Called to Serve

October 27, 2014

I got a lot to say so I will just dive into it. My new companion is Elder P. I actually served around him in Charlottesville and we get along quite well. He is a hard worker, obedient, loving and happy. So Mom yours and my prayers were answered! 

   So we are shotgunning an area. Which means we don't know anything, and we don't know anyone. This last week has been just trying to figure out what is going on in the Dale City area. We still don't even know our address yet haha.

   The last elders that served here pretty much just sat in the apartment for 3 months straight so we are practically opening a new area. Our days have been filled with tracting, visiting members and trying to get in contact with way old investigators. I can't say any major cool things have happened. We are just trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

   It is especially hard when neither of us have a GPS or a map. So we have gotten lost quite few times. What has made it even worse is that our bikes got stolen the other night. We left them unlocked for a very short amount of time and we came back and they were gone.... So that is unfortunate. Though there are some bikes that we can use for a little bit so it is all good. My time is limited so I will leave it at that. The church is true and the book is blue. -Love Elder Wagner

November 3, 2014

 Dad you crack me up. It is actually really funny we taught this guy named J for quite a while and he said he used to steal bikes all the time ( I'm pretty sure he still does haha) so I was going to call him up and ask for some advice but I lost his phone number. Dang it! I am riding a sister bike right now and probably will stay on it till it breaks down. I took a picture of it, but I forgot my camera, More pictures next week I guess!

   Sounds like you had an interesting experience with the missionaries Mom. It is quite frustrating for us missionaries when people cannot recognize the spirit, but the thing is that people will recognize the absence of it when the missionaries stop coming by. So either way they are influenced by it and then it becomes their choice if they want to feel it again.

   As far as being converted you should read a talk by Elder Bednar. He explains pretty well that being converted never ends and that so long as you are making progress you are good. I have to tell myself that quite a bit. The more I ask Heavenly Father to help me improve the more I notice things that I need to improve on. Before the mission I never gave it much thought. I thought I was a pretty good kid and I was to some extent. But now when I am the best person I have ever been in my life as far as trying to develop Christ like attributes, I feel so inadequate. Ether 12:26-27 clears up that mess pretty quick though so it is all good :)

   This week has gone by pretty quick. We had a cool little miracle. This week me and Elder P have done away with logical finding. By that I mean when ever we go tracting we used to just pick up where we left off from the day before. But after a powerful zone meeting we realized that is not the way God would have us find his prepared children. Instead, everyday we pray for God to send us to specific area and then when we get there we pray again for God to guide us. Then we turn into Finding Machines. We look for any sign of movement in the neighborhood, Talking to every single person we see, knocking random doors on nothing but a whim, and being incredibly persistent with people. We know that God sent us their so to pass up any opportunity or impression would just be plain out crazy.

   Immediately after we tried out this new finding technique. Crazy stuff has happened. We were doing just this when we biked into some strange *coltasack. We passed up about 5 houses talked to a guy who was definitely not interested. Than knocked on a house a couple houses past him. A teenage girl who is from Uganda opens the door and Elder P goes into the usual door approach. She tells us that her family is Catholic and that they probably would not be interested. She begins to close the door when I say "Mam we have the most important message that you could ever hear in your whole entire life please would you spare a short amount of time to hear it. She Contemplates for a little then motions for us to wait. She walks inside the house and brings out her father. He comes out and says in his Deep Ugandan accent if you are talking about Jesus you can come inside my house. We go inside and he motions for us to enter. He then calls his whole family up consisting of 4 children and then says please share your message with us. Me and Elder P then taught him and his family the restoration. He was taking notes the whole time and his family was intently listening. It was a powerful lesson and we set the whole family to be baptized on the 29th of November to which they said yes to. We walked out of that lesson thinkin what the heck just happened? Experiences like that where the whole family is involved in the first lesson rarely if ever happen. We were no doubt led there and I am grateful that God aloud us to be the Elders to find them.

   Other miracles have happened but they are also long stories. Simply put the Lord will provide. I love you all and am grateful for everything You have done for me. Love ya! Elder Wagner