Vestel, Lauren P

DOC I was talking to a friend on Monday and he kept using the word "The Gospel" a lot and in my head I still hadn't figured out how the gospel applies into my life. I had been teaching it, and I know that I use the steps, but I didn't know what the effects of using the Gospel looks like in my life. But then I realized that if programs fail, if life is falling apart, the Gospel is the one true for us to return to our Heavenly Father and Beco9me like him. And THEN, I read something aomewhere that the Holy Ghost is the messenger of Grace! And that's why we srrive to hear it and follow it. You would think that would be an easy thing to recognize but it's alright, it finally *clicks* in my head now.  They had sent out a message on Tuesday saying that I was going to give my departing testimony the next day and I was a bit shocked that they would have me go so early in the transfer. Since I started my mission, I had watched all of the old missionaries baar their test...

Hola Hola! Como ha estado??  We had a crazy baptism for Fernando. We had taught him pretty much everything to get him ready for his interview, and he passed with Flying Colors. His Fellowship and my companion were doubting that he was ready and in my prayers I hoped that they could see that he was ready. Eventually they saw and knew that he was ready. PHEW! Thank goodness that our mission meetings didn't start until next week because it wouldn't have been possible to baptize him without that miracle.  As we were trying to fill the font, the plug was leaking... 1 hour before the baptism. So we got a plastic trash bag and filled a trashcan of  rocks from the front of the Church and all of us started running with buckets, hoses and pitchers to fill up the font on time. It's one of my mose memorable baptisms so far.  We went to a Quinceñera for our friend Tiffany that we are teaching and it was a cool experience. No, we were not silently singing the lyrics to all of the ...

Transfer News: I'm Staying! And now I'm organizing a lot of things so that I can get ready to put all of my stuff in Suitcases. 5 weeks left!  Also Shoutout to my sister she is going to Mongolia speaking Mongolian for her mission! I am so proud of her!  I said Goodbye to Hermana Groves. I didn't cry because I know that I will see her again. #Missiontrip2024  We went to a sign language class because we found some latinos there. It was really fun! We also saw a cool solar eclipse  We got a message from our friends the Lopez and what happened was they told this that "Hey, my focus is finding an apartment right now. And I've been waiting for you this whole time. But I can't keep waiting anymore. And I just want to be with my family right now. I can't have you come over. Please don't contact us anymore." And so it was really heartbreaking because I wanted to help them progress. But they just didn't want to anymore. And it sucks because they had a ba...

So basically we got flamed in our interviews again *cough*. He asked me if seeing my sister was planned. I said no she ran and found me. He told me that too many missionaries have been using Conference as a "rendezvous point" and he said that if it keeps happening he is not going to allow missionaries to go to conference anymore. The interaction gave me a lot of Godly sorrow for the fact that future missionaries may not get that chance to go to conference because I saw my sister. Why do I tell you this? Because of this Scripture: Mormon 9:31 - "Condemn me not because of mine imperfection, neither my father, because of his imperfection, neither them who have written before him; but rather give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been." So, #Obedienceiscool #bewiserthanIwas  Anyways, we got some crazy news on Thursday that our friends who are on Date (Gerald and his Family) recieved a 3 ...

"It's been the best of times, and it's been the best of times" - me because it's been a good week  I think for the past two weeks I've been telling my companion "man, I just don't understand why I am not satisfied with my work" but the Lord has been giving me a lot of inspiration this week on how to change my thoughts about it. Here is what I found:  > It's not that I am not satisfied, it's that sometimes I lack the patience and negate all of the seeds planted. Because I have been satisfied with my work from time to time.  > Being Present means that you will be present for the good and the bad things. Both are needed. It's been one of my goals to be more present in life and seeing it that way makes me feel a lot more excited that I have been seeing more personal growth.  > This one is simple but is just profound to me: Missionary work involves love and just trying to do what the Savior did. If I can define my success based on...