No comfort in growth and no growth in comfort!

 

Hey everyone!! Excited to share my updates from the week! It's been a good one.

First off I LEAVE for California on Friday! Departing the MTC at 4:30am. So that'll be a little brutal haha but at least my flight's only an hour.

The MTC was an unforgettable experience. The longest and shortest month of my life. I'm really going to miss so much about it (not the cafeteria food and lines haha). There were lots of tough moments too--I need to throw that out there because it definitely has been far from perfect and I want to be completely open with my mission's ups and downs. But when I went into a day or week reminding myself that I would never experience it again, I started loving each moment more.

Since I've started liking the MTC so much more the past few weeks, God knows it's time for some change in my life haha. Like I said in my email title, there's no comfort in growth and no growth in comfort in growth. I'm nervous to get out into the actual mission field, but if I stayed here at the MTC forever I wouldn't be growing the same way I will when I leave.

A few days ago my district took the EI, which is a language test to see where we're at. My district scored higher overall than they almost ever see. This helped me realize I shouldn't be comparing myself to everyone else in my district and just be proud of where I'm at. I was blessed to be put in a district with others who are very talented at speaking the language, and even though I felt like I struggled so much more than the them at times, I think that being in this class was a blessing that allowed me to push myself to limits I wouldn't have otherwise. Heavenly Father knew that this was the class I needed to be in.

SPIRITUAL:

This week, I've thought a lot about what it means to be intentional. If we choose to go into EVERY day with a specific intention or goal, we will see progress. If we don't push ourselves with intention each day, we won't see growth. That's why morning and evening prayers are so important. They help us hold ourselves accountable to God with our goals and desires.

Reading the scriptures with similar intention will also help us make the most of study-time. One way that I've been able to physically recognize myself and my concentration is by having highlighters by my physical copy of scriptures each time I read. As I highlight verses that stand out to me and write comments, I can visually recognize that I'm learning. I'm not saying we have to highlight all the verses we read every day, but maybe we can focus on something specific as we study. I was struggling to focus on reading my scriptures in Spanish, and one thing that helped me read with more intention was to highlight Christ's name in red each time I saw it. This helped my mind focus and understand. So try it! I dare you! Highlight Christ's name in red as you read. Or highlight another word/phrase that stands out to you! Have INTENTION!

FUN FACTS:

-Hot sauce drowns out all the other flavors of the cafeteria food so that's been a good technique for me. Shoutout to Sister Boyd who had her mom send me my own personal bottle haha :)

-I guess I should have realized this but I'll be teaching real life lessons with my trainer the day I get to California! I'm scared to jump straight into it but walking through fire's probably the best way to learn

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

-"I am the one thing in life I can control."

Love you all so much!

-Hermana DeMordaunt

PICTURES:

-Picture with one of our teachers, Sister Startup!

-Comp picture :)

-Temple!!

-Volleyball!

-Sister Driggs (when we were younger we dressed up as missionaries together on Halloween and now we're HERE!)

-Sister Judd and I bought some cool shirts from the mtc store haha

-District pic from last week! (with the name tag cookies Sister Judd's mom made for us)

-Sister Boyd and hot sauce!

I've Been a Missionary for Over A Month!!! September 13, 2023

Hey everyone! This last week was absolutely amazing! This email's a little longer but I wish I could've written about even more!

The Spirit has been so strong here at the MTC. I love everything I'm learning each day about HOW I personally feel the Holy Ghost. It's kind of funny because I'm here a lot longer than the English-speaking missionaries for language learning, so I've seen friends come in and leave the MTC all during the time that I've been here.

I think we're all here for the amount of time we need to be, but honestly I feel like I've gotten so close to my district and everything is scheduled in so perfectly here for the sake of learning, I don't want to leave next week! The real mission field is starting to feel a lot closer and I'm a little nervous to take on the responsibility of teaching something so important in a brand new language... but I know that that's why I'm here! I have been spiritually fed this last month so that I can spiritually feed others!

This week we had some amazing devotionals! My favorite was by Jenny Oaks Baker and her family. They played music and then shared some amazing stories.

The Elders in my district made a rap for the Sisters so we made one back and that was super fun! We're also still loving our volleyball time, so nothing new there!

Spanish is going pretty well! Usually for our practice lessons, I just memorize my lines because I'm nervous I won't be able to explain everything in Spanish if I don't. This last week, we had a practice lesson with an MTC actor who asked a question that didn't go with my script, but as I responded, I felt the Spirit guide me with what to say. That was the first time that I really felt the Holy Ghost testify to me that the gift of tongues is real! I hope that as I am faithful I can experience it throughout my mission.

Last night, our branch president met with my district to talk to us about our missionary goals. He chastened the Elders a little bit and talked about the importance of staying focused, but after, he shared one of the most powerful testimonies I've ever heard. Then, he walked around the room and looked each one of us in the eyes and gave us a special individual blessing, telling each of us why Heavenly Father loved us. The Spirit was so strong in that room and I felt such a deep love for every member of my district. It was an experience I'll never forget. There were not many dry eyes when we left the room that night.

