A Week of Miracles!

I have been on my mission for a month. I am a little bitter about it still... This is going by so fast I can hardly believe it. I feel like I have been here forever...but at the same time I feel like I haven't been here at all...It is a really surreal feeling that I cant even begin to explain..Missionaries and RMs....You feel me...right?

THIS WEEK HAS BEEN A WEEK OF MIRACLES. And Sister Goodrich and I have really seem the fruits of our labors! We have been working so hard to see results...just to feel as though we were sliding backwards. Which is the most discouraging thing you could ever imagine for a missionary. hmmm where to start...okay! here...

 MIRACLE ONE: We had an investigator Adam, that we were at the point of almost needing to drop (aka stop teaching) due to lack of progression. But the Lord made it very clear that we should continue to teach him. We couldn't get him to church which was really the next step for him..he had already been twice but things kept getting in the way of him going more than that. We went to his house to have a lesson, and he himself brought up still wanting to be baptized and knowing that he needed to get to church...and most of all he seemed happy while in other lessons more stand off-ish. We left that lesson beaming and full of gratitude for the way that Heavenly Father has worked on him through the spirit. The miracles continued as we walked into the chapel Sunday morning to see Adam sitting in the congregation.

MIRACLE TWO: We had another investigator...Cotton and his 3 boys. Who were doing really well! Actually..it was just the boys that were progressing really well.. Cotton, their dad was a different story. He didn't want to go to church or anything, and just wasn't really moving forward. Which is frustrating. On Saturday we had a ward BBQ and we invited this family..and Cotton said that they MIGHT come, that they weren't going to promise anything..of course when we walked in...BAM. Who was there? Oh ya know...COTTON AND HIS SONS. BLESSING. When it was over we said that we were going to see them later that night for a lesson! they agreed. We went over later that night...and saw a note on the door. Sister Goodrich and I panicked naturally thinking they were ditching the whole thing. NOPE...what did the note say... "Sisters we went swimin see you tomorow at church. Love you (last name here) :)"

MIRACLE THREE: Cotton and his sons were at church....as well as Adam and our other investigator Michael.... What in the world. BLESSED.

MIRACLE FOUR: We have been trying and TRYING and TRYING to get in contact with this man, Danny who wanted us to teach him. We were going to go yesterday at 6:30 and swing by his house right when we got home from our meeting in Lexington before another lesson.. but we were stuck in traffic...HORRIBLE traffic. for an extra hour. Not leaving our house till 7:30 on our bikes. We bike there...and who do we see...DANNY. On his porch. AS we get talking to him he has just got home from Lexington as well...and if we had stopped by earlier.. he wouldn't have been there.

MIRACLE FIVE: With that same situation we had another lesson with a man name Jerry. at 7. And of course that didn't happen..we ended up getting over there at 8 to find him in his car with another man. Who was that man? His brother Ronnie. and they were about to leave. As we got talking a little, we asked Ronnie if we could teach him another time..He said sure! and now we are going to be teaching both Ronnie and Jerry! If we had come by earlier...Ronnie wouldn't have been there.

I know that the Lord made all of this happen for us. That he saw our efforts and blessed us for them. We could have gotten discouraged with lack of results and slacked off, but that wouldn't have done anything for us. The Lord saw our efforts.. and when he sees our righteous efforts he is bound to give us those blessings that he has promised us in the scriptures. Hence the title...BIND THE LORD. Be so righteous...so obedient...that the Lord has no other choice but to pour those blessings upon you, and he will.. I can testify of that first hand.

THINGS PEOPLE SAY IN CORBIN KENTUCKY:

"Gentile, I thought they were just gentle people"

a missionary asked what is the purpose of life?...a member said "to experience earthly pleasures!" (***NOT TRUE***)

I asked a member what happened to their glasses.."I didn't get in a fight, they just fell apart one day, and I wasn't drunk!"

"Teeth are for the weak"

"Living the Jesus life"

"Clowns don't bother me, like, nothing in floppy shoes can run that fast"

"I'm only afraid of three types of snakes, live ones, dead ones, and crooked sticks that look like snakes."

UPDATE... I think I am getting better at this whole biking thing...I THINK. I haven't fallen off.. Which is amazing. but the bruises are still there from the pedals..Sister Goodrich gets a kick out of my non-existent biking skills.

YESTERDAY Elder Craig A. Cardon toured our mission :) He is of the quorum of the 70! It was so good to hear from him and be uplifted by his messages.. It was a spiritual FEAST. He asked random missionaries to come up and speak! I was really nervous that he was going to point at me and be like Sister Wagner, if you could come up here and share a little bit from Preach My Gospel (the guide to all things missionary) we would really appreciate it." OH WAIT. HE DID. Yup...officially half of the GKLM has now heard me speak on something I barely know anything about... But honestly, I relied on the spirit and everything turned our well. I spoke on how fear and nervousness can totally mute out the spirit. And that we can't have confidence in our own teaching skills, but instead rely souly on the spirit of the Lord to talk through you to all those you teach or simply contact on the street!

I love y'all so much it's unnatural! Thank you for all your love and support that I get continually. How did I deserve such a blessing as all of you?

Have an amazing week and keep smiling!! You are in my thoughts and prayers!

Much Love,
Sister Wagner

SHOUT OUT TO MY MUM, STEVE, HAYLEY, SARA, MIKE, And MATT for sending me a card in the mail this week!

SHOUT OUT TO LIN and BILL (Master Yoda) For sending me a informative letter answering those tough biblical questions and for the little something else they put in the package as well!

(If you want a shout out.....send me something in the mail :) that is truly the best thing ever! )