New Companion & Sob Stories

 Hey everybody!! Hope it's been a good week!

Not a lot of updates from me, but something exciting is we had transfers and I have a new companion, Hermana Nielson!!! She's SO much fun and I love her! Also we're both from Lehi so mission reunions won't be too hard for us after when we're back home haha

Last Monday night, we had an amazing lesson! Here's where the sob story comes in. (You just had to be there.) One of our friends, Ausencio, came with his little son, who's around kindergarten age. He's so cute and talkative. We had a great lesson with them about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and at the end, Ausencio shared some difficult experiences from his childhood and how to be a more loving father to his son than he had had as a kid He started crying as he talked. It was a really emotional moment, and his little son looked up at his dad and asked him why he was crying. Then he took his dad's hands in his face and told him over and over that it would be okay because God was watching over them in Heaven. The little boy started crying too and it was one of the most tender moments to watch. The lesson that night taught me a few different things: 1) So many people around us are going through such hard things that we may not ever even see. So we need to treat everyone with gentleness and love. 2) Sometimes little children can be the most powerful teachers.

On Tuesday, Hermana Buhrley and I were in a trio with Hermana Lasa (because Hermana Van Brocklin finished her mission and went home! She will be missed). It was so fun to be in a trio for the day!!

On Wednesday, we had transfers! It was really sad to say goodbye to Hermana Buhrley, and I'm SO grateful for the transfer we got together! But it's also already been an awesome week with Hermana Nielson and I'm sooo excited we're companions!

The rest of the week was really good! Yesterday, we had a lot of friends come to church! It was a Sunday full of miracles for sure. We had some friends come to church who were referrals from Facebook and who we had never met before. I'm super excited to teach them this week!

Today for our district activity we played water balloon volleyball and I personally believe it should be turned into a professional sport.

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

This week I read a scripture that I wanted to share about miracles.

Mosiah 8:18

"Thus God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles; therefore he becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings."

What stood out to me when I read this verse was the end. "He becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings."

God can help us do anything. He is a God of miracles.

But every time He's performed a miracle, it's been for the benefit of others. When we think of prophets in the scriptures who performed miracles, every story revolves around the way they were blessing others' lives. And anytime WE perform miracles through His power, it should be for the benefit of others.

This verse changes the way I want to pray for miracles in my own life. I should pray for miracles that will serve OTHERS, not just me.

My invitation for you all is to pray for a miracle this week for someone you love. Ask Heavenly Father how you can help Him perform this miracle. I know you'll be amazed by what He can do through you!

I love all of you!

-Hermana DeMordaunt

Lost Car Keys

Hey everybody! Hope you had the best week!

This transfer is almost over! We get news tomorrow and then we move on Wednesday, so I guess we'll see if I stay here or go somewhere else. I love my area and my comp right now so maybe nothing will change!!

Nothing crazy happened this week but there were a lot of great moments! I had the besssst exchanges ever! The first one was with Sister Parr and she's AMAZING!!! We had an excuse to go out to eat twice because she's gluten free and we didn't have very many options at our house to eat haha. We had a great lesson with our friend Reina that day, and she speaks a lot of Mixteco so it was really nice to get to use some Mixteco again, especially since we haven't been teaching lots of Mixteco-speakers lately.

I also got to have an exchange with Hermana Van Brocklin, which was NOSTALGIC because we were just barely companions before this! She goes home this Wednesday! I'm so proud of all she's done and it's so crazy to see her leaving! We had a great day and we taught a super good but chaotic lesson to our friends Guadalupe and Franklin. One of the kids came over and handed us 2 parakeets mid-lesson and then left, so we were trying to have a spiritual experience while we held these birds on our fingers hahaha

Also our new member Santiago wanted to surprise Hermana Van Brocklin with tacos for lunch since she's about to leave, so I drove us to the church so he could meet us there. I thought I knew where I was driving but actually got so lost. Hermana Van Brocklin just thought I was driving (basically) in circles because I was trying to throw her off track from the surprise, but in reality I'm just the most directionally-challenged person you'll ever meet.

On Saturday, we had a really good lesson with our new members Cornelia and Pascual and their son, Luis. They are amazing but are going through some really hard things, so please pray hard for them!

On Sunday, I lost our car and apartment keys. Not my brightest moment. I'll spare you all the details but long story short, the keys have not been found, and both my pride and my bank account are suffering haha

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

This week, something that really caught my attention was the word agency and what it means.

