Hermana in Houston: 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.