Thu 8/13/09 4:34 PM
Hi Amy,
So nice to hear from you! I've been meaning to write and send pictures, but got caught up in things. We had the Elders over just before E. Vance left. Then we went on a long weekend to Nauvoo and I've been trying to catch up since then.
Zak gets home in 12 days! Yay! I can't wait. I have to tell you what he wrote in his last e-mail...I hope you don't mind. It just made my day:)
"P.S. You must have been praying for me today because I gave a talk in Zone Development Meeting today and it felt really great. We all felt the Spirit really strong. I made a decision today. Everyone was talking about dating today and I told them that the first girl I was taking out after my mission was going to be my Mom. I said it partially just to make them feel bad about talking about girls, but I ment it. Isn't that going to be fun? :) I love you!"
Elder Vogan told me you just moved...and back to your old house. That's pretty neat! It must be so nice to be "home" again. Our school starts Sept 1st. I just had an interview this afternoon to teach Kindergarten. I feel like it went well, but it's so competitive out here and so few teaching jobs. I just have to trust in the Lord and put it in his hands.
Thanks so much for keeping in touch. I'm looking forward to having Elder Vogan and his new companion for dinner:)
Love,
Leslie
p.s. Elder Vogan played a lovely piece from the Suzanne Cianni music you sent him. I had never heard it before. Beautiful!!!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 4:01 PM
Hi Leslie-
I was just wondering if you got your missionary home yet? I bet you are so excited!! I hope everything is going well for you. It's probably a hectic time of year for you as school will soon resume. We just moved back to our old house that we sold 3 years ago. We are renting it while we hopefully can sell the 'spec' home we have been living in 'temporarily' (for 3 years). We are hoping it will 'show' better when we aren't living in it. My kids started back to school today. They were ready...so was Mom. :D
Best Wishes & Blessings!
Love, Amy
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
A NEW COMPANION--ELDER STEVENS
Mon 8/10/09 9:10 AM
The first week with Elder Stevens went pretty well. The only problem so far has been that I have no sense of direction, but that will get better hopefully. Elder Stevens is from West Valley City, UT. He is big into water sports: swimming, water polo, wakeboarding, and everything else behind a boat. He likes the heat, but he is used to the cold. Loves snow boarding and working on cars. He takes quick showers and eats fast, which is important so we can workout together in the mornings. He is easy-going and down to be obedient. He graduated 2008 and will be going into hospital administration.
So this week we have been really thinking about and focusing on finding new people to teach. Right now, our only strong investigators are Rich and Doug, and now I’m wondering if Doug is even that strong. He has a lot to overcome. So we have been thinking of ways to build stronger relationships with the ward members and leaders, and hopefully we will meet some of their friends to teach. We are making it more of a habit to ask everybody for referrals of people we can teach or do service for, and yesterday it worked out well. On our way out the door last night after dinner, we asked Tyler Du Charme if he had any friends who we should stop by and see. I wasn’t really expecting him to give us a name, but he did and when we stopped by, his friend’s mom was very open to us. We taught her the basics of the restoration, and she scheduled an appointment for us to go over next week and teach her again with her family when they were all home. That was pretty awesome! This will be my first time teaching a whole non-member family together. Usually we teach single people or part member families. We told her that we would go to her church with her if she would come to ours, and said, “Oh yeah, of course!”
Rich Kabitzke is really excited for his baptism on Saturday. We heard his testimony last week, and it was really strong, more than I thought. It will be awesome to see that happen! Peter got baptized on the 8th. (The guy who took us to lunch and was drinking awhile ago). Elder McCoy and Marchant were pretty nervous about that, but they gave him a blessing a couple weeks ago, and since then he hasn’t had the slightest desire to drink. We were able to attend the baptism, and I got a picture with him that I will send you.
Well I will talk to you next week. Good luck with everything!
-Elder Vogan
The first week with Elder Stevens went pretty well. The only problem so far has been that I have no sense of direction, but that will get better hopefully. Elder Stevens is from West Valley City, UT. He is big into water sports: swimming, water polo, wakeboarding, and everything else behind a boat. He likes the heat, but he is used to the cold. Loves snow boarding and working on cars. He takes quick showers and eats fast, which is important so we can workout together in the mornings. He is easy-going and down to be obedient. He graduated 2008 and will be going into hospital administration.
