Hello Everyone! 

GUESS WHAT? Transfers happened...annnnnnnnnd I'm still in the same area! YAY! However, Sister Clarke is now gone...meaning I got a new companion! Sister Cornillez is her name, and she is amazing! She is from the Philippines and has been on her mission for 16 months now. This is her last transfer. 

 My week has again been a roller-coaster week...(although when is not?) Our Investigator Nicole dropped us! I was seriously just speechless when she said that she didn't want to meet anymore. Absolutely speechless. I don't know what happened to make her change her mind...but I can't express the sadness that I feel about the whole thing. 

 We passed Sean off to the YSA Elders...he stopped replying to us but he is YSA age, and we planned on passing him off anyways...hopefully they will be able to meet with him again; he was a cool kid.  

 The less active member that promised to come to church (for the first time in years) did not come. Turns out her car is having troubles and couldn't get there. (The church is a good distance from where she lives) so she said that she will come next week when its fixed. We'll see what happens. 

 On a happier note! We met with a couple of other less active members and have set up other appointments with them for the coming week. :) 

Also, we have a return appointment with a guy that we tracted into a few weeks ago for tonight! Annnnnd, we set up another appointment with a lady that we tracted into that same day, and she is currently reading the Book of Mormon! She is on vacation right now though, so we can't meet till a little later this month. 

 This week had its downs, but it was still a good week. I continue to learn each and every day. I am nearing the end of the Book of Mormon (I'm in Ether!) and I started reading 'Jesus the Christ' today. So far it is an amazing book! And I'm loving it! 

Anyways, I don't have much else to say....PICTURES! 

1. Sister Clarke and I

2. My new companion, Sister Cornillez and I

I love you all and I hope you all have a fantastic week!!!! <3

Love, Sister Meri Wagner

Up, Down, Up, Down...

You would think I was on a roller-coaster or something all week...people can't seem to make up their minds!

Tuesday morning, Tay, one of our investigators, was a no show to our appointment. Tuesday evening, Sister Clarke and I were able to have a lesson with a less-active member that we have only met once, and she said that we could come back!

 Wednesday afternoon, Sean, another investigator, cancelled our appointment after we had  picked up the member that was coming with us and we pulled up to his house. However, he did reschedule for Thursday afternoon.

 Thursday, we had our lesson with Sean. We answered his questions which led to the first lesson about the Restoration! People, I could have sworn that we were role playing the whole thing. He asked every question that we love to answer! "How do you know its true?" "Can we pray about it right now?" How do I get baptized?" "Where is the church and what time is it at?" "Can we meet again tomorrow?" Awesome, right?! Only problem is, he was high the entire time. For real?! Bleh...It was an interesting lesson.

 Thursday evening, we met with two other less active members, both visits went really well. One of them committed to come to church.

 Friday started out great! We met with yet another less active woman, who again, we have only visited a couple of times. Before going, I had the feeling that I needed to invite her to church, but that she was going to reject so I needed to invite her to church for the following week. She hasn't been to church in a pretty long time, so I extended the invitation to her to come. She rejected, so I again asked if she would come to church but for the following week. And she said yes! She put it on her calendar and everything! I'll let you know how it all plays out....so far though I think its going to be good. :)

 Sean postponed our appointment for that afternoon to that evening, so in the mean time, we went and tried to make contact with our other investigator, Pamela. We were successful and we were able to share a message with her and her husband before they had to leave! It went really good.

Upon leaving their home, we found out that the member that was going to come with us to Sean's lesson couldn't come anymore. Which was not a good thing to hear...so we spent a bit of time trying to find someone to come with us but no one seemed to be available. We almost had to cancel the lesson when we found out that there was going to be a big Relief Society event at the church, which is where we were going to have the lesson anyways. So we were able to still have the lesson because there were other people around!

 The lesson went great. Sean came to it sober, (YAY!) and he still seemed interested in everything. Again he asked what he needed to do in order to be baptized and he accepted all the answers that we gave him, including the giving up drugs part, and told us that he would do it! He committed to coming to church and wanted to meet again after church. It was a great lesson!

