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. 

Tender Mercies Galore

This week shall forever go down in my mind as the week of tender mercies. I still can't believe how blessed we were this week... it seems like every few minutes we just got little reminders that the Lord is mindful of us and especially of the people we're working with!! 

But let's back up a little... 

We spent a lot of the day Monday at the church playing Phase 10 with our district. Man, I love Phase 10! But... that meant that we didn't have a lot of time to clean and so we spent every minute of our lunch and dinner hour on Tuesday and all evening Monday cleaning and organizing the house and getting Sister Slater packed and ready to go. So that made for a pretty crazy couple of days! 

Wednesday we got picked up super early to go to transfer meeting! We got there like two or three hours early so we just had to sit in the church with some other missionaries to wait for the meeting to start... It felt so weird. I can't remember the last time I just sat around like that except for p-days. 

Anyways... at transfer meeting a few things happened. First, like half of the missionaries I know and have served around bore their final testimonies to go home. That was so weird. 

And then... drum roll please... I got my new companion!! Her name is Sister Thurgood, she's amazing, and I love her to death :) I can't even believe she's only been on a mission a few days! She's just absolutely a super prepared missionary and I am so lucky to be her companion :) 

Like I mentioned earlier... we've been seeing so many tender mercies this week. To name a few... 

• It's been cooler than usual and breezy so we don't die of heat when we walk places 
• We've had more than one free ride from members so we don't have to walk as much as we normally do 
• We had three meal appointments in one week... which is unheard of in this area. Usually we count ourselves super blessed if we get one meal appointment! 
• You know how the last few weeks our appointments keep falling through and we just walk a lot? That hasn't happened at all since Sister Thurgood got here. It's amazing! 

Not to mention the fact that ever since she got here random people just appear who seem super prepared to hear the gospel. Let me tell you about a few of the experiences we've had. 

• We were walking to an appointment a few nights ago when a car pulled up next to us. The guy said "You guys Mormon?" And of course we said yes. He then pulled a Book of Mormon out of his glove box, said, "Some missionaries in another parish gave this to me a few weeks ago. I used to take lessons from them and I went to church a bunch of times but I wasn't ready yet." So of course we asked him if he's ready now, he said yes, we asked him to start reading the Book of Mormon, and we're going to have a lesson with him in a few days! 
• Yesterday we were walking to another appointment and a lady yelled across the street asking for a Bible. We called her over and said that we didn't have any Bibles, but we did have the Book of Mormon. We taught her a little bit about what the Book of Mormon is, and she said she'd love to learn more. She walked over to her house and started to read. We're meeting with her again tomorrow. 
• We were leaving an appointment when a guy came up and asked us how a few other sister missionaries were. They used to serve here, so I asked him if they used to teach him. He said yes, he loved it and went to church every Sunday for about two months, but they had to stop because he got too busy with school. So we asked him if he was still busy and he said after this week he won't be, so we got his number and we're going to teach him!! 
• Andddd we got two referrals this week! Compared to the zero referrals we got last week and the week before, that's a pretty big deal. 

All of these things might not seem like very big deals to you guys, but to us, they were huge. Every time something like that happened, it just reminded us that the Lord is so mindful of us and this really is His work!! 

We didn't do much to celebrate the Fourth this year because we're in Jamaica... but we did sing America the Beautiful for companion studies and studied scriptures having to do with freedom in honor of America. So that was good. 

We did some super fun service this week! We got to pull down a bunch of vines, dig up some banana and plantain trees, and plant some new trees! The best part was that we found a snake (just a tiny little one probably no more than six inches long and like as fat as my little finger) and one of the elders chased his screaming companion around with it for about five minutes. I don't remember the last time I laughed that hard. It was hilarious. I love service projects haha. 

To close this email, I'd just like the share something Brother Pryce said yesterday when he was teaching gospel principles. 

"When we are obedient, we increase in the person God wants us to become." 

I love that quote. If there's one thing I've learned on my mission, it's that nothing in life happens the way it's supposed to when we aren't obedient to the commandments. When we are obedient, we draw closer to God and become more like him every day! 

Love you all!! Have a great week! 

xoxoxo,

Sister Oman 

Our district from last transfer. I can't remember the last time I had a normal district picture. Haha. 

Sister Slater....I miss her!

Dumpling and ackee!! This is the ackee we found on the road last week that I talked about in my email... it was delicious!! 

Meal appointment! Curry chicken and rice and peas! Yummy, yummy! 

Acrobatic Goat!!

Little sights like this are reasons I love Jamaica. 

I don't know who's idea it was to give me the cutlass, but I had it and I thoroughly enjoyed chopping vines like I was a jungle explorer! Haha. I love service projects. 

(Oh yeah! That's Sister Thurgood, my amazing new companion.)

I love this little girl!

Cute girls!!

