ZONE CONFERENCE WITH ELDER CHRISTOPHERSON

Tue 3/16/10 9:55 AM
Hello,
Sorry I didn't write yesterday; I wasn't feeling well, so we didn't make it to the library. Yeah, it was sad to see Elder Caldwell leave! I was with him at zone conference, and President had him bear his testimony before leaving. That caught me way off guard because he hadn't said anything about that to me before then. But yes, that situation is very sad. Now I'll want to make it to the Caldwell family reunions.

I'm glad you are all together somewhat enjoying your spring break! This past week for us was awesome! On Wednesday we had zone conference, as I briefly mentioned, and we learned a lot about how to be more effective missionaries in helping our investigators keep their commitments. It was held right at our building in Rapids, which was nice not having to drive long distance like usual. We got to do that on Saturday though, when we drove out to Neenah and had a meeting with Elder Christopherson at the building there. It was good to be able to shake his hand and to hear his inspired words that will help our mission specifically. After that meeting, we came back and did a lot of good work, finding two new investigators and several potential investigators Saturday evening. The thing that really seemed to help people is to focus on how repentance (and the ability to change) is an opportunity rather than a burden. When people internalize and understand that, they admit like Greg (one of our new investigators), "Wow, thank you guys for doin' this. I really do need to change and get my act together." He admited that he had felt the Spirit prompt him to do things a couple times in his life, and he chose to ignore those feelings because he was scared. When he understood that it was bad that he did that, he put his head down and experienced "godly sorrow".

We are working with three teenaged kids (Angel, Ausin, and Tenisha), and they are the closest to baptism of everyone we are teaching. Their hold-up is their parents not allowing them to be baptized. So, we are just continuing to work with them and pray for their parents.

Well, hope you have a fun week, and I will talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Vogan