God gave each of us each agency because He wants us to CHOOSE Him. He'll never force us to do anything. But He will do everything in His power to bring us back to Him.

"We may be inclined to impose our will on others for what we think is their best good. If we love enough, we will not do that-- even at the risk of pain, even in matters of consequence.

"If we truly love, we will never seek to to impose our will and deprive others of their agency. That is, after all, Satan's plan."

On my mission, I'm learning that agency is the greatest gift we can receive. It is the highest form of love. God loves us enough to let us choose, because He knows it will ultimately help us change & become.

Sometimes I wish I could just get the friends we teach to accept my message! I wish I could get them to come to church, because I know it will bless their lives! But sometimes they don't choose that. And all I can do is love, and pray, and hope that they will decide to change on their own. Because I love them, and because God loves them.

My invitation for you all is to listen to the talk "Things to Act and Things to Be Acted Upon" by Elder David A. Bednar. (It's a seminar for new mission leaders and it's SO good!!)

I love all of you!

-Hermana DeMordaunt

 

1 YEAR & Gisela's Baptism!!!

 Okay first off Hermana Buhrley and I hit our year mark on Wednesday!!!!! Woohoooo!!!! This past year as a missionary has been lifechanging and I can't even express my gratitude for it.

Our friend Rosendo accepted a baptismal invitation this week! He's so excited!! The only sad news is he's moving to Paso Robles in a few weeks But we'll get him started with the missionaries there! He's amazing!

On Thursday I had exchanges with Sister Evans! We had an exchange together last transfer so it was fun to be with her again! Being in an English area always makes me a little nervous to go tracting, but actually finding people ended up being one of the best parts of the day!!! It was so fun! We went and knocked some doors in a neighborhood and the people were actually really kind. There was one door that we knocked where a man named Anthony answered. Sister Evans asked some very specific questions about believing in God that made me a little nervous because I didn't know how he'd react to such a forward approach. But the Spirit really guided that conversation. Anthony ended up opening up about his beliefs and sharing with us that he'd met kind members of our church before, and he'd be interested in learning more. It was really cool to see the way he was touched and how Sister Evans helped him open up! Sister Evans is the bessst!

Also sad news.. that day a new member invited us to have a lesson at Chili's and she recommended that we get a specific dish there. It was pretty good, but I guess I didn't realize I'd be paying for myself haha and my bank account hurt after that lesson.

On Friday I had exchanges with Hermana Lasa! I love her SO MUCH!! She's from Mexico City but moved to Utah as a teenager, so her first language is spanish but she speaks perfect engish too. It was nice to get so many spanish tips from a native! We had a chaotic day because the Assistants called us in the middle of the day and told us they needed our car again.. so we're on bikes again. But thanks to the help of the other Hermanas, we got rides to our other scheduled lessons that day and everything worked out!

Now for the moment you've all been waiting for!!!! Gisela was baptized!!!!! She is INCREDIBLE!! We were a little worried about the baptism happening this week because she's a truck driver and is really busy, so we needed to make sure she was taught everything before her baptism. But she was able to get a bunch of work off so we could help prepare her for her baptism! Her story is super cool, because she was taught like a year ago by missoonaries, but her time was limited and she wasn't baptized. Last transfer, Hermana Buhrley and Hermana Cox knocked her door and she said she had been wanting to get in contact with missionaries again. She was so prepared and excited, and I'm so thankful that I got to witness her take this step!

Also, at Gisela's baptism, Hermana Buhrley and I each wore the dresses we came into our mission wearing a year ago. It was such a full-circle moment! To be companions, a year into our mission, at a baptism, wearing the same dresses! Definitely a core memory.

We celebrated Marlon's birthday on Sunday. He's one of the most amazing members ever, and he shared a powerful testimony that I will never forget about the love of Jesus Christ as we sat around a table eating cake. Another core memory.

Also I got a haircut. Just had to throw that fun fact somewhere in this email.

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

So my mission was recently challenged to read the Book of Mormon twice before Christmas, highlighting it one time through with anything referencing Jesus Christ, and the second time through with anything relating to His gospel.

Since we're on a time crunch, we have to read quite a bit of the Book of Mormon every day. I've found that it kind of replaces a lot of time I had before to study other talks and things. I still have time to study those things if I make time, but my focus is a lot more directed on the Book of Mormon.

