Tuesday, July 25th - Monday, July 31st

So we shall write about how this week turned out for me. So the week turned out nice we had a good time.

So after writing we headed over and had a good night time, chill but it was alright.

Tuesday. Freak I got sick. If you all remember I get sick like once an area. Here was my time. So by the time I got back from the meeting I was shaking with chills, and had a fever, and other problems. The nurse of the mission thought it was due to something I ate, so I rested that whole day, though we got a few visits from the members in the area, that touched me it felt nice that they cared, and some brought stuff to help out. 

Wednesday, I was feeling super weak all this day but we worked like normal. 

Thursday well working again like normal. We got a call in the morning that there would be a baptism in the afternoon in Matagalpa, so if we would be able to bring a couple of our investagators so they could see a baptism, so we managed to bring 3 there, we got there, and a minute before we arrived, we got a call that there wouldn't be a baptism. So we at least took the time to show them the chapel there, since it's a whole lot nicer than the little house thinggy we are meeting in now. It was alright It went well, but would have been better if we could have seen the baptism.

Friday, just working again today, not much. Though in the afternoon we went to the hosue of some members and nonmembers (the childern are members, but the parents aren't. though they feel the closest to a family that I have felt here in the mission) and the cousin from the father (who is from el salvador) (the cousein is salvadoranian too) So he brought pupusas straight from El salvador, so I got one, and then we went out to one of the only places to eat here, and we invited them out to Pizza (since they are always giving us dinner and stuff. So we were like hey we might as well do something nice and special for them for once)

Saturday, so we started the day offf by giving service. And by that, I mean I had a giant stick, and was knocking down coconuts. And by big stick, it's like a 15 foot long pole. But yeah nice workout. But Saturday went well

Sunday went well. Pretty low key not much happened.

And today we started off playing football/volleyball in the church, then lunched together, then played l

La Reina, which I won. Woop woop. But yeah it is all good. As for my health I am feeling better now, and am back to normal.

thanks for reading everyone. Love ya all. 

Elder Vogt

********************************

 

Additional email from family emails:

 

* The game La Reina translates to meaning "The Queen" ...So it's a game where there are like categories (we had 11) and they are things like. The missionary who, flirts the most, Most chill, most obedient, awesomest, who'll get sent home first, who'll get married first, who'll never get married. Various categories.So everyone has a piece of paper and puts down their answers of who they think fits that category best, and why (just a game so lots of the answers are more funny) but yeah and who gets the most votes wins that category, and who wins the most categories wins the game. So I won the most categories. Well, me and Elder Baez each won 3 categories so then it went to a vote by raise of hand who the winner should be and more voted for me. The categories I won were: the Mas Tuanis, Mas Frito, and the Rey Y Reina

In english: Awesomest, most chill/party, and a joking couples one. 

 

* We had 2 sets of Elders stay with us last night since they live so far away and they wanted to be here to attend the Zone Activity scheduled for today. We had Elders Ponce, Alvarez, Alveranga and Vaides. I made everyone some Honey Siracha Chicken. I pretty much had the recipe memorized and they all thought the sauce tasted really good and complimented me on it. We also topped our pizza with some of it, too. We had a real nice, chill time.

* It's still raining pretty much everyday but it's usually more of just a drizzle vs. a downpour

* I haven't found the bugs to be a problem here - I never use bug spray and at night I sleep with a fan on me and so the wind blows any bugs away from me!

Tuesday, July 19th - Monday, July 24th

After emailing everyone last week we left only to see in the center of town was a giant party going on so hardly anyone was out in their houses, only in the huge city party for the day of the revolution.

So starting off Tuesday, we had our normal meeting in the morning, and then in the afternoon we had divisions so I worked with my old companion Elder Baez, We were set to work here in my area but he wanted to eat lunch in his area first so we did that first. 

Wednesday we worked in our area as much as we could, since in the morning like 20 buses packed of people left the town to head to Managua since today is the day of the revolution, but it was good enough.

Same with the other days nothing super interesting.

Friday we were working in the night and were heading to the house of an investigator, when we heard something that sounded like preaching with a microphone going on inside, and we were like wait, what? Better to call him, we though it was the TV but were like hmmm let's call. No answer, so we walked to the door (which was open) Only to find a Catholic congregation was going on. And like prairie dogs we popped away! They were all turned the other way so didn't notice us, but it's not the best manners to disrupt a congregation asking for someone. SO we went to the house of some members, and the power went out.....so we had to walk home like 20 minutes in the dark, but when we got home 3 minutes later the lights came back.

Sunday we brought the son on an investigator to the church, and he went last week with his mom but she couldn't this week. Long story short after the wife of the branch president talked with the child who is 8...he has a talk next week....We are like children don't give talks, investigators don't give talks, much less investigating children. But oh well. We shall see how it goes, he seemed willing to do it.

