Nov 21st - Nov 28th

It has been super crazy busy here the last couple weeks! The weeks have been pretty awesome though. This has definitely been one of the more interesting transfers of my mission. The work I'm doing has shifted a lot from the proselyting/finding and teaching stuff to a lot of meetings and coordinating with Ward and auxiliary leaders. Quick reason as to why.. The Branch I am in have had quite a few problems over the last couple years. I will not list them all, but I will give you one: They have been a high baptizing area for sure! Over the last 2 years, this branch had 20 that were baptized, but out of those 20, 4 still regularly attend. I will not go on as far as the problems go, but there is a glimpse of what's going on.

So when I met with President Blair and told him about all of the things I have observed over the last 5 weeks, we came up with a plan.

It was kinda weird/hard to hear the mission President tell me to stop finding, teaching, and baptizing. But it does make complete sense. Why would you keep pouring perfectly clean water (new converts) into a bucket of dirty water (Dover Branch)? You wouldn't. Been here done that, it's been a big portion of my mission so far. I feel like I don't get to teach much but it's preparing me for something big. He told me this could be my hardest area.. which I'm chill with, I'm staying another transfer because of plans and prep, but idk if I'll be around for 3. We have some events that's gonna make it or break it.


Please don't get me wrong, I LOVE the little Dover Branch! There are some stalwart disciples of Christ here. But something different needs to be done! Because what's been done isn't exactly working so well.. So that's what President Blair, Elder Iverson, and myself have started to do. Something different indeed.


We did however, teach Jason Tirrel and a miracle happened! We taught him about the new initiative and he told us about his kidney disease a while ago, but he found a doner! How awesome is that! He will have it in and hopefully functioning by Christmas! So happy for the guy, idk what that's like, but I'm happy for him and what a wonderful testimony builder. Awesome.


So over the last week, not only have we met with President Blair, we have met privately with a Stake High Councelor, our ward mission leader countless times, Elders Quorum President, relief society president, young women's, young men, activity coordinator, and the Branch president himself twice. We have organized 3 activities that are going to transpire over the month of December and I am worn out! I am finding that organizing ward activities, getting everyone on board and willing to participate is more tiring than walking around and knocking doors! Bless all of you who do this in your home wards. Wouldn't wanna be ya. But our first activity is this Saturday! Everyone pray that it goes well this week pleeaasseeee.


This week we did service at a cow farm and what an experience that was haha I definitely like horses more.. cows are completely... gross... nasty... ugh.. lol but it was super fun! I've used more Spanish yelling and threatening these cows and a Guatemalan have been giving me lip and a bunch of laughs haha I'll attach some pics and a video or 2. There was one of the cows that was fairly new at this milking process and it went ape wall crazy.. it's leg was flying out in the trench and smacking one of the workers and almost falling over on it's poop (Which would be super badzo..) it was super scary, reminded me of the time that a horse at the barn back home (I think andreas) was going crazy with the horse next to her and I was in shock, pooping myself, but also in awe. Same experience, kinda crazy. We got poop crossfires and milk flying and cows smelling and.. dang, whole new respect for dairy farmers. Whole new respect. I thought I was pretty rough guy, didn't think that I was any more city boy, I though Kelly broke that off me, but doing this, I still had some city left... and that was shattered, pooped on and flushed down the toilet and never to be seen again... me encanta caballos..




Love you all, thanks for all you do!!

zone conference

Nov 14th - Nov 17th

This week wasn't to productive. We had a lesson with Derrik and talked to him about faith. He's really awesome, we explained that faith comes through action and we all have to exercise that seed for miracles.
We had exchanges with Skowhegan and elder Morgan and I went to try and see a guy in jail.. probably not our most productive thing ever, but we did and we, fortunately, need to set an appointment up haha so.. we haven't yet but may think about it. We then went to do "12 Week" and talked about questions he had for me and really had a great heart to heart, pretty awesome.

We had a emergency exchange too because a few days later, elder morgan got sick, so elder Kulkarni and I went to get 2 new investigators! We went to go talk a guy named Melvin, who, when he saw us was talking a million miles per hour haha and we had a great doorstep lesson about the Book of Mormon and comités him to read it. Then we went to a lesson with a recent convert who introduced us to her friend Amber, who has a young family and is looking for God in her life, pretty awesome! She has no concept of God at all so we talked mainly about, that God is our loving Heavenly Father and He loves us and she was astonished and her husband looked pretty interested also. Very awesome.

