Feb 22nd - feb 29th


Monday - Another PDay, nothing crazy. Had dinner with the Craguns and also went to the Hafens for FHE. That was a load of fun! We played games and sung and had a blast with everyone there too

Tuesday - We where able to see Helen and Sister Bock with Brothers Scarbrough and Drennon! Those are awesome people! Melissa is being difficult, she says she hates church because of the way some people present themselves... Anywho, we also saw Helen, she's a very skeptical person. She is so skeptical, She has a oiuji board that she said she played around with and it didn't work with her.. Which is scary and a huge no no, but we felt impressed to keep teaching her so we will see how this goes. We where able to have dinner and see the Gogans, so much fun! Love them so much!!

Wednesday - We had Zone Meeting and that went great!! Love the zone. So many great missionaries full of potential, can't wait to know them better. We didn't do a lot but we had dinner with the Webbs and talked to them. Sister Webb is from England, thick English accent haha their kids are super awesome and super funny, they all love missionaries. After that, we went and saw Chris , Chris is a beast haha and looking for a companion. He says there's not much here but he's working with it until he is transferred with the Navy.

Thursday - We went and saw Vinnie and the Regans. Vinnie was a neat stop, we had fun talking to him about goals and the future. The Regans and Chris was here also and they made an amazing dinner and we talked a lot about the church and what we really liked about it and how we can grow our faith and build as a family. Awesome

Friday - We had a lot of planing to do. We saw the Drennons for dinner. They are very energetic and they love having us over. Their girls love having us over haha lots of laughs and lots of joking and a great spiritual message about the Atonement. We then made the trek over to Derry.

Saturday - We had our exchange with the Derry Elders and Elder Lilejenquist and we went to London Derry! Saw some awesome peple and got talking with each other. So a funny story, we had to pee really bad and we parked in a closed lot and journeyed deep into the forest and relieved ourselves. . It was bad haha. We stopped and had Wendy's and we exchanged back and went home haha it was such a fun day.

Sunday - We had a wonderful church meeting and we loved seeing everyone there. I met the founder of the "Morgan horse" breed at the Bacas. I told them that I rode horses back home a little and they told me that the foundation and his place is a couple miles up the road from them!! Super sweet!!


Pretty busy and crazy week. We got a text Saturday morning that Sister Ritzo passed away from, cancer. She was an amazing lady and had so much faith. I had the chance to hear her testimony about the plan of salvation and it was so powerful I cried hard. This next week we are cleaning up the remains of her house and tending to her family. So super hard. It took me right back to June when brother Aurich passed away.


Death isn't the end. It's another step to a whole new chapter in our salvation. Why God calls his children home earlier than others is beyond my understanding, but they are chose for something in the next life for something very special. Makes me ponder on the precious moments in life. How in a blink of an eye it could be gone. A song verse from Picture Perfect (Escape the Fate) came to my mind. "I'd give up my eyes, to see you one last time and I'd give all my fingertips to touch you and I can paint you picture perfect even if I was blinded, but you had to die for me to to see how to live"

I can still paint a perfect picture of brother Aurich, my friends, family, even faces I don't see on the mission and my short time with them has to have a lasting impact.


I love you all. Find someone to say I love you and cherish those precious moments.


Elder Vogel

Its Good to know that he hasn't lost himself...his little shrine.
February 16th - 23rd


Monday - It was PDay! We had a lot of fun haha we talked to some people, went to the outlet stores and had a great time hanging out together haha


Tuesday - Not a lot planned, we had to go and find people and set up return dates for later. This week we visited with Helen, Jean, Robert and Bora. We had dinner with the Franzens. What a great family, I love being with their kids. He is from Seattle, born and raised in Bremerton and works for Microsoft as a software editor, pretty cool guy! Talked to him about my career path and he told me best routes for the stuff I want.


Wednesday - We had a great district meeting and where able to set great goals. Super spiritual. We taught Robert and Jean. Jean is so close to baptism its crazy!! Love that dude. We shared the Proclamation to the family and he loved it.


