Hermana in Houston

Always Matching Someone!!

Hi friends and family!

I literally do not know how to express to you my gratitude for your love and support, it means the world to me! I just sit here so overwhelmed because half of my brain is in Spanish, and half of it is in English and I just don´t have enough time to tell you how much I love you.

The fifth was the first official day of spring here! It is getting really hot! I am very grateful I don´t have to be here in the summer!

Hermana Keri Stephenson got here on Wednesday, and although I tried so hard to be patient I finally hunted her down in her casa on Saturday for my package. haha I LOVED IT! Thank you so so so much! Getting mail is the best feeling in the world!

We finally got our ¨dork dots¨on Friday! In the Provo MTC you get the sticker on your name tag to show that it´s your first day, and apparently it´s kind of an embarrassing thing, but here we get them when we do in-field orientation on one of our last days and it´s a super sad thing! Everyone hugs you when they see your ¨dork dot.¨ haha

Sunday was the dedication of the CCM! The workers worked from dawn to dusk every single day to make it look perfect. We had just finished dinner and were sitting on a bench outside of our classroom as a district, just trying to pass some time until we could walk across campus for the dedication, when Elder Dallin H Oaks comes right up to us and says hello! It was absolutely amazing to be in the presence of an apostle! He was so sweet and kept saying he was more excited to see us than we were to see him. He waved as he got in his car to drive to the dedication, and all the way down the street. What an incredible person! The spirit was SO STRONG just standing two feet away from him! A religion professor from BYU is here and documented the whole thing, so look for it in BYU Magazine or BYU TV or something. I am so grateful that the timing was so perfect for me to be here for the dedication! When I first arrived I was really sad to hear that they closed the temple just three days later for renovation, but if I had come even just those three days earlier I would have missed the dedication and meeting Elder Oaks! Hidden blessings!

So every day we teach one of our teachers- they come up with a ¨profile¨ of someone they know who is either a nonmember or convert and we teach them as if they were that person. So our teacher Hermano Cruz was our investigator ¨Raul¨ for the past few weeks, and yesterday he surprised us by bringing the real Raul for us to teach! I was petrified! Absolutely petrified. Hermana Jensen and I walk in to the room and he is this sweet, older hispanic man, with dark, leathery skin, deep brown eyes, and a quiet voice. We got talking to him and I felt the spirit stronger than I have in my entire life. He was so so sweet, and I could have talked to him for hours. He is a convert of eight months and has an insanely deep knowledge of the gospel already. We had an incredible discussion about faith, and I shared Alma 32 with him (I know for a fact that Heavenly Father helped me because I have never read that fast or that perfectly in Spanish before). Hermana Jensen shared Ether 12 with him and it was so cute because he grabbed her scriptures out of her hands and flipped to Moroni 7:5 which talks about knowing someone by their works, and he looked straight in my eyes and said, ¨You are an incredible person. You are here. You bring happiness and hope to people like me. You are a good person, because you are a missionary.¨ It was the nicest, most heartfelt thing anyone has ever said to me. I bore him my testimony, and of course cried, and he was so touched. That tender old Raul left such an impression on me. Once we got out of the lesson, Hermana Jensen and I embraced and wept. We immediately knelt and thanked our Heavenly Father for such a special experience. I have been terrified to go out in the field and teach real people, but Raul helped me see that Heavenly Father prepares people for us, and if we do our part as missionaries He will lead us to the people who will listen.

I know that I am here for a reason, at this time and at this place, with these people. It has only been six weeks, but my life has been significantly changed for the better. I am absolutely heartbroken to be leaving the CCM. I can honestly say that these have been some of the happiest times of my life. I leave in a little less than twelve hours for Texas, and I am really excited to see what the Lord has in store for me there!

I love you all and miss you all so much!

Te amo mucho!

Para Siempre Dios Este Con Vos

Hermana McOmber

It is officially Spring! The trees are so beautiful!

Just met Elder Dallin H. Oaks at the CCM Dedication!

At the CCM Dedication with Hermana Zamora

Elder Graye Wasden and Elder Berger

District with our teacher Hermano Hector Trejo

Our beloved little Hermano Trejo

Elder Caden Nixon and Elder Watson

District with Hermano F Carlos Ortiz

Native elders we love!

Hermano Omar Cruz

Hermanas in our zone

Mexican hairspray - look like Medusa, smell like a man

(Cologne in a can!)

Love this street we walk on every day

Elder Wilson and Elder Brett Fatheringham and Hermana Jensen

I got a package!!!

Branch Presidency

They call me "Barbie"!

I love them so much!

My district

Elder Whittaker

"Dork Dots" - got dots on one of our last days at the MTC - everyone hugged us goodbye!

P Day is Pizza Day!

Hi my loves!

Can you believe I hit my one month mark a few days ago? So crazy! And in one week I will be on a plane on my way to Houston! I am heartbroken to be leaving the CCM, but I am so excited to get to Houston!

I am terrified of the airport, but luckily Hermana Jensen is going to my exact same mission so I won´t be alone! We are guessing we will fly home together as well!

I GOT MY LETTER!!!!!!!!!!!! AHH!!!!!!!!!! I was skipping around and smiling the rest of the day. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

This week as Hermana Jensen and I were teaching our investigator outside, I was bearing my testimony of tithing and out of the corner of my eye I could see an Elder with his mouth wide open waving at me. haha It was Elder Brett Tittle! It is so so SO nice to have people I know here.