This week we also had a Zone Conference about the new "Light the World" Christmas initiative that the church has made, everyone go watch and share the teasers! Super good! Anyway, I was able to see some old friends like elders Owens, Luu, Hardman and so forth. We mingled then took our seats and talked. Sister Blair showed us the new initiative and told us ways on how we can use them this Christmas season. We also got an advent calendar of service, it was way cool! After, we got some wonderful words from Pres Blair who not only made us almost pee ourselves laughing so hard, but also encouraged and helped us see that this year is where it's at haha it was way awesome, we then had a wonderful lunch, then we broke off into zones and had a zone meeting about the initiative and also about concerns and goals in the zone. Way cool, talked about being consecrated and better examples. After we got a training from the Assistants about the same thing, wonderful spirit and wonderful words.

One Saturday we had a emergency zone meeting where we talked about the zones and pretty much had a huge companion inventory and expressed gratitude and love for our zone and helped each other gain a desire again to reach our goal of 100 new investigators this transfer! We got 2 weeks! We can do it!

I have learned so much this last year on my mission, I have learned to love everyone. 

Truly have Christ like love. To constantly pray and have a good attitude about everything and
everyone, or else, Satan has you quicker than snot.
I have learned that I have a compassionate, but dedicated heart. I don't let things get me down, and I keep going strong. Like Spanish, we lost our Spanish area, but I still ask people if they know anyone
that speaks it and I see success. Always be an example also. Always

Thank you all for the love and prayers and many other gifts, I love you all and I hope to hear from you all this next week!



Con mucho amor deElder Vogel

what missionaries do when they are sick...

the goatie on the sick day

the dairy barn

Nov 7th - Nov 14th


Sorry for the absolute sad and short email this week.. you'll understand why haha Hasta - until

Monday hasta Wednesday- We where on exchange in Newport and I was with Elder Timothy! Elder Timothy unfortunately got sick so we didn't get to do very much, we did have a dinner and the husband served his mission in Spain, which, he doesn't really speak Spanish anymore and it sounded terrible lol but that's okay. We stayed the night over in Skowhegan and had district meeting, afterwords we went to try and find people and we came across a lady named Ruby. Ruby unfortunately wasn't interested, but she is from El Salvador and obviously speaks Spanish! It was awesome to talk to her and practice a little, she gave us directions to her family who are all from El Salvador and her dad doesn't speak English. Awesome, might hit them up soon! That's about it, and a bunch of no shows. But that's the life I guess.

Thursday hasta Saturday - we didn't really do anything because Elder Iverson got sick haha we watched the home teachers on Friday night, which half the people where sick also, and we didn't shave and we decided to shave Saturday and have go-ts, pretty cool. We also have been playing a game that I made up with string and hangers. It's pretty awesome. I'll send a video or something haha and we've just been a couple scrubs. We did however on Saturday night go to coordination at brother Brissel, he is a dairy farmer. We went in the barn in our nice clothes, which was not a good idea haha and we had coordination in there with the sisters. Sisters were all dressed in scrub clothes, all dirty and telling us what work there is like and us getting nauseous because we still are kinda on edge with our viruses. Lol pretty interesting.

Sunday - Sunday was kinda interesting. People were dead, I guess this sickness hit several dozen people haha anyway, I got to see Presidant Kilgour again, it was awesome! I love him so much, he gave us some awesome council about our meals and how do effectively plan them better, awesome. After sacrament, we had gospel principles which was.. different haha but it seemed to go well for the people there, then I guess every fast Sunday the primary bails and the missionaries teach it... that was a new experience, never done that before haha we only had maybe.. 6 kids, even Hanover had at least in the teens, but shoot. 6 of them little kids, couple 8 year olds, couple 6 and 7 year olds and a 5 year old... crazy, anywho after church we came home because elder Iverson still wasn't feeling the greatest, and we cleaned.

This week I've had a lot of extra time to practice Spanish, did it go anywhere? Idk haha I hope it did, my head hurts and every time I speak to someone, they seem to understand me haha but that's okay, always room for improvement.

My fav scripture this week is Moroni 10:8 "8 Y además os exhorto, hermanos míos, a que no neguéis los dones de Dios, porque son muchos, y vienen del mismo Dios. Y hay diversas maneras de administrar estos dones, pero es el mismo Dios que obra todas las cosas en todo; y se dan a los hombres por las manifestaciones del Espíritu de Dios para beneficiarlos."

