The Unthinkable!

The unthinkable has happened.

This week has been going on like normal yeah yeah all is well. Then I
get a little tickle in my throat. No problem! Pop a cough drop in! Mmm
but then it gets a little sore. That isn't too weird that happen to
people all the time. Oh and then I wake up and I sound like a boy hit
puberty! Well that is unfortunate! Things must go on! And I can just
laugh about how my voice is cracking and I'm coughing a little but
more! All is fun and games until I up and loose my voice come
yesterday! FOR REAL!? Talk about things that I DO NOT have time for!!
I woke up yesterday and things were not doing so good...whispering my
life away..and that takes A LOT of air so I would be getting dizzy all
the time because I don't shut up. And so my companion calls the nurse
and was like HEY my comp is struggling.. And she was like mmmm She
needs to stop talking completely. WHAT ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I mean I'm
sister Wagner.. Talking is my life here.... SUPER not fun being a
missionary when you can't teach a lesson. And then when your comp is
teaching and you want to make a comment and so you write it down...and
by the time you write it down...the comment doesn't apply anymore. It
is just super inconvenient.. And that is an understatement.

*Before this next story, quick side note: just before I got here, the
Elders in the next town over (still in our Ward though) and the
sisters here switched apartments for safety reasons*

So this week we get a call from the Elders. Then they proceed to tell
me that they received my "Trunky Papers" AKA my flight itinerary.
Opened it.. And then decided to read to me all my flights and layovers
over the phone. Aren't they just the greatest!? I mean I didn't mind
too much but we were just talking and then I go speechless! Things are
getting just too real up in here. I mean.. You know the time is coming
close..but when you are holding it in your hands and all that..totally
different story and emotions come over you. Not gonna lie.. had a mini
break down. But of course no tears..#Heartless Oh and for those of you
who may not know.. I will be home in like... Uh.. 2 weeks or so. if
you want to know more just ask :)

Sometimes as a missionary you have to clear out some Ward information
and you need to track people down, Sadly this week out partner in
crime, Mallory wasn't with us..so yeah we are all dressed up and
hunting people down. Just like the FBI or something epic like
that...but not exactly because we don't have the means to not get
lost..or not find an address..So we take a little journey that
shouldn't take us that long...into the middle of no where. And it was
quite the adventure full of mishaps. NEVER have I ever driven down a
road...turned around...drive to the other end, turn around...just to
drive back and finally find the house I'm looking for! Another
example.. My companion getting blood drawn from a dog..NOOO she didn't
get bit...the cute little dog just wanted to scrape it's nasty
paw/finger nails into her legs! #IWearTights #BodyArmor It took us
only the whole afternoon to try like 4 houses to only be successful
with about 2. That is half of the fun of being a missionary!

Redefining Trunky: For those who do not know what trunky means..It
simply means just thinking about and planning what you will do...at
home. So this is the question that I keep receiving. Sister Wagner,
are you trunky yet? Now.. There is an Elder in my ward, Elder Bennett,
who goes home, back to the land of Canada at the same time I do. And
now for missionaries going home there is this amazing program the
church has made called: My Plan. You work on it during your study
time..and what do you do for this you ask? You make goals for what you
are going to do when you get home. This week I will be setting goals
and making plans for "Dating and Temple Marriage" Elder Bennett and I
had a nice discussion about how we need to redefine the word trunky
because now the prophet has directed us to think about all these
things that would once classify us "Trunky" missionaries. And for the
record. I'm still working out here people. :)

I hope that you all are having an amazing week! And accomplishing all
of your New Years goals! Hopefully you actually still remember them.
Remember..a goal not written down isn't a goal at all! :) I love you
and miss you all!

-Sister Wagner

Gettin sleepy!

The time of my mission is starting to fly by so fast I can't keep up
with the things that happened and I have no idea what to even write
about come Monday every week...so these last emails of my mission
aren't going to be that great. Haha Life gets busier, faster, and more
tiring as things go on so just a pre-warning that these might be less
than stellar.

