See you in TWOO days!!

Well, this is it.

I can't believe it. My mission has come to a close as of tomorrow. And
Wednesday I will be on my way back to the 207. I have absolutely loved
my mission with everything that I am. I am so blessed to have had the
chance to serve the Lord.

This is going to be short because, hey, I'm going to be home in two
days. YIKES. I just wanted to wrap it all up by leaving with you all
with my testimony.

On my mission I have seen the gospel in action. I have seen how Christ
can literally strengthen us in all things. He can lift us up. He is in
our lives as we let him in. God answers prayers. He cares. How blessed
are we to be under the care of a perfect being that knows exactly what
we need at all times if we are open with him and trust him.

My mission has straight up changed my life. Not a day will go by ever
in my life that I will not be grateful for this opportunity.

God Bless Kentucky.

I will see you all soon! Like really. 2 days.

-Sister Wagner

Daniel Boones Grave with the Frankfort Missionaries!

UH HOW MANY DAYS? (1/25/16)

I have no shame in the fact that this email is going to be a complete
bust. I prepared you all for this sucky email a couple weeks ago so
here it is.

This week we met an angel. This angel is Celine! She is literally a
light in a dark alley! SO this area is like a struggling puppy. Yeah,
that's how I'm going to describe it. It's hard! and the Work is
exhausting. Sister Spiteri and I have been busting out trying to find
people to teach, our efforts have been less than successful. BUT we
haven't lost faith. So this week the Elder, bless them, through a
series of events came in contact with Celine, they couldn't teach her
so they let us know about her. woot woot! SO Celine lives across from
member who has been sharing the gospel with her! So she has been
reading the book of Mormon, and LOVES IT! We had a really a really
great lesson with her, one of those lessons that makes missionaries
just love what life is about, love the spirit that the gospel brings.
Just such good stuff. It would be even spiritual for the fly on the
wall! Then we got to see her later in the week, and had a lesson on
temples..our second lesson...about temples..what the heck that doesn't
happen!..unless that person has been prepared. yup. that's it.

Tow-away. Lucky, because of the Goodness of our loving God our car was
not towed away! So we go to contact this referral and because of all
the snow we were stuck parking on the side of the road. And so we walk
around to this mans house, to give him the bible for his son. We walk
away and I realize! What the heck! Where was my testimony for this man
perishing in unbelief! I walk away in sadness. Realizing what I have
done, and then I get in the car, pull out, and then sister Spiteri
goes uh sister..look at this sign! "Tow away zone" and then I look
behind me, A COP! I was 5 seconds away from not being in my car and
being towed.

But yeah! So his email was a flop! But I will see you all next week :)
have a great week!

MUCH LOVE,

-Sister Wagner

P.s. We survived the snow. It was a pathetic storm.

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

Holiday Wrap up!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! As of this week! It's just holiday after holiday! And
the perfect time to set some goals. Honestly...anytime is a good time
to set goals..but especially this time of year! Because we are able to
really refocus on what we can do to improve. This week at church they
took the opportunity to talk with us about what we can do this coming
year. And we discussed what goals we can make to help us all "come
unto Christ" That is the best thing that we can possibly work on
because he is whom we all desire to emulate a little more in our
lives. So I challenge you all as you think about your goals this year,
that you really think about what you can do to come a little closer to
Christ in the 2016! Because it is really upon us! :)

This week with all the Christmas Spirit...which is truly the spirit of
Christ.. You would think that people would be super eager to have us
around! HA..jokes on us! Cause this holiday season there was so much
hussel and bussel that there was hardly anything for us to do!
Everyone was just to busy to hear about Christ this CHRISTmas. Sad
times. BUT! Missionaries are never defeated. We made things happen
whether people are agreeable or not! Good times :) But in all
seriousness, Even when people done answer the door, Christmas time is
awesome because we get to represent Him whose birth we celebrate! And
that is a very blessed thing to do!

On Christmas Day we got to have brunch with the sweetest older lady,
Sister Swain. She was so kind to have us over and we ate together and
she showed us all these nativities that she had collected over the
years and they were truly breath taking. She showed us some of the
coolest art work that her mother had done, and some of the wooden
carvings that her father had done before he passed away. It was
amazing! I really need to develop a talent in the art world because
it's so cool! Then for Christmas Dinner, we went over to the Funke's
house! She is a sweet lady in our Ward who is always willing to look
out for us. SO many Ward members took care of this season and got us
little gifts of appreciation. That was so sweet of them to help us
feel  more loved, even though it isn't about that at all.

Serving this time of year is such a great blessing. Don't kill me for
saying this mum, but I'm grateful for the chance to be a missionary
over 2 Christmases!

What causes a missionary to stress out more than anything else? Great
question! It is super hard to narrow it down. But I would say up there
in the top 5 would have to be limited miles on our car. Each month we
are allotted a certain amount of miles that we can drive. This is
particularly a hard situation at the end of the month.. When your
investigators live far away, and it is raining! Pull on those rain
boots, get out the umbrella and get ready for a walking adventure in
the dark! :) #Goodtimes

That was a little glimpse into my Christmas week! :) I hope that you
all had an amazing time reflecting on the Savior this time of year and
pray that continues throughout the rest of the year as you set some
goals to better follow Christ this coming year!

I love you and miss you all! Thank you for your prayers of strength
and encouragement! Have a very blessed week!

SHOUT OUTS TO:
My Aunt and Uncle! Thank you for the package!
And!
The Frost family for the lovely package!

