Power Outages & Fire Evacuations

 Hi friends & fam! Miss and love you! This week has been SO crazy and SO full of miracles!

I hit 15 months of being a missionary last Thursday! We got Urban Cafe to celebrate. It's SO good and it only exists in areas in my mission. I'm so spoiled here.

So a bunch of missionaries had to get evacuated this week because of a fire in the Camarillo/Ventura area. We had a windstorm and so the fire spread really quick, and over a hundred structures, mainlu houses, were burned down. We were only like 15 minutes from the fire, so Hermana Crawford and I were so stressed for a few days that we'd get evacuated. President told us to have our emergency bags ready and our phones charged in case we had to leave in the middle of the night sooo that was scary. But thankfully we didn't have to leave.

The worst thing that happened to us was just that half of Simi Valley had its power turned off because of the fire. So all the stoplights were out. And our apartment had no power for over 24 hours. RIP all the food in our fridge and freezer. Also Hna Crawford and I are both scared of the dark, so we weren't the best duo at night haha.

I had an exchange with Sister Adams this week! We had so much fun and taught some awesome lessons.

We saw miracle after miracle with our friends this week. I feel like we've seen so much progression and growth in them in such a short amount of time. One of our friends, Juan Velasquez, has been being taught for about a month now. He is amazing! He's one of the kindest people you'll ever meet and gives some of the most beautiful prayers I've ever heard. He doesn't have a car but he walks (super far) to get to church and lessons. He says he prefers it because he loves nature. Earlier this week, he accepted the invitation to be baptized November 30! We're so excited for him!!!

Our friend Carlos also accepted a baptismal invitation this past week! He's from Peru and moved here to the U.S. less than a year ago. We met him when he started coming to English class! The Spirit has been so strong in every lesson with him. In the lesson where we invited him to be baptized, he shared with us that the day before he came to English class and met us, he had had a dream where he was scared and felt like he was being overcome. He said that in the dream, he started praying really hard, and as he prayed, the darkness went away. It's amazing to see how our friends are being prepared to learn about Jesus Christ. I'm just in awe that God's trusting me enough to let me be a witness of it.

We also met a new friend named Ernesto! The English Elders had knocked his door and had a really short interaction with him, but he gave them his phone number. We got in contact and ended up having an amazing lesson outside of his house a few days later! He's pretty young and super excited to learn! He kept thanking us for visiting him. He came to church on Sunday and Sacrament Meeting was all about serving others. Right after the meeting ended, he told me he was going to walk over and go help one of the members (an elderly man) get up from the bench in the chapel. It was sweet to see how quickly he wanted to apply what he just learned in Sacrament.

I'm so amazed by the way I've seen Heavenly Father prepare people for us recently. Just a few weeks ago, we had MLC and prayed for baptismal goals for our zones. It was a really spiritual experience, but I definitely let the doubt creep in for a little bit. Finding people prepared for baptism was sounding a little far off for me. I realized I needed to trust more in the goals we were making, and our mission truly has had SO many baptism miracles since MLC! It's been a good reminder for me that this isn't my work, it's God's work.

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

Today I want to share a scripture I love!

Mosiah 4:19

"For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?"

This entire chapter in the Book of Mormon is so good, but I love the reminder here that we're all beggars. We are all so far from perfect, and we're all in need of God's grace. When I see it with that perspective, it feels a lot easier to feel united with those around me. It makes me want to serve people more.

My invitation for you all is to find someone new to serve this week! Someone you maybe wouldn't have thought to serve before. We're all in need of service, and we're all children of God!

I love all of you!

-Hermana DeMordaunt