Tuesday, January 31st - Monday, February 6th

Alright hello everyone! How are you all?​

So as for this week, it started off like any other Tuesday. Well we worked, and did a zone meeting. Though the president and the Assistants all came, and yeah. So that was interesting.

This Thursday we received our new rules from the president. So more or less same 6:30 waking up, though we plan in the morning, less companionship study, and we are supposed to eat in our house at night a 9, unless we have a dinner appointment close to our house.

So Friday we had divisions, so we went and I went with a member Joseph, and talked with a mother of a kid (14 years old) who can be baptized but doesn't want to. We went with the kid's brother in law who is a member also.

Saturday we started to Fast (for Fast Sunday), but had an activity at the church, though nobody was over there, so yeah, me and my companion just ended up throwing rocks into a giant mango tree for about an hour and a half on a fasting stomach. We were able to get like 25 mangos down and harvested them for the Mango Salad we had on Sunday. We were dog tired later. Usually we have people showing up to these activities, so 2 days in a row with people not going to the activities is kinda weird. It was their Mutual night, playing football, but we were supposed to give a message, since supposedly they would bring a ton of investigators to play too.We were dog tired later.

Sunday, we churched it up, then afterwards ate soup...Soup here doesn't come in a coup bowl.....It comes in a giant dog bowl that is big enough for a family. Then later in the night we went to a member's house and I helped them build a table, and then we made a mango salad out of the mangos we labored over. I didn't eat the mango salad - I just ate my mango's plain. The salad that they like is with salt, lime juice, and hot sauce. It doesn't taste bad, but it's terrible for my teeth, and makes me feel like they're being dissolved. So I prefer mine plain.

Today (Monday) we went shopping in a market. I got a turtle shell ring, and then the Zone leaders took us out to lunch, because we won a competition.

As for a little spiritual thought. One thing that really touched me this week is the efforts of this one family. So they were a less active family when I first got here, but recently we got them to come to church, and he was talking with me, and he really wants to change and to better himself. Like I know many who say Yeah I'll go to church, and when it comes on Sunday always excuses, but we went over and did a family home evening with him, and are teaching them about different things. Like he said he didn't know how to fast, or stuff like that. He really wants to change and better his life and that of his family. So that was something really touching.

 

Love, Elder Vogt

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A few questions our family asked Seth this week:

1. You mentioned your zone had 5 of the 15 Best Companionship's - what exactly does that mean? What sort of Criteria is that? Have you ever gotten that? It's just number wise. And yeah I have before, though with the new rules they are going to stop doing it (since we don't keep track of as many numbers now). Though the last week we were doing it, I got the 2nd spot.

2. You mentioned about eating at home at 9pm unless you had dinner appointments, do you typically have them? We have them every day of the week, if they are far we need to bring the food back home and eat it, but all of ours are relatively close, so we won't change that much.

3. How are the Piano lessons going with the ward Pianist at lunch? They've been going good. I also learned a couple different things. Like you can tell Dad I learned Welcome home by coheed and cambria (well at least parts) on piano.

4. Spanish. We haven't really discussed it lately... how are you feeling with it? How much teaching/speaking during lessons are you doing? I can teach entire lessons, and I feel comfortable with it. Not like fluent or anything, but I feel comfortable. So that's a good thing.

5. Is it the same with the culture there? feeling more like you understand it and even though it's very different, things are starting to seem more "normal"?Yeah everything just feels normal. Though the biggest difference is the money.

Like we have 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 bills.

10 feels like a dollar

20 like 5 bucks

50 like 10

100 like 20

200 like 50

and 500 feels like a 100 dollar bill.

Though like sometimes places don't accept 100 cordoba bills, but then I'm like hey it's only 3 bucks. Like the money feels a lot different here. Like sometimes I'm like hey I don't need to buy a taxi, it's expensive. Though it's like 60 cents here...They have coins, 1, and 5, and we use them a lot too. Though they also have cents. And we don't use them.

6. You said that "10 feels like a dollar" does that mean 10 Cordoba's = $1 in US? No, 30 cords, is a dollar, though it just is treated more like one. Like we can buy stuff with like 1 or 2 cords, like snacks at the stores everywhere. And it's like hey I bought this for 6 cents! I'll take a pic with some of the money. I also wanna start a coin collection from many countries. I have one from Europe, one from the DR, and one from Guatemala.

