1/23/2017 Baptism!

Another great week here in Paterson! Sorry about the short email last week, Ive got some filling in to do.

Patrick: we taught him the second day we were here and he is soooo solid. He was one of those people that you have to start with who Jesus Christ is and what he asked us to do before diving into who prophets are and such. He is progressing so well and is going to be baptized on the fifth of February!

Nay, Nicki, Keaira: at church on the first Sunday we met this lady who had recently started coming back to church after having being gone for a long time. She invited us over because she wanted us to teach her daughters (1 is a member that hasn't been to church her in 10 years, and the other 2 have never been baptized) we taught all three of them and they are all on the right track!

Exchange with President Taggert: President came out on an exchange with us and we had a really good time teaching and finding people. We had a really good lesson with someone we found walking on the street, he was actually a member of the church and hadn't been for about 12 years, now he is on his way back. I love president, we had a blast! 😊

Sunday was an awesome day! We had a great day at church, a lot of people came and had a great experience. After church I had the opportunity to go back to jersey city and witness Rashee's baptism! He was soooooo happy. When he saw me he said "Elder McOmber!" And ran up and gave me a huge hug. Never going to forget that day.

1/9/2017

Crazy week!

I got to go to the Manhattan temple with Gillian! It was soooo much fun, the old crew was back together! (Picture included) I had to wake up early and drive from Princeton to Newark, left Elder Brinkerhoff with elder Crowthers companion, and then from there elder Crowther and I went to jersey city where we met with the crew, we then took the train into New York where we got to the temple RIGHT on time. Had an amazing experience, especially Gillian and then we whipped back. CRAZY day. 

It snowed like crazy! On Saturday we were knocking doors and I was frozen to the bone, but try to keep things light I let my companion walk ahead and I made a snowball, I turned to some kids who were playing in the snow and jokingly gestured to be quiet and pointed at elder Brinkerhoff who wasn't looking, I threw it at him and everyone laughed, they said WOW you make the best snowballs. So even though my hands were freezing, I made each of them a few snowballs and they had a quick snowball fight, a fun sized memory I'll remember for ever. (Picture included)

On Sunday I found out that I am leaving Princeton. I am getting doubled into Patterson with Elder Trask! He is a boss missionary and I am so pumped to be heading to the hood again. 

Sorry I don't have much time to email today, kinda crazy with transfers, expect more details next week!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! This week was a slower week, but we had a really big miracle! On Friday we were feeling beat down, it had been a week of rejection, pretty much every kind of rejection you can think of we had it. So we were talking it all out as we went door to door, about all the time we had spent together and all the things we had done, all the people we had talked to, and then we talked about how transfers are coming up next Sunday and we realized that we might only have 1 more week together. I said, "Ok regardless of what happens to us we are going to just simply control what we can control. We are going to put our faith and trust in God and talk to everyone. We are going to show god how much we love him." Literally right then a women came out of her house, and started walking in the opposite direction as us, we picked up our pace until we caught up to her and struck up a conversation, she said she was grabbing something heavy from her car and could use our help. We of course agreed and brought it in. After we did we continued talking and she told us that she had a really tough year and she was looking forward to the new year, we started asking questions about it as well as her faith in God, after we had talked for a while I said, "I know we have taken your time already but would you mind if we had a nice gospel discussion about Jesus Christ and how his teachings could bless your life right now?" She said absolutely. So we sat down and taught her the message of the restoration.  For those of you who don't know, this message is one of the most (If not, the most) important message that I share with people. It talks about how God called prophets from the beginning of the world like Adam, Moses (parted the Red Sea), and Noah (built the Ark) to give devine direction and guidance to the people of this world, and how they prophesied of Jesus Christ (Amos 3:7). And then of course Jesus Christ came to this world and suffered for our sins and made it possible for us to return to god, but another thing he did was he set up a church, and in that church he had 12 apostles and he gave them the priesthood, which is the proper authority given from god to teach and to baptize (Luke 6:13, Hebrews 5:4).This church continued even after Jesus was rejected and Killed, but after some time, eventually the church and that authority he set up was rejected as well. So god took the priesthood away, fulfilling the prophesy given in Amos 8:11-12 where it basically says there will be a time when the true teachings of Jesus Christ will not be on the earth. After many many years, just after America was formed for freedom of religion, a young man named Joesph Smith was looking for the true church, the church that was in line with god. A search common in a lot of people, because there are so many different Christian church's in the world. They all believe in the same God, but they teach different things and worship in different ways. Joesph Smith was reading in the Bible one day in James chapter 1, in verse 5 it reads, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." So he decided to do just that. He went into a grove of trees where it would be quiet  and peaceful, and said a prayer out loud. He then had an amazing experience that I think only his words do justice. Of the experience he said, "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other saying "Joesph, This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” It was then that Joesph Smith was called to be a prophet proving that god really is the same yesterday, today and forever. He has called prophets since the beginning of time and he continues to call prophets today! And not long after he was called to be a prophet, the priesthood was brought back into the world as well as the full teachings or gospel of Jesus Christ! After we shared these amazing truths with her, she told us that she knows that it was meant to be that we ran into each other. She told us that she too, had been going through a time in her life where she needed direction from god, and had gone from church to church and hadn't felt like she had found the whole truth. And she said I know you two were sent to give me that direction. We then explained to her that the Book of Mormon is the way to finding out whether or not all these things are true. We explained to her that if the Book of Mormon is true, if it really is the word of god, then she could know three really big things: That Jesus Christ really our savior, because the whole book testifies of Jesus Christ That Joesph Smith really was a prophet, because it is through him that The Book of Mormon was brought to the world That the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the lords kingdom once again established on this earth, if Joesph Simith really was a prophet, then the church that was restored through him really is the church with the proper priesthood and teachings of Jesus Christ.  She accepted the Book of Mormon and said she would read it, really think about what it says, and pray to know whether it is true! I really love this church and the amazing truths that are found in it. I know that Jesus Christ really is our Savior and that it is only through him that we can be saved and return to our father in heaven, I know that Joesph smith really was a prophet and that the amazing truths that were brought back through him, really are from god, And I am so thankful for this opportunity to share these truths with the people of New Jersey! I love you all and wish you all a happy new year! Elder McOmber  Pictures: 1 and 2 are of me next to John Witherspoon's grave, he was a member of the continental congress and a president of Princeton University.  it was honestly so cool to be so close to a hand that signed the Declaration of Independence!  3 is of me in front of the fire house headquarters in Trenton  The rest are of the cool buildings and monuments in trenton

