Week 81

Elmer's birthday celebration! 

Well this week has been a tough one! not many people were found, but hey thats the work!  some days are hard and some times we have a great time and success!! I love the words of Helaman in his epistle to Moroni in Alma 58:33-35

33 But behold, we trust in our God who has given us victory over those lands, insomuch that we have obtained those cities and those lands, which were our own.

 34 Now we do not know the cause that the government does not grant us more strength; neither do those men who came up unto us know why we have not received greater strength.

35 Behold, we do not know but what ye are unsuccessful, and ye have drawn away the forces into that quarter of the land; if so, we do not desire to murmur.

37 But, behold, it mattereth not—we trust God will deliver us, notwithstanding the weakness of our armies, yea, and deliver us out of the hands of our enemies.

Helaman didn't know why he wasn't receiving the backup and supplies that he had asked for before! he was worried how he would do his job, but the thing that catches my eye is how his desire was not to murmur, or in other words they will not complain, as he later on says, " we trust God will deliver us." in our daily lives we are hit with alot of hard challanges and we wonder what is going wrong or what did I do wrong!  but i know that if we trust in God and we do not murmur, He will deliver us out of our problems in HIS own time! i know that this is true, and i hope that all of us can learn to trust in Him during the hardships so that one day we can say, 

40 But behold, they have received many wounds; nevertheless they stand fast in that liberty wherewith God has made them free; and they are strict to remember the Lord their God from day to day; yea, they do observe to keep his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments continually; and their faith is strong in the prophecies concerning that which is to come.

Its hard but it is possible. We just gotta trust in Him and He will deliver us up!  

And the rains finally came!!! And did they come... Oh man!!?

Flooding everywhere!

(Back to work)

Mommas Qs

1. it was a week of lots of learning and hard work! tough but very rewarding! 

2. i am feeling really good! healthy and happy:) 

3. i hope you like the videos this week too! 

4. yes we found Roxana! she is a great lady with a lot of desire to learn! She is a barber... 

6. today we are going to the zoo! Should be interesting to see what they have in a Peruvian zoo!

Love you guys! thank you for the support! have a great week and Trust in the Lord! 

Elder Wagner

Message to my mama:  

mom i gotta say, I LOVE YOU!!! everyday i think about how much you have done for me, it makes me miss you a ton but i know it will be awesome in a few short months to give you a big hug!! i am eternally grateful for all that you do for me.  i still cant find the words to explain it or express it but the best way i can explain it is 3 words

I Love You. 

Week 80

There is always somthing in the week that just puts it over the top! we had a lot of really cool experiences and learned a huge lesson on faith this week.  

One experience was with an old man that we work with that has become really sick. he has been in bed for weeks and his wife is really worried about him.... he is 91 years old and has a ton of medical problems.  when we went in his house this last week it just felt sad and hopeless.  We taught them the plan of salvation, with her by the side of her dying husband, a spirit of peace filled the room that everything would be ok! His wife shared her testimony about the plan aswell, that she knew they would be together again and that she had faith they are on the right pathway.  we shared our testimonies and the reassurance came upon us that the things we preach are true!  I know we do have a Father that is looking o¡ver us and knows all the things that happen in our life are for a reason.  He knows about even to the humblest testimonies and he is listening!  The most beautiful part of that night was this old couple, was recently sealed together in the temple of God for all time and eternity. There is no doubt this faithful couple will be side by side again one day with the biggest grins on their faces.  i know that this gospel is true and that families CAN be together forever!! 

Last weeks picture scavenger hunt photos 

Finally got some RAIN!!! 

Local jail/prison 

mommas Qs

1. greart week!! lots of work and fun!! 

2.  today we are going to watch a Disney movie!! and play ping pong! 

love you guys!!! have a great week!!!

Elder wagner

P.s 

still going strong breaking things! hahahaa we had a pillow fight and i took the light fixture off the roof.... i just have to tape my arms to my side so i don't destroy this house!!! we are all good nothing broke!! Thank goodness :)

Week 79

First week of the new change/transfer! a good one too!  a little slow... but still good! we actually had lots of really good spiritual experiences, and that is what made the week good!  one blessing of having the Restored Gospel on the earth is that we can constantly have the spirit with us and we can share that spirit with others! 

i think the highlight of my week was an experience that we had with Elmer, the boy that recently got baptized.  He is doing really really good and has actually blessed the sacrament these last two weeks, done it with the biggest smile and the up most reverence! it is a great feeling to see him up there! but what i wanted to share with you is what happened after he blessed the sacrament this week.  Elmer finished covering the bread and water like normal to end that sacred part of the meeting and he stood up and went to the pulpit!  To our surprise he had been assigned to give a talk, his 4th sunday as a member in the church!!!!! my comp and i looked at each other like, "what is gong on....." he gave one of the most powerful talks i have ever heard! he used a talk called, "what lack i yet" he shared a super stong testimony on how he doesn't know much, but he knows that little by little he will continue to grow in the Gospel.  the spirit filled the chapel as he spoke, wow it was awesome, he really is a true convert! the best part was after the meeting, we told him good job he laughed and we asked him why he was laughing and he said, "the funny part is i got all ready to got to church and when i got here, I FORGOT MY TALK at home!" hahaha, we told him that it was perfect! he did sooo good, and is truly someone that has been born again and who has entered the way of the Lord! We are so blessed to be able to witness his conversion! 