So this week we have been really thinking about and focusing on finding new people to teach. Right now, our only strong investigators are Rich and Doug, and now I’m wondering if Doug is even that strong. He has a lot to overcome. So we have been thinking of ways to build stronger relationships with the ward members and leaders, and hopefully we will meet some of their friends to teach. We are making it more of a habit to ask everybody for referrals of people we can teach or do service for, and yesterday it worked out well. On our way out the door last night after dinner, we asked Tyler Du Charme if he had any friends who we should stop by and see. I wasn’t really expecting him to give us a name, but he did and when we stopped by, his friend’s mom was very open to us. We taught her the basics of the restoration, and she scheduled an appointment for us to go over next week and teach her again with her family when they were all home. That was pretty awesome! This will be my first time teaching a whole non-member family together. Usually we teach single people or part member families. We told her that we would go to her church with her if she would come to ours, and said, “Oh yeah, of course!”
Rich Kabitzke is really excited for his baptism on Saturday. We heard his testimony last week, and it was really strong, more than I thought. It will be awesome to see that happen! Peter got baptized on the 8th. (The guy who took us to lunch and was drinking awhile ago). Elder McCoy and Marchant were pretty nervous about that, but they gave him a blessing a couple weeks ago, and since then he hasn’t had the slightest desire to drink. We were able to attend the baptism, and I got a picture with him that I will send you.
Well I will talk to you next week. Good luck with everything!
-Elder Vogan
Thursday, August 6, 2009
TRAINING
Mon 8/03/09 10:08 AM
Hey, I am really glad to hear that everything went well with moving back to the old/new house! It will be fun to go home to “home”. Haha, that lady that called Mom is Sister Krommenhoek, who is Sister Keir’s mom. I don’t think it’s cheating at all that these people contact you, but if I find out it is I will let you know.
Well Friday we got the call about transfers from the president, and Elder Vance is transferring out of the area this week. President also told us that we will both be training. I was definitely not expecting that because I still feel brand new. It will be good though and help me to grow faster. Now that I bought a GPS, I can find my way around, haha. So yeah, I’ll only be two transfers older than my trainee, so I’m sure we will both be learning a lot together. We are hoping Elder Vance goes to Brookfield to train because then we will do service together, and we’ll be able to hang out every now and then on P-days. Elder Caldwell told us that he and his companion are both transferring out of Brookfield, so it’s a good possibility.
So that is the big new of the week, but other than that we had a pretty good week. We taught a good number of lessons, and we saw Rich get stronger in his faith. His baptism is pretty much for sure on the 15th. His wife’s son is LDS and he is flying out from Florida to baptize him, and he already has his flight plans and everything. We saw Doug improve too, but we also saw things in his life that he’ll need to work on a bit, so he won’t be baptized this weekend like we had planned with him. Hopefully he’ll be ready within a few weeks. It was funny, the Du Charmes invited Doug to come to dinner at their house last Monday, and during that Brother Du Charme showed him a couple quotes from the book, “Mormon Doctrine”. And since Doug liked it, he went home and bought it that night and had it shipped from Chicago. So now he owns a large print quad scriptures combo, a gospel principles book, a couple of Ensigns, and Mormon Doctrine.
That’s all for this week, so I will let you know about my new companion and everything next week!
Love you! Elder Vogan
Hey, I am really glad to hear that everything went well with moving back to the old/new house! It will be fun to go home to “home”. Haha, that lady that called Mom is Sister Krommenhoek, who is Sister Keir’s mom. I don’t think it’s cheating at all that these people contact you, but if I find out it is I will let you know.
Well Friday we got the call about transfers from the president, and Elder Vance is transferring out of the area this week. President also told us that we will both be training. I was definitely not expecting that because I still feel brand new. It will be good though and help me to grow faster. Now that I bought a GPS, I can find my way around, haha. So yeah, I’ll only be two transfers older than my trainee, so I’m sure we will both be learning a lot together. We are hoping Elder Vance goes to Brookfield to train because then we will do service together, and we’ll be able to hang out every now and then on P-days. Elder Caldwell told us that he and his companion are both transferring out of Brookfield, so it’s a good possibility.
