Mon 7/26/10 9:10 AM
Man, I'm excited! It was great to hear that everything went great, and it was awesome to see the pictures of little Charli! Congrats Whitney and Kyle!
Well, we didn't have to rescue anyone this week, but we were able to help out a lot with water damage and flooding. As you guys heard, there was a huge storm and a lot of flooding in Milwaukee Thursday night. It was intense. A tornado touched down just West of us in Waukesha, and people were abandoning their vehicles because the water was too high to drive. One guy even got his Escalade eaten! A sink hole opened up on one of the roads, and the guy driving got sucked down 20 feet in the ground. The guy was alright. It is cool to see how much the members of the Church step up when people are in need. Probably the biggest areas of disaster were right in our area. As you drive up and down most of the streets that were hit harder, people have all of their carpet and furniture out on the curb to get taken to the dump. It's sad too because alot of those areas were people who couldn't really afford to throw too much stuff out. Everyone seems to have an optimistic attitude about it though. We had a river in the streets by our apartment in Sussex about 2 feet deep or so, but fortunately, our apartment is a lot higher than the street, so there was no damage that we personally had to deal with.
For the work, it was another week of one exchange after another here, so we only taught a few lessons in our own area. Things are going pretty well though with what we are doing. We had a great lesson with Patty and her member neighbors, and hopefully that lesson will help her get past her stubborness so she can pray and figure out that this is true. We need to find more investigators who will progress.
Well, I really can't think of anything else to write about. Today is going to be fun! The assistants are going to pick up us and two other companionships from our zone, and we are going down to Milwaukee South to play some basketball at the church down there.
Well thank you so much for writing, and for your love, prayers and support! I'll talk to you next week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Monday, July 26, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
"ANOTHER WEEK"
Mon 7/19/10 8:41 AM
Hey family,
Still no baby.. it reminds me of waiting for my mission call! Well, it sounds like I'll hear about it next week then! That story about Megan was intense. Wow, poor little girl! I hope everything heals well without infection. (Megan put a fish hook through her lip)
This past week for us was pretty crazy as well. We only spent two of the days in our area, and the rest of the time was with other missionaries on exchanges. I got to go with Elder Stevens (the one I trained) on Tuesday! It happened to be his birthday too, so I spoiled him a little like a "dad" does, and bought him some gelado. He is working in Waukesha only 5 miles North of the Du Charmes house, so he's even closer to them than I am. They said something awhile ago about picking us up and taking us out to lunch sometime. Thursday, we went out to South Milwaukee and worked with the Spanish elders. The one I worked with, Elder Tolman, is scheming to get President to switch me to Spanish speaking. We are going home the same day, so we were thinking if that happened, our "dying" wish would be to serve together for our last transfer(s). So, that was a good day, and we found a group of people to teach by jumping in a 'ghetto ball' game with them and playing for a bit. Friday was zone conference, and there was a lot of changes that took place. President Jones brought out a new focus and things to emphasize from what he learned in the MTC trainings he had. We are doing a lot more roll playing now than ever. I kind of enjoy roll playing, but most of the other missionaries hate it. But yeah, alot of practice, evaluation, and re-practicing.
