2010/12/20
Mom,It's great to be back! I really know even more now than before, when I was sent home and released, how much power is given to us as set apart missionaries. I knew when I was leaving the mission that I wanted to come back, and I knew when I was at home that I wanted to come back, but I needed really understand how much I missed it until I got back. Walking through the airport towards the baggage claim and seeing President and Sister Jones, Elder Cottle and Elder Lyons all waiting for me smiling, I felt so glad and excited to be back. The next thing that happened after I said "Hi" to them, one of the people I taught in Manitowoc stopped me and was really excited to see me. She told me she had moved and so I got her information so that the missionaries could start visiting her again. She was she to update me on her progress with quitting smoking.
I was able to go over to the Du Charme's and eat a late lunch and pick up my stuff. It was great to see them, and I'm glad they were able to tell you where I am now and who I'm with! It's awesome to be back with Elder Lester! He's even more of a powerhouse than he was before. But yeah, so after that I went and spent the rest of the evening teaching with the assistants and we stayed at the mission home. Wednesday was conveniently transfer day. (I thought it wasn't for a couple weeks, but I guess the mission wanted the departing missionaries to be home for Christmas).
So I knew ice would be something to be careful with, and I wore my brace, but I still ended up slipping right before leaving Milwaukee and landing right on my knee... nothing a brace can do about that. The whole church parking lot was frozen over with ice, so it dangerous for anyone, and my weak knee made me even more vulnerable. I was really worried throughout my trip because I was in a lot of pain, and I was having similar symptoms that I had when it was torn. The next day was even worse, at one point, my knee even felt like it was locking up. We stopped by a store, and I got some things to put on my shoes to prevent me from slipping again. Anyway, I was starting to feel like I might be turning around and heading back home again, but after a blessing from Elder Lester, I'm doing much better. I am only telling you this so that you will pray for my knee to be healed without me having to go back home.
The work is going well here! Right now we are living with the Hmong elders, so there are 4 of us in a cozy little apartment. They have like 10 people preparing for baptism, so they are working really well. We have a few people we are working with right now: Andra, Mike, and Gloria. Most of the work has been with less-active members recently though. Andra has a baptism date for the first week in January, and we almost set one with Gloria in an amazingly spiritual lesson we had with her this morning. It was funny, she started the lesson by saying that she "knew" she didn't need anything except the Bible and that she would never be a member of our church, but by the end she was considering baptism and saying, "Aw man, I never saw myself as a Mormon." She's had a lot of problems in her life, but she's also been incredibly blessed with so many gifts and so much faith and sincerity.
I would love some oranges! Merry Christmas! I will plan on calling around 2:00 pm our time.
Love, Elder Vogan
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
Surgery - The Road to Recovery
Well since I'm home personally typing this entry, it won't take the email format that the past entries have. This is an interesting missionary experience. I'm lying here on my living room couch, recovering from this injury just as I have done several times throughout my accident-prone life. With Mom's encouragement, I decided that I would update my blog during this period where I am laid up and healing, so that I don't lose focus of the goal I have to return to the mission field.
Since being home, I've heard a few different negative statistics about the number of missionaries who return to the mission field after being released for medical purposes, and I am beginning to see how that happens so easily. It's definitely been a shock to my system to change my lifestyle from one having the mantle of an "Elder", living with higher purpose and much higher standards, to being thrown back into the world, released from my calling, feeling as if I have hardly any meaningful purpose while I'm home, and feeling much less of the Spirit in my daily activites.
The way I feel I need to keep from feeling this way is by giving myself a meaningful purpose each day. It's been difficult since the surgery Wednesday to focus on anything for too long, being on all these pain killers.. (I hope this entry is making sense!) But as I create meaningful goals and plans to work on each day, I can feel some satisfaction that comes from improvement, even if it is only small. Mission life was so structured with goals and plans and accountibility. Applying that as much as possible to my "inter-missionary" life will hopefully bring back that feeling of purpose that I miss!
- Taylor
Since being home, I've heard a few different negative statistics about the number of missionaries who return to the mission field after being released for medical purposes, and I am beginning to see how that happens so easily. It's definitely been a shock to my system to change my lifestyle from one having the mantle of an "Elder", living with higher purpose and much higher standards, to being thrown back into the world, released from my calling, feeling as if I have hardly any meaningful purpose while I'm home, and feeling much less of the Spirit in my daily activites.
