Apparently it's Monday again!!

What's up ya'll? These weeks just keep going faster and faster and they need to slow down! 

This week was so good! We had zone conference on Tuesday, which meant we got to have an adventure and take a little tiny coaster bus to Kingston and then walk through all sorts of awesome streets to get to the chapel because we accidentally got off at the wrong stop. Haha adventures. 

But zone conference itself was so fun! It's always a blast to get to see all the missionaries you've served around in the past. (Not as much fun when you get up to talk to the general authority that's there during a break and all the missionaries that know you say in unison "Oh man... it's Sister Oman!) They think they're sooooo funny. Haha. 

Anyways. We learned a lot about the fall of Adam and how to be better missionaries :) Elder Martinez of the first quorum of the seventy came and it was amazing! We also got to watch Meet the Mormons! FINALLY!! It was so good! I can't even begin to tell ya'll how good it was. If you haven't seen it yet... watch it! I think it comes out on Netflix sometime soon. Not sure. Nobody here has netflix. haha. 

What else? Oh yes. We needed drinking water this week, so we called the office elders. They came by when we weren't home to drop it off... so they not only left us the water, but they cleaned our kitchen and left us apple pie in our refrigerator! Isn't that so nice? It just made our day. We hadn't had pie in months and months and months... and if you know me at all, you know I just love pie more than any other dessert. So it was much appreciated. 

The Relief Society broadcast was on Saturday! It was soooooo good! We were so blessed this week to be able to have zone conference and the broadcast in one week. We had some technological issues so we didn't get to watch it, but we did get to listen to it and it was absolutely amazing.  I looked around at the little group of women there with us listening while the conference was going on and I was just struck with how beautiful this gospel is and especially how beautiful Heavenly Father's plan is for us. We were all of different ages, families, backgrounds... a lot of us were even from different countries. Yet we were all sitting there listening to the same conference  all the people I love back home were listening to. I love this church :) 

Ummm well that's it for this week. Haha so much happened but I don't even know where to start... so I'll send some pictures! 

Love you all! 

xoxoxox,

Sister Oman 

#bestcompanionever!!!

This is what happens to your beds when you're trying to figure out what to wear to zone conference.

Some hills we explored last Monday! 

We went exploring. and climbed some trees. But we couldn't climb higher than that cuz it's not allowed. 

The office elders came to drop off some drinking water for us when we weren't home, and when we came back our kitchen was cleaned and there was some apple pie in our fridge! whatttt they're so nice!!!

This is the little puppy that followed us around all day on Friday. We named her cutie and gave her some food and then found her a home with a lovely family.

Machanic Anyone?  Some of the signs you see in Jamaica.  Ha ha

Sister Peneydo and I wore matching skirts to zone conference on accident! So then we naturally had to spend all day side by side to overwhelm the zone with the amount of yellow we had :) Haha. 

This is the cutest baby there ever has been. her name is Faith and i always tell her mom i'm taking her home with me after my mission. haha. 

This is the view from our house that we get to see every morning. 

We went on a hiking adventure last Monday, so naturally we had to take a picture. 

I love Jamaica because this is how it looks after it rains.

Mango trees and tender mercies!!

Hey everybody! 

Well we started off last week by having a game day with the elders. We played uno, charades, and dominos. And it was a blast! Have you ever tried to act out "your mission president" or "the sons of Mosiah"? Man let me tell you it's harder than it sounds. Haha but we had a lot of laughs so it was all good :) 

The landfill near Portmore has been on fire for like a week and a half now, so there's a ton of smoke everywhere. There's so much smoke that when I washed my clothes last week and hung them on the line, I had to wash them again because they all smelled like I'd been sitting by a campfire. Haha adventures. I'll send a picture of the clouds of smoke hopefully. I think the fire has started to die down now though because it's not as hazy anymore so that's good.

I finished the Book of Mormon again last week! That makes four times so far on my mission! So I started again. This time I'm doing a study about the Book of Mormon being another testament of Jesus Christ. I got a new copy of it, and I'm going through and highlighting every reference to Jesus Christ in one color and every reference to Heavenly Father in another color. Man I'm only five chapters in and it's already blowing my mind how much they're mentioned. It's really strengthening my testimony of the Book of Mormon being another testament of Jesus Christ! 

