White Christmas

Hola hola todos!

This we week was happy/sad and everywhere in between. Hermana Kartchner goes home tomorrow, and Hermana Lamoreaux got transferred to San Raf :'/ but I get to stay in Woodland!

Today I picked up my new companion, Hermana Sandoval! Super fun!

Also Christmas was so so fun! The elders sang us carols, brought us cookies. Maria Garcia let us come over on P day and we got to watch a movie (we picked White Christmas)!!! We ate Chritmas Eve dinner with the Garcia family's with the elders, and the Garcia's gave us some gifts <3 Christmas was different but it was so much fun and I absolutely loved it! 

The spirit of Christmas is really the spirit of Christ. It's all about love, and giving. It is something that the world needs more of and something that isn't just confined to the month of December! When we serve others we are really serving Him. As we lose ourselves we find our true purpose and true joy in His gospel. :)

Los amo muchísimo, tengan un feliz nuevo año! 

xoxo

Hermana Wagner

Pictures: morning runs with the elders, the Garcia family, Christmas presents, the Christmas carolers, Christmas corner, and my hermanas <333

"Happy Christmas Harry" "Happy Christmas Ron"

Buenas a todos! :)

The subject is something my comps and I have been saying pretty frequently because this week is Christmas!!! Though we don't have any snow I have pie in the fridge, cookie dough in the freezer, treats on the counter, and truffles next to the microwave so we are set for a very merry Christmas;);)

Though we haven't been able to get out much this past week we have been able to share a lot of messages about the TRUE meaning of Christmas, Jesus Christ! It has been so special to focus on Him this Christmas season while being a missionary. 

One thing I have been studying lately are the names of Christ. It's been really fun to ask people what their favorite names for Christ are, and I would love to hear some of yours! Here are a few of my favorites:

- Emanuel: it means "God with us". This name was a prophecy of Christ's birth. ♡

- The Way: "there is no other way nor means whereby man can be saved, only through...Jesus Christ, who shall come...he cometh to redeem the world." (Helaman 5:9)

- The Living Water: "water is essential for life and is a symbol that Christ's teachings are essential for eternal life."

- The Mediator: "he [made] intercession for all the children of men; and they that believe in him shall be saved." (2 Nephi 2:9)

I love all His names for different reasons, and I love how each name highlights a different part of Christ's character. I think as we come to know His names and divine purpose we grow in the knowledge of our own. 

I invite you to give the gift of your time to the Savior this week, set aside time for Him. I promise that you will be able to feel more of His love and spirit as you learn about Him!

Les amo muchísimo! Tengan una feliz navidad! ♡♡♡

xoxo

Hermana Wagner 

Pictures: puzzle, tres leches, cookies, elders, hermana L, hermana K

HOMELESS!!! (NOT CLICKBAIT, I PROMISE)

Hola hola todos! Cómo le fue su semana? 

Our week was CRAZY! We finally moved into our apartment jaja just not the day we thought we were going to... on Tuesday we got so excited to move in, we packed up all our stuff and checked out of the hotel! ITS BEEN TWO MONTHS.

Long story short our phone blew up with calls and we found out something went wrong and we wouldn't be able to move in until Wednesday afternoon! So we were homeless for a night, when we finally moved in an alarm was shrieking we almost blew up, lots of crazy stuff (if you want more details and even read this far you can email me and I can explain hehe).

Also on Thursday we found out that our county is shutting down again so we can't see other missionaries, only one companionship can be at the church at a time, no street contacting, no door knocking, we can only meet with people if they invite us over :// so that's a bummer but our Facebook finding is about to go crazy!!! I'm so excited!!!

Not a stressful couple of days at all.

Hahaha I'm totally kidding it's been a bit stressful, but there have been SO MANY MIRACLES! Too many to count!! We've had so many good lessons too and I'm so happy to be here, right now, on my mission.

One of the coolest experiences from this week was with this girl named Ana. We met her last week when we accidentally knocked on her door. We ended up having a full on lesson with her! We left her a pamphlet to read and decided we would come back on Tuesday. When we went by she slipped into the house and her husband said she was busy but we could come by the next day. We were feeling kind of discouraged like she probably isn't actually that interested, and the next day we didn't end up going by her house for whatever reason. Then on Thursday I felt a prompting to put her in as a backup plan if one of our contacts that day fell through. Later that day that contact fell through and we came and knocked on Ana's door and guess what?! She answered! She came out and told us she had been waiting for us all afternoon the day before. She had read the whole pamphlet about the Restoration and wanted to talk more about it! She told us everything she read, and said she had actually met with missionaries before and wanted to start meet with us again. We couldn't stop smiling!!! It was awesome!!

I think I learned a lot from this experience but the two big things are: 1) Always follow your promptings. And 2) You never know how your testimony will affect someone, so share it! When we follow our promptings we show God we trust Him and we can be instruments in His hands. Even though it's scary sometimes you never know if someone has been waiting all afternoon for you. 

If you read all that just know you're awesome :)) Gracias por todo, les amo muchísimo! 

xoxo

Hermana Wagner

Pics: bye bye hotel, new apt., hugs from the elders, garbage juice

Random Questions From Mom

Will you still work at the church after you move to an apartment?

Definitely! The church is an oasis!

Will you still eat oatmeal when you have other options?

Haha yeah probably, its grown on me.

When you get sad or discouraged how do you pull out of it?

Pray, count my blessin's, read the scriptures... I sound like such a missionary but I've just come to accept that not everyday is going to be AMAZING but there is ALWAYS a miracle in every day and ALWAYS something good.

Do you ever draw on your mission?

YES I draw a lot actually:))) when I have time but it's very fun.

Beware of Chickens and Bad Drivers

Hola hola todos, qué pasa? 

This week flew by, and we had so many cool miracles this week! 

Exchanges: Exchanges were so fun! One of my Sister Training Leaders is Hermana Miranda (my trainer!!) and I got to go on exchanges with her! That's were the chickens and the bad drivers come in. You always see signs that say "beware of dog" but while we were walking and knocking doors we came across these two guys who had about 15 chickens in their front yard! They were nice but it definitely surprised me to see all these chickens run over to me on the sidewalk haha :) Another fun thing from exchanges was that I got to drive the car! It's been a while and I missed it! And don't worry there was only one almost bad accident so we're all good.

Juan y Fátima: Another HUGE highlight was our lesson with Juan and Fátima on Saturday! They are so so awesome! We just met them last week and we got to teach them the Restoration on Saturday! They were asking awesome questions, they've been reading the Book of Mormon, they've gone to church twice, and when Juan prayed he thanked Heavenly Father for letting him and his daughter learn about "His Church and His Gospel"!!! I couldn't stop smiling! It is so cool to see people who are willing to let God prevail in their lives!

Speaking of which, I recently was reading and thinking about President Nelson's talk "Let God Prevail" and what that means to me. I think it really all comes down to enduring to the end. We can't just let God prevail once, we have to continually choose Him first in our lives. Another way I like to think about it is continually choosing to be a little bit better every day. For me, letting God prevail in my life means being humble enough to change and to let Him use me as an instrument in His hands to work His miracles. I just wanted to invite you all to choose something little to work on and change this week to become a little more like the Savior. None of us our perfect, but as we include Heavenly. Father and Jesus Christ in our efforts we can be strengthened and see the miracles of change in our lives. :))

Muchas gracias por su amor y apoyo! Les amo muchísimo! Espero que ustedes tengan una buena semana! 

xoxo

Hermana Wags

Pictures: Foreshadowing, exchanges!!!, tree, pineapple, blue skies