Vestel, Lauren P

Hola Mi Amigas! This has been such a great week and also a hard week at the MTC! I wanna start with the hard experience first before getting to reveal the miracles that happened the rest of the week. Hermano Larson is not going to be our teacher next week because he hit his 3 year mark of teaching. I knew we were his last district but I got really upset because he has been such a great teacher and example in my life. He just knew us individually and no matter how many times I have moved away and left people behind, it still feels the same when you lose someone you look up to or care about. I had to take my pain to the lord and pray that there is a reason for this happening and I hope to eventually lead by his example to those that I will teach in the field. Starting with miracles, The MTC had a very special week where 168 new mission presidents(including the wives... I think that's the right number) I came to the MTC and got taught by the quorum of the 12 apostles before they go to...

Hello everyone! I can't believe i've been in the MTC for a week now! I wish I could say my transition to the Utah weather was fantastic, however unfortunately I started the MTC sick. I am still sick, but i've got faith that things will get better for me but i'm trying my best to be a productive missionary in the meantime.  I got to meet a guest that was from Nigeria on my first few days in and I absolutely loved her and meeting her just reminded me how humble and amazing the people in Nigeria were when I lived there. I also met some french sisters and as I tried to speak french to them half of the words came out in spanish! I guess that shows me how amazing the gift of tongues is and that this language is actually sticking in my brain now! I had an interesting gospel thought playing basketball with part of the district... I was thinking about how I took a million shots before I actually made a basket. I thought it was very relatable to missionary work because you will g...

Buenas Dias My Friends! I am packing to head to the Provo MTC! I didn't realize how challenging it is to pack a year and a half of your life into 2 suitcases. Luckily since I have moved about 13 times packing is a bit easier as a child of military parents!  Saturday was our first class in Spanish and we got an amazing surprise from our MTC teacher Hermano Larsen. If I were to have a favorite teacher throughout this whole MTC experience it would be him because of all of the great things he does for our class. He came in with a nacho libre halloween mask on his face and at the end of that class we were all Luchadores in Espanol! It was so great and I can't wait to see the activities we do in person!   I don't have much time to write everything about this past week but I wanted to leave you off with a small testimony in Spanish. Yo testifico que el Libro del Mormon es verdadero, yo se que Jesucristo es mi hermano, Yo sé que José Smith es el profeta de la Restauraldo en los Últ...

Good Afternoon everyone! Another week in the Online MTC, studying the gospel and how to teach others how to Come to Christ in my parent's closet in the basement. It's great though! Saturday will be the first day that all of my MTC classes will be in Spanish, and even though I am nervous for the transition I feel like any extra time I have for the transition will not prepare me any more than where I am at in my studies right now.  Because I have been studying so many things of the gospel right now a lot of the things I once believed in have changed for me! One of those things being how God's grace really works. I always thought that by following God's commandments and striving to be a good person was to partly repay the debt Christ paid with his sacrifice. However, after watching this BYU talk called "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox, I realized that what I believed wasn't exactly true. Jesus Christ paid all of the difference, and all that he asks in...

Hola Everyone! Thank you for being here to hear about my mission! It has been a great transition being set apart as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  I thought I would share with you why I decided to leave college and share the gospel for 18 months. I was baptized when I was 8, and I knew by the age of 12 that I wanted to be a missionary. life got busier when I got into high school, but I made sure to go on splits with the sister missionaries. On one of these appointments, I was able to witness the sister missionaries ask an investigator if he wanted to be baptized, and he accepted. That was such an amazing moment in my life and sealed my decision to serve a mission, because I got to see how his decision that he made gave him joy for the rest of his life. I want to give others the joy that I have from being in this gospel of Jesus Christ and I want others to have the light I have.  So, this is my third day in the online MTC (missionary training...