Fires + 89th Birthdays + Pupusas

 This week we kept having power outages because of the fires. So we kept getting our hopes up that we could use our fridge and toaster and stove again, and then our power would go out haha. Things have gotten better, but the wind is going to be bad the next few days again so pray there aren't more fires!

Hermana McAllister and I made the craziest connection EVER this week! She was talking about how her grandpa lived in Lehi, and I had a flashback to my primary pianist all growing up, Brother McAllister. He was the cutest old man ever and all the kids in primary loved him. And we realized that he's her grandpa!!! Small world.

Santiago, who was baptized when I was in Oxnard, drove to Simi to visit us this week! We went out for Mexican food and it was so fun to see him again!

We had interviews on Wednesday. It's crazy that that was my last interview before my departing one with President Time is going by wayyy too fast and it's freaking me out.

The Samaniegos are a cute family we've been visiting since I got to Simo Valley. They're members of the church but haven't been in a while. We had a super good lesson with them this week and a bunch of their extended family was over visiting at the same time, so it was really cool to see them all there! They've been wanting to start coming back church recently, and it's been a really special experience to be a witness of that change.

I had an exchange with Hermana Wimmer and Hermana McAllister on Thursday!! We were finding outside of a Mexican Marketplace, so we decided to run in and buy some bread from the panadería. We taste-tested a bunch of different types of bread and it was so good :)

On Friday, I had an exchange with Sister Farnsworth and Hermana McAllister! We were in the YSA area, so we did a bunch of store finding again. We also got to go to the Moorpark college campus and walk around with a whiteboard, asking people to write down what brings them joy. It was SO FUN. It also made me miss college so bad!

That day, we visited a woman named Rose in an elderly home. It was her 89th birthday and she didn't have any plans, so our visit meant a lot. She was baptized a little less than a year ago and she is the sweetest old woman ever! Even though she's struggling with a lot of health issues, she absolutely loves to talk and be visited by missionaries. She has such a passionate faith in our Savior Jesus Christ, and she's said that even if she didn't get to find the church until the very end of her life, she's just so grateful she found it.

My comps and I made pupusas this week! We've never been more proud of a meal

We also had a movie night last night!!! Which means we watched "Meet the Mormons" on gospel library before bed & ate popcorn.

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

We had some pretty mean encounters this week. There were discouraging moments, but they're a small price to pay in comparison to the joy that this gospel has brought me.

In the Book of Mormon, I love the story of Alma and Amulek. They are called to preach to a group of people who don't want to hear their message, and they end up being thrown into prison. They're mistreated, mocked, and humiliated for days. I can only imagine what that would've felt like. It says that the people went forth one at a time to mock them, "saying the same words, even until the last" (Alma 14:25).

Alma and Amulek are patient and they trust in the Lord. That would take so much humility. And then when the LAST person has mocked them, God shows forth His power and delivers them. It's no coincidence that God waits. Sometimes the greatest miracles have to come after the most desperate experiences.

I haven't gotten even close to being treated the way Alma and Amulek were. But even when I feel a little disrespected or hurt, I can remember that so many servants of God have faced opposition. I'm so grateful to know I'm in good company.

My invitation to you all is to take courage!! Be willing to stand out, even if it means feeling a little discouraged or humiliated for a time. There are miracles ahead. And you're in good company!

I love all of you!

-Hermana DeMordaunt

Chaos

 What's up everybody!! This week was chaos. Not the best kind of chaos to start off, but it got better haha! I feel like it's been way longer than a week. Long week = long email, you're welcome! 

So Monday night I got asked to go on a surprise overnight exchange with some of the sisters in Simi. So I hurried and packed an overnight bag and a blanket and pillow, and then I headed over to spend the night and the next day with them! It was really good to be with them and I feel like we all needed it! I slept on the hardwood floor that night though because there wasn't an extra bed and so my body was pretty sore the next day haha. Thankfully I slept through most the night, and the sisters felt so bad that I was sleeping on the ground, but I told them it was missionary initiation and I'd had way too convenient of a mission up to that point, so I needed it;) It really wasn't that bad.

