Week Thirty-six and a half: The week after transfers

Me driving President Camarillos minivan

These last two weeks have been absolutely insane. I have taken countless missionaries to the airport to go home from the mission, recieved a new elder in the offices, and a bunch of other stuff happened that i cant remember.

First, yesterday we went to buy tamales and the lady asked us where we were from and i told her i was from Chihuahua Mexico (because an elder taught me how to use the accent from over there) and she said she wanted to go there so she started to asking me about the weather and stuff and i just made stuff up and tried to hold out untill she stopped. im not sure how i did it, but aparently everything i made up about the weather there was right and she actually believed i am from Chihuahua hahaha.

Ive made about 4 trips to the airport in the last 2 weeks to take people to the airport and its exhausting. not only to i have to wake up super early to take them, i also lose  lot of time in the offices and fall really far behind, so i havnt been able to get out in the area to work and its tough. but today we have plans to go on splits with a member so im going to get something good done today in the field hopefully!

Elder Peterson got to the offices this week to be the replacement for my companion so my companion can be the visas secretary. he is from camas washington and is crazy tall! its pretty weird to have a younger american with me for so much time because i have always been the young american in my districts and have been the one with all the questions, but now im the one with some answers haha. He has one change less than me and actually knows some people who i met in the mtc because he got there  few days after i left. and he had one of the same teachers as a subtitute!

Challenge: read chapter 13 of preach my gospel. I read it this morning and i realized that before the mission i was not doing my part as a member and i felt kind of bad haha but i encourage you all to read it and see how you can be a better help for the Lords work!

I love you all! Elder Wagner

all the financial records from last year i just sent to the area offices in mexico city

me and Elder Denton from idaho

Elder Peterson, Elder Garcia and me in Sister Camarillos car

Super burritos!

Elder Dentons birthday party

Elder Balbuena, Elder Hemmert, Elder Sanchez, Elder Denton, and me

me and Elder Cruz who was my first zone leader ( he just finished the mission)

a big statue of an eagle

Elder Sanchez, Elder Denton, Elder Garcia, Elder Sanchez (another one), Elder Cano and me. Elder Sanchez and Elder Cano had to come to the offices to sign some stuff for a house or something so they were with us for a few days.

Week Thirty-six: Transfers

This week was insane because we had changes, so im just now writing on tuesday to tell you that im still alive. we had to go to presidents house today to revise the mission cars and make reports and take pictures and stuff, so we asked him if we could wright really quick and he said just to tell you that were still alive haha. oh and i got to drive presidents minivan which is a privilige that very few people have had, so im kind of a big deal. ill send pictures on saturday when i write again so you can all see the proof. This week we got a new secretary to take my companion´s place as executive secretary and his name is Elder Peterson and hes from Camas Washington. i guess president finally figured out that the best missionaries come from washington and chose him to replace my companion haha. so after this change he will be full time in that position and my companion Elder Garcia will be the visas and prosiliting secretary. were not really sure what we are going to do with the married couple because president doesnt know when they are going to leave, so i guess well see in a few months. Also, Elder Raya (the really tall mexican from my first area) was called to be the new asistant to the president. He got to the mission when i did and was trained in the same ward, so its really awesome to have one of my best buddies in the offices a few days of the week. Also, everyone from my first district are now zone leaders or a financial secretary. i never realized how great they were untill they all got called to be leaders haha i just thought all the missionaries were that good. I am the financial secretary, my trainer is now a zone leader, Elder Marion (elder Rayas trainer) is now a zone leader, and elder Raya is now an assistant. oh and the other assistant is from seattle, so i guess that just proves my point about the best missionaries being from washington.

Challenge: Read another conference talk! haha thats all i have time for right now.

Les quiero muchisimo! Elder Wagner

Week Thirty-five: La Conferencia General

Family Home Evening with the ward of Cruz Del Sur

 General conference is the best! before the mission i neglected how amazing it is and the first time i saw it in the mision i didnt understand anything, but now i love it! When we got to the chapel for the saturday morning session there wasnt anyone there to set it up, so we tried to set up something with one of the computers there, but the speakers didnt work, so we ended up going to another church building nearby to watch the first session and returned to our building to watch the next session. it seems like murphys law is waayy bigger in the mission and i dont know why haha. Everything that could possibly go wrong, ALWAYS goes wrong... but somehow it always works out. its funny how the Lord works sometimes. 