So my hero, Mallory, once again came to my rescue all the way from
Jasper to be our little helper and to keep me alive. It was SOO
awesome to see her and spend time with her as we made the incredible
journey to see 15 less active members that the we as missionaries in
the Frankfort Ward hadn't met or wanted current information about. So
the Elders, knowing Mallory was coming to drive us all around,
complied a list of people that we needed to see. 13 in the town awhile
from us and 2 more in the sticks of the town. We make our journey...
Trying all of them in less than the time we were expecting. Oh man, as
a missionary you meet some crazy people, bless their hearts. But it
was good! As we tell the Elders our accomplishments, they were quick
to give us an additional 5 people to our list of visits that day. We
busted those puppies out too making a whopping 20 less actives visited
in one day. To say we killed it would be an understatement, we are
just total bosses. Although none of the people wanted us to teach a
lesson to them...we still got valuable information :) #MissionaryWork
We only had one terribly awkward run in...but I'm going to leave that
out of this email. Ask me about it sometime, it was pretty hilarious!

Sometimes you meet totally amazing people on the side of the road,
like this one man we met this week, Ryan! He was so kind and eager to
listen to what we had to say and he invited us to come back! So we
drop by later in the week to talk to him about the gospel and his wife
was home so he invited us in! What a kind man! We sit down and talk to
him for a little bit, I don't think his wife made eye contact with us
once! And we even tried to be nice and talked to her and everything!
Ryan said that she wasn't having a very good day so we left it at that.
We set up a better time to come back because well, happy wife happy
life..so because she was in a bad mood, we are going back later this
week! We walked out of that place after about 5 minutes and I think
anyone would have thought we were smokers! Goodness I love Kentucky!
It's times when you walk out of a place like that smelling like an
angel that I really love what I do and where I'm doing
that!...seriously! Cigarette smoke defines my mission!

Imagine, we just had an extremely revelatory meeting with our mission
president, we are happy, spirit filled, and tired, but still have some
work to do! Not to mention we had just cleaned our car for inspections
that were earlier. On our way to an appointment we decide to take a
little detour to try someone that Sister Spiteri had met awhile back.
We pull in and I nearly charge over this dog that comes running down
this hill into the driveway. And then comes 2 more that I nearly take
out. But I didn't, have no fear. So Sister Spiteri knows that me and
dogs don't get along, and that it's situations like this that just
make my dog bite tingle! She takes one for the team and goes to get
out of the car first. She gets out. And the dog nearly jumps in!
Putting its nasty mud paws on our seat. The damage was minimal. And
then I open my door and get mauled by this muddy golden Retriever.
Thank goodness for my coat or I would have been in trouble! Luckily my
lovely companion took hold of the situation while I was trying to hold
myself together and not kick the dogs. We survived, the lady was nice
enough and she took care of the dogs so that we could leave without
hitting them, or them killing us.

ALRIGHT!  Well I hope you are doing well! Have a fantastic week!

-Sister Wagner

Life Happens

Can you all believe the fact that it is already 2016?! The craziness
of that just blows my mind out of the water.. Here's to writing the
wrong date for awhile. I guess it kind of just stays the 31st of
December for a couple more days because I keep writing it in my
journal haha. You think that as you get older that you will remember
that the year changes..but every year it is the same struggle with
lots of scribbles in your notebook. But besides all that.. This year
is going to be a blast and I'm hoping you all set some killer goals!
:)

This week started out not so pleasant. Sometimes you just have to wake
up and puke ya know? Yeah... That was my life last Monday... Trying to
email through nausea is not an easy task.. You get kind of distracted
by, oh, I don't know, feeling like you are going to die. I stopped
puking by late morning, (sorry not sorry for this image) So I figure,
HEY! They work has got to go on! Sickness is never an option on a
mission, you have people to see and appointments to make! So 6 o'clock
comes around and we head on to our appointment with a less active
family. We get in there and she offers us food, I declined. And for
good reason too, I was hurtin'! The lesson goes on we talk about the
Book of Mormon and I'm sitting there playing footsies, kicking my
companions leg, desperately trying to get her attention that we need
to wrap up this lesson before something seriously not pretty goes
down. We wrap up and start for the door. The kind lady just keeps
talking to us and I keep on walking, smiling and nodding being
grateful for her time, but not stopping to have any extra reason to
stick around. My lovely companion however just has to share some love
turning around and giving the lady the attention that she wants. I
keep walking, out the door and down the steps, only to look back and
see my companion still laughing and carrying on. FLIP, I'm about to
blow and she feels the need to be all little miss sunshine! I keep
walking, I walk to my side of the car that is parked on the side of
the road, and I just loose it. If anyone says you are safe from puking
if you haven't puked in 8+ hours. They are wrong, I will attest. Thank
goodness it was dark and no cars were coming because I let it blow in
the middle of the road. Lucky I'm smart and packed my tooth brush just
in case something happened. Brushing your teeth in the street, under
the street lamp is just such a magical experience. #GoodTimes