We were eating lunch under a mango tree this week when it started to drizzle. At first we were like "eh, it'll blow over. Let's just chill under the tree until it does." Well that was a mistake. A big mistake. The rain did not just blow over. Nope not at all. It kept raining harder until we realized (after we were soaked through) that maybe we should try to take cover somewhere else. So we went and hid in a little shop entrance with a guy that was chopping yard. We talked to him for a while, and now he's learning about the gospel! It's so cool how Heavenly Father leads us to people. Another bonus: We were mildly cool for a few hours because our clothes were wet! Haha.

To save money, we've been walking to the taxi stand at nights instead of taxiing. (That way we only have to take one taxi instead of two to get home.) Now, the walk to the taxi stand from our area is like an hour to an hour and a half. We contact people on the way so we're still being effective while we're saving money... but that's not the point. A few nights ago, we were just beat. Most of our appointments for the day had fallen through, and their backups had fallen through too. And nobody else wanted to see  us that day either. And when that happens, we walk to find new people to teach. All. Day. Long. So we'd been walking for a long, long time already and we had an hour to an hour and a half's walk in front of us. We were about fifteen minutes into that walk when all of the sudden a car drives past. And stops. And starts backing up towards us. At first, we were a little freaked out because we were all by ourselves out on a dark road and this car is backing up towards us. So I reached in my bag to grab my pepper spray and we start backing up a little bit. And then right when the car got to us and the window rolled down, we realized it was our good ol' pal Ryan the taxi driver! He asked us what we were doing all the way over there and we told him we were walking to the taxi stand... and then he told us that we shouldn't be ridiculous because that's too far to walk. We explained we didn't have enough money to get two taxis for the night, and he told us that he would just give us a free ride! Good ol' Ryan. Then when we got to the taxi stand he gave us some delicious fruit to eat since we looked tired and hungry. Tender mercies I tell ya! The Lord really does provide :) 

I had some complications with my eye for a few days last week. I was a little worried because when it's happened in the past, it takes a really long time to go back to normal. So yesterday at church I asked for a priesthood blessing... and this morning when I woke up the eye was 100% back to normal! The church is true and the priesthood is so real! I love it! 

Alright one more story and then we'll be all done for this week. Sorry this is so long! 

We were having district meeting, and we were going to listen to a talk by Elder Holland. It was really hard to hear because the fans were making a lot of background noise, so one of the elders got up and turned the fans off. And all of the sudden we could hear Elder Holland perfectly! Now, you may be thinking "Well duh. What's the point of this story?" Let me tell you something. I was thinking about that and I realized that it's kinda like life. We spend so much time with all of these things that cause background noise... some of them are good things like jobs and recreational activities and stuff. But sometimes all those things that fill up our lives distract us and make it hard for us to hear the things that matter most... things like promptings from the Holy Ghost and guidance from our church leaders. It made me realize that even though I'm on a mission right now and it's pretty easy to eliminate the background noise, there's going to be a point in my life when it's going to be a lot harder to eliminate all that other stuff and focus on taking time for the gospel. So even though the background noise takes all different shapes and sizes, I'm realizing more and more that no matter what our lives look like, it's so important to find time for the things that matter most. And it's kinda like now is the time for me to prepare and figure out how I'm going to keep away all that background noise when it does come.  So yep. I hope that made sense. That's what I learned from district meeting this week.

I think that just about covers it for this week! It was a great week and this next week should be even better! We have a lot of exciting things coming up... zone conference with Elder Martinez from the seventy is tomorrow, and the General Women's Broadcast is this Saturday! I'm so excited! We get to hear from General Authorities twice in one week! Woohoo! 

Alright. I love you all. You're the best. I love hearing from you :) Big up! 

xoxoxoxox,

Sister Oman 

The smoke from the landfill fire. Now, it doesn't look like much but keep in mind that those buildings are like two or three stories tall and I took this picture like a mile away from the buildings. It's a lot of smoke. 

The Sister Training Leaders surprised us and came to our district meeting this week! So did the zone leaders... it was a very full district meeting! 

