Free fruit, Puddle jumping and the Atonement!!

Wat a gwaan!! 

This week was AMAZING. Again! I don't know what we're doing to be blessed this much, but the work has just picked up and it's moving full force ahead. We couldn't be more blessed! My heart is just full of gratitude :) 

Here's some highlights of the week: 

We were walking to a lesson with a less active member when a guy called to us. We stopped for a minute and he said that he just wanted to give us some guinep (actually I don't know how to spell that word but it's my most favorite fruit in the entire world) and so that's the story of how we each got an insane amount of guinep for free! 

We stopped at a house to talk to someone and after we finished getting his number and stuff we were like "Hey, can we have one of those mangos?" (He had a HUGE mango tree just full of the delicious fruit in his yard.) He said of course, and gave us not just one each... but seven mangos. Woohoo it was a great day.

Haha a lot of our highlights this week apparently came from food... We had cleaning checks on Thursday, and the senior couple that did our cleaning check brought us home-made chocolate chip cookies!! You guys. They were the first home-made chocolate chip cookies I've had in almost 15 months. That's a really long time. It was heaven on earth. We just sat on the floor and ate them and talked about how grateful we are for senior couples haha. 

We had branch conference yesterday at church, and you know what that means... lots of visitors from the stake! Which meant I got to see some of my favourite people from Portmore :) It's like a sort of family reunion every time that happens. I just love it :) 

There was a huge rainstorm Saturday night. When the rain started, we were in our last appointment for the night. By the time the lesson was over, it was just dumping buckets of rain. Like buckets and buckets and buckets of rain. I've never seen raindrops that big. Our investigator asked us if we wanted an umbrella (Because silly me left my umbrella at home. Sister Thurgood was prepared and brought hers.) but since it was our last appointment of the night, we decided to just walk in the rain. You guys, puddle jumping on deserted streets in Jamaica at 9:00 at night in the pouring rain is officially my favourite pastime. That is going to be probably one of my favourite memories from my entire mission :) I love puddle jumping. 

Alright now for why this week was amazing work wise. We had TWO PEOPLE at church yesterday. That's the first time that's happened in who knows how long. They both loved it. And they're coming back next week hopefully. And one of them accepted a baptism date. It's amazing! 

Anyways. One of the people at church yesterday was the lady I talked about in my last email that stopped us and asked us for a Bible, which we didn't have... but we did give her a Book of Mormon. When we came back for a lesson, she'd read eight pages and was loving it. She invited herself to church, told us when she knows it's true she'll be baptized, and then told us how she's been looking for a church that has the whole truth. Well we had good news for her: she's found it! We're so excited to work with her. And her family :) 

I've been studying about the Atonement and change and becoming like Christ and the Plan of Salvation and faith and a bunch of other stuff lately... and I just keep coming back to this quote. I love it, so I want to share it with you :) 

"The purpose and central blessing of this life is change. It is to incorporate into your character the qualities of His character. It is to move from one degree of intelligence and capacity to the next, and from there to the next, until you see God face to face and know Him as He knows you." -Lawrence E. Corbridge

I love that. I'm so grateful for the atonement and how we are all able to change and come to know God and Jesus Christ just a little more every day. Over the course of my mission, I've seen so many people come closer to Christ through the changes that they make in their lives, and I don't think there could ever be a greater miracle than seeing that happen. I've experienced more than ever before how the Atonement blesses my life, and I think over the last two weeks I've come to appreciate that more than ever before in my life. 

Christ lives. Heavenly Father loves us. This church is true! 

I love you all. 

xoxoxoxo,

Sister Oman 

 I made homemade pizza last week and it was delicious. the end.

Guinep. Or however you spell it. You bite open the outside, take that orange part out of the middle, suck all the delicious fruit off the seed, and then spit the seed out. It's amazing. 

This is Jamaica!!

These cows are my friends.  Sometimes I moo at them when we walk by and they moo back.  

During out weekly planning session this week, there were goats AND a tractor in our backyard.  It was a bit chaotic...only in Jamaica!

The Jamaican flag on the way home from church.

