MTC - Provo, UT- 11 days and counting!

The Sisters in our zone!

Sunday temple walk selfie!

Starší Smith, Starší Naegle, Starší Justesen, 
Starší Buckhoff, Starszy Ashworth, Starší McClain

Elders! Elders! Elders!

Our one and only Starszy!

I think we've taken this temple walk selfie every week we've been here!

This one is for you Tal and Soph!
(I'm sure Mom is shaking her head!)
(Yes I am.  Yes I am. - Madre D)

Good bye Dutch Elders!  Elders Oldroyd & Elder Mancer!

My favorite trio!

Love these girls like my own sisters!
We are so blessed to be together!
And we're still missing and praying for Sister Yochim!

Let it snow!
Prepping for Poland's weather!?

I ran into my buddy Elder Brandon Seamons!
We almost hugged!
It was so funny and sooooooooo good to see him!

Proper missionary pose!
Go get 'em in Texas Elder Seamons!

Starszy and our branch president's wife traded shoes!

"Starszy Ashworth & Siostra Kamp
are the best missionaries!"

Head band game with the Slovaks!
Comic relief is healthy!

Last zone temple trip together
- hard to believe we are leaving soon!

Siostra Barney & Siostra Kemp!

I love my companions!

Cześć Family and Friends!!!!

In officially 11 days I will step foot on Polish soil!! 

Ahhh!!! I am so excited but also nervous! 

One thing our teachers always say to us though is "nie bój się tzlko wierz," or in other words “Don't fear only believe!”  So I am believing as hard as I can right now!! 

One of the coolest things that happened this week was the BYU's Men Chorus came and did a Sunday devotional for us! It was absolutely incredibly! I am absolutely obsessed with music! As the choir began to sing I had chills all over! They sang an arrangement of one of my favorite songs Savior Redeemer of my Soul! It was so incredibly beautiful and the Spirit was so strong as they sang!! We were all so incredibly happy that we were able to have them come! 

Speaking of singing, I am so excited because I have the opportunity to sing in a small choir of missionaries on Christmas Eve! It is going to be so beautiful! We are performing in a nativity scene for Christmas Eve! I can't wait!!

One thing we have been working on this week is street contacting! We give a lesson in five minutes to someone on the street! Our teachers pretend to be people they actually met in the field. We go up to them and try to figure out what their needs are! This is a super important thing I have learned as a missionary! We are not focused on teaching lessons but rather on teaching people! They have their own struggles and problems in life but we know that the Gospel can help them, but we first have to focus on them as a person! Again it comes back to one of my favorite things ever: LOVE! 

We need to love the people! Something incredible one of my teachers Brat Kimball said was that we could be the worse public speakers in the world, but if we open our mouths and speak from the heart out of the love for that person then the Spirit will be there! My companion, Sister Kamp, also always says if we ask our investigator to be a hamburger instead of to be baptized in Polish if the Spirit is there then our investigator is going to know what we mean and feel the truthfulness of our message! She is the absolute best and she constantly leans over and is like, "hamburger" when I am frustrated! Each time we practice street contacting we get better and better and I am so excited to go do this in Poland!! 

We were able to Skype someone form Poland again this week for TRC! His name was Romuald and he is from Warsaw! We were able to understand him much better this time, even if we had to ask him to repeat a couple of things! He was so fun to talk to and was so excited for us to come to Poland! He knows our mission president in Poland super well and so he wrote down all our names to tell him with whom he spoke! When we hung up he wrote a cute note to the people who run TRC and we were able to see it! He said, " To ja dziękuję za fajną rozmowę z siostrami było bardzo extra (Thank you for the great conversation with the Sisters it was really great)!!" This literally made all of our days!! I am so excited to actually go to Poland and meet the incredible members there! 

We also were able to host this week! WAHOO! Hosting is where we go pick up the missionaries when they get dropped off! We take them to go get their books, name tag, drop of their luggage, and finally we take them to their classrooms!! It was so much fun to welcome all the new missionaries! It took me back to when I was first dropped off a few weeks ago! It was hard seeing them say goodbye to their families but it was great being able to pay it forward!! 

