Espiritu de los mundos 2/3/20

So to begin with a funny story…  during one of our first lessons with one of the people we are teaching, I tried to explain what the spirit world is but I switched the words around because spirit world in spanish is el mundo de los espíritus, and I said el espiritu de los mundos, so in english I said the spirit of the worlds. Needless to say my companion and that sister that we were teaching were both buying of laughter

Anyways so this week has been really good! We had a baptism on Saturday and it was absolutely amazing! The primary and the ward council helped us so much and we could really feel the spirit in the baptism. My companion and I wanted to do a musical number but my companion got sick and could not sing. So the primary president asked me if the primary children could sing because my companion couldn’t. My companion and I had a song in our head, which was the song that we wanted to sing and the primary had decided to sing that song!! It was absolutely amazing!

    Yesterday something was said in a testimony that I absolutley love! They said “Desanimo es un pecado. Nunca dejar a ser feliz.” Which in english is kind of likee “Discouragement is a sin, never stop being happy”  I love this so much because really happiness is a choice! I have had some really hard experiences in my mission so far and I have always been able to find a way to be happy because I choose to be happy. There is always something positive to find in every situation!! I love you all so much and I testify that our purpose in this life is to be happy!!

Con mucho amor (with lots of love),

                                                          Hermana Wagner

1.) on Sunday we wore our matching skirts with our investigator. Cool fact, we can use these skirts as dresses

2.) I got to hold an iguana

3.) this is the canal by our house

4.) Today we went to the plaza and they had a really cool artificial Waterfall

5&6.) pictures from the baptism on Saturday

Hey All!!!! 1/27/20

So this week went by really fast!!!!! I totally scared my companion!!! She left the room to go to the bathroom, so I decided to hide under the bed…… she came walking back into the room and I grabbed her ankles from underneath the bed. Lets just say that she was more than a little terrified, but it was a good laugh!! we had a lot of fun this week. We have 12 people who we are teaching right now so we have literally been running around like chickens with our heads cut off. We had one baptismal interview this week! This little girl is 9 years old and she is so excited! She was literally beaming when she left the baptismal interview! She was so excited to tell her none member friend that she had passed the baptismal interview. Her friend then began to ask her what questions they asked her. So she started to tell him all of the questions that they asked her and then she told him all of the answers and explained why it was important. She was a great little missionary and is she helping to prepare her friends for our next lesson because we have been teaching her friend as well!

There is a place close to our house where my companion and I always by tacos, and they are really good. Usually we just order our tacos and we eat there or we will take our tacos to the house if it is late. Well on Saturday we went there to eat tacos again, but this time the people started talking to us. First someone asked if I was from Canada hahaha. I explained that I was from Ohio and then they began to ask me why I was here in Mexico. I explained that I am here to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I explained our purpose as missionaries. While I was doing this my companion started talking to a women next to her because she started to ask her questions. Everyone who was there eating tacos began to listen to us and to ask questions. My companion and I both started to talk briefly about what we believed and asked them if they would like to listen to our message. The two people who were asking us a lot of questions said yes and we put appointments with them. It was a really cool and interesting experience. We were just doing something normal, and they started to ask us questions which led us into the perfect opportunity to invite them to come closer to Christ.

