Week Fifty and a half: EFY!

This is a sweet hat that was made by a sister in our ward.
Im pretty excited about it. TMNT!

This week we got to go to EFY! it was pretty cool! we taught the kids how to teach the restarotion to their friends using a pamphlet really fast and powerfully and it actually helped us out a lot with using the pamphlets more and having shorter, more powerful lessons. There were about 50 missionaries who went.

me and elder garcia at the efy site

 

While we were at EFY i got to see my ward mission leader from my first area!!
He was there as an ex missionary to help us out.

We were stuck in the offices pretty much the entire second half of the week because we have a sick elder with us and he cant to go out and work in the field, but he is helping me out a lot organizing papers!!

me, elder peterson, and elder starley

I studied a lot of the restoration and im studying a lot of the sermon on the mount, so the CHALLENGE: is to read the Joseph smith testimony in the front of the book of mormon and pray to receive a testimony of it even if you already know! i have found that when i pray to know with more certainty, Heavenly Father gives me even more of a testimony and i love it!

I love you all! 

Elder Wagner

Week Forty-nine and a half: Interviews with President Egginton

Me with a mini banana

Yesterday i had my interview with President Egginton and the first thing he asked me was how long i had been financial secretary. I told him a little over 7 months and he said "Holy mamacita!!!" hahaha. we talked about different options for finding my replacement and pretty much came to the conclusion that i will have to wait until November to start training his brother in law who will be coming to the mission with his wife. that means i would be leaving the offices a little over a year after i got here and would be leaving just before christmas. President told me "Well, im sorry. its kinda sucky that youre gonna have to be here for so long, but ill think about it and see what i can do to get you out of here" So hopefully with enough fasting and prayer i can get out of the offices before then, but if not ill just have to stand in the office in which i have been appointed and work diligently having faith in Christ. We also did the interview in english witch was a lot more laid back and i liked that.

Elder Mills who went home about two weeks ago
 (he picked me up from the airport as my first AP
 and was AP when i got to the offices) and me

Me and Elder Balbuena
(my third AP and Elder Mills companion as AP when i got to the offices)

This week we worked pretty normal and didnt have anything too exciting happen in the offices.. but outside of the offices we have been having some really great things happening! We got a reference from the secretaries from the other mission (one of the elders who gave it to us was actually one of my zone leaders in the MTC, Elder McGregor) and we couldnt seem to get in contact with the reference. finally, we called the other elders to confirm the address and everything and i realized i had written down the address and everything perfect but for some reason i was ringing the doorbell of apartment 4 in stead of 3! so we went back and after about 5 minutes of ringing to doorbell and waiting we were turning around to leave and we saw two women walking up to the entrance. we asked them if they knew rosalba and she said thats me! so we got to know her and her daughter and taught them really quick because we had to get home. then we visited them 2 days ago and we didnt get much time to teach them but tonight they are going to come to a baptism we are having and were going to teach them afterward! they are really receptive and willing to pray and go to church and everything so hopefully all goes well tonight and they come to church tomorrow! oh and her daughters name is Paloma (dove in english) and shes studying to be an engineer so thats pretty cool!

Me and Elder Neddo
 (my first Zone Leader)

Challenge: When i got to the offices, one of the assistants (Elder Mills) gave me a talk by someone with the last name of Skousen, that speaks about the plan of salvation and why its so important that Jesus Christ carried out the atonement. This talk drove me to study even deeper into the scriptures about this subject and i have found some JEWELS! so, i invite all of you to read Alma, chapters 40-42 in the book of mormon. it talks about the atonement and the plan of salvation and what will happen after we die. ITS AMAZING. READ IT.

Thank you for being to great people you are! Thank you to those of you who helped me come on the mission and those who continue to support me! i can honestly say that going on a mission is the best decision i have ever made in my life and it has changed me beyond belief in the best ways imaginable! THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU ALL!

-Elder Wagner

Week Forty-eight and a half: A pretty tranquila week

Sis Egginton asked my mom if she had any special requests,
and thus this photo was sent to her.
 Elder Wagner also received an arms length hug from her on behalf on his mom.

So this week was a nice break from the three crazy, insane weeks that we just went through. we finally got out and worked in the area for a good chunk of time. the only problem is that we dropped all our investigators who werent progressing and now we hardly have anyone to teach and are staring from ground zero looking for new investigators (which is tough here because everything is usually just passing through to go to work or they just work in our area and live in other parts of the city so we just pass them on as references. but it has been nice to not be insanely busy all day and be able to leave the offices to work in the field a little bit.