 Saturday afternoon we had our usual Free hot chocolate stand, and again, it was a success!

Finally Sunday came along...Sean was a no show, and he stopped replying to our texts...so we will see if we can get in contact with him sometime this week. However, one of our less active members did come to church just like she promised!

 So as you can see, my week has been a roller-coaster. Up, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down...etc

However, I'm still enjoying it!

Transfers are this week on Thursday; I won't find out what is happening until Wednesday afternoon. Exciting to see what could happen! My companion, or area,(or both!) Could change this week. We shall see; I'll let you all know in my next email!

 I love you all and I hope that you are all doing great!

Love, Sister Meri Wagner

(Only one picture this week, Sister Clarke and I at our Hot Chocolate stand.)

Exact Obedience Brings Exact Blessings

Hello Everyone!

I have a few things that I would like to address...first off, you know how everyone always says "Exact obedience brings exact blessings"? Yeah...well, I want to tell you something. Its true. 

I am not a person who likes to exercise; especially when its early in the morning and I can't even keep my eyes open! However, this last week I decided that it was something that I should do. There is time set aside for it specifically each day...so I made the goal to workout every morning. And guess what? So far I haven't missed a day. Now any guesses for what happened this week? I'll just tell you...

We picked up two new investigators!!! We have an appointment with one on Tuesday, and an appointment with the other on Wednesday! We will be teaching the first discussion to both of them. Super exciting!

But wait! There's more! We were able to set up an appointment with a former investigator for this Wednesday! And! One of our less active members is progressing! She is reading the Book of Mormon for the first time in 40 years and she is really enjoying it. We are meeting with her weekly, and reading the Book of Mormon with her. 

Can you say miracles!? Needless to say...I'll be working out every morning. No exceptions. 

 

Anyways, other than that...I don't really have any other stories to tell...Unless you want to hear about how I slipped on ice?...I'll just tell you anyways. I have walked on sheets of ice that cover the whole road almost daily since arriving in Canada and have never fallen. Two days ago, on a very nice day! Probably about 65 degrees F (goodness this place is bipolar...), with almost no snow/ice on the ground. I slipped on a small, very very small, patch of ice that was on the sidewalk. And fell. Yup. That's it. Its okay though...I'm fine. Just a small hole in my leggings.

 I have no other stories...but lets be honest, do I really need other stories? No...because this week has been an AMAZING week! I hope everyone is doing great! I love you all! 

I only have one picture for you guys...I just really thought the trees looked cool that day. So I had to get a picture. 

-Sister Meri Wagner

Heyyy,

How is everyone doing?

 So I forgot to mention a cool story in my email last week....I'll make it short; so there is a gentleman in my stake that found out he was related to the Tang Dynasty from China. So he traveled to China in order to retrieve some family records from the Tang Temple, only to find out that it was burned down. He then decided he needed to go find relatives in the area to see if anyone had copies of these records....the FIRST one that he went to had ALL of the records. In exchange for a Samsung cell phone, this man received over 20,000 family names and records dating back to hundreds of years before Christ's time. Can you say amazing!? The youth in the stake went to the Temple and did baptisms for about 1,400 of them in one day. Cool huh!? I thought it was cool...I thought you all would think it was cool too...

 Anyways! I went on Exchanges this week with Sister Waller! It was an awesome experience. We were able to get meet with a less active in one of the wards and contact a few referrals that we had. Although, I would say the best part was that we placed 6 Book of Mormon's on one street. Flippin' awesome if you ask me! She was a lot of fun to be with, I enjoyed it a lot. :)

 I can officially say that I have experienced "Ice Fog" or what my sister Liz called..."face Knifes" and let me just say....she was kind of right. I walked outside and I turned to Sister Clarke and said, "What is that?" in which she replies..."That's fog, Sister Wagner" No...not just fog. I knew it looked different. That was floating ice crystals in the air. When you walk outside and you get punched in the face by "fog" you know something is different about it. It was cold, that is all I can really say about it. I'm glad we have a car.

