I don't know what??

December 21-27th 2015

Monday - we had PDay and it was pretty cool, we went to a mall and a
few other cool places to look for things. Not a big day for teaching

Tuesday - we had exchanges and Elder Wattenburger was here with me. I
led the area!! Holy smokes that was intense. Elder Millet was in up
town Bangor and Elder Pace was with members all day, it was great to
be the leader, really kept me busy and focused. Spending a day with
Elder Wattenburger was fun, we taught Tanja, Ted and Joseph "guitar
guy joe" and it was awesome! Felt the spirit and had so much fun doing
it!!

Wednesday - we had a crazy day today! I was with the Bangor Elders
today while the Zone Leaders did some service. I went and met some
people that where really humbling, it's amazing when you find awesome
people that are stuck in poverty, they are just so nice and caring to
us. Later when the Zone Leaders were back I took a split and taught
Chris. Very productive lesson, I was able to find out what his
concerns where and what he's struggling with. Keep him in your prayers
because he's at a downward slope and we want him to find the spirit
and have his own testimony about the church. Very very crazy day. It
was awesome and it was something to remember. There was a lady that
came up to us on the street and she gave us cookies and wanted us to
keep her niece Kaylee in her prayers because she's been in a coma for
about a week. She's 10 years old and she took a selfie with us haha
amazing what impact we actually have on people.

Thursday - (Christmas Eve) - we had a crazy day today, we went to a
pathway church with Ted R, different experience haha but it was
cool to see as a missionary. We saw James H. and he shared a great
message with him and was able to hear him testify of stuff. Then we
went to the Bernatches for dinner and it was amazing, whole Bernatche
crew was there. Awesome, spiritual and very friendly. Love them. It's
sad not being able to be with my family, but my ward and mission
family make up for the loss, being my first big holiday away, it's a
little sad and I feel kinda left out, but I'm being involved and
trying to feel the Christmas love. Love you all and have a great
Christmas!

Friday - (Christmas!!!) - Christmas is going great!! The Bangor Elders
surprised us at 5 in the morning haha love those guys, we all had
pancakes and eggs for breakfast and opened presents! Then we weekly
planned, that was fun. We had lunch at the Morgan's and we went over
to the Alexander's to skype home! It was great skyping the family.
Sure do miss them! This Christmas has been wonderful, hope you all
made someone happy and shared the love this Christmas! We then spend
the remainder of our day at the Hymus's. We had a nerf war again, the
family shot paintball guns while we watched, we played games ate
dinner and watched an amazing video about Jesus Christ that
strengthened my testimony so much. I think as members, most of us
focus on Christ's birth and his ministry and death a lot, but it's
important to know that Jesus Christ was born a baby, not knowing how
to walk and talk and do all of that. Joseph and Mary had to teach him,
He was the most obedient child ever, but still had Joseph and Mary as
parents and called them mom and dad. Yes he was perfect, but he didn't
walk out of the womb. He was a child and learned to grow up and talk
and write like we did. That's something very cool that I realized
today. That Jesus Christ was so much like all of us and he still did
what he did. How humbling.

Saturday - we had the opportunity to see a baptism for someone out of
the Bangor ward, it was truly amazing! So spiritual and it reminded me
of when I baptized Kelly. So awesome, and the Hymas's got us nerf
guns. So meal times and study times are intense haha love it!! We
taught a guy named David who's a less active and he's a awesome dude,
I'd get along with him great haha he's been a convert for about 12
years and he's in collage. Awesome dude.
I'm so sad!! I'm being transferred!! I don't know where until Tuesday,
but I'm nervous and excited!! I'm sad I'm leaving my trainers, but
happy to be a better missionary! Pray for me!!

Sunday - saying goodbye to the Brewer ward was very hard. They will
always have a place in my heart as my first area and such warm spirits
and families that reminded me of home. My talk I gave was alright,
everyone said it was great but I was all over the place haha but
nevertheless, I said goodbye to the people that made this area one to
really remember. Gonna miss them and I'm determined to make my next
area as good of an experience as this one! Just gotta work hard and
remember why I'm here.

Anyone that still is getting stuff ready to send me, don't send it to
Maine. Send it to the Bedford address until I send out my new address,
thanks! Love you all!!

2 Bedford Farms Ste 208
Bedford NH 03110-6525
United States

Elder Vogel

Matthew Was transferred On Tuesday to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. his new address is:
5A Commercial street Kittery Maine 03904.

 He is across the river from Portsmouth but still the Protsmouth area. He New Companion is Elder Carlson. He will finish up Matt's training. It was so awesome to be able to Skype with Matt on Christmas. We love him so much and are so very proud of Him.