We climbed a very tall wall and took pictures.  All the while we sand, "I'm up on to top of  the world, hey".  WE were going to do service so it did have a purpose.  Don't worry we weren't slacking off!!

Sister Anderson from Portmore and baby Faith!!!  I love these ladies more than words can express!!!

Chaos in our backyard!!

Vines growing on walls are one of my favorite things....I don't know why!!

This is what ackee looks like before it opens!  Don't eat it or it will kill you.  It's poisonous til it opens.

Walking, walking, walking...

Hey people!

So this week I learned a lot about walking haha. This week was another really slow week here in Old Harbour. It seemed like almost everyone we talked to was not interested in our message, and most of the members we tried to meet with were busy. So we learned a lot about trying to find creative ways to share the gospel with people. 

We helped someone pull vines off of a trash can and talked about the Book of Mormon. 

We told someone their keys were left in their front door and talked about eternal families.

We asked someone for water and talked about the sabbath day. 

And a lot more... wow we just walked a lot this week haha. 

We had zone conference on Thursday! It was so good. I know I say that about every zone conference, but I just feel like every time all of my prayers get answered in the space of five hours. It's a pretty great experience. We talked a lot about having love in the work, working with members, and building faith in everyone we work with (including ourselves). I had to give a talk on having love in missionary work. I really do not like speaking in front of people, but I love preparing talks because it always just motivates me to really do a lot of studying on that topic. So I studied love a lot last week, and I learned so much! Especially about Jesus Christ and how much love He shows to each one of us every day. I'm so grateful for that charity. 

Prayers are answered, people. Let me explain how I know that. When you're in a walking area, your shoes tend to wear out. Like they get holes in the soles and they get all ripped up. Which does not look very professional. And it's really hard to find good walking shoes in Old Harbour. So my lovely momma sent me some shoes. But she sent them like a really long time ago and letters and other mail that was sent way after them kept coming but no sign of the shoes. I was starting to get worried because quite frankly packages don't always show up. They just kind of get lost in the mail. So we prayed this last week that I would get them at zone conference... and they came! It was a miracle :) It's a silly little thing... but I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father is mindful of my feet and answers prayers even when it's just about a pair of shoes. 

We had a lesson with a man who is an atheist yesterday. He says he's an atheist because he has a lot of questions that no church has been able to answer before. Every single question he had has an answer though... and those answers can be found in this church because it's the true church! We gave him a Book of Mormon, and he said he's going to read it. We're going to check back in a few days to see how that's going... he requested some time to read through it. We are so excited to work with him. As we were talking, he was telling us how his view of life is that you live,  you die, and then you cease to exist. We asked him what it would mean to him to know that he can be with his family for longer than just this lifetime... and he said it would mean a lot to him. I thought of a quote... it might be from Tad R. Callister maybe? He said, "With increased perspective comes increased motivation." Meaning that when we see more of the big picture, when we understand that our life didn't begin at birth and doesn't end at death, we have more desire to live righteously and treat others with respect because we know the relationships we build here on earth and the things we learn will last for eternity... not just eighty or so years and then everything just ends. 

Anyways. Sorry that was sort of random. 

Last up... I've been thinking a lot about something Albert Einstein said lately. He said, "Many of the things you can count, do not count. Many of the things you cannot count, really do count." Think about that. It's so true. We can't count most of the things in the gospel, and they're the things that matter most! 

Alright. I love you guys. You're the best!! Have a fantastic week!! 

xoxoxox,

Sister Oman 

Sister Bailey and I at zone conference! She goes home next week... how crazy is that? It seems like just yesterday she got to Nassau to serve with me and she'd only been out seven months. Time goes so fast here!! (Also... check out the intense tan lines on my feet! Yay for walking areas!! haha.)

Sister Slater and I

This is a bunch of us sisters at zone conference,

One of my favorite buildings here!