So here i was being all homesick and missing my mommy when all of a sudden i realized that the new presidents wife is EXACTLY like my mom. its mind blowing. she is suuuper excited and is obsessed with getting everyone involved in the facebook page haha. and they kind of look alike... well that might just be because all i see are mexicans all day so all the americans look the same haha. When i got my picture taken with president and her, she was super excited and said we had to take the picture because my mom requested it! and when we went to take the picuture she put her arm around me and it was kind of awkward because sister camarillo (the old presidents wife) was always the one getting after the elders for not being within 10 feet of their companions and she almost never touched the elders, and now the new presidents wife is the one giving me a half hug!! i dont think i broke any rules because the mission president was on the other side of me and didnt say anything so i think were all good there. 

These last few days i have been studying the sermon on the mount and let me tell ya, its some good stuff. theres nothing like reading the exact teachings and words of the savior of all mankind! 

Challenge: read Mathew 5-7 (at least im pretty sure thats where its at. dont get mad at me if its wrong) i love how clear it is and how Christ clarifies the commandments and helps us understand how to obey them better!

I love you all! thank you for all the love and support! ¡¡¡Que Dios les bendiga!!!

-Elder Wagner

Week Forty-seven and a half: New President!

President Egginton, Sister Egginton, the secretaries and the assistants
 just a few hours after the arrival of President and his wife

So this week we got a new mission president! his name is President Egginton and he his super cool! he is a lot different than our old president and its going to be a weird transition but im excited for it! I always thought presidents got to the field and were %100 prepared and ready to preach and teach and show all the missionaries how it was done and were already experts at everything, but being in the offices has opened my eyes a LOT!

This was an extremely busy week. we had the arrival of the new president, the leadership counsel, and our zone meeting yesterday oh and we have changes this weekend so everything is still crazy hectic. i think this week will go up as one of the busiest ive had in the mission.. but i havnt had any time to write in my journal because of how tired ive been and how crazy its been haha.

Editors note: Photo shared by Elder Wagner's Mission Pres, and Mission Mom

When Elder Peterson first saw the picture of President and his wife a few months ago he said "Sister Egginton looks like a cookie making lady!" so yesterday he said that to her and she said that she would make us cookies!!! but she has to wait for her stuff to get here from the states first. but hey! im gonna be eating real american cookies sometime in the near future!!! (people here dont really have ovens.. or know how to bake so its a pretty big deal for us)

We are still working with Beatriz, but she isnt really progressing how we would like her to. Hopefully ill have some changes to report in the next few weeks. Also we made contact with one of the investigators we had a few months ago who kind of just stopped answering our calls. We went to visit her to see how she was and ended up having a good talk with her about the plan of salvation. Her name is Rosa and she has a daughter Johanna who is also interested. The only problem is that they are really busy and her daughter is going to have an operation soon on a tumor she has in her neck. We are actually going to eat with them after we get done writing and hopefully teach a lesson before we have to get back and babysit the missionaries who are ending the mission after they get back from the temple.

Thats about all the cool stuff that happened this week, ill try to take more pictures but pictures of my desk arent really that exciting, so ill try to find some cool stuff for you guys!

Love you all! Con cariño, Elder Wagner

Week Forty-six and a half: Estrés

STRESS. This week was super stressful with a LOT of office work. This monday, the new mission president is coming, so we were crazy busy getting everything ready for his arrival.

Monday we had our last conference with President Camarillo. we had a special training from him and his wife about the Book of Mormon and the Sabbath day and then we took a break to take pictures as zones and photos with just us and the President and his wife (picture 1)

Here's a pic of our zone this last Monday!

After taking pictures we had a testimony meeting with the 2 zones in our stake (the only 2 zones who went to this conference) and it was super awesome! Before the mission i just kind of dozed through testimony meetings and didnt take advantage of them but now i appreciate them! the spirit is so strong and i got to learn so much about so many missionaries who had to go through some crazy stuff to get on the mission and make huge sacrifices to be out in the mission field and that really helped strengthen my testimony about the work we are doing and why we are doing it. After the meeting we gave our "last goodbyes" to President Camarillo and his wife but instead of saying goodbye to me they just said "see you soon! we still have work to do!" haha so i wont say goodbye to them until monday when the new president is already here.