The way I feel I need to keep from feeling this way is by giving myself a meaningful purpose each day. It's been difficult since the surgery Wednesday to focus on anything for too long, being on all these pain killers.. (I hope this entry is making sense!) But as I create meaningful goals and plans to work on each day, I can feel some satisfaction that comes from improvement, even if it is only small. Mission life was so structured with goals and plans and accountibility. Applying that as much as possible to my "inter-missionary" life will hopefully bring back that feeling of purpose that I miss!
- Taylor
Saturday, September 11, 2010
~MISSION INTERMISSION~
Haha I would LOVE Filibertos, but I'm not sure I'll have the appetite. This "ordeal" definitely has been interesting to say the least. I've been pretty anxious about everything too. Not the surgery as much as going home before I expected to, and not being able to see our investigators progress. I'll definitely be doing all I can to get back out as soon as possible. I talked to a knee surgeon from the ward here, and he told me that the usual recovery time is 3 1/2 to 4 months - so I might still be home for the holidays! But yeah, no one needs to worry about me being in bad shape or in pain or anything. It is a little bit uncomfortable, but I've been walking around on it for more than a month now, and it's been fine. I did just get a really cool brace this morning too to help with stability. I do understand why they are taking these procautions, and I am very comforted that I'll be able to come back out. That was a big worry of mine. I'm not sure whether or not I'll be released as a missionary during that time. The last two missionaries who went home were released, and they are both coming back out. To make sure that I come back out, I'm leaving most of my things at the Du Charme's house, so now I HAVE TO come back.
I do miss you very much, and I am excited to see you! I am excited for all of the reasons everyone said! I told the elders here that I'm coming back out with an 8-pack, so I hope Jordan and Dad hold me to it! It's funny too, I might be keeping in touch with a couple of our investigators over facebook, so I can still teach the gospel while I'm at home.
But yeah, I'll tell you more of the spiratual events of this past week when I see you tomorrow!
Love,
Elder Vogan
I do miss you very much, and I am excited to see you! I am excited for all of the reasons everyone said! I told the elders here that I'm coming back out with an 8-pack, so I hope Jordan and Dad hold me to it! It's funny too, I might be keeping in touch with a couple of our investigators over facebook, so I can still teach the gospel while I'm at home.
But yeah, I'll tell you more of the spiratual events of this past week when I see you tomorrow!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Monday, August 30, 2010
MISSION DEPARTMENT TO DECIDE WHAT HAPPENS???
Mon 8/30/10 9:43 AM
So, no emails from you yet, but hopefully I'll see some come in by the time I'm done typing this one! Mom, I have a gift in the mail for you that was given to me from an investigator of ours.. so, be looking out for it. I hope everyone is well and happy at home!
So, first I'll start with the news you're probably wondering about most - about my knee. So, I got the results on Thursday and my meniscus has a pretty bad buckle tear and my ACL is "partial to completely" torn as well. So... I'll need surgery on it sometime. The doctor's recommendation was to have surgery as soon as possible, but he also understood how important the missionary work is to me and gave me another option: to get a sports brace to wear till I finish my mission and then get surgery at home. He said there was possibility of further damage if I did that, but it's not cancer, so if I didn't run, jump, skip or hop, it shouldn't be terrible. He said it would be pointless to do anything with it surgically unless I was fixing all of it at the same time. So, I immediately ordered the brace as soon as I heard that option. But then, when I told President and Sister Jones about it, they said I really didn't have much choice in it, and the mission department would be the ones to decide what happens.. Sorry Mom, I know you told me when I was a kid, "no more injuries". But thank you for your prayers. I'm really calm and comforted about everything, and I'm pretty much pain-free - even while walking on it. I am confident that that comes from the prayers in my behalf.
