Week Seventy-three: BUSY BUSY BUSY!

Me about to eat a chamoy covered apple.
(chamoy is like chili powder, but candy)

This week we were absolutely BOOKED.

Tuesday we spend a big part of the day running around and calling people to prepare the Christmas conference that we had on Wednesday and didn't get much done in the area.

Wednesday we arrived at the chapel where we had the Christmas conference at 8:30 am and didn't leave until 9:30 pm. We started with a capacitation for 3 zones here in the city of Guadalajara, afterward had another meeting with just our zones and then practiced singing Christmas songs and stuff like that to prepare for the devotional we were going to have in the evening. Afterward we had a physical activity that my companion planned with relays and stuff like that (burlap sack races, eating doughnuts off a string, 3 legged races, etc) which our zone won! We then had dinner and the Christmas devotional which was amazing! 

Elder Dance, Elder Lavery, and myself at the Christmas activity.

FUN FACT: President Egginton is a Ute! He had on a U of U tie at the activity!!! GO UTES! *Photo attached for evidence.

President reppin the U!

Thursday i was in the offices helping Elder Anderson with financial stuff all morning and once again he spent more time teaching me life lessons and stuff like that then i spent teaching him how to do his job! haha but i really enjoyed it. That night we had to be home 2 hours early for safety because it was Christmas eve and everyone here thinks "Christmas" means "Get drunk and light off fireworks" its pretty much like the 4th of July haha

Friday was just as crazy and we also had to be home 2 hours early. Also, i had my call home this day!!! It was so nice to see my parents and a few others who were there :D CONGRATS ON YOUR BAPTISM JAYCIE!!! Friday night i opened my Christmas package! Thank you mom for all the great stuff you sent me!!! And thank you to all of you who wrote in the book my mom made!!! It was honestly the best Christmas present I have ever received!!!!

Saturday and Sunday were the only "Normal days" this week, but it was weird because in the states, a few days before and after Christmas are for relaxing and spending time with the family, but here people just go back to work. I never realized how much of a blessing it is to have a job with vacation days and paid days off!!!

CHALLENGE: This week we had an amazing experience with a less active member while talking about the gifts of the Holy Ghost. The challenge this week is to look at your life and find the gifts your father in heaven has given you. Each and every one of us has been blessed with gifts from on high. Find your gifts and develop them. The Lord will bless you!

My Scripture to ponderize this week: Luke 17:32. Elder Holland gives a great talk about starting a new year, i think its called "Remember Lot´s wife" read it this week!

My lego tree on my study desk. Thanks Santa!

Merry Christmas to all!! I know its late, but hey, its better late than never!
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The Photo's below are ones that were posted by the Mission Presidents wife on the Mission's Facebook page, it's always so fun to find her random photos!

He's on the left edge of this photo

hoto

Week Seventy-two: FELIZ NAVIDAD!

This week was completely busy! and i don"t have any idea how to get around in my new area, so that made things a little more crazy haha.

Wednesday we had another Big Bang! Only half of the zone was able the go because the other half got lost on their way to the event haha. It was a lot different than the first one because this time we all just got assigned a different part of the neighborhood and talked to people in the street, but it went well and we shared the gospel with a lot of people :) We had another Big Bang on Friday,  and it was the same with the assignment and everything, but this time the whole zone went! I can almost recite all the words from the video in Spanish because I've seen the video so many times, but its great because its all scripture!

Friday we got to go to the temple :D a family that Elder Martinez baptized, got sealed in the temple and we got to go! Every-time I go to the temple I learn something new and leave edified and strengthened. Go to the temple! you will NEVER regret it!

Friday night we had a stake missionary activity with a play! The play was "Jesus Christ in the Americas" and was very simple, but great! Considering the cast only included about 20 members it was incredible! We had a lot of people come and a lot of friends of members! I also got to see a lot of the members in the other ward "Bosque" and they almost all asked me where my companion got changed to because they thought he got transferred and I was with my new companion in the Bosque ward hahaha.

This next week is going to be even more busy and even more crazy, but I love it! This week we are going to have a Christmas devotional, dinner, and conference with the 3 zones here in the city of Guadalajara! I"m going to get to see a lot of friends and hopefully eat some good food (which is what every missionary is looking forward to). 

This week Elder Martinez and i realized that last year we also spent Christmas together haha that"s gotta mean something right?

My scripture to ponderize John 3:16

Challenge: Enjoy Christmas and remember the real meaning. Remember that the real reason we celebrate Christmas is because our savior was born!!!! One of the members of the stake presidency shared this during the stake activity on Friday: Why do we decorate Christmas trees the way that we do? I"ll tell you why: We put a star on the top to represent the star that testified of the Saviors birth. We put red ornaments on the tree to represent the drops of blood that Christ shed for us, and we put candy canes on the tree to remind us that he is our Shepard and we are his sheep.

