Week 17: 4 Months!

Hi loves!

I hit my 4 month mark this week! Ahh! 

What a hard week. haha Luckily it flew by! I have been down in the dumps with the worst cold ever! I've had this horrible cough for the entire transfer and this week my body literally just shut down. I went out and kept going like normal one day (let's be honest, if I can dance on a broken bone then I can do ANYTHING), but unfortunately it is pretty hard to be a missionary when you are sick. You have to hug and kiss people, chat with them, teach them, and you have to look nice and inviting while doing it! My cough is the opposite of nice and inviting. haha So the next day I stayed home to rest and try to reach the doctor to get some medicine... but I couldn't sleep knowing there was so much that needed to be done, so I deep cleaned the house. haha Rough week.

Joe Jensen, this one's for you! My cashier at Target last Monday was named "Decourtney." I took a picture so there is proof that I officially do not have the most ghetto name in the world. (People, get on Youtube and watch "100 Most Ghetto Names." Apparently "Courtney" is more ghetto of a name than "Watermelon-aniqua." hahah) 

I finished reading the quad this week! It took me 4 weeks to read the Book of Mormon, and three months total for the quad. Best feeling ever! Can't wait for the General Conference Ensign to come out!

This week we had Interviews with President! President Pingree is the most Christlike man I have ever met. Wow. He said EXACTLY what I needed to hear and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I am a bit of a perfectionist (HA) and he helped me understand that I really am doing a good job as a missionary.

So one of the families we teach is X and her husband, and her brother E and his wife, and all of their kids. We only stopped by for a quick lesson, but it was a miracle that their kids were already in bed and that all four were home from work, so I followed the prompting to teach them the Evangelio lesson, which covers Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost and Endure to the End. When I started talking about the Gift of the Holy Ghost, E's head snapped up and he had this huge look of shock on his face. He and X spoke super rapidly for a couple seconds and he turned to me and said, "We are members of your church!" WHAT?!? No wonder they were such golden investigators. hahah X and E were baptized as youth in Honduras, but went inactive. X came to church on Sunday! They will be a huge support in helping their spouses and children join the church. So crazy!

The story above is the reason it is so interesting to be a stateside spanish speaking missionary. South American missionaries go and baptize 100 people at a time, but many of those people never go to church again, and then they come to the United States and can't find the church because they don't speak English. There are SO MANY people here searching for the truth but "know not where to find it!" And they're already baptized and just need to be reactivated! Ahh! 

One day we were walking down River Oaks and we saw this cute old man sitting in front of his house, so we went over and said hi. He is this old, leathery, skinny, blind man with two teeth.  He is from from Mexico. He had us pull up some chairs and grab some water and sit and chat with him. He was SO sweet. I absolutely LOVED talking to him. Then we sang "Grand Eres Tu" for him and he just started sobbing and praising God. It was one of the best experiences of my mission so far. If all I do on my mission is help people feel like he felt, then that is enough.

One day we were trying to visit people and no one was answering their door, per usual. It was 8:30 so we had half an hour and no one to talk to! We have a saying in the mission, "If you are craving a mango, go get a mango." Hermana Burnham was craving tater tots, so we drove over to Sonic. haha! We ended up meeting this cool kid and had a really great conversation with him about the church! 

Church as a missionary is so crazy. I can't wait to come home and actually sit and enjoy church. haha We stand at the doors and greet everyone that walks in, then we ran up to the stand to sing prelude music with the ward choir, then we ran down to sit with our investigators and less-actives that came (YAY!), then we whispered to them everything that was going on, then we ran up to sing another song with the choir, then we finished whispering everything for the rest of sacrament meeting, then we herded them all into the next room for class, then we ran and did singing time in junior primary, then we ran and herded them to Relief Society and Elders Quorum, then we ran and led singing time in senior primary, then we ran and made a list for relief society to sign up to feed us, then we ran and talked to the Stake President, then we ran and picked up the food a member made for us out in her car, then we ran back in and tried to get all of the right kids back to the right parents and find our investigators, and then we have to thank everyone who signed up to feed us and say goodbye to everyone. It is MADNESS.