So that is the big new of the week, but other than that we had a pretty good week. We taught a good number of lessons, and we saw Rich get stronger in his faith. His baptism is pretty much for sure on the 15th. His wife’s son is LDS and he is flying out from Florida to baptize him, and he already has his flight plans and everything. We saw Doug improve too, but we also saw things in his life that he’ll need to work on a bit, so he won’t be baptized this weekend like we had planned with him. Hopefully he’ll be ready within a few weeks. It was funny, the Du Charmes invited Doug to come to dinner at their house last Monday, and during that Brother Du Charme showed him a couple quotes from the book, “Mormon Doctrine”. And since Doug liked it, he went home and bought it that night and had it shipped from Chicago. So now he owns a large print quad scriptures combo, a gospel principles book, a couple of Ensigns, and Mormon Doctrine.
That’s all for this week, so I will let you know about my new companion and everything next week!
Love you! Elder Vogan
Monday, July 27, 2009
MOVING FORWARD
Mon 7/27/09 9:20 AM
Wow, that’s crazy to think I’ll probably be coming home to the old house I grew up in! Yeah, Sister Du Charme was actually the one who told me that you were moving – I guess she read Hannah’s facebook status last night, haha. That’s funny that they are friends on there. I hope the moving goes well, and I hope it isn’t as stressful as the last one! Yeah, everyone here seems to have some kind of connection with me; it’s weird. Sister Little (we went to the temple with her and her husband), she actually grew up with Danny Beecroft’s mom, Dana. I guess they were even best friends, but they had lost touch with each other. And so when Sister Little went to look me up on facebook, she saw that Danny was one of my friends and was able to get back in touch with his mom. And this week she is down in “the valley” spending some time with her. So that was cool.
But anyway this week went well! The highlight was definitely Nate’s baptism and confirmation on the 25th and 26th. You will see some pictures of that soon, hopefully. Rich Kabitzke had a cool experience this week. His wife is already a member, so the home teachers were over meeting with the family, and they were talking about temple work and genealogy. Before that, Rich didn’t know too much about those things, but he was interested and said he was excited to do some work for his parents and ancestors after he was baptized. And then Sister Kabitzke remembered that Rich’s second cousin was a member, and had a strong feeling that the work for his parents was already done. So, that night they went to the family history center, and they found out that Rich’s dad and that whole side of his family had all the work done back to the 1800’s. They really thought that was cool. Rich is awesome, and he will be baptized by Sister Kabitzke’s son on the 15th of August.
Doug also had a great week. We taught him the Word of Wisdom on Wednesday, and that was a little shaky. He is an alcoholic, smoker, and loves coffee. At the end of the lesson, when we asked him if that was something he was willing to do, he had no problem committing to stop drinking and smoking, but he couldn’t commit to stop coffee. He said it was one of his only pleasures in life. But I know he will soon because he loves most everything about the church, and he attends all the activities and meetings. So we are still hoping on August 8th for him. That’s it for this week.
Love you guys, and good luck with the moving! Elder Vogan
Wow, that’s crazy to think I’ll probably be coming home to the old house I grew up in! Yeah, Sister Du Charme was actually the one who told me that you were moving – I guess she read Hannah’s facebook status last night, haha. That’s funny that they are friends on there. I hope the moving goes well, and I hope it isn’t as stressful as the last one! Yeah, everyone here seems to have some kind of connection with me; it’s weird. Sister Little (we went to the temple with her and her husband), she actually grew up with Danny Beecroft’s mom, Dana. I guess they were even best friends, but they had lost touch with each other. And so when Sister Little went to look me up on facebook, she saw that Danny was one of my friends and was able to get back in touch with his mom. And this week she is down in “the valley” spending some time with her. So that was cool.