But yeah, besides that, this week was still crazy! We had our 4-day long training here in Milwaukee Tuesday thru Friday. It went well, but it was exhausting. We had to do this as part of implementing new curriculum in the mission from the MTC, so all the leaders and trainers from the mission were invited. Elder Klc who was in the MTC with me got to stay at our apartment during the nights, so that was cool. We would have our training each day from 9-4 and then afterward we'd go to our areas and do missionary work. Since Elder Klc's area was too far away, he just came and worked in our area. My training on Friday morning went pretty well. I trained for 40 min. on helping others make and keep commitments.
-Just got your emails-
Yeah things are going really well with Elder Turney. He is from Germany. He lived his whole life on a US military base there. His dad works for the Department of Defense "civilian". He is a school teacher there. His mom is from Guam, so he has an interesting heritage that members/non-members love to talk with him about. He actually came out with Elder Radle, and he'll be going home mid-November. It's interesting, there are 4 missionaries in our mission who grew up in Germany, and all four are in our little zone.
That's sad to hear about Meggie's toe! I hope you can figure out what's going on with her soon, so that she doesn't keep hurting herself. I'll definitely be praying for her. It's also interesting to hear about my new ward. I am also glad they changed the name to something more masculine. Congrats to Annie with the new baby! And to Grandma Nan! And good luck to Hannah with her first game!
Not too much to tell you this week about investigators. So, I won't. I love you and I'll talk to you next week! (or before then, if I'm given any new critical information)
Love,
Elder Vogan
So, no emails from you yet, but hopefully I'll see some come in by the time I'm done typing this one! Mom, I have a gift in the mail for you that was given to me from an investigator of ours.. so, be looking out for it. I hope everyone is well and happy at home!
So, first I'll start with the news you're probably wondering about most - about my knee. So, I got the results on Thursday and my meniscus has a pretty bad buckle tear and my ACL is "partial to completely" torn as well. So... I'll need surgery on it sometime. The doctor's recommendation was to have surgery as soon as possible, but he also understood how important the missionary work is to me and gave me another option: to get a sports brace to wear till I finish my mission and then get surgery at home. He said there was possibility of further damage if I did that, but it's not cancer, so if I didn't run, jump, skip or hop, it shouldn't be terrible. He said it would be pointless to do anything with it surgically unless I was fixing all of it at the same time. So, I immediately ordered the brace as soon as I heard that option. But then, when I told President and Sister Jones about it, they said I really didn't have much choice in it, and the mission department would be the ones to decide what happens.. Sorry Mom, I know you told me when I was a kid, "no more injuries". But thank you for your prayers. I'm really calm and comforted about everything, and I'm pretty much pain-free - even while walking on it. I am confident that that comes from the prayers in my behalf.
But yeah, besides that, this week was still crazy! We had our 4-day long training here in Milwaukee Tuesday thru Friday. It went well, but it was exhausting. We had to do this as part of implementing new curriculum in the mission from the MTC, so all the leaders and trainers from the mission were invited. Elder Klc who was in the MTC with me got to stay at our apartment during the nights, so that was cool. We would have our training each day from 9-4 and then afterward we'd go to our areas and do missionary work. Since Elder Klc's area was too far away, he just came and worked in our area. My training on Friday morning went pretty well. I trained for 40 min. on helping others make and keep commitments.
-Just got your emails-
Yeah things are going really well with Elder Turney. He is from Germany. He lived his whole life on a US military base there. His dad works for the Department of Defense "civilian". He is a school teacher there. His mom is from Guam, so he has an interesting heritage that members/non-members love to talk with him about. He actually came out with Elder Radle, and he'll be going home mid-November. It's interesting, there are 4 missionaries in our mission who grew up in Germany, and all four are in our little zone.
That's sad to hear about Meggie's toe! I hope you can figure out what's going on with her soon, so that she doesn't keep hurting herself. I'll definitely be praying for her. It's also interesting to hear about my new ward. I am also glad they changed the name to something more masculine. Congrats to Annie with the new baby! And to Grandma Nan! And good luck to Hannah with her first game!
Not too much to tell you this week about investigators. So, I won't. I love you and I'll talk to you next week! (or before then, if I'm given any new critical information)
Love,
Elder Vogan
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
MRI TODAY--RESULTS ON THURSDAY
Mon 8/23/10 10:09 AM
Hello!
