ELDER BRYAN MCOMBER Canada Montreal Mission: Teaching a GREAT family. Being sick. Freezing fun at CARNAVAL! My first ice castle. It's all about FAMILY. COOL PICS!

Hey guys!

So. Um. Seriously one of the best weeks ever.

First off. We found this SUPER cool family of Africans from Benin. They`re so cool! We dropped by the address of a former investigator, but they had moved away and this family had moved in. They invited us in immediately and we taught them right then! They moved here in October, and they have 3 boys, with another baby on the way. :) We taught them again a couple days ago and they are just so excited and great! Their kids weren`t there until the very end of the lesson though; which was actually awesome because when their youngest son, who`s about 6 years old, came in the door, he immediately ran over and gave my companion a hug. For no apparent reason. It was so adorable! I was hoping he`d give me one too... but no such luck. Aw. Maybe next week. But yeah, they`re amazing.

Funny story from this week... well. So... I got a little sick. And I slept for like an extra 10 hours on Thursday. I woke up finally at around 6 PM, still feeling pretty out of it, but I just wasn`t able to sleep any more. So I walked out and sat at the table and just... stared at the wall while sucking on a ball of the worst tasting menthol that ever existed. Ugh. I hate cough drops. Anyways. So my companion felt pretty sorry for me, and he decided since we weren`t going anywhere that evening, we might as well find something interesting to do. So... we pulled out the board games. We played the fastest game of Risk I`ve ever seen in my life. (I lost in 25 minutes. Seriously. I`m SO bad at that game.) Then we played a few games of chess, and then I ate some rice. (Side note. Valentina sauce is seriously the best hot sauce EVER. It`s this Mexican hot sauce that makes anything taste good. It`s also great for helping you clear out a stuffy nose when you pour it all over your rice.) Then I went to bed at like 9. I woke up feeling much better.

I`m not sure why I said that was funny. It really wasn`t. Hmm. What else was funny this week? Umm...

Well. Maybe not super funny. But more of a cultural thing. So... here in Quebec, they have a carnival. It's called... wait for it... Carnaval. And it's like... in the middle of winter. And it's outdoors. And somehow... we volunteered to help out.

The goal of Carnaval is basically to freeze all of your extremities off while still managing to keep a smile on your face. There are a ton of cool things to do. For example, there's a big hill where we do giant bowling. You know those giant balls where you stuff a person inside and they run around like a strange human hamster? Yeah. So we would just throw people in and then push them down the hill and watch them tumble around inside the whole way down.

Hilarious.

The problem I found with Carnaval is this: alcohol. You see, for those who drink, Carnaval is great. Because there's apparently some sort of special mixed alcoholic beverage called "caribou" that they can drink and it keeps them warm no matter how cold it is outside. As we don't drink, however... WE WERE STINKIN' COLD. I think my smile froze to my face. I also fell down a hill once. So that was fun.

I want to bring up something very important this week.

Family.

Dad, Mom, Morgan, Colton, Kyle... I miss you guys. Like... a lot. I think about ya'll every day. I just hope you know that. There is nothing I regret more than the times I thought that my family could wait, and I wasted precious time I could have spent with them.

So for all of you who are lucky enough to still be with your loved ones. I just gotta tell you... don't you dare waste that chance. The family is the central unit in Heavenly Father's plan for each of us. They're... everything. The whole point of this life is to eventually return to live with our Heavenly Father and the rest of our family forever.

So quit wasting time! Call your family! Visit them! Talk to them! God put us together like this for a reason! The ability to live in families is a gift that we cannot waste. The Creator of our very spirits asks us to call Him "Father." Why? Have you ever thought about that? It's because the family is everything to Him! HIS family is everything to Him! And we want to be like Him. Shouldn't that mean family should be the greatest priority in our lives?

So my challenge to each of you is to never waste another moment. Love your family. Give them your heart and soul and your time and your energy. Love the Lord thy God... and love thy neighbor as thyself. Our closest neighbors are our families. Give them everything. That is where joy is found.

I love my family; both my heavenly family and my earthly one. My Father in Heaven has given me everything. And it is for that reason that I have chosen to leave my earthly family for 2 years; because others need to know what He has done for me. Others need to know how to be sealed to their own families forever in a holy temple of God. That's what I'm teaching. That's what I'm sharing.

And I know it's true.

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

The Lucero family from Victoriaville! They're so great!