February 27, 2017

Had a good week this week, to start off on a lighter note, elder Trask and I were late to an appointment on Thursday, I was like, "yo elder Trask, we should hitch hike" and he was down so got in the street and stuck my thumb out, these guys stopped and we hopped in, I can officially say I have hitchhiked in Paterson (arguably the most ghetto city in New Jersey! (Picture attached)  Marlene is doing so well! She is going to be baptized this week!! We are going to be making preparations next week so that should be fun. Our last lesson with her was amazing, this is my journal entry from that night: February 25th Marlene's sincere prayer We had a lesson with Marlene today, it was so good. We were going to go over temples and family history, so we decided to bring dinnie (A RC who recently attended the temple) and sister proctor (senior missionary) we started teaching the lesson and then dinnie and sister proctor just took over, they talked about the temple itself and spent a long time on sealings. The topic of discussion then turned to baptisms for the dead, Marlene was understanding it all. Dinnie then shared her experience of her being baptized for her ancestors, she said, "it was like the gateway to heaven, there isn't a sound, and everyone is walking around in white like angels," the spirit came pouring into the room. After we asked Marlene if she had any questions, she then said, "i have been carrying a burden for 30 years and I want to know what you all have to say. She got up and went across the room, picked up a small picture of a young boy and gave it to me, with tears she said "that young boy is my son, at age 15 he decided to take his own life. I have been told by other churches that because he never had the chance to be baptized he has no chance of going to heaven and that I may never see him again, will I ever be able to see him again? I told her that God is very mindful of everyone of his children, he understands everyone completely and he is completely fair and loving. He loves us all so much that he created this perfect plan for all of us, as part of this plan he provided a way for your son to be baptized even though he did not receive the opportunity here in this life, Marlene what we are saying here today is that after you are baptized yourself you will be able to go to the temple and be baptized on behalf of your family members who have past on. This of course does not force them to accept the baptism, because god wants us to have agency he leaves it up to each individual to accept or decline the baptism. Marlene your son is not lost." She said, "I have been carrying the that on my shoulders for 30 years and I can feel it lifted, I am so grateful for this opportunity and I can't wait to get baptized." We finnished up the lesson and had her say the prayer. The prayer was so sincere that I couldn't help but to tear up myself, in the prayer she said, "Heavenly Father, please forgive me of my sins and all the times in my life where I haven't been as close to you as I should have been, I thank you for not giving up on me, and for sending these 2 young men to my door to bring me this light in my life, I am so grateful for your plan for us and how you have provided this way for my son and I to be reunited..."  I am so grateful to have been gods instrument here in New Jersey for the past year. God has been so good to me. I am so grateful that God has trusted me with his children here in Paterson, and I will not let him down. I love you all so much! Please feel free to write me, I love herring how things are going in your lives! Love, Elder McOmber