This week has gone by incredibly fast. The ward is really beginning to like us a lot! we have dinners scheduled for the next month and a half it is a miracle! Also the work is really moving along as usual when we got here the elders were not working with anybody, but now we have got appointments scheduled almost every night. We are still Working with the family from Uganda and have a meeting with them tomorrow. Now that we have all these people that we are working with now we just have to sift the wheat from the tares. I have a feeling that I am going to be here for a while which I am perfectly content with. I love Woodbridge it is busy busy busy with all sorts of different people.

   Alright funny story time. Elders do this thing sometimes where they have pictures of girls they are staying in contact with and they show them off to other Elders. This happened once in Farmville and it was a picture of a highschool graduation picture of somone in a ward this Elder had served in. I thought she was quite cute but I also thought it odd that she was writing him because this Elder was very interesting. He talked about how they have future plans and stuff and I was a greeny so I didn't really know anything. Any way so fast forward to yesterday. We are at a members house and I was looking at the pictures on the wall of their children and one of them was the exact same picture that I saw in Farmville. I asked the family if they new a "certain" Elder and they said yes. "We even sent a picture of our daughters graduation photo to him and his companion because we thought they were nice." The light bulb went off in my head and I started laughing really hard. I explained to this family the experience that I had 8 months prior and how this elder thought he was going to marry their daughter. The whole family looks at me shocked. Then we all start laughing. I feel bad for that Elder but is to funny not to share. 

   Miracles continue to happen here. I have knowledge that when we pray in faith for something and it is a righteous desire and we then go out to accomplish it God will answer our prayers. Its just a fact. I have seen it time after time. The only problem is that we have to remember to do it. Recently I have been constantly checking myself to make sure I am applying all the things that I have learned because if we don't use it we forget it and if we forget it we might as well have never had it in the first place. I remember in Elementary school they taught us how the government is full of checks and balances so things don't get out of control and so we must do with our lives. Check yourself before you wreck yourself! Love Elder Wagner

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

   

                              

Hey family! Sounds like things are going well. I really love how you are reaching out to others in any way you can. Whether it be service, facebook and media! That is absolutlely fantastic. Our mission got to watch meet the mormons before it came out and I loved it. It will be a great tool for members to use. Soo use it! ha ha

   So to be honest this area is really tough and I am having a hard time with my companion. I have to drag that guy around everywhere and he always tries to do things that take up time that don't involve real missionary work. He is doing his time not the work and it is really hard to be the guy who has to hold everything together. Every companion that I have had before there have been rough patches, but we always had one thing in common we just want to get out there and do work. This guy is just ineffective and lazy. I could go on and nit pick about all the stuff that goes on, but it will only make me more frustrated. It sufficeth me to say that I probably need to pluck the beam out of my own eye. We do get out and work though so I can't complain. 

   The work here has been way slow. I know there is someone here that is seriously looking for the Gospel, but so far we have not found them. As far as stories go the only interesting thing that has really happened has been people trying to bash us. And since we never get the opportunity to really talk to anybody I sometimes indulge myself ... I know it is terrible. 

   Yesterday though we had a light shine through the dark. We were tracting a pretty rich neighborhood with little success. Until we knocked on B's door. He opens up and we immediately start talking about how families can be together forever and ask if he would be interested in hearing a message and he was like "ya, it is actually funny you guys came by, a couple days ago I found out that I might have cancer and so I have been thinking about that exact thing, come back next sunday in the afternoon and we will talk." Me and Elder R were just like Yes SIR! So there are little miracles here and there that I am very grateful for.

   Recently I have also really been valuing personal study. I learn so much everytime. The lord gives us so many tools to better our lives, but one thing that Dad pointed out that is the best tool is simply charity which I have really been lacking lately. I need to love my companion more, I need to love the people in our area more and I need to love the Lord more and acknowledge him in all my doings. Be grateful for everything you have and give the Lord thanks for it and you will begin to love life. That is my words of wisdom love -Elder Wagner

Here in VA things are kind of slow but we have found some new people to teach and are working really well with the ward. I don't know if I told you this but this whole next week all we are allowed to do is read the Book of Mormon. President wants us to finish it in a week and it is exhausting! But really cool at the same time. Something I have noticed is how much it says "Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandment ye shall prosper both spiritually and temporally. And Inashmuch as ye shall not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off." It is so simple and so important! I bet ya it says those words or something along those lines about 50 times in the first hundred pages haha. It must be important or something!

   Oh yeah and S got baptized!!!!! I wasn't able to make it to hers but in the first lesson we invited her to be baptized on the 20th, but we had to push it back to the 27th. She is no longer smoking, or drinking! it is incredible she has been trying to quite smoking for the last 50 years and all it took was some desire, a couple of meetings with the missionaries, and a ton of prayer. It is a miracle. I am writing her, F and R. I am going to stay in touch with them as long as I can So that when I get off the mission I will know where to find them if I ever get a chance to make a visit. Well that is all the news that is news Stay strong and carry on! Love -Elder Wagner

Hey Family I will just jump right into it. BYU played UVA which is the big school in Charlottesville. So I was glad to hear BYU beat them. I heard from the members I heard it was pretty close, which is unfortunate, because I wanted BYU to utterly destroy them so that this place can learn how to be humble haha, but I guess " I ought to be content with what the lord hath allotted me." Quick quiz! What chapter and verse is that quote form in the BOM???

