Dust and Priesthood Blessings

This week I learned what it means to be dusty. On Tuesday, it was one of the windiest days I've ever experienced. And it hasn't rained a whole lot here lately so it was just blowing sand and dirt everywhere. We had dust covering our entire bodies. Our hair was caked with dirt, our ears were filled with dirt... I've never been that covered in dirt in my life. When we got home that night, our entire house (which we had just cleaned on Monday) was covered in dirt. After planning, we swept, shook out our sheets, and collapsed in bed. And then we had to wake up Wednesday morning and clean the whole house again. Anyways... we aren't complaining. We just learned how to clean really well last week!

We had a super cool experience with a priesthood blessing. We got to our investigator's house and her face was super swollen. When we asked her what was wrong, she said she had no idea but her face had just started to swell the night before. We asked her if she wanted a priesthood blessing, and explained what it was. She said yes, so we called the elders and they came to give her a blessing. Afterwards, she just grinned so big and looked at us and said "I could feel the swelling going down. It works! I'll be at church on Sunday." Such a testimony builder! 

We had a super jam packed day on Saturday. We had about thirty minutes to walk somewhere that normally takes an hour... and we just prayed that somehow we would make it on time. After about twenty minutes of walking, a member pulled up beside us and said that she was going to take us to our next appointment! We reached with three minutes to spare. Prayers are answered!! 

We got to participate in a community children's Bible reading group yesterday afternoon. It was so cool because a ton of people from all different churches got together and we read their kids Bible stories. It was really cool to see that even though we were all from different backgrounds, we are united in our faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I loved it! 

Lastly... someone read a quote in a sacrament talk yesterday that I loved! I think it was from Elder Hallstrom or something like that... he said "It is possible to be active in the church and less active in the gospel." That really made me reflect on my life... I identified some times where my gospel study and prayers were definitely not as good as they could be, and then I looked at how different my life is now because of all the time I spend studying and praying and trying to apply the things I learn... I see so many blessings that come from being active in the church and in the gospel. This gospel is about a lot more than attending Sunday meetings... and the blessings that come from actually living the gospel are so plentiful I can't even begin to count them. 

That's it for this week! I love you guys!! 

xoxoxoox, 

Sister Oman 

President and Sister Pinnock.  He's the branch president.  I love these people so much.  She served in temple square.  They are coming up to visit next summer, so I get to see them!!!

In one day, we acquired a large number of mangoes from an investigator, guinep from someone on the street, and homemade mango juice from a member!  Yay free food!!

We cleaned our house Monday, and then it was really windy on Tuesday and it blew a ton of dirt in our house.  This is the dirt from our bedroom floor alone.  (The scissors are for size reference.)

Sometimes in the morning for exercise...we practice yoga moves.  Ha Ha!!!

This is Nonni...long story short, you make juice with it.  It's disgusting!!

Curry mutton (goat), rice, and green banana! 

It was Jamaican Independence Day on Thursday, so we wore Jamaican colors and made signs haha.

Our district!! Transfer calls were this weekend, so we said goodbye to Elder Jones at church yesterday. Two new elders will be joining our district this week!

I love Jamaica!!  It's so beautiful!!

Funerals, Ant Bites, and Isaiah

Yet another week has gone by! What in the world? Where does the time go? 

This week we started off with a loving tender mercy from Heavenly Father. Our whole day had fallen through before 11:00 and it was SO HOT. And when our entire day and all of our backups fall through, we have to walk and street contact and try to get some people to teach. That just sounded deadly in the sun, but we said a prayer we'd find someone to help and headed out. Right as we walked by a less-active member's house, she got out of a taxi and said "Hey sisters, do you want to come share a scripture with me?" We said of course we did and we went and had a lovely lesson about building our testimonies. God is good and He always gives us ways to help others when we ask for His help and we are obedient. 

We met this guy this week that couldn't talk or hear. We shared a little about the restoration with him by writing back and forth on a notebook he carried around. It was really interesting and a way cool opportunity to see that the spirit was still there even though no words were spoken! 

I learned that I have to shake out my clothes before I get dressed the hard way this week. Apparently ants have taken over my closet and my clothes were full of ants when I got dressed one night and let me tell you I've never experienced so many ant bites in my life. My p-day will consist of getting rid of the ants in my closet today! Haha. 

We had a funeral to go to at another church on Saturday. The entire thing was loud and confusing and hot. It was a huge fancy church with a drummer and a pianist and a fancy sound system and a huge stage but I just didn't feel the spirit there. 

Fast forward to Sunday at our church. The elder who used to play the piano got transferred and no one else could play during sacrament so we sang without an accompaniment. I was just thinking as we were singing... We really didn't sound very good, we had no fancy drums and pianos and sound systems. I mean there was only like twenty of us crammed in a tiny room next to a cable company, but that didn't matter. The spirit was so strong and I just loved it. It's not about all the fancy conveniences, it's about the gospel. And that's what we have to offer... the fullness of the gospel. And that's definitely good enough for me! 

In other news, I found my new favorite scripture this week. I'm in Isaiah in the Old Testament now and I absolutely love Isaiah 32:17 (Well you can look at verses 16-19 but verse 17 was my favorite.) 

"And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever."

Isn't that beautiful? I love the scriptures. 

And I love you all! Have the best weeks of your life :) 

xoxoxoxoxo,

Sister Oman 

We bought a HUGE box of ice cream last week. Yes, that box on Sister Thurgood's lap is full of chocolate ice cream. You could say it's been a pretty great week haha. 

Our investigator climbed his coconut tree to get us a snack after our lesson one day! I was impressed.

 I got this nativity set carved last week with some of my birthday money! 

This is the most beautiful place in the world. I love the sky!! 

This little guy was a not so friendly surprise this morning but no worries... we killed him with our water storage. haha. 

This is my new planner for my 12th transfer! geeze that's a lot of transfers haha.