Yeah, I had my MRI this morning, and I'll know more about it on Thursday at my follow up appointment. There is a chance that my ACL was torn too, which would be alot worse if that was true. That would be too long of a recovery to stay out here if that was the case. If I only need to have a scope, that's just a two week recovery, and I don't think I'd be sent home over that. Thank you for your prayers and for putting my name in the temple. I know whatever happens is what's supposed to happen. Right now I am fine though. I can walk around on it without much pain, with just a little limp. So don't worry too much. Oh and it's my left knee, not the right.
That's cool to hear that school is back in session and everything's going well! I look forward to seeing pictures of Dad's deer next week! And way cool about Matthew Gallego's mission call! Do you keep in touch pretty well with people from the Las Sendas ward? Yeah, Elder Turney is my new companion, and things are going well. We are working hard and staying focussed, so that's sweet. Going from Elder Radle to Elder Turney is definitely going from one extreme to another. My new companion describes himself as a micro-manager and somewhat robotic. I feel like I'm pretty much right in between those two. It's good though, we are a lot more prepared for our days and our appointments now. And he keeps me good on my "diet".
This week is going to be pretty nuts. All of the leaders and trainers from our mission will be in Milwaukee from Tuesday thru Friday for a 4-day leadership meeting. It will be pretty intense. I get to teach part of the conference on Friday, so that will be fun. It's good for us to have it here in Milwaukee so that we can still work in our own area in the evenings, and it doesn't get neglected.
The guy I think I mentioned in my email last week who loves the Osmonds came to church yesterday, along with 5 other investigators! Things seem to be really picking up out here. Mike seems to be shady though. We are pretty sure he is getting baptized so that he can marry Marie Osmond. No joke...
I can't think of anything else to write about this week, so I'll talk to you next week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Hello!
Yeah, I had my MRI this morning, and I'll know more about it on Thursday at my follow up appointment. There is a chance that my ACL was torn too, which would be alot worse if that was true. That would be too long of a recovery to stay out here if that was the case. If I only need to have a scope, that's just a two week recovery, and I don't think I'd be sent home over that. Thank you for your prayers and for putting my name in the temple. I know whatever happens is what's supposed to happen. Right now I am fine though. I can walk around on it without much pain, with just a little limp. So don't worry too much. Oh and it's my left knee, not the right.
That's cool to hear that school is back in session and everything's going well! I look forward to seeing pictures of Dad's deer next week! And way cool about Matthew Gallego's mission call! Do you keep in touch pretty well with people from the Las Sendas ward? Yeah, Elder Turney is my new companion, and things are going well. We are working hard and staying focussed, so that's sweet. Going from Elder Radle to Elder Turney is definitely going from one extreme to another. My new companion describes himself as a micro-manager and somewhat robotic. I feel like I'm pretty much right in between those two. It's good though, we are a lot more prepared for our days and our appointments now. And he keeps me good on my "diet".
This week is going to be pretty nuts. All of the leaders and trainers from our mission will be in Milwaukee from Tuesday thru Friday for a 4-day leadership meeting. It will be pretty intense. I get to teach part of the conference on Friday, so that will be fun. It's good for us to have it here in Milwaukee so that we can still work in our own area in the evenings, and it doesn't get neglected.
The guy I think I mentioned in my email last week who loves the Osmonds came to church yesterday, along with 5 other investigators! Things seem to be really picking up out here. Mike seems to be shady though. We are pretty sure he is getting baptized so that he can marry Marie Osmond. No joke...
I can't think of anything else to write about this week, so I'll talk to you next week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Sunday, August 22, 2010
KNEE TROUBLE
Mon 8/16/10 10:50 AM
Hello,
Another fun-filled week passes by. We recently found out about transfers and my companion, Elder Radle, will be leaving, and I'll get to train a new zone leader here. I know who it is that is coming, Elder Tourney. Oh, something new, I have an appointment to go to the ortho doctor because I hurt my knee pretty bad. The walk-in doctor I went to on Saturday said I "blew [my] meniscus". I originally hurt it three weeks ago playing basketball with the big group of missionaries, and then I finished it off on Friday night playing soccer - yeah, that was dumb. So, Thursday I will hopefully get an MRI so they can know for sure. It's a little be stressful, but we've been able to still work; and I got a blessing, so I'm doing my best to have faith/patience. It's just a little scary knowing that 2 or 3 missionaries have gone home early in the last 2 months because of knee problems... but that won't be me, I still have work to do. I'll keep you updated on it though.