7. And did I read that correctly - a taxi is like 60 cents!? Well it depends on how far. We can go in bus for 2.5 cords, or like 8 cents. Moto Taxi (doesn't go all too far, but still a good distance) for 10 cords each, like 30 cents each (though it feels like - Dang let's not, I don't wanna waste money!). And we hate taxis. Like if it's two of us, it's usually 30-40 cordobas each, but if we have more it's cheaper each. Like if we have 4 people (unless it's really far) it's usually 20 each. But it still feels like DANG a whole lot of money.  But yeah.

8. What's the thing you felt best about doing this week? As for the best thing. I think it was great that we were able to baptize when I thought we wouldn't be able to - just due to many problems.

Monday, January 23rd - Monday, January 30th

Uhm I don't feel like writing a whole ton so sorry. 

More or less we had a good week. Baptized again and are teaching real hard. Learning a really complex Brazilian card game from Elder Menezes. And yeah I don't know much more. We have a plan for a family home evening this night with a less active. Oh and I learned that you can buy watermelon for a dollar! Heck yeah! I want some!

I got to see my old comp at the baptism and yeah cool.

Love ya all. Cya

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Some additional info sent in emails to the family

* We had a baptism this week - her name was Oneyda and she is the recently married wife of a member. It's funny. Most missionaries have 3 weddings in their mission but at the end of this transfer (if all goes to plan) I will have had 5 Weddings in my first 3 transfers. Also, Elder Alfaro got special permission to come back and perform the baptism - so that was cool to see him again.

* There was a Worldwide Missionary Training Broadcast this week and some new changes were made. The biggest change I have seen (and that affects me the most) is we now get to sleep in until 7:30am!! and we are to be in bed by 11pm (before it was up at 6:30am and bed by 10pm)... These are the changes in Latin America since they stay up later here (and we typically weren't having dinner before 9pm)

* Today (Pday) - Lemus, Price, Menezes and I went to the house of a member and played cards and cooked lunch. Then helped the sister missionaries move their houses.

* I'm also learning piano at the lunch appointment we have now. so that's super cool. We are having lunch with our ward pianist each day. I'm starting from the basics and the notes. And it's more or less some of the children hymns that are more slow and simple.

Also Elder Price taught me the only thing that he knows. Handlebars (the song dad knows what it is same with ben and August.) So I can play that!

* Question we asked Seth: "What did you feel best about doing this week?"

We had another baptism and we had 2 Confirmations. So it feels good doing work! We were 2 of the 5 Baptisms our Zone had in the month of January.

Monday, January 16th - Sunday, January 22nd

Alright so this time I don't have my machine, but I still am able to write about what happened this week. So I guess I will start at Monday!

So on Monday there were the transfers and like I said. I have my new companion Elder Lemus here. And yeah so it is all good with him right now, It's not too bad. 

Tuesday. So we started working and showing him the area. Though later at night came some Elders who were dying off (aka: going home!) So I got to see my first Zone leader, and also some other Elders that I didn't know really well. And we went and visited people that they knew and enjoyed in their time here. But it was nice also.

Wednesday. So Wednesday was a normal day. We just worked, and did things like normal. I don't really remember much from that day, since I'm not really thinking about it all too much right now, but hey it's all alright.

Thursday. So we started off the day with a nice and long multi zone reunion. So those go from like 9 in the morning until like 4 in the afternoon. So it's long, and sometimes a bit boring, but it was a nice time to relax, and learn the word! So afterwards we got back, and in the evening ate the food - which is also the new girlfriend of my cousin - Pupusas!

Friday! So we had our "Hey! Let's do this!" during our zone meeting that morning. So we did that. And then we went to work. We put 5 people down on date for baptism! And set up a person for a baptism Saturday.

Saturday! 5 more people on date, and pushed the baptism back to Sunday since Saturday was also a wedding and Stake Conference.

Also we went to the wedding!!! It was with a member and someone on date for baptism next saturday

Sunday! Stake conference. and I guess just normal stuff. I have a story for this though. So at night time we were all like - Hey our dinner appointment canceled, but we had leftovers from the night before, so let's go to a member's house and cook it. So we were there eating it, when we heard banging on all the houses next to us. And remember these are all like sheet metal houses with sheet metal fences. So we went in and closed all the doors (and these doors are just sheet metal that swings over an opening). So yeah. So then we turned off all lights but one, and heard a lot of shouting and a whole lot of stuff like that. And then the mother of the person went out and saw someone with like his arms flayed and bloody, and he was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. And when we left and walked to our apartment there were roughly like 50 police out everywhere driving in the streets, on motorcycles with shotguns stuff like that.

