Week Forty-two and a half: Transfers and blessings

Me and Elder Toala from Seattle. he is going to play football for UW after the mission

Last weekend we had transfers and it was pretty interesting... i worked all day....and was feeling kind of sick, but figured i would get over it and it was just something small, but then i woke up....morning and could hardly move because my body ached so bad. i took some medicine and asked for a blessing and by midday i was actually feeling pretty good. after church we went back to the offices so president could start doing to exit interviews for all the leaving missionaries and i started feeling really sick again. it got to the point where i just had my head on a sleeping bag we had in the offices and i tried to sleep. eventually the assistants made me go home and sleep. so i went home, ate something and slept. i wasnt sure if i was going to be able to go to the airport the next morning to take everyone home and i got really scared i was going to have to use some extreme measures to get everything done (call in the old financial secretary, talk to president, or something like that) but then by the time it was time to go to the airport, i felt pretty good again. so i took everyone to the airport and after being in the airport for 5 hours we finally got in a taxi to go home and start preparing for the new missionaries. i still felt weird and sick, but somehow i had energy and i could still work, so i kept working. Through the whole weekend i somehow finished all the changes and all the finances for the end of the month while being sick. i can say with even more certainty that this is the Lords work and that he help us finish the trials we have as missionaries.

Elder Marion and me with Elder Raya in the backround. this is 3 of the 4 elders in my first district. Elder Marion trained Elder Raya and Elder Raya is now an assistant to the president. How weird would it be to receive training by the guy who you trained?

This week we welcomed elder zurita to the offices! he is bolivian, but he grew up in provo utah haha so he is %100 american even thought everyone thinks hes latino because he looks like hes from south america. he will be the visas secretary and right now is being trained by elder guillen. my companion is elder garcia still and he is now being trained by sister guillen how to be the materials secretary. elder peterson is now completely in charge of his position (executive secretary) and im still the financial secretary.

in just one month we will be welcoming president and sister eggington! its crazy how fast everything is coming up! im super excited and cant wait!

This week i went on another trip with president. we went to morelia michoacan (my first time leaving guadalajara) with the assistants for a leadership training. morelia reminded me a lot of seattle. its really green and the climate is alot more fresh. oh and it rained a little like it does in seattle so that helped haha. it was cool to be so close to president and the assistants for almost 2 full days. i got to learn a lot and i got to know them a lot better.

elder marion, elder toala, elder raya and elder ventura (elder marions companion)

all these pictures were taken at the leadership training in moreliea, michoacan

Challenge: read Matthew 5 the sermon on the mount. im trying to get to know the New Testament better and i love this chapter. its literally a sermon directly from Jesus Christ. if we are studying it with an open heart and with the companionship of the Holy Ghost, we can learn a lot of great stuff!

Thank you for all your love and support!! keep up the missionary work wherever you are!

Con más amor, Elder Wagner

a giant snake someone had outside their house in a cage

Week Forty-one and a half: Transfers

Elder Denton's last day helping us out in the offices before he gets changed

Transfers are already upon us! it all starts in about 2 hours when all the elders and sisters come to the offices to start the weekend process which is always exciting and suuuper stressful. YAY!

This sunday we got a new bishop called! we had some issues with the old bishop because he always had work out of town and he had actually been gone for about 3 months until a few weeks ago. but the stake presidency and the high council decided we needed a new bishop and the new bishop was a big surprise for everyone! we all thought they could call one of his counselors, but they ended up calling the secretary to the bishopric! he is about 30 years old and 5 feet tall so everyone felt like they had to comment on his size haha. "he may not look like a bishop, but i know hell be a good bishop!" yeah in mexico they just kind of call it as they see it.

At the beginning of the week President had interviews with one of the zones here in Guadalajara in the offices so all day there were elders and sisters in the offices distracting us and all that good stuff. about halfway through the interviews, president came out and asked the assistants if they were good at ping pong and they said they they weren't, but that i was (we have a ping pong table in the offices and the elders were playing outside). President then told me to that we were going to play and that after his next interview we were going to play. we played and i beat him! he was actually really good. he told me i am one of just 3 people to beat him so i guess that pretty good haha. 

We had a family home evening with the ward yesterday and it went really well! we actually had a decent number of members come and a couple investigators!

Family home evening with the ward! it went really well and we had an investagor there named Feliza. she is in the back left corner and you can only see her head.

This week we will be getting a new secretary! we dont know who it is, but im pretty sure itll be a mexican because we already have 2 americans here, but well see!

Challenge: share your testimony with someone! you dont have to tell them your whole testimony, just share a small simple truth that you know from being a member of the church. you can tweet it, put in on facebook, snapchat it, Instagram it, vine it, or put it on another social network if you want, but share the church through your testimony this week! and if youre not a member, ask a member to share their testimony with you!

i love you all! con cariño, Elder Wagner

Week Forty and a half: Bonus interview with President!

Man, its hot in here.. if only i had a fan..... oh wait, i have money

This week we took a missionary to the airport for medical complications and president took me with him and the other missionary. on the way back from the airport, i got a bonus mini interview! it was interesting to see how he isnt always serious and that he actually tells some jokes. Also, i think he thinks im in love with one of the sisters from my district in the mtc because i told him i was thinking about learning another language after the mission and he asked me which one and i said french. he asked me why and i said there was a sister from my district in the mtc who spoke french and in spanish when i said the language caught my attention, i didnt specify that it was the language that caught my attention, so when i said it caught my attention he thought i was talking about the sister haha. i realized that i didnt clarify it very well about 5 seconds after and said "THE LANGUAGE! THE LANGUAGE CAUGHT MY ATTENTION!" hahaha we started laughing and he said he thought i was talking about the sister haha. we also had a really good talk about my position and what my plans were for after the mission and it was really cool to have a conversation with someone so wise about what i want to do with my life. 

