Busy

 Hi everyone, how are you?! The mission has been good lately. Things are so busy and there's always work to do. It's a good problem to have. When I get home from my mission, I think I'll feel guilty just sitting and doing nothing haha.

On Tuesday, Hermana Crawford and I got ice cream and she decided to try a black Halloween flavor. So her tongue and teeth were black for the next few hours and it was so funny Then some of the new members, Rey, Marcos, and Daniel, took us to In-n-Out. They're SO cool!

On Wednesday, one of our lessons with our friend Axel was really good! His family is part of a different religion and we weren't sure how interested he was in our religion, but we decided to testify about the Book of Mormon and teach him the restoration. The lesson was powerful, and it was definitely thanks to the Spirit that was there, not just our words.

I had an awesome exchange with Sister Ferre on Thursday! She's over the English YSA ward in Simi Valley, so even though we were technically in my area for the day, we also talked to a few young adults that day who were interested! She had some fun ideas of new places to go find Spanish-speakers which made the day more exciting.

On Friday, I had exchanges with Sister Mansell in Newbury Park! I was a little nervous for that exchange because last time I was there we did mall contacting for 3 hours (not my fav), but it was actually such a fun day! We had an amazing lesson with one of their friends, Johnny, who ended up accepting a baptismal date! He has been taught by missionaries for years, so this was a big deal. We also had a lesson with their friend Sophia and the bishop, Bishop Hart. That lesson was one of my favorites I've been in. Sophia is an incredible young adult who's sincerely seeking out religion, and she wants to be baptized but is overcoming some things. There are some lessons I go into where I feel so much more confident, my words don't really feel like mine, and I know the Spirit is talking through me. This was one of those lessons. Bishop Hart also shared some amazing things about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. After the lesson, we went finding at Target and talked to a lot of YSA age people. We met this one guy named Gavin who apparently is a drummer in a band that opened for Tate McRae on tour!!!

This week I got My Plan, which is an email you get when you have 100 days left as a missionary. It's basically a little online thing you do where you make plans for how you'll apply the things you learned after your mission. I can't believe how quick time is going! It's sad. I still have a little while though, so it's okay.

This past week marked 2 years since the passing my dear friend Lauren. It led me to reflect on a lot of things, and I wanted to share something small here on my email because I want to show gratitude and respect for the life she lived and the example she was. She was one of the most Christlike people I have ever met. She made the decision to serve a mission at the same time as a lot of our friends, and her example definitely helped influence me in that direction. Choosing to be a missionary is the best decision I have ever made. I know that Lauren is doing missionary work right now too. She would have been a powerful teacher in this life, but God needed her to serve her mission in a different place, and I know she is touching more lives than I can imagine.

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

Today I want to share something that Bishop Hart shared in our lesson with Sophia. He talked a lot about the idea of comparison, and I really wish I could've just recorded everything he said. I'll write out some of the things he shared. It might just be a bunch of words scrambled together haha, but hopefully someone gets it!

People who have religious background, or have dreams and goals in general, want to become better. That's the purpose of this life. To improve every single day, and to become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Wanting to become better is an important attribute! It's necessary in God's plan. He wouldn't have sent us to earth in the first place if He wanted us to stay the same.

Sometimes, though, we take this important attribute and accidentally use it in the wrong way. We get so focused on becoming better, that we forget how loved we are RIGHT NOW. We get so caught up in who we want to be, that we forget who we've already become. And then we start to compare ourselves to others.

When the Lord's teachings admonish us to become better versions of ourselves, we may misunderstand if we're not careful. The Lord does NOT want us to become better than anyone else. He does NOT want us to judge or compare. He just wants the best version of what WE have to offer!

We're all broken, and we all make mistakes. Some things might be more visible than others. Some people might be at a high point in their life while someone else is at a low. There are way too many factors that play into a person's life for us to judge. The Lord is the only one who really knows someone's heart. The best thing we can do is focus on our own heart and how we can better align it with our Savior.

My invitation for you all is to look up instead of looking around! Focus on the Lord, and He'll help you see how amazing you really are!

