A Lesson From Life

Yesterday and today we did some major gleaning of toys and junk and clutter. It was something I’d been meaning to do for a while, but there was always other stuff that needed doing and we (my husband and I) never got past talking about it. Then, yesterday I I was looking around at some of the cluttery bits and decided it was time to do something, so we dived in and got it done.

Today, as I sat back feeling quite accomplished with everything we got done, I got to thinking about life and spirituality. Sometimes we allow a lot of clutter to build up in our lives. Emotional clutter, spiritual clutter. Maybe there’s mistakes we’ve made that we’ve never taken care of, or apologies we never got around to making, or we’re carrying a bit of a grudge around. Maybe we’ve let our prayers & scripture study fall by the way side and voices of the world are filling the corners of our lives with clutter.

Just like it’s important to take a step back and clean out the physical clutter in our lives, it’s important to pause a moment on a regular basis and assess the spiritual and emotional clutter we’re allowing to accumulate and do what we can to clear it out. We can’t necessarily tackle it all at once, but we can clean a little here & tidy a little there to slowly work some of that clutter out of our lives. And, just like I felt happy & accomplished at eliminating the physical clutter, we will feel eternal joy & spiritual refreshment as we clear out the spiritual clutter and refocus our selves on our Savior Jesus Christ.

Poetry Month!

April has begun! And with that comes National Poetry Month & my friend’s AWESOME challenge to write a poem everyday. She has a fabulous blog where you can play along and learn a new poem form (or refresh and old) every day!! It’s never to late to start & you can always just hop in or even play catch-up! Here is yesterday’s since I didn’t get it posted!

First, the link to her instructions for Day 1 – She chose the Japanese form Dodoitsu. One thing I love is that she not only gives instructions, but the history of the form as well! Super cool!

Before I post my little poem, I want to give a little head nod to my dad – he inspired this one! When we were little he’d made up a cute little rhyme about two little fingers looking for a tickle. His fingers would walk up and down our arms or legs until he “found it!” and tickled us. Oh, we just loved it. And, of course, I’ve passed it on to my kids. So, here is my Dodoitsu, inspired by my father’s rhyme:

Two little fingers walking
all about, looking for that
silly spot, hiding ’bout… here!
Giggle, giggle, squeak!

 

 
PLEASE REMEMBER ~ any poetry found on this blog, written by me, is my personal property and may not be used without my permission, other than sharing it as an example in a lesson or to read it to someone. Thanks so much!

Home

Hermana Wagner returned home last week on Wednesday night to many hugs and squeals of joy (and a cute chalk drawn Hei hei by Em) and more than a few tears too – mostly on her part because she so wanted to stay on her mission in Mexico, but it has been wonderful to have her home and safe. After a week of living the missionary life here at home, we found out that all missionaries who returned to their homes would be released and then recalled & sent back out later when things cleared up. So, amid a few more tears, she was released yesterday afternoon.  In the meantime, we are enjoying our full family 2-week quarantine and so far we’re all healthy. Hoping we can stay that way and praying so many prayers for all those who are fighting this illness & touched by it. When we know that she’s headed out again, we will let you all know!

Let it Go! Let it Go!! 3/23/20

Hey all!!! So this week hass been really interesting. We were not able to teach a lot of people because they changed the time that we can leave our house. We could only be out of the house from 2pm-7pm and as of today we are now in quarantine. They let us know today that all missionaries that are not from mexico will be returning to their houses….. I am really sad and really bumbed but I know that the Lord has a plan. Thankfully, I will only be returning home for 2 weeks, and for these 2 weeks I will be in quarantine. After these two weeks I will be reassigned to a mission in the U.S. so that I can finish out the other 8 months of my mission.

 

On the postivie side, I will be able to say that I served half of my mission in Mexico and the other half in who knows where My Heavenly Father has helped me to find a lot of peace and realize that I am so blessed, because there are so many missionaries that will be returning to their homes and they will not be able to finish their missions, but I will be able to. Like my dad always says “There is always something positive to find in every situation!!”

So funny story this week! My parents were eating Heath bars in front of me and so I decided to join them and eat my runts that I had just bought that day….. and the bag opened and almost all of them feel on the ground and some of them fell on the keyboard So I had fun cleaning up that mess….

Love you guys lots and I hope that you are all doing well!!