I know I've been talking a lot about how amazing the MTC has been, but I think it's also important to explain that not everything has been perfect either! One thing that I struggled with this week was missing home and other stages of my life. The Provo MTC is right next to BYU and I miss college life, especially when I see the activities at BYU out the window and can see the stadium on football game days! I think it was a little tender mercy that my regular classroom window faces MTC campus and isn't on the other side facing BYU, just because the less I look out the window the more I can focus on why I'm here and stop missing college so much! I know that it will be there when I get back and I could not be using my time any better! I've felt that confirmation over and over again. Each time I start feeling sad, an amazing class lesson or devotional comes up just in time and brings the Spirit back to testify to me that I'm here for a reason!

QUOTES:

"Just the ACT of raising your hand to participate invites the Spirit to teach you."

"There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live."

I love you all!

-Hermana DeMordaunt

PICTURES:

-My district with some of our branch leaders, the Sorensens!

-Hermana Judd's mom sent us all homemade sugar cookies decorated as our missionary name tags!

-Comps and our cute Sister Training Leaders!

-Companion selfie :)

-Sugar cookie name tags closer up

-Volleyball morning with the district!!

-Study time in the grass

-Bday party for two of the Elders in our district! The L stands for Branch 28-L haha

Let's Talk About Pizza- week 3 MTC!

 Hey everyone! I'm officially more than halfway through my MTC experience! Thinking about leaving is happy and sad because I'm going to miss everyone and all the learning here SO MUCH but I'm also super excited to go out and serve!

Elder Gary E. Stevenson spoke at our devotional yesterday so that was amazing! The Spirit was so strong when he entered the room! A few things I really liked that he said:

-Never underestimate how much music can bring the Spirit as we testify the gospel.

-By the time we leave our missions, we want worn out shoes and worn out scriptures. (It's important to work hard and be ALL IN!)

Our district started full immersion this Monday, so now we not only just speak Spanish in class, but all the time with our companions. We aren't perfect at it yet because sometimes it's hard to remember to only speak in Spanish, especially when the amount of things I can communicate is a lot more limited, but we're getting there and I'm really hoping to see more language progress over this next week!

My district has started waking up a few days a week for EARLY morning sand volleyball so the wake-up's been rough but it's definitely worth it.

My companions and I started doing some study-time in a room with a piano and it feels so good to play a little! I have a book of hymn arrangements and it's really helped me connect to the Lord through music lately!

SPIRITUAL:

This one's long so bear with me! This week in our Sunday devotional, President Calderwood (the MTC President) talked about how if we have one bite of a good pizza, we already know the rest is good without having to eat it all.

And I know it sounds so obvious, but it's actually a super good analogy for both missionary work and life.

First off, it's a good reminder for me that those I am teaching may not always need to follow the exact plans I have for them in order to gain a testimony that the church is true. I can invite them to read specific scripture passages or go to specific activities but they may not accept my challenges perfectly every time. A person I'm teaching does not necessarily need to read the entire Book of Mormon before gaining a testimony that it is true. They may not need a complicated lesson.. sometimes a few simple truths can bring them the Spirit before they understand everything else about the gospel. A person's entire testimony grows through personal revelation, and I just start that work by teaching small pieces at a time about the restored gospel.

The pizza analogy is not just for missionary work, it's true for all of us. We don't have to eat the whole pizza right now to know it's good. We may not understand everything about this gospel perfectly. We may have questions about why Heavenly Father has allowed certain things to happen or feel stronger in some areas than others, and that is OKAY! We don't have to have a perfect knowledge of everything right now. We can trust in the spirit we've felt about the Book of Mormon, the Atonement, or whatever we feel connected to right now.. and let that faith carry us when we have doubts or don't understand it all. Someday I know we will have a perfect knowledge of it all, but for now, we can trust that if one part is good, it all is!

I challenge you all to pray for strength in one important aspect of the gospel so that you can build your faith in the gospel as a whole!

FUNNY:

One of the Elders in our district had to go out of state to get his visa for his mission, but his comp thought it would be funny to tell us all that he left the mission in the middle of the night without giving a reason and wasn't coming back. We were all so shocked and then when he came back the next morning there was a lot of relief haha

QUOTES OF THE WEEK:

-"Don't climb the mountain for the world to see you, climb the mountain to see the world."

-"Focus more on the habits you want to gain, and that will help you focus less on the habits you want to lose."

-"The true gift of tongues is made manifest in the church more abundantly, perhaps, than any other spiritual gift. Every missionary who goes forth to teach the gospel in a foreign language if he or she is prayerful and faithful receives this gift” 

 (President Joseph Fielding Smith)

Love you all lots!

Hermana DeMordaunt

PICTURES:

-My district and our teacher, Brother Spackman! He just left last week so that was our last photo with him :'(

-BeReal with a pre-mtc trainer

-We wrote little notes to everyone in our district and put them on their desks :)

-temple!

-just for fun selfie in the mtc dorms!

-companion picture!

-We got VIP reserved seats for the Sunday devotional because Sister Judd was saying the prayer