Yesterday we were searching for some of the people that we are teaching when we saw a sister that has not been coming to church for 2 years, and we felt prompted to walk with her and talk to her. She was going to by pizza for her kids because they were hungry but only wanted to eat Pizza. We started talking to her about her family and asked if there was anything that we could do to help. She expressed to us her desire to go to church but, that the last time that she went to church that she began to have serious problems with her husband( who is member , but stopped going for a problem with a member) and that to save her marriage, she stopped going to church. While we were waiting with her for her Pizza, she decided to buy us tacos( although we said that were fine). After we finished eating our tacos, we started talking to the sister again, when another lady walked up to my companion and I and asked if we would like a taco(we did not know this lady and had never met her before) We told her that we were OK, but thanked her for the offer. The Lady left and the sister that we were with looked at us and said “You should have contacted her! It was the perfect opportunity!” My companion and I were so focused in this sister that we missed and opportunity to bless the life of another child of God. But in this moment we were blessed to feel the love that this sister has for all of God’s children. We were able to feel the desire that she had to help in the gathering of God’s children, and she showed us once again that no matter what situation we are in we always have an opportunity to share the gospel. I testify that every single one of you, have the ability and the opportunity to bless the lives of those around you and to share the gospel. You do not need a missionary name tag in order to share the gospel with those around you. My invitation to you this week is to share the gospel with someone in a natural situation, and to pray every day for the opportunity to share the gospel with someone this week! I love you all so much!!!

Con mucho amor (with lots of love)
Hermana Wagner
1.) a friend from the MTC
2.) my companion and I with Luisa, who will be baptized this Saturday!!

Hola! 1/20/20

Hey all!! This week has been so good!! Marco got baptized on saturday and received the Holy Ghost yesterday! He was so happy and although he was not smiling in the pictures he was smiling a whole lot after the pictures. His mother was so happy and kept on telling us how this was a miracle, and how she had been praying for this moment for about 7 months now. My companion and I did a musical number for marcos baptism and it was so powerful! It was so much fun because it was a song that I love to play and it is called “Oh My Soul Hungered” we were able to find the words in spanish so my companion sung the song in spanish as I played the piano.

     Yesterday we had 5 people that came to church with us and that was probably one of the biggest miracles that we have seen during this week! There people that came to church were Osvaldo, Luis, luisa, sara, and mateo!! We were so excited to see them all and they all loved being their and are excited to come next week as well! We have been visiting a family who is less active and they have been coming to church with us but this sunday the mom was not able to come to church so all of the kids came to church without their mom! It was so cool to see these kids take the initiative and come to church because they wanted to and not because their mom made them.

      We put dates for baptism this week! One of them is named  Karla and Virginia! they were both pretty excited and it was the first lesson that we had with Karla and it was the first time that we had met her mother Virginia. It was such a cool experience because the spirit was so strong and they were both really happy and excited.

     We are also teaching Rodolfo and 2 of his kids Denise and Cesar. We had a really good lesson with Denise and Cesar. We were talking to them about what it is that we believe, and we asked them what they felt like they needed. Cesar who has 10 years started to get tears in his eyes and told us that he needed and missed going to church. It was so sweet! This little noy expressed to us his love of our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ and then asked his mom if he could go with us on sunday. His mother told him no, but told us that she would take them one these sundays and they were so excited! This lesson that this little boy taught us was so powerful. He taught us that no matter what happens in life that we need to continue to remember the love that our Heavenly Father has for us and the love that we have for him. As this little boy said “We love god because he loved us first.” I invite you all during this week to look for the blessing in yourlife and the little ways that Heavenly Father shows his love for you. Every morning when you wake up, ask yourself “How will I show my love for my Heavenly Father today?”Love you all and I hope that things have been going well for all of you!!

Lots of love,

                     Hermana Wagner

1.) the four sister missionarys on a bus

2.) Marco at before his baptism

3.) Brother Sergio and his grandson Donava

 

Hola Hola! 1/13/20

Hey all! So this week has gone by like a whirlwind!! I can’t believe that it is already P-Day again! This week has been amazing! Marco has his baptismal interview and we are finishing the program for his baptism! He is so excited and his countenance has changed completely. He smiles, laughs, spends time with his family, and is always asking us questions with a real intention to understand and listen to the council to give. He will be baptized this Saturday and we are so excited!

     We visited a family this week who has been less active for 2 years and we took the time to talk to them and see how we could help. Turns out that they just stopped going to church because the kids didn’t want to get up in the morning. We invited them to come to church again and they all seemed really excited. When we got to the chapel they said that they felt so much peace and that they really enjoyed being there again!!