Today we went to Matagalpa to pick up a package (of Honduranian soda and a shirt) for Garcia that his parents sent to him with some members in Matagalpa who were at the temple in Honduras last week. And we bought a rotisserie chicken and split it between us, so all good all good.

 

Tuesday, July 11th - Monday, July 18th

So this is how this week went.

So Tuesday we worked like normal. Went to an area a bit further in my area that I didn't know yet, and met a couple less active people who I didn't know before. So that was nice.

Wednesday we had a meeting there in Matagalpa, so we went there in the morning, came back to work, and in the night went back to Matagalpa to stay the night, since in the morning we would have to go to a different city (Esteli). If we didn't head over there to Matagalpa the night before, we would have had to search for a taxi at like 5 in the morning. And I didn't want to do that - it is very difficult. So yeah we stayed the night with the zone leaders.

Thursday we headed to Esteli for a Multi Zone meeting, it was good since I got to see some friends and old companions, but it ended super fast and super early, so we headed back and worked more. 

Friday we went to another area far out that we didn't know, called La Reyna. So it went nice, not too much out there but it wasn't bad. And I also hit 10 months in the mission that day - July 14th!

Saturday we met a referral who was super positive, then helped out with an activity at the church where they were baking. so it was good and I got to help sample some of the baked goods. Missionary perks! 

Sunday was church and all, it went well. Didn't do all too much but it was a nice day. Also went to pick up our investigator for church and when we got there, they had already left to church. That usually doesn't happen so that was cool.

Random story time.

So since no Vogt's were hurt in the process of this story I don't mind sharing it:

 

So this past Friday I was walking down the road with my companion, when from the other side of the road a drunk guy starts running at us with a machete! He was cussing us out so hard in Spanish. He made it up to us and started to swing his machete - he didn't hit us but he got so freaking close! But hey, I'm all good so no harm done. Just the life here. It wasn't really scary to say - but got a decent amount of adrenaline going! 

Anyways that was the week. Thanks for everything everyone. Cya all next week!

Elder Vogt

Tuesday, July 4th - Monday, July 10th

So Tuesday it was our first day working here with Garcia. We worked like normal.

Same wednesday

Thursday well same

Friday we had a reunion de zona, so we did that then worked

Saturday, same

Sunday pretty much the same

How things are here, things are going well. I like my comp, and he is Old. He is 25 right now and only has 6 months in the mission, but hey never too late to head out! He was baptized 2 years ago (fun story: the son of our Stake President here in Matagalpa was the Missionary who baptized him in Honduras!)

We are working alright together without problems, though I feel we can get a bit more in sync. It will come with time. So it works.

 

Anyways got a multi zone conference coming up this week. Will get to see Elder Price, and I think we will go and sleep at the Zone Leaders The night before to save the hassle of looking for a 5AM taxi here.

 

We got a new rule - as a mission we can only do a zone activity once a month and an activity with our District once a month, so today is one of the just comp days, and we don't have a ton to do in our area. So we went shopping for our food for the week. Oh, and I got to eat good fried chicken this week!

Love, Elder Vogt

Tuesday, June 27th - Monday, July 3rd

So I shall write about how this week went.

So we started out this week working nice and hard. We had divisions this Tuesday, so I stayed over here, and was working with Elder Fankhauser in our area. It was pretty chill, though at one point a baby cow (or in technical terms a calf) walked outside of like a plot of land, and through an open gate and walked right alongside us for like a good 5 minutes. I feel bad like I almost just kinda stole a cow! Like what do I do? so we just walked a bit faster and finally lost it. It's weird how things work here. But I just don't end up questioning it.

So the other days were good, just normal uneventful working. We had plans to baptize someone Saturday, so we went to the church Saturday, but the power was out in the whole city, and with the power went the Water, so we weren't able to fill up the baptismal font, so we called up the people in Matagalpa, and they were having plans to baptize over there, so we brought our person, and 2 others there to Matagalpa, to have a joint baptism,

And also yesterday we got another 2 baptisms, a girl of 15 and the daughter of a member who is 9. Some of the other missionaries were like Wait, what the flip? She was our investigator. All I'm saying is the girl of 15 left Matagalpa and is living with her aunt here now. sooooooo. We got tobaptize her! But yeah it worked out nicely. We finished this Change with 6 baptisms, and started the month off with 3. So I'm feeling good about that.

But yeah like I said finished off the changes with that. SOOOOOO we had changes. Elder Baez got sent over to Matagalpa, and will be my District Leader, but I'm staying here, and my new companion is Elder Garcia. He is pretty new in the mission, but we shall see how things go. I have a feeling things will go well here.

But anyways. Just remember, the Lord is always there to bless us, we just need to look for the blessings, and if we think we found some we need to work for them also. But with a little bit of action, and patience and faith, we all can see big changes even in places where we wouldn't normally think to look.