This is our super fancy, state of the art entertainment system. we put our DVD player on a chair, put a towel on the back to block some back lighting, add some speakers and a fan to keep us cool, and we are all set to watch meet the Mormons to relax a little during lunch! 

Ambulances, Lock picking and The Weirdest Week of My life

Hey ya'll :) 

This week someone picked our bedroom door lock with a knife, we thought we were going to get shot, and we rode in an ambulance. 

Haha. That makes our week sound a lot more exciting than it actually was. Let me back up and explain... 

Remember how a few weeks ago we locked ourselves out of our bedroom with the keys in there? Yeah, that happened again this week. But we were determined not to have to call the elders again because that would be very embarrassing so we went next door and borrowed some re bar, took the screen off the bedroom window, wrapped a wire hanger around the re bar and started to fish. Unfortunately that didn't work so we said a prayer and before we had even said amen, our neighbors were pulling into the driveway and asking if we needed help. They came over and picked our lock with a knife and we were in! Thank heavens for answered prayers and friendly neighbors. We're going to take them cookies to say thank you for helping us later today :) 

We were walking down the road and there was a semi-truck parked on the side of the road. All of the sudden, we heard a gun load. Or whatever you call that. You know, like the sound a gun makes right before it gets shot? Anyways. My life flashed before my eyes. I said my final prayer. And then I prepared to die. And then... the sound was actually someone just dropping a bunch of nails in a metal box. Good grief. 

We were walking home last night when a member drove by in the Red Cross ambulance she drives for work and she offered us a ride. So that's why I rode in an ambulance haha. It's a lot less exciting sounding when you actually tell the stories. 

In other news... we were doing role plays this week to practice effective street contacting. I was pretending to be a man picking mangoes and Sister Thurgood was the missionary. We died of laughter at her attempt to share the Plan of Salvation with me: "You're going to fall out of that tree and die. We can tell you where  you'll go when that happens." Hahahahhahahaha. 

We got ice cream for Sister Thurgood's month mark on Friday, and while we were sitting there just trying to enjoy our ice cream, two little sixteen year old boys sit down and start hitting on us. We had news for them: that was not happening. Good grief. The things that happen to us. 

Alright now for some spiritual stuff :) 

We were having a lesson and she asked a question that neither of us knew the answer to. But then I started to say we don't know and we'll have to look it up and let her know, and all of the sudden I hear myself explaining something about Saul and the Sanhedrin and Stephen and all of that and I don't remember knowing all of it but it was exactly what the woman needed to hear to move on with the lesson and that's how I know the Lord's promise that we will be given what we need to say when we need to say it is real. It was such a cool experience. 

We had a lesson last week and I learned so much from it. First and foremost, I learned the importance of honesty. When people aren't honest, it just leads to a whole huge mess and drama and strained family relationships and a bunch of other stuff. Honesty is so important! 

Alright. Next I really had my testimony of the law of chastity strengthened. I've seen so many times on my mission how important the law of chastity is. When a man and a woman are married and they don't start a family until after they are married, it eliminates so much drama and confusion and stress that comes from having kids outside of wedlock. I've been pondering a lot on the importance of temples and covenants and all of that since that lesson... and more and more I'm having my resolve to never settle for anything less than a temple marriage strengthened. I am so so so grateful that I can have the opportunity to start a family someday that will be eternal... and I'm so grateful that we have the chance every day to help other families become eternal too! Yeah. I hope that made sense haha. 

In other news, I love these verses from 3 Nephi 11. We read it in companion study this week, and they hit me more powerfully than they ever have before. Which is saying something, because 3 Nephi 11 is my favorite chapter and I read it ALL THE TIME. 

 "Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world. And behold, I am the light and the life of the world;and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father  hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning."

I love those verses. I love Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for my Savior. I love you all. 
Bless up! 
xoxoxo, 

Sister Oman

Cookie making adventures

I love Jamaica because I get to see things like this

 We teach anywhere and everywhere... even along the railroad tracks

Rainbows are everywhere..now that it's raining more

Ice cream to celebrate Sister Thurgood's one month mark!!!

We got real live ice cream cones for sister thurgood's one month mark!! i haven't had real American ice cream since i left Nassau :) yummy! 

a view of old harbour town from an upstairs window

This is what the inside of a Jamaican Red Cross ambulance looks like! 

Over the River and Through the Woods

Hey guys!

Wow this week was just full of all sorts of exciting adventures. 

To start off, we had stake conference this weekend! That in itself was exciting because it was the one year anniversary since the first stake was organized in Jamaica. It was even more exciting because the church was packed. Like there weren't enough seats and all the elders serving in the stake had to stand in the back. We had seats filled all the way from the very front of the chapel, way back through the overflow, and up on the stage. It was amazing! For the rest hymn, we sang "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and I just looked around the room at all these amazing pioneers in the church standing and singing with me and I just about cried. I was so overwhelmed with how amazing these people are... I am so blessed to have known and loved so many of them in the time that I've been able to serve so far. 

