Bob Marley and Slamming Doors

Hey ya'll. 

Last Monday, we woke up ridiculously early to clean and email and study, and then we hopped on a bus to Kingston to go to the Bob Marley Museum! We went with our entire district, the Portmore district, and one of the Kingston districts. It was so much fun!! The museum is in Bob Marley's house, so we got to tour the house and go a bunch of places he's been. So now I've sat under the tree he used to hang out under, been in the room he got shot in, and sat in the same place he wrote like half of his songs! It was pretty cool, and as usual, it was fun to see all the missionaries I've served around! 

We were going door-to-door last week, and we got a door slammed in our face. It was kind of surreal... that's never happened to me before! It went something like this:

*Knocking on door*

*Door opens*

Us: Hello, good evening ma'am...

Her: I don't want anything to do with your church.

Us: Well do you think we could... 

*Door slams in our face*

We just kind of stood there in shock for a minute and then moved on. And then we got a little sad because she didn't even want a pamphlet. And then we got excited. Not because she won't have the gospel, no we were very sad about that. We were a bit excited because we finally felt like real missionaries having a door slammed in our face. Haha.

One morning during studies, Sister Slater went out into the kitchen to get a drink of water. And then she started screaming. A 40 legger had somehow gotten into our house and was wiggling all over our floor. So after we took a video of it (from a very safe distance), we smashed it to a pulp. No more 40 leggers for us! 

We tried to talk our way into a new gated community in our area to do contacting last week and somehow we ended up touring the model homes. I'm still not sure how that happened... we were very confused the whole time about what was going on. But we shared a message with the lady who gave us a tour so that was good! 

We pray every morning that the day will go according to the will of the Lord. Friday was a day that really showed me that prayers are answered. We had planned what we thought was a perfect day the night before... we lined up members to take out teaching with us, we thought we had a good balance between teaching and finding... etc. And then when we confirmed appointments that morning, everything went according to plan! So we thought we were all set for the day. We went to our first appointment after our weekly planning session, and then met up with the member we were taking to our next appointment. They had literally confirmed five minutes before the appointment started, but then when we got to their house they had an emergency and had to leave. So then we were stuck with a member to take to someone, but no one to take him to. We decided to call an investigator that lived nearby and see if we could see him... we could, and so we went to have a lesson with him. Turns out the member we had with us and our investigator have like everything in common and they got along great. The member invited him to church, and he said he'd come... and then he came! We've been inviting him for weeks and he never came. We never would have thought about bringing that member to fellowship him, but the Lord knew that's what needed to happen, so He made a way for it to happen! Later that night, another appointment fell through and we were kind of frustrated. But literally five minutes later, one of our recent converts called and he really wanted us to come over that night. We wouldn't have had time to go over if our appointment wouldn't have fallen through... yet another example of how I know the Lord knows better than us. 

Yesterday I had to teach relief society... at the very end of the lesson, I was bearing my testimony of the Book of Mormon when all of the sudden it just hit me. I knew that what I was bearing testimony of was true. It was like all of the sudden all the little witnesses and testimony builders I've had over my entire life just solidified into this one incredibly strong witness that the Book of Mormon is true. It all just clicked and it makes sense now! I've known it's all true but it's like now I know it's true... and I'm just getting more and more excited every second to share what I know with everyone around me :) I love the gospel! 

I love you guys! And family- it was great skyping with you yesterday!! 

Love you all, have a great week!! 

xoxoxoxo,

Sister Oman 

Entrance to the Bob Marley Museum

Sister Tafuna, Sister Slater and another sister that came to the museum with us.  

Sister Tafuna

Sister Slater and I

Bob Marley's house

The tree Bob used to smoke ganja under!!

Where Bob wrote his song.....

Sister Tafuna and I

It was a party with all the Sisters that came with us.

Goats, goats and more goats!!!

This is the closest I've been to the ocean since I left Portmore....I got so excited!!

The fourty legger that found its way into our apartment.  Sister Slater thought it was a snake but apparently it wasn't!!

The false alarm snake scare!!

A unique flower.  It has these giant pod things all over it.  

