Week Twenty and a half: Last email from 2014 from Elder Wagner

¡FELIZ NAVIDAD! I hope you all had a gread christmas! mine was pretty great! but a little weird, its the first time ive spent christmas in warm weather and away from the family, but its all good because i got to spend christmas with servants of the lord! we had a special district meeting with a small gift exchange and testimony meeting and it was one of the best christmases ever! everything was centered on the true meaning of christmas and no one was very preoccupied in the gifts or anything and we all shared our testimonies of the church and of the reason we celebrate christmas and it was great! I have abosolutely no idea how we are going to spend the new year, but ill let you know next week how it goes haha. Today i bought a camera, so hopefully ill start sending more pictures and stuff for all you people who are like i was before the misson and just want to look at pictures because reading is just too much work haha. I realized this week that i never told you about my new companion! His name is Elder Garcia and he is from Mexico City and he is amazing! we get along really well which is good because were going to be together in the offices for up to 9 months or more. I dont have time to reply to all the stuff i receive, so i just want to give a quick thanks to all the people who sent me letters and cards. I dont really have time to write all of you and thank you personally, but i really appreciate the letters and cards that i get because i can keep them in the house and read them without spending my time on the computer. Also, i get mail whenever it arrives at the offices now instead of once a month because when im out as a regular missionary, i only get mail every month, but now since im in the offices i can pretty much just get it from the mailman and open it right there haha. 

Last week i listened to a talk by Elder Holland named "Remember Lot´s wife" it talks about how we should never look back on the mistakes weve maid or on the person we used to be and that we should look forward with hope in Christ. Its an incredible talk and i encourage all of you to read it.

But the challenge this week apart from that is to start this new year with hope for the future and know that the future holds everything for us even though sometimes it may seem like a tough road ahead. You can also make new year resolutions, but we all know that we break almost every one within the first two weeks haha.

I love all of you! thank you for all your support!

¡Les amo mucho! ¡Gracias por todo su apollo!  -Elder Wagner

Week Nineteen and a half: Week 2 in the offices

The second week in the offices as financial secretary (or "king of the money" as one of the office workers likes to call me) was pretty darn good! i got to hear from Russel M. Nelson in two different meetings! First he talked to all the missionaries and its was absolutely incredible! also, he had 2 other people who spoke and i think they were 70s or something like that, but they were just as good as elder nelson. The next day, elder nelson spoke to my stake and he was using a translator at first, then he said he learned a song in spanish while he had been here, sang the song (a really funny song about Jalisco and Guadalajara), then said "if i can sing in spansih, i think i can speak in spanish" and then he dismissed his translator and gave the rest of his talk in spanish! it was crazy! i had no idea he speaks english! Also, we had another area 70 or something like that named elder peiper come a few days ago and give training to us and it was super good as well! Its been a crazy week with all the meetings and everything because we have to buy all the bus tickets and everything for all the elders who are in areas far away and all that stuff, but its been a very good week for me to learn quickly!

Challenge: Elder Nelson talked a lot about the importance of the temple and how many blessings we receive from going. He has a talk named "begin with the end in mind" it was given to mission presidents and their wives, but i think you can apply it to your lives because everyone can be a missionary! so the challenge this week is to read this talk and to go to the temple this week!

Love you all! - Elder Wagner

Week Eighteen and a half: Changes (and camera lost)

In case you didnt already notice, im writing on a friday and i usually write on mondays. thats because i was transferred! i am now being trained to be the financial secretary for the whole mission! i always thought that office missionaries were lazy and never really did much, but holy cow they do a ton and have a ton of responsibility. so yeah that happened, and also i turned 20 years old so im no longer a teenager and thats really weird. I lost my camera this week in a taxi so thats pretty great. i guess its just another trial that i have to endure and let it make me stronger. one of the other office elders told me this: you may have lost your pictures from these last 4 months, but it doesnt matter because in heaven we will be able to remember everything perfectly and see all of our friends whenever we want! haha so yeah i think im going to look at it like that and think positively. so my new pday will be saturday, but this week i have it on friday because tomorrow we have a meeting with an apostle! Elder Russel M. Nelson is coming to talk to all the missionaries tomorrow and then on sunday i get to hear from him again because he is speaking to the members of the stake in which i am serving so i get to hear from him to times!!! im kind of excited haha. so much happened these last two weeks, i dont even remember all of the craziness, but i hope you get a small glimpse into the crazy life of Elder Wagner from this email. i dont think my emails will be as interesting from here on out because i will be in the offices for the majority of the day and the most interesting thing that i will have to share will be about how i fixed a problem with someones credit card, or how i allocated a bunch of transactions with cat like reflexes or something like that haha.