 It was so amazing to have our investigator W at church! He is so ready! He loved Sacrament meeting, and the Stake President found us after Sunday School and told us to get him a baptismal date right after church, so we were stoked! But when we walked in to the end of Elder's Quorum, we found him totally surrounded by people all trying to talk to him and our ward mission leader was trying to pry open the doors of the baptismal font... LITERALLY. Needless to say, he is overwhelmed and will not be setting a date any time soon.

Funnies of the Week:

Passed a house when we were tracting this week that had FAKE FLOWERS planted in their front yard. Yep.

Ask an Argentine to say "February." 

Saw a car with a Utah license plate and a BYU Alumni sticker and literally wanted to jump out of my car and hug them.

I love you all so much! Thank you for your love and support!

Haz lo justo!

Hermana McOmber

"DECOURTNEY"

Finished the Quad!

Toy Story clouds :)

First time to Starbucks was on my mission!  haha

Service in our mission t-shirts!  This week we get to plant flowers :)

These billboards are right by our apartment 

so we pass them every day

Week 16: Happy Easter!

Hi loves!

What a week! It was an absolute rollercoaster!

This week we had EXCHANGES! Ahh! I LOVE exchanges! I learn so much! They are the best! Hermana Knappen came and spent the day with me in our area and it was crazy because I had so much responsibility - chose who to teach and when, chose what to teach them, had to remember how to get there, had to introduce them, and participate in the lesson, and that night was correlation so I got to report to our ward mission leader about our area! MIRACLE MIRACLE MIRACLE. I loved it.  

We got to visit the old folks home this week and I just loved it. They are so cute and it is always the highlight of my week. They are hilarious! Dick is extremely smart and logical, Sis can't hear a thing, and John is a comedian, so their conversations with each other are the funniest things I've ever heard. I just laugh so hard the whole time. 

We are just seeing the craziest miracles every day! My favorite was one day we were walking down River Oaks and we passed a house that has a huge gate (never been able to knock on the door) and the family was having a party outside. A woman called out to us, "Quiere un Coke?" She runs over and opens the gate and lets us in, gives us some soda, introduces us to the whole family, and asks when we can come back to teach them. AHH!

On that same street during one of my first weeks here a car stopped us and the woman told us to teach her daughter Stefani in the "casa ladrillo con palmas." We misheard her and thought she said "casa amarillo" (yellow house with palm trees instead of brick house with palm trees," so we hadn't been able to find her this whole time! We finally found her and as we get talking with her we find out she is J's, our recent convert's, cousin! What?! haha We wanted to show her the "Because of Him" movie (look it up, so good) but their internet wasn't working, so her mom piled us and the whole family into their car and drove down the street to her sister's house to watch it (a house where we had tried knocking but they weren't interested). So we ended up teaching quadruple the people we had planned for and they all love us and want us to come back! AHHHHH!!!

Saturday was the Relief Society activity where I taught dance!  They changed it at least five times and then a few hours before called and changed it again. And then the live band cancelled an hour after that. AY AY AY. I came to find out that there is a "missionary veil" where I literally could not remember ANY music from before my mission or ANY dance steps to teach them. I literally prayed for my mind to be opened and the veil to be taken so I could accomplish this task, and I was able to remember one song name for cha cha, waltz, and swing, and three steps for each. haha! I made it work! A few people came and it turned out fun, and the best part is that it is over. :)

Easter Sunday was... so different. haha They didn't even refer to it being Easter Sunday once at church! None of the lessons were on it or anything! So it didn't really feel like Easter. But it was a really good Sunday! (Can you believe all of the kids here got school off for "Good Friday"?!)

 Ana and David had us over for dinner and they invited their friends Tania and Miguel. It was SO HARD to keep up with that conversation! Ana- Venezuela, David- Mexico, Miguel- Cuba, Tania- Spain! All different accents! All different words! All different speeds! AHH! But talk about member missionaries! Ana and David casually directed the whole night's conversation to the church and popped in the restoration video for them to see, and we had the best discussion ever! THIS IS HOW MISSIONARY WORK SHOULD BE!