Merry Christmas!! #HANACIDOUNSALVADOR #ASAVIORISBORN

Con mucho amor, Elder Wagner

Week Seventy-one: Transferred!

So, first things first: WE BAPTIZED THIS WEEK!
After battling with María Elena for a while over doubts and a lot of other stuff,
 she decided to get baptized and she is ready to endure to the end! 

The sister missionaries in our ward also had a baptism, and the boy asked me to baptize him, so I baptized him this week too!
His name is Donovan, but everyone calls him donita (little doughnut)

Also, today i got transferred! Im excited, but at the same time im really going to miss the people from my old area. I got transfered one ward over to the stake center. the ward is named Reforma. Its only one ward over (it literally borders with my old area haha) but its completely different. Here, all the streets are paved and its a whole lot nicer. My old area was kind of sketchy but dont worry because im not there anymore! My new companion is Elder Martinez. I was actually already with him for one change. When i arrived to the offices (one year ago) he trained my companion Elder Garcia and we were together for one transfer so i already know im going to love this transfer with him.

Who has seen "A Savior is born"?
This week we did the first of three events called Big Bangs. The whole zone goes to one place and makes street contacts about the initiative. We had a lot of good things happen and are excited to do it 2 more times this week! 

I feel like a lot more has happened this week, but i don't really remember it all. Everything is a blur right now haha

My scripture to ponderize is Isaiah 9:6

Challenge: Share "A Savior is born" with everyone!!! and also share the video that explains how the world would be without a savior! These videos are incredible and will change lives, don't be shy to share them with your friends and family!!

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

This week we had a Dr and nurse come to our mission and teach us some healthy habits, and to see if we had any problems.
The Dr told me that my Dr from the US had called him and asked him to check up on my ankle. I was surprised to hear this,
I asked him what Dr had called and he told me it was "Dr Chrome"!
haha that's my dad's self appointed nick name!
"Dr Chrome" had asked his High School friends to check up on me and make sure that my ankle would be healthy
enough to start mowing the lawn when I return home this summer, haha.
Dr Stevens sent "Dr Chrome" a follow up email to his exam,
 and told my dad
"Not sure the ankle will be ready for lawn mowing for a few years!" haha

Week Seventy: SO MANY THINGS HAPPENED THIS WEEK!

First off, things are going SUPER well with María Elena our investigator. After going to church and having a really good experience, she has now decided to get baptized!!! Elder Gonzalez and I are extremely excited! When we first arrived in the area she was one of the very first people we visited and our first impression was "Ehhh.. she doesn't have much promise" But now, after almost 3 months of work with her and being of the brink of stopping teaching her about 5 times, all our hard work is going to pay off for her and she is going to be able to enter into the covenant of baptism!!! So hopefully next week ill have some pictures of her baptismal service!!

Also, this Wednesday I turned 21... I feel exactly the same, but its super weird to know that I'm now one of those "old people" who I always looked up to as a kid. Thursday night we were going to order pizza for my birthday, but we figured out that all the pizza places close early or dont have delivery to our house. So the pizza party is still pending. I"ll probably do it this week.

Also, on my birthday we got to check out for the first time the initiative "A Savior is born" :D Happy Birthday Elder Wagner!

The zone leaders told us last week that we were going to have our zone meeting on Saturday instead of Friday and that is was going to be about 6 hours long starting at 1pm instead of starting at 9am and only being about 3 hours. It turns out, the stake presidency in our stake wanted to throw us a christmas dinner!!! I took a lot of pictures, you"re welcome! everyone loves pictures!!!

Yesterday at church, María Elena had some doubts during Sunday school and it was worrying Elder Gonzalez and I. After church, my companion told me that María called and said she wanted to meet with us and is was important. I got super worried and prepared myself really well to answer all the doubts she had while at church. When we arrived she was really happy and said "happy birthday!" it turns out that while we were in divisions Elder Gonzalez and her had planned to make me my favorite Mexican food and watch "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration" to celebrate my birthday. So i had a small birthday party with them and a recent convert: Rogelio. It was awesome!

My scripture to ponderize this week: D&C 6:19

Challenge: Check out and then share this page: www.mormon.org/christmas Rejoice! A Savior is born! The challenge is to discover for yourself the importance of Jesus Christ and then share what you discover!!! #asaviorisborn 

Thank you for all the birthday wishes! I love you all!

Elder Wagner

Week Sixty-nine: Divisions and zone activity!