But hey Reparto Shick is the most dangerous area in the mission! But it's all good. 

And today so we had to take the bus back from the stake center, but it was packed with people, so for part of the ride I only had half a foot in the bus, and one hand, and the rest of me was hanging outside the bus hoping for dear life I wouldn't fall out. It was crazy!

- Elder Vogt

With My Zone

At the Wedding

January 9th - 16th

Monday: So we had P day, so we went and played capture the flag at the stake center, had lunch together, and, then went shopping since the power was out everywhere. We changed our lunch appointment because stuff happened, but whatever. By the time you all read this I might be in a different area. you will know by the end of this message!

Tuesday: So I'll start by saying tat I like tis macine. But te ting is te letter after g broke (the H key!), and many keys are sticking. So I don't know ow muc longer I'll be able to use tis. But o well. For now we will see ow I can make tis work. I guess If I really want to use the h key I need to press it with my pen. It works more or less, but is super slower. Maybe I'll be able to find a keyboard with a good key and be able to use it. But after a few days of writing with out the h key, it takes a whole lot longer to type these. Also  the arrow keys are busting. The machine is good and I like it, but I don't think it was meant for the wear that I have to put it though a lot. A whole lot of Dirt, and I think the vast amount of dirt and dust that lands on it is the major cause of the problem., and it has to be in my backpack a lot on Mondays. Like it gets covered in dirt everyday!

Wednesday: So today we had our roof replaced. So that was interesting. Then later for lunch we ate at the house of Hermano Nicaragua and his wife. Then later we went on splits with different members. I went and taught a lot with joseph. Later in the night while we were at the house of Moises and reina a bunch of members showed up to help invite them to activities.

Thursday: So today I went with elder Najera in my area for most of the day. We had a good time, and in one of the lessons I taught more than I usually do. So that was pretty cool.

Friday: So the day started out by us having the zone leaders come over to shower. Later we went to villa flor, and afterwards went to work. So we had an activity at the church. Flip I keep needing to use different words because I am missing a key. But ya. We got a baptism tommorow. So that is exciting. Anyways till manana.

Saturday: Well we had a baptism for a nino (who is in the ward and just turned 8) but it was still pretty awesome, and we had different investigatores there to watch. So yea. Cool. ALso I found out that I will be in Reparto Shick for anoter cambio (transfer). So I will enjoy that. I also know who my new comp is. So yea cool. Anyways just gotta enjoy the time I have left with my comp Elder Alfaro.

Random words by Elder Vogt This week to others.

* Don't worry. I'm not gonna kill you.

* Oh you said use a knife, not a snake!

* Well we didn't have a rubber duckie, so I used the next best thing. (I used ballons to make the zone leader's showers more enjoyable)

 

My New Companion:

Elder Lemus from Guatemala. He has been on his Mission for 20 months and he is the new District Leader. He doesn't speak English but my Spanish is good enough now for us to conversate so I'm not too worried about it.

 

And as for today (Monday, Jan 16th), story time. So a similar thing happened that happened this transfer as my last one. They at first said - hey your new comp is at Israel, then later Laaonda or something like that. Then after they said he was at Oriental. And he wasn't at any of those three! So we took like 5 hours trying to find my companion before he found missionaries and went to their church with them and that's where we met up. But hey, we found him and I've got my new companion right now. 

ps: I'm glad that I'm staying in Managua... I wanted one more transfer here! And also, Elder Price (who was my roommate in the MTC) is now in my District, so I should see him quite a lot. 

 

- Elder Vogt

January 2nd - 8th

Monday: So today we started off playing kickball at the stake center with the other missionaries. And then went back to write our families. And then afterwards went and ate dinner. 

Tuesday: SO today I went on splits and went to rene polanca again with Elder Menezes. Went and visited his people, then went back and had fruit and slept!

Wednesday: We had divisions again, but today I went with the Zone leader to  my area, so I had the white zone leader Elder Martel, we went and worked hard and taught the gospel. So that was good. And we had the elders from Rene Polanco over also. We had some fun with mineral ice. 

Thursday: I am back with my companion. I only got 3 hours of sleep, because I only had a quarter of a bed, no blanket, and a roughly textured wall to sleep with. So right now I am super tired, so night everyone. Worked hard. 

