Vestel, Abigail T

Hello friends and family, Welcome to Sister Vestel's last email. New things: I am now in Darkhan serving with Sister Bean on a week-long exchange. I am not going to go into details about what happened. Just know I'm here and I'm proud to be here. I absolutely adore Sister Bean, and am loving our last few days serving and meeting with members. I am really sunburnt. I got a lot of sun this past Saturday, so I am treating my burns with lotion. Yayyyyyy! Last email thoughts: I love all of you so much! And I love my mission so much. I am so happy that I was called to be here. My mission has definitely been a hard one. That's the truth. But I have made amazing friends that have supported me through my trials. I feel as though God has prepared the path that I need in order to be His messenger is not one that I would have made for myself. But I needed to grow. I needed to be uncomfortable. I am excited to start my life after the mission, and hope that I will be able to look bac...

Hello Everyone! This is my second to last email and I feel so weird about it. I don't think it really set in until now that I'm going to be leaving this beautiful place. I have made a ton of friends that I'm sad to leave, not to mention the amount of places I want to see. However, with 10 days left, I am starting to pack up my suitcase and am looking forward to seeing my family again. This past week, as the title suggests, was Nadam. The more dedicated of my readers might remember my second and third transfers last year when I talked about Nadam.  This celebration is basically all of Mongolian tradition, sports, and four in a two week period, with two days being the most concentrated for celebrations. For missionaries, these two weeks can be daunting because we don't have any member meetings or teaching lessons with investigators. However, our Mission President really encouraged us to enjoy Nadam! So we got to see so many awesome things at our local sports center. We sa...

Hello Everyone, this week we had zone conference, so I thought the title was appropriate. We left for Darkhan on Sunday and had our interviews with our Mission president Sunday night! It was so awesome. Definitely my best president interview yet! We stayed over with our STLs and then had Zone conference the next day. This was my last zone conference, so I was able to bear my testimony in front of everyone in my zone. I wish I could have spoken more completely or more eloquently, but I think my message came through clear enough. I was also so lucky to hear from three of the other sisters who are leaving with me. After zone conference, we drove to Erdenet and crashed with the sisters there, and on Tuesday we finally made it home. Today is the start of the summer festival here in Murun and all over Mongolia! Everyone gets dressed up in their traditional clothes, goes to events such as horseracing and archery, and we are lucky enough to join the crowds. That's all for now, I love you a...

Jacob 3:1 "But behold, I, Jacob, would speak unto you that are pure in heart. Look unto God with firmness of mind, and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead your cause, and send down justice upon those who seek your destruction." It's been a hard week. The work for my companion and I was slower this week. A lot of people are on vacation, and so we have not had a lot of meetings. However, we have had some fun. On Monday, our ward had an activity. Sister Horne and I thought we would not be able to go since we had an English class; however, after some peer pressure from our Branch President, we posted a sticky note on the door of our church saying English class was canceled. We went with the ward, and we made a fire pit and cooked Kharkhug (I have no idea how to spell it, sorry ). It was awesome! Kharkhug is like a beef stew with potatoes and carrots! This stew also has large rocks in it. These rocks help the stew ...