So, This week we had exchanges every day. Tuesday and Wednesday I was with this really funny missionary named Elder Trusty, and we did a lot of good work. Before the exchange, he said that he and his companion were feeling "burnt out" from tracting. At the end of our exchange, he loved it. He learned how and set goals to be more real when he talks to and invites people to learn about the Gospel. He said our exchange was one of the best times he ever had doing that, and we were able to find a lot of people for those missionaries to teach during that time. We had some time to work in our area too and had a lot of good things happen. We dedicated two houses for different members of a part-member family. They were supposed to be at church yesterday but didn't come. We also met this girl named Tyshema who was way sweet. At first she didn't show too much interest in what we were teaching, but when we asked her if she would like us to teach her more, she said "yes". So we sat down right there with her in her front yard and taught her the whole lesson of the Restoration and committed her to baptism. We found out later in the lesson that she had actually been praying that she could find a book or people to teach her more about Jesus Christ. So, when we introduced the Book of Mormon as "another testament of Jesus Christ", she was excited. She wasn't at church either, so we don't know how solid her baptism date really is yet. Thursday and Friday we went with the Spanish missionaries and I went with Elder Cook from Mesa, AZ. He was actually really good friends with Sam Kerby too, which is crazy. But we also had a great exchange. My spanish got pretty good, and I was able to teach during lessons, and I even said a prayer at the end of our first lesson with a new investigator we found. That was intense. Since Friday night was my knee problem, Saturday alot of my day was spent at the doctor. We did finish the night well though. There was a guy named Mike who randomly called us and wanted to talk to us about setting up his baptism. That was sweet, and so during our lesson with him, we made sure he was willing to change his life to meet the standards that the Lord has set for us to be worthy and happy, and then we set a baptism date with him. Our only concern right now is his obsession with the Osmonds, especially Marie. He has pictures and dolls of Marie Osmond everywhere, and some framed of him hugging her with her autograph. We need to make sure he's not doing this for her. haha
Well, congratulations to Hannah! I can't wait to see some pictures of her playing in the games. And good luck with everything else going on! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Hello,
Another fun-filled week passes by. We recently found out about transfers and my companion, Elder Radle, will be leaving, and I'll get to train a new zone leader here. I know who it is that is coming, Elder Tourney. Oh, something new, I have an appointment to go to the ortho doctor because I hurt my knee pretty bad. The walk-in doctor I went to on Saturday said I "blew [my] meniscus". I originally hurt it three weeks ago playing basketball with the big group of missionaries, and then I finished it off on Friday night playing soccer - yeah, that was dumb. So, Thursday I will hopefully get an MRI so they can know for sure. It's a little be stressful, but we've been able to still work; and I got a blessing, so I'm doing my best to have faith/patience. It's just a little scary knowing that 2 or 3 missionaries have gone home early in the last 2 months because of knee problems... but that won't be me, I still have work to do. I'll keep you updated on it though.
