Like Unto Moroni

 Hey everybody! This week has been good, nothing too crazy's happened but here are the updates!

I had two exchanges this week, one with Hermana Howell and one with Sister Parr! I love them both soooo much!

Our friends are doing great and I love getting to see them progress! Keep praying for them and for us to find those who are ready to be baptized and make covenants with God!

One of our newer friends is named Consuelo. I found her last week on exchanges with Hermana Howell. She was watching her kids swim in the pool at their apartment complex. We stopped to talk to her to figure out where an apartment was, but then we ended up giving her a church invitation and setting up a lesson! She has the cutest smile EVER and is basically always smiling and laughing! She's been in the United States for a year with her kids and I can tell she wants the best for them, but it hasn't been the easiest move. We had a lesson with her this last week and it was cute because she came outside all dressed up, with 3 water bottles and 3 cokes so that we could all have drinks as we talked. We testified about Jesus Christ and read the scriptures together, and the Spirit was SO strong! I felt like I was walking on air after that visit ended.

There was a baptism on Saturday for two of the Elders' friends. They are really young and they're the daughters of a member in the ward! One of them got super scared when she was about to get baptized because she didn't want to go under the water, so we ended up waiting a really long time while she worked up the courage to get baptized. I basically played through the whole hymnbook on the piano during the interlude haha. Finally she got baptized!! It was a really good baptism and it reminded me of when I was baptized.

On Sunday, the English ward had just gotten out of church and the Spanish ward was starting. I meant to go up and talk to a guy who was coming to the Spanish ward for the first time, but I accidentally walked up to the wrong guy. He was an older man from the English ward but I thought he only spoke Spanish, so I started having an entire conversation with him in Spanish and he just went with it. In the end, I asked (in Spanish), "Have you had visits with any of the missionaries here?" (since we were trying to figure out which missionaries in the ward had been in contact with him), and he responded (in Spanish), "I served a mission 40 years ago in Spain." That's when I realized he was actually already a member, not a new friend at church. Long story short, super awkward interaction. I was so embarrassed hahaha. It will take a while to recover from that one.

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

I want to share something from the Book of Mormon today. In Alma 48, it talks about how Moroni (one of the captains of the Nephite army) was a man of God who did his very best to serve Him. Verse 17 says, "If all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever." Pretty powerful words, right? This verse has always made me think about how perfect Moroni must have been.

Right after, in verse 18, it says that Moroni "was a man like unto Ammon, the son of Mosiah, yea, and even the other sons of Mosiah... for they were all men of God."

Now, flashback -- Ammon and the sons of Mosiah were once super disobedient. They were some of the most unrighteous and unbelieving people. They made some really big mistakes. Through repentance, they became missionaries who changed THOUSANDS of lives. And here, Moroni is being compared to them.

It's amazing to think about what God can do with each of us. We can ALL be men and women "like unto Moroni." No matter who we were in the past. God sees so much potential in each of us, and with His help, "the very powers of hell" really can be shaken.

My invitation for you all is to find a way to become more like Moroni this week. Read about him in Alma 48. God can take imperfect people like us and turn us into some of His greatest leaders.

I love all of you!

-Hermana DeMordaunt