Tough week, had some really big setbacks, but we are definitely going to bounce back this week. I don't have a lot of time because I still need to plan a for a few things this week :( these days go by way too fast. The 2 baptisms we had this week had to get moved back, but we do have Anna and Monique getting baptized next week! We are really excited for them! Monique has been soooo solid the whole time. She is invited her friend and her sister to our next lesson with her. She really loves Jesus Christ and his gospel, and it is pretty evident in her actions. Elder Santana and I tried to make Marlene's fried chicken... didn't go as planned but we still had fun (pictures at the bottom) we will perfect it over the week! That's all the big stuff, I promise more next time! Much love, Elder McOmber

Great week!

On Tuesday we went on exchange with the assistants. I had a blast with elder Follett. Elder Follett and I came into the mission together and he was trained in the same area so the first 4 and a half months of our missions were around each other. So it was good to reminisce on the good times, we went ham and got a lot done!

On Wednesday we got juked and we hadn't seen Marlene in a while, she also hadn't been picking up the phone. We stopped by and she was home! She let us in and we started talking. She has been going through the hardest trials I have ever heard anyone going through. She started crying and said she knew that God would help her through. We gave her a blessing, it was the most beautiful blessing I have ever heard. She was definitely looking forward to the temple. 

On Saturday we got to go to the temple with Marlene! She loved it and DEFINITLY needed it. After she said, "I feel so light inside!" Sooo good to hear.

On Sunday, Anna, Monique, and Sheryl came to church. Anna and Sherryl are doing so well and it looks like they are going to get baptized on the 9th of April.   Monique came for the fist time this week. She is someone who we contacted our first week or two but lost contact. It turns out she lives 3 doors down from Marlene and got interested when she saw the change in Marlene. After church we went to Marlene's house and had a lesson with her and Marlene. It was sooo good. We went over the gospel of Jesus Christ. At the end Marlene said the closing prayer, in it she said, "I am so grateful for my 2 new sons, and the miracle they have been in my life, I pray that they stay safe and bring many souls to you." I love her sooooo much.

On a lighter note! Today was "March Madness" the mission split up into 2 huge groups and got together and played basketball. I was in the one that met up north. We split up the teams and my team balled out! We won all the round robin games and then went undefeated in actual tournament! Had a blast!

Shoutout to Marlene and dinnie for making elder Trask and I homemade fried chicken!

It was a really good week here in Paterson  First things first, Marlene got baptized. She is sooooo cool. I am sure she is going to be solid for the rest of her life. We met with her the day before and she had just bought new shoes for her big day. She bore an amazing testimony afterward. Picture at the bottom. Cool stories, we got fed by 2 random people that we knocked into. First we knocked into a Dominican, she and her son were super cool, we ended up teaching the plan of salvation to them both, at the end she made us some Morir Soñando! Seriously my favorite drink in the world. There are sooooo many people from the Dominican Republic here in New Jersey, and I love it because they seriously make the best food. A few days later we ran into a nice Spanish speaking lady who couldn't speak ANY English but she made us come in and eat, we shared a video in Spanish after, it looked like she really liked it haha I don't know Spanish, I took sign language in high school. Picture of food at the bottom. We found this super cool women named Sylvia. She is the coolest person. Miracle of the week was pretty cool. We were trying by people who we worked with in the past. Elder Trask was like, "let's go knock on that door" we knock on a door and this guy named fabo answered the door, he speaks mostly Spanish. Turns out he is a loooooong lost member from the Dominican Republic. He has been through a ton in this life. He came to the Spanish ward and he loved it, he got up and bore his testimony.  Great week!  Love you all! Elder McOmber

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