MUCH LOVE,

-Sister Wagner

12/21 Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!  I know that Christmas isn't actually here,
but because this is the email you will be reading just before
Christmas I need to make sure it was said. Because I think I have
forgotten a couple holiday shout-outs and because this is the most
important of all.. It had to be thrown out right at the beginning!
🎅🏼🎄🎁

This week I can finally update you all on K.... Devine! Hopefully you
all remember who she is...To refresh I think for the second time, I
taught her in my first area over a year ago, then when I was moved to
this area, she came into my mind, and then The Elders went and saw
her. Okay, That brings us to right now! This week! Because the Elders,
are on bikes, and that is a new thing that they are on bikes, they
have control of moving their area boundaries. They were NEVER able to
get out and see K....! And so they called the Assistants to the
President, and they made K....'s area, ours! And so we called her
right up! And she told us to come by! It was AMAZING to see her.

A year ago.. She was falling apart. She could barely move, she was on
tons of medications, she was always in pain and was miserable. She was
always pleasant and kind, but you could tell that she was fighting
inner battles with herself. Now this week we stop by. She comes to the
door, bouncing walking and completely bubbly! She was friendly and
excited, off her medications and she had a clear mind. It was a night
and day difference. It warms my heart to see the differences that she
had made in her life. It is like teaching a completely different
person. And she gave us soap that she makes! She is a genius. :)

This week was also the Mission Christmas Party! It wasn't even the
whole mission, but it was two zones! Needless to say it was the bomb
even though We were cut . We played some killer games and it got
really competitive. OBVS my team won.  There was no competition what
so ever. When you have sister Wagner on your team you are bound to
win, no matter what. Except for those times when I don't win. But we
just ignore those times.

I wanted to contribute a bit of my email to our beloved Savior. I know
that Jesus Christ is the son of God. That he was born so that we can
over come the things of this world. Our mistakes and wrong doings, our
sadness and heart breaks. He is there so that we can feel relief in
our uncertainties. We are blessed to have a Savior. And blessed to
have a loving Heavenly Father who sent his son as a gift to us. And
this holiday season I hope you all remember that! Have a blessed
Christmas!

SHOUT OUT TOOOO
.. MY LOVELY MOM!
..AND THE KILGOUR FAMILY! :)

MUCH LOVE!

-Sister Wagner

Me and my mission bestie Sister Rez taking a selfie!

Ugliest sweater awards!

 

12/14 EMAIL COMEBACK

This week has been a week of adventures..or something.. Surely this
email is going to redeem last weeks by a long shot. If not, well then
I deeply apologize. It was definitely a week of awkward moments and
laughter so hopefully you are feeling the vibes of this email!

SO it's 8:30 at night, it is dark and of course our plans fall through
and we are headed to visit a member of the ward that we want to get to
know better. So we go and our lovely GPS, Michelle, Took us to what  I
am going to call "Hill of Doom" that has the idea to just completely
destroy the lovely Subaru. So we come to the hill to find out it is a
one way and that we are one the wrong side of it. GREAT! So thanks to
Sister Spiteris amazing backing up skills we overcome the "hill of
doom" and so does our lovely car, which the elders have named
"Waffle." The story continues, we head the alternative route just to
find ourselves in the middle of this neighborhood with all manner of
closed roads and we move ourselves about just right and get to what we
think is  the members house. We pray. Get out of the car. And then all
our car alarms start going off. It's cool. We get ourselves together,
and headed to the house and it was the people that we were looking
for! Thank goodness!

Next adventure. We found  this really awesome kid named Denny. He had
gone on Mormon.org and said that he wanted to be a missionary and
asked for missionaries to come by. OBVIOUSLY we go by! And out comes
this 18 year old! And we are like WOAH! And we teach him! And then he
tells us to come back the next day! SO we confirm with him. *Side note
here: Sometimes it is a struggle to be a sister missionary because
sometimes people seem a little too interested if you know what I
mean..so sometimes it is hard to decipher whether they like the
message...or if they like you.* There we are driving to his house when
we get this text: "Hi can we do the lesson in the car tonight"  and so
naturally in our minds we are like flip what the heck are we going to
do in this situation...We play it cool and tell him about the rules
and such and ask him why he would ask that...Then he said it was just
cause his dog barks... hmm interesting. We get there and we end up
doing the lesson on the porch of his house and it was awesome! And we
totally set a baptismal date with him! And we had another lesson with
him later in the week. And he is actually genuinely interested! So
that's fantastic! :)

I never want anyone to tell me that I cant speak Spanish ever again.
Listen to this: Okay so obviously I struggle at Spanish, even though I
tried REALLY hard for the 4 1/2 months that I was teaching Hispanics
up in Jasper. But I guess in that time I actually did learn something!
Imagine, a nice day, Sister Spiteri and I walking down the road when
we see a lady raking her leaves! *Another side note: Seasons are
messed up here so the weather is like early October right now* And we
start talking to her when oh snap, she doesn't speak English. SO I whip
out my limited Spanish skills and she said that missionaries could
come back and talk to her! HA. I'm so good. Thanks Heavenly Father for
making that one happen...cause in all reality..I cant speak Spanish.

That same day in our adventures of walking around in the fall weather
in December, please understand that I'm not kidding when I say
that..the other day it was 68.... We met these two little girls! And
they called us pretty, gave us hugs, and then gave us candy. Does this
fall under the category of taking candy from strangers?