So, This week we had exchanges every day. Tuesday and Wednesday I was with this really funny missionary named Elder Trusty, and we did a lot of good work. Before the exchange, he said that he and his companion were feeling "burnt out" from tracting. At the end of our exchange, he loved it. He learned how and set goals to be more real when he talks to and invites people to learn about the Gospel. He said our exchange was one of the best times he ever had doing that, and we were able to find a lot of people for those missionaries to teach during that time. We had some time to work in our area too and had a lot of good things happen. We dedicated two houses for different members of a part-member family. They were supposed to be at church yesterday but didn't come. We also met this girl named Tyshema who was way sweet. At first she didn't show too much interest in what we were teaching, but when we asked her if she would like us to teach her more, she said "yes". So we sat down right there with her in her front yard and taught her the whole lesson of the Restoration and committed her to baptism. We found out later in the lesson that she had actually been praying that she could find a book or people to teach her more about Jesus Christ. So, when we introduced the Book of Mormon as "another testament of Jesus Christ", she was excited. She wasn't at church either, so we don't know how solid her baptism date really is yet. Thursday and Friday we went with the Spanish missionaries and I went with Elder Cook from Mesa, AZ. He was actually really good friends with Sam Kerby too, which is crazy. But we also had a great exchange. My spanish got pretty good, and I was able to teach during lessons, and I even said a prayer at the end of our first lesson with a new investigator we found. That was intense. Since Friday night was my knee problem, Saturday alot of my day was spent at the doctor. We did finish the night well though. There was a guy named Mike who randomly called us and wanted to talk to us about setting up his baptism. That was sweet, and so during our lesson with him, we made sure he was willing to change his life to meet the standards that the Lord has set for us to be worthy and happy, and then we set a baptism date with him. Our only concern right now is his obsession with the Osmonds, especially Marie. He has pictures and dolls of Marie Osmond everywhere, and some framed of him hugging her with her autograph. We need to make sure he's not doing this for her. haha
Well, congratulations to Hannah! I can't wait to see some pictures of her playing in the games. And good luck with everything else going on! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
"MIRACLE WORKING"
Mon 8/09/10 9:19 AM
Another week gone by. I got your card on Saturday with the cute pictures of little Charli and Tucker! That was awesome. I'm Whitney and Kyle are great parents! My mouth started watering when you talked about getting peach melba shakes from Jacob Lake - man, that will be a tough tradition to break. Good luck, Hannah! I will pray for the volleyball tryouts. Crazy that school starts again already, which means summer will be over before we know it. The green Wisconsin summers are nice except for the misquitos and humidity, but I do love the fall season here - all the misquitos die and trees get really colorful. That was fun to hear about Mom's reunion.
Last time I wrote you, our zone was probably at its lowest point ever, but I'm glad to say that things went alot better this week. Hopefully that means that the worst is behind us and it will just be an upward trend from here. It's weird though, at our most recent leadership meeting on Friday, we were talking and the whole mission felt what our zone felt last week - like a dark cloud over the mission. We seem to be coming out of it now. That Friday meeting was definitely the best meeting since President Jones has been here, so hopefully they continue to be great and motivating. After that, attitudes changed and miracles happened.
I had another sweet exchange with Elder Heyte (sp?). I tell him he's a miracle worker because every time we work together awesome things happen. We exchanged right after our leadership training and within the next couple hours we had a great lesson with a part-member/less-active family and we found 2 new really interested potential investigators - Kim and Jake. Jake didn't know that there were any Mormons in Wisconsin, and he had never seen missionaries here before. He had been really curious about our church, mostly because he really likes everything Glenn Beck says about faith and he's LDS. He doesn't claim to be any complete faith. He says he's a 'hybrid' because he was raised Catholic, but he doesn't believe in praying to saints. When we told him where our church was, it blew his mind because its only a few blocks away from his house. He thought our church was a non-denominational church. So, he said he would come to a service, but we didn't see him there yesterday.
Saturday, early afternoon, we were driving toward the area we wanted to see people, and decided to plug in my gps an address for a semi-less-active, part-member lady who I had never been by to visit. Our timing couldn't have been more perfect. Her brother (very prepared for the gospel) and her son (very less-active, but very ready to come back) were downstairs moving and reorganizing a lot of heavy stuff, and they really needed help but they hadn't called anyone. So, we felt good to be there to help, but then as Sister Fisher was getting us water, she told us that our timing was even better than we thought. A few days before she had gotten her eyes dilated and they never returned to normal, and she really wanted a blessing because of that and other things. She had been talking to friends and family members, asking them to pray for her, and she told them that she would be calling "the Elders of the Church, like it says in the Bible that we should do". But we beat her to it, and it overwhelmed her to tears because she knew that God loved her and was aware of her. We were able to teach her brother about what blessings are and then give Sister Fisher a blessing. After finishing our work, we had an awesome spirit-filled lesson in which her brother, Greg, and her son, Joe, committed to come to church. They both came and Joe brought his 5 year-old daughter who loved it! They are going to have us over for more lessons and feed us a BBQ dinner next time!
