Thursday, April 7, 2011
HE WAS SO EXCITED, HE DIDN'T KNOW HE HAD SWORN
Mon, 4 Apr 2011 09:51:38 My family, I am really glad to hear that things are going well at home! I had a weird nagging feeling on Thursday night that something bad happened at home, so I was hoping that was just to help me remember how much I love my family and to express that: Dad, I am grateful for how much you love and support me as a missionary and family. For all of your effort to teach us righteously and provide for our needs. Mom, thank you for loving and serving us so much, even while I seemed so ungrateful. You are an angel. Whitney, I am so happy for you to be the cute mom you are. Thank you for being such a great big sister. I am excited to see Charli on her first birthday! And I am grateful for the wonderful father Kyle is and for the humor he has brought to the family. Jordan, you are my best friend. I am excited for all that you are doing to improve, and I'm excited to hang out with you again this summer. Hannah, I love you. It's so fun to see how much you are growing up through your emails and to hear about the fun you are having. And I'm grateful for Megan and the blessing she is in our family, to help us enjoy to small things and to grow in patience. And Jared, you are basically part of the family too now. You are awesome. Thanks for helping Jordan stay out of trouble. Overall, I had a very good week! Conference was amazing! There are too many good talks to say which were my favorites, but Elder Oaks, Elder Robbins, and President Uchtdorf from priesthood stick out in my mind and I took many notes through those talks. It sounds like I need to get married pretty quick when I get home, huh? We had an excellent zone leader council training on Friday about "finding", and the missionaries are getting excited. The weather warming up a little bit helps that too. Speaking of weather, 100 degrees is intense! We are just excited to be able to take off our coats. Our investigators are doing well. We had an awesome exchange with the Green Bay elders after zone leader council in which we were able to invite 2 people to be baptized, and they accepted. We also found 3 new investigators with them for them to teach. 2 of them were a nice couple who actually fed us dinner! They even had caffeine-free mountain dew. Who knew there was such a thing? One of the guys we invited to be baptized responded just the way the people responded in Mosiah 18:10-11. He literally clapped his hands for joy at the idea of having the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Except, instead of saying, "This is the desire of my heart!" he said, "@#$% Yeah!" So that was pretty classic. Haha. He was so excited, he didn't know he had sworn. Before that, he kept telling us that there was a presence or a spirit in the room, and it reminded him of an experience he had had several years earlier, which originally brought him to know God. Well the office sisters are anxious to get on the computer now, so I'll close this week's letter by once again saying that I love you so much! I love the Gospel and am so humbled to have it in my life and to have the amazing opportunity of sharing it with my brothers and sisters here in Wisconsin. I'll talk to you next week! Love, Elder Vogan
Monday, March 28, 2011
"I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVES...."
Mon. 3/28/11 Family, It's always great to hear from you each week, although the weeks are going by way too fast. I don't even want to think about you already having my flight plans, I just got back out here! But yeah, I can just fly again, it would be a really long drive. I'll need to have some money in my account in July to pay to ship my bike home and souvenirs I want to keep. That's great to hear that you are going back to school, Mom! (By the way, I never mentioned what I decided I'd major in: Physiology and Developmental Biology. When I read that as an option for a major, I got excited, so I'm going with it. I can go almost every direction I've considered with that degree.) And good to hear Dad has a lot of work lined up for the week! I'll be praying that Megan feels better soon and that no one else gets sick. 106 degrees is scary high.. What a great week this week! We had a specialized training for all the sister missionaries in the mission and that was a lot of fun to be a part of. We got to sing "As Sisters in Zion" - one of my favorites. We also even got a Cuddly Cousins stuffed animal from one of the sisters who did a training! All my expectations of a sisters conference were met. Haha. It was really one of the most spiritual trainings I've been apart of though, which is probably because of their greater maturity and love. Also, we had a great day on Wednesday: We taught two sisters, Tia and Takira. We had a member bring them down to the church and we had a chapel tour lesson with them. We had originally planned to teach them about the Plan of Salvation, but we couldn't seem to start into that. The Spirit was there and lead us to teach about Jesus Christ. At one point, we walked into the chapel, and talked about the Sacrament meeting being the most important meeting in the Church. Our member, Richard, started to bear his testimony of the hymns, and as he did so, I picked up one of the hymnals and flipped it open to show them. I flipped right to "I know that My Redeemer Lives". I felt impressed to ask Tia how she felt about the Savior, and she confessed she wasn't sure she believed in Him. I then read the first verse, and the feeling when I read "..My hungry soul to feed" was