Oh yeah and im writing today because we had general conference on saturday and couldnt have our pday that day.

The first time i listened to conference i didnt like it when the native spanish speakers spoke because i couldnt try to ignore the translator and pick out the english phrases that slipped through haha but this time is was totaly opposite! i loved it when the spanish speakers gave their talks becase i didnt have to listen to two voices. its crazy how much can happen in just 6 short months.

this week i was busy sorting out all the reciepts from al the missionaries reimbursements from last year and getting them readty to sent to mexico city, so we didnt get much time to teach people, but we taught a guy in english who is from an island in moulta or something like that over in europe. he has a super strong accent and a a masive black guy who is married to a bilingual mexican woman and they speak english. he is moving back to europe,so we cant teach him pressively, but we are going to have a family home evening with them this week in english and my companion is NOT excited hahaha and i have to admit, its really hard to teach the gospel in english haha i havnt done it for so long! we taught him about the restaruation and i completely forgot how to say sacred grove in english hahaha

Challenge: study AT LEAST one talk from this session of conference. its hard to keep up with the speakers in real time, so go to lds.org and pick a topic or a speaker you like and STUDY a talk! dont just listen to it, take notes of the things the Holy Ghost tells you while you study it and then put it into practice!

Thank you for all your love and support! i love every single one of you and hope you all have a great week!

Elder Wagner

Our zone after our zone activity

Me and Elder Sanchez

Week Thirty-three and a half: America Town

This week we spent a lot of time in home depot because we had to buy locks for all the houses in the mission and i felt like i was in america town! (its like china town, but america town haha) the only difference was that the mexicans there didnt speak english haha

this week was a pretty crazy, but normal week in the offices and we didnt get to leave much from the offices. its been tough, but hopefully things will calm down and ill be able to leave and teach some people! sorry for the short letter, but i mismanaged my time and i didnt save myself enough time to wright, but ill write extra long next week!

Everyone check out this website!!!!! http://www.mormon.org/easter

i love you all! have a great week!

Week Thirty-two and a half: Mexico Shmexico

This week was pretty normal, were getting caught up on a lot of work because things have really calmed down in the offices, but next week is going to be super crazy so im just trying to get prepared for that so i dont get so swamped.

Picture: Meet Elder Guillen. Office missionary extrordanaire! sometimes the office life just gets to be too much and you need to take a quick nap.

This week i was in divisions with Elder Sanchez (who lives in our same apartment and is from Mexico city) and we were talking about spanish and english stuff because he is trying really hard to learn english and then all of a sudden it hit me that i speak 2 languages! i had never really thought about it before, but this week i realized that i live in another country with another teenager who is from that country and speak a different language that i barely started learning about 8 months ago.... crazy stuff.

Miguel: we have been working really hard with miguel, but were not really sure if he can mentally comprehend what we are teaching him because we got done with what we thought was a really powerful lesson with really clear doctrine and powerful spirit and when we asked him if he would prepare to be baptized and this is the response he gave us... "well, i dont know. ill have to talk to the father in my (catholic) temple to see if i can be baptized again". so were going to work with him and see if we can help him see what were trying to teach.

Luis: After not talking with him for about 2 weeks and hearing that he fell down some stairs when he came to church (we just barely found that out) (oh and he is like 70 years old) we saw him and taught him a lesson and he said he wants to keep listening to us! we went to visit a sister in the ward (who is super duper active) and we couldnt go into her house because we cant go into a house where there is no male of 18 years of age or older. she came out and said that here son wasnt home and then said something we couldnt understand and then told us to wait and left running down the street. we had no idea what to think, we thought she was going to buy us something or something like that because one day a few weeks ago she texted us and told us to meet her at a street corner and when we got there she tried to buy us new shoes! so we had no idea what she was going to bring back, and then a few minutes later she comes back and right behind her was Luis! it was amazing! so we are super greatfull for all that she does for us and because of her we are now teaching Luis again!