     Another one of the people that we are teaching is named Lourdes Flores and we have been inviting her to come to church for over 3 weeks now, but every week something happens to keep her from going. On Saturday in the evening we called her to remind her about going to church on Sunday and she confirmed that she would be going. When we called her on Sunday she was so angry and upset about some things that happened with her brother. We quietly listened over the phone and then gently told her that we felt that going to church would help her to feel and find peace. She decided to go with us and the talks were literally for her!! She told us after words that she had really enjoyed the 1st hour of church and that the talks that the people gave helped her so much and that she looks forward to going to church again this sunday! I am so grateful for the opportunity that we had to help her to find peace during this trial!

     So today we went hiking up a hill to see the sunrise at 5:30 in the morning! It was so pretty and it was a lot of fun hiking up there. Funny story is that there are a lot of stray dogs here and one of them decided that he wanted to eat my glasses. So they are now a little beat up and bruised  But, I can still use them and they don’t look that bad.

        Also our president felt that we needed to have our Zone Conference early so we had it this past thursday. It was awesome and an amazing opportunity to receive revelation and to talk to some of the other sister and elders. My companion and I participated in an activity where they tied a string around my left ankle and her right ankle. They then had us put our backs together. They then put a blown up balloon in between our backs. Our goal was to make it to one side of the room to the other without dropping the balloon and to put the balloon in the little basket, three times. Well we thought that it would be so easy!, and boy were we wrong!! I am taller and bigger than her, and at one point it felt like I was dragging her across the room. We started tripping and I lost one of my shoes. I took of my other shoe and we started working together and doing what we could to be coordinated. Although we did not win, it a really interesting experience. The same thing happens in life with companions, roommates, friends, church leaders, parents, and spouses. We are stumbling along the path solely focused on getting to the end of our objective. But when we slow down and take the opportunity to try to understand them and work together, you begin to remember that we are all part of the same team. Our goal, is to return to live with our Heavenly Father. All paths are different, some seem more rocky than others. Some may lose their way and lose the shoes (footsteps / Path) that Christ has prepared for us. I encourage you all to remember that we are all beloved Sons and Daughters of a Heavenly Father who loves us. Help others to find their path, find a way to work WITH them, and not do all of the work on your own.

With lots of love,

                           Hermana Wagner

Hey All!!! 1/6/20

Oh my goodnes!!! This week has been amazing!!!!!!! I don’t even know where to start!!! Well………………….. I have to start somewhere soooooo Lets start with the least exciting thing first and put the most exciting thing for last!! Mwahaha!!!

  So I am still alive and doing well!! Now onto the exciting news!! MARCO HAS A BAPTISMAL DATE!!!!!!! I am so excited that I can literally not explain my feeling!! The missionaries have been waiting for 8 months for him to be baptized! He has changed completely; he is reading the scriptures, spending time with his family, paying attention at church, praying, and keeping the commitments that he makes! He has started to feel the spirit and really started praying to know if the things that we have been teaching him are true. We have put his baptismal date for next week on the 18th!

   We are hoping to put three more baptismal dates within the next three weeks! We are making plans for our investigators and for how we can help them! I am so excited for these next few weeks!! I can’t wait to see more of the everyday miracles and blessings!!.

   We had a few Family Home Evenings with some of the members and they were so much fun! It gave us an opportunity to show our love for them and that we are there to help them in whatever way we can!! I love the Come Follow Me program so much!! I am excited to continue to do Come Follow Me program, especially with our investigators. My invitation for you guys this week is to read a talk by President Thomas S. Monson called “Be Strong and Courageous” I love you guys so much and hope that you are all doing well!! Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happ New Year!!! 1/1/20

Hey all!! Happy New Year!!!!! This week has been really good!!! on saturday we our mission Christmas Party!! It was so much fun! Each Zone had a skit or a song that they sang. It was good to be able to relax and enjoy this time with our mission president and his wife! We also got a lot of really Good food!!!! WE have started teaching a girl named Azul! She has 15 years and we she is really excited to listen to us and we are excited to teach her. So far we have only had a quick 5 minute lesson but we will be having another lesson with her tomorrow.  We have a few other people that we are teaching but we have not been able to teach them this week because everybody left for vacations to be with their families.

