Miracles

Dear Family,

I'm glad to hear you are all back safe from Oregon. I imagine it was hard but the Gospel makes it all better.

The description of the funeral and the feeling you had there reminded me of a funeral I went to in Nacogdoches. It was a Catholic funeral and very different that anything I had been to before. Without the Gospel death is a very sad and confusing occurence, but with the understanding of the plan of salvation we know what happens, why it happens and that we can be together again.

We had a good week. Lots of ups and downs. Missionary work is rewarding and really demanding. There were a number of neat things that happened last week. I don't remember if I told you about Adan but last week he had told us he was going to move to chicago to look for work, which was a big let-down. Then the miracle happened. He got a job last friday so he isn't going to chicago, which means we can keep teaching him and he can get baptized in a few weeks. That was one miracle.

Another one was a lesson I was in with the spanish missionaries in Mckinney (we were on exchanges down there). This lady is really Catholic and the night before the had a big lesson on the virgen mary and how we can't pray to anything but God. The lesson the night before didn't go so well so we were going by to check up on it and do 'damage control' if necessary. So we went in and talked to her a little bit. She mentioned that she 'recieved an answer'. The other two elders missed that and starting talking about something else. When I had heard her say that it caught my attention but I wanted to see if the other elders would pick up on it. They didn't so I jumped in and asked her more about it. After some questions we found out the miracle that had happened. After the lesson the night previous, she was really confused and not sure what to believe anymore. She didn't sleep well and that morning she prayed and asked God what was right and what was wrong. While she was reading in the bible in Isaiah 49-51, she recieved an answer from the Holy Ghost that the Church is true. As she told us about this experience, the Spirit came in the room really strongly. The elders couldn't believe what had just happened. One of the elders asked her, So you recieved an answer now what are you goign to do. She answered, I'm going to get baptized.' It was awesome! An amazing miracle.

I just have to share one other story. We've taught this guy Odilon Ortiz a few times. He is in his fifties. So we had given him a Book of Mormon with 3rd nephi chapter 11 to read just like we've done many times with many different people. When we went back we asked about the reading. He said he really liked it. Then he got a little more serious and said it really impacted him. He said that reading about when Nefi went and kissed the feet of the Lord it made him cry, thinking about all that Christ suffered for us. He had felt the spirit very strongly. Then we talked about baptism. Elder Heywood asked if he wanted to be baptized. He said he already was. We explained authority using 3rd nefi 11 and how Joseph smith received that same authority. So we asked him again and the spirit that was there helped him to say yes. Sunday he came to church for the first time and loved it.

The Lord is blessing us. I love being a missionary. Have fun at school. Be example and invite your friends to learn about the restored gospel!

Love,
Elder Wagner

PS. I got those pills in the mail. I also talked to Ryan Packard on the phone the other day (keith's friend) it was cool.