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