I love all of you!

-Hermana DeMordaunt

The Secret Restaurant

 Hey everybody! Miss you all! I hope it's been a great week!

This week we had soo many good lessons with friends, but one of my favorites was with Eva. We knocked on her door last week because we thought someone else lived there, but ended up finding her! She's from Guadalajara and moved here a little over a year ago. She invited us back to have a lesson, and in the lesson we talked about the purpose of this life and how Christ can give us peace even when the world is so busy. We taught her how to pray, and she gave the most beautiful prayer at the end of the lesson! The Spirit was so strong in that lesson. I wish so bad I could describe the feelings in lessons better over email, but you'll all just have to take my word for it.

On Thursday, I had an exchange with Hermana McAllister! She's so much fun and tells the best stories ever! She can also name basically every plant and flower you see so that's crazy impressive. We were in my area and we had some awesome lessons that day. Also had a Bible study with the new members. And let me tell you, understanding the Old Testament is already hard... by the time I understand it all in Spanish I'll probably have gray hair and a cane.

On Friday, I was on exchanges with Sister Hatch! She's from Texas and she wants to be switched from a Sister to an Hermana, so we're just crossing our fingers we'll be companions before the end of my mission. We had an amazing day and found sooo many people! There's this parking lot we recently found is so good for finding Spanish-speakers, so that helped us find a lot of success! Everyone was so nice to us that day, so I told Sister Hatch she must be the lucky charm. 

We had a fun Halloween party on Saturday night! It was combined with the English and Spanish ward. I dressed up as a missionary. ;)

We had the best member meals ever this week! The new members here are INCREDIBLE! They have the strongest faith ever and I genuinely feel so lucky to know them. Lupillo and Fernando took got us tacos this week. On my exchange with Sister Hatch, we went with Marcos, Daniel, and Rey to this cool restaurant in a lady's backyard where she makes really good authentic Mexican food. I called it the "Secret Restaurant" and they all thought it was funny so now that's its official title.

On Sunday, Hermano and Hermana Hernandez fed us something super yummy but I can't remember what it's called. It was really cool to hear their conversion story. Hermana Hernandez talked about how she had believed in the Bible all her life, but learning about the Book of Mormon felt powerful. It felt like home to her. She said that it all just clicked in her mind, and that it made sense to her that the resurrected Jesus Christ would visit the people in the ancient americas. It helped her feel identified as she learned how aware Christ was of the people on this side of the world.

Hermana Crawford and I just got assigned to be Tech Reps for our zone this transfer. So now we're in charge of encouraging our zone to do social media work and we're supposed to message people who like the mission page's Facebook posts. I've never been that good with social media work so wish me luck. It'll be fun though.

Fun fact: Some of the missionaries here claim that the Rock has a house here in Simi Valley. It's this really big house up on a hill. Probably not true but it's still cool.

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

This week, I read some verses in the Bible that I absolutely loved!

Ephesians 3:17-19

17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

18. May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

19. And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

I know that we will never fully comprehend the "breadth, and length, and depth, and height" of Jesus Christ's love. It "passeth knowledge."

When I think back on experiences in my life and even current experiences, I recognize that I have felt the most strength and desire to change when I understand Christ's LOVE. We will never be able to completely change if the motive is fear, or obligation, or pride. We have to acknowledge His love. When we feel how much He loves us, we will automatically feel love for Him.

I know Jesus Christ loves you so much. He loves you individually and perfectly. He loves you exactly the way you are, and He also loves you enough to help you change.

My invitation for you all is to pray and ask God to help you feel Jesus Christ's love. When you feel this love, I promise it will give you the strength to change, grow, and overcome anything.

I love all of you!

-Hermana DeMordaunt

Baptisms & X-Rays

 Hellooo friends & fam! Miss you all! Life's been pretty good lately!

This week was hectic but so good. I think the adrenaline added up from a bunch of situations took a few years off my life, but I'm still here haha. This email's long, so prepare yourselves.