Automatic window fail. Car automatic windows don't work when you want
them to..but at the most horrible times. We were having another late
night adventure in the dark trying to find an address. 80% of the
skills you learn as a missionary I think fall under the category of
finding addresses in the dark.  We come up to this round about and are
suck because this huge moving truck is completely blocking our way..
and so we just kinda sit there contemplating our lives..when this guy
comes up to our window. I roll it down like a champ, and then we are
talking and while he is telling us that he is the husband of the
person that we are looking for, I bump the button and it starts
rolling up my window in the middle of our conversation! Oops... turns
our the lady that we were looking for was moving the next day and so
we got to wear pants and go and help! :) It was awesome...plus she
gave us like all the food from her freezer that wouldn't last the 4
hour drive. #perks

Sometimes you have no motivation to cook..or you are just forever away
from your apartment come dinner time and need to figure out what to do
with yourselves. Taco-bell is always a good choice. So last week at
 Taco Bell I found a piece of paper in my burrito! What the heck 
Taco Bell..so we were fighting. But this time we were hungry and so we
were like..Tacobell is quick we will give it time to make a come back.
So we go...and order.. and wait....and then we were talking and some
man comes up to us, and he is like, "Man, I'm buzzed, you don't come to
tacobell and order $53 of food unless you're buzzed!"....needless to
say... 20 minutes later we got our food cause the 3 people that were
working were busy making the drunk man's food.  Thanks Spike for
making us late to our appointment. Yeah, his name was Spike.

Margret was this nice lady we met on the side of the road the other day
and she told us to come back and see her! WE go to her apartment
complex for the older people.. and cant get in any of the doors...it
was like a prison kind of...and then on top of that..no one was around
or making any sounds at all.. and we were just wandering the halls of
this place confused and there were so many doors we just had no idea
what we were doing. I guess sometimes you can tell that we are lost
because this old man wearing these awesome flip-flops came and guided
us to the right place. Thanks flip flop man!

It was a good week! Also.. transfer calls were on Saturday..Sister
Spiteri and I are both staying right here in Frankfort...That means
it's officially my last area...with my last companion...and the last 7
weeks. It's gonna be great!

Bring on Christmas! I hope that you all are having an awesome holiday
season and that thins are going so good for everyone! I love you and
miss you all! Have an amazing week and please remember our Savior
Jesus Christ and why he was born. He was born for each one of us to
overcome mistakes and sadness, he was born so we could again live!
And live in the presence of God. Life is good because He was born and
that is something to rejoice in! :)

SHOUT OUT TO EX-COMP HERMANA MAGALEI that girl is a champ and
completes her mission honorably this week and flies all the way back
to the promise island of Hawaii. LOVE YOU SIS!

SHOUT OUT TO MY AWESOME GRANDPARENTS! Thanks nana and papa for the
Christmas package <3

peace and love my friends,

-Sister Wagner

Gotta love the Capitol District. Elders Gaskin, Passmore, Salazar,
Burr, Bennett, Grossman, Jolly and then us sisters :)

Christmas time on the mission <3 our little tree

12/7 FLOP OF AN EMAIL

This weeks email will be a bit non-entertaining and not long at all!
Haha This week was an elder in our wards birthday! And so today has
been a series of cake and cookie making and shopping! So forgive me
for this!

This week the biggest miracle of all was Alison. She is straight up
one of the most amazing people that I have ever met and she is
completely inspiring. This week we were on exchange with the sister
training leaders, and I was able to be with Sister Taylor, my MTC
companion from back in the day! And so it was a good day! And we went
to try some less active members and when we got there..this woman
opened the door..and I knew it wasn't the people that I was looking
for... So we told her who we were and she started talking with us and
she has so many questions about religion and God and told her some of
her heart aches and trials. The gospel was her solution. We knew it
and the coolest part, was she did too :) This week we saw her 3 times
and the lessons were amazing and she was excited. She even came to
stake conference this week!

This week at stake conference, and Alison even came to that! It is
amazing to see the great peace that someone can find just by learning
about the gospel. And in one of our lessons with her, we invited her
to be baptized in January. She said that March sounds more do able to
her so we agreed, wishing that it wasn't quite so far away. But at
stake conference we felt impressed to have her talk to our mission
president who was there. IT was amazing because he asked her when she
was getting baptized and then told her that she needed to get baptized
sooner. It was soo cool! :) And she felt the spirit in such away that
she agreed and realized that she too wanted that experience sooner! I
love being a missionary and seeing the light that the gospel gives
people who don't have any sign of hope.

This holiday season, I mentioned last week, that the church put out a
video about the birth of our savior, #ASaviorIsBorn. That video is
amazing. This week we have had the chance to play it to others and
they have just lit up at the message of our savior that is being
presented to them. It is amazing to see what the Savior has done for
so many of us and how he has touched our lives individually.

SHOUT OUT  to Jordan! Thank you so much for your letter! I really
appreciate it!!

Have a great week y'all! I love and miss you! And hope that you are
feeling the special spirit of this holiday season! :)

-Sister Wagner

US with the STLs

 

 

YUP! It's a castle!

(All names of investigators have been changed)

11/30 TRUE KENTUCKY

Okay! Things in this area go in massive tidal waves of activity. So
last week was slow and the email was short, but this week things
happened! :)

Monday nights are ALWAYS interesting because then i am forced to wait
to tell you all! SO  we went to a lesson with a person we had met
once, Kate! flash back!! The Spanish Elders found her for them, and
we followed up and set the appointment pretty quickly and left! flash
forward! We go to the lesson. And Kate comes and we are talking to
her and asked if she had read the pamphlet we left her! and she said
yes and we got talking and then KATE walked in..WAIT WHAT..YEAH turns
out brilliant as we are, we had been teaching her sister who looks
SUPER similar...and she knew who we were and had read the pamphlet
because Kate had told her to..so we had been teaching Missy. Gosh,
our lives. That is what happens when you have a lot of kinfolk!
Sometimes as missionaries, if you aren't careful you will teach the
wrong person because they will look an awful lot alike. #weareidiots.
BUT! We ended up catching Kate up and setting a baptismal date with
her! That is how it is done people. #win

Also, remember how a couple weeks ago, I had this major revelation on
this person, K....., who i taught in Corbin, but sometimes she would
live here? WELL.. Update, the Elders found her! and they got ahold of
her! and will be seeing her this week! :) And then hopefully I will
see her soon! It is amazing how aware God is of his Children, he will
place them in your path again if they are there for you to help!  :)
God is Great.

