Representatives of Jesus Christ

 Hey everyone! Hope you're all doing great! You're in my prayers and I miss you! I don't have a ton of time but here are a few updates.

This week was really good! We set up a lot of lessons with friends who we haven't been able to teach in a while so that we could guage how interested they really were. It went good and we've been able to narrow down the people we're teaching so we can focus on the people who need it right now!

Our friend Marta came to church for the first time on Sunday!! And she brought her nephew and his daughters too! It was such a miracle to see them there! Pray for her and her family!

One day, while we were having comp study in the park, there were a bunch of old cars and motorcycles being displayed and it was cool to have a front row seat to it all.

President and Hermana Rodriguez surprised our district and drove 3 hours to Paso Robles to join us for District Council on Monday. Best surprise ever

I've been feeling a little discouraged with the languages lately and keeping on top of Spanish and Mixteco at the same time. Mostly just wish I had a better grasp on Mixteco than I do at this point and wondering how to get better. But I know Heavenly Father called me to the language for a reason and I'm praying for the gift of tongues:)

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

This week I read something in a book that stood out to me.

"Doctors and nurses in hospitals have taken an oath to care for their patients even when they are prisoners, drunk drivers, or gang members."

This was written in a book connecting back to the Savior and His grace, and it gave me a greater perspective of the way the Savior has performed an Atonement that's meant to help ALL of us, no matter how far gone we may feel.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we are in a position to receive His judgement, and thank goodness His judgements are full of grace and love. We are not in a position to judge others. Our job is to love the way He loves.

As representatives of Jesus Christ, we are promising to show charity and tolerance even to those we don't fully understand and even to those who may wrong us.

I am so grateful for Christ's perfect example. My invitation for you all this week is to pray for the gift of charity! It's a gift that we can only ultimately receive if we pray for it!

I love you all!

Hermana DeMordaunt

Commentary on some photos below:

- my cute cousin Alexa dropped off the sweetest gift bag ever!!!

- dinner with sister burch <3

Transfers & Saying Goodbye🥲

 Hey everyone!! So much has happened this last week so get ready.

Hermana Silva went home!!! Aahhh I miss her so much but I'm so grateful for the 6 months we got to spend together.

One Wednesday I drove Hermana Silva down to Oxnard since she'd be staying the night at the mission home before going home, and since it's a 3-hour drive, President Rodriguez just had me stay a few nights in Oxnard until we got our transfer news.

So I was in Oxnard for a day and a half with Hermana Larsen! She is sooo sweet and it was really fun to be in a different area for a little while. I think I just needed a breath of fresh air somewhere else. We had a lot of fun lessons and by the end of the day we were so tired and hungry. We got a domino's pizza and literally downed the entire thing

We had transfers on Friday and I'm still in Paso Robles, but now I'm with Hermana Moon!  She's been out on her mission about the same amount of time as me and she's the bessst! She's so good at being calm in stressful situations which is perfect because I think it evens me out haha

The first day we were together the first two people we contacted were Jehovah's Witnesses (in 2 separate places) on accident and I was feeling so rejected after that haha. But we kept working hard and found some awesome people!

One day, we had a lesson with some friends, but they didn't warn us that missionaries (or something) from another church were also in their house, and before we knew it we were in the middle of this big prayer circle with music and someone talking into a super loud microphone. It was cool but honestly we were so confused how we got ourselves in that situation and it was pretty funny. People kept entering the house during the prayer and by the time it ended the tiny room was crammed full. We felt very out of place but at least we got to tell everyone what church we were missionaries for at the end!

On Sunday, we had a cool guy who had reached out to us come to church! His name is Brayan and it was so amazing to see his faith and readiness to learn! We had some other friends come who we were worried wouldn't show up, so it was a Sunday of miracles!

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

Today I want to share a quote I found this week from a talk by President Holland, "Lord, I Believe." I highly recommend the entire talk!!! It's about acting in faith even when we don't have all the answers.

"The size of your faith or the degree of your knowledge is not the issue—it is the integrity you demonstrate toward the faith you do have and the truth you already know."

As we trust in the promises God gives us, whether we understand His will or not, He'll guide us in the right direction.

It's okay not to know everything!! What matters is continuing to do what's right, whether or not we understand the why.

My invitation for you all this week is to listen to this talk because it's SO good! I know Heavenly Father loves you all so much! And I love you all so much!

-Hermana DeMordaunt

Among photos below (maybe not in this order):

-dinner with the Zumbrunnen family

-a photo with the Rarig family

-my friend Fernanda

-my new companion, Sister Moon!

Temple Trip & Lotsss of Driving!!

Hey everyone! Hope you're all doing so good! I miss you and you're each in my prayers! This email might be a little longer but this week had too many good things not to share!

This week was really busy but SO amazing spiritually. We didn't have very many normal finding and teaching days because we had our mission temple trip, MLC, and then General Conference! I have felt so uplifted and empowered in my calling as a missionary and I am so grateful for this week because it helped remind me WHO I am and who I am doing this FOR! I know Heavenly Father's hand is very involved in each of our lives!

Okay first thing's first, our friends Andres and Armando are currently on date for baptism and as long as things go as planned, they should be getting baptized this Saturday! We are so excited for them and their progress! Andres is the friend that Hermana Silva had been teaching a long time before, and he moved away but now he's back! He and his brother are so cool and love to learn from the scriptures! I'm excited for them so please pray for them as they prepare for baptism!