 Family history....the one thing I didn't think I would ever enjoy doing....but. Its actually kind of fun. A sister in one of our wards invited us over to show us how to do it so that we could show people who are interested in learning about it and whatnot. I have to say though....it really is kind of fun! I think I would enjoy doing it at home where I can do it whenever.

 Okay Guys! GUESS WHAT. One of our investigators...the one that we haven't been able to get in with since December...and whose husband got hurt...remember her?? Yeah...I'll call her P...anyways...we got in contact with her again and she wants to meet this week. Say wha!? Boo yah! We are both very excited to meet with her again. :)

As for N...She cancelled our appointment for this last week because her and her whole family got sick. Not surprising though...everyone here seems to be getting sick. Hopefully this week though. Fingers crossed! :)

Well...that's the main stuff for this week. Besides the fact that we did the free hot chocolate stand again. (It went good btw....) So I'll just add a few pictures and leave it at that! I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

HAPPY *early* VALENTINES DAY!!!! :)

First picture is me while downtown...

Second picture is Sister Clarke and I in front of another frozen lake...

and the Third picture that will come in a separate email is just another random selfie. 

Love,

Sister Meri Wagner

Hey Everyone!

I don't know how I want to start this out....so...I'll start with the weather?....again. haha In a 24 hour period of time it went from 14 degrees C to -17 degrees C.... Can anyone please tell me how this is even possible??? Crazy...but I'm still enjoying it! Thankfully it didn't get cold until after I got better. Yeah...I got sick. It wasn't fun; head ache all day and a queasy stomach. Yuck. I think the worst part was having to eat the enchiladas at a members house and make it look like I wasn't about to hurl. They were good! Just not the best thing to eat when you don't feel the best. Thankfully I succeeded and no one could tell. Feeling sick only lasted about a day though. I feel completely fine now, thankfully!

  Zone Conference was this last Thursday! We were all asked to prepare a short talk and someone would be chosen at the meeting to speak. HA, how was it that from the moment I heard the assignment I knew that I was going to be chosen? Sure enough, when the day came, President Nicholas called on me to talk. We were given 3 subjects to choose from in which case I chose to talk on "teaching/preaching with power and authority" I assume it went well...

The rest of Zone Conference was really good, being able to hear testimonies from the other missionaries and from our leaders was cool!

  So, because of the nice fresh snow on the ground, Saturday we went service tracting and shoveled peoples walks and driveways; fun stuff! We were able to get a couple of good potential investigators out of it....for other missionaries. (We were in a different area helping another district) but that's ok! I still enjoyed it none the less. :) Afterwards, Sister Clarke and I went back to our area and with our district, did a free hot chocolate stand. Can you say success!? We started out with 10 Gallons of delicious hot chocolate, and we gave it all out (along with invites to church and Mormon.org cards...we just slipped them into the cup sleeves) in about an hour! Probably about 90 cups total. We did it near an intersection so the Elders were running out with the cups and giving it to people who were at stop lights. People loved it! And I have to say that it was tons of fun! We plan on doing it again soon; I'm excited! 

Along side of all that fun stuff....We were able to meet with another less active member yesterday. Honestly, I have high hopes for her, she says she wants to come back, she just has to figure some stuff out. It was a great lesson, and I can tell she honestly does have a testimony.

The work in this area is moving along great! We have about 3 or 4 less active members that we are meeting with on a regular weekly basis, and an investigator who we meet with regularly as well. I am honestly very happy with the work that is going on here in the Mahogany/Auburn Bay area, and I only see it getting better in the future! I've been making friends with people I would have never met if I didn't come here, I am so thankful that I did!

Sorry I have to keep this short. I love you all and I think of you all the time!

-Sister Meri Wagner

Honestly...how did I forget to mention the fact that I went to the temple last week?? It was AMAZING. The Calgary Temple is honestly so so pretty! I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to go. :)

N had to cancel our lesson this last week but that is ok...we have it rescheduled for next Thursday, so I'll let y'all know how that goes when it comes about.