After that lesson, Heyte said, "The Spirit's thick as mud in there", and we went to our next appointment. On the way, I decided that I really needed to go to the bathroom, so we went to a gas station. When we were about to leave, the people that we were about to see were there getting drinks. They had already moved to a new house, and if we hadn't seen them then, and they had not let us follow them, it would have taken a really long time to find out where they moved. We all gave credit to the Lord for that working out. And now the oldest sister in the family, Khadijah (cool name, huh), has a date to be baptized on the first week of September, and her fiance will probably be baptized with her. They asked us for pass-along cards of the temples and of Jesus to hang in their apartment, and they loved the idea of being sealed together there as a family.
So there's some cool stories I was excited to tell you about this week! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Another week gone by. I got your card on Saturday with the cute pictures of little Charli and Tucker! That was awesome. I'm Whitney and Kyle are great parents! My mouth started watering when you talked about getting peach melba shakes from Jacob Lake - man, that will be a tough tradition to break. Good luck, Hannah! I will pray for the volleyball tryouts. Crazy that school starts again already, which means summer will be over before we know it. The green Wisconsin summers are nice except for the misquitos and humidity, but I do love the fall season here - all the misquitos die and trees get really colorful. That was fun to hear about Mom's reunion.
Last time I wrote you, our zone was probably at its lowest point ever, but I'm glad to say that things went alot better this week. Hopefully that means that the worst is behind us and it will just be an upward trend from here. It's weird though, at our most recent leadership meeting on Friday, we were talking and the whole mission felt what our zone felt last week - like a dark cloud over the mission. We seem to be coming out of it now. That Friday meeting was definitely the best meeting since President Jones has been here, so hopefully they continue to be great and motivating. After that, attitudes changed and miracles happened.
I had another sweet exchange with Elder Heyte (sp?). I tell him he's a miracle worker because every time we work together awesome things happen. We exchanged right after our leadership training and within the next couple hours we had a great lesson with a part-member/less-active family and we found 2 new really interested potential investigators - Kim and Jake. Jake didn't know that there were any Mormons in Wisconsin, and he had never seen missionaries here before. He had been really curious about our church, mostly because he really likes everything Glenn Beck says about faith and he's LDS. He doesn't claim to be any complete faith. He says he's a 'hybrid' because he was raised Catholic, but he doesn't believe in praying to saints. When we told him where our church was, it blew his mind because its only a few blocks away from his house. He thought our church was a non-denominational church. So, he said he would come to a service, but we didn't see him there yesterday.
Saturday, early afternoon, we were driving toward the area we wanted to see people, and decided to plug in my gps an address for a semi-less-active, part-member lady who I had never been by to visit. Our timing couldn't have been more perfect. Her brother (very prepared for the gospel) and her son (very less-active, but very ready to come back) were downstairs moving and reorganizing a lot of heavy stuff, and they really needed help but they hadn't called anyone. So, we felt good to be there to help, but then as Sister Fisher was getting us water, she told us that our timing was even better than we thought. A few days before she had gotten her eyes dilated and they never returned to normal, and she really wanted a blessing because of that and other things. She had been talking to friends and family members, asking them to pray for her, and she told them that she would be calling "the Elders of the Church, like it says in the Bible that we should do". But we beat her to it, and it overwhelmed her to tears because she knew that God loved her and was aware of her. We were able to teach her brother about what blessings are and then give Sister Fisher a blessing. After finishing our work, we had an awesome spirit-filled lesson in which her brother, Greg, and her son, Joe, committed to come to church. They both came and Joe brought his 5 year-old daughter who loved it! They are going to have us over for more lessons and feed us a BBQ dinner next time!
After that lesson, Heyte said, "The Spirit's thick as mud in there", and we went to our next appointment. On the way, I decided that I really needed to go to the bathroom, so we went to a gas station. When we were about to leave, the people that we were about to see were there getting drinks. They had already moved to a new house, and if we hadn't seen them then, and they had not let us follow them, it would have taken a really long time to find out where they moved. We all gave credit to the Lord for that working out. And now the oldest sister in the family, Khadijah (cool name, huh), has a date to be baptized on the first week of September, and her fiance will probably be baptized with her. They asked us for pass-along cards of the temples and of Jesus to hang in their apartment, and they loved the idea of being sealed together there as a family.
So there's some cool stories I was excited to tell you about this week! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)