Getting challenging, water and ice

Please keep Matt in your prayers this week. its been a hard week for him.

January 3rd - Jan 10th

Monday - it was PDay and more specific it was District PDay. We played
lots of games and had fun as a district, love them! All our
appointments fell through today so teaching, not a good turn out. But
we have the whole week ahead of us. We exchanged and my district
leader Elder liljenquist came over so it was awesome!!

Tuesday - we volunteered at the food bank and had a wonderful time
meeting some new people that work there. Love the hospitality there.
We also where able to go meet some old potentials and teach a lady
named Deborah, she's so kind and we helped get her started on the Book
of Mormon and finding for herself if this church is true. We later
street contacted and had an amazing dinner with the Busseys, they are
an older couple but full of love and compassion. Love them. We street
contacted but nothing good came of it, another miss. This is beginning
to seem like a boring twilight scene. All the good stuff happened now
I'm waiting and working hard for the climax, the best part of
everything. It's still early on in the transfer, working had, staying
focused the best I can. Keep me in your prayers.

Wednesday - district meeting was smaller today. Different when you
don't have sisters there haha way to distracted. They keep us on task.
But it was a great meeting, lost of stuff was said and new goals and
ways to do transfers and also exchanges. The mission is definitely changing a
lot. We tracted into a man who spoke Greek and was deaf... No progress
there so we are going to see his wife on a different day. haha. Today is
looking a little better but we need to stay focused and keep
searching for those who are ready to hear the word. Had a dinner with
the johnsons and it went good, felt the spirt and was able to share
about Christs Atonement for us. We also want and saw Robert, who is
struggling with some problems of his own and set a time tomorrow to
see him, we will see how this goes. Hopefully he will come and see we
are trying to really help him.

Today we found out that in March, the MTC is going back to 3 weeks for
English speaking missions instead of 12 days and now the mission will
be a week longer just to adjust to the timing the missionaries will be
out. So I'll be home November 4th or 5th. it was supposed to be
October 30th. So awesome!! A week longer in the field!

Thursday - today was a busy day, we went to sister Ritzos house and
shoveled snow. Took about an hour because all the snow melted then
froze and it's harder than rock, But we where able to get that
cleared out for her. We later taught Robert who is solving old
problems and rigged to wean from old addictions. He's doing pretty good
but keep him in your prayers because he is struggling hard. We then
went to Amber's house, Vincent, who is a member, talks and talks, but
his stories from serving in the military are sweet to listen too haha
he's going to take Elder Carlson and I out for lobster and steak next
weekend!!! Can't wait!! Elder Carlson and I are planning to go in a
submarine! It's old, retired and a museum now, that's gonna be awesome
on PDay haha never seen one of those in person. That was pretty much
our day and we ended it with a dinner at the Gogans and like always, I
love being with their family. So much excitement and to talk about
haha their kids are awesome too, love them. Good day, tomorrow we are
planning on tracting to find more people, prayers needed, it's getting
tricky! But we are doing the best we can!!

Friday - we got up this morning and walked into downtown and I slipped
on ice and hit pretty hard and slid down a while to my utter death.. I
jacked up my left thumb, it hurts, it bled for a little bit, and the
blood froze.. Not sending pictures of that haha so as I'm limping
along trying to still talk to people I slip on ice again, do the
splits and slide right down under a truck.. All before noon.. Lol
needless to say, I'm pretty sore. We planned and had a great lesson with
a family named the Mathews, awesome young family and we taught
the Allen family. They are an awesome member family with so much
potential, brother Allen looks like Taner Foust haha it's awesome!!
Well that's about it, lots of driving and lots of planning today.

Saturday - today has also started off with a lot of planning. Lots of
calls made and since everything in the mission is changing, we are
setting up exchanges and meetings and still trying to fit in with
teaching time. It's crazy all the missionaries have to do. We met a
lady, didn't get her name haha oops, but she is a part of the "High
Church of England" which I guess is really close to a Roman Catholic.
Kinda cool to hear her beliefs and where she comes from. Talked to her
for about 30 min. Funny lady, anyway, we met a couple other people and
set times to see them for Sunday. We were on our way to see someone and we
tracted into a guy named mark, he's black, and about 8 other friends
of his, who all are from Phili, DC and Chicago haha this is gonna be
awesome, most of them come from a baptist background, bunch of awesome
guys and they looked at me and said "Our Mormon brotha is here" haha
can't wait to see them tomorrow!! That's about it for today, very
eventful and fun haha

Sunday - I gave a talk on repentance in church today! Went super well!!
The ward loves us! After church, Elder Carlson and I walked to some
peoples houses and the rain today was terrible.. It made Washington
look bad, we where soaked from head to toe haha and the streets where
flooding and running with rivers.. While we where walking, I walked in
what seemed like normal puddle and it went ankle deep.. In wool
socks.. Not awesome haha but anyway, we met a guy named Mark and he is
from Haiti! He is living with his family and they all speak French and
whatever else language they speak down their haha but him and his
cousin Jean are awesome dudes! So ready to learn! Love them!! We had a
dinner with the Simms and their family is so full of energy and they
love us so much!! They always ask about stuff and they really take the
time to know us. They made potato soup. So needed that after swimming
laps in the streets haha

This week I learned a lot about being obedient. As hard as it was,
going days with no success, I truly felt the lord help us this week,
we are following the spirit and looking for opportunities to always
serve and bring others to Christ. All the new changes in the mission
are getting hard and difficult to follow with, but it's definitely for
the better for the missionaries and for the investigators. Change is
always good, especially in a mission and Pres Stoker is a man called
by God to lead this mission. I gonna miss the Stokers when they leave,
but I can't wait to see what the mission becomes!

Love you all and hope to hear from you soon!

Elder Vogel