10 Reasons My Comp Is AWESOME! Priorities. PLEASE WRITE ME! More pics!

Wellllll hey there folks!

So. It's been another lovely week in Victoriaville. The snow is in fact gradually melting and I am having a rather incredible time serving here. Snow has become one of my worst enemies and I enjoy warmth so very much. I loooooooove you Aaaaaaarizonaaaa.

I have decided that Elder Gutierrez and I have a good companionship. Let me give you some reasons why.

1 - We tell extremely funny jokes. Nobody else laughs, but we do. Other people are just not quite up here on our level.

2 - We are both from Gilbert. Automatic win.

3 - We both love Nashville Tribute Band. Double automatic win.

4 - We can both make Tahitian chicken.

5 - We both eat Toaster Strudel. (A delicacy in Quebec ;))

6 - We can both quote a movie for a solid 20 minutes, realizing only then that the movie from which we were quoting was, in fact, The Princess Diaries. True manhood.

7 - We both use Old Spice.

8 - We both have awful vision.

9 - We both speak extremely weird French that only we can understand.

10 - We both love the gospel! :)

I have thought for a while about what I could share this week, and I suppose the greatest thing I could say is this: happiness is found through hard work and prioritizing.

Some of the saddest and most ripped apart families I've met on my mission are as such because the members of the family don't understand these two important principles. We bring food to families whose pitiful parents spend all their money on alcohol and strip clubs, leaving their children to be fed from the unwanted garbage of nearby grocery stores. It's depressing. And these people are not happy; they are depressed and unhealthy and filthy in dress and attitude.

The Lord has prescribed His recipe for a healthy and happy life. And we will ONLY find true and lasting happiness in charting our course with the proper priorities, and then giving everything we have to get ourselves there. There are many priorities to be made, but if I were to list the two most important to lead to happiness, they would be these:

1 - Live the gospel of Jesus Christ. His commandments and His teachings were given for the benefit and joy of all mankind, and there are NO exceptions to His way. True happiness is ONLY found in living the way He's shown us. He loves us immensely, and He wants so badly for us to be as happy as He is. Follow the Savior!

2 - Love your family with everything you have. I promise you, you will never, ever, EVER regret placing your family before yourself in your priorities. My greatest regret from before my mission is the time I spent doing trivial things when I could have been serving, talking to, or simply just being with my family. We address Him as our Heavenly FATHER and we are His CHILDREN; the family unit is central to His gospel. If we place that to the side, we are tearing the heart out of chances at a happy - and eternal - life.

I love you all. You help me be better and you set amazing examples for me. Keep going. You're in my prayers!

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

P.S. I don't know if any of you knew this. But. I happen to really enjoy letters and emails. Like a lot. But don't worry, you don't have to write me. Except you should. Even if I don't know you, I love making new friends. :) So yes. Just a thought.

P.P.S. But seriously. I love letters. ;)

 

Before our morning run.

After our morning run. :)

 

This is me basically every night. Welcome to the mission. XD

Selfie time! Not sure why Elder Gutierrez made this face. Somehow it just fits. ;)

 

Awkward wedding invitation. Humbled by ice. When we get knocked to our knees, remember the sparrow. More Pics!

Hello people of Earth!

Canada is, in fact, still north of the United States. I know. Surprised me, too.

I don't know. It's been a weird week. To start the week off, we were talking with Claire Jeremie, a young woman who's preparing to serve a mission, and she asked Elder Gutierrez when he was planning to get married.

Elder Gutierrez: "I don't know. Probably not for a long time."

Claire: "No, you'll be married within a few months after you get home."

Elder Gutierrez: "No way. Probably not until Elder McOmber gets home."

Me: "Yes! That means I can crash your wedding!"

Elder Gutierrez: "Absolutely not. You're not invited."

Claire: "Well, can I come?"

Elder Gutierrez: "Yes."

Claire: "Perfect. Then I'll just bring Elder McOmber with me. Nobody goes to a wedding alone."

Me: "........"

Elder Gutierrez: "........."

So. I've been invited to a wedding. It was awkward. That happened.

Also. I may or may not have slipped on some ice and nearly killed myself.

