Week Sixteen: The Mission

overall this week was pretty normal. teaching, teaching, walking, and super bumpy bus rides. oh and we got vaccines today. i wasnt sure if i was supposed to take it, but the secretary told me i should, so right after i got done the mission presidents wife rushed in and asked me if i had taken it already and that i shouldnt have taken it. i thought i was going to have to go to the hospital or something, but it turns out im just really safe from getting the flu now haha. i had splits with 2 other missionaries in a tiny pueblo on the outskirts of guadalajara named Tlajomulco and holy cow were those people short. i never thought that i would be tall, but i was tall for a day and a half! so if any of you short people ever need a confidence boost, just come to central america for a little bit and realize that being a short american is like being a tall mexican.

heres a picture of my zone "Bugambilias 1"

 this is the view from the house of the missionaries in the pueblo of Tlajomulco

Another picture from the top of my area in a really nice gated community

Challenge: a huge difficulty that missionaries have is trying to find members to accompany them in lessons. (at least its a challenge for us) so if you feel like you have an hour or two to accompany the missionaries and help them teach by sharing experiences and befriending investigators the missionaries would love you forever. Also, if you do this i know that the Lord will bless you more in your life and you will gain a stonger testimony.

i feel like my letters should be longer, but i dont know what else to write haha. if anyone has anything specific they want to know, just let me know and ill add it in to my letters!

Love, Elder Wagner

Week Fifteen: 1st Baptism

so i may or may not have forgotten to tell you guys that we had a baptism coming up, but we did, and now there is one more member of the church in the Patria ward! 

Her name is Mercedes, i think i already talked about her a little bit in another email, but we met her in the street and we helped her carry her water jug home and she accepted to hear from us and we have been teaching her for about 7 weeks i think. Her baptisms was supposed to be saturday night, but her son was assaulted, and she had to take him to the hospital so she couldnt come. we talked to her later that night and we decided to have the baptism sunday morning before church. she was late because she had a lot of things to do, but we got it done and confirmed her less than an hour after she was baptized!

Also, this week we were talking with a less active member and he showed us some little pamphlet things from the missionaries who baptized him in 2000 ish. the first thing i saw was a missionary from veradale washington! ive never heard his name before, but his name is Jared Daniel McIntyre. so yeah thats pretty neat haha if anyone knows him, im serving in the same mission he served in haha. 

Spiritual thought: The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the most important event in all eternity. I never really realized this untill i got out here, but my appreciation for the atonement has grown tremendously and my love for our Savior as well. I encourage all of you to think more on the atonement and how is has, is, and will bless you in your own life.

Les quero mucho! Elder Wagner

Week Fourteen: The Mission

This week i realized that i have already been out on the mission for 3 months, next week ill have 2 months in mexico, and in less than a month ill be 20. And im pretty sure i realized all of that at the same time so it was a pretty intense moment haha. Also, yesterday i gave my first talk in spanish. it actually went pretty well, i didnt have to read the whole thing (mostly because i didnt have enough time to write all of it) and people understood me (i think). Luckily the topic was forgiveness, so they kind of had to forgive me. During a lesson this week with a girl named Cristal (22ish) out of nowhere she just straight up told us that the night before she prayed to know if the book of mormon is true and then while reading she just felt like it was true. It was without a doubt the most spiritual moment of my life. I now realize why people say that the mission is full of let down and disappointment, but the few powerful moments far outweigh the disappointments. In that lesson i felt like i was fulfilling my purpose as a missionary and it was one of the greatest feeling of my life. now i know why Alma and the other missionaries of the book of mormon talk about how incredible missionary work is. there have been rumors floating around since my fist day arriving in mexico about the opportunity to hear from an apostle this december, and just recently we found out that its true! dec. 14 we get the chance to hear from an apostle of the Lord! he is going to speak to all of the Guadalajara mission and the Guadalajara East mission. Also, he will speak to my stake, so if i dont get transferred in the next transfer i will get to hear from him 2 times!!! we dont know who it is yet, but ill let you know when i find out!

Spiritual Thought: READ THE BOOK OF MORMON. If you are currently reading, continue to read it. If you arent reading it often, read it every day. If you have never read it, READ IT. I cant put into words the amount of happiness, joy, peace, and comfort that we can receive simply by reading a book. Jeffrey R. Holland said something like this: "the book of mormon has been torn apart for over 150 years by people trying to discredit it, but no one has succeeded because it is perfect. No evil man could write the book of mormon, and no good man would write the book of mormon, unless he were commanded to do so by our Heavenly Father."