 I've developed a love for old abandoned buildings with vines growing on them. I think they're beautiful. I'm grateful Heavenly Father put me in a place with a lot of them. That's just one of the little reasons I love Old Harbour :) 

This is Kyrie! Kyrie is my favorite :) We had dinner at his house yesterday and he was pretty grumpy while his mom was trying to finish cooking. So I got to sit on the floor next to him and sing "I hope they call me on a mission" about ten thousand times. It was the only thing that would calm him down since we aren't allowed to hold him as missionaries! Anyways... I love that baby :)

 

 

Almond Trees and Missing Keys!

Hey ya'll!!

So first things first, we got transfer calls on Saturday! Sister Slater is leaving Old Harbour to go open a new area for sisters... and I'll be training a new sister! I don't know my new companion's name yet... I'll find out on Wednesday at transfer meeting. So that means I'll be staying in Old Harbour for at least another three months :) I'm so happy about that! 

We got Meet the Mormons in the mail a few weeks ago, and we've watched it soooo many times. I watched it one night before bed after planning, and then we watched it as a district for pday last week, and then we watched it with a family for family home evening last Monday. And then tonight we're watching it again for family home evening with some members and investigators! Good grief I'm going to have that movie memorized by the end of my mission haha. But it's super good! So if any of you haven't seen it yet, I would highly recommend it :) 

We were walking along feeling rather hungry one day when we came across an almond tree. For those of you who don't know, almonds grow inside of a little fruit and then you have to crack open a hard shell to get to what we normally think of as an almond. So we ate the fruit off the outside and then we stopped in the middle of a field to crack open the shells to get the nuts. We were sitting in the field beating the shells with a huge rock when a police car pulled up and asked us if we were okay because we were beating something with a really big rock. Yes officer, we're fine. We were just hungry. Haha. Oops. 

Wednesday morning we were sitting at our desk in the study room doing companion study when our bedroom door blew shut. We didn't think anything of it until we were getting ready to leave for district meeting and we realized our bedroom door was locked... and the keys were inside of the bedroom. This presented a problem because we have bars on all of our windows and doors that are padlocked shut which means in order to leave our house we have to have keys. So we were locked inside of our house. We called our district leader... 

Us: "Hey, Elder Jones. We have a problem."

Him: "What's up?"

Us: "Um... we're locked inside of our house. Can you come help us get out?" 

While we were waiting for he and his companion to come figure out a way to get us out of our house, we tore apart our house looking for keys. We thankfully found a spare key to the padlock on our front grill, so we were able to at least get out of the house, but we still needed our keys! There's some construction going on at the house next door, so I walked over and asked the workers if I could borrow a really long piece of rebar. I pried the screen off of our bedroom window, and started to fish for the keys through the bars with the rebar. You guys, a 25 foot long piece of rebar is really stinking heavy in case you didn't know. So eventually Elder Jones and Elder Martin show up with a wire hanger and some tools. They quickly take the rebar away from me and make a hook on the end of it with the wire hanger and then start to fish. They were a lot more successful than I was... we had our keys in about five minutes! Thank heavens for construction workers and district leaders! You can rest assured we will never leave our keys in our bedroom again haha. 

We were walking home from church yesterday wondering what we would eat for dinner that night (we're always short on food on Sundays because we do our shopping on Mondays so we're almost out of food by the end of the week) when we came down a little zinc alley. There was an ackee tree hanging over the alley, and a bunch of ripe ackee was just laying on the ground in front of us! We quickly gathered it up and now we have a bunch of ackee at home! Yummy yummy :) It just showed us that Heavenly Father really does watch over us and he'll always take care of us even if it's something little like letting some ackee fall off the tree right before we get there. 

Yesterday while the sacrament was being passed, I was thinking about our area and how I'm a little worried about this whole training thing I'll be doing starting Wednesday. Then the words from "Be Still, my Soul" popped in my head... I flipped open my hymn book and read the rest of the words and it's like the whole song was written for me at that moment. I know Heavenly Father is mindful of us and He always answers our prayers, no matter what. I'm grateful I get to see so many answered prayers every day... being on a mission is the best thing in the world! 

Well, that's all for now folks! Love you all, have a fantastic week!! 