At first, I was a little bummed that I didn't have quite as much time to focus on other study topics. But reading so much of the Book of Mormon each day has strengthened me in ways that I didn't even realize I needed!

I just want to share my testimony that there is true POWER that comes from reading the Book of Mormon daily! It makes a true difference. My invitation for you all is to set aside time to read EVERY day! If it feels like you have to give up time you would have spent doing something else, I can promise that the sacrifice is worth it!

I love all of you!

-Hermana DeMordaunt

One Step at a Time

 Hey everyone, I hope you're all doing good and you're in my prayers! This email ended up being long but I don't want to shorten it so.. sorry! But all my emails are long anyways so shoutout to anyone who reads them all the way through haha!

Sooo a lot of things happened this week, and sadly a lot of those things were disappointing. But, like my mission prep teacher at BYU said, "A mission consists of a series of disappointing events, interspersed with moments of indescribable joy." Even though things didn't go as planned, I know God's hand was in it all and I'm just trying to see it. We all just have to take one step at a time. And the biggest disappointments always come before the biggest miracles, right?!

On Wednesday, Hermana Buhrley and I went to MLC, and I'm always grateful for the Spirit in those meetings! At the end of MLC, the Assistants told Hermana Buhrley and I that there had been some car complications and basically asked if we could car-share with the other Hermanas who live near us (because some other missionaries needed to use our car). It wasn't the best news and it wasn't the best timing haha but here we are So we've been switching off every-other day with the Hermanas between the car and being on bikes! It hasn't been too bad, and usually I would LOVE being on bikes, but our area is outside of where we live, and the church is the opposite direction of our area. So biking to the church = 45 minutes, and that's a little tricky with our lessons and scheduling! Other than that issue, biking is a partyyy. I live the glamorous life being a missionary in California so I definitely can't complain!

Our friend Antonio was supposed to get baptized this Sunday, and he was so ready! Sadly, on Friday night he texted us and told us he doesn't want to be baptized and was just nervous to make that promise, and now he's not answering us. It's really sad to see amazing friends like him choose not to continue learning with us. I get really attached to them so it's hard to see them go! Just pray for him that in the future he can come back, because he's awesome!

So now that the sad news is out of the way, here's the good stuff! Our friend Gisela is on baptismal date and is super excited to be baptized! She's been taught for a while now and is just extra busy because she's a truck driver. But as long as her work schedule fits, she should be getting baptized this Saturday!!!

We had a super cool lesson with our friend José! We testified about faith and about the Book of Mormon. He loved the lesson and said he wants to read the book for himself. The Spirit was so strong and after the lesson he kept texting us and thanking us for it!

I had exchanges with Sister Myers on Saturday and she's the CUTEST! I love exchanges! We had the best day found some cool people! Got the yummiest ice cream from La Michoacana AND the best member dinner with our new member Santiago (the one baptized a few months ago)!! It was at this really nice restaurant at the mall sooo that was awesome. Sister Myers said something I really liked. She told me about this one really stressful day she and her companion had. She said that it ended and she felt pretty down about it all. But then, as she was writing in her journal, she looked back and saw all the miracles that had actually happened that day. It was a good reminder for me that I need to WRITE IN MY JOURNAL, because sometimes we miss spiritual experiences in the moment. Even just writing out this email, I'm realizing there was a lot more good in my week than I thought.

Shoutout to my compie, Hermana Buhrley! When some sad things happened this week she was the most selfless, service-oriented friend EVER anytime I needed her! She's the best!

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

This week I listened to THE MOST amazing BYU speech and if you have the chance to listen to it PLEASE do it!! It's called, "There Must Needs Be a Christ" by Elder Kyle S. McKay. I just want to share a quick quote from it.

"We are taught that for those who do not repent, it is as though no redemption had been made. Consider the converse. For those who do repent—truly repent—it is as though no sin had been committed. 'I, the Lord, remember them no more,' not because He has some godly power to forget but because there is simply nothing to remember. In His world, the eternal world, it is gone, its effects are canceled, it is undone. President Boyd K. Packer taught: 'The Atonement [of Jesus Christ] leaves no tracks, no traces. What it fixes is fixed . . . , and what it heals stays healed.'"

My invitation for you all is to listen to this talk! I know Christ lives and we all need Him!

I love all of you!

-Hermana DeMordaunt