We are teaching this man named Nathan. Nathan is one of the most
interesting people that I have ever met. He is quiet and goes through
a lot of  things that the average person wont understand. And so he
tends to be a little more..."dark" if you will. He believes very
strongly that he has been asked to defeat all evil. And so the
question that he asked us as we were teaching him... if it would be a
bad idea to look up things about cults and witchcraft? which of course
we said "...that might not be the best thing to do, let's fight
darkness, by bringing light into our lives" And so this week we have
been studying a lot about light, specifically the light of the gospel
and the light of Christ. And it has been really interesting. When we
have the light of Christ in our lives, the things that are possible
are endless and the peace that we feel nothing will be able to match it. Darkness will never overcome light, light will always penetrate. And in the
wise words of a friend of Sister Spiteri.. "don't look for Gods truths
in an environment where they can not be validated by the witness of
the spirit" #LIGHT.

This week MALLORY, my dear friend from the world of Jasper Indiana
came to visit us this week :) She spent the day going around with us
and we had a few very interesting encounters. We go to find this man
named Ryan, a less active member. And we come to this road in the
middle of no where... and we drive up this mud driveway that is a hill
and we get to the top, just to see this truck come up behind us and
this man with a killer beard as the driver. We say a prayer before we
get out of the car, which I said "Heavenly Father please bless that
this man doesn't have a gun, or that at least that he wont shoot us."
And then during the conversation he was telling us about his friend
and his friends hunting abilities, and then he tells us "I don't even
own a real gun, just a pellet gun" HEAVENLY FATHER HEARS PRAYERS :) I'm
so blessed! He was an extremely kind man too!! :) I love Kentucky!

Apparently, my stone heart is beginning to soften, which may or may
not be good. I have been driving my companion up the wall trying to
talk about feelings, thoughts and life. It's like I don't even know who
I am anymore. #heartless #maybenot #thereishope

We met this ADORABLE little old lady this week! The same day we met
the man without a gun! So we were out in the Kentucky sticks and we
had no service and we pull up to this what looks like abandoned house
that matched the address we were looking for! We look around and we
see this broken barn, and then we see a cat...and then another
cat...and then another, and another... And then we are starting to be
a little freaked out..and we see this bag...hanging from this
tree...and we are convinced at this point that we are gonna see a dead
woman in this house that has collapsed and been forgotten. BUT! We
knock and enter to find the cutest, frailest woman I have ever seen in
my life. She tells us about her life and how her grandparents crossed
the plains and how she is her with her children and they live around
and they need the gospel. And she was hilarious! Example: She goes:
"Here, let me buy you lunch take this" *hands sister spiteri 20 bucks*
"No it is really okay!" then she goes "It wont be okay, not until you
take this!" haha needless to say this lady forced us to take her
money. And then She kept telling us to "take a cat" cause she didn't
want them..She was the sweetest!!! But we couldn't take a cat..

Turkey day was a blast! We got some naps in, and some delicious home
cooked food! We got 2 dinners, there is nothing like it! and
therefore, we almost blew up..It was worth it! :) We were taken care
of!

SHOUT OUT:
THANK YOU NANA AND PAPA FOR THE CARD YOU SENT ME FOR THANKSGIVING!!
THANK YOU DAD AND BRENDA FOR THE EARLY CHRISTMAS PACKAGE!

That moment when...
..it still isn't that cold
..you have a heart to heart with your comp
..you rearrange and it's a total fail
..you survive two thanksgivings two years in a row!
..you learn how to take off wall paper

I hope that you all are doing amazing and had an awesome week and
holiday season! Check out christmas.mormon.org There is a new
Christmas video out to celebrate this new season that we have now
cracked into!

Love and miss you all!

-Sister Wagner

Gotta have the comp selfie; she puts up with a lot

Gotta love when one of your favorite sisters, Sister Resendez,
randomly stops at your place!

11/23 Jump up to Jasper

This week I had the amazing pleasure of heading back up to Jasper to
see Jane  be baptized!! It was amazing to be there and see the
excitement on her face as she entered into the waters of baptism.
Anne is now not the only person in her family to join Christ's
church!

This week has been a long blur. It happens I cant even handle myself!
We are just so busy working with the people in the area I'm loosing my
mind! I have been making goals to learn all the people in the area but
I cant seem to keep their names right in my head! haha They all get
jumbled up!

This week we had interviews with our mission president! He is amazing!
And so hilarious. He was able to teach us how to better introduce the
book of Mormon to those who we meet. It was inspiring. He practiced on
us and I left feeling like I wanted to read the book of Mormon over
and over again and tell everyone about it. I know that the Book of
Mormon is the word of God and can bless our lives and help us come
closer to God.

We were able to have a lesson with this woman named Tess. She hasn't
been to church and forever. We were able to listen to her as she
shared with us her experience of finding the church and going up and
down with  her relationship with God. She was truly inspiring. That is
the amazing thing about serving in this way. The people that you meet
will change your life because of their stories and the things that
they have gone through.

Sorry if this email this week is totally lame! it was just a really
slow week! :) I love and miss you all!

