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

May 20th

Things aren't going so hot here in Puerto Cabezas. We are supposed to baptize more than any other zone in the mission. We only have 7 families baptized for this month. And that is not good.....not good at all.....The good news is that 2 of those are my familes, so that's good. hahaha But seriously....President threatened that he would take every single missionary in Puerto out and only put 3 companionships before he leaves if things don't pick up. Nobody has any idea what is going on. We've tried so many different things and none of them seem to work. So right now, everyone here is Puerto is kinda freaking out because at any minute, they can call us and tell us who is leaving. And nobody wants to leave Puerto. The people here are amazing.

The awesome news is like I said before, 2 of the 7 are families I baptized. The one we had this week was a contact by my companion when we were reminding people about church last Sunday. The guy actually contacted him! He told my companion that he wanted to get married and baptized. So what happens when someone has a desire?? You do it! So this week, we brought him and his wife to the church, gave them an interview, and got them married and baptized! The coolest thing happened in the font right after I baptized him and he was waiting for his wife to come in. He looked at me and thanked me. Never in my life have I ever seen anyone thank a missionary for baptizing them. This really struck me hard. It completely caught me by surprise. All I hope for in my mission now is for someone to thank me for baptizing them.

This place is awesome! I would love to stay in Puerto for the rest of my mission. Like I said before: you will never see a people more ready for the Gospel than these Miskitos. They have almost nothing, yet they have everything they need. 

Be thankful for everything you have. Be grateful that you don't have to wake up in the morning and worry about what you are going to do to get food for your family to be able to eat that day. 

Amo los Miskitos. Amo Nicaragua. Amo cada uno de ustedes. ¡Mantengan la fe! Con fe, todo es posible.

Stay awesome!

Elder Vogel