That night we were also on exchanges and stayed overnight in city area. And Saturday was pretty nuts. One of the craziest exchanges of my mission. (right next to my drunk Peter exchange). It was just one thing after another, and I don't even remember the order things happened. But one of the first things, we had the nicest young lady (20-22 or so) come up to Elder Hyte and me asking all these sincere questions. She is about to have her first baby, and she is about to get married and she knows she needs what we have. And she told us all this before we even really told her much of our message. Right when we were about to get her information and keep teaching her, this big, drunk, crack-head guy who just came up and grabbed our arms and said he needed help with whatever (people are always asking us for money). Raven, the nice girl, was still standing there waiting for us to teach her, but Satan sent this dude to get in the way, so we didn't get her information, but she does have our card so hopefully she'll call. We had a really good feeling about her. Then, after that we were kind of turned around (you know how I am with directions, and Elder Hyte is a brand new missionary), so we just kept walking and busing to where we thought was towards our next appointment. Through our journey we just kept teaching people one after another, it was a teach-a-thon. We found out we had done one big circle around the city, and we ended up back where we were at one time three hours later, and a guy who saw us the first time wondering, yelled to us the second time we happened to be there, and we taught him and he wants to learn more. Then when we were teaching a big group of very 'believing' black people, they wanted us to pray with them, so we held hands and prayed in a huge circle right outside with people passing by. Another drunk guy later called after us, and ran up to meet us, we were expecting him to ask for money too, but instead he told us that he was a member from Scottsdale and Queen Creek, and he served a mission in Brazil, and he was out here now way off the path. He warned us never to move to Milwaukee to live. Then, as we were heading home, we missed our bus that comes only every 25 minutes, so we decided to just start walking in the relative direction of home, and when we decided to stop walking and sit down at a bus stop, within 30 seconds, a car pulled over on the side of the road and a 'born again' Christian guy got out and walked across the street to condemn us. We just bore our testimonies that we do believe in Christ despite what he and his religion chose to believe. After he got a bit shifty and decided to "cast the devil out of us in the name of Christ". It was pretty blasphemous. We just looked at him after he did that, and asked him if we could do anything for him to help him out. He just walked back to his car saying, "I won't say 'God speed' but I will say good-bye". Haha, we just looked at each other and said, "That was weird."
So, there's my story for this week!
Love you,
Elder Vogan
Hey family,
Still no baby.. it reminds me of waiting for my mission call! Well, it sounds like I'll hear about it next week then! That story about Megan was intense. Wow, poor little girl! I hope everything heals well without infection. (Megan put a fish hook through her lip)
This past week for us was pretty crazy as well. We only spent two of the days in our area, and the rest of the time was with other missionaries on exchanges. I got to go with Elder Stevens (the one I trained) on Tuesday! It happened to be his birthday too, so I spoiled him a little like a "dad" does, and bought him some gelado. He is working in Waukesha only 5 miles North of the Du Charmes house, so he's even closer to them than I am. They said something awhile ago about picking us up and taking us out to lunch sometime. Thursday, we went out to South Milwaukee and worked with the Spanish elders. The one I worked with, Elder Tolman, is scheming to get President to switch me to Spanish speaking. We are going home the same day, so we were thinking if that happened, our "dying" wish would be to serve together for our last transfer(s). So, that was a good day, and we found a group of people to teach by jumping in a 'ghetto ball' game with them and playing for a bit. Friday was zone conference, and there was a lot of changes that took place. President Jones brought out a new focus and things to emphasize from what he learned in the MTC trainings he had. We are doing a lot more roll playing now than ever. I kind of enjoy roll playing, but most of the other missionaries hate it. But yeah, alot of practice, evaluation, and re-practicing.
That night we were also on exchanges and stayed overnight in city area. And Saturday was pretty nuts. One of the craziest exchanges of my mission. (right next to my drunk Peter exchange). It was just one thing after another, and I don't even remember the order things happened. But one of the first things, we had the nicest young lady (20-22 or so) come up to Elder Hyte and me asking all these sincere questions. She is about to have her first baby, and she is about to get married and she knows she needs what we have. And she told us all this before we even really told her much of our message. Right when we were about to get her information and keep teaching her, this big, drunk, crack-head guy who just came up and grabbed our arms and said he needed help with whatever (people are always asking us for money). Raven, the nice girl, was still standing there waiting for us to teach her, but Satan sent this dude to get in the way, so we didn't get her information, but she does have our card so hopefully she'll call. We had a really good feeling about her. Then, after that we were kind of turned around (you know how I am with directions, and Elder Hyte is a brand new missionary), so we just kept walking and busing to where we thought was towards our next appointment. Through our journey we just kept teaching people one after another, it was a teach-a-thon. We found out we had done one big circle around the city, and we ended up back where we were at one time three hours later, and a guy who saw us the first time wondering, yelled to us the second time we happened to be there, and we taught him and he wants to learn more. Then when we were teaching a big group of very 'believing' black people, they wanted us to pray with them, so we held hands and prayed in a huge circle right outside with people passing by. Another drunk guy later called after us, and ran up to meet us, we were expecting him to ask for money too, but instead he told us that he was a member from Scottsdale and Queen Creek, and he served a mission in Brazil, and he was out here now way off the path. He warned us never to move to Milwaukee to live. Then, as we were heading home, we missed our bus that comes only every 25 minutes, so we decided to just start walking in the relative direction of home, and when we decided to stop walking and sit down at a bus stop, within 30 seconds, a car pulled over on the side of the road and a 'born again' Christian guy got out and walked across the street to condemn us. We just bore our testimonies that we do believe in Christ despite what he and his religion chose to believe. After he got a bit shifty and decided to "cast the devil out of us in the name of Christ". It was pretty blasphemous. We just looked at him after he did that, and asked him if we could do anything for him to help him out. He just walked back to his car saying, "I won't say 'God speed' but I will say good-bye". Haha, we just looked at each other and said, "That was weird."