Thursday - We taught Shelly and she is super in with the spirit and the Regans are doing a great job being her friend and support. She should be done smoking in a few months at the rate she is going. We went and saw Sandra too, she works in the nuclear facility in the naval port for deconstruction of submarines. She shared some cool stuff and we talked religion also,such a nice day! About 60 degrees and sunny. Super awesome!! After that, we went to the Gogans and stayed the rest of the night there with the sisters, love the Gogans and the sisters, so much fun with the them all


Friday - We taught Jean and Robert again, Robert is still struggling and Jean is about ready to jump in the faunt haha we tried stopping by a couple other places but not much success there. We went and saw the Webbs. They loved that we stopped by and checked to see how they where doing. Super nice family. We had dinner at the Clarks and met some awesome people!! A completely huge gathering of a bunch of friends. We talked a lot to Brother Holway and his wife. He's a massive, lumberjack looking dude. He played collage football and the stories he has from down south are scary haha he was an animal back in the day! He loves missionaries and he shared with us that he is trying to get his son Anthony on a mission so he will be spending a day a week with us being a missionary haha fun stuff!!


Saturday - We taught Bora and we where able to get more religious with him. He is super interested and willing to give this a shot. He shared more about turkey and how his family is all over the place and how he wants to get into the right way and onto the right road. We also tried and stopped by a couple other places, but no one was home. After that, we did some more planning and office work.


Sunday - Church was pretty good! Loved listening to the speakers and I loved the spirit that was there haha we read the Book of Mormon with Larry and again, didn't go to far because he is taking it all as a joke... After, we had dinner with the the Hafens, they are a great family. I loved seeing them all tease and get along and have fun together, no quiet moments, but all smiles. That's a family goal I want right there haha. After, we stopped by a few more places then came home and fell sleep... For 3 hours... Not a good idea haha we felt that one Sunday night. But that's okay, live and learn.

Something that has helped me dearly is studying and participating in the addiction recovery program under the family section of gospel library. It helped me transition into a missionary. I didn't do all the steps, but step 1-3 is all it took for me to see that stress, anger, worry and pain are all temporary and they have no meaning. I see people, missionaries included all stressed and mad and I'm here like, "I'm having fun!!"
What I do every night is I let Christ's Atonement take my pain, distractions, worries and doubts and I ask how I can improve. Ever since I started that, I have been super in tune with the spirit and I carry on doing what I need to do and let the lord handle it.
I finished the Book of Mormon cover to cover in 3 months, after I did that I prayed and asked if it was true.. The feeling I received was indescribable, I can't describe it other than there where multiple people shouting for joy, embracing me and that have waiting for me to do this.. After that, came the transition to be a missionary. It was brutally hard, physically a piece of cake, but spiritually I was at war with myself. I couldn't focus, I couldn't do anything until I remembered that God is at the door, I opened it and I accepted my orders. Now, I can't stop reading it. I have to set a timer to study preach my gospel or I'll read the Book of Mormon for 2 solid hours.

This week has been busy.

Love, Elder Vogel

Changing the subject...
I got kinda a funny story about a guy here in Portsmouth.

So whenever there is a boat coming into port, there is a bridge that
lifts up so that the boat can get under the bridge and traffic is a
mess haha. One day there was a tug boat pulling a submarine
that was decommissioned. The sub had been used for many years, it
looked old and beaten, anyway, as we where waiting for the boat To go
under, the bridge stops halfway up. The tug boat scrapes the bottom
and stops. So the boat is under the bridge, there's people waiting to
cross and out from behind us, we here this dude just screaming his
head off and booking it towards the boat.. The dude was completely
butt naked, he was hauling super quick and jumps off the bridge
screaming "for Narnia!!) as soon as he jumped in, navel police got him
and all you can here on the microphone is (Aslan!! Aslan!!! I'm coming
for you!!) haha Elder Peterson and I where laughing so hard, we drooled
all over ourselves and had to go home ad change haha

Don't do drugs. Stay sober everyone! Love you and miss you!

Elder Vogel

                                                                District p-day

January Feb 8th - 15th

Monday - We had our last district p day together, so much fun! And we got stuck in a snow storm haha. We also saw the Clarks for pizza and we saw Chris to say goodbye.

Tuesday - Me and Elder McMahn where hanging in Portsmouth together, we went and tried to find a couple people but that didn't work, then around 2pm Elder Peterson arrived!