This week I went on divisions with Elder Porras who is from Guatemala! He taught me how to speak in "Vos" which is another form of Spanish that is used in central and south America, so I'm pretty excited about that. Also, while on divisions in his area (Which in named Tonalá, a famous market for art and stuff like that) we went to visit a member and when we went in I realized that it was a pottery shop!!! I was pretty excited. I took quite a few pictures haha. So I was talking with the guys there and they asked if i knew how to throw on the wheel and I said, "well, kind of. I took some classes in high school, but we used potters wheels with motors" *because the wheel they were using was manual. So they wanted to see if I actually knew how to throw and they let me throw some pots!!! :D

Me failing to make a usable pot -_-t

Some sweet pots that they were making in the pottery shop

Today we had our zone activity/party. I forgot my camera in the building, so i didn't take many pictures, but I'm going to try to get some from others and send them.

Challenge: This week I chose 2 Nephi 2:25 as my scripture to ponderize. The challenge is to read 2 Nephi chapter 2 and while reading look for how we can find happyness (<-- I never remember how to spell that because of the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" haha) in this life and in the life to come. The church is true and I know it with all my heart!!!

I love you guys!!! Have a great week!

With love, Elder Wagner

Elder Gonzalez and I waiting for a member so we could eat

This is how the streets are in my area...
My feet get a little tired by the end of the day haha

Week Sixty-eight: La misión

Me in a weird hat

Me and Rogelio (recent convert)

This week i got called back to the offices again.. but this time it was just for a few hours! Elder Anderson, who is the president´s wife´s brother, is being trained by elder Zurita to be financial secretary and they needed my help to answer a few questions, so i helped them out for a few hours and ended up learning more from Elder Anderson than i taught to him! He taught me a lot about my responsibilities and abilities as a missionary and it was really cool to see the perspective of someone with so much life experience and such a strong testimony.

We have had some pretty interesting days this week. Friday we worked for 4.5 hours straight in the street without having a single lesson or getting into a single house and were suuuper tired. then after using all our plans for the day we decided to go with a recent convert named Rogelio. when we arrived, we found is friend Oscar was with him! Double Whammy! Then we found out that the day before, Oscar had his birthday, so we celebrated with cupcake things that we bought from the store and some coke. then we had a good lesson with both of them.The next day was totally opposite. we were going to help paint a members house, but when we arrived, we found that cement work was needed and we needed to do come back another day to do it all. so we went with the elders quorum president and another elder from the ward and visited less actives and recent converts in his car which was a great break because the day before we wandered around for waaay too long, and they bought us a pizza! 

Me with Little Caesars pizza

The Elders Quorum president and another guy in our ward who came with us to visit less actives and recent converts.
 Oh and they bought us the pizza so theyre pretty good in my book!

On Sunday, Oscar ended up choosing to chase after his girlfriend (who recently dumped him) in stead of going to church, but the good news is that his mom María came to church! We had stopped working with her because she wasnt progressing and had trouble accepting some things the church did like celebrate Halloween and stuff like that. While she was at church she said she had a really great experience in sacrament meeting and we have started visiting her more frequently! Alejandra also came to church, but we found out a little bit ago that she isnt married to her "husband" so she cant be baptized until they get married or separate and her "husband" doesnt want to get married. This is super common here in mexico. people just live together and say theyre married instead of doing the paperwork. So thats the update on the investigators!

This week we celebrated Oscar´s birthday! 

Here are some pictures from the small celebration. Oh, and we were all wearing hats because Rogelio (the one in the purple shirt) ALWAYS wears hats and always has a ton of them so we all tried them on.

 Oscar had his birthday, so we celebrated
 with cupcake things that we bought from the store
 and some coke.

My scripture to ponderize this week: Moroni 7:33

Challenge/Spiritual Thought: Yesterday we ate with a member who is really active, but sometimes cant come to church because of financial demands. He said that one time someone asked him for a list of less active members and he started giving them names of members who went to church every week. The other person was really confused and he explained that the members on the list were members who go to church every week, but other than that do not fulfill their duties as priesthood holders and members. He then explained that even though he doesnt to to church every single Sunday, he is 100% active in the church and is very aware of his responsibilities as a father, husband, priesthood holder, and member of the church. 

CHALLENGE: Be an active member. Going to church is a crucial part of being active, but when we go to church to partake of the sacrament, we need to arrive to the chapel worthy to do it. Remain active all 7 days of the week and remember what it means to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Oh, and here is my newest motto that i put on the back of my name-tag: "Esta es una obra de amor, qué lo hagamos con amor, por amor" (This is a work of love, let us do it with love, because of love) it sounds a little funky in English haha

Love you guys!! have a great week! thank you for your love and support!

Elder Wagner