So, there's my story for this week!
Love you,
Elder Vogan
Monday, July 12, 2010
RUNNING A 5K WITH WHITE SHIRTS, TIES, NAME TAGS AND GYM SHORTS
Mon 7/12/10 9:43 AM
Still no baby?! Dang, well I will be anxiously awaiting my next week's emails. That is so sad to hear about Porter Dixon and Sister Miller. Those families will definitely be in my prayers.
I'm glad to hear that Jordan did well on his talk and that last week's story fit right in! I think the maggot detail makes it more interesting too. Well I didn't have anything new like that to talk about this week. But this past week has been really crazy. On Friday, we had zone leader council with our new mission president, and we learned a lot about the new things he will be implementing. There will definitely be a lot of change. Instead of having zone conferences and interviews with President every transfer, it will now only be 4 times a year. But now, we will have 3 zone leader councils each transfer instead of 1. So, it seems like a lot more responsibility falls on our shoulders for the success of the missionaries in our zones. President Jones also told us that he is planning to hold a 4 day mission leadership training in August to teach the leaders and trainers about our new way of doing things. So that's going to be pretty crazy.
Something cool that we did this week was on Thursday evening, we ran a 5k race with one of our investigators and a member. It started right at dusk, and we ran in downtown Milwaukee. It was awesome! The city blocked off the streets that our route was on, and we ran with a couple thousand people. We went in our white shirts, ties, and name tags and then our gym shorts and running shoes so that people could recognize us as missionaries, and many people did. I can't tell you how many people cheered for us as we ran by saying, "Yay, go tie guys!" and stuff like that. It was funny too, going along with Milwaukee tradition, next to the water stands sitting there for us while we were running, there were also beer stands. So, some the runners would run right past the waters and buy a beer to drink while they kept running. It was pretty funny to us. And right at the end of the race, by the finish line, the streets were filled with all the people that ran, and also tons of people who didn't run, and there was a party in the streets. We didn't stay too long, but it was cool having members from different wards around Milwaukee stop us and say hi to us. And our investigator, Patti, and the member, Sister Tyson, thought it was way cool that we came. We hope to keep doing stuff like that.
Well, that's all the interesting news for this week. I will look forward to seeing pictures of little Charli next week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Still no baby?! Dang, well I will be anxiously awaiting my next week's emails. That is so sad to hear about Porter Dixon and Sister Miller. Those families will definitely be in my prayers.
I'm glad to hear that Jordan did well on his talk and that last week's story fit right in! I think the maggot detail makes it more interesting too. Well I didn't have anything new like that to talk about this week. But this past week has been really crazy. On Friday, we had zone leader council with our new mission president, and we learned a lot about the new things he will be implementing. There will definitely be a lot of change. Instead of having zone conferences and interviews with President every transfer, it will now only be 4 times a year. But now, we will have 3 zone leader councils each transfer instead of 1. So, it seems like a lot more responsibility falls on our shoulders for the success of the missionaries in our zones. President Jones also told us that he is planning to hold a 4 day mission leadership training in August to teach the leaders and trainers about our new way of doing things. So that's going to be pretty crazy.