I love these people #baptism

Capital Building

 

11/16 FORT OF FRANK

This is it everyone! I am officially out of Jasper and in the capitol
city of Kentucky! Frankfort! Many of you might think it is Louisville
because for the longest time I did.. #fail Not going to lie though, my
heart longs for good ol' jasper. You truly don't know what you got
till it's gone.

Frankfort is amazing! We cover TONS of area...I'm talking the whole
ward boundaries. It is completely insane. There are 3 sets of
missionaries in the ward. Sisters, Bike English Elders, and the
Versailles Spanish Elders. Needless to say, there is a lot of work to
be done and a lot of people to be taught! We are just busting out
miracles up this way and making things happen #hollah But let us put a
spin on this WHOLE THING. This area was whitewashed essentially
because of safety. SO The sisters moved from Versailles, and came to
Frankfort, we switched places with the Versailles Spanish Elders
SO...we have no idea where anything is..or where to go..because part
of where we live is the bike elders so it has been a real journey..
CRAZY planning. But hey. What can you do about it right!? Just gotta
roll.. even when it feels like your head is going to be what rolls
off..

My companion is Sister Spiteri! (SPIT-TERRY) She is from Utah but has
lived all over! She is super creative and is majoring in Art! :) She
has been on her mission about 14 months! So we are right around each
other in field time! It makes things easier because she knows what she
is doing! SO that's good!

Oh.. I could go on for days about the car I drive in this area. mmmmm
mmm. MIKE be jealous right about now.. I have the pleasure of being
the driver of a 2015 SUBARU LEGACY. dark gray with dark interior. Oh
man this puppy looks so nice and drives even better. It kind of sets
up any car I will probably ever be able to afford for utter
failure...but I will live in luxury for now. I will take a picture of
it and send it next week as proof.

The area that we work a lot, Versailles, is horse country. It is
absolutely breath taking. We see these million dollar horses ALL the
time. And the pastures and barns are almost as beautiful as the
horses! this is why I love Kentucky. It is good to be back in this
area!
Not to mention a mall is 30 minutes away and there is some actually
shopping right  near by. HALLELUJAH!

This week..revelation was received. Back in Corbin, KY I was teaching
this woman named K....! She was super sweet! And she sometimes lived
there and sometimes lived in another town. And we would teach her
while she was there. I haven't thought about this woman for forever!
Until we got talking in a meeting about something...and then the
spirit just put in my mind... SHE SOMETIMES LIVED IN FRANKFORT! And
then I told the Elders about it, and then Elder Bennett, who has
already served in this area, had taught her too while she was this
way...and that same day she had come to his mind as well.. SO we are
now on the hunt for K.....! It is so amazing to know that God will
place thoughts and impressions into your mind so that you can help his
children.

I had the pleasure of watching someone be arrested this week. We were
in the library parking lot and it went a little like this: this cop
car is circling the parking lot. He parks near a big red car. He gets
out. He taps on the window. The lady in the car, "1 seconds" the cop
with her finger. ☝🏼. The cop waits. The lady rolls down her window.
Then we hear "i have your picture in my car if you need to see it."..
"You are about ready to be charged for possession" The cop tells her to
get out. She gets out. She is on the phone talking. She walks around
the car. the cop follows. She walks around multiple times. Then she
begins to run. the cop runs too. He says "you can't out run me" She
says "I'm on the phone with my daughter! She is crying!" As she
proceeds to try and get away from the cop. He says "You are about
ready to be charged for about 4 different things" and then she throws
a fit. Then he cuffs the lady. Then he brings her to his car. Talks to
her about who knows what. And then puts the old lady in the car. Oh,
yeah, the lady was old.

Missionary work is the hardest thing ever. Especially when things are
mixed all about. But I have found that prayer goes a long way.
Heavenly Father isn't going to leave us helpless. He will always
support us and lead us to where we need to go and what we need to do.
And he does that in real life too...not just missionary life. :)

I hope that you all are having a great week! I love you all! Feel free
to send mail if you want to..I sure wont complain :) Work hard, and
PRAY harder!!

New address:

Sister Wagner
749 Ridgeview Dr.
Frankfort, KY 40601

-Sister Wagner

The best water tower I have ever seen!

It's been 15 months since I have lived near a TJ Maxx. My life is complete, my wallet is not.

Companion!

#arrested #cops #fightingcrime

My greatest apologies!

To those who have been keeping up with Sister Wagners Blog,
this is her cousin Shannon here who has been running the blog while she has been away.
I'm sure you've all noticed there has been a lack of activity over the past month and I am very sorry for that! Sometimes in life there are times where your head isn't on the right way and sleep seems to be nothing more than a memory and that is what it has been like for me. I've been very wrapped up in many things going on recently and over the past several weeks and have let the blog slip and I apologize for that! But today I will be making it all up to date, and in practically no time at all, Sister Wagner will be home! 

Thanks for the understanding, 
Shannon

Adios Jasper

The time has finally come. After 8 1/2 months of laboring here in the
Jasper Area, the Lord sees it fit for me to do the work else where. My
heart is broken and torn in so many different directions. It kills me
to leave these people I have served and grown to love. The Members
here are my family. The strangers, my friends. The streets memorized and
 the smells familiar. The thought of being so far from my new found
home for so long, without knowing when I'll be back, makes my heart
truly ache. But I'm more than blessed to have had the opportunity to
get to know this area, and the people so well. So many missionaries
don't have that same chance in their areas.