Funnies of the week:

We were sitting next to J during church yesterday and he was motioning for his cute little cousin A to come sit with us, but she furrowed her brow and shook her finger at him. haha! If anyone will shape this kid up it will be his one year old cousin!

Saw an extremely attractive, tall, ginger, RM yesterday at church (cue hispanic finger flip) and I literally forgot my name. Can't wait to be the most awkward RM ever!

We had this super good lesson with one of our golden investigators W, and I had been trying all lesson to say something. I finally got to bear my testimony before the lesson ended. I was pouring my soul out to this guy, the spirit was so strong, and it felt so good to be able to express myself in Spanish... and then he cuts me off and asks if my blue eyes are real. hahah They are all obsessed with blue eyes. "Si, W, son real. No, no son contactos." haha I tried.

I love you all so much! Thank you for your love and prayers!

Hermana McOmber

Ice cream with investigators and members.  They get a different topping for each time they read their scriptures, prayed, and told their family members they loved them.

Cute kittens at a member's home

Exchanges with Hermana Knappen...loved it!

We do service projects here every Thursday morning.

Cute little friend wrote "Best Missionary" on my hand

 in glow-in-the-dark ink

Every dinner appointment we are given a Coke!  

Coke in one hand - Book of Mormon in the other!

Making Tamales 

Beautiful sunrise right outside our apartment

Someone gave us a beer lollipop - haha

Love making food!

Relief Society activity - 50's Theme.  

I got to teach a few steps of swing, chacha and waltz to these wonderful women!  So much fun!

Fatima painted my nails - haha

Happy Easter

Week 15: I love being a missionary!

Package from my Young Women!!

Hi loves!

First of all... YOUNG WOMEN! Ahh! Thank you so much for my package! I was dying! I absolutely loved all of the letters! I am putting them all up on my wall! I love you all and miss you all so much!

This week was, honestly, really hard. I have learned and grown so much though! We have been working really hard, but none of our investigators have been progressing as much as we would have hoped (agency is the worst. haha) It's shown me that missionary work is SO much more than baptizing. My role right now in this area is laying the groundwork; finding new people, getting them started. It can be hard because since you don't see the fruits of your labors in the vineyard, you wonder if you did any good; but every tree must start out as a seed, planted and nurtured, weeded and watered, and it takes time to grow. However, we have seen SO MANY MIRACLES the last two weeks. People have literally chased US down the street! haha We have a couple investigators with whom there have been absolutely unbelievable miracles, and it is amazing to see the difference of how ready they are. 

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. It is the hardest thing I have ever done, but I would not trade it for anything! Putting on this name tag every day and knowing that I am a representative of Jesus Christ, knowing that I have been called to bring this happiness I have to others, seeing their lives change, feeling His love for them, learning so much, working so hard, being in the right place at the right time, seeing innumerable miracles... it is the most rewarding thing I have ever done. 

Because there is opposition in all things, there are, of course, hard days. So that's when you have an impromptu girl's night, complete with a facial mask, pint of ice cream, nail polish, and a letter from your family. :)

Missionary work is so much fun, there were so many funnies this week:

Dad sent me the video of the final of Youth Smooth at Nationals for the Relief Society activity where I am teaching them dance, so I decided to watch it. I heard sniffles and I turned around and Hermana Burnham was crying watching me dance. haha!

Hermana R is the Relief Society President of our ward and I absolutely love her. She is so funny, I have to be careful what I tell her!

Told her I danced... she signed me up to teach dance to the Relief Society.

Told her I wanted to be a photographer... she is having me take their family pictures.

Told her I loved shrimp pasta... she is taking us to Olive Garden for lunch! haha

We teach a lot of different people English, and they all have such a hard time with the letter "S"!

They can say "salsa" just fine, but any other word is...

"estreet"

"esign"

"esmile"

We help little F with her homework often, and this week was a photography project where she had to find shapes in everyday objects. Then she had to label them and make a little book out of them all. As we were helping her put it all together, I read the caption under the picture of a hexagonal screw on a fire hydrant... she called it a "fire fire water pole."