On Wednesday, one of the Hermanas that lives near us fractured her wrist in a bike crash, and we got the text asking if we could take her to urgent care right as we walked into a lesson with our friend Henry, who was about to have his baptismal interview. One of the people in his household was trying to convince us to move his baptismal date by a month and a half because she was going out of town to Mexico and wanted to be there to see it. So we had to talk through all that while the poor Hermanas were waiting for us to text them back about urgent care. We love the chaos.

On Thursday, we had Zone Conference!! It was sooo good! We were fashionably late because we took the other Hermanas to get an x-ray done after the bike crash. Zone Conference was sooo good and just what I needed. We talked a lot about the role of the Holy Ghost as missionaries. We can say a million things, but the power in our words really comes through the Spirit. People won't act on our invitations if they don't feel something.

Right after Zone Conference, we had an amazing lesson with a friend named Kenny. He speaks English, so the English Elders came and we introduced him to them. We gave him a church tour and he was sooo excited. We talked to him about the Book of Mormon and asked if he'd ever heard of it, and he said he had just heard about it for the first time a few days ago. It felt like Heavenly Father lined up this lesson so perfectly. God's timing is amazing.

Our friend Henry was baptized on Friday!!! It was such a special experience but honestly the most stressful baptism of my life too haha. Story for another day. I'm just so grateful that it all worked out and that he was able to make such an important covenant with God! He is a sweet, quiet older man and even though I've only been in Simi for a little bit, I've loved the lessons we've had with him and the faith he has. I definitely lucked out getting to be here to see his baptism day!

I had exchanges on Saturday with Sister Gray!! She's in the Newbury Park Zone, but she's over the YSA ward, which means she covers a huge area. So we were actually in Thousand Oaks for most of the day. (That meant we got to go to the ONLY Cafe Rio in the entire mission woohoo!! I haven't eaten there in so long.) We didn't have any lessons go through that day, which meant we went finding for a really really long time. Since we were looking for the young adult age-range, we spent most our time at the mall in Thousand Oaks and at some cafe areas. Finding in English in public places like that can be pretty brutal. I was definitely nervous to find that day. But we said lots of prayers and saw lots of miracles! There was one woman we walked past as we were headed back to the car who called us over and said that she was a member of our church and hadn't been in a while. She said that she wanted to read from the Book of Mormon with her husband (who wasn't a member), and had realized just a few days before that they didn't own a Book of Mormon. She asked if we had one she could have and we did! It was really cool the way that God lined up the timing so well! Even though we faced a lot of rejection that day, I knew that we were exactly where God needed us to be.

One huge miracle from this week is that Eduardo, a friend who Hermana Crawford had been teaching before I got here, reached out to us all of a sudden and wanted to have a lesson. He had been really interested in the church and even had accepted a baptismal invitation, but all of a sudden the Hermanas lost contact with him. He messaged us and told us that his phone hadn't been working, but he wanted to have a lesson! We had a lesson with him yesterday and the Spirit was SO strong!!!

I got a little sick near the end of the week, so that wasn't super fun. Buuut on the bright side, I've been a chef lately and actually cooked some pretty good food. I'm not usually the biggest fan of cooking, so I was very proud of myself for following some basic recipes. Don't worry, I promise not to forget about you when I'm on Chopped one day

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

♡ forgiveness ♡

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about the Sacrament and how blessed we are to take it each week and remember our Savior, Jesus Christ. I especially loved the talk in General Conference, "Welcome to the Church of Joy," by Elder Kearon, and highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't heard it!

Last transfer, I remember one Sunday specifically where I was sitting in the chapel during the Sacrament. I was playing the piano for the ward that day, so I sat up front and had a view of everyone sitting at church that day. As we each took the bread and water, I thought about how we were each being purified by Jesus Christ in that same moment, TOGETHER! I thought about how unifying the Sacrament really is.

The Sacrament gives us all an opportunity to level with each other. It is a chance to forgive. All of our mistakes and shortcomings have been forgotten by our loving Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ's sacrifice, and we get to do the same -- to forget our mistakes (while making sure we learn from them), AND forget the mistakes of others.