intense. I knew for sure at that time that she was hungry, and that she felt like something was missing in her life. And I told her of that, and each of us testified of how her void would be filled by the Gospel and through developing her relationship with Christ through prayer and repentance. When we got to the baptism font, we discussed what it means to be baptized, and we invited both of them to prepare for that day (April 16th), and they accepted that date and commitment. Both of them were at church yesterday and loved it! We also taught a young Hmong single adult girl who had been less active, and she came to church yesterday as well! Also yesterday, the two other people we are teaching who are preparing for baptism (Akilah and Colleen) both made it to church as well! Akilah had driven 18 hours straight coming home from a vacation in Florida, and she still made the decision to come to church despite how incredibly tired she was, and that she was an hour drive from church. She loved it and felt very comfortable. We have a lesson to see her today with our friend Jared from the ward. So there's some highlights from the week! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Love, Elder Vogan
Monday, March 21, 2011
TRANSFER DUTIES--ALL WENT WELL
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2011
Family,
This past week was intense, but everything is going great for us! Having Elder Cottle transfer so soon, I was a little bit anxious for how transfers would go and all the other "beginning of the transfer duties". He was very in control and on top of everything, so I wasn't sure I knew how to do all the tasks, but all went well! Elder Lester is a fast learner too, and he's starting to get the hang of the different things we do.
Wisconsin is starting to thaw! We can hardly see any snow down where we are, and we had our first non-freezing rain of the year yesterday. It looks like Spring is almost here! Not quite 80's yet though. That's nice you were able to go to Las Sendas ward and be there for Austin Maxwell's homecoming. And it's great to hear things are going well at home!
This transfer we got in some amazing new missionaries. We take out the new missionaries to teach people on the streets nearby the University of Wisconsin campus here in Milwaukee, and we have two new missionaries assigned to speak Hmong who are incredible. They cleared "the bar" by a long shot. Contacting with them, they didn't seem at all like new missionaries in the way they taught, but they had the excitement and fire of a new, "green" missionary, and they were actually jogging to catch up to talk to people. It's easy to tell when a missionary understands and has a testimony of the Gospel, and how much love he has, by how urgent he is to share it with those around him. It was really motivating to see them work, and I'm excited to see the miracles they perform out here.
Well I love you! I hope you have a wonderful week, and I hope you fill your days with not the "good" or "better" things, but the "best" things.
Love,
Elder Vogan
Family,
This past week was intense, but everything is going great for us! Having Elder Cottle transfer so soon, I was a little bit anxious for how transfers would go and all the other "beginning of the transfer duties". He was very in control and on top of everything, so I wasn't sure I knew how to do all the tasks, but all went well! Elder Lester is a fast learner too, and he's starting to get the hang of the different things we do.
Wisconsin is starting to thaw! We can hardly see any snow down where we are, and we had our first non-freezing rain of the year yesterday. It looks like Spring is almost here! Not quite 80's yet though. That's nice you were able to go to Las Sendas ward and be there for Austin Maxwell's homecoming. And it's great to hear things are going well at home!
This transfer we got in some amazing new missionaries. We take out the new missionaries to teach people on the streets nearby the University of Wisconsin campus here in Milwaukee, and we have two new missionaries assigned to speak Hmong who are incredible. They cleared "the bar" by a long shot. Contacting with them, they didn't seem at all like new missionaries in the way they taught, but they had the excitement and fire of a new, "green" missionary, and they were actually jogging to catch up to talk to people. It's easy to tell when a missionary understands and has a testimony of the Gospel, and how much love he has, by how urgent he is to share it with those around him. It was really motivating to see them work, and I'm excited to see the miracles they perform out here.
Well I love you! I hope you have a wonderful week, and I hope you fill your days with not the "good" or "better" things, but the "best" things.
Love,
Elder Vogan
Monday, March 14, 2011
ELDER LESTER AGAIN--THIRD TIMES A CHARM!
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 09:20:50 -
Family,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY, MOM! I'm glad that you had a good birthday!
I did have a good week! It's good to hear that things are going well there! 80's now huh? We are happy with the high 30's and 40's that we've been getting.. haha. That's great to hear about the missionary success that you are able to see with the Tibbetts' friend and Dad's former assistant. The Gospel is true, and the blessing affixed to helping others to find it is a joy and satisfaction that comes from nothing else. I am so happy and humbled to be serving a mission, and words can't describe how grateful I am that I am able to be here right now.