He's a cool dude, he's quiet, but is very knowledgable about being a missionary. He's from Utah, been out for 6 months. We went and saw Robert, read the Book of Mormon with him and got his testimony out. Later that night, we went and saw Sabrina and John! They are in the same place where Kelly and I where before she was baptized! She's super exited and she's super interested in baptism, John is  working on going on a mission. Both are from Derry New Hampshire. She's from a Catholic background and she asks great questions.  John bares great testimony about the Priesthood and sacrifices. Amazing. After that, we went home and cleaned and unpacked and had dinner. Great day, love Portsmouth.

Wednesday - We didn't do a lot because we went shopping a little bit and went to go see some potentials. we also tracted a bit and no luck there.

Thursday - We read the Book of Mormon and talked to Robert abut his smoking addictions and we all agreed that this is his last time before he needs to self evaluate and rethink why nothing is working. He struggles bad and where he lives doesn't help anything. We saw Vinnie again and he's such an awesome dude! Love seeing him! So humble and so nice to us, he's planning a steak dinner for us! Then later, Bugs!! (Lobsters) I can't wait!! We had dinner at the Broadbents, Briar is the cutest little girl ever haha. She loves us Elders, she laughs and plays and jumps and likes to make complete fools of us haha.The family was tired so we didn't want take up too much of their time so we talked about the plan of salvation and got tears flowing and spirit going. It was awesome.

Friday - We saw Jean and shared the word of wisdom. Easy, he already lives it haha no struggle there. After that we stopped by and shared a message with the Hafens. The rest of the day was planning. Long planning hours suck. But it's so worth it!

Saturday - We saw Bora again! The Turkish dude! He's got a great testimony about Christ, he just doesn't know it yet haha. He talked about his family and how his life was super hard coming to America without knowing hardly any English! Crazy. We saw and talked to Helen for a couple minutes but nothing long because it was kinda cold. So we set a time to come back. Later we talked with Brother Clark for a while and heard his stories and conversion story and experience. Awesome and such a humble dude.

Sunday - Today was a solid... Wait for it... -15 degrees!!!!!!!! It actually was not bad at all other than when the wind hits ya, I call it bone snapping cold. It's really bad, all dandy then BAM! Wind hits and you're down on the ground.

We saw Larry and read the Book of Mormon with him and after that, we saw Chris and hung out there and talked for an hour or so. He's such a great dude. After that, we where inside the rest of the day it was so cold haha.

My mission has taught me so much already! It's taught me most this week about sacrifice and love. I love Elder Peterson, love who he is and I'm happy I get to serve with him. Sacrifice also brings blessings, in the blistering cold and bone snapping weather, we had a warm dinner dropped off at our home. We have no idea who did it, just a wonderful, warm chicken soup. The spirit was strong, we where happy and in bed by 9:30 asleep. Hard work has great pay offs. I also learned, the hard way, why New Englanders don't donate blood... It so thick they can't get any out. I punctured myself with a knife, because I was being a idiot and playing with it in the car, and got myself pretty good... Only bled for like 15 seconds, hung my arm outside until it was numb from the cold and from the wound. Haha but even watching it bleed, it's crazy thick.

I had a very spiritual experience this week... I had done something wrong, doesn't matter what it was, I felt very bad and I have said sorry to the person and that part was all fine. But, I was angry with myself... Really angry, and I was at the point where I left and said a prayer. I begged for forgiveness and to stay focused, hard. But wasn't crying. Afterwords, I was able to focus for the night and get what I needed done. That night in my nightly prayer, I prayed and asked what I can do to improve and become a better missionary... I waited for a few seconds and I heard a question.. a question that brought tears running down my face, such warmth and comfort that I couldn't even describe what it was. The question was "Will you let me take this". After my prayer, I felt like a brand new person. I've never felt power like that before. Never. I've taken everything I've learned as a child for granted. I read the Book of Mormon once and said I'm done, who cares. But the second time I read it, I asked. A month ago, I got my confirmation this church is 100% true. Now when I read, its changing me. The gospel changes me, everyday. I can't believe it, I'm so much more mature, I have so much more self confidence and I have no doubt I can get to where I want to be with His help.
Ask God questions, seek everyday, serve every opportunity you can get, thank Him, think like He would. 

