Colorado to Kingston : 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.