We only have a few more weeks until christmas! and christmas is when we celebrate the birth of the savior of the world! Im not sure if you have already done this or not, but im going to invite you all again to watch the video "He is the Gift" on www.christmas.mormon.org and think about how incredible it is that God send His son to us to save us and think about what christmas means. Think about the significance of gift giving at christmas. this last week i had a realization that it is a symbolism of when our Heavenly Father gave us the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ. #sharethegift 

I love you all!!!!! ¡Les amo mucho! ¡Cuídense mucho! con amor, Elder Wagner

Week Seventeen: He Is The Gift

here are some pics from this week. this is a dragonfly we found in the pateo that i have hanging above my desk

i dont have much time this week, but ill try to make this as best as i can. this week we got some training on an initiative of the church called "he is the gift" its the biggest initiative the church has every done and the head of the whole thing is elder russel m nelson.. and he just so happens to be coming to my mission to talk to us this december! so yeah this is kind of a big deal. just look upwww.christmas.mormon.org and it should be there. i encourage all of you to look it up and share the link with all your friends! we have transfers this next week, so i might be in another place when i email again, but i hope not! SHARE THE GIFT EVERYBODY! this december is a time to remember our savior Jesus Christ! celebrate his birth by helping bring the truth to more people and share the joy!

love you all! Elder Wagner

 now. a pidgeon that was just chillin inside the haircutting place while gettinghaircuts last week ( i might have already sent a pic of that but whatever
haha

 and lastly, elder Raya from baja california and a view from a super rich part of our area

Week Sixteen: The Mission

overall this week was pretty normal. teaching, teaching, walking, and super bumpy bus rides. oh and we got vaccines today. i wasnt sure if i was supposed to take it, but the secretary told me i should, so right after i got done the mission presidents wife rushed in and asked me if i had taken it already and that i shouldnt have taken it. i thought i was going to have to go to the hospital or something, but it turns out im just really safe from getting the flu now haha. i had splits with 2 other missionaries in a tiny pueblo on the outskirts of guadalajara named Tlajomulco and holy cow were those people short. i never thought that i would be tall, but i was tall for a day and a half! so if any of you short people ever need a confidence boost, just come to central america for a little bit and realize that being a short american is like being a tall mexican.

heres a picture of my zone "Bugambilias 1"

 this is the view from the house of the missionaries in the pueblo of Tlajomulco

Another picture from the top of my area in a really nice gated community

Challenge: a huge difficulty that missionaries have is trying to find members to accompany them in lessons. (at least its a challenge for us) so if you feel like you have an hour or two to accompany the missionaries and help them teach by sharing experiences and befriending investigators the missionaries would love you forever. Also, if you do this i know that the Lord will bless you more in your life and you will gain a stonger testimony.

i feel like my letters should be longer, but i dont know what else to write haha. if anyone has anything specific they want to know, just let me know and ill add it in to my letters!

Love, Elder Wagner

Week Fifteen: 1st Baptism

so i may or may not have forgotten to tell you guys that we had a baptism coming up, but we did, and now there is one more member of the church in the Patria ward! 

Her name is Mercedes, i think i already talked about her a little bit in another email, but we met her in the street and we helped her carry her water jug home and she accepted to hear from us and we have been teaching her for about 7 weeks i think. Her baptisms was supposed to be saturday night, but her son was assaulted, and she had to take him to the hospital so she couldnt come. we talked to her later that night and we decided to have the baptism sunday morning before church. she was late because she had a lot of things to do, but we got it done and confirmed her less than an hour after she was baptized!

Also, this week we were talking with a less active member and he showed us some little pamphlet things from the missionaries who baptized him in 2000 ish. the first thing i saw was a missionary from veradale washington! ive never heard his name before, but his name is Jared Daniel McIntyre. so yeah thats pretty neat haha if anyone knows him, im serving in the same mission he served in haha. 

Spiritual thought: The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the most important event in all eternity. I never really realized this untill i got out here, but my appreciation for the atonement has grown tremendously and my love for our Savior as well. I encourage all of you to think more on the atonement and how is has, is, and will bless you in your own life.

