New Area, New Companion, etc, etc,

Dear Family,

Well, Monday I said bye to Elder Haslam and Nacogdoches. It was tough. So Tuesday we had tranfser meeting. The go through and announce all the new companionships and as they do it you stand up. So... my new companion is Elder Heywood. And my new area is Sherman. We are the zone leaders of the Mckinney stake. Its cool because I already knew Elder Heywood, he trained Elder Richins and was my Zone Leader before in Casa Linda. He's been out for almost 18 months. He's from Mesa Arizona, so he is used to the hot weather here. .. (It was like 100 all last week ..)

The area is different. Its a ward that just has a spanish group. They have translation twice a month and then a separate spanish meeting twice a month. Its a lot different from having a spanish branch but its cool. I actually met a english member of the ward who said he had family in Bakersfield. I asked who and he said the Standifords(spelling?). But I was like yeah they're in my home ward! His name is Bro. Cooper and he looked familiar.

Anyways. I feel like I have a zillion things to tell ya'll but I have a hard time knowing what is something you actually care about and what isn't important for ya'll to here. Something cool. We just started teaching a guy naed Raul. He is 50 and came to church before and just last Sunday he set a baptismal date after going juts once. He told the missionaries, "I'll always be here.'' So my first night here we went and taught him the Restoration. It was cool because he felt the Spirit and believes its true. He is really prepared and want to change.

On Friday we went to a meeting with all the Zone Leaders and the Assistants and President Smith. Its called 'Mission Council.' Way intense sounding huh? Well it was. There were about twenty four or so missionaries there. We sat in a circle of tables and first we had a training by President Smith which was good as always. Then after the assistants presented the problem in the mission right now. They showed the ratio of New Investigators/Progressing investigators(come to church)/Investigators with a baptismal date/then baptisms... The ratio for spanish work is 50(:)10.5(:)1.5(:)1 and english is 35(:)10(:)2(:)1. Basically a lot of people start listening to us but never come to church and a lot come to church and don't get baptized. We talked about what we can do and we came up with the focus of Church. To get more people to church and to make the church experience the most uplifting it can be for an investigators. After that we had lunch and a testimony meeting. It was really cool to be surrounded by so many good missionaries. We had a good time.

Well that was a lot of random information but I'm excited for the new tranfer and the chance to work with an elder with lots of experience. Not that I didn't like Elder Haslam, but brand-new missionaries don't know how to do lots of things.

Those were some cool pictures of that boat ya'll found. Andrea is looking pretty ripped. I bet she is swimming real fast. (I haven't swam for a while now :) ... ) So andee asked me what the most interesting experience I've had on my mission has been. Thats a funny question, but one time Elder Barney and I got invited into a house and they were like having a get-together and were watching a homevideo from mexico... We talked with some of the guys in there but they weren't very intersted and right when we were about to leave, they gave us two plates of food and asked if we wanted to eat. We had to say yes, even though we had just ate a huge lunch like an hour before. It was really awkward b/c they like just had us sit at a table and then ignored us. It was pretty interesting I say. And really funny afterwards.

Well its too bad to hear about Dallin. I'm glad I've been healthy. I love ya'll and hope you have a fun fourth of july.

Love,
Elder Wagner

P.S. the address is
2105 Joni Circle
Sherman, TX 75092
(we live with a member... its cool.I'll tell you more later)