Finish to the Wall!

Dear Family,

So Sunday morning we were scambling before sacrament meeting to make sure our investigators were coming. As I turned around I see Uncle Russ, right in front of me. We gave each other a big hug. It caught me offguard. It was very cool to see him though. He is right, there is a great missionary spirit in the ward. I love it.

I'm so glad to hear that the Family Reunion went well. I loved seeing the pictures of everyone. Riley and Andrea are like giants now. We can't call them 'the little kids' anymore. Its very cool that Brandon and Garrett are taking off on their missions right now.

This last week the Quorum of the Twelve make some significant changes in the way missionaries are trained in the field (not MTC). Zone conference and interview are now every 3 months instead of every six weeks. They gave us some new things to focus our trainings on, most importantly, teaching with the spirit. I think it is much needed and a great blessing. Its strange to me because I'm finishing, but the Lord's work never ends. It means I won't have another zone conference on my mission, but I'm fine with that.

Saturday we went to the Dallas Temple. A family of four who were baptized last march (09), went and were sealed. Elder Dytrt and I had a chance to go which was awesome. I had never been to a sealing before and to see it was amazing. And guess what, the sister missionaries had knocked on their door. How cool!!!

So about the title of the email. Finishing to the wall is very important to us swimmers. (I still call myself a swimmer despite not being able to swim right now.) Its easy to give up and coast into the wall, but you'll lose lots of races. I'm working to finish to the wall on my mission. It doesn't mean guaranteed baptisms and lots of them, but it does mean that I'm going to work as if I was staying. We set a new baptismal date last week with Caleb (who is dating a member), but he lives in another ward. But it was still cool. A new family came to church which was a MIRACLE!!! Two weeks ago we had nothing to do at like 7:30pm Sunday night. We started knocking a street. We met a college-age girl home for the summer, her name is Jessica. So we gave her a Book of Mormon. This last Friday we got to 'teach her' at a local McDonalds, since her parents are going through a divorce. We invited her to church. Not only did she come for all three hours, but brought her three younger siblings (all baptismal age...).

Lots of great things are happening. I love being a missionary. Words can't explain the joy of seeing others accept the gospel. Be missionaries to those around you. Please, please greet new faces at church. It is so important. I love you all.

God bless.

Love,
Elder Kevin Wagner (since Zach is Elder Wagner too)