Mon, 21 Feb 2011 09:46:31
Dad,
I didn't get a message from Mom yet, so I'll reply my "weekly email" to you instead of her this week. It's really exciting to hear all the cool things going on at home: you going to girls camp, haha, your spring vacation, Jordan's dominating volleyball skills, Hannah's playing time and improvements in volleyball as well (it will be awesome after I'm home and my knee's well enough to play with them), and your busy week with appointments. Randy will be in my prayers. That's pretty scary, but I'm glad he's in good spirits. I hope everything else went well for the family!
My week was awesome! It ended on a great note with our investigator Erik getting baptized and confirmed this weekend! He was one that was slowly progressing for several months. He'd come to church pretty much every week; you'd see him sitting in the back with his girlfriend with his baseball hat on. (That's something that is being addressed.) But he was finally ready to make the commitment, and he knew it was true, so he was baptized. His mom came down from where she lived in Fon Du Lac, a couple hours away, and she enjoyed being there for the ordinance.
Matt Wilke is still going as strong as ever! His baptism is set for this weekend, and he has everything set up for it - his program, baptism record, people coming. It was announced in Sacrament meeting yesterday as well, so even more people will be there. On the second day of our 3-day mission leadership training this week, he was helping the ward with preparing lunch for us, and we were surprised to see him there. Even he wasn't planning on being there beforehand. Elder Cottle and I were assigned to do a training about the Book of Mormon's role in conversion, and so we asked Matt if he'd be comfortable sharing his testimony with the group about how the Book of Mormon had helped him in preparing for his baptism. That was inspired. He bore a wonderful, sincere testimony to the group, and the Spirit filled the room. He was a little nervous at first, being in front of so many missionaries, but he told us later that everything he said just came to him as he was speaking. What a cool experience! All the missionaries were blown away by how prepared he is after only investigating for 3 weeks. Fortunately, our trainings had little more than a vague direction of where we wanted to go with each topic, so we were able to adapt to that opportunity. All the trainings were awesome though. We just "treasured up" in our minds the doctrines and principles of the topics, and then we let the Spirit guide as we asked questions that opened up discussion and participation from the leaders. We directed two trainings on each of the 3 days and were responsible for conducting the meetings.
So yeah, those trainings took up a lot of time, energy, and attention this week. We were still able to see several people in the evenings. Colleen will most likely be the next person baptized here after Matt. She just needs to change her living situation. She has a strong testimony, and she loves church, so after she gets that taken care of she can finally make that sacred covenant with her Heavenly Father and receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, which she is really looking forward to.
I was able to talk with Elder Lester last night as he was reporting numbers, and he told me about Gloria's progress. She is still one of the people most dear to my heart, so I am always anxious to hear about her. So Saturday and Sunday, her progress stopped as she was taught about the true nature of God. Her walls went back up, and she didn't want to remember the answers she had received. Elder Lester's reaction to her response to the lesson would usually be a quick and wise combat, but he had the feeling he just needed to love her. So he didn't rebuttal her response at all, just expressed love. While they were here in Milwaukee for the 3-day training, she started having a really bad day. Her son was being really mean to her, and she was feeling really overwhelmed. The Spirit directly told her, "If you read from the Book of Mormon, you will have comfort." She struggled with that prompting for a bit, but finally submitted. She was guided to read Ether 12, which was amazing in bringing her comfort. After that, she was impressed that she needed to read chapter 3 as well, which speaks of Christ appearing. It helped her understand Christ had a spirit body before coming to Earth, and that our Heavenly Father has a body of flesh and bone. Before, she completely rejected that concept, but with the Spirit's guiding comfort, she knows that it is true now, and it is no longer a concern. She told the missionaries at the next appointment, "before I was just too prideful and rebellious to listen to Elder Lester, so God had to tell me through His scriptures." She is still preparing for her baptism! After all these experiences, she, and all those who are there to teach her, will have powerful and unshakable testimonies. I know mine has been strengthened through her experiences.
I hope everyone has another great week! I love you!
Elder Vogan
Monday, February 21, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!
