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