Les quero mucho! Elder Wagner

Week Fourteen: The Mission

This week i realized that i have already been out on the mission for 3 months, next week ill have 2 months in mexico, and in less than a month ill be 20. And im pretty sure i realized all of that at the same time so it was a pretty intense moment haha. Also, yesterday i gave my first talk in spanish. it actually went pretty well, i didnt have to read the whole thing (mostly because i didnt have enough time to write all of it) and people understood me (i think). Luckily the topic was forgiveness, so they kind of had to forgive me. During a lesson this week with a girl named Cristal (22ish) out of nowhere she just straight up told us that the night before she prayed to know if the book of mormon is true and then while reading she just felt like it was true. It was without a doubt the most spiritual moment of my life. I now realize why people say that the mission is full of let down and disappointment, but the few powerful moments far outweigh the disappointments. In that lesson i felt like i was fulfilling my purpose as a missionary and it was one of the greatest feeling of my life. now i know why Alma and the other missionaries of the book of mormon talk about how incredible missionary work is. there have been rumors floating around since my fist day arriving in mexico about the opportunity to hear from an apostle this december, and just recently we found out that its true! dec. 14 we get the chance to hear from an apostle of the Lord! he is going to speak to all of the Guadalajara mission and the Guadalajara East mission. Also, he will speak to my stake, so if i dont get transferred in the next transfer i will get to hear from him 2 times!!! we dont know who it is yet, but ill let you know when i find out!

Spiritual Thought: READ THE BOOK OF MORMON. If you are currently reading, continue to read it. If you arent reading it often, read it every day. If you have never read it, READ IT. I cant put into words the amount of happiness, joy, peace, and comfort that we can receive simply by reading a book. Jeffrey R. Holland said something like this: "the book of mormon has been torn apart for over 150 years by people trying to discredit it, but no one has succeeded because it is perfect. No evil man could write the book of mormon, and no good man would write the book of mormon, unless he were commanded to do so by our Heavenly Father."

Les qiero mucho! Elder Wagner

Week Thirteen: Another week

Just another week serving the Lord and trying not to spend all my money on mexican candy and doughnuts. We are starting to accumulate more and more progressing investigators so hopefully ill have a good amount of pictures of baptisms in the next month and a half-ish. I dont really know what to say other than that haha. Mexico is starting to become more and more normal to me and im starting to get the hang of it more and more. today while getting my hair cut the lady asked me if i was from Guadalajara, so im just going to assume that from the 10 or less words i said she thoght i was mexican. think positively right? Also, we ate with a family the other day that we hadnt eaten with since my 3 week or so and one of the daughters asked me something and after i responded she said "he understood me! and said something! quick, record him! record him!" haha so yeah i guess im improving! 

During our zone meeting this week our zone leader shared two things that i loved. first he told a story from Elder Packer i think. It talks about when we all come before God after we die and God is calling out the names of groups of people. he calls the 2000 striping warriors and we all think thats really cool, then he calls out other groups from the times of the scriptures and we think its incredible to be with them. then he gets to us and calls out the armies of the Prophet Thomas S. Monson. the Missionaries of the latter days and everyone from the scripture times thinks we are incredible. We may not realize it, but we are living in the times that prophets have been testifying about for thousands of years. we live in the latter days, the time of the gathering of all the Lords sheep. how blessed are we! Also, he shared a quote from or mission president, "Where is your vision?". think about that. is your vision in the eternal perspective, or do you find yourself stuck in the world at times? i encourage everyone to try to figure out where their sight is and always be trying to improve yourselves!

Con amor, Elder Wagner

Week Twelve: One Transfer Down In The Field

I cant belive i already have 6 weeks done in the field and am halfway done with my training. the other day realized that im already 1/8 the way done with my mission and my brain just about exploded.

Overall, this week went pretty well. Saturday night my companion got a nice surprise from the first councelor in the bishopric. we were teaching an active member in her little shop behind the counter and the first councelor and his wife came in to buy some stuff. he said something like "Elders of Israel! youre always prepared arent you? well how about you speak tomorrow morning in sacrament meeting? Elder Nolasco, you speak on reverence and Elder Wagner, you speak on Forgiveness ok?" we responded "...... uhhh.. sure, why not?" and he said "great! oh and each talk should be about 10 minutes long." so yeah that was pretty great. we spent our night scrambling to put together talks and then the next morning he told us that we didnt have to speak untill 2 more sundays. we were really relieved, but at the same time we were kind of mad because we had just spent the last 12 hours freaking out and then it was all for nothing, but at least i have my  talk somewhat ready for 2 weeks from now!

For some reason its really hard for mexicans to say my last name. they always say "waahner" haha its pretty funny. A few days ago someone read it, paused for a little bit, and then said "like los warner brothers?" hahaha so yeah thats acually happened a few times and theres a brother in the ward who always greets me with " Los Warner Brothers!" haha its pretty funny. Also, i guess theres some fameous musician or something with the last name wagner because a few people have asked me if im related to him and i just say no because i have no clue haha.