Challenge: Learn how to better recognize the whisperings of the holy ghost in your life. Chapter 4 of Preach My Gospel is one of my favorites because it teaches how to do this! so this weeks challenge is to read "Learn to recognize the promptings of the spirit" in Preach my Gospel chapter 4. heres the link if you dont have the physical copy: https://www.lds.org/manual/preach-my-gospel-a-guide-to-missionary-service/how-do-i-recognize-and-understand-the-spirit?lang=eng

If we are looking for the promptings of the holy ghost in our lives and are worthy to hear his whisperings, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will teach us through him.

¡Les quiero mucho! Con amor, Elder Wagner

Week Thirty-one and a half: Another week in the offices

Photo: left to right: my trainers trainer, my trainer from the offices, some really really ridiculously good looking guy, and my brother!

This week was a lot more calm, so im trying to get caught up but at least im not falling more behind on the office work! this week i found that im a lot happier when im out of the offices working in the field. sometimes i found myself getting a little down when i was in the offices for long periods of time just thinking about all the work i had, but when i forced myself (i mean my companion forced me) to leave the office work and work in the field i found that i wasnt thinking as much about the work i had in the offices and i was a lot more happy trying to find people and teach them.

This week we had our zone conference with the mission president (wich happens about once every 3 months) and it was great! we learned about how we can work in different ways to overcome common issues that almost every missionary in the mission has with their investigators (not coming to church, not keeping commitments, etc) and it was super helpful. plus i got to see my "brother" of the mission. my trainer from the offices is called my "mom" and right now he is training in the field, so i have a "brother!" ill attach a picture.

Challenge: this week i focused a lot on my prayers and how i can improve them and it really helped me have the spirit more! So the challenge for this week is to look up in Preach my Gospel the section called Pray with faith. if you dont have your own physical copy, heres a link to it: https://www.lds.org/manual/preach-my-gospel-a-guide-to-missionary-service/how-do-i-recognize-and-understand-the-spirit?lang=eng read it and do the personal study activity and watch your prayers improve and faith increase incredibly!!!!

I love you all and i hope you have a great week! With love, Elder Wagner

 a cockroach that was dumb enough to fall into a cup of water and drown itself.

food from Chile that we ate with a sister in our ward.

 Elder Denton in front of the flag of Chile.

Week Thirty and a half: The calm after the storm

So it wasnt really that calm, but it was the week after the storm haha. we were still really busy, but we got out of the offices more than the week before and got some lessons in! we also had a family home evening with the ward which went pretty well! every companionship in our ward (2 sets of elders and 1 set of sisters) brought someone and it went really well! we brought a man named Juan Antonio who we met about a week ago. he showed up to the chapel right before sacrament meeting ended and we have taught him 2 lessons this week and he is great! he is a little odd, and we dont really know where he lives, but we are really excited for him. he has a strong desire to learn and wants to keep learning. We are pretty sure that he lives in the area of the other elders, so its going to be tough to hand him over, but well still get to see him on sundays! We got a new elder last week, im not sure if i told you, but yeah his name is Elder Denton and he is from southern Idaho. He seriously looks really really young haha the people here in mexico are really blunt and kind of just say what is on their mind, so his first week here we were eating with a sister and she just flat out said that he had a small face and looks like hes 14 hahaha. and then at the FHE a member said something like he couldnt believe his eyes and then asked if they changed the rule again and 16 year olds could serve missions now haha. hes a really good elder and im glad to have him here. Also, it distracts everyone from the fact that i look like im 17, so thats a plus haha oh and im the tallest missionary in our district! i think im going to enjoy this while i can haha.

sorry i didnt send any pictures this week, my companion needed to borrow my memory card for some stuff in the offices and forgot to give it back to me, so when i went to take pictures the camera said their wasnt any memory and i just thought it was full, but there wasnt a memory card in it! ill get the pictures from my companion and the other elders and send them next week!

Challenge: We had a special training a few weeks ago with our president where we learned about inviting members to share the gospel and how angels are preparing people right now to hear the gospel. talk with a neighbor or a friend about the gospel this week!

les amo mucho! con amor, Elder Wagner