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