Les qiero mucho! Elder Wagner

Week Thirteen: Another week

Just another week serving the Lord and trying not to spend all my money on mexican candy and doughnuts. We are starting to accumulate more and more progressing investigators so hopefully ill have a good amount of pictures of baptisms in the next month and a half-ish. I dont really know what to say other than that haha. Mexico is starting to become more and more normal to me and im starting to get the hang of it more and more. today while getting my hair cut the lady asked me if i was from Guadalajara, so im just going to assume that from the 10 or less words i said she thoght i was mexican. think positively right? Also, we ate with a family the other day that we hadnt eaten with since my 3 week or so and one of the daughters asked me something and after i responded she said "he understood me! and said something! quick, record him! record him!" haha so yeah i guess im improving! 

During our zone meeting this week our zone leader shared two things that i loved. first he told a story from Elder Packer i think. It talks about when we all come before God after we die and God is calling out the names of groups of people. he calls the 2000 striping warriors and we all think thats really cool, then he calls out other groups from the times of the scriptures and we think its incredible to be with them. then he gets to us and calls out the armies of the Prophet Thomas S. Monson. the Missionaries of the latter days and everyone from the scripture times thinks we are incredible. We may not realize it, but we are living in the times that prophets have been testifying about for thousands of years. we live in the latter days, the time of the gathering of all the Lords sheep. how blessed are we! Also, he shared a quote from or mission president, "Where is your vision?". think about that. is your vision in the eternal perspective, or do you find yourself stuck in the world at times? i encourage everyone to try to figure out where their sight is and always be trying to improve yourselves!

Con amor, Elder Wagner

Week Twelve: One Transfer Down In The Field

I cant belive i already have 6 weeks done in the field and am halfway done with my training. the other day realized that im already 1/8 the way done with my mission and my brain just about exploded.

Overall, this week went pretty well. Saturday night my companion got a nice surprise from the first councelor in the bishopric. we were teaching an active member in her little shop behind the counter and the first councelor and his wife came in to buy some stuff. he said something like "Elders of Israel! youre always prepared arent you? well how about you speak tomorrow morning in sacrament meeting? Elder Nolasco, you speak on reverence and Elder Wagner, you speak on Forgiveness ok?" we responded "...... uhhh.. sure, why not?" and he said "great! oh and each talk should be about 10 minutes long." so yeah that was pretty great. we spent our night scrambling to put together talks and then the next morning he told us that we didnt have to speak untill 2 more sundays. we were really relieved, but at the same time we were kind of mad because we had just spent the last 12 hours freaking out and then it was all for nothing, but at least i have my  talk somewhat ready for 2 weeks from now!

For some reason its really hard for mexicans to say my last name. they always say "waahner" haha its pretty funny. A few days ago someone read it, paused for a little bit, and then said "like los warner brothers?" hahaha so yeah thats acually happened a few times and theres a brother in the ward who always greets me with " Los Warner Brothers!" haha its pretty funny. Also, i guess theres some fameous musician or something with the last name wagner because a few people have asked me if im related to him and i just say no because i have no clue haha.

Another funny thing that happened this week: i was talking with an Elder who is from Baja California who is familiar with both the american and mexican culture and i was talking to him about why mexicans put chili powder in everything. seriously, chili powder is in EVERYTHING. i was saying something like "you know what would make this food better? Chili powder. You know what would make this candy better? chili powder. you know what would make this ice cream better? chili powder. you know what would make this shampoo better? chili powder." Then elder raya stopped me and said " you know, there actually is shampoo and soap with chili powder right? your companion has those" hahaha yeah thats mexico for you. if you want to make anything better, just add some chili powder.

Now that ive been out in the field for a transfer, ive been able to see a few different missionaries and how they conduct themselves and its pretty obvious to me who was ready to serve a mission and who wasnt. Future Elders: Please dont serve a mission untill you feel like you are mature and ready to be a representative of Jesus Christ. Serving a mission is a whole lot more than just going to a different country for 2 years and teaching some people about the church.  when you are a missionary, you are literally representing The Lord Jesus Christ and should be able to act in a way that Christ would. Please dont just serve a mission because youre 18 and everyone expects you to go. Make sure you have a testimiony of the things you are going to teach and if its necessary, wait a year or two or three. Elder Oaks' first talk as an apostle talks about why missionaries serve. i encourage you to read it, or listen to it, or watch it and find out for yourself why you are going to serve a mission.