Fried dumplings...I made them myself!!

Our church building.  We pray every day we will get a new building.

Cute kitten we saw last night at a lesson!!

Sacrifices and Sunny Days

Hey people! Hope all is well with all of you :) 

This week we had zone meeting in Spanish Town! We talked a lot about living by revelation and acting on the promptings of the spirit... I think I can speak for all of us when I say we left that meeting incredibly excited to continue missionary work. That evening, all of our appointments and all of our backups fell through... and instead of walking on the road just talking to people that were outside like we normally would do in this mission, we started going door to door. We've set a goal to talk to people in every house in our neighborhood by the end of the transfer... that's a lot of houses. But we can do it with the help of the Lord! 

We had to walk to part of our area that's like really really far away a few times this week... and one time it was SO HOT. I thought I was melting. Later that night in companionship prayer, Sister Slater said "We're grateful we never fainted on the way to Old Harbour Bay today because the sun was really really hot." Hahaha the things you learn to be grateful for on a mission. But seriously, that is definitely something to be grateful for! 

We had to teach the gospel principles class in church yesterday and we taught on sacrifice. While we were preparing the lesson last week, I spent a lot of time studying the story of the Anti-Nephi Lehies in the Book of Mormon. (If you guys haven't read it lately, you should. It's in Alma chapter 23-24 I think.) But anyways... all that studying about sacrifice has gotten me thinking. 

Sometimes the Lord asks us to do things to make or keep covenants with him. The Anti Nephi Lehies had to give up all their weapons and bury them in the ground... that's the first sacrifice I guess. Like where they were making the covenant not to shed blood anymore. Then they had to sacrifice again to keep that covenant. They were under attack, and they literally just laid down and let their enemies kill them. They knew the importance of the covenant they had made with the Lord and they were willing to sacrifice everything to keep that covenant... even their own lives. That got me thinking... what am I willing to sacrifice to keep my covenants? At the beginning of my mission, I thought I was sacrificing a lot to keep my covenants. I mean, I was leaving my family, and my friends, and school, and work... and a ton of other things to come to a foreign country with no one I know to teach people I've never met. And then as my mission has gone along, sometimes I still think I'm sacrificing a lot... I've realized that not a lot of things that I left when I came out are going to be there when I come home. The people I knew have changed a lot, the places I knew have changed... I guess just the world is changing haha. Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the "Wow, I'm giving up so much to be here" kind of attitude. But then I remembered one of my very favorite verses in the story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies... it's right as the Lamanites are coming to attack the Anti-Nephi-Lehies. "And thus without meeting any resistance, they did slay a thousand and five of them; and we know that they are blessed, for they have gone to dwell with their God." That verse reminds me that no matter what we think we're giving up, really we aren't giving up anything at all because we're just replacing the things we give up with some pretty great blessings from God. So I've realized that no matter what I thought I sacrificed to come on a mission, really it wasn't a sacrifice at all because of all the blessings I've received over the last year. I hope that makes sense. I know that this mission isn't going to be the end of the things I'll think I have to give up for the Lord and my covenants with Him either... but really, sacrifices are no sacrifices at all when you look at the grand scheme of things. There is no sacrifice that would be great enough to pay back Heavenly Father, because no matter how much we think we're giving up... He's always just going to give us more than what we gave up. Just like the people of Anti Nephi Lehi, we will be blessed one day to live with God as long as we do our absolute best to make and keep covenants with Him while we're here :) 

Alright I love you all! Have a great week!!! 

xoxoxoxo,

Sister Oman 

Our backyard. we live sorta out in the country and i love it... plus i don't know why, but seeing clothes drying on the line just makes me really happy haha. 

The good news is, we know which way to go if there's ever a tsunami! 

This one neighborhood we walk in is like a giant maze of houses that look exactly the same... We get lost like all the time. 

One morning I got out of the shower and heard what sounded like a little kid crying hysterically in the backyard.  I looked out the window and it was a goat! good grief. haha. 

This is our house! 

Some of our favorite dogs!

I love these little kids with all my heart :) So precious! 