The next day, I stayed with the sisters, so it was all just a spontaneous exchange. For exercise that morning, one of the sisters wanted to play basketball so we went to the church gym to do that! It was super fun and I'm a pro now, so if you ever play me then prepare to lose. The rest of that day we did a lot of finding. We were in a YSA area, so we went to a bunch of thrift stores, a mall outlet, and Target to talk to people. 

Tuesday night, we were finishing up our exchange and I was reviewing how the day went with the sisters. Then we got a call from the Assistants that we needed to join a zoom meeting in 5 minutes because of fire evacuation warnings.

Maybe you all already know about the fires in Los Angeles, but multiple fires broke out this week and burned/are burning tons and tons of houses and land. There have been some deaths as well. My heart hurts a lot for those people and please keep them in your prayers.

Thankfully Simi Valley didn't have any fires, but we could see smoke for a few days over the mountain from a fire nearby. We lost power for a day and a half. RIP our freezer food again haha. This has happened twice since I've been in Simi Valley. Most the food in our fridge was okay though! But guess what?! As we were driving home from shopping today, the stoplights were out again, and we realized our power is out again! So we are currently storing our food in the church refrigerator and hoping the power comes back sooner than last time.

Tuesday was also my 17-month mark and Hermana McAllister's 6-month mark! We weren't together in our companionship to celebrate that day, so we got Dairy Queen ice cream on Saturday to celebrate instead. :)

We got Bible-Bashed this week by a Spanish-speaker. It wasn't my fav experience. But those interactions help reinforce the importance of love for me. If love isn't there, the Spirit won't be there either.

On Thursday, we had another exchange, this time with the Hermanas! I was with Hermana Wimmer. She is soo cool! She was assigned to English work for the first 10 months of her mission and just barely got switched to Spanish work this last transfer. We were on bikes! I love bikes. 

Funny story from exchanges.. We met this man at a park who spoke English and told us he didn't believe what we believed, but we were already in the process of writing him a church invitation, so he took it anyway. It didn't feel like anything really came out of that interaction. About 30 mins later, we were in a laundromat nearby, and he walked in to do his laundry. We awkwardly waved at him as he passed by us and we were mid-inviting someone else to church. A few minutes later, we started talking to this guy right outside of the laundromat. He also spoke English, and as I reached in my bag to give him a church invite, I realized I had just run out. So I started telling him, "I think I just ran out of church invitations, but..." and then right then the man from earlier walked outside and said, "He can take a picture of my card!" So then he pulled the card out from his bag that we'd given him earlier at the park and let the other guy take a picture of it. It was really nice of him, and also just kinda funny because I never would have expected him to go out of his way to help us invite another guy to church. And the random timing was perfect. Pretty cool how you never know how one interaction will impact others later. I need to make sure all my interactions are loving ones.

We had another exchange on Friday! Lots of exchanges this week. I was with Sister Ferre in my area. Hermana McAllister also stayed in the area with me, so we were still in a trio. We had some great lessons and found really awesome people that day. It was a miracle, because I felt like our week had been crazy up to that point and it had been really hard for us to find new people to teach. One guy we talked to was playing his guitar, and he ended up having us sit down at the picnic table he was at so he could sing a few songs for us. He was actually really good! Also, Sister Ferre showed us how to do something she calls the "Tim-Tam slam." You basically buy Tim-Tam cookies, make hot chocolate, and then drink the hot chocolate using the cookie as a straw. It's SO GOOD. Anyone who wants me to show them how to do it when I'm home let me know. It will change your life forever.

We saw a lot of miracles at church on Sunday. A lot of new friends came who had never been before! It was a huge blessing to see them there. Even though this week felt like it was really crazy at some points, I felt like Sunday was a reminder from God that He's still doing His work. He'll help our friends get to church. He just wants me to give my best effort, and even if that effort is sometimes really weak, He can work with it.

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

This week, one of the missionaries shared something that I really loved. They said that repentance is about TURNING to Christ, not just fixing a mistake.

One of my other companions once said, repentance doesn't just mean saying, "Forgive me," but "Help me."