This little boy is so fun :) His dad is investigating the church, and we get to play hop scotch and jump rope with this little boy sometimes when his dad isn't quite ready for the lesson yet for whatever reason. 

Wow!  Some of the signs you find in Jamaica!!  Oh dear.

Teaching the Gospel is Fun to Do!!

Hey guys :)
This week I fell in love with Jamaica all over again. I never want to leave this lovely little island. Also, I forgot to write in my journal for a lot of this week (oops), so this email may be a little all over the place.

We started off the week by going to Hellshire beach and relaxing for our p-day. It was mucho lovely. I love Portmore. Also I love the ocean. We had a lovely little talk with a friendly rasta man (his locks were CRAZY long!) and got ourselves some nice little souvenirs.

We taught several lessons under coconut trees this week. I don't know why I felt the need to tell you all that, but let me tell ya. I love teaching lessons under coconut trees. It's like teaching a normal lesson but with the added suspense of not knowing if a coconut is going to fall on your head at any moment. It makes lessons kind of suspenseful. Haha just kidding but seriously I love coconut trees.

Okay so we've been so blessed this week with new investigators. We had at least one new investigator almost every day this week... which doesn't happen often. But we were talking about it and we know it's just because Heavenly Father really does answer prayers... and He always answers them in His own time! But anyways we're so excited to start working with these people that we met... we'll see what happens from here!

At district meeting this week, we were talking about how to have a more uplifting revelatory experience at church, both for ourselves and for the people that we work with... and as I was pondering it later, I realized that every time I have a really positive experience at church it's because I have a specific question I'm looking for an answer to or I have a specific decision I'm trying to make. So I made a goal to spend a little time every Saturday night to write down a question or two I'll listen for answers to the next day. I tried it out at church on Sunday and man! It was such a good day at church. I'm definitely going to do that every week now.

Also, tomorrow is the 173 anniversary of the day Relief Society was founded! Isn't that super cool? It's one of the world's largest and oldest women's organizations... and it's a part of the church! But anyways yesterday at church we had a little thing celebrating it... we had a special sacrament meeting about relief society and the oldest member of the ward, who can't see or walk anymore but still comes to church every single week, bore her testimony of relief society and I think almost every single person in the chapel was in tears. It was amazing. And then after church we had cake to celebrate! (See, I told you it was a good church day! Haha.)

Almost all the taxi drivers in Portmore know us now, and they all fight to have us in their car every time we get to the taxi stand. Finally, yesterday we had to explain to them that telling us that we know them so we should take their taxi won't work every time because we know all of them... so now they're being a lot more calm when we get to the taxi stand. Goodness gracious people. Haha.

In short, I fall in love with these people, this culture, and this life more and more every day. Every day brings new experiences and new testimony builders. I know that this church is true... I thought I knew that when I came out on my mission, but I'm realizing that I really knew nothing when I first started... and that just makes me so much more aware of how much I still have to learn! I'm grateful for the opportunity that we're given to learn new things every day :) Isn't it great?

I love you all. You rock. Have a great week!

xoxoxoxo,

Sister Oman

Hellshire beach! 

Jamaica

Sometimes Heavenly Father really blesses you with a companion that you get along with 24/7 and it feels like you're serving with your best friend. this transfer is one of those times. i am so blessed. i love sister Tafuna:) 

The cutest little future sister missionary you ever did see. I love that little girl. She and her momma come out teaching with us sometimes and it's a blast!

And this little girl reminds me of Lyssie when she was younger... just the way she acts. Plus she loves Elmo so that's always a plus in my book;) 

Big up yuhself

Hey everyone :) It was great to hear from all of you again this week! 

Our district has decided to speak patwa. For example, this is the texting conversation we had with our district leader last night:

DL: Bredren... numbas dem soon come? Mi wan fi nyam an sleep a likkle... 

Us: Mi cyah bada wid da numbas dem.

DL: Cho my ute... top ya foolishness

Us: Top da noise mi a come

DL: Wacha! Mi wait pon u long time man

Us: Kmt ya too nuff...we nuh reach ina mi yaad

Us: soon come... mi jus reach mi yaad. 