I'm excited though! Excited to grow and learn in new ways with a new
companion! But for now, lets focus on 10 lessons that I have learned
from the one and only Jasper, Indiana :)

1. As gruesome and down trodden as things may seem, after some time, things pick back up.
2. People are not as bad as they seem...except for when they are.
3. I have seen and thus learned the corn cycle.
4.All the smells that come along with the corn cycle.
5. Indiana People and Kentucky people are on opposite ends of the spectrum
6. Indiana people rarely have accents.
7. Don't complain right away, if you just wait, you will have your ideas changed..and if you already
complained...then you just feel like an idiot.
8. after 8 months,  people consider you an official part of the ward.
9. Hispanics LOVE to  learn about God.
10. No matter where you are, people are wonderful,
and the gospel is the true.

This week in the life of Sister Wagner just a major tender mercy
miracle from God. So back in the day, my trainer, aka the missionary
that taught me to be a missionary, served her in Jasper. And so when I
got sent here, she gave me a task. "Find Jose R, he is great" Jose R
was a person that she taught and because of circumstances it didn't get
very far. So I totally forgot about this until this week.. This week
we were on exchanges and I was with Hermana Bown. We had an
appointment set with these two guys, Matt and Wayne. So we head to
their house. We get there, and it's dark. We knock, the door opens,
and 4 Hispanic men come onto the porch, one of them being Wayne. We
look past them and see multiple beers on the floor of the house. At
this point I thought I was going to die. And then they pulled up two
chairs and I REALLY thought I was going to die. This whole time they
are all just speaking Spanish and I have no idea. Then one of the men
I think saw that I was confused and started speaking English to me!
And he talks about how he knew a sister, and used to be taught, I asked
him his name...and he said "Jose R" WAIT WHAT?!?!?!!?!? nnoooo
wayyyyyy, IT WAS THE MAN THAT I WAS TOLD TO FIND! and the week before i
left.. I found him. It was a glorious day! And then we proceeded to
teach them all about the restoration of Christ's original church! :)

Hermana Magalei and I were asked to give a training this week, and we
had some time to prepare it. As we were preparing and seeking
revelation our minds were blocked! We spent more than half the time
trying to figure out what way to take the topic. and we had nothing.
So we said another prayer. Once we said another prayer the revelation
startedd flowing and we created this epic training on
R-E-A-L-ationships with the Help of the Lord. We just trained
missionaries on being real with people, keeping your personality while
being on the Lords errand. It was a fun topic! we had minimal time to
prepare because we were on exchanges, but with the help of the Lord,
we accomplished much and things went really smooth! R- relate E-
engage A- ask questions L- listen and laugh. That is how you be real
with people. And you can accomplish much with God!

I had the chance to give a talk in church about serving as Christ
would. It was a great chance to address the lovely Jasper ward.
Because of that I have really been pondering our Savior. Jesus Christ
is amazing! As I read from the scriptures I am just amazed by the
things that he does and the attitude in which he does them. No matter
the circumstance Christ serves whole
one he is serving. It is an unconditional love that he has for us, and
in turn he gives unconditional service. I just want to become a little
more like my elder brother  and with his help, I can do just that.

Thank you all for what you have done for me! And your support! You all
are fantastic. Next time you hear from me...who knows where I will
be!!!!!! Have a great week! I love and miss you all!

SHOUT OUT TO THE FUTURE MR and MRS JACK STOUT WHO ARE GETTING MARRIED
THIS WEEK! I LOVE YOU SYDNEY! Just my best friend and ex-companion...

-Sister Wagner

Lovely snake skin!

Adoptive Grandparents!

The Ferera Family

Jose and Hermana Bown

Mogle Family AKA my Adoptive family!

The Blands

heartedly thinking first of the

Halloween Curse!

Satan is real. Yup, it is true. I will testify of that to all of you right now. His forces are real and seek to destroy the happiness of the children of men. 😡 Imagine everything bad that could happen the week before someone gets baptized. That is about what happened this week. haha this email will be mostly be about the last half of the week.

Thursday rolls around and we are all ready to go and confirm Anne's Baptismal Interview for Friday, and we go over to her house to have a lesson and talk about her baptism program. But she is acting SUPER weird. And doesn't talk to us. 😟 She ignores us, and when we tried talking to her, she just stood up and walked out of the room. WHAT THE?! So we left thinking she just had a bad day because we asked her..."well do you still want to be baptized?" and she was like "Yeah, I just don't want to talk about it right now..call me later" We had a prayer in our hearts as we went a long the rest of our day, before ending up at the Chilo. A Peruvian family in our ward who has fellowshipped Anne. and we were there to ask Sandra who is Anne's age, if she would give a talk! so her mother calls her into the room and we don't say anything before she asks "Is Anne's still being baptized?" and we respond.. "Uh, yes, why?" then here is the kicker "Oh, well she told me today at school that she wasn't getting baptized.." WAIT UH WHAT..😳..so we go have a panic attack because Anne has an interview the next day! So we tried calling her like she asked...and her sisters tell us she is asleep..GREAT.