Mon, 14 Feb 2011
Mom,
I feel bad that you didn't get your email from me last week! Hopefully it sends today right away. I'm really exciting about Jared receiving his Patriarchal blessing; I'm sure that was an awesome experience for him! I hope the Tucker situation gets figured out and Megan settles down. I'll be looking for the oranges! Thank you so much for the nice Valentine with the Subway card! That will help greatly with my intention to be healthy.
I'm still getting adjusted to the new area and responsibilities, and this past week didn't really help that effort. I was on exchanges with zone leaders from the Appleton and Wausau zones, and I was in their areas. So, I was away from Milwaukee from Tuesday through Saturday. It was nice to be back in Wausau so soon and be able to teach Gloria especially. While I was there, she received a direct answer to her prayer about whether the Book of Mormon is true and if Joseph Smith was a true prophet. It was an awesome experience. She had "walls" preventing her from being open enough to receive an answer that direct before. The office work comes really naturally to me though - dealing with calls, numbers, emails, and spreadsheets. Reminds me a bit of my job before the mission. My companion will be leaving after this transfer, so I need to be on top of everything else before then. Our greatest focus will be for me to really know the area here in Milwaukee and all those we teach, since our first priority is to maintain a "model area" for the rest of the mission. Today, our focus will be on the 3-day leadership training this week, Tuesday through Thursday.
Our area here is doing well. We have baptisms scheduled during the next two weekends: Erik and Matt. I still haven't been able to teach Erik at all, but he is doing well and will be baptized this Saturday! He gave his girlfriend the boot this past week to move out, and we will be helping her move some things today. Matt is awesome! I have never met anyone so humble, teachable and prepared. After teaching about prophets and the commandments on Saturday, Elder Cottle said, "Well Matt, we've now taught you everything you need to learn in preparing for your baptism" And he replied, "Yeah, everything except for tithing." Haha, Elder Cottle completely forgot that we hadn't taught that yet, but Matt was on top of it. He even had a tithing slip and envelope that he pulled out as he reminded us. He really could be baptized this Saturday, but he's already told everyone from all over the state that it will be the 26th. He's such a great example.
Speaking of Elder Cottle, I never really told you about him. He is from Brigham City, UT. He is the oldest of 3 siblings, very organized - almost OCD, very diligent and obedient, excellent teaching, high expectations of himself and the work, loves to give trainings (very administrative). He was a bodybuilder back home - took second place in a competition for his weight class in all the northwestern states. He is very spiritual and sensitive to the Spirit. He'll be going home in June, and he's planning on attending UVU and getting married really quick. He'll be very successful and have very high callings in the Church. It's definitely a privilege to serve with him.
And speaking of school, I don't know when or how I'll find out if I am accepted to BYU. I would love to room with Brady and those guys, but I'm not sure when I'll know.
Well Happy Valentine's Day! I hope everyone has a great week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Mom,
I feel bad that you didn't get your email from me last week! Hopefully it sends today right away. I'm really exciting about Jared receiving his Patriarchal blessing; I'm sure that was an awesome experience for him! I hope the Tucker situation gets figured out and Megan settles down. I'll be looking for the oranges! Thank you so much for the nice Valentine with the Subway card! That will help greatly with my intention to be healthy.
I'm still getting adjusted to the new area and responsibilities, and this past week didn't really help that effort. I was on exchanges with zone leaders from the Appleton and Wausau zones, and I was in their areas. So, I was away from Milwaukee from Tuesday through Saturday. It was nice to be back in Wausau so soon and be able to teach Gloria especially. While I was there, she received a direct answer to her prayer about whether the Book of Mormon is true and if Joseph Smith was a true prophet. It was an awesome experience. She had "walls" preventing her from being open enough to receive an answer that direct before. The office work comes really naturally to me though - dealing with calls, numbers, emails, and spreadsheets. Reminds me a bit of my job before the mission. My companion will be leaving after this transfer, so I need to be on top of everything else before then. Our greatest focus will be for me to really know the area here in Milwaukee and all those we teach, since our first priority is to maintain a "model area" for the rest of the mission. Today, our focus will be on the 3-day leadership training this week, Tuesday through Thursday.