  I don’t know about you guys but I am so excited for the Come Follow me program for this Year! We will be studying the Book of Mormon and it is the perfect opportunity to invite friends to read it with you. Come Follow Me will help to explain the Book of Mormon and will help people who are not Members to be able to understand it more! As Missionarys we are really excited to do Come Follow me  with our investigators! One of the people that we are teaching has a really hard time understanding the Book of Mormon and with this program he has been thinking more about the Book of Mormon and he has been able to understand a lot more

    I am so excited for this New Year and for all of the New Opportunity and that everyone will have!! My invitation for you guys this week is to find someone to serve and invite that person to serve someone else. Be creative and find a way to brighten the day of someone everyday!!! My companion and I will do it with you guys!! I will share these experiences with you guys on monday and I look forward to hearing about your expierences!! I love you guys so much and I am so grateful for the wonderful opportunity that I have to serve the lord and brighten the days of eveyone around me everyday! Love you all Lots!!!

      Lots of Love,

                             Hermana Wagner

Merry Christmas 12/27/19

Hey all! I apolagize that I did not write on christmas. I was not able to access my email because the computer that I was using was not working, so I am writing my email today!

    This week has been so good! We have had so many miracles this week. One of our miracles was that we were able to start teaching a man named pascual! This is a miracle for us because we have been teaching his wife for more than a year and he has never shown interest and has never participated in our lessons. We are now teaching him and he has been reading the book of mormon, and praying with his family!! We are so excited to see the changes that he will make!

      We have also been able to visit a lot more people and we are hoping to put some baptismal dates this week! Marco is one of our investigators and it has been interesting teaching him because he has so many questions but does not want to act and do the things that he needs to do to receive answers. But he has changed completely!!! He has stopped drinking and doing drugs and he has started to spend more time with his fammily! He is reading the Book of Mormon and he is praying to see if the Book of Mormon is true, and he is praying to feel the love that Heavenly Father has for him and he is really searching to recieve the answers to his questions!!

    My Christmas was pretty interesting! We spent Christmas morning painting and cleaning the house, because the Land Lady said that if we don’t paint the house that we will need to find another place to live. So our arms are a little sore but the house looks really pretty and we will not need to find another house!! On Christmas Eve we went to a members house and had a Family Home Evening with them. It was so much fun because they were talking about how they have seen so many missionarys go inactive after their missions and they told us that they did not want us to go inactive. So they invited us to write on a sticky note what we will give to Christ this Christmas and to put it in a place were we will see it a lot. They told us that when we have trials or when we feel frustrated to read the sticky note and to remember what we said that we would give to Christ. personally on my sticky note I wrote that my gift to Christ this Christmas is my life and my will. Basically that I give my life to him and will do everything that he asks me to do! It was a really cool experience and gave us a chance to really think about what we will give to christ every year and what we will do to show our love for him!!

Hellooooooooooooooooo 12/16/19

Hey! So this week has been awesome!! We have been talking to a lot of people and inviting them to our activity this thursday!! We have started teaching a man named Jonathan and he really has a desire to change! We had such an amazing lesson with him. We started to talk about the Atonement of jesus christ and how through baptism we can be wiped clean of all of our sins! He started to cry because he was so excited about the possability of be wiped clean and starting new. I have been so excited this week because we have started teaching more people! We had over 20 missionaries in our area because we had them come to help us find more people to teach! It was so much fun and we had 7 new people to teach! Today my companion and I went to a market and it was so cool! There were so many really cool things that were hand maid and it is a great place to contact people and invite others to come unto christ. There was also an exhibit of Leonardo De vinci and although the painting were not the origional it was still really cool to see and I was so excited!! It was so cool to be able to see replicas of the things that he made and painted and to be able to read about it! During these next two weeks until Christmas, I want to invite you guys to share the gospel  with a friend or a neighbor and share your testimony. It does not have to be something big or a lesson with them. You guys are amazing and I love you all so much!!