Friday morning comes around and we call her asking her if she is still good for her scheduled interview, and she says YES! Like nothing happened! SO that night we go by her house with the interviewing Elder and she is acting a little weird, but almost normal and she does fantastic! So we just go with it. And that night, thanks to Mallory we were able to put the finishing touches on the baptismal program! ☺️

Saturday comes along! the day of the baptism! We go over and see her and she is as excited as ever! We tell her we will see her later and we leave! Everything is great! Brother Chilo will baptize her and Sofia will give the talk, Mallory is in town, people are coming! it is going to be great! So we go to with a member to pick up the Chilo family who doesnt have a car.. Well this is awkward. Where is the Chilo family!? It is 1:45 and the baptism is at 2... we have to leave, without the Chilos who are 1/2 of the baptismal program.. 😰😨😱

And that is when we get a text from the Elders asking what they can do to help..We call them up and the conversation goes like this. "Hey Elder Stewart, um.. get some extra clothes because you are going to be performing the baptism..and Elder Walker.. could you whip out a talk on the Holy Ghost for us? they say"Oh my word what happened?!" we say. 'No time to explain" and they say..."Okay we will be ready!" That is what I call a good friend. So we get to the church...it is 2...🕑 where is ANNE?!?!... no Anne, and no Chilo family and no one is answering their phone. Hermana Magalei looks at Elder Stewart "Suit up" and then he just stares at us like he had just seen a ghost..and then I chime in.."Elder Stewart, you are acting like you have never baptized someone on your mission before!!" And Elder Stewart just goes "I HAVENT!!" WHAT?! 😐 SO he gets dressed and is practicing what to say, and Anne comes! PERFECT! 

We take some pictures and then we get a phone call....from the Chilos! telling us to have someone pick them up...and by this time it is 2:30 🕝 and people are just waiting for the baptism to start! So we go with Mallory to pick up the Chilo family..to get there..and have to wait for them to come out..and when they do, we ask Sofia about her talk..."I didn't know what to write so I didn't do it" WHAT?! is this a joke!? 😠 nope. So we get back to the church and Andrea is just ready, and FINALLY it can get started. And in the words of Andrea, Brother Chilo was "too late" so Elder Stewart preformed the baptism, and Mallory and Bishop gave the talks. (Bishop gave it in spanish so Elder Walker didn't do it)

So..the only thing that went right...the cupcakes and cookies were great! and the font was full and warm...and Mallory gave her talk flawlessly. Everything else was totally thrown together the morning of. 🍪

Sunday was smooth sailing ⛵️ , Anne, and all her family who are investigating were able to be at church on time to be there as she received the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was amazing and things went smoothly! For once!
--------------------------------------------------------------
The rest of things

There is opposition in all things! i know that to be true! Things with Anne would have been far to easy if things didn't go wrong. But you know what, God is fair, and aware :) He has a way of working things out, and making the victories that much more satisfying! Good will always overcome as we put our trust in the Lord. Fervent prayers have true and everlasting power to bring about the righteous purposes of God. As completely insane as this week was, I'm grateful for it and the things that I have learned! :)

On a lighter note, Mallory was in town and helped us more than anyone can imagine! THANK GOODNESS FOR HER! ANDDD A SHOUT OUT to her for making me TONS of letters <3

Hermana Magalei and I had a goal to talk to a certain amount of people this week...and pretty much what happened was us driving around and then parking and jumping out...stalking them down...and then talking to them. But I don't think that they noticed haha If they only knew the effort that was put in so that we can share this amazing message with them!!!

Transfer calls are this week! Saturday we will know my fate! Will I stay in Jasper for another 6 weeks!? Or will I be moved...finally.... after 8 1/2 months.. Only time will tell! Not going to lie...a new area sounds just about right if you ask me!!

I hope that you all had a safe Halloween and eat tons of candy!! We had the joy of spending Halloween at the Mogle's house :) My favorite members of all time! And we played volleyball in the dark rain. It got a bit out of hand, but it was a blast! Definitely a good way to spend the 31st of October! ..fun fact! There is a curfew on trick or treating... around these parts..you are only allowed to trick or treat from 6-8pm..Odd right? Anyways :)

I hope that you all are doing well! I'm so grateful for you all! if there is anything I can do for you, let me know! You all are such great examples to me and have influenced me greatly! honest. love and miss you all! have a FAN-TASTIC week!!!

-Sister Wagner

Big dog. we were nearly attacked!

Classic Font pic

For Halloween, we were missionaries, from the district videos,
Sister Myers and Sister Payne. AKA sister missionaries from another
era

Mallory! She gave me tons of "open when" letters because we wont see each other for awhile... </3 I love that girl!

Rainy day selfies!

I love this life!

I am going to be straight with you all. I am the WORST at biking.
Actually..truth be told I'm not that bad. I just am not the biggest
fan. After scaring events from the beginning of my mission, I had the
chance to spend Wednesday on a bike. The poor sisters serving in the
city of Evansville. They are without a car... and they live outside
their assigned area to work in. We just had to bike 10ish+ miles.. and
on top of that biking down the busiest road you have ever seen...being
passed by semi trucks and dodging pot holes and biking down a road
comparable to a highway. Then add me having to puke because i made the
poor decision to stuff my face just before the decision to bike my
heart out. I think I have asthma..or I'm just out of shape... it is
probably the latter of the two... but either way I have problems.  I'm
a survivor. 🚴🏽😓

There is nothing more satisfying being a missionary, then showing
others the love that God has for us. This week we taught a lesson to
this girl who feels as though God is distant. And her brother that
just feels completely confused about what to believe. It is such a
tender opportunity to share your testimony, what you KNOW to be true
and how it can bless their lives more than anything else. When other
time in my life, would I be able to do that? I love my mission because
of those opportunities that I have to bear sincere testimony of my
savior to those who don't know.

This happened again as we were able to sit with a young, 13 year old
girl. Who spent the time expressing the hardship of things that i
couldn't even imagine what it would be like to go through, abuse,
neglect, and it was so sad to see and feel the pain to some degree
that she had gone through, and be able to feel that compassion for
her. I'm so blessed to be where I am and doing what I am doing.
AMAZING.

