2/22/2017

We saw so many miracles this week! I am just loving it here in Paterson. There is so much potential! And the church members are sooooo awesome.

Miracles

Isaiah: we were knocking doors in Passaic and this guy named Isaiah opened the door. He told us that he just got back and he invited us in right away. He then told us all the struggles he has been going through in life, he said he has never truly connected with god before. He left the house that morning saying "God, I don't really know how to pray, but I need you, I need your guidance in my life, help me connect with you." Then he walked out the door and did his day. Minutes after coming back we knocked on his door. We talked about the Book of Mormon and the Bible and why they are so important and then taught him how to pray. He then prayed and his prayer was one of the most sincere prayers I have ever heard, the spirit was so strong! After the prayer he asked "is there any limit to how many prayers I can say?" I told him that there isn't, and that god always wants to hear from him, he has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying and is looking forward to meeting with us on Tuesday. 

Delilah: We were knocking doors in an apartment building and this random girl came running up to us and asked us for a prayer, we prayed and after she said she used to talk to the missionaries and that she almost got baptized but her son was killed in November so she was so distraught that he life took a massive downward spiral and she was into things that she wants to get out of. She said she doesn't want to live that life anymore and that she wants to get baptized. We then went upstairs to her apartment and had a POWERFUL lesson with her, she cried and kept saying, "god put you guys in my path, I know it."

Debrah: we got to an apartment complex to knock doors, and we prayed to get led to the people god prepared for us, we walked in and the first person we saw said "are you looking for me?" Turns out she was a long lost LA, we had a lesson with her about the sacrament and she came to church and loved it. Looking forward to working with her and her friends!

On a fun note elder Trask and I went over to a Sister Angoes house. She is from Ghana so we asked her to make us Ghanaian food. She made us fufu and peanut butter soup. They taught us how to eat it like a true Ghanaian, videos included! (For the record I got way better at eating the fufu after the video was made haha)

Pictures

1. Fufu before peanut butter soup was put on

2. Fufu and peanut butter soup

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

2/13/2017

We are working with this nice women named Marlene. Last Sunday she didn't come to church, so Monday we came by and read a paragraph out of preach my gospel about commitment (for those of you who don't know, preach my gospel is a manual for us missionaries to become better teachers). In the closing prayer she committed to god that she was coming to church! We then set a time for Thursday to come back for another lesson. On Thursday it Snowed a ton! It ended up being 8 inches! My companion and I ended up going around helping people get their cars out of the snow. Because we couldn't use our car we walked 4 miles in the crazy snow to get to Marlene. She didn't expect us to come so she was super surprised haha it was pretty awesome. On Sunday she came to church!  She had to help someone so she got back to her place at 3 am, but st church she said "it doesn't matter because I committed to god and you guys that I would be here." She is so awesome. Patrick is doing well, he went through something really hard in his life, so we hit a few setbacks. But he is awesome and on the right track now. Nothing too crazy happened this week but we have a lot going here in patty, I love it, I never want to leave. Much love, Elder McOmber Here is a picture of my companion (second from the right) and the Spanish elders who cover our same area. Oh and the falls in Paterson haha

February 6, 2017

Mom, please send this to everyone.

 

Amazing week!

 

I don't know if I talked about them before, but Emmanuel and Yuqueris are a couple we knocked into. They are so sweet, they had been told by their church that they weren't aloud to ask questions. We came in and answered all of their questions about life, and you could see the relief on their face. They came to church and everyone engulfed them! They felt like they were at home. We are looking forward to meeting with them in the future.

 

The miracle 9 year old is so cute! We taught her the plan of salvation and she loved it, she has so many questions and she is super quick so she gets it all.

 

We knocked into a girl named Marlene. She is super cool, we taught her the restoration, and she really wants to read the Book of Mormon to find out whether or not it's true

 

Love you all, 

 

Elder McOmber

Monday, January 30th

This was a week was a week FULL of miracles 

On Monday we tried by someone who hadn't been to church in years. We stopped by and started talking to him, he talked about how he had fallen out of faith. We invited the rest of his family to join us. We started talking about faith in Jesus Christ and what it means and then went into the restoration, awesome lesson, they all decided that they wanted to be baptized 

On Tuesday, my companion and I brought another companionship into our area and we went on splits the whole day. We both found families of 4 and all of them decided they want to work toward baptism. We went over the plan of salvation and they were loving it. 

On Thursday, we were knocking doors and we met this girl named temeka, she had met with missionaries before. She was so excited to see us and has a sincere desire to follow God. Looking forward to meeting with her!

On Sunday we tried by someone, they said they weren't interested but said their was a member of our church living in the apartment above. There was no record of them so we decided to stop by. It turns out they were! We talked to them and they said they were interested in meeting with us some more and then they told us about their daughter who got baptized a long time ago and has since moved to Paterson but hasn't been to church in a long time. We stopped by and she let us in. It turns out she has been wanting to come back to church for a long time and she has a sweet nine year old daughter who wants to get baptized. 

This week has really strengthened my testimony of dedication. The more you give to God, the more god gives you. 

I love you all, sorry for the late email,

Elder McOmber

1/16/2017

Such a crazy week I don't even know where to start. Elder Trask and I were doubled into Paterson, which means that the 2 missionaries that were here we both taken out and my companion and I were put in. And it has been crazy. We haven't even unpacked, we got here and just went ham! We found some really cool people. We just pretty much called everyone in the phone, member and non-member to set stuff up. It was really fun I'm in a straight hood area, it is arguably the most hood area in the mission and I'm loving it haha.  On Sunday we finally met the ward and they are amazing! They just became a ward and they are pumped about it. Their mindset is completely missionary work oriented and it is awesome. The bishop is 29 and FULL of fire. The members love us and we love them. We are going to see miracles here! Sorry for the short email, we have a lot of zone stuff going on today. I will have way more to say next week! Love you all! Elder McOmber

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.