Skyping with the family at Christmas

December 14-20th 2015

Monday - today was a great day!! We had district P-Day and it was so
much fun!! The sisters brought a bunch of food and we ate it and all of
us almost threw up. Hahaha it was spaghetti, m&ms, syrup, pop tarts,
coco, it was gross. We had to eat it with our hands haha after that,
we went and sang Christmas carols to a rehab center and the hospital.
Our friendships grew so much and we had a great day. So awesome. Elder
Millet and Pace and I taught Dawn the plan of salvation and she isn't
getting any better from her disease. So very sad. But she's willing to
get baptized which is awesome!!

Tuesday - cool day, it snowed and we taught Genaro again, we extended
baptism but he hasn't 100% committed. It's about a 75% so far haha we
taught a dude named Aska who has a huge knowledge of Christ.  we walked,

 It was cold,and then we met up with the sister training leaders to plan
for a conference thing that's happening on Thursday. Love those
sisters, they are so much fun haha kinda a weird day today so not much
happened. A lot of walking. Not feeling to good so please send lots of
love my way. Love you all and hope to hear from you!

Wednesday - good day. We walked and had some success. We taught Joe
today and played a little guitar and wrote a song about Jesus hahaha
he's solid, he's learning slowly, but understands it all. He's doing
awesome. Had a amazing dinner with the Gambles and their 5 year old
daughter Christine reminds me of Rachel haha she instantly called me a
dork. She's on the shy side, but she sneaks peaks and when she does, I
caught her and she smiled and we did that for about an hour haha so
cute! We also taught dawn today, she's having more success getting
feeling in her arms, she's pretty much paralyzed from the neck down
from her disease, but she's so ready to be baptized.

Thursday - we drove down to zone meeting today, bright and early at
5AM. It was such a spiritual and amazing conference!! I really felt
the spirit! We got a new mission vision for the year 2016, had some
special songs sang by the missionaries and President Stoker's testimony
I almost cried. He's getting replaced in July and the other mission
president and wife has already been assigned, now it's a training
thing until they are set apart. I love the Stokers and I'm going to
miss them, also, Elder Crockett is going home in a week and that was a
little hard saying goodbye, awesome and humble dude and he's gonna be
an awesome RM. Thank you Firgrove Young Women and Emily Wells for

 sending me the package to get in the Christmas spirit!! Hope you guys are
doing great!! Love ya!!

Friday - the snow has all melted. Again.. People are saying its
winding up. Like a baseball game, the batter is winding up for the
hit. Come January, the weather says it's supposed to hit hard. Really
hard 😅 not much teaching, most of our appointments fell through. Not
a huge productive day, which is weird because Bangor is the busiest
area in the mission so far. Hopefully tomorrow will be better

Saturday - today was a crazy day. We tracted and went into downtown
Bangor and met some cool and not so cool people haha we taught a man
named Robert Palmer and he talked our ears off, sewed them back on re-
talked them off about 6 times haha that dude talks like crazy. We
asked him a simple question like "how has God helped you" and he went
off about corporations, politics, WWII, slavery and just a bunch of
nonsense haha but we still where able to squeeze in some lessons and
hopefully we where able to get the message across. We went to the ward
Christmas party and I got to meet Taylor Hymus, who just got back from
his mission Tuesday from salt lake east mission, such a cool dude,
he's gonna go on splits with us this next week and a half or so. We
also had a fire at the ward building. Someone left some plastic in the
stove and it burned, fire department came and I was able to talk to a
few of them about what it's like to be a firefighter. Talked with the
truck driver, the firefighter paramedic and a retired smoke jumper.
Awesome guys, the 3 I talked to where in Washington when the fires
where happening in the eastern part of the state and I told them I was
from there and they gave me a hug and said be strong, it's hard being
from your family and loved ones, but it's worth every second when you
get back. Awesome. Star Wars came out today!!! Someone tell me how it
was!!!! Elder Shupe is talking to Elder Millet about it (Because he
went home over a month ago) and Elder Millet is flipping out haha we
went on splits that night with brother Bernatche and that man can get
anything to laugh haha but we shared marriage with chris and Bro
Bernatches testimony about marriage was truly amazing!! Really felt
the spirit but Chris is still struggling with his own beliefs.

Sunday - sacrament meeting was amazing! Truly felt the spirit and the
songs where spiritual, talks where amazing. It was a wonderful day at
church, wish it was longer today haha we taught Silvia, love her,
sweet little 8 year old girl haha and we saw her at church!!! I was so
happy!!!! We also went to dinner at the Wilkersons and he served a
mission in Mexico and Seattle, pretty awesome talking about home. I
miss it, then we taught Audrey and saw Zac. Pretty productive day
today.

