was in Rajahmundry and his 6 month visa is expiring, so he came to Hyderabad to register, and try to extend the visa. He also is trying to get an OCI, his great grand father is from India. SO he is with Elder Shuman and I. Its been interesting teaching lessons, and taking auto rides with a "third wheel". President Mortenson is coming this Friday, so we'll get to meet him. I finally did another prank this week that I havent done in a long time. We (my comps and I) froze Elder Conrad's name tag, he didnt even notice till that night when we told him what we did. He tells us he has a good poker face, so Im not wuite sure if he noticed or not. I mean we stuck the name tag right by him, but he never knew.
Elder Shuman's sickness is better, but he is still having a hard time eating the food. I gave him some of my Easy Mac (yes I humbled myself enough to let him have my Easy Mac) so he could have something that isn't nasty I mean "foreign". The Chintha Family dropped us and so did Annie Thomas, she gave the Book of Mormon back and told me to delete her number from my contacts. It was really weird, because we wanted to know what happened because our first lesson was great with her. We met a guy named Prince, it was weird meeting him because he lived in India till he was 12, then became an American citizen since then, and came to India to live because its cheap. He has been here for 4 years, so he was amazed to hear American accents and pronounciations. He's from Virginia (the rest of his family still resides there). I asked him if he knew where Stafford County was (where I use to live) and said he did. He said he has met with us in the U.S but was a little confused because he thought we were Jehovah Witnesses. He couldn't remember exactly who his family and him met with. He was completely drunk when we met him, he lives in a little shack looking thing with really nice stuff. His parents pay for everything, so he lives in Inida, with an American salary. He actually works for AT&T, and uses that money he makes to buy beer. He is an interesting guy, but has a lot of questions about the gospel. Its so nice to teach someone that I can talk normally to, and not have to break my English. Plus I understand eveything he is saying. We also met with Deepak and had an awesome lesson with him, he seems to progress really well even though he "believes in all Gods" (a lot of the Hindu people say that).  Other than that thats how my week went!
Love,
Elder Magnusson 




God Bless the USA!

July 4, 2016


Hey Y'all,
This week we were able to get some good work in. We did lots of finding this week, which made it interesting because we have now entered monsoon season. India doesn't have much of a drainage system, so if floods everywhere, and some of it is probably their sewage water. We went through our phone and called up a lot of former and potential investigators, so we were able to get a bunch of new people that we can teach. I also went on an exchange with Elder Conrad, in my area which was lots of fun. It was awesome going back out and doing missionary work with him like old times. It was fun remembering all of our inside jokes, and all the crazy things that happened to us in Rajahmundry. This week we met with a less active named Seshu who was previously Hindu. He had lots of questions/concerns about some of the churches doctrine. Apparently he goes to a church near by and his pastor tells him all this random stuff about the Mormon church. I asked him if he had a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and told him that he needs to read and ask God if it is true not the pastor he talks to. He realizes if the Book of Mormon is true than any other doctrine whether it be Joseph Smith being a prophet, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints being the church with the full gospel and authority of God must be true. But he sadly wont pray for himself and ask. Hopefully he will come to the conclusion that thats the only way he will receive his answer.

After the exchange Elder Shuman started to feel sick, he ate some muslim food (There is a muslim holiday going on) and hasn't felt good since. I warned him not to eat Muslim food a week ago, but he took the chance. He has felt naucious and weak for the last two days. So on Saturday and Sunday we were in the apartment all day. Who knew sitting on a couch would get boring after awhile. Though I had no problem sitting on the couch when I was at home., but then again I had a TV and American food. I think the weirdest thing this week was seeing a 2 liter bottle of "Masala Soda", that's definitely only something you'll see in India. So I bought one and made everyone in the apartment drink it with me. It was really weird and kinda tasted like a root beer flavored Bottle Cap. I also had one of the couple missionaries (The Newtons) in Rajahmundry make us banana bread because they were coming to Hyderabad for a couple days. It was soo good, man I miss AMERICAN desserts. Due to that Elder Shuman and I made no-bake cookies, they were dang good and made you wanna slap yo mama. ​

Chintha Family: Their pastor said they don't need a Book of Mormon, so we read 2 Nephi 29 with them and told them, I dont come to the opposite side of the world, to hand out a blue book for free if it didn't impact their life, and help their spiritual growth. 

Srinivas: We met this guy this week, and tried to teach him, sadly he doesn't really know English, and when I asked him if he understand what we are teaching he would say "I will understand" (with the weird Indian head bob). Wasn't too good because I need him to understand at the moment. 

Thats just about the only people we were able to see, other than that we just went finding all day long. Today we will celebrate INDEPENDENCE DAY by going to TGIF (restaurant), I know weird that they have one here, and then getting a big cookie with ice cream on the top at Pizza Hut.

God bless the U.S.A and a big shout out and thank you to my father and all those other men and women that have served in the Military (police, swat, CIA etc) to keep our country safe. 
Love,

Elder Magnusson

























New Trainee



June 27, 2016

Hey Y'all,
This week started out with Elder Abel transferring to Rajahmundry, so I was with Elder Semadeni for the day. We were able to teach a guy named Deepak, he owns a  Whey Protein store. He believes in everything, Christianity, Muslim, or Hindu, he believes it all. The next day I flew to Bangalore for the trainers meeting. There about 5 trainers, All of us were American except one. The missionaries coming in had 2 indians, and the rest from the U.S. I was paired up with Elder Shuman who is from Idaho (U.S) and he still has that "new missionary" smell. He came right from the MTC, and didn't visa wait. He enjoys being here, and is just absorbing India for now. We have had some fun together, and get a long pretty well. He reminds me of when I first came to India, and the reactions I had when I got here. When we flew back to our area we got right to work. We only had two days of proselyting and I taught him how to go finding in India. Through our finding efforts we were able to find lots of investigators to teach, and are definitely people the Lord has been preparing for us to find. We have been able to get multiple lessons in with investigators we just met, and all we did was knock on their doors. That didn't happen ever in Rajahmundry. We'll be starting the training program so that Elder Shuman can understand the missionary life style a little better. But Im happy we are companions and should have a great 3 months together!
 Man am I happy Elder Conrad is here! We have had a lot of fun joking and laughing about the "good ole days". It feels weird that he is in my apartment again, but its awesome. He is doing well, and enjoyed the Philippians. My district is fully American :Elder Shuman and I, Elder Semadeni and Conrad. This is gonna be a fun transfer! district meeting and other district activities will be a lot of fun! We hope to see baptisms later this transfer with our investigators, but we'll see. We'll be putting them on a baptismal date this week. Our investigators are:

Krishna: He has family that is members, he talks about the importance of repenting of our sins and purifiying our hearts and says he needs to make a leap of faith towards God, but still refuses a baptismal date. 

Deva : has a cousin that lives in Bangalore and is a member, and tells us he knows what we are sharing is special because we came all the way from the U.s to share it. He also has noticed a big change in his cousins after they joined the church.

Deepak: Believes in everything, has a little girl and wife, he his friends that a members, but doesn't speak a lot of English, but enough

Chintha Family: Knocked on their door, completely understood the Restoration message and the apostasy of the Christ's church after he died, and wants to learn more.
Kranti Family: Has friends that are members, sees a big change in his friend, wants to learn about our church, and how it can change his life, but is too busy to meet with us. 
Have a good week!
Love 
Elder Magnusson