Another funny thing that happened this week: i was talking with an Elder who is from Baja California who is familiar with both the american and mexican culture and i was talking to him about why mexicans put chili powder in everything. seriously, chili powder is in EVERYTHING. i was saying something like "you know what would make this food better? Chili powder. You know what would make this candy better? chili powder. you know what would make this ice cream better? chili powder. you know what would make this shampoo better? chili powder." Then elder raya stopped me and said " you know, there actually is shampoo and soap with chili powder right? your companion has those" hahaha yeah thats mexico for you. if you want to make anything better, just add some chili powder.

Now that ive been out in the field for a transfer, ive been able to see a few different missionaries and how they conduct themselves and its pretty obvious to me who was ready to serve a mission and who wasnt. Future Elders: Please dont serve a mission untill you feel like you are mature and ready to be a representative of Jesus Christ. Serving a mission is a whole lot more than just going to a different country for 2 years and teaching some people about the church.  when you are a missionary, you are literally representing The Lord Jesus Christ and should be able to act in a way that Christ would. Please dont just serve a mission because youre 18 and everyone expects you to go. Make sure you have a testimiony of the things you are going to teach and if its necessary, wait a year or two or three. Elder Oaks' first talk as an apostle talks about why missionaries serve. i encourage you to read it, or listen to it, or watch it and find out for yourself why you are going to serve a mission.

Con Amor, Elder Wagner

Week Eleven: week 5?

im pretty sure that i have 5 weeks here, but im not really sure to be honest haha time is both fast and slow in the mission, its crazy. 

This week was pretty successful! we are getting more and more progressing investigators, but no one came to church so were going to have to work on that. i want to tell you guys about everyone were teaching and how they are doing, but i just dont have the time! i guess its sufficcient to say that we have a lot of work to do and a lot of peole to work with and thats good!

I dont have any crazy stories this week, but i think its because the crazyness of mexico is just normal now. whenever something weird happens i just kind of shrug it off and say ok, i guess thats normal here, and then move on with whatever im doing. The only good story i have is from last week. my companion (Elder Nolasco) was asking one of the elders from my district from the mtc if he had a green bag inside the mission offices. he said, "¿mochilla verde?" which means "green bag?" and the elder from my mtc district said "oh yeah! muy delicioso!" were still not really sure what he was thinking, but its all good because none of us speak spanish that well. 

Yesterday we had stake conferece and got to go to the chapel next to the guadalajara temple so we got to take pictures and see it, but we wont be able to enter the temple for a while. the guadalajara temple is almost identical to the spokane temple, so it was really cool for me to realize just how constant the church is. I am thousands of miles from spokane, and yet there is a stake center and temple where the exact same things happen in the exact same manner. the church is true people!

Heres a nice little slice of mexico from the home of one of the members in our ward.

​My companion and Elder Marion (One of the other 2 elders in our ward. hes from colorado)

​The Guadalajara Mexico Temple :D

​The Guadalajara Mexico Temple :D

Week Ten: one month in mexico

I cant really wrap my head around the fact that i have already been here for almost a month and i have almost 2.5 months in the mission already! well i guess its true, time flies in the mission. 

today we went to downtown guadalajara to do some stuff for our visas and i got to see all the elders from my district in the MTC!  elder hansen who was in my apartment with me lost 30 pounds already! its crazy what mexico can do to you! I thought it was rough to lose some of my pday to go do visa stuff and then i realized that i only had to travel about 30 minutes to get to the mission offices and other elders had to travel up to 9 hours and pay up to $100 (dollars) to get there while i only had to pay like 6 pesos which is like 50 cents haha.

My spanish is improving every week and i really see that the Lord is helping me so i can teach his sons and daughters in mexico. the other day my companion told me that in my sleep i was speaking spanish and english! i didnt even know i talked in my sleep, let alone in another language haha. Oh well, ill take that as a sign that my brain is at least partly in mexico mode and hopefully i can be be a fluent spanish speaker in my sleep soon! Oh and the other day i was in a store and this guy starts trying to talk to me in english, i usually just respond in spanish because they only know one or two things in english, but he actually spoke english and we started talking in english. it was really weird and uncomfortable for some reason, so ill take that as another sign that my brain starting to convert to mexicanism!

I keep seeing dopplegangers of people i know in america, its crazy. ill see someone out of the corner of my eye and think its someone i know, then when i look at them the second time i realize its just a mexican version of the person i thought it was. sorry dad, i dont think ill be seeing your doppleganger any time soon. there arent many 6 foot tall bald mexican men who wear bald eagle shirts.