Other than the conference this week was full of working furiously at the computer trying to get as much work done as i could before President Camarillo leaves.

Also, we bought a ton of parasite medication for all the missionaries in the mission 
so we built towers out of the boxes! (picture 2)

Challenge: Read 1 Nephi 13. I read it this week and it hit me really hard how much it testifies of the restoration of the gospel and the establishment of the United States. READ IT! I PROMISE YOU WONT REGRET IT!

Thank you for all your prayers, love and support! i love you all! -Elder Wagner

Week Forty-five and a half: President's second to last week

Elote!
 I finally found corn like in nacho libre! i feel like i have filled an emptiness that has been in my soul for years.

This week was full of tender mercies! i didnt even realize in until now, but thinking about the past week i can see the Lords hand helping me out in small but big ways. I found a lot of stuff that i can do differently in my assignment that i didnt know how to do before and now i can work more effectively and with a lot less stress, we got to eat a giant BBQ with president, his wife, his daughter, the assistants, and all of the missionaries in the offices, and a thousand other small things.

Elder Guillen's Birthday. we bought him a dairy queen cake

Elder Zurita and me eating an entire 3 milk cake (pastel de tres leches)

We woke up this morning and saw we had a message from president and i was expecting an emergency or he needed us to run and do something for him that moment, but it turns out he just invited us to eat at his house! we had a BBQ and relaxed at the mission home for about 4 hours and got to joke around with the president which is something we almost never get to do. So thats pretty much all i did today and im suuuper full!

BBQ with President, the assistants and the secretaries!

BBQ with President, the assistants and the secretaries!

The investigators we have are really having troubles with keeping commitments and i think we are going to start working hard to find new investigators. Beatrice is amazing, she is christian but she has a hard time accepting that one church is the right one and she doesnt think that its important to have an organization. Hopefully this week she can come to church and find out for herself why we teach her the things we do!

Beatrice! we took her to the temple and had a great lesson!

Everything is coming up really fast. President will be leaving the 29th and just has a few more days! its crazy in the offices because we are trying to prepare everything and im trying to close the books from Pres. Camarillo so Pres. Egginton had a clean slate.

Tomorrow we have stake conference and ill be able to see some of the members from my first area and hopefully my converts will be there and ill be able to see how they are doing!

Challenge: Smile! A few months ago we went to visit a reference we had received and after knocking for a good 5 minutes we decided she wasnt home. as we were leaving we walked past an older woman and in stead of saying hi to her or something like that we kind of ignored her and started thinking of the next plans we had. about 5 seconds later we realized that the woman lived in the house we were looking at just a few moments earlier. we then went over and spoke with her. she said we should have been kinder and said hi to her and smiled because thats what nice people do and it helps brighten other peoples days. we ended up talking with her for a good little bit and we came back another day to find out she was catholic through and through, but she taught us a lesson that we should always smile and say hi to someone because we never know how that one smile or one word could change someones day or brighten it a little bit. Smile!!!

I hope you all have a great week! thank you for all your love and support! les quiero mucho! con mucho amor, Elder Wagner

Week Forty-four and a half: !Hola todos!

This week was pretty normal to be honest, we had divisions with the zone leaders and that was the most crazy/exciting thing we did. we worked a lot with our investigators and found a new couple that is very nice, but we havnt seen any progress with them yet because we only taught them once and we will teach themtomorrow. they are named Aldo and Judith. Aldo already knows a little about the church, but never investigated seriously but now i think he will progress because he has his wife to learn alongside him.

We also have been teaching beatrice a lot. she is very christian and we lost contact with her for a while but now we are teaching her and we have plans to go with her to the temple grounds next week! she is reading the book of mormon and even watched the live story of Thomas S. Monson because we invited her to see one of his talks. she really enjoyed it, but her biggest challenge is accepting one true church. she believes that everything from God is good and she is saved because she already accepted Jesus Christ, but hopefully we can explain the gospel a little more clear and with more emphasis in the saving ordinances when we go to the temple to help her out.

Hymns. We have found that singing hymns brings a special spirit to every lesson. we now try to start lessons with hymns to invite the spirit and it almost always goes better when we do it!

Challenge: Read at least one hymn about the atonement of Jesus Christ and ponder its message. and then sing it and i promise you will feel the spirit really strong!

Thank you for all your love and support! sorry for the shortish letter, ill try to make next weeks letter better and send photos!

Elder Wagner