Our Family in the Month of JUNE...
* August and McKendra (Dinkle) flew out from Nebraska to spend a week with us! It was our first time meeting McKendra and we were really impressed with her and loved her immediately! We did lots of fun things while they were here like:
* Went swimming at Lucky Peak
* Went camping up at Last Chance Campground oustide of McCall, Idaho
* Lots of trips to Sonic to take advantage of their 1/2 price slushes and/or shakes
* Trip to the local park
* A family dinner out at the Farm with all of the Vogt family
* Shopping (McKendra needed a new swimming suit)
* a fun visit to the church's Deseret Bookstore
* A double date to El Tenampa (Mexican Restaurant)
* They made a quick trip down to Utah and back to see some of McKendra's family
* Time visiting with each other while relaxing at home
* August and Mckendra GOT ENGAGED!!! They went up to Table Rock in Boise where August asked her to be his eternal companion! We are thrilled! She will be a wonderful wife and partner for him!
* Within 48 hours of being engaged, they decided to read/study each others Patriarchal Blessings where it was made clear that the Lord wanted/needed August to serve a Mission first to prepare him for the roles of Husband and Father. With McKendra's encouragement they have decided to both serve Missions before getting sealed in the Temple! We are even more thrilled for this plan for the two of them!! Putting the Lord first will help them out immensely as they navigate life and marriage together!
* Ben started daily football practice. He goes to the local high school from 8-10am each morning
* Ben also enrolled and completed Drivers Ed this month! He is now officially a driver with a Learner's Permit! he has to drive with an adult in the front seat for the next 6 months (and at least 60 hours) before being eligible for his Driver's License
* Mom was invited to be another substitute at Bunco this month - fun times!
* Mom also had a few nights out with Stephanie
* Dad worked hard at Xylem and is still getting things figured out there! Unfortunately he was very low on staff this month (usually there at the office with only one other guy and sometimes he was the only one there!) July will be more of the same but then in August they should be back to being fully staffed (with their 4 employees)
* Dad and the kids floated the Boise River with Uncle Tony in his raft
* Dad was invited to join Heidy and Tony to raft down the Main Payette - he really enjoyed that!
* The girls bought a pool with Grandma and Grandpa Vogt's birthday money and have gotten lots of use from that!
* Weekly scouts, Young Mens and Activity Days for the kids
* Mom spent several days over at her friend (Carlie McClellan's) helping her pack and move to their new place in Meridian
* The girls went and spent a couple of days with Grandma Vogt out at the farm. Of course she spoiled them rotten and they loved every minute of it!
* Sadly for some reason, Josephina won't start - boo! We're going to have to tow her into a shop to figure out why
* We sold dad's FORD F-150 Truck!!! We feel sooooo happy about that!! We didn't get as much out of it as we were hoping for but at the end of the day, we're just glad it's gone! We sold it for $27,500 (whereas we were *hoping* for $28K - $29K) which left us with $4,500 to pay it off. We used the Xylem moving bonus to cover that negative equity.
* Ben worked some more for Grandpa (along with dad). They planted 150 trees! wowie!
* Seth's Birthday!! We had all decided that it wasn't a good idea to try and send a birthday package to Nicaragua (with all of the problems that they were having) but then when he got transferred to California, we were like "hey! we can send him a birthday package and he'll get it!!" so that's just what we did! We quickly gathered letters and cards from all of the family and threw in some treats and a (chicken themed) tie and off it went! We also had pizza delivered to him and his companions at home that evening and also got in touch with a friend of his (a fellow missionary from Nicaragua that went home) that lives in his new mission and he picked up a cake and some other treats/gifts and took him and his companion out for lunch! So, I'm thinking he felt pretty spoiled!
* Celebrated Father's Day!! After church we went out to the Farm to celebrate with Grandma and Grandpa. It was Grandpa's 71st Birthday 2 days later so we did a joint Birthday/Father's Day celebration for him :) He is a wonderful grandpa and we're so happy we're able to enjoy more time out at the farm!
Seth Spotlight...
* BIG NEWS: All of the remaining Missionaries in Nicaragua got evacuated out of the country and reassigned!! We thought he might be coming home and were awaiting details with anticipation! We saw a charge on his debit card from the Atlantic, Georgia Airport and so knew he'd gotten out of Nicaragua safely! As the day wore on and we still hadn't heard anything, Mom called the Mission Office in Provo, UT to find out where he was! Unfortunately, they couldn't tell her (they said for safety reasons as they were still trying to get all of the Missionaries out of the country without alerting authorities, etc) and that he'd contact us once he got to his reassigned area. At that point, we figured he wasn't coming home and tried to be patient until he called! Finally around 8pm, we got a call from him telling us that he was in San Diego, California and had been reassigned to the California, Carlsbad Mission!
* He got put into a Trio with Elders Morrison and Caswell and is serving in Oceanside, California in the Spanish Area/Ward there. He had major culture shock from seeing US money, carpet, air conditioning, hot showers, food other than beans and rice and wealth beyond measure! He's been really cold (especially in his apartment at night with the AC on!) and has gained 10+ pounds from all of the food! He really likes his companions and they have been instrumental in helping him transition!