We had 3 investigators come to church this week! and one of them brought his cousin! its such a good feeling to see people trying to come closer to Christ and fulfill commitments! During a lesson this week with a woman named Mercedes, we were talking to her about the plan of salvation and she told us that within the last year her son had passed away and one of her grandchildren had fallen off a balcony and died. all i could think about when she was telling us about her grandaughter passing away was how i would feel if one of my nieces or nephews passed away and how crushing that would be to me and my entire family. then i realized how amazing it was that we have the knowledge of the plan of salvation and that i had the opportunity to share with this woman the same joy that i have found in the plan of salvation and all the principles of the restored gospel. the church is true!

sorry if my emails are all over the place and hard to follow, but i dont really ahve time to proofread it all and make all the thoughts line up. i just kind of type whatever my brain thinks and that can be pretty weird and hard to follow, so i apologize if my emails dont make any sense haha. 

Con amor, Elder Wagner

Week Nine: Week 3 in mexico

Its weird to think that i already have 2 months in the mission. woah that went by fast, but at the same time its gone by really slow. So this week i had some pretty different experiences with a family that we found the other week. Im not really sure how everyone is related, but there are 2 parents and 2 sons (i think) that are investigating and are actually progressing pretty well. The other day Elder Nolasco and i stopped by to teach one of the sons and during the lesson i thought he was saying that he was in a gang before and got it a fight or something, but after the lesson elder Nolasco told me that he was saying he spoke to satan and had marks on his body from it and that there are 5 demons and he knew them all by name.... i guess i missed a little bit of stuff during that lesson haha. and then the next day we went to their house again and he was suuuuper drunk. the most drunk ive ever seen anybody. and he wanted us to teach him and his mom, but we ended up leaving him and we took his mom to general conference! sadly, we missed a lot of general conference because we were trying to chase down investigators and bring them, but we got to see a lot. and i got to listen to about 1.5 hours in english! I think the elders quorum president saw me trying to stay awake during the saturday morning session and decided that it would be better if i could understand what they were saying, so he set up a laptop for me and another elder in our ward who is from colorado and has about 10 months in the field. 

The other day on the bus i saw a guy wearing a University of Utah hat! im sure he has no idea what it means, but hey i havnt seen any byu stuff so i guess its 1-0 utah! 

The work in mexico is tough because everyone has a hard time saying no, so we have tons of people who will let us talk to them and teach them, but they dont really have any interest in our message. its hard because it seems like we have a lot of investigators, but they arent actually interested. 

We have one investigator named David Parra who is actually progressing and i believe will be baptized! he is the son of a less active member and i think he has a real desire to follow Christ and be baptized, so hopefully within the next few weeks ill have a picture of my first baptism!

Oh, and when we finally got the mother of the drunk guy to general conference we sad down and the first full talk we heard was from Elder Bednar and his first words were "my message is meant specifically for those who are not member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" holy cow, what a blessing! we may not have gotten her there for a lot of the session, but i feel like we got her there for the talk that mattered most!

Challenge: Read/listen to/watch the talk from David A. Bednar called character of Christ (at least i think thats what its called) its not from the most recent conference, but its amazing!

Thanks for all your love and support! -Elder Wagner

Week Eight: week 2 in mexico

this week went by a lot faster than last week, but it was still crazy! its tough not being able to understand a lot of what my companion is saying, but it is helping a lot. i can already tell that my spanish is improving a lot!

The most interesting thing that happened this week was on thursday i think. wednesday night i was having some stomach pain and a headache and i just thought that i ate too much at the meal we had with members and i was dehidrated, so i thought i could just sleep it off. the next day i still had the pain, but my companion and i had to travel by bus for about 45 min to where the zone leaders live so we could go on splits with them because my companion is the district leader and i guess he needs to go on splits with the zone leader every once and a while. anyway, i ended up having a new companion for the day who is american! we started the day normal after the split, but i was in a lot of pain, so we spent about 2 hours trying to find a pharmacy that the mission presidents wife would approve of, and when we finally got there i had no idea what they were saying, but luckily my temporary companion could translate for me. what a blessing! it turns out i had a stomach infection and some kind of infection in my throat or something. gastrocolitis and farringoamigdalitis. but i got rest and medication so im all good now! oh and the doctor said i got sick from the sudden change in food and climate.

yesterday while on our way to an appointment we got caught in a crazy storm. i thought it was insane, but apparently its pretty normal here. the wind was blowing like crazy and it was raining like the world was going to end. well at least thats how it seemed to me. i guess im just an american, what do i know about the weather here?

well sorry the letter is so short this week, we didnt plan very well and we only got 30 min of email time, so ill make sure next weeks letter is better!