Here's what happened. I was already having a really bad day. (Yes. Missionaries can have those, too. :P) It was late. All of our appointments had fallen through all day. We were walking up to a building to see if we could set up an appointment with some former investigators. And I took a step and then the world flipped upside down. Elder Gutierrez said I did like a 360. I basically just did a back flop on the ice. And there wasn't really any snow to cushion my fall. So... it hurt. Like... a lot. I basically just laid on the ground and focused REALLY hard on not exploding. It was one of those moments where you have to just sing the song "I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus" in your head over and over and over and over again. Because if you don't, some less fun words will come to your mind. I think I sang it in my head probably 15 times before I had calmed down enough to not be angry at everything ever. Then I got up. Elder Gutierrez is a good companion... he didn't laugh at me at all. Until I'd calmed down. Then he laughed. And I did too. So ca va.

To end this letter... I want to talk about burdens.

I'll be one of the first to tell you that missions are hard. Like, really hard. It's supposed to be like that, if you're working hard. And we're working really hard. It just gets... really difficult sometimes. So I want to talk to everyone who feels like they're working as hard as they can, but feels like they're seeing no results, like they're having no effect.

I know the feeling. My dad once told me that my mission would knock me to my knees. Well, that's true and then some. I've hit my knees so hard so many times that I couldn't count them if I tried. It's seemed to be like the more I worked, the more exhausted I've been, and the less effect I've seemed to have. And I've found myself asking the Lord, multiple times, "Why? Why is this so difficult? I have nowhere else to turn. I'm giving everything I've got. I'm trying so hard to be faithful and to be selfless and to be patient and to be loving and to be a Christlike servant. So why do I feel so useless? Why do I feel so discouraged?"

I have a very short piece of advice from the scriptures.

Matthew 10:29-31

"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore,ye are of more value than many sparrows."

He who cares about the fall of a sparrow will not forget us when we are knocked to our knees.

We are His children. He loves us. He gave His Only Begotten Son to save us.

So when the road seems too long, and the mountain too high, and the sea too rough;

Fear ye not.

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

 

Icicle Lightsaber Fight

 Another view of the sunset from one of the main streets of Victoriaville, Rue Notre Dame.

 A selfie with Elder Gutierrez

 A super cool sunset we had this past week

 

Run, Elder, run! Icicle light sabers. Get off the screen and LIVE.

Hello all!

Two funny stories this week.

First. It's been fairly cold outside every morning... so Elder Gutierrez and I normally do our exercises inside. However... I decided I wanted to go running outside. It's not even THAT cold. And Elder Gutierrez seemed pretty anxious about it... but I made him do it anyways. It was SUPER fun! It felt so great to be running outside
instead of running in place indoors and I was loving it! Then we got home. And I turned around and Elder Gutierrez looked like he'd been hit by a plane. I started laughing.

Wrong decision. He nearly bit my head off. :P He was mad at me for like 3 days for making him run. Apparently... he doesn't like running.

So I'm back to running in place every morning. :P Oh well.

Second. The church building had HUGE icicles hanging from the roof the other day. We were waiting for a member to show up so we could help him with some service. Natural decision? GIANT LIGHTSABER WAR WITH ICICLES! So there we were, fighting it out and freezing our fingers off (forgot gloves... sorry Mom) like little kids. It was a blast. We took pictures... but I can't send them because this computer is being lame. I'll send them next week. Suffice it to say... I could give Luke Skywalker a run for his money, if I do say so myself.

Okay. Quick statement to finish. I wanna talk about video games.

Martin Luther King Jr. said once that the only way for evil to triumph in this world is for good men to do nothing. I heard somewhere else that the only way for evil to triumph in this world is for good men to be doing something ELSE. One of the BIGGEST issues here in Victoriaville is that so many young men are glued to their computer and television screens that it is extremely difficult for them to "find" time to do anything else. These young men have become adults, and they've continued the same tradition, and can now still be found, at 30 or 40, living in their parents' homes, glued to their screens and ignoring the world our God has given us for a fabricated one. Their example has rubbed off on other young men, who are now going down the exact same path. I say young men because these are the examples we have; however, many of the young women and even the older mothers are not exempt, and while they play far fewer video games, seem to spend much of their time stuck on their phones.