DL: Ah ah bless up mi general

(Please excuse our terrible patwa... we're working on it. Haha.)

This week we learned a lesson about diligence. Last week, we unfortunately had to drop/ got dropped by all of our investigators except for two. Which meant that we spent almost all day Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday just walking in the blazing hot sun and talking to people on the street. Man oh man I am getting so tan. This week was full of a lot, and I mean a lot of prayers asking God for people to teach and help... and man were we ever blessed! On Thursday, we had been walking for about three hours straight just contacting people on the street when we felt like we should walk down this one little gully. So we did and we ran across this family that were all laughing in the street. We stopped to talk to them and guess who has six new investigators? Man I'm so excited to work with them... they've been taught by missionaries years and years ago and while they don't remember what they learned, they do remember how the felt. And that's what made them agree to meet with us again. Hey! It's the spirit :) 

After walking for a few more hours that same day, we got a call from the elders with a referral. So we called the referral and he wanted to meet with us the next day. We went and saw him, and he has the most inspiring story of anyone I've ever met... Holy moly. He went from not being able to afford taxi fare to get to school to having a really successful career, owning a home and a car, and being able to send himself and his little sister to university. He told us that he knows it's all because of God, and he says he thinks it's time to show God how grateful he is by committing to follow him... he just seems so prepared. I'm super excited to continue to work with him. 

In other news, we painted a house this week for service and it was a blast. We rocked out to Christmas music (yes, we know it's March),got covered in purple paint, and laughed harder than I've laughed in a long long time. It was so fun. 

We were eating ice cream under an ackee tree this week during our lunch hour when two rasta men came  up and sat with us and talked to us for a while. So we taught them the plan of salvation... in accordance with the song. Hehe. We're so clever. (That reference was probably lost on all of you if you have not served in the Jamaica Kingston Mission. My apologies.) 

Let's see... this week our investigator made us dinner and it tasted like mexican food. He kept apologizing for messing up the seasonings but holy cow it was AMAZING. We downed it in like five minutes because we both missed mexican food so much. 

I've just been in awe with the members of this ward over the last few weeks. Ever since we don't have a car anymore, we have been trying really hard to get members to come out teaching with us since they don't just get picked up by us anymore. But this week I saw members use their last money to pay for taxi fare to meet us. I saw members willing to walk for a really, really long time to do service for someone with us. And I saw members that can barely walk themselves visit members that are home bound to cook food for them and share a gospel message. I am so inspired by them. I'm learning so much about sacrifice and gratitude from these amazing, humble people. I love Jamaica. And man oh man I love Portmore more than words can express. 

Things that we learned in district meeting this week: 

We were talking about the enabling power of the Atonement and someone compared it to a little kid who's trying to reach something on a high shelf when their parent comes and lifts them up so they can reach it. They don't get it down for them, they just help them a little so they can reach it on their own. It's like the Atonement because Christ and Heavenly Father don't just get rid of all of our trials... they just lift us up and help us out so that we can reach the things we need to on our own. Also, Elder Adams said this and I just found it so profound, "Through the Atonement, God intends for us to outgrow ourselves." It's so true! 

Alright that's all I have time for. I love you all. The church is true. God loves you and knows you individually, and He wants nothing more than to have each of you return to Him after this life :) I miss you all. I'm so grateful for your support and friendship and love. You mean the world to me.

Ah bless up rasta. 

xoxoxoxoxo,

Sister Oman 

I'm taking these kids home with me. their parents just don't know it yet.

We met some really cool people from the states last night! They're here on a church mission trip thing for another church and we got to talk to them for a while. 

And this little girl is the cutest thing I've ever seen. I love her and I want to take her home with me :) 

Jamaica

A goat man that wanted his picture with me!

We eat ice cream under ackee trees on our lunch breaks

It's a very Jamaican thing to do!

The rasta men we taught the plan of salvation to. 

Anddddddd painting a house! (we want to live here) 

We like to pretend to be masked robbers when we paint :) (Just kidding we just didn't want to breathe in the fumes.) 

Andddddd me and my darling companion Sister Tafuna!

A coconut tree that we're trying to figure out how to get coconuts from!

We put green stuff on our faces for fun. hahah.