Pictures from their Zone Conference. Matt and Elder Crockett (an AP he got close with) and His district in ugly christmas sweaters

Times going way to fast! December 7-13th 2015

Monday - we had P day and then we had exchanges again because Elder
Millet and Pace being zone leaders, are in Manchester haha so I'm with
Elder Shwartz and Elder Barrett haha love these guys! It's gonna be
awesome! We gave a blessing to a dude that was, basically, choking. He
has muscular disorder in his throat and he had a piece of food stuck
in his throat, which happens a lot from his words. We blessed him and
the spirit was strong and he was able to get it out. Kinda crazy

Tuesday - exchange with Elder Barrett and Shwartz was fun! We tracted
in a neighborhood where is filthy rich, never thought I'd see that,
but I'm in up state Bangor in Elder Barrett's area, anywho, we met a
couple people but no luck. We had some laughs, stopped by a few
peoples houses and talked and we just had a great time being together.
Pretty cool day, but nothing to busy or to crazy.

Wednesday - it was so nice being back with my own district! The past 2
weeks I've been in Manchester and Ellsworth, it's like coming home
from a vacation haha so nice to see the sisters and the other elders!
We met a dude named Ron and he was a Catholic and we talked about
Christmas for like 20min, awesome dude and we showed him the new
Christmas video (Christmas.mormon.org) "A Savior is Born" and he
really loved it! We then went down to Portland Maine for Elder Millets
Doctor appointment and saw some moose! That was sweet! Moose are very
common over here and I miss seeing those out in the wild instead of in
Northwest Trek haha

Thursday - we had a awesome day! A lot of walking and rain, just like
home, but what really got my spirits up was our dinner appointment. We
taught Genaro and he, like always, is a boss. Our dinner was alright,
I love talking to the Meiers, they are so humble and welcoming and I
feel right at home. I love talking to her about the gospel. She
mentioned the gospel and it's understanding to a horse or a dog,
simple mind, but can be taught. I remembered a quote from Kelly in one
of her posts and he said "Give a horse what he needs and he will give
you his heart in return" I love that. I've seen and experienced it, if
you give a horse food, water, patience, a command and love, that horse
will serve you to the best of its ability with love. Same with the
gospel. If you give a horse (us) food, water, a command (Book of
Mormon, prayer, faith, etc) and Christ loves us unconditionally, if we
exercise that, we will feel his love and we will follow his teachings.
He's waiting to help us and like a new horse being broken, we don't
listen, we pull and throw fits because we don't understand. That's
when we get submissive, meek and humble like a child and understand
his works and his words. I love that, my revelation for the day.

Friday - what an amazing day! Our legs are so very sore!!!! It's so
hard to walk and sit haha workouts Thursday, basketball this morning
and bike riding today. We had a great lesson with heather, she needs
to focus, ADHD is real hahaha but she's trying hard. We where going to
go see Dawn in the hospital and got a text from some sisters about
someone needing a blessing and also, someone stopped us and asked if
we can come share a message. 1 visit turned into 3 and elder millet
and I split from elder pace and brother Alexander to go see the family
and give a blessing. It's awesome being a missionary, I love helping
people and seeing that they recognize me as a beacon of help. Awesome
guy and a wonderful family I never would have met if I didn't come on
the mission.

Saturday - what a crazy day! I met a guy named Joe who is a self
taught guitar player and he's so ADHD that I'm going to teach him the
gospel through guitar playing, pray for me! Haha we talked to a dude
from the hospital who has had blood poisoning and all I can say from
that experience is that Jared Aurich was with me, the spirit was so
strong and I for a testimony that I have to be here. This experience
I'll always keep sacred to me. Wow, very productive day and above all,
all the hardships on a mission, the spiritual and uplifting moments
are the reason I'm here. I love it!

Sunday - great sabbath, loved seeing the ward, so many bright, loving
and happy faces haha had dinner with a wonderful family (Porters) and
flew a little helicopter around with their kids haha taught Silvia,
Chris and Ted today. Pretty good lessons for the most part, really
tired and not feeling the best, sorry for a short Sunday, hope
everyone's week was uplifting and happy!
Love Elder Vogel

Pictures this week. Elder Millet and Elder Pace, Christmas lights, in the Mission van on their way to meetings in Bedford. a 4 hr. drive

Another week down!!

Monday - we had P-day and then hit the road to Manchester haha that was such a fun ride! We stopped with a couple groups of elders in the Portland Maine mall for dinner, we had Panda Express haha then we left again and arrived at the mission home and sister Stoker, once again, spoiled us to an amazing dinner and breakfast.