This week, even though it wasn't as busy as I was kind of expecting, was great! A less active and her roommate (non member) who we have been meeting with came to church yesterday! Although they only stayed for sacrament meeting, it was awesome. They both really enjoyed it. We have an appointment to meet with them again this week.

 Sister Clarke and I got into a few less active homes that people in the ward haven't been too successful with seeing and they all said that we could come back! :)

So...for the first time since being here, I have had someone bash me! (its happened before...but this is the first one that I could actually understand what they were saying...) We were tracting and we came to a home and a guy answers, we introduce ourselves and all that, in which case he invites us in. Okay I'm not going to lie...at this point I'm a little skeptical because he tried to invite us to his church first....but we accepted anyways. Anyways, we sit down at the dinner table and in the nicest way this guy was able to, I guess (because he kept saying that he didn't want to offend us...blah blah blah...yeah right.) said that we were "being deceived" and that the "Book of Mormon can't be true because God didn't write it" and that "the bible doesn't mention the Americas at all" and of course...that we may claim to be Christian, but we "don't worship the same Jesus Christ." and a whole bunch of other nonsense. Let me just tell you all something right now...normally, I would get frustrated at someone like this and possibly very angry.  But at that moment I was calm. As he asked questions wanting us to explain how we could believe such lies, I was able to answer every single question without hesitation. I know the Spirit was with me...because honestly, I had scriptures coming to mind that I haven't studied in a long long time and was able to quote them...scriptures that I never took time to memorize...Anyways, it was interesting.

 I want you all to know that I know this is Jesus Christ's true church. And that it was through the Prophet Joseph Smith that Christ was able to restore it to the earth once again. I know the book of Mormon is true. I know we have a living prophet today. And of course, I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. I worship the same Jesus Christ that died on the cross after suffering for my pains, afflictions and sins in the Garden of Gethsemane. I love him, and I know that he loves me, and you and is aware of all of us.

Well...now that we are done with that. here are some pictures!!! YAY

First picture is Sister Clarke and myself walking on a frozen lake. It was pretty cool. 

Second picture is Sister Clarke and I at the Calgary Temple...as you can tell the wind liked to mess with my hair just before taking the picture. Oh well, I still like it. :) 

I love you all! 

-Sister Meri Wagner

Hey Everybody!

How are you all doing?

Let me just say that this week has been great! I honestly can't stop smiling. :) We met with one of our investigators a few days ago..(I'm going to refer to her as "N")..it was awesome! We talked about the restoration, and the Holy Ghost. The discussion was going really well; after I had said the first vision I asked her what her thoughts were...she started out by saying that it wasn't fair of me to ask her a question after something like that, because she was confused as to why she had tears in her eyes yet she felt good. (you can imagine my happiness when hearing that!) We began to explain more about the Spirit and how it testifies to each one of us. N has committed to read the Book of Mormon, and said that once she finds out that its true she will be baptized! Yay! We have another appointment with her this Thursday. Sister Clarke and I are both very excited. :)

 We received a referral from a member in one of our wards. He has been talking to a lady that he knows about the Gospel, and she asked to meet with us because she has a lot of questions. So we called her and she wants to meet this weekend! WOO! What a great way to start off a new transfer! Honestly, all of the knocking on doors, rejections, and hard work pays off...the Lord will bless us when we do our best, even if its in a way we aren't expecting!

 Aside from those two appointments, we have a lot of other plans that we are excited for. All in all I think this week is going to be great. :)

 Anyways! Guess what guys! It was warm enough for me to wear a short sleeve shirt outside! (see picture below) We went to go do some service and it was probably about 54 degrees F...it was fantastic. :)

The second picture is me right after our appointment with N...I was pretty happy as you can tell.

I love you all and think of you often! I hope everyone is doing well!

-Sister Meri Wagner
*Favorite Scripture of the week* Alma 26:11-12, 36-37