Something cool that we did this week was on Thursday evening, we ran a 5k race with one of our investigators and a member. It started right at dusk, and we ran in downtown Milwaukee. It was awesome! The city blocked off the streets that our route was on, and we ran with a couple thousand people. We went in our white shirts, ties, and name tags and then our gym shorts and running shoes so that people could recognize us as missionaries, and many people did. I can't tell you how many people cheered for us as we ran by saying, "Yay, go tie guys!" and stuff like that. It was funny too, going along with Milwaukee tradition, next to the water stands sitting there for us while we were running, there were also beer stands. So, some the runners would run right past the waters and buy a beer to drink while they kept running. It was pretty funny to us. And right at the end of the race, by the finish line, the streets were filled with all the people that ran, and also tons of people who didn't run, and there was a party in the streets. We didn't stay too long, but it was cool having members from different wards around Milwaukee stop us and say hi to us. And our investigator, Patti, and the member, Sister Tyson, thought it was way cool that we came. We hope to keep doing stuff like that.
Well, that's all the interesting news for this week. I will look forward to seeing pictures of little Charli next week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Thursday, July 8, 2010
"WE HELPED SAVE A GUY'S LIFE"
Wed 7/07/10 2:55 PM
Happy Fourth of July and Happy Birthday, Whitney! I was really anxious this week to hear if Whitney had her baby yet, but I guess I'll get to be anxious for another week. Since the Fourth was Sunday, holiday schedule rolled over to Monday, so none of the libraries were open. And yesterday was just really busy, so today we get to email! Thank you so much for the nice birthday card! And thank you Dad for the birthday money - I was able to stock up pretty good on my protein and vitamins and we had a fun couple of times going out to eat. We haven't gone to Chili's yet, but next time we don't have a dinner appointment, we might do that.
Our week has been pretty crazy. Last Monday, later after we emailed, we helped save a guy's life. So, we decided to go out with the missionaries serving in downtown Milwaukee, and we went to a not so well-known beach to play football and hang out. After being there for a bit, we decided to venture through some brush and trees up the beach towards a more public beach. On the way, we were walking through people's private beaches who had their backyards up against Lake Michigan. As we were walking towards a big, concrete, look-out structure covered with graffiti, we saw a guy laying half in and half out of the water. Elder Radle is the one who saw him while a couple of other missionaries walked right past without seeing him laying there. We immediately called 911 and led the fireman and EMT's to the scene when they got to the house who's backyard we were in. It looked like the guy had fallen off the top of the rock structure onto the rocky beach, and he had been laying there for probably 2 days, in shock, hypothermia, with broken bones, and with maggetts eating his skin. He was still conscious though when we found him, so that was good. Since it was a private beach, we are almost positive he would have died soon if we had not decided to walk that way. After he was loaded up and taken up to the street where he was life-flighted, there were news crews there to interview us. We all just let Elder Radle do it, since he was the one who found the guy. So that's another cool mission story to remember. I'm glad we were able to be led to that guy before it was too late.
It is interesting to have President Barrett gone and to have a new mission president - President Jones. I'm not sure what to think yet, but I'm confident he'll do well. Fourth of July for us was sweet! (actually celebrated on the 3rd here) We went to the beach with a semi-recent-convert, part-member family and had a fun BBQ. We set up some beach chairs in the sand and watch the fireworks. Sunday went well too. Angela (lady we found at the bus stop) was at church and loved it, and we also had Patti there. She has been to church several times, but she is just hard to set up times to teach.
But yeah, everything else is going well here! Thank you for your prayers, and I'll be praying for you guys - especially Whitney!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Happy Fourth of July and Happy Birthday, Whitney! I was really anxious this week to hear if Whitney had her baby yet, but I guess I'll get to be anxious for another week. Since the Fourth was Sunday, holiday schedule rolled over to Monday, so none of the libraries were open. And yesterday was just really busy, so today we get to email! Thank you so much for the nice birthday card! And thank you Dad for the birthday money - I was able to stock up pretty good on my protein and vitamins and we had a fun couple of times going out to eat. We haven't gone to Chili's yet, but next time we don't have a dinner appointment, we might do that.