12/9/19

So this week was really good! We contacted a lot of people and we are working on finding other people this week! I love the Light the world campaign! It is an amazing opportunity to invite people to come unto christ and to brighten the lives of those around you!  On saturday we were contacting people and asking them if we could give them a passalong card of jesus christ. One person was walking slower than a snail but he started to tells us that he was running and didn’t have time to stop and talk. We told him that that was ok and that we could run  or walk with him. He literally ran away from us. We laughed really hard after that, it was sad but funny at the same time! We visited one of our investigators this week  and he ahs started to change! He is starting to read the book of mormon and actually search for the answers to his questions. He went to church, but usually when he goes to church He just sleeps and does not pay attention. This sunday he was paying attention and said that he really liked what was said! I am so excited because he is actually starting to do the things that he needs to do to recieve his answers. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be here and to see the lives of those around me change! I love you guys so much!

12/4/19

Hey all!! I apologize that my emails have not been long I will do a lot better about that I promise!! This week we contacted a few and have some new people that we are hoping to start teaching! I started reading “Jesus the Christ” and I love it so much!!! It talks more in depth about the premortal life and gave me a new perspective or understanding about christ and who he is, and what he did for us! We have had a few lessons this week and they have been really good! This week we are hoping to extend a baptismal invitation to 1 or 2 of our investigators!! It is my companions birthday today, so we changed our P-Day to today and we went to the temple!!! I literally almost cried because I was so excited! The temple is literally my home away from home!! My companion is awesome!! Her name is Hermana Solorzano and she has been teaching me how to cook things for EL Salvador, and they are so good!! I am so excited to learn how to cook some other things!! We are also going to eat tacos for her birthday and I am so excited because the tacos here are so good and so different!! I am so excited to visit more people this week and to see how they are doing and how we can help them! One of the sisters in my other ward made me a dress and I reacieved it this week! I love it so much and am really excited! We also went to the temple with one of our investigators (Marco) on sunday, because here in Mexico they put Christmas lights all around the temple and it is so pretty! Every year they have a Christmas devotional and after the devotional they turn on the lights and they dont turn them of agian until Christmas is over! It was so cool to be able to go with them to the temple, because they spirit was so strong and they made comments about the songs and our investigator now wants to learn the songs and read the scriptures that are at the bottom of the hymns. Marco needs to learn english so I have been helping him with english and my companion and I have also taken this time to talk to him so that we can find out what he really needs and how we can help him. We have also been doing alot with Light the World! It has been so much fun to contact people and tell them about LDS.org and how there is a calander and on every day of December it gives and idea for something that we can do to come closer to christ and to share his light. We contacted a lady in the street and we were talking about christ and she was not interested at all and told us that she didnt have a lot of time and needed to go. We then really quickly told her about the website and the calander and everything changed. She got really excited and was excited to see what the calander said and to brighten the days of other people. My invitation for you guys this week is to read the talk “Put Your Trust in the Lord” I read this talk this week and I loved it so much! As I have been on my mission I have realized that we as missionarys can not work with out the members. We need your help to find people to teach, and to talk to the people that we teach and befriend them. The missionarys need your testimonys and the spirit that you can bring in the lessons that they have with their investigators. With out the members it is so much hard to find people to teach. I invite you guys during this Christmas season to talk to your friends about the gospel. It can be something simple like asking what you guys can do to serve the people or other friends, or share the calander of light the world with them. Ask the missionarys if you  can go with them to a lesson. When I went to lessons with the missionarys before my mission, it really helped me to know how to teach people and how I can share the gospel in simple and natural ways! I love you all so much  and am so grateful for all of your prayers!

Lots of Love,

                       Hermana wagner