   This past week has not been easy. The area I am in is very country and it is not easy to find people to teach and it is hard to get members out with us ase they all live so far away. Driving from one end of the ward to another takes an hour and a half! However we have been teaching quite a few people. One of them is  someone who I will just refer to as B. 

   She wants to be baptized but she is in a very complicated living situation that she needs to move out of before she can. She is practically dependent on her ex boyfriend who doesn't like missionaries who hates her but won't let her leave. And there are 3 kids involved.. it makes me sick. The other night we felt we should stop by and it turns out we caught them outside in a heated argument about whether or not we should come over anymore. When he stormed off  B came  towards us and started going off about she is not going to lose us ( tears were falling down her face as she said this) and that we can only come by during the day and her ex isn't home. 

   Just then the guy walks towards his shed and begins to tell us that we are home wreckers and that he is going to call the church on us. The only thing that went through my head at that point was to control myself and keep my mouth shut. What I wanted to do was have me and my Hercules of a companion walk over there and show him what the word "wreck" means. Ohh but that is kinda of a hard one when you have the saviors name written across your chest. Anyway things cooled down and we are still teaching her. Keep her in your prayers she needs everyone of them. 

    Besides that nothing to crazy has happened just walking, knocking and talking to folks who claim to be die hard Christians but when asked "if there was more to learn about Jesus Christ would you want to know about it? and they say "no thank you I am comfortable with my beliefs." I just want to shake them while saying "He who hath ears to hear let them hear!!" Sometimes I do say that but it is pretty much pointless by then. The Best thing is just to smile and leave. 

   Hey Dad I am very interested to know more about your families conversion story! Could you share it with me sometime?

   I love you all and am proud to be apart of this family - Elder wagner

Quick week in review.

 A ton of stuff has happened this week. I will just blow through it super quick. We interpreted a blind mans dream, found one of investigators totally messed up on the side walk, made a full grown man cry when we asked him what his purpose in life is, met the missionary who baptized my companions parents 15 years ago, tracted in a torrential down pour for 2 hours with nothing save our testimonies, told a man that he is a modern day Pharisee, casted countless pearls before swine, Set a lady named Sheree on date to be baptized on the 20th of September, as of yesterday she has quite smoking, bought some awesome shoes, gained a greater faith in Christ and his redeeming qualities, and biked.

   That sums up my week you are in my prayers love -Elder Wagner

transferred

Sept 8

Being transferred! and two baptism planned  :)

I am getting transferred!! I have been in the Lakeridge 2nd ward for almost 5 months I love everybody there so much. I'm pretty sure I also know everybody better there than I do back at home haha. I cannot possibly imagine a better ward. Don't get me wrong I am sure there are better but there was something special about this one and I will come back to visit someday!! I know everybody says that, but I really am going to try super hard too.

   Oh hold on a second I will be back this weekend, because Flavio is getting BAPTIZED! I got a member ride and everything already. We have been working with him this whole transfer and just yesterday he finally made the decision. We had a grand scheme. We knew it would be fast and testimony meeting and those can be absolutely great or just the opposite. So instead of leaving it to chance we called a ton of people the night before who we thought that their testimonies would be beneficial for Flavio. We then called the Zone Leaders and set up a baptismal interview right after church so he couldn't escape. And it all worked out and he felt the spirit from some awesome testimonies as well as throughout church. Then afterword's we asked if he really did want to be baptized and he said Yes! So then we were like ok great meet Elder Johnson down the hall way in 2mins, he will be conducting your interview haha.

   He really has progressed a lot and he is super ready. His girlfriend is going to temple square to serve a mission and now the next step is to just get him to go!! Man that would be the best thing ever.

   So the following weekend I will be coming back to this ward again for Sheree's baptism! She is awesome within three times of teaching her she had a full testimony of the BOM Joseph Smith and the church. She could have been baptized in one week if it weren't for cigarettes. But in a week in a half she will be ready.

   At the beginning of this transfer I was pretty down and frustrated with the lack of  progressing investigators, So we pretty much dropped everybody and looked for those who were willing and ready. We knocked on practically every door in our area and from that we found a lot of potentials, many investigators, and 2 people who have been prepared. This work is hard mentally physically and spiritually. Sometimes I find myself thinking how am I even doing this right now, but there is something about knowing the truth that pushes you to do things you never thought possible.

   I do not know where I am going yet but I am sure It is where I need to be. Remember the church is True and the book is blue ;) Love Elder Wagner