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!