Our investigators are doing great!! Karina is being baptized next week and Sławek has almost committed to baptism!! We teach Leszek tonight and we are hoping to have him open up more to us and tell us why he became inactive!! 

Polish is coming along as well!! We are now learning little grammar things like command form and different prepositions to use during different points of time! One weird thing we learned this week is that if you want to say, "I want what you have" you have to say," I want that, what you have!" This is a little funky but we are starting to figure it all out! 

One last thing - the funniest thing ever happened this week! For some reason all of us Sisters woke up at 5 in the morning last Friday and Sister Barney all of a sudden sits straight up and says," We can say this…” and then begins to pray for all of us in Polish and when she finishes falls straight back down! We were all freaking out! We finally ask her if she is awake and she replies really annoyed, “Ya!" It turns out that she had a dream we were having district meeting in our room and she was asked to pray and then she was mad no one said amen! She finally realizes it isn't a dream anymore and starts laughing! We all just started dying!! It was the absolute best!!

I love you all and I am so grateful for this time of year and all of you!! I have learned so much from my mission so far and I can't wait to continue learning! 

Kocham Was!!

Siostra DeMordaunt

MTC - Provo, UT - Elder Ashworth's entry!

"When you need to take a break from the sisters!  Ha! Ha!"
(Had to add this because we've all been wondering how this elder is holding up among a district of all girls!  According to Raquel, "Don't worry about Elder Ashworth!  He can hold his own and more!" - Madre D)

MTC - Provo, Utah - New Comp! Sinterklaas! Sad goodbyes! Skype with Ola!

Putting out our shoes for Sinterklaas!
Siostra Kemp, me, Siostra Lerch,
Siostra Barney, Sisotra Dekker

Room #245!

Sinterklaas delivered!  We must have been good!

Our cutest new companion...Siostra Gretchen Dekker!
I love you Siostra Dekker! 

Good luck in Croatia Sister Mary Rougeaum!
I'm so glad I met you!
You are going to kill it there!

Good bye and good luck Elders!
(L to R) Elder Brown, Elder Sperry, 
Elder Halverson, Elder Seibach, Elder Renauld
Watch out Bulgaria here they come! Thanks for the laughs!

Best Zone EVER!
I'm so grateful for these people!

Note from Quinn & Steph:
This is the text sent from the MTC General Manager!
What are the perks of matching with Sister Kamp?
Chick-Fil-A Peppermint Shakes, a tour of the MTC Caferteria
and your family receiving a random text
with a picture of girls you crave to hug!
Thank you MTC General Manager!

Cześć Family and Friends!!!!!

This week was super fajny (cool) extra bombovy aplus or in other words FANTASTIC!!! 

Last week I mentioned being able to perform in front of the MTC and Branch Presidencies and Friday night we performed! It was so amazing! I absolutely love this time of year, especially the music. Being able to perform Christmas songs was so much fun! I was smiling so big the entire night! I cannot wait for Christmas in the MTC here! It is going to be absolutely incredible!! 

Saturday night was Sinterklaas Eve! This is a a Dutch tradition of leaving your shoes out and if you have been good Sinterklaas will leave little treats in your shoes! My family and I have celebrated this for as long as I can remember - its a tradition from my mom’s mission in the Netherlands! This year was my first Sinterklaas away from home! However, all the Polish Sisters and I decided to celebrate it! We all sat down that night and I told them the story of Sinterklaas under all of the Christmas lights hanging in our rooms! We then went and left a pair of shoes outside our door! When we woke up in the morning Sinterklaas had visited! It was so fun to see how excited all the Sisters were! When I told the story the previous night I said how grateful I was for all of them and there is nowhere else I would have rather spent my first Sinterklaas away from home! Seeing their faces made that statement so much more true! It will always be a Sinterklaas I will never forget! 