Our area here is doing well. We have baptisms scheduled during the next two weekends: Erik and Matt. I still haven't been able to teach Erik at all, but he is doing well and will be baptized this Saturday! He gave his girlfriend the boot this past week to move out, and we will be helping her move some things today. Matt is awesome! I have never met anyone so humble, teachable and prepared. After teaching about prophets and the commandments on Saturday, Elder Cottle said, "Well Matt, we've now taught you everything you need to learn in preparing for your baptism" And he replied, "Yeah, everything except for tithing." Haha, Elder Cottle completely forgot that we hadn't taught that yet, but Matt was on top of it. He even had a tithing slip and envelope that he pulled out as he reminded us. He really could be baptized this Saturday, but he's already told everyone from all over the state that it will be the 26th. He's such a great example.
Speaking of Elder Cottle, I never really told you about him. He is from Brigham City, UT. He is the oldest of 3 siblings, very organized - almost OCD, very diligent and obedient, excellent teaching, high expectations of himself and the work, loves to give trainings (very administrative). He was a bodybuilder back home - took second place in a competition for his weight class in all the northwestern states. He is very spiritual and sensitive to the Spirit. He'll be going home in June, and he's planning on attending UVU and getting married really quick. He'll be very successful and have very high callings in the Church. It's definitely a privilege to serve with him.
And speaking of school, I don't know when or how I'll find out if I am accepted to BYU. I would love to room with Brady and those guys, but I'm not sure when I'll know.
Well Happy Valentine's Day! I hope everyone has a great week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
GO PACK GO! PACKERS WIN SUPER BOWL!
Sun 2/13/11 9:24 PM
It's good to get your emails this week! I am glad everyone is doing well.. except for Tucker.. I'll answer your questions first: I do pretty well at writing in my journal I think, but I can improve. A lot of missionaries out here love their separated scriptures, so I think Jordan would do fine with those. The smaller size ones are nice if you are considering exchanging them. If Jordan and Jared want to study, have them study from Preach My Gospel and do the activities that they are able to do. Also, it's strongly encouraged that missionaries have read The Book of Mormon at least once before coming out, and it would be great for them to read D&C, Pearl of Great Price, and the New Testament through as well, if they can. It would be great for you to send more oranges! Maybe half the amount as last time would be awesome. Just send them right to the mission office: 5651 Broad St. Ste 1 Greendale, WI 53129. I don't know when I'll know of my acceptance to BYU, but I'm looking forward to finding out. I'm way excited for Jared to get his Patriarchal Blessing! That will be an awesome experience for him. That's very sad to hear about Pam. Wow.
This week has gone really fast. Go Pack Go! The Packers winning the Super Bowl should be a positive thing for our proselyting efforts. Everyone will be so happy, they'll all invite us in! We weren't really exposed to the Super Bowl hype at all. We actually weren't even permitted as missionaries to be out at all from 4:00 PM on yesterday. We had to come to the office, so that was our exception. But anyway, this past week was very eventful. Monday, we had about a half hour of P-day, and that will probably be how it will be today. We had to prepare for the new missionaries that came in on Tuesday. We had two great lessons that day with Matt Wilke (the one we set the baptism date with at church last week) and Colleen. Matt is doing awesome! I haven't seen someone so prepared in humility and faith. He is willing to do whatever we ask him, and even more. He committed himself to read 2-3 chapters a day from the Book of Mormon (the first time we met with him), and he has actually been reading even more than that. He heard about institute on Thursday, and he attended even though we weren't able to make it. He feels the Spirit's confirming comfort when he prays to know if the things we are teaching him are true. He was there in the chapel a half hour before church even started yesterday. We can't really expect anything more. Every answer he gives to our questions just blows us away because of his understanding. Colleen on the other hand has been taught by the missionaries here for a few months now, and her pride is causing her to stumble. She is proud of her stubbornness. It's a big road block that she is working to overcome. She must be able to rely on another person, or she will never truly be able to accept the grace provided by Jesus Christ through His Gospel.