Post Christmas!

Happy day after Christmas everyone!

Just having a great time over here in Princeton. 

Christmas was awesome! We went to the LeSuers for breakfast, sooooooooooo good! Brother LeSuer made this egg dish with tapatio, I was in heaven because for some reason you can't get tapatio out here! Then we went to church, solid day, sung hymns and the Arnold family read the story of Christs birth over the pulpit. After church we went to the Castano-Owens where we were definitely fed well haha I got a new tie and a Seahawks beanie for Christmas from the members. Then we went and contacted people on Nassau street. Sooo much fun.

Not much else to report, please tell me how your Christmas was everyone!

Much love,

Elder McOmber

Still There!

Hey everyone! No I wasn't transferred, the mission president is thinking about redrawing area lines for the two areas in our ward, so he asked me and my companion to go in and work part of Trenton (picture included) to see how the work goes and see where the lines should be drawn. We got our first chance to go down there on Saturday, and not going to lie, It felt pretty good. In the two hours we spent there we were able to find two people who are willing to hear our message. We were trying by a .member, but she wasn't home. So we knocked around them and ran into this guy named marquise, he let us in and we ended up talking to him about the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ for about 15 minutes and gave him a Book of Mormon to read. We are looking forward to seeing him soon. On Friday we had the Christmas all mission conference, so all the missionaries in our whole mission got together in Morristown. I got to see elder Follett and elder Merritt, we had a blast! My mission president attempted to do the whip  On Sunday we had the English Christmas Fireside. All the English missionaries in the mission got together and formed a choir. A lot of people came! Huge success and Gillian surprised me by showing up! It was really nice to see her as well as elder Crowther and Kyle (picture included). I love you all! If you have any questions feel free to email me! Elder McOmber

December 12, 2016

Update on Richard: we met with him on Thursday in the Primary Presidents house, with the 10 year olds Sunday school teacher so that he could build a connection with them and feel comfortable at church. It went really well! He was also able to attend church and he had a great time! Loving working with him.

On Wednesday, our ward did a missionary activity. All the youth got mission calls when they came in. They all opened them together and it got a little crazy haha (video included).They all went to their corresponding missions (rooms) in the building. And then the missionary companionships went around and told them about different aspects of the mission. And then at the end the end we all came together and bore our testimonies of this gospel and the importance of missionary work.

On Saturday we had Traditions With the Taggerts (at the mission presidents house) soooooooo much fun. We had an amazing breakfast and then read Luke 2 and sang Christmas songs. 

I have to get going, but I love you all!

Elder McOmber

December 6, 2016

Just loving life in Princeton! Hey everyone, nothing too crazy this week. Just a week full of being a missionary 😊 On Tuesday, We were stopping by some people that we haven't seen a church in a while. We ended up stopping by this guy named Patrick while he was home. We watched the because of him video and got talking. He is a super cool guy who just stopped going to church while he was in the army and hasn't really been back since. He is going through some things and has to work on Sundays, we asked him if he knew anyone that could really use the gospel in their lives and he said, "actually, maybe." He told us to get in the car and follow him. He took us to this foreign exchange program that he helps run. It is full of people from china who want to go to college here in the US. We had the opportunity to talk with them a bit about the gospel. It was SUPER cool because most of them knew VERY little about Jesus Christ. It was a very unique opportunity, even though we didn't get any return appointments it was still a moment in my life I will cherish. On Saturday we met with Yves and his 10 year old son Richard, we taught them about the plan of salvation they are working towards baptism! At the end of the lesson We asked Richard to say the prayer. He said the most beautiful prayer I think I have ever heard. It was a beautiful children's prayer. I literally had tears in my eyes. After the prayer he said, "guys, I just talked to god." It is a moment I will never forget. I love you all and I hope you are all lighting the world! (Mormon.org) Elder McOmber