I did get the apartment contract sent in on Saturday. The fax machine here in the office said that it was failing to send, so I scanned it to the computer and emailed it to MaryAnn. It would be great if you, Mom, can verify that it was received. Thank you! You don't need to worry about my knee; I'm doing great. I can even jog and do leg workouts. I still may get another MRI before I come home just to be sure though. Tucker's gone.. can't say I'm surprised in the least bit.. haha. (If you look at my past email when you were first considering it.) It's great to hear about Hannah and Jordan and there volleyball success! I do hope that I get to see some footage of them playing. That's funny to hear about Jordan's fan club; I bet that was awesome for him.
Things were good this week. Elder Lester is down in the office with us today. He's my new companion! Again! Three times the charm, I guess. But I'm really excited! Out of 130 missionaries, it's amazing that I could serve with someone more than once or twice. But he would be my choice of my companions to be with multiple times. It was awesome serving with Elder Cottle. I learned a lot from him, and I will miss him. He'll be heading to Wausau to replace Elder Lester on Wednesday. When we went to pick up Elder Lester, they had an appointment with Gloria set up. The same day that Elder Lester found out that he'd be transferring down, before he ever tried to contact her to say "good bye", she called and asked for the missionaries to come teach her again. She said that since she dismissed the missionaries, they had been weighing heavily on her heart, and she had felt very depressed and sad about every aspect of her life. So, we had five missionaries and a member with us in her home on Saturday. It was a wonderful experience with the Spirit with discernment and inspiration. I knew, through the Spirit, that behind all her little hold-ups and road blocks that keep her from progressing and being baptized, the only real thing keeping her from it, is her fear of what her family and other people will think of her if she joined the Church. It's amazing how debilitating this type of pride is, and how much it can keep people from progressing. I think most of us need to battle and get past that fear in our lives.
Other than that experience, we had a pretty busy week. We had a leadership training on Friday, and we participated in the singles ward talent show doing a skit. It was really funny. We have really been promoting the new mormon.org site to members, so I'll encourage all of you at home to check it out and create a profile as well. I'll be working on my own hopefully today. This week will be busy too, with transfers and all the new and departing missionary meetings. I like busy weeks though. It will be crazy with Elder Cottle leaving so soon, so now I'll be responsible for everything going on and to help Elder Lester learn the ropes.
Thank you for your love and support! Have a good week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Family,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY, MOM! I'm glad that you had a good birthday!
I did have a good week! It's good to hear that things are going well there! 80's now huh? We are happy with the high 30's and 40's that we've been getting.. haha. That's great to hear about the missionary success that you are able to see with the Tibbetts' friend and Dad's former assistant. The Gospel is true, and the blessing affixed to helping others to find it is a joy and satisfaction that comes from nothing else. I am so happy and humbled to be serving a mission, and words can't describe how grateful I am that I am able to be here right now.
I did get the apartment contract sent in on Saturday. The fax machine here in the office said that it was failing to send, so I scanned it to the computer and emailed it to MaryAnn. It would be great if you, Mom, can verify that it was received. Thank you! You don't need to worry about my knee; I'm doing great. I can even jog and do leg workouts. I still may get another MRI before I come home just to be sure though. Tucker's gone.. can't say I'm surprised in the least bit.. haha. (If you look at my past email when you were first considering it.) It's great to hear about Hannah and Jordan and there volleyball success! I do hope that I get to see some footage of them playing. That's funny to hear about Jordan's fan club; I bet that was awesome for him.
Things were good this week. Elder Lester is down in the office with us today. He's my new companion! Again! Three times the charm, I guess. But I'm really excited! Out of 130 missionaries, it's amazing that I could serve with someone more than once or twice. But he would be my choice of my companions to be with multiple times. It was awesome serving with Elder Cottle. I learned a lot from him, and I will miss him. He'll be heading to Wausau to replace Elder Lester on Wednesday. When we went to pick up Elder Lester, they had an appointment with Gloria set up. The same day that Elder Lester found out that he'd be transferring down, before he ever tried to contact her to say "good bye", she called and asked for the missionaries to come teach her again. She said that since she dismissed the missionaries, they had been weighing heavily on her heart, and she had felt very depressed and sad about every aspect of her life. So, we had five missionaries and a member with us in her home on Saturday. It was a wonderful experience with the Spirit with discernment and inspiration. I knew, through the Spirit, that behind all her little hold-ups and road blocks that keep her from progressing and being baptized, the only real thing keeping her from it, is her fear of what her family and other people will think of her if she joined the Church. It's amazing how debilitating this type of pride is, and how much it can keep people from progressing. I think most of us need to battle and get past that fear in our lives.