Tuesday - after we all ate of the food of heaven from sister Stoker, Elder Millet, Elder Pace and I went for a run, showered, changed and left for the church for the new missionary and trainers meeting. It was cool, played some games, had some great discussions and had a wonderful day. After that was over we had exchanges with the AP missionaries "Assistants to the president" and I am paired with elder Crockett. Awesome dude! He's going home at the end of this transfer, he was a state water polo and swimmer, was in the marine core before his mission, use to ride horses and we just had a great time together tonight. All 5 of us missionaries crashed in the APs apartment. And it's kinda small lol but we had some laughs and jokes and we all got along well. Elder Crockett and I went to a new members house and he's an older guy, but elder Crockett asked to use his bathroom and when he turned on the light, he turned on a emergency alarm and a loud bell rang, this member is a older and little slow, but he jumped up, ran over to elder Crockett and was like "what are you doing bub!? Don't pull that!" Lol elder Crockett was like "okay! Sorry! Haha" as elder Crockett was doing his business, the member and I sat down and talked and when we were talking about what he did for work back in the day, we both heard elder Crockett fart super loud haha the new member looked at me and said "holy cow Elder Crockett... Poor kid, must be dying in there" hahaha!! I told Elder Crockett after we left and we died laughing all the way home hahaha super funny haha I love Elder Crockett!!

Wednesday - Elder Crockett and Elder Millet and I where all together and we went to a great district meeting and I learned a lot! After that, we tracted the rest of the day and hit the road at 5:30. We all got along and we all had a lot of great people interested. We're hearing rumors that I might open a new area in my zone in Bangor Maine. That would be awesome! I'd be a senior companion and still being trained. Kinda weird, but come winter time it's gonna be hard with all the snow. But we'll see what happens haha, not a crazy day today, but it was fun. We had dinner at Chipotle and my first time there was really good. It's like Café rio. You all should try it!!

Thursday - long and hard day. Cold, Lots of rain, walking and not much success but we taught 2 lessons and had a great time doing it. I kinda messed up, but that's okay! Can't improve if I don't mess up haha. we had a great dinner with some members and got to talk with bishop about some people and just having a grand old time. We are supposed to get snow tonight but we will see. We had a dinner with the smiths who are born and raised in the back woods of Maine. They are funny!! Haha

Friday - lots of tracting, door knocking and pretty cold weather. Another alright day. Lots and lots of walking. Is morning we taught a man names Genaro who is from Mexico and he's really awesome! Heavy Spanish accent haha but he's learning and he's understanding the gospel very well. He's kinda the only one interested, his family has strong Catholic roots. But he's cool and I really like him! Hopefully his wife and son and daughter will join him! They're is no snow, it rained a little bit and froze in the morning but no snow yet :(

Saturday - it was hot today. Like it felt like it was in the 50s! We had a lesson with a lady names Dawn again, the one in the hospital, we just learned that she was so close to baptism but backed out because her friend made it seem hard. But we felt the spirit and she was informed that the church understands and will help you in whatever you need. That was a 1.5 hour walk to the hospital and back. So it was a good 4 hour walk and lesson and back home. But we were able to stop by at a few other places today and set up times. Good day, were super tired today tho also. We didn't get a lot of sleep because it was about 100 last night in our apartment. But we're fighting through it haha we had a dinner at Bro Macinnies house and he's a funny dude with a great story!! Great day

Sunday - it was a awesome sacrament meeting!! Today was the day to fast and share our testimonies. I got up and shared mine and it was powerful. I can't believe in just over a month I've changed so much! I'm so happy and today just has been a great great day. There was a baby blessing and lots of people came to church today. It was awesome. We had dinner at the Hymus's and they're such an amazing family! They make me feel right at home, their home is centered around Jesus Christ and they tease and joke with each other, it was awesome. When we got there, for about 30 min or so we had a nerf war with the family haha that was so much fun! Definately reminded me of doing that when I was home with the kiddos . we later had a great roast dinner and we went and taught Chris again. He's so close to baptism!! I can taste it, he wants it, but wants a sure knowledge it's true, which for some doesn't come easy, but it will come soon! We also taught a girl names Silvia who is 8 years old. Her dad is a lass active, they are also an awesome family. Very loving, wants the learn, Silvia is ready for baptism so that should be coming soon!! So exciting! Her mom participates and might also get baptized. Fingers crossed!! Can't wait, were about to strike gold!! We got to see the Christmas Devotional and my favorite is Elder Bednar. He talked about the first Christmas and how to apply that into our lives. He reminded us that Christmas is about Christ. How the first half of that word "Christmas" is always centered around Jesus Christ, his birth and the start of something big. Such an awesome talk. Love that dude.


thats it for now. elder Vogel

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