But anyway this week went well! The highlight was definitely Nate’s baptism and confirmation on the 25th and 26th. You will see some pictures of that soon, hopefully. Rich Kabitzke had a cool experience this week. His wife is already a member, so the home teachers were over meeting with the family, and they were talking about temple work and genealogy. Before that, Rich didn’t know too much about those things, but he was interested and said he was excited to do some work for his parents and ancestors after he was baptized. And then Sister Kabitzke remembered that Rich’s second cousin was a member, and had a strong feeling that the work for his parents was already done. So, that night they went to the family history center, and they found out that Rich’s dad and that whole side of his family had all the work done back to the 1800’s. They really thought that was cool. Rich is awesome, and he will be baptized by Sister Kabitzke’s son on the 15th of August.
Doug also had a great week. We taught him the Word of Wisdom on Wednesday, and that was a little shaky. He is an alcoholic, smoker, and loves coffee. At the end of the lesson, when we asked him if that was something he was willing to do, he had no problem committing to stop drinking and smoking, but he couldn’t commit to stop coffee. He said it was one of his only pleasures in life. But I know he will soon because he loves most everything about the church, and he attends all the activities and meetings. So we are still hoping on August 8th for him. That’s it for this week.
Love you guys, and good luck with the moving! Elder Vogan
Monday, July 20, 2009
AN AWESOME WEEK!!
Mon 7/20/09 12:11 PM
Thank you for writing again this week! Man, that fried ice cream sounds good, you should make that again in a couple of years, haha. That's cool that Brock had his farewell; he'll have alot of fun in the Phillapeans for sure. Speaking of Chantell and Brock, I sent letters for them to our address a few weeks ago because I didn't know the Perry's address, did you get those to them? And I did the same thing for Bishop last week.
This week was probably the best week for missionary work of my whole mission! We are really starting to see the payoff for stepping up our efforts to be exactly obedient. We had 3 investigators at church again: Doug, Rich, and Will. And we set two baptism dates with Doug and Rich for August 8th. Both of those seem really solid. And Nate will be baptised this Saturday, so all of this is really cool to see. We also had 20 lessons this week, which is alot better than any of our past weeks. Obedience in just the last week or two has also helped me to love my mission, my companion, and the people here alot more, and I feel like I am learning so much more as well. We committed to "stepping it up" a couple weeks ago in a companion study we had, in which we studied and discussed the relationship of faith and obedience, and the power that comes from obedience. It was definitely the best comp. study I've had, and since then this concept has been our "default lesson" for people we haven't specifically prepared another lesson for. Since we have seen such great things from that lately in our work, we feel like everyone should embrace it, and Elder Vance and I teach it well together.
Well something else new this week was Steve. Steve is a young guy who works at a place called Health Hut, which is owned by two members of the Church, and alot of the youth from the stake work there. So we go there occasionally, and we've talked to Steve before. Steve isn't a member, and lately he's been having a REALLY tough time. I don't want to explain all the details, but a little over a week ago we were told by someone that a young guy named Steve walked into our church because he said he needed to pray. And after the guy explained Steve, we knew it was "Health Hut" Steve. So, last Thursday we went in there to see how he was doing, and he told us he really needed something that would comfort him, and he felt like we could give it to him. When he got off work, we met at our church and taught him in one of the rooms about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and we gave him a Book of Mormon and read some of it with him. Just reading from the Book gave him so much comfort, he didn't want to stop. He just kept wanting to pray and read. He told one of the Single's ward guys who taught with us that we "saved him". We met with him the next day, and he was a little bit better, and we had basically the same lesson from the day before. On Saturday, we decided to fast for him. We haven't seen him since Friday, but we are looking foreward to seeing him today.
Well, on another note, the weather here is really stange. It's been in the high 60's and dry for the past week, which is very strange for the middle of July. Oh, and by the way, Peter ended up going to church, and he is still on for his baptism on August 1st. Haha, crazy.
Well that's it, I'll talk to you next week! Love you Elder Vogan
Thank you for writing again this week! Man, that fried ice cream sounds good, you should make that again in a couple of years, haha. That's cool that Brock had his farewell; he'll have alot of fun in the Phillapeans for sure. Speaking of Chantell and Brock, I sent letters for them to our address a few weeks ago because I didn't know the Perry's address, did you get those to them? And I did the same thing for Bishop last week.
