Week 46: It is cold here!

November 17, 2014

This may be my last letter due to the fact that I am going to FREEZE TO DEATH.

NO ONE TOLD ME TEXAS WAS COLD.

And, I mean, it really isn't {before you Utahns go off on me} UNTIL the wind blows. It is like a knife! 

We taught one lesson this week where you could see our breath because her little trailer doesn't have heat! But it was worth it because now she has a baptismal date!

Another week of miracles!

One night we went to visit a recent convert. His mom used to be taught by the missionaries but discontinued their visits, until recently when she has enjoyed having us over for dinner and short lessons. His dad doesn't want anything to do with us. He and I always chat but every time I ask him if he wants to listen to the lesson he flat out refuses. My companions the last few weeks have expressed a little bit of frustration with visiting them because they're not progressing, but I kept feeling like it was a good thing that we visit them. Saturday night we went and I felt a little prompting to chat with his dad. So I sat down and asked him about Mexico and his family. Then I felt the prompting to ask him if we could sing him a hymn (he LOVES when we sing, he even turns off the tv to listen). He said yes! At the end of the hymn I felt prompted to ask him, "How do you know God loves you?" Slowly and very very carefully we started in on the Restoration lesson. It was like walking on ice! I have never followed the Spirit so much in my life!! I felt directed very clearly on what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. It was one of the greatest experiences of my mission! The lesson was absolutely amazing and his son was overjoyed- so excited to tell him about the Book of Mormon and bear his testimony to him for the first time. As we said goodbye the dad took my hand in both of his, so tight, and thanked me. Those are the moments I will never forget.

One night we tried a potential investigator, he wasn't home but his brother-in-law was! So we sat down to teach him and found out that he had been taught by missionaries 20 years ago in California! He remembered their names and the story of Joseph Smith and everything!

One lesson we taught Hermana Perry spoke Spanish PERFECTLY, loudly, and with confidence. The gift of tongues is real, people.

One night we tried a potential investigator who had also been taught by missionaries before. As we got talking with her the bedroom door opened and her son came out. He is so prepared!! He kept asking us, "So what is your message?" Even as we tried to sing and pray to start the lesson he kept asking, "but what is your message?" He had so many questions and at the end of the lesson he said, "I believe everything you taught me." And then they made us dinner! haha I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

Funnies of the Week:

Made cookies to bring to our recent convert's little boy for his birthday, but they weren't home so we walked around the apartment complex and handed out cookies as we talked to people. Very effective way of getting them to stop and listen! Cake mix cookies for the win!

Found out one of my friends in Woodlands has an Herbalife club that is super popular! He never told me! Beto, you're fired! 

Hermana McOmber

Made a Plan of Salvation visual

No one told me Texas would be so cold!

Shipleys Donuts!

I Love Texas!

208 pennies we have found on the ground so far!

Hermano Rosales came to the rescue during weekly planning and cut our white board in half to make it easier to share with the English Sisters.

Week 45: There's a snake in my boot!

November 11, 2014

Actually, there's not. but I did get bit by a few fire ants and my right foot looks like a red football.

This week started off so great with a visit from Elder Lawrence Corbridge- yes, he is the one who wrote "The Fourth Missionary," and yes he is even better in person. I got to have an interview with him before the conference and it was so neat! He gave me the sweetest blessing and helped me so much.

One night our appointment cancelled so we decided to knock some doors. The second door we knocked didn't answer so we started to walk away when this guy answered. All I had to say was "Hi, we're missionaries...." and he was like, "pasen, pasen, pasen!!" {come in, come in, come in!} He and his wife ran around the house muttering, "The missionaries are here!" as they straightened everything up and sat us down on the couch. We were worried they thought we were missionaries from their church, but as we got talking to them it turns out that they're simply just the MOST PREPARED PEOPLE EVER. We had a super powerful lesson, I have never taught that powerfully before, and they accepted the invitation to be baptized! I love being a missionary!

One day we tried visiting the lady we found a while back with our card on her door, but her cousins were sitting outside and we got chatting with them. One of them was an older man who was set in his ways and mostly just teased us, but the younger man lit up as we started talking, especially when we switched into Spanish. He had tons of questions and was so amazed by our answers! He wanted to know everything- "I've wanted to know ever since I was little why you don't drink coffee." He even noticed our CTR rings and wanted to know what they were. We gave him a BOM and he is so excited to read it!

We went to an appointment with a potential investigator we met on the street and she was taking care of her little twin nieces, who screamed when they saw me. I had given them a card at the grocery store almost a month ago and they remembered me! They listened to the lesson and actually understood a lot {we're talkin about little six-year-olds who could quote the bible}, and made the funniest comments. loved it!

