August

August 1, 2016

Hey Y'all,

This week was a great week, we had lots of success. This week we taught Deepak who was the guy that believes in everything. When we went to his shop to meet with him we had no clue what to teach him. In my head I thought about teaching about repentance, but then he started to talk about his father (who died) and how he didn't know where he was. So we decided to teach the Plan of Salvation. It was an awesome lesson especially because we talked about where we go after this life, and it was all new to him, mainly because he was Hindu. At the end of the lesson he talked about how he can't come to church on Sunday because that's his busiest day for his shop, and so we talked about the Sabbath day and how it is a day God set a side for us to rest and to go to church. He was having a hard time understanding why, but I could tell he was truely thinking about it. At the end of the lesson we extended an invitation to be baptized and he accepted it. He told us that every time we teach him he feels Jesus, and a bunch of angels surrounding him. It was nice to hear that, it reassures me that I'm not wasting my time being here. Elder Semadeni is sadly going home this week, he served a great mission and is a great guy, so we made him a plaque that looks like a name tag on the front and on the back is the missions he served in, the mission presidents he had, and the areas he served in. I learned so much from that guy, and knows he'll do awesome when he goes home. Meanwhile Elder Patten ( The guy I was with in Bangalore for my first week in India, before I went to Rajahmundry to be elder Conrad's companion) came to replace him. Elder Conrad and Elder Patten are childhood friends, and grew up together so Im sure they are excited to be companions. One of our investigators David, and his friend Chary came to church yesterday. We were able to teach them and got David on a baptismal date for september 4. We explained the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he accepted baptism. He was baptized in the past, but he understood the needing of the Priesthood authority and why he needs to be re baptized. Whats interesting is he writes music for one of the really big churches here, are its the church where most of our investigators go, so we'll see how things go. We invited him to pray about the decision, and he gave his testimony on his relationship with God and how strong it is. SO we hope all will go well this next transfer. 

Man is it weird that it is AUGUST. I remember starting the year and thinking this was gonna be a Loooong year, but dad-gum, it has flown by! I used to think people we crazy when they said a year felt like a month to them, and I now am a believer that a year can fly. Its weird that we're 5 months away from 2017. Anyways, that was my week!

Love,

Elder Magnusson

July 25th

Hey Y'all,

This week we did pretty dang well with lessons. The main focus is working with the ward members. Most people would say that that is obvious, but when I was in Rajahmundry it was honestly easier to work on our own. But I have learned that thats not the case in Madinaguda. We started out by teaching Krishna just simple scriptures, and even did that with Deepak. Deepak believes in everything (God, Hindu gods, and allah). We have just been teaching simple doctrines such as baptism and repentance. This week will be interesting because we'll teach the 10 commandments, and share the story about Baal and how the people were worshiping Idols when Moses was on the Mount. Through out my time here as I have taught hindu people that there is only one God, it doesn't quite go too smooth. Mainly because that would degrade every and anything they believed in since birth. SO its kinda a hard topic to teach, clearly and lovingly without offending them. We also were able to teach a lady named Swarupa, who let us teach her the Restoration and later the Plan of Salvation. She talked a lot about how she reads in the scriptures about false Prophets, and that lots of people from other religions would come and teach her. So we taught her about The Book of Mormon, and how that is proof that Joseph Smith is a TRUE Prophet. We told her to read and pray about it, because God's the only one that we can truly trust about this kinda stuff, and that if the Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith is a true Prophet. Her sister even joined in on the lesson to hear what we were teaching. Another main focus we have had was The Book of Mormon, and helping the members and investigators understand the role of it and why we have it. The best way we have taught was to teach the Doctrine's of Christ. We read the Doctrine of Christ in the Bible, and for our investigators who read the Bible, they will soon come to realize that The Book of Mormon has those same truths and concepts. Its just written in ancient Americas vs places such as Jerusalem (ie. The Bible). Its crucial that they gain faith in it and know its true because that's one of the main focal points that differs our church from their church. Thats about the only excitingish things we did this week, until next time

Love,

Elder Magnusson

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