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| P-day fun |
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| Don't know what they were thinking... |
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| enjoying time with a family |
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| they found "Elder" street...oh the little things that make a missionary happy! |
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| Missionary work is exhausting for Elder Peterson |
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| Can I hit the Easter egg? |
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| Saying Good-bye to some great kids |
March 28th - April 8th
Monday - P-Day we went shopping and then we went to Exeter for district P-Day and played games and laughed and had a wonderful time together. We all said our last goodbyes to the sisters before they left. They are wonderful, I'm really going to miss serving with them, they helped me grow and come closer to my Heavenly Father so so much. They will get married quick when they get home because who wouldn't want sister Pankratz or Evans !? There just awesome! Haha. After that, we went to the Gogans and said goodbye along with the Bennetts. Gonna miss Portsmouth so much, but I will be back sooner then I think! I wanna visit when I get the chance when I get home! After the Gogans, We came home and I finished packing for tomorrow's transfer day.
Tuesday - Super hard sleeping last night. Don't know why, maybe because my nerves where up, but that's okay, no biggie! We went to Portsmouth chapel to do exchanges where everyone, including sisters, where there!!! and then the 20 min car ride to the apartment with Elder Peterson.
Holy smokes!!! It's so much fun being with Elder Peterson again!! But it's way weird because we are in the zone leaders apartment! But we are having so much fun! It's like two best friends coming together after a while!! We love it! We street contacted and talked about stuff that happened this last week and we are also planning on how to help this ward. It's way difficult.. But we can do it!!! Later we went to the church and waited for brother Larson, the ward mission leader, and he never showed up so we went home and planned the rest of the night.
Wednesday - We had a great district meeting about keeping the Sabbath day holy. It was great to see the new sisters and elders in the district! A lot of laughs and a lot of spiritual gain! Elder Bundy asked us if we could be a kitchen appliance, want would we be and I said I'd be a trash can because I deal with all yalls trash haha. We also got to hear and see some other ones and where the new missionaries are from. Sister O'Bryant and Sister Pierce are both from Washington! Way cool!!! Elder Fransen is from Colorado and Elder Bundy is from Arizona and Elder Jenkins is from Utah haha way cool!! They will love this district!! After we... did some stuff in the apartment, we went and saw Matt Burton. Boy does he talk!! Haha he's a way cool dude! He just talks a lot! After that we went to the ducky pond for street contacting and discussed more about the ward and the needs and pretty much make a rough game plan. We will see what happens!! After that we went home and continued studies and dinner.
Thursday - Today our lesson with Linda fell through.. We went with brother Larson to try and find a few people before he had to go back to work, he's a cool dude!! But we had a pretty good lesson with Vinnie who had been a member but has been out of the church a while, so he's working with us for baptism again. After that, we went to the ducky pond again haha and talked to a few people about family history and watched the Exeter Academy canoe race. Way cool, after that we came home and did more planning. Not a crazy busy day today hopefully tomorrow will be better!
Friday - so I forgot it's Friday haha and we had to weekly plan.. There isn't much here in Exeter so it didn't take us to long. We went and did service at a food pantry here in Exeter and it was pretty cool. After that we came home, and it's very hot, we had a ping pong fight... Oh yes, there's welts haha we are gonna kill each other, but that's okay because I'll go out smiling! Haha. We had dinner at the Yorks!! They are a family called to serve for the New Hampshire Zions camp (LDS owned camp). Holy smokes they are just funny, haha they are a smaller family, both converts. They have a great story and a wonderful testimony. We where talking with them and they call seagulls dump ducks haha and there was a raccoon outside and brother York says "That stupid trash panda!!" Hahaha we ate pizza and talked about stuff and the camp and their interests. Their daughter Gracie is a competitive horseback rider! She does hunter jumper and has been the state champion 4 years in a row! She's way good, with trophies everywhere and ribbons everywhere. Such a wonderful family.
Tonight there was a major thunder storm! Wicked cool, lightning flashing, thunder pounding, it was a great sight and sound to witness haha reminds me of the storms at home only, these are a lot more fierce than at home haha awesome day!
Saturday - Saturday was full of General Conference! Boy was it great! I loved the inspired talks and I loved the simplicity of the messages that where shared. I loved Elder Ballard's and Bednar's talked about a family council and the spirit and how it works. It truly inspires me and I now have a better understanding of the cleansing power of the sacrament. It's amazing to really ponder on theses subjects, such simple doctrine, but means everything for our salvation. Today they really emphasized marriage and eternal families.... Which is an awesome subject, but for a missionary who has only been out almost 6 months, makes me trunky (excited to go home)! But, I can still start and work hard to become worthy enough so when I do come home, my eternal companion will also be ready and we can start the next chapter together, but for the next year and a half, I've gotta suck it up! haha
Today I have really felt the spirit strong, not just because of the older fun and inspiring talks of the church leaders, but also towards the Exeter ward. I'm starting to get a bigger picture of the situation the lord put me in, but i'm super stoked and way honored to be apart of this! I can't wait for Sunday's conference session to see what else the inspired leaders of our church have for us.