Hermana Wagner

Hola!! 3/18/20

Hello!!!! This week was very interesting for those of you who are worried about the Coronavirus, everything is ok here! They had us buy food storage so that if we are put in quarantine we will have the food that we need to make it through. This week we  had so much fun!! On sunday our Zone leaders came to our area to help us with our area! It was so much fun! We were knocking doors and it was actually a lot of fun!! We had a race to see what house would respond frist. We also put a baptismal date with our investtigator named Diana!! We are really ex ited and we are doing all that we can to help her to prepare. This week there has not been to much happening. Elder Valenzuela came to our mission and it was so cool and we were able to recieve a lot of revelation! My time is short so I promise that I will write more next week!

Hello Hello Hello 3/10/20

Hey all!!! This week has been amazing!!!! We have been talking to a lot of people and we have had some interesting experiences. Yesterday we were not allowed to leave the house because it was national womens day and yesterday mexico was crazy!! So we were stuck in the house ALL day, watching movies, playing uno, and eating oreos with nutella!! Talk about interesting! I also made curry!!! I was missing my family and my moms cooking a lot so I planned on making one of my favorite foods from my house but I could not find the spice that I need to make it so I decided to make curry instead!!!! Ir was so much fun and it tasted so good!!! I was so happy to east something that smelled and tasted like moms cooking! Today we went to a mini pyramid and I was able to wright today because I was not able to yesterday!  We have not had many lessons this week a lot of people canceled but the few lessons that we were able to have were so powerful!!! I have learned more sign language to help our investigator who is mute and deaf. I love you guys so much and I hope that you are all doing well!!!

Hermana Wagner

Lot’s of Work! 3/2/20

This week was amazing!!!!!! We had an area attack  and during this attack we were able to find 13 new people to teach and 3 of them were families who are really really interested in learning about the church! During the entire week we found around 18 people to teach! We are super excited to  teach these people! It was such a miracle and a blessing for us this week because we had plans to baptism dates with a few people but they have not gone to church ad we have been trying to get them to come for a while. So we are really excited to teach them and see where it will lead us.

My companions birthday is on friday and I am planing something special for her with a sister in my ward! Two familys are going to work together to by her a cake and we are going to go to their house at 7:30 and when we enter they are going to turn on the light and they will be on a video call with my companions mom and we will sing her happy birthday! I am really excited for her because she really misses her family and this will help her a lot! I love my companion so much! She is amazing!!!!

The person who is renting our apartment to us, is a member of the church and his family is so sweet. For almost 3 weeks we did not have a refrigerator so our mission was looking for a fridge for us! So the brother was nice enough to put our box of food in his fridge for us. So every night and morning he would call us and ask us if we would like him to bring us our box of food. Every Morning when he brought us our food he would also bring us a bowl of fruit, yogurt, and granola for each one of us. This family is so sweet they always bring us food in the morning and occasionally in the evening as well. The good news is that we now have a fridge!! BUt when we got our fridge he stopped bringing us fruit in the morning, and my companion and I were like, well it was nice while it lasted, because as a missionary we don’t have a lot of money so fresh fruit is really expensive. Well we were leaving one day and the brother started talking to us and told us that he was sorry that they had not been bringing us fruit. They stopped bringing fruit because they did not have any, but that when he went to the store on tuesday that they would start giving us fuit again!! We are so grateful for this family and for all the love that they show us.

On thursday we had an area attack in another area and right after we had a broadcast that we were watching as a zone. So my companion and I and 4 other sister all spent the night in the same house with our mission presidents permission because we would have gotten to our houses by 9:30 or 10. It was lots of fun and we all decided to take a photo. The next morning one of the sister decided that they want to dutch braid my hair! I explained that my hair was to short and that it was in layers so it probably would not work. The sister decided to do it anyways and it turned out so cute and I loved it so much!!!

 Today we went to the mall because in the mall there is a Walmart and it is the cheapest place to buy food. We went with ceci, she is a member of the church and she always comes with us to our lessons! She is absolutley amazing!! Love you all lots!!!!!

 1.) sleep over!!

2 & 3.) My dutch braided hair

4.)We found some really cute stuffed animals so we decided to take a photo with them and use them as our faces!

5,6 & 7.) We went to the mall today and took photos with Ceci!!

8.) Ceci turned my companion and I into a meme (If you don’t understand the meme, ask someone who speaks spanish to help )

1.) I got stuck between a wall and a pole

2.) We found our triplet!
3 & 4.) My companion and I
5 & 6.) Ice cream that is not actually ice cream because it does not have milk or sugar and it is healthy. It tasted awful
7.) A sister in our ward with her niece

Hello!!!! 2/24/20

Hey all! I am doing amazing! I absolutely love my companion!!! WE are literally always laughing and always smiling. We have seen so many miracles during these past 2 weeks! durin the past 2 weeks we have found 17 new people to teach and we are hoping to  visit them this week! We are really excited to teach these people!

area like I commented last week is pretty big but my companion told me the wrong number of hours that it takes to walk from one part of our area to the other. It takes 2 or 3 hours. Also depends on how fast you walk! I am loving the people here and I love the area. We have a little bit of the city and a little bit of small town. It is so pretty and there are A LOT of people to talk to.