And then last night we were with F and S again, and S tried to look me up on Pinterest to follow me, and instead pops up all of these eWatts pictures of me!!! I ACCOMPLISHED MY LIFE GOAL WITHOUT EVEN REALIZING IT??? haha just kidding, but I was so surprised! They went crazy over the photoshoot with my microcrimped hair. Miss you Ethan!

Te amo muchisimo!

Hermana McOmber

My new favorite snack - any fruit or veggie with lime and chile!

Bushes here are so huge and pretty!

Find the funniest things while tracting!

Found a rope swing in the middle of nowhere!

Super cool trees everywhere!

Love all the wildflowers!

A heron lives in the little pond right outside our window!

Typical day of traffic

Stressed?  How about a girls night out!!

Helping a young girl with her homework and she looked me up on Pinterest!

I love little "F"!!

Just got an Easter package from Grandma and Grandpa Pittard!  Thank you!

Week 14: I Loved General Conference!

Hi friends and family!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR LETTERS! They mean the world to me! 

Two words... GENERAL CONFERENCE. Ahh! So good! We went to a "nearby" church building to watch it in the chapel - surprisingly much less reverent than at home. haha My favorite part was the family sitting in front of us would hold hands as the congregation stood and sang, so sweet! 

I love driving! It is so different here! Traffic lights are horizontal, roads wind every which way, and they all have ridiculous names. I MISS THE GRID SYSTEM. My GPS will be my best friend for the next fifteen months. haha

The biggest miracle this week came from the fast we had last Sunday for our area and our members. We had more member present lessons this week {7} than we did for the entire last transfer! Absolutely amazing! Member present lessons are where a member of our ward comes with us to a lesson with an investigator, and they are vital for the investigator's progression because the investigator is more likely to attend church if they have a friend there. It made such a huge difference on the quality of our lessons this week! Missionaries are NOTHING without the ward. Nothing.

April 1st was a funny day. 

"You're going to teach all of the people 

you planned for...

April Fools! You're not going to teach anyone...

April Fools! You're actually going to end the day with more member present lessons in two days than the whole last transfer!" -Heavenly Father

Another miracle was that I had been praying to find opportunities to serve, specifically to find a rest home so we could visit the elderly because I loved doing that at home. So one day this week we were tracting in a new neighborhood and one of the houses we tried opened the door! It was a man with a funny accent who ushered us in and handed us a Bible and a guitar as he led us through rooms of others speaking a weird language, finally taking us to the living room, where there were three old people watching a movie. We eventually figured out that they are a couple from Romania who run an old folks home from their house! They saw that we were missionaries and wanted us to read the elderly the Bible and sing to them! They kept asking, "How did you know where to find us?" haha SO COOL.  They are so much fun! We are going to go visit them twice a week from now on.

One thing happened this week that I suppose is funny in retrospect was one night when we ate with a sweet older lady in our ward; chicken enchiladas with salsa verde and flan for dessert. Of course, we were completely stuffed and we waddled (ha! seriously.) to our next appointment, where she surprised us with dinner... chicken enchiladas with salsa verde and flan for dessert. Gorged is the only word I can think of to describe the feeling.

Funny of the week:

Funniest story I have ever heard

Two Elders were being, well, Elders and setting off little homemade bombs in the street outside their apartment. Someone called the police, and when the police came to their apartment they found what anyone would find in a missionary's apartment... a map... with points... and names... and dates... they were arrested and spent the night in jail until the police could be convinced that they were missionaries.

Love you all and miss you all so much! 

I would love to hear from you!

Que tenga un buen dia!

Hermana McOmber

Beautiful sunsets in Texas!

Stopped at a stop light

Squirrel ran under the car

Hermana Burnham jumped out and rescued it

It fell asleep in our hands

So soft!

This is why we get shots!

Panera - new favorite place for lunch!

Pretty flowers and bushes blooming everywhere!  Smell so good!

Came around the corner and found a dog in a dress!

Caught a turtle!

More shots?  haha

These trucks are always on the streets we are tracting.  

Bought a fresh mango - it was to die for!

My favorite part of the picture is that he is reading the card 

I gave him!

More funny mailboxes

Hermana R loves to braid my hair

At General Conference with the cutest little girl!

I taught her the word "Misioneras"!

Typical day on the job - being arrested by an 8 year old!