Friday: So we started out the day with a dristrict activity. We are going to various areas from other missionaries in our district and contacting for 2 hours to help them out with numbers, and each day we will go to a new one (just one time for each though) so that was cool. Then later in the day I felt super tired and went to bed at bed time with a migrain. But hey it's better now in the morning that I am writing this.

Saturday: So we had a surprise zone meeting, and interviews with our zone leaders, but it went well. We got back and went to work and all that. One of our investigators with a date, her dad said no. So yeah, that one fell through. But oh well. We worked, and I am tired like usual. So night everyone. 

Sunday: So the day started out like most sundays do. People don't want to go to the church. But the last people we went to they were all ready to walk out the door when we arrived. It's a family with a son we are teaching and the wife of one of their othe sons, the rest are members, but it lifted our spirits that they were ready and willing to go. Afterwards t was back to normal. Teaching, visiting, and talking with a monton of persons. 

Different things that happened:

So Wednesday while walking on our street with Elder Martel, we looked and saw a big group of people. And hey look police! So like good missionaries we walked past. And hey a group of like 8 to 10 people were laying in a row on the ground all handcufed. So yeah nice and awesome. First time I saw something like that but I guess that's why they say Reparto Shick is the most dangerous area here. 

So at the cyber place that we go to usually, has this one guy who owns it. (well it's run in part of his house) So whenever going there I look at his computer and it's pretty awesome. Though while on splits with Elder Menezes, he needed to print off some photos, so we went there, and we were talking with him while the photos printed, and he is a pretty awesome guy. And it's pretty cool how he likes a lot of the same stuff. Like for example one time we went, I was like hey I know those sounds. And he was playing a game that my brother and I love playing together that like nobody knows of - Empire Earth. But yeah, he has like a 2000 dollar computer, and he said that it's great getting his friends over at the place to all do a lan party like I would with my friends.

- Elder Vogt

 

A letter from Elder Alfaro

We received a very unexpected email from Elder Vogt's companion/trainer, Elder Alfaro. It really touched our hearts that he would take the time to write and share his testimony with us. 

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hola familia vogt my name is elder alfaro i dont speak english but i want to learn to speak english    

elder vogt is a great missionary and a geat example for me. he has a great love for the work....

i want to share my testimony in english i love the gospel of jesus christ because the chenge my life i know that jesus christ lives and he loves us. i know this is the true church. i know without a doubt  that joseph smith was a prophet called of god and that the book of mormon is another testiment of jesus christ i know if we are obedient and endure to the end the lord will bless us with eternal life 

i dont know any more english haha

in the name of jesus christ amen.

ustedes tienen una familia muy hermoza gracias por apoyar a elder vogt al servir una mision sabes que esta obra es para valientes y su hijo es uno de ellos la mision es una experiencia unica e inolvidable se y no tengo la menor duda que estos dos years pasaran super rapido and the lord les bendecir grandemente oren por nosotros y por cada misionero del mundo para poder encontrar los escogidos de nuestro salvador jesucristo luchen siempre por ser una familia unida y feliz para que el espiritu siempre este con ustedes 

)lo siento por escribir en spanish pero no se mucho ingles=

elder vogt es tuani  el me ayuda con mi ingles 

happy new year con amor elder alfaro from el salvador centro america 

 

 

(using Google Translate we got this from the 2nd half of his letter that was written in Spanish...)

"You have a very beautiful family. thanks for supporting elder vogt when serving a mission you know that this work is for brave and your son is one of them the mission is a unique and unforgettable experience and I have no doubt that these two years will pass Super fast and the lord bless you. greatly pray for us and for every missionary in the world to find the chosen ones of our savior jesus christ. always fight to be a family united and happy so that the spirit is always with you. Sorry for writing in spanish but I do not know much English.

