The cast is off!

So the big news of the week is that my cast is off!! It was supposed to come off on Friday but they scheduled it in Saratoga Springs (unbeknkownst to me) so they had to reschedule for today. But it is off, my hand looks disgusting and I am so happy to have it off. So yes, Vancouver Canada, you can have me now. I also have travel plans and I leave Wednesday Morning directly to Vancouver. You can always tell when a 9-weeker gets travel plans because it'sa a real party, with pictures and everything. So there was lots of screaming for joy when I found out that it was a direct flight and a lot of screaming in frustration when the Taiwan missionaries found out that they have a layover in Michigan. Oops, sorry I don't have to fly for 20 hours with a layover in Michigan. I guess it just means they have a few more hours to cope with the fact that for the next 16 months we will be expected to speak Chinese, hang out with crazy Asians and preach the good word 24/7. It's going to be beautiful.

So other than that exciting news, it's been a pretty normal week. My very talented, scriptorian of a comp played the violin with our roommate for Relief Socity this Sunday. Mary Edmunds spoke and she was hilarious. She really encouraged all of us to stay in shape and keep tabs on the elders we were interested in so that at the mission reuinion... Little did she know that she was talking to a 21 year old spinster sister (the new name for sisters 21 and older) and that, no. I will not be interested in elders 3 years younger than me. Thanks, though. But she was still very inspirational.

Also, yesterday i had a very humbling lesson and i got pretty discouraged about how unprepared I felt with one week left. My teacher shared a scripture with me and I thought it was pretty awesome. Alma 26:3- what stood out to me was the fact that this gospel is a blessing and will bring you out of the darkness. Also that I can be made to be God's tool but that does not mean that He expects me to be perfect. I just hope that my trainer doesn't expect me to be fluent in chinese because I am not. at all. But I will continue to try and as long as people can feel my testimony and love for them, that's a step in the right direction.

I heard about the Boston bombings this morning on my field trip to the doctors. Horrible. All of us are praying for everyone affected by the tragedy. This world needs the comfort and light of the Gospel so desparately.

I love you all, I miss you a lot when I fall into bed exhausted every night. To all my BYU friends- Good luck with finals!!

And to miss Olivia... HAPPY SWEET SIXTEEN!! Watch out boys, she's available now and such a babe!!!

Keep kicking Satan in the face and someone feed Tuffy!

Best,

Sister DeMordaunt

Shoutouts-

Ludlows- you are too good to me. The nutella and pita was such a tender mercy that day. Inspired.

Sister Brooks- Expect a letter coming your way!

#sorrynotsorry

ok hi family!!!

two more weeks until I am out in Vancouver Canada and I actually have to save some real souls! Quote of the week as I am laying in bed and all of us siisters are talking... so i'm just sitting there thinking about being a missionary and say "Being a missionary is awesome, you have like no responsibility except the salvation of souls." So all the sisters have been giving me a hard time that I think salvation of souls is nbd and whatevs. It's not. But I am so happy that I don't have finals next week. But yes, I am so excited to be out in the field. This next week is pretty exciting. Thursday we get our travel plans and Friday I get my cast off! I get two hands!!!! I keep thinking, if i can handle the MTC with one hand, I can do ANYTHING with two hands. Probably a little too optimistic but it really feels like I can do anything with two hands now.

I loved loved loved general conference. Sitting in a hard chair was a BREEZE after being so used to sitting in class for 6 hours a day. I am not going to lie, I teared up a little everytime they talked about mission work. I hope everyone thought about me when they said the word missionary. #sorrynotsorry. I don't think i have a favorite talk yet but I did have a really cool experience. So on Saturday, Sis. Chao, oborn, Gagon and I decided to walk to te temple in between sessions. The sun was shining, it was warm out and we were literally the only ones at the temple. We all picked a bench and soaked up the sun in silence. After about 20 minutes, a mom and her two little girls cam eto the temple. My first thought was that I was so impressed that she would bring her kids to the temple but then as I kept on watching, I was so dissapointed because she was on her phone the entire time, either talking on the phone or instagramming (that girl has got to pick a filter for her temple insta faster). I thought it was so sad that she lost such a great teaching moment about the temple with her kids. Then on Sunday i noticed that there were so many talks to parents about turning off techonology to spend time with their kids and I thought about how true that was.

