Week Eighty-two: I'm terrible at putting clever subject lines

I feel like this is going to be one of the more boring letters I've sent since leaving the offices, but oh well haha sorry!

We have been working a lot with Pedro and Livier and Valeria. They all came to church, along with some other investigators, but neither of them have progressed toward gaining a testimony... I think this is the first time I've had investigators who complete with going to church (normally the hardest part) but don't do the small things like read the scriptures and pray. But we're going to keep working hard with them and hopefully they can be ready for baptism in 2 or 3 weeks!

We had a special training this week that talked a lot about the difference between minister and administer and how the leaders of the mission need to master both. It was really good and I learned a lot of stuff that will help me both in and after the mission. The offices helped me a lot with the administration part haha.

My scripture to ponderize this week is D&C 122. Last week I only picked 3 verses, but this week I'm going to see if I can memorize the whole chapter!

This week we spoke with a woman who was very lost and unhappy. We knocked on her door and she told us that she had already spoken with a lot of churches and that she only got more and more confused and that she had given up and was just going to go back to the religion that her mom taught her and give up. We tried to help her, but she was so distraught and sad that she didn't let us leave her a pamphlet or anything. It was really sad for me to see someone so unhappy and lost. the hardest part was that she wouldn't let us help her. 

CHALLENGE: Let God into your life, or if you already have, help someone else do the same. Just because the trials seem too much and it seems like God has abandoned us, he is always there with his hand extended waiting to help us. Let him help you and heal you through the atonement of Jesus Christ. (D&C 122) There is also a video about this on LDS.ORG called "Gods Light" look it up!

Thank your for all your support and prayers! I love you all! Especially you mom! I don't think I said that to you in the emails I sent you haha. Have a great week everyone!

Elder Wagner

Week Eighty-one: You win some you lose some

La luz del mundoTemple of the church of "The light of the world" 

This week we had a few days that were amazing and others that were supposed to be amazing, but didnt turn out so well. On Tuesday we had 6 appointments and went on splits with the members, but we ended up having just a few lessons and only one of the appointments was home. Saturday was the complete opposite. We had almost no appointments, but we went on splits with the members and ended up having a lot of lessons and we saw a lot of progress in our investigators. We saw the most progress with Pedro. He has a long time listening to the missionaries, but has never read the scriptures or prayed. After the lesson we had the other day he said "Ok i think im getting to understand this now. there a 3 things i need to do. 1. Read the Book Of Mormon. 2. Pray 3. Go to Church." Yay! he finally understands!! He came to church again on Sunday and brought his mom (Who is insanely catholic) and a friend!!! 

Here in Guadalajara is the capital of a church called "The light of the world" (La luz del mundo). They have a massive temple here next to our area and we decided to visit today. Ill attach a picture. All of the women in their church wear skirts down to the ankles so its super easy to see if they are from that religion haha. 

My scripture to ponderize this week: D&C 122:7-8 Remember that opposition is part of this life and it is to help us progress!

CHALLENGE: We have visited a lot of less actives in these last few weeks and we have found that the #1 reason for people to not go to church is PRIDE. We as humans get offended very easily because we are naturally prideful. Put off the natural man and become holy through the atonement of Jesus Christ (Mosiah 3:19) Remember why you go to church and the reason why you are a member of the church and nothing Satan throws at you will affect you!

My scripture to ponderize this week: D&C 122:7-8

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

Elder Wagner

Week Eighty: 5 Months remaining...almost

Can you find Elder Wagner?!
Multizona Foto

I'm honestly not counting down how much time i have left, but it seems like every day someone asks me how much time i have left!

This week we had divisions with Elder Raya and Elder Timpson. I got to spend most of the time with Elder Raya! We started the mission together in the same ward and that was the last time we went on divisions together! Over 1 year ago! Hes a really good friend of mine in the mission and it was really nice to go on divisions with him for a day and keep on learning from him.

What we ate while on divisions with the assistants

My comp Elder Zuniga

We had about 5 investigators that we were sure were going to go to church this week... We went to pick of 3 and none of them could go. some werent home and some had to work.... Long story short, we got to church and didnt have any investigators there... then all of a sudden i saw Livier!!! We hadnt seen her in about 3 months because she was always working, but she showed up to church with her mom! We learned later that she quit her job and will now be able to go to church every week! It was a really bittersweet Sunday, but the good thing is that Livier is progressing toward her baptism again! We are hoping to get a baptismal date today! 

To be honest it was a rough ending to a week of a lot of hard work, but i think my scripture to ponderize sums it up: 2 Nephi 10:23. We all have our own free agency and i cant force people to go to church and accept the gospel. The more i study the plan of salvation the more i realize how perfect it is!

3 Generations in one picture!
My trainee (Elder Gonzalez, in the middle), my trainee´s trainee, and yours truly.
The Elder on the far right is Elder Smith from Utah.

I apologize to all those who i didnt respond to this week. we had our zone activity and we had the "great" idea to make hamburgers... lets just say there was a lot of cleaning to be done and we dont have much time to write.

Challenge: Read "Learning and Teaching in the Lord´s Way" by Elder Bednar. It will change your perspective on how we learn and teach in the church.

Editors Note: Marv searched for this talk, but couldn't find this exact title. He'll have Elder Wagner verify, but he think it's actually "Learn, Teach, Hasten the Work in the Lord's Way" which was given to new Mission Presidents in June 2014. 

I love you all!

Elder Wagner

Week Seventy-nine: They still call me Dewey!

Editors note: For those who don't know this show,
I found these photos online and added them.
 Top photo: Dewey is the boy on the bottom right

Without fail in every single area I've been in, someone has told me i look like Dewey from "Malcom in the Middle" hahaha. In my first area they called me Elder Dewey and the other day we were teaching a family and their daughter said "Oh! I can see it now! I always thought you looked familiar and didnt know why, but now I do! You look like Dewey!" so yeah, the nickname continues hahaha.

