Colorado to Kingston : 40 Leggers and Tropical Storms!

Hey everyone! Eske tout bagay anfom? (Is everything okay?) I hope you all had amazing weeks and you were able to see the hand of the Lord in your lives! I know we did here!

Monday we officially decided to have a lazy day. After we ran the usual errands, we went home and put on our pajamas, and spent the rest of the p-day taking naps and watching church movies. Yes, it was much needed. Yes, it was much enjoyed. We went over and had a couple of family home evening lessons with some people here. We ended the night at the Reid's house. We talked about how it's so important to build a sturdy foundation on Christ so you don't topple over when temptations come... and then we played jenga! Woohoo I love FHE!

Tuesday we did a lot of teaching, and did some service for an investigator's wife. She was not open to hearing the gospel at all at first, but as we keep serving her, we can see her heart being softened... hopefully she'll be open to hearing the gospel one day too! We had to end Tuesday night a bit early because we experienced one whopper of a storm and the roads were all more flooded than I've ever seen them! The thunder was INSANELY loud, and I swear there were no rain drops. It was like someone just turned on a fire hose over the entire island. It was a crazy storm haha. But we said a prayer that we would get home safely and we did! Yay!

Wednesday, we had a wonderful district meeting on knowledge. I love knowledge! The last few weeks, I feel like I just can't learn enough. I'm constantly reading talks, my scriptures, and preach my gospel... there's just so much to learn and I want to know as much as I possibly can! I love learning :) I found one quote that I particularly like about obtaining Christlike attributes. I don't remember who said it though... sorry :) "Now, you may wonder how to acquire the faith, testimony, and consecration of spirit necessary to overcome the adversary. Let me assure you that these qualities are already within you. You simply need to recover them." Isn't that awesome? I just love it. We had an amazing lesson with an awesome girl named Linda on Wednesday... I love lessons with Linda! She's so open to listening and learning... I just love her :)

Thursday we spent most of the morning driving around trying to find various government buildings so Sister Bailey could get her learner's permit... we didn't actually succeed because the government is confusing though so we got bagels and cream cheese for lunch and went about the rest of our day haha. We ended Thursday at English class. We had so many people show up this week that we had to split into a beginner's class and a more advanced class! We only really have a curriculum for the beginners so I kind of just had to make up the advanced class's lesson as I went along... man I'm so glad my fifth grade teacher made us memorize lists of verbs and verb endings and stuff! It was so helpful hahah :) But anyways... I love English class so much! I know I say that every week. I just really love it! It makes me more and more sure that I want to be a teacher when I come home :)

Friday we did super planning and taught a bunch of lessons. Nothing really noteable happened though that I can remember or that is recorded in my journal.

Saturday was transfer calls! I'm staying in Nassau another transfer with Sister Bailey, and Sister Dill is coming out to be with Sister Judd! Saturday was also the day of nasty insects. I was doing wash Saturday morning before studies. I went to grab my clothes out of the washer and I felt something move in them. So I looked down and saw the biggest roach I have ever seen in my entire life crawling out of my clothes. I freaked out and threw them all over the ground (which by the way is a nasty cracked concrete floor covered in ants, lizard poop, and dirt). Which meant that they all got dirty again so I had to wash them again. I'm not very good at staying clean haha. BUT we did get a pretty good laugh out of it so it all was good in the end. Then we were teaching a lesson outside. We were all sitting next to a wall, and all of the sudden Sister Judd stopped mid sentence and said "What is that???!" We looked and saw the BIGGEST FORTY LEGGER I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE crawling out of the wall. Now if you don't know what I 40 legger is, let me describe it to you. It is a mix between a cockroach lookin thing but it's a centipede so it has a lot of legs and it has these nasty antennae and it's poisonous. If it bites you, you swell up and your skin just gets super stiff and hard for a long time. So that's disgusting. I didn't take a picture, but you should google it. Yep. We ran away so we wouldn't get bitten, and it eventually went back into the wall. We prayed again, and resumed the lesson! I love adventures haha. We were driving to a lesson when we saw a building that looked like the Taj Mahal and Sister Judd said she'd been there before so we stopped by and it was a Muslim church thing and we got a nice little tour and a lesson about the Muslim religion. It was muy interesante. Or however you say that in Spanish. haha. Then we found an abandoned mansion with all the windows broken out, and the ocean flooded and ran all over the road! It was a very adventurous day on Saturday.

Sunday was so spiritual! We had the BEST fast and testimony meeting I've ever had the pleasure of attending on my mission. I say it every week, but I just love this little branch so much! They all have amazing testimonies and ahhh I just love feeling the spirit so strongly every week at church! We found this less active woman on Saturday and invited her to come to church. She came on Sunday for the first time in three years! We were so excited. She told us she loves the church... we're praying that she'll want to keep coming back! We went over to see her last night and her friend was there and asked us to start teaching her. Tender mercy! What I learned from this experience is that sometimes all it takes for people to come to church or to come back to church is an invitation... Never be afraid to bear your testimony or ask someone to come to church with you!

I've really been working on being grateful in all circumstances... and I've realized how much I truly do have to be grateful for! Sometimes we'll go see someone and I'll feel guilty holding my water bottle because I have clean drinking water and they don't. Or I'll try to not let them see the granola bar wrapper in my bag because I don't know if they've had anything to eat all day. I've never really thought about how lucky and blessed I've been my whole life. I've never had to worry about where my food is coming from, or if the water I'm drinking is going to make me sick. I've never had to wonder where I'm going to sleep that night because I got kicked out of my house. I've never had to wonder if I'm even going to live to see the next week because I can't find work and I have no money to buy food. I've been so blessed and I'm so grateful for all of those blessings I've received! The greatest blessing, however, is the blessing of having the restored gospel in my life. I'm so glad I have the testimony I do, and I know that this gospel is the only way to have true happiness forever! I'm amazed every day at how happy people can be even when they don't have food or water or a house just because they have a testimony of this gospel. Their faith has definitely increased my faith, and I'm going to spend every day for the rest of my life thanking my Heavenly Father for all of the blessings He's given me.

I love you all!!! Have a wonderful week! And remember... don't be afraid to share what you know with everyone you meet!

xoxoxoxo,

Sister Oman

The Reids!! I love them!

I made a cake to be fancy.

We discovered cups this week! Frozen koolaid in plastic cups for a quarter... we eat them all the time now. Downside: they turn your tongue funny colors.

Sister Judd and I! I love that girl!

#car selfies

Sister Judd & I

Sometimes you have days where pretty much everyone (and their backups) cancel. But it's okay because if you have faith, Heavenly Father will put you where you need to be!