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

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