I love this family!!!

Check out my new scripture case.  One side is the Bahamas flag and the other is the Jamaican Flag!!!

Sometimes I feel like I am in Africa, not Jamaica!

Our gospel principles class at church is mostly missionaries, but we still have a good discussion every week with the few people who do come! 

This is Zenadine. He's my favorite :)   I love that little boy to death! 

The Living Christ + Cheesecake= A Pretty Great Week

This week was full of little tender mercies and good things but I don't even know where to begin haha.. So let's see how this goes! (As usual)

Monday we were walking the longggg walk back to our house from the supermarket with all of our groceries due to lack of taxi's on the road and we were getting really tired of carrying our heavy bags. But God is good and always provides tender mercies for us :) We ran into one of our investigators that lives in the same neighborhood as us and he carried a lot of our groceries almost all the way to our house for us. (He couldn't carry them to our house because then he'd know where we live and that's a no-no haha.) So that was a blessing! 

We were street contacting and we stopped to talk to these two guys. We're in the middle of giving them a little overview of the Restoration when not one, but two forty leggers appear and start heading straight for our feet. I like started to back up and say "Uh... Sister Slater... you might want to move." But she didn't see them so she wasn't sure what I was doing and then finally one of the guys we were talking to was like "Woah! You guys need to move now!" And away went the spirit. Stinkin forty leggers haha. But we got a return appointment and had a really good first lesson with them... So that was the good outcome of all of that! 

Speaking of street contacting... we met some people from England that were here visiting family this week so we got to send a referral to missionaries in England! I was just thinking how that is just so cool that the church is worldwide... so the message that we shared with them here is the same message that the missionaries back in England will share with them when they meet them. I love this gospel :) 

We had interviews with President Brown this week... interviews are pretty much one of my favorite things of being a missionary. Basically you get to just go sit in a room with someone who knows an insane amount about the gospel and ask whatever questions you want and then study the scriptures together to get answers for like an hour. It's amazing. This time we talked a lot about learning the gospel for the sake of learning vs. learning it to become more holy... so I've spent a lot of time doing some self evaluations to see how effective my studies are, and setting some goals to make my studies more effective! 

Ummmm in other news... Thursday was our year mark! So we decorated and bought ourselves cheesecake to celebrate. I was just thinking how crazy it is that it's been over a year since I've stepped foot in Colorado... it's so awesome how something can stay so much a part of you when you haven't been there for so long. 

Anyways. This email is so scatterbrained... sorry about that. 

We both memorized The Living Christ when we were younger for personal progress, but we tried to recite it this week and it would appear much of it has been forgotten. So we're re-memorizing it over the next few weeks! We recite it as we walk, listen to a recording of it all morning as we get ready, and read it together during companion studies. There's been a whole different spirit in the apartment and throughout our days because we're spending so much more time focusing on Jesus Christ... I'm loving it. I love having words about Christ running through my head all day. It's a lot easier to focus on the things I'm supposed to be focused on rather than getting distracted and thinking about things other than the work :) 

That's probably it for this week! I love you all! Have a great week! 

xoxoxo,

Sister Oman 

Thanks to Rastas...the word Zion is all over this island.  I love it!!

Paul's baptism last week!!!!! I hate that red beenie haha. i always told him i was going to burn it. i guess he only took it off for the actual baptism ordinance and confirmation... good grief. 

The bible says preach the gospel to every creature... maybe we've started taking that a little too seriously ;) hahhahaha. 

An Old Abandoned Train Station

A typical house in Jamaica

Old Harbour

Inside pictures of our church building.  It's basically a room inside a strip mall.

We got the package Mom sent this week!  I gave sister Slater a box of the lucky charms because she doesn't get packages ever so i wanted to share my love from home :)

This leaf was literally bigger than my face. I used it for a fan all day cuz it was hotter than all get out that day. 

Pretty Jamaica

The purpose of this picture is for you to check out my tan line... the one on my neck. isn't that crazy? i look like a patchwork quilt haha. 

We decorated for my year mark!  One year on a mission!!

Cheesecake to celebrate our year mark!!