From the mission field MAY 5th

Wow!!! So this week, we had a little miracle. We originally planned to only have two people baptized this weekend, but as the week went on, it turned out to be 4 baptisms!!!
It's so cool being a missionary. hahahaha

Also, 

Changes are next week! Let's see if i get to stay here for another month and a half, or if I finally get to go to my resting place.

And Mother's day is this weekend!!!! Don't you worry, I'll be a callin. hahaha Can't wait to see you all on Sunday!!!

Have a great week!!

Elder Vogel

Week of Jan 13 to 20, 2014

Soooooooooooo......pretty normal week. Actually, no.....not that normal of a week. Elder Cooper is a District Leader, so we had to go do a ton of different interviews for the district, so we really didn't get a whole lot done. but we're doing great!! 

All of our investigators are awesome!!! Like, they ask us when they can get baptized and when they can have a book of mormon and just crazy stuff like that!! it's so cool to see them want to progress!!! and one of them wants the bishop to visit her in her house. it's kinda freaking me out how awesome these people are!

But i'm doing great! Staying healthy and having fun!!!

Be the people God wants you to be, not what the world wants.

Elder Vogel

THANK YOU ALL

My gratitude to the YOUTH, who sent me a package!

And, THANK YOU everyone for the MASSES of emails I got for my birthday. THANK YOU ALL. (there is no way I can respond to all of them individually... I tried. But they don't allow us that much time HAHA)

Elder Vogel

The WORK and the GLORY as well as FUN and GAMES.

(Sometimes the lines between all of them get a little blurry!!!)

:)

The entire Family is getting baptized

Fellow Elders in the mission

(as a mother I just shake my head)

This guy LOVES touching all the animals!! 

(I can relate)

"The Hands of Christ" 

MONKEYS!!!!!

Lovely couple getting baptized

MONKEY - well, close enough

Still a kid at heart. 

Nacho, Nacho, Nacho!

Animal hide

Rid'em ... 

wrapping his food to be cooked.

the food 'package'

All the little "packages" being cooked up over an open fire.

getting baptized

AND THE BIG QUESTION IS....

HOW MANY people can you fit into a car? apparently ALLOT

Yes, this Elder knows how to have FUN

If you know this guy, you just know this is my son. I am only shocked they match!!

With the Hermanas (Sister missionaries)

AND, FINALLY,  This one just made me laugh out loud!!

Letter from the mission field: 

What up Homies????

This week has been pretty awesome! I'm having a ton of fun with Elder Cooper and we're working really hard! We found a couple of really cool investigators this week. This one lady told us that the night before we found her, she dreamt that she received a visit by 4 guys. One of them was a black guy and the other 3 were white. It kinda freaked me out, but the Lord does strange things for us to find the chosen people that are just ready to receive us. But she's so awesome!!!! She reads the pamphlets and studies them and has questions ready for us when we get there! She went to church on Sunday and loved it! It's so cool to see the Lord's hand in these things.

other than that, it's been a pretty normal week. We went and ate sushi today for my birthday. haha It's kinda crazy that 21 years ago today I was chillin out in a hospital in Kentucky with my mom not knowing anything about that world or the people I would meet. And I can say that I've learned so much in the last 21 years and am so grateful for all of the friends that I have and have supported me along the way.

I love you guys!!!!! Stay awesome!!!

Elder Vogel

Pictures!!

June 3rd... 8 MONTHS

I complete 8 months today!!! Time goes by so fast! and the miracles don't cease.

This past week, we were contacting and trying to find more families when we see this family walking ahead of us. So we catch up to them and started talking. One of the things we try to do here in Puerto is to invite them to baptism in the initial contact. So when we did that, they said yes. So then we asked if they would like to do it that day. They then said yes again! So we took them to the church, married them, and baptized them. I later learned that my companion was just talking and that he surprised himself when he asked if they wanted to do it that day. So this family was literally a chosen family. We were guided by the spirit to find them and baptize them that day. Another awesome thing is that we found a less active family living in the same house as the family we just baptized! The Lord works in mysterious ways here in Puerto Cabezas.

The second miracle that I came across is actually a funny story. There is this girl in my Branch that left for a month to go visit family and friends in other parts of Nicaragua. When she got back, she brought a guy with her. They wanted to get married. He wasn't a member, but had been to church a lot. He actually helped build a lot of churches in Central America and the temple in Honduras. He lives in Masaya which is a part of the Nicaragua Managua South Mission. So when he got here, we talked to him and he wanted to get baptized! He is probably one of the most prepared people I have ever met. He knew so much and had the greatest desire to follow Jesus Christ. So what did we do? We baptized and married him on May 30th! Now here's where the story gets funny. The goal for the mission in the month of May was to baptize 100 families. At the beginning of the month, we weren't doing very well. In fact, we were doing terribly. So we fought hard and were getting closer and closer to the goal. So then we had 99 families. Then this guy showed up. When, for example, the wife is a member and the husband isn't, it counts as a family to complete. In other words, a family. So we find out that the missionaries in the South Mission put a baptismal date for him for June 8th. I promise you, if they asked him if he wanted to do it that day, he would have said yes, so that was a pretty dumb move on their part. And we also found out that the South Mission missionaries like to talk a lot of crap about us North Mission missionaries. Probably because they're jealous they aren't in the better mission. :)  Anyways, long story short: Thanks to the South Mission, we got our goal of 100 families for the month of May! And even better than that: It was my baptism that counted for number 100!!

Miracles exist! Every conversion is a miracle and God is a God of miracles. This is so much fun!!!!! I love it!!!! And I love all of you! Have a great week everyone and keep making miracles happen!

Elder Vogel