This week was probably the best week for missionary work of my whole mission! We are really starting to see the payoff for stepping up our efforts to be exactly obedient. We had 3 investigators at church again: Doug, Rich, and Will. And we set two baptism dates with Doug and Rich for August 8th. Both of those seem really solid. And Nate will be baptised this Saturday, so all of this is really cool to see. We also had 20 lessons this week, which is alot better than any of our past weeks. Obedience in just the last week or two has also helped me to love my mission, my companion, and the people here alot more, and I feel like I am learning so much more as well. We committed to "stepping it up" a couple weeks ago in a companion study we had, in which we studied and discussed the relationship of faith and obedience, and the power that comes from obedience. It was definitely the best comp. study I've had, and since then this concept has been our "default lesson" for people we haven't specifically prepared another lesson for. Since we have seen such great things from that lately in our work, we feel like everyone should embrace it, and Elder Vance and I teach it well together.
Well something else new this week was Steve. Steve is a young guy who works at a place called Health Hut, which is owned by two members of the Church, and alot of the youth from the stake work there. So we go there occasionally, and we've talked to Steve before. Steve isn't a member, and lately he's been having a REALLY tough time. I don't want to explain all the details, but a little over a week ago we were told by someone that a young guy named Steve walked into our church because he said he needed to pray. And after the guy explained Steve, we knew it was "Health Hut" Steve. So, last Thursday we went in there to see how he was doing, and he told us he really needed something that would comfort him, and he felt like we could give it to him. When he got off work, we met at our church and taught him in one of the rooms about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and we gave him a Book of Mormon and read some of it with him. Just reading from the Book gave him so much comfort, he didn't want to stop. He just kept wanting to pray and read. He told one of the Single's ward guys who taught with us that we "saved him". We met with him the next day, and he was a little bit better, and we had basically the same lesson from the day before. On Saturday, we decided to fast for him. We haven't seen him since Friday, but we are looking foreward to seeing him today.
Well, on another note, the weather here is really stange. It's been in the high 60's and dry for the past week, which is very strange for the middle of July. Oh, and by the way, Peter ended up going to church, and he is still on for his baptism on August 1st. Haha, crazy.
Well that's it, I'll talk to you next week! Love you Elder Vogan
Monday, July 13, 2009
A CRAZY LUNCH DATE ON SPLITS
Mon 7/13/09 9:52 AM
Hey, I was good reading your emails today! I'm glad to hear you are working to do good missionary work at home, and Dad, that was crazy to see that guy's bicep picture. That definitely would not be fun to have happen. I will be writing letters to Jordan and Hannah today because I feel bad about not writing after their last letters. Well this week went well and was eventful! The Safehouse was pretty cool, but I hear it would be a lot more fun at night when more people are there. The people who don't know where the secret passage is or know the password have to do funny things before the restaurant will let them in. The room has a camera in it, so everyone eating can watch it, and laugh. It's spy-themed, so there is a lot of James Bond posters and a bunch of different spy-related things in the restaurant. Decent food too.
Tuesday and Wednesday were highlights of my mission I think, so far. We went on exchanges again, this time I went with one of the zone leaders (Elder McCoy) to his area - West Allis and South Milwaukee. That area was so much fun to work in. It was a very different type of neighborhood than my area. Everyone is outside walking on the street or sitting on their porches, and everyone we talk to and teach are very interested in our message, and they even thanked us for talking to them. One lady we taught saw the missionaries before and said she was hoping so much that they would come talk to her. They decided to talk to her the day before I was there, and they taught her about the restoration of the Church and she said she wanted to be baptized and has a date for that and everything. So that was really cool. We got to teach her and her family when I was their, and it looks like the whole family will be following their Mom (Rachel) with that too.