Our week has been pretty crazy. Last Monday, later after we emailed, we helped save a guy's life. So, we decided to go out with the missionaries serving in downtown Milwaukee, and we went to a not so well-known beach to play football and hang out. After being there for a bit, we decided to venture through some brush and trees up the beach towards a more public beach. On the way, we were walking through people's private beaches who had their backyards up against Lake Michigan. As we were walking towards a big, concrete, look-out structure covered with graffiti, we saw a guy laying half in and half out of the water. Elder Radle is the one who saw him while a couple of other missionaries walked right past without seeing him laying there. We immediately called 911 and led the fireman and EMT's to the scene when they got to the house who's backyard we were in. It looked like the guy had fallen off the top of the rock structure onto the rocky beach, and he had been laying there for probably 2 days, in shock, hypothermia, with broken bones, and with maggetts eating his skin. He was still conscious though when we found him, so that was good. Since it was a private beach, we are almost positive he would have died soon if we had not decided to walk that way. After he was loaded up and taken up to the street where he was life-flighted, there were news crews there to interview us. We all just let Elder Radle do it, since he was the one who found the guy. So that's another cool mission story to remember. I'm glad we were able to be led to that guy before it was too late.
It is interesting to have President Barrett gone and to have a new mission president - President Jones. I'm not sure what to think yet, but I'm confident he'll do well. Fourth of July for us was sweet! (actually celebrated on the 3rd here) We went to the beach with a semi-recent-convert, part-member family and had a fun BBQ. We set up some beach chairs in the sand and watch the fireworks. Sunday went well too. Angela (lady we found at the bus stop) was at church and loved it, and we also had Patti there. She has been to church several times, but she is just hard to set up times to teach.
But yeah, everything else is going well here! Thank you for your prayers, and I'll be praying for you guys - especially Whitney!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
BIRTHDAY WISHES FOR A 21 YEAR OLD
Mon 6/28/10 9:18 AM
Hey,
Thank you for the birthday wishes! And for the money, Dad! I will be looking for the card too! That's awesome to hear about Jordan's leadership skills and studliness - no surprise at all! I hope Whitney keeps doing well and that EFY goes well for Hannah!
This last week was pretty crazy for us. We were really low on miles, so we've been living with the city elders on the lake front - really cool area. It's been a little cramped though living in a studio apartment with four of us. We have our car parked and we have just been busing to the people on the east side of our area. There are hardly any buses that run on the west side, and most of the people that we see live on the east side. We were able to spend a lot more time working in our area this week. We actually found a new investigator and set a date with her during our first lesson with her this week. Her name is Angela, and we met her at a bus stop. So that was cool. Also, since we were already living with other missionaries, we had plenty of time to do exchanges with them and the two other sets of missionaries in the downtown city area. Also, preparing for President Barrett to leave and mission tour with our new mission president is crazy. President and Sister Jones fly in to Wisconsin tomorrow evening and President and Sister Barrett leave Wednesday morning. We will get to meet President Jones on Wednesday at mission tour!
Mom, you asked if I like being zone leader more than district leader. It's alot different. Zone leader is definitely a bigger responsibility, and so far we have had to deal with some 'drama' from some missionaries in this area that i never had to as district leader. The area where I was district leader - Rapids - was a nice area, and the district didn't have many problems at all. This zone that we are in is known to always have problems with disobedience of missionaries and companion struggles. President is counting on Elder Radle and I to clean it up. I can see why there are problems here. There are so many distractions in the city, and there are so many ways to be disobedient, so many ways to lose focus on what we are here to do. So to answer your question, it does depend on the area where we serve, but i like being zone leader because it forces me to grow and improve even more so i can be an example and help the missionaries in my stewardship. It's not something i aspire to though.
But thank you again for the emails! I'm glad Father's Day went well last week, Dad! (I hope you got my card). I'm excited to go eat some cheesecake factory for my birthday! And then go to GNC and buy some protein!
I love you!
Elder Vogan
Hey,
Thank you for the birthday wishes! And for the money, Dad! I will be looking for the card too! That's awesome to hear about Jordan's leadership skills and studliness - no surprise at all! I hope Whitney keeps doing well and that EFY goes well for Hannah!