One night we decided to try to set up an appointment with a potential before we had to go home for the night, and his roommate opened the door and Hermana Miller almost screamed- it was a former investigator we had lost contact with! Miracle!

Funnies of the Week:

Asked a little boy who the first two people on earth were and he shouted, "Damian y Uva." {Adan y Eva} ...I mean, pretty close, right?

The twin girls are HILARIOUS. They kept making the funniest comments during the lesson. "Sabemos mucho de Dios, pero a veces poco..." {We know a lot about God, but sometimes only a little...} and after they got us off track, "Continuemos..." {moving on}. and at the end when we gave their aunt a BOM one of them shouted, "Y nosotras que???" {What about us?}

I told an Hermana that I want to marry a tall, dark, handsome man that speaks Spanish and she said, "No sabe que dice." {You don't know what you're saying, like You don't know what you're getting yourself into} hahaha

We visited a menos activo and read 1 Nefi 3:7 with her to talk about keeping the commandments, but she would rather focus on the irrelevant scriptures around it... reading them VERY loud with LOTS of emphasis. At least she liked it!

We ate with an Hermana this week who fed us a soup that she learned to make in a dream... take a wild guess at how crazy THAT tasted.

Les quiero! Escribeme!

Hermana McOmber

Conference with Elder Corbridge!

Met some kids on the street and fell in love with them!

District leader made homemade donuts for our district meeting!

Loved this door:  

"As for me and my house we will serve the Lord"

Finally got to go to the temple!

Temple with Lidia

Love my companions!

Week 44: It's So Fluffy I'm Gonna Die!!!

We knocked on someone's door and they had the giant unicorn from Despicable Me!  

IT'S SO FLUFFY I'M GONNA DIE!

November 3, 2014

Remember the song, "Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars?" Well kiddos, I SAW A SHOOTING STAR! {and it's funny because we live right under the airport so all we see is airplanes all day long} Best moment of my life! It was this giant flaming comet thing! Made for a pretty cool 10 Month Mark!

Walked out the apartment door 6:25am on November 1... FREEZING. Got all the way down to 55! Bring on the scarves!

One day while we were walking down the street I recognized a man we had talked to a few months ago. He was so happy I recognized him he took us to his house to introduce us to his wife and kid who just got here from Dominican Republic {picture Tyra Banks with a foreign accent}. We had the best lesson with them and at the end when we introduced the Book of Mormon he ran into his room and pulled one out of his closet! Missionaries in NYC had given him one!!! Crazy!

BIGGEST MIRACLE OF MY MISSION: Remember the "R" family I told you about a couple of months ago? The father was baptized in Argentina as a youth, but left the church when he fell in love with his wife and hasn't been back since. They now have a 14 year old daughter and have had missionaries a few times over the years. We went to visit them when I first got to this area and she told us that she knows this church is true and that she and her daughter will be baptized as soon as her husband decides to come back to church. And then the crazy miracle where we went to visit them and she told us that their daughter has made best friends with girls in the English ward and that they were ready to get baptized into that ward. Well yesterday they surprised us. THEY ALL CAME TO CHURCH. Mom, daughter, AND Dad! It was his first time back to church in years! The mom doesn't speak English so she wants to come to our ward, and the dad wants to baptize them. UNREAL. Couldn't believe my eyes! <3

I remember my first Sunday in the Woodlands ward I wanted to bear my testimony so bad, but I didn't have enough confidence to get up. I finally got up yesterday {thanks to Personal Progress} and it felt so good to bear my testimony to these people I love so much. The coolest part was that one by one all of the other missionaries in the ward also got up! The bishop, ward mission leader, and many other members have pulled me aside in the last two days and told me how much of a difference it made in the spirit of the meeting! So neat! I used to be really, really terrified to bear my testimony {premish life}, but now I understand how important it is, even if it's just our example.

Funnies of the Week:

My companions wanted to match for Halloween so I went along with it. They wore my dresses and put bows in their hair. and everywhere we went the other missionaries asked, "Ohh! Are you Sister McOmber for Halloween?"

Went to the doctor this week and managed to teach a lesson to the doctor, nurse practitioner and all six nurses in Spanish! They told me I needed to slow down so they could take my blood pressure, and blood panel. hahaha

NO ONE TOLD ME TEXAS WOULD BE COLD. You're all fired.

Thank you for your love and support! You never know how significant a difference your little acts of kindness have!

I would love to hear from you!

Hermana McOmber

Brand new sports car in front of a trailer home - haha

Zone Meeting

Halloween!

My crazy little trainee...all she eats is veggies!

Happy Halloween!  Everyone in Texas paints their pumpkins.

We were starving one night so F took us to Los Gemelos for dinner.  Yum!!!

Noche de hogar con la familia "A"

(Family Home Evening)