Other than that experience, we had a pretty busy week. We had a leadership training on Friday, and we participated in the singles ward talent show doing a skit. It was really funny. We have really been promoting the new mormon.org site to members, so I'll encourage all of you at home to check it out and create a profile as well. I'll be working on my own hopefully today. This week will be busy too, with transfers and all the new and departing missionary meetings. I like busy weeks though. It will be crazy with Elder Cottle leaving so soon, so now I'll be responsible for everything going on and to help Elder Lester learn the ropes.
Thank you for your love and support! Have a good week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Thursday, March 10, 2011
TWO PEOPLE PREPARING FOR BAPTISM
Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2011
Mom,
I did get the oranges, and they do taste delicious! That was the right amount that you sent too; none will go bad. You can go ahead and sign me up for the room with Brady. Even if I do need surgery again, recovery for meniscus surgery is only a few weeks, so I'll still be good to go in September. I'll be released July 21st.
It's good to hear things are going well! (Aside from the usual trouble-makers) I hope things get figured out with Megan and Tucker. It's good to hear about Jordan's volleyballin'; please keep updating me on how that is going! And I love to hear about Hannah too!
This past week was good. We have two people preparing for baptism, but neither will be before April. Akilah is a new investigator, and we had a great lesson with her last Monday. We brought Matt with us, who was confirmed in church the day before. He was able to look her in the eyes and testify of the gift and power of the Holy Ghost. He told her, "I know this is true because I know how I felt yesterday before my confirmation, and I know how I've felt since." Matt is an example of how to "receive the Holy Ghost". During and after the lesson, he talked about how he felt like he was teaching himself - Akilah was responding and feeling the same way he did as he was just starting to be taught. We taught her about the Restoration of the Priesthood, and we ended up giving her a priesthood blessing, which we don't usually do during a first lesson. No two lessons are ever the same because everyone's needs are so different. So, at the end of the lesson, despite her fears and anxieties of praying aloud, we knelt and she offered a sweet, sincere prayer. It was answered as the Spirit filled the room, and she felt a peace that she had never felt before and wished she could always feel. She knew it was right and she needed to be baptized.
We also had two trainings this week, one for the Hmong elders and one for the zone leaders. They went well. During our zone leader council, we put our personal training skills to use and did a fun role play for them. We also had two exchanges with both Milwaukee zone leaders.
Thank you for your love and prayers of support. I love you!
Elder Vogan
Mom,
I did get the oranges, and they do taste delicious! That was the right amount that you sent too; none will go bad. You can go ahead and sign me up for the room with Brady. Even if I do need surgery again, recovery for meniscus surgery is only a few weeks, so I'll still be good to go in September. I'll be released July 21st.
It's good to hear things are going well! (Aside from the usual trouble-makers) I hope things get figured out with Megan and Tucker. It's good to hear about Jordan's volleyballin'; please keep updating me on how that is going! And I love to hear about Hannah too!
This past week was good. We have two people preparing for baptism, but neither will be before April. Akilah is a new investigator, and we had a great lesson with her last Monday. We brought Matt with us, who was confirmed in church the day before. He was able to look her in the eyes and testify of the gift and power of the Holy Ghost. He told her, "I know this is true because I know how I felt yesterday before my confirmation, and I know how I've felt since." Matt is an example of how to "receive the Holy Ghost". During and after the lesson, he talked about how he felt like he was teaching himself - Akilah was responding and feeling the same way he did as he was just starting to be taught. We taught her about the Restoration of the Priesthood, and we ended up giving her a priesthood blessing, which we don't usually do during a first lesson. No two lessons are ever the same because everyone's needs are so different. So, at the end of the lesson, despite her fears and anxieties of praying aloud, we knelt and she offered a sweet, sincere prayer. It was answered as the Spirit filled the room, and she felt a peace that she had never felt before and wished she could always feel. She knew it was right and she needed to be baptized.
We also had two trainings this week, one for the Hmong elders and one for the zone leaders. They went well. During our zone leader council, we put our personal training skills to use and did a fun role play for them. We also had two exchanges with both Milwaukee zone leaders.
Thank you for your love and prayers of support. I love you!
Elder Vogan
MATT WILKE'S BAPTISM--AMAZING!!