So, those are two of the major investigators we are working with right now. Tuesday went well with the new missionaries. We got to take a couple of them out contacting on the university campus in Milwaukee, and everyone was very open and nice, so it was a great experience for them. One of them, Elder Jones, is a BYU offensive lineman, and he lives with us and his trainer in our apartment. It was cool to be able to interview each of them and be a part of the process of pairing them with their trainers. Tuesday night, the biggest blizzard of the year hit. It was intense! Most of the mission didn't get hit like we did, so we went ahead with transfers. It was a very stressful day worrying about training the new missionaries and trainers and sending them off, and then figuring out how everything else would work in the storm. It took a tole on me, so I was really excited to get to sleep that night, but I couldn't! I had chills/fever, headache, and sore throat all night. I tried to start out the day like a hero, but could hardly stand for very long. I found out that night, after deciding to go in, that I had a pretty bad case of strep throat. They gave me prescriptions, and my symptoms settled down pretty quick, but I wasn't able to go to the leadership meeting on Friday because I was contagious. My companion had to do all the trainings on his own. But now I'm better! I've never went from so bad to so good so fast.
So there is my week! I hope everything goes well for the family this week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
It's good to get your emails this week! I am glad everyone is doing well.. except for Tucker.. I'll answer your questions first: I do pretty well at writing in my journal I think, but I can improve. A lot of missionaries out here love their separated scriptures, so I think Jordan would do fine with those. The smaller size ones are nice if you are considering exchanging them. If Jordan and Jared want to study, have them study from Preach My Gospel and do the activities that they are able to do. Also, it's strongly encouraged that missionaries have read The Book of Mormon at least once before coming out, and it would be great for them to read D&C, Pearl of Great Price, and the New Testament through as well, if they can. It would be great for you to send more oranges! Maybe half the amount as last time would be awesome. Just send them right to the mission office: 5651 Broad St. Ste 1 Greendale, WI 53129. I don't know when I'll know of my acceptance to BYU, but I'm looking forward to finding out. I'm way excited for Jared to get his Patriarchal Blessing! That will be an awesome experience for him. That's very sad to hear about Pam. Wow.
This week has gone really fast. Go Pack Go! The Packers winning the Super Bowl should be a positive thing for our proselyting efforts. Everyone will be so happy, they'll all invite us in! We weren't really exposed to the Super Bowl hype at all. We actually weren't even permitted as missionaries to be out at all from 4:00 PM on yesterday. We had to come to the office, so that was our exception. But anyway, this past week was very eventful. Monday, we had about a half hour of P-day, and that will probably be how it will be today. We had to prepare for the new missionaries that came in on Tuesday. We had two great lessons that day with Matt Wilke (the one we set the baptism date with at church last week) and Colleen. Matt is doing awesome! I haven't seen someone so prepared in humility and faith. He is willing to do whatever we ask him, and even more. He committed himself to read 2-3 chapters a day from the Book of Mormon (the first time we met with him), and he has actually been reading even more than that. He heard about institute on Thursday, and he attended even though we weren't able to make it. He feels the Spirit's confirming comfort when he prays to know if the things we are teaching him are true. He was there in the chapel a half hour before church even started yesterday. We can't really expect anything more. Every answer he gives to our questions just blows us away because of his understanding. Colleen on the other hand has been taught by the missionaries here for a few months now, and her pride is causing her to stumble. She is proud of her stubbornness. It's a big road block that she is working to overcome. She must be able to rely on another person, or she will never truly be able to accept the grace provided by Jesus Christ through His Gospel.
So, those are two of the major investigators we are working with right now. Tuesday went well with the new missionaries. We got to take a couple of them out contacting on the university campus in Milwaukee, and everyone was very open and nice, so it was a great experience for them. One of them, Elder Jones, is a BYU offensive lineman, and he lives with us and his trainer in our apartment. It was cool to be able to interview each of them and be a part of the process of pairing them with their trainers. Tuesday night, the biggest blizzard of the year hit. It was intense! Most of the mission didn't get hit like we did, so we went ahead with transfers. It was a very stressful day worrying about training the new missionaries and trainers and sending them off, and then figuring out how everything else would work in the storm. It took a tole on me, so I was really excited to get to sleep that night, but I couldn't! I had chills/fever, headache, and sore throat all night. I tried to start out the day like a hero, but could hardly stand for very long. I found out that night, after deciding to go in, that I had a pretty bad case of strep throat. They gave me prescriptions, and my symptoms settled down pretty quick, but I wasn't able to go to the leadership meeting on Friday because I was contagious. My companion had to do all the trainings on his own. But now I'm better! I've never went from so bad to so good so fast.
