My Back Is Like A Really Bad Squiggly Line ~

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! President Holley thought it was a good idea to move all of our p-days to Thursday and have us do service this morning so a lot has happened!

So this week and a half we have spent most of our nights finding, and so many miracles have happened! As we pray before we leave, we make sure that we are putting our complete faith and confidence in our plans and his power to help us find who needs to hear our message of hope. The more that we have been doing this, he truly does see our efforts and the reward has been great. 

We knocked an unanswered door and then this dog named Toby runs up to us. We start talking to him in Spanish and he is interested in hearing from the missionaries again! I forget his name but I do remember his dog. It takes me a bit to remember our friends names, I think that's why I can relate to Dory a lot. 

I am so extremely blessed that Hermana Dababneh is my companion. She is kind of a famous person in her last area in Tremonton, she completely turned it around into a thriving area. She's called "District leader Dababneh" and I can see why. When she got here, we were able to make plans and goals to get the stake to update their maps so that we can find new people to teach!

On Sunday we went to this Stake meeting, and they are talking about the work and he kept constantly saying "and the sisters are doing amazing" like we are our own Stake and we don't need their help.... so then after not being able to say a word in this meeting, he was about to close and then we spoke out and asked to say something. So we went up and spoke our minds and said "Hey, we actually not doing OK. There have been 7 Baptisms this year, and none have come from your stake. We need you to update your maps so that we can not wander aimlessly trying to guess if a house has Latino people or not. It was nicer than that, but after that message you can see everybody else like "oh wow we do need to help". 

Well after 1.5 months after the beginning of my back injury, they have finally sent me to see physical therapy. I can finally get completely better once and for all! I wasn't able to walk at all on Monday and it was frustrating. I have tons of mixed emotions, but there is nothing so humbling, faith testing, and time to grow God's gift of patience than being injured on a mission... in a walking area. Anyways, to give some explanation for what's going on, I guess my pelvis was twisted wrong so one leg was almost an inch longer than the other, making my spine twist and curve to try to adjust. So I've been having a lot of pain because of it but I've been given a lot of exercises and I should get to normal in the next 6 weeks!!

Actually funny story, so my companion had a really bad knee injury 3 months ago and she was on our mission prayer list for a while, and she is still recovering from it. So we get a lot of jokes about how they send the 2 cripples to J2... the only completely walking area in the mission for Spanish. But we have been doing fine and it's been so much fun!

I really felt like there has been a reason why I needed to stay here (i've been in the same area for my whole mission still), and I got to see the reason why this week. I got to see Agustín's Baptism! It was so funny. He changed into his baptism clothes and got into the water before the program started! He was so ready. Another reason why is because back in August, there was a part Member family and the Mother, Veronica, had a 12 year old son named Fenix who wanted so badly for his parents to take him to church. Well, they moved to Logan and didn't tell us their address so they dissapeared from the map, and it was heartbreaking. For the past 2 months, I kept walking past that house and thinking "there is no way that they left, their stuff is still on the front porch" so lo and behold, we decide to knock it, and they were there! They came back 2 months ago!! I get to see Fenix again! I am so excited to teach them!

Next week I hit six months! What?? So many amazing changes have happened and I can't even begin to explain how grateful I am to serve the lord and his people. 

I don't want to make this email too long so I'll keep some good stories for my next e-mail in 3 days. Thanks for keeping an eye out for me. Also if you guys have Christmas cards would you send me one? This is my address:

Hermana Vestel

4380 South Orchard Ave

Ogden UT 84406

Thank you for listening! My invitation to you guys is to read "The Teachings of Joseph Smith". It is such a mind blowing read

(P.S. would you pray for my mom for health? Thanks!)