Con Amor, Elder Wagner

Week Eleven: week 5?

im pretty sure that i have 5 weeks here, but im not really sure to be honest haha time is both fast and slow in the mission, its crazy. 

This week was pretty successful! we are getting more and more progressing investigators, but no one came to church so were going to have to work on that. i want to tell you guys about everyone were teaching and how they are doing, but i just dont have the time! i guess its sufficcient to say that we have a lot of work to do and a lot of peole to work with and thats good!

I dont have any crazy stories this week, but i think its because the crazyness of mexico is just normal now. whenever something weird happens i just kind of shrug it off and say ok, i guess thats normal here, and then move on with whatever im doing. The only good story i have is from last week. my companion (Elder Nolasco) was asking one of the elders from my district from the mtc if he had a green bag inside the mission offices. he said, "¿mochilla verde?" which means "green bag?" and the elder from my mtc district said "oh yeah! muy delicioso!" were still not really sure what he was thinking, but its all good because none of us speak spanish that well. 

Yesterday we had stake conferece and got to go to the chapel next to the guadalajara temple so we got to take pictures and see it, but we wont be able to enter the temple for a while. the guadalajara temple is almost identical to the spokane temple, so it was really cool for me to realize just how constant the church is. I am thousands of miles from spokane, and yet there is a stake center and temple where the exact same things happen in the exact same manner. the church is true people!

Heres a nice little slice of mexico from the home of one of the members in our ward.

​My companion and Elder Marion (One of the other 2 elders in our ward. hes from colorado)

​The Guadalajara Mexico Temple :D

​The Guadalajara Mexico Temple :D

Week Ten: one month in mexico

I cant really wrap my head around the fact that i have already been here for almost a month and i have almost 2.5 months in the mission already! well i guess its true, time flies in the mission. 

today we went to downtown guadalajara to do some stuff for our visas and i got to see all the elders from my district in the MTC!  elder hansen who was in my apartment with me lost 30 pounds already! its crazy what mexico can do to you! I thought it was rough to lose some of my pday to go do visa stuff and then i realized that i only had to travel about 30 minutes to get to the mission offices and other elders had to travel up to 9 hours and pay up to $100 (dollars) to get there while i only had to pay like 6 pesos which is like 50 cents haha.

My spanish is improving every week and i really see that the Lord is helping me so i can teach his sons and daughters in mexico. the other day my companion told me that in my sleep i was speaking spanish and english! i didnt even know i talked in my sleep, let alone in another language haha. Oh well, ill take that as a sign that my brain is at least partly in mexico mode and hopefully i can be be a fluent spanish speaker in my sleep soon! Oh and the other day i was in a store and this guy starts trying to talk to me in english, i usually just respond in spanish because they only know one or two things in english, but he actually spoke english and we started talking in english. it was really weird and uncomfortable for some reason, so ill take that as another sign that my brain starting to convert to mexicanism!

I keep seeing dopplegangers of people i know in america, its crazy. ill see someone out of the corner of my eye and think its someone i know, then when i look at them the second time i realize its just a mexican version of the person i thought it was. sorry dad, i dont think ill be seeing your doppleganger any time soon. there arent many 6 foot tall bald mexican men who wear bald eagle shirts.

We had 3 investigators come to church this week! and one of them brought his cousin! its such a good feeling to see people trying to come closer to Christ and fulfill commitments! During a lesson this week with a woman named Mercedes, we were talking to her about the plan of salvation and she told us that within the last year her son had passed away and one of her grandchildren had fallen off a balcony and died. all i could think about when she was telling us about her grandaughter passing away was how i would feel if one of my nieces or nephews passed away and how crushing that would be to me and my entire family. then i realized how amazing it was that we have the knowledge of the plan of salvation and that i had the opportunity to share with this woman the same joy that i have found in the plan of salvation and all the principles of the restored gospel. the church is true!

sorry if my emails are all over the place and hard to follow, but i dont really ahve time to proofread it all and make all the thoughts line up. i just kind of type whatever my brain thinks and that can be pretty weird and hard to follow, so i apologize if my emails dont make any sense haha. 

Con amor, Elder Wagner