So there is my week! I hope everything goes well for the family this week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Monday, January 31, 2011
ELDER VOGAN-ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT!
Mon 1/31/11 9:14 AM
So, I told you I was going to be transferred. President Jones called me on Wednesday and asked if I would serve as one of his assistants! What an opportunity to serve, and what a growing experience that will be for me. I was sure Elder Lester would have been the one called. So Elder Lyons and Elder Cottle drove out to Wausau and spent the night with us there Saturday night, and we drove back to Milwaukee yesterday morning for their meetings. The first people I saw were all the people from the Muskego Lakes ward! The DuCharmes seemed pretty surprised to see me, and we were invited to eat breakfast with them today. We have tons of trainings lined up for this month; the schedule looks pretty intense. We will have another 4 day long training in a couple weeks, which Elder Cottle and I will have a huge part in - we'll pretty much run it. Tomorrow, the new missionaries come in, and we'll be picking them up from the airport and taking them out contacting. We will also be interviewing them, assigning trainers, training the trainers, and sending them off. It's cool to be a part of everything, and it's very humbling to now be one of the "model missionaries". The singles ward we are over is incredible! I couldn't believe how great the meetings were. Everyone who had assignments to speak or teach was very prepared and inspired, and everyone is so nice and so great at fellowshipping. We had a guy who is the son of a member from another ward just show up for church. He loved it and says he wants to prepare to be baptized, so we set a date for that to happen (2/26) right there in the chapel after the combined priesthood and relief society meeting got out. We have a set appointment with him today at 2:00. During the Sunday services, a new member was confirmed, and one from two weeks before received the priesthood. It was awesome to be there, and I'm excited to help keep it going! It really is a model ward and a model area; if only every ward was like that. If family wards worked like that, there wouldn't just be individuals coming to the church, but families.
Well, we have a lot on the agenda, so I need to get going. But just so you know, while I'm in the office, I will be able to receive emails on Sunday nights. I won't be replying till about this time on Mondays though. Well I hope everything keeps going well at home! It was awesome to hear from Hannah and Jordan this week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
So, I told you I was going to be transferred. President Jones called me on Wednesday and asked if I would serve as one of his assistants! What an opportunity to serve, and what a growing experience that will be for me. I was sure Elder Lester would have been the one called. So Elder Lyons and Elder Cottle drove out to Wausau and spent the night with us there Saturday night, and we drove back to Milwaukee yesterday morning for their meetings. The first people I saw were all the people from the Muskego Lakes ward! The DuCharmes seemed pretty surprised to see me, and we were invited to eat breakfast with them today. We have tons of trainings lined up for this month; the schedule looks pretty intense. We will have another 4 day long training in a couple weeks, which Elder Cottle and I will have a huge part in - we'll pretty much run it. Tomorrow, the new missionaries come in, and we'll be picking them up from the airport and taking them out contacting. We will also be interviewing them, assigning trainers, training the trainers, and sending them off. It's cool to be a part of everything, and it's very humbling to now be one of the "model missionaries". The singles ward we are over is incredible! I couldn't believe how great the meetings were. Everyone who had assignments to speak or teach was very prepared and inspired, and everyone is so nice and so great at fellowshipping. We had a guy who is the son of a member from another ward just show up for church. He loved it and says he wants to prepare to be baptized, so we set a date for that to happen (2/26) right there in the chapel after the combined priesthood and relief society meeting got out. We have a set appointment with him today at 2:00. During the Sunday services, a new member was confirmed, and one from two weeks before received the priesthood. It was awesome to be there, and I'm excited to help keep it going! It really is a model ward and a model area; if only every ward was like that. If family wards worked like that, there wouldn't just be individuals coming to the church, but families.