Elder Guillen was hot too....

We taught Andrea yesterday and it went really well! Right now she is living with here boyfriend who is an activating member, but they want to get married so we just have to get done and then teach her really well! we taught her about the book of mormon and temples. temples was kind of just talking about them after the lesson because someone mentioned something about temples and we felt like we needed to explain it, but it was good because we think it got them excited for her baptism and for them getting married! we are hoping that we can get her baptized within one month from today, but were going to see.

Challenge: After we taught Andrea about the book of mormon i realized (for the millionth time) how important the book of mormon is for us. the introduction says it was written specifically for us in these latter days (ok it doesnt say it exactly like that word for word, but you get the idea). The book of mormon is litterally Gods gift to us in these days. he knew what we would need and when we would need it, and He has provided everything for us in the book of mormon. whenever we need to feel His love, or find an answer to a big question, or when we need to strengthen our testimony (which is always) we have the book available to us! you can even download it on our phone! So the challenge is this: read the book of mormon every day this week. you dont have to read for an hour, you can read half of a chapter if thats all you have time for, but read it everyday! and even if you are already a member and have a testimony of its truth, kneel down before reading and ask to recieve an answer if its true or not, and then offer another kneeling prayer afterward and ask for the answer again, and i promise as a representative of Jesus Christ that you will recieve an answer that it is true if you have true intent in your heart.

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

Con Mucho Amor, Elder Wagner

Mother's Day 2015 Skype Photo's

Tell us about a typical day in the office.

Mom requested, ok required, lol  that Elder Wagner and the other missionaries sing
 "I Am A Child Of God".

"Yes,, all of the verses, por favor"

We loved the spirit that we felt as they sang 
"Soy un hijo de Dios"

Week Thirty-nine and a half: One day until mothers day!

a fly i found in a doughnut thing i bought

zone meeting!

This week i was mostly stuck in the offices all the time (the same theme every week) but we are making progress (the other financial secretaries before me left me a bunch of makeup work) but its okay because im good at makeup work! my seminary graduation deploma can testify of that!!! we are also really busy getting ready for the new president and his wife! it seems far away, but its going to get here way too soon!

elder peterson and me after the zone meeting

This week elder peterson and me bought a ton of office supplies in office depot and it was like mini america all over again! except everthing looked way overpriced because it was in pesos haha $10 for a package of post its!!! youve got to be kiddin...... oh, its pesos haha.

Thats all the exciting stuff that happened that i can remember, next week ill look through my journal before writing so i have more stuff!

Challenge: tell your mom you love her on mothers day! i dont care if youre a highschool punk who says you dont like your mom, tell her you love her! before the mission i neglected that opportunity and now i can only tell her i love her once a week in a letter, ok maybe 2 times if i put it in this letter too. I LOVE YOU MOM! and you should probably get her something nice if you havnt done that yet. or you could just pick weeks like i did one year, she realy seemed to like that haha.

Con cariño, Elder Wagner

the Ortega family and Andrea our investigator (shes the 20ish old girl) 
oh and im going to be calling from their house for mothers day.
 this was after a Family Home Evening we had with them.

Week Thirty-eight and a half: Zone meeting and interviews

This week we had our interviews with president and it was a bitter sweet moment. I loved my interview and learned a lot. i got answers to some questions i had and learned how to be a better representative of Jesus Christ. But he also told me that im going to be in the offices for a good while. this is my 4th transfer here and its normal to have about 7 transfers in the offices as a financial secretary. The reason is because at the end of june we will receive a new mission president and President Camarillo wants someone with experience to be here to help out President Egginton. when we get President Egginton i will be finishing 5 transfers, then im guessing he will want me to stay for 3ish changes to help him out before training my replacement. thats 9 transfers... well at least ill be good at finances before i leave!

Also we had our zone meeting and learned a lot about how this work is the Lord´s work and its a work of love. it was really really good and i learned a ton. 

this week we found 3 new investigators!

Rosa and Johana (mother and daughter): They were a reference we got from the sisters in our ward. apparently they had taught them a few times without knowing that they were in our area haha. we visited them last sunday and then again on wednesday and they are really interested! And they made us food for the appointment on wednesday, so thats a plus haha. so were going to see how that goes!!

Andrea (I think. to be honest i cant seem to remember her name haha oops): She is the girlfriend of a less active in our ward and they want to get married. She already wanted to be baptized a while ago, but her family wouldnt allow it, but now that she is going to get married she wont be living with her family and she can make her own decision. so we have taught her 2 times this week and she is progressing well!

Challenge: Show the love you have for others by serving them and seeing past their shortcomings. Before the mission i wasnt the best at this, but maybe the mission is turning me into a softie haha who knows. But when we show the love we have for others we find love that we didnt even know we had. its weird, when we decide we dont like someone we just kind of make ourselves not like them, but when we try to find the things we like about them and look for the love we have for them we just start to love them and its kind of incredible. so thats the challenge, Love others! oh and its a commandment, so you kind of have to do it haha.

Con cariño, Elder Wagner

 excerpt from EL LAMANITA -

 NEWSLETTER FROM THE MISSION OFFICE MAY 04, 2015