We also met with a guy named Peter (small Philipeano guy)... On Tuesday, we had an amazing lesson with him. It was the first time Peter wasn't drinking while the missionaries were teaching, so he was coherent and understood everything and was very excited to learn. After the lesson, he was in tears while he said the prayer. We had set a date and he was for sure going to church and everything - probably the most powerful lesson I've been involved in so far, Elder McCoy is an awesome teacher. Anyway, so the next day he calls us, and he confesses that he lied to us about his Mom being killed by a drunk driver. He said he felt like Heavenly Father wanted him to tell us that. And he said he talked to his mom, and she wanted him to take us to lunch. So we went, and when we got there, he was drinking... And it was pretty uncomfortable. He told us he wanted to pray outloud because we were all "Brothers in Christ" (which is cool, but he said that over and over) and he didn't care about the "physical people around". He told the waitress, "Treat these gentlemen well, they are my brothers, my brothers in Christ." He was so happy, telling us alot how he loved us and appreciated us, and he loved everyone and everything. Then, something snapped, and he went completely opposite - which made us even more uncomfortable. He all of a sudden went silent and was just staring. Elder McCoy asked him what he was thinking about, and he said, "suicide". It was a little scary. Then he started staring down people and mouthing swear words at them. Started swearing alot all around actually, at the waitress too. So when we finished up and he was paying, we told him we had to get going, and he said, "Yeah, whatever.." So as we were walking to the car he runs out after us yelling and swearing at us saying he wasted his money on us and stuff. It was crazy! I thought he was going to punch McCoy, so I was getting ready. But anyway, it ended up working out. I think he completely forgot about all that or something, because he was at church yesterday. Haha.
So, that took up all my time writing that, but it is the craziest story I think I have so far. We got to see a baptism last night of someone Elder Vance used to teach. And we had 3 people at church. So that was good, the work is always improving. I'll talk to you next week!
Love you!
Elder Vogan
Ps. Mom, I will be forewarding my emails to the President to you as well, so I can go back and read them at the end of my mission. And so you can see more of what's going on inside the mission.
Hey, I was good reading your emails today! I'm glad to hear you are working to do good missionary work at home, and Dad, that was crazy to see that guy's bicep picture. That definitely would not be fun to have happen. I will be writing letters to Jordan and Hannah today because I feel bad about not writing after their last letters. Well this week went well and was eventful! The Safehouse was pretty cool, but I hear it would be a lot more fun at night when more people are there. The people who don't know where the secret passage is or know the password have to do funny things before the restaurant will let them in. The room has a camera in it, so everyone eating can watch it, and laugh. It's spy-themed, so there is a lot of James Bond posters and a bunch of different spy-related things in the restaurant. Decent food too.
Tuesday and Wednesday were highlights of my mission I think, so far. We went on exchanges again, this time I went with one of the zone leaders (Elder McCoy) to his area - West Allis and South Milwaukee. That area was so much fun to work in. It was a very different type of neighborhood than my area. Everyone is outside walking on the street or sitting on their porches, and everyone we talk to and teach are very interested in our message, and they even thanked us for talking to them. One lady we taught saw the missionaries before and said she was hoping so much that they would come talk to her. They decided to talk to her the day before I was there, and they taught her about the restoration of the Church and she said she wanted to be baptized and has a date for that and everything. So that was really cool. We got to teach her and her family when I was their, and it looks like the whole family will be following their Mom (Rachel) with that too.
We also met with a guy named Peter (small Philipeano guy)... On Tuesday, we had an amazing lesson with him. It was the first time Peter wasn't drinking while the missionaries were teaching, so he was coherent and understood everything and was very excited to learn. After the lesson, he was in tears while he said the prayer. We had set a date and he was for sure going to church and everything - probably the most powerful lesson I've been involved in so far, Elder McCoy is an awesome teacher. Anyway, so the next day he calls us, and he confesses that he lied to us about his Mom being killed by a drunk driver. He said he felt like Heavenly Father wanted him to tell us that. And he said he talked to his mom, and she wanted him to take us to lunch. So we went, and when we got there, he was drinking... And it was pretty uncomfortable. He told us he wanted to pray outloud because we were all "Brothers in Christ" (which is cool, but he said that over and over) and he didn't care about the "physical people around". He told the waitress, "Treat these gentlemen well, they are my brothers, my brothers in Christ." He was so happy, telling us alot how he loved us and appreciated us, and he loved everyone and everything. Then, something snapped, and he went completely opposite - which made us even more uncomfortable. He all of a sudden went silent and was just staring. Elder McCoy asked him what he was thinking about, and he said, "suicide". It was a little scary. Then he started staring down people and mouthing swear words at them. Started swearing alot all around actually, at the waitress too. So when we finished up and he was paying, we told him we had to get going, and he said, "Yeah, whatever.." So as we were walking to the car he runs out after us yelling and swearing at us saying he wasted his money on us and stuff. It was crazy! I thought he was going to punch McCoy, so I was getting ready. But anyway, it ended up working out. I think he completely forgot about all that or something, because he was at church yesterday. Haha.