Mon. 28 Feb, 2011
Family,
I hope everyone had a good week! So to answer you questions about where I live; no one lives in the office. The mission office is just a nice unit located above a bank. We live a 6 or 7 minute drive away in a shared apartment with two other missionaries. Elder Carter and Elder Jones are awesome! I took Elder Jones out contacting on his first day four weeks ago or so. President and Sister Jones live in the mission home, which is also a few blocks away. We don't always have to be in the office. We come when we have things to do, but the only time we are required to come is Sunday night. We do stop in probably 4 or 5 times a week and work on things, just when we decide we need to. That's great to hear that Megan is kinda potty trained. I hope that can be completely true soon!
Matt Wilke was baptized on Saturday and confirmed Sunday in church. I was an amazing experience with a huge turn out. He was more blown away by anyone at how many people had come to support him. It was such a spiritual meeting, definitely up there with the most spiritual baptisms of my mission. I know that is because of his complete trust in the Lord (humility) and his sincerity. He wasn't doing it for anyone but his Heavenly Father. From the first time we taught him, we could tell he was taking the seriously - as it should be. Sometimes, I don't think people realize the magnitude that a baptism has, but Matt did. He had questions, but no road blocks. As we taught him and invited him to keep commitments and commandments, he thoughtfully and sincerely committed himself and stuck to it. He experienced the power of the Atonement through true repentance, and he was excited to show the fruit of that that on Saturday by being baptized.
Gloria felt like she was starting to get too attached to the missionaries, so she decided that she wanted to take a break. She didn't want her relationship with them to influence her decisions. She will be praying a lot about everything during her time without them and seek God's will for what she should do. I was initially sad to hear about it, but I feel good about that now, as the missionaries there feel. She's been so high and so low, back and forth, she needs to be able to make a firm decision.
It was good to work with Elder Cottle without any trainings or exchanges this week. We were supposed to have a zone leader council on Friday, but President Jones had to go to the hospital for intense kidney stone pain. He has six in each kidney, so he is still dealing with that now. But even with that, he rescheduled the meeting for this Thursday. This week, we do have meetings and exchanges, but our major goal will be to get back into contact with former investigators and find new people to teach. We want to keep helping all these people that we know are willing to accept the Gospel, and we've already seen many of those people this year.
Thank you for your love and support! I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Family,
I hope everyone had a good week! So to answer you questions about where I live; no one lives in the office. The mission office is just a nice unit located above a bank. We live a 6 or 7 minute drive away in a shared apartment with two other missionaries. Elder Carter and Elder Jones are awesome! I took Elder Jones out contacting on his first day four weeks ago or so. President and Sister Jones live in the mission home, which is also a few blocks away. We don't always have to be in the office. We come when we have things to do, but the only time we are required to come is Sunday night. We do stop in probably 4 or 5 times a week and work on things, just when we decide we need to. That's great to hear that Megan is kinda potty trained. I hope that can be completely true soon!
Matt Wilke was baptized on Saturday and confirmed Sunday in church. I was an amazing experience with a huge turn out. He was more blown away by anyone at how many people had come to support him. It was such a spiritual meeting, definitely up there with the most spiritual baptisms of my mission. I know that is because of his complete trust in the Lord (humility) and his sincerity. He wasn't doing it for anyone but his Heavenly Father. From the first time we taught him, we could tell he was taking the seriously - as it should be. Sometimes, I don't think people realize the magnitude that a baptism has, but Matt did. He had questions, but no road blocks. As we taught him and invited him to keep commitments and commandments, he thoughtfully and sincerely committed himself and stuck to it. He experienced the power of the Atonement through true repentance, and he was excited to show the fruit of that that on Saturday by being baptized.
Gloria felt like she was starting to get too attached to the missionaries, so she decided that she wanted to take a break. She didn't want her relationship with them to influence her decisions. She will be praying a lot about everything during her time without them and seek God's will for what she should do. I was initially sad to hear about it, but I feel good about that now, as the missionaries there feel. She's been so high and so low, back and forth, she needs to be able to make a firm decision.
It was good to work with Elder Cottle without any trainings or exchanges this week. We were supposed to have a zone leader council on Friday, but President Jones had to go to the hospital for intense kidney stone pain. He has six in each kidney, so he is still dealing with that now. But even with that, he rescheduled the meeting for this Thursday. This week, we do have meetings and exchanges, but our major goal will be to get back into contact with former investigators and find new people to teach. We want to keep helping all these people that we know are willing to accept the Gospel, and we've already seen many of those people this year.
Thank you for your love and support! I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Monday, February 21, 2011
BAPTISMS, TESTIMONIES & TRAININGS
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
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
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