Dewey is the boy in the middle of the photo

Elder Zuniga is great! In our first week together in the area we have made a lot of progress and had 2 new investigators at church who hadnt attended before! One is named José Luis. We taught him Wednesday-ish and after finishing the lesson i thought "We should invite him to come to church" but then remembered that he always works on Sundays and can never come and almost didnt invite him. But i asked him if he was going to go and he said yes very firmly. I asked him if his work schedule changed and he said that it hadnt, and wasnt sure how he was going to be able to go to church but was going to figure it out. And he figured it out and went!! I'm still not sure how he did it!! We are really exicted for him :D The other new investigator is named Marín. He is the husband of a less active sister. they came to church together and he came in a suit and everything!

This week we had Stake Conference and an area seventy named Elder Carreón came to speak. We invited all the missionaries in the stake to come to the conference so they knew what the stake was working on, but when the conference started on Friday the stake president started talking and it wasnt very helpful for the missionaries and Elder Zuniga and I were regretting having invited all the missionaries in the stake... But then Elder Carreón started speaking and pretty much told all the members how to work with the missionaries and to use us more! It was actually really amazing and all the missionaries learned a lot! By the end of the conference we said "Why didnt we make it mandatory for all the missionaries to be here?!" hahaha This really helped me see the importance of having stake conferences in the church and listening to our leaders.

The only new picture i have this week is the calendar of our meal appointments... hahaha sorry I'll take some this week!

My scripture to ponderize this week: Alma 18:34-35

Challenge: Read the talk entitled "Why the church?" by Elder D. Todd Christopherson. We read it in the mission and is was amazing to see why it is so necessary to have a church on the earth with the proper authority. There are so many people in this world who dont understand that, so please read this talk and find out why the church is so important!!!

I love you all! have a great week!

Elder Wagner

Week Seventy-eight: Changes

Go Utes!

When Elder Guillen finished his service mission with his wife in the office.

I gave him this shirt to remember me and he loves it! 

This is a picture of him and Elder Peterson who is now serving in

 Brother Guillen's ward, in Morelia!!!

GO UTES!

This was a pretty crazy week. i know i say that almost every week, but im serious this time! So Tuesday, we had exchanges with Elder Luna and Elder Tempest, and the next day we went to a tiny town called Yahualica to do some baptismal interviews. In all my time in the mission i had never been on a bus trip outside of Guadalajara, but this week i did! the people there speak with a really funny accent and when we left i found myself talking like them hahaha. so we spent all Wednesday traveling and doing interviews. Thursday we did our weekly planning session and then after our food appointment,  at 2 we had a bunch of awesome lessons. We taught Pedro, Livier, and the grand-daughter of a less active sister and all the lessons were amazing!

Thursday morning we went to the offices to help out Elder and Sister Anderson in the offices and go to a meeting with all the ward and stake councils from the 3 stakes in Guadalajara that are in our mission. Elder De Hoyos presided and helped us know how to better work as members and missionaries to improve the work here. Elder De Hoyos is the Area President of Mexico, so it was kind of a big deal for us. Saturday morning we had a 3 zone conference with Elder De Hoyos, his wife, and President Egginton. His wife couldn't come because she is sick :( Please pray for her!! After the conference we had a leadership council with Elder De Hoyos, his wife and President Egginton that was really awesome and helped us a lot to realize the vision of the mission and missionary work in Mexico. 

Right after the leadership council, we went to the Temple with President Egginton and the Anderson's because Elder Martinez was finishing the mission and I got to go with him because only him and one other elder finished the mission this change. While in the temple I got to see a lot of members from my first area Patria because a young man was getting ready to serve a mission! it was amazing for me because the young man was completely inactive while i was there and didn't want anything to do with the church and now he is going on a mission!!! After the temple, we went out for tacos with the temple group and the secretaries.

Sunday we went to the Cruz Del Sur ward (the ward where I was in while in the offices) and I got to see a lot of familiar faces. After church we went to the mission home for Elder Martinez last interview and dinner. Elder Mathews, the other missionary finishing the mission, had his family come pick him up, so his brother, sister, and parents were in the dinner as well with the assistants and the Anderson's. After dinner we had a small devotional and then I went to stay with the secretaries and Elder Martinez stayed with the Assistants to go home this morning.

 All day today I have been arranging the transfers and now we have 2 new missionaries with us tagging along for the day before they get their trainers tomorrow. Its super funny to see them and remember my first day in the mission being super tired and confused hahaha. Also, today I received my new companion. his name is Elder Zuniga and he is from Honduras. I already kind of knew him before, but not very well. He has 13 months in the mission and seems pretty cool, so we'll see how everything goes!

During the meetings we had with President De Hoyos, we talked about the difference between baptizing a convert and baptizing a converted person. Elder De Hoyos shared a story with us that one of the Apostles had shared. He said that a man found a pearl of great price and sold all he had to buy it. After buying it, he wanted everyone to see its beauty. So he had a beautiful box made to present the pearl and put it on display outside his house.People every once and a while would stop to admire what the man had put out on display, and after a while the man realized that the people were only admiring the beauty of the box, so in his anger he took his pearl of great price in his house and never took it our again. In this example, the atonement of Jesus Christ is the pearl of great price and the church and its programs and organizations are the box.

CHALLENGE: Make sure you are admiring the pearl of great price and not the box!!!! The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the greatest gift that has ever been given and will ever be given. Discover its healing and strengthening power!!

I love you all!! thank you for all your love and support! Sorry only one picture this week :/

Elder Wagner