We have had  a lot of really good opportunities to be able to bless the lives of those around us! We are planning an activity for friday when all of the misisonarys in our stake will be in our area and they will be helping us to find more people to teach. I am still loving mexico!!! The food is amazing and the people are so much fun!!! I am doing really good with my spanish and i am so happy because it is so much easier to teach the people and they can actually understand me!!!

So as far as wierd or fun things this week. My companion and I played chubby bunny! It was really interesting! Neddless to say my companion beat me by one because my mouth was swollen because I have a tooth that is growing in and it hurts pretty bad. But it was so much fun! We plan on doing it again when my moth stopps swelling. My companion won with 11 and I with 10.  I found the cutest bunny pen ever! I love it so much!!!! Also my mission president has invited us to lend 2 Books of Mormon everyday. He also wants us to start marking the Books of Mormon that we will be lending. He wants us to mark them with scriptures that have helped us or with answers to questions that people usually have. So we put a sticky note with the questions that people have and write done the page number and where they can find the answer. He also told us that we should always have a Book of Mormon in our hand. I am so grateful for this invitation because it saved my leg and the leg of another sister! On thursday we had an activity in one of the areas of the elders. All of the misisonarys in the stake were there and we helped them to contact people and to find more people to teach. Well I was paired with another sister named Sister Peterson and while we were walking, we passed a medium sized dog. This dog seemed to be really upset because it started to chase jus and was trying to bite our legs. It almost bit the leg of Sister Peterson and the only thing that I had in my hand to protect ourselves was our Book of Mormon. So I did the first thing that I could think of…… I took my Book of Mormon and hit the dog with it! It did not want to leave so I hit it again and it finally left and went to bother a poor soul who did not have a Book of Mormon to protect herself. The Book of Mormon has a lot of power in more ways than one

I love you all so much and I hope that you are all doing well!! Remember that Heavenly Father loves you and he is always listening to your prayers. My invitation for you today id to read Alma 40! I love this chapter so much because it talks about if there is life after death and it has helped me to answer a lot of my questions in the past. I testify that Jesus is the Christ and that he loves every single one of you!

Hermana Wagner

Helloooooooooooooo 2/17/20

Hey all! So this week’s really good!! I had changes on monday and I am now in Tlalpan, with Sister Solano! I am so excited to be here and I love my companion so much!!! We are literally the same person! We like the same things and our personalities are the same and it is so much fun!!! We laugh literally everyday and when we get up at 6:30 we immediately put on music because we both know that we will not fall asleep when music is playing hahaha

    So this week was pretty funny! My area is huge, we can not walk from one of the area to the other because it takes more than 6 hours!So lets just say that it is a bit of a challenge but it is a lot of fun! Also last night we were eating with a family, and they offered to drive us home. As we were walking down the stairs I fell, and my companion caught me. I started to walk again, and I fell, and my companion once again caught me!! We found out that I had Jello on the bottom of my shoe. So I took my shoe off and walked down the stairs without a shoe until the brother could give me something to wipe off my shoe

         We also moved apartments on thursday!! It is small but comfortable. The only problem is that there is a high step that you need to take to enter into the kitchen and we found that I have to duck, because the first time that I tried to enter I hit my head on the wall above

 Right now we do not have a fridge! OS the wonderful members that are renting the apartment to us are keeping our perishable items in their fridge and the call us every morning and night to see if we need something from our food in their fridge! I also ate a grasshoper! It was actually really good and I a totally going to eat it agian!!

        As far as work goes, there is not a whole lot going on. But we have been running around like chickens with our heads cut off because our area is big and everyone lives so far a way! I am so excited to be in this area and I KNOW that we are going to see so many miracles in this area! I love you all so much and I hope that you all are doing well! Latley I have been studying a book called Jesus the Christ. I love this book so much and it has really helped me to strengthen my relationship with my savior! I would love to invite you guys to read and study this book! Byyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lots of love,

                     Hermana Wagner

Hello!!!! 2/10/20

Hey all! So this week has gone by really fast! My email today will be really short because I have 20 minutes to write! So on wednesday we took kan investigators to the temple! She loved it so much and she put a baptismal date for february. Right now I am in Tallalpan and I love my area so much! I love my new companion and am excited for these next 6 weeks love you guys lots!!!

Hermana Wagner