THE CITY IS SWEET!

Mon 6/07/10 9:35 AM
Hello family,
So, I didn't hear from anyone this week on my email, so hopefully all is well! I did get the awesome package you sent. Thank you so much for the good music! I'm eating the candy slowly but surely. I have to be more hardcore than ever on my diet now to support Elder Radle with his weight loss goals. He started his mission at 310 lbs. and now he is down to 276 lbs. I told him that he'll have a six-pack before we are done together, so hopefully we will stay together more than 6 weeks or he'll be losing a lot of weight really fast. Just with me, so far, he's lost about 15 lbs. And so now, because someone from the Relief Society found out I used to do a little bit of personal training, they are going to have me teach a workout class for the Relief Society activity next Tuesday. Haha, that will be fun.

The City is sweet! I feel like this area is a big reason why I was called to this mission. It is really fun, and almost too easy to find people to teach and come to church here. The ward is awesome too. Most of the ward is filled with young couples and families from out west here to work for Kohl's at headquarters or at medical school at UWM. So, most of the men in the ward are young return missionaries still excited about missionary work. At church this week, we had two awesome guys come: Khalid and Kartone. They are both in their early 20's. We actually set a baptism date with Khalid last week, and Kartone may end up being baptized the same day: July 3rd. Kartone was planning to just stay for sacrament meeting, but he loved it so much that he cancelled his plans and stayed for "one more". And then after the second class, which he liked even better, he chose to stay for the whole thing. They both felt the Spirit as strong as I know anyone has felt it. During the last hour, Elder Radle and I chose just to teach them in the foyer and we realized even more how much they enjoyed it. They have both grown up in the roughest part of Milwaukee. Khalid's brother even got shot a few years back to protect his sister. He got shot in the throught, so he is paralized now. But during our meeting with them, they were talking about how baptism is a really serious thing, and if they do that they can't go back to their old way of life. If you can imagine Ludacris (Kartone) bearing testimony about following Christ, that's exactly how it seemed. It was the coolest thing ever! Because Kartone knows how serious a covenant is with God, he didn't want to say for sure that he will be baptized yet, but as he continues to be exposed to that Spirit of our message, I know he will be. He even said a really great, sincere prayer after our gospel principles class that blew Khalid's mind. We were all surprised that he even came to church.

But yeah, I think that's it for this week, because the other elders are waiting on me. But I love you, and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Elder Vogan