And I exhort you, my brethren, not to deny the gifts of God, because they are many, and come from the same God. And there are various ways of administering these gifts, but it is the same God who works all things in all; And are given to men by the manifestations of the Spirit of God to benefit them. "Moroni 10:8

I like that because it shows God is still watching and still helping us, providing us with different gifts that profit us, and as missionaries, to help the work move on. I'm blessed to be here at this time, el barrio es muy loco y difícil, but we can do it haha Elder Iverson and I have definitely been humbled this week and we are determined this week to work super hard, to find those elect people, teach them, and help them get closer to enter the waters of baptism! I am grateful for all you do, thank you for the prayers and letters! They really help give me a booster!



Con mucho amor deElder Vogel

    

   Sis. Delgado, Sis Kuavaka and Elder Vogel. the only Latino elders in Maine

quick, Make a face

whoa, look at that!

Elder Iverson the companion

Oct 31st - November 6th

Monday - we had a zone P-Day down in Waterville with the Newport, Skowhegan, Farmington Elders and us, Waterville elders and sisters and Farmingdale elders. It was fun! We played games, we played sports, we talked, it was awesome! Afterwords, we went back home and played games for the night because we where not allowed outside on Halloween. It was fun

Tuesday - we had a super sick lesson with a new investigator Kent, who is an avid smoker and looking for faith, he's a Mainer too haha loves to talk! He builds, in deep detail, model cars and planes, so we got talking about that for a little while then shared with him the restoration, he loved it! He totally can see it and he's way accepting. Awesome dude, we had a dinner with the Cleaves, sister Cleaves husband Kent, isn't a member and not really looking for change. We had a wonderful home made lasagna and then she went off about politics... like way deep.. it was so deep in detail I probably could have enough knowledge to vote now haha holy smokes.

Wednesday - after district meeting we went and hit up a bunch of less actives and potentials that where no shows. But I talked to a cool dude named Juan, he was from Puerto Rico, speaks English but not very well, so I talked to him in Spanish. He is a poor farmer, not really interested in a new faith, but accepted a Libro de Mormón and said if we find him again we can talk to him. We also had a dinner at the Harmons, way awesome couple! They are just funny and sister Harmon is a convert of about 3 years! I never would have guessed! Wow, way awesome stuff! After class, we went to La clase de El Libro de Mormón and I guess I taught haha we had a discussion about the Holy Ghost, shared some scriptures and had a very tender, spiritual discussion. Way sick! Good way to end the day.

Thursday - we had another busy day planned going out and looking around for people, but no luck sadly. We talked to a few, but no interest. We did help some branch members move in a little bit from their old she'd to their house they have been building, met their son who's super awesome, and we had a dinner with Randy Dow and one of his friends at Athens pizza, pretty good stuff, after that we called it and had coordination at about 7:30.


Friday - I got sick!! I hate getting sick, I got a cold and I was out for the day because of my fierce coughing and regurgitating stuff.. but I got some medicine and elder Iverson and I had a heart to heart and had a semi productive day.


Saturday/ Sunday - we had Stake Conference and I got to hear some way awesome talked from the Stake Presidency and other members of a lot of wards and branches, I also got to see a lot of members from Brewer! Holy smokes was that awesome! I miss them all so much! Even though I wasn't there for to long, I still just have a great sense of love for them! The ones I saw, they totally recognized me and where like "what's up man!?" Awe I miss it! Take me back! Haha I saw the Kilgour's and brother Kilgour is now Presidant Kilgour, stake Presidency. Fits him, he's from Australia haha he's coming to Dover next Sunday so that will be awesome to see him again!


Sunday I got to see a lot of the missionaries serving and I saw sisters Delgado, who came out with me and Kuavaka, who has been out for a little bit, but she came after me. We took a picture because we are the only Latino missionaries in Maine haha awesome girls, also, funny moment, our branch president fell asleep during conference and the elders quorum president got up and fell asleep in the back row of the choir line, awesome lol. After conference I got to be a part of a tender moment for Elder Iverson. He baptized a guy named Berny a year ago when he was in Ellsworth and today, I got to be a part of Elder Iverson giving him the priesthood a year later, HOW SICK IS THAT! It was so sweet, such a strong spirit, such an awesome guy, love him. Afterwards we came home and tried to weekly plan, but we where tired and we did other things for the night, what a great weekend.


Busy week full of eventful turns! It's getting cold up here, like really cold haha this weekend the warmest it got was 38*, we are gonna have a terrible winter up here. Good thing I'm prepared! Hopefully..


Well, I know this work is true and a great and marvelous work, I love the work as a missionary, there's nothing quite like it. It's so rewarding and it's so special to see people come to the gospel and progress and see them get sealed and live together forever. I hope to give this next week a lot more effort than we did, me being out for the day kinda sucked, but I know this week we can do it and pull through for the win!


I love you all! Thanks for all you do!

Con mucho amor de
Elder Vogel