Elder vogt is tuani he helps me with my english

Happy new year with love elder alfaro from el salvador centro america"

HAPPY NEW YEAR - Ringing in 2017

Monday: More or less after I wrote you all. Well since I don't include my Mondays in these emails the day you recieve them. More or less how it went is in the morning we went shopping for our secret santa people, and I was about to buy this pistol knife. It looks like a pistol, but when you press a button the knife flips out. Though it was 550 cords and I didn't want to fork over that much. Though if you pulled the trigger and the knife went out I would have totally payed that much! Then after lunch I wrote all of you. Then in the evening we had our zone activity, A Christmas zone party, so we had dinner, Played some games, and did the secret santa gift exchange. With the games I was playing domino's. And me and my partner won like 9 games in a row, we had 178 out of 200 points. Then the other two people got the 200 points in 4 rounds. Then the dinner was nice, it was cool to just chill with people that I'm familiar with. And then the gift exchange. I got a hammock, and a cool shirt. I got 2 gifts because the person who had my name I let him borrow my belt, and he said Hey how much for this. I said more or less, how much are you offering, and he said I'll get you 2 gifts for the gift exchange. So yeah pretty sweet. 

Tuesday: So we had our normal District meeting this morning, though we missed 2 buses on our way to get there, so we arrived like 30 minutes later than we would have otherwise. Then afterwards we had lunch, then went on working. We contacted a lot more today than we usually do. Not as much as with Elder Lopez, but still a good amount. So that was nice. And tomorrow we have a plan to do splits with members to get a bit more done. I want to, but then again I'm like Hey I don't know how to talk with someone!!! So yeah, but hey I know where everything is, so if they can do some of the talking, I should be able to handle myself.

Wednesday: So today we were having a Zone fast for the ability to put down more people on date for baptism. Though I am probably one of the few to actually fast. I know that at least I am the only one of the 4 elders in my district. So yeah. I don't have much energy right now. But oh well, it's for the better good. We went on splits, and it all worked out nicely. 

Thursday: So today started off good. Elder Alfaro had an appointment with the dentist (our second counselor in the bishopric) and after that we bought some food for tonight. Lunch, then we worked hard and played hard. Well by played hard, we cooked food at the house of Rondaldo, and had a good time. We did that with the Elders from Rene Polanco too.

Friday: So today we had a Christmas dinner thing at the church, so in the day we went on splits and invited, and reminded people about it. So I went to Villa Cuba and 30 de mayo (like a 35 minute walk one way...) and then we had the activity. It was great. Later in the night is when my Gordo arrived. Elder Lopez is here for the new years. Pidul pawned off his phone to help pay for his bus ride here. But hey my papa is back from the dead!!!!

Saturday: New years eve Baby! Shout-out to my older brother August, Happy Birthday guy love ya. 

Okay now that that's been said. So the holiday here is celebrated by tons of partying, and food, and lots and lots of fireworks! Too bad Missionaries can't use fireworks. I want them! So we went around visiting lots of different families around here, though mainly in Reparto Shick, because we didn't want to do too much walking. Later in the night we had dinner with Pidul, and just chilled for a bit while his daughter and the son of their neighbor were playing with sparklers. There was music all over the place, and was fun. Too bad we had to leave for our house at 9:30. Though in the night there was tons and tons of fireworks. I thought we used a lot on 4th of July in the states, but here explosions everywhere! We have more of the nice expensive mortars in the states, not many of those here, but just plenty of ones that go Pop!

Sunday: Wow it's 2017 already. That's crazy! So we had church at 10 today since the time change, so that was cool, we didn't have to get up at 5.30am like we did last year. Then since he had permission Elder Alfaro called his family today instead of Christmas. So we did that in the afternoon. Though we were really tired since the night before a couple of the members and Lopez came at close to 1 am after all the fireworks, and wished us a happy new year.

A little bit extra for the fellas.

1. So for the gift exchange we were supposed to give a nice gift, and a trashy one. I literally gave trash. But memories. The cans of bug spray Elder Lund and I used for fire! But our lunch person, his parrot died 3 days ago. And we buried it in his house, (yeah in his house. They have some dirt floor) So I was thinking to jokingly dig it up and give that as my gift, but I decided against it. It would have been the best gift though.

2. I have failed to buy rope for my hammock...I need rope!

3. Oh also right now on Friday night, we have the Zone leaders at our house looking through all of our stuff. So yeah. I mean it's supposedly to see if we have anything against the rules, but in actuality their power was cut at their house, and we have an extra bed, so they were messing with us too. They did take some stuff though (some gum and chapstick).

4. So for New Year's Eve, the people here do one tradition that is a bit strange. They all have scarecrow like bodies that they hang up in trees on on wires. It's a bit unsettling to see just rows and rows of bodies hanging from trees in front of the houses. Especially in the night with not much light. Though they are like pinatas, and they symbolize the old year being no more, and when you break it down the good sweets of the new year. Or so I understand.

- Elder Vogt