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