Anyway, this week has been awesome for me and I hope you all have an awesome week too!! Stay warm!!


Elder Vogel

12 in of snow over night

Sunset over the water

Zone conference

                                                                 Too much lovin'

January Feb 1st - 7th



Monday - PDay was fun! We went shopping and stopped at  The Guitar Center. We had a very fun time looking at all the cool guitars and equipment and me drooling over a few and having a great time being a human haha. We also went to the Kittery Trading Post, which is like a smaller Cabellas. We got to hold guns and look and camping and fishing stuff and wishing we could buy stuff for mission work haha it's was fun! We also had a dinner with sister Andujar at the Texas Roadhouse! It was good, but it wasn't anything huge. Dads steaks are much better, but the waitress was nice haha after that we tracted and talked to a few other people who where not interested haha good day.


Tuesday - we had a pretty relaxed day, nothing huge or different.. Well... After we tracted and saw Vinnie, we met a old potential (M). Who claimed that the church is true... But... He has studied Catholic dark magic and claimed he can build and create a soul.. He's kinda whack, but his wife shantel is super interested! So we will see how that goes.. Crazy.


Wednesday - We only where able to see Robert today. Robert needs help with his addiction and he's reading and praying and he's a cool guy, pretty much just needs us to help him. Once he allows us to help, he will progress better. We taught mutual with the young men and  got them interested  in coming on splits and teaching with us. All the guys are cool and are excited to teach as well as their dads. Afterwords, we talked to one of the young women, her name is Kitiara and she's from iceland! That's was cool. She showed us pictures and told us what it was like! Nice girl, her family is less active, so they are now on our radar.


Thursday - Today it was a sunny 70 degrees, short sleeves and Oakleys and a shine on the water! It was super nice! We went tracting and we went to go see a couple potentials that dropped us. Sad day, lots of finding and we even went and stopped by a Jehovah's Witness pastor's house and talked to him. So far, everything was right accept he doesn't believe in the apostasy and won't... Lol he says that church doesn't really matter because God with teach you something if he wants you to know something... Which is a cop out answer and that's not building faith. So that went no where haha but overall, decent day and nothing crazy.


Friday - so overnight, we got A FOOT OF SNOW!!! Absolute trash.. On top of that, our car was grounded.... So.. We walked in the snow.. For... 7 MILES!! Oh it was bad.. The dude wasn't home, we where cold, wet and unhappy.. So a Muslim dude talked to us.. Which is a no no, but we didn't teach, we just got to know him and his relationship with God. Since it was Friday and snowy, we came home after that and did planning for the rest of the night. That was no fun. (the church doesn't allow teaching Muslims because of the possible repercussions to the Muslim from his people)

Saturday - we went and shoveled people's driveways. We started at the Allens and sister Allen, such a wonderful lady, she has 2 young kids and her husband just left until March for a training in Oklahoma for the Air Force. She was super happy we shoveled that for her, she said that after we called, she just started crying. That was powerful. Never has my testimony of truly doing service grown so much. We went and saw sister Ritzo and she was super grateful too. We taught Shelly again and we had a amazing and spiritual lesson on turning your will to God. She got it, and she's working hard, she is a strong lady looking for help with her smoking.



Sunday - we got our transfer calls and Elder Carlson is leaving to Rockland and I will be staying here with my new companion Elder Peterson! So all of Sunday we said goodbye to families, we stopped by the Hafens, Vinnie and the Gogans. Tomorrow we see the Clarks and Chris!!



I hope everyone is having such an awesome time at home! Service is awesome and so is turning our will to God. If we recognize He can do anything, when we turn our will, it gets harder because Voldemort (Devil) doesn't want us to progress, he will do all he can to stop it, but God can help us. He has a work for us and it's our job to find and do it.




