Vestel, Abigail T

Hi all! I am so glad to be able to email you this week! I really needed a break from Mongolian learning. This week marks seven out of the ten weeks here at the MTC, which means that hopefully (depending on when we get our visas) we will be headed to Mongolia in three weeks! I am really excited to get there and have more things to write about in my emails, but I am also extremely nervous. The language is hard, and I really don't feel ready. On top of all those emotions, my district just found out that there is a really helpful grammar book on our Google Drives that the teachers forgot to mention. So for the last seven weeks, we have been trying to get the grammar structure of Mongolia down on our own. Yay (with sarcasm). Anyways, here is a short recap of this week. The next/new Mongolian district arrived on Wednesday, and we have been getting to know them. They have ten Elders and three sisters. Those poor sisters... Anyways, we all got to introduce ourselves to the younger district...

Hi all! My week has gone by at the speed of light! On Sunday, instead of our regular Relief Society class, half of all the women in the MTC gathered in a very large meeting room. We were very blessed to hear a devotional with all of the Relief Society presidency, the Young Women's presidency, and the Prophet (Russell M. Nelson). This was super cool because we got to hear about some of the divine nature of women, such as having an enhanced moral compass to better discern truth and error. This is really cool to see in action with my mom, my sister, and other women in my life. On Sunday night, all the missionaries came together to listen to a special music devotional and one of the most talented musicians came in. STEVEN SHARP NELSON!!!! First of all, wow, he is amazing with the cello, and second, his testimony in Jesus Christ and how his mission experiences changed him are just amazing. Classes this week were awesome, but not much happened. We are going from learning our weather and ...

Hi all! Sorry for last week's lousy title; I completely forgot to put one in! Last Saturday, the Mongolian district finally got their visas and left for Mongolia! It's funny to think that I will also be joining them in just five short weeks. Until then, I need to double down on my language learning efforts. On the bright side, we got to hear Quentin L. Cook give a really good devotional on Tuesday about the Book of Mormon and developing your testimony. This morning, we woke up to the John Cena theme song thanks to Sister Taylor. Needless to say, it gave me a heart attack. Today, we went to the City Center temple to do endowments, and we had an amazing time! The temple grounds are so beautiful, and it was really peaceful. Apparently, all the sisters in my district believe in Bigfoot and that Abel was turned into Bigfoot as a curse. I don't believe in Bigfoot, but it is interesting to hear others' views. (Cough cough, even if they are wrong.) Anyways, thank you for listen...

Hi all! This week was really amazing. On Sunday, we had a really good devotion about the different people who saw Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon. The MTC president talked about his experiences with his testimony. He asked God three times and poured his soul out in wonder of his question. Each time, God did not answer. Now, this might seem like a weird thing. How would this reinforce his testimony? However, in my experience, if God does not answer, that does NOT mean that he does not care. In fact, I think it means that he trusts you enough to make your own decisions. He gave you a brain and has given you the resources in order to progress and act in faith. If we stand around waiting for God to send an angel to talk to you, how will you recognize all the blessings and opportunities already in your life? Anyway, just some food for thought. On Monday, we got to go to the English Learning Center, and we went to the gym and played volleyball with our whole district! We even had a huge s...

Hello everyone! I had one whirlwind of a week! I can barely remember anything about this week because of how fast it went by. I am psyched to say that my Mongolian is going well! I mean, I still keep trying to speak French, but I am learning a lot about grammar and conjugation. I am happy to say that I am taking a break from language learning next week as my district gets to go onto BYU Campus and get our English Teaching Certificates at the ELC. It's going to be weird going back on campus, but it will be good to get away from three-hour lessons in just Mongolian/pictionary/charades. My district got to go to the Provo Temple on the last day it was open last Saturday. We all had such an amazing time! We also got to go to the Timpanogos Temple this week, and the decorations, paintings, and stained glass are gorgeous. One of the things I really liked about this temple is the stained glass that looks like water rushing. While my district was waiting to go into our session, we got to si...