Week Twenty and a half: Last email from 2014 from Elder Wagner

¡FELIZ NAVIDAD! I hope you all had a gread christmas! mine was pretty great! but a little weird, its the first time ive spent christmas in warm weather and away from the family, but its all good because i got to spend christmas with servants of the lord! we had a special district meeting with a small gift exchange and testimony meeting and it was one of the best christmases ever! everything was centered on the true meaning of christmas and no one was very preoccupied in the gifts or anything and we all shared our testimonies of the church and of the reason we celebrate christmas and it was great! I have abosolutely no idea how we are going to spend the new year, but ill let you know next week how it goes haha. Today i bought a camera, so hopefully ill start sending more pictures and stuff for all you people who are like i was before the misson and just want to look at pictures because reading is just too much work haha. I realized this week that i never told you about my new companion! His name is Elder Garcia and he is from Mexico City and he is amazing! we get along really well which is good because were going to be together in the offices for up to 9 months or more. I dont have time to reply to all the stuff i receive, so i just want to give a quick thanks to all the people who sent me letters and cards. I dont really have time to write all of you and thank you personally, but i really appreciate the letters and cards that i get because i can keep them in the house and read them without spending my time on the computer. Also, i get mail whenever it arrives at the offices now instead of once a month because when im out as a regular missionary, i only get mail every month, but now since im in the offices i can pretty much just get it from the mailman and open it right there haha. 

Last week i listened to a talk by Elder Holland named "Remember Lot´s wife" it talks about how we should never look back on the mistakes weve maid or on the person we used to be and that we should look forward with hope in Christ. Its an incredible talk and i encourage all of you to read it.

But the challenge this week apart from that is to start this new year with hope for the future and know that the future holds everything for us even though sometimes it may seem like a tough road ahead. You can also make new year resolutions, but we all know that we break almost every one within the first two weeks haha.

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

¡Les amo mucho! ¡Gracias por todo su apollo!  -Elder Wagner

Week Nineteen and a half: Week 2 in the offices

The second week in the offices as financial secretary (or "king of the money" as one of the office workers likes to call me) was pretty darn good! i got to hear from Russel M. Nelson in two different meetings! First he talked to all the missionaries and its was absolutely incredible! also, he had 2 other people who spoke and i think they were 70s or something like that, but they were just as good as elder nelson. The next day, elder nelson spoke to my stake and he was using a translator at first, then he said he learned a song in spanish while he had been here, sang the song (a really funny song about Jalisco and Guadalajara), then said "if i can sing in spansih, i think i can speak in spanish" and then he dismissed his translator and gave the rest of his talk in spanish! it was crazy! i had no idea he speaks english! Also, we had another area 70 or something like that named elder peiper come a few days ago and give training to us and it was super good as well! Its been a crazy week with all the meetings and everything because we have to buy all the bus tickets and everything for all the elders who are in areas far away and all that stuff, but its been a very good week for me to learn quickly!

Challenge: Elder Nelson talked a lot about the importance of the temple and how many blessings we receive from going. He has a talk named "begin with the end in mind" it was given to mission presidents and their wives, but i think you can apply it to your lives because everyone can be a missionary! so the challenge this week is to read this talk and to go to the temple this week!

Love you all! - Elder Wagner

Week Eighteen and a half: Changes (and camera lost)

In case you didnt already notice, im writing on a friday and i usually write on mondays. thats because i was transferred! i am now being trained to be the financial secretary for the whole mission! i always thought that office missionaries were lazy and never really did much, but holy cow they do a ton and have a ton of responsibility. so yeah that happened, and also i turned 20 years old so im no longer a teenager and thats really weird. I lost my camera this week in a taxi so thats pretty great. i guess its just another trial that i have to endure and let it make me stronger. one of the other office elders told me this: you may have lost your pictures from these last 4 months, but it doesnt matter because in heaven we will be able to remember everything perfectly and see all of our friends whenever we want! haha so yeah i think im going to look at it like that and think positively. so my new pday will be saturday, but this week i have it on friday because tomorrow we have a meeting with an apostle! Elder Russel M. Nelson is coming to talk to all the missionaries tomorrow and then on sunday i get to hear from him again because he is speaking to the members of the stake in which i am serving so i get to hear from him to times!!! im kind of excited haha. so much happened these last two weeks, i dont even remember all of the craziness, but i hope you get a small glimpse into the crazy life of Elder Wagner from this email. i dont think my emails will be as interesting from here on out because i will be in the offices for the majority of the day and the most interesting thing that i will have to share will be about how i fixed a problem with someones credit card, or how i allocated a bunch of transactions with cat like reflexes or something like that haha.

We only have a few more weeks until christmas! and christmas is when we celebrate the birth of the savior of the world! Im not sure if you have already done this or not, but im going to invite you all again to watch the video "He is the Gift" on www.christmas.mormon.org and think about how incredible it is that God send His son to us to save us and think about what christmas means. Think about the significance of gift giving at christmas. this last week i had a realization that it is a symbolism of when our Heavenly Father gave us the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ. #sharethegift 

I love you all!!!!! ¡Les amo mucho! ¡Cuídense mucho! con amor, Elder Wagner

Week Seventeen: He Is The Gift

here are some pics from this week. this is a dragonfly we found in the pateo that i have hanging above my desk

i dont have much time this week, but ill try to make this as best as i can. this week we got some training on an initiative of the church called "he is the gift" its the biggest initiative the church has every done and the head of the whole thing is elder russel m nelson.. and he just so happens to be coming to my mission to talk to us this december! so yeah this is kind of a big deal. just look upwww.christmas.mormon.org and it should be there. i encourage all of you to look it up and share the link with all your friends! we have transfers this next week, so i might be in another place when i email again, but i hope not! SHARE THE GIFT EVERYBODY! this december is a time to remember our savior Jesus Christ! celebrate his birth by helping bring the truth to more people and share the joy!

love you all! Elder Wagner

 now. a pidgeon that was just chillin inside the haircutting place while gettinghaircuts last week ( i might have already sent a pic of that but whatever
haha

 and lastly, elder Raya from baja california and a view from a super rich part of our area