Love you all

                                         Elder Vogel and Elder Carlson

Busy, Busy, Busy

January 26th - 31st 

Monday - PDay was fun! Haha we did little service things for some members and see how their day was going, bout it haha


Tuesday - Today we did some service at the food pantry again, love the people that all participate there, truly awesome and humbling. We then went potential hunting, found a couple cool people who are interested and we are super excited to be teaching them! We also had a great dinner with the Caramagnos and they are a amazing and energetic family! Love them! We also got to go with Jeremy and Joey Gogan to the Holways. They are also very awesome! Super interactive and super nice!! Can't wait to see them again! Today was a good day, lots of finding and lots of places found so we can still continue to find. haha


Wednesday - we didn't do a whole lot, we went to Ray and set appointments up with some potentials that fell through. We went to tract some more and found a couple people. Pretty awesome. We had a dinner with the Bacas and that was a lot of fun, love them! Then we exchanged with the Derry Elders. Elder Carlson and I are in Derry for tomorrow.


Thursday - today it was me, Elder Carlson and Elder Bradley. We went to a couple old guys, one's name was Berry, he's a retired Marine and he told some cool stories from when he served. Awesome dude, we went to a less active named Bruce and he's a singer. He talked he whole time haha then we went and saw a new investigator named Peter, who has the same question as Joseph Smith haha his family will be awesome in the church! Super set on everything, he's awesome! Then we went to see a guy named Joe who reminds me of a Atheist friend at home, he's great and definitely wants to know. He has lots of questions and really is picking it apart hard haha then we had a dinner at the Cobars. They are from Guatemala, we had Tostadas, they where really good! Fresh food and all 5 of us were stuffed full of food haha love the Derry people. Tomorrow we have interviews with Pres Stoker and I can't wait too see him!!! Love that man!


Friday - So today we had Zone Interviews and a Zone Meeting. I really enjoyed meeting the rest of the zone I didn't know, I never met 4 different companionships. The Sister Training Leaders and the Zone Leaders gave great trainings on prayer, communications, functions and roles as a missionary and what a chosen missionary is. I learned so much from them, love all of them. My interview with Pres Stoker went great! After that, Sister Stoker gave Elder Carlson and I a training on family history and how we can use that when finding people because New Englanders love their families... How could I miss that! haha So after that, we went tracting and we talked about how God gave us the chance on earth to be with our families together forever, and people where just so excited about it!! We got 5 return appointments!!! With families!!!! Haha crazy how things work haha, after that we stopped by a couple less active members to set a time to see them this week and now we have a crazy couple days ahead of us haha


Saturday - we set a lot of return appointments all through the week and stacked Saturday. It was awesome!! We taught a dude from Turkey who was super interested in what we have to say and we believe we can get him baptized within a few months. We taught a man named Bill who has more concerns about our beliefs, but we set a time for him to come back. Then we saw Chris the rest of the night, love talking with Chris, he's a stud.


Sunday - church was good, Jean came to church again!!! After was a Linger Longer and we where able to see sister Bromfield who sadly, has so many health problems that she hasn't been to church in several months. She's dying to go back but she can't for another month at least if her knee replacement goes smoothly. Other than that visit, we planned and did other things because no one could met with us.


This week, out of all the craziness, being out of my area for 4 days and feeling like it was a vacation, I learned so much this week. Elder Carlson and I watched the testaments and at the end of the movie, when Christ dies on the cross, Helam goes and saves his son Jacob and when the winds where blowing, Helam got hit with a branch and is blinded. That next day, Christ comes to the American people and teaches his gospel. Jacob is rushing his dad all over the place so he can see him and when he gets to that point, Jacob describes him as glorious, beautiful, everything you could imagine. He then tells his dad that because of his mistake, his dad is blinded and he cannot see Christ when he comes and that he's been searching for him his whole life. His dad comforts him and says that he's more happy because Jacob got to see him. And right there, because of his humility and faith in Christ, Jesus comes to him and heals him and gives him the ability to see again and performs a miracle.
That part of the movie, missionaries can relate to. In the training today and in a missionary devotional from a few Apostles and members of the Seventy, they told us that missionaries can't force people to feel the spirit. We present it, they accept it. It really puts in my mind that I am Jacob, rushing my investigators, members or not, who are blinded and don't have that spiritual surety, to Christ. Only they can accept him and when they do, they will see miracles and they will have a sure knowledge that he is the Savior of the world, Redeemer of souls and that we can have eternal life with Him again.


Love you all!!


Elder Vogel