We are teaching this woman, Pam. We love this woman, she is
fantastic! Besides the fact...she might not be all there? maybe crazy?
So this lovely week we had the chance to meet with her as we do so
often. But this week was different because she was going on about
every negative thing in the world, in the most negative way. It is so
heartbreaking to hear someone who is just so hopeless because they
wont do what you are sure will help them. Negativity chases the spirit
right out the door...and then some breaking down all sense of peace
and comfort that comes from God's gift of the spirit. So we told
Pam, hey, we want you to come to church. and she finally breaks out
of her depressing tangent and say "Im going on sunday, get me up out
of bed and get me out the door" YES MAM. and when we ask her how we
should get in the house..? "The doors unlocked just walk in..." OKAY!
So Sunday morning we did just that...and she gets up and goes.
alllllllrighty then.

Anne is getting baptized on Saturday! We are SOOO excited to help
her get there this week! She is the sweetest girl and the change in
her has been remarkable. AT the beginning, when we started teaching
her family, she wasn't interested! And we hardly saw her at all. But
with the help of Heavenly Father we figured out how to help her be
interested and come closer to him.

This work is REAL.

That moment when...
...your investigator flips a lid
...you are always exhausted
...you spend a day on a bike
...you have a baptism coming up!

SHOUT OUT:
Thanks MUM! For the bag of candy and the note<3 you are the best!

I love you all! And I'm so grateful for how much time you all have
spent supporting and praying in my behalf! Have a great week! Be
strong and rely on God! :)

-Sister Wagner

(**Names have been changed for the protection of those involved**)

on the 25th of every month...it is Christmas and you celebrate..

 Sister Achee and I after our exchange, she is such a sweet sister

Sister Bush and Sister Magalei, Myself and Sister Achee!

#YOLO is that still a thing?

I'm Gigi!

This week. Hermana Magalei and I got a new companion! His name is
Chuck. Chuck, however, is not a real person. He is this little box,
that is plugged into our cars computer and takes note on 3 things: 1.
speed. 2. seat belts and 3. aggressive driving (aka how fast we turn
or break, or accelerate.) Needless to say Chuck is pretty smart. And
will tell our Mission President if we are a bad driver... We will be
driving down the road when you hear "check your speed" Chuck is a
device called the TiWi. It's to insure safe driving. A very handy
audible mentor. When we first heard we were getting these I almost
died and wanted to just hand over the keys and my driving privileges
right then..turns our Chuck isnt all bad. Totally could be worse!
#safedriving 🚗😅

GIGI. Yeah that is my new name apparently. So this week I got to go on
Exchange with my trainee's trainee! And it was awesome! Sister Shumway
is an amazing person! And makes me want to do better! :) SO this week
we had a lesson as I was in Mt. Vernon for the day. So we went to go
see this woman named Lana. Lana might be VERY crazy. At the beginning
of the lesson Lana asked what our first names were. We decided in this
situation it might not be the best idea to give it out. So she decided
to give them to us. Sister Shumway is "Sam or Samantha" and then she
looks at me and she goes "you look different, you look more
European...I'm going to call you Gigi" Uh thanks?  And the whole lesson
whenever I started to talk she would go "Oh look now Gigi is coming
in!" It was a very interesting lesson...that went no where...but at
least it was entertaining!  ⁉️

This week we reset one of our baptismal dates...FOR HALLOWEEN! Happy
Halloween to us! We get to see a baptism! We have been teaching this
hispanic family for awhile now. And one of the daughters, Anna
SKY ROCKETING in her progression! She loves coming to church and
Wednesday night activities. And loves it all! But she is the only one
in her whole family that comes to church! So we asked her if she
wanted to get baptized sooner than what we were planning.. and she was
just like "WHEN CAN I GET BAPTIZED!?" And this sunday she was so
excited to ask someone to baptize her. We are so excited! 🎃

This week we had the very first ever Evansville Zone fireside. Where
everyone in the zone gets together with investigators, recent converts
and members to share conversion stories. Usually they have these in
Louisville, KY and Lexington, KY, But we never go because Lousiville
is a whooping 2 hours away. So we had our own! Needless to say it was
a terrible idea because 1/2 the zone didnt come. Cheers to the 20
people that did.🔥

I think also that I might be dying. My companion and I have been dying
from exhaustion for the past week. That is when you know you are doing
the work of the Lord when you can hardly move by lunch time and by
dinner you cant even make yourself food. What did we buy today at the
store? Hot pockets.. Cup of Noodles.. Popcorn...because we know we
will just be too tired to cook. Just eating like elders these days and
loving it! 🍜

Quotes:
"The diarrhea was uncontrollable at that point, and I'm a gagger so
that's not a good thing."
"You do you boo"

HUGE SHOUT OUT TO MY GIRL MALPAL! Mallory is an amazing recent concert
as of February. She is absolutely amazing and inspiring. I could talk
her up all day because she has change my life and is one of my best
friends!! SHE HAS CHOSEN TO SERVE A MISSION Y'ALL!!!!!!!! And she has
allowed me the privilege to share it with the world. Not to
mention..she bore her testimony at the fireside last night in
Evansville!! And on top of all that, oh yes there's more, she spent
her fall break driving us around so we could save miles. LOVE YOU MAL!
THANK YOU!!!

Have an amazing week! Change lives with your smiles! :) I love you
all! Have an amazing week!

-Sister Wagner

Classic Comp Pic!

Driving our lives away!

Exchanges with Hermana Crowther and our driver Mallory!

Sister bickers makes sister Shumway and I wear her extra hats

When you are getting fed every night this week!

Reppin that Kentucky Blue!

Sisters Stephens, Magalei, me and Shumway

This is what happens when we have to wait for rides

, isThis