Sister Kamp and I got a new companion this week!!!  Sister Dekker!!! Sister Dekker was Sister Yochim's old companion and we found out Sunday she is our new companion!! We were so excited!  We love her!!

Sister Kamp and I also received the calling to be the new music coordinators for the zone! We are in charge of choosing hymns to sing in sacrament, teaching people to lead music, and having a musical number ready for every Sunday! I am so excited to have this calling! 

We also were able to watch the Christmas devotional put on by the first presidency which was absolutely amazing!

The saddest part of the week was loosing half our zone! All the Croatians, Slovenians, and Bulgarians left on Sunday and Monday! They sang the hymn, Come Come Ye Saints on Sunday in all their different languages! It was incredible to see them up there singing and to picture each of them individually and think of the influence they are going to have on the lives of people they come into contact with! I was so sad to see them all go! Sunday night all the Sisters met in a room and we all had small cups of sparkling cider and toasted to them going away!  We said tearful goodbyes! I am so sad to see them go but I am also so proud of all of them! They helped me adjust to missionary life here in the MTC - they were always so kind and supportive! I will be forever grateful for each and every one of them! However, we had four new people come into our zone yesterday - three Sisters and one Elder. We are so excited to have them!

On Monday the craziest thing ever happened! Sister Kamp and I both have striped dresses and mustard cardigans so of course we decided to match! We had people stop us all day and tell us we were matching or give us funny looks! However, the best thing ever happened because we decided to match! We were about to walk out of the cafeteria when the General Manager calls us over! We walk over, a little nervous we had done something wrong.  Then he asks, “Did you know that you two are matching?”  He then took a picture of all of us and sent it via text to our parents! We were so incredibly happy! Later that night we had.... CHICK-FIL-A!!!! We were like this day cannot get any better, but little did we know it was about to! The General Manager then comes by again and tells all of us Polish Sisters to follow him! We were given a tour of the kitchen and then he pulled out CHICK- FIL- A PEPPERMINT SHAKES!!! Can you say BEST DAY EVER?! He put whip cream and cherries on them and it was awesome! Sister Kamp and I were like, “Why haven't we matched sooner?" 

Our investigators have been progressing so well! It was our first time teaching with Sister Dekker this week and it was great! We listen and work with one another so well! Karina is now learning all the commandments and has kept her commitment to come to church with us every week, which is so good! She says she loves the people and the atmosphere there! We also had a major break through with Sławek! He wasn't keeping his commitment to pray and he wouldn't pray in front of us! Finally this past Saturday we had a huge discussion and found out why he really wasn't praying! We then bore testimonies of why prayer was important to us and he finally prayed in front of us! The nest lesson I was a little nervous he would say he hadn't prayed but when we asked if he had prayed he said yes! I wanted to hug him I was so excited! We talked about baptism and he is currently working on making the decision to be baptized! 

I have talked in my previous emails about TRC but this week was a different kind of TRC! We actually skyped with someone in Poland and gave them a lesson! We skyped with a women named Ola and she has been a member for a couple of years now! We taught her a lesson on faith and noticing God's hand in her life! She was so happy and so incredibly patient with us! We told her we were coming to Poland in 19 days and she just was so happy! It was an amazing experience and we get to do it again next week! Wahoo! I also realized I don't know Polish...like at all, but that is ok because when I bore my testimony the Spirit was there and she understood everything I was saying! It made me so motivated to continue learning Polish! 

The final thing I want to share is a lesson we had with a new investigator Leszek! He is a less active member and a former Branch President! We decided that what he needed was to pray and feel God's love for him! He shared how he didn't feel worthy to pray or to feel God's love! I felt prompted to share with him an experience in my life where I was lost and didn't feel like I was good enough to feel God's love! As I began to speak this incredible feeling of love and peace filled me and the room. I became emotional in front of him! After I finished he had become emotional too and said he felt this dziwne (weird) feeling! We explained that is the Holy Ghost! He then prayed in front of us and thanked us so much for meeting with him! It was one of the most amazing experiences ever!!

