April 5th - April 12th
Monday - Our PDay was nice and simple haha it snowed all day though.. We went and shopped and then we played around the apartment and later, we had a dinner with the Soucys. They are a really awesome family. They are funny, they love us and their kids are all just way funny! I hope to see them more often as time goes on!
Tuesday - We had a dinner at the Caverettas, they are such an awesome family! Later, the bishop and his Counselor came over and we all had a discussion about faith and about conference and families. It was awesome!
Wednesday - We had a good district meeting taking about the Sabbath day. It was a nice refresher and a good thing to talk about. Elder Pace and Elder Jensen where there so that was a great surprise to see those two. Love them and I miss them, haha. Elder Jensen is in Laconia as a Zone Leader and they are in exchange with the Manchester APs.(
Assistants to the
President) Manchester is only a 30 minute drive from where I am so they decided to head over to our district meeting. After, we went to go see a less active and there was a younger dude who found his hubcap on the side of the road and he was like "Praise the lord!!!!" Just super excited haha. There was another dude at the door named Caleb who, When we asked if the less active lady we were looking for, lived there, he looked completely shell shocked.. He probably thought we where FBI haha. We where in our black suits and asking questions and he was pretty silent about it haha. Oh well, on to the next person I guess. After some house work, we went to an interesting lesson with Matt...... Then went less active hunting down in Hampton and Hampton beach area. Elder Peterson saw, what looked like a 15 year old kid, smoking on the side of the road and we were going crazy haha "WAS THAT A KID!?!? HE LOOKS ABOUT 15!?!? WHERE AM I!?!?" Later lol we went to the church to watch the pinewood derby races!! We went for the last part of the cub scouts, and we stayed back to watch the adult one, but they never showed up.. Bummer haha but we still stayed and talked and got to know more of the members in the ward. Pretty crazy day.
Thursday - A very rainy and stormy day here in Exeter resulted in all of our plans cancelling accept for our lesson with Sally. It went great! She's an awesome lady and she's in school studying graphic illustration. It's way cool to see the things she designed! I told her I wanted to be a cyber security professional and her mind was blown! Haha she was like "thats way above me" haha she's from Brazil and she joined the church at 22. We asked her if she'd ever been to temple square and she was like "oh yea!!" Haha awesome awesome.
Happy birthday twins!! Boy, 11 years old! Hope it was an awesome, fun filled day!! I can't wait to skype and see you!! Love you both bunches!!
Friday - We had service at the food pantry and they loaded us up with food. After that, we pretty much tried to find people. We street contacted, no luck and we less active hunted, still no luck. Pretty unlucky day, but that's okay! It will be better tomorrow !!
Saturday - We got up and headed over to Jenness beach which is right above Rye Beach. It's way cool! We went with Chase and his friend Dylan. We cleaned the beach, picked up stuff and really had a great time doing it haha. We watched Robbie Madison's pipe dream because there where people out on the water surfing! Way cool!! After that we went to a Mexican place kinda like chipotle called Las Olas, but better! Then we went to Walmart because Elder Peterson dropped his iPad this morning and was freaking out because the glass cover he had broke and he got a crazy big case for it Haha. Later, we went to the church for the adult session of stake conference!! Wow was it awesome! There where so many missionaries there it wasn't even funny haha. We saw everyone from Portsmouth and Exeter and all the way from Sanford Maine to Georgetown Massachusetts, way cool!! The talks and the spirit present was amazing! Everyone was truly inspired and ready to help and talk about anything. The Exeter ward is great, the Exeter stake it really awesome! Can't believe it's almost been halfway through the transfer. This goes by fast!
Sunday - We had an amazing stake conference! It was fantastic to see everyone again, it was amazing to talk with others and it was a complete blast seeing Pres. and Sister Stoker! I loved the spirit that was there. I loved the testimonies about missionary work and about conversion and about the role of trials and the spirit. It was truly inspiring. After we said out goodbyes and helped out for a little bit we went to the Gish's for dinner! We stayed there pretty much the rest of the night. They are a wonderful family, so set on the gospel. Chase told us his two best friends from high school, Ben and Dylan,have read the majority of the Book of Mormon and he feels that Elder Peterson and I are the right Elders to teach them along with his family and Kaylee. Boy how crazy is that!!! We will be coordinating a time that we all can sit down and talk. So stoked!! After he shared that info, we hung out for a while and talked more about his mission and family stories. Gotta love it!
This week has been very interesting. A lot has happened and I'm kinda in the spiral thing. It's super hard to explain, I'm kinda in limbo. Alot of changes really fast. still trying to catch up in my head. I'm grateful for this chance to be a missionary and to meet so many awesome people. I'm super grateful to be here in Exeter and to help these people come closer to Christ and to also build eternal friendships with these people. The sacrifices to be a missionary are huge, but the rewards and the blessings are even bigger! We have zone interviews on Thursday, so I will be talking to President Stoker 1 on 1, I can't wait! I love that dude!
Chase shared with us a story about a missionary trainer who bought an Xbox and TV and played it on his mission while his trainee was itching to go work. When the Mission President walked in and saw him doing this, the Mission President cried and looked at him dead in the eyes and said "when have I not loved you."
That phrase is powerful. I wholeheartedly believe that if we do not do what the Lord has asked of us to do, that phrase will be presented to us at judgment. "When have I not loved you?."
He has given us so so much, and sometimes we take it for granted or we simply don't care. My eyes have been opened to the blessings, big and small, that the Lord has blessed me with. The fact I was adopted into an amazing family with these gospel standards, is a story and a blessing in itself along with the rest of my siblings. Heavenly Father asks so little of us, read the scriptures, obey the commandments, pray to him. So simple, so fundamental. Someone in one of my last areas complained "why is this gospel so simple?" Because God doesn't want it too difficult. Some people can't do the little things he asks, so why would he give us more? The little things are what help us everyday. Reading the Book of Mormon has grown my testimony so much, praying has grown my relationship with my Heavenly Father and I know it works.
Hope you all had an amazing week! Thank you for the support and the prayers! They are not forgotten!
Elder Vogel