Repentance is a process, not a one-time event. I'm so grateful to know that Jesus Christ isn't counting how many times we make a mistake, but instead, He's watching how many times we call out. He wants to help us, we just have to reach for Him!

My invitation for you study repentance this week! It's such a beatiful part of God's plan!

I love all of you!

-Hermana DeMordaunt

17 Months ?! 🫢

 Hola hola!! HAPPY NEW YEAR! This last week has been a great start to the year:))

Okay I promise I'm staying focused here... but yesterday = an exact month from the day I fly home! AAAHH! And tomorrow I hit my 17-month mark! So yep, that's super crazy.

I hope you all had a fun New Years celebration!! We sure did. We drank a martinelli's and went to bed at 10pm haha. But hey, it was technically already 2025 New York so that counts. If younger me heard that I didn't stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve I would have been extremely disappointed in myself. But I was tired. You just have to be a missionary to get it.

We had to get an oil change for our car one day this week. Car dealerships are intimidating places to me haha I have no idea why. Maybe because I know nothing about cars. Anyways, we had a gap of about an hour and a half where our car was getting worked on, so we could either hang out at the dealership or go walk somewhere closeby. We stayed at the dealership for a few minutes because there was free hot chocolate:) While we were there, a woman came up to us to give us her card because she was looking for a housecleaning job. Her name is Ruth and she is so sweet! She spoke Spanish so we started talking to her for a little bit, and then she asked us when we had church! It was a super cool experience because we were in the right place at the right time, and it's not too often that we have someone come up to US and then ask US when we have church. After we talked to her, we decided to walk to a store nearby and talk to people there. We ended up finding a lot of really amazing people! It turns out that oil changes are a good finding method ;)

The friends we've been teaching have been doing pretty good, keep praying for them! Sadly we've had to stop teaching quite a few people who aren't making progress (for now). When we were making goals for the week, we were talking about how we needed to trust that God would put new people in our path who needed our message.

One of the best ways to find people who are interested is through media referrals. We get referrals when someone sees an ad on Facebook and signs up for missionary lessons, to come to church, or for English class. It's basically like they're knocking on our door instead of us knocking on theirs. We haven't gotten a lot of media referrals here in Simi Valley, but we've found some really cool people each time we do get one! Juan Carlos, who was baptized most recently, was a media referral. As we were planning for the week, Hermana McAllister said, "We're going to get a referral every day this week!" Well guess what?! Almost every single day of the week, we got a referral. Sometimes 2 referrals! Which is crazy for our area!! So that was a HUGE miracle! I'm thankful for Hermana McAllister's faith and for God's tender mercies.

On Wednesday we had MLC! Usually it's at a church building, but President and Hermana Rodriguez had it in their home this time. The Spirit was so strong in the meeting and it was fun to see people I hadn't seen in a while! We talked about asking good questions and showing love. I got to drive to and from Oxnard with Sister Hayes. She is soo much fun!!!

On Thursday I had an exchange with Sister Ferre in our area! We laughed so hard together. She and I came into the mission at the same time and we're leaving at the same time, so we could relate with each other on that a lot. :,)

On Saturday, the Sisters' friend Johnny got baptized! They asked me to play the piano at the baptismal service, and it was so fun to be there! It was funny though because one of the songs that they had put on the program wasn't in the hymnbook or the primary book, and they didn't realize until right before the baptism. They found some online sheet music, so they had me read the music from a phone. I have never squinted so hard trying to play a song hahaha. It was rough. Also one of our friends, Armando, came to watch the baptism! That evening, we taught English Class and two of our referrals showed up, Diego and Jony! They are AWESOME!

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

I read a quote this week about questions. Questions are important. I think sometimes we mistake questions for doubts, and we worry that our testimony isn't strong enough. The truth is, it's okay not to know everything. We aren't supposed to know everything! If we did, we wouldn't need to have a mortal experience.

"Questions asked in an environment of faith unlock the power of God to answer them."

What matters isn't that we have questions, but that we are looking for the answers. When we go to God for answers and have a sincere desire to find the truth, we will find it!!

My invitation for you all is to find a new question that you want answered, and then look for that answer in an environment of faith.

I love all of you!

-Hermana DeMordaunt