Here's my statement, short and sweet: get off the video games, the social media, and quit texting so much. The devil doesn't have to get you stuck in pornography or drugs to keep you from reaching your potential; all he has to do is distract you with something else. I don't profess to be perfect; I was very similar before I came here on my mission. But I've seen what "just a little" time on video games or social media does in the long run to men and women who were sent here to this earth to prepare it for the second coming of our Exemplar, Jesus Christ. A plane could crash right outside your door and you'd be so glued to that silly screen that you'd miss the whole thing.

Quit it. Just quit it. Get off the screen and live as a Christian, anxiously engaged for a good cause. I fear that with every pixelated bullet fired at an imaginary enemy, our real enemy manages to send a spiritual one through our souls.

The trumpet has sounded and our Savior calls us to arms. Will we answer the call? Or will we listen more intently to the chime of a new notification on our phone? The war is on. Who's on the Lord's side?

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

Snow is awesome...but it can stop now...please. Turkey baster in the ear? Handing our load over to God.

Hello people of Earth!

It has been quite a different week.

First, it has poured BUCKETS of snow. I have never seen so much snow in all my life. And it just keeps coming down. Also, the temperature is dropping a lot. Tomorrow it is supposed to be like -30 Celsius... which is like -(*insert large number here) Fahrenheit and that's not even counting wind chill. I don't know what temperature bones freeze at, but I'm fairly sure we're approaching it. 

I wish I could go back in time and slap some sense into the me who said, "I want to live in the snow when I grow up!" No, you imbecile! Snow is the WORST! You have to shovel it and you slip on it and it gets on your glasses and makes it so you can't see and it's like IMPOSSIBLE to drive in.

Okay. So maybe it's not the WORST. It is actually quite fun to play in the snow sometimes. But... we don't get a lot of time to just play in the snow. So... yes. Snow is... interesting.

I would have to say the funniest part of the week was when Elder Gutierrez said he felt like he had water in his ear and couldn't get it out. So... what was the immediate solution that came to my mind? Obviously, use a turkey baster! You know, that long plastic tube with a little squeezy thingy at the end that sucks up water and squirts it back out? Well, there we sat, laughing hysterically while I stuck a turkey baster in his ear. He said it worked... but I'm fairly sure it's not the healthiest way to get water out of one's ear, so I won't do that again. But... worth a shot. :P

For this letter, I want to say a little bit about Matthew 11:28-30. It's one of my favorite scriptures.

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

I'll be the first one to tell you that missions aren't easy. Or I guess, that life isn't easy. Every human being that has ever lived has had trials and struggles and bitter moments. Most importantly, our Savior has endured all of those for each of us. He felt the crushing weight of sin; He endured the stinging whips of harsh words and criticisms; He knows what it's like to be knocked to one's knees by the bitter winds of discouragement and hopelessness. He performed an INFINITE Atonement for you, and for me, and for all of us.

So why do we refuse to use it?

I've met so many people who refuse His invitation to take His yoke upon them. I've been guilty of it myself. The thing is, His yoke is His gospel -- His commandments, His example. 

We're so funny. We live our lives as we wish, sometimes being obedient and holding to His gospel, and sometimes wandering from His path because we feel that we're responsible enough or smart enough to simply skip that commandment or ignore that advice. And when those difficult moments come, as they inevitably will... we find ourselves dropping to our knees, demanding of Him in all our ignorant naivete, "Why is this so difficult? Where art Thou when I need Thee the most? If Thou were there, Thou would not let me go through this! How am I supposed to do this on my own?"

His response remains the same. He's given us the way. He doesn't ask us to do it alone. He asks us to put the load on Him; to stop worrying so much about all our problems and trials and discouragements and to give it all to Him. All He asks is that we follow His gospel. That is the yoke He gives us; and if we focus on doing that, the load truly is easy, and the burden truly is light.

Keep the commandments. In this there is safety, in this there is peace.

I love and miss you all. You're in my prayers.

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

That would be me sleeping on our couch. Also. The Labbe family gave my companion and I pantouffles - those are those knitted slipper things I'm wearing. They're the BEST and SUPER comfortable. I love them. :P And I also love the Labbe's!!

 

Our whole mission got together a couple days before Christmas to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.  We had an awesome lunch and a lot of fun!  I am in the 4th row from the bottom, on the far right end.