I always get sick after every meal here- my system just rejects it, not sure if it´s the water or the food- so that, coupled with the stomach flu made for a pretty hard week. And I don´t really sleep because I consistently have bad nightmares and then I tense up and spend the rest of the night trying to stretch out my charley horses. And then the Hermanas next door are loud and stay up laughing and singing and do their laundry until 3am. Pretty tired when the alarm goes off at 6 am. But all you can do when you are sick is lay in bed by yourself all day long, so I said a prayer every morning to feel good enough to go to class, and I was blessed with just enough to make it through the day! I did NOT wait this long to get out here to miss a single second of it.

One morning I woke up and decided that if I wore my favorite outfit I would be more likely to have a better day.... WRONG. So Molle is this chicken cooked in chocolate, peanut butter, and hot sauce, and one afternoon when I was trying to eat a little lunch, I was so tired I accidentally bumped my fork and got an enormous stain all down the front of my favorite outfit. Soaked. Right down to my skin. Through all seven articles of clothing I had on {heaven help me when I get to Houston}. The natives were in tears telling me that there was no way on earth to get a Molle stain out. Well, it took seven whole days of soaking and scrubbing and washing and praying, but I got it out of everything! I was so proud of it, I wore the outfit again and showed them, and they were so shocked they all took pictures to send home to their madres. hahahahah

I seriously love the natives. I´m so sad we don´t have the time to get to know them better, they only stay here for a week or two. They all tell me I look like Taylor Swift and want pictures. haha! During gym this week I didn´t feel up to anything, so while the district played beach volleyball I would just take a nap on the grass. And one day this cute native Elder was so concerned that I would get burnt by ¨their sun¨ that he kept running over and waking me up. And they all still yell ¨te amo¨ ¨mi esposo¨ in the comedor. haha

On Sundays we have movie night and we were watching ¨Finding Faith in Christ¨ and it´s one of the leaders computers hooked up to a projector on a giant screen in the auditorium. So the scene with the crucifixion had just ended and everyone was so somber and quiet, and suddenly the computer goes to sleep and the screensaver pops up... it was one of those hilarious awkward family cat photos. Everyone was dying. It was so funny! Something funny happens every single day, so I gave up the whole ¨funny of the week¨ because there are seriously just too many! Like, we have to have ¨companionship inventory¨ on a weekly basis, and you just tell your companion what they do that bugs you and you have to try and do it in a nice way.... but the elders usually fight. Literally ¨wrestle mania¨ in the beach volleyball sand pit. Änd sometimes we have district inventory when we need to get things off our chests. So we always joke and say ¨Distrito Inventario hasta la muerte.¨ {district inventory to the death} hahahahah

One day for class my favorite teacher, Hermano Trejo, had us run around campus and bear our testimonies with the trabajadores! It was such an incredible experience. Most of the workers here are not LDS {SUD, santos de los ultimos dias}, and they were all really busy trying to get everything ready for the dedication on Sunday. Some of them look like pretty shady characters, honestly, and we were so nervous to interrupt their work, but our teacher was pretty close by so we just took a deep breath and dove in. IT WAS AMAZING. Some of them were a little peeved that we were talking to them, but as we began to share our testimonies you could literally watch their hearts soften. The Spirit was so strong and they were so happy by the time we said goodbye. We probably talked to at least thirty workers, and now we have thirty new friends!

I have only been out for a month, and I am not even in the field yet, but coming on a mission was the best decision I have ever made in my life. In beginning to lose myself in this work, I have found myself. In letting go of the things I thought made me happy, I have found true happiness. In leaving those I love, I have found love. I have made some of the greatest friends of my life in just five short weeks, and although I may not ever see them again in this life, they will be a constant source of support and I will cherish them for the rest of my life. I am sitting here, weeping at the thought of leaving them and this beautiful place, but the thought of bringing someone to the knowledge of their Savior is driving me forward and giving me the strength to finish out this last week.

I love you all so dearly, more than I can adequately express. Thank you for preparing me for this; for teaching me how to work hard, for teaching me the importance of prayer, for teaching me patience and kindness, for showing me more love than I could ever deserve, for supporting me with this decision, and for getting me here. I think about you every day. I teach an investigator the first lesson, about how the gospel blesses families, and I think back to family home evening every Sunday and how much I loved that. I see a skirt from Bella Ella and I think of Maren and the incredible friend she was. I see all of these crazy little birds and I think of Dad and how much he would love them. I hear an elder playing the piano like an angel and think of Mom freaking out and asking him to marry me. haha! I learn a really hard concept in Spanish and think of how Spencer could so easily figure it out, in a fourth of the time it would take me. I see the native elders playing soccer and think of how much fun Nick would have with them. I see little stray puppies running around when we drive to the visitors center and I think of my sweet little Coco. I read the theme and I think of my precious young women. I hear cute accents and immediately think of Philippa and Kseniya. I see Elder Hansen and think of Kailin and her sweet little baby on the way. I hear a song on the radio in a car that whizzes by and can picture Claire and I driving to a dance on the weekend in her fun little green car, having the best time. I put on my blue blazer and I think of Rachel and Gioia and all the good they are doing in Europe in their matching blue blazers. I do not exaggerate when I say I think of you all, every single day.

I love you and miss you all so much!

Para siempre Dios este con vos

Hermana McOmber