-Elder Wagner

Week Seven: MEXICOOOO

​Elder Nolasco and my outside the missino offices

This week was abolutely crazy! mexico is so much different than america! to transport their meat they just throw it in the back of a pickup truck and then unload it from the street! seriously. i saw i little nissan truck thing and it was full of cow ribs and people were just carrying around giant rib cages of meet from the sidewalk into the store. and another time they were carrying skinned cow heads into the store... yeah mexico is a bit different haha. oh and the ther day i almost got hit by a flying pig carcass. my companion and me were running in the morning and i wasint looking and they had a zipline thing from a truck into the store and they almost hit me with it haha. 

My companion is elder Nolasco. he is from mexico city and he has been here for 10 months. oh and he doesnt speak spanish so if i want to talk to anyone i have to speak spanish. so my spanish is improving pretty quick. i would like it to improve faster, but i guess is just have to be patient because faith in the Lord also means we must have faith in his timing!

for the first couple days we didnt have gas so our showers were ice cold, but we have gas now and we can take hot showers. the way they sell gas here is pretty funny. they have a truck driving around with tanks of gas and you pay the guy and he brings a tank of gas into your house and hooks it up haha. The cart that Nacho has in Nacho Libre is actually a thing down here! tons of people have them but theyre mostly bicicles haha but i think its pretty funny. i accidentaly kissed a girl the other day! we were teaching a girl named estefania and her friend joined us. as she came in, she greeted the member who was with us with a hand shake and then a kiss on the cheek like how they do it in europe, so i just kinda thought ok this in normal i guess. then after the handshake and kiss thing everyone was like, youre not supposed to do that! and me and the girl were really embarassed haha but yeah i kind of kissed a girl my first week so i guess you could say im doing pretty good lol. there are so many stories i have, but i dont have time to type all of them so i guess this is all youre gonna get this week! ok one more, whenever i tell people im from seattle they ask if i know ICarly lol so i guess its pretty big down here. seriously everyone, is pretty weird how much they like ICarly haha.

ok heres the good stuff. I didnt realize that a lot of what i was going to be doing was trying to activate less active members. about half of our day is spent visiting less active members because a TON of the ward is less active or not active at all. its frustrating because we have so many people we could be teaching, but we have to go visit less active members instead of teaching investigators or people who are interested in the church. It reminds me of a talk and i think its by Elder Holland. i dont remember the words exactly but it went something like this. If youre active, stay active! if youre less active, get active! and those of you who are active, help out those who are struggling! simple, but so true. being a member missionary doesnt always mean finding nonmembers, its a huge part of the missionary effort to find those who arent active to become active.

Also, i had a really cool experience while teaching a lesson to a less active sister. during the lesson i looked over at a picture of the Savior and and image popped into my head. the image was Jesus Christ sitting in place of my companion and i teaching the less active sister. the spirit was really strong and i almost started crying because i realized that i truely am a representative of Jesus Christ and everything i say and do should be in accordance with what Jesus would say if he were standing in my place.

Thats it for my first week in Mexico! I miss you guys! Elder Wagner

Week Six: Estoy En Mexico!

I cant belive it but im in Mexico! the trip went well and we didnt have any real problems. when we arrived in Guadalajara we were met by the Mission President and his 2 APs. 

We went to the mission offices, dropped off our luggage and went to the mission presidents house to have dinner. we had something called carne en tu.. something i cant remember what it was, but it was a stew thing and it was really good. after dinner we had interviews with our president and recieved instruction from the aps and the mission presidents wife hermana camerillo. 

we ended our night at the secretaries apartment. we had 12 elders and 5 matresses lined up on their floor. 

​Our first night here we had 10 elders sleeping on 5 mattresses in the secretaries apatrment. it was an interesting night...

Its was a pretty interesting night. this morning we went to a chapel, had breakfast, listened to a talk from president camerillo, and then recieved our trainers.