One day we came out of our house because we heard a fire and then we realized it was just the cane field so we kept going but then..... a fire truck came racing down the street and we started laughing because some stupid person called a fire truck on a burning cane field. i guess you'd have to be there to get why it's funny... oh well. here's some pictures of a fire and a fire truck. (mind you, that wall is at least 6 feet tall.) 

Me and zenadine!! he's my best friend :) we blow bubbles and play racecars sometimes.

I spy a mongoose!!  Do you see it?

 Don't know why people park their cars like this in their driveways here but it happens a lot more than you'd think!

 



Kingston! traffic was insane! 

 

Sometimes as a sister missionary, you get texts like this and it just breaks your heart because you just want to share the gospel with people and we can't when all they're interested in is us :( #sistermissionaryproblems

our can opener broke so sister slater taught me how to open cans with a knife. haha it was exciting to me so i took a picture

 

Soursop! it makes the best juice in the world!!

Sister Missionary Karoake!!!

Sister Oman 

Happy Tuesday Everyone!!!

Wat a gwaan! 

For once it seems like it's actually been a while since we emailed... probably because it's a Tuesday. Yesterday was Labor Day here, so everything was closed! That meant we had to switch our p-day :) 

I'd like to start off this email with a quote from my darling Sister Slater. She said, after hearing me talk about how tan I planned to be by the end of my mission, "Sister Oman. No matter how tan you get, you'll always be white." Haha. Thank you very much Sister Slater :) 

We're teaching this guy and we came over for our second lesson last week. He told us that he's ready to make a lot of changes in his life... including getting a lot of tattoos removed (which is like crazy expensive) because it just seems like the right thing to do. Woohoo! I'm so excited to work with him... we're having another lesson tomorrow and we are just too excited. 

We went to see a recent convert last week for a lesson. He has a ton of chickens in his yard and a lot of them have recently had babies. We got there a few minutes before he was ready so we were just waiting and I decided to catch one to hold. Which was all fine and dandy until it was time to give the baby back to her momma. I think the mom hadn't realized the baby was missing until I walked over to put it back... and man oh man she got sooooo upset. Long story short... I got chased all over the yard by a very angry momma chicken. Sister Slater and the member about died laughing and I just about died of fright. Haha. Adventures. 

Another day, we went to see a member who lives in a gated community. After the appointment we decided to walk and talk to people for a little bit. Bad idea. We got yelled at  by the security guard big time. So no more walking and talking to people in that community. One day we'll be allowed to share the gospel with them... we're praying for that at least. 

Sunday at church, a ton of people from the stake came to visit our little branch. And a lot of the people serving in the stake are from Portmore! Which means we had a lovely little Portmore reunion! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me so no pictures but it was so good to see everyone and catch up :) I love those people! 

Like I mentioned, yesterday was labor day so we got to do a bunch of service in our community! First thing in the morning, we went over and helped with the big project in our neighborhood for a while... sweeping the street and planting trees and painting the curbs. It was really fun and we got to talk to a bunch of cool people! After that, we spent a lot of the day at our branch president's house helping them clean their windows and whatnot. We ended the day of service by getting treats from the ice cream truck! It was a mighty good labor day :) 

Well I think that's about it for this week! I love you all, and I love hearing from you all! Thanks for keeping me updated on your lives!!! 

Have a wonderful week... and don't forget to study your scriptures every day! :) 

xoxoxoxoxo,

Sister Oman 

Brother Russell and I

The crab we found in a crab hole.

These cute little puppies technically belong to our neighbors but we feed them our leftover food so they always come over to say hi :) 

The chickens we caught in our neighbor's yard.

Chickens!!

All food should be Jamaican food. Haha.

I can't even escape Obama in Jamaica!!

This is the Jamaica I love :) Rainy day... not too hot. Beautiful hills and vegetation. Yes please! 

Old Harbour is tiny! This is the one street in town with a stoplight. And I thought Montrose was small! Haha. 

The clock tower in Old Harbor.

More Old Harbor Pics

Some children of one of our investigators!!

We're dorky sister missionaries at night :) 

This is how cashews grow!!

We ate purple Popsicles and our tongues were purple for hours

Giant moth that was there to welcome us home last night for dinner... yuck.