Another really neat moment this week was when it was confirmed to me again that missionaries are so inspired. We got three new chinese disrticts (holla!!) and every sister companionship was assigned a sister two "fellowship." Sister Gagon and I were assigned a girl that I had run into earlier that day and I just got a really bad first impression from her. I wasn't too stoked to go "friend" her but I did as I was told and we went to see her Friday night. We gave her a treat and all of a sudden I just started giving her one of my pep talks. I really don't know what happened but I know that they weren't my words and all of a sudden she was crying and I was consoling and she was having a change of heart. 45 minutes later, as Sister Gagon and I walked away, she turned to me and said that she knew that was inspired because I was the only one that could say what I did to that girl and she needed it, badly. It wassuch an inspired conversation and proved to me again, that the Lord knows each one of us and seriously takes care of his missionaries.

Mom, you are a SAINT. I was so so so grateful for the priesthood shopping session. I loved EVERYTHING and they all fit perfectly. And they are all perfect mission skirts. Why did I even try to do my own mission clothes shopping? All my best stuff is from you.

Also, Bekah, I pulled a page out of your book and waxed. It needed to happen. I haven't shaved since i've gotten here and people were starting to wonder if "all naturale" was my thing. For the record, it's not. But it helps to ward off those baby elders. But now my legs are smooth as can be so watch out. Our english sisters did the honors of pulling the wax strips. One loved it, the other was disgusted. I'm a little sad to see them leave, they really kept us well fed with all their treats from their moms but it's probably better for our figures that they are gone.

Anyway, I think that's about it for the week. With Melissa Stewart and Sam gone, I think it's really my time to leave the MTC now. Two more weeks! I'll just keep kicking Satan in the face!

Sister DeMordaunt

Shoutouts:

Kris Pattee- best YW leader ever. That was the cutest package and i've already eaten through the min t m&ms. oops.

Courtney Bingham- soon to be Duffy! Big congrats!!!!!

A God of Miracles and the girl in the red cardigan.

Happy Easter or Fuhuojie Kaile in Mandarin!!

Well one thing is certain, God is good, always. I still can't believe that I saw my wonderful wonderful family on Easter. What a miracle. Just for all those people reading the blog, THIS WAS NOT PLANNED. I had no idea my family was even in town and obviously Ben was prompted to convince my dad to do a drive by (yes, a drive by, dad felt like he was committing a serious criminal offense) past the temple to see if they could spot me. Apparently Ben saw me in my red cardigan, told dad to pull over and i could seriously hear our car from a mile away. Everyone jumped out, i wouldn't let go of Ben, and we took a million pictures. I had to force Dad to hug me and he had to force mom to leave me but it was so so worth it. ou all looked so tan and so good. Ben, you still need to put some meat on those bones. Loved seeing all of you and i think i might really have to start getting used to not seeing family every other week. the blessing of having surgery on the mission.

I also loved seeing the Ludlows at the temple taking their family picture and so excited for Josh to get his mission call. you are going to be great out there! The hummus was the treat of the century and made me miss jerusalem so much. I will never think of Easter the same way after an Easter in Jerusalem.

So besides seeing my two favorite families, Easter was such a spiritual experience. Bishop Causse came and spoke to us and took the sacrament with 3,000 missionaries. I just sat there and had to smile as I thought of where i was last year and how 3,000 missionaries are at the mtc preparing to bring others to Christ. last year i was at the garden of gethsemane and the garden tomb but this year i will inviting others to come to the door of the garden tomb to learn about how they can recieve eternal life and to the garden of gethsemane to learn of how Christ suffered for them so that they could repent and be with their families forever. I feel like in that respect, i have come full circle and i know the Lord was smiling on the MTC that easter morning seeing the biggest wave of missionaries, the world has ever seen. One of the things i loved about Bishop Causse's talk was that he talked about how love is the most motivating principle that we have. If we learn more of God's love through studying the Atonement and then are able to share that love with the investigator, they will be motivated to come unto Christ on their own. It was extremely powerful.

Sheri Dew was our evening devotional speaker and everyone knows i'm a big fan of her. Anyone for woman's rights working at the UN has got my vote (shout out to all my women's studies minor friends!... crickets). She also spoke about the atonement and how we need to learn how to listen to the promptings of the spirit. also very powerful.

President and Sister Baker said goodbye to us on Sunday because they are leaving for china until after we leave the MTC. He is an amazing man and i don't think i could have gotten through the mtc alive without him. What a great leader.

oh and we also had two new sisters move into our room this week. It's amazing that 6 girls are even legally allowed to share one room. It has to be some fire hazard or something with all those straighteners, blow dryers and curling irons on all at once. But we make it work. Barely. The sisters are going to the Burmingham mission and will only know me as Sister Lobster Claw (as some elders are prone to call me) because they will leave before i get the claw off. Speaking of, I get it off April 12!!

Also, a huge thanks to Junko Papenfuss for the doughnuts! My district loves you so much for them and it was so thoughtful! I need your address!!

Love you all, love the Lord and love this work. God is good, always and i'm reminded of that everyday. I'll just keep kicking Satan in the face.