* A big change (and struggle) has been the lack of work there in California. He is used to teaching multiple lessons each and every day to now only having ONE A WEEK (or possibly 2 if it's a good week!) He's felt very frustrated and discouraged and like he isn't doing any good.
* Had his first transfer there in CA. He is still in Oceanside but with a new companion -Elder Pereria. He really likes him too, so that's good!
* Celebrated his 20th Birthday. His area happened to go to the Mormon Battalion Historic Site that day and he thought that was a fun way to spend his birthday!
Spiritually Speaking...
* We've had another month of wonderful blessings and seeing the Lord's hand in our life! We've been kept safe as we've driven around on these horribly congested and traffic-ridden roads! Seriously, I'm so thankful when we're all back home at the end of each day safe and sound! Nathan has been progressing beautifully on his reading and we've been able to talk with Seth a few additional times within this last month to encourage and work through some of his frustrations and disappointments on being reassigned to California.
* Another blessing is having the Truck sell! There were no hiccups with the final sale AND it sold the day before our next $600 truck payment was due and so we didn't have to come up with that amount! This has also dropped our monthly insurance premiums and thus lowered our monthly living expenses. When we started our whole "get out of debt" journey back in November (2017) the math and calculations stated that it would take OVER SIX YEARS to get completely out of debt but I just knew in my heart that it would happen within TWO years if we worked really hard and were frugal and we have been praying for that desire to become a reality! I have seen so many financial tender mercies (with finding amazing deals on things we need to things lasting longer than they should to unexpected checks in the mail and crazy HUGE bonus checks!). We have also been exercising restraint and being content with what we have and also cutting back on the monthly budget to lower our expenses (ie: no cable TV, switched to T Mobile with not as good of coverage but much cheaper plans, cancelled Sirius radio and other monthly subscriptions and not going out to eat). Heavenly Father has blessed us beyond measure and since November 2017 we have been able to pay off $70,000.00. That's right - SEVENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS in just over 7 months! Of course a huge chunk of that was selling the truck and throwing all of the Xylem signing bonus (minus tithing and the $3K it took us to move) to our debts! We're super excited about how far we've come and are just as excited about paying off the rest!
* During my Scripture study one morning I was reading in Alma 37 about how the Lord uses Small Things to accomplish Great Works and I read an accompanying quote from our Prophet - Russell M. Nelson that really spoke to me. It said: "What are the precious , simple things of the gospel that bring clarity and purpose into our lives? What are the gospel flecks of gold whose patient accumulation over time will reward us with the ultimate treasure - the precious gift of eternal life?.... The gospel is SIMPLE and we should strive to make our lives similarly simple."
I pondered on what those small flecks of gold in my life are/could be in my life and came up with:
- Daily reading, pondering and studying of the scriptures
- Weekly FHE
- Weekly church attendance and partaking of the Sacrament
- Fulfilling my calling
- Daily personal, couple and family prayer
- Regular Enrichments with the kids
- Diligently teaching the kids (and remembering that daily chunks of reading with Nathan WILL BRING great results!)
- Spending time with the family
- Making Family Memories
- Working on Family History
This list of things are fairly simple and small on their own, but if accumulated (over my lifetime) can assist me in accomplishing a great work and rewarding me with the "Ultimate Treasure" as President Nelson calls it!
* Dear Old Dad here -
It's amazing how with persistence, faith, and patience - The Lord works miracles. One huge miracle is how much August's life has changed in the last four months. He has gone from dating a non-member girl for five years who wanted nothing to do with the Church, didn't support him going on a mission to being engaged to a righteous, worthy daughter of our Heavenly Father with plans to serve a mission before they are sealed for time and all eternity in the House of the Lord.
When August made the decision to move to Nebraska to live with Joey and Pam, we really felt like there might be amazing things in store for him. I began to fast and pray that he would meet a beautiful, righteous girl who would aggressively pursue him because I knew that was what it would take to pry him out of the hands of Cami. I prayed for this for nearly a year.
Enter McKendra Dinkel who stole his heart and has been a wonderful girlfriend to him. We are so grateful and for the change she has brought to his life.
A big part of August's patriarchal blessing discusses his mission. A mission that up until now, has seemed like it would go unfulfilled. This has saddened us because we have seen that there are so many blessings that Heavenly Father has in store for August and that so many of them are predicated upon his willingness to serve a mission and sacrifice two years of his life to serve the Lord and his brothers and sisters in the mission field. We knew that August could still be happy without serving a mission but we knew there was so much more for out there for him if he did. Every time I have laid my hands upon his head to give him a blessing - whether it was a baby blessing, a Father's blessing, or an ordination to an office in the Priesthood - I have had the direct impression from Heavenly Father that big things had been planned for August since the pre-existence that The Lord had planned on August being a leader in His Church. I don't know exactly what that entails but ,my patriarchal blessing has stated that there would be those among my children who would hold positions of high honor in the Church.
August and McKendra flew out on June 5th, were engaged on June 7th, and had decided to both serve missions on June 9th. Our heads are just spinning with how much things have changed for our beloved son in just a few short months. I know that the Lord has a plan for each one of us. If we will remain true and faithful and will follow His plan, miracles will happen.
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