Well, we have a lot on the agenda, so I need to get going. But just so you know, while I'm in the office, I will be able to receive emails on Sunday nights. I won't be replying till about this time on Mondays though. Well I hope everything keeps going well at home! It was awesome to hear from Hannah and Jordan this week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
A GUIDED AND SPIRITUAL LESSON
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 12:33:38 :
Family,
Thank you Mom for the letter! This on't be a long letter at all because I used all my online time with my BYU application. But it was a good week. I'm glad to hear things are going well, and that Dad's business is going good too. We had another exchange this week, this time I went to Marshfield for two days with Elder Trusty. That went well, but they don't have the teaching pool we do in Wausau, so we worked alot on building that up. Only so much you can do in two days though. The highlight of the week for me was Gloria again. She didn't come to church because of her anxieties and some obstacles she hit. But she did call us right at the end of our meetings, and she asked us to visit her. We scrambled to find someone who was willing to miss some of the Packers game to come with us, but Brother Yang was willing. Right when we got there, after opening with a prayer, I got the strongest feeling to be really bold with her reminding her of the spiritual experiences she had experienced answering her prayers and helping her know that what we have taught and invited her to do was of the Lord. As my love for her and the Spirit filled me, I said things that were not prepared but that she needed. She was actually planning to drop us right when we got there; to tell us she no longer wanted us to come over. She chose to pray to ask what she should do, and she was told she could not dismiss us. It was intense. The whole lesson was very guided and spiritual.
Well, that's all I have time for. Hope everyone has a great week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Family,
Thank you Mom for the letter! This on't be a long letter at all because I used all my online time with my BYU application. But it was a good week. I'm glad to hear things are going well, and that Dad's business is going good too. We had another exchange this week, this time I went to Marshfield for two days with Elder Trusty. That went well, but they don't have the teaching pool we do in Wausau, so we worked alot on building that up. Only so much you can do in two days though. The highlight of the week for me was Gloria again. She didn't come to church because of her anxieties and some obstacles she hit. But she did call us right at the end of our meetings, and she asked us to visit her. We scrambled to find someone who was willing to miss some of the Packers game to come with us, but Brother Yang was willing. Right when we got there, after opening with a prayer, I got the strongest feeling to be really bold with her reminding her of the spiritual experiences she had experienced answering her prayers and helping her know that what we have taught and invited her to do was of the Lord. As my love for her and the Spirit filled me, I said things that were not prepared but that she needed. She was actually planning to drop us right when we got there; to tell us she no longer wanted us to come over. She chose to pray to ask what she should do, and she was told she could not dismiss us. It was intense. The whole lesson was very guided and spiritual.
Well, that's all I have time for. Hope everyone has a great week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
THE 'VISION' TRAINING PROGRAM
Mon. 1/19/11
Hi family,
Hope everyone had a great week! Ours went pretty well. We had a really intense district meeting on Wednesday. I'm not sure if I told you about our "vision" training last week, but we did it again for the other district, and it was a whole different experience. It started off a little bit rocky, maybe because people were coming in and leaving for interviews with President Jones, but it was still pretty good. We taught about the importance of having a vision/goal to work toward, and how to make it effective, inspired, and inspiring. But unlike the rocky beginning, when we started the visualization (all the missionaries close their eyes and visualize what I say), missionaries were really having inspired visions come to there minds and the Spirit in the room was really strong. Because a couple people missed it, we decided to do it twice, and it was even more intense the second time. The assistants were there, and during it, they were both grabbing their notebooks and writing like crazy the things they learned. One missionary was very emotional even as he shared the sacred experience he had. It was a really cool experience.
The rest of the week was good too. We had exchanges from Wednesday to Thursday with the assistants and one of the district leaders, and we had leadership training on Friday. I'm constantly learning, and I love it. Missions are awesome! I'm excited for whatever the Lord has in store for me this week, all those I'll get to teach and serve. I hope all of you enjoy your week as well!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Hi family,
Hope everyone had a great week! Ours went pretty well. We had a really intense district meeting on Wednesday. I'm not sure if I told you about our "vision" training last week, but we did it again for the other district, and it was a whole different experience. It started off a little bit rocky, maybe because people were coming in and leaving for interviews with President Jones, but it was still pretty good. We taught about the importance of having a vision/goal to work toward, and how to make it effective, inspired, and inspiring. But unlike the rocky beginning, when we started the visualization (all the missionaries close their eyes and visualize what I say), missionaries were really having inspired visions come to there minds and the Spirit in the room was really strong. Because a couple people missed it, we decided to do it twice, and it was even more intense the second time. The assistants were there, and during it, they were both grabbing their notebooks and writing like crazy the things they learned. One missionary was very emotional even as he shared the sacred experience he had. It was a really cool experience.