This last week was pretty crazy for us. We were really low on miles, so we've been living with the city elders on the lake front - really cool area. It's been a little cramped though living in a studio apartment with four of us. We have our car parked and we have just been busing to the people on the east side of our area. There are hardly any buses that run on the west side, and most of the people that we see live on the east side. We were able to spend a lot more time working in our area this week. We actually found a new investigator and set a date with her during our first lesson with her this week. Her name is Angela, and we met her at a bus stop. So that was cool. Also, since we were already living with other missionaries, we had plenty of time to do exchanges with them and the two other sets of missionaries in the downtown city area. Also, preparing for President Barrett to leave and mission tour with our new mission president is crazy. President and Sister Jones fly in to Wisconsin tomorrow evening and President and Sister Barrett leave Wednesday morning. We will get to meet President Jones on Wednesday at mission tour!
Mom, you asked if I like being zone leader more than district leader. It's alot different. Zone leader is definitely a bigger responsibility, and so far we have had to deal with some 'drama' from some missionaries in this area that i never had to as district leader. The area where I was district leader - Rapids - was a nice area, and the district didn't have many problems at all. This zone that we are in is known to always have problems with disobedience of missionaries and companion struggles. President is counting on Elder Radle and I to clean it up. I can see why there are problems here. There are so many distractions in the city, and there are so many ways to be disobedient, so many ways to lose focus on what we are here to do. So to answer your question, it does depend on the area where we serve, but i like being zone leader because it forces me to grow and improve even more so i can be an example and help the missionaries in my stewardship. It's not something i aspire to though.
But thank you again for the emails! I'm glad Father's Day went well last week, Dad! (I hope you got my card). I'm excited to go eat some cheesecake factory for my birthday! And then go to GNC and buy some protein!
I love you!
Elder Vogan
Monday, June 21, 2010
CIRCUIT TRAINING THE RELIEF SOCIETY SISTERS
Mon 6/21/10 9:36 AM
Family,
Everything is going great here in Milwaukee! We had a lot going on last week with exchanges and leadership meeting on Friday. We are doing well with helping other missionaries on exchanges, but we feel like we are lacking a bit in our own area. So, our goal now is to find that balance of giving diligent and effective help to the other areas and still spending time in our area finding and teaching. We are also focusing on building stronger relationships with the ward members, especially auxiliary leaders. The relief society activity that we helped out with on Tuesday was great for building our relationships. That was the activity that they had me teach and train everyone on exercising with things at home. We went in the cultural hall and had a circuit for all the women and some of the young women who came too. A lot more people were there than expected too - probably 35 or 40. It was a lot of fun!
I am excited to hear about Whitney! I'm sure everyone is getting ready for the new addition. That's cool to hear about Breann and Ben's wedding and everyone going to it. I hope everyone is doing well. I heard from Preston, and that was really good. I'll be sure to write Chantell either today or tomorrow. For my birthday, you don't need to send anything. I might use my home account to buy some new shirts and socks.
Thank you for everything! I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Family,
Everything is going great here in Milwaukee! We had a lot going on last week with exchanges and leadership meeting on Friday. We are doing well with helping other missionaries on exchanges, but we feel like we are lacking a bit in our own area. So, our goal now is to find that balance of giving diligent and effective help to the other areas and still spending time in our area finding and teaching. We are also focusing on building stronger relationships with the ward members, especially auxiliary leaders. The relief society activity that we helped out with on Tuesday was great for building our relationships. That was the activity that they had me teach and train everyone on exercising with things at home. We went in the cultural hall and had a circuit for all the women and some of the young women who came too. A lot more people were there than expected too - probably 35 or 40. It was a lot of fun!
I am excited to hear about Whitney! I'm sure everyone is getting ready for the new addition. That's cool to hear about Breann and Ben's wedding and everyone going to it. I hope everyone is doing well. I heard from Preston, and that was really good. I'll be sure to write Chantell either today or tomorrow. For my birthday, you don't need to send anything. I might use my home account to buy some new shirts and socks.
Thank you for everything! I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
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