Sunday - last night was terrible..... Our apartment is right next to train tracks and it comes regularly throughout the day... And night.. At 3am, That train decided to wake up all of Exeter.. Elder Peterson and I where not happy, I almost threw something at the train I was so mad.. So the rest of our day was simple haha we watched the morning session and then for the second session we went to the Gish's home. We didn't end up watching it haha, the Whites, Caverettas and Gish's where all there and we talked and talked and talked with Chase who got home from his mission in February. Talked about life, the less actives, everything. Built so much trust! We ended up staying there almost 5 hours.. Wow!!! Big no no, but it was well worth it haha. One of the members came up and told us "we are super excited you're here. We couldn't bond with the last set of missionaries because they didn't talk or interact as much, so thank you very much and we are super excited to be here with you." We shared our testimonies about prayer. We read the story of Enos and the spirit was super super strong. I almost started crying, a couple of the women almost started to cry, it was such an enjoyable time with them. These families are only a few of the ones who are willing to help with the missionary work. I'm glad we have a good start on the trust again and we are very happy that we feel so involved like we're almost family.
From the talks that were shared from conference, I loved all the ones I've had to chance to hear. I loved how much family is so emphasized in our faith, family is the unit for everything and even though I'm getting trunky out of my mind and wanting to be a father and have my own family with an amazing wife by my side, I still have a little ways to go but the mission will prep me for the time to really start my family. The simplicity of the talks were amazing, president Monson gave such short, powerful talks. Everyone was truly inspired to share what they prepared.
I am so great full to have been called here to Exeter. I'm so happy the members are trusting and loving and feeding us so much. Already a week here and I can see this ward is going to be amazing. I already love everyone so so much and I want to help them as much as I can. It won't be easy or by any means a cake walk, but it will be hard and it will be truly beneficial. Thank you everyone for all the prayers and support you have for me, they work and they help so so much because it would be a lot harder if I had to do all of this myself.
Love you all
Elder Vogel
Saturday - Saturday was full of General Conference! Boy was it great! I loved the inspired talks and I loved the simplicity of the messages that where shared. I loved Elder Ballard's and Bednar's talked about a family council and the spirit and how it works. It truly inspires me and I now have a better understanding of the cleansing power of the sacrament. It's amazing to really ponder on theses subjects, such simple doctrine, but means everything for our salvation. Today they really emphasized marriage and eternal families.... Which is an awesome subject, but for a missionary who has only been out almost 6 months, makes me trunky (excited to go home)! But, I can still start and work hard to become worthy enough so when I do come home, my eternal companion will also be ready and we can start the next chapter together, but for the next year and a half, I've gotta suck it up! haha
Today I have really felt the spirit strong, not just because of the older fun and inspiring talks of the church leaders, but also towards the Exeter ward. I'm starting to get a bigger picture of the situation the lord put me in, but i'm super stoked and way honored to be apart of this! I can't wait for Sunday's conference session to see what else the inspired leaders of our church have for us.
Sunday - last night was terrible..... Our apartment is right next to train tracks and it comes regularly throughout the day... And night.. At 3am, That train decided to wake up all of Exeter.. Elder Peterson and I where not happy, I almost threw something at the train I was so mad.. So the rest of our day was simple haha we watched the morning session and then for the second session we went to the Gish's home. We didn't end up watching it haha, the Whites, Caverettas and Gish's where all there and we talked and talked and talked with Chase who got home from his mission in February. Talked about life, the less actives, everything. Built so much trust! We ended up staying there almost 5 hours.. Wow!!! Big no no, but it was well worth it haha. One of the members came up and told us "we are super excited you're here. We couldn't bond with the last set of missionaries because they didn't talk or interact as much, so thank you very much and we are super excited to be here with you." We shared our testimonies about prayer. We read the story of Enos and the spirit was super super strong. I almost started crying, a couple of the women almost started to cry, it was such an enjoyable time with them. These families are only a few of the ones who are willing to help with the missionary work. I'm glad we have a good start on the trust again and we are very happy that we feel so involved like we're almost family.
From the talks that were shared from conference, I loved all the ones I've had to chance to hear. I loved how much family is so emphasized in our faith, family is the unit for everything and even though I'm getting trunky out of my mind and wanting to be a father and have my own family with an amazing wife by my side, I still have a little ways to go but the mission will prep me for the time to really start my family. The simplicity of the talks were amazing, president Monson gave such short, powerful talks. Everyone was truly inspired to share what they prepared.
I am so great full to have been called here to Exeter. I'm so happy the members are trusting and loving and feeding us so much. Already a week here and I can see this ward is going to be amazing. I already love everyone so so much and I want to help them as much as I can. It won't be easy or by any means a cake walk, but it will be hard and it will be truly beneficial. Thank you everyone for all the prayers and support you have for me, they work and they help so so much because it would be a lot harder if I had to do all of this myself.
Love you all
Elder Vogel
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