The rest of the week was good too. We had exchanges from Wednesday to Thursday with the assistants and one of the district leaders, and we had leadership training on Friday. I'm constantly learning, and I love it. Missions are awesome! I'm excited for whatever the Lord has in store for me this week, all those I'll get to teach and serve. I hope all of you enjoy your week as well!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Monday, January 3, 2011
I LOVE THE WORK! I'M SO HAPPY TO BE OUT HERE!
Mon. 1/3/11
Happy New Years! Happy Birthday Dad! and Happy Birthday to Hannah in a couple of days! From Dad's email, it sounds like things are going really well at home. I'm glad you found your key's, Mom. I got the box of oranges, thank you!
This week has gone really well for us here in Wausau. The ward here is very missionary-minded, and we were able to teach quite a few lessons, bringing members with us. We've also started doing "family mission plans" with a few different families, and they all seem to be excited. Andra Andrews continues to progress in here knowledge and faith, and she continues to prepare for her baptism this Friday. We've been keeping daily contact with her and having simple lessons with her several times a week, and it's really been helping her. Since she committed firmly to keep the Word of Wisdom two Saturdays ago, she hasn't picked up a cigarette or drank any coffee. She almost missed church this week. As she, her daughter, and her daughters family were getting in the car ready to go, on one of the coldest days since I've been back out here, the car door wouldn't close. It must have been frozen or something..? But as we looked around for them during the beginning of sacrament meeting and not seeing them, we checked the phone and they had called several times. The message they left, Andra's daughter was in tears, they asked if there was any way someone could help. So we asked one of our recent convert members we were sitting by, and he was willing to go with us to pick them up. We couldn't drive them in our car. But yeah, so it worked out! I'm just glad we decided to check the phone. And now we are excited for Friday!
This week, Elder Lester and I will be giving 2 trainings - 1 at Elder Lokboj's district meeting on "vision", and 1 for zone conference, which is this Thursday. It will be my first time conducting for a zone conference as well, so that should be good.
I love the work! I'm so happy to be out here!
Love you!
Elder Vogan
Happy New Years! Happy Birthday Dad! and Happy Birthday to Hannah in a couple of days! From Dad's email, it sounds like things are going really well at home. I'm glad you found your key's, Mom. I got the box of oranges, thank you!
This week has gone really well for us here in Wausau. The ward here is very missionary-minded, and we were able to teach quite a few lessons, bringing members with us. We've also started doing "family mission plans" with a few different families, and they all seem to be excited. Andra Andrews continues to progress in here knowledge and faith, and she continues to prepare for her baptism this Friday. We've been keeping daily contact with her and having simple lessons with her several times a week, and it's really been helping her. Since she committed firmly to keep the Word of Wisdom two Saturdays ago, she hasn't picked up a cigarette or drank any coffee. She almost missed church this week. As she, her daughter, and her daughters family were getting in the car ready to go, on one of the coldest days since I've been back out here, the car door wouldn't close. It must have been frozen or something..? But as we looked around for them during the beginning of sacrament meeting and not seeing them, we checked the phone and they had called several times. The message they left, Andra's daughter was in tears, they asked if there was any way someone could help. So we asked one of our recent convert members we were sitting by, and he was willing to go with us to pick them up. We couldn't drive them in our car. But yeah, so it worked out! I'm just glad we decided to check the phone. And now we are excited for Friday!
This week, Elder Lester and I will be giving 2 trainings - 1 at Elder Lokboj's district meeting on "vision", and 1 for zone conference, which is this Thursday. It will be my first time conducting for a zone conference as well, so that should be good.
I love the work! I'm so happy to be out here!
Love you!
Elder Vogan
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