Sister ;DeMordaunt

PS

someone feed Tuffy.

 

Promptings of the Spirit

hi family!!!

this week has been so good! I know mom has been really worried and please just keep worrying because it means i get dear elders! You would think i would get a few more letters of love after surgery but i just go t a few from mom this last week. But it's fine because this week was so good!

so Tuesday and Wednesday was mostly spent in the sickbay which we renamed "daycare" because my comps would just drop me off and then i would just sleep and eat crackers and drink gatorade. best kept secret of the mtc is the daycare beds. they are heavenly and i was always so sad to leave them at 5 when daycare closed. i'm still typing and writing with one hand for a few more weeks but i'll keep you posted. also, i am completely off meds. i don't understand people that do drugs. being high is not fun at all!!! so i'm glad to be off of them, i'll just take a tylenol if it gets bad at night. Also, i got a package from Elder Reed's family because apparently he told them he broke my hand which for the record he did not. But i have more starburst jelly beans and pink peeps then i could ever want.

Cool story of the week:

we were in trc teaching a girl, Su Jeimei and of course i only understood about a tenth of what they were saying. suddenly i got a really strong prompting to ask her ifall her family were membersd of the church. she said sahe was baptized at 16 and only her mom and her were members. the other day i had been reading DC 31 about missionary work and so i told her that by volunteering at the mtc and by serving a mission (which she was perparing to do) would bless not only her current family but her future family. it was amazing to me that i had no idea what was going on in the lesson but i knew what i had to say and bear my testimony about.

Also, on Sunday, the best day of the week, we had awesome speakers all day and everything had to do with learning the promptings of the spirit. and then dad wrote me about that same topic. my comp and i had an awesome discussion yesterday about how havuing the spirit with us is literally having the third member of the godhead with us and we choose to have the spirit with us or not and it's the atonement that enables us to have the spirit with us. Joseph smith said that the most important skill we can learn on this earth is how to learn how to seek, recieve and act on the spirit. I think that is so true and i think the lord might be telling me that i need to work on that a little bit.

I really feel like the lord has blessed me with the gift of tongues this week. My comp always says she is so impressed this week about how i've been able to say words that she can't even remember in lessons and i truly belive that the lord is giving me this blessing as i try to speak the language and learn how to write with my right hand so i can record those spiritual promptings. Obviously the lord has a work that needs to be done and i'll do all i can to move that work along.

Another Sunday higlight was seeing so many of my friends on my sunday walk. i literally started crying as i saw Erin Greenwood. So happy to see everyone, so encouraging that so many girls are going on missions!

Shoutouts:

Randi and Travis- Baby??

Mom- seriously, you are the best. also, sam already emailed her mom for my surgery dress. it was a hit and i've already worn in twice in one week. Thank you so so so much. have fun in California!

Dad- miss you, thanks for your letters every week! They are inspired.

Beks- apparently my blog needs to be updated

Sarah Smith- a long letter is in the works. Hang in there, babe!

#Asianproblems

so the big news of the week is that I made it through surgery alive and the lobster claw is just a little bit fatter. Yesterday was definitely the best day at the mtc. I saw mom and liv, as we were pulling up and of course mom came prepared with a giant bag of clothes which I'm already taking full advantage of today. After a quick photo op with the broken hand, liv, ben, and thehospital gown, i was wheeled off to a surgical room. I seriously felt like I was in Grey's Anatomy (shout out to Kelly Sprunt!). They put the gas mask on me and next thing i knew I was waking up in my old room at the hospital with my hand wrapped up in the lobster claw again. My 1st counselor in the branch presidency in the leading cardioligist (aka pretty high up on the medical todem pole) and he called the nurses to tell them I could stay as long as I wanted. So mom, liv, Ben, grandma lynne and grandpa dave all hung out at the hospital, feeding me apple sauce, getting updates on everyone's life in the last month and taking to bekah and dad on the phone. Best day ever. There were definitely moments in the hospital room that made being on a mission and breaking my hand all worth it.

After another teary goodbye from mom, i had to go back to the mtc and i literally just slept from 3:30-8 and then back asleep at 10:30. so ya, breaking a bone at the mtc is the best. Then today was our pday so i was dropped off at daycare (aka the mtc health clinic) where i slept through the day again. Percaset is such a blessing and curse. I takes the pain away but makes me naseated and sleepy but it's so worth it when i have two pins sticking out of my finger.

so other than the surgery, this last week was pretty uneventful besides the fact that i started trending #asianproblems in our district. I don't know if I should be proud or embarrassed about this. But we have one ABC in our district and she and i always say #asianproblems when any of us (esp Sis Chao, the asian) does something super asian. just consider it cultural preparation.