I dont remember the name of my trainer and im to embarassed to ask him haha so ill let you know his name next monday (my pday). He doesnt speak english, so its a little difficult to get to know him and stuff, but he is from mexico city and i can tell he is going to be a great trainer. we already taught a lesson to our landlord. we were just there about 10 minutes ago and it was difficult because i dont really understand all of what is going on, but my companinon does a good job of letting me talk about things i can. like the book of mormon and the restoration pamphlet. we committed him to a baptismal date and set up an appointment for tomorrow. this is crazy and i cant belive im here, but im excited to work hard and hopefully be able to speak spanish soon. while in the mtc i thought i was pretty good, but i now realize that i can speak less than most the 2 year olds here hahaha ok well i dont have much time, but i just wanted to let you know that im here and safe!

les amo! Elder Wagner

this thing jumped out of my bag a couple of mornings ago when we were about to leave the apartment. i dont know what it is, but it scared the crap out of me.

this is my pillow.. i think it was white at one point, but now its almost golden yellow

sorry for the 4th letter, but i just realized that i never said where i am! im in Patrea which is a suburb of Guadalajara. the climate is actually not bad, but it has been cloudy almost every day, so im sure its going to be super hot soon. oh and i eat beans and tortillas almost every day because thats what everyone is mexico eats! we eat luch with a member almost every day and we always get some kind of beans, rice, and meat every time and i love it! mexican food IS THE BEEEST. (Nacho Libre accent)

Week Five:Last Week in the MTC, 4 Days Til Mexico

Please excuse the terrible photography, but we found a Praying Mantis on the Temple grounds so i felt like i needed to pray with it in front of the Temple.

We got our flight plans last Friday and I'm stoked! We get up at like 3am and leave from Salt Lake to Phoenix. We have a layover in Phoenix for an hour from 8am to 9pm so be expecting a call to moms cell phone around that time pacific time (i think) we then leave from Phoenix to Guadalajara and get there around 2 pm. i have no clue what time zone its in, but that's when ill get there.

SEPARATE EMAIL:
Its so weird that i will me in mexico in 5 days! i leave early monday morning and arrive in guadalajara at about 2pm. im super excited, but at the same time i dont feel like im ready enough. i guess i just have to put my trust in Heavenly Father and know that he will help me.

This week was pretty a pretty normal week at the MTC. We skyped a girl who was in Panama and taught her a quick lesson. it was pretty cool to talk to someone from latin america who had a native accent.

Tuesday was our last devotional and everyone thought that we were going to hear from an apostle, but it ended up being Joseph W. Sitati and his wife. I was totally okay with that because they were from Kenya and they had great accents. They emphasized a scripture in 1 Timothy that says something like "be thou an example of the believers.. let no man despise thy youth..." something like that haha im not exactly sure what it says entirely, but i really like it because i know when i get to guadalajara people are going to try to tell me off because im just a 19 year old kid. Even though im only 19, i know i have a message that people need to hear and people are waiting to hear. No matter what people say, i know why im out on a mission and i know that i want everyone to hear the Lord's message.

Sorry this email is so short, but nothing exciting happened this week. it was pretty a pretty average week. sorry!

-Elder Wagner

​My roommate left his cream soda in the freezer and this happened.... im still speechless

​Another picture of my district in the MTC because they're that great.​

​All of my zone before we left the MTC

My apartment plus the district 2 weeks behind us. *please note Elder Dance (second from the right)
pulling a perfect "Blue Steel"

Week Four: Second to last email from the MTC

Elder Sasser, Elder Dance, Elder Hansen and myself after the temple today.

Sister Jayna Walker, me, and our companions after the Sunday devotional.

I cant believe i only have 11 days left in the MTC! Tomorrow i should be getting my travel plans to Guadalajara! I'm really excited, but I'm really nervous for the language and new culture!

Somehow i lost weight this week? i think the scale might be broken, but it says i lost 2 pounds this week so... yeah thats pretty cool

We taught people in Mexico this week! We have been teaching lessons to members of the church every Monday night and this week we started doing skype lessons with people in mexico! it was really hard to understand them because they spoke faster than we are used to and the connection was kinda sucky, but it was still really cool to talk with real Mexicans!

We have been teaching this woman named Mercedes and my companion and i cant tell if she is a member or not (they dont tell us if we are teaching a real investigator or a member acting as a member). anyway, shes is really awesome! we only get one more lesson with her so hopefully we can get her to commit to baptism before were done! she has a lot of questions about the things our church does and always wants to know where the bible says to do the things we do and its tough for my companion and i because we arent exactly experts in the bible, but this is a good opportunity for us to learn more about the bible!

On Tuesday we heard a talk from Don R. Clarke of the quorum of the 70 and he was amazing! he gave us 5 points to be the best missionaries we can be: 1, Member missionary work. 2, Convert Retention. 3, Activation of less active members. 4, Get converts to do the temple work of their ancestors as fast as possible so they can know the blessings of the temple. and 5, Become powerful teachers. learn to teach through the holy ghost and let him teach the investigator instead of trying to convert with logic. People remember how something makes them feel more than what someone said.

