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

Week Sixty-seven: Giant Rabbit

This week I learned about the importance of keeping in contact with investigators. We had plans to have about 5 different investigators in church this Sunday and then we lost contact with them and were only able to get 2 of them to church :(

Oscar Pantoja was one of them and we pretty much had to get him out of bed and drag him to church and the other investigator that came was Oscar Davalos who is an investigator who we found by searching through the former investigators in the area book. Its great that they came to church, but we still have a lot of work to do with them to get them ready for baptism. We´ll see how things go this week.

Andrea was doing so great and promised to come to the movie night we had saturday night, but she never showed up and we were'nt able to confirm our plans with her before sunday morning and when the member showed up to church, she wasn't with him and we were'nt able to ask what happened because we were busy taking care of the other two investigators. So this week we are going to have a ton of contact with her so she goes to church!

In the mission, we have changed a lot since i got here. Nowadays we are focusing in a lot on the less actives in the ward. President Egginton told us that in Mexico there are 1.5 million members and there are .5 million active members. Yeah its pretty heavy stuff. So we have been working with a few families in the ward and one of them is the Limón family. This week we went to visit them and we found out they have a massive rabbit named Tambor (in English: drum). *Photo attached below. The family has been making progress and were really exited for them.

Tambor

Lately, Elder Gonzalez and I have been really tired. Most of the streets here are made of rock. I don't think I have a picture, but I'll take one this week to show you what it's like. To show you what Elder Gonzalez thinks about walking all day on these streets, I took the liberty of capturing his exhaustion in a picture.

Elder Gonzales giving into exhaustion :)

The scripture I chose to ponderize this week is... D&C 82:10. Its so simple and direct. I love it.

Challenge/Spiritual thought for the week: Put your trust in The Savior. This week I heard a quote that went something like this "In stead of telling your God you have a big problem, tell your problem that you have a big God". Sometimes we see all the overwhelming problems we have and we think that by just praying we can have God fix it for us. Almost everday I teach people that faith leads us to action. So when we have a problem, we should remember that just having faith that God will fix it isn't sufficient. Our Heavenly Father requires action on our part so we can learn and grow. So when you run into a problem remember that you have a loving Heavenly Father who is at your side ready to help you out. All you have to do is ask for help and give it your all knowing that God will be fighting right along your side.

Thank you for all your love, support, and prayers! I love you all!

With love, Elder Wagner

Week Sixty-six: Transfers and Divisions

Elder Stirling (from Pleasant Grove Utah) arrived on the mission with me

Elder Clifford (from my district in the MTC)

This week i was outside of my area for 3 full days in divisions and i was able to do it with 2 elders who arrived to mission with me! First i had divisions with Elder Stirling (from pleasant grove utah) and then i had divisions with Elder Clifford (from my district in the MTC) *pictures one and two. Elder Clifford and i went to a family home evening and they gave us tamales!! *picture 3. But we had transfers today and now neither of them are in my zone :( but the work goes on!

Elder Clifford and I enjoying some homemade tamales!

Neither my companion or i had transfers this week, so we will be together for another 5 or 6 weeks at the least. there is something weird with the next transfer dates because of Christmas, but i guess well find out when it gets closer!

This friday we had our zone meeting and it was really good! i also got so see some elders who finished their mission today who i met really early on in the mission (picture attached). we also did an activity to continue learning our foreign language (the latinos practiced english and we practiced spanish) and in this activity we had to reenact the first vision and i was selected as Joseph Smith, so ill send another email with some pictures of that and also some pictures of the zone.

Farewell Elder!

Here are the pictures from our language activity in the zone meeting and some pictures of the zone!

Farewell Elder!

Elder Gonzalez and I have been working really hard and have seen a lot of results!! the other day we looked over how much the area has improved since we got here and we are really happy with what we have achieved. HARD WORK BRINGS RESULTS AND BLESSINGS! We have been working a lot with Alejandra and she has been progressing really well! she came to church yesterday with her daughter and her daughter went up on the stand and "participated" in the primary program (this week was the primary program! :D). In fact, Alejandra is progressing so fast that we are about to run out of stuff to teach her and she still needs to come to church 4 more times before she can be baptized! but its okay because now were going to work on her in laws and baptize them as well!

My scripture to ponderize: Alma 26:27. this scripture helped me a lot while i was in my training over a year ago and was struggling with the change of country, culture, and language.

Challenge: Bring a friend to church! its kind of like bring your child to work day, but a little different and there are eternal blessings for those who do it! This week we helped get an inactive family to church and it was so great to see them there and see their old friends! so find a friend and get them to church. it can be a less active member, an active friend, or a non member. I know from experience the joy that can be had for those who do it!

I love you guys!!!! thank you for all you do! thank you for your prayers!! Les amo muchísimo!

Con amor, Elder Wagner

Bonus Picture: Our district last change.
Elders: Left to right, Tzub, Tempest, Herbert, Clifford, Wagner, Gonzalez.
Sisters: Left to right, Villagomez, Mamani.

Week Sixty-five: Día de muertos

Photos compliments of Google Images

Today is the day of the dead here in Mexico. Its kind of weird because here in Mexico they double dip on the holidays this time of year. They celebrate Halloween, but they mostly just throw stuff at the buses and have parties and then on the day of the dead they mostly just use it as an excuse to not work. I know there is a real reason for the holiday but I've mostly just seen people with their faces painted like skulls. I think its a day that they use to remember the people who have passed away.

Dia de Muertos decorations in the mission area
Photo compliments of Sis. Egginton

We had a meeting this morning in the offices for the trainers and trainees at the half way point of the 12 week program, and we just barely got back to the area and washed our clothes and now we have very little time to write. Oh, and since its a holiday, a bunch of internet places were closed :(

P.day "activity" for this week was a training meeting.
The following photos are compliments of Sis. Egginton

Elder Wagner and Elder Gonzales, the dynamic duo!
Always looking so good and radiating happiness!

Well, this week we worked a lot with a new investigator named Alejandra. She is almost 30 years old and has a daughter named Lupita. In the last 2 weeks they have almost received all the missionary lessons! The only problem is that they couldnt come to church because Alejandras sister had a birthday party and she had promised prior that she would go, but she promised us that next week she will go. She was able to go to a baptism we had in the ward and she met some members, so we are pretty excited about her progress in that aspect.

Found! Elder Wagner! :)

Sorry about not having many cool experiences this week and for the mostly boring letter, but we have very little time to write :(

The mission is great!!!! Thank you for all your love and support! I love you all!!! 

Con amor, Elder Wagner

PS. my camera ran out of battery last week and I never remembered to charge it, so i couldnt take any pictures,,, sorry!

There he is again!
Can't get enough of that smile!