Also, on saturday we taught at TRC and they said that my chinese is really improving! Slow baby steps but still progress. And then in the afternoon we taught Li Dixiong, one of our investigators, the restoration which we have been avoiding like the plague. the spirit was so strong as we told him the 1st vision. I think it was our best lesosn so far.

I'm realizing that it really isn't the worst thing in the world to brek my finger at the MTC. Maybe that's the drugs talking right now but there is seriously so much love and support from people in and out of the MTC. I have loved everyone's emails and letters, the cookies from the Ludlows and seeing my family was the absolute best.

I'm sorry I haven't been able to email everyone back that wrote me letters of encouragement but I promise they meant so much to me. Typing with one hand is harder than you would think.

I know that the Lord is shaping me into who he wants me to be, he just had to cut me down a little bit (or a lot bit) before he could build me up the way He knows I can become.

I'm just going to keep kicking Satan in the face!

Best,

Sister D

Surgery

so here's the update on the finger...

I HAVE TO HAVE SURGERY!!!

i didn't cry when i broke it but i cried all day on sunday because apparently lortab makes me super emotional. i'm on percaset right now which just makes me jittery but i prefer that to crying and naseated. apparently the break is "unstable" so they have to put pins in it and maybe even screws. I'm calling my current cast the lobster claw because it's this giant pink thing with just two fingers and my thumb sticking out. i'll tell you the story about how i broke it after lunch. and i'll send pictures of the lobster claw too. an elder told me today that in six months from now I will look back on this and know that i am 100% committed to my mission because I can make it through broken bones and my first ever surgery on my mission. Apparently i just need to be humbled a little bit more.

so surgery is on monday, i won't know what time until friday when they make the appointment. I'm not going to lie, I'm a little scared. so if Ben or Melissa or mom could be there I would really appreciate it. I'll send the details later. I might just hop on the computer really quickly on Friday to tell you the details of when and where for monday. also, none of my sweaters or blazers will fit over this cast so if someone could send me a chunky sweater or just something warm that can fit over the cast that would be great.

they are doing the surgery to put pins and maybe screws in my finger and then i will have a cast over that for four weeks. then they will take the pins out and recast it and then they will start to do therapy to get mobility back. hopefully this doesn't set me ack in terms of going into the mission field.

I'm really trying to stay strong. I only cried on ssunday and I'm blamning that on the lortab and seeing a certain someone drive by the temple as I was walking back to the mtc. please pray. and pray that my companion can handle me these next few weeks. She's been an angel, especially to someone who hates getting or asking for help.

i recieved a priesthood blessing on sunday night and I know I am supposed to be here. I know I can get through all of this but it won't be as easy as I thought. I am optimistic though and I know this is just the Lord molding me into who I am supposed to become.

I seriously loved talking to mom and dad on saturday night and it was the best field trip ever. it was seriously Miss Frizzle style fieldtrip. After the ER our driver had to go to Smith's (on a saturday night. it was packed and I was a little high on drugs and stoked to be there) and then we went to rite-aid for more drugs. it was a party. Sunday was rough. Like, toughest day here so far. I just keep telling myself I can do this with the Lord's help and I know I can.

so yes, I broke my finger trying to spike the volleyball. Elder Reed set it for me and my finger just got caught in the ball. He seriously feels so bad but I'm glad it was him out of all people because he's the elder that I seriously think of like a little brother to me.

Please keep sending me dear elders. They get me through the day. Mom, thanks so so much for the cupcakes, my district loved them. and the trader joes package came at the perfect time. I won't be writing very many letters back just because I'm still learning to write with my right hand but I'll really try to. Also, I'm sorry if this letter isn't very funny and doesn't make any sense. I'm pretty jittery on the drugs and it's a little hard to think and type with one hand. Pray that I don't get held back at the MTC.

also, tell Chochy that I have LOVED her letters! I think she wins for best letter writer. She is so dedicated to writing me letters every week and during the week too. I'll try to write her a letter. also, new mission rule is that you can email anyone that's not in your field and so I think none family members can email me now if you want to send them my email address. check with bekah thought about that. i can only read them on tuesday. so next tuesday you'll be getting an update on how the surgery went. mom, if you could call either the doctor or the mtc if a family member can be there I would really appreciate that. I love my companion but obviously i would love a family member there instead.

ok, i'll try to get on later today too.

 

i love you all! I'm just going to keep kicking satan in the face! hopefully i can call you after the surgery, but i might be pretty out of it.

sis. d

The Last Supper

Mere + Meliss

 Mere + Ryan + Chochy 

 Camille + Mere + Scott

 Bekah H. + Mere

 Mere + Kenton

 the first handshake

 Mere + Court

Mere + Aunt Chris