(Elmer)

now to laugh a little bit, on friday my comp turned 19 and the zone got together with a birthday cake..... But that cake was smashed in his face!  but it wasn't too destroyed so we ate it!  Then by Peruvian tradition, we went out side and drilled him with raw eggs and covered him in flour!! he was a disaster and the best part was that we still had to take a bus back to our house! hahaha so when he got on the bus all nasty covered in eggs and flour, i stood in front of the 12 or 13 strangers and said, "Good afternoon, I just wanted to say that today is a very special day for one of my close friends Elder Muñoz, its his birthday!!! so lets all sing him a good birthday song, ok?!"  and they all sang the song!! It was so funny....after i said, "thank you all for your help, if you have eggs feel free to throw them now!" we then sat there on the bus and just laughed the whole way home!! it was awesome!! 

(Happy birthday Elder Munoz)

(He was a great sport!)

(The zone)

MOmmas Qs

1. ya we are finding a lot of new people! its awesome we are getting better! thank you for your prayers!! 

2. umm i don't need anything really, just deodorant, i think:) thank you momma:) 

3. Elmer is the BEST!!!!!!

4.  my duties as a district leader are to teach classes every week and call/write down how many lessons each missionary had.   i am more of the leader on the spiritual side and a zone leader is a leader on the material side! 

5.  today we are going to do a picture scavenger hunt with the zone.... Should be fun! 

LOve you all!!! have a great week! 

Elder Wagner

(Even when he's lookin frustrated he's still cute, of course I'm biased!) ;)

Week 78

(Elmer's baptism from a few weeks back)

Well that was the fastest week of my life... its crazy, every week gets faster and faster! i cant believe how fast time flys when you are serving the Lord faithfully! 

This week we have been working really hard and trying our best to find new people to teach! we did have a few really good lessons,  answering moms first question, my favorite lesson this week was a lesson with a less active sister that is passing through a ton of problems. we have been trying to help her get to church but she feels alone because her kids don't want to go.  we tried to help her feel comforted and we taught her about the patience of the righteous people from the book of mormon.  God gave them a trial to test their faith and if the stayed firm they would be blessed. she felt the spirit and so did we, that it is true, that we sometimes are doing all we can and something hard passes in our way.. we ask "why now? why me?" but we need to understand that through the trials, we just become more firmly grasped to the iron rod, the word of God, His gospel and His truth!  that's why we pass through trials, and she came to understand that. she still hasn't come to church, but we know that little by little she will be with us in the house of the Lord.  This story is found in Mosiah 23 & 24 in the Book of Mormon! check it out! 

Mommas Qs

2. nope he didn't get transferred! we are still kicking butt! we worked hard and got a ton done too!  A bit of a change in our district, we shared the area before, but now we have all of it!!  it is easily the biggest area in the mission, we have to take buses all the time cause it would take at least and hour of walking one way! 

3. yes i got my return date! i will be home on the 30th of July.  i dont know what time, but i know thats the day!  Crazy!!

4.  we don't really have plans today, we are going to eat and chill out i think, at least for a bit before we get back to work this afternoon! 

(We got weights! Love it)

(Divisions with my man!! Hooked me up for dinner...) 

i love you all and i hope you all have a great week!! 

LOve Elder Wagner

Melting in the HOT Peruvian sun!!! Loving it! 

Week 77

Happy birthday to my allie girl! I love you sooo much! (Yes my checks are a bit sun burnt) 

well this week has been slow.... we haven't found many people... Just no one home.. but just got to keep going strong! we will pick it up this week. 

we are working really hard so we have faith that everything will work out.  

  we did have some good experiences though! so that always makes the week way better! 

one of the experiences that we had was with a Less active lady who is super awesome! we went to her house trying to figure out why she doesn't go to church... as we talked to her and followed the spirit we helped her understand she can do it! The reason she doesn't go to church is because she has no support from her kids or husband, we testified that she is never alone!  Christ is always watching over us. it was a really good feeling to see her understand a little more of the love of her Savior.  we are really never alone and the problems are always just for a brief moment like it says in 

D&C 121:7 and 8.  i love that scripture! look it up! 

then as you all know 2 weeks ago i had a problem with breaking things.... well good news! i didn't break anything this last week! hahaha but we had a small problem this morning....we were all good until we were going to get on the bus, i had the soccer ball at my feet and i told my comp "take it" referring to the ball, but he thought that i was talking about the bus, so he turned round without seeing the ball as it rolled right by his feet...  and with my awesome luck, that i have had here in this area, it went perfectly below the wheel on the bus and BOOM it exploded like a gun!  now we are without a ball... soo ya my bad luck breaking and poping things is still going strong!!! Yikes!!!:(

Cooking it up!!!Yummy:) 

 

I want to share with you that my mission has been the best time ever! seriously, i love it! i am excited for what is too come in life, but i am glad i am able to make the best out of what i am doing right now! i am learning soo much! 

MOMMAS Qs

1. our week was slow.. but we are good and happy!:) 

2. i will send them next week, i don't have time... 

3. our plan today is go play soccer and eat... classic pday in peru!! :)

4.  we get the transfers on this Saturday! i dont think i am going but i think my comp is, president is putting a lot of people with little time, as leaders to prepare them for the new president.  so i am thinking that he will go some where as a leader! we will see! president told me that he is using people with lots of time to train the future leaders so thats what i am doing, training a future leader! its cool:) 

5.  weather is good, (HOT) sometimes it looks like it wants to rain, but it never does!! i want rain really bad! but we will see!

well i love you all!! hope you have a great week!!! 

Love Elder Wagner