Alright... one of my favorite things that was spoken about at stake conference was a simple question. "Are we the church, or are we just coming to church?" The speaker was talking about how it's crucial for us to not just be Sunday worshippers... but rather to apply and live gospel principles every day of our lives. He talked about how we should all be striving to develop a gospel culture and do our best to live as disciples of Jesus Christ would live. I've spent a lot of time thinking about that since then... and considering how I can more fully live as a disciple of Jesus Christ! 

In other news... Tuesday night we got a call from our Sister Training Leaders saying that they were going to come on splits with us the next day. Splits are like trade-offs only a little more stressful because you have to plan for two full days of lessons that happen in one day. Now, our area is a little challenging and sometimes it's hard for us to even fill one day of appointments when it's just us working in our area... let alone two companionships working in the area. So we spent a lot of time contacting and building our teaching pool on Wednesday haha. 

We decided to go to the far out area to look for a few people. That's where the adventure started. I was with Sister Rampersad, one of the Sister Training Leaders. We started by walking about an hour to a neighborhood where we tried to have a few lessons but they all fell through. So we said a prayer and felt like we should walk even further to a little community called Bogles to try to find some former investigators. So we walked another thirty minutes down a highway, took a little dirt trail about twenty minutes off the highway, crossed a canal, climbed around a fence, walked another thirty minutes down a road that smelled like cows, waded through grass that was as tall as our knees, climbed through a hole in a barbed wire fence, walked on the railroad tracks, crossed a bridge that goes over the highway, and balanced on the side of a canal to finally reach our appointment. And then she was just leaving so we didn't even get to see her. We spent a while doing some finding and then flagged down a coaster and rode back to town since we couldn't be bothered to walk anymore. 

We were walking through Spanish Town with the elders on Saturday. One of them stopped to buy a juice at a shop, and the guy in the shop gave him two and told him to give the extra one to the "white lady." I didn't really know what to do so I stood there awkwardly like "Uh... do I take it or is that bad?" And finally they all just told me to take it so I did and said thanks and then I had a free juice! Haha. Victory. 

One night, we stopped to talk to this guy. We had just finished setting up an appointment with him when we asked him if there was anything we could do to help him (like service.) He took like five steps back, and said "Alright. Am I on camera? You guys walk all day in the sun to teach people about Jesus and you do work for free too? What is this?" Hahahhahah. After a bit more explaining why we do what we do, he believed us... and our first lesson with him went really well! We'll see what happens there. 

We caught a caterpillar and put it in a bottle. We named him Likkle Mon (patwa for Little Man) and decided to keep him until he turned into a butterfly. Unfortunately I almost killed him on the way to Friday Night Activity because I stuffed his bottle in my bag so I could eat a patty while we were walking. When we got there, we were convinced he was dead. But we all worked together and brought Likkle Mon back to life! That night, he somehow escaped out of his bottle and left nasty slime trails all over our house that took like thirty minutes to mop up in the morning. Needless to say, Likkle Mon no longer lives in our house and we have learned our lesson about bringing caterpillars home with us. 

I think the best thing that happened to me this week was getting a letter from one of my recent converts. Part of it reads, "I am eternally grateful that you stopped by my house that night to teach me the gospel. I will do my best to get to the temple. Thank you for everything." You guys. When I read that, I just burst into tears. (Good tears haha.) Little things like that are what make a mission the best thing I've ever done. It doesn't matter how many sunburns, how many blisters, how many bug bites I get... because at the end of the day I get to be blessed by the opportunity to be an instrument in the Lord's hands. And I never want that to end. 

Well that was longer than planned haha. I love you guys! Hope you have a great week!!!! 

xoxoxoxox,

Sister Oman

I've discovered a mystery!  The first picture is what my desk looks like every morning a the start of studies.And the second picture is what it looks like just two hours later.  How in the world does it gt that messy in two hours?  Good grief!!!  

This is my favorite part of our area.  Not too crowded.  Lots of nice views, and tons of friendly people who are willing to listen to our message!!

This is the fence we have to climb through or over to get to our appointments sometimes.  Let me tell ya.  Climbing through a barbed wire fence in a skirt is easier said than done.  The skirt really likes to get caught on the wire.  All the time.  Good grief!!

We also have to walk on railroad tracks to get to appointments out here!!!

I love goats!  We sometimes chase them and it makes walking a lot more exciting.  Ha ha!!

I found a bus that said Portmore so I had to take a picture with it.  

This is Paul.  He is the man Sister Tafuna and I baptized.  I missed his baptism by a few days because I got transferred right before, so stake conference was the first time I got to see him as a member.  It was so exciting!  Man I loved this weekend ha ha!!