Overall, this week has been great! My Spanish is getting better every day and my testimony is getting stronger and stronger. I can feel the love our savior has for us more and more as i learn the gospel and teach it to others. 

-Elder Wagner

The middle of West Campus has a little stream water feature thing and its really pretty.

Elder Clifford (from my district) and me trying to tie our ties as long as possible

Email to Mom and Dad:

I asked my friend who was leaving last Monday to call you with his calling card, but i don't think he did it haha. i also snail mailed you, but its probably not there yet. i am trying to get a hold of you because i have so other needy missionary requests. trading ties is a lot bigger than i thought and I"m running out of ties to trade, so could you please send me my ties from the boxes under the stairs? the only ones i don't want you to send are the Jerry Garcia ties and the black tie with the "U" on it. i would really appreciate it if you could send those! you're the best! love ya! and thanks for the dear elder and hand written note. i got them on the same day!

Week Three

There werent any fights this week, but it was still a pretty interesting week! Today was especially cool because my companion and i went to the "main campus" of the mtc and i saw 2 people i knew within 10 minutes of each other! Then i saw another girl who was in my ward at BYU-I but i didnt know her very well so i didnt say anything to her haha.

Elder Sasser, Elder Hansen and me killin the selfie game in the bathroom

I"m not sure if i told you this before, but there are 2 campuses at the provo mtc. the main campus is the big one with tons of different languages and stuff and the west campus is where all the spanish speaking missionaries go. the west campus is a lot smaller so i dont get to see as many people, but its nice to be able to speak spanish with whoever i want.

My companion and i pointing to where we will be in less than a month.

Yesterday our district started practicing our farewell song for our final sunday and its going to be sweet! we are doing "Come unto Christ" the youth song and translating parts of it into spanish so it will be part english and part spanish. Also, the sister that is from Belgium wants me to do a part of the song with her in french because she says i have a good french accent so i might be singing english, spanish, and french!

Elder Sasser and me after a devotional

A few days ago me and my companion taught 5 lessons entirely in spanish and it was the hardest thing ive done since being at the MTC. we had almost no prep time for any of the lessons and my companion hardly speaks any spanish so i had to do most the talking and then translate to my companion what we were discussing haha. its ok though he tries hard and theres nothing more he can do to improve his spanish so i just try to help him as much as i can.

Elder Gilbert and me. he is from the virgin islands and is in houston texas right now. he was the first elder i traded ties with and hes pretty legit.

Yesterday our district had the opportunity to "host" the new missionaries coming in. we pretty much greeted them as they came off the bus, took them to their apartment and dropped them off at their classroom. it was really cool because i remember thinking that the elder who hosted me on my first day knew so much spanish and everything there was to know about being a missionary, and now im the one who looks like they know everything, but i dont know anything!

Me doing a Julian Smith impersonation

Luckily ive only gained like 3 pounds since being here. i dont know how im keeping off the weight, but somehow this "ice cream sandwich and all you can eat" diet is really paying off.

Spiritual Thought: Sunday night we listened to a devotional from the director of missionaries or something like that and he shared a story about how this little boy was trying to get a drink from the drinking fountain and he kept pushing his button to change the water pressure so it would splash the little boy and the boy had no clue he was the one causing him grief. He then told how sometimes we are the little boy and lucifer is right beside us pushing our buttons and causing us grief and we have no clue he is hurting us, or that he is even there at all. 

Thanks for all the love and support! -Elder Wagner

                                              My Zone right before the oldest district left.

Another picture of the zone. i cant tell which one looks better so ill just send both of them. the blonde girl in the front row on the left is from squib washington. apparently thats close to carnation so thats pretty cool haha. oh and her name is Taylor Willis

Email to Mom and Dad, Titled "NEEDY MISSIONARY!": sorry this sounds demanding, but i would really appreciate it if you would send me the following items: Handkerchiefs (for wiping my nose, and sweat for when im in mexico) ear plugs for my snoring companion, a belt from my rubbbermaid bin under the stairs (for some reason i only brought my new one and i dont think it will last 2 years) and the alarm clock we got from the ctr place doesnt work. for some reason it wont go off. it makes sounds when i test it, but it doesnt go off when i set it. i made sure it was the right am/pm and tried everything i can think of. maybe i just need a new one? Oh and Elder Dance says he has an uncle who lives in seattle. i dont remember his first name,but it started with a "D". also you and dad didnt tell me where austin paxman is going on his mission. you only said he was going to the mexico mtc and he was speaking spanish in the us