Polish is one crazy language but also one incredible language too! We have learned all the tenses now: present, future, past, and conditional! Conditional is a little funky because we basically create new words with the verbs in either third person plural or singular in past tense and by adding "by" conjugated! For example if I wanted to say "we would like", it would be the verb chcieć (to want) and then followed by "by" in the we form! It would look like this: chciałybyśmy! Talk about crazy!! I am loving every second of it though! 

I just wanted to end with a little thought! The Church's new campaign for Christmas is, "A Savior is Born!" We did an activity on Sunday where we answered the phrase, "He was born so I can be…”! One of the Elders said ,”He is born so I can be a missionary!" 

This is so incredibly true! 

I am so grateful he was born and for the opportunity I have to be a missionary at this time and to share my love for Christ! If you haven't watched the video I really recommend it! - Oh and for fun you can put on Polish Subtitles!!  Do it!

Love you all so much!!

Kocham Was!!

Siostra DeMordaunt

MTC - Provo, Utah - Text message from Sister Simkins

This was sent via text from Sister Simkins 
(a previous missionary in Poland!)!
She was working with them in the MTC
- acting as an investigator!
Made our night!  Thank you Kylee!
-Madre D

MTC - Provo, Utah - Thanksgiving in the MTC

Thanksgiving service hair accessories!

These girls are so much fun!
We never take ourselves too seriously!
Which is a good thing!  Because it can get intense here!

The lights are turned on at the MTC on Thanksgiving!
It was magical!  I was so happy!

Thanksgiving Feast from Sister Kamp's boyfriend!
We were grateful!

We both received Christmas PJs from our families!

Thank you Santa for finding me in the MTC!

I loved knowing that I was matching my family tonight!

We decorated our room for Christmas to make it feel more like home - I had to climb on top of the shelves!

We were laughing so hard!

Doesn't it look awesome?! 

We have the best "dom" (home) in the MTC!

Sinter Kamp is on the bottom bunk and I am on the top!

I slept through my alarm once and she punched my mattress so I would get up and turn it off!  Ha ha!

We vacuumed instead of cleaned bathrooms 

for our service day!  Wahoo!

Talk about a Christmas miracle!

Our vaccums names were Herbie and Flo!
They do their best to make everything happy here!  LOL

We look at your poster every day Mom!
Polish or bust is right!
Sometimes I feel my head might bust from learning it!!!

Temple walk!
So refreshing!  It started snowing!

Elder Brown and Siostra Kemp!
(He is one of our favorite elders here!) 

Cheesy smiles!  Our favorite pose!

Sister Rollin & Sister Mary Rougeaum (Croatian sisters)!
And of course the never-ending-photobombing elders!

Elders in our zone!

Cześć Family and Friends!!!

I have so much to tell all of you this week!!! 

I will start with my Thanksgiving! Oh my goodness Thanksgiving at the MTC is the absolute best! We were able to hear from Elder Oaks! He gave the most amazing talk! It was incredible to have all the missionaries stand when he entered the room! He brought his grandkids and they performed! His daughter is named Jenny Oaks Baker and she is a famous violinist! She was incredible and performed the song Amazing Grace! 

The power of music is so incredibly strong and I felt the Spirit as she played that song! I love the lyrics, "I once was lost but not I am found, was blind but now I see!" I know there have been times in my life when I was lost but I am grateful that I was able to get through those times and finally open my eyes to how incredible this Gospel is! 

At the end of his talk we all began to sing I Believe In Christ! As we began to sing, everyone gradually stood up and we all sung with all our might that we do believe in Christ! It was one of the most incredible experiences so far of my mission! 

For those of you who were wondering if I had a good Thanksgiving meal..... I DID!! The food was so so yummy!! We also got to watch a movie, 17 Miracles, and it was amazing!

Later that day we did the service project I mentioned last week! We made meals for families in need! In total we made over 350,000 meals - the most that has ever been done before! It was so incredible to give back on a day that is full of gratitude! 