So, that took up all my time writing that, but it is the craziest story I think I have so far. We got to see a baptism last night of someone Elder Vance used to teach. And we had 3 people at church. So that was good, the work is always improving. I'll talk to you next week!
Love you!
Elder Vogan
Ps. Mom, I will be forewarding my emails to the President to you as well, so I can go back and read them at the end of my mission. And so you can see more of what's going on inside the mission.
Monday, July 6, 2009
HAPPY FOURTH, AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY WHITNEY!
Mon 7/06/09 9:10 AM
Well today will be the shortest email yet, I think. We have plans to go out to downtown Milwaukee and eat at this place called The Safehouse with the other Elders pretty soon. It's a "secret" restaurant hidden in an allyway and you need to have a password to get in and stuff - I hear its pretty cool. I apologize for not writing you back after your last letters, Hannah and Jordan, it's really difficult to find time to write letters if we are exactly obedient in following the schedule - which we are really trying to do. I really enjoyed the birthday package! And the bread is still good; I actually had some last night - thank you Mom! The Du Charmes and Elder Vance love it too, and Mike Moore had some when he came over and also really liked it. And Hannah, that pop-up book is awesome! Haha I don't even know how you were able to do it. I have it taped up on my wall above my desk. We've been listening to the cd's too, thanks for those!
This week, we had zone conference again, and it went really well - really motivating. Friday, the 3rd, we went to this lakeside picnic/party by the lake and watched a firework show. And then on Saturday, we went out to a couple of parades for different cities, and then we went to that fair and went on rides and watched fireworks. The people we were with both of these nights were mostly not members of the Church, so we might have an opportunity to teach some of them more than we did. It was a really fun week, and we invited a lot of different people to let us teach them. It's crazy how many people think we are either Jehovah's Witnesses or FBI agents, haha. Well, I gotta get going, but I love you! And tell Megan I love her and miss her too! Thank you for all the emails this week, that was awesome!
-Elder Vogan
Well today will be the shortest email yet, I think. We have plans to go out to downtown Milwaukee and eat at this place called The Safehouse with the other Elders pretty soon. It's a "secret" restaurant hidden in an allyway and you need to have a password to get in and stuff - I hear its pretty cool. I apologize for not writing you back after your last letters, Hannah and Jordan, it's really difficult to find time to write letters if we are exactly obedient in following the schedule - which we are really trying to do. I really enjoyed the birthday package! And the bread is still good; I actually had some last night - thank you Mom! The Du Charmes and Elder Vance love it too, and Mike Moore had some when he came over and also really liked it. And Hannah, that pop-up book is awesome! Haha I don't even know how you were able to do it. I have it taped up on my wall above my desk. We've been listening to the cd's too, thanks for those!
This week, we had zone conference again, and it went really well - really motivating. Friday, the 3rd, we went to this lakeside picnic/party by the lake and watched a firework show. And then on Saturday, we went out to a couple of parades for different cities, and then we went to that fair and went on rides and watched fireworks. The people we were with both of these nights were mostly not members of the Church, so we might have an opportunity to teach some of them more than we did. It was a really fun week, and we invited a lot of different people to let us teach them. It's crazy how many people think we are either Jehovah's Witnesses or FBI agents, haha. Well, I gotta get going, but I love you! And tell Megan I love her and miss her too! Thank you for all the emails this week, that was awesome!
-Elder Vogan
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