Howdy!

Howdy.

Funny you mentioned Texas being in a drought, its raining right now. Its rained like every other week this summer. So we cover two small towns and a bunch a little country towns. Sherman (where we live and go to church) and Dennison.

So we've been working in Dennison quite a bit and there are all these signs "Dwight Eisenhower Birthplace" with an arrow. So we checked it out and took a picture in front of the sign. For those who don't know who he is, he was a president of the United States in the nineteen fifties. Speaking of cameras. A week ago my camera took a tragic fall. Now the lens won't retract back into the camera and thus it doesn't work. Bummer. When it fell it land just on a corner, not the lens, but the impact messed something on the inside. I was wondering where you got it and how i should go about getting it fixed???

Okay. One thing that isn't cool about Texas are this little bugs called chiggers. They itch like mosquito bites but don't go away for like 3 weeks!! I don't have too many only like ten or so on my ankles. I bought some 'chiggerex' at a store and it stops the itching.

Anyways, we had a good week. We are really trying to get the word out about our English classes we are teaching at the church. We had 4 people come on last thursday. Hopefully we can get more people. I like teaching it. Its fun. So this saturday Raul is getting baptized. He is really progressing well and is making changes in his life. A few years ago he went through a really hard divorce and has a lot of hurt from it still. So last week we taught all about the Atonement and how it can 'heal' us and comfort us. Some good scriptures are (3 nefi 9:13-20; 3 nefi 18:32; DyC 19:15-19). Studying and preparing those lessons helped me learn a lot. There also is a really good article in the July ensign about the healing power of the atonement. Its awesome.

One miracle that happened last week was pretty neat. So as missionaries we have an 'area book,' which has records of people who used to investigate the church. Well I was browsing through it one evening and one street name caught my attention because I hadn't even seen it really. Its was called 'Charles St'. So we went there and started knocking doors. The first door no one answered. I got a phone from another Elder so I talked to him. Elder Heywood went across the street and talked to a middle-aged white man who was sitting on his porch. When I finished the call I went and talked to him as well. He offered us a glass of water so we went inside. We started talking to him and turns out he had been living in Vernal Utah for the past year. He didn't really know too much about the church but had lots of respect for those members he had met. Also, his aunt had been a member for the last 25 years of her life and to put it the way he said it, "the church saved her life." She had had mental struggles and after learning about the church she changed a lot. We briefly summarized the Restoration to him. He wasn't sure if he wanted to learn more because he knew that members don't drink or smoke (he does both). We both bore testimony to him and elder Heywood asked a great question about if he wanted to find out why his aunt's life had changed. He said yes and we gave him a book of mormon. The sister missionaries here will teach him because he is english but it was neat to see the Lord guide us in our plans, actions and words so we would meet him. Doesn't that story just get you excited? It makes me excited. My invitation to all ya'll is to invite someone to learn more this week. Pray for guidance and mostly courage. It doesn't have to be real wordy or a clever invitation. Simple. Do you want to come to church with me? Do you want to watch a video about Jesus Christ? If you do it, you might not see success the first time, but eventually you will and you will feel the guidance of the Holy Ghost more in you life.

Love,
Elder Wagner

PS. I think Elder Heywood's family is going to be in San Diego this week. Be on the look out for a big family (he is the second youngest of 6 and has like 15 nieces and nephews!!!)