I hit 8 months on the mission this last week! Yayyy

Transfers are coming so quick and it's crazy because Hermana Silva will be heading home! I'll miss her sooo much but I'm so excited for her next stage of life too!

On Thursday, we had the temple trip. It was at the LA temple and our area is on the opposite side of the mission so we had a 3 hour bus-ride. The session at the temple was AMAZING and the LA temple is SO beautiful inside! I am grateful that in the temple we can leave everything behind and focus completely on our Savior and on the potential we each have as sons and daughters of God! I'm also so thankful that we got to go right before General Conference, because I feel like it really prepared me personally for the messages shared, especially since so many of the talks mentioned temple-covenants!

On Friday we had MLC! Hermana Barker and I drove down to Oxnard so that was another 3 hour drive haha. Lots of driving the last few days and not a lot of sleep. Anyways it was SO fun to get to know Hermana Barker better on the drive, because even though we're serving as STLs together, we're kind of far apart and don't get to see each other very much. She is amazing and we have so much in common haha:) MLC was really uplifting and President Rodriguez really emphasized the importance of Christlike love for each of our friends. If we can see them the way Christ sees them, the misssionary work will come so much easier.

The next 2 days we had conference and WOW, I am so grateful that we get to hear from our Prophet and the leaders of this Church twice a year! Their words have so much power and wisdom for our day! Something I love to do is write out questions before I watch conference, take notes during, and then after, I re-read my questions and notes to try to search for answers to them. I've done this for a few years now and EVERY TIME there are answers to each of my questions. I definitely recommend trying next conference if you haven't done so before, because I can promise you will recognize the answers you received.

We taught English class on Saturday and I loveeee teaching English! But also teaching our language is making me realize how WEIRD and HARD it is! There are so many random rules haha

Funny story.. Hermana Silva and I's fridge stopped working one day (actually it didn't, just the light-bulb, but what we thought it did). We called the apartment services to get help, but the guy who answered the phone just said "Hello?" and didn't introduce himself so we thought we called the wrong number and hung up really quick. Then we got a call from a different random number that we didn't recognize (which happens a lot so that was normal), so we answered and introduced ourselves as the missionaries, assuming it was a random person we'd met and given our number to in the past. He spoke English so we were a little confused but we invited him to church anyway and then the call ended. And THEN we called the apartment number again and asked the worker to come fix our fridge. When he got there he was like, "Are you the missionaries that called me a little bit ago too?" And we were like, "Ohh, yeah," and then we realized that we'd just invited this random apartment worker to church and then called him back 20 seconds later to come fix our fridge without realizing it was the same person haha. So that was confusing haha. But at least he got a church invite and knows who we are now.

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

We listened to a BYU Speech on the way to the temple that I LOVED! It's called "We Need an Endowment" by Anthony Sweat. It's about temple covenants and I highly recommend it! I want to share a quick quote from it.

"Becoming endowed with divine power [in the temple] is a little bit like going through a university program or degree. Just because we have been accepted doesn't make us educated."

I feel like a lot of people may worry that they're not spiritually in-tune enough if they aren't feeling overwhelming power the first time they go through the temple. I feel like sometimes we can get worried if we're confused and still coming to understand the way that temple covenants work, like maybe we're doing something wrong. I know I kind of felt that way the first times I went through the temple.

But the power of the temple comes with time and with consistency. Heavenly Father doesn't give us all the answers right away. He doesn't give us all the spiritual capacity right away. Because if we came to earth with a perfect understanding, what would be the point? Why would we be here?

We're here to learn! And I'm so thankful that the Lord is so patient with each of us at whatever pace we come to Him.

My invitation for you all is to attend the temple as soon as possible! If you can't attend the temple yet, then prepare and pray to know how. I know that Heavenly Father has amazing experiences in store for us, but we have to be putting ourselves in the places that will allow us to receive them! (Also second invitation is to listen to that BYU speech because it's so dang good.)

I love you all so much!

-Hermana DeMordaunt

Happy Easter!!!

 Hey everybody! Sorry this email's gonna be a quick one because I didn't have much time to write it oops But this week has been good!

First off HAPPY EASTER! I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and that He overcame death! I don't know what I'd do without my Savior and I'm so grateful we got to celebrate Him on Sunday--and that we can celebrate Him every day!

We have a sweet friend named Cecilia who is the new 16-year-old foster daughter to a woman in the English ward. Cecilia speaks hardly any English and there is a pretty big language-barrier between the two of them, but they are so sweet and we love that we can visit and talk to Cecilia in Spanish! Her foster mom has been taking her to church and she's really loving it! I absolutely love her and hope she can continue to connect with her mom, with us, and with the Lord!

Hermana Silva was really sick one day so we were stuck at the apartment. She's better now but I had a pretty productive day reporting in area book and catching up in my journal even though it was a little boring too haha

We had interviews with President on Saturday and I always love the advice he gives and his Christlike example!

Easter Sunday was amazing and I got to play a musical number for Sacrament on the piano! I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ.

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

I just want to share a quote this week!

"You don’t need to know everything, just how to communicate with the person who does." -Richard G. Scott

I know that Heavenly Father can help guide us when we don't know what to do next! My invitation for you all is to strengthen your relationship with God by praying with more intention!

I love you all!

-Hermana DeMordaunt

Hermana Rodriguez with the sisters in our zone:)

Other pics with companion, district and ward members