There is no comparison. We are all loved, we are all forgiven. We are showing faith in Christ's Atonement when we believe He can forgive us. We are showing that SAME faith in His Atonement when we believe He can forgive OTHERS. And we can forgive them too!

My invitation for you all is to find someone in your life to forgive. Whether it's over something big or small, I know it will help us each better understand Jesus Christ's grace.

I love all of you!

-Hermana DeMordaunt

Goodbye Oxnard, Hello Simi 👋

 Hola a todos!! So much has happened this week so buckle up.

Today I hit 14 months on my mission! These have been the most rewarding 14 months of my life and I am so grateful for them.

Surprise surprise I'm not in Oxnard anymore! I'm going to miss it lots Hermana Nielson and I got white-washed, which means we both got transferred out of the area and two new Hermanas came in. That was a little sad, but thankfully the two Hermanas who took our place are AWESOME so they'll take care of our friends. Hermana Nielson got transferred back into an English area which is CRAZY (she was an English missionary who got switched to Spanish for a while and now is back in English work). And I'm now in Simi Valley with Hermana Crawford!

Hermana Crawford came into the mission 2 transfers ago and is the best! I'm so excited to be with her! Her Spanish is insanely good. Simi Valley is fun so far! Our apartment is superrr nice AND we have a gym!!! It's been crazy hot this past week here. Like in the nineties most days. Also it's sooo pretty here. And the members and our friends are awesome.

We have a super cool friend named Henry who's on date to be baptized this coming Friday! He's from El Salvador. We're so excited for him, so pray that all goes well!

We met some really cool people this week and really tried to talk to everyone. Something intimidating for me is talking to English-speakers. Spanish-speakers have tended to be a little more willing to listen in general haha, but I know God called me to a place with both English and Spanish-speaking people, and it's my job to open my mouth to everyone!

There was one day this week where we had a little gap of time to find people. Not many people were outside, so we decided to pray and ask if we should go somewhere else or knock doors for a while. I haven't gotten impressions to knock specific doors on my mission very often (we haven't had to do a lot of door-knocking), but after we prayed, I just started walking up the stairs of the apartment complex toward a specific door. I had this feeling that someone was waiting for us, even though the complex was quiet and felt empty. There was a door with a bunch of decorations in English, so I figured a Spanish-speaker wouldn't be on the other side, but we still felt like we should knock on it. A younger girl answered the door and we asked if one of her parents was home. Her grandma came over to the door and at first, I couldn't really tell if she was interested. She walked away so we just awkwardly started writing on a pass-along card to give to the younger girl. Then, the grandma came back to the door and said sorry, she was just putting on her glasses, and invited us inside to finish writing our card. We sat on the couch in their front room and started talking. The girl's name is Hendrix and her grandma's named Iluminaria. We shared a scripture with them and they were so sweet, telling us we could come back over anytime. It was a really special experience, and even though the Elders will probably be the ones teaching them now because they speak English, I'm so grateful for the prompting we had to knock their door. It was an unmistakable impression from the Holy Ghost, and I'm so grateful we followed it.

I want to follow that story by saying that there was another time earlier that week where I'd felt like we should knock a door, and no one answered. I couldn't tell if it was the Spirit guiding me or just my own thoughts. But I'm just as grateful that we followed the impression that led to nothing, because I don't know if God would have trusted us with the impression that lead to Iluminaria and Hendrix if we hadn't shown our willingness to listen to Him the first time.

I have to also add in here that General Conference this past weekend was SO good! Anyone who hasn't gotten a chance to listen to it, DO it! Email me if you have questions about what it is. :)

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

This week I want to share one of the quotes I loved from General Conference.

L. Todd Budge talked about the importance of finding time to "be still" each day, listening to what God wants to say to us. He said, "What if we were to spend less time talking and more time being with God?"

My invitation for you all is to spend more time "being" with God. I am going to work on it too! I know that as we are still and we ponder, our Heavenly Father will give us the messages we need in our lives! This might mean spending some time outside where it's quiet, not listening to music on a car-ride, etc. The Holy Ghost has so much to teach us when we're ready to listen!

I love all of you!

-Hermana DeMordaunt