Mallory, My beloved Mallory, my trusted friend, and sidekick, came
down from Jasper again to see me this week! And with that..there is
always an adventure. Like that moment when you are going to go find
this person in the random hills of Kentucky and you are still scared
from your terrible dog attack last September, there might be some
PTSD..I'm not sure.. And so when you pull up to this country house with
two dogs barking you want to just hide in the car..but that doesn't
really cut it in the missionary world..so I get out with my life flashing
before my eyes...to find out both the scary barking dogs that weren't
tied up.. We're handicapped. HA..ooops. That was not our only run in
with dogs that day unfortunately. SO run in #2 we were trying to find
this address in the pitch dark in the middle of nowhere once again
#Kentucky and we pull into this driveway of the people we were looking
for and flip it was the worst because there was this big cage with
HUGE German Shepard barking their heads off..and then there comes that
moment when you just have to get out of the car anyway and knock on
the door.. And the dogs of course hear that and go more bizurk! Then
as we knock on this door we hear this guy just saying something to us
and we try and reply and nothing was effective communication because
they left the door shut..so we left our card, and ran to the car.
#Creepy

Meetings. Church meetings are sooo fabulous! Unless you are a sister
missionary...and people just forget to tell you that a meeting isn't
happening and so you have an hour before church starts and you don't
know what to do with yourself cause you can't use the miles to drive
home.. #awk. It wouldn't be so bad...if It had only happened once. HA.
Jokes. Nah that was last week. This week we go to church at the early
time cause we were told we had Ward council. So of course we go! And
there is only a few people in the room...all of us confused we send
someone to assess  the situation. Just another one of those
times..that we are stuck doing studies at the church because they
forgot to let us know. Gotta love miscommunications early Sunday
morning!

When you're a missionary, few things compare to having an investigator
at church! This week, K... came!! Which I'm sure you all are thinking
"YAY! Congrats sister Wagner!" Yeah, you could say that..but then feel
bad for a second. Cause it was nearly a class 5 disaster. Sacrament
meeting was amazing, she loved it and felt the spirit, and even went
out of her way to help some members of the Ward and introduce herself
to them. But it's the moment that second hour of church rolls around
and you go to class, and the lesson on repentance goes a little
astray. And then deep doctrine comes up, like outer darkness, or...
That moment when your investigator makes a passionate comment about
addictions and then someone shoots her down...then she gets defensive,
and then the person takes another jab at her... and then you as the
missionary are just sitting there praying that they are going to want
to come back to church so everything and everyone has another chance
to redeem themselves. Yeah, it's missionary life. Thank goodness for
those members who will come to the Gospel Principles class just cause
and save the whole situation from falling apart.

This week I also ate Black Eyed Peas. So that was my southern
experience this week. They were like the texture of beans..with the
taste of peas. It was probably the weirdest experience of my life.
BUT. I did it. HA. See that mum, I try things! :)

ANYWAY! I hope that this finds you all happy and well I love you all
so much! I want to leave you this week with my short and simple
testimony of the enabling power of the atonement. Missionaries, are
tired. All the time, and sometimes it feels like you can't really go
on anymore. But I know that strength comes even when we are tired and
can't press forward anymore if we rely on the sacrifice of our Savior.
He truly died to carry us through the times when we would rather just
sleep, but we can't. And that is a blessing that I will always be
grateful for!

Have an amazing week! Miss y'all but time is running out here in KY so
I'm just going to enjoy it while I can! :)

-Sister Wagner