We then had a closing devotional full of videos about different things to be grateful for and funny musical performances such as yodeling and the rubber ducky song! 

When we walked outside the entire MTC was lit up with Christmas lights! IT WAS THE BEST DAY EVER!!! We all ran outside and took pictures and sang Christmas songs! It was beautiful!! I will forever remember this Thanksgiving! My heart was full the entire day!!

I had the opportunity to sing in sacrament meeting as a quartet! I sang with Sister Mary Rougeau, Elder Pickett, and Elder Burnett! It was incredibly special to be able to sing with Sister Rougeau because she is leaving to go to Croatia this week! I have become so incredibly close with her so I am so grateful I was able to sing with her before she left! It was also really special because Sister Kamp played violin and Sister Rollins played the piano! Sister Kamp and I talked about doing a vocal and violin duet the first week and so we were so excited to be able to do it! We sang the hymn Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, it is one of my favorite hymns of all times! 

However, before we started to sing we found out some news about Sister Yochim! I mentioned before that she had become sick and we were hoping she would get better! However, she instead took a turn for the worst and was in and out of the Emergency Room this weekend! She stayed with one of the counselors in our branch presidency the whole weekend! Before Sacrament meeting we found out the sad news that Sister Yochim would be going home! We all burst into tears! Sister Yochim has had a huge influence on all of us so we were all devastated to hear she was going home! However, in the midst of all the sadness this incredible peaceful feeling came over me that this was a part of God's plan and that she would return to finish her mission once she was better! Although I am sad she is gone I have no doubt that she is going to come back! 

As we sang our song in sacrament I sang the hymn for her! The Spirit was so strong and I again felt that same peace! We said goodbye to her on Tuesday! We all cried again and hugged! As she was leaving she spoke Polish to all of us and bore her simple testimony in Polish that she knows this is God's plan for her! I have never met someone so incredibly strong as she is. Like I wrote, I know that this is a part of God's plan for her and I am grateful for the time I was able to spend with her! 

Another incredible opportunity I have coming up is to sing in front of the MTC presidency and all the branch presidencies! I was selected to sing with 50 other missionaries and perform a small Christmas pageant! I have loved rehearsing for it and we sing tomorrow night for all of them! 

Along with this, this week has had incredible progress with our investigators! We finally committed Karina to be baptized next month! When we got out of the lesson Sister Kamp and I literally jumped around screaming and hugging each other! 

We also gained two new investigators! We have the opportunity to portray investigators and we get to teach each other! We teach Sister Lerch and Sister Dekker so they are our two new investigators! 

We have also began to experience going into a lesson with one plan and then being directed to teach a completely different one! This happened with Sławek this week and instead of panicking, we knew exactly what to say! It was such an incredible experience to be able to be directed by the Spirit to know what to teach! 

Polish is coming along! We learned all our cases! AHHH!!! I remembered when I was learning Spanish I memorized conjugations to the song Ice Ice Baby. I figured I could do it again with cases! I wrote an entire rap for all the cases and memorized it! I now can conjugate every single case thanks to my silly little rap and I have begun teaching it the rest of our district! It helps so much!! I told it to our teachers and they just laughed and one of our teachers recorded it to put it on FaceBook! 

We have also learned how to turn verbs into nouns and how to conjugate two clauses with two different subjects! I didn't quite understand the two clause thing and so I spoke a sentence trying to say, "I want you to understand' without using the two clause with two subjects form and I instead said to our male teacher, "I want you, you understand!" I was so incredibly embarrassed and everyone laughed, but I was bound to make a mistake like that sooner or later! I am beginning to understand the language more and more though and can now understand most of what my teachers say!

I just wanted to end by saying how grateful I am for this Gospel.  I know that God has a plan for all of us! We have been hearing about some of the scary stuff that has been going on around the world and although it is scary I know that God is there and has a plan no matter what happens! 

I am grateful for you all and I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! 

Kocham Was!!!!

Siostra DeMordaunt